denote confirmation alone but any other perpetual ordinance of God wherein this ceremony was to be used by the authority of the Apostles exampled and practise They which say that this ceremony was to last no longer in use then God was pleased to continue the miraculous operations usual in the Apostolick times seem to impute inconsiderateness to the Apostle in reckoning that one of the fundamentals of Religion which was not to be perpetually continued in the militant Church but we are assured that the Apostle being moved by the Holy Ghost could not speak inconsiderately and that every fundamental of Christian Religion shall continue in Christs Church unto the end of the world as this ceremony both in confirmation and in ordinations of Pastors hath hitherto been alwayes used in the universal Church and without doubt will so continue unto the end of time Pastors are called in the Apostolical Epistles by two other names Sect. 4. that is Bishops and Presbyters the Apostleship contained in it self the pastoral offices and therefore an Apostle was also called a Bishop and Presbyter The first mention of Pastors by the name of Presbyters of Elders is in Acts 11.30 where the Church of Antioch is said to have sent relief by Barnabas and Saul unto the Elders of the Churches in Judaea in the time of the great dearth which was in the days of Claudius Caesar in the 15 Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we finde the controversie concerning the necessity of circumcision and keeping of the Law of Moses brought by Paul and Barnabas before the Apostles and Elders or Presbyters in the Church of Jerusalem to be by them determined We see in the chapter of the Acts how that Paul with some of the brethren went in unto James and all the elders were present whence we may observe that the Apostles did not discuss and end the controversie concerning circumcision and keeping of the Law without the presence of the Presbyters of the Church where they then were nor did James alone heat Paul but together with his Presbyters did both hear him and give him that seasonable Councel to purifie himself for the avoiding the offence of the beleiving Jews which were numerous in Jerusalem Here ariseth a question Sect. 5. whether St. James was head of the Presbyters of the Church of Jerusalem onely as he was an Apostle having his ordinary residence in that Church or also as having an ordinary authority over the Presbyters which was to be continued to successors over the succeding Presbyters it is certain that as an Apostle he was the head of the Presbyters having a superiority over them but as the Apostleship was not to pass to successors so neither was his authority to be conveyed to any in succession but to be terminated with his life it is more then probable that at that time he was their superior onely as an Apostle settled in that Church neither had we need to conceive him in any subsequent times to become their head in any other sense then this if the unanimous testimony of the ancient Doctors of the Church did not constrain us to be of another judgment unless we will reject the witness of the Catholick Church constantly persevered in from the beginining of the second Centuary after our Saviours birth unto this day For the Fathers do constantly affirm that St. James was for some time before his decease Bishop of the Church of Jerusalem not onely in the sense of the word Bishop common to an Apostle and every Presbyter but in the sense which soon after the time of Clemens Romanus was appropriated to it that is signifying such a Presbyter as had a superiority over all the rest of the Presbyters of the same Church to continue in him during life and to be transferred to some other after him Hegesippus an Historian Apud Euseb hiss l. 4. c. 21. Ibid. l. 3. c. 29. who flourished about the year 170 relateth that after the death of St. James Simon Cleopa being chosen Bishop of the Church of Jerusalem one Thebulis began to corrupt the Church with vain Doctrine because he was not made Bishop there And the same Historian writeth that Simon Cleopa lived Bishop of that place until the times of Trajane the Emperor under whose government Simon suffered Martyrdome and John the Apostle died by which testimony of an historian who lived within 60 years after the death of the Apostle St. John it plainly appeareth that Simon was not after the death of St. James brother of our Lord constituted onely a single Presbyter of that Church nor James before him head thereof only as an Apostle or an extraordinary governour but that both were ordinary rulers of the whole Church as well Presbyters as the other members thereof Clemens Alexandrinus Paedagog l. 3. c. ult Strom. 