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his being, would have been his whole religion-a rich and perfect religion-bringing him nearer and nearer to God, in still increasing knowledge, in more beatific vision, in more free and childlike fellowship. There could have been nothing want ing to all the ends and enjoyments of religion.

When man became a sinner, and depravity was lodged in his being, and perpetuated from generation to generation, then was first instituted the religion of revealed law, of sacrifices and typical representations. This religion existed under some form, from the sacrifice of Abel, down through the patriarchal ages, until its perfect institution under Moses. Its aim was threefold-by an external annunciation to call up in the darkened conscience the great law originally written there; to propitiate the divine favor in temporal relations and affairs; and to lead forward the eye of faith to a great propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the world.

The third form of religion-the religion of grace-was introduced by Jesus Christ. It brings in the great propitiatory sacrifice which reconciles God to man; provides the influences which regenerate our nature; and reveals faith, hope and charity. This is our religion. It is our privilege to live under the most glorious manifestation of God to man. Indeed we combine the three. The religion of nature is restored to us, purified and resplendent, under the benign Sun of Christianity; the religion of revealed law, of sacrifices and types, is ours; for we have the law, under a perfect exposition, and we have it again written in our hearts; and we have all that the old sacrifices and types shadowed forth and pointed to, in the cross of Christ.

The religion of nature required for its services no visible ministry and no formal rites. It was the spontaneous and constant homage of the pure heart to the ever present God.

The second form of religion, for its solemn and numerous rites, required a numerous and well-ordered priesthood. They offered the sacrifices and made the intercessions in behalf of the people. The priest, as a priest, was strictly and solely a minister of the temple service.

The prophets, through whom God gave his law-announced his purposes; inculcated truth; gave his specific commands; uttered his promises or his threatenings, and revealed the future-were a distinct class of men. The whole volume of the Old Testament, at least all that is didactic and prophetic,

was, with the exception of the books of Ezra, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, written by men who were not of the priestly order. Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah and Daniel were not priests. Priests were indeed called to the prophetic office, as in the case of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but it was evidently a new and additional office. The prophetic office was the higher office of the two. It was special, and given only to men of high and extraordinary virtues. Those endowed with it were sent directly from God, and were admitted into a near and most peculiar intimacy; God spoke with them and showed them the symbols of his ineffable glory. They were the great and inspired teachers of the world. While the priest could not of right be a prophet, the prophet could of right be a priest; accordingly we find Samuel and Elijah offering sacrifices. Before the Mosaic economy was instituted, the prophet and the priest were the same. Upon the introduction of this economy, the priesthood became a distinct class, but the prophet lost none of his original official capacities. A similar distinction of offices, whatever may have been its origin, obtained among the heathen. The priests served in their temples. The sybils served in no temples and were prophetesses. The great doctrines of natural religion, and systems of ethics were taught by sages and philosophers, led on by the force of reason, or illumined by some ray of inspiration which found its way to them from the glowing peaks of Zion.

Now when we come down to the third form of religion, what offices do we find here? The priestly office ceases under Christianity to be attached to any mere human being. We have no more priests, because we have no more sacrifices. Jesus Christ was the last priest appointed of God-our great "High Priest ;" and "because he continueth forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such a high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once when he offered up himself." Jesus Christ was both the priest and the sacrifice; and he is now the intercessor in the court of heaven. All the preceding priests and sacrifices ended and were merged and fulfilled in him.

Romanism professes still to have priests, and consistently, because Romanism professes daily, in the mass, to renew the offering of Christ's crucified body. But we, who believe that Christ," now once in the end of the world hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself," know of no more offerings, and require no more the priestly service in the rites of our religion.

The only spiritual office wherewith men are endowed under Christianity is that of prophet and teacher. The office is one, although it has two forms.

The first form was presented only in the apostles and the first teachers of Christianity. Inspiration and prophetic vision were the distinguishing characteristics of this form. They were appointed to write the gospel, to determine the canon of the New Testament, and to constitute the Christian church. Their office was similar to, or rather identical with that of the prophets of the Old Testament.

After the apostolical period the office appeared only under its second form. Inspiration and prophetic vision ceased, because they had done their work, and the teacher of Christianity, the preacher of the cross of Christ alone remained. The first form included the second; but the second did not include the first the inspired apostle and prophet was a teacher or preacher of the gospel; but only the first teachers were prophets.

