CHRIST'S Commission are the limitted and appropriated Powers which belong to the Spiritual Governours of the CHURCH alone and which no Temporal Potentates can take upon them to execute without breaking in upon CHRIST'S Institution and subverting the very Ends and Reasons of their original Separation And therefore if no more had been intended by the Independent Authority of CHRIST'S Church in the Execution of their Priestly Office than this That they who derived not this Authority from the State could not have it taken away by them and that the secular Powers are by CHRIST'S Commission excluded from the Performance of all the Divine Offices specify'd in it The Church of England has declared Her Judgment in Favour of such a Claim and we should have entred into no Disputes against it BUT then he who himself has no Authority to baptize may yet be a competent Judge of the Care and Fidelity of those who do And he who has no Power to administer the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper or to ordain Ministers may yet be capable of taking Cognizance of the Neglects and of the Miscarriages committed in those Performances So that it is one Thing to minister in the Holy Offices and Service of the Church and another to have Rule and Government and a judicial Cognizance of the Care Fidelity and good or evil Conduct of those who do This leads me to consider 2. THAT besides the Ministration in Holy Offices the Power of the Keys and Ordination there are other Powers and Authorities claimed by the Church Such are all the General Powers of Government of Assembling in Synods of Consulting one another on important Occasions of making Laws or Canons of appointing to particular Churches or Districts their proper Pastors of determining religious Debates and Disputes of prescribing Rules of Order and Discipline c. All which as not being expressly mentioned in or appropriated by CHRIST'S Commission as the other divine Offices of Religion are can belong to the Church only of Common-Right as it is a Society and as such Acts of Government are the constant and common Rights of every Established Community A SOCIETY cannot subsist without Government as therefore the Christian Church is by CHRIST'S Commission constituted a spiritual Society there is no Doubt but that it thereby obtains a certain Right to the Exercise of all such Authority in Government as other Established Communities are usually possess'd of THE Question then is not whether the Church has a Right to the Exercise of such Authority for it is undeniably evident that she has But what is the Foundation of that Authority and how far it will hold good to the Exclusion of the secular Powers Now unless it could be made appear that these Powers of Government are by CHRIST'S Commission specify'd and appropriated to the Priesthood as the divine Offices of its Holy Ministration are There can be no other Reason or Ground of this Claim than that of common Right and Necessity to the Support of this spiritual Community and to the Attainment of the great End for which it was ordained WE see therefore that in this Controversy a great regard is to be had to the Distinction here made between the divine Offices of the Christian Priesthood and the more General Powers of Government The former are allow'd to be appropriated to the Orders of the Bishops and Clergy only The latter are those Powers and Authorities which our present Controversies and Dissentions are about And if I am right in Stating the CHURCH'S Claim and Title thereto I shall certainly be Right in the Determination of this dispute So far as they are Necessary to the due Execution of CHRIST'S Commission the CHURCH has undoubted Right thereto And if Dr. Hickes and his Friends had gone no farther in claiming a Right to the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Authority Independently on the secular than as that shall be found necessary to the Propagation and Establishment of Christianity I am apt to think that all Christians would have come into it I for my Part can make no Scruple to affirm that by Virtue of Christs Commission to his Apostles and their Successors to Preach and Propagate the Gospel and to gather Him a Church thereby They have an undoubted Right and Authority to do every Thing in the Exercise of their Spiritual Offices which shall be found necessary to the Support of the Christian Faith and CHURCH But if Men will not content themselves with this without going farther if they will claim an Universal Inherent Authority of doing every Thing in Matters of Religion if they please by themselves and to be the sole Proper and Rightful Judges of all Ecclesiastical Causes and Matters with a divine Right to exclude the Secular Authority at their Pleasure and to make Null and Invalid every Thing that is done by the Temporal Powers in these Affairs without the Clergy's Approbation and Consent This I think a most Unreasonable and Unrighteous Demand and I have these six Things to plead against it I. SUCH a Claim seems contrary to the very Nature of the Powers that we are now reasoning about They are not the peculiar appropriated Offices of the Priesthood such as Ministring in the Divine Service administring Sacraments c. which we have already owned Kings and Princes to be excluded from But they are the CHURCH'S common Powers of Government which belong to Her only of common Right and to the General Exercise of which other Societies are entitled as well as the CHURCH Now these general Powers of Government are no otherwise to be exercis'd exclusive of and Independently on the Secular Authority than the Necessity of Affairs requires them so to be And that Authority which has no other Reason or Foundation then its Usefulness or Necessity as a Means to the attaining to such an End certainly loses a great deal of its Force and Obligation in all those Instances in which it ceases to be useful or necessary and where the End may be as effectually obtained without it And this is the true Reason of all that Difference which is observable in History in the Practice of the Bishops and Governours of the Christian Church in the Exercise of these very Powers under Heathen and under Christian Emperors and Governours When their Heathen Governours cast them off and left them to themselves they then manag'd all Things by themselves the Necessity of their Affairs requiring that they should so do But when the Christian Emperors took the Affairs of Christians into their Cognizance and made Laws and passed Sentences and executed Judgment therein The Christian Bishops and Clergy unanimously gave Way and very readily submitted thereto IT may possibly have some weight with some of my Readers to observe that even Dr. Hickes in the Collection of Papers lately Published by his Friends and which were Written and Published on purpose to carry up the Powers of the Priesthood and an Independent Authority as high as possibly he could Yet comes in
