Lay hands hastily on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep yourself pure.
Read Chapter 5
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
The apostle writes to Timothy: “Practice selfcontrol.” It’s a command; it’s an order; it has to be listened to; it has to be carried out. But unless God comes to our help, we get stuck. We try, indeed, to do it by willpower, and the will makes some effort. It shouldn’t, though, rely on its ability unless it is assisted in its debility. ..
If the church partakes of the sins which were forbidden by the apostle, then it must be considered to consent to them. On Baptism, Against the Donatists.
Impose not hands lightly upon any man, in promoting him to be a minister of God by the sacrament of orders, unless he be duly qualified.
Neither in this be partaker of other men's sins, as they make themselves who ordain others rashly. (Witham)
But who are the elect Angels? It is because there are some not elect. As Jacob calls to witness God and the heap Genesis 31:45, so we often take at once superior and inferior persons to witness; so great a thing is testimony. As if he had said, I call to witness God and His Son and His servants, that I have charged you: so before them I charge you. He impresses Timothy with fear; after which he adds, what was most vital, and bears most on the maintenance of the Church, the matter of Ordinations. Lay hands, he says, suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins. What is suddenly? Not upon a first, nor a second, nor a third trial, but after frequent and strict examination and circumspection. For it is an affair of no common peril. For you will be responsible for the sins committed by him, as well his past as his future sins, because you have delegated to him this power. For if you overlook the past unduly, you are answerable for the future also, as being the cause of them, ...
What does Paul say? If one who I have ordained has sinned, do I share his blame and punishment? Yes, says he. One who authorizes evil is blameworthy. It is just as in the case of any one entrusting into the hands of a raging and insane person a sharply pointed sword, with which the madman commits murder, that one who gave the sword incurs the blame. So anyone that gives the authority that arises from this office to a man living in evil, draws down on his own head all the fire of that man’s sins and audacity. Homilies on S. Ignatius and S. Babylas, Eulogion for Ignatius
For the peace and order of the Lord’s whole household will be shaken, if what is required in the body be not found in the head. What is it to lay on hands hastily but to confer the priestly dignity on unproved men before the proper age, before there has been time to test them? Letters
And the man who put on Christ, who is the Christ of all of us no less; for he, in writing to his dearly-beloved son Timothy, says: "Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins."
Baptism is not rashly to be administered…. Similarly, this precept is rather to be looked at carefully…. “Lay not hands easily on any; share not other men’s sins.”
