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	bishop_n	call_v	19	3	4.3423	3	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