THE SECOND HELVETIC CONFESSION
Evangelists, Prophets, Apostles, Bishops and Presbyters, Papal Orders,
Ordination and Calling, Priests and Priesthood of All Believers, Ministers,
Church Powers, Keys of the Kingdom, Ministerial Power, Ministerial Duties,
Discipline, and Synods
CHAPTER XVIII
Of The Ministers of The Church
Their Institution and Duties
GOD
USES MINISTERS IN THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. God has always used ministers for
the gathering or establishing of a Church for himself, and for the governing
and preservation of the same; and still he does, and always will, use them so
long as the Church remains on earth. Therefore, the first beginning,
institution, and office of ministers is a most ancient arrangement of God
himself, and not a new one of men.
INSTITUTION
AND ORIGIN OF MINISTERS. It is true that God can, by his power, without any
means join to himself a Church from among men; but he preferred to deal with
men by the ministry of men. Therefore ministers are to be regarded, not as
ministers by themselves alone, but as the ministers of God, inasmuch as God
effects the salvation of men through them.
THE
MINISTRY IS NOT TO BE DESPISED. Hence we warn men to beware lest we attribute
what has to do with our conversion and instruction to the secret power of the
Holy Spirit in such a way that we make void the ecclesiastical ministry. For it
is fitting that we always have in mind the words of the apostle: "How are
they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear
without a preacher? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes by the word
of God" (Rom. 10: 14, 17). And also what the Lord said in the Gospel:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives any one whom I send receives
me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me" (John 13:20).
Likewise a man of Macedonia, who appeared to Paul in a vision while he was in
Asia, secretly admonished him, saying: "Come over to Macedonia and help
us" (Acts 16:9). And in another place the same apostle said: "We are
fellow workmen for God; you are God's tillage, God's building" (I Cor.
3:9).
Yet,
on the other hand, we must beware that we do not attribute too much to
ministers and the ministry; remembering here also the words of the Lord in the
Gospel: "No one can come to me unless my Father draws him" (John
6:44), and the words of the apostle: "What then is Paul? What is Apollos?
Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted,
Apollos watered, but only God gives the growth" (I Cor. 3:5 ff.).
GOD
MOVES THE HEARTS OF MEN. Therefore, let us believe that God teaches us by his
word, outwardly through his ministers, and inwardly moves the hearts of his
elect to faith by the Holy Spirit; and that therefore we ought to render all
glory unto God for this whole favor. But this matter has been dealt with in the
first chapter of this Exposition.
WHO
THE MINISTERS ARE AND OF WHAT SORT GOD HAS GIVEN TO THE WORLD. And even from
the beginning of the world God has used the most excellent men in the whole
world (even if many of them were simple in worldly wisdom or philosophy, but
were outstanding in true theology), namely, the patriarchs, with whom he
frequently spike by angels. For the patriarchs were the prophets or teachers of
their age whom God for this reason wanted to live for several centuries, in
order that they might be, as it were, fathers and lights of the world. They
were followed by Moses and the prophets renowned throughout all the world.
CHRIST
THE TEACHER. After these the heavenly Father even sent his only-begotten Son,
the most perfect teacher of the world; in whom is hidden the wisdom of God, and
which has come to us through the most holy, simple, and most perfect doctrine
of all. For he chose disciples for himself whom he made apostles. These went
out into the whole world, and everywhere gathered together churches by the
preaching of the Gospel, and then throughout all the churches in the world they
appointed pastors or teachers according to Christ's command; through their
successors he has taught and governed the Church unto this day. Therefore, as
God gave unto his ancient people the patriarchs, together with Moses and the
prophets, so also to his people of the New Testament he sent his only-begotten
Son, and, with him, the apostles and teachers of the Church.
MINISTERS
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Furthermore, the ministers of the new people are called
by various names. For they are called apostles, prophets, evangelists, bishops,
elders, pastors, and teachers (I Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11).
THE
APOSTLES. The apostles did not stay in any particular place, but throughout the
world gathered together different churches. When they were once established,
there ceased to be apostles, and pastors took their place, each in his church.
PROPHETS.
In former times the prophets were seers, knowing the future; but they also
interpreted the Scriptures. Such men are also found still today.
EVANGELISTS.
The writers of the history of the Gospel were called Evangelists; but they also
were heralds of the Gospel of Christ; as Paul also commended Timothy: "Do
the work of an evangelist" (II Tim. 4:5).
BISHOPS.
Bishops are the overseers and watchmen of the Church, who administer the food
and needs of the life of the Church.
PRESBYTERS.
The presbyters are the elders and, as it were, senators and fathers of the
Church, governing it with wholesome counsel.
