Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	bishop_n	call_v	presbyter_n	3,421	5	11.0026	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43611	The black non-conformist, discover'd in more naked truth proving, that excommunication, confirmation, the two great Episcopal appurtenances & diocesan bishops, are not (as now in use) of divine, but human make and shape, and that not only some lay-men, but all the keen-cringing clergy are non-conformists ... : also a libel, and answer (thereunto) fitted to every man's case (be it what it will) that is cited to ecclesiastical courts, whose shallow foundation is unbared, and a true table of ecclesiastical court fees, as it was return'd into the star-chamber, Anno Domini 1630, by the ecclesiastical fellows themselves, and compar'd with the statutes : also concerning the unlawfulness of granting licences to marry, Quakers-marriages, folly, as well as other evil consequences of that new law-maxim, viz. that no non-conformists ought to be jury-men : shewing also, that, religion, religion, that should have been the world's great blessing, is become the plague of mankind, and the curse of Christendom ... / by Edm. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1682 (1682)	Wing H1797; ESTC R22899	136,499	106

by the Election of the Major part of the Presbyters within the Archdeaconry 4. To the End the Dean and Chapters may the better be fitted to afford Counsel and Assistance to the Bishops both in Ordination and other Offices mentioned before c. Moreover an equal Number to those of the Chapter of the most learned pious and discreet Presbyters of the same Diocess annually Chosen by the Major Vote of all the Presbyters of that Diocess present at the Election shall be always advising and assisting together with those of the Chapter in all Ordinations and every part of Jurisdiction which appertains to the Censure of the Church and at all other solemn and important Actions in the Exercise of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction wherein any of the Ministery are concern'd And Our Will is That the great work of Ordination be constantly and solemnly performed by the Bishop and his aforesaid Presbytery 5. We will take Care that Confirmation be rightly and solemnly performed by the Information and with the Consent of the Minister of the place who shall admit none to the Lord's Supper 'till they have made a credible Profession of their Faith and promised Obedience c. This was the Judgment of His Majesty in that Declaration which see at large to which the Parliament that made the Act of Uniformity gave so much Deference and Reverence That they Publickly gave His Majesty Thanks for the same And as to the matter in hand concerning Confirmation they Enacted it almost to a Tittle which see in the Rubrick foregoing that Sacred Office But who is Conformable thereunto and who are the Nonconformists now And who makes a pause in the work 'till first be obtained the Information and Consent of the Minister of the place without which in the Judgment of His Gracious Majesty Confirmation could not be rightly and solemnly performed It has been prov'd that if a Diocesan-Bishop had no other work besides Confirmation only it is impossible that all the Bishops in England should confirm those that want Confirmation in this one only Diocess of London though they did nothing else and left their own Sees vacant if they observe the Rubrick and Act of Uniformity and not do it as is too frequent perfunctorily and shamefully but with such previous caution scrutiny examination and circumspection and with Certificates thereof and Godfathers and Godmothers as the Common-Prayer-Book enjoyns Grant Confirmation to be a good and needful work yet the Law enjoyns Impossibilities if no one man can possibly be sufficient for these things though he shake off all worldly Affairs and Counsels Again If a Diocesan-Bishop had no other work but only to teach and exhort his Flock publickly and from House to House as Ignatius tells us all Bishops did in his time in the second Century before ever any Diocesan-Bishops were heard of for Bishops then were to enquire after every one by name even Man-servants and Maid-servants even this necessary feeding-work of a good Shepherd would be fully employed in a single Parish and in such a Parish as Saint Andrews-Holborn London there would be work enough for the Bishop and his Dean though the Lecturer and Reader came in to help For no Bishop in the Primitive-times nor 'till Pope Silvester I. had more than one Flock one Altar one Church nor then neither except only in Rome and Alexandria Indeed the Apostles that had the Gift of Tongues travelled all Nations and were Itinerant Preachers for the most part but I speak of setled standing Officers of the Church called Bishops or which is all one in Scripture-Language as Dr. Hammond Jo. Gerson Grotius and most learned men generally agree