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A45303 A modest offer of some meet considerations tendered to the learned prolocvtor and to the rest of the Assembly of Divines, met at Westminster by a true lover of truth and peace. Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656. 1644 (1644) Wing H394; ESTC R14524 9,261 19

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Pastor they have their Presbyteries consisting of severall Shrivalties which meet together in the chiefe Towne or City next to them every week also once and have there their exercise of Prophecying after which the Moderator of the said Meeting asks and gathers the judgements of all the said Pastors concerning the doctrine then delivered or of any other doubtfull point that is then and there propounded And if the said Presbyters be divided in their opinions then the Question is under an injoyned silence put over to the next Synode which is held twice a yeare unto that all the Pastors of that Quarter or Province duly resort accompanyed with their Elders The Moderator of the former Synode begins the Action then a new Moderator is chosen for the present or as it seldome falls out the last Moderator by Voices continued Any Question of doubt being proposed is either decided by that meeting or if it cannot be so done is with charge of silence reserved till the Nationall Synode or Generall Assembly which they hold every yeare once Whither come not the Pastors onely but the King himselfe or his Commissioners and some of all Orders and Degrees sufficiently authorized for the determining of any Controversie that shall arise amongst them Thus he And certainly this beares the face of a very faire and laudable course and such as deserves the approbation of all the wel-willers to that discipline But let me adde that we either have or may have in this very same state of things with some small variation in effect the same Government with us onely there wants some care and life in their execution which might without much difficulty be redressed Every parish hath or by Law ought to have their Minister ever present with them and carefully watching over them In stead then of their Pastor Elders and Deacons we have in every Parish the Minister whether a Rector or Vicar Churchwardens Questmen or Sidemen and Overseers for the Poore and in places of any eminence a Curate or Assistent to the Rector who is a Deacon at least These may and ought and in some places doe duly meet together every week on a set day in their Vestry and decide such differences as happen amongst them and may well be enjoyned to take notice of such abuses and mis-demeanours as are incident into their parish for their speedy reformation within the Verge of their owne power In stead of their Presbyteries consisting of severall pastors we have our number and combination of ministers in the divisions of our severall Deanries under which are ranged all the Ministers within that circuit Over whom the Rurall Deane as he is called is every year chosen by the said Ministers of that division as their moderator for the yeare ensuing whose office if it were carefully looked unto and reduced to the originall institution might be of singular use to Gods Church This Deanry or Presbytery consisting of severall pastors may be injoyned to meet together every moneth or oftner if it seeme fit in some city or town next unto them and may there have their exercise of prophesying as I have known it practiced in some parts of this kingdom and as it is earnestly wished and recommended by that excellently-Learned Lord Verulame late Lord Chancelour of England in his prudent Considerations and then and there may indevour to decide any doubt that may arise in their severall parishes either concerning the doctrine of their Minister or scruple in cases of conscience and may transact any publique businesse that may concerne their whole division But if any such matter or question should arise as their divided opinions cannot fully determine it may under charge of silence be put over to a more publique meeting which is the synodall assembly of the Clergy held twice a yeare under the moderation hitherto of the Archdeacon And if there the question fayle of a full determination it is or may be referred with like silence and peace to a Diocesan Synode which may be held every yeare once under the presidency of the Bishop And if yet the decision come not home it may be referred to the determining of a Provinciall Synod or yet higher to a Nationall So as in these cases of doubts or errors if men would not be wanting to themselves nothing needs to be wanting in the state we now stand in to the safety and happinesse of our Church For matter of Ordination of Ministers the former Constitutions of our Church have deeply enjoyned the presence and assistance of those who by their originall institution are the Presbyterie of the Bishop at and in the examination and allowance of the persons to be ordained requiring also the joynt-imposition of those hands which attested the sufficiency of the said Examinates not without a severe sanction of two yeares suspension of the act of Ordaining to passe upon any Bishop or Suffragane that shall be found failing in any of the particulars The qualification of those that are to be ordained is in our Canons already set forth with much caution for their age their degrees their abilities the testimonie of their holy conversation neither need I doubt to affirm that he who besides all other circumstances of education is able to give a good account of his faith in Latine according to the received Articles of the Church of England and to confirme the same by sufficient testimonies out of the holy Scripture may be thought competently fit for matter of knowledge to enter upon the first step of Deaconship which the wisdome of the Church hath according to the Apostles rule appointed not without a sufficient distance of time in way of probation to the higher order of Ministery forbidding to give both orders at once and requiring that he who is ordained Deacon shall continue a whole yeare at least in that station except upon some weighty reasons it shall seeme fit to the Bishop to contract the time limited And lest there should be any subreption in this sacred businesse it is Ordered that these Ordinations should be no other then solemne both in respect of time and place neither ought they to be nor in some places are without a publique preconization of lawfull warning affixed upon the Cathedrall Church doore where the said Ordination shall be celebrated and over and besides the charge that none shall be admitted to be a Candidate of holy Orders but he who brings sufficient testimonials of his good life and conversation under the seale of some Colledge in Cambridge or Oxford or of three or foure grave Ministers together with the subscription and testimonie of other credible persons who have known his life and behaviour by the space of three yeeres next before it is well knowne to you that before the Act of Ordination there is publique Proclamation made to the whole Assembly that if any man knowes any crime or impediment in any of the persons presented for which he ought not to be ordained that hee should come
