into Campagna di Roma, deftroying all the country with fire and fword, Pope John fent to tell him, that if he would avoid the divine vengeance, he muft decamp immediately. This was only a charitable admonition, but fo effectual, however, that the duke obey'd; for admonitions are commands, when accompany'd with the fanctity of the prelate who gives them. On the other hand, if one confiders the lamentable condition of the king of Navarre, who was turn'd out of his dominions by the king of Spain, one cannot but wonder that fo fevere a punishment should be inflicted for so small a crime. This prince being laid under the minor excommunication, for no other reason than his making a League with Lewis the Twelfth, king of France, whom Pope Julius the Second had excommunicated, the catholic king, who was a zealous executioner of the Pope's fentences, feiz'd and plundered his dominions. Many things might be said upon this fubject; but now we will examine it as matter of law; for as to the fact, the Romanists are so far from denying it, that they seem to boast of it.

Without ftaying to confider what crime deferves fuch a punishment, we proceed now to inquire whether the Pope has the power of decreeing it against any fovereign ? And to make this inquiry with the greater exaanefs, the queftion must not be reftrain'd to the Pope only, but extended in general

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general to all the bishops; for, according to the maxims of the court of Rome, all bishops have a right to excommunicate Princes, though in fact we have no inftance of it in our times; and indeed they ought not to do it, because a fubordinate power has no right to cenfure a power which is abfolute and independent. This is fo conftant a maxim, that if the Romanifts will affert this right in the bishops, they muft of course own them to be independent: And if they aver on the other hand, that they are dependent and fubordinate to the Pope, they must decry their pretended authority, and not fuffer them to meddle with free princes; but to gain their point, they deny our inference, and affert that a king or emperor ought to be fubject to the meaneft bishop as long as he lives in his Diocese.

But I defire them to answer me this question, whether they would approve of a bishop of Spain, who, conducting himself according to their maxims, fo advantageous for the ecclefiaftical authority, fhould excommunicate a king of Spain, for reafons which he might think very juft, and deliver up his dominions to another? If they fay no, I would ask them the reason, whether it is for want of authority in the said prelate, or because they think the punishment too fevere? If the former, let them fhew me those different degrees of excommunicatory power in the gospel. For my part, I find no text there upon this fubject,

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but that addrefs'd to St. Peter, you shall bind and loofe; and that in another place, directed to all the Apostles, ye hall remit and retain, which are terms fo near the fenfe of the former in a spiritual language, that they may be call'd fynonymous. If the terms of the text were duly confider'd, when Jefus Chrift fpeaks to St. Peter, he addreffes him in the fingular number and future tense, I will build----- ball` be bound and loofed; but when he speaks to St. Peter and all the apoftles together, he uses the present tense: Receive ye the Holy Ghoft; whofefoever fins ye remit, they are remitted; and whofefoever fins ye retain, they are retained. Moreover, 'tis to be obferv'd that Jefus Chrift fays this to Peter before his paffion, when he could not be the paftor of a flock not yet redeemed, and when it was not yet expedient to give the power of binding and loofing, because the knots which bound up mankind in chains were as yet too tight, before Adam's fin was repaired; but when Jefus fpeaks to the apostles, the redemption had been wrought by our Saviour's death and refurrection. From hence I infer that the authority of the apostles was at leaft equal, if not fuperior to that of St. Peter, and that the bishops have confequently the fame in their functions, as above.

If the court of Rome condemns fuch conduct of the Spanish prelate, as being too fevere, it fairly implies that there may be a fault in excommunications of this nature, and in

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the inflicting of thofe punishments; confequently 'tis lawful for all perfons to examine them whether they are faulty or not. Therefore 'tis not an article of faith to be believ'd implicitly. They will fay, perhaps, that they fhould not blame this act of the bishop for either of thofe reafons, but only for its tendency to involve christendoni in confusion, by authorizing princes to invade the territories of their neighbours. And I infer further, that when excommunication is to be fulminated, regard fhould be had to the intereft of the public, and to reasons of state, for avoiding univerfal fcandal; which is a maxim we laid down before.

But if upon the whole they fhould fay they would approve the conduct of a bishop that fulminates excommunication, with this referve, that the motive of it feems to him to be juft, they muft pardon me for frankly owning that I cannot believe them, becaufe this would be acknowledging that every bishop is a Pope in his Diocese; an opinion by them detested as much as that which supposes the Pope to be no more than a bishop; for they afcribe greater authority to a Pope than to a bifhop, tho' they can produce no text to fupport it.

This monarchical authority of the Pope has caufed me to make a reflection, which I think very true and juft, viz. that all other things of this world, whether created or generated, lofe their vigor and force in procefs of time; but

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the Pope's authority is fo far from lofing, that it always gains; and, which is very miraculous, is more vigorous in its old age than its youth. If we caft our eyes on the productions of nature, and the ordinary generation of things, we find them declining with age, and deftitute of their former vigor. Men do not live so many months now, as heretofore they did years. The brute creatures are not fo capable of fatigue as formerly. The fruits of the earth have not the fame favour, fweetness and subftance, and are more dangerous to the conftitution. Then as to bodies politic; those which were once fam'd for their wisdom and power, are become weak and fupine; and the fubjects, who formerly burnt with zeal and duty to their fovereigns upon all occafions, are now become cold and indifferent. The arts and fciences have fuffer'd the fame diminution: Where is there now an Apelles, a Phidias, and a Polictetus? our age has no Ariftotle, Plato, nor Socrates in the schools, nor no Achilles, Alexander, and Hannibal in the field. The Turkish empire is a farther proof of this viciffitude; this empire, founded upon the flavery of the people, and their blind obedience to the fovereign; which they think honourable in this life, and rewardable in the next; how is it fallen from its ancient fplendor! The Mahometans, who now fee thro' all the whimsies of the Alcoran, and find how contrary its laws are generally to the preservation and advanta

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