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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	bishop_n	church_n	key_n	2,617	5	9.5045	5	false

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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

he judges in his Conscience to have been Their Meaning and if he can subscribe them in that Sence he is to do it if he cannot he is to forbear This being so hard a Chapter it is fit the Church should put in and declare that that Sence whereof a man can hardly be sure even so far as to act in Faith is not the Sence she imposes but that any other may suffice which in a literal Construction can be made good whether of the Subscriber's own or of any Judicious Expositor Doctrinal not the Authentick Interpretation Let every one be fully perswaded in his own mind I mention these 4 or 5 things instead of many to be the Canonical Matter of such Impositions as may be found fit to be laid some on all some on some Persons not needful for others and it is Time and the Trial and Experience which must be the Mother to bring them forth and cultivate them after to their best advantage To the making such Canons we humbly motion a third Clerk for the Convocation to be added to the two in every Diocess and chose out of the Dissenters with indifferent respect to all sorts of them that mutual Satisfaction and Concord may thereby be prosecuted with Unanimity of Heart and Good-will through 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 The continuance of two Provinces with a separate Government in either is inconsistent with one National Political Society and keeps the Saddle on both for the French Popery at least if not the Pope of Rome to get up again upon us If a temporary Vicar-General were made by the King every Convocation by whose Authority delegated to him over both Provinces to that purpose the Members of both were to be convened and if when any business of moment were on the Anvil no man but one herein truly noble as excelling others in Learning and Virtue such a one as Mr. Boyle might be chosen by whose Conduct and Moderation things might be carried better than they have sometimes been Who does not see but this might be for advantage to the Affairs of Religion The Council of Nice had not done so well as it did had not Constantine supervised them Government consists in Legislation and Judgment The Supreme Power of this Kingdom as to the exercise hereof lies not We know in the King alone but in the King and his Parliament The whole Body of the Nation are to be accounted in their Representatives to meet the Head and the Laws to be made by the Whole whereby our Birthright of being a Free State or Free People is maintained The Absolute Supreme Power therefore of this Kingdom of England must lye in King Lords and Commons as unified in a Corporation and the House of Lords as virtually so unified is the Highest Judicatory As for the Supreme Power then of the Church of England the Power of making Canons and of judging in Ecclesiastical Causes as to the last Appeal it does in like manner not lye in the Bishops only but in the King thus incorporated and a Convocation Every Parish-Church in the Land is to be accounted by its Pastor to chuse its Representative in this Convocation Every particular Church which is tolerated or shall be tolerated by Law is thereby made part of the National and must therefore have the same Right with the Parochial Congregations Let thus much be declared and upon this Foundation whereof of First-stone was laid before will this great Union which we do go about to build be reared and irrefragably upheld For if the Persons that represent their Churches are united in one Assembly then must those Churches that are represented be supposed as united in one Body It is as Members of one National Society that they chuse their Representatives for the making up this Convocation which is the Church of England in Representation If we look into our Antiquaries and old Historians we shall find That before the Conquest at least under the Saxons our Parliaments and Clergy were still one Assembly and no Canons made but by both together Which ancient usage manifestly powers the nature of a Parliament to be the measure of a Convocation Let me add as to this Supreme Power of the Keys mentioned That the Subject thereof is the whole Church as we shall find it proved by our Divines such as Bishop Andrews against the Papists from that only place for the Institution of Discipline Other Texts speak say they of the Keys of Doctrin Tell the Church that is a Particular Church which a National Church unless distinguished is for the Vniversal Church cannot be told Now the King being one and the chief one in the Church as National and the Power lying in the whole He he in his Vicar together with the Convocation representing the whole must have this Power residing in him with them Although as the Legislative Power of the Kingdom lies in the Lords and Commons with the King yet the Executive Power lies in him only so the Legislative Power of the Church lies in him with the Convocation yet the Executive in the Bishops only No Church-Execution by the Sword-bearer but they Key-bearer and no Penalty by Canon but Rebuke and Excommunication To return By this means shall one Organ more be added to this great Political Society for deriving an Influence from the Head to these Parts of the Body as well as others which now seem neglected and to have no care taken of them The grand and more especial Business of such an equally-modell'd Convocation should be the revising the Book of Canons for the reversing the main Body of them having been fitted to that narrow Scantling which is unworthy the Church of England and for the leaving only those and making new as we have exemplified in some for instance-sake before which do or will be made to suit to that larger Constitution thereof intended by this Paper And having said now thus much for Explanation of this Design we must say some little also in favour of it The Design of such a National Accommodation as this shall advance not lessen the outward Power and Honour of the Bishop extending it over those who before had no conscientious Regard for their Function while yet it would case them of the tremendous Burthen of such a Cura animarum they take on them otherwise as must be of impossible performance This Design which is supposed to find us in our Divisions and not to make any shall by little and little with God's Blessing on it cool Animosities and enkindle Charity and Holiness among all Parties which now is so much wanting while those that are Catholicks and those that are Protestants and much more those that are Conformists and those that are Nonconformists do agree in the Substance of one Christianity having the same Scriptures the same

