'^'' -nHn"!''!"" H' !' 'i : 
 
BV 665 .S872 1845 
 St ratten, Thomas. 
 The scriptural argument 
 against Apostolical 
 
 ^(^ 
 
 t^ 
 
s1» 
 
JAN ^1918 
 
 THE 
 
 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT 
 
 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION, 
 
 ITS FABULOUS GENEALOGY, 
 
 ITS CLAIM OF SUPREMACY FOR PETER, 
 
 ITS GRADUATED SCALE OF MINISTERIAL ORDERS, 
 
 AND 
 
 ITS PERVERSION OF THE RITE OF 
 "LAYING ON OF HANDS." 
 
 5n jTouv Ifrtuvfs. 
 
 THOMAS STRATTEN. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN SNOW, 3o, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1845. 
 
LONDON: 
 •RINTED BY W. BLANCIIARD AND SONS, 
 
 \\'arwick Lane, St. Paul's. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 " Apostolical SrccESSioN.^The line in which the ministry of 
 the church is handed on from age to age: the corporate lineage of 
 the Christian clergy, just as in the Jewish church there was a 
 family lineage." — Dr. Hook''s Church Dictionary. 
 
 "The Jewish church" traced its lineage to 
 Abraham. The Jewish priesthood traced its line- 
 age to Aaron, and through him up to Abraham. 
 Under the Jewish dispensation, the people had 
 their succession as well as the priests and Le- 
 \-ites. The succession in both cases had its 
 origin in the same root, and the larger, that of 
 the people— the church, included the smaller, 
 that of the priesthood. If, by virtue of a clearly 
 traced lineage, the members of the Levitical tribe 
 discharged sacred offices, by virtue of a clearly 
 traced lineage, the members of the other tribes 
 enjoyed the benefit of those offices. The "family 
 lineage" was not that of the house of Aaron, or 
 of Levi, but that of " the house of Israel." 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 The family lineage of the Jewish church, then, 
 when the terms are explained and understood, is 
 found to contain something more than enters 
 into Dr. Hookas theology. A special case, for the 
 benefit of the " Christian clergy,^^ is derived with 
 singular infelicity from a general case, in which, 
 whatever might be the advantages of a succes- 
 sion, they belonged to the whole nation. Let 
 the whole case be presented, and it will be found 
 to farnish, not a comparison to illustrate and 
 confirm the theory of Apostolical Succession, but 
 an argument for the destruction of that theory. 
 That argument is opened, not exhausted, in the 
 first of the following Lectures. 
 
 The Romanists crown the theory of Apostolical 
 Succession in the Christian clergy generally with 
 an individual succession in the line of the popes 
 in particular. For the analogy of this office, 
 since it is single and exclusive, a corporation sole, 
 phrases, used loosely and vaguely, as in the defi- 
 nition we have quoted, is that of "the Jewish 
 chm'ch," will not serve. The office being filled 
 by one succeeding to another, the type and model 
 must be singular also, and they go therefore 
 direct to Aaron. Their pontiff is, they affirm, 
 like to Aaron. The succession of their pontiffs 
 like to the succession of the Jewish high priests. 
 The unity of the Roman church, under the one 
 pontiff, like to the unity of the Jewish church 
 
FREIACE. 
 
 under the one high priest. Dr. Hook's Diction- 
 ary furnishes no light on this question. Many 
 of the party for which he has assumed the office 
 of a guide need help here. They see that the 
 doctrine which they are taught on the unity of 
 the church places them in a false position. They 
 feel that, while one of their party watchwords 
 is "catholic unity/' they are, in fact, on their 
 own principles, only a schismatical fragment of a 
 church which is itself in schism, and they are 
 shown no very near or practicable road out of 
 this position. One need not wonder that they 
 become dissatisfied with their guides, and that 
 they turn for relief to the rest which is boasted 
 and proffered in submission to the assumed suc- 
 cessors of St. Peter. Here, as the most conve- 
 nient point, the bridge is thrown across the gulf 
 which once separated protestantism from popery, 
 and many have passed by it from one territory 
 to the other. 
 
 The course of the argument pm-sued in the 
 first of these Lectures brought the author upon 
 ground which commanded this place of passage. 
 Is he too sanguine in cherishing a hope that 
 none, who may give the second Lecture a candid 
 reading, will afterwards be disposed to trust 
 themselves on that fragile and treacherous bridge? 
 His object has been to show an open way to li- 
 berty and safety, in an impregnable fortress of 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Protestantism, at the very point where many, 
 bewildered by uncertain guides, have surrendered 
 themselves to be tied, and bound, and hoodwinked 
 in the fetters of Romish thraldom. How far he 
 has succeeded, his readers must judge. 
 
 The family lineage of the Jewish church was 
 a natural succession, observing, through all its 
 parts and links, the natural relation between 
 father and son. The high priest entailed the 
 office of high priest on his first-born son. The 
 priests in common entailed their office in com- 
 mon on all their sons. The Levites entailed their 
 office, with its peculiar work, on all their sons; 
 and the members of all the other tribes entailed 
 the privileges of the Abrahamic covenant on all 
 their children. It was not Aaron, but Abraham, 
 who obtained and conveyed the promises. Yet 
 Dr. Hook can see no difference between this 
 family lineage and what he calls the "corporate 
 lineage ^^ of the Christian clergy. — The third of 
 the following Lectures will open to the reader di- 
 verse essential differences, and show it to be at 
 least very doubtful whether that one order, which 
 rising upwards out of those which remain below, 
 claims, in its exalted position, the exclusive rela- 
 tion of paternity to all the rest, as well as au- 
 thority over them, has any scriptural right or 
 standing for itscK in the Christian church. 
 
 In Dr. Hookas definition of Apostolical Sue- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 cession, the line of the ministry in the church, 
 with graphic and felicitous phraseology, is de- 
 scribed as " handed on from age to age.'' The 
 procreating power is assumed to be in the hand 
 of the prelate, and to be conveyed by the " laying 
 on of his hands/^ — In the fourth of the following 
 Lectures, an effort is made to expound the true 
 meaning of the venerable scriptural rite of " lay- 
 ing on of hands" — to rescue it from the power, 
 and disencumber it from the pretensions of those 
 who undertake to "hand on" the Christian mi- 
 nistry by it — to unfold its relationships as they 
 are diffused through the wide system of revealed 
 truth — and to point out the varied cases in which 
 it may still be legitimately and intelligently em- 
 ployed. 
 
 The author had intended to add a fifth Lecture, 
 on " The True Relations of the Christian Ministry 
 to the Saviour, to the Apostles, and to the Church." 
 He found, however, that this field would be too 
 wide to be traversed in a single Lecture. And, 
 moreover, should he ever be permitted to enter 
 on it, he would be desirous of treating the sub- 
 ject in a style somewhat different from that which 
 is unavoidable in the exposure of arrogant and 
 destructive error. He has expounded the large 
 and catholic principles on which such a treatise 
 might rest in the closing part of the second of 
 these Lectures. He thinks there is a region in 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 which one may get so closely into communion 
 with the truth as to be filled with its light, and 
 be absorbed with the beauty of its featui'es, the 
 harmony of its proportions, the kindnesses of all 
 its relations — that in that region the feelings 
 called into exercise are unmingled in their purity 
 and sweetness, and every utterance becomes em- 
 phatically a " speaking of the truth in love/^ 
 Yet he has been concerned in these Lectures to 
 lead his readers, not within the confined walls of 
 a dreary citadel filled only with warlike stores, 
 nor through paths so choked by the thorns and 
 briars of controversy as to be difficult and pain- 
 ful to the feet, but rather to the strong positions 
 thrown up by nature herself in the hills that are 
 round about the spiritual Zion, and which have 
 their luxuriant foliage and diversified prospects 
 for the eye, as well as their enduring firmness for 
 the defence, of those who desire to "stand fast 
 in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us 
 free." 
 
 Hull, 
 September 2?id, 1845. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 The Fabulous Nature of Ecclesiastical Genealogies showi), by 
 comparing them with the True Genealogies of the Old Testament ; 
 or, the Uses and xVbuses of Genealogy . . . Page 1 
 
 LECTURE n. 
 
 The Fabulous Nature of Peter's Supremacy laid open, by cora- 
 jxiring it with the Personal Priesthood of Aaron ; or, the Uses 
 and Abuses of Aaron's Call and Service . . . .57 
 
 LECTURE in. 
 
 The Pennancnt Orders of the Christian Ministry reduced to 
 their Scriptural Standard — thoir Dual Number; or, the Model 
 Church at Philippi, with its Bishops and Deacons . . 120 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 "The laying on of Hands" — tlie Rite explained, and its More 
 Frequent Use advocated 170 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 THE FABULOUS NATURE OF ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES SHOWN, 
 BY COMPARING THEM WITH THE TRUE GENEALOGIES OF THE 
 OLD TESTAMENT; OR, THE USES AND ABUSES OP GENEALOGY. 
 
 " Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies." — 1 Tim. i. 4. 
 
 A man's genealogy is the history of the line in 
 which he has descended. There has been to every 
 individual a line of descent from Adam, the father 
 of us all, down to himself — a chain formed of suc- 
 cessive links — each link definite, entire, and, for a 
 time, palpable — every additional link growing out 
 of that which preceded it — the whole chain stretch- 
 ing onward, as link after link was formed, until the 
 individual himself was included in it. If he be a 
 parent it ends not with himself, but is still lengthen- 
 ing, and may continue to lengthen, until it shall 
 reach from the day of Adam's creation to the day 
 of the world's conflagration. Nor will the fire, 
 which is to burn up the world with all else which 
 it contains, destroy a single link of this chain, but, 
 on the contrary, show it forth to view, a line of 
 
 B 1 
 
2 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 human existence stretched across the gulf of time, 
 and connected, on either hand, with eternity. 
 
 Yet this chain, which will ultimately be manifest 
 to every eye, can, at present, be traced by no man 
 through all its backward links ; nor, whatever be 
 his power, or wealth, or fame, can he command the 
 preservation of his own line downward from the 
 shadows of oblivion which have spread so widely 
 over the past, and are continually gathering to rest 
 upon the future. No English genealogy can be 
 traced higher than to Norman or Saxon ancestry. 
 The individuals who are able to trace their pedi- 
 gree so high are units among millions, who must 
 content themselves with a knowledge of their ances- 
 try confined within the limits of some one or two 
 centuries. 
 
 There is this singular anomaly in the condition 
 and circumstances of our knowledge : that while 
 we have discovered, and can describe, the relations 
 which exist between the planet in which we dwell 
 and the heavenly bodies by which it is surrounded — 
 can write the history of their revolutions in the 
 past, and foretel the precise course of their revolu- 
 tions which are yet to come — while we can carry 
 our scientific classifications through the wide range 
 of the animal and vegetable tribes, unfolding their 
 mutual relations, and determining the order in 
 which they have ever stood, and will, in all coming 
 time, continue to stand — while we can open the 
 grave of a pre- Adamite world, and decipher and 
 arrange the monumental remains of living creatures 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 3 
 
 whose races have perished in some awful convulsion 
 of nature, leaving no descendants behind ; yet we 
 cannot recover the lost links of our own relation- 
 ship — we cannot trac^ the channel that has con- 
 veyed the blood which flows in our own veins — we 
 cannot, beyond a few generations, tell what were 
 the names of our own fathers — we cannot discover 
 the footmarks of those paternal steps which, by 
 their w^anderings from home and kindred, de- 
 cided the place of our birth and the land which 
 we should call our country — we cannot relate the 
 labours of those paternal hands which contributed 
 to build up the structure of our social system and 
 our national greatness — we cannot connect ourselves 
 with the thoughts and feelings of those paternal 
 minds which often pondered the destinies, while 
 they were furnishing and cultivating the inherit- 
 ance, of their posterity. 
 
 Had tlie principle been assumed and acted on 
 from the origin of the human family, that it would 
 be an interesting, and might be a profitable, depart- 
 ment of instruction to convey down to every branch 
 the knowledge of its descent — to enable every rising 
 member to trace upwards the entire line of his 
 ancestry — at how small an expense of labour and 
 skill might the work have been accomplished ! 
 Tradition and syin])ol in the first place — the en- 
 graved or written table subsequently, as the sub- 
 stance of the information increased and the power 
 of communicating by writing was obtained, might 
 easily have secured the object. Tiiose who have ^ 
 
4 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 never turned their minds to this question may be 
 surprised at seeing into how small a compass a 
 genealogy of four thousand years may be com- 
 pressed. They will find in sixteen verses of the 
 third chapter of Luke the genealogy of our 
 Saviour's humanity, with every link entire, up to 
 Adam. It is the department of knowledge which, 
 at the starting-point of the human mind in its 
 boundless career, was nearest at hand, most easy in 
 its communication, most likely to be universally 
 interesting ; but which, having once been neglected 
 and lost, can never be restored, until, by the com- 
 pleting miracle of Divine power in our history, the 
 entire human family, in its whole generations and 
 relations, shall be raised up from the grave. 
 
 There was a period when this loss was not uni- 
 versal. There was a people who, for many gene- 
 rations, possessed this genealogical knowledge of 
 their whole ancestry entire and complete. It should 
 suffice, to rescue this department of knowledge from 
 unwise depreciation, to mention that the Jewish 
 people held it as a sacred deposit, like the oracles 
 of God, exclusively their own. In those oracles 
 they found its fountain-head, kept it constantly in 
 view, and traced onward the stream flowing from it 
 through more than two millenniums of patriarchal 
 ages. To i^reserve and perpetuate this knowledge 
 in their respective tribes and families, was one 
 special provision and requirement of their The- 
 ocracy. Every family had its name and place upon 
 the soil, which it was not permitted to alienate. 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 5 
 
 The beautiful face of nature, in tlie lines and divi- 
 sions marked by lot upon it, received the indelible 
 impress of the genealogical stamp. The tables of 
 genealogy, sacredly preserved, were the title-deeds 
 to an interest and share in the land, as well as to all 
 civil and religious privileges. It was a striking 
 peculiarity in the case of every individual subject 
 of that Theocratic government, that he could, at all 
 times, tell the precise position which he occupied, 
 and the relation which he sustained, in the pro- 
 gress of the human family — that he could trace 
 upwards the distinct line of his ancestry to Jacob, 
 Isaac, and Abraham, and through them, still higher, 
 to Noah, and to Adam. Or, going at once to the 
 fountain-head in Adam, he could trace the stream 
 downwards until it touched the boundary-line of his 
 own family inheritance in Canaan ; and that boun- 
 dary-line became the channel which received his 
 own patrimonial portion of the stream, and through 
 whicli it continued unceasingly to flow. 
 
 It may be asked, What were the advantages of 
 this genealogical knowledge ? They were various. 
 To prepare your minds to enter into these advan- 
 tages and appreciate their value, think for a moment 
 of the case of an individual who knows nothing 
 whatever of his parentage — who has been cast upon 
 tlie world, the abandoned offspring of vice or cala- 
 mity, and is unable, to trace out a single link of his 
 relationship to any member of the human family. 
 How solitary must he feel amid tlie millions by 
 whom he is surrounded ! How prone to contrast 
 r. 2 
 
6 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 his isolated state with the condition of others who 
 are bound together by the affections which grow 
 out of the varied relationships of life ! The streams 
 flowing from these affections — of which multitudes 
 drink without thinking of their A^alue, because they 
 are so common, and connatural with them, a part 
 and parcel of their ordinary existence — appear the 
 more precious to him, because they have always 
 been denied to his thirsty lips. How actively, 
 often how morbidly, does his imagination work on 
 the probabilities or the possibilities of his origin ! 
 How eagerly does he hail, and pursue, any light 
 which promises to throw a single ray upon the 
 mystery of his being ! How bitter his disappoint- 
 ment, if it has excited him in vain, and goes out 
 leaving him in his original darkness ! Let him 
 find sympathy, form marriage ties, found a family 
 himself — still, how drear a blank surrounds that 
 point of his history which to them he would most 
 like to illustrate, and the strength of his parental 
 feelings only makes him more deeply conscious of 
 his own primary and irreparable loss. 
 
 Put into contrast with this case that of the Jew, 
 who knew and revered his whole ancestry up to 
 Adam. That point which presents the most dreary 
 blank in the history of the former opens a most 
 wonderfully illuminated frontispiece and preface 
 to the history of the latter. The eye never tires 
 in perusing the characters which rise with venerable 
 garb or prophetic mantle before the view. The 
 tongue has an exhaustless domestic theme on which 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 7 
 
 to enlarge. The hand is to add another line to the 
 page, to inscribe the name which will represent 
 himself to all posterity, and then to convey it — the 
 last, and most precious, of all bequests. 
 
 The man who could stand upon a clearly ascer- 
 tained and authentic genealogy, going through a 
 long line of illustrious ancestors up to Adam, must 
 have known his true position in society, and have 
 had one of the ' strongest reasons for respecting 
 himself. Instead of feeling himself severed from 
 tlie ties of kindred, and isolated from human affec- 
 tions, he might have imagined the love of the first 
 human pair as coming with unbroken stream upon 
 liimself, and gathering, as tributaries, the prayers 
 and blessings of many parental hearts in its course. 
 There would be a closer and more realizing connec- 
 tion with the events of history, when he could trace 
 his own relationship to those concerned in them. 
 The electric line of human sympathies, when every 
 link in the chain of communication was entire, 
 would convey the whole power of the events with 
 undiminished force upon him. There would be 
 one of the strongest stimulants to virtue and reli- 
 gion, when the names and excellences, not of 
 individuals only, but of a long line of pious ances- 
 tors, liscd in the imagination, the memory, and 
 the heart, and he felt himself the heir of ancient 
 honours, prayers, blessings, and promises. Last, 
 not least, while genealogical lionours rested, not on 
 antiquarian researches into musty chambers, and 
 mouldering monuments, and doubtful legends, but 
 
8 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 on public records, Avell authenticated, and sacredly 
 preserved, there was no room among the Jews for 
 fables like those which had been invented and 
 imposed on all other nations — there was no misty 
 antiquity in the distant gloom of which all kinds 
 of incongruous forms could be shaped out by those 
 skilful in deceit, and be made to pass with the 
 (Credulous multitudes for Divine realities — there 
 was no vacant ground in the long vista of past 
 ages where systems of error might be constructed, 
 impervious to the light of heaven, and filled with 
 the lying wonders of the false Spirit. 
 
 Even now, an accurate and comprehensive genea- 
 logical knowledge — a knowledge of our ancestors, in 
 their names, migrations, and religions, could it be 
 recovered and universally diffused, would be one 
 of the most effectual instruments to clear away 
 all the false systems of superstition and idolatry 
 which at present prevail upon the earth. Through 
 whatever devious and gloomy paths we might trace 
 our way upwards, we should come out at length 
 into the clear and open field of the patriarchal dis- 
 pensation. We should find that the most ancient re- 
 ligion, the religion of our oldest fathers, was the most 
 simple religion, the religion most like that of the 
 New Testament. Under the legitimate influence 
 of a true antiquity, we should be a people prepared, 
 not to bow our necks to the yoke of a papacy or a 
 priesthood, but to walk with the Lord himself, like 
 Enoch, in the privilege of direct communion, and 
 to be blessed, with faithful Abraham, while we are 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. V 
 
 acknowledged as his seed, and heirs according to 
 the promise. 
 
 It is in a fabulous genealogy, and a low and 
 obscure antiquity, that error builds her seat and 
 finds her congenial elements. She has done this in 
 constructing the theory of" "Apostolical Succession." 
 The leading principle assumed in that theory is, 
 the truth and authority of an ecclesiastical gene- 
 alogy — that a spirit of life is infused into the act 
 of ordination which gives it a procreating power. 
 The individual who receives ordination connects a 
 paternal relation with the hands from w^hich it 
 comes. It is alleged that this paternity must in 
 some way be manifest, and Avell assured, through 
 all ascending links, until you come up to the hands 
 of an apostle ; and that through the unbroken links 
 of this lengthening chain alone can the grace of 
 ministerial authority and sacramental efficacy be 
 conveyed. 
 
 Let us try if we can test the character and 
 workmanship of this chain. It stretches only 
 across the last eighteen centuries ; let us see if 
 it be as good and strong as the older and longer 
 chain, which stretches across the preceding four 
 millenniums. It professes to have interests in- 
 calculiibly more imi)ortant depending on it ; let us 
 see if it be proportionably firmer in its materials 
 and cohesion. Let us compare the antiquity of 
 monks and priests with the antiquity of patriarchs 
 and prophets — the genealogies of Oxford and 
 Kome with the genealogies of the Bible. It may 
 
10 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 then perhaps appear that there are cogent reasons, 
 arising from the case, to enforce on ns the apostolic 
 injunction, " Neither give heed to fables and endless 
 genealogies." 
 
 At the period when the apostle wrote this epistle 
 to Timothy the public tables of the Jewish gene- 
 alogies had, in some way or other, been destroyed 
 or lost. Eusebius attributes their destruction to 
 Herod, who, it will be remembered, was an Idumean 
 by birth, and gives the following account of his 
 reasons for depriving his subjects of a treasure so 
 invaluable to them, and Avhich, when lost, could 
 never be restored : — 
 
 "Now whenas unto that time the genealogies, 
 not only of the Hebrews, but of them also who, 
 lineally descended from ancient proselytes, as from 
 Achior the Ammonite, and Ruth the Moabitess, and 
 those who came out of Egypt with the Israelites 
 and mingled with them, were recorded among the 
 ancient monuments ; Herod, considering that the 
 Israelitical pedigrees would avail him nothing, and 
 being pricked in mind with the consciousness of 
 his baseness of birth, burnt their ancient recorded 
 genealogies, supposing thereby to make himself 
 to be thought to come of noble parentage, when 
 none other, assisted by public records, were able 
 to bring their pedigrees from the patriarchs, or 
 ancient proselytes, or such as were called Georae^ 
 strangers born, and mingled among the Israelites. 
 Yet some few studious in this behalf, having either 
 kept in memory the names of their ancestors or 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 11 
 
 copied them out of ancient rolls, have got unto 
 themselves their proper pedigrees, and glory much 
 that they have preserved the remembrance of their 
 ancient nobility." * 
 
 This passage of Euscbius throws much light 
 upon the words of our text in the epistle to 
 Timothy. AYhen the question of genealogy was 
 no longer one of universal, easy, and authentic 
 settlement from the public records, but every 
 individual, concerned for the honour of his pedi- 
 gree, was driven to the accidents of private trans- 
 mission, of family documents, of doubtful traditions, 
 of infirm memory, there would be an opening, on 
 the one hand, for all kinds of fabulous inventions, 
 and, on the other, for all kinds of disputatious 
 questionings. These had evidently become one 
 source of inconvenience and trouble to the infant 
 church. Reasons for preference in the selection 
 for sacred offices, or for additional deference to 
 those employed in these ofiices, would be urged by 
 the Jewish members, on the ground of these un- 
 certain, often fabulous, genealogical distinctions. 
 The same spirit, which has subsequently swelled 
 itself out into the full-grown pride of a fabulous 
 ecclesiastical genealogy, then showed its young 
 aspirings in its claims to a distinguished parental 
 genealogy. The mystery of iniquity in this, as 
 well as in every other form which it afterAvards 
 assumed, had begun, under the apostle's eye, 
 already to work, and was thus by the apostle's 
 
 * Eccles. Hist. lib. i. chap. 7. 
 
12 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 pen plainly indicated and rebuked : " Neither give 
 heed to fables and endless genealogies." 
 
 It will be our object in the present lecture to 
 examine the nature of the claims which the theory 
 of apostolical succession, or, in other words, the 
 theory of ecclesiastical genealogy, puts forth to 
 apostolical paternity. There is only this alterna- 
 tive in the case — truth or fable. The truth, in a 
 question of genealogy, lies within small compass ; 
 and if it be an integral portion of the great sys- 
 tem of sj)iritual truth connected with man's salva- 
 tion, and his eternal interests in any way depend 
 upon it, it may be assumed that the great Author 
 and Guardian of truth, has, in his providential 
 arrangements, secured some mode for its preserva- 
 tion and manifestation. The genealogies of the 
 Theocracy, one design of which was to furnish a 
 link in the chain of evidence to the Messiahship of 
 our Lord, show, till that design was accomplished, 
 the exercise of this foreseeing wisdom and provi- 
 dential care. They furnish a model of what true 
 genealogies should be. Let us present that model. 
 In doing this we shall advance one important step 
 in the work of exposing the fabulous nature of 
 ecclesiastical genealogies by showing — 
 
 I. That tliey do not authenticate the apostolical 
 paternity which they claim. 
 
 One characteristic difference between truth and 
 fable is that the latter, addressing itself to cre- 
 dulity, expects to be listened to with deference on 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES P^ABULOUS. 13 
 
 tlie authority of its own great swelling words, 
 uttered Ironi some liigli or mysterious j)lace ; while 
 the former, coming into connnunion witli lier audi- 
 tors, invites their investigation, and proffers her 
 })roofs or vouchers. We sliall find this difference 
 in the case before us. 
 
 The genealogies of the Theocracy have their 
 origin inscribed in the pages of holy Scripture. 
 The names of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the 
 twelve patriarchs, are, at the present day, as fami- 
 liar to us as household words. How much more 
 familiar and interesting to the Jews — their descend- 
 ants ! The seventy, into which they had multi- 
 plied on their coming into Egypt, are inscribed in 
 the Book of Genesis,* and repeated in the Book of 
 Numbers-! The families, into which they branch 
 and multiply, carry their pedigree with them out 
 of Egypt as their title, and that of their children, 
 to. a portion of the land to be divided by lot 
 amongst them. The genealogy is the only entail 
 which can legally carry downward the estate. The 
 registries are so carefully entered, and the tables 
 so sacredly preserved, that not even the convulsions 
 of the Babylonish captivity can disturb their gene- 
 ral integrity. The habit of attending to the regis- 
 tries has so rooted itself in the national mind and 
 customs, that the people can be more easily torn 
 from their native soil, than severed from their 
 genealogical stock. If, even during the calamities 
 of the captivity, any individuals neglect their 
 
 * Gen. xlvi. 8—27. f Num. xxvi. 
 
 C 
 
14 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 registry, they lose, on their return, their standing 
 and privileges among the people. Late as the 
 period of the Incarnation, the preservation of the 
 records enables the Roman government to enrol 
 the Jews for a tax, according to the residence of 
 their fathers ; and hence Joseph and Mary, being 
 of the house and lineage of David, take their slow 
 and painful journey to Bethlehem. 
 
 There is a case recorded both by Ezra and Nehe- 
 miah which shows the extreme care taken by the 
 Jews in preserving their genealogies, the import- 
 ance they attached to them in settling questions 
 relating to office, as well as to residence and pro- 
 perty, and the consequences which resulted from 
 any informality or neglect in securing the proper 
 and authenticated entries. This case is entitled to 
 more special attention because it will recur again, 
 at another place, with an important conclusion 
 following from it. 
 
 " And of the children of the priests : the child- 
 ren of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children 
 of Barzillai (which took a wife of the daughters of 
 Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their 
 name) : these sought their register among those that 
 were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not 
 found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from 
 the priesthood." * 
 
 Now, observe these individuals had tradition — 
 had presumption — in all probability had, what was 
 to themselves, clear and satisfactory knowledge of 
 * Ezra ii. 61, 62. 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 15 
 
 tlieir descent. They had moreover a plea to excuse 
 informality in the troubles of the captivity. But 
 none of these pleas would avail. There was a 
 register of genealogy, and they were not found 
 written therein ; therefore, " as polluted," were they 
 put from the priesthood. 
 
 Ho\v would the advocates of ministerial grace by 
 ecclesiastical genealogy, come out of an examination 
 by those who decided this case against the claims 
 of the children of Habaiah, of Koz, and of Bar- 
 zillai ? AVe sometimes find them employing lan- 
 guage like the following : — 
 
 " The prelates who at this present time rule the 
 churches of these realms, were validly ordained 
 by others, who, by means of an unhroken spiritual 
 descent of ordination, derived their mission from 
 the apostles and from our Lord. This continual 
 descent is evident to every one who chooses to 
 investigate it. Let him read the catalogues of our 
 bishops ascending up to the most remote period. 
 There is not a bishop, priest, or deacon among 
 us who cannot, if he please, trace his own spiritual 
 descent from St. Peter or St. Paul."* 
 
 High sounding words are these ! But any power 
 w iiich they carry with them will be found, not in 
 themselves, but in the place from which they come. 
 It is an oracle speaking from its place of mystery, 
 but uttering a fiible. 
 
 The first indication of oracular illusion to which 
 
 * Dr. Hook, Two Sermons on the Church and the Estiih- 
 lishraent. 
 
16 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 we point is found in the half-parentlietieal clause 
 as to the bishop, priest, or deacon tracing his 
 pedigree, " if he please ! " Has he not done it then ? 
 Is it such a trifling affair that it may remain wait- 
 ing for his volition ? Or, is it so verxj clear and 
 indisputable that he need not trouble himself far- 
 ther till ''he please?'' 
 
 It would have been more to the point — more 
 truth -like — more in the order of proceeding to an 
 important conclusion on which such momentous 
 interests depend, if we had been told what Dr. 
 Hook himself, or what any other, standing upon 
 the same claims, had actually accomplished. Surely, 
 if the people are to be satisfied that the boasted 
 grace of this succession is in truth conveyed to 
 them, and if all who minister out of the line of 
 succession are to feel convicted of an unauthorised 
 intrusion into holy ofiices, the work, preliminary to 
 the argumentation on the claims, should be the pub- 
 lication, properly authenticated, of some one indivi- 
 dual's actual pedigree going upwards to an apostle. 
 Let some one specimen of this privileged race, with 
 all his genealogical honours clearly shining on him, 
 be presented to the public eye. Such a case would 
 furnish a basis that would at least look truth-like, 
 on which the logical structure reared by the parties 
 might rest. 
 
 Yet such a specimen, however beautiful, and 
 venerable, and entitled to the admiration of the 
 public eye, should not satisfy the parties generally 
 wlio felicitate themselves on being in the succes- 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 17 
 
 sion. No one of them, looking at the solemn 
 bearings and awfully important consequences in- 
 volved, should be content to suspend the know- 
 ledge, in his own particular case, on a mere caprice 
 of the mind's volition — " he can if he please." If 
 he can, it is not if he j}lease. If he can, he should 
 feel it to be at his peril if he does not do it. If 
 the present regeneration and pardon, and the eter- 
 nal safety of the flock to which he ministers, 
 depend on the certainty of his being lineally 
 descended from an apostle, then, before he assume 
 the tremendous responsibility, he is bound, by all 
 the considerations which can weigh with a rational 
 and virtuous mind, to make, first himself, and then 
 those who are to receive grace by him, quite sure 
 upon this vital point. No labour, no cost, no 
 travel should he spare — no rest should he take, 
 night or day, until he possess the indisputable 
 genealogical document, clear in the whole line, and 
 firm in every link of the chain. This should he 
 place before his eye as he crosses the threshold of 
 his sacerdotal charge. To this should he earnestly 
 entreat the investigating and admiring eye of every 
 member of his flock. This should he ever carry 
 with him, as the most precious of all his posses- 
 sions, dearer to him than his right eye, and, were 
 it not that without that member he could not dis- 
 pense the sacramental grace, dearer even than his 
 right hand. 
 
 How is it that, since any one of the bishops, 
 priests, or deacons could "trace his spiritual de- 
 c 2 
 
18 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 scent from St. Peter or St. Paul, if he pleased^'' it 
 does not please any one of them to do it ? There 
 is scarcely any department of intellectual labour, 
 either connected with their profession or foreign 
 from it, which some individuals of their number do 
 not cheerfully undertake and skilfully execute. 
 How diligently have they cultivated every obscure 
 nook and corner of classic soil ! What word is 
 there which they have not traced to its root ! 
 What sentence, difficult or defective, which they 
 have not toiled to elucidate or restore ! Ai^e they 
 doing justice to their professional reputation, leav- 
 ing higher considerations out of the question, while 
 they neglect the richer treasures of their genealo- 
 gies, and permit the dust of ages to accumulate 
 around them, and, it may be, the stealthy worm to 
 feed quietly upon them ! 
 
 Perhaps, however, the worm has no power over 
 documents which are necessary to authenticate the 
 conveyance of such mysterious and supernatural 
 functions. If any bishop, priest, or deacon, selected 
 at random, may commence the work of tracing his 
 spiritual descent, with the certainty of a successful 
 termination of his task, all the documents neces- 
 sary in the case must have been preserved entire 
 and immaculate. Such a preservation must have 
 in it something miraculous. The uncertainty and 
 deficiency of man's pleasure must have been pro- 
 vided against by the certainty and completeness of 
 the Divine pleasure. The documents necessary to 
 authenticate the genealogy of every individual in 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 19 
 
 question exist, or they do not. If they do not, it 
 is fable to say that any bisliop, priest, or deacon 
 can trace his descent, " if he please." If they do, 
 it is miraculous care which has preserved them, 
 and that miraculous care exercised on behalf of a 
 race whose pleasure has not hitherto been found 
 in the path of its first, most obvious, and most 
 imperative duty. Instead of the flippant assertion 
 on which we have been commenting, and which is 
 altogether unbecoming so grave a subject, let all 
 bishops, priests, and deacons, who claim any autho- 
 rity on the ground of an assumed descent from St. 
 Peter or St. Paul, give us the satisfactory proofs, 
 from well-authenticated and accessible records, of 
 their true lineage — each one showing the unbroken 
 line which terminates in himself. If, like men in 
 earnest, consistent, and truthful, they set about this 
 work, and accomplish it, they will find themselves, 
 and be able to show to others, the manifestation of 
 a miraculous care in preserving to them, uninjured 
 and complete, the materials necessary for accom- 
 plishing their task. If it does not please them to 
 undertake the work, or if commencing tliey ftiil in 
 its execution, they must not complain if we charge 
 them with first giving heed, and then giving utter- 
 ance, to a fable. 
 
 What if it should prove that, since it has not 
 pleased them to undertake the work, they have not 
 even attempted to estimate the difiiculties it would 
 present ? There is a peculiarity connected with 
 episcopal genealogy, which is found in no order of 
 
20 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 nature, and no analogy of official transmission. It 
 is this : that there must be three ecclesiastical 
 fathers combined for every episcopal reproduction; 
 that is, three bishops are required in the ordi- 
 nation or reproduction of every one.* Now this 
 fact introduces a difficulty in tracing the lineage of 
 every bishop, leaving the priests and deacons who 
 depend on them out of the question, the amount of 
 which exceeds all ordinary powers of calculation ; 
 for when any existing bishop begins the work of 
 tracing up his ancestry, he has to remember that 
 ther^ were three episcopal fathers engaged in his 
 ordination. To the ordination of each one of these 
 three older fathers had been necessary; so that, in 
 the first step from the starting-point, his attention 
 may possibly be diverted and distracted into nine 
 collateral lines. Let him cross and recross these, 
 and make them out to his satisfaction, and then, at 
 his next step, he may have three times nine to find; 
 and so in every step higher — the last number may 
 still have to be multiplied by three. He would 
 surely find no small amount of labour, and accom- 
 
 * This triple episcopal conjunction for the purpose of episcopal 
 reproduction, is enjoined in the canons called Apostolical, and in 
 the canons of the Council of Nice, and is adopted in the general 
 practice of episcopal churches. If the object of these canons was 
 to give greater security for a true apostolical descent, they betray 
 the weakness of human devices and temporary expedients in 
 matters connected with religion ; inasmuch as they do, in fact, 
 throw suspicion on the period prior to their inaction, in a case 
 in which invalidity, once admitted, could never by any subsequent 
 regulations be rectified, but, as no fresh infusion of apostolical 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 21 
 
 plish no very enviable task, in tracing his perfect 
 lineage through only the tlu*ee last and recent cen- 
 turies of the Reformation. 
 
 Suppose that, by traversing, times without num- 
 ber, and in all directions, the roads which conduct 
 from one city to another in our own country, he 
 has completed this part of his work, and takes a 
 breathing time on the eminence he has gained to 
 contemplate the labours yet before liim, another 
 difficulty, somewhat appalling, here arises. The 
 multiplying threads of the labyrinth which he has 
 been treading may now stretch outward, and lead 
 him out of these realms across to the continent, and 
 round about to one and another, if not to all, of 
 its episcopal sees. Having reached the period at 
 which Rome held ecclesiastical supremacy in our 
 country, he may find an Italian, a German, or a 
 Gallic bishoji, here and there assisting in ordina- 
 tion, or even installed by translation ; and where 
 then will end his wanderings after the ascending 
 line of his pedigree? 
 
 It need not be affirmed that, to the prophetic 
 
 grace could be obtained, must, of necessity, go on multiplying 
 itself beyond all power of remedy in the future. They also throw 
 additional ditliculties into that future by declaring, in effect, that 
 no certainty can be found in any single line of descent; and then 
 by introducing, with triple lines of descent, a complexity into the 
 case which would go on increasing from generation to generation, 
 until at length (as is now the fact) the genealogy of the so-called 
 Christian priesthood would become as inextricable, and impracti- 
 cable in tracing, as is the theogony of the myriads of deities who 
 people (fabulously) the temples of Hindostan. 
 
22 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 eye of the apostle, the interior of this labyrinth, 
 trebling its mazes at every step, lay open and ex- 
 posed; but, if it did, could he have employed a word 
 more descriptive of its nature than that which he 
 has inserted in our text — " endless genealogies ! " * 
 
 There is another point here worthy of consider- 
 ation. Suppose all the links in the genealogy could 
 be made out from authentic documents, and be 
 put in their proper order together, so as to make 
 the chain, in its appearance, complete and entire, 
 what proof have we that all the links are inhe- 
 rently valid and strong — that each one has been 
 produced and put into its place with the requisite 
 forms and ceremonies ? The possibility and con- 
 
 * The Hon. and Rev, A. P. Percival, in his " Apologj' for the 
 Doctrine of Apostolical Succession," dedicated to the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, has given a table to show the episcopal descent 
 of his grace '"'■infulV for four successions, "By which," he says, 
 " it will appear that, in transmitting the apostolical commission to 
 the present Archbishop of Canterbury, there were in the first step 
 four bishops concerned, in the second twelve, in the third twenty- 
 seven, and in the fourth about fifty." He has also given a table 
 which he designates " Episcopal Descent of the present Archbishop 
 of Canterbury from Archbishop Warham, traced in one line.'''' He 
 has also given a table of " English Consecrations from Archbishop 
 Cranmer, and his Consecrators inclusive." This table contains four 
 hundred and thirty-nine names. But then it is added, " Here follow 
 the names of some bishops which were omitted in their proper places, 
 as I hoped to have found their consecration in the York Registry. 
 I am sorry to say that the instances in which that hope has been 
 realized have been few." So that, while he affords very valuable 
 direction to those who wish to begin the work of tracing their 
 descent, they must not rely on him, however willing he may be to 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 23 
 
 sequences of any defect on this point are thus put 
 by Ai'chbishop Whateley : — 
 
 " The sacramental virtue (for such it is that is 
 implied, whether the term be used or not, in the 
 principle I have been speaking of) dependant on 
 the imposition of hands, with a due observance of 
 apostolical usages by a bishop, himself duly con- 
 secrated, after having been in like manner bap- 
 tized into the church and ordained deacon and 
 priest — this sacramental virtue, if a single link of 
 the chain be faulty^ must, on the above principles, 
 be utterly nullified ever after, in respect of all the 
 links that hang on that one. For if a bishop has 
 not been duly consecrated, or had not been pre- 
 viously rightly ordained, his ordinations are null; 
 
 serve them, as a fulh' competent and infallible guide: he may- 
 fail them at the very point which is necessarj' to the satisfactory 
 commencement of their task. And then, if there are possibilities 
 of failure in these three recent centuries, how much is there to 
 sober the most sanguine, if not to appal the most resolute, in the 
 retrospect of the fourteen or fifteen centuries which lie beyond ! 
 
 Still, both the opponents and advocates of apostolical succession 
 should feel indebted to Mr. Percival. The latter for opening to 
 them the path which, whenever they begin the work of " tracing 
 their descent from St. Peter or St. Paul," it behoves them to take ; 
 the former for increasing their assurance that, should it ever 
 please the whole body of the Anglican clergy to arise and enter in 
 earnest on this undertaking, which, in the absence of their pleasure 
 towards it, they declare to be so easy, they will have occupation 
 enough to compel them to suspend their offensive warfare upon 
 their less aspiring neighbours, and bewilderment enough to make 
 them feel that they have become themselves the objects of tnie 
 Christian commiseration. 
 
24 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 and so are the ministrations of those ordained by 
 him; and their ordination of others (supposing 
 any of the persons ordained by liim to attain to 
 the episcopal office) ; and so on, without end. The 
 poisonous taint of informality, if it once creep in 
 undetected, will spread the infection of nullity to 
 an indefinite and irremediable extent. And who 
 can undertake to pronounce that, during that long 
 period usually designated as the *Dark Ages,' no 
 such taint ever was introduced? Irregularities 
 could not have been wholly excluded without a 
 perpetual miracle ; and that no such miraculous 
 interference existed we have even historical proof. 
 Amidst the numerous corruptions, of doctrine and 
 of practice, and gross superstitions that crept in 
 during those ages, we find recorded descriptions, 
 not only of the profound ignorance and profligacy 
 of life of many of the clergy, but also of the 
 grossest irregularities in respect of discipline and 
 form ; we read of bishops consecrated when mere 
 children — of men officiating who barely knew their 
 letters — of prelates expelled, and others put in their 
 places, by violence — of illiterate and profligate lay- 
 men, and habitual drunkards, admitted to holy 
 orders — and, in short, of the prevalence of every 
 kind of disorder, and reckless disregard of the 
 decency which the apostle enjoins. It is incon- 
 ceivable that any one, even moderately acquainted 
 with history, can feel a certainty, or any approach 
 to certainty, that, amidst all this confusion and 
 corruption, every requisite form was, in every in- 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABLLOUS. 25 
 
 Stance, strictly adhered to by men — many of tliem 
 openly profane and secular — unrestrained by public 
 opinion, tlirough tlie gross ignorance of the popu- 
 lation among which they lived ; and that no one 
 not duly consecrated or ordained was admitted to 
 sacred offices." " The ultimate consequence must 
 be, that any one who sincerely believes that his 
 claim to the benefits of the gospel covenant de- 
 pends on his own minister's claim to the supposed 
 sacramental virtue of true ordination, and this 
 again on perfect apostolical succession, as above 
 described, must be involved in proportion as he 
 reads, and inquires, and reflects, and reasons on 
 the subject in the most distressing doubts and per- 
 plexity." Another sentence from the archbishop, 
 though transposed from its original place, may be 
 inserted here as a proper conclusion from the fore- 
 going : " There is not a minister in all Christen- 
 dom (on the assumed theory) who is able to trace 
 up, with any approach to certainty, liis own spiritual 
 pedigree."* 
 
 We have seen what would be the toil of one who 
 is at the bottom of the line in trying to trace his 
 way upward. Let us pass over the line and see 
 liow, in its earlier, which ought also to be its clearer 
 steps, it can be traced downwards. All the labour 
 at the bottom, or through the middle, will be of no 
 avail if we cannot find firm footing at the top. 
 Since, in approaching the top, tlie links begin to 
 diminish in their collateral lines until they consoli- 
 
 * Kingdom of Christ, pp. 176 — 179. 
 D 
 
26 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 date in one which an apostle's hand should hold, they 
 ought here to be proportionably clearer and stronger 
 — more manifest to the eje — more capable of en- 
 during any test which can be applied by the hand. 
 
