Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	article_n	church_n	homily_n	2,467	5	11.7893	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47466	King William's toleration being an explanation of that liberty of religion, which may be expected from His Majesty's declaration, with a bill for comprehension & indulgence, drawn up in order to an act of Parliament.	William III, King of England, 1650-1702.; Nottingham, Heneage Finch, Earl of, 1621-1682.	1689 (1689)	Wing K580; ESTC R22778	16,192	20

them Acts 13. By the Laying on of the Hands of those at Antioch and such an Ordination as this being capable to be used more than once is the Remedy applyed therefore to these Persons in the Bill as the only medium for Resolution of this Difficulty For the Other matter concerning the Subscription to the Churches Articles I have something more than this to say about it Whosoever have read a Book called A part of Register wherein there is a relation of several things in reference to the Nonconformists in Q. Elizabeth's Days they will find that nothing was then so grievous to them as the Subscriptions of those Times and the Subscription to these Articles was one which gives me Affliction to consider how by the Contexture of both those Bills before named and like now to be revived and be two again the Nonconformist Ministers whole Freedom from Prosecution of the Law against him is made to depend upon his Subscribing the Articles of Religion A bottom I must say more narrow more servile and less ingenuous than might be wished For what man of a free Judgment can Subscribe to the 39. or 36. Articles which himself hath not drawn up without a Liberty of his own interpretation Indeed if that were a thing lawful upon the reading the Articles to frame a Sense of ones own and Subscribe it in that sense nothing would be more easie than such a Subscription But when the Impositions of our Superiours must conscientiously be taken in the Sense of the Imposers or else we do but prevaricate are false or perjurious in the sight of God there is nothing almost under Heaven that a Man should be more tender of than this business of Subscribing The doubtfulness of many about the Ceremonies is not to be compared to a Conviction of Conscience that a Man must not Subscribe to any point of Doctrine which he believes untrue and I must needs add that Except the Declaring and Swearing that it is not lawful to take Arms against those that are Commissionated by the King upon any cause there is no part of Conformity more hard to my Genius than this Subscription It is an unfortunate thing therefore that when Assent and Consent to the Liturgy is found a thing so truly grievous to all as to be judg'd necessary to be taken away this Assent and Consent yet and Approbation of the Articles should be thought no Grievance to any Body Especially when in One the Conformist hath a Shift or Salvo that he Subscribes but to the Use but in the Other there is no Shift no Salvo at all nothing but down-right Hypocrisie and False-hood when a Man comes and professes his Assent and Consent to and Approbation of those Articles in the Churches Sense but does understand them to be true only in his own I know indeed that in the Opinion of many some of our more eminent Divines the Subscribing the Articles is to be taken for nothing but a Respect to the Church and an Engagement that they will not Preach against them But these Men how worthy or how conscientious they be otherwise must be told that in this they shew no Conscience for I would know from any such Man in what Dictionary I shall find that Assent and Consent to an Article and Approbation of it is no more than I won't Preach against it And what Imposition after that shall hold him who can get leave of his Conscience to make such an Evasion Besides that to promise I will never Preach or Write against these Articles if I believe the Church mistaken in the Doctrine of any of them is really to me a harder Task than to Subscribe them in as much as to tell one Lye is not so grievous as to tell a great many which as often as I break my Promise I must be doing The Question therefore here arises upon this What the Parliament should do about this Subscription seeing it is a Grievance undoubtedly and ought to be Redressed Now there are Four ways may be proposed Either the removing it or changing it or providing a Salve against it or that which is least letting this little Addition stand and be allowed That which is put into the Bill for that end For the first Way I must needs say That that is the easiest and it is a common Saying The first is best And what does hinder but this Assent and Consent to the Articles may be taken away as well as Assent and Consent to the Book of Common Prayer Here are the same crooked●ss's to stick in our Throats and why should not both Declarations fare alike Why is it not enoug● fo● a Man to profess his Belief of the Scripture and of the Apostles Creed and to take the Test against Popery to qualify him for the benefit of any Bill of this kind For the Second Way which I suppose to be the most likely to take Effect is this Let these Declarations of our Assent and Consent to and Approbation of the Articles which we are required now to Subscribe be turned into a Declaration of That which the more ingenuous of our Conformists do say is all their meaning in their Subscribing of them and that Expedient may do the business We must not Subscribe to such Words as these with the Reservation of a less Meaning That is Equivocation but we may Subscribe to such Words as signifie only that Meaning instead of these which signifie more and be at ease in our Subscription I A. B. do declare That I do bear that due Respect to the Church of England and her Book of Articles as an Instrument of Concord That I will not Seditiously or Schismatically I will not directly or expresly Preach or Write against any of them to the Breach of Charity or making disturbance among Christians There are some such Words as these must be put in for consequentially and reductively or before we are aware innocently and sometime necessarily in regard to some point of Doctrine which we think in their Sense contrary to Scripture we must and shall Preach against them and yet our Promise must not be broken I will to avoid Scruple quite as to my self and for the fuller satisfaction to my Conformist Brethren and to acquit my Conscience before all sorts of Men make this Declaration of my own Accord That I do from my Heart give my Consent to the Reformation of Religion which was made by the Church of England in her Doctrine and her Worship I do esteem those Persons that are made Ministers by her Book of Orders to be lawful Ministers and our Parochial Congregations to be true Christian Churches consisting of Pasture and People who have a Fundamental Authority from Christ of Teaching and Ruling them according to his Institution I do submit to her Government as under the King And I do receive her Articles and Homilies as Books full of wholesom Truth and good Instructions Instrumental to Concord and that They contain in them

