Church as one of the Articles of our Creed professes indowed by God with a Right in and over the same And therefore I do not attribute the cause of our divisions to it as unjust but as indefinite and unlimited And I instance in the Tenure of our Ecclesiastical Courts Which by a branch of this Law are declared to be the Kings Courts and the Judges of them the Kings Judges A thing necessarily following upon the Resumption of the Rights of the Crown usurped by the See of Rome into the Crown But which hath turned so great dissatisfaction in the establishment of Religion by the Law of this Land because the Right of the Church in that part of their Jurisdiction which necessarily ariseth from the Founding of the Church by our Lord Christ hath not been reserved to the Church by express Provision of Law Thereupon followed another Law which gave the Judges of these Courts the Priviledge of being Married At such time as the Law of the Land allowed not the Clergy to Marry And by consequence made them no Clergy-men whom the Law owned for the Kings Judges of these Courts Exempting them thereby from the Canonical Obedience which they of Clergy owe their Bishops And leaving their Ministring of the Laws in their respective Jurisdiction to their own discretion as well against as without the consent of their Bishops It is true they subsist by Patents granted by their Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Dignities indowed with Jurisdictions But the Law having declared them the Kings Judges I refer it to Judgment whether it were any marvel that the Bishops and other Dignities with Jurisdiction should discharge themselves of their Jurisdiction upon such Judges as the Law had qualified rather then cross the Law in taking them upon their own charge Part whereof in ministring the Power of the Keys and in correcting the inferior Clergie is essential and necessary to the Office which Ordination makes the Clergy Bishops and Presbyters capable of For it is resolved upon by the Sages of our Laws that such a Patent being granted for term of life the Patentee is inabled to exercise the whole Jurisdiction without and against the consent of him that grants it and shall be maintained against him in so doing by the Law of the Land I am neither to blame nor to excuse them that have not done their utmost to redeem the Office which we are consecrated to a capacity of managing out of that Possession which the Law of the Land thus ingageth For it is granted and it is to be granted that the Church cannot pardon sin As if it could pardon him that is not qualified for pardon Or keep him from pardon that is But the Church pardons sin by bringing him to be qualified for pardon that is not And declaring him pardoned that is If we were Fanaticks and believed no Condition of pardon but only to imagine that we are pardoned There would be no Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keys of the Church to manage If we believed as some understand the Council of Trent That sin is pardoned by submitting it to the Keys of the Church And that the mortification of the flesh serves only to redeem the temporal Penalty remaining due when the sin is pardoned A Lay Judge having knowledge might manage the Keys of the Church as well as a Priest But because a notorious sinner becomes qualified for pardon when the Concupiscence is mortified which his sin gratifies And because he undergoes his Mortification because he cannot have the Communion otherwise Therefore are they only that consecrate the Eucharist to judge whether he be qualified or not and to give or refuse him that which they consecrate And Commutation of Penance when it supposes not the inward contrition of the heart performed by outward mortification of the flesh is but the betraying of that Soul to damnation whom it admits to Communion not being qualified for it True it is nothing hinders him that is discharged of Excommunication to become qualified by his own private endeavours But God would never have founded his Church upon the Power of the Keys if the Office thereof were only not to hinder and not also to procure notorious sinners to be fit for Communion with the Church And that to procure must be the Office of those who by the Foundation of the Church are to judge who is fit and who not If therefore the Law of the Land provide not that that Office of the Church may be in force to that effect for which the Power of the Keys is given them that consecrate the Eucharist Is it any marvel that the Judgment and Vengeance of God should lye so heavy upon the Land professing Reformation and not inabling that which it professeth to take place My present business therefore is now to say That the Interests which cause our Divisions are so far imputable to these Laws as without the Reforming of the Laws they cannot be cured Two of these Interests I name contradictory the one to the other in their Pretenses For what doth the World complain of but of the abuse of Excommunication daily imployed to inforce the contentious Jurisdiction of these Courts