r of Knowledge, the Mediator in the divine Worship betwixt you, and God, the Teacher of Religion; the Father in God, who regenerated you by Water, and the Spirit, unto Adoption; the P Prince, and Governor; the King, and Potentate; under God the Earthly God whom you ought to honour: For of him, and thofe like him, God faith, I faid ye are Gods, and all of you are Children of the moft High, and thou shalt not speak evil of the Gods. Therefore let the Bishop lo prefide over you, as honour'd with Authority from God, by which he governs the Clergy, and all the People. So Chap. 28, 29, 30. Honour God by thofe who prefide over you, efteeming the Bishops as the Mouth, or Oracles of God. For if Aaron was call'd a Prophet for fpeaking the Words of Mofes to Pharoah, and Mofes was call'd the God of Pharaoh, as being King, and High Prieft, as it is written, See I have made thee a God to Pharoah, and Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet, why then do you not effeem the Meffengers, and Minifters among you as Prophets, and honour them as Gods? For the Deacon, or Minifter is as Aaron to you, and the Bifhop as Mofes. If therefore Mo Les was called a God by the Lord, let the Bishops be honour'd among you as God, and the Deacon as his Prophet. For as Chrift doth nothing without the Father, fo let not the Minifter do any thing without the Bishop. So Chap. 33, 34. If you bonour your Fathers, according to the Flesh, bow much more ought you to honour your fpiritual Fathers, as your Benefactors, and Mediators unto God, who regenerated you by Water, and replenished you with the Holy Ghoft, &c. Wherefore fear and honour them who have received Power of Life, and Death PI. او Αρχων. 2. ΕξέμΘ. 3. Βασιλάς. 4 Δεκάςη Πρωεςώτων. from from God in judging Sinners, and condemning them to eternal Fire, and abfolving thofe who repent from their Sins. Efteem them therefore as your Archons; efteem them as your Kings, or Emperors, and offer Tribute to them as Kings, for they, and their Families ought to be maintained by you. For as Samuel ordained that the People should maintain the King, and Mofes that they should maintain the Priests: So we command that you should maintain the Bishops, &c. For if they adminifter'd fo many things to the King, who administer'd Peace, and War for bodily Safety, how ought they not to adminifter more liberally to him, who adminiftring the Priesthood towards God, fecures both Body, and Soul from Danger by his Prayers? Wherefore, by how much the Soul is more excellent than the Body, by fo much is the Priesthood more excellent than the Kingly Power; for he binds, and alfo loofes from Punishment those who are worthy of Abfolution, Therefore ought you to love the Bishop as a Father, to fear him as a King, or Emperor, to honour him as a Lord; offering to him your Fruits, and the Works of your Hands, and your Firft-fruits, &c. To these Testimonies add what is faid in the fixth Book, Chap. ii. If any who rofe up against Kings, deferved Punishment, tho' a Son, or a Friend, how much more he who rifes up against the Bishops? For as the Priesthood is more excellent than the Kingly Office, as labouring for the Soul's Health fo is he worthy of greater Punishment, who dares move his Eye against it. Sir, you ought not to wonder at the Ancients, equalling Bifhops to Kings; for in the ancient Gloflary of Hefychius, Bishop is explained by King, manor, facind's, because as Kings are Bishops of the State, fo Bifhops are as Kings in the Church: And that the Office of the Latter f Philo. was was anfwerable to that of the Former, and in its Sphere equal to it, feems to be provable from Rev. V.10. Thou haft redeemed us unto God, by thy Blood, and baft made us unto God Kings, and Priefts-Sir, The Apoftolical Conftitutions, fo called, hath many Interpolations and Forgeries, as it was the Lot of fome ancient Tracts to have; for which Reason they were cenfured by the fixth general Council, Can. ii. Yet what I have cited out of them, is agreeable to the Doctrine, Practice, and Cultom of Catholick Chriftianity to the end of the fifth Century; and to what I have cited out of the Fathers, and fhall hereafter cite out of them, fo that I have made it no Difficulty to lay it all before you, as part of the Conftitutions before they were fo corrupted, because they are fo confentient with the Voice of the Catho lick Church. t Gregory Nazianzen, in his ixth Oration, speaketh thus to Julian the Apoftate Emperor, What do you fay to these things? or what will you write? O! you who are the greatest of our Friends, and Contemporaries! You who had the fame Preceptors that we had, and were inftituted, as we were, though