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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45123	An answer to Dr. Stillingfleet's sermon, by some nonconformists, being the peaceable design renewed wherein the imputation of schism wherewith the doctor hath charged the nonconformists meetings, is removed, their nonconformity justified, and materials for union drawn up together, which will heal both parties.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.; Lobb, Stephen, d. 1699.	1680 (1680)	Wing H3668; ESTC R22261	36,018	45

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 amongst 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 shist 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 Ingenuous of his particular 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 Assambled 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 Lord-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 Dishops were turned out of House by an Act. We cannot tell therefore of what Consequence it is to the fundamental liberty constitution and state of this Kingdom to yield unto the insinuation of such a thing as this in 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 decalare 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 Nonconformists 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 Two of these things are matters of most Notorious concernment which would require each of them a Book it self to peruse but we have no such liberty and must be content therefore only with the bare Notification If we give our unfained consent To all and every thing prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer and 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 which we must desire therefore to be weighed according to the engagement of mens minds and consciences about these Subjects and not after our passing short mention of them we are past doubt in the last that to Impose things that are inductive to others to sin and yet not necessary in 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 that purpose in his Epistle to his Irenicum 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 though a Submission to the things Imposed may perhaps be maintained the Imposition of them in not to be so neither by that Doctor 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 Nonconformists 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 Concord and Charity which ought to be maintained equally between the brethren of our Private and of the Parochial Congregations We should be ready to do any thing we could to the healing this scandal But there are matters of another moment which if we had liberty to open to the World at large as our cause requires we doubt not but that it might come to see whether we have reason to stick at Conformity or no. There are few of us who are not sensible in some measure of the Corruption which hath crept into the Church in regard to the Discipline or Government of it by the Hierarchy and Diocesan Bishop so much degenerated since Cyprians time from the primitive simplicity And there hath passed a solemn Oath over the Nation engaging the main Body of it to the endeavour of a Reformation Now when the same Government is returned upon the Land with all its former Corruptions and more heavy Injunctions if we should generally submit again to it without obtaining any amendment composition or abatement we dread to think on it with what faces they shall be able to stand before God who have lift up their hands to him for things quite contrary in the late Revolutions But to proceed At last besides the matter of this Declaration The strict prescription as to the form of words is more especially to be noted That this Declaration be made in these words and no other And what if a Minister would read the Book of Common-Prayer without this Declaration Or what if he would declare to the Contents of the Book in other Expressions Why should these crooked SS's

is true there is one instance from Antiquity out of Athanasius of some persons with Ischryas among them whom they would not allow according as these hold to be Ministers because one Coluthus that ordained them was only a Presbyter Unto which may be added the Story of the purblind Bishop in the Hispaline Council Circa An. 656 But we answer in the sense as we remember of Dr. Field on the Church It is one thing what they judged according to their Ecclesiastical Canons and another what we ought to judge according to the Word of God The Scripture makes no difference between Bishop and Presbyter the Superiority and Inferiority arising after in the Church And when we are made Christs Ministers and put in office by him according to his Word how shall that Authority be vacated for something wanting only in the Constitutions of Men Here is a matter of Infinite wrong which the opinion of these Men does us It takes away the Office Christ hath given us and holds it null If it was a grievous thing in the late times to put one of these Ministers out of his Place only what is it to put so many of us out of our Office There is no Person almost of Spirit but will be ready to part with his life as soon as the Honour he holds from the King and shall not the Ordained Minister maintain the Right which he holds from Christ When so many eminent Predecessors to these Bishops and other defenders of this Church have maintained Presbyterian Ordination When the Reformed Churches abroad have