against all such negative interests in the Election or Maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel as are not of Divine appointment and institution IV. Next Bishops have no more warrand from Scripture for such an interest and priviledge than others have And the power of Patronage hath been as grosly abused if not more and as scandalously offensive and I am sure more prejudicial to the interests of the Church and to the thriving of Religion when in the hands of the Bishops than when in the hands of other persons And there is no ground from Scripture either by precept promise or example that any one Church Officer should ordinarly be intrusted with such an interest and priviledge in the Looking out Nomination and Election and in the Maintenance or Living of the Ministers of the Gospel V. But to cut of all farther debate we utterly disclaime any such Officer in the Church as a Bishop in a sense superior to or distinct from an ordinary preaching Presbiter or Elder These terms are of one and the self same signification in the Scripture as will appear to any that will be at the pains to read the Texts where ever the word Bishop is mentioned And I know no man or Angel that hath power to separate what the Spirit of God in the Scripture has joyned and made one and the same And consequently a Bishop can have no such priviledge Non entis nulla sunt accidentia nullae affectiones nullae proprietates VI. And tho' prelacy were a Lawful Office as it is not and tho' the Prelates were Successors to the Apostles as they most ridiculously pretend since as we already cleared it was impossible the design of their Office could admit of any Succession yet sure I am in this priviledge of Patronage they never did nor doe follow the example of the Apostles For even the Apostles themselves in the Election of Matthias to be one of their number made use of the Concurrence of the People And in the ordination of the Pastors of the Church they made use of the concurrence both of the Presbitry and People And if they joined the Presbitry and People and admitted them to an interest in relation to the highest acts of the Ministerial Call they questionless also left them a share 1 Tim 4.14 in the Looking out Nomination and Election of the ordinary pastors Nam qui vult majus vult etiam minus Act 15.2 25.27 Act 13.1 2.3 Act. 14 27 28 Nay which is more the ordinary Teachers of the Church and others did concurr in sending out of the very Apostles themselves to some special pieces of their Ministry And accordingly the Apostles think it not below their Dignity to give them an account how they had behaved in their Commission So that let the Prelates pretend Succession to whom they will they can never pretend to be Successors of the Apostles to whom a Sole power of Jurisdiction and Ordination was as much a Stranger as to any Presbyter in the Church VII But lastly if by Ecclesiastick Patronages the Lawful Church Judicatories be meant tho' in that case both the Title of Patronage and the extent of power thereby understood must be rejected yet there is no doubt but the Judicatories of the Church have a very special hand and interest in the Looking out Nomination and Election of the Ministers of the Gospel and have a power Ministerially to authorize them for their office and to send them forth to Labour in the Lord's Vine Yard And by consequence do also Ministerially invest them with a Right to meddle with their Maintenance A Ministers only Right thereto being a Lawful call to the Office and Faithful discharge of his duty in it as we have formerly marked SECT XIX A pretence from the failings and mistakes of the Church Judicatories c. I. THE last pretence that I shall notice is this that Presbitries and People are not infallible but are subject to Mistake and Erre in the Election and Choice of Pastors as well as the Patrons And therefore the Patron 's Power of Election is no more injurious to the Church than she is to her self II. For answer to this it may be considered First That the lawful and ordinary method of Electing the Pastors of the Church being an Ordinance and Institution of Divine Appointment and the power of Patronage on the contrary being nothing else but an useless Invention of Men and a most groundless and unreasonable Usurpation upon the Church and clearly inconsistent with and destructive of the Institutions of Jesus Christ The Church and People of God may very safely and confidently rely and depend upon the Lord for his Blessing and direction in the right choice of the Ministers of the Gospel when they Act in a way of his own appointment which they who Act in so unjust and unwarrantable a method as this of Patronage have no ground to expect And tho' the Lord for wise and holy ends may some times leave his Church and People to themselves and let them fall in errors and mistakes in this as well as in other cases yet duty must not be forsaken for fear of failings in the performance We must both Pray to God for a discovery of what is duty when it is unclear to us and when it is discovered we must Pray for strength and assistance to perform it a right and then set about it in the Lord's strength with a humble confidence and dependance upon him for his blessing and direction who hath never said to the house of Jacob seek ye my face in vain III. Next tho' as is already said there be no institution either in Church or State but what by Reason of the Weakness and Corruption of Men may be abused yet this is no sufficient ground for laying aside an institution that is either morally necessary or positively enjoined by God The only rule and remedie in this case is Tollatur abusus et maneat usus let the matter be regulate by Acting in it according to the word of God which fully and clearly discovers what both Church-Judicatories and People may or may not do in the case But â—n the contrary the abuse and offensiveness of unnecessary unwarrantable institutions does strongly militate against their farther use If the Presbitry do at any time miscarry in a way that they are warranted by God to follow we must pray that God may purge his own House and purifie the Sons of Levi And the help and assistance of Superior Church-Judicatories must be made use of And in cases of general and publick defection the Civil Magistrate may employ his power circa Sacra But those mistakes can never warrand us to leave the institutions of the infinite love and wisdom of God and betake our selves to our own weak and witless inventions in the matters of God. Christ's promised presence with his Church may be a sufficient encouragement for his People to cleave and adhere to him in wayes of his own appointment Whereas those who go astray and follow crooked Paths ingyring themselves as Officious and Busie Bodies in the affairs of the Church without a Lawful Call can expect nothing but that God in his Justice should leave them to be a Snare both to themselves and others Certainly were these things really believed as all profess they do peoples practise would be very far different from what it is But such is the Atheism of mans heart thâ—â— while we confess the truths of God with our Lips our Hearts are too oft far from him IV. I begin now to be weary of noticeing such trifles And the truth is it might be amazing to hear men otherways rational offer such empty pretences instead of Solid and Convincing reasons if the cause would admit of any better But it is Vitium Causae and so we need no more admire to see a weakness inevitably cleave to the ablest Wits in the defence of what is unjustifiable than to see the strongest of men succumb in raising a weight that is above his natural strength to undergo The strength of mens Spirits as well as of their Bodies have their limits and are not infinite And since I mind nothing farther that can be objected but what with very much ease may receive a full solution from the Grounds already represented I think it will be needless to give either the Reader or my self any farther trouble on this Subject V. I shall only add that it is the duty of all God's People in this land to wrestle with God that he may incline the hearts of all Ranks of Men in their several stations and capacities to return to a hearty and cordial Compliance with and a chearful Acquiescence in the just and rational Determinations that were once made by publick Authority in this Nation both in this and other steps of a true Reformation And that the Lord may not be provoked by a too open Contempt of the Gospel of Peace the Crying Sin of the Nation and our sinful slighting of his Mercies to suffer his Church after so much wrestling to sink under her present Bondage and Captivity by reason of this and other unjust and grievous usurpations into which after so many and great Deliverances we are again for our Sins brought into Subjection FINIS
TO The Right Reverend THE MINISTERS OF THE KIRK OF SCOTLAND Of the PRESBYTERIAN Perswasion The following DEFENCE of the RIGHTS and LIBERTIES of the CHURCH against the pretended Right and Usurpations of PATRONAGE is most humbly Dedicated by ROBERT PARK To the READER THe substance of the following sheets was written many Years ago mainly for the satisfying some scruples of a worthy friend of the Authors But the press hath for a long time been so well guarded from the least breathing against the grievances this poor Church and Nation groaned under that the publication was but little thought of It having now pleased God to raise up some worthy Instruments to appear for the interests and Liberties of this broken Church and People and to endeavour a redress of their manifold oppressions It was thought convenient to offer these Papers to the publick view and consideration I stand in too near a Relation to the Author to be thought impartial in his commendation And tho' I could wish this discourse had got his own last hand and that it had not been left to run the common fate of other posthumous works yet I hope the main Subject will be found satisfyingly handled There are besides some other purposes incidently touched and many sountains for solution of several important debates of the time solidly and succinctly opened which if well considered may be serviceable for advancing a Reformation of many moe Abuses than the particular design of these Papers Intends I shall offer no Apology for the style I hope it will be found distinct plain and easie and sutable to the Nature of the Subject I know nothing a style serves for but to express Men's Conceptions distinctly and without harshness And if that may be attained without forced and strained Rhetorications which for the most part produce no other effect but a Darkning of knowledge with words I cannot see how a neglect of such useless Trifles can be blamed The native beautie of truth stands no way in need of these artificial disguises that are used to set off adulterate wares There are but too many in this Age who have rendred both themselves and their discourses Ridiculous by affecting new strains of Eloquence as they take it The thinking part of mankind is very sensible that the neglect of a good old form of sound VVords and safe Expressions hath made People forget and mistake many Ancient and solid truths It is Pitifully mean and unbecoming to see the Clergy as they must be termed turn the Pulpit to a Theatre and to hear Divines Trick up and illustrate their discourses with the similies and Expressions of a Comedy or Romance going down as it were to the Uncircumcised for sharpning of their Tools as if there were no Smith in Israel The subject of these Papers is but very little treated of by any especially in this way And therefore the publication may perhaps be as necessary as seasonable If it can in the least be servicable for freeing the Church of any part of her bondage I am sure the design both of it's Writing and Publication will be fully attained I hope there will be few found so fond of the Rights of Patronage as to be of the Opinion of Diego Lainez one of the Fathers at Trent who asserted That it was a motion of the Devil to offer to reduce Elections to the Ancient course And that the Antiquity of that method was a bad Argument for Reviving of it â—ut that on the contrary it ought to be suppressed because it was the Ancient custome For if the Church as he Ridiculously enough pretends had not found it inconvenient she would not have quite it I shall only wish that People in their several Capacities may seriously consider what the present conduct of providence seems to call them to And that they may Act both in this and other matters so as not to be wanting to themselves and their Posterity in the settling of affairs upon the solid and lasting foundations of Truth and Peace lest they verifie the Proverb Sero sapiunt Phryges which I need not translate And repent when it is too late the loss of such a Golden opportunity so wonderfully and unexpectedly brought to their hand And give the present and succeeding Generations cause to say why was there a price put in the hand of a Fool to get Wisdom seeing he had no heart to it Edinburgh Febr. 16â—9 The CONTENTS Sect. I. Of the Original of Patronage Pag. 1 Sect. II. A general View of the Rights of Patronage 17. Sect. III. The Opinion of our Reformers c. concerning Patronage 26. Sect. IV. The Ground and Argument for Patronage from a Reservation by the first Founders examined 31. Sect. V. A farther examination of this Reservation from its own nature and from the Nature of Pious and Charitable Deeds 38. Sect. VI. The Reservation pretended can be no ground for the Jus utile of Patronage 53. Sect. VII The denyal of It can be no discouragement in gratifying of the Church something obiter of the Dilapidation of the Churches Patrimony 56. Sect. VIII The ground of Patronage from a grant or Concession of the Church examined 63. Sect. IX Afarther examination of this pretended Concession 69 Sect. X. Another ground for the Foundation of Patronage from the necessity of a Jus Onerosum examined 73. Sect. XI Patronage is no Institution of Divine Appointment but a mannifest Usurpation 81. Sect. XII The power of Patronage is destructive of the Institutions of Christ for the Election of the Pastors of his Church 97. Sect. XIII The power of Patronage is against the Freedom and Interest of Common Society 113. Sect. XIV The power of Patronage hath been grosly Abused Scandalously offensive without any Necessity or use 120. Sect. XV. Patronage is a Symbolizing with Idolaters and against the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church 142. Sect. XVI A pretence that the Patron meddles with nothing of Election or what is properly Ecclesiastical 146. Sect. XVII Another pretence that the Church may reject the Person presented in case of insufficiency 157. Sect. XVIII Another pretence from the distinction of Laick and Ecclesiastick Patronages 162. Sect. XIX Apretence from the Failings and Mistakes of Church Judicatories c. 167. ERRATA Page 17 line 14 for the Vandals read and since the Vandals p. 28. l. 21 for Prelacy it was r. Prelacy I say it was p. 80. l. 14. for all Civil read all other Civil p. 82. l. 22. for as a most r. is a most p. 115. l. 26. for there r. other p. 160. l. 11 for much r. as much A DEFENCE OF THE RIGHTS LIBERTIES Of the CHURCH In the Election and Maintenance of Her PASTORS AGAINST The Negative Interests of PATRONAGE SECTION I. An Account of the Original of Patronage I. THE Design I have in these few Pages is to Demonstrate from Grounds of Scripture and Principles of Reason the unwarrantablness and injustice of these Priviledges Claimed
and Exerted in and over the Church and People of God by the Patrons of Kirks and Benefices in reference to the Call and Maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel This I shall endeavour to performe as distinctly and with all the plainness and Brevity I can find the subject will admit And that so much the rather That I know those for whose satisfaction I principally Write are sufficiently capable to discover the weight of Truth and Reason without the attendance of any Rhetorical Excursion or Embellishment of Expression And if I Err in any thing especially in matters that are out of my common Road I expect the Reader will be Candide and Favourable in his Censure II. The Method which I shall observe in the prosecution of this Design shall be 1 To give some short account of what seems to have been the first Rise and Original of the Rights of Patronage with a view of its several Branches as it hath been Exercised in and over the Church of Scotland in Relation to the Ministerial Call and Maintenance 2 I shall endeavour to discover the Emptiness of these Grounds that are or may be adduced for a Foundation to the Institution of Patronage whereby it will appear how groundless and unjust the Claims and Practices of Patrons in this matter have been 3. I shall offer some positive Reasons against the pretended Right it self 4. And lastly I shall examine some Pretences that may be alledged for clearing that Patronage is not so injurious to the Interests of the Church as it is represented to be To these Heads as being the most material and needful to be handled in a Subject of this Nature I shall confine what I have to say and thence it is hoped any thing else that might be expected in Relation to this argument will receive sufficient light III. The right of Patronage may be defined to be a Power to present and nominat a person to be institute in a vacant Church Office and Benefice by those who are or pretend to be the Founders or Doters of Kirks or Benefices Potestas praesentandi aut Nominandi instituendum ad Vacans Beneficium aut Officium Sacrum c. I know There are many useless Debates among the Canonists concerning the Definition of Patronage which I shall not insist upon seing the Thing it self is by the sad experience of this Church and Nation but too well known IV. Only I cannot omit to observe that the very Name and Title of Patron is somewhat ominous and unlucky as Importing a kind of Servitude and Bondage upon the Church For as in the Roman Laws and Customs a Patron albeit the Name import Favour and Protection was still understood to retain a very hard Interest in the Persons and Estates of such Servants as he had manumitted and set free from their Bondage and a Right of Reducing them to their former condition of Slavery upon pretences of Ingratitude or a Carriage any way unsuitable to the favour of Freedom they had received so sure I am this pretended Right of Patronage of which we are to treat hath in these respects been very answerable to its Name in restraining and impeding under the fair Colour of Protection the Church and People of God from the Free and Lawful Exercise of their Spiritual Liberties and Priviledges as we shall fully clear in the progress of this Discourse V. To come then to the first part of the method proposed I shall not determine the Time when this Corruption for so I must call it since Vetustas Erroris non Consuetudo sed Corruptela dicenda est entred into the Christian Church The Canonists themselves are not fully agreed as to this It may be very clear in the General That it was the work of some time and Pains to bring the rights of Patronage to that Form and Consistence in which they have been exercised over the Christian Church Patronage was not an Institution That was framed and received and perfected at one dash It is also very certain that ab Initio non fuit It was not so much as heard of in the pure and primitive times but hath been by small and insensible degrees dropt and sown in the field of the Church by the Enemy among other Tares while men were Asleep that is while the Church was unawars Matth. 