-m'^u'""^'-^ c* LI BR ARY OF THF UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA n o^ Received y-^^lz^y^^^^. , i8^ A ccessions No. ^/j^^^J^ Melf No. •30 X-^^^ /f9o . Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/enquiryintoconstOOkingrich r AN ENQUIRY INTO THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, UNITY, & WORSHIP OF THE PRIMITIVE CHUECH, THAT FLOURISHED WITHIN THE FIRST THREE HUNDRED YEARS AFTIiR CHRIST. BY LORD PETER KING. IN TWO PARTS. WITH REMARKS AND AN APPENDIX, THE WHOLE COMPRISING AN ABRIDGMENT OF AN " ORIGINAL DRAUGHT OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH," IN ANSWER TO THE ABOVE-MENTIONED DISCOURSE. BY A CLERGYMAN OPV^gg__CgURCH OF ENGLAND. OF THE ^ «^' SEELEY, BURNSIDE, AND SEELEY. BATH : BINNS AND GOODWIN. 1843. A BATH : PRINTED BY BINNS AND GOODWIN, CHEAP STREET. y//3^,^ TO THE REV. THOMAS LEGH CLAUGHTON, M.A. VICAR OF KIDDERMINSTER, AND LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, THE FOLLOWING WORK IS VERY FAITHFULLY AND GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE EDITOR. THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. The Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity, and Worship of the Primitive Church, is a work of extensive popularity, and confessedly exhibits, as a youthful performance, considerable ingenuity and research. It was written by Sir Peter (afterwards Lord Chancellor) King,"^ at the * Lord Chancellor King was born at Exeter, in 1669, and, for some years, was brought up to his father's business in that city ; but having a strong inclination to learning, he laid out all the money he could spare in books, and devoted all his leisure hours to study. By the advice of his maternal uncle, Mr. Locke, he studied some time at Leyden, and afterwards entered at the Inner Temple. Raised by superior abilities to eminence, he obtained a seat in the House of Commons in 1 699, for Beeralston, Devon. In 1708 he was made Recorder of London, and knighted by Queen Anne ; the next year he was one of the managers of the House of Commons, at the trial of Dr. Sacheverell. In 1714 he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas ; and soon after was made one of the Privy Council. In 1725 he was created a peer, and succeeded Macclesfield, as Lord Chancellor, VI THE EDITOR S PREFACE. early age of twenty-two years, with the professed design of " finding out what were the usages of the ancient Church, within the first three hundred years after Christ, and especially to describe their opinions and practices, with respect to those things that are now unhappily controverted between those who are commonly known by the names of Church of England-men, Presbyterians, Independents, and Anabaptists." In order to conciliate the three last- mentioned parties, and to bring them to a suitable disposition for compromising matters with such as differ from them, he certainly concedes more than he ought^ even straining antiquity to make it speak their sense, in the chief and fundamental points for which they respectively contend ; with the Church of England-men, I must say, he does not deal so candidly and impartially^ as a perusal of his title- page and preface would lead and warrant us to expect. It must be confessed, however, that in support of his opinions, he does not appeal to antiquity (generally speaking) in a tone of confi- It is said the public expectation was disappointed by his conduct in Chancery, as more of his decrees were repealed by the lords than had been known, for the short time he presided in the Court of Equity. He resigned the seals in 1733 ; and, weakened by a paralytic disorder, died at his seat, at Ockham, Surrey, 1734. See Lempriere' s Universal Biography . London, 1808. /" THE EDITOR S PREFACE. Vll dence, much less of controversial bitterness ; he strongly recommends to all parties a spirit of peace, unity, and moderation ; and even seems anxious to heal divisions in the Churchy and to give no offence to those who make them ; two works of charity, indeed^ which can scarcely consist together, but which, at the same time, are highly laudable, when abstractedly considered. In his preface he desires that another sense might be given of his several quotations, (if need required,) for the better in- formation of himself and others. So modest and reasonable a request was complied with, first of all, by Mr. Edmund Elys, between whom and Lord King some letters passed on the subject of the Enquiry ; and afterwards, by the Author of " An Original Draught of the Primitive Church" — a work so powerful and convincing, as ultimately to bring over the Enquirer to that Author's opinion.''^ But, notwithstanding this change in his views, and the complete refutation of his Treatise, which was shewn to contain palpable mistakes, and unfair representations of the writings of the Fathers, in almost every page, the Enquiry * See Daubeny's Eight Discourses, &c. p. 91. Second Edition. London, 1802. viii THE editor's preface. has frequently been triumphed in, as a proof of the writer's skill in Church history, and, by the less learned and more prejudiced adversaries of the Church of England, has been, and still is, proclaimed as an unanswerable vindication of their separation from her. Within the last five years, the work having become scarce, a new edition ^ has appeared, and that in a form certainly better calculated to advance the cause of separatists, than the discovery of truth. The Latin and Greek quotations, as they are to be found in the original, are here omitted, the Editor presuming that our Enquirer had given a faithful and unprejudiced translation of them. Such an omission cannot but be sensibly felt by all serious and impartial enquirers after truth. There is no small danger of being misled by quotations ; which, if they do not distinctly favour the writer's opinion, may at least be conceived capable of being so understood, or which, in some way or other, remotely relate to the subject ; but which, if inserted at length, would at once be perceived to bear very little on it. * An Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity, and Worship of the Primitive Church, &c. By Sir Peter King, Lord High Chancellor of England. London. S. Cornish and Co. 126, Newgate Street. 1839. THE EDITOR S PREFACE. IX But the danger is still greater, when these quo- tations are wholly left out, as is the case in the above-mentioned publication, and mere references are given in their stead, the generality of readers never taking the trouble of turning to the passages in the original, but taking for granted that they afford each some degree of confirmation to what is raaintained.^'^ To supply this defect, and to diminish for the reader the labour of forming an accurate and impartial judgment on the several subjects brought under consideration, is the chief design of this Volume : which comprises, 1st. a faithful re- print of the first 'f' (and therefore chiefly con- troverted) part of the Enquiry, with the Latin and Greek quotations, as contained in the original Edition : and 2ndly, remarks by way of answer to such parts of the Enquiry as seemed most liable to objection. To those readers, who have it in their power to use any, or all, of the authors quoted in this work, the Editor begs to recommend, for their * See Whately's Elements of Logic, pp. 230, 231. Fifth Edition, 1834. t The first part of the Enquiry treats of the Constitution, Discipline, and Unity ; the second, of the Worship of the Primitive Church. b X THE EDITOR S PREFACE. fuller satisfaction on each most questionable point, a careful perusal of those parts of the original text wliich precede and follow the sentence quoted ; and he earnestly hopes that all his readers, whether Churchmen or Dissenters, will kindly take the trouble of examining the witnesses and hearing counsel on both sides, before they bring in their verdict. To a due enquiry, it is always necessary that we should impartially examine both sides of the question ; and that while we are doing so, we should keep both our ears open to the matter in debate, and equally attend to what can be said for as well as to what can be said against it ; and then that, upon a full hearing of both, we should deter- mine, as nearly as we can, on w^hich side the truth lies, without favour or affection. The advice of Dr. Campbell^ is confessedly that of a wise and candid mind : '^ Revere truth above all things, wherever you find it. Attend coolly and candidly to the voice of reason, from what quarter soever it comes. Let not the avenues to your understand- ing be choked up w^ith prejudices and preposses- sions, but be always open to conviction." * Dr. Campbell's Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, p. 96. London, 1834. THE EDITOR S PREFACE. XI In Compiling the Remarks upon the Enquiry, the Editor has chiefly extracted from the " Original Draught of the Primitive Church/' of which, indeed, the Remarks and Appendix together may be said to comprehend an abridgment. He has not, however, merely confined himself to that able work, but has occasionally had recourse to the learned and useful labours of Potter, Pearson, Wheatly, &c. ; from each of whom he has selected whatever seemed to throw additional light on the various and important subjects discussed in the Volume, which he now ventures to lay before the public. AN ENQUIRY INTO THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, UNITY AND WORSHIP, THAT FLOURISHED WITHIN THE FIRST THREE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER CHRIST. FAITHFULLY COLLECTED OUT OF THE EXTANT WRITINGS OF THOSE AGES. BY AN IMPARTIAL HAND. LONDON : PRINTED FOR JONATHAN ROBINSON AT THE GOLDEN LION, AND JOHN WYAT AT THE ROSE IN ST. PAUL's CHURCHYARD, 1691. I THE PREFACE TO THE READER. THE Design of the following Treatise is in general to represent the Constitution^ Discipline, Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church, that flourished within the first Three Hundred Years after Christ; but more particularly and especially to describe their Opinions and Practices, with res- pect to those things that are now unhappily controverted between those of these Kingdoms, who are commonly known by the Names of Church of England-men, Presbyterians, Independents and Anabaptists ; for which reason it comes to pass, that to those points, conceiming which there is no difference amongst us, I have not spoken so largely as otherwise I might have done ; and some other Customs of theirs I have not mentioned at all, because now neglected and disused by us. What I have written as to this Subject, I have wholly col- lected out of the Genuine and unquestionably Authentick Writings of those Ages, that are now extant, making use of no other Writings whatsoever, except the Ecclesiastical Histm'y of Eusebius, which was writ in the beginning of the Fourth Age, and relates only those Affairs which were transacted in the Three former, beyond the period of which time this En- quiry doth not reach ; but is wholly limited thereby, and con- fined thereunto. That which hath been thus collected, has been done, I hope, with the greatest Impartiality and Fidelity, without any Prepossession of Mind, or any fraudulent dealing B 2 THE PREFACE. whatsoever, which the Reader may the sooner believe, and the easier be convinced of, since for the clearer Demonstration of my Faithfulness and Unprejudicedness herein, I have taken care to print in the Margin the Original Words of all the Passages that I have cited, at least of all that are necessary, together with the very Pages whence I fetch' d them, that so the Reader turning to the Pages mentioned in those Editions that I use, (which Editions I shall set down at the end of this Preface) and finding it according to my Quotations, may the more readily be perswaded that throughout this whole Tract I have been every way honest and unbyass'd. And as I have faithfully and impartially collected these Observations, so I have as modestly and unconcernedly repre- sented them, avoiding all Words or Speeches that might seem to carry the least Sharpness or Reflection in them, and have as nakedly eocpressed them, declining all affected or pompous Expressions, contenting my self with those Terms, that most naturally serve to render the Truth more perspicuous and evi- dent, according to the Observation of Clemens Alexandrinus, * He that would deliver the * A.r r^. ^A„ds/W x>,S^^,yo,, o^x ^ruth, ought not studiously l| lir^Qolxyis Kcc] (p^ovri^os r^v - £a quae est in qaoque loco £c- tn any place. And so Dw- i - r-r « cr- leo . ^., clesia. Xi6. 2. c. 56. D. 158. nystus Alexandrinus wntes, that when he was banish- ' n«AA» ovfew^ifMi^tf i/Mlw cxxA*- ed to Cephro in Lybia, '^- Apiid Euaeb. lib.l. c. \\, *" ' there came so many P' ^^' * The Author of the Eaqair\- mentions many different in which the word Church is used by the eaiiiest Christian writers ; but fixes upon one only, as the usual and common aceq^- ation of it. Tnis he professes chiefly to treat of, and is, indeed, the great hinge upon which most of bis speculations turn. See Appendix, No. 1. '' Ea quae est in quoque loco Ecclesia, or rather, in quoquo loco, as we find it in Iren. I. 2. c. 56. If our learned Enquirer infer from this passage that there was no other particular Church at that time m any place whatsoever, but just such aa one as he has defined for us, he has taken for granted what he ought to prove. No doubt, Irenaeus's Church in any place was such a sort of Church, as they then understood a Church to be ; but whether Parochial, Diocesan, Provincial, or any other kind whatsoever, as to the extent or circuit of it, is not at all clearer to us by his calling it a Church in anyplace. If /?/a<^e be such an affection of bodies, as conforms itself to every dimension of the thing that is applied to it, then for a thing to be said to be in any place, unless the particular measure of that place were expressed too, adds nothing in the least to prove of what extent that thing is. ' IloXXi) fxxXtjo- a, that is, a pretty numerous Church. Valerius, in his Translation, calls it, magna multitudo fidelium. Dionysius c 2 4 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Christians unto him, that even there he had a Church. farther says, it consisted of a threefold concourse of Christians ; 1st, of all the brethren that came from Alexandria to him; 2dly, of others that came out of Egypt thither : and 3dly, he tells us that before he left the place, oIk Q>Syoi ta>v eO^uv, not a few of the heathens left their idols, and came over to his Church. But in truth, the point in question does not lie here ; whether there was a Church in that place (or, indeed, in any other) that de facto had but one congregation to denominate it so ; but the true question is, whether if more congregations than one had been actually gathered or converted in any place whatsoever, and exercised their offices of Divine worship in distinct and separate places from one another, so that their first, proper, and chief Pastor could not possibly attend the service of them all ; whether the property must in such case be altered, and they could no longer be one Church, or be subject to one and the same supreme Ecclesiastical Governour (call him what we please), but must of necessity be then formed into more particular independent Churches, and a supreme Pastor unaccountable to the other (or to any one else,) must have presided over each of them, and denominated them as many particular Churches, as there were single assemblies that met together to celebrate the Ordinances of the Christian Church. This our learned Enquirer should have proved from such authori- ties as he produces in defence of his own opinions, if he meant to support his fundamental scheme by them. But since it no where appears that he has done so, I must say, this is such a funda mental defect as renders the whole performance of very little use to his professed design of reconciling differences about the Constitu- tion of the Primitive Church. That Dionysius himself, in the very words quoted by our En- quirer, meant no such Church as could meet together for religious worship in one place only, and no otherwise, will, I thmk, evidently appear from that Father's account of his own Church of Alexan- dria. See Appendix, No. 2. GF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 5 d Tertullian thinks that, ^ Ubi tres, Ecclesia est. Ex- * Three were sufficient to make hort. ad Castitat. p. 457. a Church. In this Sense we 9 Ecclesia Romana. Cyprian. must understand ^ the Church Epist. 31. §. 3. /?. 70. of Rome. ' the Church of ^ ^^ . , ~ « ' v » Smyrna, '^ the Church of An- ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^ :^^, ^; 1 . tioch, ' Me Church o/Athens, « , , . , , , the Church of Alexandria, r, .,., « •^ . ' Idemibtdp. 8. or the Church m any other such place whatsoever, that ' 'E'^'^'^«<^'« ^ 'A^^v»,cr;, sv "axsI- is, a Congregation of Christ- ^f^^' Origen contr. Celsum, ians assembling all together for religious Exercises at Rome, Antioch, Smyrna, Athens, Alexandria, or such like places. III. The Word Church is sometimes used for the Place, where a particular Church or Congregation met for the Celebration of Divine Service. Thus Paulus Samosatenus the Heretical Bishop of Antioch, ordered certain Women to stand ^ in the middle of .1/^1 7 !• -r»i *'Ey ixiari rrt iKKXriaigi. Epist. the Church, and sinff rsalms ^ , / . ', ,^ , ,., , . -r^ . o, x>7 Synod. Antioch. apud Euseo. lib. m his Praise. So Clemens ^^ ^^ ,^„, Ale^andrinus adviseth, that ^^ -i'" ^^-^ 2«'- Men and Women should with all Modesty and Humility enter ^ into the Church. So s 'Ett* t^v UxXfiaiav. Padag. the Clergy of the Church of lib.o.c.W.p.lSd. ^ Tertullian s whole sentence is this " Ubi tres, Ecclesia est, licet laid,'' that is, Where three are, there a Church is, though they be all but Laymen. Is it not strange, that such a Church as this, with but three Laymen in it, should be brought to ex- plain the Primitive notion of a Particular Church associating to- gether with their Pastors and Ministers for participation of the Ordinances and Institutions of Christ .' And yet to this very- quotation our ingenious Enquirer immediately subjoins : '* In this sense we must understand the Church of Rome, of Smyrna, of Antioch, and, in short, in any other such place whatsoever." 6 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Rome in their letter to Cyprian, concerning the Restitution of the Lapsed, give as their * Adeant ad limen Ecclesiae. ^^^.^^^ , J,^^^ ^. ^^^^^^ Apud Cyprian. Epist. 31. § 7. . ^ ui ui i. u j? f.-, only come to the threshold oj ' the Church-door, but not go ■J De prescript, advers. Haret. .. a -i • ii • c T^ V> T.>r.7. . or^ it. And in this bense is p. 90. De Corond Militis, p- ., ^r -» n ^^ i^ ^ \,.^ .J -, . , . the Word frequently to be 336. And very often in his ^ ^ "^ BooADeVirginibusVelandis. understood m ^ Tertulhan, » De Orat. §. 20. ». 132. ' ^^^*"' ''"'^ °*'!^'' *° '^''^'^ whose Testimonies at large would be both tedious and needless. IV. ^ I find the Word Church once used by Cyprian, for a Collection of many particular Churches, who mentions « Our Enquirer observes, in this fourth notation of a Church, that he never met with the word Church used in the Singular Number by any of the Fathers for a collection of many purticular Churches, except in Cyprian, who mentions the Church of God in Africa and Numidia. Now there is something in Irenceus (quoted by himself too — see Margin page 9) which looks very much like it : for all the Christian Churches which were gathered from among , _, ^ ., „ the Gentiles, that learned Fa- ' Ka, qucB ex Gentibus est, Ec- ,, i i /-n , , . ^ ^ ,., . ^ ther expresses ' by a Lhurch, clesia. Iren. lib. 4. c. 37. • .i o- ^ xt i. j m the Singular Number ; and that implies a collection of Churches beyond all question. But in truth I do not see what advantage this can be to the point in question, to observe that a particular Church is ordinarily expressed in the Singular Number, since it is a natural expression for it, and no otherwise explains the constituent parts of it, than to say, it is somewhere in some place or another : which does not clear up the notion of it. Nor is it of more use to observe, that National or Provincial Churches are usually expressed in the Plural Number, since it affords no evidence at all to prove what manner of Churches they were, that were comprehended under them ; which is the only point in question. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, 9 In Provinciji AfricS, et Numi- did Ecclesiam Domini, Epist. §. A. p. 214. 71 in the Singular Number, 9 the Church of God in Africa and Numidia : Else I do not remember, that ever I met with it in this Sense, in any Writings either of this, or the rest of the Fathers ; but whenever they would speak of the Christians in any kingdom or Province, they always said in the Plural, The Churches, never in the Singular, The Church of such a Kingdom or Province. Thus Diony- sius Alexandrinus doth not say Euseb. lib. 7. c. 5. p. 251. rocTs 'iS vidians, iv KsXroTs, x-ocrx rocs AyotroXots iv ^Aiyvrrru, ev AiC^>3. Lib. 1. c. 3. p. 36. 5 Ecclesiis Asiae et Phrygise. Adversus Praxeam, p, 314. * Per Greciam Ecclesise. De Virgin. Veland. p. 386. the Church, ' but the Church- es of Cilicia. And so Irenceus mentions, ^ The Churches that were in Germany, Spain, France, the East, Egypt, and Lybia. So also Tertullian speaks of the ^ Churches of Asia and Phrygia, and * the Churches of Greece. And so of every Country they always express the Churches thereof in the Plural Number. V. The Word Church frequently occurs for that, which we commonly call the Invisible Church, that is, for those, who by a Sound Repentance and a. lively Faith, are actually interested in the Lord Jesus Christ : According to this signification of the Word, must we understand Tertullian, when he says, that Christ had ^ espoused the Church, and that ^ there was a Spiritual Marriage between Christ and the Church. And that of Irenceus, "> That the Church was fitted according to the form of the Son of God. And in this Sense is the s Christus sibi sponsabat eccle- siam. Advers. Marcion. lib. 4. p. 196. ^ Spirituales nuptias Ecclesise et Christi. Exhort, ad Castitat. p. 455. 7 Ecclesia ad figuram imaginis tilii ejus coaptetur. Lib. 4. c. 72. p. 308. 8 THE CONSTITUTION, V^SCIPLINE, ETC. Word oftentimes used in others of the Fathers, as I might easily shew, if any one did doubt it. VI. The word Church is frequently to be interpreted of the Faith and Doctrine of the Church. In this Sense IrerKEUs prays. That the ^He- 8 Conversos ad ecclesiam Dei, reticks might be reclaimed from Lib. 3. €.46. p. 229. ,i. u ■ jr. , ■^ their Heresies, and be convert- ed to the Church of God ; and exhorts all sincere Christians not to follow Hereticks, but 9 Confugere ad Ecclesiam. Lib. ^^ ,^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ , ^^^^ ' ^' ' which account Hereticks are said to have left the Church, as Tertullian told Marcion that when he became a He- * Ab Ecclesid Christi recessisti. i.'ii/7 j. j n .i ^, . . retick ' he departed from the De came Christt, p. 13. ^, » /. ^v, • ^ i ^i • Church oj Christ, and tneir Heresies are said to be dissonant from the Church, as Ori- „ , , ^ , , ^ qen writes, that the Opinion * AXXoTPiov r-ns eKKXvjo-tay. Com- "^ . . ment.inMat.Tom.U. p. Z04. "^ ^^^ Transmigration of y J I Souls was * alien from the Church. There are yet several other Significations of this Word, though not so usual as some of the forementioned ones, nor so pertinent to my Design, so that I might justly pass them over, without so much as mentioning them : But lest any should be desirous to know them, I will just name them, and then proceed to what is more mate- rial. Besides then those former Significations, the Word according to its Original Import is also used for any Congregation in general ; sometimes it is applyed to any particular Sect of Hereticks^ as Tertullian calls the Mar- cionites ^ the Church of Mar- * Ecclesiam suam. Adversus • k*. ix. ^- •*. • M ' Th f\ of^f; cion: At other times it is * * attributed to the Orthodox OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. in opposition to the Here- ticksj as by the same ^ Ter- tullian : Sometimes it is ap- propriated to the Heathen Assemblies, as by ^ Origerij at other times in Opposition to the Jews it is ascribed to the believing GentileSy as by 6 Irenceus : In some places it is taken for the Deputies of a Particular Church, as in ' Ignatius. In other places it signifies the As- sembly of the Spirits of * Hsereses Ecclesiam lacessen- tes. De pnescript. advers. Hceret. p. 69. xKoKaa-ruVj kou o^inuv. Contra Cels. lib, 3. p. 128. 6 Ea quae ex gentibus est Ec- clesia, Lib. 4. c. 27. p. 271. 7 * Aa-Tra^ofAxi v(/.ois otito 2/xyf»»ff a,yM rods avyi/nx^w Christ as the Head of the Faithful. §. 2. But the usual and common Acceptation of the Word, and of which we must chiefly treat, is that of a Particular Church, that is, a Society of Christians, meet- ing together in one place under their proper Pastors, for the Performance of Religious Worship, and the exercising of Christian Discipline. Now the first thing that naturally presents its self to our Consideration, is to enquire into the Constituent Parts of a Particular Church, or ^ Epist. Eccles. Smirn. ad Ec- who made up and composed such a Church. In the general, they were called Elect, ' the 'ExXsxro/, the cles. Philomil. apud Euseb. lib. 4. c. \5.p. 134. ^ K.X'nrois xoci vytaia-fjiivots iv ^sXi- [/.(xri &10V. Clem, Roman. Epist. 1. ad Cor. p. 1. 10 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Called and Sanctified by the Will of God. And in innumera- ble places they are called 'A^eX(pot the Brethren, because of their Brotherly Love and Affection ; and inaro), the Faithful, - in Opposition to the Pagan World, who had no Faitb in the Lord Jesus Christ, nor in the Promises of the Gospel. But more particularly we may divide them into two Parts; into the People that composed the Body of the Church, and those Persons who were set apart for Religious and Ecclesiastical Employments': f Or to conform to our ordi- 4 Tor^ U^tvaiy 'l^ios o rlfjos zj^oari- nary Dialect, into the Cler- ravtrat, o Xot'Uls avQ^uijos roTs gy and Laity, which is an XotiycoTs rj^oa-rotyfji^xa-iv ^s^irxi. early Distinction, being Epist. I, ad Cor. p. 53. mentioned by * Clemens 5 Homil. 2. in Jerem. p. 113, Romanus, and after him by 114. Vol. 1. 5 Origen, and several others. §. 3. Each of these had their particular Offices, and both together had their joynt Employments, to all which I shall f Our Author's first division of the Members of a Church is just and unexceptionable. He distinguishes them both, as primi- tive and modern Christians do, into Clergy and Laity. His division of the Clergy ^ ^ afterwards into their particu- ° lar Orders and Degrees (as far as Names and Titles go) is as Orthodox and Primitive as the other. For Bishops, Priests, and Deacons (so called at least by him) are as approved Ecclesiastical Officers in his Scheme, as, in a genuine and more proper dis- tinction of them, they always were in every true Church of Christ since the Apostles' times. He seems also fairly to derive all power and authority in the Church- from the true fountain of it, even our blessed Lord him- self, and his inspired Apostles commissioned and empowered by him to plant and govern Churches. But the manner of their conveying this power to others either for assistance or succession to themselves in their great charge (which is a main part of this Enquiry) I fear will not appear so plain. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 11 distinctly speak in the ensuing Tract, as they naturally resolve themselves into these Three Particulars : I. The Peculiar Acts of the Clergy. II. The Peculiar Acts of the Laity. III. The Joint Acts of them both. By the Resolution of which three Questions, some Dis- covery will be made of the Constitution and Discipline of the Primitive Church, and of their Practice with respect to many Points unhappily controverted amongst us. §.4. I begin with the first of these, What were the Peculiar Acts of the Clergy ? Now here must be consi- dered the Functions of every particular Order and Degree of the Clergy, which we may say to be three, viz. Bishops, Priests and Deacons, whose Employments we shall seve- rally handle ; as also several other Points, which under those Heads shall offer themselves unto us. I shall begin first with the Bishop ; but for the better understanding both of him and the rest, it will be necessary, first of all, to consider the Condition of the whole World, as it was before the Preaching of the Gospel, in a state of Paganism and Darkness, having their Understandings clouded with Ignorance and Error, alienated from God, and the true Worship of him, applauding their own brutish Inventions, and adoring as God whatever their corrupted Reason and silly Fancies proposed to them as Objects of Adoration and Homage. Into this miserable state all Mankind, except the Jews, had wilfully cast themselves ; and had not Christ the Sun of Righteousness enlightned them, they would have continued in that lost and bhnd condition to this very day : But our Saviour having on his Cross Triumphed over Principalities and Powers, and perfectly conquered the Devil, who before had ruPd effectually in V OF THl? 4iJn: 13 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. the Heathen World ; and being ascended into Heaven, and sat down at the Right Hand of the Father, on the day of Pentecost he sent down the Holy Ghost on his Apostles and Disciples, who were then assembled at Jeru- salem, enduing them thereby with the Gift of Tongues, and working Miracles, and both commissionating and fitting them for the Propagation of his Church and King- dom, who having received this Power and Authority from on high, went forth Preaching the Gospel, First, to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles, declaring those glad Tidings to all Kingdoms and Provinces ; so that as the Apostle Paul said, Rom. 10. 18. Their sound went into all the Earth, and their words unto the ends of the World ; every one taking a particular part of the World for his proper Province, to make known the joyful News of Life and Salvation through Christ therein. Thus St. jindi^ew principally preached the Gospel in Sct/thia, St. Bartholomew in India, St. Matthew in Parthia, St. John in the Lesser Asia, and all the rest of the Apostles had their particular Provinces allotted them, wherein they went forth preaching the Gospel ; and as they came to any City, Town or Village, they published to the Inhabitants thereof the blessed news of Life and Immortality through Jesus Christ, constituting the first Converts of every place through which they passed. Bishops and Deacons of those Churches which they there gathered, g So saith Cle- ^^KaOicrrayo. r^sj'ncc^x^s airZ. ^^^ Romanus, '^ The Apo- us ivta-KOVovs kxi oixkovovs, Epist, .7 . p .1 1 - , ^ . , ^ , ^ sties went fort/i preaching m I. ad Corinth, p. 54. ^. 1 i / ■ ,- City and Country, appointing s Our Author quotes two authorities from Antiquity, to show the Apostles' method of constituting Pastors and Governours in the Churches which they gathered. The first is from Clemens Romanus, where that Father says, The Apostles went forth preaching in City and Country (as our Enquirer is pleased to OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 13 the First Fruits of their Ministry for Bishops and Deacons ; generally leaving those Bishops and Deacons to govern and enlarge those particular Churches over which they had placed them, whilst they themselves passed forwards, planted other Churches, and placed Governors over them. Thus saith Tertullian ' Cle- 3 Smirn^orum Ecclesia habens mens was ordained Bishop of Polycarpum ab Johanne conlo- Rome by St, Peter, and Poly- catum, Romanorura Clementem carp Bishop of Smirna hy St, h Petro ordinatum. Deprascru John. advers. Hceret' p- 80. translate and place the words) 3 «. » , r \ > but in ' Countries and Cities, , '^ f , , , ^ , ..••>-,, , . ,-. pva-a-ovrss noc-y.arrxvov ras a.zsace'/aki (as it IS in Llemens himself), , , , v x appomtmq the first fruits of „ x-.t t. t^ , , 7- n^. • . i- 75-1 J vovs, 8iC. Clem. Rom, Ep. I. ad their Ministry for Bishops and ^, . Deacons. Thus far Clemens : to • //. • which our Enquirer adds, that the Apostles generally left those Bishops and Deacons to govern those particular Churches over which they had placed them, while they themselves passed forward, 8fC. Now, if he means that they left them always as supreme Church-Governours there, I conceive that the Holy Scriptures will be clearly against him. For the supremacy of power over all the Apostolical Churches, for the greatest part of the Apostles' lives, was reserved in their own hands. It was by this that St. Paul so justly imputed to himself the care of all the Churches, 1 Cor. xi. 28 ; and his commands, censures, and precepts (so visible in most of his Epistles to them) evidently prove the same. Whatever assistants, therefore, these Bishops and Deacons were to the Apostles by their Ministry and Regulation of the Churches under them, they could not have been Ecclesiastical officers invested with a plenitade of Church-power. I only note this here for the sake of the Enquirer's second authority immediately quoted from Tertullian, to the same intent with this : For thus (says he) Tertullian saith, Clemens was ordained Bishop of Rome by St. Peter, and Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna by St. John. See Appendix No. 3. 14 THE CONSTITUTION^ DISCIPLINE^ ETC. §. 5. i* Whether in the Apostolick and Primitive Days, ^ In the fourth Chapter, p. 65 of the Enquiry, our Author asserts that the first who expressed these Church -Officers by the distinct terms of Bishops and Presbyters was Ignatius, who lived in the beginning of the Second Century, From hence I beg to observe these three things : 1st. That as often as we meet with the word Bishop or Pres- byter in the Holy Scriptures, we cannot, by the term itself, determine which of the two, according to the more distinct language of the ages immediately following, we must necessarily understand by it ; unless the context, or some peculiar circum- stance besides, more clearly explain it to us. 2dly. That the same latitude of signification must, for the same reason, be allowed to Clemens Romanus's Bishops and * Clem. Rom. martyred, A. D. Presbyters too, because that holy 100. S. Ignatius sent to 'Bishop sufi-ered martyrdom Rome, and in his way writing ^^^^^^ fgmtius's Epistles were his Epistles, A, D, 107. See written ; wherein the different Dr. Cave's Chron. of the three ^^^ determinate sense of those first Centuries. ^°^^^ (^^ °^^' ^^^^"^^ Enquirer affirms) was first estabhshed in the Church. And therefore, 5 See page 13. ^^^y- ^^ '^ ^"^ J^'^ *° ^^^^^ Tertullian in his 5 quotation, and all the Fathers after him, to mean by their Bishops such as the whole Church did then understand, when the preeminence of that name above the name of Presbyters was fully settled ; and to interpret St. Clemens' s Bishops by that warrantable latitude of signification, which is acknowledged to have been in general use in his time. That many Bishops (indifferently called Presbyters in the Holy Scriptures and first age of the Church) were placed l)y the Apostles in particular Churches, is agreed, I think, by all ; but that more Presbyters than one of that determinate order or degree, which were peculiarly called Bishops afterwards, (such as Clemens placed by St, Peter iX Rome, or Poly carp by St, John at Smyrna) OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 15 there were more Bishops than one in a Church, at first sight seems difficult to resolve : That the Holy Scriptures and '^ Clemens Romanus men- . . , . , , * T7rorix. , • ^7 cj , T^ ' . ^-i- c n is out one Bishop m a Church bacerdos, Epist. 55. § 6. p» . ^ igg at a time. And so Cornelius Objects to Novatian, Thut he ^ 'OvY. ytTfia-rxro hx tTtlaxoiroy did not remember, ^ that there Im ilvxi iv xx9oXiKri enytX-yxr'.oc. Q^gJ^f fg Iq J^jf ^^g Bishop in Ad Fabium. Antioch apud Eu- ^ Church. And throughout sel. lib. 6. c. 43. p. 244. ^^^ ^^^-^^ -E^i^We^ oi Igna^ tiusj and the generality of Writers succeeding him, we find but one single Bishop in a Church, whose Quotations to which purpose would be fruitless to recite here, since the constant Practice of the Universal Church confirms it, and a great part of the following Discourse will clearly illustrate it. ^ Only it may not be impertinent to remark this by with the following scheme of this Enquiry. Oar learned Author, who discerns that every Presbyter who ministered in any Church had received Episcopal authority by Apostolical Institution or Succession, as properly and truly as any Bishop in the Catholic Church, stood greatly in need of an epithet of a superlative degree to distinguish him from any other Ecclesiastical officer within the Church. But when the primitive Fathers named a Bishop of a Church, they needed no such distinguishing epithet : but concluded that the original order he was of, did that of course for them. ^ Our Author had just said that there was but one supreme Bishop in a Church : and yet he forthwith observes to us, that by the ^tx^o^ocl, or succession of Bishops, ordained by the Apostles, the Orthodox were wont to prove the succession of their Faith, and OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 17 the way, that by the hot^o^at], or succession of Bishops, from those Bishops who were Ordained by the Apostles, the Orthodox were wont to prove the Succession of their Faith, and the Novelty of that of theHereticks,i£e< ' ^'^"°' °"S'"'' ecclesiarum ., , ^ ^ ^7 r\ • 7 suarum, evolvant ordinem Epi- tnem demonstrate the Unqinai /.,. . ryi 1 rn 77- scoporum suorum, ita per suc- oj their Lnurches,^^ lertutiian . i • •^- j "^ ' cessiones ab initio decurrentem, challenges the Marcionites ^t primus ille episcopus aliquem and other Hereticks ; Le^ e^ Apostolis vel Apostolicis them turn over the Orders of ^iris qui, tamen cum Apostolis their Bishops y and see whether perse veraver it, habuerit auto- they have had a Succession of rem et antecessorem. Hoc Bishops from any one who was enim modo Ecclesiae Apostoli- Constituted by the Apostles or cse census suos deferunt, sicut Apostolick Men: Thus the Smirnseorum Ecclesia habens truly Apostolick Churches Polycarpum ab Johanne con- have, as the Church of Smirna locatum refert, sicut Romano- has Polycarp there placed by ^^°^ Clementem a Petro ordi- the novelty of that of Heretichs : and quotes two authorities from Irenaeus and Tertullian. 7 i SeeMargin pp. 17 and 18. Here was an early occasion given for his singular distinction (if he could have warranted it) of a supreme Bishop, amongst many other Apostolical Bishops in the same Church together. For with- out such a distinction, this great Catholic test to try the true faith by, would have proved no test at all : for if more Bishops than one, of equal original Order and Apostolical Institution, were ordinarily in the same particular Church together, (as our learned Author affirms) then to prove the Orthodoxy of a Church's Faith, by the succession of one particular Apostolic Bishop, had no con- sequence in it at all : because some other of those Apostolically ordained Bishops might possibly be at the head of an heretical Congregation ; and then the original Order and Succession of these might have been as warrantable an argument for them, as the like could be for the other ; and by that means Heresy and the true Faith would have stood upon an equal footing with one another. ' 18 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. natum proinde utique exhibent, St. Jolm, and the Church of quos ab Apostolis in Episco- Rome Clement, ordained by patum constitutes, Apostolici Peter ; and other Churches seminis traduces habeant. De ^^^ ^^//^ ^^/^^ ^^^.^ ordained prosscript. advers.Haret. p. 78. bishops over them hy the Apostles, and who have been their Successors to this very day. 8 Earn traditionem quae est ab So also says Irencms, ^ We Apostolis, quae per Successiones challenge the Hereticks to that Presbyterorum in ecclesiis cus- Tradition, which was handed toditur, provocamus eos. Lib. down from the Apostles by 3. c. '2. p. 170. the Succession of Bishops. o r-/L o o ir.,, ,^,, And in the 9 next Chapter 9 1,2^. 3. c. 3.;?. 170, 171. „ . r> i ^i, -j of the same Book, the said Father gives us a Catalogue of the Bishops of Rome till his days, hy whom the true Faith was successively trans- mitted down from the Apostles ; in which Catalogue we find but one Bishop at a time, and as he died, so another single Person succeeded him in the Charge of that Flock or Parish. So that this Consideration evidences also, that there was but one Bishop strictly so called, in a Church at a , . ^ ^,. V time, w^ho was related to * A pastore oves, et fihos a . . i_- , , _, . ^ „ . ^ his Flock, ^ as a Fast or to parente separare. Cypr. Epist. ' 38. 6 1 V 90 ^"^ Sheep, and a Parent to his Children. ' The Titles of this ^ The Titles (says he) of this supreme Church- Officer are most of them reckoned up in one place by Cyprian, which are Bishop, Pastor, President, Governour, Superintendent (so he translates Antistes) and Priest, S^c. Now w ould not the generality of Readers be apt to think that these are the appropriated titles of his supreme Church -Officer ? and that whenever they met with them in St. Cyprian's writings, or any other of such primitive antiquity, they must always understand that supreme Church-Officer by them ? else why so carefully noted here ? But, it is quite the contrary ; for in his OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 19 Supreme Church-Officer are most of them reckoned up in one place by Cyprian^ which 2 r>- 2L r> J r» • "^ Episcopus, Praepositus, Pas- are ^Bishop, Pastor. Presi- \^ , , . , ^ ^ o • . tor, Gubernator, Antistes, ba- , 7 T. . A -. T • cerdos. Eptst. 69. §.5. ». 208. dent and Priest. And this is he, which in the Revela- „ ~ , ^ ^zows IS called 3 the Angel of ^ , ,, . x /> *^. "^ (Tiuv ayyBAovs Atytaboci 'jrapoc ru his Church, as Oriqen thinks, ., / , ~ . . i , 7-j' which Appellations denote Oratione, §35, p. 34. both his Authority and Of- fice, his Power and Duty, of both which we shall some- what treat, after we have discoursed of the Circuit and Extent of his Jurisdiction and Superintendency, which shall be the Contents of the following Chapter. 4th Chap. § 3. Obs. 10, the Enquirer labours to prove that most of all these supreme titles were equally given, and did of right belong, to any Presbyter whatever in the Christian Church. All the Presbyters in any Church are, in that case, to be owned for Primitive Bishops, without any farther authority or ordination than they had before, principally because the same name is familiarly used by the ancients to express them both by : so that having first possessed his Readers, that these fore-mentioned titles are peculiarly Bishop's titles, and then shewing, that many of them are often attributed to Presbyters, he seems to think the infer- ence will readily be admitted, that they are unquestionably Bishops too. But by this argument liis Presbyters must every one of them be supreme Bishops. For the latter are first sup- posed to preside over their respective Churches or Congregati- ons; and if the several titles of his supreme Church-Officer are common to all Presbyters, then they likewise must be chief Bishops, so far as such titles can make them Bishops at all. E 2 20 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. CHAPTER II. §.1. As but one Bishop to a Church, so but one Church to a Bishop. The Bishop's Cure never called a Diocess, but usually a Parish, no larger than our Parishes. §-2. De- monstrated by sevej'al Arguments. §.3. A survey of the Extent of several Bishopricks, as they were in Ignatius^s Days, as of Smirna. §. 4. Ephesus. §.5. Magnesia. §. 6. PhHadelphia. §. 7. Trallium. §. 8. The Bigness of the Diocess of Antiocb. §. 9. Of Home. §. 10. Of Carthage. §.11. A Reflection on the Diocess o/ Alexan- dria. §. 12. Bishops in Villages. §. 13. All the Christ- ians of a Diocess met together in one place every Sunday to serve God. §. 1. " HAVING in the former Chapter shewn that there was but one Bishop to a Church, we shall in this ™ The great point to be cleared up in the 2nd Chapter is this, that as there was but one Bishop to a Church, so there was but one Church to a Bishop. By a Bishop's Church, we know, our Au- thor means a single Congregation ; and he would have us assured that the Primitive Fathers meant so too. His observation is this : That the ancient Dioceses are never said to contain Church- es in the plural, but only a Church in the singular. Now, not , _- ., -. T^ 1 1 to mention that the observation ^ Uf Alexandria, see Ji.useb. 1. . ^ /r , -t-i i- ^ _ - _ , „ IS untrue, (for ^ huseoius nsLiaes 5. c. 9. Of Jiimesa and Gaza, ^i a>,, i r a7 j • _ , , the Churches of Alexandria, see Euseb. 1. 8. c. 13. ^ „ o • 4.u i i Gaza, Emesa, &c., m the plural number, and their Bishops in the singular,) I would remark that what these Dioceses contained in them (whether one or more of „ ~ , . ^ , . such Churches as he means) his ® See his quotations in page „ . ' ^_ - ^, T-. • quotations say not. They 21 of the Enquiry. , . , , , ,^. , , shew indeed, that a Bishop s Church was usually expressed and named at that time in the singular ; which so far from denying, we are ready also to admit, that they were just so expressed and named too in after ages of or THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 21 Evidence, that there was but one Church to a Bishop, which will appear from this single Consideration, viz. That the ancient Diocesses are never said to contain Churches, in the Plural, but only a Church in the Singular. So they say, » the Church of the i t^v Ko^iMuv U^cXrxrixv. Clem. Corinthians, ® the Church of Smirna, ^ the Church in Magnesia, ^ the Church in Philadelphia, ^ the Church in Antioch, and so of any other place whatsover, the Church of, or in such a place. Rom. Epist, 1 . p. 62. ^ Smirnis Ecclesia. Irenosus lib. 3. c. 3.J9. 171. ^ T^v ixycKv)a-iixv ty)v ova-acv ev Macy- v»3<7ta. Ignat. Epist. 4. p. 30. * ExxX*?o-ta rf, ovart iv 4>iAaSeX^t^. Idem Epist. 5. p! 38. ^ T^v sx.K\y)crl(xy rv)v iv *Avrtoy^si^. Idem Ibidem, p. 45, the Church, as well as in the first and earliest of them. In the fourth Century, under Constantine the Great, the celebrated Diocese of Antioch is called no s -p^y xara. Avrto^eicxv 'ExxAij- a-'iois. Euseb. in vit. Constant. 1. 3. c. 61. * T« r^s 'EKxXY/a-iats ru iv *Upo 24 193 ^^^ ^^^ twice called ^ Pfl- riskes. And in Eusehius's Ecclesiastical History the "Word is so applied in several ® Provincia Australium Saxo- i\um ad civitates Ventanse paro- chiam pertinebat, Bede Eccle. Hist. 1. 5. c. 19. And, to come home to our- selves, the Venerable Bede '^ calls the Diocese of Winchester, by the same name, even when the whole province of the South Saxons belonged to it. 3dly. Our learned Author assures us that the very significa- tion of the word -crafo/xia makes all clear : for it signifies, (says he,) a dwelling one by another, as neighbours do, or an habitation in one and the same place. But here I must beg leave to say, that the word is taken in a very difi^erent sense by writers of unquestion- able authority, and is sufficiently warranted by Glossaries and Critics on the Greek Language * Suicer in vocib. 'sja^omiu et vxx^QiKix* Ylot^oiKiu significat Advena, peregrinus sum, et opponitur t« Koc.roiy.uy, quod, juxta veteres Glossas, Habito, incolo. to be so. 3 Suicer in his first observations on the word zsx- ^oiKzu, renders it by the Latin, Advena or Peregrinus sum, that is, I am a stranger or foreigner in any place. And he imme- diately adds that this very word is put in direct opposition to xasTo/xery, which, * according to ancient Glosses, signifies to dwell or have an habitation in any place. And what this * Philo Judseus de Sacrif. Abel j^^icious Glossary thus affirms, he makes good by the authori- ties of ^ Philo JudfBus, 5 St. Basil the Great, ^ Theodoret, and others. Perhaps it may be alleged that the Greek Preposition ntx^x, when joined in composi- et Cain. 'O ro7s lyycuytkUis (AQvois kzirxn^uv zsx^otKti a-o^soc, ov axroi- iuT. 5 Basil, m. in Ps. 14. t. 1. p. 149. 'H ZTx^oiKix iorr) ^txyuyv ij^oa-Kxi^os. 6 Theodoret. in Ps. 119. p. 911, * TlxpoiKtxv KxKst, rviv iv rv otP^or^t^ hxyuy^iK tjQjj ^j^j^ another word, as it is here, often signifies the same as (juxta) with the Latins, that OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 25 hundred Places. It is usual there to read of the Bishops of the '^ Parish of Alexandria, „ ^ , . o ^ v of the 3 Parish of Ephesus, /,-^, 2. c. 24. p. QQ. of the * Parish of Corinth, ' Tris iv E^ia-u zjoc^oikIxs , lib. 3. of the Parish of s Athens, "^'"^'J' 73./ 0/ ^^e '^ Parish of Carthage ; ^ 4 » 74 and so of the Bishops of the s t^j 'a9»jv«/wv zjoc^oixtxs, lib. Parishes of several other 4. c. 23. p. 144. Churches; by that Term ^ T^k '^^^^ K«^%^^oW ^^^o^k/^., ^ . \ ^ lib. 7. ca». 3. p. 2ol. denoting the very same, that we now call a Parish, viz. a competent number of Chris- tians dwelling near together, having one Bishop, Pastor, or Minister set over them, with whom they all met at one time to worship and serve God. This may be evinced from the intent of the Word it self, which signifies a Dwelling one by another, as Neighbours do ; or an Habi- tation in one and the same place, as the Church of Smirna writ to the Church » that , ^ . t- i i-l a i r ^ Apud. tuseo. ho. 4. c. 15. «. Panshed m Philomelium, t^ ,29 xjoc^oiycova-fi iv ^iT^oiArnXtu. And the Epistle of Clemens Romanus is to the Church of God * Parishing at Corinth, zsx^ot- 2 Epist, \ . ad Cor. p. 1 . is, nigh or near to any place. „ ,^. , ,, , ^ .. ,., , Bf 1 fT n • /.u . 7 Vide Matth. Devarii, lib. de But let ' Devarius (that accu- ^ ^ . . , x^ ,. , 4. r^ •4.- ..1. T. ^- 1 c Grsec. Mn\g. particul. Edit, du rate Critic on the Particles of ^ a n ifip;7 P the Greek tongue) be heard in ... . g. . this case ; and he will teach us, that we cannot, with any autho- rity, attribute such a determinate sense to it. His note upon it is this ; h zja^a, non solum to iyyvs, sed etiam ro iri^ot koci s^co significat ; that is, the Preposition tict^oe, not only signifies night or near to, but also beyond, or from abroad, and without, according to the different phrases or authors in which it may occur. This sufficiently justifies the above mentioned ancient writer's using it (even in the word before us) in direct opposition to that of dwelling nigh one another in one and the same place. F 26 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Mvan KofivOoy, that is, dwelling or living in Philomelium, and Co- rinth ; so that a Parish is the same with a Particular Church, or a single Congregation ; which is yet more evident from a passage in the Dissertations of Apollonius against Alexan- der a Cataphrygian Ileretick, wherein it is said. That 3 e „ ,^, , , V „/, r because that Heretick had H idLX ZJlXPOlKia, OiVTOV oUsv flV . -r» t l IP > .^,j. . J r^ ,., , been a Kobber, thereiore ovyi zdiE,a,ro. Apud Eus. lib. ID. C , .77 J g I g2 ^ Ihat Parish to which he be- longed would not receive him, that is, that particular Church or Congregation to which he appertained, excluded him from Communion because of his Depredations and Robberies ; so that a Parish and a Particular Church are Synonimous Terms, signifying one and the same thing; and consequently a Bishop having but one Parish under his Jurisdiction, could ex- tend his Government no farther than one single Congre- gation; because a single Congregation and a Parish were all one, of the same Bulk and Magnitude. §. 2. o But that the Bishops Diocess exceeded not the Bounds of a modern Parish, and was the same, as in Our Author asserts, that a Bishop's Diocese and a modern Parish were the same, as in name, so in thing. 1 wish he had begun his proof of this, where the Church itself began, and had thought Jerusalem, the original platform of Christian Churches, as worthy of his notice as any of the rest, and Scrip- ture-evidence as tit to be considered, as other authorities that he is pleased to use. But he has cautiously declined both the one and the other. Is it so obvious to common sense, as not to deserve a little notice, how the many thousands from time to time converted in so A.-ir •• A^ .^ Jerusalem alone, and the dailv ^ See Acts 1. 15 ; 11. 41 ; 47 ; . , . r 1 u . ■ ^ . „ mcrease or them, * should com- iv. 4 V . 14 ■ vi. 7. modiously, or indeed possibly worship God in one and the same place ; since they had neither a temple nor any other building large enough to hold such a numerous assembly ? And yet 8t. James, the Bishop of this OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 27 Name, so also in Thing, will appear from these following Observations, as. Church, in a few years after, calls these thousands of converted Jews by the multiplied number of myriads of them.9 The in- ^ ®'''^"^'' ^^'^^'' '"^''°'' M.^;a^5. spired penmen, who relate all "'^'^ '^'"^^^'1^" '''''' ^^^'<^^^'^>'°^'^'" this, had Httle reason to amuse ^^^^ ^^^' '^^• posterity, with the number, method, or nature of the Churches, Oratories, or Meeting-houses, (call them what we please,) wherein those" multitudes of Converts held assemblies for the offices and mysteries of their new religion, (though their breaking bread from house to house, the Churches mentioned in private and particular houses there, are no imperfect intimations of it,) but the matter of fact which they relate, commands our faith. Tertullian says of every place in general, that numbers • of ' Tanta hominum multitudo. Christians, in his early age, pars pane major cujusque civita- were well nigh the greater tis. Tertul. ad Scap. c. 2. p. 86. part of every city ; for so he frankly tells the persecuting Scapula. And again, to all the Roman Magistrates, in his Apology, he glories in the multitudes of his profession, and gives an account utterly incomprehensible, if the largest City in the Empire had no more than a single Congregation in it : ^ We are of yesterday , (says he) yet every place is filed with us; your Cities, the Islands, the Forts, your Corporations, the Councils, the * Hesterni sumus, et vestra om- nia implevimus; urbes, insulas, castella, municipia, conciliabula, castra ipsa, tribus, decurias, palatium, senatum, forum ; Armies, the Tribes and Compa , ..... , - „ , o ^ sola vobis reliquimus templa. mes : yea the Palace, benate _, , . , „„ '^ ^ r - Tertul. Apol. p. 33. cap. 37. and Courts of Justice : your ,^. : , . . ,. fei tanta vis hommum in ahquem of Justice ; your Temples only have we left you free. Should we go off and separate from you, you would stand amazed at your own deso- lation, be affrighted at the stop F orbis remotisinum abrupissemus a vobis — proculdubio expavis- setis ad solitudinem vestram, ad silentium rerum, et stuporem 28 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. 1. All the People of a Diocess did every Sunday meet all together in one place to celebrate Divine Service, quendam quasi mortui orbis. Id. ih. and deadness of affairs amongst you, &c* Eusehius, when he speaks in general of primitive Christian Churches in every City and Country, about the close of the Apostolic age, uses such terms to express the multitudes and number of them, as rather ' Ka/ StjTiz avoc, fta.tra.s moKtis re iKKXv}. 7 , , Ottov ocv > . , , J,. , „ , , " Ex£/v*) ^sloocta, EvyacPtaTKX vtys v- Without the Bishop i " let that o, c , » , , r * t J^ucharist be counted valid with „ ^ , , a j c T . T . , , , , av a,vTQs fnirei^-n. Ad omym. you, which is celebrated by your Bishop , or by such an one as he shall authorize to do it ? And immediately after, as soon as he had told them that without the Bishop it was not lawful to bap- CQ THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. * 'Avxyyiutov ovv eVr/v avev roZ the People must be; and ivta-Kozrov (/.ri^ev zy^aaatu v^ois, ^ there is a necessity that we Epist. ad Tralles, p. 48. do nothing^ without the Bi- tize, or celebrate their Love-feast, (which implies communion , « * ~ ^ ,9 . too,) he adds, as it were by , ^ ^ J ^V way of exception : ^ But ivhat xa* ru Qeu ivdeecrrov. Ad Smyrn. . ,,7 ^ • ^7 r>- 7 , n ' he (that is the Bishop) approves, ^ ' * that is acceptable unto God, It seems then that the Bishop's permission and approbation were, in the holy Martyr's sense, as good as his very act and deed. And no less is plainly to be seen in that great argument, by which he enjoins this dutiful regard to the Bishop in his charge to the Magnesians. 9 As the Lord 9 "Ot/T£ 01 txvrov, ovrs oia. ruiv . unj'j ji* ^i- 7^ ^ ^ ' , (says he) did nothing of himself, WOO-TO uv, p. g ' V' or by his Apostles, without the Father ; so neither do you with- 1 It is to be noted that our ^"^ ^^^ Bishops and Presbyters. cautious Enquirer, in quoting ' I" ^he relative part of this this passage, has left out the comparison, we see that what whole former part of this com- ^^^ Lord did either by him- parison in his original in the ^e/f or Ai^Jpos^Zes, commission- margin, and these words [6y ed by him, are implied to be himself or by his Apostles,-] in the same thing : and therefore his translation of it in the text, i^ the correlative, what the Church should do by the mi- nistry of the Bishop himself, or of the Presbyters commissioned by him, by a just analogy of sense, must be the same too. That the primitive Bishops could and did assign to Presbyters separate places to minister in, as well as depute them to the Ministry itself, the learned ICnquirer himself bears witness in § 11. of this Chapter, where, giving an account of the populous Church of Alexandria, he confesses, that because it was incommo- dious for all the people to assemble in their own usual Meeting- place, which was very far from their own homes, and withal to avoid Schism from their Bishop, the people asked leave, and the good Bishop Dionysius granted it, that they should erect a Chapel of Ease. (He might have said Chapels in the Plural, if he OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 31 shop ; since 4 it is unlawful * "Ovk I^ov ia-nv x^f *^ '^o^ itna-y.o- to do any thing without him; ■^'"^' oirz Jxirri^.iy otrt dydm-n, „ , ,7 T^ . • Tioiiiv. Jbptst. ad Snurn. p. 6. tor 5 where the Fastour is, , „^ v«v « x » . ~ . there the Sheep ought to foU ^^^jS^rcc ukoT^ov^bite. Epist. ad low ; f wherefore ^ as Christ Philadelph. p. 40. did nothing without the Fa- ^ "Anv roZ i'maxoTrov xxl ruv pleased; for in the Historian .> rr v / ^ ' -rw himself there is the ^sameautho- ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^ ^^ ^ j^^ rity for it) ; and this about the Suburbs of the Cily, and to be under the Bishop's jurisdiction, and guided by a Presbyter of Us , g^^ Appendix, No. 5. commission and ^'appointment. How directly this passage (from Euseb, Eccle. Hist. I. I.e. 11 .) contradicts the whole scheme for which it was produced, is obvious to any Reader by the bare recital of it. Here are several assem- blies of Christians under the jurisdiction of one Bishop ; subor- dinate and accountable Presbyters, by permission and commission of that one Bishop, officiating separately in them ; and distinct places assigned for their doing so. How far this is like our Enquirer's Congregational Diocese, or can be reasonably opposed to a genuine Episcopal one, even in after ages of the Church, I leave the Reader to judge. '^ There is nothing in the forementioned quotations from Ignatius, (the force of all which appears to be much the same,) but what falls in with the interpretation, which I have given of the phrase (that without the Bishop nothing should be done) ; unless perhaps it may be said, that the phrases iiti ro oivro and /x/as ^ina-is, will not consist with this ; by the former of which it is concluded for certain, that the whole Diocese or Bishop's Church assembled in one place together ; by the latter, that all public prayer, and religious duties, were so jointly performed. Let the context direct us in the case ; which, together with the sense, that approved Commentators, and other Ecclesiastical writers, give us of the words themselves, will help us to a fair construction of them. In the words immediately preceding, the 32 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. ir^KrQvri^uv /u-u^sv -nrfao-o^TE, axx' ther, SO do you nothing with- im TO otvTo (jiix fT^ocrsvxy), //.*'« out the Bishop and Preshyters, ^ha-is, BIS vovs, fxioc sXitis. Epist. but assemble into the same ad Magnes. p. 33. Place, that you may have one holy Martyr warns the Magne^ A 1 T»/r sians * to account nothing for a vsa-^xi tdioc vu.iv. Ad Magnes. p. ,, • ^t ^ j ^ ' '^ or reasonable service, that was done * M*j^e WE/^afT^jTs tvXoyov ri (poet- vEcr 33 privately, or in their own pri- vate way : agreeably, no doubt, to the Apostolic charge, Heb. x. 25, that they should not forsake the assembling of themselves together, but meet for public worship under the proper minister of their Church. Now, if it had been clearly proved by any expressions before, that there neither was nor ought to be, any more than one single house of prayer, or of public worship, within a Bishop's Diocese, and that his personal ministry was absolutely necessary in all divine offices ; it might have been fairly inferred, that they were all obliged to assemble with him, in that one individual place alone ; but since the holy Martyr himself had informed us elsewhere that the most solemn offices of public worship were valid in themselves and acceptable to God, when performed by any person whom the Bishop should autho- rize and approve : we are sure, that if any number or society of members in the Diocese had assembled for public worship, under any Presbyter so commissioned by him, they had answered the full import of the holy Martyr's charge against private and clandestine ways of worshipping. With respect to the phrase I'm ro ocvrl, I wish to observe, that it does not so much denote a place, as it does a thing in general, according to the known rule of all such neutral words. Thus Grotius explaining iwi ro airo in Acts iii. 1, translates it circa idem tempus, that is, about the same time. And in Bezas Transla- tion of the New Testament, the note and paraphrase upon it. Acts ii. 44,' is this ; that ^ the com- s Ita communes EcclesiaeccBtus ^^^ assemblies of the ChurcK significantur cum mutua in ean- ^.^;^ ^^^^y ^^^^^^ agreement in dem doctrinam consensione, et ^^^ ^^^^ doctrine, and the great OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 33 Prayer, one Supplication, one 7 'e< yap hos kxi ^evte^ov wfoo-«u- Mind, and one Hope ; ' for if n-n roaocvrviv ^a-y^vv sp^e/, TToo-w the Prayer of one or two have (Jt-oixxov vts roZ itrfo-Kozjov, x.xi so great a force, how much itdfrns UKK-na-Us ; o olv ^^ i^x^- unanimity of their hearts, were summa animorum concordia. signified by it. K^YQQdih\Qio'^\i\ch. Not. ad Bez. in Act. ii. 44. construction of it, is what we Vid. etiam Poli Synops. in Act. meet with in the Greek Trans- ii. 44. lation of Ps. xxxiv. 3, where that which the Septuagint render I'jil TO avro, by Aquila is translated oiJio^v(yi.xTov, that is, with one mind, and one heart. It is said in Acts iv. 26, 27, that Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered against Christ ezj) ro ccvro — were they all in one place, and at one time together ? And I need not remind the reader that in Justin Martyr's use of the phrase, (see page 29,) it could not be under- stood in the sense that our learned Enquirer here puts upon it, without the absurdity of bringing the Christians of whole Cities and Countries together, into one and the same individual place at once But is it possible, you will say, that ^/as ir^oa-Ev^ri and (aim ^evxTis, that is one prayer and one supplication for a whole Church, should be consistent with this plurality of Congrega- tions ? Let us see what we mean by it ; and then perhaps we shall argue more clearly about it. From the nature of the thing itself, it is clear that prayer must be one, either in respect of the phrase and words in which it is uttered ; or in respect of the sense and substance, the heads or subject matter of which it is composed : that is, it must be one, either in respect of the matter, or in respect of the form of it ; for to say it must be one here, on the account of admitting but one place or one person in a Diocese to offer it up, is to bey the ques- tion, which it is brought to prove. Now, that it is not meant to be one, in the former sense, will, I suppose, be readily granted ; for that would make St. Ignatius to prescribe a form, or mere common Liturgy in the Church : which our opponents would scarcely allow. And therefore, 2dly, it must be understood to be one, in G 34 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. , V V , , T „v. , more prevalent must that be, (jLSvos 597/ To avro^ ovros ■noYi vzutp- . . . ^rr^^.r ^ ' ' ■^ ' ' which is made hi the Bishop T«. ya^ lz,^^r,Xam, ^ o 0£o. ^^^ ^^'^ ^^^^k Church ? He a,rirdivj ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^oth not assemble ocvriTa.(TCT!a9Mi ru izjiaKO'sru, I'va. together, IS proud, and hath w/xev @iov vtroTcta-aoixsvoi. Epist. condemned himself : For it is ad Ephes.p. '20. written, God resisteth the Proud. Let us not therefore respect of the sense and substance of it ; or, in plainer terms, it roust be prayer made with strict analogy to the one common faith, and sound doctrine of the one Catholic Church throughout the Christian world, as every true Christian prayer ought to be. That this was St. Ignatius s meaning in the phrase, we may infer, 1st, from the words he immediately joins with it, one prayer, one supplication, (says he) one mind, and one hope ; — the two latter words imply a plain unity in them, and yet have so diffusive a sense, as to extend to all the Congregations of the Catholic Church ; and therefore why not the two former ? And 2dly, we may infer it from the use he was then making of it : which was to secure them from schism and heretical opinions. Tertullian, in his Apology, declared to the Roman Magistrates, what kind of prayer the Christian Churches used in general, how innocent their petitions were, and frankly mentions several particulars of them, by way of upbraiding them for persecuting subjects that prayed, and lived so loyally and harmlessly as they 6 Oramus pro Imperatoribus. ^'^' ' ^^ ^^ ^^"^^ ^^'^^''^ ^^'^ pro ministris eorum, ac potesta- without some common Liturgies tibus, pro statu seculi, pro (then at least) in use among rerum quiete, pro raord finis, them, or some known Canon of P° ' ^* the Ministerial Offices ; surely it could be on no other grounds than this, that he was sure the prayers of the Christian Churches were one, and the same, in all places ; that is, they were bound to bear a strict analogy to that one Creed, that one and the same system of Christian doctrine, and that one divine model of all prayer, which our blessed Lord deliver- ed to them, and by which all of them were known to be guided. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 35 resist the Bishop, that we may be subject to God. So that these Passages clearly prove. That all the Members of the Bishops Church assembled together in one Place to send up their common Prayers to the Throne of Grace, and to discharge those other Religious Duties which were incum- bent on them ; which convincingly evidences the Bishops Church to be no bigger than our Parishes ; for if it had been bigger, it would have been impossible, that the Members thereof, should have constantly assembled to- gether in one Place, as we see here they did. 2. • The Bishop had but one Altar or Communion Table in his whole Diocess, at which his whole Flock received * For proof of this, our author cites those words of St. Ignatius to the Philadelphians, " There is but one altar, as but one Bishop." To explain which phrase, I shall join to it a parallel expression of St. Cyprian; rendered by , ^y^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^i^^j^ ^^^ our Enquirer thus : T' No man Sacerdotium novum fieri, praeter can regularly constitute a new umim, altare et unum Sacerdo- Bishop, or erect a new altar, tium, non potest. Cyp. Ep. besides the one Bishop and the i^' ^'^' ^dit. Pamel. Ep. 43. „ , . ^ . , Edit. Oxon. one altar. It is very evident that what St. Cyprian here calls a new Priesthood, and one Priest- hood, our learned author renders by a new Bishop and one Bishop : which proves, indeed, that he believed it to be a parallel place to that of St. Ignatius, (as it really is,) because he translates both in the very same words. But, in the mean time, he so disguises St. Cyprian's text, that he hides from the English reader's sight the main key which would open the genuine sense of this, and similar expressions ; not only in these two Fathers, but in all the writings of primitive antiquity. For the unity of the altar, the unity of the Bishop, the unity of the Eucharist, the unity of Christian prayer, and the very unity of the whole Church itself, all rest upon the same foundation that the unity of the Christian „ -^ . „ . - - , ST-.