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they could be so blind as not to see their own character, as well as the consequences of their conduct, so distinctly delineated in these words of the apostle: If any man consent not to wholesome words, practical and useful instructions, not idle speculations, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine that is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, who think that gain is godliness? Could they read these things and not be struck with so bright a reflection as they exhibited of their own image? We must think, that at that period, these things were but little read, and less minded.

From the fifth century downwards, it became the mode, in all their controversies, to refer to the councils and fathers, in support of their dogmas, and to take as little notice of sacred writ, as if it no way concerned the faith and practice of a christian. But their despicable and unmeaning quibbles (to say the truth) were not more remote from the doctrine of the gospel, than the methods whereby they supported their doginas were repugnant to the morals which it inculcates. Let us hear the character given of their councils, their procedure, and the effects produced by them, by a contemporary author, a bishop too, who spoke from knowledge and experience. St. Gregory Nazianzen, writing to Procopius, thus excuses his refusal to attend a synod, at which his presence was expected: " To tell 66 you plainly, I am determined to fly all conventions of bi"shops; for I never yet saw a council that ended happily. In"stead of lessening, they invariably augment the mischief. "The passion for victory, and the lust of power, (you'll per"haps think my freedom intolerable) are not to be described "in words. One present as a judge, will much more readily "catch the infection from others than be able to restrain it in "them. For this reason I must conclude, that the only se"curity of one's peace and virtue is in retirement." Thus far Nazianzen. How a man, who, in the fifth century, could talk so reasonably, and so much like a christian, came to be sainted, is not, indeed, so easily to be accounted for.

On the whole, when one seriously considers the rage of dogmatizing, which, for some ages, like a pestilential contagion, overspread the church; when one impartially examines the greater part of the subjects, about which they contended with so much vehemence, and their manner of conducting the contest, especially in those holy convocations, called synods, it is impossible not to entertain a low opinion of their judg ment and abhorrence of ther disposition. At the same time,

it is but doing them justice to remark, that in cases wherein their imaginations were not heated by controversy and party. spirit, when they kept within their proper sphere, the making of regulations or canons for maintaining order and discipline in the church, they did not often betray a want of judgment and political capacity, On the contrary, they frequently give ground of admiration to the considerate, that the same persons should, in the one character, appear no better than sophisters and quibblers, fanaticks and furies, and, in the other no less than prudent statesmen and wise legislators.

But it is time to return from this digression, if it can be called a digression, about councils, to the policy of Rome, and the means by which she rose to the very pinnacle of worldly prosperity and grandeur. I thought it of consequence to give in passing a slight sketch of the general nature, and rise, and consequences of those disputes, which constitute so essential a part of ecclesiastical history. I shall, in my next, proceed in tracing the causes and maxims which contributed to the establishment of the Roman hierarchy.

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IN my last discourse, I gave you a general account of the nature, rise, and progress, of those controversies, which continued for many ages to disturb the peace of the church, and which were, in a great measure, the consequence of a defection from the genuine spirit of the gospel, from the primitive simplicity of its doctrine, and purity of its morals, and no less evidently the cause of still greater corruptions, and a more flagrant apostacy, though men still retained the abused name of christian. I took notice also of the methods taken to terminate those disputes by synods and councils, a remedy which commonly proves worse than the disease; rather, I should say, a prescription of that kind, which instead of curing, inflames the distemper, and renders it epidemical; nay, is often productive of several others. The very convoking of such numerous assemblies, from all the corners of the empire, for the discussion of such senseless debates, as the greater part of them manifestly were, gave, in the eye of the world, a consequence to their logomachies, and drew an attention to them, which it was impossible they should ever otherwise have acquired. Besides, the sophistry and altercation employed by both parties in the controversy naturally gave birth to new questions, insomuch, that they sprang up faster on every side, than it was in their power to terminate them. What the poets feigned of the hydra was here verified. By lopping off one of the heads of the monster, they gave rise at least to two others. "Reges ignari (says Le Clerc, Ars Crit. p. 2, s. 2, c. 5,) "nec inter bonos principes numerandi, con"vocarunt Græculos, qui linguæ acuendæ per totam vitam "operam dederant, rerum ipsarum ignaros, contendendi stu"diosos, perpetuis rixis inter se divisos; et bardos aliquot "homines ex occidente, rudiores quidem illis, sed non meli

"ores; iique post pudendas contentiones, obscurissima quæ"dam dogmata, verbis sæpe parum aptis, auctoritate sua "firmant; quæ stupidi populi sine examine adorent, quasi "divinitus accepta. Non ficta me loqui norunt qui synodorum "historias legerunt; nec certe vanus erat qui dixit :

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Χηνων η γερανων ακρίζα μαρναμένων

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Εις ένα δυσμενεων χώρον αγειρομένα.

