usual Sermons Those who have received the gift of Writing shall be chosen by the Provinces and if it happens any Book be Publish'd against the Orthodox Religion it shall be sent to them that they may answer it a Colloque being deputed in each Province to inspect what shall be Writ and Publish'd to dispose of the Copies as shall be thought fit CONFORMITY There was never greater Liberty of Writing than in the first Ages of the Church at which time every body writ in the manner which he thought best and most convenient without being obliged to communicate his Works to any to be Examin'd for their Approbation nevertheless seeing there has been at all times amongst Christians some Bishops and Pastors fitter for this purpose than others such were for the most part employ'd for the defence of the Truth against Schismaticks and Hereticks It was for this Cause that the Book of Phaebadius or Phaegadius Bishop of Agen in Guien written against the Arrians of the East and West holds the Degree of the Epistle of a Council of Vaison of the Year 358. P. 3. Paris 1666. and bears the Name in the Supplement of the Councils of France St. Austin even to his Death was the Pen of Africa against the Enemies of the Church particularly against the Donatists and Pelagians and St. Fulgentius in the following Age succeeded him in a manner in the same Office especially during the time that above Sixty African Bishops of which Number he was one was Exil'd into the Isle of Sardegnia for although he was the youngest of them all the Author of his Life does observe that he was the Mouth and Spirit And it may yet be said of these two famous Writers That they exactly observed the Modesty Sobriety and Decorum prescribed by our Discipline to all those who put Pen to Paper for the Defence and Vindication of Truth Examples which should be carefully imitated and in the mean time condemn the rashness of Agobard Bishop of Lyons who Writing in the 9th Century against Amalarius Fortunatus cruelly rails against him and much more that of Lucifer Bishop of Caillari against the Emperor Constantius in the Library of the Fathers Tom. 9. of the Edition of Paris 1644. XVI Ministers should not pretend Precedency one over the other CONFORMITY S. Jerom informs us in in his Commentaries upon the Epistle to Titus and in his Letter to Evagrius That at the beginning of Christianity the Churches were Govern'd by the joynt advice of the Priests or Elders and this form of Government lasted until that by the instinct of the Devil there arose Parties in Religion saith the same St. Jerom for then recourse must be had to Election so that to avoid Schisms and Divisions one of the Company was chose to whom Election gave the precedency to all the rest whereas before it was the time of promotion as is testified by the Deacon Hillary in his Commentaries upon the 4th Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians amongst the Works of St. Ambrose for he saith That at first the Priests were called Bishops and that the one being Dead the other Succeeded that is to say That it was granted to the Ancientest Priest in promotion to bear the first rank or place this primacy being a primacy of Order and not of Power and Authority over others the only primacy forbidden by our Discipline in effect the first admitted held the first place in the Pesbytery just as the Dean amongst Councellors of Parliament or as the Dean of Prebends in a Chapter From hence it is also that after the Establishing of the Hierarchy in the Church Equality was still observed amongst the Clergy except 't was in the Power of Metropolitans over the Bishops of their Provinces and also it was a very limitted Power seeing it consisted only in the right of calling the Synods of their Provinces to preside and to take notice of all Ecclesiastical matters which passed in the compass of their District only but could not decide nor determin without the consent of their Suffragans after the manner of speaking at this time As for all the rest they had no kind of prerogative but the Order according to the time of their Reception the which is punctually observ'd amongst us and accordingly St. Austin finds it strange that in the Letter which the Primate of Numidia writ to his Brother Bishops to Assemble them in a Synod I say he thinks it strange to see himself named the third in it knowing that there were several others before him which saith he is injurious to others and exposes me to envy Ep. 207 To. 2. And in the Life of St. Fulgentius Bishop of Rusp in Africa which the Jesuit Chifflet caus'd to be Printed at Dijon An. Dom. 1649. with the Works of the Deacon Forran it is observed Chap. 20. That in the Assemblies of Exil'd Bishops in Sardignia he was seated lowest of all although he was the most considerable in Worth and Value because he had been last of all Ordain'd to be Bishop Tom. 4. Conc. p. 422. The 86th Canon of the African Code so appoints it the 24th of the first Council of Prague in the Year 563. Ordains the same thing as also the 3d of the 4th Council of Toledo in the Year 633. and the 112th Letter of Gregory I. his 7th Book to which we may add the 6th Letter of Hincmar Chap. 16. in the 16th Tome of the Library of the Fathers Ibid. p. 581. Page 408. It is the Reason that in Africa one was enjoyn'd to observe the precise day of Promotion and the Consulat African Code Can. 89. which is the 14th of Mileva Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury held a Synod Anno 679. the 8th Canon whereof is conceiv'd in these terms Apud Bedan Hist l. 4. c. 5. Let no Bishop prefer himself before another through ambition but let every one know the Time and Order of their Ordination XVII Ministers shall preside in Order in their Consistories to the end that none might pretend superiority over each other and none of them shall give testimony of any matter of importance until they have first communicated it to the Ministers his Brethren and Companions CONFORMITY This Article is only a continuance of the former for if there is to be an Equality amongst Ministers so that they cannot pretend superiority one above the other it is just that when there are several in one Church that they should preside every one in his Turn and Rank in the Consistory and that none of them should do any thing of his own head without taking along the advice of his Brethren and even of all those who have share in the conduct of the Flock especially when there is question of any thing of importance XVIII Heed shall be taken to avoid the Custom practis'd in some places of deputing certain Ministers by the Provincial Synods to visit Churches the Order hitherto used being sufficient to have cognisance
be done by approbation of the Synod which shall put another in the place of him they send away Thence it is that Pope Gellasius the first doth not always simply condemn these Translations but only then when they are made without cause Hinemar Archbishop of Rhemes in the Ninth Century authorizes these Changes when there is good cause for them or necessity and that 't is done by Order of the Synod and he also produces sundry instances of this practise I do not mention the first Epistle of Pelagius the second who establishes or rather approves for the like motives these kind of Translations because I am perswaded 't is false and spurious XXXI When a Minister is persecuted or for some other cause cannot exercise his Office in the Church whereunto he was appointed he may be sent elsewhere by the said Church or an exchange shall be made of him for some other for a time by the consent and good liking of both the Churches But if the Minister will not submit to the judgment of both Churches he shall impart the reasons of his refusal to the Consistory and there it shall be judged if they are sufficient and if they are not found to be so and that yet the Minister persists to refuse the said Office the difference shall be transferred to the next Provincial Synod or to the Colloque if the Churches are of one and the same Colloque CONFORMITY The ancient Christians which had foreseen the inconvenience which regards our Discipline in this Article have made divers Rules to remedy it In the year of our Lord 347 the Council of Sardis in these terms set down the words of their last Canon If violence be done to a Bishop and that he be cast out unjustly through malice for the Discipline he has exercised or for the Catholick Faith which he confessed or for the truth which he defended and that being innocent and flying from danger he comes to another Church let him not be hindered to abide there until such time as he can return and that an end be put to the trouble which he suffers for it would be cruel not to receive with all humanity and good will him which suffers persecution 〈◊〉 20. The Council of Chalcedon which forbids to quit the Church one has served in from the first time of ones promotion Excepts those which having been constrained to forsake their Country have passed into another Church according to which Gregory the First established a certain Bishop call'd John which had been driven away from his Church by the Enemy which had taken possession of the place I say he setled him in another on condition to return back to his former Church as soon as it recovered its ancient liberty It was also in the same manner he served Agnellus Bishop of Fundi which upon a like occasion he preferred to the Church of Terracina the same was practised in France in the IX Century in regard of Actard Bishop of Nants the City having been sack'd and plundered by the Brittans and Normans he was made Archbishop of Tours as Hinomar affirms who lived in that time and at large relates the History in his 45 Epistle which we cited on the foregoing Article and all that he blames in Actard is That he would have held both Churches of Tours and Nants contrary to the prohibition of the Council of Chalcedon excepting this he approves that when a Pastor is persecuted and driven from his Church he should be provided of another The Frier Blastares is of the same judgment and he supports it by the 13 and 22. Canons of the Council of Antioch in Syntagm Lett. A. Cap. 9. pag. 22. XXXII Ministers may with their liking be lent by the Consistory as the Edification of the Church shall require but the Loan shall not be made without the advice of two or three Ministers or of the Colloque if it be for more than six Months CONFORMITY St. Paul saith Charity is the bond of perfectness and all those of one Communion being to be united by this Sacred Bond they are bound in conscience upon all occasions to shew reciprocal marks of sincere and true love and because there are none more sensible than those which have for their scope and aim our instruction and consolation they cannot be mutually refus'd without violating the Laws of Christian Charity It was by such a principle that when there was among the Primitive Christians any Church destitute of a Pastor That next unto it was obliged to take care and visit it from time to time to impart unto it Instructions and Consolations There are several Prescriptions to this purpose in the Monuments of Ecclesiastical Antiquity particularly in St. Gregory's Epistles and all these Rules in effect amount to what 's here prescrib'd in our Discipline XXXIII Ministers lent when the time for which they were lent is expired they shall return to the service of the Churches from whence they went CONFORMITY When a Church for some time borrows the Ministry of a Pastor which is setled in another Church which consented to this Loan there 's no need to doubt but that when the time of Loan is expired he may re-enter into the Church which lent him and which in lending him did not disclaim their Right in him In the Primitive Church at the very instant a Flock was provided of a Pastor he that visited it in the time of its Widowhood that is to say whilst 't was without a Conductor returned no more to it and exercised the Functions of his Ministry no where but in his own Church XXXIV If in one year after the time of Loan is expired the Church don't re-demand its Pastor he shall belong to the Church which borrowed him always provided the Minister willingly consents thereunto but if he be not willing he shall submit to the direction of the Colloque or Synod of the Church to which he had been lent And this rule also shall be in force for the Ministers which by reason of Persecution shall flye to other Churches and the persecution ceasing not being demanded by their former Churches in a years time the which shall commence after the warning which shall have been given to the said first Churches by the said Ministers CONFORMITY Because it may so sall out that a Church which shall have lent one of her Ministers does not recall him after the Expiration of time for which he was lent no difficulty is made of translating him wholly to the Church which had borrowed him the silence of the other being then look'd upon as a kind of Consent Which also is to be appli'd to those which joining themselves to other Churches by reason of Persecution are not redemanded by theirs when the Persecution is over for on these occasions it is as much as if they had granted unto them those Letters of Congé which the Ancients called Dimissoria's with the which a Church-man could serve in another Church in
CONFORMITY OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL DISCIPLINE OF THE Reformed Churches OF FRANCE With that of the PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS Written by M. LA ROCQUE Minister of Quevilly near Rouen With his Learned Commentaries on each ARTICLE Render'd into English by JOS. WALKER LONDON Printed for THO. COCKERILL at the Three-Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market MDCXCI LICENS'D August 10. 1691. J. FRASER To the Truly HONOURED CHARLES STAYNINGS Esq Of Honycault in Somersetshire SIR WHen one enters your Neat Habitation which for Conveniencies bear parallel with the proudest Palaces there appears a Scene of sundry Varieties A Cambden or Dugdale would be requisite to display the Antiquities of the many Honourable Families whereunto yours is related by Affinity and Marriage out of which Alliances has issued several who have been Famous in their Generations for their Heroick Actions in Peace and War which laudable Qualities have always been conspicuous in your self Sir Your Love of Learning and happy Familiarity and Intimacy with the Muses your constant Courtesie and Hospitality to Strangers and all your Friends and Acquaintance which I have several times personally Experimented as also your uninterrupted Love and Zeal for the Honour of God and the good and safety of your Countrey for which you have more than once Buckled on your Armour and appeared in the Field of Mars makes you like another Vespasian to be the delight of all that are happy in your acquaintance You have heretofore Sir been pleased favourably to accept and approve some of my weak Essays when I had the Honour of Living in your Neighbourhood near the famous Orchard Wyndham and knowing your deference for Pristine Learning and Purity I thought the Dedicating to you a Piece of that Nature and Stamp would not be excluded your Society and a place amongst the Venerable Fathers and Councils near your Chappel in your Library God has bless'd us with another King David to Fight our Battels and a Venerable * His Grace Dr. Tillotson Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Jehojada to Rule our Church so that I hope Peace and Truth will revive and flourish in our Days which is the hearty desire of Dear SIR Your ever bounden Friend and Most Humble Servant JOS. WALKER Covent-Garden Octob. 25. 1691. To the MINISTERS and ELDERS of the CONSISTORY which meet at Be'gle near Bourdeaux Gentlemen and much Honoured Brothers ALthough I have undertaken this Work for the Edification of all our Churches nevertheless I offer it to you in particular as a testimony of my due resentments for the Honour you formerly did me in inviting me to you I should willingly have imbraced your offer if my Conscience could have dispenced with it for besides that the Employment had been honourable and profitable to me it would have drawn me also a little nearer to my own Country for which I still retain an Inclination But the Providence of God which orders our Persons and Affairs as he pleases having otherways dispos'd of my Ministry bestowing it on a Church where I found a second Native Countrey by the marks of kindness I daily receiv'd of the goodness of those whereof it is compos'd I lose by little and little the hopes of ever seeing my Native Countrey and by consequence of assuring you by word of mouth the true sentiments of my heart But Gentlemen if I am at a distance from you in Body I desire you to be assured that I am present with you in Spirit seeing you are always in my remembrance and that I shall ever ardently beseech God that he will generally and in particular bestow on you his blessings Moreover the Work which I present to you will doubtless administer to you joy and comfort in manifesting the Antiquity of the Discipline under whose Maxims you live for as it scatters the false Aspersions of Novelty wherewith we are branded and the unjust reproaches wherewith you are dayly accus'd you will therein find such lively Marks and Characters of the Discipline of the Ancient Christians that you will bless God for seeing that your Fathers have walked so Religiously in that as well as in the Doctrine which their Ancestors had professed that is to say of those which had lived in the purest and happiest Ages of Christianity And indeed if you please to give your selves the trouble to compare together these two Disciplines you will soon find they are Children of one Father productions of the same Spirit and that drawing their Original from Heaven it is also their scope to direct men to Heaven in building them up in Sanctification and Holiness After which let men if they please blame your Ecclesiastical Policy hence-forwards you will have sufficient ground to stop the mouth of Envy and wherewithal to confound those which endeavour to censure it To justifie it 't will be enough to shew the Conformity there is betwixt it and that of the Primitive Church and this you may easily do because I think I have so fully evinced this resemblance that it will be visible to all those who will read this Treatise with an unbiass'd mind and that are not prepossess'd with malice against us As for us Gentlemen let us faithfully keep the holy trust our Fathers have transmitted to us let us diligently exercise this Discipline and carefully practise it but especially let us to our power conform to the Exercise of these Precepts by the Holiness of our Lives and the purity of our Actions this will be the ready way of baffling the many Volumes that attack your Morals and shew to all the World that these Instructions have no other scope but Justice and Piety Actions are of greater demonstration than Words and the Arguments drawn from Practice are more convincing than those that are borrowed from Discourse It was never better proved That there was motion in Nature than it was done by the Philosopher that walked about to convince him that deni'd it We cannot better justifie the purity of the Maxims of our Morals and Discipline than in living well seeing 't is very difficult if not impossible to live well under Masters which only teach Debauchery and that ingage persons in Extravagance Those who please to look on your Society will be convinced of what I say when they shall see in your wise conduct to shine forth the marks and effects of the innocency of your Discipline and the equity of its Maxims and Laws I hope you will favourably accept this Book which I Dedicate to you seeing its chiefest aim is to shew That 't is the same with the Discipline of the Primitive Christians for which all have so much respect and veneration The Father of Lights from whom comes every good and perfect gift be pleas'd to establish you more and more in his Love abundantly bless your persons preserve the Flock committed to your care and cause therein all Christian Vertues to abound to the end that you may be a pattern to others and that your Faith and Piety may be renowned