- Episcopatus est unus, cuius Priesthood does; * " iLpisco- . ,. . ,.j . r. ^ . . 1 • a singulis m solidum pa^s tene- pacy, (says bt. Cyprian, m his G 2 36 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. * 'Ev ^va-ioco'Tin^tov uselsl'zuta-yco'aos, the Sacrament from him. Epist. ad Philad. ;;. 41 . i There is but one Altar, says Ignatius, as there is but one Bishop. At this Altar the Bishop administred the Sacrament to his whole Flock at Tract of the Unity of the tur. Ecclesia quoque una est, Church) is but one : a part quae in multitudinem latins in- whereof each (Bishop) holds, so cremento foecunditatis extendi- as to be interested for the whole. tur : quo modo solis multi The Church is also one, which radii, sed lumen unum, &c : by its fruitful increase improves Numerositas licet diffusa vide- into a multitude, as the beams of atur exundantis copise largitate, the sun are many, as branches unitas tanien ser\2itur in origine. from trees, and streams from a Cypr. de Unit. Eccl. p. 108- fountain: whose number, though Edit. Oxon . it seems dispersed by the abundant plenty of them, yet their unity is preserved by the common original of them all. Let us just apply this plain rule to the passage before us ; and we shall see that the primitive expressions of one Church, one altar, and one Bishop, may evidently consist with as many Churches, Altars and Bishops, as can be proved to have been derived from the same ori- ginal Institutor ; and that, in a primitive Bishop's Diocese, as well as in the most extensive one of this or any former ages, instead of there necessarily being but one Communion-Table, there might have been several, provided every one who ministered at any of them, had a just commission from his Bishop to do so. Hence we see what Ignatius meant, when he said (Epist. ad Ephes. p. 20) : Let us take care not to resist or drawup forces against the Bishop, if we intend not to withdraw our subjection from God: and what the ancients meant, when they called a schismatical usurpation of the Episcopal power, by the name of B. profane altar. This our learned Enquirer urges again and again, as an argument to prove, that there could be but one single Congregation in a whole Diocese, though the ministers of a second, or third, or more, should agree with the Bishop himself in all his principles and ministrations, and be even authorized OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 37 one time. So writes Cy- „ ^ . .^ ^ ^ ^_._ , , , ^ Sacramenti veritatem frater- pinan, "- * fre celebrate the Sa- ., ^ . , , , -^ ^ nitate omni prabsente celebra- crament, the whole Brother- ^^^^^ ^^-^^^ q,^ ^^ ^^^ ^ ^^y hood being present. And 9 """n av ayror i7r/r^£4/»7. Ad Smyrn. p. 6. and approved of by him ; whereas 9 St. Ignatius expressly tells us, that a Bishop might so authorize and approve them, in which case they were so far from being thought to have erected a profane altar, that they were truly owned to be but one. * The second part of our Author's main proposition is, that all the people of the Diocese received together at once. In support of this he quotes some words from St. Cyprian which he is pleased to render thus, ^ " We celebrate .7 * *i I J I ^ Ut sacramenti veritatem fra- tne bacrament, the whole bro- ,,,,,. ^ ^, ternitate omni prsesente cele- therhood bemq present. Ob- , _, „ , ^ f w 1 bremiis. Cyp. Ep. 63. Edit, serve what an useful turn he ^ , ^ . , .. _. , Oxon. 1691. Arastel. gives to this quotation, by translating it with that variation, we do celebrate, instead of that we might celebrate ; which makes it directly St. Cyprian's act and deed in his own Diocese. The occasion of the words, as they stand in the original, was this : * St. Cyprian was complaining ^ Quoniam quidam vel ignoran- to Csecilius of persons in some ter, velsimpliciter in calicedomi- ^^Zaces, who, either out of igno- nicosanctificandoetplebiminis- rance, or simplicity of heart, trando, non hoc faciunt, quod celebrated the holy Eucharist Jesus Christus sacrificii hujus with water only in the Chalice, auctor — fecit, &c. Cypr. ib. without wine. What! (says sub init. the zealous Bishop,) are they afraid, that the heathen should discover them in their morning sacrifices, by the smell of wine ? What will they do in time of persecution, if they are so ashamed of the blood of Christ in the very offerings themselves ? or do many of them excuse themselves thus ; that though water only was offered in the morning, yet when they come to supper, they offer a mixed cup then } To 38 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. , „ ^ . , , . , thus it was in Justin Mar- /; , ^' fyrs Days, ^ The Bishop's nrxyruv e-cr* to avTO crvvsXsva-is i j n- 7 , ^ ,^ V . , , z^Ao/e Diocess met together on yivBTxi^ oicx,oo(Tis KXi V iJL,tTa,X'ny\/is ^ > X V . /j; , / Sunday, when the Bishon y'mro^i, Kcc). ro's oi 'Tra^oZat ^i gave them the EuchaHst ; and ruy ^ixytovut Trifx.TTsrcci . Apolog. «/ «^2/ «^^^^ «Z»5e/i^, Ae sent it 2. j9. 98. ^0 Mem by the Deacons. Certainly that Diocess could not be large, where all usually communicated at one time ; and the Deacons carried about the Consecrated Eucharist to those that were absent; which would have been an endless and painful Task for the Deacons, had their which St. Cyprian replies. But when we sup, we cannot call the people to our feast, that we might celebrate the truth of the Sacrament, (namely in a mixed cup, as it ought to be,) with all the brotherhood about us. This is the occasion of the words before us ; in which, it is easy to perceive, there is no reference to St. Cyprian in person, or possibly to any in his Diocese, though in the name of Christ- ians in general, he says, that we might celebrate the Sacrament aright, &c. If the words did refer to him, they would demonstrate that he had more Congregations than one in his Church ; for in his own Cathedral, he surely did not minister so, or else he would be reasoning strangely indeed. It is evident that all the brotherhood here, is put in opposition to Christians in their private families. What any private persons should do in their own houses now, which ought to be done in their Parish Church, might very properly be reproved, by saying they ought to have done it, when all the brotherhood were assembled together. To prove the grand point of his general propositions, viz., that a primitive Bishop administered the Sacrament to his whole flock, he refers again to that passage in Justin Martyr, (Apolog. 2. p. 98.) which, as rendered by him, contains (as I have already shewn) an irreconcilable inconsistency in it, and, if rendered aright, proves nothing to his purpose. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 39 Bishoprick contained more Christians in it, than one Congregation would have held. ^ Tertullian writes, that in ^ How do we know that Tertullian s Presidents in this place (for that is his word, as we . ^^ , ,. ^ 3 ]s^QQ (je aliorum raanu quam may see in the margin/) were -j ^- • fp ,. - , > mi T-. Frasidentium sumimus. iert. the Btshop, only ? The En- ^^ ^^^^^_ ^.^ ^ ,21. Edit, quirer tells us ,„ chap. 4. 5 ^. ^^_ Lutetiae. 1641. 3- Obs. 10, that President was ° one discretive appellation of a Bishop ; and yet he allows that St. Cyprian calls his Presbyters Presidents too. Is it so certain that Tertullian could use the word President in one sense, when his great disciple St. Cyprian confessedly used it in another ? At least, would not one think our ingenious Author should have added a note here to show, that, in this passage, Tertullian could have meant nothing else by his Presidents, but Bishops of a Diocese ; since he himself had made that observation for us ? If the context be examined, we shall find that Tertullian was contending for the authority of Tradition, for many common rites then used in the Christian Church, without a Scripture warrant. * Amongst these cus- . t-. i , . , * Jiiucharistise sacramentum, toms, he instances a general et in tempore victiis, et omnibus practice then in the Church, mandatum a Domino, etiara to communicate in the morn- antelucanis ccetibus, nee de ing, as well as that of which aliorum manu, quam Prasiden- we are now speaking, viz, to ^^ sumimus. TertuL lb, receive the communion from the President'^' hands alone : words which imply neither more nor less, I think, than this ; that as the Sacrament was then generally administered in the morning, so wherever it was administered, the consecrated elements were usually delivered to the communicants by the hands of those only, who presided in the several assemblies, where those holy exercises were performed : that is, I conceive, by the officiating ministers 5 themselves. What 5 Whereas in many places appearance of proof there is in (as Justin Martyr tells us J the all this, for a Bishop's person- Deacons used to do it. ally distributing the blessed elements to every communicant in his whole Diocese, at one time and in one place, I know not. 40 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. . ^T J V his Time and Country, * the * Nee de aliorum manu quam ^ . . -770, , • J ^- • n Christians received the Sacra- de praesidentium sumimus. JJe corondmilitis,p.338, ^'""^ «/ ^^' ^^^^'' ^W^^ from the hands of the Bishop alone. Now in those Days and Places they communicated ,__.,- . ^^, at least ' three times a i ytae de oratione, p. 661. tttt i • r^r 7 ? t-» • '^ Week VIZ. yVednesdays, Fri- days, and Lord's Days, which had been impossible to have been done, if the Bishop had had Inspection over more than one Congregation, as is obvious to every ones Rea- son ; for the Bishop being Finite and Corporeal as well as others, could not be present in many Places at once, but must be confined to one determinated fixed Place, in which alone he could administer and dispense the Eu- charist : And for this Reason it is, that Ignatius exhorts . , , , ~ /> 7^ . the Philadelphians ^ to use " Mix zv^oteKTrtx •vp'nayxi. iLpist. . . the one iLuchanst, that is^ ad Philadelph. p. 40. i. i. 1 xi, -ox, ^ ^ not to leave the Bishop, and communicate elsewhere, but to partake of that single Eucharist which was administred by him : For as he proceeds to say in the same 7 M/a yac^ aa^^ rov Kv^tov ^(^Zv place, 7 There is but one Body "imov Xf /o-Toy, xai « ntoryi^iov, Iv gf ^wr Lord Jesus Christ, one Bishop. As there was but one Bishop in a Church, so there was but one Altar, a Bishop and an Altar being Correlates : So that to set up another Altar, was a Periphrasis of a Schism atick, or of one that causelesly separated from his lawful Bishop, and sat up another, which was that they called Schism, as we shall shew in its proper Place. Thus Cyprian describes a Schismatick as one, ^ that s Conteinptis epi.copis, et Dei contemns his Bishop, leaves Sacerdotibus derelictis consti- the ministers of God, and tuere audet aliud altare. De dares to setup another Altar: ^''''''' ^'^^^^^'^' ^ ^^-P' ^^^- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 41 And particularly he brands Novatian as such an one, ' P^ofanum altare erigere. Ep. because 9 he erected a profane ' ^' Altar, that is, an Altar in opposition to the Altar of Cornelius his lawful Bishop: For, as he saith in another Place, ' No Man can regularly con- i Aliud altare constitui, aut stitute a new Bishop, or erect Sacerdotiura novum fieri, prae- a new Altar, besides the one ter unum altare, et unum Sa- Bishop, and the one Altar : cerdotium, non potest. Epist. For which reason he calls 40. §. 4.^. 93. the Altar that is erected by Schismaticks, against the One Altar oftheir lawful Bishops, ^ Altare profanum. Epist. 65. * A profane Altar: Which §. 4.». 193. agrees with that ot Ignatius, s 'q 1,^,1, ^vcrioc«a^^fos- £0"T'v rvia-wsi^ria-Ei. Epist, is impure: and as he says in ad Tralles. p, 50. another place, ^ Whosoever * '^«^ ^^'"' ^ "^°^ '^°^ ^vcr^occrry,- is without the Altar, wants ^^ov, t>^r^ps7rcct roZ ol^rov rov ©sov. the bread of God. ^P''*' «^ ^P^''' P' ^^- 3. ^ The other Sacrament of Baptism was generally administred by the Bishops alone within their Respective *^ What the word generally implies, we may learn from Chap. 4. §. 2. Obs. 1 ; where our Enquirer himself tells us, from the same Tertullian, that the Bishop hath the right of Baptism, then the Presbyters and Deacons : hut for the honour of the Church not without the Bishop's authority. It appears from this quotation, that the Presbyters and Deacons might baptize in the Diocese, if the Bishop allowed them to do it, (as St. Ignatius admitted that Baptism to be acceptable to God, which the Bishop should approve). Because then the Bishop with his Presbyters and Deacons must baptize all in the Diocese ; does it necess^arily follow that a Diocese must be only H 42 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. * Sub Antistis contestaraur nos renunciate diabolo et De Cor on, Milit. p. Diocesses. So saitli Ter- tulliariy 5 Before the Bishop we renounce the Devil and the world. For as Cyprian says, ^ The Bishops ought only to baptize : And to the same effect writes Fortuna- tus Bishop of Thucahori, that our Lord Jesus Christ "i gave unto the Bishops the the Bishops did ordinarily pompae 336. ^ Non nisi in Ecclesia praepo- sitis hcere baptizare. Epist. 73. §. 6. p. 220. 7 Potestatem baptizandi Episco- pis dedit. Act. Concil. Carth. apud Cyprian, p. 445 . power of baptizing. So that baptize all the Persons that were baptized in their Dio- cesses ; and if so, it is not probable, I may say possible, that their Diocesses were extended beyond the bulk of single Congregations. 4. The Churches Charity, was Deposited with the 8 'Avros Itcikov^u o^tpxvoTs rs Koci Bishop, who, as Justin Mar- %»?fa/y, xx) roTs S/a voa-ov v S*" tyr rcports, ^ ^ was the corn- Si Congregational Church ? As for the Bishop's generally bap- tizing all in his Diocese, that is our Enquirer's own assertion ; it certainly is not Tertullian's. The Form of Renunciation, which all adult Catechumens used in their own persons to testify their forsaking the Devil, and the Pomp, 8fC, before they actually were baptized, might probably and possibly have been made in the presence of the Bishop himself, even though the Diocese had a plurality of Congrega- tions in it ; ^ since it was a very ^ Diem baptismo solennem pascha preestat, exinde Pente- coste, ordinandis lavachris latis- simum spatium est, quo et domini Resurrectio inter disci- pulos frequentata est. Tertul. de Bapt. c. 19. Edit. Rigal. Lutet. 1641. large space of time (as Tertulli- an expresses it,) which was set apart for this very ordering of Baptism every year, even the fifty days from Easter to Whit- suntide, including the Festivals, as his account of it in the Mar- gin shews. * The seeming force of this argument does not he in Justin OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 43 mon Curator and Overseer of .^^ » / , / v ~ •^ aAA>jv txtrnxv AsnroiAEvoii, koci rots all the Orphans, Widows, i, ^,^^,^, „j^,, ^^> ^,j, n:cc^^^tU- Diseased, Strangers, Impri- ^o/. olcn llvo/^, xai ^i:xS^s, ro7s h soned, and, in a Word, of all xf"> o^lo-i x^j^c/^^wvymTa*. Apolo. those that were needy and 2. p. 99. Martyrs words, but in the manner in which the inference from them is worded. The holy Martyr had said just before, that the people's alms were deposited in their President's hands ; and immediately subjoins, that he took care to relieve all sorts of distressed persons, out of the offerings so entrusted to him. Our Enquirer infers, that he personally did this ; by which he would have us to understand, that all whom the Church's Charity relieved, the Bishop personally visited ; that he inspected every individual case, and distributed relief to the sufferers with his own hand ; and to give a better colour to this interpretation, he finds out a noted Parish term for this Episcopal Almoner, and calls him an Overseer. I appeal to the common sense of mankind, whether any public trust of this nature was ever understood to be necessarily so executed in any sort of society whatsoever. I believe that Justin Martyr himself, or any other Christian writer, would have ventured to say as much, or more than all we have here, of St, Paul's care in treasuring up and distributing the alms of many Christian Congregations, for the relief of all his Churches : and, yet he had succoured but a small part of the whole, if what he prevailed on the several Churches to collect, what the Presbyters and Elders did by his order in the matter, and what messengers distributed in his behalf, had not been imputed to himself, as common governour and guardian of them all. Why then should it be thought so impracticable a thing, for any single person to take care of distressed Christians in more than a single Congregation ? Besides, the charity of the Church in those days was, among other uses, to be employed for the relief of banished and captive brethren in mines, in islands, in most remote and barbarous Countries ; in what sense did the Bishop personally do all this ? H 2 4m THE GONSTITUTIONj DISCIPLINE, ETC. ,, _, . , „ , , ^ indigent. To this charitable ") Epist.adFolycarp.p.\2. J^ a ' ^i. ot, Office Ignatius adviseth, ^Po- lycarpus; but of that Advice, more shall be spoken in another place ; only let us here observe, That that Diocess could not be very large, where the Bishop person- ally relieved and succoured all the Poor and Indigent therein. 5. y All the People of a Diocess were present at Church y Our Enquirer observes, in no less than seventeen or eighteen instances here adduced together, that when the Ancient Church- writers give an account of public and solemn acts of discipline in a Diocese, (as censures, excommunications, absolutions, elections, ordinations, or the hke,) they tell us, such acts were done before the whole Church, before the multitude, before all the people, by the suffrage of all the brotherhood, with the knowledge, and in the presence, of the people. And hence he concludes, that the whole Diocese personally met together in one place upon these occasions, and consequently made but one single Congre- gation. Now here I cannot but observe, that this singular construction of such familiar forms of speech, bears very hard upon the com- mon sense and language of mankind. Can no public acts of civil justice, or solemn ministration in the Church among us, be said to pass in the face of the Country, before all the people, openly and in the sight of all men ; nay, in the face of the whole world, (as some would think it no absurdity to say,) unless the matter of fact answered to the very letter of the phrase ? Are not all public acts of Church or State, (as to discipline and government,) familiarly distinguished from any others, by such a latitude of expression, and no otherwise understood by any man than that a general liberty is given to all, who either can, or will, or are concerned to be present at them, to come and offer what they think material ; to judge or bear witness of the regularity and justice of what is done ? If every individual member of each respective society were expected to be personally present at such solemnities, neither Courts, nor Halls, nor Cathedrals, were OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 45 Censures, as Oriqen de- i .t? v / ~ , , / n scribes an Offender, as appearing » before the whole Church. So Clemens Romanus calls the Censures ment. in Matth, Tom. 13. p, 335. Vol. 1. '-^ Ta Tt^oarxarcriiA.zix tmo rov of the Church ^ the things '"^^""- ^^'- ^- '^ ^- ^- commanded by the Multitude, ^^. ever yet erected, that could answer the occasions which the Church or State would have for them. And yet no English author, I am persuaded, would think it an impropriety to say, that such public acts of law or discipHne, were done in the presence, sight, and cognizance of the whole country. Church, or people ; and if no exceptions, but rather apparent acclamations were made, (as is not unusual upon such occasions,) they would say, they were done with the general consent, suffrage, and approbation of them all. The Enquirer's way of arguing bears no less hard upon the language of Scripture. What more famihar phrase in the whole history of the Law delivered by Moses, and during all the time of his government, than that Moses himself spake to all the Congregation of Israel, whatsoever the Lord commanded him, (Ex. XXXV. 1, 4. Deut. v. 1 ; xxix. 2, &c.) Nay, even in the ears of all the Congregation of Israel, he is said to speak (Deut. xxxi. 30) the words of that song, which he left for a testimony amongst them ? And at the 28th verse immediately foregoing, he gives a key for the understanding of such phrases, saying ; Gather unto me the Elders of the Tribes, and the Officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. Hence it appears that whatsoever Moses spake in such a manner, as was sufficient to convey his words and precepts (though not immediately with his own mouth) to all the Tribes of Israel, 7 that the holy Pro- , p^^ jj^e phrases in the New phet himself thought not im- Testament, see Matth. iii. 5. properly expressed, when he John xii. 19. Acts xvii. 5. said afterwards, that he spoke them to the whole Congregation of Israel. 46' THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. And so the two offending Subdeacons and Acolyth at * Plebe universe. Cyprian Ep. Carthage were to be tried 28. §. 2.^. 64. 3 hefore the whole People, 6. No Offenders were restored again to the Churches Peace, without the knowledge and consent of the whole Diocess : So Cyprian writes, that before they were re-ad- 4 Acturi causam apud plebem ^i^^^^ ^^ Communion, they universam. Epist, 1. §. 4. p. '^'''' ^^ " ^^'^^ ^^"^'^ ^^"^^ before all the people. And it was ordained by an Afri- can Synod, that except in danger of Death, or an instan- taneous Persecution, none should be received into the 5 Sine petitu et conscientia Churches Peace, ^ without plebis. Apud Cyprian. Epist. the knowledge and consent of 59. §. l.p. 164. the People. 7. When the Bishop of a Church was dead, all the People of that Church met together in one Place to chuse a new Bishop. ^ So Sabinus was elected Bishop of Emerita, » If our Enquirer's way of reasoning be right, then it will prove the Dioceses of latter ages, as well as the most ancient, to have been but mere Congregational Churches. He tells us from St. Cyprian, that Sabinus was elected Bishop of Emerita by the Sufrage of all the Brotherhood. This was in the third age. Now Theodoret tells us, that Nectarius was made Bishop of 8 n^^TTts am4.np(o(Aiyy)s rvs itlu- Constantinople » by the suffrage us, of the whole city : and that Fla- 9 Tla,4i(pQv r%s 'Ex)tA»ja-/ay, vianus was made Bishop of An- ujaa(Try tvis iKKKyxTiocs 'ndtms. Clemens Romanus JEpist. 1. adVor.p. 57. 9. Publick Letters from one Church to another were read before the whole Diocess. Thus Cornelius Bishop of Rome, * Sanctissimse atque amplissi- whatever Letters he received mae plebi legere. Cyprian, JEpist. 55. §. 21. ;?. 144. ^ T^ Ttx^oiy.ix iraoTj. Epist, Synod. Antioch. apud Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 30. p. 279. from foreign Churches, he * always read them to his most holy and numerous People, And without doubt when Fermilian writ ^ to all the OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 49 Parish of Antioch, they could all assemble together to read his Letter, and return an answer to it ; since we find that in those days one whole , , , / ~ ^ •^ ^ H EKKAinaioL rov ©Joo inx^oiKova-x Church writ to another „„ ~, , . -^ Puifiiov, T*} «x)cA*j<7;a rov &eov Ttx^ot- whole Church. 2^^ ^ the '^ J-r ^ ' ri.^ »««. ^ Kov(Tyi K.oqiV'JQv. Liem. Kom, Church of Rome writ to the Epist. \. p. 1 . Church of Corinth. And _ . - r, - ^ rx . , 17- 77 Fraternitas omnis, Cyprian. *» Cyprian ^ and his whole r^ . ^ ^c. ■, c^ 1 .-o _, ^f , ^ Epist. 58. §. 2.0. 163. Flockf sent gratulatory Let- ters to Pope Lucius upon his return jfrom Exile, *» Could not a Bishop write a public congratulatory letter in his own name, and in the name oi all his fraternity, (as our Enquirer observes St. Cyprian did to Lucius,) without having all the fraternity, i. e. all the people of his Diocese, present with him ? Undoubtedly he could in the sense St. Cyprian meant. If all the people of his own Diocese were assembled together at the sending of that letter, then all the people of many other Dioceses, and probably of his whole Province, w^ere assembled together for the same purpose too : for his words are ^ I and '^ Ego et collegag, et fraterni- my colleagues, and all the fra- tas omnis, has ad vos litteras ter7iity, send this letter to you. mittimus. Cypr. Ep. 58. §. 2. Now the word Colleagues in vel Epist. 61. Edit. Oxon. St. Cyprian s language is unquestionably understood of Fellow- Bishops, and given by him to no other order of Ecclesiastics whatever ; so that by all the fraternity subjoined to them, he must mean that they and their Churches ( as the occasion re- quired) sent unanimous congratulations to the Confessor Lucius, so lately returned from banishment. If this be thought no clear construction of the place, let us compare it with the Synodical Epistle of the Council of Antioch. The Bishops in that council writing to Dionysius, the Bishop of Rome, and Maximus, Bishop of Alexandria, first prefix their own names 5 to the Epistle, ,, v . / v / , , . . . , , 7 ^ EXtvos. KXi TuEvatos, koh 0£o- and then loin with them the .^ 1/ > « ^ ^ ' * ^^ Churches of God also ; that is, ^^;v Trx^Qucovvrss ras lyyvs itoKus unquestionably the Churches nou sQvin 'EiclffKovot U^sa^vrt^oi xm 50 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Lastly, The whole Diocess of the Bishop did meet all together to manage Church- Affairs. Thus when the 5 Secundum arbitrium quoque Schism of Felicissimus in the vestrum. ea quae agenda sunt Bishoprick of Carthage was clisponereparileretlimare pote- to be debated, ^ It was to riraus. Ad Flebem Epist. 40. be done according to the will §. 7. ;?. 94. of the People, and by the con- sent of the Laity. And when there were some hot Dis- putes about the Restitution of the Lapsed, the said Cijprian promised his whole Diocess, ^ Tunc examinabuntur singula 6 that all those things should prsesentibus et judicantibus vo- ^^ examined before them, and bis. Ad Plehem Epist, 12. §. j^^ j^^^^^ ^y ^^,^, ^^^ so * ^' * also when they were to send a Messenger to any Foreign Church, all the People could 7 x^^oTov^^^/ ^/^xovov. Ignat, meet together to ^ chuse that Epist. adFUlad.p.^5, Messenger, as they could in the Church of Philadelphia. Aidxovoi, Kott a I 'E}t)iXvi(riat Qsov they presided over, who jointly otyocTTViToTs, SiC. — xa/fs/v. with thera sent greeting, and concurred in the account they there give of Paulus Samosatenus' s case. Now can it be supposed, that the whole Dioceses of those several Bishops were personally present with them in the council ? Certainly Bishops or the chief magistrates of any Society or Corporation, may, in consistory or council, write letters of a public import in the name of the Society or Body to which they belong, without convening or polling all the individual members of it. And their reading of such letters to their numerous people, (which is another argument our learned Enquirer insists upon,) is better accounted for in such an obvious sense, than he, in his literal and constrained sense of such expressions, g ... ^ could ever account for king "^ Jo- ^ * "' siah's reading the Book of the Covenant in the ears of all the men of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem* OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 51 Now put all these Observations together, and duly con- sider, whether they do not prove the Primitive Parishes to be no larger than our modern ones are ; that is, that they had no more Believers or Christians in them than there are now in ours. I do not say, that the Ancient Bishopricks had no larger Territories, or no greater space of Ground, than our Parishes have. On the contrary, it is very probable that many of them had much more ; since in those early days of Christianity, in many places the Faithful might be so few, as that for twenty or thirty Miles round, they might associate together under one Bishop, and make up but one Church, and that a small one too j But this I say, that how large soever their Local Extent was, their Members made but one single Congre- gation, and had no more Christians in it, than our Parish- es now have : For that Diocess cannot possibly be more than one single Congregation, where all the People met together, at one time. Prayed together, B/Cceived the Sa- crament together, assisted at Church-Censures together, and dispatched Church -Affairs together ; and yet the Members of the Primitive Diocesses did all this together, as the preceding Observations evidently declare ; so that I might stop here, and add no farther Proofs to that which hath been already so clearly proved. §. 3. But yet that we may more clearly illustrate this Point, we shall demonstrate it by another method, i;2>. By shewing the real Bulk and Size of those Bishopricks, concerning whom we have any Notices, remaining on ancient Records ; and manifest, that the very largest of them were no greater than our particular Congregations are. " And for the proof of this, we shall quote the Writings of St. ^ There are some few quotations among the rest in this place, which urge the necessity of all the people's presence, on account of the part and right they all had to judge of any offence, that was brought before the consistorv of the Church ; but these I 2' 52 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Ignatius, in whose genuine Epistles there is such an account of the Bishopricks of Smirna, Ephesus, Magnesia, Philadel- phia, and Trallium, as manifestly evidences them to be but so many single Congregations. As for the Diocess of Smirna, its extent could not be very nt^xaaha; re,, h-nyclvrm bU r^y Church- Affairs was done there ixxAWav Uzm /SsCa/a ivya-ii^rrla, I^Hhout the Bishop ; he hap- •nysia-^u v lito rov licitnLoitov ovaot tized and administred the ri u oil) avros kitir^i-^'n ottov ay (ptxvn Eucharist, and none else iittcrKOTtos sKt7 to irXri^os zarta COuld do it witMn Ms ovK i^ov £<7Ttv ;^wf ij rov enriaKomv Cui'e without his permission ; will be more properly considered in the following chapters, where they are repeated to us again, and offered as proofs of such a right and practice in the Primitive Church. In the mean time, I cannot but remark, how often the same quotations are brought over and over again in this short Enquiry, to serve the different ends of it, and to make it appear a work of great variety of reading, and strongly supported by Primitive autho- rity. We have an instance of this in the 3rd and 4 following Sections of this chapter. Our Author, as we have already seen, had gleaned all the short phrases in St. Ignatius s epistles, that he thought gave any countenance to his hypothesis, and offered them at once to prove his general proposition. And now he applies parts of the self-same quotations to prove, that the Dioceses of Smyrna, Ephesus, Magnesia, Philadelphia, and Tral- lium, were mere Congregational Churches, and no more. Since these quotations add no weight to the authority, however they may appear to increase its bulk, it is quite superfluous to take more notice of his repeated arguments here, about one Altar y one Eucharist, one prayer for the whole Church} about the Bishop's taking one common care of them all ; the people's doing nothing without the Bishop ; and assembling together in one place, SfC, OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 63 where-ever he was, his whole ovte /Sa-n-r/^siv, otn aya7r>jy nzoisiv, Flock followed him ; which ^^^^^ g ^, j^j,~,„, Sox/^^(r>j. Epist. they might without any In- ad Smirn. p. 6. conveniency do, since they ^frequently assembled toge- ' nvxy^ir^^ov «rt;v«y^y«} y.vsVSo;- Mer; as /^/za/m^ advised Po- <^^'' Epist. ad Poly carp. p. 13. lycarp the Bishop of this 3 ^r ~ a '^ Church, ^ 7h convene his ^ , ^ y,., ,_ /. . /. 7 Tovjjo-a/ T/va, ckc. Ibidem, p. 15. Diocess to chuse a faithful honest Man to send a Messenger into Syria ; d So that the Bishop of this Church * 'E| ovo/xaros- Travray ^-^Te/. * could know his whole Flock Ibidem, p. 13. ^ To make the Diocese of Smyrna appear a mere Congregational Church, our Enquirer adds a short clause or two, omitted before> viz. that the Bishop of that Church could know his whole flock personally by their names. So he translates the place ; though St. Ignatius' s words are only a piece of advice to St. Poly carp, to do what the primitive Bishops always did, that is, to keep the name of every member of his Church enrolled in what the an- cients called the Matricula of their Church, He had just before besought St. Polycarp not to neglect the widows of the Church ; and immediately after, desires him not to overlook so much as the men-servants and maid-servants in it : and in the midst of this, (as a means so to know the quality, number, and condition of his Diocese,) he advises him to enquire out all by name, that is, to get such a register of their names, that, on occasion of any ob- ject of charity proposed to him, of any complaint or application made to him about any within his cure or jurisdiction ; or in case of apostacy, or perseverance in time of persecution, or the like, by means of this general Matricula, he (as the other Bishops did) might more directly know how the case stood with them. Such was the occasion of St. Ignatius's words : to infer from them that there was but one single Congregation then under a Bishop's Cure, and that he must personally know them all by name, as one neighbour knows another, is much the same thing, as to infer that Augustus Ccesar had but one town under his command. 54 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. personally hy their Names, s Ao,5xo.. f^lolKc^s (.Iv tnts^rxpj- ' himself respectfully vEt. Lpist. ad Polycarp. p. 12. . , . ,1 n •, and charitably to all ^ with all meekness and humility towards Serving-men, and Serving- . ^ ,, ,_ maidSj?indichdix'\id\Ay,^ taking " Xfiexi urj a,u.s\si(T^Ma(Xv. Ibidem, ^ ,, -rrr- 1 '.7 ■ 7 • , ^ care of the PVtdows within his /?. 13. ''..,. DiocesSj permitting i nothing /^irfm,;.. 12. p^.^.^^ « Insomuch « M«^ 8 n^iTtu Je Tory yoiiA^ovai hoc) txis f^Qne were married without his yoci4,ov(A.Bmis /A^m yvJ,(A.vs roZ Jtt;- previous advice and consent. ^' ^' ' could be done, how all this Bishoprick could meet together in one Place, how the Bishop could personally know all the Members thereof by their T Tn such a case, it was the and could know all his subjects, censor's office to take an ac- because, for political reasons, count of the people, their pro- he caused them all to be enroU- perty. &c. Censores popuU ed, and an estimate to be given ffivitates, soboles, familias, pe- -^ ^^ ^j^^-^ children, fami- cuniasque censento. tic. de .. . „ leg. 1. S.fol. ^'^^ ^^^ estates.7 « Smyrna (says our Enquirer,) could not have had more than one congregation in it, because (as St. Ignatius tells us again,) it was not fitting that any should marry there without the Bishop's CONSENT. I confess, it seems to me by no means impossible for the same thing to be done in the city of London, or York, at this day, if either Banns or Licenses were managed with proper care. Nay, even as matters now stand, I think it may be said, that either the Bishop in person, or such as are commissioned by him, (which is much the same thing,) have a necessary cognizance of all such solemn contracts, before the consummation of them, in the largest Dioceses amongst us. And this gives opportunity, at least, to consent, or disallow of them, without reducing their Dioceses to fewer Congregations than they have always had. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 55 respective Names, even the meanest Serving-maids therein, and permit none to be Married without his Knowledge and Advice, without reducing this Diocess to a single Parish, I know not. §. 4. As for the Diocess of Ephesus, there was but one Altar or Communion Table in its whole Territory, at which they all communicated toge- , ,. „ , ^ ^ . ther; whence they are said, Ephes. p. 20, 29. ' To break the one Bread; and '^ he that was without or '' '^^^ ^'♦^'^ ^ '''"'' ^°^ ^Tiocaryi- separated from that Altar i^ ^'^""^ ec^r.^rm. ^^ roD ^^rov rod said to want the Bread of " ^°^' ^ • P- - • God. The Members also of this Church could all meet together in one place, to send up their joint Prayers to God, in Christ : And therefore Ignatius condemns all those of that Diocess ^ who did not assem- ble together in that one place, '^ '^l ^^ l^x^i^ivos 1^; rl cclrl, with the rest of the Members °;;" ^^^ f-^f^'^-sr k.; l«,n-o'v , - , , . otmemr loidem^ p. 20. thereof y to send up their Prayers to God, as proud, self-conceited, and justly condemna- ble ; because thereby they deprived themselves of that uncon- ceivable Benefit, that would accrue unto them by joyning in the Prayers of the whole Church. * For if the Prayer ' [^' ^"^ '''[ ^ ^'''^Z "^T' - 7,7 . V) ro(rocvriov ta-YM" 65f > 'J^ocru umK- of one or two hath so great a ^ ^ ~ , , v' , force with God, how much ._^^^^^^_ Epist. ad Ephes. p. more prevalent must the ^r) Prayer of the Bishop and the whole Church be ? So that if to communicate together, and to pray together, be the Marks of a Particular Church, then this Bishoprick was one. §. 5. f As for the Church of Magnesia, they all assembled f St. lynativs, in his zeal for the unity of Christians in the Dio- cese of Magnesia, bids ^ them ^ Udvres, us sU »aov a-wr^ix''^^ 56 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. 5 'Eis vaov 9eov. Epist. ad Mag- with the Bishop, having but nes. p. 34. s one Church, and ^ one Al- ^' y^v£ov. US fwt £v -Jva-ixa-Tiopiov OiC. , m 7 /. y-> 7 the Temple of God, ('or as to Ignat. Epist. ad Mag. p. 34. ^^^ ^^^ rj.^^^^ ^^ g^^^ ^^ ^^^ old Latin Translation has it, and the learned Editor of the Florentine MSS. says it should be,) and as to the one Altar ; plainly exhorting them, (by way of similitude,) to Christian unity and communion, after the pattern of the Ancient Church of God among the Jews ; who, though they had never so many syna- gogues, yet were all united in that one Temple, and one Altar, which God had fixed for them at Jerusalem. That this compara- tive way of arguing might be the less perceived, our careful Enquirer takes no notice of the little particle [us or as] but quotes the Temple of God, in the singular number, by itself, as quite to his purpose, and gives it the name of a Christian Church : though (besides this omission,) it may justly be questioned, whether St. Ignatius or any contemporary writer, ever used that word [vaos] for a place of Christian worship at all, it being generally a term in Primitive writers, applied to Jewish or Hea- then Temples. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 57 Sheep, ' receiving the Sacra- ^ MiS. zvya.^KTrU, ^§7)(r^ait — Iv ment all together from him, ttor'n^iov. Epistp ad Philadelph. * at that one Altar belonging P« 40. to their Diocess ; which they * 'Ev ^va-nxa-rri^tov. Ibid. p. 41. might well enough do, since their Multitudes were not so great, but that on other Occasions they could meet all toge- ther, as 5 to chuse a Messen- s Xs/foTov^^r^/ l^6,>,o,o, t\s rl 7r§, , , ^ x says, that ° He that ts withm ^ the Altar is pure, that is. He ^^^''* ° X-f '^^^r.^xoVo. xai J..c,coW that doth any thing without ''^^^^""' "'' '^''°' '^ '^^°'^'' ^^^'^ the Bishop, Priests and Dea- '^V o^ve^S^o-e*. Epist. ad Tralles. cons, is impure. P- 50. Now let any impartial Man judge, whether all these De- scriptions of those Ancient Diocesses do not forcibly constrain us to reduce them to the Rate of our modern Parishes. And if these were no greater, especially Ephesus, at which Place St. Paul preached Three Years, we have no reason to imagine that other Bishopricks where the Apostles never were, or at least never preached so long, surmounted their Bulk and Largeness. How long it was before these Diocesses swelled into several Congregations, is not my Business to determine, since it happened not within my prescribed time; except in the .Church of Alexandria; the Reason and Manner whereof shall be shewn in a few Leaves more, after that I have more fully evidenced this Point, by demonstrating, that the great- est Bishopricks in the World, even in the Third Century, were no more than so many single Congregations : And if K 58 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. this can be proved, it is the soHdest Demonstration that can be given : For the larger a Church was, and the more time it had to settle and increase its self, the greater Reason have we to expect that it should exceed all others in Num- bers and Diffusiveness. 8 Now the four greatest Diocesses, that in those days were in the World, are Antioch, Rome, Carthage, Alexandria. The three former of which, during the whole three hundred Years after Christ, never branched themselves into several particular Congregations, though the latter did, as shall be hereafter shewn. §.8. ''As for the Diocess of Antioch, its Members were not so many, but that 265 Years after Christ, they were 8 The Churches St. Ignatius wrote to, were all eminent cities of the Lydian or Proconsular Asia-, most of thera the seats of public justice for the Province where the Roman Governour resided : and (what is more,) were dignified with a singular visitation by our blessed Lord in his great Revelation to St. John. They are therefore scarcely to be imagined such inconsiderable Churches, as our learned Enquirer tries to represent them. For fuller satisfaction, however, in the case, he frankly appeals to Antioch, Rome, Carthage, and Alexandria, (the undoubted metropolitan cities of the empire,) to bear witness to the certainty of his congregational scheme. We cannot therefore do less than briefly notice them all. *" Antioch was early blessed with the glad tidings of the Gos- pel. Many Christians that were scattered abroad upon the perse- cution that arose about Stephen resorted thither ; and the first account we have of their labours is, that the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord (Acts xi. 19, 21 — 27). Tidings of this came to the Church at Jerusalem who send Barnabas, a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, to improve this happy opportunity. The success answered their expectation : by his powerful exhortations much people (says the Scripture,) was added to the Lord. To for- or THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 59 able to meet all in one place ; of which we have this memo- rable Instance, that when ' Paulus Samosatenus the Heretical ward this work of the Lord still more, Barnabas travels to Tarsus, and joins Saul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles ; both of whom, returning to Antioch, continue a whole year together in that popu- lous city, teaching much people. How many converts were made in that space of time by the instrumentality of those Apostolical labourers, assisted by all that fled thither from Jerusalem, by the men of Cyprus and Cyrene ; and by the several inspired Pro- phets amongst them (Acts xi. 27; xiii. 1.); I refer to the judgment of all, who know the fruits of many single sermons preached by an Apostle, at the first promulgation of the Gospel. Two things are certain, 1st. That the reputation of the converts at Antioch was such, that they laid aside the derided name of Nazarenes or Galilaans, and were first called Christians there. (Acts xi. 26 .) 2dly. That there were two distinct sects or parties of them : (Acts XV. 1, 2.); Judaizing Christians zealous of the law; and Gentile Converts, as earnestly insisting on their exemption from it ; each party so considerable as to call for an Apostolical coun- cil to decide the controversy between them. Such was the Jnfant state of this Church of Antioch ; the oversight whereof, antiquity tells us, St. Peter, in a peculiar man- ner, took upon himself ; and for six or seven years at least, made it his first and special apostolic see. After him, (before the heretic Paulus of Samosata was promoted to that see,) we read in Church- History of fourteen Bishops there in succession : — among whom were those mirrors of learning, piety, and zeal, Ignatius, Theophilus, and Babylas. But notwithstanding the united labours of so many Apostles, Prophets, holy Martyrs, and Confessors, to plant and improve a Christian Church in this [©foVoAc^j Ixo-rwa/ roD r^y ex>cX*»- Emperor Aurelian forced him (Tlots otxov. Apud. Euseb. Lib. to resign « that House : So T-lCap- 30. p. 282. 4.1. ^i" u ocnv r^ 2 T^^ o.^oy. Ibidem. that tor above 350 Years alter Christ, the whole Bishoprick of Antioch had but one Church to serve God in. §. 9. k How large the Dioceseof Rome was, may be con- jectured by that, 1. All the People thereof could meet together to perform Divine Service, as appears by that History of a certain Con- Chorepiscopi : which still makes them a part of his own Diocese. But this does not alter the present case. See Appendix, No. 6. ^ The Diocese of Rome is next appealed to, and allowed no greater honours than the rest. The faith of the Christian con- verts thereof was early spoken of throughout the world ; their Church was founded by the two great Apostles, both of Jews and Gentiles, and martyrs and confessors were zealous pastors over them for many generations : yet, for above 200 years after Christ, (according to our learned Enquirer,) they amounted to no more than a single Congregation. It appears by the history 4.1, i. S AT .. /• * / -i. i. ^ MSTOC. TToKKtS (T^OVO^S KOi) dXK- that ^ Natahs, ( a penitent confessor in that Church,) re- ^'''' ^f''^^^^'" Z^^-^^'V ^?' J'^'^'^^; turnmg from the heresy of ' ' , , , , v v Iheodotus, went early to the '^ ,, ^ , ^ ^, place, where the Bishop paid Tuv \ixiKojv, a-vy^eact re rots oatK- , . J .. r n J u r ft'O"' T^v eyaTrXayyvov 'ExxX/jcr/acy Toy his devotions, fell down before ^ ^ '\ the Bishop, Clergy, and peo- ^ , , ^.J ple there : and with pravers y^-s f- ^ . ^ , u.. .u • va/. Euseb. 1. 5. c. 28. p. 160. and tears besought the merci- ^ ful Church of Christ to admit ^^'^' ^^''^' 1^^^' him to communion again, &c. Now our Enquirer infers, that this could not have been done in this particular manner, unless the whole Diocese, under the Bishop Zephyrinus's jurisdiction, had then been with him, and consequently made but one Congre- gation. If we argue thus, we might as well affirm that Christ 0? THR I7BRSIT7] 62 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. fessor called Natalisj who returning from the Theodosian Heresy, put himself into the Habit of a Penitent, threw himself at the Feet of the Clergy and Laity, as they went ' n^oa'ma.h rS lvr/T,c^7ra,, x^>5^a,, ^^^o their pubhck Meeting- XccixZy, T^v lvois vitl^ ra.s y^iXixs TTsyTocitoaixs, ovs mavrxs ») rou oscr- irorov %af'ff nocl (piKotv^^wnix oiot- T^i(psr TotTovro irXvi^os kx) ckvxy- d^i^fjLOS KXTo. i*,iyt , ? • 7 „ , , , / V Brethren met together m the rvts EKKAVia'tats avyx£x^orv]iJiEvuv, rov ^ ntiyrc. xccly, Apud Euseh. lib. ^^^^^^ ^« ^^^^^ « Successor, 6. cap. 28. p. 229. where all the People unani- mously chose Fabianus. And so after the Death of Fabianus, Cornelius was chosen Bishop 7 Cleri ac Plebis Suffragio. of that Diocess ' by the Cyprian Epist. 67. §. 2. p. Suffrage of the Clergy and 198. People. Now whether all these Things put together, whether their having but one Communion-Table in their whole Diocese, as also but one Church, where they all usually met, do not unavoidably reduce this Bishoprick to the Circumference of a modern Parish, I leave every Man to judge. OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 65 §.10. The next Diocese to be considered is Carthage, which next to Rome and Alexandria, was the greatest City in the World, and probably had as many Christians in it, as either, especially if that is true, which Tertullian insinu- ates, that the tenth Part thereof was Christian ; for he remon- strates to Scapula the Persecuting President of that City, that ^ if he should destroy the Christians of Carthage he ^ ^'^'^ ^P^^ Carthago passura must root out the Tenth est, decimanda a te. ^rf ^c«;?«. Part thereof But yet how ^""^^ P' ^^^* many soever the Christians of that Bishoprick were, even some Tears after Tertullian^ s Days, they were no more in number, than there are now in our Parishes, as is evident from scores of Passages in the Writings of Cyprian Bishop of thitt Church. For, 1. ^The Bishop of that „ ^, -r^. 77 7 9 ut omnes optime nossem. JJiocese 9 could know every .J . ■ Cyprian, Epist. 38. §. 1. p. 90. one therein. . yr r > t- ""• Tertullian did indeed magnify his native city, and well nigh deiied the persecuting governours with glorying in the numerous multitudes of believers there. But after all, (according to our Author,) " the Christians of that Bishopric were no more in number than they are now in our parishes." This sounds somewhat strange ; especially to those who know what a glorious figure the Church of Carthage made, and what a mighty influence it had in the affairs of the Christian world, in the Cyprianic age ; but let us hear the evidence. St. Cyprian, it appears, being now in banishment, writes to two African Bishops {Caldonius and Herculanus,) and with them to Rogatian and Numidicus, (two of his own Presbyters,) ^ enjoin- ^ Cumque ego vos pro me vi- ing them to reUeve the necessi- carios miserim, ut expungeretis ties of the poor, out of the con- necessitates fratrum nostrorum tributions of the brethren : and sumptibus, si qui etiam vellent if any of these, working at their suas artes exercere, additamen- 66 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. 3. The Bishop of that Diocese was the common Curator of all the Poor therein, relieving the Poor and Indigent, paying oiF their Debts, and aiding the necessitous Tradesmen with Money to set up their Trades. As Cyprian when he was in his exilM State, sent Caldonius, Herculanus, RogatianuSj and Numidicus to his Church ^ Ut expungeretis necessitates fratrum nostrorum sumptibus, si qui etiam vellent suas artes exercere, additaraento quan- tum satis esset, desideria eorum juvaretis. Idem Ibidem. at Carthage^ ^ to pay off the Debts of the indebted Members thereof, and to help those poor Mechanicks with a convenient Sum of Money, who were willing to set up their Trades. to, quantum satis esset, deside- ria coram juvaretis ; simul etiam et setates eorum, et con- ditiones, et merita discerneretis ; ut jam nunc Ego, cui cura in- cumbit, omnes optime nossem, et dignos quoque et humiles et mites ad Ecclesiasticse adminis- trationis officia promoverem. Cypr. Epist. 38. §. ]. vel in Oxon. Edit. Ep. 41. own Trades, should still be un- able to provide fully for their families, they were to be allow- ed something towards it. He directs them, in doing this, to inform themselves carefully of the different ages, conditions, and merits of the men ; to the end that / myself, (as he says,) upon whom this care lies, may forthwith thoroughly know them all, and if any of them he humble, meek, and worthy of it, I may put them into some office of the Church. I appeal to the words, context, and learned annotations upon the place, whether^this be not the genuine sense of it ; wherein, these two things are evident ; 1st. That the all here spoken of, were only the list, or Mairicula, of the necessitous and poor people in the Diocese. 2dly. That St, Cyprian had so little personal knowledge of them and their con- dition, that he employed the Bishops and Presbyters to whom he wrote, to send him the best information they could get of that matter. This is adduced as a proof, that the Bishop of that Dio- cese could know every one in it ; which I think, is as clear a proof of the contrary, as one could expect to meet with. OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 67 If " Cyprian's Diocess had consisted of Scores of Parishes, how many Thousand Pounds must he have expended, to have paid off the Debts of all the insolvent Persons therein, and to have assisted every poor Trader with a sufficient Stock to carry on his Employment ? 3. ° All the Diocess was present, when the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was admi- ^ Sacramenti veritatem Frater- nistred. So saith Cyprian, nitate omni praesente celebrar ^^ We celebrate the Sacrament, mus. Epist. 63. §. 12. p. 177. the whole Brotherhood being present. 4. p When Celerinus was ordained Lector or Clerk by " By placing a wrong stop in the construction of the passage, wherein St. Cyprian directs the Bishops and Presbyters to relieve all that wanted out of the contributions of the brethren, our Enquir- er tries to prepossess his rea- , Rigaltius's iVo^e (approved by der with the opinion, that the Bishop Fell,) upon the place, is 7 debts and necessities of the this : cujus necessitas beneficen- brethren were defrayed at the tiafratr am suhlevEiho-tar, ejus et single expense of the Bishop : ^^^^'^ expungebatur. and then breaks out into admiration at the many thousand pounds, he must needs have expended, if his Diocese had some scores of parishes in it ! This is mere supposition. St. Cyprians words import no more, than that he was common Almoner or Curator for the poor of his Diocese, and therefore gave orders to his agents in trust for him, to take what care they could in it. ° This is the very same argument that the Enquirer gave us before §. 2. Obs. 2. (which see) ; viz. that the Bishop celebrated the sacrament, the whole Brotherhood being present ; the represen- tation of that passage was there shewn to be unfair, and the infe- rence drawn from it untrue. p No doubt, all the people could hear and see the Reader Celeri- nus, whenever, and wherever he read from the Pulpit : but these general expressions, without regard to the meaning in which they are commonly received, admit of no limitations. If all the people heard him, it must not be understood of «Z/that were present, but, of all the Diocese to a man. St. Cyprian, speaking of him again L 2 68 THE CONSTITUTION^ DISCIPLINE, ETC. 3 Plebi UniverssB. Epist. 34. Cyprian he Read from the §-4-P-Sl- Pulpit, so that ^ All the People could see and hear him. 5. ^ In all Ordinations, all the People were consulted, and none were admitted into Holy Orders without their o T * • £j • • 7- about six lines below, savs, ^ ^ iiectoris fadera qmsqms audi- ^ ^ _ , ' , , ...... r^ T. nA whosoever hears htm, should erit imitetur. Cypr. Ep. 34. . . , , ^ . , , „ t 1 • T7«j'.L r\ n« imitate his faith : and Balsa- vel m Edit. Oxon, 39. , , • , ^ ^ mon, describing the office of a Reader in general, (at a time when every Church, having any Reader at all, had many Congregations in it,) expresses himself in much the same terms ; and (as the Translator renders it, and Sui- cer observes from him) makes him read so, as that every one heard him. Besides, that there were several Readers in this Church of Carthage, is very certain. This Celerinus and Aure- lius were two new ones just ordained by St. Cyprian in his exile, and added to them that served the Church in his absence. And _, . , . _, , he tells them, 9 he is sure that 9 Scio vos optare tales in ]i.ccle- , n ■ , . i ^ , . -. they would wis li to have many sia nostra quamplurimos ordi- , ^ . , . . T-. oo \,- T-.1 /-. more such, it is also evident nan. Ep. 38. p. 7o. Ed. Ox. , , „ , „ that the Proconsul Paternus, who condemned St. Cyprian himself, understood they had more places for religious assemblies than one ; for he told him .,. ., that the Emperors * Valerian • Praecipiunt ne in aliquibus j r^ j,- j a 4.u 4. . .,. , , ^ and Galhenus commanded that locis conciliabula nant, nee . i u i ^ . . ,. _ there should be no meetings m Coemetena ingrediantur. Lyp. . j ^u *. ^^i ■^ -r, ^ , ,^r.^ . anv places, and that they Pass, ew Vet. Cod. MSS. in .'^ , ^ . ^ ... ^ should not enter into their Pontn Vit. Cypr. „ ^ . . j • 4.u ^^ Cemeteries, as the words in the margin show. See Appendix, No. 8. 9 Here we have the current arguments again, of all the people being present, consulted, and approving ordinations, elections. Church-censures, Absolutions, 8(C. So far as these arguments refer to a pretended right or jurisdiction of the people in the govern- ment of the Church, we shall find them pressed upon us again and again ; and, under that consideration, I shall examine them OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 69 Approbation, as is assured by Cyprian Bishop of this Diocess, who tells us, that it was his constant Custom 4 in all Ordinations to con ^ In ordinationibus Clericis, fra- tres charissimi, solemus vos ante consulere, et mores ac merita singulorum communi consilio ponderate. Epist. 33. ad Cle- rum et Plebem, p. 76. suit his PeopUj and with their common Counsel to weigh the Merits of every Candidate of the sacred Orders. And therefore when for extraor- dinary Merits he advanced one to the Degree of a Lector or Clerk, without first communicating it to his Diocess, he writes from his ExiVd State ^ to his whole s piebi Universse. Epist. 34. Flock the Reason of it. p. 80. 6. When that See was vacant, all the People met together to chuse a Bishop. Whence Pontius ^says, that farther as they lie in my way. Meanwhile, I shall leave the Church of Carthage with this authentic testimony, that small as she was in her flourishing times of peace and safety, in the Decian persecution the number of her lapsed members only was such,^ that thousands of tickets were daily granted by the mar- tyrs and confessors on their be- half, to procure their reconcili- ation to the Church ; and many of those tickets, not for single persons, but for themselves and friends together ; ^ for so their holy Bishop expressly tells the Roman Presbyters and Deacons, and reproved the over-forward martyrs and confessors them- selves for it. What manner of single Congregation such a Church could make, before the fall of so vast a number of her members, and after their blessed union again, I leave to the deci- sion of the reader. ^ Sine ullo discrimine atque examine singulorum darentur quotidie libellorum millia. Cyp Ep. 20. Edit. Oxon. ^ Quibusdam sic libellos fieri ; ut dicatur, communices cum suis — et possunt nobis viceni, et triceni et amplius ofierri, qui propinqui et affines, et liberti ac domestic! esse assevereutur ejus qui accipit libellum. Cypr. Ep. 15. Edit. Oxon. p. 35. 70 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. ^ Plebis favore. In vitd Qypri- am Cyprian was elected Bishop of this Diocese ^ by the fa- vour of the people. And Cy- prian himself acknowledges, that he was chosen by 7 the Suffrage of all his People. 7. All the People of this Diocess could meet together to send Letters to other Churches ; an instance whereof we have in that gratulatory ■J Populi universi SuflFragio. JEpist. 55. §. 7. p. 139. ^ Vicarias vero pro nobis ego et Collegse, et Fraternitas oranis has ad vos literas mittimus. Apud Cyprian. Epist. 58. §• 2. p. 163. Letter still extant in Cyprian, which they ^ all sent to Luci- us, Bishop of E/Ome, on his Return from Exile. 8. All the People were present at Church-Censures, and concurred at the 9 Ex- communication of Offenders. Thus Cyprian writing from his Exile, to the People of this his Diocess, about the Irre- gularities of two of his Subdeacons, and one of his Acolyths ; and about the Schism of Felicissimus, assures them, that as to the former, whenever it should please God to return him ^ Et cum plebe ipsd universi. in Peace, ' it should be deter- 9 Secundum vestra divina Suf- fragia conjurati. Epist. 40. ad Plebem, §. 1. p. 92. Epist. 28. §. 2. p. 64. leagues, and his whole Flock. ^ Secundum arbitrium quoque vestrum, et omnium nostrum commune Consilium. Epist. 40. ad Plebem, §. 7. p. 94. mined by him and his Col- And as to the latter, that then likewise that should be transacted ^ according to the Ar'bitrament of the People, and the common counsel of them all. 9. At the Absolution of Penitents, all the People were present, who examined the Reality of the Offenders Repen. tance ; and if well satisfied of it, consented, that they should be admitted to the Churches Peace. Therefore when some Presbyters in a time of Persecution, had with too great Rash- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 71 ness and Precipitancy assailed some of those, that through the violence of the Persecution had succumbed, Cyprian writes them from his Exile an Objurgatory Letter, command- ing them to admit no more, till Peace should be restored to the Church, when those Offenders should plead their cause ' before all the People. And , , . , „, , ^ ,. ,, \^ , 1 ^ Actun apud Plebem universam touching the same JVlatter he writes in another place to all ""^'""^ '''^'^' ^P'''' ^^' ^' ^• the People of his Diocess, ?' ^^• that when it should please God to restore Peace to the Church, then all those Mat- 4 Examinabuntur singula prae- ters " should be examined in sentibus et judicantibus vobis. their presence, and be judged Epist. 12. ad Plebem, §. 1. p. by them. 37. Lastly, Nothing was done in this Diocess without the Con- sent of the People. So re- solved Bishop Cyprian ^ from ' ^ primordio episcopatiis mei ,7 n . ,' T 7 statuerim nihil sine consensu the first time I was made _,, , . . ^ -n . , . , , ^ , . , Plebis mese privata sententi^ Bishop, said he, / determined t:^ - ^ n c r 1^ y '. . gerere. Epist. 6. §. 5. p. 17. to do nothing without the con- sent of my People. And accordingly when he was exiPd from his Flock, he writ to the Clergy and Laity thereof, that when it should please God to return him unto them, ^ all ^ ^^ "^ ^^^ ^^^ S^^^^ sunt, vel Affairs, as their mutual Ho- ^^'^^^^' '^^^^ ^^^°^ "^"^""« nour did require, should be de- P°'f ^*' ^^ commune tractabimus. bated in common by them. ^ ' * ^ * Now whether all these Observations do not evidently re- duce the Diocess of Carthage to the same Bulk with our Parishes, I leave to every one to determine : For my part, I must needs profess, that I cannot imagine, how all the People thereof could receive the Sacrament together, assist at the Excommunication and Absolution of Offenders, assemble together to elect their Bishop, and do the rest of ithose fore- mentioned Particulars, without confining this Bishoprick within the limits of a particular Congregation. 72 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. §. 11. 'As for the Diocess of Alexandria, though the Numbers of the Christians therein were not so many, but ' The main point for which our Enquirer has contended, is this, that every primitive Diocese for 300 years together consisted only of a single Congregation. The force of truth now constrains him to confess, that the Christians of Alexandria, within the third century, divided themselves into several distinct and separate Con- gregations, and all subjected to one Bishop ; for this, says he, is clearly enough asserted by Dionysius, who mentions the distinct Congregations in the extremest suburbs of the city. To make this hard testimony a little more pliant to his purpose, he gives us this comment upon it, viz. that these Congregations were only a Chapel of Ease within the suburbs of Alexandria, for the conveni- ence of some members, who lived too far off to come to their one usual meeting-house, so often as they held assemblies there ; and therefore it was concerted between the Bishop and his people, that they should erect this Chapel, or these Chapels for themselves ; and upon solemn occasions should all meet in the one Mother- Church, and so continue but one Congregational Church still. Tn this comment, I must say, we have an instance of what zeal will sometimes do for a weak cause. 1st. This single Chapel, or these distinct Congregations, (for they are named in both capacities,) are positively said to be with- , ,^ in the extremest suburbs of the ^ ^ , citv of Alexandria ; though Di- )ittu,evots nxroc, u.ipos oxiyayft/ya*. ' • 1 • ^c ^ a ^ '^ ^ o«y52M5 himself says only, ^ «si^ were within such suburbs. Our wary Author leaves out \_us, or as it were~\ to some purpose : for a Chapel within the suburbs would suit pretty well with an English parish, whereas more Congregations, a little farther off, would not. 2dly. All this matter must be represented as a singular case, concerted between the Bishop and his people ; that they should not only erect this chapel or chapels for their own ease, but engage themselves upon solemn occasions to assemble with him in one and the same Church, and so be a mere Congregational Diocese still. For all this, there is no warrant or authority in Dionysius' s own narrative, but enough to show a very different case. OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 78 that in the middle of the Fourth Century they could all, or at least most of them, meet together in one place, as I might It must be borne in mind, that the place where these distinct Congregations were held, was in and about Colluthio, in the region of Marceotis ; which was a different Nomos, or district of Egypt, from that of Alexandria, both in the Macedonian and Roman divi- sion of it. 5 The holy Bishop , g^^ Appendix, No. 9, of Alexandria, was, at this time, confined, as a banished man, in this very place; where (as he tells us) ^ Christians a „„ % '^,^~ n / never ^ had resided before, roc7,ll r^.y-o^o^'Ko^ol^rco, hoy^X^aza-i till his name and sufferings y.su XYiarrcov aarx^^oi^xTs iyicsi(ji.evov had brought these several Con- — ri^^Eo-Sw koc) Xiacv ky^o(.KiT:rtitx. gregations of them into the ^^^^b. ib. lib. 1 . cap. U. country round about ; it being a place infested with vagrants and robbers, and whither he was much distressed to hear that he must go. Judge then what a kind of suburb this must be to his own city of Alexandria; I mean, in our modern and jEw^Z/sA notion of a Suburb, for whose sake this comment is made. In the ancient acceptation of the word, 7 sub- o ^r i • . ^ , 1 J J ^ J. " bee Vsile&mssAnnot. on these urbs comprehended large adja- tt^ , , , , ^ rVords, Kara iazpos avvxyuyxi, cent countries, whose towns t -n i -, , .„ ^, ,. In liiuseb. ib. and villages were the peculiar cures of Presbyters under the Bishop of the Diocese wherein they lay ; -but such a primitive construction would give his citizens Chapel of Ease a most unwarrantable situation. It is evident that Dionysius himself did not take the place here mentioned for a suburb of this city ; had it actually been there, he never would have said, as it were in remote suburbs. Nor is it less evident, that some fair symptoms of a modern Episcopal Church appeared in this primitive one of Alexandria ; and no wonder it should be so, since the Evangelist St. Mark had converted and settled many Congregations of Christians in the very city itself. This we learn from « Eusebius, who ^^EycycXyiaixs Jtt' aires' AXz^x.'^^Us calls them Churches, (in the ava-r-haocir'^oii. Euseb. Hist. Ec. plural number,) without any !• 2. c. 16. cautious distinction of Chapels of Ease, or any thing in name or M 74 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. evince from the writings of ' ^P°'°S- ad. Constant. ^ Jthanasius, were it not be- yond my prescribed time j yet in the third Century they had divided themselves into several distinct and separate Congre- gations, which were all subjected to one Bishop, as is clearly enough asserted by DionysiuSj Bishop of this Church, who » *Ev 'ff^ooKTrsiois nto^uri^u ksi(^s- mention^ ^ the distinct Con- vQis Kara i/.i^os Icrovrxt (rvvxyuyx). gregations in the extremest Advers. Germanum apud Euseb. Suburbs of the City. The lib. 7. cap. 11. p. 260. Reason whereof seems to be this ; Those Members of this Bishoprick, who lived in the remotest parts of it, finding it incommodious and troublesome every Lord^s Day, Saturday, Wednesday, and Friday, (on which days they always assembled) to go to their one usual Meeting-place, which was very far from their own Homes ; and withal being unwilling to divide themselves from their old Church and Bishop, lest they should seem guilty of the detestable Sin of Schism, which consisted in a Causeless Separation from their Bishop and Parish- Church, as shall be hereafter shewn ; desired their proper Bishop, to give them leave for Conveniency sake, to Erect near their own Habita- tions a Chappel of Ease, which should be a Daughter- Church to the Bishops, under his Jurisdiction, and guided by a Pres- byter of his Commission and Appointment, whereat they would usually meet, tho^ on some Solemn Occasions they would still all assemble in one Church with their one Bishop. That for this Reason these separate Congregations were introduced at Alexandria, seems evident enough ; because Dionysius Alexandrinus saith, that these distinct Congrega- tions were only in the ® re- WIS. Vide ut antea. n^^ ' !.• r, c i. Christians hereof were not nature like it ; but he takes care to leave upon record, that one single Bishop successively presided over all. