thy Mercy is great, and after the Multitude of thy Mercies look upon us, through the Merits and Mediation of thy blessed Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

CHAP. VII.

EMBER DAYS IN WHITSUN-WEEK.

Q. WHAT Fast doth the Church observe at this
Time?

A. The Second Season of the Ember-Days: which are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, after the Feast of Pentecost; Trinity Sunday which immediately follows, being one of the stated Times for Ordinations.

Q. What do you mean by Ordination?

A. A Privilege peculiar to the Character of a Bishop, who is a Governor in the Church of God; whereby he conveys Authority to some to preach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments, who are called Presbyters, and from whence is derived our Word Priest; and to others to be Assistants to himself and the Presbyters in their spiritual Administrations, who are called Deacons; which is performed by Prayer, and the Imposition of Hands: A solemn Ceremony of blessing and devoting Persons to the sacred Function. For as the laying the Hands upon the Head was a Rite of Benediction used by Jacob in blessing Joseph's Children, and Gen. xlviii. by Moses in blessing Joshua; so by the Sinners laying their Hands on the Heads of the Sacrifice, it xxxiv. appears that it was a Ceremony used in devoting Things to God; upon which Account this was appropriated to the Ordination of Church-men, who are to be blessed and devoted to God, and was made use of to express that Right and Authority which Persons do receive together with it, for the Exercise and Discharge of their Ministerial Function.

14.

9.

Heb. v.

10.

Luke vi.

15. v. 1.

Q. What Foundation is there for this Subordination of Church Officers from the Institution of Jesus Christ?

A. Our Blessed Saviour while here upon Earth, was himself the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls; an High-Priest, called of God, who in his Life-time established under himself two distinct Orders of Church Officers, the one superior to the other, vis. the Twelve Apostles, and the Seventy Disciples; who are so distinguished from one another, that it implies a Distinction in their Office, they are mentioned apart by different Names, and sent forth at different Times. In which Establishment our Saviour kept as nigh to the Form in use among the Jews, as was possible: who had their HighPriests, the Priests, and the Levites.

Q. How doth it appear that the Office of the Apostles, was superior to that of the Seventy?

A. This is evident, not only from our Saviour's particular Care, Solicitude, and Intercession for these Twelve, and his diligent instructing and teaching them more than the Rest of his Followers, revealing to them the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven; but from hence also, that the Successors of the Apostles were chosen out of the Seventy; and that Matthias, who was ordained into the Place of Judas, is by the Ancients affirmed to be of that Number; which argues the Apostles to be superior to the Seventy, otherwise it would be no Advancement to the Seventy to have succeeded Mat. x. 8. them. Besides the Apostles exercised Powers, which were not common with the Seventy, as cleansing the Lepers, and raising the Dead; and our Saviour, after his Resurrection, gave them a second solemn Mission, whereby these peculiar spiritual Powers were increased.

Luke x.

1, 9.

Acts vi.

Q. What Powers did the Apostles exercise which the Seventy were not endowed with?

A. The Power of Imposition of Hands in Ordinations, as is plain in the Institution of Deacons

:

who, though chosen by the Rest of the Disciples, yet they were set before the Apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their Hands on them. The Power of confirming baptised Christians; for when St. Philip had converted and baptised the Acts vii. Men of Samaria, the Apostles sent St. Peter and St. John to lay their Hands on them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: The Power of Jurisdiction and Authority to govern the Church, as is evident in the Case of Diotrephes, a Presbyter; whom, for not giving Heed to St. John's Letters, and for his Rejection of some faithful People from the Catholic Communion, without Cause, and without Authority, St. John the Apostle threatened, that when he came, he would remember his Deeds; 3 John. x. which would have been to no Purpose, if he had not had coercive Jurisdiction to have punished his Delinquency.

Q. But was not this Superiority and Subjection among the Ecclesiastical Orders temporary, and to cease with the Persons of the Apostles?

