belongs unto the Bishop and therefore he was to see that all the Presbyters did their duties assigned to them and that the ministerial acts not allotted to any special Presbyter were to be done by the Bishop himself or by him whom he would appoint to do them Hierom mentions one thing proper to a Bishop Epist ad Evagriâ—m what doth a Bishop saith he excepting Ordination which a Presbyter doth not do where he maketh ordination of Presbytery to be the proper work of a Bishop which the Presbyters were not to perform except perhaps in the Bishops place and by his commission in some cases of necessity as shall be shewed hereafter not that the Presbyters had no hand in Ordination but that the principal act in it Can. 3. was onely the Bishops For the fourth Council of Carthage saith Sed sola propter auctoritatem summo sacerdot o Clericorum ordinatio consecratio reservata est ne a multis Ecclesiae Disciplina vendicata concordiam solveret Scandala geneventur Isid de Eccl. offic c. 7. Can. 5. circa an 656. when a Presbyter is ordained the Bishop blessing him and holding his hand upon his head let the Presbyters also which be present lay their hands by the hand of the Bishop upon his head And it follows in the fourth Canon when a Deacon is ordained let the Bishop alone which blesseth him lay his hand upon his head because he is not consecrated to the Priesthood but to a Service Where we are to observe that the imposition of the hands of the Presbyters is a condition antecedent requisite to the consecration of a Presbyter and so proper to it that it may not be used in the ordination of a Deacon much less of any other inferior officer the blessing is the act in oâ—dination which is appropriated to the Bishop And therefore in the second Council of Hispâ—lis the Presbyters and Deacons consecrated by a Bishop who having sore eyes could not read were deposed from the degrees which they had ill gotten a presbyter having contrary to the order of the Church read the benediction The Bishop performed in the Church the chief offices of preaching and administration of the Communion if he pleased none other being to do either in his presence but by his call sometime to shew his power or out of envy idleness or disdain he neither would himself exhort the people nor require a presbyter to do it ad Nepotianum de vita clericorum Which great fault Hierom reproves in some Churches saith he is a bad custome that the Bishop being present the presbyters hold their peace as though the Bishop envied or disdained to hear them Some other things were in some sort appropriated to the Bishop but were not made so peculiar to him as ordination was nor were they all of them so ancient priviledges nor of that weight for confirmation was the chiefest of them Greg. Epist l. 3. Ep. 26. Conc. Carth. 3. c. 32. Pseudambros in Ep. ad Eph. c. 4. which in some cases and places presbyters might and did usually perform The making of the Chrism the signing of the baptized in the forehead with the sign of the Cross consecration of Virgins of the altar c. were ceremonies of less moment and some of them of a latter institution But notwithstanding that the Bishop had in some things a propriety and in all things Ecclesiastical a principality yet the presbyters had a subordinate power ordinary or extraordinary in the one and in the other for the Bishop could ordain no presbyter without the consent of the presbyters and the imâ—osition of their hands Cyprian affirmeth that the Clergy of Rome presided with Cornelius their Bishop Cyprian Ep. ad Cornelium The fourth Council of Carthage prohibits the Bishop to hear any mans cause without the presence of his Clergy and forbids him to give Can. 22. Can. 23. sell or change any thing belonging to the Church without consent and subscription of the Clergy And that there was not so great a distance between the Bishop and presbyters as hath of latter times been kept nor as is between a presbyter and a Deacon Can. 34. Can. 35. doth appear by some Canons of the same ancient Council which ordain that the Bishop sitting in any place suffer not a presbyter to stand and that the Bishop in the Church sit among the presbyters in a higher seat but in the house must know himself to be a College or companion of the presbyters Concerning the distance between a presbyter and Deacon the Canons of the Synod say that a Deacon is minister as well of the presbyter Vide Conc. Nicenum c. 14. Arelat 1. c. 21. as of the Bishop that a Deacon in the convention of the presbyters may speak onely when he is asked and that he is not to sit but when he is commanded by the presbyter Can. 37. Can. 39. Can. 40. Therefore it may seem that if after 300 years since the decease of the Apostles at which time the power of Bishops was much enlarged there was no more difference between a Bishop and a presbyter the difference was far lesse at that time between the Bishop and the Colledge of presbyters then the birth of popery hath made between them Esai c. 3. Hierom calls the Colledge of presbyters the Bishops Senate intimating thereby that the Bishop ought to hear and determine Ecclesiastical causes in the presence and with the advise and consent of his presbyters Hence it was that l. 3. Epist 22. long before the time of St. Hierome the holy Martyr Cyprian having with consent of the Clergy of the place where he then was being absent from his own City and presbyters ordained one a reader and another a subdeacon he excuseth himself by his Letters to the Presbyters of his own Cathedral saying that nothing new was done by him in their absence but what was begun in their Common Council was promoted by urgent necessity their Council therefore that was requisite in so small a matter was much more necessary in matters of greatest weight It is opportune here to consider the famous question Sect. 8. whether in the first twenty years of the Apostles preaching something more or less the whole care of the Church did in common belong to the Colledge of presbyters of every Church where no Apostle was present nor Evangelist nor any supplying the place of an Apostle or did the care and government of every Church except where some invincible hindrance withstood belong unto one as principal and head and to the presbyters onely as his Senate and Counsellors The Ancients vary in this point Contra haeres Aerii Epiphanius and some others affirm that the office of a Bishop was instituted by the Apostles distinct from the offices of the Apostles Evangelists prophets and presbyters Ultra sacerdotium non est gradus ordinis tamen intra hunc gradum
like successor of Peter's Church but to our hearts unspeakable grief we speak it the gold is become dimme the most fine gold is changed the holy City is become an harlot O that she would return to her first husband that we might return to her Ther 's Peter's chair where Peter's preaching is sincerely imitated that 's Peters Church which imitates her faith and holiness which when Rome shall do she shall recover her precedency of succession Thus Peter had a primacy among the Apostles but no superiority of command over them All pastors were in him first and secondarily in the rest of the Apostles De dignitate Sacerd. c. 2. Jo. 21. Peter saith Ambrose did not alone receive the sheep but received them with us and we received them with him Christ in the Apostles gave unto all Pastors the power of ordaining Pastors because he gave them the Keyes to be conveyed to successors But the power of appointing who among the Presbyters should exercise them and how and who among them should be governours of the use of the Keyes was not conveyed with the Keyes to all Pastors in the Apostolical ordination because it was peculiar to the extraordinary office of the Apostles either to leave that to the wisdome of the Church and ordinary Pastors to order or to settle it in one Presbyter assisted with the Colledge of Presbyters or otherwise as the Holy Ghost should guide them We may not think that our Saviour did give unto every Presbyter power to ordain preach administer the Sacraments excommunicate or absolve at his own will and pleasure without any appointment of a flock or calling him to account of his Stewardship c. for this is against the light of nature unless God had given unto every Presbyter wisdome and a will which could not erre in the orderly use of the Keyes as he gave unto the Apostles without which extraordinary grace the house of God in that case had been full of disorder and confusion which Christ would not permit If the power of disposing and governing the act of ordination and the exercise of the acts of binding and loosing had been given to the body of the Presbyters by our Saviour the Apostles and universal Church had never deprived the Colledge of that authority Wherefore as the first planting of the Christian Churches was proper to the Apostles so the constituting of the form of government and the governors of the exercise of the acts of ordination and the Keyes was committed onely to their trust And it was very congruous that Christ would not determine the form of the government of his Church and Pastors thereof before his ascention into heaven and the taking full possession of his government and Kingdome at the right hand of his Father The Apostles planted the Churches after this manner When God had blessed their ministery in Cities and considerable Towns and in the Country adjacent in the conversion of many to God they constituted one congregation or Church of all the converts in that City or good Town and the Country about it So ordering Ecclesiastical Corporations as might as much as could be best agree with the civil corporations and their division For the feeding of which Church they ordained Pastors and those many in every City-Church Ubi est Ecclesia nisi ubi virga gratia floret sacerdotalis Ambros de Isaac anima c. 7. Es Hier. contra Lucifer Ecclesia non est quoenon habet Sacerdotem in which they left the Colledge of Presbyters governors both of the Pastors individually considered and the whole flock yet with and under themselves or their vicegerents as presidents when either of them were present But within a short time when Christianity was much spread in several Nations and many City-Churches were grown populous so that they had many lesser Churches under them and the Apostles and their Vicegerents could be present but in very few in comparison of the far greater number which wanted their society the Colledges in these began to be divided among themselves and to divide the Churches which caused the Apostles guided thereto by the Spirit of Christ to consent to a change of the government which was by the Colledges bodies without a head and so apt to swerve in ruling populous Churches into a president in every Church chosen out of the Pastors together with the Colledge of the City and best Presbyters as his Senate and Counsellors And then both the Apostles and Evangelists or Apostolical helpers which were extraordinary Bishops become ordinary Bishops to be succeded by others And these last were like our Arch-bishops having many Bishops under them as Titus in Creet c. and the Apostles were like our Primates but of higher authority and having more