to be all one with Presbyters for a sub-Sub-Presbyter such as Parish-Priests are made in England is not to be found in the holy-Holy-Scripture of the New-Testament nor the Prime-Primitive-times How then and when did Diocesan-Bishops come into the World and wherefore may some say To which I will answer but not before some-body answer me this Question How when and wherefore Hell and Devils came into the Word for from the beginning Hell and Devils were not Some say it was Pride and Ambition that made Angels of Darkness of those that were first Angels of Light Lucifer would be like his Maker ambitious for Rule and Domineering and like God to be Omnipresent and Ubiquitary Therefore Down Lucifer Down to Hell and be condemned said the Almighty to Everlasting Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the Great Day History Ecclesiastical tells us that the Chorepiscopi or Country-Bishops just like the Rectors of the Parishes saving the Name nay even the Name too of Prelates and Hierarchici was given to Parish-Presbyters though Parishes are no antient Invention Presbyteri qui praesunt Ecclesiis c. Concil Aquisgr and the Learned Filesacus p. 576 577. proves it abundantly that Presbyters were called Prelates as well as Bishops Episcoporum instar suam habebant plebem regendam I say the Chorepiscopi were dismist of their Authority by the rich adjoyning City-Bishops ne vilescat nomen Episcopi poor Country-Bishops that have no Lordly Equipage will make the name of Bishop cheap and vile and vulgar Ay Ay so it will What Can a Lord-Bishop found like a Lordly Name when poor fellows such as St. Paul the Tent-maker and St. Peter the Fisherman and poor Country Rural Beggarly Bishops pretend to the same Power and Authority in Name and Thing Can the name of a Bishop found Lordly and Domineering over the rest of the Brethren of the Clergy if it be common to every beggarly Minister of Christ and Steward of the Mysteries Therefore make Room and enlarge the Boundaries the Arch-bishoprick of York was glad to swallow seven little Bishopricks at one gulp to make it swell but to the bigness it is now of yet lopt and cropt Can the Tythes of a single Parish maintaian six Lackqueys six Grooms and as many idle Gentlemen or as the Dutch style them idle men Can lean Easter-Offerings buy a guilt Coach Come tell me that Or can a single Acre of melancholly and solitary Glebe-land make fat six Flanders-Jades or Coach-Horses No you must say No why then read the Learned History of the Council of Trent compos'd by Father Paulus a Papist but as great an Enemy of proud Prelacy as any Protestant he will tell you in Page 330 331 332 333. How Grandieur Grandieur And make Room there Sirrah for my Lord Bishop after the Emperors became Christian crept gradually and stole into the Church unknown to the Primitive and New-Testament sanctity I owe the Pope one touch more of my Pen if it be but for bringing in maintaining abetting and promoting Prelatical and Ecclesiastical Lordliness and Domineering in spight of his vaunted Predecessor St. Peter and in spight of our Blessed Saviour 1 Pet. 5.3 Luke 22. to both which he vaunts himself to be the Vicar or Vicegerent Luther's single Pen gave his Holiness such a crock or scratch the wretch has

Pope hard-hearted wretch can deliver them but not a Soul of them except they or some-body for them down with their dust and ready Darby they will not trust for a twelve-penny piece which is the price of a Mass it seems now a days but when I was in Spain and Portugal they were cheaper one might have had two for a shilling and thank you too nay an Irish-Fryar a Teague Benedicite would make you twenty Legs too into the bargain with Abou bou bou by Chrees and by St. Patrick Fait and Trot by my Shoule Joy Never did such a silly cheat reign so long before in the whole World but it was only because they kept the people in ignorance and if any man durst offer to enlighten them and speak the Naked-Truth the Pope and his Inquisition and Emissaries were as spightful cruel and devillishly bloody as any are now amongst us at this day against the Naked-Truth They are vildly loth to lose their domineering insulting Kingdom of Darkness and are as mad as Bethlehem if men will not be Asses and tame Beasts and suffer themselves as of old to be caw'd crow'd over and Priest-ridden 'T is said of the Germans That just before God had raised up Luther to awake them and rowze them they were grown so fottish and be-jaded having so long been Priest-ridden that their Priests might almost have perswaded them not only to lye down and let the Priest whip them or which is as bad or worse make them whip themselves both of them daily Penances at this day in Popish-Countries but also they might easily have been perswaded poor Asses to eat Grass Surely English men are not so dull and tame to be Hen-peckt or to be rid and bestrid at such a rate I hope I confess I have not the patience