dors, and in whose name they act. Thus the Apostles derived their authority immediately from Christ Himself; and did not take upon them the office of preaching the word or ministering the sacraments in the Church, till they had been called and sent by its Divine Founder.

But, since the time of the Apostles, God our Saviour has not immediately, in his own person, appointed any one to the ministry. To the Apostles, however, He gave authority to provide for the performance of these ministerial duties, as likewise for the perpetuation of the ministerial office. Some accordingly they invested with the power of preaching the word and ministering the sacraments themselves: others again with the power of moreover ordaining such, as they in turn might think proper to be ordained for the like ministrations, in order that by transmission from them again a continual succession might be preserved of men lawfully called and sent to execute the ministerial office. Thus a time never has been, nor, as we believe in full reliance upon the promise of Christ, ever will be, but that a commission for duly ministering the sacraments may be derived mediately from the Divine Founder of the Church, through his first ministers the Apostles. "And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent" to execute this ministry, "which be chosen and called to this work by men who have publick

authority given unto them in the congregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard."

If the question be asked, Who are they who have such publick authority given unto them in the congregation or Church of Christ, the answer shall be returned in the words of St. Ignatius, who, in his epistle to the Smyrnæans, having admonished them of the obedience and reverence respectively due to "their Bishop, Presbyters, and Deacons," concerning which orders he expressly affirms in his epistle to the Trallians, "without these there is no Church," proceeds literally thus: "Let no one without the Bishop do any thing of the matters which appertain to the Church. Let that be esteemed a firm eucharist, which is dispensed by the Bishop, or by him to whom he shall have given charge. Wherever the Bishop shall appear, there let the people be as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholick or Universal Church. It is not lawful without the Bishop, either to baptize or to celebrate the feast of charity: but whatsoever he shall approve, that is well-pleasing to God also; that so every thing, which is done, may be safe and firm." Now Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch in Syria the latter part of the first, and the beginning of the second century of the Christian era; he laid down his life, in testimony of his religion, about seventy years after our Lord's death,

having been engaged in the ministry of the Church for forty years preceding his martyrdom; he conversed familiarly with the Apostles, and was perfectly acquainted with their doctrine, and had the hands of Apostles laid upon him; and he was in particular the immediate friend and disciple of "the disciple whom Jesus loved," the Apostle and Evangelist St. John.

Thus adopting the outline sketched in our Articles of Religion, and filling it up with the particulars supplied by holy Scripture, and elucidated by the early records of Christianity, we arrive at a sufficiently clear view of the "visible Church of Christ," in its state of militancy here on earth. And we doubt not, that where these marks are found in any national Church, such Church is intitled to be considered a true member of the Catholick Church of Christ and that every individual member of such national Church, so far as depends upon the Church itself, and provided he make due use of his privileges, may be properly ranked among "the saved;" forasmuch as he is thereby made partaker of every thing necessary for the enjoyment of grace in this world, and of everlasting salvation in the next.

These particulars are all apparent in our national Church, the united Church of England and Ireland, to which we, my brethren, have the happiness to

belong; which is modelled, as exactly as possible, upon the platform of the universal Church, as it was constituted in the days of the Apostles and primitive Christians.

Acknowledging, with the most lowly reverence, her subjection to her Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Supreme Head of herself, as of the whole Christian congregation, she honours and adores Him with the offering of her continual worship in the unity of the Divine nature; and reposes with devout confidence on his intercession with the Father, pleading his merits before the throne of the heavenly grace, as the "one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus'."

Looking up to Him as her supreme HEAD, invisible in the heavens, she recognises at the same time his visible delegates upon earth for all things spiritual, in the persons of those governours, "the Bishops and Pastors of his Church;" whom she believes to have received their episcopal charge and function from the Apostles of her Lord, by regular, unbroken, and legitimate succession, and so ultimately from her Lord himself.

The faith of the apostolical and primitive Church is hers the faith, "once delivered unto the saints 2," and methodized and set forth in her publick formularies; stated compendiously in the

Apostles' Creed, and more fully and illustratively in those of Nice and of Athanasius; detailed with greater particularity of exposition in her Articles of Religion; and interwoven and embodied into her forms of publick worship.

The pure word of God is preached in her assemblies that word, which having been delivered in former times under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the Apostles and Prophets, the sure foundation of the Church of Christ, was by them also committed to authentick documents; and has been guarded and handed down from age to age with such fidelity and care, as to preclude the suspicion of their being any other than the unadulterated word of God.

In her assemblies the sacraments are "duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same:" this, whereby her children are "received into the congregation of Christ's flock'," and "made members of Christ, children of God, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven ";" that, whereby they may be continually "assured of God's favour and gracious goodness towards them, and that they are very members incorporate in the mystical body of his Son3."

1 Office of Baptism.

2 Catechism.

3 Office of Holy Communion.