faith and a blind brutish obedience, obey his masters of the consistory or assembly. But if he be not bound to confirm all, then I suppose he may choose which he will, and which he will not: and if so, it is well enough; for then the supreme judgment and the last resort are to the prince, not to his clerks. And that princes are but executioners of the clergy's sentences is so far from being true, that we find Theodosius refusing to confirm the acts of the great Ephesine council: for having been informed, though falsely, that affairs were carried ill, he commanded the bishops to resume the question of the Nestorians: for their acts of condemnation against them he made null, and commanded them to judge it over again, and that till they had done so, they should not stir to their bishopricks. The ministry was the bishops' all the way, but the external judgment and the legislative was the prince's. So Charles the Great reformed the church; "Episcopos congregavi," &c. "I convocated the bishops to counsel me how God's laws and Christian religion should be recovered. Therefore by the counsel of my religious prelates and my nobles, we have appointed bishops in every city, and Boniface their archbishop, and appoint that a synod shall be held every year, that, in our presence, the canonical decrees and the rights of the church may be restored, and Christian religion may be reformed." But because this must be evident as a consequent of all the former discourses upon this question; it will be sufficient now to sum it up with the testimony of St. Austin writing to Emeritus the Donatist: "Nam et terrenæ potestates, cum schismaticos persequuntur, eâ regulâ se defendunt, quia dicit apostolus, Qui potestati resistit, Dei ordinationi resistit-non enim frustra gladium portat;" "When the civil power punishes schismatics, they have a warrant from an apostolical rule, which says, 'He that resists, resists the ordinance of God: for they bear not the sword in vain."" It is not therefore by a commission or a command from the church that they punish schismatics, but "constituunt adversus vos pro sua solicitudine ac potestate quod volunt;" "they decree what they please against them according to their own care and their own power."

6. So that when it is said, that princes are to govern their

Apud acta Concil. Ephes. in liter. Theod. ad Synod.
y Apud Surium Die 5. Jun.
Z Epist. 164.

churches by the consent and advice of their bishops, it is meant not 'de jure stricto,' but 'de bono et laudabili:' it is fit that they do so, it is the way of Christ's ordinary appointment:" He that heareth you, heareth me :" and to them a command is given, 'to feed all the flock of Christ.' In pursuance of which, it was a famous rescript of Valentinian I. cited by St. Ambrose ; "In causa fidei vel ecclesiastici alicujus ordinis eum judicare debere, qui nec munere impar sit, nec jure dissimilis." These are the words of the rescript: that is, he would that bishops should judge of bishops; and that in causes of faith or the church their ministry should be used, whose persons, by reason of the like employment, were most competent to be put in delegation.' But, to the same purpose, more of these favourable edicts were made in behalf of the church by Theodosius and Valentinian II., by Arcadius, Honorius, and Justinian: and indeed, besides that it is reasonable in all cases, it is necessary in very many: because bishops and priests are the most knowing in spiritual affairs, and therefore most fit to be counsellors to the prince, who oftentimes hath no great skill, though he have supreme authority. I remember that when Gellius the prætor was sent proconsul into Greece, he observed that the scholars at Athens did perpetually wrangle and erect schools against schools, and divided their philosophy into sects; and therefore sending for them, persuaded them to live quietly and peaceably, and to put their questions to reference or umpirage, and in it offered his own assistance; but the scholars laughed at his confident offer to be a moderator in things he understood no more than his spurs did. He might have made them keep the peace, and at the same time make use of their wit and his own authority. And although there may happen a case, in which princes may, and a case in which they must, refuse to confirm the synodical decrees, sentences, and judgments, of ecclesiastics; yet, unless they do with great reason

a Lib. 5. Epist. 32.

b Lib. 1. Cod. Theod. de Relig. Novel. Valen. de Episc. Jud. lib. Graviter, ibid. novel. 89.

c Bp. Taylor alludes to the following passage: "Me Athenis audire ex Phædro meo memini, Gellium, quum pro consule ex prætura in Græciam venisset, Athenis philosophos, qui tum erant, in locum unum convocasse, ipsisque magnopere auctorem fuisse, ut aliquando controversiarum aliquem facerent modum : quod si essent eo animo, ut nollent ætatem in litibus conterere, posse rem convenire: et simul operam suam illis esse pollicitum, si posset inter eos aliquid convenire." De Legibus, lib. 1. cap. 20. n. 53. Wagner, p. 40. (J. R. P.)

and upon competent necessity, they cannot do it without great scandal, and sometimes great impiety. But of this I shall discourse in the next chapter. For the present I was to assert the rights of princes, and to establish the proper foundation of human laws; that the conscience may build upon a rock, and not trust to that, which stands upon sand, and trusts to nothing.

