so consequently different from them, must be understood either deacons alone, or, which is far more probable, presbyters and deacons. CHAPTER V. 1. The order and office of the deacons. 2. Subdeacons, what. § 3. Of acolyths, exorcists, and lectors; through those offices the bishops gradually ascended to their episcopal dignity. 4. Of ordination. First, of deacons. 5. Next, of presbyters: the candidates for that office presented themselves to the presbytery of the parish where they were ordained. § 6. By them examined about four qualifications, viz., their age. 7. Their condition in the world. 8. Their conversation. 9. And their understanding. Human learning needful. 10. Some inveighed against human learning, but condemned by Clemens Alexandrinus. § 11. Those that were to be ordained presbyters generally passed through the inferior offices. 12. When to be ordained, propounded to the people for their attestation. § 13. Ordained in, but not to a particular church. § 14. Ordained by the imposition of the hands of the presbytery. 15. The conclusion of the first particular, concerning the peculiar acts of the clergy. §-1. NEXT to the presbyters were the deacons, concerning whose office and order I shall say very little, since there is no great controversy about it: and had it not been to have rendered this discourse complete and entire, I should in silence have passed it over. Briefly, therefore, their original institution, as in Acts vi, 2, was to serve tables, which included these two things,-a looking after the poor, and an attendance at the Lord's table. As for the care of the poor, Origen tells us that "the deacons σων, ὅπου δὲ κλήρῳ ἔναγε τινα κληρώσων τῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος ση μαινομένων. Apud Euseb. lib. 3, cap. 23, p. 92. dispensed to them the church's money," being employed under the bishop to inspect and relieve all the indigent within their diocess: as for their attendance at the Lord's table, their office with respect to that consisted in preparing the bread and wine, in cleansing the sacramental cups, and other such like necessary things; whence they are called by Ignatius "deacons of meats and cups," assisting also, in some places at least, the bishops or presbyters in the celebration of the eucharist, "delivering the elements to the communicants." They also preached, of which more in another place; and, in the “absence of the bishop and presbyters, baptized." In a word, according to the signification of their name, they were, as Ignatius calls them, "the church's servants," ,"e set apart on purpose to serve God, and attend on their business, being constituted, as Eusebius terms it, "for the service of the public." § 2. Next to the deacons were the subdeacons, who are mentioned both by Cyprians and Cornelius.h As the office of the presbyters was to assist and help the bishops, so theirs was to assist and help the deacons. And as the presbyters were of the same order with the bishop, so probably the subdeacons were of the same order with the deacons, which may be gathered from what we may suppose to have been the origin and rise of these subdeacons, • Διάκονοι διοικοῦντες τὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας χρήματα. Comment. in Mat. tom. 16, p. 443, vol. 1. Βρωμάτων καὶ ποτῶν εἰσιν διάκονοι. Epist. ad Tralles. p. 48. • Διάκονοι διδόασιν ἑκάςῳ τῶν παρόντων μεταλαβεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ εὐχα pisývεvτos ρTOV Kai oivov. Just. Martyr. Apolog. 2, p. 97. d Baptismum dandi habet jus episcopus dehinc presbyteri et diaconi. Tertul. de Bapt. p. 602. • Ἐκκλησίας Θεοῦ ὑπηρέται. Εpist. ad Tralles. p. 48. 1 Ὑπερησίας τοῦ κοινοῦ. Lib. 2, cap. 1, p. 38. 8 Hypodiaconum optatum. Epist. 24, p. 55. ↳ 'Yπodiakóνovs έπтà. Apud Euseb. lib. 6, cap. 43, p. 244. which might be this: that in no church whatsoever was it usual to have more than seven deacons, because that was the original number instituted by the apostles: wherefore, when any church grew so great and numerous that this stinted number of deacons was not sufficient to discharge their necessary ministrations, that they might not seem to swerve from the apostolical example, they added assistants to the deacons, whom they called subdeacons or under-deacons, who were employed by the head or chief deacons, to do those services, in their stead and room, to which, by their office, they were obliged. But whether this be a sufficient argument to prove subdeacons to be of the same order with the deacons, I shall not determine, because, this office being now antiquated, it is not very pertinent to my design: I only offer it to the consideration of the learned who have will and ability to search into it. b § 3. Besides those forementioned orders, who were immediately