from Ephesus were admonished to take care of the Flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops (o) Acts 20.28 And the Presbyter of whose Ordination St. Paul speaks to Titus is in the next Verse save one stil'd Bishop (p) Tit. 1.5 7. We see therefore that the New Testament has not only taken the Name from the Old but the largeness of its signification too which is all at present I am concern'd to observe Tho' I presume this Word as well as Apostle had now a peculiar Office of which it was properly spoke and to which in the next Age it is known to have been always determin'd (q) See Ch. VIII § IV. THE next that follows for so I take leave to place in the Christian Church what some would set in equal rank is the Presbyter or Elder This Word in the Greek of the Septuagint is known answerably to the Hebrew to signifie not only a Man of Years but Authority as Words of the like import have always done in Ancient and Modern Languages a So the Steward of Abraham's House stil'd by our Translators the eldest Servant of his House who rul'd over all that he had (b) Gen. 24.2 is suppos'd to be call'd by those Interpreters the Presbyter or Elder of his House c In that Sense we have the Elders of Pharaoh's House and of the Land of Aegypt (d) Gen. 50.7 And when it is said Hezekiah took Counsel with his Princes and his mighty Men (e) 2 Chr. 32.3 in the Septuagint it is with his Presbyters and mighty Men. And in like manner by the Presbyters or Elders of the People of Israel Princes and great ones of them are understood at large (f) Num. 11.16 of which the greatest and chief were the Twelve Heads or Princes of the Tribes Of such Elders or Governours there were Seventy we know appointed by Moses at the command of God (g) Num. 11.16 17. to bear part of the burden of the Magistracy with him and to be a Council unto him endow'd therefore with a Communication of the Spirit Of this great standing Council known afterwards by the Name of the Sanhedrim the Jewish Tradition speaks very copiously and though the Scripture says nothing of any Superiority amongst those Seventy yet they tell us expresly what otherwise we must have presum'd That one of them was President of this Council and Vicegerent to Moses the Prince Such a Council as this they say sat at Jerusalem in after Ages and govern'd the whole People consisting of a Chief and Prince for that is the signification of Nasi in the place of Moses and of Seventy more one of whom was the Vicegerent of that Chief or Prince call'd by them the Father of the Council Besides this Sovereign Court sitting in the Temple there were also Inferiour Provincial Consistories according to the appointment of God in these words Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all the Gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee (h) Deut. 16.18 And whereas the number of these Judges or Elders is here left undetermin'd Josephus repeating the same Injunction directs them to be Seven (i) Archaeol 4.8 supposing I presume that they were so many in the times near to Moses But the Traditionary Jews will have them in every great City to have been twenty three they too as I also presume speaking from the practice of some later times Of these twenty three they tell us One was stil'd also the Nasi or Prince the Chief of that Tribe or Place and another likewise was his Vicegerent call'd also the Father of that Consistory And the like distinction we may suppose to have been between Josephus his Seven and that Two of them were a Chief and a Deputy and the other Five ordinary Elders These were the Consistories of great Cities but in lesser Districts there was as the Rabbins tell us a Magistracy or Presbytery of Three which Judg'd in lesser Matters And further it seems k there are those who sometimes go by the Name of Elders but whose chief business is to take care of the Goods of the Commnnity and whose Authority extends only to causes of voluntary Jurisdiction and these are call'd the Seven good Men of the place retaining the number though not the Power of Josephus his Magistrates The Talmudists who have been silent concerning Apostles and Bishops are very particular as we may perceive concerning Presbyters and pretend to give us a punctual account of their Creation and Office as we may see at large in Mr. Selden (l) De Syn. l. 2. c. 4 5 6. And an Abstract of what is further necessary here follows out of that very Learned Gentleman's copious Collections on this Subject These Presbyters then were of two sorts the One had a Full and the other a Limited Authority (m) Seld. de Syn. lib. 2. cap. 7. An Elder of the first kind was capable of being call'd up to the Courts of great Cities and Provinces having Authority not only to expound the Law and to resolve Cases of Consciences but to Judge in all