Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	baptism_n	infant_n	2,706	5	8.6906	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80839	Berith Anti-Baal, or Zach. Croftons appearance before the prelate-justice of peace, vainly pretending to binde the covenant and covenanters to their good behaviour. By way of rejoynder to, and animadversion on Doctor John Gauden's reply or vindication of his analysis, from the (by him reputed) pitiful cavils and objections; but really proved powerful and convincing exceptions of Mr. Zach. Croftons Analepsis. / By the author of the Analepsis, and (not by the Dr observed) Analepsis anelephthe, to the continuing of St. Peter's bonds, and fastning his fetters against papal and prelatical power.	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.	1661 (1661)	Wing C6988; Thomason E1085_6; ESTC R208062	67,248	104

aspect and appearance will be found by any man conversant in Scripture and acquainted with the estate and affairs of the Church notorious falshoods 1. Presbytery hath no divine appointment was not commanded by God never used in the ancient Church hath nothing in it piously morally or po●itically good or necessary Epist to the Reader How Sir can you read of the Elders of Ephesus and the Presbyterie that ordained Timothy and say Presbytery was not commanded by God Can you read in the Fathers of the Presbyterie advancing by their own power a primus Presbyter in the antient canons of the essentialitie of the Presbyteries concurrence in all acts of Discipline of the Fathers Epistles to and concerning Presbyteries and yet say Presbytery was never used in the Church Can you consider Presbytery is a Colledge of Gospel Ministers gove●ning communi consilio by j●ynt advice and yet conclude there is in Presbyterie nothing piously morally or politically good Will not every childe in his double Psalter tell you In the multitude of Councellors there is safety and every School-boy teach you plus vident oculi quam oculus and yet are you so blind as to see no moral political good in Presbyterie but this is but one Doctors opinion the meanest Clerk in your Cathedral would tell you your Grace was at a loss when you thus concluded Nor do you hit the next 2. Presbytery was not conjoyned to Episcopacy if you mean in its first constitution and the order of it which was without and before Bishops afterwards made by its power you begin well nor hath any power or authority unto the governing of the Church is no way necessary to a Bishop otherwise then by advice when called and required and that to be taken or refused at the Bishops pleasure pag. 289. I pray Sir help the Papists and untie that knot whether Peter received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven as a Presbyter or Bishop ordinary Minister or Apostle or prince of the Apostles It is pity John Chrysostom had not you for his Advocate when he was charged as with a crime for ordaining without his Presbyters I hope the correction of the ancient Canons being committed to you you will purge out those that confine the Bishop to his chair to declare and execute the decrees of the Presbyterie and make void the ordinations and censures made without the Presbyterie forget them of the Council of Carthage And Sir there is one passage or two in Scripture worth your notice Let him tell the Church sufficient to such an one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punishment inflicted by many You know Sir they are words that imply plurality dignity and authority I pray Sir when your pen is in your hand draw a line through these words in the form of ordering Priests minister the Discipline of the Church to what end should they promise faithful diligence to that which they have nothing to do withal and concerneth them not But to the third 3. To endeavour to advance Presbytery to exercise in the rule and government of the Church is Schisme and Superstition pag. 214 215. How is Church Government an Article of Christian faith and an essential act of Divine Worship Oxford Reasons Sect. 3. your friends at Oxford were of another mind when they charged the Scots supposed say so to look like Schisme and Superstition What fools were Clemens Alexandrinus Augustin and Gregory the great and other Fathers to Father John Gauden they left us this ground of Schisme and Superstition Vnitas Ecclesiae catholicae non consistit in uniformitate disciplinae sed in unitate fidei but our Bishop standeth on their shoulders and can see further then little Mr. Crofton who yet hopes to see as far as little Zacheus in his Sicamore Tree advancing Presbytery as Gods institution and to keep the unty of the spirit in the b●nd of peace 4. Bishops are the sole and chief cisterns conservators conduit and derivators of all holy orders discipline and Government the principal Pillars and Fathers of the Church pag. 221 248. I hope Sir you will then make your succession as clear as the sun I would make a journey to Exeter to have the intricacies thereof well unravelled what became of the Churches when in Alexandria per totum Aegyptum the Presbyters did ordain and think you that Denmark demolished the Church when Christian their third King did by publick edict beat down your Pillars your charity is more to the reformed Churches then to condemn or censure them as no Churches pag. 196. but yet you will cut off their pipes