Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	apostle_n	church_n	successor_n	2,259	5	9.0758	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90361	The English Episcopacy and liturgy asserted by the great refomers abroad, and the most glorious and royal martyr the late King his opinion and suffrage for them. Published by a private gentleman for the publique good.	Peirce, Edmund, Sir, d. 1667.	1660 (1660)	Wing P1062; Thomason E1032_10; ESTC R208951	27,962	48

to preserve Episcopacy and Liturgy to the People whom God had committed to his charge How dear and pretious to all sober and pious Protestants is the memory of those Prelates of our Church who first compyled the Liturgy for its use with what high Honour and Renown did we all along till this last wild and sudden Tempest arose amongst us exalt and magnify their names and memories from one age to another since their Martyrdome who willingly and cheerfully laid down their lives in justification of what they had therein done against their Roman Adversaries And in a Fiery Chariot passed from Earth to Heaven to receive the reward and Crown of Martyrdome for such their pious and eminently usefull and truly profitable Labours for the Church of God how greedily did we catch each word they spake and with what care and diligence were they preserv'd in the grand Record of the Acts and Monuments of the Church a Book I hope no way subject to exception from those to whom this is chiefly intended And what Impressions have they alwayes made in the minds of the sober Readers such as must needs keep out all thoughts from Brests not totally poysoned with malicious prejudice and Suspition of any Popish or Superstitious Tyncture to have its Residence in those persons And if so Shall then the words the last words upon this Subject of a Dying King of Martyrs receive any slight or lose their due effect which as written with the Seraphick Quill of one of those Glorious Attendants upon the highest Divine Majesty for such is its Solidity and Elegancy deserves a Registry with reverence be it spoken in the acts and monuments of the Church Triumphant in Heaven where that glorious Royal Martyr enjoys his due place and hath reached and put on that Ilustrious Immortal and Immarcessible Crown prepared for him there having despised and deposited an earthly one here rather than deprive his people of that benefit which he well knew they could not but receive from the divine Order Degree and Function of Episcopacy And the most excellent discipline and devotion of our refined Liturgy and publique service of Almighty God It being notoriously known that if he would have sacrificed the Church he needed not have been The Churches Sacrifice But let a Retreat be made from these crude lines and a Listen given to those Charming drops from a Royal pen Seraphically enabled whilst on earth and now so transcendently qualified as not to be reached so much as in any imagination which frail humanity is in the least sort capable of Concerning Episcopacy his Royal words are these TOuching the Government of the Church by Bishops the common Jealousy hath been that I am earnest and resolute to maintain it not so much out of piety as policy and reason of State Wherein so far indeed reason of State doth induce me to approve that government above any other as I find it impossible for a Pince to preserve the State in quiet unlesse he hath such an influence upon Church-men and they such a dependence on him as may best restrain the seditious exorbitancies of Ministers tongues Who with the Keys of Heaven have so far the Keys of Peoples hearts as they prevail much with their Oratory to let in or shut out both Peace and Loyalty So that I being as King intrusted by God and the Laws with the good both of Church and State I see no reason I should give up or weaken by any change that power and influence which in right and reason I ought to have over both The moving Bishops out of the House of Peers of which I have elsewhere given an account was sufficient to take off any suspition that I encline to them for any use to be made of their Votes in State-affairs Though indeed I never thought any Bishop worthy to sit in that House who would not Vote according to his Conscience I must now in Charity be thought desirous to preserve that Government in its right constitution as a matter of Religion wherein both my judgment is fully satisfied that it hath of all other the fullest Scripture-grounds and also the constant practice of all Christian Churches till of late years the tumultuariness of People or the factiousness and pride of Presbyters or the covetousnes of some States and Princes gave occasion to some mens w●ts to invent new models and propose them under the specious titles of Christs Government Scepter and Kingdome the better to serve their turns to whom the change was beneficial They must give Me leave having none of their temptations to invite Me to alter the Government of Bishops that I may have a title to their Estates not to believe their pretended grounds to any new ways contrary to the full and constant testimony of all Histories sufficiently convincing unbyassed men That as the Primitive Churches were undoubtedly governed by the Apostles and their immediate successors the first and best Bishops so it cannot in reason or charity be supposed that all Churches in the world should either be ignorant of the rule by them prescribed or so soon deviate from their divine and holy pattern That since the first age for 1500. years not one example can be produced of any settled Church wherein were many Ministers and Congregations which had not some Bishop above them under whose jurisdiction and Government they were Whose constant and universal practice agreeing with so large and evident Scripture-directions and examples are set down in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus for the settling of that Government not in the persons only of Timothy and Titus but in the succession The want of Government being that which the Church can no more dispence with in point of well-being than the want of the Word and Sacraments in point of being I wonder how men came to look with so envious an eye upon Bishops power and authority as to over-see both the Ecclesiastical use of them and Apostolical constitution which to me seems no lesse evidently set forth as to the main scope and design of those Epistles for the settling of a peculiar Office Power and Authority in them as President Bishops above others in point of Ordination Censures and other acts of Ecclesiastical Discipline than those shorter Characters of the qualities and duties of Presbyter-Bishops and Deacons are described in some parts of the same Epistles who in the latitude and community of the name were then and may now not improperly be called Bishops as to the over-sight and care of single Congregations committed to them by the Apostles or those Apostolical Bishops who as Timothy and Titus succeeded them in that ordinary power there assigned overlarger divisions in which were many Presbyters The humility of those first Bishops avoyding the eminent title of Apostles as a name in the Churches stile appropriated from its common notion of a Messenger or one sent to that special dignity which had extraordinary call mission gifts and power immediately from