PASTORS
The pastors both keep the Lord's sheepfold, and also provide for its needs.
TEACHERS.
The teachers instruct and teach the true faith and godliness. Therefore, the
ministers of the churches may now be called bishops, elders, pastors, and
teachers.
PAPAL
ORDERS. Then in subsequent times many more names of ministers in the Church
were introduced into the Church of God. For some were appointed patriarchs,
others archbishops, others suffragans; also, metropolitans, archdeacons,
deacons, subdeacons, acolytes, exorcists, cantors, porters, and I know not what
others, as cardinals, provosts, and priors; greater and lesser fathers, greater
and lesser orders. But we are not troubled about all these about how they once
were and are now. For us the apostolic doctrine concerning ministers is
sufficient.
CONCERNING
MONKS. Since we assuredly know that monks, and the orders or sects of monks,
are instituted neither by Christ nor by the apostles, we teach that they are of
no use to the Church of God, nay rather, are pernicious. For, although in
former times they were tolerable (when they were hermits, earning their living
with their own hands, and were not a burden to anyone, but like the laity were
everywhere obedient to the pastors of the churches), yet now the whole world
sees and knows what they are like. They formulate I know not what vows; but
they lead a life quite contrary to their vows, so that the best of them
deserves to be numbered among those of whom the apostle said: "We hear
that some of you are living an irregular life, mere busybodies, not doing any
work" etc. (II Thess. 3:11). Therefore, we neither have such in our
churches, nor do we teach that they should be in the churches of Christ.
MINISTERS
ARE TO BE CALLED AND ELECTED. Furthermore, no man ought to usurp the honor of
the ecclesiastical ministry; that is, to seize it for himself by bribery or any
deceits, or by his own free choice. But let the ministers of the Church be
called and chosen by lawful and ecclesiastical election; that is to say, let
them be carefully chosen by the Church or by those delegated from the Church
for that purpose in a proper order without any uproar, dissension and rivalry.
Not any one may be elected, but capable men distinguished by sufficient
consecrated learning, pious eloquence, simple wisdom, lastly, by moderation and
an honorable reputation, according to that apostolic rule which is compiled by
the apostle in I Tim., ch. 3, and Titus, ch. 1.
ORDINATION.
And those who are elected are to be ordained by the elders with public prayer
and laying on of hands. Here we condemn all those who go off of their own
accord, being nether chosen, sent, nor ordained (Jer., ch. 23). We condemn
unfit ministers and those not furnished with the necessary gifts of a pastor.
In
the meantime we acknowledge that the harmless simplicity of some pastors in the
primitive Church sometimes profited the Church more than the many-sided, refined
and fastidious, but a little too esoteric learning of others. For this reason
we do not reject even today the honest, yet by no means ignorant, simplicity of
some.
PRIESTHOOD
OF ALL BELIEVERS. To be sure, Christ's apostles call all who believe in Christ
"priests," but not on account of an office, but because, all the
faithful having been made kings and priests, we are able to offer up a
spiritual sacrifices to God through Christ (Ex. 19:6; I Peter 2:9; Rev. 1:6).
Therefore, the priesthood and the ministry are very different from one another.
For the priesthood, as we have just said, is common to all Christians; not so
is the ministry. Nor have we abolished the ministry of the Church because we
have repudiated the papal priesthood from the Church of Christ.
PRIESTS
AND PRIESTHOOD. Surely in the new covenant of Christ there is no longer any
such priesthood as was under the ancient people; which had an external
anointing, holy garments, and very many ceremonies which were types of Christ,
who abolished them all by this coming and fulfilling them. But he himself
remains the only priest forever, and lest we derogate anything form him, we do
not impart the name of priest to any minister. For the Lord himself did not
appoint any priests in the Church of the New Testament who, having received
authority from the suffragan, may daily offer up the sacrifice that is, the
very flesh and blood of the Lord, for the living and the dead, but ministers
who may teach and administer the sacraments.
THE
NATURE OF THE MINISTERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Paul explains simply and briefly
what we are to think of the ministers of the New Testament or of the Christian
Church, and what we are to attribute to them. "This is how one should
regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God" II
Cor. 4:1). Therefore, the apostle wants us to think of ministers as ministers.
Now the apostle calls them rowers, who have their eyes fixed on the coxswain,
and so men who do not live for themselves or according to their own will, but
for others--namely, their masters, upon whose command they altogether depend.
For in all his duties every minister of the Church is commanded to carry out
only what he has received in commandment from his Lord, and not to indulge his
own free choice. And in this case it is expressly declared who is the Lord,
namely, Christ; to whom the ministers are subject in all the affairs of the
ministry.
