benedictions of the Church.

And as the deacon

is not competent to give the Matrimonial Benediction (which is one of those referred to), he ought not to celebrate marriages; the validity of any so celebrated being extremely doubtful, while the absence of the Church's full blessing on them is self-evident.

2. Priests form the great body of the Christian ministry, and their ministrations make up the ordinary work of the Church, in the offering of Divine worship, and the building up of souls in Christ. By their hands the Church is perpetually offering up the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and Christ is perpetually bestowing the Eucharistic Gift upon His people. Bishops act at the altar by virtue of their priesthood, and the humblest of those who occupy the lower office has equal capacity for this exalted work with the first bishop in Christendom. To the priesthood also is given the Ministry of Reconciliation, the authority to give or retain sins which is stated in the words of ordination, and which was made an essential part of the Apostolic commission by our Lord himself.

These functions comprehend in reality all duties of the sacerdotal office, for all offerings of Divine worship look towards that of the Eucharistic

S

Sacrifice; all communications of grace reach their climax in the Eucharistic Gift; and all pastoral ministrations are a part of the ministry of reconciliation.

Priests have not, however, any capacity for the

transmission of the Holy Spirit, and therefore they can neither confirm nor ordain.1

3. Bishops combine with the office of the priesthood those portions of the Apostolic office, not contained in the priesthood, which became part of the permanent ministry of the Church. It is their special function to continue the succession of the Christian ministry by ordination of priests and deacons, and by consecration of bishops. The administration of the sacrament of Order belongs, therefore, to their office alone; and hence the Holy Order of bishops is absolutely essential to the existence of a Church.

Confirmation is also a Sacrament which can only be administered by a bishop; and there are some of the higher acts of benediction, such as the con

1 Dissenting ministers all derive their origin from priests, deacons, or laymen. Luther, Knox, Brown, and Wesley were priests; Whitfield was a deacon; Calvin was a subdeacon ; and minor sects have mostly originated with laymen. Persons 80 "ordained" cannot administer Eucharistic grace or the forgiveness of sins, any more than ordinary laymen can do so.

secration of churches and grave-yards, which have always been restricted to the episcopal order.

The members of this Order also occupy the highest seats of government and counsel in the Church of God. In spiritual things they rule both the clergy and the laity, and hence they are believed to be endowed with special gifts of spirituality and wisdom, that they may rule as the agents of an All Wise and All Righteous Master of all. So much depending upon the office of a bishop, the place which it occupies in the Christian ministry is clearly that nearest to the Chief Shepherd himself, the Supreme Bishop and High Priest, who is the Fountain of all ministerial capacity, wisdom, and holiness.

Almighty God, the giver of all good. gifts, who of Thy Divine Providence hast appointed divers Orders in Thy Church; Give Thy grace, we humbly beseech Thee, to all those who are called to any office and administration in the same; and so replenish them with the truth of Thy doctrine, and endue them with innocency of life, that they may faithfully serve before Thee, to the glory of Thy great Name, and the benefit of Thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

CHAPTER VII.

HOLY MATRIMONY.

THE religious rite in which the conjugal union

is authoritatively sanctioned and blessed by the sacerdotal agents of God has long been numbered among the Sacraments of the Church, being not only a solemn benediction of a corporeal union, but also the means by which a spiritual union is effected. In our English Marriage Office the form "Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder" approaches as nearly as possible to a form ordained by our Lord, consisting as it does of His own words; and the universal practice of joining hands appears to have come down from Apostolic times. 2

1 Marriage is called a sacrament by St. Ambrose, and often by St. Augustine: but it is probable that they used the term as St. Paul does in Eph. v. 32, with reference to the union effected and the state of life resulting from that union, rather than to the rite itself.

2 It is mentioned by Gregory Nazienzen in the fourth century.

But the words which express mutual consent have usually been considered by theologians to be the outward sign of the Sacrament of Matrimony; and this is named in our office with "the giving and receiving of a ring, and joining of hands," (in the solemn sentence with which the priest declares the two to be man and wife,) as if all together formed an effective outward sign of the grace which accompanies the rite.

Marriage is, however, to be regarded from three points of view: as a natural institution, a civil contract, and a religious ordinance. As a natural institution it is to be traced up to God as its originator, and therefore any view of it from this point must associate it closely with that from which it is regarded as a religious ordinance. As a civil

contract, it is subject to the laws of the country in which it is contracted (whether that country is heathen or Christian), in respect to the civil rights and duties of husband, wife, and children; but as this is a question of secular law, and has nothing to do with the spiritual character of marriage as a Christian institution—that is, as "Holy Matrimony" -it need not be taken into consideration in this place.