Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	church_n	2,501	5	4.6398	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61495	A discourse of Episcopacy and sacrilege by way of letter written in 1646 / by Richard Stewart ...	Steward, Richard, 1593?-1651.	1683 (1683)	Wing S5519; ESTC R15105	29,953	44

Grant it were so yet of all mankind are Kings only bound that they must not change their opinions or if perhaps they have done ill must they for their Repentance be far more reproached than Subjects for their Crimes The King would not have given way to Presbyterians and Independents to exercise Religion here in their own way as by his late Engagement when such a Toleration in the face of a divine Law must needs be sinful There is a great mistake in this Argument for to Tolerate doth not at all signify either to approve or commend Factions neither of which the King could at all do to gross Schismatiques without sin But it meerly implyes not to punish which Kings may forbear upon just reason of State as David forbare the punishing of Ioabs Murther I say in Person he forbare though he bequeathed it to his Son And we our selves in our English State have no punishment for all kind of lyars and yet their sin is against a flat Law divine and we should not be still vexed with so much Poetical-News had we Sanction made that might prohibit and punish them And now Sir I conceive you think that what the Londoner hath said in this point amounts to just nothing yet since you would needs enjoyn me to acquaint you with the state and grounds of the Tenent he is pleased to deride I shall readily obey you For truly Sir I have ever held you a Gentleman of a pious Inclination and am confident you will welcome Truth for his sake who is Truth though it should cross both your gain and peace Indeed this Tenent of Divine right of Episcopacy hath been long since and of late much years opposed as on the one side by the Pope and his party in the Council of Trent and after that by some warmer Iesuites so on the other side by Schismatiques and Sectaries that call themselves of the Reformation And I remember You and I were oft wont to say that commonly the truth our English Churches Tenents lay in the midst between those and did seem the more Christian because they were Crucified oft between two such kind of Thieves We affirm then Episcopacy to be of Divine Right i. e. of Divine Institution and that must needs imply a Divine Precept too for to what end are things instituted by God but that it is presumed it is our part to use them To what end should some men be appointed to teach and to govern but that it is clearly implyed there are other men too who ought both to hear and obey them He that erects a Bridge over a broad swelling Stream needs not you will think add any express command that men should not hazzard drowning by going into the water Thus when our Blessed Saviour made his Institution of that great Sacrament the Eucharist he gave command indeed concerning the Bread Do this in remembrance c. And concerning the Cup Drink ye all of this but he gave no express command to do both these together and yet his Institution hath been ever held to have the Nature of a Command and so for One Thousand Years the whole Christian Church did ever practise it save only in some few cases in which men supposed a kind of necessity I say then Episcopacy is of Divine Right Instituted by Christ in his Apostles who since they took upon them to Ordain and Govern Churches you need not doubt they received from their Master an Authority to do both for sure men will not think they will break their own Rules No man takes this upon him but he that was called of God as was Aaron Episcopacy then was Instituted in the Apostles who were Bishops and aliquid amplius and distinguished by Christ himself from the Seventy who were the Presbyters so the most antient Fathers generally Or if you will take St. Ieroms opinion who neither was a Bishop nor in his angry mood any good friend to that order they were Instituted by the Apostles who being Episcopi Amplius did in the latter time formalize and bound out that Power which we do still call Episcopacy and so these received opinions may well stand together for Episcopatus being in Apostulatu tanquam Consulatus in Dictatura as the latter and Subordinate Power is alwayes in the greater we may truly say it was instituted by Christ in his Apostles who had Episcopal Power and more and then formalized and bounded by the Apostles themselves in the Persons of Timothy Titus and others so that call the Episcopal Order either of Divine Right or Apostolical Institution and I shall not at all quarrel with it for Apostolical I hope will seem Divine enough to Christians I am sure Claudius Salmasius thinks so a sharp Enemy to the Episcopal Order If saith he it be from the Apostles it is of Divine Right Thus we find the Power of Ordination and Jurisdiction to be given to those men alone for then that Power is properly Episcopal when one man alone may execute it So St. Paul to Timothy Lay hands c. in the singular Number Against an Elder receive not an accusation under two or three witnesses 1 Tim. 5. 19. And then the Text is plain he and he alone might do it So to Titus For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou and thou alone shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and Ordain Elders in every City Where plainly these two Powers are given to one Man of Government and Ordination so St. Iohn to the Seven Churches of Asia Rev. 14. where he presumes all the Governing Power to reside in the Angels of those Churches and in them alone as all the Antients understand it And hence it is plain that though we should yield that the Apostles only did institute Bishops Yet in this Revelation Christ himself immediately in his own Person and the Holy Spirit withall did both Approve and Confirm them And the Bishops of those Sees are called Angels by St. Iohn who was born a Iew because in Palestine their Chief Priests were there called their Angels and so this Appellation was taken up by the Apostle in that place because those were the Chief of those Churches This truth appears not only from cleare Texts but from the Universal Consent and Practise of more than One thousand five hundred Years space of all the Christian Churches So that neither St. Ierom nor any other Ancient did either hold Orders lawfully given which were not given by a Bishop nor any Church-Jurisdiction to be lawfully Administred which was not either done by their hands or at least by their Deputation I know there are men lately risen up especially in the last Century who have collected and spread abroad far other Conclusions and that from the Authority of Text it self But as it is a Maxime in Humane Laws Consuetudo optima legum interpres So no rational man but will easily yield it as well holds in Lawes Divine For I would gladly