no other When the Case was such as that there was no other to be had here in the late times When not we alone then are concerned only in the wrong but our Lord and Master whose cause is it and whose business we are to do and the Souls of so many people We cannot but appeal to the Higher Powers in a matter of so great right and wrong as this is For we are contented to have revised and judged whether the Diocesan Bishop be distinguishedly named in Christs Charter for Ordination as he is in the Canons of Men Or when we have been ordained already as Timothy by the laying on of the hands of Presbytery whether the Lawn be de Essentia to the Ceremony and the Hands avail nothing without the Sleeves on The next thing is the Declaration I A. B. do here declare my unfained assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book Entituled The Book of Common Prayer and the Form of Ordaining Bishops Priests and Deacons That is Assent to all and every thing contained in and Consent to every thing prescribed by these Books Sirs There was a time when that the Nation had the hopeful Overture of a Concord between the Sober of two parties and the Hearts of Most men were in preparation to receive it But alas Instead of such a Gracious and Blessed Issue as was expected we have here the streight Injunction of an Assent and Consent to all Conformity and every thing of it new and old to be approved and obeyed or else one part of the Ministry must be immediately turn'd out How can those now whose Judgments are and have been still for Moderation between both Opinions in times before as now be able to come over to one side altogether on such Terms as these How can these we say make so short a turn as this without the Hazard of some sprain to their Consciences if they do it We cannot tell you perhaps nor are willing to declare the impression which we have upon our Spirits against a going back from that more Spiritual Plain and Simply zealous Service of Almighty God in the way we were in and Reformation we sought unto that Something we are not used to and fear To wit unto a form of worship and Discipline that carrying a countenance of both but being rather only a kind of Idols of them doth seem to us by the shew pomp and complement of the things it contains not to undermine the Life Power and Efficacy of one and the other We cannot tell you perhaps what hath moved us so much from within against an ingulphing with this Generation whether fear of Popery returning on us or aliquid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But we will produce Two or Three Instances a piece against Assent and against Consent to that which is injoyned that we may approve our selves to the Consciences of all as well as our own in refusing this Declaration For our Assent In the Athanasian Creed we find this passage Which Faith except every one does keep whole without doubt he shall perish everlastingly One of the Articles of this Creed is this The Holy Ghost is of the Father and the Son In this Article we know the Greek Church hath differed from the Latin and held That the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only If we give our Assent then to every thing or passage contained in this Book we must believe the Greek Church undoubtedly Damned And what if some of the Non-conformists as well as of Connformists do believe it not impossible but that some Heathen 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 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 Mentor the whole stock of Mankind do partake and whosoever lives according to Reason are Christians though they be accounted Heathen or without God such as Socrates Heraclitus and the like Justin Martyr in his second Apology for the Christians We do not day we receive this nor deny it We are though 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 Candor it self be used if we must be forced to declare that whosoever believes not the Athanasian Creed must undoubtedly perish Not that other Nonconformists 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

Honestis upon the Account of his Authority committed to them for the Exercise of that External Regiment Circa Sacra which is granted by all our Divines to the Higher Powers in every Nation it is enough for the owning Episcopal Jurisdiction so far as they do own it in the Declaration of Assent and Consent or in any other Part of Conformity and shall serve them to all Intents and Purposes in Law no less than a profesled Belief and Acknowledgment of the immediate Divine Right of it That is Although there be some that cannot acknowledge our Diocesan Prelates to be Christs Officers distinct from the Elders in Scripture Yet so long as they can live Peaceable Lives in Obedience to them as Ecclesiastical Magistrates under His Majesty for the keeping the several Congregations in their Precincts to that Gospel-Order which themselves allow and for super-vising their Constitutions in things indifferent that nothing be done but in Subordination to the Peace of the Kingdom which is a Notion wherein the Judicious of every Party may acquiesce and expressed by us therefore in these very Words before p. 31. it is sufficient unto National-Church-Vxion Be it therefore Enacted by this Present Parliament That if any Person be willing to Conform to the Present Establishment of the Church of England and her Service appointed according to these Explanations Alleviations Declarations