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Show AN OGDEN PREACHER ON "AUTHORITY. "AU-THORITY. An Ogden minister when preaching last Sunday served, "on the side," to his hearers, a delightful tid-bit of anti-Komish mush. "It is monstrous." he exclaimed, "that any man should arrogate to himself the right . or authority to stand between God and the individual soul. This authority, no church, but the Roman church, ever claimed to possess." pos-sess." Waiving the confusionof the terms "man" and ''church," we are of the opinion that the reverend rev-erend gentleman assumes something to be a fact which is not a fact. No theologian of the Catholic Cath-olic church teaches that the "right of absolution" is inherent in the man. It belongs to his priesthood priest-hood and is delegated in the sacrament of ordination. ordina-tion. St. Paul tells us very plainly that this high authority conferred upon him did not depend upon anything inherent to himself ; it is simply delegated: delegat-ed: "Who then, is Paul, and who is Apollo, but the ministers of Him in whom you have believed." In a word the question of authority is entirely distinct from tho personality of any priest or minister and ought not to be confounded with it. Every accredited Protestant church claims to possess the right and the authority from God to impart in ordination to its andidate the power to absolve from sin. And the rituals of these churches insist that this "authority to absolve from sin" is not only an integral, but an essential part of or dination. . This may surprise the Ogden minister, but when we prove that which we assert, may we ask him to notice the confusion between the doctrine cf St. Paul, the creed of the churches and the practice of the preachers. The Protestant Episcopal church puts this delegated dele-gated authority in the very forefront of her services, serv-ices, when she ordains that, "the absolution or re- ' f mission of sins, is to be pronounced by the priest alone standing,- the people still kneeling. " And she carries out the terms of her own service in these words, "And He hath given power and commandment command-ment to His ministers to declare and pronounce to Hjs people, being penitent, the absolution and remission re-mission of their sins." What is this but the rankest brand of Romanism ? There must be the voice of authority somewhere, and that authority must be clear, distinct and unequivocal ; hence the Anglican church lays it down that: "It is not lawful for any man to take upon himself the office of public preaching, or ministering the sacraments before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same." Now, let us turn for a moment and hoar what our Presbyterain friends have to say on this important im-portant subject Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 30: "The Lord J esus as King and Head of His Church, hath therein appointed a government in the hand of the church officers, distinct from the civil magistrate. To these officers the keys of the knigdom of Heaven are committed, by virtue whereof they have power respectively to retain and remit sins, to shut that kingdom against the impenitent, im-penitent, both by the word and censure, and to open it unto penitent sinners, by the ministry of the gospel, and by absolution from censures." This confession supports its position by precisely the same texts Catholic controversialists quote in proofs of the absolving power of the priesthood. The Ordinal of the Methodist church follows very much that of th Anglican or Protestant Episcopal ; in fact it is in all essential features identical. Here, then, we have the recognition of the Divine assurance of the perpetuity of office, of the absolving power, acknowledged and claimed by the representative sects of Great Britain and America. This authority of office can never be abrogated abrogat-ed or nullified, unless, indeed, we are prepared to deny the validity of the promise of our Lord that the "gates of hell" cannot prevail against His church. To doubt the Divine assurance would be to question the divinity of Christ, and cast discredit dis-credit on the work of human redemption. The promises of our Redeemer to safeguard His church are like: "The unwritten and the enduring laws of God, Which are not of today or yesterday, But live from everlasting." Her foundations are upon Holy hills ; the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings dwell-ings of Jacob. |