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 75 as yet arrived to those great numbers, but that seventy years after they could meet all together in one and the same place, as might be proved from that forementioned place of Athanasius. So that these distinct Congregations were only for the Conveniency and Ease of those who lived at a great Dis- tance from the Bishop's Church, being introduced in the third Century, and peculiar to the Bishoprick oi Alexandria: All other Bishopricks confining themselves within their Primitive Bounds of a single Congregation, as we have before proved the largest of them did ; even Antioch, Rome, and Carthage. §. 12. » If then a Bishoprick was but a single Congre- gation, it is no marvel that we find Bishops not only in • To be a Bishop in a village and of a village, are very different things. We have only to read the history of our own native country, and we shall find a Bishop's See, now and then, fixed in a village, where his territories and dominions were as full of Parishes and Churches under him, as any Diocese in the land. Two passages, quoted by our Author in support of his position, I shall join together, because in the application here made of them, they are really an answer to one another. Clemens Roma- nus tells us, that the Apostles preaching hoth in country and city, (or through regions and cities, as it may be fitly rendered,) consti- tuted Bishops and Deacons there. The word regions being placed first in the text, it is but natural to suppose, that provinces or countries, in the most extensive sense, are here meant rather than mere country villages. But let us hear what St. Cyprian adds to this : Bishops (says he,) were ordained throughout all provinces and all cities. Now since our Author quotes these two Fathers as being much to the same purpose, he has reason to understand St. Clemens's countries, and the provinces mentioned by St. Cyprian, to be the same thing. And since the latter never understood provinces in any other sense, than as large tracts of countries, containing cities, towns, and villages in them ; so by parity of reasoning, it M 2 76 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE^, ETC. CitieSj but in Country Villages ; there being a Bishop constituted, wherever there were Believers enough to form a competent Congregation : For, says Clemens Romanus, the Apostles going forth and KacTa. ^u^ots ovv, ko.) mXsts av^vtra-ovrss Kct^icrracvov-^sis iirt- erxoTTovs koc) ^toocovovs. Epist. 1. ad Corinth, p. 54. ^preaching both in Country and City, constituted Bishops and Deacons there. Much to which purpose Cyprian says, That "^ Bishops were Ordained throughout all Pro- vinces and Cities : Hence in the Encyclycal Epistle of the Synod of Antioch, it is said, That Paulus Samosa- „ ,^ , , , , tenus had many Flatterers xa; .0'A.c.v. Apud Euseb. lib. 7. ' ^^^^^'^ theadjacent City and cap. 30. p. 281. Country Bishops ; ^ of this sort of Country-Bishops was ® Per omnes Provincias, et per urbes singulas ordinati sunt Episcopi. Epist. 52, §. 16. p. 119. ought to be allowed, that St. Clemens meant the same sort of countries too. Hence we see that the passages under considera- tion prove nothing to our Enquirer's purpose ; since if they are 9 The doubtful and undeter- mined sense of St. Clemens' s Bishops in the age in which he wrote, has been already account- ed for, in Chap. 1. §. 4, to which I beg to refer the Reader. equivalent, (as he says they are,) they only serve to shew, that both cities and countries might originally have had Bishops set over them, and vil- lages, none at all.9 1 1 freely confess that the Historian does call Comane, a village ; and I dare say it really was so. Some villages might have had Bishops' Sees in them, while their jurisdiction reached much far- ther ; and it may the rather be presumed that Comane was a vil- lage of this kind, ^ since it had ^ Episcopus Comanenus memo- a Bishop's seat in it, even in ratur in Epistold Episcoporum the fifth century, and at the Pamphyliae ad Leonem Aug. time of the council of Chalce- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 77 Zoticus, Bishop ^ of the ViU "* Zutikov ano Kopi^avrts KuiM-nu lage of Comane. * And we Anonym. apudEuseb. lib. 5. cap, may reasonably believe, ^^* P* ^^^* don ; when, I believe, no man See Vales, in Euseb. ubi supra, et thinks there was any one Bishop Concil. Chalced.FdiVt 3. p. 391. in the Christian Church, who had only a single village for his Diocese. But, be this as it may, it certainly must strike any impartial man as very remarkable, that so narrow a search should be made, to find here and there an instance of this kind, amongst so many thousand Bishoprics as the history of the Church affords ; whereas had villages been Bishops' Sees by Apostolical institution, (wherever any Congre- gation could be gathered in them,) the advantage in number, one would think, should soon have been on their side, in the general account of Episcopal Churches in the Christian world. " It is surmised, that there must have been many Bishops of villages, and very obscure villages too, amongst those 78 Bishops, that sat in council with St. Cyprian, (in the year 258,) because we do not meet with the names of many of their Sees in Ptolemy, or the old geographers. Now, whatever may be missing in the ancient geography, here referred to, it is evident that every Dio- cese, named in that council, is well accounted for by the Editor of the Oxford Edition of St. Cyprians works, in notes derived part- ly from those ancient geographers themselves, and partly from other Authors of unquestionable authority ; such as Antoninus, Optatus, St. Austin, Victor Vitensis, the Notitia Africa, Collatio Carthaginensis, &c. And as these Sees are generally styled cities in direct terms ; so, if one in twenty of them should be suspected to be otherwise, it w^ould not prove the Dioceses to have been only single Congregations ; nor should it be thought strange that, in the confines of those inhospitable countries, where the natives rarely multiplied their cities, yet were numerous in their smaller and dispersed corporations, it should not be thought strange that, on becoming Christians, they should have their Bishops seated in the most convenient mansion for all. Such instances in the more uncivilized and desert parts of the world are unquestionably to be 78 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. That many of those Bishops, who in the Year 258, were t /-« -1 r>i i-u J /-. assembled at ^ Carthage, to 5 Concil. Carthaff. apud Cy- ^, , on ..„ the number of fourscore prian. p. 443. _ , ^ and seven, had no other than obscure Villages for their Seats, since we find not the least notice of them in Ptolemyj or any of the old Geographers. §. 13. But let the. Bishops Seats have been in any Place whatever, their Limits, as hath been proved, exceeded not those of our Modern Parishes. 1 do not here mean, as was said before, that the Territory of some of them, was no larger ; no, I readily grant that ; for it is very probable, that in those places where there were but few Believers, the Christians, for several Miles round, met all together at the greatest place within that Compass, where probably there were most Christians, whence both the Church and its Bishop took their Denomination from that Place where they so assembled. But this is what I mean, that there were no more Christians in that Bishoprick, than there are now in our ordinary Parishes ; and that the Believers of that whole Territory met altogether with their Bishop for the Performance of Beligious Services. '^ Thus it was in the Age and Country of Justin Martyr, found : but to take a model of the Christian Church from them is strange indeed. ^ To close this second chapter, Justin Martyr's Sunday- Assem- blies are once more recommended to our better consideration, and St. Ignatius s charge to the Magnesians to keep in close union with their Bishop ; which, without their all going to his house of prayer, our Enquirer seems to think impracticable. How dif- ferent the sense of those holy Fathers is from that which is here put upon them, I have shewn in §.2. of this chapter ; and hope such a construction of them, will be found conformable to the principles and practice of the Catholic Church of Christ, and so be readily admitted by all friends of the like primitive Constitu- tion in our own country and times. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 79 who describing their solemn Assemblies, writes. That, 6 on Sunday all the inhabi- T'^ TtavTojv v.a.ra. iroKsis v) aypovs [XSVOVTCiJV l-TTi TO aVTO aVV£XBV(TIS yinrxf — o ir^osa-Tus ^tci Xoyov r^v avacTvefATTst — xat ro7s ov itocqovai ^la. Apolog. tants both of City and Coun- try met together, where the Lector read some Portions of the Holy Scriptures ; and the Bishop preached unto them, administred the Eucharist, and sent by the Deacons part of ruv ltoiy.ovojv irefATTErai the Consecrated Elements to 2. p. 98. those that were absent. So that the inhabitants both of City and Country, assembled all at the Bishop's Church, hearing him, and communicating with liim, following herein the Exhortation of Soint Ignatius to the Magnesians, "^ Let no- thing, saith he, be in you, that may divide you; but be united to the Bishop, and those that jjreside over you : As therefore our Lord Jesus Christ did nothing without his Father, neither by himself, nor his Apostles, so do you nothing without the Bishop and Pj-es- byters, but assemble into one Place, and have one Prayer, one Supplication, one Mind, and one Hope. "? M>j^£V 'iaru h lyuv o ^yy)jo-£T«/ STrtajcoitcif, koc) toTs nt^oy.a,^YiiA.ivois — cuVsV > / CI/ yl >/ ^ J OVOBV BTVOl/KTE V)VU(Ji£VOS CiJV, OVTS 01 exvrov, ovts ^tu, ruv aicoa-roXcov, ovrus fAs^s vfxsTs '"- ^P^^' 2. p. y administering the two Sacra- ments of 3 Baptism and the ^ Tertul. de Baptism, p. 602. ® Oi/T£ 06 eTTia-xoTTOs, ovre aWos t)s, h^dh air' 'EKxXiocrixs ^i^da-ycn, Sozom. Hist. Eccl. 1. 7. c. 19. et Vales. Annot. ib. Congregation in a Diocese, it was a temporary dispensation to him, from performing that duty. "^ Sozomen goes further, and says, it was a custom in the Church of Rome, for neither Bishop nor any one else to preach there : upon which the learned Valesius remarks, that no sermon of a Bishop of that Church was ever extant before those of Leo the Great, (which was in the 5th century,) and quotes Cassiodo- rus to confirm what Sozomen said. I infer no more from this, than what barely relates to the case before us, viz. that the Bishop's continual preaching to the people (which our Enquirer here asserts,) was not universal in the Primitive Churches them- selves. y No doubt, the administration of the Sacrament of Bap- tism is included in the Bishop's , ^^^^^ ^^ g ^_ jy_ function, but let us hear ^ Ter- tullians own words on the subject : The right of giving Baptism is in the Bishop, and from thence in the Presbyters, and Deacons, if he authorize them for it. Hence it appears that the flock of Christ might be fed, and the ordinances of the Church adminis- tered in a Diocese, though the Bishop should not constantly act in his own person ; and that he was not wanting to his function, where he efifectually provided that every act of it was performed to the edification and exigencies of his people. Personal presence is undoubtedly the truest and most faithful means of discharging any trust, especially such a high and heavenly one as this ; but it certainly is strange to hear the necessity of it so strongly insist- ed upon by one, who makes a Diocese but a single auditory ; and who, though there should be 40 or 50 Presbyters, (which, in his account of them, are as truly Apostolical Bishops in their order, N 83 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. * Idem de Coron. Milit. p. ^ Lord's Supper, ^ taking care 338. of the Poor, ^ Ordaining of 5 Justin Martyr. Apol. 2. p. Ministers, i Governing his ^^' Flock, ^Excommunicating of 6 Firmilian. apud Cypr. Epist. Offenders, 9 Absolving of Pe- 75. §. 6. p. 237. ^^^^^^^ , ^^^ -^ ^ ^^j.^ 7 Tertul. Apol. cap. 39. p. , . . , , ^ ^ ^ whatever Acts can be com- ' C™r. Ep. 88. §. 2. p. 90. P'"^'*'^ ""'^'''' *^°'^ ^""^^ „ , ^ General Heads of Preaching, 9 Idem. Ep. 10. §. 2. p. 30. ,,. i.- j n I ^ *^ Worship and Government, were parts of the Bishop's Function and Office. I have but just named these things, because they are not much controverted ; and my Design leads me chiefly to the Consideration of those Matters which have been unhappily disputed amongst us. §. 2. To the constant Discharge of those forementioned Actions, did the Primitive Bishops sedulously apply them- selves, continually preaching unto their People, praying with them, and watching over them, and to that end, residing always with them ; which Incumbency or Residen- cy on their Parishes, was deem'd so necessary, that * Cyprian enumerating the Sins that brought the Wrath of God upon the Churches in that bloody persecution of as the very supreme one himself,) yet cannot allow that single Pastor to absent himself for a while, upon the most important affair, though he should depute all these Presbyters to watch over his little flock in his behalf. * Our Enquirer here urges the opinions of St. Cyprian, who reckons this sin of non -residence, as one occasion of God's wrath upon the Church, in the Decian persecution : and I believe, it would be thought no better of even in this, or any other age, if we should take in all the other aggravations which that holy * Episcopi plurimi derelicta martyr charges it with. He cathedr^, plebe desert^, per complains * that Bishops left OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 83 DeciuSy mentions the Bishops Non -Residencies as one ; ^ Their leaving their Rectories j and deserting their Flocks, and wandering about the Coun- try to hunt after Worldly their Dioceses, to follow sordid merchandise abroad, to purchase farms by fraud and extortion, to enrich themselves by usury upon usury, neglecting to relieve the brethren that were starving in the Church, Such non- resi- dence might indeed draw down judgments upon a Church ; but will scarcely prove, that no occasions (however important, inno- cent, or just,) can excuse the temporary absence of a Bishop from his See, where every district in his Diocese has subordinate Pastors provided for it. St. Cyprian himself was absent for a considerable time on an extraordinary occasion ; and his example shews us how a Diocese is capable of being provided for in such a case, s Though absent in body, ^ Absens corpora, nee spiritu, * Episcopi, derelict^ cathedr^, plebe desert^, per alienas Pro- vincias oberrantes negotiationis questuosse nundinas aucupari. De Lapsis, §. 4. p. 278. alienas provincias oberrantes, negotiationis quaestuosae nun- dinas aucupari; esurientibus in Ecclesia fratribus non subve- nire, habere argentum largiter velle, fundos insidiosis fraudibus rapere, usuris raultiplicantibus fcenus augere. Cyp. de Lapsis, §.4. Edit. Oxon. p. 123. (says he,) / was neither wanting in spirit, in act, or admonitions to them : but by my Episcopal authority, I still restrained such Presbyters and Deacons, as were remiss and negligent in the nee actu, nee monitis meis defui — Presbyteris et Diaconis non defuit sacerdotii vigor ut quidam minus disciplinae memores — comprimerentur, in- tercedentibus nobis. Ep. 20. discipline of the Church. Those spiritual stewards of the Lord's household will have a hard account to give, if whensoever their Lord coraeth, he finds them not watching. But by what rules of equity, that watchfulness, which he enjoins them, shall be acceptable in the last day, is reserved to himself alone, who knows the heart, and judges not by appearance, but according to truth. This is matter of awe enough to every servant in his family ; and at the same time proves how wrong it is for any, but their Lord and Master, to pass sentence on their service. N 2 84, THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Gain and Advantage : And therefore the said Cyprian writing to the Roman Confessors, who were inveigled into o-vT T-.1AJ T.Ar the Schism of iVbvfl/za/i, tells * Nos Jl.cclesia derelicta, foras ^ • . , . them, ^ that since he could exire, et ad vos venire non pos- ' sumus.Epist.44.§.2.p.l0'2. ^^^ ^^«^^ ^"^ Church, and come in Person unto them, therefore by his Letters he most earnestly exhorted them to quit that Schismatical JPaction ; so that he looked on his Obligation of Residency at his Church to be so bind- ing, as that in no Case almost, could he warrant the leaving of it ; which Determination of his might be the more fix'd and peremptory, because that not long before, » Epist. 3. apud Cyprian, p. be was so severely tax'd 11- 3 ]3y the Roman Clergy, and * Pontius in vita Cypriani. by many of his own * Pa- rish, for departing from them for a while, though it was to avoid the Fury of his Persecutors, who had already proscribed him, and would have executed him as a Male- factor, had he not by that Recess from his Church, escaped their murderous Hands. So that the Primitive Apostolick Bishops constantly resided with their Flocks, conscientiously applying them- selves with the utmost Diligence and Industry to the Promotion of the Spiritual Welfare of those that were committed to their Trust, employing themselves in all Acts of Piety, and Offices of Charity ; so leading a labo- rious and mortified Life, till either a natural, or a violent Death removed them from Earth to Heaven, where they were made Priests to the most High, and were infinitely remunerated for all their Pains and Sorrows; and so leaving their particular Flocks on Earth, to be fed and governed by others who should succeed them in their Places; which brings me in the next place to enquire. How a vacant Bishoprick was supplied, or in what manner a Bishop or Minister was elected to a Diocess or Parish ? OF THE PRIMITIVE CHUBCH. 85 §.3. Now the Manner of electing a Bishop, I find to be thus : * When a Parish or Bishoprick was vacant ' The next question is, how a Bishop was anciently elected into a vacant See ; which is thus determined for us : " 1st. That all the members of the Parish or Bishopric, both Clergy and Laity, com- monly met to choose a fit person for his successor, to whom they might commit the care and go- ^ „ • & 4 vernment of their ^ Church. 2d\y . Whomsoever the people had thus elected, they presented to their neighbouring Bishops for their approbation and consent, lest the people, through ignorance or affection, should choose an unfit or unable man for the sacred office : it being supposed, (as our En- quirer says,) that a synod of Bishops might be wiser judges in the case. 3dly. A bishop thus elected and confirmed, is to have his Ordination or Instalment in his own Church, by the neighbouring Bishops, and that by imposition of their hands." These it seems, were the three requisites for the filling of any vacant Bishopric in the primitive times : and the two former, so equally necessary, that it is "J concluded that „ , ^ 7 §. 4. " neither the choice of the Bishop of the Voisinage, without the consent of the people, nor the election of the people, without the approbation of the Bishops, was sufficient and valid of itself :" and after both, the ceremony of Ordination or Instalment was to finish all. Now it need not be disputed, that in the vacancy of a See, all the members of it, (Clergy and Laity,) commonly met together, in many Dioceses, though not in all, to choose a fit person for a sue- cessor ; provided that, by choosing here, we may be allowed to understand merely what our Enquirer intimates to us, viz. the selection of a person acceptable to themselves, whom they might propose and recommend to the neighbouring Bishops for their approbation and consent ; that is, for those Bishops to accept or refuse, as they should think fit : for where we sue for appro- bation or consent, we must allow a right and power to disapprove and dissent. The next words go farther : they met (says our Author,) to choose a successor, to whom tJiey might commit the care and 86 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. through the Death of the Incumbent, all the Members of that Parish, both Clergy and Laity, met together in government of their Church, This is somewhat more than preparing to recommend to others ; it is plainly attributing to the individual members of a Church a considerable share, at least, of original right and power invested in them, to dispose of their Bishopric to the person whom they should please to choose. Nor is there any doubt, but that our Enquirer intended his words „ „ . ^, _ should be understood in this 8 Enquiry Ch. 6. §. 2. - . .1,8 ^ •' sense ; for m another place,* where he treats directly of the acts and powers of the Lay-mem- bers of a Church, he affirms in plain terms, that they had a power not only to elect the persons of their Bishop, but to depose him too, in case he proved scandalous, heretical, or the like. Now what this lay-power really was, in constituting Bishops of old, and from whence it came, is the point in question : for the easier solution of which, we need only carefully observe these two things: 1st. What the Holy Scriptures themselves teach us, concerning the Divine institution of this sacred office and power of constituting and ordaining Bishops and Pastors in the Church, together with the manner in which it was first executed, and practised in the Apostolical age itself. And, 2dly. What account of the same thing we meet with in the Ecclesiastical Records of Fathers, Councils, or Historians, in the ages nearly approaching to the first. These two great authorities, impartially compared together, will teach us to distinguish, on the one hand, between a divine right and power of ordaining elders in the Church, (a power con- veyed down from above to the first spiritual rulers of it,) without the concurrence of any popular election ; and, on the other, the prudent rules and methods, which succeeding Governours, in many parts of the Church, laid down for themselves, in the use and practice of that ordaining power. If this distinction were but duly attended to, and applied without prejudice to the present controversy; the adversaries, on both sides, might find their account in it, and so be more inclined to compromise their unhappy differences about it. For if the former part of this die- OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 87 the Cliurcli commonly, to chuse a fit Person for his Suc^ cessor, to whom they might commit the Care and Govern- ment of their Church. tinction be true, then such as disallow the necessity of popular elections in the case, must have a very important plea (even from the Scriptures themselves) for their opinion of it ; and if primi- tive Bishops formed Rules and Canons by mutual consent among themselves, not to exercise the ordaining power and office, in- vested in them, otherwise than in the presence, and with the general approbation of the church or people, over which the per- son, so ordained, was intended to preside ; then the advocates for this popular claim, interest, or right of bearing some part in electing and constituting a Bishop over them, may have plausible precedents of Ecclesiastical Antiquity to recommend their plea for it likewise. These two points contain the main substance of what is generally offered on either side ; and seems to me more immediately to answer all the reasonings of our learned Enquirer about it. The Reader may find this subject more fully considered in the Appendix : the particulars of what is there advanced from 9 Scripture evidence relating „ . ,. ^^t ,,> , ,, . , , , ^ 9 See Appendix, No. 10. to the Argument before us, are briefly these : 1 St. That the principal Apostles themselves were unquestiona- bly chosen and ordained supreme Governours and Pastors of all that did, or should believe, in their time, without the concurrence o'r consent of any ; and this was the root and fountain of all Church-power granted from above. 2dly. That the same Apostles must have had the like ordaining power personally and entirely invested in themselves alone, upon these two accounts : because their commission, in this respect, was, in express words, the very transcript of the Father s to their Lord and Master, who sent them, {as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you, John xx. 21,) and because their pastoral work in converting unconverted nations, and constituting or ordaining spiritual Governours for them, being, in that respect, the same also, naturally required the same authority and power for it. 88 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. •' Thus when Alexander was chosen Bishop of Jerusalem^ 5 'A^Aipoi o^xsV olxaSe alrZ^ ^^ ^^s by the ^ Compulsion iratXivQcrreTv iiriT^iirovfft. Euseb. or Choice of the Members lib. 6. cap. 11. p. 212. of that Church. And as for the Bishoprick of E/ome, we have a memorable Instance 3dly. It appears from the evidence of the Scriptures, as well as from many unexceptionable authorities, that those adopted Apostles, St. Paul, and St. Barnabas, ordained elders for the Churches, in the same manner, as to their sole and personal act in it. 4thly. That the same St. Paul conveyed the hke power to Timo- thy and Titus, requiring no concurrence of a popular election with them, either in his commission or instructions to them, but on the contrary, left with them cautions to beware of trusting too much to any such elections. And, Lastly, with respect to that single instruction so often strained to prove a popular election, viz. that Bishops or Deacons must be first proved, and found to be blameless, it is shown, that neither in the sense of the Apostle himself, nor from the nature of the thing, nor in the sense and judgment of the learned Enquirer himself, any such popular claim or title could be implied in it. *» Our Enquirer here offers some instances of a popular election in the primitive Church. His first instance is that of Alexander Bishop of Jerusalem, chosen there (says he,) by the compulsion or choice of the members of that Church. The quotation in plain ^ V , , , ./ ^ , English may be translated thus : ' AdeXfflo* ovKzr oixadc avru iten- ,,,,,, ti /»• J , t:^ \ ^ the brethren would not suffer yuwa-rtii Ivtreetcovm* iliuseb. \. ai t . . t ai ^ Alexander to return home. Alex- 6-c. 11. , ., „. ^ ander, it appears, was a Bishop in Cappadocia long before that time ; but out of devotion came to Jerusalem to pray there, and to visit the country. Here by one divine vision to himself, and another to the people of Jerusalem, God was pleased to signify, that he should stay amongst them, and be an Assistant-Bishop to the superannuated Narcissus, now 116 years old. Upon which visions, with an audible voice OF THE 1>R1MITIVE CHURCH. 89 of this kind in the Advancement of Fabianus to that See^ upon the Death of Bishop Anterus : ^ All the People met ^ T&v ya^ a.hK(pm ocisdvrm xs/fo- together in the Church to chuse rovtxs 'inKsv T*jy rov ^j^iwovros a Successor, proposing several ^'«^e|5c7^ai rm ima-xoTiriy Iw* illustrious and eminent Perso- '^^' UYM ^ . * „ tual desire to tiave him for their concupiscens — Episcopum &c. ... , , . , , ^^ • r „ . . ^ « T^ t ^ Bishop : which shews their fa- Pont.invit.Cyp,V).^.Y.d.Ox. ^, . .... ^'^ ^ vour had strong inclination indeed, but, at the same time, little of authority in the case. But, in truth, the force of both these instances lies in the lan- guage of St. Cyprian, and in the construction of the word Sufrage ; which will come under our consideration in the subsequent remark. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 91 Thus also with respect to the Diocess of Carthage, Cyprian was chosen Bishop thereof by its Inhabitants and Members, as Pontius his Deacon writes, « That though he was a Novice, ' *^"^^^^^ ^^^' ^^ P^^^^^ ^^^°^^ yet by the grace of God, and ^^ ^^"^^™ Sacerdotii, et Epi- -7 TTT y j7 r> 7 7 scopatus Gradum, adhuc Neo- tne flavour of the People, he , , , . , ^ j\ .7.7 7. phytus electus est. In vit4 was elevated to that sublime n • • . 1 . , . typnam. Dignity ; which is no more than what Cyprian himself 9 Populi universi suffragio. acknowledges, who frequent- Epist. 55. §. 7. p. 139. Popu- \j owns, that he was pro- li suffragiura. Epist. 55. §. 6. moted to that Honourable p- 138. Suflfragium vestrum. Charge by the 9 Suffrage of Epist. 40. §. 1. p. 92. the People. §. 4. When the People had thus elected a Bishop, they presented him to the neighbouring Bishops for their Ap- probation and Consent, because wdthout their concurrent Assent, there could be no Bishop legally instituted, or confirmed. Thus when the fore-mentioned Alexander was chosen Bishop of Jerusalem, by the Brethren of that Place ; he h^di 2\%o the ^ common Consent , „ ^ ^x ,v . . Ti- 7 Tovro OS ZT^ci^otvres (^sTocKoivris of the* circumjacent Bishops. , , . • / v ^ ~ '' -^ '^ rcov ETtiaxoiruv ot rots tte^/^ dtenrov Now the Eeason of this, I ,^^^^^,^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^.^^ ^.^^ g, suppose, was, lest the People ^^^ n p 212. thro^ Ignorance or Affection, should chuse an unfit, or an unable Man for that sacred Office ; it being supposed, that a Synod of Bishops had more Wisdom, Learning, and Prudence, than a Congregation of unlearned and ignorant Men, and so were better able to judge of the Abilities and Qualifications of the Person elect, than the People were. Hence we find, that sometimes the election of a Bishop is attributed to the Choice of the Neighbouring Bishops, with the Consent and Suffrage of the People : This Custom generally prevailed throughout o 2 92 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Africa ; where upon the Va- « Apud nos, et fere per Pro- ^^^^^ ^^ ^ g^^ , , j.f^^ ^^ .^^_ vincias universas tenetur. ut ad ^^^ . ^ .^^^^^ . ^^^ p^^_ Ordinationes rite celebrandas, . ,, ., ..i. wnce me/ together at that ^ No doubt, there existed in the primitive Church the custom of provincial Bishops repairing to a vacant See, and, in the pre- sence of the people, settHng the election of the intended Bishop, and ordaining him there ; I mean in most provinces, though not « !?«,.« ^^«„;„«' • in all ; 5 which is as much as ' l?ere provmcias universas, the quotations require. But to bring the question to a short issue, what was the part or office of the people in those public ordinations ? The Enqui- ry, treating of the Presbyter's examination for holy orders, allows 6 See Enquiry ch. 5. §. 8. °^ ^^^ people's testimony and attestation ^ only in the case ; but when he comes to be made a Bishop indeed, in the true and universal sense of the Cathohc Church, then the people's testimo- ny improves itself into a claim of power sufficient to elect him Bishop, if they please, or to depose him afterwards, if they think he proves unfit for it. Now, let us inquire whether the primitive Church itself, which so commonly ordained in the presence of the people, acknowledged any such power in them, or no ? To prove that it did, the Enquirer produces first of all the instance of an African Synod, related by St. Cyprian \Ep. 68. §. 6, or in the Owon. Edit. Ep. 67]. In this account of the case, we are told what the general custom was ; and that the particular ordination of Snbinus was in all points conformable to it. It is affirmed of the general custom, in our Author's own translation, that the neighbouring Bishops met together at the Church of a vacant See, and chose a Bishop. Here is as plain a proof, I think, of the neighbouring Bishops choosing the person, as words can make it. What then is said of the people ? Only this, that it was in their presence, who knew his life and conversation before. That their knowledge of his previous life and conversation, should qualify them to give testimony of his moral conduct and behaviour OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 9S Church, and chose a Bishop ad earn plebem cui praepositus in the Presence of the People, ordinatur. Episcopi ejusdern who knew his Life and Con- Provinciae proximi quique con- versation before ; which Cus- veniant, et Episcopus deligatur, amongst them, and so encourage or discourage the Bishops in making or confirming their elections, is a natural and genuine inference from that expression : and if we will allow St. Cyprian to make his references and similitudes apposite to the subject to which he applies them, we must conclude it was his own meaning too. For upon this very argument, and in the same page, he refers to God's instructions to Moses, to bring forth Aaron, with Eleazar, his son, and to place them before the Congregation, in order to consecrate the son, his father's successor ; and, I presume, no man infers from hence, that the Congregation of Israel chose or voted Eleazar to the High Priesthood, because it was to be done in their presence. The reason 7 given by St. Cyprian "' ^^ sacerdos, plebe prsesente» for quoting the sacred text, sub omnium oculis deligatur, et and applying it to the argument dignus atque idoneus publico he had in hand is this, to shew judicio ac testimonio comprobe- that the judgment and testi- tur, sicut in Numeris Dominus mony about ordinations, should Moysi prsecepit. Cyp. Ep. 68. be as public as possible. '^^l Edit. Oxon. Ep. 67. For any thing that appears in this quotation, the general cus- tom of the Church made the election of the person to be the Bishop's part, and left the people's presence and testimony only to be theirs ; and doubtless, in Sabinus's case it could be no other- wise, for it is introduced here with this attestation, that this cus- tom of the Church was accordingly observed in the ordination of Sa- binus. Where lies the evidence then, that the people chose ? It lies wholly in a positive construction of a dubious and mistaken word in this quotation, and in the Enquirer's confounding two terms, which the accurate St. Cyprian had carefully distin- guished. That holy Father's words, (to translate them aright,) are these ; that the Bishopric was conferred upon Sabinus, by the suffrage of all the brethren, and by the judgment of the Bishops 94 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. plebe praesente, quae singulorura ^^^^ j^^^ observed in the Elec- vitaraplenissimenovit,etuiiius- fi^^ ^f Sabinus, Bishop of cujusque actum de ejus Conver- Emerita in Spain, who was satione perspexit. Quod fac ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^;,^^ j^ig^^^ j^ the Suffrage of all the Bre- tum videmus in Sabini Ordina- tione, ut de universae fraterni- ^, 7 /• 77 ^7 t»- 7 ^ ^. ^ „ . , , T^ . thren, and of all the Bishops tatis fouffragio, et de Episcopo- _ "^ _, , . . J. . T^ . ^ . there present. J3ut whether rum judicio Jijpiscopatus ei ^ deferetur. Synod. African. ^^^ Election of a Bishop, apud Cyprian. Epist. 68. §. 6. ^^ ascribed to the adjoining p. 202. Ministers or to the People of that Parish, it comes all to Judgment and suffrage are here plainly distinguished, the for- mer being attributed to the Bishops alone, and the latter to all the brethren : whereas the Enquirer was pleased to unite them in his translation, and says that Sabinus was advanced to that dig- nity by the suffrage of all the brethren, and of all the Bishops there present. By this ingenuous union of the words, (suffrage being made the same with a judicial act,) we might be insensibly led to suppose, that, in this election, the people had at least an equal share of right and power with the Bishops themselves. The Rea- der is requested to notice this particularly, because a great stress of the Enquirer's arguments for popular election seems to lie in a misconstruction of the word suffrage, in the writings of St. Cyprian. That primitive Father in his tract (de Zelo et Livore) speaking of the people's transport of satisfaction and joy at Davids slaying „ „ , , . . , , of Goliath, expresses it thus : ^ Populus admirans m laudes _ ^, , . /• .7 . . ^ ., .... m • They broke forth into commen- David praedicationis suffragio , ,. ^ t^ -, .,7 jr . . _, , r, J dations of David, with suffrage prosituit. Cyy. de Zelo et . / ,,^, ^ ^, . %. . ^^„ / T^ 7. of applause. What can this Liv. \). 223. Owon. Edit. ^r r ? • r t . suffrage of applause signify, but a testimony of the people's highest approbation of the thing done, not expressed by votes, but by public acclamations ? This St. Cyprian calls the suffrage of the people. Again, in his Treatise, (de Vanitate IdolorumJ when speaking of the Jews earnestly urging Pilate to crucify our blessed Lord, he OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 95 one and the same thing; neither the Choice of the Bishops of the Voisinage, without the Consent of the People ; nor the Election of the People, without the Approbation of those Bishops, was sufficient and valid of it self; but both concurred to a legal and orderly Pro- motion, which was according to the Example of the Apo- says, 9 They delivered him unto , ^^^:,^^^; eorum Pontio Pi- ?onhuBVA^te,requesting of him lato tradiderunt crucem ejus, hy force, and importunate suffra- et mortem suffragiis violentis ges, that he should be crucified. ^^ pertinacibus flagitantes. Cyp. What more is meant by these ^^ ^'''''^' ^^^^- P* ^^- ^^' ^^• importunate suffrages, than that the Jews shewed their wicked inclination, desire, and highest approbation of the thing, if Pilate should pass such a sentence upon him ? for they themselves declared that they had no power to put any man to death (John xviii. 31.) : yet this St. Cyprian calls the suffrage of the Jews. I shall adduce one instance more, because it contains that holy Father's own explanation of the word, and plainly shews that, by suffrage, he meant nothing more than public testimony. In his esth. Epistle he says of C'orne- , j,^ ^j^^ ^^ p,^^^ ^^ lius's ordination, that it was ' q F ' t fiS by the suffrage of the Clergy and the people : and he says of the same ordination in another place, that it was by '^ the testimony of o t\ -i • , 7, 7 ^ 7 ^ -^ ^ De clericorum poene omnium almost all the Clergy, and by . .- • ^ , , , . ^ ,. 7 7 testimonio, et de plebis, quae the suffrage of the people that . cc -,. a - r^ ^ ^ •; ^ -^ '^ ^ tunc affuit, suffragio. Ep. 55 . were there. Now if the testi- , (^. e, 7.. r> . p. 104. Edit. Oxon. mony of the Clergy m the latter clause be not the same with their sufrage in the former, then it was something less : and consequently the personal part and inte- rest of the Clergy in elections falls short of that of the common people, to whom a suffrage is imputed in the same clause : which, I presume, can hardly be intended. But if the terms be allowed to be equivalent, the case is plain, and St. Cyprian appears consis- tent with himself. See Appendix, No. 11. 96 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. « KccTCKTrx^yrccs Izi' Uslvm,^ v gtlcs and Apostolick Preach- ^ ~ \ f ' N ', ., , ers. who m the first Plan- o^av avnvooicnaaayis r-ns enx-Avia-iots •' -jracnjy. Clem Rom, Ep. I. ad, tation of Churches, ^ ' Or- Cor. p. 57. dained Bishops and Deacons, with the Consent of the whole Church. * Our learned Author here observes, that Apostles and Aposto- lick preachers ordained Bishops and Deacons with the consent of the whole Church ; that is, by their votes given for the candidate to be ordained, in the manner of a regular election ; for so the subject to which he applies the passage, obliges us to understand it. Now this evidence so far agrees with the former, that the whole force of it lies as before in the signification of a single word. St. Clement's word for consenting is awsv^oKVia-xaios, which directly answers to St. Cyprian s notion of the word suffrage. Ev^oxiu (which bears a near affinity to it) often occurs in Holy Scripture. God's complacency in his own Son is expressed by that word in three of the Gospels : ^ This is * 'Ev Z tv^oKvia-oi. Matth. iii. 17. my beloved Son, in whom I am Mark i. 2. Luke iii. 22. ^^^^ pleased. * St. Paul uses it for taking pleasure in infirm- ♦ Ei^oKu Iv ad^svsiocts &c. 2 Cor. Hies, in reproaches, in necessi- xii. 10. ties ; and for the wicked's being pleased with unrighteousness. (2 Thess. ii. 12.) Other passages to the same purpose might , „,^ , ,% .- , V be adduced, wherein learned 5 EyooxnaavTes sv aOiKix, rovr sars s^ ' .d Commentators have explained «, J.X-f- Theodor. in loc. ';^'"-''io me^n < rejoioinff. rest- „ /rv , ^ ^ ing highly satisfied in, acgui- n^oa-iTS'ivia-xv aa^svus Tip aoixioc. i/ j j j z Theophvl. in loc. ' ' ^^"''^^ ^'^' ^': ' ^^- ^"^^ ^^' presses SauVs consent to the A „ -^ ^ , ^. « ^ , death of St. Stephen by the , r. A 4. •• 1 verv same word, which St. Cle- q%cru »vTov. Act. vili. 1. ment uses here. But if that tragical act was nothing but the lawless violence of a barbarous and incensed multitude, (as the holy Penman's relation of it sufficiently shows,) then Saul's consenting to such an act, can have no other sense so fairly put upon it, as that he highly ap- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 97 §. 5. f A Bishop being thus elected and confirmed, the next thing that followed, was his Ordination or Install- ment, which was done in his own Church by the neigh- bouring Bishops ; as Cyprian mentions some Bishops in proved the thing, had a thorough satisfaction in it, and his heart went along with those, who were the principal actors in it. Hence it appears that the sense of St. Clement's word, even in the lan- guage of Holy Scripture itself, in no wise warrants such an inference from it, as can establish a popular election. See Ap- pendix, No. 12. f Our Enquirer here makes Ordination and Instalment equivocal and convertible terras, and asserts that the ordaining and installing of a Bishop are one and the same thing. He translates the word ordinare, which occurs in the ancient writings of the Fathers, by the English word installing ; and (what is still more strange) he makes this Installing- Act to be performed by impo- sition of Episcopal hands. Now English readers know very well that the Ordination of a „^ r^ i i i • n .^ _. , . " , 1 „ , ' See Godolphin. Kepert. Canon, J3ishop IS one thmg, and " the __ , , . ^j. „ r j / ^ , . , P- 26, and 44. Edit. 3. Lond, Instalment of him, another. ' A Bishop is complete to all intents and purposes, both as to temporalities and spiritualities after Consecration ; but Instalment is performed aft erwards, in a manner different enough, by officers and ceremonies, very little akin to those of Consecration, Do any other Ecclesiastical Records, either modern or ancient, warrant the Enquirer's singular notion of the terms under con- sideration ? I think not. Why then advance it at all in this place ? Probably because he feared, that if the sacred act of Ordination, by imposition of Episcopal hands, should appear to imprint any other character upon the person so consecrated, or ordained, than the mere act of Instalment does, then these two consequences would ensue : 1st. The part which provincial Bishops took in ancient Ordinations, would prove to be something more than their bare consent and approbation of the people's election ; which is the chief part that he allows them in the case. And P -98 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. * In Capsensi Civitate propter ^^^ ^i^^^, who went to * a Ordinationem Episcopi essetis. ^«^2/ ^«^^^^ ^apse to install a Epist. 53. §. 1. p. 131. Bishop; whither when they were come, they took the Bishop Elect, and in the presence of his Flock, Or- dained or Installed him Bishop of that Clmrch, by Impo- sition of Hands, as Sabinus 5 Episcopatus ei deferretur, et , / 7 • » • o- j ^ f . was 5 placed m his Bishop- manus ei imponeretur. Apud tit -j- p tt i . T^ ' f aQ f, a '""^^^ '^y JLi^position oj Hands. nQ2 * ^ * • • • 1 • Therefore Fortunatus the Schismatical Bishop of Car- 6 Quinque Pseudo.episcopi Car- thage, ^ got five Bishops to thaginem venerint, et Fortuna- ^ome and Ordain him at Car- tarn sibi dementiae suae socium ^^^^^ . ^^^ ^^ Novatian, constituerint.^^Cy;.na;z. Epist, ^^^^^^^ Schism atically as- * ^' * pired to the Bishoprick of "^ 'ETria-xoTTovs r^sTs dv^^u-irovs oc- Rome, that he might not y^oiKQvs Kd) anKovarurovs 'nXotarvi seem to leap in Uncanonical- rm Eitixei^vaei i^acrrarrKryi^fA.srtx \j^ 7 wheedled three ignorant ^tas h ^y>tac7£y B'iKoviyc^ nil ncc) ^^^ gi^pl^ BishopS tO COme ««r.tea.. Cornel, apud Eus. that Bishoprick by Imposition lih. 6. cap. 43. p. 243. j^ tt j of Hands. How many Bishops were necessary to this installing of a Bishop Elect, I find not ; Three were sufficient, as is ap- parant from the forecited action of Novatian ; whether less would do, I know not, since I find not the least Footsteps of it in my Antiquity, unless that from Novatian' s sending 2dly. Their imposition of hands, at this InstalHng Ordination, might look like advancing the candidate to a new order. This would lessen the people's part too much in making Bishops for themselves, and overthrow the whole scheme of his next Chapter ; the object of which is to prove, that the orders of Bishop and Presbyter in the Church are plainly one and the same. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 99 for, and fetching just three Bishops out of Italy, we con- clude that Number to be necessary. But if there were more than Three, it was not accounted unnecessary or needless ; for the more Bishops there were present at an Installment, the more did its Validity and Unexceptionableness appear : Whence Cyprian argues the undeniable Legality of Cornelius's Promotion to the See of Rome, because he had ^ six- « ,:, . • t^ , -a v j , ^ Jiipiscopo in liCclesia a sede- tern Bishops present at Ms ^j^ Coepiscopis facto. Epist. Ordination : And for this 52. & 16 p 119. Reason it was, that Fortuna- tus the Schismatical Bishop of Carthage falsely boasted. That there were 9 Twenty- five Bishops present at his ^ Jactare viginti quinque Epi- Installment. And thus in scopes affuisse. Cyprian. Epist. short, we have viewed the 55. §. 12. p. 140. Method of the Ancients in their Election of Bishops ; we have shewn, that they were elected by the People, approved and installed by the Neigh- bouring Bishops ; on which Account it is that Cyprian ' Delecti ordinati. Epist. 41. calls them ^ Chosen and Or- §• 2. p. 97. dained. §. 6. It may not now be amiss to mention this Custom, that when a Bishop was thus presented and advanced to a See, he immediately gave notice of it to other Bishops, especially to the most renowned Bishops and Bishopricks, as '^ Cornelim writ to Cyprian ^ . -D- 1 r r^ ^i A ^ Tu te Episcopum factum Bishop of Carthage, an Ac- ,. . . >, . -n, f,, . ^ . , uteris nunciares. Cyprian. Ep. count of his being promoted 40 r 4 qq to the See of Rome ; betwixt which two Churches, there was such a peculiar Intercourse and Harmony, as that this Custom was more particularly observed by them, insomuch that it was observed by the p 2 100 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Schismatical Bishops of each 5 Venerunt ad nos missi a Church, 3 Novatian giving Novatiano Maximus Presbyter, ^^^^^^ ^^ Cyprian, Bishop of &c. Cyprian. Epist. 41. §.1. ri .i ni- .• f.n Cartnagey ot his promotion to the Church of Rome; ' Ad te Legati k Fortunato ^^^ "* Fortunatus advising missi. Idem Epist. 55. §. 18. Corwe/zMS Bishop oi Rome, oi p. 143. his Advancement to the Church of Carthage. §. 7. g Let what hath been spoken now suffice for the peculiar Acts of the Bishop : We have proved, that there was but one Bishop to a Church, and one Church to a 8 On a review of the whole Chapter, 1 cannot help observing, that the manner in which our Enquirer has represented, or rather misrepresented, the primitive custom of electing and constituting a Bishop in a vacant See, is a far greater occasion of the unhappy controversies and divisions about it, than the primitive custom itself, if truly stated, could ever be to the most captious adversa- ries of the Church. 1st. He makes that to be a stated right of election in the people, which, in truth, amounts to no more than their public testimony, or cheerful approbation of the candidates, whom the provincial Bishops should think fit to ordain. 2dly. He has asserted that right of the people in such terms, as to lead us to believe, that it must have been of divine institution, either from Christ or his Apostles ; whereas the Holy Scriptures declare no such institution ; but assure us, on the contrary, that the full power of Ordination was a personal charge intrusted wholly to the first founders and governours of the Apostolical Churches, and conveyed down to others, in the same manner, without any previous or concurrent election of the people. 3dly. He has pronounced the ordaining, or constituting of a Bishop, in a vacant See, to be absolutely invalid, without such a popular election : and, by leaving undefined the validity which he means, he has induced the opinion, that, at no time, in no place or pro- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 101 Bishop ; we have shewn the Bishop's Office and Function, Election and Ordination; what farther to add on this Head, I know not : For as for those other Acts which he performed jointly with his Flock, we must refer them to another place, till we have handled those other Matters which previously propose themselves unto us ; The first of which will be an Examination into the Office and Order of a Presbyter, which, because it will be somewhat long, shall be the Subject of the following Chapter. vince whatsoever, can a Christian Bishop be duly ordained and set over any Church, unless he be authorized and qualified for it by such an election of the people : whereas it may be proved, that the utmost validity which any such sort of Ordinations has had in any age of the Church, was grounded only on the pruden- tial consent, or canons, of some provincial Bishops, who had agreed to join the people's approbation to the Episcopal authority in Ordinations ; but was binding only on themselves, and within their own districts or jurisdictions, and was repealable at will, because prudential only, and having no divine command for it. 4thly. To finish all, he has hazarded the assertion, that the Ordi- nation and Instalment of a Bishop are one and the same thing, and has made the Installation to be performed by imposition of hands : though he can find no warrant for this singular language in any Ecclesiastical Records, whether ancient or modern. Let any impartial man consider what probability there is, that such representations of Antiquity as these, should answer the pious and peaceable ends, which our Enquirer professes in his Preface, and should contribute to the healing of the unhappy divisions of the Church in the case and controversy now before 102 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. CHAPTER IV. §. 1. The Definition and Description of a Presbyter ; what he was. §. 2. Inferior to a Bishop in Degree : §.3. But equal to a Bishop in Order. §. 4. The Reason why there were many Presbyters in a Church. §. 5. Presbyters not neces- sary to the Constitution of a Church. §. 6. When Pres- byters began. §. 1. IT will be both needless and tedious to endeavour to prove, that the Ancients generally mention Presbyters distinct from Bishops. Every one, I suppose, will readily own and acknowledge it. The great question which hath most deplorably sharpned and sour'd the Minds of too many, is what the Office and Order of a Presbyter was : About this the World hath been, and still is most uncha- ritably divided ; some equahze a Presbyter in every thing with a Bishop ; others as much debase him, each accord- ing to their particular Opinions, either advance or degrade him. In many controversies a middle way hath been the safest, perhaps in this the Medium between the two Ex- treams may be the truest : Whether what I am now going to say, be the true state of the Matter, I leave the Learned Reader to determine ; I may be deceived, neither mine Years, nor Abilities, exempt me from Mistakes and Errors : But this I must needs say. That after the most dihgent Researches, and impartialest Enquiries, the following Notion seems to me most plausible, and most consentane- ous to Truth ; and which, with a great facility and clear- ness, solves those doubts and Objections, which, according to those other Hypotheses, I know not how to answer. But yet however, I am not so wedded and bigotted to this Opinion, but if any shall produce better, and more con- vincing Arguments to the contrary, I will not contentiously OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 103 defend, but readily relinquish it, since I search after Truth, not to promote a particular Party or Interest. Now for the better Explication of this Point, I shall first lay down a Definition and Description of a Presbyter, and then prove the Parts thereof. ^ Now the Definition of a Presbyter may be this : A Person in Holy Orders, having thereby an inherent Right to perform the whole Office of a Bishop ; but being possessed of no Place or Parish, not actually discharging it, without the Permission and Consent of the Bishop of a Place or Parish. But lest this Definition should seem obscure, I shall illustrate it by this following Instance : As a Curate hath the same Mission and Power with the Minister whose Place he supplies ; yet being not the Minister of that Place, he cannot perform there any Acts of his Ministe- rial Function, without leave from the Minister thereof: So a Presbyter had the same Order and Power with a Bishop, whom he assisted in. his Cure; yet being not the Bishop or Minister of that Cure, he could not there per- form any Parts of his Pastoral Office, without the permis- sion of the Bishop thereof: So that what we generally ^ There are three or four par- c i? t> ties, that our Enquirer ' aims * ^^^ ■^^^* ^^^^' at reconciling, viz. Church of England-men, Presbyterians, Inde- pendents, and Anabaptists. He began with the Independents' cause, and in order to incline them and the rest to agree, he has strained antiquity to make it speak their sense in the points of Congregational Dioceses, and the popular right of choosing their own Bishops. He now proceeds to bring the Presbyterian party to a disposition, for compromising matters with such as differ from them, by allowing them the chief and fundamental point, upon which they insist, the equality of order in the Bishop and the Presbyter, And to clear his way for this, he defines his Presby- ter ; *' A person in holy orders, having thereby an inherent right, Sfc" 104 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. render Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, would be more in- telligible in our Tongue, if we did express it by Rectors^ Vicars, and Deacons ; by Rectors, Understanding the Bishops ; and by Vicars, the Presbyters ; the former being the actual Incumbents of a Place, and the latter Curates or Assistants, and so different in Degree, but yet equal in Order. Now this is what I understand by a Presbyter ; for the Confirmation of which, these two things are to be proved. I. That the Presbyters were the Bishops, Curates and Assistants, and so inferiour to them in the actual Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Commission. II. That yet notwithstanding, they had the same inhe- rent Right with the Bishops, and so were not of a distinct specifick Order from them. Or more briefly thus : 1. That the Presbyters were different from the Bishops in gradu, or in degree ; but yet, 2. They were equal to them in Or dine, or in Order. * §. 2. As to the first of these ; That Presbyters were ' Our learned Author chooses to prove the latter clause of the preceding definition first, viz. that without the Bishop's leave, a Presbyter could discharge no single part of his functions. For plainer evidence in the case, he reckons up most of the particular acts relating to it, and evinces, beyond exception, the subjection of the Presbyters to their Bishops, in every ministerial act within their Bishops' jurisdiction. And yet, strange to say, he elsewhere * See §. 2. Obs. 4. affirms without scruple, that ^ Presbyters ruled in those Churches to which they belonged, and places this ruling power of theirs among the several other premises, from whence an equality of order in a Bishop and Presbyter was to be inferred at last, not- withstanding the palpable inequality he had so plainly owned in this particular before. As well might it be said, that kings and viceroys, or any deputed officers of theirs, are one and the same order of men, in any civil state, because in some capacities, and OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 105 but the Bishop^s Curates and Assistants, inferior to them in Degree, or in the actual Discharge of their Ecclesiasti- cal Commission. This will appear to have been, in effect, already proved, if we recollect what has been asserted, touching the Bishop and his Office. That there was but one Bishop in a Church ; That he usually performed all the Parts of Divine Service ; That he was the general Dis- poser and Manager of all things within his Diocess, there being nothing done there without his Consent and Appro- bation : To which we may particularly add, 1. That without the Bishop's leave, a Presbyter could not baptize ; Thus saith Ter- tullian, ' The Bishop hath the ' Baptismum dandi habet jus Right of Baptizing, then the -Episcopus, dehinc Presbyteri Presbyters and Deacons ; but ^^ ^'^^^^^> °°". ^^^^^ ^ine ^ » ^, rr /• ji Episcopi auctoritate propter yet for the Honour of the ^^ , 5 , ^ ^ . ^, _ . _ 1 A JliCclesise honorem. Z/e ijow^zsm. Church, not without the An- ^^^ ^ A 1 P' o02. thority of the Bishop. And to the same Effect, saith a 'o^^ l|oy Io-t/v x'^i^^ '^^'^ ^'f'" Ignatius, ^ It is not lawful for a-Komv ovrs /Sawr/^'e/y. Epist. ad any one to baptize, except the Smirn. p. 6. Bishop permit him. 2. Without the Bishops's permission, a Presbyter could not administer the Lord's Supper. ^ That Eucharist, ^ "E-^ &a/. «"Z«f'»J'- V'- _ J. . , ,. , 'Jco, *j wro rov eTria-Koirov ovaac, vt lo xv says Ignatius, ts onty valid, , s , ,, , , vs / J. , . t, , , oMtos ETr/TfExJ/yj OVA. f|ov Itrrn which IS performed by the v ~ , / , i -* "^ "^ %^f*^ Toy £7r«7>co7roy a.^oe.icni 'notsiv. Bishop, or by whom he shall ^^-^^^ ^^ Smirn. p. 6. permit ; for it is not lawful for any one to celebrate the Eucharist, without leave from the Bishop. in subordination to one another, they are all rulers within the same jurisdiction ; whereas it is well known that their order and authority y considered in themselves, are widely different. Q loe THE CONS^ITUWON, DJSeiPLINJEi, ETC. 3. Without the Bishop's Consent, a Presbyter could not jxreach ; and when he did preach, he could not chuse his own Subject, but discoursed on those Matters which were enjoyned him by the Bishop, as '^ the Bishop commanded Origeu to preach about the wef* Toy kyyx(rr^t[AV^ov, llsTa^Eo-Sw. HomiL de Engastrym. p. 28. Vol. 1. 5 AHqui de Piresbyteris, nee E- vangelii nee loci sui memores sed neque futurura Domini Judici- um, neque nunc sibi prsepositum Episcopum cogitantes, quod nunquam omnino sub Anteces- soribus factum est, cum contu- melia et contemptu praepositi totum sibi vendicent. Epist. 10. §. 1. p. 29. Vide etiara Epist. 11. §. 1. p. 32. Gt Epist. 12. §. l.p. 37. ^ Mvi^tis ^w^h " rov iitta-ytoitov r) •K^xtTcriru ruv aynx-lvruv sis rviv cjcxXWav. Epist. ad Smirn. p. 6. 7 'O Xd^^ot l'7r/(T)towoy r) nt^dao'wv ru ^la^oXu XxrgBvst, Idem Ibid. p. 7. Witch of Endoi. 4. Without the Bishop's Permission, a Presbyter could not absolve Offenders ; therefore Cyprian 5 severely chides some of his Presby- ters, because they dared in his absence, without his Consent and Leave, to give the Churches Peace to some offending Criminals. But what need I reckon up particulars when in ge- neral there was no Ecclesias- tical Office performed by the Presbyters, without the Consent and Permission of the Bishop ; So says fyna- tiuSf ^ Let nothing be done of Ecclesiastical ConcernSy with- out the Bishop ; for 7 Whoso- ever doth any thing without the knowledge of the Bishop, is a Worshipper of the Devil. Now had the Presbyters had an equal Power in the Government of those Churches wherein they lived, how could it have been impudent and usurping in them to have performed the particular acts of their Ecclesiastical EuAction, without the Bishop's Leave and Consent ? No, it w?is not fit or just, that any one should preach, or govern OP THE PRIMITIVE CHtRCH. 107^ in a Parish, without the permission of the Bishop or Pastor thereof; for where Churches had been regularly formed under the Jurisdiction of their proper Bishops, it had been an unaccountable Impudence, and a most detestable Act of Schism for any one, tho' never so legally Ordained, to have entred those Parishes, and there to have performed Ecclesiastical Administrations, without the permission of, or which is all one, in Defiance to the Bishops, or Ministers thereof; for though a Presbyter by his Ordination had as ample an inherent Bight and Power to discharge all Cle- rical Offices, as any Bishop in the World had ; yet Peace, Unity and Order, obliged him not to invade that part of God's Church, which was committed to another Man^s Care, without that Man's Approbation and Consent. So then in this Sense a Presbyter was inferior to a Bishop in Degree, in that having no Parish of his own, he could not actually discharge the particular Acts of his Ministerial Function, without leave from the Bishop of a Parish or Diocess : The Bishops were superior to the Presbyters, in that they were the presented, instituted, and inducted Ministers of their respective Parishes ; and the Presbyters were inferior to the Bishops, in that they were but their Curates and Assistants. §. 3. '^ But though the Presbyters were thus different ^ Here the question in debate is stated at once. The words are identical with the former part of our Author's definition of a Presbyter, wherein he says, A Presbyter is a person in holy orders, having thereby an inherent right to perform the whole office of a Bishop. Now, two things directly contrary to the declared sense, as well as language and practice of the primitive Church, are manifestly included in this single proposition. 1st. That the most solemn rites or holy offices, which the primitive Church ever used for promoting any Presbyter into the station of a Bishop, added nothing more to his former character and order, than a right and Q 2 108 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. from the Bishops in Degree, yet they were of the very same specifick Order with them, having the same inherent title only to exercise those powers to the full, which were inhe- rent in him before. And, 2dly. That all the clerical offices which any Bishop of the Church could perform, a Presbyter, by virtue of his orders alone, had a right and power invested in him (by the Bishop's leave only) to perform also. Let this controversy be tried by the evidence of Antiquity on these material points ; and if in both, or either of them, the primitive Church be found to declare a contrary judgment, and their practice as direct a contradiction in the case, it must follow of course, that a Presbyter, in their times, and in their opinion of hip, had not an inherent right by his orders to per- form the whole office of a Bishop. To begin with the first of these, I observe, after the example of the Enquirer himself, (I.) That the same word, which all antiquity uses for express- ing the promotion of a Layman to a Deacon, or a Dea- con to a Presbyter, they used also for the promotion of Pres- byters to the station of a Bishop : it is the ordination of Bishops, as well as of Priests and Deacons, in the common language of the , -^ _ c^ r A Fathers. This our Enquirer • See Enq. c. 3. §. 4. r u u . ^ i owns, for he has quoted * an authority for it from St. Cyprian ; and it is too obvious a matter to need any proof. Hence I argue, to use his own words, that if the same appellation of a thing be a good proof for the identity of its nature, then the right of consecrating a Bishop must confer a new order upon him, because the same name is commonly used for it, as for the rite of ordaining a Presbyter, who undoubtedly had a new order thereby conferred upon him. It is from the supposed identity of their names, that our Enquirer tries to prove his Bishops and Presbyters to be of one and the same order ; and the argument would have had some weight in it, if he had proved that a Presbyter was ordinarily, or indeed ever, called a Bishop, shortly after the close of the Apostolical age. But this he has OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 109 Right to perform those Ecclesiastical Offices, which the Bishop did, as will appear from these three Arguments. 1. That by the Bishop^s permission they discharged all those Offices, which a Bishop did. 2. That they were called by the same Titles and Appellations as the Bishops were : And, 3. That they are expressly said to be of the not done, and, I am free to say, could not do ; and for want of this, his argument will not amount to the application which I here make of it, since the word ordination, for the making of Bishops, has been authentic in all ages of the Church, without any mark of distinction being put upon it. I believe, our Enquirer is the first person who ever ventured to assert, that, in the making of a Bishop, ordination signified in our language a mere Instalment : and now again, he 3 will have the meanmg of it to ^ be a Presbyter's Institution and Induction into a cure ; which to have proved, as well as asserted, had been no more than was necessary to his cause. (2.) As the name, so the rite itself, of constituting a primitive Bishop deserves to be considered. A single Bishop, by the ancient Canons of the Church, might ordain a Presbyter or Deacon. But in order to make a Bishop, a whole province of Bishops most commonly assembled, and, by imposition of hands, and prayers, conferred upon him that power and character, with which he had never been invested before. Now if the former rite be the giving of an order by a single hand, and the latter nothing more than a licence to use it ; (or, in other words, a mere formal Instalment in the Episcopal chair ;) then the solemnity itself, the application of an Apostolical rite to it, and the synodical prayer for the Holy Spirit's blessing upon it, are to a purpose so singular, as cannot be paralleled in any other ministerial solemnity in the whole oeco- nomy of the Christian Church. (3.) By this ordination, the promoted Presbyter became a mem- ber of an Ecclesiastical College, distinct from all other officers or ministers in the Church. Hence it is that St. Cyprian so peculi- arly calls the Bishops his colleagues ; a title which, humble as he 110 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. same Order with the Bishops. As to the first of these. That by the Bishop's permission, they discharged all those Offices which a Bishop did ; this will appear from that, 1. When the Bishop ordered them, they preachM. Thus Origen, in the beginning of some of his Sermons, tells us. That he was commanded thereunto by the Bishop, was, he never once applied to ' Presbyters or Deacons ; and we know that one immediate effect of this higher function was, that he gained a ruling power over both, though he was but a co-ordinate brother to the highest of them before. But, ' The Enquiry elsewhere af- firms the contrary : but with- out proof, as I shall shew here- after. (4.) This promoted Presbyter, from the time he passed under the provincial imposition of hands, acquired a prerogative and juris- diction parallel to that of God's High Priest among the Jews. Thus St. Cyprian makes the rebellion of his Presbyters and others against him, of the same nature with that of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram against * Cum pro episcopates vigore et cathedrae auctoritatis haberes potestatem, quS, posses de illo statim vindicari, habens circa hujusmodi homines pracepta divina, cum Dominus Deus in Deuteronomio dicit, et homo quicunque fuerit in superbii ut non exaudiat sacerdotem, &c. Cypr. Epist, 3. §, I. Edit. Oxon. 5 Cyp. Ep. 59. §. 