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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	aaron_n	church_n	further_a	16	3	8.0748	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70760	Bishop Overall's convocation-book, MDCVI concerning the government of God's catholick church, and the kingdoms of the whole world.; Bishop Overall's convocation book	Overall, John, 1560-1619.; Sancroft, William, 1617-1693.	1690 (1690)	Wing O607; ESTC R2082	200,463	346

Shadows Sacrifices and whatsoever else was typical in the true Worship of God and Priesthood of Aaron were truly fulfilled and had their several Accomplishments according to the Natures of them Yet we are further to understand that as from the beginning there was a Church so there was ever a Ministry the Essential parts of whose Office howsoever otherwise it was burdened with Ceremonies did consist in these three Duties viz. 1. Preaching of the Word 2. Administration of Sacraments and 3. Authority of Ecclesiastical Government and that none of all the said Figures Shadows and Sacrifices or any other Ceremony of the Levitical Law had any such relation to any of the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry as if either they the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry had only been ordain'd for their continuance until the coming of Christ or that the accomplishment or fulfilling of the said Ceremonies had in any sort prejudiced or impeached the Continuance of them or any of them So as the said three Essential Parts of the Ministry were in no sort abolished by the Death of Christ but only translated from the Priesthood under the Law to the Ministry of the New Testament Where in the judgment of all Learned Men opposite in divers points one to another they do or ought for ever to remain to the same End and Purpose for the which they were first ordain'd Now concerning the two first Essential Parts of this our Ministry or Priesthood of the New Testament there are no Difficulties worthy the insisting upon how they are to be used Only the third Essential Part of it as touching the Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment is very much controverted and diversly expounded extended and applied For some Men relying upon one Extremity do affirm That it was in the Apostles time radically inherent only in St. Peter and so by a certain consequence afterwards in his supposed Vicar the Bishop of Rome to be derived from St. Peter first to the rest of the Apostles and other Ministers while he lived and then after his Death in a fit proportion to all Bishops Pastors and Ministers to the end of the World from the Bishops of Rome and that St. Peter during his time and every one of his Vicars the Bishops of Rome successively then did and still do occupy and enjoy the like Power and Authority over all the Churches in the World that Aaron had in the Church established amongst the Jews There are also another sort of Persons that run as far to another extremity and do challenge the said Power and Authority of Ecclesiastical Regiment to appertain to a new Form of Church-Government by Presbyteries to be placed in every particular Parish Which Presbyteries as divers of them say are so many compleat and perfect Churches no one of them having any dependency upon any other Church So as the Pastor in every such Presbytery representing after a sort Aaron the High Priest there would be by this project if it were admitted as many Aarons in every Christian Kingdom as there are particular Parishes And the Authors of both these so different and extream conceits are all of them most resolute and peremptory that they are able to deduce and prove them out of the Form of Church-Government which was established by God himself in the Old Testament Howbeit notwithstanding all their vaunts and shews of Learning by perverting the Scriptures Councils and ancient Fathers the Mean betwixt both the said extreams is the truth and to be embraced viz. That the administration of the said Power of Ecclesiastical Regiment under Christian Kings and supream Magistrates doth especially belong by the Institution of Christ and of his Apostles unto Arch-Bishops and Bishops This Mean bearing the true Pourtraicture and infallible Lineaments of God's own Ordinance above-mentioned and containing in it divers Degrees of Priests agreeable to the very order and light of Nature some superiour to rule and some inferiour to be ruled as in all other Societies and civil States it hath been ever accustomed So as we are bold to say and are able to justify it That as our Saviour Christ as he is God had formerly ordain'd in his National Church amongst the Jews Priests and Levites of an inferiour Order to teach them in every City and Synagogue and over them Priests of a superiour degree termed Principes Sacerdotum and lastly above them all one Aaron with Moses to rule and direct them So he no ways purposing by his Passion more to abrogate or prejudice this Form of Church-Government ordain'd by himself than he did thereby the temporal Government of Kings and Sovereign Princes did by the direction of the Holy Ghost and Ministry of his Apostles ordain in the New Testament that there should be in every National Church some Ministers of an inferiour degree to instruct his People in every particular Parochial Church or Congregation and over them Bishops of a superiour degree to have a care and inspection over many such Parochial Churches or Congregations for the better ordering as well of the Ministers as of the People within the limits of their Jurisdiction And lastly above them all Archbishops and in some especial places Patriarchs who were first themselves with the advice of some other Bishops and when Kings and Sovereign Princes became Christians then with their especial aid and assistance to oversee and direct for the better Peace and Government of every such National Church all the Bishops and the rest of the particular Churches therein established And for some proof hereof We will conclude this Chapter with the testimony of one of no mean account and desert Who when Archbishops and Bishops did most obstinately oppose themselves as being the Pope's Vassals to the Reformation of the Church was the principal Deviser of the said Presbyteries though not in such a manner as some have since with too much bitterness urged whereof out of all Question he would never have dream'd if the said Bishops had not been so obstinate as they were for the maintenance of such Idolatry and Superstition as were no longer to be tolerated That every Province had amongst their Bishops one Archbishop that also in the Nicene Council Patriarchs were appointed who were in Order and Degree above Archbishops that did appertain to the preservation of Discipline And a little after speaking of the said Form of Government so framed although he shewed some dislike of the word Hierarchia yet saith he Si omisso Vocabulo rem intueamur reperiemus Veteres Episcopos non aliam regendae Ecclesiae formam voluisse fingere ab eâ quam Dominus verbo suo praescripsit CAN. V. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that our Saviour Christ was not the Head of the Church from the beginning of it or that all the particular Churches in the World are otherwise to be termed One Church than as he himself is the Head of