Arch-bishops under them Here we may observe that the original occasion of Episcopacy doth very much commend it it being introduced to heal the evil of Schisme and by preventing it for time to come to secure the peace of the Church And it hath and will be the more acceptable to the Churches because it was instituted or confirmed by the Apostles at their desire Unto the imposition of hands benediction and prayers which were of the essence of the ordinations of Bishops and Presbyters many Ceremonies were in time added some sooner some later which served to make a clearer manifestation of the Ecclesiastical powers received in and by them which additional Ceremonies in time became occasions of foul mistakes Some making the additions to be the essence of the ordinations or part thereof other multiplying the ordination of the Apostles according to the diversity of kinds of the powers which they in very deed received but in one ordination although iterated for some special reasons When the Schoolmen began to write they found the Roman Court full of corrupt doctrine which they thought themselves bound to maintain mistaking miscalling the evil good and the good evil They found in the ordination of a Presbyter the Patene with Bread and the Cup with the Wine both unconsecrated to be delivered unto the party to be ordained with these words spoken by the Bishop Cont. Florent Sotus in 4. d. 24. Major Tho. in 4. d. 24. viz. Take power to offer c. which Ceremony added to that ordination about the year 700 as is probable some Schoolmen and also Pope Eugenius the fourth affirm to be the matter and forme of the consecration of a Presbyter making the imposition of hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost c. to belong onely to the solemnity thereof and not to be essential to it against the judgment of all antiquity Other maintain the delivery of the Patene with Bread Scotus in 4. d. 24. Vasq in 3. disp 239. Bellar. de sacramento ord i. 1. c. 9. and the Cup with wine in it together with the said words spoken by the Bishop to be one part of the ordination and the imposition of
remission of sins Thus far Ambrose Whereby we see that the Holy Ghost gives unto Bishops and Presbyters the power of binding by excommunication and of loosing by absolution and that the Holy Ghost doth accompany their service to cure them that will not refuse to be healed Away then with the excommunication that hath not the Holy Spirit to warrant it nor the operation of the Holy Ghost to make it effectual to mans salvation Away with the lay excommunication that makes the Holy Ghost a servant to denounce it Away with Jeroboams Priests made of the lowest of the people which are not of the sons of Levi which have not received the Holy Ghost to make them able ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit It is the duty of the lay Christian magistrate to oversee facilitate and corroborate the due execution of the spiritual censure of excommunication performed by Bishops principally and Presbyters subordinately but if any ask whether he may not excommunicate either by himself or by a substitute although the answer is already given in the premises yet I say he may do so and if he have the gift may preach in publick and minister the holy Sacraments as lawfully as the 250 persons spoken of in the sixteenth chap. of Numbers took censer and offered incense 2 Chron. c. 27. and as lawfully as King Uzziah did the like And as to the curing of the Leprosy of the soul he may expect the like success as Naaman would have had as to the healing of the Leprosy of his body 2 King c. 5. if he had washed himself in any other river then Jordan wherein the Prophet commanded him to wash himself in order to his cleansing The Kings Proclamation prevaileth more with many to leave their scandalous vices and to live soberly then the Sermons of the best Bishops and Presbyters usually do with most men Will any therefore conclude that the Proclamation of the King is an effectual means for the infusion of Gods saving grace as well as the preaching of the Gospel by them that are lawfully called to that sacred work the Christian Magistrates power is versed about the externals of Christian virtues and reacheth onely accidentally and by Gods indulgence sometime to the souls of men and the life of virtues Whereas the ministerial power of the Gospel is primarily ordained to be a means alwayes effectual for the infusion of the soul and life of all saving Christian virtues if the operation of the Holy Ghost which doth constantly work with the ministery of the Gospel in all the offices thereof be not deliberately resisted Men are saved by means instituted and sanctified by the wisdome and power of God and not by means which onely the wisdome of man judgeth to be most probable to effect our eternal salvation We live by faith and not by sense The Independent congregations blame the reverend Bishops for some miscarriages about the heavy censure of excommunication and exclaim both against them and against Presbyters for being more zealous for ceremonies then for the due execution of our function in the maine offices thereof and for the power of godliness As for the abuse of excommunication the blame was to have been imputed unto others and not to the Bishops And to say the very truth in this matter of excommunication the Canons of our Church are defective and require amendment which perhaps some invincible hinderances would not permit to be done in times past As for the misplacing of the intention of our zeal First as being my self a Presbyter although one of the meanest I must answer for my self that although it may be no man will or can condemn me yet truely I cannot justifie my self before the judgment seat of Almighty God but must make my earnest supplication for mercy to my judge I fear least any soul miscarry or miscarried through my default that his blood should be required at my hands And therefore I tremble when I consider what account I am to give of my Stewardship And now having knowledge and experience of the most heavy weight of this sacred vocation and the great propensity of our nature strengthened by manifold temptations unto unfaithfulness therein if I were now to enter into it the conscience of my weakness and fear of miscarriage would cause me to decline it but being long since entred woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel and I will not be discouraged having the power and mercy of God in whom I trust to be my strength and comfort I desire all good men as charitably to censure us so to pray earnestly to God for us that the great afflictions which we have suffered may be sanctified to us that remembring the afflictions and miseries the Wormwood and the Gall our souls may be humbled in us and that the extraordinary deliverance and blessings may entirely ingage our hearts to serve the Lord with all diligence and faithfulness in the holy ministery and to feed the flock of God taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre a pestilence in the Church but of a ready mind neither being Lords over Gods Heritage so unbecoming the messengers of the Lamb of God who washed his Disciples feet but being examples to the flock of sobriety humility meekness Christian bounty to the poor c. it becomes not good men to censure us for using those Rites and Ceremonies which we are perswaded not to be prohibited by Gods Law and both they and we do surely know to be commanded to be used by mans Law duely made which is Gods ordinance to which we must be subject for conscience sake We pity the tender conscience which cannot without offence either obey or disobey that ordinance And where any of a good life is seen to have that tenderness without the malignity of pride and labour to propagate it and divide the Church the piety and discretion of the Bishop will use him gently instruct him pray for him waite patiently for his amendment and unlesse the example of the party is seen to corrupt the sound will hardly be drawn to go beyond a threatning because punishment to a man of that temper seems rather to be an addition of misery to him then wholesome Physick meet to cure him If any will attempt to be Authors of Combinations to extort by shew of multitudes and by tumults the alteration or abrogation of any part of the established laws Civil or Ecclesiastical they will thereby evidently manifest themselves to be but meer pretenders to a tender conscience and power of godliness for they that labour to extort a part if they prevaile must have the whole in their power And can they that attempt so great robbery love God and the power of Godliness By this cursed fruit we know these to be most vile Hypocrites Let no good people be deceived by their sheeps cloathing look upon this bitter fruit and you see
twelfth successor of Peter Polycrates who was 65 years in the Lord when he wrote his Epistle unto Victor Bishop of Rome concerning the time of the celebration of the PÃ sche which was about the year of our Lord 197 whereby it appeareth that he began to flourish about 50 years after the death of John the Apostle if not much sooner if he was come to years of discretion before his Baptism Polycrates I say who was so near the times of the Apostles saith that he was the eighth Bishop of Ephesus Now it is acknowledged by all that in the time of Victor a Bishop had the preheminence over the Presbyters in every Church and therefore it is consequent that Polycrates by the seven Bishops preceding him in Ephesus meaneth not single Presbyters but such Bishops as were in the Church at the time of his writing that Epistle to Victor If the principality of the Ecclesiastical regiment had been in the Colledge of Presbyters until the death of the Apostles and after their decease the principality of that government was committed to one and not before surely Polycrates Irenaeus and Hegesippus had egregiously prevaticated in attributing the principality of one to some part of the time of the Apostles which they living with thousands who must have seen and consented to that change made after the Apostles decease if any such had been then first made could not be ignorant of But that these holy men were not unfaithful in their relation doth evidently appear by this namely that all the Fathers none contradicting agree with them affirming Bishops having in an ordinary way a superiority over Presbyters to have been ordained in the times of the Apostles Concerning Arch-bishops Sect 6. omitting the guesses of some ancient Doctors concerning the Archiepiscopacy of Mark Timothy and Titus we may find some intimation of their being in the end of the second century partly by the act of Victor Bishop of Rome in his attempt to excommunicate the Churches of the East and partly by a passage in Tertullian where he saith the Bishop of Bishops hath made a decree c. but certain it is that before the year of our Lord 250 wherein Cyprian Bishop of Carthage flourished l. de pudicitia c. 1. Arch-bishops were ordained in the Church For Cyprian writeth that there were many years and a long age since many Bishops convening under Agryppinus Bishop of Carthage decreed Epist ad Jubâ—in ad Cornel. l. 4. Epist 8. c. and in