4. Unus in Ecclesid ad tempus sacerdos, et ad tempus judex vice Chris- ti. Aaron : and he assures * Roga- tian, a Bishop of his province, that a Christian Bishop, like the Jewish High Priest, was di- vinely authorized to judge and censure rebellious offenders within his jurisdiction. This he applies to his own and Cor- nelius's case, in another ^ Epis- tle ; where he gives us a farther character of the dignity of his promoted Presbyter, viz. that he was then become the one judge, as well as the one High Priest, and Christ's vicegerent in the earth. He is ranked in the number of the Apostles* sue- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. Ill as particularly when he preached about the Witch of Endor ; he says, ^ The Bishop commanded him to do it. 2. By the permission of the Bishop, Presbyters baptized ' Ta TTEfi rov iyyxurgif^v^ov, (pricriv, i^erat^ia^u. Homil. de Engastrym. p. 28. Vol. 1. cessors, to whom tbey themselves committed their Churches, and delivered up their place of mas- tership, or magisterial authority ill them. To the same effect ^ IrencEus speaks in that very place, which our Enquirer owns related to the supreme Presbyter or Bishop alone. Again St. ' Cyprian exhorts Cornelius Bishop of Rome to he zealous together with himself for the unity of the Church, because it came from the Lord, and by the Apostles (says he,) to us their successors, ^ Fir- milian styles Bishops the Apo- stles successors by a vicarious ordination. And the 9 Confessor, Clarus cL Mascula, a Bishop in the Carthaginian council under Cyprian, says ; The sentence of our Lord Jesus Christ is mani- fest, who sent his Apostle,^, and granted to them alone the power which was given to him of the Father, whom we succeed, go- verning the Church of the Lord with the same power. Lastly, the promoted Presbyter pre- ^ Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis iustituti sunt episcopi in ecclesiis- — his vel maxime ea [sc. recondita mys- teria] traderent, quibus etiam ipsas ecclesias committebant — successores relinquebant, suum ipsorum locum magisterii tra- dentes, Iren. lib, 3, cap, 3. ■J Ut unitatera a Domino et per Apostolos nobis successoribus traditam, quantum possumus obtinere curemus. Cypr. Ep. 45. ad Cornel, p. 88. Ed. Oxon. ^ Et episcopis, qui eis (sc. Apo- stolis) ordinatione vicarid suc- cesserunt. Ep. Firmil, inter Ep, Cyp. 75. p. 225. 9 Manifesta est seatentia Do^.. mini nostri Jesu Christi Aposto- los suos mittentis, et ipsis solis potestatem a patre sibi datam permittentis, quibus nos succes- simus, eadem pot est ate ecclesi- am Domini gubernantes. Con- di. Carthag, apud Cypr, Suf- frag. 79. p. 242. 112 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. « Baptismum dandi habet jus Thus writes Tertullian : ^ The — Episcopus, dehinc Presbyteri Bishop has the Right of Bap- et Diaconi, non taraen sine tizinffj and then the Preshy- Episcopi auctoritate. De Bap- fers, but not without his tism. p. 602. leave. 3. By the leave of the Bishop, Presbyters administred the Eucharist, as must be supposed in that saying of fyna- tius, ^ That that Eucharist 3 'Exs/v*} ^iQottx tvxo^qidrU yiyila- only was valid, which was ^w, vi vTTo Tov ima-noirov overx, vi celebrated by the Bishop or u oiv avros i'itir^i-\'n — oly. l^h by one appointed by him; iv , , ^ ^ / /. 7 -r» 7 EVroX7)S OE VIZ SfJI.OV OEQO^tVlnS TOiS ^ Sent for one of the Presoy- , ,, , /?/ »^ / (i ters to absolve him, which the ^^ p^^-^^ ^^^.^^^ ^^^^ ^^^1 Presbyter did, according to njj q ^ap. 44. p. 246. the Order of his Bishop, who had before commanded, That the Presbyters should absolve those who were in danger of Death. 8. Presbyters Confirmed, as we shall most evidently prove, when we come to treat of Confirmation : Only remark here by the way. That in the Days of Cyprian, there was a hot Controversie, Whether those that were baptized by Hereticks, and came over to the Catholic Church, should be received as Members thereof by Bap- what any vicars or curates in the Church of England exercise, when by virtue of an order from their Bishop's court, they deny comnaunion to a censured member, and make their return of it : which appears likewise from the , Hors expectatd pr^senti^ nos- consideration, that 5 St. Cyprian ^^.^ ^^^^ presbyterum quemcun- authorized the very Deacons, as ^^^ pr^sentem. vel si r-resbyter well as Presbyters, during his ^.^^^^^^^ ^^^ f^^^i^^ ^^ ^^^^^ absence, to receive the penitents' ^^^^^^ ^^^^^-^^ ^^^^ diaconum confession, and hy the solemn q^oque exemologesin facere de- ministerial act of imposition of j-^^- ^^^ p^^,-^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^.^ j^ hands to absolve them, if need poe^itentiam imposita veniant required; that is, to bind or loose ^^ Dominum cum pace. Cypr. them as effectually as if he had p j^g p^^^ Qxon done it himself. 120 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. tism and Confirmation, or by Confirmation alone ? Now I would fain know, whether during the vacancy of a See, or the Bishop^s absence, which sometimes might be very long, as Cyprian was absent two years, a Presbyter could not admit a returning Heretick to the Peace and Unity of the Church, especially if we consider their positive Damna- tion of all those that died out of the Church ? If the Presbyters had not had this Power of Confirmation, many penitent Souls must have been damned for the unavoid- able Default of a Bishop, which is too cruel and unjust to imagine. 9. As for Ordination. I find but little said of this in Antiquity ; yet as little as there is, there are clearer Proofs of the Presbyters Ordaining, than there are of their admi- nistring the Lord^s Supper : * Omnis potestas et gratia in , .77 t, j r^ -ii _ , .^ ^ . . , . -^^^ Power and Grace, saith Ecclesia constituta sit ubi prse- -r,. -t . ^-^ ^ 7 • ^7 . , . . ; ri7'mimn, is constituted m the sident majores natu, qui et bap- ^7 , , ^v . . ■, .. J. . ._ ,. Lhurch where Pernors preside. tizandi, et manum imponendi ■'^ ^ et ordinandi possident potesta- ^^« ^^^^ ^^^ ^^"^^'^ ^f tem. Apud. Cypr, Epist. 75. Baptizing, Confirming, and §. 6. p. 237. Ordaining ; or as it may be rendred, and perhaps more agreeable to the sense of the Place ; Who had the Power as of Baptizing, so also of Confirming and Ordaining. What these Seniors were, will be best understood by a parallel Place in Tertullian : for that Place in Tertullian, and this in Firmilian are usually cited to expound one another, by most Learned Men, as bv * Primitive Christianity. Part ^^^ ^^^^ Learned ^ Dr. P' ' ^' ' Cave, and others. Now the 3 Probati praesident Seniores. Passage in Tertullian is this ; Apol. c. 39. p. 709. In the Ecclesiastical Courts ' approved Elders preside ; Now by these approved Elders, Bishops and Presbyters must necessarily be understood ; because Tertullian speaks OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 131 here of the Discipline exerted in one particular Church or Parish, in which there was but one Bishop ; and if only he had presided, then there could not have been Elders in the Plural Number ; but there being many Elders to make out their Number, we must add the Presbyters to the Bishop, who also presided with him, as we shall more fully shew in another place. Now the same that presided in Church-Consistories, the same also ordained ; Presby- ters as well as Bishops presided in Church-Consistories ; therefore Presbyters as well as Bishops Ordained. And as in those Churches where there were Presbyters, both they and the Bishop presided together, so also they Or- dained together, both laying on their Hands in Ordination, n as St. Timothy was Or- dained ' by the laying on of ' ^'""^ e'n,^eaeco, rwv yz^^w, rov ,7 7 7 e uT. -n I J irpsa^vrseiov. 1 Tim. iv. 14. the hands oj the Fresbytery ; s »- s n Since a full power to ordain could not be found for our Author's Presbyters, he tries to prove their right to a share of it, from that noted passage [1 Tim. iv. 14,] where St. Paul exhorts^Timothy not to neglect the gift that was in him, which was given him by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. Now Calvin him- self plainly owns, that ^ a col- ^ Paulus ipse, se, non alios com- lege of Presbyters was not plures, Timotheo manus impo- meant, in this place, by the ^"isse comraemorat.— Quod de Presbytery, and maintains, from impositione manuum Presbyterii 2 Tim. i. 6, that St. Paul alone dicitur, non ita accipio, quasi ordained Timothy. And the Paulus de seniorum collegio lo- assembly of English divines T go quatur. Calv. Instit. 1. 4. c. 3. so far with him as to admit, that *^ ./*^^- all the gifts which Timothy re- 7 See Assemb. Annot. on 2 Tim. ceived at his ordination, were i. 6. from the Apostle's hands. It cannot be denied that, the two apparently contradictory accounts of Timothy s ordination, {with the Presbytery in one text, and by St. Paul's own hands in the other,) have given rise to a s 132 THE CONSTITUTION^ DISCIPLINE^ ETC. that is, by the Hands of the Bishop and Presbyters of that Parish where he was Ordained, as is the constant signifi- variety of opinions on the subject ; and therefore it must be but a feeble argument, at the best, which depends on a positive con- struction of either of those accounts. Supposing that Timothy* s ordination is here spoken of, (which, after all, some learned men have questioned,), the utmost that can be deduced from the text before us is this, viz. that one or more of such as were mere Presbyters might lay on their hands in concurrence with St. Paul, to testify their approbation and consent : which is the custom even now in the ordina- tion of a Presbyter, and has 8 Vide Bevereg. in Can. Apost. sometimes been done at the 1. pag. 1 1 . adfinem Col 2. ordination of a Bishop.^ 9 See also Enquiry, c. 4. §. 6. ^ Our Enquirer asserts, that the constant signification of the word Presbytery, in all the writings of the ancients, is such as he here insists upon, that is, it always denotes the Bishops and Presby- ters of a particular Church or Parish. Now it is very certain that St. Ignatius calls the Apostles alone the Presbytery of the Church ; for he tells the ' Philadelphians , ' n^oa(pvyajv roTs ocKoaroKois, us (in his way to the crown of TT^sa^vTt^iu EKxX'Ka-txs. Ignat. ad martyrdom,) that he betook Philad. §,3. himself to the Apostles, as the Presbytery of the Church, Since Timothy was ordained whilst these supreme Presbyters were alive, I know of no fairer comment on the Apostolical phrase of his being ordained by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery y than that he was ordained by a special member of this Apostolical Presbytery. And if by more than one, it was neither impossible nor improbable, that some other Apostle, or Apostles, might concur with St. Paul in it : especially if we consider, that Timo- thy s first ordination may reasonably be dated from the time that St. Paul would have him to go forth with him, Acts xvi. 3, no doubt to the work of the ministry, and that at Derbe or Lystra, not much ^ above 400 years after the « See Bishop Pear^jon's Annal. Gospel was first preached there, OJ" tHE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 123 cation of the Word Presbytery, in all the Writings of the Ancients. But^ 10. " Though as to every particular Act of the Bishop's Office, it could not be proved particularly, that a Presbyter when a settled consistory of PauL ab a. d. 46. ad a. d. 50. inferior Presbyters, and a form inclusive. of Ecclesiastical discipline, could scarcely be expected to be found amongst them. How far the Presbyters' part in the ordination mentioned in the sacred text, together with our Author's interpretation of Tertulliaa and Firmilians words, (and which are indeed the only ancient authorities he is pleased to offer,) has proved the power of ordination to be fully inherent in them ; and whether both the one and the other be of sufficient weight to balance the unanimous consent and testimony of the Catholic Church to the contrary, for 1500 years together — this, I think, is no hard matter to determine. We are very sure, that, in all that time, not a single instance can be adduced of a valid ordination by Presbyters. And if ever they had the power of ordination, it does seem strange that they should give up their right, without any complaint, or without so much as leaving any thing upon record, to testify their original authority to after ages. ° To illustrate this, our Author quotes two passages from St. Cyprians letters to his Clergy, wherein he exhorts, begs, and commands them, to discharge their own and his office also, that so nothing might be wanting either to discipline or diligence : and again, that they would, in his stead, perform those offices which the Ecclesiastical dispensation required. How does it appear from these passages, that the Presbyters alone could perform, in the Bishop's stead, all those Ecclesiastical offices which were incum- bent on him ? The letters from which the quotations are made, are ^ both directed to the Dea- cons as well as the Presbyters, ^ Cypr. Presbyteris et Diaconis expressly by name, and the fratribus. Titu. Ep. 5. et 14. command given to both jointly Ed. Oxon. without any distinction. Dea- s 2 124 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. did discharge them ; yet it would be sufficient, if we could prove, that in the general, a Presbyter could, and did per- form them all. Now that a Presbyter could do so, and cons, together with Presbyters, (as we have already seen,) had been authorized by St. Cyprian, in his absence, to discharge some offices for him which the Ecclesiastical discipline required. Why then are they not to be intrusted with such an executive part of his Episcopal power as was here intended ? especially since he says in the close of the latter Epi- * Doleo enim quando audio stle, ^ / grieve to hear that quosdam improbe, &c. — nee a my people cannot be governed Diaconis aut Presbyteris re^e either by Deacons or Presbyters ; posse, Ep. 14. thereby implying, that he had committed his governing power, so far as could be exercised by a deputation, to both of them. We have in our own Church discipline, a form of words of the same import with the passages under consideration. An English Bishop, instituting a Parochial s Accipe curam tuam et meam. Priest, says thus: ^ Take my Godolph. Repert. Canon, c. 24. cure upon you, and your own too. I believe no man ever imagined that the instituted Clerk had hence a power to visit, confirm, or ordain, in any one part of the Diocese ; and yet a trust of his Bishop's cure, according to our Author's way of reasoning, would infer as much. But in truth there is a clause in St. Cyprian s commission to his Presbyters and Deacons, which clears the point in question. Perform such offices (says he) for yourselves and me, as the Ecclesiastical dispensation requires : that is, perform as much of it as your orders and station in the Church allow. Could our Author have proved, that the Presbyters or Deacons had ordained one single person in St. Cyprians absence, by virtue of this great trust reposed in them, it had been something to the purpose : but nothing of the kind is to be met with in St. Cyprians works, or in any collateral history ; on the contrary, it appears that ^ St. Cyprian himself ordained, in 6 Vide Cyp. Ep. 29, 38, 39, his retirement, such as the ne- &c. cessities of the Church required. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 125 consequently by the Bishop's permission did do so, will appear from the Example of the great Saint Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, who being exiFd from his Church, writes a Letter to the Clergy thereof; wherein he exhorts and beers them '^ to discharge „ „ • • -iv ° ^ "^ J^ungamini ilJic et vestris their own and his Office too, ^^^^.^^^^ ^^ ^^.^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^j ^^ that so nothing might be want- disciplinam. vel ad diligentiam ing either to Discipline or Di- ^esit. Epist. 5. §. 1. p. 15. ligence. And much to the same Effect he thus writes them in another Letter, 3 Trmting therefore to your Kindness and Religion, which ,/? ^^ ^^^° r J 7 7 ^7 • 7 reliffione vestra, quam satis 1 nave abundantly experienced. . , . , . _ , 7 7 novi, his literis et hortor, et / exhort and command you j ^ • a r ^ manao, ut vos — vice mea tun- by these Letters, that in my g^^-^- ^-^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ q^^ stead you perform those Offices administratio reUgiosa deposcit. which the Ecclesiastical Dis- Epist. 6. §. 2. p. 17. pensation requires. And in a Letter written upon the same Occasion, by the Clergy of the Church of Rome, to the Clergy of the Church of Car- thage, we find these Words towards the beginning thereof. p * And since it is incumbent upon us, who are as it were "^ Et cura incumbat nobis, qui Bishops, to keep the flock in videmur 'propositi esse, et vice P To the two quotations from St. Cyprians letters, our Au- thor adds a third from a letter written by the Presbyters at Rome to the Presbyters of Carthage. Both Churches, at that time, were without a Bishop, Fabianus of Rome having been recently martyred in the Decian Persecution, and St. Cyprian having retired upon that account. The Carthaginian Presbyters, on this mournful occasion, write to their brethren at Rome ; and they, in answer to them, write thus : Since it is incumbent on us, who seem to be Governours, and to keep the flock instead of a pastor ; if we should be found negligent, it will be said to us, as it was to those careless Governours [the shepherds of IsraeFj before /^^ 0^ THE TjHivsRsiTr; 126 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. pastoris custodire gregera, si negligentes inveniamur, dicetur nobis quod et antecessoribus nostris dictum est, qui tam neg- ligentes prsepositi erant : quo- niam perditum non requisivi- mus, et errantem non correxi- mus, et claudum non colligavi- mus, et lac eorum edebamus, et lanis eorum operiebaraur. Apud Cyprian. Epist. 3. §. 1. p. 11. the room of the Pastor : If we shall be found negligent, it shall be said unto us, as it was said to our careless preceding Bishops, in Ezekiel 34. 3, 4. That we looked not after that which was lost, we did not cor- rect him that wandered, nor bound up him that was lame, but we did eat their Milk, and were covered with their Wool. MS, Ezek. xxxiv. 3.4; that we looked not after that which was lost, we did not correct him that wandered, nor hound up him that was lame ; but we did eat their milk, and were covered with their wool. The Presbyters, in these Churches, having no Bishop amongst them, seemed themselves to he, as it were, Bishops of the Churches, and therefore, they not only seemed so, but (according to our Enquirer) in power and order actually were so, even as much as any before them had ever been, or the next in succes- sion could be : for thus much the argument supposes. Supposing the case were as our Eaquirer states, I wish to be in . formed what those very Presbyters meant, by telling St. Cyprian, in their letter to him soon after • 7 Quanquam nobis differendse hujus rei necessitas major incum- bat, quibus — nondum est Episco- pus constitutus, qui omnia ista moderetur, et eorum, qui lapsi sunt, possit cum auctoritate et consilio habere rationem. Cyp. Ep. 30. §. 6. Ed. Oxon. wards, 7 that a greater necessity lay upon them, to put off the restitution of the lapsed in their Church for the present, because they had no Bishop amongst them, who should order all those thing St and could with autho- rity and counsel take a proper course with them. It seems those Presbyters were conscious of a peculiar authority in a Bishop* which was wanting in themselves ; and, in the quotation before us, they say no more of themselves, than that they were seemingly the governours of the Church, or, as it were Bishops in it : OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 127 So that the Presbyters were as it were Bishops, that in the Bishop's Absence kept his Flock, and in ^liis stead performed all those Ecclesiastical Offices, which were in- cumbent on him. phrases, by no means unsuitable for such guardians of the spiri- tualities, as Dean and Chapter usually have been, and, in many cases, still are, for a vacant See. The order indeed of such Trus- tees is different from his, who in a little time is to put an end to their trust ; but still they do all, which for a time, may be neces- sary, though not every act of clerical or ministerial power, which a proper officer, when invested with that power, can do. To those who peruse the Epistle before us without prejudice, this would appear to be the very meaning intended by the Roman Presbyters ; for they specify, as well as mention in general, the care which was incumbent on them ; but they say nothing of sup- plying the Church, in case of necessity, with newly ordained ministers, or confirming after Baptism, or the like. What sort of care then do they mention ? Why, that of exhortations to the flock not to fall away ; to administer to the wants of all', to give Christian Burial to the Martyrs. And they give one piece of advice to the Carthaginian Presbyters, which may help to solve a difficulty in the present argument ; they exhort them after their example, ^ to move the lapsed to repentance, if per- adventure they might obtain their absolution from him who was able to give it. This must either be meant of God alone, (since Absolution of Apostates to idolatry had not yet been decreed in the Church, as Bi- shop Fell remarks,) or, at least it must signify that the Presbyters themselves could not absolve, for want of that autho- ^ Non minimum periculum incumbere, si non hortati fue- ritis fratres vestros stare in fide immobiles — separatos a no- bis — hortamur agere poeniten- tiara, si quo modo indulgentiam poterunt recipere ab eo qui potest pnsstare. — Si qui coepe- rint apprehendi infirmitate, et agant pcenitentiam facti sui, et desiderent communionem, uti- que subveniri eis debet. — Cor- pora martyrum si non sepeli- antur, grande periculum immi- net eis quibus incumbit hoc opus — faciat Deus — ut omnes 128 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Now then if the Presbyters could supply the place of an Absent Bishop, and in general discharge all those Offices, to which a Bishop had been obliged, if he had been pre- sent ; it naturally follows that the Presbyters could dis- charge every particular Act and part thereof. If I should say, such an one has all the Senses of a Man, and yet also assert that he cannot see, I should be judged a Self-con- tradictor in that Assertion ; for in affirming that he had all the Human Senses, I also affirmed, that he saw, be- cause Seeing is one of those Senses. For whatsoever is affirmed of an Universal, is affirmed of every one of its Particulars. So when the Fathers say, that the Presby- ters performed the whole Office of the Bishop, it naturally ensues, that they "^ Confirmed, Ordained, Baptized, &c. because those are Particulars of that Universal. nos in his operibus inveniamur. rity, which, according to their Ci/p. Ep. 8. Edit. Oxon. p. 17. own confession, belonged to the 18. Bishop only. But, forasmuch as the Catholic Church had so- 9 Additum est — ut lapsis in- lemnly 9 agreed that her peace firm is et in exitu constitutis pax should be given to all in the daretur ; Quae literse per totum dying hour, by that general au- mundum raissse sun t, et in no- thority from Episcopal power, titiam Ecclesiis omnibus et they so far practised them- universis fratribus perlatae sunt, selves, and advised the Cartha- Cyp. ad Anton. Ep. 55. p. 102. ^mm« Presbyters to do likewise. Ed. Oxon. Whether the above three autho- rities prove that Presbyters could do all that a Bishop did, I must again leave with the Reader to determine. 1 Presbyters, says our Enquirer, confirmed. This he promises [§.3. Obs. 8] most evidently to prove in another place, meaning, no doubt, the second part of his Enquiry : where he asserts that Confirmation was a mere part of Christian Baptism, and withal the very same thing with absolution of penitents ; he then con- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 129 eludes, that since Presbyters could baptize and absolve, they could also confirm. He tells us, that (according to some of the pri- mitive Fathers) Unction, Signation, and Imposition of hands, followed immediately after Baptism. He might have added, that baptized persons were forthwith introduced into the sacred Synaxis, or solemn assembly of the faithful, to join in all the service of the Church, and receive the holy Eucharist, before they parted. Were all these a mere part or appendage of their baptism, because so immediately following upon it ? But not to insist on words, which are common to several rites and ministrations in the primitive Church, and therefore conclude nothing of themselves, let us take a view of Confirmation, as drawn up for us by St. Cyprian : 9 They who believed in Samaria (he says) had believed with a true faith, and were baptized within the pale of the Church, (which is one, and to which alone authority was given to confer the grace of baptism, and to forgive sins,) and that by Philip the Deacon, whom the same Apostle had sent forth; and therefore since they had a lawful and Ecclesiastical Bap- tism, they ought not to be any further baptized. But only what was wanting, (plainly after their lawful and Ecclesiastical Baptism,) that was done by Peter and John, viz. that by prayer offered up for them, and by impo- sition of hands, the Holy Spirit should be called upon, and poured forth upon them. The same which is in use also amongst us at this day, where such as are baptized in the Church are pre- 9 lUi qui in Samaria credide- rant, fide vera crediderant, et intus in EcclesiS,, quae una est, et cui soli gratiam baptismi dare, et peccata solvere, per- missum est, a Philippo diacono, quem iidem Apostoli miserant, baptizati erant. Et idcirco, quia legitimum et ecclesiasticum baptisma consecuti fuerant, bap- tizari eos ultra non oportebat ; Sed tantumraodo quod deerat ; id a Petro et Johanne factum est, ut oratione pro eis habitd, et manu impositd, invocaretur infunderetur super eos Spiritus Sanctus. Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur, ut qui in Ec- clesid baptizantur, prcepositis EcclesicR oferantur, et per nos- tram orationem'ac manus impo- sitionem Spiritum Sanctum con- sequantur, et signaculo Domini- co consummentur. Cyp. ad Jubaian. Ep. 73. p. 202. Ed. Ox. 130 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. sented to the governours of the Church, that hy our prayer and imposition of hands, they might receive the Holy Spirit, and be consummated by the seal of the Lord, A few plain questions may help to clear up this passage : 1. Did St. Cyprian believe St. Philip's Baptism to be imperfect, when he was sent forth by the Apostles themselves for the very purpose of Baptizing ? 2. "Would Cyprian cSiW a defective Baptism, a lawful and Ecclesi- astical one ? Does he not hereby say, in effect, that the lawgiver himself (the blessed Jesus) and the Church too, would own it for their Baptism ? 3. Did St. Peter and St. John go to Samaria, to perform a ministerial office which Philip could have performed without them? 4. Could St. Cyprian say, they continued the same practice in his time, if the baptizing ministers then, either did, or could, as effectually lay hands on those whom they baptized, as those very governours of the Church, to whom (as he affirms) baptized persons were presented at Samaria, that, by prayer and imposition of hands, they might receive the Holy Spirit, and be consummated by the seal of the Lord ? 5. Since Presbyters, as well as Deacons, unquestionably baptized in St. Cyprians time, what could the Catholic Church, or the holy Martyr, mean by the general custom of presenting baptized persons to such governours of the Church, as St. Cyprian himself was, (for he says, our prayer and imposition of hands,) what could they mean, if any who had the power of baptizing by virtue of their orders, might have confirmed also ? Or how indeed could the parallel hold in the comparison, if the differ- ence between such prcepositi, or governours of the Church and the baptizing ministers in St. Cyprians time, bore no analogy to that which was between St. Philip and the Apostles, from whence (as we are told) the precedent was taken ? I can conceive no answer to these questions, sufficient to set aside the evident truth contained in St. Cyprians words, namely, that there was a sacred ministerial rite then practised in the Church, after Baptism, and distinct from it — imposition OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 131 ' But now from the whole we may collect a solid Argu- ment for the Equality of Presbyters with Bishops as to of hands and prayers the principal and constant symbols of it- — the right and power of administering it not inherent in the powers or orders of any baptizing ministers, (as such,) but peculiar to the highest order in the Church, and appropriated to them alone. ■^ We have considered our Enquirer's jSrst general argument for the equality of Presbyters with Bishops, as to order. It seems pretty evident, I think, that Presbyters were invested with important trusts in the Church; partly as the Bishop's Curates (to use our Enquirer's own term) in such portions of his general ministerial charge, as he should commit to them ; and partly, as proper and uaual delegates to execute some extraordi- nary parts of the peculiar Episcopal power, by his authority and commission ; which things sufficiently required that they should be ^ upright, merciful, sincere persons, impartial in judgment * See Poly carp's Ep. ad Philip, of men and things, not hastily §. 5. ad finem vit. Poly carp, in receiving reports, or rigid in Dr. Cave, judging of any. At the same time, I trust, it is no less evident, by what has been said on the subject : 1st. That Presbyters neither did, nor could, discharge all offices which their Bishops did, even with their permission, particularly those of Ordination and Confirmation. 2dly. That several of the ministerial offices, so discharged by Presbyters, especially Excommunication and Absolution, did not imply that their orders alone qualified them for the performance of such offices, otherwise the Deacon's orders might fairly claim the like character too. 3dly. That even an inherent right and power to discharge Ministerial Offices by a lawful superior's permission, so long as they were not empowered actually to discharge them of themselves, implies an inferiority of order in the very nature of the thing itself. T S 132 THE CONSTITUTION, tUSCIPLINE, ETC. Order ; for if a Presbyter did all a Bishop did, what dif- ference was there between them ? A Bishop preached, baptized and confirmed, so did a Presbyter. A Bishop excommunicated, absolved and ordained, so did a Presby- ter : Whatever a Bishop did, the same did a Presbyter ; the particular Acts of their Office was the same ; the only difference that was between them was in Degree ; but this proves there was none at all in Order. 2. ' That Bishops and Presbyters were of the same Order, appears also, from that originally they had one and If every one of the clerical acts here specified by the Enquirer still appears to be inherent in his Presbyters, by virtue of their orders alone, then his ingenious comparison may pass : viz. that, as a man who can truly be said to have all his senses, must of necessity be allowed to see ; so Presbyters, who can do all that a Bishop could do, may be owned (as to all these clerical capacities) to have received an Episcopal character in their ordination. But if there be any act or acts, which they neither did, nor could do, then though we may own them to be as perfect in their kind as any order of ministers in the Church, yet they will as certainly want something to complete their Episcopal character and order, as a blind or deaf man wants something to perfect all his senses. * We now come to our Enquirer's second general argument for the equality of order in Bishop and Presbyter ; it is this, viz. that Presbyters were originally called by the same titles and appel- lations, as the Bishops themselves, and therefore were of the same order. The Scriptures teach us, that when the Apostles had founded Churches, they ordained Elders for each of them ; and charged those Elders to preach the word, and administer the Sacraments amongst them, or (to use St. Paul's language) to take heed to themselves and all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost fby orders and commission from the Apostles' hands) had made them Overseers, (or Bishops, as the word is now rendered in our trans- OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 133 the same Name, each of them being indifferently called Bishops or Presbyters. Hence we read in the Sacred Mion, Philip, i. 1. 1 77m. iii. 2. Tit. i. 7;) and to feed the Church of God, as good shepherds ought to do. No doubt, the titles suited with the charge and ministry committed to them ; and, as they were Ecclesiastical officers, and commonly not novices in years, they were likewise properly called, in the an- cient language of the Synagogue, Presbyters of the Church. Accordingly we find both these titles indifferently applied to them at that time ; though nothing is plainer in Scripture, than that the Apostles reserved to themselves the prerogative of a ruling power, kept a rod of disciphne in their own hands ; censured such as deserved it, 1 Cor. iv. 21 ; delivered unto Satan the dis-. orderly among them, that is, excommunicated their members, 1 Cor. V. 5. and 1 Tim. i. 20 ; expected whole Churches to be obedient to them in all things, 2 Cor. ii. 9 ; and, in short, had the supreme cure of all the Churches in their own hands, 2 Cor. xi. 28. Moreover, all the elders, who were ordained in any Church, (before Timothy and Titus's special commissions,) had the Apostles' hands laid upon them ; nor is confirmation, or giving of the Spirit by imposition of hands, mentioned throughout the New Testament, but by the Apostles alone. This great preroga- tive of power the Apostles still retained. No titles of Presi- dents, Governours, Bishops, Pastors, or the like,® attributed ® n^o'ia-rdfAivQi, 1 Thess. v. 12. 'HyovfA,Bvoi, Heb. Kiii. 17. 'Bjr/- to the Presbyters, or Elders, . ^ • _^ / 1 . • 1 trxoiroi, Acts XX. 28. under them, lessened it m the least, or brought it into question. Their superior character was confessed by all. So that during their lives or personal govern- ment, these titles might safely and properly be used promiscuously for any of their subordinate ministers ; whereof they ordained many, (as our ^ Enquirer be- , g^^ Enquiry, c. 4. §. 6. lieves,) in particular Churches. But before the Apostles died, or when Providence removed them from a personal visitation of their several Churches in this or the other province, (as we learn from the earliest Ecclesiastical 134 THE CONSTITUTION^ DISCIPLINE^ ETC. writ of several Bishops in one particular Church, as the records,) they ordained many single persons over large cities and Churches. Thus (as our Enquirer observes from Tertullian) St. John placed Polycarp in the Church of Smyrna, and St. Peter ordained Clement for the Church of Rome : and Tertullian adds, that, * the rest of the Churches ^ Perinde utique et cseterse ex- could prove their Bishops to be hibent, quos ab Apostolis in derived from the Apostles in the Episcopatumconstitutos Aposto- same manner, and calls those lici seminis traduces habeant. Episcopal Sees, the Apostles' Tertul. de prcescript. p. 243. cAmVs ; according to what 5 /re- Edit. secunda Rigalt. Lutet. nceus tells us, viz., that the 1641. Apostles delivered the Church to those single Bishops, and their 5 Iren. /. 3. c. 3. locus magisterii, or place of go- vernment, with them. It is ^ See Bishop Pearson's proof of plain from Scripture, that Timo- the time when Timothy was left thy was ordained such an Eccle- at Ephesus. siastical governour for Ephesus, ^ (where there were many Presbyters before,) and Titus for Crete. These had a special commission to ordain Elders, 1 2Vm. iii. 15. 2 Tim. ii. 2. Tit. i. 5; to rebuke and censure them as well as others, 1 Tim. v. 19. and that with all authority. Tit. ii. 15 ; to judge of doctrine, and reject heretics ; in short, to set in order the things which were wanting, Tit. i. 5. (the words by which St. Paul else- where expresses his Apostolical power, 1 Cor. xi. 34.) So per- sonal was this charge that the Apostle solemnly enjoined Timothy (and no others with him,) before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, to observe these things without partiality ; and as a special reason for investing him with this fulness of power, and for enjoining him so strictly to watch and make a full proof of his ministry, St. Paul adds in conclusion : for I am ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand, 2 Tim. iv. ^ : as much as to say. And now this former care of mine must be yours. It appears then, that these singular Presidents of the several OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 135 ' Bishops of Ephesus, and ' 'ETr/o-xoVoyy. 20. Actor, v. 28. 2 Philippi, that is, the Bi- ^ 'EiriaxoTtois. i. Phil. 1. Churches had sundry parts of the Apostles' reserved supreme power conferred upon them ; and such as had never been impart- ed to Presbyters of any denomination before, so far as Scripture and primitive Antiquity can inform us. They take possession of the Churches assigned them, having either been inducted by the Apostles personally, or having shewn full credentials from them. In all or most of those Churches they must have found Presbyters ministering at that time, as they had ministered all along, in entire subordination to the Apostles' supremacy over them — Presbyters, who, together with the whole Church, on receiving such newly-commissioned Presidents amongst them, must have clearly seen by their exercise of those reserved Apo- stolic powers of ruling, ordination, censure, &c., that they had an authentic right to succeed to the jurisdiction and prerogatives of their departing Apostle. This is a plain reason why the first order of Ecclesiastics in the primitive Church were called the Apostles' successors, and were thought worthy of a title distinct from all others. The title oi Apostle, indeed, was not thought unsuitable by many of the Primitive *? writers : thus I ertullian calls them the ^ , , . ^ J, jr ' r .1. A . T J mens Alex, speaking of Clemens offspring of the Apostolic seed. „. , ^ „ ^ ^ -^ 13 ^ -, ^, , r J- «.• .-• Bishop of Rome. Stromat. /zd. But for the sake of distmction, ^ * ^ , . , r . .u • 4. p. 516. Cologn. 1688. See and out of reverence to the in- „, , ,, ^ . . , . ^, ^, . . . Blondels Quotations of several spired Apostles, the primitive , . . ,. > » r^y. T- i.T- 1-^ i J T such instances m his Apol. p. So. Church thought proper to decline '^ ^ that title ; and amongst the several appellations, common to many Ecclesiastical officers before, they appropriated that of Bishop to them. Hence St. Ignatius declares, at the very * "S/KKryclitoi ol kocto, ra -Trlfara close ^ of the Apostolic age, that o^ia-^ivrzs h 'Ucrov X^ta-rov ymi*^ every Christian Church, to the sia-iv. Ep. ad Polycarp. §. 3. very utmost bounds of all, had a supreme governour of that peculiar name, by which he was then known. 136 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. shops and Presbyters of those Churches, as they were afterwards distinctly called. And Clemens Romanus some- times mentions many Bishops in the Church of Corinth^ whom at other times he calls by the Name of Presbyters, using those two Terms as Synonimous Titles and Appella- tions. ^ You have obeyed, 3 Epist. I. ad Corinth, p. 2. saith he, those that were set over you, rots vtyov^lwis viA,SiVf * Ibidem, p. 30. ^^^ 4 Let y^ ^^^re those that are set over us, ir^oyiyoviji.ivovs ifAcov, which are the usual Titles of the Bishops ; and yet these in another place he 5 ns. and most clearly evince the Identity or Sameness of Bishops and Presbyters, as to Order ; and that is, that it is expressly said by the Ancients, That there were but two distinct Ecclesiastical Orders, viz. Bishops and Dea- cons, or Presbyters and Deacons ; and if there were but these two. Presbyters cannot be distinct from Bishops, for then there would be three. ^ Now that there were but two Orders, viz. Bishops and Deacons, is plain from that Golden Ancient Bemain of Clemens Romanus, wherein he bear, whilst they have many inferior ones besides, in common with others. ^ It seems then that the Apostles, in planting the early Churches, ordained but two orders to take charge of them. In the mean time, what were the Ordainers themselves? Were they of no order in the Church, or were they of the same order with either of the two that they ordained ? If they were neither the one nor the other, it is plain that, in their time, there were three orders. The Apostles had a reserved power of government both in general, and in special ministerial acts, which they did not impart to all the Presbyters or Bishops that they at first ordained. If any time therefore could be assigned, or any general grant produced, when or whereby it might appear, that they conferred or bequeathed those reserved powers (so necessary to the Church) to all the Presbyters they ever ordained ; we should be informed in what part of Scripture, or in what record of the Church, such an important grant may be found. If no such evidence can be adduced, then the above mentioned grants to particular Presidents over many Churches, made bv their own act and deed, infer such a manifest translation u 2 140 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. ' Kara x"i'*^ "^^ '^^^ TtoKzis xvi- tlius writes, ' In the Country ^va-a-Qvrss Ka^ia-ravov ras aita^x^^ and Cities where the Apostles avrm t\s iittaxoitovs >ta< liaadvovs preached, they ordained their Twv lA^T^ovTcov maTBveiv xat rovro ^^^^ Converts for Bishops of their own third power, with the reserved acts peculiar to it, as I think can be adduced by no ministers in the Church besides. To say that the Apostles had no successors to any ordinary and permanent prerogatives of theirs, is plainly to contradict all anti- quity ; as it likewise is to say, that the primitive Fathers owned any ministers in the Church to be such, besides those whom they peculiarly called Bishops after them. The conferring of their re- served ordinary powers of Government, Ordination, Confirmation, Censure, &c., served to continue their third order in their Episco- pal successors. Nor is what St. Clemens says at all inconsistent with this : for he tells us, that the Apostles ordained Bishops and Deacons, or Presbyters and Deacons, to take charge of the respective flocks, which either were or should be further provided for them, knowing very well, that the Apostles who ordained them were of a superior order : his words therefore have no respect to the number of orders in the Church — nor indeed did the argument in hand require it — his only business was to deter the unruly Corinthians from rebelling against the Presbyters of the Church, because they were of Apostolical Institution, and on that account as much of God's appointment, as the Tribe of Levi were for the sacred ministry of the Jevnsh Church ; which is therefore so particularly described in all the orders and offices of it, and so 9 closely applied 9 Tm yaf a^y(^iiqEi l^iai Xsirov^yiat to the Christian Dispensation, h'^ofxivai ita-r xa) ro7s U^svcriv i^ios that an impartial reader would roTTos ir^oa-rhaKTai, nal Asvirats rather infer the existence of i^iai ^laaovUi eirUsivrai' o \a'ix.os three orders in both, than ima- av^^cuTTos roTs XaixoTs 'rt^oaray^aaiv gine that Clemens had enter- "^i^srai. "Exfit(7Tof y/xwv, a^iK(po], tained any idea of only two Iv Tu t^tu Tay(j.aTi ivya^iartiru orders in either. Clemens him- @iu> h aya^^ (7vvei^'nt£voys-, kx) l^irx^v iirivoixriv ^s^uKxa-iv, mus kav }toi(AV)^a;criv, ^ix^e^Mvrxi 'ire^ot otooKiiAxafAEvoi xv^^Bs r^v Xsirov^yi- av xvruy. Ibidem, p. 57. Deacons, and left the manner of their Succession described, that so when they died, other ap- proved Men might succeed them, and reform their Office. So that avrov Kxvovx iv treixvorvjrt . Clem. Ep. ad Cor. 1. p. 53. Edit. Pair. Junii, Oxon. 1633. speaking of, set over all other Eccclesiastics in the Church of Rome. And the Presbyters, here insulted at Corinth, were, in that single Church alone, many in number, and consequently could not have been of the same kind, or order, with Poly carp or Clemens himself. 142 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. there were only the Two Orders of Bishops and Deacons instituted by the Apostles. And if they ordained but those Two, I think no one had ever a Commission to add a Third, or to split One into Two, as must be done, if we separate the Order of Presbyters from the Order of Bishops : But that when the Apostles appointed the Order of Bishops, Presbyters were included therein, will mani- festly appear from the Induction of those fore-cited Pas- sages in Clemens's Epistle, and his Drift and Design thereby, which was to appease and calm the Schisms and Factions of some unruly Members in the Church of Corinth, who designed to depose their Presbyters ; and that he might dissuade them from this violent and irregular Action, amongst other Arguments he proposes to them, that this was to thwart the Design and Will of God, who would that all should live orderly in their re- spective Places, doing the Duties of their own Stations, not invading the Offices and Functions of others ; and that for this End, that all Occasions of Disorderliness and Confusion might be prevented, he had instituted Diversities of Offices in his Church, appointing every Man to his particular Work, to which he was to apply himself, without violently leaping into other Men^s places ; and that particularly the Apostles foreseeing through the Holy Spirit, that contentious and unruly Men would irregularly aspire to the Episcopal Office, by the De- position of their lawful Presbyters; therefore that such turbulent Spirits might be repressed, or left inexcusable, they ordained Bishops and Deacons where they preached, and described the Manner and Qualifications of their Successors, who should come after them when they were dead and gone, and be revered and obeyed with the same Respect and Obedience as they before were; and that therefore they were to be condemned as Perverters of the Divine Institution, and Contemners of the Apostolick OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 143 Authority, who dared to degrade their Presbyters, who had received their Episcopal Authority in an immediate Succession from those who were advanced to that Dignity by the Apostles themselves. This was the true Keason for which the fore- quoted Passages were spoken, which clearly evinces, that Pres- byters were included under the Title of Bishops, or rather that they were Bishops ; ^ For to what end should Clemens exhort the Schismatical Corinthians to obey their Presbyters, from the consideration of the Apostles' Ordi- nation of Bishops, if their Presbyters had not been Bishops ? * But that the Order of Presbyters was the same with the Order of Bishops, will appear also from that place of ^ To what end (asks our Enquirer) should Clemens exhort the schismatical Corinthians to obey their Presbyters, from the consi- deration of the Apostles' Ordination of Bishops, if their Presby- ters had not been Bishops. I answer to a very good end ; because the two names were indifferently used so long as Clemens lived, and without having any influence upon the different powers inherent in one of them, when the name of Bishop came to be appropriated to him. Our Author elsewhere says, that the first who expressed these Church Officers by the distinct terms of Bishops and Presbyters, was Ignatius, who lived in the beginning of the second Century. That was very soon after the martyrdom of Clement, which the ' Church Chronology places in the last ' ^^^ Cave's Chron. Tables of year of the first Century. the three first Centuries. * The force of this authoritv from Irenceus lies in this single point, that he calls Bishops by the name of Presbyters, and as a natural consequence, calls their orders, the orders of a Presbyter too. In the beginning of his dis- course he says : ^ You must obey ^ Eis qui in Ecclesia sint Pres- the Presbyters of the Church ; byteris obaudire oportet. His 144 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. IremmSj where lie exhorts * Presbyteri qui serviunt suis ^s, ^ to withdraw from those voluptatibus, et non prseponunt Presbyters, who serve their tiraorem Dei in cordibus suis j^^f^^ ^^^ j^^^^^g ^^^ ^^^ qui successionem habent ab Apostolis, sicut ostendimus, qui cum Episcopatiis successione charisma veritatis certum, se- cundum placitum patris accepe- runt. Iren. L 4. c. 43. p. 382. Edit. Lutet. Paris, 1675. ' Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Epi- scopi in Ecclesiis — his vel max- ime ea [so. recondita mysteria] traderent, quibus etiam ipsas Ecclesias committebant — succes- sores relinquebant, suum ipso- rum locum magisterii tradentes. Iren. lib. 3. cap. 3. those (I mean) who have a suc- cession from the Apostles, as I shewed you before, who with the succession of their Episcopacy, have the sure gift of truth ac- cording to the good pleasure of the Father. Now what Iren3s- Church, and a Minister of the r',,roZ@,ov^ovK'^asu;rs^v'rco;yx)^ J4^ill ^f Q^J^^ ^]^q ^^65 and o^iaicn rot. Toy KvPiov ovy' vir' . i ji ^i- j? ^i t j / ^, ^, teaches the things of the Lord, otv^eo^'nuv ysieoroyoviJievos ovo on . 7.77 n/r r,, ^, y, , , not ordained by Men, or es- 'K§S% h ro7s received into the Presbytery ; ttKocTi y.ou reaax^ot Kx^shhcct V" ^^^ although he be not honour- fots Tov Xaov x^lvm us 9»3o-*v iv rr) edwith the first Seat on Earth, AwoxaXuvJ/i ludvvns, Stromat. hb. yet shall hereafter sit down on 6. p. 480. the Twenty and Four Thrones, mentioned in the Revelations, judging the People. So that both Bishops and Presbyters were Members of the same Presbytery, only the Bishop was advanced to the first and chiefest Seat therein, which is the very same with what I come now from proving, viz. That Bishops and Presbyters were Equal in Order, but Different in Degree ; That the former were the Ministers of their respective Parishes, and the latter their Curates or Assistants. Whether this hath been fully proved, or whether the precedent Quotations do naturally conclude the Premises, at it. By his Colleagues here, he must surely have meant the same persons, that he had mentioned three times before in the same letter, that is, some Bishops of the province, whereof he was Metropolitan, the solemnity of the case (according to his own account) having manifestly required their presence, and invited him to call in their assistance. This serves to confirm me in the opinion, that, in St. Cyprians language. Colleague was unquestionably a term appropriated to Fellow -Bishops only ; since the fairest instance our Author could adduce in order to disprove the point, appears quite to coincide with it. OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 157 the Learned Reader will easily determine. I am not con- scious that I have stretched any Words beyond their natural Signification, having deduced from them nothing but what they fairly imported : If I am mistaken, I hope I shall be pardoned, since I did it not designedly or volun- tarily. As before, so now I profess again, that if any one shall be so kind and obliging to give me better Informa- tion, I shall thankfully and willingly acknowledge and quit mine Error ; but till that Information be given, and the Falsity of my present Opinion be evinced, (which after the impartialest and narrowest Enquiry, I see not how it can be done) I hope no one will be offended, that I have asserted the Equality or Identity of the Bishops and Pres- byters as to Order, and their Difference as to Preeminency or Degree. §. 4. <: Now from this Notion of Presbyters, there evi- dently results the Reason why there were many of them ' We have here an innocent speculation about the reason of the number of Presbyters in the primitive Churches, and of the time when their office began. Our Enquirer's scheme required something of this kind. As a Diocese was supposed by it to have only a single Congregation for three hundred years together, and as we read of forty or fifty Presbyters in one, the question might naturally be asked, (as our Author well foresaw,) what need there could have been of them all ? He answers, they were partly as Curates are to Rectors now ; though more necessary on account of uncertainty of the times, and the variety of accidents that then occurred. And because the number of these Presbyters might still be somewhat sur- prising, he further makes them to be young pupils to his parochial Bishops, and to be in a state of education under them, so that they might be prepared to succeed those Bishops when they were dead and gone. Since this harmless thought is pressed upon our notice, without any quotations from Fathers, Councils, or Historians in its support, it shall be left undisturbed by me. 158 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. in one Church, even for the same Intent and End, tho' more necessary and needful, that Curates are now to those Ministers and Incumbents whom they serve, it was found by Experience, that Variety of Accidents and Circum- stances did frequently occur both in Times of Peace and Persecution ; the Particulars whereof would be needless to enumerate, that disabled the Bishops from attending on, and discharging their Pastoral Office ; therefore that such Vacancies might be supplied, and such Inconveniencies remedied, they entertained Presbyters or Curates, who during their Absence might supply their Places, who also were helpful to them, whilst they were present with their Flocks, to counsel and advise them ; whence Bishop Cyprian assures us, that he 7 Comrauni Consilio. EpisU ^id all things by the 7 Com- 24. p. 55. '"^'^ Council of his Presby- ters. Besides this, in those early Days of Christianity, Churches were in most Places thin, and at a great dis- tance from one another ; so that if a Bishop by any Dis- aster was Incapacitated for the Discharge of his Function, it would be very difficult to get a Neighbouring Bishop to assist him. To which we may also add, that in those times there were no publick Schools or Universities, ex- cept we say the Catechetick Lecture at Alexandria , was one for the breeding of young Ministers, who might suc- ceed the Bishops as they died ; wherefore the Bishops of every Church took care to instruct and elevate some young Men, who might be prepared to come in their place when they were dead and gone. And thus for these and the like Reasons most Churches were furnished with a competent Number of Presbyters, who helpt the Bishops while living, and were fitted to succeed them when dead. §. 5. I say only, most Churches were furnished with OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 159 Presbyters, because all were not, especially those Churches which were newly planted, where either the Numbers or Abilities of the Believers were small and inconsiderable : Neither indeed were Presbyters Essential to the Constitu- tion of a Church ; a Church might be without them, as well as a Parish can be without a Curate now ; it was suf- ficient that they had a Bishop ; a Presbyter was only necessary for the easing of the Bishop in his Office, and to be qualified for the succeeding him in his Place and Dig- nity after his Death. For o ttu- t^ i • .• r^ ^- • •^ . ^ Ubi Ecclesiastici Ordinis non as Tertulkan writes, « Where est consessus, et ofi'ert, et tin- there are no PresbyterSj the git Sacerdos, qui est ibi solus. Bishop alone administers the Exhort, ad Castitat. p. 457. two Sacraments of the Lord's Supper and Baptism. §. 6. As for the time when Presbyters began, to me it seems plain, that their Office was even in the Apostolick Age, tho' by their Names they were not distinguished from Bishops till some time after. The first Author now extant, who distinctly mentions Bishops and Presbyters, is Ignatius Bishop of Antioch, who lived in the beginning of the Second Century : But without doubt before his time, even in the Days of the Apostles, where Churches increased, or were somewhat large, there were more in Holy Orders than the Bishops of those Churches. We read in the New Testament of the Bishops of Ephesus, Acts 20. 28. and Philippic Philip. 1. 1. which must be un- derstood of what was afterwards distinctly called Bishops and Presbyters. So likewise we read in St. Timothy, 1 Tim. 4. 14. of a Presbytery, which in aU the Writings of the Fathers, for any thing I can find to the contrary, perpetually signifies the Bishop and Presbyters of a par- ticular Church or Parish. '^ And to this we may add what ^ Our Enquirer concludes ibis Chapter with a short reraurk upon Clemens Alexandrinus's account of St. John the Apostle's 160 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Clemens Alexandrirms Eeports of St. John, that he went 9"07ro. i^h lmay.fmovs Kocrc^ar^a^y, ^^^^ ^^^ neighbouring Pro- mcov §6 o\a.s kx.KKy>aio(.s aqiMcovovfji.svuv did not affect the number or \oi(ji.^dv£a^ixt. Cone. 6. in Trullo. office of the Deacons, who minis- Can. 1 6. tered at the Altar of the Church. And I think the testimony of an (Ecumenical Council about the sense of the Catholic Church is of some weight, though not held within the three first Centuries. 166 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. SO great and numeroTis, that this stinted Number of Dea- cons was not sufficient to discharge their necessary Minis- trations, that they might not seem to swerve from the ApostoHcal Example, they added Assistants to the Dea- cons, whom they called Subdeacons or Under Deacons, who were employed by the Head or Chief Deacons, to do those Services in their stead and room, to which, by their Office, they were obliged. But whether this be a sufficient Argument to prove the Subdeacons to be of the same Order with the Deacons, I shall not determine, be- cause this Office being now antiquated, it is not very pertinent to my Design, I only offer it to the Consideration of the Learned, who have Will and Ability to search into it. §. 3. Besides those forementioned Orders, who were immediately consecrated to the Service of God, and by him commissioned thereunto, there were another Sort of Ecclesiasticks, who were employed about the meaner Offices of the Church, such 9 Naricura Acoluthum. Cypr. ^ a i ±l t t? • ^ ^^ as 9 AcolythSj ' Exorcists ' and ^^ Lectors i whose Offices * Unus de exorcistis vir proba- because they are now dis- tus. Firmil, apud Cypr. Ep. used, except that of the 75. §. 10. p. 238. Lector, I shall pass over in - Hos lectores constitutes. Cyp. ^^1^^^^^ reserving a Dis- Ep. 34, §. 4. p. 81. course of the Lector for an- other Place ; only in general, these were Candidates for the Ministry, who by the due discharge of these meaner Employs, were to give Proof of their Ability and Integrity, the Bishops in those days not usually arriving per Saltum to that Dignity and Ho- nour ; but commonly beginning with the most inferiour Office, and so gradually proceeding thro^ the others, till they came to the supreme Office of all, as Cornelius Bishop ^ Non iste ad Episcopatum of Rome, ^ Did not presently subito pervenit, per omnia ec- leap into the Episcopal Throne , OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 167 hut first passed through all the clesiastica officia promotus— ad Ecclesiastical Offices, gradu- Sacerdotii sublime fastigium ally ascending to that Sublime cunctis Religionis gradibus as- Dignity. The Church in cendit. Cyprian. Epist. 52. §. those happy Days, by such 4. p. 115. a long Trial and Experience, using all possible Precaution and Exactness, that none but fit and qualify^ Men should be admitted into those Sa- cred Functions and Orders, which were attended with so dreadful and tremendous a Charge. And this now brings me in the next Place, to enquire into the Manner and Form of the Primitive Ordinations, which I chuse to dis- course of in this place, since I shall find none more pro- per for it throughout this whole Treatise. §. 4. As for the various Senses and Acceptations which may be put on the Word Ordination, I shall not at all meddle with them : That Ordination that I shall speak of is this ; the Grant of a Peculiar Commission and Power, which remains indelible in the Person to whom it is com- mitted, and can never be obliterated or rased out, except the Person himself cause it by his Heresie, Apostacy, or most extremely gross and scandalous Impiety. Now this sort of Ordination was conferred only upon Deacons and Presbyters, or on Deacons and Bishops being here to be consider^ as all one, as Ministers of the Church-Univer- sal. As for the Ordination of Deacons, there is no great Dispute about that, so I shall say no more concerning it, than that we have the manner thereof at their first Insti- tution in Acts 6. 6. which was, that they were Ordained to their Ofl&ce by Prayer and Imposition of Hands. §. 5. s But as for the Ordination of Presbyters, I shall more distinctly and largely treat of the Manner and Form thereof, which seems to be as follows. g Our Author here presents us with every circumstance of the 168 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Whosoever desired to be admitted into this Sacred Of- fice, he first proposed himself to the Presbytery of the Parish where he dwelled and was to be Ordained, desiring their Consent to his designed Intention, praying them to confer upon him those Holy Orders which he craved. Now we may suppose his Petition was to the whole Pres- bytery, because a Bishop alone could not give those Holy Orders, as is most evident from Cyprian, who assures us, primitive manner of ordaining Presbyters, and that so minutely, that one would think he was giving us a formal abstract of some primitive ritual: but, unhappily for his scheme, he does not, or cannot, quote a single authority from any record, so public, proper, and necessary in the case. He formally represents a candidate for holy orders, as tendering his petition for them to a parochial Presbytery, the Presbyters as sitting in solemn debate upon such petition, the whole success of the petitioner as depend- ing on their declaring him capable or incapable of orders, and the people's authority in the case as being little less than that of Presbyters, insomuch that the Bishop himself was unable, by any power or commission of his own, to ordain a single clerk in his Diocese, but as they should be pleased to approve or disapprove of him : and all this is set forth without one text of Scripture, without one single canon, general or provincial, without one clear precedent, or positive affirmation of a Father of the Church to show, that it was a cathohc custom so to do. Certainly this is a singular method of proving the general practice of the Christian Church ; and at the most, amounts only to this ; that if St. Cyprian, upon any consideration whatever, consulted his Presbytery, (and we may add his people too,) when- soever he ordained ; then, by the constitution of the Catholic Church in his time, he and all other Christian Bishops were so far obliged to do the same, that none of them could ordain with- out the authority of the Presbyters and people : for it is upon St. Cyprian's account of himself alone, that this formal scheme of primitive Ordinations is drawn up. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 169 ^ that * all Clerical Ordina- tions were performed by the '^ Communi consilio omnium Common Counsel of the whole nostrum. Epist. 24. p. 55. Presbytery. And therefore ^ The words, all Clerical Ordinations, are neither named, nor so much as imphed, in the epistle from whence this quotation is taken. The whole case there referred to was this : ^ St. Cy- ^ Quod jarapridem communi prian had formerly designed to consilio omnium nostrum coepe- ordain a certain Lector and Sub- rat, &c. — oportuit me per cle- deacon, by the common advice ricos scribere. and counsel of his Presbyters and Deacons : [therefore he assures us (says our learned Enquirer) that all Clerical Ordinations were performed by the common council of the lohole Presbytery ; for from this very place the quotation is taken.] But having occasion to make use of such Clerical officers during his absence, as the holy Bishop further states, 9 he ordained them by him-. self alone, (which, by the way, 9 Fecisse me sciatis lectorem is proof enough that the or- Saturura et hypodiaconum ders were complete, and valid Optatum. Cypr. Epist. 29. to all intents and purposes. Edit. Oxon. without the concurrence of others.) It is true he expresses a wish rather to have had his Presbyters and Deacons in council with him, and excuses himself for having ordained alone ; and why .•* ' Because he had solemn- ^ A primordio Episcopatiis mei ly purposed with himself (as he statuerim nihil sine consilio says in another epistle) from vestro, et sine plebis consensu . the time of his first promotion mea privatim sententia gerere. to the See, that he would do Cyp. Ep. 14. §. ult. Ed. Oxon. nothing of his own private opi- nion, without consulting them, or without the consent of his people. Now here the question is ; whether this resolution of St. Cy- prian was grounded upon any law of God, or the Church, by which he was bound so to act ? or, whether it proceeded from 2 A 170 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. 5 Necesse fuit — necessitate ur- gente promotum est. Epist. 24. p. 55. when upon a 5 most urgent and necessary occasion he had been forced to ordain one, but a Lector without the the mere impulse of his own goodness and discretion? The former, if it had been proved, would imply catholic practice and duty in the case ; the latter will amount to nothing more than a personal prudence in the peculiar circumstance of that meek and holy Martyr ; worthy of all imitation indeed, where the times and persons suited with it so properly, as they did then ; but, otherwise, binding upon none. That no constitution, law, or canon, obliged St. Cyprian to what he did in this matter, is evident, 1 think, from the following particulars : — 1st. The whole college of Presbyters and Deacons in the Church of Rome, who were contemporary with him, and continually cor- responding with him, give an account of it totally at variance with our Enquirer's assertion. In the preface of an epistle to St. Cyprian, they represent his practice thus : '^Although a good conscience supported by the vigour of the discipline of the Gospel, and made a true witness of itself, hy the decrees of hea- ven, commonly contents itself with appealing to the judgment of God alone, and neither courts the praise, nor fears the accusation of another ; yet they are worthy of double honour indeed, who, knowing their own conscience, ought of right to be judged of God only, yet desire all their actions to be lined and approved by their own very brethren them- selves : which we do not wonder. ^ Quanquam bene sibi conscius animus, et evangelicse disci- plinae vigore subnixus, et verus sibi in decretis coelestibus testis effectus, soleat solo Deo judice esse contentus, nee alterius aut laudes petere aut accusationes pertimescere ; tamen geminata sunt laude condigni, qui cum conscientiam sciant Deo soli debere se judici, actus tamen suos desiderant, etiam ab ipsis suis fratribus compro- bari ; quod te, frater Cypriane, facere non mirum est, qui pro tua verecundia et ingenita indus- tria consiliorum tuorum nos OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 171 Advice and Consent of his Presbytery, which one would be apt to think was no great Usurpation, he takes great pains {Ep. 24. jo. 55.) to justify and excuse himself for so doing. brother Cyprian, that you do, non tam judices voluisti, quam who according to your modesty participes in venire. Ep. 30. §. and care, are willing that we I. Edit. Oxon. [the Presbyters and Deacons of another Church] should judge, or rather he partners of all your counsels with you. This is clear language ; and St. Cyprian himself says little less, when he declares to the lapsed brethren of his own Diocese, that ^ the Church was constituted ^ Per temporura et successio- num vices Episcoporum ordina- tio, et Ecclesise ratio decurrit, ut Ecclesia super Episcopos constituatur, et omnis actus Ecclesiae per eosdem prcepositos gubernetur. Cyp, Ep. 33. §. 1. Edit. Oxon, upon Bishops, and every act of it was to be governed by them. Again and again throughout his whole works, is the senti- ment repeated, * that every Bi- shop had the ordering and dis- posing of his own act in the ad- ministration of the Church, and was accountable for it to God alone. The learned Dr. 5 Cave speaks of St. Cyprians practice in the same language with the Roman Presbyters and Deacons : ^ he was so modest (says that judicious Author) that in all great transactions concerning the Church, he always consulted with his Colleagues and his Flock, and determined not to adjudge any thing without the counsel of the Clergy and the people. A singular modesty indeed! if he were obliged to act no otherwise. 2dly. St. Cyprians own expression, upon which this question 2 A 2 "* Actum suum disponit et diri- git unusquisque Episcopus, ra- tionem propositi sui Domino redditurus. Ep. 55. p. 110. 5 In Ecclesiae administratione voluntatis suae arbitrium libe- rum. Ep. 72. p. 198. Ep, 59. p. 136. Ep. 6. p. 188, &c. ^ Cave's Life of St. Cyprian, p. 263. 172 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. §. 6. Upon this Application of the Candidate for the Ministry, the Presbytery took it into their consideration, more immediately depends, implies no manner of obligation in it ; on the contrary, it denotes a free determination of his own will, 7 [a primordio Episcopatus "^ JSp. 14. §. ult, mei statuerim, says he,] / have purposed or determined with myself, from the time I entered upon the Bishopric, that I would act in common concert with you all. This was a rule, indeed, for the holy Martyr to act by ; but all the authority in it was taken upon himself. And so the learned Grotius declared it to be, even when he was speaking in favour of the Presbyters and Presbytery of the Church ; for quoting this passage of St. Cyprian, ^ the word [statuerim'] says he, 8 A primordio Episcopatus mei signifies a voluntary act of his statuerim, [haec vox rem arbi- own. And I presume the most trariam significat.] Grot, de partial reader finds no more of Imp. Sum. potest. 