CHRIST to oppose and lord it over the Ministers of GOD the FATHER is to invert the sacred Order of Things and to forget the Subordination of the SON to the FATHER GOD for the Honour of the ever blessed Redeemer was pleased to grant Him a Kingdom within his own Dominions with Rule and Power over all Mankind in order to our Salvation and to the effectual Establishment of it to appoint Him Powers and Ministers of his own and to take away from temporal Governours the Ministration of those divine and sacred Offices which they before performed But as it does not appear by CHRIST'S Commission that He has appropriated all the Powers of Government in his CHURCH to the Bishops and Clergy only together with the Authority of those sacred Ministrations it is certainly very wrong in them to assume a Power of excluding universally the Authority of the FATHER'S Ministry The Dispensation of the SON however Excellent and Glorious as blessed be GOD it is ought yet certainly to be administred in Subordination to that of the FATHER And to pretend the contrary must needs be very absutd and displeasing to Them both AND yet this Absurdity as great as it is is carry'd still farther and the Abettors of it not content with the Claim of an independent Power only plead for a superior Authority in the Church because that is spiritual and extends to the Souls of Men. This is not only in Effect to deny the Civil Magistrates Concern in Matters of Religion and where the Souls of Men are affected But moreover it is to set up the SON above the FATHER by making the Ministry of the SON superior to that of the FATHER This is what I cannot but think unreasonable and contrary to the Design and Intention of Them both It is under the Favour and Protection of the SON to reject the Authority and Supremacy of the FATHER than which scarce any thing can be more offensive to him To this let me add III. THAT the true Kingdom of GOD and the Religion of JESUS CHRIST established therein do not appear to be at all more strong and safe and secure from Corruptions by such an Independent Authority than they would be otherwise REMEMBER we are here disputing only about an independent Power in the Government of the Church and the Management of its Affairs for the Success of Religion It would therefore methinks be much in Favour of such a Pretension if it could be made appear by long Experience throughout all Ages that the Purity of this Holy Religion had always been better secured that Way than the other And that it had as constantly suffered when ever it was brought under the Direction and Jurisdiction of the STATE But alas this was true only in the first Ages of Christianity when the Governors of the Church had more extraordinary and miraculous Assistances from the Holy Ghost Then indeed the Purity of Religion was effectually preserved and the Word of GOD mightily grew and prevailed But when the essential Principles and Laws of Christianity were committed to Writing and the Clergy were to gain spiritual Knowledge by Reading them when the extraordinary Powers of the Holy Ghost began to be removed and Men were asisted as they are now only by the ordinary Influences thereof and in Consequence of this the spiritual Governors of the Church were subject to the same Passions and Infirmities and Temptations as other Men now a-days are Religion soon felt the Fruits of this and its genuine Purity soon began to decay and declined apace Till by Degrees it grew so corrupt that to use St. Paul's Words on a like Occasion The whole Creation groaned and travailed Rom. viii 21 22. in Pain together waiting to be delivered from this Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God So that whatever Advantages Christianity received by the pure Faith and constant Patience by the great Integrity and Piety of the Primitive Christians in the three first Centuries it suffered at least as much in after-Ages by the evil Conduct of those who were in Possession of those Spiritual Powers To give one notorious Instance of this I would desire these learned Gentlemen to read the History and Acts of the second Council of Nice and there to consider by whose Over-bearing Authority the Idolatry of Image-worship was first brought into the Church of CHRIST Such Instances shew too plainly that the true Advancement of CHRIST'S Spiritual Kingdom depends more upon the Fidelity and Piety of its Ministers than upon the regal independent Authority IF therefore the Non-jurors in Vindication of their Schism had not contracted an Habit of Writing Paradoxes One would wonder mightily to hear them impute the Atheism Deism Heresy Schisms Infidelity Profaneness Dr. Hick Collect. pag. 29. and Immorality that are found in this Land to the taking away of this supreme independent Power of the Church Let any Man look Abroad into Italy Spain or Portugal there he will find the Government of the Church in the Hands of those very Men whose Right to it Dr. Hickes contends for and that too with greater Immunities and Exemptions than he has pleaded for And yet in all these Kingdoms he will find as much Infidelity and Irreligion as scandalous Vice and Immorality and Profaneness as in any Part of Christendom Only perhaps with a little more Reserve for Fear of an Inquisition IN short That our Discipline is too much lost we all complain as well as the Non-jurors But that the Matter would certainly be mended by putting it wholly into the Hands of the Clergy with an independent and unrestrained Authority is what cannot be allowed Because where the Church has that Power Religion is more infamously corrupted than in any other Places of the Christian World LET us but reflect what Opposition the Reformation of it met with here at Home from those very Men whose independent Power is now pleaded for And with how much Difficulty it was rescued out of their Hands that it might be restored to its original Purity The Church of England with all its great Excellencies and valuable Constitutions was thus Reformed the Spiritual Powers being ruled and governed by the Secular in the Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Authority And has the CHURCH yet a Divine Right to take the Judicial Cognizance of Religion wholly out of the Hands of those Men by whom it has been preserved from Destruction What Reason or Necessity can there be for that If by these Means the Government of the CHURCH should once again fall into ill Hands as it has done in former Times it may in the unhappy Event be found setting up for Authority to corrupt Religion instead of preserving it And that too without leaving the Secular Potentates a sufficient Authority to retrieve and reform it a second time And this also is a just Exception to the Reasonableness and Righteousness of such a Claim IV. SUCH an Exempt Independent Authority in the
