same individuals are called both prophets and teachers. In regard to extraordinary endowments, they were prophets; in regard to ordinary ministerial office, they were teachers. All prophets were teachers, though all teachers were not prophets. But both referred to the same ministerial grade, or order. Now, teachers were ordinary presbyters, who were distinguished from the extraordinary officers then in the church. Every presbyter is a teacher, because this word designates the great business and duty to which he is called by the commission of Jesus Christ.2 These teachers, when endowed with the extraordinary influences of the Holy Spirit, were called prophets, and thus might the same individual be, at the same time, both a teacher, or an ordinary minister of Christ, and a prophet, or a teacher, supernaturally endowed. In this way only, can we understand the classification of officers given by the apostle in 1 Cor. 12: 28, and Eph. 4: 11; and the declaration here made, that these men were 'prophets and teachers."

'I

Certain it is, that both prophets and teachers, whether considered as two classes, or as one only, were ranked below apostles. Such is the explicit teaching of archbishop Potter,* of Lord Barrington, and of Saravia. 'All teachers of the gospel,' says the latter, 'may be styled prophets." ‘I am of opinion,' however, 'that these prophets were really such, and not metaphorically so called,' and that 'these apostles, evangelists, and prophets, were the first presbyters and bishops of the church of Jerusalem." "There were now,' says Lightfoot, 'in the church of Antioch, five men which were both prophets and teachers, or who did not only instruct the people, and expound the scriptures, but had also the prophetic spirit, and were partakers of revelations." "The prophets,' says bishop Blomfield, 'were probably of the presbyters.'10 "These prophets and teachers, were certainly not men of apostolic authority,' says Mr. Brewster. "These terms, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, do not include so many several orders or degrees of church officers, but rather different denominations conferred upon those officers which were in the church before,

1) 1 Cor. 12: 28, and Eph. 4: 12. 2) Sadeel Oper. p. 600. Owen on Ordin. p. 40.

3) See Neander's Hist .of Plant. of Christ. vol. i. pp. 117, 122.

4) On Ch. Govt. pp. 92, 93, 102.
5) Wks. vol. ii. p. 256.
6) On the Priesthood, p. 84.

7) Ibid, p. 91.

8) Ibid, pp. 84, 85.

9) Wks. vol. iii. p. 210, and vol. viii. p. 456.

10) Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles. Lond. 1829. p. 110. 11) Lect. on the Acts, vol. i. p.

354.

12

with relation to their labors." 'Under them,' (that is, apostles,) says bishop Sherlock, 'were placed pastors and teachers, who were comprehended under the general name of prophets.' Now these terms are here applied, without qualification or distinction, to the whole five individuals enumerated. These ministers are also represented as all belonging to the church of Antioch, Paul and Barnabas having labored there for a year, and the others being probably fixed, and resident in the place, for they ministered unto the Lord, 'which must be understood of the service of God in their assemblies, especially in celebrating the eucharist." The labors of Paul and Barnabas in this church, too, were apparently designed to prepare them for preaching to the idolatrous Gentiles, when ordained.* For, as it is recorded, the first converts at Antioch were made by the preaching of certain men of Cyprus and Cyrene, and it was after hearing of their success, the apostles sent Barnabas there, who afterwards went himself to Tarsus, and brought Saul there. Through their efforts, these other teachers were doubtless raised up among them.5 Bishop Jeremy Taylor fully admits the same thing, saying, that these men were stated and regular ministers in that church. Such also is the view taken of them by Lightfoot. 'And it seems,' he says, 'that the separation of Paul and Barnabas to the ministry, was done by the stated ministers of that church, and not by others that came thither.. But these were both prophets and constant preachers too." This same learned episcopalian adds: 'And so the other three, Simon, Lucius, and Manaen, understanding what the Lord meant, and having used another solemn day in fasting and prayer, lay their hands upon them, and set them apart by ordination, according as the ordaining of elders among the Jews was by a triumvirate, or by three elders. This is the second imposition of hands since the gospel began, which did not confer the Holy Ghost with it; for these two were full of the Holy Ghost before; and this is the first ordination of elders since the gospel, that was used out of the land of Israel. Which right the Jewish canons would confine only to that land. Which circumstances, well considered, with the employment that these two were to go about, and this manner of their sending forth,' no better reason, I suppose, can be given of this present action, than that the Lord did hereby set down a

1) The episcopal author reviewed in Boyse's Anct. Episc. p. 299.

2) Sherlock's Wks. vol. iii. p. 281. 3) Such are the words of Thorndike's Prim. Govt. of the Ch. p. 48. See Bloomfield's N. T., in loco, and Crit. Digest.

4) Barrington's Wks. vol. ii. p. 287.

5) Acts 11: 23, 24. Ibid, p. 285. 6) In Cler. Dom. and Episc. Asserted. Wks. vol. vii. pp. 20, 15, and 82.

7) Wks. vol. viii. pp. 456, 457.

platform of ordaining ministers in the church of the Gentiles to future times.'

