Priesthood. In the third Sermon on this Text, Therefore, feeing we have this Miniftry as we have received Mercy, we faint not, at the 103. Page you'll find these Words, "In the next Place we must obferve, "that although the Priests, if any be prefent, lay on their Hands alfo, yet it is exprefly ordered, that the Bishop fhall Say "the Words, Receive ye the Holy Ghoft, "&c. For if a mere Prieft fhould fay them, "or any one but a Bishop, the Ordination 66 was reckoned NULL AND VOID, with "more to that Purpofe. So in his Sermon ❝ on Acts xiii. 3. And when they had fa fted, and prayed, and laid their Hands on them, they fent them away, you have "these Words at p. 309. As the right Or"dination of those who adminifter the "Means of Grace must needs be acknow

ledged to be (neceffary) for feeing we “ can have no Grace, nor Power to do good, "but what is delivered tous from God thro' sc our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift, in the

Use of the Means which he hath establish "ed for that Purpose, unless thofe Means "be rightly and duly Adminiftred, they "lose their Force and Energy, and fo can 66 never attain the End wherefore they "were established. Neither is there any "thing more neceffary to establish the "Means of Grace, than that they who ad

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minifter them be rightly Ordained and "Authorized to do it according to the Inftitution and Command of him that did eftablish them. For feeing they do not "work naturally, but only by virtue of the Inftitution, and Promise annexed to it, unless that be duly obferved, we have no "Ground to expect, that the Promise should "be performed, nor by Confequence that they "fhould be effectual to the Purposes for "which they were used. So in his Sermon "on this Text. Now then we are Ambassa"dors for Chrift, &c. p. 386. For that can "be done only by the Power of God, accom

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panying, and affifting his own Inftitution "and Commiffion. Infomuch that if I did "not think, or rather was not fully affured,

that I had fuch a Commiffion to be an "Ambaffador for Chrift, and to act in his "Name, I should never think it worth the "while to preach, or execute my Minifterial Office. For I am fure all that I did would

be null and void of it self, according to "God's ordinary Way of working, and we "have no Ground to expect Miracles." So " in another Place of that Sermon; "Any Man may read a Sermon, or make an Oration to the People; but it is not that which the Scripture calls preaching the Word of God, unless he be SENT by God to do it. For how can they preach, "except

except they be fent? Rom. x. 16. Ą "Butcher might kill an Ox, or a Lamb, as "well as the High-Prieft, but it was no Sa"crifice to God, unless a Prieft did it: And no Man taketh this Honour to himself, but "be that is called of God, as was Aaron, &c. All these Paffages Sir, exactly agree with the Subject of your Book; and I might fhew you much more to the fame Purpose out of the Writings of the Clergy, befides those which you have cited. As out of the fecond Edition of a Letter to a Noncon. Minifter of the Kirk, fhewing the Nullity of the Presbyterian Miffion; and Dr.Wells's Thefes against the Validity of Presbyterian Ordina

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But what I have cited from the Bishop, which was publish'd fince the firft Edition of your Book, is enough to fecond the De fign of it, and give you Courage boldly to maintain your Doctrine and Practice, and the Caufe not only of the Church of England, but of the Catholick Church, against the British Sects and Schifms. Indeed you have done God and his Church good Service in a Time of Need; as two worthy Citizens, now with God, Mr. Allen and Mr. Lamb, did by their Writings about forty Years ago; who having gone from the Church to the Anabaptifts, by God's Grace faw their Error, and returned both toge

ther from them to the Church again, to which they made ample Recompence by their Writings, and were great Ornaments to it in every Respect all their Lives long. I knew them both very well, and am glad of this Opportunity, to mention them with that Respect which is due to both their Memories; whereof the Latter told me, that he had the Misfortune to lead Mr. Allen out of the Church to the Schifm, but that Mr. Allen had the blessed Part to lead him out of the Schifm to the Church again. It is to me a comfortable Prefage, that God willnot forfake the Church of England, nor suffer Toleration and the Gates of Hell to prevail against her, because he raises out of her People, Men to defend her, and adorn her with their Writings. I pray God to ftir up more fuch continually, that those, who are misled by unauthorized Minifters, and Teachers, may confider the great Danger they are in, and after your Example, enter in at the right Door into her Fold, and declare, as you have bravely done, That you fincerely believe the Subject of your Difcourfe to be a fubftantial Truth, nay even a first Principle of Chriftianity, and that without the couragious afferting thereof, the whole Chriftian Priesthood, and the Divine Authority of it, must be called in Question, and encourage every bold Intruder to ufurp the fa

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cred Miniftry, in Oppofition to that Commiffion, which hath been conftantly handed down from Chrift and his Apoftles to this very Day. In the fame Place you fay you hope, that none vefted with this Divine Authority will fight against it, &c. which if any Clergyman fhould do, in the Manner as you there mention, I could not but fufpect, that he was one of those who took Gifts and Prefents of the Diffenters, to let the Names of their Children, who had no other but Schif matical Lay-Baptifms, be Regiftred among the true Baptifms of the Church. This unwarrantable Practice, which you have obferved to be fcandalously practifed in fome Places, I can confirm to be true; For I knew fome Minifters of this City (now dead) who were guilty of this Practice, and are gone to God to give an Account of it; and I my felf, foon after I was prefented to the Vicaridge of Alhallows Barkin, had several, and fome very great Offers, from Diffenters, to enter their Childrens Names, as baptiz'd, in the Parish Church Register; and a Parochial Priest of a great City in this Kingdom, who gave me a Visit about a Year fince, did affure me, that all the Ministers of that Place, himself only excepted, were guilty of this execrable Practice; execrable I call it, because it is a double Falfification of our Parochial Diptychs