c. Tho' therefore they may not always in fact execute the design of God their Founder upon a just Authority lodged in them by the design of Providence yet they are the intentional Ordinance of God hereunto and hereunto only against which God's bare Negative i. e. Nonrestrictive permissions in the course of his Providence of those disorders into which many times their Eminency and Lusts consequent upon it do too fatally hurry them is no valid Argument because tho' not reducible to any account here they are obnoxious to God's Judgements hereafter § 6. Co-ordinate Society Natural or Positive The second Sort of Society is the Co-ordinate and that either by the tics of Nature alone unto all the natural Offices of Justice and Charity or by Contract as in Friendships Factories Artificial Fraternities and Commerces between either Men or Nations Cities Villages c. And the general Nature of these Societies is by the intention of God The Originals of Civil Society of a precedent design before Civil Powers as being also in the Fundamental Reasons of the Civil Superstructure For Families multiplying Co-ordinately Sociated themselves first into Vicinities and Villages Families multiplying into Villages and thence into Cities Corporated at last under Princes as Trustees to preserve their Rights in Peace from smaller to greater for the benefit of mutual succours beneficences and intercourse and from these Rudiments increasing continually they grew up into Cities and so Incorporated into forms Political and falling either into the affectation or under the Calamity of War from without or the common and usual Discords among multitudes within they were led by Providence to admit the Civil and Military Sovereignty as necessary to their peaceable cohabitation and security in which the common Felicity was reposed as an inviolable Trust and tho' we in this Age and part of the World do think it the greatest madness to repose such a considence in single Sovereigns as was generally done in the first collections into Cities yet the natural Equity and Humanity of Men was not so far then vitiated as to render the Integrity of the Prince suspicious from whence there appears such a Recorded Unanimity of those Kings and their People that now to us doth almost seem impossible I know indeed the late Celebrated Oracle of all Political Villany has taught Men out of their very Senses Admission of Sovereigns do not import a quitting the Rights of the Community that in the admission of Sovereigns they surrender up to them all their former Rights but the voice of nature and the Oracles of God have taught us far otherwise and by these I think all wise and good Men will and must abide § 7. Civil Society not to devour its Originals Civil Power was therefore superinduced at last upon all the other substrate forms of Society not to destroy and devour but to defend them to the common felicity except we shall think it the most unnatural Monster made to devour its own Parents and Originals And as to the Laws and Rights Mankind universally has in Matrinonial Oeconomical Fraternal Amicable and Factoral Communications and Societies no Man does or will doubt but that they are exempt from all right of extinction by Civil Society which cannot stand or exist but upon those Fundamentals And can it be then imaginable that it hath a greater right of Dominion over the Ecclesiastical Society with God which being the Immediate Unitive in this Life between God and us and so a medium to an Everlasting Happiness in another was the great End on this side Heaven for which we were first Created and for which the other Societies next consequent upon it were designed Matrimonial Society being for the propagation of Issues Oeconomical for the Government of there and other Minors and Servants in it the Co-ordinate for common Beneficences and mutual support here but all that those Sons of Men may hereby subsist to the Communion with God here as a pledge of a nearer fruition of him in a State of Eternity And this general Consideration that all these forms of Society are God's Ordinances and of these the Religious Society with God the first in Nature Diguity and Time it cannot be imagined that God should be divided against himself in setting up Ordinance against Ordinance and the meaner and the latter against the first and highest Gods Ordimances not destructive of each other especiully since the Nature of the Society by God ordained imports a perpetual necessity and therefore a design of perpetnity in them all And hereupon it is that Religion in general though corrupted and disguised has yet continued among all Nations as perpetual and universal as the other Societies and carried the most publick preeminence as being the presumed means of a Divine Society and this not by the bare policy of Secular Powers since perhaps in Princes Courts it has ever had the least estimation and true Religion is what the Lust of Men especially great Men are most averse to and false Religion too gross to impose a credulity upon their acute apprehensions but an internal