APPENDIX. NO. IV. 80 Reverence to ministers; instances of it. For as touching reverence, there is no true Christian but he will readily acknowledge that he ought highly to reverence those whom God would have in special manner honoured, as the ambassadors of God in the stead of Christ, sent to reconcile men unto God, and to save them. Neither will he easily despise those whom he acknowledgeth to be the blessed instruments of God, for his singular and everlasting good. Whereas contrariwise, not to reverence the ministers is to dishonour God, whose ambassadors they be. Basely to esteem of them in respect of their mean estate in the world, is an evident sign of a worldly-minded man; who, as he hath not learned to distinguish the men of God from the men of the world, or to acknowledge the ordinance of God, who hath discerned themi; so he seemeth to know no better good things than worldly goods, and therefore thinketh himself so much better than the minister, as he is richer. But those who are religious and wise, are otherwise minded. Obadiah, though the governor of the king's house, disdained not to do 1 Kings 18. reverence to the poor prophet Elijah. And Joash the king, when Elisha was sick, was content to do him this honour, as not only to visit him but also to weep upon his face, and say, 2 Kings 13. "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and horsemen of the same." Yea, the Emperor Justinian*, acknowledging that the ministry and the magistracy were two principal gifts of God, giveth the precedence to the ministry. And the like pre-eminence do our laws give to those of the spiritualty before them of the temporalty. Howbeit private men stand otherwise affected towards the ministry, every mean man almost, not only preferring himself before the minister, but also disdaining to bestow either his son on the ministry, or his daughter on a minister. Yet Esay the prophet was a noble man, and as it is thought of the blood royal. Neither 2 Chron. 22. did the kings of Judah disdain to join in affinity with the priests. 7,9. 14. 11; 2 Kings 23. 31. To despise and contemn the minister in respect of his calling, is to despise God and Christ our Saviour: for "he + 1 Cor. iv. 7, διακρίνει. k Maxima quidem in omnibus sunt dona Dei a superna collata clementia, sacerdotium et imperium: et illud quidem divinis ministrans, hoc autem humanis presidens, &c.-Authentic. Collationes, lib. i. tit. 6. Novell. 6. in Præfat. [ap. Corp. Jur. Civ.; see vol. ii. p. 292, note s.] Danger of despising or injuring them. ON THE Luke 10.16. 81 that despiseth you," saith Christ, " despiseth Me, and he that DOWNAME despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me." It is to profess CHRISTIAN a man's self void of all soundness of religion. For it is certain MINISTRY. that a true estimate may be taken of men's religion and piety towards God, by their behaviour to the ministers of God. Neither can it be, that they who have been brought by the ministry of the word to the state of grace and salvation, should contemn the ministers thereof. Wherefore he that despiseth the ministry, undoubtedly, saith Ignatius', "he is an atheist and irreligious man, and a despiser of Christ." It is to hinder their own salvation, by making the means thereof uneffectual unto them, which Chrysostom" esteemeth a point of madness: "For it is manifest madness, to despise so great authority, without which we can neither attain to salvation, nor to the promised good things." For he that despiseth the ministers, despiseth also their ministry; by which notwithstanding, as by the ordinary power of God to our salvation, Rom. 1. 16. He is pleased to save those that believe. And whosoever 1 Cor. 1.21. despiseth the ministry of the gospel, it shall be easier for them of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than Matt. 10. for him. 15. To abuse the ministers by word or deed, is a sin highly displeasing unto God, and grievously provoking His anger. For seeing they are the ambassadors of God, it cannot be denied, but that by the injuries and indignities that are offered to them as ministers, the majesty of God is violated. Wherefore He hath said, "Touch not Mine anointed, and do Ps. 105, 15. My prophets no harm." Yea, who knoweth not that the persons of ambassadors are by the law of nations sacred and inviolable"? Because their ambassadors were contumeliously used, the ancient Romans thought it a sufficient cause to extinguish Corinth, though the eye of Greece. existimatur: quia sancti habentur le- Cic. pro lege Manilia. [c. 5.] APPENDIX. 2 Sam. 10. Ps. 94. 1. 4. 10, 12. 24. 2 Chron. 36. 16. 82 Punishment for despising God's ministers. David likewise revenged the indignity offered to his ambassadors, with the overthrow of the Ammonites. Do earthly princes, who are but dust and ashes, revenge the wrongs offered to their ambassadors; and shall we think that the Lord of hosts, the God of vengeance, will suffer the indignities offered to His ambassadors to go unpunished? "Never any man," saith Ignatius P, "offending in this kind escaped 1 Kings 13. punishment." Let the withered hand of Jeroboam, which he had stretched out against the prophet: let the two captains 2 Kings 1. with their fifties, who were sent to apprehend the Prophet Elijah, destroyed by fire from heaven: let the lewd children 2 Kings 2. which reviled Elisha, devoured by the bears: let the people of Israel, for contemning and mocking the prophets, rejected: let Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, who for insurrection made Numb. 16. against Aaron, were swallowed up of the earth, be witnesses of this truth. Neither hath the Lord taught this by example Deut. 17. alone, but also by precept, wherein He hath appointed death to him that rebelleth against the priest. For though the contempt of the ministers now-a-days seem a very small, or none offence; yet Chrysostom doubteth not to call it the cause of all evil, and the Scripture noteth it as a grievous sin. WhereHosea 4. 