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
A39997	A counter-essay, or, A vindication and assertion of Calvin and Beza's presbyterian judgment and principles drawn from their writings, in answer to the imputations of a late pamphlet, entituled, An essay concerning church-government ... attempting to fasten upon them an episcopal perswasion ... / by a minister of the true Presbyterian Church of Scotland, established by law.	Forrester, Thomas, 1635?-1706.	1692 (1692)	Wing F1594; ESTC R35532	63,101	86

station Calvin on Act. 21. 8. Speaking of Philip the Evangelist the same he hath on Tit. 1. 5. Nulla certa statio assignata Evangelistis 3. Appropriating the Name Bishop as peculiar to one Pastor set over others is an abuse of Scripture Language and the Divine Institution Coment on Philip. 1. 4. The reason of this is that all Pastors or Presbyters have one and the same and an equal Function and Official Authority so that Dominion in any of them over another is a sinful impeachment of this their equal Official Power and A●thority lbid 5. The passage Tit. 1. 7. proves aboundantly that there is no difference betwixt Bishop and Presbyter the Apostle using both names indifferently as Ierom hath observed Therefore the Office being common to all Pastors it is an absurd perversion of Scripture Language to give this Official name Bishop to one robbing the rest of the Pastors thereof Ibidem And if he quarrel the robbing of them of their Official Name therefore much more the robbing them of any piece of their Official Power and Authority 6. The Bishops to whom Paul committed the Charge of the Church of Ephesus in his last farewell were Presbyters Bishops of equal authority Calvin on Act. 20. 28. He observes That all Presbyters are called Bishops indifferently and therefore the Bishops differs nothing from Presbyters hence he holds that both Name and Thing of a Scripture Bishop is proper to every Pastor 7. All Pastors have equal right in Ordination Pastors only Ordain and not the People They have all one and the same Official Power and Function to which they are called of God Instit. lib. 4. cap. 4. sect 2 Coment on Phil 1. 1. 8. The Pastors are the highest ordinary Chruch Officers Titus his Evangelistick Authority in Crete was a Vicarious Transient unfixt Ministry in Pauls place and name beyond the limits of this ordinary Function of Pastors supposing the Church not Exedified and in this differing from the Pastoral Office which doth suppose this exigence of the Churches state to over Calvin on Ti●us 1. cap. 5. and 6 vers 9. This Evangelistick Authority while existing was not to wrong or derogat any thing from the consistorial decisive ordianry authority of Pastors in Church Government Ibid. in answer to an Objection 10. The Apostle had a transient unfixt Ministry their Office lay in founding Churches and planting Christ● Kingdom in them they had no certain limits assigned them for the exercise of their Ministry but were spread the Gospel through the World this their Office evanisht and died with themselves in this they differ from Pastors who are fixt to their Charges Calvin on 1 Cor. 12. 28. vers none of them had peculiar proper Charges assigned to the but all of them a common Command to Preach the Gospel wherever they came Evangelists were like to them in Office but in different degrees of Dignity such were Timothy Titus and such like of their subsidiary help the Lord made use of next to that of the Apostles Pastors and Doctors are next to them and perpetually necessary without whom there can be no Government of the Church wherin they differ from Apostles Prophets and Evangelists who are temporary and expired and not thus necessary for the Churches ordinary and perpetual Government There is one Episcopacy which is Christs alone whereof every Minister of the Gospel hath an intire and equal share Calvin on Ephes. 4. 11. Instit lib. 4. cap. 3. sect 14. But of this further when we come to examine the third Definition 11. The consistorial ordinary Collegiat Authority of Pastors in ordination and imposition of hands is examplified in the imposition of the Prophets hands at Antioch upon Paul as Gods standing order and method in point of Ordination Neither Timothy nor any Evangelists authority was to incroach upon this and the Apostolick Precepts to Timothy and Titus Lay hands suddenly on no man and that other I left thee in Crete to ordain elders are groundlesly and impertinently pleaded to prove the sole authority of any one Church Officer in Ordination or Jurisdiction but this authority is in the Collegiat Meeting Instit lib 4. cap 3. sect 14 and 15. compared with what is said above 12. As every ordinary Pastor de jure owes a subjection to the Prophets or ordinary Pastors in the Lord so the first Proestotes or fixed Moderators were de facto thus subject and so had no juridical official pre-eminence over the Judicatiories Calvin on that place The Spirits of the Prophets c. and Insti● lib 4. cap. 4. sect 2. at the close their work was only to moderat the Meeting and gather the Votes c. Coment on Tit 1. vers 5. 