Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	presbyter_n	3,386	5	10.4987	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27115	The royal charter granted unto kings, by God himself and collected out of his Holy Word, in both Testaments / by T.B. ... ; whereunto is added by the same author, a short treatise, wherein Episcopacy is proved to be jure divino.	Bayly, Thomas, d. 1657?	1649 (1649)	Wing B1514; ESTC R17476	64,496	181

they admit of many being there is b●● one This I speak in reference to the Country not to particular men Neither is there a sort of Christians in the world who are less servants unto Christ if it be enough to make them so to be the greatest prophaners of his day for the Sabbath day is only distinguished from other daies by a Sermon in the Church and the Alehouse being full of Mechannicks drinking and carousing from morning untill night the shops are open and buying and selling all the day long excepting halfe the window which is to distinguish the day but the door is open to let in the buyers and the other halfe of the window is open to let in the light and wonderfully strange it is and remarkable to consider how these people who shook off their allegiance to their Prince upon pretences of Reformation should be so besotted as to fall into such a strange and unheard heard of prophanenesse of him and the day whereon Christ himself is to be worshipped as in their Metropolis or chief City to have a dog ●arket kept to the utter scandall of ●●ue Religion and Christianity it selfe ●●is is no more then what I have seen ●●d if it were not true it were easily re●●rned upon my self as the greatest im●●udence that could be imagined but O ●●e partiality of the picture-drawer ●hen he receives large wages for a si●ilitude he insults over his own work ●nly because it is like when the face it ●elf is most abhominable Now for their freedome from Ty●anny and oppression if the Turkes or Tartars had conquered them they never would nor never did where ever they extended their dominions impose such taxes and rates as they have imposed on one another incredible even to the full value of the severall commodities which run through their natives hands but you will aske me how it is possible they should live then to which I answer you by sharking and cosening of strangers Let any forraigners come there and ask for a dinner and for such a dinner as they may well afford for eight pence a piece they will ask you five shillings a man find but the least fault with them and they will demand twelve pence a piece more for fouling of linnen and if you seem angry at that you shall mend your self with the payment of six pence a piece over and above for fouling the roome and seeke a remedy and you shall be told the Prince of Orange himself if he were there could not help it altom all is all the reason they will give you if in sadnesse you shall complaine of such abuses to indifferent Judges they will tell you that the States do lay such heavy taxes upon the Inhabitants that they are faine to fly to such shifts for their subsistance thus men pleased with the itch of Innovation are contented to scratch the bloud out of their own bodies till they feel the greatest smart rather then their Physitian should let out a little spare bloud to cure the disease and preserve them in good health but you will say that for all this they thrive and prosper abundantly so do the Argiers men but with what credit and reputation in the eye of the world I believe both alike It was not their strength or policy which brought them to this height and flourishing condition but it was our policy of State in ●●mulation to other Princes which hel●ed these calfes to Lions hearts teeth ●nd clawes untill the high and mighty ●utter-boxes stood in competition with the Crowne and I am afraid the siding with such Rebels hath turned Rebel●ion into our own bosomes as a just ●udgement from that God who is a re●enger of all such iniquities they may call it the Schoole of War whilst wanting a good cause it could be no otherwise then the Christians shambles I should be sorry that Holland should be the English-mans Looking-glasse a spur for his feet or a copy for his hand I hope the hand of providence will cure us like the Physitian who cur'd his patient by improving his disease from a gentle Ague to a high Feaver that he might the better help him CHAP. XV That Episcopacy is Jure Divino IN this discourse I shall not trouble my selfe nor you with Titles Names and words of Apostles Evangelists Arch-Bishops Bishops Patriarchs Presbyters Ministers Angels of Churches c. which were all from the highest to the lowest but tearmes reciprocal and were often taken in the Church of God and in the Scripture it self for one and the same for if any man though never so meane a Minister of the Gospel converted any Nation the Church ever called him the Apostle of that Country as Austin though but a Monke was every where tearmed the Apostle of England and Saint Paul being an Apostle stiles himselfe a Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Paul bids Timothy being a Bishop to do the work of an Evangelist and therefore no wonder if Bishops and Presbyters be ●ften mentioned for one and the same ●ut it is a great wonder that any man●er of men should make this a ground ●or any argument against Episcopacy ●hese kind of arguments instead of stri●ing fire that should light the candle ●hey do but pin napkins over our eyes ●nd turne us round untill we know ●ot where we are and then we grope ●or we know not who and lay hold ●f we know not what he that will ●ut down this over-grown up-start tree ●f errour must first clear his way to the ●oot and brush away all those bram●les and briers which grow about it ●e must not leave any thing standing ●hat may lay hold of the hatchet and ●eviate the stroke turning the same ●dge upon the feller that was intended ●or the tree if we should insist upon ●ames and titles we should make but a ●onfounded piece of worke and run our ●elves into a most inextricable labourinth and Mazes of errour Where we might run and go forwards and backwards and round about and nere the near Christs are Kings Kings are Gods God is Christ and Christ is Bi●hop of our souls Bishops are Presbyters Presbyters are Ministers a Minister is an Apostle an Apostle is a Minister and so if you will quite back againe I must put off these as David threw away Sauls Armour non possum incedere cum iis I love to knock down this monstrum informe ingens in lumen ademptum with a blunt stone taken out of a clear River which with the sling of application may serve well enough to slay this erroneous Philistine though he were far greater then he is In the first place therefore let as understand what is meant by Jus Divinum if any man meanes that Episcopacy is so Jure Divino that it is unalterable and must continue at all times and in all places so that where it is left off there can be no Church he meanes to give much offence and little reason for there

