Sacred office

“ Theirs is one of the most laborious and responsible offices in the whole Church; it is an office which requires men of the best skill, judgment and talent, to fill, and is one of the greatest importance. ”

“ It is not with us as viewed by the world generally, that there is something so very honorable in office, for we have learned that in order that any office in the government of the Church and kingdom might be made honorable, the office itself must be honored, and that, too, by faithfully complying with the laws of God governing it. Then it is a high honor conferred upon man from the Lord, and the Twelve so appreciate it. ”

“ It is my office, reverend fathers, to administer justice, without respect to persons; to suppress the rebellious; to punish the sacrilegious; to protect the poor and weak from the hand of the oppressor. It is my business also to take care that the Church and her ministers, the holy fraternities of the religious orders, have all things necessary to their subsistence and well-being. But it is your duty to examine into the life and conversation of the clergy. ”

“ Let us settle it in our minds that the ministerial office is a most wise and useful provision of God. It secures the regular maintenance of all Christ’s ordinances and means of grace. It provides an undying machinery for promoting the awakening of sinners and the edification of saints. All experience proves that everybody’s business soon becomes nobody’s business; and if this is true in other matters, it is no less true in the matter of religion. ”

“ Then come the Twelve Apostles, who, in connection with the President and his Councillors, form a High Council, from whose decision there is no appeal. They may be regarded, therefore, as the masters in this system of slavery. Then come the Seventies (who are travelling missionaries) , high-priests, elders, bishops, teachers, and deacons. One of the most cunning things about the organization is the large number of office-holders. There are over 23,000 officers reported as belonging to the Church—that is, one out of [Pg 132] every three men holds an office either of honor or emolument. ”

“ The more elaborate the organization of a church is, the larger is the number of preferments to offices, and greater the opportunity given to office seekers to make these the first things. The [Pg 13] best men in any church are not always those who hold its highest offices. ”

“ The office of King, as head of the Church, is a clerical office—the crown both of the Church and the State; and, for the sustentation of its true splendour and dignity, the man or woman filling the office should be the first scholar and most wise and virtuous being of the Nation. Whether this is a principle to be conveyed by hereditary descent, I do not stop to enquire; but the true hereditary principle of church office is talent and moral character ”

“ For nothing makes a man more bold than a good conscience in the upright and faithful discharge of our duties in our callings; innocency and integrity make brave spirits; such with great confidence and boldness serve Christ and the church, being men that may be trusted to the uttermost. Now where God thus approves or commends the well managing of an office, he also divinely approves and allows the office itself, and the officer that executes the same.92
SECTION II.
2. Of the first receptacle, or subject of the power of church government from Christ, viz. Christ's own officers. ”

“ There ought to be an earnest desire of the office in those who would be put into it; if a man desire, he should earnestly desire it for the prospect he has of bringing greater glory to God, and of doing the greatest good to the souls of men by this means. This is the question proposed to those who offer themselves to the ministry of the church of England: "Do you think you are moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this office?" ”

“ The priests and monks held the pen for the king. Representatives of the clergy sat in the king's councils and acted as his ministers; in fact, the conduct of the government largely devolved upon them. [146]
Offices in the Church open to all classes.
The offices in the Church were open to all ranks of men, and many of the popes themselves sprang from the humblest classes. The Church thus constantly recruited its ranks with fresh blood. No one held an office simply because his father had held it before him, as was the case in the civil government. ”

“ Also the second part should defend the common people from tyrants, oppressors, and extortioners: and maintain the Clergy, doing truly their office, in preaching, teaching, praying, and freely ministering the Sacraments of Holy Church. And if this Clergy be negligent in doing this office, this second part of the Church ought, by their office that they have taken of GOD, to constrain the Clergy in due wise, to do their office in the form that GOD hath ordained to be done. ”

“ The public prayer of the Church may be looked upon as the public act of the whole body of the Church. Those who by their Rule, approved by the Church, are charged with saying the Office, whether it be the Divine Office or the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, say it as public officers of the Church, who officially stand before the throne of God and make intercession for the whole body of Christ’s Church. When performing this duty, even when alone, they cease to be private individuals ”

“ Note, Those that are employed in any office in the church ought to be men of honest report, of a blameless, nay, of an admirable character, which is requisite not only to the credit of their office, but to the due discharge of it. Secondly, They must be full of the Holy Ghost, must be filled with those gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost which were necessary to the right management of this trust. ”

“ This is the truthful account of what really occurred with respect to this memorable event, and as it was ascertained by a consulta of the Holy Office, presided over by the cardinal prefect himself. The Holy Office is most severe in its inquisition of the truth, and, though it well knows that the Divine presence never leaves His Church, it is most scrupulous in its investigations whenever any miraculous interposition is alleged. ”

“ We, the Latter-day Saints, profess to have received from God the fullness of the everlasting Gospel; we profess to be in possession of the holy Priesthood—the delegated authority of God to man, by virtue of which we administer in its ordinances acceptably to him ”

“ We claim to have in our midst the same Priesthood and authority which existed in the ancient Church, and the same power characterizes the administrations of that Priesthood. Men are called from the plow, they are called from the carpenter's bench, from the shoemaker's bench, from the office of the accountant, from the merchant's store, and from any of the other vocations of life by the authorities of the Church, and when the selections are made their names are called out in this conference that the voice of the people may be given by which to endorse the selections which are thus made. ”

