Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	call_v	church_n	society_n	1,435	5	9.0715	5	false

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

it the Paper mentioned look'd again over and improved to that end And I pray God to direct your Thoughts and Labours still that you may so prove all things as to hold fast that which is good The Draught WHereas there are several Parties of Christians in the Nation who must and will ever differ in their Opinions about the Church and Discipline of it in the Question which is of Christ's Institution it is not our Disputes about the Church as particular which are rather to be mutually forborn and every party left herein to their own Perswasion but a common Agreement in what we can agree and that is in the Church as National must heal our Breaches The Catholicks are for one Universal Organical Church throughout the World whereof the Pope is Head according to some and the Bishops conven'd in a General Council according to others That there is a Catholick Church visible on Earth as well as invisible whereof Christ is Head who was on Earth and is now visible in Heaven is received also by Protestants But that this Church is per integrum Organical and under the Government either of a Monarchy by the Pope or of an Aristocracy by a General Council it seems a thing not possible in Nature because neither can an Oecumenical Council ever be called nor any one man be sufficient to take on him the Concernments of the World A Political Church is a Community of Christians brought into an Order of Superiority and Inferiority by an Head and Members organiz'd for the Exercise of that Government which is proper to it But the whole Earth is not capable of any such Order And Councils therefore which are gathered out of several Countries or of Bishops belonging to more Dominions than of one Supreme Power may be had for mutual Advice and Concord but not for Government A Nation Empire or Kingdom which consists of one Supreme Magistrate and People who are generally Christians are capable of such an Ecclesiastical Polity and a National Church Political in England is to be asserted and maintained The Church of England then is a Political Society of all the Christians Conforming or Tolerated in the Land united in the King as Head and organized by the Bishops for the executing those Laws or Government which he chuses for their Spiritual Good and Publick Peace There is this difference between a Church National the Church Catholick and Particular Churches The two latter are of Divine Right and Essential Consideration but the former is of Human Institution for it is manifestly Accidental to the Church of Christ that the whole People should be Christian Not but it is the duty of all Nations Kings and People to become Christians Go and teach all Nations Baptizing them and that Christian Kingdoms therefore as they consist of People that do meet in Particular Congregations for the worship of the True God and Jesus Christ and do exercise that Government which the Pastor hath over his flock by vertue of his Office from Christ and no other than that are of Divine appointment But the Combination of these Churches or the Pastors thereof in an Order of Superiority and Inferiority for the Exercise of a Regiment that is National over the whole body of the Kingdom by setting Bishop in a Diocess and an Archbishop in a Province and then proceeding no farther as to a Patriarchat and General Council but making a stop here and Constituting the Nation thereby one Governing Church independent on any other from aboard this appears of no Divine or Canonical Right but must derive its Authority from an Act of Parliament Distinguish we here of the Government of the Church as Internal belonging to the Spirit and External which belongs to Men And of the External Regiment thereof which is either Formal belonging to the Ministers or Officers of Christ or Objective belonging to the Magistrate so call'd because the matters of the Church in this respect are the Object of his Civil Power Whether the Community now of Christians in England may be united into a National Church under a pure Formal Government we leave to others to dispute that will But that the main Body of the Nation are or may be constituted a proper Political Church National under that Mix'd Regiment which is both Formal and Objective and so exercised by the Bishops as the proper Organs thereof under the King with Authority as Bishops as Ministers without Force is what we hold indisputable and would lay as a Foundation-stone of Peace in the Matter of Religion between all Persons in the Kingdom capable of it The Government of this Church is by Bishops and if their Authority be not received and owned so far as that the generality of the Nation the Nonconformists as well as others yield to it there can be no Union Now when the Government of the Land is a Mixt Government as Politicians tell us on another account why may not the Government of the Church be Mixt too upon this account to wit in