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
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
without but against our Savior's Commission who hath appropriated that Power to another Order of Men and if the Priest challenge any temporal Jurisdiction as deriv'd from our Savior he in effect disclaims him in that he becomes our Savior purely by Virtue of his spiritual Power and Supremacy over his Church and therefore to pretend to any other Power deriv'd from him as Head of it is another way of turning Christ into Mahomet But tho the Civil Magistrate have no share of spiritual Authority yet hath he a Sovereign Supremacy over the Ecclesiastical State otherwise he would abate of his Power by the coming of Christianity into the World which contradicts the first Principle of a Christian Church that it makes no Alteration as to Civil Rights but then this Power over the Church is purely civil too and relates only to the Ends of Peace and Government in this Life and is the same that every Prince would have had tho our Savior had never come into the World but as for that which he hath peculiarly granted as he hath granted no part of it to the Civil Magistrate so it is plain that he hath designedly setled it upon another Order of Men and it is they alone that have any Right to exercise it But notwithstanding this new Power they are never the less Subjects than they were before and therefore all Christian Princes have the same Supremacy over all the Powers of the Church as to the Ends of Civil Government and as far as concerns the Affairs of this Life as they could have had if there were no such Powers at all The grand Difficulty in this Case is the Danger of Competition between these two Powers for if they happen to contradict each other as they too often do Which shall over-rule If a Man obey his Prince contrary to the Prescription of his spiritual Guide he may endanger his Soul if he obey the Bishop he disobeys his Prince and so deservedly forfeits his Neck to Justice But this Difficulty as big as it may appear is clearly remov'd by this one Consideration That the Christian Church and all the Authority in it is founded upon the Cross of Christ and that not only claims no Power in this World but obliges to an entire Submission to all the Powers of it so that no Opposition can lawfully be made even to the most unlawful Commands of Sovereign Princes but all Christians are still bound to do as they did in the Primitive Times to lay down their Lives with all manner of Meekness if their Governors whether right or wrong require it This is the true and honest State of the Christian Church That every Christian Man be faithful to the Laws of his Religion and if he suffer for it he shall be compensated for it with those Rewards that his Religion promises So that in all Cases of Competition both Powers so prevail as to attain their respective Ends. The Civil Power over-rules as to all Effects of this Life and being thus gently submitted to secures the Peace and Quiet of this World and that is the End for which it was instituted And the spiritual Power attains its Effect as to the World to come the Salvation of the Souls of Men by their conscientious Loyalty to their Religion and that is all that it aims at or pretends to and every Man that professeth Christianity takes it up upon this Condition So that all Resistance to secular Powers upon pretence of Religion is a direct Contradiction to the nature of the Christian Faith and another open Apostacy from Christianity to Mahumetanism And that I am afraid will prove a gross Blemish upon the Church of Rome that it pretends to a Power not only equal but superior to Princes so that the Popes as the Vicars of Christ may not only contend with them by force of Arms but may in some Cases depose them from their Thrones which if truly consider'd is no less than rank Blasphemy against our blessed Savior by turning his pure Religion into an Artifice of secular Interest But beside this this Point of Competition is to be chiefly determin'd by the Matter about which it is employ'd If the Contest be about an Article of Faith or any Fundamental Rule of Religion and the Prince will interpose his Power tho no Man is oblig'd to obey him because it is certain he never was entrusted with any such Power by our Saviour yet is he to be submitted to with all Meekness by virtue of the former Principle that requires peaceable Submission to Government from Christians in all Cases for the quiet of the World But if the Contest be about a Ritual of Worship or an emergent Rule of Discipline about which the Governors of the Church have a Power in themselves to make Canons and new Provisions yet are they indispensibly bound to submit the Exercise of it to their Prince because that 's the first Principle of Christianity as far as they can without Violence to the Laws of their Religion to comport with Civil Government so that tho this Power be seated properly in the Church yet out of that great Respect and Duty that the Christian Law requires to Princes they are bound to make use of it with all Deference to Sovereign Authority especially because the Church is accountable to it for its peaceable Behavior in the Commonwealth and therefore ought to give Security that it will neither disturb the State nor invade the Sovereign Prerogative upon this Pretence which because it is possible for them to do and some have done they are concern'd both in Duty and Modesty to submit all their Proceedings to his Judgment And this as far as I understand is the true State of the Church of England in the Act commonly called the Submission of the Clergy in which they do not alienate ar grant away their Power of making Canons but only for preventing all future Jealousies in the State against them they give all the Assurance they can that they will not presume to publish their Decrees without their Sovereign Lord's Consent and Approbation This short Account is the true State of the Bounds of Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and that being setled the next thing to be considered is to find out what was the true and original Settlement of the Christian Church and by that we shall be able to inform our selves of the good or bad state of any present Church as it agrees or disagrees with it First then there is no one thing more clear and evident in the Christian Religion than that our Saviour vested the whole Apostolical Order with a Supremacy of Power over his Church and that they in pursuance of this his Divine Institution ordained Bishops to succeed them in their Supremacy of Power through all following Ages That the Apostles were superior to all other Officers in the Church is out of question and granted on all hands and that the Bishops succeeded them is as
