This order was a long time observed in the ancient church invio- late, and the footsteps of it may be traced through all ages of the church, although it first gradually decayed, then was perverted and corrupted, until it issued (as in the Roman church) in a pageant and show, instead of the reality of the things themselves : for the trial and approbation of spiritual endowments, previously necessary unto the call of any, was left unto the pedantic examination of the bishop's domestics, who knew nothing of them in themselves ; the election and approbation of the people was turned into a mock show in the sight of God and men, a deacon calling out that if any had objec- tions against him who was to be ordained, they should come forth and speak, whereunto another cries out of a corner, by compact,
THE OJTICERS OF THE CHURCH. 69
" He is learned and worthy;" and ordination was esteemed to con- sist only in the outward sign of imposition of hands, with some other ceremonies annexed thereunto, whereby, without any other consider- ation, there ensued a flux of power from the ordainers unto the ordained !
But from the beginning it was not so. And some few instances of the right of the people, and the exercise of it in the choice of their own pastors, may be touched on in our passage : —
Clemens, Epist. ad Corinth., affirms that the apostles themselves appointed approved persons unto the office of the ministry, tJv\'Svdoxri- meri; rrn ixxX'^slag 'Trdffns, " by (or with) the consent (or choice) of the Avhole church." 2uvsudoxsTv is " to enact by common consent:" which makes it somewhat strange that a learned man should think that the right of the people in election is excluded in this very place by Clemens, from what is assigned unto the apostles in ordination.
Ignatius, Epist. ad Philadelph., cap. x., ups'rov ierh Ijij^Tv, w; s-/.-/.7.7isicf 0£oy, "xiipo-ovYisai sit'ksxo'zov, writing to the fraternity of the church, — "It becomes you, as a church of God, to choose or (ordain) a bishop."
Tertullian, Apol., " President probati quique seniores, honorem istum non pretio, sed testimonio adepti," — " The elders came unto their honour (or office) by the testimony of the people;" that is, by their suffrage in their election.
Origen, in the close of his last book against Celsus, discoursing expressly of the calling and constitution of churches or cities of God, speaking of the elders and rulers of them, affirms that they are hxXs- y6[Xivoi, " chosen to their office," by the churches which they do rule.
The testimony given by Cyprian in sundry places unto this right of the people, especially in Epist. Ixvii., unto the elders and people of some churches in Spain, is so known, so frequently urged, and ex- cepted against to so little purpose, as that it is no way needful to in.sist again upon it. Some few things I shall only observe concern- ing and out of that epistle ; as, —
1. It was not a simple epistle of his own more ordinary occasions, but a determination upon a weighty question, made by a synod of bishops or elders, in whose name, as well as that of Cyprian, it was written and sent unto the churches who had craved their advice.
2. He doth not only assert the right of the people to choose worthy persons to be their bishops, and reject those that are un- worthy, but also industriously proves it so to be their right by divine institution and appointment.
S. He declares it to be the sin of the people, if they neglect the use and exercise of their right and power in rejecting and withdraw- ing themselves from the communion of unworthy pastors, and choos- ing others in their room.
4. He affirms that this was the practice not only of the churches
70 TRUE NATURE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH.
of Africa, but of those in most of the other provinces of the empire. Some passages in his discourse, wherein all these things are asserted, I shall transcribe, in the order wherein they lie in the epistle: —
" Nee sibi plebs blandiatur, quasi immunis esse a contagio delicti possit cum sacerdote peccatore communicans, et ad injustum et illi-
citum prsepositi sui episcopatum consensum suum commodans
Propter quod plebs obsequens prseceptis Dominicis et Deum metu- ens, a peccatore prseposito separare se debet, nee se ad sacrilegi sacerdotis sacrificia miscere; quando ipsa maxime habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi, quod et ipsum videmus de divina authoritate descendere;" — "For this cause the people, obedient to the commands of our Lord and fearing God, ought to separate themselves from a wicked bishop, nor mix themselves with the worship of a sacrilegious priest; for they principally have the power of choosing the worthy priests and rejecting the un- worthy, which comes from divine authority (or appointment),'' as he proves from the Old and New Testament. Nothing can be spoken more fully representing the truth which we plead for. He assigns unto the people a right and power of separating from unworthy pas- tors, of rejecting or deposing them, and that granted to them by divine authority.
And this power of election in the people he proves from the apo- stolical practice before insisted on : " Quod postea secundum divina magisteria observatur in Actis Apostolorum, quando in ordinando in locum Judse apostolo, Petrus ad plebem loquitur. 'Surrexit,' inquit, * Petrus in medio discentium, fuit autem turba hominum forte cen- tum viginti.' Nee hoc in episcoporum tantum et sacerdotum, sed in diaconorum ordinationibus observasse apostolos animadvertimus de quo et ipso in actis eorum scriptum est. ' Et convocarunt,' inquit, ' illi duodecim totam plebem discipulorum, et dixerunt eis,'" etc.; — " According unto the divine commands, the same course was ob- served in the Acts of the Apostles;" whereof he gives instances in the election of Matthias, Acts i., and of the deacons, chap. vi.