one of his Epistles to Cornelius Bishop of Rome he saith that his adversaries boasted saying that twenty five Bishops of Numidia would come to Carthage who would make unto themselves a Bishop there Among these Arch-bishops who were such indeed but not yet in name that we can find in any approved auctor of that age were some more eminent then other each of which had some Arch-bishops subordinate to them which in following times were called primates for in a province was one chief City under which were divers mother Cities which had lesser Cities under them In these were the Bishops in the Mother-cities were the Metropolitans or Arch-bishops in the first the Primates priviledges made some variations Of Primates and Metropolitans the Council of Nice saith it is manifest that if any be ordained without the will and conscience of the Metropolitane Bishop this great and holy Council hath decreed he ought not to be a Bishop And in another Canon the ancient manner or custome doth last in Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria have the power of all these for the Bishop of Rome hath a like custome in like manner also at Antioch and other provinces let the due honour proper to every Church be preserved to it These Primates and Arch-bishops had no power in things proper to the cognizance of a Bishop in his own Diocess but onely in those things whereof the Canons of the Church had committed to them the hearing and Judgement or which were of concernment to many Diocesses And this is it which Cyprian meaneth where he saith Epist ad Quintium none of us Bishops doth constitute himself to be a Bishop of Bishops or doth compell this Colledge by tyrannical terror to the necessity of obeying seeing every Bishop hath according to his own liberty and free will that he may not be judged by another Adrian the Emperour Apud Vopisum in Saturnino who reigned from the year of our Lord 117 to the year 135 writeth in a certain Epistle horrible untruths against Christians as that there was never a Presbyter of the Christians which was not a Mathematician a Southsayer c. that the very Patriarch when he came to Egypt was by some compelled to adore Serapis by others to adore Christ that they which said themselves to be Bishops of Christ were devoted to Serapis It seems this Emperour had taken notice that Christians had Ecclesiastical officers whereof some were-called Presbyters some called Bishops and perhaps that the Bishop of Alexandria was over all Egypt c. and Bishops thereof and therefore calls him by the name of a like civil Magistrate Patriarch which was afterward used by Christians in a like sense but too much hath been said to shew that it was ordained in the times of the Apostles that the principal authority in every Church should be in one Presbyter advanced above and over the rest unto whom in a short time after the name of Bishop was made proper This truth is so clear and written as it were with capital or uncial letters in the writings of all the ancients that he that runneth may read it in them In the next place it should be considered whether that Ordinance constituting Episcopacy made in the Apostolical times was not in proper sense an Apostolical constitution Sect. 7. and if so whether therefore it be unalterable But that this matter may be better understood it is convenient first to speak of the Authority and Power given to the Bishop what it was and how ample in those times De baptisme c. 17. Tertullian gives us some information in this point when he saith that the chief Priest which is the Bishop hath the right or power of giving Baptism then the Presbyters and Deacons but not without the authority of the Bishop for the preservation of the honour of the Church which remaining safe peace is safe maintained For the understanding of this we must consider that where the exercise of the power of preaching baptising c. in such place and among such persons was not by some ordinance of the Church determined to this or that particular Presbyter there it pertained to the Bishop to do it and not to any other without his leave yea the very Ordinances and Canons could not be made without his consent and authority as their principal author under Christ In Epist ad Titum c. 1. For as Hierom saith the whole care of the Church
then they rather by custome then by the Lords disposition So Augustine writing to Hierome although saith he according to the names of honour which the use or custome of the Church hath kept a Bishop be greater then a presbyter yet Augustine a Bishop is in many things inferior to Hierome a presbyter So modestly and humbly doth the most pious and wise Bishop Augustine write unto the holy presbyter Hierome his elder in years and his inferior in dignity They that affirm Episcopacy to be instituted by a Council do not mean a Council taken in a proper sense but for the unanimous votes of the Churches decreeing the same thing upon the same grounds and reasons which are the principal things respected in a Council and it is truely said illud unumquodque dicitur quod est principalius in eo Fourthly it seems consequent to Hierom's above-cited discourse that it is not certain which some affirm that Bishops were set over the Churches before the time wherein St. Paul wrote his first Epistle to Timothy or his Epistle to Titus c. out of which Hierome proves the identity of Bishops and presbyters and the government of the Church by the Colledge of presbyters But of the exact time of the institution of Bishops it 's not much material to know seeing all agree it was made in the time of the Apostles By some of those places cited by him it 's likely he intended onely to prove the name Bishop to be common at that time as well to presbyters as to their superior Ecclesiastical officers But it might be thought that Hierome in this matter contradicts himself In cataloge Scriptorum Eccles in Jacobe because elsewhere he saith that James the brother of our Lord was statim quickly after our Lords passion ordained by the Apostles Bishop of Jerusalem and that he ruled that Church for 30 years until the seventh year of Nero unto this difficulty another may be added shewing a seeming contrariety in this learned Father's speeches concerning the institution of Bishops which is that here he affirmeth the Episcopacy to be an Ecclesiastical and so an humane constitution and in another place that it is an Apostolical tradition It is not hard to reconcile these seeming contrary expressions Epist ad Evagrium for first we must consider Episcopacy or government by one as chief among the presbyters to have been either extraordinary managed by one extraordinary person which was not by any ordinary rule of the Church to have a successour or ordinary in the hand of one person which by a Canon of the Church was to have a successour an Apostle present in any Church had power over the presbyters and the preheminence in all sacerdotal duties above them in that Church Of Apostles some were primary as the twelve other secondary and these were either indeed as well as in name A postles or onely because they were conversant with the Apostles and their helpers and many times left by them in some Churches or sent to them as their Vicegerents such were Timothy Titus Linus Clemens c. all these by their Apostolical function or by vertue of their Vicegerency had the principal rule in the Churches wherein they abode even then when in all other Churches the Colledge of the presbyters took the care of all having no Superior constantly resident over them Afterward when upon occasion of the presbyters abusing their power by reason of the Apostles absence to the be getting of Schismes the Churches by Apostolical consent agreed to give in every Church a principality to one presbyter above the rest which in some time after had the name of Bishop made proper to him and was made an ordinary officer in all Churches then the Apostles and their Vicegerents in the Churches of their residence had the power over the Colledge of presbyters not onely by their Apostleship or Vicegerency but also by the new decree and institution of an ordinary Episcopacy Now because it was thought fit by the Apostles that James should reside at Jerusalem and that not long after the ascension of our Saviour it might truly be said that he was then ordained that is constituted Bishop extraordinary in that place for some particular reasons taken from consideration of some particular condition of that place whose Episcopacy afterward was continued for the general reason of preventing Schismes and consequently of an extraordinary Episcopacy was made an ordinary Episcopacy which was to pass to successors The same proportionably must be said of the Episcopacy of St. Peter in Rome and Antioch of Timothy in Ephesus of Titus in Crete of Linus and Clemens in Rome and so of others all of which were first Bishops extraordinary and after the general decree they were also made as ordinary Bishops in the Churches where the decree found them extraordinary Bishops Hierom doth in many places speak as one that supposed Bishops to be above Presbyters before the making of that decree but his meaning was not that ordinary Bishops were before it for then he had contradicted himself but the extraordinary If the rest of the Fathers be so understood as it is not very improbable but that many of them may the seeming difference between him and some of them may be perhaps in the main reconciled Theodoret saith that Bishops in the life time of the Apostles were called Apostles the name of the extraordinary Bishops being also communicated to the ordinary Bishops who also had some appearance of being Vicegerents unto those twelve general Pastors of the universal Church while they lived as they were counted their successors after their decease As to the other seeming contrariety in St. Hierom's writings affirming the ordinary Episcopacy to be of Ecclesiastical and humane institution and also of Apostolical tradition it is easily answered First That the ordinary Episcopacy is not a primary tradition of the Apostles but of the Churches to whose decree the Apostolical approbation added no new sanction but ratified the authority of the Churches as prudently exercised in making that constitution Secondly that decree may be said to be of Apostolical tradition because their extraordinary Episcopacy and the extraordinary Episcopacy of their Vicegerents established by them were patterns which the Churches had an eye unto for their direction and encouragement in the framing of that decree hoping that the good of peace preserved where the extraordinary Episcopacy was placed would be best maintained in all Churches when the like government should be setled in all to continue by succession 3. Thirdly the ancient Fathers affirm many ecclesiastical observances to be of divine or Apostolical institution or tradition upon other grounds then may beget a certain belief of their being truely divine or Apostolical Augustine saith that whatsoever the universal Church holdeth and is not found in following Councils constituted but always retained is most rightly believed to be delivered by the Apostolick authority De bapt contra Donatist l. 2. c. 7.
