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 The book of the priesthood 
 
if 
 
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THE BOOK 
 
 THE PRIESTHOOD: 
 
 AN ARGUMENT, 
 
 IN THREE PARTS. 
 
 BY.. 
 THOMAS STRATTEN, 
 
 SUNDERLAND. 
 
 FIRST AMEIUCAX FROM THE FIRST LONDON EDITION. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY JONATHAN LEAVITT. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 CROCKER A: UREWSTER. 
 
 1831. 
 
PTllNTED BY R. & G. S. WOOD, 261 PEARL-STREET. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 " It is necessary, frequently, to visit the ground on 
 which Christianity was first established, to ascertain 
 the limits and extent of the primitive faith, and to 
 recover the parts taken by unjust violence, or lost by 
 injudicious concession." — Bishop of Bristol. 
 
 The writer of the following pages has visited that 
 ground, for the purpose of examining the use which 
 was made of Levitical terms and Jewish analogies in 
 this period of primitive purity, — in the writings of those 
 who only, in the Christian church, were intrusted with 
 inspired authority. To himself, the visit has been 
 deeply interesting. He has seen, and felt with a force 
 of impression unknown by him before, that every spot 
 of the ground is hallowed by the presence, the wisdom, 
 the grace, and the glory of Incarnate Deity. He will 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 be gratified in the accomplishment of the first object 
 of his desire, in proportion as that impression shall be 
 obvious to the eye of those vs^ho may deem what he 
 has written worthy their perusal. On this point, he 
 feels that he is hnked by ties of strongest sympathy 
 with all, in whatever ecclesiastical boundaries they 
 are included, or whatever formularies they may em- 
 ploy, " who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," 
 and desire the universal proclamation of " the gospel 
 of the grace of God." 
 
 There is however, one conviction which has resulted 
 from his examination, in which, on its first statement, 
 he cannot expect, to an equal extent, the sympathy 
 and approbation of every class of Christian readers. 
 That conviction is, that Levitical terms and Jewish 
 analogies have been, for the most part, improperly 
 employed in the Christian church, from a period shortly 
 subsequent to the decease of the Apostles down to the 
 present time ; and that the native beauty of Christianity 
 cannot be clearly seen, nor the fulness of its consola- 
 tions be generally enjoyed, nor its expansive energies 
 be completely developed, until these terms and analo- 
 gies are, in the common use, and well-informed inten- 
 tion of the church, restored to their original and in- 
 spired application. 
 
 The grounds of that conviction, and the conse- 
 quences which they involve, fatal, as the Author con- 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 ceives, to the claims of any existing hierarchy, and 
 more especially to those which are made by the Ro- 
 man-catholic priesthood, are laid open in the following 
 work. How far the conviction is well founded, and, 
 in the present eventful state of ecclesiastical affairs, 
 important in its communication, the public will judge. 
 
 The Author is prepared to expect, that the positions 
 which he has advanced will pass through a fiery ordeal. 
 So much the better. What they may include of ster- 
 ling ore, from the exhaustless mine of Scripture, will 
 abide the trial, and shine the brighter for the process. 
 What they may include of earthly alloy — and there is 
 no human production without a portion of such alloy 
 — will be discovered, and separated from it. 
 
 The period has been, when the advocates of truth, 
 unwelcome to ecclesiastical authorities, were led to 
 the stake, and gave publicity to their principles, and 
 displayed the firmness with which they held them, by 
 sealing them with their blood. To run the gantlet of 
 an interested, or hireling and abusive press, is now the 
 moderated trial and penalty of those who would fol- 
 low in their steps. From that trial, should he be called 
 to it, the writer will not shrink. He is armed for it, 
 by the firm persuasion of the truth of the principles 
 which he has advocated ; by the consciousness, that 
 he has advanced through the whole extent of the open 
 course of his argument, with unswerving integrity of 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 intention ; and by the hope, that the duty which he 
 has discharged, may be of some service to the Prot- 
 estant cause, and to tiie general interests of true Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Bishop Wearmouth. 
 May 8, 1830. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY NOT A PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Section I. — No basis, like that on which the Jewish 
 Priesthood rested, to sustain the claims of an offi- 
 cial Priesthood in the Christian Church .... 3 
 
 Section II. — No Priesthood included, either in the 
 incipient, or the complete and final Apostolic Com- 
 mission 18 
 
 Section III. — No Priesthood required for the Ob- 
 servance of the Ritual Institutions of the Christian 
 Church 27 
 
 Section IV. — No Priesthood conferred in the per- 
 sonal authority with which the Apostles were in- 
 vested 37 
 
 Section V. — No Priesthood referred to in the sup- 
 plementary appointment of the Apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles , 53 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHRIST THE ONLY, BUT ALL-SUFFICIENT PRIEST OF 
 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Section I. — Christ the only Priest 67 
 
 Section II. — Christ the all-sufficient Priest — the 
 
VIU CONTENTS. 
 
 perfection of his Sacrifice 90 
 
 Section III. — Christ the all-sufficient Priest — the 
 prevalency of his Intercession 110 
 
 Section IV. — The all-sufficiency of Christ's Priest- 
 hood supersedes the necessity of Sacramental Effi- 
 cacy 168 
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE LEVITICAL TERMS EMPLOYED IN THE NEW TESTA- 
 MENT, WHICH DO NOT APPLY EXCLUSIVELY TO CHRIST, 
 BELONG EQUALLY TO ALL TRUE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 Section I. — The designation given by Peter to the 
 Members generally of the Christian Church cor- 
 responds with the. declaration of Moses to the 
 Jews, that they shonld be a " Kingdom of Priests." 209 
 
 Section II. — In the knowledge of God, which is 
 the basis of all true Religion, the Jewish people, 
 when they were obedient, were a kingdom of 
 Priests, and Christian pco])le are a holy Priest- 
 hood 214 
 
 Section III. — In separation to the service of God, 
 the Jewish people, when they were obedient, were 
 a kingdom of Priests, and Christian people are a 
 holy Priesthood ' 240 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 PART I. 
 
PART I. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY NOT A PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 NO BASIS, LIKE THAT ON WHICH THE JEWISH PRIESTHOOD 
 RESTED, TO SUSTAIN THE CLAIMS OF AN OFFICIAL 
 PRIESTHOOD IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 If you enter a Roman-Catholic edifice for worship, 
 at the hour when service is performing, what are the 
 most prominent and imposing objects which present 
 themselves to your view ? An altar, reared for the 
 presentation of a sacrifice ; and a priest, officiating 
 before it arrayed in sacerdotal vestments. You hear 
 the priest reciting the appointed lessons, in sonorous 
 tones, and measured cadences at the altar ;— you see the 
 expression of his devout adoration in the frequent and 
 varied inflections of his body towards it ; — you inhale 
 the fragrant incense from the smoking censer which 
 he waves before it ; — and you behold him prepare and 
 elevate with mj^sterious awe the sacrifice of the mass 
 which is offered upon it. The existence of the altar 
 
and the sacrifice, the presence of the priest, and the 
 performance of priestly rites, are essential to the ser- 
 vice. Remove them, and the light and glory are de- 
 parted ; — there is then no sanctuary, nor can there be 
 any worship. Let an interdict be laid upon some un- 
 happy country for a crime which has been committed 
 against the church, and with the supension of priestly 
 rites there is a suspension of all intercourse with heav- 
 en ; and darkness, sorrow, and despair, brood over the 
 land. If a gleam of hope is seen through any part of 
 the night of terror, it comes with the presence of the 
 priest to greet the eye of the expiring penitent ; who, 
 by an act of grace, blended with the righteous judg- 
 ment of the church, is allowed to receive the last of- 
 fices of religion, and thus with difiiculty escapes the 
 horrors of a remediless doom. In a country where 
 heresy predominates, and an interdict would produce 
 no general alarm, let an alien from the fold at the elev- 
 enth hour, and in the article of death, admit a priest to 
 his presence and receive from his hands the rites of the 
 church, and then, even his restoration is effected, and 
 his salvation secured. In the sanctuary for worship, 
 there may be a pulpit as well as an altar, but this is not 
 essential to the service. The pulpit may be removed, 
 and the service sustain no diminution of its efiicacy or 
 interest. The ministry of the word can never com- 
 pete with the service of the altar. A priest may of- 
 ficiate at the altar, may perform all that is essential in 
 the services of the church, who has never read, who 
 
has never seen a copy of the word of God. His con- 
 secration has an authority, and the rites which he per- 
 forms an efficacy, altogether independent of the Scrip- 
 tures, if not irrespective of them. So that while the 
 people are made to depend entirely upon the priest, 
 they trust, not to his scriptural knowledge, for with 
 " the law and the testimony" he may have had no op- 
 portunity of becoming acquainted ; not to his piety or 
 personal merit, for there may possibly be defects even 
 in his morality ; but to his official authority, and ritual 
 performances.*" There is no worship for the congre- 
 gation but as he officiates at the altar ; — no available 
 confession but to his ear ; — no authoritative absolution 
 but from his lips ; — no preparation for heaven, no pass- 
 port to its joys, but as he performs the last offices, and 
 with the extreme unction separates the spirit from the 
 relations of mortality, and launches it upon its myste- 
 
 * Loose morals, and deplorable ignorance, have too 
 generally characterized the Roman-catholic priests in 
 South America down to the present time. Many of them 
 never saw a copy of the Scriptures, until they were fur- 
 nished with them by the Agents of the British and Foreign 
 Bible Society. Yet, the rites of the universal church, 
 which had been previously performed by them, were as 
 regular, and have equal efficacy attributed to them, as have 
 the same rites when performed by the most respectable 
 priests of that communion who officiate in our own coun- 
 try. 
 
 2* 
 
rious voyage for eternity ; — no deliverance from the 
 pains of purgatory, should the voyage prove adverse, 
 and the haven of rest not be attained, but by virtue of 
 the masses which he subsequently offers. 
 
 Now, unfounded, and irrational, though these rites 
 and pretensions appear to the mind of the Protestant, 
 we must not wonder, that they are contemplated in a 
 very different light, and with very different emotions by 
 the Catholic ; — that to his mind the rites of his religion 
 should be fascinating, soothing, and deeply impressive. 
 They come to him hallowed by the palpable impress of 
 a venerable antiquity, while he is taught to derive them 
 from the highest and most sacred authority. They 
 carry with them the influence produced by their very 
 extensive observance in Christendom ; an observance, 
 within what he is taught to consider the boundaries of 
 the true church, universal. They are most skilfully 
 adapted to the human constitution. They were suc- 
 cessively introduced by those who well understood the 
 weaknesses of our nature, — the easiest way of access to 
 our passions, — the most effectual mode of binding the 
 soul in fetters. They ally themselves with all that is 
 splendid, imposing, and exciting in architectural skill, — 
 in the disposition of light and shade, colour and form, 
 — in the harmony of sounds, — in the inspirations of 
 genius, whether embodied in the breathing marble, or 
 impressed upon the living canvass. They address the 
 senses, and artfully appeal through them to the yielding 
 and captivated mind. In their observance, the imagina- 
 
tion is excited by the associations which are connected 
 with the objects present to the eye ; and when excited, 
 is left to range amid all that is mysterious and profound. 
 The breast heaves with pow^erful emotion, and the 
 soul, subdued by the spell of a system which has held 
 millions in its enchantments, complacently cherishes 
 the persuasion, that this is devotion, and the only de- 
 votion which can be acceptable to the Most High. 
 
 Nor, in accounting for the power which the Roman- 
 cathohc system exercises over the minds of its profes- 
 sors, must we omit to mention the confidence of spirit- 
 ual security which it inspires, and the comparatively 
 easy and tangible means by which that security is pro- 
 duced. We naturally wish to be at ease in reference 
 to our spiritual affairs, and our prospects in a future 
 state of being ; and the system which proffers ease on 
 the terms most acceptable to our imperfect nature, will 
 enlist on its side the inclinations of the heart, and in- 
 sensibly warp to its favour the decision of the judg- 
 ment. We find the observance of outward and tangi- 
 ble rites less difficult than the cultivation of inward and 
 spiritual principles ; and are therefore prepared to wel- 
 come the former, as an agreeable substitute for the lat- 
 ter. To this tendency of our nature the church of 
 Rome has pre-eminently ministered. Her ritual is the 
 most complete which the world ever possessed, and, if 
 her own testimony upon the subject is to be received, 
 as efficacious as can be desired. She has no less than 
 seven sacraments (the number being the number of 
 
^ 8 
 
 perfection,) and each one of them of wondrous power 
 and virtue. There is no guih, original or actual ; no 
 defilement, inherent or casual, which she does not un- 
 den^^ke, by some one or other of these sacraments, to 
 remove, /Let her pretensions be admitted, and the 
 doctrine which she inculcates be received, that the 
 rites of the church when properly administered are 
 efficacious to salvation, and liiat the completeness and 
 perfection of these rites, depend, not on the personal 
 character, but on the official authority of the priest who 
 administers them, and then, the mind of their recipient 
 must be completely at rest. The path to heaven is 
 made obvious to the very senses, and he must be scru- 
 pulous indeed who is not fully content to walk in it. 
 Abstraction from diings earthly and material, — inves- 
 tigation of subjects spiritual and divine, — anxious in- 
 quiry for truth, — internal conflict with the corrupt 
 principles of our nature, are superfluous and unneces- 
 sary. Give what it requires to the church, follow the 
 guidance and rely implicitly on the authority and work 
 of the priest, and then all is secure. 
 
 Before, however, any rational individual ventures 
 the tremendous risk of his eternal welfare upon this 
 security, there are two questions which it behoves him 
 seriously to ponder, and fully to understand. Are the 
 
 RITES, so HIGHLY EXTOLLED, OF THE RoMAN CaTH- 
 
 OLic Church essential parts of Christianity? 
 And, is the priest divinely authorised to admin- 
 ister them ? If these questions can be satisfactorily 
 
9 
 
 answered in the affirmative, the writer will directly 
 renounce his Protestant heresy, and enter, through 
 the medium of the first priest who will receive his re- 
 cantation, and give him absolution, into the bosom of 
 the Roman Catholic church. But if they cannot be 
 answered, and if it can be shown, that priestly rites as 
 performed by the ministers of religion form no part of 
 Christianity ; and that the priest himself has no right to 
 the title which he assumes, no authority for the orders 
 with which he is invested, then will it be the duty of 
 every member of the Roman-catholic church into 
 whose hands these pages may fall, to seek some better 
 and surer foundation for his hope of future happiness. 
 
 Be it premised, that the appointment of a priesthood 
 under the dispensations of religion which preceded 
 Christianity is admitted. It is admitted, that the first 
 ministers of religion who were specially set apart from 
 their countrymen for the service of God in holy things 
 were priests ; — that their office was of divine authori- 
 ty ; — that its functions were sacred ; — that no indi- 
 vidual who was not lineally descended from Aaron, 
 and duly consecrated according to the appointed forms, 
 could lawfully enter on their discharge. It is admit- 
 ted, that before Aaron was consecrated, not only Mel- 
 chizedec who blessed Abraham, but also that Abraham 
 himself was a priest ; — that the head of every family 
 by which God was worshipped according to the rites 
 of his own institution, was a priest ; — that he had an 
 altar for his household, and, what ever was and ever 
 
10 
 
 must be essential to a priesthood, a sacrifice to offer 
 to God upon it. It is admitted, that in this respect, 
 the CathoHc priest is more consistent than the Prot- 
 estant who wears the title, and calls the table at which 
 he officiates an altar, but disclaims the power of pre- 
 senting on it an oblation or sacrifice. The Protestant 
 altar, if not erected, like that at Athens, to an unknown 
 God, is erected for an imlaiovvn purpose. The Cath- 
 olic church has this inducement for those who desire 
 " priest's orders," that in it they may find a complete 
 office. 
 
 But, before an individual, who wishes fully to un- 
 derstand the ground of every step which he takes, will 
 seek "priest's orders" any where, or repose any confi- 
 dence on priestly rites by whomsoever- performed, he 
 will require to be shown the scriptural authority by 
 which, under the christian dispensation, the office is 
 sustained, and the rites are discharged. The reasona- 
 bleness of such a requirement must at once be seen 
 and fell. There have been so many impositions prac- 
 tised upon men under the name and profession of re- 
 ligion, in all ages, and in almost all countries, that cau- 
 tion, in surrendering ourselves to religious orders of 
 men, rather than unhesitating and implicit credence, 
 becomes a duty : — a duty, enforced not only by the 
 reason of the case, and the immensely important inter- 
 ests which it involves, but also by the direct injunc- 
 tions of the Saviour and his apostles. " Take heed 
 that no man deceive you." " Prove all things ; hold 
 
11 
 
 fast that which is good." " Beloved, believe not every 
 spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God, be- 
 cause many false prophets are gone into the world." 
 
 More especially will every minister of religion, who 
 is enlightened, honest, and sincere, be desirous that 
 these precepts should be fully enforced. He will re- 
 sent the impositions which have been practised by 
 others, and be ready, cheerfully and promptly, to give 
 a reason for every official title which he wears, and 
 every part of the work which he performs. He will 
 be concerned, so far as in him lies, to keep his con- 
 science before God as the noon-day clear, and his 
 character for sincerity and integrity before men, unim- 
 peached and unimpeachable. He will not, with a 
 christian name and office, yield pre-emi.:ence, in any 
 moral respect, to a Jewish priest, who, be it remem- 
 bered, could discharge all the functions of his office, 
 without the embarrassment of a single conscientious 
 scruple in his own mind, without a rational ground 
 for suspicion, which could desecrate him in the eyes 
 of others. 
 
 Had a Jewish priest been asked for the origin of 
 the office which he sustained, he could have produced 
 the Book of the Law, and have pointed with his finger 
 to the express passage of institution. He could have 
 given full and explicit quotations, not only in support 
 of the title and authority of the office itself; but also, 
 descriptions in detail of every particular which related 
 to its services, and even of the vestments which were 
 
12 
 
 to be worn in its discharge. Had he been asked for 
 his own individual and particular right to execute the 
 office, he could have produced the genealogical tables, 
 and have led the inquirer, ascending or descending 
 through every link of the chain which connected him 
 with God's first anointed — Aaron. Hud he been ask- 
 ed for the authority of any of the varied rites which 
 he performed, he could again, in every instance, have 
 referred to the specific and divine prescription. But, 
 if we turn to those who wear the title, pretend to the 
 office, and perform the rites of a priest in the Chris* 
 tian church, and ask them to show us, in the New 
 Testament, the specific institution of their office ; — to 
 prove their descent, natural or ecclesiastical, from any 
 priest who ever officiated, by God's appointment, in 
 heaven or earth ; — to give us divine prescription for 
 the rites which they discharge ; — we ask for that 
 which no pi'iest in existence can produce, — we pre- 
 sent a difficulty which cannot be satisfactorily remov- 
 ed, — we lay naked to the eye the fallacy and impo- 
 tence of names and pretensions derived from another 
 dispensation of religion, without the comprehension of 
 its principles, or the firm basis of its authority and facts. 
 In no particular has the church and the world been 
 more extensively and injuriously misled, that in minis- 
 terial pretensions dei'ived from Judaism. These pre- 
 tensions were introduced into the Christian church at 
 a very early period of its history, and were the source 
 from which the greater part of its subsequent coiTup- 
 
13 
 
 tions flowed,* So long as they remain in any of their 
 modifications, Christianity will be encumbered with 
 that which is incongruous with its nature, which ob- 
 scures its lustre, fetters its liberty, and confuses the 
 interesting and instructive relation which the two sys- 
 
 * '* The Christian doctors had the good fortune to per- 
 suade the people, that the ministers of the Christian church 
 succeeded to the character, rights and privileges, of the 
 Jewish priesthood : and this persuasion was a new source 
 both of honours and profit to the sacred order. This no- 
 tion was propagated with industry some time after the 
 reign of Adrian, when the second destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem had extinguished among the Jews all hopes of seeing 
 their government restored to its former lustre, and their 
 country arising out of its ruins. And, accordingly, the 
 bishops considered themselves as invested with a rank and 
 character similar to those of the high-priest among the 
 Jews, while the presbyters represented the priests, and the 
 deacons the Levites. It is indeed highly probable, that 
 they who first introduced this absurd comparison of offices, 
 so entirely distipct, did it rather through ignorance and 
 error than through artifice or design. The notion, how- 
 ever, once introduced, produced its natural effects ; and 
 these effects were pernicious. The errors to which it gave 
 rise were many ; and one of its immediate consequences 
 was, the establishing a greater difference between the 
 christian pastors and their flock than the genius of the 
 gospel seems to admit." — Mosheim, Cent. II. chap. ii. 
 sect. 4. 
 
 3 
 
14 
 
 terns, coming from the same hand, and comprised in 
 the one volume of inspiration, bear to each other. 
 
 The difficulty as it has already been stated, which 
 lies in the way of an individual who would substantiate 
 his right to the priestly office in the Christian church, 
 on an analogy drawn from Judaism, is insurmountable. 
 He can produce no inspired warrant of institution, — 
 no genealogical table of descent, — no divine prescrip- 
 tion of priestly rites. But the case is not yet present- 
 ed in the whole of its strength. As the Christian dis- 
 pensation is the last in order of time which has been 
 given to the world ; so is it allowed by all, to be the 
 clearest in light, and most abounding in privileges. 
 " Life and immortality are brought to light by the gos- 
 pel." "When the fulness of time was come, God 
 sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under 
 the law, to redeem them that were under the law, 
 that we might receive the adoption of sons." As it is 
 the last dispensation, and the best, so it is the most 
 comprehensive in its character, and permanent in its 
 duration. It is designed and adapted, it was prophetic- 
 ally promised, and has been authoritatively instituted 
 for the whole race of mankind, and the whole dura- 
 tion of the world in which they dwell. Now, under 
 such a dispensation, intended for the world, involving 
 the destinies of the unnumbered millions of its coming 
 generations, embodying for their enjoyment the clearest 
 light which God ever intends to vouchsafe to men 
 upon earth, — if, under such a dispensation, salvation 
 
15 
 
 were to be obtained through the medium of the official 
 rites of an earthly priesthood, might we not expect 
 that the authority and -ritual of that priesthood, would, 
 at least, be equally clear with the authority and ritual 
 of the Jewish priesthood ? Would not the immensely 
 expanding, the infinitely multiplying interests involved 
 in the one case, warrant us to expect, if it were possi- 
 ble, prescriptions even more explicit, sanctions even 
 more incontrovertible than in the other ? But what 
 are the facts of the respective cases? Why, when 
 we open the Old Testament, the priesthood, under its 
 proper designation, and in some or other of its branches 
 or engagements, lives and moves before us in almost 
 every page ; while one entire book, and a considera- 
 ble portion of others, are occupied by the arrangement 
 of its services. If, however, we open the New Testa- 
 ment, and search through it from beginning to end, 
 we shall find, respecting the institution of an earthly 
 priesthood for the Christian church — not a loord ; the 
 title of priest* applied to designate any minister of 
 
 * 'hfiu?-. From the root of which comes Hierarchy. 
 
 In the public discussion which took place in Dublin, 
 April, 1827, between Mr. Pope and Mr. Maguire, the 
 latter was challenged to shew, that 'npivr, the term em- 
 ployed to designate a priest of the old law, was ever ap- 
 plied in the New Testament to a minister of the Christian 
 church. After some quibbling about a passage in the 
 Revelations, Mr. Maguire offered to submit the question 
 
16 
 
 the Christian rehgion — not once ; reference to priestly 
 rites as discharged by one man for others — not one. 
 That the writers of the New Testament employ no 
 Levitical terms in their numerous references to the 
 office and work of the Christian ministry, will appear 
 the more remarkable, when it is remembered, that 
 they had themselves been educated in the bosom of 
 the Jewish church, — that their earliest religious asso- 
 ciations were connected with the work of its priest- 
 hood, — and, that on almost every other subject, Le- 
 vitical analogies evidently presented themselves with 
 spontaneous exuberance to their minds, and are most 
 freely and beautifully recorded by their pens. It was 
 only when writing upon that subject, in illustration of 
 which, if modern ideas be correct, these analogies 
 might have been employed with most propriety and 
 effect, that they carefully abstain from their use ; — or 
 rather, the current of their thoughts in reference to 
 
 to the adjudication of any two individuals, and named as 
 his own referree Counsellor Clinch. But Counsellor 
 Clinch subsequently declined giving an opinion on the 
 case. — Vide Report of the Discussion, p. 373. If, there- 
 fore, the unlearned Catholic finds the ministers of the 
 church sometimes called priests, in the translation of the 
 New Testament which is provided for him ; those of his 
 own communion, who are acquainted with the original, 
 know that the word there employed is improperly ren- 
 dered. 
 
17 
 
 the Christian ministry flowed in channels so different 
 from those which have been subsequently opened, 
 that they never occurred in this connexion to their 
 minds. 
 
 3* 
 
SECTION II. 
 
 NO PRIKSTHOOD INCLUDED, EITHER IN THE INCIPIENT, 
 OR THE COMPLETE AND FINAL APOSTOLIC COMMIS- 
 SION. 
 
 That we may not appear to rest our conclusions on 
 general assertions, instead of a careful induction of facts, 
 it may be desirable to examine in detail, the provision 
 made by the Saviour, in his supreme authority as the 
 Head of the Church, for the publication of his religion 
 to the world. This examination is the more necessary, 
 as it will lead us to investigate the foundation of claims 
 which have been associated with the priesthood, equal- 
 ly doubtful in their character, and questionable in their 
 origin. 
 
 The first step towards the appointment of a ministry 
 for the Christian church, is certainly to be found in 
 the sending forth of the twelve, whose names and in- 
 structions are given at large by Matthew, in the tenth 
 chapter of his gospel. Their commission is contained 
 in the seventh and eighth verses, — "And as ye go, 
 preach, saying. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 
 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast 
 out devils : freely ye have received, freely give." 
 
19 
 
 Now, it will be remembered, that when this com- 
 mission was given, the Jewish priests were still offi- 
 ciating, in the order of their courses, and according to 
 the appointed ritual, in the only place where a priest 
 could discharge the duties of his functions — the tem- 
 ple. To that temple, the Saviour himself, that he 
 might fulfil all righteousness, was accustomed to re- 
 pair; and, with his deciples, to unite in its services 
 and festivals. There was, then, no intrusion on the 
 office of the priest in the commission which was given 
 to the twelve. No ephod, breast-plate, or mitre, was 
 provided for them, (with changes of ordinary raiment 
 they were not to encumber themselves,) — no oil was 
 poured upon their heads, — no blood was sprinkled up- 
 on their persons or their garments ; — the temple was 
 not to be the scene of their ministry, but the whole 
 land of Judea ; — to the altar they received no right to 
 approach ; — with sacrifice or incense no authority to 
 intermeddle. They were to preach, and to work mir- 
 acles in confirmation of the message which they de- 
 livered. 
 
 Mark gives us a brief account of the execution of 
 their commission ; " And they went out, and preached 
 that men should repent, and they cast out many dev- 
 ils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and 
 healed them."* The anointing of the sick with oil, 
 though it has been adopted as a rite of the Roman- 
 
 * Mark vi. 12, 13. 
 
20 
 
 catholic church, formed no part of the ritual which 
 was discharged by the Jewish priesthood ; and was 
 therefore no invasion of the office, no encroachment 
 on the work of the priest. With what consistency it 
 has been converted into a priestly rite in the Roman- 
 catholic church, will be sufficiently seen, when the cor- 
 respondence of the cases is considered. The Apostles, 
 in the exercise of the miraculous powers with which 
 they were invested, anointed with oil many that were 
 sick, to Ileal tliem. And James, in his general Epistle, 
 says, " Is any sick among you ? let him call for the 
 elders of the church," (miraculous powers being also 
 possessed by those, on whom for their conveyance the 
 hands of an Apostle had been laid,) "and let them 
 pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of 
 the Lord ; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, 
 and the Lord shall raise him up."* The Catholic 
 priest anoints with oil, only at the moment when re- 
 covery is deemed impossible, not miraculously to re- 
 store the sick to health, but peacefully to dismiss him 
 from the world ! 
 
 If it were necessary to assign a reason, why Prot- 
 estants in no case anoint the sick with oil, it would be 
 sufficient to say, that it is the same which prevents them 
 from anointing with clay the eyes of the blind. The 
 anointing in both cases, whether performed by the Sa- 
 viour or his Apostles, was a significant action, connect- 
 
 * James v. 14, 15. 
 
21 
 
 ed with the exercise of miraculous powers. The one 
 was, no more than the other, intended to be a perpetu- 
 al rite in the Christian church. When the Catholic 
 priesthood can open the eyes of the blind, then they 
 may introduce another rite, and anoint with clay ; and 
 when they possess an unction by which they can heal 
 the sick, then we shall be glad to receive their offices, 
 and dismiss the physician. 
 
 After the twelve had been commissioned, other 
 seventy also were appointed. But their work and in- 
 structions corresponded with what had before been 
 given to the twelve. It was an increase of labourers 
 on the apostolic, not the priestly, model. The apos- 
 tolic model itself, however, wanted yet its finishing 
 stroke. It had been framed hitherto for Judea only ; 
 it was to be made sufficiently expansive to embrace 
 the world. Thus extensive was the commission made 
 after the Saviour's resurrection : " Then the eleven 
 disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain 
 where Jesus had appointed them. And when they 
 saw him, they worshipped him : but some doubted. 
 And Jesus came, and spake unto them, saying. All 
 power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go 
 ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in 
 the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things what- 
 soever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you 
 alway, even unto the end of the world."* 
 
 * Matt, xxviii. 16—20. 
 
22 
 
 Now, at the time when this commission was given, 
 the Jewish priesthood was virtually abolished. The 
 Saviour had finished the work, which the sacrifices 
 they had been accustomed tq__ offer had prefigured. 
 He, the " Lamb of God," had shed his own blood to 
 take away the sin of the world. He had offered his 
 own body once for all. When, therefore, he had given 
 up the ghost, the vail of the temple was rent in twain 
 from the lop to the bottom. The most holy place, — 
 in which the mysterious symbols of a present Deity, 
 the lambent flame of fire hovering over the mercy-seat, 
 and between the wings of the cherubim, had been pre- 
 viously enshrined, — was laid open to the public gaze. 
 The glory was departed, never more to return. Deity, 
 there being none henceforth in the temple to propitiate, 
 sacrifice and priest were there alike without an object, 
 and in vain. The priests might retain their names and 
 their vestments, might slay their victims and present 
 their smoking censers, might chant their songs, and of- 
 fer their intercessions as before ; but there was no eye 
 complacently to witness, no ear well pleased to listen, 
 no voice in mercy to answer, no radiance, indicative of 
 divine favour, to spread around the scene of their ser- 
 vice, no streams of blessings to make glad the place 
 once holy, but now desecrated, and doomed to the ap- 
 proaching curse. God had departed ; and the priest- 
 hood, in respect to the purposes for which he had ap- 
 pointed it, was already defunct. The lifeless body in- 
 deed vet remained in its vestments, like royalty in the 
 
23 
 
 funereal chamber ; but the torch of the Roman soldier 
 was enkindling, to fire the devoted pile, and reduce 
 both the priesthood and the temple to ashes, which the 
 winds of heaven should scatter, and which no power 
 on earth should be able to gather together again. 
 
 If then, at any time, the office of the priesthood were 
 transferred to the Christian church, this surely, when 
 the Jewish priesthood was in effect abolished, would 
 have been the period. If any men have been invest- 
 ed with its functions, the eleven, when receiving their 
 commission, would have been the first. No rites of 
 consecration were however, on this occasion, perform- 
 ed. The eleven came to Christ at the place where he 
 had appointed to meet them, in their usual attire, the 
 raiment commonly worn by their countrymen, and 
 they departed in the same garb. They received from 
 Christ, not the vessels or implements of a worldly ser- 
 vice, not the insignia of political or ecclesiastical author- 
 ity, nothing which could charm the eye, or captivate 
 the sense ; they received only the breath of his lips — 
 the words of his mouth. The words however were 
 spirit and life. They could effect, what no ritual has 
 the power to accomplish, the illumination of the under- 
 standing, the invigoraiion of the heart, the transforma- 
 tion of the whole character. They could, and did, 
 make the men who had been struck dumb with aston- 
 ishment, who had trembled with fear, who had fled 
 like affrighted sheep, in the hour of their Master's suf- 
 ferings, bold as lions in his cause, ready to go to the 
 
24 
 
 ends of the earth at his command, and prompt to bear 
 their testimony for him with celestial fervour, before 
 the kings and rulers of the earth, who were leagued 
 together against him. Those who would give proof of 
 their call to the Christian ministry, should show it, in 
 the developement of a portion of the same spirit. In 
 this way only can they commend themselves to the 
 confidence and regard of those, who understand the 
 nature of the Christian dispensation, and are conversant 
 with the oracles of truth. In this way only can they 
 retain their influence in a world, fast growing out of 
 the state of its childhood, in which it could be amused 
 with spectacles and toys, and thirsting for knowledge, 
 principle, and truth. In this way only can they prove, 
 that they are moved by the Holy Ghost to serve Christ 
 in the ministry of his gospel, and that they have a right 
 to any of the official titles which they wear. 
 
 The religion which Christ came to introduce, and 
 which he sent his Apostles through the world to teach, 
 was to have no affinity with what one of them desig- 
 nates, " weak and beggarly elements." The expres- 
 sive character of these terms, which Paul applies to 
 the rites of Judaism, shows how abhorrent to his mind 
 was a relapse of the members of the Christian church, 
 to that state of bondage to the senses under which the 
 Jewish church had been held. The time of reforma- 
 tion was come ; and the meats, and drinks, and divers 
 washings, and carnal ordinances of the law of cere- 
 monies, were for ever to pass away. The human 
 
25 
 
 mind was, by the religion of the gospel, to be emanci- 
 pated from its shackles, and purged from its grossness 
 and darkness. It was to come forth into light and lib- 
 erty, and to enter on an endless career of moral and 
 intellectual improvement. A new and living way of 
 access was opened to God, who is the Father of lights, 
 that by daily intercourse with him, the soul might be- 
 come assimilated to his image, and be prepared for the 
 beatific enjoyment of his presence. The design of the 
 religion which Christ sent his Apostles to teach, is no 
 where more clearly unfolded, nor its spirit of elevated 
 and expansive benevolence any where more fervently 
 breathed, than in that comprehensive passage, which 
 was written by " the disciple whom Jesus loved :" 
 *' That which we have seen and heard declare we unto 
 you, that ye also may have fellowship with us : and 
 truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his 
 Son Jesus Christ. And these things icrite we unto 
 you, that your joy may be full."* And, as in what 
 they write, no reference to the existence of Levitical 
 ceremonies in the Christian church can be found, but 
 that, in which their introduction is censured, and their 
 continuance forbidden, we may be assured, that in what 
 they taught to the nations of the world with the living 
 voice, they were consistent with what they have com- 
 municated to us, and to all the generations of mankind, 
 in the imperishable productions of their pen. And, if 
 
 * 1 John i. 3, 4. 
 4 
 
26 
 
 what they wrote was to produce the fulness of joy ; 
 then we may also be assured, that wc have in their 
 writings the substance of all which they taught. So 
 that we may come to the examination of the next topic 
 suggested by the commission which they received, pre- 
 pared to learn, what were the things which they were 
 commanded to teach, not from traditionary fables, but 
 from the pages of their own writings : the true and live- 
 ly oracles, the word inspired by God, \Yhich, like him- 
 self, liveth and abideth for ever. 
 
SECTION III. 
 
 NO PRIESTHOOD REQUIRED FOR THE OBSERVANCE OF THE 
 RITUAL INSTITUTIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Connected v/ith the consideration of the apostolic 
 commission, is the question, What ritual observances 
 are actually enjoined under the Christian dispensation ? 
 One of these, the right of initiation, is specified in the 
 commission: "Teach all nations, baptizing them in 
 the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 Now, the rite of baptism formed no part of the 
 divinely authorised institutions of the Jewish priest- 
 hood ; nor was even the corresponding rite of initia- 
 tion into the Jewish church (the rite of circumcision), 
 performed by the priesthood. The rite of circumcision 
 was a much older institution than that of the Jewish 
 priesthood, nor, when the latter was appointed, did 
 Aaron, or his sons, receive any commission to interfere 
 with its performance. It remained, as it was before, 
 a domestic, and not a priestly rite. It was discharged 
 in the dwelling of the parents of the child, not in the 
 temple of worship. Its administration was entrusted 
 to the father of the child, or to whomsoever, as more 
 skilful than himself, he might choose to employ. 
 
28 
 
 The rite of baptism, moreover, had been previously 
 administered by John, who, though he was the de- 
 scendant of a priest, had yet never himself entered on 
 the discharge of the office, nor was even accustomed 
 to visit the temple. He was in the wilderness until the 
 time of his showing to Israel, and then appeared to 
 the multitude which thronged to his baptism, not in 
 the vestments of a priest, but in the rough t^arb which 
 had been worn by the ancient prophets. That he, 
 who was descended from a priest, and legally entitled 
 to claim his consecration, and officiate in his course in 
 the temple, should make no pretensions to the office, 
 but appear in another character, seemed itself to in- 
 dicate that the earthly priesthood was now waning to 
 extinction ; — that among the ministers of that Saviour, 
 of whom John was the herald, the office was to have 
 no existence. The injunction of the baptismal rite, 
 then, involves no argument for the necessity of a 
 Christian priesthood to administer it ; since neither its 
 performance, nor that of the corresponding rite of cir- 
 cumcision, was ever, by divine appointment, connected 
 with the office of a priest. 
 
 The only other rite which they anywhere tell us 
 they were commanded to enjoin, was the Lord's sup- 
 per. And nothing can be more simple, or foreign 
 from the pomp of priestly rites, than this institution, as 
 it is presented to us in the New Testament. The re- 
 peated references which arc made to it, not only ex- 
 clude altogether the notion of a priest and a sacrifice, 
 
29 
 
 but they do not even suppose the existence of any 
 authoritative official administration. It was deHvered 
 to the disciples, in their incorporation as a church, to 
 observe ; not to those who sustained office in the 
 church to administer. That at its celebration, the 
 officers of the church would preside and superintend 
 its arrangements, would become a matter of course, 
 and be essential to its being discharged in all respects 
 decently and in order. But then, the duty of its ob- 
 servance is not so much connected with their minis- 
 terial work, as with the responsibility of the whole 
 church over which the Holy Ghost had made them 
 overseers. The obligation to set forth Christ crucified 
 in the preaching of the word, rests upon the ministers 
 of the church ; the obligation to show forth the Lord's 
 death till he come, in the observance of the supper, 
 rests upon the members of which each individual 
 church is composed, and appears to be one interesting 
 and important part of the design contemplated by their 
 Lord and Master, in their incorporation. 
 
 The First Epistle to the Corinthians is inscribed, 
 " unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them 
 that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, 
 with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus 
 Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." Connect this 
 — keeping in view the persons to whom the epistle is 
 addressed — with the declaration which is given in the 
 eleventh chapter: " For I have received of the Lord 
 that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord 
 4* 
 
30 
 
 Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took 
 bread : and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and 
 said, Take, eat : this is my body, which is broken for 
 you ; this do in remembrance of me. After the same 
 manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, 
 saying. This cup is the new testament in my blood; 
 this "do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 
 For as often as yc eat this bread, and drink this cup, 
 ye do shew the Lord's death till he come."* 
 
 In exact accordance with this passage will be found 
 the references to the Lord's supper which are contain- 
 ed in the Acts of the Apostles. It is invariably repre- 
 sented as a rite observed by the disciples ; never, as 
 officially administered to them. " Then they that 
 gladly received his word were baptized : and the same 
 day there were added unto them about three thousand 
 souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' 
 doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread."f 
 A distinction between the two rites, in the mode of 
 participation, is here clearly marked. Baptism was 
 administered to them ; the bread of the Lord's supper 
 was broken by them. Of the former they were the 
 recipients ; the celebration of the latter was their 
 united and cheerful performance. At that bright open- 
 ing of the Christian era, when the stupendous facts of 
 redemption were fresh in every individual's personal 
 recollection ; — when impending civil commotions loos- 
 
 * Verses 23—26. f Acts ii. 41, 42. 
 
31 
 
 ened men's minds from their worldly occupations, and 
 rendered precarious their continuance in their earthly 
 possessions; — when the exciting influence of miracu- 
 lous occurrences was daily felt ; — when apostolic sim- 
 plicity and fervour breathed in the ministry of the 
 word ; — when copious effusions of grace came on the 
 disciples with refreshing influence from the presence 
 of the Lord ; — their minds were so occupied and ab- 
 sorbed by spiritual things, that every day was a day 
 of holy and joyful celebration ; and the house of every 
 believer furnished a table, at which some portion of 
 the church could assemble, and enjoy the cup of 
 blessing in the communion of the blood of Christ, and 
 break bread in token of their communion in the body 
 of Christ. " And fear came upon every soul ; and 
 many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 
 And all that believed were together, and had all things 
 common, and sold their possessions and goods, and 
 parted them to all men, as every man had need. And 
 they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, 
 and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their 
 meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising 
 God, and having favour with all the people. And the 
 Lord added to the church daily such as should be 
 saved."* 
 
 There is another reference to the Lord's supper 
 given, in connection with a visit which the Apostle 
 
 * Acts ii. 43, 47. 
 
32 
 
 Paul made to the church at Troas. He waited at this 
 place until the first day of the week, because then, in 
 pursuance of their usual custom, the disciples came 
 together to break bread. If any peculiar importance 
 had been attached, at this period of the church, to the 
 official administration of the elements of the Lord's 
 supper, it would surely, in some way or other, have 
 been indicated on this occasion when the ministry of 
 an Apostle is described in connection with its celebra- 
 tion. But what is the plain fact of the case '^ His 
 participating with the disciples in the supper is not 
 omitted by the inspired narrator. Had it been, each 
 individual might have derived his own inference, vary- 
 ing with the theory upon the general subject which he 
 had previously received. But it is recorded, and in 
 the same terms which are employed to characterize 
 the ordinary celebration by the disciples themselves. 
 They " came together to break bread ;" and, " when 
 he was come up again, and had broken bread, and 
 eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, 
 so he departed."* Whatever distinctions he possessed 
 in office and gifts, at the supper of the Lord he stood 
 not apart from the disciples as more holy or privileged 
 than they, but was among them as one of themselves : 
 practically recognizing the relation which they sus- 
 tained to him as his brethren: members of one family, 
 
 * Acts XX. 11. 
 
33 
 
 — and united, by the same spiritual ties, to one common 
 and glorious Head. 
 
 If any thing more were necessary to disconnect this 
 part of the Christian ritual from the work of a priest- 
 hood, it would be found in the fact, that the corres- 
 ponding rite of the Jewish church was, like that of 
 circumcision, a domestic, and not a priestly rite. The 
 Passover, as well as circumcision, was instituted before 
 the priesthood was appointed. After it was appoint- 
 ed, no injunction restricted, to those who discharged 
 its functions, the right of killing the paschal lamb. 
 Though, when the people were led into the possession 
 of the land which had been promised to them, the 
 feast could be celebrated only at the place where the 
 sanctuary of worship was established ; yet the lamb 
 was not presented upon the altar, but upon the table 
 of each household, in its own settled or temporary 
 dwelling. No portion of it went to the priest, but 
 each domestic party feasted upon its own victim ; and 
 if any thing remained from it at the conclusion of the 
 supper, it might not be left till the morning, but was to 
 be consumed in the fire. It was immediately after he 
 had eaten of the Passover with his disciples, and at the 
 same table on which the paschal lamb had been 
 placed, that the Saviour instituted his own supper. 
 The bread and the wine were to supersede the lamb, 
 and to be the visible memorials of the dying love of 
 our departed Lord ; — of Christ, our Passover, who 
 was sacrificed for us. 
 
34 
 
 And the ejection of the priest, and the reduction of 
 the altar to a table, explodes that master-piece of hu- 
 man ingenuity and effrontery, the imposing fiction of 
 transubstantiation. For if there be no priest to effect 
 the marvellous transformation, the elements must re- 
 main, as the Apostle describes them to have been, 
 even after the Saviour's giving of thanks, — the bread 
 which we eat, and the cup which we drink ; evidently 
 so to the eye, and demonstrably so to any who will 
 submit them to the test of a chemical process. 
 
