Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	civil_a	ecclesiastical_a	2,893	5	8.1068	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45163	Union pursued, in a letter to Mr. Baxter, concerning his late book of national churches published for a fuller disquisition about this subject, by the sober and composed of all sides, in order to comprehension which hath been forming, and a larger constitution of the church to be formed, when that Day of Concord comes, which the gentle aspect of Heaven in God's appointment (and the King's) of so many choice moderate bishops together at this time does presage to the nation, that the Presbyterians and Independants, that have united within themselves, may both be united also with the Church of England / by a lover of Him, and follower of peace.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1691 (1691)	Wing H3716; ESTC R15748	28,717	40

Parts of the National Church as well as the Parochial Congregations The Church here therefore must come under a double consideration as the Church of Christ and as the Church of England Take the Church as the Church of Christ and there must be as we have said at first endless Controversy about this point who are the true Members of it and who the Officers whether Bishops or no But take it under the Consideration as National and there will be none at all for those must be Members and those Officers whom the Head by a Law does allow to be parts of the Body and the King under this Notion only is made Head of the Church by the Statute that is as it called Ecclesia Anglicana The Dissenters of all sorts not excepting the Roman Catholicks as well as Conformists will acknowledge the King to be Supream Coercive Governour over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil throughout his Dominions and will not stand out perhaps if more be required Again the Dissenters of all sorts even the Congregationalists of very Sect are ready to submit to any Power Legally derived from the King and upon such an account will admit of a Superintendency of the Bishops as Ecclesiastical Magistrates under him when they cannot own any Authority that they have over other Ministers from Jesus Christ and will not Papists also be Subject to all Authority that is exercised Legally in his Name howsoever they may question the Spiritual Title of the English Clergy and their Succession We would have Bishops then qua Bishops as distinct in Office from Priests declared no other by Law than the Kings Officers whose Power is but Objectively Ecclesiastical and to Act Circa sacra onely by vertue of his Authority whether they have any Authority else from the Gospel than so so long as they have this by Law it need not at all be toucht As Jehosophat did commit the charge incumbent upon him as Supream Magistrate in regard to all Matters of the Lord unto the care of Amariah being Chief Priest and in regard to the Kings Matters unto Zebadiah being as the Chief Justice of the Realm So should the Diocesan Bishop be in our Ecclesiastical as the Judges are in Civil matters the substitutes altogether of his Majesty and execute his Jurisdiction This is indeed a State-Point which was throughly canvased by Henry the Eight whose Divines did agree on two Orders alone Priest and Deacon to be of Divine Appointment and that the Superiority of a Bishop over a Presbyter or of one Bishop over another was but by the Positive Laws of Men onely as appears in that Authentick book then put out entitituled The Necessary Erudition And consequently that the Bishop could not have or Exert any Jurisdiction over the Subject unless warranted and derived from the King without danger of a Premunire which made Bonner with others hold his Bishoprick by Commission Ambo tenent unum eundemque Ordinem say Elfrick's Canons in Lambard's Saxon Laws Upon this ground if it should please his Majesty to Chuse some Persons of the Dissenters to this Office Authorizing them to it no otherwise than by a like Commission which they should also hold with the Judges Quam diu se bene gesserint As none of them could scruple then the acceptance so must a Union from that day forward Commence in England We are sensible unto what distress the Ministers of a Particular Congregation of all sorts may be brought in the Exercise of Discipline over some Potent Turbulent and Refractory Members and what relief he might find in such an External Ecclesiastical Officer as this We are sensible how many inconveniences of Congregational Episcopacy may by this means onely be salved Their work in general should be to supervise the Churches of all parties in their Diocesses that they walk according to their own Principles in due order agreeable to the Gospel and the Peace of one another whether in the Assemblies of the Brethren or Synods of their Pastors for Mutual Communion And more particularly in the observance of all Laws and Limitations Rules or Canons which the King as Supreme Head shall by advice of a Convocation and the Consent of his three Estates in Parliament make on purpose as the greatest work to be considered and impose upon them all with respect both to the publick Emolument and the safety of his own Person Dignity and Dominions For example Suppose this to be one Canon or Injunction That no Young but such as are Grave men only among the Sects be admitted to be Teachers Not a Novice lest he fall into the condemnation of the Devil Another this That all Conventicles be kept open as the Churches are for any to come and hear that will that no Sedition be there hatched or broached If all prophecy and there come in one that believeth not he is convinced of all he is judged of all and the Secrets of his Heart being made manifest he will fall down and worship and report that God is with you of a Truth Another this That when there is occasion for the Meetings of the Ministers of several Churches for Consultation in any weighty Affair among the Tolerated and United Brethren the Bishop shall have cognizance of the Cause to authorize the Meeting For this cause test I thee at Creete that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting Another in regard to the Conformists this That Bishop and Ministers shall reside alwaies where their Flock is unless upon unavoidable occasions And say to Archippus Take heed to the Ministry which thou hast received in the Lord that thou fulfill it One more this That whereas no man can be an Allowed or Licensed Preacher but he must subscribe the Articles of the Church and those that do subscribe ordinarily are men of diverse Judgments such as Arminians and Calvinists who cannot and do not subscribe both of them in the same sense It should be declared in a Canon as allowed by the Church That these Articles are to be subscribed only in a * Interpretatio est triplex Authentica quae fit authoritate illius qui potest legem condere Vsualis quae fit consuetudine Doctrinalis quae fit per doctrinam authoritate interpetrum Suar. De Legibus l. 6. c. 1. There are many conscientiously learned who because they are scrutinous into some points more than others they cannot subscribe them so easie as others and this would be a great Relief both to the Conformists of that sort and Dissenters in regard to this one thing which still pinches in the Act for Liberty The truth is all Impositions are to be taken in the Sence of the Imposers and when that Sence which was intended by the Convocation that compiled these Articles is the only true genuine authentick Sense or Meaning of them there is no man in good earnest that is called to subscribe the Articles but he is seriously to confider what

