State of Christian Churches a long time after Christ. And in this Case because the proper Affairs and Actions of the Church as it is the Church hath no Dependence on the Laws or upon the Government of the civil State an Opinion hath thereby grown That even so it should be always This was it which deceived Allen in the writing his Apology The Apostles saith he did govern the Church in Rome when Nero bare Rule even as at this Day in all the Churches Dominions the Church hath a spiritual Regiment without Dependence and so ought she to have amongst Heathens or with Christians Another Occasion of which Mis-conceit is That things appertaining to Religion are both distinguished from other Affairs and have always had in the Church spiritual Persons chosen to be exercised about them By which Distinction of spiritual Affairs and Persons therein employed from temporal the Error of personal Separation always necessary between the Church and Common-wealth hath strengthned it self These Notions have been often made use of by the Papists in their Disputes against the King's Supremacy and 't is strange they should be now revived when they have been so learnedly considered and refuted by Mr. Hooker Dean Nowel Bishop Iewell and other great Men of our Church And I may add That some of our present Adversaries Opinions are much the same with those of the Scotch Disciplinarians refuted by Bishop Bramhal The Author of the Defence of the Vindication of the deprived Bishops hath told us That Mr. Hooker for whom he pretends a very great Respect tho' for what Reasons I know not since they differ in every thing is against him in making the Church one Body with the believing State And therefore I suppose he would have it taken for granted That his Reasons are more conclusive in making them distinct Indeed it was necessary for this Author's Purpose That the Church and State should be separate Societies for all the Weight of his Arguments depends upon it and if this should fail his whole Fabrick must sink of Course It was certainly time for him to call a new Cause and since the Practice of the whole Church is against him to omit Authorities and the Sense of Antiquity and to retire to downright Reason But he would have done well to have considered and answered Mr. Hooker's Arguments before he had produced any others on the contrary side For certainly if the Common-wealth be Christian if the People which are of it do publickly embrace the true Religion this very thing doth make it the Church And to make it a separate and independent Society from the State where all Mens Principles are the same is a Notion neither agreeable to Scripture or Reason But I shall not pursue an Argument which has been already so fully and learnedly managed by Mr. Hooker to whom I shall refer the Reader But I think my self obliged to do Mr. Hooker Justice in a Passage cited from him by this Author as though it made for him and which appears to me to be designed to prove directly contrary This Author it seems would perswade us that Mr. Hooker is of his Opinion That the Deprivation of spiritual Persons by the Civil Power is not justifiable by even our present secular Laws And to this end he cites these Words all Men are not for all things sufficient and therefore publick Affairs being divided such Persons must be authorized Iudges in each kind as common Reason may presume to be most fit Which cannot of Kings and Princes ordinarily be presumed in Causes meerly Ecclesiastical so that even common Sense doth rather adjudge this Burthen to other Men. This indeed looks plausibly as it is here set down without its Connexion with what goes before and follows it But however all that it can prove by its self is only That it may be more proper for spiritual Persons to judge in Causes meerly Ecclesiastical But then it denies not That if Princes are so pleased they may judge themselves this takes not away their Right though it may be Prudence in them to appoint others to sit in their stead But let us see the full Scope and Extent of Mr. Hooker ' s Words As says he the Person of the King may for just Considerations even where the Cause is civil be notwithstanding withdrawn from occupying the Seat of Iudgment and others under his Authority be fit he unfit himself to judge so the Considerations for which it were haply not convenient for Kings to sit and give Iudgment in spiritual Courts where Causes Ecclesiastical are usually debated can be no bar to that Force and Efficacy which their Sovereign Power hath over those very Consistories And for which we hold without any Exception That all Courts are the King 's And then follows All Men are not for all things sufficient c. And after that he goes on We see it hereby a thing necessary to put a difference as well between that ordinary Iurisdiction which belongs unto the Clergy alone and that Commissionary wherein others are for just Considerations appointed to join with them as also between both these Iurisdictions and a third whereby the King hath transcendent Authority over both Why this may not lawfully be granted unto him there is no Reason Now take the whole together and the Argument turns on the other side and proves That the Judgment of the supream Power is in all manner of Causes to be the highest But hower were Ecclesiastical Courts alone to judge of spiritual Matters and there could be no Appeals