Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

import of the word which he employs, and which we translate defraud. The same word is employed in 1 Thessalonians iv. 6. "That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter," &c. And again, 2 Cor. vii. 2. "We have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man." And be it remembered, no individual in the fourth century was more competent, in every respect, than Chrysostom to say whether the pre-eminence which had been gained by Bishops in his day, rested on a divine warrant, or had been fraudulently obtained."

Thus it is evident-the ancients themselves being our witnesses-that, in the apostolic age, Bishop and Presbyter were the same; that, the Bishops were parish ministers; that, in every parish, a body of Elders, with their Pastor at their head, conducted the government and discipline; that, of course, Presbyterian parity in the Gospel ministry universally prevailed; that the rite of ordination was equally the prerogative of all who were empowered to preach the Gospel, and administer the sacraments; that it was habitually performed "by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery;" that matters continued in this situation for more than a hundred years after the close of the apostolic age; that then clerical pride, ambition, and cupidity began, more sensibly than in preceding times, to disclose their native effects; and that the pastors of the more opulent towns claimed special pre-eminence and powers, as peculiarly the successors of the Apostles, which, by little and little, were admitted, and at length, permanently established. Thus were parochial Bishops, or the pastors of single congregations, gradually transformed into diocesan, or prelatical Bishops, and, under an old and familiar title, a new office artfully introduced; until, in the fourth century, when Christianity became the established religion of the empire, when the clergy were pampered by imperial bounty, defended by imperial authority, and their honours arranged according to the gradations of rank which were obtained in the state; all traces of primitive simplicity and purity were lost in the plans and splendour of worldly policy. Bishops became "lords over God's heritage," rather than “examples to their flocks."

We are not to suppose, however, that this departure from the apostolic model of church order was universal. There were "witnesses of the truth," who, in humble retirement, bore a faithful testimony to the original system of discipline as well as doctrine. The simple-hearted Paulicians, in the seventh century, testified against the encroachments of pre

lacy. They were succeeded, not long afterwards, by the Waldenses and Albigenses, who still more distinctly and zealously protested against all encroachments on Presbyterian simplicity. This is freely acknowledged by many of the advocates of prelacy, as well as others. Eneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope ius the II., declares-"They, (the Waldenses,) deny the hierarchy; maintaining that there is no difference among the priests, by reason of dignity or office." Medina, a learned prelatist in the council of Trent, asserted that the doctrine of ministerial parity had been condemned in Aerius, and in the Waldenses, as well as in others specified by him. Bellarmine acknowledges that the Waldenses denied the divine right of prelacy. The Rev. Dr. Rainolds, an eminently learned Episcopal divine, professor of Divinity in the university of Oxford, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in writing on this subject to Sir Francis Knollys, declares"All those who have, for 500 years past, endeavoured the reformation of the Church, have taught, that all pastors, whether they be called Bishops or Priests, are invested with equal authority and power;-as first, the Waldenses; next Marcilius Petavinus; then Wickliffe and his disciples; afterwards Huss and the Hussites; and last of all, Luther, Calvin, Bullinger, Musculus, &c." Their own historians, John Paul Perrin, and Sir Samuel Morland, make statements, and exhibit documents which fully confirm this representation. For although in some of the records of the Waldenses certain Seniors are mentioned who performed particular duties for the sake of order; yet we are explicitly informed that they claimed no superiority by divine right. Accordingly Peter Heylin, a bigoted Episcopalian, speaking of the Bohemian Brethren, a branch of the same people, and who are known to have received ministers from them-says, that "they had fallen upon a way of ordaining ministers among themselves, without having recourse unto the bishop, or any such superior officer as a superintendent."-History of Presbyterianism, pp. 409, 410. The Rev. John Scott, the pious Episcopal continuator of Milner's Ecclesiastical History, in giving a particular statement of the tenets and practices of the Waldenses, addressed by George Mauzel, one of their most devoted ministers, to Ecolampadius, the celebrated Reformer, in 1530, represents that minister as stating, in the most unequivocal manner, that the different orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, did not exist in their ministry. Vol. I. 139. The Rev. Adam Blair, one of the latest and most profound writers on the history of the Wal

denses, asserts and shows, with the utmost confidence, that their ecclesiastical government was not Episcopal. History of the Waldenses, in two volumes octavo, 1833. "Like Presbyterians and Independents," says this writer, "they denied the establishment of the different orders of ministers then received in the Western Church, such as Bishops, Archbishops," &c. I. 176. Again he says" No form of ecclesiastical government in Great Britain, seems exactly the same with the ancient Waldenses." Viewing them as having a constant moderator, Episcopalians think him like a Bishop. But in regard to Episcopal consecration, Mr. Acland, an Episcopalian, informs us, that "this ornament of our church establishment, as justly. cherished by us, is unquestionably no longer preserved among the Vaudois." Viewing them as having a Synod, and having a Consistory, or session, in each congregation, they are Presbyterians; yet with this difference, that, in our country, Synods and Presbyteries have a new moderator every year, and the lay-elders are sent by the session in each congregation; while the Waldensian congregations meet and appoint the elder The visits of the moderator to the different congregations, as appointed by the court, have nothing in them inconsistent with Presbytery. Mr. Gilly, (also an Episcopalian) admits that the present Vaudois are nearer to Presbyterians, than to any other form of church government, only not so rigid." Vol. I. 540, 541. But the undoubted fact, which places this whole subject beyond all question, is, that after the commencement of the Reformation in Geneva, the Waldenses not only held communion with that Church, which we all know was strictly Presbyterian, but also received ministers from her, and of course recognised the validity of her ordinations in the strongest practical manner. This they could never have done, had they been in the habit of regarding the subject in the same light with modern prelatists.

