Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	christian_a	church_n	profess_v	3,448	5	8.0722	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51420	Episkopos apostolikos, or, The episcopacy of the Church of England justified to be apostolical from the authority of the antient primitive church, and from the confessions of the most famous divines of the reformed churches beyond the seas : being a full satisfaction in this cause, as well for the necessity, as for the just right thereof, as consonant to the word of God / by ... Thomas Morton ... ; before which is prefixed a preface to the reader concerning this subject, by Sir Henry Yelverton, Baronet.	Morton, Thomas, 1564-1659.	1670 (1670)	Wing M2838; ESTC R16296	103,691	240

as he did have noted One of the seven Angels in the Revelations to have been the Bishop of Ephesus Lastly Fredericus Spanhemius Professor of Divinity in the same Church may well stand for another witness who after his ample commendations and that worthily of the late Primate of Ireland manifestly extolleth The Bishops and Divines of our English Church for their accurate Writings in defence of the Orthodox Religion and their dexterity in confuting Romish subtilties after professeth in the name of the Church of Geneva Their embracing our Pastors and Prelates with Christian affection praying for the prosperity of them that sit at the Helm of this Church that their Prelatical Authority may continue unto them So they and somewhat more pertinent to our Question in hand as now followeth SECT II. That the Church of Geneva disclaimed the Opinion of thinking that their Churches Government should be a pattern for other Churches THe Smectymnians our Opposites by instancing in that Church may seem in the same book Dedicated to both Houses of Parliament that the same Church of Geneva which we acknowledge to be essentially a member of the Church of Christ ought to be a Pattern of Ecclesiastical Government to all other Protestant Churches We have a contrary Certificate from Theodore Beza speaking of Bishops as the Celebrious mouth of that Church We saith he do embrace all faithful Bishops with all reverence neither do we as some falsly object against us propose our Example to any other Church to be followed So he Hitherto of the justification of our English Episcopacy by the judgment of our most Judicious Divines of the Church of Geneva We are not destitute of like Testimonies from other Protestant Churches SECT III. That also other Protestant Divines of Reformed Churches have observed the Worthiness of the Episcopal Government in England MR. Moulin whose Name is Venerable among all Orthodox Divines acknowledgeth That our English Bishops that suffered Martyrdom in the days of Queen Mary were for Zeal nothing inferior to the most excellent servants of God which Germany or France ever had which none saith he will deny if not blinded in day-light And least that worthy Divine should be thought to approve of such of our English Bishops only as then suffered Martyrdom we have furthermore his indefinite large Testimony We affirm saith he speaking as the mouth of the French Church That the Bishops of England after the Reformation were the faithful servants of God and ought not to desert their Office or title of Bishop Hierome Zanchie amongst excellent Divines in his time exhorteth Queen Elizabeth with an Imprimis and especially to extend her care and Authority to have godly and learned Bishops whereof by the blessing of God saith he you have very many and to cherish them And again he congratulateth the Episcopal Dignity of Jewel Bishop of Salisbury Praying to God for his prosperous success in his Function and of all others the Pious Bishops of England and all this in the name of his Colleages the Pastors of the Church of Heidelburgh Sarania a Belgick Doctor though a great favourer of the Order of Episcopacy yet an earnest inveigher against the Roman Hierarchy confesseth Himself to wonder often at the Wisdom of the Reformers of the Church of England as no way deviating from the antient Church of Christ And he concludeth with this Epiphonema saying I hold it a part of her happiness that she hath retained with her the Order of Bishops Mr. Moulin again that he may be the Epilogue who was the Prologue concludeth for the Church of England saying That their agreement is such that England hath been a Refuge to our persecuted Churches and correspondently the excellent servants of God in our Churches saith he Peter Martyr Calvin Beza and Zanchie have often written Letters full of respect and amity to the Prelates of England So he To these may be added the late dedicated Books to some of our Bishops of these times together with others referring their Controversies among themselves to