(io6) Ill. 4'ertullían de trait. to cart himfelf down at the feet ofthe Presbyters ; which implyeth that they had the powerof the keys for Abfolution : And thofe whom he calleth [Seniores ] Apolog. managed the Difcipline, and that not in a Chancellors Court, but in the fame Congregations where and when they Affembled for publick worship. Ifany will fay that Bi[hops are here included, I will not deny it ; But if they will fay that when he nameth the Seniors and Presbyterswithout diftin&ion,that he excludethall fave the Bithop alone, I (hall not believe that Tertullian fpeaketh fo un-intelligibly. Unlefs they will follow Dr. Flammond and believe ( as I do not) that there was yet butOne Presbyter, who was the Bifhop in a Church, or in moli .Churches : which defacto would be for us. IV. The Teftimonies ofClem. Roman. Ignat. Juflin Martyr, may be gathered out of the words forecited. Flierom's Teftimony in this cafe is fo plain and full, and trite in every writing (Epift ad Evagr. &pafm, making them theApoftles Soeccef rs, and thefame with the Bí[hops, except only in ordination ) that! will not trouble you with reciting it. Epift 2s. V. Cyprian neither would nor could govern his Church without the con- p.64.Edit currence of the Presbyters : ( before cited) De Gaia defideraffis ut de Philume- Goulertü' nob Fortunatob podiaconh b Favorino acolutho, refcribam: cui rei mmpotai me folternjudicem dare ; cum multi adhuc de Clero abfentes fint ; nec locumfuum vel Fero repetendumputaverint, & h.ec ftngulorum traianda fit b limánda pleniusratio ; non tantum cum colleges melt, fed & cum plebe ipfa univerfa. Epp. 36. ( edit. Goulart.) He iheweth that it is the Clergies duty, to take careof the widows, the lick, thepoor, the (hangers : (he the Bifhop was then abfent. ) So altoEp.37.And E ilf.ro.he reprehendeth the Presbyters for reconciling and abfolvingthe Lapfedpoverhaaily and withneglet and contempt of the Bithops but not as if the work were not their office work to do : Nay he giveth us this full plain teilimony, "that even in this publick Abfolution in faro exteriore, the true cuflom of theChurch was for the Bifhop and his Presbyters together to impofe hands on the penitent and fo abfolve them, receive them; and give them the Sacrament. Pag. 3o.. faith he, Nam earn in minoribue Inmates 71,e next agant peceátores pxnitentiam juffo tempore, & feeundum difciplin.e ordinem ad ex- Vp'J 7, omologefn veniant, & per impofitionem mancs Epifeopi & Cirri jus Çommunionii readof accipiant ; Nam credo tempore, perfecutione adhucperfeverante, nondum relfitrsta all that Eeclefia ipfius pace, ad Communicationem admittuntur, â offertur nomen eorum, finer for & xondum pxnitentia alla, nondum exomologefi fada, nondummanu elf ab Epifcopo the truth Clero impofita, Eucharifiia illis datur.] to keep E t r He writeth to the Clergy in his abfence to do the work of themJrom pf 5. p. 5 gy pride, on- Difcipline; even their own part and his, and (as no man doubteth but rslinfs, they did the whole work in the publick affenibly whenhe was abfeut fo long andfcan. rime, fo ( that -you may fee what kind of Chappel meetings they had ) ¡atband . it being the cuftome for encouragement of fufferers, to go to the Confeffors and
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