this Realm provided alway that no Canons Constitutions or Ordinance shall be made or put in Execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which shall be contrariant or Repugnant to the King's Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm any thing contained in this Act to the contrary hereof notwithstanding And in the close of the said Act it follows Provided that such Canons Constitutions and Synodals Provincial being already made which be not contrariant nor repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm nor to the damage or hurt of the King's Prerogative Royal shall now still be used and executed as they were before the making of this Act till such time as they be viewed searched or otherwise ordered and determined by the said Two and Thirty Persons or the more part of them according to the Tenor Form and effect of this present Act. But nothing being done in pursuance of this Power vested in that King thereby the same was again Enacted by Stat. 27. H. 8. c. 15. But the Power of Popery rendring that Law also Ineffectual it was again by Stat. 35. H. 8. c. 16. Enacted That that King should still have the same Authority during his Life But still nothing was done for the Priests chose rather to continue the Canons and Constitutions and Laws Ecclesiastical in the uncertainty in which they were left by the said Stat. 25. H. 8. c. 19. than that the King and Sixteen of the Temporalty should intermeddle in Matters Ecclesiastical But King H. 8. died and left the Ecclesiastical Constitutions as the were unestablish'd by the last mentioned Statute And the Reformation having made a considerable Progress in the Reign of Edw. 6. the like Power and Authority was again given to that King by Stat. 3. and 4. Ed. 6. c. 11. But still the Old Leaven remained and nothing was done in his short Reign and Popery returning to its Vigor under the Reign of Queen Mary the aforesaid Stat. of 25 H. 8. c. 14. was Repealed by Stat. 1. and 2 Phil. and Mary c. 8. And although that Act was Revived again by the Act of 1 Eliz. c. 1. yet that Authority which had been given to King H. 8. and King Edw. 6. seems not to be given by that Act to Q. Eliz. But by the same Act the High Commission Court was created to Act under the Queen's Prerogative which was quite another sort of Authority and left the Laws Ecclesiastical as they were left by the Stat. 25. H. 8. c. 19. And the High Commission being since found inconvenient and condemned by Law it seems to me that something remains to be done for the Establishment of the Church And therefore tho' I impute it to the Prevalency of Popery that all those Statutes were of no Effect yet I would hope that the Divine Providence did permit so many Laws of that Kind to be made with a design that they might be Presidents for the like Authority to be vested in our most Gracious Sovereign Queen Anne whose Life hath set a rare Example of Christian Piety whose Reign the Almighty hath blest with the best Bishops that ever fill'd the English Sees and whose Care of all her Subjects hath been so often Exprest with such moving Accents from the Throne of whose Affection to the Church of England no Man can doubt and who may easily render it a Means and Pattern of Union to all the Protestant Churches and in a short time to the whole Christian World I write not this without Ground but with good Reason and some Glimpse of Hope Had any of the said Statutes in the Reign of H. 8. been pursued Popery had been further establish'd And in the short Reign of Edw. 6. Things were yet in great Confusion Matters in Controversie had not been fully discust Laymen-had but just got the Bible which is the Instructions left by our Blessed Saviour into their Hands and therefore could not so well judge whether his Ambassadors followed his Instructions or no. Humane Inventions had so long been made Equal to Divine Institutions that it was not easie at that time to distinguish them And considering the gross Ignorance that abounded among the Clergy when the Transition was made from Popery to the Protestant Religion by Queen Elizabeth it is wonderful that the Reformation should have made so great a Progress as it did in her Reign During the Reign of King James the First the Spanish and French Matches the Cowardise and yet the Ambition of that King diverted his Thoughts to other Matters than the Establishment of the Church but yet a step was made towards it by the new Translation of the Bible which was made in his Reign During the Reign of King Charles the First the Cassandrian Design of a Re-union to Rome was pursued with great Industry and therefore no wonder that a better Establishment of the Church was not attempted in his Reign And perhaps till the Mischief of Enthusiasm had shewed us the necessity of a National Church it would have been difficult to have brought the Dissenters to any Reasonable Terms of Union