8fC. cap. xi. legal obligation in it, than that y* *"*• discerning critic did. 3dly. It is to me instead of many arguments, that our Enquirer could not show that St. Cyprians practice in the case was grounded upon any law. Ecclesiastical or Divine : had he been able to adduce any such authority, he had never left his scheme, so precarious as it is, without it. The fundamental argument for that scheme is St. Cyprian's commune consilium, (the consisto- rial convention that he was pleased to call upon such occasions.) Of which convention, the holy Martyr himself speaking fully and plainly to his Presbyters, Deacons, and people together, declares that he expected no other assistance from them, but their evi- dence, information or testimony, about the qualifications or merits of the persons whom he 9 Sed expectanda non sunt tes- purposed to ordain. 9 Humana timonia humana. Cypr. Ep. testimonia are the very words 38. §. 1. Edit. Oxon. he uses, to denote their part in all his Clerical Ordinations, as we may see in his 38th Epistle, where this custom is drawn up by himself. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 173 debated his Petition ^ in their Common Council, and pro- ^ Communi ConsiHo. Epist. ceeded to examine whether 24. apud Cypr. p. 55. he had those Endowments and QuaUfications which were requisite for that Sacred Office, i What those Gifts and Qualifications were, touching which he was examined, may be reduced to these Four Heads ; his Age, his Condition in the World, his Conversation, and his Understanding. Now to draw such inferences, and to raise such suppositions as our Enquirer does, from these consistory councils alone, is much the same thing as to conclude, that some branch (at least) of royal authority must needs belong to the privy counsellors of a wise prince, because he will seldom, or never, confer honours, or enact any important act of his sovereign power in the state, without first consulting with them : or that a cautious judge, who gets all the evidence he can, before he decides a cause, and perhaps in a great measure forms his judgment by the help of it, should therefore be said to allow a negative or casting voice to those witnesses, because they appear to have some useful influ- ence upon his determination. St. Cyprians case with his Pres- bytery and people, both from his own account, and from the im- partial judgment of others, has a plain and near resemblance to these : at least the Enquiry offers nothing that can prove it to differ from them. See Appendix, No. 13. * The particular qualifications for Holy Orders here mentioned by our Author are primitive and genuine. And in the Canons and Ordination Offices of our own Church, such suitable pro- vision is made for ascertaining each of them, that if the spirit of peace and unity in the primitive times were not more altered among us, than the constitution of the Church now is, we should hear of few exceptions against it. As to the age of the persons to be ordained, though it varied somewhat according to times, and the occasions of the Church, I find that, within the three first centuries, the Apostolic Canon was usually observed, viz. not to choose a novice, [vsoipyToy,] a 174 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. As for his A^e ; It was necessary for him to have lived some time in the World, to have been of a ripe and mature Age ; for they ordained no Novices, or young Striplings : That was the Practice of the Hereticks, whom Tertullian jeers and upbraids with Ordaining word, which has little or no reference to maturity of years in general, but signifies, in the Scripture sense of it, an adult per- son, hut very lately converted to the faith, and newly planted in the Church, as the best * Com- * See St. Jerome, Chrysostom, (Ecumenius, Theophylact ; and, of later times, Erasmus, Dr. Hammond, Grotius, &c. on 1 Tim. iii. 6. 2 Vide Canon. 34. 3 Can. 35. * Can. 32, and last Rub. in Off. for Ord. Deacons. And here it must be declared unto the Deacon, that he must con- tinue in that office of a Deacon the space of a whole year (ex- cept for reasonable causes it shall otherwise seem good unto the Bishop) to the intent he may be perfect, and well ex- pert in the things appertaining to the Ecclesiastical Adminis- tration. In executing whereof if he be found faithful and diligent, he may be admitted by his Diocesan to the order of Priesthood, at the times ap- pointed in the Canon, mentators agree in expounding it. According to this ancient Canon, our own Church not only has ® enjoined the age of candidates to be always in- quired into, but, for farther satisfaction, ^ requires the Bi- shop diligently to examine them in the presence of those minis- ters that shall assist him at the imposition of hands. And since, according to the judg- ment of the ancient Fathers, the office of Deacon is a step or degree to the ministry, she 4 suffers no persons to be ad- vanced from the lowest to the highest order afterwards, but by the usual steps, and by wait- ing the appointed time ; that so their fitness for the sacred func- tions may be made more mani- fest, and that they may not ex- pose themselves to the censure of those who are eager to pick up any thing against Christianity in general, and our own Church in particular. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, 175 ■J Raw and Unexperienced „ ^^ ^t , . ,,, , -„ , ^. , ^ Nunc Neophvtos conlocant. Clerks. but as for the j^ • ^ / rr ^ oo Deprascrtpt. adv. Hceret.ia. 89. Ortnodox_, they took care to confer Orders on none^ but on such as were well stricken in years ; observing herein the Apostolick Canon in 1 Tim. 3. 6. Not a Novice, lest being lifted up with Pride, he fall into the Condemnation of the Devil. But yet if any young Man was endued with extraordinary Grace and Ability, the fewness of his Years was no Obstacle to his Promotion, that being superseded by the Greatness of his Merit ; as we £nd in the case of Aurelius in Cyprian, who though ^ young in years. ^ ^ - ^^ „ ^ , „ , . . , ^ '^ In annis adhuc novellus. Cy». yet lor his eminent Courage ir 'v^ 7fi and 9 Excellency, was graced with Ecclesiastical Orders: ' Merebatur-Cleric^ Ordina- And such an one, I suppose, tionis-gradus et incrementa- ,1 -T). 1 I? Tt/r • non de annis suis, sed de me- was the Bishop oi Magnesia . . , \, . , ,, ,. or.- i*itis sestiraandus. Ibidem. m the times oi Ignatius, which gave occasion to that Exhortation, to the People of that Diocese, ' not to > Mvi avyy^qSia'^oii rij vi\iKtx rov despise their Bishop's Age, but ema-Koirov ocXXa, — itSia-acv hr^oTth to yield him all due Respect avru litmiA.nv. Ignat. Epist. ad and Reverence i M agues, p. 31. §. 7. •'As for his Condition in the World; he was not ^ It is the aim of our Church to confine all her ministers to an attendance upon those holy services and employments, to which she has consecrated them. 5 Horis omnibus opportunis vel She enjoins them s to lay out Scripturis legendis aut audien- every hour they can get, either dis incumbent, vel alii cuipiam in reading or hearing the Holy studio aut exercitio laudabili Scriptures ; or some such lauda- vacabunt ; ea semper facientes ble study or exercise as that; qure ad probitatem et virtutem and to be ever doing what tends spectent. seduloque operam dan- to piety and virtue, and to the tes ut Ecclesiam Dei promove- advancement of the Church of ^nt, &c. Can. 75- 176 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. to be entangled with any mundane Affairs, but to be free from all secular Employments, and at perfect Liberty to apply himself wholly to the Duties of his Office and Function. This also was founded on that other Apo- stolick Canon in 2 Tim. ii. 4. ^ Nemo militans Deo obligat se molestiis Ssecularibus, ut possit placere ei cui se pro- bavit. Quod cum de omnibus dictum sit, quanto magis mo- lestiis et laqueis Saecularibus obligari non debent, qui divinis rebus et spiritualibus occupati, ab Ecclesia recedere, et ad ter- renos et sseculares actus vacare non possunt, cujus ordinationis et religionis formam Levitse prius in lege tenuerunt, ut cum terram dividerent, et posses- siones partirentur undecim Tri- bus, Levitica Tribus, quse Tem- plo et Altari, et Ministeriis Divinis vacabat, nihil de ilia divisionis portione perciperet, sed aliis terram colentibus, ilia tantum Deum coleret, et ad vic- tum atque alimentum suum ab undecim^Tribubus de fructibus qui nascebantur, decimas re- ciperet. Quod totum fiebat de auctoritate et dispositione divi- ^ No man that warrethj en- tangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Soldier. Which Words, saith Cyprian, if spoken of all, How much more ought not they to be entangled with Secular Trou- bles and Snares, who being busied in Divine and Spiri- tual things, cannot leave the Church, to mind earthly and worldly actions ? Which Re- ligious Ordination, as he goes on to write, was emblematized by the Levites under the Law : For when the Land was divided, and Possessions were given to eleven Tribes, the Levites who waited upon the Temple and Altar, and the Sacred Offices thereof, had no share in that Division ; 6 Nee vero sordidse alicui aut illiberali operae assuescent, nee jjotationibus et crapulse se de- dent, tempusve otiose transigent in alea, &c. ^an. 75. God ; ^ interdicting all mean trade or employment in the world, and much more every loose and scandalous course of life, under penalty of all the cen- sures she can inflict upon them. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 177 but the others tilVd the Ground, whilst they only wor- shipped God, and, received Tenths of the others Increase for their Food and Suste- nance ; all which happened by the Divine Authority and Dis- pensation, that they who wait- ed on Divine Employments, should not be withdrawn there- from, or be forced either to think of, or to do any Secular Affairs : Which fashion, as he there continues to write, is now observed by the Clergy, that those who are promoted na, ut qui operationibus divinis insistebant, in nulla re avoca- rentur, nee cogitare aut agere ssecularia cogerentur. Quae nunc ratio et forma in clero tenetur. ut qui in Ecclesia Domini Or- dinatione Clerica promoventur, in nullo ab administratione Di- vina avocentur, nee molestiis et negotiis saecularibus alligentur, sed in honore sportulantiura fratrum tanquam Decimas ex fructibus accipientes, ab Altari et Sacrificiis non recedant, sed die ac nocte Coelestibus rebus et Spiritualibus serviant. Ep. QQ. §. 1, 2. p. 195. to Clerical Ordinations, should not be impeded in their Divine Administrations, or incumbered with secular Concerns and Affairs, ^ but as Tenths, receive ^ In quoting a passage from St. Cyprian* s 66th Epistle, our En- quirer met with the following words, relating to the maintenance of the ministry {in honore sportulantium fratrum, tanquam decimas, ex fructibus accipientes) which he is pleased to translate thus.- as tenths, receiving subscriptions from the brethren. With nearer analogy to the words, and with quite as much kindness to the Church, he might as well have rendered them, the Clergy's living on the Basket ; for some allusion there is indeed to that, but to sub- scriptions of the brethren, not any, so far at least as 1 can see. That the primitive Christians paid their firstfruits to God, Ori- gen assures us, when he says, 7^o whom we pay firstfruits, to him we also offer up our prayers: Irense- us, when speaking of the ^ obla- tions of the Christian Church, declares, we ought to offer to God the firstfruits of his creature, 2 7 '^Cl^s rots a,T:a^ya,s onco^i^ufASV, rovru y.ou ra,s tv^as ava.'nEiA.'noy^ty. Orig. c. Cels. Edit. Hoeschel. August. Vind. 1605. ^ Ecclesise oblatio, quam Do- 178 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC*. ing Subscriptions from the Brethren, depart not from the Altar and Sacrifices, but night and day attend on Spiritual and Heavenly Ministrations. These words were spoken on the occasion of a certain Bishop called Geminius Victor, minus docuit offerri, &c. — Of- ferre igitur oportet Deo primi- tias ejus creaturse, sicut et Moy- ses ait, Non apparebis vacuus ante conspectum Domini Dei tui. Iren. I. 4. c. 34. ^ A« ^sKciroii run Kix^irwv xa* B^sfjt.- (xciruv £va-E^s7v rs us ^s7ov — eoiookt- xov* Ix rovrwv ya§ oifji^aci rcov ocnoiq- yu't xM\olU§B7s^ter^E(poyro. Strom. I. 2. p. 397. Edit. Lutet. 1629. ^ Iren. I. 4. c. 27. Et quia Dominus naturalia legis, per quae homo justificatur — -non dis- solvit, sed extendit, sed et im- plevit, ex sermonibus ejus os- tenditur — pro eo quod est, non moechaberis, nee concupiscere prsecepit ; et pro eo quod est, non occides, neque irasci quidem ; et pro eo quod est, decimare omnia, quae sunt pauperibus divi- dere ; hsec omnia non dissolven- tis erant legem, sed adimplentis, et extendentis, et dilatantis in nobis. ^ Et propter hoc ilH (sc. Judsei) decimas suorum habebant con- secratas; qui autem percepe- even as Moses says, thou shalt not appear empty before the Lord thy God. That these firstfruits, in the language of the Fathers, included tithes, is evident from Clemens Alexandrinus, who, in one short sentence, makes them equivalent terms : 9 the tithes of fruits and cattle (says he) taught piety towards God: for out of these firstfruits, I conceive the priests also were maintained. And in another place, Ireneeus ex- pressly says, that ^ the law of pay- ing tithes was no more abrogated by our Saviour s doctrine, than those two precepts in the Deca- logue against adultery and mur- der ; but, like them, it was en- larged and completed by it ; inso- much that,® as the Jews conse- crated the tithes of their posses- sions to God, so Christians gave all they had to such uses as the Lord had for it. What those uses were, St.Paul tells us [1 Cor. ix. 13,14,] where he calls it an ordi- nance of the Lord, that such as preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel, in the same way as those who formerly n.inis- tered in holy things lived of the OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 179 who at his Death made a certain Presbyter, called Gemi- nius Faustinics Trustee of his last Will and Testament, which Trust Cyprian condemns as void and null, » Because a Synod had be- , Cura jampridem in Consilio fore decreed, that no Clergy- man should be a Trustee, for this Reason, because those who were in Holy Orders ought Episcoporum statutum sit, ne quis de Clericis et Dei Ministris tutorem vel curatorera testa- mento suo constituat, quando runt libertatem, omnia quae sunt ipsorum ad Dominicos decernunt usus. Idem, ib. c. 34. things of the Temple, and as those who waited at the altar were partakers with the altar, i. e. divided with the altar some part of the sacrifice. Now to apply this to the case before us. Out of these first- fruits, holy oblations, tithes, and overplus of tithes deposited by the primitive Christians in the Apostles' hands at first, and in the hands of the Bishops of the Church for some time after, those faithful stewards allotted a suitable proportion to each Presbyter, Deacon, and other inferior ofiicers in the Church, and likewise to such poor brethren as stood in need of maintenance. In which distribution, every clerical offi- 3 Caeterum presbyterii honorem cer's part was called his ^ spor- tula, or basket of the conse- crated offerings, in allusion to designasse nos illis jam sciatis, ut et sportuUs iisdem cum pres- byteris honorentur, et divisiones mensurnas sequatis quantitati- ons partiantur. Cyp. Ep. 39. adfinem. Ed. Oxon. the custom prescribed by the Jewish law, that any Israelite who dwelt at a distance from the temple at Jerusalem, should bring thither his firstfruits in a basket. (Deut. xxvi. 2.) Ac- cordingly, the several ministers, who received such portions of those hallowed oblations, were called (by St. Cyprian here and else- where) the sportulantes fratres, that is, brethren who had their maintenance from those dedicated things. Whether this manner of maintaining the priesthood in the primitive Church be fairly re- presented by the words " receiving subscriptions from the brethren" I leave to the impartial decision of the reader. See Appendix, No. 14. 2 B 2 180 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. singuli Divino Sacerdotio hono- rati, et in Clerico Ministerio constituti, non nisi Altari et Sa- crificiis deservire, et precibus atque orationibus vacare debe- ant. Idem Ibid. * Nunc SsBculo obstrictos con- solant. Tertul. de 'prescript, adv. Hteret. p. 89. only to attend upon the Altar and its Sacrifices, and to give themselves wholly to Prayer^ and Supplication. It was a Blot in the Hereticks Ordi- nations, tliat they ^ Ordain- ed such as were involved in the World J and embarassd with Carnal and Secular Concerns. § 8. As for the Conversation of the Party to be Ordain- ed, he was to be ^ humble and meekf of an unspotted and exemplary Life. So says Cyprian, ^ In all Oi dinations we ought to choosj Men of an unspotted Integrity, who worthily and holily offering up Sacrifices to God, may be heard in those Prayers which they make for the safety of their Flock : For it is written, God heareth not a Sinner ; but if any one be a Worshipper of him, and doth his Will, him he 5 Humiles et mites. Cyprian. Epist. §. 1. p. 90. ^ In Ordinationibus Sacerdo- tum non nisi im maculates et integros antistites eligere debe- mus, qui sancte et digne Sacri- ficia Deo ofFerentes, audiri in precibus possint, quas faciunt pro Plebis Dominicse incolumi- tate, cum scriptum sit, Deus peccatorem non audit, sed si- quis Deura coluerit, et volunta- tem ejus fecerit, ilium audit. Ep. 68. §. 2. p. 201. heareth. ^ Wherefore before they were Ordained, they were ^ The Church of England imitates the primitive Church in getting what testimony and information she can, even from the people themselves, before her Bishops ordain any. Ordinations are enjoined to be celebrated in "* On some Sunday, or holyday a ^ public manner : the people in the face of the Church, the are invited to make what objec- Bishop shall say unto the peo- tions they can, and even con- pie thus : Brethren, if there be jured by the Bishop in the name any of you who knoweth any of God to do so: whosoever impediment, or notable crime, will, has timely notice, and full OP THE PRIMITIVE CHUIICH. 181 proposed to the People for their Testimony and Attestation of their holy Life and Conversation : But of this we shall speak more in another place : Only it may not be impro- per to remember here^ that this is also an Apostolick Canon^ in 1 Tim. 3. 2, 3^ 7. A Bishop then must be Blame- less, the Husband of one Wife, vigilant, sober, of good Be- haviour, given to Hospitality, apt to teach, not given to Wine, no Striker, not guilty of filthy Lucre, but Patient, not a Brawler, not Covetous. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into Reproach, and the Snare of the Devil. §. 9. "As for the understanding of the Person to be Ordained, he was to be of a good Capacity, fit and able liberty to interpose, if he have in any of these persons pre- any thing material to object, and sented to be ordered Deacons the testimonials required from for the which he ought not to the neighbourhood where the be admitted to that office, let candidates have lately lived, him come forth in the name of afford a further opportunity for God, and shew what the crime the same. or impediment is. See the Of- fice for ordaining Deacons. " As to the trial of the candidates' understanding, and their advancement both in sacred and human learning, our Church i enjoins the Bishop to examine them diHgently in the presence s Vide Can. 35. § 4. of those ministers, that shall assist him at the imposition of hands. Testimonials are required either from colleges, where they have received their educa- tion, or from some learned and judicious persons, who have known their conversation for some years next before. And, in short, we find such provision made by our Church for ascertain- ing men's fitness for those holy offices, to which they are set apart, that had we but first learnt the most essential rules of Church- membership, commanded in the Gospel, to love the brotherhood, to obey them who are set over us in the Lord, and to keep the unity 182 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. duly to teach others. This is also another of the Aposto- lick Canons in 2 Tim. 2. 15. Study to shew thyself ap- proved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to he ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. And in 1 Tim. 3. 2. A Bishop must he apt to teach, which implies an Ability of teaching, and a Capacity of rightly understanding, appre- hending, and applying the Word of God ; to which end Humane Learning was so conducive, as that Origen pleads not only for its usefulness, but also for its necessity, especially for that part of it, which we call Logick, to find out the true Sense and Meaning of the Scripture, as ap- pears from this following Digression, which he makes concerning it, in one of his •^ '^i^l.xTXii>^iKl.nt^i&K'n(^ocr^(^v Commentaries, t How is it atXoyovfjisvov y, ^soXoyoviAsvoy x'^^is possible, saitli he, that a Ques- axeiGova-^xi ay)yLxivoyt.i)iut y.x] tuv tiou either in Ethicks, Phy- xxra Toy Koyiitoy roVov r^xyov^ivuy oy Slcks, Or Divinity, should he ozir^oitoy TTx^ia-rxa-^xt r) yaf armoy understood, aS it OUght, without ocKovsTv TcovKv^toXsicr^oviAivcov, ivrx7s Logick ? You shall hear no oixXeycTois x.x) i ^lardmv h'Kt^iXios rails a-y)(jiXt)ioi/,iyois, scrri ya§ 'imov irx- qx T^v ayvoixv rwv Xoymm ixiyxkus tUSqtTri'KTOfjI.BV (/,Y) X-X^Xl^OVTES TXS ufjiowixixs ytxi x(A(pi^o\ixs, xx) Kxrx- ;^^59o-6/s-j Kx) xvqioXs^ixs x.xt ^ixa-ro- Xu,s oiov Tcxqx TO xyvotia^xt t^v '^fj.uwiJMv Tov ytoa-jMOV Tt^oa-'^ycqixs (pojvriv, ktt'Kt'nroijy.xaiv eiri to ao-s(3ea- rxrx ^qoiitv tte^* to ^rifAtov^yov, 01 fxri Kx^aqxvrts liii rivajv xurxi TO, xoV/xoj Ev u mvnqa; yiurxt, on j'j.(j^ fj^Q Ignorance of the ^vTi ruj, 7ref/y6ia;v kx\ «v%a.7r/va;y Homomjmy of the WOrd World, Ahsurdity from those who are skilVd in Logick, and dili- gently search out the significa- tion of words; whereas many times, thro' our ignorance in Logick, we greatly err, not distinguishing Homonymies, Amphibolies, the different Usages, Properties and Dis- tinction of Words, as some of the Spirit in the bond of peace, we should soon be ready to owu, that they were proper and suitable means, if duly executed, of obtaining the end for which they were designed. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 183 have fell into wicked Opinions touching its Maker j not dis- cerning what that signifies in 1 John 5. 19. The World lies in Wickedness; where they understanding by the World, the frame of Heaven and Earthj and all Creatures therein, blaspheme the Crea- tor thereof, by affirming, that the Sun, Moon and Stars which move in so exact an Order, lie in Wickedness. So also thro' the same Ignorance they know not the true Sense of that Text in 1 John 30. This is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the Sins of the World. Neither of that in 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconcihng the World to himself: Where- fore if we would not err about the true sense of the Holy Scripture, it is necessary that we understand Logick, which art of ^ Logick, the foresaid Tovro ovrus ty.u i) 'icoocvvip st^vjroci^ otYi^ivres ya,§ x.o(7fjLOv xar' ocvrviv r-nv Xa^iv aYi[xxm(T^xi to crv(Tr%yi.ac TO £^ ov^oi.wv V.OU yris xa) taiv iv avrois ^^acavTocrx xa.) avoaicorocTx airo^ixivovrai tte^) Qeov fjiy^oi^ujs s^yu oBiyyvvoii ovvd/j.£voi tcus vi\ios yea.) a-eX-nvv) kcx) aariqss ra. ovru TET«y/^aya kivoviasvoc xs7Tixt iv rcTiK'n avn^yu it^os ro fA,vi vTroiriTcrsiv rocTs y.xrar^iy(Qvauis ai^ia-sa-tv. Stromat. lib. 1. 234. 5 'O^ovs ^s ^oj^s ^vXaaass 'nxi^s'a us i^y) ocirxryi^'KVXf us ^rt yXxTtviVxt ntqas rut stci (BXajSv) tuv xxpoufji.svuv xdicoro^vixv yio-kvikotuv. Ibidem p. 210. ^ ©fo^Ev va^iv B*ts ocvh^uTtovs. Stro- mat. lib. J. p. 210. from Heaven unto Men. But 7 rioXXot dl tLx^dmiq 01 iixi^zs ra lA.oqy,(iKv>Lix ovrus ^e^ixai rviv *E^X»3- fixriv (f tXoa-o(pixv (po^oviJi.evot fjuio oltux- yayvi avrovs. Stromat. lib. 6. p. 472, OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 185 Brains were so charmed, or intoxicated with Philoso- phical Notions, as- that they laboured to transform them into Christian Verities, and so thereby became Authors of most pestilent and damnable Heresies, which is particu- larly observed by Tertullian, with respect to the Hereticks of his time, who in this ac- « „ .• t^ • , t^, • , ^^ 7 T17 .7 7 HaereticorumPatriarcnse Phi- count calls ^ the Philosophers, a \- aj lt , -r J losophi. Adversus Hermog, p. the Patriarchs J of Hereticks. 9gg Therefore they accused Phi- losophy it self, as 9 the Pro- ^ '^' ^' ''^' '^^'' ''*''<"' *" '^^^ ^'' duction of some evil Inventor, ^°^°^'^' ^'V^a^o^'va; rov /3/ov vo^/?o.- introduced into the World for ^" ^'^\'^:^^ ^"^ "^^^^'^"•' *^^^' .7 . 7 7,.- /. 'r->'Of Bveerov Ttovvipov, Clemens the rum and destruction of *! jo. . ^ .^r^A -I Alexand. Strom. I. 4. p. 204. Mankind. Even Tertullian himself, for this reason had an extream Pique against Philosophy, and violently decryM it, especially Logick, as inconsistent with true Christianity, as may be seen at large in his Book, De Prescriptione adversus Hcereticos, p. 70, 71. But to this Objection Clemens Alexandrinus replies, that if any Man had been deceived and misled by Phi- losophy, ^ that that proceeded not from Philosophy, but from ' ^^^; ^^^^'^°J-°^'^^ ^.^«/v.a^«. the Wickedness of his Nature ; , „ ^ / . , y (pavA.&;v BPyuv dio[^iovpyov virae^ov- or whosoever has Wisdom ^ ~ , / actv VE^tlooKi^ irKeiovt ^quiJi.svovs a/>t*j- enouqh to use it, he is able , s , thereby to make a larger and ^^^W^^.^v l.^o^/C^us ivrUrti reus '\^v^ous, Strom, lib. 6. p. 472. 6 'H ^KnXtycriyLri avn^yti Trf os" to f/.yi imom'Trreiv rocTs iLxroi,^iy(pvcrixis acl- fso-Eo-iv. Strom, lib. 1. p. 2. 4. frequently ^ inveighs against it : but as for the solid sub- stantial part of it, he could not but deem it profitable and advantageous, since * it helps us to find out the Truth, 5 enables us the better to un- derstand the Scriptures, and ^ shews us how to refel the Sophisms and cunning argu- ments of the Here ticks. But besides this sort of Objectors, there were others, of whom Clemens Alexandrinus speaks, who condemned Learn- ing on this account, because Stromat. 7 'AyS^wTTtW a-vna-iv. lib. 6. p. 476. ^ rials' oly, aXoyov rexTovm^y Jcai vixvTvvyiws %Er^ov vof^i^ziv (piXoao- (piocv. Ibidem, p. 476. it was ' humane, unto whom that Father answers, that 8 was most unreasonable, that Philosophy only should be condemned on this account, and that the meanest Arts besides, even those of a Smith and Shipwright, which are as much Humane, should be com- ^'Ov^xfAtasrovrotsb^ioir^i'KrsovaiXX' mended and approved; that iU (Mvov TO air' avrZv x^°-'f*^h 9 they did not rest here and lljs Xa^lyrccs roZro xai ycrv^cToci^hovs ^^ ^^ farther, but having got what was useful and profitable acirsTtiixt oticcx.^£ ^vvxa-^ixi Itt; rv)v oKft' %yi cc,) h ^z7os Kiyos 4>i^ois he says, ^ That the Holy eVi ^KxK^ycriKh oitov iA,h loXoiJuZvros Scriptures exhort us to learn Kiyovros vxihU Ss avs^eXsyKros — Logicky in that place where it ort ^s) rov ir^o'ia-rd^Bvov'rov Xlyov is said by Solomon, he that ^vyxrlv sJvxi rovs avrixiyovnxs refuseth reproof, or Logick, ^^hx"'- Contra Celsum, lib. as he understandeth it, err- ^' P' ^^^' eth ; and that therefore he that instructeth others, (the Greek word more particularly denotes the Bishop) ought to be able to convince Gain-sayers. §. 11. Upon this Examination of the Candidates for the Ministry ; and their Approbation by the Presbytery, the next thing that follow^ was their being declared capable of their desired Function, to which they were very seldom presently advanced, but first gave a Specimen of their Abilities in their discharge of other inferior Ecclesiastick Offices, and so proceeded by degrees to the supreme Function of all, as Coi-nelius ^ ^^ . ^ j t^ . ^,. , /, n^ 7 , Non iste ad Episcopatum Bishop 01 Kome, ^ dzd not „.,i -^ .. ^ ' subito pervenit, per omnia ec- presently leap into his Office, clesiastica officia promotus— but passing thro' all the Ec- ad Sacerdotii subHrae fastigium clesiastical Employments gra- cunctis religionis gradibus as- 188 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. cendit. Cypr, Epist. 52. §. 4. dually ascended thereunto. p. 115. And as Aurelius, a Member Merebatur talis Clerica Or- of the Cburch of Carthage, dinationis ulteriores gradus et "" began first with the lowermost incrementa majora, sed interim Office of a Lector , tho* by his placuit ut ab Ofl&cio lectionis extraordinary Merits he de- incipiat. Idem Epist. 33. p. served those that were more 77. sublime and honourable. §. 12. That this was their constant and unalterable Practice, 1 dare not affirm ; I rather think the contrary, as I might easily prove, were it pertinent to my Design ; this that follows is more certain, that whether they were gradually or presently Ordained Presbyters, " their Names were published or propounded to the People of that Church, " Our Author has reduced the gifts or qualifications, touching which a candidate for the ministry was examined, to these four heads: — 1. His age; 2. His condition in the world; 3. His con- versation ; and 4. His understanding. Under this last head, he concurs with Origen and Clemens Alexandrinus in thinking, that all sorts of human learning, particularly logic and philosophy, were not only useful, hut necessary for a Presbyter. Our En- quirer, who drew up these particulars, was, no doubt, well aware that, for ascertaining three out of four of them, there was no necessity of appealing to any congregation of men. Little need was there of bringing whole multitudes to a poll, in order to know the age of any candidate, or whether he was involved in worldly affairs, or no ; and still less was there, to make enquiries of them respecting his skill or abilities in those depths of human learning, which were thought proper for him. The only qualification, then, which could fall under the cogni- sance of such judges, must be that of his moral virtues, or of his life and conversation. Now it is beyond all dispute, that the most satisfactory information respecting this kind of qualification, can be given by that neighbourhood or society, and by those friends, whether lay or clerical, with which any one has been more fami- Harly acquainted. But how, and in what manner, would a reason- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 189 where they were to be Ordained, that so, if worthy of that Office, they might have the Testimony and Attestation of the People ; or if unworthy and unfit, they might be de- able man conceive such information should be had ? By an uni- versal suffrage, and by a majority of voices in a mixed multitude ? Surely not only reason, common sense and experience forbid the thought, but our blessed Lord has told us for our warning and direction, that there will be tares as well as wheat in that very field which is a symbol of the kingdom of heaven, or of the visible church of God upon the earth. Not this man, but Barahhas, was the exclamation of the most eminent congregation of the only Church of God then amongst men, and is a fearful instance of the danger of appealing to the people in hazardous trials. And whosoever shall seriously consider, how expressly the Spirit has foretold, what degeneracy of faith, what corruption of man- ners, what perilous times shall come in the latter days, when men shall he false accusers, and haters of those that are good, &c., and still retaining the form of godliness, though without the power of it ; whosoever (I say) shall consider this, will be constrained to think that the wisdom of God, who both foresaw and foretold it all, would hardly grant to every individual member of a Church, such an important charter, as that of approving his Bishops and Pastors in all generations to come. On the whole I think it may safely be concluded, that though the region or district in which a candidate usually lives is the most suitable place, and the corpora- tion, or society, whether sacred or civil, of which he is an imme- diate member, are the most suitable persons for bearing testimony to his moral character ; yet that a few select ones out of all the rest, if judiciously chosen, and applied to with an upright mind, are as likely to give a just and sober account in the case, as the promiscuous votes of the mixed multitude; amongst whom are generally to be found (to use our Enquirer's own words) ^ See Enq. ch. 3. §. 4. ^ ignorance and affection, that is, weakness in the understanding, and bias upon the will. 190 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. 5 Ordinationes Sacerdotal es barred and excluded from it, non nisi sub Populi assistentis s hy which course the Crimes conscientia fieri oportere, ut of the Wicked were discovered, plebe presente vel detegantur ^^^ y-^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^_ malorum crimina, vel bonorum , , j ^i r\ j±- . ,. dared, and the Ordination menta prsedicentur, et sit ordi- , ,. , , ^ • • natio justa et legitima, qu^ om- ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ «^^ Legitimate, nium suffi-agio et judicio fuerit ^^^^^ examined by the Suffrage examinata. Cyprian. Epist. 68. «^^ Judgment of all. §. 4. p. 201. §. 13. p If the People objected nothing against the Per- sons proposed, but approved their fitness for that Office ; the next thing that followed, was their Actual Ordination in that particular Church, where they were so propounded, P The office and character of all persons who are admitted into Holy Orders, extends over the whole world. The Apostles had a general commission to teach and baptize, and to execute all other parts of their office in all nations. And as the Bishops of the Church succeed the Apostles in all the parts of their office, which are of standing and constant use in the Church; so we might reasonably conclude, that the office and character of Bishops, and consequently of inferior ministers, extends over all the world, because those of the Apostles, their predecessors, did so. It is manifest, that the offices of those ministers, whom the Apostles ordained, were not confined to any certain place or Church. For we find that Timothy, Titus, Crescens and others, who are spoken of in the Acts and Epistles, travelled with St. Paul and other Apostles, and sometimes without them, and exercised their minis- terial functions in very distant parts of the world. In the next age after this, Polycarp, St. Johns disciple, and Bishop of Smyrna, travelled to Rome, where Anicetus, the Bishop of that city, out of respect to him, desired him to consecrate the Eucharist ; whereas, if Polycarp s sacerdotal character had extended no farther than his own diocese of Smyrna, he must have been re-ordained at Rome, before he could consecrate there. On the other hand, it is no less manifest that the ordinary ex- ercise of the office of men in Holv Orders, was and is limited to OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 191 not that they were only ordain'd for that particular Church, but in it they were ordained Ministers of the particular districts. The Church universal is divided into many- lesser Churches, every one of which is governed by its own offi- cers : and if the Bishop or Clergy of one Church, were generally allowed to exercise their office in other Churches, where lawful ministers are already settled, the people would not know whom they should follow: and thus confusion and disorder would ensue, just as it happens in cities and kingdoms where there are opposite pretenders to sovereignty. The Apostles themselves, though every one of them had universal authority, for the most part confined the exercise of their authority to the particular provinces which they had converted. And when particular Apostles interposed in the Churches converted by others, whilst they were alive, it was usually by way of advice, rather than of authority and command. When they had enlarged the empire of Christianity, as far as they judged convenient, they generally fixed in some certain place. St. James was made the fixed Bishop of Jerusalem, before the Apostles left it ; and St. John resided for the most part at Ephesus after he returned from banishment. In the same manner, the rest of the ministers of that age, having ended their travels, commonly settled in particular Churches : Mark, the Evangelist, fixed at Alexandria, Titus in Crete, Timothy at Ephesus ; and the rest in other places. With respect to such officers as were appointed by the Apostles and their successors afterwards, we must carefully distinguish be- tween their ordination, and their designation to particular dis- tricts. These things are wholly dififerent, though they often w^nt together; it being manifest that one may be a Bishop or Priest, when he had no authority to exercise his office. This is the case, not only of those, who are ordained to convert heathens, without any title to a particular Church ; but of all others who travel be- yond the limits of their own district. For a Priest, who comes into a foreign country, where other lawful ministers are settled, still retains his sacerdotal character, and yet has no authority to take upon him the ordinary exercise of his office there. See Potters Discourse of Church Government, eh. 5. § iv. 192 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Church Universal, being at liberty, either to serve tliat Church, where they received their Orders, or, if they had a Legal Call, to spend their Labours elsewhere, in other Churches, as Origen was a Presbyter of Alexandria, tho^ 6 Kaiaoc^das rs xcc) *i5^o<7oXt.Va;y ^'^^ ^ Ordained in Palcstina, Ivfaxcmoi ^z7^ocs sh ir^sa^vri^iov ^ the Bishops of Ceesarca ccvra rs^HKotat, Evseb. lib. 6. c. and Jerusalem, and "> Numi- 8. p. 209. dicus was a Presbyter of the ^ Numidicus Presbyter adscri- Church of Carthage, tho' he batur Presbyterorum Carthagi- received his Orders elsewhere. nensiura numero. Cyprian. Ep. Hence the Presbyters of a 35. p. 84. Church were not confined to a set number, as the Bishop and Deacons were, but were sometimes more, sometimes less ; as fit Persons for that Office presented themselves, so were they Ordained, some of whom still remained in the same Church, where they received their Orders ; and others went and served other Churches, every one going where the Providence of God did call them. §. 14. But now their formal Ordination was by Impo- sition of Hands, usually of the Bishop and Presbyters of the Parish where they were Ordained : For this there needs no other Proof than that Injunction of St. Paul to Timothy, 1 Tim. 4. ] 4. Neglect not the Gift that is in thee, which was given thee by Prophecy, with the laying on of the hqnds of the Presbytery. As for Imposition of Hands, it was a Ceremony that was variously used in the Old Testament, from whence it was translated into the New, and in the Primitive Church used on sundry occasions, to no purpose here to enumer- ate : One of those Actions was. Ordination of Church- Officers, wherein, 1 think, it was never omitted. Thus 8 Ko^r-n^^^^r^rovn^za^vr^iovKocr^ Novatian was Ordained a Xafiv rov Ii^ictkUov rov iit^^ivros Presbyter « by Imposition of avru x^k<^^ «'^ m^ta^vrs^lov kK^- Hands. And the Bishops of OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 193 Cesarea and Jerusalem ^ Im- fo». Cornel, apud Euseh. lib. 6. posed Hands on Origen to <^^P- 43. p. 245. make him a Presbyter. The „ ,. . , n , Imposition of Hands being 3^,^^^, ^^^^ Eu.eb.lib. 6. c. the Completion of Ordinati- g 209 on, or the Final Act thereof; for whosoever had past through the forementioned Ex- amination and Attestation, and consequently to that had received the laying on of Hands, he was esteemed by all, as legally Ordained, and was ever after deemed to have sufficient Power and Authority to exert and discharge the Duty and Office of the Presbytership, to which by those Actions he was advanced and promoted. §. 15. Here now I shall conclude what I designed to write, with respect to the first Particular, concerning the Peculiar Acts of the Clergy, under which I have discoursed distinctly of the Office, and Order of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, as also of several other things relating to their Charge and Dignity. As for those other Acts of theirs, which remain to be inquired into, I shall not meddle with them here ; for tho^ they may have some Rapport or Con- nexion to this Head, yet they more properly and imme- diately respect the third, unto which place therefore I shall refer their Discussion and Examination. % D 194 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. CHAPTER VI. §. 1. The Peculiar Acts of the Laity proposed to bs dis- coursed of. What were the Qualifications of Church Mem- bership. §. 3. The People, in some Cases had Power to depose their Bishops. §. 3. The Conjunct Acts of the Clergij and Laity proposed to be discoursed of. All Eccle- siastical Affairs were managed by their joint Endeavours. §. 1. HAVING in the former Chapters treated of the Peculiar Acts of the Clergy, I come now in this to speak something to the Peculiar Acts of the Laity, and to en- quire into those Actions and Powers, which they exerted distinctly by themselves. And here it may not be amiss first of all to make an Enquiry into the Constitution of the Laity, that is, how and by what means they were first admitted to be Members of a Church, by Vertue of which Membership they were made Partakers of all those Powers, which we shall hereafter mention. » Per Baptisma Spiritas sanctus Now for Answer here- accipitur, et sic a baptizatis et unto, in general, ^ all those Spiritual sanctum consecutis ad that were baptized, were bibendum calicera Domini per- looked upon as Members of venitur. Cyprian. Epist. 63. the Church, and had a right §. 5. p. 175. to all the Priviledges thereof -^ except they had been guilty of gross and scandalous Sins, as Idolatry, Murder, Adultery, and such like; for then they were cast out of the Church, and not admit- ted again, till by a Penitent and holy Deportment they had testified their Grief and Sorrow for their unholy ^ 'H^sr. yk^ oV. Iv^oci^^s rnd^roc ^nd irregular Actions ; for ^^^TTo^£v iyrczq rZv (p^oylfj^coy ^»^f«v ^s Origen saith, 2 We do our ytna^oct Tov (TvXXoyov jj/awv. Con- utmost, that our Assemblies be tra Celsum, lib. 3. p. 143. composed (f good and wise OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH". 195 Men. So that ^ none who 3 'Ov-nyt h ro7s aws^^svova-t Koii are admitted to our Congrega- I'm rocs Kotvas tv-xccs e^'j^of^suxis si tions, and Prayers, are vicious t^r> a^xns aitixnws Kxv^dvuv iv roTs and wicked, except very redely mWoTs iv^ia-Koiro, roioZros. Ori- it may happen, that a particu- gen contra Celsura, lib. 4. p. lar bad Man may be concealed 178. in so great a number. But since the greatest part of Christians were adult Persons at their Conversion to Christianity, and admission into Church-Fellowship and Society, therefore we must consider the Prerequisites of Baptism, since that Sacra- ment gave them a Eight and Title to that admission or reception. Now those Persons who designed to leave Heathenism and Idolatry, and desired to be Members of a Christian Church, were not presently advanced to that degree, but were first continued a certain space of Time in the rank of the Catechumens, or the Catechised ones : These were Candidates of Christianity, who were to stay some time in that Order for these two Beasons : The one was. That they might be Catechised and Instructed in the Articles of the Christian Faith, from whence they were called Catechumens : And the other was, "* that they might give demonstra- ' '^'^^ ^''" ramy^lvo. ^^^. r^ .. /-jT T. /».7- 0(XoTrev<7T£tv roiis ^lovs. Idem tions oj the reality of their ^ Intentions, by the Change of their Lives, and the Holiness of their Conversations. Whilst they were in this Estate, or rather in a Prepara- tory thereunto, ^ they were first privately instructed at ^ Kxt l^lxv acvroTs ii^ot'n{x,(7xvrts. home, till they understood Idem Ibidem, p. 142. the more Intelligible Princi- ples of Christianity, and then they were admitted into the first Rank of Catechumens, who are called by Tertullian 2 D 2 196 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. 6 De Prescript, advers. Haret. ^ Edocti, or, those that are p. 89. taught. These were permit- , ,^ , \ , , ,5N, ted '' to ccme into the Church I T»jy / c\- „„ themselves, ^ and were present contra Celsum, lib. <3. p. 142. «^ ^^*^ Sermons, which were 8 TT ~ ^ o <^' ^ adapted to their Capacities, ixi oVu ^vvxiais jSeAr/oy ^i- in Holiness, and according to ^tuKhxi to T»jv t ■ ^ ^ n ?■ „ ,. . ° ° . . not Ueltqion, to force a Reli- Religionem, quae sponte suscipi . , . , i . . i ,,° . ■,,,, , qion, which ought to he will- debeat, non vi. Ad bcapulam, . / /. w 7 ^^y mfflyj not forcibly received. So by the same means it was continued, and the Penalties of the Breach of it were of the same Nature also. The Churches Arms were Spiri- tual, consisting of Admonitions, Excommunications, Sus- pensions, and such like, by the wielding of which she Governed her Members, and preserved her own Peace and Purity. Now this is that which is called Discipline, which is absolutely necessary to the Unity, Peace, and being of the Church ; for where there is no Law, Govern- ment or Order, that Society cannot possibly subsist, but must sink in its own Ruins and Confusions. To recite the numerous Encomiums of Discipline, that are interspersed in the Writings of the Ancients, would be an endless Task : Let this one suffice out of Cyprian, ^ Discipline, says he, is the 6 Disciplina custos spei, retina- Keeper of Hope, the Stay of culum fidei, Dux itineris salu- ^^^^^^ ^^^ Captain of Salva- tans, fomes ac nutrimentum tion, the Fewel and Nutriment bonae indolis, maffistra virtutis, /. j t\- m- ±i. - . . ^, . ° ot a good Disposition, the facit in Chnsto raanere semper ^^. ^ i-tt . .1 . 1 Mistress of Vertue, that makes tive stewards in the house of God, to whom any part of this im- portant charge is committed, be ever mindful of it ! Who they specially are, and in the primitive Church were ever owned to be, is the question now before us. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, 207 lis perpetually abide in Christ, and live to God, and tend to- wards the Heavenly and Di- vine Promises, This to fol- low is saving, but to despise and neglect is deadly. The Holy Ghost speaks in Psal. 2. 12. Keep Discipline, lest the Lord be angry, and ye perish from the right way, when his wrath is kindled but a little against you. And again, in Psal. 50. 16. But unto the Sinner God said. What hast thou to do to declare my Law, and to take my Judgments into thy Mouth ? Thou hatest Discipline, and easiest my. Words behind thee. And again we read in Wisdom 3. W. He that casteth off Dis- cipline is unhappy. And by Solomon we have received this command from Wisdom, in Prov. 3. 11. My Son, forget not the Discipline of the Lord, nor faint when thou art cor- rected ; for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth. But if God corrects whom he loves, and corrects them that they may amend ; Christians also, and especially Ministers do ac jugiter Deo vivere, et ad promissa coelestia et divina prae- mia pervenire. Hanc et sectari salubre est, et aversari ac negli- gere letale. In Psalmis loqui- tur Spiritus sanctus : Continete Disciplinam, ne forte irascatur Dominus, et pereatis k via recta, cum exarserit cito ira ejus super vos. Et iterum ; peccatori au- tem dixit Deus, ad quid exponis justificationes meas, et assumis testaraentum meum per os tuum ? Tu autem odisti Disci- plinam, et abjecisti Sermones meos retro. Et denuo legimus : Disciplinam quia abjicit, infelix est. Et de Salomone mandata Sapientiae raonentis accipimus : Fili ne neglexeris disciplinam Domini, nee defeceris ab eo correptus. Quem enim diligit Dominus corripit. Si autera Deus quem diligit, corripit, et ad hoc corripit, ut emendet, fratres quo- que et maxim^ Sacerdotes, non oderunt ; sed diligunt eos quos corripiunt, ut emendent ; quan- do et Deus per Hieremiam ante prsedixerit, et tempora nostra significaverit, dicens : et dabo vobis pastores secundum cor meum, et pascent vos pascentes cum Disciplina. De Disciplind et Habitu Virginum, §. 1 . p. 265, •266. not hate, but love those whom they correct, that they may amend, since God hath also fore 208 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. told our Times in Jer. 3. 15. And I will give you Pastors after mine own Heart , and they shall feed you in Discipline. Now this is that Discipline, viz. The Power and Autho- rity of the Church exerted by her, for her own Preserva- tion, in the censuring of her offending Members, that I am now to Discourse of ; for the clearer apprehension whereof these six Queries must be examined into, 1. For what Faults offenders were censured. 2. Who were the Judges that censured. 3. The manner of their Censures. 4. What their Censures were. 5. The Course that Of- fenders took to be Absolved. And, 6. The manner of their Absolution. §. 2. As to the first of these, For what Faults Offenders were censured. I answer, 7 So was Felicissimus in Cypr. 7 Schism, « Heresie, 9 Co- Epist. 38. §. 2. p. 90. vetousness, ' Gluttony, ^ For- 8 Euseb. lib. 5. c. 16. p. 181. ^-^^^-^^^ 3 Adultery, and for 9 Origen HomiL 7. in Jerem. , ^^^ ^^^^ ^.^^ whatsoever, p. 94. Vol. 1. ^ . ., ' y ^ . „., none excepted: nay, the ^ Origen. Ibidem. , , _ , , ' "i,,, ^ Cyprian. Ep. 52. §. 13. p. My and good Men of those J 2 g days were so zealous against 3 Cyprian. Ep. ZS.^. 2.^. dO. ^in, that they used the * Origen. contra Celsum, lib. 3. strictest Severities against p. 142. the least appearances of it, not indulging or sparing the least Branch of its pestiferous Production, but smartly punishing the least sprout of it, its lesser Acts, as well as those that were more scandalous and notorious. Cyprian c T^ . -ic^ c -i o ^ writes, that not only s Gra- 5 Epist. 12 §. 1. p. 37. . . ,*;. ^, vissima et extrema dekcta, The greatest and most heinous Crimes, but even Minora Delicta, The Lesser Faults were i3unished by their Ecclesiastical Courts, so cutting off Sin in its Bud, and by the Excision of its lesser Acts and Ebulhtions, preventing its more gross and scandalous Eruptions. That particular Sin which OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 209 they most severely punished, and through the frequency of Persecutions had numerous Objects of, was Apostacy from the Truth, or a lapsing into Idolatry, which Crime was always prosecuted with the extremest Rigour ; of which Ninus, Clementianus and Florus were sad Instances, who tho^ they had for some time courageously endured their Persecutions and Torments, yet at last, thro^ the violence thereof, and the weakness of their Flesh, unwill- ingly consenting to the Heathen Idolatries, were for that Fault forced to undergo three Years Penance ; and had it not been for their ancient Merits, must have underwent it much longer, as may be seen at large in the 53d Epistle of Cyprian, And thus by these and such like severe and rigorous Courses, those primitive Virtuosos endeavoured to prevent sin, and to make all the Professors of the Christian Religion truly holy and pious ; for as Origen saith, 6 We use our utmost 6 ^ ^ viour, that so whatsoever was ^|,^, ^«; j, ^^^,o~, Uia^xi, xcc) bound, that is, condemned by r^ i^' Jivrcov atrhv on lyi- Heaven ; and whatsoever was us xiyovaiv st 'iy^pvaiv s^yov ^/ o loosed by them, was also loosed £''f»?Ta/ Ueival ry neTfy, av bJ ni- the keys to themselves. Now here our Author inadvertently concedes a very important point. He has quoted several passages from St. Cyprian's writings, in order to prove, that not only Presbyters had a ruling power inherent in their orders, in respect of excommunications, absolutions, and such like acts of the power of the keys ; but that the laity also, as well as they, had a share of legislative, decretive, judicatorial power in the Consistory of the Church ; and now he declares this very St. Cyprian him- self to have been of opinion, that in the primitive Church, the Bishops alone, by virtue of the original grant of the keys to St. Peter, justly appropriated all that power to themselves. What can more directly confirm all that I have said before on this subject ? namely, that whatever part either Presbyters, Deacons, or people had, in any such authoritative acts of discipline or government in his Church, it was upon one or other of these two accounts ; either that St. Cyprian commissioned some amongst them, whose character and station rather qualified them for the office, in many cases, to execute some parts of discipline, which he authentically decreed to be done by virtue of the power of the keys invested in himself ; or else, that he merely condescended, according to his purpose at the first, to take counsel, information, and advice only, from his Clergy and people, in all important acts of his administration. 2 F 3 212 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. T^or, xaci 6/ rtXtnovroi staiv us lit' in Heaven ; which, says he, avro7s vtcq X^iarov onLoloiAila^oti ifyiay be Orthodoxly enough ap- rh iiotXna-Uv, hoc) ki:' uvrovs kvXo- ply^^ f^ fj^^y^^ ij- fj^^y J^^q^ yu^s roZro uyoc(pi^oir' i'v. Com- Peter^s Confession, and are mentar.inMatthseum,Tom.l2. ^^^^ ^^ the Church of Christ ?* , * . ' ' ^ . may be built upon. And so *^ JliCclesia super Episcopos con- , ^ • o mi ^.^ ^ ^ . \ 17 also says Cypnan, ^ I he stituatur ; et omnis actus sLc- ^ clesiee, per eosdem pra^positos ^^^^^^ '' /^^^^^^ ^i^«^ ^^' gubernetur. Epist. 27. §. 1. ^''^ops, hj whom every Ec- p g2. clesiastical Action is governed. Others of the Ancients mention this Power, as given to the whole Church, according to that in "" Matth. 18. " From this passage of Scripture, it appears that our Lord instructed his Church to exercise a judicial power over its mem- bers. For here is clearly a description of a judicial process : he who has been injured, is first directed to tell the offender of his fault privately between themselves ; if that have no effect, to ad- monish him before witnesses ; if this admonition also prove un- successful, to complain to the Church. Then, " if he neglects to hear the Church," follows the Church's sentence, whereby the obstinate offender is separated from the communion of the faithful, and reduced into the state of heathens. Which being decreed by virtue of Christ's commission, our Lord promises to ratify in heaven. Here perhaps it may be asked, whether by the Church, and afterwards by the congregation of two or three assembled in the name of Christ, be meant the whole society of Christians, or only the rulers of it ? Now though it must be admitted, that sentences of this kind were pronounced in the public assembly, we must not infer, that all the members of the assembly gave their voice before those sentences could be passed. The Church's censures were pronounced in public assemblies, where as many as desired, might be present, but they received their force from the governours of the Church ; who having been invested with authority to make laws, no doubt, had power also to pass sentence on those who broke them. For if there be any difference, legislation is rather OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 213 15, 16, 17, 18. If thy Brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his Fault between thee and him alone ; if he shall hear thee^ thou hast gained thy Brother ; but if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three Witnesses every Word may be established ; and if he shall neglect them, tell it unto the Church ; but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican. Verily, I say unto you. Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound iu Heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven. By the Churcli here is to be understood, the whole Body of a particular Church or Parish, unto which some of the Fathers attri- bute the Power of the Keys, yas Tertullian, '^ If thou fear- ^ Si clausum putas Coelum, a higher authority than jurisdiction. Nor is it an uncommon way of speaking to ascribe to any society what is done by the rulers of it. Thus, in political bodies, any judicial sentence pro- nounced by those who have authority, is the sentence of the whole body, though perhaps the greater part of the members never heard of it. And war, proclaimed by the supreme powers of any kingdom, brings all the members of the kingdom into a state of war, whether they expressly consented to it or not. In the same manner, what is here spoken of the Church, is ascribed by St. Chrysostom^ and other anci- ent Fathers, to the rulers of it ; ' St. Chrysostomus. E To tell us that Origen describes a criminal as appearing before the whole Church or Congregation, and that Dionysius of Alexandria should say the like of Serapion, and that no one ever took any notice of him, is such a singular way of proving, that all OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 221 letter to Fabius Bishop of Antioch, speaks of one Serapion, that had fallen in the Times of Persecution^ who had several times appeared before the Church_, to beg their Pardon, but ** no one did ^ 'Ovh)s ir^ocrsTxsv avrS. Euseb. ever take any notice of him. hb. 6. c. 44. p. 246. ^ But Cyprian is most full in this matter, as when two Sub -deacons, and an Acolyth of his Parish, had committed some great Misdemeanors, he professes that he himself was not a sufficient Judge of their Crimes, but Uhey '. H^c singulorum tractanda ,^^ , ,-77 77j7 Sit, et hmanda plenms ratio — ought to be tried by alt the , , . ■ ^ . -, J . T . cum plebe ipsa universa. Lpist. People. And concernmg qq x o ca Felicissimus the Schismatick, he writes to his People from his Exile, that, if it pleased God, he would come to them s Secundum arbitrium quoque after Easter, and then that vestrum et omnium nostrum ^ Affair should be adjusted Commune Consilium — ea quae according to their Arbitrement . agenda sunt disponere pariter, and Common Counsel And in et hmare poterimus. Epist, 40. another place he condemns ^* ^' P* ^'** persons present sat with ?i judicial authority in the Church, as would make every individual person a magistrate, who, in any capacity, should be a proper member of either sacred or civil assemblies. « Our Enquirer affirms St. Cyprian to be more full in this mat- ter, (i.e. the judicial power of the laity in the spiritual court,) than any he has named before. Now who can help observing here, what a paradox it is to bring St. Cyprians authority for a popular jurisdiction in the Church, when our Author had just before ad- mitted, that Cyprian was of Origens opinion about the power of the keys ? both of them agreeing that primitive Bishops appropri- ated the grant of them to themselves, and were very orthodox in doing so. Whence it must follow, that no personal condescensions in St. Cyprians practice (upon which the Enquirer's arguments all along proceed) can amount to any proof in the matter before us, unless we make the actions of the self-consistent Martyr to be at variance with his belief. 222 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. the rash Precipitation of some of his Presbyters in admitting the Lapsed to Communion, because of some Pacificatory Libels obtained from the Confessors, and charges them to admit no more till Peace was restored , to the Church, and then 6 Acturi et apud nos, et apud 77.7. . they should ° plead their plebemuniversamcausamsuara. ^ . ^ r ^n EpisL 10. §. 4. p. 30. ^^""^^ ^^f^^^ ^^^ Clergy, and before all the People. And concerning the same matter, he writes in another Letter ^ to the People of his Parish, 7 Cum pace nobis omnibus a „ ^, . , . i u j ^ . . , ^T^ ^ ■ ^ ^ hat when it should please Domino pnus data, ad Lcclesiam ^ _ t» , ... . . God to restore Peace to the regredi cseperimus, tunc exami- ^, , , • /. nabuntur singula pr^sentibus ^^^^^^^ «^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ /''^'^ ac judicantibus vobis. Epist, ^'^ ^^'^^> ^^«^ ^^^ '^ ^^^^^'^ 12. ad Plebem, §. 1. p. 37. ^^ examined in their Presence, and according to their Judgment, So that the Consistory Court was composed of the Peo- ple, as well as of the Bishop, each of whom had a nega- tive Voice therein. On one side, the Bishop could do nothing without the People. ^ So when several returned * We are told of the great difficulties which St. Cyprian had to obtain his people's consent to the absolution of some penitent schismatics. It is true he had an affectionate conflict with them in the case ; but for what } Was it to gain their authoritative vote as fellow-judges t without whose concurrence he could not act ? Three or four particulars in St. Cyprian's account of the matter sufficiently show the contrary. 1st. He calls it their patience in the case, an extraordinary word indeed to express an authoritative suffrage hy. 2ndly. Inthefore- ^ Nobis sollicite examinantibus going paragraph, St. Cyprian qui recipi et admitti ad Eccle- tells Cornelius, that ^ the people siam debent; quibusdam enim were so much against the re- ita crimina sua obsistunt, aut storing of some of the more pro- fratres obstinate et firmiter re- fligate schismatics, that for fear nituntur, ut recipi omnino non oi scandal and endangering others OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 223 from the Schism of Fortunatus, and Bishop Cyp'ian was willing to receive them into the Churches Peace, he com- plains of the unwillingness of his People to admit them, and the great difficulties he had to obtain their Consent, as he thus describes it in his Letter to Cornelius Bishop of by it, he was put to it to know who should, or should not, he ad- mitted into the Church ; and he further adds, 7 he would be no profitable or well advised pastor, who should so mingle the infected sheep with the flock, as to grieve the whole flock with a resentment of so much evil amongst them. Whence it is plain, not only that a point of scandal was the great subject of controversy between St. Cyprian and his people ; but also that it was a single pastor's act and deed which might occasion or prevent their scandal: and consequently that the single pastor had the power of receiving such exceptionable schismatics into the communion of the Church, or of excluding them from it. 3rdly. St. Cyprian farther tells Cornelius, in the same paragraph wherein this possunt, [nisi] cum scandalo et periculo multorum. Cyp. Ep, 55. § 16. Edit. Pamel. vel Ep, 59. Edit. Oxon. 7 Nee utilis aut consultus est pastor qui ita morbidas et con- tactas oves gregi admiscet, ut gregem totum mali cohaerentis afflictatione contaminaret. Ibid* ^ Unus atque alius, obnitente plebe et contradicente, mei ta- men facilitate suscepti. Cypr. Ep. 55. §. 16. Edit. Pamel. vel Ep. 59. Edit. Oxon. quotation occurs, that ^ he had actually absolved one and another of those schismatics through his own tenderness to them, though the people stiffly withstood and contradicted him in it ■: which shews sufficiently what he knew he might have done to all the rest. Weigh these few circumstances together, and then judge whether it were an authoritative consent which St. Cyprian wanted of his people. The whole case suits indeed with his fixed determination to show tenderness and condescension to the people of his diocese^ but does not in the least impair the fulness of his power. 224 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Rome,'^0 my deavBrother ,ifijou « O si posses, Frater charis.i- ^^^^^ he present with me, when me, istic interesse nobiscum, t^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ fr^"^ ^^^^^ cum pravi isti et perversi de Schism, you would wonder at Schismate revertuntur, videres what pains I take to perswade quis mihi labor sit persuadere our Brethren to be patient patientiam Fratribus nostris, ut that laying aside their Grief animi dolore sopito recipiendis of Mind, they would consent malis curandisque consentiant ; fo the healing and receiving of vixplebipersuadeo, imo extor- ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^.^ ^ick ; I can queo, ut tales patiantur admitti. ^^^^.^^ perswade, yea, I extort Epist. 55. §. 17. p. 143. ^ Grant from my People, that such be received to Communion. And on the other side, the People could do nothing with- out the Bishop ; as when one of the three Bishops that Schismatically Ordained iVbra/Mw, came back to the Church and desired admission, the People alone could not receive him, without the consent of the Bishop Cornelius ; for else they would not have 9 so iroiPovros Xotov. Cornel, apud . . n j 1.1. „ ^ , ,., ^ permission, as we find they Euseb. lib. 6. c. 43. p. 244. j- 1 ^ ^ did. Thus then we have viewed the Members of the Spiritual Court, and have proved that they were all the Members, or the whole Body of the Church, Clergy as well as Laity, and Laity as well as Clergy ; not one without the other, but both together. But now forasmuch as the People were encumbred with earthly business, and it was not possible that they coidd constantly give their attendance, and narrowly search into every thing that should be brought before them : There- fore we may suppose, that the Members of the Presbytery, who, as was said before, under the Head of Ordination, were to be free from all Worldly Cares and Employments, were appointed as a Committee to prepare matters for the OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 225 whole Court. « An instance whereof we meet with in Maximus, Urbanus, Sidonius, and some others, that had joined in the Schism of Novatian, who being sensible of their Fault, * Came into the Presbyteiy, and desired the Churches Peace ; the Presby- tery accepted of their Submis- sion and proposed it to the whole Church, who readily embraced it. ^ In Presbyterium venerunt — Quod erat consequens, omnis hie actus populo fiierit insinu- andus. Cyprian. Epist. 46. §. 2, 3. p. 104, 105. « We are told again, that the Clerical Presbytery (as being more at leisure than'the people,) prepared matters for the court, wherein the Clergy and Laity together were to pass sentence at the last. The proof is as follows : some eminent schismatics of Nova- tians party begged to be re-admitted into communion with Cor- nelius, 9 who having been per- 9 Omni actu ad me perlato pla- cuit contrahi Presbyterium ; ad- fuerunt etiam.quinque Episcopi. sonally applied to before, and thoroughly instructed in the case, was pleased to call his Presbyters together to consult about the matter. When he, and they, and five Bishops with them, had absolutely agreed that those penitent schismatics should be re-admitted to communion ; then says ' Cornelius, what fol- lowed was, that all which had been done, should be notijied to the people; and why was it to be notified to them ? Cornelius adds the reason ; that they might see those very persons establish- ed in the Church again, whom they had a long time seen as for - ' Quod erat consequens, om- nis hie actus populo fuerat in- sinuandus, [50 far the Enquiry quotes, and leaves out this"] ut et ipsos viderent in Ecclesid constitutos, quos errantes et palubundos jam diu viderant et dolebant. Apud Cyp. Ep. 49. Edit. Oxon. lorn vagabonds and had lamented their condition. Now, I ask, is it likely, that this matter should not have been thoroughly agreed on before ? or that Cornelius would have spoken thus of the people, if he had needed their 2 H 226 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. So that the Presbytery prepared matters for the whole Court, which Court was the Supreme Tribunal within the Limits of that Parish, before whom all Matters that there occurred, were tried, and by whom all were judged ; only when any great and difficult points w^ere decided, 'tis pro- bable it . was the Custom to desire the Bishops of the neighbouring Parishes to come over, and assist there in presence, that so their Censures might be the freer from any imputation of Partiality 2 Adfuerunt Episcopi quinque ^^ Injustice. Thus when a ^ut firmato consilio. quid circa ^-^^ ^^^-^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ter- personam eorum observari de- ^.^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^-^ , beret consensu omnium statue- , . , /, x^. 7 ^ , 7 ^ . desired iive Bishops to assist, retur. Cornet, ad Cyprian. , '' . 1 ti • 1. Episi. 46. %. 2. p. 104. '^-^^ '" '^^[ *'"y *'^' ""^*' he firm and indisputable. §. 