Causes both Criminal and Civil And these were call'd Rabbi The other the Limited Elders were either such as had Power to be of one of the inferiour Consistories of Three in lesser Districts and to Judge only of Pecuniary Causes or such who were not capable of Jurisdiction and could only expound the Law or else who were not qualified to direct in the whole Law but were confin'd to particular Cases To this Office of Eldership they were ordain'd by Imposition of Hands with Words signifying the Authority committed or else by Letter-Patent or Missive And every Presbyter of the first sort was they say permitted to Ordain at first but afterwards it was not to be done but by Three and not without the leave of the Prince or Chief or by the Chief and his Vicegerent together Now there are three things concerning these Presbyters which Mr. Selden particularly remarks and which we will not therefore forget but remember as occasion shall offer The first is That no Presbyter with full Power could be Ordain'd by any out of the Holy Land for from that place only Authority in Criminal Causes could proceed and thence only a Faculty could be given that would be good thorough the whole World Whereas those whom the Head of the Captivity himself ordain'd out of that Country had Jurisdiction in none but Pecuniary Causes and were call'd only Mar or Rab and those who were ordain'd by others had Jurisdiction only in the District where they were ordained (n) Seld. Ibid. cap. 7. §. 5. Accordingly as Buxtorf observes (n2) Buxt Syn. I. 46. The Jews of Spain and the Levant do not honour themselves with the stile of Mar or Rab being content to be call'd the Disciples of the Learn'd though in Germany they make bold with those Titles and promote with the old Formality where too they have an
when he says (d) Hebr. 13.10 11 c. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the Tabernacle for they eat not of the Oblation made for their Sins as we do of our Blessed Saviour by whom by whose Body and in whose Name we offer the Sacrifice of Praise Thanksgiving to God continually that is the Fruit or Oblation of our Lips or which our Lips have Vowed to return as well as what we do return with our Li ceasing not to do Good and to Distribute both out of our Oblations and the rest of our Substance for with such Sacrifices such Offerings of our Praise and Goods in the general and at the Eucharist in particular God is well pleased § I. d Of this I needed not have given an Instance but there is one that will likewise serve to another purpose De Coron Cap. 3. Eucharistiae Sacramentum in tempore Victus Omnibus mandatum à Domino etiam Antelucanis coetibus nec de aliorum manu quam Praesidentium sumimus e The word is often us'd even in one Chapter the 34th of his Fourth Book Adversus Haeres and I shall give but one Instance in that fam'd Passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f Just Mart. Apol. secunda uti vulgo numeratur prope finem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the Oblation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 likewise do g Examples will appeat in those Passages to be produc'd in the next Chap § 2. i Tertullian Apolog. Cap. 39. Coena nostra de nomine rationem sui oftendit Id vocatur quod Dilectio penes Graecos k Epist ad Smyrnaeos After a general prohibition against the doing any thing in the Church without the Bishop and after a particular mention of the Eucharist there follows further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 m This Order of Oblation and Invocation is not only to be seen in the Antient Liturgies but is plainly express'd by that Antient and Venerable Author Irenaeus in the Chapter above-cited e § III. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maim de Cult Divino Tract 5.9.5 e Nehem. 12.31 Then I brought up the Princes of Judah upon the Wall and appointed two great Companies of them that gave Thanks Whereof one went upon the right hand of the Wall c. By this Procession the Jews suppose the Bounds of the Holy City to have been determin'd and that the Bread of Thanksgiving which was not to be carried out of Jerusalem was therefore carried about now to mark its utmost Limits And accordingly by two great Thanks as it is in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they understand two great oblations of Bread of Thanks making the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the whole Sacrifice of Thanks to stand here for the Bread only and that only the Leaven'd So Rabbi Salom on the place And Maim in the Book above mention'd Tract 1. Cap. 6. § 12. § IV. a I confess that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in t is Case where we translate it a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving is rendred most commonly in the Greek of the Septuagint so call'd by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and never by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is notorious that the sence is the same Neither do they always interpret that word by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but on the fame subject they once put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levit. 