such a Divine Relation between a Bishop and the People of his District as no Secular Powers can take away II. THAT the Authority in spiritual Affairs here allowed to Kings and Princes is contrary to the Practice and Principles of the first three Hundred Years III. THAT this is bringing the Church and its Clergy into Slavery I. As to the Divine Relation pretended to be between a Bishop and the People of his See or District Pray how comes that about It is compared I know by some Reg. Pont. p. 3. Men to Marriage But who made that Match or gave the divine Sanction to the Contract Or if that were true how comes there to be so many common Causes of Divorce In short this is the Notion of those only who make every Thing that has been occasionally done by the Governors of the Church to have been done by a divine and unchangeable Authority But the only Way to judge rightly of this Matter is to consider what is the original Ground of that Relation and by whose Designation and Authority it has been made Now as to this 1. I BELIEVE that every Body will grant That in promoting Bishops to such and such Sees and Clergymen to their Districts or Parishes a Regard ought and will be had to the Sentiments and the Judgment of the Spiritual Governors of the Church who as I said above in Consequence of their Commission from CHRIST to plant and govern it must be supposed Invested with a Trust as to the spiritual Qualifications of the Persons to be employed in Holy Offices And this Care and Trust and just Authority they are supposed to discharge in their Admission of Persons into Holy Orders In which they have Authority to provide that no Persons unqualified should be admitted into the Service of GOD. But then when the Church has effectually taken this Care it must certainly be granted also in the 2. Second Place THAT Christian Princes and States have both an Interest in this Affair and a Trust also committed to Them in providing proper Spiritual Guides and Pastors for their People And where they have both an Interest and a Trust it will be very hard to say that they have no Authority Suppose that the Governors of the CHURCH should incline to appoint such Persons as the STATE can have no Confidence in or no Security from must they be allowed no Authority even where their Peace and Safety appear to be very deeply concern'd Sure this is too unreasonable and absurd to be believed Or again Suppose that the Governors of the CHURCH should be careless and neglect providing for their Sees would not the Temporal Powers be bound to supply that Defect and to take Gare that the People should not want proper Guides and Pastors It is absurd then to think that they have no Authority in a Matter which they are bound in Conscience to take Care of Now as all this seems very agreeable to common Reason let us go on and consider 3. WHAT has been the Practice of the CHURCH in this Particular And here we shall find that generally speaking every One who appeared to have an Interest in the Management of Ecclesiastical Affairs were allowed to have an Influence and some Power in the Designation of the Person to be employed in such a Place or District THE CHURCH commits a Catholick Power or Authority in Consecration or Ordination which Authority is to be exercised so far as lawfully it may thro' the whole CHURCH of CHRIST without any Assignment of this or that particular Jurisdiction So the Form of Consecration runs with us Receive ye the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Bishop in the Church of GOD. And that such was the Manner of Primitive Ordinations the Reverend and very Learned Dr. Potter Ch. Gov. p. 452. now Lord Bishop of Oxford proves from hence That Ministers were then sometimes ordained without any Designation at all to particular Districts And indeed without this general Commission in Ordination I do not see how they could be said to be invested with a Spiritual Power or Authority thro' the Whole Christian Church This Power then being thus convey'd by the Church the Designation of the Persons to this or that particular District was made several Ways In the Apostles Time such and such Persons were sent by them to such and such Cities and great Towns to minister therein and govern the CHURCH according to the Directions given But afterwards the Clergy of the vacant Diocese sometimes chose their own Bishop and sometimes the eldest Presbyter succeeded in Course But then to shew that every Thing which the Bishops and Clergy at that Time did was not done by a Divine Authority What was sometimes done in this Affair by the Clergy was sometimes done by the People also when the Bishops of another Province advanced any new Bishop to a vacant See it was always done with the Consent and Approbation of the People Usually this Approbation and Consent of the People was had as to the Person before his Consecration The forementioned Right Reverend Bishop has cited a Passage out of the VIIIth Book of the Apostolical Constitutions c. 4. in which it is decreed That such a Bishop must be ordained as was elected by the People for his eminent Merit and their Consent was to be a third Time asked And to the same Purpose there are several Passages in St. Cyprian whereby it plainly appears that the People had so much Authority that they were usually consulted and their Vote and Consent asked in the Designation of the Bishop that was to preside over them Which shews most plainly that such a Designation was not made by the divine appropriated Powers of the Bishops and Clergy only And it is very well known that what the People had at the Beginning came by Degrees into the Hands of Kings and Princes They had the Nomination of Bishops to their several Sees and I would therefore have a very good Reason given why those Rulers who had Authority in Promoting them should not be allowed the same in Removing them Or how such a Removal can be called an Invasion of the sacred Rights of the Priesthood when they were promoted by the Election or Nomination of the Laity as well as of the Bishops I KNOW it will be said That all this was only a prudent Condescention and Compliance with the People of their Flock without any Authority But to this I answer Does not Voting and Electing and an almost constant and establish'd Usage of Consigning Persons to such and such Districts by Voting and Electing look like a good Degree of Authority in the Matter And would the Fathers of the Church have suffered all this if they had had the same Notions with some in our Days Would they have condescended so far if they had known it to be an Invasion of the CHURCH'S Independent Powers No certainly their Practice in this Case is a sufficient Demonstration
