Party act consistent with their own Principles and had a mind that the People should not blindly follow them they would be so far from hindering them by restraining the Liberty of the Press and Pulpit from examining the Reasonableness of those Opinions that are contrary to theirs that they would make it their Business to perswade them to it and obtain an entire Liberty for their Adversaries to preach and print what they think good 3. It was the Protestant Priests acting most apparently and most shamefully inconsistent with themselves that put a sudden stop to the Reformation which at first like a mighty Torrent overturned all that opposed it And here it is that the Church of Rome insults and saith That the Principles of the Protestants by which they endeavour to justify their Separation from her are so absurd that themselves are obliged to act contrary to them and do the very same things they condemn in her Thus the Persecution of the Popish Church has been kept in Countenance by the Protestants following her Example which otherwise would have appeared so odious that all must have abhorred her for it or else obliged her to grant that Liberty which would infallibly ruin her 4. As Persecution was the chief Cause of hindering the further spreading of the Reformation so to that we must impute that this was not more perfect and compleat For tho the first Reformers deserve very great Commendation for what they did yet it cannot be imagined that being bred up in Popish Darkness and Superstition they should be able to discern much less remove all those Corruptions that had been so long a gathering that could only be the Work of Time or Men inspired and therefore it 's no wonder there were so many different Opinions amongst them at first But had those that succeeded them instead of paying a blind implicit Submission to their Decrees and getting them established by Penal Laws taken the same Liberty in examining their Opinions as the Reformers did their Predecessors all Differences at least of any moment would in some Time have been composed which became impossible by the Clergy being obliged as they valued their subsistence to assert such Opinions right or wrong as were established by Law and by Persecution causing such Animosities and Prejudices amongst the different Sects that instead of examining one anothers Opinions sincerely and impartially they ran daily further into Ignorance Superstition Narrowness and Uncharitableness CHAP. VI. Of the Method to destroy not only Schisms and Heresies but Hatred and Uncharitableness amongst Christians notwithstanding their different Opinions BUT suppose few or none of the different Opinions that are amongst Protestants had been composed by their acting consistent with their own Principles yet there could not well be any Divisions or Schisms amongst them which do wholly arise from that Antiprotestant and impious Practice in imposing on others our own uncertain and dubious Comments as necessary Terms of Communion and requiring People to profess them on pain of Temporal or Eternal Punishment which is nothing less than making our own Opinions of Divine Authority and as necessary to Salvation as the express words of the Scripture which if Men did only make use of in any controverted Point in the publick Forms of Worship they might be of the same Communion for all their variety of Opinions And indeed nothing seems more absurd than that instead of the Expressions the infinite Wisdom of God thought fit to make use of Men should be so zealous for imposing on their Brethren their own Conceits especially of things they confess to be inconceivable and their own Explications of what they acknowledg to be inexplicable and their own Reason of what they own is above their Reason and their own meaning of what they confess their Words cannot reach the meaning But it 's no wonder that they that make themselves wiser than God in contriving Methods even opposite to those he requires to make Men embrace the Faith should think themselves better able to express that Faith than God himself and therefore condemn those as Hereticks who declare their Belief in the Terms of Truth except also they will admit their Expressions and Terms from which it 's by no means lawful to vary which shows that they put a greater value on them than on the Divine Word 2. To this they say they oblige People to use their Expressions in order to discover Hereticks But if God requires no more of a Christian than that he believes the Scripture and endeavours to find out the true Sense of it and to live according to it he that does this can be in no fault but is to all intents and purposes as safe in respect to his Eternal Happiness as if he were infallible and consequently is far from being a Schismatick or Heretick Tho the Imposers are not only Schismaticks by causing a needless Separation but Hereticks by their own definition of Heresy which is erring in Fundamentals and erring obstinately against Knowledg because when they have determined the Holy Scriptures to be the only foundation of Faith