Rochester Lib. 3. Cap. 20. alone of himself Consecrated two Arch-Bishops of Canterbury one after another successively I now proceed to the second Head of this Article which concerns the Testimonies those are to produce who are to be Consecrated to the Holy Ministry Pastors being to be an example to their flock in word and conversation it is very fitting there should be good testimonies of their Life and Doctrine before they are established in this Divine Office insomuch as St. Paul desires that they may have a good report of those which are without fearing lest they should fall into shame and the snare of the Devil therefore the Church has ever used after this manner admitting unto this trust only those which had good and sufficient testimonies as well for their capacity as for their good Conduct it is whereunto amounted the proof St. Clement Disciple of the Apostles and Tertullian have already made mention thence it is St. Cyprian will * Ep. 67. ult Edit That the Pastor be established in the presence of all the people who perfectly know the life of each person and that have narrowly observ'd his conversation to the end that having discover'd his vertues or vices the Ordination made by the consent and approbation of all may be just and legitimate * Id. Ep. 33. And elswhere he saith to the people That he is wont to advise with them when he is about to Ordain any Clerk to the end they may examin and try altogether the life and good qualities of each one Saint Basil complaining of the relaxation of Discipline T. 3. Ep. 181. Paris 1638. and the slighting of the Canons which in time might occasion great confusions in the Church he saith That the ancient custom of Christians was carefully to search and to make very strict inquiry into the life and conversation of those who were admitted into the Ministry to find out if they were Slanderers Drunkards Fighters if they carry'd themselves soberly and if they could walk stedfastly in the ways of Sanctification without which no one shall see God Moreover this custom appear'd so good and holy to him that he will absolutely have the use of it reviv'd throughout all his Diocess that he will have the Church purg'd of all those that were enter'd into it by any other manner as being unworthy to serve in it and that for the future none should be admitted but those which were first duly examin'd and accounted worthy the Employments intended for them I will not here repeat what I alledged of the fourth Council of Carthage upon the first Article I will only say that in the third Tome of the Library of the Fathers and in the Pandect of the Cannons Printed at Oxford of late years there is a Canonical Epistle of Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria the sixth Canon of which treats of Ordinations wherein he desires the Election and consent of the Clergy the examination of the Bishop and the testimony of the people In the Book of Sacraments of Gregory the first P. 236. Paris 1642. the Bishop is to signifie to the People the Names of those which are to be chosen to the end that if any there present know any thing that might hinder the Ordination they might declare it freely and with a safe conscience thence it is that Leo the first desires in these Occasions the testimony of the People as he explains himself in his 89 Epistle And Pope Eugenius II. in a Synod assembled at Rome about the year of our Lord 826 and which is to be seen in the second part of the Roman Collection of Holstenius Printed at Rome 1642 I say with the Synod prescribes in the very terms of the Apostle Cap. 1. the manner of Ordination that is to say that he requires that he which desires to receive it may be adorn'd with the Qualities recommended by St. Paul and that he may be acceptable to all the world by his good Works The Emperor Alexander Severus so highly approv'd this use and practise as also the publishing which was made of those which were to be admitted into the Ministry of the Church whereof I shall speak on the tenth Article Aelius Lampri in Alex. Sev. that he would have it be put in practice in establishing Governours of Provinces of the Empire and other Magistrates The Fathers of the first Council of Nice in the Letter they wrote to the Church of Alexandria and which has been transmitted to us by Socrates and Theodoret these Fathers term this L. 1. c. 9. Offering to the People the Names of those which were to be advanced to any Dignity in the Church St. Chrysostome in the 18th Homily upon the 2 Epist to the Corinthians Establishes and confirms this custom by the Example of the Apostles which us'd the same when Mathias was to be chosen and also by that of the Seven Deacons Something of the same kind is to be seen in 61 and 76 Epistles of Synesius according to which Nicetas in the Life of St. Ignatius Patriarch of Constantinople in the IX Century which is contain'd in the Preliminaries of the eighth Council of Constantinople which the Latins hold for Oecumenical but is rejected by the Greeks Tom. 6. Concil pa. 872. Nicetas observes that several were named to sill the vacant Chair and that St. Ignatius was preferred before the rest V. The Examination of him that shall be presented shall in the first place be made by Propositions out of the Word of God upon the Texts of Scripture which shall be given to him the one in French of necessity the other in Latin if it be thought expedient by the Colloque for each of which he shall be allowed 24 hours time to prepare himself if therein he satisfies the Company it shall be farther known by a Chapter in the New Testament which shall be assign'd him whether he is skilful in the Greek so as to interpret it and as for Hebrew it will be requisite to know if he understands it so far as to make choice of good Books for the better understanding the Scriptures whereunto shall be added an Essay of his Industry and skill on the most necessary Parts of Philosophy all in Charity without affectation of difficult and unnecessary Questions To conclude there must be requir'd of him a short confession of Faith in Latin upon which he shall be examin'd by way of Dispute and if after this trial he shall be found capable the Company representing to him the obligation of the Office whereunto he is called shall declare to him the power which is given to him in the Name of Jesus Christ of Administring as well the Word as the Sacraments after his intire Ordination into the Church whereunto he is appointed the which shall have notice of his Election by Acts and Letters of the Synod or Colloque carried and read by one of the Elders CONFORMITY After what I have hitherto said it cannot
the Creed proportionable to the Capacity of those whom he instructed to put them into a state fit to receive Baptism and to be plung'd in the Mystical Waters of this Sacrament of our Regeneration But to ascend higher than St. Cyril Euseb Hist l. 5. c. 10. l. 6. c. 6. Can. 3. c. 26. Can. 15 29. from the very first beginning of Christian Religion there were publick Schools at Alexandria and places appointed for this Exercise and where the rudiments of Faith was taught or as the Apostle speaks The rudiments of the first beginning of the word of God In the 2d Century Pantenus an Eminent Philopher kept this School and then exercis'd the Office of Catechist Clement of Alexandria succeeded him and he had Origen for his Successor aged but 18. years Origen left the Conduct of this School to Heraclas and Heraclas to Dennis and these two last were successively Bishops of Alexandria The Authors of our Discipline had therefore good reason to exhort the Churches to have frequent Catechising which is of great benefit and singular edification XIV Ministers with their Families shall actually reside in their Churches or Parishes under pain of being depos'd from their Office CONFORMITY In the first Ages Pastors were so full of zeal for the Glory of God and so industrious for the Edification of their Flock that 't was superfluous to exhort them to Residence seeing they had no other thoughts but to do it in the places assigned to their care and where the Families lived which were committed to their conduct neither do we find in those times any Canons which enjoyn them to this Residence because they themselves of their own free will were inclin'd to do it and that 't was not heard of that a Pastor did not dwell in the midst of the Flock to whom he owed his care and presence De Lapsis St. Cyprian complained of certain Bishops which incumbring themselves with secular affairs abandoned their Churches and the care of that holy administration whereof they were to render an account to our Saviour And in his 56 Epistle to those of Thibari he sheweth that in the present conjuncture he could not safely leave his Church and the People God had committed to his Charge St. Ambrose sufficiently testifies that he was really persuaded of the necessity of Residence when he wrote to the Emperor Theodosius that if the dread he had of the Tyrant Eugenius had oblig'd him to quit Millan for a little time yet he returned thither as soon as the storm was past over Lib. 7. Ep. 58. To. 5. p. 322. Pâ—r. 1632. I hastned saith he to return as soon as ever I heard that him whose presence I thought I was bound to shun was gone for I forsook not the Church of Millan which the Providence of God committed to my care but I desir'd not to see him that made himself guilty of Sacriledg He speaks of Eugenius who usurped the Empire after having cruelly put to death the Emperor Valentinian the younger This holy Doctor elsewhere represents the damages occasioned to the Church by the absence of its Pastor especially when he observes the People omit frequenting the Holy Exercises and not only the People but also the Clergy themselves become more remiss in things of Piety and Religion St. Austin declares plainly in the 138 and 227 Epistles that he never forsook his Church but upon indispensible necessity In a request presented by some Friers to the Emperors Theodosius the Younger and Valentinian the Third against Nestorius they accuse him amongst other things That for the executing his outrages he employed foreign Clerks which he made come from other parts that is to say other Clergy besides his own Tom. 2. Conc. pag. 222. Altho according to the Ecclesiastical Canons say they they are not permitted to live in another Diocess or in another Church but only in those places and Cities where they received Ordination by the Imposition of hands there to reside peaceably It is not easie to affirm with certainty if the Canons whereof they speak were reduced into writing or rather if they were not customs and uses setled in the Churches by long practice for this term of Canon or Rule has sometimes this signification in the writings of the Ancients and what induces me to think so is That till the Fifth Century when this request was presented it was not very needful to make Canons to oblige Pastors to reside in their Churches if it be not that one may apply to this Residence the Canons which prohibit the Translation of Bishops from one place to another whereof we shall treat hereafter I know very well that the Council of Sardis had in the year 347 made some Decrees which in some fort regarded Residence but besides that these Canons were not much known in the East they were not properly made for establishing of Residence nor precisely to oblige Bishops thereunto but only to inform them in presupposing it as an indispensible Obligation in what occasions and for what time they were permitted lawfully to be absent from their Churches in effect in the eighth Canon the Fathers of Sardis allow Bishops may go to Court if the Emperor send for them or if the protection and defence of the Poor of Widows and Orphans oblige them to it It is true that in the ninth and tenth Canons they restrain the permission granted in the former and do not permit Bishops to go themselves to Court but when they are called by the Prince nevertheless they agree they may send one of their Deacons to obtain some favour in behalf of distressed persons but they consent to it upon prudent and judicious reasons and which are to be lookt upon as necessary precautions against the ambition of Bishops to whom the same Council positively forbid Can. 14 15. To be absent from their Churches above three Weeks unless some pressing necessity constrain them to it When under the second Branch of our Kings the Prince cast his eye on any Bishop to make him his Arch-Chaplain he was forced to demand leave of the Synod and Pope Con. Fran. cap. 55. Tom. 2. Conc. Gall. p. 217. the Bishops of Rome having already got great power in France I say he was forced in some sort to desire their leave to get him away from his Church to have him near his person because every body was then perswaded that Pastors were bound in Conscience to make their Residence in the midst of their Flocks I believe Plurality of Livings as is spoken at this time has given a mortal blow to the case of Residency and has by this means introduced ignorance into the Church and together with Ignorance Superstition which is the Daughter of Ignorance this wicked custom was a long while unknown amongst Christians seeing the first Canon which formally condemns it is if my memory fail not the fifth of the sixteen Council of Toledo assembled the year
occasions charitably to help their Neighbours without any expectation of Profit provided that don 't in any wise hinder them from their principal Employment and Calling in such a case it was absolutely forbidden Pandect Can. To. 2. p. 129. Oxford 1672. as the Patriarch Lucas of Constantinople did to his Deacons Theodoret indeed makes mention of one certain person he calls Peter which he represents as a very good Man and he observes in the Letters 114 and 115 that he had been honour'd with Priestly dignity and that nevertheless he practis'd Physick but it plainly appears by what he says Theodor. Tom. 3. P. 988. Paris 1642. That this Man was not bound to the Service of any Church although in was contrary too to the Rule of the Canons and so nothing hinder'd but that he might commonly practise Physick Moreover nothing hinders but to this Article may be applied Canon 6.81 and 83. of the Apostles The Example of Gerantius Bishop of Nicomedia mention'd by Zâ—zomen might here find place had his Ordination been legitimate L. 8. c. 6. for being a very good Physician he was very helpful to the Inhabitants of Nicomedia who bewail'd him much after his being depos'd XX. Ministers shall exhort their Flock to observe modesty in their Apparrel they themselves in this and all other things giving good Example abstaining from all bravery in Cloaths themselves their Wives and Children CONFORMITY The Ancient Doctors of the Church have been very careful in recommending to Christians the Modesty prescrib'd in our Discipline especially to Women which more commonly transgress its Laws than Men do Clement of Alexandria neglects no pains to induce them to the practice of this Vertue Lib. 2. Padag c. 12. p. 211 212. Paris 1641. for having alledged these words of St. Paul In like maner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array but which becometh women professing godliness with good works 1 Tim. 2.9 10. After this I say this Ancient Doctor sheweth That seeing Apparrel was only given us but for a Covering there ought not to be any superfluity in it that the holy ornament of the hands is not Bracelets but a readiness we should have to distribute our Goods to those which are in distress and the care one should take in conducting ones Family that that of the feet is a promptness to do good and a walking in the ways of Justice that modesty and pudor are the Chains and Collars which God himself has made and that there is no other real Ornament but that of Wisdom that Women ought not to suffer their Ears to be bor'd to hang Jewels in them but to have them ever open to hear the Instructions shall be given them and turn their eyes to the Contemplation of heavenly things and in the same Treatise he speaks so much against needless and superfluous dressing and apparrel that I on purpose forbear reciting all he says satisfying my self to observe in general that he fears not to affirm That under the delicacy of these worldly Dresses there is found not the Image of God but that of the Devil Tertullian speaks in the same terms exhorting Christian Women to shew by the modesty of their Apparel the difference there is betwixt the Servants of God and those of the Devil he will have them to be an Example to those who do not profess the Gospel and that God might be glorified in their bodies by going cloathed suitable to modesty and shamefac'dness and that when they go out of their Houses they should be adorn'd with Rayment of Prophets and Apostles with probity chastity and innocence by this means obtain for themselves the blessing of God St. Cyprian follows the steps of Tertullian whom he stiles his Master and he condemns with no less severity than the other all the superfluous Ornaments of the Age and all those worldly Dresses which saith he De habit Virg. p. 165. Paris 1666. serve to no other end but to hide what God has form'd in Man and to discover what the Devil has invented I should be over-tedious to transcribe what has been said on this Subject by Saint Chrysostom that golden Tongue of the Ancient Church Read only his 8th Homily on the 2d Chapter of the 1st to Timothy and one shall see the manner he treats of it and with what Eloquence he declaims against the pride and sumptuousness of Apparel the niceness of Dresses against painting curling the Hair Pendants in the Ears Pearls and all sorts of Jewels to all which things he opposes shamefac'dness modesty and decency the use and practise whereof he earnestly recommends Isidorus of Pellusia has very judiciously observ'd L. 5. Ep. 200. Paris 1638. That these outward Ornaments are prejudicial to a beautiful Woman and to one that is not so to the one because it reproaches her with her ugliness and the other because people are taken up in talking of her Ornaments and say nothing of her self XXI It is convenient to desire Princes and other Lords which follow the Court that have or would have Churches ordered in their Houses to take their Ministers from Churches duly reform'd and where there are more than one with sufficient assurance of their lawful vocation and by leave of the Collogues or Synods the which shall first sign the Confession of Faith of the Churches of this Kingdom and the Ecclesiastical Discipline And to the end the Preaching of the Gospel might have the greater Success they shall also be desired each of them to erect in their Families a Consistory compos'd of the Minister and of the godliest and best approved persons of the Family which shall be elected Elders and Deacons to a competent number by which Consistory the Scandals and Vices of the said Family shall be suppress'd and the Order of the common Discipline of the Churches maintain'd Moreover the said Ministers shall attend the Provincial Synods as oft as they can possible to this end notice shall be given to the Church which shall assemble the Synod to call them unto it But especially the said Ministers or part of them as they shall be deputed by the rest shall not fail appearing at National Synods and shall come also accompanied with the Elders who may inform the said Synod of their Life and Conversation And when they shall meet several of them together none of them must pretend preheminence or lordship over the others according to the Article of Discipline And when the said Lords and Princes shall reside in their Houses or other Places where there is a Church establish'd the better to prevent Divisions they shall be humbly desir'd that the Church of their Family may join with that of the Place to make but one Church as shall be agreed upon by a friendly Conference of the Ministers of both parts to do what shall be most expedient CONFORMITY In the Year of
