church of Smyrna : "Sine episcopo nemo quicquam faciat eorum, quæ ad ecclesiam spectant:" "No man may do any thing, without the bishop," viz. " of those things which belong to the church." So that this saying expounds all the rest; for this universal obedience is to be understood according to the sense of the church, viz. to be in all things of ecclesiastical cognizance, all church-affairs. And, therefore, he gives a charge to St. Polycarp, their bishop, that he also look to it, that nothing be done without his leave. "Nihil sine tuo arbitrio agatur, nec item tu quicquam præter Dei facies voluntatem:""As thou must do nothing against God's will, so let nothing (in the church) be done without thine." By the way, observe, he says not, that as the presbytery must do nothing without the bishop, so the bishop nothing without them;-but, so the bishop nothing without God. But so it is, " Nothing must be done without the bishop ;" and therefore, although he encourages them that can, to remain in virginity; yet this, if it be either done with pride, or without the bishop, it is spoiled. For," Si gloriatus fuerit, periit, et si id ipsum statuatur sine episcopo, corruptum est." His last dictate in this epistle to St. Polycarp, is with an “Episcopo attendite, sicut et Deus vobis:" "The way to have God to take care of us, is to observe our bishop." "Hinc et vos decet accedere sententiæ episcopi, qui secundum Deum vos pascit; quemadmodum et facitis, edocti à Spiritu:" "You must, therefore, conform to the sentence of the bishop; as indeed ye do already, being taught so to do by God's Holy Spirit "." There needs no more to be said in this cause, if the authority of so great a man will bear so great a burden. What the man was, I said before; what these epistles are, and of what authority, let it rest upon Vedelius, a man who is no wise to be suspected as a party for episcopacy; or rather upon the credit of Eusebius, St. Jerome, and Ruffinus, who reckon the first seven, out of which I have taken these excerpta, for natural and genuine. And now I will make this use of it: Those men that call for reduction of episcopacy to the primitive state, should do well to stand * Ep. ad Ephes. e Apologia pro Ignatio. c Lib. iii. Hist. c. 30. 'Apud Euseb. quem Latinè reddidit. close to their principles, and count that the best episcopacy which is first; and then consider but what St. Ignatius hath told us for direction in this affair, and see what is gotten in the bargain. For my part, since they that call for such a reduction, hope to gain by it, and then would most certainly. have abidden by it, I think it not reasonable to abate any thing of Ignatius's height, but expect such subordination and conformity to the bishop, as he then knew to be a law of Christianity. But let this be remembered all along, in the specification of the parts of their jurisdiction. But, as yet, I am in the general demonstration of obedience. The council of Laodicea, having specified some particular instances of subordination and dependence to the bishop, sums them up thus : ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους, μηδὲν πράττειν ἄνευ γνώμης τοῦ ἐπισκόπου· "So likewise the presbyters, let them do nothing without the precept and counsel of the bishops;" so is the translation of Isidore, 'ad verbum.' This council is ancient enough, for it was before the first Nicene. So also was that of Arles", commanding the same thing exactly: "Ut presbyteri, sine conscientiâ episcoporum nihil faciant. Sed nec presbyteris civitatis sine episcopi præcepto amplius aliquid imperare, vel sine auctoritate literarum ejus in unaquaque parochiâ aliquid agere," says the thirteenth canon of the Ancyran council, according to the Latin of Isidore'. The same thing is in the first council of Toledo, the very same words for which I cited the first council of Arles; viz. "That presbyters do nothing without the knowledge or permission of the bishop." "Esto subjectus pontifici tuo, et quasi animæ parentem suscipe." It is the counsel of St. Jerome: "Be subject to thy bishop, and receive him as the father of thy soul." I shall not need to derive hither any more particular instances of the duty and obedience owing from the laity to the bishop; for this account will certainly be admitted by all considering men. God hath intrusted the souls of the laity to the care of the ecclesiastical orders; they, therefore, are to submit to the government of the clergy, in matters spiritual, with which they are intrusted. For either there is Can. 56. * Idem videre est apud Damasum, Ep. de Chorepiscopis, N no government at all, or the laity must govern the church, or else the clergy must. To say there is no government, is to leave the church in worse condition than tyranny. To say that the laity should govern the church, when all ecclesiastical ministries are committed to the clergy, is to say, Scripture means not what it says; for it is to say, that the clergy must be præpositi,' and goeστwτes, and 'prælati ;' and yet the prelation, and presidency, and rule, is in them who are not ever, by God's Spirit, called presidents or prelates, and that it is not in them who are so called. In the meantime, if the laity, in matters spiritual, are inferior to the clergy, and must, in things pertaining to the soul, be ruled by them, with whom their souls are intrusted; then also, much rather they must obey those of the clergy, to whom all the other clergy themselves are bound to be obedient. Now since, by the frequent precept of so many councils and fathers, the deacons and presbyters must submit, in all things, to the bishop, much