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
a Divinely constituted Society Ipso facto asserts its fundamental liberty and then all the Forms Rights and Powers necessary to its good Conduct and Conservation are ipso facto asserted against all exteriour Rapes and Usurpations whatsoever § 9. Now to the Eviction hereof at full it will be necessary to enquire into all the actual Ordinances of God either by Nature only or by a positive Constitution supernatural To which End in the first place it is the voice and dictate of Nature Liberty to do good a fundamental right of the innocent that Liberty Time and Place to do good are the Primitive Universal Eternal Fundamental and Unalienable Rights of the Innocent and in the next place that the Consociation of Men to the true and publick Worship of God is an act of the highest good God's Publick Worship the greatest good upon Earth practicable and enjoyable upon Earth whether we consider its Dignity in relation to God and our Nature framed in the likeness of God to be preserved hereby or the benesits that result unto them that live in it But then such a Society cannot do its Offices regularly This requireth the conduct of the Wise and Good without the Conduct of the Wise nor keep it self Holy without the government of the Good Wisdom and Goodness being necessary to all Government and this most chiefly in Matters Holy and Divine to prescribe Directions to the Ignorant to encourage the Good and Correct or Cashier the Evil. This therefore must be laid as a Catholick Rule for all Religious Society simply and in general by the Law of Nature But we are further to consider what actual Society Nature it self has formed for the adoration of and Communion with God in Offices of Religion In Families therefore the Master Masters Bishops of their Families by the Ordinance God in Nature and Providence is the designed and rightful Governour of Religion in his Family for which by the Law of Nature he is obliged to qualifie himself with as much Wisdom and Piety as he can Aug. in Joh. c. 12. Tract 50. Suos omnes admoneat doceat hortetur corripiat impendat benevolentiam exerceat disciplinam Ita in domo sua Ecclesiasticum quodummodo Episcopale implebit officium ministrans Christo ut in aeternum sit cum ipso not only for his own Conversation but the Conduct also of his House the little Temple of God as indeed every House should be This therefore from the beginning is the Natural Episcopacy and Care of Parents and Masters towards their Children and the other Members of the Family A succession of them to be maintained by Education not only as at present they are Subjects and Disciples but as t is to be expected that in succession of a few years these also will commence Masters and Bishops of their proper Families and are therefore by their own present Parents or Masters to be prepared by good Institutions thereunto and so downward for ever to all Generations And this natural Right and Duty extends it self to the instruction and enforcement of the whole will and purpose of God as far as it is known or may be known to the Master either by Reason only or Revelation also Families to be instructed as well in revealed as natural Religion by the Law of Nature For tho Divine and Supernatural Revelation be a positive Ordinance of Gods free purpose and so under no Eternal Law of Nature yet they that by the Law of Nature are Teachers and Rulers in Matters of Piety are by that Law obliged to propose all that God hath discovered for the promotion of in For tho all Graces are positive Gifts yet when given the Law of Nature requires the culture and improvement of them to good uses as well as the temporal Blestings oâ— Gods outward Providence For tho no Law of Nature requires me to be Rich yet iâ—â—â—am Rich the Law of Nature obliges me to a suitable munisicence This then is most certainly the Law and Ordinace of Nature in the Oeconomical Conduct of Piety and Society with God tho Mens Apostacy unto Vice has dissolved the practice by destroying the Appetite and Faculties of most Parents for this Conduct of Religion For let Mens Manners and Circumstances vary as they will or may yet herein as in all things else the Laws of Nature alter not So that tho an ignorant or irreligious Parent cannot execute the Offices of his Station in Matters Religions while so unqualified yet is he obliged still to quit his Vices and to prosecute the Studies of a Religious Wisdom which when acquired wâ—ll qualify him for his Charge From all which it appears that the Matrimonial Consociation being designed for the production of Families to be consociated under the Muster into a Communion with God as the chiefest End and Reason of their production it follows that the Oeconomical Powers have no Authority to dissolve the Religious Society of the Families with God as being ordained purely for the maintenance and fruition of it And then Civil Powers supervening upon a conglobation of numerous Families having no Right or proper Lawful Authority as Gods Ordinance to destroy the Oeconomical Structure and Society on which they are founded