 So are they in the true genealogies of the The- 
 ocracy. The public records of each tribe go up 
 to the twelve patriarchs. Before you reach them, 
 the fathers descending from them are inscribed, to- 
 gether with themselves, on the imperishable pages 
 of the holy Scriptures, which give us not the names 
 only, but the biography of Jacob, Isaac, Abraham. 
 
 In the ecclesiastical genealogy, just at these points 
 where you require most clearness, cohesion, strength 
 — where, if one link be faulty, the whole theory which 
 hangs upon it sinks into irrecoverable confusion and 
 ruin, — and the more multiplied the branching lines 
 of the chain, the longer the succession of its links 
 and the more weighty the interests depending, the 
 heavier the fall and the more complete the destruc- 
 tion, — just at these points the chain is known to be 
 most defective ; nor can the original and fatal defect 
 ever be repaired. Records there are none. Dates 
 of early episcopal ordination, and names of the pa- 
 ternity employed in ordination, there are none. 
 Tradition, not history, reports that Peter became 
 Bishop of Rome. Tradition, not history, reports 
 the names merely, not the full pedigree of those 
 said to have been his successors in office. But the 
 most singular circumstance in the case, well known 
 to all by whom it has been investigated, is this : 
 that the sibyl of this oracular tradition, as though 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 27 
 
 compelled to make manifest the source of her in- 
 spiration by an insulting mockery of her deluded 
 votaries, speaks to them with a double tongue. 
 "With the one she declares that Linus succeeded 
 Peter ; with the other she declares that Clement 
 succeeded him. Some of the Fathers, with unsus- 
 pecting simplicity, listened to the one utterance, 
 while others, with equal simplicity, listened to the 
 other. The wisest of those who follow express 
 themselves, as well they may, in great doubt as to 
 which is true ; and, since this doubt cannot by any 
 possibility now be cleared up and settled, what is 
 the consequence ? Why, that this first link, which 
 ought to be strongest of the whole, is cut into 
 two by the very hands themselves which forged 
 it, and neither half can hold upon it the weight of 
 a feather. 
 
 There is another utterance of the Anglican oracle 
 which deserves some attention ; the more so, be- 
 cause it may seem to present an escape from the 
 laborious, though the only satisfactory, method of 
 tracing up the pedigree which we have just now 
 exhibited. " Let him read the catalogues of bishops 
 ascending up to the most remote period." The 
 most remote period ! What a convenient oracular 
 phrase ! We want the light which infallibly guides 
 us into the presence of a definite and living object 
 — an apostle. There is thrown around us the 
 broad shadow of a venerable antiquity, in which 
 the mind must be too reverent and subdued pre- 
 sumptuously to inquire for tlic person who is 
 
28 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 wanted. We must be near the time of his apostolic 
 existence ! It is a remote period ! and the proper 
 feeling for that period is mysterious awe amid the 
 objects dimly seen, and therefore the more likely 
 to be those whose sacredness forbids a close ap- 
 proach and familiar intercourse ! 
 
 And we are to be guided to the shadowy region 
 of this remote period by the help of a catalogue I — 
 a catalogue of bishops ! It may then be presumed 
 that, if at any time it should please the Anglican 
 bishops, priests, and deacons to trace their spiritual 
 descent, this is the road which they purpose to 
 take. It is direct, and, considering that it is to 
 lead them to so remote a period, comparatively 
 short. It is upward — still upward — cutting off all 
 the i^erplexing angles of the triple paternity, and 
 avoiding all the mazes of the labyrinth. But then 
 the question is. Does the grace of ordination come 
 down to them by this same direct road up which 
 it may please them at some time to travel ? We 
 submit that that grace, if it exist at all, must turn 
 the angles and double all the mazes of the labyrinth, 
 and that through that course only can they hope to 
 find it. 
 
 The children of this wOrld are wiser in their 
 generation than are those who boast their posses- 
 sion of this apostolic light. They are in no danger 
 of supposing that any one of them could establish 
 a disputed claim to an estate by producing a cata- 
 logue of those who in succession had occupied it, 
 or a claim to a title of nobility by a catalogue of 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 29 
 
 those Avlio in succession had worn it, or a claim to 
 an hereditary office by a catalogue of those who in 
 succession had filled it. Catalogues have no such 
 potency when they are referred to by lips not 
 oracular. In ordinary cases, the care of the indi- 
 vidual is to bring his proof to the precise point, 
 whatever it may be, on which he founds his claim. 
 That point, in the claims in question, is the vali- 
 dity of ordination. The proof essentially necessary 
 to include that point, and establish the claim, is 
 the manifestation of the line of paternity in each suc- 
 cessive ordination tip to the apostles. To say that 
 certain individuals held the episcopal office in a 
 certain see in unbroken succession, is to say that 
 they held an accidental position and relation one 
 to another in numerical order ; it proves nothing, 
 it says nothing about the ascending line of ordi- 
 nation. The theory of the succession requires 
 })roof as to when, where, and by whose co-opera- 
 tive functions the individual was made a bishop, 
 and how those who ordained, him derived their 
 descent from an apostle. The catalogue, however 
 perfect it may cliance to be, shows you the time 
 and place at which he happened to discharge the 
 office of a bishop. 80 soon as you come, in the 
 catalogue, to the name of an individual wdio was 
 not ordained by the help of his predecessor to the 
 see to which the catalogue belongs, the antecedent 
 line is directly cut off from that which you had 
 previously been tracing, and your journey must 
 end there, short of your object, or you must make 
 d2 
 
30 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 up your mind to pursue it farther througli the 
 mazes of the labyrinth. Is there a see in these 
 reahns, or even in Christendom, which has not 
 been filled again and again by translation, and 
 whose line, as to ordination, has not in that mode 
 been cut through and through into fragments of 
 which it would be difficult to find the number, 
 and sometimes to make out where the one ends 
 and the other begins. And so we answer the 
 oracle when it speaks to us of catalogues. 
 
 The analogies of the Jewish priesthood are the 
 constant resort of the advocates of apostolical suc- 
 cession. There they profess to find their model. 
 Thence they deduce their most captivating argu- 
 ments. To functions corresponding with those 
 discharged by that official body they make their 
 boldest and broadest claim. They join together, 
 not the prophets and apostles, which the Scriptures 
 do, but the priests and apostles, which the Scrip- 
 tures do not ; and they profess to be the successors, 
 either in office or lineage, of both. 
 
 Suppose for a moment we yield them the benefit 
 of their claims, and then help in carrying out the 
 analogies for which they contend. There is the 
 twice-recorded and very conclusive case of the 
 children of Habaiah, Koz, and Barzillai, who are 
 put out of the priesthood, as polluted, because — 
 born amid the troubles of the seventy years' capti- 
 vity — they are not duly entered in the register of 
 those who are reckoned by genealogy. Can the ad- , 
 vocates of sacerdotal claims, by virtue of an eccle- 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FAliULOUS. 31 
 
 siastical genealogy, stand more firmly than they 
 did, or must they, on their own principles, share 
 with them in tlieir fall ? They, like men really 
 in earnest on the question, carefully sought for 
 their pedigree in the registers : these satisfy them- 
 selves with telling us that they could trace their 
 descent if theij pleased ! They went to the public, 
 authenticated, accessible records, which carried up 
 tlie lineage to Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham : these 
 tell us there are catalogues of names going up to 
 the most remote period ! They went to a line of 
 j)arentage which was direct, and single, and easily 
 traced : these, if they look for the paternity said 
 to be in ordination, must seek it in the inextri- 
 cable lab}Tinths of triple lines, so multiplying and 
 diverging at every step of their course! They 
 suffered from an omission in fastening the last link 
 in the chain : these know not how many omissions 
 may have taken place, and can prove no one link 
 to be firm ! They could supply the deficiency in 
 the last link by tradition, uniform, clear, and near 
 at hand : these cannot supply the deficiency in the 
 first link which is formed from a tradition eighteen 
 centuries old, opening its mouth with a double and 
 contradictory utterance, and producing, in its multi- 
 plication, a Babel of confused and confusing tongues! 
 They, as polluted, were put from the priesthood : 
 and these, if they claim to be priests standing on 
 the authority of a lineage, falling with them, must 
 tind, by a just retribution, in the pit they have 
 dug for others, tlieir own official grave ! 
 
32 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 We advance another step in exposing tlie fabu- 
 lous nature of ecclesiastical genealogies by show- 
 
 II. That they do not impartially assign the 
 honours of apostolical paternity. 
 
 Fables originate in superstitious reverence for 
 individuals. The hero of each one has become 
 illustrious. The minds of those who look to him 
 as their patron morbidly crave an addition to his 
 honours — they exalt themselves, as his adherents, 
 in proportion as they can exalt him whom they 
 have chosen for their leader — they exaggerate his 
 acknowledged importance and excellences — they 
 supply what may be deficient in his history — 
 their imagination, once employed in the work of 
 invention, soon unfetters itself from the restraints 
 of those ordinary laws which govern proportions 
 and probabilities — and, if their hero has been as- 
 sociated with others, he is brought out into the 
 illusive glare of artificial lights, while they are 
 thrown back into the shadows of an unmerited 
 obscurity. Look for the true position of the asso- 
 ciates, and the equal light, shining around them as 
 a body, opens to you not only the injustice and 
 falseness, but also the inconsistencies of the fable. 
 
 The associated body here consists of the same 
 number as composed the Fathers of the Jewish 
 tribes — twelve patriarchs — twelve apostles. The 
 land of Canaan was divided, and is still mapped 
 out, according to the lot of each one of the tribes ; 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 33 
 
 SO that the name of each patriarchal father was 
 broadly and indelibly impressed upon the land, and 
 is carried down, by its geographical divisions, to all 
 generations. The care of recording -and preserv- 
 ing their genealogies rooted itself in the habits 
 and customs of all the tribes, so that, as long as 
 any members of either of the tribes continued in 
 their inheritance, or possessed any definite and au- 
 thorised hope of restoration, the genealogies were 
 sacredly retained, and continued, as the most pre- 
 cious link, still visible and entire, which bound them 
 to the soil and the honours of their ancestry. 
 
 The twelve apostles were Jews familiar with the 
 tlioughts and feelings of their countrymen. The 
 model of their genealogies was much more clear 
 and perfect before their minds than it ever can 
 become before ours. If then their grace and 
 authority, as apostles, were to be conveyed down 
 to all generations by a new ecclesiastical genea- 
 logy, we may surely assume that they would 
 have adopted some adequate mode for making 
 manifest their individual and collective lineage. 
 Possessed of the prophetic inspiration M'hich com- 
 manded all coming ages, tliey would have exercised 
 their forethought about the interests of their pro- 
 geny, and have provided against mistake and 
 failure in the proper authentication of their re- 
 spective claims. We should then have had the 
 twelve ecclesiastical tribes, corresponding with the 
 twelve Jewish tribes, with their lines of distinction 
 regularly preserved and easily traceable. And, as 
 
34 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 the Christian church is never, like the Jewish, to 
 be abolished — as it is to be preserved through all 
 ages, and at length to possess and include all 
 nations, the line of descent from each one of the 
 apostles would have remained indestructible : so that 
 when the millennimn of the church shall come, the 
 place or lot of each one of the apostles might be 
 manifest, and the claims of the progeny of each 
 one indisputable. Thus the representatives of each 
 one of the apostles remaining, and receiving their 
 lot, the theory of apostolical succession would 
 appear as a theory consistent and truth-like. 
 
 That we are not requiring too much, in requir- 
 ing that the lineal representatives of each and all 
 the apostles shall remain to give consistency to the 
 theory of apostolical succession, is manifest from 
 the fact that, when the Saviour speaks of them in 
 their then existing relations to himself, or in their 
 prospective relation to the future chiu-ch, he unites 
 them together: they are "the twelve" whom he 
 has chosen and commissioned, and who are privi- 
 leged with daily communion with himself. If one 
 of them becomes a traitor, and goes to his own 
 place, another is to take his vacant otHce, so that 
 there may stiU be the " twelve apostles of the 
 Lamb." So are they connected together when the 
 Saviour opens the future as well as when he speaks 
 of the present. Does he give them the perspective 
 of his own and of their future glory ? it is glory 
 which the twelve are to share in common. •' And 
 Jesus said unto tliem. Verily I say unto you, That 
 
Kf CLKSIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FAIJULOU.S. 35 
 
 whicli liuvci Ibllowed me, in the regeneration, when 
 the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his 
 glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judg- 
 ing the twelve tribes of Israel."* Does he, aft^ir 
 liis ascension, give to one of tlieii- number a reve- 
 lation of the heavenly Jerusalem 'i he still presents 
 them as eternally and immutably united together — 
 " And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, 
 and in them the names of the twelve apostles of 
 the Lamb."t 
 
 Now, if in the formation of the church — if in its 
 celestial administration and government — if in the 
 foundations of its glorious habitation, the fipostles 
 are idl found, all united and equal, — then, in the 
 genealogical succession, if it be true and trust- 
 worthy — if it include a proper filial representation 
 of fathers so equally illustrious, they all must have 
 their place — they all must have their patriarchal 
 dignity — there must not be one barren or unfruit- 
 ful amongst them. Does the theory in question 
 answer this first and most manifest requirement of 
 a succession from the apostles ? Does it really 
 honour the men whose united inheritance it claims 
 as its own ? It professes to be a succession from 
 the college of the apostles, but it contrives to divert 
 all the honour and riches of the patrimony into the 
 estate of the descendants by one line — that of 
 St. Peter. 
 
 It is the succession from Peter only which is 
 valued at Rome. The Anglican branch is but a 
 
 * Matt. xix. 28. t Rev, xxi. 14. 
 
36 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 fragment severed from that parent stock. And 
 though the Anglicans add St. Paul to St. Peter, 
 and say that any bishop, priest, or deacon may trace 
 up his descent to one 07' the other, this is only 
 another case of oracular speaking with a double 
 tongue. Parentage cannot thus be shifted, at con- 
 venience or pleasure, from one to another; and they 
 who oscillate between two contemporaries singularly 
 betray their own want of certainty as to either. The 
 Anglican, standing upon the claims arising from the 
 succession, must take the line of that succession as 
 he finds it — as Rome gives it. The progeny of Paul, 
 as distinct from that of Peter, are neither known 
 nor desired there. The descendants by any other 
 line, even if admitted to exist in its living repre- 
 sentatives, are not acknowledged there : they are 
 kept at a distance, as dishonoured kindred who 
 have lost their caste, and with whom therefore no 
 communion can be held. St. Peter is the fountain- 
 head and patron of the whole legitimate and ac- 
 knowledged succession ; and the millennial church, 
 as it exists in the hopes, the predictions, and the 
 claims of Rome, is the church extended over the 
 whole world acknowledging the supremacy of Peter 
 in submission to the ruling Pope, and the succes- 
 sion from Peter, in the orders of the ministry, which 
 the Romish church confers. The rod of St. Peter 
 is now held to be, like that of Aaron — the only 
 rod which blossoms and bears fruit. His rod is 
 expected to be, like that of Moses, the rod which 
 shall swallow up all the rest, and itself only remain 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 37 
 
 to rule the whole church — commensurate with the 
 whole world. 
 
 The more fully the theory is expanded the 
 more palpable do its inconsistencies become. It is 
 apostolical succession. Then, as the apostles were 
 twelve, on its own assumed principles there might 
 be twelve lines of descent. The model, in the true 
 Jewish genealogies, shows that there ought to be 
 twelve lines of descent. The original relation of 
 the apostles to each other in the formation of the 
 church, together with their continued, permanent, 
 and equal celestial association in the prophetic 
 descriptions of the church, might lead us to con- 
 clude that, if they perpetuate themselves on earth 
 by an ecclesiastical genealogy, there must be twelve 
 lines of descent. The claims put forth by those 
 who boast of their own succession show but one line 
 of descent. They consequently reduce themselves 
 to this dilemma : If the mode of succession which 
 they advocate be the true mode in which the 
 apostles convey grace and power, then they have 
 usurped the inheritance of their brethren, and have 
 ejected eleven out of the twelve apostles from their 
 relation of paternity to the church ; if it be not 
 the true mode of succession, then they have in- 
 vented and palmed upon the world "a fable." In 
 either case, they turn in vain for favour to the 
 twelve apostles of the Lamb, still one fraternity in 
 heaven, as they were fellow -labourers and one fra- 
 ternity upon earth. 
 
 Restore the twelve apostles to their true and 
 
38 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 scriptural position and relations, and then one 
 ground of felicitation after another passes away 
 from the successionists, with the exposure of the 
 fable on which they rested. The antiquity, of 
 which the theory boasts, is not sufficiently vener- 
 able either in time or in character : it does not go 
 fully up to the fathers, who received from the 
 Saviour's lips the command to go into all the 
 world, but stops short at the gloomy chamber in 
 Rome from which the oracle gives forth its double 
 response. The associates to which it conducts are 
 not, after all which is professed, "the glorious 
 company of the apostles," but the fascinated compa- 
 nions of " the woman arrayed in purple and scarlet 
 colour, and decked with gold, and precious stones, 
 and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full 
 of abominations and filthiness of her fornication." 
 The place of fealty which it presents is not the true 
 temple in which stand the twelve heavenly thrones 
 of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, but the city in 
 which they have fabricated the one earthly chair of 
 St. Peter. The ecclesiastical architecture which it 
 vaunts is, in truth, a nondescript order. It rises, 
 not like a city built compactly together, and resting 
 equally upon the twelve foundation stones, but is a 
 glittering, gaudy pinnacle, propped up, by various 
 devices, on one stone out of the twelve. So soon 
 as the church touches her millennial state, the 
 imposture will be universally discovered and re- 
 probated — this fable of the Vatican will be classed 
 and renounced with the older and cciually respect- 
 
KCCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 39 
 
 able fables of tlie Pantheon — the pinnacle will fall, 
 " like a millstone thrown into the sea, to be found 
 no more for ever." 
 
 We still fiu'ther expose the fabulous nature of 
 ecclesiastical genealogies by showing — 
 
 III. Tliat they receive no acknowledgment from 
 the apostles, on whose paternity they seek to affiliate 
 themselves. 
 
 In illustrating this particular, we must still keep 
 the model of the Jewish genealogies before us. 
 Abraham was divinely educated for the place which 
 he occupies at the root of that genealogy. As the 
 children, through their successive generations, 
 could trace their pedigree, by proper registries, 
 up to him as their father, so he, by prophetic 
 announcements, by promises, by an alteration in 
 his name, by special providential dispensations, 
 was made to understand that his character and 
 position was to be pre-eminently paternal. When 
 he looked, in the stillness of the night, and in 
 devout contemplation, at the stars of heaven, their 
 rays became prophetic of the future, threw their 
 light down the line of his promised succession, 
 and the music of their spheres to him was, " So 
 shall thy seed be." When he trod, with solitary 
 step, the shore of the boundless sea, the very sand 
 beneath his feet became vocal with the same sound, 
 " So shall thy seed be." Nature, in her most 
 majestic orbs, and in her minutest atoms, was 
 commissioned to call forth and nourisli in his breast 
 
40 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 the feelings of paternity. The voice of Deity, 
 in its awe-inspiring utterances, addressed itself to 
 the same feelings. The discif)line of the super- 
 natural events tlu'ough which he passed was 
 directed to strengthen, refine, and expand the 
 operation of these feelings. Every glance he took 
 of the land in which he sojourned — every forecast 
 of its future history — every prophetic pondering of 
 the destinies of the human race at large — was con- 
 nected with the feelings, the relations, the results 
 of his paternity. The land which he walked 
 through, in its length and breadth, his posterity 
 were to fill with their tribes, render illustrious 
 by their deeds, and vocal with their praise. "I 
 will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless 
 thee." " In thee shall all the families of the earth 
 be blessed." 
 
 Now, here we have a divinely prepared paternity 
 for a properly authenticated lineage. Abraham, 
 beyond any other individual who ever lived in our 
 world, enjoyed the development of the parental 
 character. The future race lives before his pro- 
 phetic eye, and are the children of i^romise. The 
 feelings of paternity, as from the fulness of a 
 fountain, flow out towards them. He looks forward, 
 and dwells with complacence and devout gratitude 
 on them. They, as they arise in successive genera- 
 tions, look back to him. They read his life. They 
 receive the impression of his character. They 
 enumerate and extol the blessings they receive 
 from him. Every lip calls him, " Father Abraham." 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FAliULOUS. 41 
 
 The whole nation unites its voice to say, " We have 
 Abraham for our father." The relation is carried 
 beyond the boundaries of earth and time. Lazarus, 
 conveyed by angels, is taken to "Abraham's bosom;" 
 and the rich man, lifting up his eyes in torment, 
 still says, " Father Abraham." 
 
 Let us look now at the education of the apostles 
 for the position which they are to occupy, and the 
 work which they are to jjerform. The Lord him- 
 self from heaven becomes their instructor, and by 
 the daily intercourse of thi'ee years prepares them 
 for their future ministry. With heaven and earth 
 at his command — with nature, in all the variety, 
 beauty, and grace of its living scenery, for compari- 
 sons — with Scripture, in the full store of its exam- 
 ples and analogies — with the future church, in its 
 whole history and requirements, present to his eye — 
 if the apostles, like Abraham, are to be raised up 
 to the position of fathers in the office they are called 
 to discharge, the work will be accomplished with a 
 felicity and completeness which shall leave every 
 other model in the shade, and mark the operation of 
 his hand who " in all things must have the pre- 
 eminence." Come, then, to the instructions which 
 tliey receive. A little child is placed in their midst, 
 and, while their eyes are fixed on him, they are 
 told that they must become, not fathers, but " little 
 children." They observe the grave and pompous 
 claims of the teachers of their day, and they are 
 told that they must not allow themselves to be 
 called " Rabbi, for one is their Master, and they 
 
 E 2 
 
42 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 are brethren." They are unequal to the perform- 
 ance of all the work which, at this early period of 
 their ministry, is required by Christ, and seventy 
 others are to be associated with them. Here then 
 is to be an increase of the ministry, and if the 
 apostles are to be official fathers, here is the place 
 to show the exercise of their functions, and the 
 relation which the children are to sustain to them. 
 But that relation wliich the Saviour constitutes 
 between the apostles previously chosen, and the 
 seventy now appointed, is not on the part of the 
 twelve paternal, on the part of the seventy filial, 
 but between the whole fraternal. Peter is there 
 with his characteristic promptness for any work 
 which the Saviour commands him to perform ; but 
 he is assigned no share in this first increase of the 
 Christian ministry. The Lord himself appoints 
 other seventy also. The record of the event is 
 subsequently written down from apostolic lips by 
 the pen of evangelists, and may be considered as 
 a decisive proof that neither at the time, nor after- 
 wards, did the idea of paternity, as belonging to 
 them in the case, even occur to their minds. 
 
 We go onward to the inspired book of the " Acts 
 of the Apostles." In its opening page, the pente- 
 costal scene, we find a second increase of the Chris- 
 tian ministry recorded. The Saviour himself is no 
 longer corporeally present; and there can be nothing 
 here then either to preclude or eclipse the develop- 
 ment of apostolic paternity. Still that paternity is 
 not here developed. The Holy Spirit descends in 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 43 
 
 its visible and luminous symbol, the cloven tongue 
 of fire, as well as in its internal illumination and 
 miraculous endowments, on all wlio had come with 
 one accord to one place. But he does not descend 
 first on the twelve, and then, afterwards, on the 
 rest, by the laying on of their hands, but at once, 
 immediately, equally, originally on each one of the 
 one hundred and twenty assembled : "And there ap- 
 peared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and 
 it sat upon each of them ; and they were all filled 
 with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with 
 t)ther tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."* 
 Peter, instructed by a heavenly vision, and called 
 by ftiithful messengers, goes to the house of Cor- 
 nelius the Gentile. He is speaking to them of 
 Christ, and not laying his hand upon them, when 
 the Holy Ghost descends upon every hearer (and 
 there were many come together) as it had done upon 
 the one hundred and twenty in Jerusalem, " at the 
 beginning," and they all " speak with tongues and 
 magnify God." 
 
 Every individual who received the gift of tongues, 
 and on whose liead the symbol of a new and fervent 
 eloquence, the cloven tongue, had rested, must have 
 been divinely called and qualified for the exercise 
 of some department of the Christian ministry. 
 Those who were so distinguished, whether in the 
 upper room at Jerusalem or in the house of Cor- 
 nelius, received their ministry, not from Peter, who 
 was present on both occasions, nor from any of the 
 
 ^■' Acts ii. 3, 4. 
 
44 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 apostles, who were all present on the first occasion, 
 but from the Lord himself, in the bestowment of 
 his Spirit. 
 
 It is worthy also of remark that Peter vindicated 
 himself against an accusation brought out of the 
 latter of these cases, not by asserting a paternity or 
 supremacy, which others have since attributed to 
 him, and amplified sufficiently to cover every case, 
 but by declaring the originality and equality of the 
 heavenly communication to these Gentiles to have 
 corresponded with the first bestowment on the 
 brethren of the circumcision themselves. " Then 
 remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he 
 said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall 
 be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then 
 as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, 
 who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, 
 that I could withstand God ?"* 
 
 Li what position do his own words show him to 
 have stood ? Not in that of a father looking, like 
 Abraham, at the children of promise, but in that of 
 a witness wondering at his past contractedness, 
 sinking into self-abasement before God, and grate- 
 fully admiring and recording the grace which, alto- 
 gether independently of his hand — which, beyond 
 and contrary to any sui'>position which he could have 
 previously formed, had been actually bestowed. 
 
 At the period when Christianity was a new and 
 unwritten religion, it was necessary that every indi- 
 vidual filling any department of its ministry should 
 * Acts xi. 16, 17. 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 45 
 
 be endowed with supernatural gifts. Li the state 
 of society then prevailing, when females were 
 secluded from promiscuous, and even from a recog- 
 nised position in religious, assemblies, if their 
 equality of privilege with the other sex, under the 
 new dispensation, was in any way to be made 
 manifest, there must be a dei^artment of the minis- 
 try which could reach them in their seclusion, and 
 make known to them, without hinderance and with- 
 out rei^roach, that in Christ Jesus there w^as neither 
 male nor female, but that both were alike and one 
 in him. The provision therefore of a female minis- 
 try was included in the pentecostal bestowment. 
 Here is another point in the case at which Peter is 
 seen. He does not lay his hands on the mother of 
 Jesus and the women who formed a part of the 
 one hundred and twenty to convey any authority to 
 them, but he becomes the expositor of the grace 
 which they, equally with the men, had now received 
 from above. *' This," said Peter, " is that which 
 was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come 
 to pass in the last days, saith God, I wall pour out 
 of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your 
 daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall 
 see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 
 and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will 
 pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall 
 prophesy."* 
 
 In both the cases we have been contemplating, 
 Peter performed the part of a good steward of the 
 * Actsii, 16—18. 
 
46 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 mysteries of God. He used the keys wliich the 
 Saviour had committed to him. He opened the 
 kingdom of heaven to his brethren of the circum- 
 cision on the day of Pentecost. He repeated the 
 same service afterwards to the Gentiles, when he 
 had himself been taught that he should call no man 
 common or unclean. In neither case can we find 
 any trace of either function or claim which implies 
 an official paternity. 
 
 The quotations we have made from the Acts 
 have brought us into communion with Peter while 
 he discharges his most important apostolic func- 
 tions, at or near the time when he was fully en- 
 dowed for his official work. In his own epistles 
 we can renew our communion with him when he is 
 just about to put off the " tabernacle " of his flesh. 
 If the feelings of an official paternity have ever 
 been produced in his breast, now is the time when, 
 hoary with years and labours, we may expect to 
 find them in their fullest development. He does 
 address himself to the ministers of the church, so 
 that he offisrs the very opportunity which is wanted 
 to manifest his spirit on the point in question, at 
 the time most favourable for those who call him 
 father. They look imploringly towards him for 
 parental recognition in vain. As though he had 
 possessed some prophetic foresight of the use which 
 would afterwards be made of his name, and some 
 settled caution to abstain from every syllable which 
 might be employed in imputing an official pater- 
 nity, his words are studiously fraternal : " The 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 47 
 
 elders which are among you I exhort, who am also 
 an elder. ^^* 
 
 If Peter refuses to acknowledge them, will Paul 
 help them? They have no right to anything which 
 they can extract from his words, for they rob him, 
 as well as all the rest of the apostles, to make up 
 the tribute which they pay exclusively to Peter. 
 The robbery which they here commit takes us 
 to the foundation of the fable it has been our ob- 
 ject to expose. Paul, unlike Peter in this respect, 
 does employ parental phraseology. He calls Timo- 
 thy his "own son in the faith," and his " dearly 
 beloved son," and Titus his " own son after the 
 common faith." 
 
 Now, every individual possessed of generous feel- 
 ings, wlio has long cherished a devout attachment 
 to any system, and who beholds a youthful disciple 
 giving his mind and energies to its support, will 
 find, in his own heart, a key to the interpretation of 
 these endearing appellations. They are the utter- 
 ances of a kind nature, called forth by the admi- 
 ration and love of youthful excellence and great 
 promise, not of the far-seeing mind, intent on 
 founding an illustrious official order. The point 
 to which the eye fondly looks, and on wliicli the 
 heart pours out its love, is the faith professed, and 
 not the office discharged. In the case of Titus, it 
 is declared to be " the common faith." In the 
 case of Timothy, in another place, a line of succes- 
 sion in the faith is traced, which is not apostolical 
 1 Peter v. 1. 
 
48 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 and paternal, but unofficial, feminine, and domestic : 
 " When I call to remembrance tbe unfeigned faith 
 that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grand- 
 mother Lois, and thy mother Eunice ; and I am 
 persuaded that in thee also."* 
 
 And, then, it must be remembered that Paul 
 was accustomed to employ the same phraseology 
 in cases in which it is obvious that no office could 
 be contemplated. When sending Onesimus back 
 to Philemon, he calls him, "My son Onesimus, 
 whom I have begotten in my bonds." In writing 
 to the Corinthians, he tells them, "I write not 
 these things to shame you ; but as my beloved sons 
 I warn you. For though ye have ten thousand in- 
 structors in Chi'ist, yet have ye not many fathers : 
 for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through 
 the gospel." Still, further, let it be remembered 
 that when Paul does associate Timothy with him- 
 self officially, it is the fraternal, and not the pa- 
 ternal bond which he throws around : " Paul an 
 apostle of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother" 
 is, again and again, the greeting with which his 
 epistles commence. 
 
 We have cleared up these lesser points that we 
 might leave nothing behind us in the general 
 subject, and that we might be the better prepared 
 to look at that which now presents itself — the 
 workmanship of the theory of apostolical succes- 
 sion. The words descriptive of paternity, irrespec- 
 tive of the ideas which he himself attaches to 
 2 Tim. i. 5. 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 49 
 
 them, since they are not supjolied by Peter, are 
 taken from Paul. Tlie models of episcopacy, with- 
 out proving that they ever sustained the episcopal 
 office, are taken from Timothy and Titus. These 
 two evangelists, not bishops, are joined to Paul, 
 tliat they may receive, and have power to convey 
 down in endless lines of succession, the grace of 
 apostolic ordination. Yet the succession through 
 Timothy or Titus does not prove indestructible 
 and endless. The lines through these model cases 
 have failed and terminated — how, or where, or 
 why, cannot be told. The failure of these lines is, 
 however, no cause of lamentation to the workmen 
 employed in constructing the succession. They 
 wanted from Paul, tlirough Timothy and Titus, 
 not a lineage, but a theory, which should have 
 some appearance of scriptural sanction and autho- 
 rity. Peter himself is present at the appointment 
 of the seventy; but, if in any way they received the 
 grace of apostolic ordination, no lineage has been 
 preserved through them. He was present also, 
 and shared in the bestowments of the Spirit on the 
 one hundred and twenty ; but the lineage of one 
 hundred and nineteen, out of the one hundred and 
 twenty, has either become degenerate and dis- 
 honoured or has altogether failed, and is lost. 
 Peter was also a witness of the bestowment of the 
 Spirit on the many who had come together in the 
 house of Cornelius — indeed he employed the key 
 which unlocked to them the treasure they received ; 
 but there is no lineage remaining through any one 
 
 F 
 
50 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 of them. In all his labours at Jerusalem, Samaria, 
 and in the cities of Judea, at Antioch, and through- 
 out Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithy- 
 nia, how many elders must have been converted 
 by his ministry and appointed to their office by 
 his hand! but there is no progeny descending 
 from him through any of these innumerable lines. 
 Tradition says, he came at length to Rome. Here 
 then is the grand conjunction out of which the lineage 
 is 7nade to spring. So long as Peter himself jour- 
 neys and labours in cities and regions, through 
 which he is traced by inspired penmen, he is as 
 unproductive of a lasting lineage as are any other 
 of the apostles; but so soon as he can be with- 
 drawn from the clear light of inspired history into 
 the deepening shadows of tradition — so soon as he 
 can be brought within the circle of the spells of the 
 Roman sorceress, — then a lineage can quickly be 
 found for him. If Peter came to Rome, he must 
 of necessity have ruled there as its bishop. If he 
 ruled as bishop, he must have had a successor in his 
 office — Clement or Linus, one or the other. What- 
 ever hands ordained the doubtful successor of Peter, 
 that successor must have conveyed the grace of apos- 
 tolic ordination which Peter could have conferred 
 upon him. And thus the difficulties of the earlier 
 period being all surmounted, the line of succession 
 is now developed which must continue through all 
 ages, and be extended at length through all regions. 
 The case of the workmen, put briefly, is this : They 
 have wrested Paul to get from him the materials 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 51 
 
 for a fable ; they have palmed upon Peter the 
 offspring of the Roman sorceress, to make him the 
 father of a race which shall enjoy the benefit of 
 that fable — to make liim the root of a new eccle- 
 siastical genealogy. AVith what energy, were these 
 apostles now living, would they unite their voices 
 to say to universal Christendom, "Neither give 
 heed to fables and endless genealogies !" 
 
 Let us not, however, because ecclesiastical gene- 
 alogies are fabulous, treat the question of genealogy 
 with contempt, or even with indifference. The 
 question has a twofold relation to our Lord himself, 
 most interesting and important. 
 
 I. The genealogy of his human descent is sacredly 
 preserved, unbroken and complete, to authenticate 
 him as the Son of David, who holds, according to 
 prophetic announcements, an everlasting throne, 
 and administers the affairs of an ever-widening 
 empire — as the seed of Abraham, who inherits and 
 fulfils all the promises — as the second Adam, who 
 is constituted the federal head of a regenerated 
 family, all of whose members partake of the merit 
 of his perfect obedience, stand secure by virtue of 
 his unfiiiling integrity, and rise in succession to 
 possess the celestial paradise into which, as their 
 forerunner, he has entered. His genealogy is 
 secured and published to the world, and then the 
 tables and registries are scattered or burnt ; so that 
 no individual of our race can now, or ever will be 
 able to, compete with him in the honours of a 
 perfect genealogy — no accredited Messiah can now 
 
52 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 come to the people wlio have rejected him, and 
 have lost the power of tracing through authentic 
 tables any other, and we are shut up to him, as the 
 only child of promise, " the hope of Israel," " the 
 desire of all nations." 
 
 2. As the second Adam he becomes the root of 
 a new and spiritual genealogy — the Everlasting 
 Father of a seed, the travail of his soul, who shall 
 be numerous as the drops of dew from the womb of 
 the morning, and with whom he will at length 
 present himself before the eternal throne, saying, 
 " Behold I ! and the children thou hast given 
 me." All advantages enjoyed by those who could 
 trace their genealogy up to the first Adam are 
 more than supplied to us when we are united 
 by faith to him who ever liveth — the last Adam. 
 All relations wliich it would be to our advantage to 
 retain or make find in him their centre and their 
 living bond. All excellences which we could 
 desire to imitate shine forth from him in brightest 
 development and combination. All honours which 
 could descend upon us are collected by him as our 
 inheritance. All love which parents of a thousand 
 generations could combine and accumulate towards 
 us flows from the fulness of his heart in the plen- 
 teousness and constancy of the perennial fountain. 
 His name to us is above every name, and our 
 names to him are so dear that he writes them in 
 the book of his genealogy, " the book of life." 
 
 How different that book from any earthly regis- 
 ter ! Could the first Adam, our common father, 
 come to us with the record of all the names in our 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 53 
 
 ancestry between us and himself, what would be the 
 first and deepest impression of our minds, as we 
 looked through the long succession of the names ? 
 It would be this : It is the register of death — 
 the book of death. Our fathers where are they ? 
 All — all among the dead. But in the Lamb's book 
 there is no death. The entry of each name is the 
 entry of one quickened to newness of life, and 
 looking with the eye of faith to Christ. They who 
 believe in him " never die." Faith brightens into 
 sight ; Hope rises to full fruition ; Love is fanned 
 into an unquenchable and seraphic flame ; Praise 
 advances from feeble, broken, interrupted accents, 
 into the full-toned melody of an everlasting song. 
 The progress marked in that book is not from the 
 cradle to the grave, but from life incipient to life 
 more abundant. The point of transition in that 
 book is not shaded with the gloom of the cypress, 
 but radiant with the glowing hues of celestial splen- 
 dour — is not marked with the solemn notes of the 
 funereal dirge, but with the cheerful welcome-chorus 
 of heavenly minstrels. Every name written is the 
 name of one who is living, either in the spiritual or 
 heavenly Jerusalem, and written by liim " of whom 
 the whole family in heaven and earth is named." 
 The whole book is the book of life. As we think 
 of it, and dwell upon it, how earnestly should the 
 aspirations of our spirits rise to him ! 
 
 " When he reveals that book of hfe, 
 Oh may I read my name 
 Amongst the chosen of his love — 
 The followers of the Lamb."" 
 
 F 2 
 
54 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 And now, some important questions arise from 
 the suhject. Ai'e tliese fables to take the place 
 hitherto occupied in our country by the true 
 sayings of God? Are these endless genealogies 
 of the dark and musty chambers of tradition to be 
 substituted for the rich treasui-es laid up in the 
 treasure-house of holy Scriptures ? Ai'e the semi- 
 Jewish, semi-papist priest, and mystic sacramental 
 rites to be obtruded upon us instead of the minister 
 of Gospel truth publishing the glad tidings of Gospel 
 grace ? Is antichrist to assail us in a form more 
 subtle than he has hitherto assumed, and to mix 
 another cup of deadly poison for the public mind 
 more skilfully disguised and medicated for prevail- 
 ing tastes ? Is the light of the Reformation to be 
 arrested in its course — ^to be sobered down into a 
 dim religious gloom in which all kinds of fantastic 
 and illusive figures can be made to pass before the 
 wondering eye ? or is it to advance to its meridian, 
 encompassing us on every hand with the light of 
 the Sun of Righteousness, and bringing the living 
 realities of earth and heaven to our view ? 
 
 These are questions which it behoves us, with all 
 earnestness of mind, to answer to our consciences, 
 our country, and our God. We do yet possess a 
 free Bible — the word of God is not bound. We do 
 yet possess a free pulpit, the testifying or warning 
 voice of which can be lifted up like a trumpet. 
 We do yet possess a free press, by which truth, 
 like single leaves or rooting branches of the tree 
 of life, can be scattered or planted for the healing 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL GENEALOGIES FABULOUS. 55 
 
 of the nation. We do yet possess a free social 
 state, in which we can unite and combine for any 
 and for every purpose which a Christian mind 
 could desire to see accomplished. We do yet 
 possess a free soil through which the valleys are 
 exalted, and the mountains and hills laid low, and 
 across which, in every direction, we can pass and 
 repass as on the wings of the wind, aifording 
 facilities for combination, either in separate dis- 
 tricts or for the entire country, such as were 
 never enjoyed by any people before. The world 
 also, in every part of its boundless field, is opening 
 to us. Lowering clouds and wintry storms may 
 indeed gather over some points in the horizon ; but 
 every part of the soil beneath is preparing for the 
 seed which -we carry in our hands, and from which 
 only the full harvest of freedom, peace, unity, 
 fraternal intercourse, and millennial praise can 
 grow. Never since apostolic times, when the in- 
 corruptible seed was scattered by handsful on the 
 tops of the mountains — the most prominent emi- 
 nences of the earth, did such solemn responsibilities 
 rest upon any men as now rest upon us. Let us 
 not complain if, succeeding to apostolic work, we 
 have to take our share in it on what may be called 
 apostolic conditions — suspicion, reproach, misrepre- 
 sentation, opposition, the frowns of the mighty, the 
 bitter hatred of tlie priestly pharisee, the scorning 
 of the proud and of those who are at ease. Let us 
 be the more concerned in all things to approve 
 ourselves as the ministers of God, " by the armour 
 
56 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 
 by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good 
 report : as deceivers, and yet true ; as unknown, and 
 yet well-known ; as dying, and, behold, we live." 
 Let us be true to our principles, as were our noble 
 nonconforming forefathers, who suffered for them 
 the loss of all things, and then shall we share with 
 them in the glories of their immortal reward. 
 