Lenitives or Cautions he shall be admitted to any Ecclesiastical Preferment and enjoy the use of his Ministry without any Molestation All Statutes Canons or Laws to the contrary notwithstanding And for the making this Act of better Signification to the Concerned and the Prevention of that Scandal which is raised on the Clergy through the Covetousness of some in heaping up to themselves all the Preferments they can get when others have scarce Subsistance for their Families and the Souls of many People are thereby neglected Be it farther Enacted That no Clergy Man for the Three next Years ensuing be suffered to Enjoy any more than one Living or Cure of Souls and one Dignity or other Ecclesiastial preferment at one time and that every Man without Exception that hath more than one of Either shall immediately give up the rest to be distributed among those who shall be brought off from their Non-consormity upon the Terms of this Act into the Established Order Which that they may also be obtained and possessed with a clean Conscience and that grievous Corruption of Simony may be Extirpate out of the Land Be it enacted moreover that every Patron that shall henceforward present his Clerk to any Living shall have the Oath called The Simonianal Oath imposed on himself no less than on the incumbent And if he refuses to take it that then the Bishop shall have immediate Power taking only the same Oath of Presentation in his Room We propose these Things we confess as if we were in Republica Platonis but we should be glad to see any Fruits of this kind as those who art in Faece Romuli may expect What is Right and Just and ought to be done is one thing and to be sought though what is like to be done or will be done is another And forasmuch as there are some Ministers of a good Life that cannot according to their Judgments allow of our Parochial Churches nor a Book of Liturgy but do choose to Worship God and Jesus Christ in the way of their Gathered or Separate Congregations and crave the Protection and Clemency of the King upon their Allegiance as other Subjects be it finally Enacted for the Happiness and quiet of the Realm and the Reduction of these Men by other means than those which have hitherto proved unsuccesful that every Christian Subject throughout the Land that profess the Reformed Religion and be not Convict of Popery be pardoned all Faults and Penalties incurred upon the Account of any Fore-passed Non-conformity and that they shall not * Vntithy a farther Act of Parliament or a Convocation those that are fit to be Tolerated and the intolerated be distinguished during these Seven Years next ensuing be prosecuted upon any Penal Law for their Consciences in the Matter of Religion They carrying themselves Innocently and Peaceably with Submission to the Civil and without Disturbance to the Ecclesiastical Government now setled in the Nation All Statutes or Canons to the contrary not withstanding There are two Parts of this Bill one for Concord or Coalition with all such as can joyn in Parochial Communion in the Clauses before The other for Forbearance of those that Cannot in this 〈◊〉 Clause For what shall we do with such We must not Knock them on the Head They must therefore have Time If the Parliament will begin with the last first that is a Suspension of the Penal Statutes and then let us treat for a Composition after we consent with all our Hearts and like the Method best Then Abner called unto Joab and said shall the Sword devour for ever Knowest thou not that it will be Bitterness in the latter End How long shall it be ere thou bid the People return from following of their Brethren In short A Repeal of all our Laws about Conformity unto the 13th of Elizabeth or A New Act of Vniformity or The King's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs at His first Coming in turn'd into a Law were Comprehension His latter Declaration to all his Loving Subjects some few Things in Both yet a little considered made so were Indulgence A Bill for Comprehension with Indulgence both together will do our Business An Addition or Clause in it against Pluralities will do it with Supererogation Deo Gloria

these Interpretations appear in our Arguments before against the Oxford Oath and this Subscription which we can by no means submit to without them There is moreover this Clause And I will conform to the Liturgy of the Church as it is now by Law Established we desire may be spared because upon our Declaration before of Assent and Consent which must be the Bounds of our Sense thereof it is needless altogether and can serve but for a Snare only to Mens Consciences And forasmuch as there is an Oath prescribed and required of all Non-conformist Preachers that Reside in any Corporate-Town by a certain Act of this Parliament made at Oxford in the 17th Year of His now Majsties Reign Entituled An Act for restraining Non-conformists from inhabiting Corporations We do further declare That it shall suffice any Man for the Enjoyment of his Free-born Liberty of Inhabiting where he think best and serve him also instead of the fore-mentioned Subscription to take that Oath in this Form of VVords following I A. B. do firear That I hold it unlawful upon any Pretence to take Arms against the King his Government or Law And that I disclaim that dangerous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or any Legally Commissionated by him in the Legal Pursuit of such Commissions And