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
A45214	A defence of the humble remonstrance, against the frivolous and false exceptions of Smectymnvvs wherein the right of leiturgie and episcopacie is clearly vindicated from the vaine cavils, and challenges of the answerers / by the author of the said humble remonstrance ; seconded (in way of appendance) with the judgement of the famous divine of the Palatinate, D. Abrahamvs Scvltetvs, late professor of divinitie in the University of Heidelberg, concerning the divine right of episcopacie, and the no-right of layeldership ; faithfully translated out of his Latine.	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.; Scultetus, Abraham, 1566-1624. Determination of the question, concerning the divine right of episcopacie.	1641 (1641)	Wing H378; ESTC R9524	72,886	191

authoritie and yet authoritie experience reason are worthy to sway with us in all matters of question and withall Hee that said I am the way said that the old way was the good way and if Custome without Truth as that Father said well be nothing but a gray-hair'd Error or as Sir Francis Bacon wittily Antiquitie without Truth is a Cipher without a Figure yet where Custom Antiquitie are backed with Truth there they are Figures multiplied with many Ciphers As for the time wherein their learned Ancients affirme The Church not to have beene governed by Bishops but by Presbyters and for the difference pretended to be betwixt the Primitive Bishops and ours wee shall meet with it in such due time and place as shall be justly occasioned What needs this frivolous waste of unseasonable words wherewith unlesse these men desired to swell up this their windy bulke why doe they tell us yet againe of that already answered and groundlesse exception against both their owne eyes and conscience where I say that this government hath continued in this Iland ever since the plantation of the Gospel without contradiction when as they cannot name any man in this Nation that ever contradicted Episcopacie till this present age or that ever contradicted this truth that Episcopacy hath so long continued in this Iland which is the only drift of my words For alas could I be so simple as not to know that this age hath bred opposition enough to the present government could I doubt whether these very men oppose it Yet let the boldest forehead of them all denie that it hath continued thus long in this our Iland or say that any till this age contradicted it so as that my assertion is just their exception false and vain As for that supplie of accessory strength which I did not beg but raise evince from the light of nature and rules of just policie for the continuance of those things which long use and many laws have firmly established as necessary and beneficiall it will stand long enough against the battery of their Paper-pellets If some statute Laws which seemed once necessary and beneficiall proving afterwards in processe of time noxious and burthensome have been justly and wisely repealed Let them tell mee whether the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome upon any mans abuse may be subject to alteration or whether rather their Wisdomes would not think fit to determine that the Laws must stand and the abuses be removed such is the cause we have now in hand and if we shall goe lesse I speak not against an impossibility but an easinesse of change the question being so stated which their guiltinesse would willingly over-look that things indifferent or good having been by continuance and generall approbation well rooted in Church and State may not upon light grounds be pulled up SECT V. I Justly fetch the pedegree of our holy calling from no lesse then Apostolicall and in that right Divine institution and prove it from the clear practise of their immediate successors and justly triumph in that confidence They tell me of one scruple yet remaining It is well if there be no more And what may that be That in Originall authority of Scripture Bishops and Presbyters went originally for the same Alas brethren what needed this to be a scruple in your thoughts or your words when it is in expresse termes granted by us That there was at first a plain Identity in their denomination here is one page and that not without some labour of proofs idly lost It is true that the Remonstrant undertakes to shew a cleare and received distinction of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons out of the undeniable writings of those holy men which lived in the times of the Apostles and after them with an evident specification of their severall duties And what say my Answerers to this Yet say they Let us tell him that we never finde in Scripture these three Orders Bishops Presbyters Deacons Brethren ye might have spared to tell me that which I had told you before I speak of the monuments of immediate succession to the Apostolique times Ye of the writings of the Apostles themselves How then doe you either answer or oppose my assertion Although I must also tell you that though in the Apostolique Epistles there be no nominall distinction of the titles yet there is a reall distinction and specification of the duties as we shall see in due place That ye may seem not to say nothing and may make your Readers beleeve you are not quite forsaken of