consecrated to the service of God, and by him commissioned thereunto, there were another sort of ecclesiastics, who were employed about the meaner offices of the church, such as acolyths," exorcists, and lectors,c whose offices, because they are now disused, except that of the lector, I shall pass over in silence, reserving a discourse of the lector for another place; only, in general, these were candidates for the ministry, who, by the due discharge of these meaner employs, were to give proof of their ability and integrity, the bishops in those days not usually arriving, per saltum, to that dignity and honour; but commonly beginning with the most inferior office, and so gradually proceeding through the others till they came to the supreme office of all, as Cornelius, bishop of Rome, a Naricum acoluthum. Cyprian. Epist. 36, p. 87. b Unus de exorcistis vir probatus. Firmil. apud Cyprian. Epist. 75, § 10, p. 238. c Hos lectores constitutos. Cyprian. Epist. 34, § 4, p. 81. "did not presently leap into the episcopal throne, but first passed through all the ecclesiastical offices, gradually ascending to that sublime dignity;"a the church, in those happy days, by such a long trial and experience, using all possible precaution and exactness, that none but fit and qualified men should be admitted into those sacred functions and orders, which were attended with so dreadful and tremendous a charge. And this now brings me, in the next place, to inquire into the manner and form of the primitive ordinations, which I choose to discourse of in this place, since I shall find none more proper for it throughout this whole treatise. § 4. As for the various senses and acceptations which may be put on the word ordination, I shall not at all meddle with them; that ordination that I shall speak of is this, the grant of a peculiar commission and power, which remains indelible in the person to whom it is committed, and can never be obliterated or rased out, except the person himself cause it by his heresy, apostacy, or most extremely gross and scandalous impiety. Now this sort of ordination was conferred only upon deacons and presbyters, or on deacons and bishops, presbyters and bishops being here to be considered as all one, as ministers of the church universal. As for the ordination of deacons, there is no great dispute about that, so I shall say no more concerning it, than that we have the manner thereof at their first institution in Acts vi, 6, which was, that they were ordained to their office by prayer and imposition of hands. 5. But as for the ordination of presbyters, I shall more distinctly and largely treat of the manner and form thereof, which seems to be as follows: Whosoever desired to be admitted into this sacred office, a Non iste ad episcopatum subitò pervenit, per omnia ecclesiastica officia promotus-ad sacerdotii sublime fastigium cunctis religionis Cyprian. Epist. 52, § 4, p. 115. gradibus ascendit. he first proposed himself to the presbytery of the parish where he dwelt and was to be ordained, desiring their consent to his designed intention, praying them to confer upon him those holy orders which he craved. Now we may suppose his petition was to the whole presbytery, because a bishop alone could not give those holy orders, as is most evident from Cyprian, who assures us that "all clerical ordinations were performed by the common counsel of the whole presbytery." And therefore, when, upon a most urgent and necessary occasion," he had been forced to ordain one but a lector, without the advice and consent of his presbytery, which, one will be apt to think, was no great usurpation, he takes great pains (Epist. 24, p. 55) to justify and excuse himself for so doing. 66 § 6. Upon this application of the candidate for the ministry, the presbytery took it into their consideration, debated his petition "in their common council," and proceeded to examine whether he had those endowments and qualifications which were requisite for that sacred office. What those gifts and qualifications were touching which he was examined, may be reduced to these four heads, his age, his condition in the world, his conversation, and his understanding. As for his age: it was necessary for him to have lived some time in the world, to have been of a ripe and mature age; for they ordained no novices, or young striplings: that was the practice of the heretics, whom Tertullian jeers and upbraids with ordaining "raw and inexperienced clerks."a But as for the orthodox, they took care to confer orders on none but on such as were well stricken in years; observing herein the apostolic canon in 1 Tim. iii. 6: a Communi consilio omnium nostrum. Epist. 24, p. 55. d Nunc neophytos conlocant. De præscript. advers. Hæret. p. 89. |