XXXI.

ECONOMY OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

Ordination. Headship of the Church. Episcopacy and Republicanism. Episcopacy in the American Revolution. Reproaches against the Puritans. The tables turned. Comparative tendencies of Puritanism and Prelacy. Conclusion.

HAVING disposed of the claims of the Bishops, and shown the falsity and essential Popery of the doctrine of the Apostolical succession, there are several other topics which call for a brief but distinct examination.

I. WHAT IS ORDINATION?

Rejecting as we do the doctrine of Apostolical succession, as well as the ghostly character which the rite of ordination is supposed to impress upon him who receives it, it will probably be asked what we make of it. The answer is at hand.

Ordination is the solemn setting apart of a person to the work of the ministry. We no more hold that any person may take upon himself the office and work of the Christian ministry, than that he may take upon himself the office and work of a civil magistrate. But ordination no more impresses an internal character upon a man, than does an induction to a civil office.

We have already seen that in the appointment of Matthias to the Apostleship, and in the appointment of Deacons, the people were called to a popular election; and this seems to be recorded as a suitable precedent and warrant for a like manner of proceeding in cases of a similar nature. And election by popular suffrage happens to be the expression of the original, where it is said, "And when they had ordained them elders."

After the election there is an induction to office. A magistrate is to be sworn into office by an accredited magistrate; but the President of the United States may be inducted into office by any magistrate who may administer a lawful oath; by a justice of the peace, as well as by the Chief Justice of the nation. But it is not from the inducting officer that he receives the power with

which he is clothed; that comes from his election; though till he is regularly inducted he can exercise no power.

So, for the sake of order, one must ordinarily be inducted into the ministry by ministers. Hence, the "laying on of the hands of the Presbytery;" and without this, it would be improper for one to take upon himself the functions of the Christian ministry.

If it be said that Christian ministers act for God, and therefore must receive their authority from him; it is granted. So the civil magistrate is the "minister of God;" and "the powers that be, are ordained of God;" but must they always be ordained by the instrumentality of superiors? Must they always receive their authority, not by the instrumentality of those below them, but by a regular transmitted succession from those originally set in office directly by the Divine hand? The sage maxim which some are so fond of harping on, viz. that "inferiors cannot ordain a superior," nor "give an office that they do not possess," is a mere sophism. The people, who have no office, elect their governors, and inferior magistrates induct them into office; yet the Governor of Connecticut and the President of the United States, are as much "ordained of God," and as much "God's ministers," as though they had been elected and inducted by Queen Victoria, or the Emperor Nicholas, or by any other of the so called "legitimate sovereigns," who can trace their gubernatorial succession clear back to Nero, to Nebuchadnezzar, or to Nimrod.

Although magistrates must ordinarily be ordained by magistrates, yet all people have a natural right of originating a civil government, and of course, originating ordinations of powers, as often as necessity requires. This was done when the Pilgrims subscribed their Constitution in the cabin of the Mayflower.

At the American Revolution the people acted on the same principle; they went not begging at the foot of European thrones for the grant of Rulers of the true legitimate succession; they originated their own magistracies, and their own laws. And though there is no power but of God, yet who questions that Washington, and the Trumbulls, were as much "ordained of God" as any ruler that ever bore the sword of authority; and that he who resisted the magistrates and laws so instituted, resisted "the ordinance of God."

Now, though for the sake of order, Christian ministers should be ordained through the instrumentality of Christian ministers, still Christ's people everywhere have a right, by Divine charter and command, to keep all his commandments, and to enjoy all his ordinances; and, as in the case of the Pilgrims, and of our fathers in the Revolution, when need requires, the right is inherent, and the duty is imperative, to originate those institutions and ordinations; and he who is thus duly ordained a minister

in Christ's Church, is as much the minister of God as the present magistrates in these United States. For example: when the persecuted disciples of Christ met and worshipped in secret, in the reign of bloody Mary, they had indeed a lawfully ordained minister, but had he been slain, they might lawfully, if need required, have appointed others. In fine, wherever the Gospel goes, without Bishops, or Church officers of any sort, it may, where need requires, originate true Churches, and valid ordinations. Christ's people have an ample charter for doing among themselves, whatever is essential to the observing of his ordinances and the keeping of his commands.

While we hold this theory, it is proper to observe that none of our ordinations were so originated in fact. The first ministers of the Puritan Churches, both in the Old world, and in the New, were regularly ordained and acknowledged ministers of Christ; and from that time our ministers have been regularly ordained by "the laying on of the hands" of the acknowledged "Presbytery."

Episcopacy rejects this view of ordination. In its view, ordination must impress a ghostly character, and come down from the Apostles by an official succession. Accordingly, at the Revolution, the Episcopalians in this country still remained in an abject dependence on the King of Great Britain and his Parliament; a dependence for that which is more than liberty, for the bread of life.

Unfortunately, the Bishops of England might not ordain any person to the Episcopate without the royal mandate for the election and consecration of a person nominated by the King as head of the Church: nor then, without requiring such person to take the oath of allegiance, and the oath of obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Our American Episcopalians were in deep trouble. Civil independence was secured; but for dearer rights, they were still dependent on the will of a foreign king. After due supplication, and after much difficulty and delay, an act of Parliament was passed for the consecration of some American Bishops; but under the restriction, that the persons appointed should be acceptable to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and then obtain the royal license "by warrant under his royal signet and sign manual."*

The following letter of Dr. Franklin, exhibits a common sense view of the matter. To Messrs. Weems and Grant, Citizens of the United States, in London:

PARIS, 18th July, 1784.