But the Waldenses were not merely Presbyterian as to the point of ministerial parity. According to their own most authentic writers, as well as the acknowledgment of their bitterest enemies-they resembled our beloved Church in almost every thing. They rejected all human inventions in the worship of God, such as the sign of the cross in baptism; fast and festival days; the confirmation of children and youth; the consecration of edifices for public worship, &c. We are also told that all their churches were bound together by Synods, which assembled once a year; that these Synods were composed of Ministers and Ruling Elders, as in the Presby

terian Church; that their business was to examine and ordain candidates for the ministry, and authoritatively to order every thing respecting their whole body. We may say, then, with strict regard to historical verity, that, in the darkest and most corrupt periods of the Church, Presbyterianism was kept alive in the purest, and indeed, in the only pure churches now known to have then existed.

When the Reformation from Popery occurred, it is at once wonderful and edifying to observe, with what almost entire unanimity the leaders in that glorious enterprise, concurred in proclaiming and sustaining Presbyterian principles. Luther, Melancthon and Bucer, in Germany; Farel, Viret and Calvin, in France and Geneva; Zuingle and Ecolampadius, in Switzerland: Peter Martyr, in Italy; A. Lasco, in Hungary; Junius and others, in Holland; Knox, in Scotland; and a decided majority of the most enlightened and pious friends of the Reformation, even in England,-all, without concert, concurred in maintaining, that in the apostolical age there was no prelacy, Bishop and Presbyter being the same; that the government of the Church by Ruling as well as Teaching Elders, was plainly warranted in Scripture; and that individual congregations were not to be considered as independent communities, but as so many members of the body to which they belonged, and to be governed by representative assemblies, for the benefit of the whole. It is true, these different leaders of the Reformed Churches did not, all of them, actually establish Presbyterian order in their respective ecclesiastical bodies; but while all the Reformed Churches in France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Geneva, and Scotland, were thorough Presbyterians, not only in principle, but also in practice-even the Lutherans universally acknowledged that ministerial parity was the order of the apostolic Church, and also, that in the primitive times Ruling Elders conducted the government and discipline in all the Churches. Still many of them holding, as they did, that the Church was not bound to adhere, in every respect, to the apostolic model of government and discipline, but was at liberty to modify it according to exigencies, and as they might deem, for edification; they adopted forms of regulation and discipline, differing from each other, and differing, as they did not hesitate to confess, from the plan actually in use in the days of apostolic simplicity. The Church of England was the only one in all Protestant Christendom, which, at the Reformation, adopted the system of Prelacy. This was occasioned by the fact, that in that country the Bishops, the court-clergy, and the monarchs, took the lead in

reforming the Church; and, as might have been expected, chose to retain the system of ecclesiastical pre-eminence which had been so long established. It is notorious, however, that this was done originally, without any claim of divine right; with a spirit of affectionate intercourse and communion with all the non-episcopal Churches on the continent of Europe, and after all, contrary to the judgment of large numbers of the most eminently pious and learned friends of the Reformation in that kingdom.

It is very common for the more uninformed opponents of Presbyterianism to assert, that this form of ecclesiastical order was invented by Calvin, and first set in operation in the Church of Geneva. The ignorance of those who can make this allegation is indeed surprising! Passing by all that has been said of the palpable existence of Presbyterian order in the apostolic age; of its plain delineation in the Epistles of Ignatius, and in the writings of other fathers succeeding the pastor of Antioch; and waiving all remark on its acknowledged establishment, as we have seen, among the pious Waldenses; it was undoubtedly in use in Switzerland and in Geneva long before Calvin had appeared as a reformer, or had set his foot in either of those countries. The Rev. Mr. Scott, the Episcopal continuator of Milner's Ecclesiastical History, before quoted, explicitly states, that as early as 1528, when Calvin was but nineteen years of age, and was wholly unknown in the ecclesiastical world, "the Presbyterian form of church government was introduced into Switzerland," and that the doctrine of ministerial parity had been uniformly taught by Zuingle, before the time of Calvin. In Geneva, likewise, before Calvin ever saw that city, his countrymen, Farel and Viret, had gone thither and commenced the Reformation upon Presbyterian principles. There, when he consented to cast in his lot with them, he found a " Presbytery" established; and all that he had to do was to complete the system by adding the bench of Ruling Elders for conducting the discipline of the Church; and even this he did not invent, but confessedly borrowed from that branch of the Waldenses called the Bohemian Brethren; although he evidently considered, and represented it as distinctly warranted by Scripture.

Presbyterianism, as it has long existed in Scotland, Holland, France, Geneva, and Germany, is, in substance, the same system, differing only in these several countries, in minor details, and chiefly in the names and arrangements of their several ecclesiastical assemblies. As those who com

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »