well known, as not to need recital here. Though the Dissenters practise ordination, we find they are not agreed respecting it. Some contend for the power ting holy orders, or of initiating a person nisters. Among the Independents and into the priesthood by prayer and the Baptists, the power of ordination lies in laying on of hands. Among the Dissen the suffrage of the people. The qualiters,ordination is the public setting apart fications of the candidates are first of a minister to his work, or over the known, tried, and approved by the people whose call he has accepted. In church. After which trial, the church the church of England, ordination has proceeds to give him a call to be their always been esteemed the principal minister; which he accepting, the pubprerogative of bishops, and they still re-lic acknowledgment thereof is signified tain the function as a mark of their spi-by ordination, the mode of which is so ritual sovereignty in their diocese. With out ordination no person can receive any benefice, parsonage, vicarage, &c. A person must be twenty-three years of age, or near it, before he can be ordain-of ordination as belonging to the people; ed deacon, or have any share in the mi- the exercise of which right by them connistry; and full twenty-four before he stitutes a minister, and confers validity can be ordained priest, and by that on his public ministrations. Others supmeans be permitted to administer the pose it belongs to those who are already holy communion. A bishop, on the or- in office. Without pretending to deter dination of clergymen, is to examine mine the question, we shall here give an them in the presence of the ministers, outline of the arguments on both sides. who, in the ordination of priests, but not According to the former opinion, it is of deacons, assist him at the imposition || argued that the word ordain was oriof hands; but this is only done as a markginally equal to choose or appoint; so that if twenty Christians nominated a of assent, not because it is thought necessary. In case any crime, as drunken-man to instruct them once, the man was ness, perjury, forgery, &c. is alleged appointed or ordained a preacher for against any one that is to be ordained the time. The essence of ordination either priest or deacon, the bishop ought lies in the voluntary choice and call of to desist from ordaining him. The per- the people, and in the voluntary accep. son to be ordained is to bring a testimo- tance of that call by the person chosen nial of his life and doctrine to the bi- and called; for this affair must be by shop, and to give account of his faith in mutual consent and agreement, which Latin; and both priests and deacons are joins them together as pastor and peoobliged to subscribe to the thirty-nine ple. And this is to be done among themarticles. In the ancient discipline there selves; and public ordination, so called was no such thing as a vague and abso- is no other than a declaration of that. Jute ordination; but every one was to Election and ordination are spoken of as have a church, whereof he was to be the same; the latter is expressed and ordained clerk or priest. In the twelfth explained by the former. It is said of century they grew more remiss, and or- Christ, that he ordained twelve, Mark, iii. 14. that is, he chose them to the cidained without any title or benefice. The council of Trent, however, re- fice of apostleship, as he himself exstored the ancient discipline, and ap- plains it, John, vi. 70. Paul and Barnapointed that none should be ordained bas are said to ordain elders in every but those who were provided with a be- church (Acts, xiv. 23.) or to choose nefice; which practice still obtains in them; that is, they gave orders and diEngland. The times of ordination are rections to every church as to the choice the four Sundays immediately following of elders over them: for sometimes perthe Ember weeks: being the second sons are said to do that which they give Sunday in Lent, Trinity Sunday, and the orders and directions for doing; as MoSundays following the first Wednesday ses and Solomon, with respect to build. after September 14 and December 15ing the tabernacle and temple, though These are the stated times; but ordi- done by others; and Moses particularly nation may take place at any other time, is said to choose the judges, Exod. xviii. according to the discretion of the bi- 25. the choice being made under his dishop, or circumstances of the case. rection and guidance. The word that Among Seceders or Dissenters, ordina-is used in Acts, xiv. 23. is translated tions vary. In the establishment of chosen in Cor. ii. 8, 19. where the aposScotland, where there are no bishops, tle speaks of a brother, ugorovnDus. who the power of ordination is lodged in the wa schosen of the churches to travel presbytery. Among the Calvinistic Me-with us,and is so rendered whenascribed thodists, ordination is performed by the to God, Acts, x. 41. This choice and sanction and assistance of their own mi-ordination,in primitive times, was made two ways; by casting lots and giving votes, signified by stretching out of hands. Matthias was chosen and ordained to be an apostle in the room of Judas by casting lots: that being an extraordinary office, required an immediate interposition of the Divine Being, a lot being nothing more nor less than an appeal to God for the decision of an affair. But ordinary officers, as elders and pastors of churches, were chosen and ordained by the votes of the people, expressed by stretching out their hands; thus it is said of the apostles, Acts, xiv. 23. When they had ordained them elders in every church, χωροτονήσαντες, by taking the suffrages and votes of the members of the churches, shown by the stretching out of their hands, as the word signifies; and which they directed them