Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	bishop_n	church_n	presbyter_n	6,432	4	10.8614	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85863	A sermon preached in the Temple-chappel, at the funeral of the Right Reverend Father in God, Dr. Brounrig late Lord Bishop of Exceter, who died Decem. 7. and was solemnly buried Decemb. 17. in that chappel. With an account of his life and death· / Both dedicated to those honorable societies, by the author Dr. Gauden.	Gauden, John, 1605-1662.	1660 (1660)	Wing G371; Thomason E1737_1; ESTC R202119	101,763	287

to be cloathed So our Saviour breathed on the Apostles Ioh. 20.21 22. when he said Receive the Holy Ghost So the Apostles used imposition of hands to denote their ordained Successors 1 Tim. 5.22 and 4.14 Heb. 6.6 which ceremony the Church of Christ in all ages hath observed in the successive Ordinations of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons as one of the fundamentals of the Churches polity order and power Not that these outward Rites and Ceremonies are of the essence of the duty of the divine power but for the evidence of that order and authority which is necessary that there may be nothing dubious or doubtful or confused or upon bare presumptions and conjectures in the Churches sacred Ministry but such an authority as is both powerful in its efficacy and pregnant and signal in its derivation and execution that none might undertake the work who is not constituted to be a Workman nor any withdraw from it who is rightly furnished for so worthy a Work as the Apostle calls the work of a Bishop either the minores Episcopi which are orderly Presbyters or the majores Presbyteri which are the paternal Bishops We see Eliahs spirit falls on none but his annointed Successor The spirit and power follows the lawful succession nor was any so fit for the appointment and succession as Elisha a man indeed of plain breeding of a country yet honest way of living which is no prejudice or impediment when God intended to furnish him with Eliahs spirit 1 Kings 19.19 with extraordinary gifts and endowments with the power from on high as Christ did his fishermen when he made them fishers of men Luk. 5.10 This was in one hour more to their improvement than all Schools and Vniversities all literature and education all languages arts sciences and Scriptures But when these special gifts which were miraculous are not given nor needful in the ordinary ministration propagation and preservation of Religion there reading and study and diligence and education and Schools of the Prophets are the conduits of Gods good and perfect gifts conveyed by holy industry and prayer to those that study to shew themselves workmen that need not to be ashamed 2 Tim 2 15. when once they are sanctified or set apart by God and the Church as here Elisha was In whom doubtless God and Eliah had seen something that expressed a very gracious and sincere heart by an humble holy Elisha's fitness to succeed Eliah and unblameable life We never finde that men of leud or scandalous lives are called to be Prophets of God or allowed to be made Preachers and Bishops of the Church wherein the antient Canons of the Affrican and other Churches were very strict and circumspect whom when and how they were ordained Bishops Presbyters or Deacons St. Paul requires that they should be not only unblameable but of good report even among the Heathens and unbeleivers as to matters of Justice Morality and common honesty as well as sound and orthodox in the Christian faith § Elisha discovers an excellent spirit and fit for a Prophet of God 2 Kings 2.2 4 6 not only by his individual adherency to Eliah three times piously disobeying his commands when he bade him leave him As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee The love of good company is a good sign of a good conscience a very good way to a good life and a ready means to make us partakers of spiritual gifts but further Elisha shews a most devout and divine soul in him fit to make a Prophet to succeed Eliah when first he doth not preposterously and presumptuously obtrude himself upon the holy Office and Succession but attends Gods call and the Prophets appointment of him Secondly When he sees it is the will of God and his father Eliah he doth not morosely refuse or deprecate and wave the imployment as some had done Moses and Jeremiah after though he knew it would be heavy and hot service in so bad times but submits to that onus no less than honos burthen as well as honor God imposeth on him Thirdly In order to his support and encouragement in the work he doth not covetously or ambitiously look to the preferment or honor or profit which might easily follow such an imployment especially if merchandise might be made of miracles as Gehazi designed and of the Gospel if Ministers turned Sucklers and Hucksters of the word of God as the Apostle taxeth some who were greedy of filthy lucre no but his earnest and only desire is for a double portion of Eliahs spirit to be upon him not that he might have more glory but be able to do more good 1 Kings 9. ●4 Iames 17 with more courage and constancy with less dejection and melancholy despondency than Eliah who was a man subject to like human passions and sometimes prone to fall not only into despiciencies and weariness of life but even to despair as to the cause of God and true Religion It is as Chrysologus calls it a commendable emulation to imitate the best men and a pious ambition to desire to excel them in spiritual gifts and graces which the Apostle St. Paul excites all to covet in their places which the more bright and excelling they are like the light of the sun the more they dispel all the vapors mists and fogs of humane passions or pride which by fits darken the souls of holy men I cannot here but own my desires The defective and dubious succession of Evangelical Ministers very deplorable and deplore the state of our times which forbids me almost to hope their accomplishment as to any orderly and meet succession of Evangelical Prophets and Pastors Bishops and Presbyters in this Church our Eliah's dayly drop away I do not see any care taken for Elisha's to suceed them in such compleat clear and indisputable ways of holy Ordination and Succession as may most avoid any shew of faction novelty and schism and be most uniform to the Antient Catholick primitive Apostolick and uniform pattern which never wanted in any setled Church either Presbyters to chuse and assist the Bishops or Bishops after the Apostles to try ordain oversee and govern with the Counsel of Presbyters and all other degrees and orders in the Church Darkness disputes divisions distractions dissatisfactions and confusions must needs follow that Army or City that knows not who are its Commission officers or lawful and authorised Magistrates so must it needs be in the Church when Christians know not who are their Fathers their Stewards their Shepherds their Bishops or their Presbyters There is nothing next the fundamentals of faith in which the Church should be more clear and confidently ascertained than in this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 10.15 Ordination and succession of their Evangelical Prophets for how shall they preach or rule unless they be lawfully sent and set over the houshold of faith Christs

