A treatise of miscellany questions wherein many useful questions and cases of conscience are…A treatise of miscellany questions wherein many usefull questions and cases of conscience are…

or yet to affirm that the giving of the holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, was extended to all Catechumens baptized in those times, or that the knowledge or profession of the Doctrine concerning the giving of the gifts of the holy Ghost, by such laying on of hands was such a principle, as that none ignorant thereof, though instructed in all the other Articles of Christian faith, could be received as a Church-member grounded in catechetical points.

or yet to affirme that the giving of the holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, was extended to all Catechumens baptized in those times, or that the knowledge or profession of the Doctrine concerning the giving of the gifts of the holy Ghost, by such laying on of hands was s•ch a principle, as that none ignorant thereof, though insttucted in all the other Articles of Christian faith, could be receaved as a Church-member grounded in catecheticall points.

I shall add a sixth argument from the example and practise of the Apostles and others who did ordain Church officers in their days, the example is binding in such things as were not only lawful and good, but have a standing and perpetual reason. The seven Deacons were ordained with prayer and ⟨p. 50⟩laying on of hands, Act: 6. 3. 6. Elders were ordained in every city, Tit: 1. 5. although those Elders were not to preach any new Gospel, Gal: 1. 8. Paul warneth Timothy, 1 Tim. 5. 22. lay hands suddenly on no man. i. e. be not rash in ordaining any to the work of the Ministry, let them be well examined and approved. This is the received sense of Interpreters following Chrysostom, Ambrose, Hierome, and others of the Fathers, yet Nicolaides Refut. tract. de missione Ministr▪ will have the Text understood, not of ordaining Ministers, but of admitting penitents, which was done with imposition of hands. But is this to expound Scripture by Scripture? or is it not rather to forsake an Interpretation confirmed by Scripture, and to follow one which is grounded upon no Scripture? For we read nothing in Scripture of laying on of hands in the receiving or restoring of penitents. Of the laying on of hands in Ordination, we do read in Scripture, and least it should be thought the act of one man only, it is mentioned as the act of the Presbytery,