Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	church_n	heresy_n	schism_n	4,424	5	10.0782	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51393	A modest advertisement concerning the present controversie about church-government wherein the maine grounds of that booke, intituled The unlawfulnesse and danger of limited prelacie, are calmly examined.	Morley, George, 1597-1684.	1641 (1641)	Wing M2793; ESTC R23329	10,150	23

in Dignitie have their commission from Christ as well as they and partake of the Spirit as much or perhaps more than they for the Spirit is not tyed to any number is to set up a humane authoritie that Christ never instituted and to exercise a tyrannie and Poperie of the Presbyterie as bad nay worse than that of the Bishops For the Apostles indeed whose successors the Bishops pretend to be did meet in a Synod and make Decrees to binde the Church but that the Disciples onely or Presbyters ever did so cannot be proved out of Scripture Thus this Author may see what is concluded out of his principles by those who have very logically driven them home to the conclusion they naturally produce that is not from one tyrannie to an other but to an absolute libertie But as for us I pray him to remember that the state of the question between him and us is not as hee pretends whether in the prime times a Bishop were without a Presbyterie under him but whether down from the Apostles a Presbyterie was ever heard of without a Bishop over it This is the thing we desire to see solidly proved That no limitations are sufficient because those of the Assemblies in Scotland were not so is a weake argument Where Assemblies will not tie Parliaments may Whether Prelacy be a cause or a cure of Schismes look but into New England and the divisions that are there among Ministers and their Churches That it is easier to root up the tree than to lop off the branches is perhaps true So it is easier to pull down a House than to repaire it but wee consider not what is easiest but what is best to doe That that government of the Church is most usefull for Kings and Kingdomes which is warranted by Gods Word which is most for preservation of piety righteousnesse and sobriety which makes the face of the Church and Religion glorious not with outward pomp like Kings of Nations but with sound Faith pure worship holy life which conduceth most for truth and peace against schisme and heresie wee heartily confesse and together with all the Christians upon the face of the earth except a few in the West of Europe wee esteem the government by Bishops to be that government That it is no good government which a wise man would not indure in his owne house wee acknowledge and wee know who applyed that saying first against a Democracie and thinke it very fit to be retorted upon those who desire a parity of Ministers for no wise man would indure a parity in his Family As for other arguments that if wee admit not the Presbyterie there will bee jealousies between us and Scotland that there will bee changes and Periods of States of Families and Kingdomes for these are insinuated in this Book and some are reported to have said that the Bishops must downe or much blood will bee shed these we think not proofes but threatnings and fitter for the mouth of a Turkish Dervise who plants Religion by the sword than for a Minister of the Gospel of Christ the summe whereof is Love and therefore cannot be forced but perswaded In the meane time we desire men seriously to consider whether it bee not true and proper Popery to persecute Christians not for publishing but for holding Opinions onely and in what degree the Presbyteriall government uses to bee guilty of this pressure and tyrannie upon the soules and consciences of men As for that Objection that otherwise there will be a schisme betweene us and the reformed Churches though we are heartily grieved at the name only of such a thing we answer that there may bee mutuall charity in those that have a different Discipline and therefore this argument has no good consequence Secondly that the Church of England has hitherto had that prudent Moderation to desire the esteeme and affection not onely of the reformed but of all the Protestant Churches who are more in number and equall in learning and piety to the Reformed Thirdly that it is better for us if it bee Gods will that the reformed doe continue as they are to bee divided from them in this particular onely than from all other Christians of the first three hundred yeeres under persecution of the Heathen Emperours to which ancient Church we desire to be excused if we account the late reformation of Scotland to bee much inferiour in learning in Piety in Patience in Humility in Charity and many other Christian vertues That though the Parliament be for Bishops yet all the godly and religious will be against it we cannot beleeve till it be made plain to us that to resist lawfull authority is a matter of godlinesse or that there is any humility in those that think no Christians are godly and religious but those who are for the Presbytery That the reforming abuses in Episcopall govenment will take long time that we are apt to beleeve but we think this to be no objection But that it being a great and a weighty work and likely to have great influence upon the civill estate it ought to be a businesse of much debate and long deliberation and that it imports not so much to be quickly done as well done Lastly we think the time of perswasion to bee not when men by fraud or force shall effect their ends but when all parties having beene first heard and their Reasons maturely weighed things are setled according to Justice and Piety and this only will produce a setled and well grounded peace not only for the present but for future times And is a consideration well worthy the wisedome and greatnesse of the English Parliaments Thus much be said to those who pretend the necessity the profitablenesse and the divine institution of the Presbyteriall government which they pretend to introduce and of the unlawfulnesse of Episcopall government which they so eagerly oppose Now to those who desire a change and yet confesse their discipline to be a humane institution I shall humbly desire them briefly to consider of this whether they can demonstrate the advantage of that they would introduce to be so exceeding great above this already received the abuses being reformed that it will make abundant amends not only in the present but in all times to come for the danger the Change will produce This that wee have is rooted in the lawes the people are inured to it It has so long agreed with the constitutions of this Monarchy Nay it is agreeable even to that in other states as in Venice to a Republick It is the same that almost all Christians are governed by It has produced men of as great learning and piety and as able oppugnors of the Romane Church as any the Christian world affords and has made our Church so reverenced by the Churches abroad that in the last Archbishops time even as farre as from Alexandria the Patriarch sent a Greek to be educated in our Church to be thereby better