through all the Churches These are the ardent Prayers that are made for you all by Gentlemen and Honoured Brethren Your most humble Servant and Brother in Christ Jesus M. LA ROCQUE Rouen 24o. June 1678. THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE WHat Laws are in a State the same things are Canons in the Church All Societies of Men as well Civil as Sacred have always stood in need of some Rules for the conduct of those whereof it is composed and under their direction to attain the designed end which is pleasure of life with the repose of Conscience and tranquility of Mind Man ought of his own free will be inclined to the obedience of these in the main prospect of the pleasure there is in doing his Duty and in the delight which is to be found in the practise of Vertue besides that in so doing depends the happiness all men seek after but which few do find because they seek amiss Nevertheless according to the manner we are made it 's necessary we should be excited by other motives and be set a work by other principles these Motives are Fear of punishment and Hope of rewards the two great springs that give motion if it may be so said to the whole world and which do powerfully ingage men to eschew evil and do good Legislators have also employ'd it in the world the Apostles and their Successors in the Church and God himself made use of it in regard of Adam promising him Life and Immortality if he continued faithful and obedient to him and on the contrary threatning him with death if he were so foolish as to neglect the keeping his Commands and violate the purity of his Laws In the day thou eatest the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt die the death Man being a reasonable Creature it was suitable to God's wisdom to give him Laws to serve as a Rule and direction through the whole course of his life therefore he had no sooner created him but he imprinted in his heart those instructions which we call the Law of Nature the Exercise whereof was to constitute his joy and felicity so that had he always persever'd in his innocence he would not have stood in need of Judges nor of their Tribunals his conscience would have been sufficient for him its counsels would ever have been safe its decisions just and right and all its Ordinances would have tended to the practise of this important maxim of the Son of God which he drew from the very spring of Nature it self not to do to others but what we would they should do to us But sin having interrupted this Oeconomy and darkned the Lights which attended it all these directions of Nature have been ineffectual and these Instructions of no value Nevertheless 't is certain God preserved in Man after his fall or at least he stirred up in him anew by the efficacy of his Providence some little remains of that clear and pure light wherewith the understanding had been illuminated when 't was immediately made by his hand and thence it is that all men have the common and general Notions That there is one God That he governs all things That he punishes the wicked and rewards the good That to honour him is a Law that 's allowed amongst all men And that he must not only be thought to be immortal and blessed but also to be a Lover of Mankind of whose preservation he takes particular care in daily doing them good it was thereby that the Inhabitants of the Isle of Maltha concluded St. Paul was a Murderer Act. 28.3 they said when they saw a Viper on his hand Divine Vengeance followed him and would suffer him to live no longer It is also from this principle proceeded the knowledg the Apostle attributed to the Gentiles when he saith For when the Gentiles which have not the Law Rom. 2.14 15. do by nature the things contain'd in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves which shew the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another But at length Sin having almost extinguished the light of Nature and made all its instructions unprofitable God was obliged to renew the knowledg of it by publishing his Law which in substance contains the same precepts as those did which God had writ at first in the heart of Men and seeing the greater corruption is so much the more need there is to multiply Laws to restrain its impetuosity and violence and so hinder its spreading and excess God who knew very well the inclination of the people of the Jews which were a people of a stiff neck and uncircumcised heart as the Scripture speaks a people inclined to disobedience and rebellion God I say not content to divulge the Moral Law he thereunto joyned the Ceremonial and Political Laws to the end the Israelites should the easier be retain'd in their duty under the heavy yoke of this severe Discipline Thence it followed by the Rule of contraries That the more Sanctification is advanced the less need there is of Laws which made St. Paul say That the Law is not made for the just but for the Sinners and wicked The first Christians had but very few Decisions and Decrees in their Discipline because being full of Piety and Zeal and that labouring with unspeakable diligence in the work of their Sanctification they disposed themselves voluntarily according to the nature of the Gospel and intention of Jesus Christ and conscionably practising the Maxim of the Apostle That all things should be done decently and in order in the