and therefore the first Opportunity which seems to me to have presented it self for such an Attempt was at the Restoration of the Royal Family when it was in the Power of King Charles the Second to have Establish'd the Church on such Foundations as would easily have taken into her Communion almost all Denominations of Christians who had not cast oft the Ordinances of Christ and their Allegiance to the Civil Government But the foreign Education of the Royal Brothers had sixt their Inclinations to a Union with France and Rome and the Fear under which King Charles the Second laboured was not lest the Dissenters should not comply with the Act of Uniformity but lest they should One Party was to be turn'd out that another might be brought in So that this time was not improved towards our Union But after that Popery appear'd barefac'd under the late King James the Second and Advances were made both by the Church-Party and the Dissenters towards Union at the Revolution that Season was look'd upon as a happy Juncture for such an Attempt But to speak my Mind freely although I think no Man can give an Instance wherein his late Majesty King William shewed any want of Affection to this National Church yet his Education under another sort of Church-Government did as I apprehend cause the Church Party to take Umbrage as if he designed to bend the Constitution in the Church too much toward the Dissenter And might also occasion in the Dissenter Expectations of greater Concessions than are necessary to Peace and Unity But the Mischiefs of Enthusiasm in the late Times the Persecution of the Episcopal Party then and of the Dissenters in the Reign of King Charles the Second and the terrible Visage of returning Popery under the late King James have occasioned great Thoughts of Heart All
Catholicism WITHOUT POPERY AN ESSAY To Render the Church of ENGLAND A Means and a Pattern of UNION TO THE Christian World LONDON Printed for I. Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry 1699. Advertisement THE Reader is desired to take Notice of Two Things 1. That this Discourse is not Written by the Direction Assistance or Advice of any Person or Party whatsoever nor with the Privity of any in Authority but is the meer and only Result of the Author 's own Thoughts who makes it his Request that the Reader wou'd forget that it has an Author and take it as if it were produc'd by the casual falling together of the Letters of the Alphabet it being too common a thing for Men to slight Truth if they approve not of him that utters it and to indulge Error if recommended by the Author's Name And yet at the same time let the Reader be assur'd that the Author is not afraid that the World should know what he earnestly desires may be conceal'd for the Reason aforesaid 2. That for the same Reason divers Passages are made use of therein without referring to the Books whence they are taken there being in so learned an Age no great danger of Plagearism and in so divided and contentious an Age too much danger of the abovesaid Inconvenience THE PREFACE Christian Reader THE Substance of the following Discourse was Written above eight Years since and Presented in Manuscript to Her Late Majesty of ever Blessed Memory But Wars abroad made it unseasonable to attempt Peace in the Churches while the States of Europe were so hotly engag'd and had the Church of England render'd it self a Pattern of Peace yet the Nations about us were not at leisure to observe that Pattern The Divine Power Wisdom and Goodness assisting the Best of Kings hath Restor'd Peace to the Nations of Christendom among themselves And why may not Peace among the Churches of Christendom be expected by the same Means And because the Design of the following Discourse is to attempt it first at Home yet with an Eye to the Peace of the Christian World I will look back on the Past Age and consider the Cause of our Divisions both in Church and State Two Controversies have miserably divided this Nation for more than one Century I mean the Controversie between the Prerogative of the King and the Liberty of the Subject and the Controversie between a Strict Vniformity in Matters of Religion and a Lawless Liberty of Conscience And our Enemies of the Roman Communion have ever since the Reformation industriously kept alive both these Controversies in order to reduce us to our former Bondage to Rome They took the side of Prerogative and Strict Conformity till they had set these Kingdoms in a flame and broke in pieces the English Government both in Church and State They us'd the Pretence of Loyalty to Murder the Poor Protestants of Ireland and of Vniformity to drive many excellent Men out of the Church And when they had ruin'd Prerogative and the English Church by appearing for them They then fell in for Anarchy in the State and an extravagant Liberty of Conscience in the Church and broke us into