manual incidence, but upon a conformation and structural compliance with scriptural directions and apostolical usage. At the period of time when the disruption occurred between this country and Great Britain, the Methodist societies were irregular, in that in their organic law there was no provision for the office of bishop. Here was an apparent error in her constitution. Whose right was it to correct this error? This question is answered by ascertaining whose duty it was. And this can be ascertained by enquiring whose duty is it to obey Christ. If it is not the duty of every human being to obey Christ, then the doctrine of manual contact might come in. So soon as this society, at the suggestion of Mr. Wesley, conformed its organization to the organic law of the Scriptures, by recognizing the necessity of the office of bishop in Christ's church, and filling that office by officers acceptable to them, it became a church of Christ, in which the duty of ordination and general supervision attached to the office of bishop. This society is now a church, and if Mr. Wesley were now alive, and were to come among us with his presbyterial ordination, he would have no right, in virtue of such ordination, to proceed to ordain bishops for this church, but, upon the contrary, would be subject to the authority of the constituted officers of the church, and any such claim, in virtue of any such presbyterial ordination, would be resisted upon the general principles of the Scriptures, probably by every one, without a solitary exception, of her multitudinous host of members and ministers.

We must not lose sight of the fact that the point of debate between the Methodist Church and the Episcopalian Church is, that the Methodist Church holds that the Scriptures are the exclusive and sole test; and the other respectable body of Christians, on the contrary, hold that ordination laws-the regularity of the observance of ordination laws-is the test by which we are to know the church of Christ. The reader will not fail to observe that, in order to settle the question of the validity of the church of Christ, the two opposing doctrines appeal for authoritative determination to different and distinct tri

bunals; the one to the tribunal of the Scriptures, and the other to the tribunal of orders. As nothing is further from our intention than to bring a railing accusation, we deem it proper to explain our language by an illustrative example. We will suppose that a judge has been constituted to try the validity of the Episcopalian and the Methodist churches, so called. We will suppose, then, the question to come up regularly before him for trial, with the advocates upon each side ready for the case. The advocates of the Methodist Church, so called, would present to the judge the Scriptures, as her authoritative evidence, and would proceed to argue from this evidence exclusively the question of the validity of her organization, by showing from the Scriptures that her structural framework was in exact conformity to all the requisitions therein contained with regard to the formation of a church, and would insist that she was a church of Christ, because of such exact structural conformity to the requirements of the only standard by which such a question can be tried. Her advocates would then proceed from the same authority to show that there was wanting in the organic framework of the Protestant Episcopal Church, so called, that exact conformity which the Scriptures required, in the particulars; one particular being, however, enough for the purpose; that in her organic structure two bishops were required to ordain, instead of one, and that there was admitted a lay element in her organic framework, &c.; and would conclude that, in consequence of such irregularities, she was a mere society of Christians, and not a church of Christ.

The advocates of the Protestant Episcopal Church, so called, would reply, and insist that the Scriptures, so far as they bore upon the question of the structural organization of a church, was not the proper test; that the true test, and the only test, was a tactual connection with the apostles by a series of valid ordinations; that when our Saviour said to his ministry, the apostles, "Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," we are to infer that he meant that he would be with a peculiar order of men, without any regard to their private

character, thereby imparting to them the right, exclusive of all the world beside, to continue his church; that therefore none can continue the church of Christ but these peculiar persons, converted into an order of men by the rigid principles of the ordination service, confined exclusively to them; that the other orders of presbyters and deacons, and all other Christians, are the mere dependent satellites or appendages of the order in respect to church organization; that if people wished to enquire where they were to find the church of Christ, they were not to be directed to the scriptural structure of Christ's church, not to a scriptural conformity to apostolical usage and example, but exclusively to the regularity of the ordination. service; that the Protestant Episcopal Church, in contrast with the Methodist Church, was not to be regarded as the true church of Christ, because her organic framework was more exactly conformed to apostolical usage and example, but because, on the contrary, she had received her continuation from an order of men holding connection with the apostles by manual contact in the ordination service; that St. Peter ordained, some eighteen hundred and odd years ago, somebody as bishop of Rome; that somebody, ordained by one of the apostles, ordained the second bishop or pope of Rome; that somebody ordained the third bishop or pope of Rome, who had been ordained by somebody, who had been ordained by somebody who had been ordained by one of the apostles; and so on, down through the ordainers to the present representatives of the order living in this country; that if any mistake were to occur, as is charged to have occurred in the Methodist Church, so that lay ordination would thereby result, the possibility of a church of Christ would be gone forever from the face of the earth; and would conclude that in consequence of such manual connection with the apostles, she was the true church of Christ.

This mode of presenting the question makes it apparent that the two opposing advocates appeal to different tribunals and to a different body of laws. The one to the authority of

the Scriptures and the other to the genealogies of orders. All the testimony brought to sustain the cause of the apostolical successionists by tactual connection, is human authority, save only an abstract construction placed upon the words of the promise of the Saviour, that he would be with a Christian ministry to the end of time. All the testimony brought to sustain the cause of the Methodist Church, would be drawn from the oracles of sacred writ concerning the organization of the Christian Church. Aside from the supposed necessity of a manual connection with the apostles, which is a doctrine not revealed in the Scriptures, but is the product of a system of abstract reasoning upon the language of the Saviour, we suppose we may be allowed to say, without the probability of a contradiction, that every instance and particular of a departure in the organic structure of a church from that usage and those directions upon the subject of the proper organization of the church of Christ revealed in the Scriptures, are mere elements of a human composition. For example, we suppose we may say with perfect safety, that if the Scriptures do not teach the necessity of the presence and co-operation of two bishops in every instance of valid ordination, and any church were to organize with this provision in the framework of her organization, such a provision would undeniably be an element of human composition. The reader will observe that we do not affirm that the Scriptures teach that two bishops are not necessary, but say merely that if the Scriptures do not teach it, such a provision would be an element of human composiThe same remark may be predicated of the introduction of laymen into the organic framework of the church. We do not very well perceive how any association of Christians, banded together in any manner, in any particular differing from the laws of Christ in relation to the proper organization of his church, can be called the church of Christ; because, in the extraneous particular, there would be an element of human composition. We can, with precisely the same propriety, call an animal with a wooden head, in other respects

like man, a man, as we can call a society of Christians organized with an element of human authority in its constitution, the church of Christ.

Now it is an historical fact, that the organic structure of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the United States, is different from that of the Church of England. The convention of the American Church altered the English Liturgy in respect to the rite of absolution and changed the ritual of the English prayer book. This is sufficient for us to say, that in the opinion of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America, the Church of England is anti-scriptural. This is sufficient for us to say, that in the opinion of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America, the Church of England has an element of human composition in her organic framework. This is sufficient for us to say, that in the opinion of the Protestant Episcopal Church, a church of Christ may exist with an element of human composition in her organic framework. Either this is so, or the Church of England is a mere society. It is an historical fact that the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, is indebted to the Church of England for her tactual connection with the apostles, obtained at a time when, in the opinion of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Church of England had an element of human composition in her organic framework, and was in her organic structure anti-scriptural. It is also an historical fact that the Church of England obtained her manual connection with the apostles from the Roman Catholic Church at a time, when in the opinion of the Church of England, the Catholic Church was anti-scriptural, and had many elements of human composition in her organic framework.

We do not wish any one to suppose that we mention these facts for the purpose of drawing invidious distinctions. We do it merely to get to the bottom of the doctrine of the apostolical succession. Aside from the doctrine of the apostolical manual incidence, we hold those churches to maintain the cardinal principles of Christianity. We are aware that an effort has been made recently in England and in this country