JUNE THE TWENTIETH

(See Forms of Prayer .) “JURE DIVINO.” By Divine right; an expre ion frequently occurring in controversial writings, especially in relation to the ministry of the Church. It is evident, and generally confe ed, that the right to minister in holy things is not in every man’s power. If it were so, the very idea of the ministry, as a distinct cla of men, empowered to act “in Christ’s stead,” would be broken up, and the Church would lose its character as a society ; for that implies the existence of officers and of subordination. It is also confe ed that in the Christian Church men are not born to the ministry, as they were under the Jewish dispensation. Whence, then, comes that authority with which the amba ador of Christ is invested? Is it human ? Can any body of men confer the power to rule and minister in a society, the full control of which is in the hands of the eternal God ? Most evidently not. Human power , or a commi ion 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. The Head of the Church established a ministry , with the right and ability to execute all its appointed functions. It was not intellectual eminence, or high station, or influence, wealth, courage, or any other human attribute, which brought into being “the glorious company of the apostles;” but it was the sovereign power alone of him “in whom dwelt all the fulne of the Godhead bodily.” And was this power to be recalled on the demise of those who were every day doomed to stripes, imprisonments, perils, and death in a you sand shapes? No; for either the Church for the future must fail, the sacraments be obliterated, the “watching for souls” be abolished, or the continuation of the sacred ministry must be demanded with all its original spiritual functions. To the apostles, therefore, was given, ( jure divi no ,) and to them alone, the ability to perpetuate or transmit the gift which the Redeemer had bestowed. From them the prerogatives of episcopacy (or apostolate) were communicated to younger men, including the transmi ive or ordaining faculty. Under these, the elders and deacons were put in trust with a share of the original grant of ministerial power,—a power they were themselves incapable of delegating; and by an unbroken succe ion, in the line of bishops, the Divine commi ion has reached these latter days of the Church. If then, as we have shown, Divine right is the only foundation on which the ministry can stand, there is no alternative left to any one claiming office in the Church of God , but to vindicate the legality of his mi ion by miracle , or some other tangible Divine verification, which no man can dispute; or else to bring forth such credentials as Timothy, Titus, and the ministers ordained by them had to show, viz. the simple evidence of the fact that the apostles, or their succe ors, had imparted to them the authority they claim to po e . This every bishop, priest, and deacon, in the Catholic Church, is prepared to do.