need of some force to draw men to accept of it whereas all are so forward to rush toward it blown up with pride or provoked by covetousness We saw already how averse Nazianzen was from entring in sacred Orders but no less memorable is the History of Chrysostome who with his Friend Basil having engaged in a Monastick life was struck with fear when a rumour rose that they were both to be ordained Presbyters And by the way observe that he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Chrysostome was silent lest the expressing of his aversion should have deterred Basil and his his silence was judged by Basil a consent and so proved one of his chief inducements to accept of Orders But when the day came wherein Chrysostome knew that the Bishops designed to ordain them he withdrew privately so that he could not be found yet the Bishops upon another pretence carried Basil to the Church and there ordained him much against his mind But when he first met with his Friend Chrysostome he melted down in tears challenging him severely for his withdrawing from him whereof Chrysostome gives his Apology at large in these six excellent Books of his de Sacerdotio wherein by way of Dialogue betwixt him and his Friend he layeth out the great dignity and weight of that Charge chiefly in the third Book where he shews That a Priest should be like one of the Angels of GOD cap. 4. And he blames these Elections that were rashly made cap. 10. upon which he charges most of the disorders that were then in the Church And cap. 11. he confesseth how guilty himself was of that unlawful ambitus for Church employment which being yet unmortified in him did frighten him from entring in holy Orders Cap. 14. he saith Episcopum convenit studio acri perpetuâ vitae continentia tanquam adamantinis armis obseptum esse In the fourth Book he speaks of the great caution was to be used in Elections and Ordinations complaining that in these Regard was rather had to Riches and Honor than true worth Through the fifth Book he shews the great evil and hazard of popular applause and the sin of being much pleased with it And lib. 6. cap. 2. he hath that excellent saying That the soul of the Priest should be purer than the very beams of the Sun themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And cap. 12. he accuses himself of his vain desires and other faults whence it was that he had so great a horrour of attempting at that for which he knew himself so unworthy preoccupying that Objection that a Man in that is to submit to the judgment of others by the Examples of one who hath no skill in Physick and knowing himself ignorant is not to administer Physick though all the World should desire him to undertake a Cure declaring their Opinion and confidence of his skill for if upon another mans opinion of his skill he should offer to meddle in it and give Physick he might as well kill as cure So neither one unacquainted in military affairs was to undertake the leading of an Army knowing his own unfitness though never so much solicited to it whence he subsumes more strongly that none should undertake the leading of Souls as long as he knew his own unfitness were the importunities and solicitations of others never so many And so far of the qualifications of those who were to be ordained Presbyters Their Election hath been touched already for it went the same way with the Elections of Bishops and so was partly popular at least was to be ratified by the approbation and consent of the people Possidius in vita Augustini tells how he was chosen a Presbyter by the people We have the Ordination of the Presbyters set down thus Conc. Carth. 4. Canon 3. Presbyter quum ordinatur Episcopo eum benedicente manum super caput ejus tenente etiam omnes Presbyteri qui praesentes sunt manus suas juxta manum Episcopi super caput illius teneant Dionysius the Areopagite in the forecited place tells That the Presbyter whom he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was ordained in the same form that a Bishop was ordained save only that the Gospel was not laid on his head From which simplicity of the primitive forms we may see how far they were from all these superstitious Fopperies now used in the Romish Church in Ordination And so much concerning Presbyters Deacons are next to be treated of The Original of them is by the general current of the Ancients taken from the Levites under the Temple and therefore in not a few of the antient Councils they go under that designation But as was formerly observed it is more probable that the Christian Church took its immediate Model from the Synagogue tho that might have been taken from the Temple Now in the Synagogue as there was a Bishop and Presbyters so there were also Deacons called Parnasin There were three of them in each Synagogue two were to gather the Collections and all the three together did distribute them The first Origine of them in the Christian Church is set down Acts 6. where their primitive institution shews that their first design was for looking to the necessities of the poor who had been neglected in the daily distribution of the Charity and there they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is true that term Luke 4.20 is used in another sense for there the Minister of the Synagogue to