22.29 and in another place we shall meet in the next Section Jerem. 33.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Name by which our Christian Sacrament is also known The truth is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is found in the Septuagint in no sense but it is frequent in the Apocrypha and in the New Testament and Aquila in his Translation of Amos 4.5 uses it for this very matter CHAP. VIII § I. The Distinction of Clergy and Laiety specified by Tertullian That of Bishops Priests and Deacons by Him Irenaeus also being his Leader for the Apostolical Authority of Bishops § II. And by Ignatius as the other at least of the Laiety and Clergy by St. Clemens of Rome § III. The First Distinction deriv'd from the Language of the Old Testament The Offices of the Second from those of the Jewish Sanhedrim and likewise of the Temple the Upper parts of our Churches being also suppos'd to answer the Temple Courts of the Priests and the Altar § I. WE come next to the Officers of the Christian Church expressed in the Scripture under general Names and which answer'd sufficiently to those us'd by the Jews but whose signification was not in some Cases so well distinguish'd as to make out the Parallel exactly Now the Writings of the Primitive Christians speak on these occasions more expresly and clear up the Confusion caus'd by ambiguous words determining their sense by such a distinction of Offices as had all along obtain'd from the days of the Apostles Certain it is from what we have already seen of Tertullian that in his time at the end of the Second Century the Offices of Bishop and Presbyter and Deacon were the principal Offices of the Church and notoriously Distinct The Power says he (a) Ch. 6. §. 1. c of Conferring Baptism the High Priest hath who is the Bishop then the Priests and Deacons but not without the Authority of the Bishop to keep up the Honour of the Church without which Peace cannot be preserv'd otherwise even the Laiety have a power to do it Now whatever becomes of the controversy of Baptism by Lay hands it is manifest from our Author that there was a Distinction of the Laiety and the Clergy b and among the Clergy between the Bishop and the Priests and Deacons and that the Bishop had a singular supereminent Authority over the Presbyters as well as the Deacons And that he understood this separate Authority to have been deriv'd from the hands of the Apostles is as plain from his Treatise of Prescribing against Hereticks (c) De Praeser ◠32. There to Bar some Heresies which were as old as the Apostles from pleading that they were taught by the Apostles he bids them Shew the Origine of their Churches and deduce a series of their Bishops with such a continued Succession from the beginning as that the first Bishop of them may have some Apostle or Apostolical Man who continued in the Communion of the Apostles to vouch for his Author and Predecessor For so the Apostolical Churches bring down their Pedegree as the Church of Smyrna reckons Polycarp placed there by St. John and the Church of Rome Clemens ordain'd by St. Peter and as other Churches name those who were made Bishops by the Apostles and to whom the Seed of the Apostolical Doctrine was transmitted This is Tertullian's Opinion and as it appears from his manner of delivering it was the general acknowledg'd Opinion of that Time But on the same Argument Irenaeus
Elders have by Mr. Selden's Concession the Power of the Limited Elders of the Jews (f) De Syn. 2.7 â— and so in his Opinion they were only to Instruct and Direct by Expounding and Exhorting and to Bind and Loose by Decision of Cases of Conscience and pronouncing Lawful and Unlawful as in the First Council at Jerusalem And this Limitation he thinks proper because the Presbyters of the Jews we have seen had no power in criminal Causes if ordain'd out of Judea and in his Opinion even their other Authority out of their own Country and Dominion was only from the Agreement of their People and the connivence of Princes under whom they liv'd It were enough for my present Intent if the Christian Elders answer'd the Jewish but thus far But that they had a greater Authority given them the very Expressions of the Scripture seem to speak As Obey them that have Rule over you and submit your selves (g) Heb. 13.17 Those that are over you (h) 1 Thes 5.12 preside over you such who are over the Church so as to Rule