Plea for Scripture Ordination, Chapter 4
CHAP. IV.
Presbyters have power of Ordination, because they have power to Preach, Baptize, and Administer the Lord's Supper. These are not inferior to Ordination, proved from the Nature of these Acts, from Christ's Commission, from the Sense of the Ancients. Object. The Apostles reserved Ordination to themselves and Successors. Answ. 1. They joyned the Presbyters with them. 2. The Apostles as such had no Successors, prov'd from the Peculiars of their Office, from the the Testimonies of Sadeel, Barrow, Lightfoot. Another Objection answered.
THey who have power to Preach the Gospel,Arg. III. to Baptize, and Administer the Lord's Supper, have power of Ordination, but meer Presbyters have power to Preach, Baptize, and Administer the Lord's Supper, therefore they have power of Ordination.
The Major only requires proof, which I thus prove; Preaching, Baptizing, and Administring the Lord's Supper are Ministerial Acts not of an inferiour Nature to Ordination, & parium par est ratio. That they are not inferiour to Ordination appears both from the nature of the thing, and from Scripture. It appears,
1. From the nature of the thing it self. Let us consider each apart: As to Preaching the Gospel Authoritatively in the Name of Christ, it's a most glorious Ordinance; the Publishers of it are called Ambassadors for Christ, 2 Cor. 5.20. And is an Ordainer any thing more? In the Act of Preaching they represent the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Prophet of the Church, Matth. 10. 40. and can any thing be more honourable? They are said to be workers together with God, 2 Cor. 6. 1. and is an Ordainer more then this?
As to Baptism, It's a solemn dedication of a Person to God; Ordination is no more; only the former is to Christianity as such, the latter to a particular work. In this, Baptism hath the preference, for it is a Sacramental Dedication, which Ordination is not.
In the Lord's Supper, the Minister sets apart Bread and Wine, as Symbolical Representations of Jesus Christ, who is exhibited with all his Benefits to worthy Receivers. Ierom saith of Presbyters, Ad quorum preces, Corpus & Sanguis Christi conficitur. Now which is greater, to impose Hands, or to make the Sacramental Body and Blood of Christ? If they have power to consecrate holy Things, why not holy Persons also?
2. It will appear from Scripture that the Ministerial Acts now mentioned are not inferiour to Ordination. When St. Paul saith, 1 Cor. 1. 17. That Christ did not send him to baptize, but to preach the Gospel, surely he means one of the highest Ministerial Acts, else he would have said, Christ sent me, neither to baptize, nor to preach, but to ordain Ministers. I would fain know, whether Christ did not mention the chiefest parts of a Ministers work in the Commission given in Matth. 28. 19, 20. Go teach all Nations, baptizing them, &c. If Ordination had been the main and chiefest part, he would have said, Go, ordain Ministers, preach, and baptize. Christ's not mentioning it, is an Argument that it is not the principal part of a Minister's Office, but rather subordinate to preaching and baptizing, and therefore included here, as the lesser in the greater, though not expressed. A Commission usually specifies the Principal Acts which a Person is impower'd to do, when others of an inferiour Nature may be implied. Commissions do dot run à minori ad majus, a superiour Office may include the Duties of an Inferiour, but not on the contrary. It is the rather to be presumed Christ would have mentioned the Ordaining Power in the Ministers Commission, if it had been superiour to Preaching and Baptizing, because the Commission was immediately directed to the Apostles, whose Successors Diocesan Bishops pretend to be, and from whom they derive the Ordaining Power, as proper to themselves.
It may be, it will be said, That administring the Lord's Supper is not mentioned in their Commission, though it be not inferiour to Preaching and Baptizing. True, but the not mentioning of it, is an Argument it is not a greater Ministerial Act then those that are mentioned, and that it is not to be Administred by Officers superiour to those that Preach and Baptize, but that the same Persons may Preach, Baptize, and Administer the Lord's Supper. The same I say of Ordination, it's not being expressed here is a sign it is not greater then those Ministerial Acts that are mentioned, and that they that have power to Preach and Baptize, have also to Ordain. Though this Objection be grounded on a Mistake of the Text, for the Lord's Supper is mentioned in the following words of the Commission, Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, among which the Lord's Supper is one, Matth. 26. 26, 27.