to theirs without any Lye Dissembling or Equivocation Neither is there any Adjustment that can atone both sides besides this for the Minister ordained before receives no diminution to his Ministry hereby seeing he yields to no more than this and the Unsatisfied with his Ministry already can be satisfied with no less than this If the Bishop should only Admit a man to the Exercise of his Ministry in the Church of England the Spiritual Power received already acknowledged this indeed would serve the Minister but not the Bishop or those that doubt it If any thing be done that implies the denial of the Power it is against the Conscience of the Minister but when the Power is not Denyed nor Granted neither are offended but both accommodated as much as need be and that is enough If the man be shocked at such a Supposition If thou beest not Ordained he must be set right again at those words that follow If thou beest be thou confirmed and consequently in regard there are really in many places several truly pious People that believe a man no Minister unless Ordained by a Bishop and so scruples his baptizing their Children and the receiving the Sacrament of him the Nonconformist Minister that shall be comprehended by this Act will be bound in point of Conscience for the satisfaction of such as may be of his Parish Conscience I say not thy own but of the others to the yielding to any the like thing as this which is not sinful that his Ministry may run and be glorified and receive no Obstruction upon that account At the end of the Bill there was a Clause for appointing some Bishops and Doctors of the Church to that healing work for which the King after gave a Commission and in the renewal of the same therefore I would beg lastly that this Clause may be put as near as may be into these words following And Forasmuch as the Excellent Government of the Church by Bishops as it was Reformed and Established in Edward the Sixth and Q. Elizabeths days is to be still upheld and several things in regard to the Books of the Liturgy and Ordering Priests and Deacons and the Ecclesiastical Constitutions and in regard to the Exercise of Discipline and otherwise do require Redress Reduction and Improvement In order whereunto it pleased the King to grant a Commission to certain Bishops and Doctors of the Church who have made some progress therein Be it enacted That these Commissioners shall be hereby authorized to call or convene half a dozen of the grave and moderate Nonconformist Ministers who upon consultation with their Brethren shall peruse what these Commissioners have prepared and offer to the said Commissioners in Writing whatsoever they desire farther in reference to Concord and when these Commissioners have considered thereof and perfected the whole as themselves see meet they shall present it to His Majesty to be communicated to a Convocation or Parliament when and how it shall seem best to his most excellent Wisdom There are two sorts according to His Majesty's Declaration before mentioned of Protestant Dissenters One that own the established Ministry the Liturgy and our Parish-Churches The Other that do not or cannot own them For those that cannot they cannot be comprehended and their Case being considered they have Liberty granted they must not be knock'd on the Head For those that can their Case is to be considered likewise and if this Bill without altering any more than thus Tho' if any man would know all things to perfect it he may find them in one drawn purposely up in that little Book called The Samaritan be brought into the House so that it pass with the Grant but of those few things which are contain'd in it together with impowering the aforesaid Commissioners unto this farther business for remedy of more there is so much obtained herein as is manifestly conducive to this end of Comprehension which would be I count a blessed Ground for present Peace as a happy sort of Interim till time brought forth something farther to perfection But both these Acts that for Indulgence and this for Comprehension if the last come also into an Act are yet but Scaffolds tho' so much needful in order to this greater Works the building up such a Church as may be capacious both of the Indulged and Comprehended to live together with the Church-men as fellow-Members of the same Society Political in the enjoyment of the common Peace and Religion of Jesus Christ that so God may be one and his Name one throughout the Nation I will add such a Church as being compacted within its self and strenghtened with such a Union it may be the Glory of our Friends and Impregnable against our Enemies A Magna Charta to this effect in the Reign of the present King which was but spoken of and feared under the last would indeed do our business If there be any Protestant Lawyer so deliberate and wise as to be able to digest so great a matter he may do well to read Mr. Lawson's Politica who in one Chapter of the Extent of a Particular Church goes to prove how easily the Multitude of Christians in one Nation associated and subjected to one Supreme Judicatory may be ordered even as a single Independent Congregation may and he hath many clear things upon it as a man of excelling Skill in that study Sir I am sensible how much the publick and how little your own private Advantage does concern you and therefore I humbly conjure you and beseech you to take this matter into second thoughts because it is one and the same thing as to the main must be thought over and beat upon to bring any matter to the maturity of doing good and the Lord knows whether there be or be not any such kind of Good in the Womb of Providence for this Land There was a Sheet or Half-sheet came out a good many years ago under the Title of Materials for Vnion which were revised and put out again more lately under the Title of A Draught for Accommodation that is National Union National Accommodation If you have read it already it is so much the better because then your Thoughts will be the more prepared to do what I desire of you that is to read over the same again with some deeper Animadversion not barely to confute it or some things in it which is a little Work any other body can do but to take it into consideration so as to examin what is well as what is amiss to approve as to disprove to add what is wanting as to lop what is unfit that is to read it over not for destroying but edifying or to look it over as you would the Trees in your Garden to pluck off the Snails but to cherish the Budds because there is or there may be for ought you know a Blessing in them I do think fit to write this Letter on purpose that I may send with

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

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