INTRODUCTION.

NATIONAL CHURCHES.-PAPAL USURPATIONS ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT'.

In the year 1175, the king (Henry II.) received intelligence of the arrival of Hugo cardinal of St. Peter de Leon, legate of pope Alexander the third. During his stay in England, the old dispute about the liberty of the clergy was brought under consideration; and as this appears to have been the great errand, so the chief remains we have of this embassy is an agreement betwixt the king and the legate, which consists of these four following articles.

First, that no clergyman for the time to come should be carried in person before any secular judge' for any crime or transgression, uuless for abuses of the forest, or for such services as by reason of some fee they owed to the king or other secular lords.

Secondly, the king covenants that he would not keep any archbishopric, bishopric, or abbey, in his hands above a year, unless there was an apparent necessity thereof.

Thirdly, it was agreed that such persons as should confess or be convicted of having killed a clergyman, should be punished in the presence of the bishop.

Fourthly, that a clergyman should not be obliged to defend himself by duela.

1 Civil government.] From Inett's Origines Anglicanæ, &c. vol. ii. p. 295—

313.

2 Hugo de Perleonibus, Cardinal Deacon of St. Angelo, and afterwards Priest Cardinal of St. Clemente.

3 Any secular judge.] See Index, under Clergy, exemption of from secular jurisdiction, p. 296. See also Christian Institutes, vol. iv. p. 32. 180. 235. Also Inett, vol. ii. p. 195. 319-22.

a M. Par. ann. 1176. p. 132.

If what has been already said had not enabled us to account for the reason of this transaction, one who considers the provision which the gospel has made for preserving the rights of the secular power, and the obedience which the first Christians paid to the worst of princes, or the grounds upon which Christianity was admitted as the religion of states and kingdoms, and the advantages which accrue to it from their favours and encouragement, would stand amazed at an attempt to discharge the clergy from the laws of the state; and much more to find this claim founded on a pretended grant of Christ, who declared his kingdom was not of this world, and both lived and died a great example of the doctrine which he had delivered; and which is stranger still, that devoting men to the service of religion should exempt them from the duties of it, and an authority to publish the gospel discharge them from the subjection which their holy function obliged them to preach to all the world.

There is no doubt but our Saviour appointed an order of men to make the will of God known to the world, and to publish the terms on which He will pardon our sins, accept our services here, and reward us when this life is done, and gave them commission to convey this authority to others: and it is beyond all question, that this is a power different from that which God has given to princes, and such as they can neither give nor take away, nor assume to themselves. And they who are thus commissioned by Christ, are under the same obligation to preach the gospel as they are to obey God; and the people are upon the same grounds bound to receive it. And upon this foot Christianity was first preached and obeyed, though the secular power withheld their protection and persecuted those who embraced it but God blessed His people, and gave success to the ministry of His servants, and will do so if ever this case should happen again. And if this is all that is meant by the independence of the church and clergy on the secular power, there is no more reason to doubt it, than to make a question whether the gospel ought to be preached, or God obeyed, or His people take a care of their own souls. But if the gospel gives no new powers to princes, it certainly takes nothing from them1: they lose nothing by becoming Christians: they are God's vicegerents as much as they

1 Nothing from them.] See Hooker, b. viii. c. iii. Keble's edition, vol. iii. p. 450-9. Again

were before, and in right of their character continue the common guardians of religion. And that of the prince is thus far the case of every subject too. His submission to Christ does not set him free from any relative duty: he no more ceases to be a subject than to be a father, a husband, or a master. Christianity makes no change in the natural ties of allegiance: the Christian

Again c. vi. s. 13. thus:

"Christ in His church hath not appointed any such law concerning temporal power, as God did of old deliver unto the commonwealth of Israel; but leaving that to be at the world's free choice, his chiefest care was that the spiritual law of the gospel might be published far and wide.

"They that received the law of Christ were for a long time scattered in sundry kingdoms, Christianity not exempting them from the laws that they had been subject unto, saving only in such cases as those laws did enjoin that which the religion of Christ forbade. Hereupon grew their manifold persecutions throughout all places where they lived: as oft as it thus came to pass, there was no possibility that the emperors and kings under whom they lived, should meddle any whit at all with making laws for the church. From Christ therefore having received power, who doubteth, that as they did, so they might bind themselves to such orders as seemed fittest for the maintenance of their religion, without the leave of high or low in the commonwealth; for as much as in religion it was divided utterly from them, and they from it?

