mit them to be abfolv'd before they judg'd they were fit for it) would be plainly to deceive them, and they would be rather Butchers than Paftors of the Sheep, The Office of ordering their Abfolutions fooner or later, and the Guilt of an overhafty Abfolution, is faften'd (you fee) upon the Governors or Paftors of the Church alone; where must we think then the Power lay? And agreeable to this, when the Martyrs were importunate to have fome Lapsed Brethren abfolv'd who were unqualify'd for it, S. Cyprian argues, They could not put the Bishops upon doing that which was against the Command of God. Why, put the Bishops only upon it? How is the whole Confiftory forgot in fuch an important Act of their Power as this? Sure, if they had had a Negative, and it had been done amifs, the Guilt as well as Power would have been fhared amongst them, and they would not have been over-look'd. But, Fifthly, and lastly, S. Cyprian affures us, that his own Presbyters fent to him alone for his Authoritative Order, upon the like Occasion with this; for fo the Forma (as the Holy Bishop calls it) plainly does imply; which he immediately explains thus: You defired a Form (fays he) of me, U 4 in Ut ab Epifcopis contra mandatum Dei fiat, auctores effe non poffunt. * Significaftis quofdam immoderatos effe, & communicationem accipiendam feftinanter urgere; & defideraftis in hac re formam à me vobis dare; Satis plene fcripfiffe me ad hanc rem proximis literis ad vos factis credo, ut qui libellum acceperunt, &c. manu eis in poenitentiâ à vobis impofita cum pace ad Dominum remittantur.` Ep. 19. in relation to fome Lapsed Brethren, who were vi ry preffing with you to be speedily abfolv'd; 1 wrote my Mind very fully (I think) upon that Matter, in my laft Letters to you; and then proceeds to tell them the Contents of them, which was no less than a positive Authority and Order for them to act by, in abfolving fome, (on fuch Conditi❤ ons as he there prescribed) and leaving others as they were, till publick Peace fhould be reftored again. Endless were Quotations from that excellent Father upon thefe Heads. What Part he allow'd the Lay Brethren of the Church in each of them, I leave the World to judge from the few I have produced here, and only hope and pray that Truth will clear itself at laft, (on whichfoever Side it lies) and be impartially embraced by all the Lovers of it. WE CHAP. VIII. 7E have heard, at large, the excellent Difcipline of the Primitive Church: Our learned Author makes this Remark upon it here, That all these Judicial Acts were exerted in and by every fingle Parish; which being wholly grounded upon his own precarious Principle, that a Primitive Church, or Diocese, and a Modern Parish, or Congregation, were one and the fame Thing, I fhall referr the Reader to what I have faid before in answer to that unwarrantable Vide fuprà Cap. ii. warrantable Notion of Congregational Diocefes, and only confirm the Authorities, then produced against it, with one fingle Inftance here; which I take to be a clear Proof (tho' nothing had been faid before) against that whole Hypothefis, and the prefent Obfervation from it. The Inftance is this: Nepos, a Bifhop in Egypt, had corrupted most of the Chriftians about him with the erroneous Doctrine of the Millenaries: Dionyfius, Bishop of Alexandria, goes into that Region of Egypt, call'd Arfinoe, where he had done that Mifchief, and (Nepos himself being lately dead) fummon'd in the Presbyters and Teachers of the Brethren in the feveral Villages there, together with as many of the Brethren as were willing to come, to hold a folemn Conference and publick Difputation upon that Subject; and after three Days reafoning with them, happily brought them off from their mistaken Opinions. Now, who (do we think) were thefe Presbyters and Teachers of the Brethren in the several Villages there, fummon'd in by Dionyfius upon this Occafion? And in what Capacity did they exercise their Ministry in teaching the Brethren committed to their Care? Not as Supreme Paftors over the feveral Congregations of them; for Dionyfius himself, and the whole Catholick Church in that Age, ever diftinguifh'd fuch Paftors by the proper Name and Title of Bishops; and accordingly the late de'ceas'd + Ἐν τῷ ̓Αρσινούτη γυόμυΘ, ένθα πρὸ πολλά τέτο ἐπεπόλαζε τὸ δόγμα συγκαλέσας του πρεσβυτέρος καὶ διδασκάλες ἐν ταῖς κώμοις ἀδελφῶν, παρόντων * βελομύων ἀδελφῶν, δημοσίᾳ τῷ ἐξέτασιν ποιήcada ŵndys megelperfáu. Eufeb. Hift. Eccl. 1. 7. ceas'd Nepos is fo ftyled here. If they were not Village-Curates therefore, inftituted and deputed to their refpective Cures there by the Bishop of the Neighbouring City of Arfinoe, (and poffibly of fome others in that Province too) thefe Congregations, or religious Affemblies of Chriftians under Teaching Minifters, were Members of no Church at all; for, without a Bishop, (all agree) they could not be fo; and that Dionyfius (and Eufebius with him) fhould call Bishops by the Name of Presbyters and Teachers of the Brethren in Villages and Hamlets up and down the Country, is what no Modeft Antiquary (I verily believe) will affirm. It remains therefore, that they must have been Congregational Parishes relating to fome Mother-Church, where their Bishop refided; and confequently no one of them was an entire particular Church in the Senfe of Antiquity, or could exercife Fudicial Acts of Ecclefiaftical Difcipline within themselves; for S. Ignatius S Maxim is own'd by this learned Enquirer § himself, and by all the Ancients with him, that without the Bishop 'twas not lawful to do any Thing. What follows, is a juft Account from Antiquity of the admirable Harmony and mutual Correfpondence of every particular Church with one another in thofe Primitive Times; which was fo bleffed a Precedent of Unity ipdeed throughout the Catholick Church, as every fuc T Νέπως ἐπίσκοπο ν και' Αἴγυπτον. Ib. § Οὐκ ἐξόν έσιν — ἀναγκαῖον ἔστιν ἀναι τὰ ἐπισ τόσο μηδὲν πρέπειν. Eng. p. 17. fucceeding Age (how degenerate foever) muft have a Veneration for, and all good Men muft lament the fatal Breaches which uncharitable Schifms have made in it fince, and with a holy (tho' hopeless Emulation, I'm afraid, in thefe Divided Times of ours) muft wifh and pray, at least, to fee fuch Heavenly Concord in the Churches upon Earth again: Yet, however irrecoverable fo great a Bleffing may feem to be, let every Difciple of the peaceful Jefus fo far contribute to it ftill, as to ask his own Heart, (with all the Strictnefs and Sincerity he poffibly can) what Occasion he, in particular, has given for fo miferable a Change; by which Means he may happily find a Way to acquit himself, at leaft, (which would be no fmall Comfort to him) tho', for the prefent, he has but little farther Hopes in View. * The reft of this Chapter treats of the Intercourfe and Government of the Primitive Churches by Synodical Affemblies; the proper Members of which Affemblies, the Enquirer tells us, were | Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, and deputed Laymen, in Behalf of the People of their refpective Churches. Tho' a little after, he says again, that Firmilian's yearly Synods were ra ther meer Clerical Convocations, and confifted of Bishops and Presbyters only. However, to prove that all thofe Orders of Men were Members of a Primitive Synod, he produces two Pallages from Eufebius, which make it not unlikely that fome || Enq. p. 143. |