that they had no such Sentiments AND indeed how shall we judge or how shall we know what are the CHURCH'S peculiar Rights and what not but by the Words of CHRIST'S Commission and the Practice of the most Primitive Churches thereupon The Performance of those Sacred Offices which CHRIST by His Commission has taken away from the Civil Powers and vested in a distinct Order of Men we own to be the peculiar Authorities of the CHURCH And accordingly the Primitive Fathers did not allow the Laity to have Authority therein They never condescended so far as to suffer them either to consecrate the Eucharist or to lay on Hands in Ordination When therefore as to the Designation of Bishops to such and such particular Districts CHRIST'S Commission gives no Restraining or Appropriating Rules at all and the constant Practice of the CHURCH has been to admit the Laity to have an Interest and a Vote therein and to promote by their Election I do not know what can confute the Claim of a Divine Relation and an Independent Authority herein if this will not IF then the Designation of Bishops and Clergymen to their several Districts be no Part of the CHURCH'S sacred and unalienable Rights certainly the Removal or Deprivation of such Persons can be no Invasion of them because doubtless they who have a competent Authority to promote must be allowed to have the same also to Remove THE Conclusion of the Whole then is There is no such Thing in our Days as a Clergyman's having a Divine Right to his District His Claim and Right is wholly Human and Legal founded on the Laws of the Land and the established Constitutions of the CHURCH and Country in which we live Consequently then what the STATE does in a legal Way in such Deprivations is done by a competent Authority it is Valid in all Respects and binds the Consciences of all Men. It transfers the Obligations as to Religious Communion from the former Possessor to the latter It makes it our Duty to adhere to such Bishops as in such Cases the Laws of the Land regularly advance And it makes our adhering to the Communion of the Bishops so deprived to be both sinful and schismatical II. THE second Objection is That what I have here advanced seems not to agree with the Practice and Principles of the CHURCH for the first three hundred Years As to the Practice of the CHURCH in those Times I have in some Measure thus accounted for it already That it proceeded from the Exigencies and Necessity of Affairs at the Time when the Christians were either under Persecution and so were constrained to act in Opposition to their Secular Governors because Christianity could not otherwise be propagated Or else it was done under the Connivance and Permission of such Temporal Powers In either of which Cases what was necessary to be done by the Bishops and Governors of the CHURCH for the Promotion of the Christian Religion they undoubtedly had a Divine Right and Authority from GOD to do But then in such Cases the CHURCH did not claim a Divine Authority of Excluding the Jurisdiction of the Emperors and Secular Governors but they excluded themselves by refusing to intermeddle in this Government Even the mildest of the Heathen Emperors who as Tertullian tells us Apol. cap. v. forbid the Christians to be enquired after or persecuted seem to have dealt with them only as Gallio the Deputy of Achaia did I will be no Judge of such Acts xviii 15. Matters When therefore the Christian Bishops and Clergy were so far either neglected or favoured by their Heathen Governors as to be left to themselves they had Nothing more to do than to make wise Laws and proper Canons and see them duly executed And if against those who among themselves were mutinous and turbulent and schismatical they pleaded the just Obligation of their Sanctions and set forth very emphatically the Disorder and Guilt of those who in such Cases revolted from their proper Bishop and despised his Authority and separated from his Communion they certainly Argued very justly and Acted very rightly All Christians were bound in Conscience to conform themselves to such good and wise Rules and to submit to such just and lawful Authority But what is all this to the Rights of the Temporal Powers whose Authority does not appear so much as once to have fallen under their Debates for the first three hundred Years WHEN the Romans had conquered Judea they yet left the Jews in a great Measure to the Management of their own Civil Government And what Herod or the high Priest and the Sanhedrim in such Cases enacted or ordained was doubtless in Conscience to be obeyed and it was a Sin to be mutinous and seditious against them But sure this Privilege could never be extended to the exclusion of the Power and Authority of the Roman Emperors So here the Roman Emperors put the Christians under a Necessity of Acting independently on the Temporal Power because they would not concern themselves therein But this does not at all prove that therefore all Secular Powers must for ever be excluded I am amazed therefore to find such a Fondness as I do for the Rules and Sentiments of the Cyprianick Age in this Controversy I cannot but smile at Mens Attempts to determine it by the Practice and Principles of St. Cyprian or any other Father of those Times All that they say is out of the Question and foreign to the Purpose They only plead the Power and Authority of the Church's Sanctions among themselves and the Guilt of separating from the Communion of their Bishops while there was no other who would meddle in the Government of it In such Cases theirs was the only proper Authority to be regarded because the Secular Powers had declined all Jurisdiction therein But this is no more a Proof that the Authority of Kings and Princes must for ever be excluded from all Ecclesiastical Affairs than the Decrees of Herod and the Jewish Sanhedrim are a Proof that Julius and Augustus Caesar had no Authority in Judaea WHAT shall we say then to Dr. Hickes who would send all Christian Emperors and Kings to these very Times to learn new Lessons and to know from these Examples what Power they ought to exercise in Ecclesiastical Prop. 26. Affairs Certainly this is a very odd Way of Arguing That because Heathen Emperors would not meddle with the Government of the Christian Church therefore Christian Kings and Princes must not As tho' the Neglects and Disregards of the one were to be a Bar and an Interdict to the just Rights and Claims of the other That this is the Truth of the Case and that there is no more than this in it will be undeniably plain and clear 3. FROM the great Concessions and large Compliances that the Christian Bishops and Clergy soon made when the Roman Emperors favoured their Interest and interposed their Authority in the Management and Settlement of
