Burnet on Article XXIII: Of Ministering in the Congregation

WE have two particulars fixed in this Article: The First is against any that shall assume to themselves, without a lawful Vocation, the authority of dispencing the things of God: The Second is, the defining in very general Words, what it is that makes a lawful Call. As to the First, it will bear no great difficulty: We see in the old Dispensation, that the Family, the Age, and the Qualifications of those that might serve in the Priesthood, are very particularly set forth. In the New Testament our Lord called the Twelve Apostles, and sent them out: He also sent out upon another occasion Seventy Disciples: And before he left his Apostles, He told them, that as his Father had sent him, so he sent them: ¹ Which seems to Import, that as he was sent into the World with this, among other Powers, that he might send others in his Name; so he likewise empowered them to do the same: And when they went planting Churches. as they took some to be Companions of Labour with themselves, so they appointed others over the particular Churches in which they fixed them: Such were Epaphras or Epaphroditus at Colosse, Timothy at Ephesus, and Titus in Crete. To them the Apostles gave Authority: Otherwise it was a needless thing to write so many directions to them, in order to their conduct. They had the Depositum of the Faith,² with which they were chiefly entrusted: Concerning the succession in which that was to be continued, we have these Words of St. Paul, The things which thou hast heard of me, among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful Men, ³ who shall be able to teach others also. To them directions are given, concerning all the different Parts of their Worship: Supplications, Prayers, Intercessions and giving of thanks; and also the keeping up the decency of the Worship, and the not suffering of Women to Teach; like the Women Priests among the Heathen, who were believed to be filled with a Bacchick Fury. To them are directed all the Qualifications of such as might be made, either Bishops or Deacons: They were to examine them according to these, and either to receive or reject them. All this was directed to Timothy, that he might know how he ought to behave himself in the house of God. ⁴ He had Authority given him to Rebuke and Entreat, to Honour and to Censure. He was to Order what Widows might be received into the Number and who should be refused. He was to receive Accusations against Elders or Presbyters according to directed Methods, and was either to Censure some, or to lay Hands on others as should agree with the Rules that were set him: And in conclusion he is very solemnly charged,⁵ to keep that which was committed to his Trust. He is required rightly to divide the word of truth, to preach the word, to be instant in season and out of season, to reprove, rebuke and exhort, and to do the work of an Evangelist, and to make full proof of his ministry. Some of the same things are charged upon Titus, whom St. Paul had left in Crete to set in order the things that were wanting, ⁶ and to ordain Elders in every City: Several of the Characters by which he was to try them are also set down: He is charged to rebuke the people sharply, and to speak the things that became sound doctrine: He is instructed concerning the Doctrines which he was to Teach, and those which he was to Avoid; and also how to Censure an Heretick: He was to admonish him twice, ⁷ and if that did not prevail, he was to reject him, by some publick Censure.

These Rules given to Timothy and Titus do pl[?]inly Import, that there was to be an Authority in the Church; and that no Man was to assume this Authority to himself; according to that Maxim, that seems to be founded on the Light of Nature, as well as it is set down in Scripture, as a standing Rule agreed to in all Times and Places: No Man taketh this honour to himself, ⁸ but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.

St. Paul in his Epistles to the Romans and Corinthians did reckon up the several Orders and Functions,⁹ that God had set in his Church, and in his Epistle to the Ephesians, he shews that these were not transient but lasting Constitutions: For there as he reckons the Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers, as the Gifts which Christ at his Ascension had given to Men; so he tells the Ends for which they were given: For the perfecting the Saints (by Perfecting seems to be meant the initiating them by Holy Mysteries; rather than the compacting or putting them in joint: For as that is the proper Signification of the Word, so it being set first, the other things that come after it make that the strict Sense of Perfecting, that is, Compleating does not so well agree with the Period,) for the work of the Ministry (the whole Ecclesiastical or Sacred Services,) for the edifying the Body of Christ (to which instructing, exhorting, comforting, and all the other Parts of Preaching may well be reduced) and then the duration of these Gifts is defined, ‘Till we all come in the Vnity of the Faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man. This seems to Import the whole State of this Life.

