when the memory of our Lord had not yet become dim in the minds and hearts of his followers, all gladly acknowledged those truths for which now we are forced to contend. We stand not alone then in this profession. We hold it with "the glorious company of the Apostles,” and “the noble army of martyrs." And these days of union we believe shall once more return. Dark though the clouds may be which gather around us, the Sun of righteousness shall yet pour his beams over this benighted world, dispelling these mists of prejudice and error. And already the distant horizon is lighted up with the glory which heralds his coming. “Truth”—says the Eastern proverb—“ is the daughter of Time ¿” and though we wait long for her coming, yet at last she will appear. Her progress cannot be stayed, or her final triumph prevented. She mocks the vain efforts of her adversaries. They may, for a season, imprison her in the tomb, but it will only be that she may burst forth with a new and more glorious beauty. In vain for her will be the stone, the seal, the guard. She must have her resurrection. She must enjoy her own immortality. In this hope, then, we live; when error is rife around us, striving to hold fast to our steadfastness—tc set forth the truth in humility—and looking forward to the time, when all warring sects which now distract the Christian world shall profess with "one heart the faith delivered to the saints,” and with "one mouth glorify God." And for this we pray, when gathered in His Holy Temple, we utter those solemn words of our own Litany "From all FALse doctrine, HERESY and SCHISM, Good Lord, deliver us.” II. EPISCOPACY PROVED FROM SCRIPTURE. Who then, uncalled by Thee, Dare touch Thy Spouse, Thy very self below? Keble. LET us look back this evening tnrough the long vista of nearly eighteen centuries, to a little group which then had gathered in Judea. It was our risen Lord, surrounded by His eleven disciples. The time of his triumph had come. The fearful conflict with our great enemy was over, and his power broken. Death had been vanquished, and the grave robbed of its prey. And now, when the Son of God was about to leave this world of suffering and ascend to his Father, His faithful followers had collected about Him, to hear His last injunctions before "the cloud received Him out of their sight." The outward, busy world knew not of this little assembly, and cared not for its doings. Yet in that hour words were spoken which changed the destiny of man, and a command was given, whose influence should be felt to the end of time. Then was issued that broad commission-" Go ye 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." Here is the Charter of the Christian Church-the source of all power to her rulers. The twilight dimness of Judaism was over, and the fill glory of the Sun of righteousness was about to shine. Our Master's kingdom was to fill the whole world. The faith, no longer shut in by the hills of Judea, was to go forth everywhere, enlightering the nations. His ministers were to inherit the earth. But what is His Church, and who are His ministers? and how did He constitute them? To be equal in rankor each, according to his degree, to yield obedience to those above him? Did He, "of his wise providence appoint divers Orders in His Church"-or one grade of ministers only? Was the office of an Apostle to be perpetuated, or did its authority expire when the last survivor of the twelve died at Ephesus? These are the points on which the Church differs with those about her, and to a consideration of which we would ask your candid attention. They are not questions which can be set aside, or regarded as unimportant. They act upon our conduct in daily, practical life. They have their influence on the spiritual interests of millions of im. mortal beings. Are we or are those who dissent from us -walking in the path which our Lord marked out, and enjoying the ministry which He instituted ? These therefore are surely subjects to be approached, not "lightly," but "reverently, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God." And where shall we begin this investigation? It is the glory of our Church, that she refers everything to the decision of Scripture. Her Sixth Article declares most explicitly-" Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation." To this tribunal then let us go in the settlement of the important subject now before us, viz., the authority for the Episcopal form of Church government. Let us turn at once "to the law and to the testimony," and make our first inquiry, What says the Word of God? What do we learn from its pages with regard to the government of that Church, which our Lord and his Apostles in their day established? The first thing is—to set plainly before you what we believe to be the truth on this subject, and in what respects we differ from the various denominations around us. We contend, then, that in accordance with directions given by our Lord, His Apostles, acting under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit, established a Church, having a ministry of three orders, and which ministry has been continued by their successors down to the present time. These three orders were, 1st, the Apostles-called in the following age, the Bishops: 2d, the Presbyters, or Elders; and 3d, the Deacons. We contend, also, that there is no instance of ordination record. ed in Scripture, as being performed by any except the Apostles, or others, as Timothy or Titus, who had been invested by them with the authority of Bishops; in other words, that there is no instance anywhere of mere Presbyters ordaining. And we believe, also, that this remained an established rule of the Church, never violated for more than 1500 years, un. til at the Reformation in the sixteenth century, when some bodies of Christians, who had separated from the Church, proceeded to ordain ministers by the hands of mere priests or Presbyters. We therefore require in those who officiate at our altars, that they should be Episcopally ordained, that is, that they should be ordained by some Bishop, who has derived his authority from those Bishops who went before him in the Church, in uninterrupted succession since the Apostles' days. This is the doctrine of the Apostolical succes sion. On the other hand, those who deny the necessity of Episcopal government assert, that the Apostles of the Early Church left no successors-that it is not necessary for ordination to be performed by a Bishop-that there is but one order of ministers in the Church, that of Presbyters-and that these have a right, by their own authority, to ordain and admit to the ministry. Such then is the dividing line between us, and to decide which view is right, and most in accordance with the government of the Primitive Church, we must refer to the intimations given in Scripture, and the testimony of History in the earliest ages of our faith. The first argument, then, we would advance, is the analogy to be drawn from the nature of the ministry in the Jewish Church. The Church in all ages is the same, only developing itself at one time in a greater maturity than it had done under the dispensation which preceded it. In this way we may interpret the illustration used by St. Paul, in the xi. of Romans, where he compares the Church to an olive tree. "No man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, in this Church, except he hath had Episcopal Conse cration or Ordination." Preface to the Ordinal. from which, when the appointed time had come, some branch. es (that is, the Jews) were broken off, and the wild olive tree (that is, the Gentile nations) was grafted in. All things in the Mosaic things in the Christian Therefore it was that If, indeed, we look at the different dispensations, we shall find that each one was but an expansion of the last-elevating man to a higher stage of religious truth than he had before enjoyed. Thus the Jewish dispensation was an advance as compared with the Patriarchal-while the Christian Church is but the continuation -the ripening-the fuller development of the Jewish. economy were but preparatory to dispensation, and typical of them. each was prescribed by God Himself with such distinctness, and the direction given-" See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount."* Look, then, how one thing answers to another. There were sacrifices in the Jewish Church, but these were only intended to shadow forth the one great sacrifice of our Lord. The rite of entrance into the former Church was circumcision, but in the latter, Baptism took its place. The Passover, in the old dispensation, commemorated the deliverance of the people of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, and at the same time pointed forward to the Lamb of God. But this was set aside by our Lord, when He substituted in place of it the Sacrament of His Supper, which in the Christian Church was to commemorate the greater deliverance which He had wrought out from a more fearful bondage. Thus, you may perfectly draw the parallel between the two Churches, and you will find, as we remarked, that the one is only the continuation of the other, modified by the clearer light which had beamed upon the world. The difference is, that in the former, they looked forward to an expected Saviour-while, in the latter, we look back to this Saviour who has already come. Now let us turn to the ministry, and see how the analogy holds good in this case. We find that, in the Jewish Church, God Himself instituted a priesthood, consisting of three orders, viz., the High Priest, the ordinary Priests, and the Levites These, through all ages, were the only authorised *Heb viii. 5 |