whom CHRIST delivered the Book could be no other than their Chazan or Bishop whose Office it was to call out any to read the Law in the Synagogue But since all Church-Office is for service and not for domination Christ himself not coming to be ministred unto but to minister it is no wonder if that term should then have been promiscuously used We also find S. Paul applying to himself 1 Cor. 4. a term equivalent to this But though the primitive institution of Deacons import only their looking to the necessities of the poor yet from the Levites ministring to the Priest in the Sacrifices it came to be generally received and used the Deacons should serve the Bishops and Presbyters in the administration of the Sacraments The institution of them doth also discover that they were persons to be separated for that holy service and consecrated for it by an imposition of hands and so were to be no more secular but Ecclesiastical persons and the usual practice of the Church was to account that Office a step degree and probation in order to ones being made a Presbyter And therefore our mungrel Lay-Deacons differ vastly both from the first institution of the Scripture and current of all Antiquity The Arcopagite gives the account of their Ordinations thus That the Deacon being brought to the Bishop kneeled down on one knee and so received imposition of hands The fourth Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage is Diaconus quum ordinatur solus Episcopus qui
clear When Victor held the Council at Rome about the day of Easter Damasus tells that it was collatione facta cum Presbyteris Diaconibus Likewise in the Council that Cyprian held about the rebaptizing of Hereticks there were present Episcopi plurimi ex provinciâ Africanâ Numidiâ Mauritaniâ cum Presbyteris Diaconibus praesente etiam plebis maximâ parte And his contemporary Firmilian whose Epistle is the 75. among Cyprian's tells us how there were yearly Synods of Bishops and Presbyters Quâ ex causâ saith he necessario apud nos sit ut per singulos annos seniores Presbyteri by which it is clear that he can mean none but Presbyters and Bishops in unum conveniamus ad disponenda ea quae curae nostrae commissa sunt Eusebius lib. 6. cap. 35. tells That upon the account of Novatus's Schism there was held at Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which consisted of sixty Bishops and many more Presbyters and Deacons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He likewise tells lib. 7. cap. 27. How that upon Samosatenus's Heresie there was a great Synod held in Antioch and after he hath set down the names of some Bishops there present he adds that there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And their Synodal Letter is written in the name of the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons In the Council of Eliberis in Spain there were 19. Bishops residentibus originta sex Presbyteris abstantibus Diaconibus omni plebe In the Provincial Council at Arles which judged in the matter of Donatus's Schism Constantine the Emperor being present where were about two hundred Bishops from divers Nations from Italy France Spain Sicily Sardinia Africk Numidia and Britain the Canons of that Council are subscribed by many Presbyters and Deacons And if the Story of the Council of Rome under Sylvester be true it is subscribed by 284. Bishops 45. Presbyters and 5. Deacons Now all these being before the Council of Nice evince that in the first and best ages Presbyters voted and judged in Provincial Councils and if in Provincials why not in General ones The Council of Nice is subscribed by some Chorepiscopi and one Chorepiscopus subscribes in the Council of Ephesus And if Chorepiscopi be as it is the opinion of some in their natural dignity only Presbyters then we have Presbyters also subscribing General Councils Besides that in the Council of Constantinople and Ephesus divers Bishops subscribed by Presbyters from all which it is clear that there is no ground from Antiquity to exclude Presbyters from a Suffrage in national and general Councils and it is but a frivolous distinction that they may have a consultative tho not a deliberative Suffrage since we see them subscribing both the decisions of Faith and Canons of discipline The next thing to be examined is the qualification election and ordination of Presbyters For their qualification great care was used to train them up long in an abstracted and devote Life that so they might be well prepared for that holy Function And therefore it was that many of the Primitive Bishops lived in Monasteries among them whom they were educating for holy Orders as appears from the Lives of Basil Augustine and Martin Neither was one to be ordained a Presbyter but after a long probation and tryal and all these degrees of which we shall speak afterward were so many steps and preparations through which all were to go before they could be initiated And indeed it seems against reason at first step to ordain a man Presbyter and commit the care of Souls to him before a long previous probation had of him Therefore the ancient Monasteries as they were Sanctuaries for such as designed to leave the World and live devoutly so they were also Colleges for the Education of Churchmen It is true the years of