Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
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A47967
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A letter concerning the matter of the present excommunications
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Owen, John, 1616-1683.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing L1353; ESTC R9567
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11,968
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37
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the highest dishonour imaginable on Christ himself and the Gospel To make these things yet more evident and to show how remote the present Excommunications are from all possibility of affecting the Consciences of any I shall briefly pass through the consideration of these things which principally belong unto them and whereunto all their efficacy is resolved and that which first offereth it self is the Persons by whom they are administred The truth is there is such a variety of Scenes in this Tragedy and such different Actors in it from Apparitor with whom it begins unto the Jailor with whom it ends that it seems not easie whom to ascribe the animating power and authority that is in it unto But yet on a little consideration the matter is plain enough The Ministers of the Parishes wherein the Excommunicated persons are supposed to dwell by whom the sentence of Excommunication is rehearsed out of a Paper from the Court have no coneernment herein for they know nothing of the causes or reasons of it nor of the process therein nor do pretend unto any Right for the cognizance of them nor do for the most part know the persons at all on whose qualifications alone the validity or invalidity of the sentence doth depend nor can give an account to God or man of what is done as to right and equity and therefore I no way doubt but that these who are learned and pious among them do hardly bear the yoke of being made such properties those acts and duties which appertain unto their Ministerial function but it is known who they are who begin the work and carry on the process of it unto its final execution and I shall say no more concerning them but this alone That how meet soever they may be for the transaction of Civil Affairs or for the skilful managing of that work herein which they suppose committed unto them yet as unto any thing wherein conscience may be affected with the Authority of Jesus Christ they can be of no consideration in it If any man can but pretend to believe that our Lord Jesus by any Act Grant Law or Institution of his by any signification of his Mind or Will hath committed or doth commit the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven the power of binding and loosing of expelling out of and admitting into his Church unto these or such persons he hath assuredly confidence enough to pretend unto a perswasion of whatever he pleases They do not believe it themselves nor among themselves pretend unto any such thing but only a power to execute their own Laws or Canons They do not judg that any personal moral or spiritual qualifications are required unto Ecclesiastical Administrations which yet to deny is to undermine all Religion without which they may be fit for all Church Duties who are no better than that Arch-Deacon of Oxford who being charged with Immoralities in his Conversation justified himself by the soundness of his faith affirming that he believed Three Gods in one Person and besides he believed all that God himself did believe Let a man out of interest or fear or ignorant superstition strive never so much to affect his Conscience with the Excommunications of such men he will never be able to effect it But be the personal qualifications of those intended what they please the Question is How they came by that Power and Authority herein which they pretend unto They are Chancellors Archdeacons Commissaries Officials with their Court Attendants of whom we speak I confess these horrid Names with the reports concerning them and their power are enough to terrifie poor harmless men and make them fear some evil from them But Excommunication is that which no man knows on what grounds to fear from these Names Titles and Offices For that is the Name of a Divine Ordinance instituted by Christ in the Gospel to be admininistred according to the Rule and Law thereof but these Name and those unto whom they do belong are utterly forreign unto the Scriptures and as unto the Work to the practise of the Church for a Thousand Years what therefore is done by them of this kind must of necessity be utterly null seeing that as such they have no place in the Church themselves by the Authority of Christ. But however it be undeniably evident that they have no relation unto the Scripture nor can have any Authority from Christ by vertue of any Law or Institution of his nor countenance given unto them by any practise of the primitive Church yet what they do in this kind being pretended acts of Power and Authority an Authority for them must be pleaded by them But then it may be justly demanded of them What it is of what nature and kind how it is communicated unto them or derived by them from others This is that which those who are Excommunicated by them are principally concerned to enquire into and which themselves in the first place are obliged to declare and evince Unless men are satisfied in conscience that those who act against them have just authority so to do or in what they do it is utterly impossible they should be concerned in conscience in what is done against them or be any ways obliged thereby Here therefore they abide until they are satisfied in this just and necessary demand But here all things are in confusion they can declare neither what Authority is required unto what they do nor how they come to possess that which they pretend unto If it be from Christ how comes it to operate on the outward concerns of men their Liberties and Estates If it be meerly of man whence do they give the Name and pretence of a Divine Ordinance unto what they do If any should follow the clew in this Labyrinth it is to be feared that it would lead them into the Abyss of Papal Omnipotency As they exercise this power in Courts of External Jurisdiction and forms of Law they will not deny I suppose but that it is from the King but why do they not then act that power in the Kings Name For what is not done by his Name is not done by his Authority Ministers do not preach nor administer Sacraments in the Name of the King for they do it not by his Authority or by Vertue of Authority derived from him nor do Parents govern their Children or Families in his Name but their own because Authority for it is their own by the Law of God and Nature but that exercise of Power which externally affects the Civil Rights and Liberties of men must be in the Kings Name or the foundations of the Government of the Nation are shaken But I make it not my concernment what Name or Stile they use in their Courts Let it be granted for their own security that they have all their Power and Authority from the King it must be therewithal granted of what Nature it is namely Civil and not Spiritual but why then doth what they do
