nor of the whole family, who is to give them their portion of meat in due season; so the priests under the Gospel are instituted to dispense spiritual food for the nourishment of Christians, to feed them with God's holy word and sacraments, to speak the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world.

Q. What is implied in their being public agents and ambassadors ?

A. As ambassadors, they are delegated by God to solicit and maintain a good correspondence between God and man; that they are empowered to administer the word of reconciliation, to sign and seal covenants in the name of God; upon which account their persons are sacred, and all contempt shown to them is an affront to their Master, whose character they bear.

Q. What is implied in their being co-workers with Christ? A. As co-workers with Christ they manage and carry on that glorious design for which he came into the world and took upon him our nature; they are the ministers of his spiritual kingdom, to whose diligence and fidelity is committed its preservation and enlargement.

Q. The duties of providing an adequate maintenance for the clergy, and yielding them obedience, have been already explained and enforced. What other duties, arising from the consideratim of the dignity of their office, do we owe to the clergy?

A. We should not only provide a decent and honourable support for the clergy, and yield them ready obedience, but we should also honour and esteem, respect and revere them highly, for their works' sake. We should entertain the highest esteem and affection for those whose business and object it is to advance our eternal salvation: we should treat those with the greatest respect and reverence, who have received a commission from God, to minister unto us in sacred things we should be ready to assist them in all difficulties, to vindicate their reputations from the aspersions of calumny: and our earnest prayers for them should be directed to God, that they may be evermore guided and supported by his holy spirit; that they may be defended from the malice of wicked men; that they may always enjoy the countenance and support of good men; and that their important labours may be crowned with success.

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1 Cor. ii. 7.

Q. Would we be justified in contemning or neglecting the ministrations of a duly authorized minister of Christ, on account of the irregularity or immorality of his life?

A. The personal qualification of the minister is, in a certain degree, necessary to the proper discharge of his sacred office, and is on that account truly desirable. But in the administration of an outward sacrament, which is to be considered as the appointed means of spiritual communication from God to man, nothing is to be considered as absolutely necessary, but the lawfulness of the commission by which it is administered. The divine confirmation of the ministerial act is secured to us by the commission, and not by the personal qualification of the minister, in order that the eye of the faithful may be directed to the proper object, and God, not man, receive the glory. The baptism administered by Judas, who had received a commission from our Saviour to baptize, was without doubt equally effectual with that administered by any other apostle. Yet we read that this Judas was a devil. The effect of Christ's ordinances is not taken away by the wickedness of those who administer them, nor the grace of God's gifts diminished from such who receive the sacraments rightly and by faith, which are effectual by reason of Christ's institution and promise, although they be ministered by evil men. A pardon passed by an immoral governor, or a sentence pronounced by a wicked judge, are valid, because their efficacy depends not on the qualifications of the officers, but upon the commission which they hold. The irregular life therefore of a minister of Christ, will not justify us in neglecting or contemning his ministrations. Until he is suspended from the exercise of his ministerial office by the authority of the Church, before which we are bound to present proofs of his irregular life, it will be our duty to reverence his ministrations. By a contrary conduct we shall incur the guilt of contemning that divine authority on which the ministerial office is founded..

Q. The distinction of office between Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons, has been fully established, and their respective powers and duties occasionally enumerated. It may now be proper to state distinctly the duties and powers of each of these offices. What powers belong to the office of a Bishop?

A. The office of à Bishop contains and includes in it all the powers of the Christian ministry; to preach, to pray,

to administer the holy sacraments, to absolve penitents. It moreover contains peculiarly the power of consecrating Bishops, of ordaining Presbyters and Deacons, of confirming those who renew the solemn vow that was made in their names at their baptism, and of consecrating Churches. To this office belongs the inherent right of administering the censures of the Church, and the power of ruling and governing it, and providing for its welfare by good laws.

Q. What is the office of a Priest or Presbyter?

A. It is the office of a Priest or Presbyter to teach and instruct the people committed to his charge by the Bishop of the diocess, in the whole doctrine of Christianity, as contained in the holy Scriptures. To administer the sacraments and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded. To oppose all such erroneous and strange doctrines as are contrary to God's word. To use both public and private admonitions and exhortations as well to the sick as to the whole within his cure, as need shall require, and occasion shall be given. To offer up the prayers in the public assemblies. To maintain quietness, and peace, and love, among all Christian people, especially among those committed to his charge. To fashion and frame himself and family according to the doctrine of Christ; and to make himself and them examples to the flock he feeds. To exercise all these duties with diligence and fidelity, and to forsake and set aside (as much as may be) all worldly care and studies; since the employment of his function is sufficient to engage all his time and all his thoughts."

