aliis præfulgeatis, conspicui duces via ardua; utque, honoribus vestris, Ecclesiam cohonestetis, sitisque servi plurimorum.

2. Cernitis, opinor, quàm nos insperatò à Donis ad MINISTERIA prolapsi. Ducit nos, Paulinâ manu, donorum ille Auctor, Spiritus: qui, donis illicò, ministeria subjunxit; ministeriis, operationes. Scilicet munificentissimum illud To TVεua, (ut cum St. Athanasio vim notemus articuli) plerosque vestrum, Patres Fratresque, donis instruxit cumulatissimè. Quibus dotibus animi, quàm singu lari eruditione, quàm potenti eloquentiâ, quantâ sapientiâ, quantâ gravitate, quantâ dignitatum amplitudine! Magnum est, quod dicturus sum; dicam tamen, procul omni fastu et assentatione; ringantur, rumpantur invidi; Stupor mundi Clerus Britannicus. Tot doctos theologos, tot disertos concionatores, frustrà uspiam alibi hodie sub cœlo quæsieris. Quid memorem magna illa Ecclesiæ lumi na, jam nuper occidua; Juellos, Humfredos, Foxios, Whitgiftos, Fulcones, Whitakeros, Rainoldos, Bilsonios, Greenamios, Babingtonios, Eedios, Hollandos, Playferos, Abbotios, Perkinsios, Fieldios, Hookeros, Overalios, Willettos, Whitos, Massonios? Sub his tectis nunc estis, meque auditis hodiè, quorum laudibus, non horam modò, sed et vitam profectò terere non pigeret; mutua mihi modestia

purple; that you should shine before others, as conspicuous guides of that strait and hard way of life; and that, by your well-bestowed honours, you should credit his Church, and be the servants of

many.

2. Ye perceive now, I imagine, how unexpectedly my speech is glided from Gifts to MINISTRIES. The Author of these gifts, the Spirit of God, leads me by St. Paul's hand: who, presently upon the mention of gifts, subjoins ministeries; and, upon the mention of ministeries, adds operations.

This most munificent Spirit, Tò aveuμa, (that with Athanasius we may note the force of the article) hath enabled the most of you, Fathers and Brethren, with an eminent measure of gifts. With what powers of the mind, what singular learning, what powerful eloquence, with how great wisdom, with what gravity, with what titles of honour, with what large dignities! It is a great word, that I shall speak; and yet I must and will say it, without all, either arrogance or flattery; Stupor mundi Clerus Britannicus: "The wonder of the world is the Clergy of Britain." So many learned divines, so many eloquent preachers, shall in vain be sought elsewhere this day, in whatever region under the cope of heaven. What should I reckon up those great lights of our Church, not long since set; Juels, Humfreys, Foxes, Whitgifts, Fulkes, Whitakers, Raynolds, Bilsons, Greenams, Babingtons, Eedeses, Hollands, Playfers, Abbotses, Perkinses, Fields, Hookers, Overalls, Willets, Whites, Masons? There are now of you under this very roof, that hear me this day, in whose just praises I could be content to spend, not an hour, but a life; were it not that mutual mo

os obstruit. Quanti quanti estis, vestri non estis. Dona hæc omnia desinunt in ministeria. Velitis uberem hanc gratiam αναζωπυρεῖν; et dona hæc universa exornando ministerio vestro fidelissimè collocare. In vita praxi, ut et in orationis nostræ curriculo, digéreis χαρισμάτων excipiant διαιρέσεις διακονιών.

Sunt ergo, uti donorum, ita et Ministeriorum distinctiones. Quæ vero illa? officiis nimirum variæ, ac gradibus. Fuerunt Apostoli, Prophetæ, Evangelista: sunt, fuerunt, erunt Episcopi, Presbyteri, Diaconi: digées sunt istic, non unus ordo, ministrorum. Aeriana fuit exsibilata quondam hæresis, quæ sustulit hosce Tees Badμe's ae, ut cum Synodo loquamur Carthaginensi. Sed et est, ubi vapulet hoc nomine Hieronymus; quasi qui Aerium non minùs forsan oleat, quàm Ciceronem: immeritò quidem. Sed non vacat avias persequi vindicias. Neminem, spero, vestrum ita insanire posse, ut hæc Ministeriorum discrimina in discrimen adducat. Legeruntne illi historias, qui istic hæsitent? Profectò, ne viderunt quidem. Evolve temporum omnium monumenta, quaqua patuit Christianismus, nihil istis ubilibet apertius. Nolo contrahere ætatum omnium regionumque Annales. Vide mihi modò Concilia; magnum illud, imprimis, meritòque Oecumenixwv primum, Nicenum. Cernes ibi trecentos octodecim Episcopos : quot scilicet Abrahamo de regibus victoriam reportanti milites, ut scitè allusit Ambrosius.