 Should we be told, that the deductions of reason, 
 and the evidence of the senses, on a subject so sublime 
 and mysterious, must be alike rejected ; and that the 
 doctrine is proposed to faith, and upheld by the plain 
 declaration of our Redeemer, " Except ye eat the flesh 
 of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no 
 life in you," — we answer. That those who take this 
 declaration literally, must place themselves on a level 
 in understanding with the blind and carnal Jews, who 
 were offended with it ; that those who take the words 
 sacramentally, — who suppose that they refer to the 
 bread and wine of the Lord's supper, must be pre- 
 pared to admit tiiat no individual was or could be, 
 when they were delivered, nor for a considerable pe- 
 riod afterwards, in the possession of life : — that none 
 of the twelve, not even Peter himself, was in the 
 possession of life. They must be prepared to admit, 
 that none of the promises ol' life, which the Saviour 
 had hitherto given, had been, or could have been ful- 
 
35 
 
 filled : — that the great purpose for which Christ came 
 into (he world, which was to give life, had as yet, in 
 the case of no individual, been accomplished ; because, 
 as yet, there was no such thing as the Lord^s supper in 
 existence. This sufficient and palpable reason entirely 
 excludes the sacramental meaning which the words 
 have been supposed to involve. It was impossible 
 that they could refer to an iuotitution which then was 
 not in being ; and about the intended appointment of 
 which not even a hint had yet been given. More ex- 
 cusable were the Jews who took the words literally, 
 than are those who, understanding the chronology of 
 (he New Testament, take tliem sacramentally. They 
 libel the Saviour's character as a teacher, and nullify 
 his grace and faithfulness as a Redeemer. If their 
 interpretation of the words be a true one, every gift 
 which the Saviour had previously conferred must have 
 been withdrawn, and tlie declaration which he deliv- 
 ered must have been an inexplicable riddle, which no 
 creature then in existence could by any possibility 
 have made out. They must be taken metaphorically 
 and spiritually; as referring to truth, of which Christ 
 is the substance, and on wlJch, by coming to him, the 
 soul must daily feed: and then will there be found in 
 them, according to his o\mi assurance, spirit and life. 
 Experiencing tjicir quickening influence, we shall feel 
 under them, as Peter did when he heard them : know- 
 ing nothing about a sacrament in them, we shall come 
 to Christ with powerful emotion, saying "Lord, to 
 
36 
 
 whom shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal 
 life."* 
 
 On the ritual observances of the church, as speci- 
 fied or involved in the commission given by the Re- 
 deemer to his Apostles, we have sufficiently enlarged 
 to show, that there is in them no affinity with priestly 
 rites ; as in the commission itself there is nothing to 
 countenance the claims of a Christian priesthood. 
 
 * John vi. 68. 
 
SECTION IV. 
 
 NO PRIESTHOOD CONFERRED IN THE PERSONAL AUTHORITY 
 WITH WHICH THE APOSTLES WERE INVESTED. 
 
 Before the Apostles received the comprehensive 
 commission which was given to them at a mountain in 
 Galilee, where by special appointment they had been 
 convened to meet the Saviour, and which, in its most 
 essential part — teaching, they execute by their wri- 
 tings to the present day, and will to the end of the 
 world ; their divine Master had, on the very evening 
 of his resurrection, when he unexpectedly appeared 
 as a friend amongst them, invested them with au- 
 thority to tread in his own steps, and, by the exercise 
 of miraculous powers, to become his representatives 
 in the world : — 
 
 " Then the same day at evening, being the first day 
 of the week, when the doors were shut where the 
 disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came 
 Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, 
 Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he 
 shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then 
 were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. 
 Then said Jesus unto them again, Peace be unto you : 
 
 5 
 
38 
 
 as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And 
 when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith 
 unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whose soever 
 sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them : and whose 
 soever sins ye retain, they are retained."* 
 
 In the Saviour's own mission from the Father to our 
 world was fulfilled the prediction which had been given 
 by Isaiah : " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; 
 because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good 
 tidings unto the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the 
 brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and 
 the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; to 
 proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day 
 of vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that mourn."f 
 In the synagogue of Nazareth, therefore, at an early 
 stage of his public ministry, he read the passage from 
 the scroll of the prophetic book, and applied it to him- 
 self; while the miracles which he performed were the 
 credentials which he presented, aud the warrant for 
 faith in him to which he appealed. " Say ye of him, 
 whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the 
 world, Thou blasphemest ; because I said I am the 
 Son of God 1 If I do not the works of my Father, be- 
 lieve me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, 
 believe the works ; that ye may know and believe that 
 the Father is in mc, and I in him. "J 
 
 * John XX. 19—23. f Isai. Ixi. 1—3. 
 
 1 John X. 36—38. 
 
39 
 
 Now, when the Saviour in sending forth his Apos- 
 tles declared to them, that their mission from him cor- 
 responded with his from the Father ; and attended that 
 declaration with significantly breathing on them, and 
 communicating the Holy Ghost ; we may certainly 
 consider him as transferring to them tlie prophetic de- 
 scription which had already been fulfilled in his own 
 personal ministry, to be fulfilled also in theirs ; and as 
 furnishing them with the same credentials to present 
 *' mighty signs and wonders, wrought by the power of 
 the Spirit of God." 
 
 In the Redeemer's intercourse with his Apostles du- 
 ring the period of his own personal ministry, he gave 
 them a distinct intimation, that, on its close, and his 
 consequent departure, they should be abundantly fur- 
 nished for the mission on which he was about to send 
 them. In reply to a request from Philip, he said to 
 them all, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that be- 
 lieveth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and 
 greater works than these shall he do ; because I go un- 
 to my Father."* And that the promise was literally 
 fulfilled, two passages of the narrator of their Acts will 
 sufliciently prove : " And by the hands of the Apostles 
 were many signs and wonders wrought among the 
 people ; insomuch that they brought forth the sick into 
 the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that, 
 at the least, the shadow of Peter passing by might 
 
 * John xiv. 12. 
 
40 
 
 overshadow some of them. There came also a multi- 
 tude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, 
 bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with 
 unclean spirits: and they were healed every one."* 
 "And God wrought special miracles by the hands of 
 Paul : so that from his body were brought unto the 
 sick, handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases de- 
 parted from them, and the evil spirits went out of 
 them."t 
 
 Thus far, the general outline of their personal mis- 
 sion is clear ; and their possession of satisfactory cre- 
 dentials, obvious. That part of the Saviour's declara- 
 tion to them, which relates to the remitting and retain- 
 ing sins, demands a careful and distinct consideration. 
 
 It may safely be assumed, that, since the Acts and 
 Epistles contain such distinct and repeated references 
 to every other part of the work which, as Apostles, 
 they discharged ; so also some evident traces must re- ' 
 main in the same books, of what they performed in ex- 
 ecution of this extraordinary power conveyed to them ; 
 and consequently, that any modern practice supposed 
 to be warranted by this passage, but of which no indi- 
 cation can be discovered in the apostolic writings, must 
 be of very questionable character, on two accounts : 
 the want of a direct and personal apostolic commission 
 by him who performs it ; and the want of resemblance 
 to any recorded apostolic function, supposing the trans- 
 
 * Acts V. 12, 15, 16. t A-cts xix- 11, 12. 
 
41 
 
 mission of the same authority could be demonstrated. 
 Now, for any thing corresponding with absolution, as 
 declared indefinitely after general confession to an as- 
 sembled congregation, or pronounced authoritatively to 
 a kneeling penitent, or prostrate patient, we search in 
 vain through the pages of the New Testament. But, 
 can we point to any functions which the Apostles are 
 declared to have discharged, and which contain a sat- 
 isfactory exemplification of the power which was com- 
 mitted to them to retain and remit sins ? We think 
 we can. 
 
 Be it premised, that when Peter made his divinely 
 prompted confession of the Saviour's Deity, besides 
 the promise which wa-s made to him, that he should 
 receive the keys of the kingdom ; he was also told, 
 "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound 
 in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, 
 shall be loosed in heaven."* The power of binding 
 and loosing was subsequently promised to the other 
 Apostles, and connected with the discipline which was 
 to be exercised in the church : " Moreover, if thy 
 brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his 
 fault between thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee, 
 thou hast gained thy brother ; but if he will not hear 
 thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the 
 mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be 
 established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell 
 
 * Matt. xvi. 19. 
 
 5* 
 
42 
 
 it unto the church : but if he neglect to hear the church, 
 let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. 
 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on 
 earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye 
 shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."* Novv^, 
 in the case supposed in this passage, the church might 
 take cognizance of the offence, might speak with au- 
 thority to the offender, might, if he proved incorrigible, 
 exclude him from its communion ; but the power of 
 binding or loosing is something additional to its disci- 
 pHne, and the execution of which is intrusted exclu- 
 sively to the Apostles. Whatsoever ye — not the 
 church — shall bind ; and whatsoever ye shall loose, 
 shall be bound or loosed in heaven. 
 
 An illustration of what is meant by binding and loos- 
 ing, may be derived from our Saviour's declaration on 
 one of the occasions, when he vindicated his conduct 
 in performing a miracle of healing on the Sabbath-day. 
 " Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, 
 whom Satan hath hound, lo, these eighteen years, be 
 loosed from this bond on the Sabbath-day ?" f In this 
 case, the binding was the infliction of supernatural dis- 
 ease, by the permitted agency of Satanic power ; the 
 loosing was the deliverance of the victim, and the res- 
 toration to health, by the removal of the distempered 
 bond. On more than one occasion, we find the Apos 
 ties exercising the power of binding, by delivering in- 
 
 * Matt, xviii. 15—18. | Luke xiii. 16. 
 
43 
 
 corrigible offenders to be afflicted by Satanic agency 
 for the punishment of the flesh. But, the case which 
 touches every point, and illustrates, combines, and har- 
 monizes every part of this subject, is that of the incest- 
 uous person at Corinth : — 
 
 " It is reported commonly that there is fornication 
 among you, and such fornication as is not so much as 
 named among the Gentiles, that one should have his 
 father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not 
 rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might 
 be taken away from among you. For I verily, as ab- 
 sent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, 
 as though I were present, concerning him that hath so 
 done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the 
 power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one 
 unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the 
 spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."* 
 The injunction of the Apostle was obeyed by the 
 church. The oflfender was excluded, — given up for 
 the correction of his vice, as Job had been for the trial 
 of his faith, to Satanic power over the flesh, made con- 
 trite for his sin, and in danger of being " swallowed up 
 with over-much sorrow."f The command was then 
 given by the Apostle to restore him to the communion 
 of the church, with the assurance, " To whom ye for- 
 give any thing, I forgive also."J 
 
 * 1 Cor. v. 1—5. t 2 Cor. ii. 7. J 2 Cor. ii. 10. 
 
44 
 
 In the directions relative to this case, the duty of the 
 church and the extent of its power, irrespective of 
 apostolic interference, are clearly marked out. 'Its 
 members should have mourned, on account of the de- 
 filement and dishonour brought on their body by the in- 
 cestuous member, and the scandal presented as a 
 stumbling-block to the world ; and they should have 
 shown their abhorrence of the sin which had been com- 
 mitted, by putting away from among them the wicked 
 person. The reproof which they received, implies, 
 that they could, and should have done this, but nothing 
 more. The special illumination of an Apostle in the 
 knowledge of a case which required discipline, and 
 guiding to an infallible decision, as well as the power 
 to bind temporal punishment upon the offender, is in- 
 dicated in the positive injunction to deliver at once the 
 judgment which he transmitted ; and to connect it with 
 his authority as present in spirit, and invested witn the 
 power derived from the Lord Jesus. So long as the 
 supernatural and distempered bond, lay upon the of- 
 fender, his sin was evidently retained ;— retained by 
 the authority which had delivered him over to Satanic 
 agency. And when, by that same power, the sin was 
 remitted and forgiven, the bond would be loosed, 
 and the restored penitent be returned to soundness of 
 body, as well as comfort of mind. We see, then, that 
 the power of retaining sins which was conveyed to the 
 Apostles, was exemplified, in their binding supernatu- 
 ral diseases upon the bodies of those oftcnders who 
 
45 
 
 were the subjects of ecclesiastical discipline ; the judg- 
 ment which they suffered making it evident that sin 
 unpardoned lay upon them : and that the power of for- 
 giving sins was exemphfied in tiie loosing of the dis- 
 tempered bond, which was an evident indication of 
 their restored peace with God, and their being quali- 
 fied to enjoy renewed communion with the church. 
 
 This power was vested in the Apostles, for the pur- 
 pose of securing their authority in an infant church in 
 which no precedents were established, nor habits of 
 obedience formed ; while it was effectually guarded 
 from misapplication and abuse, by the gift of discern- 
 ing spii'its which they possessed, and the plenary in- 
 spiration, by which, in every case of its exercise, they 
 wore guided. It was exercised by Peter in the case 
 of Ananias and Sapphira. To his eye was exposed, 
 by special revelation, all the circumstances of the sin 
 w^hich they had agreed together in committing ; and 
 while his voice was delivering the rebuke, first one, and 
 then the other, fell down dead. This was the first, and 
 severest example of .the exercise of the power; and its 
 effect was correspondent, and, without doubt, immense- 
 ly beneficial on the intei'csts of the rising church. That 
 deference, which in cases requiring discipline, has been 
 subsequently yielded by every well-regulated church 
 to apostolic authority, conveyed through apostolic wri- 
 tings, as the result of fixed and established principles, 
 was here, before principles had had time to root them- 
 selves, secured at once by a most painful and awful 
 
46 
 
 stroke : " And great fear came upon all the church, and 
 upon as many as heard of these things."* In no other 
 case do we read of death being inflicted ; and from 
 Paul's declaration to the Corinthians on this subject, 
 we learn that this authority which the Lord had given 
 to the Apostles, was for " edification, and not destruc- 
 tion."! That was, doubtless, the invariable design for 
 which it was exerted ; and, either to the offenders who 
 suffered its effects, or to the church which witnessed 
 them, the unfailing result. 
 
 The power, however, belonged exclusively to the 
 apostolic, never to the prip.stly, office. Its exercise 
 was connected with the possession of plenary inspira- 
 tion and miraculous gifts ; never with the discharge of 
 priestly rites. If there were any persons in the church 
 who could give us proof, that they have the gift of dis- 
 cerning spirits, and the power of inflicting supernatu- 
 ral diseases upon the refractory individuals who dispute 
 their authority, we might on these grounds allow them 
 to be the successors of the Apostles ; but not even then 
 could we admit, that they are the successors of the 
 priests. The two offices were distinct and incompati- 
 ble. That which we may be allowed to say excites our 
 surprise, is, that men revered for their mental endow- 
 ments, but making no pretensions to the possession 
 of miraculous powers, should assume themselves to be 
 the legitimate successors of the Apostles, and priests in 
 
 ^ Acts V. 11. 12 Cor. xiii, 10. 
 
47 
 
 addition ! Not a ray of special illumination, nor a par- 
 ticle of supernatural power, yet legitimate successors 
 of the Apostles ! Not a line of divine prescription for 
 such an office, yet priests ! Successors of the Apos- 
 tles, and priests also ! What a commingling, and con- 
 founding of differing dispensations, and differing and 
 incompatible offices ! What a dereliction of all sound 
 principles of scriptural interpretation do these extraor- 
 dinary assumptions display ! Surely, softer names than 
 schismatics and heretics should be applied to those, 
 who unhappily cannot understand how the persons 
 who make these assumptions have become, either their 
 authorized teachers or infallible guides ; — whose con- 
 sciences (perhaps too scrupulous) cannot submit to 
 claims which they imagine they can give good reasons 
 to show, have no foundation in the word of God. 
 
 Besides, we think we can show, not only that these 
 claims have no solid foundation in holy scripture, but 
 also, that they are inconsistent one with another. 
 
 It should be remembered, that to the Jewish priest- 
 hood was never intrusted the power of absolution, — 
 the word was never heard officially in the temple ; — 
 W'as never expressed to a penitential worshipper by a 
 priest who there officiated, though he could, and did, 
 by divine appointment, offer gifts and sacrifices for 
 sins. The word was first sounded in Jewish ears, from 
 the lips of him who came to introduce another dispen- 
 sation of religion ; when, in the exercise of his divine 
 prerogative, he said to the man who was sick of the 
 
48 
 
 palsy, " Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven 
 thee." So unusual and strange did this declaration 
 appear to the scribes, whose occupation it was to write 
 out copies of the law, and who must therefore have 
 been familiar with its letter, that they said, " This man 
 blasphemeth." " Who can forgive sins but God only ?" 
 He vindicated himself from the charge of blasphemy in 
 the w'ords which he employed, by the miracle of heal- 
 ing which he performed on the man whose sins he had 
 forgiven. And we have shown, that when he gave to 
 his Apostles the power of retaining or remitting sins, 
 he enabled them to prove that they really possessed it, 
 in a very similar way ; by binding or loosing supernat- 
 ural diseases, in the case of those on whom the power 
 was exercised. 
 
 The inconsistency which we refer to, lies here ; that 
 while the power of absolution is claimed in virtue of 
 an assumed succession from the Apostles, its exercise 
 is limited to those w ho possess the title and office of 
 priest. According to the theory of succession, so soon 
 as the hands of a lineal representative of the Apostles 
 have been laid upon the head of a candidate for holy 
 orders, he is adopted into the ecclesiastical family ; — 
 the grace of an apostolic succession is devolved upon 
 him ; — he has authority to discharge the apostolic work 
 of teaching, baptizing, and conducting the devotions of 
 the people ; but then, he must not receive the confes- 
 sion of a penitent, and remove his fears by saying to 
 him, '* I absolve thee from all thy sins," until he can 
 
49 
 
 also consecrate the elements of the supper, or present 
 the sacrifice of the altar, by becoming invested with 
 the full orders of the priesthood. So that, he must not 
 exercise a power which he professes to derive from 
 the Apostles, until he has obtained an office which they 
 never possessed, and with which it can be demonstra- 
 ted, that the work of absolution was never connect- 
 ed ! 
 
 The unauthorized practice of absolution, and the in- 
 consistency, if it is performed, of limiting it to the of- 
 fice of the priest, are only steps by which we approach 
 a still more serious assumption, and what we cannot 
 but consider a still more daring invasion of divine pre- 
 rogative. 
 
 While the priest declares, that he has authority to 
 say to a fellow sinner kneeling or prostrate before him, 
 what it cannot be shown that the Apostles themselves 
 ever ventured to affirm, and the power to say which 
 there is good reason for believing was never meant to 
 be included in the extraordinary commission which 
 they received, — " I absolve thee from all thy sins ;" — 
 the bishop, in conferring the orders of the priest, raises 
 his mitre to the throne of the Saviour himself, and uses 
 the very language which the divine Redeemer employ- 
 ed in conferring the plenitude of miraculous powers 
 and apostolic functions. " Pontifex com mitra sedens 
 super faldistorium, ante medium altaris, imponit ambas 
 manus super capita singulorum coram eo genuflecten- 
 tium, dicens cuilibet. 
 
 6 
 
50 
 
 "Accipe Spiritum Sanctum : quorum remiseris pec- 
 cata, remittuntur eis ; et quorum retinueris, retenta 
 sunt."* 
 
 Whatever regret may be felt on its account, the fact 
 cannot be concealed, that in this particular, there are 
 Protestants, who closely follow in Roman-catholic 
 steps. The passage which we have quoted from the 
 Roman Pontifical, is in substance included, in the form 
 of ordination still observed in the English episcopal 
 church : " Then the bishop, with the priests present, 
 shall lay their hands severally upon the head of every 
 one that receiveth the order of priesthood, the receivers 
 humbly kneeling upon their knees, and the bishop say- 
 ing ; Receive the Holy Ghost, for the office and work 
 of a priest in the church of God, now committed unto 
 thee, by the imposition of our hands : whose sins thou 
 dost remit, they are remitted ; and whose sins thou dost 
 retain, they are retained : and be thou a faithful dis- 
 penser of the word of God, and of his holy sacraments, 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 * " The Pontiff, with the mitre, sitting upon the fald- 
 stool, before the middle of the altar, lays both hands upon 
 the head of each of those who are kneeling before him, 
 and says to each : * Receive thou the Holy Ghost : 
 whosesoever sins thou remittest, they are remitted unto 
 them ; and whosesoever thou retainest, they are retain- 
 ed." 
 
51 
 
 At this point, the attitude of the EngHsh church is 
 sinjrulur. With one hand she holds the skirt of the 
 Roman matron, and claims affinity to her, — an affinity, 
 however, which the jealous matron, too severely dig- 
 nified, refuses to acknowledge : — with the other hand, 
 she uncourteously repels those, who might otherwise 
 presume to imagine that they bore some relation to 
 her, and be disposed to cherish regard for ^ her. The 
 Roman-catholic priest may enter her communion, and 
 engage in her ministrations, without confessing the in- 
 adequacy of the ordination which he 'had previously 
 received, and seeking additional authority from her 
 hand ; the pastor, or presbyter, of any of the varied 
 Protestant communions cannot be so received. He 
 must disown, as unauthorized, every part of his previ- 
 ous ministerial work, aiid repudiate as unlawful every 
 other religious communion ; must be free from the sus- 
 picion of having recently desecrated himself by being 
 present in a conventicle during the period of worship, 
 before he can be even invested with her diaconal or- 
 ders, or be allowed to perform the humblest clerical 
 service which her ritual prescribes. 
 
 How far the general interests of the Protestant cause, 
 or the particular interests of the episcopal church, are 
 affected by this unhappy combination of questionable 
 claims with uncharitable implications, it is not the prov- 
 ince of the writer to decide. It is sufficient, that in 
 the prosecution of his argument, as in fairness and duty 
 he was bound to do, he has stated the fact. Until the 
 
52 
 
 particulars included in the claims are identified with 
 apostolic practice, are substantiated in their transmis- 
 sion by explicit apostolic authority, or are accompanied 
 in their exercise with the miraculous works which form- 
 ed the apostolic credentials ; we must continue to con- 
 sider the claims as anti-christian in their character, and 
 the uncharitableness which is associated with their as- 
 sumption, as injurious rather to those by whom it is 
 manifested, than to those towards whom it is directed. 
 — We must consider the authority conferred by the 
 Redeemer when he breathed on his disciples, and said, 
 " Receive ye the Holy Ghost," as strictly confined to 
 the apostolic office ; — as untransmitted — as untrans- 
 missible by them to any other hands. 
 
SECTION V. 
 
 NO PRIESTHOOD REFERRED TO IN THE SUPPLEMENTARY 
 APPOINTMENT OF THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 
 
 We have had occasion repeatedly to refer to the 
 Apostle Paul. He was not present when either of the 
 commissions which we have been considering was 
 given. He was then, either a stranger to Christiani- 
 ty, or opposed to it. He was, however, subsequently 
 converted by a miraculous appearance of the Redeem- 
 er to him, qualified by direct revelation to enter on the 
 apostolic office, — invested with its authority, — placed 
 on an equality in the powers which were peculiar to 
 the office with the other Apostles, — and he laboured 
 in its discharge more abundantly than they all. If it 
 were necessary to adduce his commission, or to refer 
 more particularly to his writings, it would be seen, that 
 they are as destitute of any allusion to the service of a 
 priesthood, as discharged by men in the church on 
 earth, as are those of the other Apostles. 
 
 He gives, indeed, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, 
 
 what is in itself conclusive against the pretensions of 
 
 the priesthood ; a specific detail of the provision, which 
 
 Christ, on his ascension to Heaven, had made for the 
 
 6* 
 
54 
 
 ministerial service of his church. " And he gave some, 
 apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; 
 and some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of 
 the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying 
 of the body of Christ ; till we all come in the unity of 
 the faith, and of the knowledge of the son of God, 
 unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of 
 the fulness of Christ."* 
 
 In this detail, we look in vain for a priest, or for 
 any service to be performed for the body of Christ 
 which priestly rites can accomplish. Uniformity of 
 ritual observances, in which alone the boasted unity of 
 the Roman-catholic church consists, is an essentially 
 different thing from unity of faith, and knowledge of 
 the Son of God. It may, and does, cover under its 
 ample shade every diversity of human opinion, every 
 form of ignorance, folly, and superstition ; every gra- 
 dation of scepticism, hypocrisy, and infidelity itself. 
 It is a uniformity of bodily exercises which profit 
 nothing, substituted for the life and power of godliness, 
 which only is profitable for all things, and has the 
 promise of the life which now is, and of that which is 
 to come. 
 
 A reference is however here more especially made 
 to the Apostle Paul, for the purpose of introducing the 
 subject of the keys. We nowhere read of the power 
 of the keys being intrusted to any individual besides 
 
 * Ephes. iv. 11—13. 
 
55 
 
 Peter. Though the power of binding and loosing, as 
 we have seen, was afterwards given to the other 
 Apostles, yet it remains recorded of Peter only, ^' And 
 I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
 Heaven.'** Yet, thougli the keys were intrusted to 
 Peter alone, Paul tells the Corinthians, that he himself 
 was not a " whit behind the very chiefest Apostles."f 
 How is this declaration to be reconciled with Peter's 
 exclusive possession of the power of the keys ? The 
 explanation appears easy. 
 
 Long before Paul wrote the Second Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, if not, indeed, before he had entered on 
 the discharge of his apostolic office, Peter had fully, 
 and for ever, accomplished the purpose for which the 
 keys were intrusted to him. He had opened the 
 kingdom of heaven to the Jews on the Pentecostal 
 morning, and afterwards to the Gentiles in the house 
 of Cornelius. He had opened the kingdom to both 
 the divisions of the great family of man, and no power 
 of men or angels could close it again. He had un- 
 locked, to both, the door of entrance to Christian 
 privileges, and the keys could never be wanted again. 
 He had opened wide the door of entrance to ministerial 
 labour among both ; and he, and his brethren in the 
 apostolic office, entered as fellow-workers, with equal 
 authority, to prosecute their divine employ. Suprem- 
 acy, or infallibility in Peter, none of them ever rec- 
 
 *Matt. xvi. 19. 12 Cor. xi. 5. 
 
66 
 
 ognized, and Paul, at Anlioch, withstood him to the 
 face ; and, so far from subsequently condemning him- 
 self for rashness, he deliberately declares, that Peter 
 was to be blamed. 
 
 This fact takes out the key-stone of the papal 
 system. Not only has his holiness of Rome no vestige 
 of a document to prove the transmission of the keys 
 from Peter's hands to his ; — not only is there no 
 shadow of a reason for supposing that Peter ever 
 intended, or ever possessed the power of transmitting 
 the keys from his own to any other hand ; — but there 
 is, in the declaration of Paul, which we have quoted, 
 satisfactory proof, that Peter himself must have ex- 
 hausted the power, and with it all apostolical pre- 
 eminence, long before he had concluded his ministry. 
 Having employed the keys for the purpose for which 
 they were intrusted to him, neither his own, nor any 
 other hand, need or could, use them any more. 
 
 If supremacy there was none in Peter, then no 
 where else on earth can it be found ; and every pre- 
 tension to it, whether made by pontiffs or sovereigns, 
 is an usurpation of the prerogative of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. The bishops of Rome led the way, and set 
 the example of intrusion into the throne of Christ, by 
 declaring themselves, each one in his succession, to be 
 the visible and ruling head of the church on earth : while 
 the clergy intruded themselves into the priestly office 
 of Christ, pretending to offer sacrifices, and give ab- 
 solution for sin. The principles of human nature, out 
 
57 
 
 of which this ecclesiastical usurpation sprung, and the 
 concurring circumstances which would favour its 
 growth, and enable it to advance to maturity, were 
 not concealed from the prophetic eye of the Apostle 
 Paul. He saw the principles already germinating in 
 the church, in his own day, and was inspired exactly 
 to foretel the mode in which their then obstructed 
 vigour would unfold itself; and the means by which, 
 at length, their matured production should be made to 
 wither and die. " Let no man deceive you by any 
 means: for that day shall not come, except there 
 come a falling away first, and that man of sin be re- 
 vealed, the son of perdition ; who opposeth and ex- 
 alteth himself above all that is called God, or that is 
 worshipped ; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of 
 God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye 
 not, that, when I was yet with you I told you . these 
 things ? And now ye know what withholdeth, that 
 he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of 
 iniquity doth already work : only he who now letteth 
 will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then 
 shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall 
 consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy 
 with the brightness of his coming."* The indisputable 
 records of history testify that the Romish usurpation 
 did grow to the full gigantic height which is described 
 in the prediction ; but the spirit of that mouth which 
 
 * 2 Thess. ii. 3—8. 
 
58 
 
 gave the Apostles their commission, has been blovvincr 
 upon it, and it is consuming away. 
 
 The commencement of its decline connects itself 
 with the exercise of a claim which we have not had 
 occasion to notice ; but which, as it lays open one of 
 the purposes for which the pretended power of the 
 keys was employed, should not be altogether omitted. 
 The claim to which we refer is that which is involved 
 in the assumed authority to open the spiritual treasury, 
 and to dispense to the members of the church, in the 
 form of special indulgences, the stock of superfluous 
 human merit, which is committed to the care and 
 disposal of the successors of Saint Peter. 
 
 This stock of superfluous merit is produced, not by 
 the efficacy of any official rites which have been dis- 
 charged by the members of the hierarchy in their dif- 
 ferent gradations ; these can avail only at the time, 
 and for the persons on whose account they have been 
 respectively performed. The efficacy of official rites 
 resembles the circulating cash, which answers all the 
 daily and ordinary demands of the spiritual traffic. It 
 was very desirable, however, that there should be, as 
 the concerns of the superior merchants were so ex- 
 ceedingly extensive, a funded stock, which might be 
 ■ applied to on extraordinary occasions, and for extraor- 
 dinary purposes. The fact perhaps was, that while 
 the inferior orders of the hierarchy were content, as 
 well they might be, with the profits of the retail trade, 
 the superior were ambitious of becoming capitalists. 
 
59 
 
 And (for in the plenitude of their power what could 
 they not effect !) a capital was forthwith created : and 
 such a capital as no men ever enjoyed before, or ever 
 will again. Relying on the acquiescence and appro- 
 bation of all the dutiful and loving children of the 
 church, whose virtues had exceeded the prescribed 
 measure, and formed a surplus not needed by them- 
 selves ; they took it up, as unemployed capita], to be 
 collected into a general fund, for the use of the mother 
 by whom these children had been nourished. The 
 fund, when it was created, was one of no ordinary 
 value ; and by the continued contributions of numerous 
 subscribers, who poured in the merit of their superer- 
 ogatory prayers, and fastings, and almsgivings, and 
 voluntary penances, and pilgrimages, and various self- 
 denying labours, it soon grew so rapidly and enor- 
 mously, that no arithmetical figures could express its 
 amount, and consequently no tongue could adequately 
 extol the riches of the church by which it was pos- 
 sessed. It was seen, at length, that there was no ne- 
 cessity that it should be reserved for careful and 
 cautious application, only in extraordinary emergen- 
 cies ; and it was deemed undesirable that it should 
 remain as useless lumber in the treasury. Those who 
 presided over the treasury began, therefore, now to 
 entertain more extensive views, and to exercise more 
 benevolent feelings. They saw that the sources of 
 their supply could not fail, and they consequently 
 resolved to make a liberal distribution. In pity to the 
 
60 
 
 children of the church, dvvelHng in different parts of 
 the world, whose virtues fell far below par, and whose 
 purgatorial sufferings were on this account likely to be 
 exceedingly protracted and severe, they kindly de- 
 termined to apply the treasure which they superin- 
 tended for their relief Vessels were soon freighted 
 with the most precious cargo which ever floated upon 
 the waves, for the remoter regions of the earth, and 
 for the isles of the sea ; while agents were commis- 
 sioned to travel over-land, with full powers to draw 
 upon the bank for any amount which they might find 
 the people disposed to receive. It was, indeed, a 
 most magnificent concern, worthy of the genius and 
 splendour of the illustrious individual who then filled 
 the pontifical throne ; and for a while it answered ex- 
 ceedingly well, to the mutual satisfaction, and recip- 
 rocal gratulation, both of those who dispensed, and 
 those who received. It is true, there was occasionally 
 a muttering of low and selfish complaint from some of 
 those who conducted the retail trade, which was not a 
 little injured by the wholesale dealings of the capital- 
 ists ; but this, as might have been expected, was not 
 much regarded by those, who felt themselves secure 
 in the possession of the stock and the market. It 
 happened, however, unfortunately for the concern, 
 that one of their agents, who travelled to Germany, 
 mismanaged their business, and gave offence to a 
 monk, whose eye (naturally too clear for the region 
 in which he dwelt) was beginning to look beyond his 
 
61 
 
 cell ; and who, having been once provoked to come 
 forth, and throw off his cowl, could never be persuad- 
 ed to go back and put it on again. He felt the spirit 
 of the adage, " all is not gold that glitters," and re- 
 solved to sift the pretensions and constitution of the 
 firm to the bottom. The result is well known : he 
 published it to the world. He cleared away the il- 
 lusions which the parties engaged in the concern had 
 artfully thrown around their transactions, — proved 
 their capital to be fictitious, — and gave a shock to 
 their credit, from which it has never recovered, and 
 which is rapidly waning to its extinction. The day is 
 not far distant, when every eye will see that it was a 
 speculation, — when every lip will pronounce it to have 
 been — a bubble. 
 
 The notion that one class of men can perform works 
 of supererogation, the merit of which can be trans- 
 ferred, by those who have assumed power in the 
 church, to another class of their fellow-men, is so 
 monstrous and absurd, that, to meet it with serious 
 argument is unnecessary and impossible. The sacred 
 writers knew of no men who possessed works of right- 
 eousness sufficient to justify themselves before God ; 
 much less were they acquainted with any who had a 
 superfluous store, from which to contribute towards 
 the justification of others. The works which are so 
 highly extolled as meritorious in the Romish Church, 
 if they are works which God has commanded, even 
 though they should have been performed without the 
 
 7 
 
62 
 
 slightest imperfection in their motive or their execu- 
 tion, must be followed with the confession, " We are 
 unprofitable servants, we have done nothing more 
 than it was our duty to perform." If they have not 
 been commanded by God, they will be met by the 
 mortifying question of frowning disapprobation, " Who 
 hath required this at your hands ?" Any church which 
 pretends to possess a stock of spiritual wealth, should 
 consider well what is meant in the address to the 
 Laodiceans ; " Thou sayest that I am rich, and in- 
 creased in goods, and have need of nothing; and 
 knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, 
 and poor, and blind, and naked." 
 
 The credit of indulgences has failed. The power 
 and glory of the pontificate have departed. The 
 strength and influence which remain connected with 
 the Roman-catholic system, exist principally in the 
 order of the priesthood, and the imposing rites which 
 by that order are discharged. The foundations of 
 that order have not yet been sufficiently investigated, 
 and laid open to the public eye. When examined, 
 this appears to be the weakest part of the whole sys- 
 tem ; and when successfully assailed, leaves every 
 other part of the structure unsupported (o fall in ruins. 
 Let the fact be established, that the Christian ministry 
 is not a priesthood ; that there is no priest appointed 
 to officiate in the church on earth ; and then, the spell 
 which bound together the magnificent edifice in which 
 the antichristian power was enthroned is dissolved, 
 
63 
 
 and not one stone is left upon another which is not 
 thrown down. In proof of this fact, we have already 
 adduced — the impossibility of resting the authority of 
 an earthly Christian priesthood, on a basis correspond- 
 ing with the firmness of that, on which the Jewish 
 priesthood rested ; while the augmented extent and 
 height of the superstructure require, that its basis 
 should be proportionably stronger : — the absence of 
 Levitical terms from the designations which are ap- 
 plied to the Christian ministry by the writers of the 
 New Testament ; while on every other subject they 
 employ them profusely, and on this, had they been 
 appropriate, they might have been expected to have 
 used them in great abundance : — the impossibility of 
 finding the remotest allusion to the office and rites of 
 a priesthood, in the sending forth of the twelve, or the 
 seventy, or in the more extended commission, which 
 was given to the Apostles at the mountain in Galilee. 
 We have shown, that baptism and the Lord's supper, 
 the only ritual observances which are enjoined in the 
 New Testament, together with their corresponding 
 rites in the Jewish church, circumcision, and the pass- 
 over, |were never by divine appointment connected 
 with the office of a priesthood ; — that the power com- 
 mitted to the Apostles of remitting or retaining sins 
 cannot be identified with the pratice of absolution ; — 
 that absolution, though where it is performed it is lim- 
 ited to those who are in priest's orders, was no part of 
 the work of the Jewish priesthood ; — that the power 
 
64 
 
 which was committed to the Apostles, was exemphfied 
 in their binding or loosing supernatural diseases, with 
 the consequent demonstration of the imputation or 
 removal of guilt, in the case of those wiio were the 
 subjects of ecclesiastical discipline ; a power necessary 
 onh^ to themselves in the first organization of the 
 Christian church, and not transmissible from them to 
 any order of ministers which, when they died, they 
 left behind them. And, we have referred to the un- 
 warranted assumptions which are made in conferring 
 the orders of the priesthood ; assumptions, which, how- 
 ever they may accord with the antichristian preten- 
 sions of the man of sin, who claims, as the successor 
 of St. Peter, to be intrusted with the keys, are injuri- 
 ous to the character of a Protestant church, and most 
 uncharitably asperse the ministerial work of the thou- 
 sands who labour in other Protestant communions, 
 with the evident sanction and blessing of their one 
 Master and Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The argument of this portion of our work, that the 
 Ciiristian ministry is not a priesthood, while thus far 
 satisfactory and conclusive, will yet, we trust, be seen 
 in clearer light and accumulated strength, by the reflex 
 bearing upon it of the priesthood of Christ ; and the 
 application of the Levitical terms not relating to him, 
 which the New Testament contains ; — the parts of our 
 subject which remain to be discussed. 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 PART II. 
 
PART II. 
 
 CHRIST THE ONLY, BUT ALL-SUFFICIENT PRIEST OF 
 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 CHRIST THE ONLY PRIEST. 
 
 " And they truly" — the high priests of the Jewish 
 church, — " were many priests, because they were not 
 suffered to continue by reason of death."* As their 
 mortaUty rendered necessary a succession of individ- 
 uals in the same office of high priest, so the limited 
 nature of their powers, rendered necessary the asso- 
 ciation of others with them, to discharge the more 
 ordinary, multifarious, and subordinate duties of the 
 priesthood. Aaron and his sons, therefore, were con- 
 secrated to serve at the altar, and in their services 
 their multiplying descendants were to succeed them. 
 
 And yet, it is worthy of remark, that numerous and 
 imposing though the ceremonies were which the Jew- 
 ish priesthood was appointed to perform ; it was in 
 
 Heb. vii. 23. 
 
68 
 
 itself, when compared with any modern hierarchy, a 
 very simple and inartificial structure. Accustomed 
 as we are to take it for granted, that more recent pre- 
 tensions assuming to be formed upon the Jewish 
 model, must accord with their archetype, though they 
 may not harmonize with Christianity; we associate 
 with the original, the ideas which we receive while 
 beholding the imitation, and our conceptions of the 
 Jewish hierarchy are consequently very incorrect and 
 exaggerated. The splendour which, when it existed, 
 it presented to the eye of the worshipper, and by 
 which, since its removal, it impresses the minds of 
 those who are acquainted with the descriptions of its 
 services, was derived from tlie concentration of those 
 services in one temple ; and that temple, besides the 
 costliness of its materials, and the vastness of its ex- 
 tent, hallowed by the enshrined glory of the present 
 Deity. If we examine the construction of the hierar- 
 chy, we shall find, that there was in it no long and 
 graduated scale of offices, titles, powers, privileges, 
 and emoluments ; no incentive to earthly feeling in 
 the prospect of rising from dignity to dignity, and ben- 
 efice to benefice ; no inducement to desecrate the 
 character by employing unworthy subserviency and 
 intrigue as the means of advancement. With the 
 solitary exception of him who stood next in succession 
 to the high priest, ecclesiastical advancement was 
 unknown. On the death of one high-priest, the in- 
 dividual next in snccession rose at once into the 
 
69 
 
 vacant office ; and entered on it, not to exercise au- 
 thority over his subordinate brethren, but to discharge 
 duties for the people, with whicli it was not lawful for 
 them to intermeddle. The rest were alike in their 
 title, their vestments, the rites which they were allow- 
 ed to discharge, and the emoluments which they re- 
 ceived.* In the station which tlicy occupied on the 
 
 * If, at a period long subsequent to the establishment of 
 the priesthood, when its members were divided into cour- 
 ses by David, any difference was made between the sub- 
 ordinate priests, it was simply because some stood nearer 
 to the parent stock than others. " Among the sons of 
 Eleazar, there were sixteen chief men of the house of 
 their fathers, and eight among the sons of Ithamar, ac- 
 cording to the house of their fathers." Here, observe, 
 these twenty-four had no superior sacerdotal title to dis- 
 tinguish them from others — they were chief men not chief 
 priests. They were chief, not in the office of their fathers 
 — there, with one exception, all were equal — but in the 
 house of their fathers ; there, age, as was the case among 
 the Israelites generally, gave them pre-eminence, as heads 
 of families. And when they were appointed by David 
 to superintend the services of the families to which they 
 respectively belonged ; to prevent the springing up of any 
 bitter root of ambition or jealousy among them, they took 
 the order of their courses by lot ; and the individual mem- 
 bers of each course, during the period of its service, took 
 in the same way their appointment to the work, which in 
 the temple they were to perform. 
 
70 
 
 day of their consecration, they continued till the last 
 day of their services, having neither poverty nor rich- 
 es, neither scope for ambition, nor mortification from 
 want of success. 
 
 In this arrangement, we see a developement of the 
 wisdom of God, in keeping the temptations, which 
 disquiet and corrupt the secular ranks of society, away 
 from the eye, and the hand, of those who ministered 
 before him in his sanctuary : and the contrast, in this 
 particular, between the Jewish and more recent hi- 
 erarchies, clearly demonstrates the hand of their res- 
 pective builders. In the latter, there have been 
 blended with human contrivances, too much of the 
 subtlety of the serpent, in presenting the gilded fruit to 
 the eye, and entangling the conscience in the web of 
 equivocal declarations, or vows made" only to be bro- 
 ken. So obviously did the Romish hierarchy, in the pc- 
 
 " To avoid all confusion, now that they were much in- 
 creased, David distributed the priests, as he had done the 
 Levites, into several courses ; which no doubt was by a 
 divine direction, as well as the other. He appointed six- 
 teen courses of the sons of Eleazar, under as many /leads 
 of their families ; and half as many of the sons of Ith- 
 amar." — Bisnop Patrick. 
 
 As the Levites were not, and never could become, 
 lepelr, (priests,) they cannot be included in the hierarchy, 
 with any move propriety than can the servitors and chor- 
 isters, who attend the present cathedral service. 
 
71 
 
 riod of its power and secular glory, work tiie moral de- 
 basement of its own members, that scarcely a century 
 of its history was accustomed to pass, without the rise 
 of some new religious fraternity, the necessity for 
 which was advocated, on the ground of the corrup- 
 tion of the orders that previously existed : and the 
 members of which vowed for themselves extreme and 
 perpetual mortification and poverty. The vows were 
 broken as constantly as they were made, for the 
 spirit of ambition and rapacity was inherent in the 
 system ; working through all its gradations, from the 
 cell of the monk up to the throne of the pontiff. 
 
 But, simple and inartificial though the Jewish hierar- 
 chy was, when compared with those which men have 
 subsequently framed ; not only was it never intended 
 to be the model, after which should be formed the 
 ministry of the Christian church, it was not even the 
 most perfect type which had been exhibited, of the 
 priesthood of Christ himself. In the prime and glory 
 therefore of the Jewish priesthood, when it was exer- 
 cised under the auspices of the most popular of the 
 kings — the king who loved the sanctuary better than 
 the throne ; under the reign of David, and by the lips 
 of David, a prediction was given, which not only in- 
 volved the change and abolition of the priesthood then 
 existing, but also assigned the pre-eminence in typical 
 importance to another order, by which it had been pre- 
 ceded. Looking with prophetic eye to the Messiah, 
 and addressing him with the fervent tongue of inspira- 
 
72 
 
 tion, he says, " The Lord hath sworn, and will not re- 
 pent ; Thou art a priest forever, after the order of 
 Melchisedec."* 
 
 By what, then, was the order of Melchisedec dis- 
 tinguished from that of Aaron ? Principally by its in- 
 dividual and exclusive character. As a priest, he was 
 " without father, without mother, without descent, hav- 
 ing neither beginning of days, nor end of life."t The 
 meaning of this apostolic description of the priesthood 
 of Melchisedic appears to be, that he derived his office 
 from no ancestors, and entailed it on no descendant ; 
 that of its commencement or termination no record is 
 given, but a mysterious silence and secresy preserved ; 
 in order, that as no boundaries can be put to its dura- 
 tion, it might more completely typify the priesthood 
 with him, who continueth in his office for ever. It 
 stands alone, prominent in the long vista of receding 
 ages, unequalled, 'unrivalled, in sublime and solitary 
 grandeur. Abraham, though Levi the progenitor of 
 Aaron was in his loins ; though he was a priest him- 
 self, and to this title added conqueror, and was return- 
 ing from battle with the spoils of the kings ; though his 
 name gave honour and privilege to his descendants the 
 Jews ; though he was the father of the faithful and the 
 friend of God; yet, Abraham himself acknowledged 
 superiority in the character and office of Melchisedec, 
 presented to him the tenth of his spoils, and reverently 
 
 * Psalm ex. 4. t Heb. vii. 3. 
 
73 
 
 received the blessinoj from his lips. Here then we 
 have the divinely appointed type of the priesthood of 
 the Christian church ; it pre-figures but one person for 
 all the ages of that church, and that person standing 
 alone, unassociated with others in his office. That per- 
 son is Christ. He is made an High Priest for ever, 
 not after the order of Aaron, in which subordinates 
 were associated for the discharge of its inferior and or- 
 dinary services ; but after the order of Melchisedec, 
 who, in the honours and functions of his office, remains 
 unchanging, exclusive, and supreme. 
 