6. 13. As Timothy and Titus their Evangelistick Inspection was beyond the limits of the ordinary Office of Pastors and in respect of its naure and time of existency such as could not be succeeded unto Calvin on Tit 15 6 verses compared with Coment 1 Tim. 1. and 6. with v. 18. so what our Lord enjoyns to the seven Asian Angels doth nothing impeach this even taking them for single persons or Presidents since they were such as had the rest of the Minister or Angels their Colleagues and not so much as the necessity of a fixt Moderator or President can be drawn from this Assertion Beza on Rev. 2. 24 26 vers 14. The fixing of President Bishops over Church Judicatories with Official pre-eminence over them gave the rise to Antichrists Oligarchical Tyranny over the Church and all the mischiefs thereof Beza Ibid. 15. The Presbyterian Government which Iohn Knox brought into this Church of Scotland is the right Order and true Government of the House of God the hedge and wall of the Doctrine without which it cannot be kept pure The want of which Government is the cause why the Gospel is preached to many in wrath All are to contend for this Government who wish well to this Church and to oppose the Re-introduction of Episcopacy opposit thereunto which is the Relicts of Papacy and will bring Epicurism into the Church if admitted Bez. Ipist 79. to Iohn Knox. 16. The pretence of Unity or curing Schism by this Episcopacy is a pretence as false and lying as it is flattering whereby many of the best Antients were deceived Ibid. 17. There was among the Apostles met together no distinction of degrees but only of Order as in other Ecclesiastical Meetings and Assemblies until the humane Episcopacy was brought into the Church which shortly turned into Satanical Beza on Acts. 1. 23. 18. The Apostles had an immediat Call to their Office to which Office was annext an extraordinary measure of the Holy Ghost which is Termed Infused This immediat Call is the true and genuine Mark of the Apostolick Calling which expired with the death of the Apostles themselves when they had fulfilled their work in framing Churches Evangelists were assumed by the Apostles without the Churches suffrage because the Churches were not as yet

perpetual Ministry is of Pastors to Pastors Doctors to Doctors Elders to Elders Deacons to Deacons Ibid. Numb 15. The Apostolick Authority differs from the ordinary and perpetual authority of Pastors as likewise their gifts not only as to Manner and Measure but in the Nature thereof from these promist to the ordinary Ministry Beza ad Cap. 17. Numb 2. apud Sarav 5. An Episcopal Degree with some shew of Apostolick Authority is no where to be found in Scripture is condemned Luke 22. 25. gave the raise of that Oligarchie and Tyranny which came into the Church and therefore there is no divine Right left for such a Succession ad Cap. 16. Numb 17. apud Sarav As the Apostles Gifts are such so their Power and Authority is not succeeded to by any ordinary Church-Officers nor hath the Church power to set up any such Office Ad Cap. 17. Numb 3. The pretence of Arch-bishops Primates Metropolitants their Succession to Apostles or Evangelists Timothy Titus Mark and a continuation of their power or authority in the Church is a groundless Conjecture condemned in Sarav Beza in Cap. 18. Sarav the same condemned ad Cap. 19. Numb 3. 6. The Office of President in Church Assemblies imports only a right of Governing and ordering the common actions of the Meeting without any command or rule over the Members thereof in which Meetings Ruli●g Elders are to joyn with Pastors Beza resp ad Cap. 20. Numb 1. The state of this Controversie is whether he who is set over the Meeting of Pastors of any Church has any command or power over these his Colleagues as inferiours by Divine Right This is that which I deny Numb 2. The setting up this Episcopal degree of the Bishop above his Colleagues has been greatly prejudicial to the Church Numb 8. 