Committed by God to set Orders to proper Priests and lastly the Mystick Powers of the Hierarchy of the Keys Hierarchial Powers of binding and loosing of remitting and retaining of sins in Earth to be ratified above by Christ in Heaven was deposited in the Apostles the first Fundamental Bishops under Christ and derived down to all their Successours with whom he promised his presence even to the end of the World that so the Gates of Hell might not prevail over the Church committed to their Charge Consecration by Mystical Imposition of Haâ—d to which end among others they are by a Mystical Imposition of Hands blessed and consecrated unto such Measures of the Holy Spirit as are suitable to so high and holy a Function and such Mystick Offices Now if this in Fact be so then our Rule holds good that none can attempt these Powers but by Divine Commission either Original or Successive the Divine Maxim of the Author to the Hebrews c. 5.4 holding true of these Priesthoods as well as those in the House of Aaron Priesthood not assumable but by Divine Commistion That no Man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Now to secure this Truth and Matter of Fact we have St. Pauls Testimonies to the full in several places namely That Christ hath placed in the Church Pastors Powers Ilicrâ—rchiâ—â—l instincted by Christ Teachers Governments in which they that Rule are to Rule well and with diligence and to be therefore accounted worthy of or assigned double Honour and to be obeyed and submitted to as they that watch for our Souls for which they must give Account as Stewards of God Mysteries 1 Cor. 12.28 Rom. 12.8 1 Tim. 5.17 Heb. 13.17 1 Cor. 4.1 from whence 't is as clear as Noon day that the Christian Laity are by Divine Ordinance under Governors Hierarchical And being so are in a Subordinate state of Ecclesiastical Society with God under their Spiritual Rulers and being antecedently so before are therefore independently so consociated as to Civil Societies according to the Doctrine of the Letter § 3. But this is not all that deserves observation in this matter But beside the different Orders of Governours the Vnity of the Catholick Church is to be much considered under these several Governours either as one Divine School of Christian Piety under many Doctors The Catholick Unity of the Church a◠〈◊〉 â—â—chool Aâ—â—â—y or â—olity under several Principal Governours The Twelve and the Seventy or of one Army in many Partitions under their respective Head Officers or Lieutenants General under Christ the great Captain of our Salvation or as one Polity under many Optimates For first our Saviour came as a Doctor sent from God and gathered under him Disciples of these he ordained twelve chief Doctors and seventy Inferiors to collect more unto and instruct them in this School when collected Now a collection of Disciples into one Society is but one School how large soever it grows and how many Teachers soever the Enlargements do required So many Tutors there are in one Colledge and many Colledges in one University Since then also the whole Catholick Church of Christ is but one general School of his Foundation tho' the Doctors that teach it have their several Rooms and Mansions for their particular Shares these Partitions for Convenience do not divide the general Society into Independent Separations No Independencies in Christs Church The same sort of Unity is to be maintained in the Notion of an Army or Church Militant by Sacramental Vow under Christs Banner under the conduct of its general Officers And lastly if we consider it as the one City or Kingdom of God committed by its Prince during his abscence to several Viceroys assigned their respective Districts and Jurisdictions these are the Bishops succeeding in this Authority to the Apostles So that this One School One Army One City tho' distributively to be governed by the several Rulers as to particular and local Offices yet as to the Interests of the common Vnity and Preservation it must be governed Aristocratically by common Council and Unanimous Authority Conciliar Assemblies necessary to an Aristocracy And as no Monarch can well Govern without a set of Counsellors to Advise such as the Clergy or Chapter of a Diocess ought to be to a Bishop in his District So the Optimates of an Aristocracy cannot not only not Wisely but not Authoritatively act without Conciliar Forms and Methods and they are therefore themselves one standing fundamental Council for the whole Subject Body And hence is the Right of Provincial Synods The Catholick Right and Primitive use of Provincial Synods to be held all over the Catholick Church fundamentally necessary to the Catholick Uniformity of Conduct and Vnity depending thereupon to the end that what each Council resolves may be transmitted to the rest and so mutually treated of if need be by the intervention of Legates or ratified if there be no doubt or need of discussions which was the original form of Catholick Government and Communion in the Christian Church before the Empire set up Christs Banner and was received as of Apostolical Canon So that if the Visible Unity of the Catholick Church as one common Society and Community No need of Scriptural Record for requiring such forms of Government be of Divine Structure the very Truth and Faith hereof immediately imports an Aristocracy and that a Right of Conciliar Assemblies and Legations So that there needed no Scriptural