exercise powers, and dispense blessings, which God only can bestow. God alone, then, can give them their commission. They act in his name; they exercise his powers; they dispense his blessings. Of course, they must be his officers.

6. An outward or visible commission is necessary to con stitute a Priest.

The idea of an inward call being sufficient to justify men in entering upon the sacerdotal office is equally repugnant to the order of the church as a society, and to the word of God. There must be officers in the church. It follows that there must be some regular method of appointing them. If any man, who fancies himself qualified, may en ter, at once, upon the ministration of holy things, confusion and ultimate destruction cannot but ensue. No society can exist under such circumstances. The divine founder of the church has not left it in this condition." No man taketh this honor to himself but he that is called of God as was Aa ron." Heb. v. 4. Aaron was visibly set apart to his office. Again" Christ glorified not himself to be made an High Priest; but he that said unto him, thou art my son." Heb. v. 5. To our blessed Savior was the Spirit given without measure. Of his call there could be no doubt. Yet he entered not upon his office until he had received a solemn and visible inauguration. Further "As thou hast sent me in to the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." John, xvii. 18. "Then said Jesus to them again-Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." John, xx. 21. "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Mat. xxviii. 19.

Thus, then, as our Savior was outwardly commissioned, so he outwardly commissioned others; not leaving it to his disciples, in general, to thrust themselves, at pleasure, into the sacerdotal office. The twelve and the seventy were reg ularly ordained. The Apostles ordained elders in all the churches which they planted. Thus an uninterrupted succession of outwardly commissioned clergymen has been kept up, to the present day, in compliance with divine example, and in obedience to divine command.

No admission into the church, then, without baptism; no baptism without a Priest to administer it; no Priest without outward ordination. Outward ordination lies, therefore, at the very foundation of the church.

I have presented a brief view of the church, and its officers, as described in scripture. We will now turn, a moment, to the Presbyterian standards, and shew that they go the full length of all that has been said. Attend to the following extracts. "The visible church is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation." Pres. con. Faith, chap. xxv. 2. "Unto this catholic visible church, Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God." Ibid. sec. 3. "The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error." Ibid. sec. 5. In proof of which we are presented with the parables of the net, and the tares. "Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace." Chap. xxvii. 1. "Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church, but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace." Chap. xxviii. sec. 1. "There be only two sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the gospel, that is to say, baptism and the supper of the Lord; neither of which may be dispensed by any but a minister of the word lawfully ordained." Chap. xxvii. sec. 4.

Upon Presbyterian principles, then,

1. The church is a visible society, consisting of good and bad members.

2. In it alone is there any covenanted possibility of salva tion.

3. There is no admission into it but by water baptism, which is a seal of the covenant of grace.

4. Baptism can be administered only by a clergyman outwardly ordained. And no ordination is admitted to be valid unless, Presbyterially, performed.

Let us now, Sir, attend to the language in which you express yourself.

The following is from page 344 of your letters.

"It does not affect the solidity of this argument that some churches which Presbyterians consider as not regularly organized upon scriptural principles, nevertheless embrace in their bosom a large portion of unaffected piety. If we un dertook to maintain that the Presbyterian church is the only real church on earth, and alone in covenant with Christ the head, such a fact would, indeed, present a difficulty of no easy solution.* But we make no such arrogant claim.

* Doct. M. here writes just as though he supposed it impossible

Wherever the unfeigned love of our divine Savior, an humble reliance on his atoning sacrifice and a corresponding holiness of life pervade any denomination of Christians, we hail them as brethren in Christ; we acknowledge them to be a true church;

that there should be any piety among those who have departed from the visible church. For, after contending, through several pages, that Presbyterians are as much members of the visible church as Episcopalians, because quite as holy as they, he proceeds-" It does not affect the solidity of this argument, that some churches which Presbyterians consider as not regularly organized, upon scriptural principles, nevertheless embrace in their bosom a large portion of unaffected piety. If we undertook to maintain that the Presbyterian church is the only real church úpon earth, and alone in covenant with Christ the head, such a fact would, indeed, present a difficul ty of no easy solution." Thus, says Doct. M. if we contended that Presbyterians alone belonged to the visible church of Christ, it would indeed, be difficult to account for the unaffected piety which, confessedly, prevails among those whose associations are not founded on Presbyterian principles. The point is to account for the existence of unaffected piety in certain bodies of men. How is the difficulty to be solved? By admitting them to be members of the visible church. Deny them to be members of the visible church, and, their possessing unaffected piety is, according to Doct. M. a strange phenomenon. Take, in connection with this, the following passage from page 339. "The ministry and ordinances were giv en to edify the body of Christ, and are the great instruments which God does, in fact, employ for this purpose." It is clear, then, that Doct. M. if he does not expressly say, goes, at least, very far towards saying, that unaffected piety can exist only in the visible church. Now the visible church, its ministry, and ordinances, are all externals. Thus, Doct. M. who declaims, so violently, against the stress which his opponents lay on external order, goes far toward contending that real piety cannot exist without such orderThen, to avoid the appearance of uncharitableness, he says that all bodies of men, possessing certain internal qualifications, must be members of the visible church. For, if they be not members of the visible church, how are we to account for their love of God? So that Doct. M. first makes external order every thing by repre senting the existence of real piety, apart from it, as a difficulty of no easy solution; and then destroys external order, altogether, by defining it to consist in the possession of piety.