within his Jurisdiction Tom. 5. Concil p. 328. and if there shall be any one found so doing he shall be no longer Bishop and let him only perform the Functions of Priest XXVI The Minister which shall intrude himself although he were approv'd by the People is not to be approved by the Neighbour-Ministers or others but notice must be given of it to the Colloque or Provincial Synod CONFORMITY The Council of Antioch which I have several times cited absolutely authorises this Rule in the 16th Canon which is contain'd in these words If a Bishop out of employment intrudes himself into a vacant Church and usurps the place without the Authority of a full Synod let him be turn'd out although he may be approv'd of all the People which he shall have gain'd to him The 35th Canon of the African Code contains a solemn Decree against these Pastors which having by their slights insinuated into the minds of the People intrude themselves into Churches without any lawful Vocation so far that the 3d Council of Carthage which made this Decree in the year 307. appoints that they shall be driven away by publick Authority Pope Gelasius the I st enjoins almost the same in his 9th Epistle to the Bishops of Lucania Tom. 3. Concil pag. 936. XXVII Ministers shall not be sent to other Churches without Authentick Letters or other sufficient Testimonies from the places from whence they shall be sent the which shall be deliver'd into the hands of the Consistory whither they are sent to be carefully laid up CONFORMITY Besides the Canons I have mention'd upon the precedent Article and which do alike favour this there are also others which no less confirm it for Example Those which forbid to receive to the Communion in another Church an Ecclesiastical Person which cannot shew a Certificate from his Bishop and those also which enjoin Bishops to contain themselves within their Diocesses without intruding into another's as we have made appear and as may be farther proved by the 10th Canon of the Council of Carthage which is commonly called the 1st and which was assembled under Gratus in the Year of Christ 348 or 49. Tom. I. Conc. p. 566. To all which may be added the 33d Can. of the Apostles which expresly forbids to receive any Church-man without Letters of Recommendation and without due Examination and the 41st of Laodicea In the Ancient Discipline the Letters now spoken of were called Letters of Conge whereof we will speak more on the 4th Article of the 4th Chapter XXVIII No Minister for saying he is forsaken of his Church or persecuted shall thereupon be received by another Church until that by good Certificates he shall make appear to the Synod or Colloque how he shall have behav'd and govern'd himself and the whole shall be referr'd to the prudence and discretion of a Colloque or Provincial Synod CONFORMITY This Article also tends to nothing else but to restrain the Enterprises of such Ministers as shall insinuate themselves into Churches without being called or not having good Testimonies of their behaviour and of the cause wherefore they pretend to be forsaken of their Churches therefore it is that our Discipline refers the Decision of these matters to the discretion of Synods according to the Canon of Antioch in the year 34. Can. 16. XXIX When a Minister finds himself destitute of a Church having duly obtain'd leave and his discharge from that which he formerly served it belongs to the Colloque or Provincial Synod to provide for him in a months time and if in that time he be not provided for by the Synod of the Province or Colloque he shall be at his own liberty to provide for himself of a Church any where else without the Province where God shall enable him according to the Rule of the Discipline CONFORMITY This Rule intimates something more than the former for it speaks of Ministers destitute of a Church after having obtain'd License from those they served and of having for good and sufficient Causes been remov'd and who nevertheless are not suffer'd to settle in any other but by Authority of the Colloques and Synods according to the Ancient Discipline XXX Power is given to Provincial Synods to change Ministers for certain Considerations their Churches being heard and their Reasons well and duly examin'd but in case of Discord all shall be determin'd at a National Synod until which time nothing shall be innovated CONFORMITY The translating of Pastors from one Church to another has been strictly prohibited in the Ancient Church by reason of Abuses which have been therein committed and because these Translations were commonly the effect of Ambition and Covetousness for seldom any was translated from a greater to a less Church but frequently and almost always from a less to a greater the 15th Canon of the 1st Council of Nice the 21st of that at Antioch in the Year 341. the 1st of the Synod of Sardis in the year 347 and several others prohibit these sorts of changes which have no other motive as the Fathers of Sardis say but covetousness ambition and a desire to domineer Nevertheless all these Prohibitions has not hindered but several Bishops have been transferred from one Church to another Lib 7. c 35 36 37. Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History recites a great many Examples of these Translations made before and after the Council of Nice Pope Boniface at the beginning of the Fifth Century established Perigenes Bishop of Corinth Collect. Rom Part 1. p. 52. whereas before he was of Patras as appears by the Letter writ by this Pope to Rufus Bishop of Thessalonica Socrates also cites this Example But that it may not be imagin'd that all these Translations were nothing but the ill effects of the relaxation of the Discipline of the ancient Christians and that they were not countenanc'd by the Authority of some Canon it is to be observ'd there were some occasions wherein these changes were allowed as for example for the greater edifying of the Church in such a case it was permitted to translate a Pastor from one Church to another provided it was done by consent of the Synod as our Discipline doth prescribe The 14th of the Canons attributed to the Apostles explains it self after this manner It is not permittâ—â— for a Bishop to leave his Church to go to another altho he should be desired and invited thither by a great many unless there be some great reason that obliges him to it as that his Preaching might there tend to greater Edification and there cause a greater growth of Piety neither yet ought he to do it of his own accord but by the Exhortation and Judgment of several Bishops The fourth Council of Carthage assembled in the year 398 made a like Ordinance to that in the 27 Can. for having prohibited to go by ambition from one Church to another it adds That if the benefit of the Church be advanced thereby it may
desist from doing the service but that the honour and dignity be continued them with the enjoyment of things necessary for their subsistence Mathew Paris observes in his History of England in the year 1095 that Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury in a Synod he held at Westminster Anno 1075 judged that the not understanding the French Tongue in a Bishop with the incapacity of not assisting at the King's Councils was a just cause of deposition and it was thereon he grounded that of Wolstan Bishop of Worcester Hereby let the Genius of this Prelate be judged and let no body any further wonder that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which he promoted with so much earnestness made such progress in a time of such ignorance to the prejudice of the ancient belief of the Church Moreover the Reader may observe if he please that the ancient Councils did not put the inconveniencies of Lunatism and of those tormented by the evil spirit in the rank of those for which it was not suffered to depose Pastors on the contrary they banished from Ecclesiastical Orders all those as were any ways touched with these things and if they were already promoted they were removed as appears by the 29th Can. of the Council of Eliberi in Spain Tom. 1. Conc. pag. 235. assembled in the year 305. By the 16th of the first Council of Orange in the year 401 in the first Tome of the Councils of France by the 13th of the 11th of Toledo in the year 675. Tom. 4. Conc. p. 825. it is answerable to what Pope Gelasius the First writ to the Bishops of Lucania at the end of the Fifth Century Cap. 21. Tom. 3. Concil p. 636. There might be added to all these Testimonies Grat. 33. Distinct Cap. 3 4. XLIX Scandalous Vices punishable by the Magistrate as Murder Treason and others which shall reflect to the great dishonour and scandal of the Church deserve that the Minister shall be deposed altho they had been committed not only before his Election but also in the days of his ignorance and that in case of continuance in the Ministry he brings greater scandal than edification to the Church whereof the Synods shall take account CONFORMITY St. Paul who lays down to his Disciple Timothy the qualities requisite to be in a good Pastor desires amongst other things he should be irreprehensible the Primitive Christians following the steps of this great Apostle have always with great care debarred from all Ecclesiastical Offices those who were not of a very clear reputation especially such as were vicious and scandalous whom they never would admit of and they were so strict herein that when they came to know after the Ordination of any one that he had committed any heinous sin before his promotion for example the sins of Fornication or Adultery they inflicted on him a punishment in some measure proportionable to the greatness of his crime but far less than if he had done it after his Ordination The Council of Neocaesaria assembled as is thought in the year 314 the Decrees whereof make part of the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church this Council sufficiently instructs us of the two things I now have mentioned for in the ninth Canon it forbids the Celebration of Divine Mysteries to him that shall have confest or be convinced to have sinned in his body before his promotion permitting him nevertheless for living soberly since his receiving into Priestly Orders to exercise the other Functions but in the former the Fathers intirely depose the Priest which shall have committed Adultery or Fornication that is since his admission into Holy Orders The Council of Valentia in Dauphine in the year 374 in its fourth Canon excludes from all Church Dignities the Bishops Priests and Deacons which declare at the time of their Ordination that they are guilty of any Crime which deserves death Tom. 1. Conc Gal. pag. 19. And that of Orleans in the year 511 And the first of those hold at that place deposes and Excommunicates in the ninth Canon the Priest or Deacon which shall have committed any Capital sin an Ordinance which the Synod of Epaume renewed Ib. p. 180. 22. Canon of the year 517 in the same Tome of the Councils of France the rigor of the ancient Discipline extended so far as to suspend the Priest who was accused of any evil action by the People committed to his Charge altho the Bishop could not prove the things by sufficient witness Tom. 3. Concil pa. 817. c 10. and the suspension was to hold till he had fully acquitted himself that is to say till his innocency had appeared to those that thought him guilty We at least find so by a fragment of a Council of Lerida in Spain assembled according to the common opinion in the year of our Lord 524. Those who are convicted of any evil action are excluded from Holy Orders by the 61 Canon of the Apostles But because in examining the 47th Article we deferred to treat of the scandalous vices therein mentioned when we consider this and the following ones it is requisite we should say somewhat of each The Council of Lerida above-mentioned appoints in the same place to depose those which shall be convicted of Cheating Perjury Robbing Fornication and other the like crimes under which may be comprehended Drunkenness and Quarrelling both worthy to be punished by the Law two Sins which are also mentioned in the 47th Article of our Discipline without touching at the 55th Canon of the Synod of Laodicea which forbids Church-men to make Feasts where each person contributes his share and portion nor at the 24th which forbids them entering into a Tavern The Council of Epaume Can. 13. Can. 22. cited a little before puts false witness in the number of Capital Sins for which it will have Ministers to be deposed The third of Orleans in the year 538. speaks of Adultery Thieving Cheating of Perjury or false witness in the seventh and eighth Canons Tom. Conc. Gall. and the 42th of the Apostles formally depose against Play and Drunkenness and the 25th for the same Sins as the third of Orleans And the 54th excludes from the Communion any one of the Clergy found entring into a Tavern unless it be in Travelling that he by necessity is constrained to lodg in a Tavern or Inn and the twelfth Canon of the fourth Council of Tolledo in the year 633 excludes from the Ministry of the Church those which are spotted with any crime or which do bear any mark of infamy As for what regards Simony which according to our Discipline deserves deposition St. Basil was of the same judgment as he shews in the Letter which he writ to the Bishops of his Diocess and which in the new Edition Printed in England of the Canonical Epistles of the Holy Fathers four years ago makes the 91 Canon of this Holy Doctor The second Canon of the Council of Chalcedon without redemption
neighbouring Churches shall join together that at least there might be a maintenance for each Colloque and that rather than fail the 5th Penny of the Alms-money be set apart for this use if it may be conveniently done CONFORMITY It appears by the 14th Canon of the Synod of Epaum Assembled in the Year 517 That it was practis'd at that time just as our Discipline prescribes for it appoints to him of the Clergy that shall have received any Gratification and Present from the liberality of the Church wherein he liv'd that he should return it back again if he be advanced to be Bishop of another Church it appears to me this cannot be understood but of the assistance was given him during the time of his studies seeing that from the very moment any one entred into the Service of a Church he was to have his support and maintenance from it It was in this regard Theodolphus Bishop of Orleans permitted the Priests of his Diocess in the Year 797. to send their Nephews or some of their Relations unto the School he names which they shall like best there to be Taught and Educated There 's something like this in the Seminaries which the 2d Council of Toledo as 't were founded in the Year 530. and the 4th of the same place An. 633. Can. 23 or 24. Tom. 4. Conc. Page 588. Not so much as the Council of Trent but made a Decree in the 29th Session Anno 1563. for the Establishing these Seminaries Tom. 9. Conc. Page 409. cap. 18. V. In each Church there shall be appointed Propositions of the Word of God amongst the Scholars according as the convenience of the place and persons shall permit where the Pastors shall be present as well to preside as to direct and help the said Students CONFORMITY The Exercises here prescrib'd have no other scope but to fit and prepare Students in Divinity for Preaching and to put them in a condition to Preach the Gospel to Edification with profit which agrees very well with the Establishments of the Synods of Chalons and Meaux which we cited on the first Article CHAP. III. Of ELDERS and DEACONS ARTICLE I. IN those places where the Order of Discipline is not yet Established the Election as well of Elders as of Deacons shall be made as well by the common voice of the People as of the Ministers but where the Discipline is already established it shall pertain to the Consistory with the Pastors to make choice of the fittest Persons by ardent Prayers to that effect And the Parties shall be expresly nominated publickly in the Consistory and to those which shall be chosen the Office shall be read to the end they may know the business they are to be employed in If they consent to it they shall afterwards be nominated to the People two or three Sundays that so the consent of the People may also intervene and if there be no opposition the third Sunday they shall be publickly admitted by solemn Prayers they standing before the Pulpit and so shall be setled in their Office subscribing the Confession of Faith and the Ecclesiastical Discipline but if there be opposition the Matter shall be decided in Consistory and if it cannot be there determin'd the whole shall be transmitted to a Colloque or Provincial Synod CONFORMITY Having treated of Ministers and the Schools where they ought to study to attain to the Office of the Holy Ministry it follows in order to speak of those which partake with them of the care in Governing the Flock That is of Deacons and Elders which amongst us are Secular persons serving in the Church and distinguished from Ministers or to speak with the Fathers from the Clergy it is then of these two sorts of Persons and of their Election that I am to treat in examining this Article according to the design and intention of the Compilers of our Discipline I 'll begin with the Deacons which as every body knows are of Apostolical institution In effect we find in the 6th Chapter of the Acts That the Apostles giving themselves up wholly to the Preaching of the Gospel they desir'd the Church of Jerusalem to chuse out certain persons of good repute for Wisdom and Piety that they might commit unto them the care of the Poor which they express by serving of Tables that by this means they might the more conveniently attend to Prayer and Preaching of the Word St. Chrysostom observes on this place that this was the first establishing of Deacons the very name not being till then known that is in the Christian Church as for the Jewish Church they had their Deacons as Epiphanius writes in the Heresie of the Ebeonites which is the 30th they were called Azanites and thence probably 't was that the Apostles took the Original of Christian Deacons and they called them so because they served at Tables and at the distributing of Money to the Poor It was to that time those which followed St. Chrysostom and wrote of the first institution of Deacons writing on the Acts of the Apostles as Beda and Orcumenius have refer'd it As for Lay-Elders such as ours be I do not find their institution in Scripture as that of the Deacons is found as for the Elders of the Christian Churches whereof there is mention made in several places in the New-Testament I am fully persuaded that by them is to be understood Pastors themselves which were called indifferently Elders or Priests and Bishops I do not except that famous passage chap. 5. vers 17. of the 1st Ep. to Timothy It is certain that these Elders were all of the same Order that is to say They were all Pastors but because there were several in the same Church and that some were sitter for Preaching the Word than others they gave them different employments according to the diversity of Gifts in my judgment there needs no other proof of this Truth than the right of Precedency which St. Paul attributes indifferently to all which he would not have done had they not been all of one Order the Greek word also which he uses ordinarily imports a precedency which is due only to Pastors which the Ancients frequently design by this name particularly Justin Martyr But notwithstanding this I make no question but the Original of our Elders is very Ancient and that it approaches very near to the Apostles days if they be not rather themselves the Founders of them and what confirms me in this Opinion is that they establish'd in the Church a Government like that of the Synagogue a Christian Presbytery instead of a Jewish one and as there were Elders amongst the Jews which had share in Governing the Synagogue it is very probable that there were also Elders amongst the Christians People which had part in that of the Church if not at the very first birth of Christianity at least there was as soon as the number of them was increased in so great a manner for then it was
