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com-presbyter Timothy, who, like himself, had been ordained by presbyters, to set in order and fully organise the Asiatic churches, he gave him these instructions: 'and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.' (2 Tim. ii, 2.) Here the existence of a ministerial succession, and its general nature, are distinctly stated. We have here also the chain of this succession, as far as the close of the second century, clearly marked out by the Holy Spirit himself. The great deposit, to be thus carried down to the end of time, is the Christian doctrine, as preached by men authorised to proclaim and make it known.1 To commit this truth to an order of men who should take charge of the several churches; and who might, in turn, commit it unto others also, was the great end of the apostle, in the commission of Timothy. It was in this way these apostles and evangelists fulfilled their purpose, in preparing the churches for the ordinary ministry of the gospel, and thus completing the organisation of the Christian body. This ministry, Timothy was to organise, and then leave them to ordain and appoint their successors in the preaching of the gospel. Now, who were they, to whom, by express apostolic authority, this power and office was intrusted? Without controversy, they were presbyters. Presbyters alone are described by the apostle, when he proceeds fully to delineate the character, qualifications, and duties of the ministry to be appointed. For this cause,' did the apostle leave Titus in Crete, and send Timothy to Ephesus, that they should set in order the things that were wanting,' to a full and permanent organisation of the churches, and ordain presbyters in every city, as he had appointed. The first ministerial succession, permanently appointed in the Christian church was, therefore, that of presbyters. And the next link in this golden chain, by which the truth was to be borne downwards to every age, was a succession of other presbyters, appointed by these first presbyters. And hence, since the great burden of the apostolic commission was preaching, and this great duty is so plainly committed to presbyters, we are infallibly taught, that a presbyterial succession is, by the express authority of the Holy Spirit, constituted the true and only permanent ministerial order in the church of Christ.

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If, therefore, there is but one ministerial order in the church of Christ, it must be that of presbyters. Should there be more orders than one, then, since the principal and chiefest function of the ministry is committed to presbyters,

1 See Ecumenius and Chrysostom in loco. and the schoolmen in confut. of I. S. Cyprianic age, 1. 147. See also Letters on the Fathers, p. 3.

and pp. 33, etc.

31 Tim. iii, 1, etc., and Titus, i, 6, etc.

2 Eph. iv, 11-14, 4 Titus, i, 6, etc.

this order must rank as the first and highest. And the very fact, that, in after ages, prelates usurped this power of preaching to themselves, under the pretext of preventing heresies; and denied to presbyters this original power with which they were invested by the express authority of God; is proof strong as holy writ, of the introduction of a new order into the church, for the support of whose dignity it became necessary to trample upon the instituted laws of God.'

II. PRESBYTERS ARE DIVINELY AUTHORISED TO CONDUCT THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD.

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The second religious function which has been appropriated to the Christian ministry, and which has always, says Potter, 'been reckoned an essential part of the sacerdotal office, is the offering to God the prayers of the church,' in the public celebration of divine worship. Again,' he says, 'this has always been reckoned one chief duty of the sacerdotal office in the Christian church.'s It is thus associated, as their two principal duties, by the apostles, with preaching, when they declare that they will give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Acts, vi, 4.

Now that this function, as well as preaching, is inherent in the presbyterate as an order in the church, is unquestionable. The fact that it is so, as Potter himself proves, has never been questioned in the church. That presbyters officiated in this essential sacerdotal function, under immediate divine direction and apostolic sanction, this same writer also certifies. For he informs us, that the prophets and teachers at Antioch, whom he had previously declared to be presbyters, as said aλurveys Tw xvgw, to minister to the Lord, and fast; where ministering to the Lord is meant of praying, as appears, not only because it is joined with fasting, but also because this and the like expressions are commonly used in that sense.' 4

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St. James directs the sick to call for the presbyters to pray and to intercede for them, with the promise of success, (James, v, 14). And the four and twenty presbyters in the Book of Revelation, who represent, says Potter, the ministers of the Christian church, are described as having golden vials full of incense, which is the prayers of the saints, and which it is their privilege to offer unto God. (Rev. v, 3.) 'Feed the flock of God, which is among you, says Peter, to the presbyters he addressed, 'taking the oversight thereof.' 1 Peter, v, 2, 3. So also did the apostle Paul solemnly 1 That this is a popish doctrine, see Bellarmine de. Cler. cap. 13, 14. And that the English church controverts this doctrine, see affirmed by Dr. Willet, Syn, Pap. contr. 52, 53, part 2, p. 232. 2 On Church Govt. p. 221. 3 Ibid., p. 223. * Ibid., pp. 224-226, and King's Prim. Christi. 5 On the Church. pp. 223, 224.

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impose upon the Ephesian presbyters, whatever duties are involved in feeding the flock of God, over which the Holy Ghost hath made them overseers.' Therefore,' says the apostle, admonishing them of the coming dangers of the church, 'watch, and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one, night and day, with tears.' Acts, xx, 31. The office of intercession, as the minister of Christ, in the public offering up of prayer, in the worship of God, which is the second essential function. appropriated to the Christian ministry, belongs, therefore, by divine right, to the presbyterate. And since it will be plain, to any one who will attentively read the apostolic records, that the apostles placed the essence of their ministry in the proclamation of the gospel, and in intercession with God,' presbyters being fully empowered to discharge both these offices, as God shall enable them, are the successors of the apostles, in their most eminent gifts, as ordinary ministers of the church of Christ.

III. PRESBYTERS ARE DIVINELY AUTHORISED TO BAPTISE.

The third branch of sacerdotal authority, the possession of which is believed to characterise the order of prelates, is the power of receiving members into the church of Christ, by baptism, which is the key of entrance, and the initiating ordinance of the Christian church.

