^fWS 
 
 ws 
 
 ^ 
 
PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 No. Case, Ci^k^ ' a/^ 
 
 Bampton lectures 
 
The religious necessity of the Reformation as- 
 serted, and the extent to which it was carried 
 in the Church of England vindicated. 
 
 IN 
 
 EIGHT SERMONS 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 
 IN THE YEAR MDCCCXXVIII. 
 
 AT THE 
 
 LECTURE 
 
 FOUNDED BY 
 
 THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M. A. t_ ,?> a j^i 
 
 CA^'ON OF SALISBURY. / =P^ '^ 
 
 THOMAS ^ORNE, B.D. 
 
 RECTOR OF ST. KATHARINE COLEMAN, AND FORMERLY 
 STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE AUTHOR. 
 
 SOLD BY J. PARKER; AND BY C. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXXVIII. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In committing the following Discourses 
 to the press, according to the terms of his 
 engagement, the Author is chiefly anxious, 
 whatever judgment may be passed upon 
 the result of his labours, that the motives 
 which have influenced him in the choice of 
 his subject may not be misinterpreted. 
 
 It may be reckoned among the greatest 
 advantages derived from the institution of 
 the Bampton Lectureship, that many of 
 the most interesting questions in Christian 
 theology have been accurately discussed, 
 and the peculiar excellencies of Chris- 
 tianity itself successfully illustrated by the 
 different preachers on whom the office has 
 devolved. At the same time it is obvi- 
 ous, notwithstanding the ample range and 
 
 a3 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 inexhaustible fertility of the subject-matter 
 of their disquisitions, that the selection of 
 an argument combining novelty with uti- 
 lity, and in which he has not partially 
 at least been anticipated by some one of 
 his predecessors, is rendered proportionally 
 more difficult to each succeeding Lecturer. 
 
 In choosing, however, a controversial 
 topic of strong present interest in prefer- 
 ence to others of intrinsic and lasting im- 
 portance, of which he is sensible that many 
 still remain unexplored as well as consist- 
 ent with the design of the Founder, the 
 Author has been animated by no gratuitous 
 love of polemical discussions, by no uncha- 
 ritable spirit, or uncandid prejudice against 
 adversaries of any description. He trusts 
 that the manner in which he has expressed 
 himself on every occasion will sufficiently 
 guard him against such an imputation ; 
 though he would not seek the praise of li- 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 berality at the expense of truth, nor ex- 
 pose his sincerity to suspicion, by apparent 
 indifference concerning any thing of essen- 
 tial moment. 
 
 But the insidious hostility with which 
 the Church of England has now for a se- 
 ries of years been assailed by the agents 
 and apologists of that of Rome, and the 
 increasing confidence with which the long 
 dormant spiritual pretensions of the latter 
 have been again put forth, as her worldly 
 prospects have seemed to brighten, are the 
 reasons which have induced him to think 
 that he could not render a more useful 
 service, with his limited powers, to the 
 cause of true religion, than by recalling at- 
 tention to the almost forgotten heads of 
 dispute between them and ourselves, which 
 it is once more become necessary for every 
 sincere and well-informed member of our 
 church to study and understand. He is 
 
 a 4 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 sensible indeed that the subject which he 
 has thus been led to adopt is of too large 
 dimensions for the limits within which the 
 preacher of this Lecture is confined, and 
 such in its nature as would require the 
 hand of a much abler and more experi- 
 enced controversialist to do it justice. 
 
 He hopes, however, that in treating it 
 according to his own imperfect conception, 
 and the necessarily restricted view which 
 want of space has constrained him to take 
 of it, he has fallen into no material error ; 
 conscious as he is that the elucidation of 
 truth, exclusive of any private inducement 
 or party feeling, has been his only object, 
 either in arguing against the corruptions 
 and misrepresentations of Romanists, which 
 it has been his main purpose to refute, or 
 the prejudices of Protestant Dissenters, to 
 which he has more briefly adverted in his 
 concluding Discourse. 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 In fine, as it would ever be his most 
 cherished wish to serve the cause of that 
 church, to which he is still less attached 
 by professional obligations than by the 
 most sincere conviction of her superior 
 excellence both in the soundness of her 
 doctrine and the spirituality of her wor- 
 ship, above every other branch of the uni- 
 versal church of Christ, so there is no con- 
 sequence of his own insufficiency which he 
 would so earnestly deprecate, as that of 
 aff'ording to any of her opponents an ap- 
 parent advantage against her. A real one, 
 either in her doctrine or her discipline, he 
 is well assured that they will ever seek in 
 vain. 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 1 Cor. xi. 9. 
 
 For there must be also heresies among you, that they 
 
 which are approved may he made manifest among you. 
 
 Page 1. 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 Matthew xi. 19. 
 — But wisdom is Justified of her children, P. 37. 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 Matthew x. 37, 38. 
 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not 
 worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter 
 more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taheth 
 not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy 
 of me. P. 73. 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 Matthew xv. 9. 
 But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines 
 the commandments of men. P. 109. 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 John iv. 24. 
 God is a spirit; and they that worship him must wor- 
 ship him in spirit and in truth. P. 147. 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 1 Timothy ii. 5. 
 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and 
 man, the man Christ Jesus. P. 185. 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 Deut. iv. 15. 
 Talr ye therefore good heed unto yourselves ; for ye 
 saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord 
 spake unto you in Horeh out of the midst of the fire, 
 
 P. 225. 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Jeremiah vi. 16. 
 Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and 
 ash for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk 
 therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls, P. 267. 
 
EXTRACT 
 
 PROM 
 
 THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 REV. JOHN BAMPTON, 
 
 CANON OF SALISBURY. 
 
 " I give and bequeath my Lands and 
 
 " Estates to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars 
 " of the University of Oxford for ever, to have 
 " and to hold all and singular the said Lands or 
 " Estates upon trust, and to the intents and pur- 
 " poses hereinafter mentioned ; that is to say, I 
 " will and appoint that the Vice-Chancellor of 
 " the University of Oxford for the time being 
 " shall take and receive all the rents, issues, and 
 " profits thereof, and (after all taxes, reparations, 
 " and necessary deductions made) that he pay all 
 " the remainder to the endowment of eight Di- 
 " vinity Lecture Sermons, to be established for 
 " ever in the said University, and to be performed 
 " in the manner following : 
 
 " I direct and appoint, that, upon the first 
 " Tuesday in Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly 
 
xiv EXTRACT FROM 
 
 " chosen by the Heads of Colleges only, and by 
 " no others, in the room adjoining to the Print- 
 " ing-House, between the hours of ten in the 
 " morning and two in the afternoon, to preach 
 " eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year fol- 
 " lowing, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the 
 " commencement of the last month in Lent Term, 
 " and the end of the third week in Act Term. 
 
 " Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Di- 
 " vinity Lecture Sermons shall be preached upon 
 " either of the following subjects — to confirm and 
 " establish the Christian Faith, and to confute all 
 *• heretics and schismatics — upon the divine au- 
 " thority of the holy Scriptures — upon the author- 
 " ity of the writings of the primitive Fathers, as 
 " to the faith and practice of the primitive Church 
 " — upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour 
 " Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity of the Holy 
 " Ghost — upon the Articles of the Christian Faith, 
 " as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene 
 '^ Creeds. 
 
 " Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight 
 '^ Divinity Lecture Sermons shall be always print- 
 " ed, within two months after they are preached, 
 *' and one copy shall be given to the Chancellor of 
 " the University, and one copy to the Head of 
 '' every College, and one copy to the Mayor of the 
 
CANON BAMPTON'S WILL. xv 
 
 " city of Oxford, and one copy to be put into the 
 " Bodleian Library ; and the expense of printing 
 " them shall be paid out of the revenue of the 
 " Land or Estates given for establishing the Di- 
 " vinity Lecture Sermons : and the Preacher shall 
 ^' not be paid, nor be entitled to the revenue, be- 
 " fore they are printed. 
 
 " Also I direct and appoint, that no person 
 " shall be qualified to preach the Divinity Lecture 
 " Sermons, unless he hath taken the degree of 
 ^' Master of Arts at least, in one of the two Uni- 
 " versities of Oxford or Cambridge ; and that the 
 ^' same person shall never preach the Divinity 
 *' Lecture Sermons twice." 
 

 I 
 
 1 Cor. xi. 9. 
 JFor there must he also heresies among you, that 
 they which are approved may he made mani- 
 fest among you. 
 
 X HE appearances both of the natural and 
 moral world, more especially if viewed as 
 insulated particulars, and not as constituent 
 portions of a great and connected whole, 
 are sometimes such as to stagger human 
 reason, and to contradict our preconceived 
 notions of wise and harmonious design. 
 
 In contemplating such apparent irregu- 
 larities, the disputer of this world has re- 
 course to fate and chance only, to account 
 for what he does not comprehend, and is 
 ready to question the existence of a su- 
 preme Intelligence, because he is unable to 
 discern the principles by which it acts. 
 
 But in minds tempered and enlightened 
 by religion faith comes to the aid of reason, 
 and small objections, which do not admit 
 
2 LECTURE L 
 
 of an obvious solution, are not suffered to 
 outweigh great and undeniable truths. 
 
 Whatever anomaly, therefore, may seem 
 to exist in the actual constitution of things, 
 it must be the firm belief of every man, 
 who acknowledges the superintending pro- 
 vidence of God in the world, that all things 
 are by him wisely ordered for the best ; and 
 no less must it be an article in the creed of 
 every true Christian, that it is the final 
 purpose of all his dispensations to establish 
 more firmly, and to diffuse more widely, that 
 religion which his only-begotten Son planted 
 in the world. Nor is this persuasion more 
 true in the abstract, than it is practically 
 necessary to inspire us with hope and pa- 
 tience, while we look forward, through the 
 turbulence and obscurity of human affairs, 
 to that more perfect manifestation of the 
 kingdom of God, which our faith teaches 
 us to expect. 
 
 It is the exclusive attribute of the divine 
 Wisdom to see the end from the beginning, 
 and to make both the vicissitudes of earthly 
 things, and even the unruly wills and affec- 
 tions of sinful men, when they least per- 
 
LECTURE I. S 
 
 ceive or intend it, subservient to its own 
 designs ; and as in the material creation, a 
 clearer sky and a purer atmosphere succeed 
 to the convulsions of the elements, so in 
 the moral world we may see order rising 
 out of confusion, and the religious and in- 
 tellectual state of mankind ultimately im- 
 proved, through the operation of causes 
 which, in their rise and progress, seemed 
 only to tend to the production of evil. 
 
 In our present state of existence, in what- 
 ever the agency of man is concerned, good 
 wholly unalloyed is not to be found. Where 
 the malignity of a corrupt will does not 
 betray itself, the evidences of infirmity are 
 yet abundantly visible ; error of judgment 
 accompanies the best intentions, and the 
 unperceived influence of passion disturbs 
 the most prudent counsels. But by the 
 merciful appointment of divine Providence, 
 evils are countervailed by evils, and reme- 
 dies spring out of moral disorders ; and, in 
 equal contradiction to the hopes of evil 
 men and the fears of good, all things work 
 together for the glory of God, and the wel- 
 fare of mankind, in ways which human 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LECTURE I. 
 
 reason could not anticipate, though the 
 ultimate effect is obvious to the most sim- 
 ple observer. 
 
 The words of the apostle in the text, 
 though in a stricter sense applicable to the 
 case of individual Christians, and the trial 
 of their faith from the contagion of heresy, 
 seem to justify us in extending these prin- 
 ciples to the state of religion in general, 
 and in contemplating with similar views, 
 as partial evils tending to final good, those 
 controversies to which Christianity has been 
 subject in almost every age, since it was 
 first preached upon earth to that in which 
 we live. 
 
 Heresy, in various kinds and degrees, has 
 existed in every period of the church, has 
 troubled its peace, has partially destroyed 
 its union, has threatened widely to corrupt 
 its doctrines, and undermine its faith. 
 
 From such dangers the most fatal con- 
 sequences might have been apprehended 
 and sincere piety justly alarmed ; and yet, 
 if we consider the actual state of religion, 
 and compare it with that which undoubted 
 history exhibits in former ages, we shall be 
 
LECTURE I. 5 
 
 led to conclude that discord, and even he- 
 resy itself, have been rendered instrumental 
 to the great design of divine Providence; 
 that the cause of Christianity has been 
 more effectually strengthened and pro- 
 moted by the zealous efforts of piety and 
 learning, which the obligation of vindicating 
 its purity has called forth ; that truth has 
 been illustrated by the refutation of error, 
 and faith more deeply rooted in the minds 
 of true believers, by the necessity of study- 
 ing its foundations, and defending it against 
 the objections of gainsayers. 
 
 But in attributing these eventual bene- 
 fits to heresy, contrary to its own nature 
 and intention, it will not, I trust, be ima- 
 gined that I mean indirectly to plead the 
 cause of heresy itself, or to represent it, as 
 some modern sectaries have presumed to 
 do, as a light offence against Christian piety, 
 to seek even the advancement of religious 
 knowledge, or any other problematical good, 
 by disturbing the foundations of Christian 
 faith. My view is, merely to contemplate 
 it in that light in which the words of the 
 apostle seem to justify us in placing it, as 
 
 B 3 
 
6 LECTURE I. 
 
 conducive to the vital efficacy of pure reli- 
 gion, by exciting a cautious vigilance against 
 the propagation of error, and keeping alive 
 that zealous spirit of inquiry after truth, 
 which is so peculiarly characteristic of Chris- 
 tianity, and which experience seems to jus- 
 tify us in regarding as its conservative prin- 
 ciple, and under the influence of divine 
 grace the most effectual antidote to the na- 
 tural apathy of the human mind concern- 
 ing spiritual things. Contending sects have 
 indeed been too ready to charge each other 
 with the guilt of heresy ; and in the heat of 
 religious controversy, slight disagreements, 
 concerning abstruse and purely abstract 
 points of opinion, have been too hastily as- 
 sumed as a sufficient foundation for the 
 charge. 
 
 From such mutual criminations the spi- 
 rit of Christian charity should restrain us, 
 whenever the interest of necessary truth is 
 not concerned ; and we should be slow to 
 cast upon others an imputation, which, if 
 we are true Christians, we ought above all 
 worldly reproaches to be unwilling to de- 
 serve ; and whatever the ultimate conse- 
 
LECTURE I. 7 
 
 quence of heretical principles may be, wan- 
 tonly to disseminate them, or in any way 
 to sow the seeds of animosity and causeless 
 division in the church, whether out of va- 
 nity or a spirit of contradiction, we have 
 the highest authority for pronouncing to 
 be a sin of grievous impiety. I would 
 merely assume it as the basis of my argu- 
 ment, that the machinations of designing 
 infidelity, as well as the crude conceits of 
 self-sufficient folly, have been permitted to 
 exercise the faith and provoke the zeal of 
 Christians, for the prevention of greater 
 evils. And as it must be our belief that 
 nothing comes to pass, in the natural or 
 moral creation, without the appointment 
 or permission of its omniscient Author, it 
 seems to follow by necessary consequence, 
 that a state of things, which in a greater or 
 less degree has attended upon Christianity 
 in all the successive stages of its duration 
 hitherto, would not have been suffered to 
 exist, if it had not been upon the whole 
 the most conducive to its advancement, 
 and perfectly consistent with those good 
 purposes, both ultimate and immediate, 
 
 B 4 
 
8 LECTURE L 
 
 which that dispensation was designed to 
 effect. 
 
 Nor is there any thing in this view of 
 the subject, which is not warranted by ex- 
 perience and analogy, if we may be allowed 
 in questions of religion to reason at all from 
 temporal to spiritual things. It is well 
 known that the progress of every art and 
 science, and especially those which are most 
 refined and intellectual, has been greatly as- 
 sisted by the discussion of opposite theories, 
 and the controversies maintained concern- 
 ing their true principles ; and in like man- 
 ner it is undeniably certain, that our reli- 
 gion has derived the strongest additional 
 confirmation, not only from the sober dis- 
 putations of learned and pious men con- 
 cerning its general evidences and peculiar 
 doctrines, but even from the licentious vio- 
 lence of its adversaries, who have left no- 
 thing unsaid, which their depraved inge- 
 nuity could suggest, to weaken its author- 
 ity. The most artfully constructed system 
 of falsehood could never have resisted such 
 attacks as have been successively directed 
 against every side of Christianity which, in 
 
LECTURE I. 9 
 
 the opinion of its adversaries, has appeared 
 the weakest ; and if Christianity has not 
 only stood unshaken against them, but its 
 foundations have been strengthened, and its 
 true principles more perfectly illustrated, 
 through the vain attempts of infidels to 
 subvert the one, and of heretics to obscure 
 the other, we have in this very fact a ground 
 of confidence, which cannot be too highly 
 appreciated, and which it is evident that we 
 never could have possessed, if the abortive 
 attempts of its various enemies to effect its 
 ruin had not by their signal failure provided 
 it for us. It is indeed to the fiery trials 
 which it has so repeatedly gone through, and 
 which must have consumed it if it had been 
 of a baser texture, that we are indebted for 
 the strongest proof that it is imperishable, 
 and that it emanated wholly from the wis- 
 dom of God, and not the invention of man. 
 But, indeed, the whole history of our 
 religion proves nothing more clearly, than 
 the truth which holy writ declares, that 
 ^God seeth not as man seeth^ and that ^his 
 ways are past (our) finding out. 
 
 a 1 Sam. xvi. 7. ^ Rom. xi. 33. 
 
10 LECTURE I. 
 
 It is scarcely too much to assert, that al- 
 most every circumstance, attending the pro- 
 mulgation of the gospel, was directly the 
 reverse of what human wisdom would have 
 chosen for the furtherance of the same ends. 
 And certainly it is not more foreign to 
 our apprehension, that the arrogant and ir- 
 reverent disputers of this world should be 
 rendered subservient to the elucidation and 
 final confirmation of Christianity, than is 
 that other unquestionable fact, " that the 
 " persecutions which the first Christians 
 " endured for the sake of their faith, and 
 " by which its enemies confidently expect- 
 " ed to crush it, powerfully contributed 
 " to its rapid diffusion and final establish- 
 " ment." 
 
 It may seem an objection to this argu- 
 ment, that harmony of doctrine and affec- 
 tions is so strongly enjoined both by our 
 Lord himself and his apostles, and that the 
 faithful are warned to avoid those who should 
 seek to sow divisions among them, as well 
 as exhorted to keep the unity of the Spirit 
 in the bond of peace ; and he indeed would 
 have learned Christ to little purpose, who 
 
LECTURE I. 11 
 
 did not think it among the first of his du- 
 ties, to promote, not only the spirit of bro- 
 therly love among all his members, but that 
 also which is its surest and best foundation, 
 an entire agreement in all the articles of 
 the Christian faith. Such a state of reli- 
 gion is unquestionably the most favourable 
 for the practice of every Christian virtue, 
 when discordant passions have ceased to 
 darken the understandings and pervert the 
 affections of true believers ; and whatever 
 branch of the universal church can most 
 truly boast of such an union, so founded, 
 among its members, may justly be consi- 
 dered to have approached nearest to Chris- 
 tian perfection. But that the kingdom of 
 God is not yet so come among men, that 
 his church in any nation or country may 
 joyfully serve him in all godly quietness, 
 without fear and without partiality, is la- 
 mentably certain ; and while we humbly 
 hope that all things are tending towards 
 that blessed consummation, in so far at 
 least as may consist with the militant state 
 of the church upon earth, we cannot but 
 see that obstacles to it exist, which it is be- 
 
12 LECTURE I. 
 
 yond the power of human wisdom to re- 
 move by the most zealous efforts of reason 
 or persuasion ; but for which a gradual re- 
 medy appears to be provided even in that 
 licence of discussion which springs out of 
 religious corruption, and which, though nei- 
 ther prompted nor guided by a spirit of 
 sincere piety, may yet, in spite of itself, 
 serve the cause of truth, by dissipating the 
 fictions of error, which sophistry, ignorance, 
 or fanaticism have raised to obscure it. 
 
 In attributing, therefore, to the here- 
 sies which at different periods have agi- 
 tated the church, and which may not im- 
 properly be regarded as symptoms of a 
 diseased state of faith and morals, conse- 
 quences ultimately beneficial to religion, 
 we merely assert, that in this, as in other 
 cases, the wisdom of God has brought good 
 out of evil ; not that heresy is either good in 
 itself, or void of fearful guilt to its authors ; 
 although, like some who, as ""St. Paul says, 
 preached Christ out of strife and conten- 
 tion, and not sincerely, they may contri- 
 
 « Phil. i. 16, &c. 
 
LECTURE I. 13 
 
 bute unintentionally to the advancement 
 of true religion. 
 
 It was but for a very short season that 
 the primitive church enjoyed perfect inter- 
 nal tranquillity, with untainted purity of 
 faith. Even in the lifetime of the apostles 
 the arrogance, folly, and corruption of man 
 had ^brought in damnable heresies. Vari- 
 ous errors were introduced into the infant 
 church which they had planted, by- false 
 brethren, and no inconsiderable part of 
 their Epistles is occupied in the refutation 
 of such errors, and in warning those to 
 whom they wrote against the danger of 
 being seduced by them. The history of 
 the following ages exhibits a lamentable 
 picture of the workings of the same per- 
 verse spirit ; and in proportion as the pale 
 of the church was extended among differ- 
 ent nations and languages, the sources of 
 corruption were multiplied and enlarged. 
 
 Even before the great influx of the Gen- 
 tiles into the church, which followed upon 
 the conversion of Constantine, and the adop- 
 
 b 2 Pet. ii. 1, &c. 
 
14 LECTURE I. 
 
 tion of Christianity for the religion of the 
 Roman empire, many depravations of the 
 Christian verity had crept into it, while 
 Christians were yet exposed to the rage of 
 persecution from without, and no worldly 
 inducement existed within, to tempt the 
 followers of a crucified Redeemer to vitiate 
 their faith. But after that event heresies 
 rapidly multiplied, of the greater part of 
 which the names only now remain, to at- 
 test that they once existed ; and while we 
 are grieved in contemplating the actual 
 corruptions of Christianity in some coun- 
 tries, and the variety of doctrines which 
 have arisen through the abuse of Christian 
 liberty in others, it is yet a source of great 
 consolation to observe how far they fall 
 short of the absurdity and impiety of those 
 pristine adulterations of evangelical truth, 
 whose characteristic peculiarities have been 
 preserved in ecclesiastical records. Various 
 were the sources of those ancient heresies ; 
 some originated with Jewish converts, who, 
 in their zeal for the Mosaic dispensation, 
 sought to amalgamate the old law with the 
 new ; but a much greater proportion with 
 
* LECTURE I. 15 
 
 Gentiles, who had imperfectly unlearned 
 their former superstitions, and still par- 
 tially retained them after their conversion 
 to Christianity ; and not a few were bor- 
 rowed from different systems of heathen 
 philosophy, which their authors, wedded to 
 their former studies, attempted to blend 
 with Christianity. Some again were the 
 offspring of enthusiasm, which is ever the 
 disease of weak minds, and some owed their 
 birth to the more culpable love of singu- 
 larity, and the vain desire of distinction, 
 through which too many individuals, of un- 
 sound principles and shallow understand- 
 ings, have in all ages been tempted to seek 
 a worthless celebrity by the propagation of 
 error, rather than the silent approbation 
 of a good conscience by maintaining the 
 truth. To these causes severally the va- 
 rious corruptions of Christian faith and 
 doctrine in the early ages may be referred ; 
 and the best practical view which, at this 
 distance of time, we can take of them all 
 collectively, is to look upon them as certain 
 symptoms of that moral corruption of hu- 
 man nature, which our holy religion was 
 
16 LECTURE I. * 
 
 intended to heal, and to learn from them, 
 to beware for ourselves of departing on 
 either side from that rule of faith and prac- 
 tice which the divine Wisdom has prescribed 
 to us. But a total cessation of such evi- 
 dences of sinfulness and infirmity, though 
 we are bound to pray for the continual in- 
 crease of grace and truth, in the present 
 condition of mankind we cannot hope to 
 see; and hardly would such a degree of 
 Christian perfection be compatible with 
 that state of probation in which we are 
 here placed for our final good. 
 
 In fact, no age of the church has been, 
 nor, as far as we can conjecture by a re- 
 view of the past, and a consideration of the 
 causes which have produced such effects, is 
 ever likely to be, exempt from the infesta- 
 tions of heresy. But it would be incon- 
 sistent with the beUef that God is ever 
 wise and good, and that his mercy is over 
 all his works, to suppose that He would 
 suffer the existence of error and division, 
 without any countervailing good to be de- 
 rived from them, and leave those whom the 
 scriptures represent as the peculiar objects 
 
* LECTURE I. 17 
 
 of his regard, the poor, the simple, and un- 
 learned, who must ever make up the bulk of 
 mankind, exposed to the imminent danger 
 of seduction through false apostles and false 
 teachers, such as have disseminated their fa- 
 natical delusions and pestilent perversions 
 of the truth in every age, if the toleration of 
 these partial evils was absolutely inconsist- 
 ent with the purity and effectual influence 
 of that religion which he has vouchsafed to 
 reveal, and which all men are required to 
 embrace, as the sole condition of obtaining 
 eternal salvation. Nor does it appear to be a 
 sufficient answer to such an objection, that it 
 is only by the abuse of their own free will 
 that men can be exposed to the danger of 
 heresy, and that the justice and goodness 
 of God are sufficiently vindicated, if he has 
 afforded to all men the means of knowing 
 the truth, but they choose error in prefer- 
 ence to it. For, in fact, even in the most 
 improved state of human society which has 
 ever yet existed, or is ever likely to exist, 
 there are few comparatively who are ca- 
 pable of judging for themselves in contro- 
 verted points of doctrine, but the greater 
 
18 LECTURE I. * 
 
 part must of necessity follow the direction 
 of those whom they believe qualified by 
 superior acquirements to guide them right; 
 and there have been times when errors have 
 widely infected the church, and seduced 
 multitudes in almost every Christian na- 
 tion. If therefore such errors, not proceed- 
 ing from a wilful preference of darkness to 
 light, nor accompanied with impurity of 
 heart and moral corruption, could totally 
 deprive those who ignorantly fell into them, 
 or unconsciously imbibed them together 
 with the first rudiments of knowledge, of 
 the benefits of the gospel covenant, the 
 goodness of God, and the honour of his 
 moral government, would seem to require, 
 that the possibility of so dreadful a conse- 
 quence should be precluded, even by de- 
 priving men, if the same end could not 
 otherwise be attained, of that free agency 
 which they were in so great danger of abus- 
 ing to their own destruction, so as to con- 
 vert the covenant of grace into an occasion 
 of heavier condemnation. Still less is it 
 consistent with the mercy of God and his 
 love for man, which the scriptures teach 
 
LECTURE I. 19 
 
 us to consider as the essential, originating 
 principle of Christianity, to suffer his gra- 
 cious designs towards our fallen race to 
 be rendered of none effect through causes 
 springing out of the inherent infirmity of 
 our nature, independent of our own indi- 
 vidual wills, or to be defeated by the spirit 
 of delusion. That God is ever gracious and 
 merciful, and that he willeth not that any 
 should perish everlastingly, but that all 
 should be converted, and saved through the 
 knowledge of the truth, is a point of faith 
 which every Christian ought to hold as 
 firmly as any article of his creed, and not 
 to suffer any speculative view of mysterious 
 and unsearchable truths to shake his confi- 
 dence in this first principle of true piety. 
 
 Seeing, therefore, that heresy, or the prin- 
 ciple of discord, or by whatever other ap- 
 pellation we may call it, (for we should not 
 with indiscriminating severity affix the same 
 stigma to the greatest and the smallest de- 
 parture from orthodox opinion,) has been 
 permitted to exist, and that, notwithstand- 
 ing its intrinsically pernicious character, it 
 has neither prevailed against the truth, nor 
 
 c 2 
 
20 LECTURE I. 
 
 weakened its force, nor tainted its purity, 
 but, on the contrary, that our holy religion 
 has continued to shine forth with increas- 
 ing brightness, in spite of those passing 
 clouds which human perverseness from 
 time to time has raised to obscure it, we 
 are led to consider it as one of those means 
 of apparent destruction, which the divine 
 wisdom has converted to the furtherance 
 of its own gracious purposes towards man- 
 kind by the fuller confirmation of the truth. 
 It is readily admitted, that if all who ever 
 have professed themselves Christians, had 
 been animated by a sincere faith and a du- 
 tiful respect for our Lord's commands for 
 the cultivation of unity and brotherly love, 
 neither heresy nor discord could have found 
 an entrance into the church. But this is a 
 state of religion which in reality has never 
 existed, and cannot therefore be assumed 
 in ideal possibility as a ground of argument 
 against that which is evident and palpable. 
 It is indeed a degree of perfection, at which 
 we are each in our several capacities bound 
 to aim, but such as we cannot hope fully 
 to attain, and much less that the aggre- 
 
LECTURE I. 21 
 
 gate Christian community shall ever be so 
 changed from its present imperfect condi- 
 tion, as to be uniformly influenced by a 
 sense of religious duty ; since our Lord 
 himself has assured us, that "" it must needs 
 be that offences come, and that ^ the wheat 
 and the tares must be left to grow together 
 till the great harvest. 
 
 Christianity, from the beginning, was de- 
 signed for beings subject to much evil and 
 many infirmities, which the whole power of 
 religion is not more than sufficient to heal, 
 where its doctrines are set forth with the 
 greatest fidelity, and its precepts most sin- 
 cerely obeyed. But if the fountain of living 
 waters be itself defiled, if religion be con- 
 taminated by those vices and follies of man- 
 kind which it was intended to correct, or 
 vitiated by the improbity of those whose 
 especial office it is to guard its purity, till, 
 like the salt which had lost its savour^, it 
 become unfit for the purpose for which 
 the divine Goodness designed it, and its 
 corruptions be reduced to a system, it is 
 
 c Matt, xviii. 7. ^ Matt. xiii. J29— 36. ^ Luke 
 xiv. 34. 
 
 C 3 
 
22 LECTURE I. 
 
 evident, that unless its original soundness 
 and vitality can be restored, human de- 
 pravity must be left to pursue its headlong 
 course without check or remedy. 
 
 When, therefore, moral degeneracy and 
 infidel indifference had succeeded to the 
 zeal and purity of the earlier ages, and 
 gross darkness had well nigh overwhelmed 
 the light of the gospel ; when, in conse- 
 quence of the decay of true piety, the holy 
 and reasonable service of Christianity had 
 been supplanted by heathenish pomps and 
 idle ceremonies, and spiritual holiness ex- 
 changed for bodily austerities ; when the 
 study of the holy scriptures was generally 
 neglected, and fabulous legends, rivalling in 
 absurdity, and scarcely inferior in impiety 
 to the mythology of the heathen, had ban- 
 ished from the minds of the deluded mul- 
 titude all just notions of God and religion, 
 it is evident that a crisis had arrived which 
 required the exertion of an extraordinary 
 force to burst the spell of delusion, and to 
 renovate the faith, that it might not be- 
 come utterly extinct, and the gates of hell 
 finally prevail against the church. That such 
 
LECTURE I. gs 
 
 was the state of religion during a long pe- 
 riod, in which the Roman pontiffs exercised 
 an absolute and undisputed power through 
 every country in these parts of Europe, is 
 attested by proofs which must bring con- 
 viction to every unprejudiced mind, and is 
 very faintly denied even by those to whose 
 pretensions the admission of such a fact is 
 fatal, however they may attempt to qualify 
 or disguise it. 
 
 At the same time we willingly admit that 
 there have been holy, if not enlightened 
 men, even in the darkest ages of the church. 
 But that does not militate against our ar- 
 gument. God did not leave himself wholly 
 without witness in the heathen world, when 
 it was generally overspread with supersti- 
 tion and crime ; and still less is it to be 
 supposed, that in the worst times of Chris- 
 tianity there have not been some men wor- 
 thy of the Christian name. But their num- 
 ber was as nothing to the surrounding mass 
 of ignorance and corruption ; and their en- 
 deavours to rekindle knowledge, and awaken 
 true piety, however honourable to them- 
 selves and their religion, of which they 
 
 c 4 
 
24 LECTURE I. 
 
 shone as lights in a dark place, were in- 
 sufficient to effect any lasting amendment 
 of faith or morals, even in the circumscribed 
 scenes of their labours. A more efficient 
 principle than individual zeal or example 
 vras required to accomplish so great a work ; 
 and until men were awakened by some 
 strong excitement from the spiritual le- 
 thargy in which they were sunk, there was 
 no power of sufficient energy to dissipate 
 ignorance, and break the bands of supersti- 
 tion. Blind acquiescence in abused author- 
 ity was the perpetual safeguard of cor- 
 ruption ; and no remedy, short of the im- 
 mediate interposition of divine power, ex- 
 cept religious controversy of the most ani- 
 mated kind, was adequate to the inveterate 
 and complicated evils under which religion 
 laboured. In that morbid state of religion, 
 even the effervescence of human passions 
 contributed to the removal of corruption, 
 and strife and contention, under the su- 
 preme control of divine Providence, were 
 rendered auxiliary to the correction of that 
 vitiated state of faith and morals out of 
 which they sprung, and in some respects 
 
LECTURE I. m 
 
 availed to supply the place of a purer 
 zeal. 
 
 Thus it was that, after a long night of 
 palpable darkness, as the light of knowledge 
 began again to dawn upon the world, a 
 spirit of religious inquiry arose with it, 
 which, from small and almost imperceptible 
 beginnings, led, step by step, to that great 
 event, the most important which has ever 
 engaged the attention of mankind since the 
 first preaching of the gospel — the reforma- 
 tion of religion in the western church; 
 which, after many indications of its ap- 
 proach in different parts of Europe, at 
 length, upon the revival of learning, and 
 the renewed study of the holy scriptures, 
 broke out with full force in the early part 
 of the sixteenth century, and still continues 
 to occupy the attention, and in various 
 ways to interest the feelings of the Chris- 
 tian world. The agitation of minds which 
 commenced with that great crisis has not 
 even yet subsided, and although the ex- 
 ternal symptoms are less violent, we see 
 and feel that the moving principle has not 
 lost its force ; and we may be permitted to 
 
26 LECTURE I. 
 
 hope, that it will not cease to act, till, with 
 the grace of God, it has had its perfect 
 work ; till it has banished out of the uni- 
 versal church those corruptions of faith, 
 doctrine, and worship, which have given 
 occasion to infidelity, and perpetuated dis- 
 cord ; and until all true Christians are re- 
 established in the unity of the Spirit and 
 the bond of peace, not by blind and un- 
 reasoning submission to any human au- 
 thority, but by the increase of knowledge 
 and the demonstration of the truth. 
 
 The blessings of which the reformation 
 has been the source to those nations of the 
 Christian world which have embraced it, 
 and indirectly even to those which have 
 opposed it, can hardly be appreciated ade- 
 quately to their vast importance. Without 
 some knowledge of ecclesiastical history, in 
 particular, no estimate can be formed of 
 the extent and variety of good which it has 
 accomplished. The light which sprung out 
 of religion, as soon as it was freed from the 
 incumbrances and pollutions of supersti- 
 tion, widely diffused itself through the 
 whole circumference of human affairs. It 
 
LECTURE L Tt 
 
 was the commencement of a new era in the 
 history of the human mind, and without 
 incurring the charge of exaggeration from 
 any competent judge, it may be confidently 
 asserted, that its beneficial influence has 
 been felt in every branch of learning, in 
 every department of science, and in every 
 institution of civil society. 
 
 But how great soever the external and 
 contingent benefits may be, which have at- 
 tended the reformation, it is by its religious 
 merits only, without worldly respects of any 
 kind, unless in so far as they may be ad- 
 mitted as evidences of its real character, 
 that the cause of the reformation must be 
 tried and decided. 
 
 It did not originate in human policy, 
 but, like Christianity itself, in the begin- 
 ning made its way in opposition to tem- 
 poral as well as spiritual power. Its sub- 
 sequent influence in improving the tem- 
 poral state of society could not have been 
 contemplated by those who first raised their 
 voices against the corruptions of Rome ; 
 and among the many unworthy motives at- 
 tributed to them by their adversaries, that 
 
28 LECTURE I. 
 
 of political calculation has hardly yet found 
 a place. With its political consequences, 
 therefore, we have properly no concern; and 
 in the prosecution of these Lectures, in 
 which it will be my humble endeavour to 
 vindicate its general principle, as w^ell as 
 the particular modification of it adopted 
 and retained in this country, I propose 
 carefully to abstain from all secular and 
 ephemeral considerations, and to view it 
 only according to its permanent and strictly 
 religious bearings. Neither are we bound 
 to justify every circumstance attending its 
 rise and progress, nor to prove that those 
 who laboured in its cause or patronised its 
 increase, were free from the infirmities com- 
 mon to man, though much may be said in 
 extenuation of the errors into which they 
 were sometimes hurried through the in- 
 temperance of precipitate zeal, or goaded 
 by virulent provocation. 
 
 When first the human mind was relieved 
 from the pressure of religious bondage, and 
 men began to reason freely upon subjects 
 concerning which it had before been hardly 
 permitted to think, it is not to be wondered 
 
LECTURE I. 29 
 
 if they sometimes exceeded the bounds of 
 moderation, and displayed their attachment 
 to a cause which so strongly interested 
 their feelings, with unbecoming vehemence ; 
 nor is it any disparagement to the cause 
 itself, if its ablest and most distinguished 
 advocates were not agreed upon all points 
 among themselves. 
 
 According to the view which has been 
 taken, collision of opinion was necessary, 
 when first the spell of superstition was bro- 
 ken, as in almost all cases it is highly con- 
 ducive to the elucidation of truth. 
 
 The sluggish mass of unreasoning apathy 
 was to be awakened into life and motion, 
 before it could be enlightened, and purged 
 of its errors ; and we may be permitted, 
 without irreverent presumption, to con- 
 clude, that what we still behold, that very 
 Concordia discors, that agreement among all 
 Protestants concerning the main points of 
 the Reformation, while at the same time 
 they disputed warmly concerning matters 
 of inferior moment, though yet not of tri- 
 fling importance, was agreeable to the de- 
 signs of divine Providence, to keep alive 
 
so LECTURE I. 
 
 the vital principle of renovated religion, 
 and to prevent the spark which had been 
 struck out from being extinguished by su- 
 pervening indifference, till it had blazed 
 forth into a burning and a shining light. 
 
 It has been the necessary consequence of 
 this want of concert among the leaders of 
 the reformation in different countries, that 
 the local churches severally established un- 
 der their auspices have been differently con- 
 stituted, and that perfect harmony, which is 
 so much to be wished among those who hold 
 in common the same fundamental truths, 
 and appeal to the same authority, the writ- 
 ten word of God alone, in support of all 
 the articles of faith which they respectively 
 profess, and in vindication of every doc- 
 trine which they maintain, is yet unaccom- 
 plished ; and while every church which has 
 thrown off the dominion of Rome is stig- 
 matized with heresy and apostasy by the 
 adherents of the papal power, each is occa- 
 sionally called upon to defend itself against 
 some imputation of error, on the part of 
 those with whom it would wish to draw 
 more close the bonds of mutual affection. 
 
LECTURE I. 31 
 
 Such is, more especially, the position of 
 the established church of this kingdom, 
 which, in asserting its own independence, 
 neither retained demonstrable error, be- 
 cause it pleaded the prescription of anti- 
 quity against reason and scripture, nor em- 
 braced novelties, because of the temporary 
 charm which belongs to them, nor rejected 
 what was useful and good, from a gratui- 
 tous love of change. And as it is of the last 
 importance to us all to know the ground 
 whereon we stand, to be assured, on the 
 one hand, that we are not in sinful schism, 
 because we have renounced the communion 
 of the church of Rome, and on the other, 
 that we are in no degree partakers of her 
 corruptions, because we have retained the 
 primitive order of ecclesiastical ministry in- 
 stituted by the apostles, and which that 
 church has also retained, though not in its 
 original purity; it will be my aim, in the 
 ensuing Discourses, to vindicate our church 
 from these opposite charges ; to shew, in an- 
 swer to one class of accusers, that we did 
 not separate from that of Rome, till her 
 corruptions of faith, doctrine, and worship. 
 
