the primary and most proper signification when it appeareth by some clear express and peremptory command of God in his word to be the will of God that the thing so commanded should be perpetually and universally observed Of which sort setting aside the Articles of the Creed and the Moral duties of the Law which are not much pertinent to the present enquiry there are as I take it very few things that can be properly said to be of divine positive right under the New Testament The Preaching of the Gospel and administration of the Sacraments are two which when I have named I think I have named all IV. But there is a secondary and more extended signification of that term which is also of frequent use among Divines In which sense such things as having no express command in the word are yet found to have authority and warrant from the institution example or approbation either of Christ himself or his Apostles and have in regard of the importance and usefulness of the things themselves been held by the consentient judgement of all the Churches of Christ in the primitive and succeeding ages needful to be continued such things I say are though not so properly as the former yet usually and interpretativè said to be of Divine Right Of which sort I take the observation of the Lords day the ordering of the Keys the distinction of Presbyters and Deacons and some other things not all perhaps of equal consequence to be Unto Ius divinum in that former acception is required a Divine Precept in this later it sufficeth thereunto that a thing be of Apostolical institution or practice Which ambiguity is the more to be heeded for that the observation thereof is of great use for the avoyding of sundry mistakes that through the ignorance or neglect thereof daily happen to the engaging of men in endless disputes and entangling their consciences in unnecessary scruples V. Now that the Government of the Churches of Christ by Bishops is of divine right in that first and stricter sence is an Opinion at least of great probability and such as may more easily and upon better grounds be defended then confuted especially if in expounding those Texts that are alleaged for it we give such deference to the authority of the Ancient Fathers and their expositions thereof as wise and sober men have alwayes thought it fit we should do Yet because it is both inexpedient to maintain a dispute where it needs not and needless to contend for more where less will serve the turne I finde that our Divines that have travailed most in this Argument where they purposely treat of it do rather chuse to stand to the tenure of Episcopacy ex Apostolicâ designatione then to hold a contest upon the title of jus divinum no necessity requiring the same to be done They therefore that so speak of this Government as established by Divine right are not all of them necessarily so to be understood as if they meant it in that first and stricter sense Sufficient it is for the justification of the Church of England in the constitution and government thereof that it is as certainly it is of Divine right in the latter and larger signification that is to say of Apostolical institution and approbation exercised by the Apostles themselves and by other persons in their times appointed and enabled thereunto by them according to the will of our Lord Iesus Christ and by vertue of the Commission they had received from him VI. Which besides that it is clear from evident Texts of Scripture and from the testimony of as ancient and authentique Records as the world hath any to shew for the attesting of any other part of Ecclesiastical story it is also in truth a part of the established Doctrine of the Church of England evidently deduced out of sundry passages in the booke of Consecration which book is Approved in the Articles of our Religion Art 36. Confirmed by Act of Parliament and Subscribed unto by all persons that have heretofore taken Orders in the Church or Degrees in the University and hath been constantly and uniformly Maintained by our best Writers and by all the sober orderly and Orthodoxe sons of this Church The point hath been so abundantly proved by sundry Learned men and cleared from the exceptions of Novellists that more need not be said for the satisfaction of any intelligent man that will but first take the pains to read the books and then suffer himself to be master of his own reason VII Only I could wish that they who plead so eagerly for the jus divinum of the Lords day yet reject not without some scorn the jus divinum of Episcopacy would ask their own hearts dealing impartially therein whether it be any apparent difference in the nature of the things themselves or in the strength of those reasons that have been brought for either that leadeth them to have such different judgments thereof or rather some prejudicate conceit of their own which having formerly fancied to themselves even as they stood affected to parties the same affections still abiding they cannot easily lay aside Which partiality for I am loath to call it perversness of spirit is by so much the more inexcusable in this particular