The opponents of Doct. M. hold, on this subject, an uniform language. While they believe that the institutions of the visible church have a stronger tendency to promote real piety than institutions not regularly administered, even supposing such irregularity to be the result of involuntary error, they, nevertheless, admit the existence of unaffected piety out of the church. Nay, they will not deny that, at particular periods, and in particular countries, under the influence of an infinite variety of causes, the true visible church

and although we may observe and lament imperfections in their outward government we consider them as truly in covenant with the King of Zion as ourselves." In connection with this, take the following from page fourteen. “It is certainly contrary to the genius of the gospel dispensation to place forms of outward order among those things which are essential to the very existence of the church."

may have possessed the graces of the Christian character, in a less degree, than even schismatical congregations. Look at the state of the Corinthian christians as described by St. Paul! "Among the Corinthians," says Calvin, "not only a few had gone out of the way, but the infection, had in a manner, seized the whole body: there was not only one kind of sin, but many; neither were they light offences, but certain horrible outrageous doings; it was not only corruption of manners, but also of doctrine. What, in this case, saith the holy Apostle, the instrument of the Holy Ghost, by whose testimony the church standeth or falleth? Doth he require a division from them? Doth he banish them out of the kingdom of Christ? Doth he strike them by the extremest thunderbolt of his curse? He not only doeth none of these things, but he both acknowledgeth and proclaimeth it a church of Christ, and fellowship of saints." Calvin's Institutes, book, iv. Look at the state of the Jewish church, in many periods of its history! At one time, there were but seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. The corruption and idolatry of the Jews did not unchurch them. Neither did the Roman Catholics of the dark ages cease to be of the church in consequence of the errors, the corruption, the idolatry, that prevailed among them. I should be very sorry to compare the Presbyterians of the present day, in the United States, with the Christians of the tenth century. Here I cannot help remarking on the strange way in which Doct. M. proves the Presbyterians to be a true church. They are as holy as Episcopalians. In the same manner he might say-They are as holy as the Corinthian Christians spoken of by St. Paul-They are as holy as the Christians of the dark ages-These belonged to the true visible church-It follows that Presbyterians equally belong to such church. This is a mode of reasoning of which a scholar should be ashamed. You may prove any thing, and every thing, by it. Whether a particular as

sociation of Christians be of the true visible church is to be deter mined, not by an enquiry relative to their internal qualities, but by examining whether they possess those visible marks of the church set down in scripture. The opponents of Doct. M. further admit that unaffected piety may consist even with fundamental error. But all this Doct. M. will not listen to a moment; contending that there can be no possibility of salvation where there is fundamental error, and that unaffected piety, out of the visible church, that is, out of external order, is a phenomenon which it is extremely difficult to understand.

Wherever certain INTERNAL QUALIFICATIONS exist, there is the visible church of Christ. Every person, possessing such qualifications, is a member of that church. The ministry and ordinances are not, at all, essential. The church exists, as completely, without them, as with them. Very consistent, truly, with scripture, and with the Presby. terian confession of faith! They make baptism essential to church membership; and, of course, to the existence of the church. Not so with you. Internal qualifications alone are necessary. With them, baptism is the seal of the cov. enant. With you, internal qualifications are that seal.

The church consists of good and bad members; being always, more or less, touched with impurity. There can be no admission into it but by the reception of water baptism at the hands of an ontwardly ordained clergyman. So say the scriptures. So say the Presbyterian confessions of faith. Away with such nonsense! Internal qualifications are the mode of admission into the visible church. Wherever these exist, the church exists, and it is entirely immaterial, as to the point of actual existance, whether there be a priesthood or not; whether there be ordinances or not; in fine, whether there be outward institutions of any kind.

The church, says scripture, contains a mixed assembly of good and bad members, as a net, cast into the sea, collects good and bad fish. This is all an error. The question, whether a particular denomination be part of the visible church of Christ, depends on the internal qualifications of its members. None but the holy can be of the church. See this explicitly laid down in page sixteen of your Letters. "If the extravagant doctrine," to wit, that Episcopacy is essential to the existence of the visible church," which we oppose, be admitted; then no man can be in communion with Christ unless he is also in communion with the Episcopal church." "The enquiry whether he is in covenant with Christ is not to be answered by evidence of personal sanctification; but resolves itself into a question of clerical genealogy, which few Christians in the world are capable of examining and which no mortal can certainly establish."

Here, sir, you expressly make saintship the criterion of church membership. For, you say, that the question, whether a man is in covenant with Christ, in other words, whether he is a member of the visible church, to which alone your confession of faith confines all covenanted title to salvation, is to be determined by the evidences which he