Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 3.djvu/249

Rh into superstition and luxury. Here again the scheme of our opposers was not to reform, but to destroy; and what was equally bold, to begin a new ministry, with hardly any other mission than such as a number of men, and sometimes one man only, wholly unauthorized, for aught that others could perceive, should assume. From men thus sending themselves, or sent by we know not whom, we are to receive the sacraments..... We must not forget, however, that these new orders lay claim to scriptural institution and primitive example. What, all of them? And without succession? Do we hear of any man in Scripture who ordained himself, or who presumed to take the ministry of 's word and sacraments upon him, without being sent either immediately or successively by ? Or, can an instance of this kind be assigned during the first fourteen centuries of the Church? ... So sacred a thing is the succession of ordination, that the Holy Ghost, who had already enabled Barnabas and Saul to preach the word, ordered them to be "separated for the work whereunto He had called them, by fasting, prayer, and imposition of hands,"—that is, to be ordained: the of  hereby plainly showing, that He himself would not break the successive order of mission established in the Church.

With regard to the order and government of the Primitive Church, we may doubtless follow their [the ancients] authority with perfect security; they could not possibly be ignorant of laws executed, and customs practised by themselves; nor would they, even supposing them corrupt, serve any interest of their own, by handing down false accounts to posterity. We are, therefore, to inquire from them the different Orders established in the Ministry from the Apostolic ages; the different employments of each, and their several ranks, subordinations, and degrees of authority. From their writings, we are to vindicate the establishment of our Church, and by the same writings are those who differ from us in these particulars to defend their conduct.

Nor is this the only, though perhaps the chief use of these