nevertheless they lay down certain Propositions as Fundamental that are not in the Scripture which is declaring against their own Principles and destroying the very Foundation they have laid so that instead of finding out others to be Hereticks they make themselves such by requiring a Divine Faith to their own imagined Deductions which how clear soever they seem to themselves to be drawn from Scripture appear quite contrary to others If a King going a far Journey should give certain Injunctions to his Subjects and appoint no Judg to determine any Dispute that should happen about interpreting them but that every one according to the best of his Skill should judg for himself and not act until he was fully perswaded in his own Mind Would not they that do this how much soever they were mistaken in interpreting his Injunctions have done all that he required And would not he be justly enraged at his return to see them for doing this beaten and abused by their Fellow-Subjects And what Reason therefore can there be urged why Christ should deal otherwise at his return to Judgment with your persecuting Heretick Starters and reward those Good and Faithful Servants the supposed Hereticks for following his Directions in judging of his Will according to the best of their Abilities 3. If the Predestinarians and Antipredestinarians who condemn one anothers Tenets as most impious may and ought notwithstanding their different Sentiments to continue in the same Church or if the Orthodox can so infinitely differ in Matters of Faith that one Party of them shall worship but one Infinite Almighty Being or Spirit and another three such and yet be of the same Communion and agree in the same Terms of Human Invention Why may not all since it 's scarce possible any should differ more widely join together in the same Communion if nothing be mentioned in those Matters wherein they
or indeed any thing else that does not invade the Right of others or is consistent with the Welfare of the Society And if it be unreasonable that he should harass Men about these things which have some relation to the Civil Society tho not sufficient to erect Courts of Judicature about them is it not much more so to molest them about nice Controversies Speculative Points meer Ceremonies or Forms of outward Worship in which the Interest of the Society is not at all concerned In a word If the Magistrate is to punish for some things in Religion and not for others what other Rule can there be to know what belongs to his Jurisdiction and what not but that about those things of Religion which relate to the Civil Society he is to use the Force of the Society and that what do not ought wholly to be left to God and the Parties concerned For as it 's absurd that the Force of the Society should be imployed about things that do not belong to it so it 's very unjust that a Man should not be suffered to act as he judgeth best in those things wherein no other has an Interest but his own eternal Good or Ill is only concerned 11. God who does not require of Men to be infallible but to do their best to discover Truth can never be supposed to be willing that they should be punished for invincible Error But the Magistrate who by reason of the infinite Variety of Mens Parts and Apprehensions does not know what Errors are invincible and what not cannot but punish unjustly since he cannot tell whether the Person he punisheth supposing him in an Error is in a Fault or if in a Fault cannot know what degrees of Weakness or Wilfulness it has or how to proportion his Punishment according to the different Abilities of every individual Person which he ought to do since where much is given much is required and where little is given as little is required But as he is not capable of doing this so he cannot tell after he has done his best but that he has made them guilty of a much greater Fault than what he pretends to correct by forcing them to act against their Consciences All which no less than demonstrates that the Magistrate is not qualified and therefore not ordained to punish such Offences but that they are to be left to the Searcher of Hearts the great and righteous Judg of all Men who alone discerns all the Powers and Workings of Mens Minds when they sincerely seek after Truth or by what if by any Default they miss it and who alone knows whom to punish and how to proportion his Punishments 12. To suppose God has constituted the Supream Powers to judg not only concerning Civil Crimes for which he has sufficiently qualified them but also meerly Religious Ones is inconsistent with the Justice as well as Wisdom and Goodness of God For if we cannot suppose so very unjust and foolish a thing of a King on Earth as that he should constitute for his Vicegerents those of whom he certainly knew not one in a thousand but would punish his Faithful Subjects and that for no other Reason but because they were so and reward those that were not so How then can we suppose so very absurd a thing of the King of Kings that he should appoint them for his Vicars in spiritual