Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
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A47280
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The sober conformists answer to a rigid conformists reasons why in this juncture no alteration should be made in the government of the Church of Scotland.
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Ker, William.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing K346; ESTC R8036
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26,163
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32
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of Bishop and Presbyter are used indifferently as signifying the same thing nothing given in direction to the ordinaty Officers of the Church is peculiarly applicable to Diocesan Bishops yea and the Superiority of one Pastour above another is expresly prohibited both by Christ in the Gospel and Peter in his Epistle but they will al 's o insult over you as impudent in pretending that for your vindication which not only the Generality of the Learned among the Clergy but all the greates t of our Champions also as Bancroft Bilson Low Sutclive Whitgift Hooker c. do deny to be clear or concludent in our Favours undervaluing this Topick most laboriously as being conscious it is against them asserting that Apostolick Institutions of Church Government do not take away the Indifferency and Mutability of it according to the conveniency of every particular Church And as for these few Learned men who maintain the Divine Right of Episcopacy they do ingenuously confess that there is no Episcopacy in any Church now which doth not in many things Deviate from the Primitive Episcopacy which they own and they will readily acknowledge that Episcopacy as its constitute in Scotland either as to its Elevation to such an hight of Superiority and Power over Presbyters or its complication with sâ—ch gross Erastianism or its Conjunction with civil Dignities and Characters is not only quâ—te Different from it but directly opposite to it So that it is the hight of Impudence to have pleaded no alteration from the Topick of Apostolick Institution which doth so evidently prove the necessity of an Alteration even in the sense that both Parties have of it and it is scarce so excuseable as the confidence of some of our Writers who doubt not to say roundly that albeit Episcopacy was not the Government of the Church in its Infancy yet it is better suted to it in its present Maturity which thâ— ugh it be not a sufficient ground of preferring humane Inventions before Divine Institutions yet is less intolerable because it hath some shaddows and collour of Reason for it And after the great light that these Famous Presbyterians Blondell and Salmasius Parker and Didoclavius have given to the advantage of Presbytry in this controversie is the only shift left us to evade the Force of their Arguments both from Scripture and Antiquity against us The next thing ye assert is that Episcopacy hath the Advantage of a Natural Reception by all Christian Churches from CHRIST to Calvin Sir Your Phrase of a Natural Reception is s o Dark and Ambigous that they will put what sense on 't they will and perhaps deride you and it both by confessing that Episcopacy had a great advantage of Reception from the natural Corrupt and Carnal Reasonings and Inclinations of Men who are naturally Ignorant that the Excellency of all the means of the Churches Edification is their Institution by a Supernatural Divine Wisdom and Authority because they are not only adapted to Supernatural ends but depend intirely for their Efficacy upon a Supernatural Divine Power and Blessing and who are naturally no less Artogant to add the Invention of their own vain Wisdom as no less useful and necessary and to expect Gods Blessing thereupon which he hath promised only to his own Institutions But albeit they put a more Fabourable sense on your Words as importing an Early and easie Reception yet they will not only retort that several acknowledged corruptions had as easie reception as it and far more early then such an Episcopacy as this of ours which taking it complexly we our selves cannot deny would have been odious and intolerable in the Primitive Church but they can likewise quite enervate your Argument by proposing to your consideration the Gradual and Insensible Progress of the Mystery of Iniquity which the Apostles observed to have begun its motion and to be misteriously working even in their time and therefore could not be much regarded yea scarce observed in the primitive Church so full of unexperienced simplicity and extended Charity wherein there were many Pastours so Eminent for their Wisdom Gravity Holiness and Humility as seemed to challenge and easily obtained more then ordinary Deference and Respect from their Brethren and that from one Degree to another untill at last through time the Church degenerated into a Prelatick Government which could not be unacceptable or at leas t intolerable to the Generality being so well suited to the Superstitious the Predominant Genius of these Times though it past not altogether without a witness from some of the most Learned and Seeing Men then living who were not so much incerted with the common distemper of the Age they lived in but that they could both look back to the Primitive purity and parity from which Episcopacy had declined and forward to the Papal corruption and Tyranny to which it insensibly and gradually tended as it should at large by Blondel and Salmasius to the full conviction of all who read their Labourious Writings Yea they will not only Enervate your Argument but turn the edge of it upon your self by instancing the Albigenses who preserved the Presbyterian Government from the Apostles time to Luther and whos e Testimony against Diocesan Episcopacy is as strong as it is by our own Confession against other Romish corruptions Nay they will come nearer home and cite credible History narrating Scotland not to have received Episcopal Government for some hundreds of years after it received the Christian Religion as not only Bucchannan our famous Historian sheweth but our own great Doctor Forbes confesseth in his Irenicon And finally they will foil this Argument quite by shewing Episcopacy to have met with a more early and easie Ejection out of the Church when it was Reformed from corruptions as a Native step of its Reformation then ever it had reception by the Church even when declining from its ancient Purity And though England hath continued Episcopal yet they will ask what reason is there for Justifying the the Episcopal Government more then Her Ceremonious Worship and why may not that Church be condemned for retaining the one as well as the other and they have too evident grounds for imputing their Contumation to the stiffness of Q. Elizabeth as the Chief if not the Sole hindrance of the Ejection of both out of England as well as the other Reformed Churches which was earne stly desired by the most Learned and Pious Divines in the Church though when they found their endeavours fruitless they choosed rather to comply therewith then disturb the Peace of the Church and Kingdom The last thing in this Reason is that Episcopacy is by Experience found to be the best adapâ—ed for preservation of Order Peace and Vnity Preshyterians will hiss the Argument out of doors because its the very same which Papists use against Protestants for justifying the Papal power And it is more easie for them to resort our answer to Papist on our selves then for us to