13 25. and not so watchful as need was so that ' its little wonder the particular time of the Entry of this power be hard enough to be condescended upon VI. It may likewise be very clear That since the foundation of Patronage was the Building or doting of Kirks and that the liberty of such Building and Doting was not much allowed and perhaps less practised before the times of Constantine the Great which was about the begining of the fourth Century I say from this it may be clear that before Constantine's time the priviledge of Patronage could not be introduced VII And tho' some may alledge that in the year of Christ CCCC The fifth Council of Carthage Concil 5. carthag Can. 9. Council Mile vitan Can. 16. and thereafter in the year CCCCII. The Council of Millan both in the times of the Emperors Honorius and Arcadius did desire of the Emperors that there might be some Persons considerable for wealth and Piety appointed for defence of the Church in her Rights and goods or patrimony against such as should attempt any Invasion upon them and that those Persons came afterwards to get the name of Patrons or defenders of the Church Yet these are not the Patrons we are Inquiring after VIII For as this sort of Patronage was to be managed cum provisione Episcoporum by the Advice and Consent of the Pastors and Office-bearers of the Church so it was nothing else but a branch of the Magistrates Cumulative Power circa Sacra and only for defence of the Churches Patrimony against Sacrilegious Misapplications and no way concerned with the Call and Election of the Ministry nor had this sort of Patronage any Privative or Negative Interest in their Stipends or Maintenance Neither were these Patrons accounted Church Officers as the Canonists will have the Patrons we are enquiring after to be nor were those Bishops then Patrons themselves because they were a part of the Church that was to be defended Et nemo potest esse sibi patronus Their trust was with the Church's consent Elective and not Hereditary and much less purchasable for money as a part of a mans privat patrimony and Fortune I conceive it will be needless to add any thing farther upon the difference that is so palpably evident betwixt these and our pretended Patronages tho' it may be said that this Institution was in some respect the foundation of these patronages we are in search of if we consider that as at the first appearance this was a trust in it self not discommendable but rather in some cases necessar and useful so in after times it did by little and
of men and servants of their Lusts especially of those of their Patrons that thereby he might justly punish the World for not receiving the love of the truth And Particularly to punish the unlawful invasions made by the corrupt Church-men and Clergy of these times upon the civil Powers permitting them to prey on each others Rights and Priviledges Jure quasi Belli ac lege talionis till at length the whole frame of Church and state was turned to a Babel of Confusion and Egyptian Darkness And tho' the practising of such usurpations over the liberties of the Church might in a time of darkness be looked upon as a sin of Ignorance or weakness yet in such times of light as God hath set us in it must certainly be a sin of a higher nature and Degree XV. The Superstition of these times still advancing and particularly that Anti-evangelical Opinion of Merit taking daily deeper root the Clergy as they must be stiled were not a wanting to fish in these muddie Waters and to make their best use of that occasion by insinuating themselves upon weak and well meaning People especially in the time of their Sickness to make them part very liberally with their goods and possessions for the service of the Church and pious uses as they termed it And they did so terrifie them with the fears of Purgatory and Damnation for their Sins on the one hand and flatter them with the hopes of Indulgences pardon of sins and Prayers for their Souls and the honour they would acquire to themselves and their Posterity by such good Deeds on the other hand that in a short time the poor Peoples blind and superstitious zeal was screwed to such a pitch as nothing was sooner asked especially if not to take effect till after their Death than it was given So that as the Apostle sayes in a different case Gal. 4.15 they would have pluckt out their very eyes for the service of these rapacious Vultures XVI This is a Truth so incontestable that the civil Powers in the most of all Christian States found themselves under an absolute necessity to put some stop to such a Torrent of ill disposed Charity as was likely to terminate in the Settling of the whole Lands and Poslessions within their Territories In the hands of a sort of Men that depended upon a Foraign Power and pretended to an exemption and independencie from the Civil Authority of the States they lived in As among many other Instances that might be given may appear from that one Law in our own Nation prohibiting the disposal of Lands or Heritages by Persons on Death-bed XVII It is well observed by the Noble du Plessis Mornay in his mysterium iniquitatis that when the Christian Doctrine and Religion began to be corrupted in the Substance People endeavoured to cover their defection by retaining the Shadow and to seem as Religious as ever by building of Kirks Chappels c And that in Actions of this nature the worst of Men were ordinarly the most forward and devout that thereby they might obliterat the memory of their former vicious Lives and Practises both in themselves and others This is indeed a clear Paraphrase upon our Blessed Saviour's charge against the Scribes and Pharisees That they tithed the Mint and the Annise and omitted the weighter Matters of the Law Judgment Mercy Matt. 23. and Faith. XVIII Things being brought to this pass it is little wonder that the humour of building and doting of Kirks began to increase and the number of Patronages by consequence to multiply so that in a short time few Kirks or Congregations wanted some one or other for their patron And many times when Patronage could not be claimed upon the account of the building or doting of Kirks there was still some body found who under the least shadow of Reparations or otherwise and in default of all the Pope of Rome as pretending himself to be patron Supreme Paramount and Vniversal of all Kirks and since the Reformation in this Church our own Kings as coming into the Pop's place which by the way is none of the most honourable Successions assumed and usurped this Priviledge So that in a small time the Corruption was little less than universally spread XIX Before we leave this Head we may observe that as that Antichristian Church of Rome hath in most of her Institutions still endeavoured to advance her own splendor and greatness and her usurped Dominion over the Church and Consciences of God's People by an affected imitation of these interests which the Secular powers of the Earth have over the civil rights of their Subjects expresly contrare to the Precepts of our blessed Lord Luke 22. Which in this case deserve a very serious and special consideration Luke 22.25 to the 31. Matt. 20 25. so particularly this institution of Patronage hath been fixed or continued and improven to make some sort of a resemblance and parallel in the Church to that of Feudal Superiority and Vassalage in use betwixt great Men and their followers This seems to be pretty clearly intimate by the very word Beneficium which in its more proper acceptation signifies the same thing with Feudum or a grant of Lands by a Superior to his vassal for military services tho' by a kind of Antinomasia that first signification be in a manner now wholly disused and the other of a Spiritual or Church living commonly if nor only understood thereby And hence it may be observed that as Patronage was fixed or continued and improven in imitation of Feudal Superiorities so as to order of time its first vigor was not till after the feudal Institution For the Vandals who gave the rise to the Feudal Contract took the City of Rome after the middle of the fifth Century This may likewise confirm what was formerly hinted that till the year DC the Interests of Patronage in the Election and Maintenance of the Pastors of the Church was not known SECT II. A general View of the Rights of PATRONAGE THe Canonists write of Patrons as persons in some kind of office having right to a sort of Stipend The rights they ascribe to them are shortly these I. First a Jus Honorificum whereby the patron had power to nominate the Pastor and give him right to the Benefice and to have a splendid and Stately Seat and a Burial place in the Kirk and a right of precedency among the Clergy in solemn processions visitations c In which they could not lay aside their Pride and Vanity in their very nearest approaches to God in going about the Duties of his worship and service Nor in the most humbling Circumstances of Death and Burial And how suitable such practices are to the faults of the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 23.6 Mark 12.38 James 2.1 2 3 4. who did all their works to be seen of men and loved the uppermost Rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the Synagogues and
succeeding to and coming in their places and were by him disposed upon to whom he pleased by rights under the Great Seal c And the truth is this is a sort of succession very sutable to the Kings other pretences of Supremacy and Headship of the Church which in effect make him a new Pope in a reformed Church Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos as if the design of the Reformation had not been to separate our selves from the unjust and antichristian power usurped over the Church by the Popes but meerly to transfer it from Italy and the Bishop of Rome and lodge it in the person of the Prince among ourselves And hence it is cleare that tho' there be an ordinar distinction of Kirks into elective and patâ—onate which some urge for a connivance at Patronage yet with us there remains not the least shadow of an elective Kirk in the whole nation X. Seventhly the Canonists tell us that the right of Patronage was often granted to such as had not in the least been Benefactors to the Church in the Erection or doting of Kirks And that per modum specialis privilegii granted be the Pope solent enim pontifices nonunnquam se à ecretorum Dominos ac Conditores ostendere That they may let the World see they are the absolute Masters unaccountable Arbiters alse well as the Makers of the Canons XI Eightly the Canonists also tell us that the patron may commit and Intrust his power of presentation to any other specially authorized for that end And thus we have frequently seen among our selves the Factors and Chamberlanes of Noblemen and others act by vertue of such Commissions in these matters XII And lastly they also tell us that such patrons as are precisely past seven years of age and far more such as are within minority may present by themselves without the advice or concurse of their Tutors and Curators tho' some of the Canonists do require that Tutors and Curators do it in their Name SECT III. The Opinion of our Reformers c. concerning PATRONAGE I AS this corrupt custom of Patronage spread over the Church in general so we find the Church of Scotland in particular wanted not her share in the common Calamity And accordingly we find this pretended Priviledge zealously witnessed against by our worthy Reformers who vigorously pressed for the removal of it And we find also that other Foreign Churches were sensible of the bondage the Church lay under by these priviledges I cannot stay to insert testimonies at large the Reader may fully satisfie himself in the matter if he will be at the pains to look over the first and second Books of Discipline I Book of Difciplia head 4 2 Book of Disciplin cap. 3. and 12. Gen. assemb 1562. sess 3 Gen. assemb 1586. sess 5. Synod Dordracen of this Church the Acts of our general Assemblies and the Acts of the Famous Synod of Dort. As for the opinion of particular Divines tho' they have but very little medled with these Matters yet when ever they touch them they declare them to be a very grievous and burdensome usurpation as in some measure we may have occasion to see in the following part of this Discourse II. And truly no less could be expected from men of so much Piety and Zeal for the Glory of God Conc. Triden Sess 25 decret de Refor cap. 9. sess 14. decret de Refor cap. 12 13 sess 24. decret de Reform cap. 18 Conc. Mogunt cap. 68. and the Interests of his Church since even the most corrupt assembly that ever mett I mean the Council of Trent is forced to acknowledge the great prejudice the Church sustains by the Rights of Patronage as is clear from what is already hinted and from their other decrees in the years 1551 and 1563. And before them the provincial Council at Mentz in Germany in the year 1549 was very sensible of the injustice and oppression of these Privileges as we may have occasion to mention hereafter III. But after the Shaking that these Rights of Patronage got at our Reformation from Popery the alteration of that comely and orderly Church Government instituted by Jesus Christ and which we received both with Christianity it self and in a special manner with our first Reformation from Antichristian darkness and under which so many abuses both in Church and State were so happily taken away and so much of the purity and plenty of Gospel Ordinances with a most wonderful Success established The alteration I say of this our Presbiterial Government into Prelacy gave this Corruption and many others new Root For under prelacy a Government first and last violently obtruded upon this Church contrary to the inclinations of the Nation without any warrand from the word of God or example either in pure antiquity or other reformed Churches abroad for no other end but to bear down the just and necessary Liberties of the Church in the reproof of sin and in the Exercise of discipline and to be subservient for carrying on the bad designs of a corrupt court party for enslaving of both Church and State and constantly attended with a most Visible and General defection both in Worship and Morals Under this Prelacy it was that this and many other corruptions and superstitions were vigorously advanced and supported The Prelats leaving no means unessayed to inhaunce all the Patronages they could in their own hands or in the hands of such as would contribute their power and interest to promote the designs then on foot for enslaving this Church and Nation under a yoak of Bondage and Superstition and to keep out all such from any access to the Work of the Ministry as were in the least suspected of a desire to cross these ill designs so that at length the Right of Patronage became so rooted and fixed and so twisted and inter woven with other secular and civil interests that it was expresly avowed and pleaded for as a part of a Mans private Patrimony the Rights whereof he had settled and confirmed to him and his heirs after him as these of his other estate by Charters under the Seals c. And might Lawfully sell and dispose of it to whom he thought fit as well as the rest of his Fortune And from which he could not be excluded without the highest injury and injustice IV. These Exorbitancies of patronage already mentioned with many others too tedious to relate wherein our Patronages are many times very different to the worse from these in the Canon Law a man in reason would think might be sufficient without any farther enquiry or debate to determine us against such a Priviledge But since this as well as other corruptions is to this day by some persons with so much heat and vehemence asserted and defended tho' the justice of the publick Authority of the Nation in abolishing these priviledges was in the year 1649 and several years thereafter very cordially acquiesced unto by