32 LECTURE I. 
 
 had rendered it impossible to continue in 
 her communion, without hazarding, or ra- 
 ther abandoning the essentials of religion ; 
 and to the other, that we retained nothing 
 of her usages, but such as she had received 
 in times antecedent to her corruption, and 
 which were common to all churches found- 
 ed by the apostles, and not peculiar to that 
 of Rome. On many different points of the 
 general argument, as it respects these va- 
 rious heads, volumes have been written, 
 which claim the profound attention of the 
 student in theology, and to the demonstra- 
 tive force of which it is scarcely possible 
 that any thing can be added by the future 
 advocates of our church, unless it be no- 
 velty in the manner of conducting her de- 
 fence, against similar novelty in the attacks 
 of her adversaries. But the substantial me- 
 rits of her cause have long been settled, in 
 the opinion of candid and impartial judges, 
 by irrefragable argument and testimony. 
 To many, however, of her sound members, 
 even in the educated classes of society, there 
 is a want of leisure or inclination to enter 
 deeply into the subject ; and by too many 
 
LECTURE I. 33 
 
 this most momentous inquiry, in an age, 
 too, of much literary and scientific preten- 
 sion, though none can be imagined more 
 worthy of a truly philosophic mind, is over- 
 looked with supercilious blindness, as if it 
 was fit only to occupy the attention of those 
 who are professionally bound to study it ; 
 and that too, although more important con- 
 sequences evidently depend upon it, even 
 to the temporal welfare of mankind, than 
 upon all the discoveries of science or the 
 combinations of politics. Cautiously ab- 
 staining, therefore, from abstruse subtleties, 
 which are more fit to engage the retired 
 student than the general inquirer, I trust 
 it will not be deemed unseasonable, or fo- 
 reign to the purpose of these Lectures, if I 
 attempt to give a candid exposition of some 
 of the most prominent of the causes which 
 originally determined our separation from 
 the church of Rome, and to shew, inde- 
 pendently of all extraneous and temporary 
 considerations, that they were not only of 
 sufficient moment to justify that definitive 
 measure, but to render the adoption of it 
 an imperative duty. 
 
 D 
 
34 LECTURE I. 
 
 In conclusion, I shall briefly advert to 
 the principal differences which disunite us 
 from our protestant brethren, my ultimate 
 object being to shew, that as in respect to 
 the church from which we have ourselves 
 withdrawn, the reformation was on reli- 
 gious grounds founded in absolute neces- 
 sity ; so in respect to those who dissent 
 from us on minor questions, though em- 
 barked in the same great cause with us, 
 that it was conducted on sound principles 
 by our reformers, and terminated at the 
 point which, when the heat of controversy 
 shall have yielded to sober reflection, and 
 the unreasonableness of inveterate preju- 
 dice to the irresistible force of truth, wis- 
 dom and piety must approve. 
 
 This is the extent of my design ; and how 
 imperfect soever the execution of it may 
 be, I humbly pray that my insufficiency 
 may never redound to the injury of the 
 cause, which it is my anxious desire as well 
 as my duty to serve ; and which, I am as- 
 suredly persuaded, can never be overthrown 
 by the efforts of its enemies, if not weak- 
 ened and endangered by the indiscretion of 
 
LECTURE I. 35 
 
 its friends, who in the warmth of inconsi- 
 derate zeal, without adequate experience 
 and due preparation, may come forward to 
 defend it. 
 
 That the truth of God will finally pre- 
 vail over all opposition, it would savour of 
 infidelity to doubt. But in the opinion of 
 the world plausible error, advantageously 
 displayed, often obtains a transient superi- 
 ority over it. 
 
 The best founded confidence in the in- 
 trinsic goodness of our cause should there- 
 fore neither inspire us with presumption, 
 nor render us inattentive to the legitimate 
 means of promoting its success. 
 
 D 2 
 
LECTURE II, 
 
 Matthew xi. 19. 
 — JBut wisdom is justified of her children. 
 
 The advocates of the church of Rome, in 
 their contests with protestants, exhibit a 
 pohcy which strongly indicates the con- 
 scious weakness of their cause. Instead of 
 ^bringing forth their strong reasons^ and 
 appeahng to any mutually acknowledged 
 authority in support of them, they endea- 
 vour for the most part to preoccupy atten- 
 tion with points of inferior moment, or of 
 no moment at all, and studiously keep out 
 of sight those weightier matters, on the 
 right understanding of which the whole 
 merits of the question between them and 
 their opponents mainly depend; and not 
 unfrequently they become the assailants, 
 because they are unable to defend them- 
 
 a Isaiah xli. 21. 
 
38 LECTURE IL 
 
 selves. Upon these principles they have 
 acted from the reformation down to the 
 present day ; and the modern champions 
 of the cause still continue to tread in the 
 footsteps of those who have gone before 
 them, adopting only such modifications as 
 the different circumstances under which 
 they write appear to suggest. 
 
 To use unnecessary harshness in charac- 
 terizing the conduct of an adversary in any 
 case is ungenerous, and more likely to in- 
 jure than to benefit the party which has 
 recourse to it. But in controversies of re- 
 ligion, from which passion and prejudice 
 should as far as possible be excluded, it is 
 peculiarly unbecoming ; and they who ar- 
 gue in behalf of Christian truth should be 
 careful to do it in a Christian spirit ; and 
 not indulge in asperity of expression, be- 
 yond what the necessity of the case de- 
 mands. Neither would it be wise, in form- 
 ing an estimate of the feelings of Roman 
 Catholics towards the church of which we 
 are members, or the protestant name in 
 general, to lay too great a stress on the 
 reasonings or statements of obscure and 
 
LECTURE IL 89 
 
 narrow-minded writers ^ who may be dis- 
 avowed by their superiors, if their absurdity 
 and intemperance should threaten injury to 
 their own cause. 
 
 But if we look to those whose characters 
 stand highest for talents and literary ac- 
 quirements, and whose authority is held in 
 the highest estimation among the members 
 of their own community, we shall still find 
 such a lamentable want of equity and can- 
 dour, as can be accounted for only by the 
 intolerant principles of their church ; and 
 it is as true of the main pillars of the papal 
 cause as of its meanest supporters, that the 
 expedients on which their chief reliance is 
 placed are such as we cannot truly charac- 
 terize, without departing from that mode- 
 ration and forbearance which on all ac- 
 counts it is most desirable to observe ^ and 
 which are more especially suited to such a 
 
 ^ Such as Eusebius Andrews, and others of the same 
 stamp. 
 
 c I allude here more particularly to Gandolphy's Ser- 
 mons, Lingard's History, Milner's End of Religious 
 Controversy, and Butler's Book of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, all modern productions of English Roman Ca- 
 tholics. 
 
 D 4 
 
40 LECTURE 11. 
 
 cause as we maintain, and which requires 
 indeed nothing more than impartial con- 
 sideration to ensure its preponderance in 
 every mind accessible to truth. 
 
 It may be pleaded on the part of our ad- 
 versaries, that they are not guilty of inten- 
 tional injustice; that whatever they advance 
 against us they believe to be founded in 
 reason and fact; and the strong delusion 
 to which they have given themselves up 
 may render it credible that they are so per- 
 suaded. But in acquitting them of wilful 
 unfaithfulness, their competency either as 
 advocates or witnesses of the truth will be 
 little benefited by attributing their multi- 
 form misrepresentations to the influence of 
 delirious bigotry, which distorts and disco- 
 lours every object presented to the mind's 
 eye. Nor is there, after all the allowance 
 which can reasonably be made for the ef- 
 fects of such a mental distemper, any suf- 
 ficient apology for receiving and asserting 
 as true, whatever, by such candid and dili- 
 gent inquiry as the importance of the sub- 
 ject demands of every sincere man, might 
 certainly be discovered not to be so. 
 
LECTURE II. 41 
 
 It is unnecessary to the attainment of 
 essential truth, which is the only valuable 
 end of inquiry, to notice the many irrele- 
 vant arguments and unjust representations 
 v^hich have been employed to discredit the 
 reformation, nor could it be accomplished 
 in the most cursory manner within a much 
 greater space than these Lectures afford. 
 Without adverting, therefore, to those mi- 
 nor topics, which have been introduced only 
 to embarrass and confound and distract 
 attention, I shall apply myself solely to the 
 consideration of such heads of controversy 
 as are of essential importance to the right 
 understanding of the real question between 
 our church and that of Rome ; viz. " Which 
 " of the two, in its actual state, is the more 
 " justly entitled to be considered as a true 
 " church of Christ ?" abstaining as much as 
 possible from every thing which can irritate 
 or offend, without contributing to elucidate 
 the truth, at the same time suppressing 
 nothing which the vindication of our prin- 
 ciples necessarily requires to be candidly 
 asserted. 
 
 In two particulars, however, a slight de- 
 
42 LECTURE II. 
 
 parture from this course appears to be re- 
 quisite ; and the examination of these shall 
 form the substance of the present Lecture, 
 that we may afterwards proceed without 
 prejudice to the discussion of those funda- 
 mental positions on which, religiously con- 
 sidered, the cause of the reformation must 
 stand or fall ; and on none but such as are 
 properly and exclusively religious would 
 any honest inquirer or sincere Christian 
 wish to see it maintained. That this course 
 of proceeding is not agreeable to Roman 
 Catholics we have already observed. They 
 have used all sorts of weapons to dazzle the 
 ignorant and superficial, and to secure to 
 themselves an apparent victory : but on 
 none do they appear to place so much re- 
 liance as on the imputations which they 
 incessantly cast on the personal characters 
 and motives of the reformers, and the ef- 
 fects which, with the blindest injustice, they 
 persist in attributing to the reformation it- 
 self 
 
 What the real importance of these cri- 
 minations may be, and what weight they 
 ought to have in determining the judgment 
 
LECTURE II. 43 
 
 of pious and prudent men, is therefore a 
 subject in a general point of view entitled 
 to our serious consideration. 
 
 It is natural to wish that the undertakers 
 and perfecters of every great and good work, 
 more especially of such as has for its pro- 
 fessed object the glory of God and the spi- 
 ritual good of men, should not only be free 
 from great blemishes, but, if possible, supe- 
 rior even to the infirmities incident to the 
 nature of ordinary men ; and if the prin- 
 ciple be not carried to excess, it cannot be 
 denied that it is reasonable and just to form 
 our judgment of the motives and intentions 
 of those, who profess more than a common 
 zeal in such a cause, by their known cha- 
 racter and conduct in the ordinary relations 
 of life. It is not only agreeable to the com- 
 mon feelings of mankind to judge by this 
 rule, but in the second chapter of the Epistle 
 to the Romans we find St. Paul pointedly 
 arguing against the hypocrisy of those who 
 condemned sin in others while they conti- 
 nued in the practice of it themselves. We 
 see also the same principle exemplified in 
 its abuse by the insidious policy of the Pha- 
 
44 LECTURE II. 
 
 risees, who, when they found themselves un- 
 able to impeach the doctrine of our Lord, 
 calumniated him to the people as ^ a glut- 
 tonous man and a winebihher^ a friend of 
 publicans and sinners^ hoping by such slan- 
 derous charges to destroy his influence with 
 the people, if they could but persuade them 
 that his life w^as inconsistent with the cha- 
 racter which he assumed of a teache?* sent 
 from God, In like manner the apostles also 
 were traduced as disturbers of the public 
 peace, and suhverters of the world ; while 
 at the same time they afforded not the 
 slightest pretext for such a charge, but 
 proved equally by their conduct and their 
 doctrines, that respect for lawful authority, 
 of every kind and degree, was enforced and 
 cherished by them as a part of religious 
 duty. It is therefore the less to be won- 
 dered, that the treatment which the re- 
 formers have experienced from Roman Ca- 
 tholic historians and controversialists should 
 be precisely similar in kind. But indeed 
 the animosity with which the most vene- 
 
 d Luke vii. 34. 
 
LECTURE II. 45 
 
 rable names among them are still attacked, 
 and the rancour with which every anti- 
 quated charge is repeated against them, 
 however suspicious or improbable the ori- 
 ginal grounds of it may be, afford a melan- 
 choly proof how soon the principles of true 
 religion are forgotten, when men give them- 
 selves up to the blind intemperance of a bi- 
 goted spirit, while at the same time they 
 furnish a strong presumption against the 
 general credibility of those accusations, 
 which were alleged against them by con- 
 temporary writers ; who, in addition to the 
 heat of so great a controversy, were ani- 
 mated by feelings of personal resentment, 
 or allured by prospects of ambition, to sig- 
 nalize their zeal against the authors of a 
 change which portended such a diminution 
 of their own influence and power. Against 
 such calumnious attacks the characters of 
 the reformers in general, both in this and 
 other countries, have been abundantly vin- 
 dicated, where at least freedom of discus- 
 sion is not precluded by the power and po- 
 licy of their adversaries. 
 
 And though we claim not for the re- 
 
46 LECTURE II. 
 
 formers of our own church an exemption 
 from human failings, we have just cause to 
 bless God for the grace bestowed on them, 
 when we contemplate the examples which 
 they have left us of piety and zeal, as well 
 as of patient fortitude, in supporting the 
 dreadful sufferings through which, like the 
 first Christians, they were doomed to pass 
 in the execution of their holy enterprise. 
 And if some of those, whose memory is 
 most dear and venerated among us, exhi- 
 bited, under the near prospect of fiery trials, 
 something of human weakness, instead of 
 insulting their memories with envenomed 
 malignity, as too many of those have con- 
 tinued to do, who have succeeded to the 
 inheritance of those tenets and principles 
 against which they contended unto blood, 
 it would better become them to lament the 
 cruel excesses of their predecessors, and to 
 disclaim any community of feeling with 
 men, who, whether instigated by polemic 
 rage, or a still more detestable spirit of 
 worldly policy, outwent the barbarity of 
 pagan persecutions under the cloke of reli- 
 gious zeal. But the bitter calumnies in- 
 
LECTURE II. 47 
 
 vented and continually repeated against the 
 leaders of the reformation, are not only un- 
 worthy of any cause which good men may 
 espouse, but have recoiled upon those who 
 have condescended to employ them, as false 
 representations generally do, and by their 
 extravagance have refuted themselves. For 
 if we admit, for the sake of argument, that 
 the reformers were such as their enemies 
 have painted them^, it must necessarily fol- 
 low, that they could have had no adherents, 
 unless among the most worthless members 
 of society, a fact which even their accusers 
 have not yet ventured to affirm, and in the 
 next generation both themselves and their 
 reformation could have been remembered 
 07ily to be abhorred. 
 
 A short-lived enthusiasm has often been 
 excited in favour of a bad cause, and the 
 leaders and abettors of imposture have en- 
 joyed the misplaced applause of their own 
 generation. But truth and reason must in 
 time resume their empire, and impartial 
 
 ^ Vide passim Bossuefs Variations of Protestants, Mil- 
 ner's End of Controversy, and Butler's Book of the Ro- 
 man Catholic Church. 
 
48 LECTURE 11. 
 
 posterity seldom fails to atone for the in- 
 justice and folly of preceding times, and to 
 stamp, according to their respective merits, 
 the opposing champions of every denomina- 
 tion ; and yet it is certain, that, after the 
 most rigid scrutiny into their conduct and 
 principles, the chiefs of the reformation 
 have lost nothing of that veneration which 
 the suffrages of former generations had 
 awarded them ; and the railing accusations 
 of their adversaries have been more inju- 
 rious to the reputation of their authors, 
 and the cause in support of which such im- 
 moral means have been employed, than of 
 those against whom they have been directed. 
 But, after all that can be said on either 
 side, of what value is this personal argu- 
 ment in deciding the merits of the reform- 
 ation ? While the Roman pontiffs arrogate 
 to themselves such powers and prerogatives 
 as are shocking to Christian piety, and claim 
 little less than the attributes of Divinity, it 
 might indeed be reasonably expected, that 
 they should at all times be free at least 
 from gross vices, and eminent in religious 
 and moral virtue. And yet, though the 
 
LECTURE II. 49 
 
 contrary is most notorious with respect to 
 many of them, and among the rest concern- 
 ing him who filled the papal chair when 
 first Luther rose up in opposition to his 
 spiritual domination, no rational protestant 
 would ever think that alone a sufficient 
 justification of the conduct of so many 
 Christian communities in rejecting his au- 
 thority, and renouncing the fellowship of 
 the Romish church ; and still less could it 
 be pleaded in vindication of the continu- 
 ance of that separation, if causes of infi- 
 nitely greater moment than the personal 
 merits or demerits of any individual, or 
 number of individuals, at any given time, 
 had not determined them to adopt it, and 
 to persist in maintaining it. The duty of 
 preserving the unity of the body of Christ 
 is too strongly enforced in scripture to 
 admit the breach of it, unless the preserva- 
 tion of truth and holiness demand it ; and 
 unless we can prove to our Roman Catholic 
 brethren, that our reformation was con- 
 ducted and perfected upon that principle, 
 we must submit to bear the reproach of 
 heresy and schism, which they so unspar- 
 
50 LECTURE 11. 
 
 ingly cast upon us, and acknowledge our- 
 selves guilty of criminal contumacy in re- 
 fusing allegiance to their spiritual head. 
 
 But if, while we venerate the memory of 
 those who conducted our reformation, we 
 ground not that great work upon their per- 
 sonal merits, nor place any reliance on the 
 notorious corruptions of the Romish hier- 
 archy, at that period, in vindication of it, 
 unless in so far as those corruptions were 
 the natural or necessary consequence of 
 their system of religion, we must not suffer 
 them, on their side, to convert that which 
 is altogether a question of principles into a 
 personal dispute, nor to attack the reforma- 
 tion itself through the real or imputed 
 faults and imperfections of any of its ad- 
 vocates. Still less must we allow the con- 
 duct of princes or statesmen, who may have 
 been influenced by worldly respects, by re- 
 sentment, cupidity, or ambition, in adopting 
 or defending it, to have any weight in de- 
 termining our judgment concerning it. 
 
 The despotic violence of that prince, 
 whose quarrel with the see of Rome first 
 made an opening for the reformation in 
 
LECTURE 11. 51 
 
 this country, has but an accidental con- 
 nection with the reformation itself. It can- 
 not be supposed that a man of his character 
 was much influenced by religious feelings 
 in the inconsistent conduct which he pur- 
 sued, alternately formidable to its friends 
 and its enemies ; and it is probable that he 
 espoused it principally because it favoured 
 his purpose of emancipating his own sove- 
 reignty from the spiritual supremacy of the 
 pope, and possessing himself of the enor- 
 mous wealth which superstitious delusion 
 or mistaken piety had heaped upon the 
 monastic orders. Whatever his measures 
 were, he acted under the influence of his 
 own policy or passion ; and when Roman 
 Catholics attempt to bring forward his con- 
 duct as an argument against the reforma- 
 tion of our national church, it is little less 
 than an acknowledgment, that on religious 
 grounds they find it unassailable ; while, at 
 the same time, if there was any value in 
 recrimination, we might retort with tenfold 
 severity the massacres and persecutions 
 committed by Roman Catholic sovereigns 
 in almost every country of Europe, at the 
 
 E 2 
 
52 LECTURE 11. 
 
 instigation of Romish ecclesiastics, and even 
 of the popes themselves, and seconded by 
 their warmest applause. Not a few such 
 unhappy princes, misled by their spiritual 
 guides, have earned for themselves an im- 
 mortality of infamy, scarcely exceeded by 
 that of the most cruel heathen persecutors 
 of the church^; but which ought to attach, 
 in an aggravated degree, to the memory 
 of those faithless ministers of religion, of 
 whose spiritual wickedness they were the 
 deluded, but not guiltless instruments. 
 But whatever advantage, in respect to the 
 personal merits of the friends and enemies 
 of the reformation, might result from such 
 a comparison, to the protestant cause — and 
 a greater could not well be desired — we re- 
 ject it altogether, as irrelevant to the sub- 
 ject of debate between us. 
 
 The truth of God will stand, though all 
 men should be found liars ; and what is 
 essentially good cannot be depraved by the 
 perverseness of those who abuse it. In 
 
 ^ Such as our unhappy Mary, Francis the First, Phi- 
 hp the Second, Charles the Ninth, Lewis the Fourteenth, 
 &c. Charles Emanuel of Savoy, &c. 
 
LECTURE II. 53 
 
 every other case this principle is admitted. 
 We do not therefore reject, as false or use- 
 less, the moral philosophy of the Socratic 
 school, because many who made profession 
 of it were untrue to their own principles, 
 and led immoral lives ; nor would it be less 
 unreasonable to condemn indiscriminately 
 the entire system of religion professed in 
 the church of Rome, because its highest 
 places have sometimes been filled by bad 
 men, or even reputed infidels ; and many of 
 its external defenders have had little other 
 proof of faith to shew, except that very 
 equivocal one of persecuting zeal, against 
 such as popes and councils had marked out 
 for destruction with the stigma of heresy, 
 if the system itself was sound and good. 
 It is certainly time, and much to be desired, 
 that all such causes of animosity should be 
 buried in oblivion, if we were not com- 
 pelled, by the pertinacity of our opponents, 
 to refer to them for the purpose of refuting 
 misrepresentations, which they are still too 
 industrious to propagate. 
 
 But the paramount question of the ne- 
 cessity and effects of the reformation must 
 
 E S 
 
54 LECTURE 11. 
 
 be considered and determined in total dis- 
 tinction from the merits of individuals; 
 and the secondary causes, of whatever kind, 
 v^hich operated to advance or impede its 
 progress. It is not in the world, but in the 
 church, that we must look for the condem- 
 nation or justification of it. If the pre- 
 viously existing state of religion, both in 
 principle and practice, was conformable to 
 the true spirit of Christianity ; if essential 
 truth was preserved, and not defiled by the 
 intermixture of falsehood, and additions of 
 human invention ; if articles of faith were 
 not imposed as necessary to salvation, for 
 which the support of divine authority is 
 nowhere to be found ; if the modes of wor- 
 ship used in the church were pure and spi- 
 ritual ; if the sacraments appointed by our 
 Lord Jesus Christ were faithfully ministered 
 according to his institution ; if the doctrine 
 of the gospel was truly preached, and the 
 faith once delivered to the saints inculcated 
 diligently and without disguise ; then, in- 
 deed, whatever corruption of life and man- 
 ners may have attached to the rulers of the 
 church, we will admit that no adequate 
 
LECTURE II. 55 
 
 cause existed for a perpetual separation 
 from their communion. 
 
 But if the contrary to all these supposi- 
 tions were true ; if, in the ages of ignorance 
 which followed the downfal of the Roman 
 empire and the extinction of learning, such 
 depravations had either been introduced 
 into religion through the policy of church- 
 men, or had imperceptibly crept in during 
 that long period of darkness, that when the 
 light of reason began again to dawn upon 
 a benighted world, men became sensible of 
 the deformity which through such causes 
 had been brought upon religion, the neces- 
 sity of reformation must be admitted by 
 every lover of truth, who believes that reli- 
 gion is not the device of human policy, 
 which may be changed and accommodated 
 to the prevalent inclinations of men, but 
 that it is, in very deed, of divine authority, 
 and immutable in its doctrines and pre- 
 cepts ; and if, through the blindness or per- 
 verseness of the rulers of the world or the 
 church, this necessary work could not be 
 effected with universal consent, then, how 
 much soever it may be the duty of Chris- 
 
 E 4 
 
56 LECTURE 11. 
 
 tians, in other cases, to avoid the causes of 
 disunion, and to sacrifice all personal in- 
 terests and feelings to the preservation of 
 the church's peace, yet the truth and purity 
 of religion, for the guardianship of which the 
 church itself was founded, and ever exists, 
 were not to be surrendered to the fear of 
 disturbing its repose for a season. For 
 unity without sincerity is not the unity 
 which our Lord has enjoined upon his fol- 
 lowers, and the sin of schism must for ever 
 lie at the door of those who make acqui- 
 escence in gross and palpable error the con- 
 dition of remaining in their communion ; 
 not of those who refuse to dissemble before 
 God, and solemnly to profess concerning 
 things of the highest and most awful mo- 
 ment, what in their inmost conscience they 
 believe to be contrary to his word and will. 
 
 Upon these grounds the necessity of re- 
 nouncing the church of Rome may be abun- 
 dantly proved. 
 
 Nor was it necessary, as we have before 
 observed, that the leaders of the reforma- 
 tion should be free from the errors and in- 
 firmities of human nature. 
 
LECTURE II. 57 
 
 They pretended to no new revelation ; 
 they came not, as it has been insincerely 
 alleged by their adversaries, to plant a 
 new religion in the world, but, by the ap- 
 plication of that rule which the divine 
 Wisdom has provided for the perpetual re- 
 medy against all corruptions through all 
 ages, to free that which was planted at the 
 first by Christ and the apostles, from the 
 mass of extraneous and incongruous matter 
 by which it had been darkened and over- 
 loaded, and to exhibit it again in that 
 beauty of holiness and simplicity of truth, 
 by which its influence over pious and can- 
 did minds is most firmly and beneficially 
 established. To accomplish this, it was not 
 necessary that the Almighty should raise 
 up men endowed with supernatural powers, 
 or exhibiting, in any way, proofs of an ex- 
 traordinary mission from him. Nor did 
 the reformers lay claim to such a character. 
 Zeal, sincerity, and firmness, with a com- 
 petent share of learning, and an intimate 
 knowledge of holy scripture, were the espe- 
 cial qualifications which their undertaking 
 demanded ; and the proof that they were 
 
58 LECTURE 11. 
 
 instruments in the hand of God for achiev- 
 ing the great work to which they had de- 
 voted all their energies, and for the sake of 
 which they subjected themselves to evils 
 from which the weakness of human nature 
 shrinks, must be sought in the issue of 
 their labours, and the restoration of reli- 
 gion which resulted from them ; not in their 
 individual characters, nor in their mental 
 or moral endowments. Indeed, whatever 
 influence their personal qualities may have 
 had upon the immediate success of their 
 endeavours, that is at this time rather mat- 
 ter of historical curiosity than practical im- 
 portance. While we venerate the characters 
 of our martyred confessors, we build no- 
 thing upon their authority. We do not 
 make our appeal to them for the decision 
 of our religious controversies, but, after 
 their example, to an infinitely higher juris- 
 diction. The foundations of our faith are 
 precisely the same as they would have been, 
 if preceding corruptions had never rendered 
 reformation necessary. We prove nothing 
 by their dictation, but by the rule of scrip- 
 ture only ; and our faith is built (as that of 
 
LECTURE 11. 59 
 
 the primitive church was) upon the found- 
 ation of the apostles and prophets^ Jesus 
 Christ himself being the chief corner stone ^. 
 Nor is the most holy cause of our religion 
 desecrated, even if it can be proved that the 
 temporal princes who espoused the reform- 
 ation were determined by worldly reasons 
 only. 
 
 We would fain beliave, indeed, and have 
 fair grounds for believing, that their mo- 
 tives in general were laudable and good. 
 But whether in the part which they per- 
 formed they were actuated by the policy 
 of Jehu or the piety of Josiah, they were 
 equally subservient to the cause of religion. 
 They afforded the most essential assistance 
 towards the removal of the evils which op- 
 pressed it, by resisting the pretensions of 
 the pope, and shaking off his dominion ; 
 which, wherever it was maintained in un- 
 broken force, rendered all attempts at re- 
 formation hopeless of success, and destruc- 
 tive to their authors. Death, confiscation, 
 and imprisonment, were every where array- 
 ed against them. They were hunted down 
 s Eph. ii. 20. 
 
60 LECTURE II. 
 
 as heretics on the one side, and devoted to 
 destruction, as enemies to the civil authority, 
 on the other ; and so long as the temporal 
 and ecclesiastical powers were confederated 
 by the bonds of a common interest against 
 every attempt to correct error and remove 
 corruption, the evil was without remedy. 
 Whatever, therefore, the particular causes 
 of their disagreement may have been, it 
 was clearly for the advantage of true reli- 
 gion that a field was opened for its ad- 
 vocates by the mutual opposition of its ene- 
 mies ; and far from its bringing reproach 
 upon our cause, we have reason to bless 
 God, and to admire the ways of his provi- 
 dence, who made those who least intended 
 it instrumental to its advancement, by ex- 
 citing the jealousy of the temporal sove- 
 reign against the encroachments of the spi- 
 ritual usurper, and inflaming the rapacity 
 of the one against the unhallowed exactions 
 of the other. 
 
 The remaining objection to the reform- 
 ation, which it was proposed at present to 
 notice, relates to its effects ; which its ad- 
 versaries assert to have been altogether in- 
 
LECTURE II. 61 
 
 jurious to religion, and productive of no- 
 thing but anarchy and confusion ; and in 
 support of this charge, they rely chiefly 
 upon the discrepancy of doctrine between 
 the reformed churches in general, and the 
 variations which have taken place in the 
 confessions of faith set forth by some of 
 them in particular at different periods. 
 
 This has been exhibited as a most tri- 
 umphant argument against the reformation 
 generally, and has been urged with great 
 plausibility, and concocted with infinite ar- 
 tifice, by its most subtle and inveterate ene- 
 mies, as a decisive termination of the con- 
 troversy in their favour. They tell us that 
 while protestants have almost as many dif- 
 ferent confessions of faith as there are dif- 
 ferent churches among them, catholic unity 
 is every where preserved inviolable under 
 the papal system, and that there is not an 
 iota of difference between the adherents 
 of the sovereign pontiff from " ^ Ireland to 
 " Chili, from Canada to India" and China ; 
 from whence they infer that their church 
 is guided by the Holy Spirit, but that all 
 
 h Milner, Part II. Letter 16. 
 
62 LECTURE 11. 
 
 who do not symbolize with it are given up 
 to the spirit of delusion. 
 
 Formidable as this argument may look 
 at first view, it will be evident, on a nearer 
 inspection, that a weaker could hardly be 
 constructed in support of a baseless cause. 
 That this boasted unity does exist in the 
 Romish church, we may admit without giv- 
 ing them any advantage ; for all, in fact, 
 which is proved by it, if true, is that which 
 protestants have always objected to them 
 as a reproach ; i. e. that under their system 
 submission to authority has been substituted 
 for faith, and uniformity of ignorance pre- 
 ferred to the investigation of truth. And 
 since the right of private judgment is ex- 
 orcised among them, as something in its 
 very nature monstrous and impious, it is 
 no more to be wondered that no difference 
 of opinion subsists where no man is allow- 
 ed to have an opinion, than that the blind 
 should not dispute concerning colours, nor 
 the deaf concerning sounds ; and it is for 
 want of that wholesome spirit of discussion 
 and inquiry, which is equally consistent 
 with sincere piety and Christian liberty, 
 
LECTURE 11. 63 
 
 that popery has subsided into a stagnant 
 pool of corruption, to which no gale from 
 Heaven imparts motion, and which no 
 healthful current pervades and purifies. 
 
 They glory in the total surrender of their 
 reasoning faculties to their earthly head. 
 They deem it a sufficient account of their 
 faith " ' to believe what the church be- 
 " lieves," and if we look into the constitu- 
 tion of the church, in the sense which they 
 attribute to it, and trace the whole chain of 
 dependence from the lowest link to the 
 highest, we shall find at last that one fal- 
 lible mortal vainly pretending to infallibi- 
 lity, thinks, believes, prescribes, and deter- 
 mines, in all points of religion, for every 
 member of his communion ; while they on 
 their part receive whatever he ordains with 
 the passive uniformity of instinct. Accord- 
 ing to the most recent and moderate ^ as- 
 sertor of the pope's pretensions in this coun- 
 try, " his judgment in all cases connected 
 " with religion is final." He is in fact the 
 living oracle of the church, the dictator of 
 
 i Milner, Part II. Letter 16. 
 
 ^ Butler, Book of Roman Catholic Church, p. 122. 
 
64 LECTURE 11. 
 
 its faith, and the Loi^d ove?' God's heritage, 
 an assumption disallowed indeed by St. 
 Peter, (1 Ep. v. 3.) from whom the Roman 
 pontiffs audaciously pretend to derive their 
 spiritual sovereignty ; and as if the know- 
 ledge of divine things was confined by geo- 
 graphical limits, and no more than a re- 
 flected ray of it shone on this side the 
 Alps, we are told, without a blush, " ^ that 
 " when Rome has spoken, the cause is de- 
 " termined." 
 
 That protestants, on the other hand, have 
 too often abused the right of free judgment, 
 is undoubtedly true, and greatly to be la- 
 mented. But which of the most excellent 
 gifts of God has not been abused by the 
 folly and perverseness of men ? and yet it 
 has not been deemed necessary on that ac- 
 count by the divine Wisdom to withdraw 
 them, or to impose any other than moral 
 restraints on the use of them. And so it is 
 in religion. For every gift of nature or 
 grace we are responsible to the almighty 
 Giver. They are talents committed to our 
 charge, for the use of which we must one 
 
 I Butler, Book of Roman Catholic Church, p. 122. 
 
LECTURE 11. 65 
 
 day give account, and of none a more awful 
 account, than of the right, or, to speak more 
 properly, the duty of judging for ourselves 
 concerning those things which we are re- 
 quired to believe and do, as the conditions 
 of eternal salvation. 
 
 And though individuals may irreverently 
 abuse it to their own great danger, their 
 folly does not defeat the gracious purpose 
 of God, nor make any sensible diminution 
 of the aggregate good which through the 
 right use of it accrues to religion. 
 
 Nor is it any disparagement to the re- 
 formation, that temporary or even perma- 
 nent differences have subsisted between the 
 reformed churches respectively, or that few 
 if any of them have retained without vari- 
 ation the formal confessions which they 
 adopted at their first separation from Rome. 
 What has been said of the reformers indi- 
 vidually may be equally applied to the re- 
 formed churches collectively. For neither 
 do we claim infallibility, which we hold to 
 be the prerogative of God alone, and such 
 as cannot be assumed by human beings 
 without extreme impiety. 
 
 F 
 
66 LECTURE II. 
 
 It is therefore a futile objection to say, 
 that some have given up, as uncertain or 
 unnecessary, points which, in the heat of 
 controversy, they viewed in a different light, 
 or that they have not yet been able to come 
 to a perfect agreement among themselves re- 
 ciprocally concerning all things which they 
 retain and deem of perpetual obligation. 
 
 Whoever will but candidly consider the 
 nature of their differences will find, that 
 they relate, for the most part, not to essen- 
 tial articles of Christian faith, but to ab- 
 struse and difficult points, concerning which 
 it would always be most wise to reason with 
 the greatest moderation, and to exercise the 
 greatest mutual forbearance. 
 
 But when religious controversy occupied 
 every mind, and the smallest shades of dif- 
 ference were magnified into importance by 
 the heat of disputation, it was scarcely pos- 
 sible to leave such points untouched; and 
 it is no just reproach to the protestant 
 churches, that they have not been deter- 
 mined by all alike. 
 
 Perfect unanimity on subjects of so eva- 
 nescent and subtle a nature is unattainable 
 
LECTURE 11. 67 
 
 in our present state of infirmity, and could 
 only be the result of perfect knowledge, 
 which is superior to all error, or of submis- 
 sive ignorance, which indolently admits for 
 truth whatever by assumed authority is 
 boldly declared to be so. Speculative ques- 
 tions, however, were as vehemently and dis- 
 cordantly debated among the schoolmen 
 before the reformation, as they have been 
 by those who have adopted its principles 
 since ; and although they are now insisted 
 upon as proofs that the protestant churches 
 are disowned and forsaken of God, yet so 
 long as those who were engaged in such 
 disputes were agreed in submission to the 
 authority of Rome, all minor differences 
 were little regarded. But not only do these 
 partial dissensions among protestants afford 
 no dangerous ground of objection to their 
 opponents ; it may be even doubted whe- 
 ther the most perfect union among them 
 could have produced equal benefit to re- 
 ligion. 
 
 The representations which history gives 
 of the general ignorance of the people con- 
 cerning religion before the reformation, are 
 
 F 2 
 
68 LECTURE II. 
 
 too well attested to admit a doubt in the 
 main, even if some particulars should be 
 overcharged. For the same state of igno- 
 rance is still seen to keep its ground, where 
 no form of Christianity is tolerated but that 
 of the church of Rome. In those countries 
 no ray of light is seen to pervade the gross 
 darkness in which the body of the people 
 are involved; but superstition retains an 
 undiminished hold upon minds studiously 
 kept in lethargic inactivity, and no alterna- 
 tive is left but unlimited credulity or total 
 unbelief; while in protestant countries, by 
 the natural consequences of discussion and 
 inquiry, the knowledge of religion has been 
 widely diffused, and an active zeal excited 
 to extend its influence, and impart the 
 means of instruction to every class of the 
 community, so that ignorance is almost left 
 without excuse ; and without claiming a 
 miraculous exertion of divine power in for- 
 warding the reformation, we need not hesi- 
 tate to affirm, that a blessing has visibly at- 
 tended it, and that it has been proved by 
 its fruits to be conducive to the glory of 
 God and the happiness of man. 
 
LECTURE 11. 69 
 
 But our more immediate concern is the 
 vindication of our own church against the 
 calumnies with which it is still assailed by 
 those whose corruptions it has renounced. 
 
 It is indeed a source of gratification, as 
 well as a ground of confidence, to every 
 sound member of the protestant episcopal 
 church, established in this country, to ob- 
 serve how timid and reluctant its Roman 
 Catholic adversaries are to engage in a con- 
 test of fair argument against it. 
 
 Its doctrines and discipline they feel to 
 be unassailable, and it is chiefly through 
 the sides of others that they seek to wound 
 it. This uncandid policy, unworthy of a 
 religious cause, has been pursued by the 
 most subtle and inveterate of its adversaries 
 from the time when our church obtained a 
 final settlement to the present day. Avail- 
 ing themselves of the loose sense in which 
 the name of Protestant is used, as the com- 
 mon designation of all those who reject the 
 papal supremacy, and having culled toge- 
 ther all the absurdities, follies, or impieties, 
 of which the several sects calling themselves 
 Protestants have been guilty, they charge 
 
 F 3 
 
70 LECTURE 11. 
 
 upon all collectively a participation of the 
 same guilt ; and by means of this dishonest 
 artifice, impute to us the corruptions of 
 Arians, Socinians, Unitarians, and have not 
 even blushed to attribute to us a common 
 origin v^ith Manicheans, and vrhatever else 
 is most odious in the list of ancient and 
 modern heresies. No doubt they have 
 deemed it expedient, for the perpetuation 
 of their own system, to raise such a mist of 
 prejudice around us, as should deter their 
 remaining adherents from looking into our 
 principles, and judging for themselves ; and 
 it is for the same reason that they presume 
 to pronounce us excluded from the hopes 
 of eternal salvation, to which they say that 
 none can be admitted who are not com- 
 prised within the pale of their own church, 
 unless (the sole exception which they allow) 
 in the case of invincible ignorance ^ To 
 those who have not this to plead for not 
 seeking reconciliation with the church of 
 Rome, they denounce, in the unregenerate 
 spirit of blind uncharitableness, inevitable 
 
 1 Roman Catholic Catechism ; Papal Bull of Indiction. 
 Milner, Part III. Lett. 50, in conclusion. 
 
LECTURE II. 71 
 
 perdition, from which neither faith, nor 
 works, nor sufferings for Christ's sake, can 
 deliver them ; while at the same time they 
 acknowledge, and even urge it as an argu- 
 ment against them, that protestants are not 
 guilty of the same unchristian arrogance in 
 return ™. God forbid that we should ever 
 cease to be entitled to an acquittal from 
 the guilt of following such an example ! 
 Our concern is not to render railing for 
 railing, nor to arm against us the feelings 
 of those whose reason, with God's blessing, 
 we would much rather convince. 
 
 Abstaining, therefore, as much as may be 
 from all such topics, and considering those 
 against whom we argue as brethren in Christ, 
 and adversaries only in the maintenance of 
 what we conscientiously believe to be great 
 and dangerous errors concerning some heads 
 of that divine faith, in the general profes- 
 sion of which we are both agreed, I shall 
 proceed, as I proposed, to a review of the 
 most prominent of those causes which first 
 rendered our separation from the church of 
 Rome necessary, and which still render a 
 
 "1 Milner, Part III. Lett. 50. Conclusion. 
 F 4 
 
72 LECTURE II. 
 
 reunion with it utterly impossible. One 
 preliminary objection which they uniformly 
 urge against all protestant churches, and 
 which, if valid in its full extent, would for 
 ever be conclusive against all reformation, 
 it may however be convenient previously 
 to examine. And as this objection is inti- 
 mately connected with some of the most 
 obnoxious characteristics and inadmissible 
 pretensions of the church of Rome, the ex- 
 amination of it will be but an apparent di- 
 gression from the intended course of our ar- 
 gument ; while at the same time it will tend 
 towards the conclusion at which we aim. 
 
