Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A62920
|
A vindication of Mr. H's Brief enquiry into the true nature of schism from the exceptions of T.W. the citizen of Chester, and sincere lover of truth.
|
Tong, William, 1662-1727.
|
1691
(1691)
|
Wing T1876A; ESTC R220899
|
35,683
|
99
|
is referr'd not to the Judgment of T. W. or of an Interessed Party but of all the unbyass'd part of Mankind upon a fair hearing which yet we could never obtain Mr. H's design was to create a good agreement betwixt Parties that had been so long and learnedly contending and in this I know of no professed Adversary he has but T. W. and whether his design be not more honest than this mans and his management more rational will be speedily tried Our sincere Lover before he finishes his Preface makes his honours to three sorts of Readers the Church-man the Dissenter and the Sceptick and he does it with as good a grace as can be expected from a man in his circumstances As for the true Member of his Church he 's assur'd of him that he has been taught the Candour to cover the faults of a weak Brother be the performance never so vicious Zeal for the Church will consecrate and make it pass with applause amongst such as himself and if they be but pleased he 's satisfied for to humour them was all he design'd Now to the Dissenter if he be one that has not sacrificed his name to the factious so as to divest himself of all Christian temper humility and consideration But what a strange supposition is this Is there ever a Dissenter in the World that is not devoted to Faction and stript of Humility They have formerly condemned us in the lump 't is well our Friends have learned to distinguish Well if there should chance to be such a creature he is desired to consider his desperate condition how humble considerate of a Christian temper and yet in a desperate condition this is as great a Riddle as the former In good earnest if a man may be in a desperate condition with all these Virtues I would desire T. W. to consider what the condition of that man is that appears to have none of all these The Dissenter however bids me thank him for his weak endeavours to snatch him as a firebrand out of the fire but I am also to tell him his weak service comes too late for it has pleased God to move the King and Parliament to do it who have already by their gracious Indulgence pluckt a great many Brands out of the fire of these mens rage and fury in which they and their Interest were almost consumed a blessing which we doubt not all the Angels congratulate to us excepting those whose business it is to accuse the Brethren and to raise storms and tempests in the World His last Address is to the Sceptick and if the Sceptick be obstinate and perverse an obstinate Sceptick is almost as great a Riddle as a humble Dissenter It has been the way of some men to represent all men as Sceptical and Atheists that have had larger Souls themselves and would not joyn with them in unchurching the greatest part of the World for the sake of a Mitre and a few Ceremonies and yet many of these Scepticks have as true a veneration for the Clergy and Church as T. W. himself for it can hardly be imagin'd that man can have any real value For an Office whose life does openly confront the great Ends thereof And now he takes leave of his Reader and turns him to Mr. H. himself and upon the first salutation blames him for not chusing the true Standard whereby to discover Schism Mr. H. chose no other but the Sacred Scriptures which being the great Law for the Government of Men must certainly be the truest Touch-stone of Sin and Duty and if the Schism this man would charge us with be not so according to the Standard of Scripture we shall not much dread the guilt or danger of it This is a hopeful beginning of Controversie to decline the sufficiency and propriety of Scripture as the Standard of good or evil But will this man assign a better yes the ninth Article of the Apostle's Creed I believe the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints But by what Standard must we discover the true notion of these words Who must tell us what the Unity of the Church is and what the Communion of Saints Must not Scripture be our Rule And must you not then come to Mr. H's Standard at last a happy Omen when the first Paragraph contains a plain affront both to Scripture and common sense But let us see how he goes on He offers to our consideration the Origination and first Existence of the Catholick Church which was before the day of Pentecost but how long before that day he does not tell us If a man pretends to acquaint me with the Origination of the World and tells me it was before the Babylonish Captivity I shall count him a ridiculous trifler but I suppose he means it was immediately before or a little while before the day of Pentecost and here indeed is a discovery worthy of its Author But had God no Church then amongst the Jews must they be excommunicated too for what cause pray Not for want of Ceremonies or a Pontiff I hope The man told us in his Preface the Angels in Heaven were the most glorious Members of the Church How must we lay these things together Were the Angels originated at the day of Pentecost had they their first Existence then or did the Members of the Body exist before the Body let the Citizen or any of his Cabbala solve these Riddles and I 'le promise him he shall be my great Apollo That the Apostles and Disciples were the Church we do not question nor the power Christ gave his Apostles to Preach the Gospel to all the World and he well observes that Christ's commission and charge That in every Nation they that believe might be baptized and so made Members of the Church How well they have observed their Commission who refuse to admit of Church-Members upon their profession of Faith unless they will also comply with some significant Rites of their own that are alien to the Scripture Rules some men may do well to consider and whether to deny Gospel-priviledges to those that in the Judgment of Charity are Believers be not to assume a greater power than that which this man calls the Universal Power given to the Apostles whereby they become guilty of the worst sort of Tyranny because the Liberties hereby invaded are of all others the most sacred and invaluable It is plain from this mans confession that to be a Disciple or Believer would make a man a Member of the Church in Apostolical times and we cannot but assent to that excellent saying of the now Bishop of Worcester It is pity that which would make a man a Disciple of Christ then should not be sufficient to make him a Member of the Church now but we have no reason to doubt the contrary and if such a person should be clave errante shut out of the Communion of a particular Church God would still look upon him as his
