shame his predecessors and falsify the primitive Church by introducing and which therefore, apostles being absent from the Church, stand out in their true and prominent deformity of both usurpation and falsehood.

Apostolic grace is the inheritance of bishops, as successors of apostles; and this, in all its fulness, to continue the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost in the Church-the same grace, the same Holy Spirit which was first brought into the Church by apostles. The whole history of the Church in Scripture shows that this grace was not to be obtained at the beginning, save through apostles, or those commissioned by them; and in after times, only in a legitimate and ordinary way, through bishops, as successors of the apostles. We say legitimate, because we know of no other appointed channel for this apostolic blessing, and not daring to limit God's grace in any way, and not taking upon ourselves to pronounce judgment upon others, or to cut off those who, without fault of their own, may be deprived of the ordinary channels for apostolic grace and blessing. The grace is to faith; faith lays hold of a promise, and there is no promise of the grace we speak of, save to apostles, and those holding of them; to them were the promises specially made, before Christ ascended to the Father. And this specialty lies as much in the thing which was to be done, as in the parties appointed to do it.

For this grace peculiar to the apostles, and by the bishops transmitted to our own time, is not the power of working miracles, which was a power given to the seventy also, and merely an attestation of divine mission, and, as such, had been given to prophets and men of God before the coming of Christ. It was a grace distinct from and greater than any work which had been previously wrought, and even greater than the works which Christ himself had wrought in the days of his flesh. For, speaking to the apostles, Christ says-" Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father." Christ was not then glorified-the Holy Ghost had not then been given; but on ascending to his Father, Christ gave the Holy Ghost to the apostles, both to do the same works which he had done, and greater works: greater in the same kind than his they could not be, therefore they were of another kind -of a greater kind; they were works testifying that Christ was glorified-works of that other Comforter whom he would send from the Father, and to do works which could not be done till that time, because the glorification of Christ was the preliminary to their being begun; and this glory is the scale to estimate how

far the works which testify of it should be greater than all preceding works-greater than those wrought by Christ in humiliation.

The grace we speak of is all that the presence of the Holy Ghost, the third person of the blessed Trinity, has brought into the Church; and the spirit of man is the region of this divine operation-a higher region than that of sense or intellect, and therefore a greater work than those that address themselves to the sense or to the understanding of man. This work is what St. Paul speaks of as the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which had not entered into the heart of man, but God hath revealed to us by his Spirit, and which he calls, in conclusion, the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. ii. 16. To know the mind of Christ the gift of the Holy Ghost was needed, as we see in the great instance of the apostles themselves, and their ignorance of the meaning of the words of Christ before the day of Pentecost, compared with the understanding they had of these things after the Holy Ghost was given on that day. And it is the mind of Christ, not of the Holy Ghost; for the Spirit brings no new revelation he speaketh not of himself he receiveth of the things of Christ, and showeth them unto the apostles. (John xvi. 14). And not only unto the apostles was given the Holy Ghost for themselves, that they individually might know the mind of Christ, but unto them he was given that they might impart him to others, and so to the whole Church, that the whole Church might know the mind of Christ: so that by the laying on of apostles' hands men might receive the Holy Ghost. Truly wonderful it is that this should be the case! Truly wonderful that the gift of God should be in the hands of men! A greater work truly is this than healing the sick, or giving sight to the blind, yea, or even raising the dead.

St. Paul, writing to Timothy, says "That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in us"—the same Holy Ghost preserving the same truths "And the things thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." This is tradition; but the tradition thus handed down is not a vague thing-an unknown thing, to come into manifestation we know not how or when; but it was the one truth-the unchangeable Gospel-the mind of Christ; the same which Paul and James, Cephas and John preached, and which they all alike transmitted to us through faithful men-that is, bishops. For St. Paul, writing to Titus concerning the duties of bishops, says " For a bishop must be blameless, as the

steward of God, not self-willed......holding fast the faithful word, as he hath been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." And this faithful word cannot be held fast but by the Holy Ghost; for as at the beginning it was not the word of Christ alone, nor the Holy Ghost alone, that qualified the apostles, but the Holy Ghost taking of the things of Christ and showing it to them, that made them spiritual; so is it in the Church unto the end. To Timothy it was committed in the power of the Holy Ghost, and by the same Spirit it is kept undefiled in him, and together with, and in the power of the same Spirit, it is transmitted to others. And therefore it was by the laying on of hands that the gift was accompanied, that the Spirit might go along with the word-from Paul to Timothy, from Timothy to those whom he might ordain to the end of time.

Bishops are constituted stewards of the truth of God, and guardians of sound doctrine in the priests committed to their charge. The primary duty of bishops was like that of apostlesministerial from Christ to the Christian priesthood, qualifying them for their work, and superintending them in doing it; and not priestly between God and the people. If this had been kept in view, it would have prevented much confusion of thought in those who, like Jerome, question the distinction between the office of bishop and that of priest; and it would also suggest to them the necessity of such a perpetual provision for retaining apostolic doctrine in the Church, and transmitting the Holy Ghost to make that doctrine, not a mere exercise of the understanding, but to be both spirit and life. It is apostolic doctrine of which bishops, as apostles' successors, are constituted guardians-neither more nor less than the faith once delivered to the saints.