4. fore the Prophet Hosea, when he would set out in lively colours the desperate wickedness of the people in his time, he saith, they were "like them which contend with the priest." For to impugn the ministers which are sent of God, is not to repugn men, but giant like, "to fight with God:" for it "is not Aaron that you strive against," saith Moses to Corah and his complices, "but even against God Himself." 12. Acts 5. 39. 11. I come to the honour of maintenance, which, though it be most due to the minister by the word of God, is notwithstanding now-a-days greatly called into question '. . . . . ν οὐδεὶς ἔμεινεν ἀτιμώρητος. - [S. Ignat. Epist. interp.] ad Magnes. [c. iii. ap. Patr. Apost., tom. ii. p. 54.] 4 [τοῦτο πάντων τῶν κακῶν αἴτιον, ὅτι τὰ τῶν ἀρχόντων ἠφανίσθη, οὐδεμία αἰδὼς, οὐδεὶς φόβος.-S. Chrys. in 2 Tim. Hom. ii. Op., tom. xi. p. 668, A.] [This extract ends at p. 71 of the original Sermon, which runs on to 103 pages.] APPENDIX. No. 5. DU PIN, A DIVINE OF THE GALLICAN CHURCH, AND ONE OF THE SORBON DOCTORS, IN HIS PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH DISSERTATION OF HIS BOOK, 66 ENTITLED, DE ANTIQUA ECCLESIÆ DISCIPLINA," PRINTED AT PARIS 1686, AND AFTERWARDS Pretended to BE PRINTED at Cologne 1691. Duæ sunt inter homines maximæ et præstantissimæ societates, civilis et ecclesiastica, &c.c "There are," saith he, "two most noble and excellent societies among men, the civil and the ecclesiastical; of which, though the same persons are members of both, and for that reason they may seem to vulgar eyes confused and intermixed with one another, yet in reality they are powers of a different kind and nature, and tend by different means to different ends: for the end of the ecclesiastical society, is eternal life; but of the civil, peace and tranquillity of the commonwealth. Which ends, since they are sundry, and wholly separate from one another, it is no wonder that the means which conduce to them are plainly different from each other. For no man can attain to eternal life, but by those actions which flow from the freest motions of his will, proceeding from the love of God; from whence it is the business of religion, so to dispose and cultivate the minds of men by faith and piety, that they may willingly and freely obey the commandments a [De Antiqua Ecclesiæ Disciplina Dissertationes Historicæ Autore Ludovico Ellies Dupin, 4to. Paris. 1686.] [This edition is 4to. of smaller size and type than the original. The whole number of pages is the same, and in parts they agree page for page. The title-page has the words, "Excerptæ ex conciliis Ecumenicis et Sanctorum Patrum ac auctorum Ecclesiasticorum Scriptis," after "Historicæ," and "Coloniæ Agrippinæ, Sump tibus Huguetanorum, 1691," but it was really printed at Amsterdam. See General Dictionary, vol. viii. p. 408, note B.] с [Dissert. vii., in qua probatur Pontificem aut Ecclesiam nullam habere in reges eorumque bona auctoritatem directam vel indirectam, nec posse reges ab ipsis ullatenus deponi aut eorum subditos a fide et obedientia eximi. Præloquium,—p. 433. ed. 1686.] NO. V. 84 Distinctions of the civil and ecclesiastical powers. APPENDIX. of Christ. But on the other hand, it makes no difference as to the tranquillity of the commonwealth, whether its laws be observed willingly, or otherwise, so they be observed. And therefore it is the business of the civil society to take care that they be observed, which is effected by fear of temporal punishment and death. In a word, the power of the civil society hath the bodies of men for its object; but the authority of the ecclesiastical regards their souls. Wherefore seeing bodies are subject to force and compulsion, it is their office, who are governors of the civil society, to punish offenders, and put them to death. But since external force cannot touch the souls of men, it must follow, that the ecclesiastical society hath no power to use external force, nor to reduce sinners any other way from their sinful courses, but by prayers and precepts, which if they will not obey, it can inflict no other punishment upon them, but excommunication, by which they are denounced unworthy of the Church's society, and eternal life. In the last place, the laws of the civil society regard only the good and tranquillity of the commonwealth; but contrariwise there is no other end of ecclesiastical laws, but to keep the sanctity and purity of Christian doctrine and discipline sound and undefiled. "From these principles, which are most evident and sure, it follows, that the power of the Church is wholly spiritual, and does not in the least reach the temporal rights or goods of kings or other men; so that neither kings can be deposed, nor private persons be deprived in any manner of what they have, by mere ecclesiastical power" "Wherefore a great difference is to be observed between the power, and him who useth and exerciseth the power. For it may so happen, that he who useth one power may be subject to another power, though that power which he exerciseth is subject to no power. To apply which observation to my present purpose: you must take notice, that the same man may at the same time be a member both of the civil and ecclesiastical society, and therefore by different personal relations be subject both to the ecclesiastical and civil power. But then it does not follow from thence in the least, on this d [Itaque observandum est &c., ibid. p. 434.] |