And tho' there may be, fome very ancient Ex-. amples of Decrees or Canons made in Provincial Synods by Bishops alone, without the Concurrence of their Presbyters, yet forafinuch as it is apparent that there are others at least as ancient to which Presbyters have been admitted, it is very reafonable that where Presbyters have been fo happy as to have this Right, continued to them from the beginning or to have retrieved it when loft by the means of giving their Money, it fhould be preferved to them inviolable, and that they fhould not be reproached or infulted for pretending to fuch a Right.

Having thus, I truft, vindicated the Synodical Rights of the Inferior Clergy in general, and hewn that they are neither new nor peculiar to our own Church, but that more than what our Presbyters claim is allowed in the Synod of the Province of Rome it felf, I fhall now proceed to fhew how and in what manner our own Synods have been held from the time we begin to have a clear Account of their Acts. And this I fhall choose to do (a) (a) Hift. of the in the Words of the Right Reverend my Lord State of the Bishop of Lincoln, who feems to have taken Church and the most pains of any one upon this Subject, land, p. 21. and who has, I believe, been very faithful and impartial in the matters of Fact which he has gixen us. This Provincial Convocation, fays

he, however for Convenience and Freedom ⚫ of Debate, it is ufually now divided into two Houfes, is yet together but one Affembly, confifting of the Bishops and Clergy of the • Province with the Metropolitan at the Head of them. Thus heretofore they both met and acted together, and paffed feveral whole A a 4

• Synods

Clergy of Eng

Synods without ever feparating or debating afunder from one another. When afterwards they divided for the better managing their Deliberations it was only occafionally, upon fome greater Emergency, and then they went afide for an Hour or Two, Treated by themfelves, and returned to the place of Affembly, and delivered their Opinions, and there came to a Refolution.

But before I proceed further with this Account, I muft obferve that his Lordship does here a little too much reftrain the time which was ufually allotted to the Inferiour Clergy to go afide and confult by themselves, which if not taken Notice of might lead us into a Mistake, and give occafion to think that the Metropolitan and his Suffragans ftill held their Seffions all the time that the Inferiour Clergy retired to debate between themselves, whereas in truth it was not fo; but the Inferiour Clergy moft commonly had these separate Debates, and met together upon that Occafion in the interval of the Synodical Seffions of the whole Convocation, and held fuch intermediate Meetings as are now fo highly condemned, This appears from feveral Inftances given us in Synodus Anglicana concerning this Matter. An. 1369. 10 Kal. Feb. (which was that Year on Tuesday,) the Archbishop directed the Clergy to draw up their Petitions in Writing, and to exhibit Ibid. p. 128. them on Friday. So again, An. 1433. Nov. 10. (which was alfo on Tuesday) upon the Clergy's Defire to confult among themselves about the matter propofed, they were ordered to deliberate diligently concerning them 'till Thursday. And the shortest time commonly allotted for thefe feparate Confultati

Pag. 127.

ons,

ons, was 'till the next Day or the next Seffions, as appears from many other Inftances

*

in Synodus Anglicana. Nay, his Lordship Hift. of the himfelf, not above two or three Pages before State of the Cler tells us, that Archbishop Wittlesey, An. 1369.8y, p. 18. Sent the Clergy afide to Confult together, and to bring their Refolutions to him the next Day. So that I cannot fee why he should here always confine their Retirement to an Hour or two. Having thus fet this Matter right, I fhall go on with the following part of this Account.

..

After this his Lordship proceeds very well, faying: And tho' it be now become the • established Method of this Convocation when they Sit and Act, to deliberate afunder in two Houfes; yet this cannot alter the nature of their Affembly, which is ftill called by the fame Mandate that it was before this Divifion was settled into. By virtue of that Mandate it meets and acts, and from the Terms thereof therefore it muft ftill derive its Nature and Conftitution. Now in the Mandate for the Convocation, not only the Bishops, but the Deans, Archdeacons, and Proctors, are all equally Summoned together; not only to meet in the fame Place, and before the fame Perfon; but to treat so too: Quod compareant, &c. are the Words; to appear before us, or before our Commiffaries in St. Paul's Church, and to treat with us. And therefore, tho' for the better dispatch of Business, the Clergy of the Lower Houfe commonly fit together, and Debate among themselves, yet they then properly act as a Convocation, according to the Tenor both of the King's Writ, and the Archbishops Mandate, when

८

they

they come up to the Upper House, and there agree with the Prelates, before the Metropolitan, of what they have to do: Whereas • their debating by themselves, is but a Preparatory Deliberation, like that of a Committee of Parliament for the better difpatch of their • Affairs when they come together; and to fit • Matters for a common Refolution.

.

Hence it is, that the Archbishop ftill acts as Prefident, not of the Upper Houfe alone, but of the whole Synod. He Prorogues the Convocation from one Seffion to another: And if by the Archbishops Direction or Confent, the Lower Clergy have fometimes been required or allowed to meet in the Interval between Seffion and Seffion; Yet the Convocation has nevertheless been looked upon as Prorogued, tho' they have Sate; and the Seffions have been computed, not from thofe Meetings, but from the Archbishops or his Commiffaries appearing, and the Convocations Affembling before him.

This is the Account which this Right Reverend and Learned Prelate has given us of the State of our prefent Synods in the Church of England and in the Province of Canterbury particu larly, in his Elaborate Book of the State of the Church and Clergy of England. His Lordfhip's known Zeal for the prefent Establishment both in Church and State, and for the Rights of Epifcopacy against fuch Presbyters (if there be any fuch in this Church) who would be Independent on their Bishops, in all which particulars ! most heartily joyn with his Lordship, has caufed me to Confult him and fuch as have wrote upon this Argument with the fame Views that his Lordship had, rather than to give any Ac

count

count of the Rights which our Presbyters have in Synods, from those who may be thought to make their Rights greater than they ought to be. And tho perhaps I may differ from his Lordship and the reft which have wrote on that fide of the Queftion in fome of my Conclufions, yet I fhall endeavour to prove all that I fhall lay down from fuch Matters of Fact as are published by them in the Books which they have written on this Subject: And what are but neceffary Confequences from thofe Things which they grant to be the undoubted Rights of the Inferiour Clergy. And I conceive that all the Inferiour Clergy would be fully fatisfied if they might be permitted to enjoy but those Privileges which their Books moft plainly entitle them to, which I truly think as great as are confiftent with that Dependency which Presbyters ought.to have on their Bishops: And for my own Part, I folemnly declare, that I will contend for no Rights which any ways tend to make Presbyters Independent either on their Diocefans or Metropolitan. And the Inferences 1 fhall deduce from them, are these that follow.

I. From the Account of my Lord Bishop of Lincoln, which he has given of our Convocation, where he says, that it confifts not only of the Bishops, but of Deans, Archdeacons and Proctors of the Chapters and of the Diocefan Clergy, who are equally Summoned together, it is evident that the Church of England in the Matter of Synods as well as in the other parts of her Doctrine and Discipline is exactly conformable to the Primitive Church. In our Synods, as well as that of the Apoftles, and those of the fucceeding Ages in the Elder Times before Popery