Matters and arm them with a Coercive Power to punish those Offences that relate solely to himself who as he could not but infallibly foreknow would make use of their Power to encourage even their rebelling against him by setting up of false Gods in his stead for Idolatry was every where quickly the Publick Religion of their Dominions except amongst God's own People the Jews and even there very often it was the National Religion And after their Captivity until Constantine's Time not one of God's supposed Vicars in Matters of meer Religion but were themselves Idolaters and did all of them discountenance and several of them persecute the Worshippers of the true God And when the Christians if Persecutors deserve that Name made use of Force upon Christians what did it produce but Popish Superstition and Idolatry 13. Persecution is so far from being a Means to promote the true Religion that it must necessarily hinder its progress because the Infidels must think themselves as much obliged to hinder the preaching of the Gospel amongst them as the Christians their Religion here And in vain do we pray for their Conversion whilst we assert such a Doctrine as will not let us suffer them to live here in order to their Conversion nor them to suffer us to preach the Gospel there But this is not all for had this Doctrine of promoting the true Religion by Force been believed by the Heathen it would have obliged them to have extirpated the Christian Religion and certainly that can scarce be thought to be a Christian Doctrine which if practised would have destroy'd the very Name of Christian. 14. It may be said no Persecution could extirpate the Christian Religion because the severest Methods were so far from destroying it that they were the Occasion of its encreasing the faster Not to mention if this were so and the Magistrate was to persecute it ought to be the true Religion because it 's the way to make it increase and by Parity of Reason use a contrary Method with false Religions I say that Persecution if it continues but a short time will make any Religion to increase and flourish the more because the Bravery the Courage of those that suffer prepares People to have a good Opinion of the Cause they suffer for But if it continue for an Age or Ages so that the old Professors are all destroyed the succeeding Generations will all be of the Religion they are educated in Thus we find Christianity by the continued Cruelty of its Enemies rooted out of the greatest Part of Africa and other Places it entirely possessed And should the Persecution in France continue the next Generation would be all Papists as they are in Spain and Portugal So that the Reason why Persecution had not the like Effect under the Pagan Emperors was because God did not permit it to continue long at a time and not without great intermissions But had all those Emperors been for promoting by Force what according to their Sentiments was the true Religion they had utterly extirpated the very Name of a Christian 15. Nay had the Heathen Emperors abhorr'd Persecution as all but what were Monsters did yet they had been under an indispensible Duty as they valued the Peace and Welfare of Mankind in general and of their Subjects in particular to root out a Religion which when it got Power into its Hands would have no other measure of Justice and Equity than its own Interest and would deprive Men tho never so strict Observers of the Laws of Morality and the Society of their Properties and
make them pay a blind Submission to the Decrees of the Clergy that has been the Cause not only of all the Mischief and Miseries that upon the account of Religion have happened in Christendom but of the great Corruption of Religion which being a thing so plain and easy in it self and suted to the Capacity of the People would never have been so much and so universally depraved had there been an entire Liberty of Conscience for tho upon several Accounts such as Prejudice of Education mistaken Philosophy Interest c. Errors might have crept into the Church yet had they not been established by Penal Laws there would have been some in all Ages who not being under the like Prejudices would have opposed them and consequently upon a free Examination Error could not long have withstood the Power of Truth Luther Calvin c. were more successful than others who before them saw the Corruptions the Clergy had introduced only because they had better Fortune in meeting with Princes that allow'd them a Liberty that was denied to the others 10. One of the chiefest Means of corrupting Religion was occasioned by the Heathen Philosophers those Pretenders to Science falsly so called who when they thought it worth their while tho few or none of them at first were converted to come into the Church and became Governours and leading Men in it brought in with them so hard it is to conquer the Prejudice of Education their absurd Metaphysical Notions wholly inconsistent with the Plainness and Simplicity of the Gospel which they wrested to their preconceived Opinions and being then