over all the Statutes that concern Religion for the finding out every thing that is hard and fit to be Repealed whether it be the whole Act or the Act at Oxford or part of it as the Uniformity Act to the end that those Parts and Clauses if over grievous but to the Papists themselves being duly considered and Matters thoroughly adjusted an Act may be drawn up that should be a Repealing Act to deliver us from such Burdens altogether and that were the most Effectual Indulgence or best way to it that is imaginable And as for Comprehension then which is a matter of more Curiosity Debate and Counsel It were well that this Bill here proposed might be brought in and past for a Staying Act or Interim of Pacification until a Tryal of the Comprehended some Consults of the Comprehended and Indulged a Convocation of the Conformists with part of the Comprehended chosen into that Convocation a Revisal of the Churches Liturgy their Book of Orders their Articles their Homilies their Canons with other such preliminary matters pre-ordered may Administer the Advantage to a more compleat Act and better Establishment than can be expected at this Season I will conclude with what is apt at present Comprehension without Indulgence destroys the Separatist that is both the Papists and Sectaries Indulgence without Comprehension depopulates the Church Comprehension with Indulgence Unites the Protestants secures the Church of England and gives Ease and Safety to all People ADVERTISEMENT ALthough there was so much Care taken of the Bill of Indulgence as I have said Page 10. when drawn up that nothing needful should be left out yet am I told very newly That there is one Clause in the Act of Uniformity making Dissenters lyable to pay 100 l. for administring the Sacrament escaped their Remembrance and that it is good therefore some general Words providing a Covering for them from all Danger by Common and Statute Law unknown as well as from the Penalties of the Law enumerated were added to the Bill THE POSTSCRIPT BEfore I sent the fore-going Sheets to the Press I understood that the Bill for Indulgence was brought into the House of Lords and knowing the Contexture long since it made me speak so much of the Subscription to the Articles as I have done Since then I have seen the Bill for Comprehension which is brought in There likewise And though I cannot but in Gratitude take notice of the Candour in it that the Subscription to the Articles is waved there yet do I find Two things in it which the Nonconformists will stick at so that if they be not mended the Bill is like to do no Good. One of these things like to stick is this Declaration I A. B. do approve of the Doctrine Worship and Government of the Church of England as by Law Established c. The Government here intended includes the Hierarchy with its Officers and Offices Lay-Chancellours Officials and I know not what more we must Subscribe to when we say we approve of this Government And when the 36th Article of the Church is excepted from our Subscription in the Bill of Indulgence as known to have been so grievous to the Nonconformists from Queen Elizabeth's days untill now in regard to the Arch-Bishops and Bishops though it says only that the Book for their Consecration hath in it nothing Superstitious and Vngodly which it may not have though in something otherwise we may not approve it I wonder it should not come to be thought that such words would not down with our Nonconformists I approve of this Government Especially when some of the most Grave of them have took the Covenant for its Extirpation I shall therefore humbly beseech the House of Lords if it be not too late or if it be the House of Commons that if such a Declaration must be imposed some such words as these may be substituted in its room I A. B. do heartily approve of the Reformation made by the Church of England in her Doctrine and Worship I shall submit to her Government so far as I can with a good Conscience And I receive her Articles as conducive to Concord and containing in them all things necessary to Salvation The Other Thing like to stick is the Business of Re-ordination in regard to those that have been ordained only by Presbyters and it is to be noted that there is a Device offered in this Bill for Reconciling the Bishop and Presbyter by giving Satisfaction to Both The Bishop challenges a sole Right of giving Orders from the Canons of the Apostles as they are called and from Councils and Fathers even Jerom himself down to the Reformation And the Ministers ordained by Presbyters plead the Custom of the Reformed Churches and their Authority from Christ accounting that the Spiritual Power comes not by the Hands which are laid on him whether of Bishop or Presbyter and therefore says Hooker We breath not on the Ordained as Christ did but flows immediately the Conditions being put from Christ's Institution If the Bishop part with this Privilege he degrades himself of the Power the Church hath given him and if the Minister recedes from his former Orders he departs from the Authority Christ hath given him To reconcile both this is the Device The Bishop shall acknowledg the Person ordained by Presbyters to be a Minister already whose Ministerial Acts have been and are valid as the Acts of any other Minister and that he ordains him not therefore to the Office which he has already but admits him to the Exercise of his Ministry in the Church of England and consequently to the Emoluments that may arise to him upon that Account The Man was and is and must be a Minister of Christ before but he is no Legal Minister or not to be accounted reputed held to all Intents and Purposes a Minister of the Church of England till he hath received Imposition of Hands from a Bishop He is a Minister before in foro Dei but not till then a Minister in foro Ecclesiae Anglicanae As a Man who is a Graduate or made Doctor beyond Sea and comes to London he is and must be acknowledged a true Doctor but he shall not have Liberty to Practise till admitted into our College of Physitians I must confess my self partial in my respect to this Device for I suppose it deriv'd from Dr. Wilkins's credit into this Bill and I know from whence and upon what account he received it I will therefore say thus much for it That if this Device may be owned and acknowledged for what it is that is a New Thing or a New Institution in the Church for which an Office should be made and no trick put on the Nonconformists by it As I see no cause then why such an Ecclesiastical Institution being necessary for Peace-sake might not be Made so do I apprehend no unlawfulness in the submitting to it If any ill be in it it must lie on the part of