Converfation before: If any Man can fee a Popular Election here, he must be quicker fighted than I can ever hope to be. That their Knowledge of his Life and Conversation before, should qualify them to give Teftimony of his Moral Conduct and Behaviour amongst them, and fo encourage or difcourage the Bishops in making or confirming their Elections, is a natural and genuine Inference from that Expreffion; and if we will allow S. Cyprian to make his References and Similitudes appofite and agreeable to the Subject he applies them to, we must conclude it was his own Meaning too: For upon this very Argument, and in the fame Page, he refers to God's Inftructions to Mofes, to bring forth Aaron, with Eleazar his Son, and place them before his Congregation, in order to confecrate the Son his Father's Succeffor; and I prefume, no Man infers from hence, that the Congregation of Ifrael chofe or voted Eleazar to the High-Priesthood, because it was appointed to be done in their Prefence; and why this Reference, then, to illustrate Christian Ordinations by, if they were so very different in that particular Circumstance for which alone they were produc'd? which was, to fhew that the Judgment and Testimony about them both, fhould be as Publick as it well could be; for that is the very Reafon | given by S. Cyprian, for quoting the facred Text, and applying it to the Argument he had in Hand.

For

Ut facerdos, plebe præfente, fub omnium oculis deligatur, & dignus atq; idoneus publico judicio ac teftimonio comprobetur, ficut in Numeris Dominus Moyfi præcepit. Cypr. Ep. 68. aut Edit. Oxon. Ep. 67.

For any thing that appears in this Quotation, the general Custom of the Church made the Election of the Perfon to be the Bishop's Part, and left the Prefence and Teftimony of the People only to be theirs; and doubtlefs in Sabinus's Cafe it could be no otherwise, for 'tis introduc'd here with this Atteftation to it, That this Custom of the Church was accordingly obferv'd in the Ordination of Sabinus. Where lies the Evidence then, that the People chose there, tho' the general Custom is declar'd in this Quotation, not to be fo? Not in S. Cyprian's affirming it (I'm fure) in fuch plain Terms, as he affirm'd before that the Provincial Bishops met and chofe too; but it wholly lies in a pofitive Construction of a dubious and mistaken Word in this Quotation, and the Enquirer's Ingenuity in joining two different Terms, in one and the fame Senfe, in his Translation, which the accurate S. Cyprian had carefully diftinguifh'd himself. For the Holy Father's Words (to tranflate them right) are thefe; That the Bishoprick was conferr'd upon Sabinus, by the Suffrage of all the Brethren, and by the Fudgment of the Bishops there: So that Judgment and Suffrage are plainly distinguish'd (we fee) by S. Cyprian; the former attributed to the Bishops alone, and the latter to all the Brethren; whereas the Enquirer was pleas'd to unite them in his Tranflation, and fays that Sabinus was advanc'd to that Dignity by the Suffrage of all the Brethren, and of all the Bishops there prefent. So that Suffrage being made the fame with a judicial Act, by this ingenious Union of them, infenfibly convey'd an equal Share at least, of Right and Power to the People in this Election,

with

with that of the Bishops themselves; and that purely, (fo far as any Man can fee) because the Word Suffrage was taken of Course to fignify no lefs; which I defire theReader more particularly to take Notice of, because a very great Stress of this ingenious Author's Arguments for Popular Election, and that which innocently influenc'd ('tis poffible) his own Judgment in it too, feems to lie in a mistaken Conftruction of this single Word, in the Writings of S. Cyprian.

I must be forc'd, upon this Occafion,therefore, to spend a little Time in clearing up the holy Martyr's Notion of it, which I fhall do as briefly as I can.

And were there no other Inftance in all the venerable Monuments we have of his excellent Works,to prove that Suffrage (in his ordinary Ufe of the Word) imply'd no Right or Power at all,in them that gave it; or convey'd any Title, or Part of Title, to the Perfon they gave their Suffrages for This fingle Paffage before us would go a great way to perfuade an unprejudic'd Man that it was fo. For to find it diftinguish'd (as it is here) from the judicial Part of the whole Proceedings, and the decifive Act (which Judg. ment exprefly is) attributed afterwards unto others, who were fewer in Number too, does naturally enough imply, that there was no actual Power, but purely either precedent Testimony or a fubfequent Approbation in the Suffrages of the People; else their very Number would have made them Judges, rather than the Bishops themfelves; and it makes not a little to the fame Purpofe, that those very Words were carefully diftinguifh'd also, in the Account of Eleazar's publick

publick Confecration, (just before) where we are fure they must be taken fo.

But to fhew how familiar this Notion of the Word is, in the Writings of that Primitive Father; let these farther Inftances (out of many more, which might be produc'd) be added to the former. In his Tract (De Zelo & Livore) *fpeaking of the People's Tranfport of Joy and Satisfaction at David's flaying of Goliah; he exprefles it thus, They brake forth (fays he) into Commendations of David, with Suffrage of Applause. What can this Suffrage of Applaufe fignifie, but plainly a Teftimony of the Peoples highest Approbation of the thing done; not exprefs'd by way of Votes, to be fure, ('twould be abfurd enough to imagine that) but by publick Acclamations of them all, as infinitely pleas'd with what the holy Champion had done; and this S. Cyprian thought properly express'd, by calling it, the Suffrage of the People.

Again, in his Treatife [De Vanitate Idolorum] fpeaking of the Jews earnestly urging Pilate to crucify our bleffed Lord, they deliver'd him up (fays he) to Pontius Pilate, requesting of him by Force, and importunate Suffrages, that he should be crucify'd; and what meant thefe importunate Suffrages more, than to fhew their wicked Inclination, Defire, and highest Approbation of the

*Populus admirans in laudes David prædicationis fuffragio profiliit. Cypr. de Zelo & Liv. p. 223. Oxon. Edit.

Magiftri eorum Pontio Pilato tradiderunt crucem ejus, & mortem fuffragiis violentis & pertinacibus flagitantes. Cypr. de Vanit. Idol. p. 16. Edit. Oxon.

the thing, if Pilate fhould pafs fuch a bloody Sentence upon him? for they declar'd themfelves, they had no Power, in the A&t of putting any Man to Death, [70. xviii. 31.] Yet this the accurate holy Father again, in his Language, calls the Suffrage of the Jews.

One Inftance more I fhall name, because it contains in it his own Explication of the Word, and plainly fhews, that, by Suffrage, he meant the fame thing as he did by publick Teftimony, and nothing more. In his 68th Epiftle, he fays of Cornelius's Ordination, I that it was by the Suffrage of the Clergy and the People; and of the fame Ordination, in another Place, he says, * 'twas by the Teftimony of almost all the Clergy, and by the Suffrage of the People that were there. Now if the Teftimony of the Clergy in the latter Claufe be not the fame with their Suffrage in the former, then 'twas fomething less than fo; and confequently the Clergys Perfonal Part and Intereft in Elections falls short of the common Peoples, to whom a Suffrage is imputed in the fame Claufe; (which, I prefume, is not intended neither.) But if the Terms be allow'd to be equivalent, the Cafe is plain, the holy Father appears confiftent with himself; and in no other Senfe, I apprehend, it can be fo.

These few Inftances, I think, may fhew, that to take the Word Suffrage in the Sense of folemn Teftimony, Good-liking, Approbation, or the

|| De cleri & plebis fuffragio. Cypr. Ep. 68.

like,

* De clericorum poene omnium teftimonio, & de plebis, quæ tunc affuit, fuffragio. Ep. 55. p. 104. Edit. Oxon.