in regular succession from the Apostles themselves we maintain that such an order of men not only existed under the Jewish dispensation, but are continued under the Christian by the express ordination of our Lord himself, and by the exclusive practice of the Apostles and of their successors, through many centuries of the purest ages of the church. We argue, that our Saviour, during his lifetime, permitted none to preach except such as he expressly commissioned for the purpose; and that, when his own mission was ended, he committed his authority exclusively to the Apostles, to be by them transmitted to their successors in the church throughout all ages. It was not to the disciples at large-it was not to the "five hundred brethren" by whom he was seen at one time after his resurrection, that he gave the solemn commission to preach the Gospel, but "to the Apostles whom he had chosen, and to whom he gave commandments by the Holy Ghost, during the forty days that he was seen of them, and spake to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God."* And when he took his final leave of his apostles, he addressed them as follows-" As my Father hath sent me, EVEN SO send I you. And when he said this, he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

*Acts i. 2, 3.

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whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained."* "Go YE therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."+ This we consider to be the Ministerial Commission. It was given exclusively to the Apostles; and in the book of the Acts, and the other inspired writings, we find no mention of any one presuming to preach the Gospel who can be shewn not to have been commissioned by the Apostles themselves to do so. If it be objected, as it sometimes is, that the cause of the Gospel is so holy and so all-important, that it must be wrong to prevent any one from preaching it who possesses the power to do so with eloquence and efficiency, we answer, that it is not for man to promote even what seems to be the cause of God, by means which the Almighty himself has not sanctioned. Inestimable as is the Gospel to mankind, yet we know that the Almighty permitted them to remain in ignorance of it for many thousand years; and has even now bestowed the benefit of its

* John xx. 21, 22, 23.

+ Matthew xxx. 19, 20.

light on but a small portion of the globe. It is clear that he intends its diffusion to be gradual, and, doubtless, by the means which he himself has constituted in the Scriptures. Let not, then, the man who has "not entered into the sheepfold by the door but has climbed up some other way,"* feel secure that he is doing God's work, when he is regarding only the end, and neglecting the appointed means. Instead of assuming that office which St. Paul tells us "no man taketh unto himself but he that is called of God, as was Aaron," let him rather adopt the petition which our Lord himself taught his disciples, and "pray the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth labourers into his harvest."+

The other important question, on which there exists a serious and essential difference between the Church of England and her dissenting brethren, is the necessity of unity and subordination in the Christian Church. This necessity is confessed in our creeds, when we acknowledge “the COMMUNION of saints," and the existence of an "holy CATHOLIC Church;" that is, when we profess our belief in that binding, and equalizing, and fraternizing quality, which the confession of a common faith and a common Master diffuses among all Christians alike, whatever may be their country, station, or language. Now those sects, of Christians, who style themselves Independent,

* John x. 1.

+ Hebrews v. 4.

Luke x. 2.

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appear to us most dangerously to militate against this principle of mutual dependence, and mutual connection, which, we maintain, is inseparably interwoven with the very essence of the Gospel scheme. If any one Church could ever be justly independent of another, it must have been such Churches as were founded by the Apostles themselves each with an infallible head. Yet we know that these Churches submitted without hesitation to the directions of the Apostles at large -the Apostles at Jerusalem prescribing instructions to the Church founded by St. Paul at Antioch-and Paul himself withstanding Peter to his face when he was justly to be blamed. am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ" was no plea for independence in the primitive times. It was our Lord's last and most earnest prayer for his Apostles that there might be no rivalry among them but that they might submit themselves one to another in love. "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be ONE as we are. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word: That they all may be ONE; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me."* St. Paul writes to the Corinthians

* John, xvii. 11, 20, 21.

in the same spirit with the language in which his Master had addressed the Apostles; and affectionately exhorts them that "there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another."* To the same purpose is the emphatic language of the text-" Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Now it is quite impossible that this mutual dependence and mutual love should exist, where each section of Christ's church is separated from, and independent of the rest. It clearly was never in the contemplation of our Saviour or his Apostles that such a spirit of division should prevail among the Christian brotherhood; and we are therefore justified in maintaining, that, in things essential to salvation, every Christian ought to have due respect to the expositions of the Church, as having "authority in controversies of faith;" while in things indifferent, and where no violence is exercised on the rights of liberty and conscience, every member of the church should humble himself to the direction of those who bear rule among us, and "submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake."+