very low and mean and I hope I shall alway carry a ready Inclination to do my Endeavour to support both the Honour and the true Interest of the Order But as all the Contempt that we seem to lie under is either with Men of profligate Principles and wicked Lives whose Reproaches can do us but little or no Harm or else with those who take Offence at our Carriage and Conduct So Nothing certainly will go farther to raise our Character and promote our Interest and engage Kings and States to entrust us with additional Honours and Powers than our Prudence and Piety and Modesty and great Humility which are none of them inconsistent with a due Regard to our just Authority And while these Virtues and Graces are sound to shine thro' all our Conduct we may vindicate our real Rights without any Scandal or great Offence But if we be vain and imprudent in our Behaviour troublesome and turbulent in our Conduct and grasp at Power and Authority in the Church only to support Factious Parties and to raise Tumults and Seditions against the STATE All this will really do us harm The Adversary will not fail to make all the Advantages that they can of it and we thus give them too just a handle thereto And this which is disagreable to the true Temper and Spirit of the Gospel will have yet a worse influence to our mighty Disadvantage It will make us cheap and mean in the Eyes of those Wise and Good Men by whose deserved Favour and Interest the Dignity and Character of our Holy Order should be supported LET any Man of common Understanding judge what the World will think or say of those Claims and Pretensions to Divine Power and Authority which apparently minister only to Ambition and Pride and Faction but are not at all serviceable to the Interest of true Religion Such are the Pretences that I have so often mentioned already of the Governors of the Church being Spiritual Kings Princes Lords Legates and supreme Monarchs in the Church Regent instead of the Church Militant and having a Share of CHRIST'S Kingly Power in his spiritual Kingdom as well as of his Priesthood In consequence of this to make all Christian Kings and Princes and States their spiritual Inferiors and Subjects from whom Submission and Obedience is to be expected in all Religious Matters under the Penalty of Excommunication and consigning them over to the Devil IN the Name of GOD what Advantage will all this be to Religion How naturally do such Pretensions put Mankind upon enquiring What Use the Clergy have made of this Authority in Times past when they had it in their Hands And when upon several Passages and Instances in History they can tell us that thro' this very Power Religion has been depraved and corrupted by the Clergy themselves who claim it What Advantage will this be to the Honour and Credit and Reputation of our Holy Order Will not every notorious Miscarriage committed under the Covert of a Divine Power from Christ in all Spiritual Causes occasion his whole Commission to be evil spoken of and turn the very Name of divine Right into Banter and Ridicule and a Name of Contempt and Derision and give too plausible a Ground for the scandalous Imputation of Priestcraft Who must bear the Blame of all this To whom is all this Contempt of the Clergy to be imputed In too great a Measure to the blameable Arrogance and boundless Ambition and spiritual Pride of some Clergymen Mankind often fall the lower by aspiring too high The Name of the Virgin Mary was always venerable and treated with great Respect among Christians until some began to adore her as a Goddess And Nothing has brought Her to be so disrespectfully treated as the Idolatry of Men in Worshipping her And so I in my Conscience believe That where there has been no scandalous Immorality of Life Nothing has made our Sacred Order meaner or lower in their Interest and Esteem than the claiming under GOD and CHRIST more Power than They ever intended to bestow upon us AND especially then are these Pretences scandalous and disadvantageous to our Character when the spiritual Authority of the Priesthood is set up in Opposition to the STATE and made use of as a Check upon the Secular Powers and a Means to weaken them in their Authority and to cramp them in the Administration of Civil Government I verily believe that the Christian CHURCH has lost more of Her true Interest by this than by any other Means whatsoever In that when the Lay Powers recover themselves out of such injurious Oppressions they never fail to make very large and ample Reprisals And here I must beg leave to remark That this Claim of an Independent Power in Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Affairs has not that I know of been set up by any of the Clergy of our Reformed CHURCH from Her first Reformation untill the late Happy Revolution And as it was then first set on foot by the Non-jurors in Defence of the Deprived Bishops and in Opposition to King WILLIAM and his Government So has it ever since been chiefly held up by those who have had little or no Affection for our National Establishment and Constitution from that Time And the Scandalous Part of all this Scuffle in Controversy and a Schismatical Separation from our CHURCH is not made on the Account of our Holy Religion and in Defence of the Powers by which that is to be Preserved but only in Behalf of a few particular Men and by those who are confessedly in the Interest of the Pretender and who have Nothing more at Heart then this groundless and unreasonable Schism in the CHURCH to dispose the Hearts of the English People to another Rebellion against the STATE Had it not been for the serviceableness of this Doctrine to breed such Confusions among us and to throw us into Factions and seditions it had never been set on Foot at first And if all other Methods of serving and supporting the Pretender's Cause had not been baffled and made ineffectual it had never been revived now For while they had Hope from other Means These were laid asleep And if Men were not blinded and infatuated above all Measure This is Demonstration clear enough that no such Ecclesiastical Power can be given by GOD and CHRIST The foremention'd Concession of our Adversaries being a most certain and indisputable Truth That Christ has given no Authority to his Church that can interfere with the Civil Powers To make an end I think I have plainly and clearly proved that altho' by CHRIST'S Commission the Divine Offices of all Christian Religious Ministrations are Appropriated to the Bishops and Clergy only Yet the General Governing Powers of this Divine Society are not That as these belong to it only of that Common Right which naturally belongs to all Societies and as they are necessary to the Attainment of that End for which it was Instituted of GOD so
