So great a Body of Men as the whole Chrif tian Church, or the Majority of them, never did or could meet together; and if fuch a thing were poffible, they would only scold or fight; and therefore any one may with great Modesty affirm, that no Ecclefiaftical Establishment now in the World did or could take its Rife from fuch an Affembly. NOTHING therefore remains, but that, once upon a Time, a certain Number of Bishops met together, and fettled fuch Conftitutions, from which the rest are derived; otherwise we must fetch them from the Civil Magiftrate, or confefs them all to be Ufurpations. THOSE Who fuppofe the first are obliged to tell us, What Number are neceffary to this Purpose; and if another equal Number fhould fettle a different Eftablishment in the fame District or Province, who will be the Schifmatics? I think it is agreed by all High-Churchmen, That every one of these can make as many other Bishops, and Governors of the whole Church, as he pleafes; and therefore, if one of them in a frolickfome Humour fhould create Two or Three Hundred of thefe Ecclefiaftical Princes, are they all to have Votes in the Epifcopal College? And I afk this Queftion the rather, because I myself once knew a drunken Popish Bishop in Ireland, who would have made thefe Spiritual Sovereigns from Morning to Night, for a Pot of Ale a-piece, IF it fhould be faid, (as indeed what is not or may not be faid by Perfons of their Perfpicuity?) that the Power itself comes from God, but the Exercise of it is to be limited and directed by the Civil Sovereign; I answer, that, befides the egregious Blunder of diftinguishing be tween Power and the Exercife of Power, the firft being only a Right to do certain Actions, in which the other confifts: This gives up the whole Queftion; for there can be no greater Power neceffary to give an Authority, than to take it away; and every Restriction and Limitation is taking it away in Part: No one can have a Right to depofe a Temporal Prince from any Part of his juft Dominions, without having also the fame Right to deprive him of the Whole; and in this respect there can be no Difference between Temporal and Ecclefiaftical Sovereignties. IF thefe Gentlemen were not in Poffeffion of fanctifying Nonsense, they could not venture to tell us, that our Saviour has given Power to Bishops to execute Ecclefiaftical Jurifdiction through the whole Earth; and confequently all Mankind must be their Spiritual Subjects: But that this great Power may here, below, be limited and reftrained to Cities or Provinces, and parcelled out and divided in such a manner, that fome may have large Diftricts, others small ones, in which no one else must officiate; nay, that many more may have none at all, and yet every one have univerfal Jurifdiction, and be a Bifhop of the whole Earth. THESE, with a huge Heap befides of glaring Abfurdities and Contradictions, muft be maintained by thofe, who would reconcile the Divine Right of Bishops with any Proteftant Establishment now in the World. I have fo amply fhewn how inconfiftent it is with our own, from the whole Tenor of our Laws and Canons, as well as the repeated Acknowledgments of the Clergy themselves, that I fhould think it not only needlefs, but impertinent, to fay any thing further of of it, did we not daily hear of fuch Numbers of our Spiritual Guides, who rail against these Laws at the time they fwear and fubfcribe to them, and complain aloud of them as Violations of their own Divine Rights, and denounce Judgments upon the Nation for fuch Ufurpations. I SHALL therefore, in my next Paper, defcant a little upon the voluntary and moft applauded Actions of the higheft, even of these High Gentlemen; and fhew that they cannot help acknowledging the Principles which I maintain, even in the Inftances where they would oppofe it, and amidst their greatest Demands for Power. This I intend to do, not with the least Expectation, or vain Hope, of inducing them to alter their Meafures, (there being a Prefcription among the Ecclefiaftics against fuch Lay Follies) but (if poffible) to open the Eyes of their blind and ftupid Adorers, and to let them fee what wretched Idols they are worshipping. T. NUMBER XVI. Wednesday, May 4. 1720. with The Inconfiftency of the Principles and Practices of High-Church; fome Advice to the Clergy. I F the Ecclefiaftics have any Divine Right which is neither derived from the Civil MaVOL. I. H giftrate, giftrate, nor the Confent of voluntary Societies, it must be vested in a fingle Perfon; in a certain Number of Perfons, which we all call Bifhops; or in common to them all: The first is Popery, and the Laft Prefbytery. But I think, that there is no Establishment which now fubfifts, or ever did fubfift in the World, which does, or did, affert the Divine Right of Bishops, independent of the Pope; and confequently it is the Proprium or peculiar Whimfy of our own perjured HighChurchmen, not only in Oppofition to their Oaths and Subfcriptions, (as I have fhewed already) but to the moft applauded Actions of their greatest Champions; which 'tis the Business of this Paper to make out. IF there be a Divine Right in the Bishops to govern the Church, it is fpiritual Rebellion, and the highest Sacrilege, to ufurp upon this great Authority; but then, what will become of all the daily Daubing, and fulfome Panegyric, upon the best established Church in the World? Since I think it is agreed by all the Clergy, that the Power of Legiflation, as far as they have any thing to do with it, is vefted in the Convocation, which confifts of two Houfes, one of Bishops, the other of Prefbyters; a Constitution utterly inconfiftent with this Divine Right; which the HighClergy have been fo far from regretting, or complaining of, that it is one of their most effential Characteristics, to maintain the Power of the Lower House against the Upper; that is, of Presbyters against their own Diocefans. THEY claim a co-ordinate Power with them in the fupremeft Acts of Church-Government; an Authority of acting by themselves, to chufe their own Time of meeting, to fit as often and as as long as they please, to adjourn by their own Authority, to begin what Business they think fit, to chufe their own Committees, excufe Abfence, receive Proxies, judge of Elections, cenfure their own Members, and do all other Acts, which ought to be done by the fole Authority of a House which is its own Mafter and Judge: All which, though they are rank Prefbytery, yet are alfo become the genuine Principles of modern High-Churchmen: At the fame time that they affert a fole, divine, apoftolic, and independent Power in the Bishops to govern the Church. THE afferting of thefe Rights of the Lower House, is the Merit of their prefent Champion *, fupplies the Want of Charity in him, and covers a Thousand Faults; and 'tis much to be feared and lamented, that all the late Zeal of a much greater Man †, and the present Services which he is doing, will scarcely atone for his having acted formerly upon Low-Church Principles, in defending the Prerogative of the Crown, and maintaining the Power of the Upper House over the Lower. WHAT Persons or Party have fupported the Bishops, and their Authority, ever fince the Revolution, against their own Prefbyters? All LowChurchmen. Who were thofe who have been always afperfing, calumniating and libelling the Two laft Archbishops, our prefent Metropolitan, till very lately, the laft Bishop of Salisbury, and indeed every worthy Prelate, but the HighChurch Priefts, and their Followers? And who have honoured and defended their Perfons and Characters but Low-Churchmen? *Dr. Francis Atterbury, late Bishop of Rochefter. WHO |