Plea for Scripture Ordination, Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
Instances of Ordination by Presbyters in Scripture. St. Paul and Barnabas Ordain'd by Presbyters. Their Ordination a Pattern to the Gentile Churches, Acts 13.1, 2, 3. vindicated. Turrianus's Evasion confuted. Timothy Ordained by Presbyters, 1 Tim. 4.14. explained. The Particles foreign and foreign used promiscuously.
THAT Ordination of which we have Scripture Examples is valid,Arg. II. but of Ordination by Presbyters we have Scripture Examples, therefore Ordination by Presbyters is valid. The Major I hope will not be denied, it carries its own Evidence with it to such as are willing to be guided by the practise of Apostolical Churches, which is the first, and best Antiquity. The Minor I thus prove, St. Paul and Barnabas were Ordained by Presbyters, Acts 13.1, 2, 3. so was Timothy, 1 Tim. 4.14.
These two Instances deserve a more particular consideration. Concerning the first, in Acts 13. these two things are evident: 1. That Luke speaks of Ordination, he mentions the separating of Paul and Barnabas to a Ministerial Work, by Fasting and Prayer, with the Laying on of Hands; and what more can be done in Ordination? It's true, they had an extraordinary Call before, Gal. 1.1. yet being now to plant the Gospel among the Gentiles, they enter upon their Work at the ordinary Door of Ordination.Vol. 1. p. 289. Dr. Lightfoot thinks it was for this reason, That the Lord hereby might set down a Plat-form of Ordaining Ministers to the Church of the Gentiles to future times.
2. The Ordainers were Prophets and Teachers, Acts 13.1, 2. Now Teachers are ordinary Presbyters, who are distinguished from Prophets and other extraordinary Officers, both in 1 Cor. 12.28. and in Eph. 4.12. Every Presbyter is a Teacher by Office.Vid. Sade…l. Oper. p. 600. Turrianus the Jesuit thinks to avoid the force of this quotation, by affirming the Prophets mentioned in this Ordination to have been Bishops, and the Teachers to have been meer Presbyters, and that these Presbyters were Paul and Barnabas, who were now created Bishops. But this is a most ridiculous evasion. Was St. Paul, the chief of Apostles, but a meer Presbyter? was he inferior to Lucius, Niger, and Manaen? Apostles were superior to Prophets, much more to Teachers, 1 Cor. 12. 28. The Prophets here could not be Bishops, because they were extraordinary Officers, and there were more then one in this Church, and in the Church of Corinth, 1 Cor. 14.29. Neither is there any ground in the Text of this distribution, that Teachers should refer to the Ordained, and Prophets to the Ordainers. This is a meer fiction of the Jesuit to support the Cause of Prelacy.
If any say, This separation of Paul and Barnabas was not to the Office of the Ministry, but to a special Exercise of it. I answer, it doth not alter the Case: For here are all the outward Actions of an Ordination properly so called, Fasting, Prayer, with Imposition of Hands to a Ministerial Work. Now the Question is, Who have power to perform these Actions▪ here the Presbyters do it. They to whom all the outward Actions of Ordination belong, to them the Ordaining Power belongs, as he that hath power to wash a Child with Water in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, hath power to Baptize; for what else is baptizing, but washing with Water in the Name of the Sacred Trinity for special Dedication to God? He that hath power to set apart Bread and Wine for Sacramental use, hath power to Administer the Lord's Supper: So here, they that have power to dedicate Persons to God for the Work of the Ministry by Fasting, Prayer, and Imposition of Hands, have power of Ordination. It's true, a Lay-Patron may give one power to exercise his Ministry, that cannot give the Office; but can he do this by repeating all the solemn Acts of Ordination? Can he use the same form of Ordination with the Ordaining Bishop? Can he lay hands upon the Person ordained, and by Fasting and Prayer devote him to God in the Publick Congregation? I think none will affirm it. If he cannot invest a Person by repeating the whole form of Ordination, because he is a Lay-man, and hath not the Ordaining Power, therefore they that can use the form of Ordination have power to Ordain. The Bishops would not like it, if all those that are Ordained by them in Scotland should be declared uncapable of Exercising their Office there, until they were admitted by a Classis of Presbyters with solemn Imposition of Hands. It would scarce satisfie them to say, That the Presbyters imposed Hands only to impower the Person in the Exercise of his Office, and not to give the Office it self, when they performed all the outward Actions of Ordination, which are the ordinary means of conveying the Office.
I proceed to the second Instance of Ordaining Presbyters mentioned in 1 Tim. 4.14. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. Here Timothy is Ordained by the Presbytery; nothing can be more express then this Testimony. Two things are usually objected to this Scripture.
Object. 1.Obj. 1. By foreign is meant the Office of Presbytery, and not the Colledge of Presbyters, saith Turrianus the Jesuit, who is followed by some Protestants.
I answer; Answ. 1.The word foreign is never taken in this sense in the New Testament; it always signifies a Company of Presbyters; see Luke 22.66. Acts 22.5. Presbyterium is used by Cyprian for a Consistory of Elders, Lib. 2. Ep. 8. & 10. Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, Cypr. lib. 3. ep. 11.in an Epistle to Cyprian, saith, Omni actu, ad me perlato, placuit contrahi Presbyterium: Adfuerunt etiam Episcopi quinque, &c. The Office of Presbytery is expressed by foreign.
