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 |
|
A30391
|
A modest survey of the most considerable things in a discourse lately published, entituled Naked truth written in a letter to a friend.; Selections. 1685
|
Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.
|
1676
(1676)
|
Wing B5835; ESTC R16335
|
27,965
|
32
|
their courses in making such breaches in Christ's Vineyard and Sheepfold that lets in the Foxes and Wolves and to be disposing our own minds into such a gentle temper that notwithstanding all past provocations and all the advantages we have from the Laws and Law-givers yet we may be willing to yield even to the peevish weakness and unaccountable scruples of these that separate from us as far as can be without giving just occasions of scandal on the other hand But to give them such advantages as this Discourse does is that which I cannot reconcile to the common Rules of Prudence and Edification I wish this Writer had also considered how unjust a way of reasoning it was to argue from the indecencies and abuses any may be guilty of in the use of some of the Ceremonies that they ought to be taken away Alas at that rate the most sacred and solemn things shall not escape since all things when they fall into the hands of mortal men are subject to such abuses He did also very much forget himself when he reckoned the Bowing to the Altar one of the Ceremonies of the Church which has never enjoyned it neither by Canon nor Rubrick for in it all are left to their freedom So that this can furnish none with so much as a pretence to excuse their separation For his long Discourse about Church-men and their Qualifications and labours chiefly about Preaching iâ— certainly deserves great consideration and in it we cannot steer by a better Rule than those most excellent constitutions Antiquity has left us which are indeed so divine and pure that if this Age could bear such a Reformation I know no greater blessing could befal us But it is more to be wished than hoped for to see Plato's Commonwealth built upon the ruines and dregs of Romulus We ought to converse much with the writings the Ancients have left us concerning the Qualifications and Employments of the Clergy such as Nazianzen's Apollogetick Chrysostome's Books of the Priesthood and Gregory the Great 's Books of the Pastoral care But whatever defects we may charge our selves with this is so far from contributing to our Schism that it is rather the effect and consequence of it for where there is bitter zeal and strife there is confusion and every evil work and so it was not needful to put this in a Book concerning Union Nor have these that divide from us any reason of insulting over us whatever we may have to humble our selves for those things and least of all for Preaching which perhaps is at this day come to such perfection that if all our other defects were as much mended as these of Preaching are we might on all accounts be esteemed the best and most excellent Church that ever was since the Ages of Miracles In a word to end all that needs be said on these Heads the grounds of our communicating with any Church being chiefly the purity of their Doctrine and Worship and that their order and Rules are such that they hinder the exercise of no Christian virtue but very much advance it no personal failings or defects how publick and gross soever ought to make any to separate from such a Society For till I be involved in some guilt which no other Man's faults can do by joyning in Communion with a Church I ought still to abide in it This must either be laid down for a Principle otherwise Schisms and Rents shall be endless for as long as men are men personal failings and corruptions are unavoidable And now having thus far examined the most considerable parts of that discourse except what relates to Bishops and Priests about which you desire chiefly to be satisfied and upon which the Authour has laid out his utmost strength I come at last to consider that which I shall do with that candour and calmness I have carried along with me hitherto His opinion is That the Bishops Precedency over the rest of the Clergy with Authority to ordain to exhort to rebuke to judge and censure as he found cause is of Apostolical institution and hath been continued in the whole Church of God ever since so that nothing but necessity if that can excuse those that set up another Form of Government therefore this Government ought to be still kept in the Church But after all this he thinks the Bishops and Priests are one and the same order so that by their Ordination they have no more power conferred on them than Presbyters have This he studies to prove 1. From the silence of the Scriptures that do not mention two such orders 2. Because he finds but one Ordination which he thinks cannot confer two Characters 3. Because the Apostles call themselves Presbyters and no where Bishops 4. Because St. Clement in his Epistle speaks only of Bishops and Deacons 5. Justin Martyr calls the Bishop only President 6. St. Cyprian calls himself Praepositus 7. Because the Form of ordaining Elders is the same with which Christ ordained the Apostles Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose Sins ye forgive they are forgiven them 8. The bad consequences of admitting this difference of Order are great for it will condemn all the other Reformed Churches Upon these reasons he rejects the Difference of Order and