CHAPTER V.

PRESBYTERS ARE CLOTHED BY APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY WITH ALL THE FUNCTIONS OF THE MINISTRY.

§ 1. Presbyters are divinely authorized to preach the gospel.

WE are now brought to another branch of our subject. Having shown that the bishops of scripture are in name and office presbyters, we are led to inquire whether these presbyter-bishops are represented, in scripture, as invested with all the powers which can be reasonably claimed for prelates, since, if they are, they must necessarily be regarded as the true and only successors of the apostles. Now we have already seen in what respects prelates are said to be successors of the apostles. 'In the extraordinary privileges of the apostles,' says bishop Jeremy Taylor,' 'they had no successors; therefore, of necessity, a successor must be constituted in the ordinary office of apostolate. Now what is this ordinary office? Most certainly since the extraordinary (as is evident) was only a help for the founding and beginning; the other are such as are necessary for the perpetuating of a church. Now in clear evidence of sense, these officers and powers are preaching, baptizing, consecrating, ordaining, and governing. . These the apostles had without all question, and whatsoever they had, they had from Christ, and these were eternally necessary, these then were the offices of the apostolate, which Christ promised to assist for ever, and this is that which we now call the order and office of episcopacy.'

Those powers, which are usually denominated the keys, by which prelates are alleged to be distinguished, according to archbishop Potter, are best enumerated under the heads;

1) See p. 57, 85.

2) Episcopacy asserted in Wks. vol. vii.

3) On Ch. Govt. ch. 5.

1. of preaching; 2. of publicly praying; 3. of baptizing; 4. of consecrating the Lord's Supper; 5. of confirmation, and of ordaining ministers; 6. of spiritual jurisdiction, particularly excommunication, under which we will include what he terms the power of making canons.1

If, then, we can show that the scriptures assign to presbyters these functions, so far as it recognizes them at all, then may we confidently conclude, that presbyters, being thus by divine right clothed with all the powers by which successors of the apostles can be distinguished, are not merely the only true bishops, but also the only true and valid ministerial successors of the apostles.

We shall first, therefore, prove, that according to the word of God, presbyters are authorized to preach the gospel. This is justly affirmed by archbishop Potter, to be described in the word of God as one of the principal parts of the apostolic office. 'Nothing,' he adds, 'can be more certain than that preaching was an essential part of the apostolic office."

Now we are instructed by prelatists, that the seventy were a lower order than the apostles, being either presbyters, or deacons. But it is certain that the seventy were commissioned by our Saviour to preach; for he solemnly assures them, that 'he that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.' Luke, 10: 16.

Preaching, therefore, is, by the express teaching of Christ, according to the interpretation of our opponents themselves, the function of presbyters, or of that order which was, as they affirm, lower than the apostles. Again, there is, as we have shown, but one commission in virtue of which the gospel can be preached at all, or ministers employed for this purpose. And since presbyters are allowed to be an order of ministers, they must be so by virtue of that commission; but by the same power they are authoritatively enjoined to preach the gospel, which is the burden of that commission. Again, that presbyters were originally commissioned to preach, we argue from the fact, that in all ages of the church, presbyters have been preachers of the gospel. This power, therefore, must have been considered theirs by original divine right. This argument, if well weighed, is conclusive against the scriptural origin of prelates. For if, as archbishop Potter affirms, the power of preaching resides in prelates, and belongs to presbyters only when delegated to them 1) See Potter on Ch. Govt.

2) On Ch. Govt. p. 204.

by prelates, then it is plain that there is no such order below prelates, and that prelates are but presbyters with assumed prerogatives. For preaching, which is the key of knowledge, and the principal seat of apostolic authority, being intrusted, by Christ's special authority, only to Christ's appointed officers, cannot, in the very nature of things, be delegated or transferred to any other order of men. And if this conclusion is not allowed, and it is affirmed that prelates may, and do, delegate to presbyters in their ordination this principal and essential function of their order, then surely it must follow, that in the same way they delegate to them the right and power of ordination, which cannot be more important than the 'principal part' of their office. But no order put in trust by Christ, with special powers, to the exclusion of other orders, can with his authority or sanction delegate that trust to one of those orders who had been thus excluded.1

Should these proofs be considered as inconclusive, there are others which must be satisfactory. One qualification of a presbyter, as laid down by the apostle Paul, and as descriptive of the office to which he is ordained, is that he should be orthodox, (Titus 1: 9-11,) holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision; whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.' Here, surely, we have authority for presbyters to preach, and to preach with authority, yea, to stop the mouths of unruly and vain talkers and deceivers. In like manner, in another description of the qualifications of a presbyter, it is declared that he must be apt to teach,' (1 Tim. 3: 2.) Paul solemnly enjoined the Ephesian presbyters, 'to take heed to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers, to feed the church of God, which he had purchased with his own blood.' Acts 20: 28.2 Besides, no church could exist without the administration of the word, in the preaching of the gospel, and therefore were presbyters ordained in every city. And since, during the apostolic age, the only officers appointed in some of the churches were, as archbishop Potter allows, presbyters and deacons, these presbyters must,

1) See Corbet on the Ch. pp. 41, 42. The Ch. Independent of Civil Govt. p. 57. Palmer on the Ch. vol. ii. p. 377.