MINISTERS
AS STEWARDS OF THE MYSTERIES OF GOD. Moreover, to the end that he might expound
the ministry more fully, the apostle adds that ministers of the Church are
administrators and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now in may passages,
especially in Eph., ch. 3, Paul called the mysteries of God the Gospel of
Christ. And the sacraments of Christ are also called mysteries by the ancient
writers. Therefore for this purpose are the ministers of the Church
called--namely, to preach the Gospel of Christ to the faithful, and to
administer the sacraments. We read, also, in another place in the Gospel, of
"the faithful and wise steward," whom "his master will set over
his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time"
(Luke 12:42). Again, elsewhere in the Gospel a man takes a journey in a foreign
country and, leaving his house, gives his substance and authority over it to
his servants, and to each his work.
THE
POWER OF MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH. Now, therefore, it is fitting that we also
say something about the power and duty of the ministers of the Church.
Concerning this power some have argued industriously, and to it have subjected
everything on earth, even the greatest things, and they have done so contrary
to the commandment of the Lord who has prohibited dominion for this disciples
and has highly commended humility (Luke 22:24 ff.; Matt. 18:3 f.; 20:25 ff.).
There is, indeed, another power that is pure and absolute, which is called the
power of right. According to this power all things in the whole world are
subject to Christ, who is Lord of all, as he himself has testified when he
said: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me"
(Matt. 28:18), and again, "I am the first and the last, and behold I am
alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Hades and Death" (Rev. 1:18);
also, "He has the key of David, which opens and no one shall shut, who
shuts and no one opens" (Rev. 3:7).
THE
LORD RESERVES TRUE POWER FOR HIMSELF. This power the Lord reserves to himself,
and does not transfer it to any other, so that he might stand idly by as a
spectator while his ministers work. For Isaiah says, "I will place on his
shoulder the key of the house of David" (Isa. 22:22), and again, "The
government will be upon his shoulders, but still keeps and uses his own power,
governing all things.
THE
POWER OF THE OFFICE AND OF THE MINISTER. Then there is another power of an
office or of ministry limited by him who has full and absolute power. And this
is more like a service than a dominion.
THE
KEYS. For a lord gives up his power to the steward in his house, and for that
cause gives him the keys, that he may admit into or exclude from the house
those whom his lord will have admitted or excluded. In virtue of this power the
minister, because of his office, does that which the Lord has commanded him to
do; and the Lord confirms what he does, and wills that what his servant has
done will be so regarded and acknowledges, as if he himself had done it.
Undoubtedly, it is to this that these evangelical sentences refer: "I will
give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven" (Matt. 16:19). Again, "If you forgive the sins of any, they
are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John
20:23). But if the minister does not carry out everything as the Lord has
commanded him, but transgresses the bounds of faith, then the Lord certainly
makes void what he has done. Wherefore the ecclesiastical power of the
ministers of the Church is that function whereby they indeed govern the Church
of God, but yet se do all things in the Church as the Lord has prescribed in
his Word. When those things are done, the faithful esteem them as done by the
Lord himself. But mention has already been made of the keys above.
THE
POWER OF MINISTERS IS ONE AND THE SAME, AND EQUAL. Now the one and an equal
power or function is given to all ministers in the Church. Certainly, in the
beginning, the bishops or presbyters governed the Church in common; no man
lifted up himself above another, none usurped greater power or authority over his
fellow-bishops. For remembering the words of the Lord: "Let the leader
among you become as one who serves" (Luke 22:26), they kept themselves in
humility, and by mutual services they helped one another in the governing and
preserving of the Church.
ORDER
TO BE PRESERVED. Nevertheless, for the sake of preserving order some one of the
ministers called the assembly together, proposed matters to be laid before it,
gathered the opinions of the others, in short, to the best of man's ability
took precaution lest any confusion should arise. Thus did St. Peter, as we read
in The Acts of the Apostles, who nevertheless was not on that account preferred
to the others, nor endowed with greater authority than the rest. Rightly then
does Cyprian the Martyr say, in his De Simplicitate Clericorum:
"The other apostles were assuredly what Peter was, endowed with a like
fellowship of honor and power; but [his] primacy proceeds from unity in order
that the Church may be shown to be one."