4. ^ Having thus found out the Members of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal, the next thing to be considerM, is authoritative consent to receive the criminals into his Church } We are told that when a great concourse of the people had appeared on receiving intelligence of this matter, an universal joy and praise to God ensued, with tears and mutual embracing of the brethren. This, in the close of the relation, St. Cyprian calls an [ingens populi suffragium .•] that is, their joyful approbation of the restitu- tion of their brethren; and ex- ^ Maximum Presbyterum locum clusively of any act of the peo- suum ^gwo^ctxQ, jussimus ; cate- pie at all, ^he says, in the same ros cum ingenti populi suffragio breath, we commanded Maximus recepimus. Ibid. the Presbyter to take his place again. f When our learned Author had thus settled (as we have seen) an equal share of legislative, decretive, or judicatorial power in the laity of the Church ; the next thing was to show the manner of their exercising this power in the solemn acts of public discipline. To this purpose he sets before us the ordinary form of an Eccle- siastical consistory in the primitive Church : wherein, had he OF THE PRIMITlVfl CHURCH. 227 the manner and Form of their Proceedings in the Exercise of their Judicial Power and Authority, which by Tertullian is described to be after this manner ; When at their general Assemblies the other parts of Divine Worship were ended, ' then followed Exhortations, „ r, ■ ^ T) \. , -^. . ^ Ibidem etiam exhortation es' JKeproofs. ana a Divine Cen- ,. ,. , j- • • •^ ^ castigationes, et censura divina ' sure; for the Judgment is ^^^ ^^ judicatur magno cum given with great weight, as ^^ndeve, ut apud certos de Dei amongst those that are sure, conspectu, summuraque futuri that God beholds what they judicii prsejudicium est, si quis do ; and this is one of the ita deliquerit, ut k communica- highest Preludiums and Fore- tione orationis, et conventus, et runners of the Judgment to omnis sancti commercii relege- come, when the Delinquent is tur. Prsesident probati quique banished from the Communion Seniores, honorem istum non of Prayers, Assemblies, and all P^^^^^ ^^^ testimonio adepti. Holy Commerce. Approved Apolog, cap. 1^9. ip. 709. Elders preside there, who obtained that Honour by Testimony, not by Price. So that when the Consistory was sat, the Bishop and his assisting Presbyters, here called Approved Elders ; but commonly the Presbytery presided and mode- rated all things there proposed and debated. Then the Offenders, if possible, were actually brought before them, (tho^ the non-appearance of the Criminals was no impedi- ment to their Proceedings) for notwithstanding they con- demned them, and censured them not only for those Crimes, for which they were cited to appear, but also assigned to the several members of it their respective offices and powers, as fairly as he has represented the thing itself, we should have found a general scheme of admirable discipline, for prevent- ing any long infection of vice or heresy in the Church of God. But one wonders to see what forced constructions he has made of a few plain passages in St. Cyprian s writings, in order to secure to the laity of the Churches their pretended share in the adminis- tration of that discipline. .'<^*^^^^^~5^^- ((tJSIVEESITTj 228 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. for their Contumacy and Stubbornness, as Cyprian writes, .,-,.. ,. ... , . * the Proud and obstinate are ^ bpintuali gladio superbi et , .„ , . , , n ■ ■ i Jailed with the Spiritual contumaces necantur, dum de ^ Tj,,.. ... ^ T^ ' . n^ Sword, whilst they are cast JbiCclesia ejiciuntur. Lpist. 62. ' ^ f 2 2 «Q out of the Church ; and 5 those that are stubborn and fear not 5 Contumaces et Deum non God, but go off fromthe Church, timentes, et ab Ecclesi^ in to- ^^^ ^^ ^^^ accompany. But turn recedentes, nemo comitetur. j -^ -^^ ^^^ E;?2>^ 64. §. 4. p. 191. ^' , ^' 11 ■^ ^ Oiienders personally appear- ed, that so their Crimes might be objected to them, to which they were to plead, as Cyprian says, that the Lapsed ^ were to plead their Cause 6 Acturi et apud nos, et apud before the Clergy and the Plebem universam causam su- ^^^^/e Church. Then the am. Epist. 10. §. 4. p. 30. Court considered the Defen- ^ In commune tractabimus. dant's Plea, as Cyprian Epist. 6. §. 5. p. 17. writes, ■? that all things were debated in common amongst them. And if the Bishop and Majority of the Court judged their Defence insufficient, they were voted by their common Suffrage to be condemned and censured, ^ as Cyprian 8 Censure and absolution of criminals, are, without doubt, the two principal acts of Ecclesiastical discipline ; and in order to prove, that censures were passed by the votes and suffrages of the people, as well as of any of the Clergy, in the Church, our Author tells us, that St. Cyprian writes thus : whoever was excommunicated, it was by the divine suffrages of the people. The original words occur in an epistle, which that excellent Father wrote to his people against the schismatical Presbyters who had sided with Felicissimus ; he tells them, that ^ by God's ^ De Dei Providentia, nobis nee Providence they had met with volcntihus, nee optantibus, imo - the punishment which they de- et ignoscentibus et tacentibus, served ; for without my know- poeuas quae meruerant repende- hdge, says he, and beyond what OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 229 writes, that ^ whoever was excommunicated, it was by the ' Secundum vcstra divina suf- Divine Suffrages of the Peo- ^'^-''^ conjurati. Eyist. 40. ad pie. The Delinquent being ' ' ^' ' ^' thus cast, or found Guilty, the next thing that succeeded, was the formal Declaration of the Sentence of the Court, which was pronounced, as Tertullian intimates in that fore- quoted Passage, by one of the presiding Elders, that is, either by the Bishop or a Presbyter commissioned by him^ the manner of which Pronunciation seems also from that Passage to be thus : He that passed the formal Sentence on the Criminal, first began with Exhortations ; that is, as we may reasonably suppose, he exhorted the Faithful / wished, and even whilst 1 said runt, ut a nobis non ejecti ultro nothing, and excused their fault, sc ejicerent, ipsi in se pro con- those confederate and wicked scieutia sua sententiam darent, wretches, not cast out by us, secundum vestra divina suffra- have of their own accord turned gia, conjurati et scelerati de out themselves ; convicted in Ecclesid sponte se pellerent. their own consciences, they pro- Cypr. Ibid, nounced their own sentence, according to your divine suffrages. Now what can be plainer here than this ; that neither St. Cyprian, nor his Clergy, nor his people, had any hand in this extraordinary excommunica- tion ? It was the schismatics' own act and deed, by a voluntary separation, and nothing else. But what mean those words, according to your divine suffrages 9 They mean, (as I said before,) what the word suffrage almost always means, in St. Cyprian s lan- guage, namely, that those self-condemning schismatics had done what the people very well approved of. What sort of translation our learned Author has given us of this passage, what a groundless application he has made of it, and how unintelligibly it is pointed, the reader may see by comparing the Enquirer's small clause of it, with the entire transcript of the whole period, which I have given in the margin. 230 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. to use all diligent Care and Fear to avoid those Sins and Crimes, which had brought the Offenders before them to so lamentable and fatal Condition. Then followed Re- proofs, which were sharp Rebukes and Reprehensions to the Delinquents for their foul Miscarriages and enormous Practices, setting forth the Evil, Villany and Misery of them ; That they were provoking to God, grievous to the Faithful, scandalous to Religion, and in fine, ruining and pernicious to themselves, in that it rendred them obnoxious to that Divine Censure, which then immediately, as the Conclusion of all, he formerly pronounced on them. Which brings me to the Consideration of the Fourth Query, viz. What the Primitive Censures were ; of which, in the following Section. §.5. Now in answer hereunto ; as the Church, so her Arms were Spiritual ; her Thunderbolts consisted in Suspensions and Excommunications, in ejecting and throwing out of the Church her scandalous and rotten Members, not permitting a re-induction of them, till by visible signs of Repentance they had satisfied for their Crimes and Villanies. Various are the Appellations that are given to the Sentence of Excommunication in the Writings of the Ancients. By Dionysius Alexandrinus it is called, ^ , , . , 9 ^ driving away from 9 WirtXda-xs rrts UxXviriacs. Apud j -n ny it Euseb. 1. 7. c. 7. p. 253. ^^^ Church. By lertuUian, ' Ab Ecclesise Communicatione ' A casting out from the abjectus. De Prescript, advers. Churches Communion, and ^ a Hceret. p. 95. 7 • • /• ^ • t. « A Communicatione depellere. driving from Communion. By De Monogam. p. 477. Cyprian, '^A Separation from 3 Ab Ecclesia separari, Epist. the Church, * An Ejection out 4 T^ r^ 1 • ' 11 4. c of the Church, ^ A killinq * Ue JLcclesia se pellerent. Jbp. '' ' . ^ 40. §. 1. p. 92. ^'^^/* ^^*^ Spiritual Sword, s Spirituali gladio necantur. and many other such like Epist. 62. §. 3. p. 170. rpgj,nis occur in tlie Fathers, OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 231 all tending to describe the Fearfulness and Misery of an Excommunicated State: So tremendous was it, that whosoever was in that condition, was lookM upon as ac- cursed by God, and really was so by Men, who esteemed him as a Limb of Satan, and a Member of the Devil, shuning his Company as they did the Plague, or any other in- fectious Disease. ^Those, says f* Contumaces et Deum non timentes, et ab Ecclesia in totum recedentes, nemo comitetur. Epist. eb, §. 4. p. 191. Cyprian y that are Proud, and fear not God, but go off from the Church, let no man ac- company. And therefore Irce- neus speaking concerning the Hereticks, who were all Ex communicated, says,' that according to the Command of Paul, we must avoid them; and John forbids us so much as to wish them God speed, since by so doing we commu- nicate with their Evil FTorks. And Tertullian in that fore- mentioned place writes, ^ That the Delinquent was banished from the Communion of Pray- ' Quos Paulus jubet nobis de- vitare, Joannes enim non Ave nobis eis dici volens. Qui enim dicit, inquit, eis Ave, communicat operibus eorum nequissimis. Lib. 1. cap. 13. p. 63. 8 A coraraunicatione orationis et conventus, et omnis sancti commercii relegetur. Jpol. c. 39. p. 709. ei's, Assemblies, and all holy Converse ; being looked upon as one unworthy of humane Society, cast out of the Church of God here ; and if im- penitently dying in that condition, as certainly excluded the Kingdom of God hereafter. For as Origen writes on Matth. 18. 18. on which Text Excommunication is found- ed, 9 He that is condemned and bound by the Church on Ear^th) remains bound, none in Hea- ven unloosing him. §. 6. No wonder then that Men in their right Senses 9 'O roiovros ^i^nJi.ivos aito rov roiov^s iAm( ^s^siJ.hos^ ov^svos ruv Iv ov^xvlo avatXvovros rov os^vixoTos avTvv rh 4'^(pov. Comment, in Matth. Tom. 13. p. 336. Vol. 1. 232 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. were affrightned at the tieraendous Misery of an Excora • municated Condition, and that when through their corrupt Natures and wicked Practices they had incurred that Sen- tence, they never left Fasting, Watching, Weeping, and the endurance of the severest Courses of Mortification, till they were absolved from it, and re-instated in God and the Churches Favour. Which brings me in the next place to search into the Course that Offenders took to be received into the Church again, the usual Method whereof seems to have been thus : All those that desired to be delivered from that mise- rable state, in the first place in a most penitent and hum- ble manner came weeping and crying unto the Church- doors, where they lay groveling on the Ground, prostrat- ing themselves at the Feet of the Faithful as they went into Church, and begging their Prayers to God for them. The Behaviour of these Men is thus elegantly expressed by the Clergy of the Church of Rome in a letter to Cyprian, • Let them, say they, knock • Pulsent sane fores, sed non «^ ^/^^ Church-doors, but not utique confringant ; adeant ad break them ; let them come to Hmen Ecclesise, sed non utique the Threshold of the Church, transiliant. Castrorum coeles- but not pass over it ; let them tium excubentportis.sed arma- watch at the Gates of the ti modestia, qua intelligant se Celestial Tents, but armed desertores fuisse. Resumant y^^j^ Modesty, by which they precum suarum tubam, sed qua ,„^^ remember they ivere De- non belHcum clangant. Arment ^^,^^^ , ^^^ ^^^^ ^.^^^^^ ^j^^ se quidem modestise, telis, et Trumpet of their Prayers, but not to sound an Alai'm quern negando mortis metu fidei demiserant, clvpeum resu- mant, sed ut contra hostem io Battle ; let them arm them- Diabolura vel nunc armati non ^^^^^« «^«^^ ^^'^ -^^^^^ ^/^«- contra Ecclesiam, quae illorum ^^^^V^ «^^ retake that Shield dolet casus, armatos se esse which by their Apostacy they credant. Multum illis proficiet lost, that so they may be armed, OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 233 not against the Church, which grieves at their Misery, but against their Adversary the Devil; a modest Petition, a bashful Supplication, a neces- sary Humility, and an indus- trious Patience will be advan- tageous to them; let them petitio modesta, postalatio ve- recunda, humilitas necessaria, patientia non otiosa ; raittaiit legates pro suis doloribus lacry- tiias ; advocatione fungantur ex intimo pectore prolati gemi- tus, dolorem probantes commis- si criminis et pudorem. Epist. 31. apud Cyprian. §. 7. p. 71. express their grief by their Tears, and their sorrow and shame for their Crimes by their Groans. So Tertullian in the same manner describes one in this state, ^ by lying in ^ Sacco et cineri incubare, cor- pus sordibus obscurare, aniraum mseroribus dejicere, — Jejuniis preces alere, ingemiscere, lachrymari, et mugire dies noctesque — Presbyteris advolvi, et caris Dei adgeniculari, om- nibus fratribus legationes de- precationis suae injuagere. De Poenitentia, p. 381. Sackcloth and Ashes, by having a squalid Body, and a dejected Soul, by fasting, praying, weeping, groaning, and roaring night and day ; by throwing himself at the Clergies feet, and kneeling before the Faithful, begging and desiring their Prayers and Pardon. § 7. If the Ecclesiastical Court thought their Repentance to be real, and those external Expressions of Sorrow and Grief to proceed from suitable Affections of Heart, then they began to encline to some Terms of Remission and Reconciliation, and gave the Delinquents some hopes of it, by admitting them to come into the Church, and to stay at some part of Divine Service, but not at the v^hole of it, to Communicate with the Faithful, till they had for a long space of time, which they then imposed on them, by their humble and modest Carriage gave good Proofs of their Sorrow and Repentance. This fixed Time of Tryal was called, the Time of Penance, during which the Penitent, as he was now called, appeared 2 I 234 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. in all the Formalities of Sorrow, with a coarse Habit, and a dejected Countenance, continually fasting and praying, lamenting and bemoaning the greatness and aggravations of his Sin and Wickedness, as may be seen in sundry places of the Fathers, all which to transcribe would be very tedi- ous; wherefore I shall content my self with Translating a few elegancies pertinent to this purpose, out of Cyprian's Book De Lapsis, wherein he thus inveighs against those, who in a state of Penance indulged themselves in the De- lights and Enjoyments of the ^Laraentari eum putamus ex toto corde jejuniis, fletibus, planctibus Dorainum deprecari ; qui ex pri- mo criminis die lavacra quo- tidie celebrat, qui epulis affluen- tibus pastus, et sagina largiore distentus, cruditates suaspostri- die ructat, nee cibos et potus suos cum pauperum necessitate communicat ? Qui hilaris ac Isetus incedit, quomodo mortem suam deflet ? An ilia ingemis- cit et plangit, cui vacat cultum pretiosse vestis induere, nee in- dumentum Christi, quod per- didit, cogitare ? Accipere pre- tiosa ornamenta et monilia ela- borata, nee Divini et Coelestis ornatus damna deflere ; tu licet indumenta percgrina et vestes sericas induas, nuda es; auro te licet et margaritis gemmisque condecores, sine Christi decore deformis es. Et quae capillos tuos inficis, vel nunc in dolori- bus desine, et quae nigri pulve- ris ductu occulorum liniamenta Flesh, 3 Can we think that that Man weeps with his whole Heart, and with Fast- ings, Tears, and Sighs be- seeches God, who from the very first day of his Offence daily frequents the Baths, wha indulging to his gluttonous Appetite this Day, vomits up his undigested Crudities the next day, and does not com- municate of his Meat and Drink to the Necessities of the Poor ? He that goes gay and jocund, how doth he he- wail his Death? Does that Woman weep and mourn, who spends her time in putting on splendid Garments, and does not think upon the Garment of Christ, which she lost? Who seeks after precious Or- naments and rich Jewels, and does not bewail the loss of the Heavenly and Divine adorn- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 235 ing? Altho' thou puttest on exotick Garbs and silken Gar- ments, thou art naked; altho^ thou beautifiest thy self with Gold and Pearls, without the Beauty of Christ thou art de- formed : And thou who dyest thine Hair, now leave it off in this time of Penance; and thou who paintest thine Eyes, depingis, vel nunc lacrymis oculos tuos ablue. Si quern de tuis charis mortali exitu perdi- disses, ingemisceres dolenter, et fleres : Facie inculta, veste mu- tata, neglecto capillo, vultu no- bilo, ore dejecto indicia maeroris ostenderes, animara tuam misera perdidisti — Et non acriter plan- gis, non jugiter ingemiscis ? §. 24. 25. p. 285. wash it off with thy Tears. If thou shouldest lose any one of thy dear Friends by Death, thou wouldst sorrowfully weep and howl, and express the greatness of thy Sorrow by thy disregarded Face, mourn- ing Garments, neglected Hair, cloudy Countenance, and de- jected Visage. Why, O Wretch, thou hast lost thy Soul, and wilt not thou bitterly 4 Orare oportet irapensius et weep, and continually lament ? rogare, diem luctu transigere. < Now therefore pray and supplicate more earnestly, pass the Day in weeping, the Night in watching and crying, both Night and Day in Tears and Lamentations, prostrate your selves upon the Ground, roll your selves in dust and ashes ; vigiliis noctes ac fletibus duce re terapus omne lachrymosis la- mentationibus occupare, stratos solo adhserere cineri, in cilicio et sordibus volutari : post indu- mentum Christi perditum, nul- lum hie jam velle vestitura : post Diaboli cibum malle jeju- nium. §. 28. p. 286. after having lost the Garment of Christ, have no cloathing here ; having tasted the Devil's Meat, chuse now to fast. §. 8. How long these Penitentiary Stations were, can- not be defined, since they differed according to the Quality of the Offence and tlie Offender, according to the Circum- stance of Time, and the Will and Pleasure of thei Ecclesi- astical Court who imposed them ; some were in the state of Penance two Years, some three, some five, some ten, 2 1 2 236 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. some more, some even to their Lives ends ; but how long and rigorous soever their Penance was, they were patiently, humbly, and thankfully to 5 Legitimum et plenum tempus endure it the whole time, satisfactionis. Cypr. Epist. 59. being not absolved, till they §. 1. p. 164. had undergone 5 the legal and full time of Satisfaction. It is true indeed, that in some extraordinary Cases the Prudence of the Church saw fit to dispense with the usual 6 Urgere exitus cc«perit. Apud length and Severity of their Cyprian, Epist. U. ^.1.^.^9. inflicted Discipline, as in . T . , , ^ Case of Death, 7 of an " Lapsis pacem dandam esse, , . ^ . , V J • • approaching I^ersecutton. or, et eos ad prselium, quod immi- /-x- ^^ ^ ^ net, armari et instrui oportere. ^^^^^ « ^^^^^ multitude, and Apud Cyprian. Epist. 54. §. 1. ^^nment leading Persons were p 132. concerned in the same Of- fence; as in the case of Trophimus, which may be seen in the 52d Epistle of Cyprian. Besides these, the Confessors claimed the Pri- viledge of restoring Penitents before the usual time ; which irregular and unreasonable Practice of theirs caused great Disturbances to the Church of Carthage in the Days of Cyprian, which may be seen at Jarge in several Epistles extant in the beginning of his Works. But laying aside these unusual Circumstances, the fixed Period of Penance was never anticipated ; but how long and severe soever it was, the Penitent chearfuUy submitted to it. h When the appointed Time of Penance was ended, the Penitent applyed himself to the Ecclesiastical Court for *• To prove that, in the primitive Church, the people could loose, as well as bind, our Enquirer assures us, that the penitents applied themselves to this Ecclesiastical Court of his for their absolution. He finds that St. Cyprian tells us, among other things, that before a penitent offender could be absolved, his OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 237 Absolution, who ^ examined ^ Inspecta vita ejus qui agit his Demeanours and Actions, poeaitentiam, Cypr. Epist. 12. wliich if they approved and §• 1- P- 37. actions and demeanour were to he looked into ; and therefore it is con- cluded that this penitent must needs have gone to beg his absolution of the Consistory. If that clause, or any context in the place where it occurs, warrants such a conclusion, I must own it is a way of reasoning which I cannot comprehend. Our Enquirer positively asserts, that the joint assembly of the Laity and Clergy in the Church had the proper right of 4 judging the sufficiency or insufficiency of a censured per- 4 Enquiry, ch. 7, §. 7. son's repentance ; the right of 5 admitting him by degrees into part, or a full communion with ^ ' the Church ; the right of ''con- tinuing offenders for a longer 6 Enq. ch. 7. §. 8. or shorter time in the peniten- tiary station : and lastly, a full ,, . , • il n . ' '7 '' Ibid, right or power ^ to assoil or absolve them; insomuch that the imposition of the Bishop's and ^ ^"^- ^^' ^' ^' ^^' Clergy's hands upon them was merely a declarative act, ^ and no more than a barren form of admitting them to the Church's peace. Now, not to trouble the reader with a repetition of what has been so largely proved before, concerning the use which St. Cyprian made both of his Clergy and people, in all causes within his own private Consistory, as well as in that eminent Council for the trial of the lapsed brethren, I shall show, once for all, how very different that holy Father's judgment was from that of our learned Enquirer, in relation to all the main points for which he is here cited : and 1st. The Enquiry 9 tells us, that both Clergy and Laity were all of 9 Enq. ch. 7. §. 3. them Judges in the Ecclesiastical Court, and iXveX the people as well as the Bishops had each of them a THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. liked, they then proceeded to formal assoiling of him, of which in the following Sections. ^ Unus in Ecclesi^ ad tempus negative voice. ^ St. Cyprian as sacerdos, et ad tempus, judex expresslv savs, there is but one vice Christu Cyp. Ep. 59. judge in the Church at a time, as §. 5. Edit. Oxon. \o/- ,' • ,*j. Christ s vicegerent there. 2ndl3\ The Enquiry tells us, the Consistory Court actually as- soiled or absolved the penitent, * Remissio facta per sacerdotes ^ St. Cyprian says, absolution apud Dominum grata est. Cyp. was a remission of sins effected de Lapsis, p. 134. Edit. Oxon. by means of the priests, and ac- ceptable to God. 3rdly. The Enquiry' says, * Enq. ch. 7. §. 10. that imposition of hands by the Bishops and Clergy, was a mere formal ceremony, declarative only of an absolution passed by the Consistory, ^ St. Cyprian says, * Ante purgatara conscientiam the hand (or instrumentality) of sacrificio et manu sacerdotis, the priest conduced to the purg- pacem putant esse. Cyp. de ing of the conscience ; and de- Lapsis, p. 128. scribing the whole course of a censured person's recovery, 5 Poenitenti, operanti, roganti, he says, s if such an one repents, potest clementer ignoscere (De- does good works, and prays to us,) potest in acceptum referre God for it, God can pardon him, quicquid pro talibus et petierint and what the Martyrs should martyres, etfecerint sacerdotes. request, and the priests should Cyp. de Lapsis, p. 138. do for such persons might be accepted of him. 4th]y. The Enquirer ^ tells 6 Enq. c. 7. §. 7. & §. 8. us, that his Ecclesiastical Court was to judge of the reality of a censured persons repentance, and according to their will and plea- sure they were to continue a longer or shorter time in the peniten- tiary station ,• '' St. Cyprian 1 Prsepositorum est, properantes says, it was the peculiar ^mrt or OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 239 §. 9. On the appointed Day for Absolution, the Penitent, or he that was now to be absolved, came into the Church mourning and weeping, and expressing all external Indi- province of the Governours of vel ignorantes instruere, ne qui the Church (exclusive of the ovium pastores esse debent, lay-brethren, no doubt) to order lanii fiant ; ea enim concedere, ignorant or over-hasty penitents quse in perniciem vertant, deci- in that matter ; for to grant pere est. Cyp. Ep. Edit, Oxon. them those things which would turn to their destruction, (i. e. for those Governours to permit them to be absolved before they were judged fit for it,) would be plainly to deceive them, and they would be rather butchers than pastors of the sheep. The office of ordering their absolution sooner or later, and the guilt of an over-hasty absolution, are here attributed to the Governours or Pastors of the Church alone. Accordingly, when the Martyrs were very anxious to have some lapsed brethren absolved, who were unqualified for it, St. Cyprian argues, ^ they could not put the Bishops upon doing that which ^ Ut ab Episcopis contra man- was against the command of God. datum Dei fiat, auctores esse Why, put the Bishops only non possunt. upon it } How is it that the whole Consistory is forgotten in such an important act of their power ? Surely, if they had had a negative, and the thing had been done amiss, the guilt as well as the power would have been shared amongst them, and they would not have been overlooked. But, 5thly. St. Cyprian assures us, that his own Presbyters sent to him alone for his authoritative order upon a similar occasion ; for so the forma (as he calls it)plain- ly implies. ^ You desired a form 9 Significastis quosdam immo- (says he) of me, in relation to derates esse, et communicati- soiue lapsed brethren, who ivere onem accipiendam festinahter very pressing with you to be urgere ; et desiderastis in hdc speedily absolved; 1 wrote my re formam ^ me vobis dare. mind very fully (I think) upon Satis plene scripsisse me ad 240 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. cations of his Internal Sorrow : As when Natalis, a Roman Confessor, was absolved for his joyning with the Theodotian Hereticks, he came into the Church, as it is related by an ancient nameless Christian, 9 covered with Sackcloth and Ashes, throwing himself at the Feet of the Clergy and Laity, and with Tears in his Eyes begging their pardon and for- 9 *Evov(ra(A.svov adycytov xtx.) aTrooov KOtTocTcacaacf^Evov, fji^sra iroXXrjs amov- xui ru¥ Kxtxuy — iioXXvl rs toj ^si?- a-Bi p^f»?cra/:>i£vov. /4pud Euseb. I. 5. c. 28. p. 197. * Non minis sed precibus et lamentationibus. Cypr. Epist. 55. §. 18. p. 143. giveness. It being looked upon as very proper, that they should be admitted into the Church ' by Tears, not by Threats ; by Prayers, and not by Curses. Hence at this time for the greater Demonstration of their Sorrow and Humility, they were to make a publick Confession of their Sin, styled by them Exomologesis, which 2 Exoraologesin gravissimi at- was, as Q//?nfl7i saith, M Con- que extremi delicti. Epist. II. fession of their great and heinous §. 1. p. 32. Crime, and was a necessary banc rem proximis literis ad vos factis credo, ut qui libellum ac- ceperunt, &c. — manu eis in pcenitentia a vobis imposita cum pace — adDominum remittantur. — Cyp. Ep. 19. that matter, in my last letters to you. He then proceeds to tell them the contents of those letters ; which were a positive authority and order for them to act by, in absolving some on such conditions as he prescribes, and leaving others as they were, until public peace should be restored. To multiply quotations on these heads from St. Cyprians writings, were needless. What part he allowed the lay brethren of the Church in the Ecclesiastical Courts, I leave the reader to judge from the few I have here adduced ; and only hope, that on whichsoever side trutli lies, it may clear itself at last, and be impartially embraced by all the lovers of it. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 341 Antecedent to Absolution, inasmucli as it was the Source and Spring of all true Repentance. For as Tertullian observes, ^ Out of Confession , ^ .• r .• /• • j- "^ '' ' Satisfactio confessione dispo- ts hoi'u Repentance^ and by Confession comes Satisfaction. And in many places of * Cy- prian the necessity of Con- fession is asserted ; for as Tertullian says, ^ Confession as much diminishes the Fault, as Dissimulation aggravates it; Confession is the Advice of Satisfaction, Dissimulation of Contumacy. And therefore he condemns those, who thro' shame deferred from Day to Day the Publication of their Sin, as ^ more mindful nitur, confessione poenitentia noscitur. De Poeniteniia, p. 380. '♦ Epist. 10. §. 2. p. 30. Epist, 11. §. l.p. 32. 5 Tantura relevat confessio de- lictum, quantum dissimulatio exaggerat; confessio enim sa- tisfactionis consilium est, dissi- mulatio contumacise. De Pcsni' tentia, p. 380. ^ Pudoris magis memores quam Salutis velut illi qui in partibus verecundioribus corporis con- tracta vexatione, conscientiam medentium vitant, et ita cum erubescentia sua pereunt. De Poenitentia, p. 382. of their shamefacedness, than of their Salvation : Like those who have a Disease in their secret Parts, through shame con- ceal it from the Chyrurgeons, and so with their Modesty die and perish. Confession there- fore being so necessary, the greatest Offenders were not exempted from it ; as when Philip the Emperor, as Eu^e- bius calls him, or rather Philip a Prefect of Egypt, would have joyned with the Faithful in the Churches Prayer, Bishop Babylas denied him admission, because of his enor- mous Crimes ; nor would he receive him, till he had made ' a Publick Confession of his Faults. And accordingly when one of those Bishops that Schismatically Ordained Novatian, returned as a 1 E^o{jMXoYn(Taa-^xf. Apud Eu- seb. lib. 6. cap. 34. p. 232. 2 K 242 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. 8 .uv , > V . ~ , , Penitent, he came into the ° h^o{jt.oAoyov(Mvos TO eotvrov ay^oc^- r«^. Cornel, apud Euseb. hb. ^^^^<^^ weeping, and « Con- 6. c. 43. p. 243. fessing his Sin ; where we may observe, that it is said in the singular Number, his Sin, rh IxvroZ a(jioi^rvjiJi.x, which intimates, that the Penitent's Confession was not only general, or for all his Sins in the gross ; but it was par- ticular, for that special Sin for which he was censured ; consonant whereunto Cyprian, as before quoted, writes, that the Penitent 9 confessed 9 Exomologesin gravissimi at- his most great and heinous que extremi delicti. Epist.U, Sin; that is, that Sin for ^* * P' ' which he was so severely punished. This Confession of the Penitents was made with all the outward Signs of Sorrow and Grief, which usually so af- fected the Faithful, as that they sympathized with them in mourning and weeping. Whence Tertullian exhorts the Penitent not through shame to conceal, but from a true Godly Disposition, to confess his Fault before the whole Church, and to weep » Ergo cum te ad fratrum genua ^nd mourn for it, i since they, protendis-aequeilli cum super ^,. ;,•, 5,,^^ ,,,^^^ te lacrymas agunt. De Pee- ^ .,, , ,. ^'* >• 00^ also weep with, and over him. mtentta, p. 382. z' ^ And so from the same Con- '^ Cum lacrymis nostris vestras sideration, Cyprian exhorted lacrymas jungite ; cum nostro the Lapsed to this Penitent gemitu, vestros gemitus copula- Confession, ^ with our Tears, te. Z)eZ,apm,§. 27. p. 285. saith he, joyn your Tears; with our Groans couple your Groans. §. 10. As soon as Confession was over, then followed the formal Absolution, which was thus : The Person to be absolved, kneeled down before the Bishop and the Clergy, OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 243 who put their Hands upon his Head, and blessed him ; by which external Ceremony the Penitent was declaratively and formally admitted to the Churches Peace. Thus Cyprian writes, that they 3 Per impositionem manus Epi- ^ received the Right of Com- munion by the Imposition of Hands of the Bishop and his Clergy. And that '^ no one can he admitted to Commu- nion, unless the Bishop and Clergy have imposed Hands on him. This being account- scopi et Cleri jus communicati- onis accipiunt. Epist. 10. §. 2. p. 30. * Nee ad Communicationem venire quis possit, nisi prius illi et ab Episcopo et Clero manus fuit imposita. Epist. 12. §. 1. p. 37. ed the third and last general Requisite for the reconciling of Offenders, the two former being the undergoing a state of Penance, and a pubhck Confession of their Sin ; all which three are frequently mentioned together as such by Cyprian, as where he ^says. Let Offenders do Penance a set space of time, and accord- ing to the Order of Discipline, let them come to Confession, and by Imposition of Hands of the Bishop and Clergy, let them receive the Right of Com- munion. And in other places he complains of the irregu- lar and unadvised Actions of some of his Presbyters, that they admitted some of the Lapsed to Communion, 6 be- fore they had undergone a due Penance, made a Publick Con- fession of their Sin, and had Hands imposed on them by the Bishop and Clergy. 2] 5 Agant peccatores poenitentiam justo tempore, et secundum dis- ciplinse ordinem ad exomologe- sin veniant, et per impositionem manus Episcopi et Cleri jus communicationis accipiant. Ep. 10. §. 2. p. 30. 6 Ante actam poenitentiam, ante Exoraologesin gravissimi atque extremi delicti f actam, ante raa- num ab Episcopo et Clero in poenitentiam impositam, offerre lapsis pacem, et Eucharistiam dare audeant. Epist. 11. §, 1. p. 32. and almost the same words are repeated, Epist. 12. §. 1. p. 37. 244 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. §. 11. After the Penitents were absolved by imposition of Hands, then they were received into the Communion of the Faithful, and made Partakers again of all those Priviledges, which by their Crimes they had for a while forfeited : Only when an offending Clergy-man was ab- solved, he only was restored to Communion as a Lay-man, but never re-admitted to his Ecclesiastical Dignity. Thus when one of the Schismatical Bishops, that Ordained No- vaiiaUj returned to the Church, he was deprived of his Ecclesiastical Office, and ad- 1 'Exo;va;v,5^«/x£v ^s Xcc'iy.S. Cor- jj^i^tcd Only to 7 Lay-Com- nel. apud Euseb. Hb. 6. cap. 43. ^^^-^^^ g^ j-j^^^-^^ ^^^^^ ^' ' tate or Lapsed Bishops were never restored again to their Office. The Reasons whereof may be seen in the 64th Epistle of Cyprian. And there- fore Basilides a lapsed Bi- * Satis sibi gratulans, si sibi vel shop ^ would have been ex- Laico communicare contingeret. tremely glad, if the Church Apud Cyprian. Epist. 68. §. 7. y^ould but have permitted him t'' • to communicate as a Layman. But yet I suppose that for every Fault Clergymen were not deprived of their Orders, but only according to the Greatness of their Crimes, and the Aggravation of them, since I find that Maximus a Presbyter of the Church of Rome, who had been deluded 9 Maximum Presbyterum locum i^to the Schism of Novatian, suumagnoscerejussimus. Cor- ^^^ ^^^^ j^^g Submission ^el apud Cyprian, Epist. 46. , ^^^^^^^^ ^ Cornelius, to §.4. p. 105. ,. . JL his former Office. OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 245 CHAPTER VIII. §. 1. Of the Independency of Churches. §. 2. Of the De- pendency of Churches. §.3. Of Synods, and the several kinds of them. §. 4. How often Synods were convened. §. 5. Who were the Members of Synods. §. 6. By whose Authority Synods we7'e convened. §. 7. JVhen convened, the manner of their Proceedings, a Moderator first chosen, what the Moderator's Office was. §. 8. Then they entred upon Business, which had relation either to Foreign Churches, or their own ; with respect to Foreign Churches, their Acts were only advising. §. 9. With respect to their own Churches obliging. The End and Power of Synods en- quired into. §.1. TO that large Discourse of the Primitive Discipline, which was the Subject of the preceding Chapter, it will be necessary to add this Observation, that ' all those judicial Acts were exerted in and by every single Parish, every ' Our learned Author tells us, that all the judicial acts of Ec- clesiastical discipline, mentioned in the preceding chapter, were exerted in and by every single parish ; which remark being wholly grounded upon his own principle, that a primitive Church or Diocese, and a modern parish or congregation, were one and the same thing, I shall refer the reader * to what has been said ' Vide supra, cap. 2. before, in answer to that un- warrantable notion of congregational Dioceses ; and in this place only adduce an instance, which I take to be a clear proof against the whole hypothesis, as well as the observation here deduced from it. The instance is this : ^ Nepos, a Bishop in ^ 'Ev tw ' A^a-mshv} yevofjisvos, sv^x Egypt, had corrupted most of -nfo tioKKoZ tovto kitsmoXa^s to the Christians about him with ^oy/Aa — avyKocXia-ots rovs it^ta^v- the erroneous doctrine of the ri^ovs x«< ^i^oca-KoiKovs ruv h ra7s 246 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. particular Church having Power to exercise Discipline on her own Members, without the Concurrency of other Kufjixis a^sXi^wy, ttx^ovtcuv koi tuv Millenaries : Dionysius, Bishop ^ovKofAivm ah\(puy, '^m^oaia, rr,v of Alexandria, goes into that e^iraa-iv 'rroiria-aa-^ai rou Xoyov region of Egypt, called Arsinoe, Trf0ETf£4/a|M,£v. Euseb. Hist, where all this mischief had Eccl. lib. 7. cap. 24. been done, and {Nepos himself being dead) he summons the Presbyters and Teachers of the brethren in the several villages there, together with as many of the brethren as were willing to come, to hold a solemn conference on the subject ; and after three days reasoning with them, he happily brings them off from their mistaken opinions. Now, who were these Presbyters and Teachers of the brethren in the several villages, summoned by Dionysius upon this occa- sion ? And in what capacity did they exercise their ministry in teaching the brethren committed to their care ? Not as supreme pastors over the several congregations ; for Dionysius himself, and the Catholic Church in that age, ever distinguished such pastors by the proper name and title of Bishops ; and the lately deceased ' Nepos is so styled ' Neirus imtrx.o'nos ruv koct' At- here accordingly. If then they yviirov. lb. were not village-curates, in- stituted and deputed to their respective cures by the Bishop of the neighbouring city of Arsinoe, (and possibly of some others in that province,) these congregations or rehgious assemblies of Christians under teach- ing ministers, were members of no Church at all ; for it is agreed by all, that without a Bishop, they could not be so. And that Dionysius (and Eusebius with him) should call Bishops by the name of Presbyters and Teachers of the brethren in villages and hamlets up and down the country, is what no sober antiquary, I believe, will venture to affirm. It remains, therefore, that they must have been congregational parishes relating to some Mother- Church, where their Bishop resided ; and consequently no one of them was an entire particular Church in the sense of antiquity. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 247 Churches ; else in those places where there might be but one Church for several Miles rounds which we may rea- sonably suppose^ the Members of that Church must have travelled several, if not Scores of Miles, to have had the consent of other Churches, for the Punishment of their Offenders : But there is no need to make this Supposition, since it was decreed by an African Synod, ' that every one's Cause should be heard where the Crime was commit- ted, because that to every Pastor was committed a par- ticular Portion of Chrisfs Flock, which he was particu- larly to rule and govern, and to render an account thereof ^ Statutum sit omnibus nobis, et sequum sit pariter ac justum, ut unius cuj usque causa illic audiatur, ubi est crimen admis- sum, et singulis pastoribus por- tio gregis sit adscripta, quam regat unusquisque et gubernet rationem sui actus Domino redi- turus. Apiid Cyprian. Epist, 55, §. 16. p. 142. unto the Lord. And so an- other African Synod, that decreed the Rebaptization of those that were Baptized by Hereticks, thus conclude their Synodical Epistle to Pope Stephen, who held the contrary. '^ Whereas we know that some Bishops will not relinquish an Opinion, which they have embraced, but keeping the Bond of Peace and Concord with their Col- leagues, will retain some pro- per and peculiar Sentiments, ^ Cseterum scimus quosdam quod semel imbiberint nolle deponere, nee propositum suum facile mutare, sed salvo inter Collegas pacis et concordise vinculo, qusedam propria, quae apud se semel sint usurpata, retinere, qua in re nee nos vim or could exercise Judicial acts of Ecclesiastical discipline within themselves; for St. Ignatius' s maxim is owned by the learned Enquirer ^himself, and bv all . ^, ,j,, , , ~ >< ^ ^ ,' ^ Ovx. Etov ear IV — avatyxatov sartv the ancients with him, that „ J ■> , s^^ ' „ without the Bishop it was not ^ o ^ o \ Enq. c. 2. §. 2. lawful to do any thing. 248 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. cuiquam facimus, aut legem damus, cum habeat in Ecclesise administratione voluntatis suae arbitrium liberum unusquisque praepositus, rationem actus sui Domino redditurus. J pud Cy- prian. Epist, 72. §. 3. p. 217. which they have formerly received; to these we offer no violence , or prescribe any Law, since every Bishop has in the administration of his Church, free liberty to follow his own Will, being to render an ac- count of his Actions unto the Lord. After these two Synodical Determinations, it might be thought needless to produce the single Testimony of Cyprian, but that it shews us not only the practice of the Bishops of his Age, but also of their Predecessors. ' Apud antecessores nostros ' Amongst the ancient Bi- quidam de Episcopis istic in provincia nostra dandam pacem moecbis non putaverunt et in totum poenitentise locum contra adulteria clauserunt, non tamen a Coepiscoporum suorum colle- gio recesserunt, aut Catholicse Ecclesise unitatem vel duritiae vel censurse suae obstinatione ruperunt, ut quia apud alios adulteris pax dabatur, qui non dabat de Ecclesia separaretur, manente concordise vinculo et perseverante Catholicse Ecclesiae individuo Sacramento, actum suum disponit et dirigit unus- quisque Episcopus, rationem propositi sui Domino redditurus. Mpist. 52. §. 13. p. 118. shops of our Province, saith he, some thought that no Peace was to be given to Adul- terers, for ever excluding them from the Communion of the Church ; but yet they did not leave their Fellow-Bishops, or for this break the Unity of the Catholick Chwch ; and those that gave Peace to Adulterei's, did not therefore separate from those that did not, but still retaining the Bond of Concord, every Bi- shop disposed and directed his own Acts, rendring an ac- count of them unto the Lord. Thus every Church was in this Sense independent ; that is, without the Concurrence and Authority of any other Church ; it had a sufficient Right and Power in its self OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 249 to punish and chastise all its delinquent and offending Members. §.2. But yet in another Sense it was dependent, as considered with other Churches, as part of the Church Universal, 4 There is but one Church of Christ, saith Cy- , Cum sit a Christo una Eccle- prian, divided through the gia per totum mundum in mul- whole fVorld into many Mem- ta membra divisa, item episco- bers, and one Episcopacy dif- patus unus Episcoporum multo- fused through the numerous rum concordi numerositate dif- Concord of many Bishops. A fusus, Epist. 52. §. 13. p. 118. Particular Church was not the whole Church of Christ, but only a part or Member of the Universal one ; and as one Member of the natural Body hath a regard to all the other Members thereof, so a particular Church, which was but one Member of the Universal, had relation and respect to the other Members thereof. Hence tho' the Labours and Inspections of the Bishops were more peculiarly confined to their own Pa- rishes, yet as Ministers of the Church Universal, they em- ployed a general kind of Inspection over other Churches also, observing their Condition and Circumstances, and giving unto them an account of their own state and pos- ture ; as Cyprian inspected that of ArleSy giving this as his Reason for it, that ^ aU .J , _,j ri . 5 Nam etsi pastores multi su- tho they were many Fastors. ^ - ^ 7 -nr7 I naus, unum tamen gregem pas- yet they were out one i^lock, ^ ^ cimus, et oves universas quas and they ought to congregate ^^^.^^^^ s^ngnine suo et passi- and cherish all the Sheep, which ^^^ qusesivit, colligere et fo vere Christ redeemed by his Blood debemus. Ep. 67. §. 6. p. 199. and Passion. And the Clergy of the Church of Rome thanked Cyprian, that he had acquainted them with the state of the Church in Africa ; for say they, ^ TVe ought all of 6 Omnes enim nos decet pro us to take care of the Body of corpora totius Ecclesiae, cujus 2 L 250 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. per varias quasque provincias the whole Church, whose Mem- membra digesta sunt, excubare. *^« «^^ distended through vari- Apud Cyprian, Epist. 30. §. 4. ous Provinces. If the Bishop p. 67. of one Church had any diffi- cult Point to determine, he sent to another Bishop for his Advice and Decision thereof. As when Dionysius Bishop of Alexan^7na had a critical Cause to determine, he sent to Xystus Bishop of Romcj '^ to know his Opinion and '' Ka) yap ovrus a^sXOe av/xlBovXyis ry i j.i • at ^, ^ \ , 7 , ^ Vounsei therein. And so A J -r^ 1 VI «' ^ when there was some difte- Apud Euseb. hb. 7. cap. 9. p. . n *l i ^ ..t, 9^^ rence at Carthage about the Pacificatory Libels of the Martyrs, Cyprian writ to the Church of Rome for their Advice therein. For saith « Et dilectio communis et ratio ^^^ « Dearly beloved Brethren, exposcit. fratres charissimi, ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ nihil conscientise vestrse subtra- r ■ ^j ^ v , J , . , Love require, that none of here de his quae apud nos ge- ,^ 7.7 „ . ^ .^ 1 • • .1- these things that are transact- runtur, ut sit nobis circa utih- 77777 tatem ecclesiasticse administra- ^^ ^^^' ^^'^^^^ ^' ^'P^ ^^^^ tionis commune consilium. Ep. 2/ow^ Knowledge, but that we 29. p. QQ. should have your Counsel about Ecclesiastical Adminis- trations. In these, and in many other such like Cases, which would be needless to enumerate, there was a Cor- respondence between the particular Churches of the Uni- versal one. §. 3. But that that chiefly deserves our Consideration, was their Intercourse and Government by Synodical As- semblies, that is, by a Convocation of Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, and Deputed Lay-men of several particular Churches, who frequently met together to maintain Unity, Love and Concord, to advise about their common Circum- stances and Conditions, to regulate all Ecclesiastical or Church-Affairs within their respective Limits, and to OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 251 manage other such like things,, of which I shall more largely treat in the end of this Chapter. That which must be spoken of in this Section is, the several kinds or sorts of Synods, the most august and supreme kind whereof, was an Universal or Oecumenical Synod, which was a Congregation of the Bishops and Deputies of as many Churches as would please to come from all Parts of the World : Of this sort I find but one within my limited space of the first three Hundred Years after Christ, and that was the ^ Council of Antioch, ih?it ^ . . . p. . p. 279. condemned Paulus Samosa- tenus. Or if this will not pass for a General Council, there was no such one before that of Nice, which was held Anno 325. and so there was no one of this kind within that time to which I am confined. But those Synods, which were very frequent within my prescribed time, were Provincial Synods, that is, as many particular Churches as could conveniently and orderly asso- ciate themselves together, and by their common Consent and Authority dispose and regulate all things that related to their Polity, Unity, Peace, and Order. What extent of Ground, or how many particular Churches each of such Synods did contain, cannot be determined ; their Pre- cincts were not alike in all places, •'but according as their Circumstances and Conveniencies would permit ; so they ^ Our Enquirer concludes, that the extent or first division of Ecclesiastical provinces depended wholly upon the mere con- veniences or accidental circumstances of the Churches them- selves. Approved antiquaries assign a more regular original. ^ Du Pins opinion is, that after the Apostles' decease, the Chris- ^ Du Pin speaking of the civil tian Church did of course (as distribution of the Roman Em- from the reason of the thing) pire, Simile aliquid (inquit) in apply themselves to the Bishop rebus Ecclesiasticis fecere Chris- 2 L 2 252 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. formed themselves into these Synodical Assemblies, and were governed in common by those Synods, who were tiani, et sive cum ordinandus aut deponendus erat Episcopus, sive cum aliqua divisio erat in Ecclesia, &c. cum jam non amplius superessent Apostoli, per quos haec antea compone- bantur, urbis metropoleos Epi- scopum adire par fuit, idque paulatim per consuetudinem in- valuit, ac tota Ecclesiarura dis- tributio ad formam imperii facta est, urbesque metropoles, me- tropoles quoque fuerunt Eccle- sise, et illarura Episcopus super universam provinciara potesta- tem habuit — turn ad ordinandos, &c. cum ad componenda Eccle- siarura dissidia, turn ad convo- candas synodos. Du Pin. Dis- sert. Ecclesiast, prima deAniiq. Eccl. Discipl. §.7. ^ See Hammond of Schism, p. 42— 54.in8vo.Ed.Lon. 1654. of the metropolis, or chief city in that province of the empire, wherein they first were founded, in case any Bishop were to he ordained or deposed, or any con- troversy arose amongst them ; who called together the Bishops of the same (civil) province, and jointly managed all those Eccle- siastical affairs, which the Apo- stles themselves had done in their life-time ; by which means, the distribution of Churches, though not by canon, yet by general custom, was quickly modelled after the form of the empire itself. The learned Dr. ^ Ham- mond goes farther, and clearly shews, that the Apostles them- selves invested those Bishops of the chief cities with a right of regulating the common dis- cipline of all the Churches with- in the peculiar provinces ad- joining to their Sees. The sixth Canon of the first Nicene Council expressly calls such a peculiar pre-eminence of many chief Churches, in several provinces of the empire, by the name of [Af ;^ara ^ To. ocgyouoi, E^v) x^arsLTcu, roc Iv A/yuTTTw Kocl AiQvYi xoti UevrscTToXsi' ua'Jrs^ Tov av ' AXe^ixvo^Eiac eiria-KO- TTov TravTctiv rovTcov s^stv i^ovaixv, iicsi^Yi XiXi rS iv T^ 'PwfjLip sTrtVxoTrw rovro a-vvy)^es ia-riv' oij.oiq)s Se xat Kxra rw ' Avrto^nxv ko.) Iv roas s^u] 7 or customs of an ancient standing in the Church; and then canonically decrees them to continue so still. The Bishops then, it seems, of the more emi- nent cities both convened Coun- cils, and presided in them, long OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 253 called the Synods of such or such a Province . As we aXKotis lija.qyjixii to. 'ir^ta-^sitx au- ^£ca* , a -r,- i ^ V * , « ~ ^ ~ there were present ^ Bishops, dtcttcoiot xan ai £KxXi/]a-txt rov &eov. * Ex Epist. Synod, apud Euseb. P'^^'^ters, Deacons, and the 1.1 c 30 p. 279 CAwrcAe5o/Goc?, that is, Lay- men that represented the all questions there, what would our learned Author gather more from ^ Eusebius's account of the * Euseb. Hist.Eccl. 1. 7. c. 30. Council at Antioch, which con- demned Paulus Samosatenus, supposing the historian had plainly said, that all those orders of men were present both at the time of the debate, and at the pass- ing of the sentence ? Why should we think their proceedings were different from what appears to have been the practice of Synods in those times ? The reason of the thing itself must in- chne us to believe they were not, and no argument is adduced to make us think otherwise. Besides, the quotation from Eusehius, wherein the Churches are named in general terms, (as well as Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons), is no part of any sy nodical act, or so much as of a debate in that Council. It is barely a part of the synodical Epistle, which those venerable Prelates (who in the sense of antiquity were the pro- 9 Ecclesia in Episcopo. Cypr. per 9 representatives of the Ep. QQ. ^penult. Churches in which they pre- sided) sent the formal saluta- tions of their respective Churches to the sister Churches in all other parts, together with their own. By which, the historian himself so little understood them (or any lay-representatives of theirs) to be proper members of that Council, that when he speaks expressly of the first meeting of it, he tells us, it was a Convention of Bishops, who assembled at Antioch, to suppress that open enemy of the Church ; nor does he make mention of any other order of men, as belonging to that Coun- ' 'O xar' ' AAelav^f £/ay A . , . and Iniustice : that in Less- ^ rer singulos annos conveni- -^ ' amus-ut lapsis fratribus per ^^ ^''^' ' Offenders were poenitentiam medela qua^ratur. usually absolved by the Synod, Firmil. apud Cypr. Epist. 75. which met every Year. Sy- §. 3. p. 236. nods also were assembled for the examining, con- demning, and excommunicating of all Hereticks within their Limits, that so the Faithful might avoid and shun them: As Paulus Samosatenus was condemned by the ^ Council o/Antioch, for re- 8 Euseb. Hb. 7. c. 30. p. 279. solving of all difficult Points that did not wound the Essentials of Religion, or had relation unto the Discipline OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 267 of the Church, as when there was some Scruple about the Time of baptizing of Child- ren, a 9 Synod of Sixty Six "" ^P^^ Cyprian. Epist. 59. p. Bishops met together to decide it. And so when there were some Disputes concerning the Martyrs Power to re- , t 4- a- •^ ^ In unum convenientes — dis- Store the Lapsed, i Synods ^^^^^^ ^^^-^ possimus. Apud were to be assembled to decide Cvpr. Epist. 14. §. 2. p. 41. them. But why do I go about to reckon up Particulars, when as they are endless ; let this suffice in genera], that Synods were convened for the Regu- lation and Management of all Ecclesiastical Affairs within their respective Jurisdictions, as Firmilian writes, that in his Country « the Bishops and „ ^^ . , „ T^ I _, , . y ^ Ut per sin™os annos seni- - r jj j rvi. .^ s r,., ^^^^ Bishop called Therapius, am plenam egisset, temere The- /• 7 7 • ^7 ^ /. ° . . . tor breakmq the Lanons of a rapius, pacem dederit, quae res ^ 7-77. ■ .. . /Synod, in absomnq a certain nos satis movet, recessum esse ^ ' if h decreti nostri auctoritate. P^^'^ier called Victor, be- Apud Cyp.Epist. 59. §. l.p. fore the time appointed by that 164. Synod was eocpired. Proba- bly the Breaker of those Canons was to have been Deposed or Suspended, or some other severe Punishment inflicted on him, since the Bishops of this Synod speak as if they had moderated the Eigour of the Canons against Therajnus, in that they ^ Satisfuit objurgare Therapi- ^ '^^re contented only with um — quod teraere hoc fecerit, chiding him for his rashness, et instruxisse ne quid tale de and with strictly charging csetero faciat. Ibidem. him, that he should do so no ' Censuerunt ne quis frater more. excedens, ad tutelam vel curam Clericura nominaret, ac si quis ^^^ another Synod in hoc fecisset, non offerretur pro ^/nc« decreed, that ' if any 60, nee Sacrificium pro dormiti- one should name a Clergy-man one ejus celebraretur, Apud in his last Will and Testament Cypr. Epist. QQ. §. 2. p. 195. for his Trustee, no Sacrifice OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 271 should be ofm^ed for him after his Death. ( What the meaning of this Offering of Sacrifice after his Death is, I shall not shew here, since I must treat of it in another place.) Accordingly when Geminius Victor Bishop of Fur- nis had by his last Will and Testament constituted Gemi- nius Faustinus a Presbyter, his Trustee, Cyprian Bishop of Carthage^ writ unto the Clergy and Laity of Furnis touch- ing this matter, wherein he informs them, ^ That he and his Colleagues were very much offended that Geminius Vic- tor had thus broke the Canons of the Synod; but that since he had done it, he hoped they would take care that he should suffer the Penalty annexed to the Breach thereof, that in conformity thereunto they would not mention him in their Prayers, or make any Oblation for him, that so the Decree of the Bishops, which was religiously and necessarily made, might be observed by them. To these two Instances we may add that of Martialis and Basilides, two Spanish Bishops, who for their falling into Idolatry in times of Persecution, were deprived of their Ecclesiastical Functions, and adjudged never more to be admitted to the Churches Communion in any other Qua- lity than that of Laymen, which rigorous Sentence 3 Maxirae cum jampridem de- an African Synod defends, cretum est ejusmodi homines ad 3 from the Authority of a poenitentiam quidem agendam General Council, who had posse admitti, ab ordinatione ® Graviter coram oti sum us ego et collegse mei — et ideo Victor, cum contra formam nuper in concilio k Sacerdotibus datum, Geminium Faustiniura Presby- terum ausus sit tutorem consti- tuere, non est quod pro dormi- tione ejus apud vos fiat oblatio, . aut deprecatio aliqua nomine ejus in Ecclesiae frequentetur, ut Sacerdotum decretum religi- ose et necessarie factum serve- tur h nobis. Ibidem, §. 1, 2. p. 195. 272 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. autem cleri atqiie sacerdotal! hefore decreed, that such Men honore prohiberi. Apud Ct/pr. should only be admitted to Epist. 68. §. 8. p. 202. Repentance, but be for ever excluded from all Clerical and Sacerdotal Dignities. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 273 CHAPTER IX. §. 1. Of the Unity of the Churchy of Schism, defined to be a Breach of that Unity. The Unity of the Church, and con- sequently the Breach of it to be differently understood, ac- cording to the various Significations of the Word Church. §.2. The Unity of the Church Universal considered Nega- tively and Positively ; Negatively, it consisted not in an Uniformity of Rites, nor in an Unanimity of Consent to the non-essential Points of Christianity. The Rigid Imposers thereof condemned as Cruel and Tyrannical. §. 3. Posi- tively, it consisted in an harmonious Assent to the Essential Articles of Faith. The Non-agreement therein called Schism, but not the Schism of the Ancients. §.4. How the Unity of a Church Collective was broken ; this neither the Schism of the Ancients. §.5. The Unity of a particular Church consisted in two things, in the Members Love and Amity each towards other, and in the Peoples close adherence to their Bishop, or Parish Church : The Breach of the former sometimes called Schism. §.6. The Breach of the latter, which was a causeless Separation from their Bishop, the Schism of the Ancients. In how many Cases it was lawful for the People to separate from their Bishop, §.7.-4 Separation under any other Pretence whatsoever, was that which the Fathers generally and principally meant by Schism, proved so to have been. §. 8. Farther proved from Igna- tius. §.9. Exemplified in the Schism o/ Felicissimus and Novatian. §. 10. An Objection answered touching the Schism of Novatian. How the Schism of one particular Church affected other Churches. §. 11. A Summary and Conclusion of this Discourse concerning Schism. §. ]. HAVING in the precedent Chapters discoursed of the Constitution and Discipline of the Primitive Church, 2 o 274 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. I come now in this to treat of the Unity thereof, which I had a very great Inchnation to search into, since by the due understanding thereof we shall the better apprehend the Notion of the Ancients concerning Schism, because that * Schism is nothing else but a Breach of that Unity, as will most evidently appear from the Quotations that we shall be forced to make use of in this Chapter. Now that we may know what the Breach of the Unity of the Church was, it is absolutely necessary first to know what the Unity its self was; for till we understand its Unity, it is impossible that we should understand the Breach thereof. • Our Enquirer proceeds next to consider the unity of the Church, in order to clear up the sense of antiquity on the impor- tant point of schism, which is here rightly defined, n breach of that unity. This Enquiry might be short ; but, as the case is stated for us, we have three or four sorts of unities to inquire into, instead of one. Church unity (says he) is to he differently understood accord-- ing to the different acceptations of the word Church ; that is, (as he explains himself) there is one * Enq. ch. 9. §. 2. sort of unity peculiar to the * Catholic or universal Church ; * Ibid. another to a Church ^ collective ; a third (we may say) to a ^pro- ' Ibid. vincial Church; and a fourth kind of unity belonging to a ^ Ibid. § 5. * particular diocesan or parochial Church. These notions of Church unity are not primitive, but his own. Unify and schism, whenever the ancients had occasion to speak of them, are represented in uniform terms, and every where alike. A parochial, a diocesan, a provincial, a total or a partial schismatic, is language very foreign from any we meet with in the Fathers of the primitive Church ; and consequently such kinds of unity are so too. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 275 Now for the distinct apprehending hereof, we must re- member the various Acceptations of the Word Church, as they are related in the beginning of this Treatise, and ac- cording to the different Significations thereof, so must its Unity be diversified, or be differently understood; and according to the different manner of its Unity, so must we apprehend the Breach thereof. §.2. If in the first place we reflect upon the Word Church, as signifying the Church Universal, or all those, who throughout the whole Earth profess Faith in Christ, then we may consider its Unity in this Sense either Negatively, wherein it did . not consist ; or Positively, wherein it did consist. * Negatively, It consisted not in an Uniformity of Rites and Customs ; for every particular Church was at liberty ' Negatively considered, (says our Enquirer,) the unity of the Church universal did not consist in an uniformity of rites or cus- toms. This proposition is so far true, that the Catholic Church did not enjoin particular rites and customs to all particular Churches; nor, on the other hand, did particular Churches impose their own rites and customs upon one another. I see no reason, therefore, why the unity of the Catholic Church, and that of particular Churches, should be distinguished upon this negative account. No doubt, each particular Church might lawfully im- pose indifferent rites and customs upon its own members ; and if it could lawfully impose them, then it might lawfully censure such as would not comply with them ; for contumacy or opposition to the lawful orders of their own Church, was a just cause of censure, as St. Cyprian writes, and the 5 Enquirer himself admits. Now 5 See Enq. ch, 7. §. 4. to such as were justly censured by their own Church, the laws of the Catholic Church denied communion in any part of her ; so that a contentious member of any particular Church might find himself wholly cast out of the Catholic Church, though it were for mere nonconformity to in- different rites and customs in his own. This indefinite negative, 2 o 2 276 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. to follow its own proper Usages : One Churcli was not obliged to observe the Kites of another, but every one followed its own peculiar Customs. Thus with respect to their Fast before Easter , there was a great Diversity in the Observation of it, ^ in some Churches they fasted one Day^ in others two, in some more, and in others forty Hours, but yet still they retained Peace and Concord, the diversity of their Customs commending the Unity of their Faith. So also the Feast of Easter its self was variously celebrated. The Asiatick Churches kept it on a distinct Day from the Europeans, but yet still they retained 5 Peace and Love, and for the diversity of such Customs, none wei^e ever cast out of the Communion of the Church. So likewise writes Firmilian, ^ That in most Pro- vinces their Rites were varied 'O/ (Jilt ya§ oiovTiXt fxixv inyi.i^oiv CUV uvTotis VKarsvstv, ot ^e ^vo^ o< Je Kou itXimots, hi §£ ria-aoc^ccKovroc w§ais "^fAS^ivas re ycac) WKTs^nas avfM- fA.£7§ovcri T*jy fifAt^xv avrcov rrrdyTES ovToi si^nva-av vi ^locCpunot rios vvia- rtKxs Try ofjiovoiacv ms mia-riws av/ia-rma-i. Iren. apud Euseb. hb. 5. cap. 24. p. 193. 5 'Ei^rinvov Kixi ov^EiroTs ^Ix to eI- oos rovro airs^hri^ria-av riv-s. Idem Ibidem. * In plurimis provinciis multa pro locorum et nominum diver- sitate variantur, nee tamen propter hoc ab Ecclesise Ca- tholicsc pace atque unitate aliquando discessum est. Apud according to the Diversities of Cypr. Epist. 75. §. 5. p. 237. Names and Places, and that for this no one ever departed from the Peace and Unity of the Catholick Church. So that the Unity of the Church Universal consisted not in an Uniformity of Rites and Usages. " Neither in the next Place did it consist in an Unanimity therefore, does not, I think, hold good, that the unity of the Catholic Church in no wise consisted in an uniformity of rites and customs, since it was liable to be lost for want of it. See Appendix, No. 16. ^ Waving the undefined term of non-essentials, I may justly re- OF THE PllIMITIVE CHURCH. 277 of Consent to the Non-essential Points of Christianity, but every one was left to believe in those lesser matters, as God should inform him. ^ Therefore Justin Martyr speak- ing of those Jewish Converts, who had adhered to the Mosaical Rites, says, that if they did this only through their Weakness and Imbecillity, and did not perswade other Christians to the obser- vance of the same Judaical ' nfo^Xa/xi3^vs<7^«; x«i xo;v.;«r, Customs, that ' A. i^ow/J r.- '^^-^-/^ hi^a.x^y^.o.. jc.\ ^j ' ^ ryi J p jj a,di\q>ois dtiv. Dialog, cum Try- ceive them z?ito Lhurch-jellow- , ship and Communion, mark here, as before, that though the Catholic Church enjoined them not, yet where any of them were decided one way or the other, and enjoined to be received by authority either of a parti- cular or provincial Church; if any member of such Church or Churches should break communion, and be censured on that account, the Catholic Church would no more receive such a per- son, than she would the former. I will put the case in the very instance which the Enquirer^ gives us of non-essential points. ^ Enq. ch. 9. §. 2. St. Cyprian, and the African Bishops of his province, decreed that heretical baptism should not be valid amongst them. This decree was binding on the whole province ; (as the '' Enquirer himself admits;) and if binding, "i Enq. ch, 8. §. 