Antiquity ye call Hierome Chrysostome Theophylact Irenaeus and Cyprian to the Book And what evidence will they give for you That the names of Bishops and Presbyters were not at first distinguished but used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense and that some succeeding Bishops of Rome were styled Presbyters This is all but that your trifling may appeare to all the World Name but any one of our Writers who have hitherto stood up in the cause of Episcopacie that hath not granted and proclaimed this which you contend for Although withall let me tel you that you could not have brought a stronger argument against your selves for hence the world shall see how little force can be drawne from the name to the thing since the mentioned Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesphorus Bishops of Rome are so famously known to have been in an height of elevation above Presbyters And since Cyprian who is styled by his Presbyters Frater is never found to style his Presbyters Bishops And being an holy Bishop himselfe in many Epistles stifly maintaines the eminence of his superiority And is some-whiles honored with the title of Beatissimus Papa Cyprianus which I suppose was never given to a meere Presbyter But what do I here follow them who confesse themselves out of the way At last acknowledging that their adversaries confesse that which they would needs spend time to prove let the names passe All the question is of the distinction of their offices which they wil follow as tediously as loosly And first they would faine know what we make the distinct office of a Bishop wherein they fall somewhat unhappily upon the very words of that branded Aerius Is it say they to edifie the Church by Word Sacraments Is it to ordaine others to that worked Is it to rule to governe by admonition and by other censures any or all of these belong unto the Presbytery Compare now the words of Aerius as they are related by Epiphanius whom that Father brings in speaking thus concerning Episcopacy and Presbytery There is one order of both one honor one dignity the Bishop imposeth hands so doth the Presbyter the Bishop doth administer Gods worship or service so doth the Presbyter the Bishop sitteth on the throne so doth also the Presbyter See reader and acknowledge the very phrases of that man whom holy antiquity censured even in this point both for a frantick man and an

Bishops and ours are two We do again professe that if our Bishops challenge any other power then was delegated to and required of Timothy and Titus wee shall yeeld them usurpers you kindely tell us so we deserve to be if we doe but challenge the same power and why so I beseech you brethren because Timothy and Titus yee say were Evangelists and so moved in an higher sphere Liberally and boldly spoken but where is your proofe For Timothy ye say the Text is cleare but what Text what the least intimation have you for Titus surely not so much as the least ground of a conjecture yet how confidently you avow for both and even for Timothy your glosse is clear not your text St. Paul bids him do the worke of an Euangelist what then that rather intimates that he was none for he doth not say do thine own worke but the worke of an Evangelist when I tell my friend that I must desire him to do the office of a Soliciter or a Secretary for me I do herein intimate that he is neither but so for the time employed why is it not so here And what I beseech you is the worke of an Evangelist but to preach the Evangell or good tydings of peace So as St. Paul herein gives no other charge to his Timothy then in 2. Tim. 4.2 Preach the Word be instant in season and out of season And this you say and urge to be the worke of a Bishop too well therefore may Timothy notwithstanding this charge be no other then a Bishop what need these words to be contradistinguished St. Paul sayes of himselfe Whereto I am appoynted a Preacher and an Apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles what shall we say St. Paul was an Apostle he was not a Preacher or not a Doctor but an Apostle You distinguish of Evangelists the word is taken either for the writers of the Gospell or for the teachers of it and why then was not St. Paul an Evangelist who professed to be a teacher of the Gospell unto the Gentiles These teaching Evangelists you dreame to be of two sorts the one those that had ordinary places and gifts the other extraordinary but tell me sirs for my learning where do you finde those ordinary-placed and ordinary-gifted Evangelists unlesse you mean to comprse all Preachers under this name and then a Bishop may be an Evangelist also so as the difference of a Bishop and an Evangelist vanisheth The truth is these ordinary Evangelists are a new fiction their true imployment was to be sent by the Apostles from place to place for the preaching of the Gospell without a setled residence upon any one charge upon this advantage you raise a slight argument that St. Paul besought Timothy to abide at Ephesus 1. Tim. 1.3 which had been a needlesse importunity if he had the Episcopall charge of Ephesus for then he must have necessarily resided there whereas you recite severall proofes and occasions of his absence which will appear to be of little force if a man doe duly consider the state of those times the necessity