by how much Episcopal government seemeth to be grounded upon Scripture-Texts of greater pregnancy and clearness and attested by a fuller consent of Antiquity to have been Uniformly and Universally observed throughout the whole Christian world then the Lords day hath hitherto been shewen to be VIII But should it be granted that all the defenders of Episcopacy did indeed hold it to be jure divino in the strictest and most proper sence yet could not the Objectors thence reasonably conclude that it should be eo nomine inconsistent with the Regal power or so much as derogatory in the least degree to that Supream power Ecclesiastical which by the Laws of our Land is established and by the doctrine of our Church acknowledged to be inherent in the Crown As themselves may easily see if they will but consider IX First that Regal and Episcopal power are two powers of quite different kinds and such as considered purely in those things that are proper and essential to either have no mutual relation unto or dependence upon the one the other neither hath either of them any thing to do with the other The one of them being purely spiritual and internal the other external and temporal albeit in regard of the Persons that are to exercise them or some accidental circumstances appertaining to the exercise thereof it may happen the one to be somewayes helpful or prejudicial to the other yet is there no necessity at all that the very powers themselves in respect of their own natures should be at that distance either of them so destructive of other but that they might consist well enough together Yea although either of them or both should claime as indeed they both may do
EPISCOPACY As established by Law in England NOT PREJUDICIAL TO REGAL POWER A Treatise written in the time of the Long Parliament By the special Command of the late KING And now published by the Right Reverend Father in God ROBERT SANDERSON Lord Bishop of Lincoln LONDON Printed by R. Norton for Timothy Garthwait in St. Pauls Church-yard 1661. TO THE Most High and Mighty King CHARLES the II d By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most Gracious and Dread Soveraign THat I take the boldness humbly to present this short discourse to your Majesties Sacred hand and piercing eye it is upon this one and onely account that how mean soever the performance be the undertaking was in obedience to the command of a most Gracious Master your Majesties Royal Father of Blessed Memory The Occasion this When the Army had gotten the King into their own custody out of the hands of those that had long holden him in durance at Holdenby to put a blind upon the world they made a shew of much good towards him which as soon after appeared they never meant him Amongst other the pompous civilities wherewith the better to cloak their hypocrisie they entertained him it was their pleasure to vouchsafe him the attendance of some of his own Chaplains which though it could merit little for such a kindness could not with justice have been denyed to a far meaner person was yet a boon his former Goalers thought too big for him In that Summer Progress such as it was four of us of his own naming with the Clerk of his Closet were suffered to wait upon him In which time of waiting which was in August MDCXLVII His Majesty being then at Hampton-Court one day called me to him and told me he had a little work for me to do Some about him it seems had been often discoursing with him about EPISCOPACY as it was claimed and exercised by the Bishops within this Realm Which whether out of their good-will to him or their no-good-will to the Church I am not able to say they had endeavoured to represent unto him as not a little derogatory to the REGAL AUTHORITY as well in the point of Supremacy as of Prerogative in the one by claiming the function as of Divine Right in the other by exercising the Jurisdiction in their own names His Majesty said farther that he did not believe the Church-Government by Bishops as it was by Law established in this Realm to be in either of the aforesaid respects or any other way prejudicial to his Crown and that he was in his own judgement fully satisfied concerning the same yet signified his pleasure withal that for the satisfaction of others I should take these two Objections into consideration and give him an Answer thereunto in writing In Obedience to which his Majesties Royal pleasure after my return home I forthwith according to my bounden duty addressed my self to the work and was drawing up an Answer to both the Objections as well as I was able with a purpose to present the same as soon as it should be finished to his Majesty in writing upon the first offered opportunity But behold before I could bring the business ad umbilicum and quite finish what was under my hand the Scene of affairs was strangely changed The King trepann'd into the Isle of Wight the mask of Hypocrisie by long wearing now grown so thin and useless that it was fit for nothing but to be thrown by no kind of impiety and villany but durst appear bare-faced and in the open Sun high insolencies to the contempt of