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	power_n	presbyter_n	2,561	5	10.5876	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33359	Diocesan churches not yet discovered in the primitive times, or, A defence of the answer to Dr. Stillingfleets allegations out of antiquity for such churches against the exceptions offered in the preface to a late treatise called A vindication of the primitive church, where what is further produced out of Scripture and antient authors for diocesan churches is also discussed.	Clarkson, David, 1622-1686.	1682 (1682)	Wing C4571; ESTC R16204	84,843	132

they were of the very same Office for Bishops in the antient Church were not a superiour Order to Presbyters but had only a Precedency in the same Order This some of the most judicious and learned Defenders of Episcopacy assert And those who hold that Patriarchs Metropolitans and Bishops differed not in Order but in degree only which is the common opinion of Episcopal Divines and yet contend that Bishops and Presbyters were of a different order will never be able to prove it The difference they assign between Bishops and Metropolitans is that these presided in Synode and had a principal interest in Ordinations and what more did the preeminence of antient Bishops distinguishing them from Presbyters amount to It consisted in nothing material but their presidency in Presbyteries and their power in Ordinations This last is most insisted on as making the difference wider between these than the other But with little reason all things considered For those to be ordained were first to be examined and approved by the Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t Theophilus Commonitor cap. 6. the ordaining of one to the Presbytery was to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 u Clem. Constitut lib. 8. cap. 18. It was a crime for which the greatest Bishop in the World was censurable to preferr any or make Ordinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as appears by what Chrysostome was accused of though it is like falsly w Phot. in Chry Tom. 8. pag. 155 Concil Carth. ● cap. 22. Turon 2 and this is counted by some the substance of Ordination wherein the Presbyters had no less share to say no more than the Bishop And in imposing hands which was the Rite of Ordaining the Presbyters were to concurr with the Bishop for which there is better Authority than the Canon of an African Council for saith a very learned Do●●or x Iren. p. 27● to this purpose the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery y 1 Tim. 1. ● is no ways impertinently alledged although we suppose St. Paul ●o concurr in the action because if the Presbytery had nothing to do in the Ordination to what purpose were their hands laid upon him Was it only to be Witnesses of the fact or to signifie their consent Both these might have been done without their use of that Ceremony which will scarce be instanced in to be done by any but such as had power to conferr what was signifyed by that Ceremony And diverse instances are brought by the same hand to shew that Ordinations by Presbyters was valid in the antient Church z pag. 379. But if the Presbyters had been quite excluded from Ordination and this power had been intirely reserved to the Bishops yet this would not be sufficient to constitute them a superiour Order For the Rite of Ordaining was so farr from being an act of Government or jurisdiction that it did not inferre any superiority in the Ordainer nothing being more ordinary in the practice of the Antient Church than for those were of a lower Degree and Station to Ordain their Superiours While there was no more distance betwixt Bishop and Presbyters but only in Degree so that as the Bishop was but primus Presbyter as Hilary under the name of Ambrose and others a In 1 Tim. Autor Quest in V. ●t N. T. or Primicerius as Optatus defined by a Learned Civilian to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Gothofrid in Code the first Presbyter so the Presbyter was a second Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen As the Bishop was summus sacerdos in the style of Tertullian and others that is cheif Presbyter so the Presbyter was Bishop a degree lower not that he had less pastoral power but because he wanted that degree of dignity or preeminence for which the other was styled chief As the Praeter Vrbanus was called Maximus yet he had no more Power than the other Praetorum idem erat collegium eadem potestas c Bodin lib. 3. c. 6. but only some more priviledge and dignity dignitate coeteros anteibat propterea maximus dicebatur d Fest in verb. major and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at Athens was Praetor maximus yet all the rest were pares potestaet e Ibid. Bishops and Presbyters had idem ministerium as Jerome eadem Ordinatio as Hilary f In 1 Tim. 3. they were of the same Order and Office had the same power the power of the Keys all that which the Scripture makes essential to a Bishop While it was thus there could be no Diocesan Churches that is no Churches consisting of many Congregations which had but one Bishop only POST-SCRIPT A Late Writer presumes he has detected a notable mistake in the Author of No Evidence for Diocesan Churches ascribed to one who owns it not about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I suppose he would have Translated Ten Thousands definitely but there it is rendred indefinitely thousands as we are wont to express a great many when the precise number is not known Those who understand the Language and have observed the use of the Word will be farr from counting this a fault and those who view the passage will count it intolerable to render it as that Gentleman would have it That of Atticus Bishop of C. P. may satisfie any concerning the import and use of the word who sending mony for the releif of the poor at Nice to Calliopius he thus writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he tells him that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he understands a multitude whose number he did not exactly know thus i. e. indefinitely is the word most frequently used by Greek Writers and particularly by Eusebius the Author of the passage cited So he tells us Nero killed his Hist l. 2. c. Mother his Brothers his Wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of her Kindred And Timotheus of Gaza he ● l. 8. C. 13. says indured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many more might be added where the word is not rendred by the best Translators Valesius particularly ten thousand but still indefinitly innumerabiles or infiniti or sexcenti c. Nor have I met with one instance though possibly there may be some in him where it is used to express ten thousand precisely However it had been an unpardonable injury to Eusebius to have rendred it so in this place as if he would have deluded the World with a most palpable untruth which both he and all men acquainted with the state of the Church in those times know to be so For this make him say that ten thousand Bishops met in Councel at Antioch in the third Age when as he never knew a Synod of six hundred Bishops in the fourth Age while he lived though then Bishops were farr more numerous and had all encouragement to meet in greatest numbers This makes him signifie that ten thousand Bishops assembled in the skirts of the East part of the Empire When as