Presbyterianism [pp. 546-567]

Presbyterianism.
method of establishing the divine warrant for the office. He
laid stress on one argument, we on another. That is all.
As to the importance, nature, and divine institution of the
office, we are faithful to his instructions. And this we understand to be the ground which our respected contributor in the
April number of this Review intended to take. It is only as
to the point just indicated that we could sanction dissent from
the teachings of our venerated and lamented colleague.
Dr. Thornwell himself, in the last extremity, said that he did
not hold the new theory. Then he has no controversy with us,
nor we with him, so far as the eldership is concerned. The
dispute is reduced to a mere logomachy, if the only question is,
whether the ruling elder is a presbyter. Dr. Thornwell asked,
If he is not a presbyter, what right has he in the Presbytery?
You might as well, he said, put any other good man there. It
is on all sides admitted that in the New Testament the presbyters are bishops-how then are we to avoid the conclusion that
the ruling elder is a bishop, and therefore the same in office as
the minister, and the one as much a clergyman as the other?
This is the dilemma in which, as we understood, Dr. Thornwell
endeavoured to place Dr. Hodge, when he aked him, on the
floor of the Assembly, whether he admitted that the elder was
a presbyter. Dr. Hodge rejoined by asking Dr. Thornwell
whether he admitted that the apostles were deacons. He
answered, No. But, says Dr. Hodge, Paul says he was a
o:axovo;. 0, says Dr. Thornwell, that was in the general
sense of the word. Precisely so. If the answer is good in the
one case, it is good in the other. If the apostles being deacons
in the wide sense of the word, does not prove that they were
officially deacons, then that elders are presbyters in the one
sense, does not prove them to be presbyters in the other sense.
We hold, with Calvin, that the official presbyters of the New
Testament were bishops; for, as he says, "Quicumque verbi
ministerio funguntur, iis titulum episcoporum [Scriptura] tribuit." But of the ruling elders, he adds, "Gubernatores fuisse
existimo seniores ex plebe delectos, qui censuree morum et exercendoe discipline una cum episcopis proeessent." Institutio,
&c. IV. 3. 8. This is the old, healthful, conservative doctrine
of the Presbyterian church. Ministers of the word are clergy
[JULY