Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A49116
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The healing attempt examined and submitted to the Parliament convocation whether it be healing or hurtful to the peace of the church.
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Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing L2968; ESTC R26161
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37,353
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36
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if they will stand to what is more maturely and pertinently by them alledged and proved agreeably also to their own practice for Diocesan Episcopacy as established in the Church of England If those Dissenters who were so importunate and industrious to advance their Discipline on the ruines of the established Church had proceeded on the Principles laid down by the Divines above-mentioned whereof this is one that they lay hold on viz. That the forms of Government not being plainly exprest in Scripture are alterable and may by the Authority of the Civil Magistrate be determined to this or that species which yet they will not grant of their own Discipline they ought then to acquiesce in that Government which was established and to which all those Divines most willingly submitted as the best in all the Christian World and though by reason of their dissent from it they had drawn on themselves the execution of some moderate Penalties yet if they had been fully perswaded that they did suffer for a good Conscience and for Righteousness sake they ought like good Christians to have taken it patiently and not by Railing by Sedition by forming Schisms and meditating Rebellions seek to avenge themselves and return evil for evil but contrarily blessing being thereto called by the Example and Precepts of their great Master but when they returned evil for good and hatred for good-will and thought themselves persecuted because they could not grasp a Power to persecute their Superiours this was not agreeable to that wisdom that comes from above which is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated And if our present Dissenters be satisfied of the purity of our Doctrine they may by the Principles which are laid down submit to that Discipline and Government that Authority doth establish there being nothing in it contrary to the Word of God but wholly agreeable to the constant practice of the Universal Church I think it sufficient to solve all that hath been alledged out of our Divines to clear these two things 1. What kind of Government was setled by the Apostles 2. What Answer may be given to the Objections so often mentioned from St. Hierom. As to the first it is evident that there was a Superiority in the Apostles to those to whom they committed the care of the several Churches whether they were Bishops or Presbyters and as the Apostles dyed their Successors in Ecclesiastical Power who in all Ages were the Bishops were the Subjects of that Superiority such as Timothy Titus Clemen Linus c. and their Successors as they stand recorded in Ecclesiastical History for what the Apostles did for the perpetual Order and Government of the Church was agreeable to our Saviour's Institution and all Antiquity bears proof to this Truth that from the Apostles days there were setled in the most eminent Churches of Hierusalem Rome Antioch and Alexandria several Bishops that had a Superiority over the Presbyters in their respective Churches and that the three Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons were established in those Churches in those purest and most Primitive times insomuch that they who will not admit those Testimonies will be to seek for one of the best Proofs for the Canon of the Scripture As therefore we believe the Succession of Roman Emperours from the Writings of such Historians as lived near their times so may we believe the truth of such Orders of Men and of their Successions as it is delivered by Men of good Credit and Honesty that lived near those times and have handed down in undoubted written Records from Age to Age St. Polycarp Ignatius Clemens who conversed with the Apostles Ireneus Justin Martyr and others that lived with them then Origen Clem. Alexandrinus Tertullian who succeeded them and many others who lived within two hundred years after the Apostles from whom Eusebius had the Materials of his History and refers to them for the truth of his Relations He had the Acts of the Martyrs and the Books of Hegesippus concerning the Acts of the Church from which and other helps from the very Persecutors of the Christians he compiled his History and particularly the Succession of Bishops Clemens Rom. in his Epistle to the Corinthians speaks of the Officers of the Church in his time alluding to those under the Law The High-Priest hath his Office the Priest his Station and the Levite his Ministry the Lay-man his Office let every one worship God in his Order Ignatius mentions these Three Orders in his Epistles so plainly that the Enemies of those Orders have martyred him again in his Reputation denying his Epistles to be genuine which the Learned Bishop Pearson hath irrefragably asserted and so hath Dr. Beveridge the Authority of Apostolical Canons which have been owned by the Councils and expresly assert the Three Orders so that tho' while the Apostles lived the Names might be confounded yet immediately on their deaths all Ancient Writers have distinguished them because such as succeeded to their Power were Bishops and yet all the Minister's or Elders were not so for a Parity is usually the Parent of Confusion and if such a Parity had been setled by Christ or his Apostles how could it be that as St. Hierom says The whole World should agree for prevention