cisterns conduits and make them come fetch Waters at your Wells your charity is very rational 5. Episcopal presidency and authority is a Soveraign power and spiritual jurisdiction in ordination confirmation censures rebuking silencing excommunication absolution and other exercise of Ecclesiastical power without above and against Presbyters and people pag. 215 229. Well said D. Gauden I like a man that can speak out Mr. Crofton shall know your meaning anon but your jurisdiction is so spiritual that to him your Sovereign power is invisible it is probable you may make him feel it though he cannot see it but I am confident it must be in his body not in his soul make good this description by Scriptures Fathers Divine principles or good Authors Popish or Protestant and if you make not a full formal Pope I will burn the Covenant renounce my reason and believe as your Church believes for all that I have met with give Presbyters an interest if not the greatest share with and without the Bishops in every of these acts of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction 6. The Episcopacy which England had or the English Hierarchy for its difference from Presbytery in place honour office authority use and honourable support is of universal tradition and observati●n in all ages and places eminent in the judgment and practice of antiquity and the Church from Christ and his Apostles until now of late in use and authority in the Church as the Lords day and infant baptisme which to deny is impudence and falsity against the very letter and practice of the new Testament and judgment of all antiquity Pag. 198 220 228 248. How Sir the practice and letter of the new Testament and yet but a tradition you sure will say more of it you do well to paralel it to the Lords day and infant Baptisme for they will be evidently grounded on the practise and letter of the new Testament and so be found more then a tradition but Sir will you stand by it that Episcopacy was an universal observation in all ages and eminent in all places till of late I pray Sir enquire when it came into Scotland and how basely it was driven out of Denmark they are places in the Christian World again was Englands Hierarchy distinct from Presbyters in place office authority honour use and honorable support of universal tradition and practice how am

determineth that Parliaments Kings Lords and Commons have no prudent moral religious and lawful authority to change the antient universal and excellent government by Bishops for Christian Kings and their Parliaments are obliged to the Laws of God and rules of Christian piety and policy too of which the whole Church in its primitive example and constant custome is the best interpreter No legislative power is empowred by Gods law to bring in heresie error or schisme into the Church or take away the essentials of sound Doctrine and Christian Communion ever owned and maintained in the Church of Christ pag. 196. well said Doctor aut Caesar aut Nullus No Bishop no King must now be a Scripture maxime and article of faith if Smectymnuus his stirr up to the papacy be not now held Salmasius his Apparatus ad papatum asserted and Beza his Episcopi papam pepererunt verified by the Bishop of Exeter I am much mistaken but Sir have you not stretched too far and stept into a premunire little Mr. Crofton should fear to be made less by the head as guilty of Treason sedition at the least should he thus confront King and Parliaments in what all their Statutes declare to be their own creature and constitution changeable at their pleasure even from the statutes of Carlile and 25. of Edward the 3. Declaring against the Pope that holy Church was founded in prelacy by their own donation power and authority Where is Sir the Kings Prerogative over all persons in all causes Ecclesiastical What is become of your Oath of Supremacy can you make this peremptory determination as your self calls it consist with it any more then with your Covenant hath a gracious King lately advanced you to debase nay dethrone him and his Parliament too I know no better confutation of this errour then the hundred eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty pounds payd by the Bishops to Henry 8. to redeem the premunire into which this perswasion had betrayed them with the Petition and Statute of the submission of the Clergy which in my apprehension runs direct counter to Dr. Gaudens peremptory conclusion It hath been observed to be the fatal chance of the Deputies of Ireland to lose their heads and the Bishops of England to run themselves into a Premunire which when his Majestie affected with their bold encroachment doth exact will make them feel and it may be deal with them as did the King of Denmark provoked by the same peremptorie determinations These Sir are your errors in matters Ecclesiastical which you must give little Mr. Crofton leave to tell you are more obvious notorius and abominable heresies then was that charged upon Aerius though an undeniable uniuersal truth by Epiphanius nor doth he fear to be contradicted by any sober or judicious Prelate resolved to keep Episcopacy one peep short of Papacy unto which I shall make bold to oppose these few conclusions of undoubted verity and universally confessed by all Antiquitie which that little Mr. Crofton may not appear too great a dictatour let Dr. Gauden