Lof. It is instruction of great importance to you, and on subjects connected with the successful prosecution of your journey, and its happy termination.

Ard. You speak fair; but we should like to be informed more fully.

Lof. Is it not important that you should belong to the true church, and have the advantage of attending upon the ordinances which the King has appointed for the benefit of his friends?

Th. The true church; pray, what is that?

Lof. The church which has preserved the apostolical succession, which has the officers which the King has appointed, and those who alone are authorized to administer his ordinances. Th. What officers are they?

Lof. The three orders appointed by the King himself, bishops, priests, and deacons.

Th. Who are the bishops, and what are their powers and prerogatives?

Lof. The bishops are the highest of the three orders in the church. Each bishop is supreme in his own diocese, having the exclusive right to administer ordination and confirmation, to exercise government, to dedicate churches, to prescribe forms of prayer for special occasions, and to do all things that he shall deem necessary for the order and well being of the churches under his care. The name bishop signifies overseer, and points him out as the supreme officer of the church on earth.

Th. We belong to a church which we think regularly constituted according to the New Testament pattern; a church which acknowledges the Lord Jesus Christ as the only supreme head, and which professes to be governed by his laws. And we are not inclined to renounce this for such a one as you speak of.

Lof. Take heed what you do. For one of our bishops says: "Where the Gospel is proclaimed, communion with the church by the participation of its ordinances, at the hands of the duly authorized priesthood, is the indispensable condition of salvation."

Ard. Then you consign all to perdition who do not come into your house.

Lof. Not exactly so. "The important truth which the universal church has uniformly maintained, that to experience the full and exalted efficacy of the sacraments, we must receive them from a valid authority, is not inconsistent with that charity which extends mercy to all who labor under involuntary error. But great is the guilt, and imminent the danger of

those, who, possessing the means of arriving at the knowledge of the truth, negligently or wilfully continue in a state of separation from the authorized ministry of the church, and participate of ordinances administered by an irregular and invalid authority."

Ard. This is not much better. For surely the great mass of professed Christians are not in unavoidable ignorance of your high pretensions. Or do you admit that while you regard the government of diocesan bishops to be the best way, those who adopt the Presbyterian form of government, or the Congregational, may yet be parts of the true church, and have valid ordinances?

ПВ

Lof. No. "The alone want of communion with the bishop makes persons aliens from God and Christ, and strangers from the covenants of promise, and the commonwealth of Israel." "Whoever is in communion with the bishop, the supreme goyernor of the church upon earth, is in communion with Christ the head of it; and whoever is not in communion with the bishop, is thereby cut off from communion with Christ." "None can possess authority to administer the sacraments but those who have received a commission from the bishops of the church." "The only appointed road to heaven is through the visible church on earth." "Aliens from the church have no covenanted title."

Th. We and our fathers have enjoyed the administration of the word and ordinances for many generations, without having had any connection with those who were episcopally ordained. And we believe that they have enjoyed the best evider.ce of apostolical successsion, in the influences of the Holy Spirit, which have been poured out upon them. And we think we have had some share in those influences through the ministry of men who had no connection with your boasted Episcopal church. Upon such a ministry, and upon such substantial spiritual blessings, we have no disposition to turn our backs, for the sake of what you offer us, which seems to consist in mere rites and forms.

Lof. "Let it be recollected that error is venial only in proportion as it is involuntary. How, then, shall that man excuse himself, who, having been warned of the defect of the ministry at whose hands he receives the ordinances of the Gospel, neglects to give attention to the subject ?" Our opinion, to speak out fully, is, that "those who have departed from Episcopacy have no spiritual authority whatever; have no ministers, and no ordinances." The man who affixes a seal to an instrument, unauthorized thereto, not only gives no validity to the instrument, but is guilty of forgery. So the man who undertakes to

administer the Christian sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, without authority from our holy mother church, is guilty of impiety, sacrilege, and blasphemy."

Ard. Let us hear how you prove the duty of union with your church.

Lof. Our admirable liturgy says in one place, "It is evident unto all men, diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these orders of ministers in Christ's Church-bishops, priests, and deacons." That the order of bishops existed in New Testament times, we prove from the use of the word. Paul says to Timothy, "If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." "Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." Do not these passages prove that there were bishops in the New Testament times?

