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
A78955	His Maiesties paper containing severall questions propounded to the commissioners Divines touching Episcopacy. With an humble answer returned to his Majesty by Mr. Marshall, Mr. Vines, Mr. Carill, and Mr. Seaman 4. October 1648. Published by authority.	England and Wales. Sovereign (1625-1649 : Charles I); Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.; Vines, Richard, 1600?-1656.; Seaman, Lazarus, d. 1675.; Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.; Westminster Assembly (1643-1652)	1648 (1648)	Wing C2533; Thomason E466_6; ESTC R205221	7,335	14

His Majesties PAPER Containing severall Questions propounded to the Commissioners Divines Touching Episcopacy With an humble Answer returned to his Majesty by Mr. Marshall Mr. Vines Mr. Carill and Mr. Seaman 4. October 1648. DIEV ET MON DROIT London printed by Moses Bell 9 Octob. 1648. SIR I Have received your Letter of the 28. of September for which I give you many thankes and to satisfie you that the Treaty goeth on I have sent you what hath passed here of late which is as followeth Upon occasion of debate upon the Proposition of the Church in which his Majesty makes divers scruples of Conscience there was a concession that our Ministers that is Mr. Marshall Mr. Vines Mr. Carill and Mr. Seaman should attend his Majesty to remove such objections as he should please to make and accordingly on Munday morning they waited on his Majesty to whom the King delivered these inclosed Questions whereunto they have returned this Answer now also sent These Propositions of the Church are still under debate and will take up this weeke or more in the consideration of them which being once granted as some are of opinion they will be we may thereby hope for a very speedy consent to all the rest Commend me to all my friends whose names I purposely omit and rest Newport in the Isle of Wight 4. of October 1648. Yours to Command W. M. Charles R. I Conceive that Episcopall Government is most consonant to the Word of God and of an Apostolicall institution as it appeares by the Scripture to have been practised by Apostles themselves and by them committed and derived to particular persons as their Substitutes or Successors therein as for ordaining Presbyters and Deacons giving rules concerning Christian Discipline and exercising Censures over Presbyters and others and hath ever since to these last times been exercised by Bishops in all the Churches of Christ and therefore I cannot in Conscience consent to abolish the said Government notwithstanding this my perswasion I shall be glad to be informed if our Saviour and the Apostles did so leave the Church at liberty as they might totally alter or change the Church Government at their pleasure which if you can make appeare to me then I will confesse that one of my great Scruples is cleane taken away And then there only remaines That being by my Coronation Oath obliged to maintaine Episcopall Government as I found it setled to my hands whither I may consent to the abolishing thereof untill the same shall be evidenced to me to be contrary to the Word of God Newport 2. Octob. 1648. An humble Answer returned to your Majesties Paper delivered to us Octob. 2. 1648. May it please Your Majesty WE do fully agree without haesitation That thes Scriptures cited in the margent of your Paper Acts 14. 23. Acts 6. 6. 1 Cor. 16. 1. 1 Cor. 14. 1 Cor. 5. 3. 3 John 9. 10. do prove That the Apostles did ordaine Presbyters and Deacons give rules concerning Christian Discipline and had power of exercising censures over Presbyters and others and that these places of Scripture 1 Tim. 5. 22. Titus 1. 5. 1 Tim. 5. 19. Titus 3. 10. do prove That Timothy and Titus had power to ordaine Presbyters and Deacons and to exercise Censures over others and that the second and third Chapters of the Revelations do prove That the Angels of the Churches had power of governing of the Churches and exercising Censures But that either the Apostles or Timothy and Titus or the Angels of the Churches were Bishops as Bishops are distinct from Presbyters exercising Episcopall Government in that sense or that the Apostles did commit and derive to any particular persons as their Substitutes and Successors any such Episcopall Government or that this is proved in the least measure by the Scriptures alleadged we do as fully deny And therefore do humbly deny also That Episcopall Government is therefore most consonant to the Word of God and of Apostolicall institution or proved so to be by these Scriptures None of these were Bishops or practised Episcopall Government as Bishops are distinct from Presbytery neither is such an Officer of the Church as a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter to be found in the new Testament by which we humbly conceive That our faith and conscience touching this point ought to be concluded The Name Office and worke of Bishop and Presbyter being one and the same in all things and never in the least distinguisht as is cleerely evident Tit. 1. 5 7. For this cause left I thee in Creete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordaine Presbyters in every City as I had appointed thee for a Bishop must be blamelesse In which place the Apostles reasoning were altogether invalid and inconsequent if Presbyter and Bishop were not the same Office as well as they have the same name The same is manifest Acts 20 17 28. