them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied." No one will say that these converts were ordained to be officers in the Church. The Episcopalians endeavour to prove by the texts their practice of confirmation. Is it not evident that the purpose for which the Apostle laid on hands was to confer the miraculous gifts of the Spirit?" They spake with tongues and prophesied.* If this is undeniable from those places in the Acts, why should not the text in the second Epistle to Timothy be understood in the same manner? All upon whom the Apostles laid their hands were made partakers of extraordinary gifts in a greater or less degree. There never was an exception. It could not be the saving and ordinary influences of the spirit which they conveyed, because these had been enjoyed, or were supposed to be enjoyed by persons before they were baptised.† Simon the sorcerer, who was baptised, but not regenerated, would not have offered the Apostle Peter money to obtain the power of conferring the Holy Ghost, had there been nothing more than what was ordinary and secret. It is true that all who were baptised did not exercise extraordinary gifts; nor did the Apostles lay hands on all; but on whomsoever they did lay hands, these gifts invariably followed. With respect to those at Ephesus upon whom Paul laid his hands, we are expressly told, that "they spake with tongues and prophesied." Thus have I carefully examined the passages in the Epistles to Timothy, and the result is, 1. That in one the Apostle refers both to the gift of the Holy Ghost and to ordination; in the other to the gift of the Holy Ghost alone. 2. That the Holy Ghost was given to Timothy by the imposition of Paul's hands, and that the ordination or setting apart to the ministry of the word was by the imposition of the hands of the Presbytery. 3. That these were performed at the same time, or immediately succeeded one another. 4. That though the Greek word meta, when it governs the genitive case, has equal meaning and force with dia, and may, on the highest authovity, be translated by ; yet in this place, together with is to be preferred. 5. That even the presence of Paul at the ordination of Timothy cannot be inferred with certainty from the words, "the putting on of my hands," seeing they refer to the conveyance of extraordinary powers. 6. That so far as Paul was actually engaged Is it said that the Samaritan converts "spake with tongues and prophesied!" This author asserts, but does not prove," that all upon whom the Apostles laid their hands were made partakers of extraordinary gifts." Ed. But are there not different degrees of grace? And may not these be conferred at different times, and in different ordinances? Ed. Simon had received" the washing of regeneration," but not " the renewing of the Holy Ghost;" which are considered by the Apostle as distinct. By his baptism Simon was translated into a new state, in which he received conditionally a title to the blessings of the Christian covenant; and in this sense he was regenerated. Regeneration, in the sense of scripture and the primitive Church, is distinct from renovation, or the change of mind and heart effected by the operations of the Holy Spirit. And the former term, in its appropriate signification, is applied to baptism; which is the divinely instituted mean of translating us from our natural state into a state of grace, in which we are to "work out our salvation." Ed. in the ordination, separately considered, he laid on his hands as a mere Presbyter; and that, probably, he presided among his fellow Presbyters on the occasion. When a person is to be ordained, the Presbyterians appoint a Minister to deliver a sermon, another to preside, and another to give a charge to the person when ordained. Sometimes two or all of these services may fall to the same member of the Presbytery; but generally they are divided. The Minister who presides explains briefly the nature of the business, receives the vows of the candidate, and then by solemn prayer and imposition of hands, the Presbyters laying on hands together with him, the person is or dained, or invested with the sacred office. The same power which the Presbyters possess they convey. They have no apostolic power, and they convey none. They are Presbyters, or Pastors, or Bishops and Governors of the Christian Church, and they invest others with the same office. Acting by the authority of Christ and his Apostles, what they have received they "commit to faithful men. For the Albany Centinel. I HAVE not forgotten my promise of an extract from the re markable meditation for the" Saturday evening" preceding the communion, in "A Companion for the Altar," &c. But having lately read a pamphlet entitled, "An Address to the Ministers and Congregations of the Presbyterian and Independent Persuasions in the United States of America," it will be useful to furnish my readers with a few short extracts from this. It was printed in 1790, and is ascribed, on good authority, to the late Bishop Seabury. His design professedly is to persuade those whom he addresses to for sake their schismatic courses, and join the Episcopal Church, as being the only true Church. "She" [the Episcopal Church] says the writer, " supposes that Presbyterians and Independents have departed from the true government of Christ's Church, and are essentially deficient in the matter of ordination. Unless the Presbyterians can be prevailed on to give up this point, all my labour is lost, and my hopes