M. 1. Leave modestly, to express dissent in a doubtful case may stand with Order. 2. If men do it disorderly, there be other Penalties besides ipso facto Excommunication: Every breach of the peace is not Rebellion, nor punished with Death.
But I'll tell you briefly what may occasion good men to say that their Ordinations are sinful.
1. In that they thereby obtrude Pastors on the Churches upon the bare choice of a Patron, without or against the peoples wills.
2. In that they professedly ordain such as their Canon forbids to Preach or Expound any Doctrine.
3. In that they determine that Bishops, Priests and Deacons are three distinct Orders, which yet is an undetermined Controversy among even the Learnedst Papists. And must we damn, and cut off men for that which the very Papists leave at liberty?
4. In that they ordain men to an Office which Scripture maketh no mention of. Dr. Hammond saith, that it cannot be proved that there were any Presbyters subject to Bishops in Scripture times, nor any but Bishops: None that had not power of Ordination and the Keys; nor any Bishops of a multitude of Churches and Presbyters, both which are here ordained.
5. In that they Swear Obedience to Arch-bishops and their Sees; and make Priests Covenant Obedience to their Ordinaries, as aforesaid.
If a godly man do as Bucer did to King Edward the Sixth, as you may see in his Scripta Anglic. and desire some of these faults to be amended, doth he deserve to be cast out as an impenitent wicked man for this? when they that will say, all's well that the Bishops do, may live quietly in open vice or ungodliness. As Dr. Stoughton saith, If you strike a Schismatic, and Christ find a Saint lye bleeding, and you be to answer for it, I would not be in your ⟨p. 116⟩case for all your wealth. If you must kill a Fly on the Forehead of a Child of God with a Beetle, or a Butchers Axe, you shall not use my hand to give the blow. If Chrysostom would rather have his hand cut off than give the Sacrament to a wicked man, tho' a Prince; I will rather have mine cut off than reject a Saint, or my Tongue cut out than curse Christs Members, lest he say I cursed him in them.
M. 1. Leave modestly, to express dissent in a doubtful case may stand with Order. 2. If men do it disorderly, there be other Penalties besides ipso facto Excommunication: Every breach of the peace is not Rebellion, nor punisht with Death.
But I'll tell you briefly what may occasion good men to say that their Ordinations are sinful.
1. In that they thereby obtrude Pastors on the Churches upon the bare choice of a Patron, without or against the peoples wills.
2. In that they professedly ordain such as their Canon forbids to Preach or Expound any Doctrine.
3. In that they determine that Bishops, Priests and Deacons are three distinct Orders, which yet is an undetermined Controversie among even the Learnedst Papists. And must we damn, and cut off men for that which the very Papists leave at liberty?
4. In that they ordain men to an Office which Scripture maketh no mention of. Dr. Hammond saith, that it cannot be proved that there were any Presbyters subject to Bishops in Scripture times, nor any but Bishops: None that had not power of Ordination and the Keys; nor any Bishops of a multitude of Churches and Presbyters, both which are here ordained.
5. In that they Swear Obedience to Arch-bishops and their Sees; and make Priests Covenant Obedience to their Ordinaries, as aforesaid.
If a godly man do as Bucer did to King Edward the Sixth, as you may see in his Scripta Anglic. and desire some of these faults to be amended, doth he deserve to be cast out as an impenitent wicked man for this? when they that will say, all's well that the Bishops do, may live quietly in open vice or ungodliness. As Dr. Sloughton saith, If you strike a Schismatick, and Christ find a Saint lye bleeding, and you be to answer for it, I would not be in your ⟨p. 116⟩case for all your wealth. If you must kill a Fly on the Forehead of a Child of God with a Beetle, or a Butchers Axe, you shall not use my hand to give the blow. If Chrysostom would rather have his hand cut off than give the Sacrament to a wicked man, tho' a Prince; I will rather have mine cut off than reject a Saint, or my Tongue cut out than curse Christs Members, lest he say I cursed him in them.
