(4) Authority of Chriftian Princes, Church, &c. p. 435. fervient to the Security and Preservation of her Spiritual and truly Divine Rights. For the Lofs of thefe Civil Rights, if due and timely Care be not taken to prevent it, may, in another Age, (when those in Power shall not have fo Cordial an Affection for the Church as our prefent Governours) tend to the overthrow of the Divine Right which the Church has to Ecclefiaftical Synods. Not that a Divine Right can ever be loft, but it may be oppressed, and fo far taken away by the Civil Power, that the Church shall not be permitted the Exercise of it without Perfecution. That this Church, wherein we live, (a) Has b. p. 268, 269. a Right to have its Convocation called as often as the Parliament is Affembled, is agreed on all Hands. That the Convocation, thus called, has a Right to Sit and Act, whenever the Circumstances of the Church require it fo to do, is allowed alfo. That it did fo Sit and Act whenever the Parliament did, from the beginning of the Reformation 'till after the Restoration of King Charles II, is a Matter of (b) State of the Fact denied by none that I know of: (b) And is allowed by my Lord Bishop of Lincoln, who has very ftrictly examined all the Registers and Records relating to our Convocations, and has taken the most Pains upon this Subject of any Man, and who would not have granted it if he could have found one Precedent to the contrary. But then his Lordship does endeavour to prove that notwithstanding this Cuftom, our Princes have no Obligation whatsoever at this time to let the Convocation meet and Act whenfoever the Parliament does. And the Reafon ) Ibid. p. 437 he is pleafed to give for it is, (c) because The Rights and Prerogatives of the Supreme Authority in every Society, are above and beyond the Power of S.11. Custom Cuftom alone to reach and controul. And if his Lordship means the Supreme Legislative Authority, no doubt he is in the right of it: But I have never yet heard that any Act of Parliament has been made directly to control this Cuftom. But if his Lordship means that the Regal Power in this Realm cannot be bounded by Custom, I know not what the Confequence may be: Our Common Law is founded on Cuftom only, and yet humbly conceive the Regal Power is fo far bounded by it, that no part of this Common Law can be altered without the Concurrence of the Parliament. And his Lordship did once allow, (d) nay declare that (4) Authority of he did heartily concur in this Couclufion; Chriftian Princes, That an English Chriftian King, is as much obliged by the Laws and Ufages, bad and accufromed in this Kingdom, in regard to the Church, as the Sovereign of England is, with Relation to the State. And therefore, fays he, Let thofe Laws be produced, and thofe Ufages made out, and I fubmit. His Lord hip has fince taken the Pains to make out thefe fages himself, and when he has done fo, tells us they fignifie nothing, for no other Reafon but because Prerogative cannot be controuled by Custom. But with all due Submiffion to his Lordship, I humbly conceive, that the Right of the Crown in this particular, does not flow meerly from the Prerogative, but from the Act of Parliament, which has vested the Supreme Ecclefiaftical Jurifdiction in the Crown, and from the Statute Enacted upon the Submiffion of the Clergy, prohibiting them to hold their Convocations otherwife than by the Royal Authority. I have feyeral times moft heartily Sworn to this Supremacy, and thereBb 45 fore fore far be it from me to fay that any part of it may be controuled by any Custom whatfoever. For this being an Authority confirmed to the Crown by Parliament, cannot, perhaps, be limited otherwife than by Parliament. And yet his Lordship allows, that the Convocation has a Right to be Summoned as often as the Parliament is fo: Which Right it can challenge from nothing else but Cuftom. And if the Custom for the Convocation to Sit and Act be as ancient as their Custom to be Summoned with the Parliament, which his Lordship has proved, what Reason can be given why the Prerogative fhould not be as much bound by one Custom as by the other? The Customs are both of the fame Age, there has been as long a Prescription for the one as for the other, and whatsoever Reafors can be given for the breaking in upon the Convocation's Liberty to Sit and Act when they are Summoned, will hold as well against the Cuftom of Summoning them. If the one be a Right, I cannot fee but the other must be fo. A Right to be Summoned to Convocation without any Right to Meet and Act there, is a Grievance and not a Privilege: It puts the Clergy to great Trouble and Expence to no manner of Purpose. When the Bishop has received the Archbishop's Mandate, he cites his Dean and Archdeacons in Perfon, Orders his Chapter to choose their Proctor: Then he fends to his feveral Archdeacons to cite the Diocefan Clergy to the Confiftory to choose their Proctors; The Archdeacon fends his Apparitors to every particular Clergy-man of the Diocefs, who is ftrictly warned to be at the 47.6 the time and place appointed, whatsoever Clergy-man does not appear, is prouounced Contumacious and liable to be cenfured at the Discretion of the Ordinary. When the Proctors are chofen, if they appear not in Synod at St. Paul's, or elsewhere at the place appointed in the Summons, at the time appointed, they are alfo pronounced Contumacious and liable to fuch further Cenfure as the Prefident thinks fit. And is not all this Trouble and Expence which the Clergy are put to in Journey's and Attendance, under the Penalty of Contumacy at least, a great Burthen upon them? Yet this is all that their Right of being Summoned to Convocation entitles them to. If. therefore they have no Right to meet and Act after all this Trouble and Expence, their Right to be Summoned to Convocation must be a great Grievance rather than a Privilege. It is most certainly a very odd kind of Right for a Body of Men to be called together with fo much Formality from fome of the remotest parts of the Kingdom only to be told that they may go home again for the prefent, but they must be fure not to fail, at their Perils, to attend on the next prefixed Day: And when they have attended again that Day, the fame Order is repeated, and fo from time to time 'till the Parliament rifes. And tho' they never fo much defire it, yet fhall they not be allowed to be fo much as put into a Condition to offer up a Petition or Addrefs, or iudeed to do any thing at all that their Predecessors were allowed to do. One would think it was impoffible, did not woful Experience too fatally convince us of the contrary, that any of the Clergy should study and rack their Brains to find find out Colourable Arguments to lay this Grievance on their own Order: To plead for the Right, which the Clergy has to be Summoned to Convocation, which alone by its felf without the Right of fitting and acting is but a Burthen of Expence and Trouble to no Purpose; and deny them the Right of meeting as a Provincial Synod, which is the only privilege that can make their Right of Summons Valuable. هم The Church, as I have fhewed, has a Divine Right to Synodical Affemblies when the Occafions of it required thofe Affemblies. The Old Canons of the Primitive Church decreed, that they should be held once at least if not twice every year. The Civil Right which our Convocations had to give their own Money, and the great Convenience it was to the Bishops and Abbots who were Members of Parliament to attend the business of both Affemblies at once, made it Cuftomary in this Realm to convene that Affembly with every Parliament. And whilft they preferved that Right they always fat and acted at leaft fo far as to give Money. And being upon that account put into a Capacity of doing other business proper for them, they alfo did fuch bufinefs when there was occafion, and had opportunities to confult and enquire whether there was any fuch occafion or not. But now by the lofs of this Right to Tax themselves, if they have alfo loft their Right to be put into a Capacity of doing business, then can they never have opportunity to confult and enquire whether the Church needs their affiftance or not; that fo they may at the leaft Petition the Crown to give them leave to debate and act in their pro per |