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	church_n	word_n	5,147	5	4.2542	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45405	Considerations of present use, concerning the danger resulting from the change of our church-government	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1682 (1682)	Wing H528; ESTC R11941	9,937	23

of the great fruits of Government and if it may be agreed that it is very expedient and will be taken in good part that Governours hereafter be more severe as well as more diligent more couragious as well as more laborious in using the Weapons of their warfare to cut off or to cure without any respect of persons wheresoever there is need of them I shall hope this objection will then be throughly Answered if as yet it be not A second consideration apportioned to the former head will be this whether supposing Government of the Church to be a considerable part of Religion the change of it from Established Episcopacy to any other namely to that of Prebytery by many without any Superiour over them or as that is opposite to Episcopacy be not a sin against Religion That it is or will be so I shall endeavour to convince the gainsayer by these steps or degrees of proof which though perhaps not each single yet all being put together will I believe where prejudice doth not hinder be sufficient to doe it 1. Because this Government by Bishops superiour to Presbyters is of Apostolical Institution But this being an affirmation as demonstrable by Ecclesiastical Records as any thing can be or as the Canon of Scripture which we receive is demonstrated to be the Canon of Scripture and in regard it hath by others been sufficiently proved I shall therefore wholly spare the repeating of that trouble and add unto it 2. That it hath the example though not the distinct precept of Christ who with his twelve Apostles and the many other Disciples in time of his residence upon Earth superiour one to the other are the copy of which the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the following Age were a transcript who are therefore by St. Ignatius S. Johns Contemporary allowed to receive honour the Bishops as Christ the Presbyters as the Apostles the Deacons as the Seventy 3. That as far as concerns superiority of one order to the other which is sufficient to eject the Presbytery which supposes an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or equality of all it is Authorized by sacred Scripture-practise where it appears that when Judas fell from his orbe of motion the dignity of being one of the Twelve is by the direction of the Spirit and by lot bestowed upon Matthias who though before a Disciple of Christ was not till then assumed to that dignity Fourthly that supposing it to be in this manner Apostolical there is little colour of reason to doubt but that the preserving of it is of as great moment as many Doctrines of Christianity not only because many doctrines were not so explicitely delivered by Christ but that they needed farther explicating by the Apostles and are therefore by the Church grounded not in any words of the Gospel but in the Epistles of the Apostles but also because it was in Gods providence thought fit that Government should be setled not by Christ personally but by the Apostles that is mediately by Christ as doctrine was by Christ immediately Christ in his life time gives them the ground of a Church divine truth the word of his Father the acknowledgment of which is the rock on which his Church is built on this the Apostles are to build and gather members and to settle the whole edifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ordinately and that they may not err in that work the Holy Ghost is promised to descend upon them and Christ by that power of his to be with them in eminent manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the end of the world And Government being necessary to the setling was undoubtedly thus referred and left to them by CHRIST and so their Authority in instituting that which they instituted as evidently deduced from CHRIST as their power of Preaching what they preached or baptising whom they baptised And having gone thus far I cannot but resume my consideration thus far made more considerable and appeal to any sober conscience whether it be not some irreligion thus to displace or remove that which the Apostles to whom only by Christ it was intrusted according to Christs own Samplar and Scripture-grounds thought fit to settle in the Church supposing it to be a matter of Religion which is spoken of as before we proved nay whether if an Angel from Heaven were to be anathematized for teaching any other Doctrine than what one Apostle had taught it would not be matter of just terrour to any that should have any part in the guilt of instituting any other Government than that which the Appostles had instituted especially when the acts of Councels tell us that what S. Paul denounces against the heterodox Angel the Church did practise against Aerius anathematized him for impugning this Government which now we speak of And if still the Authority of all this be blemisht by this one exception that this institution af the Appostles is not affirmed in Scripture or there commanded to posterity to continue and retain for ever To this I answer by saying that which may be a fourth Argument to prove the irreligiousness of such change That there is as much or more to be said in both those respects both for mention of this institution in Scripture and for Apostolical precept for continuing of it for this Government as for some other things whose chang would be acknowledged very irreligious I will only instance in one the Institution of the Lords day of which there is nothing can be said to the setting up the Authority and immutability of it which will not be said of Episcopacy A ground of it there was in nature some Time to be set a part to the special publick service of God and the like ground there is in nature for this that some Persons should be designed to and rewarded for the special publick service of God A pattern of that there was among the Jews one day in the seven designed for Gods Quotum or portion the like pattern there is among the Jews for this a Government by High-Priests and Levites That was an Institution not of Christ in his life time immediately but of his Apostles after his departure invested with such power the like Institution there is of this by the same Apostles after Christs Ascension directed and assisted by the holy Ghost The occasion of pitching on the first day of the week was a solemn action of Christ his Resurrection on that day the occasion of this the several distinct orders in the Church in Christs time Christs Apostles Disciples and the manifest superiority of him before all of them who affirms himself their Lord even when he speaks of his office Ministerial his coming to Minister to them and of the Apostles before the Disciples as even now was shewed The mention of that was found once in the Revelation distinctly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day and twice or thrice in equipollent terms the first day of the week and the mention

