an ill-living Christian, does but say the same thing: he speaks in one by signs, and in the other he signifies by words. If he denies to give him the holy communion, he tells him he is not in a state of grace and the divine favour, he tells him that he hath no communion with Christ; and therefore, by denying the symbols, says that truth, which, by his sermons, he publishes. All the effect and real event are produced by the sin of the man; and the minister of religion tells him, as God's messenger, what he hath done to himself, and what will come upon him from God. This is 'judicium, non jurisdictio,' a judging, not a jurisdiction;' a judging a man worthy or unworthy; which does not suppose a superiority of jurisdiction, but equals do it to their equals, though, in this, the clergy hath a superiority, and an authority from God to do so. 16. Add to this, that the other effects of excommunication are not any force or impression upon the delinquent, but are the caution and duty of the church, or 'sanior pars' of them that are innocent; for it is a command to them to abstain from the society of the criminal: for to him it is no direct obligation: indirectly it is, as I have already affirmed and shall afterward discourse. 17. This discourse cannot lessen the power and authority of the church; it only explicates the nature of it, because it is useful to many cases of conscience, and does rightly establish the foundation of this great measure of conscience, ' ecclesiastical laws,'-and it adds grandeur to it. For it is in the ecclesiastical government, as it was in the Judaical, before they had a king. They had no king of their own, but God was their king; and he did exercise jurisdiction, and appointed judges over them, and wrought miracles for their punishment or their escape respectively; and so it is in the church: Christ, our head, keeps the spiritual regality and the jurisdiction in his own hands, but sends us to minister it according to his laws; which if we do, they who are found criminals, cannot be smitten by us, but they shall be smitten by God: and therefore Christ said the same thing to his missionaries, as God did to Samuel; "They have not rejected thee, but me," said God;-and, "He that despiseth you, despiseth me," said Christ.-And now, although kings have the sword in their own hand, and can smite the disobedient; yet we cannot but God will smite them, that are disobedient to the church: and that is worse for them that feel it, and better for them that are but threatened; for it is true, that by repentance they may escape that which is threatened by the church, which, in the commonwealth, they cannot: but these that feel it, are in a worse condition; for "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God;”—and "Who can dwell with the everlasting burnings ?"—" For our God is a consuming fire." -- RULE II. The Church hath Power to make Laws and to give Commands obliging the Conscience, that is, tying the Subjects to Obedience under the Penalty of committing Sin, or of incurring the divine Displeasure. 1. By the church' it is certain I must first mean the church catholic,' or all the governors of the Christian assemblies in the world: because if it be in a part, it is in the whole; and if it be neither in a part nor in the whole, it is no where. But yet because the whole catholic church, that is, all the governors of churches (for if we speak of the church making laws, we must mean the governing part of the church) did never meet since the days of the apostles, who, being few and united and absolute and supreme, could then do what could never be done since: it is necessary for the reducing this rule to practice, that the legislation and the power of commanding be subjected in some more particular subject; and therefore I shall instance in the least. By 'the church,' I mean 'every particular church joined to the head of union;' and by the particular church,' I mean 'the angel of that church,' the bishop;'-according to that saying of St. Cyprian; "Scire debes episcopum in ecclesia esse, et ecclesiam in episcopo;" "The bishop is in the church, and the church in the bishop:" that is, he is in the church, as the head is part of the body,-and the church is in him as in their representative; and all their power is ministered by his hand, and their interest promoted by him; and he is the hand of God and the hand of the people; this lifted up, and that Epist. ad Florent. Pupian, lib. 4. ep. 9. let down; this in the ministry of prayers, and that in the ministry of blessings. And therefore St. Chrysostom P expounding those words of Christ, Tell it unto the church,'says, that they mean, Tell it to the bishop of the church, who is to minister food and discipline to the congregation.' 2. Now all the power of commanding and making ecclesiastical laws, that is, laws of religion, is wholly in the pastors and bishops in the supreme order of ecclesiastics. If there be two orders of divine institution, it is certain that one is the superior; and therefore one only is to rule in eminency, and the other can rule but in minority and substitution and that which is appointed to rule, is the superior. Now the case then is clear as to the present purpose: the presbyters were under bishops, and might be accused before them and rebuked by them; we see it plain in the case of Timothy and Titus, to whom St. Paul gave rules of court, and measures of taking cognizance of causes brought before them. There was plainly the judging order and the judged; the elders or presbyters were judged; over them were overseers placed. "Par in parem potestatem non habet." Since therefore a judicatory was placed in the church, though it was a spiritual only and without temporal coercion, yet it had a just authority; and