and stretcheth forth his own hand with him for in as much says he as you did it to the least of my Brethren you did it to me c. XIII But to clear this yet farther it may be observed that any Right a Patron can pretend to give a Pastor to his maintenance is quoad the Pastor but a groundless pretence and so a super vacaneous and useless grant the Pastors Right to his maintenance being fully established in his person by his lawful Call to the Ministry and his faithful discharge of it So that unless the Patron will pretend that he can put a Minister in a spiritual capacity and so claim the power of Ordination which is indeed Christ's Power committed to his Ministers as well as that of Election he can give him no right to his maintenance but such as will be superfluous For as abundantia non vitiat so neither does it strengthen or confirm a right And tho' what the Patron gives should be granted to be a confirmation yet it can give no new right confirmatio enim nihil novi juris addit sed antiquum jus tantum roborat it being the Pastors spiritual capacity Mat. 10.10 Gal. 6.6 1 Tim. 5.18 and faithful discharge of his duty and that only which gives him a full and unquestionable Title to his Wages XIV Next it may be observed very Naturally that if what a man hath once given away and devoted to the Lord for pious uses be no more his that gave it then certainly the founder of a benefice cannot expect to retain to himself and much less to his heirs and successors a negative Interest in the maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel with so little use and advantage and so much prejudice to the Church And therefore tho' such Acts of Favour and Charity as are freely and gratuitously bestowed on the Church seem to plead more for the Rights of Patronage than such as are done per modum debiti or for satisfyng of a Moral duty and obligation to which the Donor or Founder was previously engaged yet there is none who perform such Acts out of the singleness of their Heart and from a true principle of advancing the Glory of God and a sincere motive of Compassion to their poor Brethren that will sciens volens wittingly and willingly desire or expect a Priviledge so useless and yet so hurtful to the interest of the Church and the good of Souls This were indeed a Flie in the Appothecaries Oyntment XV. The thrid sort of Benefactors to wit those who confer Favours on the Church partly per modum debiti and partly per modum Eleemosynae partly by way of debt and partly by way of almes and free Charity are such persons as have some civil interest and estate within the bounds where the Kirk lyes but not the whole And therefore their building or doting of a Kirk is neither wholly Duty nor wholly Charity but part of both They being indeed previously oblidged thereto but are not oblidged to do it alone and without the Concurrence of the rest of that bounds for bearing their share of the common Burden seing he that so dots or builds is but one of many having interest And those Benefactors can as little as the former expect to be gratified with the Priviledge of Patronage for the Reasons already mentioned For if neither he who acts in such matters wholly per modum debiti nor he who acts wholly and intirely per modum Eleemosynae can with any reason assume or expect such a priviledge Then also by a necessary consequence he who Acts in bestowing such favours on the Church partly the one way and partly the other hath as little if not less ground than either of them to expect or assume the same XVI There is a fourth sort of Benefactors if they deserve the Name and those are such as do their good deeds meerly out of ostentation and from a Pharisaical principle of Vain glory to be seen of Men to gain the applause of the World and not to advance the Glory of God or the good of his Church And for the most part those Men bestow their Favours where there is little or no need seldom or never consulting how or where they may place them with most advantage for the publick good but satisfie themselves if they can place them in such a way as they may bear most bulk in the eyes of the World. This is a truth so undenyable that it was certainly from this vanity that the Monastries Nunneries Abbacies Pryories Cloysters c. both in this and other Nations before the Reformation from Popery and in other Popish Countries to this day were endowed with so many rich livings that in some places they possest near or above a third of the whole Land in others near a full half as the devotion as it was then termed or rather the superstitious folly of a simple and ignorant People and the influence and interest of a cheating and idle Clergy inclined them Thus many Church-men turned in effect to be Temporal Princes And generally the interest of the Clergy in the Legislative Power and Exercise of the Government of these Nations became very large upon the account of the great Interest and Authority they enjoyed by such ample Revenues and Possessions which was the true Original of making the Clergy the third Estate in the Conventions and General Councils of State both in these Lands and else where But those Benefactors if they may be so named are so fully exposed by our Blessed Lord in that 6. of Matth. and elsewhere Matth. 6. that it will be needless to insist any farther upon them And certainly this sort of men less than any of the former deserve any trust or priviledge in the Church of God Their vanity and self-seeking which is the principal or rather the only Motive and Design of all their Actions deserves much rather the Censures of the Church than any encouragment by trusting them with a power that they are utterly incapable to manage with any measure of Wisdom or Discretion which are Qualities that men of such a vain and ostentive humor are seldom or never blessed with XVII As for the last sort of Benefactors To wit such as from an opinion of Merit confer such good Offices on the Church thinking thereby to deserve life and happiness at the hands of God and going about to establish their own righteousness by the works of the Law it is little wonder that such men who do so highly injure and rob our blessed Lord and only Saviour of the honour of that compleat ransom and satisfaction payed by him to divine Justice for the sins of his elect as to think that they can merit eternal felicity by their own works which is to say in effect that they will be their own Saviours and that Christ died in vain I say it is but little wonder that such men should expect to be gratified with
a power to encroach upon the rights of the Church and to rob the members of Christ of their spiritual liberties and priviledges as well as they have robbed the Glorious head of his due honour But sure I am there is no sincere Christian in the Church of God but will think a priviledge of this nature worse bestowed upon those than upon the worst of the former sort of Benefactors And therefore I shall say no farther as to them XVIII Last of all as this pretence of a Reservation is of no weight in favours of the first Founders or Donors themselves whether they confer such good offices gratuitously or otherways to give them the acclaimed rights of Patronage in Retribution and recompence so it hath much less force to continue the same in favours of their heirs or others who succeed them on a singular title of Donation Sale Permutation c. For as those may be very far from being indowed with the merits and qualifications of the first Donor so for the most part they are so far from tracing his footsteps and example by gratifying the Church that with all their hearts they would be content if it were in their power to void and nullifie their Predecessors deeds And as in civil offices it is or ought to be the merits or qualifications of the Office bearer himself that is respected in giving him the trust nam in officiis Personae industria respicitur which also is the main reason why regularly a Judge or Magistrat transmits not his office to his Heirs after him nor substitutes another in his place So much less in Ecclesiastical offices such as the Canonists pretend the power of Patronage to be and trusts that concern the Spiritual interests of the Kingdom of Christ and the good of Souls ought the same to descend to heirs or others acquiring right upon a singular title SECT VI. The Reservation pretended can be no ground for the Jus Utile of Patronage I. AS to what may be alledged from this pretended Reservation for founding of the Jus Vtile of Patronage or rather the utilitas hujus Juris whereby the Canonists pretend that if the Patron or his Children become poor so as they cannot live another way they must be alimented out of the Rents of the Benefice as some sort of a Retribution for their having gratifyed the Church when they were in power tho' this may be sufficiently cleared by application of the Grounds already mentioned yet I shall desire the Reader farther to consider these things II. First that if this Jus utile be a right to which the Patron will needs pretend a valid and legal Title so as he may pursue for it by an ordinar action at Law before the civil Magistrat as he may do for other interests that fall within his privat patrimony I do not see how any such right can be allowed For that which is once consecrat and devoted to God for pious uses is no more his that gave it as we have cleared from the fore cited instance of Ananias Saphira c. And therfore no man can retain any privat interest in it III. Next if the Patron or his Children be really in necessity and restrict the right pretended to a claim in point of Charity I think no man will deny but there lyes an obligation upon the Church to extend their Charity to them in giving them a portion of these goods that belong to the poor as far as she can without prejudging of others who may deserve her Charity as well and perhaps better tho' on a different account But in such a case this Claim must not be allowed so far as to exhaust what was given at first for this were indeed to drain the fountain of Charity which would be a misericordia crudelis so to speak an unjust and cruel mercy It is a general rule in the disposal of Charity to do good to all men in need Galat 6 10 but still with a preference in favours of such as are of the houshold of Faith one part of duty must not shoulder out an other Christian prudence must be adhibit as much in this as in other matters And as the Canonists them selves do grant that the Patron is not to be alimented except when he is truly in necessity so many of them acknowledge that even then he is only to be entertained out of such goods as are destinate for the use of the poor and so as his part of Charity do not prejudge others Patronus non est alendus niside residuis duntaxat quae alias sunt pauperum IV. Lastly this is a right so personal to the Patron himself and his family that it can never be bought and sold or be transmitted to others who acquire right upon a singular Title And so many of the Canonists determine this Jus utile to be a right meerly personal et adeo Iuhaerens ossibus Patroni ut in alium transferri nequeat for otherwise the Church upon this account might be oblidged many times to aliment both the Patron himself and those who acquire right from him if both should happen to fall poor at the same time SECT VII The denyal of Patronage can be no discouragement in gratifying of the Church something obiter of the Dilapidation of the Church's Patrimony I. AS to the latter part of the Ground proposed for a Foundation to the Rights of Patronage to wit that the denyal of the Priviledges acclaimed will prove discouraging for any to gratify the Church for the future tho' by what is already said it be sufficiently answered yet I shall add First That it is most certain that such as look for no higher reward and encouragment than what a Priviledge within time can give them and set not their Hearts on the promises of God for the reward of a more enduring Substance than what a present World can furnish them with will never be capable to perform the least Act of pure and cleanly Charity which those only who betake themselves to the true grounds of encouragment in the promises and word of God and are free of low and selfish ends can practise II. Next the assuming of such a priviledge as this over the Church will be so far from being an encouragment that upon a serious and considerat Reflection we shall find that as such an usurpation does highly injure the interests of the Church so it will much more endamage those that are guilty of it by making a Forfeiture of the rewards that the Lord hath promised to true Acts of Love and Charity flowing from sincere principles and motives and for single and honest ends and may provock the divine Justice to pour out his wrath upon them and their families for keeping up humane inventions in the matters of God so prejudicial to the true privileges and interests of his Church But this we shall have occasion to clear farther in the progress of this discourse III. Next if these
Call and Maintenance of the Ministry by a grant and concession from the Church and that consequently it is a Lawful institution and no usurpation volenti enim non fit injuria In explication of the meaning of this grant and concession some take one course and some another For some by this grant do understand that the Church hath alienat and transferred her right of Election and divested her self of it in favours of the Patrons Other again do understand by this concession that the Patron acts by vertue of a Commission from and as Impowered by the Church without founding on any higher ground of Property in the priviledge by vertue of ane alienation of the right of Election made by the Church to him I shall examin this concession distinctly in both senses the first in this and the other in the next Section II. Before we pass any farther it may be observed that this ground adduced for a foundation of the right of Patronage does evidently acknowledge that the right and priviledge acclaimed is primarly and originally a Church power which were enough without any farther to take off this pretence III. But to come particularly to the first sense in which this pretended Concession may be understood viz. that the Church hath a lienat her right of Election and divested her self of it in the Patrons favours it is to be considered First that the Church is utterly incapable to alienat or transfer her Spiritual rights and priviledges or to divest her self of them these are interests that are not at her desposal she being only intrusted by Jesus Christ her sole King and Lawgiver with the custody and administration of them for the good and edification of the present and succeeding generations These rights are founded upon a higher Title than that they can be altered and transmitted from hand to hand by pactions or promises betwixt man and man. In such cases the Church can do nothing against the truth she is not therein sui juris 1 Cor. 6 20 and 7 23. ye are not your own says the Apostle ye are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men do not enslave your selves by losing your Rights and Liberties The Church can no more make over her Spiritual Rights and Priviledges or subject herself to stâ—â—â—ge Lords new Lawgivers therein than a woman can make over the right of her Body which only belongs to her Lawful Husband or an Innocent person the right of his life to a Murderer nemoest Dominus suae vitae aut suorum membrorum or than a Prince the rights of his Crown and Kingdom and the liberties of his People to a foraign power or a person in Non-age the right of his estate as the Apostle expresly tells us That the heir differs nothing here from a servant or in a word then the Administrators and Governours of a City and Community can Alienat the Rights of their Constituents All these and many other acts of the like nature as to the translation of property are but frustraneous ineffectual endeavours like a man's attempt to raise a weight that is without and above the compass of his natural strength Grave saxum Sysyphon urget IV. And tho' de facto such attempts may oft be made yet de jure they are void and without effect And let the conveyance be exprest under what termes and carried under what cover or disguise you will the right stands still Immoveable and remains where it was at first nemo potest nisi quod de Jure potest we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth V. It is our Lord Jesus Christ and he alone who is the Church's only Head and Law-giver that hath power to settle the rights and priviledges of his Church in such hands and such order as his infinite love and wisdom thinks fit All the right and power the Church hath in these is only a naked Trust to keep and manage them according to the appointment and instructions of her Lord and Master And when she exceeds that she debords and goes beyond her Commission so that all the transmission she can make is but Jus a non habente potestatem like a grant of the property of an estate by a person that hath no other right to it but a naked commission to uplift and collect the rents for the use of the true Proprietar And therefore the Church without her Lord and Head's consent can alienate or divest her self of none of her rights and priviledges that have been purchased to her at no less rate then the precious Blood of the eternal Son of God. And as there is not the least ground to pretend that ever Jesus Christ hath given such a consent so there is far less ground to expect that ever he will give it now after he hath sealed his last will and testament in all things that concern the Kingdom of God by his own death and hath declared that he will have it stand firm and unalterable by men or Angels till he come again The Church can no more divest her self of the right she hath to elect her own Office-bearers than she can transfert the Inheritance of the Kingdom of Christ to which that liberty is annexed And happy is it for the Church and Saints of God that their stock and Inheritance is not in their own hand and at their own disposal math 6.13.20 luk 12 33. It is far better secured their treasure is lodged where neither moth nor rust does corrupt nor theives break thorow and steal VI. And as our Lord Jesus Christ hath the only right of property and power of disposal of the Church's rights and priviledges so he is the only just and true Proprietar of her rents and patrimony and when an office vaiks the rents return to the Church her self as Proprietar under Christ to be disposed of for other pious uses And therefore if the ancient Canons have not only discharged the alienation of the Church's goods or temporal patrimony but hath expresly declared all contracts relative to such alienations utterly void and null and have declared that the goods so alienat are still the Church's own Concil ancyrom can 15 c. notwithstanding of such Bargains and Transactions how much more must the Church be incapable to alienat or divest her self of these Spiritual Rights and Priviledges conferred upon her by her Head and King and by him purchas'd at no less Rate than the price of his own most precious blood VII And as de jure The Church cannot make any such alienation of her Rights and Liberties so it is positively denyed that ever she hath de facto made the same But on the contrare it is most evident that like the betrothed deut 22 25. and yet ravished Damsel under the Law she cryes and groans to the Lord under the burden of such an unjust force and grievous usurpation as this pretended priviledge of Patronage is and shall
