Presbyterianism by Charles Hodge Part 2

What is Presbyterianism? - Part 2 by Charles Hodge

II. The second great principle of Presbyterianism is, that presbyters who minister in word and doctrine are the highest permanent officers of the Church.

1. Our first remark on this subject is that the ministry is an office, and not merely a work. An office is a station to which the incumbent must be appointed, which implies certain prerogatives, which it is the duty of those concerned to recognize and submit to. A work, on the other hand, is something which any man who has the ability may undertake. This is an obvious distinction. It is not every man who has the qualifications for a Governor of a State, who has the right to act as such. He must be regularly appointed to the post. So it is not every one who has the qualifications for the work of the ministry, who can assume the office of the ministry. He must be regularly appointed. This is plain; (a) From the titles given to ministers in the Scriptures, which imply official station. (b) From their qualifications being specified in the word of God, and the mode of judging of those qualifications being prescribed. (c) From the express command to appoint to the office only such as, on due examination, are found competent. (d) From the record of such appointment in the word of God. (e) From the official authority ascribed to them in the Scriptures, and the command that such authority should be duly recognized. We need not further argue this point, as it is not denied, except by the Quakers, and a few such writers as Neander, who ignore all distinction between the clergy and laity, except what arises from diversity of gifts.

2. Our second remark is, that the office is of divine appointment, not merely in the sense in which the civil powers are ordained of God, but in the sense that ministers derive their authority from Christ, and not from the people. Christ has not only ordained that there shall be such officers in his Church�he has not only specified their duties and prerogatives�but he gives the requisite qualifications, and calls those thus qualified, and by that call gives them their official authority. The function of the Church in the premises, is not to confer the office, but to sit in judgment on the question, whether the candidate is called of God; and if satisfied on that point, to express its judgment in the public and solemn manner prescribed in Scripture.

That ministers do thus derive their authority from Christ, follows not merely from the theocratical character of the Church, and the relation which Christ, its king, sustains to it, as the source of all authority and power, but, (a) From the fact that it is expressly asserted, that Christ gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the edifying of the saints, and for the work of the ministry. He, and not the people, constituted or appointed the apostles, prophets, pastors, and teachers. (b) Ministers are, therefore, called the servants, the messengers, the ambassadors of Christ. They speak in Christ�s name, and by his authority. They are sent by Christ to the Church, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. They are indeed the servants of the Church, as labouring in her service, and as subject to her authority�servants as opposed to lords�but not in the sense of deriving their commission and powers from the Church. (c) Paul exhorts the presbyters of Ephesus, �To take heed to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers.� To Archippus he says, �Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord.� It was then the Holy Ghost that appointed these presbyters, and made them overseers. (d) This is involved in the whole doctrine of the Church as the body of Christ, in which he dwells by his Spirit, giving to each member his gifts, qualifications, and functions, dividing to every one severally as he wills; and by these gifts making one an apostle, another a prophet, and another a teacher, another a worker of miracles. It is thus that the apostle reconciles the doctrine that ministers derive their authority and power from Christ, and not from the people, with the doctrine that Church powers vest ultimately in the Church as a whole. He refers to
the analogy between the human body and the Church as the body of Christ. As in the human body, the soul resides not in any one part to the exclusion of the rest; and as life and power belong to it as a whole, though one part is an eye, another an ear, and another a hand; so Christ, by his Spirit, dwells in the Church, and all power belongs to the Church, though the indwelling Spirit gives to each member his function and office. So that ministers are no more appointed by the Church, than the eye by the hands and feet. This is the representation which pervades the New Testament, and necessarily supposes that the ministers of the Church are the servants of Christ, selected and appointed by him through the Holy Ghost.

