no reproach; Slaves might be ordained; t 141 AND priest. It also casts pharisaical contempt upon Christ CHURCH and his Apostles; and, were not his hatred to the clergy CLERGY. above his reason, he could not act so contrary to his character as a Christian, a son of a priest", and a civilian, who should know, it was provided by the laws of the empire, that if a slave were made a bishop or priest, he should be ipso facto free. Had we slavery or villenage in use among us, I presume it would be no dishonour to the Church, or her hierarchy, if a Zamolxis ", a Tiro, a Terence, an Epictetus, or an Esop, were for their excellent gifts taken into the number of the clergy, and, of the servants of men, made, or if he will give me leave so to speak, consecrated into ministers of God. Priests made of slaves in ancient times were thought no dishonour to the priesthood, as is plain from the eightysecond of the Apostolic Canons, which tells us that a slave was not to be made a clergyman without the consent of his lord. Such were Epaphras, or Epaphroditus, St. Paul's fellow - Phil. 2. 25. labourer, and fellow-soldier, and Onesimusy his son, his Col. 4. 9 ; brother, and his bowels. He cannot take it amiss if I send 10. him once more to a sovereign pontiff, as well as a sovereign prince, I mean to Julian, to be better instructed. For he, though as much concerned for the honour of the priesthood as any man ever was, writes at another rate in the fragment of one of his epistles " : “ I will,” saith he, “ that in all cities [This passage is inserted from the Supplement of 1715, No. 3. p. 7.] u [See note a, p. 48.] V [Justin. Codex, lib. i. tit. iii. § 37. Si servus sciente domino et non contradicente, in clericum ordinatus fuerit ab episcopo : ex hoc ipso, quod constitutus est, liber et ingenuus erit.-Corp. Jur. Civ., p. 16. Amst. 1663.] * Cyril's answer to Julian, lib. vi. [καίτοι Ζάμολξις ὁ Θράξ, Πυθαγάρου μὲν ἦν οἰκέτης.—S. Cyril. Alex., Op., tom. vii. p. 208, E.] * [ (οὐ χρὴ) οἰκέτας εἰς κλῆρον προχειρίζεσθαι ἄνευ τῆς τῶν δεσποτῶν γνώμης, ἀνατροπὴν τὸ τοιοῦτο κατεργάζεται· εἰ δέ ποτε καὶ ἄξιος φανείη ὁ οἰκέτης πρὸς χειροτονίαν βαθμοῦ, οἷος καὶ ὁ ἡμές τερος Ονήσιμος ἐφάνη, καὶ συγχωρήσουσιν οἱ δεσπόται καὶ ἐλευθερώσουσι, καὶ τοῦ οἴκου ἑαυτῶν ἐξαποστελοῦσι, γινέσθω.—Canon. Apost. lxxxi (al. Ixxii.) Conc., tom. i. p. 42, D.] y Balsam, and Zonar. on LXXXII. σε Can. Apost. ['Ονήσιμον δοῦλον ὄντα Φι- ὁ μέγας γὰρ Παῦλος Ονήσιμον δοῦ- [ἐγώ φημι τοὺς ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι βελ- Philem. 9, DISCOURSE, SECT VI. 142 Low extraction not an impediment to ordination; PREFAT. the best men be chosen priests, especially those who are most eminent for their piety to the gods, and their charity towards men, be they poor, or be they rich; for there ought to be no difference in this affair between those of noble, and those of obscure originals, nor ought any humble man to be rejected for his obscurity. Wherefore let any man be chosen a priest who is qualified with these two fundamental virtues, the love of the gods and the love of men." a One reason which St. Chrysostom gives for declining the episcopal order was this: "Lest he being of a rich and splendid family, the people should suspect the bishops ordained him upon that account. Whereas," saith he, "Christ called fishers, and tent-makers, and publicans éπì TAÚTηV TÝV ȧpxnu, to this principality." So in the tract de Cœna Domini: Sic tu, Domine, armentarios statim facis prophetas, &c. "So Thou, O Lord, in a moment makest herdsmen prophets, shepherds kings, publicans Apostles, and fishermen doctors of Thy Church." And any one, who is pleased to read how Gregorius Thaumaturgus behaved himself in the choice of a bishop of Comana, will find how little he regarded extraction, though he was himself noble. For after long enquiry for one that was most worthy, he chose one Alexander, for his great virtues, who in appearance was but a collier, though upon farther examination of him, after he had preferred him to all others, he found he was a man of a good family, who disguised himself, and his most beautiful form, under that sordid and smutty occupation, that he might with more convenience devote himself to Christian philosophy, and avoid the dangerous temptations to which his form and stature τὸ φιλάνθρωπον, ἱέρευς ἀποδεικνύσθω. 2 [οἷον ὅτι πρὸς πλοῦτον βλέπου- [Sic tu, Domine, armentarios statim facis prophetas, opiliones reges, teloniarios apostolos, piscatores doc tores.