l. 4. c. ult Hierom affirmeth that many things which are by tradition observed in the Churches have usurped to themselves the authority of a Divine law as in baptism to immerge the head thrice and then to tast the concord of milk and honey Adversus Luciferianos to signifie infancy and on the Lords day and in all the Pentecost not to pray kneeling nor to fast Constantine the great exhorteth all to embrace the decree of the Nicene Council concerning the set time of the celebration of the Feast of Easter as a gift of God and a Commandement sent down from heaven Euseb de vita Constantini l. 3. c. 18. Edit Basil 1570. for whatsoever is decreed in the holy Councils of Bishops that ought to be ascribed to the divine will Hierom in another place saith let every one judge the precepts of the ancients to be Apostolical laws Hierom. Ep. 28. It is not to be doubted saith Leo Bishop of Rome but that every Christian observance is of divine erudition and that whatsoever is received by the Church into a custome of devotion Serm. 2. de jejun Pentecost proceeded from the Apostolick tradition and the Doctrine of the holy Spirit The Fathers use very frequently to affirm some institutions or rites to be divine or Apostolical because they seemed a greeable to and their lawfulness demonstrable by the old Testament the Gospels or Apostolick Epistles So the Lent Fast is by them said to be of Apostolical and Divine tradition because it seems an imitation of the Fast of Elias and of Christ and Monachism is affirmed to be Apostolick because it hath an appearance of being an imitation of John the Baptist Amalar. Alcuin Pontifical Damas c. yet many ancient writers make Pope Telesphorus who flourished Forty years after the decease of St. John the Apostle to be the author of the Quadragesimal Fast although indeed it had a much later beginning and affirm Paul and Anthony to be the Fathers of Monachism So that many institutes were counted Apostolick because some example or reason of the Scripture did seem to warrant them Whence Hierom and others intimate Hierom. in vita Pauli that Episcopacy was instituted in imitation of Aaron and his Sons or of the Apostles and 70 Disciples affirming Bishops to be successors of aaron and the Apostles and Presbyters the successors of the Sons of Aaron and of the 70 Disciples Fourthly it is a certain truth acknowledged by all the learned that the Apostles were authors as well of local and temporary or universal and temporary ordinances rites or ceremonies as of universal and perpetual for they were inspired by the Holy Ghost infallibly to discern both what the present condition although variable of some or all the Churches required and what upon reasons arising from unvariable grounds and circumstances was needful to be observed in all the Churches of Christ Polycarpus a hearer of the Apostles and by St. John made Bishop of Smyrna celebrated the Pasche in the fourteenth moon and so did the rest of Asia and some of the East observing it the same time with the Jews moved thereto by the countenance and example of St. John the Apostle but Anicetus Bishop of Rome who flourished in the life time of Polycarpus and generally the Churches of the West kept the Feast at another time and on the Lords day induced thereto as they affirmed by the tradition and example of St. Peter the Apostle We cannot with reason and charity think that either Polycarpus with the Asians and East or Anicetus with the Western Churches Apud Euseb Iren. could be ignorant of the time when Peter in the West or John in Asia observed that Feast Polycarpus being an eye witness of what the Apostle St. John did and Anicetus being a hearer of the hearers of Clemens who was contemporary with the Apostle St. Peter or that they would considerately speak and perseveringly maintain an untruth imputing a fact to either Apostle which he had not done especially seeing the untruth on either side might have been confuted by a thousand witnesses wherefore we must judge this to be an evident example of a variable apostolick institution I might instance in part of the Apostles decree in the 15 chapter of the Acts of the Apostles of things strangled and blood but least I move scruples in weak consciences which they cannot easily be rid of I will only commend to the consideration of the judicious the judgment of some ancient writers quoted in the margent August contra Faustum l. 32. c. 13. Et tractcti contra graecos in biblioth patr to 4. pag. 1308. et 1318.1319.1320 There be many rites which the Fathers held to be Apostolical which in the times of the same Fathers were in many places altered or neglected as the three immersions in baptisme the repairing of neighbour Bishops to the people where a Bishop was wanting there to ordain one in the presence of the people not to fast in the dayes of Pentecost and some other which prove that according to the judgment of those Fathers the Apostles guided by divine inspiration made some decrees alterable and which were upon just reasons accordingly changed or disused and therefore if it were proved that the Apostles by divine motion were the primary Auctors of Episcopacy and not the Church yet if it cannot appeare to be a constitution built upon perpetuall reason and in its nature independing upon variable circumstances it may possibly be changed by the Church Here it may be demanded by what members of it self did the universal Church abrogate the Presbyterian and institute Episcopal Government and what power was taken from the Presbyters by that abrogation For answer to these demands we must distingnish between the power given to ministers to doe some things as to preach baptize ordain Pastors excomunicate absolve c. and secondly the free exercise of those acts and thirdly the regulation of the exercise of them as to the persons about whom time when the place where the manner decency c. To the regulation belong 1. The making of laws concerning the due exercise of the power agreeable to the divine laws and secondly the superintendents of the execution and thirdly the executors of them As for the power it doth not appear that any of that was taken from the Presbyters or their Colledge by the institution of Episcopacy if they were deprived of any part of it can 13. that must be the ordaining of Presbyters but the Council of Ancyra seems to demonstrate that the power of ordaining Pastors did and doth remain in them which they did exercise by the leave Et Synod Antioch c. 16. vide Vasque in 3. p. Disp 143. c. 4. and in the place of the Bishop which Could not at his pleasure give them but supposed the power continuing in them The words of the Council be these according to the Greek Original and not their vulgar
translation it is not lawful say the Fathers of that Synod for the Choropiscopi Countrey or Village Bishops not for the Presbyters of the City to ordain Presbyters or Deacons unless that be committed to them by the Bishop being absent in another Diocess by his letters And therefore the Churches decree constituting Episcopacy abridged the Presbyters whether dividedly or conjunctly considered but onely in the exercise of their power Surely it must be beleeved that no ordination would be made by the Apostles excelling the ordination which our Saviour celebrated breathing upon his Apostles c. and giving them a comission to teach c. with promise to be with them unto the worlds end whereby the Presbyters were virtually ordained and comissionated astruly as the Bishops and therefore received thereby as much power as they in respect of the kind and nature which hinders not but that the exercise of some part of it might be taken from many of the persons ordained But some perhaps may say that Christ in that ordination ordained in the Apostles some as elder Brethren and others as the younger yet hence it will follow that the kind and nature of the ordination is the same in all as the nature of the Father is in all his Sons and that onely a principallity in the having and exercise of it belongs to the Bishops which is granted Others may say farther that Christ in ordaining the Apostles did virtually ordain some as the Sons of the Sons of the Apostles and others as their grand-children if this can be well proved it will indeed evince that the power of ordination as well as the exercise of it is proper to the Bishops but until it be made clear that this was the primary meaning and intention of Christ in that Act of ordination and not an effect onely of a consequent occasional providence of the Apostles and Churches it is probable that the power of ordination remaineth still in the presbyters restrained in the use by the canon of the Churches and Apostles The members of the Church which made the decree of Episcopacy and limited the use of the Eclesiastical power in the presbyters were the greater number of the presbyters themselves which remained in the unity of the mystical body with the greater part of the people and the Authors of it by way of approbation and confirmation were the holy Apostles The Apostles and Presbyters in the effecting of it exercised the ordinary Vicary Authority Basil constit mona c. 22. which they had as being by their ordination made the Vicegerents of the blessed Mediator Christ Jesus considered only as Mediator according to his own saying he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me the saying of the Apostle we are Embâ—ssadors for Christ and we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God 2. Cor. 5.20 That authority when it is duely exercised ought to be obeyed And because presbyters may erre in the using of it a spirit of discerning noxious doctrines and constitutions is given to Christians to examine and trie Bas l. reg 72. c. 1. with command to reject the evil and receive the good which good if the major part refuse being by their Pastors propounded to them Aug. de temp serm 143. they may do it upon their peril as they will answer it to God unity and peace interceding and forbidding that no Ecclesiastical constraint or censure proceed against the civil higher power or the major part of the people It is therefore requisite that constitutions to be made laws in the Church be by the leave of the supreme magistrate if he be a Christian propounded to the people that their consent being given the ministerial authority may make them laws Ecclesiastically obliging if no higher authority hinder Before these Law-makers constituted Episcopacy every singular Presbyter was to act according to the directions and rules of the Presbyterian Colledge which was the Church Law-giver and superintendent of the execution having the supreme dignity under the Mediator and preheminence in all things properly Ecclesiastical What is spoken concerning the Colledge of Presbyters must be applied proportionably to the several bodies of them in the Diocesan provincial imperial or universal Church The decree constituting Episcopacy took from the Colledge its high dignity and preheminence and conferred it upon one and so divided the exercise of the Legislative power among the Bishop and the Colledge that the one might not duely use it without the other For although the dignity and precedency of the Bishop may give more weight to his vote yet is the Vicary authority which cannot be separated from Presbyters as long as they be Presbyters as truly exercised in their votes whether in deciding controversies of faith or making of Canons c. as it is in the Bishops vote Which is manifest as by many testimonies of antiquity so by the practise of our English Synods which are conformable in the substance to the best and most ancient constitution of Councils The superintendency which the Colledge had over the execution of all Ecclesiastical duties and ordinances was chiefly in the Bishop yet so as without his Presbyters he could not regularly hear and determine Ecclesiastical causes as before was shewed out of the fourth Council of Carthage and might be further demonstrated out of St. Cyprian and other ancient writers Every suprem civil power on earth as Gods Vicegerent Sect. 10. is bound to advance and preserve the true Religion so far as the light of nature can manifest it or divine revelation doth make it known unto him so that a King which hath embraced Christian Religion which alone is the true Religion is obliged to maintain it and to cause that the Christian duties be by all in their several stations and charges duely performed and therefore a Christian King is a law-giver above the Ecclesiastical Law-makers but so that he ought not to hinder the due exercise of their legislative power and make laws purely or properly Ecclesiastical without their concurrence in Counsel and consent but by his Laws and power partly to cause them to meet for the due exercise of their duty partly to maintain and strengthen their right proceedings in performance of their office and lastly if their Edicts be cosistant with the peace of the common-wealth and meet for the edification of the Church to perfect and make them full and complete laws by putting the hand and seal of his highest Vicary authority as Gods Vicegerent to the resolves of the subordinate Vicary authority of the Vicegerents of our blessed Mediator as Mediator God and man the Lord Jesus Christ God is a God of order and hath ordained that this unity and harmony between these two authorities should be firmly kept otherwise by a supine neglect of duty or by an exorbitant usurpation on either side the unity and peace both of Kingdome and Church are equally in danger of being broken The