be decided by their judgment if we thought that such instances could be of easie digestion with some Hitherto by way of Introduction in behalf of our particular English Church We are now to prosecute the justification of Episcopacy in general so farr as to make good the Title of this Treatise inscribed A FULL SATISFACTION IN THIS CAUSE as well for the Necessary use as also for the just Right thereof as consonant to the Word of God We begin to consult with gray-headed Antiquity for the manifestation hereof SECT IV. That the Episcopal Government in the Church of Christ is for Necessary Use the best according to the judgment of Primitive Antiquity GEnerally the bestness of a thing that we may so call it is best discerned by the Necessary Use whereof Antiquity hath testified by Hierome That the original reason of constituting one over the rest of Presbyters to whom all the care of the Church should belong was saith he so decreed through the whole World that Schisme might be removed Which from the continual experimental success thereof in the Church he himself held to be such As whereupon the safety of the Church did depend Tertullian yet himself no Bishop neither will not have Presbyters and Deacons to Baptize without Authority from the Bishop for the honour of the Church which being observed Peace saith he will be preserved Chrysostom illustrateth the Necessity of Episcopal Government by resembling the Bishop to the Head in respect of the Body to a Shepheard in respect of his Sheep to a Master in respect of his Scholars and to a Captain in respect of his Soldiers with whom Ambrose agreeth in the first resemblance calling likewise the Bishop The Head of the rest of the members Augustine compareth the Bishop to the Father of the Family as being Head of the House Nazianzen Ambrose Nicetas decipher him as the Eie in that Head whose Office is to look to the whole Body whence they have their names Episcopi or Bishops Basil yet higher compares the Church to the Body and the Bishop to the Soul saying That the Members of the Church by Episcopal Dignity as by one Soul are reduced to Concord and Communion Cyprian Bishop and Martyr doth more than once complain of the Contempt and Disobedience of the inferior Clergy and People against their Bishops as the Original Spring of Heresies and Schisms We have done with the Fathers whom we have found generally asserting the Necessary Use of Episcopal Government and whom i● the next place we shall find seconded by the ingenious confession of Judicious Protestants of remo●● Churches SECT V. The Protestant Divines of remo●● Churches have generally acknowledged Episcopal Government to for Necessary Use the best THe Protestant Witnesses whic● we shall here alleadg are 〈◊〉 two Classes the one Lutheram with

whom we begin Luthe● himself indeed will be found to i● veigh against Bishops yet not in general against all but such only 〈◊〉 were Tyrannous and unworthy as h● saith of the holy name of Bishop Otherwise not only he but all th● Churches of the Lutherans have in the publique Augustine Confession speaking of Bishops testified that They often protested their earnest desire to preserve the Ecclesiastical Polity and Degrees then in being in the Church even in their highest Authority which they acknowledge to be of great use for avoiding of Schisms in the Church To this purpose Melancthon by the perswasion of Luther as Camerarius writeth in his life as much for Episcopacy as any burst out into this pathetical Expression I speak my mind freely saith he I would to God yea I would to God I were able to restore the Government of Bishops for I see what a Church we are like to have the Ecclesiastical Polity being dissolved I foresee the Tyranny will be more intolerable than ever it was before So he citing Bucers like judgment of the Necessity of Episcop●● Government To the end that refractory and dissolute persons may ●● removed out of the Church The Illustrious Prince Hainault one persecuted for Religion and afterwards en●bled with the calling of Preacher of t●● Gospel professeth in the name of th● Lutheran Churches saying With what willingness and joy of heart wou●● we reverence obey and yield Bishop their Jurisdiction and Ordination which thing we have alwayes contest● for as did also Luther himself both i● Words Writing and Preaching So he We may add out of the Dani●● Church that learned Hemingius confessing The Episcopal Order to b● most profitable both for Governing th● Church and for preservation of sound Doctrine The other Classis of Protestant Authors are at hand to deliver their own Judgments also Calvin in the first place delivereth the Original Reason of Episcopacy to be as he saith Left by Equality as it usually cometh to pass Schismes should arise in the