We cannot think that all this belonged only to the Infancy of the Church; and that it was to be laid aside by her, when she was farth[?]r advanced: For when we consider that in the Beginnings of Christianity, there was so liberal an Effusion of the Holy Spirit, poured out upon such great Numbers, who had very extraordinary Credentials, Miracles, and the Gift of Tongues, to prove their Mission; it does not seem so necessary, in such a Time, or rather for the sake of such a Time only, to have setled those Functions in the Church, and that the Apos[?]les should have ordained Elders in every Church. Those extraordinary Gifts that were then,¹⁰ without any authoritative Settlement, might h[?]ve served in that Time, to have procured to Men so qualified all due Regards. We have therefore much better Reason to Conclude, that this was setled at that Time, chiefly with respect to the following Ages; which as they were to fall off from that Zeal and Purity that did then reign among them, so they would need Rule and Government, to maintain the Unity of the Church, and the Order of sacred Things. And for that Reason chiefly we may conclude, that the Apostles setled Order and Government in the Church, not so much for the Age in which they themselves lived, as once to establish and give credit to Constitutions, that they foresaw would be yet more necess[?]ry to the succeeding Ages.

This is confirmed by that which is in the Epistle to the Hebrews, both concerning those who had ruled over them, and those who were then their Guides.¹¹ St. Peter gave directions to the Elders of the Churches to whom he writ, how they ought both to feed and govern the flock; and his charging them not to do it out of Covetousness, or with Ambition; insinuates that either some were beginning to do so, or that in a Spirit of Prophecy he foresaw that some might fall under such Corruptions: This is hint enough to teach us, that though such things should happen, they could furnish no Argument against the Function: Abuses ought to be corrected, but upon that pretence the Function ought not to be taken away.

If from the Scriptures we go to the first Writings of Christians, we find that the main subject of St. Clemens and St. Ignatius Epistles is to keep the Churches in order and union; in subjection to their Pastors, and in the due subordination of all the Members of the Body one to another. After the first Age the thing grows too clear to need any further proof. The Argument for this from the standing Rules of Order, of Decency, of the Authority in which the Holy things ought to be maintained, and the care that must be taken to repress Vanity and Insolence, and all the extravagancies of light and ungoverned Fancies, is very clear. For if every Man may assume Authority to Preach and Perform Holy Functions, it is certain Religion must fall into disorder and under contempt: Hot-headed Men of warm Fancies, and voluble Tongues, with very little knowledge and discretion, would be apt to thrust themselves on to the Teaching and Governing others, if they themselves were under no Government. This would soon make the publick Service of God to be loathed, and break and dissolve the whole Body.

A few Men of livelier Thoughts, that begin to set on foot such ways, might for some time maintain a little credit, yet so many others would follow in at that breach which they had once made on publick Order, that it could not be possible to keep the Society of Christians under any method, if this were once allowed. And therefore those who in their heart hate the Christian Religion, and desire to see it fall under a more general contempt, know well what they do, when they encourage all those Enthusiasts that destroy order; hoping by the credit which their outward appearances may give them, to compass that which the others know themselves to be too obnoxious to hope that they can ever have credit enough to persuade the World to. Whereas those poor deluded Men do not see what Properties the others make of them. The Morals of Infidels shew that they hate all Religions equally, or with this difference, that the stricter any are, they must hate them the more; the root of their quarrel being at all Religion and Virtue. And it is certain, as it is that which those who drive it on, see well, and therefore they drive it on, that if once the publick Order and the National Constitution of a Church is dissolved, the strength and power, as well as the order and beauty of all Religion will soon go after it: For humanly speaking, it cannot subsist without it.

I come in the next place to consider the Second Part of this Article, which is the Definition here given of those that are lawfully Called and Sent: This is put in very general words, far from that Magisterial stiffness in which some have taken upon them to dictate in this matter. The Article does not resolve this into any particular Constitution, but leaves the matter open and at large, for such accidents as had happened, and such as might still happen. They who drew it had the state of the severalChurches before their Eyes that had been differently reformed, and although th[?]ir own had been less forced to go out of the beaten path than any other, yet they knew that all things among themselves had not gone according to those Rules that ought to be sacred in Regular times. Necessity has no Law, and is a Law to it self.

This is the difference between those things that are the means of Salvation, and the Precepts that are only necessary, because they are Commanded. Those things which are the means, such as Faith, Repentance, and new Obedience, are indispensable; they oblige all Men, and at all times alike; because they have a natural influence on us, to make us fit and capable Subjects of the Mercy of God: But such things as are necessary only by virtue of a Command of God, and not by virtue of any real Efficiency which they have to reform our Natures, do indeed oblige us to seek for them, and to use all our endeavours to have them. But as they of themselves are not necessary in the same order with the first, so much less are all those methods necessary in which we may come at the regular use of them. This distinction shall be more fully enlarged on when the Sacraments are Treated of. But to the matter in hand; That which is simply necessary, as a mean to preserve the Order and Union of the Body of Christians, and to maintain the Reverence due to holy things, is, that no Man enter upon any part of the holy Ministry, without he be Chosen and Called to it, by such as have an Authority so to do; that, I say, is fixed by the Article. But Men are left more at liberty as to their Thoughts concerning the subject of this lawful Authority.

