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the Church, according to the Apostolical constitution taken from the Old Testament." "Et ut sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de veteri Testamento, quod Aaron, et filii ejus, et Levitæ in templo fuerunt; hoc sibi episcopi et presbyteri et diaconi vendicent in ecclesia."

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Thus, in correspondence with the same established idea, St. Clement, one of the first bishops, a fellow labourer with St. Paul, writes to the members of the Church at Corinth, for the express purpose of pressing upon them the duty of eccle"To the siastical subordination and obedience. high-priest," says he, "were allotted his proper offices; to the priests their proper place was assigned; and to the Levites their services were appointed; and the laymen were restrained within the precepts of laymen.”

Now were there no similarity at that time acknowledged between the Jewish economy and Christian Church; were there no offices in the latter corresponding with those of high-priest, priest, and Levite, in the former; the force of argument, otherwise to be deduced from the application in this case, must have been totally lost upon the parties to whom it was addressed.

But upon appeal to St. Paul's writings we find

The reader will find a masterly illustration of the connec: tion between the Jewish economy and Christian Church, (a subject necessary to be understood by all Christian divines, who, according to our Saviour's description of the doctor “rightly instructed unto the kingdom of God," should be like unto a householder, “who bringeth out of his storehouse new things and old,”) in the discourse previous to the "Case of Baptism, by the very learned Dean of Worcester." See Lon

don Cases, No. 15.

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that part of the charge delivered to Timothy, appointed bishop of the Church in Ephesus, was, that "he should lay hands suddenly on no man;' that he should receive no accusation against a presbyter, but before two or three witnesses; and that the deacons in his Church should be men of sober and orderly conversation. Here, then, we have the form of the Christian Church, after the model drawn out by the Apostles themselves, with its officers distinguished by their respective stations; the bishop, as supreme governor, answering to the high-priest under the law; the presbyters and deacons to the priests and Levites, as subordinate ministers in it. And by an appeal to ecclesiastical history, it will be found, that immediately from the death of the Apostles, or a very few years after, the government of the Christian Church throughout the world was in every part of it settled upon this same Apostolic plan.

Under this form of government has the Church continued, from the days of the Apostles down to the present time; and, doubtless, will continue so to the end, whatever occasional interruptions it has met with, or may still meet with, from the prevailing passions and prejudices of sinful men. "For it is impossible," we are told, " but that offences will come;" and "there must be heresies, that they which are approved may be made mani

fest."+

Should further testimony in favour of the government of the Church, as here described, be necessary, we are furnished with what must be deemed + Luke xvii. 1-1 Cor. xi. 19.

Tim. v. 22.

direct to the purpose, in the writings of St. Clement above-mentioned; where he says, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, that "the Apostles knowing of the Lord Jesus that contests would arise concerning the Episcopal name, (or order) and for this cause, having perfect fore-knowledge, (of these things) they did ordain those whom we have mentioned before; and moreover did establish the constitution, that other approved men should succeed them who died in their office and ministry."

1

Thus, then, upon the authority of St. Paul, who was called to be an Apostle by Jesus Christ, together with that of St. Clement, who was a bishop within forty years after our Lord's resurrection, and who, as living with the Apostles, must have been made acquainted with the constitution of the Church over which he was appointed to preside; supported by the consideration of that uniform system of government which has prevailed in the Church from the beginning, we are warranted in determining, that where we find the order of bishops, priests, and deacons regularly appointed, there we find the Church of Christ according to its original constitution; and without these (to make use of the words of St. Ignatius, who, it is to be observed, was the disciple of St. John) it is not called a Church. "Let all,” says this holy man, "reverence the deacons as the ministers of Jesus Christ; and in like manner the bishop as Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father; the presbyters, as the senate of God, and college of Apostles; without these it is not called a Church."

DISCOURSE II.

From whence the obvious conclusion is, that the Church is not merely a number of people. agreeing in the same articles of faith, or in the same acts of religious worship; but it is, moreover, a society, holding one visible communion under the same divinely-instituted government; a society, not of man's but of Christ's forming; a society or spiritual incorporation, of which He is the head, and all individual Christians, who have been regularly admitted into it, the members. For the Church is not a creature of the fancy, deriving an imaginary existence from the whim and caprice of man, but a settled and permanent establishment, the work of Divine Wisdom. It is, moreover, not hid in a corner, that men need be at a loss to find it; but a visible society, possessed of those characteristic marks by which it may at all times be known. Like all other societies composed of fallible men, it has, indeed, been deformed by corruptions and abuses; but corruptions and abuses affect not the nature and constitution of the Church itself, but the parties only by whom they have been

occasioned.

To form a proper judgment, therefore, upon this subject, recourse must be had to those records which contain an account of the original plan, upon which the Church was established by its Divine Founder. In them we find, that every figure under which it is described, has application, not to a confused multitude of men independent of each other, but to a regular society under an appointed government. It is a body having "many members," of which Christ is the head. It is a † Ephes. v. 23.

* Cor. xii. 20.

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kingdom of which Christ is the king.* family," of which Christ is the master. building fitly framed together,"‡ "built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."|| It is the fold of sheep, of which Jesus Christ is the shepherd. All which several descriptions lead to the same general idea of association, order, and agreement, subsisting among the several members of the Church, considered as parts of the same body; in consequence of which they regularly discharge their respective offices, continuing in constant dependence upon the Head, from whence their power of life and action is derived.

Such, then, is the nature and constitution of the Church, as it was originally established by its Supreme Head; from whom the Apostles, and their successors the bishops, have derived their com mission; a branch of that commission which Jesus Christ received from his Father; by virtue of which they challenge obedience from every member of the Christian Church, as to the stewards or chief officers in that spiritual society, over which they are authorised to preside. And such must be the conclusion upon this subject, unless we suppose either that the Apostles understood not the nature of the commission with which they were entrusted, or that for the sake of aggrandizing their own characters, they wilfully misrepresented it.

* Luke xxii. 29.

Ephes. ii. 21.

+ Ephes. iii. 15. Ephes. ii. 20. § John x. 14, 16.

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