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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A31518 Certain queries upon Dr. Pierces sermon at Whitehall Feb. 1 1663 (1663) Wing C1745; ESTC R18163 5,055 12

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CERTAIN QUERIES UPON Dr. PIERCES SERMON At Whitehall Feb. 1. LONDON Printed in the Year 1663. CERTAIN QUERIES UPON Dr. PIERCES SERMON At White-hall Feb. 1. Querie 1. WHether it be seasonable at this time to exasperate the supream Magistrate with any aggravations of dissenters opinions when the dissenters sit down peaceably and grant themselves erroneous and therefore desire a toleration only for what is publickly judged an errour and not the establishment of any thing to be publickly allowed as truth If we the Heterodox part of this Nation were in the right we would crave publick countenance and settlement whereas now we humbly desire only publick favour and indulgence as those that are presumed to be in the wrong and therefore it is but lost labour to spend whole Sermons to prove that we are so Qu. 2. To what end was this discourse directed not to confirm his Majesty in the errour of our waies for he had declared his resolution against our doctrine before not that I have hope to widen the breach between us for that is not the work of a Minister of the Gospel of peace not to instruct the people for they can never satisfy themselver by your discourse which leads them to fathers and other authours they do not know to such quotations as they know not whether they are wrested or not not to convert us who you knew should not hear you nor when we have heard you should we with freedom offer our selves against what you say which must be this since we are converted Qu. 3. But supposing your discourse seasonable and useful what do you mean by that which was from the beginning do you mean primitive examples or primitive rules if you mean primitive examples they are not a rule of Reformation because we are not to do as men have done but as men ought to do If you mean primitive rules you mean either the Scripture or something added to it not any thing added to it for you say Cursed is he that addeth any thing to it or taketh away any thing from it and if you mean the Scripture it self the Query is Wrether it be a rule of reformation as some men understand it or as all men do not as all men do for then either we should have no reformation all men never agreeing to the rule of it or we must have as many reformations as there are opinions in the world and as you reform beyond us according to your sense of Scripture so the Presbyterian reforms beyond you in his sense of it and the Fanatick beyond him according to his sense and primitive rule of Reformation If as some men do understand the Scripture it be a rule of Reformation then either as you do or as we do If you say as you do you are partial in your selves and you allow your selves what you with so much bitterness deny us to be Lords over mens faith to be judges of controversies If as we do then you in your whole discourse have beaten the air you have prevailed in vain and they have heard in vain Qu. 4. Whether when you have earnestly contended against the novelties of the Church of Rome you have contended as you say for that which was from the beginning seeing you contended only for the old Protestant way And that besides the Church of Rome the Eastern Churches claim a greater antiquity than yours and if Popery were down there are a world of Sects and waies that desire no more than to try with you out of the Scripture and that which was from the beginning the whole throng of non-conformists cry To the Law and to the Testimony i. e. Let us worship God according to the Scripture Let us serve God in spirit and in truth as he was served in the beginning you teach for doctrines the traditions of men making the Commandments of God of none effect And you know who it was that said the Scotch way comes neerest the primitive way than either yours meaning the Catholick and speaking to a Catholick Gentleman or ours meaning the old Protestant and indeed Qu. 5. What pains you put your selves upon when you say we must reduce all things to what they were in the beginning where do you find saith the Fanatick Lordbishops in the beginning where were the Bishops Courts in the beginning where was Infant Baptism in the beginning where was your Sunday a Sabbath in the beginning you use Cross Surplice Copes Altars Organs Church-musick but in the beginning it was not so you impose upon tender consciences say they you undoe poor men for things in themselves indifferent you hinder men to preach the Gospel necessary to salvation for things in themselves not necessary to salvation in the beginning it was not so you sing your prayers you use vain repetitions you pray by book they say in the beginning it was not so you they say have rich Bishopricks Deanaries Prebendaries Sinecures Pluralities as you your self Dr. Benit are Rector of Brington President of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford Prebend of Canterbury Canon of York Chaplain to his Majesty in the beginning it was not so you have Lay chancellors Officials Surrogates Faculty-men promoters and a whole train as they call them of Popish officers they tell you in the beginning it was not so you preach in Gowns you pray and preach by the hour-glass you meet in Steeple-houses you are called Masters you preach for hire in the beginning saith another sort it was not so the Question is then whether by examining our way by what there was in the beginning you have not taught others to examine yours so too and to cast off the authority of your way for a new reformation as you have cast off the authority of ours for an old one and whether you will not as little bear the rest of the Scripture and the primitive times in the Presbyterian sense of them as you think we can bear the rest of them in your sense of them Qu. 6. Why should the Disciplinarians i. e. the Presbyterians deny themselves from Aerius as you say p. 7. who only said that a Bishop is no more a Minister than any other Minister rather than from St. Peter who 1 Pet. 5.12 saith he was no more though an Apostle than an ordinary Presbyter The Presbyters that are among you I exhort who also am a Presbyter Feed the flock of God which is among you performing the office of Bishops or from Clemens Romanus who saith Presbyters and Bishops are one why should the reprobatorious derive themselves from Simon Magus who believed no eternal way to which men might be reprobated or the Manicheer who only taught fate in things of this world either than from the Apostle Paul who writes of God thus that before the children had done either good or evil he says Jacob have I loved Esau have I ●ated He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Why should the