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
within themselves Of which there were great Numbers in the World and some of as large Jurisdiction as the Patriarchates especially in Asia But as for the Patriarchate of Rome it never extended its Power beyond Italy and its adjacent Islands And therefore it is very observable that the Writers of the Church of Rome care not that it should be known to the Christian World So that hereafter all their Brags of Universal Pastorship when they come to make it out their Manuscripts still fail them Carolus à Sancto Paulo hath taken most Pains of any in this Argument and hath done well enough in other Parts but when he comes to the Church of Rome there his Manuscript is so worn out and defective that it was not worth publishing Now doth not this look oddly that their Books should fail them thus only in their own Cause and doth it not rather give suspicion that themselves are too well aware that they would do them no real kindness However it is a very preposterous thing for a Man to pretend to a Title to a great Estate by virtue of some antient Writings and yet when he comes to try his Title should only plead that indeed such Writings there once were but that they are now so impair'd that they are not legible And yet this is the very Case of the Church of Rome here All Christendom at least the Western Empire ought to be subject to him as their Patriarch Why so Because he ever was so How doth that appear By the ancient Notitiae of the Church Produce them So we can for all the other Patriarchates but those that concern the Church of Rome are unhappily lost Are they so Then you have lost the Evidence of your Title and for ought you do or can know never had any But instead of this shifting and prevaricating that we meet with in the Writers of the Church of Rome there is not long since publish'd by a very learned and a very honest Gentleman of our own Church and Nation an accurate Description of all the Patriarchates out of an ancient and authentic Manuscript which reckons to the Patriarchate of Rome only Italy and the adjacent Islands but not a syllable of Spain or Germany or Gaul or England or any other of the large Territories in Europe which if they had belonged to this Patriarchate at that time could never have been omitted in this exact Catalogue that hath so carefully set down every petty City in Italy In this posture stood the Government of the Church for many Years without any considerable Alteration For tho some of the Bishops of Rome would have been usurping upon the Churches of Africa by pretending to a Right of Appeals from them they were repulsed with great Shame and Dishonour And were it not that I am unwilling to trouble Your Highness with any more Disputes than what concerns our own Church with the Church of Rome there is nothing more easie than to shew that this Controversie with the African Churches is a notorious Instance of both the Frauds of the Roman Church and of other Churches abhorring his remotest aim at any Supremacy But tho he missed his design at that time his Successors were ever after watchful of all other Opportunities to compass it And to that purpose they happen'd to have two very lucky Advantages the first was the fatal Division of the Empire into East and West from whence S. Gregory Nazienzen a Man both wise and pious foretold a more fatal Division in the Church and accordingly in a little time it came to pass that the whole Body of it was divided into East and West as well as the Empire and the Division was quickly heightned by the mutual Jealousies of the Emperors who would not suffer the Bishops under one Government to repair to Councils conven'd under the other And that in a short time grew to alienations of Minds so that they kept their Councils apart and if any Bishop of the East repair'd to a Synod of the West and so for the contrary He was look'd upon as a Betrayer of his own Church And this was the occasion of the after-greatness of the Church of Rome in these Western Parts because that alone of all the five Patriarchates happen'd to go along with the Western Empire For having no Competitor for the Supremacy or so much as the equality of Power in the Western Church it was no hard matter to advance it self to any degree of Power that it pleased to challenge especially when the Western Churches were forward enough of themselves to advance its Dignity for the Honor of their own Patriarchate in opposition to that of Constantinople which being the Seat of the Empire and enjoying the Favor of the Emporors soon over top'd all the other Eastern Patriarchates so that all the Competition that remain'd was between Rome and Constantinople Till at last in the Sixth Century Iohn Bishop of Constantinople first obtained of Mauritius the Emperor the Title of Universal Bishop which very Title was quickly and vehemently oppos'd by Gregory Bishop of Rome as a Piece of Antichristian Pride and Insolence But Mauritius being murdered by Phocas and Cyriacus then Bishop of Constantinople being fallen under the new Tyrant's Disfavor for declaring against his execrable Murder the Bishop of Rome seizes that Opportunity to flatter and caress him in all his Wickedness for which Civility the Usurper takes the Title of Universal Bishop and settles it upon the See of Rome And when once they had obtained the Title they resolv'd to make it good by gaining the Power too Tho by what degrees they encroach'd upon other Churches it is not at all to my purpose here to represent it is enough to have shewn the