Numberless Parties and Sects And while their Emissaries wrought diligently to build a sort of Babel among us they cast the Reproach thereof on the Protestant Religion Again when the Nation grew weary of Anarchy of changing Governments every Moon and springing new Churches almost as often and found a necessity of Restoring the English Constitution they returned to their old Methods of straining the Prerogative and destroying both our Civil and Religious Liberties by Arbitrary Power and on that side of the Controversie they continued till the late Happy Revolution They knew though we were forbid to say that both the late Kings were in their Interest and that the Prerogative would be certainly on their side that the Dispensing Power render'd all Laws already made against them useless and would consequently restore Popery by our Celebrated Magna Charta They knew that Modelling Corporations wou'd destroy Legislation for the time to come by making Parliaments like those in France Tools and Vassals to the Crown as the Council of Trent was to the Pope Thus Humane Wisdom seem'd to Promise them all Imaginable Success for the Church-Party being secur'd by the Doctrines of Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance misunderstood the Dissenters Caress'd with an Illegal Toleration and the Papists among us Vnited to destroy us we were like Isaac bound and laid on the Altar had not our good Angel in the very Act of Sacrificing staid the Knife I do but touch these things as being Foreign to the Design of the Following Discourse yet I can't pass them without observing that Solid and Lasting Settlement both of Religion and Civil Liberty which we owe to His Majesty Two things the Nation had learn'd by sad Experience 1. By the Confusions and Distractions of the late Times they learn'd that a Common-Wealth would never do in England for though for a season that Government made a Figure in the World it soon dwindled into a single Person under another Name and at his Death consum'd away in Anarchy 2. By the late Reigns the Nation had learn'd that Arbitrary Power would never do in England though affected and attempted with all possible Application in both those Reigns What then could Humane Wisdom think fit to be done upon the Late Revolution but to settle and establish the English Government on its Ancient and Solid Foundations The most Renowned Politician observes That those Kingdoms and Governments stand longest that are oft renewed and brought back to their first Beginnings And though in the last Age we could not attain it we are now blest with the Old English Constitution The English Government exceeds all others in the World being a just Mixture of the Three Forms of Government Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy Monarchy justly boasts its Vnion Aristocracy its Grandeur and Democracy its Liberty Now the English Government has all the Advantages of these Governments without the Disadvantages of any it has Monarchy without Arbitrary Power Aristocracy without Faction and Democracy without Anarchy and hence we are blest with King Lords and Commons The Just Prerogative is Establish d the Invaded Liberties of the Kingdom are restor'd and the Incroachments of the Late Reigns condemn'd by Act of Parliament So that there is an end of the Controversie between the Prerogative of the King and the Liberty of the Subject and nothing but the most incurable Infidelity can be Proof against that Evidence of His Majesty's Love to the English Liberty which He hath given by permitting an Election for Parliament during his Absence and passing the Bill for Disbanding the Army The Controversie between a strict Settlement and a Boundless Liberty in Matters of Religion is also in some good measure compromised we have now no Spanish Inquisition to force Mens Faith and Consciences into the same Mould which is
Reason of the Zeal of a certain Party therein and nor a Consciencious Regard to the Act of Uniformity is further Evident because Bowing at the Name of Jesus and toward the Altar tho' contrary to the Act of Uniformity but signifying an inclination towards Popery are as much practised and defended by that Party as any Ceremonies establish'd by that Law The Occasional Conformist therefore thinks himself bound in Conscience to make a Remarkable Difference in his Practise between the regard he shews to the Commandments of God and to the Inventions of Men especially when those Inventions are manifestly defended with the utmost Vigor to keep a Correspondence with France and Rome I might here name many Things which may be amended in the Church of England But I had rather Convince you that you are in a great Mistake when you affirm That there is no way to heal Divisions but by such a Bill as that against Occasional Conformity And because Her most Sacred and most Excellent Majesty is I trust raised up by Almighty God