are at an end," p. 43. Again, "Whoever needlessly breaks this unity, by departing from this communion, [the Episcopal Church] that is, when he could continue in it without sinning against God, is guilty of schism, and ought to repent of his wickedness, and return to the And what is it which these " Presbyters, or Pastors, or Bishops," have "received," and which they "commit to faithful men?" Without doubt, this author means the ministerial commission. And how can they receive this commission from "Christ and his Apostles," by whose "authority" he says they act? Certainly in no other way than by uninterrupted succession. Here we have another example of the consistency of this gentleman, of the care and consideration with which he writes. At one time he ridicules the doctrine of succession, at another he makes it the foundation of all his reasonings. Ed. Church of Christ from which he has strayed." p. 50. Again, "Let me ask the gentlemen for whose benefit these charitable efforts are principally intended, why, if they can effect a re-union with the Church on reasonable and liberal terms, and in her bosom do away the odious imputation of schism, and obtain valid orders for their Ministers, they should not do it? Many of their Ministers, as well as people, must have doubts and misgivings of mind concerning their ordination. It is their misfortune too that those doubts and misgivings are well founded." p. 51. Again, "They may put a bold face on the business, and think to brave it out; and as they first assumed the title of Presbyters, and the style of Reverend, so they may, in imitation of Dr. Stiles and his brethren of Connecticut, usurp the title of Bishops, and it may be the style of Right Reverend (pray who then would be Reverend?) it will all end like those plays of 、 children which they call make-believe. Their doubts and misgivings will continue, and, like a perpetual blister, keep them for ever uneasy and wincing. The people will see it and laugh. They see it already; and the number of those who return to the Church is daily increasing. Think me not censorious; my words are the words of truth and candour." p. 52. Again, "You ask, Have we no authorized Ministers? no valid sacraments? To these questions, I fear I shall return disagreeable answers. You have Ministers of the people, I confess; and if I may be allowed to make a supposition (and I have made a good many without any leave at all), I must suppose, that such as your Ministry is, such is your sacraments." p. 52. Again, "Most of the original settlers to the southward had never separated from the English Church. If many of their descendants have done so, it has been owing to the arts and example of the Presbyterians of New-England, and of their new-fangled brethren of Mr. John Wesley's mission. Mr. Wesley, in his dotage, being eighty-two years of age, a certain Dr. Coke prevailed on him to confer the Episcopal character on him the said Coke. This was done privately at Bristol." p. 54. I shall produce only one extract more at this time. "You would give up an ill-founded Church government, and an unauthorized Ministry and sacraments, and you would obtain a government, Ministry and sacraments, according to the institution of Christ, the example of his holy Apostles, and the practice of the primitive Church, in its purest period. You would give up an unjustifiable separation, and heal a breach which the intemperate zeal of your forefathers made in the unity of Christ's Church. You would get rid of extempore prayers in public worship," &c. p. 54. Such is the language which the Bishop uses when persuading men to join the Episcopal Church. One would think that he might have found what was more conciliatory, and more likely to have produced the effect which he professes to have had in view. I have given his words merely to show the haughty pretensions, and imperious tempers of these men, who with benevolence, candour and charity in their mouths, contemn, ridicule, and abuse their fellow Christians.* A Bishop sets the example, and a Priest soon apes his superior. * In judging of the extracts from this performance, the reader should take into consideration the circumstance that the minds of Episcopalians in The Methodists, though they have "Episcopal" in the style of their Church, yet are not acknowledged by the right Episcopalians as of their generation. The Bishop informs us, that Mr. Wesley, when he had got into his dotage, was persuaded by Dr. Coke to ordain him a Bishop. In this I confess Mr. Wesley was wrong; and whether in his dotage or not, he had lived long enough to know, 'that he could not confer a power which he did not possess. If three Bishops of the true Episcopal Church, descending in an uninterrupted line from the Apostles, must unite their efforts to consecrate one like themselves, how vain in Mr. Wesley, a Presbyter, a Christian Bishop, singly to think of anointing a High Priest! This was neither Episcopal nor Presbyterian ordination. I wonder most at Dr. Coke, who could not be in his dotage, in requesting and submitting to such a thing. He would have been more excusable in applying to some Romish Bishop, or to some Bishop in the line of succession from Rome; for then he would have been on an equality with the Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and they would not have dared to thrust him out of doors. Though I do not pity him and his Clergy, yet I think the usage hard. He had no business to be neighing after Episcopal ordination, or he