Record requiring this while the Frame and Order hereof was before laid in the first Structure of the Church and Universally known as Established in it before any Scriptures of the New Testament were conceived or lodged in the Archives of the Church as is confessed by the instances of this Conciliar form of Government extant in these Scriptures to be by and by alledged For it is further to be considered that the Convention of these Synods is not universally of constant and indispensably necessary frequency Synods mostly upon emergencies to be fixed to stated times but upon emergencies mostly which yet are frequent enough and in the days of Persecution 't is as inconvenient many times to the Spiritual as dangerous to the Temporal Interests of Christians 't was therefore fitter to leave the exercise of that Authority free to the publick Ecclesiastick Prudence Not to be held constantly in times of danger as to the actual exercise and menage thereof than to confine it to particular Rules Times and Limits Cyp. Ep. 56. § 3. Nec quisquam cum populunmostrum fugari conspexerit metu persecutionis spargi conâ—urbetur quod collection fraternitatem non videat nec tractantes Episcopos andiat c. by Express and Canonical Precept without reserve to a necessary Liberty Nor need this be thought strange since the Assemblies for Doctrine and Worship tho' apparently of Divine Right as to daily use
Municipium Ecclesiasticum OR THE Rights Liberties and Authorities Of The Christian Church Asserted against all Oppressive Doctrines and Constitutions Occasioned by Dr. Wabe's Book concerning the Authority of Christian Princes over Ecclesiastical Synods c. Hilar. in Psal 52. Et plerumque nos tanquam pro debiti ossicii Religione pié adulari Regibus existimamus quia in corpus nostrum sit aliquid Potestatis quibus nihil ultra in nos licet quam febri quam incendio quam naufragio quam ruinae His enim casibus corporum pro summa potestate desaeviunt propter brevem dolorem Libertatem Ecclesiae spei nostrae fiduciam confessionem Dei addicimus Inutilis est humanae gratiae irreligiosa sectatio Cypr. Ep. 40. Sect. 4. Adulterum est impium est sacrilegum est quodcunque humano furore instituitur ut dispositio divina violetur Ep. 63. Sect. 11. Neque hominis consuetudinem sequi oporter sed Dei veritatem Printed and are to be Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1697. TO THE Reverend Dr. Wake Chaplain in Ordinary To His Majesty THE Irreligious World is not so dull as to need information what ways are most effectual to the suppression of Christianity A popular contempt of the Mysteries and a radical aversion to the Authority of the Church does the business smoothly and without hazard By Ambition and Avarice by Fanaticism and Sedition the latter is wholly extinct and on the sense hereof Infidelity and Heresie have made their insolent advances against the former In condolence whereat the Letter to a Convocation-Man seems to have been offered to the World for the use and freedom of the Convocations against the present Impieties in Religion and rigorous Opinions in matter of Law 'T was natural hereupon to expect the insurrection of the Insidels and Hereticks against the Proposals and Power of a Convocation to prevent their Censure as well as an assertion of the Laws and Judgments herein from the hands of Lawyers But who would have dreamed that any Clergy-Man of Dignity and Value in the Church should lift up his heel against her The wounds of Adversaries how sharp soever are never mortal to the Church The judgement of Lawyers is ambulatory according to the prevalency of Times and Powers they being only Interpreters of what the Kingdom admits or constitutes for Right and Law And therefore when the Princes and the Nation submitted to the Pope the Courts acknowledged and acted upon his Right or Claim of Supremacy and when the Nation could shake it oâ— and the King grasp it then past the Judgments and Rules of Court accordingly Nor can they be blamed herein for so their Office determines them But when the great Laminaries of the Church shall sign the Theta upon her Rights Liberties and Authorities Divine and Humane and this voluntarily and without any Bribe offered or Menace denounced the Concession is taken for sincere and for that cause just so that the Church of England suffers more by your Book herein than by all other Lay or Law Oppositions whatsoever And t is not improbable but that it may animate the Secular Powers not only to lay greater restrictions on the Church but even to abolish all the remainder of her legal Rights and Powers and put us out of all our Interest in the great Charter of the Land For the Lay Powers how strongly soever they desire to settle themselves over all interests yet generally have such a modesty towards what is Divine or Sacred as to attempt nothing noâ—oriously violent without the concession of the Church or her most Eminent Doctors So K. H. VIII of Famous Memory notwithstanding all his Claims at common Law and his interest in his Parliament thro' Power and the Rewards by Abbey and Church-Lands could not have made himself so absolute in Ecclesiasticals had he not procured before the submission of the Clergy nor could he have compassed that but thro' the terror of a Premunire under which they had fallen and upon which he was resolved to follow his blow and so to bend or break them And yet this Act of a Popish Vnreformed and well nigh