Th. Yes; but what sort of bishops? Not diocesan bishops. Not bishops whose jurisdiction extends over many congregations. But parochial bishops; bishops who were the same as elders, or pastors of single congregations. In Paul's directions to Timothy, after giving the qualifications of a bishop, he says, "Likewise must the deacons be grave," &c.; but no mention is made of elders or presbyters, or any other order between bishops and deacons. To Titus Paul says: "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee. For a bishop must be blameless," &c. This implies that elders and bishops were the same. In the address of the Epistle to the Philippians, bishops and deacons are mentioned, but no intermediate order. And it is not likely that in a single city, like Philippi, at that time, there were several diocesan bishops, or even several distinct congregations, each under a single parochial bishop, but a single church under a plurality of elders, as seems to have been the custom of that day. In Crete elders were to be ordained in every city A Presbyterian would understand this as denoting a pastor and session, and a Congregationalist of two or more elders to a church, according to a common practice in the days of our fathers. Only two orders appear to have existed at Philippi. When Paul sent for the elders or bishops of Ephesus, (Acts xx.) he said to them, "Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, [episcopous, bishops.]" The elders of the church of Ephesus were its bishops. Peter says, The elders [presbyters] who are among you I exhort, who also am an elder; feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, [epis

copountes, exercising the office of a bishop,] not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither as being lord's over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." Here presbyters are exhorted by a fellow presbyter to exercise the office of a bishop. It is clear, then, that there were not three orders of ministers in the apostolical churches, nor indeed were there more than one; for the deacons were only men appointed to serve tables, to take care of the temporal concerns of the church, and provide for the poor, according to Acts vi.

Lof. We consider the apostles as the true bishops of that church, and the presbyters and deacons, as making up the three orders. The bishop of the present time takes the place of an apostle.

Th. Then he should prove it by doing the works of an apostle. He must have seen the Lord Jesus after his resurrection, so as to be an eye-witness that he is risen from the dead. (Acts i. 22, and xiii. 31: 1 Cor. xv. 8.) He must have been called to the apostolical office by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, without any human instrumentality. (Gal. i. 1.) He must have been taught the Gospel by direct revelation from God, and not from the teaching of another man. (Gal. i. 12, and ii. 6.) He must have the power of conferring the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost on whom he pleases, by the laying on of his hands. (Acts viii. 17, 18: 2 Cor. xii. 12.) He had no particular flock assigned to him, but in common with his colleagues, was to labor to spread the Gospel through the world. The office of apostle therefore was extraordinary and temporary; no directions were given for the appointment of successors in the apostolic office, nor any account of such suecessors being appointed.

Lof. It is evident that Timothy and Titus were bishops, the former of Ephesus, and the latter of Crete. Paul left Titus in Crete, to do what no single presbyters were authorized to do; "that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city." Paul besought Timothy to abide at Ephesus, when he went into Macedonia, to “charge some that they teach no other doctrine," than what he had taught them. He gave him directions about the trial of presbyters, and their ordination. (1 Tim. v. 19, 22: 2 Tim. ii. 2.)

Th. Timothy and Titus were evangelists, which was an extraordinary office, as well as that of apostle. They were assistants of the apostles, and under their direction performed a similar work. The residence of Timothy at Ephesus, and of Titus in Crete, seems to have been temporary; for we afterwards find them travelling again with the apostle, and doing

the work of an evangelist in other places. (Titus iii. 12: 2 Tim. iv. 5, 9, 10.) The time when Paul sent for the elders of Ephesus, and gave them his charge, appears to have been after the writing of the first epistle to Timothy, and it appears also that he was with Paul on that occasion. But Paul says not one word about his being their bishop, nor gives them any exhortation respecting their duty to him, an unaccountable omission, if indeed Timothy had sustained any such relation to them.

Lof. The power of ordination in the churches in Ephesus and Crete was evidently vested in Timothy and Titus, who were therefore invested with the same authority as we now claim for diocesan bishops; "what, then, becomes of the doctrine of parity? Destroyed, utterly destroyed."

Th. Timothy and Titus, as evangelists, or assistants of the apostle, and acting under his direction, might do what he directed them to do. And if an apostle was in some respects superior to the ordinary parochial bishops or elders, so were the evangelists for the time being. But this proves nothing as to the disparity of ordinary ministers, who are the only permanent ones. But the apostles did not claim the exclusive right of ordination. For Paul says to Timothy: "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery." Presbyterial ordination is here fully recognized, as practised in the days of the apostles, and as valid. I cannot therefore but regard it as a usurpation in any who take away this right from the presbytery, and claim it altogether to themselves. If we admit that the ordination by a bishop is valid, we also insist that the ordination by a presbytery is equally valid.

CHAPTER LVIII.

Lofty. "Immediately after the death of the apostles the whole Christian world was Episcopal, and remained so, without interruption or question, for fifteen hundred years; and no cause short of apostolic institution can, with any show of reason, be assigned for such an effect."

Thoughtful. This is not admitted. New Testament precept or practice is necessary to make out your claim. And you have neither. The New Testament bishops were the same as