Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	head_n	king_n	lord_n	3,023	5	3.6782	3	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

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

uncapable of any Catholick Officers for executing such Jurisdiction You say the Head gives the Form to a Society but Does it give the Form when there are no Organs or Officers for Government under that Head when there are no such appointed by him or can be made by Man It is true that the actual making Officers belongs to the Administration of a Government when the Government hath its Denomination and is Organical from the Constitution But where is there any such Constitution declared by Christ or Appointment of his that there should be Organs made for an Oecumenical Government If there be no such how is it a Polity without Government without virtual or actual Government or an Oecumenical Polity without an Oecumenical Government This would tempt a man to come about towards our first Doctrin of Protestants to deny any Church Catholick but the Invisible How can the Universal Coetus of Christian People dispersed through the World without Legislative or Judicial Power be Political Methinks there must be something else more than Head and Members essential to a Form of Polity whether Civil or Ecclesiastical I will tell you therefore over again the Opinion I am prone to as well as I can A National Church may be considered Materially as a Christian People or Kingdom and so are National Churches of Christ's appointment out of doubt as at the beginning acknowledged for He sent out his Officers to convert Nations rather than single Men a●● the Prophets have many Places of the calling of Nat●ons whose Answer to that Call makes them Churches But as a National Church is considered Formally in regard to the Constitution of divers particular Countries as we say the Church of England the Church of Scotland and the like a National Church is and must be as it seems to me of Human Agreement altogether I speak not this I must farther say to dispute with you but to learn of you or for Instruction and in making this out I cannot but in my native apprehension differ from ȳou as to that which gives the Form Being or Essence to a Society Political or as to that which is the ratio formalis of a Nation being a Church You say it is only the Head gives the Form but I apprehend That the Head and Members of any Society considered as in a state before Organization for Regiment are but still the Matter of a Polity but that which gives the Form to it is Consent If a Community let me say should agree upon a Head and not agree upon the Organizing that Head and Members so as to be capable of Government here is no Polity Let me speak closer When a King is Head of his People already as They are a Kingdom I cannot say he is a Head of them as a Church before this Church be made Organical by a Constitution Pray note that and I say then The Consent Agreement or Combination of the Community the Populus Head and Body in such an Order for Government as is proper to it is the ratio formalis in my Apprehension of that Society I know that the Terms of Matter and Form upon which I lay no stress are proper to physical Beings whereas a Polity and such-like things are not Entia physica nor Entia rationis but Entia moralia and so need other Expressions but when I have no better and Entia moralia ad analogiam physicorum concipiuntur I must say That as it is Consent that makes a single man a Member of a Society and does that which a Form does to wit give the Being and Denomination to him of a Member Forma dat esse nomen So must the Universal Consent of Parts to that Order of Superiority a●● Inferiority for Regiment which is in any Society give it its Form and that Order be the Form or Polity it self which consisting not only of Head and Members but of Head and subordinate Organs for that Regiment it is not the Head alone but Head and Body so organized the Head Principally indeed but Jointly that makes it a Political Society You may say that I write here but scatteredly as one that aims at saying something that may provoke you to set me right rather than come my self to any perfect Determination and I care not to have you think and judge so for though I would not put you to trouble willingly about any thing impertinent yet do I expect so much more consideration and farther light from you in the thing as the weight of the Subject and the concernment thereof does require of him that undertook it The Head gives the Form I express as your Judgment In one place of this Book or that which came out with it you say The Head is the Form which seems to me absonant In another place you say The Relative Union between the Head and Body or the pars imporans subdita is the Form which sounds well But the Conception is not so hard yet A Polity is an Order of Superiority and Subjection I have said in a Community The Community here is the Matter and this Order is the Form This is most plain and forasmuch as this Form is introduc'd into the Community by their Agreement while free it is Consent which gives the Form and is the Foundation the Fundamentum Relationis of all Societies And here Sir without interposition of the last Paragraph I though to break off but my Mind I feel is not emptied A Christian Kingdom containing Confederate Pastoral Churches is a National Church with you But what if there be no Confederacy no such Consent or National Confederacy Where is the Form that must give the Being and Denomination of a National Church to such a Kingdom Suppose a Company of Christians with Ministers among them who preach and pray together and yet are not Confederated in the Choice of any of them for a Pastor and Officers for Government Here is a Particular Worshipping Community but no Political Society So in a Kingdom if a King and People be Christian and they have Particular Churches but no Confederacy of these Churches or Pastors in an Order for National Government here is an Ecclesiastical National Community but no National Church Here is a Government which is Civil by the Sword but no Government Ecclesiastical by the Keys There can be no Keys that are National I must say but what are founded in this Confederacy and consequently on Human Institution You may say every King that is Christian may allow of what Particular Churches he please and command a Confederacy But hold a little Religion the Fathers and Reason will tell us cannot be forced The Church Man believes Episcopal Government to be Jure Divino the Presbyterian thinks his to be so the Independent thinks their Congregational Churches alone to be of Christs Appointment and cannot in Conscience submit to a Confederacy of the one Side or the other How shall the King here command Consent or Confederacy to