propounding of the true doctrine in decision of controversies or of constitutions of expedient or necessary to aedification are acts of religion most proper to the Bishops and presbyters the first an act of the praedication of the gospel the other an act of ecclesiastical Government The embracing of the truth and ordinances seen to be profitable together with the confirming of them by his decree and sanction or addition where he seeth it needful of a reward or mulct is the part of a Christian Prince discerning upon due search the truth and the usefulnesse of the ordinances propounded unto him whose embracing is his act of subjection to Christ and confirmation and sanction an act of his Vicary authority To make laws bestowing civil gifts or priviledges on the Church and ordaining civil punishments for offences committed against Christian religion and Ecclesiastical Canons and constituting Courts for the cognizance of such causes and the execution of those Laws is the peculiar and proper work of a Christian King which he may well doe without the authority of Bishops and presbyters but which he may best doe with their grave advice and counsel In the unanimous Votes of the Kings Majesty the honourable Houses of Parliament and the venerable convocation all Powers and interests are fully satisfied whether in decision of controversies in religion Chrysost in 2. Cor. hom 18 c. Sect. 11. or making Ecclesiastical Canons or any the like Ecclesiastical matters because they are the conjunct Votes of all the concerned Before the civil Magistrate became Christian the Clergy and people according to their severall rights concurred personally in the elections of Bishops and Presbyters and this remained in use under many Christian Emperors and Kings untill for the avoyding of contention and schismes and many abuses which became familiar to popular elections in a corrupted state of the Church and for the encouragement of Princes Nobles and others to erect and endow Churches it seemed good to Kings in their Parliaments and with the convocation or Synod of the Bishops and Clergy to ordain that Kings should present to the Colledge of Presbyters meet persons to be chosen and made Bishops and meet Presbyters to the Bishop for such Churches as they had built and endowed and that all other persons should in like manner present to the Bishop a fit person for the Church which they had endowed Patrons did indeed in some places put in whom they pleased without the Bishops consent Vide Epist Alexandr 3. ad Episcopos Angliae and for some time of publick confusion this was very usually done in England but this custome was no law as some would have it because it was an unreasonable custome and destructive to the Church and therefore always contradicted in all Councils where occasion was given to mention it All humane laws have their mixture of some bad with many good And certain it is that our Ecclesiastical laws have many imperfections and their ambiguous halting between the papal Canon-law whence their interpretation hath been wont to be fetched and the laws of the Realm is not the least which hath been one of the principal occasions of some actings which made the Clergy much abhorred by many and brought infinite calamities upon the Civil and Ecclesiastical state The ancient pure Episcopal government is much changed and the beginning of its change was not of late dayes Sect. 12. for in the fourth Century the Bishops and Presbyters began to advance Arch-presbyters and Arch-deacons to some part of the exercise of the Ecclesiastical government Optat. advers Parmenian l. 1. The first Archdeacon we read of was Caecilianus who reproved Lucilla a rich and proud woman which being thereat vexed became afterward a zealous promotrix of the Schism of the Donatists The first Arch-presbyter Greg. Nazianz. in land Basil crat that I can remember to be mentioned by the ancients was Basile who being made Bishop offered that honour to his old friend Gregory after the Bishop of Nazianzum But these were at that time but in some Churches and acted onely in place of the Bishops and Presbyters and at their pleasure whereas their power in time increased and after some hundreds of years the Canons gave them an ordinary jurisdiction erected their Courts added new names of Ecclesiastical judges as Deans Chancellors Commissaries c. and filled them with numerous attendants which were mostly to live by the sins of the people If these had been Officers onely of the civil magistrate to execute the power which is proper to him over all persons and in all causes Ecclesiastical the Church could not in reason have been charged with their miscariages but because they exercised with the former acts of the power proper to Bishops and Presbyters and in which the civil magistrate had onely a superintendency over them all their misdoings were ascribed to the Bishops and the Clergy their Courts heard the causes of excommunication adjudg'd a person to excommunication and caused a Presbyter no judge in the cause to excommunicate the party whereas Christ by his Apostles made them judges in his place as well to hear the causes of the spiritual censures as to execute the same by the sentence of excommunication The spiritual censures are spiritual remedies and the Pastors of the Church are under Christ the Physicians how then can it be congruous to imploy one that is no Physician to search and take knowledge of the diseases of the Soul and leave orâ—y the application of the remedies to the Physicians in the hearing of the causes of spiritual censures pastoral acts are to be exercised as of teaching of redargution of sin and conviction which prepare the offendor for the due and profitable receiving of the spiritual Physick which acts are all wanting where a person that is no Pastor condemneth a sinner to be excommunicated by a Pastor There is another mischief that accompanies the mixture in one and the same person of the exercise of acts purely ministerial and acts proper to the civil magistrate in spiritual causes as it is in Arch-deacons and the like that is commutation of paenance as to take so much money a Cow a Horse and the like as it hath been used be it in pretence of giving it to the poor where suspension or excommunication was by the Apostolical ordinances to have been exercised If the power proper to the ministers the power proper to the magistrate were in distinct persons this too frequent abuse would be well avoyded For the sole spiritual power is not to medle with body or purse Cudgelling whipping imprisoning fining scandalous sinners were not at all in use before the times of Christian Emperours And as to the redemption of the wholesome severities which the paenitents were enjoyned willingly to exercise upon themselves it was not used until about the end of the fift Century I might mention other mischiefs as the intollerable abuse of excommunication for very small offences
Antonianum Hier. ad Heliodorum Conc. Sardicens c. 13. Canon in use in the second Century when it was made it is not known which required that every one that would be an Ecclesiasticall Officer should begin with and for some set time officiate in the lowest Office and so by degrees ascend to the Episcopacy if the Church did desire his advancement Yet we find that some laicks yea some unbaptised persons have been by the Clergy and people chosen Bishops as Ambrose Nectarius and other Paulinus in vita Ambrosij Niceph. Callist Eccl. hist l. 12. c. 12. who leaping over the inferiour offices and the time wherein they should have given proofe of their faithfulness and industry in the order of Presbytery have been Baptised made Presbyters and then Bishops within few dayes and some it may be took these two last orders in the same houre But this was very rare and by dispensation or was liable to an Ecclesiasticall censure When any under the degree of a Presbyter was by the ignorance or perversness of some Bishops ordained a Bishop nothing done by him was esteemed valid but what his former degree did warrant or a Laick might in necessity do untill he was made a Presbyter Bellarmine saith truly that it is impossible that one should be ordained a Bishop fit to officiate which was not before a Presbyter or did not take both orders together For saith he Episcopacy includes Presbytery in its essence and a Bishop no Presbyter is a figment De Sacramento Ordinis l. 1. c. 5. a Bishop being nothing else but the first or chief Presbyter Whence he doth rightly infer that the Ordination of a Bishop compared with the Ordination of a Presbyter is being in it self precisely considered inferior to it as being of no efficacy as to acts meerly Ecclesiasticall and which the civil Magistrate cannot execute Here some doubts are raised which by divers are diversely resolved As whether Christ did ordaine the Apostles in the first place Presbyters and after that Bishops and if so when was this done or if it be said that Christ made them Apostles Presbyters and Bishops in one and the same Ordination how can it be proved that Christ gave the Apostles the powers now proper to Bishops not only as they were extraordinary Officers but also as they were to have successors and not rather that Christ reserved those powers as they were to be conveyed by succession to be given in a more convenient time it is generally acknowledged that Presbyters were vertually ordained when the Apostles were ordained If Christ made the Apostles both Presbyters and Bishops in one Ordination how durst the Church alter our Saviours Ordinance as to ordain them by two actuall Ordinations whom He Himself had ordained in one virtuall Ordination to say that our blessed Saviour ordained the Apostles first Presbyters and afterwards Bishops is to affirm that which the Evangelists do not mention To Preach Baptise administer the Lords Supper to feed the Sheep to bind and loose all these offices appear by clear Testimonies of the holy Scriptures and the consent of the Catholick Church to belong to Presbyters and therefore it may not be reasonably thought that any of those places of the Evangelists which promise those powers or intimate them to be given or require the execution of them conveigh an Episcopacy to the Apostles supposed before ordained Presbyters Some say that St. Cyprian and some other of the Fathers affirm Christ in ordaining the Apostles to have ordained Bishops and that Bishops are the Apostles successors and Presbyters the successors of the 70 Disciples To these Objections the answers are ready and easie Ad Drâ—â—contiam in Ps 44. First Athanasius saith that Christ by his Apostles constituted and ordained Bishops and Augustine saith that the Church conceived Bishops neither of them writeth that Bishops were vertually ordained in the Apostles Ordination neither is this expresly said in any ancient Author In Epist 1. ad Timoth c. 3. Secondly Ambrose the contemporary or elder then the true Ambrose saith that the Ordination of a Presbyter and Bishop is one and the same this may seem strange for in his and the preceding times they were distinct but his following words declare his meaning when he gives this reason namely Cyprian ad florentium c. Epist because both Presbyter and Bishop are Sacerdotes Priests which shews that in saying that the Ordination of a Presbyter and Bishop is the same he meant quatenus Sacerdotes as they were Priests or Presbyters their ordination was the same So the other auncient Doctors which say that Christ in speaking some things to the Apostles as He that heareth you heareth me Basil constit monast c. 22. c. 