of Schism to alter what Christ had established Was the whole World i. e. every particular Church which are it seems agreed on setting up a Bishop above Presbyters wiser than our Saviour or had they Authority so to do And if they did so by sufficient Authority why will the Presbyters as generally agree to pull them down now as their Ancients did to set them up So that I see no shadow of Reason why we may not subscribe to that which is said before the Book of Consecration That it is evident to all Men diligently reading the Holy Scripture and Ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been ever these Orders of Ministers in the Church Bishops Priests and Deacons 2. As to St. Hierom's Testimony the import of it is this That tho' the Apostles had a Superiority over Presbyters yet when they died they did not bequeath that Power to others but left it in common to the Presbyters whose management of it was such as it begat Schisms and Animosities for suppression of which it was thought fit through the whole World to chuse out of the body of the Presbyters one that should have a Presidency over the rest so that this Presidency was not an Apostolical Institution but Ecclesiastical and Prudential Constitution wherein St. Hierom doth not only contradict the Joynt Suffrage of all the Ancients but his own Testimony Against this Opinion of St. Hierom some affirm that what he said was in a Discourse against some proud Deacons that would equal themselves with the Presbyters which was as great a presumption as to invade the Office of the Bishops seeing in most things as St. Hierom says the Bishops and Presbyters were of
the same Power for Quis patiatur saith St. Hierom c. Who can endure that they whose Office it was to attend on Tables and Widows should equal themselves to those at whose Prayers the Body and Blood of Christ is consecrated But to let this pass I say 2. This Opinion of his reflects on our Saviour and his Apostles as if they had not sufficiently provided for the future Peace of the Church and that if the Presbyters in after-Ages had not been more provident the Church would have wanted a Remedy against Schisms And if such a Remedy were thought necessary by the whole World of Presbyters then is the Office of a Bishop founded on Natural Reason for it is most true that the Peace of the Church which consists of a great number of the Clergy which are as subject to Passions as other Men cannot be secured in St. Hierom's Opinion without a Superior Power over them Cui si non exors ab omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur Schismata quot Sacerdotes To which if all the rest of the Clergy do not yield Obedience there may be as many Schisms in the Church as there are Priests And thus it would follow that neither Christ nor his Apostles did provide so well for the Churches Peace as common Prudence and Natural Reason would direct 3. It being granted there was a Superiority in the Apostles it is alledged That after their Deaths the Government for a long time fell to the several Presbyters until the inconveniency of it appeared by the increase of Schisms and then it was agreed Toto orbe through the whole World to advance one Presbyter with Power over the rest But when the Succession of Bishops is apparently recorded in most of the eminent Churches immediately after the decease of the Apostles it is an incredible story to tell us that the Power of Governing the Church was in the Body of the Presbyters of which there is not the least Testimony in Antiquity for any one Church nor any for the Time Place or Persons when this Toto orbe decretum this new alteration should be made nor is it probable that all the World would agree at once to make an alteration in Church-Government so that the result is this There was a Superiority in the Apostles days which ceased for a while and then the Presbyters raised in common but that Rule or Government was found to be the occasion of many Schisms and then the Apostolical Superiority was decreed by all to be Re-established 4. St. Hierom's words do not consist with themselves for when he says these Presbyters did exalt one chosen from among themselves to a higher degree whom they named a Bishop how can that consist with what immediately follows That a Presbyter had not the Power of Ordaining Quid enim facit exceptâ Ordinatione Episcopus quod non faciat Presbiter It seems by this the ancient Presbyters did first for necessary Causes first set up Bishops and then it will sound ill if our new Presbyters should put them down unnecessarily So that the most of what hath been alledged from the Divines of the Church of England in favour of Mr. J. H's New Model depending on the Testimony of St. Hierom and that being proved to be a single and slender Opinion contrary to the Practice of all Churches and not consistent with itself I suppose the Reader will not be of Mr. H's mind to destroy the established Constitution for a new dangerous and impracticable Invention which indeed was no elder then Socinus the first Inventer of Independent Churches granting to every Congregation a Power to Elect their Church-Officers for Governing their Affairs and deciding of Controversies And by this Design I perceive Mr. J. H. is of the same Judgment with Dr. Owen as well in Church-Discipline as in Doctrine whose Treatise of The In-dwelling of the Spirit and Praying by the Spirit not without a Contempt of our Lord's Prayer Mr. J. H. in his peaceable Disquisitions and Animadversions on a Discourse writ against Dr. Owen's book of the Holy Spirit he attempts to reconcile to the Truth as now he doth the Independent Principles and Practices with the Church of England FINIS ERRATA PAge 3. line 2. after the word Controversie add the Less is blessed of the Greater P. 4. l. 35 for of read or