Peter's supreiviacy fabulous. 57 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 THE FABULOUS NATURE OF PETER'S SUPREMACY LAID OPEN, BY 
 COMPARING IT WITH THE PERSONAL PRIESTHOOD OP AARON ; 
 OR, THE USES AND ABUSES OF AARON'S CALL AND SERVICE. 
 
 " The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an 
 elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker 
 of the glorj' that shall be revealed : feed the flock of God which is 
 among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but 
 willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as 
 being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 
 And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a 
 cTovm of glon,' that fadeth not away." — 1 Peter v. 1 — 4. 
 
 Tins is an exhortation delivered by Peter to 
 those who were discharging the functions of the 
 Cliristian ministry — the true pastors of the flock in 
 whose fellowship he could delight to be associated, 
 whose work he could contemplate with complacent 
 mind, and with whom, were they faithful unto 
 death, he could hope to enjoy the commendation 
 and rewards which the Saviour at his coming will 
 bestow. It is beautifully simple and fraternal — a 
 well spring of feeling, of wisdom, of that power 
 of love which, entering the heart, where it most 
 readily opens a channel, fills it through that 
 
58 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 channel, and then bears it onward in the desired 
 course. 
 
 Is the course prescribed in this exhortation to 
 the ministers of the church that which is taken 
 by those who profess to honour Peter in fixing 
 on him their official affiliation? Is their spirit 
 in harmony with his, and ruled in filial obedience 
 by his words ? He modestly withdraws from the 
 view the insignia of the apostolic office which he 
 was fully entitled to wear. They have embla- 
 zoned his office with titles and dignities which 
 the Saviour, who appointed it, never did confer. 
 He contemplates the ministers of the church as 
 one order, " the elders," with whom he connects 
 himself by the fraternal bond. They have broken 
 and thrown away that bond that scope may be 
 given to their ambition in rising one above 
 another, through seven orders which they have 
 made — the higher orders also admitting of differ- 
 ent degrees. He takes the place and work of a 
 " witness of the sufferings of Christ." They claim 
 the power, by consecrating elements of bread and 
 wine, to reproduce the body and blood of the 
 suffering Saviour, and to convey the merits of the 
 sacrifice to the people. He partakes of the glory 
 which faith beholds, shining forth from the Lord 
 in his heavenly exaltation, and which, at length, 
 is to be openly revealed. They prefer the light 
 of the fire which they have themselves enkindled 
 on earth, around the chair at Rome in which 
 they say that Peter once sat, and so they encom- 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 59 
 
 pass tliemselves with its sparks. He calls the 
 silver and gold of this world's circulation, what- 
 ever image and superscription it may bear, " filthy- 
 lucre." They have made the bosom of the church 
 the general reservoir into which the streams of 
 this filtliy lucre might be drained from every 
 part of the world; and since Peter's voice ever- 
 more uttered in their ears the unwelcome sounds, 
 " Silver and gold have I none," they hit upon the 
 device of making him the special patron of the 
 pence. He enjoins the cultivation of the moral 
 power of a holy example. They claim the patent of 
 an official authority which is to convey sacramental 
 grace irrespective of character. He directs to the 
 residence of the chief Shepherd on Mount Zion 
 which is above — the heavenly Jerusalem, and ex- 
 horts to anticipate and prepare for the period when 
 that Shepherd, now invisible, shall appear. They 
 tell us that there is a chief Shepherd still on earth 
 — now at Rome — a visible Head of the Church — 
 a holy Pontiff or High Priest — a vicar of Christ — a 
 centre of unity and authority. "What is more won- 
 derful still — yet, on their showing, most surely to 
 be believed, on pain of exclusion from the fold — 
 they tell us that Peter himself, when he wrote 
 these words of exhortation, was that chief Shep- 
 herd — that visible Head — that holy Pontiff — that 
 ])rime Ruler — that he transmitted these offices, 
 with their functions, to a long line of successors, 
 who have since enjoyed them, to Gregory the Six- 
 teenth, who now possesses them — and that he has 
 
60 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 entailed them on a lineage whicli can never fail till 
 time itself shall end. This — a part — the crown- 
 ing part of that fable of ecclesiastical genealogy 
 which in the former Lecture we discussed — we now 
 propose to examine. 
 
 The most recent and widely-circulated exposi- 
 tion of this article of the Romish creed presented 
 to the eye of the British public is from the pen 
 of Richard Waldo Sibthorp, B.D., in his " Answer 
 to the Enquiry, Why are you become a Catholic ? " 
 It is here presented in the form in which it had 
 proved most seductive to his own mind, and in 
 which, it was presumed, it could be made least 
 offensive to the objecting or enquiring mind of 
 an English protestant. Whatever changes may 
 have subsequently modified either his views or his 
 position, in relation to the Romish church and her 
 doctrines in other points, it may be presumed, 
 until he publicly retracts what he has so publicly 
 proclaimed, that he is still under the spell of the 
 fascination w^hich he here describes, and in which, 
 whether successfully or otherwise, he has tried to 
 include his readers. He says : — 
 
 " I found the former," — that is, the Jewish 
 church, — "to be a compact, united body, really 
 and visibly united in all its parts ; combining a 
 number of provincial and locally separate portions 
 in one religious nation or people ; combining them 
 in a most strict, perfect, and evident unity of faith, 
 of worship, of laAvs, of discipline, of religious ordi- 
 nances, and even of minute ceremonies: no variety 
 
PETER*S SUPREMACY FABULOUS. 61 
 
 permitted — no departure from the oneness demanded 
 ])eing sanctioned in any individual. Such was the 
 ancient Israel; and, if tjq^ical of the church, such 
 should be the Israel of God under the New Testa- 
 ment. At the head of this body, nation, or church, 
 was one supreme dignitary, of priestly order, in- 
 vested by God with singular prerogatives, ruling 
 in perpetual succession over Israel, until the Lord 
 should come : in his person, offices, and residence, 
 a centre of unity to the whole nation, far and 
 near — a representative on earth of the Divine High 
 Priest in heaven." 
 
 Peter is, in the usual manner, and with the com- 
 monly-quoted authorities for the position he is to 
 take as Aaron's antitype, then introduced to us. 
 
 " There is in the New Testament a remarkable 
 promise given to one of the twelve apostles,* which 
 we must view in connection with an extraordinary 
 exhortation afterwards addressed to him,f and a 
 very peculiar position held by him ; | all of which 
 also, from the very striking accordance with the 
 Jewish type which they give the Christian church, 
 warrant the inference that the Lord, in his king- 
 dom, his body, his family, his household, acts on 
 the same principle and plan on which he has 
 acted in nature, and guided man to act in ordinary 
 arrangements of this life. It is not correct that 
 what is allowed to have been once appropriated to 
 St. Peter was afterwards made common to all the 
 
 * St. Matt. xvi. 16—19. f St. John xxi. lo— 17. 
 
 t Actsii. .3,4, 10, 12. 
 
 G 
 
62 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 apostles. No other apostle shared his office in the 
 formation of the church." 
 
 Peter being thus installed in his high office, his 
 successors follow in the usual course. 
 
 " The Saviour gave no intimation of the time of 
 his absence, but left his church in constant expec- 
 tation of his return. What he left her, he ex- 
 pected to find her, so constituted and so united, 
 whether he delayed his coming for twenty or two 
 thousand years. Had this event occurred during 
 St. Peter's life -time, no farther development of a 
 primacy and centre of unity in the church had 
 taken place — no successor of the apostle had been 
 needed. But as it was otherwise, when he died 
 to whom the special promise and charge had been 
 given, another took his position, to occupy it, and 
 continue the church in her divinely arranged and 
 existing constitution, if haply the Lord should 
 come in his days. And thus another and another 
 have successively filled the chair of St. Peter for 
 eighteen hundred years on the same warrant, with 
 the same design, and the same darkness as to the 
 Lord's time of return: that warrant, Christ's words 
 to St. Peter; that design, the good rule and unity 
 of his church and kingdom; that darkness, the 
 purpose of God,* herein accomplishing the type of 
 the continuous high-priesthood of the Jews^ 
 
 Aaron, in his high-priesthood, is then the object 
 on which our eye is to be fixed. Let him appear. 
 We cannot be too familiar with him. AVe have 
 * Acts i. 7. 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 63 
 
 found Abraham worth the knowing, in his pater- 
 nity, although he did not help the new genealogy. 
 'VVe shall find Aaron worth the knowing, in his 
 divinely-appointed priesthood, although, perhaps, he 
 may not help the supremacy. Truth is beautiful, 
 heavenly, commanding, whenever seen in the place 
 which God has assigned her to fill. Error, usurp- 
 ing that place, may look bold, and speak confi- 
 dently in her absence. But lead her back, and 
 confront her with the usurper. At her look, error 
 is abashed and confounded. At her voice, it is 
 silenced and departs. Peter, in the place assigned 
 him by the Lord, and which he himself deemed 
 it abounding honour to fill, is one of the most 
 striking and powerful embodiments of truth which 
 the eye can be privileged to contemplate. But 
 Peter, in the place assigned him by the Roman 
 sorceress, called up, like Samuel by the Witch of 
 Endor, from the dead, clothed with Aaron's worn- 
 out vestments, and furnished with a censer taken 
 from the spoils of Titus, is a ghostly form of error, 
 which must dissolve and vanish from the view so 
 soon as Aaron himself comes back before us, fra- 
 grant with the oil of his recent consecration, and in 
 the freshness of the glory and beauty of his holy 
 garments. 
 
 The theory of Peter's supremacy, as we have 
 seen in the extracts quoted from ]\Ir. Sibthorp, and 
 as it is commonly presented by its advocates, is 
 grounded on an assumed analogy between Peter 
 and Aaron. Peter and his successors are assumed 
 
64 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 to sustain the same relation to the Christian church 
 which Aaron and his descendants, according to the 
 law of primogeniture, did to the Jewish church. 
 The latter is said to have been typical of the 
 former. The accordance between the two is said 
 to be very striking. Here then is the gist of the 
 question. Let us lay it open. Aaron has three 
 things which cannot be denied to him, which will 
 not be disputed : A divine call to the specific office 
 which he is to fill — a history of his discharge and 
 transmission of that office — a fixed and appropriate 
 place of service. Let us give him our devout at- 
 tention — 
 
 I. Li the Divine call to the specific office which 
 he is to fill. 
 
 It will be remembered that Aaron was the elder 
 brother of Moses the inspired lawgiver of the Jew- 
 ish church. He was also associated with Moses in 
 the commission to demand from Pharaoh the eman- 
 cipation of the tribes from their bondage. He com- 
 monly carried and, at the command of his brother, 
 stretched out the rod — ^tlie symbol of Divine power, 
 at whose employment such miracles of punitive jus- 
 tice were performed. When the people had all 
 passed under the cloud and through the sea, by 
 which they were separated for ever from the Egyp- 
 tians and baptized into Moses as their inspired 
 instructor and ruler, there was given to Moses, in 
 the Mount, the wliole pattern of the service of 
 God which was to be established and perpetuated 
 
PETERS SUPRE31ACY FABULOUS. 65 
 
 throughout all their generations. The separation 
 of the tribe of Levi to the work of the sanctuary, 
 and of Aaron and his sons to the office of the 
 priesthood, forms a special part of the instructions 
 given to Moses on which the arrangements and 
 continuance of the service are made essentially 
 to depend. The ritual, divinely inspired, and 
 minutely describing every ceremony to be per- 
 formed, is written — published to the people — care- 
 fully studied by those who are to discharge the 
 offices which it prescribes. The tabernacle, in its- 
 several parts, is constructed according to the pat- 
 tern given in the Mount. The vessels and vest- 
 ments are prepared. The solemn day of consecra- 
 tion is, at length, announced. To give increased 
 interest and importance to the event, it is to take 
 place on the commencing day of the new year — 
 the second year of the exodus from Egypt : on 
 the first day of the first month of this year is the 
 tabernacle to be set up, and Aaron and his sons 
 consecrated for the service they are to perform in 
 it. Not merely the family whose members are to 
 enter on the holy offices, but also the whole people 
 for whom these offices are to be performed, are pre- 
 pared for the day, and full of eager anticipation 
 while they wait for its arrival : they are all to be 
 witnesses of the consecration of their higli priest, 
 as well as participants in the blessings which are 
 to flow from liis work. 
 
 Witli what thouglits and emotions must the day 
 have been anticipated by Aaron himself ! A new 
 
 G 2 
 
66 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 office is to be created which he is first to fill, and 
 then to entail on his posterity. The family priest- 
 hood of the patriarchs is to pass away, that it may 
 be succeeded by a priesthood for the nation, to which 
 his name is to be given, and its origin to date 
 from the day of his consecration. The tabernacle 
 noAv constructing is then to be put under his care, 
 and become, from that time, the place of his ser- 
 vice. The most costly spoils taken from the Egyp- 
 tian, dedicated by willing hands, and wrought by 
 skill exceeding human power to impart, are to fur- 
 nish the vestments he is to wear — the vessels he is 
 to use — the insignia of the office he is to discharge. 
 His feet only are to enter into the holy place of the 
 sanctuary, when, by the Levites, it has been set up. 
 His eyes only are reverently to behold the mercy- 
 seat, when the glory of the Shechiuah shines upon 
 it. His hands only are to carry and sprinkle the 
 blood of the annual atonement made for the whole 
 people. On him, as he receives the warm life- 
 blood in the golden vessel and turns to draw aside 
 the vail, every eye is to be fixed. For him, re- 
 turning with the message of peace and words of 
 blessing, the whole multitude is to look and wait. 
 He meditates on the solemn responsibility of the 
 work of mediation which he is to perform between 
 the people and God. A painful sense of the in- 
 firmities by which he is encompassed leads him to 
 ask, " Is there nothing above and beyond this work 
 which I am to perform ? no blood more precious ? 
 no service more perfect? no priest more dear to 
 
Peter's supuemacy fabulous. 67 
 
 God, more jDOwerfiil for man ? Some rays of liglit 
 from ancient promises shoot athwart the gloom — 
 point onward to a future day when another change 
 shall take place, and the national priesthood, now 
 superseding the family priesthood, shall itself be 
 superseded by a priesthood for the w^orld. His 
 heart, swelling with mingled emotions, " fears and 
 is enlarged." 
 
 The day arrives. The call is indisputable. The 
 consecration is to be in the face of all the people. 
 The scene is to have breathed into it the life of 
 inspiration — the power of immortality, that it may 
 stand out in bold relief before the eyes of all gene- 
 rations. Here it is for our ears to hear the voice 
 which called him to liis office, and for our eyes to 
 see him set apart to its discharge. 
 
 " And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take 
 Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, 
 and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin 
 offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened 
 bread ; and gather thou all the congregation to- 
 gether unto the door of the tabernacle of the con- 
 gregation. And Moses did as the Lord commanded 
 him ; and the assembly was gathered together unto 
 the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 
 And Moses said unto the congregation. This is 
 the thing which the Lord commanded to be done. 
 And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and 
 washed them with water. And he put upon him 
 the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and 
 clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon 
 
68 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 him, and he girded liim with the curious girdle of 
 the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith. And 
 he put the breastplate upon him: also he put in the 
 breastplate the Urim and the Thummim. And he 
 put the mitre upon his head ; also upon the mitre, 
 even upon his forefront, did he put the golden 
 plate, the holy crown ; as the Lord commanded 
 Moses. And Moses took the anointing oil, and 
 anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein, 
 and sanctified them. And he sprinkled thereof 
 upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar 
 and all his vessels, both the laver and his foot, to 
 sanctify them. And he poured of the anointing oil 
 upon Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify 
 him."* 
 
 Still, however clear and indisputable the call of 
 Aaron to the priesthood, and however prominent 
 and imposing the position he occupies in the scene 
 before us, there is one thing which, for reasons 
 that will afterwards appear, should be carefully 
 marked and remembered, which is, that Moses the 
 lawgiver was the person employed in consecrat- 
 ing Aaron to his office, and also in aU the asso- 
 ciated rites connected with the dedication of the 
 sanctuary. The inspired author of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews, when he reviewed the scene, thus 
 describes the part which Moses took : " For when 
 Moses had spoken every precept to all the people 
 according to the law, he took the blood of calves 
 and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and 
 * Lev. viii. 1 — 12. 
 
Peter's slpremacy fabulous. 69 
 
 liyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the 
 people, saying. This is the blood of the testa- 
 ment which God hath injoined unto you. More- 
 over lie sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle 
 and all the vessels of the ministry." * " Thus did 
 Moses : according to all that the Lord commanded 
 him, so did he. So Moses finished the work. 
 Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, 
 and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." f 
 By this manifestation of Divine glory was the broad 
 and luminous seal of God's approbation stamped 
 upon the solemnities of this illustrious day; and 
 Aaron, in the plenitude of his heavenly vocation 
 and authority, lives before us the high priest of the 
 Jewish people — the patriarchal father of all who, 
 in legitimate succession, are entitled to sustain and 
 carry onward the sacred office. 
 
 And now a very important declaration connected 
 with Aaron's vocation to this ofiice, and made by 
 the apostle when writing to the Hebrews, claims 
 our most earnest attention : " And no man taketh 
 tliis honour unto himself, but he that is called of 
 God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not 
 himself to be made an high priest ; but he that 
 said unto him. Thou art my Son, to-day have I 
 begotten tliee. As he saith also in another 2)lace, 
 Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Mel- 
 chizedck. Who in the days of his flesh, when he 
 had offered up prayers and sup})lications, Avith 
 strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to 
 
 * Heb. ix. 19—21. f Exod. xl. IG, 33, 34. 
 
70 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 save him from death, and was heard in that he 
 feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he 
 obedience by the things which he suffered ; and 
 being made perfect, he became the author of 
 eternal salvation unto all them that obey him ; 
 called of God an high priest after the order of 
 Melchizedec." * 
 
 The Saviour, by his priesthood, superseded the 
 national priesthood of the Jews, as Aaron, who was 
 at the root of that priesthood, had superseded the 
 family priesthood of the patriarchs. As the High 
 Priest of our profession, " he entered not into the 
 holy places made with hands, which are the figures 
 of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear 
 in the presence of God for us." f He not only 
 transferred the place of service to Mount Zion 
 which is above — the heavenly Jerusalem, but, 
 breaking down the middle wall of partition between 
 Jews and Gentiles, made his own priesthood the 
 common attraction and bond of union for every 
 nation, and people, and kindred, and tongue, while 
 his work, including, as it does, all perfection, is to 
 be followed by no other — is itself to be perpetual 
 and final. 
 
 Yet Christ took not the honour of the priest- 
 hood upon himself — glorified not himself to be 
 made High Priest. His call to the office was typi- 
 fied in that of Aaron, the earthly shadows of whose 
 work he embodies in heavenly and enduring sub- 
 stance — was foretold in the words quoted by the 
 * Heb. V. 4—10. t Heb. ix. 24. 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 71 
 
 apostle from David — was made visible to human 
 eyes and audible to liiiman ears in the descent of 
 the Spirit upon him at his baptism, and the voice 
 from the Most Excellent Glory, " This is my be- 
 loved Son, in whom I am well pleased" — was 
 conveyed to himself in the power which sustained 
 him while he was offering liis own most precious 
 blood in the great sacrificial atonement for the 
 world's guilt, and which quickened his uncorrupted 
 human flesh as it lay entombed in the sepulchre — 
 was made manifest to principalities and powers in 
 heavenly places by his reception, as he returned to 
 his Father, with the wounds of his passion and the 
 insignia of his priesthood in their freshness and 
 beauty upon him — was unfolded to the one hun- 
 dred and twenty assembled in the upper room at 
 Jerusalem by the illuminating power of the Spirit 
 which they received on the pentecostal day — was 
 published to the world by the miraculous tongues 
 with which they were endowed, and by the undy- 
 ing life of inspiration given to their pens. So 
 Christ sustains the office of the priesthood, " called 
 of God, as was Aaron." 
 
 But, if there is no question as to Christ's call to 
 be the High Priest of our profession, there is a 
 question as to Peter's call to this office — there is a 
 question as to the call of any, and of every, man 
 who claims to be officially a priest on earth. Can 
 he show, in his own case, or in the case of those 
 from whom he professes to liave derived his office, 
 a call to the priesthood like that of Aaron ? He may 
 
72 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 assume oracular solemnity and importance while 
 he speaks of "unauthorised teachers," and of 
 ** intruders into the ministry" — he may repeat with 
 endless reiteration the passage he has learned from 
 others to quote, but has never himself taken the 
 pains to understand, " No man taketh this honour 
 unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was 
 Aaron" — he may mutter, in connection with the 
 passage, the names of "Korah, Dathan, and Abi- 
 ram " — he may almost expect that, some day or other, 
 the words of his divination will take effect, and the 
 ground open and swallow us up, or the fire fall 
 from heaven upon us to consume us; but the curse, 
 causeless, will not come. We can read the text in 
 the sacred epistle — we can hear it repeated from 
 the lips which employ it to anathematize us with- 
 out any alarm for ourselves, or the slightest dis- 
 turbance of our tranquillity, just for this reason — 
 that we have learned to distinguish things which 
 differ. We can see how the Christian ministry 
 may be exercised, and how it ought to be exercised, 
 in all the functions which belong to it, without any 
 assumption of the name or the work of the priest. 
 We repudiate the name as a title of our office. We 
 should tremblingly shrink from discharging the 
 functions which belong to the office. We have no 
 sacrifice to offer for others — no incense to burn — 
 ho sacerdotal rites to perform. We, in our minis- 
 try, proclaim, exalt, commend, rely ourselves on 
 the perfect, sole, and everlasting work of our one 
 Great High Priest in heaven. It is enough, as to 
 
Peter's surREMACY fabulous. 73 
 
 the priesthood, for us to know that " he was called 
 of God, as was Aaron " — that he is fully competent 
 to the whole work wliicli the priesthood involves — 
 and that he neither needs nor admits any other to 
 participate with him in its functions. 
 
 It is for those who claim to be priests, either in 
 chief or in common, by virtue of their professed 
 relation to Peter, to show, either in their own case 
 or in his, a call to the office like that of Aaron. 
 Until they do this we are entitled to conclude that 
 they are the parties who take the honour upon 
 themselves — who glorify themselves by becoming 
 priests. They, intruding without authority into 
 the office which belongs exclusively to the Son of 
 God, might read in a new light the history of " Ko- 
 rah, Dathan, and Abiram." We leave them upon 
 the ground they have chosen. They need not be 
 so careful to fence themselves off from us; we are 
 afraid of coming nigh to them. We think that a 
 single spark of true light — of heavenly fire, kin- 
 dling in their favourite text, must, sooner or later, 
 exi)lode a mine beneath their feet, which opening 
 will swallow up, at once and entirely, every vestige 
 of their official pretensions derived from the func- 
 tions of the priesthood. " No man taketli this 
 honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, 
 as was Aaron." 
 
 We must first show that Peter himself had no 
 
 call to be high priest which can compare with that 
 
 of Aaron — that he, in the entireness of his apostolic 
 
 office, stands far aloof from Aaron and his descend- 
 
 II ^ 
 
74 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 ants — that neither before nor after his call was he 
 found in the company of the priests. 
 
 Peter before his call was a fisherman; and, in 
 his call, the analogy of the work he is required to 
 perform is declared to be, not in the offices of the 
 priesthood which are discharged at the temple in 
 Jerusalem, but in the labours of his original voca- 
 tion on the lake of Galilee : "I will make you 
 fishers of men." The eye of the Master, looking 
 onward to the work of his apostles, saw in it labour 
 and toil, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness. 
 The eye which first saw Peter arrayed, like Aaron, 
 " in holy garments for glory and for beauty," with 
 golden vessels in his hand, and the mitre, with its 
 holy crown, upon his head, must have had some 
 marvellous assistance from his device, who can 
 show all the glory of the world in an instant of 
 time. 
 
 The original call given to Peter and his brethren, 
 though uttered by the Saviour in the brief words, 
 " Follow me," was, for the time and purpose then 
 present, just as clear and satisfactory as was the 
 more imposing call which, of old, had been given 
 to Aaron. It was because the office of the apostles 
 was to differ so essentially from the office of the 
 priests, that the circumstances of their call, and 
 training for their work, were also made so essen- 
 tially to differ. Aaron was the chief minister of 
 a religion, one leading principle of which was con- 
 centration; all its official rites were to be performed 
 at one place, to Avhicli all the people were, at stated 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 7o 
 
 seasons, to come. Peter and his bretlu'en in tlie 
 apostolate were to be the ministers of a religion, a 
 leading principle of which was to be diffusion — 
 diffusion into all the world; and hence the very name 
 given to the twelve — apostles — those sent. Aaron 
 was the chief minister of a religion which was 
 typical and prophetic — foreshowing in shadows things 
 which were to come. Peter and his brethren were 
 to be the ministers of a religion which was to be 
 historical — founded in the facts of the Saviour's 
 history, which presented the truthful embodiment 
 of the preceding types and predictions ; and which 
 facts the apostles were chosen, as mtnesses, to 
 behold and report. Aaron was the chief minister 
 of a religion whose leading promises assured earthly 
 prosperity to an ohedient people ; and therefore visible 
 splendour was thrown around the office which he 
 filled — costly vestments and implements of service 
 were employed in its discharge — and a settled 
 revenue, arising from the promised fertility of the 
 soil, was apportioned to the sacred tribe instead of 
 a share in the land. Peter and his brethren were 
 to be the ministers of a religion whose leading pro- 
 mises were to assure spiritual blessings — which was 
 to open heaven to the view, and which was to pre- 
 sent self-denial both in the precepts and example 
 of Him who had not where to lay his head. Aaron 
 was the chief minister of a religion which was con- 
 stituted pictorial, that it might strike the eye of a 
 people rude in knowledge, and meet the require- 
 ments of an early state of society, and a church in 
 
76 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 its non-age. Peter and his brethren were to be 
 the ministers of a religion which was to be intel- 
 lectual, that it might feed the higher faculties of 
 man's nature, and meet the requirements of a 
 church no longer under bondage to the elements 
 of this world, but brought out into the liberty of 
 truth which, first uttered in divine simplicity by a 
 Saviour's lips, whose vesture was the seamless coat, 
 and who carried no vessel of service in his hand, 
 was to adapt itself to all forms of society, and be to 
 the end of the world in advance of whatever cul- 
 tivation might be obtained by the human mind. 
 Aaron filled an ofiice whose authority and splen- 
 dour were external — confined to the one place of its^ 
 service. Peter and his brethren were to fill an- 
 office whose authority and powder were to be inter- 
 nal — carried within them in the endowments of the 
 Holy Spirit, who made their bodies his temple, and 
 who accompanied the testimony of their lips with 
 signs and wonders in every place. In obeying the 
 Saviour's command, " Follow me," they became eye- 
 witnesses of the events of his history — of the facts 
 on which the great doctrines of Christianity are 
 founded. They heard, and the promised Spirit 
 afterwards brought fully to their remembrance, the 
 discourses which he delivered. They beheld the 
 spotless purity of his life, and shared in the priva- 
 tions which he endured. They saw the miracles 
 which he performed. They were clothed by him 
 with power to work miracles themselves ; and were 
 promised that even greater works than his own 
 
PETERS SUPREMACY FABULOUS. 77 
 
 tliey should be enabled to do, when he should have 
 returned to his Father. His work with the Father, 
 which they were not prepared to understand Avhile 
 he was with them, he opened by his Spirit to their 
 minds on the day of Pentecost. He enabled them, 
 by the gift of tongues, to publish his ivhole gospel, 
 now completely revealed to them, to all the nations 
 of mankind, and to leave it, in their writings, a 
 legacy to all generations. And tlius the great 
 High Priest in heaven, in the accomplishment of 
 his perfect work, and as connected with a religion 
 which is to call into exercise and growth man's no- 
 bler faculties, given to him for converse with the 
 unseen and eternal, is made the centre of attraction 
 and unity to all minds and hearts enlightened and 
 renewed — to the universal church. Oh, what mists 
 of darkness and illusions of error — what obscurity 
 and perverseness of vision must have confused and 
 distempered the minds which have confounded and 
 conuningled these offices of priest and apostle, so 
 broadly and palpably different in their origin, their 
 design, their functions, their history, and their 
 results ! 
 
 But it may be said. If there was no allusion to 
 the temple, nor the priesthood, in the original call 
 given to Peter and his brethren in the apostolate, yet 
 the subsequent communications, specially addressed 
 to Peter, supplied and completed the deficiency of 
 the primary and more general call. 
 
 Let us then examine the two passages which are 
 commonly adduced to supply this delicicncy. Let 
 II 3 
 
78 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 US see whether, having first been called that he 
 might be trained for the apostolate, he was after- 
 wards called to be a high priest, as was Aaron. 
 
 The first passage adduced is Matt. xvi. 15 — 19. 
 "He saith unto them. But whom say ye that I 
 am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou 
 art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And 
 Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art 
 thou, Simon Bar-jona : for flesh and blood hath 
 not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is 
 in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou 
 art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my 
 church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt 
 bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and what- 
 soever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in 
 heaven." 
 
 Now, that we may shorten the discussion here, 
 we will grant the two things for which the Roman- 
 ists contend in the exposition of this passage. We 
 will grant that when the Saviour uttered these 
 words he pointed to Peter, and meant by the rock 
 on which the church was to be built the office and 
 work of Peter — not the confession which Peter 
 made as to his own divinity. We will grant that 
 the keys were given to Peter alone, and that there- 
 by he obtained, at one point, pre-eminence among 
 his brethren. Yet, granting both these demands, 
 we are just as far off" from any call to the priest- 
 hood, like that which Aaron received, as we were 
 
PETER S SUPREMACY FABULOUS. 79 
 
 before. Suppose we were even to go further, and 
 grant that a figurative declaration is fully equiva- 
 lent to a plain, literal, and legally specific call and 
 appointment to ofiice ; still, neither the rock, nor 
 tlie key is a symbol of the Levitical office. If the 
 former express more of stability than the liquid 
 element into which the fisherman casts his net, 
 and the latter more of dignity than is usually seen 
 on the girdle of the fisherman's coat, neither the 
 one nor the other associates itself with any part 
 of Aaron's vestments, nor with any function of 
 Aaron's oifice. If Peter were the rock which the 
 Saviour intended, he must take his place wath his 
 brethren in the apostolate, and with the holy 
 prophets (not with the priests) where Paul declares 
 them to be, " Ye are built upon the foundation of 
 the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself 
 being the chief corner stone." Place the keys at 
 his girdle, or in his hand, or let them even be so 
 weighty as to require to be borne on his shoulders, 
 and you associate him, not with the family of 
 Aaron, who received no key, and wanted no key, to 
 draw aside the vail within which their most solemn 
 work was to be performed, but with Eliakim, the 
 steward of the house of David, to which, while 
 Aaron's fiimily ministered, no pi'iesthood belonged. 
 A steward of the mysteries of God, to open a trea- 
 sure-house or admit to privileges, may require a 
 key; a priest, mediating before God, and becoming 
 in his work a centre of attraction and unity, 
 requires it not. 
 
80 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 If no priesthood can be found in the first and 
 principal passage adduced on this question, to be 
 carried from it to the second, certainly, that second 
 passage can suggest no priesthood from itself. It 
 is beautifully pastoral, not Levitical. It contem- 
 plates the feeding, not the sacrifice, of the flock. 
 It conveys to the fallen and humbled apostle a 
 restoration to the functions of his original office, 
 not an enlargement of the powers of that office. 
 Thrice had the self-confident apostle denied his 
 Master. Thrice is the question connected with his 
 former avowal of warmer love than his brethren 
 felt put by the Saviour to him, " Simon, son of 
 Jonas, lovest thou me more than these ? " Thrice 
 is the pastoral injunction, corresponding with 
 Peter's own exhortation in our text to the elders 
 of the church, delivered by the Lord to himself, 
 "Feed my sheep," or "Feed my lambs.^' The 
 Shepherd tending the flock, not the priest, with the 
 sacrificial knife, selecting the victim, nor with the 
 vessel containing its blood, is the symbol here 
 employed. No call, like that of Aaron, to the 
 priesthood is here. 
 
 If Peter cannot be joined to the priesthood, then 
 no other earthly minister of Christianity can. If 
 he had no call, like that of Aaron, then none who 
 profess to derive their office and succession from 
 him can show one. If he cannot be made to stand, 
 in Aaron's vestments, at their head, we may safely 
 challenge the whole body of the Successionists to 
 come forth into the field, and meet them there with 
 
petek's supremacy fabulous. 81 
 
 all their claims. Let tliem gather in full force, 
 both from Oxford and from Rome. Let them 
 come in all their orders and degrees. Let the 
 humbler orders display the purity of their white 
 linen vestments, and the superior orders lift on 
 high their mitred heads, and boast of all their titles. 
 Let them be fragrant with the odour of the oil 
 of their consecration, and perfumed witli incense 
 from their burning censers. Let them be illumined 
 with the splendour of their golden candlesticks, and 
 furnished with all their costly vessels of a worldly 
 service. Let them avouch their traditions, and 
 emblazon their genealogies. Let them repeat their 
 wonder-working words, and elevate before adoring 
 multitudes their host. Let them encompass their 
 altars, and chant their litanies. Let the living 
 Pontiff himself marshal their ranks, and combine 
 into one united and obedient body the whole power 
 and glory of the priesthood. "We meet the com- 
 bined phalanx with this one declaration of the 
 written word, against which no force and no 
 enchantments can ultimately prevail, "No man 
 taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is 
 called of God, as was Aaron." Let this text become 
 one of the watchwords of a scriptural protestant- 
 ism. Let it be inscribed upon a banner to be un- 
 furled in defence of the truth. Let it be grasped 
 and employed as the sword of the Spirit — it is the 
 word of God. 
 
 Let it now be remembered that, if Aaron was 
 the high priest, Moses was the Jewish lawgiver, 
 
82 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 and then it will be seen that, in the insatiable 
 ambition of the Romanists to gather all honours 
 round the earthly chair of St. Peter, they have 
 overlooked, or misrepresented, the actual relation 
 to the Jewish church which Aaron did occupy. 
 He was not that supreme ruler in the Jewish 
 church which they assume him to have been, and 
 on which false assumption they ground their argu- 
 ment for the supremacy of Peter. Aaron did not 
 originate, nor could he alter, a single ceremony in 
 the ritual services which he and liis sons, from 
 generation to generation, were to administer. The 
 whole pattern of their services was given by God to 
 Moses, and was written by him in the inspired 
 records. They who officiated administered the pre- 
 scribed ceremonials first, as we have seen, under the 
 superintendence of Moses, who, it should be remem- 
 bered, outlived Aaron; afterwards, when on the death 
 of Moses the pure principles of the Theocracy were 
 in operation, under the superintendence of God him- 
 self answering them from the holy oracle by Urim 
 and Thummim ; and subsequently, when the Theo- 
 cracy was modified, by the appointment at the 
 desire of the people of a king, under the super- 
 intendence of the ruler who was denominated, " The 
 Lord's anointed." 
 
 Here is the most extraordinary feature of the 
 supremacy claimed by the successors of St. Peter — 
 that having fixed their eyes on the honours which 
 encompassed Aaron's office, and being desirous of 
 finding in those honours a type of what they coveted 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 83 
 
 for themselves, they then exalted themselves into 
 the seat of Moses to legislate and prescribe; and 
 finding no pattern from the Mount to direct them, 
 and having no call to ascend and receive one, they 
 usurped the throne of God himself — ^they made the 
 pattern — they decreed the ceremonies — they created 
 the offices — they invested themselves with the dig- 
 nities; and thus that wicked one "was revealed, 
 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." 
 
 Let our attention be given to Aaron — 
 
 II. In the history of the discharge and transmis- 
 sion of the office to which he had been called. 
 
 The personal history of Aaron, from the period 
 of his public consecration by Moses, is the history 
 of his high priesthood. In the discharge of the 
 functions of that office he is presented impressively 
 to our view; and he invariably comes before us a 
 single individual, exclusive and alone in his work. 
 That individuality is made more prominent and 
 decisive by the terrible results of a conspiracy, 
 which was once entered into, for the purpose of 
 invading and destroying it. " Korah, Dathan, and 
 Abiram" feel themselves aggrieved by it, and sup- 
 pose themselves defrauded of their rights. They 
 spread the infection of their own morbid and rebel- 
 lious spirit among the leaders and the mass of the 
 people, and then, thinking themselves strong enough 
 
84 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 to demand and, if required, to compel an alteration 
 in the nature of the office, they make their accu- 
 sation against Moses and Aaron, and prefer their 
 own claims. The case is put to the issue of Divine 
 adjudication, and the judgment is one of the most 
 memorable in history. The three leaders of the 
 rebellion, with their families, tabernacles, and goods 
 are swallowed up — "they and all that appertained 
 to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth 
 closed upon them: and they perished from among 
 the congregation." "The two hundred and fifty 
 princes of the assembly, famous in the congrega- 
 tion, men of renown," who have intruded them- 
 selves uncalled into the office of the priesthood, 
 ajDproach with their flaming censers before the 
 Lord; "and there came out a fire from the Lord, 
 and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that 
 offered incense." Of the people, on whose num- 
 bers and strength the leaders of the rebellion relied 
 for success, seventeen thousand four hundred die in 
 the plague: its farther progress is stopped by the 
 individual work of Aaron, who now, in their dis- 
 tress, the object of their desire and reverence, takes 
 his own censer, and stands in the midst of the con- 
 gregation making an atonement for the people ; 
 " and as he stood between the dead and the living 
 the plague was stayed." 
 
 To confirm the individuality and exclusiveness 
 of Aaron's work, in the office of high priest, by 
 another miracle, the evidence of which could be 
 perpetuated in the object itself on which the mira- 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 85 
 
 cle was to be performed, the rods of twelve rulers 
 or princes of the tribes, each rod having written 
 upon it the name of a tribe, and the rod of Levi 
 having written upon it the name of Aaron, are laid 
 up before the Lord. "And it came to pass that on 
 the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of wit- 
 ness ; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house 
 of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and 
 bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds." Li this 
 state, with its buds and blossoms unwithering, and 
 its fruit undecaying, it is kept before the testimony 
 for a standing token of Aaron's exclusive call to 
 the work of the high priest — an interesting symbol 
 of an individual and unassociated office. 
 
 "We shall not have a due impression of the inter- 
 est which gathered round Aaron, in the discharge 
 of his office, unless we remember and combine seve- 
 ral facts which belong to his history, — that he was 
 fourscore and four years old when the whole congre- 
 gation was assembled to witness his consecration, — 
 that, by a remarkable, if not a supernatural, dispen- 
 sation of providence towards him, as in the case of 
 Moses, there was the vigour of youth associated 
 with the hoary locks, the silvery beard, the vener- 
 able appearance and accompaniments of age, — that 
 he thus continued for nine and thirty years the 
 first, and hitherto the only, high priest of their 
 divinely-modelled tabernacle, having had in his 
 office no ancestor, and, during all these years, no 
 appointed successor, — that, as he was the elder 
 brother of Moses, and the generation which had 
 
86 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 come out of Egypt had wasted away in the wilder- 
 ness, he became, at length, the oldest man among 
 all the tribes — the well-known and universally 
 acknowledged patriarch in age of the whole con- 
 gregation. 
 
 Thus concentrating on himself so many points of 
 circumstantial interest do the people behold him, 
 year after year, as he alone, on the solemn day of 
 expiation, officiates for them. They bring him 
 two kids of the goats for a sin-offering. They 
 witness his work as he casts lots upon them, and 
 takes the blood of one of them that he may carry 
 it within the vail, and sprinkle it upon and before 
 the mercy-seat. They hear the confession which 
 he makes of "all their iniquities, and all their 
 transgressions, in all their sins," while liis hands 
 are laid upon the head of the live goat, on which 
 he puts their sins that they may be borne away. 
 They wait for him until, having made an " atone- 
 ment for the sanctuary, and the tabernacle, and the 
 altar, and the priests, and all the congregation," 
 he comes forth from the presence of propitiated 
 Deity, and, with uplifted hands, pronounces on 
 them the blessings of the covenant : " The Lord 
 bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make his face 
 to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the 
 Lord Hft up the light of his countenance upon thee, 
 and give thee peace." How must these words have 
 thrilled through the breasts of the assembled mul- 
 titudes as, in the silence and expectation of sub- 
 dued and penitential feeling, they turned their eyes 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 87 
 
 towards the priest, who, having gone to God as their 
 representative, with their names collectively on his 
 breast-plate, and the blood of expiation in his hand, 
 came back now, as the ambassador from God to 
 them, to utter authoritatively with his lips the 
 message of peace and covenanted blessing. 
 
 It may be fairly inferred that, in discharging the 
 duties of his office, Aaron's eye did not become dim, 
 nor liis natural strength diminish, nor his voice, in 
 pronouncing the blessing, become weak and tremu- 
 lous; for, at length, he is called to lay down his 
 office and his life together. He does this, however, 
 not on the bed of languishing, attended by the gen- 
 tle ministrations of female hands, which usually 
 apply the alleviations of man's final sufferings, and 
 smooth his dying pillow, but, after a toilsome 
 ascent to one of the rugged summits of Mount Hor, 
 with Moses and Eleazar at his side. His years 
 have been prolonged, and his strength sustained, 
 only that he might live for his office, and leave the 
 stamp of a patriarchal impress on it to be carried 
 downwards with his name. His death, in some 
 respects the most singular on record, is to glorify 
 his office, by connecting the peculiarity of its cir- 
 cumstances with the history of the transmission of 
 his priesthood. 
 
 The scene, as recorded by the pen of Moses, 
 yields to no other for solemnity and tenderness in 
 the wonderful history of the Exodus: "And the Lord 
 spake unto Moses and Aaron in mount Hor, by 
 the coast of the land of Edom, saying, Aaron shall 
 
88 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 be gathered unto liis people: for he shall not enter 
 into the land which I have given unto the children 
 of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at 
 the water of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar 
 his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor: and 
 strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon 
 Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered unto 
 his people, and shall die there. And Moses did as 
 the Lord commanded: and they went up into mount 
 Hor, in the sight of all the congregation. And 
 Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put 
 them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there 
 in the top of the mount : and Moses and Eleazar 
 came down from the mount. And when all the con- 
 gregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned 
 for Aaron thirty days, even all the congregation of 
 Israel."* 
 
 The facts that Aaron went up into the Mount in 
 his holy garments, and in the sight of all the peo- 
 ple, sufficiently indicate that the last day of his life 
 was a day of solemn assembly and service. It is the 
 deep and settled conviction of his own mind, of the 
 mind of Moses his brother, of Eleazar and Ithamar 
 his sons, of all his children's children around him at 
 their several stations and appointments in the taber- 
 nacle, of all the congregation assembled, that his 
 hands take the vessels of service for the last time. 
 Sustained by Divine power, and cheered by some 
 manifest tokens of Divine favour, he calmly, firmly, 
 yet how feelingly, performs each successive part of 
 * Num. XX. 23—29. 
 