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the Presbyters of the Church to whom he gave this charge vers. 28. Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flocks over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops to feed and governe the Church of God Where we observe That the Apostle being to leave these Presbyters and never to see their faces more vers. 38. doth charge them with the feeding and governing of the Church as being Bishops of the Holy Ghosts making But that the Holy Ghost did make any superiour or higher kinde of Bishops than these common Presbyters is not to be found in that or any other Text And that under the mouth of two or three witnesses this assertion of ours may stand we adde to what we have already said That in the first of Peter 5. 1 2. The Presbyters which are among you I exhort who am also a Presbyter feed the flock of God which is among you Performing the Office of Bishops Where it appeares plaine to us That under the words used in this place is exprest whatsoever worke the Presbyters do more for the Government or good of the Church otherwise than is there expresly enjoyned unto Presbyters By all which that hath been said The point is rendered most cleare to the judgement of most men both ancient and of latter times That there is no such Officer to be found in the Scriptures of the new Testament as a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter Neither doth the Scripture afford us the least notice of any qualification required in a Bishop that is not required in a Presbyter nor any Ordination to the Office of a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter nor any worke or duty charged upon a Bishop which Presbyters are not enjoyned to do nor any greater honour or dignity put upon them For that double honour which the Apostles speake of 1 Tim. 5. 17. As due to Presbyters that rule well is with a note of especially affixed to that act or worke of labouring in the Word of Doctrine which is

not that act wherein Bishops have challenged a singularity or peculiar eminency above the Presbyter To that which your Majesty doth conceive That Episcopall Government was practised by Apostles themselves We humbly answer That the Apostles as they were the highest officers of the Church of Christ so they were Extraordinarie in respect of their Commission and gifts and office and distinguished form all other officers 1 Cor. 12. 28. God hath set some in the Church First Apostles Secondly Prophets Thirdly Teachers Ephefians 4. 1. 1. Christ gave some Apostle and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pasters and some Teachers Whereby the Apostles are distinguisht from Pastors and Teachers who are the ordinary Officers of the Church for Preaching the word and Government that they had power and authority to ordaine Church-Officers and to excercise censures in all Churches we affirme and withall that no other Persons or Officers of the Church may challenge or assume to themselves such power in that respect alone because the Apostles practised it except such power belong unto them in common as well as to the Apostles by warrant of the Scripture for that Government which they practised was Apostolicall according to that peculiar Commission and Authority which they had and no otherwise to be called Episcopall then as their Office was so comprehensive as they had power to doe the worke of any or all other Church-Officers In which respect they call themselves Presbyteri Deaconi but never Episcopi in distinct sence and therefore we humbly crave leave to say That to argue the Apostles to have practised Episcopall Government because they ordained other Officers and exercised censures is as if we should argue a Justice of Peace to be a Constable because he doth that which a Constable doth in some particulars It s manifest that the Office of Bishops and Presbyters were not distinct in the Apostles they did not Act as Bishops in some Acts and as Presbyters in other Acts The distinction of Presbyters and Bishops being made by men in after times And whereas your Majesty doth conceive That the Episcopall Government was by the Apostles committed and delivered to particular persons as their Substitutes or Successors therein as for ordaining Presbyters and Deacons giving rules concerning Christian Discipline and exercising censures over Presbyters and others seeming by the alleadged places of Scriptures to instance in Timothy and Titus and the Angels of the Churches We humbly answer 1 And first to that of Timothy and Titus we grant That Timothy and Titus had authority and power of ordaining Presbyters and Deacons and of exercising censures over Presbyters and others though we cannot say they had this power as the Apostles Substitutes or Successors in Episcopall Government nor that they exercised the power they had as being Bishops in the sence of your Majestie but as extraordinary Officers or Evangelists which Evangelists were an Office in the Church distinct from Pastors and Teachers Ephesians 4. 11. And that they were Evangelists it appeares by their being sent up and downe by the Apostles or taken along with them in company to severall Churches as the necessity and occasion of the Church did require the one of them being expresly called an Evangelist 2 Tim. 4. 