disposition of the Mind universally promoting Men to the culture of Religion against all the prejudices and aversions of Sesuality is an Argument of a Divine Foundation thereof which as no Hypocrisie could advance so no Artifices nor Oppositions can suppress but it will continue whether Civil Powers will or no since these are not able to extirpate a Zeal of Superstition much less then those Fundamental Principles of Religion upon which not only a frame of true Religion but even Superstition it self must be built and which Principles will in all Men have some Productions towards either a true or false Worship of and Society with a Deity § 8. Now tho' all these are Truths so very clear and Fundamental to the welfare of Mankind I desire the Dr. to say out whether he finds them all express in Scripture or no. For if he does then he must grant an Ecclesiastical Society antecedent to and the Rights thereof maintainable by Civil Powers which he does not allow in his Hypothesis or if he will allow it the Divine Right of an Ecclesiastical and Canonical Society this will import an Authority of Consulting and Assembling to Consult independently on the Superinduced Civil Powers as shall be made out in due place but if he finds not these Maxims in express terms of Scripture by a reserve from the Occupations of Civil Power will he abdicate therefore all these Rights to it to dissolve all the Laws and Liberties and Authorities of the Matrimonial Oeconomical and Co-â—dinâ—te Societies Or if he be not so unmerciful toward these Carnal Societies can he with Conscience or so much as a pretence of Reason give up all the Powers of the Divine Society to the Civil Dominion and Pleasure 'T is therefore only necessary to prove a Society Divinely founded by a full and fair Evidence The proof of
and practice and under absolute Obligations unto ordinary and publick frequency yet are under no Sabbatical rigour nor indispensable precept of Stationary days being left to the imitation of the Original and Primitive Practices as much as Times and Occurrences will permiâ— or direct for the best Spiritual Service of the Church And therefore much more may the convention of Synods be left at Liberty for whose stated Returns there are no constant nor fixed Reasons nor Examples in the Scriptures nor the Writers of the next Succession to the Apostles even as to times of Peace much less as to times of Persecution § 4. But further yet to recommend the reasonableness hereof let it be considered that a great deal of the Hierarchical Rules of Order and Polity is truly of Apostolical Prescription Catholick Right for placing Bishops in Cities and Catholickly received for such in and thro' all the first Ages for which however we have no Catholick Laws or Canons in Scripture The General and Primitive Practice of placing Bishops in every City was of Apostolical Direction and Practice Cyp. Ep. 52. § 16. Cum jampridem per omnes provincias c per urbes singulas ordinati sint Episcopi c. vide Praeced but without a Preceptive Obligation upon the whole Church for ever some whole Countries having but one Bishop some one Bishop to two Cities and elsewhere a Village Bishop Yet no doubt the Catholick Church has a divine Right of placing Bishops in every City for upon that Right St. Paul order'd Tit us to do so in Crete that order not being the first Charter of the Catholick Right herein for it was but a Personal and Local Order for Tit us and Crete but grounded upon a general Right in the Apostles and by them left to their Suffragans and Successors to place the Clerical Orders where they saw most convenient which according to all Reason was chiefly and principally to be done in Cities The Convenicacies in the Empire observed for the Government of the Church observing those conveniencies for the publick Government of the Church which being found by experience useful in the Exarchates and Provinces of the Empire appeared in general to the Apostles and their Successors as useful to the Catholick Hierarchy Wherefore where a Right is Divinely constituted the use whereof ought to be left to Freedom and Prudence 't is not only needless but incongruous and hurtful to tye up the exercises of such Right to precise Limits which is I think a good account why Synods in Scripture are not under precept CHAP. V. Of Scripture Synods or Councils § 1. THE grounds of Synodical Authority being duly laid in a Divine Charter it is necessary now to proceed to the Instances hereof in Holy Scripture matters of Fact allowed good upon Record being very good Illustrations in Law of that Right on which they were practised and received This is what also I am more particularly obliged to since the Doctor is loath to own any Instances of this kind not willingly that of Acts xv for such a Synod as he was speaking of In which I confess he is not alone but accompanied with a great croud of Anti-Hierarchical Criticks and other poorer Scriblers which cannot merit that Character But if the practice of the Catholick Church as well as the formal reason of the thing it self evinces