Discussions (Vol 2) - Dabney - XIV - Prelacy a blunder commenced

Required reading
Discussions (Vol 2) by Robert L. Dabney (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence 'Prelacy a blunder' by reading up to the paragraph beginning 'II. We are thus led to the second department of our discussion, for which the way has designedly been prepared.'

My summary
This week Dabney begins dismissing the prelacy.

Firstly he contrasts the prelacy and Protestant understandings of the way of salvation.

Then Dabney proceeds to demonstrate that the proof texts used by the prelacy to support their clerical dispensation of grace are not proof texts at all.  The laying on of hands is connected with the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, not the power to forgive sins.

What grabbed me
I appreciated Dabney's suggested reasons for the rise of the prelacy: 'Which of these theories is the more favorable to priestcraft, priestly assumption, and spiritual tyranny, may be seen without a word. We shall not say that this tendency is the thing which commends the doctrine to all prelatists ; it would be puerile to deny that history shows us a multitude of them using it for a weapon of despotism over souls, and still another multitude of prelatists, less malicious but more romantic, cherishing it at the unconscious promptings of self-importance. It is a line thing when a poor mortal can believe himself the channel of eternal life to his subject fellow-creature — the "proxy" of the Son of God and King of Heaven. The motives which have led the majority of nominal Christians to hold a theory so glaringly opposed to Scripture are complex, but easily detected. On the part of the hierarchy, those motives are lust of power and pride of importance. On the part of the laity, they are the natural tendency to find a concrete object for the instinct of superstitious veneration, the terror of the despotism in which they have been reared to believe, holding the issues of their salvation or damnation at its option, and, above all, the intense craving of the sinful heart, remorseful, yet impenitent, for a palpable mode of reconciliation to God without the prior necessity of the sincere crucifixion of self and sin. As long as men are weak, superstitious, depraved, and conscious of guilt, sacramentarianism must have abundant followers.'

Dabney is right.  Both the clergy and the people have sinful desires which help promote such a system of error.

Next week's reading
Conclude 'Prelacy a blunder'.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.