Merciful Lord, we beseech Thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, that it being enlightened by the doctrine of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist St. John, may so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at length attain to the light of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen1.

1 Collect for St. John the Evangelist's day.

DISCOURSE VII.

THE MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH, THEIR DIVINE

COMMISSION.

JOHN XX. 21.

Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

WHEN our incarnate Redeemer, who had been sent forth from the Father to institute a Church for man's salvation, was about to return to the Father, He chose an order of men, to whom He gave commission to preach his Gospel, to baptize all nations, to administer his blessed body and blood, to remit sins, to absolve and reconcile sinners, and generally to settle, propagate, and confirm the Church which He had instituted. Moreover he gave them power of transmitting to others, whom they should choose for the purpose, the office which He had intrusted to them; adding withal a promise of his continual and perpetual presence with them, and those whom they should

appoint to succeed them. Such is the origin of the ministerial commission, as deduced from my text; illustrated by those injunctions and encouragements which our Lord gave to his Apostles before his ascension. In consequence of this commission, the Church of Christ has been hitherto maintained for man's salvation by the agency of his authorized ministers; and so no doubt it will continue to be maintained by the same agency, "alway, even unto the end of the world."

The authority of the Christian minister, that authority by which he preaches the word of God, and administers the sacraments, and performs the other functions of his sacred office in the congregation committed to his charge, is, perhaps, not so often made the subject of a discourse from the pulpit, as occasion may seem to require. We are fearful, probably, of appearing to "magnify our office 1," by setting forth its claims to your respect: and we may probably regard the advancing of our pretensions as likely to be received by you with indifference, or it may be with some feeling of dissatisfaction and distaste. Yet it is right that the members of the Church in general should be carefully instructed, and correctly informed, on the subject of the ministerial commission, even as an

' Rom. xi. 13.

affair of infinite concern to themselves: in order that being convinced of the real nature of their ministers' authority, they may, together with such respect for an office of God's institution as the word of God requires, combine a reasonable, a conscientious, a faithful, and a persevering attendance on their own pastors' ministrations, and a corresponding attachment to the Church, forbearing every degree of countenance from all irregular pretensions; and may join in giving thanks and glory to that gracious Being, who, in establishing his Church to be the ark of man's salvation, provided also for its exigencies a succession of men, by whom the means of grace and salvation should be perpetually ministered to his glory and his people's good.

The authority, then, of the ministers of the Church, whence it is derived, and how it is conferred, with some cautionary remarks on the undue assumption and collation of the ministerial character, will, with the Divine blessing, be submitted to your consideration as the subject of the following Discourse.

I. And here it is first to be observed, that the ministerial commission is essentially of Divine origin, so that the claim to it cannot be held valid, nor the possession of it be admitted to exist, unless it can be referred, immediately or

ultimately, to the will of the Divine Founder of the Church.

For the bearer of the commission is to be "accounted of," in the Apostle's language, "as the minister of Christ; the steward of the mysteries of God," "an ambassador for Christ 2," as though by him God did speak to his people; as speaking to the people in Christ's stead. But such qualities, bearing as they do reference to a superior, necessarily infer the approbation of the superior, as a condition for giving validity and efficacy to the acts of him who appears in such a relation : for what reliance can be placed on the act of a supposed delegate or representative, except so far as the act be authorized by the will of the principal Himself?

Again, the functions of the office lead to the same inference. To wash the sinner in the laver of regeneration, and to be the instrument of making him a child of God; to communicate to the faithful the body and blood of Christ, that they may be verily and indeed taken and received under the sign of the bread and wine; to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation in the name of God; to present the prayers of God's people, and make them acceptable at the throne of grace; to pronounce the blessing of the Almighty on his

1 Cor. iv. 1.

22 Cor. v. 20.