Probation may seem too too many but they ordinarily dispensed in that as they found Persons worthy and qualified But none might be Presbyter before he were thirty years of age according to the Council of Neocesarea even tho he were highly worthy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the reason given for this is because Christ was thirty years of age before he entred upon the discharge of his holy Function Likewise a Clinicus that is one baptised in sickness by the twelfth Canon of Neocesarea could not have been a Presbyter because he was not a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this was not to be dispensed with but upon his following Faith and Diligence or that others could not be had And in the Canon Law dist 77. cap. Siquis among other prerequisites for a Presbyter one is Si poenitentiam publicam non gesserit holding that any gross scandal committed after Baptism should be a bar upon a Man from being ordained a Presbyter As also Dist. 56. cap. 1. the Children of Presbyters are discharged to be ordained Presbyterorum filios à sacris altaris ministeriis removemus nisi aut in Coenobiis aut in Canonicis religiose probati fuerint conversari It is like this was either to discourage the marriage of Churchmen or to obviate the scandal might have been taken if they had been partial to their own Children Yet this was neither old nor universal for Nazianzen was both a Presbyter and a Bishop though a Bishop's Son And in the next Chapter of that same Dist. many instances are alledged by Damasus to the contrary Further none who had been Soldiers and were Curiales and obstricti curiae could have been ordained without a dimission and that they had been fifteen years in a Monastery and three parts of four of their Estate were adjudged to the fisk so Dist. 53. and Iustinian 123. Nov. Now this might be first left any weary of the service to which they were obliged should upon that pretence shake it off and run from their colors or other employments But next that men who had been much involved in the World and particularly men of bloud might not enter into holy Orders without a long precedent change of the course of their life it not being easie to pass of a sudden from a course of secularity to that sublimity of holiness which is necessary for such a sacred Function And finally all ambitus was condemned in Presbyters as well as in Bishops though we see both from Chrysostom's Books de Sacerdotio and Nazianzen's Apologetick that there was enough of it among both kinds Yet many there were who resisted the Calls given them to Church-Offices with great earnestness some flying from them to the Wilderness as from a persecution some cutting off their Noses and other members that they might be thought unworthy of it some continued to the end in their refusal others were not ordained without being haled even by force many receiving this sacred imposition of hands with trembling and many tears And indeed were the greatness of the charge more weighed and the secular advantages less looked at it is like there might be yet
in his 35. tract on Matth. condemns the form of doing it by adjuring the Devils saying that CHRIST hath given us power to command them Est enim Iudaicum adjurare Daemonia Cyprian speaks of an Exorcism ordinarily preceding Baptism but prefers the vertue of Baptism to that of Exorcism Epist. 76. Hodie etiam geritur ut per Exorcist as voce humanâ potestate divinâ flagelletur uratur torqueatur Diabolus cum exire se dimittere homines DEI saepe dicat in eo tamen quod dixerit fallat Cum tamen ad aquam salutarem c. And ad Demetrianum he saith O si audire eos velles videre quando à nobis adjurantur turquentur spiritalibus flagris verborum tormentis de obsessis corporibus ejiciuntur quando ejulantes gementes voce humanâ potestate divinâ flagella verbera sentientes venturum judicium confitentur And much of this nature is to be met with among the primitive Writers which shews that the power of Exorcising was an Authority over Devils Yet if this had been a formal Office Reason will say it should rather have been among the highest than lowest Orders the work being so great and miraculous But from the Areopagite and others we are told that before Baptism there was used a renunciation of the Devil with a Prayer for casting him out And there is some probability that these called Exorcists were only Catechists who had some formuls whereby they taught such as they instructed to renounce the Devil and this with the Prayer that accompanied it was called an Exorcism Nazianz. Orat. in Bapt. Ne exorcismi medicinam asperneris nec ob illius prolixitatem animo concidas nam vel ut lapis quidam Lydius est ad quem exploratur quam sincero quisque pectore ad baptismum accedat Cyril of Ierusalem Praefat. in Catech. Festinent pedes tus ad catecheses audiendas exorcismos studiose suscipe etiamsi exorcizatus inspiratus jam sis salubris enim est tibi res ista The Council of Laodicea Can. 26. discharged all to exorcize either in Churches or Houses except these appointed for it by the Bishops And by the tenth Canon of Antioch the Rural Bishops are warranted to constitute Exorcists from which we see they could not esteem that a wonder-working Office And Balsamon in his Sholion makes them one with the