Priesthood-bound together by a law of spiritual vitality, ministered unto and for the whole Church. Various were its orders and degrees of ministry; having different kinds of Divine Service towards God and men, in each order and each kind of ministry in each order was subordinated and made to co-operate and harmonise in one service, by one indwelling Spirit. One Holy Anointing oilone unction from the Holy One,-designated, empowered, commissioned, and made all effectual in their Priestly ministry, both towards God and men. The risen High Priest, was the living stem that gave origin, life, and vitality to all, in which all grew, and unto which all terminated by vital conjunction. HE IS THE ANTITYPE AND SUBSTANCE OF AARON'S TYPICAL ALMOND ROD; —which, when laid up in the Holiest of all, continually shot forth its vital branches, buds, and fruits. Such succession of Priesthood as eternal and immortal life-deposited in its fundamental stem Christ Jesus, yields forth to Jehovah,-such, and only such, is God's provision, for the eternal succession, continuance, incorruption, and preservation of the Holy Priesthood of the Melchizedeckian order or kind-in the Catholic Church! While Jesus in the heavens was the acknowledged living stem, from which outgrew all Priestly branches, buds, and fruits, carnal commandments, canonical ordinances, and uniform iron laws, for the growth and evolution of legitimate Priesthood were unknown. LIFE AND ITS NEEDS,—AND ITS RESOURCES, was the one and only law which called forth, empowered, and commissioned Priests,-whether in the universal or local service of the Catholic Church. When, as, and were needed, -Deacons, Priests, Bishops, and Apostles, were designated, empowered, and commissioned by the power of that law of life in Christ. For each and all occasions, the law of life in Christ, was the only recognised law-for yielding forth such a Priesthood-in number, measure, kind, and degree, as the necessities of Christ's body required. But this law had its rise, activity, and termination, in the Head and High Priest, alone. It was a law in His power, of which He was the living judge, and active, chief, invisible administrator. It was when this living law for evolving and producing the Christian Priesthood was departed from, that ecclesiastical, worldly, and carnal laws were substituted in its place. But the active, living, and speaking personal exponent of that living law, was that One Infinite Spirit of Jehovah-the Spirit of Christ dwelling in all ;-and with whom all were sealed. In the whole body and in all her members, He was the Spirit of love, and of power, and of a sound and wholesome

mind. Between the Head and Body, and between all its joints and bands, He was the conscious exponent of all wants,- Inspirer of all desires, and revealer of all hidden powers, for the behoof of the whole body, and of all its general and local memberships. He waited upon, and confirmed, and made effectual, all the words and acts of the HEAD, both towards God and men; ah! and he also waited upon-dwelt in, walked in, and made effectual also, the words and acts spoken and done towards God and man, by all the ministerial joints and bands which proceeded from, were exercised for, and terminated in Him,-by uniting and knitting all to Him. The heavenly breath, which inspired and breathed in the Head and through all the body, was the Baptism with the Holy Ghost and Fire! Apostles, Baptized with the Holy Ghost, were the living rudiment and nucleus of the living Body. The Body grew; for the law of its life is growth. As it grew, its vital wants increased, and as its wants required, its living organs and powers were manifested and developed. Deaconship, Eldership, Episcopacy, and Gentile Apostleship, each in due time and place sprang out, and were yielded forth, by the workings of the vital energies of the One Living Invisible Stem. This was true legitimate Spiritual succession of Priesthood! Has such living succession remained uninterrupted? If not, why not? It is because the voice and power of the Holy Ghost have been silenced and quenched; for He is the sole living exponent, of all the wants of the living Body of Christ, for ever.

No. 1 has been reprinted, and may be had through any bookseller.

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PRINTED BY T. H. STEVENSON, MIDDLE PAVEMENT, NOTTINGHAM.

THE

CRY IN THE DESERT;

OR,

EARNEST WORDS OF WARNING ADDRESSED TO A SLUMBERING CHURCH, TO KNOW THE DAY OF HER VISITATION, AND TO PREPARE TO MEET

HER GOD.

A MONTHLY TRACT.

X.

THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,-THE TRUE ORIGINAL SOURCE OF ALL LEGITIMATE CHRISTIAN PRIESTHOOD; AND THE ONLY DIVINE MEANS FOR PRESERVING IT, WITH ALL ITS SACRED FUNCTIONS AND POWERS, FREE FROM MUTILATION, CORRUPTION, SCHISM, AND DECAY.

2 Tim. i. 14.—“ That good thing which was committed unto thee keep; by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us."

