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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	apostle_n	end_n	successor_n	1,912	5	9.1854	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26827	A sermon preached at Bury St. Edmonds before the Right Reverend Father in God, William, Lord Bishop of Norwich, at the third session of His Lordship's primary visitation holden there on Wednesday May 5th, 1668 by Michael Batt ...	Batt, Michael, 1653-1706.	1686 (1686)	Wing B1145; ESTC R20079	13,966	42

bold and hardned transgressors there being at that time no Christian Magistrates and consequently the Civil Power not of His Side so little would He have been able to have gone through the Work He had undertaken the propagating the Religion of His Lord that He could never have vindicated it from Contempt much less have conciliated any tolerable respect either to Himself or It but People would have contumaciously despis'd His Sentences and Determinations and have made a mock of violating and trampling upon the Laws of His New Religion Whereas when They perceiv'd Him arm'd with a Power of exercising such a Discipline upon them as was follow'd with such strange and frightfull effects great fear fell upon all the Church Acts 5. ●● as 't is said in reference to that dreadfull Case of Ananias and Sapphira nay as many as but heard of those things were mightily influenced thereby they were awed into Compliance and Obedience to Him and durst not any longer oppose or withstand Him And this shall suffice to have been spoken as to the Power of the Apostle which He here terms His Rod and to the Nature Necessity and Efficacy thereof in the Infancy and Nonage of the Church 2. My next Enquiry must be in what Measures and Degrees this Apostolical Power is continued to the Bishops and Governors of the Church now The true Oecumenical Bishop and good Shepherd of Souls though at first He sent forth His Apostles like Sheep among Wolves Matt. 1● 16 as Himself Speaks yet he engaged they should never be utterly worried and destroy'd by them But admit when they had served Him in their generations they might as most of them afterwards did Suffer violent deaths in their own persons they should still survive in their * Quia Apostoli à mundo recesse●unt h●●●bes pro illis Episcopos filios S. Hieronymus in Ps 45. ver 16. Successors and their Order should be perpetuated from age to age according to the import of the promise of His being with them alway 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matt. 28. ult which is rightly translated even unto the End of the World as the same phrase does likewise signify chap. 13.39 Where our Saviour explaining to His Disciples the parable of the Sower tells them by Harvest is to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end of the World But still that the Successors of the Apostles now-adays have in all respects that Plenitude of Power continued to them which the Apostles themselves at first enjoy'd or that it is at all necessary they should have I by no means affirm For such was the State of the Church in the Apostles time as required an extraordinary effusion of the gifts of the Spirit and could not be manag'd without such a Divine and Supernatural Assistance as God be thank'd there is in our time no necessity of The righteous and mercifull Lord having long since made good His gracious promises to it that Kings should become the Nursing Fathers Isa 49.23 and Queens the Nursing Mothers of it Whereas 't was ordinary with the Apostles where ever they came to publish the tidings of the Gospel to meet with discouragements and oppositions and to be brought before Rulers for speaking in the name of Jesus Whole Nations and Countries have now espous'd His Religion and the Profession of it is not only tolerated and allow'd but strictly commanded and enjoyn'd even by the laws and constitutions of Kingdoms What need therefore is there now of those Supernatural and miraculous Gifts and Powers that were confer'd upon the Apostles The difficult task of gaining admittance of Christianity into the World is long since over The Miracles that were formerly wrought are sufficient Credentials for the Truth of that Message the present Ministers of the Gospel deliver and the Laws of their Countrey protect them in the due and regular discharge of their Office The Kings of the Earth having not only embrac'd and submitted themselves to the Faith of Christ but glorying in the Style and Character of being the Defenders of it As therefore de facto there is not so neither is it needfull there should be a Continuation of those antient branches of the Apostles Power whereby they were enabled to work Miracles some of Kindness and some of Severity and by Both to confirm and establish the Favourers and to silence and confound the Opposers of their till then unheard of Doctrine 'T is sufficient that there is such a standing and perpetual Part of that Power transmitted and to be transmitted to their latest Successors as qualifies them for the exercising such a Discipline and Government in the Church as Her present adult and grown Estate can ordinarily require And such we are assur'd and