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church_n	canon_n	council_n	nice_a	2,852	5	10.4936	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56388	A discourse sent to the late King James, to persuade him to embrace the Protestant religion by Dr. Samuel Parker, Late Lord Bishop of Oxford ; to which are prefixed two letters ; the first, from Sir Leolyn Jenkins, on the same subject, the second, from the said bishop, with the discourse ; printed from the original manuscript papers, without observation or reflection.	Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.; Jenkins, Leoline, Sir, 1623-1685.	1690 (1690)	Wing P461; ESTC R5913	25,687	36

there are many Instances in the Records of the Church though I shall mention but one as the most eminent of all and that is the several Synods that were called about the Paschal Controversie not long after the time of the Apostles themselves which as it was canvassed all the World over so was it debated in so many Provincial Synods in each whereof the Metropolitan presided in Palestin Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea in Pontus Palma Bishop of Armastris in the Proconsular Asia Policrates Bishop of Ephesus in Italy Victor Bishop of Rome in France Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons where every Synod judged for it self and made its own Decrees only Victor would have been meddling with the Church of Asia though as far as appears from records not from any Authority he pretended to over it but out of an intemperate Zeal for his own Opinion But in this he is quickly check'd by the other Churches especially that of France though of the same Perswasion with himself as to the matter of the Controversie as he would not break the Unity of the Christian Church which was to be maintained by no other means than keeping up the Rights of every part of it And this they admirably preserved by their communicatory Letters between Church and Church so as no Member of one Church might be admitted to Communion with another without his Letters Testimonial whereby it was so ordered that whosoever was Excommunicate out of a particular Church was shut out of the Church Catholick Neither could a Bishop exercise any part of his Office in any other Diocese than his own much less any other Province and if he did his own Metropolitan was obliged to throw him out of Communion and all other not to take him in And this was the occasion of that sixth famous Canon of the first Council of Nice under Constantine the Great that confirms to the three great Churches of Rome Alexandria and Antioch their ancient Privileges and Preeminences For though some learned Men both within and without the Church of Rome have been pleased to dispute that the Power here abetted in this Canon was Patriarchical and not merely Metropolitical yet that it was not Patriarchical is notoriously evident because there is not the least mention of any such Office in all the Records of the Christian Church before the Council of Calcedon which was above an hundred years after that of Nice and yet this Nicene Canon only confirms the old and accustomed Rights of Churches And that this power was Metropolitical is manifest because it was made purely in pursuance of the fore-mentioned 34th Apostolical Canon that requires the Subjection of all other inferior Bishops to their National or Provincial Bishops The occasion of it was this That Meletius Bishop of Nicapolis within the Province of Alexandria being deposed by his Metropolitan in a Synod of Bishops as for divers other Crimes so particularly for Sacrificing to Idols notwithstanding that takes upon him to Ordain new Bishops himself and so violates all the Preeminences of his Metropolitan both by slighting his Censure and invading his Power Now complaint hereof being brought to the Council they decree that the ancient Prerogatives of the Church of Alexandria over the inferior Churches within its Province shall be kept as inviolable as those of Rome and the same for Antiochia and not only so in those great Sees but in all other Provinces whatsoever for so the Canon expresly runs that not only at Antiochia but that in all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Provinces their ancient Privileges should be preserved So that here is nothing peculiar to these three great Cities determined because the Jurisdictions of all other Provinces that were in force at that time were as much ratified by the same Authority and that was only this That whatever Superiority greater Churches had by long Custom enjoyed over less should stand confirmed for the time to come And accordingly we find it decreed in the second Canon of the second general Council held at Constantinople as a clear Interpretation of the sixth Canon of Nice that all Bishops should contain themselves within the known Circuit of their Jurisdiction and not thrust themselves into other Diocesses especially that the Bishop of Alexandria should be confin'd within the Diocese of Aegypt and Antiochia within that of the East and that the Churches of Asia Pontus and Thracia should enjoy the antient Power of Government within themselves as well as those that had invaded their Right this being the occasion of the Decree of the Council that Miletius Bishop of Antiochia had made Gregory Nazienzen Bishop of Constantinople and Peter Bishop of Alexandria had done the same for Maximus whereas Constantinople was in Thrace that was a Diocese by it self in the Civil Division of the Empire and therefore exempt from the Jurisdiction of those great Prelates having the same supreme and independent Power within it self as they had within their Provinces as had