CHAPTER 7 - ON MR. WOLFF'S CHAPTER 7, CONCERNING THE ELECTION OF THE BISHOP BY THE FLOCK

CHAPTER 7 — ON MR. WOLFF’S CHAPTER 7, CONCERNING THE ELECTION OF THE BISHOP BY THE FLOCK

Here again the writer spares me the trouble of saying much. His desire is, at the beginning of the chapter, that the flock should take a part in the nomination of the pastor, and that the ministry should have the right of presenting him. He states all this, without caring much to see what is found about it in the word.

All the system which chooses to appoint pastors in such a way is so much outside all that is found in the word, that I have nothing to say on the subject. I have already explained the origin, historically, of this custom. The flocks which one has in view being in fact unconverted for the most part, it is still less needful I should speak of it. “We cannot but approve of such a custom” (page 20). It would be convenient to free oneself from the government and consistories, and to follow the liberal influence of the age. All that is outside my task. I have already discussed the subject of all the remainder of the chapter, in the same sense as Mr. Wolff.⁺