672 The HISTORY of the PURITANS. Chap. VIII K. Charles I. a ny fcores who have been ordained by a bithop in his private chapel, to. " without the prefence of any prefbyter, except his domeftic chaplain, who only read prayers. Befides, the bifhop's letters oforders make " no mention of the afiìflance of prefbyters, but challenge the whole " power to themfelves, as his lordfhip had done in hisbook entitled, Epif- " copacy of Divine Right, the fifteenth fehtion of which has this title, thepostier ofordination is only in bops." Whether But the main point upon which the bifhop lays the whole firersof the presbyters caufe is, Whetherprelbyters may ordain without a bifhop? For the proof of may tornaab1_ this, the Smetlymnuans produce the author of the comment on the Ephefians, /hop, which goes under the name of St. Ambrofe, who lays, that in Egypt the prefbytera ordain if the bift.wp be notprefent; fo faith St.Augu /line in the fame words; and, the Chorepifcopus, who was only a prefbyter, had power to impofe hands, and to ordain within his precin&s with the bithops licence ; nay further, the prefbyters of the city of Alexandria, with the bifhop's leave, might ordain, as appears from Con. Ancyr. Carit. 3. where it is faid, it is not lawfulfir chorep/iopi to ordain prefbyters or deacons; not fir the prefbyters of the city without the bop's letter, IN ANOTHER PA RIsH; which implies they might do it with the bifhop's letter, or per- haps without it, in their own ; and Firmilianus lays of them who rule in the church, whom he callsfeniores &preepoftti, that is prefbyters as well as bithops, that they had the power of baptizing and oflaying on ofhands in ordaining . II. The It may be come fatisfa&ion to the reader, to fee the judgment of other learned men upon this argument, whichhas broke the bands of brotherly love and charity, between the church of England and all the foreign proteffants that have no bithops. The learned primate of Ireland archbifhop UJher, in his letter to Dr. Bernard rays, " 1 have ever declared.my opinion to be, that epifcopur &presbyter gradu tantum dfrrunt, " "ion ordine, and confequently, that in places where bithops can't be had, the ordination " by prefbyters Rands valid ; but the ordination made by fuch prefbyters as have fevered " themfelves from thofe bifhops towhom they have fworn canonical obedience, I can't ex. ".cute from being fchifmatical. I think that churches that have no bifhops are defe&ive " in their government, yet for the juftifying my communion with them (which I do love " and honour as true membersof the church univerfal) I do profefs if I was in Holland,' " I Should receive the bleffed facrament at the hands of the dutch miniffers, with the like " affe&ion as I fhould from the hands of thefrench minifters, was I at Charente's." The fame mot{ reverend prelate, in his anfwer to Mr. Baxter fays, " That the king having " afked him at the ifleof Wight, whether he found inantiquity, thatpresbytersalone ordained any? He replied yes, and that he could thew hismajefty more, even where presbyters alone " fuccefvely ordained baps, and inflanced in Hierom's words, Epj/t. adEvagrium, of the presbyters of Alexandria choofing and making their ownbishops from the days of Mark, " till Heraclus and Dionyfius." Baxter's life, p. 206. This was the conftant fenfe of our fiat reformers, Cranmer, Pilkingtan, yewe , Grindal,' Whitgift, &c. and even of Bancraje himfelf; for when Dr. Andrews bifhop of Ely, mo-. vert
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=