arate orders and as individuals. Now, is there not true justice and true republicanism in that system of ecclesiastical government here exhibited, which allows to every individual in the Church a vote in all its affairs; which secures, conclusively and inalienably, to every order in the Church, the right and the power of self-protection; and all whose laws, without any exception, are and must be the harmonious result of the unconstrained suffrages of the whole Church? Indeed, is not every system which does not rest upon these strong principles essentially opposed to justice and to republicanism?

Is not the system of government of the Protestant Episcopal Church so firm and so broad, that all the Christian people in our land may find the essential principles of their various plans of Church government embodied and beautifully combined in it, and may stand upon it and be brethren?

SECTION VI.

ORDINATION AND DUTIES OF MINISTERS.

Three orders or degrees of ministers-Deacons the lowest-Presbyters next-Bishops the highest-rules concerning ordination-Candidates for orders-testimonials of Standing Committee-preparatory steps of a Deacon-of a Presbyter-of a Bishop-all promise conformity to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church-duties of ministers-explained in the ordinalss-as commonly understood scope and variety of clerical influence-the judgment of all denominations here approved.

THE ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as has been mentioned, is in three orders or degrees

6

The

Bishops, Presbyters or Priests, and Deacons.* same orders, and no others, exist in the Protestant Episcopal Church in Great Britain. But there, owing to the secular arrangements of the Church, and its relation to certain property held in various ways, there are various offices and titles held by members of these three orders. Thus, two of their Bishops are called Archbishops, and the rest of their Bishops are called Suffragans; and among their Presbyters there are Archdeacons, Deans, Prebendaries, etc. These distinctions in the same orders do not exist in the United States. In respect to their ecclesiastical rights and titles, all Bishops here are equal, all Presbyters are equal, and all Deacons are equal.

I. No person may be ordained a Presbyter until after he has been a Deacon, nor a Bishop until after he has passed through both of the inferior degrees. No person may be ordained a Deacon under twenty-one years of age, nor a Priest under twenty-four, nor a Bishop under thirty.†

Before any one can be ordained at all, he must be received as a "Candidate for Orders," that is, he must state his wish and intention to become a minister to the Bishop of the Diocese in which he resides, and be registered by the Bishop upon the list of approved candidates. To be thus registered, he must present to the Bishop certain testimonials of character and fitness, and also a recommendation from the Standing Committee of the Diocese.t

* Preface to the Ordinal, Common Prayer Book. Digest, Title I., Canon 1.

+ Title I., Canon 6, Section 7; Canon 8, Section 7; Canon 15, Section 4. For a fuller detail of these requisites see Title I., Canon 2, Section 3.

After this, when a candidate has finished his primary studies and applies for ordination, first as a Deacon, and then as a Presbyter, he must pass through certain literary and theological examinations.* He must also present from the Standing Committee certain other testimonials to his moral and religious character and fitness for the ministry, before he can be ordained.†

Candidates for Orders and Deacons are both subject to the particular care and direction of the Bishop. +

Before a person can be ordained a Bishop, he must produce to the House of Bishops testimonials of his proper character and of his election. These testimonials must be signed by the members of the Convention which elects him, and also by a majority of the clerical and lay Deputies in the General Convention. Or, if the election occur more than six months previous to the meeting of the General Convention, they must be signed by the members of the Convention which elects him, and approved by the Standing Committees of the major number of the Dioceses in connection with the General Convention. In both cases the majority of the Bishops must approve the testimonials, and consent to his consecration, before he can be ordained a Bishop.§

No person may be ordained a Deacon or a Presbyter until he has, in a book kept by the Bishop who ordains him, subscribed the following declaration: “I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation; and I do solemnly engage + Ibid., Canon 6, Sections 7 and 8. § Ibid., Canon 15.

*Title I., Canon 4.
Ibid., Canons 3 and 7.

to conform to the doctrines and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States."*

Every person ordained a Bishop, publicly before the Church at the time of his ordination, repeats and assumes the following promise to the same effect: "In the name of God, Amen. I, N, chosen Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in N, do promise conformity and obedience to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. So help me God, through Jesus Christ."+

II. The duties of the three orders are defined in the questions and answers and exhortations in the three ordination services respectively. They may be seen at length in the Common Prayer Book.

They are, substantially, to fulfil the various duties of the Gospel ministry, as these are commonly understood; and to conform to the laws of the Church, as they exist from time to time.

The peculiar duties of the Bishop, as may be seen in the Ordinal referred to, are: To ordain ministers in obedience to the laws of the Church; to confirm or lay hands upon those who have been baptized and come to years of discretion; to see that the lawful discipline of the Church is duly administered; and to exercise all possible moral influence for the glory of God and the unity and edification of the Church.

If the reader will examine carefully the several ordination services in the Common Prayer Book, and also the several Canons which relate, in divers particulars,

* Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Art. 7.

See Ordinal, Common Prayer Book.

to the ministry, he will perceive that there is in the Protestant Episcopal Church a very remarkable scope and variety of clerical influence and effort provided for.

It is true that these have never yet been but partially developed or improved, because the hitherto straitened circumstances of the Church have not warranted nor indeed called for any new applications of clerical influence. But it is still true that almost all the peculiar varieties and modes of clerical influence and effort now in operation among the several denominations in our country are actually provided for, and in many cases employed, in the Protestant Episcopal Church.

Thus the itinerant or unsettled missionary clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church are identical nearly with the itinerant clergy of the Methodist Church. Thus the Missionary and Diocesan Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church, with less powers and in a definite district, fulfil the same Episcopal or supervisory care of the Churches which the Bishops of the Methodist Church fulfil, and which the general agents of the Presbyterian and Congregational missionary districts in the West fulfil. The State or County missionaries of the Protestant Episcopal Church, indeed the Bishops themselves, are correspondent to the Evangelists of the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches. The parochial or settled clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church correspond to the same class in all other Churches. Then, in the office of Deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church there is a provision (which has never yet been fully improved) for an order corresponding to the local clergy of the Methodist Church; and