Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	assemble_v	king_n	parliament_n	11,796	5	6.7701	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45150	The peaceable design being a modest account of the non-conformist's meetings : with some of their reasons for nonconformity, and the way of accomodation in the matter of religion, humbly proposed to publick consideration by some ministers of London against the sitting of Parliament in the year 1675.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1675 (1675)	Wing H3701; ESTC R24391	30,262	97

some of the Non-conformists as well as of Conformists do believe it not impossible but that some Heathen and professed Socinian may be saved What if they cannot think otherwise in regard to the Goodness of God but that whosoever he was or is that walk'd or walks up to his Light in sincerity with a general Repentance for his unseen Errors must by vertue of the Covenant made with Adam faln and Noah no less than the Jews were by the same confirmed with Abraham be in a state of acceptation with God not conceiving but both alike for ought they see were ignorant of their Redemption by the Blood of Christ or the means how their Peace was made with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have shewn before that Christ is the first begotten of God the Divine Reason Wisdom or Word whereof the whole kind of Men or the whole stock of Mankind do partake and whosoever lives according to reason are Christians though they be accounted Heathen and without God such as Socrates Heraclitus and the like Justine Martyr in his second Apology for the Christians We do not say we receive this nor deny it But we are ready to say what was Luthers saying We hope God will be merciful to such a one as Cicero but our Duty is to abide by the Word And yet cannot this little Candour it self be used if we must be forced to declare that whosoever believes not the Athanasian Creed must undoubtedly perish Not that other Non conformists generally make any scruple in this But what do those sober and learned Doctors of the Church think of it who have a name given them upon this account that though they hold some things that agree not with her Articles or Homilies yet they can conform to them or have a Latitude to do it I A. B. do declare my unfained Assent and Consent to every thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer and yet I A. B. do declare that I Assent not to that passage in the Athanasian Creed Again I A. B. do profess that a Heathen may be saved and yet I do libenter ex animo subscribe to the Article among the thirty nine that does pronounce him accursed who dares hold such an opinion We are not ignorant indeed how some would blend the two terms Assent and Consent and then interpret them by the words to the use in the Act But this is a shift which will not satisfie all persons and many desire to use no shifts If these words to the use had been put into the Declaration it self it had been better Yet if they had Assent is proper to the Truth and Consent to the Vse And yet moreover how can a Man unfainedly consent to the use of any such Particular which is false and which perhaps he even abhors that the Wise and Ingenious of his particuler perswasion should think he believed Another Instance shall be this In the Service on the Gunpowder-Treason we thank God for preserving the King and the Three Estates of the Realm Assembled It is a difficult Point now in the Politicks of England Whether the Three Estates be the King the House of Lords and the House of Commons Or the Lords-Spiritual Temporal and Commons The late King made no scruple in his Answer to the nineteen Propositions to reckon himself one of the Three Estates Neither was there any we know that durst account the Three Estates of the Land to be dissolved when the Bishops were turned out of the House by an Act. We cannot tell therefore of what Consequence it is to the fundimental liberty constitution and state of the Kingdom to yield unto the insinuation of such a thing as this in our Prayers No Man can give his unfained Assent to any thing he knows not and understands not This is a thing we do not know that the Bishops are indeed one of the Three Estates of this Realm Whether they be or no we dispute not but till we are better satisfied with them and their station we are afraid that any snare should be laid for the people in the Exercise of their Devotions unto God We must mention one Particular more which is our general Exception In the new Book there is inserted several Passages that make the Bishops a distinct Office and Order from the Presbyter We need not name the Words for they are put in more than once de industria They would not be content with a difference in Degree and Eminency but they would have us declare to a jure divino distinction disproved by learned Doctors among the Papists and among the Episcopal Men as well as the Reformed Churches Now we humbly beseech the Parliament to consider whether the Bishops have dealt candidly with us to get such a Condition imposed on the Presbyterian to the keeping of his Ministry as not only Bishop Davenant and Vsher but such as Dr. Field and Francis Mason must have been turned out for Non-conformists upon the same There are Two Orders Ecclesiastical Presbyteri Diaconi When we say Bishops Priests and Deacons we name but two Orders yet three Degrees Mr. Joseph Mede disc V. For our Consent We will name three things likewise and but name them more indefinitely There is the Hierarchy or Bishop invested with sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction There are the Ceremonies in general so often disputed There is the Imposition it self of things not necessary the occasion of stumbling to many good Men and cause of our divisions If we give our unfained consent to all and every thing prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer and the form of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons then must we give our approbation we suppose to these things amongst others But if the Two first are disputable we are past doubt in the last that to impose things that are inductive to others to sin and yet not necessary is unlawful What Charter hath Christ given to the Church to bind Men up to more than himself hath done Says Stillingfleet with much more to the purpose in his Epistle to his Iranicum We will not speak so laxly altogether as he does there but when we distinguish the Imposition and Submission this we are fully perswaded of in Conscience that the Submission to the things imposed may perhaps be maintained the Imposition of them is not to be so neither by that Dr. nor by us For if we build again the things we have destroyed we make our selves transgressors It is not Sirs the serving God by a Liturgy or the reading Common Prayer in the ordinary daily Service that makes us Non-conformists though it be this only lyes in the view of the inconsiderate many and though there are some things we except against the occasional Offices which by and by may be named We are sorry if any have given cause for such a scandal which tends to the breaking of the Concord and Charity which ought to be maintained equally between the Brethren of

