thereupon ceases to exercife his Function, fuch a proceeding may very reasonably be looked upon as equivalent to the moft formal Refignation, for he leaves the Flock wholly destitute of a Shepherd, and thereby most certainly abfolves them from their Obligation to adhere to him. For as the Secular Power cannot commit the Cure of Souls to a Priest, so neither can it deprive him of a Cure committed to him: But a Prieft may quit his Cure, and when he has quitted it, then it becomes Vacant as if he was Dead. And if the Secular Power determine that his Cure fhall be Void for fome Secular Offence,and he will not thereupon quit it and fuffer it to be Void, that Power may, no doubt, proceed further against him, and lay feverer Temporal Penalties upon him for his Refractorinefs: Neither can fuch Proceeding make the Magiftrate deserve the Name of a Perfecutor, provided the thing commanded be just and reasonable, as Oaths of Allegiance certainly be in all Governments. Should any Magiftrate punish a Bishop or Prieft meerly for executing his Office in his own Cure, this would be Perfecution indeed : But if this Bifhop or Prieft have offended against the State, it is no Perfecution for the Magiftrate to forbid him the Execution of his Office for fuch Offence, and if he will not ceafe to execute his Office, the Magistrate may then punish his Offence in fuch other manner as he (a) King.11.26 thinks convenient. We (a) read that Solomon confined Abiathar to Anathoth, and fo the Scripture fays, Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being Prieft unto the Lord: And no doubt but if Abiathar would not have fubmitted to this confinement, but would have come to execute the the Priest's Office in the Temple, Solomon would have taken off his Head; and might justly have done it, not for his executing his Office, but for his Treafon in following Adonijah: For the Treafon was pardoned only on Condition that he should ceafe to execute his Office and abide at Anathoth, if therefore he had broken the Condition he had made the Pardon Void. But his accepting the Condition, and retiring to Anathoth made his place Void, and Zadock might take Poffeffion of it as Legally as if he had made a formal Refignation of it in Writing or any other way. So when our Parliament enacted, that whatsoever Ecclefiaftical Perfons did not take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy by fuch a time, their Cures should be Void; they thereby gave the Magistrate a Power to punish all fuch as fhould after that time execute their Office within their Cures or elsewhere, who offended against this Law: But it was not for executing their Office that they were to be punished, but for not having taken the Oaths enjoyned. It is true, that those which should not execute their Office were not to be any further punished. But their quitting their Office being thus made a kind of Conditional Pardon or Freedom from further Punishment on the Account of that Offence, if they would not yield to the Condition the Magiftrate might not only legally but juftly punish them in fome other manner for their Difobedience. Now when a Priest quits his Cure, the Church has always looked on that Cure to be as much Vacant as if the Incumbent was actually Dead. If therefore an Ecclefiaftick quits his Cure, when the Secular Power commands him to do it, tho' the com D 3 command of fuch Secular Power makes not the Cure Vacant, yet his quitting it does. And this was the plain Cafe of our Non-jurors, (as well as of all other Ecclefiafticks, who have been deprived by Parliament fince the Reformation) they actually quitted their Cures of themselves, and most of them, not to fay all, actually gave over the exercise of their Function in their proper Churches, even before the Law deprived them. The Bishops refrained from Collating and Inftituting, and the Priests from Praying and Preaching before the time came that they fhould have been punished if they had not refrained. However, fuppofe that none or very few did thus ceafe from their Functions till the Secular Power called upon them to do it, 'tis certain they all did it then, without any Force or Violence ufed towards them. Had they been violently forced from their Charges, and at the fame time declared their will and defire to continue with their People and to perform their Duties amongst them, they might with fome Reafon have accufed us of Schifm, for receiving others in their places. But they left us without any fuch kind of Declaration, and thereby as plainly refigned their Cures as by any of the most formal Refignation. For he that abfolutely throws off the care of his Charge, certainly makes it Vacant and free for another. Nor is it fufficient to say that he does it for fear of the Temporal Power, becaufe, tho' we may fly from one City to another to fecure and preferve our felves from Perfecution, yet we may not therefore abfolutely fling off the care of what we continue to esteem our Charge: St. Athanafius, as I obferved, fled from Alexandria, andria, and fo did St. Cyprian likewife from Carthage, and many other good and Pious Bifhops did the fame thing, but nevertheless they did not throw of the Care of their feveral Charges, they wrote Epiftles to 'em, and gave many evident Demonstrations that they were not gone fine Animo Revertendi; But I know not any thing like this that has been done by our Non-jurors: They abfolutely gave over the Care of their Charges, and would not perform any Minifterial Act amongst them. It is true, if they had done fo, the Civil Magistrate would perhaps have punished them: But the Apoftles and Primitive Bishops did not think the fufferings they might bring on their Heads fufficient to hinder them from performing the Duties belonging to their Office: If they had, the Gospel could scarce have been preached any where for the first three hundred Years, when the Civil Magistrates fo frequently put Bishops and Priests to Death for no other Caufe but the exercising their Functions. I am fenfible that fome Objections may be made against what I have here advanced. As First, That the Parliament declares he shall forfeit and lose his Spiritual Office, as appears from the Statute of the first of Elizabeth, which has been the President for those that have followed, which, tho' they may have differed 'from it in particular Expreffions, yet no doubt. have the fame meaning. And therefore it is evident, that they conceive themselves vefted with a Power and Authority to take from a Clerk his Spiritual Function, at least the execution of it when they think fit: Confequently, that when an Ecclefiaftical Perfon is fo deprived by the Supreme Temporal Authority, D 4 he Ats 4. 18. he is no longer a Bifhop or Prieft in that Church. only, |