Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	church_n	tradition_n	9,173	5	9.2350	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40803	[Two discourses] concerning episcopacy the former made by the Lord Viscount Falkland ; and the later by William Chillingworth.	Falkland, Lucius Cary, Viscount, 1610?-1643.; Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644.	1660 (1660)	Wing F327; ESTC R24319	8,740	18

Concerning EPISCOPACY The Former made by the Right Honorable the late Lord Viscount FALKLAND And the Later by his Friend Mr. William Chillingworth Published according to the Original Copies LONDON Printed for William Nealand Bookseller in Cambridge and are to be sold there and at the Crown in Duck-Lane 1660. A SPEECH CONCERNING EPISCOPACY Mr. Speaker WHosoever desires this totall change of our present Government desires it either out of a conceit that is unlawfull or inconvenient To both these I shall say something To the first being able to make no such arguments to prove it so my self as I conceive likely to be made within the walls of so wise a House I can make no answer to them till I hear them from some other which then if they perswade me not by the liberty of a Committee I shall do But this in generall In the mean time I shall say that the ground of this government of Episcopacy being so ancient and so generall so uncontradicted in the first and best times that our most laborious Antiquaries can find no Nation no City no Church nor Houses under any other that our first Ecclesiasticall Authors tell us that the Apostles not onely allow'd but founded Bishops so that the tradition for some Books of Scripture which we receive as Canonicall is both lesse ancient lesse generall and lesse uncontradicted I must ask leave to say that though the Mysterie of iniquity began suddenly to work yet it did not instantly prevail it could not ayme at the end of the race as soon is it was started nor could Antichristianism in so short a time have become so Catholique To the second this I say that in this Government there is no inconvenience which might not be sufficiently remedied without destroying the whole and though we had not par'd their Nails or rather their Tongues I mean the High-Commission though we should neither give them the direction of strict rules nor the addition of choyce Assiste●s both which we may do and suddenly I hope we shall yet the fear sunk into them of this Parliament and the expectation of a Trienniall one would be such banks to these rivers that we need fear their inundations no mo●e Next I say that if some inconvenience did appear in this yet since it may also appear that the change will breed greater I desire those who are led to change by inconveniences onely that they will suspend their opinions till they see what is to be laid in the other ballance which I will endeavour The inconveniences of the change are double some that it should be yet done others that it should be at all done The first again double 1. Because we have not done what we should do first and 2. Because others have not done what they should do first That which we should do first is to agree of a succeeding Form of Government that every man when he gives his Vote to the destruction of this may be sure that he destroy not that which he likes better than that which shall succeed it I conceive no man will at this time give this Vote who doth not believe this Government to be the worst that can possibly be devised and for my part if this be thus proposterously done and we left in this blind uncertainty what shall become of us I shall not onely doubt all the inconveniences which any Governmentment hath but which any Government may have This I insist on the rather because if we should find cause to wish for this back again we could not have it the means being disperst To restore it again would be a miracle in State like that of the resurrection to Nature That which others should do first is to be gone For if you will do this yet things standing as they do no great cause appearing for so great a change I fear a great Army may be thought to be the cause And I therefore desire to be sure that Newcastle may not be suspected to have any influence upon London that this may not be done till our Brethren be returned to their Patrimony We are now past the inconveniences in poynt of Time I now proceed And my first inconvenience of this change is the inconvenience of change it self which is so great an inconvenience when the Change is great and suddain that in such cases when it is not necessary to change it is necessary not to change To a person formerly intemperate I have known the first prescription of an excellent Physitian to forbear too good a diet for a good while We have lived long happily and gloriously under this Form of Government Episcopacy hath very well agreed with the constitution of our Laws with the disposition of our People how any other will do I the lesse know because I know not of any other of which so much as any other Monarchy hath had any experience they all having as I conceive at least Superintendents for life and the meer word Bishop I suppose is no man's aime to destroy nor no man's aim to defend Next Sir I am of opinion that most men desire ast not this change or else I am certain there hath been very suddenly a great change in men Severall Petitions indeed desire it but knowing how concern'd and how united that party is how few would be wanting to so good a work even those hands which value their number to others are an argument of their paucity to me The numberlesse number of those of a different sense appear not so publiquekly and cry not so loud being persons more quiet as secure in the goodnesse of their Lawes and the wisdom of their Law-makers And because men petition for what they have not and not for what they have perhaps that the Bishops may not know how many friends their Order hath lest they be incouraged to abuse their authority if they knew it to be so g●nerally approved Now Sir though we are trusted by those that sent us in cases wherein their opinions were unknown yet truly if I knew the opinion of the major part of my Town I doubt whether it were the intention of those that trusted me that I should follow my own opinion against theirs At least let us stay till the next Session and consult more particularly with them about it Next Sir it will be the destruction of many estates in which many who may be very innocent persons are legally vested and of many persons who undoubtedly are innocent whose dependances are upon those estates The Apostle saith he that provides not for his family is worse then an Infidel This belongs in some analogy to us and truly Sir we provide ill for our Family the Common-wealth if we suffer a considerable part of it to be turned out of doors So that fo● any care is taken by this Bill for new dwelling and I will never consent they shall play an after-game for all they have either we must see them starve in the streets