also the lesser Asia and Pontus which that they might not be encroach'd upon or swallowed up by their Potent Neighbors were here guarded and settled by the Decree of the Council in the Possession of their ancient Rights against all future Invasions And the same Decree we find in the next general Council held at Ephesus Canon the eighth upon the like occasion the Bishop of Antioch taking upon him to Ordain in the Isle of Cyprus that was an head Province by it self This Usurpation therefore the Council severely censures and forbids and withal orders that no Metropolitan should challenge any further extent of Jurisdiction that he could not prove by long and immemorial Prescription lest under the Pretence of their Priestly Office they should introduce a secular Sovereignty into the Church Infinite are the Instances in the Records of the Church of the Metropolitical Supremacy of Churches but these that I have already alledged are enough to shew the true Primitive and Apostolical Constitution of the Christian Church which lasted the same even as to the bounds of Jurisdiction till the time of Constantine the Great But the casting the Civil Government of the Empire into a new Model gave occasion to the Church in pursuance of its Primitive Rule of conforming to the Civil Government to add to the old Ecclesiastical Hierarchy for the whole Empire being divided into thirteen Diocesses each Diocese containing many Provinces in all to the number of 120 and every Province several inferior Cities And therefore as every City had its Judge for Civil Government so had it its Bishop for Ecclesiastical and every Province its President so its Metropolitan and every Diocese which then contained several Provinces its Lieutenant so its Primate Which indeed was nothing else but raising up a superior Order of Metropolitans in conformity to the new Model of Civil Government and therefore was at first nothing else but an honorary Title that gave them Precedency to the Metropolitans but not Jurisdiction over them For

the very first time that we meet with any mention of any such Order in the Church is in the second Canon of the second general Council held at Constantinople under Theodosius the Great where at the same time that it institutes this new kind of Dignity it secures the old Jurisdiction of Metropolitans So that notwithstanding this new Order was brought over their heads in conformity to the Empire yet was every Metropolitan Church to be governed by it self and its own Synod in the same manner as it was accustomed of old and was confirmed by the decree of the Council of Nice Which Council positively asserts the Supremacy of Power to every Metropolitan within his own Province And therefore all the Preeminence of this new Order of Men above them could consist in nothing but Title and Dignity And it is sufficiently known to all that know any thing of the ancient Records of the Church that they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Preeminences of Respect and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Preeminences of Power and Authority And it was usual upon particular occasions to give the former without conferring the latter as the great Council of Nice gave to the Church of Ierusalem Metropolitical Honor because it was the Mother of all Churches without giving it any Metropolitical Jurisdiction for that was reserved entirely for the Bishop of Caesarea which after the Destruction of Ierusalem had been made the Civil Metropolis of Palestin by the Emperor Vespasian so this present Council of Constantinople of which we are speaking in the Canon next following that we last mentioned gives the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Preeminencies of Honor next to the Bishop of Rome to the Bishop of Constantinople because Constantinople was new Rome and yet gives it nothing of Metropolitical Power because it expresly confirms the old Rights of the three Metropolitans of Asia Pontus and Thrace to which it belonged in the Canon immediately foregoing In short all the Privileges of the ancient Metropolitans were divided into two sorts those of Honour and those of Power the former the Fathers of this Council gave to the Bishop of Constantinople out of Complement to the new Imperial City but neither could nor would give any thing of the latter because that was not to be done without violating and alienating the real Rights and Priviledges of other Men. But yet however when once they had gor an higher Title it easily made way to advance themselves to an higher Power insomuch that in a short time after he swallow'd up all the three Metropolitans of Thrace Pontus and Asia into his own Jurisdiction And now this superior Order of Primates to Metropolitans being thus set up by Ecclesiastical Constitution it in a little time made way for the Patriarchical Dignity the Title whereof was at first borrowed from the wandring Jews of those times who wherever they settled in any considerable Number after their dispersion from Ierusalem chose a supreme Governour whom they stil'd their Patriarch but about the fourth Century or somewhat after this Title and Authority was taken from the Jews and applyed to the new supra-Metropolitan Bishops that it seems as yet had obtain'd no peculiar Name in the Christian Church Thus Socrates the Historian of the Church at that time reckons up Nectarius of Constantinople Helladius of Pontus Gregory of Nyssa Ottreius of Melitina Amphilochius of Iconium Optimus of the Pisidian Antioch Timotheus of Alexandria Pelagius of Laodicea Diodorus of Tarsus and many more Tho in a little time the Title came to be appropriated to the five most eminent