relating to their Negative Interests in the Call and Maintenance of the Ministry III. Next it is but too evident that whatever be pretended this care for Defence of the Church's Patrimony from Dilapidation and Misapplications is the least part of the Patron 's business or concernment All the care he takes in this affair being meerly that no Body shall have Power to Dilapidate or Misapply the Church's Rents and Livings but Himself And certainly in this respect the Power of Patronage may most justly and deservedly be termed a Jus onerosum a very grievous and burdensome power to the Church of God so that if there were a particular Office appointed for preventing the Dilapidation and Mismanagement or Misapplying of the Church's Patrimony and for punishing of such as should be found guilty of it I am sure there is no sort of Men in the Nation that would feell the weight of Justice more deservedly upon that account than the most part of the Patrons themselves who as they are de Facto guilty with many other Sacrilegious Impropriators of the Dilapidating and Misapplication of the Church's Livings Patrimony without the least colour of Material Right so they do pretend as we may have farther occasion to observe that de Jure they may lawfully retain in their own hands whatever part of the Benefice they can agree with the Intrant to allow And that in the cases of vacancy the Fruits and Profites of the Benefice must return to their own private use IV. But thirdly the defence of the Church in her Rights and Patrimony and in her Liberties and Priviledges also Is indeed a thing very necessar and desireable and therefore it is a duty incumbent not only on every Christian in power in their several stations but in a special manner upon the civil Magistrat who by his office is the Church's Nursing Father And not only is it the duty of all Magistrats but their Honour and Profit also and it will likewise be their Comfort that they have imployed all their Power and Interest and brought all their Honour and Authority to the New Jerusalem for whose good our blessed Lord took upon him the state of a Servant and sends forth his Angels as ministring Spirits But any power the civil Magistrat hath in these matters is only a power circa Sacra and no power in Sacris with reference to a Negative Interest in the Maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel to which they have a full and better Right by vertue of their Spiritual capacity and faithful Discharge of their duty therein than all the Powers on Earth can give them The Magistrats power is only Cumulative whereby he may confirm and maintain the Rights and Liberties of the Church but no way privative of them He may and ought to interpose his Interest and Authority for her defence in the injoyment of her Rights but can neither deprive her of them not confer or confirm the same in favours of any other that usurps or invads them to her prejudice V. Fourthly it is the constant opinion of Divines that the Church herself hath power to censure such as are guilty of Symoniacal or Sacrilegious Dilapidations and Misapplications of het Patrimony And this they gather by due Analogy from the Apostle Peter's inflicting Acts 5 Acts 8. of the punishment of Death upon Ananias and Saphira for their Sacrilegious Concealments of what they had Consecrate to God for the use of his Church and from the carriage of the same Apostle in the case of Simon Magus from whom the crime of Simony derives it's Name VI. But beside all this the word of God as it is compleatly perfect in every thing so it is noways deficient in settling institutions properly Ecclesiastical for the oversight of these matters For in the Primitive and Apostolick times we find that the care of the Collecting and Distributing of the goods of the Church was committed to the Deacons who being ordinar and standing Office-bearers in the Church were countable to her for their Administration and Censurable by her in case they were found to Maleverse These Office-bearers had truly a kind of power in Sacris or a lawful warrand to medle with a thing Consecrated and Devoted to God for pious uses And as this office was in it self most useful and necessary in the Church and founded upon a lawful warrand so it was ordinarly exerced by Men of Credit and Interest Acts 6. 1 Cor. 12 23 24 25 28. and such as were Eminent for Piety as is clear from 1 Cor. 12. And it is to be regrated that the Church for want of a Maintenance to such Officers stands deprived for the most part of their patrociny and protection VII They are styled in the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word Importing the standing over against a Man for help in the lifting of a burden that is too weighty for him alone And is a term that very properly and more fully and significantly expresseth the Nature and Design of this Office than any word in our Language can For without such helps so our Translation renders the word who may take upon them the care of collecting and dispensing what was bestowed upon the Church for pious uses the work of the Ministry could not but meet with many Hinderances and Obstructions For when the Pastors of the Church like the neglected Levits Nehem. 