3.1 Application of the Test: Prelacy

APPLICATION OF THE TEST

LET the reader seriously consider the evidence submitted in the previous chapter, and we think he will be satisfied that there is Divine authority for saying that the principles, of which the following facts are the realization, were in practical operation in the Apostolic Church:

1. The office-bearers were chosen by the people.

2. The office of bishop and elder was identical.

3. There was a plurality of elders in each Church.

4. Ordination was the act of a presbytery-that is, of a plurality of elders.

5. There was the privilege of appeal to the assembly of elders; and the power of government was exercised by them in their associate capacity.

6. The only Head of the Church was the Lord Jesus Christ. The principles embodied in these six facts cover the whole platform of Church Government, each rising in importance above that which precedes it, in an ascending series, from Popular Election up to the Headship of the Lord. We have been conducted to them> not by any process of wiredrawn logic, but by receiving the Scriptures, as we think every child of God should receive them, except there be manifest and good reasons to the contrary, in the plain, simple, and natural sense. The most unlettered reader, if he be only unprejudiced and honest, cannot examine the passages of Scripture we have specified, and fail to see that these six great principles were all embodied in the government of the Apostolic Church. But whether they are embodied in those forms of ecclesiastical government at present existing in the world is another and a very important question-a question which it is now our business to answer. We proceed, therefore, to bring the existing systems in succession to the test of the apostolic standard.

PRELACY As already explained, Prelacy is that system of Church Government which is dispensed by archbishops, bishops, priests, deans, deacons, and other office-bearers. It is exemplified in the Church of Rome and in the Church of England, both of which are prelatic in their government; the difference being, that the prelacy of Rome vests the ecclesiastical supremacy in the Pope, while the prelacy of England vests it in the reigning monarch. With this excep­tion, the two Churches, however widely they may differ in doctrine, are, in every important point of government, the same. As many may be disposed to consider the prelacy of a Protestant Church much less objectionable than the prelacy of Rome, and as we have neither necessity nor desire to take any unfair advantage in argument, we prefer to bring the prelacy of Protestantism into comparison with the apos­tolic standard. The fountain of jurisdiction in the Church of England is the monarch for the time being, who inherits the throne by hereditary descent, and who, irrespective of all character, is by act of Parliament, the only supreme head of the Church of England and Ireland (37 Henry VIII., chap. 17). No person can be received into the ministry of -that Church till he subscribe this article:-" That the king’s majesty, under God, is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other his highness’ dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual, or ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal " (Canon 36). The appointment of all the archbishops and bishops is vested in the Crown, which is guided in the selection by the political administration of the day-a body composed of persons of every hue of religious profession, and only kept in its place by the majority of votes it can command in Parliament. The highest ecclesiastical office-bearers under the Crown are the archbishops, of whom there are two in England-the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and two in Ireland-the Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin. Each of these has under him a number of suffragan bishops, and each bishop has under his care the inferior clergy of his diocese, who preach and dispense the ordin­ances of religion to such inhabitants of their parishes as are pleased to receive them. The parish clergy" are, in some instances, appointed by the Crown,’ in others by the bishop, in others by a lay patron, and sometimes in a mode still more objectionable.

Such is Prelacy in its most favorable form, as presented in the Protestant Establishment of England. Let us com­pare it with the system of government which we have already ascertained to exist in the Apostolic Church. In the Apostolic Church, the office-bearers were chosen by the people; but, in the Church of England, archbishops and bishops are chosen by the Crown, and the subordinate clergy are appointed to their charges either by the diocesan, or by some landed proprietor, or by some civil corporation. The people of the Apostolic Church exercised the privilege of electing an apostle; the people in the Church of England have not power to elect a curate. In the Apostolic Church, the office of bishop and elder was identical; the ciders of Ephesus were the bishops of the flock; but, in the Church Establishment, it is very different. The apostolic elder, being a teacher and ruler of a congregation, resembles more closely the parish clergyman than any other office-bearer in the Church of England. But it is very evident that, in that Church, a parish clergyman holds a position widely different from a bishop. The rector wields the jurisdiction of a parish; but the bishop governs a diocese, that usually includes a whole multitude of parishes. The one presides over a single congregation; the other, over many congregations. The one exercises authority over the laity, but a Church of England bishop is the ruler of a band of clergy. If, then, the parish clergyman corre­spond to the presbyter or elder of apostolic times, it is very clear that, in, the Establishment, the bishop and elder are not identical in office. In the Established Church every elder is subject to his bishop; but, in the Apostolic Church, every elder was a bishop himself. In the Church of England each congregation is under the care of one presbyter. When a second is called in, he is a mere curate in the employment of another, and void of all ecclesiastical jurisdiction. It is not very common, and certainly not essential to the system, to have more than one presbyter or elder in each Church; whereas, we have seen that, in each Church of apostolic times, there was a plurality of elders. In the Church of England ordination is an act exclusively performed by a prelate; he may ask others to unite with him, but it is his presence not theirs that is essential to the act: whereas, in the Apostolic Church, it was the prac­tice to ordain men to the office of the ministry with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. In the Church of England, no matter what ecclesiastical grievance may exist, there is no power of appeal except to the courts of law, or the Queen’s Privy Council, or some such tribunal. The practice is unknown in. the denomina­tion of bringing any matter for consideration before the assembly of elders for them to decide upon, in accordance with the apostles’ word. But this, as we have seen, was the move in which affairs were managed in the Apostolic Church. In our Protestant Establishment the monarch is, by act of Parliament, head of the Church, and to the king or queen, as the case may be, the 37th Article informs us that " the chief government of all estates of the realm, whether they be ecclesiastical or civil, in all causes, doth appertain "; whereas, in apostolic times, the Church had no head but Jesus Christ.

We have thus examined and compared the two Churches as closely and candidly as it is possible for us to do, and we feel ourselves forced to the conclusion that, of the six great principles of ecclesiastical government that met in the Apostolic Church, there is not one embodied in the Prelacy of the Church of England. We infer, therefore, that, while that Church may be entitled to great respect as a human system, maintained by act of Parliament, and numbering in its ranks many estimable people, there is no ground whatever for regarding it, in point of government, as an Apostolic Church. At the peril of excommunication we feel bound to declare our conviction that the government of the Church of England is repugnant to the Word of God.