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    of prayer and the laying on of bands , Acts vu 6 f 8 , Elders were ordained ia Lyatra , Ieoniuin and Antioch , by iWting and prayer , eh . xiv . 23 . Tiro o thy wa& ordained by the laying- on of the hand * of the Presbytery , 1 Tim . iv . 14 . From which accounts I infer

    that some religious service accompanied the appointment of public teachers in the purest age of the church . It has been argued that these times were distinguished from ours by the supernatural powers which the aptotles were empowered to confer . The emblematic act of this communication

    of gifts was the laying on of hands . So that , if this part of the service be omitted , the act of prayer remains , together with the personal instructions—certainly neither less necessary nor less decorous for us who

    acknowledge the same Father in heaven , and who are but frail beings without any help , in an arduous office , but what we can derive from human sources . The letters which Paul wrote to his |

    younger fellow-labourers , Timothy and Titus , are admirable specimens of apostolic instruction , sufficient almost in themselves to justif y the imitation of such a practice in all after times *

    How long miraculous powers were continued in the church , is not essential to the present question . As soon as they ceased , of course the qualifications for preaching the gospel would be acquired in a different way ; and this change of circumstances would naturally introduce correspondent changes both in the manner of

    preparing and appointing ministers . If the spirit of the practice is preserved , we shall best consult its utility by adapting the manner of observing it to our own time and country .

    The preceding remarks will , I trust , sufficiently establish one of my former observations , that a public religious service , at the introduction of a young man into the ministry , is beneficial in

    its tendency , and eminently scriptural in its practice . How far it is calculated to serve the caurfe of religion , is a question which mi g iit well deserve a separate consideration . As the followers of Christ , and a branch of his universal church , I

    cannot but regard it as highly becoming our profession to distinguish such im important connexion as the union * f a mmieter and a congregation , with

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    a special devotional service , neither overlooking the spirit not the letter of the Apostle ' s exhortation , " ift every thing , by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving , let your requests he known unto God / ' While the general use of this service among Unitarians would tend to remove the

    charge of religious indifference which has been brought against us , we might , by making it rational and public , strenuously oppose those superstitious additions which still accompany k in many of our churches , and in time introduce a form of Ordination or

    Inauguration , or any thing else that it may be called , in every way reasonable and acceptable to the general body of Christians . FRANKLIN BAKER .

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    Clapton , Sir , Jane 14 , 1825 . f ^ HERE are two very different JL questions , each important to Unitarians , which appear , so far as I have any judgment of them , to be now set at rest by the discussions in your pages .

    The first , and by far the most important question , as a consistent adherence to principle is to be estimated above the security of property , respects the late attempt to revive among Unitarians the ceremonies of

    Ordination , which they had suffered to fall into disuse . That such an attempt was well designed cannot be doubted , from the respectability of tlie young minister who proposed himself to be ordained , and of those who lent the assistance of their talents and

    characters to the success of the project . Yet I question whether such a project would have been entertained in the 19 th century , by Unitarians , or , indeed , by any other Protestant

    Dissenters , if the Nonconformists in the 17 th century , had not separated from the Episcopal Establishment under Presbyterian , rather than under popular influence . I refer not to such as

    the modern misnamed Presbyters , like my friend Dr . Kippis , or that eminent person to the collection and illustration of whose writings I have cheerfully devoted several of ray later years , but to the priest writ large of Milton ; to such as Baxter and Bates . These , and indeed all the English Presbyters of their day , iijte those of the Norttera

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    348 Mr . Mutt on Ordination Services among Dissenters : ioith

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1825, page 348, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2537/page/26/