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
before as appears by his 55 Letter Theodoret speaks the same in his 86 Epistle in the Third Volumne of his Works and 't is on this practice the Eastern Bishops grounded their complaints in the IV. Century against Pope Julius I. in that he had received St. Athanasius into his Communion and some others whom they had Excommunicated Read what is related by Zozomen in the VIII Chapter of the Third Book of his Ecclesiastical History Socrates II. Book chap. 15. and Julius his Answer in St. Athanasius his Second Apology to be perswaded of the truth hereof for the Letter writ by the Eastern Bishops to Julius is not now Extant that at present found in the first Volumne of the Councils being forg'd and contains but a Collection ill put together of what the Authors I but now mention'd have writ It 's true our Discipline does except some cases of which one may appeal to the National Synod after Judgment given by Provincial Synods but 't is even therein appears its Conformity with the Ancient provided the time be carefully distinguished before the Christian World which was bounded in the Roman Empire had been divided after the Example of the Empire into several Ecclesiastical Diocesses each of which comprehended several Provinces the whole extent of a Bishops Jurisdiction how great soever it was made but one Ecclesiastical Province For Example In St. Cyprians time all Africa made no more but the Ecclesiastical Province of the Bishop of Carthage And in the time of the First Council of Nice Libia and Pentapolis made up that of the Bishop of Alexandria and then 't was requisite Affairs should be determin'd in the Provincial Synod without being permitted to appeal to the Synod of any other Province It is what is depos'd by the Sixth Cannon of Nice which confirms to the Bishop of Alexandria what Custom had given him Possession of that is to say the Metropolitical Rights only although the Patriarchal Rights also may be inferr'd from the same Cannon by lawful consequence when he shall be in a state to exercise them that is to say when his Province shall be divided into several Ecclesiastical Provinces and that he shall have under him several Metropolitans over which the chief of the Diocess and the Patriarchs had the same power as Metropolitans had over the Bishopâ— of their Brovinces But after this Division into Diocesses and of Diocesses into several Feclesiastical Provinces each of which had a Metropolitan had been made which the first Universal Council of Constantinople began to Establish or it may be but to One Musoâ—â—â—s in the Council of Rimini as St. Jerom testifies in his Dialogue against the Luciferians chap. 7. where he observes this Musonius was of the Byzantine Province but instead of Byzantine it should be Byzancene which was a Province of Africa wherein was the Diocess of this Prelate As for the care the President or Moderator of the Synod should take to the end all things should be done in the Assembly regularly and in Order the XI Council of Toledo in the year 675 ordained in the First Cannon Tom. 4. Conc. p. 820. the same Observations which the Authors of our Discipline here prescribes not forgetting those which derogate from the Laws VIII Elders which are Deputies of Churches shall have Votes as Ministers and the Elders of the place where the Synod is assembled may also be present and propose any thing in their Order Nevertheless but two of them shall have Vote to avoid confusion CONFORMITY After what I have writ on the First Article of the Third Chapter there 's no difficulty in understanding of this for the Deacon Hillary hath assur'd us nothing was done in the Church without the Counsel and Advice of the Elders and Firmiâ—lian Bishop of Cappadocia that the Prelates and Elders assembled once every year to order matters committed to their care and with common consent to treat of the greatest and most important Affairs IX What shall be concluded upon by Provincial Synods for ordering the Churches of their Province shall be communicated to the National Synod CONFORMITY The 95th Cannon of the Code of Africa has a Constitution much like this for it Ordains that private Affairs shall be determin'd in the Provinces but as for the common and general they referr the Knowledge and Decision of it to the General Council of Africa Now 't is most certain that what regards all the Churches of a Province ought to be put in the Rank of General Affairs the Decision whereof appertains to a National Synod X. Because several Persons to the end to decline or delay the sensure of their faults appeal from one Ecclesiastical Assembly to another even to a National Synod which by this means is more perplexed in clearing their Case than any other for the time to come all differences within the same Province shall be definitively judged without appeal to the Provincial Synod of the Province except what shall concern the suspending and deposing as well of Pastors as of Elders and Deacons and the changing of Pastors from one Province to another also