In  reference,  for  instance,  to  such  cases  as  those  above  alluded  to,
how  is  it  at  all  possible  to  persuade  a  simpleminded  Christian,
anxious  for  the  honour  of  his  Lord  and  the  salvation  of  his
soul — who  judges  men  only  by  the  rule  which  CHRIST  has
given  him,  and  therefore  surely  must  seem  to  himself  to  judge
rightly,  By  their  fruits  you  shall  know  them — how  is  it  possible
to  persuade  such  an  one  that  these,  and  such  as  these,  are  divinely
commissioned  Representatives  of  the  men  who  were  his  Lord's
attendants  while  on  earth,  and  whom  He  has  given  to  be  to
these  ages  what  a  Paul  or  a  Peter  or  a  John  was  to  theirs  ?
And  when  such  an  one  learns  from  the  confessedly  authentic
records  of  the  past  that  such  men  have  been  for  ages  Bishops —
the  ordainers  of  hundreds  of  similar  Representatives  of  the

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Apostles — can  his  faith  be  strengthened  in  the  immediate  divine
commission  of  the  Clergy?  Did  Apostles  ever  ordain  such
men?  Did  their  immediate  successors?  What  resemblance  is
there  in  such  to  those  to  whom  our  blessed  Redeemer  gave  the
power  of  remission  of  sins,  and  promised  to  be  with  always  even
unto  the  end  ?  However  great  may  be  his  desire  to  believe
whatever  may  be  taught  him,  yet  the  reverence  which  he  must
feel  to  be  due  to  the  voice  within  will  make  him  justly  hesitate  to
receive  a  doctrine  which  is  so  startlingly  incredible,  and  which  is
not  confessedly  and  unequivocally  laid  down  in  Sacred  Scripture :
and  he  will  naturally  turn  with  increased  attachment  to  the  more
moderate  opinion  which  would  seem  sanctioned  by  considerable
Churches,  namely,  that  an  order  of  Clergy  is  an  ecclesiastical  ar-
rangement, no  other  way  sacred  than  as  it  is  unto  edifying,  no
other  way  divine  than  as  every  ordinance  which  is  for  good  is
of  GOD — an  opinion  which  is  not  at  the  very  least  irreconcile-
able  with  Sacred  Scripture,  and  is  not  inconsistent  with  the
sad  facts  which  a  steady  view  of  the  Past  and  the  Present  most
fearfully  unfolds.
