the memory of persons living, there existed a Bishop concerning whom there was so much mystery and uncertainty prevailing as to, when, where, and by whom, he had been ordained, that doubts existed in the mind of many persons whether he had ever been ordained at all. I do not say that there was good ground for the suspicion; but I speak of the fact, that it did prevail; and that the circumstances of the case were such as to make manifest the possibility of such an irregularity occurring under such cir

cumstances.

Now, let any one proceed on the hypothesis that there are, suppose, but a hundred links connecting any particular minister with the Apostles; and let him even suppose that not above half of this number pass through such periods as admit of any possible irregularity; and then, placing at the lowest estimate the probability of defectiveness in respect of each of the remaining fifty, taken separately, let him consider what amount of probability will result from the multiplying of the whole together.

e

Supposing it to be one hundred to one, in each separate case, in favour of the legitimacy and regularity of the transmission, and the links to amount to fifty, (or any other number) the probability of the unbroken continuity of the whole chain must be computed as 99 of of &c. to the end of the whole fifty. Of course, if different data are assumed, or a different system is adopted of computing the rate at which

99 100

99 100

100

The ultimate consequence must be, that any one who sincerely believes that his claim to the benefits of the Gospel-Covenant depends on his own Minister's claim to the supposed sacramental virtue of true Ordination, and this again, on perfect Apostolical Succession as above described, must be involved, in proportion as he reads, and inquires, and reflects, and reasons, on the subject, in the most distressing doubt and perplexity.

It is no wonder, therefore, that the advocates of this theory studiously disparage reasoning, deprecate all exercise of the mind in reflection, decry appeals to evidence, and lament that even the power of reading should be imparted to the People. It is not without cause that they dread and lament “an Age of too much light," and wish to involve religion in "a solemn and awful gloom." It is not without cause that, having removed the Christian's confidence from a rock, to base it on sand, they forbid all prying curiosity to examine their foundation.

the uncertainty increases at each step, the ultimate result will be different as to the degree of uncertainty; but when once it is made apparent that a considerable and continually-increasing uncertainty does exist, and that the result must be, in respect of any individual case, a matter of chance, it can be of no great consequence to ascertain precisely what the chances are on each side.

f Κλέπτῃ δέ τε νυκτὸς αμείνω,

confound

ther the

succession

of men and

of each in

dividual.

The fallacy, indeed, by which, according to Fallacy of the above principles, the Christian is taught ing togeto rest his own personal hopes of salvation, apostolical on the individual claims to "Apostolical succes- of a Body sion" of the particular Minister he is placed under, is one so gross that few are thoughtless enough to be deceived by it in any case where Religion is not concerned;-where, in short, a man has not been taught to make a virtue of uninquiring, unthinking, acquiescence. For the fallacy consists in confounding together the unbroken Apostolical succession of a Christian Ministry generally, and the same succession in an unbroken line, of this or that individual Minister. The existence of such an Order of men as Christian Ministers, continuously from the time of the Apostles to this day, is perhaps as complete a moral certainty, as any historical fact can be; because (independently of the various incidental notices by historians, of such a class of persons) it is plain that if, at the present day, or a century ago, or ten centuries ago, a number of men had appeared in the world, professing (as our Clergy do now) to hold a recognised office in a Christian Church, to which they had been regularly appointed as successors to others, whose predecessors, in like manner, had held the same, and so on, from the times of the Apostles,-if, I say, such a pretence

.

!

had been put forth by a set of men assuming an office which no one had ever heard of before,-it is plain, that they would at once have been refuted and exposed. And as this will apply equally to each successive generation of Christian Ministers, till we come up to the time when the institution was confessedly new,-that is, to the time when Christian Ministers were appointed by the Apostles, who professed themselves eyewitnesses of the Resurrection, we have (as Leslie has remarked) a standing Monument, in the Christian Ministry, of the fact of that event as having been proclaimed immediately after the time when it was said to have occurred. This therefore is fairly brought forward as an evidence of its truth.

But if each man's Christian hope, is made to rest on his receiving the Christian Ordinances at the hands of a Minister to whom the sacramental virtue that gives efficacy to those Ordinances, has been transmitted in unbroken succession from hand to hand, every thing must depend on that particular Minister and his claim is by no means established from our merely establishing the uninterrupted existence of such a class of men as Christian Ministers. "You teach me," a man might say, "that my salvation depends on the possession by you-the particular Pastor

Short Method with Deists.

under whom I am placed—of a certain qualification; and when I ask for the proof that you possess it, you prove to me that it is possessed generally, by a certain class of persons of whom you are one, and probably by a large majority of them!" How ridiculous it would be thought, if a man laying claim to the throne of some Country should attempt to establish it without producing and proving his own pedigree, merely by showing that that Country had always been under hereditary regal government !

danger of

§ 31. Then as to the danger of Schism, Increased nothing can be more calculated to create or Schism. increase it, than to superadd to all the other sources of difference among Christians, those additional ones resulting from the theory we are considering. Besides all the divisions liable to arise relative to the essential doctrines of Scripture, and to the most important points in any system of Church-Government, Schisms, the most difficult to be remedied, may be created by that theory from individual cases of alleged irregularity.

A most remarkable instance of this is fur- Schism of nished in the celebrated schism of the Donatists, tists.

in Africa, in the beginning of the fourth century. They differed in no point of doctrine

b See Waddington's Ecclesiastical History, &c.

the Dona