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A44094 Some thoughts on a convocation and the notion of its divine right with some occasional reflections on the defence of the vindication of the deprived bishops. Hody, Humphrey, 1659-1707. 1699 (1699) Wing H2346; ESTC R37493 30,786 42

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measures of it Every one sees what Distractions such a Power might occasion and therefore we can't pay too great a Veneration to our Laws which have wisely provided against them That have intrusted this Power with the Prince whose Interest it is as much to preserve the Church as the State And I hope we have no Reason to believe but that he makes it as truly and sincerely his concern to vindicate the Cause of Religion as any amongst us If there are such Dangers threaten the Church that nothing but a Convocation can prevent no doubt but he will think it a great Obligation upon him to call one But yet it is not at all times necessary Mens Heats will not always suffer it And if it should chance to fire their Tempers instead of cooling them it would be then very Prejudicial We confess indeed with Grotius and Others That Synods are often times very useful to the Order and Government of the Church yet we also join with them that there may be such a time when they are far from being convenient much less necessary But our greatest wonder is at the Boldness of some Men who maintain That even when the Powers take on them the Protection of the Church whether they will or no Synods may lawfully and rightly be Assembled Of another Mind says Vossius were all those who have hitherto defended the Cause of the Protestants against the Papists and he cites several Authorities for it As for the Assertors of a Divine Right of Synods 't is something difficult to know their meaning they seem too much to distrust their Cause to speak plain enough to be understood If they mean no more by that Expression than that Christ hath so constituted his Church as to leave a Power of Goverment with the Bishops of it for the better ordering its Affairs who accordingly may either by Consent meet themselves or by their Authority call together their Clergy and agree on such things as are necessary for the ordering of it This is what in States not Christian will never be deny'd by us But if they pretend to a Power from God of Meeting and Acting independently on the Sovereign Authority tho' Christian and of Making and Establishing Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions without his Consent this is what we utterly deny And I would desire to know of the Author of The Vindication of the depriv'd Bishops by what Authority either from the Scripture or the Practice of the Church he will oppose this or with what Justice he can so severely reflect on the Memory of the first Reformers for being of the same Opinion But to return supposing we should allow this jus divinum which they contend for yet after all it must be left to human Prudence to determine when 't is proper for Convocations to meet and then who is it that must judge of the proper Seasons for it Who of the Clergy have a divine Commission to judge of the Reasons and fix the time for it Or suppose the Clergy should differ in their Judgments who is the supream Arbiter that must decide when it is most convenient and accordingly shall have the Power of summoning all the rest Superiority in Bishops over each other is an act of human Authority since Christ did not appoint a Head and therefore any one of those can't have a Power by Divine Right of summoning all the rest Where then must the Power be placed For they who urge such an Institution against us ought to assign where they would have the divine Power of summoning the Convocation to be lodged After all 't is Reason that must direct in these Cases when a Convocation ought to be Assembled of what Number of the Clergy it ought to consist where their Power is to be fixed and limited and to whom the chief Authority ought to belong of Calling and Dissolving them and of giving their Resolutions the Force and Sanction of a Law This the Wisdom of the Nation has entrusted with the Sovereign Power and the Church of England has ever since the Reformation own'd and acknowledg'd it to be its peculiar Province As for the Author of the Municipium Ecclesiasticum poor Man he is rather to be Pitied then Censured as to the arguing part of his Book he writes so much backwards and forwards for and against himself and withal so very obscurely that the most charitable Opinion of him is That he knew nothing of what he writ He is so strangly bewildred in his own Notions and so fond of Ill-nature that he is neither to be understood or convinced All he has urged in defence of the Divine Right of Convocations will as much prove a Divine Right of