WHEN
AND HOW ONE WAS PLACED BEFORE THE OTHERS. St. Jerome also in his commentary
upon The Epistle of Paul to Titus, says something not unlike this: "Before
attachment to persons in religion was begun at the instigation of the devil,
the churches were governed by the common consultation of the elders; but after
every one thought that those whom he had baptized were his own, and not
Christ's, it was decreed that one of the elders should be chosen, and set over
the rest, upon whom should fall the care of the whole Church, and all
schismatic seeds should be removed." Yet St. Jerome does not recommend
this decree as divine; for he immediately adds: "As the elders knew from
the custom of the Church that they were subject to him who was set over them,
so the bishops knew that they were subject to him who was set over them, so the
bishops knew that they were above the elders, more from custom than from the
truth of an arrangement by the Lord, and that they ought to rule the Church in
common with them." Thus far St. Jerome. Hence no one can rightly forbid a
return to the ancient constitution of the Church of God, and to have recourse
to it before human custom.
THE
DUTIES OF MINISTERS. The duties of ministers are various; yet for the most part
they are restricted to two, in which all the rest are comprehended: to the
teaching of the Gospel of Christ, and to the proper administration of the
sacraments. For it is the duty of the ministers to gather together an assembly
for worship in which to expound God's Word and to apply the whole doctrine to
the care and use of the Church, so that what is taught may benefit the hearers
and edify the faithful It falls to ministers, I say, to teach the ignorant, and
to exhort; and to urge the idlers and lingerers to make progress in the way of
the Lord. Moreover, they are to comfort and to strengthen the fainthearted, and
to arm them against the manifold temptations of Satan; to rebuke offenders; to
recall the erring into the way; to raise the fallen; to convince the gainsayers
to drive the wolf away from the sheepfold of the Lord; to rebuke wickedness and
wicked men wisely and severely; no to wink at nor to pass over great
wickedness. And, besides, they are to administer the sacraments, and to commend
the right use of them, and to prepare all men by wholesome doctrine to receive
them; to preserve the faithful in a holy unity; and to check schisms; to
catechize the unlearned, to commend the needs of the poor to the Church, to
visit, instruct, and keep in the way of life the sick and those afflicted with
various temptations. In addition, they are to attend to public prayers of
supplications in times of need, together with common fasting, that is, a holy
abstinence; and as diligently as possible to see to everything that pertains to
the tranquility, peace and welfare of the churches.
But
in order that the minister may perform all these things better and more easily,
it is especially required of him that he fear God, be constant in prayer,
attend to spiritual reading, and in all things and at all times be watchful,
and by a purity of life to let his light to shine before all men.
DISCIPLINE.
And since discipline is an absolute necessity in the Church and excommunication
was once used in the time of the early fathers, and there were ecclesiastical
judgments among the people of God, wherein this discipline was exercised by
wise and godly men, it also falls to ministers to regulate this discipline for
edification, according to the circumstances of the time, public state, and
necessity. At all times and in all places the tule is to be observed that
everything is to be done for edification, decently and honorably, without
oppression and strife. For the apostle testifies that authority in the Church
was given to him by the Lord for building up and not for destroying (II Cor.
10:8). And the Lord himself forbade the weeds to be plucked up in the Lord's
field, because there would be danger lest the wheat also be plucked up with it
(Matt. 13:29 f.).
EVEN
EVIL MINISTERS ARE TO BE HEARD. Moreover, we strongly detest the error of the
Donatists who esteem the doctrine and administration of the sacraments to be
either effectual or not effectual, according to the good or evil life of the
ministers. For we know that the voice of Christ is to be heard, though it be
out of the mouths of evil ministers; because the Lord himself said:
"Practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do"
(Matt. 23:3). We know that the sacraments are sanctified by the institution and
the word of Christ, and that they are effectual to the godly, although they be
administered by unworthy ministers. Concerning this matter, Augustine, the
blessed servant of God, many times argued from the Scriptures against the
Donatists.
SYNODS.
Nevertheless, there ought to be proper discipline among ministers. In synods
the doctrine and life of ministers is to be carefully examined. Offenders who
can be cured are to be rebuked by the elders and restored to the right way, and
if they are incurable, they are to be deposed, and like wolves driven away from
he flock of the Lord by the true shepherds. For, if they be false teachers,
they are not to be tolerated at all. Neither do we disapprove of ecumenical
councils, if they are convened according to the example of the apostles, for
the welfare of the Church and not for its destruction.
THE
WORKER IS WORTHY OF HIS REWARD. All faithful ministers, as good workmen, are
also worthy of their reward, and do not sin when they receive a stipend, and
all things that be necessary for themselves and their family. For the apostle
shows in I Cor., ch. 9, and in I Tim., ch. 5, and elsewhere that these things
may rightly be given by the Church and received by ministers. The Anabaptists,
who condemn and defame ministers who live from their ministry are also refuted
by the apostolic teaching.
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