it (i) 1 Tim. 5.17 as the Master of a Family is over his own Children and Rules his House (k) 4.4 Which Expressions though they may be strain'd by narrow Construction to signifie Teaching and Exhortation only yet they most naturally imply something of Coercion besides and that they were us'd always to connote in the Old Testament But the comparison St. Paul makes in the last place between a Family and a Church will hardly bear the restrain'd Interpretation unless the Paternal Power was abridg'd as well as the Presbyteral and was left to Instruct and Exhort only Now as the Words are ready to signifie a greater Power so such a one there was remaining to be signified that of Admitting into the Christian Communion suspending from it and ejecting out of it a Power which the Jewish Presbyters had and the Christian Society did not want as we shall presently find (l) Chap. 5. 9. Neither did even Capital or Civil Power cease to belong to Christian Presbyters for the reason given by Mr. Selden not because they were created out of Judeas for Christ's Kingdom was no longer confin'd to one Country and every Land was holy nor because no sort of Civil Power could be exercis'd in another Kingdom for such a Power might have demanded Obediences in Conscience though it could not have oblig'd it by armed Force But rather because the Kingdom in which they were Officers was not of this World was not to judge or divide Inheritances nor to entertain Legions for the Peace of its Government and Execution of its Sentences they being to conduct the Church to another Life and Authoriz'd to Rule over it and controul it by that Respect Though therefore the Christian Elder be not ordain'd to Temporal Power yet he succeeds to the Jewish Presbyter in his fullest Right not wanting that Power because he wants any thing of Proper Authority but because he is commission'd to act in another Sphere and above these lower concerns as our blessed Saviour's Authority abstracted from his Omnipotence was not less than that of the former Law-giver Moses though he was pleas'd to waive the Power of Life and Death And thus far we have consider'd the Christian Elders resembling the Jewish in respect of the Church as a Society in like manner they presided over it as an Assembly Appointing Directing and Governing their Meetings by Doctrine and by Censure as is well known and will appear further hereafter § VI. FROM this Agreement of the Jewish and Christian Church in the Superiour Officers we have reason to look for the same in the Lower which remains that of a Deacon In the Appointment before cited from Deuteronomy we are to remember That Officers are mention'd as well as Judges and these though acknowledg'd to be Rulers and Men of Authority a were yet of an inferiour rank and subservient to the Elders And accordingly Josephus stiles them Ministers or Under-Officers and speaks as if to every Court of Seven Elders there were in the earlier Days two of these â—â—â—â—â—ers appointed and out of the Tribe of Levt b This Ministerial Office seems to have consisted of several Imployments and of different Degrees whatever belongs to Sheriffs Protonotaries and Clerks of Courts to Marshals and Cryers Bayliffs and Executioners The business of it was to write the Orders of the Senate and to Proclaim and Execute them to send out Process to Summon Arrest and Punish And it is observable that the Rabbins (c) Seld. de Syn. 2 5 4. Maim Tract San. c. 1. §. 10. allot to every Consistory of Twenty Three two Scribes Attendant d and also two Under-Sheriffs or Executioners whom they call by the same Name they give to the Reader of their Prayers as we shall presently see a Name common heretofore to all Under-Officers in the head of whom were the Two Scribes mentioned therefore by Josephus more particularly Besides these Officers of Judicature there were others who had the charge of their Charity Now the Jews take themselves to be very strictly oblig'd to provide for the Necessitous of their Religion and to support them in some measure answerably to their Quality (e) Maim de Donis Paup cap. 7.3 For this purpose there are Collectors in every City deputed some who go about every day to gather Bread and Meat Collectors of the Basket Others commonly two and to whom a third is to be join'd in the Distribution who go about every Week to gather the Almes and if need be the Tax for the Poor (f) Ibid. c. 9. These were call'd Collectors from their Gathering and Parnasim f 2 or Pastors from their supporting and Maintaining a Word that signifies not only this Office but Government in general and might be said of Elders or any other Rulers Answerable to these Collectors of Cities there were in the Temple (g) Lightâ—oot's Temple Service Collectors too call'd Gizbarim and it may be observable that these