Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	holy_a	tradition_n	unwritten_a	2,627	5	12.0852	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34152	A compendious discourse, proving episcopacy to be of apostolicall, and conseqvently of divine, institution by a cleare and weighty testimony of St. Irenaeus, a glorious martyr, and renowned Bishop of Lyons in France, upon the yeere of our Lord, 184 : the said testimony being so declared, pressed, and vindicated from all exceptions : that thereby an intelligent and conscionable reader may receive abundant satisfaction in this behalfe / by Peloni Almoni, Cosmopolites.	Almoni, Peloni, Cosmopolites.	1641 (1641)	Wing C5607; ESTC R1019	8,451	16

A Compendious Discourse PROVING EPISCOPACY TO BE OF APOSTOLICALL AND CONSEQVENTLY OF DIVINE INSTITUTION BY A cleare and weighty testimony of St. Irenaeus a glorious Martyr and renowned Bishop of Lyons in France upon the yeere of our Lord 184. The said Testimony being so declared pressed and vindicated from all exceptions that thereby an intelligent and conscionable Reader may receive abundant satisfaction in this behalfe ISAIAH 39. 8. Let there be peace and truth in my daies BY Peloni Almoni Cosmopolites LONDON Printed by E. G. for Richard Whitaker at the Kings Armes in Pauls Church-yard 1641. To the Christian and Judicious Reader IT is true in this particular case of Episcopacy which Salomon speaketh in the general How good is a word spoken in due season It is like apples of gold in pictures of silver If ever there were a season to write or speake in defence of Episcopacy it is now or never wherein men travaile in birth to bring forth their severall conceipts some doubting whether it be of divine or humane institution some affirming the one some the other some desiring to preserve it some to destroy it In such a time silence is dangerous wherein liberty is ill given to or ill taken by the adversaries of Gods ordinance to publish their raw and undigested discourses fraught with more malice then truth But cantabunt cygni cum graculi tacuerint As for my selfe I hope that I may make use of this publique liberty without offence which I seeke not or danger which I regard not to speake a word for my Reverend Mother the Church of England and my Venerable Fathers the Bishops thereof for I may say with S. Hierome in a cause Ecclesiasticall Mori possum tacere non possum I passe a while under an unknowne name as some adversaries of Episcopacy do the person is little to the matter Res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet as S. Augustine writeth Meane while know thus much of me unknowne that I have no dependance upon any Bishop though there be one singularly learned and truely religious in that sacred Order Cui debeo quicquid possum non possum to use S. Hieromes words from whom yet as from the rest I expect nothing being rich in my contentment and private course of life wherein though I enjoy little yet I seeke nothing more but that the truth may have victory the Church peace and God the glory Amen Lond. May 31. 1641. Thy friend in Christ Peloni Almoni A Compendious Discourse proving Episcopacy to be of Apostolicall and consequently of Divine Institution It is a vanity to speake much of a little and a difficulty to speake little of much as in this copious argument of Episcopacy which pleadeth discent from the blessed Apostles to which purpose I might produce many proofes from Scripture Antiquity Fathers and Histories from the most famous Divines of forraine Churches and our owne and finally from Reasons depending upon the sacred oracles of God But now in this latitude of matter to avoyd longitude of discourse I have confined my selfe especially to one important Testimony one in stead of many or of all in pursuit explication and defence whereof I shall have occasion fairely presented unto me to reflect a little upon those other grounds and so out of all to give as plentifull satisfaction upon this point as it doth require or so compendious a discourse can permit Understand then you that are ignorant or remember you that are learned that S. Irenaus confuteth the Marcionites and Valentinians leaden heretickes in that golden age by a double probation first out of the holy Scriptures and then by Apostolicall Tradition not in the Popish sense of an unwritten word but in an orthodoxall sense of the doctrine preached by the Apostles and by them planted in the Churches which is also in the written word the same descending from the time of the Apostles unto the time of Irenaeus himselfe To this end and purpose he first produceth the Church of Rome then most famous in the world as instructed by S. Peter and S. Paul who as he conceiveth governed it joyntly and taught it fully in