Now this power is expressly contained in that commission, by which the Christian ministry was originally instituted, and of course inheres in all who are authorised, by that charter, to labour in the ministry of the gospel. But as there is but one commission, and one order of duties, committed by it to those to whom it is addressed, it follows, that there can be but one order of ministers, as to all essential powers, whatever variety there may be among them from accidental qualities, or from human appointment. And since presbyters are, unquestionably, an order of divinely appointed ministers, all the powers expressed in this commission must be of divine right theirs. They are, therefore, empowered to go, and teach all nations, baptising them.' Thus also our Saviour himself commissioned his disciples, both the seventy, and the twelve, to baptise as well as to preach, for 'Jesus baptised not, but his disciples,' John, iv, 2. Now, as prelates will insist that these seventy were distinct from the twelve in being presbyters and not prelates, it follows, that even on prelatic principles, presby

1 See Acts, vi, 4; John, xxi, 15; Acts, xx, 17-20, and xxviii, 31; Rom. xv, 16; 1 Cor. iii, 9-11, and iv, 1, 2; 1 Cor. ix, 16, and xvi, 10; 2 Cor. v, 19, 20; 1 Tim. ii, 7. and iv, 6, 11, 16, and v, 17. For prayer, see Rom. i, 8-12, and x, 1, and xv 5, 6, 13, 30-33; 1 Cor. i, 4-8; Eph. i, 15-23, and iii, 14-21; Phil. i, 8-11; Col. i, 9-14; 1 Thess. i, 2-4, etc.

ters are competent to baptise. And this Hooker openly teaches, for he asserts that Christ himself consecrated seventy others of his own disciples, inferior presbyters, whose commission to preach and baptise was the same which the apostles had.'1 Of course, if their commission was the same, their power also was the same. We read also that St. Paul, when converted, was baptised by Ananias, whom some represent as one of these seventy, and therefore a presbyter, and others one of the prophets, who, as we have seen, are also admitted to have been of the order of presbyters, and thus it would appear, that since the validity of baptism is essential to a valid consecration to the ministry, and since the greater number of churches in western christendom may trace their first original, directly or indirectly, to the apostle Paul, that therefore the validity of the ministry, as now existing in all these churches, must ultimately depend on the validity of presbyterial baptism; for that Ananias was an apostle, or of the order of prelates, is admitted to be impossible.2

It is also recorded that Philip-as Mr. Potter affirmseven while a deacon baptised the Samaritans and the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts, viii, 12, 38. Now, if Philip was at this time no more than a deacon, and had not, as we believe, been ordained a presbyter since his consecration as a deacon, then it will follow, that if the power of admistering baptism belongs to deacons, much more, certainly, must it be the rightful prerogative of presbyters. Thus again we are told in Acts, xviii, 8, that many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and were baptised.' But in his first epistle to the Corinthians, Paul reminds them that he baptised only Crispus, and the household of Stephanus, 1 Cor. i, 14, and therefere these 'many' must have been baptised by his attendant ministers, who were not apostles but presbyters. In his epistle to the Ephesians, iv, 5, the apostle exhorts them to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they had been called, even as they were called in one Lord, one faith, one baptism.' Now, as appears distinctly from Acts, xx, 28, the ministers, whom the apostles left at Ephesus to feed the church of God, and take oversight thereof, were presbyters. Presbyters, therefore, received members into that church by the administration of baptism. It is also admitted that in some of the churches, as at Philippi, for some time at least after their organisation, there were no other ministers ordained over them than presbyters, with the officers who were called deacons. But as it is plain no church could be organised or collected together without the administration of baptism, this ordinance must have been administered by presbyters.

1 Eccl. Polity, b. v, sec. 77.

2 Potter on Ch. Govt., p. 227.

But it is unnecessary to enlarge in proof of the inherent right of presbyters to baptise: Since, however, in after ages, some prelates have endeavoured to usurp as exclusively theirs, this and all other ministerial powers, archbishop Potter grants, that, in the primitive ages, presbyters baptised as well as bishops, but the practice of the church has varied as to deacons ;'1 and since it is at once evident that all who believed, together with their children, have a right to be baptised, they who are authorised to disciple men, are also of necessity competent to baptise them. The right of administering baptism being therefore another essential part of ministerial authority, and presbyters being plainly invested with it, presbyters in this respect, also, are the successors of the apostles.

IV. PRESBYTERS ARE DIVINELY AUTHORISED TO ADMINISTER THE LORD'S SUPPER.

We proceed to the consideration of the fourth branch of sacerdotal authority, to the exclusive possession of which prelates lay claim, and that is the administration of the Lord's supper, or, as they fondly term it, the consecration of the eucharistic sacrifice.' Now, that this power was resident in the presbyters of the apostolic churches, we might demonstrate by a repetition of the arguments employed on the subject of baptism. For as baptism and the Lord's supper are the two divinely instituted sacraments of the Christian church-the one the ordinance of initiation, the other of confirmation, and both the signs and seals of the covenant of grace-it is at once manifest that he who is the appointed minister of the one ordinance must be also competent to administer the other: The sacraments being seals annexed by Christ to the word of his grace, and visible words are evidently to be dispensed by those to whom the dispensation of the word is committed."2 In the Corinthian church, when no minister above the order of prophets, who were next below the apostles, was there, the eucharist was administered; nor was this power so strictly appropriated to the apostles, but that it might be lawfully executed by the ministers of the second order.' Now, it is impossible to conceive a more formal or solemn investment with the power of administering this sacred ordinance than that with which the apostle Paul clothes these Corinthian presbyters. 1 Cor. xi, 23-26. ‘For I have received of the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, etc. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show

1 On Church Government, see p. 227.
2 Corbet on the Ch., p. 38.

See King's Prim. Christianity. 3 Potter on Ch. Govt., p. 235.