were under seven others nam'd Immarcalim who had the Custody and Keys of the Sacred Treasury We have seen also (h) §. IV. that Seven good men of a City are particularly remember'd and though their imployment be not well ascertain'd yet it is plain that the Goods of the Community were under their Ordering The Officers now spoken of belong to their Civil Society for their Religious Assemblies there are others The ordinary Synagogue-Officer is known by the name of Chazan the same as I have said which they give to their Executioner This Name Epiphanius one not unacquainted with the Affairs of the Jews expresly renders by Minister i the very same word which Josephus had us'd to signify those Officers in Deuteronomy attendant upon the Judges This is their Praecentor who under the Higher Rulers the Elders now the Rabbins takes care of the Service of the Synagogue Says Prayers shews the Lessons calls and directs those who
order of Rabbins above the ordinary Rabbins who preside over them and are as the Princes or Fathers of the Consistory heretofore Secondly As the Talmudists tell us there Presbyters were indifferently of any Tribe neither was it necessary that they should be of the Tribe of Levi who compos'd the great Consistory of Jerusalem (o) Seld. Ibid. cap. 7. §. 5. though that Consistory in their opinion govern'd even in the Temple and over all that officiated there (p) Ibid. cap. 8. cap. 15. §. 12 c. And the Truth is according to the Modern Traditions those of the Tribe of Levi were not so absolute in the Temple nor of that consideration out of the Temple as they seem to have been by the Scripture and by Josephus And now at this time though the Priests receive sometimes some little due for the Redemption of the First-Born and are call'd before others to Read the Law and are preferr'd to give the Solemn Blessing in the Synagogues and to say Grace at Meals yet for the rest they are as common Israelites and under the Jurisdiction of the Rabbins For these Rabbins have order'd the Matter so that they are reputed to Represent the Priests and to succeed into their Sacerdotal Right claiming therefore to be free from Taxes and from Watch and Ward to have the Prevendition or Pre-emption in the Market and to have their Causes first dispatch'd in Courts of Justices (q) Leo de Mod. Cere des Juifs S. 12.3 Buxt Syn. J. 46. Maim Tal. Tor. cap. 6. 〈◊〉 10. And this possibly came to pass not only from the superseding of the main part of the Priestly Function by the Destruction of the Temple and from the ceasing of their Tithes and other Dues by the banishment of the People from their own Country but also from the great destruction that must have been â—ufâ—er'd by the Tribe of Levi in those cruel Devastations made by Tites and Adrian of the Holy Land and City in which places the Levites had their Residence and Imployment and which they would be sure to defend most zealously Whereas many other Jews liv'd at the same time dispers'd in remote Provinces escaping the War and its fury For then when very few Priests remain'd and those of all Jews durst least own themselves and when they were debarr'd from the Execution of that Office by which they had been so honourably distinguish'd no wonder if the other Tribes took the advantage and as it happens amongst Rival Offices encroach'd and usurp'd upon them And if any of the Rest were to deliver down the Law which the Priest's Lips had been us'd to preserve as Rabbi Juda took upon him the Office He as Holy as he was might comply so far with Modern Usurpation as to record it with the Traditions from Mount Sina And lastly We are all along bid to observe that these Presbyters and Rulers were Civil Magistrates who had the Government of the Common-Wealth and by that Title controul'd the High-Priests themselves (r) Ibid. l. 3. c. 8.11 an observation we need not dissemble if we are at the same time allow'd to remember that God Himself was the Supreme Governour of that Common-Wealth that even its Civil Laws were enacted by Him and therefore that the Judges of that Law were Sacred Officers and of a Policy that was Divine Hitherto these Elders have been chiefly consider'd as Administrators of their Civil Policy they had too the direct Administration of all their Worship that was not Sacrificial directing its Services and appointing its Officers Whereas therefore in a great City the Nasi or his Vicegerent and even the Presbyters in a larger Sense were the Archisynagogi Rulers or Heads of the Synagogue as it meant the Body or Community of the City So they were also Rulers of the Synagogue or Synagogues of that City as they were Congregations for Worship And where there were many Synagogues as there were in those Cities the same were Rulers over all of them though by their appointment and in their