Authority every where committed Majesty it self trampled upon by the vilest of the People and the hearts of all loyal honest men sadly oppressed with griefs and fears Yet had the men who steered the Publick as they listed that they might give themselves the more recreation amuse the world anew and grace the black Tragedy they were acting with the more variety a mind to play one game more the next year to wit the Treaty at the aforesaid Isle of Wight Where assoon as I understood that by his Majestie 's nomination I was to give my attendance I looked out the old Papers which I had laid aside a good while before made up what was then left unfinished and took the Copy with me to the Isle thinking that when the Treaty should be ended for whilest it lasted his Majesty was taken up with other thoughts and debates of higher concern I might possibly have the opportunity to give his Majesty an account thereof What became of that Treaty and what after ensued is so well known to the world that there is no need and withal so sad that it can be no pleasure to remember But thenceforward were those Papers laid aside once again and destined to perpetual silence had not a debate lately started concerning one of the principal points therein handled occasioned some persons of eminent place and esteem in the Church and one of them conscious to the aforesaid command laid upon me by the late King to desire a sight of those Papers Which being by their encouragement now made publick though having little other to commend them either to the world but Truth and Plainness or to your Majesty but that they had their first rise from his command whose Throne and Vertues you inherit I humbly beseech your Majesty graciously to accept together with the Prayers of Your Majesties most Loyal Subject and devoted Servant ROBERT LINCOLN LONDON August 10. MDCLXI By the KING A PROCLAMATION Declaring that the proceedings of his Majesties Ecclesiastical Courts and Ministers are according to the Lawes of the Realm WHereas in some of the Libellous books and Pamphlets lately published The most Reverend Fathers in God the Lords Arch-Bishops and Bishops of this Realm are said to have usurped upon his Majesties Prerogative Royal and to have proceeded in the high Commission and other Ecclesiastical Courts contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm It was ordered by his Majesties high Court of Star-Chamber the Twelfth day of June last that the opinion of the two Lords chief Iustices the Lord chief Baron and the rest of the Judges and Barons should be had and certified in those particulars viz. Whether Processes may not issue out of the Ecclesiastical Courts in the Name of the Bishops Whether a Patent under the great Seal be necessary for the keeping of the Ecclesiastical Courts and enabling Citations Suspensions Excommunications and other censures of the Church And whether Citations ought to be in the Kings name and under his Seal of Arms and the like for Institutions and Inductions to Benefices and Correction of Ecclesiastical offences Whether Bishops Arch-Deacons and other Ecclesiastical persons may or ought to keep any visitation at any time unless they have express Commission or Patent under the great Seal of England to do it and that as his Majesties Uisitors only and
upon it by some necessity of the times or induced for just reasons of expediency so to do XL. But then Secondly as that Reason relateth to the present business in particular the Scandal thereby given is yet greater For we are to know that when King Henry the Eighth abolished the Papal Power resuming in his own hand the ancient rights of the Crown which the Bishops of Rome had unjustly usurped he took upon himselfe also that title which he then found used by the Bishops of Rome but which none of his Progenitors the Kings of this Realm had ever used of being the Supream head of the Church within his Dominions This title continued during the Reign of his son King Edward the Sixth by whom the Statute aforesaid was made and is mentioned in that very Statute Now albeit by that title or appellation was not intended any other thing then that Supremacy Ecclesiastical which the Kings of this Land have and of right ought to have in the governance of their Realms over all persons and in all causes Ecclesiastical as well as other and which is in the Oath of Supremacy ackowledged to belong unto them yet the Papists took Scandal at the novelty thereof and glad of such an occasion made their advantage of it to bring a reproach upon our Religion as if the Protestants of England were of opinion that all Spiritual Power did belong unto the King and that the Bishops and Ministers of England had their whole power of Preaching administring the Sacraments Ordaining Excommunicating c. solely and originally from the King as the members of the body live by the influence which the Head hath into them Upon their clamours that title of Supream head and governour was taken into farther consideration in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Raign And although that style in the true meaning thereof was innocent and