that as the King must be a Mixed Person to be Head the Bishops must be Mixt Persons too to be his Officers Mixt Persons in regard to the exercise of both this Objective and Formal Regiment deriving the one from the King as over other Ministers and the other from Christ as Fellows with them that so those that scruple their Submission to them upon one account may be satisfied upon another which by and by will be explained Let the Parliament therefore we have or any other be heartily for the Publick Good and Thriving of England which must be by an entire Liberty of Conscience in opposition to the narrow Spirit of any single Party or Faction and when such a Parliament shall sit about the Business of Union to purpose the Bill should be brought in entituled An Act for declaring the Constitution of our Church of England A Parliament is the Representative of the whole Nation and no doubt but by Consent and Agreement they might upon the account mentioned Make a new Constitution and much more may they Declare the Constitution of it It should be declared then in such a Bill or Act That the Church of England consists of the King as the Head or Pars imperans who in his Legislative Capacity as incorporated with his Lords and Commons is to give Laws thereto and all the several Assemblies of Christians which he shall tolerate as the pars subdita or Body Some Discrimination between the Tolerable and Intolerable is indeed never to be gainsaid by any wise and good man unto whom there is no Liberty can be desireable which is not consistent with these three things the Articles of our Creed a Good Life and the Fundamental Government of the Kingdom It is not for any private Persons but a Parliament with a Convocation to prescribe the Terms of National Communion but we would have all our Assemblies that are tolerable to be declared Legal by such an Act and thereby

uncapable of any Catholick Officers for executing such Jurisdiction You say the Head gives the Form to a Society but Does it give the Form when there are no Organs or Officers for Government under that Head when there are no such appointed by him or can be made by Man It is true that the actual making Officers belongs to the Administration of a Government when the Government hath its Denomination and is Organical from the Constitution But where is there any such Constitution declared by Christ or Appointment of his that there should be Organs made for an Oecumenical Government If there be no such how is it a Polity without Government without virtual or actual Government or an Oecumenical Polity without an Oecumenical Government This would tempt a man to come about towards our first Doctrin of Protestants to deny any Church Catholick but the Invisible How can the Universal Coetus of Christian People dispersed through the World without Legislative or Judicial Power be Political Methinks there must be something else more than Head and Members essential to a Form of Polity whether Civil or Ecclesiastical I will tell you therefore over again the Opinion I am prone to as well as I can A National Church may be considered Materially as a Christian People or Kingdom and so are National Churches of Christ's appointment out of doubt as at the beginning acknowledged for He sent out his Officers to convert Nations rather than single Men a●● the Prophets have many Places of the calling of Nat●ons whose Answer to that Call makes them Churches But as a National Church is considered Formally in regard to the Constitution of divers particular Countries as we say the Church of England the Church of Scotland and the like a National Church is and must be as it seems to me of Human Agreement altogether I speak not this I must farther say to dispute with you but to learn of you or for Instruction and in making this out I cannot but in my native apprehension differ from ȳou as to that which gives the Form Being or Essence to a Society Political or as to that which is the ratio formalis of a Nation being a Church You say it is only the Head gives the Form but I apprehend That the Head and Members of any Society considered as in a state before Organization for Regiment are but still the Matter of a Polity but that which gives the Form to it is Consent If a Community let me say should agree upon a Head and not agree upon the Organizing that Head and Members so as to be capable of Government here is no Polity Let me speak closer When a King is Head of his People already as They are a Kingdom I cannot say he is a Head of them as a Church before this Church be made Organical by a Constitution Pray note that and I say then The Consent Agreement or Combination of the Community the Populus Head and Body in such an Order for Government as is proper to it is the ratio formalis in my Apprehension of that Society I know that the Terms of Matter and Form upon which I lay no stress are proper to physical Beings whereas a Polity and such-like things are not Entia physica nor Entia rationis but Entia moralia and so need other Expressions but when