-De cœna Domini, inter tractatus de cardinalibus Christi operibus ; Arnoldi Carnotensis Opera, p. 43, ad calcem S. Cypriani Op., Oxon. 1682. These tracts went under the name of S. Cyprian, and are found in the earlier editions of his Works. Fell appended them to his edition; they are not contained in that of the Benedictines. Arnold was a cotemporary and friend of St. Bernard, cl. A.D. 1162. See Cave, Hist. Lit., tom. ii. p. 236.] c Vita Greg. Thaumaturgi per Greg. Nyssen. Op., tom. ii. pp. 993, 994, &c. [Op., tom. iii. pp. 563-565. Paris. 1638.] Tindal's abuse of Ecclesiastical Synods. 143 would otherwise have exposed himself and others. [I suppose that had the great Socrates been a Christian, and lived in the time of this Gregory, who was of noble extraction, he would not have rejected him from the priesthood, because he was no better than a stone-cutter or statuary's son".] He con CHURCH AND CLERGY. and coun As for synods, or councils, he saithe, "There never was SECT. VII. one since the times of the apostolic purity, that hath not of synods determined something or other in prejudice of the true re- cils. ligion;" by which undoubtedly he means his own. demns them for a reason, for which all senates, and assemblies of men must likewise be condemned, viz., becausef "the greatest part of mankind are apt to prefer their private interest before any motive whatsoever, especially when they act in bodies for then reputation and honour, shame and disgrace, which frequently influence single persons, quite lose their force." He saith", "they have, generally speaking, been composed of the most ambitious, crafty, and designing men, better versed in the arts of fawning, and flattering, than in the knowledge of religion." What an English synod saith of general councils made up of uncharitable, ambitious, and malicious men (alluding to some such particular unhappy d [This passage is inserted from the Supplement of 1715, No. 4. p. 8. In the MS. additions in Hickes' copy it continues, "Or the great orator Demosthenes, because he was but a cutler's son; or Euripides the poet, because his mother sold herbs in the streets of Athens, which Valerius Maximus observing, (lib. iii. c. 4.) saith, Sed quid aut illius tragica, aut hujus oratoria vi clarius."] e Rights, pp. 191, 192. "As [The convocation of 1536. concerning general synods, like as we (taught by long experience) do perfectly know that there never was, ne is, anything devised, invented, or instituted by our forefathers, more expedient or more necessary for the establishment of our faith, for the extirpation of heresies, and the abolishing of sects and schisms, and finally for the reducing of Christ's people unto one perfect unity and concord in His religion, than by the having of general councils, so that the same be lawfully had and congregated in Spiritu Sancto, and be also conform and agreeable, as well con- DISCOURSE, SECT. VII. 144 St. Gregory Nazianzen unfairly alleged. PREFAT. synods), he makes the character of all, and falsely saith it was the opinion of Gregory Nazianzeni; whereas what that holy father wrote was only written of the council of Constantinople, in sickness, chagrin3, and discontent, where he had not been well treated, and never was designed by him for a general character or rule. He saith, that "he was at several councils, particularly that he was at that general and creed-making one of Constantinople." Where the reader may observe where his core at councils lies; it was a creedmaking council; it made that creed which is in the ancient liturgies, and which our ancestors used a thousand years ago, and we still use in the communion service, and Gregory was one of the chief creed-makers in it1; and if his testimony is good against the heats and passionate debates which happened in the council about himself, it is as good for the creed. Nay, if he is a testable person, his testimony must be taken in behalf of the first general council of Nice; for he was a great impugner of the Ariansm, of whom our author and the theistical club are great admirers, and a zealous defender of the Nicene faith. He professes so much in his forty-ninth oration, translated by Ruffinus", but more especially in his twenty-first oration, in praise of that creed-making iRights, p. 195. [The Convocation and the Rights refer to the passage in S. Greg. Naz. Epist. cxxx. (al. lv.) ad Procopium; exwuèv ovτως, εἰ δεῖ τἀληθὲς γράφειν, ὥστε πάντα σύλλογον φεύγειν ἐπισκόπων, ὅτι μηδε· μιᾶς συνόδου τέλος εἶδον χρηστὸν, μήδε λύσιν κακῶν μᾶλλον ἐσχηκυίαν ἢ προσθήκην· ἀεὶ γὰρ φιλονεικίαι καὶ φιλαρχίαι καὶ λόγου κρείττονες.