ties fhould fall, and Suffragan Bishops where fuch are expedient. Let alfo fome of the best Livings in every Diocefs be annexed to the Deanry, to go always along with it,and a good Prebend with Two of the beft Livings in eve ry Church where more Suffragans are required; that fo the Office might be render'd Honourable by a fufficient Maintainance. I am fully perfwaded that if what I have here proposed were Established and Practised in all parts of the Realm, it would prove of very great benefit to the Church of England."

This would stop our Adverfaries Complaints against our Lay-Chancellors, and the largeness of fome of our Diocefes. It would alfo free the Clergy from a Canonical fubjection to those which are not of their own Body, which I be lieve no Clergy in the World is fubject to but ours, in any Epifcopal Church: Nay, no other Body of Men in the Kingdom are fubject to the like. Lawyers are accountable only to Judges of the Bench, and the Governors of their Houfes or Inns of Court. Phyficians have the Prefident and Fellows of their College, all of their Own Profeffion: Merchants, Tradefmen and Artificers have their Mafter, Wardens and Affiftants of their feveral Companies, to whom they are accountable in Matters relating to their feveral Callings: The Clergy are the only Body of Men over whom prefide Perfons not of their own Profeffion. We fhould alfo reap this Advantage from the Regulation propofed; that it will be a general Encourage iment to the Clergy to Study the Civil and Ca non Laws, (Sciences too much neglected by us) when they find the Knowledge of them a ready way to fo many Preferments. Whereas

now

now finding the advantages accruing from thefe Studies to fall altogether to the share of Laymen, they totally difregard them, and are generally perfect Strangers to them.

Another benefit accruing from this Regu lation would be, that we should have no Inftitutions conferr'd by Lay-men; an Abuse which as I have heard, feveral of our Bishops have justly complain'd of, and therefore doubt not but their Lordships are very defirous it should be rectified, and will do all that lies in their own power towards an alteration in this particular: For certainly the Curam tuam & mean cannot regularly be granted by any other than a Bishop; and a Lay-man tho' a Chancellor cannot I think have fo much as a Delegated Cure of Souls, much lefs can he bestow one; Nemo dat quod non habet is an infallible Maxim. And Nemo plus juris ad alium transferre poteft quam ipfe haberet, is a Rule in the Civil Law. D. 50. tit. 17. 1. 54. which our Lay-chancellors cannot be ignorant of, tho' they daily practice the contrary.

All this which I have here propofed, (except the annexing Dignities to thefe Offices) is wholly in our Bifhops power to regulate, for the Laws now in force give them full Authority to appoint Suffragans, and to make Clergy-men their Chancellors. And methinks it is very odd that (a) fome of our Bishops have (4) See a Paper formerly made their Complaints of Lay-Chan- fuppofed to cellors, as what is not in their power to recti- Lambeth some fie, when all the World knows they appoint years ago. fuch themselves, without being any ways com- ances of the pelled to do fo: For tho' the Parliament al- Church of Englows Lay-men to exercife fpiritual Jurifdiction not in the power it by no means obliges Bishops to give them of its Governors

Com

come from

Entituled, Griev

land, which are

to remedy.

(4) Dut and Rights of Paroch Clerg.

p. 146.

Commiffions to do fo, and they may have Clergy-men for their Chancellors and Commiflaries if they will themselves; Befides, it is plain that Act was made only to Authorize the Commiffion which King Henry the VIIIth gave to Cromwel, when he made him Vicar-general of all England: But I believe the Parliament little thought the Bishops would fo unanimously follow fuch a Precedent, which was fet up to deftroy Church-government, and bring us to Eraftianifm. The Bishops have a full power to appoint their own Deputies to whom they will commit their Jurifdiction: How unreasonable is it then for them to give away their power to Lay-men, and then cry they cannot help it? Certainly Clergy-men are the fittest Persons to Judge of Matters belonging to their own Order and Offices, and yet Lay-men are chiefly made their Judges in these things, to the perpetual Infamy of thofe that heretofore fo Order'd it where the Government did not by any means require it.

