Have all ministers equal authority to administer the Sacraments?
No: there are two orders, priests and deacons, under bishops; and the deacon can only administer Baptism in the absence of the priest, and assist the priest in administering the Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood, but not solemnize it himself.
Article XXIV.
What is the subject of the twenty-fourth Article?
"Speaking in the Congregation."
What kind of speaking is meant?
"Public prayer or ministering the Sacraments."
What does the Article say upon this subject?
That it is requisite to speak "in such a tongue as the people understandeth."
For what reason?
Because "it is plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the custom of the Primitive Church" to do otherwise.
Prove that it is repugnant to the Word of God.
1 Cor. xiv. 9, 16, 19. St. Paul condemns the practice of praying in a language unknown to the congregation.
Show that it is repugnant to the practice of the Primitive Church.
Even those who do the contrary acknowledge this to be the fact.