Outlawed Convocation extorted for fear of ruine and thro' ignorance and non-suspicion of the Acts consequent upon it prejudges more against our Liberties than all Secular constitutions could pessibly have done without it And must we now consecrate all those procedures the results of which we seel in the total ruine of Ecclesiastical Discipline and Christian Piety by our voluntary Pleas and Acclamations and to gratisie the Civil Powers to an Arbitrary utmost violate the most important Truths of Principles and Histories treat the Synods of the Church with spite and contumely and recommend the greatest slavery of her to the appetite of Civil Powers How much more Honourable had it been under a Prince whose peculiar Province has ever been at the perpetual hazard of his Life to relieve the Oppressed to have presented him with such Draughts and Schemes of the Divine Rights Liberties Authorities and Discipline of the Church as might inflame him to a resolution for her rescue and to add this last Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the top of all his Glories as an Eucharistical Duty and Oblation so God for all his wonderful Providences in his Preservation and Atchievements For which cause you have made it absolutely necessary that your Book should be discussed and its dangerous Errors laid open to the end that the Publick may be under no temptation from such a work inscribed to the Metropolitan to proceed to further Resolves against the Powers Hierarchical but may take occasion to review those Laws thro' which the Church is fallen under her present Impotency except you and wiser Heads can shew which way a Spiritual Discipline may be otherwise restored to a freedom of doing her Duty toward God in the cleansing the Church and the renovation of Mens Hearts unto Piety and Devotion I have therefore designed an Examination thereof in three Parts The first concerning the Divine Powers of the Churches of Christ The second concerning Matters of Fact in Ecclesiastical History The third concerning the Exigences for a present Convocation In the mean time I wish you no more hurt than a perpetual increase of Merit Honour and Promotion here and that which is the only valuable Prospect a Blessed Inheritance in the Life to come Municipium Ecclesiasticum OR THE Rights Liberties Authorities OF THE Christian Church Asserted c. CHAP. I. Of the Divine Right of Synods SECT I. THE Letter to a Convocation-man does not only suppose that the Words of the Statute of Submission are interpreted to too great a Restriction of the Convocation but goes much deeper for a much larger Liberty to the Church herein upon the Supposition of a Divine Right to all Churches and Synods for Affairs Christian The Doctor on the contrary denies such Divine Authority of Synods as being but meer prudential Clubs under
is none but on other Reasons exteriour either of State Peace or other insuperable dissiculties nor can such mistaken or enforced Protections give the Protector an Ecclesiastical Headship over all those Systems of different Religions to act them all as Dr. Wake allows them to Act the Church because there is no Right bottomed upon Error See Chap 1. Sect. 5. and because many times they are exempt from his Jurisdiction as in the Chappels of Embassadors and Foreign Factories whose Protection is not Founded upon a supposed possibility of Truth but upon the Reasons of Commerce and Negotiation § 8. Incorpon on dissers from Protection But if the Dr. shall here make Protection only to consist in an Incorporation of the Church into the State and her Canons into the Laws as this is quire another thing from bare Protection and thought to be of a more transcendent Elevation so it will then appear that none of the Christion Roman Emperors did so instate the Church which consequesitly must then be out of Protection and so free from their Supremacy the Exercise whereof therefore must have been an Usurpation and a Nullity § 9. But we shall by and by discern a little better the Form and Nature of a Protection of the Church For if the Catholick Church had a Divine Right in the Liberties and Authorities Synodical continued universally inviolate and unquestioned for 300 Years downward from the Apostles how can this Body be protected by any Magistrate or Powers that shall claim off in point of Title and take it away thereupon in point of Fact any or all of these Divine Priviledges Protection inconsistent with violation of Right given by God and granted to her Priests for her Conduct and Conservation and this under a pretence of Protection while the Churches Constitution is apparently ruined and her Synods heretofore free declared now for Criminal if not held in Villenage This is so contrary to the very Dictates of Nature in the Reason and Form of Protection that all Systems and Factions of Religion disclaim such Bondage and challenge a liberty as presubstrate and praevious to Protection which is otherwise inconceivable and the pretence thereof a meer sham upon humane Understanding The Iews therefore as busie as they are to be enfranchised in their several Dispersions yet would never endure the Civil Powers thereupon so to prescribe all the Politie of the Synagogue and to Null Cancel Ratify or Alter their Methods and an attempt of this Nature upon them would appear as dreadful a persecution as Caius his erecting his Image in their Synagogues Jews Papists Sectaries all for Ecclesiastical