from their Decisions which yet the supream Power has a Right to receive yet these Courts do not exercise any Power that is not derived from the Supremacy either mediately or immediately The Laws by which they act and exercise their Jurisdiction proceed from thence and the Courts are constituted by its Authority So that all that is done there is by Virtue of the King's Commission But besides if the King had no Power at all in spiritual Cases yet it does not appear That the Cause of the deprived Bishops is purely spiritual they are as much Ecclesiastical Persons now as they were before their Deprivation And though they may not exercise any part of Episcopal Power in the King's Dominions yet they still retain their Office and have a Right to perform all the Duties of it where and whensoever the Sovereign Power will authorise them to it It was the Opinion of Archbishop Laud That the Use and Exercise of his Jurisdiction in Foro Conscientiae might not be but by the Leave and Power of the King within his Dominions If his Majesty should forbid a Physician to practise within his Dominions for some Crime committed by him 't is plain That by this means he is not degraded from his Profession nor will it follow That his Majesty ought to be acquainted with that Art before he pronounces Sentence against him If his Offence had been
Authority yet neither can any Ecclesiastical Canon be made or any new Heresie be declared without their Advice and Approbation Grotius is indeed of Opinion That the supream Civil Authority has a Right to make Laws without the Consent of the Clergy for the Government of the Church Because if it could not it would receive some Right of governing from the Synod and consequently could not be supream whereas the highest Power being subject to God alone has under him the sole Right of Governing Besides if the supream Power could not enforce the Observance of that without a Synod which it might with one then it should receive part of its Right and Authority to govern from thence And by Consequence some part of the Government must be lodged in the Synod Which it can neither challenge by Human or Divine Right God having no-where committed such a Power to the Church and therefore not to Synods And for these Reasons he is of Opinion That the highest Power has a Right to make Orders for the Government of the Church without a Synod And to confirm it he adds the Examples of the Hebrew Kings and some of the first Christian Emperors that have exercised their Authority about things sacred without any such Convention of the Clergy But tho' these Reasons should prove such a Right in General to belong to the supream Power yet it cannot be doubted but that the same Power may so far dispense with the Execution of it as to consent That no Laws shall be made relating to Religion without the Counsel and Approbation of the Clergy But if it may be thought reasonable to have the Advice of the Clergy in all Matters of such Importance it must be also absolutely necessary That the Civil Power which is to enforce the Observance of the Injunctions resolved on by the Spiritual should have the Right of judging of its Determinations especially where all Mens Consciences as well secular as Ecclesiastical are to be concluded by them This is most certain That it is a Duty incumbent on the Prince whether the Clergy give their Opinions or not to reform and correct Abuses in the Church and he must answer for his Neglect to God if he does not do so And if before any Declaration of the Judgment of the Clergy he has a Right to order what is necessary in sacred Affairs 't is plain That his Power is superior to theirs and that it cannot be less at the meeting of a Synod than it was before it The supream Authority continues the same whether it acts by the Counsel of others or without it And there can be no Obligation to comply with it but that of Reason and Prudence The Notion of the King's Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil established by our Laws owned and asserted by our Clergy and very frequently vindicated with much Strength and Learning by the greatest Men of our Church ever since the Reformation grants all that Right and Power to the King over Convocations that we contend for This Power says the Excellent Mr. Hooker being sometime in the Bishop of Rome who by sinister Practices had drawn it into his Hands was for Iust Considerations by Publick Consent annex'd unto the King 's Royal Seat and Crown from thence the Authors of Reformation would translate it into their National Assemblies or Synods Which Synods are the only Helps which they think lawful to use against such Evils in the Church as particular Iurisdictions are not sufficient to redress In which Cause our Laws have provided That the King 's Super-eminent Authority and Power shall serve As namely when the whole Ecclesiastical State or the Principal Persons therein do need Visitation and Reformation when in any part of the Church Errors Schisms Heresies Abuses Offences Contempts Enormities are grown which Men in their several Jurisdictions either do not or cannot help Whatsoever any Spiritual Power and Authority such as Legats from the See of Rome did sometime exercise hath done or might heretofore have done for the Remedies of those Evils in lawful sort that is to say without the Violation of the Laws of God or Nature in