As a sacred significant ceremony we may not use it, 1. Because it hath been proved,[1025] that men may never, at their pleasure, ascribe to any rite whatsoever, a holy signification of some mystery of faith or duty of piety. The apostles, indeed, by laying on of their hands, did signify their giving of the gift of the Holy Ghost; but, now, as the miracle, so the mystery hath ceased, and the church not having such power to make the signification answer to the sign, if now a sacred or mystical signification be placed in the rite, it is but an empty and [pg 1-333] void sign, and rather minical than mystical. 2. All such sacred rites as have been notoriously abused to superstition, if they have no necessary use, ought to be abolished, as we have also proven;[1026] therefore, if imposition of hands in ordination be accounted and used as a sacred rite, and as having a sacred signification (the use of it not being necessary), it becometh unlawful, by reason of the bygone and present superstitious abuse of the same in Popery.

Now the right and power of giving ordination to the ministers of the church belongeth primarily and wholly to Christ, who communicateth the same with his bride the church. Both the bridegroom for his part, and the bride for her part, have delivered this power of ordination to the presbytery jure DIVINO. Afterward the presbytery conferred, jure humano, this power upon them, who were specially called bishops, whence the tyrannical usurpation of bishops hath in process followed, claiming the proper right and ordinary position of that which at first they had only by free concession; and thus that great divine, Franciscus Junius,[1027] deriveth the power of ordination. All which, that it may be plain unto us, let us observe four several passages.

1. The whole church[1028] hath the power of ordination communicated to her from Christ, to whom it wholly pertaineth; for, 1. It is most certain (and among our writers agreed upon) that, to the whole church collectively taken, Christ hath delivered the keys of the kingdom of heaven with power to use the same, promising that whosoever the church bindeth on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whosoever she looseth on earth, shall be loosed in heaven, Matt. xviii. 18; therefore he hath also delivered unto the whole church power to call and ordain ministers for using the keys, otherwise the promise might be made void, because the ministers which she now hath may fail. 2. Christ hath appointed a certain and an ordinary way how the church may provide herself of ministers, and so may have ever in herself the means of grace and comfort sufficient to herself, according to that of the Apostle, 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos,” &c. But if she had not the power of ordaining ministers [pg 1-334] unto herself when she needeth, then might she sometimes be deprived of such an ordinary and certain way of providing herself. 3. When the ministry of the church faileth or is wanting, Christian people have power to exercise that act of ordination which is necessary to the making of a minister. Dr Fulk[1029] showeth out of Ruffinus and Theodoret, that Ædesius and Frumentius, being but private men, by preaching of the gospel, converted a great nation of the Indians; and that the nation of the Iberians being converted by a captive woman, the king and the queen became teachers of the gospel to the people. And might not, then, the church in those places both elect and ordain ministers?

2. The church hath, by divine institution, delivered the power of ordaining ordinary ministers to the presbytery, whereof the church consisteth repræsentative. And so saith Pareus,[1030] that the power of mission (which is ordination) belongeth to the presbytery. Scriptura, saith Balduine,[1031] ordinationem tribuit toti presbyterio, non seorsim episcopo. With whom say the Professors of Leyden in like manner.[1032] Now when the divines of Germany and Belgia speak of a presbytery, they understand such a company as hath in it both those two sorts of elders which we speak of, viz., some who labour in the word and doctrine, whom the Apostle calleth bishops, and others who labour only in discipline. The apostolic and primitive times knew neither parishional nor diocesan churches. Christians lived then in cities only, not in villages, because of the persecution; and it is to be remembered, that in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Colosse, Philippi, Thessalonica, and such other cities inhabited by Christians, there were more pastors than one. The Apostle called unto him the elders (not elder) of the church of Ephesus, Acts xx. 17; he writeth to the bishops (not bishop) of the church at Philippi, Phil. i. 1; he biddeth the Thessalonians know them (not him) which laboured among them, 2 Thess. v. 12. Now that number of pastors or bishops which was in one city, did in common govern all the churches within the city, and there was not any one pastor who, by himself, governed a certain part of the city particularly assigned to his charge, [pg 1-335] to which purpose the Apostle exhorteth the elders of the church at Ephesus, to take heed to all the flock, παντι τῳ ποιμιῳ, Acts xx. 28. And to the same purpose it is said by Jerome,[1033] that before schemes and divisions were, by the devil's instigation, made in religion, communi presbyterorum consilio ecclesiæ gubernabantur.

This number of preaching elders in one city, together with those elders which, in the same city, laboured for discipline only, made up that company which the Apostle,[1034] 1 Tim. iv. 14, calleth a presbytery, and which gave ordination to the ministers of the church. To the whole presbytery, made up of those two sorts of elders, belonged the act of ordination, which is mission, howbeit the right,[1035] which was imposition of hands, belonged to those elders alone which laboured in the word and doctrine. And so we are to understand that which the Apostle there saith of the presbytery's laying on of hands upon Timothy. As for Dr Downame's[1036] two glosses upon that place, which he borroweth from Bellarmine, and whereby he thinketh to elude our argument, we thank Dr Forbesse[1037] for confuting them. Quod autem, &c.: “But whereas (saith he) some have expounded the presbytery in this place to be a company of bishops, except by bishops thou would understand presbyteries, it is a violent interpretation, and an insolent meaning, and whereas others have understood the degree itself of eldership, this cannot stand, for the degree hath not hands, but hands are men's.” Wherefore the Doctor himself, by the presbytery whereof the Apostle speaketh, understandeth (as we do) confessus presbyterorum.

