Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/346

 from union with Him, from communion with the faithful, and cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven. For it is expressly said, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." (John vi. 53.) St. Paul also tells us, that the ministration of these sacraments is entrusted to the pastors of the Church by this commission, when he says, "Let a man so account of us; as of the ministers of, and stewards of the mysteries of God." (1 Cor. iv. 1.)

This commission, which you find in chapter xvi. given to St. Peter, and in chapter xviii. given to all the Apostles,—which is made mention of in St. Luke's Gospel, where our says to them, "I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me," (Luke xxii. 29.) and again in St. John's, where  says, "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you," (John xx. 21.);—this commission, I say, was left by the apostles to their successors, viz. those apostles or bishops whom they appointed to be their helpers in governing the churches during their life-time, and to occupy their place when dead. And it has been handed down, by the laying on of hands, from bishops to bishops, and will so continue to the end of time, according to that promise, whereby our engaged to continue with them always in the exercise of it, when He said to the apostles, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matt. xxviii. 20.) By virtue of this commission, each bishop stands in the place of an apostle of the Church; and discharges the important trust reposed in him, either in his own person, or by the clergy whom he ordains and gifts with a share of his authority.

Herein is the difference between the ministry of such persons as have received this commission from the bishop, and of those who have not received it;—that to the former, has promised that His presence shall remain, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world:" and that when they minister the Word and Sacraments (which are the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven), what they do upon earth, in His name, according to His will, shall be ratified and made good in heaven. "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." But to those