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Show Our'Habteowmations ' By Orestes f. Brovnson. Father John, replying to a remark of Wins-low, Wins-low, assorted the plenary authority of the spiritual, spiri-tual, whether in supernatural or natural society. The Church,-presupposing natural society, recognizes recog-nizes it as co-existing with the supernatural in Catholic or Christian society. She governs the natural in the hosom of the supernatural, indeed, hut hy the laws of the natural, and denies that grace releases us from a single one of the duties imposed, or revokes or abridges a single one of the rights conceded hy that law. She cau, then, deny none of the rights or powers of princes holding from God through natural society. COXYEIISATJOX XII I. (Continued.') ''Otherwise' said O'Connor, "we should be obliged to deny all legitimate government outside of the Catholic society, to maintain that all legit i-'mate i-'mate authority is conferred by grace, and thus fall into the heresy of Wicliff and his followers. We should be obliged to maintain that infidels, or non-Christians, non-Christians, cannot . have lawful government, and that every infulel prince is a usurper, without right, whom no one is bound to obey, and whom every one is free to resist as he pleases. This the church does not and cannot, concede, for she has condemned the error of Wicliff as a heresy. St. Paul, writing under the infidel M'ovcrnmenl, under Xero, the pagan emperor of Home, at the same time that he says, non est potestas nii a Deo, adds, quoe autcm sunt, a J)eo ordinate sunt. Jtaque qui resistit po-testati, po-testati, Dei ordiuatroni resistit. Thus plainly teaching not only' that infidel princes may have legitimate authority for his unbelieving, but even for his Catholic subjects. The government of this country holds from (bl through natural society alone, and no Catholic doubts or can doubt that ho is bound in conscience to obey it, precisely as he would be were it a professedly Catholic government." govern-ment." "Infidel governments are legitimate," said Winslow, "because the church legitimates them.'' ''The church can legitimate them," answered Father John, "only for their Catholic subjects; whence, then, derive they their legitimacy for their infidel subjects i" "Xobody, not even the most inveterate papist' said O'Connor, "maintains that all princes hold from God through the church, or denies that princes may, and that some do, hold legitimately from him, throiiR'h natural society." "But the church includes both societies," answered an-swered Winslow, "and has jurisdiction under both laws, and, therefore, may take cognizance of offenses of-fenses against the one as well as offenses against the other." "In the case of those who are members of both societies. I concede' said Father John, "but not in the case of those who are members of natural society only. The church takes cognizance of offenses of-fenses against either law, but she judges only those persons who are in her communion, or are joined to regenerated humanity by baptism. She can take cognizance of public as well as private offenses, of the offenses of the prince as well as of the subject ; but as her authority extends only to regenerated humanity, her jurisdiction is necessarily restricted to Catholic princes, and in the case of infidel princes to their Catholic subjects. The infidel prince, neither as a prince nor as a man, is within her jurisdiction. lie holds under the law of natural society, and within the limits of that law he is the legitimate prince for all his subjects, Catholic or non-Catholic, not because the church legitimates him, but because, as the church teaches her children, chil-dren, , admission into, the supernatural society, or aggregation to regenerated humanity, absolves from no duty or obligation imposed, and abrogates no right or power conceded by the law of natural society, as I have just said. Antinomianism is a heresy. If the infidel prince transcends his legitimate legiti-mate powers, and ordains what is contrary to the law of God, natural or supernatural, the church forbids her children in the matters thus ordained to obey him, and she would do the same were tho prince a Catholic, for we must obey God; rather than man." ., "Princes and nations, outside of Catholic society," so-ciety," said O'Connor, "are in precisely the condition condi-tion of the Gentiles before the coming of our Loi'd. The law of grace changes nothing in the condition of individuals or nations till they come tinder it j by the now birth, the birth of grace, which intro- duces them into supernatural society." '-'IJut (Jod commands all men and nations to hear the church' said Winslow. "and none of thr-m has his permission to remain out f her communion. The law (lues not cease to bind becaue men refuse to obey ir, or the court lose its jurisdiction because the criminal refuses to acknowledge it' of it does not follow," said .Father John, "that cur Lord has given his church authority to judge those who are without, or to punish all offenses against his law. We know he has not given her authority to compel any one to come into her communion com-munion or to be baptized, because he ha willed that the reception of the faith should be a voluntary act. She has no authority over those without, and has only the right of self-defense against them, and to compel them, not to come into her communion, com-munion, but to leave her free to