6. who lived before the year of our Lord 200 makes a clear distinction between a Bishop and a Presbyter saying that in the Scriptures some precepts pertain to Bishops some to Presbyters and some to Deacons and in another place that a Presbyter doing and teaching according to Gods will although he be not on earth honoured with the first chair shall sit on the 24 thrones judging the people and a little after he saith that here in the Church the provections or proficiencies of Bishops Presbyters Deacons be imitations of the angelical glory Tertullian who flourished in the year of our Lord 200 De Monogamia c. 11. mentions an use in his time of asking leave of the Bishop of the Presbyters and of the Deacons to marry Elsewhere he calls upon the Hereticks to shew the beginnings of their Churches and so to reckon the order of their Bishops running from the beginning by successions that the first Bishop have an Apostle or an Apostolical man for his auctor or antecessor as the Church of Smyrna relates Polycarpus to be placed there Bishop by John the Apostle and the Church of Rome reporteth Clement to have been ordained there by Peter the Apostle Adversus Valentin c. 4. In another place the same author saith that Valentinus because he was ingenious eloquent had hoped an Episcopacy De Baptismo c. 17. and being angry that another by prerogative of Martyrdome had obtained it he departed from the Church In another place he hath this observation viz. the emulation of Episcopacy is the mother of Schismes Adversus haeres l. 3. c. 3. apud Euseb l. 5. c. 18. I must not forget the testimony of Ireaaeus who affirmeth of himself that he was a hearer of Polycarpus who was not onely taught by the Apostles and conversed with many of them which saw the Lord but was also by the Apostles in Asia Advers haeres l. 3. c. 3. Edit Paris 1567. in which is the Church of Smyrna constituted a Bishop the same Irenaeus doth enumerate the Bishops of Rome which succeeded one another from Peter unto Eleutherius who was the
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
against the Canons and that they will be obedient to the Bishop c. which oath because it is dangerous we do all with one consent ordain that it be prohibited A Canon of a Council celebrated an 1355 comes to my mind which saith lest the faithful whō the divine piety was mercifully pleased to put under a light burthen and a sweet yoke should be burthened with the weight of sin by reason of their transgressions against the Canons we ordain that the provincial constitutions of our predecessors and those which shall be hereafter made oblige not the trangressors to sin ad culpam but onely to punishment ad paenam Whether the moderation of these Synods be worthy of imitation I leave to others to judge Many have entertained a great fear Sect. 15. which hath alienated their minds from all Episcopacy namely that an innumerable company of unnecessary and burthensome ceremonies be inseparable concomitants of Episcopal government Indeed the fear is not vain and without ground if we respect the degenerated Episcopacy as it is if we regard the primitive which hath and will be contented with very few if need be Witness Gregory the great who saith that it was the custome of the Apostles Greg. Epist l. T. Ep. 63. to consecrate the Eucharist using only the Lords prayer with him agrees Walifridus Strabus it is the relation of our Ancestors saith he that the Mass was wont to be made in the first times as now in the Good Friday De rebus Eccl. c. 22. i. e. after the Lords Prayer and the commemoration of Christs passion as himself hath taught us the communion of the body and blood of our Lord was given to all that were prepared About forty years after the death of St. John the Apostle Justin Martyr relates In Apolog. ad Auton that when the people of the City and Countrey adjacent met together on the Lords day the Reader read out of the Apostles and Prophets and then the President made a Sermon upon the Scripture then read which ended all stood up to prayer which done they kissed one another then bread and wine and water were offered to the President which he having received prayed again and gave thanks as he was able which ended the people said amen Then the Deacons gave the consecrated bread wine and water to every one present to receive and they carried the same to the absent Here we have the substance of the ancient Liturgy of the Church in use at that time short and sweet Where the Lords prayer was not alone used in the consecration as in the Apostles time but also the Bishops prayer whereof the words as he was able may imply either that he prayed as well as his memory would serve him to utter a premeditated prayer without book or that he prayed as devoutly as he could which is the best construction of them So that hence it may not appear whether it was a read or a premeditated and memorially delivered prayer The same old author saith concerning Baptism as many as believe those things to be true which have been told and taught them by us and promise to live accordingly are instructed to pray fasting for the pardon of their sins we fasting and praying with them and then they are by us brought to the water and regenerated as we our selves were in the name of the Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost being washed in the water Then we bring them to the Brethren who are met together making common prayers for themselves