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
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
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