that an Ecclesiastical Council or Synod is an Assembly of Ministers in Consult for the Spiritual Conduct of the Church The Desinition of a Council or Synod p. 60. or according to the Doctors more unaccurate definition a meeting of Ecclesiastical Persons upon an Ecclesiastical affair I believe the Doctors second thoughts will set him at Rights that there manifestly appear several Sessions properly Conciliar with their Acts Synodical in the New Testament § 2. That our Saviour instituted two Colledges of Doctors one of the Twelve and the second of the Seventy Christs two Colledges of Doctors cannot I think be doubted under whom the Lay Disciples constituted were the first Rudiments of the Catholick Church râ—presented by the Princes of the Twelve Tribes and the Seventy Elders of Israel which later were no doubt a Society Ecclesiastical in their first unrecorded Originals since they appear to be so in the two Convocations of them by Moses Exod. 24. Nam 11. Ignat. ad Philadelph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in other places of an obscurer intimation of such a Colledge Nor can it be doubted before Moses his days but that each Tribe had its 〈◊〉 all which were concerned in the common Conduct of the Twelve Tribes of Israel to which our Saviours Promise to the Colledge of the Twelve has relation when he says they should sit upon Twelve Thrones The Twelve Apostles one Colledge Judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel as one common Society Now the Twelve Apostles are herein too to be taken for a Colledge because it appears that St. Peter by St. Matthew is Mat. 10. called the first in order and appears in all Conferences of the Twelve whatsoever St. Peter Prolocutor to be the Prolocutor So neither the Twelve nor the Seventy tho' sent out first two by two throughout Jewry were yet several only and Incoherent herent Ministers but were Sociated into two Colledges or Fraternities and to appear as such in all their Conventious § 3. Christ then a little before his Ascension being Assembled with Eleven Apostles commands them not to depart from Jerusalem till the illapse of the Holy Chost at Pentecost A Council for electing an Apostle in the Room of Judas This they observed accordingly and gathered to themselves about an â—â—o Disciples a number held sufficient for a Synagogue In this Interyal St. Peter the constant Prolocutor of the Upper Colledge proposes the Substitution of a Successor to the Apostleship from which Judas by Transgression fell by a consulted Recommendation of two fit Persons unto God of which two the Divine Lot was to determine the Successor Here then being a Session of Eleven Apostles in an Assembly of 120 Disciples putting them all upon Council and Consideration for a Successor to Judas an affair Fundamentally Ecclesiastical Act. 1. I hope will appear to the Doctor to be a Council if not a Synod Ecclesiastical in which there can be no other difference but this that a Synod Difference between a Synod and Council is so called in respect of their Convening together from their several proper Seats but 't is called a Council from their actual Session speaking properly After the Effusion of the Holy Spirit and the intrease of the Church by the Accession of both Jews and Greeks the Greeks murmured against the Hebrews that their Widows were neglected in the daily Ministrations A Council for the Election of 7 Deacons Whereupon the Twelve called the multitude of the Disciples unto them and bid them Recommend seven Men of honest Report and full of the Holy Spirit
the Question of Rebaptization from Heresie was Conciliarly determined different ways in several Churches Firmil ad Cyp. § 6 17. Dionys Aleâ— ad Xyst Pap. ap Eus E. H. l. 7. c. 5. c. 7. Cyp. cum coll ad Fid. Ep. 59. § 1. c. without any breach of Catholick Communion till Pope Stephen began the Rupture with the African Phrygian Galatian Cilician and Cappadocian Churches which yet other Churches would by no means consent to each Church determining according to its best Judgment Rules and Customs but the most moderate taking care in the midst of this diversity Cyp. Ep. 62. §◠c. Cyp. ad Cald. Ep. 38. § 2. Ep. 42. § 5. to keep the Unity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace So a Council of 66 African Bishops determine the questions made them by Fidus concerning the reconciliation of one Victor a lapsed Presbyter by Therapius a Bishop before Canonical Examination and Season as also of the liberty of Baptizing Infants as soon as born before they were Eight Days old as also of the Offenceless way of living to be practised by the Virgins And as they did Conciliarly provide to prevent so did they to correct Evils particularly the Vices Violences and Immoralities of all Orders as in the Presbyter Felicissimus not only for his Schism but for his Lusts especially concerning the Penances and Indulgences to the Lapsed for which in times of Persecution and the dispersions of the Episcopal College the Criminals were required to stay Cyp. Ep. 12. § 2. Ep. 14. § 2. Ep. 26. § 4. Ep. 28. § 2. Ep. 