Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A49316
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The prerogative of the monarchs of Great Brittain asserted according to the antient laws of England. Also, A confutation of that false maxim, that royal authority is originally and radically in the people. By Bartholomew Lane, Esq;
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Lane, Bartholomew.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing L330; ESTC R222011
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59,818
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160
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while Men in Holy Orders deviate and maintain the forbidden Interest of Worldly Glory while they seek to support the name and shew of Religion they Adulterate Justice and many times become the main disturbers of the publick Peace Whence Matchiavel makes this observation Matchiavel disâ—câ—â—si l. 1. c. 12. That those People who inhabit nearest to the Church of Rome have the least Religion and ascribes the Bad Estate of Italy to the Roman See And for this he gives two invincible as he calls them Reasons First for that by the evil and wicked Examples of that Court the whole Nation have lost all their Piety and Devotion The next Reason proceeds from the different Interest of Christian Humility and Antichristian Vain-glory. For the Roman Court to maintain the Pomp and Splendour of a Temporal Hierarchy is forc'd to keep not only Italy but all Europe in Division and sometimes to League even with the Turk for its own preservation by which means unhappy Italy being prevented from uniting under their own supream Prince and one frame of Law is expos'd to all the Pretences of her more powerful Neighbours and her pettie Princes are but the precarious Tenants at Will to more mighty Potentates Nor does the Exaltation of the Church encourage the Priesthood to move irregularly out of their Sphere or to lead an Amphibious Life sometimes in the running Streams of the Gospel sometimes upon the Terra Firma of Temporal Government Nor is it in Scripture a warrantable method of seeking Church preferment to oblige the secular Interest by strain'd and wrested Interpretations of the Immaculate Scripture Like Shaw Preaching up the Title of Richard the Third and Latimer the right of Jane Seymour For if the Kingdom of their Lord and Master be not of this World no more does temporal preferment belong to the Ministers of his Doctrine But the true Exaltation of the Church is to protect it's Ministers in the Preaching of sound Scripture to the Conversion of Souls to the building up the new Jerusalem and advancing the future Kingdom of Christ by their endeavouring to increase the number of his Celestial Subjects The Exaltation of the Church protects her neat and pure and exactly cleans'd and swept from all the Cobwebbs of Babylonish Superstition For then will Rome despair of ever setting Foot in England more when with grief she beholds all her Follies and inveigling Allurements Root and Branch extirpated To which end the same resolution might well become the Clergy of England in reference to the Relicks of Popish Ceremonies which was applauded in King Stephen in relation to the Roman Laws who hearing that they were brought into England and lodg'd in the custody of Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury commanded them out of his House publish'd an Edict against the Laws of Italy and banish'd them out of his Realm Not enduring tho' a Forraigner himself any other then the Honesty of the English Constitutions An Act of his not recorded by any of our Historians but by the Learned Selden in his Notes upon Fortescue cited from Roger Bacon's Compendium Theologiae and John of Salisbury in his Treatise de nugis Curiaticum On the other side the Wolf in Sheeps cloathing outwardly Meek and insinuating Heresie and Schisme are equally dangerous and contagious For Heresie the Illegitimate Brat of Contumacy while it labours to shake off from the minds of Men the easie Yoke of Christ at the same time teaches Men to violate their Allegiance to their lawful Princes and they that strive to bring in the Innovations of obstinate Opinion if they get the upper hand seldom change the Religion alone Therefore the Exaltation of the Church defends and guards those Men that give themselves to compose the breaches of Ecclesiastical Differences and labour to beget a harmony and unity of Faith and Devotion which then Religion most truly useful and the most unblemish'd Aid of Civil Justice The second final Cause of this Great Charter was the Amendment of the Kingdom The miscarriages of those times are by our Historians said to be the Cancelling of the Great Charter by the advice of Hubert de Burgh Chief Justiciary of