9. then such as would act contrary to it, were justly Hable to censure. Now, I ask, would the Catholic Church receive into communion any such member, which either St. Cyprian, or any Bishop in his province, should have censured for not observing that decree of theirs, though the point itself is here acknowledged to be non-essential ? By the laws of the Catholic Church, we know they could not. So that in this particular also, the general negative does not seem to hold. ^ Justin Martyr (says the Enquirer) would receive the Jewish converts who adhered to the Mosaical rites into Church fellowship |lfHI?ERSITir}| \^ ©y 278 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. * Whosoever imposed on particular Churches, the observ- ance of the former of these two things, or in particular and communion with him, if they did it only through weakness, and did not persuade others to it ; therefore every one was left to believe in those lesser (non-essential) matters, as God should inform them. Now if every one were so left to God and himself, then why not the Gentile converts as well as the Jews in this particular instance ? And yet St. Paul tells them, (Gal. v. 2) that if they should he circumcised, Christ would profit them nothing. Nor did Justin himself allow them that liberty. The observance of the Mosaical rites, therefore, was either not considered a non-essential point, or else the Church did not allow every one to believe in those matters as he thought fit ; and consequently this instance, so far from proving the proposition before us, rather proves the contrary. Besides, most men are sensible, I believe, that Justin Martyr, in the early ^ age, and 9 peculiar * 'Attoo-toAwv Ma^uT^y. Ep. ad country in which he lived, was Diognet. prope finem. not swayed by his own private judgment in that extraordinary 9 'Atto ^Xa.ov'ixs nxs itoKtus rvis case, but had a fair plea of the ^v^ias Tojy UocKoiKTrms. Apol. opinion and practice of the secunda ad init. highest authority in the Church for what he did. And this I take to be the only true warrant for determining any difficult point to be non-essential : for if every one might determine it for himself, it is hard to conceive how the Church of God should secure the fundamentals themselves committed to her trust. * This inference seems well calculated for the Enquirer's own singular notion of a primitive particular Church; and not so much to inform us, (what the instance here adduced serves to shew,) viz. that a Church in the West could not impose customs on a Church in the East (which no one, I believe, would dispute) as that no Bishop of any Church whatever, from East to West, could impose their rites and customs on more congregations than one, because, in our Author's opinion, every congregation was a par- ticular Church, and always should be so. Since this ingenious in- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 279 Persons the belief of the latter, they were esteemed not as Preservers and Maintainers, but as Violators and Breakers of the Churches Unity and Concord. An Instance of the former we have in that Controversie between the Churches of the East and West, touching the time when Easter was to be celebrated. For when Victor Bishop of Rome had Excommunicated the Eastern Churches, because they continued to observe that Feast on a different time from the Churches of the West, not only the Bishops of the adverse Party, but even those of his own side con- demned him as rash, heady, and turbulent, and writ seve- ral Letters about this Affair, wherein as the Historian ^ uxmnxurE^ov v.a,^dirro{/.iva}v. writes, « theij most sharply Euseb. lib. 5. c. 24. p. 193. censured him. r As for the Latter, we have an instance thereof in the Controversie that was between Stephen Bishop of Rome, nuendo supposes, that he has clearly proved the primitive dioceses to have been no more than mere congregational Churches ; or that, if they had consisted of more, they could not have been truly Catholic or Apostohcal Churches, (which he has not so much as attempted to prove,) I shall leave the reader to form his own judgment of the arguments which our Author has advanced in support of his opinion, and to censure (if it seem fit) all the cele- brated Bishops of the three first centuries, and ages immediately following; who, no doubt, will be admitted to have presided over Churches of more congregations than one, and conse- quently to have enjoined the same rites and customs to be observed in all. T Our Enquirer's inference from his latter negative definition of Catholic unity is certainly extraordinary. Whosoever (says he) should impose the belief of non-essential points upon particular per- sons, were in like manner esteemed as violators of the Church's unity and concord. For thus Stephen, Bishop of Rome, was condemned by other Bishops, for anathematizing Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, because he held the baptism of heretics to be 280 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. and Cyprian Bishop of Carthage, touching the Validity of Hereticks Baptism : For when Stpphen Anathematized Cyprian, because he held the Baptism of Hereticks to be null and void, other Bishops condemned Stephen as a Breaker and Disturber of the Churches Peace. And amongst others, Firmilian a Cappadocian Bishop, vehemently accuses him as such, because that he would impose upon others the Belief of such a disputable Point, which, says null and void. In this inference, it may be observed, the words whosoever and particular persons are at first named indefinitely, and in general terms ; but in the instance given for the proof of it, they are explained by the Bishop of one Church imposing his non-essentials on the Bishop of another. Now, if the instance explains the full meaning of the Author, (as it ought to do), then the inference is just, and the imposer deserves all the hard words of cruelty, tyranny, and the like, which the Enquirer fixes upon him; because the one Bishop had no manner of jurisdiction over the other, and because the Bishop of a Church is not looked upon in a private capacity as other particular persons are, especially when a foreign Bishop attempts to impose upon him a point of doctrine, which is otherwise determined in his own Church. In such a case St. Cyprians maxim is peculiarly applicable, the Church is in the Bishop, and the Bishop in the Church : at least it was notoriously so, in the case between Stephen and St. Cyprian; for Stephens controversy was * Stephanus non tantum sen- not with ^ the person of St. tentiam suam adversus Cypria- Cyprian only (as it is here made num et Synodum Africanam to be) but with his whole diocese, etiam iteratam protulit, sed et (nay his province) insomuch that ipsum et Episcopos contraria he proceeded to censure all alike, sentientes, abstinendos esse for not receiving that non-essen- putavit, ut tum Cyprianus turn tial point in dispute between them, Augustinus disertis verbis tes- as he and his Bishops had de- tantur. Annal. Cypr. ad a.d. creed at Rome. This was ty- 256. §. 3. ranny with a witness, and if the Enquirer had meant no other- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 281 he, was never wonted to be 9 Multa pro locorum et nomi- done, but 9 every Church fol- num diversitate variantur, nee lowed their own different taraen propter hoc ab Ecclesise ways, and never therefore Catholicse pace atque unitate broke the Unity and Peace of aliquando discessum est. Quod the Catholick Church, which nunc Stephanus ausus est facere, now, saitb he, Stephen rumpens adversum vos pacem, dares to do, and breaks that ^'^^"^ '^°^P^" antecessores ejus Peace which the ancient Bi^ vobiscum amore et honore mu- 7 1 7 . tuo custodierunt. sfiops always preserved in mutual Love and Honour. And therefore we find in the Acts of that great Council of Carthage convened to determine this matter, that when Cyprian summed up the wise than this, (and his quotations and instance prove no more,) it had been but fair to specify his whosoever, and his particular per- sons, with some note of restriction upon them ; but he has left the terms at large, that the inference might still remain an universal proportion, though the proof of it was in a particular and singular case only. He would have us think, that the Bishop's freedom in non-essentials was liable to no sort of check or control, either from abroad or at home ; insomuch that if a Synod of Bishops in any province of the Christian Church should pass any canon re- lating to a non-essential point, though for the better security of some fundamental doctrine, (as both the African and European Bishops plainly did in that case of which we have been speaking,) and should require the subjects in their respective jurisdictions to consent to it ; (as those Bishops on one side and the other cer- tainly did ;) they must be censured as schismatical violators of the concord of the Church, according to the inference drawn by the learned Author from his negative definition of unity in the Church universal. And yet we are fully assured, that the universal Church peaceably allowed all those celebrated Churches to use that liberty within themselves, and none but the Bishop of Rome (against whom all Christian Churches besides exclaimed for his intolerance) ever thought the sacred unity of the Church was violated by it. 2 P 283 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Debates thereof, he dehorts his Fellow-Bishops from the imposing Humour and Tem- , c? i. 4. J 1- • per of Stephen, ^ It now re- ^ Superest ut de hac ipsa re ^ . , singuHquidsentiamus,profera. ^^«^'^^^ «^^*^ ^^^ ^^«^ ^^^^2/ mus, nerainera judicantes, aut ^we of us declare our Judg- k jure communionis aliquem, si ?^^^^5 concerning this matter, diversum senserit amoventes. judging no Man, or removing Neque enim quisquam nostrum any one from our Communion, Episcopura se esse Episcoporum if he think otherwise than we constituit, aut tyrannico terrore do ; for let none of us make ad obsequendi necessitatem col- himself a Bishop of Bishops, legas suos adigit. ConciL Car- ^^ j^ ^ Tyrannical Terror, thag, apud Cypr. p. 443. ^^^^^^ ^-^ Colleagues to the necessity of Obeying, So that the forcing a Belief in these lesser matters was Cruelty and Tyranny in the Imposers thereof, who for such unreasonable Practices were looked upon as Enemies to, and Violators of the Churches Concord, being the true Schismaticks, inasmuch as they were the Cause of Schism and Division ; unto whom therefore may be applyed that 2 It is too evident, with what partiality to his own opinion, the Enquirer applies Irenaus's censure of all inexcusable schismatics in his time to the single persons of imposers only, as he is pleased to call them ; i. e. to all Ecclesiastical authority whatsoever, which should determine anything in those difficult points which no umy wound the essentials of religion, let their considerations of unity, peace, or order in it, be what they may. But I shall leave Ire- nous's own words with the reader, that he may judge how biassed the Author's mind must be, to apply such general language to any special sense which he has first prepared for it, and for which the holy Father himself gives no manner of occasion. The ^spiritual man (says he) will Judge, or discern those who make ^ Discipulus vere spiritualis re- schisms, who are inhuman, not cipiens Spiritum Dei — judicabit having the love of God, but pre- eos qui schismata operantur, qui OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 283 Saying of Irenaus, - That at , j^^^^^^ ,^3 q^i Schismata the last Day Christ shall operantur, qui sunt immanes, judge those who cause ^^^ habentes Dei dilectionera, Schisms, who are inhumane, f erring their own advantage be- sunt immanes, &c. Iren. 1. 4, fore the unity of the Church, <^^P' 53 & 62. 8^c. Here is indeed a fearful character of schismatics, as every one must see ; but the Enquirer thinks he sees more : he discerns a special kind of schismatics, to whom he frankly applies it all ; and those are imposers of non-essentials, be their authority what it may, or the articles they decree never so innocent or useful in their kind. In such cases, all inferiour members of a Church, ac- cording to his construction of the passage, may be left at liberty to disturb the peace, and rend the unity of the Church for mere non-essential points, and all the while be innocent and blameless; for the whole guilt is removed from them, and placed where it cannot touch them. But what is there in Irenseus's words which looks that way ? They make no distinction of persons from one end to the other ; nor exempt any from the common guilt of the same unnatural schism, where the cause of controversy and divi- sion is the same, i. e. for shght or non-essential matters : and we can hardly think that Irenaus himself, who held the highest station in the Church, should mean to clear all other members of it, besides himself or such as he was, and have them free to rend the great and glorious body of Christ, for such trivial matters as he was speaking of. Had his first words been fairly translated, there could have been no umbrage for such a construction. The schismatics whom he censures, are, in his own express terms, such as ^ actually make or form a schism, upon some unimpor- ^ Qui schismata operantur. tant occasion or other, and not such as should more remotely cause, or occasion, such a schism to be made, as the Enquirer has rendered the words ; and, by that slight term alone, has made them plausibly countenance his own peculiar application, 2 p2 284 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. suamque utilitatem potius con- not having the fear of God, siderantes, quam unitatem Ec- hut prefering their own ad- clesise, propter modicas et quas- vantage before the Unity of libet causas raagnum et glorio- //^g Church, for trivial and sum corpus Christi conscindunt slight Causes rent and divide et dividunt, et quantum in ipsis ^J^Q g^^^^i ^^^ glorious Body est, interficiunt, pacem loquen- ^y Qhrist, and as much as in tes et bellum operantes, ver^ ^^^^ ^.^^^ ^^^^^^^ .^. ^,;^^ liquantes culicem et camelum k p,^,^, but ivage War, transfflutientes. Lib. 4. cap. "* , . . , ^ ^ j ^.^ ^Q~ truly straining at a G?iat, ana Ol^« P« Jljjim swallowing a Camel. §. 3. ^ But Positively, The Unity of the Church Uni- I must take leave to differ in one particular more from the learned Enquirer, in translating the first sentence of the quotation now before us. He renders it thus, that at the last day Christ shall judge those who cause the schisms, there spoken of. Ireneeus's sense I conceive to be this; that the spiritual man will Judge (or discern) those who actually make such schisms, &c. The holy Father, for nine or ten short chapters together, is speaking, in one continued discourse, of this particular judge, who should try and discern all sorts of adversaries to the truth. In the fifty-third chapter, where he begins the subject, he expresses by name the spiritual disciple, who should so discern and judge all, and himself be judged of no man, (according to 1 Cor. ii. 15.) In the sixty- second chapter, where, in the words of the quotation before us, he speaks of judging schismatics among the rest, he closes the whole discourse with repeating that clause, but he himself will be judged or discerned by no man; which makes it plain, that the spiritual man was the judge spoken of, from one end to the other, and therefore I have translated it so accordingly. Some little attention seems to have been wanting here, both as to the context and apphcation of Irenceus's words ; but take them in what sense we please, they are an evident instance of the awful sense which the first and best of Christians had of the sin of schism. * The unity of the Church universal (says the Enquirer) posi- tively consisted in an harmonious assent to the essential articles of OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 285 versal consisted in an Harmonious Assent to the Essential Articles of lleligion, or in an Unanimous Agreement in the Fundamentals of Faith and Doctrine. Thus Irencms having recited a Creed, or a short Summary of the religion, or in an unanimous agreement in the fundamentals of faith and doctrine. This is true, but whether the whole truth, is not so clear. The unity of the Catholic Church was liable to be broken in two ways, by heresy and by schism. * The Enquirer tells us * Enq. ch. 9. §. 3. Diabolus from St. Cyprian, that the Devil hsereses invenit et schismata, found out heresies and schisms quibus scinderet unitatem. Cgp. to divide the unity. Now, in de Unit. Eccl. §. 2. opposition to heresies, the unity, no doubt, consisted in an unanimous agreement in fundamentals of faith and doctrine. And this Irenceus particularly meant in the passage here adduced, and as indeed the subject of his whole book, directly written against heretics, clearly implies. But does our learned Author's definition tell us wherein the unity of the universal Church consisted, in opposition to schism also ? If the unity of the Episcopacy be admitted for one of his fundamefitals, I need not raise any farther question about it ; but if he exclude that (as his manner of explaining it, and his different use of it afterwards, give us great reason to suppose he does) I must take leave to say, his positive definition is imperfect, and appeal to the primitive Fathers themselves, whether the unity of the Episcopacy was not absolutely essential to the unity of the Catholic Church. St. Cyprian, exemplifying the unity of the Church in those words of St. Paul, (^ one body and one spirit, one hope of your ^ Unum corpus, et unus spiritus, calling, one Lord, one faith, one una spes vocationis vestrae, unus baptism, one God ;) adds as Dominus, una fides, unum bap- parallel to the rost ; Let no man tisma, unus Deus. — Nemo fra- deceive the brethren with a lie, ternitatem mendacio fallat, ne- let no man conmpt the truth of mo fidei veritatem perfidd prse- our faith with any treacherous varicatione corrumpat : Epis- 286 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. * Hanc igitur prsedicationem et hanc fidem adepta Ecclesia, quamvis dispersa in uni verso mundo diligenter conservat, ac- si in una eademque domo habi- taret : Ac similiter iis fidem habet, acsi unam animam unum- que et idem cor haberet : atque uno consensu haec praedicat, docet ac tradit, acsi uno ore prsedita esset. Quamvis enim dissimilia sint in mundo genera linguarum, una tamen eademque est vis traditionis ; nee quae constitutse sunt in Germania Ecclesiae aliter credunt aut tra- dunt, nee quae in Hispaniis, neque in Galliis, neque in Ori- ente, neque in ^gypto, neque in Lybia, aut in medio orbis terrarum fundatse sunt. Sed queraadmodum Sol creatura Dei unus et idem est in universo mundo, ita et prsedicatio veri- tatis ubique lucet, et illuminat omnes homines qui ad notionem veritatis venire volunt. Lib. 1. cap, 3. p. 36. Christian Faith, not much unlike to the Apostles Creed, immediately adds, ^ y^g Church having i^eceived this Faith and Doctrine j although dispersed through the whole World, diligently preserves it, as tho' she inhabited but one House, and accordingly she believes these things, as tho' she had but one Soul and one Heart, and consonantly preaches and teaches these things, as tho' she had but one Mouth; for altho' there are various Languages in the World, yet the Doctrine is one and the same ; so that the Churches m Germany,rrance, Asia, ^gypt or Lybia, have not a different Faith ; but as the Sun is one and the same to all the Creatures of God in the whole World: So the Preaching of the Word is a Light that enlightens every whe?'e. and illuminates all copatus est unus. Cujus k sin- prevarication ; the Episcopacy is gulis in solidum pars tenetur. one. He makes it a treacherous Cyp. de Unit, Eccl. §. 4. p. 108- corruption of the truth of the Edit. Oxon. faith to deny that. And that it was the Episcopacy of the universal Church which he so affirmed to be but one, is evident by what he immediately says of it, that each Bishop held no more than a part of it, though he were interested for the whole. OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 287 Men that would come to the Knowledge of the Truth. Now this Bond of Unity was broken, when there was a Recession from, or a Corruption of the true Faith and Doctrine, as Irenceus speaks concerning Tatian the Father of the Encratites, that as long as his Master Justin Martyr lived, he held the sound Faith, but after his Death, ^ fallinq off from the Church. . , x v , , * i he shaped that new Form of ^^^^j, ,.^ ^ ^^p 29. p. 150. Doctrine. This Unity of the Church in Doctrine, according to Heffesippus, continued till the Days of Simeon Cleopas Bishop of Jerusalem^ who was Martyred under Trajan ; but after that false Teachers pre- vailed, such as the Simonians, Marcionists, Valentinians, and others, ^^ from whom sprung 5 , , false Christs, false Apostles^ . , x , T , „ and false Prophets, who oil , , v „ . , / •^ jr } >j iy^tqiaa,)t rviv svcoatv rris txKX^aiocs their corrupt Doctrines against ^^,^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ v ^^~ ^^^. ^^; God and his Christ, divided ^^^^ ^,~ x^.^roiy Scvrod. Apud the Unitij of the Church. So Euseb. lib. 4. cap. 22. p. 143. that the Unity of the Church Universal consisted in an agreement of Doctrine, and the Corruption of that Doctrine was a Breach of that Unity, and whoever so broke it, are said to divide and separate the Unity of the Church, or which is all one, to be Schis- maticks. So Irenceus writes, that those that introduced new Doctrines, ^ did divide and separate the Unity of the ^ Scindunt et separant unitatem Church. And Cijprian writes Ecclesi^. Lib. 4. cap. 43. ip. that 7 the Devil found out Heresies and Schisms.bij which , Di^bolus H^reses invenit et he might subvert the Faith, Schismata, quibus subverteret corrupt the Truth, and divide f^^^^^ veritatem corrumperet, the Unity. But now for Dis- scinderet unitatem. De unitate tinctions sake, the Breach of Ecclesicc §. 2. p. 296. this Unity was commonly 288 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. called Heresie, and the Word Scliism generally ap- plied to the Breach of the Churches Unity in another sense, of which more in the other Sections. §. 4. If in the next Place we consider the Word Church collectively, as denoting a Collection of many particular . . , . . T.T • Churches, in which Sense it ^ In provincia Africa et Numi- . n • o ^ • ,. J^ , . T^ • • T7 • * IS once used m ^ typrian. dia Ecclesiara Domini. iLpist. . __ . , 71. §. 4. p. 214. ^ ^^^^ ^*^ T^m.tY may have consisted in a Brotherly correspondence with, and affection towards each other, which they demonstrated by all outward Expressions of Love and Concord, as by receiving to Communion the ^ The unity of a Church collective (says the Enquirer) may have consisted in a brotherly correspondence with, and affection towards each other, which they demonstrated by all outward expressions of love and concord; as by receiving into communion the members of each other, mutually advising and assisting one another by letters or otherwise; and other marks of love and concord. On the other hand, he ^ tells us, the relation ^ See Enq. ch. 8. §. 2. between each particular Church and the universal Church (in general) was this, that as one member of the natural body has a regard to all the other members thereof, so a particular Church had to every member of the Church universal. The Bishops employed a general kind of inspection over all other Churches besides their own, observing their condition, and giving them an account of their own ; and sent to one another for advice and decision in difficult points. In these, and in many other such like cases, there was a correspon- dence between the particular Churches of the Universal. Now where the difference between the unity of a Church collective, and that of the Church universal, lies in this account, I must leave the reader to judge ; for myself, I confess I can discover none. In respect of schism at least, for the sake of which this singular diversity was contrived, the several kinds of unities proposed all centre in that one individual unity, which all antiquity attributed to the Catholic Church of Christ. See Appendix, No. 17. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 289 Members of each other, as 9 Apud Euseb. lib. 5. cap, 24. ^ Irencms mentions, was ob- p. 193. served between the Churches of Rome and Asia, in mutually advising and assisting one another by Letters, or otherwise, of which there are fre- quent Instances in the Ancients, and especially in Cyprian's Epistles, and in manifesting all other Marks and Tokens of their Love and Concord. Now this Unity was broken, when Particular Churches clashed with each other, when from being possessed with Spirits of Meekness, Love and Charity, they were inflamed with Hatred, Rage and Fury against each other. A sad Instance whereof we have in that Controversie betwixt Cyprian and Stephen, or rather between the Churches of Europe and Africa, touching the Vahdity of Heretical Baptism, wherein those good Men were so far transported with Bitterness and Rancour against each other, that they interchangeably gave such harsh Language and invidious Epithets, as are too odious to name, which if the Reader be curious to know, he may find too much of it in Cyprian's Epistles. Or if several particular Churches had for the promotion of Peace, Unity and Order, regularly disposed themselves into a Synodical Government and Discipline, as was always done when their Circumstances and Conveniencies would permit them ; then whoever broke or violated their reason- able Canons, were censured as turbulent and factious, as it hath been evidenced in the former Chapter, and needs no farther Proof in this, because that the Schism of the Ancients was not a Breach of the Churches Unity in this Sense, viz. as denoting or signifying a Church Collective. §.5. But Schism principally and originally respected a particular Church or Parish, tho' it might consequentially influence others too. Now the Unity of a particular Church consisted in the Members Love and Amity toward each other, and in their due Subjection or Subordination 3 Q 290 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. to their Pastor or Bishop : Accordingly the Breach of that Unity consisted in these two things, either in a Hatred and Mahce of each other, or in a RebeUion against their Lawful Pastor, or which is all one, in a causeless Separa- tion from their Bishop, and those that adhered to him. As for the first of these, there might be Envies and Dis- cords between the Inhabitants of a Parish, without a formal Separation from Communion, which Jars and Feuds were called Schism ; an Instance whereof we find in the Church of Corinth, unto whom St. Paul objected in 1 Cor. 11. 18. When ye come together in the Church, I hear that there he Divisions, or as it is in the Original,^o-;^/cr//,aTa, Schisms amongst you. Here there was no separate Communion, for they all came together in the Church, and yet there were Schisms amongst them, that is. Strifes, Quarrels and Dis- cords. And as far as I can perceive from the Epistle of Clemens Romanus, which was writ to appease another Schism in the same Church of Corinth, there were then only Turmoils and Diff'erences, without any actual Separation. But on this I shall not enlarge, because it is not what the Ancients ordinary meant by Schism. §. 6. c But that which they generally and commonly termed Schism, was a Bebellion against, or an ungrounded •= Schism (as our learned Author has defined it) was a causeless separation from their lawful Pastor, This gave him occasion to inquire, what causes could justify such 'd separation, and what not; an inquiry proper on all sides, whether the schism were particular only, or an universal one, since schism was a certain and imme- diate efiect of it. Separation, if it be meant here according to the point in ques- tion, must imply not a bare abstaining from communion with the lawful Pastor, but setting up another also in his stead ; for other- wise a formal schism was not yet made. This distinction I briefly hint to the reader, because, though the question itself necessarily supposes this setting up of altar against altar, as well as forbear- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 291 and causeless Separation from their Lawful Pastor, or their Parish Church. Now because I say, that a causeless Separation from their Bishop was Schism, it will be neces- sary to know how many Causes could justifie the Peoples ing to communicate ; yet in the proofs and precedents offered for it, and in the inference drawn from them "^ at the last, it will ' Enq. eh. 9. §. 7. be found that these things are promiscuously used without this due distinction. It is evident by the w^hole economy and principles of the primitive Church, that causes might be given for not joining in communion with a Pastor, through some fundamental corruption, as for instance, in the very service of his Church; and yet that the same persons, who leave him for it, may not be authorized to deprive that Pastor, or to substitute another in his place. The necessary requisites for de- posing or constituting Bishops in the primitive times (as we have seen ^ before) is sufficient proof of this: and the learned En- quirer, in the close of this very ^ Enq. ch. 3. & 6. supra, head, 9 declares, that it was avouched by all, that Synods 9 Enq. ch. 9. §. 6. did depose all those Bishops that were guilty of criminal or scan- i Enq. ch. 3. §. 4. & 5. dalous enormities. He owned also ' before, that the Bishops of the province were, at least, to be called in, and their consent to be obtained, before any Bishop of the primitive Church could be legally instituted (as he calls it) or settled in his place. From these considerations of confessed matter of fact, it follows, that the people's part in any separation (be the occasion never so justifiable) could amount to no more than a bare abstaining from communion, till a regular authority should depose their criminal Pastor, and provide another for them. If we bear these premises in mind, whilst we examine all which our learned Author advances upon the subject, we shall find it comes to just the same thing, whatever more might be intended by it, 2 Q 2 292 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. Desertion of their Pastor, and' these I think were two, or at most three ; * the first was Apostacy from the Faith, or when a Bishop renounced the Christian Faith, and through fear of Persecution embraced the Heathenish Idolatries, ** The justifiable causes (says the Enquirer) /or such a separation, I think, were two, or at the most three. 1st. Apostacy from the faith. 2ndly. Heresy. And Srdly. A scandalous and wicked life. His instance for apostacy is that of the Spanish Bishops, Basilides and Martialis; whose relapsing to idolatry in time of persecution was notorious. That the people should separate from them, and join in communion with others, was approved by St. Cyprian and his Synod, in that * Epistle to * Cyp. Ep. QS. or 67. Edit, which Cyprian refers. But how Oxon. stood the case, when the Afri- can Council thus advised them ? and how far did the people's part go in that separation ? Did the people, or any of the inferior Clergy of their Churches with them, turn their apostate Bishops out of their places, and, by their own act and deed, substitute others in their room ? Nothing of the kind, if we may believe the Synod itself; according to whose re- presentation of the matter, in the same Epistle, these idolatrous Bishops were synodically deposed ; and others, in the same manner, placed in their Sees, before the people ever applied to St. Cyprian and his Council about communicating or not communicating with them. It was only by the unjust interposition of the Bishop of Rome, in favour of those idolaters after they were deposed, that they still claimed their former right ; and in that case, the African Council advised and warranted the people to separate from their first idolatrous Bishops, and join communion with those who were regularly provided for them [as I have already shewn in the 6th Chapter.] Now a separation, in any case whatsoever, thus managed, is unquestionably lawful. And this is all the Enquirer proves in the first justifiable cause for it, namely, that of notorious idolatry ; for what the instance or example proves, is presumed to be the substance of the argument which he grounds upon it. See Appendix, No. 18. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 293 as was done in the Case of ' Martialis and Basilides two ' Basilidem et Martialem libellis Idololatrise commaculatos Spanish Bishops, and was Episcopatum gerere. et Sacer- justified by an African Sy- d^tium Dei administrare non nod, as is to be seen through- oportere. Epist. Synod, apud out their whole Synodical Cypr. Epist. 68. §. 1. p. 200. Epistle, still extant amongst those of Cyprian's. '^ The ^ Oportet longe fugere ab eis. second Cause was ^eresie, as ^^^' 1- ^^P- 13.^. 63. Irencms saith, '^ We must j^y <. o- u i • 4.- j ' -^ -^ ^ bi habueris accusationem doc- far off from all Hereticks. ^^-^^ ^^^^^^.^^ ^^ alienorum ab And Origen allows the Peo- Ecclesia Dogmatum, Homil. 7. pie to separate from their in Ezechiel. Bishop, 3 if they could accuse him of false and Heretical Doctrine. " What sort of separation our Enquirer approves of, in the case of an heretical Pastor, is not so easily known from his short quotation under that head. All he says of it is, that Ireticeus advises us \.o fly far off from all heretics ; and that Origen allows the people to separate from their Bishop, if they could accuse him of false and heretical doctrine : which, no doubt, all good Chris- tians ought to do. But this is speaking at large. If we would know the practice of the primitive Church in this matter, the case of Paulus Samosatenus is as clear a precedent as antiquity can afford ; and evidently shews, that the separation both of Laity and inferior Clergy, from an heretical Bishop, was managed in the same manner then, as we have seen it was in the case of the idol- atrous Bishops before. The proceedings against Paul are re- corded at large by Eusebius, and in the synodical Letter of the Council convened against him, which that historian has in great part preserved for us. In that E^)istle we read of no new altar or second Bishop set up by Presbyters, Deacons, or people, (though they were fully aware of his blasphemous notions,) till such time as the great Council solemnly deposed him, and promoted Domnus to his See. Nay, we find his orthodox people still present with him at the pubhc service of the Church, (his heretical opinions 294 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. ' A third Cause was a scandalous and wicked Life, as is asserted by an African Synod held Anno 258. whose Ex- not having been yet introduced 3 To7s ovv, us av oticu Qeov mixvo- there), though ^ they svffered tc^sTcus xou evrditrus aKovova-iv iirt- reproaches from him all the rifAuy na,) hv^^i^uv. Euseb. Hist, whilcy for behaving themselves Eccl. hb. 7. c. 30. more decently and gravely than his wretched flatterers did. The separation in this case was managed thus: the Bishops of the several Churches of God about him, being alarmed at his heresy, provided a more faithful Pastor in a regular and authentic manner for his people, who waited for that warrantable course of being duly separated from him; trusting to the providence of God, which every Christian may safely depend upon, according to the faithful promise of our blessed Lord to be with his Church for ever. ^ As to the matter of a scandalous and wicked life, the learned Enquirer himself, and the authors cited by him, are divided about the modes of separation in such a case. According to him, an African Synod affirms, that the people, of their own power and authority, without the concurrent assent of other Churches, might leave and desert a scandalous Bishop ^ and Irenseus (he says) agrees with them in it, though Origen seems to be of another mind. By leaving and deserting their Bishop, of their own authority, and with' out the assent of other Churches, our Enquirer evidently means a full power in them to discharge him of his pastoral care over them, and to provide another Bishop or Pastor for themselves, and that in direct opposition to Origen' s opinion, which was, that the peo- ple ought to wait for a synodical authority to depose their Bishop in any such case. Now we shall soon see (or rather we have seen already) that the African Synod, to which the Enquirer refers, allows no such popular liberty, of placing and displacing Pastors for themselves, in case of a scandalous or immoral life. He had just before cited the same Epistle of the same Synod, in the case of the idolatrous Spanish Bishops ; who being not apostates only, but vicious and OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 295 hortations and Arguments to this purpose may be seen at large in their Synodical Epistle, still extant in Cyprian Epist. 68. p. 200. out of which several Passages pertinent to this Occasion, have been already cited in the Sixth Chapter of this Treatise, to which I must refer the Reader. gOf this mind also was Irencms before them, who writes, immoral men too, the Synod considered them in both respects, in their answer to the Clergy and people of their Churches, who wrote for their advice about them. As this gave occasion to the Synod severally to declare, in many passages of that Epistle, how unworthy either vicious or idolatrous Bishops were to minister at the altar of God ; so it did to the Enquirer also to make a double use and apphcation of it : whereas in respect to the people's sepa- ration from one, and joining in communion with another (which is the case here before us) the Synod's judgment was the same, as well in regard to the immorality as to the idolatry of their Bishops. In both cases it had immediate reference to the condi- tion the people were in, and to the difficulties to which the people were forced, of having rival Bishops, on one side synodically de- prived, and on the other synodically set up. The Synod's deter- mination for them was this ; that since Bishops had been regularly provided for them, and others had been justly deposed, they should separate from those who were guilty of such open idolatry and immoral lives, and join communion with those who could be charged with neither, though the Bishop of Rome, and some other nearer home, discouraged them from so doing. And this was the very separation the Synod had occasion to speak of, upon the Clergy and the people's apphcation to them, and the only kind of popular election they maintained. Let the impartial reader turn to the synodical ^ Epistle itself, and judge whether he can there * Cypr. Ep. 67. Edit. Oxen, find the dispensation granted to any Churches whatever, to desert their criminal Bishops, of their own authority, and without the assent of other Churches, in such a sense as is here affirmed. g Irenteus, says the Enquirer, was of the same mind with this 296 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. ** Qui vero Presbyteri serviunt suis voluptatibus, et non prae- ponunt timorem Dei in cordibus suis, sed contumeliis agunt re- liquos, et principalis confessionis tumore elati sunt, et in abscon- sis agunt mala — ab omnibus talibus absistere oportet. Lib, 4. cap. 44. p. 278. ^ That as for those Presbyters j who serve their Pleasures, and have not the Fear of God be- foi^e their Eyes, who contume- liously use others, are lifted up with Pride, and secretly com- mit wickedness, from all such African Council ; and, no doubt, he was, but not in the sense here intended. ^The passage quoted 5 Qui vero Presbyteri serviunt suis voluptatibus, &c. — ab om- nibus talibus absistere oportet. Iren. I. 4. c. 44. §. 1. from that Father neither implies so much, nor is directly appli- cable to the point in hand, if the learned commentator upon it understood it aright. The question before us is, what the people are to do in case of scandal and immorality in their Bishop, his faith and principles in the mean time being sound and orthodox. But Irenceus, in the quota- tion before us, was speaking of ^ Qui vero crediti quidem sunt a multis Presbyteri, &c. Annot. Nicolaum, Cerinthum, Ebionem, et id genus Hseresiarchas hie atro carbone notari existimo. Ad Iren. ubi supra. "i Qui vero crediti quidem sunt a multis Presbyteri. the ^most vicious heretics of those times, such as Nicolas, the Dea- con, Cerinthus, Ebion, and the like. This alters the case, and many circumstances would persuade any reader that Ire- naeus meant so. 1st. Because he does not name the Presby- ters he was there speaking of, as genuine Presbyters of the Church, but '^ such as were thought by many to be so; which character of them the Enquirer was pleased to leave out. 2ndly. Because IrencBus introduces what he says of them, with plain terms of distinction from the Presbyters of whom he was speaking before, who were ^ such as had succession from ^ Eis qui in Ecclesid sunt Pres- the Apostles, and with that sue- OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 297 Presbyters we ought to separate. Origen indeed seems to be of another mind, and thinks that the Bishops Immo- rahty in Life could not justifie his Parishes Separation, 5 He, saith he, that hath a , ^^^ ^^^^^ ^abet vitae su^. care of his Soul, will not be scandalized at my Faults, who am his Bishop, but considering my Doctrine, and finding it non meis delictis qui videor in Ecclesia preedicare scandaliza- bitur, sed ipsum dogma consi- derans, et pertractans Ecclesise cession the certain gift of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father, (as the context shews.) And 3rdly. Because in the quotation itself, where he advises all Christians to abstain from them, he exhorts them again, by way of distinction, 9 to keep close to those who (as he told them before) preserved the doctrine of the Apostles : pretty plain signs, one would think, that he was speaking of here- tics, as well as vicious men, though the same persons still. And yet, after all, be it of one or the other, or of both, he says no more to our present case, than that we should abstain from them; which does not at all determine, how the Church of God in general should be freed from such wretched Presbyters, or how any par- ticular people should be provided with a more worthy Pastor. Having taught his reader just before what sort of Apostolical successors all Christians were obliged to cleave to, Irenceus leaves him to the warrantable rules and methods of the Church ; and farther admonishes him ^ to byteris obaudire oportet, his qui successionem habent ab Apo- stolis, et cum Episcopatus suc- cessione charisma veritatis cer- tum secundum placitum patris acceperunt. Lib. 4. c. 43. Qui vero crediti sunt d multis, SfC. lb. c. 44. §. 1. 9 Ab omnibus igitur talibus ab- sistere oportet, adhserere vero his qui Apostolorura (sicut prae- diximus) doctrinam custodie- runt. lb. cap. 44. suspect all others who go off from that succession, and hold their meetings in any place what- soever, as heretics, or schisma- 2 ^ Reliquos vero qui absistunt k principali successione, et quo- cunque loco colliguntur, suspec- tos habere, vel quasi haereticos 298 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. fidem, k me quidem aversabitur, doctrinam vero suscipiet secun- dum prseceptum Domini, qui ait, supra Cathedram Moysi sede- runt Scribae et Pharisaei, omnia enim quaecunque vobis dicunt audite et facite, juxta autem opera illorum nolite facere ; di- cunt quippe et non faciunt : iste sermo de me est, qui bona doceo, et contraria gero et sum sedens supra cathedram Moysi quasi Scriba et Pharisseus ; prseceptum tibi est, O Popule, si non habueris accusationem Doctrinae pessimae, et alienorum ab Ecclesia dograatum, con- spexeris vero meam culpabilem vitam, atque peccata, ut non habeas juxta dicentis vitam tuam instituere, sed ea facere quae loquor. Homil. 7. in Eze- chiel. agreeable to the Churches Faithj from me indeed he will be averse, but he will receive my Doctrine according to the Pre- cept of the Lord, which saith. The Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses his Chair, whatever therefore they say unto you hear, and do, but according unto their Works do not, for they say and do not : That Scripture is of me, who teach what is good, and do the con- trary, and sit upon the Chair of Moses as a Scribe or Pha- risee ; the Precept is to thee, O People, if thou canst not accuse me of false Doctrine, or Heretical Opinions, but only beholdest my wicked arid sinful Life; thou must not square et malse sententiae, vel quasi scindentes, et elatos, et sibi placentes ; aut rursus ut hypo- critas, quaestiis gratid et vanse gloriae hoc operantes. Iren. ubi supra, cap. 43. tics, or proud, or pleasers of themselves, or else as hypocrites, who do it for the sake of interest or vainglory. This gives but little licence, I think, to the people of any diocese, particular Church, or parish, (name it as you please) to provide themselves a Pastor, of their own authority, and without the assent of other Churches, in the sense it is here pretended. And so far Irenceus and the African Council agree, neither of them warranting that popular right and authority (f heaping up teachers to themselves, (to use the Apostle's words,) however unfortunate they might be, to have an immoral Pastor at any time among them. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 299 thy Life according to my Life, but do those things which I speak. Now whether Irenceus, or an African Synod, or Origen be to be most credited, I leave the Learned to judge, tho^ I think they may be both nearer reconciled than they seem to be, Irenceus and that Synod affirming, that the People of their own Power and Authority might immediately, without the concurrent Assent of other Churches, upon the Immorality and Scandal of their Bishop, leave and desert him ; Origen restraining the People from present Execution, till they had the Autho- rity of a Synod for so doing ; ^ for thus he must be under- stood, or else he will contradict all other Writers, it being avouched by all, that Synods did depose all those Bishops that were guilty of criminal and scandalous Enormities, •» Origen must needs be understood (as the learned Enquirer re- marks) to restrain the people from present separation, till they had the authority of a Synod for doing so. And can the African Council be said to differ from Origen in this, when all that the former wrote upon the subject, was in the particular case of the Spanish Churches, where such a regular Synod had already settled all in the same manner that Origen would have it done ? Or, supposing that Irenceus referred to this special case of immorality, (which most probably he did not,) could he be said to allow the people to provide another Bishop for themselves, of their own power and authority, and without the assent of other Churches, be- cause he said they should abstain from the former ? He does not at all determine for them, in what way they should be better pro- vided for in the case, but plainly leaves them to the ordinary method of the Church ; which, as the Enquirer owns in this very place, was avouched by all to be this, that Synods did depose all scandalous and criminal Bishops; and to understand it otherwise (in Origen s case, he says) was to contradict all other writers besides. It were hard, then, upon Irenceus to say, he did not so understand it, when he had strictly charged all Christians to keep close to the Apostolical succession, and to be so jealous of all others, who would meet any where, without regard to that. See Appendix, No. 19. 2 R 3 300 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. , ^, , , . , ,. as Privatus Bishop of Lam- ^ Ob multa et ffravia delicta. , ^ t i ci j ^ • r. • . ,- r r 1 1 0^5^ was deposed by a bynod Cyprian. Epist. 55. §. 11. p. „ ^^. i'. , ^ ^ ,. 2 .Q of Ninety Bishops, ^ /or ms many and heinous Crimes. §. 7. But now excepting these three Causes of Apos- tacy, Heresie and Immorality, it was Schism in a Parish to leave their Minister, or to set up another Bishop against him ; for tho' they at first chose their Bishop, yet their Bishop being on their Choice approved and con- firmed by the neighbouring Bishops, they could not de- throne him, without truly assigning one of those fore- mentioned Causes ; for this was to gather a Church out of a Church, to erect a new Altar and a new Bishop, which could not be in one Church ; * for as Cyprian writes, ' Our learned Author seems so little to allow the unity of the Episcopacy for a common bond of unity to the Church universal, that he makes no mention of it, either in his negative or positive definitions. On the contrary, to make it patronise his own 2 singular opinion [that primi- ^ Enq. ch. 9. §. 7. tive schism respected only a par- ticular Church'] he adduces St. Cyprian's notion, under that head, as a current proof of his parti- cular or parochial unity, in contradistinction to that of the Church universal ; though, to make it bend to that design, he was obliged to translate the venerable Fa- ' Enq. ch. 2. §. 2. ther's words, as he had done ^ before, contrary to the genuine signification of them. The words, as the Enquirer translates them, are these : God is one, Christ is one, the Church is one, the rock on which the Church is built is one : but observe what follows ; wherefore to erect a new altar, and constitute a new Bishop, besides the one altar and one Bishop, is impracticable. Now had St. Cy- prian spoken of one Bishop, and a new Bishop, and no more, this clause of the period might have been supposed to refer to the unity or schism of a particular Church. But St. Cyprian s words are, [unum sacerdotium, and novum sacerdotium] one priesthood. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 301 7 God is one, Christ is one, 7 j^^us unus est. et Christus the Church IS one, the Rock unus, et una Ecclesia.et Cathe- on which the Church is built dra una super Petrum Domini is one ; wherefore to erect a voce fundata ; aliud altare con- n£w Altar, and constitute a stitui, aut Sacerdotium novum and a new priesthood ; which are complex terms, and denote not a single Bishop, but the entire order of Bishops in the Church, or (in his own language) the one Episcopacy, whereof each Bishop held a part. And this is that principle of unity in the Catholic Church, which the holy Martyr, in this quotation, declares to be so absolutely one, that he introduces it with all those solemn in- stances of indivisible unity which we find in the same period with it : a plain proof, that no breach of it could be made in any single Church whatever; but that the whole Episcopacy was broken, and consequently that the schism must, ipso facto, extend to the Church universal. In short, the difference between the primitive Church and the Enquirer, in this matter, seems to lie here. The Enquirer notices only, how that particular Church alone, wherein the schism began, had a new Bishop imposed upon them ; and therefore seems to see no farther injury or innovation yet made in the Church besides. The primitive Church was sensible, that there was not only a new Bishop schismatically made in that particular Church, but a new priesthood, or a new Episcopacy, springing up by means of it, which stood in open competition with that one priesthood, or one Episcopacy, derived from Christ and his Apostles, and might, from generation to generation, propagate another Church, distinct from, and independent of, the only true one ; usurping an equal right and title to Scriptures, Creeds, and Sacraments, (as well as a new priesthood,) with the Apostolic succession itself, unless they all jointly disavowed the usurpation, and every Bishop of the Church (as soon as he had any cognizance of it) utterly renounced all correspondence or communion with the authors or abettors of it. So immediately did every particular schism, without any other intervening act in the case, influence the universal Church, and violate the sacred unitv of it. 302 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. fieri praeterunum altare et unum Sacerdotium non potest : Quis- quis alibi coUegerit, spargit, adulterum est,impium est, quod- cunque humano furore institui- tur, ut dispositio divina viole- tur. JSpist. 40. §. 4. ;?. 93. * Neque enim aliunde nata sunt schismata, quam inde quod Sa- cerdoti Dei non obtemperatur, nee unus in Ecclesia ad tempus Sacerdos, et ad tempus Judex vice Christi cogitatur. Epist. 55. §. 6. p. 138. 9 Hi sunt ortus atque conatus Schismaticorum mal^ cogitan- tium ut sibi placeant, ut prsepo- situm superbo tumore contem- nant, sic de Ecclesia receditur, sic altare profanum foris coUo- catur, sic contra pacem Christi, et ordinationem atque unitatem Dei rebellatur, JEpist. 65. §. 4. p. 193. * Inde Schismata et Haereses obortse sunt, et oriuntur, dum Episcopus qui unus est, et Ec- clesise prseest, superba quorun- dam prsesumptione contemnitur, et homo dignatione Dei hono- ratus indignus hominibus judi- catur. JEpist. 69. §. 4. p. 208. * Illi sunt Ecclesia plebs Sacer- doti adunata, et pastori suo grex adhaerens, unde scire debes Episcopura in Ecclesia esse, et new Bishop, besides the one Altar and the one Bishop, is impracticable ; whosoever gath- ers here, scatters ; so to do is adulterous, impious, sacrilegi- ous, mad and wicked. ^ From hence, says Cyprian, Schisms do arise, 'that the Bishop is not obeyed; and it is not con- sidered that there ought to be but one Bishop, and one Judge in a Church at a time. And 9 this is the Rise and Source of Schismaticks, that through their swelling Pride they con- temn their Bishop, and so they go off from the Church, so they erect a profane Altar, and so they rebel against the Peace of Christ, and the Ordination and Unity of God. And again, 1 From thence proceed Schisms, that the Bishop who is but one, and presides over the Church, is contemned by the proud Presumption of Men, and he that was thought wor- thy by God, is esteemed un- worthy by Men. And again, * The Church is the People united to their Bishop, and the Sheep adhering to their Pas- tor; the Bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the Bishop; whosoever are not OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 303 Ecclesiam in Episcopo, et si qui cum Episcopo non sunt, in Ec- clesia non esse, et frustra sibi blandiri eos, qui pacem cum Sacerdotibus Dei non habentes obrepunt, et latenter apud quos- dam communicace se credunt, quando Ecclesia, quae Catholica una est, scissa non sit, neque divisa, sed fit utique connexa, et cohserentium sibi invicem Sacerdotum glutino copulata. Epist. 69. §. 7. p. 209. ^ Cum Episcopo portionem ple- bis dividere, id est, k pastore oves, et filios k parente sepa- rare, et Christi membra dissi- pare. Epist. 38. §. 1. p. 90. with the Bishop, are not in the Church, and those do in vain flattet^ themselves, who having not Peace with God's Priests, creep about, and pri- vately communicate with some, as they think, when the Ca- tholick Church is not divided, but connexed and coupled to- gether by the Unity of its agreeing Bishops. Whoso- ever therefore should cause- lessly desert his Bishop, and solicit others so to do, was a true Schism atick, since in so doing, ^ he divided a Por- tion of the Flock with the Bishop, separated the Sheep from their Pastor, and dissipated the Members of Christ. From these Quotations then it is apparent, that the Primitive Schism respected only a particular Church, and consisted in a Person^s Separation from Communion with his lawful Bishop without a just and authentick Cause; when any one should set up a particular Church in a par- ticular Church, in opposition to the lawful Bishop thereof, and should draw away the Inhabitants of that Parish from the Communion of their legal Minister, setting up distinct Meetings and ^ Conventicles, as Cyprian calls them. This was true Schism ; for as Ig- natius says, whosoever so as- sembled 5 were not congre- gated legally according to the Command : And ^ whosoever officiated without the Bishop, sacrificed to the Devil. ^ Conventicula sibi diversa con- stituuni. De unitat. Eccles. §. 10. p. 299. 5 M^ (3e(3xicus KocT hroKviv avv cx.^^oi(Ttj- Communion only be esteemed a-oZs, licBt y) y.x'^oKiyty) UyXn^ia. oU 'valid, wMch IS performed by iih io-T/y 'xu^)s roZ ImtrxLitov, ovrz ^^^ Bishop, or by one permitted Ba,rr/^£/y, o^ra ay^7r»,v 7ro/E~y, i^KK' ^ ^ -^^ Wherever the Bishop I ^y .y.s^yos lo.ii.^ccci ry .^^ ^^^^.^ ^^^ ^^^ p^^^^^ ^^ . ^ ©ecD evd§£(TroVy 'I'vx aa^aXes v) itatt where Jesus Christ is, there ^tQatm iiaiii itPotaasroii. Epist. ^, >^ ^7 7- 7 ^7 7 • A c ■ n the Lathotick Lhurch is ; it is ad bmirn. p. 6. , not lawful without the Bishop, or one permitted by him, to baptize or celebrate the Eucharist ; this is pleasing unto God that so whatsoever is done may be firm Qsls l^^r Scvri^i^^ov ly^u T^y ^^^^ 2^^^^ Bishop, as God l7rorac<,(JLSV Qsov vitortzcro'o^iyoi. Ad Ephes. p. ilO. ^ Tla^xtva! av ofAovoioc Qbov avovod- ^ers Tcuvroc i;qa,<7astv 7r^oxaSj5/M,£Voy roil) EirKDio'rrov sis roVov Qeov Kotl TMV 'rr^za-^vrsQuv tis tottov ervve^^iov ruv aitoarokuv, next ruv otanovuv —•ns'KiarEvyt.ivuv oti3ix.oviac.v 'Ifjcrou X^ia-rov, (jLyjoEv ea-rco h vfjuv o ^vvnasrati v^s (AS^icrxt, aX\' evu- S'vjTs ru kntta-ytoitu xa.) ro7s ir^oKot- ^r)(A,ivois — uoTcs^ ovv o Ky^/oj oinv rov TcacT^os ovoh sTcoivicrE hvufxevos m ovTs ^/' lauToy, ovrs ^la rm ccnocrroKut, ovrus (jlti^s vfjis)s ocvev Tov kiria-yLoirov ytoti rcuv ir^tcr^vriquv (xn^ev itqicrarirt (xvi^s 'ffsi^dunre EvXayov ro (^xincr^xt 'i^iac i/fAiv aXX* iiri TO acvTQ (Aiac it^oawy^v) (xix ^eioa-is, SIS vovs, (jlio, sXttis. Epist. ad Magnesios, p. 33. ' ^svysTS OS rov iAi§i(Tfji.ov — birov OS -TToz/xw la-rtv ins? us ir^o^xroc ocKoKov^eTrE, ttoXXoi ya^ XvKOt x^i- oirtcrroi viiSovio icoix.v (xi^id^xXurl^ovcrtv rovs ^Eoo^ofjLovs ccXK' iv r^ svorviri vf^uv oiiK a^ovs-iv roitot — oaai ya,^ ©sou £icrjcroy X^ta-rov ovroi (/.Erx TOO EViuycoTTov Eia-h yiou oacx. av {JLEravoriaocvrss s^^ucriv en:) rriv Evoriorac. rios eKuXioaiais olroi Qeov saovraci ivoc uaiv xoira. 'Ivia-ovv X^ta— rov ^uvTEs. Mvi irXavoia-^E a^sX5- ig^ God dwells not ; God there- cua^v its Urnroc ^,ov koc) <7vvi^^m j-^^^ pardous all Penitents, if Tel h '~ ^^''^* ^"^ ^^'^^" ^^'y Penitentially return to ^ ^ ' ^* * the Unity of God, and the Presbytery of the Bishop. And some otlier such like Ex- pressions there are in the Epistles of this Father, which evidently demonstrate Schism to be nothing else than a causeless Separation from our Parish Bishop or Minister, and a wandring after, or an Adhesion to another false and pretended Pastour. §. 9. "^ But for the clearer Proof, that this was what the Fathers meant by Schism, it may not be altogether un- ^ The Enquirer undertakes to make his thesis still clearer, by the noted instances of Felicissimus's schism in the Church of Car- thage, and that of Novatian at Rome. For this purpose he shews at large, that they were called schismatics, and proceeded against as such, whilst they neither caused nor attempted any separation from any other Churches, but those of Carthage and Rome respec- tively. But let us hear what St. Cyprian says of those very schisms. Of Felicissimus and his accomplices, he says to Cor- nelius of Rome, ^ What manner ^ Qualis putas esse eos, qui sa- of persons do you think they cerdotum hostes, et contra Ec- must be, who are enemies of the OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 307 necessary to add unto these Quotations an Example or two ; for Examples more convincingly instruct than bare Testi- monies and Citations. And here let us first view the Schism of Felicissimus in the Church of Carthage, as it is related in the 38th, 40th, and 65th Epistles of Cyprian, Bishops, and rebels against the clesiam Catholicam rebelles ? Catholic Church ? Did their Cypr. Epist. 59. §. 5. Edit. schism respect himself and his Oa^on, Church only, and yet that good man bring so severe a charge against them, beyond what they deserved ? No, it was on account of his settled judgment in the case, and that of the whole Christian Church with him, accord- ing to the Catholic principle of which we are now speaking. Of Novatian he says still more plainly : 9 he separated himself 9 Qui se ab Ecclesise vinculo, from the bond of the Church, atque ^ sacerdotum collegia se- andfrom the college of Bishops, parat — qui Episcopates nee uni- and would neither keep the unity tatem voluit tenere, nee pacem. of the Episcopacy, nor the peace Cyp. Epist. p. 112. Edit. Oxon. of it. This, and such like evidence from antiquity, pressed so hard upon the Enquirer's singular notion, that he was obliged to have recourse to those cautious dis- tinctions, ^ that schism in its ^ Enq. ch. 9. §. 11. larger sense was a breach of the Church Universal; but, in its usual and restrained sense, of a Church, particular. And again, ^ that schism, principally and original- '^ Ibid. §.5. ly, respected a particular Church, or Parish', though it might consequentially influence others too. And again, ^ that it actually broke the unity of one Church, ^ Ibid. §.8. and virtually of all. In the first of which distinctions, he admits that schism, in some sense, was a breach of the Church Universal ; but in what large sense that should be, if it respected a particular Church only, 2 s 3 308 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. and we shall find it respecting only that particular Church or Parish. When Cijprian was elected Bishop of Carthage, Felicissimus and others of his Faction opposed him, but finding themselves too weak, and not powerful enough to balance his Interest, they yielded to his Promotion, but yet still retained an Hatred against his Person, and waited for a more favourable opportunity and a plausible Pretence to separate from him. It pleased God that Cyprian some time after his Advancement, was forced, by reason of the Persecution, to withdraw and absent from his Flock, dur- ing which Absence that Faction made use of all means to lessen his Interest, till they had made their Party indiffe- rently strong, and then they broke out into an open Sepa- ration from him, forming themselves into a distinct Meet- ing, creating a new Bishop, erecting a new Altar, and con- stituting a new Church. Now all this was acted in, and respected only the particular Parish of Carthage, without causing or attempting any Separation in any other Church or Pai'ish ; and yet this Cypricn calls Schism, and Excom- municates the Actors in it as Schismaticks, and Breakers of the Unity of the Church, of his Church Actually, and of all the other Churches of the Church Universal Virtu- ally, who like the Members of the Natural Body, are affected with the Pains and Convulsions of each other. So also the famous Schism of Novatian respected only the particular Church of Rome, being no other than his causeless Separation from Coimelius his lawful Bishop, and his erecting separate Conventicles against him, as may be (as he ■* affirms of it,) I am at 4 Enq. ch. 9. §. 7. a loss to conceive. Originally, indeed, it respected a particu- lar Church so far, that in one or other of them, it must originally have broken out ; but that it respected other Churches conse- quently only, is by no means so clear. See Appendix, No. 20. OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, 309 read at large in those Epistles of Cyprian, that treat of this AiFair, and in his Book De Unitate Ecclesice. §. 10. But I foresee an evident Objection against this restrained Notion of Schism, and in particular from the Schism of Novatian, which I cannot well pass over without resolving, since the Solution thereof will inform us in the manner, how the Schism of one particular Church did alFect other Churches. Now the Objection may be this : If Schism respected only one particular Church, whence then comes it to pass that we read of iVovflf/ea/i Bishops not only at Rome, where that Schism first began, but in seve- ral other Churches and Parishes besides ? Now to this I answer. That we must distinguish between the Schism and the Heresie of Novatian ; had Novatian been only guilty of Schism, in all probability, his Schismatical Actions, as well as all other Schisms before, would have ended in the same Church where they began, and have proceeded no farther -, but he having once engaged in his Schism, and willing to continue it, that he might have some pretence for those enormous Practices, he accused his Bishop of remitting and loosing the Reins of Discipline, in commu- nicating with Trophimus, and others, that had Sacrificed to Idols, as may be amply seen in the 55th Epistle of Cyprian ; consequently for the Justification of this Accusation, he added this Doctrine, as the Characteristick Dogma of his Party, That the Church had no power to absolve those who lapsed after Baptism, but were to leave them to the Tribunal of God. This was an Error in Doctrine, invidious to the Mercy of God, and injurious to the Merits of Christ, as Cyprian shews at large in his 55th Epistle. Every Error in Doctrine was called Heresie. Accordingly Novatian is branded for this as an Heretick ; whence the Confessors in their return from his Party, confessed that in adhering to them, ^they had committed Schisms, and * Commisisse se Schismata, 310 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. et haeresis auctores fuisse. Cy- been the Authors of Heresies, prian. Epist. 46. §. 1. p. 104. And in the same Epistle 5 Schisraatico et hseretico they call Novatian « an Here- homine. lUdem §. 3. p. 105. n^,)^^ ^^^ « Schismatich So 6 Haereticae pravitatis. Epist. Cyprian also accuses the said 47. §. 1. p. 107. Novatian, ^ of heretical Pra^ ^ Schismaticus et hsereticus -. j n i,- -o CI f o vity ; and calls his Error ' a ... p. . Schismatical and Heretical Error. So that Novation's Schism was accompanied with Here- sie; which, as usual, was called after the Name of its Author; and having many eminent Persons to abet it, and a specious shew of Sanctity and Mortification, it is no wonder that it spreads its self into many other Churches, besides that where it was first hatched ; unto which we may also add their Industrious Endeavours to proselyte Men unto their Party, ^ run- ^Ostiatim per multorum do- ning about, ^8 Cyprian writes, mos, vel oppidatim, per quas- from House to House, and dam civitates discurrentes, ob- from Town to Town, to gain stinationis suae et erroris scissi Companions in their Obstinacy sibi quaerant comites. Epist. and Error. For many of 41. §. 2. .p. 97. them really thinking them- selves to be in the right, and believing others to be in the wrong, conceived it to be their bound en Duty to leave their Bishop, if he would not leave his Heresie, as they apprehended it to be. And probably several Bishops of the Orthodox, who were the legal Pastors of their respective Parishes, were through their own Ignorance, and those Men^s fair Pretences, deluded into the same uncharitable Error with them, of denying the Lapsed any Pardon. But we need not guess at this as only probable, since we have an Instance of it in Martian the lawful Bishop of Aries, concerning whom, Cyprian writes to Stephen Bishop of Rome, that he had OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 311 of that Province, received Advice from tlie Bishops 9 That Martian of Aries had joyned himself unto Novatian, and had departed from the Unity of the Churchy and the Concord of the Bishops, hold- ing that Heretical Severity, that the Consolations of Di- vine Pity and Fatherly Lenity, should be shut against the penitent and mourning Ser- vants of God, who knock at the Church with Tears, Sighs and Groans, so that the wound- ed are not admitted to have their fVounds healed, but being left without any hope of Peace or Communion, are thrown out to the Rapine of Wolves, and Prey of the Devil, So that it was not Novatian's Schism, but his Heresie, that was diffused through other €hurches; his Schism respected only his own Church, but his Heresie, which was a Breach of the Unity of the Church Universal, re- spected other Churches also ; so that in answer to the forenamed Objection, we need only say this. That there was no such Thing as the Objection supposes ; that is, that there were no Bishops or Followers of Novatian^s Schism in other Churches, but that those that were dis- criminated by his Name, were the Bishops and Followers of his Heresie. But however let us suppose the worst, viz. That all Schism aticks had been Orthodox and sound in every Point of Faith, had been exemplary and pious in the discharge 9 Martianus Arelate consis- lens Novatiano se conjunxerit, et a Catholic 86 Ecclesise unitate, atque a corporis nostri et Sa- cerdotii consensione discesserit, tenens Hsereticse prsesumptionis durissimam pravitatem, ut ser- vis Dei poenitentibus et dolen- tibus, et ad Ecclesiam lachry- mis et gemitu et dolore pulsan- tibus, divinse pietatis et lenitatis paterna solatia et subsidia clau- dantur, nee ad fovenda vulnera admittantur vulnerati, sed sine spe pacis et coram unicationis relicti ad luporum rapinam et prsedam Diaboli projiciantur. Epist, 67. §. l.p. 198. 