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division of the christian priesthood into three orders; the appropriation of the power of ordination to the first order, thus constituted the only legitimate channel of conveying the Divine Commission necessary to the exercise of the ministry, may be satisfactorily proved. The changes which may have taken place in the names by which these orders have been designated, cannot affect the distinction of office and power among them.

But if it should be conceived, that the Scripture testimony on this important subject is in any respect dubious or equivocal, where may we seek for satisfactory light and information? Certainly in the faith and practice of the primitive church. These, undoubtedly, afford the clearest and best light by which to elucidate and establish the meaning of Scripture in parts which admit of doubt and controversy. Founded, as the primitive churchwas, by the inspired apostles; and drinking, as its venerable fathers did, at the sacred source of divine truth and knowledge, it is scarcely possible that we can err, if we take its universal faith and usage as the standard by which to interpret the sacred writings. To trust, in-deed, to the single testimony of any one fatherof the church; or to embrace his speculative opinions or interpretations of Scripture, would be blindly and indiscreetly to take as our guides imperfect and fallible men. But, though li able to error in judgment, the primitive fathers

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must be revered as men of exalted piety and integrity. As witnesses to matters of fact, to the doctrines which were universally received, and to the usages which universally prevailed in the church, their testimony is invaluable; and, in all controverted points, should be decisive. Whenever we find the primitive fathers concur in testifying that any doctrine or usage was universally received in the church as of Divine authority and institution-to doubt or reject their testimony would be at once to relinquish the very foundations of the christian faith. For their testimony is necessary to establish the canon of Scripture; to prove that the books which we now receive as inspired books, were revered and received as such in the apostolic and primitive age. To the primitive fathers, therefore, we may safely recur for information in regard to the government of the church, and the orders of the priesthood. As these were matters of fact, it is not possible that the primitive fathers could err in regard to them: and since they were men of undoubted piety and integrity, they would not attempt to deceive. It may confidently be asserted, that the testimony of the primitive fathers is not more clear and decisive, in regard to the genuineness and authenticity of the books of the sacred volume, than in regard to the facts-that the priesthood was instituted by Christ and his apostles, under three distinct and subordinate orders; that these orders, re

taining uniformly the same distinct ecclesiastical authority, were first stiled Apostles-Bishops Presbyters or Elders-and Deacons, and afterwards Bishops-Presbyters Priests or Elders and Deacons; that no one could lawfully exercise the ministry, unless ordained by a Bishop; and that, through the order of Bishops, as successors to the apostles, the priesthood was to be perpetuated, and all power to be derived from Christ, the supreme head of the church. It is conceded by those who, within these few last centuries, have advanced the novel opinion of the original parity of the orders of the ministry, that bishops were universally considered in the fourth century as superior to presbyters and deacons. It is unfortunate for them, when they maintain, that the supremacy of bishops was an innovation on the apostolic constitution of the church, that no vestiges can be traced of a revolution which must have shaken the foundations of the church; that no record can be found of this daring usurpation of authority, by a few ambitious presbyters, over the rest of their brethren; and that there are scarcely any two of those who assert this usurpation, who agree as to the time when it took place. Is not the conclusion irresistible and irrefragable, that, if the church universal, from the third to the sixteenth century, was governed by bishops, as superior to presbyters and deacons and if no period can be ascertained when this government was introduced

into the church, it must be traced to apostolic institution, and of course rest on Divine authority?

This discussion is of the highest importance to him who is preparing for receiving the Holy Eucharist. For the important truth results from it, that none can possess authority to administer the sacraments but those who have received a commission from the bishops, of the church. It must be essential, therefore, to the efficacy of the Lord's Supper, as a means and pledge of Divine grace, that it be administered by those who have received lawful authority to administer it.

To this statement, which makes the blessings of the gospel to depend on communion with the church by the participation of its ordinances administered by duly authorized ministers, the formidable objection may be opposed, that it is narrowing the path of salvation. But if a solicitude be commendable to prevent the path of salvation from being unduly narrowed and confined; the solicitude to prevent it from being made more wide and easy than God has made it, is surely also commendable. To undervalue or remove those institutions which God hath rendered necessary to salvation, is to contemn his authority and power, and in the highest degree to endanger the souls of men. It is an unauthorized, a criminal, a cruel charity, which would present salvation to men, stripped of those conditions on

which alone it is attainable. Real charity, the charity which most effectually promotes the welfare of men, would lead us faithfully to point out the conditions on which God will restore fallen man to his favour; and then earnestly and af, fectionately to enforce these conditions. In the inscrutable plan of Divine Providence as it has hitherto been unfolded, every dispensation of his grace has been confined to a part only of mankind. Did he not call Abraham and his family from a corrupt world to be the distinguished repositories of his will, his blessing, and favour? Were not the Jews separated from the rest of the world, to be his chosen people, to whom " pertained the adoption and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises?" Are not Christians now called from the rest of the world to be "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people," blessed with the glorious light of the gospel, with the consoling and renovating efficacy of the Redeemer's merits and grace, with the resplendent hopes of immortality? In thus distinguishing particular portions of the human race with his peculiar favours, God" acts according to the counsel of his own will;" "he giveth not to man an account of his doings;" he asserts the power of the potter over his clay, "to create one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour." As the Almighty Cre ator of the world, God may distribute his

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