Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	church_n	particular_a	universal_a	2,078	5	9.5204	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45122	An answer to Dr. Stillingfleet's book of The unreasonableness of separation so far as it concerns The peaceable designe : with some animadversions upon the debate between him and Mr. Baxter concerning the national church and the head of it.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.; Humfrey, John, 1621-1719. Peaceable design.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Of national churches.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. Unreasonableness of separation.	1682 (1682)	Wing H3667; ESTC R28713	17,588	40

perfectly assign to us such a Head as Mr. Baxter seeks But forasmuch as there is no Authority in the Convocation when they have Composed their Canons to Impose any of them upon the Church or to oblige the Conscience of any by them until they are ratifyed by the Authority of the King it is manifest both that this Hierarchy of the Nation is but of Human Right and that the King alone the Power of Legislation which proves it lying only in him is and must be the Head of the Church in this Kingdom And that this certainly is so it is declared in the Statute of Henry the Eighth That the King shall be taken for the only Supream Head of the Church called Ecclesia Anglicana To understand this The Church may be consid●red we are to know as Universal and so is Christ the Head of it and can only give Laws to it Or as Particular and so the Pastors are Heads and Rule it Or as National to wit as it is according to the Statute Ecclesia Anglicana and so the Magistrate is Head and makes Laws for it I will add There is something Essential to the Church of Christ and something Accidental That there should be Persons who Meet to Worship God and Christ and be put in Order for it is of Christ's Appointment and Necessary to his Church Of these Particular Persons and Churches the Catholick Church consists To be Particular then or Universal is of Essential Consideration to Christ's Church But to be National is of Accidental Consideration That all the People of a Land should be Christian and the Magistrate also is I say an Accidental thing to the Church which may Exist where that is not Upon which account though the Magistrate be none of Christ's proper Officers yet may he be Head of his Church and Constitutive Head of it as undet his Dominions because he is Head not in any Essential but in this Accidental Consideration of it I will now set down the Doctor 's own Words Pag. 301. We deny any Necessity of any such Constitutive Regent Part or one Formal Ecclesiastical Head as Essential to a National-Church For a National Consent is as sufficient to make a National-Church as an Universal-Consent to make a Catholick-Church In this Determination of the Point when the Doctor denyes any Necessity of such a Head I hope he is not so frivolous as to believe One in this Nation and not to tell it So long as the Church of England is a Political Church and hath a Government establish't it must have its Regent Part as well as the Part Ruled and to deny the Necessity of One is all one as to say there is None I press the Doctor Is it a Political-Church or no If it be he must find it a Head If it be not then it is only a Community of Christians amongst whom it must be supposed there is no Government as yet introduced and then shall our Ecclesiastical Laws Canons and Constitutions our Bishops and Arch-Bishops with the whole Constitution we have already be hurled in the Dust. The Doctor will be a fine Champion for the Church if he persists to say this We deny any Necessity of any such Constitutive Regent Part or one Formal Ecclesiastical Head as Essential to a National-Church The Doctor here who is posed with the Question is confounded with the Terms He should distinguish between a He●d and a Formal Ecclesiastical Head a Regent Part and an Ecclesiastical Regent Part a Constitutive Regent Part and a Formal Ecclesiastical Head of the Church of England Though a National Church hath no Ecclesiastical Head it hath a Head a Regent Part a Constitutive Regent Part under this Accidental Consideration of the Church as National though not under the Essential Consideration of it as the Church of Christ. If the Doctor had light upon it in some of his Books that the King of England represents Two Persons an Ecclesiastical Person while He presides by His Authority in the Convocation and so is Head of the Church and a Civil Person while He sits with the Parliament and so is Head of the State and upon the account of both the Fountain of all Obligation upon the Subject both from the Canons of the Church and Statutes of the Realm I cannot tell how he might have put Mr. Baxter to it But so long as the King is not indeed both Supream Magistrate and High-Priest as the Maccabees were and neither of them think otherwise of the King than Magistrate only that is Supream Coercive Governour it is this which is here said must be the Expedient to remove the Bone from between them It is said in Scripture That Kings and Queens shall be Nursing-Fathers and Nursing-Mothers to the Church As they are Fathers they are Heads As Nursing-Fathers it shews their Power is not Internal to the Church but External as Divines speak that is