to perfect that Reformation both at Home and Abroad which was so much advanc'd by Her Predecessor Queen Elizabeth of Blessed Memory and because I take Her Reign to be a more proper Season for such a Work than that of the late King William tho' of Glorious Memory for Reasons easily Occurring to Men of Thought and some of which shall be hereafter mentioned I will venture to propose another Means to put an End to Faction to secure the Publick Peace in Church and State to remove the Causes of all our Fears and of all our Divisions which is worth Ten Thousand such Bills as that against Occasional Conformity and which the Promoters of that Bill cannot refuse to approve of if they be hearty Lovers of her Majesty and the Church of England It were easie to prove what has been before mentioned that the Primitive Rule of Reformation and the Rule universally used at the Reformation was That the Terms of Christian Communion ought to be only such as are found in the Scripture And perhaps in another Discourse the World may see a full Evidence That all the Mischiefs that have happen'd to the Christian Church have been occasioned by departing from that Principle and an account may be given of the gradual Growth of Priestcraft from the days of Diotrephes to the time of Cardinal Woolsey at least But before I mention the said Means of putting an End to Faction I will only observe that notwithstanding by Stat. 31. H. 8. c. 14. Transubstantiation Communion in one Kind Prohibition of Marriage to the Clergy Monkish Vows Private Masses and Auricular Confession are also Establish'd by Act of Parliament yet some time before viz. 25 H. 8. cap. 21. the King and Parliament did declare That they did not intend to decline or vary from the Congregation of Christ's Church in any thing concerning the very Articles of the Faith of Christendom or in any other things declared by Holy Scripture and the Word of God necâ—ssary for their Salvation and that this continued to be the Opinion even of the Popish Church of England appears from Stat. 1. Mar. Ses 2. c. 1. Wherein the Marriage of Queen Katherin to Henry the 8th is declared Lawful and all Sentences of Divorce between them Repealed And lest the Queen and Parliament should seem to enact any thing herein contrary to the aforesaid Principle It is thereby Enacted That the said Marriage had and solemnized between the Queen 's most Noble Father King Henry and her most Noble Mother Queen Katherine should be definitively clearly and absolutely declared deemed and adjudged to be and stand with God's Law and his most Holy Word So sensible were the Parliament in those times that God's Law and his most Holy Word ought to be the Rule of all things relating to Christian Religion And tho' an Act of Parliament will not make that stand with God's Law and his most Holy Word which does not stand therewith yet the Wisdom of the Nation at that time and the Wisdom of all Nations and of all Pretenders to Establish a Revealed Religion such as Numa Mahomet and others have thought it necessary to pretend Divine Authority for all Matters relating to Revealed Religion And had that seemed Good to the Governors of Church and State in Christian Countries which seemed Good to the Holy Ghost and the Apostles Elders or Presbyters and Brethren met in the first Council of the Christian Church at Jerusalem viz. To impose nothing but necessary things Had they taken the Prophet's Advice Isai 55.14 Take up the stumbling Block out of the Way of my People instead of forcing them to use it Popery had never risen but the Church had continued Pure to the Worlds end But this being premised I desire you to remember that when the Supremacy of the Pope was thrown off by the Church of England and the Crown restored to its Ancient Rights it was by Stat. 25. H. 8. c. 19. Enacted That the Convocation should be Assembled by the King's Writs and should not Enact any Constitutions or Ordinances without the King's Assent And it was further Enacted as follows And for as much as such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances as heretofore have been made by the Clergy of this Realm cannot now at the Session of this present Parliament by reason of shortness of Time be viewed examined and determined by the King's Highness and Thirty Two Persons to be chosen and appointed according to the Petition of the said Clergy in form above rehearsed Be it therefore Enacted by the Authority abovesaid That the King's Highness shall have Power and Authority to nominate and assign at his pleasure the said Two and Thirty Persons of his Subject whereof Sixteen to be of the Clergy and Sixteen to be of the Temporalty of the Upper and Nether House of the Parliament And if any of the said Two and Thirty Persons so chosen shall happen to die before their full Determination then His Highness to nominate other from time to time of the said Two Houses