the Deed done as much in every Degree our Laws have fully granted that the King for ever may do not only by setting Ecclesiastical Synods on work that the thing may be their Act and the King the Motioner unto it for so much perhaps the Masters of the Reformation will grant But by Commissions few or many who having the King's Letters Patents may in the Vertue thereof execute the Premises as Agents in the Right not of their own peculiar and ordinary but of his Super-eminent Power This Passage as tho' designed on Purpose against the present Opposers of the King's Supremacy is not only an Account of the Power our King has over his Convocations by the Law of the Land but also a Vindication of that Law in investing him with such Authority And I the rather thought it deserved to be taken notice of that I might oppose the Judgment of this great and learned Man to the Censures of two late Authors who have taken a great deal of Freedom in blackening the Memory of the Convocation in Henry the 8th's Reign for surrendring up to the King the Right and Liberty of meeting without his Leave The Author of the Municipium Ecclesiasticum in his Preface insults over that Convocation as under the lash of a Praemunire and from thence seeks to prejudice the Authority of the Convocation-Act But this is a great Blunder for the Praemunire was off at least three Years before and released by Act of Parliament in the 22d of Henry the 8th the Convocation-Act being not till the 25th But to let that pass this whole Eighth Book of Ecclesiastical Polity is designed for a Vindication of the Kings Power in that Particular as also of our Laws and the Consent of the Clergy by which it was confirmed Except therefore we make the King's Authority over the Clergy less in the greatest things than the Power of the meanest Governors is in all things over those which are under them how should we think it a Matter decent that the Clergy should impose Laws the supream Governors Assent not asked But lest some sort of Men should pretend that this 8th Book is not so much and truly Mr. Hooker's as those which are published by himself which however is not questioned by the last of these Authors mentioned that quotes from it how much to his purpose I shall consider hereafter I shall add a Passage out of his Preface There was says he speaking in Reference to some who had a Dislike to the Constitution of the Church then established by Law in my poor Understanding no Remedy but to set down this as my final resolute Persuasion Surely the present Form of Church-Government which the Laws of this Land have established is such as no Law
have the supream Right over it in all things that concern Religion either for making any new Orders or Offices that may tend to the Advantage of the Church and that no humane Authority can of Right interfere with or hinder it It can't indeed be denied but that Christ has instituted and ordained a Succession of Pastors of his Flock and committed certain proper Functions to them such as the preaching the Word the Administration of the Sacraments the Power of the Keys and the like and that there shall be such no Power on Earth has a Right to forbid so far there is a Divine Institution But that the supream Governor to whom these Pastors are subject has not a Power over them in all those things which the Scripture mentions nothing of and which are not any part of the Ministerial Office or Function this we absolutely deny All human Institutions must be subject to human Laws and since Convocations are such because not appointed by any Divine Law all the Power they have must be deriv'd from that Authority to which they are subject If it be said That if the Prince has this Power he may make a wrong use of it yet this does not prove against his Right Our Abuse of any thing is not an Argument that we have no Rightor Title to it If indeed the Prince should happen to be of a different Religion and disclaim all Right to his Supremacy over the Church or abuse it to the Destruction of it I see no Reason but if the Necessities of the Church should require it the Clergy now may have the same Privilege as the Primitive Christians and may assemble of their own accord as they might have done when their Emperors were Heathen Common Prudence will direct what is proper in such Cases As Right Reason and the Laws of Equity would advise That the chief Power over Ecclesiastical Affairs should be committed to the Sovereign Authority when Christian which is supposed upon that Account to be as much concerned for the Good of the Church as of the State And indeed where nothing is determined on either side this must necessarily be fixt there Because there is no other that can either by Divine or human Right lay claim to the like Authority There is no other possible way of determining the Bounds of the supream Power but by the Law of God or Nature It s Right extends over all things but what are either commanded or forbidden by them Now then allowing Mr. Hooker's Opinion That as for supream Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs the Word of God doth no-where appoint that all Kings shall have it neither that any should not have it yet for this very Cause it seemeth to stand altogether by human Right that unto Christian Kings there is such Dominion given As for the Law of Nature I think it must be granted to be no way concerned