appointed task, as it were of itself, thenceforward by the power then inaugurated. And we believe accordingly, not only in the need of a ministry, but in the need of one derived by unbroken series from the Apostles,-in Apostolical succession.

Now all this scheme of doctrine obviously is of one piece, and holds together as one complete and homogeneous view of the way of God's dealings with Christian men. It means, in few words, without Bishops no Presbyters, without Bishops and Presbyters no legitimate certainty of sacraments, without sacraments no certain union with the mystical Body of Christ, viz. with His Church, without this no certain union with Christ, and without that union no salvation. Yet with these necessary provisoes at each step, by the very nature of the moral laws and attributes of Almighty God,-first, if those outward things may be had; and next, with every allowance for ignorance, prejudice, or necessity; and lastly, and above all, as a system subservient and ministering, both to a true faith, and to a living religion and hearty love of Christ in the soul. The units of God's Church must each be themselves centres of God's truth and grace; they must be living stones-and yet, none the less, built into the one Temple. Any one, then, who holds Apostolical succession, which is, indeed, otherwise unmeaning and superfluous, holds of necessity the whole of this scheme of doctrine also. But, further still, the reverse also

seems to hold good; and they who do not hold Apostolical succession are almost necessarily led on to deny likewise the larger portion, at the least, of that scheme of doctrine to which it belongs, and naturally tend towards a denial of the whole of it. Those who deny the need of a transmitted Divine commission, commonly and naturally do so as denying also the grace of Orders. Any one can appoint to a merely human office. And although sacraments might conceivably be ministered (had it been so ordained) by one appointed by the congregation or by any one at all, yet a Divine commission seems surely appropriate to the administration of sacraments that convey real gifts; and they who hold the contrary are quickly found, as a matter of fact, to evacuate the sacraments of grace, and to regard them as merely acted prayers. And Zwinglian doctrine respecting the sacraments implies also a conception of the Church, that reduces it to a merely outward co-operation of individual Christians for the sake of order and expediency, and regards each really Christian soul as in such sense in separate union with Christ, as to require no union with His mystical Body in order to union with Himself. And while all will freely and sadly allow that dislike of the Church system and of sacramental grace has actually arisen with many good men out of a desire-honest, although illogical and perverse-to vindicate the living action

of the Holy Spirit in men's souls, yet the result has surely been the very opposite of that at which they aimed. It seems obvious that they who look for the proof of grace merely to their own emotions, are not only fearfully liable to deceive themselves, but will be tempted naturally to ignore, and so in time to deny, that very supernatural gift of strength which is to them inextricably mixed up with the action of their own wills and feelings. And the very tone of all theology of the kind has been such throughout, that not only naturally, but as a matter of history actually, it has tended to supersede in the end a supernatural, by a purely naturalistic, system.

On the ground then of the precious truths, of which it is both the seal and the safeguard, the doctrine of Apostolical succession is not one we can afford to treat lightly, be the consequences what they may. The system of which it is a part may be held in a doctrinaire spirit. It may be exaggerated into one-sided and narrow inferences. It may be emptied of its moral power and held as a form. It may look like a hopeless barrier in the way of possible reunion in either direction. It may, on the other hand, be maintained broadly and generously; it may be the living spring of a humble, earnest, and holy type of Christian life, with special characteristics of soberness and of self-negation; it may be applied to the shifting and confused complications of actual fact in a spirit of

love and forbearance as well as of truthfulness. But it cannot be put aside, or any part of it, as a thing merely superficial, upon which it is unworthy and narrow to lay stress, or as one which, even if true, may safely and allowably be waived for union's sake. If the voice of the Church proclaiming the truth be practically an essential element towards the preserving that truth in its purity; and if not simply the historical witness of the Church of all times, bearing upon its very face the fundamental truths of the revelation upon which that Church was founded, but the teaching office also of the present Church, guiding, reminding, enforcing, regulating, be part of the Divine appointment for pressing revealed truth, as such, upon men's consciences and reasons; and if God have indeed committed this office of teaching, primarily and as their proper function, to an order of men whose mode of appointment He has Himself marked out; the doctrine, apart from its truth, is assuredly not one to be shelved as unimportant. And if it is, again (1), not possible or if possible, not sufficient-for a man of himself to put away both guilt and sin, and of his own strength to live a Christian life;—if (2) a man may not effectually, and in truth cannot truly, repent (being a heathen), and so attain to the new creation in Christ, without going on to be baptized; or be placed in the way of salvation without being added to the Church; or, being so added, become partaker of Christ (ordinarily

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speaking) without sacramentally (if it be in his power) eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood; -if (3) it be evident, by the very nature of the case, as well as by the language of the New Testament, that mysteries must needs be authoritatively and safely dispensed by those whom Christ has made the stewards of them, and the message of salvation rightly applied by those whom Christ has appointed to be His ambassadors;—if (4) it is plain, further still, in Scripture, that by Apostolic rule the gift so given to the ministry is given by the laying on of hands of the Apostles, or of one delegated in succession by the Apostles, although conjoined subordinately "with" the like act of the presbytery;-and if (5) it be palpable, further, that the unvaried rule of the Church from Apostolic days inclusive has recognized as Christ's ministers those only who were so called and sent by Apostles, or by Bishops who, succeeded to the ordinary office of the Apostles; so that the charges to Timothy by himself to appoint faithful teachers in his own room, and to both Timothy and Titus to ordain elders in each church (of course within the districts which St. Paul had assigned to them), with no mention of any other as required in order to such ordination, stand at the head of an unbroken line of like rule, maintained when at length after a long while assailed, but unbroken in fact for 1500 years, and only broken then (where it was broken) reluctantly and in the