of another kind than that which is proper to Spiritual Fathers the Pastors or Christ's own Officers The Authority of Kings over the Church is Objective they say Circa Sacra not Formal That is it is Objectively Ecclesiastical and Formally Civil And as this is so I apprehend in like manner that the Society of Christians in a Nation as the whole Nation are such is Objectively a Church and Formally a Kingdom or Common-Wealth of Christians and so may the Christian Magistrate be the Constitutive Regent Part of it Well! But what Argument hath the Doctor to prove that there is no necessity for a National Church to have a Constitutive Head essential to it that is essential to it not as the Church of Christ but under a National Consideration He hath no Argument but brings another Instance and that is of the Catholick Church visible which he saith hath no Head neither The Doctor is miserably driven to the Wall when he is driven hither There was never any Protestant doubted but that Iesus Christ is the Head of the Catholick Church and if he be the Head of it as Universal he must be the Head of it whether Visible or Invisible But Christ is not sayes he a Visible Head Poor If this were true it is enough that he is the Head of those who are Visible but yet he is out even in this for though Christ be not Caput Visum he is Caput Visibile He is not seen on Earth but he is seen in Heaven Nay he was seen on Earth by Paul and Stephen and will Appear as he is at the Great Day And what thinks the Doctor of Christ before his Ascension was he Head then Nay did not Christ while upon Earth give Laws for his Church appoint Officers and Commission his Apostles to gather Christian Societies in the World And is not his Government over them a Visible Ecclesiastical Government where the Officers are Visible and the Members Visible and is not he the Head then of the Church Visible Are not making Laws and Appointing Officers the Rights of a

of it were composed of Scripture-Phrase altogether leaving nothing at all lyable any more to Exception unless the Imposition of a Form only which I doubt not but is also Justifiable by Scripture-Instances as well as Sound Reason it might go near to put an end to all Dissention among the Sober and Peaceable of the Nation It is this I know is apt to recur into the Imaginations of Good Men and forasmuch as there was lately two Bills prepared for Comprehension or Uniting the Protestants and for Indulgence or repealing the Penal Statutes I shall not I hope incur any blame if I apprehend that such Men who are most considerate and intent upon the Interest of God in what they seek do or did look upon either of such Bills as no other than an English Interim preparative to this Higher Concord and Union of the Bishop with his Presbyters according to the Primitive Pattern mentioned as soon as more mellow opportunity and well advised Piety should administer unto such farther Perfection Nevertheless in regard there is no Uniting of a Nation can be supposed by any Model but such as is of H●man Contrivance and there are Multitudes of Holy and Learned Men in this Kingdom that do believe the way of their Gathered Congregations is after a higher Pattern than this of Primitive Episcopacy it self i● there were any hope of the return of it it is manifest that there is no Society which is National in England could be formed on these terms because these Congregational Men can never recede from that which is of Divine Appointment for the sake of any Antiquity whatsoever They do hold Particular Churches to be of Christ's Institution and Diocesan of Ecclesiastical Consent only and under the Notion of Divine Right it is Sin to them to Submit to any Bishop There is another Notion then that must be advanced to take in these Good Men of This Way as well as those of the Parochial and Diocesan Way into one Political Body for the making up the National Church of England whereof the King is Head as I have been speaking and that is by an Act of Parliament Legitimating these Meetings of the Nonconformists so as to become thereby immediately Parts of the Church as National no less than the Parochial Assemblies It was a good thing in the House of Commons that they were about to free many Innocent Men from the danger of the Penal Statutes but the making such Meetings to be Legal is a Design of another Nature of a far greater nobler and vast Importance The Nonconformist as well as Conformist The Congregationalist as well as Presbyterian do acknowledg the King's Supremacy and can take the Oath The one as well as the other therefore do own an External Regiment of the Magistrate over their Churches so as to be punishable by him for any neglect of the Gospel Order which themselves profess or for any Rules they make or Things they do which are repugnant to the Peace of the Kingdom If it shall please the King consequently to commit any part of that Authority of his which he hath Circa Sacra to be exercised by the Bishops as Ecclesiastical Magistrates under him they can submit to a Visitation under them upon that account though they acknowledge them not to be Christs Officers bearing or having any Internal Church-Power from him over them or any other but their own Charge Upon which account it appears further how the outward Dignity and Grandeur of the Bishop need not be Diminished