instead of that says the Apostles ordain'd all equally to be Bishops or Presbyters but some having more eminent gifts than others the Apostles did by Commission empower and constitute These to be Overseers and Bishops over the rest from which beginning this practice has been kept up in the Church ever since Therefore he thinks Priests ought not to ordain other Priests but yet having done it it is valid and may without a crime be done by a Priest that were by shipwrack or any such chance cast into a Countrey where no Person can be had that is thus commissionated to ordain This is a full and clear account of his opinion and of the reasons that led him to it I shall now examine both and First let us see what all this will amount to This must signifie little or nothing to the composing differences among us but will rather inflame them For a Presbyterian may upon this supposition very reasonably plead that since by his order he has the same Authority that a Bishop hath he ought not to be obliged or limited in the exercise of it That any such Commission the Apostles gave some extraordinary men must have been but temporary for their lives for if they had judged this a thing needful to be kept up in the Church they had given such lasting directions about it constituting it a distinct order as might have preserved it still in the Church but since they did not that we have no reason to acknowledge any such Power now And therefore if Priests see their Bishop doing what they think amiss they may assume that Power their Order has given them and judge and depose him too if need be I am confident that
and taking Therefore I shall study so to clear it that I hope no scruple shall remain about it There are some conditions that are simply necessary to Salvation without which no man shall see the face of God and these do indispensibly oblige all without exception There be other positive precepts which are of obligation to all who possibly can obey them so that the contempt or voluntary want of these is a high provocation they being both means of Grace and symbols of Christian fellowship instituted by Christ and to continue for ever in his Church Yet few are so severe as to deny a possibility of salvation without these I know St. Austin was of this severe side but in that he is generally censured as having exceeded it is an hard Doctrine to condemn all Infants that die without Baptism at least to exclude them from the Kingdom of Heaven as St. Austin did For if the Child die in the belly or birth it is not conceiveable that it should be punished for the want of that which God himself made impossible And the Primitive Church did generally believe that such as being converted to the Faith did suffer Martyrdom even though they were not baptized were certainly saved In like manner if in some Northern and poor Countries where Wine can scarce be had and goes at excessive rates if persons be so poor that they cannot get Wine and so either die without the other Sacrament or offer some other liquor in the Chalice it were a strange degree of hardness to deny salvation to the people of such a Clime So also the Offices of the Church are necessary by a divine appointment even in the principles of most of the Non conformists and yet neither this Authour nor they will deny but even a Laick if cast upon an Island where he upon learning their Language came to instruct them in the Christian Faith and could have no commerce with any Church under such a necessity he might perform all divine Functions for all Christians are a Royal Priesthood and absolute necessity supersedes all the rules of order decency and Government And the Presbyterians who acknowledge as great difference between a Presbyter and a Laick as we plead is between a Bishop and Priest yet acknowledge these to be true Churches which began upon no orders at all where some persons that understood the Scriptures did gather Churches and administer the Sacraments and they can say nothing for justifying such Churches which is not applicable to us in this case Therefore when the Western Churches were so corrupted that none could any longer with a good Conscience receive orders in them or submit to the terms upon which only their Communion could be had If any Priests seeing these errours did instruct the people in the truth and finding no other way possible to propagate or preserve that purity of Doctrine did ordain other Priests though this was irregular and defective yet we are not so uncharitable as to judge people under these circumstances but acknowledge that absolute necessity supersedes all positive precepts I know some have been severe on this head because they judge they are under no absolute necessity But that is a great mistake those that live under a Prince of a different Religion as the Protestants in France do could not with any security come over hither to receive orders For can it be imagined that Princes who are always jealous of their Authority and chiefly of such of their Subjects as differ from them in Religion would suffer them to come and be ordained in another Prince's Dominions they would certainly use that as a pretence to justifie their severities against them Nor would they permit them to come under such a strength and compacted unity as this constitution of the Church would bring them to Therefore these are to be pitied helped and prayed for and not insulted over And for those other