31. § 5. Ep. 32. Ep. 40. § 3 7. Ep. 52. § 2 3 6. Ep. 53. § 2. Ep. 54. Ep. 55. § 13. and wait for peace to the Church before it was decent for them or allowed to them to claim their own which was to be determined in Councils of their Bishops Clergy and standing Laity All which whosoever looks into the quoted places will find to be thought not only expedient but necessary for the good of the Church and the persons concerned and for the Authority of their Acts which was universally and uncontestedly taken for Divine upon grounds taken out of Scripture Cyp. Ep. 55. § 13. Firm. in t Cyp. Ep. 75. which therefore they held frequently and in some places annually from which they sent Synodical Letters and Messages with authentick Deputations and Powers not only by the Sub-Clerical Orders Ep. Cyp. 41. § 1. Ep. 42. § 1. Ep. 45. § 1. § 2. but by Deacons Priests nay and by Bishops also according as the nature of the affair did require and Junctures of Time and Season would permit being herein as much concerned for a general Negotiation in Spirituals not only each Church within it self but abroad with all others and for all Christian Uses as the Civil States and Sovereignties are for Domestick Conduct and foreign Embassies and Treaties with more remote or more nearly adjacent Countries and with as fair to say no fairer ground of Authority from God and Nature Upon all which I make these concluding Remarks that if such Synods had not been thought of Divine Right and Duty too those that were Convened and Censured by them would have denied the Authority the Lapsed Penitents would have disclaimed their Necessity the Apostates would have proclaimed the Imposture of a pretended Divine Authority and the Churches would never have been at that vast Fatigue and Charge of Synodical procedures especially against the Edicts of Secular Powers had they not judged these to be Acts of an Ecclesiastical Duty to and Authority from God But here being none the least Exception from the offended nor any possible Inducement upon the Church to quit the claim and practice of such Authority I think here is an undeniable presumption hereupon that it was as uncontestable as it was actually uncontested CHAP. VIII Of the Authority of Civil Powers and Laws in general against the Liberty of Ecclesiastical Synods § 1. AFter the Knowledge of all this which I am sure the Dr. well knew before ever he dreamed of Writing upon this Subject 't is a matter of astonishment to me that he should look upon Synods under Alien Powers to have been and still to be but prudential Clubs without any Authority from God or Man And yet upon this confidence 't is strange that he should not wholly deliver them up to the full Authority of all Heathen or Alien Powers against which where there is no right no Human Reason or Prudence can warrant any popular Frequences or Councils So that by his granting them Reason he seems to grant them Right and by gâ—aâ—ting them Right to grant them Authority to hold Synods under Alien Powers And yet he is unwilling even to allow what he grants and floats up and down in his Doubts hereupon and casts an unlucky glance upon the Primitive Synods as scarce capable of Excuse and more hardly of Justisication It has been saith he ever look'd upon as one great part of the Princes Prerogative p. 13. that no Societies should be Incorporated nor any Companies be allowed to meet together without his Knowledge and Permission The Roman Law was especially very severe as to this Matter And tho' after the Conversion of the Emperors to the Faith of Christ a Provision was made for the Publick Assemblies of the Church for Divine Service yet Tertullian who understood these Matters as well as any one of his Time tho' he excused their Meetings upon all other Accounts could not deny but that they fell under the Censure of the Law and that having not the Princes Leave to meet together they were in the Construction of the Law guilty of Meeting against it § 2. This brings one therefore to an Enquiry Conventions Necessary Innocent Hurtful What Meetings are of right obnoxious to the prohibitions and penalties of Humane Laws The Conventions therefore of Men are of three sorts either Necessary or Innocent or Hurtful And first such as are Necessary no Man whatsoever can have a rightful Authority to restrain for Necessity being a Law from God cannot be vacated by any positive Law of Man Nor Secondly can Innocent Meetings be rightfully denyed in themselves but under the apprehensions of hurt or danger upon Time Place and Circumstances But Hurtful Meetings in the Third Place may not only but ought of Right to be restrained by the Magistracy Yet what Princes have no Rightful Authority to do that they may irresistibly do upon an uncountroulable Domination and Impunity Upon which when they presume to Repress our Rights and Liberties if it be in Matters Necessary they are to be disobeyed in Fact and submitted to as to their Legal Processes without resistance if in Matters barely Innocent there Prudence will direct but no bare Conscience of Duty to the Tyrannical Law alone will oblige to observation tho' it will to Patience under Legal Sufferings For an Innocent Liberty is an Vnalienable Franchise