England as first confirm'd by the King during his Nonage The displacing the English Nobility and admitting Poictovins and Forraigners into the Chief employments of the Kingdom and the Impoverishment of the Nation by vast and continual Taxations By the means of which undue proceedings the ancient Laws of the Realm were render'd useless and the Liberty of the People lay at the Mercy of Evil Ministers The amendment of which Grievances as being an Act due to the Honour of God the Salvation of the Kings Soul and the Exaltation of the Church is now intended by the Confirmation of this Great Charter From whence it is inductively demonstrable that if the Establishment of good Laws be the way to procure such inestimable Happiness to a Prince the continuance of bad Customs and Oppression inclines to all the contrary consequences that is to be dishonourable to God hazardous to Salvation and injurious to the Church Which considerations of Eternal Detriment or Felicity when they come to be the inducements to Reformation must certainly be a great advantage to such Reformation that it may prove effectual to all its purposes And then such Act of Reformation is of that high Merit that it produces a benefit of the good exceeding the mischief of the Evil the reason perhaps why Machiavel ascribes a more Exalted renown to those Princes who reform the corruptions of a disorder'd State then to those who only continue the Good Government which they found E veramente saith he un Prencipe cercando la gloria del mondo doverebbe desiderare di possedere una Citta corrotta non par guastarlo come Caesare ma per riordinarla come Romulo A Prince Ambitious of the Honour of this World would desire to come to a Kingdom under the corruption of ill Customs not to ruine it like Caesar but reform it like Romulus For as it is impossible but that Ambition desire of absolute Dominion and many other oversights of Government will many times disturb the Courts of Justice and let in confusion at the Breaches of the Law so is that Prince the more highly to be honour'd who reforms those abuses and restores exiled Justice by how much such Reformation must needs be the more welcome and acceptable even as health is more valued by such as know the Inconveniencies of Sickness then by those who never understood the want of Cure and by how much the Joy is greater for the recovery of the lost Sheep then for those that never went astray Now this Amendment of the Kingdom imply'd the defect of Government and such a defect which endanger'd the Estates Lives and Liberties of the Subject which since they could be no way secur'd but by the Recovery of the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom it follows that seeing the Rights and Liberties of the English People are
bin so chary of them to collect and reduce them into one Body and leave them as a sacred Relieque to the prejudice of his Successors And from thence our Fundamental Laws derive their illustrious Descent and may therefore justly claim the Title of High-born contriv'd by Soveraign Princes as well for their own safety as the Peoples security Which being at length made publick with the unanimous consent and approbation of the Peoples Suffragans there was nothing binding to the Prince but what Princes had already condescended to and nothing impos'd upon the People but what themselves thought necessary and convenient To come to particulars first in reference to the safety of the Prince those good and famous Monarchs of our own gave ample testimonies that they were not ignorant what procures the Honour and Esteem what the ill will of the Subject And therefore in the first place none were more devout according to the knowledge of those times none greater observers and setlers of Religion and none more bountiful enlargers of the Churches Priviledges And in regard the next Applause belongs to them who best provide for the Civil Government therefore they took care to make good Laws that by them they might govern well For as they have justly merited immortal Honours who have bin the Establishers of Religion and good Government so none have clouded their Memories with greater infamy then the Contemners of Religion the Subverters of establish'd Government and Oppressors of the People For it is but the Counterfeit Glitter and Delusion of false Honour that captivates the Ambitious and enslaves them to the desire of enslaving others and mounts their unruly passions rather to an affectation of upbraided Tyranny then renowned and God-like Kingship And yet there is that shame of ignominy and that eager thirst after what is most praise-worthy among Men that the worst of Tyrants would sooner be accompted Agesilaus's Timoleon's and Dio's then Nabis's Phalaris's and Dionysius's Nor shall we find that Timoleon and the rest had less