A MODEST OFFER OF Some meet CONSIDERATIONS TENDERED TO THE LEARNED PROLOCVTOR AND To the rest of the Assembly of DIVINES Met at Westminster BY A TRUE LOVER OF TRUTH AND PEACE Imprinted M.DC.XLIV A Modest Offer of some meet Considerations Tendered to the Learned Prolocutor and to the rest of the Assembly of Divines met at VVestminster LEarned and Reverend Brethren If you be now as is supposed upon the advise of a Forme of Church-Government I beseech you in the feare of God setting aside all prejudice to take into your sad thoughts these considerations following It is I perceive an usuall Prayer of many Preachers well affected to your Assembly that God would now after 1600 yeares universall practice of the whole Church of Christ upon earth shew you the patterne in the mount as if after so long and perfect inquisitions there could be any new discoveries of the forme that was or should be wherein I suppose their well-meaning is not a little injurious both to the knowne truth and to you for what revelations can we expect thus late or what monuments of either Scripture or history can now be hoped to be brought to light which your eyes have not seene and former ages have not inquired into Surely ye well know there can be but these three forms of Church-government possibly devised Either by Bishops or by Presbyteries or by the multitude of several and select congregations Every of which have both their abettors and thei● adversaries The first hath all times and places since the dayes of the blessed Apostles till this age to stand for it The second hath the late persecuted reformed Church of France which never desired nor meant to make their necessitated forme a patterne for others the Netherlands and Scotland for precedents of it The third hath the Ministers of New-England and their Associates commonly styled by the name of INDEPENDENTS vehemently contending for it The adversaries of every of these are as well known as their friends and the pleas which every of them makes for it selfe are as well known as either I suppose it is yet res integra else I should lay my finger upon my lips Both the Houses of Parliament your Assembly and the whole Kingdome stand yet free and unengaged to any part For the National Covenant as it is interpreted by some of your selves and those other Divines whose allowed Sermons have commented upon it intends not to abjure and disclaime Episcopacie as such but only bends against the whole present fabrick of Government as it is built on these Arches these Pedestalls so as if it be taken asunder from those some of them not necessary appendances you are no way forstalled in your judgement against it nor any other that hath lift up his hand in this solemne Covenant That I may not urge the Latine Translation of the same Covenant printed and sent abroad to the Low-Countries and France and other Churches which ran onely upon tyrannicum regimen Episcoporum that onely the Tyrannicall Government of the Prelates not their fatherly and brotherly preeminence is there abjured Your wisdomes know well how to distinguish betwixt a Calling and the abuses of the execution thereof betwixt the maine substance of a Calling and the circumstantiall and separable appurtenances thereunto from which it may be devested and yet stand intire I should be a flatterer of the times past which is not often seene if I should take upon me to justifie or approve of all the carriages of some that have been entrusted with the Keyes of Ecclesiasticall Government or to blanch over the Corruptions of Consistoriall Officers in both these there was fault enough to ground both a complaint and Reformation and may that man never prosper that desires not an happy Reformation of what ever hath been or is amisse in the Church of God But this I offer to your serious consideration whether Episcopacie stripped of all circumstances that may be justly excepted against and reduced to the Primitive estate may not be thought a forme both better in it selfe and more fit for this Kingdome and Church then either of the other How ancient it is I need not appeale to any but your selves who doe well know that there was never yet any History of the Church wherein there was not full mention made of Bishops as the onely Governours thereof neither can any learned adversary deny that they have continued with the generall allowance of Gods Church from the very Apostolike times untill this present age And whether it can be safe and lye not open to much scandall to exchange so ancient an institution hitherto perpetuated to the Church for a new where no necessity inforces us judge ye How universall it is being the onely received government of all the Christian Churches over the face of the whole earth excepting onely this small spot of our neighbourhood ye know as well as the undoubted relation of the Christianographie can tell you and how unsafe it may be to depart from the forme of all the Churches that professe the name of Christ who doe all submit themselves to Bishops or Superintendents except the fore-excepted I leave to your grave judgement Besides how Episcopacie is and hath long been setled in this Kingdome and as it were incorporated into it and enwoven into the municipall Laws of this Land so as that it cannot be utterly removed without much alteration in the whole body of our Lawes is a matter well worthy of not the least consideration But all these would yet seeme light upon the Balance if there were not an intrinsecall worth in the institution it selfe that might sway with you The Covenant bindes to the indeavour of such a Government as is according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches And now let me appeale to your owne hearts and the hearts of all judicious and unprejudicate Readers whether the rules of Church-Government laid forth in the Epistles to Timothie and Titus doe not suppose and import that very proper jurisdiction which is claimed by Episcopacie at this day Which if it were not intended to be left as a perfect pattern to succession the whole Church of Christ should have been left in the dark without any direction for the succeeding administration thereof Those charges are plainly given not to many but to one and doe most manifestly imply not a parity but preeminence and power And if the example of the best Churches must carry it What Church could be more pure and more fit for our imitation then the Primitive and that part of it which immediately followed the Apostles of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ And doe not you full wel know that our Histories and unquestionable Authors name the men whom those Apostles by imposition of hands ordained to this function Do not Ignatius Irenaeus Tertullian Polycrates Egesippus Clemens Eusebius Ierome instance in those persons who succeeded each other in those first Sees If you tell me