Secondly To punish Christians for not living by their own Rules They may require them to live by their own Rules and punish them Temporally if they break them a Falsity in a Religious Profession being Criminal at any Bar whatsoever § 6. Thirdly To call Assemblies upon Protection They may require any Christian Assemblies or Synods to inform and instruct the Prince or any of his People in Matters Christian on the engagement of Publick Protection § 7. Fourthly Of being present except in matter of Communion Every Prince has a Right of Presence in any Christian Assemblies except in Matters of Christian Communion peculiar only to the Initiated For all Religion Mystical requires a peculiar Society of its Votaries and admits no Aliens whatsoever but in all things without that Communion even a Secular Prince may appear in peaceable and friendly manner § 8. Fifthly Of Inspection and Caution over Assemblies c Every Prince may appoint all ways of Inspection and Caution to preserve the Peace against all disorders that may be suspected or occasioned in such Synods upon Pretences or Transactions of Religion as being the publick Guardian of all Secular Justice and Peace by Virtue of Civil Laws Sanctions and all Processes of Legal Government But if a Prince breaks in upon Authorities elsewhere lodged by God this may be done indeed with impunity but not with Right and may oblige to patience under Legal Sufferings but not to any practical Obedience or Observation CHAP. IX Of the Authority of Christian Princes over Ecclesiastical Synods in point of Reason § 1. VVE have above prescribed for a Divine Right in the Catholick Church to hold Ecclesiastical Synods by the Authority of her Spiritual Governours and in them freely to Deliberate Consult Act Determine and Decree in Matters of Doctrine and Discipline and Communion to a Spiritual Obligation unto Canonical Obedience in all the Subject Members The Foundations hereof we have laid in the Scriptures and deduced an Universal Succession of this Practice upon a Continued and Catholick Uncontested Claim of a Divine Authority in the Church for the three first Centuries We have also adjusted the True Bounds of Supremacy in meer Heathen or Infidel Princes over such Christian Assemblies We are now to go on and consider the Ecclesiastical Sovereignty of Christian Princes over Ecclesiastical Synods how far it reaches and on what grounds it stands § 2. And first it must be granted Prince to lose 〈◊〉 Authority by being Christian that the Authority of a Christian Sovereign must comprehend that of all others in it self there being no Reason that Princes should lose any Prerogatives of their Crowns by becoming Christian it being for the benefit of Mankind that their Princes should be all Christian and therefore not sit that they should suffer any Diminution by that whereby the World receives so vast a Benefit But because this alone is not like to give content we will sum you up the Prerogatives of Dr. Wake taken from our Crown here and ascribed equally to all other Sovereign Princes professing Christianity what where and whensoever § 3. By the Submission of that most Holy The 〈◊〉 of the Submission of the 〈…〉 VIII Undefiled Humbled and Orthodox Convocation under K. I had almost said St. Henry VIII and the Statute thereupon it is fixed that our Convocations are not to convene without the Kings Writ nor attempt to Make Enact Promulge or Execute any Canon c. without Royal License c this being but an Affirmance of an Antecedent Right at Common Law which the Dr. deduces down by Historical Accounts from the first Christian King of the English Saxons and not content therewith he extends the Supremacy beyond the Letter of the Law and Lodges it in the very formal Right and Reason of the Christian Magistracy precluding hereby all possible hopes of any the least relief from our present Tyes notwithstanding all our old Franchises our present Merits and our future Dangers For the ill Consequences of a Local and Positive Law might have had remedy but the Fundamental and General Laws of Sovereignty admit not the least Correction or Alteration § 4. Now the Doctrine of the Dr. briefly consists in these Aphorisms 1. That under the Dominion of the Christian Magistrate 1. p. 14 41 48 76. the Church has no inherent Right or Authority to convene in Synods but what it derives from the express Concession of the Christian Prince 2. For that all Synods are but of Counsel to the Prince 2 p. 84 85 136 to 139 289 38 286. and entirely in his Hands and so 3. Not any to be sent to the Synod 3. p. 28 39 40 103 104 105. but such as he shall allow nor 4. When convened to Sit 4. p. 79 to 83 106 107 110 112 c. 132. Debate Propose Deliberate Conclude or Decree any Matter of Doctrine or Discipline whatsoever 5. Nor in any Method Form 5. p. 44 53 54 71. or Manner whatsoever save what the Prince admits and that 6. The Prince may Ratify 6. p. 81 to 86 133. Annihilate