Constables and Church-wardens or any other Officers that may be useful for punishing Immorality or for supporting or advancing the Interest of the Church And for all the Argument I can find in his Book he might as well have called it a Criticism upon Honer's Iliads as an Answer to Dr. Wake This Author is one great Instance why I think a Convocation necessary that Malice and Uncharitableness may have their just Reward that he may be convinced that he who writes at all adventures upon every thing he least understands must not think to carry a Cause only by abusing and defaming his Adversary which is all that I can find he pretends to in all his Prints And lastly that he may be satisfied that his Ill-breeding which he values himself so much upon is but one way Meritorious I should not have digressed into this way of Writing was it not to inform this Author that there is a difference between Railing and Argument That the one is rude and indecent even when mixt with the other but without it 't is insufferable Thus have I run thro' all the parts of this Dispute about a Convocation which I thought necessary to be considered and discussed I have endeavoured to reduce the Controversie into as narrow a compass and to set it in as clear and true a Light as I could And as I have given my Thoughts freely so I have not been misled by any Prejudice or a desire of pleasing any Party My first Designs were to get a clear view of the Controversie and since there had been of late some heats about it I thought it not improper to expose my Enquires to publick Examination I consulted the best and most rational Authors that I could find had writ upon the Subject tho' I thought it unnecessary to fill out a Volume with Quotations But I shall add what the Learned Vossinus as well as Grotius says upon this occasion namely That besides the Divines all the Writers of Polity that are worth the Reading have declared the supreme Authority of Princes over Ecclesiastical Persons and Causes to be one of the principal parts of the Imperial Right Dr. Wake as well as all the other Writers upon this Subject is wholly unknown to me But I can't but think upon an impartial Enquiry into the Controversie that he has given us a very just and learned Account of it and that he agrees with the most judicious and eminent Men that have treated the Subject before him What a peice of daring Confidence must it then be to tax those as mercenary designing Writers that only espouse a Cause which some of the greatest and most learned Men in the World have before defended But I shall urge nothing more but only That I have delivered what I judged to be Right without either Hopes or Fears FINIS * Epis. 23. Dr. Wake Act. Parl. An. 25. Hen. VIII Upon the submission of the Clergy and restraint of Appeals De Imperio sum Potest circa Sacra c. 7. See Bp. Taylor 's Duct Dub. L. 3. C. 3. Eccl. Polity l. 8. p. 462. That Clause of the 1st Eli. which gave the King Power to make such high Commissioners in Ecclesiastical Causes is now repealed Municip Eccles. Preface Defence of the Vind. of the depriv'd Bishops p. 104. See Rast. Stat. 22. H. VIII Ecclesiastical Polity p. 469. Preface p. 44. Ed. Lond. 1682. Vid. Stat. 16. R. 2. against purchasing Bulls from Rome G. Voss. Ep. 23. See Canon 1640. Can. 1. See Bishop Andrews's Sermon before the King at H. C. Canons 1640 Can. 1. See Bishop Andrews Sermon at Hampton Court See Bishop Taylor 's Duct Dub. L. 3. C. 3. Vid. Grot. de Imp. sum Pot. cir Sacra C. 3. Eccl. Pol. p. 444. C. 7. de Synodis See the Defence of the Vind. of the Deprived Bishops Municip Eccl. p. 439. See Bishop Bramhal against the Scotch Discipline p. 109. Eccl. Pol. 467. p. 440 441 c. Defence of the Vind. of the deprived Bishops p. 108. Eccl. Pol. p. 464. See the History of the Troubles and Tryal of Arch-Bp Laud p. 309. lb. p. 309. De Impersum Potest Circa Sacra Chap. 10. By Doctor Hody See Dean Nowel against Dorman See the Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the Independency of the Clergy on the Lay-Power by the Vindicator of the deprived Bishops Vid. Bp. Burnet's Hist. of the Reform Vol. 2 p. 399. See Dean Nowel who was Prolocut of the Convocat when the Articl were made in his Books against Dorman Hist. of the Reform Vol. 2. p. 400. See Bp. Taylor 's Duct Dubitant l. 3. c. 4. Ep. 23. Cap. 4. Vid. Selden de Synedriis See Vossius Ep. 23. Duct Dubitant l. 3. c. 4. Cap. 7. De Synodis Cap. 7. De Synodis Vid. Eccle Politie p. 461. P. 467. Acts 15. Chap. 7. De Synodis Voss. Epist 23. Cap. 1. De Imperio See Bishop Andrew's Sermon at Hampton-Court See Bishop Andrew's Sermon at Hampt Court Cap. 7. Vid. Bp. Bramhal against the Scotch Discipline Vossius Epist 23. Vid. Bp. Taylor Ductor Dubitamium Archbp. Bramhal against the Scots Discipline c. Vos Ep. 23. De Imperio sum Potest circa Sacra