thankfull too that there is And not only Hereticks and Schismaticks but all such Persons as are impudently dissolute and immoral in their lives may know that though miraculous inflictions are ceas'd there are still Penances and Excommunications to be made use of against them And These how mightily were they rever'd and how awfully regarded by the Primitive and Purer Ages of Christianity 'T was then reputed a Sentence terrible enough to be excluded from the Publick Ordinances To be debar'd the Church-Prayers and Sacraments and banished from the Communion of their Brethren impressd upon the minds of Men the most sad and dismal Reflections and even swallow'd them up with Horror and Astonishment Such was the Anguish of Soul that seiz'd those Criminals that lay under the Sentence and Censure of the Church that the methods of Prayers Sighs and Tears were willingly undertaken by them in order to the recovery of Her Favour And Ecclesiastical History informs us that even Theodosius the Emperor being excommunicated by St. Ambrose testified the inward trouble and concern of His Mind by all the outward expressions of Grief and Sorrow He disrob'd Himself of His Imperial Purple and put on the Garments of Mourning yea for the Space of Eight Months together He humbled Himself in His penitential Weeds and took shame to Himself for the foulness of His Crime The giving way to the Shedding of a great deal of innocent Blood and at last esteemed it an inestimable Privilege to be again admitted into the Church of Milan Thus sacred and that long after the Apostles time this passage happening towards the latter End of the fourth Century was the Churche's Authority and so greatly reverenced was Her Discipline by all Orders and Degrees of Men. Nor is That which She now brandishes a Brutum Fulmen Her hand is not now so shortned but that She can upon just Provocation Stretch it forth still to Strike as hard and correct as sharply as then When Her Head and Founder first incorporated Her into a Community He vested Her with Power as all other Communities are and must be that are design'd long to subsist and promis'd She should for ever retain a share of it sufficient for the punishing such Members of

before-hand that the forementioned Means would prove insufficient that let Him write or send what or whom soever He pleas'd the Height and Haughtiness of some was such as would not be curb'd nor taken down thereby Nay and which was more and which call'd upon Him to make the more hast to them it should seem that His Absence had already caus'd them to entertain low and contemptuous thoughts of Him too For so does the Learned Hammond paraphrase the 18th ver Now some are puff'd up as though I would not come to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because I come not to you my self personally some among you have taken occasion to despise me that am absent And hence it is that He resolves ver 19. I will come to you shortly if the Lord will and will know not the speech of them that are puffed up but the Power That is I 'le make trial of those confident boasters not of their plausible words and fine talk at which I know they are excellent but of their solid worth and the real good they do with all their ostentatious braggings For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power ver 20. Christianity does not consist in speaking but doing not in vaunting but performing great Things And hereupon follow the words of the Text. What will ye shall I come unto you with a Rod or in Love and in the Spirit of Meekness Which the now-mentioned Hammond thus introduces and explains And now I talk of coming to you I pray consider which will you chuse As you behave your selves so at my coming will I exercise either my Power of inflicting punishments or the milder way of kindness toward you and therefore according as ye like best so prepare your selves for my coming In the words of another Paraphrast Bish Hall a Reverend Prelate of our Church and sometime of this Diocese Let it be your own choice after what manner I shall come unto You My carriage must be directed by your deserts and dispositions Will you that I shall come to You with a Rod of Censure to correct your Exorbitances or in Love and in the Spirit of Meekness to commend and cherish your Holy Proceedings and Christian Carriage I shall do either of them as I shall receive occasion from You. Thus you see the Occasion and Connexion of the Words in discoursing on which I shall endeavour to do these four Things 1. To explain the Power the Apostle intimates Himself to have in the Church in these words shall I come unto you with a Rod 2. To shew how far or in what measures and degrees that Power is continued to the Bishops and Governors of the Church now 3. To take notice how loth and unwilling the Apostle was to exercise this Power of His but in case of absolute Necessity And how desirous He was as appears from the manner of His expressions that He might have occasion to use only the fair and gentle Methods 4. To exhort Christians to be more obedient to their Spiritual Pastors and Fathers by an orderly and regular Conversation than to force Them to the Vse of that