or Alter all their Acts and Procedures or as many of them as he pleases and 7. Suspend the Execution of all 7. p. 85 to 89 125 126. and any of their Canons and Sentences 8. The Authority of their Acts being entirely and only his 8. p. 288. and Lastly 9. That no Synod hath Right to dissolve its self 9. p. 77 to 79. without the Kings License VVhere we may Note that all these are Articles Negative of all those Liberties and Authorities of the Church under the Christian Princes which she claimed of Divine and Vncontested Right under Heathen Powers for the three first Centuries of Christanity immediately lost and to be swallowed up of every Prince as soon as he commences Christian Wherefore it is necessary to look to the bottom of this Matter upon which the Dr. builds this overthrow of all the Churches Authorities under Christian Powers Now his Arguments are of two Classes the first seated in the Substrate Reasons and Equity hereof the second derived from the General and Uniform Claim and Practice of all Christian Princes § 5. The Des Arguments from Reason As for the former sort of Arguments which would have been the chiesest most convincing and most satisfactory the Dr. has not collected them into any proper Order or Sections in order to a set illustration of his Principles as it had been to have been wish'd but only by light touches and glances here and there seldom and consusedly Interspersed given us little hints and intimations of them Now herein perhaps he has bespoken our excuse 〈◊〉 7. for that his hast and interfering Avocations would not allow him to be exact But hereupon to set things off in the clearest light and view I can I will corrade those Reasons on which he Bottoms the Right of Christian Princes to these Anthorities These
call for Divine Vengeance as in the Tyranny of Agamemnon on old Chryses the Priest of Apollo Hence the Priest of On or Heliopolis his Daughter was thought the greatest and sittest Match for Joseph Joseph's Wife 4 Priests Daughter that next unto Pharaoh sate Lord over all the Land of Egypt Priests Lands Sacred and inalienable nor were the Priests Lands touched by Joseph or Pharoah under the Exigences of that Famine while all the Land else was sold unto him for Bread but they were all fed on the Royal Stores at free Cost And as Philo and Josephus magnify the Jewish High-Priesthood above rather than under Royalty Priests Prior to Kings in point of sanctity posterior in point of power so do the Profane Histories of the Heathens in point of Sanctity give Priesthood the Priority tho in point of Power they give it to the Regale And it is the more to be wondred this in Heathens who being altogether Carnalized one should have thought would have given all to the armed Prince and no more than his Grace had pleased to the Sacrisicing Hierophant Nay tho Humility be one of the dictinctives of Christianity and so ought most signally to appear in its Priests against all even the slightest arrogances or self Reflections yet we find when the assertion of the Sanctity has been necessary to take off Imperial insolence several the best of Catholick Fathers have imitated St. Paul Christian Priests magnifying their Office against Kingly Vsurpations in magnifying their Office to the vindication of their Liberty for instances of which there will be occasion in due place § 4. To assert therefore the inviolable Right and Authority of a Divine Ordinance or Commission against the Powers and Designs of Kings I could here well alledge Elias his dealing with Baal's Prophets at Mount Carmel before Abab's eyes and against his will the assembling of the Elders of Judah and Israel under the first Babylonish Captivity before Ezekiel to consult their common Affairs against the interests of the King of Babylon and all the opposition of Prophets made against wicked Princes But letting these pass Jeroboam's Case the singular and extraordinary Case of Jeroboam will not be content to be omitted By the Constitution of the Law Exod. 23.14 15 16 17. and 34 23 24. all the Men Children of the twelve Tribes were to appear before God three times in the year at the place of his Residence which in Jeroboams time was in Solomons Temple at Jerusalem Now Jeroboam by particular Prophecy and Providence became King of the Ten Tribes that revolted from Rehoboam the Son of Solomon But Jerusalem was the very Metropolis of Rehoboams Kingdom so that fearing that by this observation of the Law in all his Males appearing three times a year to Worship at Jerusalem his People would return to the House of David he turned them away from that form of Religion and Society with God at Jerusalem to the Calves he had set up as the Symbols of God's presence at Dan and at Bethel And because the Tribe of Levi would not be with him he himself became a Priest and made such as he could get every one that would of the meanest People And now if Worldly Policy and Civil Counsels will excuse a deflexion from Divine Ordinances here were all imaginable Pleas for excuse or justification herein But God that gave this Law for such