be demonstrat to be SECT IX A farther Examination of this pretended Concession I. THe second sense in which this pretended Grant or Concession of the Church as to the Right of Patronage may be understood is that the patron acts by vertue of a Commission from and as Impowered by the Church without founding upon a right of property in the power of Election by vertue of an Alienation of it made by the Church As to which these things may be considered II. First that in this sense also the asserters of this concession do clearly acknowledge that the patron acts not in reference to the Call and Maintenance of the Ministry Jure proprio and by an intrinsick power but by a power derived from the Church and that therefore it is the Church and not he that hath the proper and original right to meddle in these matters And consequently that the fountain of the patron's power is no civil but a Spiritual and Ecclesiastick right And the true and natural consequence of all is that therefore the Patron ought to follow the Church's inclinations and not his own in the management and administration of this power and ought not to tye and oblidge the Church to follow his will and pleasure in it And next it follows as natively that since the power by which the Patron acts is acknowledged to be a Spiritual and Ecclesiastick power therefore he cannot without the grossest Symony fell and make Merchandice of it as he may do of other things that fall within the compass of his privat Patrimony III. In the next place it is to be considered that the Church hath as little warrand to bestow such constant general perpetual unaccountable Commissions especially upon such as are none of the ordinar Officer-bearers of the Church in reference to the Election and Maintenance of a Gospel Ministry as she hath to alienat and divest herself of the Rights and priviledges she hath to act therin For both these methods of conveyance doe upon the matter differ only in degree which does not change the Kind or Species but only the gradus ejusdem speciei or to speak more properly they are truly one and the same under different terms For in effect a Man may ex naturâ rei as fully and effectually alienate and divest himself of his estate under the terms and disguise of a perpetual lease or tack or under the terms of a constant and unaccountable Commission as he can do by the most formal Right under the name and terms of a full and absolute Sale and Alienation There being nothing more clear than that in both cases the same design of transmitting the property and of divesting the first owner Is made equally effectual in different Notions and Terms IV. But thirdly if by a power derived from the Church and by acting in her name the Patrons understand an acting in the Nature of an ordinar Mandatar and Commissioner they must give up the cause For 1. In this case the Patron must be content as all Mandatars must to subject himself to give an account to the Church as his Constituent how he behaves himself in that trust V. Next he must likewise be content to submit to what censures the Church shall think fit to impose upon him in case he be found to malverss VI. Again he must be content to follow the Instructions of the Church in his actings and must not pretend to Oblidge the Church to what he thinks fit in the management of that Trust VII Fourthly the Patron must likewise be content to quit and lay down his Comission and to give it up into the hands of the Church when ever she shall think fit to re-assume the power into her own hand and to manage it by her self without the assistance of such a Deputy VIII He must also be content to let this Power and Trust expire with himself and so exclude his Heirs and much more such as acquire Right from him titulo singulari from any interest in it IX And lastly he must pass from the very Name and Title of Patron seing that as hath been formerly observed still implies a Superiority in the Patron and a Subordination or rather a Subjection and Slavery upon the Church over which the Power is claimed and exercised which is a thing absolutely inconsistent with the nature of a Mandat or Commission For that on the contrare doth clearly imply an Inferiority and Subordination of the Person Intrusted to those from whom he receives his Commission And therefore we may confidently conclude that if the Asserters of Patronage can find no better foundation than this to ground it upon the least breath will be able to overturn it X. And as in the former sense of this pretended Concession so in this also It is positively denyed that ever the Church hath granted such a Commission And the Patrons will find themselves equally straitned to prove that ever the Church gave such a general and perpetual Commission as they will be to prove that ever she made an Absolute alienation of her Rights It is as certain that she hath never made any such conveyance as it is evidently unreasonable that she should make such a Grant in either of the senses pretended SECT X. Another ground adduced for the foundation of Patronage from the Necessity of the Jus Onerosum examined I. THe Jus Onerosum ascribed by the Canonists to Patrons is adduced as a ground to found both that and the other Rights of Patronage upon For seing it is very necessar that some persons of credit and interest should be intrusted with a power to oversee and take care that Ecclesiastical Benefices and Livings be not dilapidate and misapplyed but that the rents and profites of them be rightly imployed for their proper uses it may be presumed there can no man be found so fit and qualified for such a charge or who will more narrowly zealously and carefully notice the matter than such as have been so piously inclined as to bestow a Maintenance and Living upon the Pastors of the Church especially if the Pastors be such as are Nominat and Elected by themselves every Man being Naturally very careful to defend preserve that which in a manner is the work of his own hands II. Tho' this ground may be sufficiently taken off by what is already represented yet we shall add some other considerations And first it may be considered that what ever force this ground may have as to the first Founders and Donors themselves and as to this Particular point of preserving and defending the Church's Patrimony yet it hath no force as to their Heirs or others succeeding them upon a singular right and Title who for the most part if it were in their power would be content to have their Predeceslors Deeds and Grants made in favours of the Church declared null and void And far less can this pretence conclude any thing to found the other Priviledges of Patronage
relating to their Negative Interests in the Call and Maintenance of the Ministry III. Next it is but too evident that whatever be pretended this care for Defence of the Church's Patrimony from Dilapidation and Misapplications is the least part of the Patron 's business or concernment All the care he takes in this affair being meerly that no Body shall have Power to Dilapidate or Misapply the Church's Rents and Livings but Himself And certainly in this respect the Power of Patronage may most justly and deservedly be termed a Jus onerosum a very grievous and burdensome power to the Church of God so that if there were a particular Office appointed for preventing the Dilapidation and Mismanagement or Misapplying of the Church's Patrimony and for punishing of such as should be found guilty of it I am sure there is no sort of Men in the Nation that would feell the weight of Justice more deservedly upon that account than the most part of the Patrons themselves who as they are de Facto guilty with many other Sacrilegious Impropriators of the Dilapidating and Misapplication of the Church's Livings Patrimony without the least colour of Material Right so they do pretend as we may have farther occasion to observe that de Jure they may lawfully retain in their own hands whatever part of the Benefice they can agree with the Intrant to allow And that in the cases of vacancy the Fruits and Profites of the Benefice must return to their own private use IV. But thirdly the defence of the Church in her Rights and Patrimony and in her Liberties and Priviledges also Is indeed a thing very necessar and desireable and therefore it is a duty incumbent not only on every Christian in power in their several stations but in a special manner upon the civil Magistrat who by his office is the Church's Nursing Father And not only is it the duty of all Magistrats but their Honour and Profit also and it will likewise be their Comfort that they have imployed all their Power and Interest and brought all their Honour and Authority to the New Jerusalem for whose good our blessed Lord took upon him the state of a Servant and sends forth his Angels as ministring Spirits But any power the civil Magistrat hath in these matters is only a power circa Sacra and no power in Sacris with reference to a Negative Interest in the Maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel to which they have a full and better Right by vertue of their Spiritual capacity and faithful Discharge of their duty therein than all the Powers on Earth can give them The Magistrats power is only Cumulative whereby he may confirm and maintain the Rights and Liberties of the Church but no way privative of them He may and ought to interpose his Interest and Authority for her defence in the injoyment of her Rights but can neither deprive her of them not confer or confirm the same in favours of any other that usurps or invads them to her prejudice V. Fourthly it is the constant opinion of Divines that the Church herself hath power to censure such as are guilty of Symoniacal or Sacrilegious Dilapidations and Misapplications of het Patrimony And this they gather by due Analogy from the Apostle Peter's inflicting Acts 5 Acts 8. of the punishment of Death upon Ananias and Saphira for their Sacrilegious Concealments of what they had Consecrate to God for the use of his Church and from the carriage of the same Apostle in the case of Simon Magus from whom the crime of Simony derives it's Name VI. But beside all this the word of God as it is compleatly perfect in every thing so it is noways deficient in settling institutions properly Ecclesiastical for the oversight of these matters For in the Primitive and Apostolick times we find that the care of the Collecting and Distributing of the goods of the Church was committed to the Deacons who being ordinar and standing Office-bearers in the Church were countable to her for their Administration and Censurable by her in case they were found to Maleverse These Office-bearers had truly a kind of power in Sacris or a lawful warrand to medle with a thing Consecrated and Devoted to God for pious uses And as this office was in it self most useful and necessary in the Church and founded upon a lawful warrand so it was ordinarly exerced by Men of Credit and Interest Acts 6. 1 Cor. 12 23 24 25 28. and such as were Eminent for Piety as is clear from 1 Cor. 12. And it is to be regrated that the Church for want of a Maintenance to such Officers stands deprived for the most part of their patrociny and protection VII They are styled in the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word Importing the standing over against a Man for help in the lifting of a burden that is too weighty for him alone And is a term that very properly and more fully and significantly expresseth the Nature and Design of this Office than any word in our Language can For without such helps so our Translation renders the word who may take upon them the care of collecting and dispensing what was bestowed upon the Church for pious uses the work of the Ministry could not but meet with many Hinderances and Obstructions For when the Pastors of the Church like the neglected Levits Nehem. 13. must flee every one to his field and be entangled in Secular Affairs and Law suits for recovery of their Livings how is it possible that they can wait upon the duties of their function as they ought the diligent and Faithful discharge of the Ministerial Office is of it self without the unnecessar addition of other civil Affairs of so great a weight and requires so much assiduity and application that it made even the Apostle Paul himself one of the greatest and most eminent Ministers that ever the Christian Church had cry out who is sufficient for these things or how is it possible when the Pastors of the Church 2 Cor. 2 16. are so inveigled in civil business and debates but they must turn cold and faint in that edge and zeal that renders them useful and profitable Labourers in the Lord's Vine-Yard VIII And tho' this office of Deacons may seem to be among the lowest yet in the primitive times it was of no mean account Men of the best note and consideration for piety and wealth were ordinarly intrusted with it as is clear from that fore-cited place And that because of the great use and necessity the Church had of them And therefore in Diaconis potius quam Pastoribus elegendis curandum ut caeteris paribus lautioris Fortunae Homines qui infimum hoc officium Ornent eligantur Our own Church also in the second Book of Discipline Dicks in loc treats at large of this office and of the charge of the Church's goods thereto Intrusted IX From all which we may very
nor to Magistrates as such because Jesus Christ who appointed and institute the the Ministry hath prescribed nothing singular concerning these orders nor hath communicated any new Right to them and hath left his Church very well ordered without them VII And if these priviledges of Patronage be without Foundation either from the word of God or from moral use and necessity as we have already proven and shall yet farther clear They can be nothing else but unjust and unreasonable Vsurpations And as usurpations in all Societies are deservedly very odious so a fortiori in the Church of the living God the most truly free Society on Earth whose Liberties and Priviledges are purchased at no lower rate than the most precious Blood of the Immaculat Lamb and Eternal Son of God they must be much more detestable Sure I am if the most eminent and judicious congregation in the Land should claim such a Priviledge in reference to the choice and maintenance of the meanest servant in the Patron 's Family He would with a great deal of reason look upon it as a most intolerable usurpation and oppression For as our Patrons do maintain that de jure they are not oblidged to seek the advice of either Presbitry or Paroch to the Nomination and Election of a Pastor but that both are oblidged to accept the Person whom the Patron presents if he be found in any measure externally qualified for the Office of a Pastor in general without any other enquiry or consideration So to do them right the practice of Patrons in this matter hath been no way disagreeable to their claims unless it be to the worse VIII We have but too much Reason to apprehend that this unjust and unwarrantable usurpation is one of these crying Sins by which God hath been provoked in his Justice to lay wast and desolate most of the great families of the Land. There are many standing Monuments of God's wrath and displeasure against such as medle in the affairs of his house without his own warrand and appointment Saul Vzziah and Vzzah are Recorded among others not as idle Stories but as warnings to Men in all after-ages of the Church not to partake in their sins left they also partake in their Plagues Vzzah had a much fairer and better pretext 2 Sam 6 6 1 Chron 13 9 to put his Hand to the Ark of the Lord than any of our Patrons have for their acclaimed priviledges He but touched the Ark of God in a case where he thought an extreme and indispensible necessity oblidged him to it And yet the Lord will not let his rash and preposteous Zeal pass unpunished because he Acted without a warrand For tho' he was a Levite and as such was commanded to carry the Ark on his Shoulders but not on a Cart yet being no Priest it was unlawful for him to touch it with his Hand Numb 4 15. And therefore the Lord is pleased to single him out and to make him an example of his Justice and Displeasure both for the general Sin of the Congregation in carrying the Ark on a Cart and not upon the Shoulders of the Levites and for his own Particular Sin in stretching forth his Hand to touch it without a Lawful call tho' his pretext and the seeming necessity of it was such that even David a man according to God's own Heart was tempted to fret at so heavy and unproportioned a Punishment of so slight and trivial a fault as he thought this was IX And that this power of Patronage is no institution of God's appointment may yet farther be clear from this that all Lawful powers that are of God are either Civil or Ecclesiastick and Spiritual For as to mixt powers that is such as are neither purely Civil nor purely Spiritual and Ecclesiastick and such as give the Office-bearers of the Church an interest in the management of Secular Affairs and give Secular powers an interest in Sacris we must freely disown them as having no foundation eitherin Divinity or good Policy but expresly contrary to both and as having ever been found by the Church's dear bought experience to be nothing else but the weak devices of ambitious and aspiring men to marr the progress of the Gospel and to bring the Church in subjection to a strange head Plants that are not of our Heavenly Father's Planting and most unbecoming the Wisdom of any Christian Church or State to tolerat and allow And certainly as the Magistrate or Civil powers of a Nation have no warrand to medle in Sacris so there is no Conscientious Minister of the Gospel but will find his charge so weighty without any farther addition of secular Affairs that he must say from the sense of his own weakness and the great extent of the duties of his Function with the great Apostle of the Gentiles who is sufficient for these things I Ergo tu saies Bernard to Eugenius Et usurpare tibi aut Dominans apostolatum aut Apostolicus dominatum Such a mixture as this is manifestly contrary to the dictates of our Blessed Saviour who hath expresly told us That his Kingdom is not of this World but a poor and contemptible handful in the Eyes of Men taken out of the World. And therefore as our Blessed Lord never gave any Instructions or precepts see Luk 22.25 Math 20.25 John 15.19 to the Civil Powers to medle in Sacris so he never gave any direction to the Office-bearers of the Church for the administration of civil Affairs But on the Contrary as we formerly hinted expresly dischargeth the same And therefore we may well give such unwarrantable mixtures that sutable Epiphonema apage hoc mixtum genus hominum prolemque biformem X And that this power of Patronage is one of these amphibious and irregular Inventions may be clear not only from these many confused Opinions of these Canonists themselves on this Head but also from these undenyable Grounds For first that this power of Patronage is not a power truly civil may be sufficiently evinced from the Nature of these Acts in which it is exerced to wit the Looking out Nomination and Election of the Ministry and the Negative interests acclaimed therein and in their maintenance All which are Actions of a Spiritual and Ecclesiastick Nature and such as by the Holy Ghost are always given to the Church and to none other as we shall see hereafter And accordingly in the primitive and apostolick times and some hundreds of years thereafter the Looking out and Election of the Ministers of the Gospel was still managed by the Church her self without the interposition of Patrons And the maintenance of the Ministry was a part of that trust in which the Deacons an ordinary and standing Office in the Church were imployed as we have already seen XI And tho' the conveyance and confirmation of the most part of Patronages hath been from the Civil Magistrate by rights under the great Seal c. yet this cannot prove that
