on no man, and receive no accusation against a Presbyter but before two or three witnesses; and that the Deacons in his Diocese should be men of sober and orderly conversation'. We have here a sufficient intimation of what then was, and what was consequently designed to be, the form of ecclesiastical administration. We find the several officers of the Church distinguished by their respective stations, the Bishop as Governor and Inspector of a particular portion of it, answering to the High Priest among the Jews; the Presbyters and Deacons, subordinate ministers in it, corresponding to the Priests and Levites.

Thus did it please the Divine Wisdom to institute the several Orders of the Christian Priesthood after the pattern of the Jewish Church, which was of His own appointment: and in a case of so much consequence to the souls of men, God hath Himself interposed to secure us from all uncertainty, by providing that there should be no novelty, but a continuation of the like administration, under the Gospel, with that which had been all along known and acknowledged in His Church. We cannot therefore mistake the one, if we have an eye to the other. Such is the goodness of God in directing us, through all the confusion of the latter days, by a rule of such great antiquity, to the way of Truth,

1 Tim. v. 19. 22. iii. 8. 12.

and keeping us in it. And wherever we find this rule faithfully observed, wherever we recognize these three Orders of Ministers duly appointed and deriving their authority in uninterrupted transmission from the Apostles, where the pure Word of God is preached, and His Sacraments duly administered, there we acknowledge the true Church of Christ, with its form, its ministrations, its authority, and every thing essential to its nature and constitution. Such, we humbly trust, is the National Church of this country. And since in every well-ordered Society, it has ever been found necessary to its peace and preservation, that some form of religious worship and instruction should receive its particular countenance and protection, highly favoured is that kingdom where the Religion thus cherished needs not shrink from the test of Scripture, but is found correctly to accord in doctrine and discipline with the standard there delivered. Highly favoured is that kingdom, where the Education of the People is guarded by such principles as tend to unite all classes in the bond of fellowship provided by the Church of Christ; that bond which can alone secure concord among citizens or permanence to the civil state. Happy are the people that are in such a case, yea blessed are the people who thus have the Lord for their God 1."

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It can never be, then, that Christian Statesmen will consent to adopt by legislative enactments any 1 Psal. exliv. 15.

plan of National Education, which by leaving out of sight the Church's doctrine and discipline of Christ, would defeat its own first object, deprive the children of the poor of the dearest birthright inherited from their forefathers, and leave them, in effect, in a worse state than it found them, by enlarging their powers of mischief, without instilling religious principles to counteract and controul them. For the great objection to such a plan is not so much to what it teaches as to what it leaves untaught; not to its bringing up the objects of its care in the principles of dissent, but to its not bringing them up in any principles at all;not to its making them Presbyterians or Methodists, but to its not making them Christians. Such a sanction, therefore, as it is said to be now in contemplation to propose, proceeding from such authority, independently of higher considerations, would be nothing short of political suicide; or I should better say in the expressive words of the excellent Primate of our Church, used by him on a very recent occasion, "If there be faults in our Establishment, let them be amended; if there be errors, let them be corrected; but while it remains the religion of the Country, there is not common sense in a system which would educate the people in indifference or hostility to that Establishment 1." And it must be evident on

1

Archbishop Manners Sutton.

reflection that the assumption of a principle, (be it good or bad,) which is supposed to bind the State to bring up, from the public purse, any children with a proper regard to their religious prejudices, must in consistency oblige it to provide, from the same funds, for their religious instruction when they come to riper age; the real object in Education being to form the moral agent,-the man, and not the child.

But I am under no apprehension lest such mischievous delusions should have any weight with those whom I am now addressing. However the wisdom of this world may decide in such a case, “You," my Reverend Brethren," have not so learned Christ." Deeply impressed yourselves with the obligation of inculcating whatever can contribute to the security aud permanence of that spiritual Building which is raised " on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone'," you will exhort those committed to your care, and of whose Christian instruction you are the constitutional guardians never to consider as a matter of indifference what is evidently interwoven with the gracious scheme of their salvation. You will convince them, that what God hath joined together it becomes not man to put asunder: that thus to be wise above what is written can only serve to expose his weakness

and presumption. Much safer will it be for him to place himself under GOD's directions, to abide by His institutions, and with all humility and thankfulness to make use of those appointed instruments and means, by which the Divine Mercy hath vouchsafed to lead him in the way wherein he ought to walk,-— the only way which can conduct him with certainty to present happiness and future glory.

THE END.

GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.