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did not hear them in any way publickly contradict it.”

THE great and learned critick mentioned by this writer, to whom the clergy in and about the Devizes, Wilts, paid their acknowledgment for the fervices they received from his aid in the affair of the tythe- bill, will be allowed by every one to be a competent judge of the powers ecclefiaftical and Spiritual belonging to the clergy; and to be equally capable of communicating and conveying all fuch ghoftly powers and divine gifts to them, as any person in the whole kingdom. And therefore this free and open declaration of his own judgment, in a very auguft and folemn affembly, and in the prefence of all his reverend brethren, in reference to the commiffion of the clergy, and the extraordinary power by which they have almost conftantly affirm'd they act; ought to be looked upon as the real and inward fenfe of his mind, unless we would charge him with the moft foufing proftitu tion of his confcience and honour: which, as it would be inconfiftent with his past character in life, it would be the highest injuftice to fufpect, or accufe him of.

WHOEVER will confider the form of ordination made ufe of in our established church, Receive the Holy Ghoft, &c. Whofoever fins ye remit, &c. would be apt to conclude from the pofitive preceptory form of the expreffions, that it was not merely a prayer

prayer to God that the perfons ordained might receive the Holy Ghoft, and have a power of remitting and retaining fins; but that it was a real communication of the Holy Ghoft, and of the power of remitting, &c. from the hands of the ordainer into the head of the ordained. And in this fense I know it hath been understood by many of our most eminent and orthodox divines.

THE very learned and reverend bishop Beveridge* gives this account of the power and authority of the bishops and presbyters: "Our Lord being dead and raised again, and afcended into heaven, that he might leave behind him persons to main"tain his place, promoted his apoftles into bishops. The form of this firft epifέσ copal confecration we have John xx. 21, 22. Jefus faid to his difciples, peace "be unto you. As the father bath fent "me, fo fend I you. And when he had faid this, he breathed on them, and faid to them, receive the Holy Ghost,

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"And being thus created bishops, and being Chrift's vicegerents during his abfence, they alfo created others; fince the "fpirit breathed on them, by Chrift, was

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poured out upon others, by their impofi❝tion of hands. And fo by a perpetual fuc"ceffion, bishops regularly ordained are, as "far as relates to the epifcopal dignity, the *Annot, in can. rim, apud Cotel. v. 1. p. 455.

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"vicegerents of Chrift upon earth, and presbyters the vicegerents of the apo"ftles." This, he tells us, was the opinion of Ignatius, who, in his genuine Epiftles, fays: "That the bifhop fits in the place of God, and the presbyters in the place of "the fynod of the apoftles." Epift. ad Magnes. And again, Epift. ad Trull. "The

bifhop is the type of the father of the u"niverfe; and the presbyters, as it were, "the privy council of God, and the conjunction of the apoftles of Chrift.'

So that according to this doctrine of this reverend prelate, the apoftles were advanced into the higher order of bifhops, being confecrated by Chrift, when he said to them authoritatively, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; the apoftles made other bishops, by conveying, by impofition of hands, the fame fpirit to them; and they others in a regular fucceffion, together with presbyters, by the fame fupernatural and miraculous conveyance. And I dare affirm, that as the youngest of our university Sprigs modeftly tells the bishop at his ordination, that he is moved by the Holy Ghoft to take on him his office; fo he makes no doubt but that the Holy Ghoft is fecretly inftilled into him by the touch of his ordainer's fingers. Such virtue is there in their facred hands, and so easily is it conveyed by these vicegerents of God to the lower order of his privy counsellors; like the precious ointment upon Aaron's head, that

ran

ran trickling down upon his beard, and difthe borders of his garupon very

fused itself ment !

AND indeed, unless this conveyance of the Holy Ghoft by the form of ordination be allowed to be real, will not the dignity of our ordination-office be greatly debased? Receive the Holy Ghoft, authoratively fpoken, hath fomething in it extremely grand and affecting. For, 'tis as much as to fay: Be thou greater than the greatest of other men: receive a gift, that fets thee above the kings and princes of the earth; that confecrates thee into God's vicegerent, and admits thee into the number of God's privy council. Receive authority to bind and loose in heaven and earth and from thy exalted engine to dictate to the liftening people, to demand attention to thy words as oracles, and to infift on obedience to thy voice as the ambafador of Christ. But how cold and low, how unaffecting and infipid, will the meaning be in the precatory sense of the form! Receive the Holy Ghoft. i. e. Almighty God, who alone workeft great marvels, fend down upon our bishops and curates the healthful spirit of thy grace. Or, I wish, I defire, I pray, that you may receive the Holy Ghost. The energy, the Spirit and life, is gone, if the form be only precatory; and people will be apt to think, that the wifh and prayer of any pious and honeft man for the Holy Ghoft, would ge

nerally be as effectual, as the mere wish and prayer of an ordaining bifhop.

BESIDES, how doth it debafe the office, and detract from the dignity, of our bishops and presbyters, if there be nothing more than a prayer, if there be no real conveyance of the Holy Ghoft? For, if any one comes to be ordained a bishop or presbyter, and hath no more of the Holy Ghoft after his confecration than he had before, many will be apt to fufpect that he never had it at all; that if he was an infidel, a rake, a knave, or a fool, before impofition of hands, he would remain fo afterwards, and not become one jot the wifer or better man; that he can have no authorative power to forgive fin, as 'tis certain he cannot, if he be destitute of the Holy Ghoft; and that an honeft layman may as well forgive fin in a declarative, or conditional manner, viz. upon fuppofition of repentance, as any bishop or priest whatsoever; that he can have no right to be believed in verbo facerdotis, nor any farther than he hath good fenfe or reason to recommend what he preaches; which would oftentimes occafion very bad effects, and fometimes produce even a TRIUMPHANT CATASTROPHE amongst our reverend clergy; and finally, that his right to tythes would become precarious and doubtful, fince nothing is more certain and self-evident, than that the divine right of our clergy to tythes is wholly founded upon their receiving the

the

Holy