A. These Powers, peculiar to the superior Order, being necessary for the good Government of the Church, it is plain in Fact they did not expire with the Apostles. But as our Saviour glorified not Heb. ▾. 5. himself to be an High-Priest, but had his Commission from God the Father; so, after his Resurrection, he invested the Apostles with the same Commission his Father had given unto him. As my Father John xx. hath sent me, even so I send you; and he breathed on 21, 22, &c. them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. In which Commission is plainly contained the Authority of ordaining others, and a Power to transfer that Commission upon others, and those upon others to the End of the World. And to shew that it was not merely personal to the Apostles, our Saviour promises to be with them and their Suc-. cessors in the Execution of this Commission always even unto the End of the World. And in Pursuance Mat. xxvii. of this Commission, the Apostles ordained Bishops in 20.

FF

ii. 15.

all Churches, particularly St. James at Jerusalem, Epaphroditus at Philippi, as St. Paul did Titus at Crete, that he should set Things in Order that were Tit. i. 5. wanting, and ordain Elders in every City, and rebuke with all Authority, (the true Characters of episcopal Power) and Timothy at Ephesus, even after the Presbytery was formed and settled; St. Paul having laboured among them for three Years together. And there can be no other Reason given, why in the Primitive Language of the Church, Bishops are styled Apostles, but because they succeeded in the Apostolical Superiority. And there cannot be a greater Evidence that such a Superiority was not to be temporary, but perpetual, than the universal Practice in the purest Times, when they had no worldly Encouragements, but the Chief among them expected to be the first Martyrs.

Clem. Epist. ad Corinth.

Q. What was the Practice of the Primitive Church in respect to the Government of it?

A. The Christian Church, in the Ages next succeeding the Apostles, gives full Testimony in Behalf of Episcopal Government. Some Writers that attest this, lived in the very Days of the Apostles, p. 55, edit. and were their immediate Disciples: and others Jun. there are that succeeded those that were Disciples Terios of the Apostles; which makes them competent Ibid. p. 2 Witnesses of the Matter of Fact that is in Question.

Ηγέμενος &

St. Clement, who conversed with the Apostles, mentions three Orders of Church-Officers in his Time; and particularly distinguishes the Bishop from the Presbyter. St. Ignatius, who, in the Life-time of some of the Apostles, was Bishop of Antioch, is full and express for the Derivation of the Superior Order from the Apostles. And it is not to be imagined that the Christian Church would ever have admitted Bishops so universally, as it is apparent they did it in St. Ignatius's Time, when some of the Apostles were living, had not some of them derived their Authority from the Apostles immediately, of which we have Assurance from Eccle

siastical History. The Writers of the next Age, Justin Martyr, Hegesippus, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Irenæus, confirm the same Thing. All these are supported by the Testimonies of Tertullian, Origen, and St. Cyprian, who flourished in the Age following. And to strengthen all this we have conveyed to us, by Eusebius, the Succession of Bishops from the Apostles, in some great Churches, such as Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria; and it is reasonable to judge of the Government of those Churches that were not known, from those that were.

Q. What appears plain from these Primitive Records and Practice of the Church?

A. That their Church-government was formed according to the Model given by our Lord himself, and by his Apostles after him. He was himself the Great Shepherd and Bishop of his Church, while upon Earth, and his immediate Province was Judea. The twelve Apostles, whom he chose, were his Presbyters, whom he sent by two and two through his Province, to teach and to preach under him the Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. The Seventy he called out to be Ministers to both, and he had the supreme Care and Charge of all. After his Resurrection he gave an ample Commission to his Apostles to go and make all Nations his Disciples, and as his Father had sent him, so sent he them, and they were to be in his Stead as Ambassadors for him, to beseech Men to be reconciled to God, and to continue this Office to the End of the World. And because the Harvest was great and the Labourers few, when they had converted any Number of People to the Christian Faith, they took Care to ordain Presbyters and Deacons, to labour among them, reserving to themselves the chief Care of the Churches they had planted, till they should find fit Persons to whom they might commit it: And for this End. took along with them Companions in their