with Laughter Indignation and Confusion and if Dissenters are to be destroyed it is desired that the work were left unto the Penal statutes which as now prosecuted and interpreted are sufficient for it rather than that the name of Religion and a Divine ordinance should meerly for that end be exposed to contempt The last thing that I shall trouble you with at present is the consideration of the persons against whom the present Excommunications are blustered with the pretended causes of them These are they whom they call Dissenters concerning whom we may enquire what they are and the cause of this pretended Ecclesiastical severity towards them And as unto the first part of the enqury They are such as believe and make open profession of all the Articles of the Châ—istian Faith they do so as they are declared in the Scripture nor is the contrary charged on them There is nothing determined by the ancient Councils to belong unto Christian Faith which they disbelieve nor do they own any Doctrine condemned by them They profess an equal interest of Consent in the Harmony of Protestant Confessions with any other Protestants whatever They own the Doctrine of the Church of England as established by Law in nothing receding from it nor have they any novel or Uncatholick Opinion of their own It is therefore utterly impossible to separate them from the Communion of the Catholick Church in Faith or to cast them from that Rock whereon they are built thereby They do also attend unto Divine Worship in their own assemblies and herein they do practise all that is agreed on by all Christians in the world and nothing else for they do not only make the Scripture the sole Rule of their Worship so as to omit nothing prescribed therein to that purpose nor to observe any thing prohibited thereby but their Worship is the very same with that of the Catholick Church in all ages nothing do they omit that was ever used by it nothing do they observe that was ever condemned by it and this must be the principle and measure of Catholick Union in Worship if ever there be any such thing in the Earth to expect it in any other observances is vain and foolish Offering Prayers and Praises to God in the Name of Jesus Christ reading the Holy Scripture and expounding of it singing of Psalms to God preaching of the Word with the administration of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper in a Religious Observation of the Lords Day unto these ends all according as God doth enable them by his Spirit is the Sum and Substance of the Worship of the Catholick Church wherein all Christians are agreed These things the Scripture doth prescribe and these things the Church in all ages hath observed All differences about this Worship which have filled the World with inhumane contentions arose from mens Arbitrary Addition of Forms Rites Modes Ceremonies Languages Cringings Adorations which they would have observed in it whereof the Scripture is silent and Primitive Antiquity utterly ignorant And it may be it will be one day understood that the due observance of this Catholick Worship according as God enableth any thereunto leaving others at liberty to use such helps unto their Devotion as they shall think meet is the only Communion of Worship in the Church which the Scripture requires or which is possible to be attained About the imposition of other things there ever were since they were and ever will be endless contentions Wherefore these Dissenters practising nothing in the Worship of God but what is approved by all Christians particularly by the Church of England omitting nothing that either the Scripture or Catholick tradition directs unto they are notwithstanding this pretended Excommunication secure of Communion with the Catholick Church in Evangelical Worship Moreover they plead that their conversation is unblamable that they are peaceable in the Civil Government and useful among their neighbours if they do evil in these things let them that prosecute them bear witness of the evil but if they do well why are they smitten If they can be charged with any immoralities with any disobedience unto the Rule and Precept of the Gospel those by whom they are thus prosecuted are highly concerned if not in Conscience yet in Honour and Interest to manage the charge against them that some countenance may be given unto their Proceedings For the Law is not made as penal for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and profane and if it be otherwise with the Laws about these Excommunications they neither belong to nor are derived from the Law of God There are indeed great clamours against them that they are Schismaticks and Separatists and things of the like nature that is that they are Dissenters But in this case the whole force of any inference from hence is built on this supposition That it is the Will of Christ that those who profess Faith in him and Obedience unto him unblameably should be excluded from an interest in and participation of these Odinances of Divine Worship which are of his own Institution who will not comply with and observe such rights and practises in that Worship as are not so but confessedly of humane invention But no colour of proof can be given hereunto for it is directly contrary unto express Scripture-Rule to the Example of the Apostolical Churches and unheard of in the world before the branded Usurpation of Victor Bishop of Rome An Assertion of it is to prostitute the Wisdom Authority and Love of Christ towards his Disciples unto the wills of Men oftentimes pre-possessed with Darkness Ignorance and Superstition and other lusts as shall be more fully manifested if there be occasion Let any colour be given unto this supposition from Scripture or Antiquity and the whole cause shall be given up yet thus is it and no otherwise in the matter of the present Excommunications Persons of all sorts every way found in the Faith unreprovable in the Catholick Worship of the Gospel professing Love and Obedience unto Jesus Christ without blame are excluded what lies in them who manage these Ordinances of Divine Worship which the Lord Christ hath appointed and injoyned without pretence of any other cause or reason but only their not observance in that Worship of what he hath not appointed He that can believe this to be the Will of Christ neither knoweth him nor his Will as it is revealed in his Word and the Consciences of men are sufficiently secure from being concerned in that wherein such an open defiance is bid unto Evangelical Precepts and Rules with Apostolical Examples And further to manifest the iniquity of these Proceedings whilst these Dissenters are thus dealt withal all sorts of Persons ignorant profane haters of Godliness and openly wicked in their lives are allowed in the full communion of the Church without any disciplinary admonition or controul But as this serves