Liberty Not only the Romish Church but all other Sectaries and the Scotch Kirk illustriously scorns to admit any servitude notwithstanding not only the National Protection but Promotion being all sensible that a Liberty of Religious Government and Church Discipline is more valuable than all worldly Wealth or Interests and without which they cannot apprehend any Protection to Religion or the Societies that profess it And to close up all since in all Ecclesiastical History those Synods have been most injurious or injuriously dealt with that were least free and their Authority thereby vacated with all Churches for ever I wonder what reputation the Dr. will secure to a Provincial or National Synod with Neighbour Churches Liberty necessary to validity and reputation whether Popish or Reformed or with future Generations should it be in Fact so managed by a Prince as the Dr. avers it may rightly be in all its Motions and Issues Or how can we blame the Popes Management of the Council of Trent and such others if we will justify ten tiems a greater Bondage in the Councils called by Princes What security is there for Uniformity in Doctrine Regularity of Discipline and Authority with the Christian Church if all be to be done only ad nutum P pis The Dr. tells us of Bp. p. 115. King Charles the first and A. B. Land Lands Concurrence with K. Charles the First his Writ for and License to the Convocation Very well and that King and that Prelate too might do so in observing the Forms which could not be altered without Act or Rupture of Parliament but does it follow that they were either of them of the Drs. Enslaving Principles under Sovereignty in General When that Great Primate declares against Fisher a free General Council to be the supremest Judicatory in the Catholick Church and would he not then think the same of a Provincial Council for a Provincial Church tho' both convened and permitted to sit by the Will and Order of Princes Men may Act under the Forms of those Laws when not actually Executed to our injury which they do not simply approve of in themselves and against such a Prosecution of which Laws they would openly and avowedly Complain as did the Council at Ariminum c. And I take it that it must pass for an eternal Rule Truth and Piety free Principles that as Truth and Piety are free-born Principles so are the Depositaries or Trustees of them also to be free in the Culture and Propagation of them And they that withdraw the Necessary freedom of these Trustees withdraw their Protection from the Principles themselves Not to be committed to Slaves they being too noble and glorious to be committed to the Care and Conduct of Slaves or Vassals § 10. Having thus enquired into the first reason for this Alienation of Synodical Powers from the Mitre to the Crown The forms of alienation improper let us in the next place examine the Form of it hereupon which must consist in a Devolution Occupation or Contract with the Spiritual Powers If by Devolution this must be founded either in the Original Ordinance and Constitution of God or from the Natural Right of Sovereigns over all Persons of the same Religion The first ground hereof I want and can I doubt be no where found and we shall have occasion hereafter to make Experiment whether it can or no. And as to the second I shall readily yield it if it can be made our that in all Religion Natural and Revealed the Prince that is of it shall have the entire Conduct of it For then indeed it must rest in the Hierarchy only till they get a King of their Faith to whom then they must turn over all their Powers But why should this Divine Charter Devolve over to Princes any more than that of a little Borough This of the Borough was granted by Kings Be it so tho' 't is not necessarily so for that popular States may so six themselves and after admit a King to protect them but without any Devolution But be it so Can then our King be denied a Devolution of a Charter in a Town which he Protects because a former King founded it tho' in a mere Secular Interest and Government and must a Charter founded by the King of Kings Devolve to a Temporal
Prince out of those Hands and that Society in which it was vested in a matter quite different from the Secular Polity I do desire a proof hereof as weighty and important as the Matter and Consequences hereof are What then is it liable to a Despotick Occupation This again is what a Borough will not yield upon a Quo Warranto but will be ready to make a Counter demand of Quo Warranto from their Prince In vain would he plead for it on the Right of Protection while he strikes at all their Municipal Rights and Liberties Be sure except the English Church here But we we only are the Poor Tame Dispirited Drowsie Body that are in Love with our own Fetters and this is the only scandalous part of our Passive Obedience to be not only silent but content with an Oc n of our P rs which are not forfeited nor forfeitable to any Worldly Powers whatsoever And as to any Contract 't is neither pretensible nor pretended by the Doctor tho' too much in truth in latter Ages has been exchanged by the Church for Worldly Interests wherein mainly lies the great Ruine of Christianity § 11. But now we descend to the second Cause in which this unlimited Supremacy of Princes is by the Doctor founded namely Civil Interests as of Peace and the Princes Prerogative To both which I for my own part am willing to surrender