unwilling to make a meaner Figure upon the account of their Learning than they did formerly they blended together two very different things Christianity and that vain Philosophy St. Paul so much cautions People against And they that succeeded them made it their Business to render Religion more and more mysterious and unintelligible that the Laity should admire them for their profound Knowledg in things past their own understanding and be wholly governed by them in Matters of Religion as being above their Apprehensions and so get their Consciences and consequently their Estates in their disposal Which Design succeeded accordingly for we find that it was wholly left to them to make what Creeds impose what Opinions they thought fit on the Laity who whenever they asserted their Natural Right of judging for themselves and acting according to that Judgment were by the Magistrate's Sword always ready forc'd to a Compliance Thus it was that Priest-craft began and Persecution compleated the Ruin of Religion And if this was the Method the Clergy took in the most early Times what reason is there to suspect that in these latter Times they are less in love with Power and Dominion 9. It 's said That the Magistrate's Force is necessary to preserve Religion because for want of it the World was quickly and universally overrun with Idolatry I answer A Right in the Magistrates to use Force would in no wise have prevented Idolatry except they had been against it when the People were inclined to it which was so far from being true that the Kings themselves as that great and good Man the Author of the Letters concerning Toleration plainly shows were the Promoters of Idolatry by introducing their Predecessors into the Divine Worship of the People to secure to themselves as descended from the Gods the greater Veneration from their Subjects and therefore erected such a Worship and such a Priesthood as might awe the seduced Multitude into the Obedience they desired And it 's much more probable that Courts by their Instruments the Priests and by their Artifices the Fables of their Gods their Mysteries and Oracles should thus advance the Honour of their Kings amongst the People for the Ends of Ambition and Power than that the People should find out those refined Ways of doing it and introduce them into Courts for enslaving themselves And it 's no wonder that Absolute and Arbitrary Monarchs as the first Introducers of Idolatry were could impose what they pleased on their Subjects bred up in Slavery and consequently in Ignorance for where Men are poor and miserable the necessary Consequence of Arbitrary Power they have no leisure to examine into Matters of Religion their Time being wholly taken up in providing necessary Subsistence and consequently they must be grosly ignorant and have mean low and abject Thoughts sutable to their Condition So that 't is not strange that these Emperors might by degrees impose on them the worshipping their Ancestors especially when they saw the Priests and Courtiers scarce forbear adoring the present Monarch which is almost unavoidable in Arbitrary Governments witness the most fulsome and blasphemous Flatteries that are offered up to the French King even by his Christian Subjects Nay how many Instances have we of such Monarchs whose Impatience would not permit them to stay till after their Death for Divine Honours which then Custom had in a manner made their Right And 10. One and not perhaps the least Reason why the generality of the Priests are for preaching up absolute Arbitrary Power to be Jure Divino is because that necessarily causes an Universal Ignorance and thereby gives them a fair Opportunity of imposing on the People what they think fit For Ignorance tho it 's far from being the Mother of Devotion to God it 's certainly so to the Church as the Priests call themselves and therefore there is nothing they dread more than a knowing Laity and to show all the Arts and Methods they have taken to keep them ignorant would require a large History And we find that in those Places where the Clergy are most numerous potent and rich the People are most ignorant and superstitious as well as most enslaved and where the Clergy are fewest in Number Religion abounds most as well as Knowledg and Liberty It was Piedmont and some such barren Places which could not well maintain many Priests and where it was scarce worth their while to advance Priest-craft that best preserved the Purity of the Gospel And not to go so far from home as nothing made way so much for the Reformation as the depriving the Priests of their Monasteries and other ill-gotten Goods so nothing has since contributed more to the continuing of it than those Possessions being out of their Hands And the Method by which they have generally corrupted Religion is by wheedling or forcing the People into a blind Submission to what they impose on them And it was by these Artifices that the Jewish Priests and Rabbies imposed on that Nation the Traditions of Men for the Commandments of God And it 's by this Method that the Mahometan Religion supports it self there being no Debate nor Discourse allowed of what the Mufties shall teach the People And every body knows that the forcing People into an implicit Faith is the Bulwark of the Popish Religion And now having answered and I think I may