ought to have espoused it in a proper manner; and if he must have it, I would recommend him and Bishop Asbury to make application yet to "the successors of the Apostles." In what an awkward situation are their preachers at present! Before one of them could be admitted to an Episcopal pulpit in the city of New-York, he was obliged to renounce all the authority he once supposed himself to have had, and to receive orders from the true Connecticut were irritated by the intolerant treatment which they had received. But what connection has this pamphlet with the other works of which this writer complains? There are no expressions in the Companion for the Altar, or for the Festivals and Fasts, which authorize the charge that the author of them" contemns, ridicules, or abuses his fellow Christians." The charge is unjust and ungenerous, and comes with a very ill grace from a writer who, in almost every sentence, casts ridicule and abuse upon the Episcopal cause and its advocates. As to "haughty pretensions;" there are no pretensions made which were not avowed in the primitive ages by some of the most humble and pious men that ever adorned the Christian Church. That advocate for Episcopacy does injury to his cause who does not speak of his fellow Christians, who may differ from him, with all the respect and esteem that may be due to their talents and their virtues. But it is surely too much to expect that, as a mark of his respect and esteem for them, he should give up his principles. The Episcopalian only wishes to be permitted to maintain these principles without being accused of "haughty pretensions" or an imperious temper." It does not become a follower of CALVIN to cast on others the charge of "imperious temper." Mildness and humility cannot be ranked among the conspicuous virtues of this great man. And it is thought by many that it is the tendency of the religious system which he formed to cherish an austere, self-sufficient, and domineering spirit. "In trac ing the coherence among the systems of modern theology, we may observe that the doctrine of absolute decrees has ever been intimately connected with the enthusiastic spirit: as that doctrine affords the highest subject of joy, triumph, and security to the elect, and exalts them by infinite degrees above the rest of mankind." Hume's Eng. There must be always many excep tions to all general remarks of this sort. Ed. H Church. Another residing either in the city of Schenectady, or some where in the adjacent country, was made to strip off his Methodistical coat, and to do penance for several months, in a white shirt, before he could come "near to the altar to minister." These are real inconveniencies, and are to be charged to the account of Dr. Coke. He being called a Bishop, and his Church Episcopal, young men are deceived, and not one in ten of them ever discovers the mistake. Had not the preachers alluded to had more than common reading and common genius, they would have floundered on through life. One reason, no doubt, why the Methodists are treated so cavalierly is, that Messieurs Coke and Asbury," in imitation of Dr. Stiles and his brethren of Connecticut, have usurped the title of Bishops," and the Episcopal dignitaries are afraid, that the style of "Right Reverend" will be usurped next. So far as I know, they need not be jealous and fearful on these points; for the Presbyterians at least covet neither their ordination nor their titles as used by them. Presbyterian Ministers are indeed the Bishops of the New Testament, and they have no superiority over one another, but what talents, learning, piety, and usefulness give.* POSTSCRIPT. As the leaders of that small portion of professing Christians calling themselves Episcopalians, and setting themselves up for the only true Church in the United States, appear to have read partially, so I have thoughts of having reprinted "The divine right of Presbyterian ordination asserted, and the Ministerial authority, claimed and exercised in the established Churches of New-England, vindicated and proved: in a Discourse delivered at Stanford, Lord's-Day, April 10, 1763, by Noah Welles, A. M. Pastor of a Church of Christ there." This performance has lately been put into my hands. It consists of seventy-eight pages octavo. The writer has handled his subject with ability, and in a manner which must afford conviction to every unprejudiced inquirer after truth. It seems that before the Revolution the Episcopalians used the same unjustifiable language as now. "Had our Episcopal neighbours," says Mr. Welles, "been contented with the peaceable anmolested profession of their own peculiar principles, I never should have thought of introducing this subject into the pulpit, much less of publishing my sentiments upon it. But the restless endeavours of some among them, to draw away persons from our communion, and their unwearied attempts to increase their party, by constantly insinuating to you, the danger of continuing in fellowship with Churches in which (as they would bear you in hand) there is no authorized Ministry, no regular gospel administrations; at last convinced me, that it was high time something should be publicly offered for your satisfaction, on this important point." • And had Timothy and Titus no superiority over the other Ministers of Ephesus and Crete but what "talents, learning, piety, and usefulness give?" Ed. An answer to this pamphlet was published, written by the Rev. Dr. Leaming, an Episcopal Clergyman of Connecticut. Ed. |