3. The third remark relates to the functions of the presbyters. (a) They are charged with the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments. They are the organs of the Church in executing the great commission to make disciples of all nations, teaching them, and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (b) They are rulers in the house of God. (c) They are invested with the power of the keys, opening and shutting the door of the Church. They are clothed with all these powers in virtue of their office. If sent where the Church does not already exist, they exercise them in gathering and founding churches. If they labour in the midst of churches already established, they exercise these powers in concert with other presbyters, and with the representatives of the people. It is important to notice this distinction. The functions above mentioned belong to the ministerial office, and, therefore, to every minister. When alone he of necessity exercises his functions alone, in gathering and organizing churches; but when they are gathered, he is associated with other ministers, and with the representatives of the people, and, therefore can no longer act alone in matters of government and discipline. We see this illustrated in the apostolic age. The apostles, and those ordained by them, acted in virtue of their ministerial office, singly in founding churches, but afterwards always in connection with other ministers and elders. This is, in point of fact, the theory of the ministerial office included in the whole system of Presbyterianism.

That this is the scriptural view of the presbyterial office, or that presbyters are invested with the powers above referred to, is plain (a) From the significant titles given to them in the word of God; they are called teachers, rulers, shepherds or pastors, stewards, overseers or bishops, builders, watchmen, ambassadors, witnesses. (b) From the qualifications required for the office. They must be apt to teach, well instructed, able rightly to divide the word of God, sound in the faith, able to resist gainsayers, able to rule their own families; for if a man cannot rule his own house, how can he take care of the Church of God: He must have the personal qualities which give him authority. He must not be a novice, but grave, sober, temperate, vigilant, of good behaviour, and of good report.

(c) From the representations given of their duties. They are to preach the word, to feed the flock of God, to guide it as a shepherd; they are to labour for the edification of the saints; to watch for souls as those who must give an account; they must take heed to the Church to guard it against false teachers, or, as the apostle calls them, �grievous wolves;� they are to exercise episcopal supervision, because the Holy Ghost, as Paul said to the presbyters of Ephesus, had made them bishops, Acts xx. 28, and the Apostle Peter exhorts presbyters to feed the flock of God, taking episcopal oversight thereof, (evpiskopou/ntej) not of constraint, but willingly. They are, therefore, bishops. Every time that word, or any of its cognates, is used in the New Testament, in relation to the Christian ministry, it refers to presbyters, except in Acts i. 20, where the word bishopric is used in a quotation from the Septuagint, applied to the office of Judas.

4. The office of presbyters is a permanent one. This is plain: (a) Because the gift is permanent. Every office implies a gift of which it is the appointed organ. If, therefore, a gift be permanent, the organ for its exercise must be permanent. The prophets of the New Testament were the recipients of occasional inspiration. As the gift of inspiration has ceased, the office of prophet has ceased. But as the gift of teaching and ruling is permanent, so also is the office of teacher and ruler. (b) As the Church is commissioned to make disciples of all nations, to preach the gospel to every creature; as saints always need to be fed, and built up in their most holy faith, she must always have the officers which are her divinely appointed organs for the accomplishment of this work.

(c) We accordingly find that the apostles not only ordained presbyters in every city, but that they gave directions for their ordination in all subsequent time, prescribing their qualifications, and the mode of their appointment.

(d) In point of fact, they have continued to the present time. This, therefore, is not a matter open to dispute; and it is not, in fact, disputed by any with whom we are now concerned.

5. Finally, in relation to this part of our subject, presbyters are the highest permanent officers of the Church.

(a) This may be inferred, in the first place, from the fact that there are no higher permanent functions attributed in the New Testament to the Christian ministry, than those which are therein attributed to presbyters. If they are charged with the preaching of the gospel, with the extension, continuance, and purity of the Church�if they are teachers and rulers, charged with episcopal powers and oversight, what more, of a permanent character, is demanded?

