Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A51393
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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.
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Morley, George, 1597-1684.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing M2793; ESTC R23329
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10,150
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23
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fitted for the government and defence of their own So ready are all Christians but the Romane to desire our Communion which certainely when we cease to have Bishops they will cease to doe Secondly will the conveniences of the new discipline prove so great in effect as they are in promise or as it happens in all humane affaires will not the inconveniences bee much greater in the practice than they are in the speculation or though for the present they doe not yet will they not fall out and multiply daily hereafter Nay is it not a part of prudence to stay some few yeares at the least and in the meane time mending our old discipline as well as we can to consider and looke on upon the effects which that new one will produce in our Neighbour Nation For that the effects of it will not be so great for the temporall happinesse we have some reason to feare remembring the great unquietnesse they suffered even in the height of it And for the eternall happinesse which is infinitely more to be weighed we have some reason also to doubt that this discipline will not produce such marvellous effects as are propounded since many of us can remember heretofore that those persons who had been bred from their youth under a Presbyteriall government though they have beene indeed Persons of great honour and merit yet have not so very farre exceeded either in Truth or Holinesse or Sobriety or Chastity or Charity or Humility or Sweetnesse of a religious conversation those of the same rank in our Nation who had their breeding under this so much detested Episcopall government neither doe we finde more piety abroad under a Presbytery than under a perpetuall presidency of protestant Episcopacy or superintendency and therefore I say it is well worthy a weighty consideration whether there be so great an excellency in that above this as is pretended As for the objection that unlesse we receive this new discipline there will bee heart-burnings between us and the Scotish Nation I answer that I am confident that the Commissioners whom they employ are persons of so great honour and justice that they will account it as unreasonable for their discipline to be pressed upon us as they have done for our Liturgy to be pressed upon them And that there is no more cause why it should be necessary for us to receive their Ecclesiasticall than it is to receive their temporall Lawes they being as much interested to procure with us the change of the one as of the other And wee doubt not the wisdome of the English Parliament to be so great that they can finde a better expedient to secure that Nation in their liberty and Lawes Ecclesiasticall and Civill than by a change of ours heere at home and by taking away from this Church an Apostolicall Institution which it has retained since its first Christianity Otherwise the Scotish Church being by their absolute independant power at liberty to frame new orders daily we also shall consequently be obliged ever to conforme to them or by this reason no peace will be betweene us Thus have I briefly and in a plaine manner unfolded my thoughts for the peace of this Church and such as I hope will rather bring water than oyle to the flame that is kindled If the Author of the Book which is here considered shall think that it is Ambition and desire of Preeminence that causes this short Treatise as he has insinuated to be in all who oppose his designe I shal desire him to remember one thing to know another To remember that there may bee as much ambition in Corah as in Aaron and as much pride in refusing to be governed as in desiring to govern and to consider whether these two speeches are very unlike is there none in the Assembly fit to be president but one page 15. line 4. and this the Congregation is all holy wherefore then lift ye up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord Numb. 16. 3. The thing that I desire him to know is this that the Person who writes this is one of them who is to be governed and not to govern and therefore would not have written it had he not bin perswaded that it was most agreeable not only to justice and equity but to the holy Scriptures and all antiquity And for the light which he saies pag. 7. has discovered to the reformers that at the beginning there was no difference of a Bishop from a Presbiter wee desire him not to be too confident of any light which will not abide the discussion of sober Reason and does so suspiciously balke all the ancient writers to be Judges of that namely whether a Bishop were above a Presbiter which they might not only discerne with their minds aswell as we but even see with their eies and as it were experimentally feel with their hands which we cannot but rather that he will remember that of the Apostle that Satan sometimes changes himself into an Angel of light and causes that to be reverenced as an illumination which many times is but an illusion Lastly to those who are obstinate to retain whatsoever is established I shall onely say this that falsehood cannot subsist without some truth to uphold it that something certainly is amisse that causes this generall and constant clamour in which the voice of the whole people being perhaps in some few particulers the voice of God †it would be a sin in us not to hearken to it and I fear it is one cause of our chastisements that we have bin deaf to it so long And here I cannot but commend in this one particular though in some things I must crave leave to diffent from him the prudent Moderation of the Author of the ANTIREMONSTRANCE namely that he fetches his pattern of reformation not from the times of persecution nor from the Eastern Empire being times and circumstances unfit for our Case but from the times of Charles the Great a Prince of great valour and piety and wisdom and learning and governing a people in Customes and Constitutions not unlike to this of ours To conclude that abuses may be taken away and good uses continue and be restored is the desire and prayer of all good and wise men and there being but three things to be considered in the Bishops their Order their jurisdiction their Persons the first is antient and universall almost to all Christians the second where it is extravagant may be limited by good and prudent Laws and their Persons are not so great but the offender may be corrected by a higher Authority I have done humbly submitting whatsoever I have written to the judgement of the holy Catholique Church the Spouse of Christ to my deare Mother the miserably distracted Church of England beseeching God to amend and forgive the Authors and causes of it and to the wisdom and Justice of the High and most Honourable Court of Parliament FINIS †As that the Lords day be intirely kept holy by publike prayers hearing the word and other exercises of Devotion That pietie and godlinesse the substance of Religion be more attended than rites and ceremonies the shadow of it onely That residence on Benifices with Cure and the instruction of souls be mainely attended That the Clergie wait diligently on the Spirituall function without hunting after secular imploiments That the censures of the Church be not issued by Lay-men and that in them reformation of life be more aimed at Especially that all Church government be by Rule and Canon and none left Arbitrarie