Severity which They are otherwise averse from In speaking to which Particulars I hope I shall do in some measure Right to the Text and no improper or unsuitable Service to this Solemnity 1. First for the Power the Apostle intimates Himself to have in the Church in these words shall I come unto you with a Rod Our Blessed Saviour after he had publish'd His most excellent and Heavenly Doctrine to the World and lived here a considerable time an Example of the Practicableness of it and had by divers unquestionable miracles and at last by His Death and Resurrection abundantly confirm'd the Truth of it in sine after having finish'd the Work that was here given Him to do being to return again to the Bosom of His Father He could not any longer manage in His own Person the Interests and Concerns of His Church But still being touch'd with an infinite Pity and Compassion for it and well knowing to what hazards its infancy and tenderness would expose it left it not till He had constituted and appointed divers Orders and Officers in it to whom He committed the Care and whom He invested with Power sufficient to administer from time to time to all the Exigencies and Necessities of it The precepts of His Religion were not like the later Impostures of Mahomet calculated on purpose for the gratification of Mens lusts and for humoring the looseness and wantonness of the World No they were quite of another nature and as opposite to those as Light to Darkness requiring mortification and self-denyal and enjoyning Men to Crucify their carnal Appetites and Affections And was it likely that such an Institution as this should readily gain footing and Countenance in the World or rather was it not sure to meet with the utmost hatred and opposition imaginable Most certainly our Saviour plainly foresaw it was and therefore took Care before His departure to settle certain Persons viz. His eleven Apostles whom He had before selected for that Purpose as His immediate Deputies and Vicegerents giving them in charge to feed His flock to watch over and provide for His Church at present themselves and empowering them as Occasion should require to depute and Ordain others for the same service afterwards giving them in short the same commission to execute that He received of His Father at His coming into the World according as we read Joh. 20.21 As my Father sent me even so send I you Now as for our Saviour's Mission it will be sufficient for my present purpose if I give you only St. Peter's account of it Acts. 10.38 where in His Sermon to Cornelius and his Company He tells them That God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with Power And accordingly were His Apostles breath'd on by Him in order to their installment to a Succession in His Office and had the same Spirit and Power assured to Them Which not many days after His Ascent they likewise receiv'd and were thereby enabled both to gather and govern the Church effectually to establish Christianity and to propagate the Doctrine of the Gospel both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth as it is Acts. 1.8 Though they were destitute of all Secular Helps and had no worldly Advantages to assist or further them and yet were to encounter with Mens riveted opinions ancient customs and inveterate habits to beat them off from those Practices and Courses they had been used to ever since they were born and to impose upon them a new and quite contrary way of life reducing them from the smooth and delightfull paths of Sin into the more rugged and tiresom tracks of Virtue yet so effectually were they endued with power from on high as St. Luke expresses it Ch. 24.49 that by their means the

Christian Faith was in a short time wonderfully disseminated and diffus'd Like lightning to borrow our Saviour's allusion in another case it came from the East Matt. 24.27 Acts. 19.20 and shone even to the West and the word of God grew mightily and prevail'd the Lord working with them that publish'd it and confirming it with signs following Mar. 16.20 Heb. 2.4 God also bearing them witness as it is in another place both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost And by this means it was that though They had no silver and gold Acts. 3.6 they became capable of exercising the most usefull and beneficial Charity though they were not in a condition to relieve the poor Cripple with the small Alms he beg'd yet They help'd him to what was much better the use of his limbs which till that time he had never enjoy'd having been lame from his Mother 's Womb. v. 2. By which single Good Act and notable Miracle alone as it is styled Acts. 4.16 They greatly ingratiated both themselves and their Doctrine too thereby proselyting a vast multitude of their Auditors to the Christian Religion even to the number of five thousand Men v. 4. Again though They could not pleasure 〈◊〉 with money wherewith to repair to a P●●●ician yet which was much more acceptable as well as surprizing at a word of their mouth or a touch of their hand was Health many times restor'd Nay at their very Shadow were Distempers and unclean Spirits scar'd and put to flight and the poor Patients were no longer