Sees Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Ierusalem and they were made superior not only in Title but in Jurisdiction to all Metropolitans within their Diocess because it seems those Cities being the five chief Cities in the World had their Claims to higher Dignity in the civil Government than all others Rome the Seat of the Empire Alexandria the head City of Africk and Seat of the Great Ptolomys Antiochia Queen of the East and Seat of the Great Seleucus and his Successors Ierusalem the Mother City of all Christian Churches and Constantinople the new Rome of the Empire that had at that time over-topt old Rome in Greatness and Authority Now the Rights that were peculiar to these Patriarchs above Metropolitans were these First that wherever they presided they had many Metropolitans under their Jurisdiction Secondly that they only had right to ordain the Metropolitans within their own Patriarchate as Metropolitans had Bishops within their own Province Thirdly that as Metropolitans had power to call the Bishops of their Province to Synods so had Patriarchs to call their Metropolitans Fourthly that they were the supreme Judicature within their own Patriarchates no farther appeal being to be made from a Patriarch And thus was the Church for a long time govern'd every Patriarch enjoying supreme Power within his own Precincts and no farther insomuch that the Rule was adopted into the imperial Law A Patriarcha non datur Appellatio No Appeal from a Patriarch and yet that alone is a plain Bar to the Supremacy of the Pope or any other over the whole Christian Church But then as for the Bounds of Jurisdiction they still follow'd the Division of the State and there it so happen'd that the Bishop of Rome tho for the sake of the old imperial City he had Precedency in Honor above all the rest had one of the narrowest Jurisdictions of all his Patriarchate extending at the farthest not beyond Italy and the adjacent Islands tho according to the true account it was not at first above half so great Italy being divided into two Parts under two Governours one residing at Rome who governed the Suburbicarian Provinces so call'd because of their lying nearest to the City the other at Milain who govern'd the more remote Parts And after the same manner was the Government of the Church divided into the Roman Diocess that was subject to the Bishops of Rome and the Italic Diocess of which Milain was the Head over which we do not find that the Bishop of Rome in antient time ever pretended any Patriarchical Supremacy nay on the contrary that S. Ambrose was ordained in the Year of our Lord 555. Bishop thereof by a Synod of Bishops of the Italic Diocess which he could not have been had the Bishop of Rome been his Patriarch the power of Ordination being the chief Branch of Patriarchical Jurisdiction But how great or little soever was the Circuit of his Patriarchate it was limited within certain Bounds as the other Patriarchates were And as the Patriarchs were Supreme within their own Diocess so were most of the Metropolitans within their own Province For tho where Patriarchs were erected the Metropolitans within the compass of their Patriarchate were subject to them yet all the other Metropolitans of the Christian Church enjoy'd their own antient Supremacy and continued as they were before Head-Churches exercising Supreme Power

Rome as to Ecclesiastical Constitution But now if this one Point of the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome were the great Foundation of the Christian Faith as it must be if his pretences to it by divine Right are true it is a very strange thing that there should not be so much as the shadow of any such Authority in all the Records of the Primitive Church Is it not very odd that when so many Controversies were started in the Christian Church both in the Apostles own time and in the Ages next and immediately following and that when Almighty God had appointed S. Peter and his Successors in the See of Rome the certain and undoubted Judges for ending all Controversies that yet none of the Apostles or Primitive Doctors of the Christian Church that labor'd so much against Schisms Heresies and Divisions should ever so much as think of or mention such an effectual nay infallible Remedy against them all One Appeal to the Bishop of Rome had put an End to all further Trouble and certainly had God vested him with that Power over the whole Christian Church they could never have been so stupid as never to have taken any notice of it And yet we find not the least mention of it for many hundred years after the settlement of Christianity in the World And perhaps the Bishops of Rome themselves had never thought of it had it not been first put into their Heads by the Bishop of Constantinople by whom it was as I shall shew in the sequel of this Discourse first claimed Some small glimmerings indeed we meet with of some honorary Preeminence or Dignity allowed to the Church of Rome upon the score of its being the Imperial City and by reason of the great resort to it of its being one of the most competent Witnesses of the true Tradition of Christianity But that it should have any Jurisdiction over any other Churches out of its own Province much more such an universal power over all Churches in the World as is now challeng'd is a Notion so utterly strange and unknown to all Antiquity that the bare silence of it alone is an irrefragable demonstration of the Novelty of the Pretence But for the greater Evidence of this thing which indeed is the first point of Controversie between us I shall make bold as briefly as I can to give Your Royal Highness a true and impartial account of the