justifie the Prohibition here made them of Preaching the Word of God and administring the Sacraments because they were not thereunto appointed as Oecumenius has observed on Chap. 6. of the Acts of the Apostles the words whereof we have alledged in examining the precedent Article I know very well that Philip one of the Seven Deacons established by the Apostles Preached the Gospel but I say it was not in quality of a meer Deacon that he Preached but by vertue of a particular vocation whereby God made him a Herald of his Grace and a dispencer of his Mysteries therefore he is qualified with the Title of Evangelist in the 21. Chap. ver 8. of the Acts Act. 21.8 I do not here mention his Preaching Christ at Samaria after the great Persecution raised against the Church of Jerusalem upon the death of St. Stephen because he did nothing therein but what the others which were scattered abroad did elsewhere by vertue of a general vocation which each Believer has right to exercise at certain times and in certain places As for Baptizing and instructing the Queen of Aethiopia's Eunuch Ibid. the Sacred History informs us that Philip had an express command by the Ministry of an Angel to do it In the Primitive Church a Deacon was not permitted to Preach the Word whilst they were Deacons they must at the least pass from the Order of Deacon to that of Priesthood to be qualified to Preach I said at the least for if in the East Priests were suffered to Preach it was otherwise in the West where Bishops only performed that function for several Ages The first Priest that Preached publickly in Africa was St. Austin by the power granted to him by Valerius his Bishop who was by Birth a Grecian which was found to be irregular because 't was contrary to the use and practice of the Churches of Africa as is observed by Possidonius in the Life of St. Austin If amongst us there 's found a Deacon that was capable and had a desire to exercise the Ministry he was made to pass from one degree to another and then might Preach the Word and administer the Sacraments whereas Deacons were not instituted at first to do the one nor the other In effect if their first Institution permitted them not to Preach neither did it suffer them to administer the Sacraments for these two commonly go together so that if prohibiting them Preaching they were afterwards in process of time suffered to administer the Sacraments besides that things which were joyned together were separated they passed beyond the bounds of their Vocation Thence it is that Oecumenius a Writer of the tenth or eleventh Century which I already have cited several times Ubi supra confesses that the Deacons of his time were quite different from those established by the Apostles and an Order quite another thing than the first In the days of Justin Martyr Apolog. 2. that is to say in the second Century the Deacons distributed the Bread and Wine of the Sacrament after being Consecrated by the Pastor which in all likelihood proceeded from a false Interpretation given of these Tables for the service of which Deacons were appointed for they were not Eucharistical Tables but common Tables where distribution was made of things necessary for the Maintenance of Widows and Orphans and other poor People and where perhaps Christians made their Feasts of Charity which for a time was practised in the Church Tertullian something later than Justin Martyr De Coron c 3 p. 102. testifies the Eucharist was received only from the hand of those which presided that is of Bishops and Pastors in all likelihood 't was at that time the practice of the Churches of Africa and a custom which was not observed in all places The third Canon of the Council of Ancyra in the year 314 suffers Deacons which have done nothing unworthy their degree to distribute both the Symbols But in the same year the Council of Arles prohibits them in the 15th Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. Ibid. Canon by that term to offer which he emplies is taken to administer according to the Explication which is given it by the 15th Canon of the second Council of Nice on the same place The year 462 the great Council of Nice forbids them simply to give the Eucharist to Priests Can. 18. The 25th Canon of that of Laodicea seems to forbid them absolutely to distribute the Bread and the Cup It ought not to be that Ministers saith the Council should distribute the Bread nor that they should bless the Cup. At that time the term of Ministers implied commonly the name of Deacons but in the Canons of this Council it denotes a more inferior Order viz. Subdeacons In conclusion it must be granted that we have innovated nothing in the Deaconship and that our Deacons have always kept within the just bounds of their first Institution which was to serve at Tables and to take care of Widows as St. Jerome observes in his 85 Epistle VI. The Elders and Deacons may be present at the Lectures and Propositions of the Word of God made by Ministers besides the ordinary Preaching Or by those made by young Students and even at the censures made there and give their advice thereon but the decision of the Doctrine is principally reserved to Ministers and Doctors in Divinity duly called to their Offices CONFORMITY Besides the usual Sermons Ministers Preach in the Churches they were wont to Preach by turns in the Colloques they held several times a year and those Exercises were called Propositions much like to those our young Studens in Divinity are wont to make to fit them for Preaching therefore these kinds of Exercises are subject to the Censures of those before whom they are made for they were instituted to judge of the Progress which Ministers as well as Students did make in their Studies and because there are Deacons as well as Elders that sometimes are present either in the Colloques in the quality of Deputies or in the Consistory whereof they are Members they are permitted to speak their opinion which ought not to be thought strange after all which has hitherto been said by the Ancients seeing also the decision of Doctrines is reserved to the Ministers VII The Office of Elders and Deacons as it is at present used amongst us is not perpetual nevertheless inasmuch as 't is prejudicial to change they shall be exhorted to continue in their office as long as may be and if they will be discharged it cannot be without consent of their Churches CONFORMITY The setling of Elders and Deacons depending of the will of the Church in which originally lyes all the Right and Power of Government and the Church not having thought convenient to make these Employments perpetual fearing it might not find persons that would accept them for life she hath yielded to those which accept of them the liberty to be discharged provided they do
it in due form and with the leave of the Churches which called them to this Employment VIII Neither Deacons nor Elders can expect Superiority or Dominion one over another whether it be in being nominated to the People or in taking place or giving their judgment or any thing else relating to their office CONFORMITY If Ministers cannot pretend precedency one of another as we have fully shewed on Art 16. of Chap. 1. It would not be reasonable that Elders and Deacons should pretend any Soveraignty over their Companions and Equals IX The Elders and Deacons shall be deposed for the same causes as the Ministers of the Word of God in their degree It being condemned by the Consistory if they appeal they shall remain suspended from their Offices until things are determined by a Provincial Colloque or Synod CONFORMITY The Deacons and Elders making up with the Ministers one Body that is to say one Consistory and sharing with them the care of conducting the Flocks it is just they should be punished with the same pains as the Ministers when they commit the same Offences whereof we have treated at large on Articles the 47. and 49. of Chap. 1. to which I refer the Reader X. The restitution of Deacons and Elders which have been deposed shall not be done but in the same manner as the restoring of deposed Ministers is done CONFORMITY This Article is a necessary consequence of the former for if the Elders and Deacons are deposed for the same reasons as Ministers it is evident that the restitution ought to be made in the same manner Read what has been said on the 35. Art of Chap. 1. CHAP. IV. Of the Deaconry that is to say of Administring the Poor's Money by the Deacons ARTICLE I. THE Money for the Poor shall not be given out by any but by the Deacons by the Advice and Order of the Consistory CONFORMITY What I have said on the 4th Article of the 3d Chapter sufficeth for the explaining of this and to establish the Conformity of our Discipline with that of the Ancient Churches to which may be added the Order given by Pope Gregory I. to Anthemius his Sub-Deacon That he should take care of the Poor of those places whither he sent him II. In the common Distributions 't is requisite one or two Ministers should be present if it may be conveniently but especially at passing the Accounts CONFORMITY Although I might refer the Reader for the Explication of this Article where I did for the former nevertheless I will add to what I have said some Rules which are not incoherent to the Subject we Examine for Example the 7th and 8th Canons of the Council of Gangres assembled in the Year of our Lord 325. as is commonly said but 't was later where 't is forbid to dispose of the Church-Revenue without the consent of the Bishop or of him he has appointed to distribute these Alms. The 24th and 25th Canons of the Synod of Antioch Anno Dom. 341. Tom. 2. Conc. Gall. c. 47. p. 146. Orders the Bishop to make this distribution by advice of the Priests and Deacons Charlemain's Capitulary in the year 789. renews the prohibition of the Council of Gangres III. The People shall have notice of Passing the Accounts that so every one that please may be there present as well to discharge those who disburse the Money as to make known to every body the Necessities of the Church and the Poor thereby the more to incourage people to contribute towards their relief CONFORMITY St. Austin practis'd something of this kind as our Discipline doth here prescribe for when the Church-stock fail'd he gave notice to the Christian People that he had not wherewithal to supply the wants of the Poor which in all likelihood he would not have done if on the other hand he had not given them an account how he had dispos'd of their Charity and of the Money committed to his trust Aug. Tom. 1. p. 13. and which he consign'd over to the management of Persons as he deem'd fit for the purpose as is related at large by Possidonius in the 24th Chapter of his Life IV. To prevent the Inconveniences which dayly happen by Attestations given to the Poor every Church shall use their utmost endeavour to maintain their own Poor and in case any one for his necessary Affairs was forc'd to Travel Ministers shall in their Consistories Examine if the Cause be just and in that case shall give them recommendatory Letters to the next Church in the direct way from the place whither they go expressing the Name Age Stature Complexion the Place whither they go the cause of their Journey and the Assistance which has been given them and the date of the Day and Year shall not be omitted Which Letters the Churches shall keep to whom they were directed and shall give them others to the next Church And all Attestations before granted shall be Void and Null CONFORMITY It cannot be denied but great abuses are committed and that at all times there has been abuses committed in the Church upon account of Attestations and Testimonies granted to those of the same Communion which desire to go from one place to another to the end they might be known to be Members of the same Church and to be assisted in case of necessity The Primitive Christians endeavour'd to remedy these inconveniencies two ways The first By ordering that each Church should maintain their own Poor The second In using a great deal of caution in granting these Attestations which is exactly the two things prescrib'd by our Discipline As to the former of these two Means Can. 85 101. Tom. 1. Concil p. 730. the 4th Council of Carthage in the Year 398. declares That the Poor and Ancient people of the Church ought to be more assisted than any others and that young Widows who are weak of Body should be maintain'd at the charge of the Church to which they belong In the 2d Council of Tours assembled An. Dom. 567. the 5th Canon's Title is That each City shall maintain its Poor and runs in these terms That each City doth furnish according to its ability Provisions sufficient to all those of its Inhabitants which are poor and incommoded and that as well the Curates of Villages Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 332. as all the Farmers which dwell there do each nourish their own Poor to the end they may not stray and wander about to other Towns In the 3d Council of the same place assembled in the Year 813. there are several directions in this matter for the Fathers command in the 11.16 36. Canons Tom. 2. Conc. Gal. pag. 297 298 302. That Bishops shall be permitted to take out of the Church stores according to the Canonical Rules in presence of the Priests and Deacons what shall be necessary to maintain the Family and Poor of the Church That the Tythes which shall be given to particular Churches
it known abroad CONFORMITY Those whom we call Students are young Men which study Divinity and which resolve one day to exercise the Ministry of the Gospel and because this Office don't consist alone in Preaching the Word but generally in all things which one ought to do wisely to Govern the Flocks It is with great reason that under certain Conditions we suffer them to enter into the Consistories to the end they may there learn after what way they are to act when it shall please Almighty God to commit the care of some Church unto them VII A Magistrate may be called to the Office of an Elder in the Consistory provided that the Exercise of the one Office doth not interfere with the other and may not be prejudicial to the Church CONFORMITY What I have said to the 5th Article may very well be applied to this VIII The Government of the Church shall be regulated according to the Discipline as it hath been order'd by the National Synods and no Church nor Province shall make any Law but what in substance shall be conformable to the general Articles of the Discipline To this purpose the Articles of the said Discipline shall be read in the Consistories at least at the time of celebrating the Lord's Supper and the Elders and Deacons shall be exhorted to have a Copy thereof each of them to read and study it at home at leisure CONFORMITY In the Ancient Church It was not permitted to a Province much less to a particular Church to make any Constitution which was not conformable to the Canons which were the Discipline of those times contrary to which nothing was to be Establish'd especially after the Canons which compos'd this Discipline had been Authoriz'd by any Oecumenical Council as the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church was by that of Chalcedon This also shall be farther cleared by the remarks I will make on the 2d Article of the following Chapter IX The cognisance of Scandals and the censure of them appertains to the Company of Pastors and Elders and whole Consistories cannot be impeach'd nor above half However Accusations shall be of force against particular persons of the said Consistories as well Pastors as Elders admitted by the said Consistory and they being adjudg'd shall proceed on notwithstanding Appeal on admission or rejection of the said accusations CONFORMITY What I have writ on the 3d Article of the 3d Chap. serves as a Commentary on this without being necessary to say any more X. The Custom which is found to be us'd in some places of making inquest and a general censure of misdemeanours in the publick Assembly of the People and in presence both of Men and Women being condemn'd by the Word of God the Churches are advertis'd to abstain from it and to be satisfied with the Order contain'd in the Discipline as to what regards Censures CONFORMITY See what has been observ'd on the 51. Article of the 1st Chapter XI The Elders may be advertis'd not to report misdemeanors to the Consistory without great reasons for it neither shall any one be call'd to the Consistory without good cause or reason CONFORMITY The Elders having been Established to watch over the Life and Coversation of those which are Members of the Church as I have made appear there 's no question to be made but they should do it with Prudence and Charity XII In the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Discipline one shall forbear as much as possible may be as well from all formalities as from the terms commonly used in Courts of Justice CONFORMITY The Tribunal of the Church being of a very different Nature from Common-Law-Courts it is convenient the proceeding should be quite different and that in the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Discipline one should avoid as much as may be the formalities of the Bar Read the Discipline of the Primitive Christians for Example the Code of Canons of the Universal Church of which I spake just now and I am well assur'd they shall there find proceedings very different from the conduct and stile of what 's done in the Common-Law-Courts I know that the Tribunal of Bishops at this time have too great correspondence with that of Secular Courts but I know also 't was not so in the beginning and that the Ancient Christians Govern'd themselves quite otherwise XIII Believers shall be Exhorted by the Consistories yea requir'd in the Name of God to speak truth for as much as that don 't at all derogate from the Magistrates Authority as also the usual formalities in making Oath practis'd before Magistrates shall not be used CONFORMITY This Establishment has nothing in it but what is very agreeable to the use and practise of the Primitive Christians as I may prove by sundry testimonies I shall only instance in two which the Oecumenical Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon give us seeing that in one and the other Conc. Ephes p. 2. Act. 1. Tom. 2. Con. p. 264 265 Catch Acts. Tom. 3. p. 131. They Exhort and Conjure the Bishops by the Holy Gospels to speak the truth If these two Councils have made no difficulty to do so towards Bishops Wherefore should not the Ecclesiastical Synod as Origen speaks have power to do so to particular persons as occasion shall require XIV In differences which shall happen the Parties shall be Exhorted by the Consistories to be reconcil'd by all friendly means but the Consistories shall not appoint Arbitrators nor shall do the Office of Arbitrators If any of the said body are called to be Arbitrators it shall be only as a particular person and in their own name only CONFORMITY This Article is taken from the Doctrine of St. Paul 1 Cor. 6. which Exhorts Believers to compose their differences and Law-Suits in an amicable manner and to chuse out some amongst their Brethren to whose Judgments they might refer the Decision of all those things which causes debates and strife amongst them St. Chrysostom and Theodoret explaining the words of the Apostle do fully confirm what is ordain'd by our Discipline XV. Besides the Admonitions which are made by the Consistories to those as have done amiss if it so happens that greater Censure and Punishment must be us'd it shall be either Suspension or Deprivation for a time from the Holy Sacrament or Excommunication and Retrenchment from the Church And the Consistories shall be advertis'd to proceed warily and to distinguish betwixt the one and the other as also prudently to weigh and examine the faults and scandals which they shall be inform'd of together with all circumstances the better to judge what Censure it shall require CONFORMITY There is nothing more frequent nor better Established in the ancient Discipline than what ours doth here prescribe so that 't is not necessary long to insist on a matter the truth whereof it were easie to prove by a great number of testimonies were it not to spare the Reader a trouble The Primitive Christians did just as
