Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	call_v	church_n	national_a	2,044	5	11.4074	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57861	A true representation of Presbyterian government wherein a short and clear account is given of the principles of them that owne it, the common objections against it answered, and some other things opened that concern it in the present circumstances / by a friend to that interest.	Rule, Gilbert, 1629?-1701.	1690 (1690)	Wing R2228; ESTC R28113	15,541	24

the constant practice of the Church was to give such deference to ●●em as they were Generally satisfyed with the Elections And they may still be perswaded that it will be the care of Elderships and Presbytries to do nothing that they can Justly complaine of Besides that it may be presumed that no Minister who regardeth his being useful or his own Peace and Comfort will enter into a place with the dislike of any considerable part of the People either for Number or Quality If it be objected that there were great Divisions and Tumults about Elections in and about the Year 1650. Answer 1. So there were in the primitive Church which the Advocats for Patronages use as an Argument against our Opinion And yet that Church did not think of such a Remedy as puting the Election in the hand of one single Person nor of taking it from the People 2. At the time mentioned there was a lamentable Schism in the Church about other Matters and therefore it was no wonder it appeared in this Matter also People were for choosing Ministers that were of the same Sentiment with them about the things then in Controversie and this Schism was Industriously kept up and promoted by the Rulers that then had enslaved this Nation by force of Armes and made use of Our Factions to wreath their Yoake on our Necks It is a wide consequence to infer from this that the priviledge of choosing their own Pastors should alwise be taken from the People of God 3. When divisions appear in this matter the controversie is to be decided by the Session or Presbytery Synod or General Assemblies And if it amount to the breach of the Peace the Magistrate is to interpose his Authority These are the proper remedies of such divisions and not to deprive both parties of that which is their Right and Christs grant to them because they cannot agree about it It were a strange way of composing Civil contendings about Meum and Tuum if that which they con end about should be taken from both and given to a third Person the better way is the judge competent is to decide in favour of him who is found to have the best Right if Arbitrators cannot compremise the matter So it is here Another Objection the 10 Is concerning a question that ariseth from the present circumstances of this Church under which it is Judged Necessary that the Goverement of the Church should be in its first setlement in the hands only of them who are known to be truely Presbyterian Before we consider what is objected against this It may be nedful to lay down the case And the grounds of the necessity of what we desire resulting from it It is then to be considered That the Church of Scotland hath almost ever been Presbyterian It received that Government with Christianity and retained it while the Antichristian Doctrine and Government prevailed in other parts as hath been of late made appear And after it had been overrun by Popery it was reformed by Presbyters and that Government as it is founded on Scripture so it hath continued in this Church ever since the reformation save that it had some short interruption which did alwayes breed disquiet in the minds of People and troubles in the Nation and sufferings to some of the most Sober and best of the Ministers and People And when in the Yeare 1662 That Government was suppressed and Prelacy set up by an Act of Parliament this deed was never consented to by the National Church but Presbytery as it had been settled by the Authority of the Church and State so continued and doeth continue settled by the Authority of the Church Whence it may rationally be deduced that the Ministers that entred by and under Prelacy neither had nor have any Right to be Rulers in the Presbyterian Church they having had no call nor Authority given them from her whatever they might have in another Church that the State set up in the Nation beside the Church that then was in being from which a great Body of Ministers and People did dissent which Authority they were never suffered to exercise even in their own Church It is also to be considered that on this happy Revolution the King and Parliament have been pleased to abolish Prelacy And have declared their Resolution by their Authority to settle Presbyterian Government From this it followeth that the Prelatick Clergy should not be admitted to a share in this Government Except such of them as shall by the Presbyterian Church be found qualified for the Ministry and such from whom there is no hazard of overturning that Government that now is intended to be established For they being more in number than the Presbyterians is it to be imagined that Presbyterian Government can be safe in their Hands or that they will not erect a prelacy in the Church or something instead of it or some way that is inconsistant with Presbytery in its purity And there being many among them known to be Insufficient Scandalous or erroneous It is not possible that the Church can be purged of such if they have the Government but rather there is an hazard that the best Men should be cast out and that by Church Authority least they should stand in the way of their Designs Wherefore as they have no just Right to such power So Necessity which quicquid coegit defendit doth barr their Exercise of such power in the present juncture Mean while Presbyterians do declare that they do not desire that all these Men should be restrained from the parochial exercise of their Ministry And that who ever among them as soon as the Church can be in case to purge her self is not proved to be Insufficient Scandalous Erroneous or extremely negligent shall be cordially received into Her Society And have the full Exercise of their Ministry And that where uncontroverted Scandals cannot be charged on them none shall be dealt with as Scandalous because of their having had a Hand in this late publick Defection These things thus laid down let us hear what is objected against this course 1 st This is to set up Prelacy among Ministers even while it is so much decry'd that a few should have Rule of the Churches and the rest excluded Answ. It is no Prelacy but a making distinction between Ministers of one Society and th●se of another Though they be Ministers they are not Ministers of the Presbyterian Church they have departed from it we have continued in the good old way that they and we professed It is not then unreasonable that if they will return to that Society they should be admitted by it and not be Imposed on it to overturn it At the Reformation from Popery was it a Prelacy in the few Protestant Ministers that they were not willing to let the Popish Priests govern the Church Or did Nehemiah and the Iews pretend to any power over Tobiah Sanbaliat and their party that they would not suffer them to build with them Pardon these Comparisons they are not intended to parallel our Brethen with either of these sorts of Men except in this that they are not of the Presbyterian Church more than those others were of the Protestant or Iewish Church and that there is hazard from them to our way as well as there was from the other to their wayes Obj. 2. By this means the lesser party in the Church of Scotland shall exclude the greater from the Government Ans This is not absurd where the greater party have left the Church they were of and the lesser hath abode in it or rather are left as the constituent Members of it And when that greater party hath set up another frame of a Church which they are now forced to part with when they would return to the former way they cannot Incorporate again with them who abode in it without their consent especially where this consent is ready to be given on any tolerable Security for the way that the lesser party doth o●●e and the other departed from Obj. 3. What warrant is there for leaving to these men the Parochial exercise of their Ministry and to deprive them of the other part of if seeing the exercise of the Ministry in Teaching and Ruling is Quid Indivisum Answ. There are two Reasons for this one is the necessity of the Church which for such a critical interim as our lot is fallen into may warrant that which out of such an exigence and for a constant continuance in the Church were unwarrantable It is necessary on the one hand that the Parishes be not deprived of their Labours l●st a great part of the Country should be destitute of all Gospel Ordinances It is as necessary on the other hand that they have not Ruling Power in the Church with the P●esbyterians left that Government which Christ hath instituted and which is now designed to be Settled be over-turned And we know that many things may be done in turbato Statu Ecclesiae such as we now are in which ought not to be allowed in paccato Ecclesiae Statu Another reason is we do neither deny their Teaching nor their Ruling Power Yet Teaching being common to the one Church way with the other we may well allow to them the exercise of that among us while Ruling being different in their way and ours and the principle that they hold in it being eversive of our way it is rational to deny them a share among us Not to insist on farther Objections whatever inconveniences may seem to follow on this conduct may be answered by the force of Necessity already held forth and objected by the speedy settling the Church upon its right Basis. FINIS LICENSED Aprile the 18. 1690.