"For (as Hooker remarks) op0oтoμe, to divide aright, doth note in the apostles' writings soundness of doctrine only; and in meaning standeth opposite to kaoтope, the broaching of new opinions against that which is received. For, questionless, the first things delivered to the Church of Christ were pure and sincere truth; which whosoever did afterwards impugn, could not choose but divide the Church into two moieties, in which division, such as taught what was first believed, held the truer part-the contrary side, in that they were teachers of novelty, erred."

And if the bishops have not been able to take this their true standing, and thus determine what is apostolic doctrine, the fault has been in the Church as much as in them-in the Church not expecting it at their hands, and not upholding them

by faith in their high and holy calling, by that charity which rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.

"There is crept into the minds of men, at this day, a secret pernicious and pestilent conceit, that the greatest perfection of a Christian man doth consist in discovery of other men's faults, and in wit to discourse of our own profession. When the world most abounded with just, righteous, and perfect men, their chiefest study was the exercise of piety, wherein, for their safest direction, they reverently hearkened to the readings of the law of God-they kept in mind the oracles and aphorisms of wisdom, which tended unto virtuous life; if any scruple of conscience did trouble them, for matter of actions which they took in hand, nothing was attempted before counsel and advice were had, for fear lest rashly they might offend. We are now more confident, not that our knowledge and judgment are riper, but because our desires are another way. Their scope was obedience, ours is skill; their endeavour was reformation of life, our virtue nothing but to hear gladly the reproof of vice; they in the practice of their religion wearied chiefly their knees and hands, we especially our ears and tongues." Hooker, p. 325.

And, on the other hand, care must be taken that both bishops and priests are walking according to the precepts of the apostles, and that nothing "is practised corruptly, to the detriment and hurt of the Church, against the purpose of those very laws, which, notwithstanding, are pretended in defence and justification thereof;" which would be "no less repugnant to the grounds and principles of common right, than the fraudulent proceedings of tyrants to the principles of just sovereignty."

"Did anything more aggravate the crime of Jeroboam's profane apostasy than that he chose to have his clergy the scum and refuse of his whole land? Let no man spare to tell it them-they are not faithful towards God that burden wilfully his Church with such swarms of unworthy creatures. I will not say of all degrees of the ministry that which St. Chrysostom doth of the highest-he that will undertake so weighty a charge had need to be a man of great understanding, rarely assisted with divine grace; for integrity of manners, purity of life, and for all other virtues, to have in him more than a man. But surely this I will say, with Chrysostom-we need not doubt whether God be highly displeased with us, or what the cause of his anger is, if things of so great fear and holiness, as are the least and lowest duties of his service, be thrown wilfully on them whose, not only mean, but bad and scandalous quality doth defile whatsoever they handle." (p. 324).

"There are four things to be considered in a minister of God. 1. Ordination, giving him power to handle sacred things at all. 2. The charge or portion of the Church allotted to him for the exercise of his office. 3. The performance of his duty, according to the exigence of his charge. 4. The maintenance which in that respect he receiveth

We have seen that ordination is unto one of three orders or degrees. 1. Bishops, coming in the room of the first apostles. 2. Presbyters, including therein evangelists. 3. Deacons, not exercising any priestly functions. Concerning the charge committed unto them, according to their degrees:-The bishops had the charge of general oversight and rule over all presbyters, deacons, and people, both as to matters of doctrine and conduct. The presbyters had the general charge of teaching, not of necessity limited to one congregation, yet in subordination to the bishop for doctrine and conduct. The deacons' charge was under the presbyters, and therefore within the limits of a particular Church, and further limited in only having to do with conduct, or such elementary teaching and such priestly acts as the laity might be occasionally entrusted with, though unordained thereto....... For the avoiding of confusions incident unto the cause and question referred to, there is not anything more material than to separate exactly the nature of the ministry from the use and exercise thereof. Secondly, to know that the only true and proper act of ordination is to invest men with that power which doth make them ministers, by consecrating their persons to God, and his service in holy things, during the term of life, whether they exercise that power or no. Thirdly, that to give them a title or charge where to use their ministry concerneth not the making, but the placing of God's ministers, and therefore the laws which concern only their election or admission unto place of charge are not applicable to infringe any way their ordination." (p. 316).

Ordination, therefore, being for life, a priest who afterwards becomes a bishop does not cease to be a priest; and when he acts as a priest, does so in virtue of his priestly, and not of his episcopal ordination. And in all priestly acts we must account them the same, by whatever priest they may be performed: for the transaction is between God and the human soul; the priest is only the appointed medium, and the more he can be kept as an ordinance only, and not be looked to as a man, the more full and simple will our faith in God become, and the greater will be our blessing.

Men have become afraid of the very name of priest and sacrifice in the Christian Church, in consequence of the mistakes which have been made concerning both by the Church of Rome. But it does not therefore follow that because these things have been abused by them there is no true use of them for us; the first thing is to discover the mistake, and it may then appear that the abuse has arisen entirely from mistake, and that this being rectified, the legitimate use of the things may become evident to all. The word "priest" has many significations, for each of which, in ancient times, there was a distinct word; we, having but one word to express all these different meanings, must be careful that we are keeping to one meaning in the use of the word "priest," whether we are approving it, or protesting against it, in