13. must flee every one to his field and be entangled in Secular Affairs and Law suits for recovery of their Livings how is it possible that they can wait upon the duties of their function as they ought the diligent and Faithful discharge of the Ministerial Office is of it self without the unnecessar addition of other civil Affairs of so great a weight and requires so much assiduity and application that it made even the Apostle Paul himself one of the greatest and most eminent Ministers that ever the Christian Church had cry out who is sufficient for these things or how is it possible when the Pastors of the Church 2 Cor. 2 16. are so inveigled in civil business and debates but they must turn cold and faint in that edge and zeal that renders them useful and profitable Labourers in the Lord's Vine-Yard VIII And tho' this office of Deacons may seem to be among the lowest yet in the primitive times it was of no mean account Men of the best note and consideration for piety and wealth were ordinarly intrusted with it as is clear from that fore-cited place And that because of the great use and necessity the Church had of them And therefore in Diaconis potius quam Pastoribus elegendis curandum ut caeteris paribus lautioris Fortunae Homines qui infimum hoc officium Ornent eligantur Our own Church also in the second Book of Discipline Dicks in loc treats at large of this office and of the charge of the Church's goods thereto Intrusted IX From all which we may very
of Friends and Servants and many times from Motives and to Ends of a more dangerous and fatal consequence to send Presentations in favours of such as they never saw in the face nor so much as ever heard of either before or after that time without making the least shadow of a previous Inquiry into the qualifications and condition of either Preacher or People They being as unfit and incapable to discern in either as they were unable and inconcerned to improve any discovery they should make for the good of the People by looking out and presenting a Pastor that might be fit and proper for them Vbi ille Canon says Athanasius ut a palatio mittatur is qui futurus est Episcopus In Epist ad vitam Solit. agentes Neither need we forget how many that entered to the Ministry in this method were the occasion of no small trouble to the Church of God in this Nation SECT XIV The power of Patronage hath been grosly abused and scandalously offensive without any necessity or use I. THE next Ground I shall insist upon against the pretended right of Patronage is That as it is no Divine Institution but clearly destructive of the Institutions of Christ and of the Natural Freedom and Interests of the Church considered as a society So it is likewise an useless and unnecessary Invention and hath been the Fountain and Occasion of many gross abuses and most scandalously offensive to all sorts of Christians in the Church of God. And therefore ought not to be tolerat and allowed in any Christian Church or State. II. As for its usefulness or necessity I cannot understand neither have I ever heard any thing pretended in its defence from this Head. And it is impossible any end or use of it can be thought on but what may very well and far better be attained by the due and orderly method of Election set down in the Scriptures For as the Church is sufficiently and much better provided for in that method by her infinitely wise and loving King and Head so there needs no other right to give a Minister of the Gospel a lawful Title to his Maintenance and Living but his spiritual Capacity and faithful discharge of the duties of his Function The Workman says our Lord is worthy of his wages so that unless the Patron will pretend that he can state a Minister in a Spiritual Capacity and so assume a power of Ordination as well as of Election and truly he hath as good ground to claim the one as the other he can give him no right to his Maintenance as we have already proven And therefore such a power is not to be tolerate in the Church by any Christian Magistrate who ought to use all his Power and Authority for God and the edification of his People by being a terrour to evil doers and removing of such corrupt and useless Institutions as put an obstruction in the way of the precious Ordinances of Jesus Christ for the Calling of such as may be fittest for the Ministerial Charge as being the most special ordinary Means both of his own and his People's Eternal Happiness III. And the Church having in her purest times enjoyed her lawfully called Pastors e're such a thing as Patronage was heard of in the World and when she had no Christian Magistrate to protect and defend her It cannot but seem wonderful Quorsum or for what end such an Invention shall now be maintained in and over the Church when there are Christian Magistrates who Virtute Officij are bound to plead