unanswerable challenge of monor polizing the specious name of the Church of Scotland to us excluding them because we have receded from old standing Ecclesiastick Laws without any other warrand then new Civil Laws contrary to them and upon that account charge us with Schism unwarrantable separation from them having no Evasion left us but that we are the more numerous part of the Clergy which scarce makes our Separation tolerable far less justifiable But that which is as unbecoming us as unacceptable to them is your pleading no Alteration which will stumble your Readers with prejudice in the very entry For how ever difficult it be to prove the necessity of such an intire Alteration as Presbyterians desire yet they can easily pitch upon many things which we cannot ingenuously deny should be altered And the book entituled the Reformed Bishop writen by one of our Clergy opens a wide door to them Yea we are all of us too sensible that our interest has been scrued up to so dangerous heights by the Laws that there is no stable Basis left to establish it in the Consciences of those who own it And we have Reason to fear lest those odious superstructures of the Magistrates unbounded Supremacy over the Church such rigorous impositions on the Consciences of Subjects and so cruel persecution of all Dissenters which by an excess of Zeal we have erected to be the securities of our cause may so much discommend the whole Fabrick of our Government as to endanger the total ruine thereof And I have alwayes thought it a great flaw in the Episcopal Government in Scotland that as it hath been built upon no other Foundation and advanced by no other Methods then Civil Laws rigorously executed so these are framed in such an Arbitrary and persecuting stile that the least turn of Affairs will render them as odious as before they were grievous to all moderate and judicious Men of both parties And finally it surpasseth my imagination what hath incouraged you to add in this Juncture It s evident that the whole present Juncture of Affairs hath a bad Aspect on us and we can expect little Favour from such as duely consider the same What hath infatuated you to such an unaccountable confidence Alace your Reasons can never cancel these unhappy Addresses to the King so fresh in the remembrance of all Men That of the Primat sent to King in name of the Clergy to thank him for the Liberty granted to the Papists so full of base sycophantry and abject flattery that even the Popish King was ashamed of it which I fear be printed at Fdinburgh before the Convention though ye tempt them not to the remembrance of it and that other most unseasonable Testimony of our Loyalty expressing our Detestation of the P. of Orange his coming to England as an unjus t and unnatural Invasion signed by the Bps to their eternal s hame Neither will ever this Paper of yours counterpoise the P. of Orange His Declaration in reference to Scotland wherein we are represented as the grievance of the Nation and the necessity of an Alteration insinuated as clearly as could be done without directly reflecting on our Laws which though he doth not approve yet he Judgeth unseasonable as yet to condemn Nor Finally can all ye say for our vindication outcry the loud voice of the Rigorous Persecution and violent Oppression and innumerable Grievances which may be too justly charged on our party and the Presbyterians are too apt to represent and aggredge so as to extort pity and compassion even from the hardest hearted of our Grandies without such an irritating remembrance as you are But to come to your Reasons Presbyterians will think them weak enough though ye had not wronged them by such a vain Title I wish ye had forborn the first which is too Theologick and so not only discovers the Author to be of the Clergy who are little regarded when pleading for their own Interest but doth also give our Adversaries too large a Field wherein they are best acquainted and most expert Ye might have satisfied your self only with Politick Arguments which are the most proper and suitable to our cause and would seem to be the Sentiments of some Judicious Pers on of another Quality agenting it and so be a great deal more acceptable and considered with the less prejudice But I see no kind of reason in your Paper which Presbyterians cannot answer without any difficulty and with great advantage Your first Reason hath three things in it which though it be sufficient simply to deny because meerly asserted yet our Adversaries will not pass them so bluntly they give too fair an occasion to them of giving the sharpest and sorest wounds to our cause that it can meet with and of prepossessing mens Cons ciences with such evident Convictions in their favour as will render all your other Reasons ineffectual for perswading them to favour us The I. thing in it is That Episcopacy hath the advantage of Apostolick Constitution a very fair Plea and plausible Pretence which ye would exceedingly oblige the greater and better part of your Beethren by making good But how can we expect this of you when the Learned Hamond who excells all that ever took that Plea in hand for him notwithstanding all his wrested Criticisms of Scripture and stretched Allegations from Antiquity hath not fully satisfied us in this point so that all the Sober and Learned among us except a very few Judge Church Government a point of Indifferency not peremptorly determined by Christ or His Apostles and that Episcopacy is preferable only for its Conveniency And whether the Report be true that Dr. Burnet hath acknowledged its Inconveniency for Scotland I know not But I have heard some of the most Judicious of our Clergy ingenuously confess that though to a People unbiassed with prejudices as in England that were to chose their Church Government Episcopacy is preferable to Presbytery yet to the People of Scotland who are possessed with such invincible prejudices in favours of Presbytry as the Church Government which commenced with their Reformation from Popery and has been establi shed by so many full and free Church Judicatories and Ratified by the Civil Sanction of three Successive Parliaments wherein three Kings Successively were Personally present and with no less In s uperable prejudices against Episcopacy as a Relict of Popery which amongst other corruptions they were Reformed from and as an Innovation Introduced Advanced and. Established by Arbitrary and Violent Methods not only without but against the Consent of the Ministry and finally as an incouragement of Ignorance Profanity and Error to the paving the way for Popery to such a prejudiced and byassed People Episcopacy is both inconvenient and intolerable And Presbyterians do so well know that the sentiments of many of your Brethren differ from yours in this point that they will not only redicule you as Ignorant of the Scriptures wherein the Names