〈◊〉 spake in and by them to Bishops or that in them Christ ordained Bishops did mean That our Saviour spake in and by the Apostles to Bishops not as Bishops but as they were Sacerdotes Priests and Presbyters and only consequently and remotely by the means of a subsequent Ordinance as they were Bishops that is Presbyters having a presidency over their Brethren when the Pastors of that primitive Church say that Bishops are Successors of the Apostles and Presbyters successors of the 70 Disciples their meaning was That having respect to the Distinction which the Apostles made between one Presbyter and the rest by exalting one in every Church to a presidency over the rest The President Presbyter which is the Bishop succeeds the Apostles whose Successors and the subject Presbyters succeeded the 70 Disciples in some likeness of superiority and inferiority The Fathers could not mean That the Presbyters were ordained in the Ordination of the 70. For First None of them had any good ground to affirm That the 70 either had so ample an ordinary power if they had any ordinary power as the Presbytery have or that the power they received was rather the power of an Office to continue in them Ad Rodolphum Archiepiscopum Senonens in apparandarum rerum addend post tom 7. Concil then a power only to do some acts for a certain time after which the power was to leave them although Pope Nicholas the first affirms That the 70 Disciples had the Offices of Bishops and could ordain Presbyters Secondly The Form of Ordination both in our Church and in the Roman pontificial doth manifestly shew That Presbyters were virtually ordained in the Ordination of the Apostles after our Saviours Resurrection when he said Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whosesoever sins ye remit c. the which entire words are used in Presbyters Ordination and only one member of the words are used in the ordination of bishops that is Receive the Holy Ghost which words do not serve to conveigh unto them all power to remit c. which they had received in their Ordination to Presbytery but they serve to give them the power of Presidency whereby the Bishop is constituted and therefore Presbyters and Bishops as they
be Presbyters are the primary Successors of the Apostles and Bishops as Bishops that is as to their presidency are onely secondary Successors of the Apostles There is no great cause of doubt whether those words abovesaid used at this time in the ordination of Bishops or Presbyters Cum Ecclesia in ordinatione sacerdotum Christum imitata ritu perpetuo eisd verbis forma illa Accipite Spiritum Sanctum quorum remiseritis peccata c. Semper usa fuerit quis ambigat idem omnino quod Christum facere c. Vasq in 3. p. disp 239. c. 4. were together with imposition of hands therein used in and from the Primitive times because they are not expressely mentioned in any ancient Author for a thousand years and above for any thing I could learn for first the Fathers do often say that imposition of hands was used in those ordinations and ought to be used as also a benediction and prayers which prayers no question were accommodated in each ordination to the distinction made by the Apostles between Presbyters and Bishops and therefore the words Receive the Holy Ghost whosoevers sins ye remit c. might be used in the prayers of the Bishops ordination for an increase of the grace and power received by them in their Presbyterial ordination and omitted in the prayers of Presbyters ordination wherein they constitute the benediction because the fulness of the exercise of the power given by the ministery of those words and other parts of their ordination is something restrained by the constitution of Episcopacy The reason why those holy men did not set down in their writings the very words of benediction spoken at the imposition of hands In 2 Cor. hom 6. and the particular forms of prayers then used is declared by Chrysostome Nota patres concilia non consuevisse explicare totum ritum Sacramentorum non enim scribebant libros rituales sed solum attigisse unam partem essentialem ex qua caetera omnia intelligerentur Bellarm de Sacram Ord. l. 1. c. 9. who speaking of Bishops beginning the Act of ordination saith That such and such words were spoken which the initiated knew for it is not lawful saith he to detect all before the profane As for the forms of Ordination which were written between the years 700 and 1000 and the forms in Clements constitutions besides that they are of small credit they are imperfect and disagree among themselves In one form of Bishops consecration the book is not remembred to be held over the head of the person to be ordained in another form there is no mention of the imposition of hands In a form of the ordination of a Presbyter the Bishop and Presbyters holding their hands on the head of the ordained it is said det orationem super eum and let the Bishop pray above him then many sorts of prayers follow Whence we may gather that the prayer to be made over him differs from the other prayers and that under the word Prayer the words of benediction which are Receive the Holy Ghost Whosoever sins ye remit c. are comprehended For those words pronounced by the Bishop as the mouth of the Church are a virtual prayer the heavenly gift signified by them Manus impositiones verba sunt mystica quibus confirmatur ad opus electus accipiens auctoritatem teste conscientia sua ut audeat vice Domini sacrificium Deo offerre Ambros in Epist 2. ad Timoth. c. 4. Homo imponit manus Deus largitur gratiam homo imponit supplicem dexteram Deus benedicit potenti dextera Ambros de dignitate sacerd a Greg. Epist l. 7. Epist 63. and to be given in the use of them being begged of God in the preceding and also in the subsequent prayers And as they are pronounced by the Bishop supplying the place and instead of Christ they are Christs benediction and a signification of his operative will in giving the Holy Ghost unto some that 's Presbyters in their ordination to authorise them to do the external acts of binding and loosing c. and to accompany those acts duely exercised in the union and communion of the truely Catholick Church and unto others that is Bishops in their ordination to authorize and enable them for the eminent universal and presidential use and administration of the power of binding and loosing before received in their Presbyterial ordination and for the sole exercise of the power of ordination and to accompany their service duely performed in the union and communion of the true Church of Christ So the words of the institution of the Lords Supper are in themselves no prayers but considered as a part of the prayer preceding them called by Gregory the great the Canon which is not reputed to be ended before those words be prolated they are a virtual prayer being presented unto God in the supplication of the Church for the obtaining of an heavenly effect in the imitation of the act of Christ like unto that effect which was granted at the act of prolation of them by Christ himself Major Angel affirm that they saw some Pontificals which were both without the words Receive the Holy Ghost c. and also without imposition of hands Therefore those omissions are no sufficient arguments to prove that the foresaid words of benediction were not used in the Primitive times We may further prove them to be then in use by this that of all the integral parts of Presbyters ordination we find nothing proper to the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil ad Amphilock Can. â—1 but onely those words of benediction for the Presbyters impose their hands as well as the Bishops the Presbyters and people fast and pray with the Bishop there 's nothing left but the prolation of the words of benediction in the name and place of Christ This is confirmed by the story of the purblind Bishop who having laid his hand to ordain a Presbyter and the Presbyters their hands used the eyes and mouth of a Presbyter to read and pronounce the benediction Cone Hispal 2. c. 5. It s not said that the Presbyter read the prayers although its most likely he read them but the benediction And why surely because the prayers were the common prayers of the whole Church and the benediction onely proper to the Bishop and therefore that ordination was rejected as unlawful and invalid a Presbyter and not a Bishop having prolated the benediction and the Bishops commission was of no value because prohibited by the Canons in force at that time Above 300 years before this Bishop in the time of Athanasius all the Presbyters and Ischyras among them which were ordained by Colythus a pretended Bishop were refused to be received by the Church in that degree Athanas in apolog 2. because Colythus was proved to be onely a Presbyter whose ordination in the judgment of the Church the constitution of the Apostles had made
hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost c. to be an other part thereof and both these parts to constitute the whole essence of the ordination As if our Saviour had made the Apostles Presbyters by two distinct ordinations the one before his death and the other after his resurrection whereof the first if we will without reason believe them made them Priests the second gave them the power of binding and loosing and made them complete Presbyters As concerning the ordination of Bishops Divines saith Vasq do not well agree at what time they were ordained In 3. p. d. 242. c. 7. Some think that Christ ordained them when he said Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sins ye remit c. this opinion is justly rejected by Vasques unless it may be made good that Bishops and Presbyters had one and the same ordination for all grant that Presbyters were ordained by those words Other imagine Peter alone to have been imediately ordained by our Saviour and the rest of the Apostles by Peter c. so Bellarmine and others but this assertion doth not please Vasques and we cannot be pleased with such figments Others doe conceive our Saviour to have ordained them Priests and Bishops when he said Do this in remembrance of me This opinion is as false as the last Some think them ordained in the day of Pentecost and Vasques himself thinks them to have been ordained when Christ said unto them Go teach all nations c. which is as groundless an opinion as any of the rest Whereas in truth when they were ordained Apostles they were made Presbyters having the pastoral powers which were to be transmitted to successors and were also made extraordinary Bishops having as essential to their extraordinary function of Apostleship an extraordinary presidency and superintendency over the use and exercise of all the pastoral offices but were not made Bishops which were to be succeeded until they themselves by confirming the prudent choice of the Churches had instituted Episcopacy The Schoolmen found the Laicks impower'd by commission from Rome c. to excommunicate Hence they distinguish between the power of the Order and the power of jurisdiction We gather from the holy