desty enjoins me silence. How great soever ye are, ye are not your own. All these gifts end in services. Oh let it please you to stir up this grace of God in you; and faithfully to employ all these your gifts to the happy advancement of your ministries. In the practice of your life, as in the course of my speech, let the Diversities of Gifts be taken up with the Diversities of Ministries. There are then, as differences of gifts, so of Ministries. And which be they? differences in offices, and in degrees. There were Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists: there are, were, shall be Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons : these are more than one rank of Ministers. It was part of the exploded heresy of Arius, that took away these Three steps of the Clergy, as the Synod of Carthage calls them. Yea, and somewhere Jerome himself smarts with the lash of this censure; as if perhaps he did more savour of Arius, than of Tully: not without open wrong in both. But I may not now stay upon needless apologies. There is none of you, I hope, can be so witless, as to question these diversities of Ministries. Did they ever read histories, that doubt of this point? Sure, they have never so much as seen them. Turn over all the monuments of times and places, so far as ever Christendom hath spread itself, you shall find nothing more evident. I will not here stand to abridge the Annals of all ages and regions. Look upon the Councils; and, first of all, the first and chief of those which are stiled General, the great Council of Nice. You shall there see three hundred and eighteen Bishops: so many as Abraham had soldiers in the victory over the

At qui novi hi fortè jam tum erant, recensque nati: minimè verò gentium: rà dexała ŋ agnoscunt illi Patres, "ut," interprete Ruffino," Alexandrinus Episcopus Egypto, Libya, Pentapoli præesset, sicut Romanus Ecclesiis Suburbicariis." Audi modò, Polycratem, Episcopum Ephesinum, senem jam plusquam sexagenarium, sanctè profitentem, se avis, abavis, atavis, septenâ serie, in eàdem Cathedrà successisse. Audi Irenæum, Tertullianum, Cle-. mentem, Dorotheum, Eusebium, Antiochena, Alexandrinæ, Hierosolymitanæ, Romana sedis Episcopos sibi indubiò ordine succedaneos, non numerorum modò notis, sed et nominibus designantes. Nullus profectò ab Apostolorum ævo illuxit dies, in quo Paranymphis hisce caruit Sponsa Christi. Sed quid ego ista? Sol in cœlo est, lucetque. Etiam ipse ille presbyter Hieronymus, strenuus assertor sui gradus, discrimen hoc à primi schismatis natalibus et apostolicâ traditione, decretoque communi deducit. Sed et scribente hæc ad suos Corinthios Paulo, sonuerat vox illa discors, Ego Pauli sum; ego Apollonis; ego Cephe : etiam tum tamen fuerant με διαιρέσεις.

"Ordine fortasse,” inquies," non gradu:" Quin et gradu, mi homo, et potestate. Ilicet sunt B. Paulo Toeσtles nai nysμevo; Ignatio, galves; Dionysio, iegagxo; præpositi, Cypriano: quibus

kings, as Ambrose wittily alludeth. But perhaps they were then but newly instituted, newly received in the Church: no such matter: those Fathers profess it to be rà agxaĩa edn, the ancient guise, "that the Bishop of Alexandria should be over Egypt, Libya, Pentapolis, as the Bishop of Rome was over his Suburbicary Churches:" do but hear Policrates, Bishop of Ephesus, an old man of above threescore, solemnly protesting, that he succeeded his grandfathers and great-grandfathers, for seven successive generations, in the same Episcopal Chair. Hear but Irenæus, Tertullian, Clement, Dorotheus, Eusebius, describing and recording the Bishops of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Rome, in the undoubted order of their successions, not only by their numbers, but by their names also. Certainly, never day looked forth since the age of the Apostles, wherein the Spouse of Christ wanted the attendance of these Bridemen. But what do I urge this? The sun is in heaven, and shines there. Even Jerome himself, though but a Presbyter, and a stout champion of his own order, yet deduceth this difference of degrees from the cradle of the first schism, from the common decree of the first Church, from tradition apostolical. Yea, when St. Paul wrote this to his Corinthians, that jarring word had sounded in the Church, I am Paul's; I am Apollos's; I am Cephas's and therefore even then had these differences been.

"Differences perhaps in order," you will say, "not in degree:" yes, both in order, and in power, too. There were those, whom St. Paul calls Presidents and Rulers; whom Ignatius calls Gover nors; Dionysius, Hierarchs; Cyprian, Overseers; to whom St.

ἐπιδιόρθωσιν attribuit Paulus ; γνώμην, Canones Apostolici; αρχην καὶ ucius, Ignatius; Sgóvov ÉTICHOTYs, ex Egesippo Eusebius; Vigorem auctoritatemque cathedra, Cyprianus; totius Ecclesiæ apicem, Origenes; exortem et super omnes eminentem potestatem, Hieronymus; αψίδα της ἐπισκοπῆς, Concilium Sardicenum; πατέρων γεννήλικην τάξιν, Epiphanius. Quid ego, post tantorum messem hæc spicilegia?

