Divine commission

“ And that we may observe that it is Divine rather than human grace which operates in priests, of all those rods which Moses received from the tribes and laid by, the rod of Aaron alone budded, and thus the people perceived that the Divine commission is a gift which is to be looked for in a priest, and though they before thought that a similar prerogative belonged to themselves, they now ceased to claim the same privilege for a merely human election. ”

“ Your Lordship has the following paragraph. “God forbid, that in this profane and degenerate age, every thing that has an appearance of piety and devotion, should not be considered in the most favourable light that it is capable of. But at the same time, it is surely very proper, that men should be called upon for some reasonable evidences of a divine Commission.” ”

“ The divine commission to preach the gospel and heal the sick, never rightly could have been severed in twain, because they are only different sides of one Whole. By what authority is one part declared binding through ages and the other ignored? ”

“ If an Athanasian received a divine commission to prepare a Gospel,—a statement of the essentials of Christianity,—for the use of some unevangelized nation, he would not, we may presume, habitually represent the Son, in his very highest offices, as inferior to the Father, as destitute of independent power, as without underived knowledge, and possessed only of a secondary and awarded glory. ”

“ Human power, or a commission derived from human resources, is as void and inadequate in qualifying for the functions of the ministry, as it would be in the attempt to create a world, or to found a new rank in the hierarchy of heaven. We are driven then, at once, to the Divine institution as the foundation of all legitimate power in the Church. ”

“ All that one has to believe of the infinite and absolute, after he has established by evidence appropriate in the case the divine institution and commission of the church, he believes on the authority of the church herself. ”

“ I. The community of the faithful, or body of the people, have no authentic commission or grant of proper spiritual power for church government; and therefore they cannot possibly be the first subject or the proper immediate receptacle of such power from Christ. We may thus argue:
Major. Whomsoever Jesus Christ hath made the immediate receptacle or first subject of proper formal power for governing of his Church, to them this power is conveyed by some authentic grant or commission. ”

“ The sending of missionaries is dependent upon the zeal and liberality of the churches in our land. But how can one who is not sure that Jesus ever uttered the words of the Great Commission urge the churches to fulfil that command of Christ? How can one who has never felt his own need of an atonement adjure his brethren, by Christ's death for their sins, not to let the heathen perish? How can one who has had no experience of Christ as a present and divine Saviour, have power to stand against the rationalism and apathy of the church? ”

“ If no such commission be needful to distinguish those that have such power from those that have none, why may not all without exception, young and old, wise and foolish, men and women, Christian and heathen, &c., equally lay claim to this power of church government? ”

“ A positive grant of such power to select persons, viz. church officers, the Scripture mentions, as was evidenced in the proof of the major proposition. But touching any such grant or commission to the community of the faithful, the Scripture is silent. And let those that are for the popular power produce, if they can, any clear scripture that expressly, or by infallible consequence, contains any such commission. ”

“ And not only is the Church the depository of revealed truth; but she is also the depository of the divine authority; she, in organized capacity, holds as content the Holy Priesthood; and she has commission and agency to dispense the truth and administer through her instrumentalities all the ordinances of the gospel. ”

“ They may not administer the seals, the sacraments, baptize, &c. under the New Testament; for who gave the people any such authority? hath not Christ conjoined preaching and dispensing of the sacraments in the same commission, that the same persons only that do the one, may do the other? Matt. xxviii. 18, 19. 3. They may not ordain officers in the church, and authoritatively send them abroad: for, ordinarily the community have not sufficient qualifications and abilities for proving and examining of men's gifts for the ministry. ”

“ The characters divinely affixed to ministers, preachers, or heralds, ambassadors, stewards, watchmen, angels, messengers, brightly mark their call and commission to their work. The inspired rules for the qualifications, the election, the ordination of ministers, are divinely charged to be kept till the day, the second coming of Jesus Christ. For intermeddling with the sacred business without a regular call, has the Almighty severely punished numbers of men. ”

“ Jesus Christ committed immediately ecclesiastical power and the exercise thereof to his church guides. Thus we may argue:
Major. All those that have ecclesiastical power, and the exercise thereof, immediately committed to them from Jesus Christ, are the immediate subject or receptacle of that power.
For what makes any persons the immediate subject of power, but the immediate derivation and commission of power to them from Jesus Christ, who is the fountain of all power? ”

“ The ministerial commission is contained in, and conveyed by, the law of Christ, which is the charter of the church, and every true bishop or pastor hath his power from Christ, and not at all from the efficient conveyance of any mortal man: even as kings have their power not from man, but from God himself ”

“ What a glorious deliverance! It is worthy of God in every aspect of it, and in all its results. The poor blind slave, led captive by the devil, is set free; and not only so, but he is brought to God, pardoned, accepted, and endowed with an eternal inheritance among the sanctified. And all this is by faith, through grace. It is proclaimed in the gospel of God to every creature under heaven—not one is excluded. The great commission, whether we read it in Luke xxiv. or in Acts xxvi., assures us that this most precious, most glorious salvation is unto all. ”

“ Sir, you are often desired to remember the bounds of your commission from man, and not to exceed the same. I am confident you will make as much conscience not to be deficient in the discharge of your commission from Christ. But now, Sir, you have a commission from God and man together, to discuss that truth, That Christ is a king, and has a kingdom in the external government of his church, and that he has set down laws and offices, and other substantials thereof ”