vext and tormented with them Even the most obstinate diseases and stubborn maladies that had long time been Medicorum ludibrium the Scorn and Reproach of the Men of Skill and had baffled all the Rules of their Art immediately gave place and vanish'd at their command So large was their Commission and in such general terms did it run as to empower them to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease Matt. 10.1 I shall not instance to you as I might easily do in any of the other unwonted gifts and extraordinary abilities which the Apostles were vested with as Prophesying Speaking with tongues Discerning of Spirits and Interpretation of Tongues for the better fitting and qualifying them for that eminent work and employ to which they were delegated and which render'd them so wonderfully helpfull and beneficial to the world But in reference to what I have already said t' was impossible but their doing so much good in that particular respect now-mentioned should create in the minds of Men a very high veneration both for themselves and the doctrine which they taught Whereas otherwise we may conclude there would have been but little regard paid either to the One or the Other but their Persons would have been scorn'd and contemn'd as being so very mean and despicable and the Gospel they preach'd been disown'd and rejected as being so opposite to the loose and irreligious tempers of their Hearers How infinitely wise therefore as well as kind and carefull did it speak the Author of our Religion to send forth the first Planters and Spreaders of it so throughly and compleatly furnished for their Work Though they wanted the benefit of letters Inspiration enabled them to put to silence their most learned Gainsayers Though their speech if we take the measures of it from Man's Wisedom was but rude and unpolish't 1 Cor. 2 4 yet was it in Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power though they were poor 2 Cor. 6 10. as the Apostle speaks yet were they in condition of making many rich and that with the most true and valuable riches Lastly Though in appearance they had nothing yet really they possessed All Things All that I have hitherto mention'd being but Part of that Power that was given them of God for the greater Benefit and Edification of His Church In particular and to come home to the Text for the enabling them the better to discharge the Office that was laid upon them there was committed to them the Power of the Rod or of inflicting the severest of corporal punishments on gross and notorious Offenders of their doing which we want not instances in that account St. Luke gives us of the Acts of the Apostles Acts 13.11 ch 5.5.10 where we read of Elymas the Sorcerer smitten with Blindness by St. Paul and of Ananias and Sapphira struck with Death it self by St. Peter Either of them an Instance terrible enough of that Power and Authority which Christ the Head of His Church had given to the then Rulers and Governors of it of punishing and chastising Her undutifull and incorrigible Children and of revenging upon them all their disobedience as the Apostle speaks to these his Corinthians 2. Cor. 10.6 Besides both which we have an Example of the Use of the Virga Apostolica in another no less dreadfull manner 1 Tim. 1.20 where Hymenaeus and Alexander having first put away a good Conscience and at last made Shipwrack of their Faith too as nothing is more ordinary or natural than for such as are loose and careless in their Practice to fall into Errors in Judgment and to be given up to believe lies are by the Apostle deliver'd unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme And this I say is another most terrible manner wherein the Apostles might and upon occasion did punish Stubborn and refractory Sinners to see whether the Devil could not torment them into better Manners and to force them if possible to Repentance and Reformation of life For that That was the End of delivering over Persons to Satan viz. the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus we read ch 5. of this Epistle v. 5. And it being usual with God Almighty in the earlier days of the Gospel to give Satan leave to seize the bodies of such as were for their obstinate perseverance in Sin cut off from the Communion of the Church Who glad of the opportunity was wont to plague them with diseases and to bring divers maladies upon them Excommunication is therefore called a delivering unto Satan the power of doing which you have heard the Apostles had yea and did not spare when Occasion so requir'd to exercise and make Vse of the same And this is That which I presume the Apostle intends in this His threatning of these delinquent Corinthians in my Text wherein He gives them to understand that in case He heard not of a speedy amendment they must not expect to be dallied with or to escape with a slight and easie Penance but that He would soon come in Person among them and proceed according to the Power the Lord had given Him to this most severe Ecclesiastical Censure upon them And indeed had the Apostle been destitute of this Power and could not have animadverted in this manner as has been said on the more