of the Parliament to supply the Number of the said Two and Thirty and that the same Two and Thirty by his Highness so to be named shall have Power and Authority to view search and examine the said Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial and Synodal heretofore made And such of them as the King's Highness and the said Two and Thirty or the more part of them shall deem an adjudge worthy to be continued kept obeyed and executed within this Realm so that the King 's most Royal Assent be first had to the same And the residue of the said Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial which the said King's Highness and the said Two and Thirty Persons or the more part of them shall not approve or deem and adjudge worthy to be abolish'd abrogate and made frustrate shall from thenceforth be void and of none effect and never be put in Execution within
be hereafter accounted for in this Discourse And however the Epistles of St. Ignatius stand Irrefragably defended from the charge of being Spurious I cannot see but that allowing the Bishop to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sufficient to comply with the full Sense of those Epistles especially if it be consider'd that the Bishops of which he speaks were made so by the Apostles themselves and no doubt were chosen by infallible Direction and must therefore deserve a most singular Respect But allowing Men to think as they see Evidence concerning this Difference of Order certainly the Practice of the Church may be such as may allow of Different Apprehensions without occasioning either Tyranny or Schism the Method whereof is attempted in this Discourse However it is plain that both our Saviour and his Disciples did wholly reject all Temporal Jurisdiction and applied themselves entirely to their Spiritual Administrations and that there was no Distinction Causes into of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical and Temporal or Civil in the Christian World for above Three Hundred Years after Christ Indeed while the Emperors were Heathens and the Judges too throughout the Empire the Christians according to the Advice of St. Paul forbare to go to Law 1 Cor. 6.5 6. and referred all their Differences usually to the Bishops or Pastors of the Congregations of which they were Members And when Constantine came to the Empire his mistaken Zeal confirm'd the Custom though the Apostle's Reason for it ceased And whereas the Civil Power ought to have been reassum'd by the Christian Magistrate and the Clergy eased of Secular Business his Edict set up the Clergy's Domination and from Arbitrators they became Judges and Christian Magistrates might not Judge unwilling Christians This Corruption grew so fast Socrat. lib. 7. cap. 11. that about the Year 430. in the Popedom of Celestine the Patriarchs of Rome and Alexandria did Degenerate from an Ecclesiastical to a Secular Ruling and Dominion And when I consider how positively that Degeneracy is forbidden by our Saviour Matth. 20.26 Luke 22.25 Mark 10.43 who upon all Occasions reprov'd it in his own Disciples When I consider what Miserie 's the Clergy Domination has caused more than Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years since that Degeneracy how it has turn'd the Church into a meer Worldly Kingdom and the Laws thereof into Humane Politicks I cannot but rejoice that by the Laws of England this Degeneracy is or might be cured were the Laws put in Execution and the Supremacy restor'd to the Civil Power And whether the Pope of Rome by this Degeneracy did commence the Apocalyptick Beast entring into the Seat of Daniel's 4th Beast and so the time of his Reign be expired may be worth the Consideration of those that study the Apocalypse But certain it is that in England the Bishop of Rome before the Norman Conquest had no allow'd Jurisdiction but the Conqueror coming in under the Pope's Banner gave him leave to send Legates into England From William Rufus he attempted to gain Appeals to Rome which occasion'd the Banishment of Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury during the Reign of that King Upon Henry the First he Usurp'd the Donation of Bishopricks On King Stephen Appeals to Rome On Henry the Second the Exemption of Clerks from the Secular Power And from King John he got the whole Kingdom I shall not trace the Steps by which the Kingdom recover'd it self out of the Hands of the Clergy but notwithstanding the Pope held our Ancestors Consciences in Slavery till the Reign of Henry the Eighth many Acts of Parliament were made to uphold and maintain the Sovereignty of the King the Liberty of the People the Common Law and the Commonweal as appears by the Statutes of Edward the Third and and Richard the Second Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth being Laws of Premunire and Provision by which the Civil Power was preserv'd and the Body secured