that the endeavouring to bring it in at this time hath brought this tempest and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this Kingdom and that this hath been but the general consequent of that Government wheresoever it hath but begun to heave casting out Peace and obedience to lawful Authority together it would well deserve to have this mark of reprobation or non-election set upon it if it were but for this that the prosperity of such attempts should not encourage others to the like This and the like inconveniences are of such weight that for men to be willing to exchange the certain benefits of the one for the uncertain advantages and strongly probable calamities of the other is a sin that may provoke and tempt God to punish them yet further with greater and unexpected curses and therefore may deserve in ' its place to be considered 4. It is an act of infidelity and practical Atheisme for those especially who being convinced with the former reasons to acknowledg any irreligion or sin in such change to sacrifice any thing to our own present conveniences to make any change in sacred matters meerly out of intuition of our own secular advantages Atheisme in thinking that God cannot as easily blast that convenience so acquired as those many which came more directly to our hands and infidelity or distrust in thinking that God will not in his time give those conveniences and advantages if they be such indeed by means perfectly lawful which now we covet by unlawful To which might be added the wants and omissions of those duties of confession of Christ in not defending and standing to those truths which we are convinced to be such in time of their being oppugned and persecuted self-denial in not depositing our own carnal secular aims and interests and of taking up the Cross in not suffering willingly and cheerfully when it lies in our way to the preforming of any act of obedence to Christ But I would not inlarge to these but ●nly conclude this proof with a fift difficulty of separating sin from changes when they are great and in matters of weight It is the wise mans advice that occasioned this observation My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them which are given to changes The changes are sure changes in Government and those are named indefinitely without any restraint and the very medling with them that are inclined to such is opposed both to Piety and Loyalty Fearing of God and the King I have done with the considerations proportioned to the first part of the suggestion I proceed to the view of the second part of it and there the consideration shall be only this whether The change of this Government be not a common interest of all as well as of those who are now Clergy-men That it is so may appear probable because the revenue or honours which belong to them in Government are not the sole or main part of Govenrment there is a weight and office which our forefathers thought worthy to be encouraged and rewarded with those payments and if any man shall think them ill proportioned I shall not doubt to tell him S. Chrisostomes judgment that the burthen of a Bishop was formidable even to an Angell to undergo and if the corruptions of latter times be affirmed to have changed that state of things I answer that the restoring Episcopacy to its due burthen as well as reputation were a care worthy of reformers and it is so far from my desire that any such care should be spared that it is now my publick solemn Petition both to God and Man that the power of the keys and the exercise of that power the due use of confirmation and previous to that examination and tryall of youth a strict search into the manners and tempers and sufficiencies of those that are to be admitted into holy Orders and to be licentiate for publick Preachers the visitation of each Parish in each Diocess and the exercise of Church-discipline upon all offenders together with painfull mature and sober Preaching and Catechizing studies of all kinds and parts of Theological Learning Languages Controversies Writings of the Schools and Casuists c. be so far taken into consideration by our Law-makers and so far considered in the collating of Church-preferments and dignities so much of Duty required of Clergie-men and so little left arbitrary or at large that every Church preferment in this Kingdom may have such a due burthen annexed to it that no ignorant person should be able no lazy or luxurious person willing or forward to undergoe it And if this might be thus designed I should then resolve that the direct contrary to the fore-mentioned suggestions would be truth that the setling and continuing of this present Government would prove the common interest of all and only the burthen of those few that have those painfull offices assigned them and least any may think this word a boast which I can safely venture with the world at this time and not have reason to fear a surprisal or being taken at my word I shall venture another offer in the name of my brethern of the Clergy not that I have took their particular Votes but that I perswade my self so far of their Piety That rather than the Glory should thus depart from Israel by the Philistines taking the Ark of the Lord laying wast this flourishing Church of ours or transforming it into a new guise every one single of us that have any possessions or titles worthy any mans envy or rapine and so are thought now by our own interests to have been bribed or fee'd Advocates in this cause may forthwith be deprived of all that part of the Revenues of the Church wherein we are legally invested and he that shall not cheerfully resigne his part in the present prosperity of the Church on the meer contemplation and intuition of the benefit that may now and after his life redound to others let him have the guilt of Achans wedge laid on him and the charge of being disturber of the State I hope we have learnt to want as well as to abound and to trust God that can feed the young Ravens when the old have exposed them for the feeding of us and our families though all our present means of doing it were taken from us If this may serve turne to satisfie the thirst of those that gape and the suspicions of those that look unkindly on us we offer to free you from all blame of Sacriledg or oppression or injustice from one of which no other means imaginable can free a change of Government by our own voluntary Cession or resignation as far as our personal interests reach and shall think the Peace of this State and continued prosperity of this Church a most glorious purchase most cheaply bought if it be had upon such terms as these And if the Function it self with the necessary adjuncts to it be not swept a way in the calamity we shall be perfectly pleased whatsoever befall our Persons and desire that tryall may be made of the Ingenuity of Clergy-men whether we have not thus far profited under Gods rod as to be willing to yield to any possible proposition which will bring no guilt of sin upon our consciences towards the averting the judgments of Heaven which are now I wish I might say for our sins only most sadly multiplyed upon this Land FINIS Acts 1.