and subsist they cannot extinguish the Power nor inhibit the exercise of an Oeconomical Communion in the service of God and the Offices necessary thereunto § 10. Co-ordinate Societies of Villages c. From the Subordinate Societies of Families multiplied into Fraternal or Collateral Vicinities there arose at first the Co-ordinate Society of Villages in which Men setled together for common uses and benesicences to supply their mutual defects and appetites For Necessity and Convenience and above all the natural Love of Society inclined Men unto Neighbourhood ank this to some common agreements and measures of Justice and Kindness for the convenience of Co-habitation so that Men thus prompted by Nature cement themselves together by such a Foederal form of Co-ordinate Society But the same Reasons that cast them into this mould require also common Schools of Education For tho every Master of a Family should be of right sit for this Office in all necessary Principles Schools of Reliâ—ion yet since in fact many are not the sense of this defect suggests an obligation â—pon it to procure that Education from another which is necessary in it self and cannot be had in every home Now since Principles of true Religion are the most important Matter for Education 't is a right of Nature in all Vicinities to have such Schools for Pious Institution not to be justly denied by any Powers upon Earth I do not say that the Law of Nature requires every Village to have a publick School of Piety tho Nature it self commends it but that which Nature commends acquires thereby such a Right if Men please to use it which cannot justly be denied them Schools subordinate Societies But then every School is
the Question of Rebaptization from Heresie was Conciliarly determined different ways in several Churches Firmil ad Cyp. § 6 17. Dionys Aleâ— ad Xyst Pap. ap Eus E. H. l. 7. c. 5. c. 7. Cyp. cum coll ad Fid. Ep. 59. § 1. c. without any breach of Catholick Communion till Pope Stephen began the Rupture with the African Phrygian Galatian Cilician and Cappadocian Churches which yet other Churches would by no means consent to each Church determining according to its best Judgment Rules and Customs but the most moderate taking care in the midst of this diversity Cyp. Ep. 62. §◠c. Cyp. ad Cald. Ep. 38. § 2. Ep. 42. § 5. to keep the Unity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace So a Council of 66 African Bishops determine the questions made them by Fidus concerning the reconciliation of one Victor a lapsed Presbyter by Therapius a Bishop before Canonical Examination and Season as also of the liberty of Baptizing Infants as soon as born before they were Eight Days old as also of the Offenceless way of living to be practised by the Virgins And as they did Conciliarly provide to prevent so did they to correct Evils particularly the Vices Violences and Immoralities of all Orders as in the Presbyter Felicissimus not only for his Schism but for his Lusts especially concerning the Penances and Indulgences to the Lapsed for which in times of Persecution and the dispersions of the Episcopal College the Criminals were required to stay Cyp. Ep. 12. § 2. Ep. 14. § 2. Ep. 26. § 4. Ep. 28. § 2. Ep. 31. § 5. Ep. 32. Ep. 40. § 3 7. Ep. 52. § 2 3 6. Ep. 53. § 2. Ep. 54. Ep. 55. § 13. and wait for peace to the Church before it was decent for them or allowed to them to claim their own which was to be determined in Councils of their Bishops Clergy and standing Laity All which whosoever looks into the quoted places will find to be thought not only expedient but necessary for the good of the Church and the persons concerned and for the Authority of their Acts which was universally and uncontestedly taken for Divine upon grounds taken out of Scripture Cyp. Ep. 55. § 13. Firm. in t Cyp. Ep. 75. which therefore they held frequently and in some places annually from which they sent Synodical Letters and Messages with authentick Deputations and Powers not only by the Sub-Clerical Orders Ep. Cyp. 41. § 1. Ep. 42. § 1. Ep. 45. § 1. § 2. but by Deacons Priests nay and by Bishops also according as the nature of the affair did require and Junctures of Time and Season would permit being herein as much concerned for a general Negotiation in Spirituals not only each Church within it self but abroad with all others and for all Christian Uses as the Civil States and Sovereignties are for Domestick Conduct and foreign Embassies and Treaties with more remote or more nearly adjacent Countries and with as fair to say no fairer ground of Authority from God and Nature Upon all which I make these concluding Remarks that if such Synods had not been thought of Divine Right and Duty too those that were Convened and Censured by them would have denied the Authority the Lapsed Penitents would have disclaimed their Necessity the Apostates would have proclaimed the Imposture of a pretended Divine Authority and the Churches would never have been at that vast Fatigue and Charge of Synodical procedures especially against the Edicts of Secular Powers had they not judged these to be Acts of an