XVI.

SECT. III.

ecclesiastical laws enacted by the church under CENT. his inspection. It is true, that from the time of Henry VIII. the Kings of England consider them- PART II. selves as supreme heads of the church, and that in relation to its spiritual, as well as its temporal concerns; and it is plain enough, that, on the strength of this important title, both Henry VIII. and his son Edward assumed an extensive authority and jurisdiction in the church, and looked upon their spiritual power, as equal to that which had been unworthily enjoyed by the Roman pontiff [w]. But Queen Elizabeth receded considerably from these high pretensions, and diminished the spiritual power of her successors, by declaring that the jurisdiction of the kings of England extended only to the ministers of religion, and not to religion itself; to the rulers of the church, and not to the church itself; or, in other words, that the persons of the clergy were alone subject to their civil authority [a]. Accordingly, we see that the constitution of the church of England resembles perfectly that of the state, and that there is a striking analogy between the civil and ecclesiastical government established in that country. The clergy, consisting of the upper and lower houses of convocation, are immediately as sembled by the archbishop of Canterbury, in consequence of an order from the sovereign, and propose in these meetings, by common consent, such measures as seem necessary to the well-being of the church; these measures are laid before the king and parliament, and derive from their ap probation

VOL IV.

Бе

[w] See Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 11. [x] See Courayel, Supplement aux deux Ouvrages pour le Defense de la validite des Ordinations Anglicanes, chap. xv. p. 486.

This must be understood with many restrictions, if it can be at all admitted. The whole tenor of Queen Elizabeth's reign shewed plainly that she did not pretend to less power in religious matters than any of her predecessors.

PART II.

CENT. probation and authority the force of laws [y]. XVI. But it must be acknowledged, that this matter SECT. III. has given occasion to much altercation and debate; nor has it been found easy to fix the extent of the jurisdiction and prerogatives of these great bodies in a manner conformable to their respective pretensions, since the king and his council explain them in one way, and the clergy, more especially those who are zealous for the spiritual supremacy and independency of the church, understand them in another. The truth of the matter is plainly this, that the ecclesiastical polity in England has never acquired a stable and consistent form, nor been reduced to clear and certain principles. It has rather been carried on and administered by ancient custom and precedent, than defined and fixed by any regular system of laws and institutions.

The form

astical go

XXXII. If it was not an easy matter to deterof ecclesi- mine in what hands the power of deciding affairs vernment of a religious nature was to be lodged, it was no among the less difficult to fix the form of ecclesiastical

Reformed.

go

vernment in which this power was to be administered. Many vehement disputes were kindled on this subject, which neither the lapse of time, nor the efforts of human wisdom, have been able to bring to an amicable issue. The Republic of Geneva, in consequence of the councils of Calvin, judged it proper that the particular affairs of each church should be directed by a body of elders, or presbyters, all invested with an equal degree of power and authority; that matters of a more public and important nature were to be submitted

[y] Jo. Cosinus, De Ecclesiæ Anglicane Religione et Disciplina, in the learned Thomas Smith's Vita Eruditiss. Virorum, published at London in 4to, in the year 1707.-See also Dav. Wilkins, De Veteri et Moderna Syncdi Anglic. Constitutione, tom. i. Concil. Magn.. Britann. p. vii.-Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 2, 3, 15, 132.

XVI.

mitted to the judgment of an assembly, or synod, CENT. composed of elders chosen as deputies by the SECT, III. churches of a whole province or district; and PART II. that all affairs of such extensive influence and high moment, as concerned the welfare of the sacred community in general, should be examined and decided, as in times of old, by a general assembly of the whole church. This form of ecclesiastical government the church of Geneva adopted for itself [*], and left no intreaties or methods of persuasion unemployed, that might recommend it to the other reformed churches with which they lived in fraternal communion. But it was obsti