It is as a simple preacher of the gospel that the apostle speaks, 1. Cor. 1: 17: "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." He is here holding up to view the cardinal aim and characteristic of his office. The administration of baptism he did not deny to be proper and important--he practised it but to proclaim truth, to preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven-this was the grand object for which he was sent from kingdom to kingdom, from city to city-through perils manifold, and for which he counted not his life dear unto him.

This office of teacher or preacher has been perpetuated in the church. It is an office demanded by the wants of the world. Without it the gospel is a "treasure hid in a field," and the world cannot be evangelized. "How can they hear without a preacher ?" The last command of Christ was: "Preach the gospel to every creature ;" and by the men bearing this office, the command is fulfilled.

ment.

This office receives various designations in the New TestaThe twelve immediate followers of Christ were called apostles," or "the sent," because they were sent, or commissioned of Christ, in an eminent sense. The preachers of the gospel, generally, are called "presbyters" or "elders," on account of the gravity and dignity of their office. Again, they are called overseers or bishops, because their duty is to watch over the church. Thus it is said,-Acts 20,-that Paul "sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church," and charged them: "Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers* (or bishops) to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."-They are also metaphorically styled " shepherds," or " pastors," in beautiful allusion to the gentle, fostering and benignant character of their office. 66 Servants," or "ministers" is another term used to characterize them. They are God's servants, because doing his work. They are the servants of the church, because rendering to it the most sacred and important services, like Christ, who 66 came not to be ministered unto, but to minister."

But is there no difference of rank among these preachers? None.-"Jesus called them unto him and said: Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."-This passage is decisive.

The argument which is drawn from the constitution of the Jewish church in favor of different grades of ministers in the Christian church, fails utterly; because the high priest, the priest, and the Levites are all merged, as we have seen, in Christ himself. Their office related to expiatory sacrifices: Christ, in his great and perfect expiation, was the end to which they all referred; and having made this expiation once, "he taketh away the first, that he may establish the second ;" and human

* Greek sníʊxonos, Latin episcopus-literally an overseergives Saxon biscop or bisceop, and thence Eng. bishop. This word is generally rendered bishop in our version. See Phil. 1: 1. 1 Tim 3: 2. Tit 1: 7.

priests can no more, with their different grades, appear in the Christian church, than the sacrifices "of bulls and of goats." The office of the prophet, we have seen, is the only ancient office which reappears; and among the prophets there was no variety of grades.

Conse

The argument that there were in the apostolical period three grades, namely, the apostles, the presbyters, and the deacons, is equally inapposite. To the apostles, we have shown, belonged only the higher form of the office of teacher or preacher-the inspired and strictly prophetic form. quently they can have no successors, only so far as they were simply preachers of the gospel; and in this point of view, every minister is a successor of the apostles. The second grade contended for, that of the presbyters, who are also called bishops, is the one only class of preachers in the church. The third grade, the deacons, are not preachers at all, by virtue of this office; for it plainly appears from their appointment, as given in Acts 6, that their duties related to the secular affairs and the charities of the church. Great reliance is placed upon Church History by those who advocate the three grades. It is affirmed that by appealing to this it can be shown that the successors of the apostles, after their day, were alone called bishops, and that presbyters and deacons were received as subordinate grades of the clergy.

Without entering into the details of historical criticism, which our present limits will not admit of, let it be remembered that Church History is not an ultimate authority on this subject, even if it goes to show, which we do not grant, that these three grades obtained in the church in the period immediately subsequent to the apostles. The simplicity and purity of Christ were early departed from, in doctrine, through the influence of prevailing philosophical systems, and the reflex influence of both Judaism and Paganism So likewise, in ecclesiastical polity, the old orders of the priesthood, so familiar to both Jew and Gentile, were eagerly at work to retain their substantial existtence under the new religion; and they went on, step by step, baptizing every successive development with Christian names, until a hierarchy was established, more magnificent and potent than the world had ever yet seen, and the seven hills of Rome trembled beneath the throne of the self-styled successor of St.. Peter and Christ's vicegerent.

Independently of the direct evidence against the divine insti

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