late Original of the Title which was never given them till above 600 Years after our Saviour This then being the true and real state of all the Christian Church the Conclusion plainly makes it self as to any English Christian's Obligation to communicate with the Church of England or the Church of Rome For as it is the indispensible Duty of every Man to joyn in visible Communion with the Society of the Church so is the first visible Society of the Church settled in the Communion of the Bishop of the Diocess And thence evident it is that the first Duty of every Christian as to external Communion with the Church is to joyn in Communion with the Bishop of the Place where he lives For if our Saviour setled the Government of the Church in the Apostles and if the Episcopal Order succeeded them in their Office then hath every Bishop Apostolical Authority And then is every Christian Man bound to submit to his Bishop as to an Apostle from whence the Bishop derives the Succession of his Order and Authority So that the Episcopal Society is the first visible Communion of the Christian Church and a Man becomes a Member of the Church-Catholic by joyning in visible Communion
with the Church-Episcopal for it is impossible to be a Member of the Universal Church without being first a Member of some particular Church both because the Universal Church is made up of the Combination of particular Churches and because there is no way of Communicating in the Offices of Religion but under some limited Societies The Bishop then in every Diocess is as Successor in the Apostolical Office Head of the Communion within his own Diocess and for that Reason the ordinary Judge and Guide to all Christians within his Jurisdiction So false is that Calumny of which the Romanists pretend to make so much Advantage against the Constitution of the Church of England that She doth not so much as pretend to any living Judge of Faith For what Judge She owns as to the Catholic Church I may shew in its proper place But as for every particular Christian She commits him to the Care of his Bishop as his ordinary Guide and Governour in the things that concern his Salvation Now if this be the setled Constitution of the Christian Church as it was from the beginning I cannot understand how any Christian can leave the Communion of his own Bishop to communicate with any other without being guilty of Schism against the Church that he lives in For tho he may advise with any other Bishop about the Welfare of his Soul and follow his Advice as a Friend yet by the original Constitution of the Church none but his own Bishop can have any authoritative Commission for his Guidance and Instruction So easie is the Answer to that solemn Question Who is the living Judge and Guide of your Faith For if it be put to a private Christian it is plain that from the Constitution of the Catholic Church as it was setled by the Apostles that it is the Bishop under whom he lives to whom God hath committed the ordinary means of the Salvation of his Flock and promised to be assistant to him and the Successors in his Office to the end of the World This is the first visible Society or Communion of a Christian Church and was evidently laid and design'd by our Blessed Saviour in his Institution of the Episcopal Office The next is founded upon Apostolical Prescription and that is the Association of the Bishops of a Province with their Metropolitan for in the Plantation of Churches as they cut out the Communion of Christians into particular Bishopricks so they again united the several Bishopricks of every Nation into one Communion under one Head who as he is superior to every single Bishop within his Resort so is he is his Synod of Bishops Supreme Judge of all Controversies within the Province These Provincial Assemblies I have shewn were the highest Power of the Primitive Church in all Places neither indeed setting aside the Promise of divine Assistance to them is there need of any further Appeal upon humane accounts for the Controversives in Christianity are not so monstrously difficult but that a competent Number of grave and sober Men may determine well enough without calling together all the wise Men in the World and if Twenty are not sufficient to decide any Controversie I know not what Number is And as this was the standing ordinary Jurisdiction in the first Ages of the Church so the Christians of those Times suppos'd the means of Salvation sufficiently secur'd in such Hands and certainly that which was sufficient to them is so to us And as this was the highest Government in the Church for the first three Hundred Years so those more diffusive Assemblies that were afterward summon'd and that we call general Councils were really of the same nature for as a Provincial Assembly was national so were these Imperial and therefore subject but to one civil Government So that as the Empire was indeed but one great Kingdom so was the Church in it but one great Province they being both under the same extent of Government And this is the true Use of Councils whether greater or less by the Decree of the Representatives of Churches to bind those Churches that they represent And that is but a reasonable thing in all Societies that they should be determin'd by their Governours especially when they are set over them by the appointment of God himself Neither is it so very material how large Councils are as to their Obligation for whether they be greater or less they equally bind all that are involv'd within the compass of their Authority And tho there may be greater Presumption in the Decrees of the greater Councils yet are they for the most part meetings rather of Grandeur than Necessity but especially those that we call General Councils are now so difficult to be summon'd that they are become almost impracticable Whilst indeed the Roman Empire stood entire it was not so hard to convene them yet even then was it a Business of so much Time and Charges as made it too burthensom to be born by any thing less than the Roman Greatness and that too in very rare and extraordinary Cases But if so it could never then be intended for the standing and perpetual Government