Sevil about the same time in his second Book of Sentences Chap. 20. and in the third Ch. 46. these three have followed the steps of others It is with regard hereunto that the third Council of Carthage enjoins Bishops in the fourth Century Can. 31. Tom. 1. Conc pag. 711. to prescribe to Penitents according to the nature of sins the time of penance The Jesuit Petau in the 2 3 and 10th Chap. of his 6th Book of Publick Penance acknowledges against Mr. Arnauld That it was the practise of the ancient Church where only heinous and scandalous Crimes were publickly reproved he acknowledges the same thing in his Observations on St. Epiphamus where he has a dissertation on the ancient manner of Penance Tom 2. pag. 238. on occasion of the Heresie of the Novatians which is the 59th in order Father Sirmond of the same Society speaks in the same manner in his Treatise of Publick Penance Chap. 2. 4. In the main all I have said regards the usual Excommunication of the Primitive Church of which I have treated in the precedent Article and by the Laws whereof scandalous Sinners were not admitted to the Holy Table until they had passed through all the Degrees of Penance which was then in use XVII If by such suspensions the Sinners were not reclaimed but continued obstinate and impenitent after long expectation and that they have been several times admonished and intreated proceeding shall be made against them by giving publick admonitions to the People three several Sundays being named if need be by the Minister to make them more ashamed every body advertised to pray to God for them and endeavour by all means to bring them home by repentance of their sins to prevent Retrenchment and Excommunication to which one cannot proceed without sorrow But if for all this they will not repent but persevere in their obstinacy and impenitence on the fourth Sunday it shall be publickly said by the Pastor That 't is declared to the said scandalous and obstinate persons in naming them by their Names That they are not any longer acknowledged as Members of the Church cutting them off from it in the Name and Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his Church And the form of the Excommunication shall be as follows The Form of the Excommunication Brethren see here the fourth time that we declare unto you that N. for having committed several Crimes and for having scandalized the Church of God and for shewing himself impenitent and a contemner of all admonitions which have beén made unto him by the Word of God has been suspended from the Holy Supper of the Lord the which suspension and causes of it has been signified to you to the end you may join your Prayers with ours that it might please God to soften the hardness of his heart and give him true Repentance drawing him from the way of perdition But having so long time waited for him prayed and exhorted and conjur'd him to be converted to God and endeavoured all means to bring him to repentance nevertheless perseveres in his impenitence and with an incor rigible obstinacy rebels against God and tramples under foot his Holy Word and the Order he has established in his Church and glorying in his sins is cause that the Church for so long time is disturbed and the Name of God blasphemed We Ministers of the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ whom God has armed with Spiritual weapons powerful through God to the pulling down of strong holds which hold out in opposition against him to whom the Eternal Son of God has given power to bind and loose on Earth declaring that whatsoever we bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven to the end to purifie the House of God and free his Church from Scandals and in pronouncing Anathema against the wicked should glorifie the Name of God In the Name and Authority of the Lord Iesus by the advice and authority of the Pastors and Elders assembled in Colloque and of the Consistory of this Church we have Retrenched and do Retrench the said N. from the Communion of the Church we Excommunicate and remove him from the Society of the Faithful that he might be to you as a heathen and unbeliever and amongst true Christians he may be Anathema and Execrated let his Company be esteemed contagious and let his Example fill your souls with fear and make you tremble under the mighty hand of God seeing 't is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Which Sentence of Excommunication the Son of God will ratifie and make it efficacious until that the sinner ashamed and humbled in the sight of God gives him glory by his eonversion and being freed from these chains of Satan where with he is bound he bewails his sins with tears of Repentance Beloved Brethren pray unto God that he will have pity on this poor sinner and that this fearful Iudgment the which with great sorrow and sadness of heart we pronounce against him in the Name and Authority of the Son of God may serve to humble and turn into the way of truth a soul which is strayed from it Amen Cursed is every one that doth the work of the Lord negligently If there be any one that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Amen CONFORMITY Christians were not the first which inflicted the pain of Excommunication on Rebellious and Scandalous Sinners Pagans and Jews have practised the same thing I say Pagans Casar informs us in his Commentaries that the Druids in Gaul Excommunicated those which despised their Decrees and their Constitutions Lib. 6. pag. 134 135. forbidding them to approach near the Sacrifices after which they were lookt upon as impious and obstinate every one flying from their company and conversation fearing to receive some harm by infection and this punishment which was the greatest of all those they did inflict put into such a condition those which were subjected to it that they were refused the benefit of the Law altho they earnestly desired it and it also deprived them from all degree of honour As for the Jews every body knows Excommunication was in use amongst them who as 't is said had three sorts the first and slightest which they called Niddui this separated the guilty from those which were not so but for a little space and for thirty days only the second which they called Herem was attended with Anathema's and Maledictions and it was not permitted to eat nor drink with him that was so Excommunicated and 't is probable St. Paul had regard to this kind of Excommunication when he saith 1 Cor. 5.2 I write unto you that you should not eat with such a one The third kind of Excommunication was Shammatta by which was separated for ever from the Communion and Society of the Church him that was guilty Seeing then that Jews and Pagans have exercised this power methinks it would
be injustice to refuse it to the Christian Church seeing also Jesus Christ her Head and Spouse has commanded us in his Gospel to look on him that refuses to hear the Church as a Pagan and Heathen that is to say Matt. 18.17 he will that he be cast out of the Church or that he be Excommunicated which amounts all to one thing St. Paul has expressed this action by delivering over to Satan 1 Cor. 5.5 1 Tim. 1.20 unless one will say that there was something more in St. Paul's Excommunication than in that designed by Jesus Christ in the Gospel However it be the Governours of Churches strengthned by the command of the Lord Jesus and by the Example of his Apostles have always Exercised this Ecclesiastical power against enormous and scandalous sins Tertullian and Origen have shewn on the fifteenth Article That it was the practise of their times which is also verified by the places I have cited out of the same Origen on the precedent Article and by another of Tertullian's who writes in his Book of Pudicity Chap 4. that these sinners should be driven away from the Inclosure of the Church and the place of the Assembly and this was the great and true Excommunication whereas the other was only a privation from the Sacraments To these two Witnesses we may joyn St. Cyprian Contemporary with Origen who very often in his Epistles makes mention of this Censure Ep. 28.38 55 62 of the last Edit when he speaks of removing from the Communion of not Communicating with some one to banish and to cast out of the Church to condemn by the mouth of the Pastor to kill with the Spiritual Sword And other Expressions he uses to declare the same thing The tenth of the Canons attributed to the Apostles does not suffer us to be ignorant of this ancient Discipline Seeing he Excommunicates him that prays with an Excommunicated person in the House only I 'le inlarge no farther seeing one must make a Volume if one would collect all the Canons and Testimonies of the Fathers which treat of Excommunication and more also should one treat of the History of Interdiction which Popes to render their Power more formidable have sent abroad in these last Ages contrary to the use and practise of the Primitive Church to which they were utterly unknown As for the Order which is to be followed according to our Discipline before debarring a sinner from the Communion of the Church besides that it is grounded on the Laws and Precepts of Charity it is also conformaable to the practise of the Primitive Christians Hom. in Jos Tom. 1. p. 185. who by Origen's report reproved and warned the guilty three several times before they came to this last Extremity Thence it is also the same method was observed when there was any mention of deposing an Ecclesiastical Person because in sundry occasions the same faults which deserved Deposition of a Church-man was punished with Excommunication in a Secular as appears by divers Canons particularly by the sixth and seventh of the first Oecumenical Council of Ephesus where we find these words If they are Bishops See the Can. 8 17. of the Counc of Calced or others of the Clergy which are deposed the Bishops from Episcopacy the others from the degree they-held in the Clergy from whence they are quite excluded but if they are Lay persons let them be Excommunicated And we have made appear on the 49th Artic. of Chap. 1. that a Bishop was cited three times or any other Ecclesiastical person before proceeding to his deposing I don't insist on the form of Excommunication repeated after the Article on which I have made the necessary remarks because 't is in the liberty of the Church in such like occasions to make use of what terms it shall judge most fitting provided that in the main it don't depart from the bounds which the Gospel does prescribe nor from the Example of the Holy Apostles Neither do we see that in the Primitive Church they were confined to the use of a sorm of words when any one was Excommunicated those which condemned Sinners to that punishment having been always Masters of the form and manner of Excommunication which is always the same in substance what variety soever there may be in the form wherein it is conceived XVII For the future all Sentences of Excommunication confirmed by the Provincial Synod shall continue firm as also all Sentences of Suspension from the Lords Supper given by the Consistory the which not being published to the People shall hold good altho the party suspended appealed to the Colloque or Provincial Synod CONFORMITY There 's nothing in this Article but what is very conformable to the ancient Discipline according to which each Church had power to inflict throughout the whole extent of its Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction the necessary punishments and Censures against all sorts of offences so that when a Bishop had Excommunicated any one none but the Synod of the Province could take off the Excommunication as there was none but the Synod of the whole Diocess which comprehended several Provinces which could reverse the Sentence of a Provincial Synod Therefore 't is that the Sixth Canon of the first Oecumenical Council of Constantinople the 9. and 17. of that of Chalcedon suffers to appeal from the Bishop to the Provincial Synod and from the Provincial to that of the whole Diocess of which we have a resemblance in our National Synods XIX Those which have deserted the profession of the True Religion to embrace Idolatry if they persist in this Apostacy after means used to return them to the flock they shall publickly be declared Apostates to wit those who lately shall turn to be such unless the Consistory shall think such a publication to cause some notable damage and prejudice to the Church in which case nothing shall be done but by advice of the Provincial Synod As for those which of a long time shall be revolted the execution of this publication is refer'd to the discretion of Consistories CONFORMITY In the Primitive Church Idolatry and Apostacy were in several places excluded from pardon and absolution Tom. 1. Conc. p. 232 236. Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 8. during the two first Centuries of Christianity as is made appear by the first and 46. Canons of the Council of Eliberi assembled Anno Dom. 305. and by the last of the first Council of Arles in the year 314 but it also appears by these same Canons that bare Apostacy was not without hope of being pardoned by the Church but only when it was accompanied with Idolatry which the ancient Christians looked upon as the blackest of all crimes Paran ad Poen Tom. 3. Bib. Pat. pag. 71. and the most heinous of all sins But the great Council of Nice removed this difference in the 11th Canon and made them all hope to find absolution in a certain time as well Idolaters as meer Apostates
and Deserters but this Decree was not so soon observed in all places as may be gathered from the Writings of St. Pacian Bishop of Barcelona who writ after the sitting of this Council and it may also be said that before the middle of the third Century bare desertâ—rs were not received into the bosom of the Church but they were still left under the labour of Penance without any hope of Absolution no not so much as at the hour of Death it was at least the practise of most of the Western Churches Tertullian in his Treatise of Pudicity Cypr. Ep. 52. cum 14 31. and St. Cyprian in some of his Epistles suffers us not to call in question the use of this hard and severe Discipline no more than the mitigation which was begun to be used in it at that time at Rome and in Africa XX. In publick offences that is to say committed in effect and known to a great many of the People the restoring of the sinner shall be made by the publick acknowledging his fault tho he had been punished by order of the Magistrate CONFORMITY In the Primitive Church the restoring of a Scandalous Sinner was not done but in presence of all the People by the Imposition of Hands which was accompanied with Prayer and the better to understand the nature of this Discipline it is to be observed that three sorts of Imposition of Hands was used to Sinners whose Sins were punished according to the Laws of publick Penance by the former they were admitted to do Penance after having demanded it Let the Penitents saith the Council of Agde in the year 506. Tom. Conc. Gall. p. 164. Can. 15. receive the Imposition of Hands at the time that they desire to do Penance The second was not practised one time only as the first but often during the whole time of Penance for as often as the Church assembled to attend the Exercises of Piety and Religion they were made go out as well as the Cathechumeny before the celebrating of Divine Mysteries but after the Bishop imposed his Hands and Prayed on the one and the others separately so it is we find it by the 19th Canon of the Synod of Laodicea See 4 Conc. of Carth. Can. 80. Tom. 1. Conc. Toletan 3. c. 11. Tom. 4. p. 504. An. 589. It is requisite saith he after the Homilies or Sermons the Bishops make Prayers separately first on the Catechumeny and these being gone forth Prayer must be made on those which are under Penance and after the Penitents have been under the hands of the Bishop and that they are withdrawn the three Prayers of Believers must be made The last was destin'd for the publick reconciliation of Sinners after they had accomplished all the time of their Penance and that they had passed through all its divers degrees Therefore the 3d Canon of the 1st Council of Orange in the year 441. calls this Imposition of Hands Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 71. The imposing of reconciliatory hands because God was beseeched that he would pardon these Penitent Sinners and that he would reconcile them to God and his Church The 78th Canon of the 4th Council of Carthage calls it simply The Imposition of Hands Tom. 1. Concil p. 730. without which it will not so much as have sick Penitents to be Absolv'd in case they recover although they had receiv'd the Sacrament during their Sickness Pope Leo I. calls it the Door of Reconciliation in his 41st Epistle to Theodorus XXI Seeing Adultery brings a mark of Infamy especially on Women the Publishing such Offences is refer'd to the discretion of Consistories CONFORMITY St. Basil in his Canonical Epistles has prescribed something of this kind Ep. 2. Can. 34. Tom. 3. p. 32. Our Fathers saith he have forbid to publish that is to say to make known to the People the Women guilty of Adultery whether they confessed it by a movement of Piety or that they were in some sort convinced of it for fear that being Convicted we should expose them to danger of Death But they have appointed that they should be deprived of the Communion until such time as they should accomplish the time of Penance XXII Publick acknowledgments are not to be made but in person and the Sinner shall give testimony of his Repentance CONFORMITY What we have alledged on the 20th Article ought to serve as a Commentary on this seeing it was the Sinner in person which was publickly reconciled to the Church after having fully satisfied the Laws of Penance XXIII The Sinner which has been Suspended from the Lord's Supper by the Consistory and that the Suspension has not been declar'd to the People shall desire of the Consistory to be restor'd and shewing signs of Repentance shall there be restored without making publick acknowledgment CONFORMITY This Article is also very conformable to the practise of the Primitive Church which opened not the door of reconciliation in presence of the People but only to Sinners which were in publick Penance and publickly deprived of the participation of the Sacraments as evidently appears by what I have hitherto said As for other Sinners whose faults were not publick they were treated in a gentler sort and proportionable to the sins they had committed XXIV But him whose Suspension had been declared after his Repentance had been known to the Consistory by good Living and sufficient Testimonies he shall publickly be reconciled to the Church in acknowledging his offence CONFORMITY This Article being in substance the same with the 20. the Reader may see what we have observed on that it being needless to speak to this XXV Those who by their obstinacy and hardness in their faults have been cut off from the Church shall not slightly be reconcil'd to the Church but after a good and long proof of their Repentance they shall be heard in the Consistory and if they desire to be receiv'd into the bosome of the Church acknowledging their faults proclamation shall be made to the People to stir them up to pray and bless God and sometime after they shall be presented to the whole Church to confess and detest their faults and past rebellions demanding Pardon of God and his Church and so shall be reconciled with Joy and Publick Prayers CONFORMITY The Ancient Christians were wont to keep Sinners under Penance more or less according to the nature of the Crimes whereof they were guilty all the Canons which treat of this matter confirm it and one may only read them to find this difference the time of Penance of some being incomparably longer than of others because their Sins were more enormous and heinous and as to be hardned in Sin makes it more criminal so also they failed not to augment the punishment in prolonging the time of Penance sometimes even to the hour of Death even after the time that some mitigation had been made to the first Discipline in regard of some Sins which in
