On Priesthood

By Elder Erastus Snow.

[Concluded.]

Having thus endeavored to trace these two priesthoods down till Christ came, I shall now take a brief view of them as thy [they] existed in the Apostolic age, and from that period till the present day.

By comparing together the two passages of scripture, which stand at the head of this article, one spoken by Moses to Israel, the other by Peter to the Christian church in his day, it will be seen that the blessings conditionally promised to Israel, and the "holy Priesthood," which through their transgressions they were deprived of, were snbsequently [subsequently] conferred upon the Christian church: "ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, and holy priesthood." We are told in John's Gospel, xv. 16, that Christ ordained his apostles; and of course he ordained them to the same priesthood he had himself: for the Apostleship is the high priesthood; hence Christ is called the Great Apostle, and High Priest of our profession Heb. iii. 1. Unto Peter, (who was also called Cephas, were the keys of this ministry committed,) and James and John were his assistants and counsellors [counselors], and those three Paul says, seemed to be pillars of the church.-Gal. ii. 9. Next to the apostles in office came the seventy, Luke x. 1, whom Jesus called to be travelling [traveling] ministers in all the world, which agreed with the order of the seventy elders, mentioned, Ex. xxiv. 1-9, which were ordained under the same priesthood in Moses' day. Besides these travelling [traveling] elders there were standing elders ordained in all branches of the church in all parts of the world. (See Acts xiv. 23. Tit. i. 5.) It appears from the scriptures that

the office of an elder is next inferior to the apostleship in all spiritual affairs: for instance when the qnestion [question] of circumcizing [circumcising] the Gentiles was agitated, the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter.-Acts xv. 6. After elders came priests of the lower order of priesthood, then teachers, and deacons, which are appendages to that priesthood. All these officers combined, form that spiritual house, and holy priesthood of which Peter speaks; being appendages one to the other, as members of the same body, and timbers of the same building, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone; the great apostle and high priest, and Peter, James, and John, the main pillars. Other apostles and elders the principal timbers.-The lesser offices, studs and braces, and all combined, a royal priesthood. Be not startled, gentle reader, at the idea of these two priesthoods being blended together in the Church. The lesser priesthood always was an appendage to the greater, and I trust I have already conclusively shown that the lesser as well as the Melchizedek priesthood existed before the ceremonial law was given by Moses; but when the law was given, and the holy priesthood taken away, the lesser priesthood continued officiating under the law until Christ came and fulfilled the law; and most people believe this priesthood was done away with the law; but if it existed among the people of God before the law was given, why may it not continue after it is done away. But we have something positive to offer on this point. In Num. xxv. 13, it is called an everlasting priesthood. Also, Ex. xl, 15, God, said it "shall be an everlasting priesthood through their generations.

The law being abolished with the Jewish rites and ceremonies, the priests who rejected the Gospel, were no longer acceptable to God; but those who held the lesser priesthood in the church of Christ administered outward ordinances-the letter of the gospel, viz., baptism in water for remission of sins, and the apostleship or high priesthood, and eldership its appendage, held the right to lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost; and to officiate in all the lesser offices in God's house. Hence, Philip one of the seven ordained in Jerusalem to attend to the daily ministration, who probably held the lesser priesthood, went down to Samaria and preached and baptised [baptized] the people in water. Then Peter and John, went down and prayed, and laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost.

John the baptist also, who inherited the Aaronic priesthood [priesthood] from his ancestors baptized in water for the remission of sins, telling them at the same time that Jesus should batized [baptize] them with the Holy Ghost, he having the Melchizedek priesthood.-Dr. Clark, and Dr. Lightfoot, inform [inform] us that water baptism was very common among the Jews, even as far back as the days of David, and Solomon. The manner in which men were consecrated, and the priesthood continued from one to the other, and from one generation to another was as follows: when they were found worthy, being prepared from before the foundation of the world, according to the fore-knowledge of God, and when God manifested that it was his will, they were consecrated by the imposition of hands, and ordained by the power of the Holy Ghost, who was in the one who ordained them. No man can rise up and assume the priesthood, for Paul says, Heb. v. 4. "No man taketh this honor unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron." For further proof of the manner of ordaining, see Acts, xiii. 2, 3. "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away." See also Acts, vi. 6, and first Tim. iv. 14.-"Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy, by the laying on of the hands of the presbytry [presbytery].-Simple as the imposition of hands is, great things have been done by it when administered by the servants of God in faith.-The prophet Habbakkuk describing the coming of the Lord says: "His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise, he had horns coming out of his hands, and there was the hiding of his power." Often, in scripture, horns were figuratively used to represent power, as in this case, "Horns coming out of his hands, and their was the hiding of his power," which shows the power of God manifested through the imposition of hands. Jesus prasticed [practiced] the laying on of hands upon the sick, and they were healed, and he commanded his disciples to do the same; also, for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, the scriptures say,

Joshua the son of Nun was full of the Holy Ghost; for Moses had laid his hands on him. But without the authority of this priesthood, and the ordinances thereof, the power of God is not manifest to men in the flesh. It is the channel through which the Holy Spirit flows upon the people of God. It holds the Key of the knowledge of God, or the mysteries of the kingdom, and when men render themselves unworthy of the priesthood, and God takes it from them, they are left without revelations, and the gifts of the Spirit.

