and benevolent dispositions, we are purchasing to ourselves a reversion and inheritance valuable above all price, important beyond every other interest or success.

Go, then, into the vineyard of the gospel, and may the grace of God go with you. The religion you preach is true. Dispense its ordinances with seriousness, its doctrines with sincerity-urge its precepts, display its hopes, produce its terrors"be sober, be vigilant"-"have a good report" -confirm the faith of others, testify and adorn your own, by the virtues of your life and the sanctity of your reputation-be peaceable, be courteous; condescending to men of the lowest condition-"apt to teach, willing to communicate;" so far as the immutable laws of truth and probity will permit, "be every thing unto all men, that ye may gain some."

The world will requite you with its esteem. The awakened sinner, the enlightened saint, the young whom you have trained to virtue, the old whom you have visited with the consolations of Christianity, shall pursue you with prevailing blessings and effectual prayers. You will close your lives and ministry with consciences void of offence, and full of hope.-To present at the last day even one recovered soul, reflect how grateful an offering it will be to him, whose commission was to save a world-infinitely, no doubt, but still only in degree, does our office differ from hishimself the first-born; it was the business of his life, the merit of his death, the counsel of his Father's love, the exercise and consummation of Ris own, to bring many brethren unto glory."

A DISTINCTION OF ORDERS IN THE CHURCH

DEFENDED UPON PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC UTILITY

IN A

SERMON,

PREACHED IN THE CASTLE CHAPEL, DUBLIN,

At the Consecration of

JOHN LAW, D. D.

LOKD BISHOP OF CLONFERT AND KILMACDUAGH, September 21, 1782.

SERMON III.

A DISTINCTION OF ORDERS IN THE CHURCH, DEFENDED UPON PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC UTILITY.

And he gave some, apostles, and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.-Ephes. iv. 11, 12.

In our reasoning and discourses upon the rules and nature of the Christian dispensation, there is no distinction which ought to be preserved with greater care than that which exists between the institution, as it addresses the conscience and regulates the duty of particular Christians, and as it regards the discipline and government of the Christian church. It was our Saviour's design and the first object of his ministry, to afford to a lost and ignorant world such discoveries of their Creator's will, of their own interest, and future destination; such assured principles of faith, and rules of practice; such new motives, terms, and means of obedience, as might enable all, and engage many, to enter upon a course of life, which, by rendering the person who pursued it accepta ble to God, would conduct him to happiness, in another stage of his existence.

It was a second intention of the Founder ef Christianity, but subservient to the former, to ussociate those who consented to take upon them the profession of his faith and service, into a separate community, for the purpose of united worship and mutual edification, for the better transmission and manifestation of the faith that was delivered to them, but principally to promote the exercise of that fraternal disposition which their new relation to each other, which the visible participation of the same name and hope and calling, was calculated to excite.

From a view of these distinct parts of the evan

gelic dispensation, we are led to place a real difference, between the religion of particular Christians, and the polity of Christ's church. The one is personal and individual-acknowledges no subjection to human authority-is transacted in the heart-is an account between God and our own consciences alone: the other, appertaining to society (like every thing which relates to the joint interest and requires the co-operation of many persons,) is visible and external-prescribes rules of common order, for the observation of which, we are responsible not only to God, but to the society of which we are members, or, what is the same thing, to those with whom the public authority of the society is deposited.

But the difference which I am principally concerned to establish consists in this, that whilst the precepts of Christian morality and the fundamental articles of his faith are, for the most part, precise and absolute, are of perpetual, universal, and unalterable obligation; the laws which respect the discipline, instruction, and government of the community, are delivered in terms so general and indefinite, as to admit of an application adapted to the mutable condition and varying exigencies of the Christian church. "As my Father hath sent me, so send I you."-"Let every thing be done lecently and in order."-" Lay hands suddenly on no man." "-"Let him that ruleth do it with diigence."-"The things which thou hast heard of me, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."-"For this cause left I thee, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city."

These are all general directions, supposing, indeed, the existence of a regular ministry in the church, but describing no specific order of preeminence or distribution of office and authority. If any other instances can be adduced more circumstantial than these, they will be found like the appointment of the seven deacons, the collections