several places were excluded from all hope of Pardon in the bosom of the Church as is made appear by the 16th Canon of the Synod of Ancyra in the year 314. XXVI Those which in a Church shall fall into Idolatry thereupon shall come to live in another Church where the fault is not known shall confess their fault only in Consistory on condition that returning to the said Church which they had offended they also acknowledg their fault publickly in it however referring to the discretion of the Consistory to do otherwise if they shall so think expedient for the Edification of the Churches The same Judgment shall be made of all other Faults which shall require publick Confession CONFORMITY Amongst the Primitive Christians when a Sinner had been Excommunicated in a Church when he had been cut off from its body or only debar'd from the Holy Table another Church was not permitted to receive him without the consent of that which had inflicted the punishment It was by this Principle that the Clergy of the Church of Rome the See being vacant after the death of its Bishop Hygin about the year of our Lord 150. would not receive Marcion to the Communion because he had been Excommunicated by his own Father who was Bishop for having debauch'd a young Woman We cannot say they Apud Epiphan Petau Haer. 42. p. 303. do this without the Order of your venerable Father In Theodoret Alexander Bishop of Alexandria complains to Alexander Bishop of Constantinople that some Bishops had received to the Communion some persons which he had Excommunicated The 5th Canon of the great Council of Nice expresly forbids it as also several others which 't is needless to alledge But when there was no Sentence given against a Sinner that he had not appeared before the Guides to acknowledg his Sin or to be convicted of it and that by consequence he had not been Excommunicated it is very probable that if he retired into another Church where the Fault was not committed he there would be treated according to the Rules of Christian Charity without paying the satisfaction which he owed to that which he had scandaliz'd in case he return'd to it It is just what is prescribed by our Discipline whereas there is not that I know of any positive Decree in the Ancient Canons on a matter of the Nature of that which we Examine although it may be reasonably thought there is by what was practis'd in other occasions XXVII All offences confessed and reparation made for them shall be struck out of the Consistory Books except those which being join'd with Rebellion have been censur'd with Suspension from the Lord's Supper or Excommunication CONFORMITY As there were only publick Faults and scandalous Sins which were to be satisfied for in the presence of the People there is great likelihood that in the first Ages the Ecclesiastical Senate kept not a Register of others of a less quality and which deserv'd not to suffer the pain of publick Penance or at least if they were wont to be written they were carefully expung'd after the Sinners had done what was requir'd of them in presence of the Conductors and that the necessary Censures had been applied to them otherwise what the Church has ever carefully distinguished had been confounded and embroil'd XXVIII Consistories shall not give Certificates to Magistrates by Act nor otherwise nor particular Members of Consistories shall discover unto any the Confessions of Penitents which voluntarily or by admonitions given them shall have confessed their faults unto them unless it be in Case of Treason CONFORMITY There is nothing more judicious than this Rule which enjoins to keep the secret of Confession made by Sinners of their faults either to the Bodies of Consistories or to any particular person whereof they are compos'd except the crime of Treason because in effect the Seal of Confession should not be regarded when there is question of the Sacred Persons of Kings and of the safety of their Estates there being no subject of what degree or quality soever he be that in this occasion is not bound in Conscience to disclose the secret which has been revealed to him otherwise he renders himself guilty in the sight of God and deserves to be exemplarily punish'd by the Laws of Men. XXIX Proceeding shall be made by Ecclesiastical Censures even to Excommunication against those which saying they are of the Religion shall cite Pastor and Elders or all the Consistory before the Magistrate to make them give Testimony against Delinquents which shall have confessed their faults before them CONFORMITY The 11th Canon of the Council of Antioch Anno Dom. 341. expresly prohibits Bishops and Priests to address themselves to the Emperor for any business without the consent and Letters of the Bishops of the Province especially of the Metropolitan and the 12th deprives them of the liberty of defending themselves and leaves them no hope of re-establishment if after having been Depos'd by their Synod they have recourse to the Emperor instead of addressing themselves to a greater Synod for example to that of the whole Diocess composed of the Bishops of several Provinces The Oecumenical Council of Constantinople Assembled in the year of our Lord 381. appoints in the 6th Canon not to receive the testimony of those which despising the Authority of Provincial Synods and of those of the whole Diocess have the confidence to implore Justice of the Emperor or of the Civil Magistrate because say the Fathers they do injury to the Canons and they overthrow all Ecclesiastical Discipline XXX As for Crimes which shall be disclos'd to Ministers by those which demand counsel and consolation Ministers are enjoin'd not to reveal them to Magistrates fearing lest blame should be drawn on the Ministry and Sinners should be discouraged for the future to come to Repentance and make Confession of their faults which shall stand good in all crimes confessed except it be Treason CONFORMITY What I have writ on the 28th Article sufficeth for explanation of this which in substance contains the same thing XXXI If one or more of the People stir up dissention to disturb the unity of the Church upon any point of Doctrine or of Discipline or of the form of Catechism the Administration of Sacraments or of Publick Prayers and the Order of Marriage and that hereto particular admonitions are not a sufficient Remedy the Consistory of the place shall endeavour with speed to dissolve and appease the whole matter without noise and with all mildness of the Word of God And if the opposers will not acquiesce the Consistory of the place shall desire the Colloque to assemble in time and place more convenient having first of all made the said Opposers expresly promise which shall be register'd That they shall not spread abroad their Opinions in any sort or manner whatever until the Convocating of the Colloque under pain of being censur'd as Schismaticks yet they may have liberty to
to the Antient Custom this being referred to the discretion of Provinces and there the Ministers shall meet with one Elder of each Church CONFORMITY Our Colloques do in a manner agree with the Diocesan Synods of each Bishop Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. like that of Anacharius Bishop of Auxer in the year 578 or to the Assemblies of some Neighbouring Bishops to decide the Differences which hapned in the adjacent Parts it is to what do amount the Cannons 11 20 28 125. Of the African Code of Mr. Justel However it be it appears by the 100 Cannon of the same Code that the Ecclesiastical Elders and of the Order of Layicks assisted at these sort of Judgments Apâ—d Cypr. contral p. Steph. pag. 144. I know not but Firmillian Bishop of Cesaria in Cappadocia had this Custom in his mind when he wrote to St. Cyprian We do meet every Year Pastors and Elders to regulate the things committed to our care II. Such Assemblies and Colloques shall be held to consider and compose Differences which shall happen in the said Churches as is appointed by the Discipline and generally to provide for what shall be known to be Expedient and Necessary for the good and support of the Churches CONFORMITY To this Second Article may be apply'd the Cannons of the African Code which I cited on the first and also joyn thereto the Fifth Cannon of the Council of Nice by which we find that one of the Motives of the Convocation of Ecclesiastical Assemblies was to appease Differences and to preserve Unity and Concord The Twentith of the Synod of Antioch tends to the same end III. There also Ministers shall Preach the Word of God every one by his turn to the end it may be known what care every one takes in exercising himself in the Study of the Holy Scriptures and in the Method and Form of treating of it CONFORMITY Ministers being Established for instructing of their Flocks it is the Duty of their Superiours to take cognisance of their Conduct and of the progress they make in the Study of Divinity and because it may be judged by their Preaching our Discipline has very well appointed That Ministers shall Expound the Word of God every one by turns in the Colloques IV. The Authority of Colloques is inferiour to that of Provincial Synods as those of Consistories are to Colloques CONFORMITY It appears by the 21 and 125 Cannons of the African Code that Appeals might be made from the Judgment of Neighbouring Bishops whose Assemblies were much the same of Colloques It appears I say that Appeals might be made to the Councils of Africa or to the Primates of their Provinces And it was by the Establishment of the same Discipline That Appeal was made from a Provincial Synod to a greater Synod such as was the Council of all the Provinces of a Diocess It is just what is prescribed by the Antient Cannons as the XII of Antioch the VI. of the first General of Constantinople the IX and XVII of that of Calcedon V. The Colloques and Synods shall deliberate of limiting the Extent of Places wherein each Minister shall Exercise his Ministry CONFORMITY This Establishment is also very conformable to the Antient Discipline of Christians according to which the Synod took cognisance of the Jurisdiction of Bishops and of its Extent as also of the places where they were to Exercise their Ministry from thence proceeds all the Prohibitions made them of undertaking nothing without the bounds prescribed them as has been shewn on the first Chapter VI. At the end of the Colloques amicable and brotherly Sensures shall be made as well by the Pastors as the Elders which shall be there present of all things which shall be thought fit to represent to them CONFORMITY The Fourth Council of Orleans in the Year 541. made a Rule like this in the 37 Cannon which requires that Metropolitans should once a year assemble their Synods to the end that whilst the Brethren are assembled the needful Sensures should be made with Charity which is also verified by the principal Motive of convocating this Assembly which was as I just now said to determine all Differences and to appease all Quarrels and Contests CHAP. VIII Of PROVINCIAL SYNODS ARTICLE I. IN each Province the Pastors of each Church shall assemble once a Year or twice as they may which is referred to the Prudence and Discretion of the Synod CONFORMITY Christians have ever esteemed Synods so necessary that they have been very careful to assemble them when the good of the Church required it for as Eusebius saith in the 51 chap. of the Book of the Life of Constantine Great Controversies cannot be determin'd but by Synods At the beginning and even during the heat of Persecution when there arrived any trouble in a particular Church all the others concern'd themselves in it and the Ministers by a meer movement of Charity and without any form of Convocation assembled of themselves to make Peace and to compose Differences And in these Assemblies Humane Passions being banished and Jesus Christ there presiding by his Holy Spirit they consulted together and resolv'd without Ceremonies and Formalities what was expedient It is much after this Method they proceeded against Paul of Samosatia Bishop of Antioch when he had published his Impiety Euseb Hist lib. 7. c. 27 28 29. the Pastors of Churches as Eusebius saith being run thither from all parts as against an Enemy which destroy'd the Flock of Christ And I can't tell if the Synod of Iconia in Phrygia mentioned by Fermillian Bishop of Caesaria in Cappadocia was not of the same kind of those held against Paul of Samosatia in the same Century Apud Cypr. contr Ep. Steph. p. 146. for he saith they were assembled in that place from Gallacia Cilicia and other adjacent Provinces to confirm what had already been concluded touching the reiteration of the Baptism of Hereticks But what Bishops did at first by a principle of Charity they were in time obliged to do also by Duty the Cannons requiring it of them In effect the V. Cannon of the First Council of Nice appoints to hold Synods twice a year in each Province The Twentieth of the Council of Antioch renews the same Decree and thence it is undoubtedly that him which forged the Cannons of the Apostles borrowed the 37 which contains the same Establishment The Nineteenth of Chalcedon having complained that in the Provinces was not celebrated the Synods prescribed by the Cannons it appoints they be held twice a year conformable to the Decrees of the Holy Fathers There 's a number of other Cannons which prescribe the same thing and which I forbear to alleage to observe two things which concern the matter which we examine the first that Auitus Bishop of Vienna in Dauphine which flourished about the end of the V. Century and at the beginning of the VI endeavour'd to restore the Antient Custom which insensibly was
humility of his heart and of the Homage he owes to Almighty God unless some may be hinder'd to do it by sickness or otherwise the Judgment whereof shall be left to his own constancy CONFORMITY The Ancient Christians were wont to kneel at Prayers as Eusebius testifies in his Ecclesiastical History St. Chrysostom in his 18 Homily on the 2 to the Corinthians saith that he bowed to the ground and Synesius in his 57 Epistle that he kneeled down at his Prayers and that in that posture of a Beggar he desir'd Death rather than a Bishoprick Nevertheless it must be granted that about the end of the 2 Century they began to pray standing on Sundays and during the interval of time betwixt Easter to Whitsontide Tertullian assures us so in the third Chapter of the Book of the Crown and with him the Author of Questions to the Orthodox in the Works of St. Justin Martyr in the 115 Question a practise authorised by the great Council of Nice in the 20th Cannon on account of those which us'd otherwise In the time of St. Jerom that is to say in the 4 and 5 Century's the Decree of Nice was follow'd and he also touches the Use of this Custom in his Preface on the Ephesians where he observes that from Easter to Whitsontide It is a time of Joy and Victory during which saith he we do not bend the knee and do not prostrate towards the Earth Tom. 6. pag. 161. but arising with the Lord we fly up to the highest Heavens He observes the same thing in his Dialogue against the Luciferians chap. 4. St. Paul nevertheless does the contrary for we read in the 20 chap. of the Acts ver 36. that having discoursed with the Pastors of the Church of Ephesus he kneeled down and prayed with them all it appears by the 16 verse of the same chapter that 't was betwixt Easter and Whitsontide St. Luke observes also in the 21 chap. verse the 5th of the same Book of Acts that the Apostle departing from Tyre about the same time being accompany'd with the Disciples and Brethren of the place with their Wifes and Children they kneeled down and prayed Moreover this practise of the Ancient Christians which I but now mention'd shews that it was ever their manner to pray kneeling which is the most becoming and decent posture to procure the Mercy of God as the Author of Questions to the Orthodox does declare because indeed the Creature can never too much humble himself before the Soveraign Majesty of his Maker in whose presence he must prostrate himself and confess his vileness and nothingness saying to him with Abraham I am but dust and ashes And as they prayed kneeling in the primitive Church there 's no doubt to be made but they also prayed bare-headed such doubtless were those Common Prayers and Supplications which were made in their Assemblies as Justin Martyr and Tertullian do testifie in their Apologies As for singing of Psalms it is what has ever been practis'd in Christian Assemblies St. Paul recommends it to the Colossians in these terms Col. 3.16 See Eph. 5.19 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Pliny the 2d in his Relation to the Emperor Trajan of the Christians in Asia and of their Assemblies before day light for fear of Persecution he observes amongst other things Lib. 10. Ep. 97. that they sang Hymns to Jesus Christ as to a God Tertullian makes mention of this Letter of Pliny to Trajan in the 2 chap. of his Apology and in the 39 he speaks of these spiritual Songs which Christians sang to God in his time especially the Psalms of David have ever been highly esteemed in the Church which has found the singing of them so comfortable and saving that it has ever been practis'd without Interruption The 17 Cannon of the Synod of Laodicea prescribes the manner of singing them in the Assembly It would be endless to relate all the Fathers have said in commendation of these Divine Hymns the praise whereof they have endeavour'd to strive who should most exalt them especially St. Basil St. Ambrose St. Chrysostom Theodoret and several others therefore I 'le content my self in producing what is said by the Author of the Christian Topography That the Psalms of David are sung in all Churches throughout the World and that they are almost in every bodies mouth as well great as small and that in each Church they are sung Apâ—d Allaâ—â—um de lib. Graee pag. 61. and they are oftner read than the Writings of the Prophets or any other sacred Monuments II. The Congregations of Believers being also appointed to sing the praises of God and to comfort and fortifie themselves by the use of Psalms All shall be advertis'd to carry their Psalm Books to Church and those who by disdain shall neglect to have them shall be sensur'd as also those which shall not be uncover'd in the time of singing as well before as after Sermon and also during the time of celebrating the Sacraments CONFORMITY Seeing Prayer and singing Psalms are things Essential to Piety our Discipline doth justly prescribe the Manner and Means to do it as becometh and to declare those worthy of sensure which shall transgress their Ordinance It requires the same thing in the time of celebrating the Sacraments and in desiring it it nothing differs from the practice of the Antient Church which had so great Respect for Baptism and the Lords Supper that it suffer'd not the Catechumeny Energumeny or Penitents to be present at celebration of one or the other calling them both Terrible Misteries III. In times of great Persecution or of Plague War Famine or other great affliction Also when Election is to be made of Ministers of the Word of God and at the time of entering into the Synod one may if necessity require one or more days have publick Prayers with fasting yet without seruple or superstition all done with great caution and consideration And the Churches shall be advertis'd to conform one with another in celebrating a Fast as near as they can according to convenience of time and place CONFORMITY Tertullian being turn'd Montanist and by consequence an Enemy of Catholicks and the Orthodox cap. 2. p. 545. whom he treats injuriously and after an unchristian manner Tertullian I say reproaches them in his Book of Abstinence which he wrote expresly against them he reproaches them that they fasted voluntarily according to the subject and occasion they had for it and in the same Book he saith that the Bishops were wont to appoint the People to fast when the Church had need to humble it self in the sight of God Ibid cap. 13. p. 551 Extr. and that it is in fear of some evil that threatens it this was the manner of the Antient Christians in celebrating of