that I will not Endeavour any Alteration of Government in the Church or State in any way or manner not warranted by the Constitution of the Kingdom or any otherwise than by Act of Parliament And as soon as any Man hath taken the Oath thus he shall be discharged of all Penalty for his Omission before This Oath is of the same Contents with the Subscription before and to impose both is nothing else but the multiplying Wrath and laying Load on the already Laden VVe do declare moreover That whereas it is required also in the Act of Vniformity that every Minister who enjoys any Living or Ecclesiastical Preferment shall be Ordained by a Bishop and there are several Persons of late who in case of Necessity for want of Bishops took Presbyterian-Orders Our meaning is not in any wise to disgust the Reformed-Churches beyond the Seas and make it necessary for such to be Re-ordained to the Office but that they receive this Second Imposition of Hands to the Exercise of their Office in the new Charge unto which they are or shall be called and that the Bishop shall frame his Words accordingly There is Reordinatio ad Officium which we say is generally decryed by Divines or Re-ordinatio ad Exercitium particulare which may be irrefragably proved from Acts 13.2 3. with Acts 14.26 and consiquently allow'd to serve this Occasion And whereas there is a Subscription also in the Canons and the Canonical-Oath of Obedience imposed on most Ministers by the Bishops that have given some of the greatest Occasion to Non-conformity heretofore which yet never passed into Law by any Act of Parliament We do further declare That nothing more of that kind shall be required of Ministers hence-forward than was made and held necessary by the Act of the Thirteenth of Elizabeth If the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance be taken and the Articles of the Church subscribed and the Declaration before to the Common Prayer made we see no need of boyling over these Three Things again for us in the Canons unless it be for a Crambe Repetita on purpose to Ki● us Neither do we think the putting any Honest Men who fear God cut of the Vineyard to be so good a Thing for her that our Wise Church of England should use so much Care and Industry as She takes that she may not miss to do it And in regard there hath been great Offence taken by Conscientious Ministers at the Bishops or their Courts commanding them to read the Sentence of Excommunication against some or other of their Parish for such Faults as they think not at all worthy of so great a Censure We declare it but a just Thing that every Minister be first satisfyed in the Cause or else be exempted from the Execution of that Charge and that the Bishop or his Court provide some other Person that is satisfyed about a it to do it As we think there is no Elder in the New Testament who is not a Pastor and that there is no Lay-Pastor so do we account that there is no Pastor or Presbyter but such as have the Power both to Rule and Teach committed to them by Christ Yet do we for al that apprehend it not only Lawful but Expedient for the ordinary Minister of our Parochial-Congregations when the Church is National to commit part of their Charge to wit that of Ruling in Actu Secundo to some few among them who are more Eminently fitted for the Work that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently to the Bishop So that if this Fundamental Right of Governing their own Flocks be but acknowledge a to Reside in every Presbyter by granting so much to us as this and what bath preceded comes to we shall be unwilling to fall off from Episcopacy upon the Points of Ordination and Jurisdiction And to the intent that a free Search after Truth may not be discouraged in the Pursuit of Concord and many other Scruples avoided upon that Account We declare That though an Authentick Interpretation be required as to the Substance of all Laws yet in the Articles of the Church which are Theses for Agreement and not Laws and the Homilies a Doctrinal Interpretation shall be held sufficient for an Assent or Subscription to them The Authentick Interpretation of an Article is the Meaning of the Major Part of the Convocation A Doctrinal Interpretation is the Meaning of any one of the Doctors there present and consequently of any other Learned Expositor who are supposed to have the Liberty to abound in their own Sense so long as they can agree in the Words of the Article Established And this Clause therefore we put in upon Mature Consideration in regard more especially to the Conscientious Latitudinarians who being some Arminian and some Calvinian cannot otherwise Subscribe the Doctrine of the same Theses as the Reader may see more in such another Book as this call'd The Healing Paper out of which this Bill for Union is newly Collected as out of several other Papers of the same Author the whole discourse besides excepting a little new was pick'd up and in the Year 75 laid thus together And because the very Superintendency of Bishops and that Subjection to them which is required by the Constitution of the Realm is or may be an Hinderance to many sober Ministers and other Protestants of coming into the Church who are ready to consent to the Doctrine but not to the Discipline or Government of it We do declare That so long as any Person or Party do acknowledge the King's Supremacy as Head of the Church in this Nation and obey their Ordinary or the Bishops in Licitis