Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A81282
|
The case of peoples duty in living under a scandalous minister, stated and resolved
|
|
1684
(1684)
|
Wing C965; ESTC R229514
|
12,032
|
23
|
the Holy Apostle Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you So also 1 Thess 5.12 13. And we beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly for their work sake Again 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double Honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine But if ill honour them nevertheless as Rulers not only in point of Maintenance but Esteem for so I conceive we may infer from the Text. Honour them for Gods sake as set over you in the Lord for their Work sake as Watching for your Souls for their Character sake as Elders and Rulers for their Doom sake that they may be able to make their Account with joy and not with grief and for your own sake lest the contrary Practice be unprofitable for you For the Ordinances are Gods their Efficacy is from God and your Service herein is done to God on purpose to confound all glorying in Man St. Paul speaks of some that preached Christ out of envy with purpose to add Affliction to his bonds Phil. 1.15 16 17 c. who therefore must certainly be very bad men yet since Christ was preached he therein did rejoyce yea and would rejoyce You do not think that the Morning and Evening Sacrifices under the Law were to be neglected because of the sinfulness of Elies Sons or that their wickedness gave warrant to the people to abhor the Offerings of the Lord. St. Paul taxeth the Corinthians for manifold Enormities and Sins in the receiving of the Lords Supper And it is not unlikely but the Ministers might share too much with the People in those failings which were so prevailing and general yet all his Arguments tend to the better qualifying themselves to become more worthy Receivers but by no means in the least to the exempting them from that most necessary and most indispensible Duty I know you will say you plead not to be excused from the Ordinances but only for a liberty to hear some body else But then Sir what becomes of that mutual Relation betwixt a Pastor and his People and of that mutual Obligation of Duty of each towards other How shall they hear without a Preacher saith St. Paul And how shall they preach without Hearers say I. But you will again say That some body will hear him if you do not to which I reply If your Principle be good and true they ought not and if the rest follow your Example who are a leading Man in the Parish they will not Whence it follows that the People are at liberty to go to whom and where they list while the same Man as you and I have known shall leave the Church of England to go to the Presbyterians from thence to the Independants thence to the Anabaptists next to the Quakers and at last cast off all regard to the Worship of God So true is that saying That Toleration in one Age is Atheism in the next if not in the very same or that That the first step to Apostacy is the forsaking of Publick Assemblies Considering all which I am confident all the worst of Inconveniences from a Minister that is a bad Liver and yet teacheth well are not worthy to be put in the Ballance with those sad and dismal ones above-named to which more might be added But Sir I am further to beseech you to weigh seriously and without prejudice these following Considerations with respect to the publick as well as to your self 1. That upon this very same Principle that you think of leaving your Pastor upon and his Communion viz. Because he is a wicked sinful Liver did Donatus found that lamentable and woful Schism which did create so much disturbance and misery to the Church of Christ in St. Augustine's time and a long time after I had almost said ever since And as it began in a sad Schism and was accompanied with manifold grievous Heresies in the Church so it went on with Commotions and Rebellions in the State Donatus and his Faction as they grew in power denying Obedience and Conformity to the Publick Laws upon the account that they were made and administred by wicked Men. I would undertake for the truth of this sad Example in each particular if I thought that you either knew it not or were so hardy as to deny it But we need not look back so far for it was this very Principle which first set on foot and after brought to pass those Barbarities Outrages and bloody Executions in Germany of later days And in truth that Doctrine which blew the Trumpet to our lamentable and unhappy Commotions here in England both in Church and State For First they began as you well know to traduce the Bishops and whole Clergy as most sinful and wicked Men calling them Idol Idle Shepherds dumb Dogs swearing drunken unclean Priests Incaruate Devils Cogging Cozening Knaves Desperate formal Atheists Robbers Wolves c. for the sad Truth of all which with a great deal more I need only to turn you to their publick Sermons Libels and Centuries which are now in Print and some of which even the most invective have been lately re-printed Next for the good King and his Government in the State His Sacred Majesty King Charles the First was so sensible of the like hard Speeches and Prints as he himself saith The worst Effects of open Hostility came short of those designs for I can more willingly lose my Crown than my Credit nor are my Kingdoms so dear to me as my Reputation and Honour Again These soul and false Aspersions were secret Engines at first employed against my peoples love of me that undermining their Opininion and Value of me my Enemies and theirs too might at once blow up their Affections and batter their Loyalty Thus this Principle hatched up the Covenant for Reformation and more pure Religion as was pretended and that fed and maintained that long and bloody Civil War which ended in the Ruin of King and Laws Religion and Church for a time I had not revived the memory of these said Truths had it not been necessary to shew you what bad use designing Men make of this bad Principle how under the appearance of Zeal against Sin and Jealousie for God and his Glory it carries them to all violation of Sacred Duty and exposeth all Persons and Things that are Sacred to all sorts of most ungodly Outrages and Villanies so easie a thing is it to find faults and make Offenders when partiality and prejudice come to sit upon the Bench God help the Innocent Donatus and his Party after his Example refused Communion with Caecilianus then Bishop of Carthage because he was as they said