Name to particular Synagogues particular Presbyters and sometimes possibly of Limited Power might be especially deputed to take care of them § V. SUCH were the Elders of Jewish Common-wealth and Church and correspondent in some manner to these are the Christian Presbyters in the New Testament And first those properly call'd Apostles are stil'd Elders as representing the Twelve Princes of the Tribes who were the first and great Elders of Israel So St. Peter stiles himself a Fellow-Elder (a) 1 Pet. 5.1 and so the Appellation of Elders seems in one place of the Acts (b) Acts 11 3â— to comprehend the Apostles also Next there are Elders distinct from the Apostles those mention'd often in the Acts just after them The Apostles and Elders (c) Act 15.2 4 6. And these because there is no mention made before of their Creation as there is of the Deacons may be presum'd to be the Seventy whom our Saviour had ordain'd according to the Number of the Consistory erected by Moses and then continued at Jerusalem And if these were Seventy Elders then St. James the Bishop of Jerusalem may be suppos'd to have been the President of them and if not the Prince for that honour they might leave to our Saviour always reputed as present with them yet the Vicegerent of the Prince and Father of the Council of the Seventy to which the other Apostles had join'd themselves in the manner of Assistants Extraordinary and as the High Priests and Princes of the Tribes had I suppose us'd to have an extraordinary Place in the Consistory of their Sanhedrim We find too that in all the considerable Cities where the Apostles founded Churches they Ordain'd Elders as Barnabas and Paul are recorded (d) Acts 14.23 to have done in Derbe Lystra Iconium and Antioch What was the number of these we are not told nor what Superiority there might be amongst them and in these circumstances also they answer to their Predecessors the Presbyters or Judges of Israel of whom as we have seen the Scripture has only said Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all thy Gates not expressing the number of those Provincial Judges nor distinguishing between the Prince or his Vicegerent and the rest of them The number I presume of our Christian Elders was various in various Places Where there were many one of them was appointed to be their Chief and Father of the Consistory if we will be guided in our Opinion by the very early uniform Practice of the next Age (e) Chap. VIII and where there was but one he too in probability was a Presbyter of that rank and had Authority to assume to himself Colleagues as the occasions of the Church should require And in this Supposition these Fathers Presbyters are those who are properly to be called Bishops in the determin'd sense of the Word as all Presbyters might be in the larger acception of it These Christian
and might withal be the sacred Table on which the Word of God should be plac'd that Lamp unto our Feet and Light unto our Paths y The Excellently Learn'd Mr. Dodwell in his Book of One Priest and One Altar differs not from what is here said He puts indeed our Bishops in the place of the Jewish High Priests Ch. 9. but then he supposes those High Priests to have been the Representatives of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the High-High Priest Ch. 8. As therefore Bishops now are the Substitutes of our Lord so they answer the old High Priest are such in some sense High Priests themselves but as He has now been pleas'd openly to own and to Execute that Office so they are thenceforth in propriety of Speech to forbear that title and to own themselves for his Vicegerents and Sagans CHAP. IX § I. The Sentence and Effects of Excommunication with Christians as with Jews and the Relaxation of it alike § II. Their Agreement in the estimate of the Guilt of Sins and the appointments of Penance § I. EXcommunication as we have seen (a) Ch. 5. was with the Jews a Punishment with which their Presbyterial Authority was arm'd and which besides if it was not also decreed was certainly Executed by the Sacerdotal and that Sentence we must think was then most valid and most effectual when it was pass'd by both those Powers Such an Excommunication we have seen too Directed in the New Testament and Executed and afterwards Releas'd And the same Jurisdiction how it continued to be Exercis'd in the Church we are now to consider This Discipline then is well known to have been Executed in the Primitive Church by the Bishops and Priests with great severity and to have been much dreaded by the Guilty And the account of it we may take from Tertullian as he describes it in his Apology (b) Ch. 39. Being to justify the Christian Assemblies from the Imputation put upon them by the Imperial Officers and common Opinion of their being Unlawful