That which we believe to be Lawful Authority, is that Rule which the Body of the Pastors, or Bishops and Clergy of a Church, shall settle, being met in a Body under the due Respect to the Powers that God shall set over them: Rules thus made, being in nothing contrary to the Word of God, and duly executed by the particular Persons to whom that care belongs, are certainly the Lawful Authority. Those are the Pastors of the Church, to whom the care and watching over the Souls of the People is committed; and the Prince, or Supreme Power, comprehends virtually the whole Body of the People in him: Since according to the Constitution of the Civil Government, the Wills of the People are understood to be concluded by the Supreme, and such as are the subject of the Legislative Authority. When a Church is in a state of Persecution under those who have the Civil Authority over her, then the People, who receive the Faith, and give both protection and encouragement to those that labour over them; are to be considered as the Body that is Governed by them. The natural effect of such a state of things, is to satisfy the People in all that is done, to carry along their consent with it, and to consult much with them in it. This does not only arise out of a necessary regard to their present circumstances, but from the Rules given in the Gospel, of not Ruling as the Kings of the several Nations did; nor lording it, or carrying it with a High Authority over God’s Heritage (which may be also rendred over their several lots or portions.) But when the Church is under the Protection of a Christian Magistrate, then he comes to be in the stead of the whole People; for they are concluded in and by him; he gives the Protection and Encouragement, and therefore great regard is due to him, in the exercise of this Lawful Authority, in which he has a great share, as shall be explained in its proper place. Here then we think this Authority is rightly lodged and set on its proper Basis.

And in this we are confirmed, because by the Decrees of the first General Councils, the concerns of every Province were to be setled in the Province it self: and it so continued till the Usurpations of the Papacy broke in every where, and disordered this Constitution. Through the whole Roman Communion the chief Jurisdiction is now in the Pope; only Princes have laid checks upon the extent of it; and by Appeals the Secular Court takes Cognizance of all that is done, either by the Pope or the Clergy. This we are sure is the effect of Usurpation and Tyranny: Yet since this Authority is in fact so setled, we do not pretend to Annul the Acts of that Power, nor the Missions or Orders given in that Church; because there is among them an Order in Fact, though not as it ought to be in Right. On the other hand, when the Body of the Clergy comes to be so Corrupted, that nothing can be trusted to the Regular decisions of any Synod or Meeting, called according to their Constitution, then if the Prince shall select a peculiar Number, and commit to their care the Examining and Reforming both of Doctrine and Worship, and shall give the Legal Sanction to what they shall offer to him; we must confess that such a Method as this runs contrary to the established Rules, and that therefore it ought to be very seldom put in practice; and never, except when the greatness of the occasion will balance this Irregularity that is in it. But still here is an Authority both in Fact and Right; for if the Magistrate has a Power to make Laws in Sacred Matters, he may order those to be prepared, by whom, and as he pleases.

Finally, if a Company of Christians find the publick Worship where they live to be so defiled that they cannot with a good Conscience join in it, and if they do not know of any place to which they can conveniently go, where they may Worship God purely, and in a regular way; if, I say, such a Body finding some that have been Ordained, though to the lower Functions, should submit it self intirely to their Conduct, or finding none of those, should by a common Consent, desire some of their own Number to Minister to them in Holy things, and should upon that beginning grow up to a Regulated Constitution, though we are very sure that this is quite out of all Rule, and could not be done without a very great Sin, unless the necessity were great and apparent; yet if the Necessity is real and not feigned, this is not Condemned nor Annulled by the Article; for when this grows to a Constitution, and when it was begun by the Consent of a Body, who are supposed to have an Authority in such an extraordinary case, whatever some hotter Spirits have thought of this since that time; yet we are very sure, that not only those who Penned the Articles, but the Body of this Church for above half an Age after, did notwithstanding those Irregularities, acknowledge the Foreign Churches so Constituted, to be true Churches as to all the Essentials of a Church, though they had been at first irregularly formed, and continued still to be in an imperfect state. And therefore the general words in which this part of the Article is framed, seem to have been designed on purpose not to exclude them.