AN ESSAY ON Ecclesiastical Authority In which the Pretence of an Independent Power in the CHURCH to a Divine Right in the Election of Bishops To the Invalidity of Lay Deprivations To the Inseparable Relation of a BISHOP to his See To an Obligation of continuing Communion with the Deprived Bishops And several other Things relating to the Nonjurors Separation from our CHURCH are particularly and impartially Examined By JOHN TURNER D. D. Vicar of Greenwich and Chaplain to His Royal Highness the PRINCE LONDON Printed for JOHN WYAT at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-yard 1617. AN ESSAY ON Ecclesiastical Authority THE many irregular and dangerous Practices of the Romish Clergy under the Pretence of an exempt Jurisdiction and an Authority Independent on the Civil Power caused the Governors of our CHURCH to take that Doctrine into their serious Consideration at the Beginning of our REFORMATION and in our XXXVIIth Article they have determined and settled it thus That the Queen's Majesty for this was done in Queen Elizabeth's Time hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and all other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes doth appertain And then to avoid Offence and prevent Misconstructions as the Queen had declared in her Injunctions so the said Article thus explains the forementioned Doctrine We give not hereby to our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments but only that Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scripture by God Himself that they should rule all Estates and Degrees of Men committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal And this was so confirmed by the Canons in the Beginning of King James I's Reign that if the Authority of our CHURCH might be admitted to be decisive in this Matter we see plainly what that was and is But the giving so much Jurisdiction to Princes over Ecclesiastical Persons in Ecclesiastical Causes and Affairs is complained of by some among us as an Encroachment and a dangerous Compliance an enslaving Principle which controuls the Powers of the CHURCH that as they say ought to be exempt and Independent THIS Point then not being successfully enough determined by the declared Judgment of our CHURCH in Her Articles and Canons must it seems be brought under a farther Examination And it must be considered not only as a Subject of Debate and Speculation but at this Time it is become a Matter of the greatest Moment and Importance to our Peace both in CHURCH and STATE All the Enemies of the late happy REVOLUTION are gone into the Defence of that Independent Authority to say no more And all those other Notions and Opinions whereby the Non-jurors would vindicate their Separation from the Communion of our CHURCH are built upon this Foundation And it will not be easy to make them sensible that this their Separation is Unjustifiable and Wrong if this Claim be allowed good On the other Hand if it can be proved That the CHURCH has no such exempt and independent Authority as is pretended we shall strike at the very Root of their untoward Principles and Proceedings In our Inquiry into this Matter 1. THE first Thing that occurs to our Observation is That the STATE is found in the actual and full Possession of Authority over all their Subjects and in all Affairs whatsoever antecedently to the CHURCH'S Claim We are not born Priests as we are born Subjects but are made such upon a sufficient Maturity of Age and are therefore to consider what Share of Authority the Prince loses over any of his Subjects upon their Admission into Holy Orders and what is the Foundation of the pretended Change And as to this we shall soon be sensible 2. THAT there is Nothing in natural Religion to be pleaded as the Ground of such an Exemption or Independency For according to that Kings had a Right to the Priesthood also and were the undoubted supreme Judges and Determiners of all Affairs Melchisedech and Jethro we all know were such Nor does it appear that there ever was any Separation of the Ecclesiastical Authority from the Temporal before the Mosaic Dispensation which was a Type of the Evangelical and consequently no Room for any Debates or Disputes of this Nature in the first Natural State of Mankind It must therefore all be laid in Divine Revelation and Institution From whence I think it plainly follows 3. Thirdly THAT if the CHURCH has any Right to such an exempt and independent Authority as is now pleaded for it must be founded on that Divine Commission which CHRIST gave to his Apostles and their Successors and by them to his CHURCH to the End of the World The Way then to know what there is to be said for such a Claim is to consider well the Contents of that Commission which must be looked on as the great Charter of the Gospel upon which all Her appropriated Rights and Privileges Her Authority and Powers Her Immunities and Franchises are built The Substance then of CHRIST'S Commission to his Apostles was That they should make Proselytes of all Nations Matth. xxviii 19 20. Joh. xx 21 c. by Preaching God's Word that they should Baptize them and by that Sacrament admit them into Christ's Church that they should afterwards instruct and train them up in the Pure Christian Worship and Holiness and in that Worship commemorate CHRIST'S Death in the Eucharist according to his Institution bind Offenders loose Penitents and by Ordaining Ministers make an effectual Provision for the perpetual Continuance of this Ministry which CHRIST has thus committed to 'em to the End of the World according to his Appointment So that Preaching and Performing Divine Service in the Worship of GOD Administring the Sacraments inflicting Censures and passing Sentence upon enormous Sinners Absolving the Penitent from such Sentences and Ordaining Ministers These and whatever other Particulars of Ministration in the Divine Offices of Religion are by the special Commission of CHRIST in any Part of it appropriated to the Spiritual Governors of the CHURCH become thereby the Peculiar sacred Powers of the Christian Priesthood Concerning all which it is allow'd and granted 1. That the CHURCH does not derive Her Authority to the Execution of them from any Temporal Powers or Potentates but from JESUS CHRIST alone by the forementioned Divine Commission 2. That as they were not originally derived from so neither can they be taken away or made to cease by any secular Authorities whatsoever 3. That neither can any secular Powers of themselves execute these Divine and Holy Offices The very End and Reason of taking these Holy Offices out of the Hands of the secular Powers who before had executed them and of vesting them in a distinct Set or Order of Men still requires that they should continue so separated And consequently all the Powers specify'd in
