Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	authority_n	bishop_n	presbyter_n	4,945	5	9.8142	5	true

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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

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

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

any one part against the Conscience of the other Thou shalt do nothing against thy Conscience is a Precept of God and Nature that binds semper ad semper as the Schools speak being Negative How then shall Man command what GOD forbids He commands you to Confederate and it is against you Conscience to do it Hath he Power to command a Subject to sin He hath Strength or Force or Legal Right but hath he Authority to do it To say how far the Supreme Majestrate may go in this Case is not easie I am sure a Man may easily be too hasty and sudden in such a Decision I must add as what appears from that which went before A National Church may be distinguished from a Christian Kingdom because a People may be Christian before such a Confederacy But when Confederated and a Church they are the same indeed so as though distinguished they cannot be divided And this is the Right in my Apprehension To talk of Dissenters Presbyterians and Independents to be Members of the Church of England as well as the Conformists will not be born by the Weak And the confounding the Ecclesiastical Government with the Civil which your making a Kingdom and Church as Christian to be the same does seem to do will by the Wise be called into Question When you say well or speak at best you must look for Misunderstanding and Clamour from the Displeased For my own part how the Church Vniversal whereof Christ is the Head and Particular Churches whereof the Pastors have Rule are Churches of Christs making I do understand But how far a National Church is of Christ's making and how far of Mans making I think requires a little more Explication from you than we have yet You are very exact as to Civil Government to tell us what is of GOD and what of Man I remember not that you are so full as to Ecclesiastical And now let me tell you lest I be mistaken as to those things I have asked before that I have done so not that I am in all of them of another mind from you but for the clearing my less perspicacious Conceptions For Instance when I ask Whether the Catholick Church Visible be Political I must say I have receiv'd it to be so and will give you my Account that you may tell me if I am short The Government of the Church Mystical which is Internal by God's Spirit is I count a Government over single Persons the Elect dispersed His Operation is on single Persons The Government of the Church Visible which is External is a Government of Churches a Government of Persons as in Societies Congregational Diocesan Provincial National And the Catholick Church Visible is a Church I count Political and Organical because all these Churches that are Parts of it have their Governing Officers as well as the People Governed contained in them There is a Government therefore of a Society per Partes or per Integrum The Catholick Church is a Totum Integrale and is Governed per Partes only but yet by the Universal Laws of Jesus Christ who is the Head of it alone without any Oecumenical Vicarious Soveraign Single or Collective under him to give any other binding Laws than his which both you and I equally decry Whether there by any more than this to be Answered is the end of my asking that Question of you from whom I count if there be I shall have it For the Case put by me of a Kingdom converted by Independents it is my Opinion That in a Kingdom consisting only of Pastoral Churches not associated into an Order of Superiority and Subjection for a Government of the Whole or per Integrum there can be only the Materia and Privatio but not the Forma which that Order introduced should be of a National Church And I must add If it be enough that a King and People be Christian with Pastoral Churches to make a Kingdom a National Church then supposing the Episcopal or Presbyterian Government comes to be set up in it here must be tow National Churches in one Kingdom for there was one before and here is a New one or another New constituted by Agreement Pray pardon me my seeking from you more Illumination For your Proof of National Churches to be of Christ's Institution from his own being King of the Jews and Head of the National Church and choosing Twelve Apostles in relation to their Tribes and Seventy other in relation to their Sanhedrim with the Particulars you further mention I confess what you offer to be very ingenious and deep in fancy but whether it be cogent or not I do question For First Though Christ was born King of the Jews as sprung from David by his Mother yet would he not be their King when the Jews would have made him Secondly He tells expresly His Kingdom was not of this World Whereas the Government of Kings over Christian Kingdoms and so Heads of National Churches is no other than a Government External or a Government which is of this World Thirldy Christ is every where said in the New Testament to be Head of his Church in the Sense of the Church Universal but never in the Sense of the Particular Church of the Jewish Nation And the Prophecies of the Old Testament will admit if not require by the Event another Interpretation Fourthly The Relation of the Seventy to the Sanhedrim and of the Twelve to the Tribes is a Relation only of Number not of Work or Office for What is the Seventy Disciples preaching to convent the People or preaching Repentance for remission of sins to the business of the Sanhedrim which was their Supreme Court of Judicature for all Causes to be brought for Judgment And what was that Nations consisting of Twelve Tribes to the Choice of the Twelve Apostles unless one might think that Christ set over each Tribe one of them to be Superintendent or Bishop of that Tribe which none Thinks as I Know Fifthly Though the Jews had their Twelve Tribes and Christ those Twelve Apostles and they had Seventy Elders and Christ chose out Seventy to preach the Gospel this signifies not besides what is said already unless you prove these two things which can't be proved to wit That he chose these Twelve in relation to these Tribes and these Seventy in relation to their Sanhedrim and Who can tell Christ's Intention And also That he did this by his Authority as their King as King of the Jews or Head of the Jewish Church when he might do it and did it we may suppose as King or Head of the Church Vniversal Indeed if any shall say that Christ during his Life was King only of the Jews and that he had no Power therefore of commissiouating his apostles to go any where else for converting People which is the making them Subjects of his Kingdom because he was not King over any other Nation till after his Death and Resurrection and shall