"But when the mightiest began to like of the Christian faith, by their means whole free states and kingdoms became obedient unto Christ. Now, the question is, whether kings by embracing Christianity do therein receive any such law, as taketh from the weightiest part of that sovereignty, which they had even when they were heathens? Whether being infidels they might do more in causes of religion, than now they can by the law of God, being true believers? For whereas in regal states the king or supreme head of the commonwealth had before Christianity a supreme stroke in making of laws for religion; he must, by embracing Christian religion, utterly thereof deprive himself, and in such causes become subject to his subjects, having even within his own dominions them whose commandment he must obey; unless this power be placed in the hand of some foreign spiritual potentate; so that either a foreign or domestical commander upon earth, he must needs admit more now than before he had; and that in the chiefest things whereupon commonwealths do stand; but apparent it is unto all men, which are not strangers in the doctrine of Jesus Christ, that no state in the world, receiving Christianity, is by any law therein contained bound to resign the power which they lawfully held before; but over what persons and in what causes soever the same hath been in force, it may so remain and continue still: that which as kings they might do in matter of religion, and did in matter of false religion, being idolatrous or superstitious kings, the same they are now even in every respect as fully authorized to do in all affairs pertinent unto the state of true Christian religion." Vol. iii. part i. p. 517-9.

is as much bound to obey as the Pagan and the Jew. And the case is still the same whatever post he fills: the pastor is as much a subject to the higher power as the people committed to his charge; and in some cases in those instances wherein they may pretend to act by the authority of Christ.

For our Saviour, who as the great prophet and instructor of mankind laid the foundation of that society which He thought fit to honour and distinguish by the name of His body the church, and who appointed His ministers to go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and commanded the people to hear His law from their mouths and with meekness to receive the ingrafted word; to submit to those who watch for their souls; and even to obey those who rule over them in the Lord; does yet compare His church to a field that should consist of tares as well as good seed, and foretold that ravening wolves should come in sheep's clothing and deceive many. And His apostles by the same spirit foresaw that the seat of God would fall into the hands of antichrists, and deceivers arise who would set themselves above all that was called God; or in other words, that the ministers of Christ would be subject to error, and might endeavour to impose their mistakes upon the world. Therefore at the same time they command us to believe and obey the gospel, they caution us not to believe every spirit, and not to receive any other doctrine but that of Christ, though it come attested by an angel of light; to consider whether the doctrine be of God; to try all things and hold fast that which is good. Thus far every Christian is for himself' made a judge of the faith of Christ, and by the same authority too which commands him to receive it; and he is under the same obligation to reject the error however it come recommended, as he is to provide for the welfare of his own soul.

The case of the Christian magistrates is very different. They are obliged to encourage the worship of God upon rules of the gospel; to see that subjects be duly taught; to keep them from the danger of false teachers, and provide them such pastors as Christ has appointed. And if it happen through human frailty, corruption, mistake, or worldly interest, that the pastors of the church preach themselves instead of Christ, teach the people

1 For himself.] See Hooker's Preface, chap. iii. § 1—3, and chap. vi. § 5, 6; or Christian Institutes, vol. iv. p. 380-2, and 415-7.

idolatry or superstition, or any doctrine which may endanger their salvation or the peace of his dominions; the supreme power in such cases is under the same obligation to remove the deceivers and provide true pastors, as he is to protect the church, to secure the truth and honour of religion, the institutions of Christ, the welfare of his people, and the peace of his country.

If the error spread farther and become general, and involve the governing part of a national church, this case may require more caution and prudence; but if the matter be notorious and the offenders obstinate, the mischief cries so much louder for a remedy. For by permitting the guides thereof to involve themselves in the common guilt, and thereby depriving his church of the ordinary means of redress, God points out the duty of the magistrate, and calls the supreme power, to whom He has committed a general care of His glory, to exert the authority which He lodged in his hands. They are in this case under the same obligation to control the error, and secure the truth and honour of religion, as they are to obey God rather than men. And the reason is plain; the guides in this case go beyond their commission, and, as the apostle well distinguishes, it is the man and not the Lord that speaks by them. For it is certain that Christ never gave men authority to preach the idolatry which His gospel forbids; and when this is the case, it is the wolf and not the shepherd which the magistrate drives away from the flock.

Besides, this seems to be the only provision which God has made to secure the purity and succession of national churches. His promises to be with His church till the end of the world, and that the gates of hell should not prevail against it, are limited to the catholic church; and though they afford us ground enough to believe that the church of Christ shall never fail, but continue visible till His second coming, yet these promises are not applicable to particular national churches. The present state of Africa makes it but too plain, that a national church may be extinguished: and if one looks to the condition of some western nations as they stand at this day, and to the general state thereof as they stood some ages since, it will be out of doubt that Christianity may be corrupted1; that the guides and pastors

1 May be corrupted.] "As the churches of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred; so also the church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith." Art. XIX. of the Church of England.