Here it is to be considered, that the High Priest among the Iews was the chief Person in that Dispensation; not only the chief in Rule, but he that was by the Divine Appointment to Officiate in the chief act of their Religion, the yearly Expiation for the Sins of the whole Nation; which was a solemn renewing their Covenant with God, and by which Atonement was made for the Sins of that People. Here it may be very reasonably suggested, that since none besides the High Priest might make this Atonement, then no Atonement was made, if any other besides the High Priest should so Officiate. To this it is to be added, that God had by an express Law fixed the High Priesthood in the Eldest of Aaron’s Family; and that therefore, though that being a Theocracy, any Prophet empowered of God might have transferred this Office from one Person, or branch of that Family to another; yet without such an Authority, no other Person might make any such change. But after all this, not to mention the Maccabees, and all their Successors of the Asmonean Family, as Herod had begun to change the High Priesthood at pleasure, so the Romans not only continued to do this, but in a most mercenary manner, they set this sacred Function to sale. Here were as great Nullities in the High Priests that were in our Saviour’s time, as can be well imagined to be. For the Iews keeping their Genealogies so exactly as they did, it could not but be well known in whom the Right to this Office rested; and they all knew, that he who had it, purchased it, yet these were in Fact High Priests; and since the People could have no other, the Atonement was still performed by their Ministry. Our Saviour owned Caiaphas the Sacrilegious and Usurping High Priest,¹² and as such he Prophesied: This shews that where the necessity was real and unavoidable, the Iews were bound to think that God did, in consideration of that, dispense with his own Precept. This may be a just inducement for us to believe, That whensoever God by his Providence brings Christians under a visible necessity, of being either without all Order and joint Worship, or of joining in an unlawful and defiled Worship, or finally, of breaking through Rules and Methods, in order to the being United in Worship and Government; that of these Three, of which one must be chosen, the last is the least Evil, and has the fewest Inconveniences hanging upon it, and that therefore it may be chosen.

Our Reformers had also in view two famous Instances in Church-History of Lay-men that had Preached and Converted Nations to the Faith: It is true they came, as they ought to have done, to be regularly Ordained, and were sent to such as had Authority so to do. So Frumentius preached to the Indians, and was afterwards made a Priest and a Bishop by Athanasius. The King of the Iberians before he was Baptised himself, did Convert his Subjects; and as, says the Historian, he became the Apostle of his Country before he himself was Initiated. It is indeed added, that he sent an Embassy to Constantine the Emperor, desiring him that he would send Priests for the further establishment of the Faith there.

These were regular practices; but if it should happen that Princes or States should take up such a jealousy of their own Authority, and should apprehend that the suffering their Subjects to go elsewhere for Regular Ordinations, might bring them under some dependance on those that had Ordained them; and give them such influence over them, that the Prince of such a Neighbouring and Regular Church, should by such Ordinations have so many Creatures, Spies, or Instruments in their own Dominions; and if upon other Political reasons, they had just cause of being jealous of that, and should thereupon hinder any such thing; in that case, neither our Reformers, nor their Successors for near Eighty Years after those Articles were published, did ever question the Constitution of such Churches.

We have reason to believe that none ought to Baptise but Persons Lawfully Ordained, yet since there has been a practice so universally spread over the Christian Church, of allowing the Baptism not only of Laicks, but of Women to be Lawful, though we think that this is directly contrary to the Rules given by the Apostles; yet since this has been in fact so generally received and practised, we do not Annul such Baptisms, nor Rebaptise Persons so Baptised; though we know that the original of this bad practice was from an Opinion of the indispensable necessity of Baptism to Salvation. Yet since it has been so generally received, we have that regard to such a common practice, as not to Annul it, though we Condemn it. And thus what Thoughts soever private Men, as they are Divines, may have of those Irregular steps, the Article of the Church is conceived in such large and general Words, that no Man by Subscribing it, is bound up from freer and more comprehensive Thoughts.

Footnotes

1. John [?].2[?]. ↩

2. 2 Tim. 1.13. ↩

3. 2 Tim. 2.2. 1 Tim. 2.1, 2, 3. 1 Tim. 2.12. 1 Tim. [?]. c. ↩

4. 1 Tim. 3.15. 1 Tim. [?] 1, 3, 17, 19, 22. ↩

5. 1 Tim. 6.20. 2 Tim. 2.15 2 Tim. 4.2, 5. ↩

6. Tit. 1.5, 9, 13. ↩

7. Tit. 3.10. ↩

8. Heb. 5.4. ↩

9. Rom. 12.6, 7, 8. 1 Cor. 12.28. Eph. 4.11, 12, 13, 16. ↩

10. Acts 14.23. ↩

11. Heb. 13.7, 17. 1 Pet. 5.2, 3. ↩

12. John 11.51.18.22, 23. ↩