upon shall not be able to come into it Which we must take heed of as already noted especially now when the present Face of things look auspitious towards Union There are some things Essential to the Church of England and some things Accidental and there are some things that are the Abuses and Corruptions of it For the last of these the Corruptions there was a Paper came out and as I apprehended from Lambeth some few years since entituled Grievances of the Church of England which are not in the power of the Governours of it to remedy Two of the many I will name One this That the Ecclesiastical Power is by Law invested in Lay-Chancellors and Officials who act in the name of the Bishop and Archdeacon when things are against their Wills and they cannot help it The other this That a Convocation cannot take any of these Corruptions into debate to reform them without danger of a Premunire unless they be first proposed by the King Under these Grievances and such as these does the Church her self or the Bishops themselves we see groan and that for this Reason which I observe because her Government being only what is established by Law so much is he out that goes to make it of Divine Right the Governours of it or the Bishops can alter nothing but by Act of Parliament who yet being themselves Members we may well conceive they will endeavour to find a time for their own Relief and I do more especially hope that the Reduction of Archbishop Vsher will be taken into their consideration upon that account For things Accidental to the Church I do presume much more on the good Temper and Resolution of the present Bishops that nothing of that kind shall stand in the way but they will part with it for Concord Of these Accidentals some are of easier some of harder departure Of the easier sort I reckon the Ceremonies which I do not see but they may part with and with no more Grievance than with the Rain from off their Hats or the Grease from off their Cloaths As for the harder sort if the Dissenters should require of the Bishops to forgo the Liturgy and use none this were too hard this were a kind of thrust at the Churches Breast and She might justly bid a man stand off If they are not against a Liturgy but would have a new one composed in Scripture-Expressions I cannot say but this were good inexceptionably good but not to be asked unless they see good as being more than is meet and more than needs If it be a Reformation then only they desire let it be in all things which are offensive to any sober not humoursome godly persons this is but so fair so honest so fit that the Bishops are before hand in it and if any are for farther Improvement this they are for also For things Essential to the Church of England such as Episcopal Government is it is not for any to imagin the Church should part there with for then she must cease to be the Church of England And consequently unless a way be made out for the Dissenters conscionably in some regard as they may to submit to that Government there can be no Coalition into a National Church which yet is the End both of your and my Writing There have been two things long on the Hearts of peaceable men as requisite to the Happiness of the Kingdom and they were foreseen therefore and intended by His present Majesty as one End of his Expedition into England which was as he tells us in his Declaration for they are best expressed in his words for the making such Laws as may establish a good Agreement between the Church of England and Protestant Dissenters as also for the covering all such who will live peaceably under the Government from all Persecution upon the account of their Religion The one of these called generally Indulgene is obtained the other Comprehension is yet under expectation but no less needful to the Interest of the King and Bishops than that was to the Interest of the Dissenters A Kingdom a Church divided so much against it self as ours is a Blessed Mouth hath foretold them is not a safe Estate and does in effect say to both Look to your selves It is therefore hugely material in regard to the end of these Sheets and to the Title to speak a little of the Contents of that said Bill which will be revived at the sitting of this Parliament or of another in good time I doubt not After a short Preamble then this Bill goes downright honestly to work and for that reason it can never be too much prized enacting That no other Oath Subscription or Declaration be required to the enjoying any Ecclesiastical Preferment but the New Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy to the King and Queen the Antipapal Test the Simoniacal Oath and one Declaration to be subscribed to this sence or purpose the words whereof being put too readily together as some of them that put them will perhaps acknowledg upon reflection I would humbly beg may be deliberately put in these ensuing I A. B. do heartily approve of the Reformation of the Church of England in her Doctrin and Worship as containing all things in their kind sufficient to Salvation And I submit to the Government thereof by Law established The Bill proceeds to the Ceremonies enacting the leaving off the Surplice excepting in the Cathedrals and leaving the Cross in Baptism and Kneeling at the Sacrament to the liberty of the Parent and Receiver with some the like things I think but have forgot that have no Rubin them Only the great difficulty lying bout Orders I cannot but upon Examination of other Expedients give my full Consent to the Motion of the Bishops themselves as to this case provided they be careful of the words wherein they express it which I beg again may be thus Be it farther enacted That those Ministers who have been ordained since the First of May in the Year 1660 by Presbyters only shall receive a second Imposition of Hands by a Bishop in this form For thy Reception as a Minister in the Church of England and thy holding and exercising that Office to the satisfaction of the Conscience of others as well as thy own If thou beest not Ordained already be thou Ordained If thou beest be thou Confirmed by the Imposition of my Hands to the Glory of God and Edification of the Church in the place where thou art or shalt be called These words If thou beest not Ordained already do include a doubt The Minister himself Ordained by Presbyters I will suppose doubts not in the least of the Validity of his orders by them and he cannot submit to these words if they were put alone in regard to his own Conscience But forasmuch as the Bishop perhaps or others with whom he is concerned may doubt of it these words as thus conjoyned may be spoken bona fide in regard