Church seems wholly Inconsistent with that Interest and Care and Concern for Religion which Christian Kings and Princes are alway supposed to have and the Regulation and Defence of which is one great End and Purpose of all their Authority Till I see farther Reason against it than what has yet been shewn I cannot but believe that the Civil Government in their Way and by a due Exercise of their Power is concerned for the Good of Mens Souls to promote Virtue and true Religion as well as the Bishops and Pastors of Christ's Flock And if they are then to exclude their Jurisdiction in all Ecclesiastical Causes and Matters is to rob them of one great Part of their Sovereignty It is in effect to confine all the Authority of Princes only to the Preservation of Peace and Order and Justice in Human Societies without any Regard to GOD and Religion And I know of no good Reason that can be given for this For altho ' GOD the FATHER for the Honour of our Blessed Redeemer and the more effectual Accomplishing our Redemption has given him a Church and a Kingdom within his own Dominions and allowed Him his Proper Ministers and Governors of this CHURCH under his own Divine Authority Yet I hope these Gentlemen will not say that this carries along with it a Devolution of all Power and Authority in religious Affairs from Princes to Bishops from the Governors of the State to those of the Church And if it does not then the Secular Powers ought not in any such Affairs to have their Authority and Jurisdiction excluded That would be to subvert one of the main Ends of their Institution which was That under them we might live peaceable and quiet Lives in Godliness as 1 Tim. ii 2. well as in common Honesty These Gentlemen I know will allow Kings and Princes to exercise all their Authority in the Defence of the Church and for the Protection of its Powers and the Support of it in the Execution of its Laws altho' nothing to its Disadvantage And is it so then at last that by virtue of Christ's Commission Kings and Princes have no more to do with Religious Matters than only under the Directions of the Church to minister to the Support of the Spiritual Jurisdiction when ever they think sit so to Modify their Power I hope that all Christian Emperors and Kings will be sensible what Honours and Favours such Churchmen intend them in admitting them to so great a Privilege And must they in all other Cases be discharg'd of all Regard and Concern for GOD and RELIGION in the Government of their People Sure I am that it was not so under the Jewish Dispensation when this Separation of the Priesthood from the Secular Powers first began Kings did then intermeddle in Ecclesiastical Causes and regulate the Affairs of Religion and had Jurisdiction in the Government of the Church The Ark of the Covenant which none might look into or so much as touch it but the Priests alone Was yet so far under the 2 Sam. vi Government and Authority of King David 2 Sam. xv that he commanded it to be removed first to this Place and then to that He also distributed the several Courses both of the Priests 2 Chron. xxiii xxiv xxiv and Levites and gave the Levites a new Law for their Offices that they who before began not their Attendance till the Thirtieth Year of their Age should now begin it at the Twentieth He took the Ark from the Tabernacle 2 Chron. i. 3 5. of the Congregation and leaving that behind at Gibeon he built a new Tent for it at Jerusalem How came he to meddle so much with that which was in the Peculiar Custody of the Priests The like was afterwards 2 Chron. xxiv xxiii 4. done by Hezekiah who also by his Royal Decree appointed the Passover to be kept and called all the Ten Tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to the Celebration of it who had been hindred from it for a long time before Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being 1 Kings ii 27 35. Priest unto the Lord. Which let the Adversaries say what they will to evade it was as much a Deprivation as any one of those they now complain of and when he had done this he put Zadock the Priest in the Room of Abiathar The Altar of Bethel was destroy'd by King Josiah Idolatry was frequently punished and suppressed by their Kings and the suffering Religion to be corrupted by introducing Evil and Idolatrous Novelties into the Worship of GOD is often charged as a Crime and a Blemish in the Administration of their Government Now as the Instances mentioned in which they did exert their Power were undeniable Acts of Church Government and Ecclesiastical Authority So the Charge and Imputation of Guilt upon them in their Neglects of this kind plainly shew that they had a just Authority and a rightful Jurisdiction therein And if the Jewish Kings were allowed to have Power and Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters and the Priesthood claimed no Independent Power in Church Government under that Dispensation in which the Administration of Divine Offices was as much separated from the Secular Magistrates as it is now under the Gospel Some very good Reason some strong Proof some very bright and clear Evidence should be produced to convince one that the Jurisdiction which Kings exercised under one Dispensation is quite taken away by the other ESPECIALLY too when this claimed Authority is not to be limitted to Articles of Faith and Matters of Divine Revelation only but is extended to a Judicial Cognizance in all our moral Actions as well as in those that are purely religious And for the Kings and Potentates of the World not to submit to the Sanctions and Determinations of such Men in all Cases of Morality is arrogantly called Disobedience to their spiritual Superiors Vindic. Prop. 21. and Rehellion against the Legates and Vicegerents of Christ And to restrain ecclesiastical Persons in any extravagant Proceedings of this Kind is represented by some Men as downright Persecution WHAT an Original Piece of spiritual Pride is this I would desire any Reader seriously to consider that if such Doctrines as these had been preached by the Apostles and Primitive Christians Whether it would not have been the greatest Disadvantage imaginable to the Propagation of the Gospel And whether it would not have given all the Secular Potentates of the World a great and invincible Prejudice against it What Heathen Emperor or King would have embraced this Religion or given any Countenance at all to the Profession of it who should have been told That in the very Minute that this Religion was professed by him and became established in his Dominions he was to lose one half of his Authority over his People That he was no longer to have that Fullness of Jurisdiction and Power which he had before and which other Kings and Emperors enjoy'd round about him but was