Ecclesiastical Duty to and Authority from God But here being none the least Exception from the offended nor any possible Inducement upon the Church to quit the claim and practice of such Authority I think here is an undeniable presumption hereupon that it was as uncontestable as it was actually uncontested CHAP. VIII Of the Authority of Civil Powers and Laws in general against the Liberty of Ecclesiastical Synods § 1. AFter the Knowledge of all this which I am sure the Dr. well knew before ever he dreamed of Writing upon this Subject 't is a matter of astonishment to me that he should look upon Synods under Alien Powers to have been and still to be but prudential Clubs without any Authority from God or Man And yet upon this confidence 't is strange that he should not wholly deliver them up to the full Authority of all Heathen or Alien Powers against which where there is no right no Human Reason or Prudence can warrant any popular Frequences or Councils So that by his granting them Reason he seems to grant them Right and by gâ—aâ—ting them Right to grant them Authority to hold Synods under Alien Powers And yet he is unwilling even to allow what he grants and floats up and down in his Doubts hereupon and casts an unlucky glance upon the Primitive Synods as scarce capable of Excuse and more hardly of Justisication It has been saith he ever look'd upon as one great part of the Princes Prerogative p. 13. that no Societies should be Incorporated nor any Companies be allowed to meet together without his Knowledge and Permission The Roman Law was especially very severe as to this Matter And tho' after the Conversion of the Emperors to the Faith of Christ a Provision was made for the Publick Assemblies of the Church for Divine Service yet Tertullian who understood these Matters as well as any one of his Time tho' he excused their Meetings upon all other Accounts could not deny but that they fell under the Censure of the Law and that having not the Princes Leave to meet together they were in the Construction of the Law guilty of Meeting against it § 2. This brings one therefore to an Enquiry Conventions Necessary Innocent Hurtful What Meetings are of right obnoxious to the prohibitions and penalties of Humane Laws The Conventions therefore of Men are of three sorts either Necessary or Innocent or Hurtful And first such as are Necessary no Man whatsoever can have a rightful Authority to restrain for Necessity being a Law from God cannot be vacated by any positive Law of Man Nor Secondly can Innocent Meetings be rightfully denyed in themselves but under the apprehensions of hurt or danger upon Time Place and Circumstances But Hurtful Meetings in the Third Place may not only but ought of Right to be restrained by the Magistracy Yet what Princes have no Rightful Authority to do that they may irresistibly do upon an uncountroulable Domination and Impunity Upon which when they presume to Repress our Rights and Liberties if it be in Matters Necessary they are to be disobeyed in Fact and submitted to as to their Legal Processes without resistance if in Matters barely Innocent there Prudence will direct but no bare Conscience of Duty to the Tyrannical Law alone will oblige to observation tho' it will to Patience under Legal Sufferings For an Innocent Liberty is an Vnalienable Franchise
by an express Law to acquaint the Sovereign Prince with her Desires Reasons Places Seasons and Necessaries of Convening to Petition his Leave and Favour his Inspection Assistance and Succour to the Piety of their Designs and to secure him her Fidelity to all his proper Honours and Interests to keep within Ecclesiastical concerns and do all things openly to the Glory of God and the Good of Souls in the Unity Order and Purity of the Church preserved by the Rules of Catholick and Canonical Communion and this under the Guard and Watch of Temporal Powers this surely will be so far from endangering Mutinies in States that there is no way so like to preserve the Peace of all Christian Nations Ecclesiastical Liberty the best means to the Peace of the World as that which will maintain the common Peace and Unity of their Churches for that all Princes truly Christian will be very tender of breaking the Civil Peace whereby the Sacred Communion so necessary to the preservation of Christianity must be obstructed if not utterly violated And as such a Communion founded on such a Liberty would prevent most National Wars so would it also most Intestine Seditions For the Authority of a Priesthood shining in its due and proper Lustre supported by the Secular Powers would over-awe most popular Insolencies or however the Influence of Christian Communication from Churches abroad reduced to their Primitive Union must in all Humane probability sooner quench the Calamity than can be expected in a state of general Division and the insignificancy of an Oppressed and Despised Clergy But the fatal Envy Jealousie and Hatred against the Priesthood occasioned by the accursed Frauds and Tyrannies of the Church of Rome Still except England and Omnia bene is such an extreme in most parts