EPISCOPALIAN AND PRESBYTERIAN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11090, 18 April 1898, Page 3

EPISCOPALIAN AND PRESBYTERIAN.

TO THE F.DITOH. . Sik, —This matter being much to tte front just now, aud being of such interest to so many among us, a friendly exposition of principles on each side need not necessarily be hurtful to either. Preabyterianism, 1 rspoat, can only bs found in tbe New Testament by ignoring the ordinary episcopal rule of the Apo^fcies over the churches therein named, of which Clement; of Roma said " they took tie fitst fruits of their presetting to be bishops and deacons" uiider them. St. Panl's words imply episcopal rule whers he says j that upon the top of »U his other troubles came daily "tbe care of all the churches." There is also a clear indication of episcocal rule in. the openißg chapters of St. John's Revelation, so much so that the lsatnsd Grotius, who was by birth and education a Presbjterian. said: "Tbe divine Apocalypse furnishes an irrefutable argument that episcopacy has been by divine right." The governing position over elders and deacons in Which St. Paul placed Timothy and Titus also, and the fact that the Apostle* hj»d coadjutors in their ordinary episcopal rule o? the churches, tvhorn St. Paul in more places than one calls " Apostlei," completes a view of a threefold ministry in the New Testament church easily discerned. As regards the Didache, the higher orders of apostles and prophets arc named, well as bishops and dsacons. But even were it not so ths silsnee oh this point would fell no more against the real bishops existing elsewhere than the sr.uie silence respecting the npistjss of St. Paul and St., John's Gospel therein tell against the existence of these scriptures at the time elsewhere; or. than hia giving only about bis out of 30 Scripture quotations literally correct proves that our present 6acred text is wrong or untrue. And as for the silence of Clement and Poljxarp, it is enough to reply that these were contemporary with Ignatiu*, who, together with Polycarp, wae a pupil of St. John, and that the writings of th,is Ignatius taught by St. John prove beyond all question, as shown by the very learaed Lighbfoofc, that episcopacy was from apostolic limes. And Irenceus, the pupil of Ignatius, says : " AYe can reckon up those who wereftppoinled bishops by the Apostles, and theirsnecessors to our own day." Every gcholar who has written on the subject admits as indisputable the clear threefold ministry of bishops, priests, and deasona from about the time of St. John's death, aud as no coupcil or canon ordered this Universally received ministry it "must needs have been received," as St. Augustine says, "from the very Apostles themselves." Oar Scriptures, our Sunday, and our episcopacy all rest with the same apostolic authority, xach being fully developed in practice as need and opportunity arose. Calvin said : " The episcopacy^ came j forth from God ; the office af a bishop Waa appointed by the authority of God." Beza said : " If there be any who reject the whoio order oi bishops let no one of a sans mind assent to the frenzies of such men." Grotius also said; "The list of bishops given by Irerjeas, Eusebius, and Socrates prove that the epis copacy had its beginning in apostolic times " j and he advised the continental reformers who repeatedly declared that they "greatly desired to conserve the order," to send cerfcaii ..elect persons from among themselves to -bi couscorated "bishops by the Archbishop o: Ireland," the false doctrines and harsh treat nient of the bishops around them making ob'edl ■ euce to them no longer endurable, so they said I have read of some written evidence by Johi v Knox to the same effect in his case; but an unable to turn to the words or authority. : Now. Sir, with such, scholars as Grotius, Bezs, Calvin, Mosheim, Gibbon, Usher, Light foot, Stanley, Edersheim, Patrick, Geikie,,.the grenter.number of whom were learned Presbyterians, and with the. hundreds of brilliaut intellects who have adorned the English Church, having inquired into the episcopacy and found its roots in apostolic times, and also with the ever-increasing stream of patristic testimony from the beginning of the second century onward to the episcopacy as of God, the bitter cry lately raißed among us against the mention of this universally attested teaching and practice ot .the Church of Christ is very.pitiful and; amusing. -And Dr Watt has the grim satisfaction of knowing that ths drift and teaching of his lecture on the " Apostolic Succession," intended for his ycung ministers, and old ones too, contradicts the whole stream of Christian testimony and tho universal practice of the ohurch from St. "John's day to that of Knox and Luther. Besides, note hifl insidious mode of bringing tho holy office into contempt by the light fanner in which he spoke of its special administrations, and by the comparisons he made of it and of a certain specific to be tested in case of a plague. It is a pity Dr -Watt did not make himself better acquainted with the teaching of our Boo!: of Common Prayer before this rude intrusion within its lines. : t Strange—isn't it ?—to what unhallowed depths prejndiee will drag us ! Dr Watt's winding-op of his lecture on "Apostolic Succession" is built upon falselyconceived premises, which, I think, may be fairly put in this way : Episcopacy is a specific tried by some to bring forth healthy spiritual families. Marriage is also a specific tried by some to bring forth healthy natural families. Episcopal spiritual families are often poor we&kliDga compared with the robuat life of nonnpiscopal spiritual fsmilissj So are natural families by lawful marriage often sickly weaken ga compared with the robust, handeorna offspring of illegitimacy.' Therefore the episcopal specific and the marriage specific may and ought to equally go, as families as large and handsome and strong in ft spiritual and in a natural sense respectively can be raised, and their apparent respective purposes iv life be as effectively fulfilled in the one way as the other. Logic, isn't it? And if Dr Wfltt and those who think with him will only read the " Evolution of Marriage " and one or two other works I might name, they might gee as wide room for the total abrogstion of all marriage laws as they do for that of the universal marriage law of the episcopacy with Christianity.—l am, kc... April 14. Reason Why.