to endure it But though the Pope says Christ gave Peter that is himself he says though his name be Pius Sergius Innocent or Alexander the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven be it so we will not now quarrel about it yet how the Devil and he should be so kind that the Devil should trust him or prefer him to a Porters place in the Kingdom of Hell I cannot imagin I am sure there is no Scripture for it Nor any reason or any thing else in the case but the Money-case I think I have sufficiently evidenc't that in Matt. 18.17 there 's nothing like it nor from or in imitation of the Jewish-Church and Gods Platform of his own making neither God nor Christ in the Old nor New Testament ever gave Authority Power or Command to any man High-Priest or Low-Priest or any Assembly of men Clergy or Lay-Elders to turn men out of the Church and shut and lock them out from Divine Ordinances the comfort as well as cure of Sinners much less did ever prostitute such Sacred Mysteries to sale and make a Money-matter or a Money-business of it this was the inyention of Pluto the Money-God or Money-Merchant or his Factors the Popelings Nevertheless though I assert this yet I do not deny but the King and Parliament may impower Bishops or who they please to Excommunicate but I say I see no Scripture for Excommunication Indeed in our Saviours time the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sanhedrim or Synagogue or Courts of Justice were Jewish-Justice but put into Commission by the Roman Governour the High-Priest was a Jew but ordain'd by the Emperor or Roman Governour nor durst not call a Court or Sanhedrim but by permission of the Romans Archelaus the Son of Herod was by his Father constituted and appointed in his lust Will and Testament King after his Fathers Death but he durst not own the Name of King till Caesar confirm'd him Nor durst the High-Priest act till confirm'd by the Roman-Governour in any great affair as Josephus relates in his 20th Book of Antiquities and he was in a grievous quandary for procuring the Death of James the Just the Brother of our Lord during the interregnum after Festus his Death and before Abbinas his Successor was arriv'd in Judaea in his Government But I say the Romans usually granted the Conquer'd Jews to use their own Laws and to be govern'd by their own High-Priest and Countrymen and Sanhedrim but always under favour and under correction still of the Romans This Sanhedrim or a Synagogue then was the same in Christ's time as appointed in the Law of Moses namely the High-Court of Justice and the Lower-Courts of Justice and all the Magistracy they ever had But our Blessed Saviour he never changed the Government that was enacted and established by Moses's Law nor suffered his Disciples to innovate any thing in the Civil-Government or which is all one Spiritual-Government Sanhedrim or Synagogue Which if our Saviour had ever spoke against no doubt but his Adversaries that lay at catch would have accused him of it and laid it to his charge when they so thirsted after his Blood Of this Court of Jewish-Magistracy our Saviour speaks when he says in Matt. 18.17 tell it to the Church or Synagoge or Sanhedrim Which I say was not a meer Spiritual Court no no it was no Bawdy-Court but a Court of Justice for Trying Causes whipping men beating them stoning them to Death In this Court St. Peter and St. John were threatned and St. Stephen stoned Acts 7. And the same Court had stoned Peter and John too but that they durst not for fear of the people that were so taken with them for that a notable Miracle had been done by them in curing a Cripple that was born Lame from his Mothers Womb Acts 3. and this was such an evident demonstration of the hand of God going along with them and done so publickly and only with a word in the powerful Name of Jesus that the people could not but admire it and applaud it Whereupon they were put to a notable plunge and when they had laid their Heads together Acts 4.15 They were at their Wits end and knew not what to do Acts 4.16 For on the one hand they resolv'd to do all the mischief they could or durst and on the other hand they had no other colour for doing mischief to the Apostles but only that they had done good and cured a poor Cripple and that would bear no colour for their intended cruelty against them What shall they do What shall they do They were mischievously bent and were resolv'd to do as much mischief as in them lay but that that perplext them and put them to this sad perplexity the people the people could not be gull'd with any colourable mist to blind their eyes and make them believe they punisht the Apostles for Treason or Sedition or Heresie therefore the Text says Act. 4.21 Finding they sought but they could find nothing how they might punish them the Apostles why could they find nothing 't is answered in that Text Because of the people for all men glorified God for