u hast heard of me among
many witnesses, the same _commit thou to faithful men_, who shall be
able to teach others also[8]."

Now, we know that in civil matters nothing tends more powerfully to
strengthen and perpetuate the body politic than hereditary rulers and
nobles. The father's life, his principles and interests, are continued
in the son, or rather, one life, one character, one idea, is carried on
from age to age. Thus a dynasty or a nation is consolidated and
secured; whereas where there is no regular succession and inheritance
of this kind, there is no safeguard of stability and tranquillity; or
rather, there is every risk of revolution. For what is to make a
succeeding age think and act in the spirit of the foregoing, but that
tradition of opinion and usage from mind to mind which a succession
involves? In like manner the Christian ministry affects the unity,
inward and without, of the Church to which it is attached. It is a
continuous office, a standing ordinance; not, indeed, transmitted from
father to son, as under the Mosaic covenant, for the vessels of the
Christian election need to be more special, as the treasure committed
to them is more heavenly: but still the Apostles have not left it to
the mere good pleasure and piety of the Christian body whether they
will have a ministry or not. Each preceding generation of clergy have
it in charge to ordain the next following to their sacred office.
Consider what would be sure to happen, were there no such regular
transmission of the Divine gift, but each congregation were left to
choose and create for itself its own minister. This would follow,
among other evil consequences, that what is every one's duty would
prove, as the proverb runs, to be no one's. When their minister or
teacher died or left them, there would be first a delay in choosing a
fresh one, then a reluctance, then a forgetfulness. At last
congregations would be left without teachers; and the bond of union
being gone, the Church would be broken up. If a ministry be a
necessary part of the Gospel Dispensation, so must also a ministerial
succession be. But the gift of grace has not thus dropped out of the
hands of its All-merciful Giver. He has committed to certain of His
servants to provide for the continuance of its presence and its
administration after their own time. Each generation provides for the
next; "the parents" lay up "for the children." And we know as a fact,
that to this