(fays he) conftituted [or ordain'd] Bishops and Deacons for fuch as [were not yet converted,but] fhould, in fome time to come, be brought over to the Faith. There needs no Comment upon this Teftimony; for fure, whatever imaginary People may be fuggefted to have bore a Part in the Election or Ordination of fuch Bishops and Deacons as thofe, 'tis plain enough, the People they were afterwards to prefide over, or minifter amongst them, could have none at all ; which is the only Thing contended for, and fhould be prov'd, in the Cafe before us.

But, to return to Scripture Evidence again : As the principal Apoftles themselves (according to the Teftimony of that truly Primitive Father indeed, for he was cotemporary with many of them) did unquestionably constitute and ordain Paftors in the Church, without any Suffrage or Election of the People in it; fo the holy Scriptures affirm no lefs of fuch as were adopted into that facred College, dignify'd with that Title by the Holy Ghoft, and call'd of God himself to the holy Function, as well as the Bleffed Twelve were; I mean S. Paul and S. Baryabas, whofe Ordinations are particularly recorded for us in holy Writ itfelf. The Text which mentions them is obvious enough, and has feldom escaped the Obfervation of any who have wrote on this Argument, on one fide or the other. 'Tis Acts xiv. 23. where, in our Tranflation, we read thus: And when they had ordain'd

Η Α. Χίν. 23. Καὶ χειροτονήσανες ἢ ἀυτοῖς πρεσ ευτέρες καὶ ἐκκλησίαν, προσαξάμενοι με νησιών, παρέθεντο αυτοὺς τῷ Κυείῳ, εἰς ὃν πεπιςάκεισαν.

ordain'd them Elders in every Church, and had prayed with Fafting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. I know the original Word, here used for this Apoftolical Ordination, is with great Affurance infifted uponby the Advocates for Popular Election, as including in it the Votes or Suffrages of the People, because it fignifies the ftretching out, or holding up, of the Hand; which Ceremony was commonly used by the ancient Greeks, to express fuch an Action of the People in giving their Voice or Suffrage either in Courts of Judicature, or at the Choice of Magiftrates amongst them. This is the main Strefs of all the Gloffes I meet with, to evade the clear Evidence of this Text for the Apostles ordaining thofe Elders by their own free Choice and Authority alone: The clear Evidence of the Text, I call it; for if there be any Regular and Grammatical Construction of the holy Penmens Words to be allow'd at all, it must neceffarily be this; That the fame Perfons who held forth their Hands for the A&t of Ordination here, did, in the Words immediately following, commend the People, then prefent, to the Lord, in whom they believ'd. The Word (Commended) in the latter Claufe, and the Perfons who ordain'd (or ftretched out their Hands for Orders, if we had rather tranflate it fo) in the former, having as direct a Reference to, and Connexion with one another, and appropriating the Action of the one to the Perfons of the other, as entirely as 'tis poffible for true Syntax to do in any Sentence whatfoever; and therefore, unlefs the People commended themselves to the Lord

in

in the latter Claufe, they could not be included amongst the Perfons that stretched out their Hands for Ordination in the former; for they that did one, as clearly as Language can make it, did the other alfo. Befides, tho' it might fignify either, yet it must fignify both here, if it imply the People's Votes, elfe no Impofition of Hands in this Ordination; and how abfurd is that?

I might balance (at least) all the Proofs that could be given for a Popular Election necessarily imply'd in this original Word, by a Cloud of Witnesses both of Greek and Jewish Writers, (in and about the Time that the New Teftament was wrote) who familiarly apply the fame Word, not to the Votes or Suffrages of a Multitude only, but to the bare Authoritative A& of a fingle Perfon, (nay even of God himfelf) in conftituting or ordaining Officers to the respective Places or Purposes that they treated of. I might add alfo the venerable and receiv'd Authorities of Chriftian Fathers, Hiftorians, Criticks, and Grammarians, (eminent both in ancient and modern Ages of the Church) who affirm the Word to be fo taken in the ancient Ecclefiaftical Notion of it; infomuch that the Inquifitive Suicer, (who was Friend enough to Popular Elections) amongst other Significations of the Word, undertakes to prove by many Teftimonies and Examples,

that

So the Holy Scripture attributes it to God's Choice of Witneffes, .Acts x. 41.

*that the Stretching out of the Hand included in it, imports no more than barely creating, conftituting, and defigning Perfons to the Place or Office intended for them, as diftinct from Suffrage and Election; and (which is not a little to the Purpose) produces this very Text, at the Head of many other Authorities, for a clear Teftimony and Example of it. [But they who would fee a plain and compendious Account of the Authorities I here appeal to, need only read the excellent Doctor Hammond's Annotations on this fingle Text, and those of the late Bishop Beveridge on the first Apoft. Can.] But,

I have chofen rather to leave the facred Text to its own naked Evidence, than amufe the Reader with numerous Quotations of that Kind, which are fo readily to be found elsewhere; efpecially, fince Authorities of that nature, tho' justly thought to have a confiderable Weight in them by unprejudic'd Men, yet (I know not for what Reasons) are very often flightly pafs'd over by fome of the greatest Patrons of Popular Election and the Congregational Caufe. Witness that remarkable Paffage in the celebrated J. Owen's Plea for Scripture Ordination; who, fpeaking of valid Ordinations,, thus explains himself: By Valid (fays he) I mean, not what old Canons make fo, (and yet 'tis remarkable by the by that

our

* Exemplis & teftimoniis præbemus delover nihil aliud declarare quàm conftituere, creare, defignare: patet hoc ex A&t. xiv. 23. ubi de Paulo & Barnaba, Xτονήσαντες αυτοῖς πρεσβυτέρες καλ ̓ ἐκκλησίαν. Suicer. Thefaur. Ecclus. in verbo xeeloré, & in voce XelegTovia. Num. 2.

our learned Enquirer urges fuch Authorities in the Cafe) but what the Scriptures determine to be so: Thofe facred Oracles, which are of Divine Infpiration, and not arbitrary Canons which are Canons which are of weak Mens devifing, are the Foundation of our Faith, and the infallible Standard, by which Truth and Error must be try'd; which tho' it be an unaccountable Contempt of thofe venerable Records of the Church, and of all other humane Authority befides; yet fo far as any original Right or Power in that folemn A&t of Ordination can be claim'd (as Divine) he may be own'd to speak a very important Truth in it; for after that facred Code was once complete and feal'd, I know of no fuch authentick Power as that granted to any, either in Part, or in Whole.

I fhall therefore pursue the Evidence of thofe holy Oracles a little farther ftill, and prove from thence, that as the Apostles receiv'd and exercis'd fuch an Ordaining Power, independent of any Popular Election in it; fo they convey'd the fame, without any fuch Condition annex'd to it, to the individual Perfons of fome of the chief Paftors of the Churches which were planted by them. The two noted Instances of this Kind, within the facred Canon itself, are Timothy and Titus; in whofe Commiffion and Inftructions together, (which are very particular, we know, in the Point of Ordinations above all Things) we might reasonably expect to hear of this material Right and Privilege of the People, (if fuch a Right there was) and not without fome folemn Directions, one would think, for a due Regard to it, left their Ordinations fhou'd prove defective and invalid (after all the Autho

rity