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    ( he point of priestly pretensions and domination j should ministers have any popcr , or even any considerable

    influence , in the choice and appointment of hiinisters ( no chimerical hypothesis !) , our brethren would be able to learn , by living example * the hostility .. of this ceremony to Christian liberty . But I hope better things of rational Christians . They , surely , will not spontaneously submit their necks to the yoke of bondage .

    But Mr Baker assures us , that no encroachment is made upon liberty by the new system of ordination which he advocates . We will give him credit that none is intended . But who will assure us that in its progress it will not unfurl the ensign of ghostly power and authority ? All

    will-worshipevery voluntary observance of superstition , is one of those things which , in its very nature , grows during its progress , crescit eundo . We are not ignorant of the puny beginnings of some of those towering superstitions which have long been extensively regarded wifli idolatrous veneration .

    Perhaps some one will say , that by the kind of ordination now adopted , the clerical character will be suitably distinguished from the lay . Possibly it may be so . But it is at the expense of more trouble than the distinction is fairly worth .

    As the ground of scriptural authority for the practice in question lias been very generally abandoned , and as the passages quoted in the margin by Mr . B . can scarcely be said to have any reference to the subject , we are

    henceforth , I presume , at liberty to regard it as a ceremony , solemnity , or observance , vvhich is unauthorized and unprecedented in the Scriptures . In them , indeed , the word to ordain , means simply to appoint or choose . From whence it is clear , that no

    ministers in solemn assembly did or could ordain Mr . B . as minister of the Bolton congregation . Why then should we still VcPtain the word ordination , in that spurious ecclesiastical meaning , established by ages of ignorance and spiritual corruption ; and by that means increase the difficulty , in this , as well as in numerous

    instances , of breaking the connexion in the minds of men , between certain misused expressions , and the wrong

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    and superstitious meanings attached to thein ? And i £ hot this a matter of sdmb little importance ?

    rkis argument of want of scriptural authority Mr . Baker thus answers ' : " There is no precept in the gospel for the observance of the sabbathy and yet it i 3 so consistent with the

    tenor of Christ ' s teachings and practice , that no sound argument can be urged to controvert its expediency anrf usefulness . Upon the same grounds we plead the propriety of Ordination Services /* ,

    As Mr . Baker has not attempted to shew , by adducing even a single instance , the actual consistency of ordination services with the teachings and practice of Christ , his grounds become untenable of course . The teachings , the practice of Christ in reference to ordination—why are we not referred to them ?

    Mr . B . adds : " Neither the present manner of conducting them , ( i . e . ordination services , ) nor the present

    style of preaching , is strictly agreeable to the original model . " I will dispense , at present , with Mr . B . ' s producing an original model of the style of preaching ; but the argument will not dispense with his producing an original model of ordination services . Where shall we find one h

    The insufficiency of the argument is abundantly manifest on another account . Is the absence of positive precept for the observance of the first day of the week , in the New Testament , a valid ground for the observance of every silly practice which may captivate men ' s fancy ?

    Also , is it presumed , as the reasoning seems to imply , that the arguments for ordination services are equally cogent with those for the observance of the first day of the week ? Sic ma # nis componere parva solebam . I will grant that we ought not to ar ^ ue against the use of a thing from

    its abuse . But the question now is , not concerning right use or wrong use ; it is concerning the use exclusively . If the use cannot be proved and established , it is all abuse . Trace the use to the New Testament—shew

    us that it is " eminently scriptural in its origin / ' before you charge us with attacking its abuses . If , therefore , there be no legitimate

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    Afr . Johns * s Reply to Mr . Bather's Defence of Ordinations . 2 $ 3

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1825, page 283, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2536/page/27/