owning sacred or Ecclesiastick story deny it if he can 1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Shepheard and Bishop of our souls the great good chief and onely one to whom all must be gathered by whom all must be ruled that will be saved and from whom all must be authorized that will feed his flock 2. The Lord Jesus executeth this pastoral charge and Episcopal function by the Ministry of men successively sent and commissioned by his immediate authority and in his name without which they may not Minister to or be received by his flock 3. That the mission and commission of Jesus Christ is directed and given to two onely officers in his Church Bishops or Elders and Deacons the one to look after the bodies outward necessities and condition of his sheep to serve Tables the other to manage all the pastoral charge and Episcopal office as it immediately concerneth the soul of his people 4. That all Ministers are equally invested with and do intrinsecally possess authority from Christ for administration of all acts of feeding or ruling the flock of Christ without any difference of order place charge name office or dignity and therefore are joyned in the same general commission called by the same name Bishop or Presbyter chosen by the same characters conseerated after the same order charged with the same duty feeding or overseeing and challenge the same dignity esteem obedience and double honour from and among the sheep 4. That for some time in the pure and primitive time and estate of the Church the Presbyters did by and among themselves govern the Church communi consilio without any over them as Episcopus episcoporum or Pastor pastorum as having from Christ a different order and function yea without any gradual priority or preheminence of any particular Presbyter above the rest 6. That in process of time the Presbyters neglecting the course and care of Christian mortification by which they ought to have subdued their ambition and passions and so silenced their schism did by the working of the man of sin and permission of God devise a politique way or remedy thereof and advancing among themselves a Primus Presbyter ad schismatis remedium who was after dignified with the title Bishop and was by Canons honoris causa placed in Cities who was before in any poor village This giveth just ground for Smectymnuus note that Episcopacy above Presbytery was an humane invention on Diabolical occasion 7. That all jurisdiction and ruling power was yet acknowledged to abide originally intrinsecally and properly in the Presbyterie whose creature the Bishop was to act pronounce and execute their decrees and therefore when Bishops began to encroach and invade the Presbyters libertie and authoritie to usurp and ingross their power and function and make them subject and servile to them Canons were made to limit confine and subject the Bishop maintain and preserve the Presbyters power in Ordination Excommunication and Absolution not to be done without the Presbyters So that Presbyterie was ever known in the Church as Christs and his Apostles institution and Bishops apart and in preheminence to them the Churches Canonical constitution and Presbyters creation to the formality of whose advancement consensus clericorum was essential 8. That by this political preferment of a primus Presbyter the man of sin did work and exist in the Church engrossing the power of the Presbyterie and advancing himself above them he assumed by degrees a Principality to which he made the Presbyters sworn vassals by which became the subject of Princes indulgence and benevolence until capable of universal influence and extention through the Christian world he assumed an universal Papacie which he executed by subordinate Bishops heads of Diocesses and Provinces contracted universalities throughout the Church thus Beza well notes Episcopi papam pepererunt and Salmasius discovers the apparatus ad papatum ●nd many judicious men see nothing but a

Champions the Authors of the Oxford reasons and therefore must be proved 5. That the Parliament putting an Oath upon themselves as the collective body of the Nation doth not transmit an obligation to the Nation us and our posterities who shall any way succeed into that national capacity as if Parliaments were not the Princes yea more the body of the people doing in their names and by their consent what ever they do and if they do it by an act of permanent nature binding posterity in all ages that can dispose their succession into that capacity of this see more in my fastning of St. Peters Fetters Sect 6. 