of the Christian Church But now that Christendom is divided into so many civil Governments the Difficulties are so great and so many through the various Interests of Princes either to promote or hinder it as to render it next to impossible Tho if it could be fairly had the Church of England would not refuse her Concurrence in it both as being assured of the Goodness of her Cause in that she owns no other Rule of her Reformation but the Practice of the Primitive and Apostolick Church and as well knowing that the greatest part of the Church of Rome would as willingly rid themselves of those Abuses that have been put upon them by the Court of Rome as we have done And this the Spanish and French Bishops had carried through even in that pack'd Council of Trent had not the Pope poured in a number of Titular Italian Bishops to over-vote them But it is none of my present Business to rake into the Faults of the Church of Rome 't is enough to my purpose to vindicate the Communion of the Church of England Granting therefore the Church of Rome to be a pure and uncorrupted Church yet because it is a Foreign Church no Man can be under any Obligation to leave the Communion of his own to joyn with that In this one point I fix the State of this whole Address and say nothing at present to persuade any Person that lives within the Communion of the Church of Rome to forsake that my only Concernment is with the Members of the Church of England to keep them to their own Church according to the Rule from the Beginning If it be objected That the Church of England be a narrow Thing in comparison of the Catholick Church I answer That the Church of England doth not pretend to be the Church Catholick but
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-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
Being of a Christian Church Of this nature were the several Patriarchates so that whatever Power the Bishop of Rome can challenge by virtue of his Patriarchical Dignity is of an humane Original and so not necessary to the Constitution of a Christian Church Nay tho he once had such a Power yet upon the Dissolution of that Civil and Ecclesiastical Government that gave it him it ceases with it For it was granted him by the Emperors and Imperial Councils and so extended only to the Subjects of the Empire for they could not give him any Power in other Princes Dominions The Empire therefore being broken into many independent Kingdoms the Patriarchate dissolves with it because otherwise a Foreigner would have an Authority in all Princes Dominions to the Prejudice of the Sovereign Power which is the first thing that Christianity disclaims and therefore is principally inconsistent with it But however if the Pope have his old Patriarchical Power still he had it not of old over us and therefore cannot have it now and though he have yet it is but of Humane Institution And then we are a true Church without it and if we are then can no Man be obliged in Conscience to forsake the Communion of this Church that is setled as all other Churches were by the Apostles to join with one another only for the sake of some alteration made in it by Humane Authority And thus having truly and impartially laid before Your Royal Highness the State of the Christian Church especially as to the prime Controversie between the Church of England and the Church of Rome concerning the Guide of Faith I have so great confidence in the Power of Truth over an upright and generous Mind as to flatter my self with some Hopes of settling Your Royal Highnesses Conscience in the Communion of this truly ancient and Apostolical Church Nay I hope not only to see You a Zealous Son but an eminent Patron of the best but most abused Church in the Christian World so as to be the principal Author of rescuing her from those horrid Indignities and Oppressions that she daily suffers from the Barbarity of popular Atheism and Profaneness But whatever the Success of this small Endeavor may prove it is not a little Satisfaction that I reap from having done my Duty to Your Royal Highness and mine own Conscience For I have no other design than to promote the Salvation of Your Soul and my own But though I am so fully conscious to my self of mine own Integrity yet when I reflect upon what I have done I blush and am confounded in my self at the Presumption of obtruding my crude Thoughts upon the Wisdom of a Mighty Prince and therefore had utterly stisled them after they were finished had not the great Fame of Your Highnesses Princely Candor emboldned me to present them as being at least secure of a gracious Pardon to a well-meant Presumption I intended when I had shewn the No-Necessity of Comminion with the Church of Rome upon his own Terms because its Pretences are a manifest Usurpation upon the Christian Church in the next place to have represented the gross Abuse that his Holiness puts upon Christianity by pretending some way or other directly or indirectly to a temporal Power over Sovereign Princes whereas to pretend to it by virtue of any Power deriv'd from our Saviour only over Subjects is no less than Blasphemy my against him but over Princes it adds to that Rebellon So that how many Notes soever there may be of a true Church this is an infallible Note of a false one But then considering with my self that Your Royal Highness is the second Branch of an Imperial Family and Heir to several Crowns I thought my self obliged according to my Resolution declar'd in the beginning to wave the Advantage of this Argument because Your Highness is here a Party and it concerns Your worldly Interest more nearly than Your Conscience to which alone I have made bold to make this Address and in it I assure my self that 〈◊〉 the Kingdoms in the World would weigh nothing And therefore without giving Your Royal Highness any farther trouble more than once more of craving Pardon for this great Presumption I shall submit the Consideration of the Premises to Your 〈◊〉 and impartial Thoughts and daily pray for Your Happiness both here and hereafter and while I live shall ever be Your Royal Highnesses Most Humble and Devoted Servant FINIS Epist. 52. Mr. Beveridge