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He maintained that the Church of England denied that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are communicated at the present day to the people of God. I told him that he was mistaken, and referred him to the passages in the
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Service for the Ordering of Priests,
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Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God.
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Thou the Anointing Spirit art, Who dost thy _sevenfold gifts_ impart.
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Thou in thy gifts art manifold, By _them_ Christ's Church doth stand.
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I said that the English clergy possessed a commission from Christ, which could be proved most conclusively, even in the absence of miraculous gifts at the present time. He wished to know how their commission could be proved without miracles. I told him that the bishops of the English Church, by whom the inferior clergy are ordained, are apostles just as truly as St. Barnabas and St. Timothy were. This statement took him altogether by surprise; he looked at me incredulously, and wished for proof. I presented him with a brief outline of the clear and simple argument for the Apostolic Succession, and showed him historically that bishops have been always consecrated by bishops from the age of inspiration to the present time; that the commission of our Saviour to the eleven, extending as it did through all time and all the world, _implied_ an apostolical succession till the day of judgment; that Scripture testifies to a succession of Apostles as long as Scripture can testify to it; and that afterwards the continuance of the succession is proved by a vast number of Christian writers down to the present time. He considered for a moment, and then said, that such a succession must have come through Rome; that Rome was the mother of harlots, and that the Church of England was the eldest of her numerous family of daughters.
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The Church of England, said he,