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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45161	The two steps of a nonconformist minister made by him, in order to the obtaining his liberty of preaching in publick : together with an appendix about coming to church in respect to the people / published for a testimony in his generation by a lover of sincerity and peace.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1684 (1684)	Wing H3714; ESTC R32356	18,526	38

to Church I must own the Parish and I must own the Diocess and I must own the Bishop and his Government I answer and so you may but it is not necessary that you own them as of Divine Right which others I suppose do Upon that Hypothesis I must confess I do not see how any Separation from the Church unless in case of something imposed that is sinful could be justifiable and the Conformists therefore taking up that Principle do generally condemn all Meetings accusing them without discrimination of Schism But it is one thing to own the Parish-Church the Diocess the Bishop Episcopal Government according to Law and another to won them as of Divine Institution I apprehend that Particular Congregations where there is a Pastor and Flock conjoyned for the Worship of God carrying on an holy life are the Churches of Christs appointment and that every Minister of such a particular People hath a power of Governing them as well as Teaching them derived to him from Christ being Episcopus Gregis by virtue of his Office if any then shall go to set up an Episcopus Postorum a Bishop of the Diocess to divest him that is Pastor of a particular Congregation or the Minister of the Parish of that Authority which Christ hath committed to him for governing his Flock which he that makes a Diocess to be the only Church of Apostolical Institution and the Diocesan the sole Pastor must do let him consider what he undertakes seeing the burden which is hereby laid on the Bishop and the account he must make at the great day for the Souls of so many he takes no particular care at all of is intolerable I will own the Bishop and his Regiment but not to the denial of the Ministers I will own a Diocess but not to the unchurching Particular Congregations There is another consideration therefore to be had of the Church than this here understood and that is as it is National and the King the Head of it The Church as National is divided into two Provinces and these into twenty six Diocesses and they into so many thousand Parishes The Parish-Church consists of a Particular Congregation which is therefore a Church of Christs appointment and the Authority or Regiment the Minister Pastor or Bishop of such a Flock hath is derived from Christ The Authority the Diocesan hath is derived from the King The King makes the Bishops he might make them if he pleased as Henry the Eighth by Commission and he is the Fountain of their Honour for they have Baronies and upon that account sit in the Lords House and if we may look on them accordingly as his Officers to exercise no other Authority as Diocesans but what they derive from him then As the Regiment of the Bishop and of the Pastors are of a different kind the Power or Regiment of the Pastor being internal or in sacris and formally Ecclesiastical flowing immediately from Christ but the Regiment of the Bishop external or circa sacra that is objectively Ecclesiastical deriving from the King so must the Authority or Government of the one be cumulative to and not destructive of the other And this is a Notion which methinks should not be hard of entrance to the Conformist or Nonconformist On the one side the Bishop should receive it because it grants him his Honour Dignity and great Revenues upon a clear and open foundation and it lightens his care and work The Office of a Bishop upon this Hypothesis may be discharged as that of any other Magistrate under the King But the Office of the Diocesan upon the other Hypothesis is a charge he can never perform and if he live in the negligence of what he thinks his duty and that wilfully all his life how can he be saved On the other side the Nonconformist should receive it because it opens his Eyes lets him see how he may be subject to the Bishop as he is to the King and the other Magistrates under him without molestation to his Conscience And this should be the Stone which I would lay for the Foundation if ever a Parliament would build upon it of a sound and lasting Peace in the Nation Whither this tends let the Reader see farther in the twelfth Section of that universally Learned sort of Gentlemans late Book call'd The Samaritan FINIS An Advertisement from the Bookseller THere is a late new Book Intituled A Private Psalter composed by the same Hand that wrote these sheets which being a Devotional Book is put in a fair Character for the sake of aged Eyes and sold by me whom the Reader may find out by the Title page Thomas Parkhurst An Addition from the Author UPon the mention of this Book I have these few words to subjoyn concerning the same If I can judg any thing in Divinity there is hardly any matter of more near importance to the most of serious Christians than this one thing to wit to be solidly informed what to do or how to live and support the Soul under the case when it hath examined itself and is in conflict and doubt whether it be in a state of Gods favour which is all one as whether it be sincere or not They that are light Christians do often talk of their assurance when the more weighty Christians are ready to droop and hang the head as the ears of Corn do that are fullest In the last Section of the evening Office of that Private Psalter there is a Determination de industria of this case according as I was able to admit Instruction with Devotion into my Design I am sensible of the smallness of my Talent and the greatness of the Concern and that whatsoever is peculiar is in danger to be defective who must confess my genius hath led me to the seeking a middle resolution in this great Practical case in regard to Life and Comfort as it hath usually done in the matter of polemical Opinions And for the sake of this case more especially was that Book printed If any worthy Person therefore of the Conforming Ministry who hath a Pen accomplished with the stile of the Times whose fluency or command of words may make the task easy to him which would be burdensome to me will take the sense only or matter of that last Section I mean the full and whole sense of it though nothing else purely but what is there hinted and enlarge it into a Treatise of a convenient dimension as he shall pitch upon a subject to exercise his parts which I think like to be profitable to most Christians especially to such as are of a tender Spirit and solicitous about their Spiritual estate so if he will bring it to the Bookseller above intimated to put it into the Press he will not be ungrateful to him I suppose for his Copy John Humfrey