before us or to avoid that we must ship them some-whither away like the Moors out of Spain From the hurt of the Learned I come to that of Learning an I desire you to consider whether when all considerable maintenance shall be reduced to cure of Souls all studies will not be reduced to those which are in order to Preaching the Arts and Languages and even eminent skill in Controversies to which great leasure and great means is required much neglected and to the joy and gain of our common Adversary Syntagms Postills Catechisms Commentators and Concordances almost onely bought and the rest of Libraries remain rather as of ornament then as of use I do not deny but for all this want the wit of some hath attempted both and the parts of some few have served to discharge both as those of Calvin to advise about and dispatch more Temporall businesse into the bargain than all our Privy-Councell yet such abilities are extreamly rare and very few will ever p●each ●●●ce a Sunday and be any match for Bellarmine Nay I fear Sir that this will make us to have fewer able even in Preaching it self as it is separated from generall Learning for I fear many whose parts friends and means might make them hope for better advancements in other courses when these shall be taken away from this will be less ready to imbrace it and though it were to be wisht that all men should onely undertake those Embassages with reference to His Honour Whose Embassadors they are yet I doubt not but many who have entred into the Church by the Door or rather by the Window have done it after great and sincere service and better reasons have made them lab●ur in the vineyard than brought them thither at first and though the meer love of God ought to make us good though there were no reward or punishment yet it would be very inconvenient to piety that hope of Heaven and fear of Hell were taken away The next inconvenience I fear is this that if we should take away a Government which hath as much testimony of the fi●st antiquity to have been founded by the Apostles as can be brought for some parts of Scripture to have been written by them lest this may avert some of our Church from us and rivet some of the Roman Church to her and is I remember the Apostle commands us to be carefull not to give scandall even to those that are without Sir It hath been said that we have a better way to know Scripture than by Tradition I dispute not this Sir but I know that Tradition is the onely argument to prove Scripture to another and the first to every mans self being compared to the Samaritan Woman's report which made many first believe in Christ though they after believed him for himself And I therefore would not have this so far weakned to us as to take away Episcopacy as unlawfull which is so far by Tradition proved to be lawfull The next inconvenience that I fear is this having observed those generally who are against Bishops I will not now speak of such as are among us who by being selected from the rest are to be hoped to be freer then ordinary from vulgar passions to have somewhat more animosity against those who are for them then vice versâ lest when they shall have prevaild against the Bishops they be so far encouraged against their partakers and will so have discouraged their adversaries as in time to induce a necessity upon others at least of the Clergy to believe them as unlawfull as they themselves do and to assent to other of their opinions yet left at large Which will be a way to deprive us I think of not our worst I am sure of our most learned Ministers and to send a greater Colonie to New England then it hath been said this Bill will recall from thence I come now from the incoveniences of taking away this Government to the inconveniences of that which shall succeed it and to this I can speak but by guesse and groping because I have no light given me what that shall be onely I hope I shall be excused for shooting at random since you will set me up no Butt to shoot at The first I fear the Scotch Government will either presently be taken or if any other succeed for a while yet the unity and industry of those of that opinion in this Nation assisted by the counsell and friendship of that will shortly bring it in if any lesse opposite Government to it be here placed than that of Episcopacy And indeed Sir since any other Government than theirs will by no means give any satisfaction to their desire of uniformity since all they who see not the dishonour and ill consequences of it will be unwilling to deny their Brethren what they esteem indifferent since our own Government being destroyed we shall in all l●kelyhood be aptest to receive that which is both next at hand and ready made For these reasons I look upon it as probable and for the following ones as inconvenient When some Bishops pretended to Iure divino though nothing so likely to be believed by the People as those would be nor consequently to hurt us by that pretence this was cry'd out upon as destructive to His Majestie's Supremacy who was to be confessed to be the Fountain of Jurisdiction in this Kingdom Yet to Iure divino the Scotch Ecclesiasticall government pretends To meet when they please to treat of what they please to excommunicate whom they please even Parliaments themselves so far are they from receiving either rules or punishments from them And for us to bring in any unlimited any Independent authority the first is against the Liberty of the Subject the second against the Right and Priviledge of Parliament and both against the Protestation If it be said that this unlimitednesse and independence is onely in Spirituall things I answer first that arbitrary Government being the worst of Governments and our Bodies being worse than our Souls it will be strange to set up that over the second of which we were so impatient over the first Secondly that M. Sollicitor speaking about the Power of the Clergy to make Canons to bind did excellently inform us what a mighty influence Spiritual power hath upon Temporal affairs So that if our Clergy had the one they had inclusively almost all the other And to this I may adde what all men may see the vast Temporall power of the Pope allow'd him by such who allow it him onely in ordine ad Spiritualia for the Fable will tell you if you make the Lyon judge and the Clergy assisted by the people is Lyon enough it was a wise fear of the Foxe's lest he might call a knubb a horn And sure Sir they will in this case be Judges not onely of that which is Spiritual but of what it is that is so and the people receiving instruction from no other