TETEK's SUrREMACY FABULOUS. 89 
 
 the appointed ritual; and now liis lips are to close 
 the service by pronouncing the appointed blessing. 
 The venerable priest, sustaining the weight of a 
 hundred and twenty-three years of natural life, 
 and encompassed with the hallowed associations of 
 nine and thirty years of official life, is now, face 
 to face, with the people. He is to see them, in 
 tlie flesh, no more. They are to see him no more. 
 It is a moment of most intense and thrilling in- 
 terest. Such a moment never has, and never can 
 again occur to them. Aaron pours into the words 
 of benediction the fulness of the feelings struggling 
 in his breast. To the people they are his last 
 words. No other can he — no other need he utter. 
 They are bound by them as with a spell, and con- 
 tinue in the lowly attitude in which they listened 
 to them, while Aaron, supported on either hand by 
 Moses and Eleazar, passes through their midst. 
 His back is at length towards them, and they turn, 
 still speechless, to mark his every step as he ad- 
 vances to the Mount, and chmbs its lower slopes. 
 They still watch him as he emerges, at intervals, 
 more and more dimly seen, from the tortuous defiles 
 of its upper paths. The summit is reached, and, 
 like the Mount on which the Saviour was trans- 
 figured, is secluded from the common gaze. There 
 is a cleft in the rock which a stone may cover, and 
 it is to be Aaron's grave. In sight, and by the 
 side, of that open grave the holy vestments are 
 taken, one by one, from Aaron's person, and are 
 then put, one by one, on the person of Eleazar his 
 I 3 
 
90 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 son. Aaron beholds another in his office. His 
 work is done. His only act of obedience remain- 
 ing is to die. Eleazar, arrayed in official vest- 
 ments, however deep the filial and reverential 
 emotions in his breast, must not defile himself in 
 touching the dead. He need not. Moses need 
 not. Aaron's own last pilgrim step can take him 
 into his resting-place. He enters. He lies down 
 to die. There is one last loving look into the 
 countenances of his brother and his son, as on 
 either hand they bend weeping over his sepulchral 
 bed — one lifting of the hand, in token of peace 
 and benediction, and then it falls composed like its 
 fellow hand — the eyelids gently close, and the 
 light of life has departed from the placid counte- 
 nance and the extended frame. There are solemn 
 moments given by Moses and Eleazar silently to 
 admire the beauties of such a death, both in its 
 moral features, and in the celestial hues still beam- 
 ing from the face; and then they reverently roll the 
 stone which is to cover the mouth of the grave, as 
 though careful, in the quietness of their work, not 
 to disturb its peaceful slumbers. The sepulchre is 
 made safe, and they return. 
 
 The people have not scattered to their tents. 
 They wait the issue of this departure of a living 
 man, a living priest, their venerable patriarch, to 
 find and enter his own grave. They look as eagerly 
 to descry two figures on the descending paths of 
 the mountain as they had before looked to see three 
 go up. They are seen. From point to point they 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 91 
 
 are traced downwards. At each renewed appear- 
 ance their forms — at length, their features — become 
 more obvious and distinctive to the view. One of 
 them is clothed as Aaron was ; but it is not the 
 same wrinkled forehead which they had been accus- 
 tomed to see sustaining the mitre with its crown — 
 it is not the same beard of snowy whiteness which 
 had hitlierto waved upon the edges of the breast- 
 plate which contained their names. Aaron then is 
 dead. Their patriarch is gone, but their priest 
 remains. Eleazar comes to them in the same vest- 
 ments, with the same insignia, which Aaron wore 
 when he went from them. The person is changed 
 — the office continues the same. It is transmitted 
 in tlie solemn hour of his most wonderful departure 
 from the father to the son. The son is to be in the 
 office what the ftither was. It is transferred, if not 
 with the same rites, yet with the same authority 
 by which it had originally been conferred. One 
 was originally called alone to receive it — one, in 
 its transmission, is alone called to sustain it. The 
 transmission is as obvious as the original call, and 
 is marked by circumstances which have no parallel 
 in the history of mankind. 
 
 The lesson of the scene is this: the people may 
 not see a dead priest — much less a shrivelled or 
 mouldering relic. If the men who fill the office can- 
 not continue, by reason of death, the office itself is 
 perpetual and undying. It continues from Aaron 
 through liis descendants until Christ offiirs his one 
 perfect sacrifice ; and then the vail of the earthly 
 
92 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 temple is rent in twain, and the office, with all its 
 functions complete and unchangeable, is transferred 
 to the heavenly Jerusalem, and embodied in His 
 work who dieth no more, but " is able to save them 
 to the uttermost who come unto God by him, seeing 
 he ever liveth to make intercession for them." 
 
 And now, with this true model before us of an 
 office which was individual and supreme in its 
 discharge and transmission, we are to look for 
 Peter's history, that we may see whether, in these 
 particulars, we can find an antitype to Aaron. 
 
 At the very first step we find eleven others 
 associated with Peter, and he is one of "the 
 twelve." So are they designated in the gospels, 
 and, as we showed in our last lecture, so are they 
 continued in their celestial relation to the church — 
 the twelve foundations, and in them the names of 
 the twelve apostles of the Lamb — the twelve 
 thrones and the twelve apostles judging the twelve 
 tribes. Peter is not the first disciple among the 
 twelve, for he is brought to Jesus by Andrew his 
 brother — nor the nearest among them in relation- 
 ship to Christ, for James is " the Lord's brother" — 
 nor the one admitted to most confidential intercourse 
 with Christ, for John is " that disciple whom Jesus 
 loved," and who was permitted to lean on his 
 bosom at the last supper. He obtains one distinc- 
 tion, they obtain other distinctions. These distinc- 
 tions are interesting to contemplate, as marking 
 varieties among the most illustrious band of men 
 the world ever contained, equal in the essential 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 93 
 
 functions of their office which they hold in common; 
 but they are powerless and fatuous in proof that 
 either of them enjoyed supremacy over the others. 
 
 They are 7nen "subject to like passions as we 
 are," and there arise contentions among themselves 
 " which of them shall be greatest ;" but these con- 
 tentions are strictly among themselves. Had the 
 Lord settled this question, by appointing to either of 
 them the supremacy, the strivings would have had 
 another and a more guilty character — they would 
 tlien have been strivings against his authority and 
 ai)pointment — they would then have been a repeti- 
 tion of the sin of "Korah, Dathan, and Abiram." 
 It is a relief, in looking at that side of the character 
 of the apostles which is shaded by infirmities, to 
 see that the Lord's word was at all times felt to be 
 a law to them which they were not to dispute but 
 obey. Raise Peter to the supremacy, and you dis- 
 qualify the rest for the discharge of their office, 
 by involving them in rebellion against the Lord. 
 
 The mother of Zebedee's children asks that her 
 two sons may sit, the one on the right hand, and the 
 otlicr on the left, not of Peter, which would have 
 been the case had he been declared, like Aaron, 
 supreme, but of the Lord himself — they knew of 
 no supremacy besides his. AYliere is Peter on this 
 occasion ? He is one of " the ten" who are moved 
 with indignation against " the two brethren." The 
 ten are moved with indignation — then, as equals in 
 office, they are equally aggrieved by the aspirings 
 of James and John. Had the idea of a supremacy 
 
94 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 in Peter ever entered into tlieir minds, and had they 
 thought of obtaining distinction by being next on 
 either hand to him, he might perhaps have been 
 more lenient to their fault. The Lord himself 
 settles the dispute, and, to all who, like the twelve, 
 take his word as law, settles for ever the question 
 we are discussing, by declaring that there should 
 be no lordship nor dominion among them. 
 
 One of the twelve becomes the traitor. His 
 office another must take. Matthias is elected by 
 the eleven, before they have received the promised 
 illumination and guidance of the holy Spirit, and 
 understand the Lord's design in the case. The 
 Lord himself calls Saul the persecutor. He, though 
 born out of due time, becomes a witness for the 
 Lord by having seen him, and by receiving from 
 him, in special revelation, all the knowledge which 
 to the others had been communicated in more 
 ordinary intercourse. His right to the apostolic 
 office being ungenerously disputed, he is constrained 
 to vindicate that right. The Saviour's own relation 
 to him of every thing necessary to be known for 
 the discharge of the office is one principal ground 
 of his ai'gument and proof. That revelation, as it 
 was supplementary, must have been completive to 
 the apostolic office. Every question relating to the 
 office must have stood in its proper position and 
 entireness before the eye of the apostle of the 
 Gentiles. That that revelation contained in it no 
 word of Peter's supremacy is obvious from the 
 declaration of Paul, twice repeated to give it 
 
PETER S SUPREMACY FABULOUS. 95 
 
 greater weight, " In nothing am I behind the very 
 chiefest apostles." 
 
 The words imply that, in the light of the revela- 
 tion which he had received from heaven, as well as 
 in the light of the works of an apostle which he 
 had himself been enabled to perform on earth, he 
 had looked on each one of the apostles individually, 
 and on the whole of them collectively. Nothing 
 had been revealed to him from heaven, nothing had 
 been seen by him on earth, which he did not find 
 included in his own functions, and embodied in his 
 work. He had on one of liis visits to Jerusalem 
 seen James, Cephas, and John there, who in the 
 work they were then performing seemed to him to 
 be "pillars" jointly sustaining the weight of the 
 affairs of that church which was the first, in time, 
 of all churches. He does not depreciate their 
 importance to exalt his own. He admits that they 
 are pillars. Yet he stands by their side. He 
 measures himself by them. He carries away in his 
 mind their full dimensions ; and when driven, 
 against his inclination, to vindicate himself, re- 
 membering those dimensions, he says, " In nothing 
 was I behind the chiefest of the apostles." 
 
 He measures himself by three eminent among 
 twelve, and thus may be considered as intimating 
 not only that neither of the three exercised, or pro- 
 fessed to exercise, any supremacy over himself, but 
 also that neither of the tlu'ce professed to exercise 
 supremacy over the others. Peter was one of that 
 three. Had he claimed supremacy over the others. 
 
96 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 with him alone would Paul have been led to 
 measure himself, and his vindication would have 
 been, " I am in notliing behind even Peter." But 
 he classifies them together, and Peter is not even 
 put where we might, on some grounds, have 
 expected to have found him — the first of the three 
 — at the head of the class of the eminent ones. It 
 is James, Cephas, and John, not Cephas, James, 
 and John, which, so classified, live arranged before 
 Paul's mental eye : as though it were intended to 
 manifest with prophetic clearness that, when the 
 question of Peter's supremacy should hereafter 
 arise, there should be no shadow of a support from 
 it on the page of inspiration, or in the fruitful field 
 in which the apostles together laboured ; but that its 
 whole origin, and growth, and upas branches might 
 be exclusively seen rising with rank luxuriousness 
 from the teeming hot bed of Romish ambition. 
 
 " Actions speak louder than words," and they 
 are not wanting in the case. At Antioch, the 
 apostle, for whom supremacy of rule over his 
 brethren in ofiice is claimed, seriously — not to say, 
 as there was dissimulation in the case, dishonour ahly 
 — compromises the authority of an essential law of 
 Christianity, fearing the less enlightened brethren 
 of the circumcision. He too, who is extolled as 
 having been the divinely-appointed centre of unity, 
 withdrew, and separated himself from the healthy 
 part of the church, thus lending himself to a fac- 
 tion, and becoming the patron of a temporary 
 schism. The apostle of the Gentiles withstood him 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 97 
 
 to the face. The ground did not open, nor even 
 tremble, beneatli him when he was so employed. 
 The heavens did not gather blackness, nor send 
 forth from the secret place of thunder the forked 
 lightnings to consume him. No lips uttered to his 
 ear the names of " Korah, Dathan, and Abiram." 
 But Peter was humbled and subdued ; Peter sub- 
 mitted to the law as it was expounded by Paul. 
 In this case Paul, in the presence of Peter, and 
 without supposing that he was in any way invading 
 Peter's province, or assuming any functions which 
 belonged exclusively to him, became the restorer 
 and, to the church at Antioch, the centre of unity 
 and peace ; while on Peter's broad escutcheon a 
 second blot was fixed which no time can ever erase, 
 since the pen of inspiration has written concerning 
 it, " he was to be blamed." 
 
 We have seen, in the case of Aaron, a special 
 providential dispensation harmonizing with his 
 official distinction, and giving peculiar interest and 
 impressiveness to his work. His life is prolonged 
 until he becomes the patriarch of the whole nation. 
 Ilis memory stretches farthest back into the his- 
 tory of tlieir bondage, and is most fully stored with 
 the details of their sufferings. He can just remem- 
 ber his mother's making the little ark of bulrushes, 
 and he saw his infant brother laid in it. He 
 groaned with the people under their burdens while 
 ISIoses was being nurtured in the court of Pharoah. 
 He is the individual most fully entitled to address 
 himself in paternal language to successive genera- 
 
 K 
 
98 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 tions in the camp, and who, when the dignity of 
 age is referred to, rises spontaneously before the 
 mind as its most venerable type and exemplar. 
 There is a striking correspondence in these par- 
 ticulars between Aaron and one of the apostles ; 
 but that apostle is not Peter. 
 
 "What shall this man do?" said Peter, on a 
 memorable occasion, as he pointed to that disciple 
 whom Jesus loved. Jesus saith to Peter, " If I 
 will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? 
 follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad 
 among the brethren, that that disciple should not 
 die." How long did that supposition continue, 
 " John will not die ? " Circumstances, at length, 
 seemed rather to favour than discountenance the 
 opinion. The rest of the apostles, one after 
 another, finish their course. John alone remains 
 of their whole number. As time rolls onward, he 
 becomes to the Christian church, in respect of age, 
 what Aaron had been to the Jewish church — the 
 patriarch. His memory is stored with all the facts 
 of the Christian history from its commencement. 
 His personal history is identified with its most 
 sacred events and memorials. He had been with 
 his Lord in the splendour of the mount of trans- 
 figuration, and in the gloom of the agony of Geth- 
 semane. He had leaned upon his bosom at the 
 paschal supper, and had received from his tremu- 
 lous lips, when hanging on the cross, the tender 
 charge to be a son to Mary his weeping mother. 
 Her history, from that time, had been intertwined 
 
Peter's sltremacy fabulous. 99 
 
 with his own ; for, from that clay, he had taken her 
 to his own home. He had taken his full share in 
 the journeys and sufferings of the apostles, and, if 
 he had not laboured more abundantly than they all, 
 yet he had laboured during a longer period than 
 they all. His venerable hands were still employed 
 in the bestowment of apostolic gifts, and round his 
 hoary locks the words mysterious still seemed to 
 spread a prophetic halo, " If he tarry till I come." 
 
 How is it, since for a number of years John was 
 the sole survivor of the apostles, and all that was 
 peculiar to the apostolic office must have survived 
 in him, that the supremacy was never claimed for 
 him? How is it, since he became in age the 
 acknowledged patriarch of Christianity, that the 
 succession has not been derived from him ? There 
 is an easy answer to these questions. There was 
 no tradition which could connect his latter days 
 witli Rome; and therefore, tliough the materials of 
 his case and history are far better adapted for the 
 workmen who have constructed the supremacy and 
 the succession than are the materials which they 
 have found in the case and the history of Peter, 
 and though they might have been much more 
 cleverly joined and dovetailed with the worship of 
 the Virgin, they have been compelled to leave him 
 out of their work. Having thus happily escaped 
 their sacrilegious hands, John, the beloved disciple, 
 stands before us in the true glory of his own apos- 
 tolic purity and simplicity. 
 
 But there is this difficulty connected with their 
 
100 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 omission : they cannot cancel the pages of his his- 
 tory ; they cannot blot out the records of his later 
 years — the products of his closing labours. These 
 remain ; they form a part of the holy oracles con- 
 temporaneous with their double-tongued tradition: 
 the life and apostolic acts of John against their 
 uncertain and contradictory names of Linus and 
 Clement. If either Linus or Clement were the 
 successor of Peter in supremacy, then he must 
 have become, by virtue of his office, superior to 
 John; a man, of the generation following the apos- 
 tles, greater than an apostle himself; greater than 
 John, the most beloved and venerable of all the 
 apostles; greater than John even when the Saviour 
 was granting to him visions of heavenly glory — was 
 sending by him epistles to the seven churches in 
 Asia — was completing by him the canon of inspira- 
 tion — was pouring through him the light of pro- 
 phetic symbols which were to illustrate the whole 
 future history of the church and the world. Linus 
 or Clement — one or the other, they cannot tell 
 which — ^greater than John: two ignesfatui, dancing 
 by turns before the eye on the banks of the Tiber, 
 yet set up as the one light of the world, the centre 
 of unity; and that at the very time when all the 
 glory of the apostolate is gathered into one lumi- 
 nary, from whose ample orb the softened evening 
 radiance is streaming over the face of nature, while 
 on every eminence the prophetic watch-fires are 
 enkindling in its beams, which, after it shall have 
 descended below the horizon, are to burn and 
 illumine through all generations. 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 101 
 
 Let our attention be given to Aaron — 
 
 III. In his fixed and appropriate ^;/ace of service. 
 
 That place of service when Aaron was conse- 
 crated was the tabernacle which, wherever the 
 tribes encamped, was set up in the centre of their 
 tents. Three tribes took their appointed station on 
 tlie East, three on the "West, three on the North, 
 and three on the South, wliile the tabernacle was in 
 the midst. So it continued during all the years of 
 Aaron's service. "When, afterwards, the tribes were 
 led into the land of promise, some one place was 
 fixed on for the more permanent settlement of the 
 tabernacle with its service, as Shiloh; and at length 
 the city of Zion was chosen, and the declaration 
 published, " Here will I dwell for ever, for I have 
 desired it." The temple is reared there, and is 
 filled with the glory of the Divine presence. Here 
 the priests, the descendants of Aaron, are to officiate; 
 and on this spot all the splendour of their religion 
 is to be concentrated : thus making it a type of 
 INIount Zion above — the heavenly Jerusalem — " the 
 general assembly and church of the first-born writ- 
 ten in heaven." 
 
 That our illustration may be more simple and 
 definite, we go back to Aaron himself, and his 
 nine and thirty years of service in the centre of 
 the camp. If it were intended that he should be a 
 visible head to the Jewish church, and a centre of 
 unity to the whole of its members, that of course 
 would be the proper place for him to occupy. 
 k3 
 
102 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 There could be no uncertainty as to where, at the 
 appointed times of service, he was to be found. 
 There could be no difficulty in obtaining a sight of 
 his person, and of such parts of the ritual as were 
 assigned to him publicly to discharge. There can 
 be no doubt but that his person, and the official 
 vestments which he wore, were as familiar to the 
 minds of the people as is the person, with his attire, 
 of any living minister of religion to the members of 
 his own congregation. The mind of the entire nation, 
 young and old, received the one clear and definite 
 impression of Aaron's venerable person, arrayed 
 in his garments of beauty and splendour, as the 
 most interesting and sacred object with which the 
 eye could become conversant. As the place of the 
 tabernacle was fixed and central, well known and 
 accessible from every part of the camp, so all the 
 services which Aaron performed, and which be- 
 longed to it, were equally fixed and central, well 
 known as seen by the public eye, or, when he went 
 within the vail where the eye could not follow him, 
 understood and vividly conceived by the public 
 mind ; which, operating according to a well-known 
 law of our nature, would work most actively on 
 those parts of his engagements which were inten- 
 tionally secluded from the view, and enshrined in 
 awful and mysterious sanctity and glory. He was 
 as closely identified with the tabernacle, and as essen- 
 tial a part of its scenery, as were the " sculptured 
 cherubim and pourtrayed angels." They, invisible 
 in the holy place, were fixed and immoveable, yet 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 103 
 
 always in the attitude of adoration, and readiness, 
 with outstretched wing, for more extensive service. 
 He, in costly robes, and symbolic insignia, and re- 
 fulgent breast-plate, which made his whole figure 
 intentionally unique, inimitably and surpassingly 
 glorious, was the living moving minister of the 
 sanctuary; sometimes in the face of the people 
 receiving from them the appointed offerings; some- 
 times at the altar with the golden vessel into 
 which the blood of the victim was streaming ; 
 sometimes with the golden censer from which the 
 fragrant cloud of incense was ascending ; some- 
 times within the vail, the people's sole representa- 
 tive before the glory of the Schekinah, yet having 
 every movement determined by time and season, 
 according to the prescribed ritual, his very steps 
 pondered and measured, and even his reverential 
 obeisance before the mercy-seat intimated to tlie 
 multitudes without by the sound of the bells which 
 encompassed the hem of the sacred ephod. 
 
 Where in tliese particulars are we to look for an 
 accordance between Aaron and Peter ? What was 
 Peter's place of service ? Where was he fixed as 
 the centre of unity ? We read of his being at 
 Jerusalem, at Samaria, at Lydda, at Joppa, at 
 Cesarea, at Antioch. We conclude from one of his 
 own epistles that he travelled through Pontus, 
 Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bitliynia. And 
 this is just what was proper for him to do as one of 
 the twelve apostles, whose mission was to all the 
 nations of the earth ; but certainly what he should 
 
104 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 not have done if he were appointed supreme ruler 
 of the Christian church, its visible head, and centre 
 of unity. A centre of unity perpetually shifting its 
 place, and perambulating the world ! A visible 
 head of the whole church, when only the residents 
 of one little province at a time could tell where he 
 was to be found ! A supreme ruler without a 
 capitol, or court, or officer, or certain dwelling- 
 place ! A successor to Aaron without sanctuary, 
 or vestments, or vessels of service ! The extolled 
 patron of those who forbid to marry, leading about 
 a sister — a wife ! 
 
 But they say he came at length to Rome. And 
 does it not become obvious that it was for Rome, 
 and not for Peter, that the supremacy was wanted 
 and was coveted? By cunning and fraud one 
 piece after another of the materials from which it 
 has been constructed was there acquired, and tena- 
 ciously held until the whole could be carefully put 
 together. From Peter it derives only a name. 
 But then it was thought that, if the shadow of that 
 name could be brought to "overshadow" the 
 ancient city, it might infuse new life into the 
 withering limbs of decaying power ; and it has 
 been employed to renovate, in an embodied form, 
 the inextinguishable lust of dominion which seems 
 to be inherent in the place. Tliat lust of dominion 
 has been the genius of Rome from the beginning of 
 its history. There has been seen the incarnation, 
 the growth, the maturity of every kind of baleful 
 power which has afflicted and cursed our fallen 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 105 
 
 liumanity. What a subject is bound up in tliat 
 one word Rome ! "VVe return to its imperious 
 claim to supremacy of rule in the Christian church, 
 with a view more especially to expose the gentle 
 and insinuating plea by which it is urged — a 
 visible liead — a centre of unity. 
 
 A visible head ! We have seen that Aaron, 
 whether the term be properly applied to him or 
 not, was visible. Every member of the church, 
 attending the services at which he officiated, could 
 see him — could renew the sight at each returning 
 period wlien he discharged the public duties pre- 
 scribed to him. We have seen that Peter was not 
 tlius visible to all the Christian church — that, as 
 his work was itinerating, he could not be thus 
 visible to more than a very small number of its 
 members at a time. The great mass of tlie church 
 would always be in ignorance as to where he 
 actually was ; and what multitudes of Christians, 
 contemporary with him, would never have an 
 opportunity of seeing him at all ! 
 
 But Rome is a fixed and settled place ; and, 
 though the successors of St. Peter have not always 
 chosen it as their permanent residence, yet per- 
 haps the residents at Avignon went occasionally to 
 Rome. But did they become visible to all the 
 faitliful by going thither? Is it, as was the taber- 
 nacle in the camp, the centre in which all lines 
 met ? Or is it even, as was Jerusalem in Canaan, 
 the mountain of the Lord to which all the ])rincipal 
 lines of intercourse conducted, and where, three 
 
106 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 times a year, all tlie members of the churcli could 
 repair ? 
 
 Let it be remembered that Christianity is not 
 yet located in the whole of its promised possession, 
 nor will be until " all the ends of the world shall 
 remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all the 
 kindreds of the nations shall worship before him." 
 Is there such a peculiarity in the position of Rome 
 upon the map of the world as might indicate its 
 selection, by a prophetic foresight, to be a centre of 
 influence in such a state of the church? Do the 
 highways of human intercourse increasing, multi- 
 plying, thronging with the activities of mankind, 
 verge towards Rome, and point out a future and 
 more brilliant destiny than it has ever yet enjoyed? 
 Under any conceivable circumstances in the progress 
 of society could any one man be made visible as a 
 head to all other men ? Is not the very term 
 " visible head," as it is unknowai to Scripture, also 
 a misnomer and a fallacy ? 
 
 But there is another view to be taken of the case. 
 Those who amuse and deceive themselves by this 
 fallacy — this empty shadow of a visible head — are 
 in danger of overlooking the spiritual realities 
 which may be found in true scriptural instruction. 
 Give the people the "word of God;" enforce on 
 them the Saviour's exhortation, " Search the Scrip- 
 tures ; " like good stewards, bring out before them 
 the treasures, new and old, which they contain, and 
 Aaron himself, in his vestments and services, will 
 become more visible to them than the existing 
 
PETERS SUPREMACY FABULOUS. 107 
 
 Gregory either is, or can be made, to the great 
 mass of tliese who ignorantly call him their visible 
 head. How properly are the Scriptures designated 
 the " lively oracles ! " In them Moses and Aaron, 
 the patriarchs and kings, the prophets and apostles 
 live, and move, and open to us the vital elements 
 of their being. The house of bondage — the wilder- 
 ness — the land flowing with milk and honey — the 
 tabernacle — the temple — the city of festive solem- 
 nities — these fix themselves in our imaginations, 
 and furnish our minds with living scenery. It is 
 the, so called, " visible head " which is unseen — 
 unknown — without power to convey itself as an 
 element of life into the human breast. This 
 personification of error " is dead while it liveth ; " 
 it lies entombed in the sepulchre of its former 
 glory. Rome itself is that sepulchre — a city of the 
 dead — garnished without, but, within, full of rotten- 
 ness and dead men's bones ! 
 
 A centre of unity ! If by this be meant the 
 authority of wisdom and love dwelling in one 
 individual in such plenitude as to enable him to 
 sway all judgments and attract and unite all liearts, 
 — omitting for the present the objection, already 
 taken, that Peter could not have access to the 
 whole church for these purposes at any one time, — 
 a more unhappy selection could not have been 
 made f<jr the work assigned. The noble and gener- 
 ous (qualities which Peter did possess were shaded 
 by strongly-marked infirmites — infirmities of the 
 very kind which would repel and divide rather 
 
108 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 tl^an conciliate and attract. His Jewish prejudices 
 were so strong that, until the vision of the sheet let 
 down from heaven, he could not see how any Gen- 
 tiles were to be brought into the Christian fold 
 without previously becoming proselytes to Moses; 
 and, even after his own judgment had been in- 
 formed, we have seen that he had nearly produced 
 a schism in the church at Antioch by separating 
 himself from the Gentiles, " fearing them who were 
 of the circumcision." 
 
 Perhaps, however, we ought to inquire what 
 those, who boast of Peter and his successors becom- 
 ing and continuing " a centre of unity " to the 
 church, mean by unity? Here is a recent and 
 captivating exposition of their views, entitled to 
 our careful consideration : — 
 
 " From the Dan to Beersheba of that land, which 
 was this ancient church's appointed heritage, there 
 was not an Israelite that lived not in fealty and 
 submission to the supremacy of the one high 
 priest ; or that might lawfully, and without the 
 heaviest anger of God, recognize or use any other 
 sacred ministry than that of the tribe of Levi, and 
 the house of Aaron ; or that might contemn the 
 appointed sacrifices, or live in wilful neglect of the 
 most trivial sacred ordinances. Wherever an Is- 
 raelite journeyed, in that land, he found one creed, 
 one faith, one religious rite, one harmonious agree- 
 ment, even in the minutest points of ceremonial 
 worship. He was at home everywhere, as to his 
 religion ; for the church of the Old Testament was 
 
109 
 
 purely catholic, as to the given extent of its pos- 
 session."* 
 
 The witness, doubtless sincerely delivering this 
 enchanting testimony, must submit, though a very 
 potent spell should be thereby dissolved, to cross 
 examination. — How many temples would an Israel- 
 ite, journeying from the Dan to Beersheba of that 
 land, find in his travels ? — How many altars where 
 the ceremonial parts of his religion could be per- 
 formed ? 
 
 The fallacy commonly assumed on this question 
 is that the land, from Dan to Beersheba, was 
 covered with altars, and priests, and ceremonies, 
 just as is now the case from one end to the other 
 of Italy, or of any other country devoted to the 
 Romish superstition ; that these altars and cere- 
 monies were every^vhere alike ; and that Jewish 
 unity, and Roman catholic unity, is one the 
 counterpart of the other. 
 
 They are — just as like to one another as Aaron 
 is to Peter ; the points of resemblance — say rather 
 of difference and contrast — just as manifest and 
 striking. From Dan to Beersheba there was but 
 one temple — but one altar of burnt-offering for the 
 people — but one place of service for the priests and 
 Levites. To this one place the members of the 
 sacred tribe came up, by turn, in courses. "When 
 each course had fulfilled its appointed service, the 
 
 * Sibthorp's Answer to the Enquiry, Why have you become a 
 Catholic ? 
 
110 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 vestments and vessels of service were transferred 
 to those who took the next turn in office; and those 
 who had completed their course returned to their 
 dwellings, to spend an unofficial life, until the next 
 period of their service at Jerusalem returned. It 
 was the integrity, individuality, and continuousness 
 of this one service which was guarded by such care- 
 ful fences, and enforced by such solemn sanctions, 
 and not the uniformity of many services carried 
 on at different places ; and to set up an imitation 
 of the ceremonies of tliis one service, or of any 
 part of them, elsewhere, was to incur the guilt and 
 penalties of rebellion against God. 
 
 Had the people then no public worship besides 
 that which was performed by the priests at the one 
 temple? They had. There were synagogues in 
 every place, in which Moses and the prophets were 
 daily read and expounded, and prayer offered. The 
 whole service of the synagogue was conducted, not 
 by priests and Levites who had there no sacrifi- 
 cial rites to discharge, but by readers, elders, and 
 rulers. No Divine law prescribing uniformity re- 
 gulated these services. Liberty was permitted in 
 their arrangements, with this exception, which 
 deserves to be specially marked and remembered : 
 There might be in them no altar — no sacrifice — 
 no officiating priest — in a word, no uniformity with 
 the service at the temple. It was unity, in the 
 sense in which the Romanists hold it, which was 
 solemnly and decisively prohibited. Diversity, if 
 any public worship besides that conducted in the 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. Ill 
 
 temple were performed, was not merely permitted, 
 was absolutely required. 
 
 Why was an imitation of tlie temple service 
 prohibited elsewhere ? Because that whole service, 
 as performed by tlie one house of Aaron, typified 
 the complete service performed in the plenitude of 
 liis Divine perfections by the one high priest of our 
 profession Christ Jesus. To alter would have been 
 to obscure — to abridge would have been to mutilate 
 — to multiply would have been to divide and dis- 
 tract the attention which was to be given to the 
 one continuous service, at the one temple, by the 
 one house of Aaron, until it should be superseded 
 and abolished by the one perfect continuous service 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, " who is not entered into 
 tlie holy places made with hands, which are the 
 figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to 
 appear in the presence of God for us." 
 
 There were, however, links of connection between 
 the worship at the synagogues and the official ser- 
 vices, discliarging at the same time, in the temple, 
 though there might not be any uniformity between 
 them; and the relation which the one bore to the 
 other most interestingly illustrates the relation which 
 Christian worship, on earth, now bears to the ser- 
 vices of our great High Priest, who ministers for 
 us in heaven. A prominent part of the daily syna- 
 gogue worship was the reading and expounding of 
 that Levitical law which typified Christ, and of those 
 prophets who all spake of " the sufferings of Christ, 
 and the glory that should follow;" while the more 
 
112 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSIOX. 
 
 Strictly dovotioual parts of the service ^vollKl liiive 
 mental reference to the Innib of tlio daily, called 
 also tlic continual, burnt -otVcrinu:, then actually con- 
 suming on the altar in the tcn^ple, and to the sweet 
 incense, \\\n\\ the censer of the one priest, tlicn ac- 
 tually ascending in a fragrant cloud before Him 
 >vho dwelt bet^Yeen the cherubim. This spiritual 
 unity of minds, brought into fellowship by the liv- 
 ing power of truth and devotion, is the true ideal of 
 the Jewish church — a daily worshij) in all the syna- 
 gogues of the land linked, by scri}>tural truth and 
 mental exercise, with the one continuous priestly 
 service of the one temple at Jerusalcnv — that mental 
 worship of the whole church, in all her separate 
 synagogues, acceptable to God by viitue of its in- 
 telligent and coniiding relation to the priestly rites 
 performed at the one temple in Jerusjdem. 
 
 Keeping this true model of Jewish unity before 
 us, w'here ai*e we to look for its antitype in Chris- 
 tianity ? AVas there, during any part of Peter's life 
 and labours, an intelligent and confiding relation 
 betAveen the worship of all Cln-istian assemblies in 
 the world and any services which he, in any par- 
 ticulai* place, was performing, or over wliich he 
 was presiding ? Did the worship of the universal 
 church become acceptable to God by virtue of any 
 sacrifice which he was ofFering and intercession 
 which he was making? Is there now, with altars 
 and masses, and censers innumerable to boot, any 
 intelligent and confiding relation between the wor- 
 ship of the assemblies of the Komish church itself, 
 
I'KTEKS SUPREMACY FABULOUS. J 13 
 
 and the services which may be performing by him 
 whom they call Peter's successor, the high pontiff, 
 or hJM Hubordi nates at Rome? Are not the supre- 
 iiiaey, and the vi-iible headship, and the centre of 
 unity, even a-s claimed by the Romanists themselves, 
 wfien clo.sely examined and analyzer!, and put into 
 the light of true .scriptural models, found to consist 
 of names only without the elementary substances 
 of the things which they pretend to be ? — a pan- 
 tomimic profanity of things holy, sublime, and hea- 
 venly? — a monstrous abortion of the human intellect, 
 having none of the fair and beauteous profKjrtions 
 which mark every creation of Divine power and 
 wisdom ? 
 
 Is there any antitype of the Jewish model, crs- a 
 churchy now on earth ? There is. Every Christian 
 assembly in which the holy oracles, now complete 
 and full of Clirist, are read and expounded by 
 faithful stewards of the mysteries of God — in which 
 the devotional exercises, both of praise and prayer, 
 have a mental, intelligent, confiding reference to 
 Christ in the periect work of propitiation which 
 he is constantly performing for us in the heavenly 
 temple, is the Jewish synagogue grown to the 
 maturity of its age, and the fulness of its adoption 
 into the liglit, liberty, and privileges of the Christian 
 church. The true ideal of the Christian church 
 universal on earth, as foreshadowed by the Jewish 
 church, is tliis : The aggregate of such assemblies 
 through the world, all yielding acknowledgment and 
 obedience to Christ in his word — all maintaining 
 L 3 
 
114 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 relation to Christ and reliance on him in his 
 heavenly work — all, in the expansive charity of 
 their mental exercises, enjoying fellowship in the 
 truth as it is in Jesus, and open to one another 
 in fraternal recognition and intercommunion, but 
 acknowledging no church as mother besides the 
 Jerusalem above, which is the mother of us all, and 
 no head nor centre of unity besides Christ, who is 
 the head of his body the church; — all moreover 
 fellow -labourers in the work of filling the earth 
 with the knowledge of the offices discharged by 
 their common Saviour in the heavenly temple, 
 where, as Lord over all, he is rich unto all that 
 call upon him, and waits, until all the families of 
 the earth submit themselves, and become blessed in 
 him. 
 
 It is not essential, to the embodying of this true 
 ideal of the Christian church universal, that all 
 subordinate questions, which refer to modes of wor- 
 ship and forms of government, should previously be 
 settled, and that all assemblies should be brought 
 to conform to one and the same outward standard. 
 The "pattern in the mount" was given of old for 
 the tabernacle, and enlarged for the temple, not for 
 the synagogues. That pattern is completed in 
 Christ's perfect work on JMount Zion which is 
 above, and is altogether beyond the reach of our 
 imitation, and entirely independent of our arrange- 
 ments. Amid all the mistaken and fatuous efforts 
 of those who have called themselves by his name, 
 to produce an outward and visible uniformity on 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 115 
 
 earth, tlie Saviour has been calmly and steadily 
 l^ursuing his heavenly ministry, and saving to the 
 uttermost all those who have come to God by him. 
 He has prescribed no forms for Christian assem- 
 blies as, of old, there were no forms prescribed for 
 Jewish synagogues. There was, of old, wisdom in 
 leaving the synagogues free, as there was wisdom 
 in coniining the temple service within fixed and 
 inflexible rules. The synagogue worship could be 
 more easily extended and adapted to the differing 
 circumstances of different localities when unfet- 
 tered, than it could had it been bound by laws as 
 fixed and determinate as those which prescribed 
 the temple service. If there was wisdom in leav- 
 ing free from inflexible forms the worship which 
 was to be extended into multiplying assemblies 
 through the different districts of one country, how 
 much more in leaving that free from inflexible 
 forms which is destined to extend through the 
 world, and gather assemblies in every place where 
 the habitations of man can be reared, or the tents 
 of the wanderers be pitched, or the keel of the 
 vessel cut the dividing wave! It is one proof of 
 the Divine origin of Christianity that, rising in an 
 ago, and among a people, who, beyond all others, 
 had subjected themselves to the bondage of forms, 
 it yet started from its birthplace sufficiently free 
 and elastic in its step to traverse the earth; and 
 that it prescribes nothing, as essential to its wor- 
 ship, which cannot be performed at any point of 
 latitude or longitude on the land, or the sea, where 
 
116 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 two or three can meet together in its Divine 
 Founder's name. 
 
 The sum of the whole case is this : The temple 
 service, as discharged by the priests at one place 
 where the power and resources of the nation could 
 be concentrated, and circumstances be made to 
 bend and combine in the production of one fixed 
 and unvarying ministry, foreshadowed the work of 
 Christ, who, in the plenitude of his Divine perfec- 
 tions, subjects all power in heaven and in earth to 
 his gracious will and purpose, and therefore enters 
 on the work of an unchangeable priesthood; — the 
 more free and simple worship of the synagogue, 
 adaj^ting itself to the feebler combinations of man's 
 social state, in which, instead of having the power to 
 control circumstances, he is frequently compelled to 
 }deld and to modify his arrangements by them, fore- 
 shadowed the worship of Christian assemblies, which 
 may be sufficiently complete to secure the promised 
 presence of the Divine Master in the most limited 
 and diminished form of social intercourse — two or 
 three gathering in his name; — the relation between 
 the worship of the synagogue and the service of the 
 temple, which were linked together, not by ritual 
 conformity, for that was severely and decisively 
 prohibited, but by mental operations on things un- 
 seen called into activity by the word of truth and 
 devotional utterances, foreshadotced the relation in- 
 tended to subsist between Christian assemblies and 
 the service of the High Priest of our profession in 
 the heavenly temple, opened to our view in the 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 117 
 
 lessons of Scripture and the preaching of the gos- 
 pel, while the heart of prayer rises to enter by liim 
 and with him into tlie lioliest sanctuary of the 
 Divine 2)resence, and tlie hymn of praise gives ut- 
 terance in unison and fellowship with angelic har- 
 monies to the feelings of thanksgiving and joy; — 
 the general gatherings of the nation at the three 
 annual festivals, when the people left their syna- 
 gogues, and went from strength to strength on 
 every road whicli led to Jerusalem, and at length 
 all the tribes appeared together in Zion before 
 God, foreshadowed the gathering of all true wor- 
 shippers out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
 p<M)[)le, and nation to Mount Zion which is above — 
 tlie heavenly Jerusalem, that they may there con- 
 stitute the general assembly and church of the first- 
 born who shall raise in full chorus the everlasting 
 song, " Unto him that loved us, and washed us 
 from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us 
 kings and priests unto God and his Father ; to 
 him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. 
 Amen." 
 
 But now, in the view of these true analogies, we 
 have to ask where is the place for the supreme 
 jjontiif like to Aaron at Kome ? and where the 
 }»lace and the use of the subordinate priests, and 
 altars, and censers, and varied vessels of the costly 
 Romish service as it is performed in different parts 
 of the world? When the true temple was an 
 earthly sanctuary — the appointed sacrifice an irra- 
 tional, though innocent, lamb — the authorised priest 
 
11.8 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 a mere mortal man, no imitation of the service 
 might be made, no conformity to it might be 
 attempted, on pain of the heaviest Divine displea- 
 sure. How is it, now that the temple is heavenly, 
 — the sacrifice the spotless humanity of the Lord 
 Jesus, — the Priest the Son of God, — how is it that 
 there may now be imitations, and attempted con- 
 formity to these heavenly things in any earthly place 
 which will submit to the supremacy of Rome, and 
 receive a priest invested with the orders which she 
 undertakes to confer? AVhere is the warrant for 
 the creation of either priest, or altar, or sacrifice, or 
 censer? Where is "the pattern in the mount?" 
 There is none. In the strongest tone in which the 
 words could be uttered, we are emboldened to say — 
 there is none. Where is the argument from analogy? 
 We think we are entitled to appeal to the under- 
 standing of our readers — judge ye what we say — 
 when we rej)ly — that it is gone. What is the unity 
 of which the assumed successors of St. Peter pro- 
 fess to be the head and centre? A unity of ritual 
 ceremonies — the whole being of human invention, 
 and constructed by hands which scrupled not to 
 take whatever they could adapt to their unlawful 
 purpose of subjecting the Christian church to the 
 yoke of ceremonial bondage, whether found in Le- 
 vitical Jerusalem or Pagan Rome. What is the 
 head and centre of that unity himself? An in- 
 truder into an office to which he can show no call 
 like that of Aaron — an usurper — antichrist — the 
 more lofty his pretensions, the more manifest his 
 
Peter's supremacy fabulous. 119 
 
 personification of " the man of sin." What is the 
 city for whose glory the supremacy of Peter has 
 been constructed and claimed? Can any other com- 
 pete with her for tlie title, written by the pen of 
 prophecy for her forehead, wliich she has raised so 
 unblusliingly above all the kings of the earth, and 
 in the face of all its nations, " MYSTERY, BA- 
 BYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF 
 HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE 
 EARTH?" 
 