Q. What is the office of a Deacon?

A. "It pertaineth to the office of a Deacon, in the Church where he shall be appointed, to assist the Priest in divine service, and especially when he ministereth the holy communion, and to help him in the distribution thereof, and to read the holy scriptures and homilies in the congregation, and to instruct the youth in the catechism; to baptize, and to preach, if he be admitted thereto by the Bishop. And furthermore it is his office, where provision is so made, to search for the sick, poor, and impotent people of the parish; to intimate their estates, names, and places where they dwell, unto the Curate, that by his exhortation they may be relieved by the parish, or other convenient alms."s

Q. Upon what occasion was this order instituted in the Church?

A. This office had its original from the murmuring of the Grecians, who were probably proselytes, Jews by religion, and Gentiles by descent, against the Hebrews, who were Jews both by religion and descent, that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration, when believers had all things in common, and were supplied out of one treasury. To prevent any mismanagement for the future, the apostles appointed seven men, of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, and of wisdom, to superintend the necessities of the poor, and to serve tables, who were called Deacons.

Q. Doth this serving of tables only imply their care of the poor?

A. Besides the care of the poor, by their serving of tables was implied their peculiar attendance at the Lord's table. It was their office to deliver the sacramental elements, when consecrated, to the people. They had also authority to preach and baptize, as appears from the example of Philip, one of the seven: but they all along in the primitive Church retained so much of the chief design of their institution, that they took care of the Church's revenues under the Bishops, and distributed them as the Bishop and his college of Presbyters appointed.

Q. Was not this office exercised, as some pretend, by laymen ?

A. The solemnity which was used in setting Deacons apart for this service, by prayer and imposition of hands, and the qualifications which St. Paul requires in a Deacon, almost the very same with those for a Priest, sufficiently prove this degree to be an ecclesiastical office: nor would the primitive Church have forbidden Deacons, as it certainly did, to follow secular employments, if they had been mere laymen.

Q. Having thus fully explained the nature and constitution of the Christian Church, it may be proper more fully to consider the necessity and obligation of communion with it. On what is the obligation of communion with the Church founded?

A. The obligation of communion with the Christian Church is founded on its being a society established by God," to which he has annexed all the privileges and blessings of the Gospel covenant. Of course, in order to partake of these privileges and blessings, we must be admitted into the Christian Church, and maintain communion with it.

Q. But is not this communion with the Church impossible upon the supposition that every society of professing Christians is the Church of Christ?

A. Upon the supposition that every society of professing Christians is the Church of Christ, the Church, in that case, consists of as many separate societies, under different forms, as there are fanciful men to make them, and, consequently, is no longer in that collected state in which it is possible to live in communion with it. For before the members of the Church can live in communion with each other, the Church, as a society, must be at unity in itself.

Q. Prove that the Church of Christ is but one; and that, therefore, the preservation of Christian unity is a necessary duty.

A. The apostle expressly says, "There is one body:" for by one spirit we are all baptized into one body." " As there is one Father, the fountain of the Deity; one Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who is over all, God blessed for evermore," the head of the Church which he hath redeemed and purchased with his blood; one Holy Spirit, by whom "the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified" one faith in this Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to the profession and acknowledgment of which all Christians are called; one baptism, by which we profess this faith, are admitted into Christ's Church, and made partakers of that Spirit in whom our union with Christ subsists; one hope of our heavenly calling, the hope of seeing God in glory so the Church, distinguished by these blessings and characters, depending on this one father, governed by this one head, sanctified by this one spirit, cemented by this one faith, washed by this one baptism, supported by this one hope, can be only one.*

Q. How is this one Church of Christ to be known?

A. It has been already proved that the Church of Christ is a visible institution. It is to be known by its ministry,

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Eph. iv. 4.

1 Cor. xii. 13.

Eph. iv. 3, 4, 5, 6.

*On the important subject of Christian unity, the reader is referred to Bishop Seabury's able discourse on "Christian unity," in the first volume of his sermons; and also to "Daubeny's Guide to the Church," and to the Appendix" to the same work. This eminent Presbyter of the Church of England endeavours, in language characterized not less by zeal and fervour, than by the most mild and insinuating simplicity, to restore Christians to those opinions on the doctrine and constitution of the Church, which distinguished the apostolic and primitive age.

y See page 25,