accounted an Ordinary by the Law than the Bishop is. I fay if this be now the Law of the Land (as for ought I know it is) yet this does not make our Conftitution materially different from that of the primitive Church. For tho' Chancellors as they are now, are a new Office, not heard of till the darkest times of Popery: Yet from the beginning Bishops had their Affiftants or Deputies. I have fhewed that St. Paul did delegate his Authority occasionally to Timothy, Titus and Silvanus, that the Bishops in the primitive Church had their Chorepifcopi : But then these Deputies were themselves of the Epifcopal Order, and their Deputations were not fo large and extenfive as to make them unaccountable even to the Bishop himself, to do what they pleased without controul or restraint (c) Uhers Let- from their Diocefan, as (c) Archbishop Usher justly complained his Chancellor by his Patent night do. Timothy and Titus were certainly accountable to St. Paul for what they acted under him: And St. Bafil's Chorepifcopi were, as I have fhewed, fharply reproved by him for acting in any respect as independent on him. Now if it be neceflary that Bishops should have Deputies, yet I have fhewed that our Conftitution allows them to have them of their own Order, having provided as many Chorepifcopi or Suffragan Bifhops for this Church, as there are Bishops, and tho' it permits Lay-men to exercife Ecclefiaftical Jurifdiction if any Bishop will grant them fuch Authority, yet it leaves the Bishops at liberty to grant it to any of their Clergy if they pleafe. So that this is alfo a fault in our Practice rather than our Conftitution.

ters, 84.

Britannia,

Again, I have fhewed that in the primitive Church Appeals were made from the Bishop and his College of Presbyters to the Metropolitan in his Provincial Synod, and that except where there was a Patriarch, no Appeal could be made from the Provincial Synod, but their Determination was final. Yet tho' the Practice now be otherwife with us, and that as the Bishop or his Chancellor judges folely without the concurrence of his College of Presbyters, fo the Metropolitan likewife judges folely by himself or his Vicar -General without any concurrence of his Provincial Synod. Yet by our Constitution (d) the chief Spiritual Court is (d) Cambden Inthe Synod, which is called the Convocation, and troduct. to is ALWAYS held at the fame time that a Parliament is. The World was not in Cambden's days acquainted with the new Diftinction between a Right that the Convocation has to be Summoned and the Right it has to be holden with every Parliament: For in those times the Convocation was not folemnly Summoned and then prohibited to be held, but was ALWAYS held at the fame time with the Parliament. And this was then the chief Spiritual Court. So alfo (e) Godolphin tells us, That the High Court (e) Repert. Ca of Convocation is called the Convocation of the non. p. 93, Clergy, and is the HIGHEST Ecclefiaftical Court. This it was thought to be even fince the end of King Charles II. Reign, (for the Book I Quote is the Third Edition, Printed in 1687.) long after they had difufed their Right to Tax themselves, tho' now it be treated as the moft defpicable Convention in the World, not only without any Authority but without any Rights, without any Privileges: An Assembly fit only to be called together to be told that they are

only

(

(g) 24 Hen. 8. Ch. 12.

P. 327, 328.

only to be Summoned but never to meet, fit

f) Ibid, p. 99. and act to do any thing. (f) But Godolphin further tells us, (and cites my Lord Coke for it and an (g) Act of Parliament) If any Caufe Shall depend in Contention in any Ecclefiaftical Court, which fhall or may touch the King, his Heirs and Succeffors, the Party grieved hall or may Appeal to the Upper-House of Convocation (Antiq. Brit. within fifteen Days after Sentence given. (b) And we find that King Henry VIII. had the business of his Divorce with Queen Catherine Hift. Reformat. heard and determined by his Convocation. * Abridg. p. 242 So was alfo his Marriage with Anne of Cleve annulled by the whole Convocation. And I do not Question but I might give other Instances of the Convocations exercifing its Right of Judicature if I had opportunities to enquire after them.

Thus it appears that by our Constitution we have a College of Presbyters to assist the Bishop in his Calling and Function as well as to confent to his Grants: We may have Churepifcopi of the fame Order with the Bishops, to whom every Diocesan may delegate fo much of his Jurifdiction as he cannot conveniently execute himself. We have Convocations or Provincial Synods to receive the last Appeals. And all this (as I truft I have fully proved in this Book) is exactly agreeable to the Conftitution of the primitive Church derived from the Apostles. But in Fact and Practice it is quite otherwife: The Bishop makes no use at all of his College of Presbyters unless it be to confirm his Grants: Chorepefcopi or Bishops Suffragan have fo long been difufed that many Perfons have never fo much as heard of any fuch Office And Convocations or Provincial Synods

Synods, tho' by immemorial Custom they have constantly been held with every Parliament, are in attendancy to be reduced from stated to meer occafional Affemblies; for the Reafons which are given against their fitting now may hold against their fitting for ever.

However by mentioning these Practices and faying that they are contrary to the Practice of the primitive Church, and that these Practices might be altered and reduced to the primitive Form without any alteration of our Conftitution, I here moft folemnly declare that I intend no manner of Reflection on any of my Lords the Bishops or any other Governors in Church or State.

And as to these Practices which I have taken the Freedom to find Fault with, I must free their Lordships from having introduced them, and from having it in their Power wholly to remedy them, unless they could obtain (which poffibly they might do if they thought fit to endeavour it) an alteration of fome of our Laws. For as to the Sole Exercife of Jurif diction by the Bishop alone, or by his Chancellor, without the Affiftance or Concurrence of the College of Presbyters, it has a Prefcription of five or fix Hundred Years. Bishops Suffragan have been difufed now about an Hundred Years: And Convocations have not given their own Money above these Forty Years. However, Convocations did meet with every Parliament, were opened in due Form by Prayers, and a Sermon, and put into a Capacity of doing Business by the Election of a Prolocutor, and the forming the Lower Clergy into an Houfe 'till very lately. The Clergy were Summoned with the laft

Parlia

Parliament, and every body expected they should have met as they had ufed to do, and there was a very numerous Appearance, but a Royal Writ commanded them all to return home, without fuffering them fo much as to meet as a Convocation. And thus this Provincial Synod, which 'till of late, was ALWAYS held together with the Parliament, has been furprizingly interrupted in the Exercife of a Right, which perhaps, if not timely restored, it may never recover.

And now if thefe Practices wherein we vary from the Primitive Conftitution of the Apoftolick Church were rectified, I should then have but one thing more to recommend, (which is a Matter I have not before mentioned in this Book, and which may well deferve to be confidered in a Convocation, (if ever there fhall be fuch an Affembly hereafter) in order to Addrefs the Queen and Parliament for Relief therein.) And that is the Point of Excommunication: Since there are Spiritual Courts, and Spiritual Caufes allowed by the Laws of this Realm, it is not only requifite but neceffary that they should have a Coercive Power, a Power to cite Perfons into the Cours and to punish them if they will not appear there. Now for this Non-Appearance after a Perfon has been pronounced Contumacious, if he continue fo by the space of Forty Days, he is of course Excommunicated, and 'till he is Excommunicated, the Spiritual Court cannot apply to the Temporal for Affistance in order to oblige the Offender to appear. So that 'till the Spiritual Court has curfed a Man to the Pit of Hell, it has no means of executing its coercive Power. This is an Abuse has

been