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organization by which alone His purpose can be accomplished.

The Roman Catholics have lost the true idea of the Unity of the Church as much as have the Protestants, as is proved by their not understanding the meaning of the apostasy. Neither party see that the apostasy is an unity also, represented by one vine producing bitter grapes, as before it was one vine producing sweet grapes; one woman become a harlot, as it was before one woman who was a chaste virgin. Each party calls the other apostate; but neither sees that the charge is true of both equally as parts of one whole, bound together, not by any opinions or creeds of their own framing, but by the Sacrament of Baptism, to which all equally cling, and which is the real bond which holds them, and the real definition which separates them from the rest of the human race.

The true unity in mind, soul, judgment or opinion, is in the three symbols universally acknowledged by all to be the Catholic creeds; false unity is in Pius's creed, in the Thirty-nine Articles, in the Assembly's Catechism, &c. True unity in outward, bodily, and visible rite and regulation, is under apostles speaking the mind of the whole body of baptized persons in accordance with those creeds; false unity is under one universal bishop, under lay

princes, under partial, local, national boards, or presbyteries, speaking their own mind, or the mind of that portion or sect of which they are respectively heads. True unity in spirit is love: false unity is in zeal for certain doctrines to the exclusion of others, and against the supposed errors of other members of the body of Christ; and for the promotion of any religious object whatever, except in conformity with, and under the regulation of, the lawful heads of the Church. Just as spurious patriotism would be shewn in confederations of individuals for injuring the lives and properties of the enemies of a country, instead of becoming regular soldiers under the appointed military commanders of the sovereign.

LECTURE VII.

ON IMPOSITION OF HANDS.

You know well that the Church of Christ is not a confused mass of independent individuals like a heap of sand, of which the grains do not unite one to the other, but that it is an organised body like a human body, or like a temple, each member or part of which has a peculiar and particular office to perform, distinct and dissimilar one from another, whilst the combined operation of all tends to the proper action of the whole body, so composed of divers and dissimilar parts, as one. In short, if any person desires clear light and instruction upon the nature of the Church, as the Body of Christ, he has only to contemplate his own body for an exact figure and example.

The Church itself, that is, each individual member of it, is separated from the rest of the world by the Sacrament of Baptism, and in that body the first

and largest division amongst men is into Clergy and Laity.

Next after this is Ministers of churches in general, in order to unite together those who are geographically separated from each other all over the earth; then Ministers of each particular church, which is an unity in itself. These are further divided into Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.

1. Thus then we have the visible election or separation of the Christian Church by baptism from the rest of the world.

2. That Church divided into Clergy and Laity. 3. The Clergy divided into,

a. Ministers of churches in general.

b. Ministers of churches in particular.

4. The Clergy in three orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.

5. Four different forms of ministry in each of the orders; four in episcopacy; four in presbytery; four in deaconship and in people.

a. Apostleship, or Eldership, for rule, and

teaching the deep things of God.

b. Prophecy, for light, through opening of

mysteries, hidden parts of Scripture, &c. c. Evangelism, for reminding men of God's goodness and man's unworthiness.

d. Pastorship, for guidance, comfort, and consolation amidst the trials of the world.

And these four kinds of ministry, into which each order is divided, are analogous to, and correspondent with, the fourfold nature of the intelligence of men; which takes the form in some, of capacity for, and love of, metaphysical examination, both into the sublime parts of man's being, and into the nature and attributes of Deity, and other deep branches of abstruse moral science in others, a delight in prophetic, imaginative, untangible, and undemonstrative ideas, developing itself in poetry, like David and the prophets of old, and in various branches of what are called fine arts, which lay hold of the feelings, and whose charm, lying beyond the sphere of the pure reason, cannot be proved or communicated to minds otherwise constituted in others, a capacity for making a practical use of all knowledge, and bringing it down to the daily use and necessities of men; which in religious subjects is by reminding them of their real moral condition in this world as responsible beings, sinners against God, condemned by His law yet redeemed by His love: whilst others are creatures of the affections, and absorbed by feelings for the suffering which is the universal law of man's being here, and by which they are surrounded on every side, and seek to relieve, comfort, and succour it in all its details and endless ramifications. Into this great visible election, called the Church of Christ, men enter by baptism.

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