—Opera, tom. ii. p. 110, C.] j La 55. Dans laquelle il declare, qu'il craint toutes les assemblees ecclesiastiques, parceque il n'a jamais vû, dit il, la fin d'aucun concile, qui ait été heureuse, et agreable, et qui n'ait augmenté le mal, plutot que le de:ninuer, Mais cette maxime qu'il a écrite etant chagrin contre le Concile de Constantinople, qui ne l'avoit traité assez favorablement, ne doit passer pour une regle, mais seulement pour un espéce de ressentiment, qui est échapé à Saint Gregoire. Dupin. Nouvelle Biblioth., tom. ii. 4to. pp. 652, 653. 1687. [Rights, ibid.] [St. Gregory presided in the council of Constantinople after the death of St. Meletius of Antioch. - Theodoret. Hist. Eccl., lib. v. cap. 8. tom. iii. p. 201.] m ["Orat. xxv. ad Arianos," (Orat. xxxiii. pp. 603, sqq. ed. Ben.) Additional note in Supplement, 1715, No. 5. p. 8.] n Op., vol. i. p. 727. [Paris. 1630. Quod docendum et quod credendum cunctis Ecclesiis fuerat traditum, quodque patres nostri, apostolici viri, contra universas hæreses et maxime Arianam, quasi quendam obicem veritatis Sancto Spiritu mundati catholica ratione posuerunt.-De Fide Orthodoxa contra Arianos, § 4. S. Greg. Naz. Op., tom. i. App., p. 890. ed. Ben. This oration, which is headed, Ruffino Presbytero interprete, in the edition of 1630, was not written by St. Gregory, nor is it found among those translated by Ruffinus. It is generally agreed that it was originally written in Latin, and the Benedictine editors, after Tillemont, assign it to Phoebadius bishop of Aginna, A.D. 359.] ο [ἐν ἁγίᾳ ταύτῃ συνόδῳ, καὶ τῷ τῶν τριακασίων ὀκτὼ καὶ δέκα ἀριθμῷ ἀνδρῶν Faults incident to the Clergy, as men. 145 rascal Athanasius; where he calls the synod "the holy synod," and the fathers "the holy fathers;" and therefore if he is a good witness, there was one synod at least, and that a general one, which determined nothing in prejudice of the true religion. Nay, if his testimony is to be taken, the sacerdotal and regal power are distinct from, and independent of one another, as he may see in the second tome, Of the Dignity of the Episcopal Order and Office, in a letter to a serjeant-at-law". In the rest of the chapter he hath raked together out of several writers a very invidious account of the ill conduct of councils, and of the divisions and quarrels of bishops in them, with his own reflections and applications; which will signify nothing to wise and serious men, who in this case can consider the difference between the men and the priests; as in others of the like nature between the men and the senators, or between the man and the king. All he hath maliciously scraped and patched together on this melancholy subject, amounts to no more than this, that priests and bishops are men, and not angels, men of like passions and infirmities with others, and that every one of them may say, as Siracides makes Solomon speak of himself": "I myself also am a mortal man, like to all, and the offspring of him, that was first made of earth." Priests therefore, like kings, and princes, and senators, and judges, are at best but frail men; and our author's way of arguing against them in their single, or synodical capacity, from their miscarriages, is in effect to impeach the wisdom of God in making mortal men priests, and to argue not Christianity, not the Church only, but civil government and rulers, out of the world. Julian the apostate, who knew the divisions, and parties, and quarrels that were and had been, among Christian priests, both in and out of synods, better than our author, was a better reasoner than to make use of this argument against them. He knew very well, that this way of representing any sort, or rank, or order of mortals, had no sense, though much of popular fallacy in it, and in reality λογάδων, οὓς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον εἰς Ev yayev.-Orat. xxi. § 14. tom. i. p. 394, A. The last clause is not found in the Greek of the editions before the Benedictine.] P [Second Discourse, chap. i. sect. 3.] HICKES. L a [Rights, chap. vi.] [Wisdom vii. 1. The words are not in Ecclesiasticus, as the mention of Siracides, which seems to be a mistake of memory, would imply.] OF COUN- |