Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 3.djvu/258

54 ture, supplied the place of a single Bishop by the rules of an oligarchical presbytery.

"And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world;"—a promise not occasional or temporary, like that of miraculous powers; but conveying an assurance, that Himself, will, in spirit and in power, be continually present with His Catholic and Apostolic Church; with the bishops of that Church, who derive from the Apostles by uninterrupted succession, and with those inferior, but essential orders of the Church, which are constituted by the same authority, and dedicated to the same service.

The system, of which the Apostles had laid the foundation, was to be carried on through succeeding generations; but with a gradual diminution of that extraordinary aid, which the circumstances of the case rendered no longer necessary.... Yet since the object to be attained was not temporary, but to continue from age to age, the mode, the form, and the instrument to be employed, were still to be conformable to the primitive institution. Accordingly, the Apostles ordained successors to themselves, and took measures for perpetuating in the Church a standing ministry of diverse orders and gradations. In so doing, they showed in what sense we are to interpret our 's assurance, that He would "be with them always, even unto the end of the world."....

The evidences, from the best historical records, to the simple fact that a visible Church of this description has actually subsisted from the time of our and His Apostles to this moment, are too well known to require a detail. Nor is there any defect of similar evidence, to show that, whatever errors or corruptions may have occasionally found admittance into it, the Church itself has proved a successful instrument in the hands of Providence, both of transmitting the unadulterated Word of from generation to generation, and also of promulgating and