wherof in that first plantation of the Gospell made even the most sixed Sars planetary calling them frequently from the places of their abode to those services which were of most use for the successe of that great worke yet so as that either after their errands fully-done or upon all opportune intermissions they returned to their own Chaire The story therefore of those journal computations might well have been spared Your argument from Pauls calling the Elders of Ephesus to Miletus how ever you lean upon it it will prove but a Reed Your selves confesse I know not upon what certaine ground that Timothy was at the meeting Acts 20. with St. Paul Had he been Bishop there the Apostle you say in stead of giving the Elders a charge to feede the flocke of Christ would have given that charge to Timothy and not to them Besides the Apostle would not have so forgotten himselfe as to call the Elders Bishops before the Bishops face and would have given them some directions how to carry themselves to their Bishops In all which brethren you goe upon wrong ground wil ye grant that these assembled persons were Presbyters and not Bishops under some Bishop though not under Timothy otherwise why doe you argue from the want of directions to them as inferiours but if they were indeed Bishops and not mere Presbyters as the word it selfe imports your argument is lost For then the charge is equally given to Timothy and all the rest and it was no forgetfulnesse to call them as they were you are straight ready to reply how unpossible it is according to us there should be many Bishops in one City and here were many Presbyters from Ephesus but let me mind you that though these Presbyters were sent for from Ephesus yet they were not said to be all of Ephesus Thither they were called to meet St. Paul in all likelihood from divers parts which he seemes to imply when he saith Ye all amongst whom I have gone preaching the Kingdome of God intimating the super-intendents of severall places so as notwithstanding these urged probabilities Timothy might have beene both before this time and at that present Bishop of Ephesus after which if Paul tooke him along with him to Hierusalem this is no derogation to his Episcopacy And if Timothy were yet after this prisoner with St. Paul at Rome as you argue from Hebr. 13.23 this is no derogation from his Episcopacy at Ephesus but to cut the sinewes of all this strong proofe of your computation it is more than probable that whereas the whole history of the Acts ends with Pauls first beeing at Rome that Apostle survived divers years and passed many travells and did many great matters for the plantation and setling of churches whereof we can looke for no account from Scripture save by some glances in his following Epistles into which time these occurrents concerning Timothy and Titus his ordination did fall as may be justly proved out of the Chronologicall table of the experienced Jacob Cappellus compared with Baronius Now then the Reader may take his choyse whether he will believe all antiquity that have medled with this subject affirming Timothy to have been bishop of Ephesus or whether he wil believe a new hatched contradiction of yesterday raised out of imaginary probabilities Shortly it is far enough from appearing that Timothy was no Bishop but a Minister an Evangelist a fellow-labourer of the Apostles an Apostle a Messenger of the Church it rather appeares that he was al these in divers sences and upon severall occasions The like yea say of Titus whom you are pleased to create an Evangelist not being able to shew that ever God made him so save in that generall sence that might well stand with Episcopacy you tel us a story of his perigrination in the attendance of Paul wherein you shall not expect any contradiction

warned from hence that they throughly weigh with themselves the nature of Apostolicall Episcopacie of which they glory that they are the successors That Episcopacie had two things peculiar to it the privilege of succeeding the prerogative of ordaining all other things were common to them with the Presbyters Therefore both Bishops and Presbyters should so exercise themselves in godlinesse should so free themselves from contempt by their conversation and so make themselves examples to their flock not neglecting especially the gift of prophecying received from above but being wholly intent to reading consolation and teaching to meditate on these things to be wholly conversant in them and so perpetually imployed in this holy function and divine affairs with this promise that if they shall doe these things they shall both save themselves and their Auditors but if after the custome of some great ones they follow the pride and luxury of this World they shall both destroy themselves and them that heare them * FINIS THE JUDGMENT OF The learned Divine Doctor Abrahamus Scultetus prime professor of Divinity at HEIDELBERGE Concerning Lay-Elders OBSERVATIONS Vpon 1 Timothy by Abraham Scultetus Cap. 27. Concerning 1. Tim. 5.17 THere are some that thinke this place of Scripture is of force enough to make good a Lay-Presbytery for their eyes and judgements are dazled w th that distinction of Elders which they suppose to be cleerly intimated here by S. Paul But if they shall have diligently scanned the place compared it