 If, however, the prediction that another priest should 
 arise after the order of Melchisedec, and who should 
 not be called after the order of Aaron, implied the im- 
 perfection and ultimate removal of the Levitical priest- 
 hood ; it was necessary, that the superior claims of 
 him who came to fulfil the prediction, and to disannul 
 the authority of a priesthood, which for fifteen centu- 
 ries had been officiating by Divine appointment, should 
 be clearly and powerfully authenticated. Thus were 
 authenticated the claims of him, who was once known 
 as Jesus of Nazareth, but who now sustains the com- 
 bined offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, in the Chris- 
 tian church. His inauguration took place in the pres- 
 ence of the multitude, which thronged to the baptism 
 that John administered on the banks of the Jordan. 
 Instead of an earthly hand, to which authority had 
 been delegated, pouring the precious unction, diffusive 
 in its fragrance, upon his head ; the Holy Spirit de- 
 
 8 
 
74 
 
 scended in a visible form, to overshadow and rest upon 
 him like a dove ; while the voice of the Father bore 
 witness to him, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
 am well pleased."* The testimony was repeated 
 when, on the mount of transfiguration, Moses, by 
 whom the law had been given, and the Levitical priest- 
 hood consecrated for the performance of its rites, — 
 and Elijah, who above all others had laboured to bring 
 his apostate countrymen back to its observance, were 
 seen with him, and heard conversing about the vica- 
 rious and expiatory death which he was to accomplish 
 at Jenisalem. And again was the testimony repeated, 
 when, the Saviour's hour being come, he spake to the 
 Greeks who had desired an interview with him, of his 
 ow^n sufferings, and the glory that should follow. That 
 in the character in which John directed public atten- 
 tion to him, his innocent blood was shed, the Apostles 
 testified with their living voice to the world, and the 
 Evangelists in their Gospels bear continued and undy- 
 ing record. The acceptance of the sacrifice was dem- 
 onstrated, in the resurrection of the body which had 
 been the victim from the tomb ; and the complacence 
 of the Father in the w^ork, which, as the High Priest 
 of our profession, he entered into the celestial temple 
 to discharge, was made known, in the abundant effu- 
 sion of spiritual blessings, which followed liis ascen- 
 sion in our nature into heaven. 
 
 * Matt. iii. 17. 
 
75 
 
 But, it is by the Apostle Paul, that the priesthood of 
 Christ is most clearly and fully unfolded to our view. 
 His Epistle to the Hebrews is the true Levitical book 
 of the New Testament. In it we are to look for the 
 functions of the priesthood of the Christian church, as 
 in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus, where he speaks 
 nothing concerning priesthood, we are to look for the 
 functions of the Christian ministry. Let the distinction 
 be made between the priest who officiates for the 
 church, and the ministry which is appointed to pro- 
 claim his excellencies, to direct the guilty to him, and 
 to instruct the church, that its members may grow in 
 the knowledge of him, and then will the subject open 
 easily before us, and present a merciful and complete 
 provision for every part of our case, as sinners before 
 God. 
 
 In accordance with the facts of the Saviour's histo- 
 ry to which we have referred, is the account which the 
 Apostle gives in the New Testament Leviticus of his 
 appointment to the priestly office. We have seen, that 
 no delegated authority was employed in the investure ; 
 — that by the Holy Ghost he was annointed, and by 
 the voice of the living God, in the official character 
 which he now publicly assumed, declared to be his 
 Son, in whose person and work he was well pleased. 
 So the Apostle Paul refers to the appointment which 
 preceded the public investiture, as a solemn transac- 
 tion between the Father and the Son, on his assuming 
 the human nature in which the office was to be dis- 
 
76 
 
 charged ; and becoming subject to those infirmities, 
 the recital of which enables us more clearly to appre- 
 hend him as a merciful and faithful High Priest for us 
 in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for 
 our sins, and succour us in our temptations. " For 
 every high priest taken from among men, is ordained 
 for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer 
 both gifts and sacrifices for sins : who can have com- 
 passion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of 
 the way ; for that he himself also is compassed with 
 infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the 
 people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no 
 man taketh this honour upon himself, but he that is called 
 of God, as was Aaron : so also Christ glorified not him- 
 self to he made an high 2rriest ; but he that said unto 
 him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As 
 he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for 
 ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days 
 of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and sup- 
 plications with strong crying and tears unto him that 
 was able to save him from death, and was heard in that 
 he feared ; though he were a Son, yet learned he obe- 
 dience by the things which he suffered ; and being 
 made perfect, became the author of eternal salvation 
 unto all them that obey him ; called of God an high 
 priest after the order of Melchisedec."* 
 
 Connect the reiterated declaration of the order of 
 
 * Heb. V. 1—10. 
 
77 
 
 Christ's priesthood, which we have shown to be in- 
 dividual and exclusive, with the fact, that neither in 
 the Hebrews nor in any other book of the New Testa- 
 ment, is there a reference to any other priest as offici- 
 ating for the Christian church ; and with the statements 
 contained in this passage, that no man taketh the 
 honour of the priesthood upon himself, but he tiiat is 
 called of God as was Aaron,— that not even Christ 
 glorified himself to be made an high priest ; and we 
 have all which we can need in proof of the first part 
 of the argument of this chapter, that he is the only 
 priest w'ho is authorized to officiate for the church of 
 which he is the Head. 
 
 How lamentably do those mistake the design, and 
 pervert the application of the statement, that " no man 
 taketh the honour upon himself, but he that is called of 
 God as was Aaron," who quote it for the uncharitable 
 purpose of nullifying the ministerial functions of all, 
 who have not, like themselves, received priest's orders. 
 Bigotry is defective in its organs of vision, and there- 
 fore often stumbles most unhappily, where the light, 
 too strong for its eye, shines with most clearness. 
 There is no passage in the Scriptures which more 
 decisively overthrows all the pretensions which men 
 make to the office of the priesthood, than does this, 
 which is most commonly quoted for their support and 
 confirmation. It will fully sustain an assertion, even 
 stronger, and more comprehensive than any which we 
 have yet ventured to make ; — that there is no priest, 
 8* 
 
78 
 
 officiating for men by divine appointment, in the uni- 
 verse of God, besides Christ ; because, none hut he can 
 clearly show, like Aaron and his descendants, a call 
 from God to the office of the priesthood. We may, 
 with this inspired declaration in our hand, go round 
 the world, and demonstrate the fallacy of every pre- 
 tension to the honour of the priesthood, by whomso- 
 ever made ; and end in the conclusion, that there is 
 no other name under heaven given among men where- 
 by we can be saved, than that of the man Christ Je- 
 sus ; because he only officiates, by divine appointment, 
 as priest and mediator between God and man. 
 
 It will not for a moment be pretended, that the 
 priests of any of the idolatrous systems which yet exist 
 in the earth, can show that they have a call from God 
 corresponding with that of Aaron. They disclaim the 
 authority of the living God by whom Aaron was called ; 
 but they disclaim it in vain, for they are destined, with 
 the systems which they uphold, to fiill before it. The 
 light, which chased from the earth the delusions which 
 were found in the various systems of classic idolatry, 
 is spreading amongst them. The rod of the Redeem- 
 er's strength, which, when it was first sent forth from 
 Sion, broke the spell of the strongest enchantments 
 under which the mind of man had ever been held, is 
 already carried to the threshold, or has entered the 
 interior of every idolatrous structure which is found 
 upon the globe. Feeble, despised, and reproached, 
 may be the hands which bear it ; but its work is deter- 
 
79 
 
 mined by him, who hath chosen the weak things of the 
 world to confound the things which are mighty, and 
 its execution is certain. It will again, as in classic 
 regions of old, leave to posterity nothing but the re- 
 membrance and the name of the systems, the deities, 
 and the priests, against which its stroke is directed. 
 
 Of Jewish priests, besides that the order is disan- 
 nulled, none, who can prove their descent from Aaron, 
 are to be found. The genealogical tables are irre- 
 coverably lost, if the race of Aaron itself is not alto- 
 gether extinct. Could a descendant of Aaron be pro- 
 duced, there is no temple in which he could officiate, 
 no altar at which he could serve. The city, in which 
 only the daily rites or annual solemnities of his religion 
 can be lawfully observed, is desecrated, and trodden 
 under foot of the gentiles. The mosque of Omar, 
 reared for the disciples of the false prophet, stands 
 upon the very spot on which David placed the ark, 
 and Solomon, subsequently reared the temple ; and it 
 is death to a Jew to pass over its threshold.* No 
 
 * " When the Romans took Jerusalem, Titus ordered 
 his soldiers to dig up the foundations both of the city and 
 the teinple : and Terentius Rufus, the Roman general, is 
 stated to have driven a ploughshare over the site of the 
 sacred edifice. When the caliph Omar took Jerusalem, 
 the spot had been abandoned by the Christians. Seid 
 Eben Batrik, an Arabian historian, relates, that the caliph 
 applied to the patriarch Sophronius, and inquired of him 
 
80 
 
 vestige of any priesthood, which could boast its original 
 appointment to be from God, remains, to rival the 
 office, or obstruct the work, which belongs exclusively 
 to Christ. The people, (his own people,) who reject- 
 ed him when he came to them, have nothing left, which 
 they can substitute in his stead. They are without a 
 king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, 
 and without an image, and without an ephod, (that 
 part of the priest's dress which distinguished him from 
 all other men, and is therefore here employed to desig- 
 nate his office,) and without teraphim. The vital and 
 essential principles of the Jewish religion, — that re- 
 ligion which poured such copious streams of light and 
 joy into the breast of David, and of those who, with 
 accordant hearts and voices, responded to the sym- 
 phonies, or united in the chorus of his psalms, — are 
 transfused into the Christian system, are embodied in 
 the person and work of him who is our atoning sacri- 
 
 what would be the most proper place at Jerusalem for 
 building a mosque. Sophronius conducted him to the 
 ruins of Solomon's temple. The caliph Abd-el-Malek 
 made additions to the buildings, and enclosed the rock 
 with walls. His successor, the caliph El-Oulid, con- 
 tributed still more to the embellishment of P^l-Sakhara, 
 and covered it with a dome of copper, gilt, taken from a 
 church at Balbec. The crusaders converted this temple 
 of Mahommed into a Christian sanctuary, but Saladin 
 restored it to its original use." — Modern Traveller, vol. i. 
 p. 93. 
 
81 
 
 fice and interceding priest. The light of Judaism, In- 
 creased to sevenfold brightness, spreads its radiance 
 over the Christian church, and diffuses peace and joy, 
 through believing, in the heart of every humble disci- 
 ple of Christ : while the Jew, with nothing but the 
 name, and the painful initiatory rite of his own religion, 
 sits mourning in darkness and despondency, — an exile 
 from the land, and a rebellious wanderer, disowned 
 by the God of his fathers. Bright and joyful for him- 
 self, and for the world, will be the day when he shall 
 look, with a believing eye, on Him whom he has 
 pierced ; obtain peace with his offended God by the 
 blood of the cross ; be raised from his moral and po- 
 litical debasement ; and be incorporated with the 
 Christian fold in the aggregation of its numbers, the 
 perfection of its light, the fulness of its privileges, and 
 the entu'eness of its dependence on the great High 
 Priest of our profession, the only mediator between 
 God and man. 
 
 The priests of the Roman-catholic church may pre- 
 serve a dignified silence, when asked by an hei^etical 
 inquirer to show the call of their order to be like that 
 of Aaron ; or, if they condescend to reply, may expa- 
 tiate most profoundly and mysteriously on the power 
 derived from Peter, the authority of the fathers, the 
 traditions of the church ; and endeavour to escape the 
 point of the question, by surrounding themselves with 
 a wilderness of words ; but this will avail only with 
 those whose minds are entirely surrendered to their 
 
82 
 
 guidance, and who venture to think upon rehgious sub- 
 jects only as they dictate. Every individual, in whose 
 breast the spark of freedom is not extinguished, we 
 would remind, — that Peter was no priest himself, and 
 had no command, like Moses, to confer the order upon 
 others ;^— that the fathers derived no priesthood from 
 the Apostles, and cannot authorize its assumption by 
 others or by themselves ; — that tradition was the delu- 
 sive cover of the enormous corruptions which the 
 Redeemer, in his personal ministry, exposed, and the 
 resource of the degenerate priests, who conspired with 
 the elders to put him to death ; — but that Aaron's call 
 was written, as is that of Christ, explicitly, and fully, 
 in the uncorrupted word, which liveth and abideth for 
 ever. No priesthood can sustain its pretensions to an 
 appointment from God, which cannot, like that of 
 Aaron, show us its institution, its designation, its pre- 
 scribed mode of perpetuation, its specific arrangements 
 for the ritual of its services, on the same authori- 
 tative and imperishable pages. With whomsoever the 
 Romish priesthood originated, there was no call from 
 God. It was honour which men took upon them- 
 selves. Its titles and claims are founded in a series of 
 usurpations, which, however excellent and even ex- 
 emplary may be many of those who succeed to them, 
 and had no share in the original encroachment, could 
 be entailed with no better right than is found in the 
 transmission of the self-assumed titles and ill-gotten 
 booty of a lawless banditti. Long established posses- 
 
83 
 
 sion may, indeed, give legal sanction to secular claims 
 which originated in usurpation ; but this cannot be the 
 case with ecclesiastical and spiritual claims ; because 
 He ever lives whose prerogative has been invaded ; 
 and his laws and institutions remain imperative on 
 the conscience, in their primitive and uncorrupted 
 simplicity.* 
 
 If the Roman-catholic priesthood cannot show a call 
 to the office, like that which could have been present- 
 ed by the descendants of Aaron, of course, any Prot- 
 
 * Those who require any thing more than tradition to 
 substantiate the authority of a priesthood, will consider 
 the following paragraph of father Calmet's to be a conces- 
 sion of the whole question. It assumes, indeed, the ap- 
 pointment of " priests of the new law ;" but admits, what 
 
 destroys the assumption, that they have no call like that of 
 Aaron. 
 
 "We have enlarged on the rights, prerogatives, func- 
 tions, and revenues of the priests of the old law, under 
 the foregoing article. We cannot do the same in respect 
 to the priests of the new law, because neither Christ in the 
 Gospels, nor his Apostles in any of their writings, have 
 ordained the ceremonies to be used in the consecration of 
 priests, or elders, in the administration of the sacraments, 
 nor all the circumstances which may accompany those 
 rites. The Apostles left some things to the wisdom and 
 discretion of the church, though they taught them to the 
 faithful of their own times viva voce." — CalmeVs Diction- 
 ary, Art. Priest. 
 
84 
 
 estants who derive their title and orders through the 
 channel of the older church, must be equally deficient 
 in the means of substantiating their claim. Some of 
 the wisest apologists of the English Episcopal church, 
 indeed, relinquish the claim, and admit the title to be 
 improper.* It is devoutly to be wished, that the title, 
 
 * " Although, in truth, the word presbyter doth seem 
 more fit, and in propriety of speech more agreeable, than 
 priest, with the drift of the whole gospel of Jesus Christ." 
 — Hooker. 
 
 In the Book of Common Prayer, which was put forth by 
 royal authority, for Scotland, when the effort was made to 
 force episcopacy upon her, I believe the title priest was 
 omitted, and presbyter substituted in its place. If the 
 word priest is, as some tell us, a corruption of the word 
 presbyter ; why (unless the church has some unavoidable 
 affinity with corruption) cannot the pure and primitive term 
 be employed in the English service-book also ; instead of 
 one, whose equivocal import misleads, not merely the peo- 
 ple, but some of the first authorities among the clergy? 
 How, on the hypothesis referred to, are we to construe the 
 following passage 1 " Who are the best friends every 
 minister hath in his parish ? They who attend the prayers 
 and sacraments with him ; who are edified by his priest- 
 hood as well as by his preaching.^^ — Jones^ Essay on the 
 Church, 
 
 In the following note from the pen of another approved 
 writer, subsequently elevated to th§ bench, the American 
 episcopalians, who it would appear have ventured to alter 
 
85 
 
 with every remaining vestage of the claims which have 
 been associated with it, were removed from every 
 Protestant communion ; and that the whole were able, 
 with unfettered hands, and undivided hearts, to assail 
 this remaining citadel of anti-christian delusion, into 
 which, with scarcely any molestation, it has retired. 
 Were the weakness of its foundations honestly laid 
 
 the Liturgy which they received from the parent church, 
 are gravely, and seriously blamed, for having relinquished 
 that which involved the essence of the sacerdotal claim. 
 
 " It deserves to be noticed, that in the American litur- 
 gy this form " (the form of absolution) " is omitted in the 
 service of the Visitation of the Sick, and no direction is 
 given for particular confession or absolution. In the form 
 for the Visitation of Prisoners, is a direction to the minis- 
 ter to exhort the criminal to a particular confession for the 
 sins for which he is condemned : after which, the minister 
 is to declare to him the pardoning mercy of God, in the 
 form which is in the Communion Service, which is the 
 same as that in our Communion Service, and which is in 
 supplicating form. Notvvithstanding, therefore, the com- 
 pilers of this liturgy profess that their church is far from in- 
 tending to depart from the Church of England, in any es- 
 sential point of discipline or worship ; they seem to have 
 designed to relinquish particular confession of sins, and the 
 authoritative power of absolution in the priesthood — its es- 
 sential and important claim, and without which the sacer- 
 dotal commission is destitute of sanctions." — Sermons at 
 the Bampton Lecture, by Dr. Gray. 
 
 9 
 
86 
 
 open to the public eye, by those who have tlie power 
 to arrest and direct its attention ; were the simple but 
 effectual and demonstrative proposition, No official 
 priest but Christ, to be substituted for the unworthy 
 and unapostolic cry, " The Church is in danger," by 
 those who can control and direct the public voice ; we 
 might then expect, that the adversaries of scriptural 
 truth would tremble, — that the I)uhvarks of supersti- 
 tion, like the walls of Jericho, before the shouts of the 
 Israelites, would fall to the ground, — and that the voice 
 of the apocalyptic angel would break next upon the 
 ear, proclaiming, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen ;" " Re- 
 joice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy Apostles and 
 Prophet?, for God hath avenged you on her." 
 
 By the holy Prophets, no priest is predicted for the 
 service of the Christian church, but Christ. By the 
 holy Apostles, no priest is described as officiating by 
 divine appointment, but Christ. He only is called of 
 God to the office, as was Aaron ; but he, superior to 
 Aaron, is appointed with the solemnity of an oath, is 
 appointed exclusively and irrevocably, for all genera- 
 tions. " The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, 
 Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Mclchise- 
 dec." 
 
 Those who introduce another priest, invade God's 
 prerogative, to whom alone the right of appointment 
 belongs ; detract from the Saviour's perfections, as 
 though he were not every way competent to the work, 
 which the Father has committed exclusively t-o him 
 
87 
 
 and betray the interests of the souls of their fellow 
 men, who, in so far as they trust to the work of the in- 
 truding priesthood, are withdrawn from reliance on 
 him, to whom only we are commanded to look, and 
 who only has power to save. In too many instances, 
 there is reason to fear, the withdrawment has been en- 
 tire, and the consequent injury irreparable. How 
 often, in the hour of dissolution, has the mind been oc- 
 cupied, the conscience soothed, and the hope inspired, 
 not by what Christ, but by what the priest, has per- 
 formed. He has heard the confession, has pronounced 
 the absolution, has given the host, has administered the 
 unction, and therefore all is safe. Fatal delusion ! pro- 
 duced by rites, which possess no more authority or ef- 
 ficacy than are to be found in the cabalistic talisman, 
 or the water of the Ganges. 
 
 And not unfrequently among Protestants, the bread 
 and wine of the Lord's supper are prostituted to a simi- 
 lar purpose of delusion and injury. They are carried 
 to the chamber of the dying, not because there is any 
 command or precedent in the Scriptures, for celebra- 
 ting the supper under such circumstances ; but, because 
 the popish error still lingers, under a modified form, in 
 the Protestant church, — that there is virtue in the ele- 
 ments, when they have been officially administered, to 
 make our peace with God, and afford a passport to his 
 kingdom. A faithful and enlightened minister may, in- 
 deed, by the exercise of the discretionary power which 
 he is understood to possess, in reference to the individ- 
 
88 
 
 ual administration of the supper, correct the evi! 
 which an unscriptural system involves, in most of the 
 cases which come under his ovs^n personal care ; but 
 then the working of the system, when, as is too com- 
 monly the case, it is intrusted to an individual who is 
 qualified for the cure of souls, only by his being invest- 
 ed for his own secular advantage with the orders of 
 the priest, is lamentable in the extreme. In every 
 case, whether it be that of Catholic or Protestant, in 
 which the conscience derives its peace from the dis- 
 charge of official rites which are performed by men, 
 there is something brought between the soul and God, 
 as the ground of hope, which he has not authorised, 
 aud which, so far as it is relied upon, deceives and be- 
 trays, instead of securing the recipient. The ministers 
 of the Christian religion are to stand amongst their fel- 
 low men, not like the priests in the temple, discharging 
 rites through which there was access to God, and the 
 enjoyment of his favour ; but like John, on the banks 
 of the Jordan, concerned that Christ only may be seen, 
 relied on, and followed, and pointing to him as the 
 Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world ; 
 or like Moses, when he had raised the brazen serpent 
 upon the pole, directing the languishing and closing 
 eye to the only remedy which God had appointed : 
 •' For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 
 even so has the Son of man been lifted up ; that who- 
 soever believeth in him might not perish, but have 
 everlasting life." 
 
89 
 
 If, as we hope we have sufficiently proved, Christ 
 is the only Priest officiating by divine appointment for 
 the Christian church, we might, on this fact alone, rest 
 the argument of the second head of our general prop- 
 osition under this part of the subject, — that he is also 
 the all-sufficient Priest. The argument here might be 
 comprised in few words. God, in the infinity of his 
 knowledge, is perfectly acquainted with the whole 
 wants of the whole church. In the infinity of his re- 
 sources, he is able fully to provide for the whole wants 
 of the whole church. If he make any provision at all, 
 regard to the honour of his character requires, that it 
 should be perfect and complete. He has provided the 
 church a priest, in the person of his Son. He has ap- 
 pointed no other to the office ; and the inference is un- 
 deniable, that the church can want no other. The 
 perfection and completeness of Christ's work as a 
 priest, must not however be summarily dismissed. It 
 requires, and will amply reward, extended discussion, 
 and full consideration. While we shall find in it 
 abundant confirmation of the principles which have 
 been already advocated, we shall find also the solid 
 rock on which to build our hope, when every other 
 foundation has proved on examination treacherous, 
 and has given way beneath us. 
 
 9» 
 
SECTION II. 
 
 CHRIST THE ALL-SUFFICIENT PRIEST THE PERFECTION 
 
 OF HIS SACRIFICE. 
 
 " And almost all things are by the law purged with 
 blood ; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 
 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things 
 in the heavens should be purified with these ; but the 
 heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than 
 these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places 
 made with hands, which are the figures of the true ; 
 but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence 
 of God for us; nor yet that he should offer himself 
 often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place 
 every year with blood of others ; for then must he 
 often have suffered since the foundation of the world ; 
 but now once in the end of the world hath he appear- 
 ed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And 
 as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this 
 the judgment : so Christ was once otfered to bear the 
 sins of many ; and unto them that look for him shall 
 he appear the second time without sin unto salva- 
 tion."* 
 
 * Heb. ix. 22—28, 
 
91 
 
 The second clause of this beautiful and impressive 
 passage contains, in the form of a simple axiom, the 
 leading principle of divine revelation. It is the key 
 which opens, and the clue which conducts through 
 every chamber of the treasury of truth. Those who 
 decline its use stumble at the threshold, and grope in 
 vain to find an entrance. The institution of sacrifices, 
 — the consecration of the priest, — the inspiration of 
 the prophet, — the incarnation of the Redeemer, — the 
 mission of the Apostles, — the work of the ministry of 
 reconciliation, from its establishment till time shall 
 end, — all derive their meaning and importance from 
 the fact, " that without shedding of blood there is no 
 remission." 
 
 It is to the work of the priest that our attention must 
 be confined. When the father of every family was a 
 • priest, the altar was the place where he conducted the 
 worship ; and he could come with his household ac- 
 ceptably to God; only as he brought, like Abel, an 
 animal sacrifice, a living victim, whose blood might be 
 shed before it was presented upon the altar. When 
 the Jewish dispensation was instituted, besides the 
 particular offerings which were appointed for defined 
 cases of transgression, and the numerous victims for 
 the several extraordinary annual solemnities, twice 
 every day the priests, on behalf of the people, vk'ere to 
 shed the blood of a lamb, and to present its entire 
 body on the altar, that it might be consumed in the 
 fire which God had enkindled, and which the priests 
 
92 
 
 were .carefully to preserve from being extinguished. 
 Connected with this rite, and dependent on its ob- 
 servance, was the promise, that God would dwell 
 among the children of Israel, and be their God : — 
 
 " Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the 
 altar ; two lambs of the first year day by day con- 
 tinually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morn- 
 ing ; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even : and 
 with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with 
 the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil : and the fourth 
 part of an hin of wine for a drink offering. And the 
 other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto 
 according to the meat offering of the morning, and ac- 
 cording to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet 
 savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. This 
 shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your 
 generations, at the door of the tabernacle of the con- 
 gregation, before the Lord : where I will meet you, to 
 speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with the 
 children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified 
 by my glory. And I will sanctify the tabernacle of 
 the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify also 
 both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the 
 priest's office. And I will dwell among the ciiildren 
 of Israel, and will be their God."* 
 
 The time of presenting the continual burnt offering, 
 on the appointment of which this gracious promise 
 
 *Exod. xxix. 38—45. 
 
was made, and on the observance of which its fulfil- 
 ment depended, was at nine in the morning and at 
 three in the afternoon. When the people rested in 
 their encampments in the wilderness, they would at 
 these hours of each returning day, have an opportunity 
 of appearing before God at the door of the tabernacle, 
 to perform the worship which was required, and enjoy 
 the manifestation of divine favour which was promised. 
 The tabernacle was pitched in the midst of the en- 
 campment, an open space for the reception of the 
 people was left around it, and twice every day would 
 there be a general movement towards it, from the 
 tents of those who valued and desired to observe the 
 institutions of God's appointment. The object, to 
 which on each occasion every eye would be turned, 
 was an innocent lamb, struggling under the hand of 
 the priest, while the sacrificial knife was plunged into 
 its veins, and the blood which was its life was poured 
 out upon the ground. When, however, the people 
 took possession of their respective inheritances in the 
 land of promise, it was impossible that they should as- 
 semble daily before the Lord, at the place which he 
 might choose for the tabernacle to be fixed ; and the 
 commandment to appear was then restricted to three 
 times a year, at the great annual festivals. Still, the 
 continual burnt offering was to be presented on behalf 
 of the whole of the people as before ; and the time of 
 its presentation, morning and evening, was the hour of 
 prayer throughout all the land. Those who dwelt too 
 
94 
 
 far from the sanctuary to allow of their going to it, yet 
 turned their faces towards it ; and by virtue of the 
 rites which were there performing, presented accep- 
 tably their supplications to God. 
 
 And be it remembered, that we possess other powers 
 of vision beside the eye. The imagination can em- 
 body, and vividly present scenes which we know to be 
 taking place beyond the ken of the eye ; scenes, which 
 we know have taken place ages before we came into 
 existence ; scenes, which we know will be unfolded in 
 ages which are yet to come. And the workings of 
 the imagination, when it is excited and impressed, not 
 by the figments of human invention, but by the specific 
 institutions, the simple narrations, the unerring tes- 
 timony of the word of God, rise into the principle of 
 faith, the operative principle in the life of the saints 
 under every dispensation of religion which God has es- 
 tablished in the world. Things, which are invisible to 
 sense, are realized by the mind ; their influence is felt ; 
 they are applied to for consolation ; the actions are 
 regulated by them with the same decision and force 
 as though they stood out in material forms before the 
 eye, and spoke with audible voices to the ear. The 
 most simple and unlettered Christian, who has im- 
 plored the promised influences of the Spirit of God, 
 understands and feels this ; and needs no corpored 
 representations to bring his mind into contact with the 
 cross of Christ, and the cleansing, tranquillizing, joy- 
 infusing efficacy of his atoning blood. The man who 
 
95 
 
 has not this principle of faith, may have his feelings 
 wrought upon by well-contrived scenic exhibitions or 
 by powerful local associations ; but, in his highest state 
 of excitement, he will be as far from the enjoyment of 
 peace with God, of fellowship with him, and of con- 
 formity to his image, as he was before. He may, as 
 did many of the crusaders, weep floods of religious 
 tears on one day, and burn with deadly rage, or in- 
 dulge in gross licentiousness, on the next. The re- 
 ligion which ministers only, or principally, to the 
 senses, will often feed the fires which corrupt nature 
 has enkindled in the breast, and by the frequent and 
 specious demand for the exercise of the passions, give 
 intensity to their strength, and confirm them in a 
 dominion more powerful and despotic than they would 
 otherwise have possessed. Such a religion, wherever 
 it has been found, has come not from above, but from 
 beneath. God's institutions have ever presented 
 enough that was material to lay hold on the inferior 
 part of our nature , — to show, that the body and its 
 senses, as well as the soul and its nobler faculties, are 
 his, and were made for his service ; but then, what 
 has been material in his institutions has been con- 
 structed, like the ladder w hich Jacob saw, to facilitate 
 our ascent to a region which is ethereal, to associate us 
 with attendants which are spiritual, to bring us into the 
 secret place of his own presence, that we may con- 
 verse with him as the Father of our spirits, and dwell 
 under the shadow of his wings. 
 
96 
 
 The skill and subtlety of Satan have been displayed, 
 in placing his corruptions on the basis of God's insti- 
 tutions, to obstruct the soul in its ascent, to engross it 
 with inferior objects, and at length to drag it, fettered 
 and debased, to grovel again upon the earth. The 
 Patriarch had only, by divine appointment, his altar, 
 and his victim. Of sights or sounds, none other which 
 were artificial ministered to his devotion. Around 
 him were God's works, not man's : the light of the 
 day, emblematic of the simple purity and lustre of the 
 worship which he presented, not the dim religious 
 gloom in which the soul is subdued by superstitious 
 power. But from this simple patriarchal stock, what 
 multiform, wide-spreading, and durable systems of 
 idolatrous worsliip, have, by engrafting, been pro- 
 duced ! The altar, and the victim, show the root 
 from which they have grown ; but with what fruits of 
 bitterness, impurity, and cruelty, have the branches of 
 the unnatural scions ever abounded ! The Jew, when 
 he went at the festivals to the place of general assem- 
 bly, witnessed rites more numerous, and ceremonies 
 more imposing, than had ever been presented at the 
 more domestic scenes of patriarchal worship ; but, in 
 his ordinary and daily services, he was thrown more 
 entirely upon the resources of the mind, than was the 
 patriarch himself He could not place an altar near 
 his dwelling, nor select from his flock a victim for 
 sacrifice whenever he chose ; but if he were an 
 Israelite indeed, he could, and did, draw near in spirit 
 
97 
 
 unto God, in the daily and solitary exercises of his 
 devotion when he was absent from the temple, as well 
 as when he was present with the multitude, where the 
 lamb was led to the slaughter, and its blood of typical 
 atonement was shed. 
 
 Nor did the worship which was presented in the 
 temple, correspond in the means by which it was ren- 
 dered impressive, with that which is produced by 
 artificial excitements amid the sombre shades of the 
 gloomy gothic pile. At its services, the people in 
 their worship, and the priests in those of their minis- 
 trations which were visible to the people, had over 
 them, the blue canopy of heaven ; and around them, 
 the unobstructed light of the day. The capacious 
 altar, with its inextinguished fire, and numerous whole 
 burnt offerings, could not, like the altai's which are 
 reared for the presentation of an unbloody sacrifice, 
 be covered with vaulted roofs, adorned with curious 
 workmanship. The courts, in which the many thous- 
 ands of Israel could assemble, were too extensive to 
 admit a covering ; too densely crowded at the festivals, 
 to have rendered any confinement of the atmosphere 
 consistent with the safety of the worshippers. The 
 hour of daily service in the morning, was when the 
 sun had advanced half-way to its meridian ; and in 
 the evening, when it had descended but half-way to 
 the gates of the west. The festivals, excepting that of 
 the Passover, which was not celebrated in the temple, 
 were holden in the day. Its worshippers " were 
 10 
 
98 
 
 children of the hght, and of the day, not of the night, 
 and of darkness." 
 
 And here, trusting that the reader will excuse the 
 short digression which we are indulging, we may ob- 
 serve, how the argument for the use of the altar, and 
 the host, and the crucifix, and the images, and the pic- 
 tures, and the relics, and all the paraphernalia of Ro- 
 man-catholic worship, falls through, and breaks to 
 pieces, even when compared with the use of what was 
 corporeal in Judaism itself. So far was it from being 
 necessary that the people should have material excite- 
 ments to sustain their daily devotion, that they were 
 strictly forbidden to offer a sacrifice, at any other place 
 than that at which the sanctuary was fixed, and to 
 which the great mass of the people could go only three 
 times a year. With the same strictness were they for- 
 bidden to make any graven image, any likeness of any 
 thing that was in the heaven above, or in the earth be- 
 neath, or in the waters under the earth, which might 
 be bowed down to or worshipped ; so that represen- 
 tations of the lamb, or the altar, or the priest, we may 
 be sure they had none. Nor was a Jew allowed to 
 disturb the sepulchres of the dead for the purpose of 
 obtaining the relics of a saint ; though it was well 
 known where Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Jo- 
 seph lay ; and the latter was, according to the man- 
 ner of the Egyptians, embalmed. A Jew would have 
 felt himself defiled by touching the dead body of Abra- 
 ham himself. Above all, would the sanctuary of the 
 
99 
 
 living God have been desecrated by depositing any 
 portion of a dead body in it. No lustration could 
 have removed the pollution, till every particle of the 
 offensive dust had been cleared away. It remained 
 for the delicate perceptions of the sublime and an- 
 gelical doctors of the Christian church, to discover 
 how much odour of sanctity could be enclosed in a 
 coffin ; for their pure and sacred hands to open the 
 precious perfume, and exhibit to the adoring multitude 
 the inestimable fragments of shrivelled members and 
 decaying bones ; for their penetrating genius to make 
 manifest how much the souls and the bodies of the liv- 
 ing, might be benefitted by approaching the mouldering 
 ashes of the dead ; for their clear and syllogistic rea- 
 soning to demonstrate, how one and the same frag- 
 ment of a saint could exist, and perform its miraculous 
 functions, in distant places, and at one period of time ; 
 for their generous disinterestedness to show, at how 
 cheap a rate they could dispense the miraculous vir- 
 tues which were intrusted to their guardian care. Or 
 rather, it remained to be shown, how far the demon of 
 craft and covetousness could impose, under the veil of 
 sanctity, on the understanding and consciences of men ; 
 — how far the name of Christianity could be prostitu- 
 ted, for furthering the purposes of delusion and fraud ; 
 — how far the best, and most spiritual religion ever es- 
 tablished in the world, might exceed (being corrupted) 
 in folly and debasement the worst. The Mahomedan 
 legend of the miraculous suspension of the dead body 
 
100 
 
 of their prophet, is rational and dignified, when com- 
 pared with the mass of silly and sickening legends that 
 are connected with the relics of Roman-catholic saints. 
 Judaism, instead of being carnal "and inferior, was 
 spiritual and elevated, when compared with what has 
 been called Christianity, as it has sometimes been ex- 
 hibited in the Roman-catholic church. The worship 
 of the Jew, when he was in the temple, was performed 
 in the clear light of heaven ; nothing but living objects 
 were around him, and instructive types before him ; 
 and when^absent from the temple, it was the exercise 
 of the spirit only, unassisted by any object which the 
 eye beheld. 
 
 The rites, however, which were performed in the 
 temple, had in them no inherent efficacy, and were 
 therefore to continue but for a season. " For it is not 
 possible, that the blood of bulls and of goats should take 
 away sin. Wherefore, when he (Christ) cometh into 
 the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou would- 
 est not, but a body hast thou prepared me : in burnt 
 offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleas- 
 ure. Then said I, Lo, I come, (in the volume of the 
 book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 
 Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt 
 offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldest not, neith- 
 er hadst pleasure therein, (which are oflcrcd by the 
 law,) then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. 
 lie taketh away the first, that he may establish the sec- 
 ond. Bv the which will we are sanctified, through the 
 
101 
 
 offering of the body of Jesus Christ once lor a'.!. And 
 every priest standeth daily ministering, and offering 
 oftentimes the same sacrilices which can never take 
 away sins. But this man, after he had otlered one sac- 
 rifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right liand of 
 God ; from iienceforth expecting till his enemies be 
 • made his footstool. For by one offering, he hath per- 
 fected for ever them that are sanctified."* 
 
 Now, while the declaration, that •' without shedding 
 of blood there is no remission," sufficiently exposes the 
 pretension, that there is efficacy, or use, in the sacrifice 
 of the mass, which is an unbloody sacrifice ; the reit- 
 erated declarations in both of the passages which we 
 have quoted from the Hebrews, that Christ's sacrifice 
 was one, and offered once for all, precludes the possi- 
 bility of introducing any other sacrifice for sin whatso- 
 ever. The appointment of the sacrifice, like the ap- 
 pointment of the priest, is one and exclusive. So soon 
 as that one sacrifice had been offered, in the body 
 which had been prepared for the work of expiation, 
 the will of God, in the provision made for the removal 
 of human guilt, was at once, and for ever, completely 
 performed. The sacrifices, as well as the priests of 
 the first dispensation, were taken away ; that the sec- 
 ond, combined and complete in Christ, might alone be 
 established. The satisfaction in the first, though offer- 
 ed by Divine appointment, was not entire ; the com- 
 
 * Heb. X. 4—14. 
 10* 
 
102 
 
 placence in them was not perpetual. They were pre- 
 paratory and introductory, yet, in some respects, im- 
 perfect prefigurations of the sacrifice of Christ, who is 
 the Lamb of God, offered once for all, to take away 
 the sin of the world ; — of the world, as including its 
 former, as well as subsequent generations. They of 
 former generations without us could not be made per-- 
 feet. Their sacrifices, unconnected with our sacrifice, 
 were of no value, — could not take away sin. They 
 were rendered efficacious, by the anticipated virtue of 
 the one Christian sacrifice, actually offered in the end 
 of the Old Testament ages, but slain, in the immuta- 
 ble purposes of the Father, from the foundation of the 
 world. He sees the end from the beginning, and calls 
 things which are not as though they were ; and his eye, 
 resting upon the sacrifice which his son was to offer, 
 could be satisfied with the sacrifices of the law no fur- 
 ther than as they were offered through faith in the 
 promise of his Son ; he would suffer their continuance 
 no longer than the time when the promise was fulfilled, 
 and the Son, assuming the body which was prepared, 
 put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 
 
 It is here important for us to inquire on what grounds 
 the efficacy, the exclusive efficacy of the sacrifice, 
 which Christ has oflTered for us, rests. It rests on the 
 dignity of his person, and consequent value of his 
 blood. In his person, the divine and human natures 
 are mysteriously united. "God is manifest in the 
 flesh." The human nature, which he derived through 
 
103 
 
 the virgin from our common father, identified him with 
 us as bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ; and ren- 
 dered him a proper substitute to bear the imputation 
 of our guilt, and the expression of divine displeasure 
 which it deserved ; while the Divinity imparted the 
 value and meritorious efficacy of divine perfection to 
 the sacrifice which he offered. If there be divine per- 
 fection in the sacrifice, then it follows, that nothing can 
 be wanting to it, — that nothing can be associated with 
 it, — that no limits can be put to the range or power of 
 its application, — that no conception of ours, — that no 
 conception of any finite mind, can comprehend all 
 which it is able to effect. The blood which has been 
 shed for the remission of sins, is the blood of Jesus 
 Christ, God's Son ; and to whatever character it be 
 applied, — in whatever country, — in whatever age of 
 the world, — in whatever multiplicity of cases, — it 
 cleanseth from all sin. It can do this under the Chris- 
 tian dispensation, and now that it is set before us in the 
 word of God, which may be hid in the heart, w ithout 
 the intervention of any outward rites whatever. The 
 eye of faith can look to the atoning sacrifice : the lip of 
 devotion can supplicate pardon on its account ; and 
 then the conscience, which was uneasy, feels tranquil- 
 lity, by the sprinkling of its blood ; the burden of guilt 
 falls off', and rolls away ; and the heart joys in God 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom it has receiv- 
 ed the atonement. This exercise is the habit of the 
 true Christian's life. In its production and preserva- 
 
104 
 
 tion, he is indebted to the written word, which he 
 reads ; to the preaching of the gospel which he hears ; 
 and to the institution of the supper, which he observes. 
 But then, no portion of the tranquillizing efficacy is in 
 them, but in the sacrifice to which they conduct him, 
 and to which, in their absence, as well as in their en- 
 joyment, he can repair. His conscience is easy, not 
 because he has gone through the forms of an appointed 
 ritual ; but because he has applied to Christ, who, in 
 the means of grace, has been set before him ; — because 
 he has cast the burden of his guilt upon him, and com- 
 mitted the keeping of his soul unto him. " The life 
 which he lives in the flesh" is, like that of the Apostle, 
 " by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him, and 
 gave [himself for him." Christ, in the power of his 
 cleasing blood, dwells, by faith, in his heart, the peren- 
 nial spring of peace nnd joy, — the hope of glory. 
 
 If restrictions exist in the actual enjoyment of the 
 advantages which are provided in the atonement, 
 those restrictions arise, not from any imperfection in 
 the sacrifice itself, but from the censurable inaptitude 
 of those who are, or who should be, the recipients of 
 its virtue. If limitation or fluctuation of peace and 
 joy is found, in the case of any individual who has by 
 faith received the atonement, it results from some re- 
 maining obscurity in his views of divine truth ; from 
 the contraction of his desires ; or from the restraint of 
 his prayers. In Christ we are not straitened, but in 
 ourselves. His kind and gentle reproof to us, as well 
 
105 
 
 as to his disciples of old, is, " Hitherto ye have asked 
 nothing in my name :" his command, — " Ask, and ye 
 shall receive, and your joy shall be full." If the be- 
 lieving reception of the atonement is partial only, 
 among those to whom it is proclaimed, the fault is to 
 be attributed to the perverseness of the human mind 
 on religious subjects, — its preference of error to truth, 
 — of darkness to light, — of the transitory and delusive 
 enjoyments of sense, to the spiritual blessings in heav- 
 enly places, which are in Christ Jesus, It may be 
 resolved into the reason declared by the Redeemer to 
 the Jews, as matter of deepest lamentation, " Ye will 
 not come unto me that ye might have life ;" and it 
 should, in every case, be met by the heart-stirring 
 question of the Apostle, " How shall ye escape, if ye 
 neglect so great salvation ?" If the world is but par- 
 tially enlightened with the knowledge of the fact, that 
 an atoning sacrifice has been offered for it, — a sufficient 
 reason may be assigned, in the want of enterprise, 
 zeal, and devotedness on the part of those whose duty 
 it has been to send abroad the proclamations of re- 
 deeming mercy. The churches which the Apostles 
 formed, before John, who survived his brethren, had 
 rested from his labours, had begun to cool in their first 
 love, and relax from their first works ; and having 
 neglected to spread the light, which they possessed, 
 around them, their own candlestick was at length re- 
 moved out of his place. The mass of those who, ia 
 what has been subsequently called the church, have 
 
106 
 
 worn orders of various degrees, and have presumed 
 themselves to be the legitimate successors of the Apos- 
 tles, have forgotten, what should have been the climax 
 of the proof, — the practical part of the demonstration. 
 It seems not to have occurred to them, that, if they 
 were indeed the successors of the Apostles, apostolic 
 duties became immediately and imperatively binding 
 upon them ; the duties of giving up all for Christ, and 
 carrying his gospel to the ends of the earth. Those 
 who did profess to tread in the steps of the Apostles 
 mistook both the object which they had in view, and 
 the means by which they sought its accomplishment. 
 They went, not so much to proclaim the unsearchable 
 riches of Christ to the heathen, as to extend the boun- 
 daries, and increase the influence and revenues, of a 
 secular church. Instead of carrying with them the 
 incorruptible seed of the word of God, to sow, and to 
 water, they tried to transplant the full-grown ritual of 
 the Roman church. The result was what might have 
 been expected. Instead of an abundant harvest, from 
 the germinating seed at length rewarding the labour 
 of the patient husbandman, and furnishing the store 
 for the perpetuation an J extension of the same living 
 power and ripening fruits ; — the tree, originally a para- 
 site itself, bore no fruit, and soon withered and died. 
 Protestant churches, in their struggle for emancipation 
 from antichristian oppression, almost overlooked the 
 condition of the heathen ; and in resting to enjoy the 
 peace which they had with difficulty obtained, lost 
 
107 
 
 much of their purity and vigour. They are but be- 
 ginning to awaken to a sense of their responsibihty, 
 and to a conviction of the fact, that their own vitality 
 can be sustained only as they are obedient to their 
 Master's command, in spreading his gospel through 
 the world. 
 