7. I have been the larger upon these things, because the adversaries are great and many, and the pretences and the challenges high, and their opposition great and intricate, and their affrightments large; for they use something to persuade and something to scare the conscience. Such is that bold saying of Pope Leo X.; "A jure tam divino quam humano laicis potestas nulla in ecclesiasticos personas attributa est;""Both by divine and human laws ecclesiastics are free from all secular power."-But fierce and terrible are the words of the Extravagant 'unam sanctam: "Porro subesse Romano pontifici omnem humanam creaturam declaramus, dicimus, definimus et pronunciamus omnino esse de necessitate salutis;" "That every man should be subject to the bishop of Rome, we define, we say, we declare and pronounce to be altogether necessary to salvation." This indeed is high; but how vain withal and trifling and unreasonable I have sufficiently evidenced. So that now the conscience. may firmly rely upon the foundation of human laws, and by them she is to be conducted not only in civil affairs, but in ecclesiastical, that is, in religion as well as justice: and there is nothing that can prejudice their authority, unless they decree against a law of God; of which because ecclesiastical persons are the preachers and expositors by ordinary divine appointment, princes must hear bishops, and bishops must obey princes: or because 'audire et obedire,' 'to hear and to obey,' have great affinity, I choose to end this with the expression of Abbot Berengar, almost eleven hundred years ago; "Sciendum est quod nec Catholicæ fidei nec Christianæ contrarium est legi, si, ad honorem regni et sacerdotii, rex pontifici et pontifex obediat regi;” “It is neither against the Catholic faith nor the Christian law, that the prince obey the bishop, and the bishop obey the prince:" the first is an obedience of piety, and the latter of duty; the one is justice, and the other is religion.

d Concil. Later, sub Leon. X.

Lib. de Myster. Sign. in Biblioth. Sanct. Patr.

CHAP. III.

OF THE POWER OF THE CHURCH IN CANONS AND CENSURES, WITH THEIR OBLIGATIONS AND POWERS OVER THE CONSCIENCE.

RULE I.

The whole Power, which Christ hath left in ordinary to his Church, is merely spiritual.

1. THAT there are great things spoken by the doctors of the primitive church, of the ecclesiastical or spiritual power, is every where evident, and that there are many expressions. which prefer it above the secular; all which I shall represent instead of others in the words of St. Chrysostom, because of them all he was the most eloquent, and likeliest in the fairest imagery to describe the powers of his order:-" Others are the limits of the kingdom, others, of the priesthood; for this is greater than that: and you must not estimate it by the purple and gold. The king hath allotted to him the things of this world to be administered; but the right of priesthood descendeth from above: Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven.' To the king is committed what is here below; to me, that is, to the bishop, things celestial. The bodies are intrusted to princes, but the souls to bishops. The king remits the guilt of bodies, but the bishop the guilt of sins. The prince compels, the bishop exhorts. He governs by necessity, but we by counsel; he, hath sensible armour, but we spiritual weapons; he wageth war against the barbarians, but we against the devil. Here then is a greater principality. For which cause the king submits himself to the priest's hand, and every where in the Old Testament the priests did anoint kings."-Where, by the way, though it be not exactly true that the kings of Israel and Judah were always anointed by priests", but sometimes by prophets who were no priests, as in the case of Jehu ; -yet supposing all that, the discourse is true enough, and the spiritual power in relation to a nobler object is in that. b 2 Kings, ix. 4.

a Hom. lib. 4. ex verb. Isaiæ.

regard better than the temporal; and therefore, is in spiritual account in order to a spiritual end above that, which serves the less excellent. But the effect of this discourse is, that kings are subject to bishops, just as the princes of Israel were to those that anointed them; that is, they came under their hands for unction, and consecration, and blessing, and counsel, and the rites of sacrifice. And all this is very true; and this is all that was or could be intended by St. Chrysostom, or those other eminent lights of the primitive church, who set their order upon a candlestick, and made it illustrious by the advantage of comparison. The advantages are wholly spiritual, the excellences are spiritual, the operations are spiritual, and the effects are spiritual; the office is spiritual, and so is all the power. But because the persons of the men in whom this spiritual power is subjected, are temporal as well as princes, and so are all their civil actions, therefore whatever eminence they have for their spiritual employment, it gives them no temporal advantage; that comes in upon another stock: but for the spiritual, it is as much as it is pretended; but then it is no more.

2. For it is purely spiritual. Where any thing of temporal is mingled with it, it is not greater in that, but subject to the temporal power. Without this, there could never be peace: and where the jurisdiction of two courts does interfere, there are perpetual wranglings. But God, having ordained two powers, hath made them both best; and yet so that both of them are inferior: but because it is in differing powers, they both rule in peace, and both obey with pleasure. How the ecclesiastic state is subject to the civil, I have largely accounted now I am to describe the eminences, powers, advantages, and legislations, of the spiritual: concerning which we shall have the best light, if we rightly understand the nature and quality of the power.

3. "As my Father sent me, so send I you," said Christ to his apostles. Now it is plain how the Father was pleased to send his Son; with humility and miracles, with a low fortune and a great design, with poverty and power, with fulness of the Spirit and excellency of wisdom. That was the manner. The end was, the redemption of man; the conquering of the devil; the preaching of the gospel; the foundation of the church; the instruction of faith; the baptizing converts;