of the Reformation as obstructs their Piety and thereupon Gods Blessing and their own Happiness it being intolerable for such People that are so zealous for their Civil Liberties to be so averse to the just Rights and Immunities of a Priesthood that is clean and pure from all corrupt or abusive Principles whatsoever and therefore no wonder if the Reformation makes no greater Progress nor Figure in the World but goes backward apace both in its Esteem and Interest For a mere mistrust from instances of corrupt and unreformed Churches is not warrantable against those that are Reformed even in those Principles which gave the past Offences and continue the present Jealousies And whether we will or no we do trust our Souls with these Men to whom God hath committed their Trust and Care and it is strange that we should not allow them liberty well to discharge that Trust in Jealousie that they will abuse us in the freedom necessary to the performance thereof while yet we have a full Temporal Right and Power to suppress and punish all Injurious Exorbitances of the powers Hierarchical CHAP. X. Of the Authority of Christian Princes over Synods from Exemplary Practices § 1. The Drs. three sorts of precedent Examples HAving thus discussed the Importance of the Drs. Reasons in the Protection of the Church and Civil Interests we proceed to his Arguments drawn from Examples which are indeed the only sort he professedly insists upon and layes the whole stress of his cause These Examples he ranges into three Orders First Those of the Jewish Kings in Scripture Secondly Those of the Roman Empire And Thirdly Those of the Princes who upon the Inundations of the Barbarous Nations over Europe succeeded in the several Kingdoms and Principalities thereof and particularly those of our own Country from the first Conversion of the Saxons § 2. Now before we come to Traverse the Matters of Fact it will be necessary before hand to try the force and legal Concludency of such Argumentations unto Right The use of Examples in Legal Pleas for Right In all Legal therefore and Judicial Enquiries Examples are alledged for one of these two Purposes either to Aver or Explain the Sense of an Extant Act as Law Contract or Constitution or to prescribe a presumption for such Act c. where it appears not For first Where the Originals of a Legal Practice are Extant they mutually assert each others certainty of Sense and Right which might otherwise have been dubious if no Customary Practice had followed on that First Foundation the Sense and Knowledge of Words Altering and Growing Obsolete in themselves many times in long Tracts of Years or Ages On the other side it being so easily possible in Nature and frequent in Fact that Records are buried in the Ruines of Time on which the Rights and Duties of Persons and Societies have been long and of old Founded therefore upon the Non-appearance of such Originals Customary Judgments Recorded and Prescriptions Immemorial well Arrested do generally pass for good Presumptions of a valid Constitution Things inquirable in prescriptions now lost or disappearing But upon Matter Arrested the Court Enquires into two Qualifications First If the Matter in Prescription be consistent with Common Justice in its own Nature and Design for otherwise the Court will presume there was no such Constitution Injustice too notorious Novity vacate Prescription or however Naught and Null in its self and so condemn it Secondly The Court will consider whether the Immemorial Practice could however have been as Antient as it s supposed or pretended Original must have been and so was in Fact i. e. whether they of that Age to whom the Prescription refers its Presumptions could have had such a Concern before them For if Inventions notoriously new and late because they have continued longer than any Mans Memory or Life shall hereupon pretend themselves Founded in an Ordinance of Ages fore-past in which it is certain no such Inventions or Matters yet were this will discover such Imposture and vacate such Presumption as if a Man would prove Tobacco to have been in Use here before the Saxon Times because it has been used for time now Immemorial Whereupon the Dr. by alledging Instances must by them intend either to explain or affirm the Sense of an Extant Law or Act for all these his Rights and Powers of the Regal Supremacy in all Christian Princes as such which Law or Act must then be previously set forth and produced as the most especial Matter in Evidence to be affirmed by the constant succeeding Practice thereupon grounded and vouched or else he must by his Instances prescribe for a Supposition and valid Presumption of such Law or Act as their Legal Original and defend it against all charges of Intrinsecal Injury or of a Novity notoriously much later than the supposed Original could be besides what ought to be added the proof of a perpetual uninterrupted Uniformity in the practice beyond all Epochas or Memory § 3. * Prescriptions from the practices of an uncontroulable force no Arguments of Right in the Court of Conscience But here is one thing more to