 It argues nothing against the perfection of the sun, 
 that there are many individuals in the world who un- 
 happily are blind, and incapable of receiving its light ; 
 — that there are many more who are foolish, who close 
 their eyes in unnatural slumbers, while its radiance is 
 'pouring around them, awake when its glories are de- 
 parting, trim their artificial lights, display the tinsel of 
 their borrowed plumage, and revel through the night, 
 until the sun again arises, rational men go forth to their 
 labours, and creatures, not gifted with reason, lay them 
 down in their dens ; — that, there are many extensive 
 and fertile tracts in the world which it illumines, where 
 there is no intelligent eye to enjoy and improve its 
 cheering and vivifying beams. The sun itself is un- 
 affected by these circumstances of earthly restriction 
 and human imperfection. Wherever there has been 
 an open eye to receive its light, from the first day of 
 its creation down to the present hour, it has poured it 
 freely and copiously around. If the human race, in 
 its successive generations, had been multiplied in their 
 numbers a hundred-fold, it could equally, and without 
 individual diminution, have illumined the whole. Its 
 fountain of radiance is still unexhausted, undiminished, 
 
 I 
 
108 
 
 undiminishable. We possess its light as clearly and 
 regularly as did our fathers, and so will our posterity, 
 in their remotest generations. It is the most perfect 
 of God's material works of which we have any knowl- 
 edge ; the most glorious in its appearance, unchanging 
 in its substance, diffusive in its influence, powerful and 
 beneficial in its operation. And yet, in the sun, there 
 is found only created and communicated perfection ; 
 in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, there is the perfec- 
 tion which is inherent and divine. In the fulness of 
 its meritorious efficacy, there is all which the church 
 or the world can want; a fulness which, in all its 
 generations, to whatever period they may be extended, 
 and to whatever numbers they may be multiplied, can 
 never be exhausted or diminished. Its glory, diffusive 
 like that of the sun, but infinitely more rich in the 
 value of the influence which it imparts, will at length 
 shine before all nations, will attract every eye, and 
 cheer every dwelling of mankind. Christ, as an aton- 
 ing sacrifice, has been lifted up upon the cross, and 
 the declaration must be fulfilled, that all men shall be 
 drawn unto him. God, with whom one day is as a 
 thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day, is 
 not slack concerning his promise, which he made to 
 Abraham, as some men count slackness. It has been 
 written with his finger ; it lives before him in his word ; 
 it is pleaded with him by his people ; it forms the basis 
 and warrant of their exertions ; the steady and unfail- 
 ing motive to their perseverance ; the assurance of 
 
109 
 
 their ultimate success ; the ground of their anticipated 
 triumph over selfishness, suspicion, reproach, slander, 
 and opposition, that in the seed of Abraham (which is 
 Christ) all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 
 To his one perfect sacrifice for sin, the eye of every 
 guilty descendant of Adam must at length be directed ; 
 on its efficacy every heart be taught exclusively to 
 rest ; for the pardon and full salvation which it freely 
 impai'ts, every tongue be tuned to melody and joy. 
 
 II 
 
SECTION III. 
 
 CHRIST THE ALL-SUFFICIENT PRIEST THE PREVALENCY 
 
 OF HIS INTERCESSION. 
 
 " And they truly were many Priests, because they 
 were not suffered to contmue by reason of death ; but 
 this, (that is, Christ,) because he continueth ever, hath 
 an unchangable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also 
 to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God 
 by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for 
 them."* 
 
 Now, as the sacrifice of Christ was prefigured daily 
 in the Jewish temple, by the offering of the lamb ; so 
 the intercession of Christ was prefigured with the 
 same frequency by the associated rite, the presenta- 
 tion by the priest of the smoking censer on the altar of 
 incense : " And thou shalt put it" (the altar of incense) 
 " before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony ; 
 before the mercy-seat, that is over the testimony, where 
 I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon 
 sweet incense every morning : when he dresseth the 
 lamps, he shall burn incense upon it ; and when Aaron 
 
 * Heb. vii. 23—25. 
 
Ill 
 
 lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon 
 it ; a perpetual incense before the Lord, throughout 
 your generations."* 
 
 In the blessing of Levi, therefore, Moses, the man 
 of God, said of his sons, " They shall put incense be- 
 fore thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar/'f 
 When solonion sent to the king of Tyre, for materials 
 for building the temple, he informed him, that it was 
 to be dedicated to God, to burn before him "sweet 
 incense," as well as the burnt-offering, morning and 
 evening. When Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, in the 
 war which was waged against him by the revolted 
 tribes, asserted the justice of his cause, he reminded 
 them, that on his side the priests, which ministered 
 unto the Lord, were the sons of Aaron, and that " they 
 burned unto the Lord, every morning and every even- 
 ing, burnt sacrifices and sweet incense."J And Luke 
 informs us, respecting Zacharias, that "while he exe- 
 cuted the priest's ofiice before God, in the order of 
 his course, according to the custom of the priest's 
 office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into 
 the temple of the Lord : and the whole multitude of 
 the people were praying without, at the time of in- 
 cense."§ 
 
 It will be remembered, in illustration of these asso- 
 ciated rites, (the bleeding, lamb and the priest present- 
 
 * Exod. XXX. 6 — 8. I Deut. xxxiii. 10. 
 
 I 2 Chron. xiii. 11. § Luke i. 8—10. 
 
112 
 
 ing the censer of incense), that when Noah came fortli 
 from the ark, and again took possession of the earth, 
 from which the deluge had swept every living thing 
 that had breathed upon it ; his first work was to build 
 an altar to the Lord. Of every clean beast, and of 
 every clean fowl, which had been preserved with him- 
 self and his family in the ark, he offered burnt offer- 
 ings upon the altar. And then, with the prospect of 
 man's renewed apostacy before him, and implying that 
 a sacrifice has power to avert a deserved curse, and 
 secure the perpetuation of undeserved blessings, it is 
 immediately added, " And the Lord smelled a sweet 
 savour ; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again 
 curse the ground any more for man's sake ; for " (be- 
 cause that) " the imagination of man's heart is evil from 
 his youth : neither will I again smite any more every 
 thing living, as I have done. While the earth remain- 
 eth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and sum- 
 mer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. 
 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto 
 them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the 
 earth."* 
 
 Now, to the Jews, for their own meditation and in- 
 struction, as well as that they might preserve it for fu- 
 ture ages, and ultimately for universal circulation, was 
 committed this portion of the oracles of God. And 
 when, while the lamb which had been slain before 
 
 * Gen. viii. 21. 22. ; ix. 1. 
 
113 
 
 them, was consuming upon their own altar, they saw 
 also the fragrant cloud of incense from the censer of 
 the priest ascend, and spread itself over the vail, which 
 concealed from the eye the glory of the Shechinah ; by 
 what they saw, and by the wide-spreading odour of 
 the incense which they inhaled, they must have been 
 reminded of the inspired declaration, that when Noah's 
 sacrifice was offered, " the Lord smelled a sweet sa- 
 vour." They had the testimony of their senses to the 
 fact, that with their sacrifice a sweet-smelling odour 
 was coming up before God whom they worshipped. 
 Here also they saw the way in which the punishment 
 which their own sins deserved (for there is no man 
 which sinneth not) was to be adverted, and the unde- 
 served blessings which they needed, were to be ob- 
 tained. It was, by the interposition between them 
 and God, of a lamb which had been slain ; and of a 
 priest, who was living to present the odour of the 
 sacrifice before him. Let it be remembered, that 
 these associated rites were repeated every morning 
 and every evening in the temple, at the hour when 
 the people assembled for prayer ; and that whether 
 the people were many or few ; — the company of those, 
 who like Anna were never absent from the temple at 
 the hour when its daily services were performed ; or 
 the more numerous assembly of those who dwelt with- 
 in a Sabbath-day's journey of the holy place, and con- 
 tented themselves with a weekly attendance on its 
 courts ; or the multitudes who came to it m the be- 
 II* 
 
114 
 
 ginnings of the months ; or the general concourse of 
 the nation three times in the year ; — still the continual 
 burnt offering was ever the same : one lamb for the 
 altar of burnt offering, and one priest with his censer 
 for the altar of incense. Neither the additional lambs 
 on the Sabbath, nor the bullocks and lambs in the be- 
 ginnings of their months, nor the multitudinous victims 
 at the festivals, w^ere ever to interfere with the simple 
 institution of the daily service, nor to alter its ciiarac- 
 ter; they were to be presented beside the continual 
 burnt-offering.* 
 
 And, as there was but one altar of either kind for 
 burnt offering or for incense, and from the latter but 
 one censer at a time sent up its fragrant perfume ; 
 where, we may ask, on the desecration of that altar, 
 and the rending of the veil before which it stood, is 
 the authority by which another altar of any descrip- 
 tion has been reared in any other place, or another 
 censer of incense any where enkindled to present be- 
 fore God ? The Jewish priests could not rear an al- 
 tar wherever they chose, nor enkindle the incense as 
 often as they pleased. God had confined them to one 
 place for their service, to one altar for their blirnt of- 
 ferings, to one altar for their incense, to one fire (the 
 fire which he himself had enkindled) in which to con- 
 sume their sacrifices ; to the tim^at which the incense 
 was to be enkindled, and the manner in which it was 
 
 * Vide Numb, ^xviii. 
 
115 
 
 to be presented. It was death to deviate from his ap- 
 pointment. Fire from his presence consumed the 
 men who engaged in unauthorised rites, or enkindled 
 the incense with any but sacred fire. How comes it 
 to pass, that altars may now be as numerous as places 
 of worship ? that they may stand side by side under 
 the same roof, reared to the Virgin, and to the saints, 
 as well as to the Creator ? that the sacrifice of the 
 mass can be offered as often as people like to pay for 
 it ? that instead of one lamb for many people, there 
 may be many masses for one person ? that the censer 
 of incense may be enkindled whenever the priest 
 chooses to officiate, and with whatever fire he likes to 
 employ ? We ask, why ? and by what authority all 
 this is done ? but no answer can be given more satis- 
 factory, than that which Aaron gave to Moses, when 
 he said, " I cast the gold into the fire, and there came 
 out this calf!"* 
 
 * No better authority is there for the altars of the Ro- 
 man-catholic church, than there was for that which Aaron 
 buiU before the golden calf; or that which Jeroboam built 
 at Bethel, and on which at length, in fulfilment of the in- 
 spired prediction, and as an expression of divine displeas- 
 ure against the innovation, the priests themselves, who had 
 burned incense upon it, were offered. If it be said, that 
 Gideon, and David, and Elijah, each one in his day, built 
 an altar, besides the one which God had appointed for the 
 people, it is answered, That neither of these were priests — 
 that each one of them had received a special commissioa 
 
116 
 
 It is only where ignorance of what Judaism actual- 
 ly was, prevails, that any religious system, assuming to 
 be analogous to it, can stand. Let the true features 
 of the Jewish hierarchy be once fully laid open to the 
 public eye ; and then, any other hierarchy which may 
 have been represented as bearing affinity to it, will be 
 compelled to withdraw its claims, and to have its pre- 
 
 frorn God, which superseded all ordinary rules — and that 
 the altar, which by each of them was built, was not for a 
 constant service for the people, but for a special and indi- 
 vidual occasion, in which was manifest the reason for de- 
 parting from ordinary rules. How jealous the generation 
 which Joshua led into Canaan was, against any innovation 
 on God's appointment, may be seen by referring to their 
 conduct, when they had heard that the two tribes and a 
 half, whose possessions were eastward of Jordan, had 
 built an altar like that which was at Shiloh. " The whole 
 congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves 
 together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them." And 
 nothing but the assurance that no intention was ever form- 
 ed of presenting a sacrifice upon it, — that the suspicion of 
 this having been intended was a grief to them, — that they 
 wished only to possess a standing and durable memorial 
 for their descendants of their right to attend the altar 
 which was in Shiloh ; could induce the tribes which were 
 in arms, to lay aside the intention which they had formed* 
 " to go up against them in battle, to destroy the land 
 wherein the children of Reuben and Gad dwelt." Josh- 
 ua xxii. 
 
117 
 
 tensions to relationship considered as a legend of the 
 olden time. In fact, nothing corresponding with Ju- 
 daism can again be established in our world. Its types 
 were types of things which are now in heaven, and 
 which cannot again be brought down to the earth. 
 They are embodied in the offices of Christ's priest- 
 hood, and can never again be required or allowed in 
 the services of men. The heavenly things themselves 
 are presented to our view, and the earthly things, 
 which were the patterns of them, as being no longer 
 necessary, and for ever withdrawn. Christ himself, 
 the Apostle tells us, were he on earth, would not be a 
 priest.* He was not a descendant of Aaron, and there- 
 fore could not legally officiate in the temple, in which 
 the Levitical priesthood offered gifts according to the 
 law. He ministers in the true tabernacle, which the 
 Lord pitched, and not man. He is entered " not into 
 the holy places made with hands, which are the figures 
 of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in 
 the presence of God for us."f There is now the 
 Shechinah of glory, pervading aud enlightening with 
 its radiance every part of the celestial temple ; there 
 is the mercy-seat, to which all nations are now invited 
 to come, and from which, for Gentiles as well as 
 Jews, the copious streams of pardon and salvation 
 flow ; there are the cherubim, not carved in beaten 
 gold, but living in the constant exercise of high intelli- 
 
 * Heb. viii- 4. f Heb. ix. 23. 
 
118 
 
 gence, of burning zeal, of reverential avre, and rever- 
 berating widely as the beams of the divine radiance 
 extend, the unceasing cry, " Holy ! holy ! holy ! is 
 the Lord of hosts !" and there, more glorious than 
 Aaron, with blood more precious, with purity more 
 spotless, with titles more numerous and dear to men ; 
 with many crowns upon his head, and the names of 
 his people upon his heart, has the great High Priest 
 of our profession entered, to minister for us. 
 
 By the new and living way which he has consecra- 
 ted for us, we have now spiritual access with boldness 
 into the holiest place of the heavenly sanctuary. We 
 are come, not to the terrors of JNIount Sinai, from 
 which the law was proclaimed, nor to the bondage of 
 the hills of antichristian Rome, on which the man of 
 sin has been enthroned ; but we are " come unto 
 Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the 
 heavenly Jerusalem ; and to an innumerable company 
 of angels ; to the general assembly and church of the 
 first-born which are written in heaven ; and to God 
 the Judge of all ; and to the spirits of just men made 
 perfect ; and to Jesus the mediator of the new cove- 
 nant ; and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh 
 better things than that of Abel."* We may be con- 
 nected by fraternal ties, with congregations of faith- 
 ful men, which constitute, as of old, the churches of 
 the respective localities in which we dwell ; but we 
 
 * Heb. xii. 22—24. 
 
119 
 
 affiliate only with the Jerusalem which is above, 
 which is free, and is the mother of us all. There he 
 officiates, " of whom the whole family in heaven and 
 earth is named," to secure the acceptance of the ser- 
 vices which we at present perform, and the ultimate 
 and joyful entrance of our disembodied spirits into 
 the splendour of its glories, the dignity of its fellow- 
 ship, the sanctity of its employments, and the consum- 
 mation of its bliss. 
 
 John, in one of the visions with which he was fa- 
 voured in the Isle of Patmos, saw him engaged in his 
 work. The symbols of the vision were taken from 
 the Jewish temple, and the title which he wore was one 
 of the many which he has associated with that of 
 priest : " And another angel came and stood at the al- 
 tar, having a golden censer : and there was given unto 
 him much incense, that he should offer it with the 
 prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was 
 before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, 
 which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up 
 before God, out of the angel's hand."* And, that to 
 his intercession the world is indebted, for every exemp- 
 tion which it enjoys from the plagues which its guilt de- 
 serves, as well as the saints, for the acceptance of their 
 prayers, is most impressively taught, by the verses 
 which follow : " And the angel took the censer, and 
 filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth : 
 
 * Rev. viii. 3, 4. 
 
120 
 
 and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, 
 and an earthquake. And the seven angels, which had 
 the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound. — 
 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and 
 fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the 
 earth : and the third part of trees was byrnt up, and 
 all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel 
 sounded, and as it were, a great mountain burning with 
 fire was cast into the sea ; and the third part of the 
 sea became blood ; and the third part of the creatures 
 which were in the sea, and had life, died ; and the third 
 part of the ships were destroyed. And the third an- 
 gel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, 
 burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part 
 of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters ; and 
 the name of the star is called wormwood : and the 
 third part of the waters became wormwood; and 
 many men died of the waters, because they were 
 made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the 
 third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of 
 the moon, and the third part of the stars ; so as the 
 tliird part of them was darkened, and the day shone 
 not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And 
 I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst 
 of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to 
 the inhabiters of the earth, by reason of the other 
 voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are 
 yet to sound."* 
 
 * Rev. viii. 5—13. 
 
121 
 
 The incense from the censer, rendered acceptable 
 as sweet smelHng odour the prayers of the saints. The 
 restriction of the intercession, emblemmatically repre- 
 sented by the casting of the censer to the earth, leaves 
 the curses of God's law free course to roll over the re- 
 gions of corruption and guilt. The censer of the priest 
 of the Christian church, like the rod of Moses, can 
 bring plagues upon the proud, as well as deliverance 
 for the captives, and blessings for the distressed. Like 
 the pillar, interposed between the flock of Israel and 
 the armed hosts of Pharaoh, it is brightness and safety 
 to the former ; it is blackness and dismay to the latter. 
 
 The casting of the censer, which belongs to the Sa- 
 viour's priestly office, to the earth, clearly indicates, 
 that it was on account of ecclesiastical corruptions 
 among those for whom it would otherwise have been 
 presented, that the plagues which followed were in- 
 flicted. The plagues which followed the opening of 
 the seals, which are described in the sixth chaper, fell 
 upon the Roman empire when it was a persecuting 
 pagan power ; those which we have quoted, and which 
 followed the trumpets, after the empire became Chris- 
 tian.* That the pagan empire, in which Christianity 
 
 * " As the seals foretold the state and condition of the 
 Roman empire before and till it became christian, so the 
 trumpets foreshevv the fate and condition of it afterwards. 
 ' The sound of the trumpet,' as Jeremiah says, and as every 
 one understands it, ' is the alarm of war,' and the sounding 
 of these trumpets is designed to rouse and excite the na- 
 12 
 
122 
 
 had been so repeatedly persecuted, should have been 
 visited with expressions of divine displeasure, can ex- 
 cite no surprise ; but, that the Roman empire chris- 
 tianized, v^ith Christianity for the first time establish- 
 ed and endoM^ed, instead of enjoying, as uninspired 
 men would have predicted, an unmingled cup of pros- 
 perity, should have the prophetic page of its history 
 illumined with not one cheering ray of promise ; re- 
 lieved by not one Hue of relenting pity ; but, like Eze- 
 kiel's scroll, written within and without, only with 
 lamentation, mourning and woe ; — that its woes should 
 be more unmingled, and in more unbroken succession, 
 than the prophetic page of its pagan history contained, 
 does induce us with astonishment to ask, How can this 
 be ! The only answer which can be given is, that 
 Christianity, as it appeared before the eye of the world, 
 in the character and ceremonial observances of the 
 mass of its professors, was no longer that which Christ 
 had originally made it ; was no longer that which in 
 his government of the earth he would own ; was no 
 longer that for which, in his priestly office, he would 
 intercede. Those who composed what was called the 
 church, had made or chosen other priests besides him, 
 and were inhaling the perfume of censers, which he 
 
 lions against the Roman empire, called a third part of the 
 world, as perhaps including the third part of the world, and 
 being seated principally in Europe, the third part of the 
 world at that time." — Bishop Newton on the. Prophecies. 
 
123 
 
 had never authorized. He cast his own, whose efficacy 
 was disregarded, filled with the fire of indignation, 
 amongst them ; and awful voices followed, and thun- 
 ders rolled, and lightnings flashed, and earthquakes in- 
 spired their terror, and plagues spread their desolation 
 around, and sounds of Woe ! woe ! woe ! by reason of 
 the voices of the trumpets, were heard. 
 
 There are no sins which God visits with heavier 
 judgments, than he does the sins of those who corrupt 
 the institutions of his worship ; because there are no 
 sins, which, in their consequences, inflict such injury 
 upon mankind. When Nadab and Abihu, the sons of 
 Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire 
 therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange 
 fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not, 
 there went fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and 
 they died before the Lord. When Korah, Dathan, 
 and Abiram, with the two hundred and fifty princes of 
 the people, rose up before Moses, and murmured on 
 account of the sacerdotal pre-eminence which Aaron 
 possessed, and wished to usurp the priesthood which 
 had been given exclusively to him, they and their ad- 
 herents miserably perished. The two hundred and 
 fifty leaders of the usurpation were allowed to take 
 the censers in their hand, but the experiment which 
 they made in an unauthorized office, was fearful and 
 ruinous, both to themselves and their adherents ; — their 
 adherents were swallowed up in an earthquake, and 
 they themselves were consumed by fire. " And it 
 
124 
 
 came to pass as he (Moses) had made an end of speak- 
 ing all these words, that the ground clave asunder that 
 was under them ; and the earth opened her mouth, and 
 swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men 
 that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods ; they, 
 and all that appertained to them, went down alive into 
 the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they per- 
 ished from among the congregation. And all Israel 
 that were round about them fled at the cry of them ; 
 for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. And 
 there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed 
 the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense."* 
 The brass of which their censers were made, was af- 
 terwards, by divine command, converted into broad 
 plates for a covering to the altar, to be a sign bef-^re the 
 children of Israel, a memorial to them, " that n. .ran- 
 ger wnich is not of the seed of Aaron come near to of- 
 fer incense before the Lord ; that he be not as Korah 
 and as his company."f 
 
 If those, who have taken upon themselves the office 
 in the Christian church to which Christ only has been 
 appointed by the Father, who burn incense without 
 any authority from God, who kindle it with fire which 
 never came from heaven, nor ever flamed on any altar 
 which the Scriptures warrant, were well to consider 
 this memorial, it would teach them a very difl^erent 
 application of the passages which we have quoted, 
 
 * Numb. xvi. 31—35. f Numb. xvi. 40. 
 
125 
 
 from those which they are accustomed to make. 
 They would see that the correspondence of the cases 
 most closely and ominously affects themselves; and 
 that there is reason for serious apprehension, on ac- 
 count of the antichristian nature of the office which 
 they have sustained, and the work which they have 
 discharged. 
 
 The memorial of the Old Testament church should 
 also be connected with that, scarcely less obvious and 
 impressive, which has been presented in the New, — 
 the scourges of every name which repeatedly deso- 
 lated the Christian Roman empire, and which have 
 embodied in admonitory facts the prophetic outUne of 
 its woes. How many times have the places, which 
 men calling themselves Christian priests, pretended,' 
 by unauthorized rites, to consecrate, been palpably 
 desecrated before the world, and trodden down by the 
 foot of barbarian rudeness, and Mahomedan scorn ! 
 How often have the altars, on which incense uncom- 
 manded smoked, been overturned, and stained with 
 the blood of those who ministered before them ! How 
 has the eastern part of the Roman empire, on which 
 the woes of the fifth and sixth trumpets more espe- 
 cially fell, and w^hich once comprised the provinces 
 most illustrious and flourishing, been desolated, de- 
 populated, and politically and morally debased ! There 
 Christianity first spread and flourished, and was first 
 corrupted; and there the scourge of the false prophet 
 has been most frequently and fearfully applied. Next 
 12* 
 
126 
 
 to the sufferings of the Jews, who deprecated all share 
 in the work of the Priest of the Christian Church, and 
 exclaimed, " His blood be upon us and our children," 
 have been the sufferings of the Christians who disre- 
 garded his work, and trusted to the priesthood which 
 men had usurped. That which was spoken of old to 
 degenerate Israel, has been illustrated and fulfilled in 
 degenerate Christendom : " Behold, all ye that kindle 
 a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks; 
 walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye 
 have kindled ; this shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall 
 lie down in sorrow," 
 
 The people and the priesthood of the western re- 
 gions of Christianity, while they contemplate the me- 
 morial which is presented for their consideration in 
 the east, should remember, that the prophetic woes of 
 the seventh trumpet are not yet exhausted. They are 
 commensurate with the existence of corruption in the 
 church, and they hang with direful portent over the 
 seat and focus of corruption — the mystic Babylon. In 
 the days of the voice of the seventh angel, the mystery 
 of God is to be finished ; corruptions are to be exposed, 
 and punished, and cleared away from the church ; and 
 then the world to be uni /crsally blessed. 
 
 If, however, against those who turn aside from the 
 work of Christ, to trust to the inventions of men, the 
 fire of the disregarded censer burns with indignation, 
 the truth remains inviolable and unchanging, that he is 
 able to save them to the uttermost, who come unto 
 
127 
 
 God by him ; because for them he ever liveth to make 
 intercession. Such there have been in every period 
 of the Christian degeneracy, preserved, hke the seven 
 thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal, in the 
 period of Jewish degeneracy. They may have been 
 so obscure, retired, or scattered, as to have escaped 
 the attention of the seducing Jezebel of the Christian 
 church ; or their names may have been cast out by 
 her as evil, and handed down to posterity with epithets 
 of reproach ; or they may have been sometimes the 
 victims of her cruelty and rage. They have however 
 formed the true church, against which the gates of 
 hell have never prevailed. Their principles have been 
 preserved, professed, and perpetuated. They are now 
 proclaimed, and rapidly spreading through the world. 
 There is a daily augmenting number, who, notwith- 
 standing the minor and non-essential differences which 
 prevail among them in ritual and forms, yet approxi- 
 mate in heat, and enjoy the unity of spirit, while they 
 hold with firm and unshaken hand the cardinal truths 
 which the Apostles taught ; that there is but one God, 
 and one Mediator between God and man, the man 
 Christ Jesus ; that only by the baptismal power of his 
 Spirit applying to the conscience the virtue of atoning 
 blood, can they enjoy the pardon of sin ; that only by 
 the prevalence of his intercession can they obtain ac- 
 ceptance with God, and enjoy the light of his favour. 
 They have access through Christ, as their only priest, 
 by one Spirit, unto God, as their Father. They are 
 
128 
 
 built, not upon the foundation of any hierarchy of hu- 
 m£ui construction, but upon the foundation of the Apos- 
 tles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
 corner-stone. The incense from his censer is still 
 presented with the prayers of all saints ; and there 
 are four circumstances in the character and work of 
 the Priest through whom they are presented, which 
 combine to secure the acceptance of the prayers, and 
 the salvation of those by whom they are offered. 
 
 I. The Priest who intercedes, is the perfect represen- 
 tative of all those who come to God by him. 
 
 When the Jewish high priest entered once a year 
 into the holiest place of the temple, with the blood of 
 atonement, and the censer of incense ; he wore upon 
 his ephod the breast-plate, on which was engraved the 
 names respectively of all the tribes of Israel. He 
 appeared before God, therefore, as the representative 
 of the whole of the people. He sprinkled upon and 
 before the mercy-seat the blood which had been shed 
 to atone for the whole, and presented the incense on 
 behalf of the whole. But, while he went within the 
 vail, as the representative of the whole of the people, 
 the supposition, that there was any merit in himself, or 
 in any of his family, was carefully excluded, by the 
 appointment of a sin offering, the blood of which was 
 to be shed and sprinkled for himself and for his house, 
 before he engaged on the part of the people. The 
 
129 
 
 supposition, that any merit could ever be possessed by 
 any of his race, which could avail either for themselves, 
 or for the people on whose behalf they officiated, was 
 precluded, by the appointment of the sin oifering for 
 the priest and his house being as perpetual and indis- 
 pensable as that for the people. The altar also, to 
 which the priests only could approach, was to be 
 "cleansed and hallowed from uncleanness," by the 
 sprinkling of the blood upon it ; to teach, that so far 
 from the priests conveying any meritorious efficacy to 
 the people, by the services which they discharged for 
 them, those services themselves were accompanied 
 with defiling imperfections, which nothing but atoning 
 blood could cleanse away. " But such an High Priest 
 became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separated 
 from sinners, and made higher than the heavens ; who 
 ncedeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up 
 sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the peo- 
 ple's : for this he did once, when he offered up him- 
 self For the law maketh men high priests which have 
 infirmity ; but the word of the oath, which was since 
 the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated (perfect- 
 ed for his work) for evermore."* 
 
 He was perfected for the work of his intercession, 
 as for his oblation, by the union of the divine and hu- 
 man natures in his person. The latter identified him 
 with us in every thing but our defilement, which is 
 
 * Heb. vii. 26—28, 
 
130 
 
 hateful to God ; the former not only gives him access 
 to the Father for us, but also agreement in purpose and 
 will with him, in reference to every blessing which is 
 to be bestowed upon us. On the humanity, unblem- 
 ished and spotless, the eye of the Father rests ; and 
 ever since the Son assumed it, has rested with entire 
 complacence ; in the union of the two natures, he sees 
 the provision of his own unfathomable wisdom and 
 grace, for the combined advancement of our interests 
 and his own glory ; while moreover, the body in which 
 the Redeemer pleads for us, is the body in which, by 
 the Father's provision and appointment, he made the 
 atoning sacrifice for us upon the cross. 
 
 David was well represented at the court of Saul, 
 for the king's son was his mediator and friend ; and 
 whatever Jonathan could accomplish, David might 
 with confidence expect. The sons of Jacob were well 
 represented at the court of Pharaoh, for next to him 
 in the kingdom, and the dispenser of its treasures, was 
 Joseph their brother, who considered his own eleva- 
 tion as the special arrangement of Providence for their 
 preservation and supply. These cases, however, in 
 their combination, but inadequately illustrate the per- 
 fection of the mode, in which the Redeemer represents 
 the members of his church in heaven. The love which 
 he exercises towards them, infinitely exceeds, in dis- 
 interestedness and strength, that which Jonathan dis- 
 played towards David ; it induced him, " though he 
 was rich, for their sakes to become poor, that they, 
 
131 
 
 through his poverty, might be made rich." As their 
 friend, he laid down his life for them ; and notwith- 
 standing their frailty, destitution, and ingratitude, hav- 
 ing assumed their nature, he is not ashamed to call 
 them his brethren. His elevation in their nature, re- 
 gards, as its first and special object, a provision for 
 their supply and security ; and for this purpose it hath 
 pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell. 
 The Father, with whom, and by whose appointment 
 he intercedes, regards both his person and his work 
 with love, such as can dwell only in him who is the 
 fountain of love, and can never be comprehended by 
 those who only receive and communicate from the 
 stream. By the work which he performs for us, the 
 most profound princples of his Father's government 
 are developed in brightness and glory, for the contem- 
 plation and admiration of the intelligent universe ; and 
 the dearest, because the most gracious purposes of his 
 heart, receive their accomplishment. In his person, 
 there is the concentration of all divine perfections, 
 with all created excellence. Through him, God mani- 
 fests himself to his creatures, links himself with them, 
 and pours the richest streams of blessings for their en- 
 joyment. But for his atonement and intercession; 
 his spotless sacrifice, purposed or actually offered ; his 
 fragrant censer, anticipated or actually presenting, — 
 no favour could have been shown to any of our guilty 
 race, in any age of the world. The prophetic, or re- 
 trospective history, of every descending and diverging 
 
132 
 
 family and tribe of fallen Adam, could have been writ- 
 ten only in lamentation, and mourning, and woe. No 
 covenant of peace with the earth, or with man upon 
 it, could have been made. No altar, with its bleeding 
 victim, showing to the guilty how mercy might be ob- 
 tained, could have been reared upon the ground, which, 
 for man's sin, was accursed. No preacher of right- 
 eousness could have called the wicked to forsake his 
 way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and to 
 return to the Lord, who would have mercy upon him, 
 and to God, who would abundantly pardon. No tab- 
 ernacle of worship could have been constructed, no 
 priest could have been consecrated, to show by sig- 
 nificant emblems, how the guilt of sin would at length 
 be removed, and a way be opened into the secret 
 place of communion with the Most High. No bright 
 and cheering ray of prophetic promise could have dis- 
 pelled the gloom of captivity and sorrow, by opening 
 to the eye the dawn of a better and a brighter day. 
 No angelic choir could have visited the plains of Beth- 
 lehem with glad tidings of great joy ; and have ravish- 
 ed the listening ear with the harmony of celestial 
 music, to the song, " Glory to God in the highest, and 
 on earth peace, and good will towards men." No 
 ministry of reconciliation could have caught the sub- 
 stance and the spirit of the song, and have made, as 
 Judea with the trumpet of the jubilee, the wide earth 
 to reverberate, and become joyful with the sound. No 
 bright prospect of millennial peace, and liberty, and 
 
133 
 
 glory, could have been spread before the eye, to re- 
 lieve the heart which is burdened on account of the 
 follies and the vices, the yoke of civil tyranny, and 
 galling slavery, and gloomy superstition, and foul and 
 bloody idolatry, under which the mass of the human 
 race are still bowed down, and fettered, and oppressed. 
 No foretaste of joy unspeakable, could have cheered 
 under wasting labour, and unmerited reproach. No 
 anticipation of the public vindication and glory of the 
 resurrection morn, could have rendered joyful and 
 triumphant the hour of nature's dissolution, and the 
 surrender of the body to the darkness and corruption 
 of the grave. For every sweet ingredient in the daily 
 cup of life ; for everj' source of consolation and hope 
 in the hour of death; for every thing which can con- 
 spire to render immortality an object of desire ; a life 
 of glory, unclouded in its brightness, as well as unlim- 
 itable in its duration ; we are indebted to the oblation 
 and the intercession of our great High Priest. Blessed 
 are they, who, emancipated from the fetters of sensual 
 and superstitious bondage, have entered, by the new 
 and living way which Christ has opened, into the holiest 
 of all ; " who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the 
 hope set before us ; which hope we have as an anchor 
 of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth 
 into that within the vail ; whither the forerunner is for 
 us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever 
 after the order of Melchisedec." Let the proclama- 
 tion of spiritual liberty go forth, and all the dwellers 
 
 13 
 
134 
 
 upon earth arise, accept the freedom which the gospel 
 gives ; and, walking in the truth, have fellowship with 
 God by him, who represents their nature in his pres- 
 ence, and ever lives, the interceding Priest, and pow- 
 erful Advocate, of all who seek salvation in his name. 
 
 II. The Priest who intercedes, "perfectly compre- 
 hends the wants of all those who come to God by him. 
 
 When the High Priest went into the holiest place of 
 the temple, as the representative of the Jewish people, 
 besides the moral imperfection which attached to him, 
 arising from the inherent defilement of his nature, and 
 which required the blood of a sin offering to remove ; 
 there was also a natural imperfection, arising from the 
 limitation pf human powers and faculties, and which 
 rendered his service rather an emblematic, than an 
 actual representation of the people before God. On 
 the breastplate which he wore, there was room only 
 for the collective designations of the tribes, not for the 
 multitudinous names of the individuals, which in the 
 respective tribes were included ; and in the compre- 
 hension of his mind and heart, there was room only 
 for the general and public concerns of the multitude ; 
 not for the personal and private affairs of the individu- 
 als of which the multitude was composed. 
 
 Now, whoevever would adequately and perfectly 
 represent others before the eye of the omniscient God, 
 must see and understand their cases respectively, as 
 
135 
 
 they are seen and understood hy him ; must compre- 
 hend the whole of their circumstances, interests and 
 wants, in all the multiplicity of their bearings, and the 
 magnitude of their entire combination. This howev- 
 er no mere man can do, in reference to any others of 
 his fellow-men. He is not competent to its perform- 
 ance, were it required but for one individual ; and were 
 that the individual with whom he is most intimately 
 acquainted, in whose welfare he is most deeply inter- 
 ested, and whose character he has most constantly 
 studied. No man can know the heart of another as 
 God does ; can comprehend the whole case and inter- 
 ests of a creature which is born in sin, which stains 
 every day of its life with transgression, which is ac- 
 countable to a righteous tribunal, and is the responsi- 
 ble heir of an immortal existence. No man indeed 
 perfectly knows himself, all the aspects of his charac- 
 ter, all the bearings of his interests, all the accumula- 
 tion of his wants, as they appear before God. 
 
 In this view of the case, how imperfect must have 
 been Aaron's representation of the Jewish people ! 
 The mass of those who assembled on the day of 
 atonement, in the dense and multitudinous concourse, 
 could have but an imperfect view of the person of their 
 priest, and of the rites which in their presence he dis- 
 charged. And when his eye looked around upon the 
 people, it was but a general impression of their multi- 
 tude which he could receive, and but a feeble concep- 
 tion of their collected wants which he could form.— 
 
136 
 
 How many the countenances to him entirely unknown ! 
 How many the names of which he had never heard ! 
 How multifarious the personal and domestic circum- 
 stances to which he was a total stranger ! It must be 
 evident, therefore, that as there was no merit in his 
 personal character, to avail any thing for the people ; 
 so neither could there be efficacy in his official work. 
 He could not carry the names, he did not know the 
 persons ; much less could he comprehend the diversi- 
 fied circumstances and wants of the people, in their 
 individual capacity, when he went for them before 
 God. His representation was figurative, not actual 
 and efficacious. It availed for the people, only as they 
 rose from the type to the promised antitype, and de- 
 rived and enjoyed the anticipated virtue of his more 
 perfect work. 
 
 If Aaron could but figuratively represent the peo- 
 ple, who could assemble in one place, who spoke one 
 language, whom in their congregated mass his eye 
 could survey; how are the difficulties o{ actual repre- 
 sentation multiplied, when the persons to be represent- 
 ed are scattered over the face of the earth ; are infi- 
 nitely diversified in their language, their national dis- 
 tinctions, their social, domestic, and personal circum- 
 stances ! It is evident, that no human or angelic pow- 
 ers can be competent to the work. The human mind 
 is bewildered at the very threshold of the subject, and 
 labours in vain to stretch its thoughts over the extent 
 of the scene which must be surveyed ; and to rise to 
 
137 
 
 a conception of what his powers must be, by whom 
 the work can be efficiently performed. It comes how- 
 ever to the conclusion that he must be omniscient and 
 divine, who can intelligently undertake it ; and when 
 satisfied that this is the case with the Priest of the 
 Christian church, we rest assured, that his work, though 
 to us unsearchable, must be perfectly discharged. We 
 have the testimony of the Scripture to the fact, that 
 he is omniscient and divine : " In the beginning was 
 the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
 Word was God."* " His eyes are as a flame of fire ;"f 
 and his own declaration is, " All the churches shall 
 know that I am he which searchest the reins and 
 hearts."J " Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of 
 all men,"§ was the language in which his assembled 
 Apostles, reverently adoring the omniscience of his 
 character, addressed their prayer to him. To omnis- 
 cience there can be no confusion, no difficulty, no la- 
 bour in the work ; nor could be, even though there 
 were as many millions to be represented at one time, 
 as there are individuals. In his divine perfection, the 
 priest who intercedes for us, surveys the whole of those 
 who come to God by him ; reads their hearts, as well 
 as listens to the prayers of their lips ; comprehends the 
 character and the minutest circumstances of each indi- 
 vidual of the immense but widely scattered multitude, 
 and embodies the aggregate of the whole in one act of 
 
 * John i. 1. -j- Rev. i. 14. 
 
 J Rev. ii. 23. § Acts i. 24. 
 
 13* 
 
138 
 
 representation, as easily and perfectly as though it was 
 but the case of one individual only, who required and 
 enjoyed his exclusive attention and regard. 
 
 But then omniscience belongs only to him ; and this 
 statement, which is so obvious as to require no proof, 
 at once supersedes the pretensions that are put forth, 
 on behalf of the celestial patrons and intercessors, on 
 which the members of the Roman-catholic church are 
 accustomed to call. Which of these, supposing them 
 all to be in heaven, (a case more than doubtful in ref- 
 erence to many who are in the calendar of saints,) 
 have power to look down upon the earth, or liberty to 
 visit it whenever they please ; — have eyes, with which 
 they can look into the human heart ; — or ears, into 
 which they can receive the sounds of the human voice ; 
 —or faculties, by which, without distraction, they can 
 attend to the respective cases of hundreds or thou- 
 sands, who, from different parts of the earth and the 
 sea, may be calling upon them for succour, at the same 
 period of time? Until these questions can be satis- 
 factorily answered, and their commission to intercede 
 for us, can be shown in some better authenticated, and 
 more authoritative document than the pages of the Ro- 
 man calendar, we must be content with one Mediator, 
 the man Christ Jesus ; and rejoice in the assurance, 
 that to his omniscient eye our whole case lies open, 
 and in his exclusive appointment by the Father, all the 
 wants which it can include have been contemplated, 
 and for them full provision made. 
 
139 
 
 III. The Priest who intercedes, kindly sympathises 
 in the infirmities of all those who come to God by him. 
 
 If the Jewish high priest could not comprehend the 
 wants and circumstances of the people individually 
 whom he represented, much less could he become ac- 
 quainted with the various emotions of their hearts, and 
 sympathise in all the diversity of their feelings. He 
 was indeed liable to mistake, in the individual cases 
 which came occasionally before him, as well as to the 
 indifference towards others, which is too common to 
 our degenerate and selfish nature. Thus Eli mistook 
 the case of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, and at- 
 tributed to excess of wine the movement of her lips, 
 w'hich was produced by the sorrows of her heart. — 
 Comparatively few are the individuals who know how 
 to speak a word in season to them that are weary, and 
 soothe, by the exercise of sympathy, the heart which 
 is suffering and oppressed. How much were the sor- 
 rows of Job aggravated, by the well intended, but un- 
 skilful addresses of the three friends, who came to 
 mourn with him, and to comfort him. Susceptibility 
 of feeling, experience of sorrow, acquaintance with 
 our nature, in all the variety of its constitutional ten- 
 dencies, — gentleness, patience, wisdom to select the 
 time, and modify the manner, of pouring the balm into 
 the wound, and binding up the- broken heart, — are all 
 necessary to him, whose work it is to comfort them 
 that mourn. 
 
140 
 
 Now these qualifications were displayed in their 
 most perfect combination, by him who is the High 
 Priest of the Christian church, during the period of 
 his manifestation in the flesh. It was predicted of 
 him, that he should not " break the bruised reed, nor 
 quench the smoking flax ;" that he should " bind up 
 the broken-hearted ;" that he should "proclaim liber- 
 ty to the captives ;" that he should " give to them that 
 mourn, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning^ 
 the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." He 
 opened his commission at Nazareth, by quoting the 
 prediction, and extorting from unwilling witnesses the 
 testimony, that it was fulfilled by the gracious words 
 which proceeded out of his mouth. He commenced 
 his sermon to the multitude upon the mount, with 
 words more sweet and soothing to the troubled heart, 
 than were the tones of David's harp, which could 
 smooth the rugged brow of Saul, and calm the tu- 
 multuous passions of his breast. His gracious con- 
 cern for us, under the burdens which we are called to 
 bear, and his commendation of himself to our confi- 
 dence, were expressed in the invitation which he 
 gave : " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke 
 upon you ; and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly 
 in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls." 
 
 In the sympathetic features of his character, he 
 was fairer than the children of men, and therefore full 
 of grace were his lips. His humanity was formed, not 
 
141 
 
 in the coarse and imperfect mould from which is pro- 
 duced our degenerate frame ; but in the rejfined and 
 perfect mould from which was produced the exalted 
 manhood of him, into whom God breathed the breath 
 of life. Sin had not impaired the delicate and sensi- 
 tive perceptions of his nature, had not chilled the 
 fountain of its feelings, nor contracted the channels 
 through which the warm current of the affections flow. 
 No letter of the law of love was wanting, or obscure- 
 ly written upon the fleshly table of his heart ; no 
 expression of its exercise can be required, which was 
 not found in his life ; no illustration of its power can 
 equal, can compare, with that which he displayed in 
 his death. Humanity constituted like his, was prompt 
 to feel the woes of others. The sympathetic strings 
 were constantly attuned and tremulously sensitive. 
 They vibrated at every sigh of the sorrowful spirit, 
 and responded, full and deep, to every sound of hu- 
 man woe. There was, indeed, something approach- 
 ing to identity of feeling with every subject of disease 
 and sorrow which his eye beheld. He took the infir- 
 mities, and bare the sicknesses of those who were 
 brought before him to be healed, by sympathy with 
 the sufferers in his humanity, before he exerted the 
 power of his divinity for their relief. 
 
 That this was the sense in which the disciples ap- 
 plied to him the passage from Isaiah's prophecies, is 
 evident, from the connexion in which it stands, with 
 what must have been one of the most interesting and 
 
142 
 
 impressive scenes of the Saviour's life. He had 
 taught in the synagogue of Capernaum, and, in the 
 presence of the congregation, had released from his 
 unhappy bondage a man who had been oppressed by 
 the devil. He had retired from the synagogue to the 
 house of Peter, and there had restored Peter's wife's 
 mother from a fever. The fame of the miracles 
 spreads abroad, and so soon as the sun was sitting, 
 and, according to their notions of the sanctity of the 
 sabbath, it was lawful for them to carry the sick from 
 their dwellings, " all they that had any sick with di- 
 vers diseases, brought them unto him."* So deep 
 and general was the interest which had been excited 
 by the miracles which had been performed in the ear- 
 lier part of the day ; so sanguine the anticipations that 
 were indulged of the result of bringing all the sick 
 which the place contained to him ; and so universal 
 the desire to see what he would do for them, " that all 
 the city was gathered together, at the door."'\ Nor 
 were the expectations which had been formed disap- 
 pointed. " He laid his hands upon every one of the 
 sick, and healed them." 
 
