The True Test of an Apostolical Ministry [pp. 292-306]

True Test of an Apostoliceal ffinistry.
complete in writing, and incapable of either diminution or increase. The test then here established is a test of easy application, and referring to a standard of comparison already fixed,
and fixed for ever. Our next remark upon it is, that it takes
precedence of all other tests. It either includes them as its
parts, or excludes them as its opposites. This is a circumstance
of great importance, since the practical utility of such a test would
be impaired if not destroyed, if its condemning judgments were
reversible by an appeal to other standards. That this is not
the case, will be apparent from a brief consideration of some
other tests which might appear to claim at least equality with
this, and which have sometimes been insisted on, to its exclusion.
The first of these is the criterion of a valid ministry afforded
by personal character and qualifications, such as talent, learning, eloquence, apparent piety, and blameless life. But it is a
historical fact, which will not be denied, that men possessing
all these attributes have sometimes preached a gospel differing
from that which Paul once preached to the Galatians; not in
minor points alone, but in essential principles, and that so doing
they fell within the sweep of this divine anathema, and thereby
lost all claim to the obedience and the confidence of other
Christians.
Another test proposed by some is immediate intercourse
with God, and the reception of direct communications from him.
But would the fact of such communications, even if admitted,
place the person who enjoyed them in a better situation, with
respect to this rule, than was held by an inspired apostle, or
an angel from heaven? If these preached another gospel, they
were to be treated as accursed. What, then, could a pretended,
or even a real inspiration now avail to exempt any from subjection to the same inexorable law?
A third test, which has been contended for with greater zeal
than either of the others, is that afforded by external connexion
with particular societies or churches, claiming a direct and
unbroken ministerial succession from the Apostles. Let us
grant the existence of such a succession, and the possibility of
proving it, and thus allow the advocates of this test an advantage which by no means is their due. Even with this gratui
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