5. And neither of them being anywhere in Scriptures called Bishop neither were they fixed to Ephesus and Creet as Bishops in the Churches committed to them but removed from thence to other places and never for ought appeares in Scriptures returned to them againe And it seemes cleare to us that neither their abode at Ephesus and Creet was for any long time nor so intended by the Apostle for he imployes them there upon occasionall businesse and expresseth himselfe in such manner I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other Doctrine 1 Timothy 13. For this cause left I thee in Creet Titus 1. 5. As doth not carry the fixing or constituting of a Bishop in a place as a perpetuall Governour And it is as manifest that they were both of them called away from these places 2 Tim. 4. 9 Do thy diligence to come to me shortly Titus 3. 12. Be diligent to come to me to Nicapolis so that they may as well be called Bishops of other Citie or Church where they had any considerable abode as they are pretended to have beene of Ephesus and Creet as they are called by the Postscripts of these Apostles the credit of which Postscripts we cannot build upon in this point 2 Secondly to that of the Angels of the Churches the Ministers of the Churches are called Stars and Angels which Denominations are Metaphoricall and a Misterie Rev. el 1. 20. The Mistery of the seaven Starres Angells in respect of their mission or sending St●●●… in respect of their station and shining And it seemes strange to us that so many expresse testimonies of Scriptures and allegoricall denominations or mysteries should be opposed These Angels being no where called Bishops in vulgar acceptation nor the word Bishop vsed in any of Johns writings who cals himself Presbiter nor any mention of superiority of one Presbiter to another but in Diotrophes effecting it And as to that which may be said that Epistles are directed to one We answer that an number of persons are in the mysterious and Prophetique writings exprest in singulars And we humbly conceive that being written in an Epistolary stile for they are as Letters or Epistles to the Churches these writings are directed as Letters to collective or representative bodies use to be that is to one but are intended and meant to the body in meeting assembled which that they were so intended is cleare to us both because there were in Ephesus Bishops and Presbiters one and the same to whom the Apostle at his farewell commended the Government of the Church and by divers expressions in these Epistles as Revel. 2. 24. To you and to the rest in Thyatira by which distinction of you and the rest we conceive the Church-governments which were more then one and the people to be signified and so cannot consent that any singular person had majority over the rest or sole power of exercising Church censures and Government spoken of in these Chapters Having thus as we humbly conceive proved by pregnant places of Scripture compared together that the Apostles themselves did not institute or practise Episcopall Government nor commit and derive it to particular persons as their substitutes or successors therein We shall in further discharge of our duty to and for the more cleere and full satisfaction of your Majesty in this point briefely declare into what Officers hands the ordinary and standing offices of the Church were transmitted and derived by and from the Apostles The Apostles had no Successors in eundem gradum The Apostolicall office was not derived by succession being instituted by Christ by extraordinary and speciall commission but for the ordinary and

standing use and service of the Church there were ordained only two orders of offices viz. Bishops and Deacons which the Apostle expresseth Phil. 1. 1. To all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Phillipi with the Bishops and Deacons And only of them doth the Apostle give the due characters of Officers I Tim. 3. 2. 8 From both which places of Scripture we conclude with ancient Expositors both Greeke and Latine that Bishops are the same with Presbiters and besides Presbiters there is no mention of any other Order but that of Deacons of both which Orders there were in the Apostles times in one City more then one as in Philippi and Ephesus And we humbly offer to your Majesty as observable That though one order might be superiour to another order yet in the same order of Officers there was not any one superiour to others of the same order No Apostle was above an Apostle no Evangelist above an Evangelist no Presbiter above a Presbiter no Deacon above a Deacon And so we conclude this part that since Church Officers are instituted and set in the Church by God or Christ Jesus And that Ordination by or in which the Office is conveyed is of no other Officers but of Presbyters and Deacons therefore there are no other orders of ordinary and standing Officers in the Churches of Christ As for the ages immediately succeeding the Apostles we answer First Our faith reacheth no further then the holy Scriptures no humane testimony can beget any more then an humane faith Secondly We answer that it is agreed upon by learned men as well such as contend for Episcopacy as others that the times immediately succeeding the Apostles are very darke in respect of the History of the Church Thirdly That the most unquestionable record of those times gives cleare testimony to our assertion viz. The Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians who reciting the Order of Church Officers expresly