God hath raifed us to a more excellent, I am loath to fay, a more trouble fome Station to teach you, who are the higher Powers. And in his xviith Oration he fpeaketh thus of Bifhops, and the Epifcopal Power, And now, O ye Potentates, and Prafeds, I come to Speak to you, left I should feem partial, Speaking what was meet for the People, but paffing by your Dignity, or Preeminence, for Shame, or Fear, or to take Care of them, and forget you, of whom I ought efpecially to take Care What fay ye then? or how shall we treat one another? Allow me then Liberty of Speech, for the Law of Chrift hatb fubjected you to my Power, and Tribunal. For we (Bi shops) have an Empire alfo, and that greater, and more excellent than yours, except you'll fay the Spirit is inferior to the Flesh, and Heavenly things to Earthly: With more to this Purpofe. In the Decretum, pars I. dift. x. c. vi. This Passage is tranflated thus, Sufcipitifne libertatem verbi? Libenter accipitis, quod Lex Chrifti Sacerdotali vos fubjicit poteftati, atque iftis Tribunalibus fubdit. Dedit enim & nobis poteftatem, dedit & principatum multò perfectiorem principatibus veftris. Aut nunquid juftum vobis videtur, fi cedat Spiritus Carni, fi terrenis Cæleftia fuperentur, fi divinis præferantur humana? Upon which they have grounded this falfe, and moft arrogant Maxim, Tribunalia regum Sacerdotali funt poteftati fubjecta. Falfe, I call it, because the Ecclefiaftical Power, and Jurisdiction is "diftin&t from the temporal, or civil, which are ordained by God not to hurt, or invade, or destroy, but to aid, affift, and help one another. To this purpose writes a good Author in bad, and a learned Author in dark times Hugo Floriacenfis, of whom more hereafter: Regiam & Sacerdotalem dignitatem Deus in terris ordinavit non abfque magna, ac faluberrimo Sacramento. Unde congruit, & valde conveniens eft, ut ha dua poteftates fibi invicem fraternâ charitate femper adhereant,ut fe mutua folicitudine ducantur,&c. Dupin in his Book Praloquium of the viith Differtation, of his Book de Antiqua Ecclefiæ difciplina alfo fhews, that the Regal, or Civil Power is of a different, and diftin&t Nature from the Sacerdotal, or Ecclefiaftical, and the Sacerdotal, or Ecclefiaftical, 24. Hen. 8. cap. xii. Preamble. Unto whom a Body politick compact of all forts, and Degrees of People divided in Terms, and by Names of Spirituality, and Temporality.The Body Spiritual, whereof having Power, when any Caufe of the Law divine happened to come in queftion, or fpiritual Learning, &c. Judges, and Minifters of the other part of the faid Body Politick, called The Temporality; and both their Authorities, and Jurifdictions do conjoyn together in the due Administration of fuftice, the on to help the other. of a different, and diftin&t Nature from that; and that these two Powers, and Jurifdictions cannot be fubject each to other, though the Perfons using these two different Powers, and Jurifdictions are mutually fubject to one another. And the Learned Bishop Beve rege in the Prolegomena to his TNOAIKON, or Pandelte Canonum demonftrates the real difference between these two Powers, and Jurifdictions, and their Administrations, and how the Church, and Empire are not to hurt one another, but that each ought to give the other his due; and that every Man in a different refpect is a Member of both Societies, and ought to be fubject to the Laws of both. To the fame purpofe, with Gregory, doth St. John Chryfoftom fpeak in his IVth Homily, de Verbis Efaia, Ozias being King wou'd ufurp the Empire of the Prieft. I will, faith he, offer Incenfe, because I am worthy. But remain, O King, within thy Bounds, for there are other Bounds of the Regal, and others of the Prieftly Power. This is greater than that And The King hath the Adminiftration of Earthly things, but the Law of the Priesthood is from above; for what foever they shall bind on Earth fhall be bound in Heaven. To the Emperor are committed things here, but Heavenly things are committed to mewhen I fay to me, I speak of my felf as a Prieft. To the Emperor are committed Bodies, to the Prieft Souls; be remits Temporal Mulis, the Prieft remits Sins; be ufeth Fleshly Weapons, the Prief Spiritual; he makes War with the Barbarians, I make War with the Devils; greater is this Principality, and therefore the Emperor fubmits his Head to the Hand of the Pricft, and every where in the Old Teftament Priefts did anoint Kings. So in his II. Homily de Fide Anne, fpeaking of the great Reverence David had for King Saul in the Cave, confidering his Dignity as a King, and not his Unworthiness, as a wic ked Man, Let thofe hear this (faith he) who de |