3. The Ancients argued from Baptism to Ordination,Lomb. …. 4. distinct. 25. as is observed by the Master of the Sentences.
Object. Some may say, The Power of Ordination is denied to Presbyters, not because Ordination is greater then other Ministerial Acts, but because the Apostles thought fit to reserve it to themselves, and proper Successors, who are Diocesan Bishops.
Answ.Answ. This is to beg the Question. We have proved already that the Apostles reserved not the Power of Ordination to themselves, but joyned the Presbyters with them. Nor are the Bishops the Apostles Successors as such, for the Apostles had their Call immediately from Heaven, Gal. 1. 1. had extraordinary qualifications, could confer the Holy Ghost, were infallibly assisted in their Ministerial Conduct, and were Universal Officers, none of which can belong to Diocesan Bishops. The Apostles were not tied to any one Nation, Province, or City; they were to preach the Gospel to all Nations; but they ordained Presbyters or Bishops in every Church, Acts 14. 23. or City, Tit. 1. 5. to whom they committed the ordinary Government of the Church: These were not sent to preach the Gospel to all NaNations, but to feed the particular Flock, over which the Holy Ghost made them Bishops, Acts 20. 28. Now these stated particular, and fixed Church-Officers vastly differ from universal, unlimited, and unfixed Officers. You may as well say, that a petty Constable, whose power is confined to the narrow limits of a little Village, succeeds the King, who governs a whole Kingdom. When I see Bishops immediately sent of God, infallibly assisted by the Holy Ghost, travelling to the remotest Kingdoms to preach the Gospel in their own Language to the Infidel Nations, and confirming their Doctrine by undoubted Miracles, I shall believe them to be the Apostles true Successors in the Apostolical Office.
Our Learned Writers against the Papists do unanimously deny the Apostles,Sad. contra. Turr. p. 570. as such, to have any Successors. Nemo sanè nisi planè sit foreign, Apostolatum cum Episcopatu confuderit, saith the Noble and Learned Sadeel.
Dr. Barrow of Supremacy, p. 120, 121. The Offices of an Apostle and of a Bishop are not in their nature well consistent, for the Apostleship is an extraordinary Office, charged with the instruction and government of the whole World. — Episcopacy is an ordinary standing Charge affixed to one place — Now he that hath such a general care can hardly discharge such a particular Office, Barr. supr. p. 120,121and he that is fixed to so particular an Attendance, can hardly look well to so general a Charge. A disparagement to the Apostolical Ministry, for him [Peter] to take upon him the Bishoprick of Rome, as if the King should become Mayor of London, as if the Bishop of London should be Vicar of Pancras. He saith a little before, St. Peter's being Bishop of Rome, would confound the Offices which God made distinct; for God did appoint first Apostles, then Prophets, then Pastors and Teachers; wherefore St. Peter, after he was an Apostle, could not well become a Bishop, it would be such an irregularity, as if a Bishop should be made a Deacon. To the same purpose-speaks Dr. Lightfoot, Lightf. Vol.I. p.187.who proves by several Arguments, That Apostles were an Order unimitable in the Church.
Object. The Ordainers gave not the Ordaining Power to Presbyters, therefore it belongs not to them.
Answ. They are Ordained to the Offfice of the Ministry, of which the Ordaining Power is a Branch. It's not the intention of the Ordainer, but the Office as constituted by Christ, that …s the measure of the Power. The Ordaining Power is not mentioned in the Apostles Commission, Matth. 28. 20. yet it is included in it. If Presbyters are sent to Preach and Baptize in the words of Christ's Commission to them, they are sent also to Ordain (as opportunities are offered to perform that Ministerial Act in a regular manner) for it's included in their Commission. Popish Ordainers did not intentionally give the Reforming Power to the first Reformers, yet no Protestant will question but it was annext to their Office as Ministers. Now the Office of the Ministry being from Christ, and not from Man, we must not go to the words of the Ordainer, but to the instituting Law of Christ, to know what the Office is. As if the City and Recorder should chuse and invest a Lord Mayor, and tell him,Vide Baxter against Dodwel, p.30. you shall not have all the Power given by the King's Charter, it's a Nullity, he shall have all the Power that the Charter giveth him, by virtue of his Office.