And here we must note what is a great fallacy in the notion which the Church of England desires to give respecting her own constitution. It carries a falsehood on the face of it. We are referred to the articles, or canons, and prayer-book for her constitution and order; but she has not said a word there about her constitution and order, or what she has said is false. The constitution and order of the Church of England and Ireland is, that the king and his ministers, or other analogous persons, appoint to all the pastoral offices in the country. Where is this stated in these fair-spoken documents? Would churchmen who hold fast by these documents state and avow this, that laymen, it may be ungodly men, should appoint to all the pastoral offices in the country? Is this what they mean to plead as order, church order? Yet church order it is. They state indeed that they only ascribe to their princes to rule with the civil sword all estates of the realm; but they ascribe a great deal more. This was a most godly ascription; but if they have only ascribed this, their princes have ascribed a great deal more to themselves (and they acquiesce in it, though they have not put it in the book; and yet it constitutes the special difference of the system, and makes it the church, or, as some say, not the Church of England); and that is, that these individuals, who might be in excommunication, appoint nearly all the pastors in the country.
I would ask if there is any order in all this? We have an eminent instance of the system in principle and practice latterly, when, with one fell swoop, a minister, and not the king at all, but a House of Commons (and who are they in the church?) strikes off ten or twelve bishops of a country. That is, he not only is the appointer of the persons, but orders the whole internal arrangement of their superintendence, saying how much is a proper extent of Episcopal care, and who shall exercise it. But the great point which strikes at the root of all the church order (of which the documents state nothing, and therefore are a false witness for the church) is, that the pastoral appointments have no connection at all with the church. The succession is from the crown, from the world and its power, not from God at all; so that the great distinctive difference of the Church of England would not be found on the face of her own account of herself at all. But that distinctive difference destroys the principle of a church.
But while the church does not honestly state its character, the principle of disorder goes a great deal farther, and all real order is destroyed by the system. By virtue of this system a number of persons are appointed as clergy or ministers of parishes. There is no reference whatever to the various offices flowing from specific gifts. The scripture indeed speaks on this wise, “He ascended up on high and gave gifts unto men,” “and gave some, apostles; some, prophets; some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:” the beautifully ordered and united means by which the body is perfected and built up.
But this is trampled under foot for a fancied succession which is denominated clergy, a body of men not appointed to offices in the church, but to the exclusive government of a geographic district. That is, the offices of the church, the legitimate channels for the exercise of the combined gifts by which Christ ministers to its edification and the perfecting of the saints, are thrown to the winds: so that even when the clergyman happens to be a godly man, the saints, if there be such in the place, are deprived of the ministration of their offices through which Christ has provided for their edification, by virtue of the system which calls itself order, but the principle of which is to throw the appointment of even nominal pastors out of all order into the hands of secular men. The same individual must be evangelist, pastor, teacher, and every other office necessary for the perfecting of the saints and edifying of the body of Christ, or the ministry must be crippled and maimed, and the results accordant. And this is the principle of the system. Christ has ordered certain gifts for the edifying of the saints; men have ordered the placing of certain persons, who may not even be Christians, in a given place, with the sole ordering of the church in that place.
The argument then is brought to this point: either the system must assume the possession of every gift by all the individuals it pleases to appoint, and exclude all others from them; or it is proved that their system is at variance in principle with the right order of Christ's church. But they can assume no such thing, for the Spirit distributes to every man severally as He will. This is His prerogative. The system is proved, therefore, to be at variance with the order of Christ, and that in its vital object, “the perfecting of the saints.” It is at variance with the actual order in which He declares that He ministers it, for He gave some, evangelists; some, pastors and teachers.