120 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 THE PERMANENT ORDERS OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY REDUCED 
 
 TO THEIR SCRIPTURAL STANDARD THEIR DUAL NUMBER ; OR, 
 
 THE MODEL CHURCH AT PHILIPPI, WITH ITS BISHOPS AND 
 DEACONS. 
 
 " Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the 
 saints in Jesus Christ which are at Philippi, with the bishops and 
 deacons." — Philip, i. 1. 
 
 The subject of the present lecture is "the Orders 
 of the Christian ministry." It should be remem- 
 bered that the whole Bible is a ministry performed 
 by many hands, in harmonious and divinely-directed 
 combination, for the service of the church. Patri- 
 archs and prophets, priests and kings, apostles and 
 evangelists, do here perpetuate their varied, yet, in 
 concert, their perfect work — not by a lineal suc- 
 cession which might degenerate — not by a bodily 
 presence which might sometimes have its infirmities 
 and be contemned — not by an audible tongue which 
 might occasionally be slow, hesitating, trembling in 
 its words, but by the spiritual and immortal part of 
 their nature — by their mind and soul as enjoying 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 121 
 
 the plenitude of heavenly inspiration. Their inner 
 man lives before us, and communes with us, in 
 their writinj^s, although their outward man has 
 perished. The words recorded by their pens have 
 in them the capability of translation into all the 
 languages and dialects of mankind — of speaking to 
 every successive generation of our race — of con- 
 veying to every devoutly-enquiring mind the truth 
 with which they were separately, continuously, unit- 
 edly endowed. "AVhatsoever things were written 
 aforetime were written for our learning, that we, 
 through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, 
 might have hope." " All Scripture is given by 
 inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, 
 for reproof, for correction and instruction in righ- 
 teousness, that the man of God may be perfect, 
 throughly furnished unto all good works." Indeed 
 some parts of tlie writings of the prophets were 
 intended to shed a clearer light on our path than 
 they did on the path of those in whose company 
 the prophets walked — to be better understood by 
 those who afterwards should read, than, at the 
 time, they would be even by those who wrote. 
 " Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto them- 
 selves, but unto us they did minister the things, 
 which are now reported unto you by them that 
 have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy 
 Ghost sent down from heaven." 
 
 As the writers of holy Scripture do still, with 
 one consent, minister the truth of God to all who 
 read the words thoy wrote, so do they also record 
 
 M 
 
122 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 for our information the services of every kind of 
 living ministry, with its titles and functions, which 
 God has at any time appointed for the instruction 
 and salvation of mankind. With models of a true 
 ministry in all its various kinds, they also present 
 us with specimens of spurious imitations. They 
 place before us in contrast, sometimes in actual 
 conflict, the Divine appointment and the human 
 usurpation. They warn us against "false teach- 
 ers." They command us to " Try the spirits 
 whether they be of God, because many false pro- 
 phets are gone out into the world." They fore- 
 warn us that the abounding of such teachers will 
 be the great affliction and corruption of Christian- 
 ity — that they wiU invade the temple of God, and 
 exalt themselves to his throne. 
 
 The course we have taken through the two pre- 
 ceding lectures has brought us, again and again, into 
 the view of such a ministry. "We have seen that an 
 office, like that of Aaron, has been assumed, while, 
 by those claiming it, no call, like that of Aaron, 
 can be produced. We have seen that functions, 
 like those of Moses, have been employed by those 
 who never went, like Moses, into the Mount, and 
 in no other way ever obtained from God a pattern 
 for their work. We shall see, as we advance, that, 
 in the exercise of the powers which they have 
 usurped, they have invented orders for which there 
 are no models to be found in holy Scriptures; and 
 that they have so constructed and graduated these 
 orders that the ambition of rising must necessarily 
 
SCALE OF OKDERS FABULOUS. 123 
 
 be inherent in the system, ever working through 
 all its parts, and therefore the more likely to be- 
 come insatiable, and aiming at the throne of God. 
 
 In the ministry of the Church of Rome, there 
 are seven orders ; and consequently the individual 
 who advances by regular gradation through the 
 whole becomes partaker of a sevenfold ordination. 
 The first and lowest in the series is that of porter, 
 Avho, at his ordination, receives the key that he 
 may have charge of the door of the church. The 
 second is that of reader, who receives the book 
 which contains the lessons which he is to read to 
 the people. The third is that of exorcist, who also 
 receives a book containing the exorcisms, which he 
 is charged to commit to memory that he may em- 
 ploy them on those who are possessed. The fourth 
 is that of acolyte, who is to perform, as assistant of 
 the j^riest, the more servile work of the ministry 
 of the altar, and who receives, as the symbols of 
 his office, the candlestick and the wine-vessel. 
 These four are called the minor orders. We then 
 rise to what are called the greater orders. The 
 subdeacon, who receives the book of the epistles, 
 with power to read the appointed lessons from that 
 portion of the New Testament both for the living 
 and the dead. The deacon, who receives the gos- 
 pels, with corresponding power as to the lessons 
 appointed from them. And then the priest, who 
 is invested with the stole, anointed with sacred oil, 
 entrusted with the chalice and the patina, endowed 
 with power to offer sacrifice to God, and to ccle- 
 
124 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 brate the mass for the living and the dead, and 
 charged, in the words of Christ addressed to the 
 apostles, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins 
 you shall forgive, they are forgiven them ; and 
 whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." 
 
 Yet, though the number seven includes all the 
 orders of the ministry, it does not include all the 
 degrees which these orders contain. The Council 
 of Trent, which determined the number of the 
 orders, in its catechism, thus dilates the highest 
 order, that of the priest, and unfolds its degrees : 
 " The order of priesthood, although essentially one, 
 has different degrees of dignity and power. The 
 first is confined to those who are simply called 
 priests, and whose functions we have now ex- 
 plained. The second is that of bishops, who are 
 placed over their respective sees, to govern not 
 only the other ministers of the church, but also the 
 faithful, and with sleepless vigilance and unwea- 
 ried care to watch over and promote their salva- 
 tion." The third degree is that of archbishop; in 
 the fourth place are patriarchs; "and superior to all 
 these is the sovereign pontiff*, whom Cyril, Arch- 
 bishop of Alexandria, denominated, in the Council 
 of Ephesus, ' the father and patriarch of the whole 
 world.'" In other words, Cyril, who had ambi- 
 tiously climbed some of the steps which lead up 
 to the throne of God, and had become invested 
 with a title and orders which the apostles never 
 knew, compliments another, who has been daring 
 enough to go higher, and ascend the throne itself, 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 125 
 
 with tlie wonderful success of his undertaking; and 
 lie, even in the inflated fuhiess of his usurpation, 
 inwardly conscious of the poverty and emptiness of 
 his claims, thankfully receives and carefully pub- 
 lishes the impious flattery, thus making more mani- 
 fest the fact that his dominion stands in the word 
 of man, and not in the joower of God. 
 
 The ministry of the Anglican church consists of 
 three orders, "bishops, priests, and deacons." Yet 
 the highest order here is divided into two degrees, 
 bishop, and archbishop; while the low^er orders may 
 be connected with other titles and oflEices, varied in 
 their designations and functions, such as canon, 
 prebend, dean, archdeacon, &c. But as the rite of 
 ordination is limited to the three orders, beji:innin2: 
 at the lowest and ascending to the highest, to them 
 only need our attention be directed. 
 
 In justice also to the evangelical portion of the 
 English clergy, it must be stated that, while the 
 authorized formularies of their church compel them 
 to designate the middle order by the term priest, 
 they repudiate the leading idea involved in that 
 term and commonly associated with it. They dis- 
 tinguish between a sacrificing priest and a teaching 
 priest. They renounce the former, and hold to the 
 hitter. Were they able to alter the nomenclature 
 of their orders, they would prefer to designate the 
 middle order prcsh/ter, instead of [)riest ; and then 
 their ministry would stand thus — bishops, pres- 
 byters, and deacons. 
 
 M 3 
 
126 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 Now, one source of the lieresj wliicli at present 
 overruns the English episcopal church is this : 
 That when the branches of the Romish supersti- 
 tion were lopped off, and the trunk was hewn down 
 and removed, not a few of the roots were left in 
 the ground. Terms and phrases were allowed 
 to remain in the protestant formularies which 
 had been appropriated by the spirit of error, and 
 which could lie latent in the soil waiting favourable 
 times and seasons for development and growth. 
 A favourable season has recently offered, and how 
 rapidly has the ground been covered with the 
 saplings which have sprung from the old and 
 buried roots. Saplings it is true they are, and 
 saplings only. They will never attain to the 
 vigour and maturity of the ancient tree. They 
 will cumber the ground, exhaust the soil, then 
 wither and die. The origin of what is commonly 
 called Puseyism may be expressed in few words. 
 The hot manure of priestly ambition has been skil- 
 fully applied to every part of the English ritual 
 where a root or fibre of the old Romish stock could 
 be found. The present success of the experiment 
 exceeds all the calculations which could previously 
 have been formed. Yet early and rapid growth 
 are prognostics neither of strength nor fruitful- 
 ness. The issue may be, not fragrant blossoms, 
 and boughs bending beneiith the weight of fruit, 
 but the garden turned into a wilderness, and given 
 up to barrenness. 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 127 
 
 Our present work in tliis soil is with the root 
 out of whicli the orders grow. This root is per- 
 haps the strongest of the whole, and that which is 
 most deeply imbedded in the ground. AVe Avisli to 
 get to the bottom of it, and shall therefore direct 
 our labour to the orders in the most moderated 
 form in which we have referred to them — not as 
 they appear in the Roman pontifical seven, and 
 the highest rising into four loftj degrees, the sove- 
 reign pontiff crowning the whole — not as they ap- 
 pear in the Anglican offices, bishops, priests, and 
 deacons, but as they would appear if the wishes 
 of the more evangelical part of the clergy could 
 be accomplished, bishops, presbyters, and deacons. 
 If we can get to this lowest part of the root, and 
 unearth it, all that is higher, whether in order or 
 <l('gree, must of necessity come away with it. We 
 liope to show that there were not three orders in 
 the churches which the apostles planted, give them 
 wliat names you please — we hope to show that the 
 order which, on the theory of apostolical succession, 
 is that whicli claims to be the producer of the rest, 
 derives no appointment from apostolic hands ; and 
 consequently, that for a different and yet more con- 
 clusive reason than any which we have hitherto 
 adduced, that whole theory is an imposition and a 
 fable. 
 
 AVe must here premise that, if the seven orders 
 of the Romish priesthood, or the three orders of 
 the Anglican ministry, could be found clearly des- 
 
128 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 cribed upon the pages of tlie New Testament, and 
 thus be connected with apostolic appointment and 
 superintendence, it would not therefore necessarily 
 follow that they must be perpetuated in the church 
 by a spiritually lineal descent. That is a mode of 
 descent and propagation which has no archetype in 
 nature — no special beauty nor fitness to commend 
 it to a penetrating reason which finds out and puts 
 together the hidden links that connect God's varied 
 and wonderful works with each other — no afiinity 
 and harmony, but, on the contrary, a marked dis- 
 cordance with essential theological truth, as that 
 which declares that Christians are born "not of 
 blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
 man, but of God." Such a mode of perpetuation, 
 did it really exist, must be found in some special 
 appointment of God, and be declared in some 
 unequivocal words of revelation. No such words 
 can be adduced; no such appointment can there- 
 fore be admitted. If then the orders in question 
 were found ever so clearly designated in the New 
 Testament, the argument against the assumed mode 
 of their succession would remain just where it was 
 before. The mere scriptural existence of any 
 specific number of orders, whatever their designa- 
 tions, could never, in itself, prove that one out of 
 the number was invested with power to produce 
 and perpetuate all the rest. But if the orders 
 themselves are not such orders as the apostles in 
 their writings recognise and describe, then what 
 are we to think of the system which claims from 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 129 
 
 the apostles both authority and paternity ? A man 
 may be in possession of an estate which he may 
 have acquired honestly, by bequest or purchase, 
 -without troubling himself to look for a genealogy 
 and paternity — and who, in such a case, would wish 
 to disturb or question the right of occupation ? but 
 if he rest his right to its enjoyment exclusively on 
 his lineal descent — if he disparage and defame all 
 his neighbours, and there should be a document 
 from which you can demonstrate that he gives a 
 false account of what he calls his family ; that the 
 whole line of his boasted descent has no connection 
 with the original ancestry ; and that, instead of 
 ha\ ing power to rule and confer privileges, he has 
 no authorized place himself in the house, — then 
 surely it becomes a duty to examine the evidence 
 contained in the document, and expose to the light 
 the groundless assumptions of the defamer. 
 
 The document in the case before us is the New 
 Testament. The question which we have to ex- 
 amine and decide by it, the authority, as apostolic 
 institutes, of three orders in the Chi'istian ministry, 
 bishops, presbyters, and deacons. 
 
 The text, placed at the head of this discourse, 
 presents a starting-point, and opens our path. 
 "Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, 
 to all the saints in Christ Jesus Avhich are at Phi- 
 lippi, with the bishops and deacons." 
 
 Let us examine the authority of three orders in 
 the Ciiristian ministry by the light of this apostolic 
 salutation. 
 
130 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 We could in no part of the sphere of apostolic 
 labours find a spot more interesting and attractive 
 than Philippi. The guidance of Paul to it was 
 distinct and heavenly. " In a vision, there stood a 
 man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come 
 over into Macedonia, and help us." It was the chief 
 city in that part of Macedonia, and the first, not 
 only in Macedonia, but in Europe, in which Paul 
 opened his commission. The church formed at 
 Philippi must have been the first which Paul 
 formed in Europe. If priority of formation in 
 any region could give the title and relation of ma- 
 ternity to other churches, subsequently formed iji 
 that region, this church at Philippi would be pre- 
 eminently a mother church. In all probability no 
 apostle had at this time visited Rome, and the 
 Christian community in Rome itself, in such en- 
 dowments as an apostle only could confer, might 
 have been far behind this church at Philippi. The 
 name of Lydia, whose heart the Lord had opened, 
 was inscribed at the head of its list of members. 
 The jailor and his household were subsequently 
 enrolled in their number. Grateful afiection towards 
 the apostle never grew cold and barren in this 
 church ; its fruits were sent to him by faithful 
 messengers when he was a prisoner at Rome, ap- 
 parently neglected by the Christians of the imperial 
 city, some of whom, by the factious spirit which they 
 manifested, intended moreover to give him jDain. 
 Philippi and Rome are thus singularly brought 
 together. What a contrast the apostle's eye must 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 131 
 
 liave seen in their respective churches. His pen 
 perpetuates that contrast, that we may see it, and 
 draw our inferences from it. He tells the Philip- 
 pians that at Rome "some indeed preach Christ 
 even of envy and strife ; and some also of good-will : 
 the one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, 
 supposing to add affliction to my bonds." He tells 
 tliem, as to themselves, "I thank my God upon 
 every remembrance of you, always in every prayer 
 of mine for you all making request with joy, for 
 your fellowship in the gospel from the first day 
 until now." 
 
 Three things, then, may be fairly inferred as to 
 this cliurch at Philippi. 1. That its constitution 
 was complete, according to what the apostle him- 
 self thought the constitution of a church ought to be. 
 2. That its constitution was thoroughly efficient — 
 tliat it worked entirely according to the apostle's 
 mind. 3. That there had been sufficient time to 
 test both the completeness of the constitution and 
 the efficiency of its working. 
 
 As to the constitution of this church, it was the 
 workmanship of the apostle's own hand. He was 
 the chief labourer employed in the origination of 
 the church, and under his superintendence its minis- 
 try had been appointed. He visited Philippi cer- 
 tainly once, and in all probability more than once, 
 after tlie formation of the church, and before he 
 wrote the epistle to its members. He must have 
 found every thing in the arrangements of the 
 church, in the deportment of its members, and in 
 
132 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 the work of its ministers, fully to his mind. He 
 saw the healthful growth of that which he had 
 himself planted — the enlargement of the church 
 according to the model which he had himself origi- 
 nally formed. That which he had seen on his 
 visits, as well as that which he had seen when first 
 planting and watering the church, had become part 
 of the most precious store of his memory, which 
 delighted to retain every impression produced by 
 moral excellence wherever witnessed, and converted 
 it into incense, which, thrown upon the flame of 
 devotion ever burning in his heart, sent up a cloud 
 of fragrance before God — " I thank my God upon 
 every remembrance of you." 
 
 This remembrance included a period of ten years. 
 So much time had elapsed between the formation of 
 the church and the writing of the epistle to its 
 members. Supposing, therefore, that the circum- 
 stances of trial and persecution which accompanied 
 the apostle's entrance and first labours among the 
 Philippians had prevented, at that period, the full 
 development of the apostolic constitution, time had 
 been given for circumstances to alter, and the apos- 
 tle's subsequent visits had furnished fit opportu- 
 nity to supply, whatever might have been deficient. 
 Put all the facts of the case together — connect with 
 them the commendation " Ye have ahvays obeyed, 
 not as in my presence only, but now much more in 
 my absence;" and it will be found difficult to con- 
 ceive of circumstances more likely to produce and 
 exhibit a model church than those which belong to 
 
SCALE OF OI^DERS FAllULOUS. 133 
 
 the church at Philippi. In view of the whole, we 
 tliink Ave are warranted to call the church of the 
 Philippians a model church. 
 
 This church at Pliilippi, on account of tlie as- 
 sociations so satisfactory and pleasing which are 
 connected with it, lives before the apostle's men- 
 tal eye more vividly, and recurs more frequently, 
 than does any other church. As it stands before 
 his view, and he looks affectionately on it, looks 
 carefully through it, distributes it into its parts, 
 discriminates its officers, and pours out the re- 
 freshing stream of his kind and generous feeling, 
 intended to flow through every channel, and to find 
 its way into every heart, — how many orders of the 
 ministry does his eye behold ? — does his salutation 
 greet ? Not seven — not even three. He had ap- 
 pointed, he beholds, he salutes hvo orders only — 
 bishops, who, as their title indicates, are overseers, 
 ministers of the word, and deacons, whose work 
 it is to serve tables ; in other words, pastors, who 
 attend to the spiritualities of the church— deacons, 
 who attend to its temporalities. 
 
 Let us now Ijring the three orders of the Angli- 
 can church into the pure and heavenly light of this 
 apostolic church at Philippi. What must be done 
 to make the Anglican church, in the orders of its 
 ministry, like the Philippian ? — the modern like the 
 ancient ? — like the most ancient church in Europe? 
 — ^like that which has special claims to be consider- 
 ed the model cluirch ? If we attend to phraseology 
 and nomenclature only, we must strike the Anglican 
 
 N 
 
134 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 middle order, call it priest or presbyter as you 
 please, out of the list, and take it entirely away. 
 There will then be, as at Philippi, the bishops and 
 deacons. But then there is taken away, not a frac- 
 tion of the ministry only, which might be spared 
 ■without seriously diminishing the working force ; 
 it is the working body which is gone, and the 
 powerless skeleton only which remains. Or, as 
 though in an army, you disbanded the troops which 
 had performed the service, and retained only the 
 recruits and the field officers — the deacons, who 
 have just entei-ed on the discharge of the lowest 
 functions of the ministry — the bishops, the select 
 few, who have reached the highest, and command. 
 The consequences, not very remote, would be far 
 worse than the case supposed. In the ministry of 
 the church all must enter the service in the first, or 
 lowest order; and none can reach the third, or high- 
 est order, without going through the second. Take 
 away the second, and the third must soon die out, 
 because there is now a gulf, instead of a path, in the 
 way of those who Avould rise up to it. And then 
 wiien the third, or highest order, has died out, the 
 first, or lowest, must at length perish also, because 
 the third is the paternal, the producing order; and if 
 there be no individual capable of becoming a bishop, 
 who only can ordain, then none can be ordained. 
 So that when we bring into the clear light, which 
 shines directly upon us from apostolic times and 
 apostolic appointments, the three orders only of the 
 Anglican church — to say nothing of the seven 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 135 
 
 orders of the Romish church — and these orders 
 being so connected that every individual ascending 
 to the highest must enter at the lowest, and pass 
 through the successive steps which lead to the 
 highest, we find the comparison to be fiital to the 
 authority, and the life, not merely of one of the 
 three which is ejected, but to the other two also, 
 which, by the loss of the middle power, become dis- 
 jointed fragments — the highest failing in the loss of 
 that out of which only it can grow, and, then, the 
 lowest failing in the loss of that by which only it 
 can be produced. Li other words, the whole so 
 called " apostolical succession " withers and dies in 
 tlie face, and amid tlie light of clearly ascertained 
 apostoHcal constitutions. 
 
 Let us give the parties the advantage of discard- 
 ing their nomenclature, that we may look at their 
 orders in their functions — in their essential charac- 
 ter and work — rather than in the names which ill- 
 judging sponsors have given to them. They have 
 no right to this advantage. Those who prefer high 
 pretensions, and offensive claims, should not only 
 clearly define, and firmly bottom, the grounds of 
 their authority, but should also accurately designate 
 both their ofiices and their functions. The indivi- 
 dual wlio wears priest, writ largely on his orders, 
 and knows that lie cannot sustain the position in 
 which the title places him, retreats with a very bad 
 grace, while this name is on his forehead, behind 
 the defences of presbyter ; while the advocate of 
 three orders, by Divine right, bishops, priests, and 
 
136 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 deacons, makes but sorr j work when he untwists the 
 threefold cord that he may put its different parts 
 together in some new form of combination. 
 
 Let us see, however, what might be made out of 
 a new form of combination. It maj be said that the 
 Philippian bishop was the prototype of the Angli- 
 can presbyter; that he did what many of the latter 
 faithfully do now — watched over and fed a portion 
 of the flock which was committed to his care. We 
 accept this interpretation. We shall presently ad- 
 duce proof to establish the identity of bishop and 
 presbyter. We can also very cheerfully admit, and 
 bear our testimony to, the pastoral excellence of 
 many of the Anglican presbyters. But the question 
 before us is not one of comparative excellence in 
 pastoral relations, but of the authority of minis- 
 terial orders. Put presbyters and deacons instead 
 of bishops and deacons, and then what will be 
 the state of the case ? You bring back, on this 
 functional statement, the whole force of the middle 
 order, but you do this at the expense and loss of 
 both the other orders. Your Anglican bishop is 
 now admitted to be not in the likeness, nor of the 
 class, nor consequently the true successor, of the 
 Philippian bishop ; he is therefore ejected. So 
 neither, in a functional statement, for reasons 
 which will at length be shown, is your Anglican 
 deacon in the likeness, and of the class, and the 
 true successor, of the Philippian deacon. The An- 
 glican churchwarden, never included in the orders 
 of the ministry, is the true successor of the Philip- 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 137 
 
 plan deacon. lie serves the tables. He takes tliat 
 charge which, in primitive times, would include the 
 temporalities of the church.* 
 
 Now then bring the three orders to the apostoli- 
 Ctxl standard, not by their nomenclature, but by their 
 functions. The functions of the modern presbyter 
 correspond with those of the Philippian bishop. 
 The functions of tlie modern churchwarden corres- 
 pond wdth those of the Philippian deacon. The 
 presbyter is the minister of the word — the chui'ch- 
 warden is the minister of the tables. That there is 
 a natural tendency in the church to this order of 
 formation, and a consequent evidence in its favour 
 arising from the fitness of things, is obvious from 
 the fact that Anglican congregations, wdiich are not 
 parochial, approximate very nearly to tlie Philippian 
 model now. The prelate's relation to the church, in 
 these cases, and to its sacred or secular ministry, is 
 little more than nominal, and if any interference 
 take place it is an annoyance, not a help — an evil 
 submitted to, not a blessing coveted. 
 
 But then what becomes of the argument for the 
 three orders, by Divine right, and spiritual succes- 
 sion. In tlie first place an ecclesiastical oflicer is 
 introduced, still deriving his appointment as of old 
 from popular election, and performing under another 
 
 * " It seems, that for mriiiy centuries the ordinary office of the 
 deacon related rather to such duties as arc now performed by our 
 parish clerks and church wardens than to the higher parts of the 
 ministerial office." — Treatise on the Church of Christ, by Ilev. 
 W. Palmer. :M.A. vol. ii. p. 40.). 
 
 N 3 
 
138 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 name the functions of the primitive deacon, but 
 deriving no grace from the prelate, and admitted to 
 no relationship with him, nor with any part of the 
 sacerdotal family. In the second place, the intro- 
 duction of this officer, the true deacon, displaces 
 two of the orders which stand upon apostolical 
 succession — the lowest, by taking its place as the 
 proper representative of the Philippian deacon — 
 the highest, by uniting with the presbyter to make 
 the Philippian number comj)lete without the admis- 
 sion of the prelate. If the prelate, who claims the 
 exclusive possession of the paternal functions, be 
 thus ejected from the house, the whole family, 
 which stands there by no other right than relation- 
 ship to him, must leave with him. So that, by this 
 functional statement of the case, as well as by the 
 titular, the whole theory of the spiritual succession 
 becomes a nullity ; and those who possess no other 
 title to the office of the Christian ministry, than that 
 which they find in their boasted orders, are entirely 
 destitute of scriptural authority. 
 
 It may be asked here, Is the single case of this 
 Philippian church of sufficient clearness and autho- 
 rity to settle so wide and important a question as 
 that which, in the light derived from it, we have 
 been examining ? Might there not have been some 
 diffi?rence between the orders of the ministry in this 
 church and those which were appointed in others ? 
 Might there not have been some anomaly in its 
 constitution — some exception to a more general 
 rule ? 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 139 
 
 It may be answeretl, That the formation of other 
 churches is recorded in tlie Acts of the Apostles ; 
 that to several of these churches epistles were 
 written ; but that, as the three orders do not appear, 
 either in the records of the labours of the apostles 
 or in any of their epistles, the presumption must be 
 that the orders of the ministry in other churches 
 corresponded with those in the church at Philippi. 
 The light which shines from this first of European 
 churches may then be deemed sufficiently clear to 
 lead us through the interior of all the rest, present- 
 ing to us the saints in their fellowship, with tlie 
 bishops and deacons. 
 
 But we are not, left to mere presumption in the 
 case. There is another source from which the 
 general rule for all churches may be derived ; and 
 that general rule will be found to be in perfect har- 
 mony wnth the individual case, which we have 
 exhibited, in the church at Philippi. 
 
 In the First Epistle of Paul to Timothy, he lays 
 dowm the qualifications which should be found in 
 those who are fitted for appointment to office. In 
 writing to the Pliilippians, he greets the bishops and 
 deacons as actually discharging the duties assigned 
 to their respective offices. In writing to Timothy, 
 he contemplates the appointment for other churches, 
 not yet fully supplied, of the same orders of bishops 
 and deacons, and of those only. 
 
 " This is a true saying, If a man desire the office 
 of (I bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then 
 must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, 
 
140 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt 
 to teach ; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy 
 of filthy lucre ; but patient, not a brawler, not 
 covetous ; one that ruleth well his own house, 
 having his children in subjection with all gravity 
 (for if a man know not how to rule his own house, 
 how shall he take care of the church of God ?) ; not 
 a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into 
 the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must 
 have a good report of them which are without; lest 
 he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. 
 Likewise must the deacofis be grave, not double- 
 tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of 
 filthy lucre ; holding the mystery of the faith in 
 a pure conscience. And let these also first be 
 proved ; then let them use the office of a deacon, 
 being found blameless." * 
 
 The notice of these instructions which were given 
 to Timothy is the more important, because one prop 
 of the theory we have been examining, and which, 
 before we have done, we shall have to take down 
 and remove, is constructed out of the work which 
 was assigned to Timothy. At present we wish it 
 only to be marked and remembered that the orders 
 of the ministry, about which Timotliy was to 
 employ his mind and hands, were of two classes, 
 and no more ; and that these two classes corres- 
 ponded, both in name and in functions, with those 
 who are greeted in the church at Philippi, " bishops 
 and deacons." 
 
 And now the question must be settled as to the. 
 ' 1 Tim. iii. ]— 10. 
 
SCALK OP OUDKRS FABULOUS. 141 
 
 relation between tlie bishop and the elder, or pres- 
 byter. Does not the English reader often iind in 
 the New Testament the phrase, " the elders of the 
 church?" and once in 1 Tim. iv. 14, the Greek 
 word for elders not translated, but only Anglicised 
 in form — the presbytery ? Might there not then 
 be some deficiency at Philippi, and some omission 
 in the instructions given to Timothy ? Might it 
 not be possil>le tlierefore to complete the three 
 orders by combining light from two places ? Might 
 not Ephesus, for instance, be put with Philippi, 
 and the elders or presbyters of Epliesus l>e inserted 
 between the bishops and deacons of Philippi, thus 
 making three orders, bishops, presbyters, and dea- 
 cons ? Let us look at the case in this light. 
 
 At ISIiletus the apostle sent to Ephesus, and 
 cidh'd to him the elders of the church — the Trpetr- 
 ftvTtfxji. In the course of his address to them, 
 however, he says, " Take heed to yourselves, and to 
 all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost has 
 made you overseers," — in tlie original ETricrKOTroi ; 
 as translated in our text, and in the passage we 
 have quoted from Timothy, and in most other 
 places in whicli the word occurs — bishops. Here 
 then we have conclusive |)roof tliat the elders and 
 bigho]>s are not two distinct and separate orders, 
 but one and the same order under two different 
 names. The one name, bishop, indicating the work 
 which they have to perform, to overlook the flock ; 
 the otlier name, presbyter, indicating one of the 
 qualifications desirable for tlie in(li\i(liial who was 
 
142 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 to discharge this work — maturity of age — the 
 elder. 
 
 Nor does this conclusion rest on a single pass- 
 age, however clear that passage may be in itself. 
 In the epistle to Titus, Paul writes to him, " For 
 this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest 
 set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain 
 elders (TrpEafivrepot) in every city, as I had ap- 
 pointed thee : if any be blameless, the husband of 
 one wife, having faithful chiklren, not accused of 
 riot, or unruly. For a bishop (fTrtV/coTroc) must be 
 blameless, as the steward of God."* In this pas- 
 sage the Greek, kiriffKOTvoq, being translated bishop, 
 the English version is as clear and satisfactory on 
 the point in question — the identity of elder and 
 bishop — as is the original itself in the passage we 
 have quoted from the Acts. 
 
 But here a difficulty meets us. Neither in the 
 address to the elders of the Ephesian church, who 
 had come to meet the apostle at Miletus, nor in the 
 instructions which he gave to Titus, is there any 
 reference to the deacons. How are we to account 
 for their omission in both these cases ? 
 
 There are two solutions of this difficulty which 
 present themselves. 
 
 First, That the word elder is a generic term of 
 office, simply indicating one primary quality, age, 
 and comprehending different kinds of species which 
 possess this quality in common. Tims Peter and 
 John, who filled the apostolic office, both designate 
 * Titus i. 5—7. 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 143 
 
 themselves elders — tliat is, presbyters. " The elders 
 wliich are among you I exhort, who also am an 
 elder." So writes Peter. " The elder unto the 
 elect lady" — "the elder unto the beloved Gains." 
 So writes John. And to him, as we showed in our 
 hist lecture, the title, descriptive of age, must, at 
 length, have pre-eminently belonged — he became 
 the patriarch of the Christian church. 
 
 This solution would have cleared up the whole 
 difficulty, if tlie generic term elder had been con- 
 tinued through every part of the address at Miletus, 
 and the instructions to Titus. But since, in both 
 cases, a specific class is introduced, and all who are 
 called elders at Miletus are also called bishops; and 
 since, w^hen Paul is writing to Titus about the 
 elders, the bishop is again specified as the class to 
 whicli he is referring, the question returns. How is 
 it tliat, in both cases, the specification stops at the 
 bishops, and the deacons are omitted ? 
 
 There is a second solution of the question, which 
 not only removes all the difficulty of the case, but 
 also contributes clearness, harmony, and powder to 
 the general argument which, in this discourse, we 
 are pursuing. That solution is, That the offices of 
 bishop and deacon, although both are^ of Divine 
 authority and apostolical appointment, are yet so 
 different in their nature and functions, that you 
 may find sufficient reason for the occasional omission 
 of the one when the other is referred to. We have 
 already expressed, in general terms, the nature of 
 that difference, reserving to- this, the proper place 
 
144 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 for that work, the illustration and proof of what we 
 then found it convenient merely to assume. The 
 nature of that diiference, we now repeat, is, that 
 the office of the bishop contemplates the spiritual- 
 ities of the church — the office of the deacon the 
 temporalities. 
 
 And now we must go back to the origin of the 
 diaconal office. The origin of this office, and the 
 purpose for which it was instituted, are both as 
 carefully recorded, and as clearly defined, as are 
 the origin and the design of the apostolic, or even 
 of the Levitical office. 
 
 "And in those days, when the number of the 
 disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring 
 of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their 
 widows were neglected in the daily ministration. 
 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disci- 
 ples unto them, and said. It is not reason that we 
 should leave the word of God, and serve tables. 
 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven 
 men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and 
 wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. 
 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, 
 and to the ministry of the word. And the say- 
 ing pleased the whole multitude: and they chose 
 Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, 
 and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, 
 and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch : 
 whom they set before the apostles : and when they 
 had prayed, they laid their hands on them."* 
 * Acts vi. 1—6. 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 14o 
 
 Tlie plirase in this passage, " to serve tables," is 
 obviously employed to describe the trust and distri- 
 bution of the funds of tlie church. There was then 
 but one source whence those funds were derived — 
 the voluntary contributions of the people. Yet the 
 funds derived from this source were sufficiently 
 ample : " For as many as were possessors of lands 
 or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the 
 things that were sold, and laid them down at the 
 apostles' feet." There were inconveniences, how- 
 ever, which arose from this abundant liberality and 
 implicit contidence. Those who received the distri- 
 bution accorded to the apostles less of gratitude and 
 trust than did those who supplied it. Their hands, 
 though " they coveted no man's silver or gold," were 
 encumbered. Their minds were embarrassed with 
 conflicting claims and expectations. Their minis- 
 try was liable to reproach and hinderance. They 
 feel the necessity — they see the reasonableness of 
 devolving tlie whole of these affairs upon the hands 
 of others, who are known and approved for their 
 wisdom, piety, and integrity. In transferring the 
 funds of the church to the deacons, they transferred 
 to them, at once, the administration of all temporal 
 affiiirs. They placed the table for their own supply 
 in the same hands to wliich they committed tliat for 
 the widows and the poor. They transferred to the 
 deacons, not only the confidence of the church, 
 which had hitherto been reposed in themselves, but 
 also their own confidence for all the pecuniary 
 supply which they themselves might require. They 
 O 5 
 
146 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 established a principle most wise and healthful, and 
 which, in its exhibition, was to last as long as the 
 imperishable pages which record the measures they, 
 on this occasion, directed : that the pecuniary affairs 
 of the church should be transacted by officers elected 
 for that purpose from the church, and responsible to 
 the body from which they derive their appointment 
 and their funds ; and that their administration should 
 relieve the hands and minds of those who, feeding 
 the flock, and watching for souls as they who must 
 render to the Lord an account of their work, may 
 " give themselves to prayer, and the ministry of the 
 word." 
 
 And here we find, at once, a sufficient reason 
 why the apostle did not call the deacons of the 
 church at Ephesus to Miletus. They derived their 
 office from the election of the people ; they admi- 
 nistered the funds which were contributed by the 
 people; they were responsible for that administra- 
 tion only to the people. Paul, acting in the spirit 
 and following the example of those who were before 
 him in Clu'ist and in the apostolate, felt no desire to 
 interfere with their work. They owed no report to 
 him. He had no court into which they could bring 
 any of their affairs. The idea of inspecting or 
 revising their accounts never occurred to his mind. 
 Like his brethren who had enjoyed the pentecostal 
 endowment, his sympathies were with those w^ho 
 ministered the word, and his care of the churches 
 related to their spiritual welfare. As there was no 
 reason why the apostles at Jerusalem should leave 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 147 
 
 the word of God to serve tables, so, in the strict 
 analogy of the case, there was no reason why Paul 
 should call, to meet him at Miletus, those to whom 
 that work had been committed at Ephesus. 
 
 Then, as the functions of the diaconal office are 
 so different in their nature from those which belong 
 to that which, in the scriptural use of the term, may 
 be called the episcopal, — the former having earth 
 and time for their immediate sphere and scope, the 
 latter heaven and eternity, — we can see a sufficient 
 reason why, in a brief epistle like that to Titus, in 
 which it was not convenient to embrace both offices, 
 the latter only, as being the more important, would 
 absorb the interest of the writer, and obtain exclu- 
 sive attention. 
 
 And here, in tlie omission of the diaconal office 
 from the instructions which were given to Titus, an 
 inference very important to our general case is 
 clearly deducible, which is, that the ecclesiastical 
 ladder with its ascending steps, the lowest to be 
 first entered before the second can be readied, and 
 each one in order as an individual is climbing to 
 the top, was not constructed by the hands of the 
 apostles. They knew nothing in their own history 
 and progress of the ladder with eleven steps — porter, 
 reader, exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon, priest, 
 bishop, archbishop, patriarch, pontiff; nor even of 
 tliat with three steps — deacon, priest, bishop. The 
 office which was filled )>y "the twelve" was the high- 
 est which the Lord ever appointed; but they were 
 cliosen to it at once. When Saul the persecutor 
 
148 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 was called, a revelation was given to him from 
 heaven which qualified him for the same office; and 
 lie was put among the apostles without passing 
 through any subordinate degrees or orders. In the 
 instructions which he gives to Timothy, the care to 
 select good bishops is put first in order ; and it is 
 assumed that the desire of that office might pro- 
 perly rise in any mind originally, and independently 
 of any other office, and that individuals, found to 
 be properly qualified, might be ordained to it as 
 the first and only office they might ever have to fill. 
 The care to select good deacons is put next in 
 order, and the utmost which can be made of the 
 declaration, that " they that have used the office of 
 a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good 
 degree," is, that it was possible to rise from the one 
 office to the other. But, as in the epistle to Titus, 
 instructions are given for ordination to the superior 
 office only, not merely without any limitation in 
 the choice to those who had sustained the inferior, 
 but without even a reference to them, the conclu- 
 sion must be undeniable, that the common practice 
 was to elect and ordain to the superior office those 
 who had never filled any other. This apostolic 
 practice is not in the order, is not now in the 
 power, of those who obtain their office by what 
 they call an apostolical succession. They have 
 fixed and bound themselves to a mode of procrea- 
 tion by steps and degrees. They cannot reach to 
 the freedom and power of a perfect apostolic pro- 
 duction. To trtwiil again in birth with the same 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 149 
 
 individuals, the necessity for which was so grievous 
 to Paul in the case of the Galatians, is the unapos- 
 tolic hiw to which they have subjected themselves 
 in bondage. Ever labouring, and never producing 
 a true apostolic progeny, is the malediction which 
 follows, and ever will follow, their lapse from apos- 
 tolic simplicity and purity. 
 
 AVe have thus entered and laid open the interior 
 of the church at Pldlippi. We have examined and 
 exposed its constitution. We have seen that there 
 ministered in it two classes of officers — the bishops, 
 whose functions regarded spiritual things — the dea- 
 cons, whose functions regarded temporal things. We 
 have shown satisfactory reasons for concluding that 
 this was the apostolic arrangement for the churches 
 in general, and not a special arrangement for this 
 church in particular. We have shown that the 
 terms bishop and elder were synonymous, since they 
 are applied to the same persons, and describe, under , 
 dilFerent aspects, the same office. We have seen 
 that those who sustained that office, whether we 
 give it the title of bishop or presbyter, did not 
 constitute a middle order of three degrees, that 
 could be reached only by going through that which 
 was lower and that might lead to the one which 
 was higher, but that it might be entered at once, 
 and, so far as we have yet seen, conducted to no 
 one that was higher. Any man might desire the 
 office of a bishop — be commended for that desire ; 
 and, if he possessed the necessary endowments, be 
 o 3 
 
1,)0 APosroiu \i. SI (. (m:ssu>n. 
 
 ordaiiKHl to that oWwc liist, tuul nlono — he rankod 
 with the eUlors, ami tluMv ivinain fixed in rlass aiul 
 ordor for life, liowovor he iui«>;ht iuoroaso in know- 
 U'dgo, and holiness, and conseiiiuMitly in moral inlln- 
 eiK'o and power. 
 
 And now, tliese eoneliisions lolU»w : that the 
 prelatieal or procreating bishop had no i)laee in 
 this ai)ostolie, this model ehnreh at IMiilippi ; that 
 he has pnrloined the name w hieh he wears from 
 the mend)ers ol tht> apostolic family tt) wliieh he 
 himself does not belong-; that, not beinj;- on<> ol" the 
 family, he is very imi)erfeetly aetpiainted with its 
 arrangements and members ; that, in consecpieneo 
 of the false position which he oeenpies, and the 
 dazzling, yet illusiv(\ lights by whieh he is encom- 
 passed, he may be expected to give a very confused 
 and tabulons acconnt of that family ; and that his 
 pretensions to be so/r prriuiittttor of the family is 
 one of the most monstrous delusions which has ever 
 exercised its [)o'\ver over the credulity of maukind. 
 