812 THE CONSTITUTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. of every Duty, had been guilty of no Crime but their Schism from their Bishop and Parish, and yet their Schism might have influenced other Churches and Parishes too, and that I think » these two Ways. ' It was no small error in the learned Enquirer to render St. Cyprian* s novum sacerdotium, a new Bishop, instead of a new Priesthood, since it was the main hinge on which the controversy turned. Had the phrase been rendered rightly, it would have shewn wherein the primitive Church and our Enquirer differed about those important points of unity and schism. The two only ways, whereby the schism of a particular Church might influence other Churches, namely, by admitting excommuni- cated schismatics, their legates, messengers, or followers j or else, by receiving letters from them, and approving their pretensions ; are of a very different consideration from the point in question here. The question is not, how other Churches might actually become schismatics, as well as the principals themselves ; but how all Christian Churches, (in the judgment of the primitive Fathers,) were injured ipso facto, and their Catholic unity immediately broken by a schism in any particular Church, though no other Church besides either favoured or approved. This was, not by becoming schismatics themselves, (as the Enquirer's argument implies,) but by the schismatics introducing a new Priesthood or Episcopacy into the Church of Christ, wherein they were wholly passive, but universally concerned. St. Cyprian knew indeed from the nature of the thing itself, that every schism must be formed by some members of a particular Church breaking off from their own Bishop, and he therefore inveighs against such a breach, as the necessary cause from whence schism must arise. So much the Enquirer's several 5 Neque aliunde nata sunt schis- 5 quotations shew ; but they are mata, &c. Hi sunt ortus atque adduced as evidences, that conatus schismaticorum, &c. schism respected only those Inde schismata et hsereses ohor- particular Churches, and no tcX*?- jr/a, from eKy.a,Xziy, evocare. It properly signifies an evocation, or calling forth, if we look upon the derivation ; a congregation of men, or a company assembled, if we consider the use of it. We find it used for an assembly, a congregation in general, Thucydides, lib. 1. 44, ysvoixsvvis jcoct ^h sxKXvicritxs, also lib. 1. 87, &c. From the notation of the word, however, we cannot conclude, that it signifies a number of men called together into one assembly out of the mass of mankind, because the preposition Ix has no such force in the use of the word, and because the collection, or coming together, is not specified in the dei-ivation. t Acts xi. 26. 1 Cor. xi. 18, 22. From these places St. Augustine col- lected that ix-ytXioa-ix was taken in the Scriptures for the place of meeting, or the house of God, and came so to be frequently used in the language of the Christians in his time. But it is not so certain, that the Apostle used i)tx.Xioj(Tfv [i7/>(,rv] 'E)c>tXi7cxi us iv nt^oxcrrsiois iroppoTi^u x.iiyi.ivois xtxrai (as^os ta-ovroii avvxyuyxl' xxt ovruSf kyinro. Euseb. ibid. t 'HxoXoy3>?<7av 5f /x-o< avixir^sa^vre^os rs yt.ov Ma|//xoj-, kx) ^ixkovoi OavcTTOj-j Kx) 'Eva-s^ioSf kx) Xxt^vifAm. Euseb. 1. 7. c. 11. p. 210. APPENDIX. 329 nysius, it seems, as if he had fled and deserted his Church of Alexandria, without holding any religious assemblies before he went off. This was indeed the pious custom at that time, when any persecution was visibly nigh at hand, to the end that catechumens might be baptized, the Eucharist adminis- tered to the faithful, and solemn exhortations to constancy and perseverance might be left with all, to prepare and for- tify them against the impending trials. Now, how does the holy Bishop answer this charge ? He first shews that his early apprehension and sudden condemnation left no time or means for him to perform any one of those ministerial ofiices by himself in person : but he immediately subjoins, that by God's assistance he was not wanting in a visible assembly J but, * with all diligence (says he) / ordered those in the city to assemble, as if I had been personally present with them, being absent indeed in the body, (as it is said,) but pre- sent in the qnrit with them : where he uses the phrase of the Apostle, who so governed and presided over Churches at a distance. Here is a solemn assembly then of the Christians in Alexandria, called together at the command of their absent Bishop, who had several congregations of his flock in and about the place, where his miserable banishment had confined him. The Presbyters in his absence, and by his order and authority, hold a religious assembly in the city itself. One only Bishop as chief pastor, and governour of these distinct and so far distant congregations, issues out all this while precepts and acts, and by the general language of the Catho- lic Church, and of the authentic historians of that time, is entitled Bishop of the particular Church of Alexandria, and that without partner or competitor. aKKa aitov^xioTs^ov rovs (ji.ev av rvi TtoKsi avmcqirovv, us avvm' oCTruv fxtv T» , sis ov Trtirta- APPENDIX. 337 or the suffrages of the people, because it signifies the * stretching out, or holding up, of the hand : which ceremony was commonly used by the ancient Greeks, to express such an action of the people in giving their voice or suffrage either in courts of judicature, or at the choice of magistrates. This is the main stress of all the glosses that I have met with, to evade the clear evidence of this text for the Apostles' ordaining those Elders by their own free choice and authority alone : I say the clear evidence of the text, for if there be any regular and grammatical construction of the holy penman's words to be allowed at all, it must necessarily be this ; that the same persons who held forth their hands for the act of Ordination, did, in the words immediately following, commend the people, then present, to the Lord in whom they believed. The word, commended, in the latter clause, and the persons who ordained (or stretched out their hands for orders, if we * Many Greek and Jewish writers (in and about the time that the New Testament was written) familiarly apply the same word, x^t^oronw, not to the votes or suffrages of a multitude only, but to the bare authoritative act of a single person, (nay even of God himself, as in Acts x. 41,) in constituting or ordaining officers to the respective places or purposes that they treated of. I might add also the received authorities of Christian Fathers, Historians, Critics, and Grammarians, who affirm the word to be so taken in the ancient^ Ecclesiastical sense of it ; insomuch that Suicer, who was friendly enough to popular elections, undertakes to prove by many testimonies and examples, that the stretching out of the hand included in it, imports no more than barely creating, constituting, and designing persons to the place or office intended for them, as distmct from suffrage and election ; and at the head of many other authorities, produces this very text for a clear testimony and example of it. " Exemplis et testimoniis prsebemus y(ti^oron7v nihil aliud declarare quam constituere, creare, designate ; patet hoc ex Act. xiv. 23, ubi de Paulo vt Barnaba, ^st^orovria-acvrss avrois ir^ea-^vri^ovs kxt' luickvia-i- etvy Suicer. Thesaur. Eccles. in verbo ^(si^oTQviu, et in voce ^ti^orovicx,. Num. 2. They who would see a plain and compendious account of authori- ties to which I here appeal, need only read Dr. Hammond's annotations on this single text, and those of Bp. Beveiidge on the first Apost. Can. 338 APPENDIX. had rather so translate it,) in the former, having as direct a reference to, and connexion with one another, and appropria- ting the action of the one to the persons of the other, as entirely as it is possible for true syntax to do in any sentence whatsoever. And therefore unless the people commended themselves to the Lord in the latter clause, they could not be included among the persons, who stretched out their hands for Ordination in the former ; for they that did one, as clearly as language can make it, did the other also. It might further be proved from the Holy Oracles, that as the Apostles received and exercised an ordaining power, independent of any popular election ; so they conveyed the same (without any such condition annexed to it) to the individual persons of some of the chief Pastors of the Churches which were planted by them. The two noted instances of this kind, mentioned in the sacred Canon, are Timothy and Titus ; in whose commission and instructions together, we might reasonably expect to hear of this material right and privilege of the people, (if such a right there were,) and, one would think, not without some solemn directions for a due regard to it, lest their Ordinations should prove defective and invalid, (after all the authority given them by the Apostle,) for want of this popular election. But that neither the commissions nor instructions they received for ordaining Bishops and Deacons in the Church, require or imply any such elections, will appear evident, I think from a few texts, which immediately relate to them. The commission to Timothy is directly referred to in 2 Tim. ii. 2 : The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses J the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. The substance of the commission to Titus is to be found in Titus i. 5 : For this cause left I thee in Ci-ete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain Elder's in every city, as I had appointed thee. Here nothing can be plainer than these three things : APPENDIX. 339 1st. That there was a full right and power of ordaining Elders, invested in these primitive Pastors of the Apostolical Churches. 2ndly. That with regard to the execution of this charge^ each of them is expressly specified and addressed, f commit thou to faithful men, ^c, and that thou shouldst or- dain Elders, ^c, as T had appointed thee. J ibid 3rdly. That there is not the least direction, or so much as hint, or intima- tion, given to either of them to call in the assistance, or wait for the approbation of the people in the case, neither texts, nor contexts, if we look into them, suggesting the least idea of any such thing. The larger instructions given by St. Paul to Timothy and Titus, for the due execution of their important charge, lie dispersed in the several Epistles addressed to them. Here, if any where, we might hope to find the secret of a popular election enjoined in their Ordinations : but instead of this, they had the strongest cautions given them against it. St. Paul, instructing Timothy in the genius of the people of the province, where he had placed him, plainly foretels, what they would one day do, if they were left to choose Pastors for themselves. The time will come, (says he,) when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, 2 Tim. iv. 3. This was a fair warning both to Timothy himself, and to his successors, that they should beware of trusting too much to the votes and suffrages of the people, especially in the parti- cular affair of providing Pastors for themselves. That Titus had a similar caution appears from Tit. i. 12, where St. Paul confirms the Cretian Poet^s hard testimony of his own countrymen, that they were always liars, evil beasts j and slow bellies. That the Apostle meant this, not of such as were unconverted only, but chiefly of such as were then become members of the Church, (and indeed of them alone, in respect of the use he made of it,) is manifest from the words immediately following, wherein he enjoins Titus to rebuke 2 y2 340 APPENDIX. them sharply, that they might be sound in the faith. This surely was to judge and censure them for it : which, if they were not members of the Church, had been contrary to his doctrine in 1 Cor. v. 12, where he disowns his right of judging them that are without ; what have I to do, (he says,) to judge them (hat are without ? If, therefore, the lay-mem- bers of the Cretian Church had such a character as this fastened upon them by the Apostle himself, let any man judge what probability there is, that Titus should have it given him in his instructions to let the people choose their Pastors for themselves, or that he himself should take up that method in conferring Holy Orders on any in that island. It is true, Timothy and Titus have this excellent instruc- tion, that Bishops and Deacons must be proved fij^st, and found to be blameless : I Tim. iii. 2, 10, and Tit. i. 6. This, no doubt, supposes a wise and careful trial to be made of the personal qualifications of every candidate for Holy Orders ; but after all, it leaves the whole matter to the discretional judgment of the Ordainers themselves. And yet upon this indefinite advice, and single intimation, many advocates for popular election ground their plea for the necessity of an appeal to the votes and suffrages of the people in all Ordina- tions. Nay, our Enquirer himself, when * he comes to the method of his consistory in examining into the life and conversation of candidates for Holy Orders, first of all tells us, they were proposed to the people for their testimony, and then he immediately subjoins the former of these texts, as an Apostolical canon, to countenance, if not to enjoin the prac- tice of it. In answer to which I observe, 1st. That the Apostles^ meaning in that text appears not to be so, by the cautions given to Timothy and Titus. 2ndly. That the nature of the thing itself, namely, the * See Enquiry, p. 181. APPENDIX. 341 * qualifier tions required in this case, seem very unsuitable to such a popular or congregational inquest. 3rdly. That our Enquirer himself, when he most impartially explains his sense upon the subject, does not a little counte- nance the contrary opinion. Ignorance and affection, i. e. weakness in understanding, and bias upon the will, — these are the two qualities, which he f fastens upon the common people, even of primitive Churches and congregations in general. He was representing to us the primitive custom of neighbouring Bishops being called in, in order to give their consent to the people^s election of a Bishop : and because it would eclipse the popular power, to declare the whole of their business, office, and authority, in constituting a Bishop over them, he smooths it over with this gloss : / suppose (says he) the reason of their presenting him to those Bishops for their consent was this, lest the people, through ignorance or affection, should choose an unfit or an unable man for that office. What manner of representation this is of an Episco- pal part and office in primitive Ordinations, I shall not stop to observe : I only wish to make good the observation 1 raised from it to the present purpose, viz. that the Enquirer charges the congregation with suspicion of such ignorance and affection in the choice of their Bishop, that they needed better judges than themselves to be called in ; as in another place, he makes them subject to giddiness, envy, or pride.X He may well apply the weakness of their understanding to the point of judging of the candidates' human learning ; but the bias of their affection which he supposes to be in them, together with the other qualities of giddiness, envy, or pride, can never pass for a tolerable disposition in them to give their suffrage in judging of any other qualifications. * See Enq. p. 173. f Enq. p. 191. + Enq. p. 200. 342 APPENDIX. APPENDIX, No. 11. We have seen that the Holy Scriptures place the entire power of Ordination in the persons of the governours of the Church. What account do we find of this matter in the records of primitive antiquity approaching nearest to the first age of the Church ? Here we might produce a variety of instances, wherein neither election, nor so much as a conven- tion of the people was to be found, or heard of, at the conse- cration of many of those primitive Bishops within that period of time. Clemens Romanus constitutes Euaristus, his suc- cessor, by his own assignment, and a kind of surrender (as it were) before his death ; for so * Eusebius's words plainly imply. Phsedimus, Bishop of Amasea, had no other hand but that of heaven and his own, in making the renowned Gregory, Bishop of Neocsesarea : as all the circumstances of that affair, (related by the learned f Dr. Cave,) suffici- ently shew. But not to dwell on particular cases, what sense, I ask, can we make of that very primitive canon of the Church, which taxes the people of a Diocese with great iniquity, who would not receive a Bishop ordained for them, and sent to preside over them ? Nay, suspended the Clergy of that city for not instructing such an insolent people any better : (which are the express words of the thirty-sixth Apostoli- cal X canon) . What sense, I ask, can we make of a canon, (which learned antiquaries have shewn to be of an earlier * KXi5fA»jy *Evx§!a-ru icec^ix^ovs rv)v Xstrov^yiacv anxkvu roi ^m* Euseb. Eccl. Hist. 1. 3. c. 34. t See Dr. Cave's Life of Greg. Thaumat. §. 6. p. 271. X El ^£t§oTovy)^sts BTFia-itoiros — (A,ri ^^x^V' °^ 'f af a r^s Ixvrov yvw/^ttjv, aXXoi 'ffoi^a, rv)V rov >mov [/.oy^Yt^tav , avroi (xiveru iiricTKO'jros, o Ss xXS^os rvis iroKius a (po^t^ea-^co, ort roiovrov Xxov ayxmorunrov ^^'»^^-- ^^^ at THB APPENDIX, No. 17. '^tip^: The relation between each particular Church and the Uni- versal Church, says our Enquirer, in general was this, " that as one member of the natural body has a regard to all the other members thereof, so a particular Church had respect to the other members of the Church Universal." The Church is called in Scripture not only a body, with respect to the union and order of its parts, but also a spiritual building, an holy temple, and the temple of God. The Jewish Church was but one, and therefore the Christian, which is grafted into the Jewish, is but one. The Church is called the temple of God, and the temple was but one by the command of God. Christ also tells us, that there should be but one fold under one Shepherd. (John x. 16.) Indeed it is absurd to say that the Christian Church, which has the same foundation, the same faith, the same promises, the same privileges, should be divided into separate bodies of the same kind : for where every thing is common, there is one community. It is true, distinct men, though of the same common nature, have distinct essences, and this makes them distinct persons ; but where the very essence of a body or society consists in having all things 866 APPENDIX. common^ there can be but ome body. And therefore if one Lardy one fmtky one baptism, one God and Father of ail, be common to the whole Christian Church, and if no Christian has any pecuhar prisileges ; then there is but one Church. Again^ the Church is a society united to God and themselves by a Divine covenmit. It is united to God, because it is a religious society; and the men are united to themselves, because they are one society. But the thing to be observed is this, that the union is made by a Di\ine covenant. God made a covenant with Abraham, of which circumcision was the seal; and the Christian Church is nothing else, but such a society of men as are in covenant with God through Chiist. I suppose all men will allow, that God only can make a Church ; and that the only visible way he has of forming one, is by granting a Church covenant, which is the Divine charter whereon the Church is founded ; and by authorizing some persons to receive others into this cove- nant, by such a form of admission as he shall institute, which form under the Gospel is Baptism : so that to be taken into covenant with God, and to be received into the Church, are the same thing ; and he is no member of the Church, who is not visibly admitted into God^s covenant. Hence it follows, that a covenant state and a Church state are the same thing ; — that every professed Christian, who is received into covenant, as such, is a Church member ; — that no Church state can depend on human contracts and covenants, and that therefore the Independent Church cove- nant between Pastor and people is no part of the Christian Church covenant, because it is no part of the baptismal vow, which is one and the same for all mankind, and the only covenant which Christ has made; — that it is absurd to gather Churches out of Churches, which already consist of baptized persons ; — and that if the Church be founded on one covenant, then the Chiu-ch is but one. For those that have an interest in the same covenant, are members APPENDIX. 307 of the same Church ; and thongh the UniTersal Church, for man's convenience, be divided into several parts or congregations, yet it cannot be divided into two or more Churches. A prince, indeed, may grant the same charter to several corporations ; but if he confine his charter to the members of one corporation, those who separate from that corporation, forfeit their interest in the charter. Hiiis God has granted a charter or covenant, and declares that by this one covenant he unites all Christians into one Church, into which we are admitted by Baptism: if, there- fore, we separate from this one Church, we forfeit our in- terest in it. God has not made a particular covenant with this or that Church, but with the one Catholic Church : we must, therefore, live in unity with it, or we have no right to the blessings promised to it. Now to be in com- munion with the Church is to be a member of it. And this is caUed communion, because all Church members have a common right to Church privileges, and a common obK- gation to the duties of Church members^ viz. obedience to the Church's authority, joining in prayers, &c It is true this word conumadon is commonly used to signify praying, hearing, and receiving the sacraments t<^ether; but, strictly speaking, those offices are not commnnion, but an ^exercise of communion. Church communion is Church union ; for as a member must be united to the body, before it can perform the natural action of a member ; so a man must be in communion with the Church, before he has a right to perform the offices of Church society. From what has been said we may observe, that Church communion principally respects not a particular, but the Universal Church, which is but one over all the world. For membership may extend to the remotest parts of the world, if the body, whereof we are members, reach so far : and Bap- tism makes us members of the Universal Church, because it admits us into the covenant which God made with the 368 APPENDIX. Universal Church. Every act, also, of Christian communion, such as receiving the sacraments together, &c., is an act of communion with the whole Catholic Church, though it must be performed in a particular congregation, because all Christians cannot meet in one place. Thus do we as fellow-members pray to God, the common Father of Christians, in the name of Christ, the common Saviour of Christians, for the same common blessings, for ourselves and all other Christians. Thus also the Supper of the Lord is not a private supper, but the common feast of Christians, and an act of Catholic communion. The only reason why we are bound to live in communion with any particular Church, is because we are members of the whole Christian Church. For we must live in communion with the whole Christian Church ; and this cannot be done without actual communion with some part of it. So that we have nothing else to do, but to consider, whether that part wherein we live be so sound, that we may lawfully live in communion with it ; and if it be, we are bound to do so under the peril of schism from the Catholic Church. If at any time we separate from such a sound part, we separate from the whole Church, because the communion of the Church is but one. Hence it appears that those Churches which are not members of each other, are separate Churches ; because the Catholic Church being but one, all particular Churches ought to be members of it. Every particular Church, in- deed, must have its limits, as every member in the body has its proper place ; but when there is one Church within the bowels of another, it is a notorious schism. Distinct Churches at a distance may be of the same communion ; but distinct Churches in the same place can never be so. All separation from a Church wherein we live, unless there be necessary reasons for it, is schism. It is true, a nation may permit those foreigners that are among them, to model their congregations according to APPENDIX. 369 the rules of those Churches, to which they originally be- long; and that without any danger of schism. For a bare variety of ceremonies makes no schism between Churches, while they live in communion with each other. Now every particular National Church has authority over her own members to prescribe the rules of worship : but as she does not impose upon other Churches at a distance, so she may allow the same liberty to the members of such foreign Churches, when they live within her jurisdiction. For though all true Churches are members of each other, yet each Church has a peculiar jurisdiction ; and therefore for the Church of England to allow foreigners to observe their own rules, is not to allow separate communion, but to leave them to the government of the Church, to which they be- long. So that distinct congregations of foreigners, who own the communion of our Church, though they observe the customs of their own, are not schismatical. But though two Churches may be in communion with each other, and yet not actually communicate together, because distance of place will not permit it ; yet it is impossible that two Churches, which, from a professed dislike, re- nounce each other^s communion, or at least withdraw ordi- nary communion from each other, should still continue in communion with each other: because they are opposite societies, founded upon contrary principles, and acting by contrary rules, and pursuing contrary ends, to the ruin and subversion of each other. Those again are separate Churches, which do not own each other's members as their own. The Christian Church is but one household and family; and whoever makes two families of it, is a schismatic. If Christians in the same kingdom hold separate assemblies under distinct kinds of government and different governours, and condemn each others' con- stitution and modes of worship, and endeavour to draw away members from each other, they cannot be thought to 3 c 370 APPENDIX. be one Church. Indeed we may as well say, that several sorts of government in the same nation, with distinct governours, distinct subjects and distinct laws, that are always at enmity and war with each other, are but one kingdom ; as we may say, that such congregations are but one Church. See Bennetts Abridgment of the London Cases, eh. 1. §. 1. APPENDIX, No. 18. Nothing less than sinful terms of communion can justify our separation from the Church whereof we are members ; for otherwise there would be no end of divisions, but men might new model Churches as often as their fancies altered. It is true a particular Church may be so corrupted, as that its members may be obliged to disunite themselves from it. For every man is obliged, by virtue of his being in any society, not to agree to any thing which tends to the apparent ruin of it. So that if any act that is apparently sinful, be enjoined by the particular Church whereof we are members, as a necessary condition of our communion with her, we are bound to abstain from it, for the sake of the general end of Christian society, which is the honour of God, and the salvation of souls. For instance, suppose the Church whereof we are members, require it as a condition of our communion, that we should transgress any just law of the commonwealth whereof we are subjects; in this case we are bound rather to desert that Churches communion, than live in wilful disobedience to the civil authority. Again, supposing one National Church to be subject to another, that which is subject is bound to refuse the communion of that which is superior, if it cannot enjoy it without complying with impositions that are apparently sinful. This is evidently the case between us and the Church APPENDIX. 371 of Rome, supposing that de jure we were once her subjects and members : for had we been so, we should doubtless never have separated ourselves from her, could we but have sepa- rated her sins from her communion; could we have pro- fessed her creed without implicitly believing all her cheats and impostures, or submitted ourselves to her guides without apparent danger of being misled by them into the pit of de- struction, or joined with her public services without worship- ping of creatures, or received her sacraments without practis- ing the grossest superstitions and idolatries. But when she made it necessary for us either to sin with or separate from her, we could have no other honest remedy but only to with- draw. And if in this our separation there had been a sinful schism on either side, we could have appealed to heaven and earth, whose the guilt of it was ; theirs that forced us upon it, or ours that were forced to it. But yet the case of our sepa- ration from the Church of Rome is very different from that of the separation of private members from their own particular Churches. For we affirm that the Church of Rome is but a particular Church, whose authority extends no farther than to its own native members, and consequently has no more power to impose laws of communion upon us, than we have upon her ; our particular Church being altogether as independent of her, as she is of ours. The case of private members, whether of our or any other particular Church, is vastly different. For if we will allow particular Churches to be so many formed societies of Chris- tians, (as we must do, or else degrade them into so many confused multitudes,) we must necessarily allow them to have a just authority (even as all other formed societies have) over their own members. That they have such authority, is evident, not only from the nature of the thing, but also from Scripture, where the Bishops and Pastors of particular Churches are said to be constituted by the Holy Ghost over- seers of their particular flocks ; which word both in sacred and 3 c2 372 APPENDIX. profane writings denotes a ruling power. Accordingly tliese overseers are elsewhere called ruling elders, (1 Tim. v. 17,) and the subjects and members of their Churches are required to " obey them, as those that have the rule over thein.^^ It is true in some cases, as I hinted before, withdrawing from the communion of a Church may be so far from being a re- bellion against Christ, that it may be an act of duty and obedience to him. For where Christ who is our supreme Lord, and our Ecclesiastical governours who are in authority under him, command things that are directly inconsistent, we are doubtless bound to obey him rather than them; yea, though their commands are not inconsistent in themselves, yet if we are fully persuaded they are, it is all one to us. For when we do what we falsely believe Christ has forbidden, we are in will as much rebels against his authority, as when we do what we truly believe he has forbidden. And by not com- plying with our spiritual governours, out of an innocent mis- persuasion that what they command is unlawful, wo, formally and in will as much obey Christ in so doing, as if it were really unlawful. So that in short, when the governours of the Church whereof we are members, impose as the conditions of our communion, things that are either unlawful in them- selveSy or that, after due examination, we verily believe are un- lawful, we are bound in obedience to the authority of Christ, rather to desert that communion, than to comply with the terms and conditions of it. But since to desert the commu- nion of a Church is a matter of great moment, it ought not to be done without the greatest caution and tenderness. For he that rejects sinful terms of communion without just inquiry and sufficient examination, is formally as much a schismatic, i. e. he is as much a rebel in will against Christ's spiritual authority in his Church delegates and vicegerents, as he that rashly rejects innocent and lawful ones. For had it been only the sinfulness of the conditions that displeased him, he would have made conscience before he presumed to reject it, duly to APPENDIX. 378 inform himself whether it were sinful or no ; but by thus re- jecting it at a venture, without a due inquiry into the nature of it, he plainly shews that it was not so much the sin that displeased him, as the authority that imposed it ; and that it was not his conscience that took offence at it, but his humour; and consequently that he would have had the same dislike of it, though it had been lawful and innocent. For conscience, being an act of the judgment and reason, cannot be offended without reason either real or apparent ; and without making a due inquiry into the nature of the thing we are offended at, we can have no reason that will either warrant or excuse our offence. Wherefore, before we reject the conditions of our Churches communion as sinful, we are obliged, under the penalty of wilful schism, impartially to inquire what is to be said for, as well as against them ; and where we are capable of judging, to peruse those arguments that make for the one side as well as the other. For unless we do so, it is plain that we are biassed by a factious disposition, and that we have a great inclination to separate from the Churches communion. If the matters which she imposes are such as a plain and illiterate communicant cannot judge of, nor compre- hend the force of the reasons that make for or against them, such persons in such cases are obliged humbly to acquiesce in the Churches authority, and not blindly to separate from her, they know not why. For instance, suppose the matter imposed should be such a form of government, or such modes of discipline, or rights and circumstances of Divine worship, as carry no such apparent evil in them, or express contradiction to any command of our Saviour — in such matters as these, where he cannot judge for himself, what must an unlearned communicant do ? Why he knows very well, that in all lawful things, it is his duty to submit to the governours of his Church, and reverence Christ's authority in them; but whether 374 APPENDIX. the above-named matters which they impose be lawful or no, he neither does nor can know. So that if upon the score of these impositions, he rejects the Church's com- munion, he rejects it he knows not why; and to avoid doing that which he does not know is a sin, he refuses to do that which he knows is a duty. Whether that which the Church imposes be lawful or no, it is apparent rebel- lion in him to refuse it ; because, for all that he knows, it is lawful ; and though it should be unlawful, yet that cannot be the motive of his non-compliance with it, who does not understand the reasons that make it so. He, therefore, that separates from the communion of the Church for causes that he cannot judge of, must neces- sarily separate without reason ; he can have neither true nor false pretence for his separation, because the arguments for and against are beyond the sphere of his cognizance ; and consequently, if he thereupon withdraws from the Church's communion, it is not because he cannot comply with her sinful impositions, but because he will not submit to her just authority. Whereas, by modestly submitting our judgment to the Church's, in cases where we cannot judge for ourselves, we take an effectual course to secure our innocence. For though that which the Church enjoins should be naturally sinful, yet to us who neither do nor can understand it to be so, it will be imputed only as an innocent error ; because by following the Churches reason, where our own cannot guide us, we take the best course we can not to be mistaken. And if we should be mis- taken, we have this to excuse us, that it was by following an authority which God himself has set over us ; whereas if we are mistaken on the other side, we are left altogether inexcusable. There may indeed be other conditions of Church com- munion, of whose lawfulness a communicant may be in doubt, though he be not confidently persuaded of it : what APPENDIX. 375 is to be done in this case ? To which I answer, that in cases of a doubtful nature, it is both modest and safe to subscribe to the judgment of our superiors ; because in so doing we have not only our own ignorance to excuse us, but their authority to warrant us. And if we should happen to be in the wrong , through our modesty and humu lity, it will be safer for us than to be in the right through our pride and self-conceit. But perhaps the probability of our side may be so great, or at least seem so to us, that though we give all due respect and deference to her authority, we cannot forbear doubting of the lawfulness of her conditions of communion. If so, then we should consider it is as much our duty to obey her commands in things that are lawful, as not to obey them in things that are unlawful; and therefore if we only doubt whether her commands be lawful or no, our doubt ought to make us as fearful of disobeying, as it does of obeying them, because the danger of sinning is on both sides equal. In this case, therefore, wherein we are necessitated to determine our- selves one way or the other, it is doubtless our duty to determine on that side which makes most for the Church's security and peace, which, next to the honour of God, and the salvation of souls, ought to be preferred above all things. The sum of all therefore is this, that it is our duty to continue in strict obedience to, and communion with, that particular Church whereof we are members, so long as it enjoins nothing that is plainly and apparently sinful; that if either we cannot judge of the sinfulness or lawful- ness of her conditions of communion, or only doubt of their lawfulness, we are bound to submit to her judgment and authority, and not to separate from her, till, upon an impartial inquiry into the reasons of both sides, we are fully convinced that those conditions are sinful. 376 APPENDIX. APPENDIX, No. 19. By the particular survey, which has been taken of the justifiable causes of separation from a Church, &c., it is no hard matter, I think, to know what schism is, and, in every division of the Church, who are the schismatics. The learned Enquirer, indeed, differs widely from the primitive Church about it, in the case of non-essentials, but then he differs also from himself. According to him all imposers in that case are schismatics of the highest nature : he taxes them with cruelty, tyranny, violation of the Church's concord, ^c. ; and yet in his own account of the discipline of the primitive Church, he shews us that there was as much imposition of that nature practised then, as he can any where complain of in any orthodox Church now. His account of primitive provincial Synods is this : They were assembled, amongst other things, for resolving all difficult points that did not wound the essentials of religion. (Enq. ch. viii. §. 9.) What were those resolutions but so many determinations one way or the other, as to what the Churches of the pro\dnces they belonged to should believe, in such non-essential matters as they so considered and resolved ? especially since he further adds, that what they there enacted, they decreed to be observed by all the faithful of those Churches whom they represented, or by all the members of them. (Ibid.) Now this right of debating non-essential points in Ecclesiastical Councils, of resolving and deter- mining about them there, and requiring all the Churches to which they belonged, to acquiesce in such Synodical determinations, is all the imposition that any orthodox Church, primitive or modern, can be charged with, in any difficult points that wound not the essentials of religion ; and, therefore, I cannot see with what sort of imposers the En- quirer can be so highly angry in this case, without reflect- ing on the sacred Synods of the primitive Church. APPENDIX. 377 APPENDIX, No. 20. The secret of our Enquirer's singular way of reasoning seems to lie here. Some charitable expedient was to be found out to support certain schismatics with the comfort- able hope, that though they broke the unity of the parti- cular Church whereof they were members, yet that they might still continue in the unity of the Church Universal ; especially if the points in controversy between them were matters only of rites or non-essentials. If the unity of the Episcopacy had been admitted for an essential bond of Catholic unity, (as it really was in the judgment of the primitive Church,) that comfortable expedientj and this whole scheme of diversity of unities j had been lost together ; as appears, I think, by the particular account which has been given of them. In the eighth chapter the Enquirer gives us a just account from antiquity of the admirable harmony and mutual correspondence of every particular Church with one another in those primitive times. So blessed a precedent of unity throughout the Catholic Church, every succeeding age, however degenerate, must venerate ; and all good men must lament the fatal breaches which uncha- ritable schisms have made in it since, and with a holy, though hopeless, emulation, I fear, in these divided times of ours^ must wish and pray to see such heavenly concord in the Churches upon earth again. Yet however irre- coverable so great a blessing may seem to be, let every disciple of the peaceful Jesus, so far contribute to it still, as to ask his own heart, with all the strictness and sin- cerity he can, what occasion he in particular has given for so sad a change — let him be persuaded to imitate more closely, for the time to come, the primitive Christians in the peaceableness of their temper and disposition ; and 3 D 378 ArPENDix. let him earnestly entreat the Prince of Peace^ and God of Love, to heal our breaches, to compose onr differences, and cause us " with all lowliness and meekness, with long- suffering, to forbear one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace/' FINIS. AN INDEX OF THE MOST MATERIAL THINGS CONTAINED IN THE REMARKS AND APPENDIX. Acts xiv. 23 considered, Appendix, No. 10. African Synod's practice, in the election of a Bishop, 92. Alexandria, Dionysius Alexandri- nus's account of his own Church of, Appendix, No. 2. absurdity of affirming that the See of, had but one congregation in it, 72, 73. Altar, St. Ignatius' s one, in a Dio- cese, accounted for, 35, 36. Ancients, that they expressly affirm there were but two orders in the Church, not proved by the En- quirer, 139. Anonymous author in Eusebius, the Enquirer's authority from, exa- mined and refuted, 259. Antioch, See of, absurdity of affirm- ing that it had but one congrega- tion in it, 58. Apostacy, case of, in Pastors, consi- dered, 292. Apostles, the Enquirer's misappre- hension of the different powers conferred by them on the several Elders they ordained, a main ground for his mistake, yet easy to be rectified by some observa- tions of his own, 12, 13, and Ap- pendix, No. 3. constituted and ordained Pastors in the Church, without any suffrage or election of the people, 87, and Appendix, No. 10. and so did those secondary Apostles St.Paul and St. Barnabas, 88, and A.ppendix, No. 10. clerical titles indifferently used during their times, why, 132, 133. Apostolical Bishop in every true Church of Christ, the Catholic test 3 D of distinction between truth and heresy of old, 17. Approbation, people's, joined by some provinces to the Episcopal authority in ordinations, why, 92 —97, 101, and Appendix, No. 12. Authoritative or judicial act, the word suffrage made equal to, by the Enquirer, 94. B. Barnabas, St., ordained Pastors with- . out any popular election, 88, and Appendix, No. 10. Basilides and Martialis, two Spanish Bishops, case of, 292. Bishop, to style the single Bishop of any Church, the supreme Bishop of it, contrary to the language of all antiquity, 15, 16. artful use made by the Enquirer, of the titles of his Supreme Bishop, 19. primi- tive, could assign distinct places, and Presbyters to officiate in them within his own Diocese, confessed by the Enquirer, 30. that all re- ceived at the Bishop's hands, in Tertullian's time, a mistake, 39. that he alone baptized all, a mis- take also, 41. and that he took a personal care for all in want or distress, 43. a mistake again about the Bishop of Smyrna's personal knowledge of all his Diocese, 53. the primitive manner of placing a Bishop in a vacant See, misre- presented in the Enquiry, 85, 86. where the people were present at the consecration of, the Synod chose the person, and the people gave their testimony of his life and conversation, 92, 93, equality of 2 380 INDEX. order in Bishop and Presbyter, asserted by the Enquirer, 104. that a Presbyter had not an inhe- rent right in his orders to perform the whole office of a Bishop, prov- ed, 107, 108, &e. primitive con- firmation appropriated to the Bi- shop alone, 128, 129, &c. title of, peculiarly appropriated to the first order of Ecclesiastics in the primi- tive Church, after the Apostles' times, 135. the Enquirer affirms, that to elect and depose their Bi- shop, were peculiar acts belonging to lay-members, 198 — 201. Bishops might write letters in the name of their people, and not have all present, 49, 50. some short re- marks on Bishops placed in vil- lages, 75—77. the texts 1 Tim. iii. 2, 10, and Titus i. 6, (that Bishops and Deacons must be proved first, and found to be blameless,) imply no popular election in them, 88, and Appendix, No, 10. neither Tertullian nor Firmilian refer to the presidency of the Presbyters with their Bishops in the pi-ivate Consistories, as co-partners with them in the executive part of the Ecclesiastical Court, 113—117. the Divine and Apostolical institu- tion of Bishops, Priests, and Dea- cons in the Church, observed from Clemens Alexandrinus's account of St. John the Apostle's solemn ordinations, 159 — 161. the En- quirer owns that the ancients both used the authority of a Synod for deposing Bishops, and ascribed the thing itself to them, 201. he owns that some of the ancients un- derstood that power given to St, Peter, (Matt. xvi. 18, 19,) as pe- culiar to Bishops only, and tliat Origen and St. Cyprian agreed to it, so long as the Bishops were orthodox, 210, 211. he affirms, that Presbyters, Deacons, and Lay-representatives, as well as Bishops, had a right of session in the primitive Synods, 255 — 259. Candidates, to ordain in the presence and cognizance of the people, was wise in the ancients, and is still continued in the Church of Eng- land, 180, 181. Carthage, the See of, had more than one congregation in it, 65 — 69. the letter of the Roman Presbyters to those at, does not imply that they could do all their Bishop could do, 125—128. Catholic test of distinction between truth and heresy of old, 17. Ceremonies, the observance of, more important than the Enquirer al- lows, 275. the imposers of, unduly censured by him, 278, 279. Church, the Enquirer asserts a con- gregational foi-m of it, 3. his obser- vation of the word, (rarely used for a collection of Churches,) shewn to be neither material nor just, 6. his first division of the members of a Church just and unexceptionable, 10. the Apostolical Bishop in eve- ry true, what, 17. a primitive Dio- cese called a Church (in the singu- lar number) no proof of the con- gregational form of it, 20, 21. that the phrase before the Church, im- plied the presence of every indivi- dual at once, shewn to be a mistake, 44,45. Enquirer's positive definition of the unity of the Church Univer- sal, defective, why, 284—286. the word, Church, employed by sacred and primitive writers in more than two different senses, Appendix, No. 1. well defined in our 19th Article, ibid. Churches (in the plural) often attributed to a single Diocese by the ancients, 20, 21. Jerusalem, the original platform of Christian Churches, 26. the Churches, the Churches of God, &c.. Appendix, No. 1. Clemens Alexandrinus, the occasion of passages quoted from him con- sidered, 147 — 153, his account of St. John the Apostle's ordinations, 159—101. Clemens Romanus, his phrase itcctTV)!, directly answers to St. Cyprian's notion of the word suffrage, 96. authority from, ex- amined, 139 — 141. quotation from, foreign to the application which the Enquirer makes of it, 218—220. INDEX. 381 Clerical titles, indifferently used all the Apostles' times, why, 132, 133. Communion, abstaining from, and setting up a new altar, distinguish- ed, 290, 291. Confirmation, primitive, true nature of, explained, 128—131. Congregation, every single, in the primitive Church, had not a power within themselves to exercise all Ecclesiastical discipline, 245-247. congregational form of Church asserted by the Enquirer, 3. pri- mitive Dioceses were not congre- gational, 246. Cyprian, mistake about his Diocese commimicating with him all at once, 37, 38. his account of the African Synod's practice in pub- lic ordinations, 92 — 95. his no- tion of the word svffrage cleared, 94, 95. his promotion and that of Cornelius, to their respective Sees, urged by the Enquirer for proofs of popular elections, 90. what Rogatianus and Numidicus did by his order, no proof of a power of excommu- nication in his Presbyters, 118, 119. much less do the quotations from his letters to the Presbyters and Deacons prove that they could do all that their Bishop could do, 123, 124. does not call his Presby- ters his colleagues, 154 — 156. his resolution to consult his Pres- bytery, whenever he ordained, was wholly grounded on a private purpose of his own, 168 — 173. that he understood the power of the keys given to St. Peter (Matt, xvi. 18, 19) as peculiar to Bishops only, so long as they were ortho- dox, owned by the Enquirer, 210, 211. he is again quoted to prove the people's power in the Consis- tory, 221. no quotation from him implies any such thing either in respect to the judicial acts of cen- suring or absolving offenders, or any one particular relating to them, 222, 223, 225—229. the sense of that primitive martyr in points of Ecclesiastical discipline com- pared with that of the Enquirer,and the difference shewn, 236—240. the example of his Council against the lapsed, discussed, 260 — 264. the Enquirer's unfair construc- tion of Cyprian's words respecting the unity of the Episcopacy, 300, 301. D. Deacons, the seven, case of, consider- ed. Appendix, No. 12. Divine and Apostolical institution of, observ- ed from Clemens Alexandrinus's account of St. John the Apostle's ordinations, 159 — 161. by a mis- taken passage in St. Ignatius, styled Deacons of the meats and cups : cleared of that title, and styled Ministers of the Church of God, 163. equality of orders in Deacons and Subdeacons, sup- posed by the Enquirer, but shewn to be a mistake, and against matter of fact, 164, 165. that they had a right of session in the primitive Synods, affirmed by the Enquirer, 255 — 259. they might have had a just cause for abstaining from communion, but no right to set up a new altar, 293. Diocese, aprimitive,calleda Church, when a plurality of congregations was notorious, 20, 21. Churches, in the plural, often attributed by the ancients to a single Diocese, though the Enquirer overlooked it, 20. his argument from a primi- tive Diocese, and a modern Eng- lish parish called by the common name of 'koc^oikhx considered at large, and refuted, 22 — 25. a pri- mitive Bishop could assign dis- tinct places, and Presbyters to officiate in them, within his own Diocese, 30. Ignatius' s one altar in a Diocese, accounted for, 35, 36. Enquirer's mistake about Cy- prian's Diocese communicating with him all at once, 37, 38. and about Bishop of Smyrna's per- sonal knowledge of all his Dio- cese, 53. of the Diocese of Mag- nesia having but one Church in it, 55, 56. further proof that pri- mitive Dioceses were not congre- gational, 246. 382 INDEX. Dionysius Alexandrinus's words, Enquirer's precarious construc- tion of, 4, and Appendix, No. 2. Discipline, Ecclesiastical, judgment of Cyprian, in relation to points of, 237 — 240. every sii)gle congre- gation in the primitive Church had not a power within them- selves to exercise all, 245 — 247. Division of Ecclesiastical provinces, remarks on the Enquirer's sin- gular notion of the first, 251, 252. E. Ecclesiastical Court, 113, 209. discipline, 236—240, 245. provinces, 251, 252. Elders ordained hy the Apostles, Enquirer's mistake ahout, 12, 13, Appendix, No. 3. Election, popular, of Pastors in the primitive Church, not proved hy the Enquirer, 85—90, 92—95, 197, 198, Appendix, No. 8, 10, and 12. England, Church of, ordains in the presence of the people, 180, 181. primitive qualifications for Holy Orders required by the constitu- tion of the Church of, 173—175. English parish and a primitive Dio- cese called by the common name of TToc^oDcioi, Enquirer's argument from, 22—25. Episcopacy, unity of, essential to the unitv of the Catholic Church, 285, 286', 300, 301. Episcopal charge, the sense of anti- quity about several parts of, 80 — 83. Episcopal authority, people's appro- bation sometimes joined to, in ordinations, why, 92 — 97, Ap- pendix, No. 11. Epistle, synodical, of the Council at Antioch, 255. Equality of order in Bishop and Presbyter, Enquirer's reasons for, shewn to be of no force, 104, 107 —119, &c. Eusebius, passage from, contradicts the whole scheme for which it was produced, 31. anonymous author in, quoted by the Enquirer, 259. Excommunication, power of, 117 — 119. F. Fabianus, his promotion to the Bishopric of Rome, 89. Felicissimus, his schism in the Church of Carthage, 117—119, 306—308. i Firmilian, meaning of his majores ^ natu, 115 — 117. his words do not imply a power of ordination in Presbyters, ibid, his opinion re- specting the power of the keys, 215—218. G. Government nnd policy of the pri- mitive Church in her Ecclesiasti- cal courts, the Enquirer's opinion of, 209, 210. Governours of the Church, Holy Scripture places the entire power of ordination in, 87, and Appen- dix, No. 10. Gregory, his Church in Neocaesarea, an instance against the Enquiry, Appendix, No. 4. H. Herculanus and Caldonius, 65, 66. Heresy and truth, Catholic test of distinction between, 17. case of heresy in Pastor, 293, 294. Holy Orders, primitive qualifica- tions for, 173 — 176, &c. I. Identity of title or appellation, En- quirer's argument from, shewn to be of no force, 132—135. Ignatius, the meaning of several passages from, cleared, 29 — 37. his iracvruv Itt* to txvro arvnKtvais, and his t^tot oiv^ais, severally accounted for, 31, 34. a mistaken passage in, 163. Immorality, cases of, in Pastors, 294—298. Impartiality, the Enquirer's rather doubtful, 103. Imposers of rites and ceremonies INDEX. 383 unduly censured by the Enquirer, 275, 276, and Appendix, No. 16. as also the imposers of non-essen- tials, 277, 279—283. Indiiferent things. Appendix, No, 16. Inequality of order in Bishop and Presbyter, included in the En- quirer's definition of a Presbyter, 104. Irenseus, Enquirer's first authority from, proves nothing to his pur- pose, 3. a passage from, examined, 143 — 146. his censure of schism, 295—299. Isaiah Ix. 17. referred to, 146, 147. Jerusalem, the Church of, 26. Alex- ander's promotion to the See of, 88, 89. John, St. the Apostle's, solemn ordi- nations, 159—161. ch. XX. 21, 22, 23, considered. Appendix, No. 15. Justin Martyr, misrepresented in the Enquiry, 29. K. Keys, the power of the, 209—218, Appendix, No. 15; L. Laity and Clergy, the Enquirer af- firms, that they were in joint com- mission, and all of them judges in the Ecclesiastical Courts of the primitive Church, 209, 210. and that lay-representatives, as well as Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons, had a right of session in the primi- tive Synods, 255—260. of the laity coming to Synods in the primitive times, 263, 264. Lapsed, Cyprian's Council against • the, 260—264. Letters, Bishops might write, in the name of their people, without having all present, 49, 50. the letter of the Roman Presbyters to those at Carthage, 125—128. M. Magnesia, Diocese of, 55, 56. Maintenance of Ministers in the primitive times, 177 — 179, and Appendix, No. 14. Majores natu, meaning of Firmili- an's, 115—117. Martialis and Basilides, 292. Matricula, 53, 54, 66. Matthew, St. xvi. 18, 19. xviii. 17, 18, referred to, 210—215, and Appendix, No. 15. Matthias, St. and the seven Deacons, case of, considered, Appendix, No. 12. Maximus, Bishopof Alexandria, 49. Meats and cups. Deacons of the, improperly so styled, 163. Members and Ministers of the Church, rightly divided by the Enquirer, 10. members of the primitive Synods, 255 — 259. Mix OBYia-ts, Ignatius's, accounted for, 33, 34. N. Natalis, 61, 62. Neocaesarea, Church in. Appendix, No. 4. Nepos, a Bishop in Egypt, 245, 246. Non-essentials, 276, 277. Novatian, his schism, 306, 307. Numidicus, 118, 119. Observance of mere ceremonies im- portant, 275, 276. Order, equality of, in Bishop and Presbyter, asserted by the En- quirer, 107,108. his second general argument for it, considered and refuted, 132 — 135. his third gene- ral reason, viz. that the ancients expressly affirm there were but two orders in the Church, holds good in none of the authorities quoted for it,139,140. to strengthen his notion of the equal orders of Bishop and Presbyter, he supposes the same in Deacons and Sub- deacons, 164, 165. primitive quali- fications for Holy Orders, reduced to four heads, 173. 384 INDEX. Ordination, the entire power of, placed by Scripture in the gover- nours of the Church, 87, Appen- dix, No. 10. Enquirer makes the ordination and instalment of a Bishop, equivocal and convertible terms, 97, 98, 109. Firmilian's words, quoted by the Enquirer, do not imply a power of, in Presbyters, 115 — 117. people's approbation joined by some provinces to the Episcopal authority in ordina- tions, why, 92—97, 100, 101, Ap- pendix, No. 12. Origen, his exposition of Matt. xvi. 18, 19, received by the Enquirer, 210. Original right not distinguished from some particular practice in placing a Bishop in a vacant See, 85, &c. P. Ilatruv siii to avro crvn'Kzvats, Ignatius's, 31 — 33. na^o/x/a, 22—25. Particular Church, the Enquirer's positive definition of, 3. the rela- tion between each, and the Uni- versal Church, considered, 288, Appendix, No. 17. how the schism of one affected other Churches, 312, 313. Pastors, the several cases of apos- tacy, heresy, and immorality in, considered at large, 292—297. Paulus Samosatenus, 50, 60, 201, 258, 293. People, letters written in their name by primitive Bishops, 49, 50. the phrase, in t/ie presence of the peo- ple, did not imply the presence of every individual at once, 44, 45. in the primitive times, sometimes present at the consecration of their Bishop, why, 92, 93. and joined their approbation to the Episcopal authority in ordina- tions, 96, 100, Appendix, No. 12. Enquirer's pretended example of the people in Spain deposing their Bishops, 292. Cyprian quoted to prove the people's power in the Consistory, 222, 223. Presbyters, Deacons, and people had no right to set up altar against altar, 290, 291. Peter, St., power of the keys pro- mised to, 209, 215. Popular elections of Pastors, St. Paul's instructions about, 88, Appendix, No. 10. Enquirer's two instances of, in the primitive Church, considered, 88, 89. not countenanced by the case of St. Matthias and the seven Deacons, Appendix, No. 12. Power of ordination, 87, 88, Ap- pendix, No. 12. passage in Firmi- lian about, 115 — 117. Presbyters appointed by a primitive Bishop to distinct places within his Diocese, 30. equality of order in Bishops and Presbyters, assert- ed by the Enquirer, 104, 107, &c. Presbyter had not an inherentright in his orders to perform the whole office of a Bishop, 107, 108, &c. when advanced to the station of a Bishop could perform such cleri- cal offices as he could not before, 108—112. The Enquirer brings forwai-d passages from TertuUian and Firmilian, to prove that Bishops and Presbyters had an equal right and power to baptize, confirm, and ordain, 113 — 117. he affirms that Presbyters excommu- nicated, and restored penitents to the Church, 117—119. the text 1 Tim. iv. 14 {with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery) considered, 121, 122. the word Presbytery does not always denote the Bishops and Presbyters of a particular Church or parish, 122, 123. the quotations from Cyprian's letters to the Presbyters and Dea- cons do not prove that they could do all their Bishop could do, 123, 124. nor does the letter of the Roman Presbyters to those at Carthage imply any such thing, 125 — 1:^8. Presbyters could not confirm, 128 — 131. invested with important trusts in the Church, 131. Enquirer's second general argument considered, viz. that Presbyters were originally called by the same titles as the Bishops themselves, 132 — 135. Enquirer INDEX. 385 affirms that there were but two Ecclesiastical orders, viz. Bishops and Deacons, or Presbyters and Deacons : his mistake shewn, 139 — 141. passage from Clemens Romanus respecting Presbyters, proves nothing to the Enquirer's purpose, 143. nor does his autho- rity from Irenseus, 143 — 146. nor Isaiah Ix. 17, 146, 147. nor the passage quoted from Clemens Alexandrinus, 147 — 153. Cyprian does not call his Presbyters his colleagues^ 154—156. the En- quirer's singular reason for the number of Presbyters in many particular primitive Churches,157. the orders of Presbyters and Dea- cons apostolically settled in the days of St. John, 161. Enquirer's account of the primitive manner of ordaining Presbyters, 167, 168. why Cyprian consulted his Pres- bytery when he ordained, 169 — 173. the Enquirer asserts that the clerical Presbytery prepared mat- ters for the spiritual court, 225, 226. that the proper members of the Synodical Assemblies were Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, and deputed laymen, 255 — 260. an ac- count given of the Presbyters coming to Synods in the primi- tive times, 267, 268. Q. Qualifications for the ministry, na- ture of, inconsistent with a popu- lar election of Pastors, Appendix, No. 10. primitive qualifications for Holy Orders required by the constitution of the Church of England, 173—175. R. Rights and privileges of lay-mem- bers in the Church, see Laity. Rite of advancing a Presbyter to the station of a Bishop, 107 — 110. Rites and ceremonies, the imposers of, unduly censured, 275, 276. Rogatianus and Numidicus, 1 18,1 19. Rome, the See of, 61—63. Fabia- nus's promotion to it, 89. letter of 3 the Roman Presbyters, 125— 128. S. Sabinus, 46. Schism, 274, 282—286, 290, 291, 300, 301, 306, 308, 312, 313, 3J6, 317, and Appendix, Nos. 16, 17, 18, 20. Secondary Apostles, ordained Pas- tors without any suffrage of the people, 88, Appendix, No. 10. See, the primitive manner of placing a Bishop in a vacant one, misre- presented in the Enquiry, 85, 86. Separation from a Church, justifiable causes of, 292, Appendix, No. 18. Smyrna, the Diocese of, not a mere congregational Church, 53. Spanish Bishops, how deposed, 292. Stephen, Bishop of Rome, 279—281. Subdeacons could not discharge the necessary ministrations of Dea- cons, 164, 165. Subscription of the brethren was not the Minister's maintenance in the primitive times, (as the Enquirer makes it,) but of a very different nature, 177—179. Suffrage, the word misconstrued by the Enquirer, 90, 94, 95, Appen- dix, No. 10. a-vyiv^0Kvi(Tda"ifis rv)S ExxXno-Zaj irda-vts directly answers to it, 96, 97. Supreme Bishop, the Enquirer's, 15, 16, 19. Synods, 92, 201, 255—259, 267, 268. Synodical Epistle, 255. T. Tertullian, 5, 14, 15, 27, 34, 39, 113 —117, 213— 215, &c. Testimony, the people's part in Ordinations, 92, 93. Timothy, 1st Ep. to, iii. 2, 10, im- plies no popular election of Pas- tors, 88, Appendix, No. 10. 1st Ep. iv. 14, considered, 121, 122. Tithes, 177—179, Appendix, No. 14. Title,Enquirer's argument for equal- ity of order from the identity of, shewn to be of no force, 108, 109. E 386 INDEX. Clerical titles, why indifferently used during the Apostles* times, 132, 133. Titus i. 6 considered, Appendix, No. 10. U. Unity of the Church, the Enquirer's four kinds of it, is a notion of his own, 274. the ohservance of cere- monies and non-essentials of more importance to the unity of the Church Universal, than he allows, 275—279, Appendix, No. 16. his positive definition of the unity of the Church Universal, without the unity of the Episcopacy im- plied in it, is defective, 284—286, 300, 301. his four kinds of unity centre at last in one, 288, Appen- dix, No. 17. Unity of the Episcopacy, 35, 36, 285, 286, 300,301. V. Yillages, some short remarks on Bishops placed in, 75 — 77. Z. Zephyrinus, 61. CORRIGENDA ET ADDENDA. THE ENQUIRY. Page, 1, last line for examin, read examine 10, line 2, after a^sX^oi add , 13, — 6, after Tertullian add, 21, — 11, for whatsover read whatsoever 47, line 11, for 7 read 8 71, — 1, for assailed read assailed Page. 98, line 26, for apparant read apparent 114, linel after because add in it, 132, — 6, for was read were 192, — 4, after tho add Ae 196, — 29, for bear read Aear 231, — 6, for shuning read 290, line 21, for ordinary read ordinarily MARGIN. J%e Reader is apprised that the long list, immediately following, does not consist wholly or chiefly of errors of the press : a consider- able portion here noted {indeed nearly the whole) are errors copied from the margins of the original editions of the Enquiry, but which the Editor, for obvious reasons, has not thought fit to alter in the body of the reprint, especially as he was unable to meet with the particular editions of the Authors quoted by the Enquirer. The Editor ventures to hope that the correction of any inaccuracies which may have escaped his notice, will be kindly supplied by the Reader himself. 2, line 2, for izquruv read tte- line 5, for 2 read 3 — 8 and 13, for ®zov read ©cow 5, line 15, for Padag. read Pcedag. 9, line 13, do. do. 17, line 12, dele habens 18, line 1, after ordinatum read itidem : — 1 , for proinde read pe- rinde, and add et ceterco after utique 29, line 3, after InztaKoitos add, 32, line 1, for 7rfao-o-»jre read 388 CORRIGENDA ET ADDENDA. Page, 33. line 1. for read read add read read 34, line 3, after yaf add , 37, line 2, for celehramus read celehremus 38, line 3, after ymrxt insert 40, line 5, for iaix syp^af/o-r/a read (aiS sv^x^ia-riac 42, line 1, for antistis antistitis manu 43, line 3, after aitKus itoiari 53, line 2, for Jox//xao-» 56, line 6, for tvavnlhroi 57, line 1, after dele , line 2, for Epistp read Epist, line 9, after lari)) add to^t l<7T/y and after kititjM'nov add 64, line 13, dele tov irdvrx Xxlv and see pp. 89, 90 67, — 2, instead of celehramus it should be celehremus 69, line 5, for ponderate read ponderare 79, line II, after (ji,t§ia-txi add , — 16, for /lAi^E read /xu^e 89, — 3, after Eina-y.oTrnv add , 90,— I, for ev^o^co read h^o^uy — 6, for amiiQiQ^crOaii read line 7, after ^Mviyi.onvovat add, line 10, for w read w — 12, for ir^oQuiAiac 'rcdtno read '7t§oQv(jt.ioc voiavf line 13, after Iwr/So^o-a; add- • line 15, for sTCio-KoirTs read Tjv ayytxa-BV Page. 9 1 , line 1 1 , for fAenxycotvris read 93, line 2, after ordinatur dele . and insert , 94, line 9, for deferetur read deferretur 98, line 9, for Fortunatam read Fortunatum line 16, for read rivayxao-Ev 105, line 1 2, after l7r/T^e4/>7 add • 119, — 2, after tt/xsW add , and for a7ra>.AaTTo/x£yo/y read a'na.KKotrToiA.hovs 141, line 6, after S/axovow dele • 148, — 2, for 'Tna-ycotrm read ETT/O-KOTTWy 150, line 3, for ^zra, read /iajv — 4, for iyxaraAayyjvai read iy>La,roira,y^va.i 156, line 3, after ^ovK-natus add , — 4, after Kvqiou add , — 8, for Tc^oroKxOe^^ix read TrfwroxaQH^f/a line 10, for ricrcroc^oi read 163, line 4, for 'rtx^a.'Koe.^uv read /;A£TaXa/3£9tw add , line 3, after Uer^os add , — 6, after ^sJE/xsva add , — 9, after XeXvo-^ok add , — 10, after \tyova-iv add , 212, — 1, for TiKiwZroi read rr)Kfn.ovroi line 1, after t\crtv add , i Page. '219, line 1, for ^ovKia^t read ' ^ovXyxT^E 231, line 6, after devitare in- sert . and after enim insert superextendit damnationem in eos line 17, after to/o^^s add , — 19, for avrh read avrlv 232, — 1 0, after moc?e'5/2«? add , 305, — 4, after 'rt§oi3(7e read 61, line 2, for ru read t« — - 3, for Toy read rovs — 5, for ruv read ruv 63, — 11, for v.ot.rx read /xsra 66, — 2, for coram read eorum 67, line 4, for fratram read fratrmn 69, line 6, for communices read communicet 85, line I, for §. 4. read §. 3. 94, line 3, for prositult read prosiliit CORRIGENDA ET ADDENDA. 891 Page. 104, line 1, for §. 2. read §. 3. 112, — 1, for rov read rov 119, — 1, for hors read non — 4, for usque read ur- gere line 7, for possit read pos- sint 129, line 15, after invocaretur add et 1 35, line 9, for Poly carp, read Ephes 150, line 1, for lyx.a.rx'Kot.y^vxi read lyxarajrayriva/ 153, line 7, for 'O^a^ olas wef* T6;y read 'O^Sis olx tte^ * rwv line 9, for a^i'x read a|/av 165, — 5, for aTTovE/xijTa/ read 178, line 8. after bU add to — 21, after c?mm«re add, — 22, after omnia dele , 213, — 2, for UxXriata. read 219, line 8, for TtoXirtvi/.ivovs read 7roX}<7"Ev 328, line 2, after ovto;^ dele , 341, __ 1, for 191 read 91 342, — 4, for t^s read t^v — 6, for T*jj- read r^is ':n PRINTED BY BINNS AND GOODWIN, CHEAP STREET, BATH. 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