for and defend her in her Rights and Liberties seing all that is necessar in reference to the Call of a Gospel Ministry and to their true Right and Maintenance is far better provided for by Methods of Divine Appointment The right of Patronage is as little and less useful and I am sure far more prejudicial in this cafe than in the Call and Maintenance of Men of other Professions such as Lawyers Phisicians and common Mechanicks Only men have still a greater itch to be medling in the matters of God without a lawful Call than in other things that of their own Nature are subject and by Divine Appointment are left to a humane Regulation nitimur in vetitum And therefore as we had once good reason to bless God that the publick Authority of the Nation in the Year 1649. had abolished this corrupt custom so on the other hand it is to be regrated that there hath not been that same sense of Justice since with a suteable acquiescence to their so just and rational Determination especially considering that if there was any prejudice or loss of Patrimony sustained it was on the Church's part and not on the Patron 's as the Act 1649. will easily clear to any that will be at the pains to peruse it IV. In this manner do all Protestant Divines and our own Writers in particular argue against the superstitious Corruptions and Ceremonies of the Romish and English Churches And the truth is if we would but allow our selves calmly and without heat and prejudice to consider the matter it cannot but be very surprysing to see that men who pretend to act for the good and edification of the Church should yet hazard her Peace and Unity and the scandalizing and offending or the marring of the progress of their poor Brethren in the ways of God by forcing and violently imposing upon them as the only terms of Communion under the pain both of Church Censures and Legal Punishments The practice of what themselves confess to be at best but indifferent and no way necessar either upon the account of a Divine Command or Moral Use And which their Brethren upon solid and undenyable Grounds taken from the Word of God and the Principles of the Reformation believe to be superstitious and sinful Especially since they are forced to acknowledge that these Institutions in which they both agree are not only Lawful but do likewise abundantly satisfie all the necessary ends for which they are appointed there being nothing alledged in favour of these superstitious and unnecessary additions but a pityful and empty shadow of worldly decency and fashionablness so much decryed by the word of God Be not ye conform to this present evil world says the Apostle and which in no equity can ever come in competition with the least hazard of losing the Church Unity or offending the meanest of Christ's Followers These Practices must certainly render such men justly obnoxious to the heavy charge of Schism and to that Wo denounced by our blessed Lord against such as should be instrumental see Matth. 18.7 in bringing divisions and offences into the Church V. But to leave this and come to the next brench of this consideration we may observe that as there are few or no institutions either Civil or Ecclesiastick but what by reason of the weakness and wickedness of men are lyable to be abused and one way or another
safely conclude that tho' the care of the Church's Patrimony be no way to be neglected yet there is no necessity to erect a particular office for that end distinct as the Canonists would have it from all Civil and Ecclesiastical offices of Divine Appointment and Institution with which the Church and People of God are abundantly provided as far as there is any need by the infinite Love and Wisdom of Jesus Christ her only Head and Law-giver This were indeed a most direct species of superstition to devise New and Onerous Institutions supra quod statutum est And far less is it necessar to invest any Office bearer of this Nature with such an additional Priviledge as is claimed by the Patrons of Kirks and Benefices in reference to a negative Interest in the Election and maintenance of the Ministry SECT XI Patronage is no institution of Divine appointment but a manifest usurpation I. BY what hath been said it sufficiently appears how groundlels this Right of Patronage is which might be enough without any farther to Justifie the proceedings of the Publick Authority of the Nation Anno. 1649 in the abolishing of this Priviledge But that the Injustice as well as Groundlesness of this Right may yet more appeare I shall in the next place according to the method proposed offer some clear and convincing reasons against it wherein I shall shun the repetition of what I have already said and keep the same plainness I have hitherto observed II. The assertion we undertake to prove is clearly this That the Patron 's pretended Priviledge of a negative Interest c about and concerning the Call and Maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel claimed by the Patrons of Kirks and Benefices is a sinful and unjust usurpation