2) See also Acts 20: 17, 28;

Eph. 4: 11; Phil. 1: 1; 1 Tim. 3: 1; Acts, 20: 7; Matt. 24: 45, 46; 1 Thes. 5: 12.

3) On Ch. Govt. p. 110.

of necessity, have preached. Again, whoever is the pastor of any flock, must feed it with the bread of life, giving to every man his portion in due season; instructing, reproving, and exhorting, with all long-suffering and diligence. Now prelates are not thus pastors to any given flock, but are overseers of those who are. Many who are not able to preach, as the Rhemists inform us, are qualified to be bishops, so that preaching cannot be a necessary part of the prelate's duty.1 Presbyters, therefore, being pastors, are by their very office required to preach. It has also been seen, that the presbyterate has ever been regarded, even by prelatists themselves, as the generic order, of which the episcopate is a mere extension. Preaching, therefore, was also believed to be one of the necessary functions of the priesthood, as indeed it must have been, otherwise it could belong to no order or office in the church at all.

To this conclusion prelatists are obliged to accede, and to give to it their suicidal testimony. 'Presbyters,' says Dr. Bowden, 'have a divine commission for preaching the word and administering the sacraments.' 'Hence we infer,' says Hadrian Saravia, 'that every presbyter and bishop in the church of Christ is also a pastor; for it is the business of a presbyter to feed the Lord's flock with wholesome dostrine.' 'We find,' says bishop Heber, 'these apostles in the exercise of the authority thus re

1) Note on 1 Tim. 5: 17. 'Now our lordly prelates have been so far from executing this principal part of them, (as Canterbury, Yorke, London, and Oxford,) did not so much as preach one sermon in sundry years; others of them have preached very rarely; yea, most of them have by themselves and their instruments written and preached against frequent preaching; suppressed all week-day lectures, and sermons on Lord's day afternoons, throughout their dioceses; and Dr. Pierce, bishop of Bath and Wells, by name, in a letter to Canterbury, thanked God that he had not left one lecture nor afternoon sermon in his diocese ; and suspended the minister of Bridgwater only for preaching a lecture in his own parish church, which had continued fifty years; and when this bishop, after much solicitation, upon this minister's promise never to preach the lecture more, absolved him from his suspension, he then most blasphemously applied Christ's words used to the sick man, to this

good minister: behold thou art made whole; go away, sin no more, (that is, preach no more,) lest a worse thing come unto thee. He convented another minister, only for expounding the catechism on the Lord's day afternoon, saying, it was as bad as preaching. Whence Queen Elizabeth used to say, when she made preaching ministers bishops, that she had made a bishop, but marred a preacher; it being true that the bishop of Dungeld once answered Dean Thomas Farret, when he wished him to preach, 'I tell thee we bishops were not ordained to preach,' it being too mean an office for them, unless it be sometimes at the court, or at some such solemn meeting, to gain either more honor or preferment thereby, or for some such private ends; not out of any great zeal of converting souls to God.' Prynne's Lordly Prel. Pref.

2) Wks. on Episc. vol. i. p. 159. 3) On the Priesthood, pp. 113,

122.

ceived, appointing elders in every city, as dispensers of the word and sacraments of religion."

To this agree the decrees of ancient writers and councils. 'Unto priests as well as unto bishops, is committed the dispensation of God's mysteries, for they are set over the church of God, and are partakers with bishops . . . in the teaching of the people and the office of preaching.12 'It is a very bad custom,' says the council of Constantinople, 'in certain churches, for priests to hold their peace in the presence of the bishops, as though they did either envy or scorn to hear them, contrary to the apostle," &c. Gregory thus speaks, in his Pastorals; praedictionis officium suscipit, quis-quis ad sacerdotium accedit: whosoever taketh priesthood upon him, taketh upon him also the office of preaching." 'Seeing to you,' says Gregory of Nyssa, and to such as you, adorned with hoary wisdom from above, and who are presbyters indeed, and justly styled the fathers of the church, the word of God conducts us to learn the doctrines of salvation, saying, ask thy father and he will show thee, thy elders, and they will tell thee." And so also the first council of Aquisgranense, A. D. 816, most explicitly attributes to presbyters the function of preaching, and of administering the sacraments."

It was, in fact, the general doctrine of all the fathers, that the words addressed by Christ to Peter, 'feed my sheep,' were addressed to all the ministers of Christ; and thus Suicer, in entering upon his illustration of the term presbyter from the Greek fathers, defines presbyters as those to whom is committed the word of God or the preaching of the gospel.'

It is thus manifest, that preaching is the great work and duty to which, as ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, presbyters are consecrated. But this is also allowed to have been the first and most essential prerogative of the apostles, and that which they themselves ranked higher than all their spiritual and extraordinary gifts, and invested with which they exerted all their powers, publicly and privately, to preach the gospel to the utmost compass of their commission.10 Preaching also was

similar view by Basil the Great, in ibid, p. 129.

6) See can. 8, in Binii Concil. Tom. vi. p. 241, c. 2, A.

7) Palmer on the Church, vol. ii. p. 488.

8) Thesaurus, vol. ii. p. 825. 9) See authorities in Henderson's Rev. p. 122.

10) Acts, 5: 20, 21, 42; 20: 20, 21, with Rom. 15: 19; Col. 1: 23.