7. These to whom Paul injoyned to deliver the Incestuous man to Satan when gathered together were the Pastors and Presbyters of Corinth who by Ecclesiastick Judgment and Censure were to purge the Church of this Leaven As every Church after its first beginnings had Pastors and Presbyters so it is not supposable that Paul who stayed there half a year and Apollos who followed him did not upon the first opportunity furnish that Church with a Presbytry Ad cap 23. Numb 17 and Numb 2 and 3. Apud Sarav at large setting down Ieroms testimony in Epist. ad Oceanum ad Euagrum Comment in Epist. ad Titum together with the Scipture proofs anent the Identity of Bishop and Presbyter shewing that the Bishops superiority over the Presbyters was founded on Custom not Divine warrand upon which Beza collects thus this coth Ierom assert not in one place only or few or as of a thing doubtful but often copiously and peremptorly ascribing to Bishop and Presbyter as one and the same appellation so one and the same function Ad. cap 13. Numb 2 and 3. 8. The divine Bishop or who is institute by divine Right is the same Office with that which is poynted out by the peculiar name of Pastor whom Paul affirms that the holy Ghost made Bishops to feed the Church of God Acts. 20. 18. and this is the proper name of them both in the New Testamen whereby with Paul they are distinguisht from Apostles Prophets and Evangelists which Officers were for a time only one Ephes. 4. cap. 11. and from Deacons 2 Tim. 3. Phil. 1. they are called Bishops with respect to Souls committed to them 9. The Colledge or meeting of these Pastors and Bishops together with such Elders as Paul calls Governments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the same who are called the Presbytry 1 Tim. 4. v. 14. Beza de Episcop triplici initio Their Office was to attend the Word and Prayer in publick and private and to govern the Church joyntly and in common Ibid. 10. The humane Bishop that is brought into the Church out of humane prudence beside the express Word of God is a sort of Power given to some one Pastor above his Colleagues yet limited by certain Rules and Cannons against Tyranny ibid. That this Function was not brought in from the Word of God is evident from this that we cannot find in the New Testament the least jot from which we may draw such a conjecture for altho there is no doubt that all things ought to be done orderly in the house of God and that therefore there has been some President in every meeting whom Iohn in the Revelation seems to call the Angel Iustin calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or President that this President excepting this only that he was the first Moderator in the Ecclesiastick Actions in the Assembly had no power over this Colleagues far less exercised any Office superior unto them ibid. Hence as Ierom observes the Author to the Heb. calls all the whole Assembly of Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rulers poynting at none of them Such for the most part was Peter in the Colledge of the Apostles c. If any such Office had been then existent or such a power of one over his Colleagues this Officer had b●en by some peculiar name pointed at in the Epistles especially seing Paul salutes the Bishops and Deacons of the Philippians in the plural number whch since it was not done it appears that among these Rulers there was none in degree Superiour to his Colleagues and fellow Bishops but that the Churches were then ruled by their Presbyters Every one of them having equal and alike power with his fellow Presbyter c. ibid. Thereafter he refutes Ep●phanius arguments for his humane Episcopacy as if it were the Divine Wherein we see how peremptor Beza was as to this Distinction and mentioning Epiphanius argument from that precept against an Elder receive not an accusation to prove Timothy's Episcopacy he refutes this by many arguments calling this the Error of Epiphanius that Timothy was Bishop of Ephesus which he tells him may be convicted of fa●shood from Scriptures as mainly from this that he was Pauls attendant sent hither and thither and therefore made Bishop overno one Church that he was an Evangelist that Paul requested him to stay at Ephesus 1 Tim. 1. 3. v. and for the special end viz. to attend that Church untill again recalled which in the other Epistle he doth 2 Tim. 4. 9 v. Do thy diligence to come to me quickly that when going to Ierusalem never to return to Ephesus he had either upon Epiphanius supposition restored Timot●y to these Ephesian● or they had sought him again being warned of such hazards or if another was put in his place he had peculiarly be spoken him in that Divine Se●mon of his but of this we read not but only that he admonished the Presbyters whom he sent for of their general and common duty Thereafter he adds that as an Evangelist adorned with so many and singular Gifts in degree superior to Prysbyters and for a time constitute there by Apostolick Authority he did administrat the Affairs of