23.-Authority.

When they who sometimes were afar off were brought nigh, and the sacred edifice was rebuilt "upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone," the Christian Church, being constituted on earth the Church of the living God, was formally invested with its high office, and became "the pillar and ground of the truth.” -Sermon at Huddersfield, October 28, 1836, by the Rev. C. A. Thurlow, vicar of Scalby, p. 7.

4

We are thus compelled to recognise the permanent utility of an authorised interpretation of those inspired Scriptures which, as the apostle testifies, the unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction.-Ibid., p 12.

24.-Authority.

The Roman Catholic says, "The whole question, in truth, lies between the ancient faith and an innovation; between the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and a modern apostacy." I believe I state the question in a manner in which every Roman Catholic must desire to have it proposed; and my wish would be, that the Roman Catholic should be met upon those statements-that we too should discuss the question as one between the Apostolic Church and an apostacy—and that we should address ourselves to the easy task of proving that the Church of Rome is the apostacy, that we are members of the Catholic Church, and that it is in defence of the Catholic Church our controversy is undertaken.-Sermon preached on May 5, 1836, for the Reformation Society, by the Rev. Mortimer O'Sullivan, p. 10.

25.-Succession.

How remarkably favoured is a clergyman's position, in respect of the love of God! He is a shepherd under the great Shepherd, a steward under the great Lord, an ambassador of

the great King.

Blessing and instruction pass through his hands to the people. He is the channel of wisdom, peace, and comfort to them, . sojourning indeed among worldly powers and principalities, but with his heart loyal and true to the King whose authority and commission he bears,-content to remain, as long as his Master desires, for the benefit of the Church on earth, but longing to be with Christ, which is far better.

May God, of his infinite mercy in Christ, grant to all those whom he appoints to be pastors of his flock on earth the circumcision of his love; that they may be holy and blameless, and zealous and faithful in their sacred office all the days of their lives. Sermons by the Rev. G. Moberly, D.C.L., Head Master of Winchester College. Sermon xviii.

26.-Succession.

If in the apostles' age, and those immediately following it, there were such orders as the opening of the preface* already quoted affirms, it surely indicates a lack of modesty, to say the least, to quit so high a precedent, even if it is not deemed an imperative one; and those may be deemed at least the safest who refuse to accept religious offices on a plan of more questionable and doubtful precedent. The whole question, therefore, turns upon the assertion in the preface alluded to; and this has never been disproved.-Sermon on the Ministerial Succession, by the Rev. F. Merewether, Rector of Coleorton, note, p. 19.

And this is the ground upon which the ministers of the Church established in this country claim their title and authority in the Church of Christ...I can have no right to fill the office of your, spiritual pastor, or to attempt to administer Christ's Holy Sacraments, except itobe because I have

received commission and authority so to do from one who had power and authority himself to give me that commission: ...! so it is a positive fact that the bishops who occupy the different bishoprics in this country can trace back every one of their pre decessors, name by name, through whom the original commis sion, given by Christ to the apostles, has been transmitted from age to age, by prayer and the imposition of hands, to them, and through them to all the clergy throughout the kingdom. Sermons by the Rev. F. Fulford, rector of Trowbridge, Sermon ii., p. 24. London, 1837.

28. Succession.

And lastly, in the present days of laxity and spiritual insubordination, when the claims of an apostolic ministry are so generally overlooked, and, I may even add, so ignorantly and superciliously derided, I have ventured to assert, from time to time, the unpalatable truth that the Divine warnings against the sin of schism can by no human authority, or popular agreement, be annihilated or abolished; that Christians now are bound as much as Christians in the days of St. Paul to continue in the apostles' fellowship, as well as in the apostles' doctrine, not forming themselves into new communions upon new principles, or heaping unto themselves teachers of their own appointment, but adhering conscientiously to the one great evangelical communion- the Church universal-which was founded upon the day of Pentecost, which has been perpetuated ever since by a succession of apostolic pastors, and against which, according to our Saviour's never-failing promise, the gates of hell shall not prevail.-Farewell Sermon at Whitchurch, by the Rev. W. Sinclair, incumbent of Trinity Church, Leeds. (Parker, 1837.):

29.-Succession.

The authority which the venerable fathers of our Church are now about to communicate we believe to be derived from Christ himself; we believe that it forms one link in that golden

chain of ministerial succession which, through the blessed Redeemer, descended from the footstool of the eternal throne; which has bound the true Church of Christ together, and to the heavenly sanctuary; which has preserved it pure and entire amid all its trials and persecutions, its vicissitudes and dangers.

We discern the care with which, under Divine direction, the apostolic rank or order is kept up by the appointment of Matthias, of Paul and Barnabas, of Timothy and Titus, of the seven angels or presidents of the Asiatic churches. We have unquestionable historical evidence that immediate successors to them were appointed, men who were to fill their place, and that such was everywhere the order of the Church: as Clement at Rome, Polycarp at Smyrna, Ignatius at Antioch, and so on; and that these, under the appellation of bishops, formed a rank or order corresponding with that of the apostles themselves. . . . . On this position he rests: namely, that during the time of the apostles themselves, and that in the period immediately subsequent, the discipline of the Church was administered under three distinct clerical orders; that in those times the concurrent voice and concurrent practice of the whole Christian Church expressed the sentiments of the apostles themselves.-Consecration Sermon, preached October 8, 1837, by the Rev. E. B. Ramsay, minister of St. John's Chapel, Edinburgh.

30.-Authority.

The Romish Churchman can only be refuted by the Catholic Churchman; and therefore the divines of our Church meet the Romanists on this ground, and contend against them on their own principles; and they have proved, as clearly as any moral and historical argument can prove, that the Romish Church has erred, not because she has taken Catholic antiquity for a guide, but because she has not taken it; that she is wrong, not in her adherence to ancient and uniform tradition, but in her departure from it.-Ibid.

31. Succession.

This new power is neither apostolical nor catholic, and is as unwarrantable as the sudden assumption of the power of ordaining by non-conforming presbyters; for they never received that power, but merely their own personal orders, solemnly calling God to witness at the time that they would pay canonical obedience to the bishop who ordained them presbyters.-Letters to the Rev. H. Melville by the Rev. C. Smith, Fellow and Tutor of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, p. 182.

32.-Authority.

The witness of the divinity of the great Head of the Church chosen by himself is, that his Catholic and Apostolic Church should be one-one in doctrine and discipline; for the peculiarity of Christianity, as sanctifying the body, is, that doctrine is discipline, and discipline doctrine.-Ibid., p. 197. Vide also pp. 42, 58, 62, 174, 175.

33. Succession.

We have traced the growth of the ecclesiastical constitution planted by the apostles through three successive appointments of Church officers-deacons, presbyters, and bishops-each order invested with distinct functions and privileges. We have seen that presbyters have no authority from Scripture to ordain, but that all precepts on this subject are addressed to persons of episcopal rank. .

Lastly, we have demonstrated that episcopacy, as an apostolical institution, continued universally throughout the world to be the form of Church polity during fifteen hundred years.Dissertations vindicating the Church of England (Diss. i. ch. iii. pp. 150, 151), by the Rev. John Sinclair, examining chaplain to the Bishop of London, and secretary to the National Society.