of abuse the Reformation was but lately countenanced and yet I take it for an unquestionable truth that the Laity ought to have the Cup And though I was not desired to reform the Epistlers Errors yet in charity I shall tell him he is out when he affirms that this opinion was but of late countenanced in the Church as I could shew out of Archbishop Whitgift by Bishop Bilson and divers others And since perhaps he might think these to be men of the more Lordly Clergy I shall name one more who may stand for many and who wrote forty years since that most excellent man Mr. Hooker a Person of incomparable learning and of as much modesty who I dare be bold to say never once dreamed of a Rochet he avers in clear terms There are at this day in the Church of England no other than the same degrees of Ecclesiastical Order Namely Bishops Presbyters and Deacons who had their beginning from Christ and his Blessed Apostles themselves or as he expounds himself Bishops and Presbyters are and by Christ himself in the Apostles and Seventy and then Deacons by the Apostles I may add Bucer too no man I am sure of the Lordly Clergy who though he was not English born yet he was Professour here in King Edwards time and wrote and dyed in this Kingdom Bishops saith he are ex perpetua Ecclesiarum ordinatione ab ipsis jam Apostolis and more visum est Spiritui sancto and surely if Bishops be from the Apostles and from the holy Spirit himself they are by Divine Ordination Nay what think you if this Tenent be approved by a plain Act of Parliament I hope then it wants no Countenancer England can give it and it needs not fly for shelter under the wings of the Lordly Clergy You have these words in the Books of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops which is confirmed by Parliament It is evident to all men reading holy Scripture and Ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these orders of Ministers in Christs Church Bishops Priests and Deacons And again the prayer in the form of Consecrating Bishops Almighty God giver of all good things which by thy holy Spirit hast appointed divers Orders of Ministers in thy Church Mercifully behold this thy Servant now called to the Work and Ministry of a Bishop And in the Question to the Person to be consecrated Bishop Are you perswaded you be called truly to this Ministration according to the will of the Lord Iesus Christ c. I beseech you Sir consider whether these words or the Prayer could fall from any man not possessed with this Tenent that Episcopacy is of Divine Right For if the three Orders may be found by reading Scripture together with antient Authors if men are taught to pray That God by his Spirit hath appointed divers Orders in his Church and this made the ground of praying for the present Bishop If the Person to be consecrated must profess that he is called according to the Will of our Lord Jesus Christ either all this must be nothing but pure pageantry and then the Parliament mocked God by their Confirmation or else Episcopacy is grounded on Scripture is appointed by the Spirit of God is according to the Will of our Lord Jesus and all this hath not been said of late and countenanced only by some c. And we have the less reason to doubt that this Tenent was countenanced in this Church of ours because we find it desired in those parts that have lost Episcopacy For we are told by Doctor Charelton after Bishop of Chichester one that writ against the Arminians more than twenty-five years since That sitting at Dort he there protested in open Synod that Christ ordained no Parity but made twelve Apostles the Chief so under them the Seventy Disciples then Bishops succeeded the Twelve and Presbyters the Seventy Disciples He affirmed this order had still been maintained in the Church and then challenged the Judgment of any learned man that could speak to the Contrary Their answer was silence which was approbation enough But after saith he discoursing with divers of the best learned of the Synod He told them how necessary Bishops were to suppress the then rising Schisms Their answers were That they did Honour much Reverence that good Order and Discipline of the Church of England and with all their hearts would be glad to have it established amongst them but that could not be hoped for in their Estate their hope was that seeing they could not be what they desired God would be merciful to them that did what they could If they hoped for mercy to pardon what they did sure they must suppose that what they did was sinful nay they thought their necessity it self could not totally excuse that sin for then in that particular there had been no need of mercy Nor could they well think otherwise for being pressed they denied not but that Episcopacy was of Christs own Institution and yet they were not Lordly Clergy Nor do I well see how either by charitable or civil men they can at all be taxed either for want of Reason or Honesty But this Londoner goes on and proves this Tenent could not be here countenanced for we alwayes allowed the Protestants of Germany the Low Countrys c. part of the Reformed Catholick-Church though they had no Bishops The Reformed Catholick Protestant-Church a pretty expression just like that so well known the Roman-Catholick Church which we were wont to call a Popish Solecisme an Universal particular But wee 'l forgive him this Slip Suppose his Sence be well worded yet he has as ill luck in his Argument as his Expression For though we do maintain that Episcopacy is of Divine Right i. e. of divine Institution does it then follow That Germany and the Low Countrys are no Protestant Churches or no part of the Catholick Church I could almost believe that the Author of this Letter writ from London indeed for sure Oxford makes no such Arguments No it must be a Crime of most horrid Nature that makes a Church run in non Ecclesiam For though that of the Iews was bad Idolatrically bad yet God seriously professes He had sent Her no Bill of Divorce Nay no Learned Man of Judgment durst ever yet affirm That the Romaen Church her self was become no true part of the Church Catholick and yet She breaks a flat Precept of Christs Drink ye all of this And shall we be thought to deny the same right unto Christians without Bishops when they brake but Christ's Institutions No! Churches they are true parts of the Catholick Church but in point of Ordination and Apostolical Government they are not And to affirm this will I hope he thought I am assured by Learned Men neither irrational nor unhonest He goes on I am certain the King would never have have way for Extirpation of Bishops in Scotland had he conceived them to be Jure Divino