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a good divine:" for the more he was occupied in hearing 'causes, and in other secular functions, the less leisure he had for teaching, which fell at last to be totally disused by those of that station. Thus what at first was the bishop's principal, I may say his whole, business, came to be regarded as no part of it.

But if the clerical claims had rested here, the state of Christendom had yet been tolerable. There still remained a remedy. Whenever the people in republics, and the princes in monarchies, should see the abuses become insupportable, they would, by their ordinances and edicts, reduce this overgrown. authority of churchmen within reasonable limits, as, in former times, had been often done when judged necessary. But that encroaching spirit, which first put Christian states under the yoke, in a great measure succeeded at last in depriving them of the means of wrenching it from their necks. The lordly prelates having already arrogated to themselves all the pleas of clergymen, together with so many pleas of laymen, under the colour of spirituality, and having shared in almost all the rest, either by the name of mixed cognizance, or by superseding the magistrate, under the pretext that justice had been denied, or unduly delayed, they proceeded, about the middle of the eleventh century, aided by the profound ignorance and gross superstition of the age, to broach and maintain, that this extensive power of judging in the bishop was not derived from the concession of princes, or from their connivance, or from the consent of the people, or from immemorial custom, but that it was essential to the episcopal dignity, and annexed thereto by Christ. Now although the imperial laws are still extant in the codes of Theodosius and Justinian; in the capitulars of Charlemagne, and Lewis the Pious, and other later princes, both oriental and occidental; though all clearly show how, when, and by whom such power was conceded; though all the histories, both ecclesiastical and civil, agree in relating the same concessions, and the usages introduced, mentioning the reasons and causes; yet so notorious a truth has not been able to surmount the single affirmation of the canonist doctors, who have, on the contrary, had the audacity to support the divine origin of prelatical domínion, They have even boldly proclaimed those to be heretics,

who pay any regard to evidence as clear as sunshine,-who cannot submit entirely to renounce their understandings, and to be treated as fools, and blind.

They did not even confine themselves within these bounds, but maintained, that neither the magistrate, nor the prince himself, could, without sacrilege, intermeddle in any of those causes which the clergy had appropriated, because they are things spiritual, and of spiritual things lay-men are incapable. The light of truth was not, however, so perfectly extinct, but that even in those dark times there was some learned and pious persons who opposed this doctrine, showing that both the premises were false. The major, that laymen are incapable of spiritual things is, said they, absurd and impious, since they are, by adoption, received into the number of the sons of God, made brethren of Jesus Christ, and citizens of the New Jerusalem since they are honoured to participate in the divine grace, in baptism, and in the communion of the body and blood of the Lord. What spiritual things are there superior to these? And if there be none, how can he, who partakes in these supreme blessings, be called absolutely incapable of spiritual things? But the minor also is false, that the causes appropriated to the episcopal tribunal are spiritual, since they are reducible to these two classes, transgressions and contracts, which, if our judgment is to be determined by the qualities assigned to things spiritual in scripture, are as far from being such as earth is from heaven,

But it seldom fares so well with mankind, that the majority is on the side of truth and reason. So it is in regard to our present subject, that, upon the spiritual power given by Christ to the church, or whole community of his disciples, of binding and loosing, that is, of excluding from, and receiving back into their communion, and upon the institution of Paul for terminating amicably their differences in matters of property by reference, without recurring to the tribunal of infidels, there has been erected, in a course of ages, and by several degrees, the principal of which have been pointed out to you, a spiritualtemporal tribunal, the most wonderful the world ever saw. In consequence of this it has happened, that in a great part of Christendom, (I speak not of Protestant countries, nor of the

Greek church) in the heart of every civil government there subsists another, independent of it, a thing which no political writer could before have imagined possible. How church power came all at last to centre in the Roman pontiff, I intend particularly to illustrate in some subsequent lectures, some of these I purpose to give on the rise and progress of the hierarchy. In the history of ecclesiastical jurisdiction I have now given, ye see the gradual usurpations of the church, or rather of the clergy, on the temporal powers; in the next, I propose to begin the sketch which I intend to lay before you, of the history of ecclesiastical polity, and trace the usurpations of part of the church upon the collective body.

I cannot conclude without acquainting you what will probably appear surprising, that, for a great part of the account now given, I am indebted to the writings of a Romish priest, Fra Paolo Sarpi, the celebrated historian of the council of Trent, one who, in my judgment, understood more of the liberal spirit of the gospel, and the genuine character of the Christian institution, than writer of his age. any Why he chose to continue in that communion, as I judge no man, I do not take upon me to say. As little do I pretend to vindicate it. The bishop of Meaux (Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, liv. 7me. ch. 110me.) calls him a Protestant and a Calvinist, under a friar's frock. That he was no Calvinist, is evident from several parts of his writings. I think it also fairly deducible from these, that there was no Protestant sect then in existence with whose doctrine his principles would have entirely coincided. A sense of this, as much as any thing, contributed, in my opinion, to make him remain in the communion to which he originally belonged. Certain it is, that as no man was more sensible of the corruptions and usurpations of that church, no man could, with greater plainness, express his sentiments concerning them. In this he acted very differently from those who, from worldly motives, are led to profess what they do not believe. Such, the more effectually to disguise their hypocrisy, are commonly the loudest in expressing their admiration of a system which they secretly despise. This was not the manner. of Fra Paolo. The freedoms, indeed, which he used, would have brought him early to feel the weight of the church's re

sentment, had he not been protected by the state of Venice, of which he was a most useful citizen. At last, however, he fell a sacrifice to the enemies which his inviolable regard to truth, in his conversation and writings, had procured him. He was privately assassinated by a friar, an emissary of the holy see. He wrote in Italian, his native language; but his works are translated into Latin, and into several European tongues. His History of the Council of Trent, and his Treatise on ecclesiastical Benefices, are both capital performances. One knows not, in reading them, whether to admire most the erudition and the penetration, or the noble freedom of spirit every where displayed in those works. All these qualities have, besides, the advantage of coming recommended to the reader, by the greatest accuracy of composition and perspicuity of diction. This tribute I could not avoid paying to the memory of an author, to whom the republic of letters is so much indebted, and for whom I have the highest regard.

LECTURE IV.

In my last lecture, I attempted a brief detail of the principal causes which contributed to the rise and progress of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. In doing this, I had occasion to show how, from regulations originally the wisest and the best imaginable, there sprang, through the corruptions that ensued, one of the grossest usurpations, and one of the greatest evils that have infested the Christian church. This we are well entitled to call it, if what has proved the instrument of avarice, ambition, contention, and revenge, as well as the source of tyranny and oppression, can justly be so denominated. Ye know that the rise and progress of that form of government, into which the church, by degrees, came at last to be moulded, and which has been termed the ecclesiastical polity, and the hierarchy, is to be the subject of the present, and of some subsequent lectures. The former regarded only the jurisdiction of churchmen, the bishops in particular, in civil matters: the present subject is the internal polity of the church, and the form she has insensibly assumed, with the rules of subordination which have obtained, and, in many places, do still obtain, in the different orders. The one refers properly to the secular power of ecclesiastics, the other to the spiritual. The two discussions are nearly related, and have generally a joint connection with the same events, operating either as causes, or as instruments. However, in treating that which I have just now mentioned as the theme of this discourse, I shall avoid repetition, as much as possible, and shall not recur to what has been observed already, unless when it appears necessary in point of perspicuity, for the more perfect understanding of the argument.

Permit me to premise in general, that the question so much agitated, not only between Protestants and Papists, but also between sects of Protestants, in regard to the original form of government established by the apostles in the church, though

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