Fasts an order which we exactly follow and which is grounded in that Jesus Christ nor his Apostles have not prescrib'd in any place of the New Testament on what dayes one should or should not fast as St. Austin has observ'd in his 86 Epistle to Casulanus IV. Those Churches which have been accustom'd to make publick Prayers on certain dayes may keep the order they have for a long time happily used and others may conform thereunto according to the means which God shall please hereafter to give them and as their Edification shall require CONFORMITY This Article has no other Scope but to establish an intire Conformity in the Churches as to what regards the Exercises of Piety and Religion can 27. Tom. 1. conc Gal. p. 199. near hand as when the Council of Epaume in the year 517. ordain'd that in the out Provinces for celebration of Divine Offices the same Order should be observ'd as is by the Metropolitan the same thing was concluded the same year in Spain in the 1 Council of the Synod of Gironda can 55. To. 3. conc pag. 806 and Anno 633 in the 2 Cannon of the 4 of Tolledo To. 4. conc pag. 582. and in the year 465 a Council of Vannes had appointed that throughout the whole Province the same Order and Rule for Divine Offices and for singing of Psalms should be observ'd V. There shall no Prayer or Sermon nor publick Alms be given at Burials to shun Superstitions and those which accompany the Corps shall be exhorted to behave themselves with modesty during the time meditating according to the object before their Eyes as well the miseries and shortness of this life as the happiness of the life to come CONFORMITY All pretence towards superstition whereunto Men are too apt to incline is in this Article endeavour'd to be avoided VI. Because Mourning don 't consist in Apparel but in the Heart Believers shall be warned to demean them therein with all Modesty rejecting all Ambition Hypocrisie Vanity and Superstition CONFORMITY This last Article prescribes Modesty and excludes Hycoprisie and Ambition which were generously opposed by the Primitive Christians CHAP. XI Of BAPTISME ARTICLE I. BAptism administred by one that has no Vocation is absolutely Void CONFORMITY The Author of Apostolical Constitutions contents not himself to forbid Women to Baptise he also prohibits all Lay Persons because they are not called to it in effect having employ'd the Ninth Chapter of the Third Book to shew that Women should not Baptise he thus begins the Tenth Neither do we suffer a Lay Person to Exercise any Priestly Function as to offer Sacrifice that is to say to celebrate the Sacrament or to Baptise or impose hands or to give the Benediction whether more or less for none takes to him this honor but he enjoys it which is called of God St. Basil was of no other Mind as the Jesuit Petau confesses in his Notes upon St. Epiphanius where he says St. Basil seems to have believed that Baptism conferr'd by Lay persons was Null and to speak the Truth this Holy Doctor speaking of the Opinion of St. Cyprian of Firmilian Pag. 351. and others which taught that all those ought to be Re-Baptis'd which had been Baptis'd by Hereticks he saith Epist ad Ampluit can 1. To. 3. p. 21. That they had appointed they should be purisied anew by the true Baptism of the Church no more nor less then if they had been Baptis'd by Lay Persons St. Basil would not have spoke after this Manner had he not been perswaded that Baptism administred by Lay Men is not true Baptism As for Baptism administred by a Woman cap. 17. p. 231. Tertullian had before condemn'd it in his time in his Treatise of Baptism and had shewn that they were not permitted to teach nor to Baptise St. Epiphanius in the Heresie of the Collyridians which is the 79 in order inlarges much in proving the same thing to stop the rashness of Women who would undertake to Baptise pag. 1059 1060. observing also that the Holy Virgin had not this power for if she had it Jesus Christ might have been Baptis'd by her rather than by John Baptist The fourth Council of Carthage made this Decree Anno 398 That a Woman should not presume to Baptise It is not then to be wonder'd that St. Epiphanius in the forty two Heresie observes as a thing blameable Tom. 1. conc can 〈…〉 That the Arch-Heretick Marcion permitted Women to Baptise II. A Doctor in the Church cannot Preach nor administer the Sacraments unless he be both Doctor and Minister CONFORMITY This Article is but a continuance of the former for seeing a Doctor in quality of a meer Doctor hath no vocation to Preach the Word nor to administer the Sacraments it is unquestionable the Baptism which he shall confer shall be no other than that which shall be administred by a Meer Lay Man to do it Lawfully he must not only be a Doctor but also a Minister III. A Jew or Pagan of what Age soever he be ought not to be Baptised before being well Instructed in the Christian Religion and that it appears they are so by their Confession CONFORMITY There 's nothing in this Establishment but what was practis'd in the Antient Church St. Justin Martyr testifies in his second or rather his first Apology that the Christians of those times would not Baptise those who would turn to their Communion until after they had believed and were throughly perswaded of the Truth of their Doctrine and moreover promised to live conformable to the holiness of their Laws and profession Pope Victor the 1 ordain'd towards the end of the second Century as the Pontifical Book saith in his Life that in case of Necessity one may Baptise all those that turn from Paganism to Christianity either in a River or in the Sea or in a Fountain or in a Lake upon condition nevertheless that in the first place they should give an Account of the Christian Faith and make an open Confession of it The Ten Books of Recognitions falsly attributed to St Clement Disciple of the Apostles are very ancient but forged and writ before Origen who liv'd in the third Century in the VI of these Books at the end we read St. Peter Baptised near the Sea Those which had fully received the Faith of our Lord and Saviour that is to say those which believed in him and which had been Instructed in the knowledge of his Gospel St. Jerom expounding these words of our Saviour to his Apostles Math. 28.19 Go teach all Nations baptising them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost St. Jerom observes In cap. 28. Mat. Tom. 6. pag. 66. the Apostles taught them first and that after having instructed them they baptised them with Water for saith he It cannot be that the Body should receive the Sacrament of Baptism unless the Soul has first received
matters that those which were to be baptised were bound to recite the Symbol of their Faith to renounce the Devil to his Power and his Angels to acknowledge that they were by Nature Children of Wrath and to shew Repentance and Sorrow for their Sins committed during the time of their Ignorance and if they were instructed in the knowledge of Heavenly things they were also taught to live well that is to say holily and in a way answerable to their Vocation The Nature and Fruits of Baptism was explain'd to them They had also some Light of the Eucharist shewed them because they did communicate presently after being baptised and all these things were accompanied with Ardent Prayers to God as well to render him thanks for calling them to his blessed Communion as to implore his Grace and Benediction on them at the very instant that he honour'd them with the seal of his Covenant and Sacrament of our Salvation After all I have said the perfect resemblance may easily be seen which is found in the Matter I Examin betwixt our practice and that of the Ancient Church if you except what regards Anabaptists which appearing but in the last Century could be neither the Subject nor Matter of any of the Decrees of the Cannon Law CHAP. XII Of the LORDS SUPPER ARTICLE I. WHere there is not a settled Church it is not permitted to celebrate the Lords Supper CONFORMITY The reason of this First Article is because the Lords Supper is so called by reason of the Communion of those which participate thereof it is the Opinion of St. Chrysostom which he has thus Expressed Hom. 21. Tom. 5. pag. 312. The Apostle calls it the Lords Supper because all those which are invited take it in common with concord The Author of the Commentaries on St. Pauls Epistles in St. Jerom's Works saith That the Lords Supper ought to be common to all In 4 Cor. 11. The Lords Supper saith St. Isidore of Sevil is so called from the Communion of those which Eat of it and the Communicants from their assembling in Common Orig. l. 20. pag. 132. thence it is that Justin Martyr writes in his first Apology that they assembled on Sundays from the Cities and from the Country round about to hear the Word of God pag. 93. cum 97. and to partake of the Holy Sacrament and he also observes they sent some to the absent to shew doubtless the Communion they had together and I can't tell but 't was with respect hereunto that the Council of Laodicea conceived in these Terms the 58th Cannon Bishops nor Priest must not make Oblations in private Houses that is to say that they should not there Celebrate the Eucharist which was not begun to be celebrated without Communicants till about the 12th Century Part. 1. c. 11. as I have sufficiently proved in the History of the Sacrament II. Children under twelve years of Age shall not be admitted to the Lords Supper but above this Age it shall be at the discretion of the Ministers to Judge of those which shall be fit to be admitted or not CONFORMITY It may seem to be collected from the place in St. Justin Martyr which I cited on the other Article that only persons of Age and not little Children were admitted to the Holy Sacrament and it is very probable that Tertullian was of this Opinion because he thought fit to defer the Baptising of Children for some years as well as Gregory Nazianzen as I shewed on the foregoing Chapter It 's true that since the time of St. Cyprian until about the 12th Century Children were received to the Communion but this Custom is justly rejected by those also of the Church of Rome as well as Protestants In effect young Children are incapable of the Examination St. Paul requires of those which approach to the Holy Table III. Priests Friers and other Ecclesiastical Persons of the Church of Rome shall not be admitted to the Lords Supper until they have first made confession in publick of their past life and profession CONFORMITY This practice is wholly conformable to that of the first Christians It is not permitted unto any one whatsoever saith St. Justin Martyr to partake with us of the Sacrament unless he be fully perswaded of the truth of our Doctrine that he has been Baptized to obtain Remission of his Sins with a new Birth Apol. 1. p. 97 98. and that he lives according to the Laws of Jesus Christ IV. Dignitaries which bear the Name and Title of their benefices and those which therewith mingle Idolatry Directly or Indirectly whether they enjoy their Benefices by their own hands or by the hands of others shall not be admitted to the Lords Supper CONFORMITY Those here described not being in the State nor Disposition desired by Justin Martyr they cannot be received to the Holy Communion in a Christian Society whose Doctrine they do not believe or that don't gather themselves within the Laws and under the Discipline observed in the midst of them V. Ministers shall be warned not to receive to the Lords Supper Persons of other Churches unless they have sufficient testimony from its Minister or in default thereof from an Elder if it possible may be CONFORMITY The Church has observed this Order from the First Ages for the Council of Antioch in the Year 341 forbids in the Seventh Cannon to admit of any Stranger without having Pacifick Letters The Seventh Cannon of the First Council of Carthage Assembled under Gratus about the Year 348 speaks also more clearly forbidding plainly both Clergy and Layity to communicate in any other Church without their Bishops Letter Lib. 2. c. 51. The Author of Apostolical Constitutions prescribes almost the same thing Pag. 601 602. In the Third Volumne of the French Councils there is a Synod of Nants the time it held is somewhat uncertain the Two First Cannons whereof are imployed to confirm this same practice VI. A Man that 's Deaf and Dumb which by evident Signs Tokens and Gestures shewing his Piety and Religion what he can may be admitted to the Holy Sacrament when by a long Experience of the Holiness of his Life the Church shall perceive he has Faith and shall be truly taught of God CONFORMITY The Church never required of Communicants more than a Holy Mind and Disposition wherefore if it is found in a Deaf and Dumb Man and that he gives signs of it he ought to be admitted to the Sacrament and when I speak of the Church I mean that of the Primitive Christians for in process of time they imposed on Communicants an Obligation of Auricular Confession especially since the days of Innocent the Third who made the first Decree for it in his Latteran Council in the Year of Christ 1215. VII The Bread of the Sacrament ought to be administred to those which cannot drink Wine in making protestation that 't is not through contempt and doing what they can possible
and Excommunicate Lay Persons who being in Town pass Three Sundays without being present at the Holy Exercises made in the Assemblies of the Church XIII Those which make it their practice to hear Sermons in one Church and to receive the Holy Sacraments in another shall be advertis'd and sensur'd and shall associate themselves to the nearest and most convenient Congregation as shall be advised by the Colloque CONFORMITY In the time of St. Justin Martyr Apol. 1. pag. 97. the Christians met together in one place from City and Country not only to hear the Word of God but also to receive the Holy Sacrament The Council of Agde in Languedock which held in the Year 606 Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. cap. 21. p. 165. suffers those that are far from Parish Churches to have private Oratories for the ease of their Families nevertheless enjoyns them to be present at their Parishes on the chief and solemn Feasts of the Year Charlemain in his Capitulary of the Year 789 Tom. 2. cap. 9. pag. 157. requires it should be done on all Holy Dayes and Sundays and forbids private Persons to desire Priests to say Divine Service in their Houses on those Dayes Ibid. cap. 45.46 p. 223 Theodulph Bishop of Orleans prescribes the same thing in his in the Year 797 to this same Discipline may also be referr'd the Second Cannon of the Council of Nants whereof I spake on the Fifth Article XIV Although in our Churches the Lords Supper is not wont to be celebrated above four times a year yet it were to be desired it were celebrated oftner the due Reverence thereunto belonging being observed because it is very necessary that the most upright may be Exercised and Mercies in Faith by the frequent use of the Sacraments as also the Example of the Primitive Church doth teach us And therefore the National Synod shall give Direction as the good of the Church shall require CONFORMITY The lukewarmness of Christians in Piety has been the cause that Communions have been less frequent than they were in the Primitive times Therefore our Discipline has setled them at four times a year desiring nevertheless that People were in a state fit to Communicate oftner The Council of Agde which I cited on the foregoing Article reduces it to Three times in the 18th Cannon That of Autun Can. 14. p. 71. in the Supplement of French Councils doth the same in the Year 630. Atto Bishop of Verceil in the Tenth Century renews that of Agde in its Capitulary Tom. 8. Spicil c. 73. pag. 27. Ratherius of Verona in the same Century speaks of Four times a year in his Synodal Epistle to the Priests of his Diocess which is inserted by Don Luke De Achery in his second Spicilegium Peter de Celles in his Treatise of Monastical Discipline which is in the Third Spicil writes pag. 94. That 't is sufficient for a Lay Person to communicate once a year The Council of Trent in the Thirteenth Session under Julius the Third Anno 1551 the 11th of October Anathematises in the Ninth Cannon Tom. 9. Coâ—c p. 382. all those that shall deny that Believers of both Sexes are obliged to communicate at Easter at least once a year although in the 22th Session which is the Sixth under Pius the Fourth in the Year 1562 and the 17th of September Ib. p. 40â— touching the Doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass chap. 6. The Synod desires that all the Believers which are present should communicate not only by a Spiritual affection and desire but also by a Sacramental participation which Cardinal Borrome has not failed to observe and confirm in some of the Councils which he held at Millan â—â— p. 453 517 549. I almost forgot the Fiftieth Cannon of the Council of Tours assembled Anno 813. That Lay Persons communicate at least thrice a year if they cannot receive oftner unless that they were hindred by some great Sin which is repeated word for word in the 45th chap. of the Second Book of the Capitularies of our Kings Theodulphus Bishop of Orleans contented himself at the end of the Eighth Century to warn Believers that they should not abstain too long from receiving the Holy Sacrament and to procure the qualities fit and necessary when they intended to approach to so great a Sacrament Ib. c. 44. pag. 223. Honorius of Autun observes in the Tenth Volumne of the Library of the Holy Fathers pag. 1198. that 't was agreed on by reason of worldly Men that one should communicate either every Lords Day or every Third Sunday or on great Holy Dayes or three times a year CHAP. XIII Of MARRIAGES ARTICLE I. THose which are under Age cannot Contract Marriage without consent of their Father and Mother or others under whose care they are committed nevertheless if their said Father and Mother be so unreasonable as to refuse to agree to a thing so Holy and Profitable even doing it in hatred to Religion the Consistory shall advise the Parties to have their recourse to the Magistrate CONFORMITY The Discipline of the Antient Church has provided for what ours doth here enjoyn and hath taken care to keep Children in the respect and obedience which they owe to their Parents forbidding them to marry without their consent and 't is not only in regard of Children it does so but also in regard of all such as are under Tuition of others It is the matter and subject of the 42 Cannon of St. Basils second Canonical Epistle Tom. 3. p. 33. Marriages made without consent of those under the power of whom one is are Fornications those then who marry during the Life of Father or Guardian are not excusable till their consent be had for then the Marriage becomes lawful and receives the vertue which it ought to have This Cannon is as 't were an abridgement of Two preceeding ones as is observ'd by Balzamon and Zonares Greek Cannonists who pretend that Marriage is void without the consent I but now speak of and that it ought to be dissolv'd The 23th Cannon of the same Epistle is also very full to this purpose Maids which follow their Lovers without consent of Father c. live in Fornication but if Father and Mother are reconcil'd to them the thing seems to be setled in a good state by this remedy nevertheless that they be not admitted to partake of the Lords Supper until after three years Pennance Whereupon the same Greek Cannonists above-mentioned observe that the consent of Parents that is to say of Father and Mother doth change Fornication into lawful Marriage without departing at all from the sensure contain'd in the Cannon The 22th Cannon of the Fourth Council of Orleans Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 265 Ib. p. 316 pag. 5â—4 in the Year 541 prohibits the taking a Maid in Marriage without consent of Father and Mother the Sixth of the Third Synod of Paris Anno 557 forbids also the
