Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

SOME REMARKS

ON

BISHOP LIGHTFOOT'S DISSERTATION ON

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY

SECOND EDITION

ALSO

PROSPECTS OF RECONCILIATION BETWEEN
PRESBYTERY AND EPISCOPACY

A SYNODAL ADDRESS

DELIVERED SEPT. 19, 1882

BY

CHARLES WORDSWORTH, D.D., D.C.L.

BISHOP OF S. ANDREWS, ETC.

AND FELLOW OF WINCHESTER COLLEGE

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

MDCCCLXXXIV

121.e.1.

All Rights reserved

[blocks in formation]

PREFACE.

Or the two republications contained in this small volume, the former, which has been for some time out of print, first appeared in 1879, shortly before Dr Lightfoot had been elevated to the See of Durham; and in the short preface then prefixed to it, I explained that I had refrained, for the most part, from speaking of him in his episcopal character, because his Dissertation had been written many years previously, and I could not feel certain that his opinions, as expressed in it, had undergone no change in the interval. All occasion, however, for such reserve has been since removed-and accordingly, in this reprint I have freely given him the official designation he so justly bears-because a subsequent edition of his work on the Epistle to the Philippians, in 1881, contained a preface which I think it desirable to quote in full :

The present edition is an exact reprint of the preceding one. This statement applies as well to

the Essay on the Threefold Ministry as to the rest of the work. I should not have thought it necessary to be thus explicit, had I not been informed of a rumour that I had found reason to abandon the main opinions expressed in that Essay. There is no foundation for any such report. The only point of importance on which I have modified my views, since the Essay was first written, is the authentic form of the letters of St Ignatius. Whereas in the earlier editions of this work I had accepted the three Caretonian letters, I have since been convinced, as stated in later editions, that the seven letters of the short Greek are genuine. This divergence, however, does not materially affect the main point at issue, since even the Caretonian letters afford abundant evidence of the spread of Episcopacy in the earliest years of the second century.

"But, on the other hand, while disclaiming any change in my opinion, I desire equally to dísclaim the representations of those opinions which have been put forward in some quarters. The object of the Essay was an investigation into the origin of the Christian Ministry. The result has been a confirmation of the statement in the English ordinal,—' It is evident unto all men diligently reading the Holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been three orders of ministers in Christ's Church - Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.' But I was scrupulously anxious not to overstate

Preface.

the evidence in any case; and it would seem that partial and qualifying statements, prompted by this anxiety, have assumed undue proportions in the minds of some readers, who have emphasised them to the neglect of the general drift of the Essay."

[ocr errors]

The reader of the following Remarks' will be able, I hope, to judge how far the stumbling, which unquestionably has taken place over the teaching of the Bishop's Dissertation, is justly to be attributed to its author, and how far to those who have misunderstood and misinterpreted him.

With regard to the late Dean Stanley's share in the criticism which my 'Remarks' contain, it will not be out of place to mention what occurred on the last occasion when I had the pleasure of meeting him. It was at Megginch Castle in the summer of 1879. I was leaving the house after an early breakfast to return to St Andrews, when he followed me out at the hall-door and said: "I have been reading

[ocr errors]

with pleasure your 'Remarks on Lightfoot"-of which I had sent him a copy a few days before, but to which he had not previously alluded; "you are the kindest of controversialists; " and then taking me by both hands, as his manner was when more than commonly cordial, to bid farewell, he raised himself up, and just as I was about to step into the carriage, whispered in my ear, "We have not been quite fair to St James!" These were the last words I ever heard him speak.

« AnteriorContinuar »