iritual Officers of the
Church,"--meaning, by Officers, merely People in office,--we shall have
a title safe enough and general enough to begin with, and corresponding
too, pretty well, with St. Paul's general expression [Greek:
proistamenoi], in Rom. xii. 8, and 1 Thess. v. 13.

Now, respecting these Spiritual Officers, or office-bearers, we have to
inquire, first, What their Office or Authority is, or should be?
secondly, Who gave, or should give, them that Authority? That is to say,
first, What is, or should be, the _nature_ of their office? and
secondly, What the _extent_, or force, of their authority in it? for
this last depends mainly on its derivation.

195. First, then, What should be the offices, and of what kind should be
the authority, of the Clergy?

I have hitherto referred to the Bible for an answer to every question. I
do so again; and, behold, the Bible gives me no answer. I defy you to
answer me from the Bible. You can only guess, and dimly conjecture, what
the offices of the Clergy _were_ in the first century. You cannot show
me a single command as to what they shall be. Strange, this; the Bible
gives no answer to so apparently important a question! God surely would
not have left His word without an answer to anything His children ought
to ask. Surely it must be a ridiculous question--a question we ought
never to have put, or thought of putting. Let us think of it again a
little. To be sure,--It _is_ a ridiculous question, and we should be
ashamed of ourselves for having put it:--What should be the offices of
the Clergy? That is to say, What are the possible spiritual necessities
which at any time may arise in the Church, and by what means and men are
they to be supplied?--evidently an infinite question. Different kinds of
necessities must be met by different authorities, constituted as the
necessities arise. Robinson Crusoe, in his island, wants no Bishop, and
makes a thunderstorm do for an Evangelist. The University of Oxford
would be ill off without its Bishop; but wants an Evangelist besides;
and that forthwith. The authority which the Vaudois shepherds need is of
Barnabas, the Son of Consolation; the authority which the city of London
needs is of James, the Son of Thunder. Let us then alter the form of our
question, and put it to the Bible thus: What are the necessities most
likely to arise in the Church? and may they be best met by different
men, or in great part by the same men acting in diffe