A dispute against the English-popish ceremonies, obtruded upon the Church of Scotland Wherein not…A dispute against the English-popish ceremonies, obtruded vpon the Church of Scotland Wherein not…

Now from all this, which hath been said of the power and authority to excommunicate and absolve, it is manifest how unjustly usurping Prelates do arrogat & appropriate to themselves this power, which Christ hath committed to every particular Church or Congregation, and ordained to be execute by the Ecclesiastical Consistory within the same. Which Episcopal usurpation, as it hath been showed to be most contrary to Divine Institution, so doth it also depart from the manner of the ancient Church: For it may be seen in ^xCyprian, that the authority of reconciling and receiving into the Church, such as had fallen, was not proper to the Bishop, but with him common to his Clergy and Presbytery, and that jus communicationis was given them by the Clergy, as well as by the Bishop. We have heard out of ^yHierome, that a Bishop did nothing, which a Presbyter did not also, except only that he gave the rite or sig•e of Ordination, that is, imposition of hands. Whereby we understand, that as all other things, beside Ordination, so the power of Excommunication among the rest, was alike common to Bishops and Presbyters. Whence it is, that the same Hierome writing to Demetriades, calleth excommunication, Episcoporum & Presbyterorum censura. And ^zelsewhere. Alligat vel solvit Episcopus & Presbyter. Justinian Novel. 123. cap. •1. saith, Omnibus autem Episcopis & Presbyteris interdicimus segregare aliquem à sacra communionè, antequam causa monstretur, ⟨p. 192⟩&c. certifying them, if they do otherwise, that he whom they excommunicate, should be loosed from Excommunication à major Sacerdote. Whence we see, that Presbyters also were wont to excommunicate, & that this power was common to them with the Bishops. The first Council of Carthage Can. 23. decreeth that a Bishop hear no mans cause without the presence of his Clergy: and that otherwise his sentence shall be void, except it be confirmed by the presence of his Clergy. The Canon Law it self hath some vestiges of the ancient order: for ^a