I have no better and Entia moralia ad analogiam physicorum concipiuntur I must say That as it is Consent that makes a single man a Member of a Society and does that which a Form does to wit give the Being and Denomination to him of a Member Forma dat esse nomen So must the Universal Consent of Parts to that Order of Superiority a●● Inferiority for Regiment which is in any Society give it its Form and that Order be the Form or Polity it self which consisting not only of Head and Members but of Head and subordinate Organs for that Regiment it is not the Head alone but Head and Body so organized the Head Principally indeed but Jointly that makes it a Political Society You may say that I write here but scatteredly as one that aims at saying something that may provoke you to set me right rather than come my self to any perfect Determination and I care not to have you think and judge so for though I would not put you to trouble willingly about any thing impertinent yet do I expect so much more consideration and farther light from you in the thing as the weight of the Subject and the concernment thereof does require of him that undertook it The Head gives the Form I express as your Judgment In one place of this Book or that which came out with it you say The Head is the Form which seems to me absonant In another place you say The Relative Union between the Head and Body or the pars imporans subdita is the Form which sounds well But the Conception is not so hard yet A Polity is an Order of Superiority and Subjection I have said in a Community The Community here is the Matter and this Order is the Form This is most plain and forasmuch as this Form is introduc'd into the Community by their Agreement while free it is Consent which gives the Form and is the Foundation the Fundamentum Relationis of all Societies And here Sir without interposition of the last Paragraph I though to break off but my Mind I feel is not emptied A Christian Kingdom containing Confederate Pastoral Churches is a National Church with you But what if there be no Confederacy no such Consent or National Confederacy Where is the Form that must give the Being and Denomination of a National Church to such a Kingdom Suppose a Company of Christians with Ministers among them who preach and pray together and yet are not Confederated in the Choice of any of them for a Pastor and Officers for Government Here is a Particular Worshipping Community but no Political Society So in a Kingdom if a King and People be Christian and they have Particular Churches but no Confederacy of these Churches or Pastors in an Order for National Government here is an Ecclesiastical National Community but no National Church Here is a Government which is Civil by the Sword but no Government Ecclesiastical by the Keys There can be no Keys that are National I must say but what are founded in this Confederacy and consequently on Human Institution You may say every King that is Christian may allow of what Particular Churches he please and command a Confederacy But hold a little Religion the Fathers and Reason will tell us cannot be forced The Church Man believes Episcopal Government to be Jure Divino the Presbyterian thinks his to be so the Independent thinks their Congregational Churches alone to be of Christs Appointment and cannot in Conscience submit to a Confederacy of the one Side or the other How shall the King here command Consent or Confederacy to

Parochial Congregation of Pastor and People are true Political Churches and that the Ministers Office is to Rule as well as to Teach though as to the Exercise of that part of their Office it is provided by the Church that they should be under the conduct of a Bishop as the Presbyterians provide that they be under the conduct of a Classis for which there are weighty reasons so long as the Government of the One is but cumulative not destructive to the Other And so long as you will admit that the King may make such a Diocesan like a Quorum Justice to have a Negative voice in Ordinations there is very little for ought I see wanting but a Conference to reconcile you and them together For my own part I must confess I am not so easie in allowing a Diocesan or Metropolitan no nor a National Church where the King is made an Ecclesiastical Formal Head any otherwise than I would a Vicar-General if it pleases the King which is by Law not by Divine institution What is more known than that our Kings of England never were Heads of the Church till Henry the Eight who was made so by an Act of Parliament I like well a National Church That the Siupream power be Head thereof That Bishops and Archbishops do stand upon the Terms you here propose as Prudential and even Necessary in the state we are in but not as if God had commanded it so and it might be no otherwise There is a distinction here therefore that is needful and you have it not I cannot tell well how to express it but Grotius I remember does make it in apt Terms upon some other Argument It is to this sense Between a Divine