Church of God they with ease were guided by the Divine motions of Grace and the inspirations of that holy Spirit which God had so plentifully and in great measure poured forth on his Church in the first Establishing of Christian Religion for as to the Canons attributed to the Apostles and the Constitutions which also go in their name they are things forged in the following Ages and after this new people had began to degenerate from the first heat of their zeal and that they had given some check to the innocence of their life and to the purity of their Manners and as corruption insensibly got ground so also was seen to increase the number of Canons and Ordinances for it commonly happens that ill actions do multiply good Laws without which it would be impossible to make head against the many Scandals that licentiousness does introduce where it predominates and where sins are not repressed and punished Something of this kind hapned in our Reformation which had a great resemblance with the first Establishment of Christian Religion for it may truly be said that by a particular blessing of Heaven the first Reformers were so holy in their life so pure in their conversation so wise in their conduct so modest in their words and so humble
there was need of establishing this sort of Government I have spoke of and of which the Holy Pen-men have not mentioned the time of its settlement because it may be they had no particular occasion of doing it as St. Luke had of writing the History of the Institution of Deacons which probably might also have been unknown to us if the murmuring of the Greeks against the Jews because their Widows were neglected at the ordinary Service had not oblig'd him to transmit it in writing However it be That it may not be imagin'd I only insist on meer conjectures and conjectures utterly destitute of the Authority of Tradition I 'll produce the formal Testimony of Hillary Deacon of Rome a Writer of the 4th Century who speaks in this manner In 1 Tim. 5. 1 2. apud Ambrose Tom. 3. p. 582. The Synogogue and the Church afterwards had Elders without whose advice nothing was done in the Church and I can't tell by what negligence the same has been abolish'd if it be not probably by the slothfulness of Doctors or rather through their Pride to make it be believ'd they are some-bodies It appears plainly by these words of the Deacon Hillary That the Church had her Elders as well as the Synogogue and that very early she began to make use of them when he began to write his Commentaries on St. Paul's Epistles for he complains of the abolishing this holy Custom which in all likelihood held a considerable time after its first institution and in the very place it self where it was extinct by the negligence and malice of vain and ambitious Men which doth justify as I take it what I have said of its Antiquity that is to say That the first establishing of it was by the Apostles or at least by their immediate Successors if it were so that we could not find the Footsteps in the Monuments of Ecclesiastical Writers that immediately followed the Age of the Apostles Nevertheless who knows but Claudius Ephebius Valerius Biton and Fortunatus which St. Clement Disciple of the Apostles sent to the Church of Corinth with the Excellent Letter which he wrote to appease the troubles wherewith it was agitated who I say can tell but they were of those Elders whose original Institution we seek for for he says nothing at all which may induce us to think they were either Pastors or Deacons Moreover in the third Century Firmillian Bishop of Caesaria in Cappadocia and one of the most celebrated Prelates of his time makes mention of Elders which he joyns with Pastors for the treating of affairs which concerned the good and edification of the Churches Seniores Praepositi Apud Cypri pag. 144. Optat. l. 1. p. 41. Par. 1631. We meet together saith he every year Elders and Ministers to settle and order matters committed to our care and with common consent to treat of the weightiest and most important affairs About fifty years after Mensurius Bishop of Carthage having received orders to follow the Emperor's Court he committed to the trust of certain Elders saith Optatus of Milvetan several Ornaments of Gold and Silver which appertained to the Church But afterwards he made a Note of them which he gave to an old Woman with orders to give it to his Successor if it hapned that he died in his Journey as it fell out he did so that Cecilian having been Established in the place of Mensurius the Woman failed not to give him the Note she had by vertue of which he called for those Elders to whom Mensurius had committed this trust in the belief he had that they were good honest men but these perfidious persons willing to satisfie their own covetous desires converted the Gold and Silver to their own private uses Cecillian was frustrated of his expectation and as he was going about to compel them they rent from the Communion of the Church a good part of the People and began the Schism of the Donatists which prov'd so destructive to the Churches of Africa And what invincibly proves they were Lay-Elders like ours is that Optatus expresly distinguishes them from Botrus and Celesius which were of the Clergy of the Church of Carthage and who not attaining to the Degree of Bishops to which their ambition made them