he judges in his Conscience to have been Their Meaning and if he can subscribe them in that Sence he is to do it if he cannot he is to forbear This being so hard a Chapter it is fit the Church should put in and declare that that Sence whereof a man can hardly be sure even so far as to act in Faith is not the Sence she imposes but that any other may suffice which in a literal Construction can be made good whether of the Subscriber's own or of any Judicious Expositor Doctrinal not the Authentick Interpretation Let every one be fully perswaded in his own mind I mention these 4 or 5 things instead of many to be the Canonical Matter of such Impositions as may be found fit to be laid some on all some on some Persons not needful for others and it is Time and the Trial and Experience which must be the Mother to bring them forth and cultivate them after to their best advantage To the making such Canons we humbly motion a third Clerk for the Convocation to be added to the two in every Diocess and chose out of the Dissenters with indifferent respect to all sorts of them that mutual Satisfaction and Concord may thereby be prosecuted with Unanimity of Heart and Good-will through all the Churches And the two Provinces of Canterbury and York should unite in this Convocation for the making them one National Church and not two Provincial ones in a diverse Assembly The continuance of two Provinces with a separate Government in either is inconsistent with one National Political Society and keeps the Saddle on both for the French Popery at least if not the Pope of Rome to get up again upon us If a temporary Vicar-General were made by the King every Convocation by whose Authority delegated to him over both Provinces to that purpose the Members of both were to be convened and if when any business of moment were on the Anvil no man but one herein truly noble as excelling others in Learning and Virtue such a one as Mr. Boyle might be chosen by whose Conduct and Moderation things might be carried better than they have sometimes been Who does not see but this might be for advantage to the Affairs of Religion The Council of Nice had not done so well as it did had not Constantine supervised them Government consists in Legislation and Judgment The Supreme Power of this Kingdom as to the exercise hereof lies not We know in the King alone but in the King and his Parliament The whole Body of the Nation are to be accounted in their Representatives to meet the Head and the Laws to be made by the Whole whereby our Birthright of being a Free State or Free People is maintained The Absolute Supreme Power therefore of this Kingdom of England must lye in King Lords and Commons as unified in a Corporation and the House of Lords as virtually so unified is the Highest Judicatory As for the Supreme Power then of the Church of England the Power of making Canons and of judging in Ecclesiastical Causes as to the last Appeal it does in like manner not lye in the Bishops only but in the King thus incorporated and a Convocation Every Parish-Church in the Land is to be accounted by its Pastor to chuse its Representative in this Convocation Every particular Church which is tolerated or shall be tolerated by Law is thereby made part of the National and must therefore have the same Right with the Parochial Congregations Let thus much be declared and upon this Foundation whereof of First-stone was laid before will this great Union which we do go about to build be reared and irrefragably upheld For if the Persons that represent their Churches are united in one Assembly then must those Churches that are represented be supposed as united in one Body It is as Members of one National Society that they chuse their Representatives for the making up this Convocation which is the Church of England in Representation If we look into our Antiquaries and old Historians we shall find That before the Conquest at least under the Saxons our Parliaments and Clergy were still one Assembly and no Canons made but by both together Which ancient usage manifestly powers the nature of a Parliament to be the measure of a Convocation Let me add as to this Supreme Power of the Keys mentioned That the Subject thereof is the whole Church as we shall find it proved by our Divines such as Bishop Andrews against the Papists from that only place for the Institution of Discipline Other Texts speak say they of the Keys of Doctrin Tell the Church that is a Particular Church which a National Church unless distinguished is for the Vniversal Church cannot be told Now the King being one and the chief one in the Church as National and the Power lying in the whole He he in his Vicar together with the Convocation representing the whole must have this Power residing in him with them Although as the Legislative Power of the Kingdom lies in the Lords and Commons with the King yet the Executive Power lies in him only so the Legislative Power of the Church lies in him with the Convocation yet the Executive in the Bishops only No Church-Execution by the Sword-bearer but they Key-bearer and no Penalty by Canon but Rebuke and Excommunication To return By this means shall one Organ more be added to this great Political Society for deriving an Influence from the Head to these Parts of the Body as well as others which now seem neglected and to have no care taken of them The grand and more especial Business of such an equally-modell'd Convocation should be the revising the Book of Canons for the reversing the main Body of them having been fitted to that narrow Scantling which is unworthy the Church of England and for the leaving only those and making new as we have exemplified in some for instance-sake before which do or will be made to suit to that larger Constitution thereof intended by this Paper And having said now thus much for Explanation of this Design we must say some little also in favour of it The Design of such a National Accommodation as this shall advance not lessen the outward Power and Honour of the Bishop extending it over those who before had no conscientious Regard for their Function while yet it would case them of the tremendous Burthen of such a Cura animarum they take on them otherwise as must be of impossible performance This Design which is supposed to find us in our Divisions and not to make any shall by little and little with God's Blessing on it cool Animosities and enkindle Charity and Holiness among all Parties which now is so much wanting while those that are Catholicks and those that are Protestants and much more those that are Conformists and those that are Nonconformists do agree in the Substance of one Christianity having the same Scriptures the same