St. Timothy and Titus were of that class or order of Christian Ministers, who were associated with Apostles in the service of the Universal Church. They were of the highest order of the Christian Priesthood, but in subordination to, and under the direction of Apostles. They were not, as is generally asserted by Ecclesiastical writers, the fixed and located Angels or Bishops of Ephesus and Crete; but while (being in the service of the Church Universal and not of any particular part or place) they were therefore of the Episcopal order of the Sacred Ministry, yet, they were sent by St. Paul the Apostle as his Apostolic delegates, either to do work by his authority, which he had left unfinished, or else, to discharge duties, which it was impossible for him at the time to fulfil. They were not fixed or located Bishops, but men, placed in the Episcopal order or degree of service, by the Holy Ghost, and were attached to Apostles, to aid and assist them, in the carrying out and administration of their mind and will, in the Church Universal. They were Chief Ministers, or Chief Priests, who were called by the Holy Ghost, and consecrated and commissioned by Apostles, for the service of the Universal Church, in subordination to themselves; and they were used by Apostles, and by them sent hither and thither,

at sundry times and in divers manners, to discharge real Apostolic functions and not Episcopal,-by a power and authority specially delegated to them by Apostles, for such special occasions. That power ceased with the occasion for which it was specially delegated to them. The acts therefore of St. Timothy and Titus in the Churches of Ephesus and Crete, are in no wise precedents, or rules and examples for Bishops to follow, who are not similarly delegated by, and under the same immediate Apostolic direction and control. They ordained Deacons and Presbyters, and set in order in the Churches, the Ordinances, Doctrines, Precepts, and Worship of the Apostles, -in the name of,-and by the special delegation to them, of Apostolic power, for their special work, on these special occasions; but no further, no more, and no longer. They did not ordain men to their own Episcopal order of Ministry; nor did they dream of instituting, or teaching, any ordinance, doctrine, or precept, of their own origination.

Neither the Epistles to St. Timothy and Titus, nor indeed any other portion of the Sacred Scriptures, contain the least hint, or give the slightest foundation, or authority,-for Bishops, in right of their own specific office as Bishops, either to ordain Deacons, or Presbyters; and most certainly they contain not the faintest shadow of Apostolic authority, for Bishops ordaining Bishops;—or men to fill the same order and degree of Sacred Ministry as themselves. Neither do they contain the slightest hint, that Bishops were ever called and designated to their office by any other means, than by the express call and designation of the Holy Ghost. God's order is— to bless and consecrate the less, by and through the greater. Multiply the number of equals as you will, a multiplied number of Equal Bishops, is no more a Divine way of conveying the blessing of Consecration to a Co-equal, than it is for the inferior to rise up and bless the superior. Beyond all controversy-God's Eternal ordinance and way is, to minister blessings to the lesser, by and through the greater; to the lower,-by and through the higher. St. Timothy had received from the Apostle St. Paul, and the express designation of the Holy Ghost," that good thing"-that heavenly gift, and grace, which fitted, empowered, and commissioned him, for that special work of Ministry in the Catholic Church, unto which he was especially sent. It had been committed unto him-deposited into his charge and keeping as a responsible creature,-who could use or abuse, conserve or destroy it. The Charge now entrusted to him by St. Paul, was agreeable to the prophecies which went before upon him, pointing him out for this service, in this post, that he might war a good warfare therein and thereby. (1 Tim. i. 18.) The Holy Ghost in

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the Church, revealing the mind of Christ, had indicated and called St. Timothy to this peculiar office and duty. St. Paul did not give him this Ephesian Charge and Service, by hap-hazard,-nor by the choice and election of the Ephesian Church, nor by his own choice, or by the discrimination of his own mind, merely;-but the Holy Ghost, by prophecy, pointed him out,—designated, called, and named him for the Apostle's use, in this kind of Ministry and in this particular exercise thereof. Therefore again, he is bidden by the Apostle, "not to neglect the gift which was in him, and which was given him by prophecy, with the putting on of the hands of the Presbytery. (1 Tim. iv. 13, 14). And again, he bids him stir up the gift, which he says, " is in thee, by the putting on of my hands," (2 Tim. i. 6, 7.) So also he says again, "That good thing which was committed to thee, keep; by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. (2 Tim. i. 14.) From all which it is clear, that the “call,”- consecration,"" separation,"-and-"mission," of St. Timothy, were given to him by God after a settled, fixed, and divinely appointed way-a way which the Church then knew and practised. The Lord, by the Holy Ghost speaking in prophecy, Nominated, Elected, and called him to his special degree and kind of Ministry. This was the true, Apostolic, and scriptural-and therefore the really legitimate way and ordinance,-for calling the Members of Christ, to undertake the highest offices of Sacred Ministry in His Church, -while the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, was fully abidden in, and enjoyed;-while the gifts resulting from it were allowed to be fully manifested, and practically exercised. Then, Christian men understood, what was meant by receiving " A Call,"-to any kind of sacred office, or order of Sacred Ministry. This was a legitimate call! It was a real, tangible, unmistakable, declaration by the Lord, through some Organ of the Body of Christ,-that such was his mind and will! What has been substituted in its place? Who, and what have been the substitutes for the organs and channels of the Holy Ghost, to make known God's mind, concerning those whom He would Call into any degree of His Sacred Service-since this,-His ordained way has passed from the faith, remembrance, and practice of His Church? Alas! What makeshifts! What impious substitutions and adulterations! What corruptions and perversions! What are now thy organs-oh Church of Christ, by which thy children are indicated, called and designated to thy Sacred Ministries? Alas! thy substitutes and inventions for that open vision of God,-which the Baptism of the Holy Ghost ever caused thy feet to walk in, are named Legion;-they are so many. Inward promptings-vain aspirations-natural endowmentslearned acquirements-academical honours-popular votings