 AVe have looked into the intcrit)r of tiic churcii 
 at rhilip])i. We have found no third order of 
 the ministry — no prelate — no ]>rocreatiug bishop 
 within. It does not necessarily follow that there 
 might not be one without, which might 1k> brought 
 occasionally into contact with it, and exercise the 
 functions necessary to create and per|)etuate its 
 ministry. It will be required that we should give 
 the theory ol' the succession wliich we have been 
 examining the benefit of this su])position, as an 
 
8CALI-: or oui>i:uft j Aiii;i.oi;.s. 1.51 
 
 opportunity of c«capc from f lj<; flilHcultic'H \\<t \\n\it 
 l>roij;.^lit arourifl it. VV%: offer no objf;ction. li' tlm 
 • nclo.-iurc, at Tliilippi be too confinftd a Kpaof; for the 
 life and growth of the theory in (j(jf,-f ion, h^t it 
 eonie forth an<l hav*t itn range in tlie wide expanHe 
 of heav<;n. We l^now in what direction it will take 
 its Might, and an; pn-jian-d to foHow it. J>et U8 
 hee if, eith<;r in th«; <;tlien;al and Hnp(;rnatural ele- 
 nuiiti of (Jhrintianity, or in thf; lower and (tartlily 
 •dements of Jiidainm, it ean find a resting-place 
 in which itH position can be maintained and itrt 
 Htrength be rcHtored. 
 
 Owt thing we have earned a right to demand : 
 that the title of bishop, in the pot<;ney of which 
 name the procreating j)Ower haH jirofcHHrMl to find 
 and [jerform itH occult wond(;rs, should be left 
 beliind in the encloHure at J*hilij)pi. It belongs to 
 one of tii(; onh'rs which w(; hav<; found within that 
 enclosure, and cannot be claimed by any other ord(;r 
 which may now j^i'cserjt its(;lf (Vom without. We 
 havf (j noted ttvitry passage; in the New 'i'estament 
 in wliich the word tTrifTKOTror occurH, except one in 
 which it is applied to the Lord Jesus himself — 
 *' the Shejjherd and /j/-s7/o/> of houIh." All oflices, 
 all titles, all f(jnctions, combine in his one pr^rson 
 an<l mediatorial work. He is all, and in all. Every 
 one, whom he (^mjiloys in the, ministry of his chui-ch, 
 must be content and thankfiil to tak(; th<; names 
 and functions which he assigns, and cannot, con- 
 sistently with allegiance; to him, either claim or 
 niploy any <jthei\ Jle, by iIk; mouth and the p«,'ii 
 
152 APOSTOLICAL SUCCP:SSION. 
 
 of his apostle, gave the name of bishop to those 
 who were within the enclosure at Philippi, and to 
 those who held a corresponding position in other 
 churches — to the pastors of the flock who, enclosed 
 within the fold, dwelt among and watched over the 
 sheep. He gave the title bishop to no others. If, 
 then, any others come wearing this title, he opens 
 no door by which they can enter the fold. They 
 climb up by tlie ladder which they themselves have 
 made, and must, at length, settle with him the 
 question as to whether or not they have been 
 thieves and robbers. 
 
 Our protest at present is entered against the 
 purloining by the prelates of the name of bishop, 
 which, whether they are right or wrong in their 
 claims to procreating power, did belong to the 
 pastors of the flock at Philippi, does belong to every 
 faithful pastor still, but does not belong to any 
 other order. We repeat it, that out of the circle 
 through which we have passed, the title kiriaKOTroQ 
 does not occur in the New Testament. If, then, 
 there can be found a third and higher order entitled 
 to claim superior dignity, and empowered to dis- 
 charge superior functions, that order is not an 
 order of bishops. That title has already been 
 appropriated, by the word of inspiration, to those 
 whom tlie advocates of three orders call the second, 
 and to them alone. To take away the title from 
 those to whom the Lord has given it in his word, 
 and to add it to any others to whom lie has not 
 given it, is so to tamper with the sacred oracles as 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 153 
 
 to become exposed to their sharpest rebuke, and so 
 to tamper witli the institutions of the ministry and 
 the arrangements of the church as to nullify all 
 claim to authority, if not to forfeit all title to defer- 
 ence and respect. 
 
 We reclaim then, from the prelates, before we 
 enter into further argument with them as to their 
 functions, the title which they have taken away 
 from the pastors of the church. It must be sur- 
 rendered. Whatever else they may be, they are 
 not the bishops of the church. They are not the 
 order so greeted by the apostle at Philijipi, and so 
 appointed elsewhere according to his instructions to 
 Timothy and Titus. If they are a third order, they 
 have got to find for it a scriptural designation. 
 
 If the prelates find a scriptural designation for 
 themselves as a tliird order, it must of course be 
 tlie designation of some office which involved the 
 })eculiar functions which they, as distinguished 
 from the second order, the New Testament bishops, 
 claim to exercise. This brings us to the question, 
 AVliat offices were there, exterior to the church at 
 IMiilippi, including functions that could be occa- 
 sionally employed for it, and thus supply any al- 
 leged deficiency in the completeness of its constitu- 
 tion, which included, in its settled framework, only 
 the ministry of its bishops and deacons? 
 
 I. There was the apostolic office. 
 If the prelates are not- bishops, can they take the 
 title which belongs to this office? can they call them- 
 
154 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 selves apostles? This question has its difficulties, 
 but it has also its temptations. The phrase most 
 frequently employed to express their claims is de- 
 rived from this office, and betrays a longing look 
 towards its scriptural designation, but hesitation 
 and evasiveness as to its adoption. They are not 
 actually apostles, but they are ^^ successors of the 
 apostles ! " 
 
 Successors of the apostles ! What does this 
 hackneyed and periphrastic designation, so unlike 
 the simple, brief, and descriptive titles given in 
 holy Scripture, and which is adopted because no 
 scriptural title to suit the purpose can be found, 
 actually mean? If a king create a peer, with right 
 to transmit his title to his descendants, the heir of 
 the family, as he rises to wear his honours, becomes 
 the successor of the first peer, not of the king — 
 of him who received the title, not of him who gave 
 it. So, if the apostles, in the plenitude of their 
 authority, had created any order of ministers in the 
 church, with power to perpetuate their honours and 
 functions, those who received the entail would be- 
 come the successors of the first of their order, not 
 the successors of the apostles themselves. The 
 first of the order, especially if they were endowed 
 with functions which made them superior to all 
 others, would have some appropriate title which 
 could be easily understood and transmitted, and 
 which none but themselves might be permitted to 
 wear. The fact that those who claim to belong to 
 this third order cannot find a title which has been 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 155 
 
 provided for it, but tliat they first go down to bor- 
 row and take away a title which belongs to others, 
 which they ought not to wear, and that then they 
 rise up and call themselves " successors " to another 
 class, whose title they dare not ivcar, must certainly 
 produce grave doubts as to the scriptural origin of 
 any such order at all. 
 
 Wliy do the prelates not dare to call themselves 
 apostles ? Because, if they say we are apostles, 
 they know they must meet the demand to show the 
 works of an apostle — the gift of inspiration, the 
 gift of tongues, the gift of healing, the gift of dis- 
 cerning spirits, the power of administering super- 
 natural discipline. Oh, it is an easy thing ! a 
 human thing! a thing to which the most ordinary 
 capacity is equal! to put on the mitre — to approach 
 with measured step the throne or the altar — to 
 stretch out the hand — to open the lips — to say, in 
 Latin or in English, " Whose sins thou dost remit, 
 they are remitted; and whose sins thou dost retain, 
 they are retained." The utterance may be pre- 
 sumption — may be delusion — may, in some circum- 
 stances, be daring impiety ; but it is physically 
 easy. Is there any demonstration of apostleship in 
 this ? A child could be trained to do it as easily as 
 a man. But to clothe thought in new forms of lan- 
 guage, and be plainly understood by those in whose 
 mother-tongue you never uttered a word before — 
 to say to the poor, impotent cripple, " In the name 
 of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk," and see his 
 withered, crooked limbs extend to their full form. 
 
156 ArOSTOLTCAL SUCCESSION, 
 
 proportions, and power — to feel the warm grasp of 
 his hand, as he walks hy your side, and tries into 
 what new postures he can throw his recovered and 
 elastic members — to place your hands on a faithful 
 disciple, and convey to him the same power which 
 you had quietly exerted yourself, — this w^ould be 
 superhuman — would be divine. But this would 
 be only a small part of what apostles actually did. 
 They had no fellowship with mitres or thrones. 
 The solemn words in which their Divine Master 
 gave them their high commission and exclusive 
 authority, they never ventured to utter to others, 
 as expressive of any endowment which they could 
 confer ; but their shadow could heal the sick, and 
 their voice could raise the dead. They were as 
 full of modesty as they were of power; qualities 
 which, in those who call themselves their successors, 
 are sometimes lamentably reversed — for modesty, 
 great swelling words — for calm, resistless power, 
 the bigot's rage, employing for its vengeance the 
 secular arm, or the empty blustering which disturbs 
 only the air. 
 
 Successors to their office, the apostles had none. 
 They could have none. The gift of pepetuating 
 their own kind was not given to them — could not, 
 from the peculiar nature of their work, be given to 
 them. Then comes a question which the fixed laws 
 of universal nature might be adduced to decide. 
 If they could not propagate their own kind, could 
 they propagate any other kind — several other 
 kinds? And if there be any truth in the analogies 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. ]o7 
 
 of univ(3rsal nature, the whole theory of ecclesiasti- 
 cal generation, examined in tlie light of science as 
 well as in the light of revelation, might be pro- 
 nounced to be fabulous. 
 
 But it may be said. If the prelate is not an 
 apostle, and finds it difficult to define the points 
 at which he succeeds to apostolic functions, or to 
 show the way by which he became possessed of 
 them, is it not obvious that the church at Philippi, 
 in common with other primitive churches, enjoyed 
 an advantage in apostolic superintendence and 
 government, for which, if you discard the prelate, 
 no compensation can elsewhere be found? 
 
 We answer. That there are two fallacies which 
 commonly enter into men's thoughts and reasonings 
 on this question. First, that, when the apostles 
 were living, every part of the church could, at all 
 times, enjoy their superintendence. Second, that, 
 now they are dead, no part of the church can, at 
 any time, enjoy that superintendence. 
 
 As to the first, let it be remembered that the 
 original number of the apostles was but twelve ; 
 and that, while the churches were multiplying in 
 every region of the world, the apostles, instead of 
 increasing in the same proportion, were diminish- 
 ing, by death, in an inverse proportion. As to the 
 second, let it be remembered that, in the collected 
 epistles of the apostles, we can have more complete 
 and abiding intercourse with them than any one 
 church could enjoy while they were still living. 
 Their mind in its fullest inspiration — their heaven- 
 p 
 
158 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 directed judgment in the most difficult cases sub- 
 mitted to them — the light of their example in their 
 most perfect works of faith and labours of love — 
 are by these writings diffused through the whole 
 church, and can be made the common property and 
 privilege of all its members. There is nothing in 
 the government of the church — nothing in the con- 
 duct — nothing even in the heart of its members, 
 but may be brought at any time, at all times, to 
 their searching words and inspired decisions. They 
 spake in many tongues while they lived, but each 
 one could employ only one tongue at one time. 
 They speak in more tongues now than at Pente- 
 cost were conferred, and speak in them all at the 
 same time. They ministered the word of Christ 
 to many churches, as they travelled from place to 
 place while they lived, but each one only in one 
 assembly at one time. They minister that word 
 now to all assemblies, however separated from each 
 other by distance or language, as often as in such 
 assemblies they are read. They counselled Timo- 
 thy and Titus, and the elders of Ephesus, and of 
 many other places, while they lived. They counsel 
 every devout and faithful minister of the church 
 now; they walk with him in all his pastoral avoca- 
 tions; they furnish his study with the richest trea- 
 sure of v/hich he is the steward; they direct him in 
 all his difficulties — comfort him in all his trials — 
 help and cheer him in all his labours. They stood 
 not aloof, in official pomp and grandeur, from any 
 of the flock while they were on earth. They have 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. lo9 
 
 become the constant friends, the bosom companions 
 of all the instructed part of the flock now; they 
 minister to them in the sanctuary — talk with them 
 in the house — enter with them into the closet. 
 
 Successors of the apostles ! Let the apostles 
 themselves depart before any pretend to take their 
 l)lace. Alter your phraseology. Correct your 
 thoughts of their present position, and their pre- 
 sent work. Behold them still in the church, 
 entlironed for instruction — for government — for 
 judicial decision in every case. Instead of "suc- 
 cessors," say rather "disciples of the apostles;" and 
 take your true position at their feet. If you think 
 tliey are gone, and grope and climb to find and 
 occupy their seat, you do but show yourselves to be 
 the blind leaders of the blind. 
 
 There was exterior to the church at Philippi — 
 
 II. The office of evangelist. 
 
 " He gave some apostles, and some evangelists." * 
 The evangelists appear to have been companions to 
 tlie apostles, and assistants in their general work. 
 Tliey received from the lips of the apostles, and in 
 some instances, as in the case of Mark and Luke, 
 compiled for the church at large the history of our 
 Saviour. They were the messengers whom the apos- 
 tles employed in their communications to churches, 
 at times when they could not conveniently visit 
 them, or deputies, on wliom they devolved the work 
 of completing the organization of infant churches 
 * Eph. iv. 11. 
 
160 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 when they could not tarry to finish that which they 
 had themselves begun. They were, from the very 
 nature of their employment, like the apostles — 
 itinerant, and not fixed and settled. Paul gives 
 Timothy this designation, when he charges him to 
 " do the work of an evangelist." * As the work of 
 Titus corresponded with that of Timothy, his ofiice 
 must have been the same. To him the apostle 
 says, " For this cause left I thee in Crete, tliat 
 thou shouldst set in order the things that are 
 wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had 
 appointed thee." 
 
 We are here come to the stronghold of what is 
 caUed " Diocesan Episcopacy," by which is meant 
 a bishop placed over others, and so exalted to form 
 a third order, and having the exclusive power of 
 ordination. Timothy and Titus are said to have 
 been bishops of this order ; the former having 
 Ephesus for his diocese, the latter Crete: and they 
 are said to have conveyed the grace of ordination, 
 receiving it first from the apostle, and then confer- 
 ring it on the elders whom they were commissioned 
 to ordain. If this stronghold of diocesan episco- 
 pacy, with apostolical succession included in it, 
 does not prove impregnable, then no other place of 
 defence remains to it in the New Testament. 
 
 We have these remarks to offer, as preliminary 
 to the principal point in the case, which relates to 
 the power of ordination : — 
 
 1 . That neither Timothy nor Titus is ever desig- 
 
 * 2 Tiiu. iv. 5. 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 161 
 
 nated a bishop in the canonical and authoritative 
 pages of the New Testament. The postscripts to 
 their epistles are by all allowed to be legendary 
 and spurious; and the insertion of the designation 
 in them damages the case it is intended to help, 
 by betraying the consciousness of weakness, and 
 the desire to supply that which was felt to be 
 deficient. 
 
 2. That if Timotliy and Titus had previously 
 been evangelists, which is admitted, it is not likely 
 that, without some very urgent cause, they would 
 liave exchanged their office for one that was less 
 important in its functions, and more limited in its 
 sphere ; nor would the apostle have commended their 
 faithfulness, and then curtailed their charge. 
 
 3. That the apostle would not enjoin either of 
 them to do the work of one office — that of an evan- 
 gelist, while, by his own direction, he was fixed in 
 the post of another — that of bishop. 
 
 4. Tliat they continued to receive and obey direc- 
 tions from the apostle to perform itinerating labour 
 after the work of the one at Ephesus, and of the 
 other at Crete, had been accomplished; and there- 
 fore their work at these places, as elsewhere, must 
 liave been the temporary work of evangelists, not 
 tlie fixed and permanent work of, what are called, 
 diocesan bishops. 
 
 The office of evangelist, which Timothy and 
 
 Titus did discharge, and which seems to have been 
 
 so appended to the apostolic office as to have found 
 
 its beginning and end in its relation to it, is not 
 
 r 3 
 
162 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 claimed by those who profess to have discovered, in 
 their case, the scriptural authority for their succes- 
 sion, and the channel through which the apostolic 
 power of ordination was conveyed. We have re- 
 moved the spurious title which had been impro- 
 perly fastened upon them ; we have shown their 
 true, their scriptural rank, and work, and designa- 
 tion ; and now there remains the most important 
 point connected with their case to discuss, which is 
 their alleged conveyance of the power of apostolic 
 ordination. 
 
 Now it is a singular fact that, while Timothy 
 was actually discharging the work of an evangelist, 
 which office was more important in its functions 
 and more extensive in its sphere than that which 
 was filled by a bishop or elder residing permanently 
 with the flock, he is expressly declared by the 
 apostle himself to have received his ordination from 
 the hands of those who filled the latter or inferior 
 office. " Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which 
 was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of 
 the hands of the presbytery."* The elders then 
 could and did ordain an evangelist ; and the eye of 
 the apostle himself looks so complacently on the 
 fact as to found on it an exhortation to the evan- 
 gelist. 
 
 A most important principle as to ordination is 
 
 deducible from this fact, which is, that ordination 
 
 is not a grace descending from a higher office to 
 
 one that is lower — is not the procreation by a 
 
 * 1 Tim. iv. 14. 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 163 
 
 })relate of something which is less than a prelate, 
 as priest or deacon, or by the conjunction of three 
 prelates of something which is like and equal to 
 themselves, another prelate ; but that it is a solemn 
 designation to office which may be performed by 
 the elders in the appointment of one to an office 
 liigher than that Avhich they themselves fill — the 
 elders, or bishops, ordaining an evangelist. Does 
 there appear anything incongruous or unseemly in 
 this ? Look into the circumstances of the case, and 
 all will become clear, appropriate, harmonious. 
 
 Timothy is a youth, but one of great interest and 
 promise. His grandmother Lois, and his mother 
 Eunice, are in reputation for their scriptural know- 
 ledge and eminent piety. Their heart has been set 
 upon this cliild from his birth, and they have, by 
 special, united, persevering prayer, devoted him to 
 God. Their lesson-book, in his earliest instruction, 
 lias been the holy Scriptures. His profiting has 
 appeared unto all. The eyes of the church are 
 upon him with hope and expectation. Those who 
 have the gift of prophecy in the church look upcn 
 him. Heavenly illumination reveals to them his 
 future destination and course. They dwell upon it 
 with delight ; they speak of it with the clearness 
 and confidence which are warranted by the super- 
 natural gift with which they are endowed. He is 
 to be an evangelist — a companion, an assistant of 
 some apostle. And now Paul comes into the dis- 
 trict through which this knowledge and expectation 
 have been diffused. The brethren at Lystra and 
 
164 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 Iconium commend Timothy to him; and Paul looks, 
 for the first time, on the individual who, above aU 
 others, is to be like-minded with himself — his 
 greatest comfort in all his future and multiplying 
 labours. The elders of the district assemble, and 
 they lay their hands upon him. They ordain him 
 to his office according to its prophetic indication — 
 an evangelist. The office, it is true, is superior to 
 that which they themselves fill ; but they are the 
 matured, some of them the aged, men, and he is, 
 like David, when Samuel poured the anointing oil 
 upon him, the stripling. There is nothing in the 
 case discordant with propriety, reason, truth; but 
 there is every thing in it against the descending 
 procreating grace which some attribute to ordina- 
 tion. 
 
 How was the apostle himself employed at this 
 time ? The passage which records the case of 
 Timothy throws some light on this question, and 
 presents him to our view as exercised with the 
 cares and difficulties of apostolic labour, and con- 
 cerned to prepare Timothy to act on his own 
 principle of becoming all things to all men, if by any 
 means he might save some : " Then came he to 
 Derbe and Lystra : and, behold, a certain disciple 
 was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain 
 woman, which was a Jewess, and believed ; but his 
 father was a Greek : which was well reported of by 
 the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. 
 Him would Paul have to go forth with him ; and 
 took and circumcised him because of the Jews 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 165 
 
 wliich were in those quarters : for they all knew 
 that his father was a Greek."* 
 
 Tlie fact as to circumcision is a curious and im- 
 portant item in the case. If the grace of spiritual 
 descent were claimed by virtue of the rite of cir- 
 cumcision, then, through this chosen channel, Timo- 
 thy, the administration of that rite could be clearly 
 traced to the apostle; but if the grace is claimed by 
 virtue of the rite of ordination, then the adminis- 
 tration of tliat rite cannot be traced to the apos- 
 tle, but is by the apostle himself attributed to the 
 presbytery. 
 
 Should it be said that the apostle's hand could 
 join with tlie hands of the presbytery in the rite of 
 ordination, and that thus its grace might be con- 
 veyed. It is admitted to be a possible case. But 
 then, if special grace were to go from the apostle's 
 hand, which the presbytery could not confer, and if 
 this were to be the instance which should most 
 clearly illustrate that grace, and show it to all gene- 
 rations, it was strange that he should encumber the 
 rite with the work of hands which could contribute 
 nothing to its efficacy. It was still more strange 
 that Luke, guided by inspiration in writing the 
 Acts of the Apostles, should omit to mention the 
 point in Timothy's case which, on the assumption 
 we are questioning, was entitled to the first con- 
 sideration, and that he should carefully record a 
 mere subordinate and prudential operation — that 
 he should altogether omit the apostolic administra- 
 * Acts xvi. 1—3. 
 
166 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 tion of tlie rite of ordination, in the very case 
 which was to furnish a scriptural model and 
 authority for a succession which was to last 
 through all ages, and that he should carefully 
 record the apostolic administration of circumcision, 
 an abrogated Jewish rite performed merely to con- 
 ciliate a temporary prejudice. 
 
 Should it be said the apostle's hands must, on 
 this, or on some other occasion, have been laid 
 upon Timothy. We answer, we have no wish to 
 evade the fact. We have kept it in view, and 
 intend to put it here in its proper place, and for 
 the completion of our argument from that which 
 was exterior to the church at Philippi. 
 
 The presbytery, or resident bishops, could by 
 ordination designate and set apart to office — to an 
 office which was superior to their own ; but there 
 was one thing, very desirable in the circumstances 
 of the primitive church, though not essential to the 
 discharge of office, which they could not do. They 
 could not confer supernatural endowments — ^mira- 
 culous gifts, as of healing or of tongues. These 
 gifts could come only through an apostle's hands. 
 It is natural to suppose that on proof of Timothy's 
 excellence and profitableness to him in his work, 
 Paul would be desirous of completing in every way 
 his qualifications. It might be anticipated that he 
 would make him a living epistle of himself to those 
 to whom he would have to send him. How could 
 this be done but by laying his own hands upon 
 him, at some fitting and solemn season, to confer 
 
SCALE OF OKDERS FABULOUS. 167 
 
 tluit power of miracles which would authenticate 
 him, as an associate and messenger of the ajDOStle, 
 wherever he miglit be sent, and on whatever mis- 
 sion he might be employed. The time and place 
 at which this was done are no where recorded; but, 
 in the second epistle written to him, Paul indulges 
 for himself, and requires from Timothy, a com- 
 placent remembrance of the occasion when that 
 grace was conferred : " Wherefore I put thee in 
 remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, 
 which is in thee by the putting on of my hands." 
 That the gift here referred to was not office, but 
 some special endowment which might qualify him, 
 as the apostle himself had been qualified, for the 
 discharge of office, is obvious from the words which 
 follow : " For God hath not giveji us the spirit of 
 fear ; but of power, and of love, and of a sound 
 mind."* Thus all is clear and harmonious in the 
 case of the evangelist. He may be ordained to his 
 office by the elders, though it is superior to that 
 wliich tliey themselves fill. He can receive the 
 miraculous endowments, most of all desirable for 
 the w^ork in which he is to be employed, only from 
 the hands of an apostle, with whom by his office he 
 becomes necessarily associated. 
 
 We have now surveyed the extraordinary and 
 
 supernatural provision which was made for the in- 
 
 tro<luction and establishment of Christianity in the 
 
 world, and which was exterior to the church at 
 
 * 2 Tim. i. 6, 7. 
 
168 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 Pliilippi. We have found that the title and office 
 of bishop was never carried out of the inclosure ; 
 but that it was divinely appointed to those who 
 dwelt within the limits of particular churches, and 
 to none others. We have seen that those who 
 claim to be a third order, with superior functions 
 to the resident bishops, unable to discover the ori- 
 ginals of their own class, have, " as lords over the 
 heritage," taken away for their own use the title of 
 bishops from these the rightful owners, while yet 
 they dare not wear the title of apostles, to whom 
 they say they are the " true successors." We have 
 seen that the apostles did not, could not, had not 
 need to appoint any successors to themselves; that, 
 though dead, they still speak — they join their voices 
 in all languages into which their words are trans- 
 lated, and to which the whole church is bound at 
 all times to give heed; that, in their essential func- 
 tions of instruction and government, they are still, 
 and ever will be, with the church as the founda- 
 tion on which the whole structure must rest, as the 
 enthroned authority to which the mind of every 
 minister, and of every member, must yield im- 
 plicit subjection. We have seen that Timotliy and 
 Titus were evangelists, not bishops ; that, asso- 
 ciated with the apostle in his labours, or acting, 
 as occasion might require, as his deputies, their 
 work was necessarily itinerating and temporary ; 
 and that, instead of being the great exemplars of 
 the grace of apostolic ordination conveyed to an 
 endless succession, Timothy, whose case alone on 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 169 
 
 the point is recorded, received from the apostle 
 circumcision, from the presbytery ordination, and 
 could therefore have no grace of apostolic ordina- 
 tion to convey. 
 
 As the orders which we have been examining 
 cannot, for the reasons we have shown, sustain 
 their boasted relation to the apostolical family, so 
 neither can they, if that would help them, prove 
 true affinity to the more ancient Levitical family. 
 That Aaron and Peter have no features in close 
 resemblance to indicate a family likeness, we have, 
 in a former lecture, sufficiently shown. If the 
 Ivomanists cannot substantiate their claim to Aaron 
 as the archetype of their one supreme pontiff, how 
 are the Anglicans to make liim the archetjpe of 
 their order of many bishops subordinated to two or 
 more archbishops ? AYe leave them to dispute their 
 respective claims to the dead body and the worn-out 
 insignia of Aaron, while we notice, in conclusion, a 
 fact connected with the Levitical family, when its 
 members performed a living service, which deserves 
 their most serious attention. That family, through 
 all its generations, and with all its prerogatives, 
 had no ladder constructed for them up which they 
 miglit climb from order to order, and then, still 
 higlier, from degree to degree; nor did they ever 
 venture to construct one for themselves. The Le- 
 vite continued a Levite all his life long, and all his 
 children after him in all their generations. The 
 priest was consecrated priest at once, when he 
 arrived at the appointed age of service, and so con- 
 
170 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 tinued all his life, and all his children after him, 
 in all their generations, entered and continued in 
 the service according to the same original model. 
 There was only one individual in a whole gene- 
 ration of that family who had any opportunity of 
 rising from his first post and class of services; and 
 he could take but one step, which was, by right of 
 primogeniture, into the office of high priest, when 
 death had made that office vacant. 
 
 That there was no law of Christianity requiring 
 that the individual who had been chosen a deacon 
 should, like the Levite, continue in his original 
 office all the days of his life; but that a deacon 
 might afterwards become an evangelist, as was the 
 case with Philip, one of the seven, or that he might 
 exchange his office for any other for which his gifts 
 qualified him, and to which his vocation was clear, 
 is in harmony with what we have shown, in a for- 
 mer lecture, to be the genius of the religion which, 
 by the rejection of inflexible rules, and the accom- 
 modation of its worship to the most restricted limits 
 both in numbers and circumstances, is constructed 
 for diffusion through the world. That for a reli- 
 gion, so wisely and divinely simple and unencum- 
 bered in its external forms, men should have dared 
 to make inflexible laws — that they should have 
 bound its ministry to orders and degrees of human 
 invention, and to progression through them, step 
 after step, on a ladder of human construction, can 
 never be sufficiently deprecated and deplored. One 
 consequence has been the development, among the 
 
SCALE OF ORDERS FABULOUS. 171 
 
 so-called Christian clergy, to an extent unparal- 
 leled in the history of mankind, of that princi- 
 ple of our fiillen humanity which wrought in the 
 breasts of the apostles themselves, in their imma- 
 ture state, as they strove who should be the great- 
 est. The checks which the Saviour put upon the 
 kindlings of that unholy fire, to restrain and extin- 
 guish tlicin, have been by human hands removed; 
 the fuel, which ministers to their increase, has 
 been, by the same hands, supplied, until a flame 
 has been produced which showed itself pointing 
 upwards to the meridian of the heavens, and burn- 
 ing downwards, through the fuel w^hich fed it, to 
 the lowest hell. The lust of powder was the pre- 
 dicted apostasy in the church. The history of its 
 clergy, in their humanly-invented orders, and their 
 mode of progression through them, has fulfilled and 
 embodied the prediction. The Anglican efforts, 
 which are making to inoculate the public mind 
 with an anti-protestant virus, are, avowedly, efforts 
 to recover a portion of the power of the priesthood 
 which was lost at the Reformation. Those efforts 
 must be met by a second, a more direct, a more 
 exclusive reference to the pages and the sole autho- 
 rity of the New Testament — to the law and the 
 testimony. AYhat saith the Scriptures? We have 
 endeavoured to furnish a reply, on the question 
 which relates to the orders of the Christian minis- 
 try, in presenting to the view "the saints which 
 were in Christ Jesus at Philippi, with their bishops 
 and deacons." 
 
172 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 "the laying on of hands" — THE RITE EXPLAINED, AND ITS 
 MORE FREQUENT USE ADVOCATED. 
 
 " Of laying on of hands." — Ileh. vi. 2. 
 
 The laying on of hands in a religious service is, 
 like tlie administering of water by the hand in 
 baptism, a symbolic action. It has for its founda- 
 tion some truth in religion, for its object the 
 manifestation and perpetuation of that truth. 
 There is in it a doctrine, and that doctrine, in 
 the passage whence our text is taken, is ranged 
 in a class with the first principles of Christian 
 truth — with repentance, faith, baptism, the resur- 
 rection, and eternal judgment. The doctrine, if 
 it be classed with these acknowledged fundamentals 
 of Christianity, must be of importance. The mani- 
 festation of that doctrine, in the appointed sjinbolic 
 action, must be an integral portion of the Christian 
 economy. When the apostle wrote this epistle to 
 the Hebrews, the doctrine and its mode of exhibi- 
 tion was so well understood that he had only to 
 glance at it, and then go on to that which was less 
 palpable — to the exposition of tlie higher Christian 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 173 
 
 truths wliich were foreshadowed in the Abrahamic 
 covenant and the Levitical institutions. 
 
 NoAV it is a singular fact that tlie higher truths, 
 which the apostle advanced to expound and esta- 
 blish, are, at present, more fully and commonly 
 understood than is the particular truth involved in 
 the expressive rite "of laying on of hands." We 
 move with more freedom and intelligence amid 
 those scenes in which God made promise to Abra- 
 ham, and Melchizedek blessed him, and Aaron, 
 springing from his loins, showed by diversified 
 symbolic rites how all the families of the earth 
 should at length be blessed in him, than we do 
 amid those scenes in which the naked human hand, 
 without rod of power or vessel of service, per- 
 formed its least encumbered, yet most significant 
 functions. AVe adjust our organs of vision to 
 receive every ray of the light which is reflected 
 upon us from the ritual of Judaism which is 
 abolished ; we close them against that which shines 
 in a rite, which, belonging to the patriarchal, as 
 well as to the eJewisli dispensation, is not abolished, 
 but actually incorporated with Christianity, and 
 declared by the apostle to be among its funda- 
 mentals. To us, there is need of laying again this 
 part of the foundation, or rather of clearing away 
 the rubbish, which, during the dark ages of Chris- 
 tianity, has been gathered around it, that its true 
 ])Osition, design, and use in the Christian church 
 may again, as of old, appear. 
 
 We have said that tlie laying on of hands is a 
 Q 3 
 
174 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 symbolic action. An interpretation of the symbol 
 is a necessary preliminary to the comprehension of 
 the subject. 
 
 The hand is the operative member of the human 
 body, by which every work of labour or skill is 
 performed — by which every agreement and cove- 
 nant in any of the relations of life is drawn up, 
 signed, and ratified — by which all government 
 and control is conducted — by which all kind ser- 
 vices are performed, and all gifts are conferred. 
 In some of the occupations and combinations of 
 society, its importance being paramount, it is em- 
 ployed to represent the whole person. Thus, in 
 a manufactory, the number of persons employed 
 is expressed by so many hands. In the working 
 of a vessel, the complement of the crew is the 
 number of the hands, and when, in any sudden 
 emergency, every man's service is required, the 
 summons is for all hands. Yet is the hand only 
 the instrument. The mind directs — the will im- 
 pels and controls ; and the employment of the 
 hand, when it is free, is the outward, visible, 
 practical expression of the mind and will. The 
 mind conceives a work — the will determines it — 
 the hand performs it. The hand then becomes 
 not merely the servant, but also the exponent of 
 the mind. It lays open to the view, the direction 
 and the strength in which the mental currents 
 flow. 
 
 Now here wc have a clue to the import of the 
 rite of laying on of hands. It is intended to lay 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 175 
 
 open and manifest the current of the mind, not 
 indeed in any work of our own, for we make 
 nothing, we moukl nothing, we convey nothing, 
 we alter and impress nothing, when we simply lay 
 the hand on the head, but the current of the mind 
 in reference to the work of another — in reference 
 to some work which God has predetermined and 
 intends to perform. Let God make known unto us 
 in any way what he intends to do, in the case of 
 one sustaining some relation to us, and let him 
 require our concurrence in his work, and tlien, by 
 laying on the hand, we declare that concurrence — 
 we declare that, were it a work which our hand 
 could perform, our hand should be at once em- 
 ployed in it; we put our hand to God's hand to 
 show that, in the case presented to us, our mind is 
 in harmony with God's mind — that, in submission, 
 approval, complacence, if it might be, co-operation, 
 we are one witli him. Here, I apprehend, is the 
 doctrine which is embodied in the rite of laying on 
 of hands. We shall find it pervading, as the ani- 
 mating, informing spirit, every case recorded in 
 lioly Scripture in which the rite was performed. 
 It is the key which will be found to unlock the 
 subject, and give us the easy range and command 
 of all its contents. 
 
 Let us use the key, and open the cases in the 
 order in which they are recorded, as presented in 
 the three successive dispensations of religion which 
 God has established in our world — the patriar- 
 chal — the Jewish — the Christian. 
 
176 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 I. The patriarchal. 
 
 It may be necessary to premise that those whom 
 we term the patriarchs were the ministers of reli- 
 gion in their clay — that, amid the secular occupa- 
 tion of shepherds, rich in flocks, which they tended, 
 they discharged a threefold religious office — that 
 they were prophets, priests, and kings. They dis- 
 charged the regal office, in ruling their immense 
 households for religious purposes, fencing off idola- 
 try, and enjoining on all its members the worship 
 of the true God. They discharged the priestly 
 office, in offering the appointed sacrifices, and con- 
 ducting every service of the altar, which was 
 always found, or reared, by them in every place 
 Avhere they pitched their tents. " And when they 
 went from one nation to another, from one kingdom 
 to another people, he suffered no man to do them 
 "vvrong : yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, say- 
 ing. Touch not mine anointed, and do mj prophets 
 no harm." 
 
 It is in the discharge of this last-mentioned 
 office, as prophet, that our attention must now be 
 directed to Jacob, performing the rite of laying on 
 of hands. 
 
 "And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his 
 right hand towards Israel's left hand, and Manas- 
 seh in his left hand towards Israel's right hand, 
 and brought them near unto him. And Israel 
 stretched out- his right hand, and laid it upon 
 Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his 
 left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 177 
 
 wittingly, for Manasseh was the first-born. And 
 he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my 
 fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God 
 which fed me all my life long unto this day, the 
 Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the 
 lads ; and let my name be named on them, and the 
 name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac ; and let 
 them grow into a multitude in the midst of the 
 earth. And wlien Joseph saw that his father laid 
 his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it dis- 
 pleased him : and he held up his father's hand, to 
 remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's 
 head. And Joseph said unto his father. Not so, 
 my fatlier : for this is the first-born ; put thy right 
 hand upon his head. And his father refused, and 
 said, I know it, my son, I know it : he also shall 
 become a people, and he also shall be great : but 
 truly his younger brother shall be greater than 
 he, and his seed shall become a multitude of 
 nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, 
 In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee 
 as Ephraim and as Manasseh : and he set Ephraim 
 before Manasseh."* 
 
 There are indubitable indications that the scene 
 described in this passage was one in which there 
 was a special bestowment of the prophetic spirit 
 upon tlie mind of the patriarch. Joseph, who wrs 
 conversant in liis own experience with the modes 
 in which the visitations of prophetic grace came 
 down upon the human spirit, recognized its pres- 
 * Gen. xlviii. ir,— 20. 
 
178 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 ence here, and expressed his conviction and 
 emotion by the reverent attitude which he as- 
 sumed, bowing himself before his father, with his 
 face to the earth, that he might thus listen to the 
 utterance of his lips, while his sons are placed, 
 the eldest towards Jacob's right hand, and the 
 youngest towards his left. The studied, though 
 inconvenient, crossing of the hands of the vener- 
 able patriarch, so that the right hand should find 
 the head of the younger, and the left hand be 
 directed to the head of the elder, and his refusing 
 to permit another disposition to take place, show 
 a corresponding impression on his own mind, and 
 prepare us for the clear and penetrating glancings 
 into the fjir-distant future which follow. The 
 relative position which the descendants of Joseph, 
 in both branches of his lineage, should occupy 
 among the tribes, the form of speech in which 
 future generations should express their kindest 
 thoughts and feelings towards one another, " God 
 make thee as Ephraim and Manasseh," rise dis- 
 tinctly before the prophet's mind, and mark the 
 season as one in which he is divinely inspired to 
 behold and speak of things which are not as though 
 they were. 
 
 The prophetic nature of this communication from 
 Jacob to the sons of Joseph should be specially 
 marked, that it may divest the mind of every 
 superficial conception of the case, as though Jacob 
 had conveyed a blessing which was in his own gift 
 to these his descendants. The true state of the 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 179 
 
 case is this : tlie eye of Jacob is supernaturally 
 enlightened to read God's thoughts and purposes 
 towards these sons of Joseph — to see how he de- 
 termined and delighted to multiply, to honour, and 
 to bless them. The rich fountain of the blessing 
 was God's favour to them. From his love the 
 stream of blessing flowed forth, and was to con- 
 tinue deepening and widening as one generation 
 should succeed another. The work of Jacob's 
 hands, consentaneous wuth that of his lips, was 
 designed to make manifest his delight in the visions 
 of the future which he beheld, and his desire, by 
 every link which his humanity could supply, to 
 connect himself with the heirs of the blessings he 
 foretold. 
 
 The prophetic vision must have been peculiarly 
 exhilarating to the mind of Jacob. He remem- 
 bered all his mournings and reasonings on the loss 
 of Joseph. He remembered how all his hopes for 
 the future, in that line in which they had opened 
 most brightly, and his fond heart had most loved 
 to cherish them, had been cut off and turned into 
 bitterness. He had heard the recital of the youth- 
 ful dreams. He had indulged anticipations of 
 coming greatness to his favourite son. These vi- 
 sions of glory had departed, and had left nothing 
 ]>eliind but the fragments of the coat of many 
 colours, and painful ruminations as to the nature, 
 and haunts, and destructive work of the beast 
 which was supposed to have drunk the blood, and 
 devoured the body of his child. Now the end was 
 
180 Al'OSTOLlCAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 again harmoniously united to the beginning. Now 
 the long interval of darkness and sorrow had pre- 
 pared for the fuller enjoyment of restored and aug- 
 mented light and joy. Now the things which he 
 had despondingly said to have been all against 
 him were seen to have been all working for him. 
 Now carnal nature, in its reasonings and anticipa- 
 tions having been cruciiied, renovated and purified 
 nature, is supernaturally exalted to a region of 
 clearer, purer light, to a more commanding emi- 
 nence, and a more extensive survey. Had Jacob's 
 own views been consulted, and his own arrange- 
 ments permitted, he would have given to Joseph 
 a goodly portion of his own substance, and thus 
 have contributed to his influence among his bre- 
 thren. But God took the case into his own hand, 
 and made Joseph independent of Jacob his lather, 
 who too fondly loved him, as well as of his brethren 
 who had hated him. He made him the benefactor 
 and saviour of the whole family, and now opened 
 to the eye of Jacob, in that line, a vijsion of what 
 his own hand of blessing intended to bestow, far 
 beyond any expectations which Jacob could pre- 
 viously have formed, thus doing for him exceeding 
 abundantly above all he could ask or think. 
 
 We need not wonder that Jacob's mind expanded 
 in this direction to comprehend the mind of God — 
 that it delighted to express its concurrence with 
 the mind of God — that the hands, now too feeble to 
 labour, and too empty to convey any benefaction 
 which Joseph in his exaltation could need or desire 
 
LAVIX^; ox OF HANDS. 181 
 
 to roooivo, w'crr; J^hully strctclicd out, and laid on the 
 heads of Ephraim and Manas.scli, to show how God 
 would accomplish that wliich Jacob had the desire, 
 but not the power, himself to perform. Here, then, 
 in the layinj; on of Jacob's hands, tliere is before 
 us God's predetermined work of blessing in the lin(; 
 of Joseph's sons, and Jacob's entire and joyful con- 
 currence in that work, — tlie propliet's hands are 
 laid on to indicate Ids knowledge of God's intended 
 work of blessing, while his lips give utterance, in 
 the words of blessing, to the mind, which, in its own 
 reception of heavenly liglit and love, is brought into 
 harmony and oneness with the mind of God. 
 
 The part which Joseph took in this scene, re- 
 verently disposing his children so that the one 
 might stand conveniently for the right hand and 
 the other for the left hand of liis father, seems to 
 indicate a compliance with an accustomed form of 
 procedure, as though the laying on of hands were 
 the established, antl well understood, mode of mak- 
 ing manifest, in connection with prophetic fore- 
 sight, the blessings which God intended to bestow 
 on individuals and their descendants. We can 
 easily conceive of Melchizedek, accompanying with 
 this rite of manual imposition the blessing which 
 he pronounced on Abraham; and of Isaac, accom- 
 panying with this rite the blessing he pronounced 
 on Jacob when he sent him away to Padan-aram. 
 Men of profound thouglit and elevated piety, who 
 conversed with God, and received from him en- 
 larged bestowmentfi of the prophetic spirit, when, 
 R « 
 
182 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 by heavenly inspiration, their minds were filled 
 with light, their hearts with love, their tongue 
 about to speak in blessing, could find no action 
 better fitting their thoughts and words than the 
 laying on of hands. In this rite the impulses of 
 their physical nature would be in harmony with 
 their moral feelings, their cherished remembrances, 
 their most venerable and authoritative examples. 
 Among the first principles of the patriarchal reli- 
 gion would be the doctrine — among the frequently 
 recurring rites would be the practice, of laying on 
 of hands. 
 