if the Apostle had meant that a simple erroneous Person was to be avoided he would have contradicted himself since as it has been already proved he requires such a One to be born with 5. But it 's said We are bid Rom. 16. 17. to mark and avoid those that cause Divisions and Offences To which I answer That bare differences of Opinions do not cause them for what two Men even of the same Communion agree in all Points of Divinity No it 's Imposition that has been the unhappy Occasion of all the Offences Schisms Divisions and Heresies that have confounded the Church Besides it 's plain the Apostle does not speak here of the meerly Erroneous because he says they are those that serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly and Philip. 3. where he renews the same Discourse he describes them as Enemies of the Cross of Christ Whose end is Destruction whose God is their Belly who mind earthly Things A Character which generally agrees but too well with those that are for Imposition who thereby cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine the Apostle taught them If Schism be as it 's pretended so great a Crime that every one that is guilty of it is out of the ordinary way of Salvation what can be more Uncharitable and Impious than to make so many things even of an indifferent Nature necessary to Church-Communion as tho it were on purpose to make Schismaticks 6. In a word To be shunned and avoided by every one as some Pest or Plague can be no small Punishment to so sociable a Creature as Man and therefore none ought to be so punished for an Error of the Understanding an involuntary thing and no Fault at all when also that Punishment does not tend to convince him of his Error but to make him act against his Conscience and to cause Uncharitableness and most of those other pernicious Consequences tho not in so high a degree that Force does In a word none can forfeit his Right to the civil Converse and Familiarity of his Fellow Creatures so that they shall combine together to avoid him but by his being a Man of no Conscience or of such Principles as engage him to break those common Rules which tend to their mutual Happiness and thereby is become their common Enemy And if Christians would not act against the Light of Nature in doing as they would not be done unto they ought to give to all Men how different soever their Religion may be the same Freedom of Judging and Acting according to their Judgment as they would desire from them and impose no more on them than they would be willing to suffer themselves were they in their Power and require no more of their own People who have the same Rule of Faith than to endeavour to find out the true meaning of it and to live up to it and of their Clergy than their best Diligence to discover the true Sense of it and their Sincerity in instructing others in it 7. Without this Freedom it 's morally impossible but that the Clergy must be the chief Promoters not only of Schisms and Heresies but of Uncharitableness Envy Strife Fewds and Factions since not only their Interest but the Method of their Education enclines them thereto For Men that are bred in the World as they every Day meet with variety of Opinions so they can with ease see others differ from them and freely give them the same Liberty they take themselves On the contrary they that are educated as the Clergy are in Cloisters or Colleges where they come not to examine the Truth of such Opinions as are established by Law but to profess them as a Trade they are to get their Living by and consequently are all as to those Matters of the same Opinion when they come into the World and set up for Teachers they cannot bear so unusual a thing as the least opposition whereas were they left to themselves to examine things in their own Minds and after this to profess what they judg to be Truth this would teach them Patience Modesty and Humility by showing how subject not only themselves but even the most Celebrated are to be mistaken and that nothing discovers Truth like a free and sincere examination and consequently they must abhor any Restraint to the freedom of judging That this different way of Education has as different Effects on the Minds of Men is so very evident that you will scarce find a thinking Man but abhors all Imposition and every thing that tends to hinder Freedom and Liberty of judging On the contrary you shall scarce meet with one who has had a different Method of Education whose Reason generally lieth in Authority and his Brains in his Common-place Book that can bear with any Opposition but is for imposing upon others by Force and Violence And this proud imperious persecuting Spirit betrays it self in all their Writings where without respect to Christianity or good Manners they stick at no Expressions tho