It is not my intention upon this occasion to enter upon a minute investigation of those points of controversy which have recently been, and at present are, the subject of so much and general discussion. The limit to which I must confine my present Discourse precludes my doing so; nor do I consider the inability I am thus under of serious moment. I am not, however, intending to say, that in this variance of opinion, there is nothing of importance. If we were assembled in Convocation, empowered to make further reforms in our Church, or to discuss the need of them, our opinions with respect to the value of tradition, as a supplementary explication of Scripture, would be important in the extreme; so would be our opinions concerning the efficacy of the Sacraments, and the relative value of primitive ceremonies, if we were reconstructing our Baptismal and Liturgical offices: nor of less importance would be our opinions on the Apostolical Succession, if the decision were to rest with us whether the Church should recognise the ministerial functions of men not episcopally ordained. But, happily for us, these questions have been decided for us by the Church; and to the decision of the Church, by the very fact of our being her ordained ministers, we are bound unanimously to obey, and must receive her decisions as our common principle: this, I presume, none of you, my Reverend Brethren, will attempt to gainsay. I may be allowed, however, briefly to remark upon one or two of the most prominent topics of dispute; and first, then, as to the Apostolical Succession. Upon this subject, it is indisputable, there was no controversy up to the period of the Reformation. It was then, as it had been for fifteen hundred years, taken for granted that no man might presume to minister in sacred things, unless he were first appointed to the office by persons having authority to make the appointment, by their regular succession from the Apostles. Upon this point no one is more eloquent or more decided than our reforming Archbishop, Dr. Cranmer. {21} Accordingly, when in the reign of Elizabeth, the thirty-nine Articles were agreed upon in a Convocation of our Clergy, this doctrine was assumed:—“It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching or administering the Sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called, and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work, by men who have public authority given unto them IN”—not BY, but “IN”—“the congregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord’s vineyard.” {22a} And accordingly, in legislating on this subject, the Church of England ordains that, “no one shall be accounted and taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon among us; or be suffered to execute any of the ministerial functions, except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereunto, according to our form of Episcopal Ordination; or