2. But secondly, it is admitted that there were, during the apostolic age, officers of a higher grade than presbyters, viz: apostles and prophets. The latter, it is conceded, were temporary. The only question, therefore, relates to the apostles. Prelatists admit that there is no permanent class or grade of church officers intermediate between apostles and presbyters. But they teach that the apostleship was designed to be perpetual, and that prelates are the official successors of the original apostles. If this is so, if they have the office, they must have the gifts of an apostle. If they have the prerogatives, they must have the attributes of the original messengers of Christ. Even in civil government every office presumes inward qualifications. An order of nobility, without real superiority, is a mere sham. Much more is this necessary, in the living organism of the Church, in which the indwelling Spirit manifests himself as he wills. An apostle without the �word of wisdom,� was a false apostle; a teacher without �the word of knowledge,� was no teacher; a worker of miracles without the gift of miracles, was a magician; any one pretending to speak with tongues without the gift of tongues, was a deceiver. In like manner an apostle without the gifts of an apostle, is a mere pretender. There might as well be a man without a soul.

Romanists tell us that the Pope is the vicar of Christ; that he is his successor as the universal head and ruler of the Church on earth. If this is so, he must be a Christ. If he has Christ�s prerogatives, he must have Christ�s attributes. He cannot have the one without the other. If the Pope, by divine appointment, is invested with universal dominion over the Christian world; if all his decisions as to faith and duty are infallible and authoritative; if dissent from his decision or disobedience to his commands forfeits salvation, then is her heir to the gifts as well as to the office of Christ. If he claims the office, without having the gifts, then is he anti-christ, �the man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.� Romanists concede this principle. In ascribing to the Pope the prerogatives of Christ, they are forced to ascribe to him his attributes. Do they not enthrone him? Do they not kiss his feet? Do they not offer him incense? Do they not address him with blasphemous titles? Do they not pronounce anathemas against, and debar from heaven, all who do not acknowledge his authority?

This is the reason why opposition to Popery in the breasts of Protestants is a religious feeling. C�sar Augustus might rule the world; the Czar of Russia may attain to universal dominion, but such dominion would not involve the assumption of divine attributes; and therefore submission to it would not involve apostasy from God, and opposition to it would not of necessity be a religious duty. But to be the Vicar of Christ, to claim to exercise his prerogatives on earth, does involve a claim to his attributes, and therefore our opposition to Popery is opposition to a man claiming to be God.

But if this principle applies to the case of the Pope, as all Protestants admit, it must also apply to the apostleship. If any set of men claim to be apostles�if they assert the right to exercise apostolic authority, they cannot avoid claiming the possession of apostolic endowments; and if they have not the latter, their claim to the former is an usurpation and pretence.

What, then, were the apostles? It is plain from the divine record that they were men immediately commissioned by Christ to make a full and authoritative revelation of his religion; to organize the Church; to furnish it with officers and laws, and to start it on its career of conquest through the world.

To qualify them for this work, they received, first, the word of wisdom, or a complete revelation of the doctrines of the gospel; secondly, the gift of the Holy Ghost, in such manner as to render them infallible in the communication of the truth, and in the exercise of their authority as rulers; thirdly, the gift of working miracles in confirmation of their mission, and of communicating the Holy Ghost by the imposition of their hands.

The prerogatives arising out of these gifts, were, first�absolute authority in all matters of faith and practice; secondly, authority equally absolute in legislating for the Church as to its constitution and laws; thirdly, universal jurisdiction over the officers and members of the Church.

Paul, when he claimed to be an apostle, claimed this immediate commission, this revelation of the gospel, this plenary inspiration, and this absolute authority and general jurisdiction. And in support of his claims, he appeals not only to the manifest co-operation of God through the Spirit, but to the signs of an apostle, which he wrought in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. 2 Cor. xii. 12.

It followed necessarily from the actual possession by the apostles of these gifts of revelation and inspiration, which rendered them infallible, that agreement with them in faith, and subjection to them were necessary to salvation. The apostle John, therefore, said, �He that knoweth God heareth us; and he that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.� 1 John iv. 6. And the apostle Paul pronounced accursed even an angel should he deny the gospel which he preached, and as he preached it. The writings of the apostles, therefore, have in all ages and in every part of the Church, been regarded as infallible and authoritative in all matters of faith and practice.