 This shall form the main business of the 
 next Lecture. Amen. 
 
 Note. The term " Papist," sometimes, though rarely, 
 occurring in these Lectures, to avoid circumlocution, is 
 not applied with any intentional disrespect to the mem- 
 bers of the church of Rome, who prefer being styled 
 " Catholics." But this appellation, in the exclusive sense 
 in which they claim it, no well instructed protestant can 
 ever concede to them. And after all, it seems rather in- 
 consistent, that the professed adherents of the pope should 
 object to be so designated. In like manner " Popery" is 
 used for the sake of brevity, and at the same time as most 
 properly characteristic of that form of Christianity, in 
 which subjection to the pope is declared to be necessary 
 to salvation. 
 
LECTURE III 
 
 Matthew x. 37, 38. 
 
 He that loveth father or mother more than me 
 is not worthy of me : and he that loveth son or 
 daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 
 And he that taJceth not his cross, and follow- 
 eth after me, is not worthy of me. 
 
 A HE preliminary objection advanced by 
 papists against the reformation, to which I 
 alluded at the close of my last Lecture, 
 may be most conveniently considered in 
 subordination to the principle asserted in 
 the text. We there learn, from the figu- 
 rative expressions of our Lord, thrice re- 
 peated with increasing emphasis, that there 
 is no tie of nature so sacred or so tender, 
 which must not give way to the demands 
 of our duty towards him ; no sacrifice of 
 worldly interest or security, which we may 
 refuse to make, if such an evidence be re- 
 quired to prove that we are truly his dis- 
 ciples. And as he himself professed before 
 
74 LECTURE III. 
 
 Pilate, that the very end for which he came 
 into the world was, that he might bear wit- 
 ness to the truth, it clearly follows, that we 
 cannot sincerely love him, if we are indif- 
 ferent to the truth which he came to teach; 
 or, if we suffer any worldly considerations 
 to prevail upon us to reject it, or to con- 
 tinue in error, which we perceive to be 
 such, especially if it be of such a nature as 
 to vitiate our faith or worship, and at the 
 same time so palpable, that the honest ex- 
 ercise of a plain understanding is sufficient 
 to detect it. 
 
 It was therefore in vain for Jews or Pa- 
 gans to be, as we read in the gospel that 
 many of the former were, secretly his dis- 
 ciples, while they were restrained by regard 
 to their temporal interests or the world's 
 opinion, from avowing their faith, and ac- 
 knowledging him before men for their Mas- 
 ter. So likewise in this maturity of the 
 religion of which he was then the preacher, 
 it must be in the highest degree dangerous, 
 from the same interested inducements, to 
 dissemble our conviction, and to decide be- 
 tween the conflicting claims of different 
 
LECTURE III. 75 
 
 churches or sects, in favour of that which 
 is recommended by secular advantage only, 
 or party prejudice, or any other imaginable 
 motive of preference, except the unfeigned 
 love of Christian truth. 
 
 The fervours of enthusiasm are at the 
 same time not less to be guarded against 
 than worldly affections ; and our Christian 
 liberty must be exercised with cautious hu- 
 mility and dispassionate moderation. 
 
 Good intentions are no excuse for pre- 
 sumptuous ignorance attempting to stretch 
 itself beyond its measure ; and it is utterly 
 inconsistent with any rational notion of true 
 piety to stir up dissension for trivial causes, 
 and to hazard the interruption of that peace 
 and charity, which the commands of our 
 divine Master, and the exhortations of his 
 apostles, require all Christians to cultivate, 
 unless when the still more important obli- 
 gation of maintaining the essential doctrines 
 of Christianity whole and undefiled, cannot 
 otherwise be fulfilled. 
 
 Then only the evils of discord and tem- 
 porary confusion are to be encountered, in 
 the hope that they may be again healed, 
 
76 LECTURE III. 
 
 and that all who are sincere in faith and in 
 the study after truth, may in God's good 
 time be reunited in the undissembled pro- 
 fession of it. 
 
 It is only by a faithful and conscientious 
 application of these principles that a duti- 
 ful and necessary interruption of religious 
 communion can be distinguished from sec- 
 tarian levity and presumption. 
 
 Human passions and worldly reasonings 
 must not be allowed to have any weight in 
 determining the judgment concerning spi- 
 ritual things. Christianity, if allowed to 
 have its proper influence in human affairs, 
 by purifying the affections, calming the pas- 
 sions, and correcting the moral sentiments 
 of men, is not only consistent with their 
 temporal happiness, but is alone capable of 
 advancing it to the highest degree of per- 
 fection compatible with our present state 
 of existence. But to effect this, it must 
 lead, not follow ; it must be to things tem- 
 poral what the rational soul is to the body, 
 the pervading and governing principle ; and 
 any attempt to render it subservient to poli- 
 tical convenience or civil institutions, while 
 
LECTURE III. 77 
 
 it can have no other consequence than that 
 of defiling its purity and diminishing its 
 efHcacy, is but a modification of that sinful 
 insincerity, against which our Saviour .warns 
 us, of attempting to serve God and mammon. 
 No sincere and sober-minded Christian, 
 therefore, will ever be influenced by such 
 considerations in embracing the form of 
 faith and doctrine, through which he hopes 
 to obtain everlasting salvation ; and far from 
 catching at frivolous pretexts for leaving 
 that which he has previously believed to 
 be the true and acceptable way of serving 
 God, he will adopt the resolution of so 
 doing rather as a painful alternative, upon 
 a full and deliberate conviction that he can 
 no longer safely or innocently continue in 
 it. Upon these principles our own renun- 
 ciation of the church of Rome must be 
 judged. 
 
 If the grounds of our disagreement are 
 of questionable certainty, or relate to things 
 indifferent or of small moment, the sin of 
 schism, with all its contingent and probable 
 consequences of heresy and uncharitable- 
 ness, rests upon us. If, on the contrary. 
 
78 LECTURE III. 
 
 the maintenance of the vital purity of our 
 religion demanded our secession from that 
 church, it was then an act of indispensable 
 duty to adopt it, and in perfect unison with 
 the fundamental maxim of obeying God ra- 
 ther than man, and shewing our love for 
 Christ by keeping his commandments, in- 
 stead of putting our trust in beings like 
 ourselves, and subjecting our faith to their 
 dictation. 
 
 The force of historic truth has compelled 
 the most strenuous advocates of Rome to 
 acknowledge that many abuses and depra- 
 vations of religion existed in the church, 
 when first Luther broke the slumbers of 
 the Christian world; and while they load 
 the reformers with obloquy, they virtually 
 admit the necessity of reformation. The 
 admissions of individuals, however, are not 
 wanted to strengthen our cause. 
 
 Before its unexpected commencement in 
 Germany, reformation had already been de- 
 clared necessary by the highest authorities 
 in the church itself, even by popes and 
 councils ; and when that crisis had arrived, 
 it was demanded, with an almost unanimous 
 
LECTURE III. 79 
 
 cry through every nation in Europe, as well 
 those who finally adhered to the papal power, 
 as those which renounced it, as the sole re- 
 medy for the evils of the church ; and that, 
 too, of no narrow compass or superficial 
 character, but such as, in the language of 
 the time, should comprehend both the 
 " head and members," and be applied to 
 every point of doctrine and discipline. It is 
 equally certain that nothing but the dread 
 of a general rejection of his authority, cou- 
 pled with a hope of allaying, by an appear- 
 ance of equity, the irritation which was be- 
 coming every day more violent, and avert- 
 ing the impending danger, at length de- 
 termined the "" pope, who at that time go- 
 verned the church, (himself one of the most 
 crafty and subtle of men,) in deference to 
 the earnest solicitations and menacing re- 
 monstrances of the most powerful princes 
 of Christendom, to call a general council of 
 the church at Trent, for the declared pur- 
 pose of extinguishing heresies and reform- 
 ing the church. But whoever shall review 
 the proceedings of that servile assembly, 
 a Paul III. 
 
80 LECTURE III. 
 
 composed for the most part of the creatures 
 and dependents of the pope, and influenced 
 by him in all their measures, will clearly 
 perceive that two things only were seriously 
 aimed at, and effectually accomplished by 
 it ; first, the prevention of that reformation, 
 which was the professed object of their 
 meeting; and, secondly, the plenary con- 
 firmation of the pope's power, wherever it 
 was still acknowledged; although the dimi- 
 nution of it was considered by all, who were 
 sincerely concerned for the welfare of reli- 
 gion ^ and as the event has fully proved, 
 most justly considered, to be the first and 
 most necessary step towards the removal of 
 every corruption, and the redress of every 
 grievance. 
 
 But while the advocates of the church of 
 Rome are constrained to admit that many 
 evils had crept into it which needed correc- 
 tion, they utterly deny to those who at- 
 tempted to apply the remedy, the merit of 
 good intention, and attribute all their ef- 
 forts in opposition to the sovereign pontiff 
 
 b Father PauPs History of the Council of Trent, p. 
 550. ed. 1676, Brents translation. 
 
LECTURE III. 81 
 
 to an ambitious and disobedient spirit, ex- 
 cited to such an undertaking by the spi- 
 ritual enemy of mankind. They will not 
 allow the possibility of a separation from 
 the church of Rome ever being either ne- 
 cessary or justifiable under any circum- 
 stances ; since, as they pretend, the promise 
 of infallibility, exclusive salvation, and va- 
 rious other high and inalienable privileges 
 belong to it, so that to forsake its commu- 
 nion, and to refuse submission to its au- 
 thority, is nothing less than to rebel against 
 God, to renounce Christ, and to incur a 
 more dreadful guilt than that of the most 
 heinous transgression of divine or human 
 laws, from the consequences of which the 
 combination of all moral and religious vir- 
 tue can afford no exemption. 
 
 Assuming, but not attempting to prove 
 by reason or the evidence of fact, that their 
 church enjoys those singular and exclusive 
 prerogatives by the perpetual gift of God, 
 they argue, a priori^ that in all controver- 
 sies of religion she must be right, and all 
 who oppose her wrong ; that although the 
 relaxation of ecclesiastical discipline, or the 
 
 G 
 
82 LECTURE III. 
 
 corruption of manners, or abuses in the 
 temporal administration of their church, 
 might have required correction, yet in mat- 
 ters of faith and doctrine that she could 
 not err ; and therefore that the protestants, 
 in renouncing their allegiance to her on ac- 
 count of imputed errors and corruptions of 
 religion, were guilty of the deadly sins of 
 heresy and schism. 
 
 This is the preliminary objection to the 
 reformation, which it was my intention to 
 notice upon the present occasion ; not that 
 it deserves notice from any value of its own, 
 nor that it can be necessary to expose its 
 fallacy to those who have the scriptures in 
 their hands, and are permitted to read and 
 understand them in their plain and obvious 
 sense ; but because the groundless assump- 
 tions on which it is founded are so charac- 
 teristic of the general spirit of the Romish 
 church, and prove so clearly the utter hope- 
 lessness of internal reformation in a church 
 so constituted, which by its own extrava- 
 gant pretensions is tied to the defence of 
 the grossest errors. In opposition to the 
 schismatic conduct, as they denote it, of the 
 
LECTURE III. 88 
 
 protestant reformers, popish writers tell us 
 of the pious boldness and holy severity 
 with with which St. Bernard, St. Francis, 
 and other canonized luminaries of their 
 church, arraigned the vices of the several 
 ages in which they lived, neither respect- 
 ing the persons of the great and powerful, 
 nor fearing to incur their displeasure by 
 openly rebuking them ; who yet were never 
 carried away by the intemperance of their 
 zeal to attempt a separation between the 
 head and members of the church, but were 
 distinguished by their dutiful obedience to 
 the apostolic see, and their exertions to 
 promote its honour and authority. 
 
 Now admitting for argument's sake, that 
 the praises bestowed on these celebrated 
 personages, who in times of overwhelming 
 ignorance and gross immorality were dis- 
 tinguished by superior piety and know- 
 ledge, were justly merited, we may yet be 
 permitted to ask, what were the fruits of 
 their endeavours to reform the world, whe- 
 ther by reproof, instruction, or example? 
 Did they change the face of religion and 
 morals in any one nation ? Did they in any 
 
 G 2 
 
84 LECTURE III. 
 
 one region of the Christian world exter- 
 minate the superstition by which the whole 
 was overspread? or were they in their own 
 persons free from its influence? or was their 
 piety of that -pure and enlightened charac- 
 ter, which may be considered as the legiti- 
 mate offspring, and correct illustration of 
 those spiritual doctrines, which our Lord 
 and his apostles delivered to mankind? 
 That God never so totally forsook his 
 church, but that in the worst and dark- 
 est ages individuals arose, who did honour 
 to human nature, and exhibited in their 
 lives the power of divine grace, is a truth 
 which, as I have before remarked % we may 
 admit in its fullest extent, without the least 
 prejudice to the cause of the reformation, 
 or at all strengthening the hands of its ad- 
 versaries. 
 
 Without doubt there were many such, 
 men at least of pious minds and good in- 
 tentions, in proportion to the measure of 
 their knowledge ; just as in the darkest pe- 
 riods of states and empires, we sometimes 
 meet with individuals of exalted virtue, who 
 
 c First Lecture. 
 
LECTURE III. 85 
 
 would have done honour to their best and 
 most splendid eras. But these rare excep- 
 tions do not at all affect the main question, 
 which is not to be determined by solitary 
 particulars, but by a comprehensive view of 
 the aggregate whole. And yet even of those, 
 whose religious virtues are so highly ex- 
 tolled by Roman Catholics, the names are 
 scarcely to be found in general history, so 
 little was the state of the world influenced 
 by them; but the monuments of their praise 
 must be sought for the most part, in the ob- 
 scurity and uncertainty of monastic records. 
 The efforts, too, of their zeal were princi- 
 pally employed in renovating the decayed 
 discipline of preexisting religious orders, or 
 in founding new ones ; which, indeed, was as 
 much an object of emulation with the more 
 fervent spirits of those ages, as the founding 
 of new sects has been with similar characters 
 in later times ; but the general reformation 
 of the public religion rarely if ever entered 
 into their contemplation. Nor was the ex- 
 ample of the austerities which they affected'', 
 too nearly resembling those of certain orders 
 
 ^ Vide passim Butler''s Lives of the Saints. 
 g3 
 
86 LECTURE III. 
 
 of pagan priests^ from whom it is difficult to 
 believe that they were not originally borrow- 
 ed, likely to make a favourable impression 
 on the minds of men in general, or to con- 
 tribute to the advancement of religion, the 
 perfection of which was made to consist in 
 such self-inflicted sufferings. For such acts 
 of religion, if they could deserve the name, 
 are utterly incompatible with the ordinary 
 duties of life, the due performance of which 
 constitutes so essential a part of true reli- 
 gion ; and if worthy of imitation, could be 
 imitated only in the seclusion of the clois- 
 ter, to which, indeed, all ideas of piety in 
 those dark ages seem to have been wholly 
 confined. Those professed ascetics were 
 moreover the most strenuous assertors of 
 the pope's universal supremacy, and what- 
 ever dogma or mandate was issued from 
 Rome, they were ever ready to receive 
 without question, and to propagate with 
 the most sedulous efforts of their zeal. 
 
 The members of the monastic orders were 
 then, as they still are in whatever country 
 
 ^ Barefooted Carmelites, &c. otviTrroTrohg, ;5(;a/xa»5uva<, &c. 
 Horn. II. XVI. S35. 
 
LECTURE III. 87 
 
 they have retained their influence, or re- 
 gained a footing, the indefatigable instru- 
 ments of the papal power, which they make 
 it their pride to strengthen and extend, and 
 consider the advancement of it identified 
 with the reputation of their fraternity, and 
 consequently with their own individual im- 
 portance. 
 
 But none of the inveterate errors and 
 corruptions of religion could be corrected 
 by men bound by such ties, originating, as 
 the worst of them did, in the express au- 
 thority of their church, or consecrated by 
 its sanction ; and when we farther take into 
 the account the powerful bonds by which 
 every member of that church is held in 
 subjection to his spiritual chief, how much 
 soever reason and conscience may revolt at 
 particular doctrines or practices, it is evi- 
 dently impossible that any one should 
 openly dare to call them in question, till he 
 first felt himself emancipated from that 
 bondage ^ 
 
 e The failure of the Jansenists is a decisive proof of 
 the impossibiHty of reforming the church of Rome, while 
 the sovereignty of the pope is acknowledged. 
 
 G 4 
 
88 LECTURE III. 
 
 Reformation, therefore, must have been 
 for ever renounced as hopeless, or it must 
 have been undertaken and perfected in de- 
 fiance of that power, whose interest and au- 
 thority were directly concerned in the per- 
 petuation of every abuse which it had once 
 sanctioned, and which however gross it 
 could not condemn, without at the same 
 time renouncing its claim to infallibility, 
 which in less enlightened ages was the pal- 
 ladium of its strength, but is now a mill- 
 stone round its neck. Of this we have the 
 most conclusive evidence in the undeniable 
 fact, that not one of the religious corrup- 
 tions, or unscriptural doctrines, or offensive 
 pretensions, imagined, and asserted by the 
 pope or church of Rome in any former age, 
 however injurious to its present interest in 
 countries where that church is not predo- 
 minant, has ever to this day been openly 
 condemned or disclaimed ; and modes of 
 worship are still retained, of which the 
 more enlightened of those who yet observe 
 them are evidently ashamed, and because 
 they may not confess an error, strive to pal- 
 liate them by sophistical explanations and 
 
LECTURE IIL 89 
 
 groundless apologies ; but are equally un- 
 able to defend them by argument against 
 the sober objections of sincere Christians, 
 or the profane irony of infidels. It is al- 
 together incredible that among the multi- 
 tudes in different nations, which still pro- 
 fess unalterable allegiance to the see of 
 Rome, there should none be found, acute 
 and enlightened in other respects as many 
 of her most distinguished partizans have 
 shewn themselves, who are really sensible 
 of her gross corruptions in faith and wor- 
 ship, and how necessary it is to the pre- 
 servation of true religion, that these cor- 
 ruptions should at length be removed. Yet 
 no such sentiment is avowed, but the same 
 debasing superstition is outwardly acqui- 
 esced in by all alike, and no medium is al- 
 lowed in the papal system between the un- 
 conditional surrender of the understanding, 
 nay, the very renunciation both of sense 
 and reason, and the guilt of infidelity. The 
 sole measure of right on every disputed 
 point is the decision of the church ; her 
 judgment must never be impugned, and to 
 presume to look beyond it, and to appeal 
 
90 LECTURE III. 
 
 to scripture against the decrees of councils, 
 or the judical sentence of the living occu- 
 pant of the papal chair, would still subject 
 the disputant who should presume so far to 
 exceed the narrow bounds prescribed to his 
 inquiries, to the imputation of heresy and 
 the public condemnation of his opinions ; 
 and in the times preceding the reformation, 
 would have brought upon him far more 
 formidable consequences than mere eccle- 
 siastical censures. In fact, the papal power 
 is still secured against all internal attempts 
 at reformation, by the worldly minded in- 
 difference or superstitious timidity of its 
 adherents ; while by its own policy it has de- 
 barred itself from the correction of abuses, 
 however indefensible, and the adoption of 
 improvements, however dictated by the in- 
 crease of knowledge and the altered cir- 
 cumstances of the world. 
 
 It has taken up a position from which 
 there is no retreat. " It is infallible, and 
 " cannot err ; it has alone the perfect know- 
 " ledge of the truth, and cannot be deceiv- 
 " ed ; while all other churches have depart- 
 " ed from it, whereinsoever they have de- 
 
LECTURE III. 91 
 
 " viated from that system of doctrine and 
 " discipline, which that of Rome, by her 
 " assumed right to command, requires all 
 " Christians to receive and maintain." She 
 is, to use her own phraseology, the mother 
 and mistress of all churches, from which 
 she exacts by divine appointment the im- 
 plicit obedience of dutiful children. She 
 solves their doubts and represses their dis- 
 putes by her paramount authority, but does 
 not condescend to reason with them, nor 
 suifer any point, which has ever been set- 
 tled by her decision to be called in ques- 
 tion. She challenges to herself all the pro- 
 mises of Christ to the universal church, and 
 denies any participation of them to such 
 Christians as are not in communion with 
 her, although they may never have even 
 heard her name. She asserts that the gift 
 of the Holy Spirit, which was, according to 
 the gracious promise of our Lord, to pre- 
 serve and enlighten his people for ever 
 with the saving knowledge of the truth, is 
 exclusively hers ; and that to her alone it 
 belongs, in consequence of this incommuni- 
 cable privilege, to expound whatever is ob- 
 
92 LECTURE III. 
 
 scure, and to fix whatever is undefined, in 
 all tilings relating to religion. 
 
 By means of these inordinate pretensions 
 she maintains an absolute dominion over 
 the consciences of those, who believe her 
 entitled to assert them ; and she can at any 
 time silence their remonstrances, if they 
 should presume to think any thing erro- 
 neous in her doctrine or worship, by sim- 
 ply offering them the alternative of silent 
 acquiescence in what they disapprove, or 
 excommunication ; which to the apprehen- 
 sion of a true Roman Catholic is equiva- 
 lent to the sentence of eternal perdition ; 
 since nothing is more carefully instilled 
 into their minds from early infancy, or 
 more sedulously repeated, whenever an op- 
 portunity can be found for recurring to 
 it, than that impious pretension of their 
 church, that even the merits of the death 
 of Christ will not avail to the salvation of 
 those who do not believe that the bishop of 
 Rome is his vicar upon earth, and obey him 
 accordingly. 
 
 If, therefore, the reformers were not pre- 
 pared to concede to such extravagant claims, 
 
LECTURE III. 93 
 
 separation was unavoidable. If they had 
 conceded to them, their reformation must 
 have ended, as all partial attempts had 
 done before ; and they would have stood 
 condemned by their own admission of those 
 charges of heresy and schism, which the 
 abettors of the papal power had heaped 
 upon them. The unbending arrogance with 
 which the Romish hierarchy assert their 
 pretensions to dictate in religion to the 
 whole Christian world, is a remarkable fea^ 
 ture in the policy of that church, and was 
 never more strikingly displayed, than at 
 the crisis of the reformation ; of which, if 
 the thing had not been from God, it appears 
 in the highest degree probable, that the 
 issue might have been prevented, by a small 
 show of equity on the part of the church of 
 Rome, from which it is evident that no se- 
 cession was contemplated, till the violence 
 and injustice, which were employed to ex- 
 tinguish the first efforts towards the cor- 
 rection of ecclesiastical abuses, had irritated 
 those who were so harshly treated, and at 
 the same sime convinced them that their 
 personal safety, as well as the final success 
 
94 LECTURE TIL 
 
 of their undertaking, required a total rejec- 
 tion of that spiritual domination, to which 
 so many states and kingdoms had till then 
 yielded implicit obedience. 
 
 The ground of controversy was thus con- 
 tinually widened, and animosity inflamed, 
 by the arrogance with which it was con- 
 ducted on the part of successive popes, who 
 rejected with judicial blindness every con- 
 ciliatory proceeding, and thought it more 
 consistent with the character which they as- 
 sumed, of vicegerents of the divine Saviour 
 of the world and common fathers of the 
 faithful, to arm subjects and sovereigns 
 against each other, and to stir up nation 
 against nation, than to reason where they 
 had been accustomed to command, to ex- 
 terminate, than endeavour to persuade. 
 
 And if an argument was wanted at this 
 day to convince sober and impartial men, 
 that the honours assumed and the titles 
 claimed by the popes could not rightfully 
 belong to them, a simple enumeration of 
 the atrocities instigated, abetted, and sanc- 
 tioned by most of those who wore the triple 
 crown successively for the first century after 
 
LECTURE III. 95 
 
 the reformation, and in many partial in- 
 stances of much later date, for the purpose 
 of extirpating what they call heresy, would 
 seem to be most conclusive ; and the in- 
 fatuation of those who still look up to them 
 as the living representatives of that Saviour 
 whose first advent was accompanied with 
 the songs of angels, proclaiming ^ glory to 
 God in the highest^ and on earth peace^ good 
 will toward men^ and who professed of him- 
 self, that his kingdom was not of this world, 
 while they have the opportunity of con- 
 trasting their actions and professions with 
 the letter and spirit of the gospel, is to be 
 regarded with equal astonishment and re- 
 gret. 
 
 But the impolitic violence with which 
 the reformation was opposed cannot be im- 
 puted to the mere offended jealousy of de- 
 spotic power. In general, there is nothing 
 in which the court of Rome is less deficient, 
 than subtle refinement and dexterity in the 
 management of its own interests, and the 
 maintenance of its own pretensions. In 
 many disputes with sovereigns attached to 
 
 ^ Luke ii. 14. 
 
96 LECTURE III. 
 
 its communion, when it has not been able 
 to obtain all at which it aimed, it has known 
 how to moderate its demands, and to con- 
 cede with a good grace, rather than risk 
 the total loss of its authority. But in the 
 controversies arising out of the reformation, 
 besides the little importance which it at- 
 tached to the persons of the reformers, men 
 till then unknown to the world, and who 
 might well be presumed incapable of mak- 
 ing head against a power with which the 
 most mighty princes in Christendom had 
 as yet been unable to contend, without the 
 certainty of ultimate humiliation or ruin, it 
 was rendered more precipitate by the con- 
 scious unsoundness of the cause which it 
 had to defend, and dreaded much more an 
 appeal to reason and scripture, by which the 
 baseless foundation of its greatness might 
 be laid open to a long deluded world, than 
 any external shock to which it might be 
 exposed, without touching the secret of its 
 strength ; and a partial dismemberment of 
 its spiritual empire was less to be dreaded, 
 than a discussion of principles, which would 
 have endangered the stability of the whole. 
 
LECTURE III. 97 
 
 And accordingly, when the ambassadors 
 of some protestant princes in Germany, in 
 deference to the wishes of the emperor 
 Charles Vth, who hoped that the religious 
 differences of his empire might be composed 
 through the means of amicable conference, 
 had repaired to the council of Trent, it was 
 haughtily declared by the pope's legate, 
 who presided in it, " ^ that it was not to be 
 " suffered, that either they or any other 
 " protestants should present their doctrine, 
 " much less be admitted to defend it : 
 " that it was the office of the fathers" (i. e. 
 the agents and dependents of the pope, and 
 deputies of popish princes and states, of 
 whom the council was composed) " to ex- 
 " amine their doctrine taken out of their 
 " own books, and condemn that which did 
 " deserve it." 
 
 In this imperious and unaccommodating 
 spirit the pretended successors of St. Peter 
 acted towards the reformers in every coun- 
 try; and they might well vindicate them- 
 selves against the charge of schism, urged 
 
 g Council of Trent, 338. 
 H 
 
98 LECTURE III. 
 
 against them by their adversaries, in the 
 words of that holy apostle and the rest to 
 the council at Jerusalem, when they had 
 forbidden them to speak in the name of 
 Jesus, ^ Whether' it be ingM in the sight of 
 God to hearken unto you more than unto 
 God, Judge ye. Or as when the same pro- 
 hibition was repeated, with threats in case 
 of continued disobedience ; We ought to obey 
 God, rather than men, and consequently to 
 forsake the society of men who would not 
 suffer them, according to the dictates of 
 their own conscience, to fulfil that duty. 
 
 On these grounds we may be fully satis- 
 fied, that the separation of our church from 
 that of Rome was originally necessary and 
 unavoidable, unless every thing valuable in 
 religion was to be sacrificed to avert it; and 
 that the continuance of that separation is 
 on the same grounds equally necessary at 
 the present day; and so long as that church 
 shall persist in retaining her corruptions, 
 and refuse to see, and understand, and be 
 converted from the error of her ways, it 
 
 h Acts iv. 19. 
 
LECTURE III. 99 
 
 will be impossible that ' those who have been 
 once enlightened, and have tasted the good 
 word of God, should reenter her fold, with- 
 out the abandonment of every principle, 
 which can render the best services of a hu- 
 man being acceptable in the sight of God. 
 
 Sometimes, however, forbearing to insist 
 upon the characteristic principles and high 
 pretensions of their church, according to 
 which Roman Catholics are bound to con- 
 tend that a reformation of religion never 
 could be necessary, and still more, that a 
 rejection of that church, which claims an 
 universal supremacy over the household of 
 faith, could in no circumstances be justifi- 
 able ; her more politic advocates will have 
 recourse to a more plausible course of argu- 
 ment, and insinuate that the real differ- 
 ences between their church and ours re- 
 spect things of comparatively small mo- 
 ment, and such as in times of less excite- 
 ment, and disjoined from temporal consi- 
 derations, would not have been deemed of 
 sufficient moment to produce such an issue; 
 and consequently, that as those adventi- 
 
 ' Hebrews vi. 4. 
 H 2 
 
100 LECTURE III. 
 
 tious causes of alienation have now yielded 
 to the gradual operation of time, their ef- 
 fects should cease also, and the breach be- 
 tween us be at length made up by a tacit ac- 
 knowledgment of our error, and a reunion 
 with the supreme head of the Christian 
 world, and so the divisions healed, by which 
 our common faith is endangered. 
 
 With a policy not ill adapted to an age 
 in which men who aspire to be wise in mat- 
 ters of little or no moment, yet think it no 
 reproach to be ignorant of the first prin- 
 ciples of religion, they will remind us of 
 various circumstances which might conduce 
 to such a reconciliation ; " that we hold in 
 " common with them the same apostolic 
 " faith conceived in the same form of words, 
 " that we use not a few of the same pray- 
 " ers, that we retain the same apostolic form 
 " of church government, and observe the ap- 
 " pointed festivals of the primitive church." 
 
 That these are important points of agree- 
 ment, we can have no hesitation to admit. 
 We rather accept it as the testimony of an 
 adversary, thus claiming relationship with 
 us, that in the conduct of our reformation 
 
LECTURE III. 101 
 
 we have been guilty of no rash innovations, 
 and have indulged no blind antipathies ; 
 that we have not changed that which stands 
 on the ground of divine command or apo- 
 stolic institution, to make way for fanciful 
 improvements, or to accommodate religion 
 either to state convenience or popular pre- 
 judice. But, fully admitting the fidelity of 
 this representation, we shall yet perceive, 
 that it leaves wholly untouched the sub- 
 stantial causes of our disunion with the 
 church of Rome ; and consequently that it 
 forms no argument for our return to her 
 communion, though certainly it affords a 
 strong one, even upon their own shewing, 
 for them to reconsider their reasons for 
 refusing to accede to ours. 
 
 On our part, we do not charge them with 
 having renounced any of the essential ar- 
 ticles of Christian faith, or mutilated the 
 form of sound words^ in which the profes- 
 sion of it has been made in the church of 
 God, from the earliest ages of Christianity. 
 But we do charge them with having made 
 such additions to the truth, and introduced, 
 without any admissible authority, such doc- 
 
 h8 
 
102 LECTURE III. 
 
 trines and modes of worship, as in a great 
 degree to change the essential character of 
 the Christian religion, and to render it a 
 vehicle of darkness and superstition, instead 
 of that, which in its native purity it ever 
 must be, a fountain of light and truth, dif- 
 fusing its brightness on every side, and, to- 
 gether with the increase of knowledge, pro- 
 gressively improving the moral state of man- 
 kind. We charge them with teaching for 
 doctrines the commandments of men, and 
 exercising over the consciences of Chris- 
 tians such a dominion as the divine Author 
 of our religion has nowhere empowered his 
 disciples to assume; and requiring, under 
 pain of eternal reprobation, an implicit as- 
 sent to many things which cannot be proved 
 to be true, and to some which are demon- 
 strably false and inconsistent with the let- 
 ter and spirit of our religion. 
 
 The cause of truth may be not less in- 
 jured by addition, than by suppression ; and 
 in the Old Testament we find the same 
 prohibition against ^ adding to, or diminish- 
 ing from, the commands of God. 
 
 k Deut. xii. 32. 
 
LECTURE III. 103 
 
 Nearly all the corruptions which pro- 
 testants impute to the church of Rome 
 come from this source, from the presump- 
 tion of adding to that which they believe 
 already perfect; and the main difference 
 between the two parties ultimately resolves 
 itself into this, — that Romanists have a 
 double rule of faith and morals, scripture 
 and tradition, which they call the unwrit- 
 ten word of God, while protestants acknow- 
 ledge as such the holy scripture or written 
 word only. By this alone protestants con- 
 tend that every doctrine must be tried, and 
 every article of faith established, which is 
 enjoined upon Christians as necessary to 
 salvation. Those of Rome, on the other 
 hand, while they admit that tradition, or 
 the unwritten word, must not be contrary 
 to the written, yet claim an equal authority 
 for it, and contend that scripture is defi- 
 cient in many important particulars, and in 
 others unintelligible without the help of 
 tradition. Tradition, being thus assumed 
 for the key of scripture, is in effect exalted 
 above it ; and Romish ' writers, of the high- 
 
 ^ Bellarmine, Milner, &c. &c. 
 H 4 
 
104 LECTURE III. 
 
 est eminence for orthodoxy and skill in the 
 principles of their church, have not hesi- 
 tated to assert, that the written word of 
 God was neither perfect nor absolutely ne- 
 cessary, and that tradition, or the unwritten 
 word, might have sufficed for the know- 
 ledge and maintenance of our religion with- 
 out it. 
 
 We see, therefore, notwithstanding the 
 agreement between the protestant episcopal 
 church and that of Rome in the first prin- 
 ciples of religion, a church government, 
 there yet remains a wide difference be- 
 tween them, concerning points of great im- 
 portance to faith and practice. Though 
 starting from the same goal, we proceed on 
 diverging roads, and under the conduct of 
 different guides. Scripture and Tradition; 
 and it is not to be wondered that we arrive 
 at very different conclusions. 
 
 But the subject of tradition is far too 
 important to be passed over with a brief 
 notice. It shall therefore form the main 
 subject of the next Lecture. 
 
 Suffice it for the present to observe, that 
 whatever may be pretended by the enemies 
 
LECTURE III. 105 
 
 of our church, or inconsiderately allowed 
 by its ill-informed friends, concerning its 
 resemblance to that of Rome, that resem- 
 blance consists only in such particulars as 
 are necessary to Christian faith, or in such 
 institutions as are common to all apostolic 
 churches, or in such things as are venerable 
 by ancient usage, and conducive to piety 
 and holiness. But here the resemblance 
 ceases ; and those points on which we differ, 
 are such as the church of Rome has pre- 
 sumed to decide by her own authority 
 alone, or that of tradition, whatever it be, 
 without the sanction of scripture. 
 
 And in support of this assertion, we have 
 not only the evidence of legitimate deduc- 
 tion from the writings of her most esteemed 
 theologians, but the express declaration of 
 her highest authority in that addition to 
 the Apostles' Creed, which, subsequent to 
 the reformation, she imposed, under the 
 pain of anathema, upon all her members; 
 and from which, if all other testimony were 
 wanting, the necessity of that reformation 
 might be irrefragably proved. 
 
 It is difficult, indeed, to contemplate this 
 
106 LECTURE III. 
 
 prodigious monument of infatuated pre- 
 sumption, without calling to mind the wish 
 of Job, Oh that mme adversaries had writ- 
 ten a book! 
 
 If from the time of the reformation to 
 the present day the church of Rome had 
 maintained a cautious reserve, and silently 
 corrected her most glaring abuses, it might 
 at length have come to be doubted, whe- 
 ther in the beginning the protestants had 
 truth and reason on their side : but when 
 in the plenitude of her arrogance, having 
 escaped the first shock of the reformation, 
 and reestablished her spiritual power more 
 firmly than ever in those nations of Eu- 
 rope which were then accounted most con- 
 siderable, she put forth that supplementary 
 exposition of her faith ; in equal contempt 
 of reason and scripture, she gave evidence 
 against herself of the justice of their accu- 
 sations, which no sophistry can ever shake, 
 no artifice elude. By this the enemies of 
 the truth are convicted out of their own 
 mouths, and that which was intended to 
 add impregnable strength to the citadel of 
 superstition, must, unless the scripture be 
 
LECTURE III. 107 
 
 indeed, as some of them have reproachfully 
 called it, a dead letter, in time effect its 
 subversion. 
 
 Thus, we trust, has the final triumph of 
 pure religion been prepared, through the 
 counsels which were devised to extinguish 
 it for ever; and the policy of those who 
 studied to perpetuate delusion, for the pur- 
 pose of preserving their ill-gotten and im- 
 piously abused power over the ignorance 
 and fear of mankind, will have turned to 
 their own confusion. 
 
 For which, and for all his spiritual mer- 
 cies, let us bless God, "" who taketh the wise 
 in their own craftiness^ and by his holy 
 word "^giveth light and understanding to the 
 simple. Amen. 
 
 "■ Job V. 13. n Psalm cxix. 130. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 Matthew xv. 9. 
 
 But in vain do they worship me, teaching for 
 doctrines the commandments of men. 
 
 We come now to that which I observed 
 in my last Discourse to be the great head 
 of difference between our church and that 
 of Rome, and under which almost all other 
 differences of substantive importance are 
 virtually comprehended, " the authority of 
 " tradition ;" — which Romanists elevate to 
 an equal rank in all respects with the writ- 
 ten word of God, while we reject it in its 
 primary sense as apocryphal and superflu- 
 ous ; and in its application, as a rule of faith 
 and doctrine, superlatively pernicious. 
 
 It is scarcely possible, in entering upon 
 this subject, not to remark the near analogy 
 between the practice of the modern church 
 of Rome and that of the Jews, in the time 
 of our Saviour, in respect to tradition. 
 
 The Jews employed it to explain away 
 
110 LECTURE IV. 
 
 the precepts of the Mosaic law ; Roman- 
 ists avail themselves of it, to put their own 
 construction upon holy scripture, which 
 they affirm to be insufficient, and in many 
 passages unintelligible, without it. The ef- 
 fect too of tradition, so applied, seems to 
 have been in both cases essentially the 
 same, that of diminishing the authority of 
 scripture, and consequently of weakening 
 the influence of true religion. The strong 
 condemnation of it therefore among the 
 Jews, by our divine Master, who knew what 
 was in man, the weakness of his judgment 
 and his proneness to err, ought at least to 
 render all who profess themselves his dis- 
 ciples very cautious of incurring a similar 
 censure. 
 
 Religion, when it presumes to venture 
 beyond the limits which the wisdom of 
 God has appointed, of necessity departs 
 from the standard of truth, and degene- 
 rates into superstition ; and human tradi- 
 tion superadded to divine revelation, like 
 a parasite plant, exhausts the health and 
 vigour, and destroys the beauty, of the stem 
 to which it has attached itself. 
 
LECTURE IV. Ill 
 
 The traditions of the church of Rome, 
 in relation to scripture, if tried by their 
 fruits, will be found to form no exception 
 to this rule. In the pope's Creed, presump- 
 tuously subjoined to that of the Apostles, 
 towards the end of the same century in 
 which the reformation had begun, and in 
 obedience to his mandate submissively re- 
 ceived throughout the Romish church, the 
 belief in tradition with good reason occu- 
 pies the first place, inasmuch as it forms 
 the sole basis of those corruptions of faith 
 and worship which are imposed upon the 
 consciences of all who still believe that the 
 pope is the vicegerent of the Son of God 
 on earth, and that salvation is the exclu- 
 sive prerogative of the church which owns 
 him for its head. 
 
 The subject of tradition has indeed been 
 pronounced by the most able divines to be 
 replete with difficulty; and I have too much 
 reason to apprehend that I may be cen- 
 sured for presumption in attempting to 
 handle it ; but yet I feel it to be of such 
 vital importance to the right understand- 
 ing of the whole question between our 
 
112 LECTURE IV. 
 
 church and that of Rome, that, however 
 diffident of my ability to do it justice, I 
 cannot, consistently with the design of 
 these Lectures, leave it untouched. It is 
 not, however, my intention to entangle my- 
 self in unprofitable intricacies, or to at- 
 tempt to unravel the sophistical subtleties 
 with which Romanists have studied to em- 
 barrass the argument; but to shew, as I 
 trust, upon plain and substantial grounds, 
 that it is our duty decidedly to reject it 
 in its most important aspects, and where 
 we admit it in any sense, to do so, as our 
 church has done, with scrupulous caution 
 and reserve. 
 