“ To bring back the clergy to that exact uniformity with respect to doctrines, rites, and ceremonies, from which the lenity of his predecessor had suffered them in many instances to recede, appeared to the new -111-
-vol ii-primate the first and most essential duty of his office; and the better to enforce obedience, he eagerly demanded to be armed with that plenitude of power which her majesty as head of the church was authorized to delegate at her pleasure. ”

“ Or, if we are called to fill an office we should not feel at liberty to neglect its responsibilities and sit down and do nothing. The idea is that we are to magnify our office and calling, no matter what its duties may be.
Then, there are certain duties devolving upon the Bishops, and also upon the Presidents of Stakes. And, then, the Twelve, wherever they may be located, have also their particular duties, and especially is this the case in the present organization of the Church; the Twelve occupying the position of the First Presidency. ”

“ But these are not considered Scriptural church officers; deacons might properly discharge all the functions of these offices. [2]
Note 9.—The offices of trust and service in a church should be as widely distributed among the [p. 17] members as possible, consistently with the welfare of the body. This rule should seldom be disregarded. No one man should hold more than one office at the same time, unless the interests of the body absolutely demand it. If offices are honors, they should be widely dispensed; if they are burdens, they certainly should be. ”

“ What can be more formidable than to stand between the living and the dead, charged with the priestly office, to give account for the souls committed to our trust? The Fathers call it an office which angels fear to bear. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We take upon us willingly priesthood, but we do not fulfil and do the works and office of priesthood.' And immediately after he saith, 'We are fallen unto outward affairs and business, for we take upon us one office for honour's sake, and we do exhibit and give another to ease ourselves of labour. ”

“ Then the community, that generally are unable to judge of the fitness and sufficiency of presbyters for the pastoral office, in point of necessary gifts of learning, &c., shall, without judicious satisfaction herein by previous examination, ordain men notwithstanding to the highest ordinary office in the church. ”

“ When the people come to sufficient understanding, we shall not put the onerous task upon one man to act both as President and Bishop, but we will give you a full organization of helps, governments, &c.; but at present we shall take a course to confine the offices of the Church in such a manner as to give the least cause for contention and trouble. There are men who have a contentious disposition; they will contend against a Bishop, a Magistrate, a Judge, or any man holding an office; in short, they wish to destroy every power in Heaven and on earth that they do not hold themselves. ”

“ According to the decrees of the venerable fathers, let no one be chosen to govern churches, a burden formidable to the shoulders even of angels, save those who are most worthy of the office : qui maxime digni. ”

“ For the work of the ministry; that men might be qualified and informed and be full of intelligence, wisdom and light, and learn to proclaim the principles of eternal truth and to bring out from the treasury of God things new and old, things calculated to promote the welfare of the people. Now, then, these offices having been placed in the Church, every man ought to be respected in his office. I know some of you think we can respect some, and some we cannot respect ”

“ A blessed office,—one which is confined to no sect or creed, but which good men in all times, under various names and with varying ministries, to suit the need of each age, of each race, of each individual soul, have come forward to discharge for their suffering fellow-creatures. ”

“ Take any man in this kingdom, and if the people say that they will make him a President or a Bishop, or elect him to fill any other office, and the faith of the people is concentrated to receive light through that officer or pipe laid by the power of the Priesthood from the throne of God, you might as well try to move the heavens as to receive anything wrong through that conductor. No matter whom you elect for an officer, if your faith is concentrated in him through whom to receive the things which he is appointed to administer in, light will come to you. ”

“ What has his Lordship been doing so many years, in professing to confer the Holy Ghost by imposition of hands on so many ministers, saying unto them, “Receive the Holy Ghost by imposition of our hands,” if there are none of those assistances from the Blessed Spirit to be expected now, which were conferred when our Saviour first spoke these words to his disciples? How can his Lordship in conscience make use of the ordination office? ”

“ For he cannot worthily performe the office of the chiefe Doctor of the whole Church, and heavenly Prophet, nor execute the office of an eternall high Priest, that is, offer a Sacrifice truly propitiatory, daily heare the prayers of all his people, and present them before God; nor exercise kingly power and authority in heaven and earth, who worketh to the forme of meere humanitie, or onely as he is man: When in those offices there must be a divine excellencie and efficacie. ”

“ Nearly all the evils in the Church have arisen from bishops desiring POWER more than LIGHT. They want authority, not outlook. Whereas their real office is not to rule; though it may be vigorously to exhort and rebuke: it is the king's office to rule; the bishop's office is to OVERSEE the flock ”

“ From this point of view there is nothing to be added to make us esteem and love our Office. No one who knows what it is can hesitate in putting it far above any private devotion; for nothing can compare with it, save and except the Mass, with which it is so closely connected. The Office and the Mass form but one whole, and one can understand the Office only when it is studied in the light of the Altar ”

“ Hereby, finally, the community of the faithful (being accounted the proper subject of the power of the keys) have authority and power not only to elect, but also to ordain their own officers, their pastors and teachers. And this they of the independent judgment plainly confess in these words:40 Though the office of a pastor in general be immediately from Christ, and the authority from him also, yet the application of this office, and of this authority to this elect person, is by the church ”