all the mysteries of Christian doctrine which finally they watered with their owne blood from and after whom saith he in a lineall succession Eleutherius now the twelfth in order possesseth the Episcopacy of the same If any man doubt whether this Romane Episcopacy were of Apostolicall institution or not the substance of Irenaeus his discourse in that place will beare it well to which I now remit the ingenuous Reader because I make hast unto his subsequent discourse which taketh away all doubt for first plantation of Episcopacy in the Church For thus he writeth Polycarp was not onely taught by the Apostles and conversed with many of them who saw the Lord but was also constituted by the Apostles BISHOP in Asia and in the Church of Smyrna there whom we also saw in our first age being his Disciple as S. Hierom de viris illustr. doth record This testimony is so cleare and ponderous that it may sufficiently determine the whole cause if you consider the Person who it is that speaketh and the Matter which he speaketh But since nothing is so cleare which may not seeme obscure and nothing so ponderous which may not seeme light to a mind possessed with unreasonable prejudice I will now further declare presse this testimony of Irenaeus fencing it also against all objections which may be framed against it or against our cause which doth depend upon it First then consider with me the Authour or Relator rather himselfe Note his antiquity he lived in the time of Eleutherius the twelfth Bishop of Rome upon the yeere of our Lord * 185. We have few Authors grave and certaine now extant who lived before his time except Ignatius whose 7. Epistles as they are his owne and aproved for his by Vedelius and are some of them lately cited by the adversaries of Episcopacy under his name so they fully expresse the cleare distinction of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the first age of the Christian Church and after him of Justinus Martyr who under the name of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} governour or prefect doth well discover what Episcopacy was in the second age of the Church Note then his quality He was an holy man a learned man a peaceable man as it may appeare by his Epistles addressed unto Uictor Bishop of the Church of Rome a constant defendour of the truth and finally a patient sufferer for the same What is your exception against him The late unworthy Authour of a booke intituled Of Reformation c. hath found some quarrell against him but Fevardentius in his apologeticall preface in the defence of Irenaeus hath well answered such exceptions Howbeit whatsoever errours more or fewer greater or lesser Irenaeus had or had not it is nothing to the point now in

Shall then so holy a person be rejected as a lyer writing otherwise then he saw or heard This were a desperate evasion and contemptible yet followed by the adversaries of Episcopacy charging the Fathers as partiall in their owne cause But were they not the principall writers yet not the onely for Tertullian and Hierome were Presbyters only and not Bishops whose judgement and testimony I will not decline in this cause Thus our English Divines are rejected as being Bishops or affecting Episcopacy and so their owne Judges Say what you please yet I will conclude this passage with the publique protestation of that learned and holy man D. Iohn White in his Sermon at Pauls Crosse March 24. 1615. I protest before God and man it amazeth me to see such as can read either SCRIPTVRE or Antiquity to carpe at it Episcopacy when the Christian world for 1400. yeeres after Christ never saw any other government c. A fourth exception is that Polycarp was no Lord Bishop he had no civill dignity no temporall power c. and therefore very different from the Bishops of our Church Truely said but to little or no purpose The Christian Church and temporall State were then divided and the first was persecuted by the second till glorious Constantine obtained the Imperiall diadem upon the yeere 316. Afterwards by favour of the Emperour and other Princes civill dignity and temporall power were annexed to Episcopall places the Church and State being now united together I say therefore FIRST that Bishops for three centuries had no such dignity and power they were Bishops without it then and may be Bishops without it now SECONDLY that as the State for good reasons gave it so for good reasons such as may be not such as are may take it away but Episcopacy it selfe wch God gave no man may take away Salomon might exclude Abiathar from his Priesthood but the Priesthood he could not dissolve I speake not now of absolute power but lawfull power in the State for id possumus quod jure possumus no more THIRDLY that temporall power