the baptized and all other wheresoever c. We are to note that he mentions a Reader which whether he were a Presbyter or a Deacon or a distinct degree instituted by the Church cannot be gathered from his writings which are now extant In the end of the second Century the Reader appears to be a distinct degree the ordinations of Haereticks saith Tertull. are rash light unconstant therefore one is with them to day a Bishop and another to morrow De praescript haeret c. 41. he is to day a Deacon which shall be the next day a Reader he is to day a presbyter which is the next day a Laick And it is to be seen in Cyprian about the year 250 2. Epist 5. l. 3. Ep. 22. that he ordained Aurelius and Saturus Readers in his Church and Optatus a subdeacon At the same time Cornelius Bishop of Rome writing to Fabius saith Apud Euseb l. 6. c. 42. that in the Church of Rome there were of Presbyters forty six of Deacons seven of sub-deacons seven of Acolythes 42 of Exorcists Readers and Porters 52 of Widows and Poor above 1500 all which the Church fed Here we find Exorcists and Readers both which were in Justin Martyrs time about the year 150 to be reckoned among the Clergy of the Church of Rome and the Reader distinguished from the Presbyter and Deacons After this about the year 400 the distinct ordinations of Bishops of Presbyters of Deacons of Sub-deacons of Acolythes of Exorcists or Readers and of Porters or Dore-keepers and of Singers are set down in the fourth Council of Carthage Conc. Carth. 4. c. 1. ad 10. It must not be imagined that any of these besides a Presbyter and Dore-keeper was in every Parochial Church but only in the Cathedral or mother Church of the Diocess and in some such parochial Churches as were able to maintain a greater or lesser number of them And therefore it seems hard to lay upon one minister in the parish Church the burthen of all the offices to be born by himself alone which in the Cathedral were executed by many As to read every Lords day all the service first and second being a thing above the strength of most if the Sermon be not omitted as the Bishops and Presbyters bordering upon the times of the Apostles with the peoples consent committed the office of reading the holy Scriptures in the Churches to men of an inferior ordination so their successors shortly after committed the office of teaching the Catechumens to the like persons but more learned and apt to teach Both these as also some others were separated from the Laicks and destinated for the Presbytery They were the Bishops and Presbyters Scholars bred up by them for the high and sacred ministery and advanced thereto if they became capable and the Church had need of them So that Readers and Catechisers were incomplete preachers of the Gospel until by the higher and divine ordination Christ breathed upon them giving them the Holy Ghost which made them complete preachers who do not perform a complete act of preaching unless with the publishing of the text wherein the Readers help them they also publish an exposition and exhortation thereupon as Justin Martyr did and the succeeding ancient Fathers who grounded their Homilies or Sermons upon a portion of the Scriptures then read before them One ordinance of God is not to
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
of old condemned in the Canons of the Church under pretence of contumacy or the like But I am weary of raking in this puddle Concil Aurelian 5. c. 2. Leo. Epist 87. where the many dependences upon those Courts seemed to require exorbitances that every one might have a tolerable livelyhood If the excrescencies which the corruptions of the times made to adhere to the primitive Episcopacy were cut off and the spiritual jurisdiction restored to the Bishop and Presbyters it is not to be doubted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. munus baptizandi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost in 1 Cor. hom 3. but that our brethren who dislike the Episcopacy in its present constitution and the more because they took an oath whether well or ill I let go to endevour the abrogation of it would be abundantly satisfied with the Apostolical Episcopacy where one was ordained for the union strengthening of the jurisdiction of Presbyters for the defence of which Episcopacy they had taken a former oath in the solemn Protestation which as taken lawfully and in lawful things maketh all contrary oaths unlawful to be after either taken or kept Although the Apostles ordained no governing Elders besides the Bishop and preaching Elders yet the primitive Episcopacy will well bear that some lay Elders be joyned to the Presbytery and in every parish where fit persons may be had to help the Bishop and Presbyters in the inspection of manners in the instruction of the ignorant in brotherly admonitions and teproofs and in giving notice to the Bishops and Presbyters of the scandalous offences to be proceeded against in an Ecclesiastical order and also to represent the people and vote for them where their consent is requisite Here I desire it