Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	18	3	4.8156	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94109	A sermon preached at the consecration of the Right Reverend Fathers in God, Gilbert Lord Bishop of London, Humphry Lord Bishop of Sarum, George Lord Bishop of Worcester, Robert Lord Bishop of Lincolne, George Lord Bishop of St. Asaph. On Sunday 28. October, 1660. at S. Peters Westminster. By John Sudbury, one of the prebendaries of that church.	Sudbury, John, 1604-1684.	1660 (1660)	Wing S6136; Thomason E1048_10; ESTC R203686	23,261	45

this conformity in the Government of the Church to that of the State was so much the better because that kind of Government in the State was best for the State and the like Government in the Church was best for the Church It were easie here to shew how all Government is so much the better as the Power and Authority of it is more united in one man unless the Piecincts of it be so great that it is above the proportion of any one mans ability That where it is divided though it be but between two it is very apt to destroy it self That a Family is best ordered where there is but one Pater-familias a Ship where there is but one Master who commands all the Officers under him a Castle where there is but one Governour to whom all obey an Army where there is but one General that commands all the Officers in their several charges a City where there is one Mayor though many Aldermen a Kingdom where there is but one King though many inferiour Magistrates And after this it were as easie to shew that such an orderly Government is as decent and necessary in a Church as in any of these It were likewise easie to shew how agreeable this order is to that which God himself established in the Church of the Jews what a fit resemblance there is between the Levites Priests and High-priests in the one and the Deacons Presbyters and Bishop in the other how careful Christ was to retein in his Church whatsoever he found commendable in that and how wary of introducing any innovation where there was no necessity And after this I could shew you how all Religions have had their Priests and their High-priests the light of natural Reason teaching them that they must have some Religion that Religion cannot be publickly exercised without Priests nor by them so well unless they be under some High-priest it being necessary for the good of order that there be a subordination and that to hold many together in one they must be all under one But what need all this to justifie this order in the Church of which we speak when it is a thing so clear that Irenaeus calls it Traditionem Apostolicam toti mundo manifestam an Apostolical tradition manifest to all the world and writes that many of the Bishops in his time could derive their succession from the Apostles And the most ancient and best Writers of the History of the Church have left us the names of them in some of the principal Cities of the world together with the time and order of their succession from the Apostles There is not a Council not a Father which might not be produc'd as a witness of this Truth Yea those Hereticks who would have unchurch'd all the world but themselves the Novatians and the Donatists had Bishops of their own as thinking them so necessary to the being of a well-form'd Church that to be without them were to unchurch themselves One ambitious Presbyter there was Aerius by name who because he could not be a Bishop would have none because he could not raise himself to the Dignity of that Office studied to bring down that Office and levell it with his own But he was condemn'd by the whole Church and remains upon the Catalogue of Hereticks To all these Testimonies we may adde one which is more than all these the testimony of Christ from heaven in an Epistle sent by an Angel to his beloved Disciple and Apostle St. John bearing witness both of the antiquity of this Order and of his own approbation of it Rev. 1. ult where interpreting the mystery of the seven stars in his right hand he saith the seven stars are the Angels of the seven Churches Where by the seven Churches he means the seven famous Churches which are mentioned afterward to whom his Epistles are directed and by the seven Stars and the seven Angels he must mean the seven Bishops of those seven Churches for if he had meant seven Presbyteries or Classes it had been more proper to have call'd them seven Constellations than seven Stars and seven Quire of Angels than seven Angels Other Offices there are in the Church but the Office of a Bishop is the highest to which all other Offices are as steps or degrees according to that which we read in the 13 Verse of this Chapter They who have used the Office of a Deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree or as we may render it a fair ascent or step i. e. to a higher degree of Office in the Church But there is no Office in the Church to which the Office of a Bishop may be call'd a step or degree One Bishop may have a greater Diocese than another which is not by Divine but Ecclesiastical right limiting not the power and authority but the exercise of it for the good of order and to avoyd confusion but he that hath the least Diocese is as much a Bishop as he that hath the greatest as he that hath a little Flock is as much a Shepherd as he that hath a greater Every Bishop is as much a Bishop as the Bishop of Rome or as St. Peter for he is a successor of the Apostles in the whole Episcopal Office which is all that in which they have or were to have any successors The differences between an Apostle and a Bishop are onely in such accessories as do not belong to the Office of a Bishop but onely to the Time in which they exercised that Office The Apostles were eye-witnesses of Christ which none could be but such as were conversant with him during the time that he went in and out among them unless it were by vision from Heaven Acts 1.21 as St. Paul But as they were testes oculati eye-witnesses so the Bishops their successors were and are testes instructi witnesses instructed and taught They who were first were indued with extraordinary Gifts and Graces of the Spirit of God which was pour'd forth upon the Church like the holy Oyle upon the head of Aaron but the same Spirit of God which was pour'd forth upon them runs down upon the Bishops their successors as truly though not so plentifully They had their Calling immediatly from Christ the Bishops their successors have their Calling as truly from Christ though not so immediatly The Apostles chose their successors and they others after them but they did not bestow that Power and Authority upon them but were onely the Ministers of God and Christ It was by them that the Episcopal power was given but not from them but from him from whom all Powers are ordain'd And therefore all Bishops anciently were wont to write themselves Bishops of such or such a City not by the constitution of the Apostles or their successors nor by the favour of those who elected them to their Office but by the grace of God The Apostles were Bishops of the whole Church so is every Bishop by Divine