power to be truly Civil For first no Conveyance or Confirmation of a Right can alter it's Nature which it still retains come thorow what hands it will and let it be disguised under what terms you please Nor 2ly can any Law or Magistrate Conferr or Confirm a power that is Materially and in it self Unjust and Unlawful for it is not enough to make a power Materially Just and Lawful that it be formally Legal Shall the Throne of Iniquity says the Psalmist have fellowship with Thee that frames Mischief by a Law Psal 94.20 Esa 10.1 And wo unto them says the Spirit of God by the Prophet Esaias that decree an unrighteous decree and who write grievous things that they have prescribed and it is an acknowledged principle Id tantum quis potest quod de Jure potest And 3ly These Conveyances and Confirmations of Patronage by grants from the civil Magistrate were invented for no other end but to put the Patron 's usurped power under the protection of Civil authority and to be an apron of fige leaves to cover the Stain of Symony with which the Patrons were most justly branded when they Bought and Sold their usurped Priviledges over the Church with as little Scruple and Remorse as they would have bargained for a Yoak of Oxen. Lastly this pretence is as Empty and Frivolous for evincing the pretended Rights of Patronage to be a power truly civil as if the gifted Brethren as they are called should justifie their usurpations in preaching of the Gospel and Administrating the Sacraments by alledging they had a power from the Civil Magistrate so to do XII But in the next place neither is this Priviledge a power truly Ecclesiastick or Spiritual For tho' these Acts in which it is exerced be Spiritual and in Sacris yet this can no more make it a truly Spiritual power than the like Acts of the gifted Brethren in preaching the Gospel and Administrating the Sacraments can make their assumed power to be truly Spiritual Both these usurpations proceed from the same Antichristian and Anti-evangelical Spirit 2ly If the priviledge of Patronage were a truly Spiritual power or office it could not be conveyed or transmitted by Birth or Right of Blood. For under the new Testament there is no such Conveyance or Transmission of Sacred Offices A Minister enjoyes not his office by the common Rules of Succession and Birth and much less a Patron 3ly If Patronage were a truly Spiritual office it could not be bought and sold as a part of a Mans private Inheritance and Patrimony 4ly Tho' the pretended right and power of Patronage in process of time came to it 's full stature by being Authorized in the Canon Law yet if we trace it back to it's first Original it will be found to be nothing else but a groundless and superstitious usurpation without any wartand from the word of God or consent of the Church and manifestly contrary to all the Ancient Ecclesiastical Canons concerning the Election of Pastors Annon cuilibet notum est Hom. 13. de Resurrect says the reverend Beza pro electionibus fuisse in Ecclesiam intrusos Patronatus c. Tam aperte antiquis Canonibus repugnantes quam Tenebrae Luci sunt contrariae Does not every one know says he that Patronages c were obtruded upon the Church in the place of lawful Elections as clearly against the ancient Canons as Light is contrary to Darkness And in his Treatise de notis Ecclesiae he inveighes yet more sharply against such abuses Collationes inquit sive Ordinariae sive Devolutae quas vocant Resignationis Jura ubi tandem nisi in Satanae Coquinâ sunt excogitatae c. Where says he were these Inventions of Collation either Ordinary or by Devolution as they term them first devised but in the Devil 's own Kitchine And again in his Confession of Faith Beze confess fid Christ cap. 5. inter tract Thâ—ol nunquam receptum est in Ecclesiis Christianis jam constitutis ut quis admitteretur ad functionem Ecclesiae nisi Liberè Legitimè electus ab Ecclesiâ cujus inter-eraâ— Itaque tota ista nundinatio praesentationum pleni Juris Patronatus Collationum Resignationum aliorum hujusmodi scelerum a Satina profecta est quamvis ambigi non possit quin ista ab initijs magis laudabilibus profecta sint That is it was never the custom of any Christian Church already constitute that any man should be admitted to an Ecclesiastical Function unless he were freely and lawfully chosen by the Church particularly concerned And therefore all that Trade and Trafficking of presentations the plenum jus of Patronages Collations Dimissions and other wicked Corruptions of that Nature owe their original intirely to the Devil tho' it is not to be doubted but there were some plausible pretexts for their first Institution XIII Lastly if Patronage be a power truly Spiritual and Ecclesiastick then the Patron must have this power either as an Office-bearer in the Church or as a private Church Member and that he hath it neither of these wayes may be thus evinced 1. as a Church Officer he hath it not fro in all the Catalogues of Church Officers mentioned in the Scripture Rom 12. 1 Cor. 12. Eph. 4. there is not the least shadow of a Patron either as to Name or Thing 2ly If he have this power as an Office-bearer in the Church then he must either have it as a Church Officer in general and so it will belong to all Church Officers and not to the Patron alone tho' he were a Bishop Quod enim convenit tali qua tali convenit omm tali or other ways he must have it as such a Church Officer in particular in which case likewise all Church Officers of that Kind should have this power also and not he alone for the reason before assigned a quatenus ad omne And the truth is it is very difficult to conjecture under what kind of Church Officers a Patron can have the least pretence to list himself but take him to which of them all he will the power must still be common to all the Officers of that kind and not proper to him alone XIV And far less can the Patron have this priviledge as a private Church Member else every Church Member should have it as well as he the poorest and meanest Christian in the Church of God having no less Right to such common priviledges as are competent to all Church Members in general than the greatest and richest Patron I shall not determine how far such an unjust usurpation may stain and blemish the Patron 's own Church-Membership Jam. 2 1 2 3 4. Jude v. 16. Gal. 3.28 Col. 3 11. but sure I am in matters of common Right there is no respect of persons for in Christ there is neither bond nor free Sect. XII The power of Patronage is destructive of the Institutions of Christ for Election of the Pastors of
his Church 1. AS we have asserted that Patronage is no divine Institution and that the Patrons have not the right of Electing the Pastor's of the Church so we must also shew to whom this Right of Election doth properly belong lest others that have as little Right may lay claime to it as it hath fallen out in the matter of the Church's Patrimony which when it was taken from the Popish Clergy who had no true Right to it was not restored to the reformed Church but to private persons who to say no worse I am sure had as little Right as the former possessors II. And therefore the next ground that we shall insist upon against Patronage shall be this that as this power is no divine Institution but a manifest usurpation so which is worse it clearly destroyes and renders useless the ordinances appointed by Jesus Christ the Church's only Head for the Election of the Ministers of his Church And thereby carries with it the guilt of Rejecting our Blessed Lord from being King and Law-giver in his own House and of Establishing strange Lords and new Law-givers therein For the Patrons Looking out Nomination of and pitching upon such a determinate person to be a Pastor of the Church without the consent of either Presbitry or People does evidently take away the ordinance of a free and unlimited Election of such as may be fittest for such a charge and most acceptable to the congregation concerned to be made by the Church Judicatories and Church of believers respectively each of them acting what is proper for their several places and stations as being the only party intrusted with it by Jesus Christ the sole King and Law-giver in his own Church III. And tho' the Patron may sometimes pitch upon and present a person of true worth yet as this is but meerly accidental and the case does generally fall out quite otherwise so nothing should be done to hinder the Election of one more worthy And a well qualified Pastor may be one among a Thousand as it is Job 33. Is enim eligendus says Origen ex omnibus qui Doctior qui Sanctior qui omni virtute praestantior That is he that among all is the Holiest in Life the most Learned and the most Eminent in all manner of vertue is the person that ought to be Elected So likewise the free Election of such ought to be intirely left to these entrusted by Jesus Christ therwith IV. The discerning of the Spirits and the knowing of the Voice of Christ in his Called Sent Servants is the priviledge of the Church as such and does fit and qualifie the Church and not the Patron to make a due and suteable choice of her Pastors and therefore the Church and not the Patron as such hath only right to medle therein I say the Patron as such hath not the right of Election for tho' the Patron as a Church-Member or as a Church-officer in the Congregation where he lives whether he be Elder or Deacon may have that Voice and Concurse in the Election which the other Members and Office-bearers have yet as Patron and under that Reduplication he can have no such Right as the Priviledge acclaimed amounts to V. And what ever diversity of Judgment may be found among Divines as to the seat of this Church power yet it is agreed upon by all that write on the Subject and clearly evident from the Scriptures that this Power and Right of Election Acts. 14.23 1 Tim. 4.14 belongs only to the Church as such and consequently it cannot belong to the Patron as a Negative Interest due to him in the extent acclaimed And accordingly it is clear beyond all debate that the Church was in the Actual possession of this power and right of Election for several hundreds of years before such a device as Patronage was heard of in the Christian World. This is a truth as evident from Antiquity as any thing can be for in all the ancient Councils Canons Fathers and Historians of the Church there is not the least mention of such a priviledge as this of Patronage And when ever they have occasion to speak of the Forms of the Election of Pastors they still set down a method wherein the Church it self does freely Elect in every thing absolutely inconsistent with the Rights of Patronage VI. There is not the least hint in all these Ancient Writers that with any shadow can be alledged for the power of Patronage Some thing there is indeed now and then mentioned for clearing and instructing the power of the Civil Magistrate circa sacra But that is an interest quite different from the Rights of Patronage and which does not at present fall in our way to debate VII It would be tedious and to no purpose to offer to prove from Antiquity See Padri Paulo's Hist of the Council of Trent Cyprian Epist 33 34 37 55 63. Theodoret Histor tripart lib. 2. cap. 12. lib. 4. cap. 22. lib 6. cap. 9. Socrat. Hist Eccles cap. 28. c. Decret dist 63. can Quanto Can. vota civium Can. Sacrorum c. Chemnit examen Counc Trident. parte page 408. seq editionis Francosurt in 80. Didoclar alt Damascen c. the Interest of the Church in the Election of her Pastors since it is a point that I have found very little contraverted These who are curious may consult the debates even of those Men whom they call the Fathers at Trent whereof many as corrupt as they were would gladly have had the Church restored to her primitive Rights of Election and many others both Popish and Protestant Writers which it would be weariesome to cite VIII But not to insist any farther on these Topicks let us follow Augustin's rule Mittamus ea quae ab utraque parte dicipossunt ad Scripturae judicium revocetur controversia Agustin cont Jul. The clearest and fafest Methods in Debates of this Nature which concern the Interest of Christ and his Church is to decide them by the sentence of the Scriptures to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to these it is because there is no Light in them Isay 8.20 Thus we find the Apostles and multitude of Disciples for so was the Church of Believers then termed meet together for the Election of an extraordinary Office-bearer in the Church viz. an Apostle And a list made by them both to wit the Apostles and Believers of two Joseph and Matthias But the designation of the particular person for this extraordinary Office they leave to the Divine Determination by Lot. IX And if the Apostles who were Instructed by Christ in all things that concerned his Kingdom and did accordingly teach the Church practically and by their own example to observe all that was commanded them Matt. 28.20 conform to their Lord's farewel command did proceed with consent and concurrence of the Church and people of God to the Election of so High
and Extraordinary an Officer as an Apostle It strongly imports that it was their Master's mind that they should so do not only in the particular Election of that Apostle but also and much more in the choice of the Inferiour and Ordinary Office-bearers of the Church X. Thus we also find that the Looking out Nomination and Election of the Deacons whose Office is one of the ordinary tho' inferiour Offices of the Church is given by the appointment of the Apostles to the multitude of the Disciples or ordinary Believers In which Action these things are clearly evident 1. That the twelve Apostles call the Multitude together and appoint Deacons to be chosen and also appoint their determinate Number viz seven being so many as they judged would serve the Church's need at that time as also they ordain and lay hands on these Deacons after they are chosen and and so state and confirm them in their Office. 2. That the multitude of Disciples or Believers are left by the Apostles to their own freedom and discretion in the Election and choice of those seven qualified as the Apostles had directed 3. That the Looking out Nomination and Election of those seven is accordingly performed by the multitude of Believers In prima instantia without the prelimitation of a previous Nomination or Choice 4. That the same multitude of Beleivers present or as the word is set these seven before the Apostles who ordain and lay hand upon them and so invest and confirm them in the Office. XI And as in all Christ's Institutions so particularly in this of the Election of the Office-bearers of his own house there appears a most Beautiful and Harmonious order For as the Election of the first and extarordinary Officers of the Church was immediately performed by our Lord Jesus Christ the Chief Pastor Head of the Church so the Election of the succeeding and ordinary Officers of the Church is very consequentially performed by the inferiour Pastors and Members of the Church respectively each of them acting and keeping within the limits prescribed by the Chief Pastor and Head of the Church XII Suteable to these excellent Patterns and examples set down in the Holy Scriptures the General Assembly of this Church Gen assemb 1649 sess 40 in the directory for Electing of Ministers appoints the order thereof in this manner 1. The Presbitry sends one of their own Number to the Congregation for which a Minister is to be Elected and he having preached before them concerning the necessity of a well qualified Pastor and the great need that the People have to be diligent and fervent in Prayer to the Lord for such He is to signifie to them that the Presbitry out of their care for that People will send them Preachers whom they may hear But withall he advertiseth them that if they desire to hear any other the Presbitry will endeavour to satisfie them upon the sute of the Elders of the Congregation for that Effect 2. Within some competent time thereafter The Presbitry is again to send a Minister to that Congregation on a certain day before appointed for that end who having then Preached and intimat to the People that they are to go about the Election of a Pastor the Session is to proceed to it the Minister that Preached moderating therein And the Election being made is to be intimate to the People And if upon intimation they acquiesce and consent to the Person chosen then the Presbitry is to proceed to his tryals But if the People dissent from the Person Elected by the Session the Presbitry is to take cognition thereof and after they have fully heard and considered the whole affair they are to judge and decide in it And where Congregations are unfit as in some cases they may be to make any Election the Presbitry is to provide them with a fit Pastor XIII Our Reverend Brethren the Ministers of the province of London incline to think that the power of Election doth ordinarly belong not so much to the People Jus Divin regim Eccles Pag. 98.99 in margine and Jus Divine Minist evang Pag 12 7. but rather to such as are in Office when Judicially conveened As for extraordinary cases I speak nothing of them For these must have extraordinary remedies But certainly dum suppetit remedium or dinarium nunquam recurrendum est ad remedium extraordinarium XIV Master Rutherfoord and others do unanimously agree that what ever be the People's share and interest in the Election of their Pastors it is indeed a deliberative and approbative but not an Authoritative Action yet as is said it is an Action truly Ecclesiastical properly and only belonging to the Church as such And that the People are indeed very nearly concerned in the right choice of their Pastors as being the most special ordinary means appointed of God for their Spiritual and Eternal welfare XV. From all which it is abundantly evident that the Right and power of the Looking out Nomination and Election of the Office-bearers of the Church of God doth properly and only belong to the Church as such and no way to any single person upon the account of priviledge or otherways call him patron or what you please and that the negative interests of Patronage are inconsistent with and destructive of that unlimited freedom and liberty of Election granted to and appointed by Jesus Christ to his Church for providing herself with such as may be most fit and proper for bearing Office therein XVI I need not add after this that the method of entring the Pastors of the Church by Patrons marrs that beautiful constant and uniform order that appears in all these ordinances and institutions of which our Blesed Lord who is a God of order and not of confusion Is the Author And therefore we may very Justly conclude it can be none of his For by this method of Patronage some Pastors are oblidged to enter by Patrons and some without them as in cases where it is doubtful who hath right to Present or where the Heirs of the last Patron are not entered as we term it or as the Civilians term it nondum adierunt haereditatem And in many other cases which oft times put both Presbitry and People to a stand not knowing how to behave and in the mean time the Congregation must unavoidably lye desolate at lest for half a Year for during that time the Patron is not oblidged to Present Again some must enter by those they call Ecclesiastical Patrons as Bishops c others by Laick Patrons whereof some are Courtiers others Souldiers or mean and Ignorant Mechanicks c. Some must enter by Patrons residing at a distance in the country others by those that reside neither in the Country nor Nation yea and some by Women as hath been formerly observed Some by one Patron others by many c. Ministri says Doctor Ames dati sunt Ecclesiae a Chrisâ—o ut eadem or dinaria et
