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A61665
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A letter to Mr. Robert Burscough, in answer to his Discourse of schism, in which ...
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Stoddon, Samuel.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing S5713; ESTC R10151
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63,414
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120
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A LETTER TO Mr Robert Burscough In ANSWER to his Discourse of Schism IN WHICH I. The Notion of Catholick Unity is Considered II. The Separation of Dissenters not Schismatical Proved III. The Ordinations of Dissenting Ministers Justified IV. Pretended Pleas for Separation Examined V. The Case about Ceremonies Argued c. Acts 24.14 But this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call Heresy so Worship I the God of my Fathers believing all Things which are written in the Law and the Prophets Christianus mihi Nomen est Catholicus vero Cognomen illud me Nuncupat istud Ostendit Pacian Epist ad Sympron LONDON Printed for J. Clark at the Bible in the Old Change near St. Pauls 1700. A LETTER TO Mr. Robt. Burscough IN Answer to his Discourse of SCHISM Reverend Sir THE Discourse which under a Pretence of Charity to our Souls you lately addressed to Vs who conform'd before the Toleration and have since withdrawn our selves from the Communion of the Church of England We think our selves oblig'd for our own Vindication and the better information of such as have ill Thoughts of us on that Account to acquaint you what Entertainment it finds with most of us and for what Reasons we can make it no better Welcome Your Introduction addresses us with a Declaration of a glorious Design you have to do us all the good you are able Introduct and thereupon think it very reasonable to desire our impartial and candid perusal of what you offer us in order to that good End tho' as you say it be more than you can expect from those amongst us whom your Charity judges as byass'd with Prejudice false Zeal and worldly Interest But of all others you assure your self of contributing something to their Satisfaction And that they are not like to meet with any thing from you that may give any just Cause of Offence yea nothing but what proceeds from a Spirit of Charity But of what sort this your Spirit of Charity is and how well it agrees in its Vertues with that of the Apostle's 1 Cor. 13. and how eminently it hath appear'd throughout your following Discourse every one that reads it may easily discern This Spirit of Charity is doubtless some rare Arcanum a highly refin'd volatile Thing some fiery Tincture which agrees not with every Constitution but prepar'd with a peculiar Art as a Cordial for one sort of the Cholerick Church of England Men with whose bilious Blood it agrees by Sympathy And as for your meek Endeavours herein you hope that what use soever may be made of them by some Men yet that God will graciously accept them Sir What Acceptance they find with God you will better understand in the Day that you must give your Accounts to Him but what Reason we have to accept them you and others that will may see by that time you are come to the other end of these Pages This Ostentation of the Meekness of your Spirit and the Charity of your Design to reduce us to the Truth and to the way of our Duty is the Sum of your Introduction besides an invidious Fling at parting which we may not pass by without some Animadversion You say Your Business at present is chiefly with Vs who think we may lawfully conform with you and yet have deserted your Communion a thing indeed which is very agreeable to Flesh and Blood and which may make several Turns of Affairs more easie to Vs but wise and good Men would suspect an Opinion and Practice which are so much on the side of the World Sir This is the first Specimen of that singular Charity you have for us the plainer English of which is this That unless we will fully Conform to you and for ever abandon those Ministers of Christ whom we now hear tho' we have so much Charity for you as not to censure You as you censure Vs it is not fit that we should be employ'd in any Office in Church or State and in effect that none should Buy or Sell or Live but such as have received your Mark You know what effectual Provision you have made for this as far as the Times would bear by your Sacramental Test whereby many Persons of good Figure and Character have been precluded from Publick Service whose Consciences have been too tender to surmount that Difficulty and which perhaps the Government hath no great reason to be fond of But now to deliver our Brethren who better understand their Liberty in the Gospel from this end of your Spear wherewith you strike at them we have this to offer I. We do not think it utterly unlawful or absolutely Sinful to Communicate occasionally with the Church of England at least in a Lay-communion we have a more Catholick Charity than so to judge of it tho' we know it to be a very Faulty yet we take it to be a True Church of Christ and are ready to testify as need requires our general Communion with it as a part with us of the same universal Body tho' we enter not into a stated Communion with it under those unjustifyable Terms on which it is offer'd us II. It is every Man's bounden Duty to serve God and his Country as also to provide for Himself and his own Family with all those intellectual and corporal Abilities wherewith God hath blest him according as there are Occasions and Calls to it therefore nothing that is tolerable and not plainly sinful tho' burdensom and uneligible ought to restrain us from the Service of God or Man which we are sitted for and called to For who knows of what consequence the Service of such may be especially in a publick Post to the preservation of Religion and Property or to the support and establishment of the Government Which are Considerations sufficient to preponderate all tolerable Inconveniencies III. That it may appear we are not acted herein merely by the Principles of Humane Policy or Self-Ends we have the Example of the great Apostle of the Gentiles to warrant our Practice You may see what his Opinion was of the Jewish Rites and Ceremonies and how zealously he had in several of his Epistles declar'd against them as weak and beggarly Elements and enslaving Things Gal. 4.9 Antichristian Ch. 5.2 Inconsistent with the Liberty of the Gospel ver 1. Another Gospel than that which he had Preached unto 'em Ch. 1.6 7 8. And pronounces Anathema on them that had troubled 'em with it ver 9. Besides what he writes in some other Epistles to the same purpose This is more than ever we heard from any Nonconformist against the Ceremonies of the Church of Enggland and yet for all this the Wise and Holy Paul to avoid the offending his weak Brethren would not scruple for once to Circumcise Timothy Act. 16.3 At another time to shave his Head and observe the Jewish Rites of a Religious Vow Ch. 18.18 And at another time to save himself from the Rage of a