never so scurrilous and abusive that will but serve to expose and vilify their Adversaries And which not a little adds to this sort of Temper is the Arbitrary and Despotical Government in the places of their Education for there is none so insolent and assuming so apt to insult and domineer when he has an Opportunity as he that has been bred in an absolute Obedience and a slavish Compliance and Experience shows that the longer People have lived in such Places the readier they are to fly into Extravagance when they come abroad into the World and if they happen to influence the Counsels of the Magistrate they seldom fail to press him on to illegal Arbitrary Practices or to practise the same themselves in those Places of Power they are advanced to And the chief Reason that makes the Regular Clergy amongst the Papists so much more for Persecution and Cruelty than the Secular is because the Government in their Cloisters is more Tyrannical and Arbitrary than the others therefore it behoves all Government to take special Care that those Places where the Youth receive their Learning should be what they are usually called Places of free and ingenious Education But to return Can it be expected from Men thus educated that they should by their Precepts and Examples perswade those of their own Party to any Charity and Benignity for any other Sect that looks on them as all Sects do on each other either as Schismaticks or Hereticks and endeavours to perswade all People to do the same which strikes not only at the Power and Jurisdiction but even the Maintenance the People bestow on these Priests It 's no wonder that in this Case they possess the People with Hatred and Animosities against all Dissenters and are continually urging the Magistrate to persecute them But it would be as absurd for him to be governed by them as it would have been in the Town-Clerk of Ephesus to have
as make the Reformation it self criminal and which must unavoidably oblige a Man that acts agreeable to those Principles to return to the Popish Yoke as shall be demonstrated in my next Discourse It was these Principles that made the most judicious Person the Church could ever brag of the famous Chillingworth return to the Church of Rome and continue there a long time But what his Principles were upon leaving it and how inconsistent with that of High Church may be learn'd by what I have quoted of him And I could give an Instance of one who in the late Reign going into the World from the University where he had a long time imbibed these Notions of the Power of the Clergy and meeting with the Romish Priests who then were very busy they quickly show'd him the Inconsistency of the Reformation and the Protestant Religion with these Powers which had that Influence over him as to cause him who did not then suspect the falseness of those Notions owned by both Churches to join with them who are consistent with themselves in the Powers they claim until so many particular Absurdities in their Practice made him happily examine these Notions which had like to have cost him dear for refusing to join with them after Candlemass 87 and receiving the Sacrament the next Opportunity the Easter after in his College Chappel it exposed him to the Malice and Revenge of the Popish Priests then in the height of their Prosperity who of all Men will the least spare a relapsed Heretick But why do I instance in Particulars since it 's these extravagant Notions of the Clergy's Power the support the Romish Cause and make thousands embrace that Religion for Men with scorn and contempt reject contradictory and inconsistent Opinions But of these things more fully in my next Discourse where I doubt not to demonstrate as far as a thing of such a Nature is capable that the Clergy are so far from having these Powers by the Law of God that there is no Power or Jurisdiction whatever belongs to them by that Law But to return 9. I 'll demand of this Author Should a Convocation determine contrary to his Judgment which may easily enough be supposed since he saith P. 7. That there is no Order Degree or Place amongst us wholly free from the Infection of undermining or overthrowing the Catholick Faith whether he could or were it in his Power would renounce his Faith for the sake of the casting Voice or Voices in a Convocation If he dares not say he will prostitute his Belief at so vile a Rate Why should he suppose others either should or would do so Tho I believe he may assure himself that there 's none amongst those he calls infected so little Christians and Protestants but what think they ought to be able to give a better Account and Reason of their Faith than the Determination of a Convocation now-a-day especially when they know that not only Particular but General Councils have constantly made their Market of their Faith and always sold it to the fairest Chapmen and that it was a meer Accident that established the present Orthodoxy Theodosius being bred that Way and so resolved to force his Subjects to be of the same Sentiments and his living a long time so as to