without warrand from the word of God destructive to the true Liberties and Interests of the Church and most scandalously offensive to all ranks of Christians therein as I think may be clear from these Grounds III. First this pretended Priviledge is no Ordinance nor Institution of our Blessed Lord There being no ground from Scripture either by Promise Precept or Example for investing any single Person with such a Priviledge as the looking out Nomination and Election of the Ministers of the Gospel the principal Office bearers of the Church of Christ neither is it so much as pretended to be founded upon Scripture It being confessedly of a farr later date and all that is alledged for it is nothing else but some surreptitious Edicts Canons and corrupt Customes which as Doctor Forbes of Corss terms it non leges sunt sed labes And therefore for any man or Angel to give or assume such a priviledge In Epist ante tract de Simon where our Blessed Lord the Church's only King Lawgiver hath not given it as a most sinful usurpation over his Crown and Dignity and a bold Invasion upon the Rights of his dearly purchased spouse IV. In all the Catalogues of the Officebearers of the Church mentioned Rom 12. 1 Cor 12 Eph 4. in the Scripture there is nothing like a Patronage recorded And if those Priests who Married the Daughters of Barzillai and were called by their name Ezra 2 61. were Justly counted as polluted and were removed from the exercise of their Office tho' Lawfull in it self because they could not instruct their descent from the Record of genealogies And their removal ratified by the sentence of the Tirshatha or Governour and they discharged to Eat of the most Holy things till a Priest with Vrim and Thummim should stand up and clearly declare God's mind in the case and so supply the defect of these records Then surely and with a great deal of more Reason ought the Christian Magistrate to remove such an unwarrantable Institution as this of Patronage till its Right to medle in the affairs of the Church be clearly instructed from the Divine records of the Scripture which I am sure will never be done V. This is a ground that will be opposed by none who own the Scriptures of God to be the perfect Rule and Square by which the Government of the Church is to be Regulate And that our Lord Jesus Christ who is the great and Wonderful Counseller and the Father's Wisdom was Faithful in all his Fathers House to him that appointed him Heb 3 2. For as the arrogating of such a priviledge without warrand from the word of God is most derogatory to and a high and injurious reflection upon the infinite Love Wisdom and Faithfulness of our Blessed Lord and directly implyes that he hath not sufficiently provided his Church with a compleat method for Furnishing and Election of her own Office-bearers without calling in the weak and Superstitious devices of Men's invention to her assistance So such as dare offer to rectifie his Institutions as defective or to call in question our Lord's Wisdom and Faithfulness in this may go a great length to question his ability to save to the uttermost There is a nearer and firmer connexion betwixt these than every one thinks We see it clearly in the Popish Church For as there was never a Society in the World that invented moe superstitious Offices such as Cardinals Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deans Chancellors Officials Commissars c. with so much Reflection upon the Wisdom and Faithfulness of Christ as King and Head of his Church so no Society on Earth has been more injurious to our Blessed Lord's Office of Priest-hood in Robbing him of the honour of that compleat Satisfaction payed by him to Divine Justice for the sins of his People And it is undeniable that as both this device of Patronage and that Anti-evangelical Opinion of Merit owe their Original to the same corrupt Fountain so the Church's sad experience can testifie that they have still been found to be mutual Abettors Supports of each other as we hinted before and may have farther occasion to observe hereafter VI And hence we may safely conclude that the publick Authority of the Nation in the yeare 1649 had all the Reason Imaginable to say parl 1649 cap that the priviledge of Patronage was an Evil and Bondage under which both Ministers and People in this land had long groaned that it is a Popish custom brought in upon the Church in the times of Ignorance Superstition And the Canonists themselves such as Lambertinus Panormitan Pistorius c. do expresly acknowledge that Patronage is a kind of servitude upon the Church Jus vocationis says Amesius non potest proprie esse vel Episcoporum Dioecesanorum vel Patronorum Ameâ— â—e cas conâ—cien cap 25. Parl. 24. vel Magistratuum qua sunt tales quia Christus qui ministerium instituit de istis ordinibus nihil singulare praescripsit nihil novi juris ipsis communicavit Ecclesiane sine iis optime ordinatam reliquit That is the Right of calling Ministers cannot properly belong either to the Diocesan Bishops nor to Patrons