But if these were the regular ministers of the church of Antioch, we have, in this circumstance, a clear demonstration that they could not have been of any order higher than presbyters, since there is no canon more indubitably establishedthan this, that there cannot be a plurality of prelates in any one church. That they were 'ordinary ministers,' that is, 'presbyters,' is admitted by Mr. Thorndike, who is a defender of prelacy.1 He therefore acknowledges, that here we have 'the presbytery of Antiochia,' and that they received the spirit for this very work of ordination."2

3

As to the idea of Dr. Hammond and others, that these men were prelates, it is sufficiently confuted by Whitby, who remarks, 'Nor could he have had any temptation to have made the other three there named, bishops, but that he finds them laying on of hands,' v. 2. 'And, indeed, if there were so many bishops as he hath given us in Judea, (Acts 15,) in Syria, and Cilicia, here, and so many ordained in all other churches, as he saith, (ch. 14: 20,) is it not wonderful that St. Paul, in all his travels, should never meet with, resort to, or be entertained by, any one of them, but only by the brethren at large? or, that he should write to the churches of the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, before he went, bound, to Rome, and never salute any bishops there, or give any instructions to them, or so much as ever mention that he had ordained any elders, that is, saith he, bishops there?'

These men then were, and must have been, simple presbyters of the church of Antioch. As such, they received special instructions from the Holy Spirit, in order to give to the church a perpetual model, to set apart Barnabas and Saul, by ordination. They accordingly proceeded to separate them, and to send them forth to the work of the gospel ministry." And thus are we taught by the Holy Spirit, first, in suggesting this whole proceeding, and, secondly, in inspiring this recorded account of it, that presbyters are the divinely instituted ministers of ordination. We will only add to what has been said, the testimony of the Rev. Mr. Hinds, of Oxford. Ordination, he teaches, was vested in the church, that is, with the representatives of the church. These 'were made formally to ordain the two extraor

1) Prim. Govt. of the Ch. ch. v.

p. 48.

2) Ibid, ch. viii. p. 84.

3) Comment. Fol. vol. i. p. 700. 4) It was revealed unto them, that they should set apart Barnabas and Saul to that great work for

which Christ had designed them.' Lardner, in Wks. vol. x. p. 143.

5) And being sent forth by this special appointment of heaven, they went to Seleucia, and thence they sailed to Cyprus.' Lardner, as above.

dinary apostles to the Gentiles,' and, in the case of the ordination of Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, THESE WERE PRESBYTERS ALONE." Now, let any single case of prelatical reordination, similar to this, be produced from the scriptures, and we will give up the argument. Till then, we claim the undoubted authority of God's word for presbyterian ordination, without the aid, assistance, or authority of any superior order whatever.

And here let me present one important conclusion that follows from this demonstration. The Apostle Paul was undoubtedly the apostle of the Gentiles, 'for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in Paul toward the Gentiles; and therefore James, Peter, and John, when they saw the grace of God that was given unto him, came to an agreement with him and Barnabas, that these two should go unto the heathen, while they, the original apostles, should confine themselves unto the circumcision.' Now amongst others, to whom they thus went, or to whom Paul at least went, were undoubtedly the Romans; for to these he might say what he said to the Corinthians: 'If I be not an apostle to others, yet doubtless am I to you, for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.' He not only planted this church when at his first answer no man stood with him, but he watered it with his prolonged presence, dwelling two whole years in his own hired house, and receiving all that came in unto him. To this church likewise he addressed one of his most valuable epistles-an epistle better calculated, perhaps, to meet the errors of the present church of Rome, than any other of his inspired productions. Be this as it may, yet certain it is, that he was, in an especial manner, the apostle of the Romans; and that he never was episcopally, much less apostolically, ordained. The apostolical succession, therefore, as derived through the Church of Rome, fails in the first link. Paul was the founder of that church, and we claim Paul as a presbyterially ordained minister. He derives no authority from those that were apostles before him, but received his ordination at the hands of presbyters only.

1) Hist. of Rise and Progress of Christ. vol. ii. p. 35.

CHAPTER VIII.

PRESBYTERS ARE, BY Divine right, CLOTHED WITH THE POWER OF ORDINATION. THE SUBJECT CONTINUED, AND PROOF GIVEN, THAT THE ORDINATION OF TIMOTHY

WAS CONFERRED BY PRESBYTERS.

§ 1. The passage in Tim. 4: 14, explained, and its manifest proof of presbyterian ordination argued.

BUT we have another example of presbyterian ordination, which, the more it is examined, will be found the more conclusive and satisfactory, and that is, the ordination of Timothy, recorded in 1 Tim. 4: 14. 'Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.' It would seem to us, that no possible language could more unequivocally testify to the fact, that a plurality of presbyters ordained Timothy to the work of the ministry; and that here, also, we are most positively taught that presbyterian ordination is the true, original, divine, and apostolical order. That Timothy was endowed with the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit, all parties admit. These, as was usually the case, were conferred by the hand of an apostle, St. Paul, (2 Tim. 1: 6.) In thus endowing Timothy, the apostle was guided by the opinion of those prophetic men, who had pointed him out as a fit and chosen recipient, and foretold his entrance upon the ministry, and his eminence in it. (1 Tim. 1: 18.) And in confirmation of this divine call, Timothy, we are told, had been publicly ordained to the work of the ministry, by the imposition of the hands of a presbytery, that is, by a plurality of presbyters. We have here, therefore, a description of the ministerial office, which is called a gift; the remarkable manner in which Timothy had been prepared for it; the emi

1) 'Your gift, ev σol, being a periphrasis for your, the substantive being employed for the adjective.