 The number of the sick, their cases respectively, 
 the circumstances connected with any of them, are 
 not related ; and therefore, our impressions of this 
 most extraordinary scene are exceedingly vague and 
 inadequate. Perhaps a more legitimate or interesting 
 
 * Luke iv. 40. f Mark i. 33. 
 
143 
 
 subject for the pencil, is no where to be found in the 
 Saviour's history, than is presented in this passage. 
 But he must be a master in his art, whose imagina- 
 tion, feehng, judgment, and taste, could supply all 
 which is comprehended in the two verses of the 
 Evangelist ; " When the even was come, they brought 
 unto him many that were possessed with devils : and 
 he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all 
 that were sick : that it might be fulfilled which was 
 spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took 
 our infirmities and hare our sicknesses"* Minds of 
 ordinary power must be content to receive their illus- 
 tration of the manner in which the Redeemer, by the 
 tenderness his sympathy, identified his feelings with 
 those of the distressed, from individual cases, in the 
 relation of which some of the circumstances are sup- 
 plied. And what can be required more perfect, than 
 is to be found in the simple recital of the compassion 
 which he exercised towards the widow of Nain, and 
 the tears which he shed at the grave of Lazarus ! 
 There must be something very deficient in the heart 
 of that individual, who can surrender himself to the 
 guidance of the disciple whom Jesus loved, and ap- 
 proach the grave of Lazarus, without being disposed 
 to weep also. 
 
 As the constitution of our Redeemer's humanity ren- 
 dered him more susceptible than we can be, to the suf- 
 
 * Matt. viii. 16, 17. 
 
144 
 
 ferings of others ; so it gave a pungency proportiona- 
 bly great, to the sorrows which were peculiarly his 
 own. The fortitude of superior minds under unmer- 
 ited reproach, does not result from hardihood of feel- 
 ing ; that is the unenvied privilege of the leader of the 
 mob, who addresses himself to the worst passions of 
 our nature, because they are the most easily excited ; 
 whose work is defamation, and who has no character 
 of his own to lose. In a virtuous mind, fortitude un- 
 der calumny and injustice is the result of principle, 
 struggling against feelings, which are acute and sensi- 
 tive, and deeply seated in the soul. The struggle is 
 always painful, and, if in public, the consciousness of 
 rectitude supports, and the brow is consequently tran- 
 quil, and the countenance serene ; yet in secrecy, the 
 power of feeling prevails, and the eye poureth forth 
 tears unto God. The struggle is sometimes too vio- 
 lent for the fragile frame in which it takes place, and 
 the most redeeming specimens of our fallen nature are 
 shattered and broken by its force. Those who know 
 what this struggle means, may be soothed by the as- 
 surance, that in it the Redeemer can sympathize, be- 
 cause, through the severest conflict he himself has 
 gone. They w'ill see the reason why such sombre 
 hues were thrown upon the path which he trod, and 
 which gradually deepened in their shade, till they 
 closed in total darkness around the mount on which he 
 bowed his head and died. They will see *why the 
 prophet, sketching the more prominent features of 
 
145 
 
 his character, describes him as " a man of sorrows, 
 and acquainted with grief." They will see why the 
 prayers and suppHcations of his more retired devo- 
 tions were offered up " with strong crying and tears." 
 If, in proportion as one has suffered himseff, he 
 knows how to soothe and succour others who are in 
 distress ; then, to no one can we turn for sympathy and 
 succour with such confidence, as to him who is, above 
 all others, " a brother born for adversity." No where 
 can there be found a history to compare with Iiis. In- 
 nocence, purity, benevolence, gentleness, kindness, in 
 their perfect combination, and constant exercise, daily 
 encountering rudeness, privation, suspicion, reproach, 
 calumny, malignity, treachery : and, at length, tram- 
 pled to the dust by infuriated cruelty, and ignominious 
 scorn. Never was there a heart like his, to feel ; and, 
 therefore, never could there be a tongue like his, to 
 comfort and console. Pungent, diversified, and accumu- 
 lated, though his own sorrows were ; by them he would 
 not allow himself to be absorbed, nor diverted from 
 his course of mercy. They rather formed part of his 
 qualification for his work, and furnished motives for its 
 diligent discharge. He went about doing good, preach- 
 ing the Gospel to the poor, and healing all manner of 
 sickness, and all manner of disease among the people. 
 Nor, when the last and bitterest cup of suffering was 
 just about to be presented to his tremulous lips, could 
 he be unmindful of those who had been with him in 
 his previous temptations. His last discourse to them, 
 14 
 
146 
 
 as it was the most full, so was it also the most consola- 
 tory, he had ever delivered. The deep pensiveness, 
 which preceded the unutterable anguish of his soul, dis- 
 played and relieved itself in the tender pathos of his 
 valedictory address. With what tones of feeling must 
 many of the passages of that address have been deliv- 
 ered ! How they must have penetrated and thrilled 
 through the breasts of those into whose ears they were 
 poured ! Their distant vibrations have still power to 
 subdue, and melt the soul. The undecaying words of 
 the most precious legacy which ever was bequeathed, 
 are still often read vvith tearful eyes, and strong emo- 
 tion of heart : " Peace I leave with you ; my peace I 
 give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto 
 you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be 
 afraid."* 
 
 Now it must be remembered, that one of the objects 
 which were to be accomplished by the Saviour's suf- 
 ferings on earth, was to prepare him for entering on 
 the work, which, as Intercessor, he now discharges in 
 heaven : " For it became him, for whom are all things, 
 and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons un- 
 to glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect 
 through sufferings."! " In all things it behoved him to 
 be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a mer- 
 ciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to 
 God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 
 
 * John xiv. 27. j Heb. ii. 10. 
 
147 
 
 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, 
 he is able to succour them that are tempted." " For 
 we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched 
 with the feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all points 
 tempted like as we are, yet without sin."* 
 
 How the glorified humanity of Our Redeemer is 
 touched with the feeling of our infirmities, it may be 
 difficult or impossible for us clearly and fully to under- 
 stand. The subject is in some measure connected with 
 the great mystery of godliness, " God manifest in the 
 flesh." It is sufficient for us to know, — that one pur- 
 pose to be accomplished by his incarnation ; by his 
 dwelling three and thirty years in our world of afflic- 
 tion and death ; by his passing through one continuous 
 course of humiliation, privation, and suffering ; was to 
 prepare him for his work of intercession, by giving 
 him a fellow-feeling with our sorrows ; — that he has 
 in heaven the most distinct and realizing remembrance 
 of every suffering which he endured on earth, and of 
 every emotion, which, under suffering, he felt ; — that 
 by our humanity, which he still wears, as well as by 
 the offices which he sustains, and the promises which 
 he has left in his word, he still feels himself pledged for 
 us, linked to us, and identified with us ; — and that he 
 clearly and minutely sees how far our sufferings and 
 emotions resemble those, of which he was himself the 
 subject. If reason can climb no higher, faith lends her 
 
 * Heb. ii. 17, 18; iv. 15. 
 
148 
 
 wings to ascend the final step, and place us in the full 
 enjoyment of the consolatory truth, that in the tender 
 sympathy of his heart with us, as well as in the power 
 of his arm for us, he is, " Jesus Christ, the same yes- 
 terday, and to day, and for ever." We may go through 
 every scene of his history, as it is related by the Evan- 
 gelists; we may cherish the deepest impression which 
 can be derived from every individual act of mercy 
 which is recorded ; we may combine the result of the 
 whole, in one clear and powerful conception, the influ- 
 ence of which shall never weaken or decay ; and yet 
 be assured, that we are far from apprehending the ex- 
 tent and tenderness of the condescending sympathy 
 which he still exercises with every sufferer, who comes 
 to God by him. In proportion as we increase in the 
 knowledge of this fact, our devotional exercises will 
 be characterized by freedom and delight ; our duties, 
 otherwise difficult, will become easy and pleasant ; our 
 sorrows will be sweetened by ingredients, which will 
 make them blessed in their endurance, as well as in 
 their result ; we shall be able to rejoice in tribulation, 
 and in every thing to give thanks. 
 
 How are those to be pitied, who, instead of having 
 the character of the sympathizing Redeemer unfolded 
 to their view, are directed to the saints, who cannot 
 even hear the prayers which are presented to them. 
 If they could hear — if they could succour — who, 
 knowing the character of the Redeemer, and listening 
 to the invitations which he gives, would have recourse 
 
to them? How obviously false — how subversive of 
 his honour, and of the design for which he came into 
 the world — how deeply injurious to the peace and hap- 
 piness of men — is the principle which is assumed ; that 
 the saints, because they partake of our nature only, 
 are more ready to pity and to sympathize with us, than 
 is He, who, with all human excellencies, combines all 
 divine perfections ! 
 
 Where have those who assume this injurious princi- 
 ple learnt what our nature is, when not associated with 
 him, who is Immanuel, God with us ? . Not in the 
 school in which David was taught. He said, " Let us 
 fall now into the hand of the Lord ; for his mercies 
 are great : and let me not fall into the hand of man."* 
 Where have they learnt the character of God ? Not 
 where Isaiah was inspired to teach it. He describes 
 him as saying, " My thoughts are not your thoughts, 
 neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For 
 as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my 
 ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than 
 your thoughts."! With what eyes have they read the 
 Gospels, and marked the contrast between the charac- 
 ter of the Redeemer, and those of his disciples, whom 
 they have placed highest in the calendar of the saints ? 
 Can they hope for more kindness and pity from Peter, 
 than from the Redeemer? Let Malchus correct their 
 folly, by telling them, who struck the blow which was 
 
 * 2 Sam. xxiv. 14. -f Isa. Iv. 8, 9. 
 
 14* 
 
150 
 
 intended to cleave him in the midst, and which, glan- 
 cing aside, cut off his ear ; and who, putting forth his 
 finger, though it was to touch one who had come out 
 with the multitude against himself, restored it, as it 
 was before. Can they hope for more pity and kind- 
 ness from James and John, than they can from the Re- 
 deemer? Let the Samaritan villagers correct their 
 folly, by telling, who would have called down fire from 
 heaven to consume them ; and who rebuked the fiery 
 indignation of the brethren, and said unto them, " Ye 
 know not what manner of spirit ye are of For the 
 Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to 
 save them." Can they hope for more prompt and con- 
 descending attention to their desires from any of the 
 Apostles thfin from the Saviour? Let the women 
 who brought their little children, that they might re- 
 ceive a blessing, tell them, by whom they were roughly 
 repelled ; and who, displeased because they had been 
 repelled, said, " Suffer little children to come unto me, 
 and forbid them not ; for of such is the kingdom of 
 God ;" and then, exceeding the desires and expecta- 
 tions of the mothers themselves, took the children up 
 in his arms, as well as put his hands upon them, and 
 blessed them. 
 
 Whatever kindness and pity was possessed by the 
 Apostles, or by any of the saints, at any period of their 
 history, they copied from the example of Christ, and 
 exercised in the power of his grace. In him, there is 
 the original and ever-flowing fountain ; in them, the 
 
151 
 
 drop only, which the vessel formed by him could re- 
 ceive and contain. Let who will go to the saints, we 
 are content with access only to the Saviour. We can 
 find no condescension like his, who stooped from 
 heaven to earth, and veiled the glories of his deity 
 beneath the humble form of our humanity ; — no com- 
 passion like his, who bare our griefs, cfnd carried our 
 sorrows ; — no long-suffering like his, who endured the 
 contradiction of sinners against himself; — no pity like 
 his, who wept over Jerusalem, when its inhabitants 
 were just about to reject and crucify him ; — no grace 
 so prompt and abounding as his, who, in answer to 
 the request of lips which had previously reviled him, 
 said, " To day shalt thou be with me in paradise ;" — 
 no gentleness like his, who took little children in his 
 arms, and folded them to his bosom, before he put his 
 hands upon them, to bless them ; — no sympathy like 
 his, who wept at the grave of Lazarus, in fellow-feeling 
 with the disconsolate mourners, before he exerted his 
 divine power to raise the dead, and change the tears 
 of sorrow into the raptures of joy. So, though he is 
 himself above the power of death, and reigning in the 
 regions of immortality ; yet is he touched with the 
 feeling of our infirmities, who dwell around the sepul- 
 chres of our departed brethren — the sepulchres in 
 which, weary at length of life's vanities and vexations, 
 we ourselves must rest. But he is contemplating the 
 day, at whose sweet dawn, the stone shall be rolled 
 away from them ; and his voice shall call us, to put on 
 
152 
 
 incorruption and immortality, and to come forth, radi- 
 ant in his own image ; the day, when our sorrows, in 
 which now he sympathizes, shall be changed for the 
 fulness of joy, and he shall lead us to living fountains 
 of waters, and wipe away all tears from our eyes. 
 
 IV. The Priest who intercedes, is able effectually 
 to bless all those who come to God by him. 
 
 The priests who preceded and prefigured Christ, 
 not only went to God with the offerings which they 
 were appointed to present for the people, but they also 
 came from God to the people, authorized to pronounce 
 his blessing upon them. The Apostle Paul, on this 
 ground, argues the superiority of Melchisedec to 
 Aaron ; because, not only did Levi, the progenitor of 
 Aaron, pay tithes to him in Abraham, — he also receiv- 
 ed the blessing from his lips. No contradiction can 
 be offered to the fact, that " the less is blessed of the 
 better." Melchisedec, therefore, as the superior, in 
 his official character of priest of the most high God 
 blessed Abraham ; blessed him that had the promises. 
 The form of the blessing is recorded : " Blessed be 
 Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and 
 earth : and blessed be the most high God, which hath 
 delivered thine enemies into thy hand."* 
 
 The Aaronic priesthood had also its divinely ap- 
 
 * Gen. xiv. 19, 20. 
 
153 
 
 pointed form for blessing the people : " And the Lord 
 spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto 
 his sons, saying, On this wise shall ye bless the chil- 
 dren of Israel, saying unto them. The Lord bless thee, 
 and keep thee ; the Lord make his face to shine upon 
 thee, and be gracious unto thee : the Lord lift up his 
 countenance upon thee, and give thee peace."* In 
 the recapitulation of the law, which Moses delivered 
 just before his own death, and the entrance of the 
 people into the land of promise, this interesting part of 
 the work of the priests is associated with their ordi- 
 nary and perpetual ministrations : " And the priests the 
 sons of Levi shall come near ; for them the Lord thy 
 God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in 
 the name of the Lord."t In the same manner, when 
 David made his arrangements for the services of the 
 temple, which his son was to build, it '^as recorded, 
 that "Aaron was separated, that he should sanctify 
 the most holy things, he and his sons for ever, to burn 
 incense before the Lord, to minister unto him, and to 
 bless in his name."J 
 
 The work of pronouncing the 'blessing appears to 
 have been the concluding part of his duty, to whom 
 the lot for burning incense fell. Hence, therefore, 
 when Zacharias was detained by the angel who ap- 
 peared to him at the altar of incense, beyond the ac- 
 
 * Numb. vi. 22—26. f Deut. xxi. 5. 
 
 J 1 Chron. xxiii. 13. 
 
154 
 
 customed time which the service occupied, the people 
 waited for him, and marvelled that he tarried so long. 
 They could not depart, till the priest, who presented 
 the incense before the Lord, had returned to pronounce 
 the blessing upon them. On this occasion, when Zach- 
 arias did return, he could not enunciate the blessing. 
 He could only make the sign, by lifting up his hands 
 in the accustomed form ; but there was no voice. As 
 a reproof for his incredulous reception of the gracious 
 message which the angel delivered to him, the power 
 of discharging the most interesting part of his official 
 work was withdrawn, and he stood with uplifted hands 
 before the people, who were waiting for the blessing 
 from his lips, — but speechless. 
 
 The child, whose birth was announced to him at 
 the altar of incense, was never himself to approach 
 that altar ; was never to stand up in his father's stead, 
 in the services of the course of Abia. He was to be 
 the herald of the Priest of the new order, by whom 
 all the courses of the old were to be superseded and 
 removed. The sacrifice and the oblation were to 
 cease ; the fire with which the incense was enkindled 
 was to be extinguished ; and was there not an indica- 
 tion here given, that the stream of blessing was also 
 to be diverted into a new channel, and to flow hence- 
 forth through his work, whom all the priests of the 
 preceding dispensations had combined to prefigure, 
 and whose lips would never lose their power to bless ? 
 Let it however be carefully observed, that it was when 
 
155 
 
 the sacrifice had been offered, and the prayers of the 
 people, coincident with the incense from the censer of 
 the priest, had been presented, that the blessing was 
 returned from him whose favour these rites had pro- 
 pitiated, and the people were dismissed in peace ; and 
 then will be seen, in the light derived from these di- 
 vinely appointed Jewish institutions, a clear and beau- 
 tiful illustration of facts, which are recorded in the 
 Gospel history, and which are connected with the 
 work of our perfect and ascended Priest. 
 
 After he had been lifted up in the presence of the 
 people, as the Lamb of God, by the offering of which, 
 once for all, sin was for ever .to be taken away, he 
 went, the living Priest, into the celestial temple, to 
 present the incense from his censer, with the prayers 
 of his disciples, and to return upon them the blessings 
 which he had promised to bestow. From the time 
 that he departed out of their sight, exercising faith in 
 the work which he was gone to perform, and the 
 promises that he would not leave them comfortless, 
 but would, in the communications of his Spirit, come 
 to them, they " continued with one accord in prayer 
 and supplication with the women, and Mary the mo- 
 ther of Jesus, and with his brethren."* Nor did they 
 wait in vain for his return with the blessing, and with 
 such a blessing as never before were any of our race 
 privileged to receive. " And when the day of Pente- 
 
 * Acts i. 14. 
 
* 156 
 
 cost was fully come, they were all with one accord in 
 one place. And suddenly there came a sound from 
 heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all 
 the house where they were sitting. And there appear- 
 ed unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat 
 upon each of them. And they were all filled with the 
 Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as 
 the Spirit gave them utterance."* By this extraor- 
 dinary dispensation, which they received as the result 
 of the commenced intercession of their ascended and 
 divinely accepted Priest, they were by open manifes- 
 tation declared to be preeminently blessed of the Lord. 
 The blessing came not .in word only, but in demonstra- 
 tion of the Spirit and of power. As the disciples of 
 the crucified Jesus, they were under the frown of 
 man's displeasure ; but the Lord lifted up the light of 
 his countenance upon them, and gave them peace. 
 The Shechinah had withdrawn from the temple, in 
 which the priests of the Aaronic order still ministered 
 according to the rites of the now abrogated law ; but 
 it descended with more softened radiance, to authenti- 
 cate, illumine, and bless the church, which henceforth 
 was to become the holy and spiritual temple of the liv- 
 ing God. 
 
 On the opening of the tabernacle, and subsequently 
 of the temple, for the worship which was presented by 
 the Jews, fire came forth from the presence of the 
 
 * Acts ii. 1 — 4. 
 
157 
 
 Lord, to enkindle the sacrifice prepared upon the altar, 
 and to consecrate the respective structures for divine 
 service : so, when the Christian church was opened 
 for all the nations of the world, in all their various lan- 
 guages ; and to witness and report which opening, re- 
 presentatives from all parts of the earth were present,* 
 the same impressive token of divine authority and fa- 
 vour was given. But then, let it be observed, that 
 they were the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise, 
 which were here authenticated, as acceptable to God 
 by Jesus Christ, in the Christian church ; — not the 
 bleeding victim, nor the unbloody sacrifice, presented 
 on an altar. The fire celestial, assumed the form of 
 
 * " And there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, de- 
 vout men out of every nation under heaven. Now when 
 this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and 
 were confounded, because that every man heard them 
 speak in his own language. And they were all amazed 
 and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all 
 these which speak Galileans ? And how hear we every 
 man in our own tongue, wherein we were born 1 Parthi- 
 ans, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mes- 
 opotamiet, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus and 
 Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts 
 of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and 
 proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak 
 in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they 
 were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, 
 What meaneth this ?'' — Acts ii. 5 — 12. 
 15 
 
158 
 
 the tongue ; the member of the body which God has 
 made to celebrate his praise, address his throne of 
 mercy, and proclaim his truth. The tongue was clo- 
 ven, that by the living, glowing, tremulous, movement 
 of its divided tip, a significant emblem might be pre- 
 sented, of the power which was conveyed to praise, 
 and to preach, in diverse languages ; and of the fer- 
 vour and constancy with which both parts of its ser- 
 vice, should be performed. 
 
 The same divine authentication, in the same form, 
 and for the same purpose, was subsequently given, 
 when Peter opened the kingdom in the house of Cor- 
 nelius, and the Gentiles w'ere first actually admitted 
 into the bosom of the Christian church. When Peter, 
 with the two household servants and the devout sol- 
 dier, the messengers which had been sent for him, ar- 
 rived at the house, he found inciny that were come to- 
 gether. And while he was speaking to them, of the 
 testimony which the prophets had given to the effica- 
 cy of the Redeemer's atonement, for the remission of 
 the sins of every individual who should believe in him, 
 "the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the 
 word. And they of the circumcision which believed 
 were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because 
 that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost. For they heard them spnak loith tongues, 
 and magnify God."* And, that the outward radiant 
 
 * Acts X. 44 — 46. 
 
159 
 
 form of the tongue accompanied the inward miracu- 
 lous power to magnify God, in languages previously 
 unknown, is obviously implied, in the words which 
 Peter employed, when he rehearsed the matter from 
 the beginning, and expounded it by order, to the Apos- 
 tles and brethren that were assembled at Jerusalem, 
 and amongst whom a contention had been raised, be- 
 cause he had gone in to men uncircumcised, and had 
 eaten with them. " As I began to speak, the Holy 
 Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning "■\ 
 
 And w hile the divine authentication was given to 
 spiritual, and not to material sacrifices ; the consecra- 
 tion was given to the living stones of the spiritual 
 house, not to the gross and lifeless stones or timber, 
 of which the upper room at Jerusalem, or the place of 
 assembly in the house of Cornelius, was constructed. 
 The radiance indicative of divine favour, was not, as 
 of old, spread in one unbroken cloud of glory through 
 the whole extent of the building ; but it was divided 
 into as many parts as there were living worshippers 
 present ; and it rested in the form of cloven tongues, 
 like as of fire, upon the head of each of them. And 
 when they went forth to extend the boundaries of the 
 church, elements of consecration for buildings they 
 carried none ; but they carried, what was infinitely 
 more valuable and efficacious, the purifying influence 
 of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, and the power to ut- 
 
 * Acts xi. 15. 
 
160 
 
 ter the truth which sanctifies with their lips. Streams 
 of celestial grace were poured through them as the 
 channels, to refresh, and purify, and cheer the hearts 
 of those whom they addressed. That was fulfilled in 
 them which the Saviour had promised, " He that be- 
 lieveth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his 
 belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake 
 he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should 
 receive : for the Holy Ghost was not yet given ; be- 
 cause that Jesus was not yet glorified."* 
 
 This promise began to be fulfilled on the first day 
 that the disciples received in copious blessings, the 
 proof of the acceptance and efficacy of the work, 
 which their ascended Priest had gone to discharge on 
 their account. While those who were assembled in 
 the upper room to wait for the blessing, in number 
 about a hundred and twenty, received the miraculous 
 gifts of the Holy Spirit's grace ; they became the 
 channels, through which its more ordinary, but not 
 less saving streams, flowed, to three thousand persons 
 in one day. The whole company of the assembled 
 disciples, male and female, young and old, were all 
 filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with 
 other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 
 They all contributed in producing that impression up- 
 on the assembled multitude, which Peter was instru- 
 mental in advancing to its decisive result, when they 
 
 * John vii. 38, 39. 
 
161 
 
 that gladly received his word were baptized ; " and 
 the same day," as the fruit of the labours of the hun- 
 dred and twenty, which would doubtless be continued 
 through the day, as well as of the address which Pe- 
 ter delivered at nine in the morning, " there were ad- 
 ded unto them about three thousand souls." So soon 
 as the relation of the circumstances which were con- 
 nected with the outpouring of the Spirit upon the 
 Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, had loosened the 
 Jewish prejudices, by which till that period their 
 movements hud been fettered, the Apostles, and those 
 who laboured with them, went forth freely to the Gen- 
 tiles. But they went forth, not in the habiliments of 
 priests, to discharge efficacious rites for their fellow- 
 men ; but as preachers, to make known to them the 
 unsearchable riches of Christ. They consecrated no 
 edifices, for the performance of an imposing ritual ; for 
 buildings of any kind, which could be exclusively ap- 
 propriated to their use, they found none. They erect- 
 ed no altars ; for they had no pattern after which to 
 fashion them. They encumbered themselves with no 
 censers, with costly incense to burn in them ; for the 
 ordinary raiment which would have been convenient 
 for them, they did not always possess. It was not their 
 implements of service, or rites of wondrous virtue, but 
 " their sound" which " went into all the earth, and 
 their loords unto the end of the world." Beautiful, as 
 they passed over the mountain barrier of one country 
 after another, were their feet ; for they preached the 
 15* 
 
162 
 
 gospel of peace, and carried glad tidings of good 
 things. Their theme, melodious to the ear of those 
 who knew their state as sinners before God, was the 
 sacrifice of the cross, and the w'ork of the living Priest, 
 who was within the vail. They declared him to be, 
 what the prophets had predicted, a Priest upon his 
 throne ; not only living to intercede for all those who 
 come to God by him, but also reigning to enrich them, 
 with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places ; " the 
 Lord over all, and rich unto all, that called upon him." 
 There was royalty associated with the priesthood, 
 which had presented the most perfect prefiguration of 
 that w^hich Christ discharges, — the priesthood of Mel- 
 chisedec. His name is, by interpretation. King of 
 Righteousness ; and he was also King of Salem, that 
 is, King of Peace. The first title was doubtless given 
 to him, to designate the unbending integrity, the un- 
 blemished sanctity, of his personal character ; while 
 the latter seems to indicate, that these qualities, by the 
 veneration which they inspired, w ere the shield of the 
 city in which he officiated and reigned, rendering it 
 sacred ground, which no warlike foot might presume 
 to tread. While, therefore, all was commotion and 
 turbulence around ; — while the kings of the neighbour- 
 ing cities were forming their confederacies ; leading 
 their subjects to the shock of the embattled field ; by 
 turns, inflicting or suffering all the horrors of war, in 
 scenes of carnage, pillage, and desolation, Salem was 
 neutral and hallowed ground ; — as its name indicated, 
 it was peace. 
 
163 
 
 In more respects than one did Melchisedec prefig- 
 ure Christ.. He did so 'in the personal quaUties by 
 which he was distinguished ; in the combined offices 
 of priest and king, which he discharged ; and in the 
 influence, arising from his character and work, which 
 he diffused. 
 
 That perfect righteousness was found in the Re- 
 deemer, his very enemies were compelled tacitly to 
 acknowledge. When he put the question to them, 
 "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" there was 
 none to answer. Pilate, though he condemned him to 
 die, publicly declared, •'! find no fault in him." The 
 centurion w+io commanded the Roman guard which 
 attended his crucifixion, was constrained to exclaim, 
 " Certainly this was a righteous man." 
 
 That with the office of priest, he combined that of 
 king, Pilate gave unintentional, but decisive testimony, 
 when he wrote the superscription for the cross, on 
 which, as Priest, he offered his spotless sacrifice, '• This 
 is the King of the Jews." That the Jews who had 
 rejected him, and clamorously demanded his crucifix- 
 ion, had some fearful intimations of his true character 
 in their guilty consciences, appeared from their unea- 
 siness, when their eye first saw the superscription upon 
 his cross. It was like the sun-beam, darting unexpect- 
 edly into the gloomy region in which guilty purposes 
 have been matured ; and at which the children of 
 darkness tremble, in fearful anticipation that their 
 deeds will be exposed. The triumph of their malig- 
 
164 
 
 nant joy was in a moment exchanged for foreboding 
 fears, as to the import of the title which they read ; 
 and hence their anxiety to have other words, which 
 would by implication declare him to be an impostor, 
 and throw the semblance of justice over their proceed- 
 ings against him, placed in their stead. That God in- 
 tended, that in the lowest state of his Son's humilia- 
 tion, the combined offices which he sustained should 
 be proclaimed, and declared to be immutable, appears 
 from the answer which Pilate (whose mind was doubt- 
 less supernaturally controlled on the occasion) gave to 
 their entreaties, " What I have written I have writ- 
 ten." And so it was seen on the cross, as well as sub- 
 sequently within the vail ; it was read on earth, as well 
 as published in heaven ; it was unalterably inscribed by 
 the power of imperial Rome, as well as sworn by the 
 ever-living God, that he was constituted " a Priest for 
 ever, after the order of Melchisedec." 
 
 Coeval with the commencement of his priestly work, 
 and the dawn of his regal glory, was the peaceful in- 
 fluence which he diffused. Pilate and Herod, pre- 
 viously at enmity, were that day made friends. The 
 wall of partition, which had divided Jews and Gen- 
 tiles in inveterate hostility, was that day broken down. 
 He was their peace, who made both one, and recon- 
 ciled them both in one body to God by his cross, hav- 
 ing slain the enmity thereby. And when, having en- 
 tered within the vail, on the full discharge of his 
 work, he came in the power of his Spirit to bless his 
 
165 
 
 waiting disciples, it was to produce in their hearts the 
 peace which passeth all understanding; and to em- 
 ploy them in extending among their fellow-men his 
 kingdom, which is righteousness, and peace, and joy, 
 in the Holy Ghost. That kingdom, in its internal 
 power, has been perpetuated in the world unto the 
 present day. To all who have received him as their 
 Priest, who have relied upon him, and presented their 
 supplications through him ; he has been their peace, 
 reconciling them to God, tranquillizing their conscien- 
 ces by the sprinkling of his blood, and soothing their 
 hearts by the exceeding great and precious promises 
 of his word. If around them at any time all has been 
 confusion and conflict ; still there has been rest and 
 quietness within. In the world they may have found 
 tribulation ; but in him they have enjoyed peace. 
 
 And the period is approaching, when his peaceful 
 kingdom shall be visibly and universally established. 
 The charm of his revered and hallowed name — the 
 name which is above every name, shall be felt wher- 
 ever it is proclaimed ; and be proclaimed, wherever 
 there is a human ear to listen, and a human heart to 
 feel. Through the medium of his atonement and in- 
 tercession, all tribes and families of the earth shall pre- 
 sent their supplications and thanksgivings unto God, 
 and blessings in return shall freely and widely flow. 
 The plagues, which have hitherto desolated the world, 
 shall be averted ; the earth shall yield her increase, 
 and God, even our own God, shall bless us. The his- 
 
160 
 
 tory of the commotions among the nations, and the 
 sanguinary conflicts of the human race, shall be closed 
 by the coming of the great Melchisedec, in the power 
 of his kingdom, to proclaim an universal peace, and 
 make the world as tranquil as Salem was of old. — 
 Men " shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and 
 their spears into pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift 
 up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war 
 any more."* " All kings shall fall down before him : 
 all nations shall serve him."! " Of the increase of his 
 government and peace there shall be no end, upon the 
 throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, 
 and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from 
 henceforth even for ever."J " With righteousness shall 
 he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the 
 meek of the earth : and he shall smite the earth with 
 the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips 
 shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be 
 the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his 
 reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and 
 the leopard shall lie down with the kid : and the calf 
 and the young lion and the fatling together ; and a 
 little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear 
 shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down together : 
 and the lion snail eat straw like the ox. And the 
 sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the 
 weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' 
 
 * Isa. ii. 4. t Ps. Ixxii. 11. J Isa. ix. 7. 
 
167 
 
 den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy 
 mountain : for the earth shall be full of the knowledge 
 of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."* " In his 
 days shall the righteous flourish ; and abundance of 
 peace so long as the moon endureth."t 
 
 Who can read these animating predictions, and con- 
 nect them with the work of the High Priest of our 
 profession, without feeling a new spring-tide of hope, 
 in reference to the world, setting in upon his soul ; 
 without looking round upon it with an eye of deepen- 
 ing interest, and a heart of largest expectation ; with- 
 out being induced to address it in the language of in- 
 spiration ! " Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all 
 the earth : make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing 
 praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp ; with the 
 harp, and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and 
 sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, 
 the King, Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; 
 the world, and they that dwell therein : let the floods 
 clap their hands ; let the hills be joyful together be- 
 fore the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: 
 with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the 
 people with equity."J 
 
 * Isa. xi. 4—9. t Ps. Ixxii. 7. 
 
 J Ps. xcviii. 4 — 9. 
 
SECTION IV. 
 
 THE ALL-SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST's PRIESTHOOD SUPER- 
 SEDES THE NECESSITY OF SACRAMENTAL EFFICACY. 
 
 At this stage of our progress, we are able to pre- 
 sent more clearly to the view than we previously 
 could, the nature and design of the ritual observances 
 of the Christian church ; and to show, that as in 
 Christ's sacrifice there is infinite efficacy, which we 
 may receive by faith, without the intervention of a 
 priest to recommend us to him, and convey virtue to 
 us from him, of sacramental efficacy we have no need. 
 By disconnecting baptism and the supper of the Lord 
 from the work of a priesthood ; and by showing that 
 the latter was committed to the church to celebrate, 
 rather than to its pastors to administer, we have al- 
 ready shaken the foundations on which the doctrine of 
 sacramental efficacy rested. As we consider the doc- 
 trine to be unscriptural, and part of the structure of 
 an antichristian priesthood, which yet remains as a 
 stumbling-block in the path of many members of 
 Protestant communions, we shall endeavour to remove 
 it entirely out of their way. 
 
 We seriously object, in limine, to the term sacra- 
 
169 
 
 ment. It is of pagan origin,* and conveys an idea 
 altogether foreign to the design of either part of the 
 
 * " The word sacramentum properly means the military 
 oath, which every Roman soldier was obliged to take, of 
 fidelity, and obedience to his general." — Dr. A. Clarke 
 on the Eucharist. 
 
 The Doctor gives in his work, in a quotation from 
 Polybius, the matter and form of the oath. 
 
 " When, in embodying and enrolling the troops, all the 
 proper arrangements were made, and the different com- 
 panies formed ; a chiliarch, or military tribune, selecting a 
 proper person from all the rest, propounded the sacramen- 
 tum, or oath of fidelity and obedience ; who immediately 
 
 swore, SUBMISSIVELY TO OBEY, AND PERFORM WHATSO- 
 EVER IS COMMANDED BY THE OFFICERS, ACCORDING TO 
 
 THE UTTERMOST OF HIS POWER. The lest, all coming 
 forward, one by one, take successively the same oath ; 
 that they would perform every thing, according to what 
 the first had sworn." 
 
 Now, if we refer to the institution of the supper, we 
 shall find, that instead of there being a swearing in of the 
 disciples, a sacramentum propounded to them on the occa- 
 sion, there was a prophetic declaration, that they would 
 all, on that very night, desert their Master; and a con- 
 siderate excusing of the individual, who was ready to give 
 an unrequired oath of fidelity. How frequently may the 
 disquisitions of literary men, on scriptural subjects, be in 
 a moment exploded, by a simple statement of plain matter 
 of fact. This simple matter of fact, too, goes far towards 
 16 
 
170 
 
 ritual of the Christian church. Its use has engrafted 
 superstition and bondage on the stock of Christian 
 simphcity and privilege. Obligation under the bon- 
 dage of an oath, is the idea which it originally ex- 
 pressed, and which its use still conveys. Hence the 
 phrases, baptismal vow, and sacramental vow;* — 
 
 exploding the whole theory of sacramental efficacy. If 
 the ritual institutions of the Christian church had been 
 intended to convey saving efficacy, surely when adminis- 
 tered by the Saviour's own hand, their work must have 
 been complete and perfect. His own hand gives the dis- 
 ciples the bread and the wine ; his own lips the words of 
 institution. But then, instead of telling them of any effi- 
 cacy which he had conveyed, any transformation which he 
 had effected, his next words after they had communicated, 
 were, " All ye shall be offended because of me this night ; 
 for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep 
 of the flock shall be scattered abroad." 
 
 * These phrases were never employed by the writers of 
 the New Testament, and were they to revisit the church, 
 would certainly require to be explained to them. And yet, 
 perhaps, scarcely any two, of those who have • become 
 learned on Christian subjects, beyond what the Apostles 
 have written, would agree in their interpretation. Reason 
 and sound sense dictated the question which Henry the 
 Eighth wrote, in the margin of one of the papers which 
 contained the discussions of the divines of his day, on the 
 nature of the sacraments, and in which they admit, that, 
 
171 
 
 vows that, in the sense in which they are understood, 
 are rarely if ever perfectly kept ; and consequently, 
 agitation and alarm, instead of peace and joy in be- 
 lieving, characterise the services of many, when they 
 approach what they are unwisely and unscripturally 
 taught to consider the deeply mysterious rites of the 
 Christian church. Now, by recurring to the analogy, 
 which we have already described as existing between 
 circumcision and baptism, the Passover and the Lord's 
 supper, we shall be able to clear away the mists by 
 which these institutions of Christianity have been en- 
 compassed ; in which their own lovely features have 
 been shrouded, and all kinds of fearful distortions have 
 been made to arise, before the eye of the simple and 
 the timid, in the fold of Christ. They have been asso- 
 ciated with the gloom of the grove, and the terrific 
 mysteries of the Eleusinian cave ; let us contemplate 
 them in their native light and beauty, as they may be 
 seen in the temple of truth. 
 
 When circumcision was performed among the Jews, 
 no vow was connected with any part of the ceremony ; 
 no intimation was given, that there was any thing mys- 
 terious in its operation, any invisible stream of grace 
 communicated in its observance. The plain matter of 
 
 " In the Scripture, no perfect definition of the sacraments 
 is to be found." " Why then shoulde we cal them soo?" 
 — Vide an amusing as well as instructive note in Orme 
 on the Lord's Supper, p. SI. 
 
172 
 
 fact, which every Jew well understood, was this ; that 
 there was no access for his child to the institutions of 
 worship, no right to enroll him among the privileged 
 descendants of Abraham, if he were not circumcis- 
 ed. To Abraham himself, the rite certainly con- 
 veyed no saving efficacy. It is declared by the 
 Apostle Paul, to have been to him, " a seal," — that is, 
 a divinely appointed visible authentication stamped up- 
 on the flesh, — " of the righteousness of the faith, which 
 he had yet being uncircumcized"* It could not be the 
 same thing to his descendants, on whom the rite was 
 to be performed at an age at which they were not 
 competent to the exercise of faith. To them, it was 
 merely the authoritative sign, or seal, stamped on their 
 flesh, of their connexion with Abraham, as heirs of the 
 promises, which had been made to him. A lineal de- 
 scendant of Abraham had no title to a share in the 
 promises, if the rite had not been performed ; while 
 others, who could not trace their descent from him, 
 might, by submitting to the rite, become incorporated 
 with his family, and participate in its privileges. The 
 law delivered at its institution, was, " The uncircum- 
 cised man-child whose flesh of his foreskin is not cir- 
 cumcised, tiiat soul shall be cut off" from his people ; 
 he hath broken my covenant."f If it be said, The 
 covenant involved a vow ; it may be answered. The 
 vow was then performed, when the rite was discharg- 
 
 * Rom. iv. 11. t C^en. xvii. 14. 
 
173 
 
 ed. " This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, be- 
 tween me and you and thy seed after thee ; Every 
 man-child among you shall be circumcised."* So far 
 as this institution was concerned, the part of the cove- 
 nant which was obligatory on the people was perform- 
 ed, when the rite had been discharged. 
 
 The question then arises. What advantages were 
 connected with circumcision ? It may be answered, 
 by saying, that the child which was circumcised, was 
 initiated into privilege, and promises ; — the privilege, 
 of attending the institutions of worship ; the right to 
 plead the promises, which were made to Abraham, 
 and subsequently, as in succession they ^ere deliver- 
 ed, those which were giyen to his descendants ; — the 
 promises generally of the Old Testament. The rite 
 of circumcision, was a bloody rite ; corresponding with 
 the nature of the institutions to which it gave access, 
 and with the event by which the types and promises 
 of the Old Testament were to be fulfilled, — the shed- 
 ding of the expiatory blood of the predicted Messiah. 
 
 In the same manner, is baptism, an initiation into 
 privilege, and promises ; the privilege, of Christian in- 
 struction and worship ; the right to plead the prom- 
 ises of the New Testament, which are to us and to 
 our children, and are all yea, and amen, in him into 
 whose name we are baptized. The rite of baptism, 
 is the aspersion of water, the element of refreshment 
 
 * Gen. xvii. 10. 
 16* 
 
174 
 
 and purification, emblematic of the effect of Christian 
 nurture upon the mind, and of the Holy Spirit's influ- 
 ence, by whose agency the blessings promised in the 
 gospel, are conveyed into the soul. No vow in its ad- 
 ministration is enjoined ; no mystery in its operation is 
 supposed ; no invisible stream of grace does it involve ; 
 no incomprehensible mysticism about the mode in 
 which it works, need here perplex the mind. The 
 parents, who intelligently present their children for 
 baptism, are those who value the institutions of Chris- 
 tian worship, and the blessings which are offered in 
 Christ's promises themselves, and consider them the 
 richest inhe^tance into which their children can be 
 brought : — tiie minister who properly performs the 
 rite, will enforce upon the parents the duty of bringing 
 up their children in the nurture and the admonition of 
 the Lord, and present the different motives, which 
 should produce its diligent and cheerful discharge : — 
 and the children, so soon as the promises of Christian- 
 ity can be unfolded to their opening powers, should be 
 encouraged and exhorted to plead them, on the ground 
 of the right to them, which in baptism was conferred. 
 The seal, by which their connexion with the most gra- 
 cious dispensation of religion which God ever estab- 
 lished in the world was authenticated, though it has 
 not, as in the case of the Jew, left an indelible stamp 
 in the flesh, has yet been visibly placed upon them. 
 The remembrance of its application, with the hallow- 
 ed desires and expectations which were excited at the 
 
175 
 
 time, and have become associated with the review of 
 the service, should strengthen the faith, and increase 
 the fervour of the parents, in their frequent and perse- 
 vering prayers for their children ; and the knowledge 
 of its application, should inspire those who have been 
 the recipients of the rite with boldness, when they 
 come for spiritual influences and blessings to him into 
 whose religion they have been initiated, and whose 
 name they consequently bear. Of his multiplying 
 descendants on earth, Abraham, in the mansions of 
 repose and blessedness, was ignorant, nor could Israel 
 acknowledge and help them ; but Christ lives to re- 
 ceive all who come to him, and liberally to dispense 
 his Spirit's grace unto them. 
 
 Be it however carefully observed, that there is a 
 distinction to be made, between the possession of a 
 right to plead the promises of God, and the exercise of 
 that right, in the workings of a devotional spirit, by 
 which the blessings which are promised are brought 
 into actual enjoyment. Esau despised, and at length 
 sold, his birthright. Many of the Jews undervalued, 
 and irrecoverably forfeited, their covenant right. They 
 were the descendants of Abraham after the flesh, and 
 were enrolled, in virtue of having received the initia- 
 tory rite, among the Israelites to whom pertained the 
 adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the 
 giving of the law, and the service of God, and the 
 promises ; but because they did not value, they did 
 not plead ; and because they did not plead, they did 
 
176 
 
 not inherit, the promises, by faith in which Abraham 
 obtained his righteousness in this world, and a portion 
 in the better, even the heavenly country. All were 
 not Israel, who were of Israel. " He" (says Paul) 
 " is not a Jew, which is one outwardly ; neither is that 
 circumcision which is outward in the flesh : but he is 
 a Jew, which is one inwardly ; and circumcision is 
 that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter ; 
 whose praise is not of men, but of God."* 
 
 So all are not Christians, who wear the name only. 
 To us pertain an adoption more exalted ; a glory more 
 unfading ; a covenant more gracious ; a contrast to 
 the law, in the ministry of reconciliation ; a service 
 more luminous and spiritual ; and promises more ex- 
 ceeding great and precious ; yet, to the value of Chris- 
 tian promises and privileges, multitudes who bear the 
 Christian name are insensible, and while they have the 
 form of godliness, deny its power. He then is not a 
 Christian, who is one outwardly, neither is that a suffi- 
 cient baptism, which is outward on the flesh ; but he 
 is a Christian, who is one inwardly, and the baptism 
 which makes us children of God, is inward in the 
 Spirit ; — the power of the Holy Ghost, cleansing the 
 soul from its defilement by the application of atoning 
 blood, and renewing it in holiness, after the image of 
 God. The minister of the gospel, may baptize with 
 water, in the name of" the Father, and of the Son, 
 
 * Rom. ii. 28,29. 
 
