John Milton thought so, and objected strongly to Presbyterianism for at least that reason.

And he was right in his analysis. Consider, for example, the Form of Presbyterial Church government from the Westminster Assembly:

THE pastor is an ordinary and perpetual officer in the church, prophesying of the time of the gospel.

First, it belongs to his office,

To pray for and with his flock, as the mouth of the people unto God, Acts vi. 2, 3, 4, and xx. 36, where preaching and prayer are joined as several parts of the same office. The office of the elder (that is, the pastor) is to pray for the sick, even in private, to which a blessing is especially promised; much more therefore ought he to perform this in the publick execution of his office, as a part thereof.

To read the Scriptures publickly; for the proof of which,

1. That the priests and Levites in the Jewish church were trusted with the publick reading of the word is proved. [Deut. 31:9,10,11. Neh. 8:1,2,3,13]

2. That the ministers of the gospel have as ample a charge and commission to dispense the word, as well as other ordinances, as the priests and Levites had under the law, proved, Isa. lxvi. 21. Matt. xxiii. 34. where our Saviour entitleth the officers of the New Testament, whom he will send forth, by the same names of the teachers of the Old.

Which propositions prove, that therefore (the duty being of a moral nature) it followeth by just consequence, that the publick reading of the scriptures belongeth to the pastor’s office.

To feed the flock, by preaching of the word, according to which he is to teach, convince, reprove, exhort, and comfort.

To catechise, which is a plain laying down the first principles of the oracles of God, or of the doctrine of Christ, and is a part of preaching.

To dispense other divine mysteries.

To administer the sacraments.

To bless the people from God, Numb. vi. 23, 24, 25, 26. Compared with Rev. i.4, 5, ( where the same blessings, and persons from whom they come, are expressly mentioned,) Isa. lxvi. 21, where, under the names of Priests and Levites to be continued under the gospel, are meant evangelical pastors, who therefore are by office to bless the people. [Deuteronomy 10.8]

To take care of the poor.

And he hath also a ruling power over the flock as a pastor.

A note about prooftexts appended to the above document: I have left out all but the OT ones that are not repetitive with the contents of the text itself. I assume that the story of the prooftexts is the same as that of those appended to the Confession and catechisms–that they were appended at the insistence of Parliament and were never the product of deliberations in the way that the text itself was produced. The prooftexts reveal to us what at least some members of the assembly were thinking, but they don’t count as requirements of the documents themselves.

However, the text itself contains reasoning from the OT to the NT with Scripture references. This was part of the original act of the Assembly. The duties and even the identity of the Pastor comes from the OT establishment of the Priests and Levites. Isaiah 66 prophesied that Priests and Levites would be chosen, so, reasoned the committee, this must refer to the New Covenant calling of pastors.

Of course, the Form of Government is not a document in use any more. Let’s turn to the document which goes into the most detail on these issues, the Westminster Larger Catechism. Most Presbyterians are surprised to discover that the Westminster Assembly agreed to take a stand against lay readers in public worship:

Q. 156. Is the Word of God to be read by all?

A. Although all are not to be permitted to read the Word publicly to the congregation [Deuteronomy 31.9, 11–13; see Nehemiah 8.2-3; 9.3-5], yet all sorts of people are bound to read it apart by themselves,h and with their families…

The prooftext is non-binding, as I’ve pointed out. But it does reveal what some number within the Assembly, at least, must have believed, and what was considered non-controversial to publish in that context. Here are the texts of these Scripture references:

Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess” (Deuteronomy 31.9-13)

So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law…. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise” (Nehemiah 8.2-3; 3-5).

The catechism remains consistent with this point in its question about preaching (#158). It asks who is supposed to preach and answers that “only by such as are sufficiently gifted, and also duly approved and called to that office.” Here the OT prooftext refers to the prophets, but one of the NT prooftexts is quite revealing: “And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was” (Hebrews 5.4). This text pops up again in question # 176 when it is asserted that both sacraments are to be “dispensed by ministers of the gospel, and by none other.”

If I had time, it would be easy to show how this fits in with the Westminster Assemby’s view of the Church and the sacraments as both being established before Christ came in the flesh. However, I don’t. Nor do I wish to really defend the exegesis above at this point in time. Exegesis is a great thing, but who has time when one must continually point out the original boundaries of the Reformed standards in order to escape all sorts of smears from revisionist who are either ignorant or deceptive or both? There has been recently, some spirited and useful exchanges about what the Bible teaches regarding the identity of pastors. I think this is a good thing. I also think it is time for Presbyterians who claim to subscribe to these documents to face up to the need for changing them or else re-submitting to them. Lay readers are an entirely uncontrovesial element in PCA worship services. The Larger Catechism is a dead letter on this point. Why pretend otherwise? What superstition prevents people from amending it when the vast majority obviously disagree with it?

But when Reformed Ministers are accused of abandoning the Reformed faith for nothing more than agreeing with the hermeneutic of the ministerial office exemplified above it needs to be pointed out that these flaming accusations can only lodge in the accusers. Three or more centuries of American Evangelicalism have rendered Westminsterian Christendom rather anemic. And now, anyone with a healthy red-cell count is considered a crypto-papist.

I may blog about some pastoral concerns I have in all of this later. For now, those who are interested in my personal views might find this essay worth reading. I wrote it as my theology paper for the Pacific NW Presbytery. It was done to meet the Presbytery’s requirements so that I could be ordained as a Minister of the Gospel.