but enhaunced and his Superintendency extended over the Congregational as well as the Parochial Churches Provided only he will but keep within his Line that is the Line of the King and meddle not with Christ's Jurisdiction Neither will they envy him his Barony and sitting in the Parliament And if it should seem farther good here to a Parliament in one and the same Act that Legitimates such Meetings to appoint that unto the two Clerks which are Elected by the Ministers of every Diocess there should be one more chose by the Congregationalists likewise for every Convocation to joyn with them in Consultation that such Canons and such only may be framed as tend to the propagation of Holiness and Peace throughout all the Churches as we●l Congregational as Parochial who does not see how by this means one Organ more should be added to this great Political Society for deriving an influence from this Head to these Parts of the Body as well as others which now seem neglected and to have no care taken of them And this brings into my mind a Text of the Apostle God hath tempered the Body together having given abundant Honour to that part which lacked That there should be no Schisme in the Body but that the Members should have the same care of one another From which Text if I may go a little about to come the nearer home we may understand where the Core of that Evil we call Schisme does lye and that is mainly in the Want of that Love and that Care which the Members owe one to another It will follow that whosoever they be whether Conformist or Nonconformist who do care least for the Concord and Edification of the whole Body those are like to be found most Guilty of that Sin in the Sight of God The Nonconformist Minister does often come to the Parish Church but the Conformist Minister comes never to his Meeting and Which then of the Two is the greater Separatist The Meetings of the one and of the other as they are Particular Churches are Churches of Christ and Parts of the Universal and so of Divine through Quatenus Parochial of Human Institution They both agree in the same Doctrine and the same Sacraments They have one God one Hope of our Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism They differ somthing indeed in Opinion about the Church as to the external Constitution and Discipline of it and about some Rites and Practices which makes them go into distinct Congregations But is their going only to two Meetings enough to make Both or Either of them to be Guilty of this Sin of Schisme Separation I take it in its self simply considered is neither Good nor Evil and there must be something that makes such a Separation to be Sinful or else it is not to be accounted Schisme If a Man shall Separate from the Parish Church upon the perswasion that those Churches are no true Churches I take such a Separation to be a high breach of Charity which must therefore render it Sinful and Consequently Schisme If any shall Separate out of Pride Contention or any the like Sinful Cause or to any Sinful End as Worldly Gain for to some Gain is Godliness or Vain Glory this will make such a Separation to be still Sinful and so Schisme It were the part then of such a Convocation before mentioned that is of Ministers consisting of both sorts to be sure to agree upon this That

Neither Church or any Members of Either shall Unchurch one another and That no Man should depart from the One Church to the Other but upon a sufficient peaceable Reason under the pain of Ecclesiastical Censure They should not permit any person unlearned till come to very grave Years which are past Heat and Ostentation to Exercise in these Meetings They should decree the Doors of such Meetings to be kept open that the Magistrate may be secure against Sedition They should determine many things of such a Nature but especially that when a Man hath his choice to be of what Congregation he will in regard to Fixed Communion as he finds it most conducive to his Souls Edification yet should he be allowed and enjoyned to come Occasionally also to the Parish Meetings so far as he can in point of Conscience for the testifying his Union with the Body as the Church is National in this Kingdom And I would have persons likewise who come for their Stated Worship to the Parish Church to go sometimes to the Meetings also without scruple by the way of Occasional Communion I will here deliver my own Soul I know that the Laws of the Magistrate that are Good do Bind the Conscience but there are two Cases that Loose a Man from Obedience One is When that which is Commanded is against his Conscience and the Other is When that which is Commanded is Superseded by a Duty of greater concernment I cannot say for my part that to go to Church and hear Common-Prayer is against my Conscience though a thorough Conformity in all things on the Ministers part is like still to be so seeing the Doctor himself does shrink from a Defence of the Lawfulness of That but this I can say that when it is my duty to go to Church and my duty also to go Preach supposing I am called to one of these Meetings the leaving undone that Duty which is the Less for the doing the Other that can't be done otherwise is no Sin or Evil as I am perswaded in my Judgment And it is upon the Plea of the Greater Duty that the Peaceable Design does stand I know well how my