4th, Which effect it produces "vi operationis," in virtue of its right ministration, as distinguished from the acts of the receiver. 5th, Permanence. I believe there can be little difficulty in showing from the Scriptures, that all these qualities belonged to six ceremonies of the Apostolic Church; that is, baptism, imposition of hands, the act by which bread and wine were changed into the body and blood of the Lord, the judicial act by which sins were remitted, the imposition of hands by which Christians were raised to the dignity of the priesthood, the final act by which the dying were anointed and prayed over. Here are the grounds that establish one in this conviction.

These ceremonies have been shown to be outward, obvious to the senses, visible, palpable, or audible. Furthermore, they have been shown to produce grace, which is an impalpable and invisible effect. Now, compare in each case the effect with the ceremony that produced it, and you discover the significance of the sacramental rite. Take them in succession: 1st, Baptism-The outward ceremony is a washing with water; the invisible effect is the abolition of original sin; the significance is cleansing the soul from its defilements. 2nd, Imposition of hands— The outward ceremony is the imposition of hands with prayer; the invisible effect is the infusion of the grace of the Holy Spirit; the significance is strengthening and enlightening the soul. 3rd, The consecration of the Eucharist-The outward ceremony consists of words pronounced over bread and wine; the invisible effect is the real presence of the body and blood of the Lord; the significance is nourishing and feeding the soul. 4th, Remission of sins-The outward ceremony is the pronouncing of pardon with the judicial hearing of the case; the invisible effect is the remission of sin. significance is obvious. 5th, Ordination of Priests-The outward ceremony is the imposition of hands; the invisible effect is the grace of the priesthood; the significance is the endowing with power and aptitude for priestly functions. 6th, Anointing of the sick-The external ceremony consists of prayer and anointing with oil; the invisible

The

effect is the remission of sin and the cure of bodily distempers; the significance is healing the body and the spirit. Therefore, the first quality of a sacrament, that is, outward significance of its invisible effect, was common to six rites in use in the primitive Church.

2. The six sacred ceremonies of which we have been speaking were instituted by the Redeemer mediately or immediately. This we would be justified in inferring from the fact that they produced grace in the souls of those who received them worthily. Besides the institution of four of them, namely, baptism, the Eucharist, penance, and orders, is either detailed, or strongly insinuated, in the gospels of the four Evangelists. That these sacred rites were to be permanent, would follow from their peculiar importance, I should rather say, vital necessity, coupled with the fact that the Church, of whose outward worship they formed a distinguished part, was to last to the end of time. They produced their invisible effects in virtue of their due administration. Baptism for example; the Redeemer says of it, "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit," &c. Water is here made the instrument by which sanctification and justification are produced in the souls of the newly baptized. Confirmation: to the terms "imposition of hands" is attributed the infusion of the grace of the Holy Ghost, instantaneously, infallibly, “vi ritûs." 66 They laid their hands upon them, and the Holy Ghost came upon them," &c. The Eucharist: here we have no need of illustration; for, if God was given in this sacrament, grace was given instrumentaliter. Holy Orders: of this sacrament St. Paul says, "the grace that is in you by the imposition of the hands of the priesthood." Extreme Unction: St. James attributes the effect of this sacrament to the anointing and prayer as to their physical or moral cause. Penance: where the Redeemer says, "whose sins you forgive they are forgiven," he necessitates the conclu sion that the judicial sentence of the priest is the immediate efficient cause of the expulsion of the sinner's guilt. So it appears the Catholic idea of the nature of a sacrament accords with certain symbolic rites of the primitive

Church. The coincidence is striking, even as regards Scripture illustrations: it becomes complete when the omissions of the sacred volume are supplied, and its obscurities removed by the more abundant materials which tradition furnishes.