[*] The account Dr. Mosheim gives here and above (sect. XII. of this chapter) of the form of Ecclesiastical Government established by Calvin at Geneva, is far from being accurate. There are but two ecclesiastical bodies in that Republic, viz. the venerable company of the pastors and professors, and the consistory; for a just description of which, see the judicious Mr. Keate's Short Account of the Ancient History, present Government, and Laws of the Republic of Geneva,' printed for Dodsley, in the year 1761, p. 110, 112, 121, 124.-I would only remark, that what this sensible author observes, with respect to the Consistory, p. 124. of his interesting performance, belongs principally, if not wholly, to the Venerable Company.-Dr. Mosheim seems to have been led into this mistake, by imagining that the ecclesiastical form of Government established in Scotland, where indeed all church affairs are managed by consistorial, provincial, and national assemblies, or, in other words, by presbyters, synods, and general synods, was a direct transcript of the hierarchy of Geneva. It is also probable, that he may have been deceived by reading in Neal's History of the Puritans, that the Scottish. reformers approved of the discipline of the reformed churches of Geneva and Switzerland, and followed their plan of ecclesiastical government. But he ought to have observed, that this approbation and imitation related only to the democratical form of the church of Geneva, and the parity of its ministers. Be that as it may, the plan of government, which our historian here supposes to have place at Geneva, is in reality that which is observed in Scotland, and of which no more than the first and fundamental principles were taken from the discipline of Calvin. The small territory of Geneva would not admit of such a form of ecclesiastical polity as Dr. Mosheim here describes.

CENT. nately rejected by the English clergy, who reXVI. garded as sacred and immutable that ancient form PART II. of spiritual government, according to which a

SECT. III.

certain district or diocese is committed to the care and inspection of one ruler or bishop, to whom the presbyters of each church are subject, as also the deacons are to the presbyters; while those affairs that concerned the general interests of the church are treated in an assembly of bishops, and of such ecclesiastics as are next to them in rank and dignity. This form of episcopal polity was, with some small exceptions, adopted by the Bohemian and Moravian brethren [a], who were become one of the Reformed churches; but it was highly displeasing to those among the protestants, who had embraced the sentiments and discipline of Calvin. The dissensions, occasioned by these different schemes of ecclesiastical polity were every way adapted to produce a violent schism in the church; and that so much the more, as each of the contending parties pretended to derive their respective plan from the injunctions of Christ, and the practice of his disciples. And in effect, it divided the English nation into two parties, who, during a long time, treated each other with great animosity and bitterness, and whose feuds, on many occasions, proved detrimental to the civil interests and prosperity of the nation. This schism, however, which did such mischief in England, was, by the prudence and piety of a few great and excellent divines, confined to that country, and prevented from either becoming universal, or interrupting the fraternal union that prevailed between the church of England and the Reformed churches abroad. The worthy men, that thus set bounds to the influ

ence

[a] See Epist. de Ordinat. et Successione Episcopal. in unitate Fratrum Bohem. conservata, in Christ. Matth. Pfaffi Institution. Juris Eccles. p. 410.

XVI. SECT. III.

ence of these unhappy divisions, found great op- CENT. position made, by the suggestions of bigotry, to their charitable purpose. To maintain, however, PART II. the bonds of union between the episcopal church of England and the presbyterian churches in foreign countries, they laid down the following maxim, which, though it be not universally adopted, tends nevertheless to the preservation of external concord among the Reformed, viz. "That Jesus Christ has left upon record no express injunctions with respect to the external "form of government, that is to be observed in "his church; and consequently, that every na"tion hath a right to establish such a Form, as "seemeth conducive to the interests, and suitable "to the peculiar state, circumstances, and exigences of the community, provided that such an establishment be in no respect prejudicial "to truth, or favourable to the revival of super"stition [b]."

66

66

discipline.

XXXIII. It was the opinion of Calvin, not The state only that flagitious and profligate members were of church to be cut off from the sacred society, and excluded from the communion of the church, but also that men of dissolute and licentious lives were punishable by the laws of the state, and the arm of the civil magistrate. In this he differed entirely from Zuingle, who, supposing that all authority, of every kind, was lodged in the hands of the magistrate alone, would not allow to the ministers of the church the power of excluding flagitious offenders from its communion, or withholding from them the participation of its sacra

[h] See Spanhemi Opera, tom. ii. lib. viii. ix. p. 1055. This was the general opinion of the British divines that lived in the earliest period of the Reformation, and was first abandoned by Archbishop Whitgift. See Neal's History of the Puritans, tom, iii. p. 140.