were inspired by the Holy Ghost did leave this Doctrine so jointly taught to be dispensed with afterward by any Pope his Vicar led by what Spirit is easy to be discern'd being so far different from the Holy Ghost which spake as is aforesaid by the said Apostles or that it is not a most wicked and detestable assertion for any Man to affirm That the Apostles in commanding such obedience to the Ethnick Princes then did not truly mean as their plain words do import but had some mental Reservations whereby the same might be alter'd as occasion should serve or that the Apostles at that time if they had found the Christians of sufficient force for Number Provision and Furniture of Warlike Engines to have deposed those Pagan Princes that were then both Enemies and Persecutors of all that believed in Christ would no doubt have moved and authorized them to have made War against such their Princes and absolved them from performing any longer that Obedience which they as Men temporizing had in their Writings prescribed unto them or that when afterward Christians were grown able for number and strength to have opposed themselves by force against their Emperours being wicked and Persecutors they might lawfully so have done for any thing that is in the New Testament to the contrary or that these and such like Expositions of the meaning of the holy Apostles when they writ so plainly and directly are not very impious and blasphemous as tending not only to the utter discredit of them and their Writings but likewise to the indelible stain and dishonour of the whole Scriptures in that they were written by no other Persons of any greater Authority than were the Apostles nor by the Inspiration and direction of any other Spirit He doth greatly Erre CAP. VI. The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension did not in Effect alter the Form of Ecclesiastical Government amongst the Jews the essential parts of the Priesthood under the Law otherwise than as the said Priesthood was typical and had the Execution of Levitical Ceremonies annexed unto it being instituted and appointed by God to continue not for a time but until the End of the World WE have deduced in our former Book the joint Descent of the State as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal from the Beginning of the World unto the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ Since whose Birth seeing we have found no alteration in the Temporal Government of the World either while Christ lived here upon the Earth or during the time of his Apostles assuredly we shall not find that the alteration which upon Christ's Death fell out in the Church was so great as some have imagined For as our Saviour Christ according unto his Divine Nature having created all the World was the sole Monarch of it and did govern the same visibly by Kings and Soveraign Princes his Vicegerents upon Earth so he in the same Divine Nature being the Son of God and foreseeing the Fall of Man and how thereby all his Posterity should become the Children of Wrath did of his infinite Mercy undertake to be their Redeemer and presently after the Transgression of Adam Eve put that his Office in practice Whereby as he was Agnus occisus ab origine Mundi he not only began the Erection of that one Church selected people and Society of Believers which eversince hath been and so shall continue his blessed Spouse for ever but also took upon him thenceforward and for ever to be the sole Head and Monarch of it ruling and governing the same visibly by such Priests and Ministers under him as in his heavenly Wisdom he thought fit to appoint and as we have more at large expressed in our said former Book Especially when he settled amongst the Jews a more exact and eminent Form of Ecclesiastical Government than before that time he had done In the which his so exact a Form he first did separate the civil Government from the Ecclesiastical as they were both jointly exercised by one Person restraining the Priesthood for a time unto the Tribe of Levi and the civil Government unto temporal Princes and shortly after more particularly unto the Tribe of Judah Concerning the Priesthood thus limited we need to say little because the Order and Subordination of it is so plainly set down in the Scriptures Aaron and his Sons after him by succession had the first Place and were appointed to exercise the Office of Highpriests and under their soveraign Princes and temporal Governours as we have shewed in our said first Book cap. 18. did bear the chief sway in matters appertaining to God Next unto Aaron there were 24. Priests of an inferiour Degree that were termed Principes Sacerdotum that governed the third sort of Priests allotted unto their several Charges and this third sort also had the rest of the Levites at their direction In like manner these Levites neither wanted their chief Rulers to order them according as the said third sort of Priests did command which Rulers were termed Principes Levitarum in number 24. Nor their Assistants the Gabionites otherwise called Nethinaei to help them in the Execution of their baser Offices Of this notable Form of Ecclesiastical Government it may be truly said in our Judgments That the same being of God's own framing it is to be esteem'd the best and most perfect Form of Church-Government that ever was or can be devised and that Form also is best to be approved and upheld which doth most resemble it and cometh nearest unto it We said upon a fit Occasion That by the Death of our Saviour Christ the Church-Government then amongst the Jews was greatly altered and therefore do think it very convenient in this place more fully therein to set down our meaning It is very true that before the Death of Christ the outward Service of God did much consist in Figures Shadows and Sacrifices the Levitical Priesthood itself as it was to Aaron and his Stock and in some other Respects being only a Type of our High Priest Jesus Christ But afterward when by his Passion upon the Cross he had fulfilled All that was signified by the said Figures Shadows and Sacrifices and had likewise not only abolished them but freed the Tribe of Levi of the charge of the Priesthood and removed the High Priesthood as it was typical from the said Priestly Tribe unto the Regal Tribe of Judah the same being now setled in himself our only High Priest according to the Order not of Aaron but of Melchizedech He hath by that his Translation of the Priesthood freed his Church from the Ceremonial Law which contained in it little but Patterns Shadows and Figures of that one Sacrifice offer'd by him upon the Cross which doth sanctifie all the faithful and purge their Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Nevertheless in this so great an alteration although all the said Figures