Brethren state Their Case They will have going to Their Meetings to be for their Fixed Communion and allow Occasional Communion with the Parish Church to defend themselves from Schisme but I for my part must confess that I see not and cannot see my Defence to be so Safe unless I take the Parish Assembly where I have convenience for my Fixed Communion and my Preaching in the Meetings and the Peoples going to them to be Occasional only for our Greater or Farther Edification The Doctor therefore should indeed have taken particular Notice of this and Providing only against such Preaching to be at that time when Publick Authority requires the General Attendance otherwhere he should by giving an Approbation to such a State of Our Cause have consulted his Own both with more Judgment and with more Moderation then for ought I see he hath done or was able to do Indeed if the Scene were altered I need not be so wary If these Separate Assemblies were made Legal the Schisme presently in reference to the National Church were at an End Schisme is a Separation from that Church whereof we ought or are bound to be Members If the Supreme Authority then loose our Obligation to the Parish Meeting so that we are bound no longer the Iniquity upon that account is not to be Found and the Schisme gone It is one Act of Parliament would give a full Answer to all Mens Arguments In the mean time the Non-conformists I know have other Pleas besides One for what they do They think themselves bound in Conscience to Meet and Preach and account it Serving God and Doing their Duty The Doctor and others call it Sin and Wickedness When I Hear such Sayings therefore and Read such Books I may still bear Reverence to the Persons but I do not in my Heart care one Penny for what they say for there is a Conscience within quite above such Words They may cry This is Schism There never was such Horrible Schism as this Practise heard of before in the Christian World sayes one very serious Author whom I name not but I am not moved for all that I cannot think a Nonconformist Meeting such a Horrible Creature considering how our case in England now stands as these Church-Men generally would make it The great Bear I must count still hath been lead so long about the Streets that the very Children are no longer afraid of it Not but I am sensible of the dangerous consequence into which our Divisions may bring us but who can help it Who is the Cause of them Who is in Fault is the Question Who is it can Remedy these Terms imposed on us as necessary to Communion The Nonconformist hath no Conscience of Sin upon him in the thing and if he cannot have Peace with his Brethren of the Church upon any terms but Full Conforming it is God must be the Judg and the Bishop and Presbyterian the Doctor and Mr. Baxter shall know which of them it is that are to Blame at the Great Day And wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses The Doctor had no Need to lay out his Parts upon such a Design as that he hath under his hands Nor has he Reason I must inculcate to Despise or Scorn no nor to Slight or Neglect any body though the Meanest person There is a late Reverend Conformist for so I take him to be who in a certain Book Entituled Liberty of Conscience in its order to Universal Peace hath deserved better of us I suppose sayes he there is a Society or Societies of Christians that hold Christ the Head and the great points of Union but refuse to Ioyn in such Opinion or Practise as they conceive not Allowable by the Word of God nor can they that require their Compliance pretend on their part that the things are Absolute Necessary to make a Member of the Body of Christ In this case I say he is only the Schismatick that hath not a Love that hath no Sympathy with the Body and therefore if neither hath they must be both Schismaticks I should not fill so much room with a Quotation but that I am taken with the Genius of the Writer He is a man quite Unknown to me but he hath a fine Spirit and his Book savours of it That is so Generous so Candid so Benign towards the Dissenters as the temper is quite contrary in the Authors of the Friendly Debate the Ecclesiastical Polity and the Unreasonableness of Separation I am concern'd I must needs say that I put these three Names together Not that the Authors of either of the first Books are men of less bright Parts or that the Books have less Excellency of their kind in them than the last but because of the reason why I do it For I must confess it is a matter of real Offence to me that a man who is so Learned a man so Honoured a man throughout the Nation should prove a Proud man a Disdainful Contemptuous person Which Temper if it be Indulged is so un-endurable by God and Man that it will hurl any one into the dust And I cannot do any better Service in the Earth to this otherwise very Worthy and Excellent Doctor than to contribute the best I can to my utmost for bringing him to some Ingenuous Sense and Amendment of it And so I leave him to the World to judg who is most fit to be Pityed the Doctor himself or Mr. Baxter Thou shalt not Hate thy Brother in thy Heart but thou shalt in any wife Rebuke him and not suffer Sin upon him THE END ERRATA PAge 8. Line 11. in some of the Copies the word Last is put for First p. 26. l. 3. for shall read still p. 27. l. 18. for own read once