 To many among the audience which I 
 am addressing this must be a trite subject, 
 and I fear that I have nothing to offer 
 which may be worthy of their attention ; 
 but, if not materially incorrect, it may have 
 some utility for those who are less advanced 
 in theological studies ; and if it should but 
 have the effect of exciting their attention 
 to a question of great, and, under existing 
 circumstances, I may add, though without 
 any political allusion, of growing import- 
 
LECTURE IV. 113 
 
 ance, my wishes will not be wholly disap- 
 pointed, nor my humble endeavours in the 
 cause of true religion altogether abortive. 
 
 Now the tradition of the church of Rome 
 is distinguished by her theologians into 
 three several kinds, divine, apostolical, and 
 ecclesiastical ; the first of which, the divine^ 
 they assert to have been delivered by our 
 Saviour himself to the apostles, but not 
 committed to writing by them ; the second, 
 the apostolical, that which was taught by 
 the apostles to their converts, but is not 
 contained in their epistles, yet in the oral 
 communication of which they were not 
 without the assistance of the Holy Spirit ; 
 the third, the ecclesiastical, they define to 
 consist of things established by the usage 
 of the church, and constitutions, whether 
 written or unwritten, concerning rites and 
 ceremonies, ordinances, forms of worship 
 and discipline ; which, though not of equal 
 validity with the two former, they hold to 
 be perpetually and universally binding, un- 
 less repealed by the same authority by 
 which they were at first enacted. The 
 divine and apostolical, the one proceeding, 
 
114 LECTURE IV. 
 
 as it is asserted, from the immediate dic- 
 tation of Christ himself, the other from the 
 suggestion of the Holy Spirit, are esteemed 
 of equal authority, both being in fact di- 
 vine, and derived from the same origin, in 
 ways but little differing from each other, 
 and together constitute a rule of faith 
 which they call the unwritten word, and to 
 which the same deference is demanded as 
 to the written word of God. 
 
 This, therefore, is the tradition which all 
 protestants unanimously reject, as destitute 
 of all proof of authenticity, and on prin- 
 ciples of reason utterly inadmissible. Ec- 
 clesiastical traditions our church (in her 
 thirty-fourth Article) admits under certain 
 limitations, and in a sense materially dif- 
 ferent from that in which the church of 
 Rome understands them ; asserting the 
 right of every national church to ordain, 
 change, or abolish such things, as it may 
 seem best, provided that all thiyigs be done 
 to edifying. 
 
 Romanists are at least consistent with 
 themselves in asserting the insufficiency of 
 holy Scripture ; since on no other ground 
 
LECTURE IV. 115 
 
 can the necessity of that kind of tradition 
 on which articles of faith and doctrine are 
 founded, with any semblance of reason or 
 probability be maintained ; and happily for 
 the cause of truth, many of the articles 
 which they pretend to found upon it are 
 such, that without further examination of 
 its claims to our acceptation, we should be 
 justified in rejecting it altogether, as spu- 
 rious and unworthy of the Holy Spirit, to 
 whose guidance and suggestion they ascribe 
 it. But omitting for the present any par- 
 ticular notice of these Articles, and weigh- 
 ing according to its own merit whatever is 
 advanced by the principal advocates of tra- 
 dition in general, we shall find it utterly 
 unsupported by such evidence as should 
 induce us to receive it ; while, on the other 
 hand, we shall clearly perceive in the whole 
 system connected with it, and the purposes 
 to which it is applied by the church of 
 Rome, and even in the arguments adduced 
 in favour of it by her most eminent contro- 
 versialists, enough to convince us that it is 
 our bounden duty to refuse our assent to 
 it, and to regard it with the greatest sus- 
 
 1 2 
 
116 LECTURE IV. 
 
 picion. Most justly does our church assert % 
 " that whatever is necessary to salvation 
 " is contained in holy scripture," and the 
 same was undoubtedly the sense of every 
 branch of the universal church, before it 
 had departed from primitive truth and 
 sincerity. 
 
 In proof of this we need not have re- 
 course to the writings of the fathers, to ec- 
 clesiastical history, or controversial argu- 
 ment. An easier, and at the same time a 
 more satisfactory decision of the point at 
 issue, seems to lie within the reach of 
 every man moderately instructed in the 
 principles of his religion. The three creeds, 
 which our truly apostolic church has wisely 
 and dutifully retained, supply an incontro- 
 vertible testimony, which neither party can 
 hesitate to acknowledge. 
 
 To these, therefore, our first appeal a- 
 gainst the authority of tradition shall be 
 made. 
 
 That most venerable symbol of our faith, 
 which we call the Apostles' Creed, not be- 
 
 a Art. VI. 
 
LECTURE IV. 117 
 
 cause it was composed by the apostles, such 
 as we now have it, but because of the apo- 
 stolic doctrine contained in it, has undoubt- 
 edly descended to us from very high anti- 
 quity ; and when it was first drawn up, it 
 cannot be doubted that it was intended to 
 express every head of faith which was then 
 by its authors, and the universal church 
 which adopted it, deemed necessary to sal- 
 vation. The Nicene Creed expresses, only 
 in a more enlarged form, and with some- 
 thing more of technical precision, to guard 
 against heretical sophisms, the same pro- 
 positions as the Apostles' Creed. And, lastly, 
 the Athanasian, which in a later age had 
 been deemed necessary, as a more full and 
 specific enunciation of the same articles of 
 belief which had been more briefly pro- 
 fessed in the other two, to serve as an ad- 
 ditional security against the continued at- 
 tempts of heresy to pervert the truth, con- 
 tains, like them, not a single article which 
 is not proved by the authority of holy 
 scripture, in its plain declarations, or in 
 just and necessary inferences from them. 
 At the several periods when these creeds 
 I S 
 
118 LECTURE IV. 
 
 were compiled, it cannot be admitted as a 
 possible supposition, that any thing was 
 left untouched which was judged necessary 
 to the completion of a true and perfect 
 Christian faith ; nor in reality is any point 
 of theology omitted in them, by which our 
 religion is essentially distinguished from Ju- 
 daism, Deism, or Paganism. It would have 
 been utterly inconsistent with every pur- 
 pose for which such summaries of faith are 
 designed, to suppress any article which a 
 Christian is bound to know and believe to 
 his soul's health, and by a diligent atten- 
 tion to which he can alone be preserved 
 from those heretical fallacies by which, in 
 all ages, the faith of believers has been as- 
 sailed. 
 
 But what room do we here find for the 
 interference of tradition, either to vindicate 
 or elucidate the articles of our creed, every 
 clause of which is either expressly declared 
 in the written word of God, or plainly de- 
 ducible from it ? And for the more enlarged 
 explication of what is there more concisely 
 affirmed, the ordinary methods of teaching, 
 such as are proper to the office of a Chris- 
 
LECTURE IV. 119 
 
 tian ministry, which appeals to that word 
 only for the correctness of its instructions, 
 and assumes to itself no authority above or 
 independent of it, are abundantly sufficient, 
 with the grace of God, without having re- 
 course to the auxiliary sanction of an un- 
 written revelation. 
 
 If, therefore, the several articles of the 
 ancient creeds of the church are satisfac- 
 torily proved from scripture alone, and no 
 extraneous testimony is required for their 
 support, it seems necessarily to follow, that 
 tradition is altogether superfluous in the 
 construction and defence of a pure and 
 apostolic faith. And, as it is inconsistent 
 with perfect wisdom to do any thing in 
 vain, nor do we see any similar redundancy 
 in the economy either of nature or grace, 
 by which a plurality of instruments is em- 
 ployed to effect a single purpose, for which 
 one is evidently sufficient, we are justified 
 by these considerations, independent of its 
 intrinsic defects, in rejecting tradition alto- 
 gether, as a ground or criterion of faith. 
 
 The next great purpose of our religion, 
 after that of inculcating a right faith to- 
 
 I 4 
 
120 LECTURE IV. 
 
 wards God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 and right notions concerning the work of 
 our redemption by the joint operation of 
 the three Persons in the Godhead, is to 
 promote holiness of life, to teach men their 
 duty towards God and each other, and by 
 adequate sanctions to excite them to the 
 diligent performance of it. Here, then, we 
 have another test for ascertaining the ne- 
 cessity, and consequently the authenticity 
 of tradition ; since, according to our argu- 
 ment, if not necessary, it cannot be ad- 
 mitted for true. 
 
 Again, therefore, we demand, with equal 
 confidence, is the written word of God suf- 
 ficient for this second purpose of genuine 
 religion ? Do we not find in the collective 
 volume of holy scripture the great princi- 
 ples of every duty, whether religious, social, 
 or personal, set forth with such perspicuity 
 that every individual of ordinary under- 
 standing may comprehend them, and en- 
 forced with such sanctions that none but 
 infidels can fail to feel their force? And, 
 lastly, is any thing more required to give 
 them full effect upon the minds of a Chris- 
 
LECTURE IV. m 
 
 tian congregation, than that they should be 
 diligently explained and applied to prac- 
 tice, by the preaching and exhortation of 
 the ministers of Christ, ordained for that 
 very end ? To these queries it is impossible 
 to anticipate a dissentient answer. Con- 
 cerning the vital principles of practical re- 
 ligion, in which all men are equally inter- 
 ested, there is nothing obscure or ambigu- 
 ous in the Christian code. Even infidels 
 have professed to admire the morality of 
 the gospel, while they have refused to hum- 
 ble their pride to its divine authority, and 
 have acknowledged it to be, as a discipline 
 of life and manners, superior to the most 
 renowned systems of heathen philosophy. 
 And it is worthy of remark, amidst the va- 
 riety of heterodox opinions which have in- 
 fested the church upon almost every sub- 
 ject concerning which it was possible to 
 dispute, that there is no controversy be- 
 tween serious and sober-minded Christians, 
 concerning the true meaning of those pre- 
 cepts of holiness and honesty which per- 
 vade the New Testament, and the practical 
 duties founded upon them. And those an- 
 
122 LECTURE IV. 
 
 tinomian enthusiasts who have from time 
 to time arisen, both before and since the 
 reformation, denying the obligations of the 
 moral law, have never attempted to defend 
 their anomalous impiety by the alleged in- 
 sufficiency of scripture, or the obscurity of 
 its precepts concerning those duties which 
 they reject ; but by the misprision of par- 
 ticular passages, asserting the insufficiency 
 of that formal righteousness which the Mo- 
 saic law required, they have taken away the 
 moral law altogether, as no longer binding 
 upon Christians, who are saved by grace, 
 and not by works. 
 
 Nor is such an insane abuse of scripture 
 any objection to its sufficiency as a code of 
 morality, to such as are willing to under- 
 stand it ; while to those who are deter- 
 mined to disregard its plain sense, and to 
 wrest it to an agreement with their own 
 preposterous conceits, it is evident that tra- 
 dition would afford no security against er- 
 ror; since it cannot be imagined possible 
 that those who acknowledge the holy scrip- 
 ture to be the written word of God, and 
 yet presume to handle it deceitfully, should 
 
LECTURE IV. 1^3 
 
 pay more respect to an unwritten comment 
 upon it, even if they should not deny it to 
 possess an equal degree of authority. 
 
 But though such arguments may be found 
 among those which are advanced by Ro- 
 manists, to prove the insufficiency of scrip- 
 ture without tradition, we are but combat- 
 ing shadows in attempting seriously to re- 
 fute them. Nothing can prevent the mis- 
 apprehensions of wilful blindness, or the 
 aberrations of extravagant delusion. But 
 the perfect agreement of all churches, and 
 all sects of sincere men, concerning the 
 great heads of moral duty, prove incontest- 
 ably that there also, as in the case of faith, 
 the scriptures alone are abundantly suffi- 
 cient for the direction of believers, without 
 the supplemental aid of tradition. The 
 Christian life, indeed, is perfect only in pro- 
 portion to its correspondence with the pat- 
 tern exhibited in the New Testament ; and 
 he will be most like his Master, who most 
 carefully conforms to his Master's precepts, 
 as they are there delivered. And hefe we 
 might quit the subject, if the necessity or 
 utility of tradition, for any true and legiti- 
 
1£4 LECTURE IV. 
 
 mate purpose of religion, was the sole ob- 
 ject of our inquiry. For unless it is wanted 
 as a ground of faith, or a rule of life, there 
 is no third office for which its service can 
 be required. 
 
 But besides the necessity of tradition for 
 the right understanding of scripture and 
 for supplying its alleged deficiencies, for 
 which our opponents contend, they further 
 assert that its authority is clearly recognized 
 in the scripture itself ; as in the Old Testa- 
 ment where the Israelites are enjoined by 
 ^ Moses to teach their sons and their sons' 
 sons the mighty works of God wrought for 
 their deliverance, that they might also learn 
 to fear him, and not go astray after other 
 gods ; and as when in the New, St. Paul 
 exhorts the Corinthians *^ to keep the tradi- 
 tions which he had delivered to them; and 
 the Thessalonians ^to standfast, and hold the 
 traditions ivhich they had been taught, whe- 
 ther, as he says, by word or our epistle ; be- 
 sides some other equally irrelevant passages, 
 which they wrest to the same purpose, and 
 
 b Deut. iv. 10. c 1 Cor. xi. 2. ^J 2 Thess. ii. 15. 
 
LECTURE IV. 125 
 
 which in fact prove nothing in their favour, 
 but when fairly examined go entirely against 
 them, and are only forced into the argument 
 to give it a colour of scriptural authority ; 
 of the whole support of which we at once 
 deprive them, by observing that it is to 
 written as well as unwritten tradition, that 
 the apostle refers, and by substituting a de- 
 finite for an indefinite term, in the ambi- 
 guity of which the whole secret of their 
 strength lies. 
 
 The sense which in modern usage is af- 
 fixed to the word tf^adition is that of un- 
 written history, or at least knowledge of 
 some kind, orally transmitted, without the 
 aid of letters ; but the classical sense of the 
 word, in which alone it appears to be used 
 in the passages cited from the New Testa- 
 ment, and in every other, unless where it is 
 mentioned with evident disapprobation, as 
 invalidating the commands of God, is ma- 
 terially different, and comprehends instruc- 
 tion of every kind, however conveyed. Ex- 
 amples of this, both in Greek and Latin 
 authors, must be familiar to all my hearers, 
 and I should not have touched upon so tri- 
 
126 LECTURE IV. 
 
 vial a point of verbal criticism, if it were 
 not for the purpose of fixing the true mean- 
 ing of a word, which in the case before us 
 is of the greatest importance ; since it is 
 from the indeterminate use of it that Ro- 
 manists endeavour to draw arguments in 
 support of their cause, which would be 
 wholly inapplicable to it, if that uncer- 
 tainty were removed. Nothing can be 
 clearer, than that St. Paul, in speaking of 
 traditions, which he exhorts his converts to 
 keep^ means nothing else than those in- 
 structions which he had before given them 
 either verbally or in writing, and not occult 
 principles of doctrine unfit for general com- 
 munication, but such as we still read in his 
 several epistles ; nor can there be found in 
 any part of the sacred volume the most dis- 
 tant allusion to any esoteric system of doc- 
 trines, which were neither to be committed 
 to writing, nor freely imparted to the whole 
 body of Christian believers, but retained for 
 ever in the custody and at the discretion of 
 the rulers of the church. In addition, how- 
 ever, to the texts adduced from St. Paul, Ro- 
 manists claim support from the concluding 
 
LECTURE IV. 127 
 
 verse of St. John's Gospel, where the evan- 
 gelist says, that many other things also were 
 done by our Lord, which if they were sepa- 
 rately related, he supposes^ speaking with al- 
 lowable hyperbole, that not even the world it- 
 self icould contain the books that should be 
 written. These things, therefore, omitted by 
 the inspired writers, they would have us be- 
 lieve to have been preserved in their tradi- 
 tion, which must consequently be of high 
 authority as a rule both of faith and prac- 
 tice. But they forget, that in the close of 
 the preceding chapter, the same evangelist 
 had thus observed upon the same subject ; 
 "" But many other signs truly did Jesus in 
 the presence of his disciples, which ai^e not 
 recorded in this book : but these are written, 
 that ye might believe that Jesus is the Chi^ist, 
 the Son of God ; and that believing ye might 
 have life through his name; the unavoid- 
 able inference from which appears to be, 
 that whatever was necessary to the faith of 
 Christians has been preserved in the writings 
 of the divinely inspired evangelists ; and 
 
 e John XX. 30, 31. 
 
1^8 LECTURE IV. 
 
 that those particulars relating to the life 
 and actions of our Saviour which have been 
 omitted by them, to avoid too great pro- 
 lixity, however it might gratify a pious cu- 
 riosity to know them minutely, were not in 
 the judgment of the Holy Spirit of suffi- 
 cient importance to be particularly recount- 
 ed ; and if they have not been preserved in 
 writing, because the grounds of faith were 
 perfect without the knowledge of them, it is 
 preposterous to suppose, that they have been 
 handed down through the uncertain chan- 
 nel of oral tradition, and that the reception 
 of them without any evidence of their au- 
 thority can now at length be required of 
 all Christians, to whom the knowledge of 
 them was not judged necessary, till it had 
 been so ruled by the modern church of 
 Rome. 
 
 Tradition, however, in the sense which 
 Romanists affix to it, is of such vital im- 
 portance to their system of religion, that no 
 point has been more laboured by them, than 
 the maintenance of it in their acceptation 
 of the term. 
 
 Assuming, without hesitation, that the 
 
LECTURE IV. U9 
 
 tradition spoken of in the apostolic writings 
 means the oral transmission of recondite 
 doctrines, they have recourse to such argu- 
 ments, independent of the little support 
 which they imagine that they can derive 
 from scripture, to prove the reality and ne- 
 cessity of it, as men so expert in religious 
 controversy would never condescend to em- 
 ploy, if they had any thing like direct tes- 
 timony to bring forward. ^Some of them 
 seem to think that they have found a con- 
 clusive analogy between their tradition and 
 the common or unwritten law of our own 
 country, and that the one holds the same 
 place in relation to the written word of 
 God, as the other does to the written or 
 statute law of the realm ; forgetting that 
 this unwritten law is but the natural sense 
 of right and wrong which the Author of 
 our being has impressed upon our minds, 
 with its application to the unlimited variety 
 of human actions, and the usages and deci- 
 sions formed upon it, where the written 
 law is silent ; whereas their tradition, if it 
 
 f Milner, Part 1. Letter 10. 
 K 
 
130 LECTURE IV. 
 
 has any real existence, comes not, like the 
 unwritten law, to which they compare it, 
 from the light of nature, but altogether 
 from revelation, and is in fact itself a sub- 
 sidiary revelation, to supply the deficiencies 
 of another previously derived from the same 
 source, though conveyed through different 
 channels. 
 
 ^ Others have had recourse to the senti- 
 ments of ancient philosophers in approba- 
 tion of this unwritten law, which from simi- 
 lar causes must obtain in all states, as af- 
 fording, by analogy again, a support to their 
 tradition ; and not only are the learned 
 sages of antiquity appealed to, but even the 
 barbarous Druids, who communicated their 
 most sacred mysteries by oral teaching only, 
 and did not commit them to writing, are 
 cited to the same effect by the ablest advo- 
 cate of the papal cause. Yet, not relying 
 altogether on vague analogies in support of 
 their system, they tell us, that " ^' within a 
 " short period after the age of the apostles 
 " the Christian religion did flourish and pre- 
 
 s Bellarmine, De Verbo Dei non Scripto. 
 ^ Milner from Irenaeus, Letter 10. 
 
LECTURE IV. 131 
 
 " vail among nations which knew not even 
 " the use of letters," and which must there- 
 fore have been converted by tradition only; 
 an argument which, however irrelevant to 
 that which they want to prove, is not with- 
 out its use ; since it shews, contrary to their 
 intention, that tradition anciently meant, 
 as we have argued, in its proper sense, in- 
 struction^ whether oral or written, while at 
 the same time it is evident that the former 
 was the only kind of instruction, which 
 men unacquainted with letters were capa- 
 ble of receiving. Under the same deno- 
 mination however, preaching, catechising, 
 and nearly every other kind of instruction 
 used at this day in our own church, except 
 the reading of the holy scripture and the 
 use of written forms, might with equal pro- 
 priety be comprehended : and it is well 
 known, that all true protestants, while they 
 allow no other authority than that of holy 
 scripture for the establishment of doctrines, 
 lay at least as much stress on the oral ex- 
 planation of doctrines so established as ever 
 the church of Rome has done; and without 
 doubt this legitimate kind of tradition is, 
 
 K 2 
 
ISS LECTURE IV. 
 
 and ever will be, necessary to the increase 
 and preservation of religion ; nor can the 
 mere diffusion of the scriptures without it 
 ever be expected by reasonable men to con- 
 vert sinners to repentance and infidels to 
 the faith. The aid of a Christian ministry 
 to instruct, rebuke, exhort, must in all ages 
 and in every state of civilization be indis- 
 pensable to the maintenance of religion; 
 and when we call to mind that in the first 
 ages, before the discovery of printing, the 
 multiplication of books was slow, difficult, 
 and expensive, and that in all probability 
 there were not to be found within the com- 
 pass of the Christian world as many copies 
 of the Bible as are at this time contained 
 in this seat of learning, it is evident that 
 religious knowledge must have been propa- 
 gated almost exclusively by oral tradition, 
 in the sense which we have affixed to the 
 word ; but this by no means sets tradition 
 on the same level with holy scripture, nor 
 supposes the existence of such a tradition 
 as Romanists contend for, either concur- 
 rent with scripture, or independent of it. 
 The true tradition of the primitive ages 
 
LECTURE IV. 188 
 
 was the unfolding of the truths of scrip- 
 ture by those who were ordained to the 
 office of instructing the people in religion ; 
 and the correctness and propriety of it was 
 to be estimated by its congruity with scrip- 
 ture, which it was employed to elucidate 
 and explain ; and, instead of judging scrip- 
 ture by oral tradition, the latter could only 
 be used as an auxiliary to scripture, and al- 
 together subordinate to it. 
 
 But such a tradition would not at all 
 serve the purposes of the modern church of 
 Rome ; and therefore, while they presume 
 to assert that the holy scripture is not by 
 itself a perfect rule of faith, but must be so 
 taken in conjunction with tradition, they 
 contend also that this tradition, without 
 which, according to their principles, a true 
 faith cannot be established, should not be 
 made public, but reserved in the power of 
 the church, that is, of the priesthood, for 
 which they scruple not to assign this most 
 extraordinary reason, "4est it should be- 
 " come as well known to heretics, Jews, and 
 
 i Bellarmine, De Verbo Dei non Scripto. 
 K 3 
 
134 LECTURE IV. 
 
 " pagans, as to the highest orders among 
 " themselves ;" as if it was agreeable to the 
 will of God, who calls all men to salvation 
 through faith, that the ground of this in- 
 dispensable faith should be inaccessible, ex- 
 cept to a favoured few, and such others as 
 they may think proper to admit to it. 
 
 Our blessed Lord's commission to his 
 apostles was, to preach the gospel to every 
 creature^ the reward and the penalty being 
 annexed, he that believeth and is baptized 
 shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall 
 be damned; and if the Romanists really hold 
 that tradition is necessary to faith, as they 
 must acknowledge that faith is necessary to 
 salvation, they cannot but admit, that by 
 keeping it secret their church is guilty of 
 shutting the gates of eternal life against 
 those who, by their common Lord, are called 
 to enter in. But such an intention abstract- 
 edly we lay not to their charge. We doubt 
 not that conscientious Romanists, as well as 
 ourselves, are desirous that all men should 
 be saved, and in them we impute it only 
 to the blindness of irrational superstition, 
 whatever our judgment may be concerning 
 
LECTURE IV. 135 
 
 those who are more profoundly instructed 
 in their mysteries, that they exclude from 
 the promises of the gospel such as disallow 
 the sovereign power of their church, and 
 doubt the authority of its head to lock and 
 unlock the gates of mercy to whom he will. 
 The truth is, that dominion over the minds 
 of men is the great object of the church of 
 Rome ; and its rulers have found that the 
 fiction of a divine tradition which they ne- 
 ver divulge, but which they assert to be in 
 their hands a certain guide to salvation, 
 gives them an enormous influence over or- 
 dinary minds, and a firm hold even upon 
 the strongest, into which the belief of it has 
 been sedulously infused from infancy among 
 the first principles of religion. Their tra- 
 dition in fact serves them for a witness 
 ever ready to attest whatever they want to 
 prove, but not liable to a counter-examina- 
 tion, by which the real value of its testi- 
 mony might be ascertained: it is heard 
 only, but never seen ; and by this dexterous 
 management it has been made as efficacious 
 an engine of spiritual power to papal Rome, 
 as the Sibylline books were of state policy 
 
 K 4 
 
136 LECTURE IV. 
 
 to her pagan prototype : like them, it can 
 be adapted to all exigencies, and silence 
 every doubt ; so long at least as those who 
 willingly acquiesce in palpable delusion 
 shall by indolent credulity support its pre- 
 tensions ; as soon as its foundations are ex- 
 amined, it must vanish into air. 
 
 If the reformation had established but 
 this single point, " that all controversies of 
 " faith and doctrine should be decided by 
 " an appeal to scripture only," even that 
 would have been an inestimable service to 
 religion, the knowledge of which was be- 
 fore to be sought in the voluminous works 
 of the fathers, and the decrees of councils, 
 instead of the sacred book of God's word, 
 and in a manner lay buried under the ever 
 increasing piles of scholastic divinity. 
 
 And as it is said of Socrates that he call- 
 ed down philosophy from the clouds, and 
 made it to dwell in the abodes of men, so 
 did the leaders of the reformation, by turn- 
 ing away the study of religion from idle 
 subtleties to the pious examination of holy 
 scripture, familiarize men's minds with those 
 immutable truths which are the foundation 
 
LECTURE IV. 137 
 
 of sincere faith, and prepare them for the 
 spiritual worship of God which their reli- 
 gion requires, instead of the gaudy pomps 
 and unedifying ceremonies in which a cor- 
 rupt church had made so large a part of it 
 to consist. 
 
 The benefits which protestants have de- 
 rived from the free use of scripture, though, 
 hke the other good gifts of God, sometimes 
 misapplied, and sometimes grievously abus- 
 ed, are great beyond all estimation, whe- 
 ther we regard their temporal or spiritual 
 state. 
 
 Familiar access to the fountain of living 
 waters has given a new impulse and a right 
 direction to the mind, and has banished the 
 long train of noxious delusions, by which 
 religion was before disfigured ; while those 
 who have rejected the reformation are 
 scarcely advanced beyond the point at 
 which that event found them. And al- 
 though the upbraiding example of protest- 
 ants has in a manner compelled the rulers 
 of the church of Rome apparently to relax 
 something of their prohibitory zeal against 
 scriptural knowledge, they have yet found 
 
138 LECTURE IV. 
 
 means to render it unproductive of its pro- 
 per fruit, by forbidding those who are in- 
 dulged with a permission to read the dis- 
 courses of our Lord, and the doctrine of his 
 inspired apostles, to understand what they 
 read in any other sense than that which 
 their church has set upon it ; and thus tra- 
 dition still holds its preeminence in their 
 practical application of it, as the paramount 
 rule of faith and interpreter of scripture. 
 And unless it shall please God, in his great 
 mercy, to open their eyes, and to inspire 
 them with a sincere desire to discern and 
 embrace the truth, tradition must for ever 
 retain its supremacy ; for their systematized 
 corruptions of faith and doctrine and wor- 
 ship cannot be maintained without it. 
 
 In this respect there is a striking ana- 
 logy between Roman Catholics and the sect 
 which has assumed the appellation of Uni- 
 tarians. The former, having adopted and 
 engrafted upon Christianity a mass of in- 
 congruous superstitions, which, either ex- 
 pressly or by necessary inference, are con- 
 demned in scripture, and being determined 
 not to abandon them, have called in the 
 
LECTURE IV. 139 
 
 assistance of tradition to defend their mani- 
 fold adulterations of Christian truth ; while 
 the Unitarians, rejecting the Christian faith, 
 but insidiously retaining the Christian name, 
 and being sensible that the scheme of reli- 
 gion which they have devised for them- 
 selves was utterly untenable on scriptural 
 grounds, not many years since adopted the 
 bold expedient of making a new translation 
 of scripture, adapted to their own principles, 
 upon a plan which sets at nought all the 
 rules of criticism as well as the laws of 
 common honesty ; by this expedient making 
 it speak the language of their tradition, 
 which, after the example of the Romanists, 
 they have thus effectually placed above it. 
 
 I mean not, however, to insinuate against 
 Romanists the guilt of equal impiety with 
 men who have abjured the essentials of 
 Christian faith, but to mark how a similar 
 necessity has led in both cases, though in 
 diiFerent ways, to a similar result. The Uni- 
 tarian, with sacrilegious boldness, cuts down 
 holy scripture to the measure of his own 
 negative creed : the Romanist impairs its 
 authority by teaching ^or doctrines the corn- 
 
140 LECTURE IV. 
 
 mandments of men ; and, like the Unitarian, 
 he has no other alternative, but to forsake 
 errors which can no longer be defended by 
 sincere and enlightened men, and render 
 his religion conformable to scripture, or, 
 after the manner of his church, to weaken 
 the force of scripture against it by attribut- 
 ing equal and practically greater authority 
 to an unwritten revelation, of the authenti- 
 city of which no credible evidence nor pro- 
 bable argument can be produced. But tra- 
 dition and the church of Rome are indis- 
 solubly linked together : tradition is the 
 sole foundation for all her usurpations over 
 the Christian world, the sole authority for 
 all her innovations on primitive faith and 
 worship. Even the supremacy of the pope, 
 as derived by his asserted succession from 
 St. Peter — a matter of small moment to pro- 
 testants, but which, from the consequences 
 which Romanists draw from it, ought to be 
 as clear as any fact recorded in sacred his- 
 tory — depends wholly on tradition, mixed 
 up too with the ^ grossest fables, and having 
 
 ^ Vide Cave's History of Christ and his Apostles. 
 Life of St. Peter. 
 
LECTURE IV. 141 
 
 such a weight of negative testimony from 
 scripture against it, that, as a distinguished 
 ^ prelate of our church justly argues, " we 
 " must either renounce the opinion," (i. e. 
 that St. Peter was the founder of the church 
 of Rome,) " or let scripture give way to tra- 
 « dition." 
 
 And yet on no better foundation than 
 this pretended succession does the pope ar- 
 rogate to himself, and his adherents ascribe 
 to him, honours little less than divine, and 
 powers which, unless gifted with infallibi- 
 lity — a prerogative indeed which they also 
 claim for him, though not quite agreed 
 among themselves on that point — no hu- 
 man being can be competent to exercise. 
 
 But again, according to the invariable 
 pretension of the church of Rome, as it has 
 been already observed, there is no salvation 
 out of her pale; and this with true Roman- 
 ists is not merely a speculative opinion, but 
 a necessary article of faith. It ought, there- 
 fore, to be as capable of demonstration as 
 any article of the Apostles' Creed, since 
 
 ^ Marsh, Comparative View of Church of England and 
 Church of Rome. 
 
U2 LECTURE IV. 
 
 whoever for want of such demonstration re- 
 fuses assent to it, must, upon their prin- 
 ciples, be forthwith in a state of reproba- 
 tion. And yet, if we search the scriptures 
 throughout for any proof of it, we shall 
 neither be able to discover it in any ex- 
 press declaration of our Lord himself, nor 
 in any of the apostolical Epistles ; whether 
 addressed to particular churches or gene- 
 rally to the whole body of Christians ; nor 
 in any probable inference from any thing 
 asserted by them, nor in any analogy to the 
 known dispensations of God. 
 
 Instead of such proofs from scripture, we 
 are referred to a few obscure and ambi- 
 guous texts, arbitrarily explained in a sense 
 inconsistent with the general tenor of the 
 sacred volume, and scarcely appearing to 
 have any affinity to that which they are al- 
 leged to prove. And yet on these scanty 
 and disputable grounds of scripture, so far 
 as scripture is relied upon, the most im- 
 portant of their pretensions are founded; as, 
 for instance, that St. Peter had not merely 
 a precedence among the apostles by age or 
 personal character, but that he was, in the 
 
LECTURE IV. 143 
 
 sense of real sovereignty, prince of the apo- 
 stles; and without the smallest pretence 
 of scriptural authority they assert that he 
 founded the see of Rome, and was himself 
 the first pope ; and, what is still more ex- 
 traordinary, that the powers which they at- 
 tribute to St. Peter have descended with 
 undiminished right to all his successors the 
 popes, and are to continue with them to 
 the end of time. That the support to be 
 found in scripture, by any mode of inter- 
 pretation, was too slender to sustain the 
 hundredth part of the system establish- 
 ed by the church of Rome, is self-evident : 
 to supply the deficiency, therefore, recourse 
 is again had to the never-failing help of tra- 
 dition ; and it is on that alone that the in- 
 admissible pretensions of the sovereign pon- 
 tiff are founded. In virtue of these pre- 
 tensions, resting on tradition, many of the 
 worst corruptions of the church of Rome, 
 and against which the reformers had zeal- 
 ously contended, were embodied into ar- 
 ticles of belief, and imposed on all its mem- 
 bers as necessary to salvation by the reign- 
 ing pope, at the conclusion of that council 
 
144 LECTURE IV. 
 
 which had been called to heal the wounds 
 of religion, by redressing wrongs and re- 
 moving the corruptions of the church. 
 Many of these, which are referred to apo- 
 stolical tradition, are of such a nature, that, 
 as I observed in the former part of this 
 Lecture, they would be alone sufficient to 
 justify us in rejecting as altogether spu- 
 rious, and unworthy of the Holy Spirit, any 
 tradition to which such consequences could 
 be attributed. 
 
 And as these articles still retain their 
 place in the creed of the Romish church, 
 and are declared to be necessary to salva- 
 tion by her supreme authority, some of the 
 most obnoxious of them shall be particu- 
 larly examined in the ensuing Lectures, 
 commencing with Transubstantiation ; and 
 the result, I trust, will be an additional 
 confirmation of that which it is my object 
 to prove by unexceptionable evidence, " that 
 " on religious grounds the reformation was 
 " absolutely necessary ; and that if it had 
 " not taken place at a former period, it 
 " must have been effected now ;" and that 
 separation from a church whose system of 
 
LECTURE IV. 145 
 
 religion is so manifestly corrupt, as that of 
 the church of Rome is even at this day, is 
 the indispensable duty of every man who 
 in singleness of heai^t fears God, and hopes 
 for salvation through the alone merits and 
 mediation of his Redeemer. Amen. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 John iv. 24. 
 
 God is a spirit; and they that worship him 
 must worship him in spirit and in truth. 
 
 It is an old complaint with Roman Ca- 
 tholics, that protestants are ever fond of 
 applying this text to them. But in this at 
 least we do not act the part of enemies, 
 and much is it to be wished, that, laying 
 aside prejudice and party spirit, they would 
 be persuaded to apply it to themselves ; that 
 they would seriously consider the import of 
 the words, the authority of the speaker, and 
 the comprehensive application of the prin- 
 ciple which is here laid down by him as an 
 indefeasible characteristic of his religion ; 
 and that they would remember how incum- 
 bent it is upon them and all Christians to 
 try both their faith and worship by this 
 rule of their divine Master, if they hope to 
 render their service acceptable to God the 
 
 L 2 
 
148 LECTURE V. 
 
 Father, who has given us these instructions 
 by the ministry of his Son. 
 
 Apparently, however, forgetting the obli- 
 gation of conforming to his precepts, it 
 seems to have been the principal object of 
 the church of Rome, in the multitude of 
 showy ceremonies with which she has en- 
 cumbered her ritual, to strike the senses 
 and captivate the imagination, deviating in 
 a remarkable manner from the chaste sim- 
 plicity of the gospel, and, if I may be al- 
 lowed the expression, materializing the 
 Christian religion. 
 
 Whether the popish doctrine of transub- 
 stantiation, to the discussion of which I 
 now proceed, in pursuance of the design 
 announced at the close of my last Lecture 
 upon the subject of tradition, may not be 
 referable in its origin to this fondness for 
 exhibiting spiritual truths under visible 
 forms to the admiration of an ignorant peo- 
 ple, may possibly be not altogether a use- 
 less subject of speculation. Certain, at least, 
 it is, that there are in the institutions of 
 that church other instances of a similar 
 propensity to subject things of a purely 
 
LECTURE V. 149 
 
 spiritual nature to a grossness of interpret- 
 ation, by which, if their power of impress- 
 ing the senses is increased, their effect on 
 the mind is proportionably diminished. 
 
 But whatever the origin of the doctrine 
 of transubstantiation may be, whether it 
 proceeded at the first from ignorance, su- 
 perstition, or interested craftiness, it is now, 
 with all its monstrous consequences, ele- 
 vated by the church of Rome to the high- 
 est rank among the articles of her faith ; 
 and although the genuine progeny of tra- 
 dition, yet, in defending it against the ob- 
 jections of protestants, they would fain ap- 
 pear to place their whole reliance on the 
 support of scripture. 
 
 According to their own principle, con- 
 firmed, as it has been, by successive popes 
 and councils, guarded by the most terrible 
 anathemas against all who may presume to 
 impugn it, and the belief of it exacted of 
 every member of that church at the peril 
 of his soul, no man can be an honest Ro- 
 man Catholic who entertains a doubt con- 
 cerning it. If sense and reason should re- 
 volt against it, he must reject their remon- 
 
 1.3 
 
150 LECTURE V. 
 
 strances as heretical, and assent to the in- 
 fallible guide which assures him of its truth, 
 in defiance of the testimony of both ; and 
 when this absolute victory has been gained 
 over a pious and diffident mind, no limits 
 can be set to its credulity and submission. 
 
 The debasement of the understanding, 
 thus effected, is the essential principle of 
 the well-compacted superstition of the 
 church of Rome, and the chief source of 
 the amazing influence which her priest- 
 hood possess over the very highest, and, as 
 we should suppose, the most enlightened of 
 her laity. 
 
 When once, indeed, the mind of any 
 sincere and unsuspecting man has been so 
 scared out of its self-possession by spiritual 
 terrors, or so bewildered by sophistry or 
 overcome by plausible artifice, as to yield 
 assent to propositions so monstrous as those 
 which are asserted by Roman Catholic di- 
 vines concerning the sacramental myste- 
 ries of the Lord's supper, what thenceforth 
 can such an one refuse to admit for truth 
 which the same spiritual guides, on whose 
 authority he builds implicit faith, declare 
 
LECTURE V. 151 
 
 to be both true and necessary for salva- 
 tion ? 
 
 But, if the power of the church of Rome 
 seem to be consolidated by the absolute 
 surrender of the understanding, which is 
 necessary to the belief of this doctrine of 
 transubstantiation, we shall find, on a nearer 
 view, that it is a source of weakness also, 
 and yet that her very existence depends 
 upon maintaining it. Of this Romish writers 
 are themselves most evidently sensible: they 
 have therefore, as the occasion appeared to 
 require, exhausted the force of declamation 
 and the subtleties of elaborate sophistry in 
 their endeavours to defend it ; well know- 
 ing that not merely the maintenance of one 
 single article of their creed, but the infalli- 
 bility which they claim for their church, 
 and its continued ascendancy over the minds 
 of men, are staked upon the issue ; that 
 what they profess to consider as the most 
 sacred part of their worship, and endeavour 
 to screen from inspection, and to render 
 most awful to timid credulity by the high- 
 sounding phrases v;hich they apply to it, 
 must be abolished, and that a general re- 
 formation can no longer be delayed when 
 
 L 4 
 
152 LECTURE V. 
 
 this outwork of their system can no longer 
 be defended. 
 
 In the mean time it is a source of real 
 weakness which cannot be disguised by any 
 palliatives, unless to those who are wilfully 
 blind; and whatever efforts may be em- 
 ployed to sustain the credit of so palpable a 
 fiction, it must, in God's good time, fall be- 
 fore the united power of reason and scrip- 
 ture, and draw after it the dissolution of 
 that fabric of error which is so intimately 
 blended with it. 
 