and Marry another if she cannot contain This last Cannon of the Synod of Verbery in the 5th Ubi supra 42 43 44 of that of Compeign where we Read these words If a free man has taken in Marriage a woman whom he thought to be free and afterwards he found she was not let him put her away if he will and let him Marry another The 4th of the same Council of Compeign makes this ordinance If a man has marri'd his Wises Daughter being of a free state to a free man or to a slave or to a Church-man and that he married her against her will and against the will of her Mother and her relations if she will not have him for a Husband and that she leave him her Relations may give her another or if she herself has Married another after having left the first let them not be separated In the 13th we Read this if any one has left his wife and in consideration of Piety and Religion he has given her liberty to enter into a Monastery or that for the Love of God he has suffer'd her to take the vail out of a Monastery let this Man take a lawful wife and let the Woman do the same on the like occasion The 16th is contained in these words if a Leprous man has a Wife that is clean and sound and that he will suffer her to marry another let the woman marry another if she please Ib. can 2.9 and let the Husband do the same Pope Stephen the second prescribed near hand the same thing three years before from whence may be gathered that according to all appearance he would have made no difficulty to approve the re-marrying of those whom Adultery had separated Nevertheless I could produce several other proofs for Establishing the matter I Examine if I feared not to be to tedious I will therefore end this enquiry by two remarks the first concerns Ecclesiastical Writers which teach that it is lawful to separate for Adultery as Tertullian who thus explains himself Contr. Marc. l. 4. c. 34. If God has prohibited under such condition to put away ones Wife he has not absolutely forbidden it and what he has not absolutely forbidden be his permitted Lactantius saith That he is an Adulterer that forsakes his Wife Lib. 6. Divin Instit orat 31. p. 501 to marry another if he leaves her for any other cause then for the Sin of Adultery The Law saith Gregory Nazianzen gives the Bill of Divorce for all things but as for Jesus Christ he gives it not for all things but he only permits to separate from the shameless and adulterous woman This separation if we follow the Explication of Father Sirmond on the 46th Letter of Auctus imports the Power of Marrying another to which amounts also what is said by Theophilact on the 5th chap. of St. Matth That he that put away his Wife for just cause That is to say for Adultery is not subject to any condemnation I say the same of all those which have explained themselves near hand in the same manner as St. Basil in his first Cannonical Epistle to Amphilochius Can. 9th and some other In my second Remark I produce the Testimonies of two famous Doctors of the Greek Church which testifie Marriage is entirely dissolved by Adultery and that the band is quite broke the first is of St. Hom. 19. pag. 484 485. Chrysostome who in his Homilies on the 7th chap. of the first Epistle to the Cor. teaches positively That the Husband which puts away an Adulterous Wife is not culpable And if you ask him the Reason he 'll tell you it is The Marriage is already dissolved and that after the fornication the the Husband is no longer a Husband The other Witness is Theodoret who Treating of this business in his Therapeutique or manner of healing the affections of the Greeks makes this Reflection Serm. 9. Legib. l. 4 pag. 619. worthy himself The Authour of Nature in Creating human Nature made at first one Man and one Woman and forbid to dissolve Marriage having not suffer'd to dissolve it but for one only cause which indeed doth break the band And having instanced the Words of the Gospel where Jesus Christ suffers to separate for Adultery and to Marry again He adds Ib. p. 620. By these Words Jesus Christ commands to bear all other faults in a Woman her prating Drunkenness Evil speaking but if she violates the Lawes of Marriage then He commands to dissolve and break the Bands Nothing can be desir'd more positive nor more clear for proving the matter I treat of therefore I conclude in observing that St. Chrysostom and Theodoret's Depositions do no less favour the Article of our Deposition than the Testimonies I produced at first as well of Ecclesiastical Writers as of Councils by all which I have made clearly appear that in the Ancient Church they were perswaded as they are at this present amongst the Greeks and amongst the Protestants that Jesus Christ suffers Christians to separate from their Wifes for the reason of Adultery and to marry others XXX If it should happen that after Contracts and Promises made and before the accomplishing of Marriage the Bride is found to have committed fornication before or after the said promises and that 't was unknown to him that had promised her Marriage after definitive sentence as abovesaid the Consistory may proceed to a new Marriage the Bride shall have the same liberty if it be found that the Bridegroom has been guilty of fornication before the said promises CONFORMITY There is in the third Volume of the Councils of France a Letter of Pope John the 8th to Walenus Bishop of Metz An. 879. pag. 491. by which he lets him understand that he is to blame against the Authority of the Cannons to go about to constrain a Man to Marry his Sweet-heart although she be found with child by some body else before consummation of the Marriage XXXI The Wifes whose Husbands shall be absent a long while in Voyages for Merchants or otherwise shall have recourse to the Magistrate if they desire to be re-marry'd CONFORMITY St. Can. 31.36.4.3 pag. 32. Basil in his 2 Canonical Epistle puts in the Number of Adulterous Women those which re-marry before they are certain of the death of their absent Husbands yet in such a way as that he will have the Wifes of those that are in the Wars treated something more favourably than others because a long absence makes it more be believ'd they are dead than others which are absent for some other Subject Pope Leo the first Writing to Nicetas Bishop of Aquilea touching Women that have re-marry'd after a long absence of their Husbands who had been carry'd away Captives he Orders that at their return Ep. 79. c. 1 2 3 4. pag 148 149. they may be permitted to reassume their Wifes who to this purpose are to separate from their second
Superstitions of the Church of Rome And as for private Actions and the corrections proper thereunto it shall be what the Consistory shall judge convenient CONFORMITY The same may be said almost of this as I said of the Third and add withal That after our Separation from the Church of Rome for things which we do not approve we cannot with safe Conscience practice any of those things which have been the motive and cause of our Separation V. Notaries Secretaries and others who by their Offices are obliged to Sign and Seal things indifferently which are presented to them shall not be blamed for receiving Testaments passing Contracts and dispatching Letters of things which concern Idolatry nor Judges for judging causes concerning Ecclesiastical Matters and the Execution of Edicts CONFORMITY The Authors of our Discipline have prudently permitted those of our Communion in preferrence to those of the Church of Rome to do all things as may be done without prejudicing ones Conscience or indangering Salvation VI. Arbitrators shall not meddle with any Matters that concern Idolatry directly nor Indirectly CONFORMITY There needs no other Commentary on this Establishment then what I have remarked on the Tenth and Eleventh VII Advocates and Attorneys may not plead in causes which tend to taking away Preaching and setting up Mass and generally they shall not be suffered to give Council to the Romish Clergy in causes which tend directly or indirectly to the oppression of the Church and true Religion CONFORMITY There can be nothing more just than to forbid all Persons of our Religion to Establish what we do condemn and to destroy what we set up VIII Neither Bishops nor Officials nor Arch-Deacons such as they are at present have by right any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical nor Civil Nevertheless because Believers are sometimes constrain'd to appear before them to gain their Right which otherwise were not to be obtain'd they may thither make their address being referr'd by the Magistrate to whom they are first to apply themselves CONFORMITY One may and ought also submit to all the Jurisdictions Established in a Country by Consent and Authority of the Sovereign especially when one is appointed so to do by Order of the Magistrate under this condition nevertheless That the Service of God be not thereby injur'd nor the Conscience concern'd IX Advocates that are Believers ought not to plead on any account whatsoever before Officials but only in cases for which one may prosecute their Right before them according to the precedent Article CONFORMITY This Article depending of the former its needless to look for any other Explication X. It is not a thing unlawful in it self to exercise Civil Jurisdictions and Procurations under Ecclesiastical Persons which do not at all concern that which they call the Spirituality CONFORMITY Seeing it is permitted to acknowledge the Jurisdictions of Ecclesiastical Persons on certain occasions and in the manner above established it may also be permitted to Exercise them XI Believers may not obtain nor publish Monitories nor Excommunications of the Roman Church CONFORMITY The Protestants not acknowledging the Popes Authority to be Legitimate they ought not to have recourse to it Directly nor Indirectly XII Inasmuch as it is not lawful nor expedient to go hear the Preachers of the Church of Rome or others that intrude themselves without being lawfully called the Flocks shall be hinder'd by the Ministers from going thither and those that will go shall be summon'd before the Consistory and sensur'd as the case shall require CONFORMITY It 's above Thirteen Hundred years ago that the Council of Laodicea made this Decree Those which are Members of the Church shall not be permitted to go to Church yards nor to Oratories of any Hereticks whatsoever either to Pray or to obtain the healing of any Sickness but the Believers that have so done shall for a time be deprived of the Holy Communion and upon confessing and repenting their fault shall afterwards be restor'd again XIII Lords Gentlemen and others shall be advertised not to entertain in their Houses scandalous and incorrigible Persons and especially if they suffer Priests singing Mass or discoursing to debauch their Servants or if they do anew take and receive such into their Service CONFORMITY This Establishment tends only to the purity of Life and preservation of true Religion which are things to which every body ought diligently to apply themselves XIV Fathers and Mothers shall be Exhorted to take great care in Teaching and Educating their Children which are the Seed and Nursery of the Church And those which send them to the Schools of Priests Friers Jesuits and Nuns shall be prosecuted by the severest Church Sensures Those also which put their Children to be Pages or otherwise to Lords and Gentlemen of the contrary Religion shall be advis'd how they do so CONFORMITY This proceeds from the same principle the other did and was made by the same Motives which are Motives very reasonable and very conformable to the practice of the Antient Church XV. Those who have Brothers Sisters and other Relations who having quitted Monasteries to serve God with a pure and good Conscience shall be Exhorted to assist them and to do according to the Laws of Humanity and Affinity CONFORMITY If Christians are obliged and they are obliged by the word of God and by the Ancient Cannons to exercise towards all Men Works of Charity of greater Reason should they do them to their near Friends and Relations especially when they are reduc'd to necessity for serving God with a good Conscience in departing from a Communion wherein they were fully perswaded they could not be saved XVI Ministers nor any else in the Church cannot Print Books made by themselves or others touching Religion nor any way publish them without communicating them to the Colloque or if need be to the Provincial Synod and if the matter require hast to the Accademies or to two Pastors which shall be nominated by the Synod and shall attest the Examination by them made of the said Writings CONFORMITY This Ordinance is very necessary to prevent all the evil consequences as may sometimes ensue without the Examination therein prescribed the same thing is done amongst the Papists whose works are commonly approved by some Doctors and at Rome by the Master of the Sacred Pallace See what I have said on the Fifteenth Article of the First Chapter XVII Those which take Pen in hand to treat the Histories of the Holy Scriptures in Meter are advertis'd not to mix therein any Poetical Fables and not to attribute to God the Name of false Gods and not to add nor diminish to the Holy Scriptures but to keep as near as may be to the Stile of it CONFORMITY This Article will find it self sufficiently explain'd by the things I have remarked on the Twelfth Article of the First Chapter whether I refer the Reader XVIII The Books of the Bible whether Cannonical or Appocriphal shall not be transformed into Comedies nor
Kings of the second Race Dances and Lascivious Songs were absolutely forbidden and it is therein declared that they which shall disobey this Ordinance shall suffer the punishment contain'd in the Cannon alledging for a Reason that they are the remainders of Paganism XXVIII Mommery's and Stage-plays shall not be allowed nor the Ceremony of King Drinks nor Carnavals nor Hocus Pocus slight of Hand and Poppet and Stage players and Christian Magistrates are exhorted not to tolerate them because these things only cause loss of time and entertains Idleness Curiosity and Expence Neither shall it be lawful for Believers to assist at Comedies Tragedies Farces Moralities and other plays acted in publick or in private seeing that in all Ages they have been prohibited amongst Christians as inclining to the corrupting of good Manners especially when the holy Scripture is therein mingled Nevertheless when in Colledges it shall be thought fit that Youth may represent some History it may be tolerated provided it ben't contain'd in the Holy Scripture which is not given to be dally'd with but to be truly Preached also it shall be done but very seldom and by advice of the Colloque which shall first see the composition CONFORMITY There may be apply'd to this Article as to what regards Mummery's the Liberties of Shrovetide and other the like Pastimes what the Fathers have said and done against Christians which allow'd themselves in Libertinism after the Manner of Pagans in the Callends of January that is to say the first day of that Month who used near hand the same Sports now practis'd at Carnaval but to draw to a Conclusion it suffices to refer the Reader to the first Cannon of a Synod at Auxer in the year 578 to a Homily of Maximus Bishop of Turin and a Writer of the V. Century Entituled A Homily on the Circumcision of our Lord or a reprehension of the Callends of January In this Sermon he explains the Follies and Debauches committed by Christians on that day and to what St. Owen writes of St. Eloy in the same Chapter cited on the foregoing Article whereby we find they abandon'd themselves to very great Extravagancy they put on Vizards and put themselves in the shape of sundry Beasts as of Sheep Stags Cows Bears and other Beasts to act with greater Liberty and Freedom until that at last these extravagancies being restrain'd by Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws Christians changed these Follies of the Callends of January to the time a little before Lent as if one were bound to commit Sin to have greater occafion of Repentance As for the rest of the Article which concerns Stage-plays and the Theater the Ancient Doctors of the Church incessantly cry against these worldly pastimes Tertullian and St. Cyprian have writ whole Treatises on purpose to divert Christians from them and has called them spectacles I actantius St. Basil St. Lib. 6. pag. 127. Par. 1669 Cyril of Jerusalem Isidore of Petlusta St. Crysostome St. Austin has highly condemned them and Salvian in his Treatise of Providence doth vehemently exagerate the evils that proceed from them and saith several things as may justly be apply'd to those amongst us as do frequent the Theater and Comedies The third Council of Carthage in the year 388 expresly forbids it in 11th Cannon And the 4th Tom. 1. Conc. pag. 710. which was assembled the year following Excomunicates in the 81th Cannon all those which on a solemn day abandon the assembly of the Church to be present at Stage-plays Ib. p. 730. therefore in another Council under Aurelius the Fathers of Africa resolved to beseech the Emperours to prohibit those worldly divertisments especially on solemn days set apart for the Exercise of Piety and Religion The 6th Oecumenical Council employes to this purpose the 51st Cannon at the end of the 7th Century Ib. c. 28. pag. 915. Thence it is that the Ancient Discipline excomunicates Stage-players Jesters Comedians and all those as mounted on the Theater to show these Divertisments to the people and worldings must not abuse what 's added at the end of the Establishment I examine saving the only scope of it was but sometimes to Exercise Scholars in Colledges XXIX All Playes prohibited by the Kings Edicts as Cards Dice and other Games of hazard and those of cevetousness immodesty scandal or notorious loss of time shall be suppressed and the parties reproved and admonished by the Consistory and Sensured as the Circumstances shall require Lotteries also are not to be allowed whither tolerated by the Magistrate or otherwise CONFORMITY The 6th Tom. 5. Conc. pag. 337. universal Council made this Decree contain'd in the 50th Cannon That no Christian whether of the Clergy or Laity do henceforth play at the game called Hazard and if any be found doing it if of the Clergy that he be deposed but if of the Laity that he be Excommunicated XXX To be present at Feasts and Collations of Weddings at Birth and Marriage of Children made by those of the Romish perswasion is in it self indifferent nevertheless Believers are advertised to use it to Edification and to consider if they are sufficiently able to resist the dissolutions and other evils which may there be committed and also to reprove them In which Feasts are not comprised those made by Priests at their first Mass to which it is not lawful to goe CONFORMITY The Council of Loadicea has proved in the 35th and 54th Cannons against the debauches which may happen at Feasts and has warned Christians not to participate thereof As for the Feasts made by Priests at their first Mass our Discipline had just reason to forbid those of its communion not to be there present because 't would be in some sort a silent approving of a thing which has occasioned one of the greatest causes of our separation from the Romish Church it was by a like principle the Synod of Laodicea prohibited Christians in the 37th 38th 39th Cannons not to communicate of any thing as they were wont to use in the Feasts of Jewes Hereticks and Pagans XXXI It shall be no means be permitted to be present at the Feasts or Weddings of those which to marry a Person of contrary Religion shall revolt from the profession of the Gospel As for those which have been a good while revolted or are wholly Papists it is at the discretion of Believers to do what they shall in Wisdom think convenient CONFORMITY What I have observed at the end of the former Article may be applyed to this XXXII Those which challenge or cause to be challenged to Duel or that being challenged accept it and even kill their Adversasaries although they might obtain their pardon or be otherwise claered shall be sensured to the being suspended from the Lords Supper which suspension shall be speedily published and if they desire to be received to the peace of the Church they must make publick confession of their Crime CONFORMITY Duels being expresly condemn'd by