State of the Christian Church from the beginning and then of the several and gradual Alterations that were by Ecclesiastical Constitutions made in it in after times and lastly how and how late the Popes of Rome climb'd up to that infinite Authority that they have for some Ages exercised and still claim over the Christian Church And when I have done all this I may safely leave it to Your Royal Highnesses Princely Wisdom to judge what Obligation You can have in Conscience to leave the Communion of the Britannick Church for that of Rome And in the first place there is nothing more evident in all the Records of the Primitive Church than that the Apostles and first Doctors of the Christian Faith modell'd the first Settlement of Churches according to the then present State and Division of the Roman Empire For though our blessed Saviour settled the Supreme Government of his Church upon his holy Apostles and their Successors yet he no where prescribed the bounds and limits of every Man's Jurisdiction but left it as indeed the Nature of the thing required to Humane Prudence ot divide the Provinces among themselves as they should judge most convenient for the Advantage of their common Christianity And accordingly we find from the very beginning that they formed the Jurisdiction of Churches according to the Civil Judicatures of the Empire common Prudence directing them so to do not only for the more speedy Propagation of Christianity by the resort of all People to the Metropolis of the Province which they therefore constituted the Mother Church of it but that whenever the Powers of the World should come in to own Christianity the better Correspondence might be maintain'd between the States Civil and Ecclesiastical And beside this by making the Head City of every Province the Metropolis of the Church within that Province upon which the inferior Cities depended as the Centre of Communion they thereby admirably secur'd the Unity of the whole Body while every Episcopal Church exercised ordinary Jurisdiction within it self but was bound either in cases of great Difficulty or such as concerned the common Christianity to have recourse to the Mother-Church And this was apparently the Original of the Privilege and Preeminence of some Churches above others from the beginning not that they ever pretended to any Sovereignty over them in their particular Jurisdictions but only as the Centre of Ecclesiastical Unity so as to decide Controversies whenever any inferior Church appealed to them for their Advice or to summon Councils and preside over them in all Debates that concerned common Christianity And that this Distribution of Provinces and Bishopricks was setled by the Apostles seems evident from their own Writings who every where describe the bounds of Churches according to the Constitution of the Empire Thus St. Peter directs his Epistle to the several Churches of the Christian Iews with respect to so many several Provinces Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bythinia which as they were distinct Provinces in the Civil Division of the Empire so were they from that time forward so many distinct Provincial Sees in the Communion of the Church And nothing is more obvious in the Epistles of St. Paul than that whenever he makes mention of any Church he either calls it by the name of the Province it self or the Metropolis or Head City of it And as this design of conforming the Ecclesiastical State to the Civil was first set on foot by the Apostles so was it carefully prosecuted by their Successors of which we have an eminent Instance in the Apostolical Canons which though they were not compiled by the Apostles themselves yet they were by Apostolical Men and such as immediately succeeded them where it is decreed in the 34 Canon That the Bishops of every Nation should acknowledge their Primate or Metropolitan and honor him as their Head and do nothing of moment in the Christian Church wthout his consent nor he without theirs Now that this was prescribed by the Apostles themselves is evident in that as this Canon was made a very short time after their Decease so it is not a new Law but a Ratification of an old Custom as indeed most of the Apostolical Canons seem to be This was apparently the Constitution of the Christian Churches in all places of the Empire for the first three hundred years or the whole interval of time from our Saviour to Constantine that as every City was governed by its own Bishop so was every Province by its own Metropolitan in his Synod of Bishops of which

only a Member of it and in that Station it is as large a Church as any were in the Primitive Times Neither then did the Communion of the Catholick Church consist in an Union of all Churches under one Head but in brotherly Love and Correspondence with one another and for that the Church of England is ready to offer it to the Church of Rome or any other upon the old Condition that they will give her leave to admonish them of their Faults and Miscarriages as Churches did one another of old But this is a Civility that the Church of Rome is too proud to accept of it must be all Churches or it will be none at all It allows no Equals in Communion and condescends to no Treaty but upon Terms of absolute Subjection neither is it content to enslave all its Neighbors to its own imperious Decrees unless they be submitted to as the infallible Dictates of God himself Now this seems too much for Men to swallow that have any sense or care of their Salvation for by this means the whole Faith of Christendom shall be left entirely at the Disposal of one single Person and the Pope alone shall be the whole Catholick Church This I say