3. It is a mean of imparting the power of miracles—the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Acts viii. 17.
4. And it is a communication of ministerial authority. Numb. xxvii. 18. 23. Deut. xxxiv. 9. 1 Tim. v. 22. Physical strength, special blessing, miraculous power, and moral authority, have, according to divine appointment, been communicated by the laying on of hands. These things have also been otherwise communicated. God selects means adequate to the end.
All the communications mentioned in scripture as made by the imposition of hands, are of an extraordinary kind, except one—that of authority. This is alone capable of being regulated by ordinary agency.
M’Leod’s Eccl. Cat.
[305]. See the True Nature of a Gospel church, Page 78-83. where it appears, from Ignatius, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian, that this was practised in the three first centuries; and from Blondel’s Apology, which he refers to, that it was continued in some following ages.
[306]. Vid. Aug. de Bapt. contr. Donat. Lib. III. cap. 6. Quid est aliud manus impositio quam oratio super hominem?
[307]. Vid. Greg. Naz. Epist. 42. ad Procop.
[308]. Near the latter end of the second century, Pantænus was a celebrated catechist, in the school supported by the church at Alexandria; and Clemens Alexandrinus was his first scholar, and afterwards succeeded him in the work of a teacher; and Origen was Clement’s scholar, and was afterwards employed in the same work in that school. And, in the fourth century, Athanasius, who strenuously defended the faith, in the council of Nice, against Arius, had his education in the same school; and Didymus, who flourished about the middle of that century, was a catechist therein, and Jerom and Ruffinus were his scholars.
[309]. So the vulgar Latin translation renders the word Κατηκουντι, Ei qui se catechizat.
[310]. Vid. Hieron. in Ephes. iv. 11. Non ait alios pastores, and alios magistros; sed alios pastores, et Magistros, ut qui pastor est, esse debeat & magister; nec in ecclesiis pastoris sibi nomen assumere, nisi posset docere quos pascit. & Aug. epist. 59. pastores & doctores eosdem puto esse, ut non alios pastores alios doctores intelligamus, sed ideo cum prædixisset pastores subjunxisse doctores ut intelligerent pastores ad officium suum pertinere doctrinam.