 In men of corrupt lives and worldly 
 minds, the eyes may be closed against the 
 light, and the heart hardened against the 
 impression of truth ; but with such as are 
 truly pious, and sincerely desirous both to 
 know and to do the will of God, as we 
 doubt not that many members of that 
 church are, it would argue a distrust of the 
 divine goodness, if we were to despair of 
 the final prevalence of truth, notwithstand- 
 ing the prejudices of education, and the 
 obstacles arrayed against it by the policy of 
 those who have an interest in opposing its 
 progress. 
 
 Truth alone is eternal, delusion can have 
 
LECTURE V. 153 
 
 but a limited duration. The sunshine of 
 divine revelation must by degrees make its 
 way into the darkest recesses ; and when 
 men are required to believe incredible 
 things, without any warrant from God's 
 word, upon the testimony of pretended tra- 
 dition, or the mere dictation of an unin- 
 spired mortal like themselves, reason will 
 not for ever submit to authority so arro- 
 gantly abused ; but those who do not think 
 it a sufficient reason of their faith, and the 
 hope that is in them, to believe implicitly 
 whatever " the church believes," will at 
 length presume to ask the "Jewish how^^' 
 as it is artfully stigmatized by one who well 
 knew the danger of all inquiry to the sys- 
 tem which he had devoted his utmost ener- 
 gies and unquestionably powerful talents 
 to defend, in all its bearings, concerning 
 the possibility of things which they are 
 commanded to receive as truths necessary 
 to salvation, with none of the visible cha- 
 racters of truth about them. 
 
 The controversies concerning transub- 
 
 ^ Milner, End of Religious Controversy, part III. 
 Letter 38. 
 
154 LECTURE V. 
 
 stantiation, which at earlier periods since 
 the reformation were carried on between 
 the advocates of the church of Rome and 
 protestants, have filled volumes without pro- 
 ducing any decisive result on the minds of 
 those who had previously taken their ground 
 on the opposite sides of the question : the 
 one party being able to make no concession 
 consistently with truth, and the other being 
 bound to defend to the utmost whatever 
 popes and councils had decreed, or to con- 
 fess error and surrender the claim to infal- 
 libility, on which the whole of their spiritual 
 power is built. And, so long as an appear- 
 ance of argument can be maintained by 
 quibbling upon words, they may persevere 
 in their endeavours to perplex and con- 
 found what is naturally simple and perspi- 
 cuous, and seem to the ignorant and cre- 
 dulous to say a great deal ; while in fact, 
 if their intricacies are unravelled, and their 
 lofty diction subjected to the test of reason 
 and common sense, there will be nothing 
 found in them but emptiness and fallacy, 
 and their last stand must be made on tra- 
 dition alone. 
 
LECTURE V. 155 
 
 I should be guilty of great presumption 
 if I were to suppose myself capable of add- 
 ing any thing to the force of argument ad- 
 duced by so many of the most eminent pro- 
 testant divines, who have gone deeply into 
 the question against this chimerical fic- 
 tion. 
 
 My object in regard to this, as well as 
 other glaring errors of the church of Rome, 
 is, not to entangle myself in the labyrinths 
 of false reasoning, which they have devised 
 for the purpose of obscuring the truth, but 
 merely to exhibit such reasons for rejecting 
 them as are obvious to plain understand- 
 ings, and at the same time of sufficient 
 weight to determine all men, who believe 
 that their salvation depends upon the sin- 
 cerity of their faith, to separate themselves 
 from her communion, and, by necessary 
 consequence, to justify the reformation ; the 
 end and object of which was to restore the 
 purity of religion, and to remove the errors 
 and corruptions by which both faith and 
 worship were vitiated and disfigured. 
 
 In the interpretation of the words of our 
 Lord, in the institution of the sacrament of 
 
156 LECTURE V. 
 
 his body and blood at his last supper, the 
 church of Rome contends for the literal 
 sense, in support of her doctrine of tran- 
 substantiation, ours for the spiritual. 
 
 They assert that when he brake and gave 
 the bread to his disciples, after that he had 
 blessed it, saying these words, Take^ eat, 
 this is my body, the bread was actually con- 
 verted into the true substance of his body. 
 And in like manner when after supper he 
 gave them the cup, saying. Drink ye all of 
 it, for this is my blood of the new testa- 
 ment, which is shed for many for the i^emis- 
 sion of sins, that the wine was in like man- 
 ner converted into the real blood of the 
 divine Redeemer. This being assumed, and 
 it being admitted by all Christians, that the 
 holy rite then instituted by our Saviour 
 was intended to be perpetual, they go on 
 to assert, that as often as the consecration 
 of the appointed elements of bread and 
 wine is performed by the priest repeating 
 the words of Christ, the same wonderful 
 conversion equally takes place ; and fur- 
 thermore, as they have thought proper, ap- 
 parently for the purpose of exalting the 
 
LECTURE V. 157 
 
 dignity of the priesthood, to deny the cup 
 to the laity, in order to justify this mutila- 
 tion of the sacrament, they require it to be 
 believed that the consecrated wafer alone, 
 without the wine, which our Lord had de- 
 clared to be the new testament in his blood, 
 contains the " body, blood, soul, and di- 
 " vinity of aur Lord Jesus Christ;" that the 
 Lamb of God is thus offered up to his hea- 
 venly Father day by day, a bloodless sacri- 
 fice for the living and the dead, being im- 
 molated by the word of the priest, which 
 mystically separates the body from the 
 blood, instead of the sword ; and that being 
 laid upon the altar under the form of 
 bread, lifted up, and carried about in pro- 
 cessions, he is to be worshipped under that 
 appearance, with the same profound adora- 
 tion as if the heavens were opened, and we 
 saw him standing at the right hand of God : 
 in a word, that the eternal Son of God, who 
 is one with the Father and the Holy Ghost 
 in all the attributes of the Godhead, is made 
 visible to the eyes, handled by the hands, 
 masticated and eaten by his worshippers, 
 under the form of bread, as often as they 
 
158 LECTURE V. 
 
 celebrate the eucharist according to the 
 usage of the church of Rome. 
 
 There is a repulsive grossness in this 
 doctrine, equally offensive to faith and rea- 
 son. In a matter, however, of so sacred a 
 nature, while we firmly protest against er- 
 rors and corruptions, it is our duty to guard 
 against all appearance of irreverence, and 
 not to wound intentionally the right feel- 
 ings of those whose piety entitles them to 
 respect, while we lament their delusion and 
 feel ourselves bound to refute their mis- 
 conceptions. 
 
 In attempting, therefore, to state their 
 case, I take nothing from the invectives of 
 opponents, but have drawn exclusively from 
 their own sources, in addition to prescribed 
 formularies, relying upon the authority of 
 writers'" in the highest estimation among 
 themselves ; and without doubt, to Chris- 
 tians who have derived the knowledge of 
 their religion from authentic sources, and 
 have studied with competent abilities and 
 impartial sincerity the holy scriptures, which 
 
 ^ Bossuet, Milner, Butler, &c. 
 
LECTURE V. 159 
 
 are alone able to make us wise unto salva- 
 tion, a simple exposition must be the most 
 effectual refutation of such palpable per- 
 versions of truth ; in which, at the same 
 time, the latent seeds of the most hurtful 
 errors in faith, doctrine, and worship, are 
 contained. 
 
 But, indeed, if we consider the kind of 
 arguments with which Romanists endea- 
 vour to recommend the belief of tran sub- 
 stantiation, we shall be still more strongly 
 impressed with the conviction of its being 
 utterly untenable, and shall wonder how 
 sober-minded men, unless in ages of pro- 
 found ignorance, which is the natural pa- 
 rent of superstition, could ever be induced 
 to receive it. 
 
 We are assured, by the most distinguished 
 among the "" advocates of this doctrine, that 
 the conversion of the consecrated elements 
 of bread and wine into the body and blood 
 of Christ, " by which he is received whole 
 " and entire at the same time, by so many 
 " people, in so many different places, is a 
 
 c Bossuet, Var. of Prot. vol. i. p. 426. 
 
160 LECTURE V 
 
 " miracle equal to the greatest and most 
 " incomprehensible wrought by the power 
 " of God ;" a position which we may admit 
 without danger to the cause of the reform- 
 ation, provided that the reality of it be first 
 proved. 
 
 But how is this to be done ? They tell 
 us that this perpetual miracle, this greatest 
 of all miracles, " ^ by which all the other 
 " miracles which God has wrought for our 
 " salvation are confirmed," is imperceptible 
 to our senses and incomprehensible to our 
 reason ; so that, according to their own 
 showing, the greatness as well as the re- 
 ality of this highly extolled miracle de- 
 pends altogether upon the willing credu- 
 lity of those to whom it is proposed, and is 
 utterly incredible till men have consented 
 to divest themselves of sense and reason, 
 and to forego the use of those faculties 
 which the Almighty has graciously bestow- 
 ed upon us, for the very purpose of en- 
 abling us, as in all other things, so in reli- 
 gion, to discern truth from falsehood, and 
 good from evil. 
 
 d Bossuet, Var. of Prot. vol. i. p. 426. 
 
LECTURE V. 161 
 
 All verbal subtleties in defence of such a 
 doctrine are unworthy of serious notice ; 
 and it is as vain to argue upon a subject in 
 which the exercise of sense and reason is 
 proscribed, as to dispute concerning the 
 natures and institutions of another planet ; 
 and we should be justified in refusing at 
 once to believe what is imposed upon us in 
 a manner so inconsistent with the whole 
 course of providence and grace, if no other 
 argument were brought against it. 
 
 But the defenders of transubstantiation 
 are not content with placing their whole 
 reliance on passive credulity. 
 
 They endeavour to add credibility to it, 
 by the analogy which they pretend to have 
 found between it and some of the mi- 
 racles recorded in the Old and New Testa- 
 ment ; as the change of Moses's rod into a 
 serpent, and again into its primitive form 
 of a rod, the substance still continuing the 
 same ; the turning of water into blood 
 among the plagues of Egypt, and again wa- 
 ter into wine, as at the marriage feast in 
 Cana of Galilee ; and they contend that 
 it is not more difficult for Omnipotence to 
 
 M 
 
162 LECTURE V. 
 
 change the elements of bread and wine in 
 the eucharist into the real body and blood 
 of the Son of God, than to effect these and 
 other miracles recorded in scripture, and 
 still less than the creation of the world out 
 of nothing; and therefore, that when qur 
 Lord declared at his last supper, that the 
 bread which he brake and blessed, and gave 
 to his disciples, was his body, and the wine 
 his blood, to doubt that the effect followed 
 his words, and still continues to follow each 
 successive repetition of them by the priest 
 in the consecration prayer, is to doubt his 
 veracity or his power, on which they found 
 a charge of heinous impiety against pro- 
 testants. This, however, is but an artifice, 
 and a very shallow one, to divert attention 
 from the real point at issue between us and 
 them. 
 
 We hold, as truly and unequivocally as 
 they do, the divine omnipotence of the Re- 
 deemer, and his coequality with the Father 
 and the Holy Ghost in all the attributes of 
 the Deity. 
 
 But the question here is not concerning 
 his omnipotence, what it can do, but what 
 
LECTURE V. 163 
 
 in reality it does ; and nothing can well be 
 imagined more monstrous in absurdity, or 
 more audacious in impiety, than thus to 
 contend that the promise of Christ has not 
 been fulfilled, unless it has been fulfilled 
 in its literal import, as they will have it, 
 though reason and common sense and the 
 context of scripture are unequivocally a- 
 gainst them ; and it is truly amazing to 
 hear them arguing, '"" that it w^as easier for 
 " the Son of God to force the laws of na- 
 " ture, in order to verify his words, than 
 " for us to accommodate our understand- 
 " ing to violent interpretations, which over- 
 " turn all the laws of speech ;" whereas 
 these violent interpretations consist only in 
 receiving in a figurative sense what they 
 are determined to take in the literal, for 
 the sake of establishing what they call the 
 real presence of Christ under the species of 
 bread and wine. 
 
 Very different were the miracles of our 
 Lord upon earth from this pretended mi- 
 racle of the popish eucharist. The evident 
 
 e Bossuet, Exposition of Catholic Doctrine, p. 61. 
 M 2 
 
164 LECTURE V. 
 
 design of his miracles was through the 
 senses to impress the mind, and to induce 
 those who were witnesses of them, to be- 
 lieve that he came from God, by the evi- 
 dence which they afforded, that the power 
 of God was among them ; and accordingly 
 when he upbraided the cities of Judah, in 
 which most of his mighty works had been 
 done, for their unbelief^, and again when to 
 those who believed not his word, he ap- 
 pealed to the evidence of his works^, in both 
 cases we see equally the purpose of mi- 
 racles ; that they were designed for a testi- 
 mony to the beholders of the presence of 
 divine power, in the person by whom they 
 were wrought ; in order to which it was ne- 
 cessary that they should be perceptible to 
 the outward senses, and not, hke the pre- 
 tended miracle of transubstantiation, indis- 
 cernible, even to those who most zealously 
 profess to believe it. But in the particular 
 cases which themselves allege, as in the 
 turning of water into wine, and the crea- 
 tion of the world out of nothing, and the 
 
 f John X. 37, 38. S John xiv. 11. 
 
LECTURE V. 165 
 
 same might be said of every other scripture 
 miracle, instead of helping their cause, the 
 argument is decisively against them. For 
 there the effect followed the word; he spake 
 and it was done; and even unbelievers, who 
 conspired the destruction of our Lord, could 
 not deny that ^ many miracles ivere done hy 
 him. 
 
 The same power continued to the apo- 
 stles contributed mightily to the growth of 
 Christianity: ' They went forth, and preached 
 every where, the Lord working with them, 
 and confirmiyig their word with signs follow- 
 ing; which men saw, and therefore believed. 
 But an imperceptible miracle, in things na- 
 turally amenable to our senses, is little less 
 than a contradiction in terms ; and if such 
 had been the character of the scripture mi- 
 racles, instead of convincing unbelievers, all 
 reasonable men would have deemed such 
 vain pretences a sufficient cause for discre- 
 diting any doctrine, which they might have 
 been adduced to support. 
 
 But again, in addition to the forced and 
 fanciful analogies which the defenders of 
 h John xi. 47. ' Mark xvi. 20, 
 
 M 3 
 
166 LECTURE V. 
 
 transubstantiation borrow from the Old and 
 New Testament in support of their cause, 
 an attempt is made to force into the same 
 service, even philosophy and experience, 
 unmanageable auxiliaries, it should seem, 
 in a case where all inquiry is forbidden ; 
 and the ''possibility that our senses may 
 sometimes be deceived, is cited as a reason 
 for believing that they are deceived, or at 
 least that their testimony is less to be cre- 
 dited, than the tradition of an infallible 
 church ; which, however, without disparage- 
 ment of its infallibility, has condemned the 
 authors of some of the most splendid dis- 
 coveries in science, and by which the most 
 exalted views of the wisdom, power, and 
 goodness of the Deity are exhibited to the 
 pious mind, as guilty of pernicious errors. 
 
 In a word, nothing which could wear the 
 appearance of an argument to confound the 
 ignorant and perplex the superficial, has 
 been omitted by popish divines, in their at- 
 tempts to establish this delusion ; which, as 
 themselves avow, and the reason of the 
 
 ^ Milner, Part III, p= 59, 60. 
 
LECTURE V. 167 
 
 thing proves, cannot be done away, without 
 the dissolution of the whole fabric esta- 
 blished upon it. For, on no other founda- 
 tion than this asserted miracle of transub- 
 stantiation, the pretended sacrifice of the 
 mass, the mutilation of the sacrament by 
 taking away the cup from the laity, their 
 doctrine of the real (or corporeal) presence, 
 the homage of the most profound adora- 
 tion paid to the consecrated wafer, as if re- 
 ally and substantially converted into the 
 body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, as it is asserted in the supple- 
 mentary papal creed, can possibly be justi- 
 fied, nor can it be surrendered to the force 
 of reason and scripture, without tacitly ad- 
 mitting a grossness of faith and worship in 
 that infallible church, to which paganism 
 alone could furnish a parallel. 
 
 It is not therefore matter of surprise, 
 when we see men of great learning and 
 equal acuteness, and eminently wise in their 
 generation, as many of its defenders have 
 been, pertinaciously contending for it; while 
 at the same time the futile weakness of all 
 which they have been able to advance in its 
 
 M 4 
 
168 LECTURE V. 
 
 support, compared with their general abi- 
 lity, and the strong interest by which their 
 utmost efforts are called forth, is almost 
 conclusive against the cause which they 
 have laboured to maintain, and justifies the 
 confident assurance, that no weapon formed 
 against the t7mth shall ultimately prevail. 
 
 They have not however confined them- 
 selves to a system of self-defence, but have 
 shewn an eagerness in attacking the tenets 
 of their adversaries, which seems rather to 
 imply a conscious inability to justify their 
 own, than a real persuasion of their in- 
 trinsic soundness ; so that in the most cele- 
 brated expositions of Roman Catholic doc- 
 trine on this head, nearly as much space 
 is occupied by controversial matter, as that 
 which is properly didactic and explanatory ; 
 and the differences of doctrine concerning 
 the eucharist, which existed in the earlier 
 days of the reformation between the dif- 
 ferent reformed churches, are cited with 
 much affectation of triumph, as a proof that 
 all were in error, and given up to a mind 
 void of judgment, as soon as ever they had 
 withdrawn from the church of Rome, and 
 
LECTURE V. 169 
 
 presumed to study the scripture in prefer- 
 ence to obeying her decrees. But though 
 we admit that there were many shades of 
 difference between the reformers in their 
 doctrine of the sacrament, and serious er- 
 rors in some of them, this neither militates 
 against the reformation in general, nor ca- 
 nonizes the errors of the church of Rome. 
 On the contrary, I would rather ascribe 
 those original variations of the reformers, 
 according to the principle with which I set 
 out in the commencement of these Lec- 
 tures, to the gracious purpose of divine Pro- 
 vidence, to w^iden the basis and strengthen 
 the foundations of the reformation, by 
 awakening attention, and bringing into dis- 
 cussion almost every principle of Christian 
 doctrine, among which that of the sacrament 
 of the Lord's supper must by all parties be 
 admitted to be one of the most important. 
 With men who are not tied to a pretended 
 infallibility. Christian charity must allow, 
 that in things w^hich are not precisely defin- 
 ed in scripture, nor simply discoverable by 
 human reason, it is possible for individuals 
 of competent knowledge and the greatest 
 
170 LECTURE V. 
 
 piety to disagree in some slight modifica- 
 tions of opinion ; and in regard to the sub- 
 ject of our present inquiry, it is certain 
 that even in those doctrines of the early 
 reformers concerning the sacrament, which 
 we should least approve, there is nothing 
 inconsistent with good intentions and sin- 
 cere faith, even if we take the representa- 
 tions of their adversaries, who were anxious 
 to exhibit them in the least favourable 
 point of view. It is also certain, that the 
 differences which did exist among them 
 may be accounted for in ways which reflect 
 no discredit upon any party. 
 
 Even those who were themselves the in- 
 struments for restoring to the Christian 
 world the exercise of the understanding 
 and liberty of conscience, which are essen- 
 tial to true religion, were not all at once 
 emancipated from the thraldom of ages. 
 
 The work was necessarily progressive. 
 Those corruptions of faith, doctrine, and 
 worship, which are self-evident, and utterly 
 indefensible, were forthwith condemned and 
 renounced, as soon as the papal dominion 
 was overthrown. The removal of such as 
 
LECTURE V. 171 
 
 were less obvious was not undertaken, till 
 increasing knowledge had more clearly de- 
 monstrated their erroneous character ; and 
 in our own church, at least, no step was 
 taken towards the correction of error, with- 
 out that pious caution, which in departing 
 from one extreme, guards against the danger 
 of falling into another. All knowledge, ex- 
 cept that which comes by inspiration, which 
 we claim not for our reformers, must be 
 partial and gradual ; and it is not a ground 
 of censure, but a title to praise, that in the 
 zeal of doing good, they did not forget the 
 dictates of prudence and Christian humi- 
 lity. 
 
 With whom the doctrine of transubstan- 
 tiation originated is a disputed point of no 
 real moment. It is however certain that it 
 was first imposed on the belief of Chris- 
 tians, in that dark period which followed 
 the irruption of the barbarous nations and 
 the downfall of the empire ; when learning 
 was extinguished, and the states of modern 
 Europe, as yet imperfectly formed out of 
 the broken members of that mighty ruin, 
 were sunk in ignorance and superstition ; 
 
172 LECTURE V, 
 
 when the holy scriptures were almost un- 
 known, and whatever the priesthood, in 
 obedience to the mandate of the pope, the 
 foundations of whose power were laid in 
 those ages of darkness, declared to be an 
 article of faith, was received without contra- 
 diction by a gross and unreasoning people. 
 And this tenet of transubstantiation, 
 which added so largely to the influence of 
 the sacerdotal order had been so diligently 
 inculcated upon all minds, and was render- 
 ed so familiar by the daily services founded 
 upon it, that many of those who at the 
 dawn of the reformation were most clearly 
 sensible of the corruptions of the church of 
 Rome, in other important points of faith 
 and worship, seem hardly at first to have 
 suspected error in this, which is the fertile 
 source of so many others ; and when, at 
 length, by the more careful study of holy 
 scripture, they came to be convinced that 
 the papal doctrine was erroneous, they 
 halted in their conclusions, and reluctantly 
 abandoned the creed of their infancy, in 
 proportion as diligent investigation and in- 
 creasing knowledge convinced them, that 
 
LECTURE V. 173 
 
 it was founded in delusion, or misconcep- 
 tion of the truth. Such was especially the 
 case of our own Cranmer, who, from having 
 been a vehement assertor of transubstan- 
 tiation, at length laid down his life in con- 
 tending against it And this, in the judg- 
 ment of every candid mind, must be a con- 
 vincing proof, that instead of bold and li- 
 centious innovators in religion, as the pa- 
 pal writers with one accord have represent- 
 ed them, the great leaders of the reform- 
 ation were men of sincere piety and tender 
 consciences, and proceeded in the work 
 which they had undertaken, with that cau- 
 tious moderation which its infinite import- 
 ance demanded. There is, therefore, no 
 cause for exultation to the adversaries of 
 the reformation in the discrepancies of its 
 early advocates, concerning the true doc- 
 trine of the eucharist ; and least of all does 
 it afford any justification for cherishing 
 their palpable error, because some of those 
 who rejected it still lingered in too near an 
 approximation to it, or failed to express 
 their own sentiments with sufficient clear- 
 ness against it. 
 
174 LECTURE V. 
 
 They may refute the consubstantiation 
 of Luther with the same arguments as their 
 own transubstantiation is refuted, without 
 adding any strength to their own cause; 
 nor yet will they be able to shew, erroneous 
 as it is, that his doctrine has ever been ap- 
 plied to the same superstitious and truly 
 idolatrous purposes as their own. They 
 may invent or exaggerate differences be- 
 tween ^Calvin and Zuingle and their re- 
 spective followers, and hold up to derision 
 the unsuccessful attempts which were made 
 in the heat of theological controversy, and 
 ineffectually repeated at later periods, to 
 establish uniformity of doctrine concern- 
 ing the sacrament among the reformed 
 churches. 
 
 Protestants do not pretend to exemption 
 from error, but only to sincerity in the 
 search after truth, with a humble confi- 
 dence that while they seek it in a conge- 
 nial spirit, and diligently endeavour to ap- 
 prehend it, by the use of such helps as the 
 divine Mercy has provided for them, and 
 
 ^ Bossiiet, Hist. Var. Part I. Book ix. Part II. Book xii. 
 
LECTURE V. 175 
 
 above all, by the careful study of the writ- 
 ten word of God, they will by his grace be 
 preserved from any dangerous misappre- 
 hension of it. If they abandon those prin- 
 ciples, and either in the vanity of human 
 reason prefer novelty to truth, or resign 
 themselves to the blind guidance of rash 
 enthusiasm, or dogmatical bigotry, then in- 
 deed there will be reason to fear that God 
 will abandon them. In the mean time, as 
 the best security against error, let them 
 walk in the light as childy^en of the light. 
 
 Thus much it seems right to say of the 
 reformation in general, respecting this sub- 
 ject of the doctrine of the eucharist ; and 
 that, not merely as an act of justice to- 
 wards our fellow protestants of other com- 
 munions, but because, as I have before re- 
 marked, it is the standing policy of the 
 enemies of every reformed church, to mis- 
 represent the principles, and exaggerate the 
 real or imputed errors of all, and exhibit 
 them as proofs that the reformation, to 
 which they attribute such consequences, 
 must have originated in the spirit of delu- 
 sion ; from whence they conclude, that the 
 
176 LECTURE V. 
 
 only safe course for religious protestants to 
 pursue, is to return to the obedience of 
 that infallible church, which, by depriving 
 her dutiful children of the dangerous li- 
 berty of judging and understanding for 
 themselves concerning articles of faith and 
 controverted points of doctrine, preserves 
 them in happy ignorance and uninterrupt- 
 ed unanimity, and so insures their final sal- 
 vation. 
 
 This, w^hen stripped of all disguise, and 
 exhibited in their true light, is the burden 
 of all their arguments with protestants. 
 Happily we have not so learned Christ, as 
 to be in any danger of being imposed upon 
 by them, nor of being induced by any per- 
 suasions to prefer darkness, with all its al- 
 leged advantages, before that light which is 
 the peculiar attribute of "' the glorious gos- 
 pel of Christ. Of their boasted infallibi- 
 lity, and its necessary consequences, we may 
 leave them the unmolested and unenvied 
 possession. 
 
 Happily for ourselves, our doctrine of the 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. iv. 4. 
 
LECTURE V, 177 
 
 sacrament is so surely established on scrip- 
 ture and reason, that we can reflect upon 
 it with the utmost satisfaction, and have 
 much more reason to invite than to dread 
 discussion, if it should please our adver- 
 saries of any denomination to descend into 
 the field of argument against us. Reli- 
 giously speaking, the church of England 
 stands on a basis which cannot be shaken. 
 Her doctrine is the doctrine of scripture, 
 which is her only rule of faith and wor- 
 ship ; is clear, consistent, spiritual, and full 
 of consolation to such as worship God in 
 spirit and in truth. 
 
 That of the church of Rome, on the con- 
 trary, involves the most glaring contradic- 
 tions, which can be defended only by the 
 most laboured and tortuous sophistry, and 
 is the source of multiplied superstitions ; 
 and while it is founded upon an asserted 
 fact, which is acknowledged to be totally 
 imperceptible to sense and incomprehensi- 
 ble to reason, she requires all her members 
 to receive it on pain of eternal damnation, 
 as if it were as intuitively certain, or as 
 capable of demonstration, as the being of 
 
 N 
 
178 LECTURE V. 
 
 God, or any. express article of the Christian 
 faith. 
 
 Those, therefore, with whom the author- 
 ity of an infaUible church is paramount to 
 all objections, who can believe with her, 
 and in deference to her demands, in oppo- 
 sition to sense and reason, that in the con- 
 secrated wafer, and every the smallest par- 
 ticle of it, the body, blood, soul, and divi- 
 nity of the eternal only-begotten Son of 
 God are fully contained, and ought to be 
 worshipped with the highest degree of di- 
 vine adoration, those who believe these 
 things do rightly in adhering to her com- 
 munion, and may be respected for their 
 well-meaning piety, as well as commiserat- 
 ed for their doating superstition. 
 
 But if there be any who do not in heart 
 and soul assent to this doctrine, nor be- 
 lieve that it is either taught in scripture 
 or essentially true, nor that divine honour 
 may be lawfully paid by a Christian to the 
 consecrated elements in the eucharist and 
 the pretended sacrifice of the mass, and yet 
 continue professed members of a church 
 which exacts such pledges of allegiance 
 
LECTURE V. 179 
 
 from all her people, and either by instruc- 
 tion or example lead others to believe what 
 themselves do not believe, what can we say, 
 but that it is high time to lay aside all dis- 
 simulation, and judge themselves, that they 
 be not judged of the Lord ° ! 
 
 Whatever their motives may be for deal- 
 ing with insincerity in the sight of Him 
 who seeth the secrets of the hearty whether 
 a regard to worldly honour or distinction, 
 the false pride of adhering to tenets once 
 embraced, and defending ancient errors ra- 
 ther than acknowledge and renounce them, 
 or an undue deference to the wishes and 
 opinions of others, their conduct, as men 
 pretending to religion, is equally without 
 excuse. However they may disguise it to 
 themselves, the world has the first place in 
 their affections, and they can never be ac- 
 counted true disciples of that divine Mas- 
 
 n Bossuet artfully remarks, Variations of Protestants, 
 Vol. I. Book vi. p. 259. " There is no way of avoiding 
 " the sacrifice, adoration, and transubstantiation, without 
 " denying in the bread this real presence of Jesus Christ." 
 We may as truly add, There is no way of justifying them, 
 without proving it. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 LECTURE V. 
 
 ter, who ° came into the world, that he might 
 bear ivitness to the truth; nor can any be 
 farther from being governed by that Spirit 
 which was in him, than those who per- 
 versely oppose or unfaithfully handle it. 
 
 These observations are not advanced in a 
 spirit of uncharitableness ; we are not ani- 
 mated by ill will to the persons of those 
 whose errors we condemn and deplore ; nor 
 do we take merit to ourselves, because by 
 the singular and inscrutable mercy of God 
 we have been delivered from that bondage 
 of spiritual darkness to which so many 
 others are still left enthralled. 
 
 Well, therefore, does it become us to fol- 
 low the advice of the apostle to the ^ Ro- 
 mans, in circumstances somewhat analogous 
 to our own, not to be high-minded, but fear, 
 and use with moderation •* the liberty where- 
 tvith Christ has made us free. To cherish 
 such a temper is at all times our wisdom 
 and our duty, and will best preserve us 
 from many occasions of falling. But hu- 
 mility, charity, and godly fear are perfectly 
 
 o John xviii. 37. P Rom. xi. 20. ^ Gal. v. 1. 
 
LECTURE V. 181 
 
 compatible with a well-governed zeal for 
 the truth. Otherwise they would be in di- 
 rect opposition to the highest and most 
 indispensable obligations of every sincere 
 Christian, but more especially of a Chris- 
 tian minister. 
 
 For if, as our Lord teaches, it "" is eternal 
 life to know the only true God, and Jesus 
 Christ whom he hath sent, it must be an im- 
 perative duty with them, above all men, 
 never to compromise with error, nor to for- 
 bear to refute, when occasion is afforded 
 them, whatever may tend to impair that 
 knowledge, or render it of none effect. And 
 if offence be taken where none is intended, 
 we must plead for ourselves to those who 
 suffer our expostulation so impatiently, in 
 the words of St. Paul to the Galatians, ' Am 
 I therefore become your enemy, because I 
 tell you the truth? the attainment of which, 
 as it ought to be the object of all our in- 
 quiries, so if it was pursued by all Chris- 
 tians in singleness of heart, then indeed we 
 might hope to see an end to religious ani- 
 
 r John xvii. 3. ^ Gal. iv. 16. 
 
 n3 
 
182 LECTURE V. 
 
 mosities, if not a total cessation of those 
 extreme controversies, by which the house- 
 hold of faith is divided against itself. 
 
 By some persons the popish doctrine of 
 transubstantiation has been considered as a 
 mere speculative error, and by others as 
 differing more in form than reality from 
 the doctrine of our own church. But, I 
 trust, it is sufficiently evident, that it must 
 be a very inaccurate and superficial view of 
 the subject which could lead any sincere 
 man to either of these conclusions. 
 
 Whoever will be persuaded to bestow 
 upon the study of it that careful attention 
 which its importance demands, will be con- 
 vinced that both are equally unfounded. 
 
 He will unavoidably perceive, that the 
 Romish doctrine is not simply liable to the 
 imputation of speculative error, but that it 
 tends of necessity to great practical abuses 
 and corruptions of religion ; while the doc- 
 trine of our church, on the contrary, is li- 
 able to no such objections ; but is altogether 
 holy and spiritual, equally congenial to true 
 piety, and remote from superstition. 
 
 In a word, the difference between us 
 
LECTURE V. 183 
 
 on this head, is in effect the same which 
 pervades the respective systems of both 
 churches in all their parts. The one holds 
 to ^ the letter which killeth, the other to the 
 spirit which giveth life. The one exhibits a 
 shew of piety in rites and ceremonies, and 
 external exercises of devotion ; the other, 
 renouncing as utterly worthless and delu- 
 sive all formal acts of religion without faith 
 and holiness, exhorts all her members to 
 "^sanctify the Lord God in their hearts; 
 and while they rely only on the merits and 
 intercession of their Redeemer for deliver- 
 ance from sin and acceptance at the throne 
 of grace, to "" present their bodies a living 
 sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is 
 their reasonable service, 
 
 t 2 Cor. iii. 6. "1 Peter iii. 15. ^ Rom. xii. 1. 
 
 N 4 
 
LECTURE VI, 
 
 1 Timothy ii. 5. 
 
 For there is one God, and one mediator between 
 God and man, the man Christ Jesus. 
 
 AY HEN once the genuine principles of 
 religion have been vitiated or forsaken, and 
 human presumption has ceased to respect 
 the landmarks and fences vs^hich the divine 
 Wisdom has appointed, to repress vain ima- 
 ginations, and direct the researches of sober 
 piety striving to attain the knov^ledge of 
 the truth, the further it proceeds the more 
 w^idely it digresses from the right v^ay ; rea- 
 son is bew^ildered, and one error foUow^s as 
 a corollary to another. 
 
 It ought not, therefore, to surprise us, 
 vrhen we see those w^ho, vs^ithout the sanc- 
 tion of reason or scripture, in the true spi- 
 rit of heretical perverseness, have proclaim- 
 ed and strenuously contended for the doc- 
 trine of transubstantiation, w^ith its conse- 
 quent and inseparable corruptions of faith 
 
186 LECTURE VL 
 
 and worship, as true and essential articles 
 of the Christian religion, carried away to 
 still greater lengths of grossness and infa- 
 tuation. 
 
 The intention which I professed in the 
 opening of these Lectures, was not to exhi- 
 bit a detailed account of all the grave errors 
 of the church of Rome, a work not to be 
 attempted within so narrow a compass, but 
 to notice more particularly some of those 
 which by their greater enormity rendered 
 reformation on religious grounds absolutely 
 necessary ; and because reformation was pe- 
 remptorily denied by the rulers of that 
 church, made it the duty of all sincere 
 Christians who were sensible of her cor- 
 ruptions to withdraw from her communion, 
 and of which, as the efficient and justifying 
 causes of that consummation, the force and 
 reason remain undiminished to the present 
 time. 
 
 Some, therefore, of very serious import, 
 and which added not a little to the neces- 
 sity of the reformation, but which calmly 
 reviewed, should rather be considered as 
 accessory, than as substantive causes of that 
 
LECTURE VI. 187 
 
 event, (and which, if the council of Trent 
 had not thought proper to confirm and per- 
 petuate them by her decrees, might have 
 been so modified as to render them in- 
 noxious, or explained away, or tacitly aban- 
 doned,) I must leave to be briefly touched 
 upon hereafter, and for the present pass on 
 to the examination of those more glaring 
 corruptions, by which the worship of the 
 church of Rome has been so nearly assimi- 
 lated to paganism, and which, if the decla- 
 ration of the apostle in the text be true, or 
 the warning which he elsewhere gives, that 
 "" there is no agreement between the temple of 
 God and idols, or that of the prophet, ^ that 
 the Lord will not give his glory to another^ 
 nor his praise to graven images, must be ut- 
 terly rejected without compromise by every 
 sincere and faithful Christian. 
 
 Not that those other causes of disagree- 
 ment and separation, to which I have at 
 this time made but a cursory allusion, and 
 must eventually dismiss with inadequate 
 brevity, are either obsolete or of light im- 
 
 a 9. Cor. vi. 16. b Isaiah xlii. 8. 
 
188 LECTURE VI. 
 
 portance, seeing that they are still integral 
 parts of the Romish system, and pregnant 
 with hurtful superstition ; and are only 
 less worthy of distinct animadversion than 
 the invocation of saints and veneration of 
 images, because they are less forced upon 
 our notice, than these characteristic deform- 
 ities of the church of Rome, which hold so 
 conspicuous a place in her authorized forms 
 of worship, and are at once so degrading to 
 Christianity, and so peculiarly offensive to 
 those who draw their principles of religion 
 from holy scripture, and not from apocry- 
 phal tradition. 
 
 The first of these, the invocation of saints, 
 shall form the main argument of my pre- 
 sent Discourse. 
 
 If all other evidences were wanting to 
 prove that the church of Rome is given up 
 to a "" strong delusion, and is no longer a 
 true church of Christ, notwithstanding her 
 lofty pretensions and imposing display of 
 exterior sanctity, practices like these, ob- 
 stinately retained and artfully defended, in 
 
 c 2 Thess. ii. 11. 
 
LECTURE VI. 189 
 
 direct and manifest contradiction to all that 
 we know of the attributes of God by reason 
 or revelation, would fully justify us in pro- 
 nouncing such a judgment concerning her. 
 Having scarcely a shadow of scriptural au- 
 thority for either of these gross deprava- 
 tions of Christian worship, it is boldly as- 
 serted by that church, that they are both 
 founded upon apostolical tradition ; which, 
 as I have before observed concerning the 
 uses in general to which it is applied, would 
 be alone sufficient to destroy the credit of 
 tradition, and to justify our church in re- 
 jecting it altogether as a rule of faith and 
 worship, and admitting its authority in any 
 sense, or for any purpose, under this re- 
 striction only, " that nothing be ordained 
 " against God's word." Nor could a more 
 decisive proof be adduced of the pernicious 
 consequences of placing tradition on a level 
 with scripture, than that which the case 
 before us exhibits, of attempting to esta- 
 blish by tradition principles of faith and 
 worship, which we may without hesitation 
 pronounce to be utterly incompatible with 
 the elementary truths of revealed religion, 
 
190 LECTURE VI. 
 
 and so unworthy of the infinite, incompre- 
 hensible Deity, that even the reason of an 
 enlightened heathen would revolt at them. 
 And if it were possible, as Romanists 
 pretend, to trace up to the earliest ages of 
 the church, either doctrines or institutions 
 at variance with that immutable rule, which 
 the wisdom of God has provided in his writ- 
 ten word for the perpetual security and cri- 
 terion of our faith, it would not at all be- 
 nefit the cause of those who contend for 
 them. It might prove the early origin of 
 corruption, but could not justify it. If but 
 the last link in the chain were wanting, 
 if that, for which apostolical authority is 
 claimed, cannot be traced up to the apo- 
 stles themselves, of which their inspired 
 writings, if at least it be a point of doc- 
 trine, are now the only admissible testi- 
 mony, the whole must fall to the ground, 
 and is no more worthy of regard, than if it 
 were the invention of yesterday ; and when 
 Romanists boast of the superior antiquity 
 of their form of faith and worship, it is 
 proper to remember, that nothing is really 
 ancient in religion, which is posterior to 
 
LECTURE VL 191 
 
 the age in which Christianity in its unadul- 
 terated truth and purity was first preached 
 upon earth by our Lord and his apostles ; 
 and that whatever of later origin has been 
 added to it, at however remote a period 
 from our own times, is truly and properly 
 a religious novelty. Whatever authority 
 may be claimed for the fathers by their 
 fondest admirers, they will not certainly at- 
 tribute inspiration to them ; and if either 
 their glosses on scripture, or their histori- 
 cal testimony, or recorded opinions, or un- 
 guarded phraseology can be adduced in 
 support of manifest depravations of authen- 
 tic Christianity, it may indeed weaken their 
 own credit for judgment or fidelity, but 
 can never shake that of the apostles and 
 evangelists, to whom the final appeal must 
 be made for terminating all controversies 
 of faith and doctrine among Christians. 
 
 Now it is declared by the modern church 
 of Rome to be an article of the true catho- 
 lic faith, out of which no man can be saved, 
 " ^ that the saints reigning together with 
 
 d Creed of Pope Pius, Art. 8. 
 
192 LECTURE VL 
 
 " Christ are to be venerated and invoked, 
 " and that they offer prayers to God for us, 
 " and that their rehcs are to be venerated;" 
 and no one can be received as a convert 
 into her communion, or honestly and with 
 a good conscience continue a member of it, 
 vrho does not, without subterfuge or mental 
 reservation, assent to every proposition ex- 
 pressed or implied in this article. 
 
