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
A79057	His Majesties reason vvhy he cannot in conscience consent to abolish the Episcopall government. Delivered by him in writing to the Divines that attend the Honorable Commissioners of Parliament at the Treaty at Newport in the Isle of Wight, Octob. 2. 1648. With the answer of the said Divines delivered to His Majestie in writing. October. 3. 1648.	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)	1661 (1661)	Wing C2739; Thomason E1081_7; ESTC R207932	7,097	16

HIS MAIESTIES REASON VVhy He cannot in Conscience consent to abolish the Episcopal Government Delivered by Him in writing to the Divines that attend the Honorable Commissioners of Parliament at the Treaty at Newport in the Isle of Wight Octob. 2. 1648. With the Answer of the said Divines delivered to His Majestie in writing October 3. 1648. LONDON Printed for Abel Roper at the Sun over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1660. His Majesties Reason why He cannot in conscience consent to abolish the Episcopall Government Charles R. I Conceive that Episcopall Government is most consonant to the word of God and of an Apostolicall institution as it appears by the Scripture to have been practised by Apostles themselves Acts 14.23 Acts 6.6 1 Cor. 16.1 1 Cor. 14. 1 Cor. 5.3 3 John 9.10 And by them committed and derived to particular Persons as their Substitutes or Successors therein as for ordeyning Presbyters Deacons giving rules concerning Christian Discipline 1 Tim. 5.22 Titus 1.5 Revel 2.3 1 Tim. 5.19 Titus 3.10 and exercising censurs over Presbyters and others And hath ever since till 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 appear to me then I will confess that one of my great scruples is clean taken away then there only remains That being by my Coronation Oath obleiged to maintaine Episcopall Government as I found it setled to my hands whether I may consent to the abolishing thereof until the same shall be evidenced to Me to be contrary to the Word of God Newport 2. Octob. 1648. The Answer of the Divines to His Majesties Reason why He cannot in Conscience consent to the abolishment of Episcopal Government May it please Your Majesty WE do fully agree without hesitation that these Scriptures cited in the margin of your paper Act. 14.23 Act. 6.6 1 Cor. 16.1 1 Cor. 14.1 Cor. 5.3 3 John 9 and 10. do prove that the Apostles did ordeine 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 Tit. 1.5 1 Tim. 5.19 Titus 3.10 do prove that Timothy and Titus had power to ordeine Presbyters and Deacons and to exercise censures over Presbyters and others And that the second and third Chapters of the Revelation 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 Episcopal Government or that this is proved in the least measure by the Scriptures alleged 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 Presbyters 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 Work of Bishop and Presbyter being one and the same in all things and never in the least distinguisht as is clearly evident Titus 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 blameless In which place the Apostle his 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 verse 28. Take heede therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to feed and govern the Church of God Where we observe That the Apostle being to leave these Presbyters and never to see their faces more verse 28. 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 1 Pet. 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 appears plaine to us that under the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in this place is expressed whatsoever work the Presbyters are to do Neither can Bishops so called as above Presbyters do more for the government and good of the Church otherwise then is there expressely injoyned unto Presbyters By all which that hath been said the point is rendered to be most clear to the judgement of most men both ancient and of later 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 work 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 Apostle speaks of 1 Tim. 5.17 as due to Presbyters that rule well is with a note of especially affixed to that Act or work of labouring in the Word and Doctrine which is not that Act wherein Bishops have challenged a singularity or peculiar eminency above the Presbyters 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 extraordinary in respect of their commission gifts and office and distinguisht from all other Officers 1 Cor. 12.28 God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers Ephes 4.11 Christ gave some Apostles and

some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers Where the Apostles are distinguished 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 ordain Church Officers and to exercise censures in all Churches we affirm 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 Apostolical according to the peculiar commission authority which they had no otherwise to be called Episcopal than as their Office was so comprehensive as they had power to do the work of any or all other Church Officers in which respect they call themselves Presbeteri Diaconi but never Episcopi in distinct sense and therefore we humbly crave leave to say that to argue the Apostles to have practised Episcopall Government because they ordeined other Officers 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 derived to particular persons as their Substitutes or Successors therein as for ordeining Presbyters and Deacons giving rules concerning Christian discipline and exercising censures over Presbyters and others Seeming by the alledged places of Scripture to instance in Timothy and Titus and the Angels of the Churches We humbly answer 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 Episcopal Government nor that they exercised the power they had as being Bishops in the sence of your Majesty but as extraordinary Officers or Evangelists which Evangelists were an office in the Church distinct from Pastors and Teachers Eph. 4.11 and that they were Evangelists it appears by their being sent up and down by the Apostles or taken along with them in company to severall Churches as the necessity and occasion of the Churches did require The One of them being expresly called an Evangelist 2 Tim. 4 5. And neither of them being any where in Scripture 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 appears in Scripture returned to them again And it seemes clear 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 expresses himself 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 Tim. 1.3 For this cause left I thee in Creet Tit. 1.5 as doth not carry the fixing or constituting of a Bishop in a place as 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 Tit. 3.12 Be diligent to come to me to Nicopolis So that they may as well be called Bishops of other Cities or Churches where they had any considerable abode as they are pretended to have been of Ephesus and Creete As they are called by the Postscripts of these Epistles the credit of which Postscripts we cannot build upon in this point Secondly To that of the Angels of the Churches The ministers of the Churches are called Starres and Angels which denominations are metaphoricall and in a mystery Rev. 1.20 the mystery of the seven Starres Angels in respect of their mission or sending Starrs in respect of their Station shining And it seems strange to us that to so many expresse Testimonyes of Scripture an Allegoricall denomination or mystery should be opposed These Angels being no where called Bishops in vulgar acceptation nor the word Bishop used in any of Johns writings who calls himself Presbyter Nor any mention of superiority of one Presbyter to another but in Diotrephes affecting it And as to that which may be said that the Epistles are directed to one we answer that a number of persons are in the mysterious and Prophetick writings expressed in singulars and we humbly conceive that being written in an Epistolary Style for they are as letters or Epistles to the Churches these writings are directed as letters to collective Representative bodies use to be That is to one but intended meant to that body in meeting assembled which that they were so intended is clear to us both because there were in Ephesus Bishops and Presbyters one and the same to whom the Apostle at his farewell commendeth the Government of the Church And by divers expressions in these Epistles as Rev. 2.24 To you and to the rest in Thyatyra by which distinction of you and the rest we conceive the particular Governors 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 farther discharge of our duty to and for the more clear and full satisfaction of your Majesty in this point briefly declare into what Officers hands the ordinary and standing Offices of the Church were transmitted and derived by 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 special Commission But for the ordinary standing use and service of the Church there were ordained only two Orders of Officers viz. Bishops and Deacons which the Apostle expresseth Phil. 1.1 To all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons And only of them doth the Apostle give the due Characters of Officers 1 Tim. 3.2 8. From both which places of Scripture we conclude with ancient Expositors both Greek and Latin that Bishops are the same with Presbyters and besides Presbyters there is no mention of any other order but that of Deacons Of both which Orders in the Apostles times