against the monstrous pretended Foreign Head And upon the whole the Civil Power of England kept it self out of the Hands of the Priests in all Matters and Causes except Causes Testamentary and of Matrimony Divorce Rights of Tythes Oblations and Obventions for as the Emperors out of a Zeal and desire to Grace and Honour the Bishops allow'd them Jurisdiction in Causes of Tythes because they were paid to Priests in Causes of Matrimony because Marriages were Solemniz'd in the Church in Causes Testamentary because Testaments were many times made in Extremis when Priests were present So the Kings of England before the Reformation did all along derive Jurisdiction in these Causes to the Bishops though the Right remain'd in them as the Fountain But herein England hath been more unhappy than the Empire for whereas the Bishops when Christian Emperors granted them this Jurisdiction proceeded in these Causes according to the Imperial Law as the Civil Magistrate did proceed in other Causes our Bishops introduced the Imperial Law and since it came into the World the Canon Law also into England and endeavoured all they could to destroy Caesar's Image and Superscription They call'd their Courts Courts Christian as if the Civil Courts were but Courts of Ethnicks and their Causes Spiritual as if Civil Causes were Carnal And yet if an Honest Man Examine the Matter he will probably find as much Christianity in Westminster-Hall as in Doctors Commons and Adultery a Crime no more Spiritual than Murder Since the Reformation began the Civil and Pretended Spiritual Authority have been wresting and they are not yet fully agreed It was Enacted by the Statute 24 Hen. VIII Cap. 12. That all these Spiritual Causes should be Judged within the King's Authority and not elsewhere By the 26 Hen. VIII Cap. 14. The Parliament took upon them even in those Popish Times to Create new Bishops Suffragans and to appoint their Sees And this multiplying of Bishopricks is no new thing for if you will believe Giraldus Cambrenses he tells us in a Writing which he presented to Pope Innocent the Third That in Britain there were in the time of the Romans Five Provinces and accordingly Five Arch-Bishopricks under each of which was Twelve Bishopricks so there were Threescore Bishopricks at a time when the Island was not wholly Christianized Nor is the Translation of Sees any Novelty for in the Year 604 Pope Gregory did for the sake of Austin the Monk procure the Translation of the Archiepiscopal Seat from London to Canterbury where it remains to this Day notwithstanding the endeavour of Gilbert Folioth Bishop of London in the time of Henry the Second and the endeavours of other Bishops of London since to recover the Archiepiscopal Dignity But to proceed by Statute 1. Edw. VI. Cap. 2. The Writ of Conge delire was ousted and it was Enacted That none but the King by his Letters Patents should collate to an Archbishoprick or Bishoprick That all Process Ecclesiastical should be in the King's Name and the Test in the Name of the Person having
Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and the Seal to be the King 's Arms. And though this Act was Repealed by the First Marie Cap. 2. yet that Act was Repealed again by Primo Jacobi Cap. 25. And some think that the Statute 1 Edw. 6. Cap. 2. is revived thereby and those who are Enemies to the Church are ready to enquire What Penalties our Bishops are liable to by Issuing Process in their own Names and using their own Seals For notwithstanding the Cant of The Church the Church their Courts are the King's Courts and their Law the King 's Ecclesiastical Law and this is acknowledged by the Oath of Supremacy and all the Laws made to this purpose are but in Affirmance of the Common Law notwithstanding the Author of Vox Cleri Vox Cleri P. 1. was so fond of Loyalty to the Church This indeed was an Expression which explain'd the Carriage of the High Church-Party to His Present Majesty for though they talk'd loud in behalf of the Prerogative it was only that the Prerogative might pay them Tribute and they were willing it should rob the Lay-Subject if it allow'd them to possess what they had filch'd from the Crown The King and Queen must first Swear Allegiance to the Church before they should be Crown'd and then they thought they had catched them and refused to Swear Allegiance to them as the Law requir'd but if instead of that horrible abuse to which the Sacrament was exposed in the Late Reigns a Test were Compos'd renouncing Transubstantiation and Common-wealth Principles and obliging to maintain the Government of England by King Lords and Commons as it is now Established the King and Kingdom would be secured beyond all possibility of Danger and the just Rights of the Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Clergy would be maintain'd though those Jacobite Church-Men were sent out to the French King