But no! we must make all of them everything, or the system violates Christ's order in its very objects; and this the apostle controverts (how much more may we in these days), “Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers?” But no! Christ gives gifts as He pleases; and man gives authority as he pleases, and then calls this order! It is the devil's order, a turning of things upside down, and exhibits a state of things justly calling forth righteous indignation no less than of godly sorrow. Surely “it is yet a little while.” So that on the whole the principle of the system is at variance, not only with the derivation of grace and knowledge (seeing that the selection is made by the crown and its ministers, not by the church of God), but also necessarily with all office in the church, by which the body should be ministered to, according to the gift which Christ had given to every man for the effectual purpose of that ministry.
I speak now of the theory, passing by all charges on the state of facts in parochial ministrations; and I affirm that the theory precludes the exercise of the offices which Christ has instituted for the perfecting of the saints. A man is appointed a deacon for the purpose, perhaps, of being an evangelist, and would justly, it may be, refuse to attend to tables. God may have called out, by the ministry of this individual, another eminently qualified to be an elder in the church of God, for which, though gifted as an evangelist, the former may be eminently disqualified. Nevertheless the same person now perhaps transferred to the order of a presbyter or priest, without the least change of gift, becomes elder there with no qualification, to the exclusion of one who is qualified, having, it may be, his usefulness as an evangelist quite destroyed by his being put in an office for which God never qualified him But it must be so, because he is the clergyman. Thus again we find in principle, that the offices of Christ's church, by which its order is kept, are altogether avoided by this system which is called order; yea, that the offices and the system are incompatible. For the notion of the individual who was called to it being presbyter, or of any one being presbyter whom God has qualified for it, is precluded; for some one is called the clergyman of the place.
Again, reverse the case. A godly man well qualified to be the pastor and edifier, it may be, of saints, a terror of the ungodly, and healer of them that are wounded, a warrior against Satan's entrance into the fold, is set in a place where, from neglect, there is scarcely any practical knowledge of Christ. God has not gifted the man as an evangelist: what is the consequence? He has no saints to edify, and his heart is discouraged at his utter uselessness; he might have been a signal blessing to the church of God somewhere, if such a system had never existed.
But let us look a little farther. One whom God has gifted as an evangelist comes in and exercises his gift in the same locality (it must not be a clergyman—that would be disorderly, nor is evangelizing properly a parochial ministration); but he is irregular. The godly pastor without any flock is a bar, on the system of the Church of England, to any of God's ministry being carried on; and, if he be consistent with the system, he opposes God's ministry in the place, and, while perhaps a real saint himself, has none of the church of God around him to which he might be useful. Thus a schism is created, or, it may be, the other qualified to be an evangelist is constituted by the people to be a pastor, to which God never called him at all; and he who would have been a blessing to them is despised and neglected, because of the system of the Church of England, which necessarily involves the subversion of all the offices of the church of Christ. Indeed it does not proceed on the recognition of them: the country has been secularly divided into districts, and the clergy appointed, without reference to the state of the people at all, in their respective districts. The effect of this is only to place any one besides, who exercises the office which is necessary there, in the position of a schismatic. It is quite clear too, that, in a vast number of instances, being a secular interest, the appointment is made by those who have no church principles at all for temporal reasons and motives. And if we are then told “the church is not to blame,” and the question is asked, “how can the bishops help it?” I answer not at all, and therefore the church is fundamentally wrong in principle; it avows it cannot help evil, and how could it, since the heads of it are appointed on the same principle?
But supposing the bishops to be godly pastors of Christ's flock, and to appoint to offices according to Christ's institution, evangelists, and teachers, and pastors, or to recognize any other office in the church, they would at once be in schism as to the whole present constitution of parochial arrangement. That is, the system, if recognized, is irretrievably at variance with the admission of offices in the church of God, by which the saints are perfected, and the body edified; and the effect of it is to give the character of schism to all those who exercise the office to which God has ordained them. And this is called order—it is the most heinous and wicked disorder!—in God's church. Let me be ever such an evangelist, gifted like an apostle, I am disorderly in exercising it. Nor would ordination in any way mend the matter; for my exercise of the gift would be disorderly because of a nominal pastor in a given place: all is pre-occupied; and evangelizing has no place, and becomes irregular. (Continued from page 37.)