the changing of a Church from one Colloque to another and also that which concerns Doctrin the Sacraments and the whole Discipline all which cases may gradually move even to the Nationall Synod to receive the last and definitive Judgment CONFORMITY To Authorise what Custom had done in several Countreys since the Council of Nice at least it may seem to be so inferr'd from the Cannons of the Synod of Antioch in the year 341 Forty years before that of Constantinople Afterwards I say it is certain Appeal was made from Judgment of Provincial Synods to Councils of the whole Diocess for the greater part of the heads contain'd in our Discipline as is verified by most of the Cannons I have but now cited particularly by those of Constantinople of Calcedonia and of the African Code with the 95th of the same Code to which may be joyned the Third Cannon of the Fourth Council of Toledo assembled in the year 633. To. 4. Conc. pag. 582. XI If there should happen a difference betwixt two Provincial Synods they must pitch on a third to reconcile them CONFORMITY This Establishment don't disagree with the 14 Cannon of the Synod of Antioch which is conceiv'd in these terms If after Judgment be given against a Bishop accused of certain Crimes it so falls out that the Bishops of the Province are upon this score in different minds some declaring him Innocent and others guilty the Synod to put an end to their Contests is of Opinion that the Metropolitan shall call other Judges of the next Province to decide the difference and that he confirms what they shall have concluded upon with the Bishops of the Province It 's true this Cannon don't speak of differences which two Provincial Synods might have together But seeing the Council allows to call Neighbouring Bishops when those of the Province are at variance about a
in several parts of his Works particularly in his Epistle to the Solitaries Tom. 1. p 855. where he saith That the Nature of Piety and Religion is not to constrain but to perswade after the Example of our Saviour who forced no body but left it at every bodies choice to follow him saying to all the World If any one will come after me and to his Disciples and you will not you also go After which he extreamly blames the Conduct of the Emperour Constantius who at the desire of the Arrians tormented the Catholicks and used great violence to make them declare in his favour violence which he exaggerates with comparisons too strong the which I forbear to write I might alleage other Testimonies of the Fathers but I would not be too tedious Therefore it shall suffice to observe pag. 388. that there is mention in Mr. Justels African Code of a Law that was published by the which it was left to every bodies free choice to imbrace the Christian Religion The Emperour Jovian which succeeded Julian the Apostate Hist lib. 3. cap. 25. 〈◊〉 is praised in Socrates in that he had suffer'd every body to make profession of what Religion he pleas'd Ammianus Marcellinus has not failed to praise for the same thing the Great Valentinian who succeeded Jovian in the Empire Lib. 9. tit 16. de Males Maâ—â—em in his Thirtieth Book which the Prince testifies of himself in the Theodocian Code where he declares that as soon as he began to Reign he made Laws whereby every body had liberty to profess the Religion wherein he had been instructed and train'd up I can't tell if I should mention Constantine Pagonat or the hairy who in the Letter he writ to the Bishop of Rome on occasion of the Sixth Universal Council he assembled at Constantinople Tom. 5. Conc. pag. 11. he speaks to him in this manner We may excite and exhort all the World to amend and to joyn with the Christians but we will not constrain any body But I know I ought not and examining this matter without speaking of the Emperour Marâ—iâ—n by whose Authority the Council of Chalcedon was assembled in the Year of our Lord 451 for in the Letter he writes to the Archimandrites and to the Friers of Jerusalem and the parts thereabouts he saith speaking of this Council That no body was constrained by his Order to subscribe and consent to it and see here the reason he gives For saith he Tom. 3. Gonc p. 488. we will not force or hale any body into the way of truth by threats nor violence Words becoming that wise Prince and which deserves to be graven in the mind of all Soveraigns And it is to be wished for the Honour of Charlemain Collect. part 2. pag. 179. cap. 7. that he had so acted in regard of the Saxons and not to have threatned with Death those amongst them as refused to be baptiz'd V. The Children of those also which are called Sarazins may be received to Baptisme in the Reformed Churches on the conditions above-mention'd provided also they may be void of all presumption on account of any former Baptisme received and after serious remonstrances made to Godfathers to consult how they may best discharge the promise and obligation they make to the Church and moreover that Godfathers and Godmothers charge themselves with the maintenance and instruction of the Child CONFORMITY