CATECHISM OF TRENT. 89 this priesthood was instituted by the Lord our Saviour, and that to his Apostles, and their successors in the priesthood, the power was given to consecrate, offer, and minister his body and blood, and also to remit and retain sins." The Catechism of Trent says, that the office of the priest is "To offer sacrifice to God. The bishop, and after him the priests who may be present, impose hands on the candidate for the priesthood. He (the bishop) next anoints his hands with sacred oil, reaches him a chalice containing wine, and a patina with bread, saying— 'Receive power to offer sacrifice to God, and to celebrate mass, as well for the living as the dead, &c., &c."" These extracts show the Papists' views of the sacrifice of the mass-that power is given to the priests, that the Lord's table is elevated into an altar, and the bread and wine transmuted into a real sacrifice. Now let us hear what a divine of the present day says: .... "Now it is of first-rate importance that we consider Christ as withdrawn only from the eye of sense, and therefore present as truly, after a spiritual manner, with his church as when, in the day of humiliation, he moved visibly upon earth. . . . . . He has provided, by keeping up a succession of men who derive authority in unbroken series from the first teachers of the faith, for the continued preaching of the word and administration of his sacraments. And thus he (Christ) has been all along the great minister of his church, delegating power to inferior ministers..... You have no right, when you sit down in 90 ULTRA VIEWS OF VALID MINISTRATION. the sanctuary, to regard the individual who addresses you as a mere public speaker..... He is an ambassador from the great Head of the Church, and derives an authority from this Head which is quite independent of his own worthiness. And though there be a great deal preached in which you cannot recognize the voice of the Saviour, and though the sacraments be administered by hands which seem impure enough to sully their sanctity, yet we venture to assert, that no man who keeps Christ steadfastly in view, as the minister of the true tabernacle, will ever fail to derive profit from a sermon, or strength from a communion. The ordained preacher is a messenger-a messenger from the God of the whole earth. His mental strength may be weak-that is nothing. His speech may be contemptible-that is nothing. His knowledge may be circumscribed-we say not-that is nothing; but we say that, whatever the man's qualification, he must rest upon his office. When every thing seems against them, so that, on a carnal calculation, you would suppose the services of the Church stripped of all efficacy, then, by acting faith on the Head of the Ministry, they are instructed and nourished, though, in the main, the given lesson be falsehood, and the proferred sustenance little better than poison. Christ, though removed from visible demonstration, has yet so close a concernment with all the business of the sanctuary-uttering the word, sprinkling the water, and breaking the bread to all the members of his mystical body, that He must emphatically be styled " a minister of holy things-of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.' .""*-Thus poison then becomes food! and Error nourishes as much as evangelic Truth.!!! * See "Sermons by Henry Melville, A.M.," pp. 44, 48. ASSUMPTIONS OF PUSEYITES. 91 Similar to the above are the following sentiments in the Preface to Vol. II. of "Tracts." "The sacraments are in the hands of the clergy." "Their efficacy is independent of the personal character of the administrator." The following also is language contained in “Tracts for the Times," No. 7, where the writer says"A person not commissioned from the bishop may use the words of baptism and sprinkle with the water, but there is no promise from Christ that such a man should admit souls into the kingdom of heaven. A man not commissioned from a bishop may pretend to give the Lord's Supper, but it can afford no comfort to any who receive it at his hands. And as far as the person who takes upon himself, without warrant to minister in holy things, he is all the while treading in the steps of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Remember, then, it is only the having received this commission from the bishop that can give any security that the ministration of the word and sacraments shall be effectual to the saving of your souls. The DISSENTERS have it not." Thus it appears, then, were we to believe those extracts just quoted from Popish and Puseyistic authorities, that true priesthood and apostolical succession are indispensibly necessary to valid ministration in the true sanctuary. And in the utterance of these bold and untenable 92 UNBROKEN SPIRITUAL DESCENT ASSERTED. assumptions there is a lofty dogmatism and a positivity of style perfectly astounding in these Tractarian teachers. What they lack in sound scriptural argument they make up in bold and unsupported assertions. They awe the timid by their audacity—they puzzle the illiterate with their sophistry and vain parade of patristic learning, whilst they entrap the incautious by their disputatious logomachy. As an illustration of these remarks, listen to the language of Dr. Hook. "The prelates who, at this time, rule the churches of these realms, were validly ordained by others, who, by means of an UNBROKEN SPIRITUAL descent of ordination, derived their mission from the Apostles and from our Lord. This continued descent is evident to every one who chooses to investigate it. Let him read the catalogues of bishops, ascending up to the most remote period. Our ordinations descend in a direct unbroken line from Peter and Paul, the Apostles of the circumcision, and the Gentiles. 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."* As loftily and as summarily also *See "Two Sermons, by Dr. Hook, Leeds, 1837," pp. 7 and 8, when he says, in another place, "Unless Christ be spiritually present with the ministers of religion SCRIPTURE DISCOUNTENANCES THE CLAIM. 93 are the same claims asserted in the following extract in No. 7 of the Oxford Tracts :-" As to the fact of the apostolical succession, (says the writer) that is, that our present bishops are the heirs and representatives of the Apostles by successive transmission of the prerogative of being so, this is too notorious to require proof." All this is much sooner said than satisfactorily and indisputably proved. And, in flat contradiction to this pretended claim of apostolic succession, we assert Scripture entirely discountenances it. 1. We say scripture discountenances the claim. In order satisfactorily to support the theory of the Oxford Tractarians, it ought to be by them indisputably shown that there was a successional character in the apostolate. In direct antago in their services, those services will be vain. But the only ministrations in which He has promised his presence is, to those of the bishops who are successors of the first commissioned Apostles, and the other clergy, acting under their sanction and by their authority." Where does the Vicar of Leeds find that one exclusive promise to the bishops and clergy, as by him asserted to have been made by Jesus Christ? Where? Oh, BIGOTRY! hide thy frowning face, or speak less boastingly of thy own particular party. |