Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	bishop_n	deacon_n	presbyter_n	6,239	5	10.7176	5	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

is no doubt but this were a Concession highly Convenient or conducive to this end for I do apprehend as I have said our present Bishops are of that moderation as they would straight yield to it and agree with them But I must say not Necessary because a submission alone to their Government is enough without conceding so much to them when as to the higher End of National Concord it is neither necessary nor convenient but inconvenient as conducive to the excluding multitudes out of it and if it be stood upon to destroy it Sir since I wrote this I have thought good to read over your book again and I will say something more as if I were to begin afresh for there are Persons of Quality and of Parts several that favour the Dissenters who do entertain your Notion of a National Church and Bishops Jure Divino taking your meaning in the strict not my large sense before with indignation looking on it as a building what you have destroyed in your former books and not with the indifferency of Spirit as I do who look on it as an Explanation of those books whether this Jure Divino Point be right or no. Your Title is Of National Church A National Church may be considered in genere or in specie Of a National Church in genere I will account that you have spoken Of a National Church in specie I would have you count that you are yet to speak if you can say any more and I to give you the Occasion A National Church in genere is a Christian Kingdom constituted of a Christian Soveraign Magistrate and of Christian Subjects Worshipping God ordinarily in True Particular Pastoral Churches This is the first Paragraph of your Book and the Subject of your Discourse which you maintain And that which you have said being not as I know by any before said and of such consequence as it is to be said is I will say in my Opinion so Generously said that I cannot but be pleased with it A National Church say you is a Christian Kingdom Right in genere it is so A National Church therefore is of Divine Institution Right again in genere it is so There is no question but God commands all Nations Kings and People to be Christians But we must proceed farther we must not rest here but come to the consideration of a National Church in specie and to this purpose there is another Definition you have elsewhere if it be another which is this A Christian Kingdom containing Confederate Pastoral Churches is a National Church I cannot tell here whether you mean any more in this than in that before but there seems to me some farther light to have came into your mind though perhaps you reflected not on it For by this Confederation you may either understand nothing but that Confederation which is between the Pastor and Members of a Particular Church within themselves or a Confederation of such Particular Churches with others That is the Confederation whereby a Particular People give up themselves to God which the several branches of the Confederation that you instance in do but come to and to one another to walk together under the same Pastoral guidance or the Confederation whereby diverse Particular Pastoral Churches do Confederate for Union under a Superiour Government for their greater common good If you understand the last of these then was you defective in what you said at first If you do not understand the last but the first onely then are you defective as to that which should come mainely into consideration which is the nature of a National Church I say in specie as existing in the Constitution of Particular Kingdoms unto which this Confederation in the last sense is not only Necessary but Essential and to be put into the Definition thereof as without which there can be no rightly constituted Particular National Church in the World We loose our labour to speak of National Churches in the Universal Notion unless we bring the Application down to the Particular National Church in our own Land as you know This therefore we must stand upon In Scotland the Presbyterian Government is settled In England the Episcopal The King is Head of both Nations If the Head alone now were the Form of a National Church then must there be but one Form of the Church of England and Scotland I mean not one Numerical Form which doubtless follows not but one Specifical Form because the Head is but One But the Form of a Presbyterian National Church and the Form of an Episcopal National Church are distinct Forms and do distinguish and specifie two Churches The Form of the Church of Scotland is that Order of Superiority and Subjection whereby the Parish-Churches and Ministers there are subject to their Classes and those Classes to higher till they come up to a National Assembly The Form of the Church of England is that Order of Superiority and Subjection where by the Parochial Ministers and their Flocks are subject to the Diocesan Bishops the Bishops to the Archbishop in regard to which several Parishes do make one Diocess and several Diocesan Churches one Provincial one and the two Provinces with the King make the Church National This Order is the Form of these Churches and the Form essentiates them It is not therefore for any to think that a Man can be a Member of either of these Churches who comes not into their Established Order A man cannot be of the Scotch Church but he must submit to their Presbyteries A man cannot be of the Church of England but he must own Episcopacy he must own it so far as to submit to their Government To go to build up a National Union without this Confederation explicit or implicit is verily but gathering Sand for the building and putting no Lime to it And this let me say with all due respect and without offence is that which you are doing and can but do by making our Bishops and our Church if you intend so to be of Divine Institution when the generality of the Dissenters can hereunto yield no Confederation In your behalf therefore do I distinguish of both these things of a National Church and of Episcopacy in genere in specie In genere in genere indefinito a National Church in genere indefinito an Episcopacy are of Divine Appointment But when we come to the consideration of National Church in specie in specie definita as they exist in the Constitutions of several Countries made by Men and of Episcopacy in specie as existing in our Church of England I will suspend my Belief of your saying so the Matter being so apparent otherwise in the mention of it seeing he that says it does no Service really to the Church the Bishops that are wise if they be obeyed as Established by Law caring little for that but Disservice in this respect that the Dissenters by this means if the thing be stood