and ingenious men such as Chillingworth as sufficient for subscribing these Articles that they understand nothing else by it but an obligation not to preach or write against them A gloss both too laxe because they do not subscribe I engage never to write or preach against the Articles b● they profess their unfeigned assent to them and if this be understood of the Authentick sense they cannot profess it and too streight because when they preach upon any such point they will speak do what they can according to their own Opinion and so break their Engagement It were to be wished therefore that if ever we have a Convocation that Sits to do any thing they would pass some such New Canon most fit to be decreed as may declare that the Articles and Homilies of the Church are not required to be subscribed but with this freedom of a Doctoral interpretation Were such a liberty authorized by an Act of Parliament or Convocation the conscience were put out of doubt In the mean while when others are satisfied with the reasonableness of the thing whether it be authorized or not I finding my self in doubt about it am forced to this course which is to secure my peace by my aforesaid Explication and my foreprized declaration concerning the matter I proceed now to the Subscription or Declaration required to be subscribed by the Act. Understanding by taking Arms raising War or joyning in it and by the King his Sacred Person and Authority I subscribe the first clause thereof That it is n●● lawful to take Arms against the King upon any pretence whatsoever Understanding the word abhor in a cool sense I disclaim and by the Commissionated those who have and pursue their Commissions according to Law I subscribe the Second Clause of it And that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority or by Law that is upon pretence of it for the Position else is impossible against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by him The Third Clause I take to be an Indefinite Promise of using Common Prayer which in the main I am not against And I do therefore subscribe that if I have a Publick Charge or Cure of Souls I shall in the ordinary constant Lords Day Service ordinarily by my self or by my Assistant according to the usage of the Church Rebus sic stantibus Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law established Whether this be the sense of the Law-giver altogether it may be a doubt but in this sense supposing it to be so or with these limitations thereunto if it be otherwise I set my name The Second Step BEING A lesser Request the former not obtained IT was the policy of the Contrivers of the Act for Uniformity that those Ministers who were engaged in the late times on the Parliament side by taking the Covenant should renounce it or be debarred the liberty of their Ministry for twenty years accounting I suppose that if any supervived that time there could be no danger in their re-admission There was a clause therefore in the Subscription besides those before going which concern'd the Covenant and was the forest part of this injunction abiding in force till the last year and then it expired It was believed that many of the Nonconformists upon the expiration would have flocked in and subscribed but I know not of any who took the Covenant but my self only who took it not that have made any tryal upon that occasion Nevertheless to proceed in what I have begun having Wrote this Paper and presented it to the Bishop the last year 1682 when that clause ceased I think good this year 1683 to Print it upon the account ensuing I do apprehend there is a kind of universal guilt upon the Conformist some few alwaies excepted in receiving our late Impositions hand over head as they did which they should rather have all refused as one man and required explanation How many were there prepared the good God vouchsafe us all a sight of our sins and forgive them to declare their assent and consent to all and every thing in a book before they saw it at least read it with any examination as they should have done How many more were there yet more forward to subscribe a Declaration wherein there were so many hard things to be swallowed before any had wrote about them or themselves able to digest scarce any one branch of it It was their interest to comply but how they could declare and subscribe so soon or perhaps can yet in Truth Judgment and Righteousness the Lord knows On the other side I am no less sensible of a great deal of weakness and prejudice among our brethren in judging things sinful that are not and consequently Superstition in placing fear and danger in such things There is besides no little conceitedness of some mens being more holy than the Conformist and consequently Pride Uncharitableness Judging of others and if any Persons shall separate from the publick on sinful grounds it is really Schism and in real Schism how many evils are there included In this case of Sin and Scandal which we see on both sides I would fain know what way there is for any of us to escape but by following the rule I have laid down On the point of Sin If I assent to the Articles and subscribe the Declaration without an Explication then do I assent to what I think true and what I think not true in those Articles and I subscribe that which I take to be the good sense and that which is also the bad sense of the Declaration which seems unlawful to be done as what neither becomes a good Christian or true English-man But if I assent and subscribe with an Explication then do I assent only to what I judg true in those Articles and I subscribe only the good sense of the Declaration which seems not only what is lawful but fit to be done both as a Christian and good Subject who is to be Loyal to the Government of the Nation On the point of Scandal If I shall assent and subscribe as others without any Caution Limitation or Explication then shall I quantum ad me harden the Conformist who hath Conformed blindly in his sin and impenitence and draw the Nonconformist who judgeth it unlawful to do that which is against his Conscience by my Example If I do nothing or not endeavour what I can I nurse up my Brethren in those Evils before-mentioned and give occasion to the Conformist to say These men can do thus and thus more than they do and seeing they are such peevish obstinate persons we do well to submit to all that is Enjoyned our selves and persecute them and so do I become a stumbling-block to the one and to the other But if I assent and subscribe with Explication that is do as much and only what I can then do I deliver my