Warrant and a Divine Precept a jus Divinum as justum onely or as jussum We may have a sufficient warrant or ground from Scripture to do a thing as Anologous to it and yet the Scripture not command it to be done so as that we sin if it be forborn upon good human reason The case is so here about Episcopacy There is warrant from Christs sending out Twelve and then Seventy From Gods setting in his Church Apostles Evangelists Pastors From Paul's sending Timothy and Titus with charge over the Presbyters at Ephesus and Creete From the general Rules of Order Decency Edification I say there is warrant from Scripture upon these accounts for a Superiority and. Inferiority among the Clergy so as it is lawful wheresoever it be conducive to the Publick good of the Churches of God to set up Presbyterian Classes or Episcopal Government placing a Diocesan over a Pastor an Archbishop over a Diocesan a Vicar General over the Provinces and the King the Head as a Mixed person over all so constituting the National Church or Church of England but I cannot say that this is of Divine appointment And then I pray moreover what Head An Ecclesiastical Formal Head as you say No but to speak exactly A King of a Christian Kingdom is no Caput Ecclesiae qua Ecclesiae till Constituted so and when he is he is not a Head Formally Ecclesiastical but a Head Objectively Ecclesiastical onely and in that respect as Episcopus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mixt Person I would grant the Bishops to be Jure Divino to please the Church-men so far as warrantable by Scripture upon the accounts mentioned provided they be as the Higher Powers judge best for the Land but to do Justice to others I deny them to be Ex praecepto Divino so far as that all Nations are bound to have them or that they may not choose some other Order of Superiority and Inferiority for Government as serves best the condition of Each People God may Allow or approve of an Order that is made or a thing when done which Order he does not Command to be made or thing to be done I hear lately that the Dissenters have had several Meetings in order to a right understanding with one another and that the Presbyterians and Independents are come to Terms drawn up for a mutual Coalition This is a good hearing and very happy if it may by any means but tend to the strewing the way to that more Publick and generous Concord which seems the Design of your Sheets that is for bringing these Concordant Dissenters and the Church-men also Conformist and Non-conformist the Christians of all sorts that are but Tolerable into the Unity of one Ecclesiastick Political Society of the whole Nation combined for Government within it self Independent on any Forraign Jurisdiction This is a Design worthy of your farther Study and there is one of your brethren ready to learn more of you that hath Offered something to this Effect several years since and repeated it who concurring with you in his Endeavour for the setting up a National Church and submission to the Bishops upon that account yet dare not yield to you in making the Bishops nor National Church either to be of Divine Institution for this reason because he thinks if he should do so he must destroy that National Union at one blow which he and you are labouring to build For do but ask these sober Dissenters whether they can own a Supremacy in the King as to Ecclesiastical affairs they will grant it Mr. Bradshaw long since hath wrote A Protestation of the Kings Supremacy If you ask them then whether we are bound to be Subject to such Officers as he shall appoint by Law for the executing this Authority they must grant it likewise for if they allow the one the other is yielded Let us suppose now that the Bishops and Archbishops of our Land were such Officers Officers of the Church as National made by the King for fulfilling his Charge as Head of it and there is no Presbyterian or Independent that I know would or could deny submission to them under such a Nation But if you will impose upon them any Bishop as Christs Officer that is one having a Diocesan Government over them by his appointment or if you will make a National Church Governed by these Bishops to be of Divine right strictly taken there is many and the most of them will reclaim presently they cannot own any such matter and so this National Union and the design thereof is broken I pray therefore consider what you do We must distinguish of what is Necessary and what is Convenient and of what is so in regard to a Conjunction with the Bishop or in regard to the more general Uniting into a National Church If the Presbyterians were to come to a Composition with the Bishops and could say with you My Lords If you will challenge to your Function no more Rule than what the Apostles exercised in the Ordinary part of their Apostleship that is a Superiour Directive Authority over other Pastors in the executing their Office without destroying the Power it self given them by Christ we will acknowledge your Episcopacy to the Jure Divino there