Subscription set down in the C●nons ratis●●● by King James was not expressed in the Act of the thirteenth of Elizabeth Inst part 4. c. 74. And consequently if the Clergy enjoyed this freedom until then in reference to the Particular therein contained what hinders why they might not have the same restored in reference also to others It is true that it may seem hard to many in the Parliament to undo any thing themselves have done But though this be no rule for Christians who are sometimes to repent as well as to believe If they be loath to Repeal any thing what if they shall only interpret or explain Let us suppose then some Clause in this Bill or some new Act for Explanations If any Non-conformist cannot come up to the full meaning and intent of these Injunctions rightly explained let him remain in Statu quo under the state only of Indulgence without benefit of Comprehension for so long as those who are comprehended may yet enjoy that Case as to be indulged in some equal measure answerable to His Majesties late Declaration whether Comprehension be large or narrow such terms as we obtain are pure advantage and such as we obtain not are no loss But if any does and can honestly agree to the whole sense the Parliament intends in such Impositionr why should there be any obstruction for such a Man though he deliver himself in his own words to be received into the establish'd order with others unless Men will look on these Injunctions only to be continued for Engines of Battery to destroy the Nonconformists and not as Instruments of unity to edifie the Church of God We will not leave our Congregational Brethren neither so long that we have something more as may be said for them not ordinarily considered by any It is this That though indeed they are not and cannot seek to be of our Churches as they are Parochial under the Diocess or Super-intendency of the Bishops Yet do they not refuse but seek to be comprehended within the Church as national under His Majesty We will explain our selves The Church may be considered as universal and so Christ alone is the Head of it and we receive our Laws from him Or as particular and so the Pastors are Heads Guides or Bishops over their respective Flocks who are commanded therefore to obey them in the Lord Or as national which is an accidental and external respect to the Church of God wherein the King is to be acknowledged the Supream Head of it and as we judge no otherwise For thus also runs the Statute That our Sovereign Lord shall be taken and reputed the only Supream Head in Farth of the Church of England called Ecclesia Anglicana Now if it should please the King and Parliament to allow and approve those separate Meetings and stated places for Worship by a Law as His Majesty did by His Declaration we must Profess that as such Assemblies by this means must be constituted immediately in ●egral parts of the Church as national no less than our Parish Congregations So would the Congregate Churches at least those that understand themselves own the King for Head over them in the same sence as we own him Head over ours that is as much as to say for the Supreme Coercive Governour of all in this accidental regard both to keep every several Congregation to that Gospel-order themselves profess and to supervise their Constitutions in things indifferent that nothing be done but in subordination to the Peace of the Kingdom Well let us suppose then a liberty for these separate Assemblies under the visitation of His Majesty and His Justices and not the Bishops We would fain know what were the evil you can find in them If it lie in any thing it must be in that you call Schisme Separation then let us know in it self simply considered is nothing neither good nor evil There may be reason to divide or separate some Christians from others out of prudence as the Catechumeni of old from the fully instructed for their greater edification and as a Chappel or two is added to a Parish Church when the people else were too big a Congregation It is not all division then or separation is Schisme but sinful division Now the Supream Authority as national Head having appointed the Parochial Meetings and required all the Subjects of the Land to frequent them and them alone for the acknowledging glorifying or national serving and worshiping the one only True God and His Son whom we have generally received and this Worship or Service in the nature of it being intrinsically good and the External order such as that of time and place and the like Circumstances being properly under his Jurisdiction it hath seemed to us hitherto that unless there was something in that order and way prescribed which is sinful and that required too as a condition of that Communion there is no man could refuse his attendance on these Parochial Assemblies without the sin of disobedience And consequently his separation thereby becoming sinful proves Schism But if the Scene be alter'd and those separate Assemblies made legal the Schism in reference to the national upon the same account does vanish Schism is a separation from that Church whereof we ought or are bound to be Members If the Supream Authority then loose our obligation to the Parish Meeting so that we are bound no longer the iniquity we say upon this account is not to be found and the Schism gone Loe here a way ●p●ned for the Parliament if they please to rid the trouble and scruple of Schism at once out of the Land If they please not yet is there something to be thought on for the Separatist in a way of forbearance that the innocent Christian at least as it was in the time of Trajan may not be sought out unto punishment Especially when such a Tolleration only is desired as is consistant with the Articles of Faith a good life and the Government of the Nation But what shall we say then to the Papists which is the Objection hit still in their Teeth that plead for moderation Why we will not baulk the delivery of our opinion There are Two parts we profess of that favour or condescension we seek from the Higher Powers The one consisting of a Composition with those whose Principles are fit and capable of it And the other consisting of forbearance towards those whose Principles will allow them no more The Papist in our account is but one sort of Recusants and the conscientions and peaceable among them must be held in the same Predicament with those among our selves that likewise refuse to come to Common Prayer It is true we have Laws very severe against the Jesuite and Seminary Priest But this we suppose to be upon the ground of State Interest The Supremacy of the Pope and the Authority of the King are inconsistent in this Land The Priest and Jesuite are taken by Law as