Selected quad for the lemma: word_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	bishop_n	call_v	presbyter_n	3,889	5	10.6948	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41233	The lawfull preacher, or, A short discourse proving that they only ought to preach who are ordained ministers occasionally delivered in some lectures at Epping by John Ferriby, minister of Thoydon-Garnon in Essex ; now printed upon the anti-preaching of some against it in the same pulpit about the latter end of November last : as also the pulpit-guard-relieved, in a short appendix in answer to a late book called the pulpit-guard-relieved / written by Tho. Collier.	Ferriby, John, b. 1613 or 14.	1653 (1653)	Wing F819A; ESTC R32027	69,768	96

among the Priests Judas among the Apostles Scribes and Pharisees in Moses chair Those who preached out of envy in Pauls time Yet this could not null nor evacuate their ministerial Acts The Baptism of Judas for he had Commission as well as the rest to baptize might be of as good Authority as of the rest of the Apostles If the water be pure at the fountain although it run thorow many impure channels it may become pure again The Condemnation or Reprieve of a Judge though wicked is as Legal as Authoritative as of the most godly A wicked Collonel may give a Commission to a Captain yet the Comm●ssion's firm it is not one tittle esteemed lesse effectual for the unworthinesse of him that gives it 3. Bishops did never ordain Ministers as Bishops but as Presbyters not in their own names nor by the Imposition of their own hands only but in the name of others and with the conjunction of other Presbyters But because that some say That the Ministers are called by the Bishops and the Bishops by the Pope c. I 'le speak a word of it This were it true would not null their Call For not to insist on what is urged by some of the first Reformers of the Protestant Churches casting off the Pope Baptism administred in the Romish Church is true Baptism nor are any so baptized if converted to the true Religion baptized again ut suprà Many judicious Divines are of the same judgement concerning Ordination Money coyned in Queen Maries daies was not the lesse currant after the Impress of the Popish Princess had no power to adulterate the silver The Vessels of Gods house were carried to Babylon by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar which yet were not the lesse fit for the service of God when returned The naturall succession of Jesus Christ was propagated thorow the loins of Rahab and Thamar nay shall I say he himself came thorow the womb of a sinfull woman yet received no pollution by it We must learn to distinguish between the Persons and the Offices of men between their personall Acts and their Acts of Office a wicked man may be a lawful though not a good Officer and then the Acts of his Office valid this is acknowledged by all in other Offices and must it be only denied in the Office of a Minister Jehu was a wicked man was therefore his pulling down the Idols of Baal evil Could his personall wickednesse evacuate all the civill or religious Acts although good in themselves he did by vertue of his Office If then it be proved that our setting apart or Ordination to the work of the Ministery be right for substance having an inward Call from God and an outward Call according to the ordinary rule laid down in Scripture the failing in some circumstances cannot make it void nor then the Ministry either a false or no Ministery But the great cry is against the wicked Oaths as they are called that the Bishops imposed and the Ministers took at their Ordination This makes a great noise but you 'l finde it laden only with powder it may cast some filth make some sound it may defile the faces of some and fill the ears of more but hath nothing of strength to hurt them against whom it is discharged For answer 1. This nothing or very little concerns their Ordination who took no Oaths at all as it is now and for some late years hath been in our Church As it hath been longer in other Churches where there have been no Bishops to impose them 2. Many godly men denied some Oath that some Bishops would have imposed and were therefore refused Not that they conceived their Ordination could have been injured or their Call made void by it but that they scrupled the matter of the Oath and would not accept a Call upon such conditions 3. Some had no offensive Oath at all offered no other then what they in the Universities and most men of the Nation upon some occasions had taken before viz. the Oath of Supremacy I speak this on mine own experienbe there was no other imposed on no other offered to me But because it is the Oath of Canonicall Obedience that I think is so much shot against us I 'le tell you what it is and then although I will not handle the matter of the Oath but suppose though not grant it as bad as some conceive it shew you that the taking of this could not ●ull nor at all hurt the Call of Ministers You shall obey your Ecclesiasticall Officers the Arch-bishop and Bishop in their Diocess in things lawfull and honest This if I'know it is the Oath Therefore fourthly Neither this nor any other Oath is any part of the Odination of Ministers This was done by prayer and laying on of hands the Oaths were given at some other time before Ordiantion for some other ends A Constable before he is made such had formerly the Oath of Supremacy given him but that did not make him Constable it was only to try whether he was fit for the office Collonels and Captains were made such by the Parliament but before they had their Commission were enjoyned to take the Covenant the taking or giving of the Covenant did not make them Officers but their Commission the other was only to try whether they were fit to be employed in the Service When men come to be Ordained Ministers they had some Oath or Oaths imposed upon them but not as part of Ordination only as some thought convenient trials whether they were fit for the Calling Every man that had valour that had skill was not fit to make a Commander but he must be faithfull to else might he leade his men to the contrary party or upon their own ruine Every man that had Gifts was not fit for a Minister unlesse he were orthodox and peaceable too else might he injure the Church by his Calling The Oath of Supremacy was to try whether they were Papists and I could wish that there were some other way found now to stop the like gap the Oath as it was called of Canonicall Obedience was to discover as the Bishops were pleased to fancy it whether they were conformable to Government or not But it is clear that whatsoever the Oaths were or whatsoever their intentions that imposed them the taking of an Oath was no part of Ordination and so had no influence upon their Office that took it I shall conclude all with these three Proposals very considerable at this time and to this purpose 1. Whether every man ought not to continue in the Calling in which God hath set him according to that of 1 Cor. 7. 20. 2. What can we conceive to be meant by Christ where he saith He hath left some Pastors and Teachers Eph 4. 11. If all that have Gifts may do their work or what Paul intends where he saith All the members have not the same Office and therefore he that hath the

