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sect. 3; and their particular laws and their obligations upon the conscience in external order, sect, 4: and in matters of faith, sect. 5.

RULE VI.

Kings and Princes are, by the Ties of Religion, not of Power, obliged to keep the Laws of the Church.

1. THE laws of the church I have already divided into such which she makes by a divine authority, such which concern our essential duty, in which she hath power to command and rule in her appointed manner: and into those which are external, political, and contingent, such which princes, if they please, make up into laws, but the spiritual power cannot. In the first sort, kings and princes are as much tied to obedience as the meanest Christian subject. For the king, though he be supreme in government political, yet his soul is of Christ's fold, and to be conducted by a proper shepherd. It is no contradiction that the same person should be supreme, and yet obey in another regard in which he is not supreme. The captain that fights in a ship, commands the soldiers in chief, but himself obeys the master; and the safety of the soldiers depends upon them both: for they are distinct powers in order to distinct purposes. For kings must give an account for bishops, that they live well in the political capacity, and bishops for kings in their spiritual; and therefore they must obey each other; and we find that persons of greatest honour in the days of peace, serve under captains and generals in the time of war; and when Themistius, an excellent philosopher, who from his chair did rule and dictate wise things, and give laws to the understandings of his auditors, and was admired by his prince, was by the emperor Constantius advanced to a prefecture, in an excellent epigrama he says to himself, Δεῦρ ̓ ἀναβηθι κάτω· νῦν γὰρ avw naтéßys, "Now ascend downwards, for thou hast already descended upwards." The same dignity is above and below in several regards. But in this there is no difficulty, because the souls of princes are of equal regard, and under

a Brunck. Anthol. T. ii. p. 404.

the same laws of God, and to be cleansed and nourished by the same sacraments, and tied to the same duty by the com-mandments of God as any of the people; in this there is no difference.

2. But in matters not of necessary duty, not expressly required by God's law and the necessary, unavoidable, immediate consequents of it, there being no laws but what themselves have made, they are no otherwise obliged than by their own civil laws of which I have already given account. This thing is particularly noted by Balsamo upon the sixteenth canon of the council of Carthage, who affirms, that by reason of the power given to princes from God, they are subject neither to their laws nor canons. And of this latter he gives this instance, that although by the twelfth canon of the council of Chalcedon it was decreed, that no city should for the future acquire the title of a metropolis, yet after this Justinianea prima' was made an archiepiscopal seat, and had metropolitical rights, to the diminution of the former rights of Thessalonica: but Balsamo instances in divers others. There was an ancient canon of great celebrity in the church, that every city should have a proper bishop: but the bishops of Isauropolis and Tolma, besides their own, had others; so had the bishops of Litchfield and of Bath in England they had other cities under their jurisdiction which had no bishops in propriety. For if kings did give limit to their dioceses, they might divide again, and give a new limit; since it is not in kings as it is in people. The power that goes from the people, is like water slipped from their hands; it returns no more, and does not abide in the first place of its efflux; but when an act of power passes from the king, any deputation or trust, any act of grace or delegation of jurisdiction, it is like heat passing from the fire, it warms abroad, but the heat still dwells at home. It is no more the less, than the sun is for emission of its beams of light.

3. And this is apparent in all the privileges and concessions made to the church, which are as revocable as their duty is alterable. For princes are so far from being obliged to perpetuate such rights which themselves have indulged, that it is a ruled case, and the Greek fathers d sometimes

d Leunclav. Βασιλικο

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make use of it to this very purpose: Ο δωρησάμενος βασιλεὺς, εἰ αχαριστίας παρεμπέσοι λόγος, ἀναλαμβάνει τὴν δωρεάν, 6 Ι a king hath given a gift, he may recall it, in case the beneficiary proves ungrateful."-The same with that in the feudal laws of the Lombards, "Feudum amittit, qui feudum sciens inficiatur:" "If he wittingly denies the fee, or refuses homage, he loses it."-But this depends upon the reasons of the second rule in the third chapter of this book.

4. But although in strict right the king's laws oblige him not; yet because de bono laudabili' he is, in the senses above explicated, obliged to his civil laws,-therefore much more is he tied to the observations and canons of the church, as being specifications of religion, instances of love to God, significations of some internal duty, or outer guards to piety, great examples to the people, and honours to the church of Christ, and that which above all external things will enable the rulers and guides of souls to render their account with joy; and the king shall never so well promote the interests of religion by any thing, as by being himself subject to the religion: for who will murmur at those laws which the king himself wears in a phylactery upon his forehead and his wrists? "Facere recte cives suos princeps optimus faciendo docet; cumque sit in imperio maximus, exemplo major est," said Velleius Paterculus. This is most of all true in religion, whose laws look too like policy, when they are established only by penalties; but they are accounted religion, when they are made sacred by example. To which purpose is that of Tacitus ; " Obsequium inde in principem et æmulandi amor validior, quam pœna ex legibus et metus :" "It is duty to our prince, and it is our honour to imitate the example of the prince; and these prevail more than penalties."" Hæc enim conditio principum, ut quicquid faciant, præcipere videantur," says Quintilian 8. Their example is the best law.