Gentlemen-On receipt of your letter acquainting me that the Archbishop of Canterbury would not permit you to be ordained unless you took the oath of allegi ance, I applied to a clergyman of my acquaintance for information on the subject of your obtaining ordination here. His opinion was, that it could not be done; and

In our view, this begging for the succession at the hands of a British king and Parliament, was the fruit of a grievous and humiliating superstition. It was just as childish and absurd as it would have been for the people, after their successful Revolu tion, to go and beg the King to give to his revolted colonies, rulers of the true legitimate succession, under the notion that without such a succession from the order of Kings, there could not be a state; and that without this virtue flowing down through a kingly succession, there could be no magistrates "ordained of God." Jure divino Episcopalians ought, in all reason, to be jure divino Legitimists. And he who should begin to charge all our governors and magistrates as usurpers, declaring that the people

that if it were done, you would be required to vow obedience to the Archbishop of Paris. I next inquired of the Pope's Nuncio whether you might not be ordained by the Bishop of America, powers being sent him for the purpose-if he has them not already. The answer was, the thing is impossible, unless the gentlemen become Catholics. This is an affair of which I know but very little, and therefore I may ask questions and propose means that are improper or impracticable. But what is the necessity of your being connected with the Church of England? Would it not do as well, if you were of the Church of Ireland? The religion is the same, though there is a different set of Bishops and Archbishops. Perhaps if you were to apply to the Bishop of Derry, who is a man of liberal sentiments, he might give you orders, as of that Church. If both Britain and Ireland refuse you, (and I am not sure that the Bishop of Denmark or Sweden would ordain you unless you became Lutherans), what is then to be done? Next to becoming Presbyterians, the Episcopalian clergy of America, in my humble opinion, cannot do better than to follow the example of the first clergy in Scotland soon after the conversion of that country to Christianity, when their king had built the Cathedral of St. Andrews, and requested the king of Northumberland to lend his Bishops to ordain one of them, that their clergy might not, as heretofore, be obliged to go to Northumberland for orders; and their request was refused. They assembled in the Cathedral, and the mitre, crozier, and robes of a Bishop being laid upon the altar, they, after earnest prayers for direction in their choice, elected one of their own number, when the king said to him, "Arise, go to the Altar, and receive your office at the hand of God." His brethren led him to the altar, robed him, put the erozier in his hand, and he became the first Bishop of Scotland.

If the British Islands were sunk in the sea (and the surface of the globe has suffered greater changes), you would probably take some such method as this; and if they persist in denying your ordination, it is the same thing. A hundred years hence, when people are more enlightened, it will be wondered at, that men in America, qualified by their learning and piety to pray for and instruct their neighbors, should not be permitted to do it, till they had made a voyage of six thousand miles out and home, to ask leave of a cross old gentleman at Canterbury, who seems by your account to have as little regard for the souls of the people of Maryland, as King William's attorney, general Seymour, had for those of Virginia. The Rever end Commissary Blair, who projected the College of that province, and was in England to solicit benefactions and a charter, relates that the Queen, in the King's absence, having ordered Seymour to draw up the charter, which was to be given with £2000 in money, he opposed the grant, saying that the Nation was engaged in an expensive war, that the money was wanted for better purposes, and he did not see the least occasion for a College in Virginia. Blair represented to him that its intention was to educate and qualify young men to be ministers of the Gospel, much wanted there, and begged Mr. Attorney would consider that the people of Virginia had souls to be saved as well as those of England. "Souls" said he, your souls: make Tobacco."

I have the honor to be, gentlemen, &c.,

B. FRANKLIN.

-under penalty of the divine displeasure-must abandon their present rulers, and submit to exactors and officers deriving their legitimate gubernatorial virtue through some lineal successor of Nimrod or Nebuchadnezzar, would not be guilty of a more ridiculous fanaticism than those are, who gravely maintain that there cannot be "a Church without a Bishop "-of the true Apostolical succession.

II. HEADSHIP OF THE CHURCH.

Late Episcopal works' largely and frequently insist that nonEpiscopal sects are without a visible headship. To this and kindred objections, we answer:

1. That the ends of Church government are few and simple, They are simply to observe Christ's ordinances, and to promote the spiritual edification of his members. If any turn heretics or walk disorderly and cannot be reclaimed, the congregation of Christians to which they belong, may cast them out of their society. The public worship of God and the enjoyment of his ordinances, require nothing beyond a single congregation. This is all the law-making and government for which the Lord Jesus Christ has made provision. These Churches may associate for mutual counsel, edification and security; but no universal or provincial legislature is needed over these Churches. Christ established none. No new laws are to be made; no canons are to be framed or enforced beyond the Word of God.

2. All further headship is not only unauthorized, but it has proved the source of nearly all the persecutions, superstitions, and corruptions that have infested and distracted the Church of Christ. Had there been no Prelatical power, how early and how surely would the Reformation have been accomplished? Had there been no Henry VIII., or Mary, or Elizabeth, or Bonner, or Gardiner, to lord it over the consciences of men, how rapidly would the Reformation have chased away all Popish darkness from England? And with all the power And with all the power and energy of earthly heads and Prelates, in spite of all their dungeons and faggots, how hard the usurping Prelates found it, to keep the people down? Had not Prelacy suppressed the rising Reformation in Italy, in Spain, in France, and in Austria, how would those benighted nations, long ere this, have rejoiced in the light and freedom of the children of God? Prelacy has ever been, as a system, hostile to religious freedom, and hostile to Gospel truth. And therefore, and the more, since Christ did not establish, but forbade the assumption of Prelatical power, we admit no earthly head over the Churches of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

3. The ends and powers of Church government being so