 Arguing with men who were permitted 
 to see the truth, and who were not bound 
 to the defence of corruptions once sanc- 
 tioned in their church, by the necessity of 
 preserving unbroken the spell of her pre- 
 tended infallibility, it would be sufficient for 
 the refutation of so gross a mixture of pre- 
 sumptuous error and debasing superstition, 
 as are here engrafted on the faith necessary 
 to salvation, to exhort them to search the 
 scriptures whether these things are so, or 
 to consult the reason which God has given 
 them for their guidance, wheresoever he 
 has not interposed by a special revelation 
 of his will. 
 
 But, as it has been before observed, rea- 
 son in its most pious exercise is scarcely al- 
 
LECTURE VL 193 
 
 lowed a place by Romanists in controver- 
 sies of religion. 
 
 It is the prerogative of the church, or of 
 those who speak in her name, to judge and 
 determine in all such cases, and the duty 
 of her members, unless they are prepared 
 to incur the stigma and penalties of heresy, 
 to bow to her authority, and abide by her 
 decision; and in the present instance, scrip- 
 ture, in every part it, from Genesis to Reve- 
 lations, is both in letter and spirit so de- 
 cidedly against them, that ultimately they 
 have no resource left, but to take refuge in 
 church authority and tradition ; which, as I 
 have observed in a former Lecture, is their 
 grand expedient to escape from every diffi- 
 culty and to cloke every corruption. A 
 very faint attempt indeed is made to de- 
 rive an apparent sanction from scripture 
 for the invocation of saints, or rather, by 
 the artful misapplication of irrelevant pas- 
 sages, to render the practice less offensive 
 to such of their own communion as might 
 possibly think that in a case of so great mo- 
 ment the Bible-book, as they contemptu- 
 ously term it, ought not to be altogether 
 
194 LECTURE VI. 
 
 superseded by the authority of tradition, or 
 the mandates of popes and decrees of coun- 
 cils. But the attempt is so faint, the argu- 
 ments so feeble and unnatural, that seri- 
 ously to refute them would be to give them 
 an importance which they do not deserve: 
 a very slight notice of some of them in their 
 proper place will be sufficient for every use- 
 ful purpose. As to protestants, therefore, 
 who admit no rule of faith, nor testimony 
 in support of any doctrine as conclusive, 
 but that of holy writ alone ; nor allow to 
 any uninspired mortal the right of chang- 
 ing, suppressing, or adding to the faith 
 once delivered to the saints, it is superflu- 
 ous to argue against that which is unsup- 
 ported and unsanctioned by the only au- 
 thority to which they believe it consistent 
 with the first principles of their religion to 
 defer. The want of such sanction and sup- 
 port is with them the most decisive refuta- 
 tion of any thing which is pronounced by 
 mere human authority to be entitled to 
 universal belief or observance; and upon 
 this ground alone, if other reasons were 
 wanting, we should be justified in rejecting 
 
LECTURE VI. 195 
 
 the fellowship of a church, which attempts 
 to impose upon all Christians as an article 
 of faith necessary to salvation, that which, 
 by her own shewing, is incapable of being 
 proved true from scripture ; and much more, 
 when it is such in its nature, that we can 
 prove it false beyond the power of contra- 
 diction, if the dispute is to be terminated 
 by the letter or spirit of scripture. 
 
 But the necessity of withdrawing from a 
 church which has introduced and pertina- 
 ciously retains such a depravation of true 
 religion as that of addressing invocations 
 and prayers to created beings, and still re- 
 quires all her members to adopt the prac- 
 tice in obedience to her decrees, as the 
 church of Rome has done, is rendered yet 
 more apparent in her case by the argu- 
 ments employed to vindicate and recom- 
 mend it. — The church of Rome holds as 
 expressly, and, we doubt not, as sincerely 
 as ourselves, the first great principle of all 
 true religion, the unity of God, and the 
 fundamental articles of the Christian faith ; 
 and we are not called upon to argue these 
 points against her, for the refutation of her 
 
 o 2 
 
196 LECTURE VI. 
 
 doctrines upon the subject in question, or 
 the justification of our own church in her 
 total condemnation of them ; but to shew 
 the inconsistency of holding these immuta- 
 ble truths, and yet, as we may boldly affirm, 
 in plain disregard of their necessary con- 
 sequences, and in direct opposition to scrip- 
 ture and reason, on the strength of a pre- 
 tended apostolical tradition, unattested, as 
 we have already seen by any credible evi- 
 dence, and intrinsically unworthy of the 
 origin to which they ascribe it, imparting 
 to inferior natures a portion of that ho- 
 nour which is due to God alone ; of which 
 presumptuous impiety we hold that church 
 to be undoubtedly guilty. 
 
 St. Paul imputes it to the ancient hea- 
 then, that ^ when they knew God, they glori- 
 fied him not as God, that they became vain 
 in their imaginations, that pi^ofessing them- 
 selves ivise, they became fools; and to the 
 delusive vanity of being wise above those 
 simple and self-evident truths which are 
 attainable by reason, concerning the being 
 and attributes of God, from the survey of 
 
 e Rom. i. 21, 22. 
 
LECTURE VI. 197 
 
 his visible works, they fell into idolatry 
 and its inseparable consequences of mental 
 blindness and moral corruption ; so that 
 while we find in heathen writers the most 
 just and beautiful sentiments concerning 
 the Deity, to whom they ascribe holiness, 
 justice, benevolence, and other truly divine 
 perfections, their systems of religion were 
 utterly unworthy of God, and incompatible 
 with their creed. They worshipped him 
 not as a Being invested with such attri- 
 butes ; as the apostle speaks, they glorified 
 him not as God. They neither remembered 
 in their practice the holiness and spiritu- 
 ality of his nature, 'nor honoured him with 
 services which such a Being might vouch- 
 safe to accept from his rational creatures, 
 but invented ceremonies and forms of ado- 
 ration full of licentiousness and impurity ; 
 and bestowing divine honours upon a vast 
 multitude of inferior beings, whom they as- 
 sociated with the supreme God in the go- 
 vernment of the world, they at length to- 
 tally lost sight of those cardinal truths of 
 natural religion, which, if duly observed, 
 would have saved them from sinking into 
 * o 3 
 
198 LECTURE VI. 
 
 such depths of grossness and debasement. 
 Forsaking the real though imperfect light 
 of nature, and giving themselves up to a 
 vain imagination, they were carried away 
 with infinite delusions, and ^ their foolish 
 heart was darkened. 
 
 I would not be thought to insinuate in 
 the remotest sense, that the church of Rome 
 at this day stands in the same predicament 
 as the heathen world before the coming of 
 Christ. Nor is it possible that any sect of 
 Christians, while they continue to hold the 
 fundamental articles of the faith once re- 
 vealed to the universal church, which that 
 of Rome assuredly does, though obscured 
 and grievously debased by spurious addi- 
 tions, should relapse into all the darkness 
 and corruption of paganism. Between un- 
 enlightened heathens, and Christians in the 
 most unfavourable state compatible with 
 their religion, there will still be a wide dif- 
 ference : but it is certain that those of 
 Rome, while they claim to be alone entitled 
 to the true name of Christians, ^ have^ like 
 
 f Rom. i. 21. s Eccl. vii. 29. 
 
LECTURE VI. 199 
 
 the heathen, sought out many inventions, 
 whereby the salutary truths which they 
 maintain are to a great degree rendered 
 ineffectual ; and among the foremost of 
 these must be placed the veneration and 
 invocation of saints and angels, which can- 
 not be practised without infringing upon 
 the attributes of God. 
 
 The Psalmist beautifully suggests the 
 grounds of divine adoration, in one of his 
 most admirable addresses to the Deity ; 
 ^ Thou that hear est prayer, unto thee shall 
 all flesh come. 
 
 On this principle alone it is that we pray 
 to God with full confidence, because we 
 certainly believe him to be all-wise, all- 
 powerful, and all-good ; and by virtue of 
 these incommunicable attributes that he 
 knows our wants, and is ever ready to grant 
 what we ask aright, with a perfect resigna- 
 tion of our will to his, " ' for the relief of 
 " our necessities, and the setting forth of 
 " his glory." The very act of praying im- 
 plies this belief concerning the Deity whom 
 
 h Psalm Ixv. 2. * Collect after communion. 
 
 o 4 
 
200 LECTURE VI. 
 
 we worship ; and without such a persua- 
 sion, to pray at all, to supplicate the com- 
 passion, or invoke the help of a being, whom 
 we did not believe conscious of our ad- 
 dresses, or able to grant our petitions, would 
 be an act of the most senseless absurdity. 
 
 The Roman Catholics, therefore, who 
 have made it an integral part of their reli- 
 gion to address themselves in prayer to de- 
 parted saints, that is, to the spirits of men 
 and women, whose hearts, while they lived, 
 were known to God alone, and who are yet 
 waiting in another state the final award of 
 the great day, must be guilty of the fearful 
 presumption of ascribing to them some por- 
 tion at least of the glorious perfections of 
 the Deity. 
 
 That they are sensible of the difficulty 
 of defending such a practice, and satisfying 
 the scruples of the more enlightened among 
 themselves, is sufficiently evident from the 
 fanciful and indefinite explanations by which 
 they endeavour to escape from it. 
 
 One of their most distinguished apolo- 
 gists leaves it undetermined, after asserting 
 unequivocally, in his celebrated Exposition 
 
LECTURE VI. 201 
 
 of the Doctrines of the Church of Rome, 
 " that prayers addressed to the saints are 
 " exceedingly profitable to such as make 
 " use of them," through what channel this 
 great benefit is to be obtained. 
 
 Reason, however, would seem to require, 
 that, if the custom of addressing prayers to 
 the saints be indeed so exceedingly profit- 
 able, the manner and principle of it should 
 not be left in vague uncertainty by the 
 most learned expositors of the Romish te- 
 nets, while at the same time they feel them- 
 selves qualified to speak so expressly of the 
 great advantages attending it ; and yet in 
 that most celebrated treatise to which I 
 have just referred, and to the orthodoxy of 
 which every member of that church zeal- 
 ously assents, we find nothing positively as- 
 serted ; but instead of a precise explanation, 
 where, if the doctrine be but true, it does 
 not appear to exceed the measure of human 
 comprehension, or to involve any inscrutable 
 mystery, we are amused only with visionary 
 speculations, " ^ whether, for instance, the 
 
 k Bossuet, Expos, of Cath. Doct. p. 27. ' Ibid. 
 
20^ LECTURE VI. 
 
 " saints comprehend us by the intercourse 
 " or ministry of angels, who, being esta- 
 " Wished ministering spirits by the order of 
 " God in the work of our salvation, know, 
 " as the scripture testifies, what passes here 
 " amongst us ; or whether God himself dis- 
 " covers our desires to them by a particular 
 " revelation ; or whether, in short, he dis- 
 " closes the secret to them in his infinite 
 " essence, where all truth whatever is com- 
 " prehended." 
 
 Here, if there is nothing satisfactory to 
 the rigid inquirer after truth, there is at 
 least sufficient latitude of explanation in 
 an article of faith declared necessary to sal- 
 vation, to render it palatable through some 
 mental fiction to those who might not 
 otherwise be easily reconciled to the ad- 
 mission of it. But whether any of his in- 
 genious hypotheses afforded satisfaction to 
 their eminently acute author, while he la- 
 boured to remove the scruples of others 
 less clearsighted than himself, we may be 
 permitted to doubt. 
 
 Another very recent defender of the 
 church of Rome, inferior in ability to few, 
 
LECTURE VI. 203 
 
 and in zeal to none, who have advocated 
 the same cause before him, has laboured 
 this point with infinite art, but without 
 shedding any new light upon it "". 
 
 His object, indeed, has been too evidently 
 to elude unanswerable objections to the 
 whole system of saint-worship, and to ob- 
 scure what he professes to illustrate ; and 
 all that he attempts to say, bearing upon 
 the real question, amounts but to this ; that 
 although they grant that Christ alone is the 
 Mediator of salvation, it is not to be argued 
 from thence that there is no other me- 
 diator of intercession ; (upon which I would 
 remark by the way, that it clearly amounts 
 to an unwilling acknowledgment that the 
 pretended mediation of the saints is incom- 
 patible with the sole mediation of Christ 
 asserted in the text ;) and because St. Paul 
 requested the prayers of the churches in 
 his labours and trials, and Job those of his 
 living friends in his affliction, he adduces 
 this as a justification of the Romish prac- 
 tice of praying to departed saints to inter- 
 
 "■■ Milner, Part III. p. 18. End of Religious Contro- 
 versy, Letter 33. 
 
204 LECTURE VI. 
 
 cede with God for them by prayers on their 
 behalf. 
 
 It is not worth while to analyze the un- 
 intelligible phrase of a Mediator of inter- 
 cession distinct from the Mediator of saU 
 vation, an office wholly unknown to holy 
 scripture, and therefore affording an addi- 
 tional illustration of the value of tradition, 
 by the aid of which so important a disco- 
 very has been made ; nor to point out the 
 difference between asking the prayers of our 
 brethren here on earth"', for whom it is a 
 part of our commanded duty to perform 
 the same office of spiritual charity, and in- 
 voking the spirits of the dead, to render us 
 that help which the scripture teaches us to 
 expect from the Son of God alone, who is. 
 also the Son of man, and the only appointed 
 Mediator between God and man ; " " ivho 
 having entered by his own blood into the holy 
 places not made with hands, ever liveth to 
 make intercessio7i for those who put their 
 whole trust in him. To him we apply in 
 every time of need, in full confidence of his 
 
 m 1 Tim. ii. 1. n Heb. ix. 24, &c. 
 
LECTURE VI. 205 
 
 favourable kindness towards us, because he 
 died once to deliver us from our sins ; and 
 of his power to save us, because he is one 
 with the Father and the Holy Ghost, hav- 
 ing "* all power both in heaven and in earthy 
 being p over all, God blessed for ever. 
 
 This is a substantial faith, which may 
 strengthen the weak, encourage the humble, 
 and raise up the fallen ; and when the word 
 of God assures us, that we have him for 
 our Advocate with the Father who is him- 
 self the propitiation for our sins, how great 
 must be the blindness, how excessive the 
 infatuation of those, who, doubting the suf- 
 ficiency of such a mediation, have recourse 
 to other mediators of whose power to help 
 them they know nothing; and of whose con- 
 sciousness to the prayers addressed to them 
 not even the wisest among the vindicators of 
 such a practice can give a rational and con- 
 sistent explanation. 
 
 Such, however, are the consequences of 
 indulging a vain imagination, and suffer- 
 ing human authority to dictate concerning 
 
 o Matth. xxviii. 18. P Rom. ix. 5. 
 
206 LECTURE VI. 
 
 things which can be known only by the re- 
 velation of God. But if argument fail, our 
 last quoted author has recourse to persua- 
 sion, to induce us to adopt the practice of 
 praying to saints and angels : " How sub- 
 " lime and consoling," he exclaims, " how 
 " animating is the practice of true catho- 
 " lies, compared with the opinions of pro- 
 " testants ! We hold daily and hourly con- 
 " verse, to our unspeakable comfort and ad- 
 " vantage, with the angelic choirs, with the 
 " venerable patriarchs and prophets of an- 
 " cient times, with the heroes of Chris- 
 " tianity, the blessed apostles and martyrs, 
 " and with the bright ornaments of it in 
 " later ages, the Bernards, the Xaverii, the 
 " Teresas, and the Sales's. They are all 
 " members of the catholic church." And, 
 proceeding in his address to his imaginary 
 correspondent, he adds, " Why should not 
 " you partake of this advantage? Your soul, 
 " you complain, (dear sir,) is in trouble ; you 
 " lament that your prayers to God are not 
 " heard : continue to pray to him with all 
 " the fervour of your soul; but why not en- 
 " gage his friends and courtiers to add the 
 
LECTURE VI. 207 
 
 " weight of their prayers to your own "^ ?" 
 With more to the same effect. After perus- 
 ing this passage, one can hardly forbear ex- 
 claiming, What a heaven must the author 
 of this rhapsody have contemplated ! And 
 yet, as I have before observed, these are 
 not the words of an unknown fanatic in a 
 distant age, but of 'one recently remov- 
 ed from these sublunary abodes, and long 
 reckoned among the brightest luminaries 
 and firmest pillars of modern popery in this 
 country ; and, if true wisdom and excessive 
 superstition could coalesce in one person, 
 his talents and acquirements would give de- 
 served weight to his opinion. And yet how 
 strange to the ears of Christians, who know 
 the scriptures, must such delirious extrava- 
 gances sound ! and to what depths of anile 
 imbecility must not those be sunk, how 
 wise soever in their own conceits, who 
 could imagine or admit such fictions for 
 truth ? The holy scriptures indeed encou- 
 rage us to look beyond this earthly scene, 
 
 q Milner, Part III. p. 18. End of Religious Contro- 
 versy, Letter 33. 
 
 ' Vicar apostolic and bishop of Castabala. 
 
208 LECTURE VI. 
 
 and to elevate our thoughts to those plea- 
 sures which are at God's 7*ight hand for 
 evermore^ and in our passage through this 
 vale of mortality to endeavour to fit our- 
 selves for the society of angels and the spi- 
 rits of just me7i made perfect. To attain 
 to this is the final aim and hope of all 
 true Christians ; but in vain shall we look 
 through the sacred volume for saints reign- 
 ing with Christ, while the church is still 
 militant upon earth, and exercising power 
 and influence as the friends and courtiers 
 of the Almighty ! Such a figment of vision- 
 ary superstition is monstrous to reason, and 
 shocking to Christian piety ; nor will a pa- 
 rallel to it be any where found, except in 
 the mythology of the heathen, from whence 
 it was undoubtedly borrowed. 
 
 To be given up to such delusions is the 
 fearful penalty of following human tradi- 
 tions falsely asserted to be divine, and re- 
 fusing to submit to the sole authority of 
 the written word of God; which, to those 
 who piously study and dutifully obey it, is 
 a sure and sufficient guide to all that we 
 are required to know concerning the will 
 
LECTURE VI. 9X9 
 
 and dispensations of God, and all, probably, 
 that in our present state we are capable 
 of comprehending concerning those secret 
 things of eternity, which the divine Wis- 
 dom has not more fully revealed. And if 
 the most profound and learned among the 
 advocates of such a system of religion, if 
 the most admired luminaries of the papal 
 church, have wandered into such mazes of 
 dangerous error, it is nothing wonderful 
 that their less enlightened followers should 
 be immersed in yet grosser superstitions ; a 
 fact too notorious to be here insisted on, 
 though not without its weight in estimat- 
 ing the merits of the system itself, to which 
 such consequences invariably adhere. 
 
 But it is not true, as they pretend, that 
 they pray to saints only as mediators, though 
 even that is a perilous and sinful presump- 
 tion. They make also direct addresses to 
 them, as endued with power to grant their 
 requests ; and, though they generally in ar- 
 gument refuse to acknowledge this, their 
 authorized books of devotion incontestably 
 prove it, and that consequences as injurious 
 to morality as religion have flowed from it. 
 
210 LECTURE VI. 
 
 But far beyond the pernicious delusion 
 of teaching men to rely upon the efficacy of 
 the prayers of the saints for securing the 
 favour of God, is the impious fiction con- 
 cerning the merits of their works and suf- 
 ferings, as contributing, jointly with those 
 of the divine Redeemer, to the remission of 
 the sins of men ; which is in direct opposi- 
 tion to the doctrine of scripture. 
 
 For the scripture, far from teaching that 
 any man's righteousness is more than suffi- 
 cient for his own justification, inculcates no 
 truth more emphatically than this, that the 
 best of men are still imperfect, and con- 
 eluded under si7i, that in the sight of God 
 no man living shall be justified, and that 
 we are delivered from eternal death only 
 through the sacrifice of the death of Christ, 
 and through faith in his blood. 
 
 This is the uniform tenor of the New 
 Testament, not the doctrine of any particu- 
 lar section of it, but the great truth which 
 pervades the whole in characters not to be 
 mistaken; so that we are justified in assert- 
 ing that he cannot be a true Christian who 
 does not with his whole heart embrace it ; 
 
LECTURE VL 9AI 
 
 and yet the church of Rome fears not to 
 delude her followers with doctrines utterly 
 at variance with it, concerning the superero- 
 gatory virtues of the saints and the treasures 
 of their merits, which she has in her keeping, 
 to dispense, according to her good pleasure, 
 to such of her children as she deems worthy 
 of so precious a favour; and not only to the 
 sufferings of real martyrs, but even to the 
 self-inflicted tortures of monastic recluses 
 and phrensied fanatics is this efficacy ascrib- 
 ed; and while holy scripture teaches that the 
 best of men are saved only through the me- 
 rits and intercession of Christ, that church 
 has appointed by her own authority, upon 
 the foundation of a vain tradition, o-ther 
 mediators between God and man, to whom 
 she directs her members to make their 
 humble addresses, and to depend upon 
 their good offices. 
 
 This is more particularly true concerning 
 the prayers addressed to the blessed Virgin, 
 in whose honour the powers of language have 
 been exhausted, to furnish appellations and 
 epithets, some of which are offensive to 
 protestant ears from their extravagant ab- 
 
 p 2 
 
212 LECTURE VI. 
 
 surdity, and some it would be a breach of 
 Christian piety to utter. But not only to 
 her who enjoyed the supreme honour of 
 being mother to the Son of God, and whom, 
 according to her own prophecy, ' all gene- 
 rations shall call Blessed; nor to the inspir- 
 ed apostles, by whom the gospel was first 
 preached to all nations, and by whose writ- 
 ings the universal church is still edified 
 and enlightened, are these honours paid, 
 and these powers ascribed ; but to a multi- 
 tude of others, whose names are almost un- 
 known to the world, whose very existence is 
 in some instances doubtful, and whose piety, 
 recorded in fabulous legends, was, if sincere, 
 of that fanatical kind, which, if they had 
 been protestants, would have been attribut- 
 ed by those who now venerate them above 
 the lot of mortality, to disordered intellects 
 or spiritual delusion. 
 
 Yet to such persons, pronounced by the 
 Roman pontiffs to be saints, honours all 
 but divine are paid, litanies addressed, pil- 
 grimages performed, and miracles ascribed 
 in such abundance, that in the dark ages 
 
 s Luke i. 48. 
 
LECTURE VI. 213 
 
 in which they flourished the course of na- 
 ture would seem to have been suspended, 
 for the exhibition of their prodigious en- 
 dowments ; and that, for the most part, to 
 establish no important truth of religion, 
 but simply to signalize the sanctity of the 
 individual, or the excellence of some religi- 
 ous order, or to confirm some artful pre- 
 tension of the church of Rome. 
 
 And although the claims to *saintship are 
 said to be now liable to a severer scrutiny, 
 and works which in ignorant ages would 
 have excited astonishment would now only 
 provoke derision ; yet the power of canoniz- 
 ing saints to whom prayers are to be offer- 
 ed, and by whose prayers in return the liv- 
 ing are to be benefited, is still claimed and 
 exercised by the popes, and the power of 
 working miracles, which is one of the re- 
 quisite marks of real saintship, is unhesi- 
 tatingly asserted to be a perpetual and pe- 
 culiar privilege of the church of Rome by 
 all her advocates ; and the " experiments of 
 
 t Vide Introductory Discourse to Butler's Lives of 
 Saints. 
 
 " Prince Hohenlohe, &c. 
 
214 LECTURE VI. 
 
 that kind which in our times have been 
 attempted upon superstitious creduUty, and 
 are yet fresh in the memory of us all, suffi- 
 ciently prove that deceivers will never be 
 wanting, while there are those who are will- 
 ing to be deceived. 
 
 Concerning the general character of those 
 mortals, who by the papal fiat are elevated 
 before the last judgment into courtiers of 
 heaven, and, as they express it, mediators 
 of intercession between God and man, a 
 just estimate may be formed by referring 
 to an authority, which on such a point is 
 above all exception. The latest specimen 
 of the Lives of the Saints, not long since 
 edited by a living layman of that church, a 
 zealous and distinguished partisan of all 
 her spiritual claims and pretensions, and a 
 partial admirer of the original author of 
 that notable compilation, though it is ac- 
 knowledged that much has been retrenched, 
 as less fit for the public eye in these days, 
 exhibits, blended at the same time with 
 much appearance of misapplied piety, such 
 a picture of miserable credulity both in the 
 editor^ who has in these days reproduced 
 
LECTURE VI. 215 
 
 such a work, and the community to which 
 such monuments of superstition can still be 
 acceptable, as cannot but excite the astonish- 
 ment of Christians, who have been accus- 
 tomed to the reading of holy scripture, and 
 the study of its history and doctrines, for 
 the edification of their faith. 
 
 It is unnecessary to adduce particular 
 instances in support of this position. Our 
 objections to the worship of created beings 
 stand on much broader ground than the 
 unworthiness of particular individuals, to 
 whom the honours of saintship may have 
 been awarded ; and if it could be shewn 
 that, instead of the superstitious aberrations 
 which their historians attribute to them, 
 these semidei of popery were endowed with 
 the most exalted spiritual graces and vir- 
 tues of which human nature in its most im- 
 proved state is capable, they would be no- 
 thing more entitled to the homage of vene- 
 ration and invocation, how much soever we 
 might reverence their memory and desire 
 to imitate their example. 
 
 But far beyond the absurdity of praying 
 to saints is that of venerating their relicks, 
 
 p 4 
 
,^16 LECTURE VI. 
 
 which is equally required of Romanists in 
 the same article of the papal creed. And 
 to these also, as well as to the originals them- 
 selves, miraculous virtues are ascribed, and 
 prodigies without number are affirmed to 
 have been effected by them ; imminent pe- 
 rils averted, inveterate diseases healed, pes- 
 tilences stayed, "" armies of aliens turned to 
 flight, by the presence of the mortal re- 
 mains or cast-off garments of the saints. 
 And so unlimited is the extent of this cre- 
 dulity that, unless we had their own testi- 
 mony against themselves, it would be deem- 
 ed a gross injustice towards the existing 
 members of the Romish church in this 
 country, to believe them capable of it. The 
 histories of all nations in their earlier pe- 
 riods are full of marvellous events and su- 
 pernatural prodigies, which invariably cease 
 when civilization and knowledge have dis- 
 pelled the clouds of ignorance, and awaken- 
 ed the reasoning faculties of the mind ; and 
 tales of wonder which shock probability, 
 
 ^ As the Persians by the hair-shirt of St. Theodosius^ 
 &c. &c. &c. vol. I. of Butler's Lives of Saints, published 
 by Murphy, London, 1821. 
 
LECTURE VI. 217 
 
 and are inconsistent with all experience, 
 and irreconcileable with the order esta- 
 blished by the providence of God among 
 the works of his creation, are deservedly set 
 down to the account of folly and imposture, 
 and are no longer believed, because no one 
 has an interest in procuring them belief. 
 And such must have been the fate of the 
 ridiculous miracles of the dark ages, if they 
 had not been necessary to support the au- 
 thority of that infallible church, which has 
 undertaken to accredit them, and in so do- 
 ing has staked her own infallibility upon 
 their truth. 
 
 In estimating the motives and characters 
 of individuals, much must undoubtedly be 
 allowed to the force of early impressions, 
 and the influence of education, upon the 
 most candid minds ; and it would be un- 
 just to tax with conscious insincerity per- 
 sons labouring under such disadvantages, 
 when we find them still professing their 
 belief of such absurdities, and endeavouring 
 to draw others into it. In itself, however, 
 it is matter of just astonishment, when we 
 see men of great natural acuteness, and no 
 
218 LECTURE VL 
 
 mean attainments in literature, labouring, 
 as the most distinguished of modern Ro- 
 man Catholic divines in the united king- 
 dom have done, to perpetuate this^ mental 
 blindness, and to persuade the world that 
 this wonder-working power continually ex- 
 ercised is a standing testimony of the Al- 
 mighty in favour of their church. It exhi- 
 bits, indeed, a very awful warning to all, who 
 are not themselves within the vortex of 
 error, to hold fast to the truth ; while at 
 the same time it is more equitable to attri- 
 bute things, which cannot be justified on 
 rational principles, to the system of religion 
 maintained by that church, which denies to 
 any of her members the unfettered use of 
 their own reason, than to the individuals 
 who have been trained up in it, and have 
 devoted themselves to its support ^ Bound 
 by her authority to exercise their talents 
 in defence of things not only above reason, 
 which many things may be which are yet 
 essentially true, but contrary to reason, 
 which nothing can be, which is not essen- 
 
 y Miliier, Murray, and Doyle; the two last of whom 
 wrote to establish the belief of Hohenlohe's miracles. 
 
LECTURE VI. 219 
 
 tially false ; it is too likely that the clear- 
 ness and unity of perception which are con- 
 genial to the study and love of truth will 
 in their minds be impaired by the necessity 
 of finding arguments to palliate and jus- 
 tify those defects in their system which can 
 only be maintained by the utmost efforts of 
 sophistry against reason and probability. 
 
 We find not in the creed, imposed by 
 the pope after the council of Trent, any 
 express mention of angels ; but the invoca- 
 tion of them forms a part of Romish wor- 
 ship, and is equally inculcated by the same 
 ^ author from whom I have before quoted 
 the exhortation for praying to saints: "You 
 " believe, no doubt," says he, " that you 
 " have a guardian angel appointed by God 
 " to protect you ;" to which, adding an irre- 
 levant quotation from scripture, he pro- 
 ceeds, " address yourself to this blessed spi- 
 " rit with gratitude, veneration, and confi- 
 " dence." 
 
 Foreseeing, however, the objections which 
 protestants might make to this doctrine of 
 
 ^ Milner, End of Religious Controversy, Letter 33. 
 Part IIL 
 
220 LECTURE VI. 
 
 angel-worship, not only as inconsistent with 
 the general tenor of scripture, but expressly 
 forbidden by St. Paul, who attributes it to 
 the vanity of a fleshly mind, intruding into 
 those things which it hath not seen, and 
 not holding the Head, that is, the true doc- 
 trine of Christ the only Mediator ; with an 
 attempt to deceive, which cannot be repro- 
 bated with adequate severity in a matter 
 of such awful importance, he hesitates not 
 to assure his reader, " "" that the worship of 
 " angels, condemned by the apostle, means 
 " only the worship of the fallen or wicked 
 " angels, whom Christ despoiled, and which 
 " was paid to them by Simon the magician 
 " and his followers, as the makers of the 
 " world." Simon Magus and the Mani- 
 cheans seem to haunt the imaginations of 
 Roman Catholic divines ; they see the ves- 
 tiges of them every where, except in their 
 own unerring church ; and whatever they 
 wish to bring into the greatest odium, in 
 utter contempt of reason and probability, is 
 commonly referred to their inventions. But 
 
 ^ Milner from Hawarden. End of Religious Contro- 
 versy, Letter 35, Part III. 
 
LECTURE VI. 221 
 
 the present is a difficulty, out of which even 
 Simon Magus cannot help them. 
 
 The text of St. Paul is too plain to be 
 mistaken by any one who wishes to know 
 his meaning, and in fact bears a strong re- 
 semblance to that passage in his Epistle 
 to the Romans, to which I adverted in a 
 former part of this Lecture, where he attri- 
 butes the corruptions of the heathen to 
 the neglect of that which they might have 
 known concerning the invisible God from 
 the contemplation of his visible works ; the 
 consequence of which was, that professing 
 themselves wise, they became fools ; and in 
 like manner he attributes the voluntary 
 humility of worshipping angels, as we have 
 just now seen, to the vanity of a fleshly 
 mind, intruding into those secret things 
 which God has not revealed to man. It is 
 impossible to torture this into a prohibi- 
 tion against imitating Simon Magus and 
 his followers. When the tempter approach- 
 ed our Lord, he repulsed his suggestions 
 with these pregnant words, ^ Thou shalt 
 ivorship the Lord thy God, and him only 
 b Matth. iv. 10. 
 
222 LECTURE VI. 
 
 shalt thou serve. And surely it must have 
 been a very unnecessary caution in the apo- 
 stle, to warn those to whom he had himself 
 preached the gospel, that it was inconsist- 
 ent with their religion to worship evil spi- 
 rits, the enemies of God and man, and from 
 whose power the Son of God came down 
 from heaven to deliver them. It was a- 
 gainst the voluntary humility, as the apo- 
 stle speaks, of worshipping good angels, be- 
 ings superior indeed to man, but inferior 
 to God, and possessing and exercising no 
 power or influence but what it may please 
 God to impart to them, that the apostle's 
 caution was designed. Such a practice he 
 considers inconsistent with the command 
 of God and the worship due to Him alone, 
 as well as derogatory to the sole mediation 
 of Christ, "^ ivho is the Head over all things 
 to his church. No truth can possibly be 
 clearer than this, to those who seek the 
 knowledge of their religion in the scrip- 
 ture, and it will be a vain attempt, by the 
 forced interpretation of any insulated text, 
 to cast a plausible doubt upon it. Hardly 
 
 c Ephes. i. 2S. 
 
LECTURE VI. 2£3 
 
 will tradition itself avail them here, since 
 even the church of Rome does not contend 
 that tradition is to be obeyed in direct op- 
 position to scripture. 
 
 Would Roman Catholics, therefore, but 
 consult the scripture with unbiassed minds, 
 and understand it in its own unadulterated 
 sense — not merely in that which a pretended 
 infallible church, systematically sinning a- 
 gainst its plainest truths, and dreading that 
 its own corruptions may be exposed by its 
 light, deems it necessary to fix upon it — 
 happier days would dawn upon the Chris- 
 tian world, and the reign of error hasten to 
 its close : the unsightly pile of heathenish 
 superstition, erected in the darkest ages 
 upon credulity and fear, and guarded by 
 anathemas against the influx of light, which 
 might expose the rottenness of its founda- 
 tions, would fall to pieces, and the true 
 church of Christ be renewed in the beauty 
 of holiness and the majesty of truth. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 Deut. iv. 15. 
 
 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves ; 
 for ye saw no maimer of similitude on the 
 day that the Lord spahe unto you in Horeh 
 out of the midst of the fire. 
 
 From the veneration and invocation of 
 saints, which was particularly discussed in 
 my last Lecture, the transition is easy to 
 the still grosser abomination of honouring 
 and venerating images, which I have re- 
 served for the subject-matter of the pre- 
 sent; both being equally of pagan origin, 
 and, however modified or refined, essentially 
 inconsistent with true religion. 
 
 St. Paul, arguing the superiority of the 
 gospel to the law, tells the ^ Galatians, that 
 the law had been to the Jews as a school- 
 master to bring them to Christ ; that is, a 
 less perfect dispensation of religion, suited 
 to the times and circumstances in which it 
 
 a Gal. iii. S4. 
 Q 
 
226 LECTURE VII. 
 
 was given, and under the discipline of which 
 they were to be prepared for that more per- 
 fect and spiritual, which was in the appoint- 
 ed time to be revealed by Christ. 
 
 One great purpose of the law, therefore, 
 was to wean them from the corruptions of 
 the heathen nations by whom they were 
 surrounded, and which, as their whole his- 
 tory proves, they were at all periods ante- 
 cedent to the Babylonish captivity so prone 
 to imitate. But among those heathenish 
 corruptions of religion there is none more 
 striking, nor any against which they are 
 more frequently and earnestly cautioned, 
 or deterred from the practice of it by more 
 terrible denunciations of divine anger, than 
 that of idolatry or image-worship. 
 
 It cannot be necessary to make appeals 
 either to the law or the prophets in support 
 of so notorious and incontrovertible a truth; 
 but it is very important to observe, that it 
 is not merely against making the likeness 
 of any such imaginary being, whether good 
 or evil, as those which were worshipped 
 by the heathen, which is prohibited. Not 
 even the making of any graven image is al- 
 
LECTURE VII. 227 
 
 lowed, whether as a representation or me- 
 morial of the true God ; of whom, as they 
 are reminded in the text, they saw no simi- 
 litude, when he spake unto them in Horeb, 
 at the giving of the law, with all the fearful 
 circumstances attending it. 
 
 Now it seems to follow, as a necessary con- 
 clusion from these premises, that if image- 
 worship of any kind was too gross, and un- 
 worthy of the Deity, to be allowed to a 
 people so little refined in understanding 
 as the Israelites were in the days of Moses ; 
 and if it seemed good to the divine Wis- 
 dom to punish the violation of the com- 
 mandment by which it is forbidden with 
 the heaviest judgments, and to suffer no re- 
 laxation of its strictness till the end of that 
 dispensation; that it never can be consist- 
 ent with the spiritual perfection of the 
 Christian dispensation, of which the Mosaic 
 was but the shadow, to tolerate the intro- 
 duction of it as a mode or accompaniment 
 of Christian worship. 
 
 And whereas our Lord declares that he 
 ^ came not to destroy the law or the pro- 
 
 b Matth V. 17. 
 
 a 2 
 
528 LECTURE VII. 
 
 phets, but to fulfil them, it is surely incredi- 
 ble that his religion should have gone di- 
 rectly against the law and the prophets in 
 a matter of such vital importance, without 
 at least some distinct avowal of the intend- 
 ed change, or some explanation of the rea- 
 son for adopting it, as we find in other in- 
 stances where a new commandment is given 
 to supersede an ancient and received opin- 
 ion or practice. 
 
 But so far is this from being the case, 
 that in the whole compass of the New Tes- 
 tament not a single sentence is found which 
 can afford the slightest semblance of an 
 apology for image-worship ; nor is the men- 
 tion of it ever introduced, unless in the 
 way of reprobation, and for the purpose of 
 warning the Gentile converts to have no 
 fellowship with it. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding the most explicit 
 and positive authority both of the Old and 
 New Testament to the contrary, the second 
 Nicene council dared to assert, that the wor- 
 ship of images was an apostolical tradition ; 
 and the council of Trent, which has adopt- 
 ed in general the errors of all its predeces- 
 
LECTURE VII. 229 
 
 sors, has reaffirmed this in the most direct 
 and unequivocal terms ; and the pope, who 
 sanctioned its decrees, has reduced it into 
 an article of the faith, out of which, it is for 
 ever reiterated, that no one can be saved; 
 " "^ That the images of Christ and of the 
 " ever Virgin mother of God," (may I be 
 pardoned for giving utterance to such im- 
 piety !) " moreover of the other saints, are to 
 " be had and retained, and that due honour 
 " and veneration are to be shewn to them." 
 Here again, as in the case of the invocation 
 and veneration of saints and angels, the 
 church of Rome, in resting her doctrine 
 concerning the veneration of images on 
 apostolical tradition, has in effect placed 
 tradition in direct contradiction to the ac- 
 knowledged written word of the same apo- 
 stles ; whose authority she thus most men- 
 daciously claims for a practice not only not 
 sanctioned, but either expressly or con- 
 structively condemned by every one of 
 them in their Epistles addressed to the 
 universal Christian community, or to the 
 
 c Creed of pope Pius, Art. 9- 
 Q 3 
 
230 LECTURE VII. 
 
 particular churches severally founded by 
 them. 
 
 But the direct and positive authority of 
 the law and the gospel, though abundantly 
 sufficient to convict the church of Rome of 
 enormous corruption in the instance be- 
 fore us, is by no means the whole strength 
 of the case against her. 
 
 There is, besides, a negative testimony 
 against the possibility of the apostles ever 
 having taught or countenai>ced image-wor- 
 ship, than which nothing more conclusive 
 can be desired, to disprove so groundless 
 and so shameless a fiction. 
 
 It will not be denied by any one in the 
 least conversant with the history and opin- 
 ions of the Jews, subsequent to their re- 
 turn from captivity, that image-worship was 
 thenceforward to their final dispersion 
 held in the greatest abhorrence by them ; 
 that they had endured the utmost cruelty 
 from Antiochus Epiphanes, because they 
 would not yield to his attempts to force 
 that and other heathenish rites upon them ; 
 and that at a much later period they were 
 objects of ridicule to Roman wits and satir- 
 
LECTURE VII. 231 
 
 ists ^ for their scrupulous adherence to their 
 own laws and customs, and in particular 
 for their singular resistance to this almost 
 universal usage of paganism. It is not less 
 undeniable, that the rulers of the Jews in 
 the days of the apostles and their succes- 
 sors, till the destruction of Jerusalem and 
 the dissolution of their national polity, were 
 animated with the most furious zeal against 
 Christianity, and persecuted its professors 
 wherever their*- power or influence extend- 
 ed. According to our Saviour's prediction 
 within a very short time after his ascension 
 his disciples were brought before rulers and 
 kings for his name's sake ; and various 
 crimes were laid to their charge, with the 
 hope of crushing Christianity in its infancy 
 by rendering them suspected to magistrates 
 and odious to the people. In pursuance of 
 this design they are accused of blasphemy, 
 sedition, deceiving the people, and design- 
 ing the subversion of the law of Moses ; by 
 which last charge such a tumult was raised 
 against St. Paul, upon his first appearance 
 
 ^ Nil praeter nubes, et coeli numen adorant. Juv. 
 Q 4 
 
232 LECTURE VII. 
 
 in the temple after many years' absence 
 from Jerusalem, that he was saved only by 
 the interposition of military force from the 
 hasty vengeance of the enraged multitude. 
 And whether by private conspiracy, or open 
 violence, or false accusation, no efforts were 
 spared to effect the destruction of the first 
 preachers of the Christian faith. 
 