the more seasonable at this time and especially upon this occasion to speak something of the Dignity of this Office The word in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly an over-seeing or superintendency for a Bishop is an Overseer or Superintendent And we know that he that is set to oversee must be in a higher station then they are whom he is set to oversee There be many other names and titles by which they are describ'd in Scripture and in the best Writers of the ancient Church which are names and titles not onely of Office but likewise of Dignity and Authority Rev. 1.10 They are the Stars in the right hand of Christ Luke 12.42 the Angels of the Churches the Stewards whom the Lord hath set over his family the Pastors or Sheepherds of the flock which he hath purchased with his own blood the successors of the Apostles the Vicars of Christ the high Priests the Rulers and Princes of the Church All these are names and titles of no small Dignity and some of them likewise of Power and Authority wherein the Office of a Bishop differs from that of a Priest or Presbyter not only as Celsior gradus a higher degree the Bishop among the Priests being as it is said of the high Priest among his brethren Ecclus 50.12 like the Cedar among the Palm-trees but it is likewise potestas alterius ordinis a power of another Order a power to ordain other Officers in the Church and to oversee them that they may do their work as they should or if they will not to put them beside their Office This Power and Authority of the Bishop was so well known to St. Hierom whom I mention the rather because he himself was no Bishop and is thought by such as would have no Bishops to be a friend to them I say St. Hierom when Vigilantius broach'd his Heresie wonders that the Bishop in whose Diocese he was a Priest did not withstand his madnesse Miror sanctum Episcopum in cujus parochia esse Presbyter dicitur acquicscere furori ejus non v●rgâ Apostolicâ virgâque ferr●â confringere vas inutile tradere in int●ritum c●rnis ut sp●ritus salvus fiat S H●eron Epist ad Riparium Et tu quidem honor●fice circa nos pro solitaria hum litate fecisti ut malles de eò nobis conqueri cum pro episcopatûs vigore cathedrae au●horitate haberes pot●statem qu● posses de illo sta●…m v●●d●●art Cypr. Epist 65. ad R●gationum and break in pieces that unprofitable vessel and deliver him up to the destruction of the flesh that his spirit might be saved By virtue of the same power St. Cyprian punish'd the delinquent Clergy of his Diocese by depriving them of their monethly Dividends and writing to Rogatianus a Bishop who had made his complaint to him of a Deacon that behaved himself injuriously toward him he tells him it was a great humility in him to complain of one over whom he himself had Authority and Power to right himself by virtue of his Episcopal Office and the Authority of his Chair And herein likewise the Hierarchy of the Church differs from that of the Angels for though there be degrees among them some are of a higher Order and others of a lower yet we do not find that they of the higher Order have power to depose or degrade those of the lower there is no need of any such power where all are regular and orderly but such a power there is in the Hierarchy of the Church and must be because it cannot be supposed that men will be so orderly as Angels There is therefore a necessity of this Office with this Power and Authority to preserve Truth and Peace and Vnity and to prevent the manifold and great mischiefs which Parity the Mother of Anarchy and Confusion would soon produce which must needs be greater in the Church then in the State For there is nothing that so effectually rules the Multitude as Religion the name whereof is so venerable that they are more apt to follow their Preachers then their Princes because they look upon them as the Ministers of God whose Office it is to teach them his word and will and are afraid to think amisse of any thing which they hear from them lest in so doing they should set themselves against God whereby it comes to passe that there is scarce any Errour so grosse which some of them will not believe or any Wickedness so great which some of them will not practice and think thereby to do God service if it be preach'd to them as a matter and duty of Religion And how much this may tend to the disturbance of the publick Peace and Government is easie to be seen For remedy whereof if the sovereign Prince interpose his power only he runs the hazard of being reputed an enemy of God and of Religion then which nothing can be more prejudicial to him not only in point of reputation but of safety likewise There is no better Remedy against all this mischief then that wise and good grave and learned men such as are able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gain-sayers Tit. 1.9 should be set up over the rest with Power and Authority to charge them that they teach no other Doctrine as St. Paul writes to Timothy whom he left at Ephesus to this end 1 Tim. 1.3 and to stop the mouths of such unruly and vain talkers who subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not as the same Apostle writes to Titus whom he left at Creet to do this Office Tit. 1.10 11. This is too great an Office for one man to exercise over the whole Church as therefore Christ chose not one onely but twelve Apostles to whom he committed this Office and trust so his Apostles John 20 21. whom he sent as his Father sent him i.e. with a power to send others after them with the like power ordained not one B●shop onely in the City of Rome but one in every City But as it is too great a power and trust to be committed to one man over the whole Church so likewise it was not for the good of unity and order that it should be committed unto every one that was fit to bear some Office in the Church As therefore Christ who had so many Disciples John 4.1 that the Pharisees had heard that he made more Disciples than John did not make them all Apostles and though he gave diversity of Gifts and Graces to divers men yet among all these he chose but twelve Apostles so the Apostles after him ordained Elders or Bishops not in every Village but onely in every City making the Government of the Church herein conformable to that of the State where the Praefect or Governour of a Province or Country had his residence in the City but his Jurisdiction in the Country round about And