DISCOURSE IV.

THE NATURE OF ORDINATION-THE POWER OF ORDINATION NOT PECULIAR TO THE APOSTOLICAL OFFICEPRELATICAL BISHOPS NOT THEIR ONLY SUCCESSORS IN THE EXERCISE OF THIS FUNCTION.

I. TIMOTHY, ii. 7. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle.

I OFFER this passage to your notice, at the present time, not because I propose to dwell upon it exclusively, but only because it is one of several passages in the New Testament which refer to the subject of ORDINATION-a subject which we are necessarily called upon to examine at this stage of our remarks on the general doctrine of apostolical succession.

This doctrine, as we have already had occasion to define it, is, that, in an unbroken line from the apostles downward there has been a personal succession of bishops or chief pastors—that they succeed the apostles, as belonging to the highest of

three grades of which the christian ministry is supposed to consist-that they alone are clothed with the power of governing the churches by a general supervision, and especially of ordaining others to the ministerial work-and that their order, together with the inferior ones, is perpetuated by one ordaining another in continuity from age to age.

In this scheme, it will be seen at once, that every thing depends upon the question,-Whether, by the appointment of Christ and the authority of scripture, there is any such superior grade in the ministry at all, as that to which prelatical bishops belong? If there is not, the controversy is ended -the chain of succession is not only defective in itself, but without a hook at the superior end on which it can hang-and the stupendous fabric of the hierarchy vanishes into thin air, like a creature of the imagination, when brought to the tests of reality and truth.

Our object, in the last two discourses, has therefore been to test the grounds on which the scriptural warrant for prelacy is supposed to restAnd thus far we have failed to find any traces of the bishop of this order, either by name or by office. The name we have disposed of finally; but various things, in regard to the office, are yet to be considered. To show that the APOSTOLICAL office

does not represent the office of a prelatical bishop, we have brought the distinctive features of that office before you; and have seen that, in the language of Dr. Barrow, "it containeth in it divers things, which apparently were not communicated, and which no man without gross imposture and hypocrisy could challenge to himself." But, other considerations apart, it is stoutly maintained by the advocates of prelacy, that the Apostles alone ORDAINED -that this was the main characteristic of their office-and that in respect to this prerogative the possibility of succession must be granted, while the fact of such succession as applied to prelatical bishops can be established by satisfactory evidence.

This, then, is the point at which we take up the thread of the argument on the present occasion. And, it will help not a little to clear our way, if we advert in the outset to THE REAL NATURE and DESIGN of this rite of ordination, of which so much is made by the advocates and supporters of this scheme.

In the Romish system, ordination is exalted to the grade of a sacrament. And we cannot see that it occupies a much lower place, in the hightoned prelatical system we are now considering. One would really think, from the language in which the advocates of this system speak, that

there is something in the nature of this ceremony which is awfully mysterious, and even inscrutable; something which lies beyond the ken of ordinary mortals; and in regard to which, it is better to believe than to reason.' They refer to it, as if its invariable and sure effect were to imprint upon the subject of it a new and indelible character-introducing him into a new relation, both to God and his fellow men-putting him in possession of something which, though invisible, intangible, and incomprehensible, is yet real, and of wonderful efficacy-clothing him with the power of giving practical effect to the ordinances which he administers-and doing all this with certainty, without regard either to his moral character, or his mental endowments. In virtue of the 'apostolical grace' or the 'grace of the episcopal order,' which he thus receives, the sprinkling of water by his hands, in baptism, ensures regeneration-the bread and wine of the eucharist are made to convey the real body and blood of the Saviour to those who receive them-and the door of the kingdom of heaven is opened to the penitent and believing who receive these sacraments at his hands, while none who renounce his authority can enter, unless in some way which the scriptures do not reveal. If this is not going the whole distance to Rome, it is certainly performing more than half the journey!