Ordained whereas it is Christ that communicates the Pastoral Power and Authority by his Charter of the Gospel the Power is deriv'd from Christ not from the Ordainers As the Major of a City has his Authority from the Charter granted by the King and not from the Recorder who invests him in his Office And yet neither is this true that an inferiour Officer may not invest one of a superiour Order in his Office else what have the Bishops to do at the Coronation of Kings unless you will make the Regal to be an Inferior Office to that of the Bishop which if you do you may next pretend to an absolving and deposing Power too But you tell us again That we do not find in Scripture That to mere Presbyters any such Authority was ever committed nor are there any Footsteps of it in Antiquity And we tell you That we find not in Scripture nor in Antiquity that this Authority was ever committed to any other than Presbyters But if you insist That they must not be mere Presbyters we Reply 1. How do you prove that either Simeon that was called Niger or Lucius of Cyrene or Manaen who were commanded from Heaven Act. 13.1 2. to ordain Paul and Barnabas were any of them at that time more than mere Presbyters as to Matter of Office 2. Where do you find in all the Books of the New Testament not only that a mere Bishop but that any one single Person whether Bishop or Evangelist or Apostle or any other besides our Lord Jesus Christ himself did ever celebrate this Ordinance of Ordination without the assistance of some others more or less of the Presbytery If you instance in Paul's ordaining Timothy with his own Hands will that prove that it was with his own Hands alone especially while he tells us so expresly in words at length and not in figures That it was done by the Hands of the Presbytery 3. We will propose you a Case which is possible tho' we hope will never be real Suppose the Churches of Christ should be reduc'd to a very few and the Bishops of these few should all turn Hereticks or Persecutors of the Orthodox and cast them out of their Communion the Presbyters retaining their Integrity These Presbyters by your Doctrin cannot ordain so much as a Presbyter to continue a Succession much less can they create a Bishop to do it Must the whole Church then be extinct for lack of a Bishop to Head them Or would you expect to have one rais'd from the Dead or sent back out of Heaven to do it 4. As for Antiquity There is nothing more clear than that in the Primitive Churches the Bishops and their Presbyters alway acted in Conjunction in all Acts of Church Discipline both of Excommunication Restauration Confirmation and Ordination And in the Banishment or Absence of their Bishops the Presbyters alone without the presence of any other Bishop did by his order and allowance which he could not have done had it not been a thing in it self lawful execute all that the Bishop was to have done in Person among them Nay St. Jerom will tell you that the Presbyters have Power to Ordain a Bishop over them and invest him with his Episcopal Authority as they did at Alexandria Sir There was a Time within the Memory of Man that Our Bishops were banished from their Clergy in England and what was the Whole Church of England then extinct and cut off from the Head Christ Doth eternal Salvation go and come with Lawn-Sleeves Yet once more you tell us That the Office which Timothy had was given him by Prophecy 1 Tim. 4.14 Or according to the Prophesies which went before of him 1 Tim. 1.18 His Ordination therefore must have been an extraordinary Thing and not to be drawn into Precedent except in parallel Cases But our Pastors you suppose do not pretend that they are mark'd out by Prophecy 1. We answer These Prophesies whatever they were concerning Timothy respected his Person and not the manner of his Ordination 2. It is very probable that the Apostles had a more than ordinary Direction relating to the choice of Ministers or Church-Officers many times in their Days Acts 20.28 It is there said That the Elders of the Church of Ephesus were made Overseers of their Flocks by the Holy Ghost i. e. as some think their Choice and Nomination was by Direction of the Holy Spirit of God And Clemens Romanus says That the Apostles in those Days ordained Bishops or Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Discerning by the Spirit and having a perfect Knowledge whom they should Ordain But what is all this to the way of Ordaining by Presbyters is an extraordinary Thing and not to be drawn into Precedent It 's probable that it had been foretold by some one or other that Timothy would be a faithful and eminent Minister of Christ who but you would have concluded from thence That his Ordination by Presbyters was an extraordinary Case 3. May you not as pertinently argue That none of the Ordinations done by the Imposition of the Hands of the Apostles are to be drawn into Precedent because these were extraordinary Cases the Apostles being extraordinary Persons who had an extraordinary and immediate Mission from Christ himself nor do we know of any Bishops that now pretend to be marked out by an immediate Call from Christ or any Prophecy of their extraordinary Vsefulness that have gone before of ' em But Sir Before you had given your self and us all this Trouble to so little purpose you had done much better to have sate down and considered how you could have answered Mr. John Owen's ten Arguments from Scripture and Antiquity Owen's Plea for Scripture Ordination proving Ordination by Presbyters without Bishops to be valid to which to save Labour of Transcribing we refer those that are willing to see much more on this Subject III. The Declamation which you make against popular Ordination we are not at all concern'd in but join with you in our hearty Wishes that they that are would deeply consider it Now to conclude this your third Section Having read out our Indictment in all the Articles of it and examin'd it after your manner you come to sum up the Evidence or what you call Evident and bring in the Bill against us that we have in all these Respects exceeded the Novatians Donatists and Meletians But before you proceed to your Damnatory Sentence we hope your Charity will take into Consideration what we have already so briefly offer'd in our own Defence and what we have yet further to plead for our selves as your following Discourse shall give us Occasion Your fourth Section in which you pretend to blow us wholly up Sect. 4. and to beat us out of all our Fasinesses and not to leave us a Rag to cover our Nakedness with is a Collection of just half a dozen of some little Things which you have pickt up some-where behind