us, under God, from being blown about with every wind of doctrine. We are thankful that they render our course steadfast and sure; and we behold, in the spectacle of our unbroken unity, our quiet firmness, and our regular growth, another proof of the real superiority in all religious questions, which is possessed by the Scriptural and Apostolic system.

May the Spirit of grace, my beloved brethren, enable you all to realize the true character of these primitive services, until you shall be removed from the worship of his earthly sanctuary to that eternal temple, not made with hands, where, clothed in the white robe of your Saviour's righteousness, and graced with the palm of victory over sin and death, you shall unite in the responsive worship of the heavenly host, and give 'glory and honor, dominion, and praise, to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb for ever.'

LECTURE VIII.

1 COR. XII. 28.

GOD HATH SET SOME IN THE CHURCH, FIRST APOSTLES; SECONDARILY PROPHETS; THIRDLY TEACHERS; AFTER THAT MIRACLES: THEN GIFTS OF HEALINGS, HELPS, GOVERNMENTS, DIVERSITIES OF TONGUES.

THE love of domination so natural to the human heart, my brethren, and the disposition of all men to be independent of authority, have produced, in every age and department of society, an inevitable tendency to conflict, which has made the subject of Government the most difficult and the most warmly contested point in the relations of mankind. I need not tell you of the insurrections, massacres, wars and revolutions, which this single source of strife has generated; and which have truly made the page of history a record of blood. I need not tell you that in our own day, and in our own most free and favored country, the same root of bitterness poisons the stream of our public peace, and converts the very privileges of liberty into occasions of enmity and dissension. Nor has the experience of five thousand years as yet taught the wisest of our race to overcome this difficulty. The best form of political government is still a subject for debate; nor is it likely that the contest on this single question, will ever be settled until the end of time.

But the difficulties and the strifes attendant upon political government, afford no argument for allowing men to do as they please; since government, in some form or other, is

absolutely indispensable. To loosen the ties of government would be equivalent to the abandonment of all the property, the security, and the social institutions of mankind, and the reign of barbarism must speedily follow. Hence, the virtuous, and the wise, and the peaceable, are the friends of government, because they know it to be necessary for the temporal welfare of the community; and although they take no part in the evils of ambitious encroachment on the one hand, or of rebellious resistance on the other, yet they are always ready to sustain the true rights of law and order, and to repress the disorganising temper of that licentiousness, which would trample upon the best blessings of the social state, under the abused name of freedom.

Not only, however, is government necessary for nations, but for every other relation of our race. All the subordinate departments of the public offices, have their respective systems of government. The army, from the commander in chief, down to the subaltern-the navy, from the high Admiral, down to the common sailor-the courts of law, from the Chief Justice, to the lowest constable,-all have their rules and officers, designed for the same end of government. Nay, every corporation-every school-every factory-demands a strict and watchful government, to keep it from falling into ruin; and even a private family cannot subsist in respectability and peace, if the principle of government be wanting.

If government, then, be so essential in every thing else which concerns the welfare of humanity, shall it not be considered of equal importance in the Church of God? Is it so indispensable in all the interests of our temporal condition, and does it not deserve our careful attention in the selecting our religious system? Surely, my brethren, if the government of the State be so worthy to absorb

the feelings of the patriot, the government of the Church must be far more worthy to engage the intellect of the Christian; since the first, at best, is a question which only affects the interests of earth, while the latter is connected with the immortal heritage of heaven.

To those that enter deeply into the subject of religion, it is, therefore, no wonder, that Church government has presented a topic of such exciting power; and that the same violence, and unfairness, and sophistry, which we behold in political strife, should sometimes have stained the controversies of Christians on this point, with their deepest pollution. The confession is painful and humiliating to the character of Christendom,-but truth exacts it, and I may not keep it back-that all the strifes about doctrine—all the contentions about faith, put together, have not exhibited a tithe of the rancor and spleen, the falsehood and misrepresentation, which Christian writers have displayed on the single question of government. Of course, it ought not to excite any astonishment, that the form of our own ecclesiastical system should be a constant theme of censure with all who are hostile to our communion; that it should be vilified by many of our Christian brethren, with a zeal which is by no means according to knowledge, as being unscriptural, Popish, opposed to liberty, adapted only to a monarchy, and out of character with the Republican Institutions of our country. To this favorite topic of our enemies, which forms the last branch of our present course, I must now ask your attention.

The government of the Church includes the qualifications and orders of the ministry, the relations between them and the people, and the mode of enacting such laws or canons, as the welfare of the whole or of any part may seem to require. And there are four distinct kinds of this

government chiefly to be noticed, viz. the Congregational, the Presbyterian, the Episcopal, and the Roman Catholic. A variety of others, indeed, exist; the distinctions among which it would be beside my purpose to place before you: but they are all referable to one or other of these, in their main and substantial principles.

The Congregationalists do not admit that there is any order in the ministry, nor that there is any importance in the rite of ordination, although they use the imposition of hands as a matter of practice. They hold that each congregation is a complete church in itself, and they disallow any parochial or synodical subordination. (a)

The Presbyterians contend that there is but one order in the ministry, viz. that of Presbyters, or elders, whom they also call bishops; and that the government of the Church should be by Prebyteries, that is, by an association of ministers and ruling elders, all possessed of equal powers, without any superiority either of office or of order. But they hold, that the authority of their ministers to preach the Gospel, to administer the sacraments, and to feed the flock of Christ, is derived from the Holy Ghost by the imposition of the hands of the Presbytery; and they oppose the Independent or Congregational scheme of the common rights of Christians, by the same arguments that are used by Episcopalians. (b)

The Episcopal Church maintains that from the Apostles' time there have been three orders of ministers in Christ's Church, (c) 'Bishops, Priests, and Deacons ;' of which, the bishop exercises the Apostolic power of ordaining and governing, as a President over a particular district;

(a) Viz. Buck's Theol. Dict. Titles Independent; Puritan and Brownist. (b) Ib. Title Presbyterians.

(c) Preface to the Ordinal in the Book of Common Prayer.