Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	apostle_n	church_n	tradition_n	3,170	5	9.1818	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32800	Of Episcopal confirmation in two discourses / by B. Camfield.	Camfield, Benjamin, 1638-1693.	1682 (1682)	Wing C381; ESTC R14520	52,623	130

Ep. 72. quae est ad Stephunum Tunc enim plenè sanctificari esse Dei filii possunt si Sacramento utroque nascantur cùm scriptum sit Nisi quis natus fuerit ex aqua spiritu non potest intrare in regnum Dei. But I shall wave the urging of this also We have an undoubted and remarkable instance of Apostolical practice for it Acts 8. where Philip the Deacon having preached the Gospel at Samaria and thereby won many Converts and baptized them the Apostles at Jerusalem hearing of it send forth two of their own number Peter and John Who saith the sacred Text ver 15. c. when they were come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost and then laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost It pleased God that those admirable Gifts called there the Holy Ghost should not ordinarily be conferred on the Baptized but by the Apostles hands thereby to strengthen the Authority of those his Witnesses and by the same means promote the unity of the Church through the reverend esteem of those chief Ministers as Grotius well notes In locum In this story now we have 1. The persons confirmed the baptized Samaritans who had believed and been instructed aforehand in Philip's doctrine 2. The Ministers of Confirmation Peter and John the Apostles sent from Jerusalem on that very purpose 3. What they did in Confirmation Having heard of their faith in receiving the Word of God and their baptism in profession of that faith they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost and laid their hands upon them 4. The consequent effect thereof they received the Holy Ghost that is the more plentiful effusions of the Holy Ghost in his gifts and graces which in that beginning of the Christian Church were miraculous and extraordinary whereas the promise of the same Spirit holds good still in some due proportion unto the Christians of all Ages to the worlds end Those saith S. Ep. 73. quae est ad Jubaianum Cyprian who believed in Samaria had believed with a true faith and were baptized in the Church which is but one and to which alone it is permitted to give the grace of Baptism and to lose sins And therefore having obteined a legitimate and Ecclesiastical Baptism ought not again to be baptized but that onely which was yet wanting to be done unto them by Peter and John that by prayer and imposition of hands the Holy Ghost might be invoked and poured forth upon them Circa A.D. 250. which now also saith he is the custom observed among us that they who are baptized in the Church be offered to the Governors of the Church and by our prayer and imposition of hands obtain the Holy Ghost and be consummated or perfected with the Lord's Seal or Signature Where we see he applies the Apostolical patern to the custom retained still by the Church in Confirmation the practice whereof in his days he doth well describe and intimates also the requisiteness of it after Baptism though never so legitimate when he calls it Id quod deerat That which was yet wanting Again anoher instance we have Acts 19. where we find S. Paul confirming those who were taught and baptized before at Ephesus ver 6. When Paul laid his hands upon them saith the Text the Holy Ghost came upon them and they spoke with Tongues and prophesied They were baptized saith Grotius on the place by some other Christian but God to commend the Apostolical office would not communicate those gifts of the Holy Ghost untill the hand of some Apostle had touched them And though he be not bound to this or any other observance yet such was the method of his ordinary dispensation then among them Here now we have 12 persons first taught and then baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and then afterwards by the imposition of the Apostles hands receiving the Holy Ghost manifested according to the special way and exigency of those first times in his visible and extraordinary gifts And to this S. Paul himself seems to refer touching these Ephesians confirmed by him as upon occasion I before in part suggested Ephes 1.13 In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise Nor ought any to be offended or prejudiced because we find not the like gifts of the Spirit continued now in the Church The Holy Ghost saith S. De Baptismo l. 3. c. 16. Augustine is not now given by Imposition of hands with temporal and sensible miracles as it was at the first for the commendation of the Faith and the enlargment of the beginnings of the Church who now expects it c. But we are now to understand that after an invisible and hidden manner Divine Charity is inspired into their hearts by the bond of peace And thus as the Apostle hath it to the Corinthians 1 Epist ch 12. There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit Not the same gifts now as then yet the same spirit still To these instances of Apostolical practice therefore S. Augustine and S. Jerom Circa A.D. 203. do both freely appeal for the justifying of this sacred custom as S. Cyprian you heard before did and that without any colour for the imputation of Montanism in the case as some have fondly pleased themselves to imagine The Disciples prayed saith S. De Trinit l. 15. c. 26. Augustine that the Holy Ghost might come upon those on whom they laid their hands Which same custom the Church doth also now observe in her Governors or Bishops And then for S. Dialog advers Luciferian Jerom Dost thou not know saith he that this is the custom of the Churches to lay hands afterwards on the baptized and so to invocate the Holy Ghost Dost thou demand of me Where is it written I answer In the Acts of the Apostles and were there no Scripture Authority at all to support it the consent of the whole world might in this supply the room of a Precept for there are also many other things observed by Tradition in the Churches which have taken to themselves the Authority of a written Law as the threefold immersion in Baptism c. This 't is true he speaks in the person of Luciferianus but then he brings in Orthodoxus making a Reply by way of Acknowledgment to the same I do not indeed deny this saith he to be the custom of the CHurches that the Bishop go forth to those who were baptized afar off in lesser Cities by Priests and Deacons to lay hands upon them for the invocating of the Holy Ghost Deservedly therefore doth our Church refer us to the same Apostolical warrant Upon whom after the the example of the holy Apostles we have now laid our hands So in the Prayer at Confirmation the Fathers of the Primitive Church taking occasion and founding themselves upon the said acts and deeds of the

