individuals to be ordained. The Commission first delivered by Jesus Christ to his Apostles, has thus been handed down, in uninterrupted succession, to the Bishops, and through them to the Priests and Deacons of the present day; nor do we, in the Episcopal Church, consider any Ministry as lawful, or any ordination as valid, unless it be clearly derived from this sacred source.

When our Lord had declared this principle in the manner already stated, and had formally commissioned the Apostles, he conferred on them the gift of the Spirit; "He breathed on them, "and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost.' "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted "unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, "they are retained." These words which are still adopted in the Ordination of Priests to their sacred function, have been strangely misunderstood by those who have supposed them to convey to the Church, or even to the first Apostles, the power of pardoning sin, or of condemning sinners. "The Son of Man, "indeed, had power on earth to forgive sins;" but it was because "the Father had committed "all judgment to the Son," and "made him "the judge of quick and dead." "Who can forgive sins, but GOD only ?" To the Apostles and to their successors was given merely that power, without which there can be no discipline

in the Church, (nor indeed in any Society); the power of Absolution, and of Excommunication ;in other words, the power of excluding offenders from the Society for the violation of its rules, and of re-admitting them, upon satisfactory evidence of their sincere repentance.

This authority to govern the Church was intrusted by our Lord to His Apostles in the words already cited, and has been by them handed down to its Governors for the maintenance of discipline- “for edification, and not for "destruction;" to be exercised by them "not "as having dominion over your faith, but as "helpers of your joy;" and to this legitimate power you are commanded, in the word of God, to pay a ready and willing obedience. "Remember "them who have the rule over you," says the Apostle to the Hebrews, (xiii., 7, 17,) "who have "spoken to you the word of GOD."-"Obey them "that have the rule over you, and submit "yourselves for they watch for your souls, as "they that must give account."

Our Lord Himself having thus settled the constitution of His Church, and conferred on His Ministers the powers necessary for its continuance and government, "ascended up "where he was before," and left them to the guidance of that Holy Spirit, who "giveth light "and understanding to the simple ;"-No further commission can be obtained immediately from

Him who "now sitteth at the right hand of GoD ;' the power of ordaining Ministers, of authorising them to preach, of superintending their discharge of duty, and overseeing the whole flock of Christ, rests with that succession of Bishops who have ruled the Church since the days of the Apostles,* and whose sanction is indispensable to "the work "of the Ministry, to the edifying of the body "of Christ."

This general principle having been laid down, a question naturally arises, how far the duty of obedience is affected by the cessation of inspiration;-for our Church, though trusting that we are still called to the Ministry by the Holy Spirit, directing our understandings and influencing our hearts, and still guided by Him in the discharge of our functions as long as we humbly seek his guidance, rejects all pretensions to sensible calls, direct revelations, or miraculous communications from Heaven; and being thus left to the direction of the human mind, enlightened and assisted by those ordinary gifts of grace which are common to all true believers, the Ministers and Governors of the Church are liable to error, and the Church itself is not infallible.

But, if we will look at this question without prejudice or passion, we shall surely see that the fallibility of the Church, and of its Ministers, does

We challenge all opponents to produce evidence that any form of polity other than Episcopal, has prevailed in the Church from the days of the Apostolic men, to the era of the Reformation.

not operate to exempt the people from the duty of legitimate obedience; of obedience to constituted authority, and established rules, and lawful discipline; but merely from an absolute and servile obedience. As long as the Apostles spake the express dictates of the Holy Ghost,-as long as the Church could use such language as "it seemeth good to the Holy Ghost, and "to us," there can be no doubt that any resistance to their commands was disobedience not to man, but to GOD;-but when this awful power was withdrawn, the Bishops and Pastors of the Church were to govern it by Canons, and Articles, and fixed rules; and the duty of the people became a canonical obedience, an obedience, not to the will or power of man, but to the laws laid down by the whole body of the Church, and administered by its officers. Every act of authority in conformity with those laws is binding upon your consciences; but if any attempt be made to exercise an arbitrary dominion beyond them, you are entitled to refuse submission to it.

But if the cessation of miraculous gifts, and our consequent liability to error, cannot justify disobedience to authority lawfully exercised, still less can it excuse separation from the Church, and a division of the Christian body into sects and parties. Such schisms are condemned in the Word of GOD as deadly sins,* and denounced as cutting off the * 1 Cor. iii. 3, xii. 12. &c. Gal. v. 20. 1 Tim. i. 20. Titus iii. 10. &c., &c.

members from the Head of the Church, and depriving them of the influence of the Spirit ;* and, however unwelcome and unpopular may be the declaration of this doctrine, the plain sense of Holy Scripture forbids us to compromise it from false delicacy, or worldly timidity, or from any other motive whatever.

But, say they who are anxious to excuse schism, if separation from the established Church constitutes the deadly sin of schism so fearfully denounced by the Apostles, how can you justify your own separation from the Church of Rome ?The plain answer is that we did not separate from it. We reformed the Church of England; we reformed many abuses which ignorance and corruption had introduced; we abolished many practices which savour of idolatry, and many more which are in direct contempt of the Word of God, and contrary to sound doctrine; and we denied the right of the Bishop of Rome to govern the whole Church by his arbitrary power, as well as the infallibility of the Church, upon which that usurpation is founded: We established the principle, to which I have before adverted, of a canonical and legal, instead of an absolute and slavish obedience; and for having done these things, the Church of England is denounced as heretical by the Church of Rome, excommunicated on earth, and declared incapable of acceptance in Heaven.

*Jude v. 19.