Oh, quoties, quàmque non sine imis suspiriis, suo sanguine emptum, optaverit florentissima ac fœlicissima Ecclesiarum Anglicana, à charissimis sororibus suis retentum, hunc antiquissimum optimumque regiminis morem: qui utique obtinuisset forsitan, si, quæ nobis, Dei beneficio, eadem et ipsis reformatio monarchica obtigisset. Jam, "provisionaliter tantùm," si Frigevillio, consultissimo Gallo, credimus, ab illis hæc, quomodo incumbit, pro tempore, necessaria, suscepta est administratio. Deus, Deus ipsis Reginas nutrices, nutricios Reges indulgeat; ut liceat illis aliquando nobiscum tanto hoc frui τῆς τῶν βαθμῶν ἀκολεθίας, ut Nazianzeni verbo utar, beneficio. Ego, interim, cum Ignatio, xos τῶν φυλατιόνων ταυλὴν τὴν ἐνταξίαν : qua, si regioni ulli aut Ecclesiæ parùm commodè unquam cesserit, personæ profectò vitio fit,

Paul attributes Power of reformation and correction; to whom the Canons of the Apostles give the Power of sentence or constitution; Ignatius, Chiefty and authority; Eusebius, out of Egesippus, The throne of Episcopality; Cyprian, The vigour and authority of the chair; Origen, The highest pitch of the Church; Jerome, A peerless and eminent power; the Council of Sardis, The height of government; and, lastly, Epiphanius, An order generative of Fathers. But what do I, gleaning after the harvest of so great authors as have discussed this point?

of

Oh, how oft, and with what deep sighs, hath this most flourishing and happy Church of England wished, that she might, with some of her own blood, have purchased unto her dearest Sisters abroad, the retention of this most ancient, and every way best form government: which might happily also have taken place, if they had met with such a monarchical reformation, as, through the blessing of God, was designed unto us. Now they are fain to undergo that administration, provisionally only," if we may believe wise and learned Fregevil, which the necessity of their condition doth, for the time, cast upon them. The God of Heaven raise them up Queens for their nurses, and Kings for their nursing-fathers, that they may once enjoy with us this happy blessing of the sequence and subordination of degrees! In the mean time, I dare, with Ignatius, profess to put my soul, avri↓ux &c., in pawn, for the safe observation of this excellent order: which, if it have ever not happily succeeded to any region or Church, it is the fault of the per

* "To use the words of Nazianzen," the original adds here. EDITOR.

non institutionis; quæ non alia censeri potest, quàm salutaris, sancta, divina.

Sed memineritis, interim, obsecro, Patres, ministeria hæc esse, Stanovías: ab ipso pulvere petita vox est, ne non sat humilitatis innuat. Honoribus auxistis piâ regum munificentiâ: sed Dominus noster, Jesus Christus, uti nostis, honores vestros metiri solet servitiis. Patres estis Cleri, sed Filii Thalami; proceres Reipublicæ, sed Ecclesiæ servi; duces hujusce militiæ, sed cum B. Paulo σvσTαala; principes domus Dei, sed et cuvdaho. Clerum vestrum compellate comiter; excipite familiariter: ut qui vos noveritis dignitate, patres; fratres, ministerio. Agnoscitis consilium Ambrosianum: Instar membrorum sint vobis, quibus præestis, Clerici : stellas vos angelosque salutavit Deus; imitamini stellas, quæ, quò altiores sunt, eò minores apparere solent; imitamini angelos, qui, cum sint caeli magnates, πνέυματα se tamen praestant λειλέργικα : odiosissimum spectaculum fastidiosus Præsul.

Sed et audite, Sæculares. Nolite contemnere sacra hæc nuncia. Ministeria sunt ista; sed splendida, sed honorifica. Imperare est scilicet, servire Deo: quin si et vobis? Cœlestes illi spiritus, potestates principatusque, nobis idem faciunt affatim, quos tamen nihilo viliores reddidere amor et obsequium. Rogamus vos, Fra

son, not of the institution itself; which cannot justly be deemed other, than wholesome, holy, divine.

But remember, I beseech you, in the mean while, Reverend Fathers, that these are dianovías, ministries: a word raked out of the very dust, lest it should not imply humility enough. Ye are graced with honours by the pious munificence of princes: but our Lord Jesus Christ, ye know, uses to measure your honours by your services. Ye are Fathers of the Church, but Sons of the Bridechamber; peers of the State, but servants of the Church; generals of this warfare, but with St. Paul fellow-soldiers; rulers in God's house, but withal fellow-servants. Intreat your Clergy kindly; use them familiarly as knowing yourselves to be fathers, in dignity; brethren, in service. Ye know the counsel of Saint Ambrose: Let those of the Clergy, within your charge, be as limbs of your own body: God hath called you stars and angels; imitate ye the stars, which, the higher they are, the lesser they are wont to appear; imitate ye the angels, who, though peers of heaven, yet are wont to approve themselves ministering spirits for the poorest of God's Saints: no spectacle can be more odious than a proud Prelate.

But hear me also, O ye Laics. Take heed of contemning this sacred function. These are Ministries indeed; but glorious, and honourable. To serve God, is to rule and command: and what is it, even to serve you? Surely those heavenly spirits, those principalities and powers, do the very same to us continually; whom yet their love, and service, bath never drawn into contempt. We