'To instruct in the necessary doctrines of faith': a Tillotson sermon for Whitsun Embertide
In rooting apostolic ministry - that is, the ministry of the Apostles and those whom Tillotson twice describes in this sermon as their "successors" - in the dominical command to baptise in the Triune Name, Tillotson first places the Trinitarian confession at the very heart of church's faith and life, and thus of the faith to be proclaimed by the ordained minister:
As for the form of baptism, "in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," it plainly refers to that short creed, or profession of faith, which was required of those that were to be baptized, answerably to the reciting of the precepts of the law, at the baptizing of proselytes among the Jews: now the articles of this creed were reduced to these three heads, "of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," and contains what was necessary to be believed concerning each of these. And this probably is that which the apostle calls the doctrine of baptism, (Heb. vi. 2.) viz. a short summary of the Christian faith, the profession whereof was to be made at baptism; of which the most ancient fathers make so frequent mention, calling it "the rule of faith." It was a great while, indeed, before Christians tied themselves strictly to that very form of words, which we now call the Apostles' Creed; but the sense was the same, though every one expressed it in his own words; nay, the same father reciting it upon several occasions, does not confine himself to the very same expressions: a plain indication that they were not then strictly bound up to any form of words, but retaining the sense and substance of the articles, every one expressed them as he pleased. So that to baptize "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," is to perform this rite or sacrament by the authority of, and with special relation to, the three persons of the blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as the chief objects of the Christian faith, whereof solemn profession was then made. So that upon this form of baptism, appointed by our Saviour, compared with what is elsewhere said in Scripture, concerning the divinity of the Son, and the Holy Ghost, is principally founded the doctrine of the blessed Trinity.
Tillotson immediately goes on to note that the Trinitarian proclamation of the Scriptures is not couched in the "niceties of the schools". I have previously described this as 'Trinitarian minimalism'. It is not, as some have suggested, indication of Latitudinarian scepticism concerning the Trinity. It is a recognition that the Trinity is not the invention of "the schools", of philosophical and dogmatic speculation. Rather, the Scriptures proclaim the God who is Triune:
I mean in that simplicity in which the Scripture hath delivered it, and not as it hath been since confounded and entangled in the cobwebs and niceties of the schools. The Scripture, indeed, nowhere calls them persons, but speaks of them as we do of several persons; and therefore that word is not unfitly used to express the difference between them, or at least we do not know a fitter word for that purpose.
For the ordained minister, therefore, teaching the faith of Christ as set forth for us in the Scriptures inherently and necessarily means confessing and teaching faith in the Holy Trinity. Tillotson then considers the Lord's commission "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you", noting that this rightly and wisely limits ministerial authority:
You see how their commission bounds and limits them: they were to teach others those precepts which Christ had taught and delivered to them; they had no power by virtue of this commission to make new laws, which would be of universal and perpetual obligation, and consequently necessary to the salvation of all Christians; they were only to be the publishers, but not the authors, of this new religion. And therefore St. Paul, when the Corinthians consulted him about several things relating to marriage and virginity, he only gives his advice, but would not take upon him to make a law in those cases that should be binding to all Christians. And, for the same reason, Christians do generally at this day think themselves absolved from the obligation of that canon, which was made even in a council of the apostles, as to all those branches of it, the reason whereof is now ceased.
This limitation to the authority of those who succeed the Apostles in ministry, however, is certainly not to be understood as a denial of any episcopal and ministerial authority. There is an authority bestowed by Our Lord to teach and to govern:
But notwithstanding this, the authority which our Saviour conferred upon his apostles to teach his doctrine, does in the nature of it necessarily imply a power of governing the societies of Christians, under such officers, and by such rules as are most suitable to the nature of such a society, and most fit to promote the great ends of the Christian religion: for without this power of governing, they cannot be supposed to be endowed with sufficient authority to teach.
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