to, and upon it declared the elders duly elected and ordained. to put one in rule, or to give him asthority. Now did this power lodge in the people, how happens it that in all the epistles, not a single word is to be found giving them any directions about constituting ministers? On the other hand, in the epistles to Timothy and Titus, who were persons in office, we find particular instructions given them to lay hands suddenly on no man, to examine his qualifications before they ordain him, and to take care that they commit the office only to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also, Titus, i. 5.2 Tim. iv. 14. Acts, xiv. 23. Besides, it is said, the primitive Christians evidently viewed this matter in the same light. There is scarcely a single ecclesiastical writer that does not expressly mention ordination as the work of the elders, and as being regarded as a distinct thing from the choice of the people, and subsequent to it. Most of the foregoing remarks apply chiefly to the supposition, that a person cannot be ordained in any other way than as a pastor over a church. But here, also, we find a difference of opinion. On the one side it is said, that there is no Scripture authority whatever for a person being ordained with out being chosen or nominated to the office of a minister by a church. Elders and bishops were ordained in every church, not without any church. To ordain a man originally, says Dr. Campbell, was nothing else but in a solemn manner to assign him a pastoral charge. To give him no charge, and not to ordain him, were perfectly identical. On the other side it is contended, that from these words, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," it is evident that missiona Some, however, on this side of the question, do not go so far as to say, that the essence of ordination lies in the choice of the people, but in the solemn and public separation to office by prayer: stili, however, they think that ordination by either bishops, presbyters, or any superior character, cannot be necessary to make a minister or ordain a pastor in any particular church; for Jesus Christ, say they, would never leave the sub. sistence of his churches, or the efficacy of his word and sacraments, to depend|| on the uninterrupted succession of any office or officer: for then it would be impossible for any church to know whether they ever have had any authentic minister; for we could never be assured that such ordinations had been rightly transmitted through 1700 years. A whole nation might be corrupted, and every bishop and elder therein might have apostatized from the faith, as it was in England in the days of popery. To say, therefore, that the right of or-ries and itinerants must be employed in daining lies in men who are already in office, would drive us to hold the abovementioned untenable position of uninterrupted succession. On the other side it is observed, that, although Christians have the liberty of choosing their own pastor, yet they have no power or right to confer the office itself. Scripture represents ordination to be the setting apart of a person to the holy ministry, by the authority of Jesus himself acting by the medium of men in office; and this solemn investing act is necessary to his being lawfully accounted a minister of Christ. The original word, Acts, vi. 3. is xararnowμer, which according to Scapula, and the best writers on the sacred language, signifies the important work of the ministry; that, as such cannot be ordained over any particular church, there cannot be the least impropriety in ordaining them for the church universal. Allowing that they have all those talents, gifts, and grace, that constitute a minister in the sight of God, who will dare say they should not be designated by their brethren for the administration of those ordinances Christ has appointed in the church ?-Without allowing this, how many thousands would be destitute of these ordinances? Besides, these are the very men whom God in general honours as the first instruments in raising churches, over which stated pastors are afterwards fixed. The separation of ORI 421 Saul and Barnabas, say they, was an ordination to missionary work, including the administration of sacraments to the converted Heathen, as well as public instruction, Acts, xiii. 1, 3. So Timothy was ordained, 1 Tim. iv. 14. Acts, xvi. 3, and there is equal reason, by analogy, to suppose that Titus and other companions of Paul were similarly ordained, without any of them having a particular church to take under his pastoral care. So that they appear to have been ordained to the work of the Christian ministry at large. appeared in the third century, who de. The principal tenets ascribed to Ori- 1. That there is a pre-existent state of human souls. For the nature of the soul is such as to make her capable of existing eternally, backward as well as forward, because her spiritual essence, as such, makes it impossible that she should, either through age or violence, be dissolved; so that nothing is wanting to her existence but the good pleasure of him from whom all things proceed. And if, according to the Platonic scheme, we assign the production of all things to the exuberant fulness of life in the Deity, which, through the blessed necessity of his communicative nature, empties itself into all possibilities of being, as into so many capable receptacles, we must suppose her existence in a sense necessary, and in a degree co-eternal with God." On reviewing the whole of this controversy, I would say with Dr. Watts, "that since there are some texts in the New Testament, wherein single persons either apostles, as Paul and Barnabas, ordained ministers in the churches; or evangelists, as Timothy and Titus; and since other missions or ordinations are intimated to be perform ed by