Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/485

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�JsaP. X�.I OaDSas. 479 better discipline than for a man to do as he seeth the church to do, among which he resides. ' (5.) Timothy was erdaiaea by the presbytery-; or by the priesthood,

? the Rhemist translators render the passage. I Tim. iv, 14.

(6.) The same was the practice of the Greek Church on the or- dination of Origen, on which occasion many bishops and priests as- sembled. (7.) The African Church, assembled at the fourth Council of Car- thage, (c. 22,) decreed as follows: "A bishop must not ordain a clerk, without an assembly and council of the clergy'." (8.) The pres'oyters present, together with the bishop, lay their hands on the person to be ordained. This proves that presbyters take part in ordination. (9.) In conferring minor orders, presbyters, by the permission of the church, may ordain. If they can lawfully do so in. one case, there is no reason why they might not exercise the same power in conferring the other orders. XI. Tlie e.?ects of ?ders. 1. Some say the effects of orders are three, as Dens,* viz.: Sane- tit?-ing grace, sacramental grace, and character. Others make the effects to be only two, that is, grace and character. The following is the explanation which the Catechism gives: "The

,acremeat of orders imparts grace to him who receives it with proper

dispositions, which qualitles and enables him to discharge with fidelity the duties which it imposes; and among which is to be numbered the athninistration of the sacraments. As baptism qualifies for their reception, so orders qualify for their administration. Orders also con- fer another grace, which is a special power in reference to the holy eucharist; a power full and perfect in the priest, who alone can con,- crate the body and blood of our Lord, but in the subordinate ministers, greater or less in proportion to their approximation to the sacred mys- teries of the altar. This power is also denominated a spiritual cha- racter, which, by a certain interior mark impressed on the soul, distin- guishes the ecclesiastic from the rest of the faithful, and devotes them especially to the divine ser?ice."t There are two points especially in reference to orders, in which there is a difference between them and us: the one respects the grace bestowed, or rather the manner or means by which it is given; the other respects the character impressed. 2. Respecting the sacramental grace, they teach that the Holy Ghost is given to all those on whom hands are laid. The Council of Trent teachath, that by orders the Holy Ghost is actually bestowed when the words are pronounced, Re�?i? tAe Helot Gaost. "If any one shall say, that by sacred ordination the Holy Ghost is not given, and that the bishop says in vain, Recdve tits Helot Ghost; let him be anathema."? While we readily admit, that since God gives grace to each according to his necessities, so he also gives his grace and Holy Spirit to minis- ters in such manner and degree as both their personal salvation and ? De Ordine, No. 10. ? Catchism, p. 299..

"Si quis dixerit, per ?acram ordinationera non dari Spiriturn ?actum, ?c prelude

frustra episcopos dicere, aceJim Spiritura Sanctum; nathem fit.*'--Ceu. sess. 23, c?n. 4, 1 ,Goocle