Never imployed to the correction of sin and recalling of sinners Which being the Office of those that receove the Power of the Keys by Ordination cannot be exercised by the Laity without Sacriledge Now granting that the Usurpation of the See of Rome or the Indulgence of Christian Princes and States have procured or granted to the Clergy a larger Jurisdiction then their Office required It would have been no Inconvenience that the whole Jurisdiction should be inforced by Excommunication signifying imprisonment by the Law of the Land If a difference had been made between the proper Jurisdiction of the Church and the Accessory For in this part of it it is an oppression to Christian Subjects that they should be barred the Communion for maintaining themselves and their Right by Law in matters of any Right of this World Though the Clergy were Judges by the Law of the Land But it would be no oppression to them that the Jurisdiction of the Kings Courts should be inforced by imprisonment which Excommunication might signifie by the Law of the Land without signifying a Bar to the Communion of the Eucharist if these were duely distinguished In the mean time the whole indowment of the Church in a manner being irrecoverable by these Courts without Excommunication the scandal of these Jurisdictions becomes a Popular Plea to strip the Clergy of their maintenance Tyths being no farther paid then it please Frantick Fanaticks or contentious neighbours to do right of good will Knowing that Excommunication being odious Imprisonment is not like easily to follow upon it I said that there is another Interest on foot upon a Pretense contradictory to this And I mean that which vulgar Professors of the Laws of the Land set up to themselves out of these scandals To reduce the whole
was setled upon that Faith and those Laws that are now as Visible as the Laws of England from which present Titles are derived can be Visible must needs have that Right from which the Right of all present Soveraignties must be derived Because the Church whose Interest concurreth with the Interest of them all in the same matters is always One and the same and ought so to be from the first to the second Coming of Christ And that answers any difficulty that may be objected when any Law of any Roman Emperor or other Christian Prince or State seems to infringe the Canons of the Church For the Protection of the Crown being of such advantage as it is both for the inlarging and maintaining of Christianity It is enough that the Church can continue One and the same Visible Church by one and the same Visible Laws Though the force and effect of them be hindred now and then here and there by some Acts of Secular Power which in some regards may advance the Church as much as they hinder it in others It was necessary for the Crown under Henry the VIII to vindicate the Supremacy from the pretense of the Popes Secular Power which had been on foot divers Ages afore And therefore not to have to do with him that pretended to assoil the Subjects of Princes whom he should excommunicate of their Allegiance till they might owne him upon terms consistent with the Protection they owe their People And it was still more necessary under Edward the VI. when the Reformation was inacted which they knew well enough that the Pope would not endure But when the Right of the Crown in Church-matters is declared by Law to be the same which the Kings of Gods Ancient People and the first Christian Emperors did exercise the ground of that Interest and the bounds of that Interest which the Church must challenge if it will continue a Church are declared to be the same which the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church from the beginning do allow CHAP. XXIII Of restoring and reforming the Jurisdictions of the Crown and of the Church in Ecclesiastical Causes ANd this makes the Reformation of our Ecclesiastical Laws as easie as it is visibly the cure of all distempers in Religion among us It is in brief this That the Jurisdiction which may by this means appear to the Kingdom to be invested in the Church by Gods Law be by a Law of the Kingdom restored to the Clergy To the Bishops in chief then to the Chapters of their Cathedrals and to their Archdeacons And to these not without the Assistance of the Principal Clergie of their Respective Jurisdictions the Judges of the Ecclesiastical Courts continuing the Kings Judges as they are now by Law to manage the Interest of the Crown in all the Rights thereof resumed into the Crown by the Acts of Supremacy according to the Roman Laws in those Ages of Christendom which passed before the Usurpation of the See of Rome had taken place If it be said That it is not Visible when those Usurpations took place I shall allow all the time which that Code of the Canons contains that Pope Adrian sent to Charles the Great In whose time there can be no pretense of Usurpation upon the Temporalties of Princes by the See of Rome This Code is yet read under the Name of Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Romanae