Jesus; and again, seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a High Priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.' Here also we are to bear in mind, that as among the Jews, so in this case, the very name of High Priest implied superiority in station, that there must be inferiour priests, and these, as you have seen, were not wanting to complete the analogy contended for. They existed in the persons of the Apostles and of the seventy disciples.

And now I ask; Was all this a matter of accident or of design? A matter of accident, that Paul called our Saviour, a High Priest, and that he himself selected two separate classes of inferiour ministers, the one, for his constant; the other, for his occasional attendants? To me, it most clearly shows the actual accomplishment of Paul's declaration, that the law was a shadow of good things to come; a shadow, amongst other particulars, of the Church, the sacraments, and the priesthood of the gospel. For accident, I abjure the word as applicable to any thing performed under the auspices of Christ. For design, I embrace it on ground, which cannot be shaken, the accommodation of the new to the old dispensation, in every instance where purely spiritual things were prefigured. The sacraments of the Christian Church are not more essential to its existence, than is its priesthood. If a comparison must be formed, they are evidently of minor importance. For how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent ?" If the former then were typified, why not the latter? Why this supposed distinction, between the sacramental means of grace, and the individuals authorized to administer them? The truth is, there is none. It never did and it never can exist. Unless you blend together the High Priest of our profession, the Apostles, and seventy disciples, unless you deny that there was any official difference

of rank between them, I have satisfactorily proved, that our Saviour Christ had an eye to the three orders in the Jewish hierarchy, when at this early period he contemplated the future establishment of his own more glorious Church and ministry.

6

But at length he, who came to seek and to save that which was lost, was taken, and by wicked hands was crucified and slain. And being dead and buried, in three days, he was 'declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.' The period had therefore arrived for the final settlement of his visible Church. For the space of forty days previous to his ascension into heaven, he gave, according to the Acts, commandments unto the Apostles whom he had chosen:' 'speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.' The investigation of their nature and import I shall commence on the succeeding sabbath; and greatly shall I be mistaken, if they do not afford, when combined with the subsequent practice of the Apostles, in the propagation of the gospel; greatly shall I be mistaken, if they do not afford unanswerable proof of the sole validity of an episcopal government and ministry in the Church of Christ.

I am however free to confess in relation to that branch of it, in which it has become my office to minister in holy things, that I love it most for the doctrines, which it maintains; the doctrines which are according to godliness. Here there has been no discrepancy upon fundamental principles from the beginning, and I trust and believe, that there will be none to the end. While many other denominations, growing out of the reformation in religion witnessed in the sixteenth century, have been inconstant and variable as the wind, a long and uninterrupted dissemination of evangelical truth has distinguished the annals of the Church. Like the laws of the Medes and Persians, her articles change not. Like the Author of that gospel, from which they are taken, they may be characterized as the same yesterday, and to day, and forever. '

If you have been deeply smitten with any of the countless

I

you

heresies, which have deformed the Christian world, you can find no encouragement to enter or continue within her pale. If have been wrought up to some alarming pitch of religious phrensy, in which the feelings have been more inflamed, than the judgment enlightened; here there are no enthusiastick strains of devotion to keep alive the excitement, and no fanatick appeals calculated to bewilder, and then completely desolate the understanding. If you wish to cherish foul antipathies, to make your fellow Christians, the objects of scorn and odium, the butts of ridicule and derision; here is no food to supply the evil passions of your nature, and no such bigotry, as to exclude from offices of love and brotherly kindness, a single individual of that human family, for which Christ our Saviour died. If you desire to confide in a barren faith, in an orthodox belief of doctrines, which are to have no salutary operation upon your lives, producing in you sobriety, righteousness, and godliness; here you can obtain no countenance; here your faith in Jesus must work by love, and spend itself in good deeds, or ye can have no part nor lot in this matter; we renounce the hollow hearted Christian, and would earnestly strive to be built up in true knowledge, faith, and holiness unto salvation.

But if there be a sorrowing penitent in this assembly; one who feels the intolerable weight of his sins, and would fain cast them off, as a sore burden, too heavy to be borne; one who sincerely believes in Jesus, and in the sole efficacy of his atonement; one who so understands his religion, as to be conscious, that he must adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour in all things, fashioning his life after his example, and making it his invariable rule to be holy as he was holy, and pure as he was pure; here he may find in the ark of Christ's own Church, a refuge from the impending deluge of the divine displeasure; here he may become a Christian upon principles, that are sound and practical; here his devotion may be pure, his faith rational, his obedience perfect, and the final recompense of his reward ensured, without boasting, without thinking himself

better than other men, without straining at the gnats, and swallowing the camels of vice and errour.

Yes, brethren, for these things it is, that I most love the Church, to which I belong. I love her for her moderate views, her chastened worship, her scriptural doctrines, and the catholick spirit of forbearance and good will towards others, which she would gladly inculcate upon the members of her communion. Wonder not therefore, that I am anxious to make you episcopalians upon principle, nor think it strange, that I should attach so much importance to an episcopal government and ministry, when I do most solemnly believe, that to this very reception of and continuance in the apostolick faith and practice, we are mainly indebted under God for all those spiritual blessings and privileges, which have for so many ages been abundantly showered down upon our Zion: For all those fair proportions and unrivalled beauties, which the towering edifice of her faith and holiness presents, and that must at some future period cause her to be universally hailed, as the joy of the whole earth; her righteousness, according to the prophet's prediction, having previously gone forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. AMEN.

SERMON III.

ISAIAH lxii. 1.

For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusa lem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

I HAVE now arrived at that stage in the discussion upon Church government, when it will be necessary to be a

little more explicit upon the true nature of the question, which has for about three centuries agitated the Christian world.

Let it be remembered then, that the terms, episcopalian and presbyterian, are properly and legitimately applied to the government or ministry of a Church, rather than to the particular doctrines or form of worship, which it embraces. An episcopalian is one, who believes in the divine institution of three orders in the Christian ministry, having an eлiσиоло ог bishop for the first and highest. A presbyterian denies this distinction of three orders, and contends that there is but one, the order of a πρεσβύτερος or presbyter, meaning the same with our english word, elder. And I mention this circumstance, with the view of removing an erroneous impression existing in the minds of many, that the advocates of episcopacy are few in number, and on this account somewhat arrogant in their pretensions. When in reality, were you to divide the Christian world into twenty equal parts, eighteen, if not nineteen twentieths would be found ranged on our side of this important question.

The Roman Catholicks wherever situated; the very extensive denomination called the Greek Church in Russia and Turkey in Europe, and in some parts of Asia, including the Holy Land itself; the Armenians also of Asia; the Abyssinians of Africa; the Swedish and many of the German Lutherans ; such as belong to the established Churches in England and Ireland, with a respectable Church in Scotland; all these, brethren, are as much episcopalians as we are; they maintain as strongly the apostolick institution of episcopacy, and reject as openly every other form of Church government, because in their opinion founded solely upon the basis of human authority. I might add to this catalogue, the large and zealous body of Christians scattered over our own country, and the land of our fathers, known by the name of Methodists, who are episcopalians in principle; although for reasons which will hereafter be briefly submitted, we are constrained to consider them, unpossessed of