177 
 
 and of the Holy Ghost ; but it is Christ's own preroga- 
 tive, which he exercises in answer to the prayer of 
 those who call upon him, to baptize with the Holy 
 Ghost into his death ; that being buried with him by 
 baptism into death, we may also, like him, be raised 
 up from the dead, to walk in newness of life. In the 
 case of an adult, just brought to an acquaintance with 
 the Christian dispensation, awakened to a sense of his 
 guilt, exercising repentance towards God, and calling 
 on the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon and grace, if bap- 
 tism, according to the apostolic practice, be immedi- 
 ately administered, the outward rite, and the inward 
 grace, may in their communication be coincident in 
 time. He may embody in his experience, that which 
 was contemplated by our Redeemer in his conversa- 
 tion with Nicodemus ; be born at once of water, and 
 the Spirit, and be qualified for immediate admission 
 to the kingdom of God ; — the kingdom, which Christ 
 came into the world to form and establish, and which 
 on the first diy when Peter opened it received three 
 thousand such individuals, who were baptized with 
 water, and at the same time received the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost. That the former may be administered, 
 where the latter is not communicated ; and that in the 
 passages in wiiich baptism is connected with the re- 
 mission of sins, it is the circumstantial, and not the 
 essential accompaniment, is obvious, from the case of 
 Simon. He had been baptized, but was subsequently 
 told, that his heart was " not right in the sight of God," 
 
178 
 
 and exhorted to repent, and pray to God, if perhaps 
 he might then be forgiven.* Let this be kept in view, 
 and it will be seen, that in the following passages, re- 
 mission is essentially connected with repentance, and 
 calling upon the Lord Jesus, and but circumstantially 
 with baptism. Then said Peter unto them, " Repent, 
 and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
 Christ for the remission of sins."f "Arise, and be 
 baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling upon the 
 name of the Lord.'^X In confirmation of this view of 
 these passages, it may further be observed, that while 
 in instances without number, repentance, and a devo- 
 tional application to Christ, which is faith, are stated 
 to be essential requisites to the enjoyment of pardon, 
 without the slightest allusion to baptism ; baptism is, 
 in no one instance, presented to our view, unconnected 
 with repentance or faith, as the channel through which 
 pardon flows. If then, the doctrine of baptismal 
 efficacy rests for its support on these passages which 
 we have quoted, it must fall to the ground ; because, 
 in each of these passages there is associated with it, 
 that w^hich is repeatedly stated to be essential to re- 
 mission, without the slightest reference to baptism ; 
 and because, in the case of Simon, pardon did not 
 accompany baptism, and he being baptized, was de- 
 clared to be in the gall of bitterness, and the bond of 
 
 * Acts viii, 21—23. f Acts ii, 38. 
 
 J Acts xxii, 16. 
 
179 
 
 iniquity, and exhorted to seek forgiveness, by repent- 
 ance, and prayer to God. 
 
 The same principle apphes to the form in which 
 Mark gives the apostolic commission. " Go ye into 
 all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 
 He that helieveth and is baptized shall be saved." And 
 then, to mark faith as the essential, and baptism only 
 as the circumstantial, it is added, " but he that heliev- 
 eth not shall be damned."* The omission of baptism 
 in the repeating, which is usually the emphatic, and 
 confirmatory clause of the proposition, deserves par- 
 ticular notice ; and may be considered as an inspired 
 intimation, not only that ritual observances are never 
 to be ranked in importance with vital and essential 
 principles ; but also, that there may be cases ia which 
 the entire omission of the former, may not endanger 
 an individual's safety. There cannot be deliverance 
 from condemnation without faith, there may be with- 
 out baptism. 
 
 We cannot clear all the points which are presented 
 in this question, without noticing more distinctly, the 
 pretensions which are made to regenerate infants by 
 baptism. That the " washing of regeneration," re- 
 ferred to in the epistle to Titus, is not the baptism with 
 water at any age of the recipient, and that it does not 
 involve the remotest allusion to the baptism of infants, 
 a quotation of the whole passage in which it stands, 
 
 * Markxvi. 15, 16. 
 
180 • 
 
 will be itself sufficient to demonstrate. " For we our- 
 selves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, de- 
 ceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in 
 malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But 
 after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour 
 toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness 
 which we have done, but according to his mercy, he 
 saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renew- 
 ing of the Holy Ghost ; which he shed on us abun- 
 dantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour."* If we 
 obey the apostolic precept, "In mahce be ye children, 
 but in understanding be men," we shall never con- 
 found, that which the living God sheds on us through 
 Jesus Christ his Son, with that which the hand of fee- 
 ble, mortal, sinful man administers to us from the cold 
 and lifeless font ; much less, shall we associate with 
 the baptism of unconscious, guileless infants, terms 
 which are employed to describe the grace which was 
 conferred on those, who had been living in malice 
 and envy, hateful, and hating one another. If the pas- 
 sage which was delivered in the conversation with 
 Nicodemus, contemplates the case of adults only ; — 
 and that it cannot refer to infants is obvious from the 
 fact, that none but those who are arrived at years of 
 understanding can become the subjects of that king- 
 dom, which consists in the active intelligent principles 
 of righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Ghost ; — 
 
 * Titus iii, 3 — 6. 
 
181 
 
 then, the pretensions to regenerate infants by baptism 
 have nothing left to support them ; and pass away 
 with the mass of darkening shadows, which, tiirough 
 ages of superstition and folly, have been accumulated 
 round the simple lucid institutions of the New Testa- 
 ment. Should it be asked. Do you then leave the 
 souls of those who were born in sin and shapen in 
 iniquity, but who die in infancy, uni'edeemed, to suffer 
 the consequences of original guilt / We answer : 
 The main position which we are endeavouring to es- 
 tablish in our work, is this, That the blessings of re- 
 demption arc not made to depend for their application 
 on the interposition and work of an earthly priesthood ; 
 but are communicated directly to the soul by Him, 
 who once died for us upon the cross, but now lives 
 for us in heaven ; our only, but all-sufficient Priest. 
 More safely may the souls of those who die in infancy 
 be entrusted to him, and to his work, than they can 
 be to the work of those, who may not be at hand in 
 the time of feeble nature's extremity ; and who if they 
 are sent for, may not arrive until the new-fledged 
 spirit has disencumbered itself from its mortal fetters, 
 and has soared to develope its powers, and perform 
 its blissful service in the kingdom of the Redeemer's 
 glory. In the period of his humiliation, he took little 
 children which had not been baptized into his arms, laid 
 his hands upon them, and blessed them ; and on that 
 and other occasions declared, that only those who 
 were brought to a corresponding state of docility of 
 17 
 
182 
 
 mind, susceptibility of impression, and absence of 
 malice and wrath, could enter into the kingdom of 
 God. Whom he received on earth, he will not reject 
 in heaven. Whatever their connexion with the first 
 Adam, who fell and entailed defilement, guilt, and 
 death, on his posterity, may expose them to in a future 
 state of existence ; He, the second Adam, the gracious 
 head and brother of our race, will remove by the 
 abundant efficacy of* his mediatorial work; he will 
 receive them as the joyful heirs of a celestial inherit- 
 ance ; will joy in them as the reward of his sufferings ; 
 as a precious part of the innumerable progeny, brought 
 into immortal life and blessedness, by the travail of 
 his soul. 
 
 We liavc found in a quotation from the Apostle 
 Paul, a distinction made between the circumcision 
 which was outward in the flesh, and that which was 
 inward in the heart : we have also noticed evident in- 
 dications of a corresponding distinction in the case of 
 baptism, the visible application of water by the hand 
 of man, and the invisible communication of the Holy 
 Spirit's grace, from the hand of the exalted Redeemer, 
 The passage in which this distinction is most specific- 
 ally made, and by which this part of our subject is 
 brou;iht into close connexion with the work of our 
 atoning and interceding Priest, has yet to be adduced. 
 The waters of the deluge once saved the feeble rem- 
 nant of the righteous, sweeping away in their flood the 
 hosts of the ungodly, by which they were encompass- 
 
183 
 
 ed, and raising them to a new life of security, and sep- 
 aration from the wicked, in the ark into which they 
 had retired. " The like figure," (says Peter,) " where- 
 unto even baptism doth also now save us, not the put- 
 ting away of the filth of the flesh," (that is, the out- 
 ward affusion of water upon the flesh,) " but the an- 
 swer of a good conscience toward God, by the resur- 
 rection of Jesus Christ : who is gone into heaven, and 
 is on the right hand of God."* The nature of that 
 answer, and consequently of the baptism to which Pe- 
 ter refers, Paul illustrates, when surveying the mar- 
 shalled legions of the Christian's foes, he defies the 
 power of the whole, and triumphantly declares the 
 ground on which security is enjoyed : " Who shall lay 
 any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that 
 justifieth. Who is he that coiidemneth ? It is Christ 
 that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even 
 at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession 
 for us."f The heart is sprinkled from an evil con- 
 science, that is, a conscience uneasy and disturbed by 
 a sense of its guilt before God, by the application of 
 the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things 
 than that of Abel. The answer of such a conscience 
 is : I am safe, not because I have kept my baptismal 
 vow, (for that no individual, who, either by his own 
 lips, or by the lips of others appointed for him, has 
 come under the obligation of a vow, has ever perfectly 
 
 * 1 Pet. iii. 21, 22. f Rom. viii. 33, 34. 
 
184 
 
 performed,) but I am safe, because Jesus died for my 
 sins, and rose again for my justification ; because I 
 have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope which is 
 set before me in the gospel ; because I am baptized 
 by the power of his Spirit, applying to my conscience 
 the blood which cleanseth from all sin. 
 
 This is the baptism, which, like the circumcision of 
 the heart, rises so far in importance above ritual ob- 
 servances, that they may not with propriety be com- 
 pared with it. Of the baptism which is administered 
 by the hand of man, when compared with this, we 
 may say, as the Apostle did of circumcision, Neither 
 is that baptism, which is outward on the flesh. What- 
 ever instruction and encouragement may be afforded 
 by its administration, it has in it no inherent eflicacy ; 
 it conveys no grace, it is not essential to salvation. — 
 The things which accompany salvation, work " that 
 one and the selfsame Spirit." "For by one Spirit are 
 we all baptized, into one body, whether we be Jews or 
 Gentiles, whether we be bond or free ; and have been 
 all made to drink into one Spirit."* And this passage 
 clearly and closely connects the subject with the in- 
 teresting summary of essentials, which is given in an- 
 other Epistle written by the same Apostle ; redeeming 
 it from hands employed in ceremonies of human in- 
 vention, by which it has been confused, perverted, and 
 debased, and presenting it in harmony with the vital 
 
 * 1 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
185 
 
 principles of the gospel, which it has been our endeav- 
 our to unfold and establish. " There is one body and 
 one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your 
 calling ; one Lord, one faith, one baptism,^'' (by the one 
 Spirit into the one body,) " one God and Father of all, 
 who is above all, and through all, and in you all."* 
 
 As circumcision involved no vow, so neither did the 
 passover. It was a joyful feast, though blended by 
 the infusion of bitter herbs, with the remembrance of 
 bitter sorrows, which were past. It was instituted at 
 the deliverance of the tribes from the bondage of 
 Egypt, and its observance was enjoined through all 
 their generations, that there might be an annual com- 
 memoration of their deliverance ; and an interesting, 
 popular, and impressive recognition of the fact, that 
 they were all brethren, descended from one common 
 stock, sharing in one common lot of national affliction, 
 dehverance, or prosperity ; participating by one com- 
 mon right, in all the national advantages of the relig- 
 ious institutions which God had established amongst 
 them. It was kept by the whole of the people at the 
 same time, and at the same place. On one evening a 
 lamb bled for each of the many households which 
 were assembled to partake of the feast. Whatever 
 distinctions at other times prevailed between the mem- 
 bers of the respective households, they were on this 
 occasion laid aside, and all partook of the same lamb, 
 
 * Eph. iv. 4—6. 
 17* 
 
186 
 
 and from the same table ; and in the rites and provis- 
 ion of the feast, one household was the same as an- 
 other household, from the dwelling of (he humblest to 
 the palace of the sovereign. It was God's own insti- 
 tution, and the impress of his wisdom is upon it. It 
 annually bound together, in one communion of popu- 
 lar and jovful feeling, all the ranks, and all the mem- 
 bers of the community, without destroying the distinc- 
 tions which are necessary to the welfare, and essential 
 to the existence of society. It was an antidote against 
 the evils which grow out of distinctions in rank, and 
 which are as injurious to the individuals themselves, in 
 whose character they are found, as they are to the 
 general peace and enjoyment of the community; — 
 high-minded domination in the ascending — abject ser- 
 vility in the descending scale. The former was kept in 
 check by the annual recurrence to the bondage of 
 Egypt, blended with the rites of an equalizing religious 
 service. The latter was prevented, by the posses- 
 sion of inalienable religious privileges, in the celebra- 
 tion of which the whole nation became as one fam- 
 ily ; and every member, however inferior his ordinary 
 situations, took his place at the table, not by favour 
 or courtesy, but by admitted and established right. 
 This annual equalization was effected, without morti- 
 fication to the rich, or the ebullition of democratic feel- 
 ings in the poor. The charm of a religious solemnity 
 suspended the working of every unworthy secular feel- 
 ing, and combined the one family of the nation, in the 
 
187 
 
 •retrospect of its origin, the commemoration of its 
 common deliverance, the reciprocation of fraternal 
 sympathies, the uniform utterance of its thanksgivings 
 and joys. 
 
 And the supper of the Lord is, in express allusion 
 to the Passover, called by the Apostle a feast. " For 
 even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us ; there- 
 fore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither 
 with the leaven of malice and wickedness ; but with 
 the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."* It is a 
 feast, established to commemorate our deliverance, by 
 the death of Christ, from the bondage of sin, and ex- 
 posure to wrath. Though it is attended with the bit- 
 ter reuiembrance of our own past transgressions, and 
 pensive associations, with the scene of Gethsemane 
 and Calvary, yet is it a joyful feast. In its celebration, 
 Christ, in the efficacy of his atonement, and the riches 
 of his grace, is present to the mind, and dwells in the 
 heart. The bread which is eaten is the visible em- 
 blem of the body which was wounded and broken for 
 our transgressions. The wine which is drunk is the 
 visit)le emblem of the blood which was shed for the 
 remission of our sins. Faith appropriates the virtue of 
 the invisible realities, while the eye, the hand, and the 
 lips, are employed by the significant emblems ; and the 
 soul is refreshed, invigorated, and made joyful in the 
 Lord. 
 
 * 1 Cor. v. 7, 8. 
 
188 
 
 It is also a feast of communion, in which the mem- ■ 
 bers of Christ's family recognize their relation to each 
 other, and their common relation to him. Both the 
 joy and the unity of the feast are referred to by the 
 Apostle, when, addressing the members of the Corin- 
 thian church, he says, "The cup of Wes^m^ which we 
 bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? 
 the bread which we break, is it not the communion of 
 the body of Christ ? For we beiuL^ many are one 
 brc:id, and one body : for we :ire all partakers of that 
 one bread."* All partaking of Christ, they all unite in 
 him. The bond which unites to ihe Head, unites also 
 to the members. All other distinctions, natural, intel- 
 lectual, civil, political, national, — yield before the equal- 
 izmg, yet ennobling, — the sepirating, yet attractive and 
 combining designation, disciple of Christ. There is no 
 longer Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcis- 
 ion. Barbarian, Scythian, l)oiiil nor free ; but Christ to 
 each one is all and in all ; and they all are one in him. 
 At the supper of the Lord, when it is properly observ- 
 ed, thii? union is visibly represented. It is his feast, and 
 it is spread for a I those who constitute, by virtue of 
 their union to him whom the Father has appointed the 
 head of the fam ly. " t!)e household of God." In its 
 celebration, the} bleu.; miu one mass, all earthly dis- 
 tinctions suspended and forj,otten at the table round 
 which they sit, and fron> w iiich they equally partake. 
 
 * 1 Cor. X. 16, 17. 
 
199 
 
 The members of the Corinthian church perverted the 
 supper in both parts of its design. They made it a 
 social and convivial, rather than a spiritual feast ; and 
 therefore it was necessary that they should be remind- 
 ed of the original words of the institution. They par- 
 took of it in parties, one before another, and one con- 
 suming that which should have been equally divided 
 between others. Thus they ate and drank unworthi- 
 ly, not discerning in the elements of the supper the em- 
 blems of the Lord's body ; nor recognizing and repre- 
 senting, in the mode of their communion, the fact, — 
 that in the merit derived from the offering of that 
 body, they all equally, and at the same time, partici- 
 pated. On account of these corruptions which the 
 Apostle reproved, God also was displeased ; and in 
 proof of his displeasure, he made the food of which 
 they thus irreligiously partook, like the quails on which 
 the Israelites fed in the wilderness, produce disease, 
 instead of yielding nutriment. " For this cause" the 
 Apostle tells them, " many are weak and sickly among 
 you, and many sleep."* 
 
 The statements which we have made, relative both 
 to the design of the Lord's supper, and to the popular 
 mode of its celebration in the first Christian churches, 
 receive strong confirmation from the nature of the cor- 
 ruptions which the Apostle reproves, as existing in the 
 mode of its observance in the Corinthian church. 
 
 * 1 Cor. xi. 80. 
 
190 
 
 The corruptions were of that kind, which could easily 
 have been engrafted on the popular celebration of a 
 spiritual feast, into the arrangements of which, the 
 elements of corporeal refreshment, as the symbols of 
 mental enjoyment, were introduced ; but which it 
 would have been impossible so speedily to have con- 
 nected with the official administration of that, which 
 on its institution, still recent, could have been repre- 
 sented as involving a deeply reverential mystery, and 
 the impressive sanctions of a religious vow. It will 
 be remembered, that in planting the church at Co- 
 rinth, the Apostle's personal labours had been employ- 
 ed for nearly two years. In reference to the institu- 
 tion of the supper, he tells them, that he had delivered 
 to them that which he had " received of the Lord ;"* 
 and by immediately adding the words, which the Re- 
 deemer employed in appointing the ritual commemora- 
 tion of his death, but on which occasion Paul himself 
 had not been present, he clearly intimated, that all the 
 particulars which had been connected with that ap- 
 pointment, had been communicated to him by special 
 revelation. During the protracted period of his per- 
 sonal ministry at Corinth, the supper would in all 
 probability, as appears to have been the case at Troas, 
 be observed weekly ; and certainly, whenever observ- 
 ed under the Apostle's own eye, it would be in its 
 original purity. Some time after Paul had left Co- 
 
 * 1 Cor. xi. 23. 
 
191 
 
 rinth, Apollos followed, to water what he had planted. 
 Acquainted, as Apollos must have been, with the 
 mode in which the supper was celebrated in other 
 churches, which the Apostles had formed, it is not 
 probable that any abuses in its observance would have 
 been allowed in the church at Corinth, while its mem- 
 bers enjoyed his ministrations. And yet, in about 
 three years after he himself had Jeft their city, and in 
 less than two years after Apollos had departed, Paul 
 writes his first Epistle to the Corinthians, in which, re- 
 proving them, he says, " in eating, every one taketh 
 before other his own supjjer, and one is hungry, and 
 another is drunken."* Now, though, as the Apostle 
 tells them, this was not in reality to eat the Lord's sup- 
 per, yet it was what they had substituted for it, with- 
 out being themselves alive to the fact, that they had es- 
 sentially altered its character, subverted its design, and 
 vitiated its observance. Could they have been insen- 
 sible to the altaration which they had made in the in- 
 stitution, if on each successive Lord's day, of at least 
 three years, in which it must have been observed in its 
 purity, they had been accustomed to contemplate and 
 receive it, as the deeply mysterious sacrifice of the al- 
 tar ; or even as the efficacious rite, which none but an 
 Apostle, or one succeeding him in priest's orders, could 
 administer to a kneeling recipient ? There must have 
 been enough of the original form and mode of observ- 
 ance remaining, to have rendered it in their estimation 
 
 * 1 Cor. xi. 21. 
 
192 
 
 a continuance of what the Apostle had delivered lo 
 them, and for nearly two years had superintended 
 amongst them ; but then, in the decline of their spiritu- 
 ality and brotherly love, they lost sight of the design 
 of the institution, as well as admitted some culpable 
 innovations in its form, which desecrated its whole 
 character, brought the expressions of divine displeas- 
 ure in supernatural diseases on some of the members 
 of their communion, and stamped an indelible blot up- 
 on the page of their history. Let it be observed also, 
 that no part of the reproof is particularly addressed to 
 those who sustained office in the church, for allowing 
 what, according to modern usages in the observance of 
 this rite, must have been an invasion of their work, 
 and a desecration of mysteries intrusted to their care. 
 The guilt is charged upon those, whom we have repre- 
 sented as sustaining the responsibility in reference to 
 the celebration of the Lord's supper — the members of 
 the church, in their incorporated capacity ; and 1 hey 
 had eaten and drunken unworthily, so as to bring the 
 painful proof of condemnation on their practice, not 
 because they had not reverently received the elements 
 of the supper from the hand of a priest, but because 
 they had not discerned in them the hallowed memo- 
 rials of the Lord's body. 
 
 The same condemnation, and for the same cause, 
 is not perhaps likely to be sulTered again. There is 
 indeed every reason to conclude that the case, in its 
 guilt, and in the mode of punishing that guilt, was 
 
193 
 
 peculiar to the members of the Corinthian church. 
 We read of no other instance, in which the supper of 
 the Lord was so deplorably perverted ; nor, where 
 the New Testament, the written and authoritative 
 standard of Christianity, is possessed, containing the 
 account of its original institution, with the record of 
 this corruption and its consequences, is there any dan- 
 ger of a similar occurrence. So that the fears, which 
 many, under a mistaken view of this passage, — the 
 rendering of which in our authorized version is an 
 unhappy exception to the skill usually displayed by 
 its venerable translators, — haye indulged ; and by 
 which they have been deterred from approaching the 
 table of the Lord, or have been brought into a painful 
 state of uneasiness and apprehension after they have 
 participated, are altogether groundless; and the priestly 
 power over the conscience, which has been fostered 
 by it, is as destitute of any well founded reality, as are 
 the distorted figures of a disturbed and terrific dream. 
 When the Hock of Christ is universally fed, only with 
 the sincere milk of the word, these dreams of terror 
 will be unknown amongst them ; they will see that the 
 Saviour's ordinances do not symbolize with a military 
 oath which leads to bondage, nor with mysteries which 
 are observed with superstitious dread ; but with joyous 
 festivals, which commemorate deliverance from thral- 
 dom, and at which the household slave possesses a 
 privileged equality with the master whom at other 
 
 times he serves. 
 
 18 
 
194 
 
 The Passover had a prospective, and anticipatory 
 reference ; as well as one which was retrospective, 
 and commemorative. In common with every other 
 sacrifice offered under the patriarchal or Jewish dis- 
 pensations, the paschal lamb, first offered when the 
 former was closing, and the latter was just about to 
 be established, prefigured the suffering Messiah. In 
 its subsequent offering through each successive year 
 of the Jewish dispensation, it blended with the com- 
 memoration of the deliverance from Egypt, the antici- 
 panon of his coming in the flesh, who was to fulfil the 
 promises which had been made to their fathers, and 
 accomplish the predictions delivered by their prophets. 
 The design of the Passover, in both points to which 
 it directed, the past, as well as the future, has been 
 completed ; and, like the other rites and festivals of 
 Judaism, it was virtually abrogated at that season of 
 its celebration, when the Saviour, having first eaten 
 of the paschal lamb with his disciples, appointed the 
 bread and wine of the supper to succeed and super- 
 sede it ; and then closed his own expiatory sufferings, 
 which were to deliver from the bondage and condem- 
 nation of sin, by exclaiming, "It is finished!" and 
 giving up the ghost. The festival, as it has been sub- 
 sequently observed by the succeeding generations of 
 the remnant of Abraham's natural descendants, has 
 included neither authority, intelligence, nor joy. They 
 have been unable to assemble for its celebration at 
 the place which God commanded, and have had no 
 
195 
 
 authority to keep it elsewhere. The commemoration 
 of national deliverance, by the scattered and isolated 
 fragments of a people which have had no political ex- 
 istence, but have depended on the disdainful suffer- 
 ance of the nations among which they have wandered, 
 has been an unmeaning, as well as an unauthorized 
 rite. The promises, for the accomplishment of which, 
 according to the interpretation they have given to 
 them, they have been waiting in vain for eighteen 
 centuries under reproach and oppression, associate 
 with their festival the heart-sickening influence of hope 
 deferred, and the desponding contrast between the 
 deliverance once vouchsafed to the cries of their 
 fathers, but denied, as though the ear heard them not, 
 to the more painful cries and groans of successive 
 generations of their sons. Still they cleave with pen- 
 sive and mournful embrace to the shadow of the rite, 
 notwithstanding the substance has so long, so com- 
 pletely, and for ever gone from their sight. Yet not 
 so in the Christian view of the case. It is the shadow 
 only which is gone, the substance remains ; — remains 
 in its two-fold reference, its retrospect to deliverance 
 which has been wrought ; its anticipation of glory, 
 assured in promises and predictions, which is yet to 
 come. "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this 
 cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come:"* till 
 he come ; — to fulfil the most glorious predictions and 
 
 * 1 Cor. xi, 26. 
 
196 
 
 promises which the New Testament contains ; — to 
 consummate all the arrangements of his providence, 
 and the dispensations of his grace, from the beginning 
 of the world to the end of time ; — to confirm, in his 
 judicial work, the truth of every declaration which 
 the entire volume of his word includes ; — to exhibit 
 the a<;orregate result of the labours of his servants in 
 all ages of the world, of the travail of his own soul, 
 and of the important and extended engagements of 
 his intercessory work ; — to manifest the splendour of 
 his own personal glory, and the completeness of the 
 redeemed family of which he is the head, in their open 
 acknowledgment before an assembled universe, as the 
 sons of God. 
 
 Twice every day was the blessing pronounced in 
 the Jewish temple on the people who there offered 
 their worship, by the priests, who in succession carried 
 the censer, and presented it on the altar of incense 
 which was before the vail. There were, however, 
 special occasions on which the blessing was pro- 
 nounced with more than ordinary solemnity. On (he 
 day of annual atonement, when the High Priest him- 
 self officiated, and went within the vail to sprinkle the 
 blood, and present the incense at the mercy-seat which 
 was illumined by the visible glory of the divine pres- 
 ence, the multitude assembled on that occasion from 
 all parts of the land, waited with deepest anxiety, and 
 earnest expectation, for the proof of the acceptance of 
 the work which the priest had gone out of their sight 
 
197 
 
 to discharge, in his return, as the messenger of the 
 Lord of hosts unto them. At length, when he had 
 accompUshed every part of the ritual which was con- 
 nected with the putting away of sin, and in perform- 
 inff which he had worn the white linen vestments, 
 which, because they were emblematic of purity, were 
 called holy garments, — putting these off in the taber- 
 nacle, which no man but himself was allovi^ed to enter 
 while the atonement was being made — the. priest ar- 
 rayed himself in his splendid pontifical garments, and 
 came forth to a people cleansed from their sins by the 
 rites which he had discharged, to respond to the 
 awakened emotions and excited expectations of their 
 hearts, by pronouncing the appointed blessing upon 
 them. So Christ, our Priest and sacrifice, having 
 been once offered to bear the sin of many, and having 
 subsequently gone within the vail to intercede for 
 those who come to God by him, — " to them that look 
 for him, shall he also appear the second time, without 
 sin unto salvation." While engaged in his work with- 
 in the vail, he daily enriches with the blessings of his 
 grace, those who present their constant services through 
 him ; but when he comes forth to perfect the salva- 
 tion of his assembled people, cleansed entirely and for 
 ever from their sins, it will be by enthroning them 
 with himself in glory. 
 
 Including its prospective, as well as its retrospec- 
 tive reference, how many circumstances conspire to 
 give interest to the celebration of the supper of the 
 
 18* 
 
198 
 
 Lord ! The authority of the Redeemer's command ; 
 — the deeply interesting circumstances under which 
 that command was given ; — the review of sins which 
 are past, and of the yoke of their bondage which is 
 broken ; — the remembrance of the curse which im- 
 pended, and the contemplation of the sufferings by 
 which that curse has been removed ; — the possession 
 of peace and pardon, hope and joy, all derived from 
 the body and the blood, which by the simple elements 
 of the supper are brought before the mind ; — the re- 
 ciprocation of fraternal sympathies, which, while they 
 more immediately embrace the brotherhood assem- 
 bled, extend in wider range to the whole family in 
 earth and in heaven ; — the showing forth to the world 
 of Christ's death until he come, of the attraction which 
 is felt in it, and the reliance which is placed upon it ; 
 — the looking for his second coming, without sin unto 
 salvation ; — the anticipation of being called to sit down 
 with him to the marriage supper of the Lamb, when 
 he will present the whole church unto himself, as a 
 bride adorned for her husband, a glorious church, not 
 having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; — with the 
 whole of these impressive transactions, which involve 
 in them every event important and exciting to the 
 soul in time or eternity, the supper of the Lord is in- 
 timately associated ; and they combine to render its 
 intelligent observance the most interesting, elevating, 
 and joyful solemnity, which men were ever called to 
 celebrate. 
 
199 
 
 The direct line of argument, by which we have en- 
 deavoured to estabhsh the proposition, that Christ is 
 the only but all-sufficient Priest of the Christain 
 church, has been the following : That the priesthood, 
 which the prediction of David, and the writings of 
 Paul, declared to have been the explicit type of the or- 
 der of that which Christ sustains, was exclusive in its 
 character ; admitting neither associates, subordinates, 
 nor transmission from hand to hand, but discharged by 
 one individual, who was supreme and alone in all the 
 functions and honours of the office. That though an- 
 other priesthood, of a different order, had been subse- 
 quently officiating in its successive generations, by di- 
 vine appointment, for fifteen centuries, yet the testi- 
 mony which was given to the person and the mission 
 of Christ, was amply sufficient to demonstrate him to 
 be the priest after the order of Melchisedec, by whom 
 the order of Aaron was to be superseded and abolish- 
 ed. That his call to the office, though after another 
 order, was like that of Aaron, clearly given, and ex- 
 pressly recorded, with the accompanying declaration, 
 that none could take the honour of the priesthood up- 
 on themselves, without a call equally definite and ex- 
 plicit. That as the race of Aaron is extinct, and no 
 order of priests at present existing in the world can 
 show a call from God to the office, corresponding with 
 that which the race of Aaron possessed ; it follows, 
 not merely that Christ is the only Priest of the Chris- 
 tian church, but also, that he is the only Priest, offici- 
 
200 
 
 ating for men by divine authority, in the universe of 
 God. 
 
 We stated, that the fact of liis sole appointment by 
 the Father, necessarily involves the all-sufficiency of 
 his work ; inasmuch as the honour of the divine per- 
 fections would be compromised, if the person appoint- 
 ed were not fully competent to the discharge of the 
 whole work, which was committed exclusively to him ; 
 but that the proof of the all-sufficiency of his priestly 
 work admitted of interesting amplification, and lucid 
 exhibition. — 1. In the perfection of the atoning sacri- 
 fice which he offered ; — that sacrifice having been pre- 
 figured by the presentation on the Jewish altar, and for 
 the whole of the people, of the one lamb every morn- 
 ing and every evening, called therefore the continual 
 burnt-offering ; which type was embodied and superse- 
 ded, when Christ was once offered as " a lamb without 
 blemish and without spot." The continual burnt-ofier- 
 ing derived whatever importance or virtue it possessed, 
 from the purposed sacrifice of Christ, which it was ap- 
 pointed to typify ; and which including, in conse- 
 quence of the union of Deity and humanity in his per- 
 son, inherent and divine perfection, can admit of no 
 limit to the power or range of its application ; — must 
 by its once offering, for ever, exclusively, but effica- 
 ciously avail, to take away sin. — 2. In the prevalence 
 and perpetuity of the intercession, which he has gone 
 within the vail to make, for those who come to God 
 by him ; that intercession having been anticipated and 
 
201 
 
 referred to in the declaration that the sacrifice which 
 Noah offered had come up as a sweet smelling savour, 
 and supplied a reason for making a covenant of peace 
 with the earth, though man's continued guilt and re- 
 newed apostacy was foreseen ; and having been pre- 
 figured by the censer of fragrant incense, which, as an 
 associated part of the continual burnt offering, was 
 presented morning and evening in the Jewish temple, 
 at the time when the people, in every part of the land, 
 were presejiting their supplications to God. We quo- 
 ted the description which John gave of the transac- 
 tions of the celestial temple, as in vision they were 
 presented to his eye ; and which connects the work 
 which was performed by the priest who burned the in- 
 cense in the Jewish sanctuary, with the work which 
 Christ discharges in heaven, to secure the acceptance 
 of the prayers of all saints. We showed, that the prev- 
 alancy of his work, as Intercessor, arises — from the 
 perfect representation which he gives of our nature, in 
 the spotless body that he offered up as our sacrifice ; 
 and in which, while the Father acknowledged him as 
 his beloved Son, he declared himself to sustain towards 
 us the relation of friend and brother ; — from the om- 
 niscience of his eye, by which he is enabled distinctly 
 to survey, fully to comprehend, and in one act of rep- 
 resentation clearly to exhibit, the wants and circum- 
 stances of all those who come to God by him ; — from 
 the compassion of his heart, which, having experienced 
 the deepest and most varied emotions of sorrow and 
 
202 
 
 anguish, under diversified and accumulated sufferings, 
 while he tabernacled in our world, is touched with the 
 feeling of our infirmities, and sympathizes in all the dis- 
 tresses which we are called to endure ; — and from the 
 fullness and variety of the blessings which on his en- 
 tering heaven in our nature he received, for the pur- 
 pose of enriching his disciples, extending his kingdom, 
 and bringing ultimately all the nations and families of 
 the earth under his righteous, peaceful and beneficent 
 sway. 
 
 Other points, subordinate to the principal argument, 
 yet subservient to the general design of the work, and 
 conclusive against the claims and ritual observances of 
 those who have assumed to themselves the office in 
 the church which belongs only to Christ, have also 
 been developed. The Jewish hierai-chy, according to 
 the model of which, it has been assumed, that other 
 hierarchies which exist in the Christian church have 
 been formed, derived its splendour and power to in- 
 terest and impress, not from the lengthened gradation 
 of its orders, nor the extended ramifications of its 
 members, spread through the country to discharge 
 their official rites ; but from the concentration of its 
 services into one place, and that place the special resi- 
 dence which God had chosen for the manifestation of 
 his presence and glory ; while amongst its members, 
 with the solitary exception of the high priest's succes- 
 sor, advancement to superior revenue or dignity was 
 unknown. The whole hierarchy, in the succession of 
 
its respective courses, served at but one altar of burnt- 
 offering, and one altar of incense ; on the latter, but 
 one censer at a time could be presented ; and that on- 
 ly at the hour of morning or evening sacrifice, when, 
 on the former, the one lamb of the continual burnt-of- 
 fering was consuming; to represent the connexion 
 between the altars, and the rites coincident in time, 
 which were performed respectively upon them, the in- 
 cense upon the one could be enkindled only by fire 
 which was taken from the other. These rites having 
 been abolished, for altar, censer, or incense, in the ser- 
 vice of God elsewhere upon earth, authority there is 
 none. The people could derive and enjoy the effica- 
 cy of the rites which the priests were discharging in 
 the temple, when they presented their daily prayers at 
 a distance from it, and without the material represen- 
 tation of any object which was employed in religious 
 worship ; as well as when they were present three 
 times in the year, at the place where the sacrifice was 
 offered, and the priest with the smoking censer of in- 
 cense went to present it before the vail : so that ne- 
 cessity for priest, or sacrifice, or any other material 
 object present to the eye to assist the mind in the 
 worship of God, cannot be shown to exist, until it can 
 be demonstrated, that Christianity is more carnal in its 
 ordinances than was Judaism itself As the rites 
 which were discharged in the Jewish temple, were 
 types of what Christ in his priestly office perfectly 
 performs ; so the place of service itself, was typical of 
 
204 
 
 the true sanctuary in heaven, into which he has enter- 
 ed for us ; and nothing, corresponding either with the 
 ritual, or the place of service, can again be established 
 upon earth, without an invasion of Christ's office, and 
 an intrusion on his work. When Nadab and Abihu 
 kindled the incense in their censers with common and 
 unauthorized fire, they were consumed ; when Korah 
 and his company attempted to intrude into the sacer- 
 dotal office, which w^as committed exclusively to 
 Aaron and his sons, they were destroyed ; and when 
 the rulers of the Roman empire gave political estab- 
 lishment and endowment to those who had usurped 
 the priestly office which Christ only is called to dis- 
 charge ; he cast his disregarded censer upon the 
 world, in which rulers and priests had conspired to 
 desecrate his religion, by making it subservient to the 
 mutual advancement of their worldly designs ; and 
 woes, instead of blessings, followed the much lauded 
 alliance between the mitre and the diadem, the (iltar 
 and the throne. When the Christian church was 
 opened, which is at length to receive into its bosom 
 all the nations of the earth, they were persons and not 
 places, which were consecrated by the fire descending 
 from heaven ; they were the spiritual sacrifices pre- 
 sented by the tongue, which were authenticated as 
 acceptable to God through Jesus Christ the only Priest, 
 and not the sacrifice of the altar, ignorantly pretended 
 to be by a mysterious transubstantiation, converted in- 
 to the renewed oblation of the very body and blood of 
 
205 
 
 Christ himself. The one baptism, which makes us 
 members of Christ's body, and is, therefore, essential 
 to salvation, is not the administration of water to the 
 flesh, by the hand of man ; but the application of the 
 blood of sprinkling to the conscience, by the power of 
 the Holy Spirit, who then makes the body his temple, 
 that he may purify it for God's service, while he raises 
 the soul from glory to glory, in transforming it into the 
 image of Christ, And when the Saviour established 
 the ritual commemoration of his death, he gave it to 
 his disciples in general, in their incorporate capacity, 
 as churches, to observe ; that by its universal and 
 popular celebration, they might, wherever but two or 
 three of them should be found, show forth his death 
 till he come. But if these considerations are not 
 deemed sufficient to subvert the pretensions of an offi- 
 cial priesthood, and with them, the foundations of the 
 anti-christian system of the Romish church, every part 
 of which is cemented together by the work of a priest, 
 we think that others, still more conclusive, will arise 
 out of the third, and completory part of our work. 
 
 19 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 PART 111. 
 
PART III. 
 
 THE LEVITICAL TERMS EMPLOYED IN THE NEW 
 TESTAMENT, WHICH DO NOT APPLY EXCLUSIVE- 
 LY TO CHRIST, BELONG EdUALLY TO ALL TRUE 
 CHRISTIANS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 THE DES1GNA.TI0N GIVEN BY P-ETER TO THE MEMBERS 
 GENERALLY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, CORRESPONDS 
 WITH THE DECLARATION OF MOSES TO THE JEWS, THAT 
 THEY SHOULD BE A " KINGD03I OF PRIESTS." 
 
 The passage of the New Testament, in which Levitic- 
 al terms are most remarkably and decisively employ- 
 ed in reference to any other individual than Christ, is 
 found in the First Epistle of Peter. It is Peter, whose 
 pretended successors have contrived to exalt them- 
 selves to the throne, and to trample the people in the 
 dust, who tells the strangers of the circumcision which 
 were scattered abroad, what, as there is in the Christian 
 church no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, ap- 
 plies equally to all ; that Christ, not himself, is the rock 
 19* 
 
210 
 
 of the church, and they all, "as lively stones, are built 
 up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up 
 spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus 
 Christ."* And again : " But ye are a chosen gene- 
 ration, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar 
 people ; that ye should show forth the praises of him 
 who hath called you out of darkness into his marvel- 
 lous light. Which in time past were not a people, but 
 are now the people of God ; which had not obtained 
 mercy, but now have obtained mercy. "f 
 
 It will be remembered in illustration of Peters 
 meaning in these words, that a very similar declara- 
 tion had been made to the Jewish people shortly after 
 God had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt 
 and had taken them under his own immediate guid- 
 ance and care. " And Moses went up unto God, and 
 the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying. 
 Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell 
 the children of Israel ; Ye have seen what I did unto 
 the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagle's wings, 
 and brought you unto myself Now, therefore, if ye 
 will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, 
 then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all 
 people : for all the earth is mine : and ye shall be unto 
 me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These 
 are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children 
 of Israel"! 
 
 * 1 Pet. ii. 5. t 1 Pet. ii. 9, 10. + Exod. xix. 3—6. 
 
2H 
 
 It will be obvious to every individual who compares 
 these passages of Holy Scripture together, that they 
 are parallel to each other. If Peter does not quote 
 precisely the words which Moses was commissioned to 
 employ to the Jewish people, the correspondence be- 
 tween the passages is yet so close, as to render it cer- 
 tain, that they were before his mind ; and that he felt 
 himself inspired to deliver a similar communication to 
 the members of the Christain church. As an Apostle 
 of Christ, however, he stood on more elevated ground 
 than did Moses ; his eye took a wider range ; and his 
 lips describe a dignity and privilege, corresponding 
 with the superior spirituality, elevation, and glory of 
 the Christian dispensation. But in this respect, that is 
 first which is natural, and afterwards that which is spir- 
 itual. That also is more obvious which is natural, and 
 its consideration will assist us in rising to that which is 
 spiritual. The historical narratives, as well as the typ- 
 ical institutions of Judiasm, may in this way be made 
 subservient to our instruction. Through the interest- 
 ing and attractive medium of facts which are clear to 
 every eye, and level to every understanding ; which in 
 common with all other historical events appeal to the 
 sympathies of our nature ; and which have an addition- 
 al charm derived from their marvellous, their super- 
 natural, their miraculous character ; we may be led 
 into the easy apprehension of spiritual truth, and be 
 enabled, as with a palpable grasp, to lay hold on Chris- 
 tian principle. Let us then go back to the words 
 
212 
 
 which were delivered by Moses to the children of 
 Israel, and show in what respects they were embodied 
 in the facts of their history ; und then we shall find a 
 solid basis on which to rest our interpretation of Peter, 
 and on which to raise a superstructure harmonious in 
 its proportions, and sufficiently capacious to include 
 the whole Israel of God. 
 
 Be it premised, that in what was official in the 
 priesthood, in what pertained to the ministry at the 
 altar, to the offi^ring of sacrifices for sin, to the sprink- 
 ling of blood, to the presentation of incense, there 
 could be no participation on the part of the people. 
 Out of these services, from the highest to the lowest, 
 they were decisively, and perpetually excluded. When 
 therefore, Uzziah, elated by the prosperity which had 
 attended his protracted reign, resolved to try whether 
 he might not associate the sacerdotal with the regal 
 office ; and took a censer, and went into the temple to 
 present it upon the altar of incense ; he was struck 
 with a leprosy, which compelled him to hasten from 
 the place into which he had intruded, and to dwell 
 apart from the congregation, cut off from the house of 
 the Lord, during the remainder of his life. 
 
 Now an enlightened individual, instead of desiring, 
 like Uzziah, to participate with the priests in what was 
 merely official, and for the discharge of which, in a 
 lineal descendant of Aaron, the absence of corporeal 
 defects was the only essential qualification, would 
 rather, like David, have been anxious to participate 
 
213 
 
 with them in what was intellectual, moral, and spirit- 
 ual ; in that which is the firm and undecaying basis of 
 true elevation, the sweet fountain of perpetual enjoy- 
 ment. Here the participation was thrown open to all, 
 and he might rise the highest in dignity and blessedness, 
 whose meditations were most constant in God's law, and 
 whose obedience was most exemplary to its precepts. 
 How far David had advanced may be learned from his 
 own words, which were employed, not ostentatiously 
 before his fellow-men, but devotionally and gratefully 
 in the retirement of his closet before God. "O how love 
 I thy law ! it is my meditation all the day. Thou through 
 thy commandments hast made me wiser than my ene- 
 mies : for they are ever with me. I have more under- 
 standing than all my teachers : for thy testimonies^are 
 my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, 
 because I keep thy precepts."* We are prepared then, 
 by this developement of David's experience, to under- 
 stand, that in knowledi^e, and in separation to the ser- 
 vice of God, by keeping his precepts, an individual, 
 arid if one individual any multitude of individuals pos- 
 sessing similar religious advantages, may become as a 
 company, — as a kingdom of priests. Under these 
 two aspects, this part of our general subject will, we 
 trust, unfold itself clearly to the view, — will be seen 
 to harmonize with the statements of the preceding 
 parts, and will closely entwine itself with them, in the 
 accordance and strength of a three-fold cord, not easily 
 to be broken. 
 
 * Psalm cxix. 97—100. 
 
SECTION II. 
 
 IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, WHICH IS THE BASIS OF ALL 
 TRUE RELIGION, THE JEWISH PEOPLE, WHEN THET 
 WERE OBEDIENT, WERE A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, AND 
 CHRISTIAN PEOPLE ARE A HOLT PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 It will be remembered, that at the period when 
 God delivered the Jews from the bondage of Egypt, 
 the knowledge of himgelf as the one living and true 
 God, was nearly obliterated from the earth. How 
 little men are to be trusted with the oral perpetuation 
 of any thing which relates to God and his service, ap- 
 pears from the fact, that this first element of religious 
 truth, though it was entitled, in antiquity and authori- 
 ty, to hold the highest place, having been communica- 
 ted clear and full, from each successive fountain of 
 human existence — Adam and Noah ; though it was 
 professed and taught, in their respective generations, 
 by patriarchs of high renown ; though it was declared 
 from day to day by the heavenly bodies, in the regu- 
 larity and harmony of their movements, and the unity 
 of design apparent in the one great system which they 
 compose ; was yet, — by those who, in time and place, 
 were contiguous to the patriarchs, who made the heav- 
 
215 
 
 ens their study, and who boasted of their wisdom, — 
 either altogether unknown, or, what is worse, practic- 
 ally denied, and systematically excluded from the at- 
 tention of the people. To none more fully than to the 
 Egyptians, amongst -whom the arts and sciences were 
 cradled, and, as recent investigations demonstrate, 
 were reared nearer to maturity than had once been 
 supposed, do the. statements of the Apostle, when wri- 
 ting to the Romans, apply : " Because that, when they 
 knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were 
 thankful ; but became vain in their imaginations, and 
 their foolish heart was darkened. Professing them- 
 selves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the 
 glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like 
 to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, 
 and creeping things."* 
 
 That generation of the Israelites which God deliver- 
 ed from Egypt, carried with them, together with many 
 of the vices which slavery generates, the infection of 
 the idolatries by which, in the land of their bondage, 
 they had been encompassed. This circumstance 
 formed one reason why they were not immediately 
 conducted by the direct and trodden route to the land 
 of promise. It was necessary that they should be pu- 
 rified from the contagion of idolatry themselves, and 
 be fully instructed in the knowledge of God, before 
 they were led onward to dispossess the guilty nations 
 
 * Rom. i. 21—23. 
 