“ He assures us that the preaching of the Cross is a sweet savor to His heart. Ought not all this to quicken our energies in the blessed work? Ought we not in every possible way to seek to carry out the gracious desire of the heart of God? Why are we so slow? Why so cold and indolent? Why so easily discouraged and repulsed? Why so ready to make excuses for not speaking to people about their souls?
There stands the great commission shining on the eternal page of inspiration in all its moral grandeur—its terms, its basis, its authority, its sphere! ”

“ Every minister and member of such institutions have need to repent, and be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins; and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, by the laying on of hands of those who have authority, in order to enter into the kingdom of God.
These ordinances, ministered by a legal Priesthood, being divinely appointed, are the only legitimate means by which man may receive and exercise these divine powers ”

“ Nor will the "Christian" world ever attain to any considerable degree of knowledge, power, or union in religious progress, until they discover their loss of this science, become sensible of the need of its restoration, and humble themselves as in the dust, and welcome a messenger who comes in the name of the Lord, with a commission from heaven, and with keys committed by the Angels of God—a new Apostolic commission, a restoration of the Kingdom and Church, and power and gifts of God ”

“ To every candid reader of the new testament, it is very plain, that it required a power adapted to the nature of the commission, to enable any person, to act on a commission received from the most High, whether that commission required them to travel into all the world, or whether it did not; the power given would be according to the work required. If a man or a number of men, were required to act in the office of evangelists, they would receive power, accordingly: or if to act in the office of apostles; their power would be proportionate to the work assigned to them. ”

“ And when a good natured minister carries out its rules, and “absolves the penitent from the censures which he has incurred by reason of his former errors schisms and heresy” (p. 75) , the commission of Christ is fulfilled. ”

“ These were the steps to be taken, this the rule to be followed, the fixed directions of the spirit of God, sealed by the blood of Christ, worldwide in its application, and to stand to the end of the world. No human power can abrogate, change or modify this commission of the Lord Jesus, this guidance of the Spirit; and I feel sure that no one can have a well-grounded assurance of citizenship in that kingdom until he has complied with the conditions presented in the blood-sealed commission of Jesus Christ, given under the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit. ”

“ The argument which we would, again and again urge, is, Whether the notion of the State commissioning the religious instructor is in harmony with the language of the New Testament? Does not the Christian mind at once revolt from the thought, That a ruler of this world can commission any as embassadors of the world’s Saviour? ”

“ Would God acknowledge the authority of a man who assumed to act under an old commission given to people who have laid in their graves some eighteen centuries? No. If we act in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in administering the great and sacred ordinance of baptism, we must be commissioned by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost to do this work, or else it would be blasphemy and wickedness in the extreme, not only in those who administer, but in those who suffer themselves to be deceived and receive the ordinance from their hands. ”

“ No council, convocation, conference, synod, or presbytery, composed of any number of learned, devout, and venerable persons, without divine communication can confer the smallest amount of divine authority. Their power is only human, their decisions, their commissions and their creeds are equally valueless in the plan of salvation. ”

“ Indeed no man can here make a new church officer of this intrinsic sort, without making him new work, which is to make new doctrine, or new worship (which are forbidden) : for to do God's work already made belongs to the office already instituted. If every king will make his own officers, or authorize the greater to make the less, none must presume to make Christ officers and churches without his commission.
17. No man must make any office, church, or ordinance, which is corruptive or destructive, or contrary or injurious to the offices, churches, and ordinances which Christ himself hath made. ”

“ And if we trace back the power of ordination from hand to hand, of course we shall come to the Apostles at last. We know we do, as a plain historical fact; and therefore all we, who have been ordained Clergy, in the very form of our ordination acknowledged the doctrine of the apostolical succession.
And for the same reason, we must necessarily consider none to be really ordained who have not thus been ordained. For if ordination is a divine ordinance, it must be necessary ”

“ Nothing is to us the subject of such ardent longing as to see both ourselves and the whole church deriving from this precious union the most salutary blessings. It has long been a serious matter of thought for us, and which, indeed, we communicated to several of the episcopal body, to hold an Œcumenical Council, in which, with the Divine assistance, our united counsels and solicitude should devise such efficient remedies as are necessary for the evils that afflict the church. ”

“ Then the various offices of the Priesthood began to be conferred upon men who believed, and in due time the quorum of the Twelve was organized, whose commission was to proclaim this Gospel to every people, to every nation, to every kindred, to every tongue. ”

“ Now, regarding the commission of the minister of the gospel,’ he continued, ‘I put a similar question to the affections, and receive from them a not less satisfactory reply. The God who gave the commission does inspire a love for him who truly bears it; ay, a love but even too engrossing at times, and that, by running to excess, defeats its proper end, by making the servant eclipse in the congregational mind the Master whose message he bears. ”

“ He hath power from Christ the master of the whole church; and therefore, wherever the master's authority is acknowledged, the servant's ministerial authority cannot be denied; at least in relation to that church, whereof he is a member as well as a minister. 2. He hath commission from Christ principally for the edification of Christ's body, as far as his ministry can reach, according to the second relation. 3. His relation to the whole church is principal, that which is fixed to a part is only subordinate, because it is a part of whole 4. ”

“ There are so many sides to missionary work, and who can tell which will result in the greatest good? To preach Christ and lift Him up that others may see and accept Him is undoubtedly the central thought of the Great Commission. ”

“ They were required by the apostles that received their commission by the laying on of the hands of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, and by the adherents of the religion that the apostles proclaimed and taught to the people, in their day and no man or set of men or class of people from the day of Adam to the present time, could comply with these requirements, except the people of God, as they were endowed with power from on high, which could proceed only from the Lord our God. ”