TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.

It is generally agreed, among christians of all denominations, that Jesus Christ instituted a visible church, to which all the promises of the gospel are exclusively made; and that consequently all who would participate in those promises must become members of that church. It is also admitted that there is a divinely constituted ministry, the office of which no man can presume to exercise, until he has been regularly set apart by an outward and visible ordination; and that this ministry, so instituted, is essential to the very existence of the christian church.* Our twenty-third article, which would pro

* "Presbyterians," says Bishop Doane, "contend as earnestly as Episcopalians for apostolic succession.' The difference is, that they find it in the Presbyters, we in the Bishops." Witness the following from eminent Presbyterian Divines: "We agree with our Episcopal brethren," says Dr. Miller, of Princeton, "in believing that Christ hath appointed officers in his church to preach the word, to administer sacraments, to dispense discipline, and to commit these powers to other faithful men. We believe, as fully as they, that there are different classes and denominations of officers in the church of Christ and that among these there is, and ought to be, a due subordination. We concur with them in maintaining, that none are regularly invested with the ministerial character, or can with propriety be recognized in this character, but those who have been set apart to the office by persons lawfully clothed with the power of ordaining. We unite with such of them as hold the opinion that christians, in all ages, are bound to make the apostolic order of the church, with respect to the ministry, as well as other points, the model, as far as possible, of all their ecclesiastical ar

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same.

bably meet the approbation of most persons who deny the necessity of Episcopal ordination, says, "It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching or ministering the sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men, who have public authority given unto them, in the congregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard." Were it otherwise, the church, instead of being a well formed and regular society, would long since have fallen into endless confusion, or have been entirely destroyed. "For if every man may assume authority to preach and perform holy functions, it is certain religion must fall into disorder, and under contempt. Hot-headed men of warm fancies and voluble tongues, with very little knowledge and discretion, would be apt to thrust themselves on to the teaching and governing others, if they themselves were under no government. This would

rangements."-Letters concerning the constitution and order of the Christian Ministry. pp. 1—4.

In like manner, Dr. M'Leod, another distinguished Presbyterian divine, remarks, A person who is not ordained to office by a Presbytery, has no right to be received as a minister of Christ; his administration of ordinances is invalid; no divine blessing is promised upon his labours: it is rebellion against the head of the church to support him in his pretensions: Christ has excluded him, in his providence, from admission through the ordinary door, and if he has no evidence of miraculous power to testify his extraordinary mission, he is an imposter."-M'Leod's Ecclesiastical Catechism. pp. 30, 31.

Are not these views quite as exclusive as any maintained by the divines of our own church?

soon make the public service of God to be loathed, and break and dissolve the whole body."* The question then is, what is lawful authority? and who are the persons empowered to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard? Episcopalians maintain that there are three distinct and subordinate orders in the christian ministry, and that to the highest order is given the exclusive power of ordaining. This they think can be clearly proved by scripture and the writings of the primitive fathers, and therefore the church, in the preface to her ordination service, thus expresses herself, "It is evident unto all men, diligently reading holy scripture and ancient authors, that from the apostles' time there have been these orders of ministers in Christ's Church, bishops, priests, and deacons. Which offices were evermore had in such reverend estimation, that no man might presume to execute any of them, except he were first called, tried, examined, and known to have such qualities as are requisite for the same; and also by public prayer, with imposition of hands, were approved and admitted thereunto by lawful authority." By "lawful authority" we understand that of bishops alone, who have the sole and exclusive right of commissioning others, as only bishops have received that power by uninterrupted succession from the apostles, and through them, from Christ himself, the great Head of the church; so that “no man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful bishop, priest, or deacon, in the church, unless he hath had Episcopal consecration or ordination."

* Bishop Burnet on Article xxiii.

Let us see what evidence "holy scripture" affords for this distinction of orders. If we look into the constitution of the Jewish church, we shall find a priesthood instituted by Jehovah himself, consisting of three distinct orders, with the duties of each plainly and positively determined. Nor is it improbable that our Lord and his apostles had the Jewish church in view, and made that in some degree their pattern, in the organization of the christian church. Almost all the early Fathers notice this resemblance. Clemens Romanus, the earliest of them, a companion of St. Paul, speaking of the duties of christian ministers, institutes this comparison between their respective offices and those of the priests under the law; "for the chief priest has his proper services; and to the priests their proper place is appointed; and to the Levites appertain their proper ministries; and the layman is confined within the bounds of what is commanded to laymen."* And we find that our blessed Saviour did not commence his public ministration until he had attained the age of thirty years, the age required of the Jewish priests before they were allowed to officiate in their ministry; nor did he even then enter upon his labours, without submitting to an external ordination, on the day of his baptism, when the Holy Ghost visibly descended upon him; "So also Christ glorified not himself, to be made an High Priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee." It was not until after receiving this regular external com

* Epistle to the Corinthians, Sec. 40.

mission, that he began to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation; nor was it until then that he said of himself, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."* After such an example before us, will any one presume to make himself wiser than the Great Head of the Church himself, and undertake the office of a minister in holy things without a visible, external commission? Will he act on the mere strength of an imaginary inward call, when his divine Lord, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," yet with all these spiritual qualifications for the work of the ministry, "glorified not himself," nor ventured upon his public ministrations until he had been "anointed to preach,” and “sent to heal?" Can any thing be more explicit than the language of scripture on this subject? "No man taketh this honour to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." Now, we know that Aaron was visibly set apart, or consecrated to his office, and in the same manner must all Christian ministers be set apart; for "how shall they preach, except they be sent?"

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Shortly after our Lord began his ministry, "he chose twelve of his disciples, whom he named apostles, and whom he ordained that they should be with him, and

*Luke iv. 18, 19.

+ Heb. v. 4.

+ Rom. x. 15,