916 
 
 which defiled the land, in which Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, had once built their altars to the Lord. In the 
 process of purification, nearly the whole of those who 
 had grown to maturity in Egypt passed away ; and it 
 was the generation which had been trained in the 
 wilderness, cut off from all other nations, whether bar- 
 barous or refined, enjoying the institutions of God's ap- 
 pointment, and beholding daily the displays of his pow- 
 er and goodness in their miraculous supply, -which was 
 made meet to enter the land which had been promised, 
 and enjoy it as their settled possession. And if obedi- 
 ence to God is the best proof of being enlightened in 
 the knowledge of him, they gave practical demonstra- 
 tion of their intelligence and illumination. "And 
 Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all 
 the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which 
 had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done 
 for Israel."* The period of the Jewish history which 
 they filled up, is therefore subsequently referred to in 
 language peculiarly bold and expressive : " Go and cry 
 in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord ; 
 I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love 
 of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the 
 wilderness, in the land that was not sown. Israel was 
 holiness unto th^ Lord, and the first-fruits of his in- 
 crease."! The whole people, then, at this period, 
 whether compared with the Egyptians whom they had 
 
 * Josh. xxiv. 31. -j- Jer. ii. 2, 3. 
 
^17 
 
 left behind, or with the Canaanites whom they were 
 about to dispossess, resembled, being enlightened in 
 the knowledge of God, " a kingdom of priests." 
 
 And means were taken to perpetuate this national 
 religious superiority ; to render the Jews, occupying, 
 as they did, a central situation among the rising em- 
 pires of the earth, the light of the world, the people 
 enjoying, and diffusing around them, the knowledge of 
 the true God. Oral communication had been cor- 
 rupted. The stream of tradition, clear as crystal in 
 its origin, had, by the successive influx of its channel 
 of every species of earthly admixture, entirely lost its 
 original character ; and as it rolled on through the re- 
 gions of the earth increasing in population, instead of 
 discharging its feculence, became the common recep- 
 tacle of every thing which was impure. Science had 
 lent its power to arrange and systematize the rude and 
 shapeless materials of the popular idolatry ; to com- 
 mend it to the patronage of sovereigns and statesmen ; 
 to enthrone it in gorgeous temples ; to invest it with 
 the mantle of venerable sages, the fascinations of geni- 
 us, and the blandishments of senual delight. What 
 tradition had failed to pres^erve, and recreant science 
 had proved itself rather unwilling and unable to re- 
 store, was now embodied in a written revelation, in 
 pages which were invested with the attribute of im- 
 mortality; in oracles which might be disregarded, but 
 which could never be bribed, nor corrupted, nor si- 
 lenced. To the Jews were committed these oracles 
 
 20 
 
218 ♦ 
 
 of God ; and, at whatever period of their history they 
 listened and were obedient to them, they became, in 
 comparison with their neighbours around them, "a 
 kingdom of priests." They had amongst them the 
 hght which could never be totally extinguished, and 
 which occasionally shone with a radiance which pene- 
 trated the surrounding regions of darkness, and pro- 
 duced the cheerful anticipation of the dawn of an uni- 
 versal day. 
 
 There were, however, two circumstances, each of 
 which, in a different period of the Jewish historVr cir- 
 cumscribed the advantages, which from the Scriptures 
 might have been derived. Prior to the captivity in 
 Babylon, by which the vice was effectually cured, it 
 was the proneness of the people to adopt the idolatrous 
 rites and customs of their neighbours, because of the 
 indulgence which in them was afforded to the corrupt 
 propensities of their nature. Subsequent to the cap- 
 tivity, and as a consequence of it, it was the corruption 
 of their language which rendered the pure Hebrew of 
 the sacred text obsolete, and to the mass of the people 
 scarcely intelhgible ; affording an opportunity for the 
 introduction of false glosses and delusive traditions. 
 Against these, the whole course of the Saviour's per- 
 sonal ministry was directed ; and it was the obstinate 
 adherence of the people, their teachers, and their ru- 
 lers, to them, which induced them to unite in rejecting 
 and crucifying their Prophet and King. Still, at this 
 darkest period of their history^ there were a few^who. 
 
219 
 
 like Nathanael, were Israelites indeed, in whom was 
 no guile ; who saw in Christ, the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness whose rising was foretold by Malachi ; walked in 
 the light which he diftused ; and, knowing the true 
 God, and Jesus Christ, whom he had sent, wore more 
 worthy the title of priests of the Lord, than were those 
 who at that time officiated in the temple, which they 
 had converted into a house of nierchmdize and a den 
 of thieves. 
 
 Closely analogous to the circumstances of that gene- 
 tion, which was trained in the knowledge of God in 
 the wilderness, were the circumstances of the first con- 
 verts to the Christian faith. Christ, the true Passover, 
 had been sacrificed for them. Deliverance from the 
 condemnation and bondage of sin by his death, had 
 been eOected. A more enlarged and perfect revela- 
 tion of the truth of God, than the world had ever be- 
 fore enjoyed, was vouchsafed. A new covenant, the 
 substance of which was, " I will put my laws into their 
 minds, and write them in their liearts ; and I will be 
 to them a God, and they shall be to me a people," 
 was introduced. A new ministry, to gather the sheep 
 into the fold, the ministry of reconciliation, was estab- 
 lished. New shepherds to watch over them and feed 
 them when gathered into the fold, pastors and teach- 
 ers, w«re appointed. They were fed, not with tradi- 
 tions and foolish genealogies, and old wives' fables, but 
 with the "sincere milk of the word." They were 
 employed, not in repeating paternosters and avemarias, 
 
220 
 
 and in counting by the beads of the rosary the number 
 of their vain repetitions; but in spiritual exercises, 
 which were refreshing and invigorating to the spirit, 
 and which were worthy the character of those, who 
 were renewed " after the image of God, in knowledge 
 and true holiness." Their knowledge was not to be 
 stationary, confined within the narrow but perplexing 
 labyrinths of creeds and acts of councils ; but to be 
 progressive, through all the length and breadth, and 
 depth and height, in which the love of Christ and the 
 range of his truth extended, and in which they were 
 to increase, till they were filled with all the fulness of 
 God. For their advance to higher degrees of spiritual 
 intelligence, they were directed, not to the members 
 of a hierarchy, by whom every thing has been fixed 
 and settled according to their own inclinations, and 
 for their own aggrandizement and despotic power over 
 the conscience ; but to God the Father of lights, who 
 giveth wisdom liberally, to all who ask him, and up- 
 braideth not. Even those of their teachers who were 
 inspired, and invested with the highest authority in 
 the church which ever was intrusted to men; disclaim- 
 ed the desire to exercise dominion over dieir faith, but 
 wished rather to be helpers of their joy. If, as good 
 stewards of the mysteries of God, they unfolded those 
 things which had been hidden from ages which were 
 past, and which angels desired to look into ; as men, 
 who felt that the treasure was in earthen vessels, and 
 that the excellency of the power which transferred it 
 
221 
 
 to others was of God, and not of themselves, they 
 bowed the knee daily before him, on behalf of those to 
 whom they ministered, to entreat for them the spirit 
 of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. 
 Nor were their prayers presented in vain. The peo- 
 ple received an unction from the Holy One, and knew 
 all the truth as it is in Jesus. They were brought out 
 of darkness into marvellous light. They became, in 
 the possession and diffusion around them of the knowl- 
 edge of God, an enlightened and holy priesthood. 
 The church, at this period of its history, was the pillar 
 and ground of truth ; the basis, as broad as the boun- 
 daries which embraced the great mass of its members ; 
 the pillar, as firm as their united strength could make 
 it. It was a pillar of light, from which was held forth 
 to the world around, in living, lucid, radiant charac- 
 ters, " the word of life." 
 
 That it was not an empty compliment, an unmean- 
 ing epithet, which Peter applied to the church when 
 he called its members a holy and a royal priesthood, 
 and Paul, when he called it the pillar and ground of 
 truth, is evident from the fact, that the members of 
 the church at Jerusalem were associated with the el- 
 ders and Apostles, in the council which was convened 
 to determine the question which had arisen respecting 
 circumcision. After there had been much disputing, 
 Peter rose up and gave his decision upon the case. 
 When he had concluded, then all tlie multitude kept 
 silence, aiid gave audience to Barnabas and Saul. And 
 20* 
 
222 
 
 after they had held iheir peace, James connects with 
 the facts of the case, as they had been stated by his 
 brethren who preceded him, the predictions which 
 had been given before respecting them, and dehvers 
 the conclusion to which it behoved them to come. 
 Then, all hearts and voices being united in one judg- 
 ment, " it pleased the apostles and elders, with the 
 whole church, to send chosen men of their own com- 
 jwny to Antioch, with P.aul and Barnabas ; namely, 
 Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among 
 the brethren : And they wrote letters by them after 
 this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren 
 send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gen- 
 tiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia."* 
 
 The manner in which these letters were indited, 
 has not been recorded without design. Inspired Apos- 
 tles could associate themselves, in a solemn act of de- 
 liberation and legislation, with the brethren of the 
 church. Those who presume that they possess much 
 more authority than the Apostles can be shewn to 
 hare exercised ; who can absolve from all sins ; who 
 can confer the Holy Ghost ; who can decree rites and 
 ceremonies, which, on peril of excommunication, the 
 people are bound to receive, would, as may reasona- 
 bly be supposed, deem it an affront offered to their 
 dignity, to suggest the association with them, in their 
 councils or convocations, of the brethren of the church ; 
 
 * Acts XV. 22, 23. 
 
— so much have the people subsequently sunk, or the 
 teachers, though uninspired, subsequently risen. 
 
 It will be admitted, by all who understand the na- 
 ture of the apostolic commission, that the Apostles 
 themselves were fully competent to determine the 
 question which was brought before the council, with- 
 out the co-operation either of people or elders ; that 
 their decision would have been binding ; and that it 
 could, were any disposed to cavil or reject, have been 
 decisively and effectually enforced. But then, actual 
 strength and firmly-settled authority are usually blend- 
 ed \\ ith consideration, forbearance, condescension, in- 
 difl'ercnce to form and punctilio, generous concession, 
 liberal satisfaction and pleasure in the exercise of 
 courtesy, the infusion of confidence, the reciprocation 
 of regard. On the other hand, usurpation, especially 
 ecclesiastical, is uniformly jealous of its dignity ; care- 
 fully withdrawn from familiar intercourse with the 
 people, and encompassed with mysterious forms, in- 
 spiring awe and humble deference ; stern and prompt 
 in its suppression of every effort of the free-born mind ; 
 lordly in its gait ; distant and repulsive in its demean- 
 our ; and armed with fearful anathemas, and the power 
 of direful excommunications, to punish the " wicked 
 errors" of those who venture to impugn the foundation 
 of its titles, decrees, or authority. 
 
 Had the spirit of the Apostles been uniformly 
 breathed by those who have called themselves their 
 successors, schism and dissent would have been things 
 
224 
 
 of but rare occurrence in the church. But by how 
 much legitimate authority has been wanting, by so 
 much has the lording it over God's heritage increased 
 and abounded. Indeed that which was known as the 
 heritage, which constituted in apostolic times the 
 church, is now scarcely recognized as forming a com- 
 ponent part of it. The term has been diverted from 
 its original application, and is most commonly employ- 
 ed in a sense in which it never occurs, to which it nev- 
 er approximates in the pages of the New Testament. 
 It has at length, in general usage, come to stand, not 
 for the people who were wont to compose the church, 
 but for the hierarchy, which ministers and rules in it. 
 So that to confide in the church, is to believe whatev- 
 er the hierarchy has settled and determined to be or- 
 thodox and true ; to submit to the church, is to be obe- 
 dient to what the hierarchy enjoins ; to be liberal to 
 the church, is to increase the temporalities of the 
 members of the hierarchy ; to be grateful for the ad- 
 vantages derived from the church, is to be thankful for 
 the varied offices which the members of the hierarchy 
 are appointed to perform. It never occurs to the peo- 
 ple, in their simplicity, that if things were as they 
 should be, and as, in apostolic times, they were wont 
 to be, Christ, and not the church, would be the great 
 object of faith and confidence ; the unfettered Scrip- 
 tures, and not human creeds and decrees of councils, 
 would be the authoritative guide and rule of faith ; — 
 that, instead of a hierarchy towering in secular dignity 
 
225 
 
 over them, there would be only pastors and teachers 
 watching for their souls, as those who must give ac- 
 count of the charge which the great Shepherd has in- 
 trusted to them ; and that they, submitting to all the 
 ordinances of Christ, would be themselves the church ; 
 incorporated by voluntary and grateful obedience to 
 the laws of Christ, not by constrained obedience to 
 the civil, and, in religious aftairs, unauthorized appoint- 
 ments of men. There has obviously been a two-fold 
 ecclesiastical usurpation committed ; an usurpation of 
 the people's incorporated title, as well as of Christ's 
 exclusive office ; so that, strange to say, the members 
 of the hierarchy are the priests and the church also ! 
 
 The keys of Peter, under the skilful management of 
 his successors, have been made to open every door, 
 ancient or modern ; royal, aristocratical, or plebeian ; 
 patriarchal or pagan ; Jewish or Christian ; within 
 which any title, dignity, or treasure could be found ; — 
 and the spoils from every quarter, and from every age ; 
 all diverse, all prodigious things, have been brought to- 
 gether, as was meet, to be laid at the feet of him who 
 is Chrst's vicar upon earth. Could one of the ancient 
 patriarchs revisit the world, he would find that the 
 race to which he belonged is not yet extinct : and 
 were he to inquire for the chief patriarch at present 
 existing, he would be directed to his residence at 
 Rome. Could Aaron arise from his grave on mount 
 Hor, and undertake a pilgrimage to the same place, 
 he would find that there is still a high priest, arrayed 
 
226 
 
 in vestments more splendid than he ever wore ; and 
 children owning him for their sire, more numerous than 
 descended from his loins. Could Moses follow in the 
 steps of his brother, he would find a legislator, claim- 
 ing powers more extensive than he ever possessed ; 
 and behold him assisted by his seventy elders, the car- 
 dinals, determining all questions which are too hard 
 for ordinary judicatories to decide. Could the pagan 
 Numa rise up from his urn, he would find his Pontifex 
 Maximus still in office, and the college of subordinates 
 still dependent upon him ; and were he to accompany 
 them to the respective temples in which they officiate, 
 and observe the numerous statues and altars, and smo- 
 king censers around ; he might bless himself, that, 
 though names had altered, and temples and ceremonies 
 a little increased, yet, that the substantial parts of the 
 service were much the same as when he fell asleep in 
 the city, which, by religious rites, he had attempted to 
 refine ; and that he had been happy enough to estab- 
 lish a perpetual priesthood. And were any of the 
 humble brethren of Judea, who were present at the 
 council which was held to settle the question about cir- 
 cumcision, to come forth from their graves, and in- 
 quire for the church — the church, which could meet 
 and deliberate, and send forth messengers and letters 
 to the brethren in other cities, they also must go to 
 Rome ; for no where else in the Romish communion 
 could they find a church that can perform the func- 
 tions which belonged to that with which they were 
 
227 
 
 once connected. But there, although their knowledge 
 of Peter had been intimate and familiar, they would 
 seek admission to his successor, and to the delibera- 
 tions of the church which is now under his exclusive 
 care, altogether in vain. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, in the histoiy of the delu- 
 sions of which the human mind may become the sub- 
 ject, that, just in proportion as ecclesiastical men have 
 succeeded in subverting the constitution of the church, 
 have they also succeeded in possessing the public mind 
 with the idea, that what they designate their church, 
 is purely apostohc in its substance and form. Those 
 who eulogize the Church of England as being the 
 only church purely apostolic in its constitution and 
 character, and who can scarcely allow that safety or 
 rational piety are to be found out of her pale, should 
 be prepared, before they give those up to the uncov- 
 enanted mercies of God who separate from her com- 
 munion, to shew us in what that which is the object of 
 their glory and tower of their confidence and safety 
 substantially consists. Were we to admit that our be- 
 loved sovereign has the same right to be head of the 
 church as he has to be possessor of the throne ; which 
 we hesitate to allow, not because we yield to any of 
 our fellow-subjects in loyalty to his person and govern- 
 ment, but because we cannot, in religious obligations, 
 give a divided allegiance between God and man : were 
 we to admit that the orders of the clergy, in all their 
 various degrees, are as unimpeachable as are the piety. 
 
228 
 
 zeal, and learning of a considerable proportion of their 
 number — and we wish we could say of the whole : 
 were we to admit that the liturgy is not only scriptural 
 and truly devotional in its general character, but also 
 that it is so faultless, that no conscientious individual, 
 however scrupulous, need falter at the solemn utterance, 
 before God and his fellow-men, of a single word or 
 syllable which it contains : were we to admit that the 
 whole of the Thirty-nine Articles are as accordant 
 with the oracles of truth as we allow the greater part 
 of them to be : could we admit that the Canons breathe 
 the mild and gentle spirit of the gospel, instead of the 
 blind intolerance of antichristian Rome ; excommuni- 
 cating, ipso facto, those who have light enough to see, 
 and honesty enough to affirm, that " the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments," 
 does contain some things which are repugnant to the 
 Scriptures :* were we to admit all which the warmest 
 advocate of the system could wish to advance in ref- 
 
 * " Whosever shall hereafter affirm, That the Form of 
 God's worship in the Church of England, established by 
 law, and contained in the Book of Common Prayer and 
 Administration of the Sacraments, is a corrupt, supersti- 
 tious, or unlawful worship of God, or containeth any thing 
 in it that is repugnant to the Scriptures ; let him be ex- 
 communicated, ipso facto, and not restored but by the 
 Bishop of the place, or Archbishop, after his repentance, 
 and public revocation of such his wicked erroj's." — Fourth 
 Canon. 
 
erence to the head, the dignitaries, the subordinate 
 ministers, and the formularies, — still toe have not yet 
 come to the church. At Jerusalem there were the 
 apostles, and elders, and the whole church. Now the 
 king is not the church, any more than the apostles 
 were ; nor the ministers, whatever be their numbers 
 and orders, any more than the elders were ; nor the 
 formularies, for no mention is made of any as existing 
 in the church at Jerusalem ; and the question again re- 
 turns. Where is the church ? If it must be confessed, 
 in opposition to the whole current of thought, and 
 feeling, and language commonly employed upon the 
 subject, that the church consists substantially of the 
 people who unite in commemorating the death of the 
 Lord at his table ; then, a number of questions again 
 arise. Have they, in any way, become actually incor- 
 porated ? How do they receive those who from time 
 to time are added to their number? What qualifica- 
 tions do they require in those who are admitted to 
 their communion ? What kind of pastoral inspection 
 is exercised over them, or what discipline adminis- 
 tered amongst them ? When do they meet to deliber- 
 ate ; — to transact their affairs ; — to send letters or mes- 
 sengers to the brethren of other places ; — to choose 
 deacons to distribute their bounty ; — or to receive, if 
 they must not choose, the ministers who may be pro- 
 vided for them ? Now since few, if any, of these in- 
 quiries could receive a satisfactory answer, it might 
 become a question demanding serious discussion, how 
 
 21 
 
230 
 
 far there is, within the pale of the establishment, that 
 which, in the scriptural acceptation of the term, is en- 
 titled to the designation of a Church. It is matter of 
 notorious fact, that there has been no coming together 
 of what, in common parlance, passes for the Church of 
 England, for upwards of a century ; that when its con- 
 vocations were accustomed to be held, the brethren 
 had no place nor voice in them ; and that so far from 
 the assembly having been more harmonious, dignified, 
 and heavenly, because the unlearned laity were exclu- 
 ded, the dissensions were so protracted and unappeas- 
 able, that the then head of the church, despairing of 
 being able to govern its superior members, adjourned 
 their meeting, sine die ; and suspended, if he did not 
 virtually abolish, the constitution of the church, as by 
 law established. 
 
 Those who expatiate so eloquently upon the guilt of 
 schism, should place themselves occasionally at those 
 points from which nonconformists are accustomed to 
 contemplate the communion to which they belong; 
 and either prove that it is substantially and truly apos- 
 tolic in its constitution, or labour to make it so, before 
 they censure and condemn others, who, enjoying the 
 liberty which the members of the first churches prac- 
 tically claimed, tread in their steps, and combine, in 
 voluntary union, to obey the laws, and enjoy the or- 
 dinances of Christ ; cheerfully yielding to Ca'sar the 
 things which are Caesar's, but to God only the things 
 which are God's. 
 
231 
 
 And then, if, with the New Testament in our hands, 
 we go to Rome, and ask for the church ; the existing 
 representative of that to which Paul addressed the let- 
 ter which stands first in order among the epistles, and 
 which he endited, " To all that be in Rome, beloved 
 of God, called to be saints ;" we should inquire for such 
 a church altogether in vain. We should find a head, 
 sufficiently conspicuous and exalted ; dignitaries and 
 priests without number ; rituals and vestments in 
 abundance ; but few, if any, would understand what 
 we meant in asking for the brethren who, being incor- 
 porated, compose the substantial body of the church ; 
 and all who agree that such a body had not been seen 
 there for many centuries. 
 
 Indeed, the brethren of the Romish communion, if 
 they were recognized as forming a component part of 
 the church, are too numerous, and too widely scatter- 
 ed, to come together into one place to deliberate ; and 
 if they could, they acknowledge no brethren of any 
 other church, (as of Antioch,)- to whom they could 
 send their messengers or letters. Amongst the many 
 improvements in ecclesiastical affairs, which have 
 taken place since tiie unassuming inexperienced Apos- 
 tles left the world, a much more masterly and expedi- 
 tious mode of settling disputes than they ever ventur- 
 ed to adopt has been discovered ; namely, to excom- 
 municate and anathematize ; to denounce the heretics, 
 and doom them to an everlasting curse. So freely 
 have the powers which have existed and been recog- 
 
232 
 
 nized in the Romish communion employed these wea- 
 pons, that she stands, isolated and alone, as an Ishmael- 
 ite, spurning all pretensions in others to be brethren j 
 and then, to complete the mystery of her iniquity, she 
 makes it her boast that salvation is not to be found be- 
 yond her pale. 
 
 And yet, this church, so exclusively and infallibly 
 apostolic, that to question its pretensions exposes you 
 to anathemas, and, when she possessed the power to 
 inflict them, to what was much more serious, the ter- 
 rors of the dungeon and the stake, has not one of the 
 genuine elements of which the church in council at 
 Jerusalem was composed. The pontiff, as his name 
 indicates, is a semi-pngan intruder into the throne of 
 Him, who is the only Head of the church ; the priests 
 of vai'ious degrees are intruders into the sacerdotal of- 
 fice of Him, who is the only Priest of the church ; the 
 brethren have no incorporated title, are not recogniz- 
 ed as an essential part of the church ; and the conse- 
 quence is inevitable, that in the New Testament ac- 
 ceptation of the term, there is no church at all. Were 
 the principle which is assumed by the Romanists true, 
 that there \s no salvation but in connexion with a tru- 
 ly apostolic church, it would be most fatal to every 
 member of their own communion. Happily, as Chi-ist, 
 and not the church, is the object of faith ; so union to 
 Him, in whom there is the fulness of all perfection, 
 and not to the church, of which every separate section 
 is more or less imperfect, is the only thing essential to 
 
283 
 
 salvation. " This is the record, that God hath given 
 to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that 
 hath the Son hath life ; and he that hath not the Son 
 of God hath not life."* " The Father loveth the Son, 
 and hath given all things into^iis hand. He that be- 
 lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life : and he that 
 believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath 
 of God abideth on him."f 
 
 It may be questioned whether there are, or can be, 
 in the present day, any churches formed precisely up- 
 on the model of those of which we read in the Acts, 
 and to which the Epistles were addressed, for this rea- 
 son, — that the supernatural endowments of various 
 kinds, which were so liberally distributed amongst the 
 members of those churches at their formation, and the 
 exercise of which must have materially modified their 
 constitution and government, are no longer possessed. 
 The general acknowledgment, that no church is, or 
 can be made, entirely apostolic in its character and 
 form, will, perhaps, be the first step towards the uni- 
 versal exercise of an enlightened and expansive ciiari- 
 ty, and might lead the way, if not to a complete uni- 
 formity in modes of worship, and minor opinions, 
 which the Apostles neither prescribed nor attempted 
 to produce ;J yet, to such an approximation in general 
 principles, freedom of intercourse, interchange of com- 
 munion, and reciprocation of regard, as shall demon- 
 
 * John V. 1 1, 12. t John iii. 35, 36. % Vide Rom. xiv. 
 21* 
 
234 
 
 strate to the world, that the body is one, and animated 
 by the same spirit, though its respective members have 
 not all the same form and office ; that the garment of 
 Christ, though light and shade diversify its hues, yet 
 has neither rent nor seam, because they blend and in- 
 termingle with each other. 
 
 The only insuperable obstacle to such an approxi- 
 mation and union, are found in those communions, in 
 which the most lofty and uncompromising pretensions 
 to apostolic form and constitution, are made in words ; 
 but, which, in facts, exhibit the farthest possible re- 
 move from the acknowledged model — the practical 
 exclusion of the people of which the first churches 
 were substantially composed, the virtual denial of the 
 distinct and separate existence of the churches which 
 the Apostle planted, and to which they wrote their 
 epistles. If the church of Rome was from the begin- 
 ning, or was intended afterwards to become, the uni- 
 versal church, it is certainly much (o be regretted, that 
 the Apostles were so unacquainted with the fact, as to 
 write epistles to other churches, in which there is not 
 even an allusion to her ; and that, in the epistle which 
 was written to herself, she should receive no direc- 
 tions, but what supposed the perpetuation of her then 
 restricted locality. One might almost imagine that 
 the form and arrangement of the New Testament, as 
 well as much of its matter and substance, were pur- 
 posely adapted to subvert and expose the foreseen and 
 predicted usurpations and pretensions of the rulers in 
 
235 
 
 tlic Romisli church. The books of the Old Testament 
 recognize and address but one congregation, the con- 
 gregation of Israel. Then the church was one, in the 
 visible aggregation of its members who assembled 
 three times in a year, in a popular and joyful commu- 
 nity, at their one temple of worship. But the apos- 
 tolic writings recognize and are addressed to various 
 churches, existing in different places, independent of 
 each other, but still popular in their constitution, the 
 members of each respectively able to come together 
 into one place, to listen to the ejjistles which were 
 written to them, or to exercise the discipline which 
 was required of them.* 
 
 In the subversion of the constitution of the Christian 
 church, the same principles have operated which of 
 old corrupted oral tradition, and then for a while made 
 void the wi'itten revelation. Men are not to be trust- 
 ed with the unchecked deposit, nor the viva voce per- 
 petuation of any thing which is sph'itual and divine. 
 They ever have perverted, and (for human nature re- 
 mains the same) ever will pervert, in such cases, that 
 which has been given for the general benefit to their 
 own particular or professional advantage. In the 
 
 * " I charge you by the Lord, that this epistle be read 
 unto all the holy brethren." 1 Thess. v. 27. 
 
 " And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it 
 be read also in the church of the Laodiceans ; and that ye 
 likewise read the epistle of Laodicea." Cob iv. 16. 
 
236 
 
 Christian church, the remedy for the evil is provided, 
 in the preservation, by a watchful Providence, of the 
 uncorrupted oracles of truth, and the application of 
 that remedy is being made in their general circulation. 
 We can come for God's truth to his ow^n word. " He 
 is not a man, that he should lie." Very unwise are 
 those who trust in man, when God has so unequivo- 
 cally declared his propensity to deceive, and universal 
 history and experience so lamentably confirm the pain- 
 ful and humiliating fact. To the law and the testi- 
 mony, must be our exclusive appeal ; and whatever 
 shrinks from the decision of this authoritative and in- 
 fallible judge, betrays itself to be an usurpation, which 
 sooner or later will be compelled to withdraw its head, 
 branded alike with the marks of God's displeasure, and 
 of man's reprobation. 
 
 The Bible is abroad, and is spreading through the 
 world ; and whatever imperfections necessarily inhe- 
 rent in the work of men, and most glaring in that of 
 those who claim infallibility, may attend its transfusion 
 into the various languages and dialects of mankind, 
 these facts, which are fatal to the theories on which 
 ecclesiastical usurpations have been constructed, can- 
 not be concealed : — That the apostolic epistles were 
 written to distinct and independent churches, substan- 
 tially composed of Christian brethren ; — that the coun- 
 cil at Jerusalem consisted of the apostles, and elders, 
 and the brethren ; — that the Holy Spirit qualified for 
 the work of the ministry, by the supernatural gift of 
 
237 
 
 languages previously unknown, and by the visible aa- 
 thentication of the cloven tongue of fire upon the 
 head, a goodly number, upon whom the Apostles' 
 hands had not been laid ; — and that Peter designates 
 the whole of those of whom the church is composed, 
 of course including its ministers, but applying to them 
 only in the same respects as it does to the brethren, a 
 holy and a royal priesthood. 
 
 It is a consolatory reflection, that the encroaching 
 tide of usurpation, which floated upon its advancing 
 wave the proud and richly freighted vessel of the anti- 
 christian church, has long since reached its height, and 
 ceased to flow. In its ebbing it has left her fairly 
 aground, grappled also to tho moorings, which in her 
 confidence she fastened, and which in her embarrass- 
 ment and perplexity she cannot unloose ; while the 
 returning stream of natural events is wearing her 
 strength, dissolving her frame, and carrying piece after 
 piece of her fabric away in its current. " Her tack- 
 lings are loosed, they cannot well strengthen her mast, 
 nor spread the sail ; the prey of a great spoil is divided, 
 the lame take the prey." 
 
 The tide, which is at present setting in upon the 
 world with resistless force, is the tide of popular opin- 
 ion, flowing through the channels which are opened 
 by popular instruction. That any portion of the Chris- 
 tian church should be identified with the chartered 
 secular rights, which are unfriendly to the interests of 
 the people, is deeply to be regretted, and must be in-* 
 
238 
 
 jurious to its general interests. The church, as Christ 
 formed and Apostles left it, instead of towering above 
 the people, was composed of them ; instead of exact- 
 ing from the world, was the treasure-house of spiritual 
 blessings to enrich it ; instead of requiring the inflic- 
 tion on others of pains and penalties for its defence 
 and support, was armed with patience to endure them ; 
 instead of including within it any thing which required 
 the concealment of darkness, by its blended exliibition 
 of Christian truth and practice, was itself the light of 
 the world ; instead of feeding on its corruptions the 
 multiplying brood of infidelity, it was " the salt of the 
 earth." The day of apathetic insensibility to its con- 
 dition is gone. Tranquil security, in the spoil derived 
 from its corruptions, can no longer be enjoyed. The 
 signs of the times evidently indicate approaching in- 
 quiry, discussion, purification. Whatever may be lost 
 in secular power and glory, will be gained in moral 
 strength and efficiency ; in the requirement of minis- 
 terial qualifications according with the scriptural stan- 
 dai'd ; in the infusion of popular energy and vigour ; 
 in the relinquishment of uncharitable and oflensive 
 claims and pretensions ; in the clearer exhibition of 
 the grace, and freedom, and joyfulness of the gospel 
 dispensation ; in the harmonious co-operation of all 
 those who hold its vital and essential principles ; in 
 the frequent interchange of communion, and occasional 
 aggregation of separate communities, in shewing forth 
 the Lord's death at his table ; — thus, powerful in the 
 
339 
 
 renewal of her primitive simplicity and knowledge, 
 will the church again " look forth as the morning, fair 
 as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army 
 with banners." 
 
SECTION III. 
 
 IN SEPARATION TO THE SERVICE OF GOD, THE JEWISH 
 PEOPLE, WHEN THEY WERE OBEDIENT, WERE A KING- 
 DOM OF PRIESTS, AND CHRISTIAN PEOPLE ARE A HOLT 
 PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 That the whole tribe of Levi was separated from 
 the other tribes for the work which was to be per- 
 formed in the tabernacle ; that Aaron and his sons 
 were separated from the rest of their brethren, the 
 Levites, for the service of the altar ; that the family 
 of Aaron, in the discharge of the priestly office, might 
 approach nearer to God than could either the people 
 or the Levites, are admitted facts. But then, if even 
 the high priest himself, w^ho went annually into the 
 holiest of all, had claimed any peculiar personal sanc- 
 tity in virtue of his office, the sin-offering, which he 
 was required previously to offer for himself and his 
 house, would have neutralized his claim, and exposed 
 his pretensions. No man could be separated from his 
 fellow-men for a purpose more solemn and important, 
 a work more interesting and sacred ; no man could 
 be to his fellow-men an object of more profound reli- 
 gious interest than was the Jewish high priest, when, 
 with the blood of the sin-offering in his hand, he was 
 
241 
 
 about to enter into the immediate presence of God to 
 make atonement for the sins of the people. If ever 
 a man were in danger of being exalted above measure 
 by the nature of the work which he was called to per- 
 form ; if ever the people were in danger of cherishing 
 excessive veneration for an individual oq account of 
 the office which he sustained ; that danger existed, in 
 reference to the Jewish high priest. The danger, 
 however, was foreseen and eflectually guarded against 
 by him who appointed the office. The high priest 
 was required to acknowledge himself to be, equally 
 with the people, a sinner against God, before he could 
 enter into the holiest place on their behalf. They 
 were taught, by the rites which he performed for him- 
 self and his house, not only that no merit could be 
 transferred to them from his character and services ; 
 but also that there was no purity inherent in his per- 
 son, nor infused by his office. In the annual discharge 
 of the most impressive act of his service, he could 
 not engage for the people, until he had himself been 
 cleansed, by the ceremonial washing of his flesh, and 
 the shedding and sprinkling of blood. 
 
 Corresponding with the mode by which the high 
 priest was separated from the people, and qualified 
 for the discharge of the most solemn act of his service, 
 was the mode in which the people themselves had 
 been previously separated from all other nations, and 
 made a holy people, a kingdom of priests, to serve the 
 Lord. Their liberation from Egypt was demanded 
 22 
 
243 
 
 on the ground of a special relation which God assumed 
 to them, and service which he required from them. 
 "And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the 
 Lord, Israel is my son, even my first-born : and I say 
 unto thee. Let my son go, that he may serve me."* 
 They offered their first sacrifice before they left Egypt ; 
 the head of each family killing its own lamb, and 
 sprinkling its blood upon the posts of the door of their 
 dwelling. They were consequently not only exempt- 
 ed from the stroke which cut off the first-born of the 
 Egyptians, but were also received under the guidance, 
 protection, and covering of the cloud of glory which 
 was the expressive symbol of the divine presence ; 
 the cloud which afterwards consecrated the taber- 
 nacle of worship, and subsequently the temple of Solo- 
 mon ; and which, in contracted dimensions, became 
 stationary between the wings of the cherubim, and 
 over the mercy-seat. They all, when they had passed 
 through the sea, were for ever separated from the 
 Egyptians, and became a distinct and peculiar people. 
 They were all. baptized into the dispensation which 
 Moses w'as commissioned to establish, in the cloud, 
 and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, 
 and did all drink the same spiritual drink. They were 
 expressly designated " the congregation of the I>,ord.'' 
 To them, assembled in congregation, was the law de- 
 livered ; were the lively oracles committed ; did the 
 
 * Exod. iv. 22, 23. 
 
243 
 
 service of God appertain. No language, addressed to 
 the priests, and implying separation to God's service, 
 can be stronger than that which is repeatedly address- 
 ed to the whole people. " For thou art a holy people 
 unto the Lord thy God : the Lord thy God hath chosen 
 thee to be a special people unto himself, above all 
 people that are upon the face of the earth."* 
 
 Their holiness as a people, however, was not inhe- 
 rent nor self-sustained, nor at any time perfect. They 
 were chosen above all other people, not for any ex- 
 cellencies which they displayed, nor for any works of 
 righteousness which were foreseen. They came be- 
 fore the presence of God, not as the unstained priests 
 of nature, with their ofterings of fruits and flowers, 
 expressive of their homage, gratitude, and tribute to 
 him as the great Creator ; but they came as sinners 
 to a propitiatory, where a sacrifice was provided, guilt 
 was to be confessed, punishment deprecated, pardon 
 implored, mercy and grace obtained. The institutions 
 of their religion implied that they needed pardon, with 
 the same frequency and constancy, as they did their 
 daily bread. They were supplied with manna but 
 once every day, they were supplied with a sin-oftering 
 twice. The acknowledgment of sin, and application 
 to the rites which were appointed for its removal, were 
 as essential parts of their obedience to the ceremonial 
 law, as were the abstaining from idolatry and theft 
 
 * Deut. vii. 6. 
 
244 
 
 essential parts of their obedience to the moral law. 
 The laws which related to the sacrifices for sin were 
 enjoined by the same authority, and were equally 
 binding with the ten commandments. To say they 
 had no sin was to deny the truth, and impugn the es- 
 sential principles of their religion, and make him a liar 
 by whom its rites had been appointed. 
 
 It was as they carefully observed the ceremonial 
 institutions, as well as the moral precepts of their reli- 
 gion, that they were cleansed from sin, and made a 
 holy people. This was annually taught, by the ap- 
 pointment of the scape-goat, upon whose head the 
 priest laid his hands, while he confessed over him all 
 the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their 
 transgressions, in all their sins ; putting them upon the 
 head of the goat, and then sending him away into the 
 wilderness, to bear them out of sight and into oblivion. 
 What was annually taught by the sending away of 
 the goat, was daily enjoyed by every individual, 
 whether he worshipped in the temple, or from a dis- 
 tance looked towards it, who intelligently drew near 
 to God through the medium of the continual burnt 
 offering ; — " the blessedness of the man whose trans- 
 gression was forgiven, whose sin was covered ; the 
 blessedness of the man unto whom the Lord imputed 
 not iniquity, and in whose spirit there was no guile." 
 
 But when by the sacrifices for sin, which were either 
 public and stated, or private, occasional, and particular, 
 for some specified and extraordinary offence, they had 
 
245 
 
 been cleansed from guilt, — then were they allowed to 
 come in the enjoyment of acceptance and favour, and 
 present their voluntary and grateful peace-offerings to 
 the Lord. These, their own hands brought before 
 the Lord, devoted, killed, waved the parts which were 
 to be presented on the altar, or to be the portion 
 of the priests ; and what remained, they might them- 
 selves, with whomsoever (provided they were clean 
 like themselves) they chose to invite to their feast, eat 
 joyfully in the place which God had chosen. Reli- 
 gious privileges were thus associated and blended with 
 festive enjoyments. The same devoted peace-offering 
 was divided between the altar, the priest, and the 
 offerer, with his family or friends, emblematic of the 
 peace and fellowship which existed between God, to 
 whom the altar was erected, the priest who officiated 
 before it, and the people who brought their oblations 
 to it. At the festivals, these oflerings were presented 
 in great abundance ; and thus a religious character of 
 peace and joyfulness was given, not merely to the ser- 
 vices which they attended in the temple, but also to 
 the tables at which they assembled in their own stated 
 or temporary dwellings. They feasted with joyful- 
 ness before the Lord, on the free-will offerings which 
 they brought up to the place of their general assembly, 
 and hallowed by presentation in the temple, and divis- 
 ion with the altar and the priest. The consideration 
 of these facts will enable us more fully to understand, 
 why the festivals were to the Jews, in the best periods 
 2a* 
 
246 
 
 of their history, seasons of such lively interest and 
 powerful excitement; why the sound of trumpets, 
 which announced their approach and called to their 
 celebration, was a joyful sound ; why David, when he 
 was the object of Saul's persecution, or was driven 
 from Jerusalem by Absalom's rebellion, so pathetically 
 bewails his exile from the place, where with the multi- 
 tude he had been accustomed to keep holy day ; why, 
 in such impassioned language, he expresses the long- 
 ing of his soul to return and appear before God. To 
 the place which the Lord their God had chosen, to 
 caase his name to dwell there, they brought their burnt- 
 oft'erings and sacrifices, their tithes and the heave- 
 offerings of their hand, and all their choice vows which 
 they vowed unto the Lord ; and there they rejoiced 
 before the Lord, with their sons and daughters, and 
 men-servants and maid-servants, and the Levite that 
 was within their gates.* What an interesting assem- 
 blage ! The superiors not happy at the expense of 
 their inferiors, — that indeed none, who are in exalted 
 stations, whatever efforts they may make, actually can 
 be. No man can trample on the natural rights of 
 those who are beneath him in society, without derang- 
 ing his own moral constitution, disturbing the elements 
 of his own peace and enjoyment, and inflicting an in- 
 jury upon himself, more irreparable than that which 
 is received by the victim of his oppression. At the 
 
 * Deut. xii. 11, 12. 
 
247 
 
 festivals of God's appointment, high and low, rich and 
 poor, masters and servants, rejoiced together ; and no 
 assembly elsewhere convened was so joyful, as " the 
 holy flock, the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts." 
 "Blessed were the people that knew the joyful sound ! 
 they walked, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. 
 In thy name did they rejoice all the day ; and in thy 
 righteousness were they exalted." They were sepa- 
 rated for the service of God, and joyful in his presence, 
 as " a kingdom of priests." 
 
 Now, keeping these facts which are recorded upon 
 the pages of the Jewish history in view, we may ad- 
 vance with firm and easy steps to develope the char- 
 acter, the work, and the blessedness of those whom 
 Peter designates "a holy and royal priesthood." Their 
 illumination in the knowledge of God has already come 
 under consideration. We are now prepared to show — 
 
 I. Their calling to the service of God. 
 
 That the Apostles w^ere called to a work which was 
 peculiarly their own, and in which they could have no 
 successors ; that the pastors and teachers are called, 
 and qualified, and given for the work of the ministry, 
 and the edifying of the body of Christ, by Christ him- 
 self, as the living presiding head of the body, and not 
 by any human authorities, civil or ecclesiastical, were 
 this the place for such a discussion, we think it would 
 not be difficult to prove. Our object at present is to 
 
248 
 
 show, that whatever offices may exist in the Christian 
 church, and whoever may be entitled to sustain them, 
 there is no character of sanctity stamped upon them, 
 which is not common to the calling of all the brethren, 
 of which the church universal is composed. 
 
 That, whatever titles, powers, and virtues, which 
 were unknown to the Apostles, men may have assumed 
 to themselves in the church, any are actually superior 
 in office to them, will by no one be pretended. His 
 holiness the pope himself professes to claim only equal- 
 ity with Peter. That the Apostles understood the na- 
 ture of their own office and of the ministry generally, 
 and knew how to discriminate between what was com- 
 mon and what was holy, will also at once be admitted. 
 Now it is a singular fact, that while there is not a word 
 about " holy orders" in the New Testament, and the 
 epithet holy is but once or twice employed to desig- 
 nate the Apostles themselves ; it is applied as the com- 
 mon designation of the brethren of the church. They 
 are " holy brethren ;" " holy brethren," who are " par- 
 takes of a heavenly calling ;" who are " saved and 
 called with a holy calling ;" who are " chosen that they 
 should be holy and without blame ;" who are exhorted 
 in prayer " to lift up holy hands ;" " to present their 
 bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God ;" 
 whose bodies are holy, because they are the temple of 
 God ; who are " a holy priesthood." The persons 
 who in any considerable degree embodied these de- 
 scriptions, could certainly need no other character of 
 
249 
 
 sanctity impressed upon them, to whatever work they 
 might be called. From arnwigst these holy brethren 
 the first ministers of the church were chosen ; but in- 
 stead of acquiring a new character of sanctity, by vir- 
 tue of any rites performed on their separation to the 
 ministerial work, it was required that they should be 
 already holy ; that they should give proof of their per- 
 sonal interest and right to the designations which were 
 applied generally to the members of the church, as an 
 essential pre-requisite to their choice and ordination. 
 " Lay hands suddenly on no man," w^as the charge of 
 Paul to his son Timothy. Know that a man is holy 
 and qualified for the work, before your hands assist in 
 setting him apart to it. If a man, before he enters on 
 the ministerial work, is not already holy, all the rites 
 which men or angels could discharge at his ordination, 
 would have no power to make him so. If he is pre- 
 previously holy, no rational and intelligent men will 
 pretend, with great formality and pomp of circum- 
 stance, to confer that which is already possessed. — 
 " Why look ye so earnestly upon us, as though by our 
 own power or holiness we had made this man to 
 walk ? was the question of Peter in reference to the 
 cripple which had been healed. In what language, 
 were he to return to the world, would he address 
 those, who, by virtue of power and holiness which they 
 pretend to have derived from him, through a stream 
 which has been flowing for nearly eighteen centuries, 
 undertake to impresss an indelible character of sane- 
 
250 
 
 tity upon their fellow-men, and to roll the stream on- 
 ward, still deepenmg and widening, to the end of time • 
 Would he not, like Paul and Barnabas on another oc- 
 casion, rend his clothes, and run in amongst them, cry- 
 ing out and saying. Sirs, why do ye these things ? We 
 also were men of like passions with others, and 
 preached unto you that ye should turn from these van- 
 ities unto the living God, and Jesus Christ his Son ; 
 who, when he ascended up on high, gave gifts, in rich 
 variety, to men ; and from whom still, and whom 
 alone, all living streams of ministerial authority and 
 grace descend.* 
 
 * On the subject of holy orders, the following observa- 
 tions of Dr. Campbell deserve serious consideration : 
 
 " On every occurrence the pastors had taken care to 
 improve the respect of the lower ranks, by widening the 
 distance between their own order and the conditions of 
 their christian brethren ; and for this purpose had early 
 broached a distinction, which, in process of time, univer- 
 sally prevailed, of the whole Christian commonwealth into 
 clergy and laity. The terms are derived from two Greek 
 words ; x.>G]por, lot or inheritance ; and A<«a?, people. The 
 plain intention was, to suggest, that the former, — the 
 pastors or clergy, — for they appropriated the term xA>5^«? to 
 themselves, were selected and contradistinguished from 
 the multitude, as being in the present world, by way of 
 eminence, God's peculiwn, or special inheritance. 
 