certa ratione possint ab omni Ecclesiâ procurari sed si ab alijs penderet vocatio Ecclesia saepe destitueretur certa ratione sibi ministros procurandi et proinde talis Ecclesia esset a Christo Jnstituta quae non esset sibimet sufficiens in seipsa de cas conscien L 4 C 25 25 That is Ministers are apointed by Christ in his Church that by the same certain and ordinary method they may be procured by every Church But if the Call of the Ministry must depend upon others the Church might oft-times be destitute of a certain method of procuring her own Pastors so that in that case such a Church should be institute by Christ as were not sufficient in it self to provide for her ordinary Necessities which is altogether inconsistent with the infinite Wisdom and Fidelity of Christ And tho' this Author it may be understand the Church otherways than we do yet that makes no difference in the present case The Argumentis very cogent in what ever sense the term be taken XVII Nay which is yet worse this method of Patronage destroyes or at least weakens the very nature of a Ministers Call for the Call of a Minister must be Divine and not humane it must be of God and not of Men. The Call of the Apostles indeed was neither of Men nor by Men their Office in the Church being extraordinary long since determined They were called immediately by the Lord himself to be Ear and Eye witnesses of his Doctrine Miracles and Resurrection That they might afterwards deliver them to the World. as is clear from Acts 1.23 In which it was impossible for them to have any Successors whence it is that the Apostle Paul calls himself an Apostle born out of Time Tho' his Call to the Office was immediatly by Christ himself and he reckoned himself in other respects to be not a Whit behind the very Chiefest Apostles But the calling of the ordinary and standing Officers of the Church 1 Cor 15.89 10 2 Cor ij 15. such as Preaching and Ruling Elders Doctors and Deacons tho' it be by Men that is by the intervention of such men as have divine warrand and Commission to Act therein yet it must not be of Men that is it neither hath its Authority from men nor must it come thorow the hands of such men as have no warrand from Jesus Christ the Church's only Head and Law giver to medle in it For this were truly to make them the Servants of Men and not of God. XVII And that this method of calling the Ministers of the Gospel by Patrons makes their Call to be partly Humane and of Men I think will need but little to clear it it being evident that the rise of the external Call at least flowes from such Men as the Spirit of God never breathed the call of his sent Servants by and to whom the Looking out Nomination and Election of the Pastors of the Church and the Presenting them to the Church Judicatories for Tryal and Admission was never entrusted or committed And therefore a Minister's Call in that method must at lest in part be Humane and not Divine And consequently must be of Men and not of God Malum enim ex quolibet defectu bonum non nisi ex integracausa And as such an unwarantable Mixture cannot but pro tanto very much weaken I shall not say nullisie a Mininister's Call so certainly it cannot but very much marr his Confidence and obstruct his Comfort in the exercise of his Ministry as we shall see hereafter To this purpose Zanchius tells us after he hath been speaking of the Ministerial call Ex his autem omnibus apparet quam nulla sit vel non Legitima eorum Dei Ministrorum vel Ecclesiae Pastorum vocatio qui solius Regis vel Reginae vel Patroni vel Episcopi aut Archiepiscopi Diplomate Bullis Jussu Judicio fiunt vel Eliguntur id quod dolendum est adhue fieri in ijs Ecclesiis qui tamen purum Dei verbum habent sequuntur ut in Ecclesia Anglicana c. That is it is very clear how much either Null or at lest not Lawsul the Call of those Ministers of God or Pastors of the Church must be who take their Election only from the Patents Bulls Warrands or Appointment of a King Queen Patron or Bishop c Which yet to our grief is done even in these Churches who have and follow the profession of the true word of God as in England c. XVIII And lastly the Assertors of this pretended power of Patronage cannot deny but it were most absurd and unreasonable for any single Person how pious and judicious soever to assume and take upon him the Looking out Nomination and Election of all the Ruling Elders and Deacons of a Congregations And to oblidge the Church to accept and receive such as he should so Nominat and Elect tho' those viz. the Ruling Elders and Deacons be but the inferiour Officebearers of the Church and the people of God no way so neerly concerned in the right choice of them as in that of their Pastors who are appointed of God as the most special ordinary means of their Salvation And therefore for any Man without Christ's warrand to assume the Nomination and Election of the Pastors of the Church who are the principal Office-bearers in the House of God and in the right and due choice of whom the good of Souls is so neerly concerned must be much more absurd and unreasonable And there is no ground that can be urged for allowing the Patrons a priviledge of Electing the Principal Office-bearers of the Church that may not with much more force and advantage be pressed for giving him a power to Elect the Inferiour Office bearers also I grant the case is different but still I see no difference that with any appearance of reason can be assigned to determine the point in favours of the Right of Patronage as to the Principal Office beaters and not as to others save this that the Patrons settling of a Maintenance in favours of the Pastors must give him a greater Interest in the choice of those than he can have in that of the others on whom he hath conferred no Benefice And of how much weight this pretence is we have already seen and shall not repeat what we have said upon this Head. SECT XIII The power of Patronage is against the Freedom and Interest of common Society I. AS this power of Patronage is no Institution of Jesus Christ but clearly inconsistent with and destructive of his Institutions so it is against the Freedom Interest of the Church considered as a Common Society It being a priviledge naturally Inherent in all free Societies such as Republicks Cities Colledges Corporations c. To Elect and Choice their own Rulers and Office bearers of which Freedom this priviledge of Patronage does clearly Robb and Deprive the Church II. For if we
may be allowed as well as others to guess at the first beginings of Society and to speak what the common sense of Mankind seems to Dictat so long as any number of Men are kept together only by a mutual consent express or tacit to supercede force and to live quietly on what providence brought to their hands They cannot be said to have been under any proper Government It being meerly good Humor and nothing else that kept them together in any kind of Society Man indeed is a Creature Naturally Social and Society is a kind of Life that they are by God and Nature designed to as to mention no other consideration may be sufficiently manifest from that one faculty they have of Communicating their Thoughts to one another by speech but if they live together only by bonds of good Nature it cannot be expected that the Corruptions of Men would let their Societie continue for any long time so that when ever that bond of good Nature began to fail they behoved either to quit one another's company or else betake themselves to some sort of Government And this could only be established either voluntarly and by common consent whereby a superiority and power was given over the rest to some one or moe whom they thought fittest to manage it for the good of all or otherways such a Power and Superiority was Ambitiously usurped by such whose Reputarion and Authority for Wisdom and Strength made them conceive themselves most Likely and Able to keep it which neither deserves the Name nor satisfies the true ends of Government and so the Natural Freedom of Election was subverted III. And therefore the like Freedom in in choosing of such as are fittest for bearing Office cannot without the highest Injurie and usurpation be denied to or wrested from the Church and people of God the most truely free born Society on Earth who with Abraham are Heirs of the World and Heirs Annexed with Christ Rom 4.13 Rom 8 17. by the incomprehensible love and wisdom of whom as her only Head and Law-giver the Church is most fully and compleatly provided with all the true and necessary freedoms priviledges of other Societies I mean free Societies and not such as are inslaved to the power of others where little or no freedom remains all things being managed meerly for the private interest of some one or more particular persons or Families to the prejudice and opression of the rest either by a forced surrender or an open invasion of their Liberties with little respect to any publick advantage except in so farr as may conduce for that private interest And what ever may be said of their Societies yet the Church is utterly incapable of making any such surrender of her liberties tho' this pretence as frivolous as it is be made use of by some for a ground to found the rights of Patronage upon as we have already seen IV. There is another consideration of a near affinity with this that may very properly be made use of against the interest of Patronage That as this power is against the freedom of comon Society so it is also against the interest of the Church as a Society For it being uncontroverted that all pretending to any trust in a Society ought both to be qualified for it and attend upon it as is clear in Church Affairs from the Canons against non-residence it is as evident on the other hand that these things are no ways to be found in this our Patron Seing the Patron by vertue of his pretended power and trust stands no wayes oblidged to reside within the paroch nay nor so much as within the National Church nor to be of the same profession of Religion His right of Patronage being as consistent with his non-residence and with his being Popish or other wayes heretical yea with his being under the highest censures of the Church inflicted for his notorious and scandalous wickedness as the rights he hath to the other parts of his Estate That being a right in Patrimonio as well as the rest of his fortune V. And how is it possible for any man in Reason to conceive that a person in these cases should be capable tho' the priviledge should be otherwayes never so alowable to act in a matter of so high and tender concernment to the welfare of our Lord 's Spiritual interests and the good of the Souls of his People For when a Patron does not reside in the Paroch nor perhaps in the Nation it is impossible for him to exerce his priviledge upon any rational grounds and motives or with any proper Judgement and Discretion of his own All the light he hath to steer by being at best but an ignis fatuus of a naked hear say either as to the life and qualifications of the person to be presented or as to what gifts are most sutable and proper for such a people he being equally and utterly ignorant of the need and condition of both so that he must in this be unavoidably left to be acted and driven by the solistations of his friends or servants as ignorant at least as himself or by other means less honest without any Judgement of Discretion like a beast of burden Psal 49 20. as the Spirit of God stiles the man that is in Honour and understandeth not VI. And if the Patron be Popish or otherways heretical or under the censures of the Church the matter is still worse if worse can be For all the Reason in the World will oblidge us to presume that a Patron in these circumstances will neither be able nor desirous to discern the Spirit of God as in this case it is very necessary he should or to make choice of such Pastors as may be according to Gods own heart and may feed his People with knowledge and understanding It being most certain that on the contrary such a Patron will bend his whole force for Imposing Pastors upon the Church that may Act most sutably to his own corrupt and pernicious principles and designs for advancing such interests as are incompatible with the honour of God the Spirit of the Gospel the welfare of Religion and the peace and quiet of the Church Nation so that to intrust any man in such a case with such a priviledge as this of Patronage were indeed oves lupo committere to give the wolfe the wedder to keep as the Proverb says VII These are no remote and airy speculations but such as deserve the most serious reflection especially at such a time as this wherein there is such a General and Visible decay of knowledge and Piety and Popery is not only tolerate but in a manner authorized VIII It may also be remembred from former and latter times how that many of the Nobility and others who resided ordinarly at Court or went abroad upon Foreign Employments and had the Patronages of many Kirks and Benefices in their hands were wont upon the solistation
of Friends and Servants and many times from Motives and to Ends of a more dangerous and fatal consequence to send Presentations in favours of such as they never saw in the face nor so much as ever heard of either before or after that time without making the least shadow of a previous Inquiry into the qualifications and condition of either Preacher or People They being as unfit and incapable to discern in either as they were unable and inconcerned to improve any discovery they should make for the good of the People by looking out and presenting a Pastor that might be fit and proper for them Vbi ille Canon says Athanasius ut a palatio mittatur is qui futurus est Episcopus In Epist ad vitam Solit. agentes Neither need we forget how many that entered to the Ministry in this method were the occasion of no small trouble to the Church of God in this Nation SECT XIV The power of Patronage hath been grosly abused and scandalously offensive without any necessity or use I. THE next Ground I shall insist upon against the pretended right of Patronage is That as it is no Divine Institution but clearly destructive of the Institutions of Christ and of the Natural Freedom and Interests of the Church considered as a society So it is likewise an useless and unnecessary Invention and hath been the Fountain and Occasion of many gross abuses and most scandalously offensive to all sorts of Christians in the Church of God. And therefore ought not to be tolerat and allowed in any Christian Church or State. II. As for its usefulness or necessity I cannot understand neither have I ever heard any thing pretended in its defence from this Head. And it is impossible any end or use of it can be thought on but what may very well and far better be attained by the due and orderly method of Election set down in the Scriptures For as the Church is sufficiently and much better provided for in that method by her infinitely wise and loving King and Head so there needs no other right to give a Minister of the Gospel a lawful Title to his Maintenance and Living but his spiritual Capacity and faithful discharge of the duties of his Function The Workman says our Lord is worthy of his wages so that unless the Patron will pretend that he can state a Minister in a Spiritual Capacity and so assume a power of Ordination as well as of Election and truly he hath as good ground to claim the one as the other he can give him no right to his Maintenance as we have already proven And therefore such a power is not to be tolerate in the Church by any Christian Magistrate who ought to use all his Power and Authority for God and the edification of his People by being a terrour to evil doers and removing of such corrupt and useless Institutions as put an obstruction in the way of the precious Ordinances of Jesus Christ for the Calling of such as may be fittest for the Ministerial Charge as being