Episcopacy by Divine Right Asserted, Part 2 · Section 15
§. 15.
Power of Ordination only in Biſhops.
BUt in the fourth place the ſeverall acts that were appropriated to the Biſhops alone, by the univerſall conſent of all times, do more than ſufficiently evince their acknowledged ſuperiority; wherein even thoſe Teſtimonies, which are wont to be alleadged againſt us, do directly plead for us. Hierome himſelf can ſay, Excepta ordinatione; and Chryſoſtome (who is cited for foreign) can yet adde foreign. Only in laying on of hands Biſhops go beyond them.Homil. 11 in 1 Tim. 3
Neither is this any ſleight difference, or deſpicable priviledge; but ſuch as implyes a manifeſt Superiority (as Ambroſe juſtly inferreth) and a clear diſtinction of Order: Hands were impoſed in the Church of old, for more than one purpoſe. In abſolution for the penitent's reconciliation to God and the Church: In Confirmation for the increaſe of Grace upon the baptized: In Ordination for the bleſſing,Conc. Carthag. 4. c. 3. Benedicente eum Epiſcopo, & manum ſuper caput ejus imponente. and hallowing of the Ordained. The firſt of theſe, as incident and annexed to the holy Order of Prieſt-hood may be common to a Presbyter within his own compaſſe; but the other two have been ever held ſo intrinſecall to Epiſcopacy, that I would fain ſee where it can be ſhowed that any extremity of neceſſity was by the Catholike Church of Chriſt ever yet acknowledged for a warrant ſufficient to diffuſe them into other hands. It was to Timothy and Titus (by the conſent of all Antiquity) Biſhops of their ſeverall Dioceſes, and not to any Ordinary Presbyter, that St. Paul gives that charge of impoſition of hands: That Presbyter had been a monſter among Chriſtians, that would have dared to uſurpe it; and the Church of thoſe firſt ages obſerved it ſo Curiouſly, that beſides thoſe ſtrict Lawes, which they made for the prevention of any ſuch inſolence, reſtraining even one kinde of Chorepiſcopi Rurall Biſhops from this power (for there was another ſort, which were in the nature and quality of ſuffraganes furniſhed with Epiſcopall right) they have left unto us memorable records of their ſevere proceedings againſt ſuch preſumptions; I may not forget two or three remarkable hiſtories to this purpoſe.
foreign.Colluthus, a Presbyter of Alexandria took upon him ordain Presbyters; for this he was convented in the generall Councell, before Hoſius and other Biſhops, and with deſerved checks remanded to keep within his own Tether, and a Nullity pronounced of thoſe his miſordained: Iſchiras who pretended to be one of thoſe, his miſ-made Presbyters, was (in his Adminiſtration of the bleſſed Sacrament, (whiles he had the holy Cup in his hand) violently oppoſed (and that upon the inſtigation of Athanaſius) by Macarius. He complains there of a ſacrilegious aſſault; about an hundred Biſhops are aſſembled in Aegypt; Iſchiras himſelf is convented, his Ordination examined, and he found to be no Presbyter, becauſe only ordained by a Presbyter; he is ſent away without remedy, with a deveſtitute from his pretended Orders, and together with all his fellows, turned down to the Laick form.Quo pacto igitur Presbyter Iſchiras aut quo tandem authore conſtitutus Athanaſ. apolog 2. Perpet govet…. c 13. The equity of the ſact is ſo clear (ſaith this Apologiſt for Athanaſius) that no man ever thought it could be doubted of: An hiſtory (as our learned Biſhop well obſerves) ſo much the more conſiderable, for that it carries in it the univerſall conſent of the whole Primitive Church, whoſe abridgement that holy Councell was, which was after repeated, and ſeconded by the Synode of Alexandria. Much of the ſame kinde is that commonly noted ſtory of the Councell of Civill: A Biſhop who had ſore eyes,Concil. Hiſpalen. 2 c. …5. being to ordain Prieſts and Deacons, laid his hands on them; but cauſed his Chaplain, a Presbyter that ſtood by, to ſupply his eyes, by reading the words of their Ordination and Benediction; The Councell queſtioned the fact, cenſured it of bold preſumption, and uſurpation; and would have cenſur'd the man, if his death had not prevented them; and concluded, Tales merito &c. Thoſe men are worthy to be diſcarded, becauſe they were wrongfully made: What need I preſſe the hiſtory of Muſaeus, and Eutichianus, whoſe Ordinations were alſo in this manner reſcinded, and nullified by the Councell of Sardica; Or that of the great Councell of Conſtantinople concerning Maximus, or, out of Sozomon, the proceedings againſt Elpidius, Euſtathius, Baſilius, Eleuſius, for their miſ-ordination of Presbyters; this peculiar act was a thing ſo univerſally both granted to, and practiſed by Biſhops, that in vain ſhall we ſearch through all antiquity, for an inſtance of any regular performance to the contrary. Neither can the oppoſites hope to finde ſhelter under that noted text of St. Pauls to Timothy; 1 Tim. 4 14. Calvin Inſtit. lib. 4. cap. 3.Neglect not the gift that is in the &c. by the impoſition of hands of the Presbytery: when Calvin himſelf interprets the place, not of the men, but of the office; following herein Jerome and Anſelme, Haimo, Lyra, and others; referring it to the gift, not to the hands: whoſe reaſon alſo is more ſtrong than his authority: For if Timothy were ordained by a Presbytery, then by more than one: but St. Paul in another place ſaith, that his hands (and no other) were impoſed on Timothy: And if more hands were required to this ſervice, it had been as eaſie for the Apoſtles to have encharged it upon the Presbytery, as upon Timothy. Little did Calvin think of the double Presbytery of Tileno-maſtix, Paracl. c. 5when he gave this interpretation of St. Pauls foreign: But if either the Apoſtles then, or the Biſhops ſince, have had other hands laid upon the ordained, together with theirs, as the rule and practiſe of the Church of England is, yet fain would I ſee where ever it can be read, that Presbyte…s, without a Biſhop, in a regular courſe impoſed hands for Ordination.