This Article being much like the former it needs no other explication than that I have made on the Fourth where I have observed several things VI. Baptisme shall not be administred but in Church Assemblies where there is a Church publickly setled and where there is not a publick Church and the Fathers and Mothers by reason of sickness fear to have their Children christned at Church the Ministers shall prudently advise what to do in the matter however that there be the form of a Church together with Exhortations and Prayers But if there be no Church and that an Assembly is not to be had the Minister shall make no scruple to baptize the Infant of a Believer presented to him with Prayer and Exhortation CONFORMITY The Fifty Ninth Cannon of the VI. Oecumenical Council in the year 692 forbids administring Baptisme in Oratories in private Houses it requires it should be perform'd in the Catholick Churches Tom. 5. Conc. pag. 339. threatning to depose the Church-Men which obey not this Decree and to Excommunicate the Laity which shall violate it Nevertheless the same Council permits to do it by advice of the Bishop of the place Cannon Thirty First although the Fifty Eighth of that of Laodicea had absolutely prohibited to Bishops and Priests in the Fourth Century to celebrate the Eucharist in private Houses But the difficulty is to know what the Council means by the Catholick Churches Tom 5. Conc. p. 517. when it forbids christning any where else an Expression which I also find in the Preliminaries of the Second Council of Nice where it is said the Bishops went ad Luteram of the Holy Catholick Church The term Luter which comes from the Greek 〈◊〉 signifies a Basin or Vessel to wash the feet and I can't tell if in the words I examine it may not be put for the Baptismal Fountain After all I am inclin'd to think that by the Catholick Churches here spoke of is to be understood the Churches appointed for all the People in general and where there was publick Fonts according to which there is mention in the Capitularies of our Kings Tom. 2. Conc. Gal. p. 152. Ibid. pag. 30. of Baptismal Churches so called because there was a Publick Font or Christning Place as appears by the Seventh Cannon of the Synod which Pepin the Father of Charlemain caus'd to be held apud vernum Anno Dom. 750 There must not be a publick Font in any Parish but there where the Bishop whose the Parish is doth appoint Tom. 16. Bibl. Pal. pag. 674. Flodoard in his Second Book of his History of the Church of Reims chap. 19. calls these Churches Baptismal Titles which distinguished them from others which had not Fonts And it is very probable that there was in each City but one Baptismal Church where all the People were Christen'd which was also observ'd in Villages in the Country so it must be understood the Decree of the Council of Meaux in the Year 845 Tom. 3. Conc. Gal. Can. 48. p. 45 Tom. 1. Conc. Gal. c. 1â— pag. 566. That no Priest presume to Baptize but in the Baptismal Churches which are in the Villages As for Oratories it was not permitted there to build Fonts as we find by the Ninth Epistle of the Second Book of Gregory I. of the 71 and 83 of the 7th of the Third of the 8th of this practice continued also in Pope Zacharies time who also wrote so to Pepin in the year 747 in using the very terms of Gregory I. But in process
Consistory shall think fit Except those who shall have lived together during the time of their ignorance without contempt and slighting of the Ecclesiastical Order also those which shall have cohabited together when there was no Church setled at the place of their Habitations or in the Province All which shall only be cited to the Consistory to the end the Marriage may be Ratified and Blessed in the Church if the Consistory shall see it Expedient CONFORMITY St. Basil in his Third Canonical Epistle Can. 69. Tom. 7. pag. 33. had appointed something of this kind in these terms If a Reader has known his Sweetheart before Marriage he shall be suspended from his Office for a year at the Expiration whereof he shall do his Duty without being capable of advancement By this may be seen he would have decreed against Lay People which should have committed the like Offence the pains expressed in our Discipline The Frier Blastares which I have often cited especially on the XX. Article of this Chapter will Litt. G. c. 4. pag. 62. that the Punishment of Fornicators be given to those that have known each other before they have been lawfully Marryed Cardinal Borrome in the Second Council he caused to be held at Millan in the year 1569 Tom. 9. Conc. Dec. 27. pag. 500. Ibid. pag. 684. remits the Absolution of the Sin now treated of to the Bishop because 't is frequently committed and prescribes severe Pennance for those that are guilty of it which he repeats again in the Sixth Council Assembled at the same place Thirteen Years after the Second XXVI To prevent Inconveniences which arise by too long deferring Cellebration of Marriages the Parties and those in whose care they be shall be advertis'd not to delay the