1889 Watch Tower - A2Z.org

clerical prerogative of conveying that right, are to be had at thefountain-head at Rome--that from Rome all these things werederived, and that at Rome they all flourish in native splendor,inimitable in any other communion--he must naturally incline togo direct to the fountain-head for that which he had been falselytaught is a part of Christianity. Neither can we doubt that Poperyis triumphing now through this obvious process of thought; for Iprofess not to understand how, admitting the clerical characterand prerogatives obtainable by clerical ordination, it is possibleto rest content with the imperfect and borrowed orders of theChurch of England. "If there is a link out ofR1129 : page 7the chain, it seems to matter very little whether it is wanting atone end or the other," the Anglican priest remarks, incommenting on the "orders" of the dissenters, forgetting that heis himself a dissenter from the mother church, and that itbelongs to that church alone to use such a reproof, which isapplicable to every Protestant that tampers with "the apostolicalsuccession."As, then, preaching justification by faith without works, that is,asserting that he who does not work, but instead of workingbelieves in that God who justifies ungodly persons, is the onlymethod of meeting Rome in her doctrinal power, so the assertionof liberty of ministry for all believers is the only method ofmeeting Rome's pretensions to clerical pre-eminence, apretension before which all must succumb who in any wayacknowledge the clerical order. There is no medium, no restingplacefor a candid inquirer between the two extremes--theministry of the Spirit as revealed in the Word of God, or humanministry as exhibited by the ancient Church of Rome. Eithertake liberty of ministry for all the saints, from the supernal andfree Jerusalem, "the mother of us all;" or, rejecting this, thenaccept the clerical order from Rome, the mother of all clerisy,and the mistress of all ecclesiastical bondsmen.Let not these remarks, however, be interpreted as belonging tothe controversy between the Roman Catholics and theProtestants. That controversy enters not, I trust, into any part ofthis inquiry, which, as it professes to be an examination of theScriptures, for the purpose of vindicating certain Scripturaltruths of deep value to the Church of God, can only incidentallytouch on the divisions of professing Christendom. In vain willwe seek for either Papist or Protestant in the New Testament, orfor their churches under any name, or any representation.In God's Word we find only two antagonistic sects: that of theworld and that of grace; known also by the names of thechildren of the devil and the children of God; of the sons ofdarkness and the sons of light; the body of Christ and thechildren of wrath. But wherever we find the principles of this