The true nature of a Gospel church and its government

4. NO Man can be properly or completely Ordained unto the Ministry, but he is Ordained unto a determinate Office; as a Bishop, an Elder, a Pastor. But this no Man can be, but he who is Ordained in and unto a particular Church. For the contrary practice,

4. NO Man can be properly or compleatly Ordained unto the Ministry, but he is Ordained unto a determinate Office; as a Bishop, an Elder, a Pastor. But this no Man can be, but he who is Ordained in and unto a particular Church. For the contrary practice,

1. WOULD be contrary to the constant practice of the Apostles, who Ordained no ordinary Officers, but in and unto ⟨p. 112⟩particular Churches, which were to be their proper charge and care, Act. 14.23. Tit. 1.5. Nor is there mention of any ordinary Officers in the whole Scripture, but such as were fixed in the particular Churches where-unto they did relate, Act. 20.28. Phil. 1.1. Revel. 2.3. Nor was any such practice known or heard of in the Primitive Church: Yea,

2. IT was absolutely forbidden in the Ancient Church, and all such Ordinations declared null, so as not to communicate Office-Power or give any Ministerial Authority. So it is expressly in the First Canon of the Council of Chalcedon, and the Council Decrees, That all Imposition of Hands, in such cases, is invalid and of no effect. Yea, so exact and careful were they in this matter, that if any one, for any just cause, as he judged himself, did leave his particular Church or Charge, they would not allow him the Name or Title of a Bishop, or to Officiate occasionally in that Church, or any where else. This is evident in the case of Eustathius a Bishop of Pamphilia. The good Man finding the discharge of his Office very troublesome, by reason of Secular Businesses that it was encumbered withal, and much opposition, with Reproach that befell him from the Church it self, of his own accord laid down and resigned his Charge, the Church choosing one Theodorus in his room. But afterwards he desired, that though he had left his Charge, he might retain the Name, Title and Honour of a Bishop: For this end he made a Petition unto the Council of Ephesus, who, as themselves express it, in mere commiseration unto the Old Man, condescended unto his desire as unto the Name and Title, but not as unto any Office-Power, which they judge, related absolutely unto a particular Charge, Epist. Can.