The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1882-01-14

e succession without which you have yo,l
IS self no valid Ministry is indentic:
J. with that of the English Church beyon
!, John Wesley, so that you must stand c
}, fall with her. And I have tried to ou
e line few of the facts which show ths
/ the English Church does not derive he
k succession from Rome or the Pope. Thu
q far | have spoken only of q succession
: but the Apostolic Succession relates no
: simply to succession of clergymen, bu
D to q succession of Apostles. To under
: stand this it is necessary to distinguish
| between a succession Of Bishops in an,
+ one see, and succession by conservation
For instance, Mr.. r. was your predeces
| sor in your pastorate here, and he was
say, the tenth or twentieth in the sue
cession OF the pastorate. Soyourcongre
cation would trace back its succession o
pastors by one line OF names beginnins
with your own while you would trace
, back your ordination by another line O
names. In our Church these lists are
separately kept, that is, the lists Of Bish
ops in each See, and, the lists by conse
Grafton. As to the first. the records are
| plain, the lists are iatact: and it is as
| idle to deny that We have true lists o1
the succession OF Bishops from the Apos-
es, as to deny any other fact which can
at once be established by the production
of the testimony. The lists are within
| the reach of anyone who wishes to pay a
dollar or two for the book containing
them Ny own copy is at the service Of
any o1te who wishes to see it and would
publish the list here, were there space
enough, and were the editor disposed to
admit some dry columns of names, dates
and authorities.
Now the lists of succession by conse-
Grafton can be constructed from these, if
one has the patience to search them out,
for every Bishop has the names of his
consecrators appended to his own when
entered in registry. For instance sup
pose it was the custom among the Metho-
dists for every separate church to keep
record of its various Ministers in success
sion, and suppose thatwhen each name
was entered on the list there was appen-
ded to it the names OF the persons who
ordained that man. Then on the books
of your congregation would be your
name followed by the names of those
who ordained you. Just above your name
would be that OF your predecessor with
the names of his ordainers and SO on.
Manifestly, while this list would give the
succession OF pastors of this church clear
back to the beginning, it would not give
the succession by ordination beyond one
step back for each man. To trace your
own succession by ordination, it would
be necessary to take some one name Of
your ordainers, find out what church he
was pastor Of, 60 there and obtain per-.
mission to read its records to see who
were his ordainers. This process
would have to be repeated for each name
in the whole succession. To trace sue
cession back in this way is matter of
very great difficulty. 1t is possible that
upon reading the books of the church OF
which one of your ordainers was pastor,
you would find that careless church
clerk had neglected to put down the
names Of your ordainer's ordainers, your
only recourse then would be to find some
other church of which he had been pas
tor, and look there. Should it happen
that he had but the one church, and
that you could get no information from
other sources, you would then be baf-
fled in his line, and would have to try
that of one Of your other ordainers. But
it would never enter your mind that he ]
had not been ordained, for you know |
that your church would never have per-
mitted him to exercise his Office unless
he had been certainly ordained and had
witnesses to prove the fact. Now it has
been the law of The Church from the
earliest days that not less than three
Bishops unite to consecrate one. So
each Bishop has three links next to him
self, then nine in the second row, twen-
,y-seven in the third, eighty-one in the
ourth, etc. Soon it becomes not chain
out web of chain armour. The fact
hat single links here and there are
doubtful in some respects, does not in
he slightest degree affect the strength OF
he whole web. 1t is simply impossible
hat there should be a break in such a
uccession, for SO it has been brought
lown from the first. 1t is like the par
'ntal succession-each man had two par
nts four grandparents, eight great-grand /.
PARENTS, etc. To one who knows the facts
las examined the records and gained
ome real knowledge of the matter itself
IS well as of the controversies concern
ng it, it excites only smile to hear any
ne speak as il the question were an open
me or had ever been SO. No man can
race his descent back to Adam or even
o Noah giving names and dates for each
,rogenitor; yet he can only smile if told
hat therefore there is no descent from
Idam-And this is precisely what the
earned men, whose words you quote,
nean, Only as you have not understood
he full bearings of the case, you have
nwittingly given an incorrect turn to
heir language, and have been led into
nfounded assertions. The Apostolic
needs no defence; it needs
My a clear statement Of what it is.
When any objector clearly understands
hat, he has and can have no more to ssy,
VI the printed denisls of the Apostolic
uccession, some show complete mis-
of the whole matter, 9TH
RS bring in strangely irrelevant topics
S if virtue or morality had anything to
0 with simple question of facts. While
till others are simply discussions of some
art OF the matter, as that no man can
ell who his own ancestors were in the \
me Of st. Paul David or Moses. 1t is
OF wise to quote such an assertion as
his as an authority against the fact of
uman succession by birth. As to the
of the records LEFT me give Won a