"Nunquam ego sedebo in synodis anserum aut gruum temere "pugnantium. Illic contentio, illic rixa, et probra antea ❝latentia sævorum hominum in unum locum collecta." I shall make a supposition, which may at first appear extravagant, but which will, I hope, on examination, be found entirely apposite to the case in hand. Suppose that a single province in the empire had been visited with the pestilence, and that the distemper raged with so much violence, that few in that neighbourhood escaped; suppose further, that the ruling powers had, in their great wisdom, determined to summon, from all the provinces infected and uninfected, the whole medical tribe, physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, sound and diseased indiscriminately, in order to consult together, and fix upon the most effectual method of extirpating the latent poison; would it have been difficult to foresee the consequences of a measure so extraordinary? The diseased in that assembly would quickly communicate the infection to the sound, till the whole convention, without exception, were in the same wretched plight; and when all should be dispersed and sent home again, they would return to their respective countries, breathing disease and death wherever they went; so that the malignant contagion which had, at first, afflicted only a small part, would, by such means, be rendered universal, and those who ought to have assisted in the cure of the people, would have proved the principal instruments of poisoning them. Exactly such a remedy were the decisions of councils, to the plague of wrangling, at that time not less terrible, if its consequences were duly weighed.

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What an ecumenical council is, has never yet been properly ascertained. If we are to understand by it an assembly, wherein every individual church is represented, there never yet was such a council, and we may safely predict never will be. There was so much of independency in the primitive churches, before the time of Constantine, that at first their provincial and diocesan synods (for they had not then any ge

neral councils) claimed no authority over their absent mém bers, or even over those present, who had not consented to the acts of the majority. Thus they were, at first, more properly, meetings for mutual consultation and advice, in what concerned the spiritual conduct of their flocks, than societies vested with legislative powers, even over the members of their own community. In proportion as the metropolitans rose above the suffragans, and the patriarchs above the metropolitans, the provincial synod, in concurrence with the metropo litan, and the diocesan synod, in concurrence with the patriarch, acquired more authority and weight.

But when, after the establishment of christianity, ecuménical councils, or what, in a looser way of speaking, were called so, were convoked by the emperour, (which continued for ages to be the practice in the church) if the patriarchs, or exarchs themselves, were divided, as each was commonly fol lowed by the bishops of his diocese, there was no one person of weight enough to unite them. Sometimes, indeed, the emperour, when bigotted to a side, interfered in their debates; and when he did, he rarely failed, by some means or other, to procure a determination of the dispute in favour of his opinion. But this, though commonly vindicated by those who were, or who chose to be of the emperour's opinion, was always considered by the losing side as violent and uncanonical, notwithstanding that his right to convene them was allowed on all hands. However, as it never happened, even in their most numerous councils, that every province, nay, that every civil diocese, or exarchate, I might say, that every christian nation had a representation in the assembly, so there was not one of those conventions which could, with strict propriety, be called ecumenical. With those who were not satisfied with their decisions, there were never wanting arguments, not only specious, but solid, against their universality, and, consequently, against their title to an universal submis

sion.

Certain it is, that no party was ever convinced of its errours by the decision of a council. If the church came to an acquiescence, the acquiescence will be found to have been imputable more to the introduction of the secular arm, that is, of the emperour's authority, who sometimes from principle, sometimes from policy, interposed in church affairs, than to any deference shown to the synodical decree. Accordingly, when the imperial power was exerted in opposition to the council's determination, as was frequently the case, it was, to the full, as effectual in making the council be universally rejected, as, on other occasions, in making it be universally received. I

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