Church So he With such a Parenthesis as telleth tales namely That Dissention accompanieth Parity But that which is spoken in a farr lowder tone is this his Confession I confess saith he that as the manner of men is new a days the Order of Ministers cannot continue except one be over the rest So he From whom we expect much more hereafter In the interim Beza granteth That because by Experience the Presbyterial Government was found insufficient to keep under Ambitious Pastors and vain and Fanatical Auditors One was constituted over the rest to govern them which thing saith he neither can nor ought to be reprehended Especially seeing that in th● Church of Alexandria this Custom was observed even from the dayes of Mat● the Evangelist And again G●● forbid that I should reprehend this Order as rashly or proudly brought into th● Church whereof there was great us● when good and holy Bishops governed the Church So he Zanchie is of reverend esteem amongst our Adversaries yet he confesseth Th● Episcopacy was ordained out of Piety to best ends for the Edification of the Elect and was so received by the consent of Christian Churches Who th●● am I saith he that I should disallo● that which the whole Church of Chri●● hath approved To comprise much in a little we have heard of the Protestation made in the Augustane Confession in the behalf of Episcopacy and the Necessity of it and it is testified by Conradus Vorstius that the Protestant Divines in Conference at Bosnack subscribed to it per omnia except that dubious Article concerning the Eucharist Amongst whom he reckons Calvin Beza Zanchie Viretus and Melancthon We may not pass by Bogarmannus Moderator in the Synod of Dort who hath been rendred unto us by a credible person That upon the mention of Episcopacy by some of our English Divines the want of which had in all probability caused those dissentions in the Netherlands He made this Answer before them all as the mouth of the rest Alas but we are not so happy which none that duly considers either the Person that spake it or yet the Place where it was uttered can conceive to be a Complement but rather a Conscionable acknowledgment of a clear Truth Neither is this the first or the last time that this Truth hath been asserted by Divines of remote Churches though perhaps never so solemnly and publickly as here For before this Saravia hath published his Judgement in Print wherein he● esteems it A part of the happiness of our English Church that she hath conserved in her the Order of Bishops And since that Synod the learned Professor of Divinity in Geneva Videlius speaking of good Bishops and such as are instructed by the Holy Ghost To such saith he as Ignatius speaketh We willingly obey and say they are Necessarily to be obeyed Nothing now remaineth but that one whom our Opposites have proclaimed for their chiefest Advocate Walo Masselinus alias Salmatius may give the upshot in this very point That 〈◊〉 Bishop saith he was set over Presbyters in the same Church to take away Schisms none can deny to have been instituted to a good end and that with best Reasons We need not repeat how the Church of Geneva did not dote so much upon their own Form of Church Government as to think it worthy to be an Example for other Churches to copy out We are not ignorant of the flourishing pretense which our Opposites make to others to be enamoured of their Helen the Presbyterial Government as if it were most commonly used in all Churches abroad therefore have we been constrained to advertise as followeth SECT VI. That the Episcopal Government is farr more practised among Protestants of remote Churches than is the Presbyterial THe words of Zanchie are punctual That Episcopi that is Bishops and Superintendentes are words of the same sense and signification and therefore where there is an agreement in the thing we ought not to make any alteration or strife about Words And for Practice he saith That in some Reformed Churches both the Name and Function of Archbishops and Bishops were retained in others the Office was retained changing only the Title of Archbishops and Bishops into Superintendents and general Superintendents And where neither Name nor Office did remain as formerly yet even there almost all Authority was managed by some Chief Pastors So he Mr. Dureus a Learned Divine and in one sort Apostolical by his great Travail and endeavours for reconciling of Lutherans and other Protestant Churches and also some others published to to the World a multitude of Protestant Churches governed by Prelates under the name of Bishops farr exceeding the number of the Presbyterial which seemed a matter so unquestionable to a Jesuit that he presumed to affirme of all Protestant Churches excepting Anabaptists That they admitted three