Christians, to feed them with God's holy Word, and 1 Cor. ii. 7. Sacraments, to speak the hidden Wisdom which God ordained before the World; which is committed to their Care to preserve entire from being maimed or perverted, as the Sacraments are to be rightly and duly administered.

14.

John xvii.

Q. What is implied in their being public Agents

and Ambassadors?

A. That they are God's Vice-gerents and visible Representatives here upon Earth; that they are delegated by him to solicit and maintain a good Correspondence between God and Man; that they are impowered to administer the Word of Reconciliation, to sign and seal Covenants in his Name, upon which Account their Persons are sacred, and all Contempt shewn to them is an Affront to their Master, whose Character they bear.

Q. What is implied in their being the Glory of Christ, and Co-workers with him?

A. That they are instrumental in advancing his Gospel, whereby Christ's Name is glorified; that they manage and carry on that glorious Design for which he came into the World, and took upon him our Nature; that they are the Ministers of his spiritual Kingdom, to whose Diligence and Fidelity is committed its Preservation and Enlargement.

Q. Why are the Ministers of God called the Clergy?

A. Because those who have been peculiarly appropriated to the Service of God, and devoted to wait at the Altar, have always been esteemed God's Lot and Inheritance, which the Word signifies in the Num. viii. Greek. Thus God says, the Levite shall be mine; and our Saviour calls his Apostles, the Gift his Father gave him out of the World. Now though the Word at first comprehended the whole Body of the Jewish Nation, and may in the same Sense be attributed to the Community of Christians, whom God has purchased to himself as a peculiar People; yet this Title was afterwards confined to narrower Bounds,

and distinguished that Tribe which God made Choice of to stand before him in the Administration of holy Things; and after the Expiration of that Economy, was accordingly used to denote the Ministry of the Gospel, and those that were invested with the Priesthood in the Christian Church.

Q. How do the Ministers of the Christian Church derive their Commission?

21, 22.

A. From our Saviour Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls, who glorified not Heb. v. 5. himself to be an High-Priest; but had his Commisson from God the Father, and, after his Resurrection, invested his Apostles with the same Commission his Father had given him. As my Father hath sent John xx. me, even so send I you: And he breathed on them, and said unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost, &c. Which Commission evidently contains an Authority of ordaining others, and a Power of transferring that Commission upon others, and those upon others to the End of the World. And that this did not merely belong to the Persons of the Apostles, appears from the Nature of that Promise made, to be with them always, even unto the End of the World: Mat. Which must include their Successors in the Execution of the same Commission.

Q. Can the Supreme Civil Magistrate communicate these Spiritual Powers to Church Officers?

A. The Nature of these Powers being purely spiritual, and having a Relation to the Souls of Men, can only be conveyed in that Way and Manner Christ has appointed; who delegated these Powers only to his Apostles and their Successors; and without his express Commission no Man ought to take upon himself, or communicate to others, a Power to sign and seal Covenants in his Name. This Commission the Apostles and their Successors exercised in all Places, and even in Opposition to the Rulers that then were; so that the Church subsisted as a distinct Society from the State for above three hundred Years, when the civil Government was only concerned to

Art. 37.

Rom. xiii. 1.

Art. 37.

suppress and destroy it. Indeed, when the Church received the Benefit of Incorporation and Protection from the State, she was content to suffer some Limitation as to the Exercise of these Powers, and thought herself sufficiently recompensed by the Advantages that accrued to her by the Incorporation, Q. Wherein then consists the Supremacy of Sovereign Magistrates?

A. In ruling all Estates and Degrees committed to their Charge by God, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal. In exercising their Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes, as well as over Ecclesiastical Persons, and in restraining with the civil Sword the stubborn and evil Doers. So that all Persons in their Dominions, Spiritual as well as Temporal, are sub, ject to their Authority; because when Men became Ministers in the Church, they did not cease to be Subjects of the State. Every Soul must be subject to the higher Powers, which includes an Apostle, an Evangelist, a Prophet, or whatsover else, as St. Chrysostom observes upon the Place. But by Virtue of this Supremacy, the ministering either of God's Word, or of the Sacraments, is not given to Princes, because they are not invested with, nor have a sovereign Disposal of, the Power of Orders.