scornful 3. But let it be granted that your Minister is indeed scandalous Yet this in my Opinion will not warrant you in your designed purpose of leaving his Ministry For 1. Since you are so much offended and grieved with the Errors of his sinful life there is the less danger of infection or getting any harm to your self by what you observe and censure in him Your Souls health I am perswaded will never be impaired by those sins which your Soul abhorreth Quibus mali placent in unione ipsi Communicant malis Quibus vero mali displacent eos emendare non possunt non factis eorum sed Altari Christi Communicant Augustin Epist 162. 2. Since you say that your Minister is nevertheless a very excellent Preacher which is not a thing impossible I conceive your Wisdom and Duty is to distinguish betwixt the good and the bad to put a difference betwixt his Doctrine and his Life for Gifts and Grace you know Sir are two different things and a Man may have Gifts for the edification of others and yet want Grace for himself St. Augustin I am sure makes a vast difference betwixt the visible Ministry of the Word and Sacraments and the invisible Grace of God in his Controversy with the Donatists in this very Argument as you shall see anon And on Matt. 23. Ideo audiuntur saith he utiliter qui etiam utiliter non agunt And St. Paul supposeth that a Man may be a Preacher unto others and yet become a Cast-away himself 1 Cor. 9.27 We read in the Gospel of an unfaithful and unjust Steward set over the Houshold of God It is further plain from Luk. 9. that Judas was sent forth and commissioned with the rest of Christs Disciples The holy Spirit chargeth the Bishops of several of the Churches of Asia with sundry heinous failings and sins and yet honoureth them with the glorious title of Angels of their respective Churches Rev. 2. and 3. Chap. Yea our Saviour himself tells us Mat. 7.22 23. that many will be disowned and condemned by him as workers of Iniquity who yet have prophesied cast out Devils and done many wonderful Works in his Name From which it is plain that a graceless Person may have extraordinary gifts for the Work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ Those holy persons such as Zachary and Simeon Anna Mary and Joseph continued all along in the Communion of the Church of the Jews whose Rulers were so vile as to flay the Prophets and to kill those that were sent unto them from God Yea we find our Saviour and his Apostles frequently in the Temple attending upon the Ministration of the High Priests on their Solemn Feasts though generally in those days they came into their places by bribery were very bad Men and not qualified as the Law of Moses required We read likewise that it was the manner of our Saviour Christ to enter into the Synagogue every Sabbath day to hear the Scribes and Pharisees read and expound the Law whose wicked lives he nevertheless most vehemently inveighs against upon all occasions You shall furthermore find our Blessed Lord besides his own Example and Practice to give Directions to his Disciples and the Multitude in the very Case which is before us Mat. 23.1 2 3. saying The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's his Seat all therefore mark that whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not ye after their Works for they say and do not What hear these whom thou hast denounced so many bitter woes against even woe upon woe in this very Chapter What the Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites those blind Guides whited Sepulchers Graves that appear not That bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them upon other Mens shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers that shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men that neither go in themselves nor suffer them that are entring to go in that devour Widows Houses and for a pretence make long Prayers c. What shall we that are thy Disciples and can hear such a Heavenly Preacher as thou art who speakest as never Man spake go to hear such wretches as these Yes saith Christ They sit in Moses's Chair have the stamp of publick Warrant and Authority therefore hear them St. Augustin brings this Text of our Saviour to prove the same Question I am about and to the same purpose Laicus enim qui vultâ—bene vivere cum attenderit Clericum malum quid dicit Dominus dixit Quae dicunt facite quae faciunt facere nolite Ambulabo viam Domini non sequar istius mores audiam ab illo non verba ipsius sed Dei. Sequar Deum sequatur ille cupiditatem suam Augustin in Johan c. 10. Modo ea quae ad Cathedram pertinent recta praecipiant saith St. Hierom. Vult autem Dominis hunc ordinem Divinitus esse constitutum ac proinde audiendam esse veritatem etiam ex ore mercenariorum hypocritarum doctorum so the Learned Mr. Beza upon the Text. Whereas the Priests were sometimes simple and sometimes wicked Men lest any should despise the Ordinance of God for their unworthiness the promise is made by God Numb 6.27 And they shall put my Name upon the Children of Israel and I will bless them saith Mr. Amsworth Expositors all all that ever I saw at least agree in this matter I might also to strengthen this add the Testimony of the Ancient and other Modern Churches but I shall content my self with transcribing the 26th Article of the Church of England saying Although in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good and sometimes the evil have chief Authority in the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments Yet for as much as they do not the same in their own Name but in Christs and do Minister by his Commission and Authority we use their Ministry both in hearing the Word of God and in receiving the Sacraments Neither is the effect of Christs Ordinances taken away by their wickedness nor the grace of Gods gifts diminished from such as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministred unto them which are effectual because of Christs institution and promise although they be ministred by evil Men. To this Doctrine do all the best Reformed Churches agree witness the Harmony of their Confessions The contrary unto which is the Doctrine of the Papists and Anabaptists and Brownists and Family of Love with some others only of the most extravagant of the Dissenting Parties from the present establishment Our Lord Christ acknowledgeth the power even of Pilate over himself and saith It was given him from above If he be indeed your lawful Minister sent by them in Authority and so settled by the Laws of the Land as I know he is this is interpretatively the Will of God and your Duty seems to me to be plainly chalked out by