judge of them active and paffive. If an hofpital, a fchool, or mount of piety, be erected, they will have them to be immediately fubject to the bishop. In fhort, where the Church is concern'd for no more than a brafs farthing, they immediately recur to ecclefiaftical liberty, and fay the prince has nothing to do in the matter. Now, after what has been faid, I think I had reafon to compare the intereft of the clergy to leaven, a little of which leaveneth a whole lump of dough. This exorbitant intereft is a colour for forming an ecclefiaftical ftate within every civil ftate, when, upon any turn, the clergy will be ready to cry out of the infringement of their liberties. Let thofe, who have fhoulders broad enough for fuch a burden, carry it.

1, for my own part, do affert, according to the diftinction I before laid down, that if a private perfon, or even a prince, injure the Church, either in preventing the propagation of the faith, or in pretending to regulate the doctrine of Christ, in the difpenfation of the facraments, which are the ordinary nourishment of believers, whereby the foul is fortify'd in the true faith, and in the practice of good works; I fay, whofoever does this, violates ecclefiaftical liberty, in attacking the real intereft of the Church, and confequently deferves her cenfure. And the faid punishment would then be adequate to the offence; for 'tis not just that he, who, instead of ferving the Church, does her all the injury in his K 4 power,

power, fhould enjoy the benefits of the Church, which are purely fpiritual; and 'tis no more than what right and reafon require to cut off and separate fuch perfon from the body of the Church, who discovers himself to be a rotten member, and capable of infecting the reft. In the year 728, when the emperor Leo was prevail'd on by the fuggeftions of an apoftate, to break to pieces all the facred images in the fquare of Conftantinople, Pope Gregory III. held a Council of Italian bishops in the Vatican, who made decrees for establishing the veneration due to images, and put that emperor under excommunication. I might here also mention the edict call'd the Interim of Charles V. who, for the fatisfaction of those who diffented from the catholics, drew up fuch a regu lation of the controverted articles, as pleas'd neither of the parties, and both anathematiz'd him; but the Romanists made least noise, because they had a fingular refpect for him. I add, that the same cenfure is juftly applicable to any one who disturbs an ecclefiaftic in the exercife of his functions: Thus, when the emperor Frederic fet himself up for a judge to decide the fchifm between Pope Alexander III. and Victor the Anti-Pope, and Alexander, for many reasons, refus'd to appear before the emperor's tribunal; yet that prince, in Alexander's abfence, gave sentence in favour of the Anti-Pope, and forbid Alexander to perform the pontifical functions; and what was the conféquence? why truly,

Alexander excommunicated the emperor; who, being frightned, fled, for the fecurity of his perfon, to the city of Venice, and, imploring the affiftance of the republic, they took arms, and restor'd him to his dignity; after which, he made his peace with the Church, and the Venetians had all the honour of it. For what relates to the injuries of ecclefiaftical perfons, I find in the hiftory of Councils, which Clovis, king of France, wrote to the Council of Orleans, that he and his would be obedient to the commands of the church and the Pope, particularly in not forcing the clergy to lift in his troops. All fuch violations of perfonal liberty deserve excommunication as juftly as violating the interests of the Church; for the freedom of her minifters, in the exercise of their functions, is one of her principal concerns. But the general pretence of the court of Rome, that all perfons and estates, which are in any wife whatsoever depending on the Church, are therefore exempt from lay-jurif diction, and that to touch them would be a violation of ecclefiaftical liberty, tho' they are included in the diftinction we establish'd above, is what a man must have the ftomach of an oftrich to digeft. Surely one would imagine they had forgot what they so often boast of, viz. that this ecclefiaftical liberty, which takes in both estates and perfons, owes its origin to the emperor Conftantin the Great, in the time of Pope St. Sylvefter; from whence it appears to be a favour granted by the fecular power,

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apparently follows, that whoever violates either the one or the other, is guilty of injuring ecclefiaftical freedom; which includes things, as well as perfons, that are deem'd ecclefiaftical. The knowledge which results only from fuch general topics, is that which is most pleafing to the court of Rome, who would confine our understanding to the fingle operation of conception, without permitting it to. examine and distinguish between the different forts of obligations, and the various ways of, difcharging them. Nevertheless, we shall continue as we began, by recurring to the diftinction, by which, as by the pole star, we fhall fteer our courfe, not doubting but it will fafely guide us to the port of true knowledge.›

To prevent all manner of difpute, I lay it down for a principle, that whoever violates ecclefiaftical liberty, whether in things or perfons, belonging to the Church, deserves excommunication; for by fuch behaviour he acts in contradiction to the character of a christian,' which obliges him to respect both the one and the other. I add, moreover, that this propofition takes in both the condition of a fubject, and the high dignity of a prince; for the fupremacy of the latter does not at all excufe, but rather adds to his obligation to protect the Church, in proportion to the abundant advantages with which God has been pleas'd to furnish him. Let these few words ferve for the text, and we will now proceed to the commentary. First,

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First, let us inquire wherein the concerns of the Church consist. If I advance that the Church had its birth at the death of our Saviour, I believe no body will dare to contradict me. It arofe like the bright moon at the fetting of the fun of grace, to chafe away the darkness of our minds; but the foul of man is not able to contemplate its fplendor, nor his weak eyes to behold its dazzling rays, which light us in our flippery paffage thro' this world, left, by taking a falfe ftep, we flide into the bottomlefs pit of hell. The Church being born at that seasonable crisis, became the tender nurse of believers, and was fupply'd by Christ, from that very moment, with the milk of the facraments, whofe virtues flow'd from our Redeemer's wounds. Then it was the Church had its beginning; and in order to promote the converfion of Jews and Gentiles with fuccefs, by mollifying the hard hearts of the former, and difpelling the darkness of the latter, Chrift gave the Church apostles for her coadjutors, who were difpers'd over all parts of the world, to fow the feed of the word of God, which was follow'd with a wonderful harveft, for the field was water'd with the blood of the divine husbandman.

Such were then the concerns of the Church, being, as it were, the firft bloffom of this tender plant, which yielded fuch a fragrant fmell, as was fufficient to revive the fouls of thole who were at the very gates of death. Now, I say, the concerns of the Church, as they

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were