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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A45135 Materials for union, proposed to publick consideration, with indifferency to all parties by M.A. Pem. Col. Oxon. Humfrey, John, 1621-1719. 1681 (1681) Wing H3685; ESTC R15853 1,909 7

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MATERIALS FOR UNION Proposed to Publick Consideration With Indifferency To All Parties By M. A. Pem. Col. Oxon. Let Your Moderation be known unto all Men. The Lord is at hand Printed And are to be Sold by the Booksellers in OXFORD 1681. Materials FOR Vnion WHereas there are Three Parties of Protestants in the Nation the Episcopalian the Presbyterian and the Independent or Congregational Men which are of diverse sorts who do and will ever differ in their Opinions about the Church and Discipline of it in the Question which is of Christ's Institution or Whether the One or the Other is most consonant to Scripture 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 Divisions It is here we must lay the Foundation-Stone of Union When the Parliament then shall set about This Business to purpose A Bill should be brought in for Declaring the Constitution of Our Church of England A Parliament is the Representative of the whole People of England and I doubt not but by Consent and Agreement they might Make a New Constitution of the CHURCH as it is National and much more may they Declare the Constitution of it The Papists are for one Universal Organical Church throughout the world whereof the Pope is Head by Christ's Appointment and whosoever consequently is not of this Roman Catholick-Church and Governed by him must be Damn'd There are some of our late Prelatists are for the same Church but under the Diocesan Bishops of the whole Earth who being Convened in a General Council are the Head that must give Laws to it and whosoever refuse to be Govern'd by the Laws of these General Councils are Schismaticks I am much rather therefore in my mind for the Notion which is that in the Embryo the Revered Dean of St. Pauls seems to me to aim at if it could be once well formed of an Independent National Church Political but not to be held as the Congregationalist supposes his Particular Independent One and They their Catholick to be of Divine but of Humane Institution for it is manifestly a thing Accidental to the Church of Christ that the Supreme Magistrate and the whole Body of a Nation are Christian It should be declared then in such a Bill or Act of Parliament that the Church of England consists of the KING as the Head and all the several Assemblies of the Protestants as the Body A Discrimination between the Tolerable and Intolerable is never to be gain-said by any Wise Man It is not for me or any One person but a Convocation or Parliament to prescribe the Terms of National Communion but I would have all our Assemblies that are Tolerable to be made Legal by such an Act and thereby parts of the National Church as well as the Parochial Congregations That the Bishops should be declared Ecclesiastical Officers under the KING acting Circa Sacra only by Vertue of His Authority and Commission As Jehoshophat appointed Officers for Government in the Matters of God and the Kings Matters So should the Bishops be in Our Ecclesiastical as the Judges are in Civil Matters the Substitutes of His Majesty and Execute His Jurisdiction Upon this Account if any of the Eminent among the Non-conformists were Chosen to be Bishops they could not refuse it Let Dr. Owen and Mr. Baxter be the Two next that are called to this Function upon such an Act and commanded to Hold it and then would UNION indeed Commence Their Work in general should be to Supervise the Churches of both sorts in their Diocesses that they all Walk according to their own Order agreeably to the Gospel and the Peace of one another I am sensible unto what Distress a Congregational Minister 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 This shall Advance and not Lessen the outward Power and Honour of the Bishops I humbly Motion a Third Clerk for the Convocation to be added to the Two in every Diocess and chose out of the Non-conformists for the Unanimous prosecution of Holiness and Concord throughout 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 I should expect then such Canons to be made as would render us all happy in the satisfaction of both Parties An Act of Parliament to this purpose would make the Church of England to be in Earnest such a Church as the Church-men would have us still think it the Best Constituted the most Exemplary and the most Glorious of any that is or indeed that well can be in this World And thus I have offered my Mite to the Sanctuary that is so much as I have and what I think fit for Cultivation by Others whom GOD shall make Wise-hearted and Concern'd for the Welfare of Syon There is Room also here left for the farther Invention of Such in regard to many the like things as these For they that will may see something more in a few Sheets in part Entituled Animadversions upon the Debate between Dr. Stillingfleet and Mr. Baxter Concerning the National Church and Head of it Unto which this Paper may be Stitched THE END