Now, the argument is, that if prelates are apostles, they must have apostolic gifts. They have not those gifts, therefore they are not apostles. The first members of this syllogism can hardly need further proof. It is evident from the nature of the case, and from the Scriptures, that the prerogatives of the apostles arose out of their peculiar endowments. It was because they were inspired, and consequently infallible, that they were invested with the authority which they exercised. An uninspired apostle is as much a solecism as an uninspired prophet.

As to the second point, viz.: that prelates have not apostolic gifts, it needs no argument. They have no special revelation; they are not inspired, they have not either the power of working miracles, or of conferring miraculous gifts, and, therefore, they are not apostles.

So inseparable is the connection between an office and its gifts, that prelates, in claiming to be apostles, are forced to make a show of possessing apostolic gifts. Though not inspired individually, they claim to be inspired as a body; though not infallible singly, they claim to be infallible collectively; though they have not the power of conferring miraculous gifts, they claim the power of giving the grace of orders. These claims, however, are not less preposterous than the assumptions of personal inspiration. The historical fact, that the prelates collectively, as well as individually, are uninspired and fallible, is not less palpable than that they are mortal. Those of one age differed from those of another. Those of one Church pronounced accursed those of another�Greeks against Latins, Latins against Greeks, and Anglicans against both. Besides, if prelates are apostles, then there can be no religion and no salvation among those not subject to their authority. He is not of God, said the apostle John, who heareth not us. This is a conclusion which Romanists and Anglicans admit, and boldly assert. It is, however, a complete reductio ad absurdum. It might as well be asserted that the sun never shines out of Greenland, as that there is no religion beyond the pale of prelatical churches. To maintain this position, necessitates the perversion of the very nature of religion. As faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, repentance towards God, love, and holy living, are found outside of prelatical churches, prelatists maintain that religion does not consist in these fruits of the Spirit, but in something external and formal. The assumption, therefore, that prelates are apostles, of necessity leads to the conclusion that prelates have the gifts of the apostles, and that to the conclusion that submission to their teaching and jurisdiction, is essential to salvation; and that again, to the conclusion that religion is not an inward state, but an external relation. These are not merely the logical, but the historical sequences of the theory that the apostolic office is perpetual. Wherever that theory has prevailed, it has led to making religion ceremonial, and divorcing it from piety and morality. We would beg those who love Christ more than their order, and those who believe in evangelical religion, to lay this consideration to heart. The doctrine of a perpetual apostleship in the Church, is not a mere speculative error, but one, to the last degree, destructive.

We cannot pursue this subject further. That the apostolic office is temporary, is a plain historical fact. The apostles, the twelve, stand out just as conspicuous as an isolated body in the history of the Church, without predecessors, and without successors, as Christ himself does. They disappear from history. The title, the thing itself, the gifts, the functions, all ceased when John, the last of the twelve, ascended to heaven.

If it is a fearful thing to put the Pope in the place of Christ, and to make a man our God; it is also a fearful thing to put erring men in the place of infallible apostles, and make faith in their teaching, and submission to their authority, the condition of grace and salvation.

From this awful bondage, brethren, we are free. We bow to the authority of Christ. We submit to the infallible teachings of his inspired apostles; but we deny that the infallible is continued in the fallible, or the divine in the human.

But if the apostolic office was temporary, then presbyters are the highest permanent officers of the Church, because, as is conceded by nine-tenths, perhaps by ninety-nine hundredths of prelates, the Scriptures make no mention of any permanent officers intermediate between the apostles and the presbyter-bishops of the New Testament. There is no command to appoint such officers, no record of their appointment, no specification of their qualifications, no title for them, either in the Scriptures or in ecclesiastical history. If prelates are not apostles, they are presbyters, holding their pre-eminence by human, and not by divine authority.