But since we cannot find, in the apostles' times, any other presbytery or assembly of elders beside that which hath been spoken of, how cometh it, nay, some say that the church of Scotland, and other reformed churches, did appoint two sorts of presbyterial assemblies, one (which here we call sessions) wherein the pastor of the parish, together with those elders within the same, whom the Apostle calleth governments and presidents, put order to the government of that congregation, another (which here we presbyteries) wherein the pastors of sundry [pg 1-336] churches, lying near together, do assemble themselves? Which difficulty yet more increaseth, if it be objected that neither of these two doth in all points answer or conform itself unto that primitive form of presbytery whereof we speak. Ans. The division and multiplication of parishes, and the appointment of particular pastors to the peculiar oversight of particular flocks, together with the plantation of churches in villages as well as in cities, hath made it impossible for us to be served with that only one form of presbytery which was constitute in the apostles' times. But this difference of the times being (as it ought to be) admitted, for an inevitable cause of the differences of the former, both those two forms of presbyterial meetings appointed by the church of Scotland do not only necessarily result from that one apostolic form, but likewise (the actions of them both being laid together) do accomplish all these ordinary ecclesiastical functions which were by it performed.

And first, Sessions have a necessary use, because the pastors and those elders who assist them in the governing of their flocks must, as well conjunctly as severally, as well publicly as privately, govern, admonish, rebuke, censure, &c. As for presbyteries, because the parishes being divided in most places, there is but one pastor in a parish, except there should be a meeting of a number of pastors out of divers parishes, neither could trial be well had of the growth or decay of the gifts, graces, and utterance of every pastor, for which purpose the ninth head of the First book of Discipline appointed the ministers of adjacent churches to meet together at convenient times, in towns and public places, for the exercise of prophecying and interpreting of Scripture, according to that form commended to the church at Corinth, 1 Cor. xiv. 29-32. For yet could the churches be governed by the common council and advice of presbyteries, which being necessary by apostolic institution, and being the foundation and ground of our presbyteries, it maketh them necessary too.

3. After the golden age of the apostles was spent and away, presbyteries, finding themselves disturbed with emulations, contentions, and factions, for unity's sake, chose one of their number to preside among them, and to confer, in name of the rest, the rite and sign of initiation (which was imposition [pg 1-337] of hands) on them whom they ordained ministers. This honour did the presbyters yield to him who was specially and peculiarly called bishop, jure humano; yet the act of ordination they still reserved in their own power. And wheresoever the act doth thus remain in the power of the whole presbytery, the conferring of the outward sign or rite by one in the name of the rest, none of us condemneth, as may be seen in Beza, Didoclavius, and Gersom Bucer. Neither is there any more meant by Jerome[1038] when he saith, “What doth a bishop (ordination being excepted) which a presbyter may not do?” For, 1. He speaketh not of the act of ordination, which remained in the power of the presbytery, but of the outward sign or rite, which synedochically he calls ordination.[1039] 2. He speaketh only of the custom of that time, and not of any divine institution; for that the imposition of hands pertained to the bishop alone, not by divine institution, but only by ecclesiastical custom, Junius proveth[1040] out of Tertullian, Jerome and Ambrose.

4. Afterward bishops began to appropriate to themselves that power which pertained unto them jure devoluto, as if it had been their own jure proprio. Yet so that some vestiges of the ancient order have still remained; for both Augustine and Ambrose (whose words, most plain to this purpose, are cited by Dr Forbesse[1041]) testify that, in their time, in Alexandria and all Egypt, the presbyters gave ordination when a bishop was not present. The canon law[1042] ordaineth that, in giving of ordination, presbyters lay on their hands, together with the bishop's hands. And it is holden by many Papists (of whom Dr Forbesse[1043] allegeth some for the same point) that any simple presbyter (whom they call a priest) may, with the Pope's commandment or concession, give valid ordination. That which maketh them grant so much is, because they dare not deny that presbyters have the power of ordination jure divino. Yet saith Panormitanus,[1044] Olim presbytery in communi regebant ecclesiam, et ordinabant sacradotes. The Doctor himself holdeth, [pg 1-338] that one simple presbyter howsoever having, by virtue of his presbyterial order, power to give ordination, quod ad actum primum sive aptitudinem, yet quo ad exercitium cannot validly give ordination without a commission from the bishop or from the presbytery, if either there be no bishop, or else he be a heretic or wolf. But I would learn why may not the presbytery validly ordain, either by themselves, or by any one presbyter with commission and power from them, even where there is a bishop (and he no heretic) who consenteth not thereto; for the Doctor[1045] acknowledgeth, that not only quo ad aptitudinem, but even quo ad plenariam ordinationis executionem, the same power pertaineth to the presbytery collegialiter, which he allegeth (but proveth not) that the apostles gave to bishops personaliter.

Now from all these things princes may learn how to reform their own and the prelates' usurpation, and how to reduce the orders and vocation of ecclesiastical persons unto conformity with the apostolic and primitive pattern, from which if they go on either to enjoin or to permit a departing, we leave them to be judged by the King of terrors.