more must the laity; and since the bishop must rule in chief, and the presbyters, at the most, can but rule in conjunction and assistance, but ever in subordination to the bishop, the laity must obey'de integro.' For that is to keep them in that state in which God hath placed them. But for the main: St. Clement, in his epistle to St. James, translated by Ruffinus, saith it was the doctrine of Peter, according to the institution of Christ, "That presbyters should be obedient to their bishop in all things;" and in his third epistle, "That presbyters and deacons, and others of the clergy, must take heed, that they do nothing without the license of the bishop." And to make this business up complete, all these authorities of great antiquity were not the prime constitutions in those several churches respectively, but mere derivations from tradition apostolical; for not only the thing, but the words so often mentioned, are in the fortieth canon of the apostles. Οι πρεσβύτεροι καὶ διάκονοι ἄνευ γνώμης τοῦ ἐπισκόπου μηδὲν ἐπιτελείτωσαν, (the same is repeated in the twenty-fourth canon of the council of Antioch,) αὐτὸς γάρ ἐστιν ὁ πεπιστευμένος τὸν λαὸν τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ τὸν ὑπὲρ τῶν ψυχῶν αὐτῶν λόγον ἀπαιτηθησόμενος “ Presbyters and deacons must do nothing without leave of the bishop; for to him the Lord's people is committed, and he must give an account for their souls." And if a presbyter shall contemn his own bishop, making conventions apart, and erecting another altar, he is to be deposed, ŵs píragxos, saith the thirtysecond canon, "as a lover of principality;" intimating, that he arrogates episcopal dignity, and so is ambitious of a principality. The issue then is this. The presbyters, and clergy, and laity must obey; therefore, the bishop must govern and give them laws. It was particularly instanced in the case of St. Chrysostom, καὶ τὴν Ποντικὴν τούτοις κατεnóσμes toïs vóμois, saith Theodoret: "He adorned and instructed Pontus with these laws;" so he, reckoning up the extent of his jurisdiction'. But now descend we to a specification of the power and jurisdiction of bishops. SECTION XXXVI. Appointing them to be Judges of the Clergy, and Spiritual Causes of the Laity. THE bishops were ecclesiastical judges over the presbyters, the inferior clergy, and laity. What they were in Scripture who were constituted in presidency over causes spiritual, I have already twice explicated; and from hence it descended, by a close succession, that they who watched for souls, they had the rule over them, and because no regiment can be without coercion, therefore there was inherent in them a power of cognition of causes, and coercion of persons. The canons of the apostles, appointing censures to be inflicted on delinquent persons, make the bishop's hand to do it. E TI πρεσβύτερος, ἢ διάκονος, ἀπὸ ἐπισκόπου γένηται ἀφωρισμένος, τοῦτον μὴ ἐξεῖναι παρ' ἑτέρου δέχεσθαι, ἀλλ ̓ ἡ παρὰ ἀφορίσαντος αὐτὸν, εἰ μὴ ἂν κατὰ συγκυρίαν τελευτήσει ὁ ἀφορίσας αὐτὸν ἐπίσκοπος. “ If any presbyter or deacon be excommunicated by the bishop, he must not be received by any else, but by him that did so censure him, unless the bishop that censured him be dead"." The same is repeated in the Nicene council; only it is per 66 Si mitted that any one may appeal to a synod of bishops: fortè aliquâ indignatione, aut contentione, aut quâlibet commotione episcopi sui, excommunicati sint," if he thinks himself wronged by prejudice or passion; and when the synod is met; "hujusmodi examinent quæstiones." But by the way, it must be synodus episcoporum;' so the canon: "Ut ita demum hi, qui, ob culpas suas, episcoporum suorum offensas meritò contraxerunt, dignè etiam à cæteris excommunicati habeantur, quousque in communi, vel ipsi episcopo suo visum fuerit humaniorem circà eos ferre sententiam :" "The synod of bishops must ratify the excommunication of all those, who, for their delinquencies, have justly incurred the displeasure of their bishop, and this censure to stick upon them, till either the synod or their own bishop shall give a more gentle sentence." This canon, we see, relates to the canon of the apostles, and affixes the judicature of priests and deacons to the bishops; commanding their censures to be held as firm and valid; only as the apostles' canon names presbyters and deacons particularly; so the Nicene canon speaks indefinitely, and so comprehends all of the diocese and jurisdiction. The fourth council of Carthage gives, in express terms, the cognizance of clergy-causes to the bishop, calling aid from a synod in case a clergyman prove refractory and disobedient. "Discordantes clericos episcopus vel ratione vel potestate ad concordiam trahat, inobedientes synodus per audientiam damnet :" "If the bishop's reason will not end the controversies of clergymen, his power must;" but if any man list to be contentious, intimating (as I suppose, out of the Nicene council,) with frivolous appeals, and impertinent protraction," the synod (of bishops) must condemn him,” viz. for his disobeying his bishop's sentence. The council of Antioch is yet more particular in its sanction for this affair, intimating a clear distinction of proceeding in the cause of a bishop, and the other of the priests and deacons. E TI ἐπίσκοπος ὑπὸ συνόδου καθαιρεθεὶς, ἢ πρεσβύτερος, ἢ διάκονος ὑπὸ τοῦ idíov éπiσnóπov, &c. "If a bishop shall be deposed by a synod," (viz. of bishops, according to the exigence of the Nicene canon,) " or a priest, or deacon by his own bishop, if he meddles with any sacred offices, he shall be hopeless of Can. 5. • Can. 59. d Can. 4. τις |