may be noted that when I spake of Presbyters which were the Senate of the ancient Bishops Conc. Neocaesar cum Ep. 7. Zachariae papae ad Bonifac. c. 4. c. 15. Et Concil Meldens an 845. c. 54. I understood not all and every one subject unto the Bishop but the more ancient grave pious learned discreet and moderate of them for such were the City Presbyters in the old times which alone usually and mostly were the Bishops assessors in the spiritual judicature and which therefore in some places and specially in Rome obtained the name of Cardinal Presbyters Some dislike the civil honour wherewith godly Kings have dignified our reverend Prelates Sect. 13. truely if the taking of it had made them less able to fulfil the office of preaching the Gospel or did widen the distance between them and the Presbyters or made them less accessible by or condescending to their flock or ecclipsed the veneration due to their CoÌ„-presbyters or involved them in civil affaires which all the ancient Canons forbid the addition of that honour were not to be liked but it is evident enough to the eye of every impartial judgement and the lives of many most holy Bishops have made it good that if any of these evils happen'd from the receiving of that dignity as too often hath been seen it proceeded from the evil of the person and not from the innocent honour which wâ—s conferred upon them by pious Princes out of their love to Châ—â—â—â— and his Ambassadors the better to preserve them from the contempt of the wicked who regard no goodness besides the civil and worldly and to enable the better to maintain the great interest which in civil things belongs to the Ecclesiastical estate and that the great Council of a Christian Kingdom should not sit without giving the Ambassadors of Christ an honourable place and priviledge among them that in them Christ might be seen to be the more present and their ready spiritual Council might prevent some proceedings not well agreeing with the interest of religion and the laws of Christ which without them might more easily happen But what was done in a heat may be undone in a milder temper Irenaeus who was born within very few years after the decease of the Apostles saith that the Church nourished such presbyters of whom the Prophet saith I will give thy Princes in peace and thy Bishops in righteousness where this ancient Father doth shew that Bishops be princes And so doth Hierom upon the place the prophet saith he calleth the future princes of the Church Bishops Esa 60.17 Secund. 70. interpret It is then very congruous that the Christian Kings set over these Ecclesiastical princes and by their ministery made partakers of the caelestial dignities should in a certain way of retribution dignifie them with some eminent degree of civil honour which cannot be well supported without some proportionable revenue The Holy Scripture tells us that it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive Surely God would have every of the presbyters of the Church enabled for that blessed work of giving over and above a convenient maintenance for Wife and Children which the Apostle supposeth to be in their families for whom they are bound to provide or in the judgment of the same Apostle to be deemed to have denied the faith and to be worse then infidels And if every Presbyter ought to be thus provided for if possible then the elder Brethren should have a double portion besides the proportion which their civil dignity doth require and where any of the rest are indued with more excellent ministerial gifts it 's very convenient they should have a larger measure of the matter and instruments requisite for the fuâ—l exercise of their more excelling vertues What the revenue of the reverend Bishops is I do not know but I have good reasons to assure me that it is not excessive at which any would grudg or envy except the sacrilegious truckers which would have the reverend Clergy live upon their leavings and scraps Certain it is that the maintenance of many hundreds of Pâ—â—sbyters is so small that they can scarse feed and cloath their Families so that when they die many Hospitals might be filled with their poor Wives and Children And if no better provision be made for the poor Cures and Vicarages it were an eminent work of charity to erect and endow Hospitals proper to poor Ministers Wives and Children This starving of Christs Ambassadours is the shame and great sin of the Kingdome But now it is the hope and expectation of all good men that his sacred Majesty and the most honourable houses of parliament will provide a remedy for this miserable disease of the Church for it 's onely an act of parliament that can surely sweetly and fully cure it There be not a few who complain against the canonical oath Sect. 14. concerning which I can find no mention until about the year 813. wherein the Fathers of the second Council of Cabilon say it is spoken of certain of our brethren that they compel them whom they are to ordain to swear that they will do nothing
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