I have commended the Justice and Wisdom of that Commission which was designed under Henry the VIII and Edward the VI for the qualities of Persons limited by it But I do not think it possible for any Commission to Reform the Alterations introduced by the Popes Canon Law after that time in one Kings Raign with that circumspection which is requisite The Jurisdiction which the Church challenges by Gods Law can not be distinctly stated with more satisfaction to all Interests preserving that of Religion then by a Commission so qualified The Interest of the Kingdom in preserving the study of the Roman Laws hath always been thought considerable But how shall the study of them be maintained if the Authority of them be not maintained Or how shall that Authority be maintained but by adopting them into the Law of the Kingdom in matters necessary to be provided for by Law but not provided for by the native Law of the Kingdom Or what provision can there he by the native Law of the Kingdom for those Causes which for so many hundred years before the Reformation the Popes Canon Law had sentenced by the Authority of the Kingdom There is an Interest of Religion in Matrimonial Causes in Testamentary Causes in Causes arising upon Elections of Corporate Clergie in Causes of Dispensation in Canons in Causes of Tithes in divers sorts of Causes besides those which the Power of the Keys in the Discipline of the People and the Correction of Inferior Clergy occasioneth Let me not say that it were Barbarous for a flourishing Kingdom in a flourishing Age for all other Learning to reduce the Tryal of them to the Arbitrary Verdicts of Juries Who can never understand the Grounds upon which the matter of Fact is to be stated when I can so clearly say that there can be nothing more like to meer Tyranny then Arbitrary Justice nor Justice more Arbitrary then where it is manifest that there can have been no other Law provided because the Canon Law hath been hitherto used As for those Causes which are proper to the Church as rising from the Constitution of it how can it stand with Religion and Reformation in Religion which we pretend to try them otherwise then by those which the Kingdom shall be satisfied by such a Commission that they are by Gods Law capable of Authority to do it And the Interest of the Crown and of the Subjects which it is bound to protect shall be secured when provision is made by adopting the Roman Laws for managing the Rights of the Crown resumed by the Act of Supremacy within those Bounds which the Roman Laws maintained before the Usurpation of the See of Rome It cannot be denied that the Popes Canon Law which the Law of the Land hath already adopted so far as it contradicteth not the Law of the Land provideth for many things not provided for by the Primitive Canons within the Compass of the Roman Laws And it would be too much rashness to recal that Adoption and to leave so much matter to arbitrary Justice rather then retain a Provision which the Law and Religion professed by the Kingdom owns not the Original of though it owne the matter it hath adopted For whatsoever shall prove by time and tryal to hinder the Reformation which we pretend thus to ground and thus to bound the faults that shall be found by experience must open the way of mending it because the Cure must be as particular as the disease is And upon these Terms it can be no dishonour to the Kingdom and to the Reformation
come clear of this Anathema the Authority of the See of Rome being intire For K. Henry the VIII or at least for his Kingdom it was and is enough that so long as he owned the Authority of that See he must needs be troubled in conscience at that Marriage by which he must needs incur it preferring the former Act of a Council under Gregory the II. Pope before a Bull of Julius the II. Pope dispensing in an Anathema of the said Council For as the Primitive Canons are to be preferred in Church-Law before the loosness of succeeding Ages being still further from the Apostles So the Act of the Council under the Regular Power of the Pope is to be preferred before a Bull which now passeth without the Consistory as the Popes personal Act after the unlimited absolute Power of the Pope hath taken place As for King Edward the VI. professing the Reformation and protesting it as he did so that the See of Rome could have no pretense of correspendence without owning it themselves there succeeds the necessity of a State of Schism upon the Excommunication following The Crime of Schism remaining on that side that Excommunicates for vindicating and restoring the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church This being the state of our Case and the Laws of the Whole Church and the Faith thereof necessary to the Title that must justifie Reformation without the Consent of the Whole Is it not manifest to all Understandings that the Law by which this State is to be Governed must be such a Provision as the Laws of the Whole Church inable a part of it to make for it self in the Case And therefore we must