survive most of the Hereticks was the Cause that there were no more Emperors to make the Christian World become again Arian And the Cruelty used to establish Orthodoxy would at the same Rate have established Mahometism So that the mere Authority of a Convocation can no ways influence Hereticks who by being out of the Church show how little they value the Authority of Church-men And for any Power by which they might be forced he very honestly owns the Church has none over them For P. 27. you pretend not to meddle with those without nor to exercise any Act of Jurisdiction over them but only to frame Rules and Decisions that shall hold within your selves and to govern and judg your own Members And the Design of a Convocation is it seems to censure some of the Church and make them retract their Opinions For P. 13. as long as these Books pass uncensured and unretracted under the Stile and Name of Men of great Place and Character in the Church the Mischief which the Authority they have yet left with some Men may be able to do is not sufficiently prevented nor the Scandal wiped off from our Church and Nation But what can be more scandalous to the Church and Nation than to force People to lie both to God and Man by making them retract those Opinions they believe to be true And nothing can be more abominable than this constant practice of the Clergy in making Men solemnly and publickly disown what in their Hearts they still believe and this is generally done without the least colour of convincing them nay without giving them any new Arguments or any further Time to consider and lest they should relapse as they call it that is dare to be no longer Hypocrites they threaten them with greater Punishments and even Death it self So that if this be the Business of a Convocation I know not a more compendious way of making Men Villains I have been the longer insisting on this Point to show that the very End and Reason that the Author pretends for the Sitting of a Convocation and the Powers he saith belong to them of judging of Religious Doctrines for the People and enforcing Submission and Obedience to their Determinations concerning them are Antiprotestant and Antichristian and consequently not to be permitted in any Protestant Country 10. It 's one of the most important Duties incumbent on the Clergy as I have shown Par. 2. Chap. 6. to take care that Differences of Opinions which in this State of Darkness and Ignorance are unavoidable should not destroy Love and Charity nor disturb the Peace of the Church by erecting Schisms and Divisions But the Pious Clergy so far from doing this have made the direct contrary their almost sole Business by imposing their own Conceptions instead of the Word of God on the People and by industriously contriving such Expressions as are the likeliest to create Divisions and then cursing damning persecuting and ruining them for those Divisions themselves were the sole Cause of and this has been their constant Practice in their Synods and Councils And therefore it 's not at all strange that that Great and Good Man the late ABp should say what P. 8. of the Letter is objected to him That he never knew any Good come from those sort of Meetings But he is not the only Person has said it for Gregory Nazianzen Epist. 55. has long ago said when Heresy was more universal than now it is That he was resolved to avoid all Assemblies of Bishops because he never saw a Synod that had any Success but what did rather encrease than lessen the Evil without any Exaggeration the Spirit of Dispute
only to make it the more creditable by laying it at their Door who pretend to know the King best and to be most in his Interest and to make them as well as his Majesty be thought Men of no Religion for not only once or twice but in all Companies admiring and celebrating a Prince of no Religion as the best of Governours but to make the King discharge his Friends from any Trust about him when he hears they suppose such dishonourable Things of him and to imploy his Enemies Men of our Author's Principles So that Fenwick it seems is not the only Person the Party has put on this hellish Contrivance of aspersing those that are most in the King's Interest knowing they have no way of doing their Business like creating in his Majesty a Jealousy of his true Friends And our Author that he might not be thought to speak without Book endeavours to make the King guilty not only of a Breach of his Declaration but of his Coronation-Oath in not causing the Convocation to sit and act as frequently as he has done the Parliament It 's true after this he saith with his usual way of Hypocrisy P. 63. We are sure his sacred Majesty did never oppose their Sitting and Acting But how could he oppose it otherwise than by not calling them to sit and act which our Author says by his Coronation-Oath he is bound to do Which brings me to his Law-part in which as I shall shew in a few words he is as much mistaken as in his Divinity 12. He asserts First That the Convocation is the highest Court of Judicature having Jurisdiction