Barrow - BX1805 .B3 1852

POPERY THE ENEMY OF CIVIL SOCIETY 185 How improper were those vessels of Satan to be organs of that " holy spirit of discipline, which will flee deceit, and remove from thoughts that are without understanding, and will not abide when unrighteousness cometh in! "Wisd. i. 5. [Apocrypha.] It will engage the pope to make the ecclesiastical authority an engine of advancing the temporal concerns of his own relations, his sons, his nephews. What, indeed, is the popedom now, but a ladder for a family to mount unto great estate?1 What is it but introducing an old man into a place, by advantage whereof a family must make hay while the sun shines?' 8. This pretence, upon divers obvious accounts, is apt to create great mischief in the world, to the distúrbance of civil societies, and destruction or debilitation of temporal authority, which is certainly God's ordinance, and necessary to thewell-being of mankind; so that supposing it, we may in vain " pray for kings, and all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godli- ness and honesty," 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2. For suppose the two powers, spiritual and temporal, to be co-ordi- nate, and independent each of other, then must all Christians be put into that perplexed state of repugnant and incompatible obligations, concerning which our Lord says, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other," Matt. vi. 24. They will often draw several ways, and clash in their designs, in their laws, in their decisions; one willing and commanding that which the other dislikes and prohibits. It will be impossible by any certain bounds to distinguish their jurisdiction, so as to prevent contest between them;' all temporal matters being in some respect spiritual (as being referrible to spiri- tual ends, and in some manner allied to religion), and all spiritual things becoming temporal as they conduce to the secular peace and prosperity of states. There is nothing which each of these powers will not hook within the verge of its cognizance and jurisdiction: each will claim a right to meddle in all things; one pretending thereby to further the good of the church, the other to secure the interest of the state. And what end or remedy can there be of the differences hence arising, there beingno third power to arbitrate or moderate between them? Vid. Guicciard. Machiay. Mist. FL, p. 19; Conc. Bas., p. 65. 2 - Cum non ob religionem et Dei cultum, appetere pontificatum nostri sacer- dotes videantur, sed ut fratrum, vel nepotum, vel familiarum ingluviem et avaritiam expleant. Plat. in Joh. XVI., p. 298. " Whereas our priests seem to desire the pope- dom, not for religion and the worship of God, but that they may fill the ravening appe- tite and covetousness of their brothers, or nephews, or familiars." Bell. v. 6, p. 1415.

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