Q. What may we learn from the Dignity of the Priesthood?

A. That it is no Diminution to Greatness of Birth, or any personal Excellency, to be devoted to the Service of the Altar. That great Purity of Life is required of those that are invested with such an honourable Character, whereby they may in some Measure be qualified to administer in holy Things, and by their Example guide those they instruct by their Doctrine. That it is an Argument of a very profane Temper, to contemn those that are owned of God as his Domestics and immediate Attendants; as his Agents and Ambassadors, because he that despiseth them, despiseth him that sent them; and the Affront put upon them will be interpreted as done

to him from whom they derive their Commission, That it is a Dictate of natural Reason to testify our Reverence to the Deity, and our Affection to Religion, by honouring those who are the chief Ministers of it. That it is the greatest Piece of Presumption imaginable, to pretend to sign and seal Covenants in God's Name, without receiving any Power and Authority from him in order to that Purpose. That the Attendance at the Altar exempts no Man from the Cognizance of the Civil Powers, but that spiritual Persons are equally obliged to pay all Duty and Allegiance to their rightful Sovereigns, as well as the meanest of the Laity. That the Power of the Magistrate, when most full and absolute, does not extend either to use themselves, or communicate to others, those spiritual Powers which Christ left only to his Apostles and their Successors That we then best shew our Esteem of God's Ordinance, and testify our Value for the Benefits of the Priesthood, when we not only reverence their Persons, but devoutly attend their spiritual Administrations.

THE PRAYERS.

I.

459

and the

ALMIGHTY God our heavenly Father, who hast For the purchased to thyself an universal Church, by the Ordainers precious Blood of thy dear Son; mercifully look Ordained. upon the same, and at this Time so guide and govern the Minds of thy Servants, the Bishops and Pastors of thy Flock, that they may lay Hands suddenly on no Man; but faithfully and wisely make Choice of fit Persons, to serve thee in the And to those who sacred Ministry of thy Church. shall be ordained to any holy Function, give thy Grace and heavenly Benediction, that both by their Life and Doctrine they may set forth thy Glory, and set forward the Salvation of all Men, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the
Clergy,

that they

may rightly

discharge their holy

Function.

II.

GRANT, O Lord, that all those who administer in holy Things may have a great Sense of the Dignity and Importance of their Office; that since they are thy Ambassadors, they may in all their Actions have a due Regard to the Excellency of their Character, and faithfully, diligently, and prudently transact those great Affairs thou hast intrusted to their Management: That since they are thy Minis ters, they may have always imprinted in their Remembrance, how great a Treasure is committed to their Charge, the Sheep of Christ, which he bought with his Death, and for whom he shed his Blood; that the Church and Congregation whom they serve is the Spouse and Body of Christ: That since they are the Stewards of thy Mysteries, they may feed and provide for thy Family, seek thy Sheep that are dispersed abroad, and thy Children which are in the Midst of this naughty World, that they may be saved through Christ: That since they are Labourers in thy Vineyard, they may never cease, by their Care and Diligence to bring all such as are committed to their Charge unto that Agreement in Faith and Knowledge of God, and to that Ripeness and Perfectness of Age in Christ, that there may be no Place left for Error in Religion, or for Viciousness of Life. That since their Employment is laborious and difficult, they may constantly pray for the heavenly Assistance of the Holy Ghost from thee, O Father, by the Mediation of our blessed Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ; that by daily reading and weighing of the Scriptures they may wax riper and stronger in their Ministry, and so fashion their Lives, and those of their Families, after the Rules and Doctrine of Christ, that they may be wholesome and godly Examples for the Rest of the Congregation to follow, and be able to give a good Account of their Stewardship at the Tribunal of