 This is a fact which must be conceded 
 both by the friends and enemies of Chris- 
 tianity, and is certainly not denied by the 
 church of Rome. 
 
 Is it then credible, if the apostles, as that 
 church dares to assert, had taught a doc- 
 trine or introduced a practice upon the al- 
 leged foundation of the new religion which 
 they were sent to announce to the world, 
 so contrary as well to the law as to the pro- 
 phets, to both of which the Jews amidst all 
 their corruptions were so zealously attached, 
 as that of image-worship, that it would not 
 have been brought as a charge against them 
 by any of their implacable adversaries, who 
 were so eager to compass their destruction? 
 or that they would have failed to employ 
 so effectual an argument to prevent the 
 
LECTURE VII. 233 
 
 further progress of the Christian religion, 
 if it had been possible for them to shew to 
 the Jewish nation its near affinity to pagan- 
 ism in one of its most offensive features? 
 Assuredly not. 
 
 As, therefore, no such attempt was ever 
 made, where it is evident that no accusation 
 would have been omitted, which had the 
 smallest appearance of probability; and still 
 less one which, if it could have been sub- 
 stantiated, must have proved fatal to the 
 cause of Christianity, we are justified by 
 this consideration in asserting, that it is an 
 instance of audacious impiety to endeavour 
 to fix upon the inspired apostles the ori- 
 ginal guilt of this grievous corruption of 
 our holy religion, which they were sent to 
 teach to all nations, and qualified by the 
 extraordinary gift of the Holy Ghost for 
 the fulfilment of their mission; while at 
 the same time so false an imputation af- 
 fords a conclusive argument against the au- 
 thority of papal councils, to which the ad- 
 herents of Rome demand implicit submis- 
 sion, and affirm that their decisions are in- 
 fallible. 
 
284 LECTURE VII. 
 
 That the practice of image-worship was 
 introduced into the church at an early pe- 
 riod, though long after the age of the apo- 
 stles, there can be no doubt ; and its perpe- 
 tuation in that of Rome down to this pre- 
 sent time is one of the most irrefragable 
 proofs of the fatal effects of placing tradi- 
 tion, by which it is attempted to justify it, 
 on a level with scripture. 
 
 For thus to prove that an error, how- 
 ever gross, is both ancient and widely dif- 
 fused, is, on their principles, sufficient to 
 make it pass for truth. It becomes forth- 
 with a part of tradition ; and as no supe- 
 rior authority is acknowledged by the ad- 
 vocates of tradition, to which an appeal may 
 be made against it, no remedy remains ; 
 but corruptions which have crept into reli- 
 gion through fraud, fanaticism, or igno- 
 rance, during the darkness of remote ages, 
 must be retained for ever as integral parts 
 of it. 
 
 But if image-worship be not an aposto- 
 lical tradition, which no man who is not 
 bound to defend inveterate error can pos- 
 sibly pretend that it is, to what exact pe- 
 
LECTURE VII. 2S5 
 
 riod its origin may be referred is a matter 
 of no real importance. That it was intro- 
 duced into the church by Gentile converts, 
 or adopted, in a most reprehensible spirit of 
 worldly wisdom, by perfidious guardians of 
 the faith, to draw over with less difficulty 
 those who had been accustomed " to the 
 " pomps and vanities" of paganism, when 
 the powers of the world professed them- 
 selves Christian, seems unquestionable. The 
 account which the younger Pliny gives 
 to Trajan in the beginning of the second 
 century concerning the simple worship of 
 the early Christians, which it had been his 
 official duty to investigate, is no bad au- 
 thority for asserting that it had not then 
 begun. We will admit that if it was, pro- 
 perly speaking, a question relative to an ar- 
 ticle of Christian theology, or the interpre- 
 tation of a disputed doctrine, the testimony 
 of a heathen magistrate could have but 
 little weight in the determination of it. 
 But the point at issue in the present case 
 is a mere matter of fact, of which any im- 
 partial man might be a competent voucher; 
 and where there was no partiality to warp 
 
2S6 LECTURE VII. 
 
 his judgment, there can be no ground to 
 except against his veracity. ^ " They af- 
 " firmed," says he, i. e. those who were 
 brought before him on the charge of being 
 Christians, " that the sum of their fault or 
 " error was this, that they were accustomed 
 " to assemble before light on a stated day, 
 " and to sing a hymn to Christ as to a God ; 
 " to bind themselves by a solemn oath to 
 " no wickedness ; but not to commit theft, 
 " robbery, or adultery ; not to break their 
 " word, nor to refuse to restore a trust when 
 " called upon ; after which it was their cus- 
 " tom to separate, and to meet together 
 " again to take food, promiscuously how- 
 " ever, and innocently." 
 
 We have here no mention of images of 
 Christ or the blessed Virgin, or the saints, 
 nor even of transubstantiated wafers and 
 the sacrifice of the mass ; which on the au- 
 thority of tradition an author \ from whom 
 I have largely quoted before, asserts to 
 have been celebrated " through a great part 
 
 e Epistle 97. 
 
 f Milner, End of Religious Controversy, Part III. 
 p. 54. Letter 37. 
 
LECTURE VII. 237 
 
 " of the known world, before even St. Mat- 
 " thew's gospel was promulgated." And yet 
 it seems scarcely possible that a writer ap- 
 parently so accurate as Pliny should have 
 entirely omitted to notice such things, if 
 they had then existed among Christians, 
 who were at the same time objects of so 
 much jealous vigilance and cruel persecu- 
 tion ; more especially as he mentions the 
 images of the gods and of the emperor, to 
 which he subsequently states that he com- 
 pelled those accused of being Christians to 
 offer incense, and to address supplications, 
 as a test to which no true Christian could 
 be induced to submit. Yet the wisest of 
 those who are still held in the fetters of 
 Romish infallibility, with the letter and 
 spirit of all scripture against them, still 
 contend for this undoubted offspring of 
 paganism with as much apparent earnest- 
 ness, as if they had the unequivocal testi- 
 mony of the law and the gospel in their 
 favour ^. 
 
 A consciousness however that all is not 
 
 g Vide Bossuet, Milner, and Doyle's Parliamentary 
 Examinations. 
 
238 LECTURE VII. 
 
 right evidently betrays itself in their mode 
 of arguing in defence of it, and more espe- 
 cially in their endeavours to suppress the 
 second commandment, by which image- wor- 
 ship is so strongly condemned, or to ex- 
 plain it away and invalidate its force ; which 
 they could have no more reason for doing 
 in the case of that particular command, 
 than of any other precept or prohibition of 
 the Decalogue, if they were not intimately 
 sensible that the practice of their church is 
 in direct opposition to it; while, at the 
 same time, the reasons which they assign 
 for it are so evasive and unsatisfactory, that, 
 how much soever charity may require us to 
 abstain from the imputation of unworthy 
 motives, it is difficult to conceive how men, 
 at once enlightened and sincere, could ever 
 have recourse to them for the support of 
 a cause which themselves believed to be 
 founded in essential truth. 
 
 To the same sense of its inherent ofFen- 
 siveness must we attribute the endeavour 
 to palliate the practice of venerating images 
 and relicks, by bestowing upon them the 
 plausible appellations of religious memo- 
 
LECTURE VII. 239 
 
 rials and types of Christianity ; as if mate- 
 rial objects, whether the perishable work 
 of men's hands, or the miserable remains 
 of mortality, the latter of which nature it- 
 self prompts us to conceal from the sight 
 of the living, and to restore to the earth 
 from whence they were taken, could with 
 any propriety be considered as evidences of 
 spiritual truths, or appropriate monuments 
 of a religion which is to be diffused through 
 the whole world, and to last till the con- 
 summation of all things. 
 
 They tell us, however, that it is a relative 
 worship only which they pay to images, and 
 that the council of Trent in forbidding to 
 believe " ^ that there is any divinity or 
 " virtue in them for which they should be 
 " reverenced, or that any thing is to be 
 " asked of them, or any confidence is to be 
 " placed in them, but on the contrary, that 
 " the honour given should be referred to 
 " those whom they represent," has esta- 
 blished characteristic marks to distinguish 
 Romanists from idolaters ; " since, so far 
 
 ^ Bossuet, Exposition of Catholic Doctrine. 
 
S40 LECTURE VII. 
 
 " from believing as they did, that any di- 
 " vinity resides in images, Romanists attri- 
 *' bute no other virtue to them than that 
 " of reminding them more sensibly of their 
 " great originals." These, however, are but 
 imaginary distinctions between the image- 
 worship of Romanists and pagans, as it 
 would be easy to prove by a multitude of 
 examples. Juvenal, Seneca, and the elder 
 Pliny, nearly agree in the same sentiment, 
 " that their gods," referring to the early 
 ages of the Roman commonwealth, "seemed 
 " to be most propitious when their statues 
 " were moulded in clay, and not cast in 
 " gold ; '" which sufficiently shows that the 
 original and the representation were not 
 confounded in the mind of the worshipper, 
 as the author of this pretended distinction 
 would have it believed, even among nations 
 which were ignorant of the true God ; but 
 that the image-worship of the pagans was, 
 like that of the church of Rome, a relative 
 worship, not addressed to the carved or 
 molten figure, but to the being designated 
 
 i Plin. lib. XIV. IS. 
 
LECTURE VII. £41 
 
 by it. And the very ground of the pro- 
 hibition, under the Mosaic dispensation, to 
 make any visible object of such relative 
 honour, was, that which is inseparable from 
 it, in its tendency to inspire gross and un- 
 worthy conceptions of the Deity, as if the 
 Supreme Being, whom our blessed Lord 
 declares to be a Spirit, whom no man hath 
 seen or can see, ^was like to corruptible man^ 
 and to lead the ignorant to believe that 
 such objects had intrinsically something 
 divine and adorable in them. And not- 
 withstanding the asserted caution of the 
 council of Trent to prevent such miscon- 
 ceptions, it is very evident that the church 
 of Rome has not escaped the danger, but 
 has ^ 7'eceived in herself that recompense of 
 her error^ which a presumptuous transgres- 
 sion of the divine commands never fails to 
 draw after it. For it is a matter of the ut- 
 most notoriety, that her members ^ are still 
 carried away to dumb idols^ like the Gen- 
 tiles, from whom they imagine themselves 
 sufficiently distinguished by the groundless 
 plea of relative worship. 
 
 k Rom. i. 23. ' Rom. i. 27. "^ 1 Cor. xii. 2. 
 R 
 
242 LECTURE VII. 
 
 The histories of miraculous images, and 
 the wonders wrought by them, are found 
 in Roman Cathohc authors of high reputa- 
 tion ; and the superstitious legends of that 
 sort, which are still prevalent in Roman 
 Catholic countries far exceed in number 
 and extravagance the prodigies recorded in 
 all that remains to us of pagan antiquity. 
 But again, in derogation to the above- 
 mentioned caution of the council of Trent, 
 practically it is not true that images are 
 used in the church of Rome only as reli- 
 gious memorials, to excite the attention of 
 the worshippers, and to awaken the fervour 
 of piety. For if that were the sole purpose 
 intended, it must necessarily follow, that all 
 images, as representations of the same ori- 
 ginals, being equally fitted to answer that 
 purpose, would, unless for the costliness of 
 the materials, be held in equal estimation : 
 but this neither is nor ever has been the 
 real state of the case. 
 
 In every Roman Catholic country there 
 have been in all ages certain images of su- 
 perior sanctity, to which costly offerings 
 have been made, and pilgrimages perform- 
 
LECTURE VII. 243 
 
 ed ; in return for which testimonies of de- 
 votion, spiritual and temporal favours, in 
 great abundance and variety, have been 
 promised to those who perform such meri- 
 torious acts of piety ; and if there be any 
 thing in these practices contrary to the in- 
 tention of the church of Rome, which can 
 hardly be allowed, considering her jealous 
 vigilance and absolute power to suppress 
 whatever may be contrary to her doctrine 
 and discipline, it is still not the less a fear- 
 ful proof of the extreme danger of depart- 
 ing from the plain sense of the word of 
 God, however plausibly it may be palliated, 
 or however circumspectly it may be at- 
 tempted to limit the departure. It proves 
 indeed, in a striking manner, the truth 
 of the saying of Samuel to Saul, that " re- 
 bellion is as the sin of witchcraft^ and that 
 when men have presumed to set up their 
 own reasonings or inventions against the 
 commands of God, they know not to what 
 lengths they shall be ultimately carried, 
 nor how fatal the consequences will be of 
 overleaping that inviolable barrier. 
 
 n 1 Sam. XV. S3. 
 R 2 
 
244 LECTURE VII. 
 
 Certain, however, it is, that the church 
 of Rome, far from disapproving, has highly 
 favoured these superstitions. In this coun- 
 try, indeed, where the spirit of that church 
 is kept in check by fear of the censures of 
 protestants, great pains have been taken by 
 her adherents to exhibit the practice of 
 image-worship, as well as the other most 
 offensive characteristics of popery, under 
 the most innoxious aspect, and to obtrude 
 it as little as possible upon public observa- 
 tion. But this is the effect of policy only, 
 in which that church is seldom deficient; 
 not an abandonment of the idolatrous 
 principle, which, being incorporated into 
 the papal creed, is equally held by all 
 her true and sincere members in every 
 country. 
 
 Popery, to be known, must be seen in 
 the ascendancy, where, unrestrained by po- 
 licy or fear, she displays her gorgeous vani- 
 ties with conscious pride ; where patron 
 saints are enshrined in almost every church, 
 and the image of the holy Virgin, splen- 
 didly attired, and adorned with the ensigns 
 of royalty, sits enthroned like the deity of 
 
LECTURE VII. 245 
 
 the temple, and is venerated by kneeling 
 crowds. 
 
 The time was, when the same religious 
 drama was acted here, and devotees went 
 in pilgrimage to images of the like de- 
 scription, which were supposed to possess 
 peculiar virtues, and to be endowed with 
 transcendent sanctity, from all regions of 
 the land; till the light of divine truth, 
 which shone out with the reformation, de- 
 spoiled them at once of their miraculous 
 powers and their glory, and consigned them, 
 like the idols of the house of Israel, "" to the 
 moles and to the bats. 
 
 But hardly can any thing in heathen 
 annals vie with the honours paid to the 
 fabled virgin of Loretto, a perfect counter- 
 part to the great goddess Diana of the 
 Ephesians, whose image fell down from 
 Jupiter, except, indeed, that the popish fa- 
 brication far exceeds in audacious impiety 
 and falsehood its pagan original ; and yet 
 such is the debasing influence of supersti- 
 tion among the votaries of Romish infalli- 
 
 ^ Isaiah ii. 20. 
 R 3 
 
246 LECTURE VII. 
 
 bility, that the greatest princes in Christen- 
 dom P, not presuming to question the vera- 
 city of the mortal "^ who dared to call him- 
 self the vicar of Christ upon earth, seeing 
 that so monstrous an experiment upon hu- 
 man credulity was first sanctioned, as there 
 is the strongest reason for believing also 
 that it had been secretly contrived by him, 
 have been emulous to evince their piety 
 by the costliness of their offerings to this 
 miraculous image ; whose sanctuary, at no 
 distant period, was full of gold and silver 
 and precious stones, and round whose walls 
 myriads of pilgrims, of every age, sex, and 
 condition, went annually upon their knees '^; 
 nor is there any reason for supposing that 
 the practice is yet discontinued. 
 
 It would be difficult to conceive that 
 these are relative honours only, which are 
 paid to this far-famed similitude of the 
 blessed Virgin, and that it is not, in the 
 
 P Among the rest our James the Second. 
 
 <J Boniface the Eighth. 
 
 ^ " On affirme &c. que dans les annees du plus grand 
 " concours on a diverses fois compte deux cens mille pe- 
 " lerins et plus,""* &c. Voyage d'ltalie, 170S, a la Haye. 
 
LECTURE VII. 2i7 
 
 opinion of its worshippers, possessed of any 
 intrinsic properties which are not common 
 to it with every other representation of the 
 same person in wood or stone, and that it 
 has always been regarded only as " a me- 
 " morial of Christianity," to kindle piety 
 and excite devout affections, as the modern 
 apologists of image-worship would have us 
 believe. And if this plea cannot be here 
 admitted, nor in other instances of venera- 
 tion paid to miraculous images of the same 
 kind, though of less extensive celebrity, which 
 are found in almost every ' Roman Catholic 
 country, to what, after all, does it amount, 
 but genuine, undeniable idolatry, only less 
 to be reprobated than that of the heathen, 
 inasmuch as the object of it is a holy and 
 innocent creature, highly favoured indeed 
 of God, but not elevated above the level of 
 human kind ; whereas the images of the 
 heathen were the representatives either of 
 evil or imaginary beings ? 
 
 The worship of saints, if ever so well en- 
 
 s See RusselPs Tour in Germany, published in 1825^ 
 vol. ii. chap. 6. for an account of the annual pilgrimage 
 from Vienna to Mariazell. 
 
 R 4 
 
248 LECTURE VII. 
 
 titled to that appellation, is an unwarranted 
 invasion of the honour due to God alone, 
 and a truly presumptuous sin in those who 
 authorize and enjoin it ; but to pay even to 
 their graven or molten images and pictures, 
 fashioned after the imaginations of painters 
 and sculptors, that sort of relative honour 
 which pagans paid to the images of their 
 gods, is at once so contrary to scripture and 
 reason, and the very first principles of true 
 religion ; so debasing to the mind of man, 
 and so apt to inspire in the simple and un- 
 educated, if not in the more enlightened of 
 those who are addicted to it, unworthy no- 
 tions of the being and attributes and pro- 
 vidence of God, that we cannot wonder 
 when we see whole communities, which 
 have adopted such a carnalized system of 
 Christianity, immersed in the most infatu- 
 ated and demoralizing superstition ; and 
 while they manifest the most bigoted zeal 
 in the cause of that church which instils 
 into their minds, from the tenderest in- 
 fancy, her atrocious doctrine of exclusive 
 salvation, regardless of those weightier mat- 
 ters of the Christian law which their Lord 
 
LECTURE VII. 249 
 
 and Master exacts of all his disciples as the 
 proof of their love and faith in him. 
 
 The injury which Christianity has suf- 
 fered from the corruptions of faith, doc- 
 trine, and worship, introduced and en- 
 grafted upon it by the church of Rome, 
 is not, however, confined within her own 
 pale. 
 
 It is one of the unfounded boasts of 
 Romish writers, that their religion has 
 overspread the globe, and that numberless 
 nations, differing in language, customs, and 
 manners, have been brought to tJie obedi- 
 ence of the faith by the labours of their 
 missionaries : and it would indeed be most 
 unjust to deny to many individuals of their 
 church the praise of laborious zeal and 
 well-meant endeavours. 
 
 But yet, unless among the uncivilized 
 and unreasoning tribes of America, who, 
 for the most part, still continue in the 
 grossest ignorance, though partially re- 
 claimed from savage life, and brought to 
 a compliance with the external formalities 
 of the church of Rome, their success has 
 
250 LECTURE VII. 
 
 either been very small, or the effects of it 
 very transient \ 
 
 But there is another race of men who 
 seem to want nothing but a true religion 
 to place them nearly on a level with the 
 Christian world ; on whose minds the sight 
 of such corruptions as we impute to the 
 church of Rome would of necessity pro- 
 duce the most prejudicial impressions a- 
 gainst Christianity, of which they suppose 
 them to be essential parts. 
 
 The principal nations which have em- 
 braced the Mahometan imposture lie round 
 the coasts of the Mediterranean sea, over- 
 against the chief seats of the Romish faith, 
 and have no opportunity of seeing Chris- 
 tianity under any other form than that 
 which is exhibited in those countries, if 
 perchance they visit them, or in the fallen 
 church of unhappy Greece, which too nearly 
 resembles that of Rome ; having in a for- 
 mer age renounced its dominion, but not 
 its errors, which both have alike derived 
 
 t Vide the Memoir of the Abbe Dubois concerning 
 their converts in India. 
 
LECTURE VII. 251 
 
 from the polytheism and idolatry which 
 were common to their pagan ancestors. Of 
 the pure and spiritual worship which Christ 
 enjoined to his disciples, they have seen or 
 heard nothing ; but instead of it, the adora- 
 tion of the host, processions and genu- 
 flexions, with the abominations of the car- 
 nival, juggling miracles, and images and 
 relicks exhibited to the gaze of besotted 
 multitudes. 
 
 Among much that is false, fabulous, im- 
 moral, and unworthy of the Deity in the 
 Mahometan doctrine, there are some things 
 also which are laudable and good, and in 
 near accordance with the Jewish and Chris- 
 tian scriptures, from which they were un- 
 doubtedly borrowed. Of these the most 
 prominent are the great and fundamental 
 truth concerning the unity of God, and the 
 strict prohibition and utter abhorrence of 
 every species of idolatry, in which the Ko- 
 ran may be said to reecho the language of 
 the Bible. It is, without doubt, in conse- 
 quence of their tenacious adherence to 
 these great principles, that they have hi- 
 therto looked with scorn on those forms of 
 
252 LECTURE VII. 
 
 Christianity which have been presented to 
 them ; and in which, although the same 
 cardinal truths are professed, they are so 
 little regarded in practice, and so overlaid 
 with corruptions, that those who are with- 
 out may well suppose that they form no 
 part of the Christian faith. 
 
 And though we doubt not that all things 
 work together for ultimate good, as well 
 as for the glory of God, we can hardly 
 avoid believing that this has been the in- 
 strumental cause of what is otherwise con- 
 trary to all experience, and might be con- 
 sidered an unaccountable phenomenon in 
 human affairs ; viz. that a race just emerg- 
 ing from barbarism, such as the early fol- 
 lowers of Mahomet, and more particularly 
 the Ottoman conquerors of the eastern em- 
 pire were, having subjugated, by force of 
 arms, nations immeasurably superior to 
 themselves in every kind of knowledge; 
 and being by the occupation of the con- 
 quered countries brought into frequent 
 communication with other states professing 
 the same religion as their conquered sub- 
 jects, have yet continued for ages a totally 
 
LECTURE VII. 25S 
 
 distinct people, attached to their own false 
 religion by the force of a few immutable 
 truths blended with it, and prejudiced a- 
 gainst the true by the adscititious false- 
 hoods with which it has been deformed. 
 
 For the same reasons the Jews have been 
 hardened in unbelief, and few, if any con- 
 verts have been gained among them in po- 
 pish countries, unless by the unchristian 
 means of persecution and force. 
 
 But this is not the heaviest of the inju- 
 ries to religion which are justly chargeable 
 upon the church of Rome. 
 
 It was from her corruptions that the sect 
 of atheistical sophists who sprung out of 
 her bosom in the last century, in a country 
 whose sovereigns assumed the title of Most 
 Christian, derived all their power to injure 
 Christianity, and ultimately to produce by 
 the venom of their principles those dread- 
 ful convulsions and sanguinary contests 
 which make up the eventful but instructive 
 history of our times. It was against the 
 bigotry, the frauds, the impostures, the cor- 
 ruptions,, the iniquities, and superstitions 
 of the church of Rome, that the main ef- 
 
254 LECTURE VII. 
 
 forts of a host of infidel assailants were di- 
 rected ; while the venerable truths of real 
 Christianity, polluted by the contagion of 
 the impious falsehoods which a worldly- 
 minded church had associated with them, 
 were subjected to the blasphemous con- 
 tumely of men who knew them only by 
 their misrepresentation. And as the de- 
 fenders of that church had nothing but 
 tradition without scripture, authority with- 
 out reason or probability, to oppose to their 
 attacks, the issue, without a miracle in her 
 favour, could not have been otherwise than 
 it was. She fell by the hands of her own 
 children, which she had armed against her- 
 self; and the unparalleled depravity which 
 instantly burst forth, as soon as the power 
 of coercion was removed, is an unanswer- 
 able proof of the tendency of such a system 
 to destroy the salutary influence of true re- 
 ligion, which it transfers from the mind to 
 the senses, and leaves the heart almost in 
 the disorder and impurity of unregenerate 
 nature. Again, indeed, beyond apparent 
 probability she has risen from her ruins, 
 and exhibits her ancient character unchang- 
 
LECTURE VII. 255 
 
 ed, and her external proportions almost un- 
 diminished. But of this we may be fully 
 certain, that until the light of unadulterat- 
 ed truth shall have pervaded the dark re- 
 cesses of the temple, and Christianity shall 
 have been purged from corruption and re- 
 stored to its original perfection, as the rea- 
 sonable service of regenerated man to his 
 Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, what- 
 ever pains may be taken to repair and 
 beautify the out-walls, the glory of God 
 will not dwell within the sanctuary. 
 
 It is in vain that Romanists pretend, that 
 if the church had become corrupt, as pro- 
 testants assert, the promise of Christ, that 
 the gates of hell should not prevail against 
 it, must have failed. 
 
 The correction of error and the removal 
 of corruption are the means employed by 
 Divine Providence to insure the accomplish- 
 ment of that promise, which is not to be 
 assumed as an argument a priori that the 
 church shall never err, as they would re- 
 present it ; for then it must apply to every 
 branch of the universal church with equal 
 force, and neither heresy nor error of any 
 
256 LECTURE VII. 
 
 kind could ever have found an entrance 
 into it, but that its errors shall not be suf- 
 fered to proceed to such lengths as to cause 
 its destruction ; nor are the friends of the 
 reformation at all concerned to shew that 
 some particular church always existed, which 
 preserved whole and undefiled the true 
 faith, such as they define it to be, with a 
 suitable form of worship, and which needed 
 no reformation. This is a difficulty which 
 the champions of the papal cause are fond 
 of proposing to us, but which we are not at 
 all concerned to solve. It has in fact no 
 connexion with the issue of the controversy 
 between us and them ; for the decision of 
 which it is not necessary to ransack ec- 
 clesiastical antiquities, nor to look beyond 
 those proofs which are ever within our 
 reach. Either we are in sinful schism, or 
 they are in dangerous apostasy from the 
 truth : this is the impassable gulf by which 
 we are reciprocally divided, and they can 
 only make good their cause against us, by 
 proving that the charges brought against 
 their church at the reformation were un- 
 founded, and that the errors of faith and 
 
LECTURE VII. ^57 
 
 worship, which protestants still impute to 
 them with equal constancy, are in very 
 deed not errors, but true expositions of 
 Christian doctrine, and suitable ways of 
 serving " the high and holy One that inhabit- 
 eth eternity. And unless they can prove 
 this, and that too not from the authority of 
 fathers and decrees of councils, convoked 
 and influenced in their deliberations by the 
 Roman pontiffs, nor by the unwritten tra- 
 ditions of their church, but from holy scrip- 
 ture alone, which all true Christians be- 
 lieve to "^ have been given by the inspi?'atio7i 
 of God, and which ought to be the last re- 
 sort in all their differences, it will be evi- 
 dent to all impartial inquirers after truth 
 that their church had falsely pretended to 
 infallibility, that it had erred in things of 
 high and awful moment, and that reform- 
 ation was indispensable to preserve the 
 light which was still left in her from be- 
 coming total darkness. By such authority 
 only can controversy be decided to the be- 
 nefit of both, and the satisfaction of either 
 party. 
 
 u Isaiah Ivii. 15. ^ 2 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
258 LECTURE VII. 
 
 If the Romish doctrines and practices, 
 which have been discussed at large con- 
 cerning tradition, transubstantiation, invo- 
 cation of saints, and worship of images, are 
 of such a nature, that no Christian who 
 knows the scriptures can honestly sub- 
 scribe to their truth, nor conform to the 
 institutions, forms of worship, and profes- 
 sions of faith founded upon them, without 
 stifling the remonstrances of his own con- 
 science and dissemblifig before God, then, 
 without looking for additional causes, or 
 laying any stress on temporary or adventi- 
 tious reasons, it must be admitted, by every 
 man who believes it his duty to worship 
 God in spirit and in truth, that reformation 
 was imperatively necessary ; and if, either 
 through judicial blindness or selfish po- 
 licy, the highest authorities in the church 
 at that momentous crisis obstinately resist- 
 ed all reformation, and sought to secure 
 and perpetuate their power by persecuting 
 even to death all those who protested a- 
 gainst the reigning errors and corruptions, 
 then must it equally be acknowledged, that 
 separation from her communion and re- 
 
LECTURE VII. 259 
 
 nunciation of her authority were fully jus- 
 tified by the necessity of the case, as the 
 only conditions on which that reformation, 
 so earnestly desired by all good men, was 
 to be obtained. 
 
 Here, therefore, we may safely rest the 
 justification of our cause, without regard to 
 the studied mistatements or railing accusa- 
 tions of our adversaries. But if to these 
 weightier reasons for casting off* the yoke 
 of papal supremacy any addition were re- 
 quired, we might still insist upon other 
 abuses and corruptions of that church, 
 which, although of inferior moment to those 
 on which I have principally dwelt, are yet, 
 as I have observed on a former occasion, of 
 no slight importance, nor unworthy of a 
 special refutation, if it had been compatible 
 with the prescribed limits, or necessary to 
 the design announced in the commence- 
 ment of these Lectures ; which was, not to 
 exhibit a perfect view of the causes of the 
 reformation, but to shew by an unexagge- 
 rated statement of the most prominent of 
 them, that on religious grounds, exclusive 
 of all worldly considerations, is was not 
 
 s 2 
 
260 LECTURE VII 
 
 only justifiable, but indispensably neces- 
 sary. Of those accessory causes to which I 
 have made this general allusion, the first 
 place is due to the heathenish fiction of 
 purgatory, with its cognate appendages of 
 masses for the dead and indulgences for 
 sin, which, however palliated or explained, 
 are utterly inconsistent with the Christian 
 verity, and pregnant with hurtful supersti- 
 tion and dangerous delusion. Nor should 
 we leave wholly unnoticed auricular con- 
 fession, with absolutions and penances at 
 the discretion of the priest, besides other ob- 
 noxious claims and practices, which appear 
 to have no other object than that of draw- 
 ing advantage from the vices and fears of 
 mankind, and exalting the power of the 
 priesthood, to whom, in all things relating 
 to religion, the laity are kept in a state of 
 pupilage and abject dependance. These 
 are still among the great practical evils of 
 the papal system, for the most part incor- 
 porated with the creed, and perpetuated 
 by the assumed infallibility of the church, 
 evils which its most strenuous advocates 
 study rather to disguise and palHate, than 
 
LECTURE VII. 261 
 
 openly to defend against the objections of 
 protestants ; nor need we, in pursuance of 
 the design with which we set out, enter 
 into a detailed examination of them, nor 
 investigate the moral and religious mis- 
 chiefs of which they are the necessary 
 source ; and as they are tenable on no 
 ground save that of tradition, if it has been 
 shewn by satisfactory arguments, that tra- 
 dition is destitute of all authority as a rule 
 of faith and morals, in refuting the prin- 
 ciple, whatever is deduced from it is equally 
 refuted with it. But that I may here be 
 permitted to repeat what has before been in 
 substance remarked, if tradition cannot sup- 
 port the monstrous system of corruptions 
 founded upon it, these very corruptions do 
 on the contrary afford a conclusive evi- 
 dence against tradition, which is thus em- 
 ployed for purposes inconsistent in many 
 respects with the fundamental doctrines 
 of Christianity, and, as it may be prov- 
 ed by irrefragable arguments, injurious to 
 holiness and purity of life, which it is one 
 of the first objects of Christianity to pro- 
 mote. 
 
 s S 
 
262 LECTURE VII. 
 
 I trust that I have in some degree, though 
 yet I fear very imperfectly, fulfilled the 
 main purpose of these Lectures ; that I 
 have shewn, even by the partial review of 
 the leading differences between us, which I 
 have been able to take, that the separation 
 of our church from that of Rome was not 
 founded upon worldly interests, or politi- 
 cal expediency, or temporary causes of any 
 kind, as Romish writers have untruly re- 
 presented ; and consequently that the se- 
 cular advantages which may have subse- 
 quently accrued to this nation from it, and 
 which in the promotion of every thing con- 
 ducive to moral or political good are great 
 beyond all estimation, were not the ends 
 contemplated by our reformers ; nor are 
 such the arguments with which, as sincere 
 Christians, we would attempt to vindicate 
 such a measure, if it could not be justified 
 on grounds strictly and purely religious. 
 
 It is indeed the duty of every Christian 
 state, not only to secure the peaceful exer- 
 cise of religion in general, but to provide 
 for the religious wants of its people by 
 affording public support to some definite 
 
LECTURE VII. 26S 
 
 form of faith and worship ; nor among the 
 many important questions on which legis- 
 lative wisdom may be called to decide, can 
 there be any of greater importance to the 
 governed, nor of more awful responsibility 
 to their rulers, under whatever form or no- 
 minal distinction the sovereign power may 
 be administered, than that of choosing 
 rightly between the different religious de- 
 nominations, which may claim to them- 
 selves to be true and legitimate Christian 
 churches. By the merciful direction of di- 
 vine Providence, that of which we are mem- 
 bers has been established and preserved as 
 the national church of this kingdom ; and of 
 its fitness and efficacy in promoting all the 
 valuable ends of true religion ; and secur- 
 ing to us, publicly and individually, the in- 
 numerable benefits resulting from it, the 
 most satisfactory evidence is visible to all, 
 whose minds are sufficiently enlightened to 
 form a correct judgment concerning so high 
 and momentous a subject. But let it be al- 
 ways remembered, that in defending her 
 sacred authority against adversaries of any 
 description, her temporal state adds no- 
 
 s4 
 
264 LECTURE VII. 
 
 thing to our strength. Her battles must 
 be fought, not under the shield of the law, 
 but with the whole armour of God. And 
 though every good Christian will bow for 
 conscience sake to the laws of his country, 
 in every thing to which human laws can 
 rightly extend, the cause of his religion 
 must be maintained with no other argu- 
 ments than those which can be drawn from 
 the word of God, to which all sincere Chris- 
 tians must yield assent, and the principles 
 of right reason, though they may not en- 
 tirely agree in the interpretation of the 
 one, or the application of the other. 
 
 With these observations I take leave of 
 this subject, and have only to express my 
 anxious hope, that by the imperfect execu- 
 tion of what I have attempted, I may not 
 have weakened the cause which it is my 
 earnest desire to serve, while at the same 
 time I am sensible that well-meaning zeal 
 is no sufficient apology for such a failure. 
 
 If such should be the judgment of my 
 hearers, may the blame fall upon the advo- 
 cate only ; and as a great portion of the 
 younger part of them are destined for the 
 
LECTURE* VIL 265 
 
 sacred ministry, may they be only so much 
 the more strongly impressed with the ne- 
 cessity of diligently cultivating professional 
 studies, and especially of endeavouring to 
 make themselves masters of a subject, which, 
 though for a while dormant, has now re- 
 sumed its former station in the field of 
 theological controversy, and seems likely to 
 retain it through their generation ; and the 
 ignorance or defective knowledge of which 
 may render them incompetent guardians of 
 the flocks committed to their charge. 
 
 It remains for me now, in the closing 
 Lecture of this series, according to my ori- 
 ginal intention, to take some notice of the 
 subjects of debate between our church, and 
 the various sects of Protestant Dissenters — 
 to endeavour to remove misapprehensions, 
 and to suggest reasons for laying aside all 
 party spirit in religion, and ceasing to keep 
 up causeless divisions ; the effect of which 
 is most injurious to the progress of truth, 
 strengthens the otherwise worthless argu- 
 ments of our common adversaries, and dis- 
 poses men of worldly minds, and indifferent 
 to the truth, who form too large a portion 
 
266 LECTURE VII. 
 
 of every community, to prefer the spiritual 
 slavery and Cimmerian darkness of Rome 
 to religious light and liberty perversely and 
 ungratefully abused. Amen. 
 
i 
 
 LECTURE VIII 
 
 Jeremiah vi. 16. 
 
 Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and 
 see, and ask for the old paths, where is the 
 good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find 
 rest for your souls. 
 
 xHESE words of the prophet, addressed 
 to the perverse and erring people of Judah, 
 are pregnant w^ith instruction for those w^ho 
 desire to serve God acceptably, under the 
 Christian as w^ell as the Mosaic dispensa- 
 tion. 
 
 At all times entitled to the most serious 
 consideration, they are peculiarly applicable 
 to the subject w^hich I have reserved for 
 the conclusion of these Lectures, inasmuch 
 as they suggest to us, though figuratively 
 yet very distinctly, the proper object of re- 
 ligious inquiry, the end at w^hich it ought 
 to terminate, and the happy effects of 
 rightly using the knov^ledge acquired by it; 
 ye shall find rest for your souls. 
 
268 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 In matters of abstract science, an extra- 
 vagant deference to antiquity, and a too 
 implicit confidence in received opinions, 
 serve only to impede the progress of im- 
 provement ; and the mind engaged in such 
 researches, where even error leads to no 
 practical evil, having no light but that of 
 nature to direct it, and no landmarks to 
 observe, but those which its own previous 
 discoveries have ascertained, is confined 
 within no limits which it may not endea- 
 vour to overpass. 
 
 But in things of positive institution, or 
 of which the extent is limited by their own 
 nature, or the causes from which they are 
 derived, as revealed religion, law, or moral 
 obligation, there are limits beyond which 
 inquiry cannot be carried, consistently with 
 the quality of the subject upon which it is 
 exercised, nor speculation safely indulged. 
 But although the bounds of practical reli- 
 gion, in which sense alone it is every man's 
 concern, are easily ascertained, yet if we 
 aim at more than this necessary knowledge, 
 which is nothing censurable, provided that 
 we do not suffer ourselves to be carried 
 
LECTURE Vm. 269 
 
 away by an insatiable spirit of sceptical 
 curiosity, nor forget that cautious humility 
 which the narrow compass of our own in- 
 tellectual vision should perpetually suggest 
 to us ; we shall find, connected with its fun- 
 damental doctrines, mysteries as incompre- 
 hensible to our understandings as eternity 
 and infinite space, and of which we never can 
 discover more than the Divine Wisdom has 
 seen good to^ reveal to us ; and therefore, in 
 prosecuting our inquiries into things so ab- 
 struse and unfathomable, sound discretion 
 as well as true piety warns us to guard 
 against rash confidence in our own saga- 
 city ; that we may not presume to dogma- 
 tize, upon the scanty and uncertain mate- 
 rials which it is possible to collect by the 
 exercise of reason alone, in subjects so far 
 exceeding its utmost reach. 
 
 And, however it might gratify the desires 
 of the most pious mind to be able to look 
 into the deep things of God, it must ever 
 be remembered, that the great purpose for 
 which our religion was intended by its di- 
 vine Author was, not to amuse the imagin- 
 ations, or to exercise the speculative facul- 
 
270 LECTURE VIIL 
 
 ties of the learned and studious, but to re- 
 gulate the belief and influence the practice 
 of the great body of mankind, and to afford 
 to us all that knowledge which is conducive 
 to the moral amendment of our nature. 
 
 This, therefore, marks the limits within 
 which religious discussions ought to be 
 confined between sincere Christians ; who, 
 consistently with the obligations of their 
 faith, can have no other object in their 
 mutual oppositions, than the elucidation 
 and establishment of necessary truth. 
 
 Provided that the essentials of faith, as 
 they are clearly though briefly set forth in 
 the Apostles' Creed, are held with equal sin- 
 cerity on either side ; it is neither necessary 
 nor wise to seek occasion for widening dis- 
 sension, and opening a door to interminable 
 controversy, by laying too great a stress on 
 inferences which are of questionable cer- 
 tainty, or opinions which are either purely 
 abstract, or have at least a very remote con- 
 nexion with the conduct of a Christian life. 
 On things of so subtle a nature, and which 
 present themselves to different minds under 
 such different aspects, perfect agreement is 
 
LECTURE VIII. 271 
 
 morally impossible ; and such slight diver- 
 sity of opinion, where none exists concern- 
 ing the duties or fundamental truths of re- 
 ligion, is a very insufficient cause for dis- 
 solving those bonds of union by which the 
 whole family of Christ should be held to- 
 gether, as one body under one spiritual 
 head. 
 