the most special ordinary Means both of his own and his People's Eternal Happiness III. And the Church having in her purest times enjoyed her lawfully called Pastors e're such a thing as Patronage was heard of in the World and when she had no Christian Magistrate to protect and defend her It cannot but seem wonderful Quorsum or for what end such an Invention shall now be maintained in and over the Church when there are Christian Magistrates who Virtute Officij are bound to plead for and defend her in her Rights and Liberties seing all that is necessar in reference to the Call of a Gospel Ministry and to their true Right and Maintenance is far better provided for by Methods of Divine Appointment The right of Patronage is as little and less useful and I am sure far more prejudicial in this cafe than in the Call and Maintenance of Men of other Professions such as Lawyers Phisicians and common Mechanicks Only men have still a greater itch to be medling in the matters of God without a lawful Call than in other things that of their own Nature are subject and by Divine Appointment are left to a humane Regulation nitimur in vetitum And therefore as we had once good reason to bless God that the publick Authority of the Nation in the Year 1649. had abolished this corrupt custom so on the other hand it is to be regrated that there hath not been that same sense of Justice since with a suteable acquiescence to their so just and rational Determination especially considering that if there was any prejudice or loss of Patrimony sustained it was on the Church's part and not on the Patron 's as the Act 1649. will easily clear to any that will be at the pains to peruse it IV. In this manner do all Protestant Divines and our own Writers in particular argue against the superstitious Corruptions and Ceremonies of the Romish and English Churches And the truth is if we would but allow our selves calmly and without heat and prejudice to consider the matter it cannot but be very surprysing to see that men who pretend to act for the good and edification of the Church should yet hazard her Peace and Unity and the scandalizing and offending or the marring of the progress of their poor Brethren in the ways of God by forcing and violently imposing upon them as the only terms of Communion under the pain both of Church Censures and Legal Punishments The practice of what themselves confess to be at best but indifferent and no way necessar either upon the account of a Divine Command or Moral Use And which their Brethren upon solid and undenyable Grounds taken from the Word of God and the Principles of the Reformation believe to be superstitious and sinful Especially since they are forced to acknowledge that these Institutions in which they both agree are not only Lawful but do likewise abundantly satisfie all the necessary ends for which they are appointed there being nothing alledged in favour of these superstitious and unnecessary additions but a pityful and empty shadow of worldly decency and fashionablness so much decryed by the word of God Be not ye conform to this present evil world says the Apostle and which in no equity can ever come in competition with the least hazard of losing the Church Unity or offending the meanest of Christ's Followers These Practices must certainly render such men justly obnoxious to the heavy charge of Schism and to that Wo denounced by our blessed Lord against such as should be instrumental see Matth. 18.7 in bringing divisions and offences into the Church V. But to leave this and come to the next brench of this consideration we may observe that as there are few or no institutions either Civil or Ecclesiastick but what by reason of the weakness and wickedness of men are lyable to be abused and one way or another
of the Benefice yea and sometimes they intercept the whole profits of it leaving nothing to these upon whom for a cover to their infamous avarice they confer the same but only a naked and empty Title And therefore we peremptorly require that no prelat nor official in his name to whom the right of institution pertains presume to give any man institution in a benefice to which the cure of Souls is annexed unless he first instruct that the rents of it are sufficient for his sustentation and that they are left intire to him by the Patron Otherways we decern the Institution to be void and null and ordain such Contraveeners of this wholsom prohibition to be ipso facto suspended from their office and to be punished at the discretion of their Ordinary And we doe likewayes prohibit any such person as hath accepted of a presentation upon such conditions from the Patron to a Benefice either with or without Cure to be institute therein And if at any time after the Institution such a paction shall be discovered we ordain him to be deprived of the Benefice another fit Person to be put in his place X. At other times the Intrants Friends at trysts or meetings about Civil Business with the Patrons past from something more or less of their just rights In favours of the Patrons hoc intuitu that their Friend may be setled in the Benefice XI Sometimes the Intrants Friends engage for his dependence upon the Patron and for his concurrence with him in his designs for promoting a course of defection and promise him the Intrants suffrage for that effect And the truth is Generally this Right of Patronage kept the Pastors of the Church in such a sneaking and flavish dependence upon great Men as was most unworthy the Dignity and Character of a Minister of the Gospel or any man of Spirit to undergoe XII Thus also gifts were bestowed on the Patron 's Wife and Children or on some Gehazies about him wherein the Patron did oft times meanly enough run his share In short there are as many several methods of practising Simony occasioned by this one device of Patronage as there are of making up the price or value of a bargain betwixt Merchant and Merchant and some of them dishonest dishonourable and base to that Degree that it is much safer to pass them over in silence than to teach Men to repeat them by a fuller enumeration XIII But 2dly this corrupt power hath not only exposed Patrons and Intrants but even the Churche-Judicatories and People themselves to a multitude of temptations The Scandal and Offensiveness of Patronage in this respect is but too well known For these also very oft partly from a shyness to top with the great Ones partly from the solistations and flatteries and sometimes the threats that were used for procuring the admission of the Person presented And finding it hard to withstand the tyde and stream of the times or to provide any effectual remedy against a growing evil have been forced to ly by and slight the due inquiry and tryal of the life and qualifications of the Intrant and to huddle up the whole matter perfunctorie et pro more scholae only XIV And both Presbitry People were also many times deluded and abused by the Patrons droping in of a presentation which he knew and designed should be rejected once in the half year that he might thereby preserve his right of presentation from falling Jure devoluto into the hands of the Church And that he might promote his own private and base ends of misapplying the profits of the benefice parl 13. I. 6. p. 135. p. 15. I. 6. p. 163. during the vacancy to his own use The poor People in the mean while being oblidged to seek help from other Ministers and to depend upon the leasure of such as were for the most part as unable to decern what was requisite to make a fit and well qualified Minister as they were careless and unconcerned to provide them with such to the great hinderance of the planting of Kirks whereby the poor people have been unavoidably forced to ly destitute for a long time of the preaching of the Gospel so necessary a mean of their Eternal happiness XV. Again the power of Patronage hath been most offensive in being abused to the bringing in and keeping up of a corrupt Ignorant Lazie and Scandalously prophane Ministry in the Church of God. I need not enlarge upon this it is a truth but too well known The whole Nation can bear witness That there was never a more Ignorant Idle and Profane pack of men that bare the name of Ministers in any Christian Church since the first dawning of the Reformation from Popery than many of those that were obtruded upon the Church in the time of the late Prelates to say nothing of the present Prelates when Patronage was exercised in its full extent The good Lord deliver and preserve his Church from such a Ministry XVI This power of Patronage hath also many times been laid hold on when no other pretence would serve the turn to eject Learned Godly Painful and Successful Ministers or to disturb them in the peacable Possession of their livings if their entry was not by the Patron 's Presentation as being the only Legal Title that any man could have for the time To abstract from that strange Catastrophe that we see brought about in this Church in the Years 1661 and 1662. upon the pretence of the want of Presentations when yet for the time Patronages stood abolished XVII It hath also been grosly scandalous and offensive by being an occasion of bringing the Blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Ministers of it into contempt For as on the one hand there is no secondary mean that does more advance the esteem and value of the Gospel in the hearts of People than a sutable and due respect a chearful cordial submission to such as are imployed in the Ministry of it as is very clear both from common Reason and from the Apostles earnestness with the Faithful upon that account we beseech you brethren sayes he to know them 1 These 5.12 13. 1 Tim 5 17 1. Cor 4. which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their Works sake And again Let the Elders that Rule well be counted worthy of double Honour especially they that labour in word and Doctrine that is both preaching Presbiters and ruling Elders For the Scripture says Thou shall not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the Corn and the Labourer is worthy of his reward So on the other hand there is no stratageme that ever Satan devised that has had worse and more effectual influence for destroying that reverence and free submission which people owe the Sent Servants of the Lord than this device of Patronage hath had XVIII And it is
could not be otherwise had to the keeping up of such an abuse when it may be taken away as it was once well taken away is a consequence beyond all rational comprehension Those Ministers ordinarly had the voluntar consent of the Church and People interessed which makes up the Substance of Election And if they had not this I do not see how they could have been free of the guilt of having run unsent ubi libertas Electionis sayes Doctor Ames ab episcopis de casibus Cons Cap 25 § 29. Magistratu Patronis Imminuitur quamvis Electio non sit eo modo et gradu libera quo oportet Consensus tamen voluntarius ut in Conjugio sic in Ministerio licet iniquis rationibus procuretur essentiam habet Electionis et vocationis necessario Requisitae That is tho' in such cases the Election be not in that manner and to that degree so free as it ought to be yet the voluntary consent of these interessed as in the case of Marriage so in this of the Ministry hath the necessary Essence and Substance of ane Election and Call. SECT XV Patronage is a symbolizing with Idolaters and against the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church I. THE last ground that we shall insist upon against the interests of Patronage is that it being a Popish device without any use or necessity ought even upon that account to be rejected I grant indeed that it is no sufficient Argument simply to say that a thing is devised or practised by the Popish Church if it were founded on any necessity either of means or precept that is if it were either morally necessary or positively commanded But we may well conclude that the complying and symbolizing with Idolaters in things unnecessary or even things simply indifferent is sinful and unlawful Thus we find the Lord prohibiteth his People from complying with or imitation of the Heathen in cutting the Hair Lev 19 27 or rounding the corners of the Head c which are things in themselves at worst but indifferent And therefore a fortiori and much more is it unjustifiable to comply with Idolaters In keeping up and maintaining such Popish devices as are not only in themselves useless and unnecessary but are likewayes clearly prejudcial and destructive to the interests and liberties of the Church of God And have moreover a Natural Tendency to foster Superstition and an Anti-evangelical Opinion of Merit II. And that this power of Patronage is of that nature is abundantly clear from what is already said in the begining and progress of this Discourse And to this day where ever it is maintained in its â—ull Latitude as in the Popish Churches daily experience confirms the truth of this Charge For as Superstition and the Opinion of Merit were the great Principles that gave Birth and Life to this corrupt and useless Invention and have multiplied Patronages to so vast a number as will appear to any that will peruse the Popish Writers so it is but little wonder that this power still retain a native tendency to foster these breasts from which it drew its first strength and aliment There being nothing more natural than for a thing both to preserve and be preserved by the same means by which it began at first to have a Beeing It were easie to enlarge upon this Consideration but the thing it self being abundantly clear I shall leave it to the Reader 's own consideration That will furnish him with more than is necessar to set down in this discourse which hath already exceeded the brevity at first designed III. There are many other Grounds that might be insisted on against the Interest of Patronage but these already proposed I hope upon due consideration will be found to be a sufficient proof of our assertion and the intended brevity of this Essay will not allow me to enlarge any farther And therefore I shall only add that this power of Patronage is contrary to the Doctrine Discipline and Government of this Church received from the first Dawning of the Reformation from popery as hath been shewn in the entry of this discourse shall not now be resumed which the whole Nation hath so often and Solemnly Vowed and engaged to Maintaine And it is hoped that none who have been Born and Baptized in this National Church will upon serious and deliberate reflection think this Device which is so unwarrantable useless and offensive and so prejudicial and destructive to the worship and service of God and the good of the Souls of his People Of so much worth and value as to run themselves and their posterity by the defence and practise of it under the hazard that the breach of such solemn Eagagments may bring upon them IV And what ever disorder may bepretended by the Adversaries of Religion to have been in going about the Reformation either in this 〈◊〉 other Countries yet as it is not much to be admired if in such a horrid confusion and darkness as the affairs of both Church and state were brought to at that time there was somthing of an unavoidable superpurge upon a Body full of so gross Humors and fixed and inveterate Diseases where it was impossible for the best Phisitians at the first to know the Quantum sufficit and the just and true Dose requisite for such an untractable patient Especially after all that they call Regular and orderly methods had been so often attempted with out the least success Omne enim pharmacum habet in se aliquid veneni Et omne medicum aliquid violenti et nullum est magnum exemplum sine aliqua mixtura injustitiae There being no Drug without some mixture of Poison no Phisick without something violent in it nor any great example or advantage without some small loss which yet our Adversaries will be very much straitned to instruct So sure I am in the present case this corrupt power of Patronage was once taken away not in any disorderly manner nor so suddenly as it might have been but after a long tract of time and much trouble and pains was abolished by publick Authority in the most calm and deliberate method imaginable SECT XVI A pretence that the Patron meddles with nothing of Election or what is properly Ecclesiastical I. I Come now to the last part of the method proposed which is to examine such pretences as may be offered to extenuate the injuries that we have demonstrate the Church sustains by occasion of the corrupt and useless priviledges of Patronage and to clear that the Church's prejudice thereby is not so great as it is represented to be II. The first pretence of this nature we meet with is that the priviledge acclaimed in the Call of a Minister cannot be said to be any right of Election For when a Patron Presents a Minister he makes no formal Election but leaves that and all the rest of the Ecclesiastical part viz. Tryal and Admission intirely to the Presbitery So