appearances at the place of his presence had back'd it with a promise to prevent all fears of a Surprize No Man saith God shall desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year But because Jeroboam might perhaps take this Promise only to respect or intend a security against Aliens not their fellow Tribes therefore God sent him a Prophet to Bethel with a miraculous Power to reclaim him from his diffidences to the observation of the Law which not working upon the King this thing became a Sin and Snare to him his House and his People to their utter excision a Document for ever to all Earthly Powers not to entail upon themselves Jeroboam's Case exemplary to all Kings their Posterities and their People the Curse of the Almighty in the violation of his Ordinances But to conclude all with some general Considerations on Christianity I do not at all doubt but that the Dr. will assert to us Christians a Right and Liberty Right of frequent Christian Worship on Holy Day and oâ— her frequent days and houâ—â— with other Usâ—gâ—â— both Natural and Divine to Assemble often in Publick Worship and Holy Services of the Church not only on the Lords Day and at our Festivals Fasts and Vigils but every day two three or more times a Day if we can have leisure tho' our Princes should forbid us these Times and Frequences I may well add that we may do these Devotions in Consecrated Places and several Catholick Appendages of Devotion tho' for these there be no express Command in Scripture and for most of them no Instances The Antient Church owned several Usages in the Church for Canons Apostolical Canons Apostolical and not a few of that Collection which we have under that Character descended from the Apostolical Age and Practice as the Traditions of the most Antient Fathers evince and the Substrate Reasons of them will still be of very great Use and Eternal Convenience And must we be bound to quit all these even not Mystick Institutions at the Arbitrary pleasure of Civil Powers while yet Constantine * Constant Mag. ad Synod Tyr. ap Ensch de vit Coâ—d l. 4. c. 42. l. 3 c. 57. beyond whom I thought no Clergy man would prescribe or claim Prerogative for all Christian Princes thought himself obliged to Revere and Submit to such Traditional Canons which were by the Catholick Church received as of Apostolical Age or Original CHAP. IV. Of the Divine Right of Christian Synods § 1. NOW if we have a Divine Right of Convening for Worship in popular Assemblies with an unalienable Authority of using many unscriptural Usages and convenient Appendages in this Service why should not our Spiritual Governours have Authority to Assemble in Consultation for the good Conduct of the Common Assemblies or what Prerogative is violated by this Liberty But because a positive Constitution of God is what Time-servers and Anti-Hierarchists do so particularly demand from us tho' very unwilling that you should so squeeze and torment their pretences to a Divine Title I will however to gratify even the peevish endeavour to do the Church and them too Reason in this Point § 2. As then our Faith is a Mysterious Doctrine Our Faith and Sacraments Mysterious discovered originally to certain Christian Patriarchs and Preachers of Righteousness whose Doctoral Office and Order has descended by Ecclesiastical Ordinations to the whole Church so our Sacramental Ordinances are Priestly and Hallowing Mysteries committed also by Divine Ordinance
such a value for the Synagogue as to think its Constitutions Fundamental to the Church or such an Imperial Authority over it much less when the Scriptures give the Polity of the Synagogue none the least mention much less Recommendation and Authority to prescribe Law to the Christian Church for ever but by its Absolute and Total Silence herein seem to intend that that Polity should instead of such prescriptive Power together with the Law be nailed to our Saviours Cross and be afterward decently buried in an Eternal Oblivion And hence tho' Men of Rabbinic Learning are very fond to derive our Forms from their Patterns yet we find no such Conceptions hereof among the Antients as no shades of it in the Scriptures nor Authority for it any where § 7. But supposing the Jewish Princes had managed the Synods of the Synagogue according to the Drs. Aphorisms and pretended a rightful Authority so to do does it follow that they really had that Right which they pretended to If bare Pretences of Princes will create a Right the dispute is over but then I must tell the Dr. he had never had any opportunity or inducement to have written his Book for this sort of Supremacy But if bare pretences alone create no Right and the Christian Emperours exactly followed them herein then Christian Princes have hereupon only pretence for this their Authority So that the Drs. Cause required stronger Assertions of Right in the Jewish Kings Assigned in the Laws and Constitutions of God Mishpat Hammelech by which they were very particularly constituted But herein there is the profoundest Silence I Sam. 8.11 to 19. and that little that is said