to understand it as any one that ever pretended to write upon the Subject In the fifth page we have an aggregate description of the Communion of Saints which we shall particularly examine and apply to the present case the Communion of Saints consists of these things 1. A firm Belief of all the Articles of Faith contained in the Apostolical Nicene and Athanasian Creed and why not in Scripture these Creeds are but of Humane Composition and some things in them want Explanation however so far we are within Communion though hereby the Greek and other Eastern Churches are shut out which the Citizen of Chester has no Commission to do 2. To partake all of the same Table he cannot mean the same individual Table but the same Eucharist in specie so far we are with him still But whether this will not exclude the Papists who by denying the Cup to the Laity have taken away in part the matter of the Eucharist I shall leave to his second thoughts who I believe will not be over-forward in Unchurching them for fear of breaking the Line by which his own Church hangs 3. To join all in the same holy Prayers and Supplications and in giving Thanks he cannot mean that in these Duties we must necessarily use the very same words without the least adding substracting or changing for then he Excommunicates all the World but those of his own perswasion and a great many of them too 4. To be subject and obedient to our Spiritual Rulers and Governours who have derived their Authority from the Apostles by a due Succession in all things pertaining to a Godly Life Decency and Order We are very desirous to give due Honour and Obedience to our Spiritual Governours who derive their Authority from Christ which is more proper than to speak of deriving it from the Apostles for Christ is the only Fountain of Authority and the Streams are derived rather from the Fountain than the Cistern It is observable the Mans Expression is sunk from an uninterrupted Succession to a due Succession to observe the Apostolical precepts in Government and Worship may make it up a due Succession but there 's more required to an uninterrupted one than so Now before he can say we want this Qualification for Communion he must prove that Diocesan Prelates are made our Rulers by a Divine Command A single Person taking upon him to govern some thousands of Congregations by such Rules and Officers as our English Prelacy uses and this by the Nomination of the Civil Magistrate without the Consent of the People or of the Ministers within the Diocess is a Creature we neither find in Scripture nor in Primitive Times and therefore can be no Spiritual Governour of ours by Divine Right let him prove this and he does something but till this be done his whole Book is as insignificant as waste Paper When this Man or any one for him has made it to appear that the Authority of a Diocesan Prelate Dean Lay-Chancellor c. over all in the Diocess is as certain and Sacred as that of Moses and Aaron we will not dare to dispute it for fear of Corah's doom but till this be evinced I hope he will not take it amiss if we be not frighten'd out of our Wits by such misapplyed Passages which we have often heard urged to back the Doctrines of Non-resistance and all those Principles of Slavery some Men have been endeavouring to instil into our Minds but as we see they have no great regard for such alligations themselves when adhering to them would be chargeable and dangerous so we believe they cannot heartily blame us if we despise them too In the last Paragraph of the fifth page we have the Communion of Saints described over again being willing I suppose to make up in the Number what is wanting in Weight and here we are told all those particular Churches who agree with the Primitive Catholick Church in all the Articles of Faith and in the External Visible Worship and Service of God are true Members of the Universal Church and in the Communion of Saints In what Bounds he will fix the Primitive Church we know not certain it is a Century or two made a very considerable change in the features of their Government and Worship but if we must take our measures by those Courches that are truely Primitive we fear not to put our selves to the Tryal That our Congregations have this agreement in Faith none will deny and he has not proved that we differ from them in the Essential or Integral parts of Gods Worship or in any considerable circumstance and that this Divine Worship and Service is Visible and External this Gentleman is but too sensible and 't is a very great Eye-sore to such as he that it is so much more Visible than formerly it has been If we will take his confident and repeated assertions for demonstration we may believe that the Church of England has from the first planting of the Gospel here retained the Apostolical power of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by an uninterrupted Succession of Arch-Bishops and Bishops in a right Line from the Apostles days to this present time but how uncertain this is and how inconsistent with other parts of his Book I suppose has been sufficiently manifested I shall therefore take no farther notice of it especially because that till the true Bounds of Episcopal Power be fixt by Scripture Rules it is as impertinent as uncertain After he has thus delivered himself of his crude and confused apprehensions he tells Mr. H. he has done it as cleanly as he could and that may be true enough for ought I know but 't is no fault of Mr. H's he could do it no better his Capacity and Employment indeed may be some excuse for his blunders but will by no means lessen the fault of his officious and confident impertinency in medling with things he so little understands We are no way concerned in the Citation of the Fathers brought in against us till he has proved that Episcopacy then was the same thing it is now and that the terms of Communion we scruple were ever imposed by them Ignatius charges the Bishop in his time to take a personal cognizance of every Member of his Church not excepting the very Servants It was the Custom then in every Congregation to receive the Sacrament every Lords day and they never received it nisi ex Antistitis manu but from the Hand of the Bishop What could such Bishops be more than Pastors of single Congregations but I shall forbear dipping into this Argument which has been so copiously managed by Blondel Baxter Owen Clarkson and others It is observable in the passage cited out of Irenaeus the Presbyters are said to have their Succession from the Apostles it seems they were the Apostles Successors as well as Bishops surely then they must have the same power if the Bishops claim the power they have as the Apostles Successors