Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A57744
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The late act of the convocation at Oxford examined: or, The obit of prelatique Protestancy: occasioning the conversion of W. R. (sometimes of Exeter Colledge in Oxford) to Catholique union
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Rowland, William.
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1652
(1652)
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Wing R2075; ESTC R219949
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37,064
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142
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to be lawfull against Scriptures Fathers and Councells and the very Catechismes wherewith we teach our children yet this he said on Sunday the 25. of Jan. 1651. at Lincolns-Inne I would not mention so high a crime to his dishonour if it had not been committed in that publique Theater and so first published by himselfe And by this we see what ground the other Bishop had for his ingenuous Confession To your third Still it runs right Here is poem talionis which God inflicts upon you Reflect upon this well and seâ— how justly God hath retorted upon you what your Pulpits belched constantly against us for so many years and through our sides against your and our parents and against the whole Catholique world in respect of which ye deserve not the imaginary title of a Shadow But you go on 4. And we desire it may be considered in case a Covenant of like form should be tendered to the Citizens of London wherein they should be required to swear they would sincerely really and constantly without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Treason the City Government by a Lord Mayor Aldermen Sheriffes Common Councell and other Officers depending thereon murther adultery theft cosenage and whatsoever shall be c. left they should partake in other mens sins whether such a tendry could be looked upon by any Citizen that had the least spirit of freedome in him as an act of justice meekness and reason How still it runs alike and justly to be retorted upon you from Catholiques and with some notorious advantage for this plea of yours is but a pretty fancy and ends in words but you have gone further with us we have been publiquely and ignominiously hanged with murtherers thieves and reputed Traytors and these have been looked upon by you as acts of justice meekness and reason as appears in my L. of Canterbury his Epistle to the late King But we will hear you further Secondly for Episcopall Government we are not satisfied how we can with a good conscience swear to endeavour the extirpation thereof first in respect of the thing it self concerning which Government we think we have reason to believe 1. That it is if not Jure Divino in the strictest sense that is to say expressely commanded by God in his Word yet of Apostolicall Institution that is to say was established in the Churches by the Apostles according to the mind and after the example of their Master Jesus Christ and that by vertue of their ordinary power and authority derived from him as deputed by him Governours of his Church 2. Or at least that Episcopall Aristocracy hath a fairer pretention and may lay a juster title and claim to a divine justification then any of the other forms of Church Government can do all which yet do pretend thereunto viz. that of the Papall Monarchy that of the Presbyterian Democracy and that of the Independents by particular Congregations or gathered Churches How feebly do these however learned men argue in this radicall point which cuts the very sinews and heart strings of their Idol their motions are unequall like a hen when her head is struck off they skip and leap inordinately with If 's and Ana's B. Vsher at the Isle of Wight gave a short come off saying that the Government by Bishops was not so necessary as to break the peace for it yet he scruples not to break the peace of the universall Church for things which they all confess less necessary In fine all of you are very short in this fundamentall point I love Lypsius his Laconisme rather then Cicero'es Dilatations but this must be considered promateria substrata this matter needed all possible to picks to strengthen it if you had them but I see your pantry is slenderly provided forasmuch as concerns your title to Episcopacy which is your aim to defend I will afterward shew the weaknesse of your title Had you consulted the Archives of the University and retrived the businesse now in hand to Wickliffs time and Tenets you would have found another kind of solution registred of the Convocation house and I believe much more savouring of well-grounded Divinity as applied to Episcopacy in it selfe not to yours For the comparison you make of Episcopall Aristocracy and Papall Monarchy are termes which your young Sophisters call Oucategorimaticall they signifie nothing as to this purpose For the question is not which is best but whether the first can be without the last you must first secure us de re then de modo For example there is a controversie betwixt Aristotle and Galen whether the seat of the soul is in the head or heart it were little to their purpose to assert one of these to be better then the other as separate from the other in its own nature but the way to determine it is from the operations of the soule to see first if it will give life to one without the other and therefore Averroes saith that he saw a ram walk a little when the head was struck off Truly this proof will hold in you you have made a great bluster for a time since the Popes head was taken off by Harry the VIII but ye see now you could continue no more then Averro's â—â—am because your life was from the Pope and upon this supposition the second question ceaseth Ye go on 2. But we are assured by the undoubted testimony of antient Records and later Histories that this forme of Government hath been continued with such an universall uninterrupted unquestioned succession in all the Churches of God and in all the Kingdomes that have beene called Christian throughout the whole world for fifteen hundred years together that there never was in all that time any considerable opposition made thereagainst That of Acrius was the greatest wherein yet there was little consideration beside these two things that it grew at the first but out of discontent and gained him at the last but the reputation of an Heretique From which antiquity and continuance we have just cause to fear that to endeavour the extirpation thereof c. Excuse me that I tell you here again you speak high words without sense as they are applied to your pretence of Episcopacy It is a great truth that Gods Church was universally govern'd by Bishops but this is not the question but whether your Schismaticall Bishops succeeded lawfully from that old Episcopacy that is whether the Church of God acknowledged Episcopacy lawfull which erected Altar against Altar which stood in division from all Bishops throughout the rest of the world and could not give letters Communicatories to Rome or to the other Patriarchs Your Proposition I deny not being in it self true as in the Councell of Constantinople where under Arcadius Origen's books were questioned the Fathers rejected not such books as werâ— found Orthodox notwithstanding his others were full of errâ—â—s and â—oth S. Hierome Ep. 75. and S. Aug. Ep. 9. followed the same method