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The question concerning the propriety or expediency of ordination J * r ~ vices , according to the form in which they have been recently ptacli ^ among us , has been so repeatedly discusked in the Repository , that we feel it unnecessary , on the present occasion , to enter at any length into tbe subject . It is now , we apprehend , universally agreed that the only true and valid ordination consists in the free choice of a minister by a Christian
congregation ; freely accepted by the individual whom they bay $ selected to discharge this honourable and important office . Neither pf these , the only real parties in the transaction , call any man master upon earth , nor ck > they look to any synod or convocation to ratify or sanction the act by their concurrence , or to convey by such concurrence any peculiar privilege ,
character or function which would not equally have been possessed without it . At the same time , in entering upon a relation of this kind , investing both parties with reciprocal rights , and requiring from them the performance of duties which involve the spiritual interests of perhaps a numerous body of people , referring immediately to their religious character as children , of God , disciples of Christ , and fellow-expectants of immortality , it is certainly not unnatural that they should wish to solemnize the transaction by a ceremonial
which may forcibly remind them of its serious and important nature , impress them with a deep feeling of its value , and lead them to meditate upon the character they mutually sustain , and the duties they are thus called upon to discharge . It seems not unreasonable that on such an occasion both parties should be desirous to avail themselves of the . assistance of meaof eminence , and respectability , whose station and personal character give them influence , and may probably add weight to their advice and exhortations .
Such , we appr . ehepd , is the only view in which-the religious service still called an ordii ^ tion is now regarded b y any societies of English Unitouripa Dissenters . And on those occasions when the practice , after having been for some , tigjfl very generally discontinued , has been of late years revived , so much pains have , tjeen taKen to disclaim any other view of its nature , and all right on trje papt of t ^ bose engaged in the service to interfere in any way between , the niiniQ ^ r smd his congregatiop , pr , to confer by the imposition
of hands , or ( ftberwi ^ e , any peculiar character , that all danger of encouraging superstitious or unsfriptural notions is , we trust , effectually precluded * The serviqe is recomnqended among us not by virtue of apy authority supposed to be derived from Scripture , not under the idea of conforming to any scriptural model in the constitution or government of our churches , but simply and solely on the footing of expediency . Our brethren in IreJaad , however , have sought , to establish it on the practice of the primitive church . ; and accordingly both in the form of the service , as we find it jo the pre&ent publication , and in Mr * Armstrong's very able and argumentative vindication
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ORDINATION SERVICE . *
? Ordination Service . Sermon ; Discourse on Presbyterian Ordination ; Address of the Young Minister ; Prayer on Ordaining ; and Charge : delivered by the Ministers of Dublin , at the Ordination of the Rev . James Martineau , to the Gopaatocal Office , oner the Congregation of Eustace Street * Dublin . With-an Appendix , containing , a Summary History of the Preabyteriaj ) Ohukchea in th ^ Okty of Difciin . ; hy tlie Key , Jajnes Armstrong , M . A * London , Hauler ; DubUo , Burnaido ; Cocky King and Ridings j Belfast , Archer , Hodgson , &c . 1829 .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 409, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/41/
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