But (Article 37,) we give not our princes (and they have always disclaimed it) the power of administering God's Word, or the Sacraments. And although our spiritual power be from God, yet is this power subject to be inhibited, limited, regulated, in the outward exercises, by the laws and customs of the land. By this moderation both powers are preserved entire and distinct. We neither claim a power of jurisdiction over the prince, nor pretend to be exempt from his.

Antenuptial Fornication.

Those who enter into marriage only to conceal their shame, ought to give public satisfaction, as well as expiate their sin, by open pe

nance.

The greatest care ought to be taken concerning the sincerity of penitents; till that be done, penance will only be a form, without a power or any real benefit.

In the primitive Church, every thing was done with advice, because their great aim was to have reason and the will of GoD prevail. A despotic power was forbid by CHRIST himself: "It shall not be so among you." He that is humble and charitable will take the mildest and surest way, and will not be troubled, provided the end be obtained.

Penance.

Sin is the disease of the soul. Diseases are not to be cured in a moment: it will take time to root out their causes, and to prevent their effects; so will it require time to prove the sincerity of our resolutions. We solemnly profess that we repent, and we are not sure but that we lie to God.

Discipline.

As discipline slackened, men's manners grew more and more corrupt, even in the primitive times. There were never more infidels converted (saith Fleury) than when catechumens were most strictly examined, and baptized Christians put to open penance for their sins. They that are for making still more concessions to human frailty, will at last set aside the Christian religion, which is established upon maxims of eternal truth, and not on human policy; and instead of gaining or securing the bad, they will lose the better sort. A flattering physician is for giving palliating medicines, to ease the pain, without taking away the cause, which will occasion relapses, until at last they destroy the patient. But a good man will prescribe what he believes necessary to remove the cause, though uneasy to his patient, and will have nothing to do with such as will not submit to the necessary methods of cure.

Penances, in the primitive Church, were never granted but unto such as desired them, and such as desired to be converted. were forced, but such as would not submit were excommunicated.

Discipline Impracticable.

None

This cannot be, when it was practised for so many years in the primitive Church. And what if it be one of those things which CHRIST has commanded His followers to observe so strictly, Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; and which He had learned of the FATHER, John xv. 15, and xvi. 13. The commands of CHRIST cannot be impracticable. That would be to tax Him with ignorance or weakness. When He promised to be with His Church to the end of the world, He engaged to give such graces as were necessary to raise us above our natural weaknesses.

Penances forced are seldom lasting.

The Priest, under the Law, could not accept the offering of a leper, nor allow him to partake of the sacrifice, till he had received convincing tokens of his cleanness; no more ought the Christian Priest to treat sinners as cured, till he sees the proof. Quesn.

Matt. xvi. 19. “Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

Those ministers that know not what it is to bind and loose sinners, reject one half of their commission.

Excommunication is the last remedy reserved for the incorrigible in the case of enormous sins. They who despise it, know not what it is to be an heathen in God's sight,-to be without GOD for a FATHER, CHRIST for a Saviour, the Church for a Mother, and Christians for brethren.

A true penitent is always willing to bear the shame and confusion of his sin and folly before men, that he may escape the anger of GOD.

Heb. xii. 15. "Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of GOD; lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright;" that is, such as for a short pleasure forfeit their eternal inheritance. Happy that sinner, whom God does not abandon to the hardness of his heart, but awakens him by his judgments, or the visitations of his grace.

Luke viii. 28. "I beseech thee torment me not." These were the words of the Devil to our LORD, and these are the suggestions in the hearts of all sinners, wherever he has got possession. When a minister of CHRIST, by his sermons, rebukes, &c. or the Church,

by her discipline, attempts to disturb the sinner, they are looked upon as his mortal enemy; and they treat both the Church and her Ministers worse than this legion did JESUS CHRIST. They despise their power, set at nought their persons, and threaten and persecute them for their good will. Vide Quesn.

There is not any greater or more dreadful sign of the wrath of GOD, than when he abandons a sinner to his lusts, and permits him to find means of satisfying them.

The public good is the sole end of Church discipline. The interest of the governors of the Church is no way concerned in it; but only the advantage of their flock, that sinners may be converted; that contagion may be hindered from spreading; that every one may be kept to his duty, and in obedience to the laws of God; that judgments may be averted from the public, and that God in all things may be glorified; that differences among neighbours may be made up, and charity improved, &c.

