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

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