aspire they herded with these corrupt Elders together with Lucilla a factious and powerful Woman who of a long time endeavoured the ruin of Cecilian See here already sufficient Arguments of the truth of the matter we examine nevertheless because many do imagin that our practise in regard of Elders is new and unknown to the ancient Church it will not be amiss to insist a little longer on this subject and to alledg farther proofs the better to establish the Antiquity of the practise which we defend I 'le begin with the Acts of Justification of Cecilian and of Foelix of Aptonge his Ordainer which are at the end of Monsieur de Laubespine Bishop of Orleans his Notes on Optatus Bishop of Mileva in Numidia In these Acts which are ancienter than the Council of Nice there are several things which directly regard our Subject as what is said on occasion of Money given by Lucilla a Woman of Quality to have made Majorinus Bishop Pag. 268. That all the Bishops the Priests the Deacons and the Elders had knowledg of it And some lines after a Bishop called Purpurius writes to Silvanus Bishop of Cirthe who was accused of several things To employ those of his Clergy and the Elders of the People which are Ecclesiastical persons to the end they might give an account of the nature of these dissentions and in the following page there is mention made of a Letter writ to the Clergy and to the Elders and six pages after one Maximus saith Pag. 276. Inst I speak in the name of the Elders and Christian People of the Catholick Law St. Tom. 7. Pag. 191. c. 56. Tom. 2. p. 250. Austin in his third Book against Cresconius speaks of a stranger Priest and the Elders of the Church of the Country of Mâ—slitan The Title of his 137th Letter is conceiv'd in these terms To my beloved Brethren the Clergy thâ— Elders and all the People of the Church of Bonne Tom 8. in Psal 36. Conc. 2. p. 119. Extr. or Hippone whom I serve in the Love of Jesus Christ There is in this same Father's Sermons on the Psalms a Synodal Letter of the Cabarsussitan Council which speaking of Primian the Donatist saith He was given to be Bishop to the People of Carthage according to the request made of the Elders of the Church by Letters And in the next Page there is again mention made of Letters and Deputies of the Elders of the Church In the Nineteenth Sermon on the words of our Lord which is the third in the Appendix of the 10th Tome he makes appear wherein consisted one part of the Duty of their Employments The 100th Canon of the African Code attributed
at least it may be collected from the Synod of Turin assembled Anno Dom. 397 at the request of the Bishops of France besides that the Synods which are the Masters of these things may dispose them as they please CHAP. IX Of NATIONAL SYNODS ARTICLE I. NAtional Synods shall be called once a Year if possible may be And this Rule shall be observ'd for the Convocation that at the end of every National Synod a Provinte shall be chosen which shall have the charge to assign to the others the time and place of the next Synod CONFORMITY The Third Council of Carthage in the Year of our Lord 397 Tom. 1. Conc. p. 710. Ordains in the Hundreth Cannon That the General Council of Africa be assembled once a Year to which all the Provinces that have Primates are to send their Deputies to the end nothing should be wanting to the Authority of such an Assembly The Seventh Cannon also makes mention of such a General Council which was assembled once a Year And the Eighteenth of the African Code contains in substance the same Decree And in the Nineteenth there is mention made of the Universal Council which was held every year Tom. 4. Conc. p. 493. 56. The Third Council of Tolledo which was thought was held in the year of Christ 589 was compos'd of all the Bishops of Spain and of Gallicia that is to say it was a National Synod And as I conceive it is to these sorts of Assemblies which the latter part of the Eighteenth Cannon of the same place must be referr'd And before that time Pope Leo the First in his Ninety Third Epistle speaks of the Celebration of a General Council in Spain however it be Our Discipline which requires National Synods to be assembled from year to year does nevertheless add this condition to its Ordinance Cod. Atric can 〈◊〉 if it may be done The Bishops of Africa which were wont as has been shewn to call yearly a General Synod of the whole Nation or as they also term it a Plenary Council found in time that it was a thing not to be done without giving too much pains and trouble to the Bishops therefore they concluded not to assemble it but in case of Necessity that is to say when the common Laws of all the Churches of Africa obliged them to do it The Fourth Council of Toledo which was National and which was assembled in the year of our Lord 633 Tâ—m 4. Conc. p. 582. declares in the Third Cannon That these National Synods should not be assembled but when there was Question of matter of Faith or of some other business wherein all the Churches of the Nation were concern'd The Article we examine demands yet another thing which we must not pass under Silence to wit That at the end of each National Synod some one Province should be appointed to assign to the rest the time and place of the following Synod which amounts neer hand to what the First Council of Orange Ordained Anno Dom. 441 