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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A59284 The interest of Scotland in three essays ... Seton, William, Sir, d. 1744. 1700 (1700) Wing S2650; ESTC R15555 38,798 124

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constituting and giving Laws to all in general and to each in particular under his Dominion To which agrees that Church-Government Hierarchy composed of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. And of such two Governments was constitute the Roman Empire in the time of Constantine Aristocracy is the Government of a few of the greatest power and conform to it is Superintendency Which is a Church-Government where a parcel of Members are all equal in power and by the same are distinguished from the rest of the Clergy Democracy is a Government in which the whole Body of the People hath some share and to this is consonant Presbytrie Which is a Church-Government where all the Clergy are equally concerned To none of the above-mentioned kinds of Civil Government doth the Civil Governments of Scotland and England belong which being both of the same Nature I shall call them by one Name a Limited Monarchical Government Which is a Government that 's manag'd by one Man according to the Laws of the Society where he reigns which Laws are made by him in Conjunction with his People So that he hath his Prerogatives and they their Properties and such a Government hath the Advantage of all others which can degenerat into Tyrannies The Government of Scotland and England being a limited Monarchy quite opposit to an absolute one It follows that some other kind of Church-Government must be more agreeable to it than Hierarchy which agrees only with an absolute Monarchy Because the People having lodged so many Prerogatives with their King as the power of declaring War of making Peace of sending Ambassadors of making Leagues and Treaties and of Levying of Men and Arms by Sea and Land if this King is ill-inclined what wants he more but Money to change the very foundamental Laws of his Government and to make Parliaments altogether useless which cannot be raised from the Subject without their consent or which is all one without the consent of Parliament Therefore the People ought to take particular care in chooseing Men to be their Representatives in Parliament that they be Men of Honour and Probity whom the Monarch can noways influence to betray the Liberties of their Countrey And surely it must succeed the better with it the fewer Members of Parliament depend upon the King What power the Kings of Great Britain have had to Cajol Bishops being constant Members of the Parliament into a Complyance with their designs the History of Past-times must declare Constantine as he was the first Christian Emperor so had he a great respect for the professors of that Religion We read in his life That he would not only regal its Teachers at his own Table but that he never went a Journey without ome of them along with him that at the Council of Nice so great was his Complaisance for Church-men that he refused to sit down in their presence The Clergy on the other hand being sensible of the Emperours Kindness continue with him the old Title of Pontifex Maximus by virtue of which he had Right of Ecclesiastical Function reserving for themselves all the Ministerial Offices So Constantine was Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacer dos A mutual good understanding was so cultivated amongst the succeeding Emperours and the Clergy that they had several Laws made in their savour as may be seen in the Titles of the Codex de sacrosanctis Eccles de Episc Cler till the Bishops of Rome taking the opportunity of the Division of the Roman Empire being over-run by Barbarous Nations and of the Ignorance of the times did set up for it themselves under the Specious Title of Christs Vicar And how far they carried their Authoriy with Temporal Princes for some Ages is evident by the Insolence of Hildebrand who rebelled against his lawful Emperor Henry the fourth depriving him of all that respect which was due unto him from a Bishop of Rome It hath been the Policy of the Papal Court to keep the Clergy of every Common-wealth in a certain Hierarchy That it might the more conveniently challenge a Supremacy over them and to the end that they might depend absolutely upon their Interest for to oppose all Temporal Princes who durst do any thing in prejudice of the Holy See by Excommunicating and depriving them of the Allegiance of their Subjects In such a Condition was both the Clergy of England and Scotland in the time of King Henry the Eight of England Who being a wise Prince and disobliged by the Pope in the Marriage of Anna Bullen took the occasion of a Critical Minut to throw off the Popes Supremacy over his Clergy and to assert it for himself according to the Practice of the Kings of England And finding that his Clergy was satisfied with the change he continued the Antient Popish Hierarchy making the Bishops of his Kingdom capable of the greatest Civil Employments in it If the Reformation had begun in Scotland with publick Authority as it did in England I doubt not but Episcopacy had been continued there in place of that Church Government introduced by Knox and others after the Geneva Model Because Supream Civil Powers know how much it is their Interest to be of the Clergies side And that it is easier to have a few Church Men to manage than a Multitude Of this King James is an Example who was not only a great Favourer of the Clergy but thought it his Interest so soon as he was sole Monarch of this whole Island to establish Episcopacy in Scotland according to that Maxim No Bishop No King Now let us see what great Feats Bishops have done in the Management of the British Affairs and accordingly we should make our Judgment concerning the Agreeableness of Episcopacy and our Government which is a Limited Monarchy In the Reign of King James the First of Great-Britain there were Bishops no doubt who complyed with him in every Counsel that was for the Dishonour of his Crowns For we find the Bishop of Lincoln then Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England in his Sermon at King James his Funeral either to flatter his Successor or to impose upon the World making a paralel betwixt him and King Solomon his Text being 1 King 11.41 42 43. Now either that Bishop was perswaded of the Verity of what he preached or not If he was perswaded that King James was the Solomon of his Age then surely he could not refuse to go along with him in all his Counsels And if he preached contrary to what was his Opinion then he was capable at Command to be an Haickny Courtier In King Charles the First 's time it was Bishop Laud and others that occasioned all the Misfortunes that befel that Prince both unhappy in his Council and in his Opiniatritie In King Charles the Second's Reign we never heard of any of his Ecclesiastical Counsellors that e're Discourted themselves for disswading him from his Effeminat Way of Living or from following too much French Counsel On the