A MODEST ADVERTISEMENT CONCERNING The present CONTROVERSIE about Church-Government Wherein the maine Grounds of that Booke intituled The Vnlawfulnesse and Danger of Limited Prelacie Are calmly examined LONDON Printed for Robert Bostock Anno 1641. A MODEST ADVERTISEMENT CONCERNING The present CONTROVERSIE about Church-Government THe blessed Apostle Saint Paul writing to Timothy Bishop of the Church of Ephesus as is confessed by all Writers though in this last age of the world it is at length disputed what the meaning of that word Bishop is among many instructions that hee gives him concerning the direction of the Presbyters and People committed to his care begins first with this Exhortation that Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thankes be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty Teaching us thereby both that all Government is the Ordinance of God and that it is an effect of his great love to his children to be placed in such a State where temporall peace and true Religion are so joyned together that they are not put upon the fiery Triall to lose the contentment of this life to attaine the happinesse of that which is to come Neither is this onely a great blessing of Almighty God but a duty also that belongs both to our care and wisedome and even to our Piety and Devotion it selfe to indevour as much as in us lies to preserve a quiet and a peaceable life together with all godlinesse and honesty This therefore seemes to me to be the end that all religious Prudence ought to aime at that men be not in their consultations so mis-led either by some appearances of godlinesse and faire colours of extraordinary zeale as thereby to hazzard the disturbance of the publick quiet nor on the other side so wedded to the enjoying of their temporall good as to neglect the attaining of that which is eternall This foundation being laid let us apply it to the Controversie now in hand and so eagerly pursued by those who are swayed by different Interests and Opinions concerning the retaining or amending or totall changing of Ecclesiasticall Government And first let mee have leave to propose a few Questions to those who so earnestly desire a totall change and to bring a new face of things into the Church of England Of which I humbly desire them that they will as in the presence of the Lord consider with all godly Wisedome Passion and Prejudice being laid aside and then make answer with truth and sobriety First therefore Is the Discipline already established so ill that they who live under it are not capable of salvation May they not enjoy the vertues of Faith and Hope and Charity and Humility and repentance from dead works May they not be justified and sanctified in this Church of ours Are they inforced by it to any Action which is in it selfe a sin or to omit any work in it selfe very good If so certainely those great Lights of our Reformation have beene in a great darknesse and those our Episcopall Martyrs who have laid downe their lives for the love of Truth have beene exceeding miserable Secondly the Discipline they so much desire in stead of it are they all agreed of it what it shall be Or if they be is it of Divine or Humane institution If of Divine can this be plainly proved out of the holy Scriptures And shall the sense of the places thence alledged be made evident and necessary by true Logicall inference not to perverse gain-sayers but to such as seeke for truth with indifferency and sincerity Or if the sense be probable only is it such a sense as is countenanced by all holy and learned Writers through all ages of the Church Or is it a late sense acknowledged by all Protestant Churches Or by some onely and by others accounted to have little probability Or is there any place of Scripture that will not admit of a sense which to some men will appeare probable especially if they bee ingaged by Faction or interest Lastly is their Discipline commanded plainly by God upon paine of Damnation or the contrary plainly forbidden For so it must be if it be unlawfull as is pretended for nothing is unlawfull in Divinity but what is against some Divine Law And the Episcopall Discipline being already in possession is it not just and equall that the arguments brought against it be much more convincing than those that are brought for it seeing Possession it selfe is one reason why it should continue For though those Principles which are laid for proving the unlawfulnesse of limited Episcopacy were granted namely that All Officers in Gods House must be of Gods institution That man can no more make the Office than give the Grace but That the Institution of the Office must proceed from Him that gives the blessing to the work For these are the maine grounds of that Booke concerning the unlawfulnesse of limited Prelacy which is written with much Art Eloquence to insinuate into unwary Readers I say if these Propositions were granted the sense of them will be but this That none may administer the Sacraments impose hands preach the Word nor use the Keyes but such as Christ himselfe hath appointed to doe so And that it is otherwise practised in the Church of England is not yet proved and when it is proved may easily be amended without noise or scandall But that among these who are by Christ enabled to execute Duties some may not be higher and some lower during life is the thing that is required to be proved out of plaine Texts of Scripture or sound grounds of uncontroverted Divinity when this is done this Controversie will be ended But it will be required also that the same proofes be brought for the whole Discipline and every part of it which shall be established In the meane time many places of Scripture are alledged by those who maintaine Episcopacie and these places are interpreted not by a few late Writers in a little spot of the World here in the West but by all Christian Writers since the time of the Apostles for fifteene hundred yeeres and by the agreeable concurrent practice of all Churches in Europe Asia and Africa though flowing from different fountaines and having beene founded by severall Apostles which alone shewes the Order to be Apostolicall and that as the Creed for Doctrine so this for Practice was delivered from the beginning So that the proofes of it are all Ages of the Church divers Empires very many Kingdomes in which there are many Provinces whereof some one is bigger than Scotland and the Netherlands and those parts of France in which the Presbyteriall Discipline is accepted and above a thousand Bishopricks many of which were the Chaires of the Apostles Disciples and other Saints in Scripture among different Sects of Christians that are of severall Communions and received this Order from severall beginnings not