ז' ORIGINES ECCLESIASTICÆ. LIBRARY THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. WITH TWO SERMONS AND TWO LETTERS ON THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF ABSOLUTION. BY JOSEPH BINGHAM, RECTOR OF HAVANT. REPRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITION, MDCCVIII.-MDCCXXII. WITH AN ENLARGED ANALYTICAL INDEX. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCXLV. 510965 THE AUTHOR'S DEDICATIONS. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, JONATHAN, LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, AND PRELATE OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER. [PUBLISHED WITH VOL. I. OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION.] MY LORD, HAVING Once determined with myself to make these collections public, I needed no long time to consider to whom I should first address and present them. They are, my Lord, the first-fruits of my labour under your Lordship's government and inspection; and I was willing to think, and do presume I did not think amiss, that your Lordship had a sort of title to the first-fruits of any of your clergy's labour; especially if the subject, on which they were employed, was suitable to their calling, and had any direct tendency to promote Christian knowledge in the world. The subject of the present discourse, being an essay upon the ancient usages and customs of the primitive church, and a particular account of the state of her clergy, is such as, being considered barely in its own nature, I know cannot but be approved by a person of your Lordship's character; whose care is concerned not only in preserving the purity of the primitive faith, but also in reviving the spirit of the ancient discipline and primitive practice: and were the management any ways answerable to the greatness of the subject, that would doubly recommend it to your Lordship's favour; since apples of gold are something the more beautiful for being set in pictures of silver. But I am sensible the subject is too sublime and copious, too nice and difficult, to have justice done it from any single hand, much less from mine: all, therefore, I can pretend to hope for from your Lordship is, that your candour and goodness will make just allowances for the failings, which your sagacity and quickness will easily perceive to be in this performance. I am not, I confess, without hopes, that as well the abstruseness and difficulty of the subject itself, as my own difficult circumstances, under which I was forced to labour, for want of proper assistance of abundance of books, may be some apology for the defects of the work and if I can but so far obtain your Lordship's good opinion, as to be thought to have designed well; as I am already conscious of my own good intentions to consecrate all my labours to the public service of the church; that will inspire me with fresh vigour, notwithstanding these difficulties, to proceed with cheerfulness and alacrity in the remaining parts of this work, which are yet behind, and which I shall be the more willing to set about, if I can perceive that it has your Lordship's approbation. The countenance and encouragement of such a judge may perhaps have a more universal influence, to excite the zeal of many others, who have greater abilities to serve the church: and I know not how better to congratulate your Lordship upon your happy accession to the episcopal throne of this diocese, than by wishing you the blessing and satisfaction of such a clergy; whose learning and industry, and piety and religion, influenced by the wisdom of your conduct, and animated by the example of your zeal and perseverance, even to imprisonment in times of greatest difficulty, may so qualify them to discharge every office of their function, as may make your diocese one of the shining glories of the present church, and a provoking example to the future which is the hearty prayer and desire of, My Lord, Your Lordship's faithful and obedient Servant, 127480 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, JONATHAN, LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, AND PRELATE OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER. [PUBLISHED WITH VOL. II. OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION.] MY LORD, As the kind entertainment which your Lordship and the world have been pleased to give to the first part of this work, has encouraged me to go on in hopes of doing public service to the church; so the nature of the subject contained in this second volume, being but a continuation of the former account of the primitive clergy, obliges me again with all submission to present this second part to your Lordship, in hopes of no less kind acceptance and approbation. The matters here treated of are many of them things of the greatest importance, which when plainly set in order and presented to public view, may perhaps excite the zeal of many in the present age, to copy out those necessary duties, by the practice of which the primitive church attained to great perfection and glory; and, as I may say, still provokes and calls us to the same attainments by so many excellent rules and noble examples. In the fourth and sixth of these Books I have endeavoured to draw up something of the general character of the primitive clergy, by showing