in the present Controversie Grotius does indeed allow That the Original of Synods is derived from the Law of Nature For Man being a sociable Creature does naturally associate himself with those who pursue the same Methods and Manner of Life So Merchants for the Improvement of Traffick so Physicians and Lawyers meet and consult together for the examining the Mysteries of their Art and for the advancing their Profession But then to prevent Mistake he distinguishes between an absolute Law of Nature which cannot be changed as to worship God honour our Parents and to do no Injury to the Innocent and that which is natural after a sort as being most reasonable and allowed of by Nature till human Laws interpose Thus every thing by Nature is common all Men are free the nearest Relation is Heir till by human Appointment and Consent Propriety and Subjection were introduced and the Inheritance disposed of by Will In this latter Sense he allows it to be natural to hold Synods but he denies it to be so in the other because then no Bishops would ever have petitioned the Emperors for leave to meet and St. Hierom's Argument to prove a Synod unlawful would be invalid Shew me saith he what Emperor commanded the meeting of that Council Synods therefore are to be accounted in the number of those things which being allowed of by the Law of Nature are yet subject to human Constitutions and may be assembled or prohibited by them And if in the Reigns even of the Pagan Emperors any Laws or Imperial Edicts had been published against holding Synods and the Necessities of the Church not evidently required their meeting but especially had those heathen Powers allowed them all the Liberty of meeting for Prayers and performing other Duties which Christ had appointed and were necessary to be done by them in Obedience to his Commands I know no Right the Clergy could have pretended for their assembling It is certain That the Church might subsist and be preserved without them And thereupon the Bishops were very careful not to offend or provoke their Governors by their Synodical meeting whatever Occasions there might be for them St. Cyprian as Grotius observes has shewn in several Places That when in times of Persecution there arose a hot Contest about receiving the lapsed into Communion and for the putting an end to it nothing seemed more necessary than for the Clergy to meet and consult together in common yet the Bishops deferred the meeting till the Storm was blown over which certainly they ought not to have done if Synods had been enjoin'd by a positive Law either Divine or Natural and could have been no more dispensed with than the Duties of worshipping God and honouring our Parents Since then there appears no Authority from Scripture or from the Practice of the Church after the State was Christian or from the Law of Nature to found this Pretence upon of the Clergy's having a distinct Right from the State of assembling themselves in Convocation it is evident That the Laws of the Land and the Suffrage of the Convocation in Henry the 8th's Reign and of all the Convocations that have been held since which by common Consent have invested the King with this Power and have submitted to it were not so rash and irreligious as some Men would insinuate Even the Convocations in Queen Mary's Reign when that Law was abrogated yet met and acted by her Authority But it is to be observed That the Arguments which are now produced to prove the Church Independent on the State by a Divine Right are the same which Mr. Hooker taxed as the Errors of some in his time who asserted the Unlawfulness of the Prince's exercising any Authority in the Affairs of the Church The Causes of common received Errors in this point seem to be especially two One That they who embrace true Religion living in such Common-wealths as are opposite thereunto in other publick Affairs retain civil Communion with them This was the State of the Jewish Church both in Egypt and Babylon the
in this kind they should not be able when need is to do as Vertuous Kings have done As Iosia and Hezekiah in the Old Testament did when they Assembled the Priests and Levites to renew the House of the Lord and to Celebrate the Passover The like before them did David and Solomon for removing the Ark and Dedicating the Temple Such Authority as the Iewish Kings Exercised over Ecclesiastical Affairs and Persons the like we claim to belong to our Kings and those that deny them the same Authority are to be Excommunicated according to the Doctrine of the Church of England But since there is an Argument now again insisted upon from the New Testament to prove the Right which belongs to the Clergy to Assemble and make Ecclesiastical Laws without the leave of the Supream Authority which in Mr. Hooker's Time was brought for an Objection against such a Supremacy in the King I shall take the freedom to set it down in his Words with his Answer to it It will be says that Excellent Author perhaps alledged That a part of the Unity of Christian Religion is to hold the Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws a thing appropriated unto the Clergy in their Synods and whatsoever is by their only Voices agreed upon it needeth no farther Appropriation to give unto it the strength of a Law as may plainly appear by the Canons of that first most venerable Assembly Where those things