There

Under the shade of the classic hill of "the modern Athens" perhaps, or hard by old Holyrood, slumbering in the smoke and dust of ages, or freshly looking out upon "the monument" and the pleasant grounds surrounding it, somewhere assuredly in the city of the Catholic Mary Stuart, the general assembly of the Church of Scotland sits in solemn state once a year, canný and astute, to hear ecclesiastical appeals, and, if required, to decide weighty questions, touching morals, discipline, and faith. are presbyters among its members, lay and ecclesiastical, who fancy they represent the πρεσβύτεροι and επισκοποι οἱ the primitive Church, and reproduce their office and functions. John Knox was the institutor of the Presbyterian system, and we are told on good authority that he took his ideas of Church government from the system established in Geneva. Singular enough that the "low lands" of a small and rugged kingdom at the western side of Europe, should pass by the great and mighty nations of the Continent, to learn Church government from the low lands of a country small and rugged like itself. Better had it been, and from what we have seen, more nearer truth, if these wise reformers sought for a model in the cantons bordering upon the "Waldstatler see," or hunted it up among the looming valleys of "Schwyz.' However this be, the Presbyterian system is established-a system of laymen and lay parsons without ordination, with few ecclesiastical functions, without sacrifice, sacramental action, or authority, save John Calvin's behest to John Knox, written, or by word of mouth.

The presbyters of the primitive Church were ordained ministers, ordained by ecclesiastical superiors, by Paul, Peter, Titus, Timothy, who were bishops in the true sense. If not all, certainly many of those presbyters were εLOKOTOL, charged with the direction of the faithful and the govern

ment of the Church. Επισκοποι οι πρεσβύτεροι as they were, they appointed not themselves to the care of souls, but they were "sent" by ecclesiastical authority, their mission or commission coming down to them from the Redeemer through the Apostles "sent" by him, or through the bishops sent by them in turn. So constituted in the Church, they had a strict right to be regarded as the "ministers of Christ," the denomination St. Paul fixes upon them. It was their office and duty to baptize; if they were of the higher order, to confirm by the imposition of hands, to consecrate the Eucharist, to absolve from sin, to anoint the dying with oil, to perpetuate the ministry by ordination if bishops, to look to the marriage contract, to offer sacrifice, and thus they realized in practice the second characteristic given them by the Apostle in the passage just referred to, "dispensers of the mysteries of God."

It is easy to find the office and functions of these early priests and bishops in the one great church that is everywhere; and no one who has an honest perception of the writings of the New Testament will look for them among the Vaudois or the Moravian brethren, or the Latter-Day Saints, or religious communities that rise and fall by "the great lakes," or live and die in "Merry England."

DIVISION VII.

THE GREAT RITE OF SACRIFICE.

§ 1. Hypothetical.-In the supposition that Christ our Lord changed bread and wine into his body and blood, when, according to the Evangelist at His Last Supper He "took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to His disciples, and said, Take ye and eat: this is My body. And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them,

saying, Drink ye all of this; for this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto the remission of sins;" and in the additional supposition that he commanded all the priests and bishops of his church, then existing, to effect a similar conversion of substance by the use of similar words, when he added, "do this for a com

memoration of me "—would it follow that the Eucharistic rite of the Christian Church is properly and strictly speaking a sacrifice?

Let us examine the result of these two suppositions. It may be thus simply evolved-Every Christian priest or bishop, by the consecrating words which he uses, brings Christ in His humanity and divinity from heaven, and constitutes Him, soul and body, in the very placeneither greater nor smaller-that had been occupied by the substance of bread and of wine. The one act of the priest, or rather the one sentence that he pronounces, has a double effect; it constitutes the presence of Christ upon the altar, and it constitutes His body and blood, and soul and divinity, where the bread and wine existed up to that moment: consequently, by this act or form of words, duly performed and pronounced, Christ is, morally speaking, immolated and slain upon the altar. For, constituted under the forms of bread and wine, he cannot naturally speak or breathe, or see or feel, or exist: naturally, I say, because for a due performance of such functions, a human body requires extension in a place commensurate with its own size. Christ is slain then morally, because, in reference to the natural order, his life is taken away. But this is not all; he is likewise morally slain, because living and active himself, he is placed under the form of a material dead and inactive-bread and wine. Undoubtedly then, in the supposition of the real presence caused by the words of consecration, there is an immolation of the body and blood of Christ, if not precisely physical and actual, at least moral, and by implication in the strongest sense of the words.

1 Matt. xxvi. 26, 27, 28.

2 Luke xxii. 19.