Cellebration of Maraiage above six Weeks if possible CONFORMITY It is an Establishment of Pollicie to prevent the inconveniencies conveniencies and ill consequencies as may happen in too long deferring the Solemnizing of Marriage And 't is with regard hereto that Cardinal Borrome prohibits in the place I but now cited I say he prohibits all manner of Familiarity and Commerce to contracted Persons XXVII Marriages shall be Register'd and carefully kept in the Church CONFORMITY This Rnle regards the Publick good therefore oftentimes recourse is had to Registers of Marriages which are kept in both Communions and the Copies taken many times serve to terminate great Law Suits The Council of Trent appointed in the year 1563 Session 24. chap. 1. of the Decree touching the Reformation of Marriage Tom. 9. Conc. pag. 412. it ordains Each Curate should have a Book wherein he should write the Names of the Marryed Folks and of the Witnesses with the Day and Place where the Marriage was contracted Ibid. p. 480 481 590. Cardinal Borrome renews this injunction in the First and Third of the Councils he held at Millan XXVIII Believers whose Wives and Husbands shall be convicted of Adultery shall be admonished to be reconciled to each other but if they will not the Liberty they have by the Word of God shall be declar'd to them Nevertheless should this happen to one that is imployed in the Church he may not reassume his Wife and exercise his Office CONFORMITY St. Tom. 6â— p. 358. Austin has made Two Books on Adulterous Marriages that is of Marriages wherein Adultery does intervene and in the Second of these Books chap. 6 8 9. he requires the same Conduct should be held towards the Party convicted of Adultery as is Established by our Discipline that is to say that the Innocent Party should continue with him that violated their Marriage Vow and he alleages for a Reason That being a Believer we ought to believe that she has been washed from her Sin by Baptisme or by Repentance Nevertheless this is but an Advice or Council which he gives without imposing any necessity to do so on the Party unconcern'd which is just the Rule prescribed by the Article we examin unless it be that it declares that if such a thing should happen to any one that had an Office in the Church he could not take his Wife again and execute his Office because doubtless he would not be so much to Edification and the remembrance of his Wifes Adultery would be at least to the weak a Subject of Offence and Scandal So 't was the Council of Neosesaria order'd it in the Year 314 Can. 8. which enjoyns those that are Established in the Ministry of the Church whose Wifes have committed Adultery it enjoyns them to forsake them or if they will live with them it declares they can no longer Execute their Offices See Gratians Decree Caus 32. q. 1. can De Benedicto where the same Practice is Authorized although some of the Fathers forbid cohabiting with the Adulterous Party XXIX To regulate the Extravagance of Marriages by reason of Adultery the Party grieved may prosecuee at Law the Party that has offended before the Magistrate until that by definitive Sentonce and Judgment they be justly convicted the which Sentence the Party grieved shall produce in Consistory who shall let him understand the Liberty the Word of God allows in such cases But by reason of the difficulty of the times the Ministers of this Kingdom are advised not to re-marry the Parties who are at liberty to provide themselves elsewhere and as for the Party that has transgressed great deliberation and care shall be used before he be restor'd to Liberty CONFORMITY Those which accommodate the Cannons to the times and which judge of the Discipline of the Antient Christians by that which they follow at present do think that 't was never permitted in the Church that those should marry any other Person who were separated for Adultery Nevertheless with the least heed that is taken in reading what remains to us of the Writings of Ecclesiastical Antiquity it may therein be observ'd that for several Ages the Liberty of re-marrying was granted to those whose Marriage had been dissolved for Adultery I should be over-tedious to relate all I could alleage for Establishing this Truth I shall therefore content my self to prove it by some formal and positive Testimonies which shall be above the reach of any contentious Spirits to controul To do it with the better method First of all 't will be necessary to transcribe two passages of the Gospel where our Saviour Jesus Christ has fully explain'd himself on this matter The First is in the Fifth chap. of St. Matth ver 31 32. It hath been also said Whosoever shall put away his Wife let him give her a Writing of Divorcement But I say unto you That whosoever shall put away his Wife saving for the cause of Fornication causeth her to commit Adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth Adultery These words as every one sees teach us two things one that there 's nothing but Adultery which is a lawful cause of breaking of Marriage and the other