Sic agitur censura, et sic exempla parantur,
Si judex, alios quod jubet, ipse facit.

So laws and judgments and good manners are best established, when, by the examples of kings and supreme judges, they are made sacred.

e Lib. ii. 126. 5. Krause, pag. 539.

f Annal. iii. 55. Ruperti, pag. 165.

g Declam. 4.

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Add to this, that the laws of religion have, most of them, the warranty of some internal grace or other, and are to be reckoned in the retinue and relation of that virtue; and therefore cannot, in many instances, be broken without some straining of our duty to God, which is, by the wisdom and choice of men, determined in such an instance to such a specification. But this is to be understood only in such laws which are the popuλaxal, out-guards,' the exercises of internal religion, not in the garments and adornments of the relatives and appendages of religion. If a prince despises the festival of the church, nothing but a competent reason will excuse him from being, or at least from seeming, irreligious. And in whatsoever instance he hath made or consented to laws of religion, if by them he can suppose the people may serve and please God, he is much more obliged than they; not by the duty of obedience, for he owes none, but by the virtue of religion: for besides that his soul must live or die by greater measures and exactions of those virtues, which bring the people unto heaven, every action of his that deserves an ill report, it is but scandal in the lesser people, but to him it is infamy. For the king's escutcheon is blazoned otherwise than that of his subjects: the gentry by metals, the nobility by precious stones, but kings by planets. For in a king there is nothing moderate. "Curandum est qualem famam habeat, qui qualemcunque meruerit, magnam habiturus est," said Senecab: "His fame, let it be good or bad, it will certainly be very great."

5. The sum is this: kings are so tied to their own ecclesiastical laws, that they must take care they be not despised by their example, that the religion designed by them be promoted, that that part of the commonwealth which most secures to them obedience and peace, and procures them the most and greatest blessings, be not discouraged or disadvantaged: but they are not so tied, that every act of omission is imputable to them, though it have no other cause but the use of his liberty. For in this his duty differs from that of his subjects: for obedience which the subject owes, is a part of justice, and that hath no degrees, but consists in an indivisible point, where it can be practised, and where it can be understood; for he is unjust, that does one act of injusb De Clemen. lib. 1. cap. 8. § 1. Ruhkopf, vol. 1. pag. 446.

tice. But religion hath a latitude of signification and instances, and a man may be very religious who yet does not keep a saint's day, where by obedience he is not bound; which is the case of kings. Therefore what Seneca said of the cares of kings, may be said of the external observations of the laws of religion; "Remissum aliquando animum habebit, nunquam solutum ;"" He may remit something of the strict observance, but he must never esteem himself wholly quit."

6. But this is to be understood only in externals and rituals; concerning which one said excellently," Pleraque ex iis magis ad morem quam ad rem pertinent;"" They are nothing of the substance of religion, but only appendages," and manner, and circumstances: and therefore " sapiens servabit ea tanquam legibus jussa, non tanquam Diis grata,'

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a wise man will observe rituals, because they are commanded by laws, not that they are pleasing to God:”—they are the words of Seneca quoted by St. Austin". Since therefore these are wholly matters of obedience, kings are free, save only when they become bound collaterally and accidentally. But in matters of essential duty, the king hath equally with his subjects no liberty, but much more direct duty, and many more accidental obligations. The whole affair is well enough expressed by Cicero: " Parendum est religioni, nec patrius mos contumaciter repudiandus:” “The prince must obey religion, and he must not despise the customs and the manners of his country;" that is, in the better words of our blessed Saviour, " These things they ought to do, and not [wholly] to leave the other undone."

7. But the liberty of princes in these ecclesiastical laws of order, and circumstance, and ritual observances, is very apparent in the practice of the Hebrew kings, who yet possessed this liberty, that even, in the rituals of the divine ordinance, they sometimes did dispense. Thus David ate the shew-bred; and Hezekiah permitted some that were unclean to eat the passover, otherwise than it was written*: only Hezekiah prayed to God not to impute it to them, and gave them way: and under his reign the Levites did kill the sacrifice twice, which was only lawful for the priests to do.

b Lib. 6. de Civit. Dei. i De Divin. ii. 33. Davis et Rath. pag. 214. k Levit. vii. 20. 2 Chron. xxx. 18.

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