1718. "that are your Masters according to the "Flesh, with Fear and Trembling, in Single"nefs of your Hearts, as unto God: Not "with Eye-Service, as Men-pleasers, but as "the Servants of Chrift, with Good-will, do"ing Service as to the Lord, and not to Men, Eph. vi. 66 "The fame Precepts are found in the "Epiftle to the Coloffians, ch. iii. "VIII. Put them in Mind to be fubject to Principalities and Powers, to obey Magi"ftrates, to be ready to every good Work, "Tit. iii. In the Provincial Council held at Gangra. Can. IV. "If any Children run away from their "orthodox Fathers and Mothers, and pay not "the Refpect due to their Fathers and Mo"thers, and fanfy to better their Condition, "let them be accurfed. St. Chryfoftom, Speaking of the Prophetess Hannah, the Mother of Samuel, in his first Sermon: "He is not only a Father who has begot"ten, but who has well brought up his Son; "nor is fhe fo truly a Mother who has brought "a Child into the World, as who has given him a good Education. Parents themfelves "will own that it is not Nature, but Virtue "which makes Fathers: They oft reject their "Children, and exclude from their Eamily "those whom they fee to be of corrupt Man 66 ners "ners and degenerate Life, and adopt "others who are not in the leaft related to "them. "Can there be any Thing which more de"ferves our Admiration, than to fee them "expel those whom they have brought into "the World, and to make their own by Adop❝tion those whom they have had no Share in begetting. "We have not faid this without Reason, but "to fhew you that the Force of Free-will is "fuperior to the Force of Nature, and that it "is the former rather than the latter, which "makes Fathers, "See here the wonderful Workings of Di"vine Providence: As on one Side all natural "Affection towards Children is not deftroyed, "fo neither has it fuffered this Affection to be "unlimitted and unreftrained: For if Parents "were to love their Children without being. "led to it by a Neceffity of Nature, and were "only moved by the Confideration of their "Probity, and good Behaviour, you would "foon fee all Order among human Race quite "overthrown, by the Expulfion of a great Num"ber of Children, whom Sloth and Idlenefs "would drive from their Father's Houfes? On "the other Hand, if Providence had in this "Cafe laid us under an abfolute Submiffion to "the Force of Nature, and no Disregard was "to be shewn to wicked Children, and Fathers "were obliged, by the Neceffity which the "Law of Nature laid upon them, to perfift in "doing well to fuch as had offended them, "and carried their undutiful Treatments to the "utmoft Length of Excefs, human Nature G4 "" would 1718. 1718. "would foon be brought to the highest Pitch "of Wickedness. "If therefore at prefent, when Children "cannot altogether rely upon Nature, and they "know that feveral have been driven from "their Father's Houfes, and deprived of their "Eftates, for their Perversity and Depravity ❝of Manners, do, notwithstanding, misbehave "themselves towards their Parents, upon the "Confidence they have in their Love, what "fort of Wickednefs would they not commit, "if God had not allowed Parents to correct "them, and take Vengeance of them? "For these Reasons it has pleafed God that "the Parents Love fhould be founded as well "upon the Manners of their Children, as upon "a Neceffity of Nature; that they might par"don them by natural Inclination, when they did but lightly offend, and they might pu"nifh the Depraved and the Incorrigible, that "Indulgence might not lead them to Ill, if "Nature had ftill the Superiority, and obliged "them to carefs them tho' never fo bad. "Admire, I befeech you, the Depth of "Providence, which commands us to love, "and prescribes Bounds to our Affection. We, the Clergy, have made thefe Extracts from the Holy Scriptures, in Obedience to the Order of our Monarch, not in Form of a Sentence, nor by Way of a Decree, as has been already mentioned. This Affair does not properly fall under our Jurifdiction. For who is it can make us Judges over those that command us? Or how can the Members govern the Head? It is the Head which governs and directs the Members: Befides, our Jurifdiction being of a fpiritual Nature, we must judge according to the Spirit, and not according to the Flesh and Blood. The Power of the temporal Sword is not given to the Church, but the Power of the fpiritual Sword, which is the Word of God. Jefus Chrift forbad, even the Prince of the Apostles, to make use of the Sword, faying to him, put thy Sword into its Place; and he also forbad the other Disciples to bring Fire from Heaven upon Samaria. Jefus Chrift has been pleased to teach us, by thefe Examples, that it does not belong to Exclefiafticks to guide themselves by a Spirit of Anger, but by a Spirit of Meekness; not to condemn any one to Death, or feek his Blood, but only to bring him to true Repentance and a fpiritual Death, which is dying to Sin, and living to the Lord, as the Apostle has expreffed it in his Epiftle to the Romans, Chap. vi. We fubmit all this to the most high Confideration of his Imperial Majefty, with all due Obedience, that our Lord may do that which is agreeable in his own Eyes: If he will punish him that is fallen according to his Actions, and proportionable to the Meafure of his Crimes, he has before him the Examples we have drawn from the Old Teftament. If he is inclined to Mercy, he has the Example of Jefus Chrift himself, who received the prodigal Son, when he returned and repented; who difmiffed the Woman taken in Adultery, that by the Law deferved to be ftoned; who prefers Mercy to Sacrifice, and fays, I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice, and tells us by the Mouth of his Apoftle, that Mercy rejoiceth over Judgment, Jam. ii. 13. He has also the Example 1718. 1718. Example of David, who was defirous to fpare Abfalom his Son and Perfecutor; for he charged the Captains, who went out against him, to Spare the young Man Abfalom. The Father indeed would have fpared the Son, but Divine Vengeance would not fuffer it. After having briefly deduced what goes before, the Heart of the Czar is in the Hand of God, and may he chufe the Part to which the Hand of God fhall turn it. Thefe Confiderations were figned by their own Hands in the Manner following, in the Year 1718, on the 18th of June. The humble Stephen, Metropolitan of Refan; Theodore, Archemandrite of the Convent of Joakim, Archimandrite of the Convent of An- Joaniky, Archimandrite of the Convent of the Irmragg, Archimandrite of the Convent of Father Gabriel, Prefect and Miffionary of the Father Markel, Profeffor. On |