in Crimes Ecclesiastical Secondly That a Convocation is not only to meet as often as the Parliament but has the same Right to debate as freely of Ecclesiastical Matters as the Parliament has about Temporals Thirdly That a Convocation is as necessary and essential to the Church and Constitution and does bind all People in Ecclesiasticals as a Parliament does in Civils As to the first If a Convocation be a Court of Judicature they must have Cognizance of Original Causes or of Appeals If they had to do with any Causes in the first Instance they would have a greater Power than either House of Parliament claims and our Author dares not assert that a Convocation has greater Power belonging to it than a Parliament Besides by 23 H. 8. none is to be cited out of his own Diocess except in some few Cases whereof Heresy is one for which the Arch-Bishop of the Province and he only can summon a Man out of his own Diocess by whom 24 H. 8. Causes were finally to be determined except Causes touching the King his Heirs and Successors for which there was an Appeal to the Prelats Abbots and Priors of the Upper House and this excepted Case confirms the Law in the non-excepted And by a Statute made the next Year C. 19. All manner of Appeals of what Nature Condition or Quality soever they be of or what Cause or Matter soever they shall concern shall be made according to 21 H. 8. with this further Proviso That there lieth an Appeal from the Arch-Bishop's Courts to the King in Chancery from whence no further Appeal is to be had or made Which cuts off all Pretences from the Convocation of having any Jurisdiction now whatever they had in the Popish Times 13. As to the second Whether a Convocation is to be summoned as often as a Parliament tho he has offered nothing that looks like a Proof of it yet that I shall not dispute with him at present but I shall whether they have a Right to confer about making any Canons without a special Licence from the King Which tho he asserts he cannot bring one Lawyer of his Opinion they being all against him as is the constant Practice of the Clergy as zealous as they are to maintain their Privileges who never since 25 H. 8. attempted the making any Canons without the King's Licence first obtained under the Broad-Seal of England which our Author supposes to be but a meer Compliment and a bare Mark of Respect And he affirms To say otherwise is to wound the Liberties of a Parliament through those of a Convocation But is there no difference between the Commons desiring by the Mouth of their Speaker Liberty of Speech that is that the King would not be displeased with their Freedom in speaking of those things they have a Right to debate and a solemn Licence under the Broad-Seal of England to enable the Convocation to confer about such or such particular Points It 's ridiculous to suppose the Broad-Seal is used with so much Formality for the sake of mere Compliments to convey nothing but a Right the Convocation had without it The Broad-Seal is so necessary to enable the Clergy to make Canons that all that is done without it is null and void and so would it be in respect of Parliaments themselves if they were to have such a Licence to debate of any particular Point in order to make it a Law As for Instance by an Act made 10 H. 7. call'd Poining's Act it 's provided That all such Bills as shall be offered to the Parliament in Ireland shall be first transcribed hither under the Great Seal of that Kingdom and having received Approbation shall be put under the Broad-Seal bere and so offered to that Parliament And if a Parliament be held contrary to this Form it shall be deemed null and void And in Scotland the Parliament until this Revolution could debate of nothing but what the Lords of the Articles had first agreed should be debated The Act of 25 H. 8. which we say forbids the Clergy to confer about making any Canons without the King's Licence first obtained was made at the Petition of the Clergy and in the very words of that Petition And certainly they were good Judges of the Sense of their own Petition and how far they meant to restrain themselves And we find that the Clergy being assembled in Convocation not many Years after 1 Ed. 6. therefore several of them the same Persons at whose Petition the Act was made do most humbly desire that the King's Licence for them may be obtained according to the Effect of the said Statutes 25 and 27 authorising them to attempt entreat and commune of such Matters and therein freely to give their Consents which otherwise they may not do upon pain and peril premised that is of being fined and imprisoned during the King 's Will. And now we come to the Act it self which recites in the Preamble the Petition and Submission of the Clergy wherein they promise in verbo Sacerdotii That they never from henceforth would presume to attempt alledg claim enact c. any new Canons Constitutions c. unless the King's Licence may be to them had to make c. the same and his Majesty do give his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf And be it enacted