several persons, viz. prophets, teachers, elders, or a presbytery, as in Acts, xiii. 1. and 1 Tim. iv. 14; since there is sometimes mention made of the imposition of hands in the mission of a minister, and sometimes no mention of it; and since it is evident that in some cases popular ordinations are and must be valid without any bishop or elder; I think none of these differences should be made a matter of violent contest among Christians; nor ought any words to be pronounced against each other by those of the episcopal, presbyterian, or independent way. Surely, all may 2. That souls were condemned to anagree thus far, that various forms or modes, seeming to be used in the mis-imate mortal bodies, in order to expiate sion or ordination of ministers in primitive times, may give a reasonable occasion or colour for sincere and honest searches after truth to follow different opinions on this head, and do therefore demand our candid and charitable sentiments concerning those who differ from us." See articles EFISCOPACY, IMPOSITION OF HANDS, INDEPEN, DENTS, and MINISTERIAL CALL, in this work; James Owen's Plea for Scripture Ordination; Doddridge's Tracts, v. ii. p. 253-257; Dr. Owen's True Nature of a Gospel Church, p. 78, 83; Brekell's Essay on Ordination; Watt's Rational Foundation of a Christian Church, sec. 3; Dr. Campbell's Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p. 345; Gill's Body of Divinity, p. 246. vol. iii. Svo. ed. Theological Magazine for 1802, p. 33, 90, 167; Ewing's Remarks on Dick's Sermon, freached before the Edinburgh Missionary Society, in 1801. ORIGENISTS, a denomination which faults they had committed in a preexistent state: for we may be assured, from the infinite goodness of their Creator, that they were at first joined to the purest matter, and placed in those regions of the universe which were most suitable to the purity of essence they then possessed. For that the souls of men are an order of essentially incorporate spirits, their deep immersion into terrestrial matter, the modification of all their operations by it, and the heavenly body promised in the Gospel, as the highest perfection of our renewed nature, clearly evince. Therefore if our souls existed before they appeared inhabitants of the earth, they were placed in a purer element, and enjoyed || far greater degrees of happiness. And certainly he, whose overflowing goodness brought them into existence, would not deprive them of their felicity, till by their mutability they rendered themselves less pure in the whole extent of their powers, and became disposed for the susception of such a degree of cor-er, there must of necessity be something poreal life as was exactly answerable to analogous to this in the intellectual systheir present disposition of spirit. Hence tem; and since the spirits created by it was necessary that they should be- God are emanations and streams from come terrestrial men. his own abyss of being, and as self-ex|istent power must needs subject all beings to itself, the Deity could not but impress upon her intimate natures and substances a central tendency towards himself; an essential principle of reunion to their great original. 3. That the soul of Christ was united to the Word before the incarnation. For the Scriptures teach us that the soul of the Messiah was created before the beginning of the world, Phil. ii. 5, 7. This text must be understood of Christ's human soul, because it is unusual to propound the Deity as an example of humility in Scripture. Though the humanity of Christ was so God-like, he emptied himself of this fulness of life and glory, to take upon him the form of a servant. It was this Messiah who conversed with the patriarchs under a human form: it was he who appeared to Moses upon the Holy Mount: it was he who spoke to the prophets under a visible appearance; and it is he who will at last come in triumph upon the clouds to restore the universe to its primitive splendour and felicity. 4. That at the resurrection of the dead we shall be clothed with ethereal bodies. For the elements of our terrestrial compositions are such as almost fatally entangle us in vice, passion, and misery. The purer the vehicle the soul is united with, the more perfect is her life and operations. Besides, the Supreme Goodness who made all things, assures us he made all things best at first, and therefore his recovery of us to our lost happiness (which is the design of the Gospel,) must restore us to our better bodies and happier habitations, which is evident from 1 Cor. xv. 49. 2 Cor. v. 1. and other texs of Scripture. 6. That the earth after its confiagration shall become habitable again, and be the mansion of men and animals, and that in eternal vicissitudes. For it is thus expressed in Isaiah: Behold I make new heavens, and a new earth; &c. and in Heb. i. 10, 12. Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed, &c. Where there is only a change the substance is not destroyed, this change being only as that of a garment worn out and decaying. The fashion of the world passes away like a turning scene, to exhibit a fresh and new representation of things; and if only the present dress and appearance of things go off, the substance is supposed to remain entire. ORIGINAL SIN. See FALL, SIN. ORIGIN OF EVIL. See SIN. ORTHODOXY, soundness of doctrine or opinion in matters of religion, The doctrines which are generally considered as orthodox among us, are such as were generally professed at the time of the reformation, viz. the fall of man, regeneration, atonement, repentance, justification by free grace, &c, Some have thought, that, in order to keep error out of the church, there 5. That, after long periods of time, should be some human form as a stan the damned shall be released from their dard of orthodoxy, wherein certain torments, and