Churches that are under Princes or a Government of the same Religion they are in no less captivity to their superiours who will never suffer them to go to another Church for orders and they would think it a thing inconsistent with the peace of their States to let any Ecclesiasticks get into so calumniating a power where the constitution of their policy is Democratical It is to be regrated that at first their Bishops were stubborn and would not receive the Reformation which the chief of the Reformers did very much lament Nor is it to be wondred if these Churches being thus formed under these necessities and not according to the ancient and Apostolical constitution in their ordinations have since that time studied to justifie themselves upon other accounts than bare necessity In that we think them in an errour but it being no fundamental one and the necessity that at first forced that disorder lying still over them we dare not be so severe as to deny them to be true Churches Though we hold there is still such defects among them that they are not compleat and perfect in all their constitutions But after all this Charity to those under such hardships we have great cause to conclude much more severely against those who being born in a Church that had no such defect in it's first Reformation but was exactly moulded after the primitive pattern and continued in so flourishing an estate that it was the just glory of the Reformed Churches and the chief object of the envy and hatred of the Roman was at first separated from and then subverted by some hot-headed Schismaticks Therefore the disparity being so great between our dissenters who are such out of Choice and in opposition to all Laws both of Church and State and the foreign Churches who are irregular out of necessity our judging tenderly and favourably of the one does no way oblige us to relax and forego these excellent primitive constitutions on the account of the others among our selves And thus far I think I have given you a satisfactory account of all that this Authour says on this head You know me and my circumstances better than to suspect either interest design or obligation has engaged me to these perswasions since by all these I am rather byassed another way I have written nothing but that about which I am so well assured that I know I am able to make good every particular I have set down And therefore though I do not allow you to let my name go with this Paper if you make a more publick use of it It is not that I fear either the censures of engaged and partial Zealots or the replies of a contentious Disputant so he abstain from railing and fooling in neither of which my Genius which was born for severer exercises will permit me to engage But now to wind up all after so tedious a Letter I must conclude with my 〈◊〉 regrates that we are brought to such a pass that discourses of this kind find such acceptance among us The Patient is in a high distemper when he loaths wholesome food and longs after every fantastical quelque chose he hears of So it is indeed to be lamented that the best composures that do either inform or edifie the Reader are neglected and if any thing gets vent that tends to make the most sacred things grow cheap and fall in contempt it is bought up at any rate and read with an insatiable itch I wish the Authour of that discourse may with serious and deep reflections consider what he has done in this work of his he has made all the enemies of Peace triumph and has put some popular things in the mouths of his Readers with which they think themselves sufficiently armed to baffle both the Articles and Rules of our Church I am confident he is so serious and so sincere a man that when ever he is made sensible of this he will be very ready to take out of the way any scandal which these his conceptions have brought forth In fine I pray God teach us to know the things that belong to our Peace that so our animosities and heart-burnings being laid aside we may all study to seek the things that belong to Peace and the things whereby we may edifie one another If I have wearied out your patience with a long Epistle I was forced to it by the subject you commanded me to write about And yet I have done it as short as was possible which has made me overlook many lesser errours in that discourse which were not of such general concern but discover how easily that Writer takes many things upon trust It was needless to amuse the World with these particulars and I am more a Friend and Honourer of that Authour than to engage with him meerly out of humour to contend with him or to expose him least of all to make a needless show of reading But I will make an end London May the 23. 1676. Advertisement A Conference about Religion held in London April 3. 1676. between Edward Stillingfleet D. D. and Gilbert Burnet With some Gentlemen of the Church of Rome Octavo price 2 s. 6 d. Sold by Moses Pitt at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard FINIS Ezek. 14. ver 7 8 9. Acts 13 ver 2. 3. Iren. lib 3. cap. 3. Et apud 〈◊〉 lib 4. cap. 13 Lib. 3. advers Heret cap. 3. Apud Euseb Lib. 5 cap 24. a De prasc cap. 32. Cont. Marcion Lib. 4. cap. 5. * De Bapt. †De Cor. Milit. * Epist. 75. inter Epist. Cypr. * Cont. Lucifer Apud Euseb. Lib. 6. cap. 44. Can. 6. Can. 2. Con. Carth. 4. de Eccles Hier. cap 5. Can 3. Carth. and Dion ibid. Epist. 65. Epist. 10. Epist. 27. Ep. 31. 1 Cor. 12. v. 4. 5. c.