448 OlDIlS. []JOOE ihe choroh; and r?gubr, or those who live according to some rub, and are called mo, ub. We will hero west of the secular clergy. They make among the clergy several orders, for the most part seven, and some extend them to nine, while others eonflne them to three or four. But the most general division is into seven. In thiA they and Protestant8 differ. Besides, they teach that orders is a sacrament; and in this also they differ from those of the Reformed Churches. They furthermore attach certain powers and privileges to the clergy, which Protestants consider unscriptural, and not calculated to promote the interosts of religion. Protestants and Roman Catholics, however, are ag3?eed, that a class of men appointed in the church to teach, administer sacraments, and to bear rule, is of divine appointment, and necessary. for the interoats of religion. We will consider tA? ,Mtur, and/?t?t/o? of orders, as it exists in the Church of Rome. 2. The solemn consecration of ministers to their respective minis- terial functions, according to the Roman Catechism, (p. 287,) is called o,'di, Mt/on, or tA? sao-ament of ordm*s. The Catechism then proceeds to describe or define what is particularly understood by orders, and employs for that purpose the following language: "Understood in its strict and proper acceptation, order is the disposition of superior and subordinate parts, which, when united, present a combination so har. monious as to stand in mutual and accordant rolations. Comprising, then, as the ffdnistry does, many gradations and various functions, with the greatest regularity, this sacrament is very appropriately called the sacramrnt of orders." Dens, speaking of orders, says: "It is a sacrament of the new law, in which spiritual power and grace are conferred, for the purpose of righdy and decondy discharging ecclesiastical functions.'** Bailly furnishes the following definition: "A sacrament instituted by Christ, in which grace and spiritual power are conferred, for the purpose of performing ecclesiastical duties, especially to consecrate the eucharist and administer other sacraments."? 3. The Council of Trent pronounces orders to be a sacrament. The third canon of the twenty-third session says: "Whoever shall that orders or holy ordination are not a sacrament instituted by Christ the Lord, let him be accursed." In the third chapter of the same council it is declared: "Since it is evident that by holy ordination, bestowed by words m?d exterual signs, grace is conferred, no one ought to doubt that orders constitute one of the seven sacraments." The Cate- chism (p. 287) says: "A sacrament is a sensible sign of an invisible grace, and with these characters holy orders are invested; their ex- ternal forms are a sensible sign of the grace and power which they confer on the roceiver; holy orders, therefore, are really and truly a sacrament." The .customary characters of a sacrament, they say, be- long to orders, vxz.: 1. An outward sign; 2. Conferring of grace; 3. And the institution of Christ. They say that the impesitiou of hands, in ordination, is the outward ? Eat sacramenturn norm legis, quo _spiritualis irateoreo confro'tar et ?retia, mi oc?le. sissties muni? rite decenterque, obeuud?.?De 0?d/?, No. 1, vol. v, p. 50. t' 8tcrumentum �Cluisto institutum, etc.? Ord/m? c. 1, tom. v, p. 880.
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