eleven out of the whole number of his disciples, intended, it is presumed, that the business which he authorized them to do, should not be performed by every one, who might think himself qualified to transact it.

It is to be remarked further, that the tenor of the commission delivered to the apostles, seems purposely calculated to provide against, all self-constituted authority in the church" as my Father sent me," says Christ, "so send I you," that is, as my Father gave me power, to constitute a church and appoint the governors and officers of it, so by one and the same authentic patent, I give you power to appoint governors and officers over it, when I am gone.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto him, and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." John xx. 21-23.

From this high delegation it is clear, that the ordination of pastors, is founded on

a divine and positive institution. It belongs exclusively to those who have been publicly and solemnly set apart and consecrated to the work. None can claim this power by any law of nature or of nations, or in any other manner, than as Christ has conveyed it. How can an individual or society of men give to another a power, which they do not themselves possess? This would be to make the stream rise higher than the fountain, from which it springs. And since Christ bestowed the power of ordination on none but the apostles, with a command of doing as he had done, it is plain that none can receive this power but from those that are invested with it themselves.

But it may be said, although this commission delivered to the apostles, stamps a distinction upon their characters, and evidently invests them with a particular office and authority, yet it does not furnish sufficient information to enable us to determine the precise constitution of the Christian church; it sanctions, indeed, the existence of a regular ministry, but describes no specific order of pre-eminence, or distribution of office or authority.

The directions of our Saviour, are certainly all general and as Christianity solicited admission into every country in the world, and cautiously refrained from interfering with the municipal ⠀ regulations, or civil conditions of any, this reserve, if I may so call it, in the legislature of the Christian church, was wisely suited to its primitive condition, compared with its expected progress and extent. The circumstances of Christianity, in the early period of its propagation, were necessarily, very unlike those which took place, when it became the established religion of great nations. The rudiments indeed of the future plant were involved within the grain of mustard seed; but still a different treatment was required for its sustentation, when the birds of the air lodged amongst its branches; a small select society, under the guidance of inspired teachers, without temporal rights, and without property, founded in the midst of enemies, and living in subjection to unbelieving rulers, without any appropriated seasons, or places of religious worship, differed as much from the Christian church, after Christianity prevailed as the religion of the

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state; that the greatest inconvenience would have followed from establishing a precise constitution, obligatory both upon the infant and adult state of Christianity; as the same disposition of affairs which was most commodious, and conducive to edification in the one, would become probably impracticable under the circumstances, or altogether inadequate, to the wants of the other.

But though the laws which respect the discipline, instruction, and government of Christ's flock, are delivered in such indefinite forms, as to admit an application suitable to the mutable condition and varying exigences of the Christian church, yet I hope to prove most satisfactorily, that episcopal government has existed in the church from the commencement of the Christian era,

*I allow that the orders which we now call Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, are not always distinguished in Scripture by these names. The orders themselves are plainly pointed out in Scripture, but each name is not particularly and constantly applied to a distinct order. Bishops, by way of eminence, were called by St. John, angels, (a Greek word, signifying a messenger) thus we read in the book of Revelation, of the angel of the

that it rests upon the same authority, as that of the Christian sabbath-apostolic practice, (which, after the ascension of our Lord, changed indeed the day, for a weighty reason, but still sanctified a seventh,) and like the faith it was appointed to preserve, is

church of Ephesus, Rev. ii. 2. of the angel of Pergamus, the angel of Sardis, that is, the governors of these particular churches.

But it is not the distinction of names but of office for which I contend. Those whom we now call Bishops were first distinguished by the name of Apostles but as Dr. Bentley observes, when the Apostles had appointed their successors in the several cities and communities, and were themselves removed from this world; the holy men thus appointed, though evidently the successors of the Apostles, were too modest to assume the title of Apostles, and contented themselves with that of Bishops, and, "from that time, it was agreed, over Christendom, in the very next generaration after the Apostles, to assign and appropriate to them the word EIXOTOS, or Bishop." See Phileleu

therus Lipsiensis. Remark 35. The name of an archbishop imports only a bishop having chiefty of certain prerogatives, in their character, Archbishops, and Bishops are equal, archbishops were established for the order of provinces, and for the avoiding of confusion in the intervals of provincial synods, or national councils.