whom they were not able to bring in to them And it is observable That as in the Late Reigns all the Champions for the Hierarchy strove to prove that it was the Duty of Dissenters to submit to the Church Establish'd by Law in those things which they acknowledg'd to be in themselves unnecessary Impositions because they were impos'd by Authority but they commonly left the Government to shift for it self and to Answer for those Impositions to God Conscience and the World So now the same Party left His Majesty and all concern'd in the Late Revolution to Answer for it to God their own Consciences and the World for they wash'd their Hands and said They were Innocent of being concern'd therein but they were under the force of Providence and if His Majesty would uphold the Power of the Church and take care to sit fast they would pay Him Allegiance otherwise they were ready for the next that came if he had the good luck to get the better And this is the Substance of the late Writings of that Party How much better Friends are they to His Majesty who believe Him to have an undoubted Right to his Crown and to Govern the Church as well as the State and that they are bound not only not to Resist Him but to Assist Him with their Lives and Fortunes against all Opposers The Church of England rightly understood is Lovely and Desirable but that which hath confounded and divided the Church is the Jumble and Mixture that hath been made between the Bishop's Power which is of the Essence of his Office as a Presbyter the Power which he has as President of the Presbytery and the Power which he has by Delegation from the King A Primitive Bishop as is clear by innumerable Testimonies had no more under his Charge than he could Personally know and when Churches grew larger than one Bishop could Personally inspect they had more Bishops yet so as that one Bishop had the Precedency and in a short Time he only ingrost the Name and the others were called Presbyters from among whom upon the Death of the Bishop another was chosen to succeed him But the Truth is as is most evident and particularly by the Testimony of that Incomparably Learned and Pious Arch-Bishop Vsher That every Presbyter hath a Right of Governing his Church and Administring Discipline Vid. Vsher's Reduction and thence hath the Name of Rector and is in the English Office of Ordination commanded to Administer Disciplinam Christi the Discipline of Christ and he expresly avers That the omission of the Exercise thereof in England is only from the Custom receiv'd in England and that that Impediment may be remov'd by Law So that the Relation a Bishop hath to a Particular Congregation is no more than as a Presbyter the Precedency of a Bishop to the Presbyters in a Diocess is of Pure Primitive Practice grounded on the General Rules of doing all in Order though it be no part of Revealed Institution All Societies are taught by the Light of Reason to keep some Order and for convenience of Regular Converse the Person of a certain Number whom they agree to be First in Honourable Qualities hath a Natural Right to be President though still of the same Order Thus the President of a Colledge of Physicians is no more than a Physician to his Patients but he is a President to the other Physicians and it would be a strange Fancy for such a President to claim a Right of being Physician to all the Bodies in London and alone to administer some sort of Physick to all within the Bills of Mortality I doubt such an Usurpation would increase the Number of the dead and be justly reckon'd horrid Tyranny over the Living But there is a third piece of an English Bishop and in that he is plainly the King 's Ecclesiastical Lord Lieutenant in such a compass of Ground call'd a Diocess and this he has by positive Humane Law and in this respect is not a Church but a State-Officer entrusted with part of the Civil Power His Courts are Civil Courts and he sits in the House of Lords with respect to His Temporal Baronage If the Distinction aforesaid were well understood how easie were it to end the Controversie about the JVS DIVINVM of EPISCOPACY and the JVS DIVINVM of PRESBYTERY and INDEPENDENCY about the Delegation of the Bishop's Power to Lay-Chancellors and the Bishops Lording it over God's Heritage And how easie would it be to Rectifie abundance of Matters complain'd of in the present Practice of the Church For Example If the Bishops were made by the Delivery of the Baculum and Annulum by the King Staff and Ring as they were before the Conquest or by Letters Patents and were he made President of the Presbytery by their Election especially if the King did usually give the Staff and Ring or grant the Letters Patents to the Person first chosen by the Presbytery they might with the greater Assurance Pray for the Assistance of the Holy Spirit at his Election Were his Lay-power understood to be Delegated to his