restored to a new state of disputed doctrines shall be expressed in probation. For the Deity has such re- such determinate phrases as may be diserves in his gracious providence, as rectly levelled against such errors as will vindicate his sovereign goodness shall prevail from time to time, requiring and wisdom from all disparagement. those especially who are to be public Expiatory pains are a part of his ado-teachers in the church to subscribe or rable plan; for this sharper kind of fa- virtually to declare their assent to such vour has a righteous place in such crea- formularies. But, as Dr, Doddridge obtures as are by nature mutable. Though serves, 1. Had this been requisite, it is sin has extinguished or silenced the di-probable that the Scriptures would have vine life, yet it has not destroyed the given us some such formularies as these, faculties of reason and understanding, or some directions as to the manner in consideration and memory, which will which they should be drawn up, proserve the life which is most powerful. posed, and received.-2. It is impossiIf, therefore, the vigorous attraction of ble that weak and passionate men, who the sensual nature be abated by a cease have perhaps been heated in the very less pain, these powers may resume the controversy thus decided, should exseeds of a better life and nature. As in press themselves with greater propriety the material system there is a gravita-than the apostles did.-3. It is plain, in tion of the less bodies towards the great- fact, that this practice has been the OSIANDRIANS, a denomination among the Lutherans which was founded in the year 1550, by Andrew Osiander, a celebrated German divine, whose doctrine amounted to the following propositions :— 1. That Christ, considered in his human nature only, could not, by his obedience to the divine law, obtain justification and pardon for sinners; neither can we be justified before God, by embracing and applying to ourselves, through faith, the righteousness and obedience of the man Christ. It is only through that eternal and essential righteousness which dwells in Christ, condered as God, and which resides in his divine nature, that is united to the human, that mankind can obtain complete justification. cause of great contention in the Christian church, and such formularies have been the grand engine of dividing it, in proportion to the degree in which they have been multiplied and urged.-4. This is laying a great temptation in the way of such as desire to undertake the office of teachers in the church, and will be most likely to deter and afflict those who have the greatest tenderness of conscience, and therefore (cat far.) best deserve encouragement.-5. It is not likely to answer the end proposed, viz. the preserving an uniformity of opinion, since persons of little integrity may satisfy their consciences, in subscribing what they do not at all believe as articles of peace, or in putting the most unnatural sense on the words. And whereas, in answer to all these inconveniences, it is pleaded, 2. That a man becomes a partaker of that such forms are necessary to keep this divine righteousness by faith, since the church from heresy, and it is better it is in consequence of this uniting there should be some hypocrites under principle that Christ dwells in the heart such forms of orthodoxy, than that a of man with his divine righteousness. freedom of debate and opinion should Now, wherever this divine righteousbe allowed to all teachers; the answer ness dwells, there God can behold no is plain, that, when any one begins to sin; therefore, when it is present with preach doctrines which appear to those Christ in the hearts of the regenerate, who attend upon him dangerous and they are on its account considered by subversive of Christianity, it will be the Deity as righteous, although they time enough to proceed to such animad-be sinners. Moreover, this divine and version as the nature of his error in justifying righteousness of Christ excites their apprehension will require, and his the faithful to the pursuit of holiness, relation to them will admit. See arti-and to the practice of virtue. cles ESTABLISHMENT and SUBSCRIPTION; Doddridge's Lectures, lec. 174; Watts's Orthodoxy and Charity United. OSSENIANS, a denomination of the first century, which taught that faith may and ought to be dissembled. P PACIFICATION, Edicts of were obliging them withal to quit the churches decrees, granted by the kings of France they had possessed themselves of during to the Protestants, for appeasing the the troubles. Another, called the Edict troubles occasioned by their persecution. of Lonjumeau, ordering the execution The first Edict of Pacification was of that of Amboise, was published granted by Charles IX. in January March 27, 1558, after a treaty of peace. 1562, permitting the free exercise of This pacification was but of short conthe reformed religion near all the cities tinuance; for Charles perceiving a ge and towns of the realm. March 19. neral insurrection of the Huguenots, re1563, the same king granted a second voked the said edicts in September, 1568, Edict of Pacification, at Amboise, per- forbidding the exercise of the Protestant mitting the free exercise of the reform-religion, and commanding all the mied religion in the houses of gentlemen and lords high justiciaries (or those who had the power of life and death,) to their families and dependents only; and allowing other Protestants to have their sermons in such towns as they had then in before the seventh of March; nisters to depart the kingdom in fifteen days. But on the eighth of August, 1570, he made peace with them again, and published an edict on the eleventh, allowing the lords high justiciaries to have sermons in their houses for all comers, and granting other Protestants |