I know it is pretended (a) that Chorepifcopi have been laid afide, as affuming too much to themselves. But there can be no fear of any fuch matter in England, where the Parliament has wifely provided, That they fhall not daré to exceed their due Bounds: For they have Decreed, That every Archbishop or Bishop of this Realm, for their own particular Diocess, may and fhall give fuch Commission or Commiffions to every fuch Bishop Suffragan, as shall be fo Confecrate by the Authority of this Act, as hath been accuftom'd by Suffragans heretofore to have, or elfe fuch Commiffion as fhall by them be thought requifite, reafonable or convenient. And that no fuch Suffragan Shall ufe any Furifdiction, ordinary or Epifcopal

Power,

Power, otherwife, nor longer time than fhall be limited by fuch Commiffion to him to be given, as is aforefaid, upon pain to incur into the Pains, Loffes, Forfeitures and Penalties mention'd in the Statute of Provifions, made in the Sixteenth year of King Richard II. Hereby the Suffragan Bishops have a greater Tie upon them than Chancellors or Commiflaries have, it may therefore be reafonably fuppofed they would be more Obfequious to the Bishops than the Ecclefiaftical Judges we have at prefent, being more ftrictly bound to their good Behaviour, thro' the Danger of incurring a Pramunire.

A

CHA P. XIII.

Of Archbishops or Metropolitans.

S fome Bishops were Suffragan and Subject to Diocefans, fo others alfo were Metropolitan and Superiour to them: Not Superiour in Order but Jurifdiction, as the Suffragans were Inferiour.. It is difputed by the Learned whether it can be proved by Scripture that the Apostles themfelves Conftituted any Archbishops or Metropolitans. (a) Dr. Hammond (4) Annot. Ats will have Timothy and Titus to be fuch: (b) Pe- 11. lit. b. ter de Marca the late Learned Archbishop of dia Sacerd & Paris declares himself of the fame Opinion; p. 1.6 c. I. and to him (c) Bp. Beveridge Subfcribes; To Can. Apost. 34. whom I may add the late moft Reverend Fa- (d) Confecrat. ther (d) Archbishop Sancroft. (e) Dr. Cave Dom. 1660. and (f) Monfier Du Pin feem to be of a contrary Sentiment, and tho' they allow Metropolitans to be of very great Antiquity, yet they do not

S

ack

(b) De concor

(c) Annot, ad

Serm. Ann.

ancient Church Government. De Antiq

(e) Differt of the

Eccle Difciplina

acknowledge them of Apoftolical Institution. It is not for me to pretend to decide a controverfie managed by fuch eminently Learned Perfons, tho' I do not conceive that they do difagree very much in their Affertions: And by what I can gather by comparing their Arguments and Citations on both fides, the Original of thefe Church-Governors appears to me to have been thus.

The Roman Empire which contained almoft all the known Part of Christendom, was divided into several Provinces by Auguftus Cafar, which Division was afterwards a little changed by the Emperor Adrian and then, by Conftantine: But the manner of the Government continued, only the Seat of the Prefident was removed from one City to another, and the extent of the Province enlarged or diminished. In every of thefe Provinces was one City called the Metropolis or Mother City, this was commonly the Place of greatest Trade and Refort, and here the chief Governor of the Province refided. The Apoftles who by their Commiffion from our Saviour were obliged to Profelyte all Nations, could not stay long in any one Place, but having difpers'd themselves into the feveral Provinces, and Preach'd the Gospel, and made fome number of Converts, they fixed a Bishop in each of the Principal Cities where they faw it requifite, and gave these Bishops. orders, as other Cities of the Province fhould be converted, to fix Bishops alfo in them. The Apostles being very careful to place the most extraordinary Perfons in the Metropolitan Cities, because there was the greatest Harvest, and moft Occasion for Men of extraordinary Abilities and Gifts: This caufed the other

Bishops