Church by a regular succession of his own dulycommissioned ministers. Be it the diligent care of his people so to employ these means of grace, that when his ministers are called upon to give account of their stewardship before the judgmentseat of their Lord, they may present you with holy joy, and with an humble adoption of his own language in reference to the commission derived from his own authority, "Behold, I and the children which God hath given me1."

Almighty God, the Giver of all good gifts, who of thy Divine providence hast appointed divers orders of ministers in thy Church; give thy grace, we humbly beseech Thee, to all those who are called to any office and administration in the same and so replenish them with the truth of thy doctrine, and endue them with innocency of life, that both by word and good example they may faithfully serve before Thee, to the glory of thy great Name, and the benefit of thy holy Church, through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen 2.

1 Heb. ii. 13.

2

Prayer in the Ember Weeks, and the Ordering of Priests.

DISCOURSE VIII.

THE MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH, THE VALIDITY OF THEIR ACTS.

1 COR. iv. 1.

Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

AFTER our blessed Lord's resurrection, and before his ascension into heaven, He renewed to his Apostles the commission which He had before given them for the work of the ministry. He "sent them, even as he had been himself sent by his Father," to gather, to govern, and to instruct his Church and He commissioned them to transmit the like authority to others in due succession; appointing them his legitimate representatives on earth in the discharge of the several functions of their ministry; and promising them his continual presence "alway, even unto the end of the world."

It is in conformity with this commission of our

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Lord, subsequently conferred upon St. Paul by a special appointment, that that Apostle specifies in my text the character, wherein he desired that himself and his brethren in the dispensation of the Gospel should be "accounted of:" namely, ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." And it is in conformity with the same commission, that the Church, as with full propriety she may, transfers the character to those persons, who, with inferior powers indeed, but with lawful authority, and a commission regularly transmitted, have in subsequent ages succeeded the Apostles in the evangelical ministry. For in one of her Advent collects she teaches her congregations to beseech our Lord Jesus Christ to "grant that the ministers and stewards of his mysteries may so prepare and make ready his way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at his second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in his sight."

There is a disposition in the minds of some, particularly of those who have not paid due attention to the constitution and authority of the Church, and to the origin, nature, and end of the ministerial commission, as derived from her Divine Founder, as well as of those who would fain seek salvation by other means than those of which she is the vehicle: there is in such minds, I say, a

disposition to overlook the view in which St. Paul admonishes that the ministers of the Church should be accounted of; to be little careful in discriminating between their ministerial character and their personal qualities, or rather to confound the two together; so as to regard the real or supposed delinquencies of the man, as obliterating the impress and invalidating the acts of the minister, and to esteem themselves at liberty to despise and repudiate his ministrations, in favour of some unauthorised pretender to the ministry. But this is an error altogether: it proceeds on a misapprehension of the authority whence the ministerial commission is derived, and of the power by which its acts are rendered effectual, and of the ends to which it is designed to be subservient. It is calculated to produce perplexity in the minds of all Christians concerning their possession of the means

of

grace, and the soundness of their hope of salvation: it gives occasion for uncharitable sentiments and schismatical practices: and it manifests a disregard to those lessons, "which are written for our admonition," in the ensamples of the first "ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God."

Do not suppose, my brethren, that it is my purpose to speak lightly of the personal delinquencies of the ministers of the Gospel. In any degree they are blameable, and ought, as far as possible,

to be avoided. In any great degree, they deserve severe censure, as injurious to God's honour, and the welfare of his Church. But a correct view of the account, which is, nevertheless, to be had of their office, and of the regard which is to be paid to their ministrations, is requisite for the vindication of God's ordinances, and for the guidance of his people in the use of them. Your attention, therefore, may be not unprofitably bestowed on an attempt to show, what, notwithstanding their personal defects, belongs to them in their official capacities; and that such defects do not impair their ministerial character or invalidate their ministerial acts.

I. First, the minister is the minister and servant of God. As personal holiness therefore does not qualify a man to take unto himself this office without an announcement of God's will through his accredited channel, so without the like announcement a defect of personal holiness does not disqualify him for holding the office: for that were to make God's authority of no avail. The office then being conferred and borne by Divine commission, the acts of the minister are valid; for they are in effect the acts of God, inasmuch as they are performed by his authority: and to represent the validity of his acts as depending on the personal holiness of the administrator, rather