in the Twenty Ninth Cannon Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 74. That a Synod should not break up till they had assign'd another The Eighteenth Cannon of the Third Council of Toledo of which we spake before prescribes the same thing and it may be also the 73 of the African Code and it appears by the 95th Cannon that the Church of Carthage caused to be convocated the National Synods of Africa as occasion required II. If there happens any difficulty in a Province it shall take care to give notice of it to the Province that shall be entrusted with the care of making the Convocation to the end that this calling the said Assembly might also give notice of it to the other Provinces that so by this means every one may come to the Synod ready prepared to judge the matter CONFORMITY It appears by the relation of Eusebius of the Synods where Paul of Samosatia was depos'd Hist lib. 7. cap. 27 30.0 and his Heresie Anathematiz'd It appears I say That the Provinces gave each other Notice of the Affairs which should be debated in some of them and which could not be determin'd but in a Council III. And because it is difficult at this time and even dangerous to assemble a National Synod in so great a Number of Ministers and Elders it has been thought fit for the present and during such difficulties that the Brethren assembled in each Provincial Synod choose two Ministers and two Elders the most Experienc'd in Church Affairs to send thither in the Name of the whole Province and these Deputies shall come with sufficient testimonies and bring good Memorials signed by the Moderator and Scribe of the Provincial Synod and that no default might happen three or four Pastors and so many Elders shall be nominated that if the first nam'd are hindred from making the Journey there might be others to supply their place CONFORMITY The Third Council of Carthage assembled Anno Dom. 397 reduces the Deputies to the number of Three in the Second Cannon The Eighteenth of the Code of Africa which is in substance all one with that of Carthage but now cited speaks of Two Deputies referring it nevertheless to the Liberty of the Provinces to send a greater Number The 76th of the same Code makes mention in general of those which shall be chosen by the Provincial Synods to assist at the National Synods 〈◊〉 African p. 402 403 404 but they agree all in one thing that in each Province should be chosen those which were to meet at the National Synod As for the Memorials and Instructions the Deputies were to bring along with them there 's frequent mention made of them in the Antient Discipline under the name of Communitorium of which mention is made four several times in the Letter of the Council of Africa to Pope Boniface and often elsewhere The Council of Merida which I cited on the X Article prescribes so in the V. Cannon and calls it Instructions IV. To the Ministers and Elders Deputed to the National Synod the Provincial Synods shall limit no certain time for their return but shall permit them to stay at the said Synod as long as occasion shall require and the said Deputies shall travel at the common charge of the whole Province CONFORMITY The Provincial Synods being inferiour to National ones they cannot limit time to their Deputies at a National Synod where they are obliged to attend till the end of the Assembly which is very uniform to the Antient Discipline according to which it was not suffer'd to depart before the Council brake up as we have proved on the XIII Article of the foregoing Chapter V. At the beginning of National Synods the Confession of Faith and the Discipline shall be Read CONFORMITY In the Antient Councils To. 1. conc pag. 660. Tom 2. pag. 240. Tom. 3. pag. 337 338 339. was read and confirm'd the Confessions of Faith which
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
the same Province or in any other XXXV Him who is destitute of a Church for not being employed in the Province and shall be lent elsewhere out of the Province by the Colloque until the Meeting of the Synod of the said Province if he be not employ'd by the said Synod in the Province he shall remain proper to the Church to which he was lent if he consents thereto and the said Church also CONFORMITY This Article depends of the foregoing ones and is no more but the continuance of the Rules we have examined amined therefore 't is needless to add to what has been said to this purpose XXXVI To the end that Congregations should acquit themselves of their Duty to their Pastors as the Word of God enjoyns them and that cause should not be given to Ministers to be dissatisfied and even to leave them the said Flocks shall be advertis'd to allow them what shall be necessary CONFORMITY When Jesus Christ first sent forth his Disciples to Preach the Gospel he forbid them to provide Gold or Silver alledging for this prohibition that the labourer was worthy of his hire St. Paul who wrought with his own hands that he might be burdensome to none nevertheless appoints in his Epistles the obligation Flocks have to their Pastors saying None goes a warfare at his own expence That him that plants a Vine cats of the fruit and him that feeds a slock drinks of the milk of it that what the Law saith Thou shalt not mussle the ox which treadeth out the Corn is to be appli'd to the Ministers of the Gospel who ought to