the Apostles and Iames had concluded were afterwards published and imposed upon the Churches of the Gentiles abroad as Laws the Records threof remaining still in the Book of God for a Testimony that the Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws belongeth to the Successors of the Apostles the Bishops and Prelates of the Church of God To this we Answer That the Council of Ierusalem is no Argument for the Power of the Clergy to make Laws For first There has not been since any Council of like Authority to that in Ierusalem Secondly The Cause why that was of such Authority came by a special Accident Thirdly The Reason why other Councils being not like unto that in Nature the Clergy in them should have no Power to make Laws by themselves alone is in Truth so forcible that except some Commandment of God to the contrary can be shewed it ought notwithstanding the aforesaid Example to prevail The Decrees of the Council of Ierusalem were not as the Canons of other Ecclesiastical-Assemblies Humane but very Divine Ordinances For which Cause the Churches were far and wide commanded every where to see them kept no otherwise than if Christ himself had personally on Earth been the Author of them The Cause why that Council was of so great Authority and Credit above all others which have been since is expressed in those Words of principal Observation Vnto the Holy Ghost and to us it hath seemed good Which form of Speech though other Councils have likewise used yet neither could they themselves-mean nor may we so understand them as if both were in equal sort assisted with the Power of the Holy Ghost Wherefore in as much as the Council of Ierusalem did consist of Men so enlightned it had Authority greater than were meet for any other Council besides to challenge wherein such kind of Persons are as now the State of the Church doth stand Kings being not then that which now they are and the Clergy not now that which then they were Till it be proved that some special Law of Christ hath for ever annexed unto the Clergy alone the Power to make Ecclesiastical Laws we are to hold it a thing most Consonant with Equity and Reason that no Ecclesiastical Laws be made in a Christian Common-wealth without consent as well of the Laity as of the Clergy but least of all without consent of the highest Power The Opinion of the Learned Grotius being more short and decisive in our present Case upon that forementioned place of the Acts I shall also give an account of it The Original of Synods says he is usually taken from that History in the 15th Chap. of the Acts. But whether that Assembly may be properly termed a Synod as we now understand that Word may very well be questioned There arose a Controversie between Paul and Barnabas and certain Iews of Antioch concerning the Obligations of the Mosaick Law Paul and Barnabas are sent with some of Antioch to know the Opinion of the Pastors but were they those of all Asia Syria Cilicia and Judea Assembled together in one place that were to give their Iudgment No certainly but of the Apostles and Elders of Jerusalem the Company of the Apostles was a College not a Synod and the Elders of one City could not certainly be called a Synod One Church therefore alone is consulted or more truly and properly speaking the Apostles only are consulted and they alone give Iudgment to whose Authority the Elders and Brethren of Jerusalem yield their Consent and Approbation Thus I think there can't be the least shadow of an Argument brought from Scripture for a Divine Institution of Synods But to return once more to Mr. Hooker Were it so adds that judicious Author that the Clergy alone might give Laws unto all the rest is it not easie to see how injurious this might prove to Men of other Conditions Peace and Justice are maintained by preserving unto every Order their Right and by keeping all Estates as it were in even ballance which thing is no way better done than if the King their Common Parent whose Care is presumed to extend most indifferently over all do bear the chiefest sway in making Laws which all must be ordered by wherefore of them which attribute most to the Clergy I would demand what Evidence there is whereby it may clearly be shewed that in ancient Kingdoms Christian any Canon devised alone by the Clergy in their Synods whether Provincial National or General hath by meer force of their agreement taken place as a Law making all Men constrainable to be Obedient thereunto without any other approbation from the King before or afterwards required in that behalf This was the Sense of that Great-Man and the very same Opinion and Notions they are and no other as far I can judge which are maintained by them who at present defend the King's Authority in calling Convocations and in other Ecclesiastical Affairs And I can't yet apprehend how those who so warmly and furiously oppose them can reconcile their Notions with the Doctrines which have been always received in the Church of England But it may probably be urged That though the Clergy's Right to Assemble themselves and make Laws for the Government of the Church by their own Power could not be proved by Revelation yet in Reason it ought to be allowed to them because the security of Religion depends upon it For if the Clergy alone may not make any new Orders which may seem wanting nor pass a general Censure upon any false