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virtues of humility, of penitence, and of faith, by which alone I can be a worthy partaker of thy holy ordinances, and expect to receive in them the joyful and refreshing communications of thy grace and love. O be thou pleased ever to guide and aid me in my preparation for thy holy ordinances. Let thy preventing grace quicken my penitence, confirm my faith, and awaken my gratitude and love; that thus partaking of thy ordinances under a lively sense of my unworthiness, and with earnest desires for thy grace and mercy, they may seal to my soul the blessings of redemption, and reinstate me in thy everlasting love and favour. Hear me in these my humble supplications, O merciful God; and grant that the ordinances of thy church, quickening and establishing in my soul celestial graces and virtues, may prepare me for admission into thy heavenly kingdom, where my soul shall drink at the fountain of immortal pleasure, and be satisfied with the fulness of glory and bliss, through Jesus Christ my Mediator and Redeemer.-AMEŇ. [Then add your usual Morning Devotions.]

Saturday Evening.

MEDITATION.

THE MODE BY WHICH AUTHORITY TO ADMINISTER THE SACRAMENTS IS TO BE DERIVED FROM CHRIST THE DIVINE HEAD OF THE CHURCH.

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CONSIDERING the sacraments as means

and pledges of divine grace and mercy, it must

be evident, that their efficacy depends not on any inherent virtue, but on the power of God which accompanies them. Hence results the

important truth, that, in order to be effectual, to be acknowledged by God, and accompanied by his power, they must be administered by those who have received a commission for the purpose from him. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, to ascertain with whom God has vested authority to administer those sacraments, which derive all their efficacy from being administered according to his appointment.

The Son of God, as the redeemer of mankind, was constituted, by his Almighty Father, the "head of the church." To him, as the King and Ruler of this spiritual kingdom, "all power was given in heaven and in earth.' From him, therefore, must emanate all authority in the church. The fanatic or enthusiast, who, invading any of the ministerial functions, impiously pretends that he has received immediately from God a divine commission, cannot surely claim the acknowledgment or confidence of mankind; unless, like the apostles, he proves, by the exercise of miraculous power, that God is indeed with him. Every claim to the ministerial function, in the present day, founded on an immediate commission from God, must be rejected as false and impious. There remains, therefore, no way in which spiritual authority can be derived from the Divine Head of the church, but through the S

agency of a set of men originally deriving their authority from Christ, and successively transmitting it "to the end of the world."

In inquiring concerning the constitution of the Christian priesthood, we would certainly be authorized in supposing that, in its orders, it would resemble the Jewish priesthood.The Christian dispensation was only the glorious developement and consummation of that divine system of grace and mercy, the outlines of which had been traced out in the types and shadows of the Jewish ritual. As the types and shadows of the law were not abolished, but all gloriously fulfilled in the Saviour, and in the ordinances of his spiritual kingdom; the presumption surely is not unwarrantable, that the Christian priesthood would be the completion and perfection of the Jewish; and that, as the latter subsisted under the three orders of High-priest, Priests, and Levites, so the former would be constituted under three orders resembling these. Accordingly, the notion was universally prevalent among the primitive Fathers, that the orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons in the Christian church, were instituted in conformity to the three orders of the priesthood in the Jewish church.

That Christ transferred all spiritual power in the church to the apostles, is evident from the commission which he gave them. " As my Father sent me, even so send I you." The Father sent him the Prophet, the Priest, and

Ruler of the church. The apostles, therefore, were commissioned to be the Prophets, the Priests, and the Governors of the church.That this commission was not temporary, and to die with the apostles; but, on the contrary, was to be perpetuated in the church, is evident from the concluding words of the commission: "Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." The apostles and their successors, therefore, were commissioned to promulgate the terms of salvation, to teach. and enforce its doctrines and duties. They were also commissioned to intercede for and bless the people, and to present in the Holy Eucharist the commemorative sacrifice of the death of Christ. They were further commissioned to govern the church, to admit into. and to exclude from its communion, to enact its laws, and to administer its discipline. And this authority was to be transmitted in the church "alway even to the end of the world." Whether the priesthood vested with these high and spiritual powers was to subsist under only one order, or under several orders, with pow ers in some respects distinct and appropriate, is a question which the practice of the apostles, who were appointed by Christ to constitute the church, can certainly best determine.That the apostles ordained Elders and Deacons in the different churches, and vested them with certain ministerial powers, will readily be admitted. And that there was an order con

stituted superior to these, with the exclusive power of ordaining to the ministry, is a fact equally undeniable. In Ephesus certainly, and most probably in Crete, Elders were at an early period appointed*. Afterwards Paul commissioned Timothy and Titus, and sent them to those places for the express purpose of ordaining elders in every city t. Was not this commission an absurd and useless one, if the elders in those places possessed the power of ordination? Even allowing that the concurrence of the elders was necessary in ordaining to the ministry and governing the church, the commission given to Timothy and Titus certainly proves, that the supreme power was vested in them; and that, without them, power in the church could not be legitimately exercised. That the priesthood, therefore, was constituted under three orders; and that to the first order belonged the power of ordaining to the ministry, and of thus perpetuating the priesthood through all ages of the church, are facts established by the testimony of Scripture. That these orders are not now distinguished by the same names by which they were designated during the age of the apostles; that the name of Bishop, now applied to the first order, is frequently, in the sacred writings, applied to the second order, are points unworthy of a moment's attention in this important inquiry. By the clear evidence of Scripture fact, the

*Acts, xx. 17, 28.

+ 1 Tim. v. 22. Titus i. 5.

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