in private persons in their places according to the liberty God hath given them Publike Officers in their function according to the injunction God hath laid upon them For the place doth not intimate that every one that hath any gift should preach presently but chiefly that he who is a Preacher should be faithfull and painfull in his Ministry that in season and out of season he should wait upon his Office There is a vast difference between the only charitative admonitions but of private Christians and the authoritative preaching of called Ministers The one requireth and engageth to obedience not only virtute materiae for the matters sake which he preacheth but virtute officij by reason of his Office speaking in the Name and by the Authority of God the other may engage the hearers to observance virtute objects materiae in respect of the truth of the matter that may be spoken but not virtute officij they have no power to oblige by Office Thus I have shewed you to avoid all offence and quarrell how private Christians may use their gifts although they have no liberty to preach But I am afraid I may complain that many who talk most of and crave most liberty for the use of their gifts in publike make least use of them in private they will go many miles to get a Pulpit who will scarce step a foot to a neighbours house unlesse to perswade him from his stability they who glory in speaking to Congregations and would every day be exercised in a publike throng are negligent to instruct their house can hardly any day spare time to oversee their private charge As if there were no vertue but in extremity nor excellency but in excess as if no water were sweet but what were stoln In this although I am somewhat loth to use the comparison too like the swinish drunkard who although he hath good meat and drink at home delights not in the eating or drinking of any but where he may use it to intemperance Or like some filthy Adulterers who have handsome wives of their own and were they not wives could sufficiently delight in them yet care not for the enjoyment of any but whom they have no Commission to touch or desire Indeed in this as in all things else mans Nature is strongly proclive to runne beyond its bounds and to abuse what in its place might be very usefull SECT. VI 3. I Am to shew you What setting a part of men to the Office of the Ministry ordinarily the Scripture mentions It is if the expression will be born by Ordaining them to that service viz. When Church-Officers as such upon former examination and approbation of a persons fitnesse shall separate him for that work by fasting prayer and laying on of hands This hath been so generally received in the Churches of Christ that Reformed Churches and their Divines have condemned the contrary as the opinion and practice of Anabaptists Libertines Arminians and Socinians But I 'le not urge them Zanchius saith that no man should be admitted to this Office unlesse lawfully called and legally Ordained But I 'le fall upon Scripture Only in this as was said formerly you must not extend my Proposition beyond the bounds of ordinary cases As in the primitive times where extraordinary callings were given in the beginning and persecution of Churches where this cannot be had I shewed you in generall there must be a Call and that this Calling was some setting a part besides gifting of men This was true of Christ and the Apostles who were most extraordinarily separated Christ by the Father the Apostles and Disciples by Christ but now I am to shew you what way the Scripture laies out for the ordinary practice of after ages when such extraordinary Cals should neither be given nor expected But somewhat more of this afterward When Barnabas and Saul were set a part for the work to which God had called them they were thus separated by Church-Officers with fasting praier and laying on of hands Act 13. 3 4. They are Prophets and Teachers ver. 1. and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away ver. 4. It was not by the designation of any single person by his own power nor was it the act of any particular Congregation by their only election but by the Ministers there assembled Timothy received his gift by prophecy but he was set a part to the work by laying on of the hands of the Presbytery 1 Tim. 4. 14. By the Presbytery there is meant ordo Presbyterorum which although Diodate explains to be of the Pastors and of the other guides of the Church Beza restrains it to those who laboured in that Church which is conceived to be Lystra in the word and doctrine Indeed it is said 2 Tim. 1. 6. that he received the gift by the putting on of Paul's hands but it cannot be thought to be meant of his alone but of his with the conjunction of the other Presbyters for as Junius In a common thing to argue from the position of one to the removing or denying of another is inconsequent as in this case Because Paul laid his hands on Timothy therefore other Presbyters did not it will not hold Others say that the Apostles by laying on of hands did miraeulously confer the holy Ghost but besides that it no where appears in Scripture that the laying on of hands in the setting a part of Ministers did work any such Miracle in that example of Timothy it seems otherwise for the Apostle bids him attend to reading to meditation that his profiting may appear which are the ordinary and usuall means of getting abilities for the work of the Ministry If abilities were given by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery what need of reading and meditation to acquire them if the holy Ghost were conferred by the imposition of Pauls hands what need any other way to make his profiting appear Besides we finde that others who were not Apostles used imposition of hands in whose power it cannot be imagined to be to confer the holy Ghost by it The Presbyters laid hands on Timothy and Timothy upon others for it is given him in charge to lay hands suddenly on no man 1 Tim. 5. 22. It is well observed That imposition of hands was used under the Law for divers causes in blessing those on whom they are laid Gen. 48. 14 20. in consecrating or setting a part a sacrifice unto God Numb. 8. 12. in ordaining or appointing men to an Office as Joshua was appointed to succeed Moses Num. 27. 23. now in this use of it all these ends meet together Blessing Consecration and setting apart to the Office Barnabas and Saul ordained Elders by fasting and prayer Act. 14. 23. it is manifest who did it and the manner of doing is as clear Nor is it to be doubted but that by Elders there were meant Ministers If you