Scriptures and the practice of the Primitive Church that excommunication was ordained to be a mean to bring a person guilty of some scandalous sin committed after Baptism to the degree of repentance and humiliation meet first to receive pardon of sin through faith in Christs blood Secondly to satisfie and edifie the Church by good example in proportion to the offence given and harme done by his bad example Thirdly to take away the evil propensity the skars and blots made in the Soul by the sin committed and to restore the offender to the degree of purity of Soul and consequently of communion with God and of Gods love to him which he enjoyed before his fall which are obtained when God is glorified and pleased by the humiliation in proportion to the dishonour done to God and the divine displeasure incurred by sin Fourthly to receive more strength to make the penitent able to stand and avoid the like fall in time to come In the first four Centuries after our Saviours birth a full absolution was not granted to any Penitent except in case of necessity until the Bishop and Presbyters judged his repentance and humiliation to have restored him to Gods grace and favour Cyprian ad clerum De Presbyteris qui temerè pacem lapsis dederant the good opinion of the Church and to his former spiritual strength in grace And therefore we may be assured that no man was excommunicated from the Church militant but in order to receive grace to restore him to and fit him for the Church triumphant and that it was the same Key which did shut the dores of both Churches against the offender and was to open the dores unto him having given sufficient testimony of a due humiliation The Catholick Church in the Primitive times did not divide excommunication into two distinct kinds that is into excommunication from the Church triumphant and excommunication from the Church militant the first proper to the Bishop and Presbyter and the other peculiar to the Bishops and his Committees Presbyters or lay this to be exercised by the power of Jurisdiction the former to be exercised by the power of order that is the power which Bishops and Presbyters received from Christ by their ordination Whereby we understand the power of jurisdiction in this sense as opposed to the power of order to be the gift neither of Christ nor of his Apostles If the Church gave this power it was a corrupt Church that gave it for by this ordinance of man the ordinance of Christ is made void The ordinance of man is exalted above the ordinance of Christ for the excommunication which is Christs ordinance may be executed by the Presbyter in subordination to the Bishop but without his Commission the humane excommunication is made peculiar to the Bishop the chief officer in the Church to be executed by himself or some other by his commission Much good do it to the Roman Bishops whose cheif Bishop first invented it our Bishops like it not it hath been too importunate to stick in part unto them but they will perfectly shake it off as soon as they can The excommunication which is Christs ordinance hath parts or members whereby it may be more or less full greater or lesser but it ought not to be coupled with a mate a brat of mans invention De paenitentia l. 1. c. 2. Munus Spiritu Sancti est officium Sacerdotis jus autem Spiritus Sarcti in solvend ligandisque criminibusest Ibi Deus par jus saith Ambrose solvendi esse voluit ligandi God would that there should be equally as a right of loosing so a right of binding And therefore he that hath not the right of loosing saith he neither hath he the right of binding And a little after he that hath saith he a right to loose he hath a right to bind And a little after the same Father saith that this right or power of loosing and binding is permitted onely to Priests that is Bishops and Presbyters and thence concludes that Hereticks which had no Priests could not challenge this power Then this Holy man sheweth the spring of the same power he that receiveth the Holy Ghost saith he receiveth the power both of loosing and of binding as it is written Receive the Holy Ghost Jo. 20. whose sius ye remit c. Therefore he that cannot loose sin hath not the Holy Ghost that is Si fictus est Praesbyter aut Episcopus Spiritus Sanctus Disciplinae effugiet fictum deest saluti ejus ministerium tamen ejus non deserit quo per eum salutem operatur aliorum Aug. contra epist Parmen l. 2. c. 11. as making him an able minister of the New Testament and of the spirit for the
in 2 Cor. hom 6. Conc. Forojuliens an 791. c. 13. Athanas dicta interpret parabol S. Script sacraments and censures c. breathing upon them and saying receive ye the Holy Ghost whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosoever sins ye retain they are retained hence it is that the ministery of the new Testament fully confirmed is in an eminent way the ministery of the spirit and so called and hence it is that the Apostle saith that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ This measure of the Spirit going along and operating in the ministerial preaching prayer baptising blessing absolving c. was now very necessary as in other respects so in this that the world that had been so long captivated by Sathan and mightily habituated in all sinful ways Semen Sermonis Christi cum in animam audientis inciderit per gradus suos crescit-tam diu in ancipiti est quamdiu pariat quod concepit Hierom. in Epist ad Gal. c. 4. might be converted unto God and preserved in his grace Some will say why are not all hearers of the Gospel converted to which it is soon answered that the Holy Spirit worketh in all them that hear the Gospel preached to them yet gradually first that they may co-work and then that they may continue co-working until the work of saving faith be perfected in them He gives an eat able to hear to the hearers he gives ability to understand and gives ability in some degree to will the good and where the good is willed he hath given the will and the deed and where the Good we are enabled to understand and Will is not understood or Willed that comes from the natural corrupted freedome of mans will which the spirit doth not take away against our will because he will not destrey his own work namely that good natural freedome of will conferred upon man in his creation capable of being a subject of good or evil A person not ordained to the holy ministery may in time and place teach and exhort with a speech no less Orthodox wholesome and perswasive then any ordained minister of the Cospel can use and yet it must be acknowledged to be far inferior in its operation tending to true edification then the speech of a minister seeming less perswasive because this is alwayes accompanied with the spirit the other is not but supposeth some grace in the hearer which it stirreth or if it be accompanied with a quickning or healing grace it is of Gods mere indulgence and not by vertue of Gods ordinary constitution and promise and therefore the spirit going with the exhortation of the minister doth alwayes edifie or is resisted and so the word preached by him is a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish to the one the favour of death unto death and to the other the savour of life unto life The Apostles all this while had not received the gradual complement of the gifts ordained to be bestowed upon the ministers of the new Testament Sect. 3. it was meet that Christ should in our entire nature open heaven and enter into it before the fulness of the ordinary or extraordinary gifts subservient for the right using of the Keyes of Heaven should be granted to his Vicegerents upon earth Wherefore after his opening and possession of Heaven he gave those gifts unto men both extraordinary in the Apostles Evangelists and Prophets and ordinary in the Pastors and Doctors The first ordinary Pastors received their ordination from the Apostles of the Apostles we know no other ordination then Christs immediate calling of them to that office in which they were by the foresaid degrees perfected the Pastors received in the Apostles ordination their seminal or virtual ordination as was said to their function which received its perfection of degrees in the effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles The Author of the Comments upon St. Paul's Epistles attributed to St. Ambrose saith that it was lawful at the first for Laicks and Deacons to preach in the Assemblies and Baptize yet of that his assertion he brings no sound proof Philip was ordained a Deacon and he baptised the Eunuch Ananias a Disciple baptised Saul after called Paul did Ananias do so onely in the capacity of a Disciple and the other onely in the capacity of a Deacon No surely for it appears that they had an immediate mission from God to teach and baptise which is equivalent to an ordination to the office of a Pastor either as to those acts onely and for that time only or as to the whole pastoral function to be constantly exercised If any examples be found in the Acts of the Apostles of any Laicks or Deacons performing pastoral offices whose ordination ordinary or extraordinary is not mentioned it s meeter to judge and beleive that they had either the ordinary call or the extraordinary according to the examples of Ananias and Philip when the contrary cannot be proved then to affirm that any lay-man might then at his pleasure exercise the acts of that sacred vocation Paul was no sooner a Christian but he was instantly by Christs immediate appointment made an Apostle Act. 9.15 20. cum Gal. 1.16 17 23. and without any other ordination preached the Gospel of Christ 1 Tim. 2.7 yet some years after he together with Barnabas were by the express command of the Holy Ghost ordained by certain Prophets and Doctors which then were at Antioch In which ordination two things are observable First that the Apostles were ordained by their inferiors in office but the extraordinary commission whereby this was done makes an exception confirming the rule which is that without all contradiction the less is blessed of the greater Heb. 7.7 The second thing to be considered in that ordination are the sacred ceremonies used in the ordination of Pastors to wit prayer which is the principal fasting to commend the prayer and imposition of hands as a visible demonstration of Gods blessing them and their ministery with the gift of the spirit to accompany their service to the loosing of men from the guilt and power of sin and setting of them at liberty to walk in the wayes of Gods commandements An ordination of Pastors celebrated without any one of these ceremonies cannot be accounted right and regular St. Paul with other who were Presbyters ordained Timothy by the joint imposition of his and their hands we find imposition of hands placed by the Apostle among the fundamentals of Christian Religion 1 Tim. 4.14 cum 2 Tim. 1.6 Heb. 6.1 2. and there although it followeth the immersions in the names of the blessed Trinity and therefore may seem to import confirmation yet it need not