annexed to Episcopall function may not onely adorne it but strengthen it for the benefit of Church and Common wealth FOVRTHLY that Bishops are capeable of this dignity and power as Zanchius observeth well Epist. tom 1. ad Ioh. Stuckium saying that since in the old Testament one man the High priest exercised both powers spirituall and temporall Non ergo per se pugnant these two therefore to be a Bishop and a civill Potentate doe not of themselves the one oppugne the other but may both concurre in one person and then addeth that in writing the Confession of his Faith upon occasion whereof this question did arise he was to have a regard of those Reformed Churches wherein many as Bishops in England have a temporall power conjoyned with their spirituall office FIFTLY and lastly I demand of the adversaries of Episcopacy If Bishops shall be excluded from civill dignity temporal power c. will you rest so content shall our Bishops yet retaine their spirituall office of superiority over Presbyters with such authority in the Church as Christian Bishops did obtaine and exercise therein from and in the Apostolicall times and in the succeeding ages of the primitive Church No but you would cast them wholly out of the Church or leave them an empty title without a reall office which in the perpetuall discourse of all ages they have enjoyed in the universall Church To conclude if malice in some did not envie their honour and avarice in others their estates this exception were easily answered but howsoever it be Bishops they are lawfully with both and Bishops they may be truely without either A fift exception is that Polycarp as also Ignatius and other Bishops such as they were might perhaps have a priority of place before Presbyters but not a superiority of power above them A weake pretense against the knowne testimony and certaine experience of all ages for proofe whereof I remit you unto S. Hierome the supposed adversary of Bishops who in the very place so often produced against Episcopacy viz in Tit. 1. 5. saith that the Bishop was suprapositus placed above the Presbyters of his Church This is more then he said Epist. 85. that he was praepositus which perhaps you will render in English placed before them though in truth it be no lesse And to make all cleare in this point he saith yet further Contra Luciferianos cap. 4. The safety of the Church dependeth upon the dignity of the Bishop Unlesse an eminent and peerelesse power be given to him by all men there will be as many schismes as Priests in the Church Whereupon it is that in his instructions to Nepotianus hee saith very well What Aaron and his sonnes once were that we must know Bishops and Presbyters now are viz. in distinction office and degree and whence it is that as in S. Ignatius first so in other Authours afterward through all ages of the Christian Church Bishops Presbyters and Deacons are three distinct kinds in office and degree the first above the second and the second above the third and not weekely monthly yeerely Bishops Presbyters and Deacons but perpetually during the time of their lives The SIXT and last exception is yet more important for you will say as some have said that they who in the third chapter are called Bishops by Irenaeus are in the second chapter called Presbyters and so Polycarp though called here a Bishop is but a Presbyter since Presbyters also are so called Act. 20. 28. Phil. 1. 1. c. I answer It is true these Bishops here are called Presbyters before but how with an evident distinction from common Presbyters for when Irenaeus from Peter and Paul reckoneth a succession of 12. Bishops in the Church of Rome I demand had these Bishops no certaine distinction from other Presbyters in that Church I shewed before that their personall and lineall succession is observed by Irenaeus and others why because they had a reall difference from all the Presbyters therein This point is cleared by many evidences amongst which for brevity sake I produce the * Epistle of the Presbyters and Deacons of the Romane Church written to S. Cyprian upon the yeere 252. wherein they say that FABIAN their late Bishop the 19. in that place was lately put to death and that for the difficulty of the times another Bishop was not yet constituted who might moderate the affaires of the Church and by his authority and counsell might take care of such as were fallen in the time of persecution I argue then As Fabian lately was and his successour shortly must be in a distinct place of government above the Presbyters of Rome so was Eleutharius and so were his predecessours before a BISHOP in higher place of greater power above other Presbyters in the Romane Church For conclusion therefore of this point I pray you in all candor and ingenuity