any wise object, yet notwithstanding all these excellencies, it would have no force, and simply because it proceeded not from the legislature, and had not the sanction of the king. All power is, in this country, derived from the established government, and all commissions proceed from the sovereign; and therefore were any private person to call himself a magistrate, or a justice of the peace, and to issue warrants perfectly legal in form, for the apprehension of any criminal, yet would these warrants of the pretended magistrate be null and void, and he would be liable to punishment for false imprisonment: and why? because he had no commission from the sovereign. If, then, in all these cases of civil government, no one can do things in themselves lawful, for to frame laws and issue warrants are all lawful, yet, if one cannot do so without authority from the head of the administration, why should it be deemed justifiable without a lawful calling to assume the priesthood? Nor will it serve such persons to pretend that they have an inward call, for Holy Scripture gives us no example of an inward call, which was not signified by some outward ordination. Aaron and his sons were set apart for the priesthood by divine appointment, and consecrated with diverse rites and ceremonies. Our blessed Lord was consecrated for his ministry by the visible descent of the Holy Ghost. The holy apostles

were consecrated by the visible descent of the same Spirit. They laid hands upon the persons they ordained to the ministry, and this external imposition of hands was a sign of an internal call and mission, and this is authenticated by the cases of St. Paul and Barnabas, mentioned in the 13th of Acts. Upon one occasion, when the Holy Ghost commanded the prophets of Antioch to separate St. Paul and Barnabas for a particular mission, it is said that when they the prophets had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away; and in the following verse it is said, "so they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Selucia." What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder. Where is the man so full of presumption, who dares to compete with Saul of Tarsus in the abundant measure of the Holy Spirit with which he was gifted! If even he, the most laborious of all the apostles, proceeded not on that temporary mission without having been sent, and without the imposition of hands; (not however at this time to ordain him, for he had long before been ordained an apostle) upon what plea, what shadow of a plea, can the modern enthusiast or impostor justify the assumption of the priesthood, the offering with unholy hands the sublime mysteries of the body and blood of Christ?

Thus, in these several instances, deduced from the

Old and New Testaments, appointments to ministerial offices were made by some external and visible rites, that the world might know that they were sent of God. "And how," exclaims St. Paul, "shall they preach unless they be sent?" "And pray ye the

Lord of the harvest, that he would send labourers into his harvest," was that Lord's command to the apostles whom he had chosen. Order and regularity are as essential to the body spiritual as to the body politic, and the most endless confusion would be consequent on a promiscuous ministry. In Crete there were Christians in St. Paul's time, but there being no bishops or presbyters, the church was in disorder, as the apostle writeth, "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee." Paul an apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ had ordained Titus to superintend the whole island of Crete, to govern the church thereinplanted, and to ordain presbyters. The apostle during his residence in Crete might have ordained the necessary presbyters, but it appears from his appointing Titus to that work, that he had invested him with apostolic or episcopal authority and jurisdiction. Now I would remark on this passage, that the ordination of these presbyters having been made by Titus alone, unassisted by St. Paul or any other

apostle or presbyters, establishes the position that the co-operation of several presbyters was not necessary in the ordination of these Cretan elders; and though we are not informed who joined with St. Paul in the ordination of Titus, yet in the ordination of Timothy, styled by all antiquity, apostle or bishop of the Ephesians, the imposition of hands was made by St. Paul, conjointly with a presbyteriate; these might have been apostles for any thing we know, for no mention is made of whom it was composed, at all events, in his case a plurality of persons was engaged, whereas in the cases of the presbyters of Crete and Ephesus, only individual persons officiated, Titus and Timothy. I would further remark, that it is the opinion of almost all ecclesiastical historians, that the gospel was introduced into Crete about the year 33, by the Cretan Jews on their return from Jerusalem, whither they had gone up to the feast of Pentecost, and had witnessed the miraculous effects of the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles; and likewise that Titus was left in Crete about the year 62, nearly thirty years after the first reception of the faith. Yet during all that time no ministers appear to have been settled there, and though some might have urged necessity as as an excuse for assuming the priesthood, without a lawful ordination, that certainly was not done, for if it had, Titus would not have

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been appointed "to set in order the things that were wanting, and to ordain elders in every city." From this precedent we may learn an useful lesson, that it is better to tarry the Lord's leisure than to be guilty of an unlawful act, however urgent the necessity may seem. The conduct of the Christians in Crete, during the thirty years which intervened between the first reception of the gospel and the ordination of its first ministry instructs us, that should it please God to deprive any portion of His church of a lawful priesthood, to extinguish the lights of His golden candlestick, to withdraw from the young the sacrament of Baptism, and from the old the sacrament of the Supper, yet, under all these adverse circumstances, though like the Israelites at Gilgal, they be scattered as sheep without a shepherd, and there be no one to offer sacrifice, still should none, following the example of Saul, force themselves and Baptize and offer the emblems of the Redeemer's Body and Blood, but patiently abide until the Lord be pleased to send his own commissioned Samuel for the work of the ministry. Thus did the Cretan christians, and so it behoveth christians of all ages to act. God the Son is the alone and Supreme Head of the church and the Saviour of the body, the Great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. He still careth for His church, and though exalted to the realms of glory, watcheth with a fa