God that must not be touch'd it was not all the seed of Abraham who have this noli me tangere about them but it was Abraham Isaac and Jacob for whose sake God reproved Kings as they are plainly nominated in the same Psalm and none else if there be mention made of the seed of Abraham Isaac and Jacob were the seed of Abraham who were else mentioned and though we cannot comprehend these three under the notion of nominall Kings yet we may be pleased to consider them as reall Princes Principi Dei es inter nos as it was said to Abraham thou art a mighty Prince amongst us so Kings may be reproved for their sakes they may be Kings too and yet the Lords Anointed for whose sake Kings were reproved for we doe not dispute about the name but the thing now wheresoever you find this word nolite tangere you shall find this word saying going before it which of necessity must have some reference to some other place of Scripture to which it must allude and in reference to which it must be spoken for the word saying makes it rather a question of some Authour then the Psalmist's own this allusion you may easily perceive Gen. 26.11 where it is set down how that God touched the heart of Abimelech King of the Philistims in the behalfe of Isaac one of the three named in the Psalm so that King Abimelech charged all his people saying He that toucheth this man shall surely die So Abimelech and King Herod were both reproved for Abrahams sake Gen. 12.10 and to what place of Scripture can this nolite tangere be more aptly applied then to this where we find the same words reiterated or what clearer testimony can be given of the Scriptures alluding to this saying Touch not mine Anointed then to Gen. 16.29 where totidem verbis it is said to Abimelech in the ●ehalfe of Isaac we have not touched thee ●●ou blessed of the Lord what difference ●etween these words and touch not mine Anointed Besides the Marginall notes of all our Bibles directs us to Abraham Isaac and Jacob as to the Anointed of the Lord ●nd as the Princes of Gods people which must not be touch'd and for whose sakes Kings were so much reproved the word King in the text doth not exclude ●hose who were Princes but it only includes those Princes who were called Kings and were reproved for their sakes who were Kings themselves re though not nomine so that all the ground that will be gained hereby will be that one Prince was reproved for another though not called Kings To conclude as no Christians ever interpreted this place of Scripture but of Kings and Princes untill Jesuites and Puritans undertook that it is lawfull to murder Kings So no English Author ever interpreted it otherwise till within this 7 or 8 years when Presbyters and Independents began to put this doctrine in execution and if the former of these two would wash their hands in innocency as relating to this last unparallel'd act of Regicide let them remember CHARLS the Proto-Martyr of Gods Church and People His own words in his Book of Meditations wherein He tels them how vaine is the shift of their pleading exemption from that aspersion to grant Commission for shooting of bullets of Iron and Lead in his face and preserving Him in a Parenthesis of words CHAP. XI Objection REhoboam hearkened unto young men which gave him evil councell and would not hearken unto his sages which gave him good advice but answered the people roughly wherefore they renounced the right they had in David and the inheritance they had in the son of Jesse fled to their Tents and Crowned Jeroboam King Ergo we may doe the like upon the like occasion hahaving a president from the word of God and warrantable because God said This thing was from the Lord 1 Kings 13.8 Answer All this proves only that such a thing was don not that it was well don for if it be a sufficient proof to prove out of Scripture that such a thing was don and thereupon conclude that therefore we may do the like then this is as good an argument as the best Judas betraid Christ therefore it is lawfull for a servant to betray his Lord and Master first the Scripture blames him in a most patheticall climax 1 Kings 11.26 Jeroboam the son of Nebat the servant of Solomon whose mothers name was Zeruah even he lifted up his hand against the King shewing how he had desperately run through all those obligations and ties that were upon him 2ly he al his adherents are called Rebels for their paines not only by Abijah his enemy but also by the holy Ghost who is enemy to none who are not Gods enemies 2 Chron. 10.19 And Israel Rebelled against the house of David unto this day his adherents were termed in Scripture ●aine men and sons of Belial they were punished with a destruction of five hundred thousand of them which was one hundred thousand more then there were true subjects for the slaughter the Scripture saith God smote Abraham verse 5. If it be objected that the thing could not but be well done because God saith 1 Kings 14. I exalted thee from among the people and made thee Prince over my people Israel and rent the Kingdom from the house of David and gave it thee then it could not but be well done of Rehoboam by the same reason to answer the people as he did for it is written that Rehoboam hearkened not unto the people for the ●ause was from God that he might performe the saying which he spake by Abijah unto Jeroboam the son of Neba● 1 Kings 12.15 both were passive and neither of them could resist the will of God but these places of Scripture are often times mistaken and misapplied and interpreted either by those who are not well acquainted with the nature of Scripture language or else by those who wilfully and wickedly laid hold of such a meaning as the Scripture may seeme to give them leave for all these and the like places of Scripture we must no● take as Gods beneplacence or approbation but only for his permission for ●therwise we should make a mad piece ●f worke of it for God said 1 Sam. 12. ●1 I will raise up evil against thee out of thine 〈◊〉 house and I will take thy wives before ●●ine eyes and give them to thy neighbour ●nd he shall lie with them in the sight of the ●●n doth this justifie Absolon for lying with his fathers wives and concubines ●n the sight of all Israel Is there any euil ●hat I have not done it saith the Lord therefore did the Citizens do well to do evill because the Lord said I did it God did it that is to say he caused it to be done as the evill of punishment not as the tolleration of evill so this thing was from the Lord that is to say the Lord suffered such a thing to