Testament and from thence derived into the New Manuum impositio ex Hebraeorum more ad Christianos venit usumque habuit in omni Precatione Grotius Not. in Cassand ad Artic. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Paedag. l. 3. c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id l. 1. c. 5. Under the Old Testament we find it used first of all by the Father in blessing of his Children and admitting them to part of the Inheritance Thus when Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasses the Sons of Joseph He laid his Hands upon them and prayed Gen. 48.14 And by way of special Imitation of his Paternal Benediction we find it used in the New Testament by our Blessed Saviour St. Mark 10.16 which Grotius well notes farther upon St. Matth. 19.13 to have been according to the Jewish Custom it being usual among them to bring their Children to those that were any way eminent for Sanctimony of Life Est hoc quoque de veteri Sacramento quo Nepotes suos ex Joseph Efrem Manassem Jacob Capitibus impositis intermutatis manibus benedixerit c. Tertull. de Baptism c. 8. to be commended unto God in their Prayers by Imposition of Hands And then afterwards we find it used also by the Apostles in their confirming of Adult persons that were baptized as you have heard before from Acts 8. and Acts 19. Calvin himself looks upon no other Mystery Instit l. 4. c. 19. §. 5. under the Imposition even of the Apostle's Hands but their signifying by this Rite that they did commend and present unto God as it were by name him whom they laid their Hands upon Thus they were appointed of Old to lay their Hands on the Sacrifice Caeterae partes loquente● adjuvant manus propè est ut dicam ipse loquuntur In demonstrandis personis atque locis adverbiorum atque pronominum obtinent vicem Quintil. Oaat l. 11. c. And so at the Consecration of the Bread and Wine in the Holy Communion the Priest with us lays his Hands on the Elements And therefore it is somewhat strange that in the Heat of his Disputation against the Romanists he should start this idle Question Whereas the eminent Grace at first bestowed is ceased to what purpose is Imposition of Hands yet retained Strange I say it is whenas himself more than once owneth Imposition of Hands for a Solemn Right of Prayer and saith it was used by the Apostles for no higher Mystery those are his very words non altius subesse Mysterium cogito than to recommend the person prayed for particularly unto God Is not this therefore to make Prayer for particular Persons an Impertinency now too because miraculous Grace hath ceased As if no Grace at all might be now expected because not that eminent and extraordinary Grace at first conferr'd But stranger it is still when we remember that he also commends and wishes for the Restitution of such an Imposition of Hands as might supply the room of Benediction To such an Inconsistency and Forgetfulness of themselves are great Men transported sometimes by their own Passions Were Imposition of Hands altogether needless and of no use certainly St. Mr. Hutton's Answer to Reasons against Subscript part 2. p. 85. Peter and John needed not to have taken so much pains as to come on a fruitless Errand from Jerusalem to Samaria to have laid their Hands on them whom Philip the Deacon baptized For they might as well have kept at home and prayed in Jerusalem for them But to shew that the other Ceremonial Action might also have due place therefore is it that they did both accordingly In a Word this Imposition of Hands which we have found to be a fitting and Scriptural Rite of Prayer and Benediction especially when as among us it is accompanied with Express and Solemn Prayer unto God for the Person cannot be thought an insignificant Ceremony by any who have not first learn'd to deride the Holy Scriptures themselves or who have any value left for the Ministers of Christ or any Faith of God's hearing those devout Prayers which are made and put up to him by his Church for others It is observed by some Dr. Patrick's Aqua Genitalis out of Jewish Authors that the Elevation of the Hands of the Priest in the Old Law at the Blessing of the People was Imposition of Hands and this Blessing call'd the Weapons and Armor of Israel And that which we read concerning the Benediction of Aaron and his Sons Numb 5.27 They shall put my Name on the Children of Israel and I will bless them Junius and Tremelius render imponentes manus filiis Israel invocabunt nomen meum ego benedicam eis Laying their Hands on the Children of Israel they shall call on my Name and I will bless them Adding farther in their Notes on the Place for Illustration-sake Duobus signis testatum facient Populo meo Gratiam meam quam ego pro fide meâ facturus sum Nominis mei invocatione manuum suarum impositione publicâ solenni By these two Signs they shall certifie my People of that Grace which I according to my Promise will conferr upon them viz. by their calling on my Name and by their publick and solemn Imposition of their own Hands Now it is worth the Considering that the Blessing of Christ's Ministers Heb. 11.40 Rom. 15.29 Ephes 1.3 is no less Authoritative and Prolifick under the Gospel than it was under the Law it may be more God having reserved some better thing for us in the Fulness of the Blessing of the Gospel of Christ in whom we are blessed with all Spiritual Blessings It is a Blessing in God's Name and by Vertue of his Commission and Christ's Everlasting Priesthood is after the Order of Melchisedeck who was most famous for this Office of Blessing which he accordingly not only dischargeth in Person for us himself in Heaven but Vertually upon Earth too in and by his Ministers Benediction Proceed we therefore Secondly to the Minister of this Benediction the Person confirming one of Eminency and Superiority in the Church of Christ the Bishop from whence it hath familiarly with us been called Bishoping Thus we found it in the First Patern Acts 8. Not Philip the Deacon but Peter and John the Apostles are sent to confirm the Samaritans baptized by Philip Philip that baptized them saith St. Chrysostom gave not the Spirit to the Baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he had not Power or Authority so to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this was the Gift of the Twelve only And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was the Peculiar of the Apostles Simon Magus therefore perceiving that Power of Ministring the Holy Ghost to be in none but them and presuming that they which had it might also sell it sought to purchase it of them with Money as it follows in the Sequel of that Chapter Hear we Cited by Arch-bishop Whitgift