what qualifications were required in them before their ordination, and what sort of laws they were to be governed by afterwards, respecting both their lives and labours, in the continual exercise of the duties of their function. Many of them, I must own, have been very affecting to myself in the consideration of them; and I was willing to hope they might prove so to such others as would be at the pains to read them. For here are both directions and provocations of the best sort, to excite our industry, and inflame our zeal, and to make us eager and restless in copying out the pattern set before us. If any shall think I have collected these things together to reflect upon any persons in the present age, I shall only say, with one of the ancients in a like case, they mistake my design; which was not to reproach any man's person, who bears the sacred character of a priest, but to write what might be for the public benefit of the church. For as when orators and philosophers describe the qualities, which are required to make a complete orator or philosopher, they do no injury to Demosthenes or Plato, but only describe things nakedly in themselves without any personal applications; so in the description of a bishop or priest, and explication of ancient rules, nothing more is intended but to propose a mirror of the priesthood, in which it will be in every man's power and conscience to take a view of himself, so as either to grieve at the sight of his own deformity, or rejoice when he beholds his own beauty in the glass. Nothing is here proposed but rules and examples of the noblest virtues; probity and integrity of life; studies and labours becoming the clerical function; piety and devotion in our constant addresses to God; fidelity, diligence, and prudence in preaching his word to men; carefulness and exactness, joined with discretion and charity, in the administration of public and private discipline; candour and ingenuity in composing needless disputes among good men; and zeal in opposing and confronting the powerful and wily designs of heretics and wicked men; together with resolution and patience in suffering persecutions, calumnies, and reproaches, both from professed enemies and pretended friends; with many other instances of the like commendable virtues, which shined in the lives and adorned the profession of the primitive clergy; whose rules and actions, I almost promise myself, your Lordship and all good men will read with pleasure, because they will but see their own beauty represented in the glass; and they that fall short Hieron. Ep. 83. ad Ocean. t. 2. p. 323. Ne quis me in sugillationem istius temporis sacerdotum scripsisse, quæ scripsi, existimet, sed in ecclesiæ utilitatem. Ut enim oratores et philosophi, describentes qualem velint esse perfectum oratorem et philosophum, non faciunt injuriam Demostheni et Platoni, sed res ipsas absque personis definiunt. Sic in descriptione episcopi, et in eorum expositione quæ scripta sunt, quasi speculum sacerdotii proponitur. Jam in potestate et conscientia singulorum est, quales se ibi aspiciant: ut vel dolere ad deformitatem, vel gaudere ad pulchritudinem possint. of the character here given, will find it a gentle admonition and spur to set in order the things that are wanting in their conduct, and to labour with more zeal to bring themselves a little nearer to the primitive standard. Your Lordship is enabled, by your high station and calling, to revive the exercise of ancient discipline among your clergy in a more powerful way; and you have given us already some convincing proofs, that it is your settled resolution and intention so to do: as the thoughts of this is a real pleasure to the diligent and virtuous, so it is to be hoped it will prove a just terror to those of the contrary character; and, by introducing a strict discipline among the clergy, make way for the easier introduction of it among the laity also; the revival of which has long been desired, though but slow steps are made toward the restoration of it. In the mean time it becomes every man, according to his ability, though in a lower station, to contribute his endeavours toward the promoting these good ends: to which purpose I have collected and digested these observations upon the laws and discipline of the ancient clergy, that such as are willing to be influenced by their practice, may have great and good examples set before them; whilst they whom examples cannot move, may be influenced another way, by the authority which your Lordship, and others in the same station, are invested with, for the benefit and edification of the church: the promoting of which is, and ever will be, the hearty endeavour of him, who is, BY THE GRACE OF GOD KING OF GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND IRELAND, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, &C. [PUBLISHED WITH VOLS. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION.] MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN, I HUMBLY beg leave to lay at your Majesty's feet a part of a larger work, which was at first designed to promote those great and worthy ends, which your Majesty, in your princely wisdom, by your royal deciarations has lately thought fit to recommend to your universities and clergy: that is, the promotion of |