To the loss of the priesthood may be ascribed most of the divisions in the Christian world at the present day, and the great doubt upon the minds of all the contending parties, which have prevailed to such an extent from the days of the primitive Christians. By a reference to Eph. iv chapter from the 9 to 15 verse, it will be seen that the officers there mentioned for perfecting the saints, for the work of the ministry, &c., were designed, first, to bring to the unity of the faith those who embraced the Gospel from all classes; second, when they were thus united in the doctrine of Christ to prevent their being divided into sects and parties, and led about by every wind of doctrine through the cunning craftiness and deceit of false teachers. That Isaiah and the apostles clearly foresaw that the Christian world would apostatize and divide, and the priesthood and its gifts and powers cease among them, is evident from what they say. Paul says, 2 Thes. ii. 3, "there shall come a falling away and the man of sin be revealed," &c.; also, 2 Tim. 3d and 4th chapters, he says, "the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but will make their own teacher such as God does not choose, who have a form of Godliness; but deny its power: and these teachers will turn away the people from the truth, and turn them to fables. Peter in his 2d General Epistle, 2d chapter, written not to a few; but to the church in general, plainly declared there should be false teachers among them, who through covetousness should make merchandise of the people, and bring in damnable heresies, or as some have more properly translated it, destructive sects and parties. But Isaiah's testimony is conclusive upon this subject: in the 24 chap. where he prophecies of a time when the whole earth will be corrupted by the people, transgressing the laws, changing the ordinances, and breaking the everlasting covenant. The covenant here alluded to was doubtless a covenant of priesthood established in the Gospel dispensation; for the covenant under the Mosaic dispensation was called a covenant of priesthood, Num xxv. 13, & the Mosaic being a type of the Gospel dispensation the everlasting covenent [covenant] was the establishment of the Melchizedek priesthood in the Christian church, by which the ordinances of God's house could be administered, and the spiritual gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost manifested to those under the covenant; and the subsequent breaking of the covenant deprived them of the priesthood, and its train of attendants.

That the foregoing predictions have been fulfilled since the apostolic age, all who are acquainted with church history can testify; but to the reflecting mind the present confused state of Christendom, is all the evidence needed. After Popery was established, and the papal jurisdiction extended to the utmost limits of the empire, and the Christian world shrouded in darkness for ages; in the forepart of the sixteenth century Luther Calvin, Melancthon, Zuinglius, and many more of the clergy of Germany, England, and other parts of Europe, began to protest against many superstitions of Catholicism, and the authority of the pope, and cried aloud for reformation: and though they succeeded in abolishing some of those absurdities, and effecting a reformation in different parts of Europe, there by diminishing the power of the pope; yet they could never agree among themselves. And the different sects which they established have since divided, and subdivided, like the branches of a tree, shooting one from another until their number in Europe, and America, is estimated by some late writers at upwards of two hundred, and though the founders of the first reformed churches were Catholic clergyman, who were ex-communicated; yet they claimed no priesthood except from the Mother Church whose authority they disavowed, and were it asserted that she had priesthood acknowledged of God, (which is altogether inadmissible,) she was sure to divest her dissenting members of that authority.

Perhaps, by this time the reader will ask if the church apostatized, if the covenant

was broken and the priesthood taken from them, whether or not there is any promise of its being restore in the last days; as the Latter day Saints testify has been the case? To this, gentle reader I most unhesitatingly respond the affirmative. The covenant must be renewed. Israel must yet become a kingdom of priests, on their native land. The prophet declares they shall be gathered, and that God will give them pastors after his own heart; also,-Isa. i. 26, "I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors [counselors] as at the beginning." Isaiah lxi. from the 4th to the 9th verse inclusive, prophesies that they shall repair, and rebuild their old waste cities that have been desolate for many generations. Verse 6 he says: "ye shall be named the priests of the Lord, men shall call you the ministers of our God." Verse 8. "I will direct their work in truth and will make an everlasting covenant with them:" also, chap. lxvi, he prophesies in the 19th and 20th verses, that God shall send his servants and gather them from all nations, and his glory shall rest upon them. He says, verse 21, "And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites saith the Lord."