Associations and dangerous Conventicles He says We are indeed a Corporation embodied by our Agreement in the same Religion and Obedience to the same Discipline and are Confederate by the same Hope We Meet together but it is before God Him we surround with our Prayers and as it were with our Numbers Force but this is such a violence as is acceptable unto Him And then our Prayers are for our Emperours for their Officers and such as are put in Authority We meet but it is to refresh our memory by Reading the Word of God There too c is the place for Exhortation and for Reproof and there our Manners are Inspected and Censur'd as it were by God himself For Causes are there judg'd with great deliberation as it is fit to be done by those who know that they Judge in the Presence and sight of God and if any one shall be found so Criminal as to be Excluded from the Communion of our Prayers and Assemblies and from the rest of our Holy Commerce this Judgment so pass'd upon him is taken for the Highest Presumption that can be of a like Judgment to come Elders or Governours the best approv'd Preside over us such as have purchas'd the Honour not by Money but by their Deserts for nothing belonging to God is to be bought with Money By those who Preside over us we are chiefly to understand the Bishop and then the Presbyters who are said above (d) Ch. 8. §. 2. in the language of Ignatius to the Magnesians to preside also And likewise it appears manifestly that the Authority by which they act is not look'd on as founded upon any voluntary agreement of the Fraternity but upon the Law of God Neither is it necessary that I should trouble the Reader with any further Proof from the Antients either for the Immemorial Practice of Excommunication or for the constant Presumption of its Authority from God Fig. I. Fig. II. Fig. III. place this after P◠And agreeably to this we have already seen that Excommunication with the Jews was Lighter or Heavier and differently Aggravated as the Cause deserv'd (f) Ch. 5. §. 1. It has likewise appear'd probable that the several Excommunicates may have lain under several Prohibitions as to their Approach in the Synagogues or Temple (g) Sect. 3. And since it has been shown that the Jewish Proselytes enter'd into their Religion by the same Degrees by which the Christians did (h) Ch. 6. we cannot doubt but those of them who had been solemnly excluded the Temple ordinarily Re-enter'd it after the same manner advancing successively thorough the several Courts as those did who had been under corporal Pollution according to the measure of their suppos'd Purification We have yet spoken only of the spiritual effect of Excommunication and Tertullian mentions the Exclusion from all Sacred Commerce only and this no doubt is the proper jurisdiction of that Presbyterial Authority which pretends not to govern the Commerce or Negotiations of this World But there can be no question but that the Faithful always avoided any great Familiarity or intimate Conversation with the Excommunicates other than to Reform and Reconvert them And this the Scripture it self seems to direct (i) 1 Cor. 5.11 and necessary it was to the Humiliation and Mortification of the Criminal and for the danger of others being corrupted by him though the other common Entercourse the Christians were to have with their Neighbours of all sorts was to be regulated by the Policy of that Temporal Government to which they belong'd But when the Government became Christian as it thought fit to enlarge the proper Presbyterial Power with some new Jurisdiction in things confining upon that Office as in Causes Testamentary and Matrimonial so it back'd their Excommunication with civil Restraints and Penalties And thence those who were under the Greater Excommunication have been forbid all common Conversation renderd uncapable of several Legal Benefits and sometimes Imprison'd or otherwise punish'd in Body or Estate in all which proceedings the Patterns of the Jews as is evident has been much follow'd as it seems to be in the Three Admonitions before the Sentence the consideration of the contempt of the Court on which it is founded the pronouncing it by Bell and Candle and Executing it even upon the Dead (k) See Ch. 5. §. 1. § II. AND thus much may suffice at present for the correspondence of the Sentence and Effect of Excommunication with the Jews and with the Christians but they also agree further about the Crimes that are to be the Cause of it and about the means of its Absolution The most Grievous Crimes in the judgment of the Antient Church were Idolatry Adultery and Murder as Morinus has demonstrated (a) Mor. de Poen lib. 5. cap. 1. And that they are so estimated by the Jews he has also sufficiently prov'd (b) Ibid Cap. 3. And concerning Repentance and Expiation or