like the two preceding, dates from the Apostolic age, is that of the Episcopate.

As long as the Apostolate continued, the Episcopate could not be the highest, nor was recognised as a distinct and separate, order; therefore we find the term "Bishop" applied as a title to the office of presbyter. The name in the original means overseer, and was generally given to the chief Presbyter of a Church.*

On the extinction of the Apostolate however, the Episcopate was henceforward regarded as a separate and superior Order, and succeeded in a great measure to its place.

The seven angels to whom the last surviving Apostle was commanded to write in warning and exhortation, are commonly recognised as being the Bishops of their Churches.

"If any man desireth the office of a Bishop, he desireth a good work." The work of a Bishop is to perform the highest duties of the Ministry which none but he is qualified to fulfil. A Bishop alone can ordain, consecrate, confirm those who by priest or deacon were baptised, and govern and control all ecclesiastical matters within his jurisdiction; feeding the flock of God over which the Holy Ghost has made him overseer.

These are the three Ministerial Orders ordered by the Apostles, and the only ones authorised by our Church, to the rejection of the various "Minor

* See Acts xx. 17, 28. Titus i. 5-7. I. Tim. iii. 2-7.

Orders" which have grown up and obtained a footing in that of Rome.

It is obvious that as in all secular professions, as Army, Law, or Medicine, candidates are required to undergo strict examination before being considered qualified to undertake its duties, so in the highest, most important profession on earth, it is yet more needful that the laying on of hands should not be suddenly performed, but that faithfully and wisely shall those in authority, "make choice of fit persons to serve in the sacred Ministry of the Church."

This brings us to the second point laid down in our Article, which in the Preface to the Ordinal is thus expressed; "To the intent that these Orders may be continued, and reverently used and esteemed in the Church of England, no man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, in the Church of England, or suffered to execute any of the said functions, except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereunto, according to the form hereafter following, or hath had formerly Episcopal consecration or ordination." The "form following," including the call, trial, examination and admission, can only be exercised by the Bishop, according to the wording of the Article that Ministers are to be chosen and called to the work by "men who have public "-that is public”—that

official—“ authority given unto them in the congregation to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard." These are of course Bishops as suc

cessors in a certain degree to the Apostolate or rather as replacing it, and it is evident that to the Apostles and Presbyters-from which order the episcopate sprung-belonged the right of laying on of hands. "They ordained them elders in every city." "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee . . . with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery." So strictly does our Church follow the Apostolic directions, that in the ordination of priests, all Ministers in that order present are required to lay hands after the Bishop on the heads of the candidates according to the ancient custom when the Bishop was but Head or "overseer" of the other Presbyters.

Our Church therefore cannot recognise any Minister within her pale as duly called and authorised, unless ordained and qualified according to her truly primitive rites, of which more hereafter.

The words of the Preface already quoted, "or hath had formerly Episcopal consecration or ordination," require some notice. This clause was inserted at the revision of 1662. Previous to that time while the Church's order was in the generality of cases duly carried out, yet Ministers who had only received presbyterian ordination-especially those ordained in other countries-were permitted to officiate in our Church; in the disturbed, revolutionary state of England this had originated and been allowed, but now-1662-circumstances were

changed: presbyterian ordination was claimed as the only rule, and "the presbyterian system was being built up on the ruins of the Episcopal." It was found therefore to be absolutely needful for the very existence of our Episcopal Constitution, that the old rule should be strictly re-enacted and enforced, and all future departure from it disallowed.

Finally; every candidate for the office of a Minister, should first have received the call of God's Spirit in his heart, else how can he hear and respond to the outward call of God's Church?

It is true, the efficacy of the ordinances do not with us as with Rome depend on the state of the priest's heart, where the celebrant must officiate "with intention," or the Sacrament is void; nevertheless a servant of Christ's Church should first be a servant of Christ, or how can he feed the flock of God, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; that when the chief Shepherd shall appear, he may receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away?

It was not till the live coal from the altar of God had touched the lips of the prophet Isaiah, and his iniquity was taken away and his sin purged, that he was able to answer the Lord's inquiry, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" “Here am I. Send me." St. Peter was made to declare, "Yea Lord; Thou knowest that I love

Thee," before he received his Master's commission, "Feed my Sheep."

"Who then, uncalled by Thee,

Dare touch Thy Spouse, Thy very Self below;
Or who dare count him summoned worthily,
Except Thine hand and seal he show?

Where can Thy seal be found,
But on the chosen seed, from age to age
By Thine anointed heralds duly crowned,
As Kings and priests Thy war to wage?

Then fearless walk ye forth,

Yet full of trembling, Messengers of God,
Your warrant sure, but doubting of your worth,
By your own shame alike and glory awed."

ARTICLE XXIV.-" Of speaking in the Congregation in such a tongue as the people understandeth."

Here again our Church asserts as her model the Word of God and the Apostolic Church in place of the corrupt traditions of Rome.

On the day of Pentecost, the first Whitsunday, when the Holy Ghost descended with great power upon the original Ministers of the Church, it is recorded that they "began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." when this miraculous occurrence was published in Jerusalem, the foreign Jews who according to the Mosaic Law were come to the Holy City for the

And