Discipline (saith our Homily of the right use of the Church, Part II.) in the primitive Church was practised, not only upon mean persons, but upon the rich, the noble, and the mighty; and such as St. Paul saith, were even given to Satan for a time.

Those that make a mock, a sport, or a jest of sin, too plainly betray a love of wickedness in themselves.

Exemption.

A legal exemption cannot free a man from guilt, beyond the extent of that power which grants the exemption. If it be a human power, it can extend no farther than to exempt a man from human penalties, not from those that are purely spiritual.

Eccles. viii. 5. "Reproach not a man that turneth from sin." They whom fear renders cowardly in the exercise of their ministry, forget that they act in the name and place of CHRIST, and are to account to him for the mischief the Church receives thereby. Deut. i. 17. "Ye shall not be afraid of the face of men, for the judgment is God's."

O righteous Judge of the world, give me and my substitutes grace, patiently to hear, and impartially to weigh, every cause that shall come before us in judgment.

Give us a spirit to discern, and courage to execute, true judgment, that all our sentences may be approved by thee, our LORD and Judge. Amen.

Deut. xxiv. 17. "Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless."

Isaiah i. 23. "Every one loveth gifts; they judge not the fatherless;" that is, they are poor, and cannot bribe them.

Exod. xxiii. 2, 3. "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause, to decline after many, to wrest

judgment: neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his

cause."

Deut. xix. 15. "Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour."

The judgment of the multitude is no rule of justice. "Then cried they all, Not this man, but Barabbas."

John xix. 12. "If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend;-when Pilate heard that saying," then he resolved to sacrifice his conscience, rather than lose his prince's favour.

2 Chron. xix. 6. "And he said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment."

Prov. xvii. 13. "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination unto the LORD."

John xix. 11. "Except it were given thee from above." Although the magistrate's authority is from GOD, yet he is answerable to GOD for the due execution of it.

Prov. xxi. 3. "To do justice and judgment is more acceptable unto the LORD than sacrifice."

Isaiah i. 11. "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD; I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats."

Hosea vi. 6. "For I desired mercy and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings."

Micah vi. 7, 8. "Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."

The Jews had a rule, that if a rich man and a poor man had a controversy, they must both of them stand or sit, to avoid partiality.

Virtue would hardly be distinguished from a kind of sensuality, if there were no labour-no opposition-no difficulty in doing our duty. Dulce est periculum sequi Deum.

The duty of a judge may oblige him to punish according to the law; but it is the part of a Christian injured to forgive according to the charity of the Gospel.

A judge is not the master but the minister of the law-for the public good, not for his own interest, passion, or will.

A good judge will never desire to make himself feared by his power; but will rather be afraid of abusing it.

The civil magistrate is liable to be excluded from Church commu

nion for such reasons as the spiritual governors shall judge necessary; they are to determine for him, and not he for them, in matters merely spiritual.

Give me, O LORD, the spirit of judgment, (Isaiah xxviii. 6.) that I may govern this Church with wisdom.

Eccles. iv. 9. "Be not faint-hearted when thou sittest in judg

ment."

A lover of the law will always have an eye to the intent of the law. Matt. xii. 3.

No. 63.

(Ad Clerum.)

THE ANTIQUITY OF THE EXISTING LITURGIES.

ALL Liturgies now existing, except those in use in Protestant countries, profess to be derived from very remote antiquity. So likely is it, however, that in the lapse of ages, considering the extreme ignorance in which many parts of Christendom have been immersed, interpolations almost to any extent should have crept into the formula of the different Churches, that little weight seems at first sight due to them as traditionary depositories of ancient doctrine. Judging from the opinions and character of those to whose custody they have been committed, one would be disposed to treat them rather as accumulations of every kind of superstition, than relics of ancient evangelical simplicity, to examine them rather as exhibitions of the gradual decay of Christianity, than as monuments of what it was.

Unlikely, however, as it might appear beforehand, learned men who have undertaken the laborious task of examining them, have been led to form a different estimate of their value. Certain, indeed, it is that they have been much interpolated, and in parts, corrupted; but it seems to be admitted at last, after long and patient research, that much likewise has been handed down from the first uninterpolated, and that means exist for ascertaining what parts are interpolated, and what pure and genuine.

Among many remarkable facts which have been brought to light respecting the antiquity of existing Liturgies, the following is among the most striking :

There exists at the present day, scattered through Judæa, Mesopotamia, Syria, and the southern part of Asia Minor, which formerly