affirm as many of us as would have no share in the Schism as to God being thus secured that to the Church we are not chargeable with it That there is nothing to hinder such a Provision but the misunderstanding of them And that we see not what the Consequence of our own Profession requires A reason that presses me so hard that I do willingly expose my self to the displeasure of all that shall find themselves disgusted with this freedom Only to give my self the satisfaction of publishing it whatsoever displeasure it procure me As being satisfied that there is no other cure for our present distempers For in the first place it must be said that it is in vain to talk of Regular Government by the Canons of the Church without restoring the liberty of Synods to the respective Provinces Not as if the Church needed any abatement in the Act of Henry the VIII which forbiddeth making and perhaps advising of Canons to be made without the Assent of the Crown But because the World knows it was the Usurped Legatine Power that had brought Synods to nothing by Usurping upon the Ordinary And therefore it is but Justice in the Crown finding the Right of Synods the Subjects thereof Usurped by the See of Rome to restore it to the Subjects upon whom the Usurpation had been made The Supremacy of the Crown being sufficiently provided for by the said Act And the force of all Acts of Synods depending upon the Legislative Power of the Kingdom In the next place it is to no purpose to talk of Reformation in the Church unto Regular Government without restoring the Liberty of chusing Bishops and the Priviledge of injoying them to the Synods Clergy and People of each Diocese I say not depriving the Crown of the due Interest of a Negative to any Person to be promoted a Bishop in any instance of his Promotion God forbid it should come into my thought But the Supremacy being so provided for so evident is the Right of the Synods Clergy and People in the making of those of whom they consist and by whom they are to be governed that I need mark no other Reason for the neglect of Episcopacy but the neglect of it For the neglect of Cathedral Churches but the neglect alienation of their Office under and with their Bishops This for certain had not the See of Rome introduced so much disorder in the creating of Bishops that we have not yet cured it we should have heard of it with both ears from their Advocates And if I may credit a person of unquestionable credit his late Majesty was so convinced hereof when he was at Oxford that he offered to part with it if a way were shewed how to do it As for the translating of Bishops which done as it is of course must needs render the Office unfruitful to their People As no man can deny that there ought to be a course for dispensing in the Canon for publick good So cannot this pretense of publick good come to effect unless it be maintained by the Office of Synods to whom the State of the Church vindicates the Right of it That which I said afore of Appeals belongs to this place For what Law can provide that in Causes reserved to the Bishop parties shall rest content always with his sentence Or whether can Ecclesiastical Causes resort from him but to the Synod of the Province Again what Christian Kingdom could ever prevent a mixture of Causes That is a concurrence of Interest between the Soveraign Power and the Office of the Church Or what danger can be imaginable to this Crown in doing Right to the Church Having only its own Subjects to deal with Or what can be more ready to receive Appeals of this Nature then a Commission of Judges delegate as well by the Synods as by the Crown for the expedition of such Causes in which the pretense of the Subject as well as the Interest of Religion may be concerned As for matter of Faith Having admitted all that hath been decreed within the time of the six truly General Councils I dare say that there is nothing that the See of Rome can charge upon the Socinians or Anabaptists or any Sect of our Fanaticks that is not condemned in the Arians Pelagians or other Sects which the Whole Church hath condemned during that time So that there can be no cause why Christianity should not be maintained by the Reformation during this State of Schism but neglecting the true consequence of that which we our selves profess CHAP. XXV Two Laws more necessary to the Reformation of the Church THese are the principal points in the Canons of the Whole Church which the Profession of Reforming the Church obliges us to restore There are two points more the one concerning the People the other the Inferior Clergy which till they be restored our Reformation cannot be that which it pretendeth That all who shall be convicted in Law of capital or infamous Crimes stand Excommunicate ipso facto and if Execution pass be deprived of Christian Burial unless they reconcile themselves to the Church Unless the Law make this good how should the Kingdom be counted a Christian Kingdom For if scandalous Crimes that are notorious be allowed Communion with the Church how can it