A42758:191
An assertion of the government of the Church of Scotland in the points of…
An assertion of the government of the Church of Scotland in the points of ruling-elders and of the authority of presbyteries and synods with a postscript in answer to a treatise lately published against presbyterial government.An assertion of the government of the Church of Scotland in the points of ruling-elders and of the authority of presbyteries and synods with a postscript in answer to a treatise lately published against presbyteriall government.
Edinburgh: printed for James Bryson, 1641Edinburgh: printed for Iames Bryson, 1641
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
CHAP. XIV. Of the Ordination of Ruling Elders, of the continuance of their Office, and of their maintenance.
Touching the first of these, it cannot be denied, but as Election to the Office, so ordination to the exercise thereof, is a thing common both to Preaching and Ruling Elders. Howbeit in Scotland imposition of hands is not used in the Ordination of Ruling Elders, as it is in the Ordination of Preaching Elders, yet this is not to be thought a defect in their Ordination;1 for imposition of hands is not an Act but a sign of Ordination, neither is it a necessary sign but is le•t free: it is not therefore without reason, that Calvin, Chemnitius, Gerard, Buca•, Ja•i•, Bucerus, and many other of our learned Writers, yea the Arch-bishop of Spalato do all make a distinction, betwixt the essential act of ordination, ⟨p. 104⟩and the external rite thereof, holding that ordination may be full, valid and complete, not only without the unction used in the Roman Church, but even without the laying on of hands, used in the Reformed Churches. After the Election of Ruling Elders, with the notice & consent of the whole Church, there followeth with us a public designation of the persons so elected, and an authoritative or potestative Mission, Ordination, or Deputation of them unto their Presbyterial functions, together with public exhortation unto them, and prayer in the Church for them, which we conceive to be all that belongeth either to the essence, or integrity of Ordination. I mean not to condemn Imposition of hands, nor any other convenient sign, in the Ordination of Ruling Elders, only J intend to justify our own form, as sufficient.
TOuching the first of these, it cannot be denyed, but as Election to the Office, so ordination to the exercise thereof, is a thing common both to Preaching and Ruling Elders. Howbeit in Scotland imposition of hands is not used in the Ordination of Ruling Elders, as it is in the Ordination of Preaching Elders, yet this is not to bee thought a defect in their Ordination;