cause they are trusty and credible witnesses to show that this argument is no novelty; that I have not been broaching new and rash speculations of my own; but that I have been moving in the track of some of the soundest and holiest minds of one of the soundest and purest Churches of Christendom. There are those, who make Tradition a sort of infallible authority in matters of faith and doctrine; and who hold this authority to be a necessary interpreter of the Word of the living God. They set up this Tradition as an infallible Judge on the theological bench, and bow to its oracular decisions with an implicit faith. But, such is not the rank, which we have been taught to assign this speaker. We place it, not as Judge on the bench, but as evidence on the witnesses' stand; and we receive its statements only so far as they are harmonious with the only infallible rule of faith and doctrine-the everlasting Word of Truth. Look back, then, and question carefully the witnesses whom I have called. Do they speak according to this Word? If so, give them your credence, not because they can add any thing of certainty to that Word, but because they are the unimpeached sons of that Church to which, as Episcopalians, we belong, and because they speak according "to the Law and the Testimony" which the Holy Spirit hath penned, and which secure to us the priceless heritage of the one true Savior" of all faithful people”—of all holy believers. DISCOURSE VI. "As God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk; and so ordain I in all the Churches."-I COR. vii; 17. THE Church, as it is, in the truest and highest sense, one, Catholic, or Universal, has already occupied us through a series of discourses. On the authority of the Bible, and on the testimony of our own Standards, and of the standard writers of our own Protestant Reformation, we have seen it, in this sense, composed of "all faithful people;" of all true believers; of all, who, by a living faith, "hold the Head” of the Body, which is Christ; and who, by the Holy Ghost, are, in that faith, sanctified and saved. This is "The Church of the First-born, which are written in heaven" even while sojourning on earth; and which, in the present life, do "come to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel." To this Church, made up of saints alive, and of the spirits of the just made perfect; whose Mediator and High Priest is Christ, and whose cleansing is in the precious blood of sprinkling; all true believers "come" the moment they are true believers; they wait not longer for membership in it, but enter then into its holy oneness, its great communion, its divine Catholicism. This is the Church, in what I have termed the true, spiritual sense; or, what old writers call "The Invisible Church," because the bond of membership, which unites the believer to Christ, is invisible. But, I have already said; there is a sense, in which Christ's Church is Visible. I now add; there is a sense, in which this Visible Church is Catholic, or Universal; and the question, upon which I propose to enter, is this; what is this visibly Catholic, or Universal Church? Or whom does it comprehend? The true Comprehension of this Visible Church is the theme now before us. I am not unaware, either of the difficulties, by which this part of the subject is beset, or of the strong repugnance, which, in certain quarters, is felt to some of the views now to be presented. Still, as I consider them to rest on the authority of the Bible, and to be supported by the testimony of our own Standards, and standard writers, I shall present them with a consciousness of fidelity to the vows, which are on me; and shall hope, ere I close, to satisfy all, who will read with candor and with patience, if not of the demonstrable truth of my positions, at least of their credible claim to the character of sound, Protestant Episcopacy. I begin, then, by distinctly acknowledging, that the view, which we take of what is essential to the existence of the Church in its spiritual Catholicism, necessarily governs the view, which we take of what is comprehended in the Church, in its visible Catholicism. In other words, the view which we take of the one, true, Spiritual Church of Christ, naturally determines the view, which we are to take of the Church, as a visible, organized Body. All true Christians hold, as most vital, that there are such realities as the gift of the Spirit, union with Christ, and the pardon of sin. These realities make up the infinitely rich legacy of God to man. Without them, there can be neither Church, nor Christianity. The difference among Christians lies, not in admitting, or denying these divine verities, but, in settling the question, how they are to be realized, or received, by the disciples of Christ. To recur, then, to the second and third definitions of the Church, which I gave in opening this whole subject; if, on the one hand, we hold that an Episcopally constituted ministry is essential to the very being of the Church; indispensably necessary, as "a ministerial intervention" between God and man, for the communication, or |