with other Texts of Scripture they shall soone finde that the defence of Lay Elders out of this place is both contrary to the signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. those that rule and contrary to the signification of the Word Presbyter and that it is quite against St. Pauls perpetuall Doctrine and it is against the judgement of all the Fathers that have expounded this speech of Saint Paul It is contrary to the signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ecclesiasticall rule or government is an honour wherewith onely Ministers of Gods word are invested in the new Testament and not any Lay Persons We beseech you brethren saith the Apostle 1 Thes v. 12. That you know those that labour amongst you and are over you in the Lord and that admonish you and to esteeme them very highly in love for their workes sake upon which words saith Calvin it is worthy to bee observed what titles he gives to Pastors First he saith that they labor and then he sets them forth by the name of rule or governance And Beza upon the place it appeares from hence that the Church was governed by Pastors in common and that the degree of a Bishop was not thought of and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rule is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to leade because the shepheards are wont to goe before their flock But the Apostle Heb. 13.7 and 17. calls the Ministers of the Word Leaders Therefore according to Beza we must acknowledge those that are over the people are the Ministers of the word neither doth Iustin Martyr in his Apology to Antonius call the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any other then the pastor and teacher of the Congregation Moreover the defence of Lay-Elders out of this present text of St. Paul is contrary to the signification of the word Presbyter which when it is used concerning the polity of the new Testament doth always signifie the Ministers of the word Acts 11.30 They sent their collection to the Elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul that is to the Ministers of whom it is said Acts 14.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They ordained them Elders in every Church And Acts 15.2 A main question of faith is propounded to the Apostles and Elders of Hierusalem but what to be decided by Lay-Men for the Elders met with the Apostles to consider of this matter Acts 15.6 And the Presbyters are joyned together with the Apostles Verse 22. and are distinguished from the whole Church as also v. 23. and chap. 16.4 Again in the 20. of the Acts the Elders of Ephesus verse 17. are said to be made Bishops to feede the flocke of Christ ver 18. and in Acts 21.18 and the verses following the Presbyters or Elders of Jerusalem instruct the Apostle Paul what he is to doe and therefore were no Lay-men In this very Chapter when Timothy is commanded to receive no accusation against an Elder the Elder there is a teacher as shall be shewed in the next chapter Titus 1.5 that thou maist ordain Elders in every City what kind of Elders surely teachers for hee adds if any be blamelesse c. for a Bishop must be unreproveable c. And James 5.14 The sick are bidden to send for the Elders of the Church that they may pray over and anoint the sick with oyle in the name of the Lord which is no Lay-mans duty 1 Peter 5.1 The Elders I exhort who am also a fellow-Elder feede the flock How is hee a fellow-Elder but because he is a teacher as they And they are charged to feed the flook therefore Pastors 2 Ioh· 1. 3 Ioh. 1. Iohn the Apostle without all question is called an Elder Ignatius makes often mention of Elders or Presbyters in his Epistles but never of Lay-Elders And in his Epistle to those of Tarsus describing the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy of his time he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the Presbyters bee subject to the Bishops and the Deacons to the Presbyters and the Lay-men to both Deacons and Presbyters and to the Magnesians As the Lord saith hee doth nothing without the Father so neither do you without your Bishop neither Presbyter nor deacon nor Laick Where observe that the very Deacons did not sit in the Presbytery Apostolique much lesse Lay-men Thirdly the defence of Lay-Elders out of the 17. verse of Chap. 5. of the 1. Tim. is against the Perpetuall doctrine of St. Paul for to give honour to the Presbyters or Elders is to honour them with maintenance out of the publique stock of the Church for so the Apostle before commands these that are indeed Widowes to be honoured that is to be designed to publique attendances and allowances And the reason which the Apostle gives confirmes this explication of the honour required When he saith thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the corne And in Matthew the honor of Parents is chiefely to be taken of meat and maintenance which signification is very familiar and proper to the word Kabud used in the fifth commandement and so the word is expounded by Marke 7.12 But maintenance out of the stock of the Church the Apostle would not have to be given even to such poore widdows as could be otherwise provided for as before verse 16. And he himselfe laboured with his owne hands that he might not bee burdensome to others much lesse would he have the chiefe of