 The records we possess of the patriarchal dis- 
 pensation, although that dispensation includes a 
 period of two thousand five hundred years, and the 
 history runs on from the beginning to the end, are 
 yet exceedingly brief. We have found, however, 
 a case in these brief records so fully and explicitly 
 related as to indicate that it was intended to pre- 
 sent, to all generations, an impressive specimen of 
 the performance of a rite of frequent occurrence in 
 those early times, when simplicity, sincerity, and 
 full-hearted kindness characterized the intercourse 
 with their fellow -men of those whom God endowed 
 with prophetic gifts. One eftect of this relation 
 is, that we too exclusively associate the laying on 
 of hands with patriarchal feelings and patriarchal 
 times. We think it has been given for more gene- 
 ral and permanent uses. It has led us into the 
 heart of our subject, and placed us on an eminence 
 from which we may survey the whole field which 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 183 
 
 lies before us, and easily move to the different points 
 we may have to examine as, in turn, they present 
 themselves to our view. "NVe take next in order the 
 illustrations Avliich offer in — 
 
 II. The Jewish dispensation. 
 
 It must be premised here that, though the na- 
 tional priesthood of Aaron superseded, among the 
 tribes of Israel, the family priesthood of the patri- 
 archs, yet Judaism, as a system, did not abolish 
 any of the rites of the patriarchal religion. It 
 rather expanded for a nation, in its multiplied re- 
 lations and power of combination, that which had 
 been previously adapted for the narroAV confines 
 of a household. Each household too, as one had 
 succeeded another, had been the household of one 
 of the fathers. Every name which had been re- 
 corded was endeared, for all were bound to it by 
 the ties of kindred. Every rite Avhich had been 
 recorded was venerable, for it had given expres- 
 sion to the devout feelings of patriarchal ancestors. 
 If the name and example of Jacob have so much 
 influence with us, in this distant part of the world, 
 and remote period of time, and as we look towards it 
 over an intervening dispensation with its lengthen- 
 ing catalogue of illustrious worthies, how much more 
 among his immediate descendants, in the midst of 
 the scenes to which he refers, and in the enjoyment 
 of the blessings wliich his impassioned language de- 
 scribes and assures. The form of blessing which 
 he left for his descendants, "In thee shall Israel 
 
184 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and Ma- 
 nasseh," would not lie obsolete and forgotten, as in 
 a neglected and musty record, but, frequently read 
 in their living oracles, and brief, emphatic, and con- 
 venient for use, would express the yearning feeUngs 
 of many a parental heart ; while, in the solemn ex- 
 ercises of the prayer of faith, which ever becomes 
 prophetic of promised blessings, there would often 
 be the accompanying and appropriate rite — the lay- 
 ing on of hands. 
 
 The first recorded case, however, connected with 
 the Jewish dispensation, is the ordination of the Le- 
 vites, as a tribe, for the work of their service: 
 
 " And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Take 
 the Levites from among the childi*en of Israel, and 
 cleanse them. And thus shalt thou do unto them 
 to cleanse them : sprinkle water of purifying upon 
 them, and let them shave all their flesh, and let them 
 wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean. 
 Then let them take a young bullock with his meat- 
 offering, even fine flour mingled with oil, and another 
 young bullock shalt thou take for a sin-offering. 
 And thou shalt bring the Levites before the taber- 
 nacle of the congregation : and thou shalt gather the 
 whole assembly of the children of Israel together : 
 and thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord : 
 and the children of Israel shall put their' hands upon 
 the Levites : and Aaron shall offer the Levites before 
 tlie Lord, for an offering of tlie children of Israel, that 
 they may execute the service of the Lord."* 
 * Numb. viii. 5 — 11. 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 185 
 
 This rite of ordination was in all probability per- 
 formed, not by every individual of tlie Levitical 
 tribe having laid upon his head the hands of a pro- 
 portional number of the members of the other tribes, 
 for this, though not an impossible, would have been 
 a very difficult, tedious, and unedifying arrange- 
 ment, but by a mutual representation. TheLevites, 
 ranged according to their families, and previously 
 pui'ified, both in their flesh and their raiment, so as 
 to be ready for immediate service, are convened in 
 the presence of their brethren, who compose the 
 other tribes — " the whole assembly of the children 
 of Israel." Chosen representatives from both parties 
 come forth from their respective bodies. The hands 
 of those who represent the larger body, the tribes, 
 are laid upon the heads of those who represent the 
 smaller body, the families. God has selected this 
 tribe in its ftimilies for the service of his sanctuary. 
 He requires from the people a concurrence in his 
 choice. Their will is to be one with his will. That 
 it is so is to be declared by their hand, in this 
 work of separating and devoting the Levites to their 
 service, going with his hand. That which is done 
 for them, in their presence, and by the representa- 
 tives which they themselves have chosen, is consi- 
 dered their own act and deed. The popular mind 
 and will is thus concentrated, manifested, expressed, 
 by the popular hand. Three things are seen in beau- 
 tiful harmony. God's will, appointing the Levites 
 to their enjoined service. The Levites' will — they 
 are purified, and ready for the discharge of their 
 
186 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 appointed service. The people's will — ^their hands, 
 if not permitted to perform the work connected with 
 the vessels, and furniture, and varied materials of 
 the sanctuary, are upon the heads of those who are 
 called to the service ; and thus solemnly and appro- 
 priately is their entire concurrence proclaimed. 
 
 We need not wonder that those, who build their 
 official pretensions so loftily on Levitical institutions, 
 should shun acquaintance with the case Ave have now 
 presented; yet it has special claims on attention, 
 from the position which it occupies at the founda- 
 tion. It is a fundamental case in two senses. It is 
 the ordination of the whole tribe of Levi which it 
 presents, and it is the first case, recorded in holy 
 Scripture, of ordination to any office by the laying on 
 of hands. The hands employed, however, are not 
 the hands of the high priest, nor of those who were 
 priests in common, nor even of elder brethren elected 
 from the Levites themselves, but the hands of the 
 people. We have shown, in the preceding lecture, 
 that the elders could ordain an evangelist — that 
 those who filled a subordinate office could ordain to 
 an office higher than their own. In this case, in 
 order of time the first of all cases, we see that those 
 who have no office can ordain, not individuals merely, 
 but a whole tribe, previously purified and sprinkled, 
 and just ready for every part of their work, to their 
 entire office. 
 
 There need be no apprehension that, in exposing 
 the absurdities of one theory as to ordination, we are 
 about to advocate extreme opinions in the opposite 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 187 
 
 direction, by constructing another theory to confront 
 it. We only wish the folly of hunting for Levitical 
 analogies, to sustain doubtful claims made in connec- 
 tion with the Christian ministry, to be rebuked and 
 discountenanced. If the advocates of these claims 
 will persist in this mode of argumentation, then we 
 have a right to demand that they take the Levitical 
 family as it was, and Levitical analogies as a whole ; 
 and then, in view of the case before us, we send all 
 who are to sustain the lower orders of their mi- 
 nistry, and as none can get to the higher without 
 advancing through the lower, every individual who 
 is pretending to holy orders, not to the hands of the 
 bishop for ordination, but to the unofficial hands of 
 the people. 
 
 To restore the equipoise of our subject, and guide 
 us towards a middle path, the path of safety, we take 
 from the Jewish records another case of ordination 
 to office, by the laying on of hands, in which Moses, 
 the Jewish lawgiver, only is employed. If, how- 
 ever, the hands of only one individual are employed, 
 the ordination itself is, according to the rule we ad- 
 vocated in our last lecture, not by steps of progres- 
 sion, and successive acts of imposition, but to the 
 perfect office, though it was the highest which Joshua 
 ever filled, or could fill, at once, and by one act of 
 imposition. 
 
 " And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua 
 the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and 
 laij thine hand vpon him; and set him before Eleazar 
 the priest, and before all the congregation; and give 
 
188 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 him a charge in their sight. And thou shalt put 
 some of thine honour upon him, that all the congre- 
 gation of the children of Israel may be obedient. 
 And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who 
 shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim 
 before the Lord : at his word shall they go out, and 
 at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the 
 children of Israel with him, even all the congrega- 
 tion. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him: 
 and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the 
 priest, and before all the congregation : and he laid 
 his ha?ids upon him, and gave him a charge, as the 
 Lord commanded by the hand of Moses."* 
 
 The hand of Moses had put all the honour of Aa- 
 ron the high priest upon Eleazar, when, in Mount 
 Hor, he transferred the pontifical garments, one by 
 one, from the father to the son — it could only put 
 some of the honour of his own office upon Joshua. 
 The design, in the former instance, was to show the 
 continuance of an office strictly defined, and perma- 
 nent in its functions and minutest ceremonial ser- 
 vices. Eleazar, therefore, came to the people in the 
 very same vestments and insignia in which Aaron 
 had left them. The only diffierence they saw in the 
 person of their priest, when the office had been trans- 
 ferred, was, that another and less venerable counte- 
 nance beamed forth from these insignia upon them. 
 The only difference they found in the performance 
 of the accustomed service was that another and less 
 familiar voice uttered the unaltered words of the 
 
 * Numb, xxvii. IJi — 28. 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 189 
 
 concliidiiig blessing. The design in the Litter in- 
 stance was different. Tiie office of Moses was not 
 to be perpetuated, and therefore no insignia were 
 appointed to it. In tlie more important parts and 
 lunctions of his office, Moses, like the apostles, could 
 have no successor. There could not be a second 
 commission to redeem the tribes from the bondage 
 of Egypt. There could not be a second lawgiver to 
 receive and deliver to the people the tables written 
 with the finger of God, or the pattern after which 
 the tabernacle w^as to be constructed, or the statutes 
 at large, uttered as when a man speaks with Ids 
 fellow-man, face to face. It was a captain, to lead 
 the people into the promised land, and endowed for 
 the purpose with miraculous powers, which was now 
 needed. To this office Joshua was ordained by Moses, 
 and some of the honour only which Moses had pos- 
 sessed was put upon him. 
 
 The hands which were laid upon Joshua, in the 
 presence of all the congregation, though they gave 
 only a portion of honour, were wonderful hands. A 
 hundred and twenty years before, they had been seen 
 by the eye of Pharaoh's daughter feeling, in vain, 
 around the little ark of bulrushes for the accustomed 
 slielter and nurture of the maternal breast, while 
 the tears, like dew drops, stood upon the lovely face, 
 moving her heart to pity. They had been trained 
 and exercised in all tlie manipulations of Egyptian 
 art and science, and tauglit how they miglit wield a 
 sword and grasp a sceptre. They had been em- 
 ployed with Jethro in all the laborious avocations 
 
190 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 of his pastoral life, drawing the water, and tending 
 the flock. They had borne, from the guidance and 
 rule of the flock, a rod which had become more 
 potent than Pharaoh's sceptre. They had been with 
 God in all his signs in Egypt and miracles in the 
 wilderness. They had been held up in prayer dur- 
 ing the conflict with the Amalekites. They had 
 been faithful and diligent in all the singularly di- 
 versified works which had been assigned to them. 
 They had gathered all the honour which they now 
 held, and carried with them, from the service of 
 God. They had been working for God, and with 
 God, in the accomplishment of his purposes of 
 mercy, and in the cause of his church and people. 
 And now, while they rest upon the head of Jo- 
 shua, there are visions of transcendant prophetic 
 glory oj)ening to the view, as there are words of 
 solemn and weighty prophetic injunction dropping 
 from the lips. The purposes of God are seen has- 
 tening to their accomplishment. Into the land, 
 which Moses liimself might only behold from the 
 distant mountain, the feet of Joshua are to enter, 
 leading the tribes victorious. From Pisgah he can 
 only behold the land itself, in the beauty and subli- 
 mity of its scenery, and the richness and abundance 
 of its fruits ; but, while his hands are upon the head 
 of Joshua, and the whole congregation is, as with 
 one mind, fixed in its gaze, and listening to his 
 charge, he sees the people who are to spread them- 
 selves over that scenery — wlio are to feast on those 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 191 
 
 fruits — who are to inherit the blessings of Jacob, 
 long delayed, but now, like the stream which has 
 been gatlicring depth and fulness behind some ob- 
 struction, just ready so much the more copiously to 
 descend — who are to fill the land with their deeds of 
 renown, and make its hills and valleys vocal with 
 their praise. It requires great submission from 
 Moses that he is to have no share in reaping the 
 harvest of all his previous toil. He feels the fire 
 and energy of his youth burning with undiminished 
 force in his aged and venerable frame as this invit- 
 ing and invigorating prospect opens before him; but 
 he keeps his hands on Joshua's head, and continues 
 and completes his charge, in token of his restrained 
 feelings of subjection to God, and entire concur- 
 rence in the choice he has made of the instrument by 
 which the glorious work is to be completed. Since 
 his own hands may not plant the standard of his 
 tribe on the other side of the Jordan, nor put up the 
 first pillar of the tabernacle, to which all the rest 
 may be attached, at Shiloh, nor gather a bunch of 
 the grapes of Eshcol, he lays them on the head of 
 Joshua, to give him a portion of the honour which 
 had gathered round his own ofiice, for the comple- 
 tion of the work to which liis own life had been de- 
 voted, and which he had once fondly hoped himself 
 to finish; and for declaring that his will was with 
 God's will in the appointment of Joshua, and his 
 hands, in their last solemn official act, with God's 
 hand to fulfil the promises made to Abraham. 
 
192 ArOSTOLICAL SL'CCESSION.' 
 
 We must not leave the Jewish dispensation with- 
 out glancing at tlie extensive practice of laying on of 
 hands in connection with sacrificial services. 
 
 When an individual brought a sin-offering, he 
 laid his hand upon the head of the victim before it 
 was slain, to indicate that, in obedience to Divine 
 command, he transferred his sin to the appointed 
 sacrifice. When the sin was some public transgres- 
 sion, in which the people generally were implicated, 
 the elders of the congregation, as representatives of 
 the body, laid their hands upon the victim, to ex- 
 press the concurrence of the whole in the sacrificial 
 expiation. But the most impressive performance 
 of this rite, connected with Levitical sacrifices, was 
 reserved for the annual day of atonement. On that 
 day, the goat, on which the lot fell to be the "scape- 
 goat," was placed in the presence of the people, while 
 Aaron, arrayed in his holy garments, in which he 
 had gone before the mercy-seat and sprinkled the 
 blood of the sin-offering, thus completed the work 
 of putting away sin: "And Aaron shall lay both his 
 hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess 
 over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, 
 and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting 
 them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him 
 away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness : 
 and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities 
 unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the 
 goat in the wilderness." 
 
 Looking superficially at these cases, we see no 
 hand but the hand of man employed. Whether it be 
 
layint; ox oV hands. 193 
 
 tlie high priest on tlie day of atonement, or the 
 elder as the representative of the congregation, or 
 tlie individual bringing his own sacrifice, he lays his 
 hand upon the victim — puts sin upon him — sends 
 him away, or devotes him to die. 
 
 But what is the victim so devoted ? A typical 
 sacrifice offered by Divine appointment, and that ap- 
 I)ointment involving and indicating an nlterior pur- 
 pose. It is a symbolic prediction of what God in- 
 tends to perform in the gift and atoning sacrifice of 
 his Son. Let the eye look at the scene in God's 
 light, and it beholds in one and all of these offerings 
 for sin " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world." Let the ear listen to the confession and 
 announcement of the evangelical prophet, and God's 
 work is seen to have preceded man's. " All we 
 like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every 
 one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him 
 the iniquity of us all." When viewed in their pro- 
 per light, then God is seen in these sacrifices un- 
 folding his purposes of mercy — providing the lamb 
 for the offering — making him sin for us; and man's 
 hand here also is the penitential and believing ex- 
 pression of his concurrence in God's work — in that 
 work which most deeply concerns himself, the put- 
 ting away of his sins. When our minds are enlight- 
 ened, and our own devotional exercises those which 
 God requires, so fully do we enter into the case that 
 we involuntarily clothe our thoughts in language 
 borrowed from the ancient sacrificial rites, and, as 
 though we ^aw the victim before us, and could take 
 s 
 
194 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 part in the work of putting our sin upon him, we 
 
 sing— 
 
 " My faith would lay her hand 
 On that dear head of thine, 
 While, like a penitent, I stand, 
 And there confess my sin." 
 
 The presentation of the sacrifice always preceded 
 the bestowment of blessing from God. When his 
 truth and justice, in the punishment of sin, had been 
 made manifest in the sufferings and death of the ap- 
 pointed, but innocent victim, he could smile in fa- 
 vour on the penitent, and declare his love in words 
 of promise and blessing. The blessing, therefore, 
 concluded the sacrificial service. To pronounce it 
 was the pleasant work of the priest who had offici- 
 ated in the offering of the sacrifice. When the de- 
 sign for which the tribe of Levi was separated from 
 the other tribes is referred to, this is emphatically 
 and repeatedly mentioned as prominent — to bless in 
 my name. The form of blessing is given : " On 
 this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying 
 unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the 
 Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gra- 
 cious unto thee: the Lord lift his countenance upon 
 thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my 
 name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless 
 them."* 
 
 The high priest put the sins of the people upon 
 the " scape-goat" by the laying on of his hands. He 
 could not in the same way put the name of God upon 
 * Numb. vi. 2.3—27. 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 195 
 
 the wliole people in pronoiineing the blessing. The 
 goat was one, the people a multitude. But he em- 
 ployed, doubtless by Divine direction, in Avhich the 
 promptings of his own nature led him cheerfully to 
 concur, a mode which came as near to the laying 
 on of hands as the circumstances of the case would 
 permit : " And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the 
 people^ and blessed them." 
 
 When the blessing was to be pronounced on an 
 individual, there would be no difficulty in the actual 
 contact of the hand with the party who had brought 
 the sacrifice ; and as the party would lay his hand 
 upon the head of the victim, thus declaring his con- 
 currence in the will of God, who had appointed this 
 mode of propitiation, so, the required rites having 
 been gone through, the priest would lay his hand 
 upon the head of the offerer while he pronouuced the 
 blessing, thus declaring his concurrence in the pro- 
 pitiated favour of Deity towards him. In this way 
 would he make it manifest that he entered into the 
 spirit of the office, which, as the end and consum- 
 mation of its work, was "to put God's name upon 
 his people, and to bless in that name." 
 
 These offerings by individuals would be of daily 
 occurrence, and many on every day. To officiate in 
 their presentation would be, as to the amount of their 
 labour, the principal part of the work of the priests 
 in their courses. The people would thus become 
 familiar with the form and the words of the bless- 
 ing. They would connect the religion which Moses 
 brought tliem from tlie mount of communion with 
 
196 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 that which their patriarchal fathers professed in the 
 days of their pilgrimage. They would find it ani- 
 mated by the same spirit, and, at the point w^hich 
 most deeply interested their feelings, clothed with 
 the same forms. The blessings which God declared 
 his purpose to bestow in the promises made to their 
 fathers — the blessings which the prophetic minds of 
 their fathers had rejoiced to foresee as they laid their 
 hands upon their children — those blessings came to 
 the people, now multiplied into a nation, in forms 
 which linked the past with the present, in the ser- 
 vices, and with the manifested concurrence of those 
 whom God had appointed to bless in his name, as 
 that name was put upon them by the appropriate 
 rite "of laying on of hands." 
 
 Having thus illustrated the doctrine of laying on 
 of hands, by an examination of the rite, as it was 
 performed under the two preceding dispensations of 
 religion, let us now bind the case into a threefold 
 cord, by an examination of the rite, as it is recorded 
 in the New Testament, which brings us — 
 
 III. To the Christian dispensation. 
 
 Here we immediately behold and connect ourselves 
 with Christ as a Son over his own house, whose 
 house are we. He goes before us in every act of 
 obedience, fulfilling all righteousness. He gives 
 grace and beauty, as well as authority, to whatever 
 he commends to us, by embodying it in his own 
 personal experience and perfect work. How va- 
 ried and multiplied were the works and ministra- 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 197 
 
 tions which his own hands, blessed and conferring 
 blessings, performed! There is no class of services 
 which men render to one another of which he did not 
 cheerfullj and gracefully give the example. In the 
 skill of meclianical operations — in kind and gentle 
 appliances to sickness and disease — in supplying the 
 multitude with food — in washing his disciples' feet 
 — he condescended to the wants and necessities of 
 the nature which he had taken into union with the 
 Divine, and, by the work of his own hands, redeemed 
 from the scorning of the proud every honest occu- 
 pation to which the laborious human hand can be 
 applied. 
 
 In the work "of laying on of hands" he takes the 
 pre-eminence, both in the number and in the varied 
 api)lication, of the cases in which it was performed. 
 Tlie links which connect the different parts of our 
 subject, and combine them into one complete and 
 harmonious wliole, will be most clearly seen if we 
 first select the well known case, recorded by three of 
 tlie evangelists, of his blessing little children. A 
 light from this case shines back upon the obscurer 
 parts of the path we have traced through Judaism, 
 as well as onward in the course w^e are now con- 
 templating through Christianity. It is indeed the 
 border land of the two dispensations, where they 
 meet, not as opposing sides of divided empires, sus- 
 taining the wall, which frowns on both and forbids 
 intercourse, but, as in the open pleasant fields, com- 
 mon to botli, where the river passes from one terri- 
 tory to another, pouring the riches which it brings 
 
198 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 from the one into the other, freely, copiously, and 
 still to roll onward in a widening and deepening 
 channel. 
 
 " Then were there brought unto him little chil- 
 dren, that he should put his hands on them and pray." 
 How came the desire into the minds of those who 
 brought them that his hands should be so employed? 
 There had been no prescription from his own lips as 
 to the particular form in which he should be soli- 
 cited to manifest liis condescension and favour. It 
 was the spontaneous desire of those who came to 
 him with a case which his disciples thought beyond 
 or below the range of his consideration. The desire 
 must have arisen out of practices well known and 
 familiar. Those who felt and expressed it must 
 have carried into the Saviour's presence associations 
 which they had derived from other scenes. They 
 had been accustomed to witness the laying on of 
 hands in official and devotional services. It had 
 given emphasis and impression to the words which 
 had been uttered. They were desirous of seeing the 
 same combination of word and symbolic action in the 
 benediction now sought for these children. Greater 
 force will be given to this view of the case if we re- 
 member that, as the children brought to the Savi- 
 our were infants, the probability is that they were 
 brought by their mothers ; and maternal feelings are 
 influenced by association, precedents, customs in re- 
 ligion, not by inquiries into new regions of thought, 
 leading onward to change and reformation. 
 
 It is expressly recorded that the Saviour com- 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 199 
 
 plied A\ itli the request as to "the hiying on of hands:" 
 " He took them up in liis arms, put his hands upon 
 them, and blessed them." What was the value of 
 the blessing which he bestowed ? To his eye the 
 whole future was open, stretching onward through 
 time into eternity. To his hand all the elements of 
 blessing were subservient, submissive, co-operative. 
 They would come, they would abide, they would 
 commingle, they would work together at his bidding. 
 Is it too much to suppose that they did come on the 
 heads of these children — that they remained in their 
 wisely diversified combination through all the stages 
 of their earthly existence — that they followed them 
 onward in their passage from time to eternity, and 
 constitute now the rich inheritance of their immortal 
 existence ? " Of such is the kingdom of heaven," 
 was liis declaration. His blessing would certainly 
 reach as far, and comprehend as much, as the words 
 of his lips and the glancing of his eye. And with 
 the blessings of earth and heaven, of time and eter- 
 nity, open to his view, his compliance with accus- 
 tomed forms would not be in the spirit of accommo- 
 dation merely, but of approbation and confirmation 
 — the sanction of his own example — the cordial ap- 
 propriate emi>loyment of a member of his own hu- 
 man body in the work of benediction. He took the 
 rite of laying on of hands, which his brethren, ac- 
 cording to the flesh, had received from their patri- 
 arclial ancestors — which had been embodied in such 
 beautiful and instructive forms in the offices of their 
 priesthood — which luid doubtless given impressive- 
 
200 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 ness to their more social or domestic exercises of re- 
 ligion, wlien those engaged in them, whose piety was 
 matured by age, and whose faith gave to fervent lips 
 the clearness and power of a prophetic strain — he 
 took this rite, and placed it among the fundamentals 
 of his own spiritual and heavenly religion. 
 
 It would occupy too much time to go through the 
 cases in which he healed the sick by the laying on of 
 hands. One may be selected, which shines conspi- 
 cuously above the rest. The scene is Capernaum, 
 in this connection a city set upon a hill. The light 
 which shines from it is concentrated in one verse; 
 but that one verse enshrines the whole city in a 
 halo of glory, which can never pass away — a glory 
 brighter than the sun of nature gave, as it was set- 
 ting, when, from Peter's humble dwelling in this 
 city, "the Sun of righteousness shone out with 
 healing under his wings." 
 
 "Now when the sun was setting, all they that 
 had any sick with divers diseases brought them 
 unto liim ; and he laid his hands on every one of 
 them, and healed them." 
 
 It was a Sabbath-day. He had healed a demo- 
 niac in the synagogue at the morning service, and 
 in the presence of the assembly. The fame of the 
 work had spread through the city, and become 
 the theme of conversation in every circle and in 
 every family. He had retired, not unattended, into 
 Simon's house. It is full of sorrow and alarm. Si- 
 mon's wife's mother is prostrate under the deadly 
 power of a raging fever. He takes her by the 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 201 
 
 liand, and tlie contact instantaneously regulates the 
 ungovernable pulse — removes the dry and burning 
 fieat — infuses perfect health and vigour into the 
 whole frame. She arises and ministers to the 
 household and the guests. The fame of this mira- 
 cle travels on the footsteps of that which had gone 
 before, and confirms the hopes which had been 
 raised in the cliambers of disease, and the purposes 
 which had been formed by relatives and friends to 
 bear the sick, to whom they minister, into his pre- 
 sence. But while the hours of the Sabbath con- 
 tinue, they fear to put their hands to the burden of 
 the work, lest, by transgressing the law, they should 
 place a moral obstacle in the way of his healing 
 power. The first rays of the morning sun were 
 never waited for, by benighted traveller, with more 
 eager and anxious feelings than is the departure of 
 the sun now longed for by the sick in every part 
 of Capernaum. Their impatience cannot be re- 
 strained until it has entirely disappeared. While 
 it is setting — so soon as its lower edge has touched 
 the western horizon, there is brought forth on beds 
 and litters, prepared for the burden, the sick from 
 every house. Every party moves, under the ex- 
 citing influence of one common sympathetic im- 
 ])ulse, towards the one centre of attraction in the 
 house of Peter, and, at length, " the whole city is 
 gathered together at tlie door." The Saviour comes 
 forth. There is before his eye the manifold forms 
 of disease and sufTcriiig to which our fallen human- 
 ity is subject, gathered into one place of assembly ; 
 
202 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 while round each one of the couches are those who 
 have ministered to the sick upon them, and have 
 suffered with them in the sympathies of their 
 kindred hearts, pleading with countenances as ex- 
 pressive as the longing upraised looks of the dis- 
 eased themselves. His eye affects his heart. He 
 can feel no plea more powerfully than that wliich 
 yearns in his own perfect and susceptible humanity. 
 He has taken the sickness of each one more fully 
 into his own heart than it had ever gone into the 
 heart of those who had most closely watched its 
 progress, soothed its sufferings, and administered 
 its medicinal appliances. And now he can remove 
 these sicknesses from his own heart only by the 
 condescending employment of his own hands. He 
 gives no commission to others, as when he brake 
 the bread for the multitude, though the twelve are 
 now, as then, around him. Each of the victims of 
 disease is to have the healing virtue by the laying 
 on of his own hands. 
 
 What order did he take in communicating the 
 blessing? Did he go first to the bed nearest to 
 him as he came forth from the house, and looked on 
 the assemblage of sorrowful patients ? or, did he 
 first select the case which was most desperate and 
 urgent, where death seemed struggling with its 
 victim, as though eager to secure its prey before 
 the power of the Saviour arrived to rescue ? Did 
 he again manifest his love to childhood by first 
 attending to the pining suckling, held out to him 
 by the arms of its earnest and imploring mother ? 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 203 
 
 or, did he show his respect for hoary hairs by first 
 restoring health to the countenance wrinkled with 
 age, as well as liaggard with disease ? 
 
 Whatever order he took in the work before him, 
 so soon as any one had felt the healing influence of 
 the imposition of his hands, and rose up full of 
 wonder and joy at recovered health and power, a 
 new impulse, desire, and expectation would spread 
 with electric rapidity through the whole assembly, 
 and the first sound of grateful exclamation and 
 acknowledgment, from newly opened lips, be the 
 key-note of the full chorus of thanksgiving into 
 which the whole multitude would be preparing to 
 break forth. Capernaum was then exalted to hea- 
 ven, and that Sabbath closed upon them as one of 
 the days of heaven upon earth. Its inhabitants 
 at large saw the brightest illustration whicli had 
 been given, and those among them who had been 
 sick became living joyful witnesses, to the gracious 
 power connected with the laying on of the Savi- 
 our's hands. 
 
 If Aaron, when lifting up his hand toward the 
 people to put God's name upon them, and to bless 
 them in that name, may be considered as perform- 
 ing a symbolic action of the same import to the 
 multitude as, to an individual, was the laying on of 
 liands, then is there a corresponding scene, in the 
 closing intercourse of the Saviour with his disciples, 
 which demands our special attention. 
 
 " And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and 
 he lifted up his hands and l)lessed them. And it 
 
204 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted 
 from them, and carried up into heaven." 
 
 He had now performed the suffering part of his 
 priestly work. He had made a complete atonement 
 for sin, and he seemed concerned to make the hour 
 of separation, to which his disciples had been ac- 
 customed to look forward with apprehension and 
 sorroAv, as bright and joyful to them as it was to 
 himself. He accomplished this by the mode in 
 which he departed from them. While his hands are 
 lifted up in the attitude of blessing, and the words 
 of blessing are dropping from his lips, the softened 
 splendours of Deity irradiate his whole humanity, 
 and give an unutterable expression of complacence 
 and love to every feature of his countenance ; as 
 though the celestial impress of his immortal glory 
 were given to him at that moment to perpetuate 
 the form, the feelings, the accents in which he 
 blessed his discijiles. As this was the last, so was 
 it the brightest, the dearest, the deepest impression 
 of his personal appearance which they had ever re- 
 ceived. While they were receiving it, their capa- 
 city for blessedness obtained an expansion which it 
 had never before reached, and their emotions to- 
 wards the Saviour rose to an elevation of adoring 
 love beyond all former instances in their experience. 
 Conversation, however unreserved and endeared, 
 would now have been too cold and equal. Their 
 hearts, perhaps for the first time, yielded to im- 
 pulses more like those which fill angelic breasts 
 while tliey behold and serve him. " They ivov' 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 205 
 
 shipped liim, and returned to Jerusalem with (/rent 
 joy, and were continually in the temple praising and 
 blessing God." 
 
 They saAv him go up to heaven in the attitude of 
 blessing, as though he were immortahzed in the 
 act. The tw^o men in w^hite apparel, who stood by 
 them as they gazed after him, said to them, " This 
 same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have 
 seen him go into heaven." The two widely distant 
 points, as to time, are then to be connected together 
 by the same common characteristics. He departed 
 in the act of blessing. He will return to complete 
 and consummate the blessing, by presenting the 
 whole church, in the manifestation of all the bless- 
 ings it will have received, " a glorious church, not 
 having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." Tlie 
 whole intervening period is, like the point from 
 which it starts, in which it ends, a time of blessing 
 — an accepted time — the day of salvation. So that, 
 could his hand become visible to any who call upon 
 him for salvation, it would be, like the hand of the 
 priest who had offered the sacrifice and finished 
 tlie rites for atonement, stretched out to bless. 
 Thus did it become visible to John in the apoca- 
 lypse: " He laid his right hand upon me, saying, 
 Fear not." In this case the laying on of hands 
 receives illustration from the Saviour's work in 
 heaven, as well as from his work on earth. The 
 symbolic description of his heavenly glory is not 
 comjdete without this imposition of his hand. Our 
 conceptions of his employment for us in heaven, 
 
 T 
 
206 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 and our anticipations of his second coming, are 
 then most accordant with truth, as well as most 
 cheering to our minds, when they rise with him 
 from Bethany in his work of benediction. Wlien 
 we look to the lamb of God, devoted to death for 
 our sins, we may sing, — 
 
 " My faith would lay her hand 
 On that dear head of thine," 
 
 When we look to the priest, after the order of Mel- 
 chizedek, upon the throne, we may see his right 
 hand laid on our head to bless us. It is the work 
 of faith thus to enjoy, in its highest form of privi- 
 lege, the laying on of hands. Faith can appro- 
 priate the grace of baptism in the absence of the 
 material rite, so, in like manner, may it appropriate 
 the grace of the rite which the apostle associates 
 with it — " Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of lay- 
 ing on of hands." 
 
 But, in these illustrations of the rite of laying on 
 of hands which we have taken from the Saviour's 
 history, do we not lose sight of that which we 
 stated to be the doctrine involved in the rite — the 
 concurrence of the human mind and will with the 
 mind and will of God, in some way intimated to 
 us? So far from this being the case, it is in the 
 Saviour's work that this doctrine is most clearly 
 seen and taught. His work on earth was a reveal- 
 ing of the Father to us, and a manifestation of the 
 entire concurrence of his perfect humanity in the 
 whole of God's will .and conduct towards us : " I 
 came from heaven, not to do my own will, but the 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 207 
 
 will of liim that sent me." " My meat is to do the 
 will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." 
 " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." 
 " The words that I speak unto you I speak not of 
 myself, but of the Father that dwelleth in me, he 
 doeth the works." The healing touch, then, was 
 not from the inherent virtue of his human hand, 
 any more than it could be from ours. It was the 
 power of Deity, mysteriously united Avith his hu- 
 manity, which accomplished the wonders he per- 
 formed; which wonders were therefore sometimes 
 effected without the movement of the hand, or even 
 the utterance to the sufferer of the voice. And 
 when the hand was employed, it was, like the rod 
 of Moses, the visible token of the Divine power, and 
 the instrument by which that power performed its 
 works — the member of the Saviour's human body 
 by which, even when no words were uttered, he de- 
 clared his concurrence with his Father's will to heal 
 and bless those who came, or who were brought to 
 him. 
 
 We are now prepared, by an enlarged and com- 
 preliensive view of the general subject, to discuss 
 that particular branch of it which relates to apos- 
 tolic usages. This particular branch has too com- 
 monly been considered as the whole of tlie case with 
 which we have any concern. The part, detached 
 from the whole, and gathering to itself the nou- 
 rishment which should have been diffused equally 
 through the whole, has grown into a monstrous 
 excrescence on the fair form of Christianity; and 
 
208 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 some, shocked by tlie disfigurement which has been 
 produced, would inconsiderately amputate not only 
 the excrescence, but the member itself out of which 
 it has grown — would altogether remove from the 
 first principles of the doctrine of Christ that which 
 relates to the laying on of hands. Let wiser coun- 
 sels prevail. A patient hand, with no very great 
 demand upon its skill, may remove the excrescence 
 without mutilating the form of Christianity, or even 
 leaving an unsightly cicatrice to offend the eye. 
 
 The cases in question, connected with apostolic 
 usages, divide themselves into three classes. The 
 laying on of hands — in healing the sick — in setting 
 apart to any special work or ofiice — in the bestow - 
 ment of spiritual gifts. 
 
 I. In healing the sick. 
 
 " They shall lay hatids on the sick, and they shall 
 recover." This manual imposition in the miracles 
 of healing was to be the rule of procedure, although, 
 as in the work of the Lord himself, other modes 
 might present the exception. " Peter's shadow fall- 
 ing on the sick," "and handkerchiefs and aprons 
 taken from the body of Paul," might each, on a 
 special occasion, prove efficacious ; but the general 
 rule is confirmed by the emphatic statements of the 
 record, that, " by the hands of the apostles, many 
 signs and wonders were done amongst the people." 
 
 It must here be remembered that the apostles 
 decisively disclaimed the virtue of healing by their 
 "own power or holiness;" that the name of Jesus 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 209 
 
 was the invocation which they employed; and that, 
 while uttering with earnest faith and deep solenniity 
 his sacred name, they distinctly realized his presence 
 and power working by them. "In the name of 
 Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." " Be 
 it known unto you all, and to all the people of 
 Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Naz- 
 areth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from 
 the dead, even by him doth this man stand here 
 before you whole." 
 
 We have said that faith can appropriate the 
 grace of the hand laid on to bless, as it can appro- 
 priate the grace of baptism, in the absence of the 
 visible and material rite. There is a singular illus- 
 tration of the operation of faith, in connecting the 
 Divine agent with the human recipient — in giving 
 definite form to the infinite power, and appropriate 
 action to the invisible hand, contained in a brief 
 apostolic prayer connected with our present subject: 
 " And now. Lord, behold tlieir threatenings : and 
 grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they 
 may speak thy word, hy stretching forth thine hand 
 to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by 
 the name of thy holy child Jesus." 
 
 We are not to suppose that miracles of healing 
 were wrought by the apostles at their own will, or 
 that the gift they possessed, and were empowered 
 to confer on others, was, either in the original or 
 imparted case, under self-control. Timothy was 
 subject to frequent infirmities, for wliich a more 
 generous diet was prescribed. Epaphroditus had 
 T ;3 
 
210 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 been sick nigh unto death, and Trophimus was left 
 by Paul, at Miletus, sick. It was not for their 
 personal exemption from the maladies to which our 
 nature is subject, nor even for their personal con- 
 venience in the prosecution of their arduous labours 
 that the gifts of healing were bestowed, but for 
 evidence and proof of their Divine mission. In 
 every case in wliich the gift was exercised, it was 
 doubtless under an impression as clear, distinct, 
 and powerful as though they saw the finger of God 
 pointing to the object, and the hand of God 
 stretched out to rest upon him. Their hand then 
 followed with trembling awe, inspired by feeling 
 that God was waiting to make it the token of his 
 present power, and the instrument of his own 
 glory. His hand went before theirs in the intima- 
 tion of his intended work opened clearly to their 
 eye of faith. Their hand came to his in manifesta- 
 tion of their faith — their obedience — the oneness of 
 their mind, and will, and hand with his. 
 
 II. In setting apart to any special work or office. 
 
 Four cases will fairly and fully represent all that 
 can be derived from the Acts and Epistles of the 
 apostles, on this, the vital point of the whole 
 question. 
 
 1. A case in which there is a setting apart to a 
 special work, by the laying on of hands, no new 
 office being contemplated in the manual imposition: 
 " Now there were in the church that was at An- 
 tioch certain prophets and teachers ; as Barnabas,, 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 211 
 
 -and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of 
 Cjrene, and Manaen, which had been brouglit up 
 with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they minis- 
 tered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said. 
 Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work 
 whereunto I hare called them. And when they 
 had fiisted and prayed, and laid their hamis o?i them, 
 they sent them away."* 
 
 2. A case in which seven individuals are set 
 apart to the office of deacon: "And the saying 
 pleased the whole multitude : and they chose 
 Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy 
 Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, 
 and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte 
 of Antioch : whom they set before the apostles ; 
 and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on 
 
 Mm."t 
 
 3. A case in which a youth of great promise is 
 set apart to the office of evangelist : " Neglect not 
 the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by 
 prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the 
 presbytery."! 
 
 4. A case in which the evangelist is assumed to 
 have the work of ordination generally assigned to 
 him, but is cautioned against precipitancy in the 
 execution of his work : " Lay hands suddenly on 
 no man." § 
 
 Now the doctrine of laying on of hands, what- 
 ever tliat doctrine may be, should not only be in 
 
 * Acts xiii. 1—3. t Acts vi. 5, 6. +1 Tim. iv. 14. 
 
 § 1 Tim. V. 22. 
 
212 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 hannony with the whole subject through which we- 
 have been passing, but should specially fit and 
 combine these cases, which lie at the very centre of 
 the question. 
 
 Will the doctrine of apostolic grace, descending 
 through ordination by a diocesan bishop, fit these 
 cases, and bring them into harmony ? 
 
 Not very easily. For there is no diocesan bishop 
 found in any one of them. Then, in the first case, 
 an apostle himself, Saul, stands reverently by the 
 side of Barnabas to receive the imposition of the 
 hands of Simeon, and Lucius, and Manaen, and 
 doubtless others also whose office was inferior to his 
 own, and whose very names have perished. In the 
 third case, as we showed in our last lecture, ordina- 
 tion was from the hands of the elders setting Timo- 
 thy apart to an office superior to their own, and 
 circumcision was from the apostle. In the fourth 
 case, if grace could descend to a recipient, irrespec- 
 tive of character, the motive for caution and delay, 
 until character and fitness were ascertained, would 
 be weakened, if not entirely removed. 
 
 The case of Saul, set apart to a special work by 
 the laying on of the hands of the prophets and 
 teachers at Antioch, harmonizes in general princi- 
 ple with that of Timothy, set apart to the office of 
 evangelist, by the laying on of the hands of the 
 presbytery, and with the case of the whole tribe of 
 Levi, set apart to office by the laying on of the 
 hands of representatives from the people. In each 
 case the hands of those who are inferior, as to 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 213 
 
 ■office, are upon the head of their superior, as to 
 office, facts conchisive against the theory of grace 
 descending by ordination. 
 
 But the doctrine of laying on of hands which we 
 have been advocating, and which has been our 
 guiding light tlirougli every part of the path we 
 have hitherto trodden, is the very doctrine which 
 opens and combines the cases now under discussion; 
 and we feel that, as we draw nearer the centre of 
 tlie subject, the light, as from a centre, shines 
 brighter and warmer. 
 