Authority in their several Dominions then Phalaris or Dionysius but this is certain they liv'd in much more safety and security If we consider the difference between those Roman Emperors and virtuous Princes that rul'd according to Law and those that took a contrary course Story is full of the never dying Encomiums of Nerva Trajan Adrian Antoninus Pius and Marcus Antoninus who needed not the Guard of Praetorian Bands nor the Defence of armed Legions to secure them as being sufficiently defended by their own Justice and Moderation the Affection of the People and Love of the Senate whereas all the Power of the Roman Empire could not save Caligula Nero Vitellius and those others like themselves from those mortal Enemies which their own depraved Lusts and Tyranny rais'd to their destruction the most abandon'd of Men at their Falls Which was the reason that of twenty six Emperors from Caesar to Maximus sixteen came to untimely and unfortunate Ends. Land-marks sufficiently visible whereby to discover the happy Road of Honour and Security from the Sands and Shelves of Reproach and timorous Anxiety It is a pleasure to dwell in History under the Raigns of those virtuous Emperors which give us a full view of Princes safe and secure in the midst of their secure and faithful Subjects the World flourish'd in Peace and Justice the Senate enjoy'd their Authority the Magistrates their due Honours the People grew Rich and Wealthy Virtue and Nobility was exalted and fear only possess'd the Gates of the Enemy Reverence Obedience and the Peoples Hearts were the Princes satisfaction Freedom and Security the People's On the other side under the Lawless Raign of Will and Tyranny behold the World all in dismal Combustion there War and Bloodshed here Tumult and Sedition Cities dis-peopled Rapes and Adulteries Triumphant Guards doubl'd the Prince in perpetual Fears and Jealousies in continual disquiet and distrust the People mad and raging and unruly as the inundations of the unfetter'd Ocean and in a word nothing but disorder and confusion till the gaping Jaws of Ruine swallow All. And therefore it is recorded of Numa Plut. in vit Num. so highly eminent for his Justice and Affection to his People that during all his Raign there was neither War nor Sedition nor so much as the least commotion that tended to a Tumult Which was the reason of Plato's assertion That it was impossible to move the Throne of that Prince in whom a Philosophers mind and Regal Supremacy met together On the contrary it is said of Tiberius Non Fortuna Tacit. Annal l. 6. c. 6. non Solitudines prolegebant quin Tormenta pectoris suasque ipse paenas fateretur Therefore saith Cicero Fear is an ill preserver of Diuturnity but love and respect is faithful and to Perpetuity And from hence it was that when the Poets represented in the person of Jove a wise and virtuous Prince they brought him in attended by Obedience and Equity but when they make him a Tyrant they associate with him Injury and Fear And Juvenal setting forth the unsafe Condition of Arbitrary Pomp and the perillous Estate of Tyranny goes a great way in two lines Ad generum Cereris Sat. 10.112 sine caede vulnere pauâ—â— Descendunt Reges sicca morte Tyrannâ—â— Reges being there taken abusive in the same sense with Tyranni But the words and sentence of a King are of greater force Therefore let us hear the determination of Ferdinand of Arragon â—â—uan l. â— 4. who marry'd Isabella of Castilâ— It was a part of the Arragonian Constitutions at that time that if the King went about to violate the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom it might be lawful for the Nobility to create another in his room This seem'd very severe to the Castilians and therefore they advis'd Ferdinand to abolish that Law as prejudicial to Royal Dignity But Ferdinand reply'd That he was bound by the sacred Oath which he had taken from doing any such thing Besides that he was of Opinion that the safety of a King and Kingdom was secur'd by the equal poise of Power and that if at any time it happen'd that the Power of the one out-hallanc'd the other that without doubt the ruine of the one or the other would ensue And it is recorded of Augustus Caesar That when he listen'd to the Advice of his Wife Julia and govern'd by the Law Dio in vit August that he was from thenceforth free from Conspiracies and that the People and Senate were always after that faithful and obedient to him Which was also Escovedo's Counsel to John of Austria Governour of the Spanish Netherlands telling him withal that he could never be safe among those who were not safe from his own Ministers for that Security was to be obtain'd by mutual Security Sâ—ada l. 9. circa princip And indeed the Kingly Office made and ordain'd for the defence of the Law of the Subjects Fortes