that after Tryal Election may follow or not follow as the Presbitery sees cause And the Presbitery and Parish may reject the person presented in case he be found insufficient or unqualified And therefore the power of Patronage is not so injurious to the interests of the Church as it is represented to be III. This pretence consists of several branches which I shall handle severally the first is that the Patron makes no formal Election as to which it may be considered First that tho' in a formal orderly and Lawful Election the Looking out the Nomination and the Election of a Pastor be distinct Acts yet as in other cases all usurpations and corruptions are full of disorder and confusion so particularly in this of Patronage also these distinct Acts are absolutely Confounded For whereas in the orderly way of the Looking out Nomination and Election of a Pastor there is a joint concurrence of all concerned in it To wit both of Church-Judicatories and Church of Beleivers respectively each of them acting and keeping within their own Spheres As 1. Both concur in the Looking out of such persons as may be fit and proper for such a Charge 2. They both concur in the Nomination of such as they have looked out 3. They pitch upon and Elect one of those whom they have so Looked out and Nominate And after all the Church Sets the person thus Elected before or Presents him to the Presbitery for tryal and admission IV. But upon the contrary In this method of Patronage the case is quite different For here the Patron by himself alone and without yea and often against the advice and concurrence of any interessed doth by one single and confused Act of Presentation both Look out Nominat and Elect what persons he pleaseth for such a Charge and Sets them before or Presents them to the Presbitery for tryal and admission passing by all others Oblidging the Church to receive and admit those he hath presented if they be found in the meanest measure externally Qualified according to the letter of the Church Laws for the Office of a Pastor So that what the patrons leave to the Church is not to make any Election that being done by himself to their hand but only Declaratively to find whether the person Elected by the patron be in any measure externally Qualified for the Office in general or not without respect to any Inquiry whether he be fit for such a people or any other Consideration whatsoever V. Secondly this one single and confused Act including the Looking out the Nomination the Election and the Seting or Presenting of the person Elected before the Church Judicatories puts the person presented as far forward in order to his Admission as all these distinct Acts that both the Church-Judicatories and Church of Believers in the most orderly and Lawful Method can do For the next step after this in both cases is to proceed to the Tryals of the person pitched upon And therefore the patrons One single and confused Act of Presentation compleats the Election as well as all the other distinct Acts And by the way we may notice what pains and trouble it cost this Church in former times to procure from the King That in cases where he was Patron the Presbitery and Parish might send a list of Four to Court out of which the King was to Elect One. VI. Thirdly tho' it should fall out as seldom if ever it doth that after Tryal both Presbitery and People should fully approve of and be satisfied with the Person Elected by the Patron both as to his fitness and qualifications for the Office of a Pastor in general and for such a charge and People in particular yet the Act of the Church in that case may well be termed a subsequent and supervenient consent to an Election already made by the Patron by himself and without their concurrence but can never in any propriety of speech nor from the Nature of the Act be termed the Election it self All that is here left in the Church's power being indeed nothing else but simply to find and declare whether the Person Elected by the Patron be sufficient And that only in so farr as concerns the meerly external qualifications that are simply necessary by the letter of the Church Laws for the Office of a Pastor in General And sure I am there is none that have any measure of true Piery or sincerity but will think that to say no more there is somthing farther requisite to be considered in the Election of a Pastor that may be fit and proper for the particular charge of such and such a People who may be One among a Thousand as it is Job 33. which in the method of Election by Patrons can never fall within the reach of the cognisance of the Church who only are and can be the proper and discerning Judges of it to inquire into And tho' the Church as she is bound should dipp upon these farther considerations and thereupon find cause to reject the Person presented by the Patron yet her determinations therein would not be reguarded as being absolutely inconsistent with the exercise of the priviledge of Patronage the Patron being oblidged to stand to the issue of no other inquiry but what Concerns the meerly external and common qualifications that are simply necessary for the office in general as I have already said VII As to the second branch of this pretence it is very clear both from what hath been just now said and from what is said in the former part of this discourse that Tryal and Admission make not up all the Ecclesiastical part of a Ministers Call. The Church-Judicatories and People have a farther interest in the Election of such as are to be members of the one and Pastors of the other as hath been sufficiently cleared And tho' this were all the Ecclesiastical part yet even that cannot be said to be left untouched by the Patron For to say nothing of what the Canonists maintain that such as are presented ab Vniversitatibus seu generalium studiorum Collegijs are to be admitted without any tryal or Examination which clearly takes away tryal from the Church tho' there can no presumptionly in the case for these Patrons to lay aside the tryal of the person presented Except in so farr as concerns his knowledge in ordinary literature I say beside this it is very clear that the Church cannot be free and unlimited in the tryal and admission so long as the Patron leaves not the Church to a free choice and ties not himself to her free choice but on the contrary binds up the Church to the Election made by him VIII And tho' Patron should be tied to the Church's free Election either by Law or by his own consent yet he would still remaine as ane unwarrantable useless and unnecessary obstruction to the planting of the Church with fit and well qualified Pastors They being still oblidged to depend upon
There is still a hazard in the matter and Christian prudence oblidges us to shun even the least appearance of evil as far as we may The true rule in such cases as I already marked is to abolish an useless and dangerous custom or rather corruption since vetustas erroris non consuetudo sed corruptela dicenda est and then indeed the consequence will be good that the Church can be at no loss by it Mortui non Mordent says the proverb IV. And next beside that the power of Patronage doth unnecessarly expose Intrants to discouragement by being rejected for Insufficiency and also exposeth the Church-Judicatories to an unjust and causeless odium and reproach of too much rigor and severity which if the right of Election were in the Church's own hand as it ought to be would be very much prevented I say beside this we have already observed what true liberty this power of Patronage leaves to the Church in the choise and tryal of her Pastors And when ever the Presbitery rejects the Person presented upon any head that is not grounded upon his Insufficiency and Scandal the Patron looks upon his priviledge as highly injured he being oblidged to stand to no such determination And when ever they reject upon Scandal or insufficiency unless it be most palpably and clearly manifest which is not alwayes necessary for a Pastor ought not only to be free of Scandal 1 Tim. 2.2 7. Tit. 1. but as the Apostle positively requires he ought to be of an intire fame and known good report I say if such insufficiency be not palpably manifest there is presently a terrible outcry and a constant foundation laid of many tedious Appeals and litigious Debates concerning the quantum sufficit of a Pastors qualifications c. from one Church-Judicatory to another with little credit to the Patron and far less to the Intrant And upon this consideration alone tho' there were no other the Church's freedom in the tryal and admission of her Pastors is very much hindered as the Liberty of Marriage in the case of waird Vassals is abridged by the Power and Interest of the Superior and the niceties of the feudal customs And certainly as their is no sort of contract in the World wherein a perfect liberty and freedom of choice ought more to predomine if I may so say then in that of Marriage so the Church by the appointment of God hath much freedom in the Election of her Pastors which are his Spiritual Husbands And as any force or undue influence in the one case is very odious so in the other likewise it is no less so The Simile is easily understood and therefore I shall urge it no farther A waird holding in such cases as this is certainly a very hard and dangerous Tenure V. But besides when a person presented by the Patron is rejected by the Presbitery the Patron 's right stands still intire to Elect and present de novo some other person ejusdem farinae with the former and so the Church most of new again be inviegled in the same troubles and perplexities and all to no purpose or use VI. Again in the Election of Pastors by the Patrons the Church and People interessed have little or no power to withstand the admission or to nullifie the Election more than any meer Stranger that will undertake to prove the insufficiency or Scandalous carriage of the person presented VII And to say that an institution under which the Church and People of God hath so long groaned and which was forced and obtruded upon her without the least shadow of a warrand from the word of God or the least pretence of usefulness for promotting their Spiritual good and edification is no way injurious to the Church implyes a manifest contradiction VIII Lastly and I shall add no more tho' the Patron should present none but such as are some way fit yet the Church's liberty and freedom of Election remains still under restraint For tho' the Church should have power to reject never so many yet a people shall never come to enjoy the Pastor they chiefly desire and that would be most acceptable to them so long as the patron and not the Church her self retains the right or power of Election And certainly the sense of such a grievous oppression cannot but make all that are any way tender or concerned in the interests of the Church of Christ especially those that have been witnesses of a far different State of affairs and of the great advantages that attended it to be serious and fervent in prayer to God for removing and averting such a Bondage and Slavery from the Church and people of God for the future SECT XVIII Another pretence from the distinction of Laick and Ecclesiastick Patronages I. THere is another pretence made use of to extenuate the guilt of the pretended power of Patronage that is much boasted of by many tho' I confess I am unable to discover where its strength lies who grant that indeed there are many cogent Arguments against Laick Patronages as they term them and that these may be and have been very injurious to the interest of the Church but that yet Ecclesiastick Patronages may be very useful If you ask them what they mean by these they cannot tell but still they tell you Ecclesiastick Patronages are very useful because they are in the Church's own hand as the very word imports However the plain sense of this if it have any I take to be this that it is very fit this priviledge should be intrusted in the hands of Bishops who are Ecclesiastick Officers and Governours but not in the hands of others II. I cannot stay to examine this distinction tho' I can hardly be perswaded it is good Sense as it is ordinarly used since the most part of the Patronages that belonged to the Bishops may truly be termed Laick Patronages both in respect of their Original the most of them having been at first setled in the hands of the Laity as they are termed and also in respect of their conveyance which was by a grant from the Civil Magistrate by rights under the Great Seal c. And besides the true meaning of this distinction passing by the Notion and use that Lawyers have and make of it is it seems to be taken not from the quality of the Person in whose hands a Patronage is setled whether they be persons in a Civil or in an Ecclesiastick Capacity but from the quality of the stock and fond out of which the Kirks were built or the benefices setled For â—f the stock was out of the private Patrimony of any man whether he was of the Clergy or of the Laity the Patronage must be Laick and if it be out of the Patrimony of the Church the Patronage must be Ecclesiastick III. But not to insist on these Topicks this pretence is absolutly groundless 1. Because the Argument adduced striks equally against all for of Patronages and
an extrinsick power for compleating of their Call as if it were defective without him IX And as the sad experience of the Church in general if men would doe themselves the favour to see things as they are and without prejudice and prepossession hath in all Ages sufficiently demonstrated that there is no method under Heaven that can regular the Inventions of men in the matters of God so as to keep them within any tolerable bounds so the experience of our own Church in particular hath confirmed this truth beyond all contradiction X. We all know to give no other instance what provisions and limitations were made by the Church by King James the sixth his own consent in the Year 1600. with all the Caution that humane foresight or providence could devise for reducing of Episcopacy to some kind of Moderation as they term it to which the Bishops themselves did consent subscribe and solemnly swear and the King in person in the General Assembly did ratifie the whole matter All the freedoms and liberties of Presbitery being confirmed by parliament And we know as well that all the bonds that could be put on the Prelates did in a short time as many did then foresee prove nothing else but Ropes of Sand and as uncapable to bridle the lusts of that corrupt and Ambitious party as a Fish-book or a Thorn would be to catch the great Leviathan Job 41. In short all these caveats and injunctions solemn Vows Oaths and Promises were broken and the Bishops mounted to their usual Grandeur and Lordly Dominion over the Church notwithstanding of them all The Church complains and cryes out on that violent and treacherous alteration of her established Government And the Bishops find themselves oblidged to meet and consult how to vindicate themselves from such terrible Imputations And accordingly they publish an Apology in Latine and address it to all Christian Churches at home and abroad An Apology that as it discovers their Treatchery and Perjury to be a most detestable and horrid piece of Villany so it clearly tells us what effect the most wise and prudent regulations of such humane Inventions in the matters of God will have And may serve the Church for a constant beacon to beware of taking the like measurs for the future Take their own words Conditiones istae Refultatio libelli de regimine Eccles. Scotican pro tempore magis quo contentiosis rixandi ansa praeriperetur quam animo in perpetuum observandi acceptae That is their design in these solemn Promises Vows and Oaths was never to keep them but only to serve a Turn and to lull the People unto some sort of a calm and security against the clamor that was raised upon the apparent alteration of the Established Government of the Church An Apology indeed Ingenuous enough and very becomming the Faith and sincerity of that party who still incline to follow the Wisdom of the old Serpent without any mixture of the Innocence and Simplicity of the Dove but I am sure it were scarce credible that ever any that pretended to the name of a Clergy-Man or to the Title of the Reverend and Spiritual Fathers of the Church should make use of it if they themselves had not published it to the World. And there is no Crime their Adversaries could charge them with of ablacker Nature than this defence fastens upon them XI But this not being my present designe having only faln by accident upon this particular The true use of it that at present we intend is that it would be a piece of stupid and sinful folly after such a warning to run ourselves upon these Rocks on which the peace and safety of the Church hath been so oft ready to split If in such cases we should be-take ourselves to rely on our own pitiful and weak Counsels and projects and reject the institutions of the Infinite and unsearchable Love and Wisdome of God we should truely be guilty of forsaking the Fountain of Living Waters and of Hewing out to our selves Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no Water And should take the most compendious method that could be Jerm 2.13 Levit 26 to provoke the Lord to punish us yet seven times more for all our iniquities XII The true Rule in these cases is that since such Institutions as are not in themselves absolutely necessary either by necessity of Means or Precept and do of their own nature so much tend to Corruption Oppression Scandal and Superstition tho' never so well regulat are still ready to deboard and exceed all bounds Therefore the best and only way to prevent their exorbitancies is altogether to Cashier them from any other farther use XIII I shall only add that as the Institution of Visitations was very fit and necessary for enquiring into the lives and carriages of the pastors of the Church after they were admitted and settled so it is sufficiently known that the patrons of Kirks and Benefices have still endeavoured with all their force to put a stop to the exercise of these Visitations as knowing that most of the pastors of their Nomination were as little or less able to endure such a scrutiny as they were unsatisfactory at their first admission I shall not mention what other Reasons the patrons had for such a kindly protection of those men they may be easily guessed tho' I am sure with little credit to either party SECT XVII Another pretence that the Church may reject the Person presented in case of insufficiency I. THE next pretence that may be made use of to alleviat the guilt of patronage in its usurpations over the Liberties of the Church is this That the Parish or Presbitery may reject or refuse to admit the person Elected by the Patron in case that after tryal he be found insufficient or unqualified either as to parts or manners And therefore the Church can be at no loss by the Rights of Patronage II. It must certainly be an other force than that of Reason that can draw such a consequence This method of arguing is just the same as if a man should say it is needless to stop the entry of a Robber into a house or to put him out after he is entred because any harm he can doe may be easily either diverted or repaired sure I am this is very sar from our Blessed Lord's method of reasoning Matth. 29. Luk. 12.39 If says he the good man of the house had known in what watch the Thief would come he would have watched and not have suffered his house to have been broken up III. If evil must not be done that good may come of it and if the Jesuitick Quibbles of a good intention cannot justifie a bad action much less is evil to be tolerate and allowed because 't is possible to prevent or repair its bad effects Nam quod possibile est esse possibile est non esse one may be answers another That which may be may also not be