to that Government were such that it was become impossible for them to execute their Spiritual Offices in the CHURCH with any Security to the Peace and Safety of the STATE They could not perform Divine-Service in Publick because they would not own the Authority of the King who was to be prayed for therein The Bishops could not ordain other Clergymen for the same Reason They could not do it without obliging them by the Laws of the Land to own those Secular Powers whom they themselves did not own They could not govern the Clergy as Bishops by the Laws of the Land are bound to govern them without Teaching them and Instructing them to teach their People the Duty of Obedience to that King whom they themselves looked on as an unlawful King Neither could they answer the Ends or do the Business of the Government by sitting in Parliament as the Law expects and requires that all the Bishops of the Kingdom should do Nay in all their Exercise of Divine Offices they must undeniably lie under a strong Byass and Temptation of instilling dangerous Doctrines and Principles inconsistent with the Peace and Security of the Kingdom Can it be supposed then that any National Government wants a sufficient and competent Authority of removing such Bishops from their Sees and of putting other Orthodox Bishops in their Room And must They ask the Clergy's Leave to do this Or must they borrow a competent Authority from the CHURCH to do this effectually Miserable are the Princes who are in such a Case Wretched is the Kingdom that wants a competent Authority to do any Thing which appears necessary to be done with any of its Subjects of what Order soever to support it self and preserve its own Authority Who then can believe that Almighty GOD ever intended this Those who object against the Validity of such a Deprivation should consider two Things 1. THAT there is no Persecution of Christianity in it Had those Bishops been deprived for any Doctrines or Articles of the Christian Faith it would have looked more plausibly on their Side and might with more Reason have been called Persecution Or if upon their Deprivation their Districts and Sees had been left destitute of Orthodox Bishops regularly consecrated to perform the Divine Offices as others had done before them This would have made a great Alteration in the Case But when it is for an avowed Disaffection to the established Civil Government and judged necessary for the Security of it that Necessity proves it lawful and answers all Objections that can possibly be brought against it And therefore to pretend that such a Deprivation is not valid as to the People living within their Districts of such deprived Bishops because it is not Canonical is in effect saying nothing at all For Deprivation signifies nothing to the Purpose if it does not in the Effects of it bind all the Consciences of the Subjects to disown the Authority of the Persons so deprived and discharge them from all Obligations of future Submission to and Communion with them This is a Power without which Civil Government cannot stand and therefore Secular Powers must be granted to have a competent Authority to all such Purposes or else they are not only Subjects and Inferiors but even Slaves to their spiritual Sovereigns and must depend precariously on the Good-will and Favour of their Clergy whether they shall sit easy and safe on their Thrones or no. And all the Laws and Canons and Constitutions of the CHURCH if they be wise and good and christian must be made with a due Regard and Subserviency to this End or else they lose all their Validity and are to be looked upon as Nothing For this is a sure Principle never to be disputed That all National Governments have as sufficient and competent an Authority to do every Thing which is necessary to preserve the STATE as the Bishops and Clergy can have for the Support of RELIGION and the CHURCH AND if this Authority will extend to the valid Deprivation of the disaffected and disloyal Governors of the Church the plain Consequence of it is That all the Subjects of the Kingdom are in Duty and Conscience discharged from any farther spiritual Relation to or Communion with the Persons so deprived What is it then that our Non-jurors mean by Exclaiming against this even as tho' it were a Sin against the Holy Ghost To tell the World That all other Bishops who will not adhere to the deprived ones can perform no valid Acts of Priesthood their Prayers Dr. Hickes Collect. p 32. are Sin and their Sacraments no Sacraments and their Absolution Null and of no Force That all other Christians who are not in the Communion of the deprived Bishops are cut off from the Church of Christ can have no Benefit by His Promises no Assistance of His Grace no Mercy thro' His Blood Nay that altho' they die Martyrs for Christ yet Martyrdom it self cannot make amends for this Sin If a Stranger to our Gospel were to hear this he would certainly conclude that Christianity aimed at Nothing more than the Exaltation of the CHURCH'S Power and that Nothing greater was required to Salvation than to own these deprived Bishops to be the Heads of it Whereas in Truth the Commission given is only to preach the Gospel to administer the Sacraments and to exercise such Offices and such Powers as shall be necessary to the Propagation of the Christian Religion Without any Check upon Secular Potentates in their Administration of Civil Government or any Exemption from their Jurisdiction They have no Authority that interferes with Civil Powers To confirm all which it must not be forgotten 2. THAT in this Deprivation the STATE took away no Power which the CHURCH truly and properly speaking gives Dr. Hickes indeed insinuates p. 24. That as only Bishops have from Christ a Right to ordain so they only have a Right to deprive one another But this Argument is formed with more Cunning than Ingenuity and the Opposition is not fairly put It should not have been between Ordaining and Depriving but Ordaining and Deposing from the Sacred Order of the Priesthood In the one the CHURCH gives in the other She takes away Her spiritual Authority But Depriving is of another Nature it leaves the Persons all the Catholick Authority which the CHURCH gave if they can find Places where they may lawfully Exercise it and only restrains them from doing so in such and such Dominions It is chiefly Removing them from the Districts and Sees which they held of the Secular Powers and thereby from all Right to the Exercise of their Spiritual Offices among any of the King's Subjects And if Kings and Princes have not a competent Authority to do this they are too weak to stand and consequently much weaker than GOD and CHRIST ever intended that Civil Government should be THE chief Objections to what is here delivered are these three I. IT is pleaded That there is