2. What sence can be made of the Text according to this Interpretation? Neglect not the gift — given thee by prophecy, Vid. Camer. Myroth. p. 280.with the laying on of the hands of the office of Presbytery. Hands belong to the Persons, and not to the Office. Nor can foreign be the Genitive Case to foreign. Neglect not the gift — of the office of Presbytery; for foreign and foreign come between. Thus the Text, Mforeign. To refer foreign to foreign would invert the natural order of the words, which is not to be done without evident necessity, otherwise the Scriptures may be made a Nose of Wax, and the clearest Expressions wrested to a contrary sense by such Transpositions and Dislocations.
3. But suppose this sense were admitted, and foreign be taken for the Office of Presbytery, it will not prejudice our Argument; for it will follow, that Timothy was but a meer Presbyter by Office, and that it belongs to the Office of a Presbyter to impose Hands for Ordination, because Timothy, a Presbyter, did so, 1 Tim. 5. 22. So that whether we understand the place of a Bench of Presbyters Ordaining Timothy; or, of the Office of a Presbyter, into which Timothy was Ordained, and by virtue of which he had power to Ordain others, it equally proves our assertion, that meer Presbyters did Ordain.
Object. 2. Obj. 2.Timothy was Ordained by Paul, with the concurrence of the Presbyters.Inter Op. Sad. p. 788. Non excluduntur Presbyteri ab impositione manus approbante, sed ab impositione manus ordinante, saith the Jesuit; who is followed by some of our own; they say, The efficacy of Timothy's Presbyteratus was in Paul, as in a Bishop (and therefore he saith in 2 Tim. 1.6. foreign) and in the Presbyters by a bare concurrence, and therefore it's said foreign denotes Authority, and foreign a meer Instrumentality.
Answ. Answ.It cannot be denied but Paul laid hands upon Timothy, 2 Tim. 1.6. but how doth it appear that it was for Ordination? it might be, for any thing appears to the contrary, for the conferring of the Holy Ghost, which was given by the Laying on of the Apostles Hands, Acts 8. …17, 18. But if he laid Hands for Ordination, it's certain he joyned the Presbyters with him, which he had not done, if there had not been an inherent Power of Ordination in Presbyters as such. The Apostles did not assume to themselves the sole Power of Ordination, but took the Presbyters for their Associates in this Action. Paul joyns Barnabas with him, Acts 14.23. who, if he were one of the Seventy Disciples (as Dorotheus affirms,Doroth. Synopf. Euseb. lib. 1. c. 12. with whom agrees Eusebius) then was he of the Order of Presbyters, according to that Hypothesis that makes Bishops to succeed the twelve Apostles, and Presbyters the Seventy Disciples, and so we have another Example of a Presbyter ordaining. The like must be said of Timothy, who laid on Hands in Ephesus, not without the Presbyters joyning with him, who were made Bishops there by the Holy Ghost, Acts 20.17, 28. He would not assume a greater Power to himself then Paul did; but Paul joyned the Presbyters with him in the Act of Ordination, therefore Timothy did the like.
Nothing can be gathered from the Particle foreign applied to Paul's Act, and foreign as applied to the Presbyters Act, for they are used promiscuously in the New Testament, and the signification of them must be determined by the subject matter. foreign in 1 Tim. 4.14. respects the moving Cause that encouraged Paul, with the Presbyters, to lay Hands on Timothy; see 1 Tim. 1.18.
But usually foreign with a Genitive Case signifies an instrumental working, or efficiency. See Matth. 8.17. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken foreign, by Esaias the Prophet. We are said to be justified foreign, Rom. 3.30. It signifies also a way, or medium, that respects a certain end. See Matth. 2.12. & 7.13. & 12.43.
I find foreign and foreign used promiscuously in Acts 15.4, 12. & 14.27. foreign by them, is rendred foreign in v. 12. and yet the same thing is intended, viz. what God did by them as Instruments.
Paul's foreign, and the Presbyters foreign—do equally imply an instrumental efficiency. For all Ordainers are Ministerial Deliverers of Possession, and none of them principal efficient Donors, Christ is the Authoritative Giver of the Ministerial Power, by his Law, which is the Fundamentum Iuris. As the King's Charter to a Corporation determines who shall be capable of being Mayor, how he shall be chosen, and how invested, here the Mayor's Power is immediately from the King's Charter, as the efficient constitutive Instrument, and all that others do is but to determine of the Recipient, and Invest him: so the Lord Jesus Christ hath hath in his Law determined the Office of the Ministry, the qualifications of the Persons, and how they are to be separated for the Work, all that belongs to the Ordainers is but ministerialty to Invest a capable Recipient. They are no Efficients of the Power, that is immediately from Christ's Law, which is the Fountain and Measure of their Power.
Thus the Presbyters, in the purest and first Age of the Church, had the Ordaining Power, which they kept for a considerable time, as we shall see …non, though as the Church degenerated from the first Purity, and the number of Presbyters increased, one was chosen, as President of the rest, who …hould Impose Hands in the Name of …is Collegues. Hence the Superior Dignity of Bishops, who at length …ubjected not only to their Hands, but …o their Feet also, not Presbyters alone, …ut Sovereign Princes and Emperours, that we may not forget the Bishop …f Rome) so that at length the poor …resbyters were no more then the Bishops Curates, as our Liturgy distinguisheth them, in the Prayer for Bishops and Curates. The easiest and more honourable Parts of the Ministerial Work (as they were reckon'd) they reserved in their own hands; and committed the rest to their Presbyters.