fulfill her apostolic apos-tolic mission." "I'ut as the natural survives the supernatural, and subsists in ;dl its rights and powers, as well i as duties ami obligations, under ir." said De T.on- j nevilie. "natural society in Catholic society must j hold to the supernatural the same relation'that if i holds to it ourside of Catholic society. Since nat- I ural sociely is represented by the state, princes, even when Catholics, hold independently of the church, and can, in respect to their principality, in no case be accountable to her, or justiciable by her' "It only follows that those princes Avho hold un- i der the natural law. can be judged only by that law," said Diofenbach. "The fallacy is in assuming assum-ing that the state represents the whole natural society; so-ciety; it represents the kingly, not the priest ly functions of the patriarch, and therefore represents the seeularity, not the spirituality of natural so- j ciety." j "Princes," said O'Connor, "who hold from God ! through natural society alone, even though personally per-sonally Catholic, are not justiciable by the church as princes, but only as Christians. She may judge and punish them as Christians, but she cannot do- I prive them of their principality, for she has not conferred it." "Say that she does not, not that, she cannot," said Father John, "for it is more becoming in us to leave her to define her own powers, than it is to undertake un-dertake to define them for her. I have found in her history no instance in which she has ever deprived a prince who, by the constitution of his state, holds from God through natural society, and not through the supernatural society. But I am not prepared to say she cannot deprive even such a prince.. With regard to princes who hold from God through tho church, and who by the constitution of their states and their own coronation oaths, are bound to profess, pro-fess, protect and defend the Catholic religion, there can be no question. They hold under the law of supernatural society, and the pope as the supreme judiciary in that society, may undoubtedly deprive them for cause, as he has done more than once. The prince, though he hold under the law of natural society, holds from God through the spiritual, and as the church, for all Christians, represents the. spiritual element of natural societr originally represented rep-resented by the patriarchs, and as the prince may forfeit his right to reign under the natural law as well as under the supernatural, I do not see very clearly, since she has jurisdiction under both laws, why she has not the right, to declare for the faithful faith-ful the forfeiture, if it has been incurred, under the one law as well as under the other. But her uniform practice throughout her history, inclines me to believe that she does not interpret her powers pow-ers as extending to the deprivation of the prince who, by the constitution of his state, holds only under the law of natural society' "However that may be' said O'Connor, "if the supernatural recognizes and confirms the natural, the state in the bosom of the Catholic society, must have all the rights and powers, as well as all the duties and obligations it has in natural society." "Therefore," said Father John, "theocracy does not introduce the intermeddling and vexatious system sys-tem of Calvinism, and one which makes religion a burden too great to be borne. I have indeeed only duties before God, for I am his creature, and belong be-long to him in all I am, in all I have, and in all I can do. But this absolute dominion of God is my absolute freedom. Xone but God, or one really commissioned by him to declare his will and represent repre-sent his authority, can bind me to obedience. I obey the church, only because in obeying her, I am obeying him; I obey the state when it commands me nothing repugnant to the law of God, because it is his minister; but no man, of his own right, can bind me, or lay me under the moral obligation j : i . ; : of obedieive. Ir ,!r:!rd G.,,1 t,, iiMitufo ! r i ..Ciet I !,,; .,j,;.:(1 ;,,, ,,,. ,,,!.,. 1,,.,.. j natural; in h..:h o.-iriics tin- -primal. tu; udi,-!, i represents 'be Civ.-iI.t. is -(ipivn:.-. If.- i gated t-.. the piritti;d-iii reireneraf.-d hutnanirv. j 1" the ehmvli. ::tn t lieret-..re it. thf .-.up-vinc j , , , f ; ti. Who p-.s.-es-e- the eeele-iii-t i ( -;i ! ;...".er j,. U j T1 ; J j ttide, -mil i, under ;d. lii- -Liin e )..., i wl.i.-i, authority in the ebureb r..e,ed-. ...w, r ;!,;,; be dees not ivi;r:. !. him-rlt'; but Si tin- si.irinial in neither .-.-ieiy dee-. !.,. Je,-.,t.- hi-' ...V.t. Our nbligarion t.i oi,py the d. l.-ate v- limiied bv the power lefi;ate.i. ;('P. thi- lil i i .-, 1 ;,.n of til" power delejratrd i- the ha-i- and mea-uiv of oh:-liberty, oh:-liberty, which i- iai freedom fr. m lb. a;;; heri: v of Hod. bur freeedoru from ilie iuu'w.rity of hi representative. In beini;- elevated by i;ra-e in -1: peruatural society, we n tain ai! i he rb'lir- ;M , , ; powers we posses j,, natural soeiet.. . ami t;ii- i, ! what we call our natural iibertx, w!i:;-h . hureh 1 does not abridge, but n-co-mi.e- and eotmnn-: h,. declares ir sacred, defend- it. and -utiVr- m. i.e I without her disapprobation to inf'-ine it. In the supernatural society, the father, the prince, the eirizen, or subject )u .dl the rijibt- and dutie- h, has in natural society, only he niu-i lake belli a-.-be. the supreme teacher ami jud-re. ddines them." (To He ( 'outintled. ) |