therefore, must suppose a distinction in the clergy of superior and inferior. Now because there can be no union political without government, and the government which was appointed, was that of the avopes йyouμɛvoι, the ruling clergy,' it follows, that, the bishop being the head of spiritual union in the first institution of the church, every society of Christians is reckoned one by the unity of the bishop; and therefore, that society of a bishop and his parish is the least indeed, but it is a Christian, commonwealth. Now the practice apostolical and primitive administering this power by one and one in every church, where there were many presbyters, it must be evident, that he who was superior to the presbyters, was to rule in every congregation; and because there was none superior to him by divine or apostolical appointment, all the legislative or commanding power in the church is founded in the episcopal order; and therefore that one bishop hath in his own charge a legislative or power of command; and therefore much more, P Homil. 61. in Matt, when many bishops meet together. A diocess is the least circuit of government, but it is an entire body subject to distinct commands; that is, every diocess hath one set over them in the Lord, to whom the people are, by the commands of Jesus Christ, tied to give obedience. 3. Whether the diocess be little or great, allowed or disallowed, in city or in country, divided into parishes or not divided, under metropolitans or not under, of many churches or but one,—it matters not: where there is a bishop and a congregation, there is a diocess, and there is a power of commanding and a necessity of obeying, 'intra limites disciplinæ,'' within that pale,' in which they have warranty and power to govern and to give commandments. As for parishes in the late sense of the word, that is the charge of a single presbyter,—it is no body politic of apostolical or divine appointment: for the presbyters were called in partem solicitudinis,' into the help of the ministry;' but they had no cure of souls, save only by delegation and special and temporary appointment, for some whole ages in the church: and therefore the governing and the commanding authority cannot be extended to parishes and to their curates, which are of late date, and received no power from Christ but that of ministry, which is also conveyed by the bishops' hands. But then because, above the bishop, there is no appointment in the whole religion,—it is necessary that the legislative be established in him: if we go higher, we can never come to a society of apostolical or divine institution in the church,because, between the whole catholic church, either in diffusion or representation, and a single diocess, all the intermedial unions, as of metropolitans, primates, patriarchs, council provincial or Ecumenical, are by consent and positive and human institution, but they directly establish no divine government. This only is properly such. And though this can suffer alteration as to the administration of it, yet the proper seat of the authority is the bishop, by virtue of his order. Whether the bishop of Rome received the power into himself alone, and so conveys it to all other bishops, is not material to our present inquiry; for that is a question of the manner of receiving it, not of the power when it is received. I shall, in order to other purposes, discover the unreasonableness of that fond pretence and novelty. But that which I say is, that those persons, who, by Christ's appointment to or by the apostles, were authorized to govern the church, are the heads of Christian societies, and every such society is a distinct government; and that this cannot be the division of parishes, because that division was later than the authority; and though this be true also of diocesses, as they are now divided, yet that division being but accidental to the charge, and the charge being an appointed relation,-that which is accidental and superinduced, cannot prejudice the nature and institution of it, but that a bishop and his charge, more or less, is an entire society or commonwealth, as much as the thing can be; that is, according to the nature and capacity of the subject-matter, it is an entire government, and prelate and people make the parts of the integral constitution. 4. To the verification therefore of the power thus subjected, all those titles of eminency and superior office recorded in Scripture do aptly minister: as that they are called 'pastors,' and 'rulers,' and 'præpositi,' and iπígkool, ʻ bishops' or 'overseers' of the church: he that hears them, hears Christ, who hath sent them, as himself was sent. Upon the account of these, the first rulers of churches in Scripture did give laws to their people, and threatened the disobedient not only by the force of their extraordinary power, but by the effects of their ordinary ministry. The particular instances of command I shall enumerate, when I give account in what things they have power to make laws; but these words of power were sufficient warrant, and were like seals to their commissions and monitors of their duty. But so the rulers of the church did practise their power, and taught the necessity of obedience. 5. To this purpose are those words of St. Clement to St. James the brother of our Lord; "These things, most dear brother, I have received from the mouth of holy Peter, who gave the commands, and I have endeavoured to show them to thee, that thou mayest command them all to be kept inviolate, because ecclesiastical affairs ought not to be done carelessly, but with diligence. Therefore let no man think, that, without danger, he can neglect these precepts, or dissemble them; quia in judicio Dei ignis æterni tormenta sustinebit, 4 Epist. Clem. 1. in fine. |