Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

The Exigency of Truth.
Orders? . It is not too much to say that, beyond
the Primacy of Order, there is not one single
privilege which has not been fiercely denied all
along ;
claim of the Primacv, which is
\j J
so singularly
stronor as regards the three Orders, is here so
&
weak, that Dean Mohler tells us he was very
lorn" doubtful about it. and had even decided to
c^
deny it. He tells us, moreover, that the whole
13
while the Aiite-Nicene testimony to the
constitution of the Early Church was such as
to make the Primacy appear out of place. In
fact the sum of his argument seems to be that
the existence of the Primacv is a reason for
*/
believing it to be of Divine origin, for there is
O o /
no other way of accounting for its continuance.
i/
It is not any part
of my design to review the
until it
subsequent history of the Primacy
developed into its present very gigantic propor
tions. That fraud was had recourse to is now
freely admitted on all sides ; but this seems to
afford no more reason for denying the original
right than the fraud of Jacob could be supposed
to invalidate his claim to the birthright and the
blessing, which were prophetically made over to
him whilst still a babe in his mother s womb.
Bishops, in the West .at least, rule almost despot
ically, contrary to the practice
in the Primitive
Church, where they never took any important step
except with the counsel and aid of their Pres
byters ; but we should not therefore be justified