6. That tumults stirs and the timorous withdrawings of some doth nul and void a Parliament established by a positive law and without any positive visible and real force securing their doors to the barring of the entrance of any the Members to the discharge of their duties and easie way to dissolve Parliaments and blow them up without Gunpowder 7. That the Parliament can Act Vote Determine and execute nothing under the Kings withdrawing from them into any part of his own Country Who may yet do all things in his infancy or whilst in a Forreign Country as if the place of his retirement or reason of his absenc● did add or abstract to the Authority of Parliament 8. That the two houses alone nor King alone no nor King with them have any legislative power to decree or execute what is unrighteousnes against God or man So that the legislation is founded in the piety and justice of the decree And rebellion against authority is acquitted by the iniquity of the command An authoritative aholishing of any subordinate order or society of men is injustice to the persons and possessions of the present Occupants And so England is bound to pennance for the abolishing Monks Nuns and Abbeys and that no King or Parliament have a power or can justly extirpate and abolish out of the Nation any trade calling or order of men any way useful to the Common-wealth Tinkers and Pedlers and men of the like order will certainly cleave close to this conservator of their liberty 9. That no King can lawfully swear to the diminution of his own prerogative and power or honorable estate which all people in the world must and will contradict 10. The solemn League and Covenant binding to an endeavour to extirpate prelacy is irreconcileable to the duty we owe to God and man First to the Kings Supremacy Second to the Church and Countrys peace and honour Third to the glory of God in the Government of the Church Fourth to the reformation of reformed Religion Fifth to the conscience and care of avoiding Sacriledge Schisme and Faction Sixth to the justice we ow to all godly honest and deserving men especially Ministers cujus contrarium verum est Sir whilst you take these for granted which are contrary to right reason natural policy Ecclesiastical story yea and truth it self you may easily raise your Fabrick swell your book and run on in a magisterial reda●gution prelatical determination and raging reviling opprobrious rebuke but Sir you must remember a man that is first in his own cause seemeth righteous but his Neighbour cometh after and findeth him out Prov. 18.17 We shall leave the Doctor to a view of these Rafters proportioned to his foundation and promiscuously scatterd up and down his book And more particularly observe the strength of his argumentation in his reply to what was excepted against in his Analysis and specially as it relateth to Mr. Crofton leaving Anonymous to himself who herein will finde full work for his anatomizing genius The first onset of Dr. Gauden in this his vindication of his Analysis made upon Mr. Crofton his Analepsis is in page 147 and thus enters viz. Which was the thing Dr. Gauden had to prove as Christ did the resurrection not out of the letter only but the Analogie and equity of that Scripture from the force of which M. Crofton cannot extricate himself by his more soberendeavours Under this charge I must enquire what it was he had to prove and I find nothing in this sentence dictating what it should be save only the relative which from which his rhetorick or rather his indigested heap of words hath removed the antecedent at such a distance that I cannot easily find it I looked into the Paragraph fore-going to find out the thing spoken of as that which according to the grammatical construction should make the Antecedent to the Relative and there I find this general conclusion viz. Such Vows and Covenants so much to the scandal of Religion reproach of Reformation gratifying dangerous factions disgrace of this and all reformed Churches dishonor to Jesus Christ his Apostles and chief Successors the Bishops so injurious to many worthy men to the whole Church and Nation of England either ought not to be taken by Christian King and People or if by force fraud or fear and facility they a●e so taken or rather imposed and mistaken yet they mu●t never be kept in any such sence bue either repented of and dissolved or else the words must be resolved and reduced to such a sence as is good and lawful Id quod erat demonstrandum To leave his Libeller to take up his petitio principii as to our Covenant not such in point of matter or form nor so imposed or mistaken as he suggesteth and taketh for granted and to demand his Id quod erat demonstrandum This sentence must be the antecedent to his relative which for so it is connexed which was the thing Dr. Gauden had to prove out of that Scripture But what is the Scripture out of which he must prove this conclusion I find no Scripture nigh hand that can be the proof produced running some seven pages back through a wilde wilderness of words I find in pag. 140. a quarrel begun about Numb 30. and other Scripture is not urged this was the Scripture which was produced in his Analysis though with a misquoted verse and must be vindicated in this book so that this only must be the Scripture predicated to prove his which before noted and then indeed Mr. Croftons more serious endeavours cannot extricate him from the entanglements of the Doctors wilde fancy for the Text neither the letter nor analogy doth afford any such conclusion All Mr. Croftons brains cannot beat such a sense into the words they are so far out The Text in the letter of it is a special direction concerning the vow of a daughter or wife vowing without the knowledge of the Father or Husband In the Analogie of it of the Inferior swearing without the knowledge of the Superiour and directeth an establishment or irritation of the vow not any sencing or interpretation id quod erat demonstrandum And how Dr. Gauden can make it grammatically speak or logically conclude Such a Vow so scandalous to religion gratifying to faction dishonourable to Christ disgraceful to England