Catechists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and on the Canon of Laodicea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And towards the end of his Gloss on that Canon he saith That an Exorcist though appointed by the Chorepiscopus and not by the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Beveregius cites Harmenopolus to the same purpose on the tenth Canon of Antioch From these evidences it is most probable to think that the Exorcists at first were nothing but Catechists but afterwards as all things do in any tract of time degenerate they became corrupt beyond perhaps either these of the Iews or the Gentiles so that the Books of Exorcisms now in the Roman Church are so full of Bombast terms and odd Receipts that they are a stain to the Christian Church And it is the most preposterous thing can be imagined that what was given in the New Testament for the greatest confirmation of the Christian faith should be made a constant Office and put in so mean hands And to this I need not add the base Arts and Cheats discovered among that sort of people I shall conclude this long tedious Account of the sense the Ancient Church had of the several Officers in it with some words of Tertullian which I shall barely set down without any descant on them tho they have occasioned much perplexity to divers good Antiquaries Tertullian in exortatione ad uxorem cap. 7. saith Nonne laici Sacerdotes fumus Scriptum est regnum quoque nos Sacerdotes DEO Patri suo fecit Differentiam inter Ordinem plebem constituit Ecclesiae authoritas honor per Ordinis consessum sanctificatus Ideo ubi Ecclesiastici Ordinis non est consessus offers tingis Sacerdos es tibi solus sed ubi tres sunt Ecclesia est licet laici But others read these words differently their Copies having them thus Sanctificatus à DEO Ubi Ecclesiastici Ordinis est consessus offert tingit Sacerdos qui est ibi solus sed ubi tres Ecclesia est licet laici FINIS POLYHISTOR TO BASILIUS YOUR desire and my own promise have engaged me to send you the enclosed Papers For the trouble the reading them may give you my Apology lies in my Obedience and yet I have contracted things as much as I could and perhaps have exceeded in my abridging For had I let loose my Pen in a descant on every particular these few Sheets had swelled to a Volume And my design was not to act the Critick but to be a faithful Historian These gleanings were intended partly for my own use and partly for the direction of some under my charge in the study of Antiquity and were written some years ago when I had no thoughts of making them more publick than by giving a few transcripts of them But now I leave the Midwifry of them to you that you may either stifle this Embryo or give it a freer Air to breath in I have here only given you what related to the constitution and modelling of Churches referring to my Observations on other Canons matters that come to be treated more properly upon their Texts as of the administration of all the parts of the Pastoral charge of all their forms in Worship and Church-Discipline of their zeal against Heresies and Schisms together with the methods used for reclaiming them and of the poverty simplicity abstraction from secular affairs and sublime sanctity of the primitive Bishops and Presbyters These with many other particulars if well examined as they will make the Work swell to a huge bulk so they will bring pleasure as well as advantage to such as desire a better Acquaintance with the state of the Church of GOD in her best times but what through the entanglements of affairs and other avocations what through their want of Books are not able to engage in so laborious an enquiry by searching the Fountains themselves I assure you I have not gone upon trust having taken my Observations from the Writings themselves that I have vouched for my Warrants I once intended to have cited all the Testimonies I brought in English and so to have avoided the pedantry of a Babylonish Dialect as the French begin now to write But observing that the foul play many have committed hath put a jealousie in most Readers of these Citations where the Author's words are not quoted I chused rather to hazard on the censure of being a Pedant than of an unfaithful wrester in my Translations Only to save the Writer the labour of writing much Greek which I found unacceptable I do often cite the Latin translations of the Greek Authors I shall only add that as I was causing write out these Papers for you there came to my hands one of the best Works this Age hath seen Beveregius his Synopsis Canonum I quickly looked over these learned Volumes that I might give these Sheets such improvements as could be borrowed from them which indeed were not inconsiderable I detain you too long but shall importune you no more I leave this to your Censure which I know to be severely Critical in all such matters Your judgment being the wonder of all who know you especially who consider how little your leisure allows you to look unto things so far without the Orb you move in though nothing be without the vast Circle of your comprehensive understanding if you let loose these Papers to a more publick view let this Paper accompany them which may some way express the zeal of your faithfullest Servant who humbly bids you Adieu