 In the first of the four cases there was a direct 
 and imperative revelation from the Holy Ghost 
 declaring that the work was special, and pointing 
 out, by name, the parties who were to be separated 
 for its performance. One of those parties was an 
 apostle, and the hands laid upon him could add 
 nothing to the grace w^ith Avliich he was already 
 endowed. But they could, and did, express the 
 devout and heartfelt concurrence of those who, by 
 fasting and prayer, had been in communion with 
 God, and were now, in the clearness of prophetic 
 light, one heart and mind with him in the work to 
 which Saul and Barnabas had been called. In the 
 second case, since the office of deacon related only 
 to the stewardship of the funds which had been 
 contributed by the people, their choice would be 
 considered by the apostles as the appropriate and 
 sufficient intimation of the will of God, in which 
 they were bound to acquiesce. Their concurrence 
 licre would be the more cheerful, because their 
 
214 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 hands, in the very act of imposition, became dis- 
 encumbered from the care of money and lands, and 
 •were made free for the more vigorous discharge of 
 their own spiritual ministry. They conveyed to 
 the deacons, not the apostolic grace of office, but 
 that which had been the unapostolic burden from 
 which, as they had enough besides to carry, they 
 felt that they were entitled to be relieved. In 
 the third case, there was the prophecy going before 
 on Timothy — declaring the office he was to fill — 
 overpowering any objections which might have 
 arisen in the minds of the presbytery on account of 
 his youth — showing them the hand of God already 
 upon him to form him for his work, which hand 
 their's were, without hesitation, to follow. Around 
 the last case, there is this light thrown. In 
 instances where there is no prophetic revelation, 
 let there be prudent delay, until a vigilant and 
 prayerful observation shall have clearly discovered 
 those intimations of the Divine will which are to be 
 gathered from the ordinary sources of providential 
 tlirection. Let not your hand be laid upon an indi- 
 vidual until you can have reasonable satisfaction that 
 God's hand, qualifying him for the work, has pre- 
 ceded yours, ordaining him to its discharge. You 
 then perform an obedient and intelligent service. 
 You put your hand to God's, and by your deli- 
 berate concurrence in the work, you help to clear 
 the path and cheer the mind of the candidate for 
 office, who may be trembling under a sense of its 
 responsibility, and seeking the comforting indica- 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 215 
 
 tions of Divine guidance, in the conclusions and 
 countenance of those who are more experienced 
 than himself. 
 
 III. In the bestowment of spiritual gifts. 
 
 These cases are put into a distinct class, because 
 there is satisfactory reason to conclude that, to be« 
 stow gifts by the imposition of hands, and to ap- 
 point to office by the same rite, were two distinct 
 and separate works : the first of wliich could be 
 performed only by an apostle, and became the seal 
 of his office, whicli another could not use ; tlie 
 second of which could be performed, without the 
 presence of an apostle, by the elders already offici- 
 ating in the church. The first, therefore, would 
 cease, with what may be called the second gene- 
 ration of the church — the dying out of those on 
 whom the hands of the apostles had been laid. 
 The second would continue, the ordinary and per- 
 manent mode of ordaining to their office the minis- 
 ters of the churcli. There are reasons to conclude 
 that supernatural gifts were frequently bestowed on 
 those who had not been appointed to office, and 
 that the extension of the church was in various 
 ways promoted by the abundance of the gifts wliich 
 were distributed amongst its members generally. 
 The apostle is speaking of the church as a body, 
 and not of those who sustained the definite offices 
 which are connected with its permanent organiza- 
 tion, when, writing to the Corinthians, he says, 
 "But the manifestation of the vSpirit is given to 
 
216 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 every man to profit withal. For to one is giveil 
 by the Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the 
 word of knowledge by the same Spirit ; to another 
 faith by the same Spirit; to another the gift of 
 healing by the same Spirit; to another the work- 
 ing of miracles ; to another prophecy ; to another 
 discerning of spirits ; to another divers kind of 
 tongues ; to another interpretation of tongues : but 
 all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, 
 dividing to every man severally as he will. For 
 as the body is one, and hath many members, and 
 all the members of that one body, being many, 
 are one body : so also is Christ. For by one Spirit 
 are we all baptized into one body, whether we be 
 Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and 
 have been all made to drink into one Spirit."* 
 He doubtless refers to the distribution amongst 
 them of these gifts when he asks, " Are not ye my 
 work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto 
 others, yet doubtless I am to you : for the seal of 
 mine apostleship are ye in the Lord."f 
 
 This view of the church of Corinth will prepare 
 us to follow the earlier footsteps of the apostles in 
 the bestowment of spiritual gifts. 
 
 When the church at Jerusalem was all but 
 broken up, and its members scattered abroad by 
 the great persecution which arose, "Philip went 
 down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ 
 unto them. And the people Avith one accord gave 
 heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing 
 
 * 1 Corinth, xii. 7 — 13. f 1 Corinth, ix. 1,2. 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 217 
 
 and seeing the miracles which he did."* "Now 
 when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard 
 that Samaria had received the word of God, they 
 sent unto them Peter and John : who, when they 
 were come down, prayed for them, that they might 
 receive the Holy Ghost : (for as yet he was fallen 
 upon none of them : only they were baptized in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands 
 on them, and they received the Holy Ghost." f 
 
 Pliilip could preacli, could baptize, could work 
 miracles, could perform all the ordinary, and some 
 of the extraordinary functions of the ministry; but 
 there was one thing which he could not do, which 
 none but an apostle could do; and therefore two of the 
 apostles, deputed from the rest, must come to Sa- 
 maria to perform — he could not, by the laying on of 
 his hands, confer the Holy Ghost. There can be 
 no succession in the bestowment of this gift. You 
 can connect the ordination of Pliilip with apostolic 
 hands, you can infer his participation in the first 
 baptism of the Spirit in the upper room at Jerusa- 
 lem, you can find all Samaria wondering and re- 
 joicing at the truth which he proclaims, and the 
 power of miracles which he puts forth ; but you 
 cannot get from him, although you are within one 
 step of the apostles and of Jerusalem, the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 That gift lie had himself, in all probability, like 
 Stephen, who was full of faith and of the Holy 
 Ghost, received before he was ordained to office. 
 
 * Acts viii. 5, 6. f Acts viii. It — 17. 
 
 U 
 
218 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 But neither the original bestowment of the gift from 
 heaven on the pentecostal day, without the laying 
 on of apostles' hands, nor the ordaining to office, 
 by the laying on of apostles' hands, could give the 
 power of conveying the gift downwards. The Sa- 
 maritans converted by his ministry, in general, and 
 those who had been possessed by unclean spirits, 
 who had been palsied, who had been lame, in pai'- 
 ticular, might rejoice with him in the knowledge of 
 Christ, and might walk with him in obedience to 
 all the laws of Christ ; but they must wait until the 
 two deputed apostles arrive before any of them can 
 share with him in the power to heal the sick, or to 
 exercise any supernatural gift. 
 
 That it was the power of superna1;ural gifts, and 
 not appointment to office, which Peter and John 
 did confer by the laying on of their hands, is ob- 
 vious from the case of Simon. He did not want 
 to purchase office in the church, nor the power of 
 presenting to office; for, on the supposition that the 
 apostle's hands had been laid on the Samaritan 
 Christians to appoint to office, all offices must 
 ah'eady have been abundantly supplied. "Wliat he 
 coveted was the power to work miracles himself, 
 and to enable others to do the same. The truth and 
 power of the miracles which Philip had wrought 
 had foiled all the arts of his sorcery and mortified 
 his pride. Could he obtain that power, which 
 Philip did not possess, of enabling others to work 
 miracles in connection mth himself, he might or- 
 ganize a body in dependence on himself, emerge 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 219 
 
 from the eclipse which he had suffered, and be 
 again the "great one" of the city. 
 
 If farther proof that the gift of the Holy Ghost, 
 by the laying on of the hands of the apostles, had 
 no necessary connection with appointment to office, 
 were required, it might be given in the case of the 
 disciples whom Paul found at Ephesus. They had 
 been baptized " unto John's baptism," but had 
 " not so much as heard whether there be any Holy 
 Ghost." They were " baptized in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus." "And when Paul had laid his hands 
 upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and 
 they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all 
 the men were about twelve."* 
 
 Since they had not before been baptized in the 
 name of Jesus, nor had even heard of the Holy 
 Ghost, they could in no way have been previously 
 connected with any Christian church. If by the 
 laying on of the hands of Paul, and their conse- 
 quent receiving of the Holy Ghost, they were ap- 
 pointed to office, where was the church in which 
 their office was to be discharged, and for Avhose 
 service they were ordained ? 
 
 When the Holy Ghost was given, in its original 
 bestowment on tlie one hundred and twenty who 
 were assembled in the upper room at Jerusalem, 
 and on the Gentiles who had come together in tlie 
 house of Cornelius, without the laying on of the 
 hands of the apostles, and afterwards, as at Samaria 
 and Ephesus, by the laying on of their liands, tlie 
 design was to provide for the rapid diffusion of 
 * Acts xix. G, 7. 
 
220 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 Christianity by extraordinary means and instru- 
 ments adapted to the extraordinary nature of the 
 case. But when Christianity became located and 
 settled in districts and cities, and churches had to 
 be organized, then the offices necessary for the 
 government and edification of the churches had to 
 be determined and arranged. What those offices 
 were we have shown in the preceding lectui-e. 
 Individuals who had received the original bestow- 
 ment of the Holy Ghost for general service might 
 be, and were most likely to be, elected to office, as 
 in the case of Philip and Stephen, and then they 
 were ordained to that office, as in their case, by the 
 laying on of hands. Individuals who had not re- 
 ceived the extraordinary gift of the Holy Ghost 
 might also be chosen to office, for supernatural gifts 
 are not put into the catalogue of qualifications for 
 which either Timothy or Titus were enjoined to 
 look in those who might be appointed either bishops 
 or deacons. The ordinary moral and spiritual quali- 
 fications, described in the Epistles of Timothy and 
 Titus, w^ere to be the permanent requisites for 
 office, the extraordinary and supernatural endow- 
 ments were to pass away. It was office, therefore, 
 with its ordinary endowments, which became per- 
 manent, is now continued, will be perpetuated. 
 All pretensions to have received, and to be able to 
 convey by ordination, the gift of the Holy Ghost, 
 which are now made, are consequently illusory, er- 
 roneous, in the highest degree presumptuous. If 
 Philip, who had partaken of the first baptism of the 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 221 
 
 Holy Ghost, wlio Imd been ordained to oHice by the 
 hands of the apostles, who had come t'resli, and warm, 
 and lull of power from the midst of the fellow.ship 
 of " the glorious company of the apostles," could not 
 confer the gift of the Holy Ghost on the converts 
 he had himself made in a city, excited with wonder 
 and joy at his preaching, and at the miracles which 
 his hands had wrouglit, what are we to think of 
 the claims of those who say that they have received, 
 and that tliey do confer the gift, now that all super- 
 natural endowments have ceased, and no link of 
 intercourse with the apostles can be formed ? 
 
 In the passage which we have quoted from the 
 Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul speaks only of tlie 
 manifestation of the Spirit; and it is by putting 
 another verse, from another part of the epistle, into 
 connexion with it that we obtain a right idea of 
 his own relation to the bestowment of the Spirit's 
 gifts. Perhaps, had Peter and John written to the 
 Christians of Samaria, the case would have been the 
 same. They would have written of the Spirit's 
 distribution of his gifts, not of the laying on of 
 their own hands. To the eye of a spectator, and 
 for the page of an historian, the hands of the 
 apostles are the most prominent object. To the 
 apostles themselves, it is the Divine agent which 
 appears most prominent, which is all in all. The 
 principle of tliat passage, " Neither is he that 
 planteth anything, nor he that watcreth anything, 
 but God that givetli the increase," pervaded all 
 theii* works and all their thoughts. Especially 
 r 3 
 
222 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 when they were about to lay their hands on an 
 individual for the conferring gifts so wonderful in 
 their character, and to see in the exercise of the 
 gifts, when conferred, a new seal to their own 
 apostleship, would their minds be absorbed in the 
 contemplation of that heavenly agent who con- 
 descended to make their hands the visible tokens 
 and instruments of his gracious operations. His 
 work on their minds was always in harmony with 
 his work by their hands. His own will in the case, 
 communicated to them by internal illumination, 
 became their will. He wrought in them to will 
 and to do of his good pleasure ; and they wrought 
 with him for the accomplishment of his purposes. 
 Their hand was the instrument: the Spirit of 
 God was the agent. Spectators beheld the visible 
 hand. They saw only him that was invisible. 
 Their mind and hand were one with him in that 
 which they felt to be his work; and, while they gave 
 him all the glory, they realized in the highest 
 degree that which we have stated to be the doctrine 
 of laying on of hands, which, put in its briefest 
 form, is, Man one with God in declaring his puT" 
 2)oses towards others, on whom some special blessing is 
 to descend, or by lohom some sacred work is to be per- 
 formed. 
 
 We have now gone through the Scriptural cases 
 of laying on of hands. We have seen how one prin- 
 ciple, or doctrine, pervades, illumines, harmonizes, 
 and combines the whole. The range, through 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 223 
 
 which we can follow the performance of the rite, 
 is more wide, and its use more permanent and un- 
 changed than is the case with any other. The 
 family priesthood of the patriarchs is superseded by 
 the national priesthood of Aaron; and that is, at 
 length, abolished by the heavenly priesthood, for 
 the world, of Christ. The rite of circumcision de- 
 parts to make way for that of baptism ; and the 
 paschal solemnity merges into the supper of the 
 Lord. Amid all these changes the rite of laying 
 on of hands remains — the visible link which holds 
 together the three successive dispensations, and 
 which gathers around it the most beautiful, as well 
 as the most venerable, associations from the whole. 
 The human hand, employed in the rites which have 
 been abolished, as well as in those which are now 
 established and to be perpetuated, continues the 
 same in its form and structure amid the infinite 
 variety and changes of the works in which it is the 
 operating agent. In the rite, unchanged, of laying 
 on of hands, simplicity becomes sublimity, pomp 
 and mystery manifest confusion and obscurity of 
 vision. Restored to its position among the first 
 principles of the doctrine of Christ, it separates it- 
 self from the antichristian theory of apostolical suc- 
 cession, which has encumbered, obscured, fettered, 
 mutilated it, and it freely moves in holy companion- 
 ship with Jacob in his dying benediction, and utter- 
 ing to his descendants the form in which they are 
 to bless one another ; with jMoses putting some of 
 his honour upon Joshua, giving Israel a leader to 
 
224 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 complete his own unfinished work, and that leadei' 
 a charge as to how the work should be perlbrmed ; 
 with Aaron and his descendants as they receive 
 the victims devoted by the hand of the people, per- 
 form the rites of propitiation, and put the name and 
 the blessing of God upon the pardoned penitents ; 
 with the tribe of Levi dedicated to the service of 
 the sanctuary, and the congregation of Israel pre- 
 senting them as an offering to the Lord ; with the 
 apostles in their miracles of healing, their appoint- 
 ments to ofhce, their gift of the Holy Ghost, the 
 seal of their uncommunicable office ; with elders, 
 the true bishops of the church, in their divinely- 
 appointed offices, and their legitimate functions ; 
 Avith the Lord himself, who in all things must have 
 the pre-eminence, in his going about to do good, 
 and heal all manner of sickness and disease among 
 the people — in his condescension to little children, 
 in his eye the embryos of future labourers in his 
 cause, the sharers of his inheritance of the kingdom 
 of heaven — in his work of blessing as he ascended 
 from Bethany — in his raising the fainting spirit of 
 John, overpowered with the first glance of his 
 celestial glory, that he might renew his sight of 
 that glory, as with an eagle's eye, and range, as 
 with an eagle's wing, through all tlic visions of the 
 apocalypse — in his coming the second time, in like 
 manner as he went up, to bless his whole redeemed 
 church, by presenting it an assembly of kings and 
 priests in a solemn act of consecration to the cter- 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 225 
 
 nal service and glory of his Fatlier, and their 
 Father, of his God, and their God. 
 
 This is the range of the subject. And now a very 
 serious question arises. Can it be that only twenty- 
 six individuals, among the millions of England and 
 Wales, have any authority to administer this sim- 
 ple, primitive, expressive rite of laying on of hands? 
 Is it part of the exclusive prerogative of the pre- 
 lates ? 
 
 It is true that, under the patriarchal dispensation, 
 only one individual is recorded in the performance 
 of the rite; but then that individual represents to 
 us us all offices, secular as well as sacred, combined 
 in one person, and the one case recorded stands as 
 the selected memorial of an established patriarchal 
 custom. Under the Jewish dispensation, we find 
 that both Moses and Aaron, the priests in succes- 
 sive generations, and the elders representing the 
 people, and even the people themselves, when they 
 offered tlie tribe of Levi to the Lord, performed the 
 rite. In the New Testament, we find the Lord 
 himself, the apostles, the evangelists, the elders 
 of the church generally, the prophets and teachers 
 of Antioch in particular, performing this rite. 
 How is it that diocesan bishops only can now per- 
 form it ? 
 
 We have shown, in the preceding lecture, that 
 the prelates have borrowed, without returning 
 again, the title which the New Testament gives 
 to tlie ehlers of the church generally, and that they 
 
226 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 dare not wear the title whicla belongs to tlie office 
 of those to whom they say they are the " true suc- 
 cessors." How is it that, in this very equivocal 
 position as to title, they have succeeded to the whole 
 right and authority, by whomsoever previously 
 possessed, of laying on of hands ? In claiming 
 the sole inheritance of this rite, do they not show 
 themselves "lords of the heritage," taking away 
 the functions, as well as the titles of others, at their 
 pleasure? 
 
 Having taken the rite into their sole prerogative, 
 what have they made of it ? The character of the 
 workmanship corresponds with the mode of the 
 acquisition. They profess to make this rite the 
 channel in which to convey, from the apostles, grace 
 which the apostles themselves nowhere tell us that 
 they possessed. "When the apostles laid their hands 
 upon the heads of the seven deacons, they professed 
 to convey to them the care of distributing the funds 
 of the church, which care they found an encum- 
 brance to themselves. When the prelate lays his 
 hands upon the head of one whom he is to make a 
 deacon, he professes to convey to him, from these 
 apostles, the power to give sacramental efficacy to 
 every drop of water which his own hand may sub- 
 sequently employ in baptism. By what strange 
 alchemy have the alms of the church been trans- 
 muted into water that can regenerate ? and at what 
 point in the progress did the coin turn into water ? 
 When Timothy or Titus, either of them singly or 
 in conjunction with others, ordained elders in any 
 
LAYING ON OF n^\JS'DS. 227 
 
 place, they ordained, by one imposition of their 
 hands to the complete and perfect office at once, 
 those who, like themselves, were to minister the 
 word. AVhen prelates, by a second imposition of 
 their hands on one whom they have previously 
 made deacon, exalt him to the full orders of the 
 priest, they profess to make him a minister of the 
 altar, whose own hand, by virtue of tlie grace con- 
 veyed to him in the second imposition, can change 
 the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper into the 
 very body and blood of the Lord himself. And 
 thus they convey, from the apostles, that grace 
 which these apostles thankfully received from the 
 Lord at his table, in "breaking bread" with the 
 disciples ! How far, in this miraculous transforma- 
 tion of apostolic grace, do they leave behind them 
 that simple power which once turned water into 
 wine ! When the hands of a prelate are laid upon 
 the head of a deacon to confer the order of the 
 priesthood, he says, "Receive the Holy Ghost for 
 the office and work of a priest in the church of 
 God now committed unto thee by the imposition 
 of our hands, AVhose sins thou dost remit, they are 
 remitted ; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are 
 retained." When did the apostles, while their 
 hands were upon the head of an individual, employ 
 such words as these ? When they laid their hands 
 on the disciples who had been converted by Philip 
 to confer the gift of miracles, " They i^raycd for 
 them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost." 
 Is there no difference between praying for the Holy 
 
228 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 Spirit, and pretending authoritatively to convey 
 him, as though he were ah'eady in your hands ? 
 Is there no difference between the gift of healing, 
 or of tongues, and the absolution from sin ? Is 
 there no difference between the manifold and won- 
 drous signs which came in answer to the prayers 
 of the apostles, and the total destitution of any sign 
 in the oft-repeated work of their pretended succes- 
 sors ? The words of most solemn import in the 
 form of ordination are the utterance of the Divine 
 Redeemer himself. Whatever power he meant to 
 convey in them, and did convey to his apostles to 
 whom they were uttered, they formed no part of 
 their ordination to their apostolic office, and were 
 not accompanied by the imposition of his hands. 
 They were uttered to them at his first interview 
 with them in the upper room, on the evening of the 
 day of his resurrection. " He showed unto them 
 his hands and his side." " He said to them again. 
 Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, 
 even so send I you. And when he had said this, 
 he hreathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy 
 Ghost ; whosesoever sins ye remit, they are re- 
 mitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, 
 they are retained."* 
 
 What authority is there for connecting these 
 words, so sacredly peculiar, both in time and man- 
 ner, to the Lord himself, with the rite of laying on 
 of hands? Can the hands which have taken, at their 
 pleasure, the titles and functions of those who are 
 * John XX. 20—23. 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 229 
 
 condescendingly called inferiors in office take, with 
 the same impunity, the most solemn and peculiar 
 functions of tlie risen Lord himself? Is there the 
 same power in the mortal hand, which yesterday 
 might have been gatliering up the filthy lucre, and 
 to-morrow may be putrifying in the grave, as there 
 is in the breath of the now transformed and immor- 
 tal Saviour, who dieth no more, but lives, as the 
 Father, to quicken whom he will ? Is there not a 
 light which goes far towards solving the mystery 
 of the working of that ambition in heaven by which 
 angels fell, in the embodiments of the same prin- 
 ciple which, in the frail and dying form of feeble 
 men, has been working in the church on earth? 
 
 English protestants have adopted this form of 
 ordination from the Romish hierarchy. Is it not 
 time that there should be a second Reformation? 
 If some are turning their backs on the first Refor- 
 mation, and are adjusting their contracted vision to 
 read, amid artificial and illusive lights, the legends 
 of mediseval ages, should not others, who have pro- 
 fessed better things, go forward, and, expanding and 
 invigorating their vision for the noon-day light of 
 the holy oracles, leave behind them those parts of 
 their ancient formularies which have conveyed the 
 leaven of popery, now working so fearfully in their 
 church, and which parts they cannot show to be 
 in accordance witli " God's word." Is it not made 
 manifest, as to your formularies, that, in them, 
 " Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that 
 
 X 
 
230 ArOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 ii little leaven leavenetli the wliole lump ? Purge 
 out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new 
 lump, as ye are unleavened." 
 
 As the rite of laying on of hands is used by tlie 
 Romish hierarchy, tliere is, in addition to the incon- 
 sistencies and presumptuous claims akeady noticed, 
 the tacit acknowledgment of the want of any tiling 
 approaching to prophetic light and certainty in its 
 performance. AYlien Jacob laid his hands upon the 
 sons of Joseph, God's purposes for coming gene- 
 rations stood out clearly to his view. When the 
 presbytery laid their hands upon Timothy, strip- 
 ling though he was, God's purpose as to his future 
 course, and work, and office was unfolded by pro- 
 phecy, and he was ordained evangelist at once. 
 'VVlien he himself, in the absence of distinct revela- 
 tion as to individuals, exercised the prayerful and 
 prudent vigilance and delay which the apostle en- 
 joined, he could, with enlightened persuasion as to 
 God's previous choice and purposes as to others, 
 ordain them to the office of bishop at once. There 
 is no portion of this light, in whicli a free and gene- 
 rous hand can work co-operative with God's hand, 
 in the Romish hierarchy. The work of ordination 
 is therefore divided into seven portions or stages — 
 porter, reader, exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon, 
 priest, bishop. The bishop could see his own way, 
 as he himself advanced, and can see the way, as he 
 helps others onward, only from point to point; and 
 therefore laboriously accomplishes, by a sevenfold 
 operation, that which, if the bishops in the two cases 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 231 
 
 are like one another, Timotliy was instructed to ac- 
 complish at once. 
 
 Anotlier serious question now arises. Should we 
 be faitlilul friends and witnesses to the truth, if we 
 were to permit the prelates to retain the sole use of 
 this rite, which they have taken to themselves by 
 usurpation, and which they have so egregiously mis- 
 represented and perverte<l? It is not one of the 
 supernatural endowments which those only could 
 exercise on whom the hands of an apostle had been 
 laid. "VVe can perform it now, just as easily as 
 Timothy could do it of old, if only we can do it 
 rightly, and with soriptural authority. The in- 
 structions to Timothy, as to the administration of 
 this rite, are not indeed given with the same pre- 
 cision and fulness as are the instructions which 
 relate to the qualifications for office ; but the cau- 
 tion given in the same epistle with the instructions 
 as to the qualifications, "Lay hands suddenly on 
 no man," clearly implies that the laying on of liands 
 accompanied the appointment to office. The in- 
 structions as to the qualifications for office are per- 
 manent, carefully separated from those supernatural, 
 though temporary, endowments, which, to a super- 
 ficial observer, would appear the prime requisites. 
 The caution against precipitancy is permanent, and 
 put where it could be most briefly and emphatically 
 expressed, in connection with that rite which ad- 
 mitted to office, and manifested the judgment, as to 
 fitness and call, wliicli had been formed by those 
 
232 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 who were to be employed in the work of ordina- 
 tion. 
 
 If any contend tliat the laying on of hands was 
 employed only in the communication of supernatu- 
 ral gifts, they must admit that Timothy could con- 
 fer such gifts, and that the elders who laid their 
 hands on him could do the same. This admission 
 takes the seal of the apostleship out of the hands 
 of the apostles themselves, nullifies their authority, 
 and introduces confusion and uncertainty into every 
 part of their work. On this admission, Paul, in- 
 stead of coming nothing behind the chiefest of the 
 apostles, and claiming the Corinthians in their di- 
 versified and abundant spiritual gifts, as the seal of 
 his apostleship, becomes a recipient with Barnabas 
 of gifts which the prophets and teachers at Antioch 
 could confer ; and Avears the impress of the seal 
 employed by another, instead of manifesting the 
 freedom and power of the hand which could work 
 signs and wonders among the people, by virtue of 
 the authority gi\'en liim by the Lord himself. 
 
 If the question should be pro})osed. Who are 
 now authorized to perform the rite of laying on of 
 hands ? we answer. That we are not much con- 
 cerned strictly to define the limits within which 
 the rite should be observed. The doctrine of the 
 rite which we have been advocating has emanci- 
 pated us from the notion, which still fetters the 
 minds of many who are free at other points, that 
 there is anything like the grace of a succession in 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 233 
 
 the case ; wliilc the range of our subject lias pre- 
 sented us with examples, one in the principle which 
 pervades them, but beautifully diversified in the 
 circumstances which surround them. The doc- 
 trine, in its inner life, is insight into God's pur- 
 poses towards otliers; in its outward manifestations, 
 it may become as multiform as the objects which 
 those pur|)oses are intended to accomj)lish. The 
 r-equisites for the discharge of the rite are sanctified 
 knowledge, with the influence over the minds of 
 others which growls with tliat knowledge, rather 
 than ecclesiastical pedigree or specialities of ofiice. 
 
 The Holy Spirit, in the upper room at Jerusalem, 
 and in the house of Cornelius the Gentile, de- 
 scended, in its miraculous endowments, on many 
 who had never received tlie imposition of the 
 apostle's hands. Ilis working, without the apostle's 
 hands, did not take the seal of their apostleship 
 from them. His so working, by the laying on of 
 any other hands than those of the apostles, would 
 have done this. The distinctness and authority 
 given by the impress of the seal were best seen 
 when they were viewed in this light : " That 
 which the Holy Spirit has done originally, in the 
 first miraculous baptism of Jew\s and Gentiles, he 
 now continues to do in every place in which we, 
 the apostles, labour, but only hy the imposition of 
 our hands." 
 
 As, in tlie original provision for the diffusion 
 of Cliristianity, there was a baptism of super- 
 natural gifts wliich went before and, in these 
 X 3 
 
234 VrOSTOLlOAL succkssiox. 
 
 cases, superseded the neeessity of the hiying on of 
 the apostle's hands, so, for the revival of Clu'istian- 
 ity, amid s^'stems Avhieh have eorrnpted its forms 
 or permitted the frosty ieieles to gather around 
 them, there may be a baptism, for the ordinary 
 office of the ministry, without tlie laying on of any 
 human hands. And if those, to whose ministry the 
 Holy Spirit has set the seal which is given when a 
 ministry is made extensively the instrument of con- 
 version and edilieation, shall see it consistent with 
 truth, and conducive to order and solemnity, to 
 introduce the candidates for the ministry to their 
 office by this scriptural rite of ordination, who 
 shall forbid them the use of the rite, even though 
 no official hands were ever imposed on themselves? 
 Let them be careful to lind, not a true pedigree, 
 but a true doctrine. Let them content themselves 
 with a clearly-expounded scriptural example. 
 While others, in conferring orders, stand with their 
 face to the past, looking back on the boasted glories 
 of their long succession, let them, in the imposi- 
 tion of their hands, fix their eye on the future, that 
 they may follow their vocation in the onward 
 march of Christianity, and perform their work in 
 the light of God's purposes for the extension of his 
 church and the conversion of the world. 
 
 If, in a church whose ministers have corrupted 
 the truth, and have brought in anotlier gospel — 
 have substituted the worn-out ceremonies of Jewish 
 rituals for the preaching of the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ, there should arise a body of individuals 
 
LATINO ON OF HANDS. 23.J 
 
 wlio have a4',(:(-HH to the f«oly S<;ripturf;H, and arc 
 rfjHolved to walk by their lifrht, who eouM forbid 
 the H^ileetin;^ from their number the individual most 
 gifted, that he might devote himself to prayer and 
 the ministry of the word ? And if, having sought 
 direetion from tlie Great Hear] of the ehureh by 
 prayer, they wr;re to net hirn apart for bin work by 
 the laying on of their own haridn, tliey would but 
 follow the exami»le of the whole eongregation of 
 iHfael, when thoy lairl their handn upon the tribe 
 of Levi, and d^^iieated them to the .service of the 
 Ivord. This would be a much more intelligent and 
 legitimate use of Jewish analogies than any whieh 
 is given in the writings and elaims of those who 
 found their official titles and functions upon them. 
 
 It is, however, an extreme case which we have 
 hypothetically put. 'I'he Reformers, to whom the 
 ehureh and th(i world are so dee[)ly indebted, have 
 been, with very few exee[)tionH, men educated and 
 devoted to tlie Christian ministry. Any practical 
 difficulty, therefore, in the question, as to who is 
 empowered to lay on lianrj-s in ordaining others to 
 office, has very rarely occurred. Those w\k> had 
 brought an official standing with them into the new 
 comnninions which were formed, as a matter of 
 course administered the rite of ordination, and set 
 an example that others might follow in their steps. 
 The idea of some kind of succession in ordination 
 is, thereforr-, the idea which, more or less flearly 
 defined, jirfvails among all denominations of Chris- 
 tians. It do<;s amongst f>urselves. W*- look back 
 
236 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 to the noble band of two thousand confessors who 
 suffered the loss of all things for their unflinching 
 adherence to the claims of truth and conscience. 
 Our homage to the truth which they confessed 
 finds devout expression in every ordination service; 
 and our use of the simple, venerable rite of laying 
 on of hands, which we have received from them, 
 has been a practical and influential testimony 
 against the usurpation of this rite by the prelates. 
 Let us not withdraw our testimony. To bear it is 
 part of our appointed work. It goes deeper into 
 the mind and conscience of those whose position 
 requires them to deny the authority of our ministry 
 than we sometimes suppose. It is the truth, and 
 we do well to bring it publicly into the light of 
 day. Error, which affects dignity by retiring from 
 the public eye, would not stand securely by its 
 side. 
 
 Do we bear our practical testimony to the whole 
 truth on this question ? We ordain to the pastoral 
 office by the laying on of the hands of the elders. 
 Our scriptural example and authority in this case 
 is the ordination of Timothy by the presbytery, 
 and the instructions given to him and Titus as to 
 those who might possess the required qualifications 
 for office. But the instructions given to Timothy 
 relate to the deacon as well as to the bishop, and 
 the first case of ordination to office, as connected 
 with apostolic usages, is the ordination, by the 
 imposition of hands, of the seven deacons. That 
 
LAYING ON OP HANDS. 237 
 
 our testimony on this question then may be not the 
 voice of custom and succession derived from our 
 fathers, but the voice of conviction and obedience de- 
 riving its utterance from the Scripture, we must go 
 farther, and employ the rite of laying on of hands 
 in setting apart our deacons. If it be asked, By 
 whom should the deacons be ordained ? the an- 
 swer may be easily given. The deacons were to 
 relieve the apostles from the care of the funds of 
 the church. The hands of those who were to be 
 disencumbered from this burden were laid upon 
 them. For the same reason those whose relief in 
 this particular is now contemplated in the continu- 
 ance of the office should be employed — the hands 
 of the pastors upon the heads of the deacons. 
 
 AVe wear tlie designation which was given to the 
 disciples at Antioch. Our testimony on this ques- 
 tion would become more complete, harmonious, and 
 powerful, if we were to follow an example, given 
 at tliat place, strictly applicable to many circum- 
 stances of constant occurrence amongst ourselves, 
 and, in itself, of the highest authority. 
 
 When the hands of the prophets and teachers 
 at Antioch were laid upon Saul and Barnabas, the 
 rite could not be employed either to confer office 
 or supernatural gifts. The object of the rite is 
 beautifully expressed in the record of the accom- 
 plishment of their mission: "And when they had 
 preached the word in Perga, they went down into 
 Attalia, and thence sailed to Antioch, from whence 
 
238 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 they had been recommended to the grace of God 
 for the work which they fulfilled."* The same 
 language is employed in connection with a second 
 mission on which the apostle went from Antioch 
 with another associate : " And Paul chose Silas, 
 and departed, being recommended by the brethren 
 unto the grace of God." The inference may fairly 
 be deduced that this second commendation, like the 
 first, was by the rite of laying on of hands with 
 prayer. 
 
 The use we commonly make of this case is to 
 derive an example from it for ordaining to the 
 ministerial work generally, rather than to any flock 
 or charge in particular; and hence we ordain our 
 missionaries by the imposition of hands, commend- 
 ing them to the work of the ministry among the 
 heathen. But if a pastor who had been previously 
 ordained becomes a missionary, or if a missionary 
 ordained on his going forth return, and is sent 
 forth a second time, there is, in either case, no im- 
 position of hands. The feeling cherished in these 
 cases is, that it would detract from the character 
 of the first ordination, in its sufiiciency and com- 
 pleteness, if there were a second laying on of 
 hands; and thus we betray the lurking amongst us 
 of the notions derived from a succession by ordina- 
 tion, and the conferring of orders. So difficult is 
 it, even when the main root of bitterness has been 
 turned out, completely to clear the ground of all 
 the fibres which it threw on every hand around. 
 * Acts xiv. 25, 26. 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 239 
 
 The necessities of the times specially demand 
 from us, untramelled as we are by any human au- 
 thority, free as we are in all things shown to be 
 the will of God to render immediate obedience, a 
 clear, consistent, decisive testimony on this rite of 
 laying on of hands. In this rite all the assumed 
 virtue of an apostolical succession is held to be 
 concentrated. Let our practice become a testi- 
 mony, not only against the usurpation of the rite 
 in its sole employment by the hands of the prelate, 
 but also a testimony against the principle of a suc- 
 cession as involved in the rite. We shall then 
 more frequently employ the rite, and more effec- 
 tually oppose the antiquated error. 
 
 Let us look now into the light of this high and 
 authoritative example at Antioch, and see if it is 
 not a light which we might easily, and with great 
 advantage to the cause of truth, reflect upon the 
 eyes of the church and of our country. There is 
 in the case no conferring either of gift or of office, 
 and therefore there could be no charge of undue 
 assumption against any who should follow the ex- 
 ample here set. Paul and Barnabas in the first 
 case, Paul again, and Silas in the second, are the 
 recipients in the case, and therefore our most hon- 
 oured pastors could lose nothing by following the 
 example. In what cases might the example be 
 followed? In all cases in which there is designa- 
 tion to any special work, and in whicli there are, 
 ])oth as to the parties and the work, clearly in- 
 dicated providential direction. In entering on a 
 
240 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 second pastoral charge, the solemnity of the ser- 
 vice of designation might be increased, by the use 
 of this rite, with as much propriety as was that 
 connected with the original ordination. In every 
 departure of a missionary who had returned, whe- 
 ther it be to his original or to another field of 
 labour, the tenderness and solemnity of the parting 
 service might be augmented by his standing, like 
 Paul when he went a second time from Antioch, 
 beneath the imposition of the hands of honoured 
 brethren, while prayer is again offered on his be- 
 half. A deputation like that once sent to the trans- 
 atlantic churches might be commended to its work 
 by the observance of this rite. In a word, every 
 important occasion which calls for an appointment 
 of those who are esteemed and trusted that they 
 may be employed in some special work might, by a 
 fair application of the principle derived from this 
 case at Antioch, receive their designation to the 
 work by prayer and the laying on of hands. 
 
 It not unfrequently occurs that the father of a 
 youthful minister is present at the ordination of his 
 son. The gift of the son to the ministry of the 
 church may be an answer to paternal prayers — the 
 fruit of paternal instruction — the sacrifice of services 
 which might have contributed to paternal comfort 
 and advantage. The father may himself sustain 
 that ofiice to which the seven were set apart by 
 the laying on of the hands of the apostles. Whe- 
 ther he sustain that ofiice or does not, what valid 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 241 
 
 reason could be urged against the union of his 
 hand with the official hands which are laid upon 
 his son? Would not that union infuse a new ele- 
 ment of tenderness into the service which every 
 heart would feel intelligently mingling with its 
 most sacred emotions, and present a visible link 
 which would connect the recent Christian rite with 
 the ancient and venerable patriarchal customs. 
 
 The prelate claims something patriarchal, as an- 
 other part of his sole prerogative, when he lays his 
 hand upon the head of the young in the rite of con- 
 firmation. However unintelligent and erroneous that 
 rite may be, when it claims affinity to the apostolic 
 work of confirming the souls of the disciples, and 
 confirming the chm'ches — however delusive and in- 
 jurious, if it be supposed that the grace of esta- 
 blishment in a Christian state of salvation goes 
 with the imposition of the prelate's hand to all the 
 recipients of the rite — yet, under a dispensation 
 of reUgion which inherits the blessings promised to 
 Abraham and pronounced by Jacob, in their full- 
 est stream and richest combination, can faith never 
 become prophetic of the individual course in which 
 those blessings are about to flow? Can Christian 
 piety never grow, with age, to patriarchal stature, 
 to patriarchal fulness of feeling and clearness of 
 vision? When an individual, whose character is 
 matured, whose form is venerable, whose heart is 
 the abode of devotion and love, comes into inter- 
 
 Y 
 
242 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 course with susceptible and hopeful youth, would 
 there be any impropriety in his laying " holy 
 hands," which have been often lifted up in sup- 
 plication, upon the head, while he offers the prayer 
 of faith which realizes the blessings held forth in 
 the promises made to us and to our children? In 
 contending against unauthorized ceremonies in re- 
 ligion, is it not possible that we may go to the 
 opposite extreme, and denude it of some outward 
 and visible manifestations of its beauty and power 
 which are simple, natural, and edifying? If we 
 could take our children into the presence of the 
 Lord himself, and ask him to put his hands upon 
 them and bless them, our knowledge of what he 
 once did when such a request was presented to him 
 might warrant us to expect a similar compliance. 
 In his compliance on that occasion, he followed a 
 custom in which patriarchs had gone before him — 
 which had been perpetuated until the time of his 
 own appearing — which must have been familiar to 
 the minds of those who presented their request to 
 him. Was not his compliance, under these circum- 
 stances, a sanction of the past, and an example for 
 the future? We can derive it through him, not as 
 a part of the Levitical institutions which in his 
 work he abolished, but as a part of the preceding 
 patriarchal dispensation which had not been super- 
 seded by the Aaronic priesthood. The form of 
 blessing which Jacob delivered, " God make thee 
 as Ephraim and Manasseh," was not the form of 
 
LAYING ON OF HANDS. 243 
 
 blessing appropriated to Aaron and his sons. Is- 
 rael generally, after the establishment of the priest- 
 hood in one family, might still bless in the more 
 ancient patriarchal form. AVherever patriarchal 
 qualities are found inspiring respect and conmiand- 
 ing influence — the hoary head wearing the crown 
 of righteousness — the official hands which have 
 borne the burden and heat of the day, and faith- 
 fully discharged the duties of their ministry — the 
 venerable grandsire gathering his descendants 
 around him — or the dying father committing his 
 helpless children to an unchangeable God, in the 
 exercise of faith in his promises, — in either of 
 these cases there might be, in the light, and with 
 the sanction of the Saviour's example, the employ- 
 ment of the ancient rite. Its revival would give 
 appropriate expression to the best and holiest feel- 
 ings of age in intercourse with youth — would fur- 
 nish occasions of deep solemnity in the exercises of 
 domestic piety — would bring around them associa- 
 tions derived from the earliest days of the church — 
 from the most impressive scenes described in holy 
 Scripture — from the presence and work of the Lord 
 himself. When our children have been trained in 
 tlie nurture and admonition of the Lord, and his 
 hand is seen working gracious dispositions in them, 
 might not the hand of aged piety put upon them 
 then be a manifestation of our joy in his work, and 
 l)e a true '^ con^nnation^' without the pomp, the 
 errors, the delusions, which too often accompany 
 tliat rite, as it is usually administered ? 
 
244 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 Thus tlie end of our subject is connected with 
 its beginning — an application of the rite, derived 
 from the Saviour's own example, is connected with 
 the first illustration of the rite, as derived from the 
 ancient patriarchal dispensation. We have endea- 
 voured to trace out, and lay open again to the view, 
 the entire foundation on which it rested. That 
 foundation is so extensive and complete as clearly 
 to indicate that it once sustained a structure much 
 more capacious and diversified in its parts than is 
 now seen iioing from it. We shall be rewarded for 
 our work, if it should prove that we have contri- 
 buted in any degree to restore to its true position 
 and use in the church of God the doctrine and the 
 rite "of laying on of hands." 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 20, note, line 8, for inaction read enaction. 
 Page 35, supply ye at the beginning of the first line. 
 Page ^Q, for Egypt icm read Egyptians. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY W. BLANCIIARD AXD SONS, 
 
 Warwick Lane, St. Paul's. 
 

 
 
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