ordmem contingit esse distinctionem dignitatum officiorum quae tamen novum gradum vel ordinem non constituunt ut Archipresbyter Episcopus Archiepiscopus Patriarcha pontifex summus qui ultra sacerdotium non addunt ordinem nec gradum novum sed solum dignitatem officium ita Episcopatus prout concernit ordinem sacer dotti benè potest dici ordo sed prout distinguitur contra sacerdotium dicitur dignitatem quandam vel officium Episeopi annexum non est propriè nomen ordinis nec no vus character imprimitur nec nova potestas datur sed potestas data ampliatur unde sicut non recipit alias claves sic nec alium ordinem hoc sensit magister Hugo de S. Victore Magister sententiarum Bonavent in 4. dist 24. q. 3. Et postea non ita propriè dicitur aliquis ordinari cum promovetur in Episcopum sicut cum promovetur in sacerdotem sed magis propriè dicitur consecrari postea non datur ibi nova potestas sed solùm potestas ligandi solvendi ampliatur Solis sacerdotibus datur in ordine sacerdotali potestas clavium scilicet quantum ad solvendum ligandum quasi mediatoribus inter Deum subditos Si objiciatur quod magis couvenit potestatem clavium dart Episcopo in consecratione Episcopi dicendum quod nequaquam quia Episcopus non dicitur novum ordinem nec in consecrationem Episcopi datur novus ordo sed tantum ampliatur potestas Alex. Halens to 4. de potest clavium q. 20. m. 8. a. Probatum est scilicet disp 140. c. 1. inquit Vasques quod Hieronymus nullam constituat differentiam jure Divino inter Episcopatum Presbyterium sed censeat jure tantum ecclesiastico discrimen fuisse introductum In 3. p. disp 142. c. 8. Ego sanè inquit Vasques suspicor vehementer S. Thomam existimasse consecrationem cum qua confertur potestas Episcopajis jure humano esse introductam In 3. p. disp 143. c. 2. and that in all Churches where fit men for that office were found they were ordained and set over the presbyters and that the Senate of presbyters did alone govern onely in some Churches where no man was found fit to be made a Bishop Hierom and some other taught Episcopes solae ordinatione superiores esse Presbyteris Chrysost in 1. Ep. ad Timoth. hom 11. Postea unus est gradus S. Hierom in 1. Ep. ad Tim. c. 3. that the Apostles left at the first the whole care of every Church where none of them or their Vicegerents or Evangelists resided unto the body of the presbyters of each Church which exercised all Ecclesiastical powers in common until the presbyters began to divide the flock and to make of one Church many Independent Congregations For the avoiding of which inconvenience the Churches unanimously agreed to commit the principal care of every Church unto one presbyter without whose consent the rest of the presbyters were not allowed to exercise any part of their Ecclesiastical function In Ep. ad Tit. c. 1. vide gloss dist 23. c. legimus and to that advanced presbyter some ministerial acts and also the name of Bishop were after some time appropriated Before Sidings in Religion saith Hierom were made by the instinct of the Devil and that it was said among the people El Amalarium de Eccles offic l. 2. c. 13. Et Steph. Eduens Episcopum de sacramento altaris c. 9. I am of Paul I of Apollos c. the Churches were governed by the Common Council of the Presbyters but after that every Presbyter thought those whom he baptised to be his and not Christs it was decreed in all the world that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be set over the rest unto whom all the care of the Church should appertain and so the seeds of Schismes should be taken away A little after he affirmeth that at the first the care of the Church was equally divided among many and yet a little further having cited out of 1. Epist to Tim. and the Epist to Titus and the Epist to the Philipp c. these saith he were said that we might shew that the ancient Presbyters were the same with Bishops but by little and little that the plants of dissention might be plucked up In quos delinquentes nonnunquam Episcoporum Presbyterorum censura desaevit Hier. ad Demetriad all the sollicitude was delated to one Therefore as the Presbyters know themselves by the custome of the Church to be subject to him who is set over them so let Bishops know themselves to be greater then Presbyters more by custome then by the truth of Divine dispotision and ought in common to rule the Church imitating Moses who when he might have alone ruled the people yet chose other with whom he would judge them The words of this ancient Father need no explication for they say plainly that every Church meaning wherein no extraordinary minister resided Apostle or his Vicegerent was at the first governed by the Colledge of Presbyters and that their dividing one Church into many Independent Congregations Quare in Ecclesia baptizatus nisi per manus Episcopi accipiat Spiritum Sanctum id factum reperimus ad honorem potius sacerdotii quā ad legis necessitatem Ecclesiae salus in summi sacerdotis dignitate ac veneratione consistit cui si non exors quaedam ab hominibus omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur schismata quot sacerdotes Inde venit ut sine chrismate Episcopi jussione neque Presbyter neque Diaconus jus habeat baptizandi quod frequenter si tamen necessitas cogit scimus licere laicis Hier. contra Lucifer first that we can find in Corinth after in many other places put a necessity upon the Churches to provide a convenient remedy against so dangerous a disease which remedy was the committing of every Church to one chief minister to whom the rest were to be subordinate in the manner before specified Here observe 1. that according to St. Hierom every Bishop ought to rule the Church in common with the presbyters 2. that Hierom saith that the decree of making one chief in every Church was in all the world whereby he intimates this institution of Bishops to have its beginning after the planting of the Churches in most parts of the then known world 3. that he affirmeth that Paulatim by little and little or by degrees the care of every Church was committed to one which doth insinuate that the decree instituting a Bishop was not in a Synod of the Apostles or Churches but enacted in every Church first in some then in other and in a short time in all over all the world in such manner as a general custome is created and therefore he saith that the Presbyters are subject to the Bishop by the custome of the Church and the Bishop greater
invalid Serm. de extellent sacrorum Ord. Ivo Carnotensis speaking of the ordination of Presbyters and having said that the Bishop and Presbyters had laid their hands he adds and they invocate the Holy Ghost upon them which are ordained where he leaves nothing proper for the Bishop but the words of benediction prolated by him and onely by him as in the place of Christ The Bishop invocated in the name of the whole congregation and blessed in the name and place of our Saviour St. Ambrose writing to a Bishop whom he had ordained Epist l. 1. Epist 3. ad Episcopum Comensem saith the ordination which thou hast received by the imposition of my hands and benediction in the name of the Lord Jesus is not reprehended in Esa c. 58. Hierome saith that ordination is not fulfilled onely by imprecation of the voyce but also by imposition of hand Now because the benediction was and ought to be said while the Bishop and Presbyters in the ordination of these impose and hold their hands on the head of the person to be ordained the formal prayer going before the imposition and following after it and because it is the principal part of the ordination to which the imposition of hand is subservient as it is a vertual prayer St. August saith De baptis contra Donatist l. 3. c. 16. what is imposition of hand but a prayer over a man And as it is spoken by the Bishop in Christs stead delivering the Ecclesiastical power in Christs name Ambrose saith In Epist 1. ad Timoth. c. 4. that the imposition of hands are mystical words whereby the elect to the office of the sacred ministery receiving authority is confirmed for his work that he may be bold to offer Sacrifice to God in Christs steed Whereby we see that imposition of hand and the benediction are distinct parts of ordination yet so conjunct and the benediction so excelling the imposition of hand that the whole is reckoned nothing else but a benediction or prayer I confess that I did sometime begin to suspect that when the Roman Court had determined ordination to be a Sacrament properly so called as baptism and instituted by our Saviour they put in those words in the solemnity of ordination for the better confirmation and propagation of their new opinion but considering the reasons aforesaid and especially that the blessed Reformers of our Church have retained the same words and nothing doubting but that in so doing they did not favour the popish opinion but were perswaded they did therein follow their pattern which was the usage of the Primitive Church I rejected that conceit and suspition The first Author that I can remember to have read more expressely intimating the said words of benediction to be used in the ordination of Presbyters is our Country-man Alexander of Hale in these words Summ. part 4. q. 21. membr 4. the Keyes saith he are given with the sacerdotal order when it is said whose fins you remit c. and when a Bishop is consecrated another Key is not conferred upon him but the use of that first Key is extended Thus far he who flourished about the year 1240. In the words Whose sins ye remit c. remission must not be taken precisely for the taking away the guilt of sin or the reconciling of paenitents upon their private or publick repentance for sins committed after baptism but also for the taking away the power and raign of sin which is done by infused grace which having removed the spiritual darkness and death illuminates the soul and makes it alive to God Every part of the Presbyterial function tends to this last effect as well as to the former although one pastoral office may be more especially directed to the former and another in a more special manner to the latter effect The Fathers do often apply those words in St. John now frequently remembred and the like in Matth. ch 16. and chap. 18. to the act of reconciling Paenitents to God and the Church and much oftner then they do to any other kind of the ministerial loosing or remission and they had good reasons moving them so to do For first Haereticks began in the second Century to deny that Christ left any ministerial power in his Church for the remission of any great sin committed after baptism and this Heresie was revived by Novatian and Novatus in the third Century and quickned by the Donatists in the fourth Century Against which the Orthodox Pastors of the Church used those places of Scripture to prove that the power of reconciling such Penitents was given to the Church of Christ Secondly the zeal of the people in the Primitive Times and the encouragements of the Ministers and after the Canons of the Church inclined the people to make confession of their secret enormities to the Church or Pastors not because necessary to salvation but because it was found very profitable as the times and persons were then qualified and publick offendors were brought to publick repentance and this being duely performed were publickly reconciled to God and his Church These things being so frequent and solemn yet very irksome and grievous to flesh and blood it was very necessary for the Fathers of the Church to put the people dayly in mind of the benefit of those confessions and penitence and the necessity of both as to scandalous offences in order to a publick reconciliation which they could not otherwise do better then by making use of those places of Scripture for the Demonstration and proof of the peoples Duty and the certainty and comfort of their reconciliation None of those holy Pastors denyed the ministerial power of remission or loossing to be exercised in the other ministerial offices instituted as the means which God would bless if not abused for the begetting and increasing of saving grace Yea some of them have expressely taught that the preaching of the word baptism and consequently the Lords Supper are Keyes which open Heaven to some and shut Heaven against others and are the instruments of Gods power to loose some from the bonds of the guilt and power of sin and to bind those that refuse to be loosed by them For doth not the Lords Supper bind the unworthy receivers who eat and drink their own damnation and doth it not set at liberty and open Heaven to them who in eating and drinking according to the will of Christ eat and drink their own salvation but le ts hear what holy Hierome saith the Apostles do loose men saith he by the words of God In Esa c. 14. the testimony of the Scriptures and exhortation of vertues Epist ad Hedib q. 9. And again in another place the Apostles saith he in the first day of Christs resurrection received the grace of the Holy Ghost whereby they might remit sins and baptise and make sons of God and give the spirit of adoption to believers our Saviour himself saying