all if it be necessary But before this however I would fain know how do the Laws of Peace require a Violation of those Rights which God hath lodged in the Hierarchy as a means to reconcile all in one Body unto a common Peace with God and each other If the Clergy use their Powers to that End who has Right to hinder them Who to break the Peace with them But if they do not there are other just ways of securing them from doing wrong than by disabling them from doing Good that very Good which God hath set them apart and sanctified them to do And these ways are in the Power and Sovereignty of an Heathen Prince Chap. 8. as is above manifested and therefore are sufficient to the same ends in the Authority of a Christian Prince from whose Coercion in matters of Crime the Priesthood how much soever to be revered by Princes ought not to be made a Shelter or Protection Under these Powers of Heathen Princes the Christian Synods made no Rupture on the Peace or Prerogative of the Empire Church Ordinances innocent in all States tho' as undeservedly accused for this by the Heathens as we are suspected of it now Why should the same Spiritual Liberties within a Christian Kingdom be thought more dangerous than they were to Heathens I will not speak out how the Churches of Christendom have been crushed between the Upper and the Nether Milstones but sure I am hence are all the Confusions both under the Papacy and the Reformation Be sure here by all means to except England Nor is it possible to make any true and signal Conversions to the better as long as there is a common Slavery upon the Hierarchical Powers for as we hate the Bondage of Rome so they hate the Bondage of the Church under Secular Domination and so hereby is maintained a perpetual and irreconcileable aversion which no illustrious Piety can extinguish while the Powers thereof are Chained down to mere Politick Ends and Services § 12. So that as there is no necessity No Expediency in the Slavery of the Church so neither is there any expediency to recommend any such unlimited Domination For as Things and Persons Consecrated to God are to be treated with a Respect and Reverence suitable to that Sanctity and Relation to God so a Prostitution of them under Secular Contempt is no small Impiety towards God and no small Guilt Blemish and Indecency in thern that cause it Now of all things under the Sun nothing is so hated feared and despised as Servitude and no Servitude more reproachful than that of Priests which were from the beginning a most Noble Free and Honourable Order in all Nations not excepting the very Barbarous Nor yet of all sorts of Slavery is there any so Indecorous and Grieving as that which oppresseth the Sanctity Authority and Operation of their very Functions for maintenance of which the Bishops of the Primitive Church were chiefly sought out unto Martyrdom And yet as hateful as such Vassallage is in it self 't is less Odious under an Heathen than a Christian Prince For from an open Enemy 't is natural enough and no new thing to expect Oppressions but when a Prince hath been Consecrated by God's Priests into the Communion of the Catholick Church he is thereby federally engaged to assert all the Rights and Authorities of that Divine Communion vested by our Lord in the Christian Hierarchy as much as every common Christian or Priest himself our Salvation in common being promoted by the Conduct of them Can then a claim of an Oppressive Supremacy be deemed a Glorious Jewel in a Christian Crown which if exercised must of necessity forfeit the Kings Salvation And is it not a dangerous Complaisance it Priests to fan such an Ambition as must end in the Ruine of the Church the Priesthood and the Soul of the Prince which the Liberties and Powers Hierarchical were designed to Convert Direct and Preserve It is not perhaps without an especial Providence that Eusebius has preserved the Memory of this Artificial kind of Persecution practised upon the Church by the Emperor Licinius Lecinius his crasty Persecution Who prohibited the Bishops from Visiting the Neighbour Churches or to hold Synods Consultations and Advices concerning matters profitable that so either by disobeying his Law they might be subjected to Punishment or by obeying his Order dissolve the Laws of the Church For that 't is no otherwise possible to set great Concerns at Right but by Synods by which he attempted to break that Concordant Harmony in the Church A place well worth every Princes and Doctors deep and most affective Consideration that under pretence Peace there may be no Licinius set up over the Hierarchy within the Communion of the Christian Church For besides the Domestick Cares and Exigencies of every Church requiring a constant Watch and frequent Consultations the concerns of the whole Catholick Church under Heaven ought to affect every Province and Bishopâ—ick thereof to a frequent course of Communications in order to a general Union and Vniformity in all the principal matters of Christianity a duty never to be performed but by a liberty of Synods in order thereunto in which the Rights of the Catholick Church run a parallel with those of Civil Powers 'T is true indeed this Communication is actually broken off but the Right and Duty thereof is mâ—â—aâ—colled and eternal obliging all Churches to reâ—tore it and I believe all Princes to pâ—rmit and assist the restitution Let therefore the Church be bound in all humility