reflections written either as to Gods Providences to himself or gracious motions and operations in his heart or as to the more large and publick dispensations to former and latter ages which afford an ocean of matter and meditation to such a studious and judicious soul as his was from writers things and events they could not but be very excellent collections in themselves and of great use to others for his spirit was like a refiners fire what passed through it was the better by his taking notice of it and thereby recommending it to others He was always when in health as chearful as far as the Tragedies of the times gave leave as one that had the continual feast of a good conscience and as content His chearfulness in all estates as if he had had a Lords or Bishops estate no less than a Princely mind All diminutions and indignities which some mens pragmatick effronteries were not ashamed to put upon so worthy and venerable a person he digested into patience and prayers Such as were not worthy to stand under his shadow yet sought sometimes to stand in his light yea and to put out so burning and shining a light at least to put it under a bushel that their farthing candles might make the better shew but he out-shined them all like the Sun nothing could put a total eclipse upon Bishop Brounrig yea and he buried all personal injuries done to him in the grave of Christian charity when he considered the indignities and affronts which his blessed Redeemer suffered from people wantonly wicked who made a sport to buffet strip spit upon and crucifie the Son of God and Lord of glory Thus he was in some degree to be conform to Primitive Bishops which were poor and persecuted yea to the great Bishop of our souls who for our sakes made himself of no reputation This excellent Bishop in his latter years when motion was tedious His oft changing his aboad and noxious to him by reason of his calculary infirmity and corpulency yet was put upon various tossings and removes too and fro sometimes times at London at Bury at Highgate at Sunning and other places to which he was driven either in order to repair his crazy health by change of air Where at least unwonted objects entertaining the fancy with novelty seem to give some ease either by the pleasure of variety or by a diversion from thinking of our disorders and pains or out of an equanimous civility to his many worthy friends that he might so dispense his much desired company among them that no one might be thought to have monopolized such a magazine of worth to the envy of others And sometimes it may be he changed his quarters out of an ingenuous tenderness of being or seeming any burthen to those that were most civil to him knowing that there is prone to arise in us a satiety even of the best things that want doth quichen our appetites and absence give a fresh edge to our welcomes These or the like prudential motives suffered him not to fix very long or constant in any one place willing to appear as he thought himself and was treated in this world a Pilgrim and stranger never at home nor owning any home till he came to Heaven which was his fathers house where he should find better natured and more loving brethren than those that as Joseph's had without cause stript him and cast him into a pit of narrowness and obscurity to dye there Yet before he left this world His last residence in the Temple God would have him as Moses to get up into a mount to be set in some such place of prospect and conspicuity which might make the English world see that all mens eyes were not so asquint on Bishops or so blind or blood-shotten as not to see the eminent worth of Bishop Brounrig which could not be buried in darkness or extinguished in silence without a great addition to the other sins of the Nation and shame of the times And since some men had taken from him and others their estates and lands as Bishops unforfeited by Law only to defray the charges of War and to ease the taxes it was thought by others a better part of good husbandry to make use of those excellent gifts they had and were more willing to communicate than to have parted so with their estates § Hence the Providence of God so ordered affairs that he was about a year before he died invited with much respect and civility to the Honorable Societies of both Temples to bless them as with his constant residence so when his health would permit with some of his fatherly instructions and prayers To shew the reality of their love and value to his Lordship they not only allowed an annual Honorary recompence to express their thanks but they provided handsom lodgings and furnished them with all things necessary convenient and comely for a person of his worth § It was some little beam of joy to his great soul to see that all sparks of English generosity were not raked up or quite buried by the rubbish of faction when no Nation heretofore either more reverenced or better provided for their Bishops and Clergy than England He was glad to see so much courage in persons of that quality as to dare to own and employ a Bishop it being as bold an adventure as to some mens esteem to hear a Bishop preach as for a Bishop to preach in so publick a place And indeed the nobleness of the Templers carriage toward his Lordship had a great resentment of honor among all pious and generous minds both in City and Country who had either known the worth or heard of the renown of Bishop Brounrig § T is true the Antiepiscopal leaven and sowreness liked not well the motion or transaction but being then much crest-fallen confounded and dis-spirited by reason of their ragged successes in all things civil and sacred not able to wind up into any scain or bottom of good order and setled government the knotty threads or broken ends they had been spinning for many years they would not shew their teeth where they could not bite nor seem much concerned to oppose what they had no cause and no great power to hinder § The last Easter Term 1659. The good Bishop came to his Lodgings in the Temple and applied himself to answer the expectations and desires of his hospitable Gainsses who were so much satisfied both with his paines and presence that such as could hear him preach rejoyced at the gracious words and fatherly instructions which he gave them prepared with elaborate diligence and expressed with affectionate eloquence such as for the crowd could not come nigh enough to hear him yet had not only patience but pleasure to stay and behold him conceiving they saw a Sermon in his looks and were bettered by the venerable aspect of so virtuous grave and worthy a person which at once