receive temporal things of those to whom they sow Spiritual things That those which were employ'd about holy things did eat of that which was Holy and those which served at the Altar did participate of the Altar that in like manner the Lord ordained 1 Cor. 9.14 That those which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel The Charity of Christians who lived presently after the Holy Apostles was so servent that they suffered not those which were ordained to instruct in the knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven to lack any thing and altho in those first Ages they lived on the voluntary Oblations of Believers nevertheless they had suslicient for their maintenance and support and for the relief of the poor And because these offerings were divided amongst the Clergy each had his portion or at least they spent altogether that which fell to their share and also imparted to the relief of Indigent Clerks and other Brethren Ep. 66. p. 109. which were in want and which St. Crprian designs by Sportulantes fratres an expressien sound in the Testament of Perpetu Bishop of Tours in the Fifth Century inserted by Dom Luke D'Achery in the fifth Tome of his Collection The 25 Can. of the Council of Antioch appoints That the Bishop should receive of the Church-stores what shall be convenient for the necessary support of life both for himself and for the Brethren which lodg in his House and the 36 Syned of Agde in the year 506 requires That all the Clerks which serve in the Church faithfully Tom. 1. Conc 〈◊〉 p. 168. and with care receive of their Bishops the wages due for their labour propâ—rtionable to the service they yield or according as the Canons do appoint After all when Riches came flowing into the Church in several Provinces they divided them into four equal portions the Bishop had one the Clergy another the third was for the poor and the fourth for repairing the Church But in the Countreys where they divided them into three Portions as in Spain one third was for the Bishop one third for the Clergy and the other third for the Poor and repairation of Temples XXXVII And to avoid the ingratitude of those which have been found unworthily to treat their Pastors this order shall be observ'd To pay them aforehand one Quarters Sallery of the Pension which has been promis'd them yearly CONFORMITY Were the Charity of the Christians of this Age as great as was that of the Primitive Christians those who laboured in composing our Discipline had not been obliged to have made so many Rules to provide for the Maintenance of Ministers they would have found a sufficient propensity in the minds of their People to have contributed to their Necessities But this Charity being abated and the People being but too much inclined to pay those with ingratitude which labour for their Instruction it was expedient to multiply Laws to procure for them a moderate maintenance without the which a Minister cannot subsist XXXVIII And for the time to come doubting of miscarriage herein lest there should happen damage to the Churches Those elected to manage the Action of the Colloques shall inquire of the Elders of each Church what Allowance they make their Ministers and the care they take in administring what has been appointed to the end that by the Authority of the Colloques it might be remedied CONFORMITY The Ministers of the French Protestants living commonly on the equal contribution of their Congregations it became the wisdom of the Authors of their Discipline to remove all dissiculties which might retard or hinder these voluntary Contributions whereon depends their Subsistence having no stock for their Maintenance XXXIX When necessary support is refused to a Minister and that he hath made his complaints and applications and that three Months are elapsed it shall be lawful for the said Pastor to range himself to another Church by advice of the Colloque or Provincial Synod and in case of urgent necessity the Colloques or Synods may shorten the term of three Months and if necessity so require and that three Months are elapsed and that he continue unprovided altho the Minister has made his complaint to be set at liberty it shall suffice that he call into his Consistery the two adjacent Mimslers and shall not be bound to stay for the consent of any Colloque nor Synod unless one of those Assemblies were summon'd in the same Month to the which he may have recourse CONFORMITY Seeing that according to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ Those which Preach the Gospel shall live by the Gospel it cannot reasonably be refuted Minister to whom the Flock doth not apply necessary Subsistence I say one cannot refuse him the liberty of joyning himself to another which are more tender and grateful especially when he has nothing else to subsist upon It 's true this should not be done without the advice of his Superiors that is to say without consent of the Colloque or Provincial Synod which may dispose of his Ministry XL. Vpon the knowledg and judgment which shall be made of the ingratitude of the People upon the Minister's complaint all circumstances must be prudently weighed and as well principal regard shall be had to the poverty of the Churches as to the faculty and ways of him which makes the complaint the better to
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