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A32983 Complaints concerning corruptions and grievances in church government dedicated to the Kings Most Excellent Majestie, the Right Honourable Lords and the Honourable House of Commons now assembled in Parliament / by certaine peaceably affected Presbyters of the Church of England in the name of all the rest of their brethren. 1641 (1641) Wing C4094E; ESTC R35576 8,781 21

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doeit not out of envie of any mans Greatnesse or ambitious Affectation to bee medling in State affaires things too high for us but from the powerfull command of Conscience from unfaigned love to the Gospell of Christ whose Efficacie is much impeached by the following Corruptions and and from filiall Commiseration of our wounded and torne Mother Whose breaches wee verily apprehend cannot be made up but by reducing of her Discipline to a pure Concordance with those originall Divine Prescriptions We complain then 1. That the Power of Jurisdiction and Ordination is claimed and exercised by Bishops as their sole Right in a distinction from Presbyters This we affirme to be an Exorbitance from the second of those right originall and Apostolike Ordinances for Church Government And as it is a departure from the Rule so it is a maine corruption of evill consequence in the Church for it is First an Usurpation and undue appropriation of a Legacie which Christ bestowed in Common to reside in the Consessus or whole Presbyterie and to bee exercised by their common suffrage It not being in the Presbyters power to strip themselves and cast on one man that which was bestowed and by the Donor intended to the whole Community of their societie Secondly a severing of the Word and the Keyes which cannot without detriment to either bee sundred To Feed and Rule are the two parts of Pastor-ship where both are there is a Pastor so that with us while it is Ones worke to governe which seldome Feedeth and the worke of the rest to Feed which must not meddle with Government there is no full Pastor But the Office is destroyed by being divided and the Word in the mouthes of a disarmed Presbyterie is weake edgelesse and contemptible Thirdly the ordaining of a Number of Presbyters at large whereby the Church is filled with needy Ministers loose from any setled employment fit at low rates to bee hired by fat Pluralists Non-Residents and Lazie Voluptuaries which else would bee to seeke of Mercenarie supplies or bee driven in a penurie to give higher wages But hereby the Sacred Office is exposed to Contempt and the Ordination to the Office and Institution into a Charge are made severall Acts a divorce unheard of in that Primitive Politie Which grosse abuse could not bee if Ordination were the common Act of the whole Presbyterie of a Church Fourthly intromission to the Oversight of Congregations of Men Simoniacall scandalous and unapt to teach which can easily steale into Office by the connivence or corruption of One but if the Power were in a Multitude it could not soone be effected 2. The excessive Provinciall extent of Diocesan Churches is an evident departure not onely from the fift of those pure originall Constitutions but also from the manner of after Ages till Bishops in their Synods provided better for their own Greatnesse then the Churches welfare Then they degraded the Chorepiscopi and made Orders that Bishops should be placed only in the greater and more frequented Cities This is as a departure from the first pure manner so much for the worse for hence arise these Grievances Neglect of Reformation both in disordered Ministers and People Remotenesse of the Bishops seat Expences of Travailing Difficultie of proving and tedious expectation of the issue of Suits where Crimes must bee tried before Judges who are meere strangers to the Persons and Causes comming before them deterre almost all men from so troublesome an undertaking And thus the Churches are pester'd with infamous Offenders which could not be if the bounds of a Church were so appointed that all its members might be under the eye of the Governours 2. Deputation of Authoritie and Jurisdiction to others ● most grosse degeneration from that Primitive Discipline which never heard of such a thing as the deputing of any part of Pastorall Office which is committed to Men for their Personall abilities and cannot without abuse be committed to those who are oft Lay men and neither of Pastorall parts or Calling Hence that numerous frie subordination of Officers with the multitude of Fees which must needs be where the Churches are whole Countries so large that it is impossible that one Pastor should dispatch all by himselfe 3. The Non-residence of men having Pastorall Charge is a grosse violation of the seventh of those Apostolike Constitutions and is an unexcusable Corruption unfit to be tolerated in any well governed Church 4. A Plurality of Pastorall Charges undertaken by one Man is also a grosse exorbitancie brought in with the former after Church Goverment was at the worst Two Evils which are the shame of our Church not fit to bee named in a Reformed Church brought in and continued meerely to nourish Ambition Pompe Voluptuousnes and Avarice in Clergie-men These two usually goe together this last necessitating the former and are seminarie Evils First inducing a necessitie of deputing Pastorall Charge which every one before God undertakes to performe in his owne Person Secondly Church Robbery by transporting the sacred allowance paid and intended for the maintenance of a vigilant painfull Pastor over the soules of the People which afford it to another Place and Person which hath onely the Title and Charge but doth not the worke of a Pastor 3. Thirdly Impietie in placing a Mercenary unable for the Charge or Injustice if He substitute one able and fully discharging the Office allowing him the least part of that maintenance which was originallyintended and in no other plea can be challenged of the People for performing the Office 5. Imposing and rigorous urging on great undoing extirpating Penalties Ceremonies Taskes and Oathes meerely ad placitum and for their owne ends contrary to the fourth of those prime Scripture Cannons wherby Christian libertie in indifferents is much impaired Many worthy Men of great abilities paines and successe of Ministry in their Charges but of tender and strict Consciences have been thrust out schismes and dissentions in the bowels of the Church for the space now of more then fourescore yeares nourished to the prejudice of our Ecclesiasticall Peace which we apprehend can never be fully attained till liberty of Conscience in indifferencies and points of small consequence but great Controversie bee granted If severitie of Censures and force could have brought forth Unitie it had in this time beene effected This Remedie hath beene long applied and yet sadd experience now tells us that the disease hath growne worse and worse 6. The carriage and constitution of our Convocations or if they may be so called our Nationall Synodes is such that it is impossible to proceed to a reformation in any of these Ecclesiasticall distortions by that way what are they for the maine but Meetings of the one Party consisting of Bishops Deanes Arch-Deacons and other dependers on Episcopacy and preengaged persons So that there is as little hope for us of reformation in points of Government from them as was for the Protestants side of a faire decision of their