limits them to two Bishops and Deacons And they whom in one place he call'd Bishops he alwaies afterwards nameth Presbyters The Epistles of Ignatius pretend indeed to the next Antiquity but are by some suspected as wholly spurious and proved by Videlius to be so mixed that it is hard if not impossible to know what parts of them are genuine Besides Bishop Vsher in his last observations on them Cap 18. Page 238. confesseth that of the twelve of his epistles six are counterfeit the other fix mixt and none of them in every respect accompted sincere and genuine Fourthly We grant that not long after the Apostles times Bishops in some superiority to Presbiters are by the writers of those times reported to be in the Church but they were set up not as a Divine Institution but as an Ecclesiasticall as afterwards both Arch-Bishops and Patriarkes were which is cleare by Doctor Reynolds his Epistle to Sir Francis Knowles wherein he shewes out of Bishop Jewell that Ambrose Chrysostome Jerome Augustine and many more holy Fathers together with the Apostle Paul agree that by the word of God there is no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop And that Medina in the Councell of Trent affirmes not only the same Fathers but also another Jerome Theodoret Primatius Sedulius and Theophilact to be of the same judgement and that with them agreed Occuminius Anselme Arch-Bishop of Canturbury and another Anselme Gregory and Gratian and after them many others that it was inrol'd in the Canon Law for sound and catholique doctrine and publiquely taught by learned men and adds that all who have laboured in the reformation of the Church for these five hundred yeeres have taught that all Pastors be they instituted Bishops or Priests have equall authority and power by Gods word The same way goes Lumbard Master of the sentences and Father of the Schoole-men who speaking of Presbyters and Deacons saith the Primitive Churches had those Orders only and that we have the Apostles precept for them alone with him agree many of the most eminent of that kinde and generally all the Cannonists to these we may adde Sextus Senensis who testifies for himselfe and many others and Cassander who was called by one of the Germane Emperours as one of singular ability and integrity to informe him and resolve his conscience in questions of that nature who saits it is agreed among all in the Apostles times there was no difference betwixt a Bishop and a Presbiter For a conclusion we adde that the doctrine which we have here in propounded to your Majesty concerning the identity of the Order of Bishops and Presbiters is no other then the Doctrine published by King Henry the eight 1543. For all his Subjects to receive seen and allowed by the Lords both Spirituall and Temporall with the nether House of Parliament of these two Orders only so saith his Booke that is to say Priests and Deacons the Scripture maketh expresse mention and how they were confer'd of by the Apostles by prayer and imposition of their hands by all which it seems evident that the order of Episcopacie as distinct from Presbiters is but an Ecclesiasticall Institution and therefore not unalterable Lastly we answer that that Episcopall Government which at first obtained in the Church did really and substantially differ from Episcopall Government which the Honourable Houses of Parliament desire the abolition of The Bishop of these times was one presiding in and joyning with the Presbytry of his Church ruling with them and not without them either created and made by the Presbiters chusing out one among themselves as in Rome and Alexandria or chosen by the Church and confirmed by three or more of his neighbours of like dignity within the same precinct Lesser Townes and Villages had and might have had Bishops in them as well as populous and eminent Cities untill the Councell of Sardis decreed that Villages and small Cities should have no Bishops least the name and authority of a Bishop might thereby come into contempt but of one claiming as his due and right to himselfe alone as a Superiour order or degree all power about Ordination of Presbiters and Deacons and all jurisdictions either to exercise himselfe or deligate to whom he will of the Laity or Clergy as they distinguish according to the judgement and practice of these in our times we reade not till the latter and corrupter ages of the Church By all which it appeares that the present Hierarchy the abolition whereof is desired by the Honourable Houses may accordingly be abolished and yet possibly the Bishops of these Primitive times might be they are so far differing one from another In answer to that part of your Majesties Paper wherein you inquire whether our Saviour and his Apostles did so leave the Church at liberty as they might totally alter or change the Church-government at their pleasure we humbly conceive that there are substantials belonging to Church-government such are appointed by Christ and his Apostles which are not in the Churches liberty to alter at pleasure But as for Arch-Bishops c. we hope it will appeare unto your Majesties conscience that they are none of the Church Governours appointed by our Saviour and his Apostles we beseech your Majesty rather to looke to the originall of them then Succession FINIS Act. 14. 23 Acts 6. 6 1 Cor. 16. 1 1 Cor. 14. 1 Cor 5. 3 3 Joh. 9. 10 1 Tim. 5. 22. Titus 1. 5 Rev. 2. 3 Chap. 1 Tim. 5. 19. Tit. 3. 10