seems too much to venture upon one single Security especially unless it were confirmed by some clearer Commission than those remote and obscure Texts of Scripture that are alledg'd for the Papal Supremacy But to return from the Pope to the Church As the first Constitution of Churches was conform'd to the civil Government so indeed no other is practicable For upon that Supposition that Christianity makes no Abatement as to the civil Rights of Men especially of Princes provincial Churches cannot be justly extended beyond the Dominion of the State because in that case if Metropolitans or Patriarchs have power to call their Subject-Bishops to Councils the King's Subjects may be summoned out of his Dominions without his leave which is not only to diminish but to destroy his Power over his own Subjects for when they are out of his Dominions they are none of his So that the very State of Christianity naturally implies as it would not be inconsistent with it self the Conformity of the Church to the State in its bounds of Jurisdiction And this is the true meaning of that known Saying of one of the Fathers That the Church is in the Commonwealth and not the Commonwealth in the Church for the Civil Government being first constituted and the Church being afterwards taken into it it must for that Reason keep it self within it otherwise it breaks down its old Bounds of Settlement But beside that the Nature of Government confines every Church within the Prince's Dominions in which it is so it is highly convenient if not absolutely necessary to the due and effectual Exercise of Discipline that the Society of the Church be confined within some moderate Circuit of Government for great Governments are slow and unweildy in their Motions the very distance of Place makes all Proceedings uneasie and Determinations difficult and of this our Nation was sufficiently sensible when all Ecclesiastical Appeals were carried to Rome the Journey was tedious and chargable and by reason of the distance of Witnesses and other Inconveniences Proceedings infinitely dilatory I might say endless Causes depending there from Age to Age this is too notorious from the sad and open Complaints of those Times and I my self enjoy a small Office in this Church wherein my Predecessors had a Suit for a Privilege belonging to it hanging in the Court of Rome for some hundreds of Years till the very time of the Dissolution of the Pope's Power These are intolerable Grievances to Mankind and heavier Burthens than were ever imposed upon them by the most barbarous civil Government If therefore his Holiness will challenge a Supremacy over all Christian Churches let him not exercise his Jurisdiction in ordinary Causes that is contrary to all the Canons of the Church and Quiet of the World We will not contend with him about his Patriarchical Preheminence if that would give him Satisfaction tho we know he hath not the least pretence of any claim to it over us But when under that Pretext he takes to himself the Office of Universal Bishop that is to be all the Bishops of Christendom 't is that exorbitant Usurpation that is not our Complaint alone but the universal Complaint of Christendom it self And therefore if he would keep within his Patriarchical Bounds and Privileges which yet he enjoys not by divine Right but humane Institution we would give him all that Respect and Reverence that is due to the Primacy of his See But if instead of Brotherly Communion with us nothing less will serve his Turn than absolute Dominion over us and if Submission to that must be made our only Title to the Catholick Church as if we had no Right to Christianity but by Subjection to the Bishop of Rome these cannot but seem too hard Terms of Communion or if they are not it is enough that they are unwarrantable or if they are not so it is enough that they are not necessary And that they are not is evident from the Premises where I have demonstrated that the first Duty of every Christian as a Member of the Christian Church is to joyn Communion with his own Bishop as the first Political Society of a Church And that the next is a Combination of all the Bishops within one civil Government under one Metropolitan That this Polity was set on foot by the Apostles themselves and every where put in practice in the Primitive Church that the Ecclesiastical Province cannot extend beyond the Precincts of the Civil without infringing the Authority of Sovereign Princes and therefore that no foreign Prelate can have or exercise any Ecclesiastical Power over his Majesty's Subjects because that would give them Power to command them out of his Dominions So plainly doth the Nature of Civil Government set Bounds to Ecclesiastical Societies which one thing if duely consider'd must cut off all Claims of Papal Supremacy over this Church because by virtue of it he would have such a kind of Power over His Majesty's Subjects as the Christian Religion doth by no means allow any its Officers And as this was the Settlement of National Churches from the beginning of Christianity so is it the present Constitution of the Church of England that is or would be govern'd by its Metropolitan in his Synod of Bishops subject to one Civil Government And as this is all the Political Society that a Christian Church is capable of so all the Communion that it can have with other Churches consists in brotherly Love and mutual Correspondence And this way was the Christian Church in the first Ages of it preserv'd in competent Peace and Unity And whatever other Power was afterward erected in the Church was founded upon humane Institution and therefore is alterable in it self at least not necessary to the