defensible enough yet for the avoiding of Scandal and Cavil it was judged more expedient that the word Head should thenceforth be laid aside and the style run only Supream Governour as we see it is in the Oath of Supremacy and otherwhere ever since without mentioning the word Head according to the intimations given in the Queens Injunctions and elswhere in that behalfe And it seemeth to me very probable that for the same reason especially besides those other reasons already given it was thought fitter by Her then and by her successours hitherto that the Bishops in all their Ecclesiastical Courts and proceedings should act in their own names as formerly they had done then that the Statute of King Edward should be revived for doing it in the Kings name For the sending out processes c. in order to Excommunication and other Church-censures in the Kings name would have served marvellously to give colour and consequently strength in the apprehension at least of weaker judgements to that calumny wherewith the Papists usually asperse our Religion as if the Kings of England took themselves to be proper and competent Iudges of Censures meerly spiritual in their own persons and the Prelates accordingly did acknowledge them so to be Thus have I shewen to the satisfaction I hope of the ingenuous and unprejudiced Reader that Episcopacy is no such dangerous creature either in the Opinion or Practice as some would make the world believe it is but that the Kings Crown may stand fast enough upon his head and flourish in its full verdure without plucking away or displacing the least flower in it notwithstanding Episcopacy should be allowed to be of Divine Right in the highest sence and the Bishops still permitted to make their Processes in their own names and not in the Kings By this time I doubt not all that are not willfully blind for who so blind as he that will not see do see and understand by sad experience that it had been far better both with King and Kingdome then now it is or without Gods extraordinary mercy is like to be in haste if the enemies of Episcopacy had meant no worse to the King and his Crown then the Bishops and those that favoured them did A POST-SCRIPT to the Reader WHereas in my Answer to the former of the two Objections in the foregoing Treatise I have not any where made any clear discovery what my own particular judgement is concerning the Jus divinum of EPISCOPACY in the stricter sense either in the Affirmative or Negative and for want of so doing may perhaps be censured by some to have walked but haltingly or at least wise with more caution and mincing then became me to do in a business of that nature I do hereby declare 1. That to avoid the starting of more Questions then needs must I then thought it fitter and am of the same opinion still to decline that Question then to determine it either way such determination being clearly of no moment at all to my purpose and for the solving of that Objection 2. That nevertheless leaving other men to the liberty of their own judgements my opinion is that EPISCOPAL GOVERNMENT is not to be derived meerly from Apostolical Practise or Institution but that it is originally founded in the Person and Office of the Messias our blessed Lord JESUS CHRIST Who being sent by his Heavenly Father to be the great Apostle HEB. III. 1. Bishop and Pastor 1 PET. II. 25. of his Church and anointed to that Office immediately after his Baptisme by JOHN with power and the Holy Ghost ACT. X. 37-8 descending then upon him in a bodily shape LUK. III. 22. did afterwards before his Ascension into Heaven send and impower his holy Apostles giving them the Holy Ghost likewise as his Father had given him in like manner as his Father had before sent him JOH XX. 21. to execute the same Apostolical Episcopal and Pastoral Office for the ordering and governing of his Church until his coming again and so the same Office to continue in them and their Successours unto the end of the world MAT. XXVIII 18 20. This I take to be so clear from these and other like Texts of Scripture that if they shall be diligently compared together both between themselves and with the following practise of all the Churches of Christ as well in the Apostles times as in the Purest and Primitive times nearest thereunto there will be left little cause why any man should doubt thereof 3. That in my Answer to the later Objection I made no use at all nor indeed could do of the Opinion of the Reverend Judges in that point nor of his Majesties Proclamation grounded thereupon For although the Proclamation had been extant Ten years before this task was imposed upon me yet I had never seen nor so much as heard of the same in all the time before nor yet in all the time since till about ten dayes ago I was advertised thereof when these Papers were then going to the Press Which since they give so much strength to the main Cause and so fully avoid the Objection I have followed the advise of some friends and caused them to be printed here withal FINIS See Stat. 25. H. 8. 20 1. Edw. 6. 2. Cok. 1. Instit. 2. Sect. 648. Stat. for the Clergy 14. â— 3. cap. 3.