a

not either at one time or another?" The power to make these laws, and the obligation on its members and ministers to obey, are founded on the institution of the society as a visible body by its divine head. A familiar example has been given, and cannot be too often repeated, for the practical instruction which it gives along with the illustration of the speculative point, "although the commission given to a priest would qualify him to minister to all men in all places, and at all times, yet in this realm the wisdom of our Church has decreed, that for the sake of good order and quietness, our ministrations shall be confined to definite places and a definite flock, and no individual can, without disregarding every call of conscience, transgress these regulations of the society to which he belongs, and under the false pretence of possessing an authority instead of a qualification, take on him the task of teaching and preaching in places and societies which belong to other men."

While, then, the Almighty has left the government of his Church to be modelled according to circumstances, while in one country its hierarchy is connected with the State, in another not, while its discipline, its rites and ceremonies may be as various as the forms of civil polity, we firmly believe that the care which guarded the Jewish priesthood still watches over the Christian temple, and still continues in unbroken succession the different orders of its mi

a Rose's Discourses, page 39.

nistry. When our blessed Lord was about to return to the "glory which he had before the world was,” and to delegate to his disciples the work of preaching the glad tidings of salvation, he gave them command to "go and teach all nations," he gave them the animating promise, "Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," but neither was this promise, nor this command, understood by those to whom they were delivered, as confined to their frail existence, but as extending to their representatives in the ministry, their appointed successors throughout all succeeding generations. Their first act, after the presence of their Lord and Master was removed from them, proved their interpretation of the words. They selected, as you have heard in the service of this day, a person to be associated with them in their Apostolic office, that they might repair the injury that had been sustained by the sin and death of Judas, and complete "the twelve," as they were emphatically called. They did not indeed ordain him in the manner afterwards appointed by laying on of hands, because the gift of conferring the Holy Ghost not having been conferred, the sign, whereby it was afterwards communicated, would have been a mere empty form. The choice was left to the decision of Christ himself, and the election was most probably made in the interval between the ascension and the day of Pentecost, that interval of rest prescribed to the Apostles, for the purpose of bearing testimony to the appointment, by pouring

out upon the head of Matthias the gifts of the Spirit, in the same measure that they were bestowed upon the eleven companions of our Lord; and we may go. still further and assert, that it bears equally strong testimony to the will of the Most High, that the Apostles should, from time to time, as occasion required, associate others in the solemn charge of being witnesses and ministers of the word, and convey to future ages the instructions that they "should commit the things which they had heard among many witnesses to faithful men, who should be able to teach others also."

But let me not be misunderstood, I mean not to assert that the whole apostolic office was to be continued. These great ambassadors," says Bishop Hall," "sustained more persons than one. They comprehended in themselves the whole hierarchy; they were Christians, Presbyters, Bishops, Apostles. So it was they were Apostles immediately called, miraculously gifted, infallibly guided, universally charged. Thus they had not, they could not have any successors. They were withal church governors appointed by Christ to order and settle the affairs of his spiritual kingdom, and therein (beside the preaching of the Gospel and baptizing, common to them with other ministers) to ordain a successor of the great administrators of His Church. Thus they were, would be, must be succeeded."

Nor do I intend to maintain that all Apostolical practices must be continued in the Church. If the argument for the continuance of episcopacy were simply that it was an apostolical practice, the question might fairly be discussed whether or not it were obligatory at the present day in the Church. But the

argument for the continuance of episcopacy rests upon a much firmer foundation, namely, upon the nature of the thing. Episcopacy is the only appointed method of continuing the priesthood, which being a positive institution can be continued only in that way which God has appointed. We refer to the practice of the Apostles for proof that the episcopal order was established by them for the purpose of ordaining ministers, and we then establish its permanency by the necessity of a commission and the impossibility of any man becoming a minister of God without it. That power then which was necessarily given to Timothy in order to ordain priests at Ephesus, must have been continued to his successor and his succes sor's successor, because the same necessity would still continue.

If there be any difference between the clergy and the laity of the Christian community, if there be any restraint imposed to prevent every individual from taking upon himself the public ministry of the sacraments, there must be instituted means by virtue of which the right is vested in some rather than in

a See Note.

others; there must be a provision by which that right is conveyed, and thus continued through successive generations. If we search the Scriptures, we shall find that all authority for exercising an office in the Church must proceed from the Holy Ghost; thus the Apostle exhorts the elders "to take heed unto the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made them overseers." And, "the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them." If we look to the examples of our Lord and His Apostles, we shall find that their conduct was in conformity with this opinion. Our blessed Lord himself did not commence his arduous ministry till he had been appointed by an outward commission: "Christ also glorified not himself to be made an High Priest;" but as Isaiah saith, "the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, because the Lord hath anointed him to preach good tidings." When the voice from heaven had designated the Son of God for his office, the sacred historian informs us, "from that time Jesus began to preach." When he ordained his Apostles, he said unto them, "receive the Holy Ghost." The Apostles followed a similar course, they communicated to others what they had received of the Lord; they conferred the gift of God, the gift of the ministry upon others, and they instructed these chosen servants of the Lord to continue the sacred succession, "to ordain elders in every city,"