of the Mishpat Hammelech the manner of the King which they wickedly craved instead of God tho' it imports a Domination Cyp. Ep. 65. § 1. Et ut hoc ulcisceretur excitavit eis Saul Regem qui eos injuriis gravibus afligeret per omnes contumelias paenas superbum populum calcaret et premeret ut contemptus Sacerdos de superbo populo divinâ ultione vindicaretur yet does not so much assert a Right as denounce it an uncontroulable oppression in punishment to their contempt of God and Samuel But yet God that was resolved so to deliver them up upon their own desires yet limits the oppressions to Matters Secular only not permitting the insolence to rage also over their Sacred and Religious Liberties that there might from hence be no ground for any such barbarous and impious Prescription for any Princes Arbitrary lusts herein whatsoever § 8. But to be as Concessive to the Dr. as 't is possible suppose this Domination to have extended to their Religious Polity and Liberties also will he hence prescribe from the malice of Jewish Kings permitted by God in punishment to a Rebellious People for the Right of such Practices in Princes upon the Christian Church and the same Christian Princes too And yet excepting this he has nothing in the Bible that looks like any Ordinance for the suppression of the Popular Liberties and none at all for the Hierarchical § 9. Since then there is no Law nor Praecedent in the Old Testament for this sort of Ecclesiastical Power or Authority in either Jewish or Christian Princes let us consider what other Law or Constitution can be sound out or supposed for its legal Original And first we must consider the State of the Question in the first Christian Emperors who are said to Claim Use The Original of Censtantiaes Supremacy and to be rightly Invested with this Authority and particularly in Constantine the Great Now he being supposed to claim all these Prerogatives as his Right antecedent to the actual Exercise thereof must sound it in one or other of those Originals above summed up § 4. and yet I believe none of these will quadrate with the Hypothesis For first if it be founded in the Natural Law of Sovereignty simply then all Sovereigns Heathens Turks Jews would simply have it and all Acts of Synods otherwise managed would not only be Nullities but Rebellious Seditions which yet I presume no Doctor will allow Not in any express Revelation of God for there is none such in either Testament not in any Gâ—â—â—ral Laws of Nations as being antecedent to and more general than Christianity and in Interests Temporal only not in any Common Charter of Christian Nations as such for such Charter and such Nations there were none before Constantine not in any Canons Ecclesiastical for all those before Constantine's time had no respect to any Temporal Powers not in any Contract of his with the Church for such is no where mentioned in his History which yet had been the most signal thing in it nor at last in any Law of his own making for no man can make a right or valid Law but by some antecedent Authority vested in him so to do and of this the Question properly lies Now since here are none of the Originals extant in History or Nature or Revelation the only remaining Plea must be prescription from immemorial precedents that might warrant a legal presumption for some of these Originals But Constantine had not one instance before him for this his Synodical Supremacy for the three first Centuries after Christ and the Plantation of the Powers Ecclesiastical but all the prescription throughout those Ages was for the Hierarchy in whose hands Constantine at his Conversion found it lodged in full Vigour and Authority and is known and recorded to have owned it for Divine as will appear in the second part So that the Right that is attributed by our Laws to our Kings The Legal Original of our Kings Supremacy belonged not to Constantine the Great and therefore must be lodged in some other Constitution viz. the same as that of all our Common Laws and Original Contract between the King and the Estates of this Realm and that upon a Civil Incorporation of the Church and its Powers and Ordinances into the Civil State and Secular Authority But if any man shall think that the Churches Authorities were given by God in order to Church Duties and that the Church can no more part with one than the other as being inseparable and conservient to Divine ends and so make an invidious objection about our Frame I hope no man will expect that 〈◊〉 should be such a Fool to expose my self to a Middlesex Jury and so leaving this matter to God and the Sense of all that love his Church I am their Humble Servant but as to Constantine the Great I dare swear he never dream'd of the business § 10. Nay there was in his time a very obvious prejudice against such an Opinion viz. that God whose Ways are not as ours Why Kings were not made the first Apostles nor his Thoughts like those of the Sons of Men seeing the ineptitude of the Emperors immersed in Secular Cares to engross all Holy Authorities to themselves and the Suspicion