 It is certain, however, that the principal 
 ; part of the doctrinal differences by which 
 the better classes of Protestant Dissenters 
 are divided from us are of this abstract 
 character ; while they nearly if not entirely 
 agree with us in those definite points which 
 we are justified in regarding as essential to 
 the Christian faith. 
 
 Certain others, it must be acknowledged 
 and lamented, have made shipwreck of 
 their faith ; and with them undisguised 
 heresy is the palladium of their schism. 
 Of such we can only entertain the charit- 
 able wish that their eyes may be opened, 
 and that they may see the things which be- 
 long to their everlasting peace^ before their 
 day of grace is ended. 
 
 But of those whose hearts are right be- 
 
272 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 fore God, and who have not sacrificed the 
 love of truth to the love of novelty, or the 
 vain emulation of sectarian fame, it may 
 be hoped that a time will come, when it 
 may please God to dispose them to review 
 the original causes of their separation, and 
 seriously to consider whether they are of 
 sufficient importance still to justify its con- 
 tinuance, and so to keep up an irreparable 
 breach in the household of faith. And 
 whoever keeps in mind the strong and re- 
 peated injunctions of scripture for the pre- 
 servation of unity in faith and doctrine, as 
 well as affection, among all Christians, will 
 be convinced that no slight cause will ex- 
 cuse the violation of it, and that what ori- 
 ginally owed its justification to circum- 
 stances alone, can no longer be justified 
 when circumstances are totally changed. 
 
 It is trite to observe, but not the less 
 necessary to remember, that the greatest 
 blessings may be abused by the weakness 
 and perverseness of man ; and in things 
 which powerfully interest the feelings, the 
 experience of common life sufficiently de- 
 monstrates the difficulty of maintaining an 
 
 I 
 
LECTURE VIIL 273 
 
 invariable steadiness, and keeping at an 
 equal distance from opposite extremes ; 
 more especially when, to the excitement 
 which such incidents naturally generate, 
 the heat of party spirit and the irritation 
 of mutual contradiction are added. 
 
 These causes could not fail to produce 
 their effects at the crisis of the reformation. 
 And when we further consider, how minds 
 previously accustomed to the absolute dic- 
 tation of a spiritual authority which pro- 
 hibited the exercise of the understanding, 
 and utterly denied the right of private 
 judgment in all things pertaining to reli- 
 gion, were likely to be affected by the sud- 
 den restoration of mental liberty, and the 
 influx of light which burst upon the world 
 from the study of the holy scriptures, it 
 cannot be matter of surprise, if zeal often 
 outstripped knowledge, and all were not 
 temperately wise. That such was the fact 
 is much less a reproach to the reformation, 
 than to the authors of that thraldom and 
 darkness which rendered such a crisis ne- 
 cessary for the resuscitation of religion. 
 
 To this we must look back for the origin 
 
274 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 of those dissensions which have never since 
 been extinguished ; and which, though not 
 unaccompanied with great good, have yet 
 in some respects so injuriously harassed the 
 protestant church. 
 
 By the degree of opposition which it en- 
 countered in different countries, the cha- 
 racter of the reformation, and the length 
 to which each particular church departed 
 from that of Rome, seem to have been in a 
 great measure determined; so that where 
 the greatest severity had been exercised 
 against the ^reformers, the separation was 
 ultimately widest. Too often, under the 
 influence of feelings so excited, the legiti- 
 mate object of the reformation was par- 
 tially overlooked ; and whatever had existed 
 in the church of Rome, without reference 
 to its real origin or intrinsic propriety, was 
 indiscriminately condemned, as unfit, for 
 that reason alone, to be retained by those 
 who had thrown off their subjection to 
 her. 
 
 a As in Holland, in consequence of the cruelties of 
 the duke of Alva, &c. and in the south of France, from 
 the persecution of Francis the First, &c. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 275 
 
 It was the peculiar happiness of the re- 
 formation in this country, that the prin- 
 cipal authors and promoters of it were 
 found in the highest ranks of the sacer- 
 dotal order ; men who in an eminent de- 
 gree combined knowledge with piety, mo- 
 deration with zeal; by whose labours, finally 
 crowned with martyrdom, those foundations 
 of our church were laid, on which, though 
 once overthrown by religious infatuation 
 and popular madness, it was providentially, 
 and beyond all human probability, reesta- 
 blished, and has since endured, unshaken, 
 the reiterated assaults both of infidelity 
 and fanaticism ; and though the tempest 
 may again rage and swell against it, we 
 humbly hope that it will still be preserved 
 by the same Divine Goodness, as the centre 
 of light and truth, to all who desire to walk 
 in the one and love the other. 
 
 The purpose of those excellent men, in 
 the prosecution of their holy undertaking, 
 was to renovate what was decayed, to pu- 
 rify what was corrupted, and, as far as the 
 difference of times and circumstances would 
 permit, to restore all things to the primi- 
 
 T 2 
 
276 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 tive standard, and neither to retain nor 
 abolish any thing unless in conformity with 
 that principle. 
 
 The rule of scripture was alone admitted 
 for the proof and establishment of doc- 
 trine ; while in regard to positive institu- 
 tions, and things in their own nature in- 
 different, respect was not refused to eccle- 
 siastical tradition, provided that it was good 
 to the use of edifying, and not repugnant 
 to God's word. And subject to such limita- 
 tions, tradition may be resorted to as a 
 safe and useful guide, conducive to decorum 
 and uniformity between different churches, 
 which otherwise, following no common rule, 
 necessarily fall into diversities of institu- 
 tions, of which, diversity of opinion, and 
 the weakening of mutual affection, are the 
 too probable consequence. 
 
 Between ourselves, indeed, and those Dis- 
 senters to whom we would willingly give 
 the right hand of fellowship, there are yet 
 some shades of difference upon doctrinal 
 points ; but those, as it has been already 
 observed, chiefly of an abstract, and, hu- 
 manly speaking, incomprehensible nature ; 
 
LECTURE VIII. 277 
 
 concerning which, therefore, it is unbecom- 
 ing to pronounce dogmatically, and mutu- 
 ally to condemn with severity, what we be- 
 lieve to be erroneous on either side, so long 
 as nothing is maintained on either which 
 is incompatible with sound faith and sin- 
 cere piety. 
 
 The really efficient differences which 
 still subsist between ourselves and that 
 class of Protestant Dissenters nearly all 
 merge in church government ; of the great 
 importance of which very inadequate no- 
 tions appear to be generally entertained, 
 both in the church and out of it ; very 
 many persons seeming to think that it is 
 altogether a matter of the utmost indiffer- 
 ence ; so that whatever form may best suit 
 their own taste and convenience, they are 
 equally at liberty to adopt ; and that what- 
 ever human laws sanction or allow in such 
 a case cannot be religiously wrong. 
 
 In combating such loose opinions, it is 
 very necessary to guard ourselves against 
 the imputation of intolerance, nor to afford 
 to such as might be willing to avail them- 
 selves of it, a handle to misrepresent our 
 
 T S 
 
278 LECTURE VIIL 
 
 meaning. It should therefore be under- 
 stood, and always kept in mind, that in 
 arguing of systems we are not passing sen- 
 tence upon individuals. 
 
 In the best constituted Christian com- 
 munities many unworthy members are al- 
 ways seen to exist, who turn the advan- 
 tages which they enjoy only into causes of 
 heavier condemnation ; while in the worst 
 it is to be hoped that some may still be 
 found, who, walking sincerely according to 
 the light which they enjoy, would not dis- 
 grace, by their lives and conversation, a 
 purer faith and sounder doctrine. We do 
 not therefore take upon us to circum- 
 scribe the mercy of God, nor to exclude 
 from the hope of eternal life all whose ab- 
 stract belief is not entirely consonant to 
 the form of sound words delivered in scrip- 
 ture. We endeavour only to disentangle 
 truth from error, leaving the application of 
 it to every one's own sincerity; and in 
 judging, we judge ourselves, and not our 
 brethren. 
 
 It is the invariable doctrine of scripture, 
 that it is impossible to serve God accept- 
 
LECTURE VIII. 279 
 
 ably without his grace ; that no man can 
 live and believe as it becomes a Christian, 
 without the help of that Holy Spirit which 
 now in Christ's stead sanctifies and governs 
 his church ; whereas in the state of nature 
 we are all concluded under sin, and prone 
 to evil continually. From hence we ne- 
 cessarily infer, wheresoever we see a man 
 consistently exhibiting in his life and con- 
 versation the genuine fruits of faith and 
 holiness, and other Christian virtues, that 
 such an one, to whatever denomination he 
 may belong, is influenced by the Spirit of 
 God, and is in the way of salvation ; while, 
 on the other hand, to whatever church or 
 congregation he may profess adherence, 
 how orthodox soever its creed, or apostolic 
 its foundation, if he hold the truth in un- 
 righteousness, and in his practice belie his 
 profession, the religious advantages which 
 he has so criminally abused will serve only 
 to subject him to that severer judgment 
 which our ^ Lord has pronounced upon 
 those faithless servants who know their 
 Master's will, hut do it not. 
 
 ^ Luke xii. 47. 
 T 4 
 
S80 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 It is not, however, to be concluded from 
 hence, because we entertain this charitable 
 hope concerning those, who, though not 
 free from error, yet display in their lives 
 the evidences of Christian piety, that it is 
 a matter of no moment to what sect we be- 
 long, provided that our faith be sincere as 
 it regards ourselves, and our actions con- 
 formable to it. 
 
 Such a principle, once admitted, can be 
 confined within no limits ; but with the 
 same reason as it places error and orthodox 
 belief on an equal footing, if pursued to its 
 necessary consequences, will confound all 
 religious distinctions, provided only that 
 the plea of sincerity in individuals can be 
 plausibly maintained. In flying from in- 
 tolerance therefore, we must beware of 
 running to the opposite and not less re- 
 prehensible extreme of latitudinarian in- 
 difference; which is at the same time in- 
 compatible with that very sincerity in which 
 it makes the whole essence of religion to 
 consist. In error there must always be pro- 
 portionate danger, which no man who is 
 adequately concerned for the salvation of 
 
LECTURE VIII. 281 
 
 his soul would willingly encounter where 
 that is at stake. 
 
 It is true, that a long and perilous voyage 
 has sometimes been performed without loss 
 in an unsound vessel ; but it is not from 
 thence to be argued, that it would not have 
 been much wiser, if the option were given, 
 to embark in a sound one ; and the same 
 reasoning may be applied with still greater 
 force against presumptuous rashness in re- 
 ligion, where we are not abandoned to the 
 weakness and uncertainty of our own judg- 
 ment, in choosing the most acceptable way 
 of serving God, and the safest road to sal- 
 vation, but have strong scriptural authority, 
 if not an express command to direct us. 
 This also is a case in which ecclesiastical 
 tradition, intimately connected with un- 
 doubted history, simply attesting a certain 
 fact, ought to have its due weight in aid of 
 scripture, even with those who most scru- 
 pulously reject its authority in questions of 
 faith and doctrine. 
 
 Now it will hardly be denied by any man 
 in the least conversant with ecclesiastical 
 antiquity, whose mind is not wholly dis- 
 
282 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 torted by prejudice, or overheated with 
 controversVj that the system of church go- 
 vernment, instituted by the apostles, was the 
 episcopal ; and there is no fact in sacred 
 history more certain, than that Titus and 
 Timothy were ordained bishops by St. Paul, 
 the one at Ephesus, the other in Crete, to 
 ordain elders, to take care that they preach- 
 ed none but the true doctrine, which they 
 had learned of him, and to regulate and su- 
 perintend the churches committed to their 
 charge. 
 
 It is equally indisputable, that the same 
 form of church government was universally 
 established through the Christian world, 
 and that it continued every where un- 
 changed till the sixteenth century, when a 
 different system was introduced by Calvin, 
 in that portion of the reformed church 
 which followed his opinions. 
 
 It is therefore a question of the most 
 serious importance, whether a form of go- 
 vernment coeval with the church itself, and 
 every where received, was a matter of an 
 indifferent nature, which might be abo- 
 lished on grounds of secular policy, or ar- 
 
LECTURE VIII. 283 
 
 bitrary preference for another ; or whether 
 it had any thing of divine authority con- 
 nected with it, and ought therefore to be 
 perpetually and universally retained ; in 
 the consideration of which the scripture it- 
 self will be our safest guide, and history 
 need only be appealed to in support of the 
 conclusions which we draw from it. 
 
 The final commission of our Saviour to 
 his apostles, before his ascension into hea- 
 ven, was, to ""go forth and teach all nations, 
 to preach the doctrines which he had deli- 
 vered to them throughout the world, and so 
 to lay the foundations of an universal church. 
 He had before assured them, that after his 
 departure he would send to them ^^A^ Com- 
 forter, the Spirit of truth, ivho should lead 
 them into all truth, and ^ bring all things to 
 their remembrance which he had commanded 
 them. And again we read, that when the 
 time was come for his return to the Ma- 
 jesty on high, he charged his disciples ^not 
 to depart from Jerusalem till they had re- 
 ceived the fulfilment of this promise, by 
 
 c Matthew xxviii. 19, 20. ^ Mark xvi. 15, &c. 
 
 e John xiv. 26. xvi. 7, &c. ^ Acts i. 4. 
 
284 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 which they were to be qualified for the 
 execution of their office, and not to under- 
 take it in reliance on their own unassisted 
 powers. And, agreeably to our Lord's com- 
 mand, we read in the Acts that they con- 
 tinued all together at Jerusalem till after 
 the miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit 
 on the day of Pentecost, and in actual ex- 
 pectation of that event ; after which they 
 went forth, as they were severally called, to 
 the work of the ministry in different re- 
 gions, and preached the word both to Jews 
 and Gentiles. 
 
 The sum of the controversy, therefore, 
 between those who have retained and those 
 who have rejected the episcopal constitu- 
 tion of the church, seems fairly reducible 
 to this issue : What was the extent of the 
 apostles' commission, and how far did they 
 enjoy the extraordinary assistance of the 
 Holy Ghost in the fulfilment of it? Was 
 their commission limited to teaching the 
 principles of doctrine promulgated by our 
 Saviour, or did it extend also to the found- 
 ing of a church in which those principles 
 should be preserved for ever ? and was the 
 
LECTURE VIII. 285 
 
 extraordinary assistance of the Spirit li- 
 mited to their oral and written instructions 
 in matters of doctrine, or did it extend 
 to the precepts which they gave, and the 
 rules which they prescribed for the go- 
 vernment of all Christians incorporated 
 into one spiritual society; and however 
 widely diffused through the world, and dif- 
 fering in their temporal states, yet united 
 in one holy fellowship, being called ^ in one 
 hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and 
 ^ having access by one Spirit to the Father. 
 
 We hold, undoubtedly, that they were 
 equally guided by the Holy Ghost in the 
 execution of both these parts of their com- 
 mission, between which so intimate a con- 
 nexion subsists ; and the necessity of prov- 
 ing the contrary, and explaining the rea- 
 sons of it, rests with those who admit the 
 one and deny the other ; and that it is a 
 subject entitled to the most attentive and 
 respectful consideration of those who main- 
 tain either opinion, must be equally ad- 
 mitted by all serious Christians. 
 
 g Eph. iv. 4. ^ Eph. ii. 18. 
 
286 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Those who acknowledge the apostolical 
 origin of episcopacy, though not in our 
 sense, and yet have rejected it from their 
 ecclesiastical polity, rely principally on the 
 disputed meaning of the word sTria-KOTrof, 
 which they affirm to be used in the New 
 Testament indiscriminately with -^pea-fivTspof, 
 without any idea of superiority attached to 
 it. I shall not attempt to abridge the argu- 
 ments with which this assertion has been 
 so decisively overthrown by the illustrious 
 luminaries of our church. It will be suffi- 
 cient for my present limited purpose to 
 observe, that if in any case, surely in this, 
 the concurrent testimony of all history may 
 be allowed to outweigh the force of ety- 
 mological reasoning, and arguments found- 
 ed upon the precarious basis of verbal cri- 
 ticism ; and that the sense which through 
 eighteen centuries the whole Christian 
 world, with the exception of that mode- 
 rate portion of it which since the reforma- 
 tion has adhered to the system of Calvin, 
 has affixed to the title of an office which 
 has been maintained and exercised in the 
 church without intermission from the very 
 
LECTURE VIII. ^87 
 
 beginning to our own times, ought to be 
 received as the true one ; and that although 
 the extent of jurisdiction exercised by bi- 
 shops may have varied at different times 
 and in different countries, according as the 
 church itself has been dominant or de- 
 pressed, persecuted or prosperous, recog- 
 nised and supported by the state, or merely 
 tolerated, the spiritual, which is the only 
 indefeasible attribute of the episcopal cha- 
 racter, with power to ordain ministers and 
 to watch over the administration of the 
 word and doctrine, has ever been pre- 
 served. 
 
 To those who believe with us the plenary 
 inspiration of the apostles in all things ne- 
 cessary to religion, to prove the apostolical 
 origin of any thing is sufficient to confirm 
 its authority; and to an apostolical tradi- 
 tion, which can be incontestably proved to 
 be such by an unbroken chain of evidence, 
 we maintain that the utmost deference is 
 due ; and we must be careful not to con- 
 found traditions, so attested, with those 
 which the church of Rome pretends to 
 have in her possession, and brings forward 
 
288 LECTURE VIIL 
 
 to solve all difficulties where scripture is 
 either silent or against her. 
 
 The tradition of institutions, which is 
 capable of the most distinct historical proof, 
 stands on a totally different footing from 
 that of doctrines, which is destitute of all 
 proof; nor do we admit tradition of any 
 kind as apostolical, which is not before all 
 things consonant with scripture, as we have 
 already shewn concerning some of the most 
 obnoxious superstitions of the church of 
 Rome, and might equally prove concerning 
 many others, for which they claim the same 
 origin, but which we certainly know from 
 scripture to have been unheard-of in the 
 apostolic age, and therefore the inventions 
 of a later period. 
 
 But when an institution is plainly re- 
 cognised in scripture, attested by the most 
 ancient and authentic history, and uni- 
 versally received throughout the world in 
 every Christian church founded by the apo- 
 stles or their immediate successors, we have 
 the utmost certainty which reason can de- 
 mand or the nature of things admit, that 
 it is a genuine apostolical tradition ; and if 
 
LECTURE VIII. 289 
 
 we respect the authc ity of the apostles, we 
 are bound to receive it, though not expressly 
 commanded. 
 
 And such evidence we have concerning 
 the institution of episcopacy, which has 
 uniformly prevailed in every branch of the 
 universal church, whether orthodox or cor- 
 rupt, from the western frontier of Europe to 
 the most remote regions of Asia, in which 
 the gospel has been preached, from the 
 Arctic ocean to the torrid zone, including 
 that extremely interesting member of the 
 Christian community, far separated from 
 the parent stock, and surrounded on all 
 sides by the darkness of paganism, which 
 modern researches have brought to light in 
 the Syrian church of Malabar \ This pri- 
 mitive branch of the universal church, 
 which had retained its faith and apostoli- 
 cal order unchanged without external sup- 
 port or communication with any other, ex- 
 cept, indeed, the persecution which in mo- 
 dern times it had endured from the agents 
 of Rome, comes forward in these late ages, 
 
 i Vide Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia. 
 
 u 
 
590 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 to confirm, by a testimony beyond all ex- 
 ception, this important truth. 
 
 Even Calvin, while he labours consist- 
 ently with the characteristic feature of his 
 system, to lower the episcopal office, and to 
 establish his favourite theory of the ori- 
 ginal equality of bishops and presbyters in 
 the days of the apostles, is constrained by 
 the force of historic testimony to admit, 
 that at least in the age immediately fol- 
 lowing, bishops, invested with a priority of 
 rank and authority above the order of pres- 
 byters, were instituted in the church, for 
 the prevention of discord and maintenance 
 of order ; and apparently seeks to justify 
 the abolition of episcopacy in the church 
 over which he presided, by exhibiting the 
 abuses and disorders which had been in- 
 troduced under the papal domination in 
 the appointment of bishops, and the fla- 
 grant enormities, of which the most worth- 
 less men advanced by such means to the 
 episcopal dignity, had been guilty^. 
 
 But such a mode of arguing is in any case 
 
 k Institut. lib. IV. cap. 4. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 291 
 
 inadmissible, unless it can be shewn that 
 the thing abused was such in its nature, 
 that it necessarily led to abuse ; and there 
 is not an institution, civil or religious, which 
 ought not to be equally abolished, if the 
 demerits of individuals, who have at any 
 time grossly neglected or unfaithfully abus- 
 ed their trust, can be admitted as a suffi- 
 cient ground for concluding against the in- 
 trinsic goodness and utility of the institu- 
 tion itself; and on the same plea of abuse 
 the orders of presbyters might be proscrib- 
 ed as well as that of bishops, since in the 
 dark ages preceding the reformation the 
 same corruption of manners and the same 
 neglect of their sacred duties are imputed 
 to both '. 
 
 It may be supposed possible, that in a 
 particular conjuncture the interests of true 
 religion might require an opposition to the 
 authority of those whose special office it is 
 to guard and adorn it ; and the pertinacity 
 with which the bishops in general, either 
 influenced by the civil government of their 
 
 ' Vide Mosheim, passim. 
 u 2 
 
292 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 several countries, or taking their tone from 
 the pope, who held them in abject depend- 
 ence, or from a predilection for the errors 
 and corruptions in which they had been 
 bred, contended against the beginnings of 
 the reformation, affords as strong a case for 
 refusing canonical subjection to their au- 
 thority, as can well be imagined ; since the 
 most venerable of religious institutions hav- 
 ing for their object the preservation and 
 advancement of religion, if ever a real op- 
 position should arise between them, which, 
 however, is in no case to be too hastily con- 
 cluded, cannot be set in competition with 
 religion itself, but the means must give 
 place to the end. 
 
 But this, where it did exist, was only a 
 temporary, not a permanent necessity, and 
 did not require a final subversion of apo- 
 stolical order ; the return to which should 
 not have been delayed beyond the crisis 
 which seemed to demand a temporary sus- 
 pension of it. 
 
 In our own country, however, no such 
 necessity for innovation could ever be plead- 
 ed. Here, as it has been above remarked. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 293 
 
 the reformation found among the chief 
 members of the hierarchy its firmest and 
 ablest defenders ; and to no other circum- 
 stance, divine Providence so ordaining, was 
 it so much indebted for its successful pro- 
 gress and final completion. Under their 
 temperate guidance, it escaped the shoals 
 of fanaticism and popular tumult ; and 
 v^hen a change in the supreme civil power 
 had placed the means of vengeance in the 
 hands of its enemies, they were the first to 
 feel their force. By their sufferings they 
 confirmed the work, which their zeal, piety, 
 and learning had achieved ; and their me- 
 mory must be ever blessed by every friend 
 of the reformation, with which it is insepa- 
 rably united. 
 
 To them, under God, we owe it, that our 
 church in that difficult season retained its 
 primitive order and apostolical constitu- 
 tion, while it threw off the corruptions 
 which had grown over its venerable struc- 
 ture in a long series of benighted ages, 
 under the spiritual usurpation of Rome. 
 Theirs is the praise, that no pernicious no- 
 velties were introduced in doctrine or disci- 
 
 u3 
 
294 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 pline, no untried theories preferred before 
 the lessons of experience, and finally that 
 our church was settled on those sound and 
 solid foundations which can never be shaken, 
 while Christian faith remains; and which 
 have rendered it the firmest pillar of the 
 reformation, as well as the most prominent 
 object of hostility to its enemies, and in- 
 deed to all the enemies of religion ; who 
 evermore bear their testimony to its su- 
 perior excellence above all other Christian 
 establishments, by the peculiar bitterness 
 of their hatred against it. 
 
 With such incontrovertible evidence in 
 favour of the episcopal system among vis, it 
 seems difficult to account for the violent 
 prejudices which some classes of Dissenters 
 have assiduously cherished against it ; and 
 which, indeed, furnish a melancholy proof, 
 that even in things of the utmost import- 
 ance, out of which all temporal considera- 
 tions should be banished, men are yet too 
 often governed by their feelings rather than 
 their reason, and that party zeal is stronger 
 than the love of truth. 
 
 If ever, as some have pretended, honest 
 
LECTURE VIII. 295 
 
 Dissenters did suspect our church of a se- 
 cret leaning towards that of Rome, such a 
 prejudice is now without excuse. The com- 
 paratively little account which Romanists 
 of latter times have made of any other pro- 
 testant church, and the insidious attacks 
 which they are so eager and indefatigable 
 to make on ours, ought long ago to have 
 opened their eyes. 
 
 And yet there are those, of whom we 
 would not speak with intentional disre- 
 spect, who reproach us as inconsistent pro- 
 testants, because we have reformed without 
 changing what was essentially good, and 
 under the influence of inveterate prejudice 
 continue to couple together popery and 
 prelacy as cognate evils, which a perfect re- 
 formation would have exploded with equal 
 reprobation, and seem still to think that 
 there is some essential affinity between 
 them. 
 
 But of all the errors into which zeal 
 without knowledge ever betrayed men, this 
 is certainly one of the most flagrant and 
 extraordinary. . 
 
 While the Roman pontiffs were aiming 
 u 4 
 
296 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 at that supremacy and dominion, which by 
 degrees they acquired over the whole west- 
 ern church, there was no point which they 
 laboured with greater art and more con- 
 sistent perseverance, as conducive to their 
 main object, than to reduce all other bi- 
 shops to a state of vassalage and subser- 
 viency to themselves; in the accomplish- 
 ment of which they principally availed them- 
 selves of the zealous services of the mo- 
 nastic orders, whom they kept in immediate 
 dependence upon their ow^n authority, and 
 exempted from the jurisdiction of the dio- 
 cesan bishops. 
 
 At the council of Trent the pope's agents 
 steadily pursued the same policy, and re- 
 sisted every proposition for declaring that 
 bishops held their office in the church by 
 divine right, lest by admitting such a claim 
 they should render them independent of 
 him ; while not a few of that generally cor- 
 rupt and subservient assembly strenuously 
 though ineffectually contended to regain the 
 privileges which belonged to them as Chris- 
 tian bishops, and emancipate themselves 
 from the subjection to which they had been 
 
LECTURE VIII. 297 
 
 reduced towards the see of Rome ; clearly 
 foreseeing, that unless that could be pre- 
 viously effected, all attempts to bring about 
 such a reformation, as it was universally 
 acknowledged that the church required, 
 and the accomplishment of which was the 
 professed object of assembling the council, 
 would be defeated by the influence and po- 
 licy of the court of Rome, which had an 
 interest in perpetuating abuses, of which 
 every province of the church loudly com- 
 plained "". 
 
 The event fully justified their apprehen- 
 sions. The real wounds of religion were 
 slightly skinned over, or left untouched; 
 great evils were palliated, and little ones 
 ostentatiously corrected ; what the pope lost 
 in the extent of his spiritual sovereignty by 
 the reformation, was added to him in the 
 increase of his power over that which re- 
 mained ; and all real reformation of errors 
 and corruptions was rendered thenceforth 
 impossible, so long as that power shall 
 
 ^ See Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent, 
 passim ; also Oath of Fealty to the Pope still taken by 
 every Roman Catholic bishop. 
 
298 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 stand. And to this unhappy result nothing 
 was so materially conducive, as the enslav- 
 ing of the episcopal order; which was effect- 
 ed by the dexterous policy of the papal ma- 
 nagers, in playing upon the fears of some, 
 and the hopes of others, and sowing di- 
 visions amongst all. 
 
 Had the episcopal order in the church 
 of Rome retained its just independence, it 
 seems incredible that men so pious and en- 
 lightened as Fenelon, Massillon, and others, 
 who were in their day the lights and orna- 
 ments of the Gallican church, and are still 
 its greatest glory, should never in their zeal 
 for religion have ventured openly to ar- 
 raign the corruptions of doctrine and wor- 
 ship, of which they could not but be sensi- 
 ble, nor have sought even by noiseless and 
 temperate means to apply a corrective to 
 them ; and that they did not do so, is one of 
 the most melancholy proofs, that the sys- 
 tem of the church of Rome excludes the 
 possibility of internal reformation, and that 
 the sovereignty of the pope is the indis- 
 soluble bond of ignorance and corruption, 
 wherever it is acknowledged ; and if ever 
 
LECTURE VIIL ^99 
 
 reformation should make its way into that 
 church in defiance of so many obstacles, 
 we may confidently predict that it will be 
 either the immediate cause or the neces- 
 sary consequence of the restoration of the 
 episcopacy to its primitive rights. 
 
 That the consequences of abolishing or 
 degrading it in many protestant churches 
 have been extremely injurious to religion is 
 lamentably notorious, and is in effect ac- 
 knowledged by the endeavours which have 
 been recently made in the chief protestant 
 "kingdom on the continent of Europe to 
 reestablish it : and wherever the evil re- 
 sulting from its abolition has been less vi- 
 sible, we shall there find that an equivalent 
 authority has been exercised by corporate 
 ecclesiastical bodies, which, however, if they 
 are equally efficient for maintaining church 
 government, are yet wanting in many of the 
 advantages which belong to the apostolical 
 constitution of the church. 
 
 But the full measure of the evil is found 
 in those smaller sects and insulated congre- 
 gations, which individually acknowledge no 
 
 " Prussia. 
 
300 LECTURE VIIL 
 
 superior authority, and maintain no bond 
 of union in faith or worship with any other 
 denomination of Christians, but assert their 
 own competency to regulate all the con- 
 cerns of religion within themselves, forget- 
 ting ° that the branch unless it abide in the 
 vine beareth no fruity and that all true 
 p members of Christ are members also one of 
 another. And so totally is the true notion 
 of the church, which to be true must be 
 catholic or universal in its principles, lost 
 among them by the necessary consequences 
 of religious anarchy, that there are those, 
 and not the most ignorant among them, 
 who even profess to believe, that every 
 kind of religious establishment, the main 
 purpose and primary effect of which is to 
 preserve unity in religion, and at the same 
 time to extend its benefits to the whole 
 community, is essentially inconsistent with 
 genuine Christianity ; and as our Lord, to 
 preclude the misconceptions of carnal Jews, 
 and to obviate the suspicions of the ruling 
 powers concerning the nature and design 
 
 o John XV. 7. P Ephes. iv. 25. v. 30. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 301 
 
 of his religion, declared that his kingdom 
 was not of this world, these inconsequent 
 reasoners infer, that it ought to remain for 
 ever in the same state of alienation from 
 the civil commonwealth, as when the world 
 was yet unconverted and everywhere hostile 
 to it; and for the same reason they con- 
 tend that all church government, beyond 
 that which each separate congregation exer- 
 cises over its own members, is an usurpation 
 over their natural and religious liberty. By 
 many, in pursuance of the same anarchical 
 and antisocial principles, all creeds and 
 confessions of faith are rejected, as human 
 compositions void of authority ; and the 
 members of such religious sects left at large 
 to find out a creed for themselves, or com- 
 mitted without reserve to the honesty, sin- 
 cerity, and discretion of their teachers; who 
 on their part are scarcely restrained by any 
 other necessity, than that of accommodating 
 their doctrine to the taste of their hearers, 
 and carefully forbearing to offend their 
 prejudices. 
 
 The consequences of thus subjecting all 
 things to the unbounded licence of private 
 
302 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 judgment, without guide or landmark, have 
 been such, as could alone be expected by 
 reasonable men. 
 
 Many who are full of sectarian zeal are 
 at the same time wholly unsettled. in their 
 creed, and more apt to dispute about ab- 
 stract principles, than to bring forth the 
 peaceful fruits of righteousness ; many are 
 ready to embrace every novelty ; and many 
 appear to have come to the dangerous con- 
 clusion, that it is of small moment what 
 men believe, provided that they retain the 
 name of Christians, and manifest a decent 
 respect for the moral duties : and whereas 
 He who is himself "^ the way^ the truth, and 
 the life, has in the most distinct terms warn- 
 ed all who hope for salvation through him, 
 without ivhoyn no man cometh to the Father, 
 "" that strait is the gate, and narrow is the 
 way, which leadeth unto life, the sectarian 
 spirit, on the contrary, boldly assures its de- 
 lirious followers, that the way is easy and 
 the gate wide, and that in fact the most devi- 
 ous paths which men may choose for them- 
 
 q John xiv. 6. •■ Matt. vii. 13, 14. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 303 
 
 selves will finally lead to the same termina- 
 tion. 
 
 Causeless schism, though it generally sets 
 out with high pretensions of zeal for the 
 truth, is always in the end injurious to it, 
 and is scarcely reconcileable with any feel- 
 ing of true piety. If religion, as it is osten- 
 tatiously asserted by the advocates of these 
 latitudinarian principles, be indeed exclu- 
 sively a concern between man and his God, 
 how fearful ought such a consideration to 
 make every serious Christian of acting with 
 levity, rashness, or insincerity, where he, 
 with whom he has to do, is no other than 
 his Creator, Redeemer, and Judge, " to 
 " whom all hearts be open and all desires 
 " known !" And yet this natural inference 
 seems entirely to have escaped those whom 
 the sectarian spirit has possessed, and they 
 appear to think that the freedom of con- 
 science which the laws of the land most 
 properly allow, (for without that freedom it 
 would be impossible by human means to 
 provide either for purity of doctrine or sin- 
 cerity in religion,) makes that to be guilt- 
 less before God, which is not cognizable by 
 
304 LECTURE VIIL 
 
 human tribunals ; and liberty of conscience 
 is pleaded as the comprehensive apology 
 for the most dangerous aberrations of hete- 
 rodox presumption. 
 
 Thus, too, a door is opened to the most 
 perverted species of ambition. 
 
 To raise themselves into notice, and to 
 draw congregations, men, conscious of some 
 talents, and not restrained by that fear of 
 offending, w^hich is inseparable from true 
 piety, are tempted to start new opinions 
 and preach strange doctrines ; and if they 
 are but gifted with fluency of speech to re- 
 commend them, which with those whose 
 itching ears can only be pleased with no- 
 velty ever passes for wisdom, they become 
 the founders of new sects, out of which, by 
 the same process of subdivision, others again 
 are generated; blind leaders are blindly fol- 
 lowed ; new errors are opposed to old ones, 
 and truth alone is unheeded and forgotten. 
 
 These evils we justly ascribe to the abo- 
 lition of the primitive constitution of the 
 church, and the want of that mild con- 
 trol, which the apostles, guided by the 
 Holy Ghost, established for the preserva- 
 
LECTURE Vm. 305 
 
 tion of order and sound doctrine in the 
 household of faith ; and the efficacy of which, 
 for attaining those important ends, is so 
 evidently superior to that of any system, 
 which the inventions of later ages have sub- 
 stituted for it. 
 
 Our dissenting brethren are not in ge- 
 neral supposed to be more favourable to 
 the papal power than ourselves. But how 
 greatly is it to be regretted, that they do 
 not consider how much the cause of that 
 power is served by the abuse of Christian 
 liberty; how strong an argument is sup- 
 plied to its advocates and apologists by the 
 varieties and variations of doctrine, which 
 different sects, unworthily assuming the 
 name of protestants, have introduced, and 
 which papists urge as a proof against all 
 protestants, whom it is their standing po- 
 licy to confound under one denomination, 
 however differing among themselves, that 
 they have been given up to the spirit of 
 delusion, as a penalty for renouncing the 
 infallible church of Rome. And, indeed, 
 if the same charge of irreverent levity and 
 mutability of doctrine could be substanti- 
 
 X 
 
306 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 ated against all protestants, as against these 
 ephemeral sects, we could hardly refuse to 
 confess with shame, that we had abused 
 the greatest mercy of God, and that man 
 was, in truth, as they represent him, in- 
 capable of rendering to his Maker a reason- 
 able service, and fit only for a slavish reli- 
 gion. But, blessed be God, these are but 
 small blemishes upon the surface of our 
 system, which do not affect its internal 
 soundness, though they may expose us to 
 misrepresentation, and prejudice against the 
 cause of truth those who look no deeper 
 than the outside of things. 
 
 Against the whole protestant cause, often 
 as they are so applied by its adversaries, 
 they afford no argument whatever, though 
 a very strong one indeed against that de- 
 parture from apostolical order, by which 
 some, otherwise sound and sincere mem- 
 bers of Christ, are distinguished ; and it is 
 devoutly to be wished, that those whom it 
 especially concerns would seriously consi- 
 der it; while to ourselves it is an additional 
 reason for fervent gratitude, that the same 
 good Providence which has delivered us 
 
LECTURE VIII. 307 
 
 from the bondage of superstition, has 
 equally preserved as from the distractions 
 of religious anarchy ; nor if we weigh well 
 the manifold evils attendant upon both, 
 can we be too thankful that we have been 
 enabled to escape them. 
 
 But if in this we have much cause to 
 bless God for his signal mercies towards us, 
 we have none for flattering ourselves, but 
 should rather cherish a godly fear, lest we 
 prove ourselves unworthy of them ; for the 
 religious advantages which we enjoy, as it 
 may be truly said, above all other Christian 
 nations, are talents, which by Him who has 
 committed them to our keeping we shall 
 be expected to improve, and for which we 
 must hereafter give account. And as I 
 speak now for the last time in the dis- 
 charge of this duty, in the presence of so 
 many who are either invested with the sa- 
 cred ministry, or future candidates for it, 
 let me pray them to suffer without offence 
 the word of exhortation from one who 
 deeply feels his own deficiencies ; that they 
 would remember the warning of our Lord, 
 
 X 2 
 
308 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 that ' to whomsoever much is given^ of him 
 shall be much required; and therefore, that 
 if our church is, as we firmly beheve, the 
 purest in doctrine and the most apostolic 
 in its constitution of any upon earth, a 
 more cogent necessity is laid indeed upon 
 all its members to shew by their life and 
 conversation, that they have profited by the 
 means of grace which have been so amply af- 
 forded them; but in an especial degree upon 
 its ministers, according to their sacred and 
 awful engagement, by the discreet and zeal- 
 ous discharge of their important functions, 
 to * magnify their office in the sight of men, 
 and by good example and sound doctrine 
 to excite and attract them to the service of 
 God. 
 
 Concerning those whom we yet regard as 
 brethren in Christ, although we have re- 
 nounced their communion, because they 
 had defiled the truth with the intermixture 
 of gross and sinful corruption, and those, on 
 the other hand, who have departed in the 
 
 s Luke xii. 48. ' Rom. xi. IS. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 309 
 
 opposite extreme from the apostolic stand- 
 ard of doctrine and government which we 
 have retained, it behoves us to hope the 
 best, and to think the most charitably ; to 
 respect sincere piety wherever we see it, 
 and to remember, after all, that an unholy 
 life is the worst heresy. 
 
 Great is the power of truth ; and al- 
 though its progress may be retarded for 
 a while by obstinate prejudice, and its light 
 obscured by the mists of sophistry, we must 
 patiently wait for God's good time, pray 
 for his blessing upon the endeavours which 
 are used for its advancement, and never 
 doubt of its final prevalence over all oppos- 
 ing errors. 
 
 In the mean while, equally rejecting the 
 spurious liberality which regards all creeds 
 and all forms of worship with the same 
 complacency, and guarding against the in- 
 tolerant presumption which bars the gates 
 of mercy against all but the members of its 
 own community, let us, according to the 
 commmand of the Lord by the prophet, 
 seek the old paths and the good way, and 
 diligently walk therein, that ive may find 
 
310 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 rest unto our souls ; remembering that 
 holy scripture, which was given for the in- 
 struction of all, is of " 710 private interpreta- 
 tion, and that no doctrine of modern in- 
 vention can be true, consistently with the 
 faithful promise of our Lord to his apostles, 
 and in them to all who should believe in 
 his name through their preaching, " that 
 " he would send his Holy Spirit '^ to guide 
 " them into all truth, to teach them all things, 
 " and to abide with them for ever. 
 
 u 2 Peter i. 10. ^ John xvi. 13, &c. xiv. 16, &c. 
 
 THE END. 
 
7 1012 01130 9756