any one part against the Conscience of the other Thou shalt do nothing against thy Conscience is a Precept of God and Nature that binds semper ad semper as the Schools speak being Negative How then shall Man command what GOD forbids He commands you to Confederate and it is against you Conscience to do it Hath he Power to command a Subject to sin He hath Strength or Force or Legal Right but hath he Authority to do it To say how far the Supreme Majestrate may go in this Case is not easie I am sure a Man may easily be too hasty and sudden in such a Decision I must add as what appears from that which went before A National Church may be distinguished from a Christian Kingdom because a People may be Christian before such a Confederacy But when Confederated and a Church they are the same indeed so as though distinguished they cannot be divided And this is the Right in my Apprehension To talk of Dissenters Presbyterians and Independents to be Members of the Church of England as well as the Conformists will not be born by the Weak And the confounding the Ecclesiastical Government with the Civil which your making a Kingdom and Church as Christian to be the same does seem to do will by the Wise be called into Question When you say well or speak at best you must look for Misunderstanding and Clamour from the Displeased For my own part how the Church Vniversal whereof Christ is the Head and Particular Churches whereof the Pastors have Rule are Churches of Christs making I do understand But how far a National Church is of Christ's making and how far of Mans making I think requires a little more Explication from you than we have yet You are very exact as to Civil Government to tell us what is of GOD and what of Man I remember not that you are so full as to Ecclesiastical And now let me tell you lest I be mistaken as to those things I have asked before that I have done so not that I am in all of them of another mind from you but for the clearing my less perspicacious Conceptions For Instance when I ask Whether the Catholick Church Visible be Political I must say I have receiv'd it to be so and will give you my Account that you may tell me if I am short The Government of the Church Mystical which is Internal by God's Spirit is I count a Government over single Persons the Elect dispersed His Operation is on single Persons The Government of the Church Visible which is External is a Government of Churches a Government of Persons as in Societies Congregational Diocesan Provincial National And the Catholick Church Visible is a Church I count Political and Organical because all these Churches that are Parts of it have their Governing Officers as well as the People Governed contained in them There is a Government therefore of a Society per Partes or per Integrum The Catholick Church is a Totum Integrale and is Governed per Partes only but yet by the Universal Laws of Jesus Christ who is the Head of it alone without any Oecumenical Vicarious Soveraign Single or Collective under him to give any other binding Laws than his which both you and I equally decry Whether there by any more than this to be Answered is the end of my asking that Question of you from whom I count if there be I shall have it For the Case put by me of a Kingdom converted by Independents it is my Opinion That in a Kingdom consisting only of Pastoral Churches not associated into an Order of Superiority and Subjection for a Government of the Whole or per Integrum there can be only the Materia and Privatio but not the Forma which that Order introduced should be of a National Church And I must add If it be enough that a King and People be Christian with Pastoral Churches to make a Kingdom a National Church then supposing the Episcopal or Presbyterian Government comes to be set up in it here must be tow National Churches in one Kingdom for there was one before and here is a New one or another New constituted by Agreement Pray pardon me my seeking from you more Illumination For your Proof of National Churches to be of Christ's Institution from his own being King of the Jews and Head of the National Church and choosing Twelve Apostles in relation to their Tribes and Seventy other in relation to their Sanhedrim with the Particulars you further mention I confess what you offer to be very ingenious and deep in fancy but whether it be cogent or not I do question For First Though Christ was born King of the Jews as sprung from David by his Mother yet would he not be their King when the Jews would have made him Secondly He tells expresly His Kingdom was not of this World Whereas the Government of Kings over Christian Kingdoms and so Heads of National Churches is no other than a Government External or a Government which is of this World Thirldy Christ is every where said in the New Testament to be Head of his Church in the Sense of the Church Universal but never in the Sense of the Particular Church of the Jewish Nation And the Prophecies of the Old Testament will admit if not require by the Event another Interpretation Fourthly The Relation of the Seventy to the Sanhedrim and of the Twelve to the Tribes is a Relation only of Number not of Work or Office for What is the Seventy Disciples preaching to convent the People or preaching Repentance for remission of sins to the business of the Sanhedrim which was their Supreme Court of Judicature for all Causes to be brought for Judgment And what was that Nations consisting of Twelve Tribes to the Choice of the Twelve Apostles unless one might think that Christ set over each Tribe one of them to be Superintendent or Bishop of that Tribe which none Thinks as I Know Fifthly Though the Jews had their Twelve Tribes and Christ those Twelve Apostles and they had Seventy Elders and Christ chose out Seventy to preach the Gospel this signifies not besides what is said already unless you prove these two things which can't be proved to wit That he chose these Twelve in relation to these Tribes and these Seventy in relation to their Sanhedrim and Who can tell Christ's Intention And also That he did this by his Authority as their King as King of the Jews or Head of the Jewish Church when he might do it and did it we may suppose as King or Head of the Church Vniversal Indeed if any shall say that Christ during his Life was King only of the Jews and that he had no Power therefore of commissiouating his apostles to go any where else for converting People which is the making them Subjects of his Kingdom because he was not King over any other Nation till after his Death and Resurrection and shall

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