 " It is impossible to conceive a claim, in appearance 
 more arrogant, or in reality worse founded. God is in- 
 
251 
 
 The holiness of the true members of Christ's church, 
 which they possess in common with those who are 
 properly qualified, and authorized to minister to them, 
 is like that which was possessed by those who, of old, 
 were Israelites indeed, — graciously imparted and di- 
 vinely sustained. Their calling, though a holy calling, 
 is not according to their own works, but according to 
 God's purpose and grace, given them in Christ Jesus 
 before the world began. Their first purification from 
 sin is derived from the efficacy of tiie blood of Christ, 
 which, applied by the power of the Holy Spirit, pur- 
 deed, in the Old Testament, said to be the inheritance of 
 the Levites, because a determined share of the sacrifices 
 and offerings, made to God, was, in part, to serve them in- 
 stead of an estate in land, such as was given to each of 
 the other tribes. But, I pray you, mark the difference ; 
 no where is the tribe of Levi called God's inheritance, 
 though that expression is repeatedly used of the whole 
 nation. Concerning the whole Israelitish nation, Moses, 
 who was himself a Levite, says, in an address to God, 
 (Deut. ix. 29,) 'They are thy people and thine inherit- 
 ance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power.' 
 The words, in the Septuagint translation, deserve our par- 
 ticular attention : oOrot Xetog a-ov xut K>Cqp!)i (roll ot/'s e^yayei, 
 
 CK ytii AiyuTTTov iv t^ It^vI o-ov t>) f^eyuXt}. The same per- 
 sons are, in the same sentence, declared to be both the 
 >iXo( and the xXrlpei. What ! says the canonist, at once 
 laymen and clergy 1 that is certainly absurd ! the charac- 
 ters are incompatible ! Yet it did not then appear so to 
 
252 
 
 ges the conscience from dead works, to serve the Hvino- 
 God. And though more abundant suppHes of spiritual 
 influences are promised under the New Testament 
 dispensation than were enjoyed under the Old, a high- 
 er moral standard is presented, and a progressive ad- 
 vance towards perfection is enjoined ; yet those Chris- 
 tians who are the most enlightened and matured, will 
 be ever ready to adopt the language of Paul, as expres- 
 sive of the estimate which they form of their own 
 character : " Not as though I had already attained, 
 
 Moses. Now would it be thought reasonable or just that 
 what was allowed to be the privilege and the glory of every 
 Israelite under the more servile estabhshment of Moses, 
 should, under the more liberal dispensation of the gospel, 
 be disclaimed by all those disciples of Jesus who have not 
 been admitted into the sacred order, which they, for this 
 reason, have called clerical 1 
 
 " It is somewhat extraordinary that, in the choice of dis- 
 tinctions, which the church rulers so soon showed a dispo- 
 sition to affect, they should have paid almost as little at- 
 tention to the style as they did to the spirit and meaning of 
 the sacred books. 
 
 " In after ages they even improved upon their predeces- 
 sors. The schoolmen (a modest race, all clergymen) 
 thought it was doing the laymen too much honour to de- 
 rive the name from Aao?, populus. It suited them better to 
 derive it from >i««5, lapsis, a stone." — CampbeWs Lectures 
 on Ecclesiastical History, Vol. I. pp. 297 — 299, 303. 
 
tWF 
 
 253 
 
 either were already perfect ; but I follow after, if that 
 I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehend- 
 ed of Christ Jesus." As our first coming to Christ will 
 be for an interest in the work which he performs, as 
 the atoning sacrifice and interceding priest ; so every 
 subsequent approach to him, through every stage and 
 step of our Christian career, will regard him in the 
 same character and office, and for the same purpose — 
 the cleansing of the soul from the defilement, which, 
 dwelling in an atmosphere which is polluted, it must 
 perpetually contract. The exercise of faith in Christ 
 as our priest, necessaril)^ involving the acknowledg- 
 ment of sin, and having for its object the obtainment 
 of pardon, is as essential a part of the Christian re- 
 ligion, as is the exercise of love to God and man. 
 Faith is indeed the root, out of which love and every 
 other grace of the Christian character springs, and to 
 whose virtue, though itself unseen, all the fruits of 
 righteousness which adorn the life must be ascribed. 
 As by the efficacy of Christ's priestly work, brought 
 into the heart by the power of his Spirit, we are made 
 and kept holy for God's service on earth ; so, by the 
 final and completive act of its application, while the 
 soul is disentangling itself from the cumbrous clog of 
 mortality, is every remaining vestige of defilement 
 cleansed away ; and it awakes in his likeness, and en- 
 ters his presence, to unite in the fervent ascriptions of 
 the redeemed, " Unto him that loved us, and washed 
 us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us 
 23 
 
254 
 
 kings and priests unto God and his Father ; to him be 
 glory, and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen."* 
 
 II. Their access to the presence of God. 
 
 A distinction in this privilege existed under the law 
 between the priests and the people. Though into the 
 courts of the people uncircumcised Gentiles could not 
 enter, and as compared with them the congregation of 
 the Lord assembled for his service was a kingdom of 
 priests, yet into the court where the sons of Aaron 
 ministered the people might not enter ; and to draw 
 aside the vail, and pass over the threshold of the holi- 
 est of all was allowed to the high priest only, and to 
 him but once in a year. But no such distinction as 
 this exists under the New Testament dispensation. 
 No class of men, no one favoured individual, is privi- 
 leged beyond others in the mode of access to God, in 
 proximity to the mercy-seat, and the presence of his 
 glory ; or has any right whatever, on the ground of of- 
 ficial separation, to say to another, " Stand by thyself, 
 come not near to me, for I am more holy than thou." 
 One new and living way of access is opened, for all 
 wh^are willing to draw nigh. The invitations sup- 
 pose, that we arc all equally destitute of righteousness 
 and strength, and exhort us with boldness, inspired by 
 the name and work of our great High Priest, to come, 
 
 * Rev. i. 5, 6. 
 
255 
 
 that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us 
 in time of need ; and the same Lord over all, is equal- 
 ly nigh unto all that call upon him. 
 
 The priests under the law were allowed to come 
 nearer to God than the people, not on account of any 
 superior personal sanctity, which by descent they de- 
 rived, for they needed equally with the people the 
 cleansing virtue of the daily sacrifices which they of- 
 fered ; but, because in the offering of those sacrifices, 
 and the presentation of the incense which was associ- 
 ated with them, they typified the work of Christ, who 
 is undefiled and separate from sinners, who stands as 
 Mediator between us and God, and reconciles us to 
 him- When he entered on the discharge of his office, 
 their work was superseded ; and with the abolition of 
 the order to which they belonged, and the desecration 
 of the place in which they served, was there an aboli- 
 tion of all official distinctions in proximity to God, and 
 sanctity in his service. The way into the holiest of all, 
 which had not been made manifest while the first tab- 
 ernacle was standing, was now laid open, not to be the 
 privileged and secluded path of a new official priest- 
 hood, but to be the highway of the redeemed of the 
 Lord. The unclean, whatever official distinctions 
 they may wear, cannot pass over it ; but the redeem- 
 ed can walk there, and the wayfaring man, though a 
 fool, errs not therein. The holy brethren, whom the 
 Apostle addresses in the Epistle to the Hebrews, are 
 exhorted habitually to use it, in language which con- 
 
256 
 
 tains an obvious allusion to the purification by which 
 the high priest was prepared for entering the place of 
 communion on the day of atonement, and identifying 
 them in privilege with him. " Having therefore, 
 brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the 
 blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he 
 hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, 
 his flesh ; and having an high priest over the house of 
 God ; let us draw near widi a true heart in full assur- 
 ance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil 
 conscience, and our bodies loashed with pure u-ater."* 
 The Apostle associates himself with the brethren, and 
 calls them to a common participation in that which he 
 felt to be his own most exalted privilege. And those, 
 who in their devotional exercises may accompany 
 with equal steps the bold ascent of the Apostle, and 
 enter " into the holiest" with the same liberty which 
 the Jewish high priest enjoyed on the day of his most 
 solemn service, may well be entitled to the designa- 
 tion — "a holy" and " a royal priesthood." 
 
 Before the priesthood was established, and the tab- 
 ernacle set up, the whole of the people were received 
 under the cloud of glory, which was the symbol of the 
 divinie presence, and to which, after the polity was 
 settled, and the tribes fixed in their inheritance, the 
 high priest only might approach. A remarkable pre- 
 diction, however, was given by Isaiah, which, while it 
 
 * Heb. X. 19—22. 
 
257 
 
 threw its radiance over the future, borrowed its lan- 
 guage and kindled its cheering light from the past : 
 " And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place 
 of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud of 
 smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming tire by 
 night : for upon all the glory shall be a defence."* 
 This prediction, had it been fuliilled literally, would 
 have given to all who at the period to which it refer- 
 red, dwelt or assembled on Mount Zion, the perma- 
 nent enjoyment of the privilege which was possessed 
 by that generation that was separated from the Egyp- 
 tians, and led by the presence and power of divine 
 glorv into the wilderness. That it has hitherto re- 
 ceived no literal accomplishment, will by all be ad- 
 mitted. Tiiat the favour and protection which were 
 afforded to the Jews after their return from the cap- 
 tivity of Babylon, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, 
 did not complete the prediction and exhaust the ful- 
 ness of the promise, few will deny. May we not then 
 claim it as a part of the rich inheritance vvliich was 
 bequeathed by the prophets of the New Testament 
 church ; — as one of the exceeding great and precious 
 promises which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus ? 
 If so, it brings the substance of what the Jews posses- 
 sed only the expressive symbol, — the glory of the di- 
 vine presence, — around the dwellings and assemblies 
 of the spiritual priesthood ; and in their closets, their 
 
 * Isaiah iv. 6. 
 23* 
 
258 
 
 families, and their sancluraries of public worship, they 
 habitually minister before God with the liberty, digni- 
 ty, acceptance, and favour which the high priest en- 
 joyed, when he went to the mercy-seat in the holiest 
 place. And thus do they receive the fulfilment of an- 
 other of Isaiah's predictions, frequently claimed by an 
 official priesthood, but evidently, from the connexion 
 in which it stands, given to the church, and therefore 
 corresponding in its application with the passage 
 which we have quoted from Peter, — " But ye shall be 
 named the priests of the Lord : men shall call you the 
 ministers of our God."* 
 
 That official ministry is the most truly dignified and 
 efficient, and gives the clearest proof of its divine call 
 and appointment, by which the blessings and privi- 
 leges of the common salvation are most clearly open- 
 ed for the instruction, improvement, and consolation 
 of the people. Those who would shut up, for the pur- 
 pose of enriching a privileged order, what God has 
 thrown open for the supply of the whole church, la- 
 bour to obstruct the path which leads to the fountain 
 of life, instead of going forth with the proclamation, 
 " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, 
 and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy, and eat ; 
 yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and 
 without price."! — " The Spirit and the bride say, 
 Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let 
 
 * Isaiah Ixi. 6. | Isaiah Iv. 1. 
 
259 
 
 him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him 
 take the water of life freely."* 
 
 III. The sacrifices which they ofter to God. 
 
 Sacrifice and offering for sin they have none to 
 present, no command to provide any, no acceptance 
 if they profess to have devised any. Christ their pass- 
 over has been sacrificed for them. He, the Lamb of 
 God, has superseded the continual burnt-offering. He, 
 the great High Priest, has entered into the holiest 
 place with the blood of the one perfect universal sin 
 offering ; and those, who by its efficacy are cleansed 
 from their guilt, have only to come to the feast which 
 the Lord of hosts has made for all people, bringing 
 their peace-offerings, their thank-offerings, their free- 
 will offerings, that they may rejoice together before 
 the LorJ. Of these offerings there are — 
 
 The sacrifices, — the free-will offerings of the hand. 
 
 " But to do good and to communicate forget not : 
 for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."f In 
 some cases under the law, the sacrifices were gradu- 
 ated in their scale of value, in order to meet the cir- 
 cumstances of those who were unable to present a 
 costly offering. Thus the mother of our Lord, when 
 he was presented in the temple at her purification, not 
 
 * Rev. xxii. 17. | Heb. xiii. 16. 
 
260 
 
 being able to bring the more expensive sacrifice of a 
 lamb for a burnt offering, with a bird for the sin-offer- 
 ing, availed herself of the liberty allowed in the law, 
 to present " a pair of turtle-doves or two young 
 pigeons." He who was brought into the temple as 
 the son of the lowly, has so graduated the scale of 
 free-will offerings in the gospel, as to bring them with- 
 in the power of those who occupy the humblest sta- 
 tions in society ; and has declared their acceptance to 
 result, not from the costliness of the gift, but from the 
 nature of the principle by which the offerer is influ- 
 enced. That a spirit of elevating and expansive lib- 
 erality migiit be diffused through every part of the 
 Christian church ; that no invidious distinctions might 
 obtain ; that none might be excluded from the oppor- 
 tunity of realizing the truth of his own saying, " It is 
 more blessed to give than to receive ;" the contribution 
 of the widow's two mites has been recorded and pub- 
 lished with commendation, by his command, while the 
 gracious assurance also has been made, " That a cup 
 of cold water, given to a disciple in the name of a dis- 
 ciple, shall not lose its reward." An operative faith 
 in this declaration, may infuse the peace and joyful- 
 ness of a religious service, known to be well pleasing 
 to God, into the daily experience of every individual 
 of which the church universal is composed. There 
 are ever within our reach members of Christ's flock, 
 who may be benefited by some services which we are 
 able to perform. Let the cardinal virtues of the Chris- 
 
261 
 
 tian character be cultivated, and become habitual in 
 their exercise ; faith, appropriating the efficacy of the 
 atonement, and bringing into the heart the peace which 
 passeth all understanding ; chariLtj, working in dilii^ent 
 obedience to the precept, "As ye have opportunity do 
 good to all men, and especially to those who are of 
 the household of faith ;" hope, fixed on the gracious 
 reward which the Saviour will confer when he will 
 say, " Forasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of 
 these my brethren, ye did it unto me," and then we 
 may live in the enjoyment of a perpetual festival, — a 
 life of heaven upon earth. "Walking in the light, as 
 God is in the light, we shall have fellowship one with 
 another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, will 
 cleanse us from all sin." 
 
 The Apostle w^as not ashamed to acknowledge, that 
 he derived his support from the free-will communica- 
 tion, in temporal things, of those to whom he had com- 
 municated in spiritual things ; and he dwells with 
 pleasure on the fact, because there was in it a devel- 
 opement of Christian principle, the sowing of the seed 
 w^hich would produce fruit unto life eternal. " Now, 
 ye Philippians, know also, that in the beginning of the 
 gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church 
 communicated with me as concerning giving and re- 
 ceiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye 
 sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because 
 I desire a gift : but I desire fruit that may abound to 
 your account. But I have all, and abound : I am full, 
 
262 
 
 having received of Epaphroditus the things which were 
 sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice 
 acceptable, well pleasing to God."* It is true, that 
 some of the churches were deficient in the presenta- 
 tion of these sacrifices, but in what way did the Apostle 
 endeavour to correct the evil ? Not by recommend- 
 ing compulsory measures, which supersede the neces- 
 sity of religious principle, which prevent its growth, 
 and make it wither at the root ; but by stating such 
 considerations as were adapted to work on Christian 
 motives, and call them into vigorous, but voluntary 
 exercise. " Have we not power to eat and to drink ? 
 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as 
 well as other Apostles, and as the brethren of the 
 Lord, and Cephas ? Or I only and Barnabas, have 
 not we power to forbear working ? Who goeth a war- 
 fare any time at his own charges? Who planteth a 
 vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who 
 feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? 
 Say I these things as a man ? or saith not the law the 
 same also ? For it is written in the law of Moses, 
 Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that tread- 
 eth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen 1 or 
 saith he it altogether for our sakes ? For our sakes, 
 no doubt, this is written : that he that ploweth should 
 plow in hope ; and that he that thresheth in hope should 
 be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you 
 
 * Phil. iv. 15^18. 
 
263 
 
 spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your 
 carnal things ? If others be partakers of this power 
 over you, are not we rather ^ Nevertheless we have 
 not used this power; but suffer ail things, lest we 
 should hinder the gospel of Christ. Do ye not know 
 that they which minister about holy things live of the 
 things of the temple ? and they which wait at the altar 
 are partakers with the altar ? Even so hath the Lord 
 ordained that they which preach the gospel should 
 live of the gospel. But I have used none of these 
 things : neither have I written these things, that it 
 should be so done unto me : for it were better for me 
 to die, than that any man should make my glorying 
 void."* It may be safely affirmed, that he, who would 
 not employ his apostolic power, which was spiritual in 
 its character, to secure his own temporal supply, would 
 never have sanctioned an application to the civil pow- 
 er, whose weapons are carnal, for a general and com- 
 pulsory ministerial provision ; — that he, who drew so 
 broad a distinction between serving at the altar and 
 preaching the gospel, would never have allowed in 
 ministers of the gospel, the Jewish pretensions of a 
 right to tithes ; — that he, who exhorted his son Timo- 
 thy to "endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus 
 Christ," would never have committed a mistake like 
 that into which Hannibal fell, and have suffered the 
 army of the cross to quarter where sloth might be in- 
 
 * 1 Cor. ix. 4 — 15. 
 
264 
 
 dulged, and its moral strength be enfeebled; — that 
 he, who was so concerned for the clear manifesta- 
 tion of the truth to men's consciences, would never 
 have approved a system, which, by alluring men who 
 know not the truth into the office of the ministry, ope- 
 rates as an authorized bounty upon formality, worldly- 
 mindedness, and error ; — that he, who so scrupulously 
 avoided doing any thing that might "hinder the gospel," 
 would never have countenanced those exactions of the 
 unrighteous mammon, which neutralize the efficacy of 
 the best instructions, alienate the hearts of the people, 
 confirm the prejudices of unbelievers, and convey the 
 morbid infection which corrupts and paralyses the 
 vital energy of the church. " Let him that is taught in 
 the w'ord communicate to him that teacheth in all good 
 things."* This, in reference to ministerial support, is 
 the apostolic precept, clear, definite, binding upon the 
 conscience, and comprising the substance of all which 
 the New Testament contains upon the subject. It is a 
 precept, too, which is strictly consonant with every 
 dictate of reason and principle of equity ; but then, it 
 is as much beyond the province of human legislatures, 
 and their power, properly to enforce, as is the precept, 
 " Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, 
 that do ye also unto them." The effort, however, has 
 been made, and the principles on which the legislation 
 has proceeded, as well as the results which have fol- 
 lowed, deserve to be noticed. 
 
 * Gal. vi. 6. 
 
265 
 
 In acts of legislation, the object of which was to 
 provide for the temporal support of those who, by of- 
 fice, were bound to be teachers to their fellow-men, 
 and where, consequently, every step should have been 
 clear as the light, and settled on principles unshaken 
 as the rock ; two essential mistakes were made, either 
 of which, so far as Christianity is concerned, vitiates 
 the whole proceeding. The provision was made for 
 them on the Jewish model, in a character and office 
 which they had no right to sustain ; as priests, who, 
 having a work to perform similar to that which was 
 discharged by those who officiated in the Jewish tem- 
 ple, were entitled to the same kind of support. And 
 th'jn, besides that ths precedent which was followed 
 had no authority whatever in the case to which it was 
 applied, there was a serious departure from the prece- 
 dent itself, in the power that was given to enforce the 
 payment of tithes by legal prosecution, and civil pen- 
 alties. Under the legal Jewish dispensation, there was 
 nothing between the offerer and receiver, but the plain 
 and explicit command of God : so that the payment was 
 purely a religious service. Under the more liberal and 
 spiritual Christian dispensation, there is between the 
 people and the priest, as a substitute for the command 
 of God, all the power and authority of the secular 
 arm, and that arm employed under ecclesiastical di- 
 rection, for the laudable purpose of binding a Jewish 
 burden upon Christian shoulders, and for converting 
 that which, among the Jews, was a religious duty, in- 
 24 
 
266 
 
 to a matter of mere civil obligation and commercial 
 arrangement ; frequently grievous to one party con- 
 cerned in the transaction, and not seldom morally in- 
 jurious to the other. 
 
 The results which have followed have been as un- 
 happy, as the principles on which the legislation pro- 
 ceeded were unsound. The tithe, instead of the ser- 
 vice, has too commonly been the inducement to seek 
 " holy orders ;" and they have been obtained by many, 
 whom "schools dismissed and colleges, untaught" 
 themselves in the word, and who, consequently, were 
 totally incompetent to teach others. In many cases, 
 where the good things exacted have been sufficient to 
 support the receiver in affluence, and where, conse- 
 quently, on all the principles of equity, the most 
 strenuous efforts should have been made, and the most 
 entire devotedness have been displayed, he has not 
 given himself the trouble to attempt to teach the con- 
 tributors, but has devolved the work, with a small pit- 
 tance of the hire, upon the hands of a substitute. 
 Where any of the people, unable to find in the instruc- 
 tions of the establishment that which their spiritual 
 wants required, or conscientiously difl^ering from its 
 constitution and forms, have left its communion, and 
 have chosen pastors of their own, to whom they cheer- 
 fully render their voluntary offerings ; though they re- 
 ceive no teaching in the word from the legalized in- 
 cumbent or his substitute, yet is every ecclesiastical 
 exaction enforced, from the golden fieece down to the 
 
267 
 
 Easter pence ; not, it is true, because the clergyman 
 for the time being is mercenary, but because he is 
 bound in conscience to allow the revenues of the 
 church to suffer no damage. But, perhaps, the most 
 serious injury of the whole, and which most deeply af- 
 fects the general interests of Christianity, is, that too 
 many of those who remain in the establishment, tran- 
 quilly conclude, that the state has provided them with 
 a religion, and secured its ample support, and that to 
 interest themselves about its nature, or make any ef- 
 forts for its extension, is, on their parts, altogether un- 
 required and unnecessary. These may be unwel- 
 come, but they are not exaggerated facts. In what 
 way the injustice and opprobrium which they involve 
 are to be remedied, it may not be easy, while the in- 
 fluential part of the clergy are more concerned for the 
 wealth than for the character and spiritual efficiency 
 of the church, to show. A ministry truly apostolic in 
 its principles and spirit, would effectuate a remedy at 
 once, v/ould spontaneously withdraw its reliance for 
 support upon the strength of the secular arm, and safe- 
 ly trust to the providence of God, and the grateful and 
 affectionate liberality of those to whom they minister. 
 He who labours would then receive the reward ; there 
 would be opportunity afforded for religious principle 
 to develope itself; and pastor and people mutually 
 and freely reciprocating each to tlie other its own pe- 
 culiar good, might rejoice together before the Lord in 
 the [iresent enjoyment of his goodness, and the antici- 
 pation of their mutual reward. 
 
'268 
 
 That there is more activity and vigour in those re- 
 ligious communities in our country which are unen- 
 dowed, than there is in that which enjoys the patron- 
 age of the state ; that the former, with all their appa- 
 rent disadvantages, thrive, while the latter, with its 
 powerful monopoly of learning, wealth, and secular 
 distinctions, is yearly decaying in its strength and in- 
 fluence, cannot be denied. In producing these oppo- 
 site and paradoxical results, there are doubtless seve- 
 ral causes which concur ; but may not one of the prin- 
 cipal reasons be, that there is not in the Episcopal 
 communion, on account of its being endowed by the 
 state, any necessity for awakening the dormant ener- 
 gies of its members, and enlisting, for the support and 
 extension of the system, those feelings of interest and 
 watchful care which arc called forth when voluntary 
 pecuniary support has been rendered ? When an in- 
 dividual has become a voluntary contributor to any 
 religious object, it subsequently assumes an import- 
 ance in his estimation, which it did not before possess ; 
 and so long as it commends itself to his judgment, will 
 have a hold upon his feelings which it could in no 
 other way obtain. There is a twofold security enjoy- 
 ed in those religious communities which are supported 
 by voluntary contribution, that more than counterbal- 
 ances all the disadvantages, which, in other respects, 
 they may sustain ; — a security against corruption, the 
 suspicion of the existence of which is sufficient to 
 withdraw the resources, by which only it could be 
 
2G9 
 
 fed ; — a security, while uncorrupted, of the hearts and 
 energies, as well as names and persons, of those who 
 unite in its support. Those would prove themselves 
 the best friends of the Episcopal church, who would 
 endeavour to extricate her from that ahiance, and 
 withdraw her from those endowments which secular- 
 ize her spirit, fetter her liberty, and weaken her moral 
 strength. Episcopacy maintains itself in Scotland 
 amid the indignant recollections and inveterate preju- 
 dices of the people, and under the jealous discounten- 
 ance of the authorities in the state. In republican 
 America, an ungenial climate, where, like every other 
 religious system, it is unfettered and uncontaminated 
 by political interference, it is said to flourish and in- 
 crease. It is only in England, its native soil and 
 friendly atmosphere, where wealth, learning, antiqui- 
 ty, the deeply-rooteJ prejudices of hereditary habits, 
 rank, and royalty are on its side, — where it lifts its 
 mitred head in courts and parliaments, that it withers 
 and decays. And why 1 Chiefly, because in op- 
 position to the genius of the gospel, to the principles 
 of equity, to the common sense of those who, freed 
 from the shackles of interest or prejudice, think upon 
 the question for themselves, it is supported by com- 
 pulsory exactions, which cannot but be offensive to 
 the multitudes which are beyond its pale ; and which 
 operate rather as a narcotic than a stimulant on those 
 who remain within. 
 When the fountain of Christian liberality has been 
 24* 
 
270 
 
 once fairly opened, not only are its streams more pure 
 and fertilizing than are those which move only as they 
 are forced ; but they flow also more rapidly and ex- 
 tensively abroad. It deserves to be mentioned, that 
 during the past year, (1828-9,) by those denominations 
 of Christians which support their own varied and nu- 
 merous institutions at home, and contribute with others 
 their share towards the maintenance of the religion of 
 the state, 90,010/. were expended in missionary exer- 
 tions among the heathen ; while during the same pe- 
 riod, and for the same purposes, that denomination, 
 which certainly comprises the wealth of the country, 
 and towards whose religious instruction the less afflu- 
 ent dissenters are compelled to pay, the sum expended 
 was 67,528/.* Is it for the honour, — can it be for the 
 advantage of episcopacy, as a religious system, that 
 things should continue as (hey are? Surely those 
 whose love to episcopacy is founded in religious prin- 
 ciple, and among whom are many as truly excellent, as 
 honourable, as liberal, as devoted, as ever it was the 
 happiness of any church to include in her communion, 
 will exert themselves to redeem it from the ruin, 
 
 * There are certain societies which are supported in 
 common by Churchmen and Dissenters, as the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society ; the British and Foreign School 
 Society ; the Rehgious Book and Tract Societies ; from 
 these delightful specimens of Christian co-operation, we 
 can derive but little light to assist us in our present obser- 
 
271 
 
 which, if left to the short-sighted policy of those whose 
 attachment is founded only in a love to secular advan- 
 tages, must inevitably befal. How much might be ac- 
 complished for the true interests of episcopacy, for the 
 union of the various departments of the holy catholic 
 church, for the general interests of Christianity at home 
 
 vations. Let us, however, turn to the distinct efforts made 
 by each great body for the diffusion of Christianity abroad, 
 as affording data for comparison. 
 
 EPISCOPAL MISSIOMARY SOCIETIES. 
 
 Sums acluallij subscribed in ike United Kingdom for 1828-9 
 
 £ s. d. 
 Society for promoting Christian Knowledge — 
 
 Foreign objects 9,208 9 5 
 
 Society for Propagating the Gospel . . 6,239 10 5. 
 Church Missionary Society 52,080 19 1 
 
 £67,525 18 11 
 
 DISSENTING MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 
 
 Sums aclualbj subscribed in the United Kingdom for 1828-9 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Wesleyan Methodists 41,846 12 10 
 
 London Missionary Society .... 37,207 6 
 
 Particular Baptist Missionary Society . 9,305 10 2 
 
 General Baptist ditto 1,651 1 6 
 
 de90,010 5 -0 
 
 Supplement to Cong. Mag. 1829. 
 
272 
 
 and abroad, if, renouncing the alliance by whigh it is 
 fettered, the endowments by which it is secularized, 
 and the uncharitable assumptions by which it is dis- 
 honoured, the Church of England became entirely 
 Protestant in its character, and the resources of wealth, 
 learning, and piety, which it includes, were brought 
 under the operation of the same vigorous, because vol- 
 untary and popular principles, which obtain in other 
 communions. Let it be remembered, that not only in 
 the apostolic age, but for the first three centuries, the 
 Christian ministry was supported, and the Christian 
 church extended, by the voluntary sacrifices of the 
 hand ; that Christian principle, where it is the object 
 of the ministry to cherish and nurture it, still developes 
 itself in the same way, and for the same purposes ; 
 and that the fruit produced abounds to the account of 
 those by whom it is brought forth. 
 
 There are the sacrifices of the lip. 
 
 " By him (Christ) therefore let us offer the sacrifice 
 of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our 
 lips giving thanks to his name,"* And when the 
 ground of acccj)tance is understood, and we enjoy 
 peace with God by the blood of the cross, coming to 
 it as the one spiritual altar,-\ of the virtue of whose 
 perfect sacrifice all Christians partake, and by which 
 
 * Heb. xiii. 15. t Heb. xiii. 10. 
 
273 
 
 all the oblations that they present are hallowed for 
 their own enjoyment and God's complacent regard ; 
 they may rejoice evermore, and in every thing give 
 thanks. In this way, the sacrifices of the Christian 
 church become as much more frequent and numerous 
 as they are more spiritual, than those which were of- 
 fered under the law. The prayers of each individual 
 member of the church " are set forth before God as 
 incense, and the lifting up of the hands as the evening 
 sacrifice." And thus, in proportion as the Christian 
 church extends its boundaries, the pi-ediction of Mal- 
 achi receives its accomplishment. " For from the rising 
 of the sun even unto the going down of the same my 
 name shall be great among the Gentiles ; and in every 
 place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a 
 pure offering ; for my name shall be great among the 
 heathen, saith the Lord of hosts,"* And at length the 
 world, filled with the knowledge of the Lord, will be- 
 come as God's holy mountain of Jerusalem, where 
 only sacrifices could at one time be offered : in it no 
 hurting or destroying, but all its nations, tribes, and 
 families approaching the one christian altar, the cross, 
 and abiding under tlie shadow of the divine presence, 
 shall minister before their common God and Father, a 
 holy priesthood ; giving thanks always for all things in 
 the name of the Lord Jesus, presenting spiritual sacri- 
 fices acceptable to God by him. Who, with the pros- 
 
 * Mai. i. 11. 
 
274 
 
 pect of the pleasing scene before him, can refrain from 
 lifting up his heart in fervent prayer to God, and em- 
 ploying the language prepared by the pen of inspira- 
 tion for our use, and referring to the consummation so 
 devoutly to be wished ; " God be merciful unto us, and 
 bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us, that thy 
 name may be known upon earth, thy saving health 
 among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God, 
 let all the people praise thee ; O let the nations be glad 
 and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge the people right- 
 eously, and govern the nations upon earth. Let the 
 people praise thee, O God, let all the people praise 
 thee ; then shall the earth yield her increase, and God 
 even our own God shall bless us. God shall bless us, 
 and all the ends of the earth shall fear him." 
 
 God, before whom the holy priesthood now minis- 
 ters, separated to his service, and touching no unclean 
 thing, acknowledges and regards them as the children 
 of his family, sends his Spirit into their hearts, as the 
 spirit of adoption, promises them an inheritance and 
 crown of glory, calls them heirs of God, and joint-heirs 
 with Christ ; and thus a character is impressed upon 
 them, unknown to the Jewish people, or the Jewish 
 priests ; they are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a 
 peculiar people, showing forth his praise, who has call- 
 ed them out of darkness into his marvellous light. In 
 this way are they training on earth for the ministrations 
 of the celestial temple, the worship presented in which 
 was opened to the wondering eyes and ravished ears 
 
275 
 
 of the beloved disciple ; " And they sung a new song, 
 saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open 
 the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeem- 
 ed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and 
 tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us unto 
 our God kings and priests : and we shall reign on the 
 earth."* 
 
 We have now reached the close of our subject, and 
 are prepared to contemplate the harmony of its parts, 
 and to estimate the amount of their consolidated 
 strength. We have seen, that Levitical terms are ne- 
 ver employed to describe the privileges or work of the 
 Christian ministry, and consequently that all the pre- 
 tensions of those who profess to discharge the func- 
 tions of an official priesthood in the Christian church, 
 are totally unauthorized, and nugatory; that their 
 work is incongruous with the Christian dispensation, 
 and incompatible with the character of those who are 
 completely qualified to teach what that dispensation 
 really is. We have seen that Christ has embodied in 
 his work the types which were presented in the office 
 and ritual of the Old Testament priesthood ; that he 
 has entered, as the exclusive Priest of the New Testa- 
 ment dispensation, into the true temple, which, because 
 it is in heaven, can never be desecrated, nor its service 
 be at any time suspended ; that in his work there is 
 
 * Rev. V. 9, 10. 
 
276 
 
 found the completeness and perpetuity, the universal 
 and unfailing efficacy, which the possession of divine 
 perfections must necessarily impart. We have seen, 
 that all those who come to God for spiritual blessings 
 by him, whatever minor differences may prevail 
 amongst them, or by whatever instnjmentality they 
 have been brought where peace and reconciliation 
 are enjoyed ; become themselves, in the same respects 
 as the Jews, when obedient, were a kingdom of 
 priests, a holy priesthood. Their coming to God by 
 Jesus Christ is the result of their being enlightened in 
 the knowledge of him ; is followed by the application 
 of the blood which cleanseth them from sin ; the effii- 
 sion of the spiritual influence which sanctifies and sep- 
 arates for God's service ; the acceptance of the spiri- 
 tual sacrifices which in that service are presented ; the 
 liberty to come with them into the holiest ; and to re- 
 joice while offering them in the overshadowing glory 
 of the divine presence. So that while Levitical terms 
 are not employed to describe the privileges and work 
 of the Christian ministry, they are explicitly and re- 
 peatedly employed to describe the privileges and 
 work of the Christian people. By them, in common 
 with their ministers, are pi-csented the sacrifices of the 
 lip. By them, and amongst other purposes for the 
 temporal support of their ministers, are presented the 
 sacrifices of the hand ; while they are recognized as 
 the substantial body of the church, and are regarded, 
 watched over, and fed, with the sincere milk of the 
 
277 
 
 word, not for filthy lucre's sake, but because they are 
 the flock which Christ hath purchased by his own most 
 precious blood. 
 
 Let it not be supposed, that we wish to depreciate 
 the value of the Christian ministry. That is in fact 
 the result of 1 he short-sighted policy of those who 
 claim for it what God has not given, and endeavour 
 to exalt its titles and dignities on the desecration of 
 what is called the laity. They have so far lowered its 
 intellectual character, as to make it the snug conveni- 
 ence, and comfortable shelter, of that son in the fami- 
 ly of whose advancement in any other profession no 
 hope can be entertained. They have so far lowered 
 its moral character, as to make it the scorn of the in- 
 fidel, and the jest of the profane. The work of the 
 Christian ministry is the most important and dignified 
 which can be entrusted to mortal hands ; because it is 
 the instrumentality by which those who compose the 
 holy and royal priesthood are called from darkness to 
 light, are formed a peculiar people, are taught and in- 
 cited to offer spiritual sacrifices, and be zealous of 
 good works. By how much the privileges of the peo- 
 ple are exalted, by so much must the mind of him 
 who is to unfold those privileges be enriched and ex- 
 panded. The ritual service of the priest is a mere 
 bodily exercise, for the discharge of which corporeal 
 faculties only are required ; the office of the ministry 
 requires those which are intellectual, moral, and spirit- 
 25 
 
278 
 
 ual, in all their concentration and vigour. For the 
 work of a priest, an acquaintance with missals and 
 pontificals only is essential ; for the work of the min- 
 istry, there must be a familiar acquaintance with the 
 word of God, an illumination of the mind in the knowl- 
 edge of Christ, a determination to glory only in his 
 cross. For a priest, it is sufficient that he be able to 
 read the forms which are prepared to his hand ; a min- 
 ister must be able and apt to teach. A priest may be 
 easily trained for the perfect performance of his func- 
 tions before he enters on their discharge, and in the 
 beaten track of his prescribed ceremonial engage- 
 ments, no subsequent improvement can be displayed ; 
 a minister must diligently cultivate every faculty with 
 which he is endowed, and improve every advantage 
 that is within his reach ; must "give himself wholly to 
 his work, that his profiting may appear unto all." The 
 work to which he is called, is not the establishing of 
 the prerogatives and privileges of his own order, but 
 the exhibition of the grace and glory of Christ. He is 
 to preach Christ, warning every man, and teaching 
 every man in all wisdom, that he may present every 
 man perfect in Christ Jesus. The true dignity of the 
 ministry is seen, not in the splendid orders, vestments, 
 and emoluments of a hierarchy ; but in the moral ele- 
 vation of an instructed, enlightened, and holy people. 
 " For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?" 
 asks the Apostle, when writing to the Tiiessalonians ; 
 " are not even ye, in the presence of the Lord Jesus, 
 
279 
 
 and at his coming ? for ye are our glory and our joy." 
 Those, who in this spirit labour to instruct and im- 
 prove the people of tiieir pastoral charge, preaching 
 the word, and being instant in season and out of sea- 
 son, make full proof of their ministry, have with them 
 the promised presence and blessing of the great Head 
 of the church, and when he, the chief Shepherd, shall 
 appear, will receive a crown of glory, which fadeth 
 not away. A reference to that day, in which the dis- 
 tinctions and emoluments now associated with the of- 
 fices that men sustain, will have departed, and the re- 
 sponsibility which they involved only will appear; in 
 which the mitre and the diadem will be consumed, 
 and it will be known who wore them only by the ac- 
 count they will be required to give to him who is Lord 
 of all ; in which some will awake to everlasting life, 
 and some to shame and everlasting contempt ; a refer- 
 ence to that day dissipates the illusions that collect 
 around us in the earthly atmosphere in which at pres- 
 ent we dwell ; and conscience, if its voice be listened 
 to, admonishes us of the fact, that it is what is moral 
 and spiritual, self-denying and laborious, not what is 
 merely ritual, and official, and dignified in the eyes of 
 our fellow-men, which will bear the scrutiny, and re- 
 ceive the public approval of the righteous and infalli- 
 ble Judge. " They that be wise," as he was who said, 
 " yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the 
 excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my 
 Lord," " shall shine as the brightness of the finna- 
 
280 
 
 ment, and they that turn many to righteousness as the 
 stars for ever and ever." To bear the scrutiny of that 
 day, the ministerial work must not only rest upon^the 
 right foundation, but its superstructure also must be 
 composed of approved materials. " For we are la- 
 bourers together with God : ye are God's husbandry, 
 ye are God's building. According to the grace of 
 God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder, 
 I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth there- 
 on. But let every man take heed how he buildeth 
 thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay 
 than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any 
 man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious 
 stones, wood, hay, stubble ; every man's work shall be 
 made manifest : for the day shall declare it, because 
 it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every 
 man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work 
 abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive 
 a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall 
 suffer loss : but he himself shall be saved ; yet so as 
 by fire."* 
 
 As we have no wish to depreciate the value of the 
 Christian ministry, so neither have we any desire to 
 increase, or encourage uncharitable divisions in the 
 church. The principles which we have advocated, 
 are those which make for peace : and holding which, 
 while we walk in the clear light of truth, and the en- 
 
 * 1 Cor. iii. 9—15. 
 
231 
 
 joyment of the liberty wherewith Christ has made us 
 free, we may look around us in the exercise of the most 
 fervent and expansive charity. Where the truth as it 
 is in Jesus is held, charity cannot be confined within 
 the narrow boundaries of any section of the Christian 
 community, but will be extended to the whole catholic 
 church. That church is composed, not restrictively of 
 those only who adopt certain ceremonial observances, 
 for which there is no prescription in the word of God, 
 and who wear the livery of an outward uniformity ; 
 but of all those, wherever they are found, and by what- 
 ever name they may be called, who are taught of God 
 to rely on one atonement, to approach him as their 
 reconciled Father, through one Mediator, to separate 
 themselves from whatever is sinful in the world, for 
 his service, and to present spiritual sacrifices accepta- 
 ble to him through Jesus Christ. Those wlio hold 
 other principles may say, Grace be with all those who 
 love and adopt our venerable forms and rituals ; we 
 say, yea rather, " Grace be with all them who love our 
 Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." Those who hold other 
 principles, may promise peace and safety to all who 
 participate in the efficacy of the sacraments which 
 they administer ; we conclude that grace and peace, 
 from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, will 
 be with all that in every place call upon the name of 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. *' For 
 the scripture saith. Whosoever believeth on him shall 
 not be ashamed. For there is no difference between 
 
 25* 
 
282 
 
 the Jew and the Greek : for the same Lord over all is 
 rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall 
 call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."* 
 Those who hold other principles, may follow in the 
 steps of the disciples when they knew but imperfectly 
 the nature of the dispensation which they were des- 
 tined afterwards to open in its freedom and glory, and 
 but little understood the spirit which their master would 
 approve ; and therefore said to him, " We saw one 
 casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us : 
 and we forbad him, because he followeth not us :"f 
 we would rather breathe the spirit of him, who, labour- 
 ing to be accepted of his Master, and serving him in 
 the noon-day light of the gospel, said, "What then? 
 notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or in 
 truth, Christ is preached ; and I therein do rejoice, yea, 
 and will rejoice."J Those who hold other principles 
 may rank themselves under the names of different 
 leaders in the church, and may divide on perplexing 
 questions which have been controverted till all parties 
 are wearied with the discussion, without producing a 
 conclusion in which there can be a general agreement ; 
 we have endeavoured to exhibit in their due promi- 
 nence, the essential truths in which those who differ on 
 many other disputed points are one, and which present 
 a platform sufficiently defined, extensive, privileged, 
 and firm, for a general union in heart and hand of all 
 
 * Rom. X. 11— 13. t Mark ix. 38. J Phil. i. 18. 
 
283 ' 
 
 in every part of the church, who answer the apostolic 
 description of the true circumcision ; " Which worship 
 God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no 
 confidence in the flesh,"* We have laid open to the 
 view, not only the privileges and work of the holy 
 priesthood, but also the materials, — the lively stones of 
 whicli the spiritual house is constructed ; that, which 
 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
 Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone, 
 groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. How eleva- 
 ted is the ground on which it stands. How capacious 
 its extent. How easy the access to it. How widely 
 to every quarter of the world, and for every family of 
 mankind, do its gates open ; they are never shut day 
 nor night. How impregnable its walls, and secure the 
 shelter which they afford. How fresh and full the 
 fountains of enjoyment which spring and flow within 
 it. How bright the cloud of glory by which it is over- 
 shadowed. How free and dignified the worshippers 
 which enter. How melodious and acceptable the 
 songs of praise with which it perpetually resounds. 
 Angels behold it with admiration at the manifold wis- 
 dom of its builder, and the blessedness of the people 
 who walk in it, and fly with prompt and cheerful 
 wings, to minister for them as heirs of salvation. It is 
 God's own work, and must stand with undecaying 
 strength, and ever brightening lustre, till the consum- 
 
 * Phil. iii. 3. 
 
284 
 
 mation of all things shall arrive ; and then will be 
 seen the New Jerusalem coming down from God 
 out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her 
 husband. 
 
 How different the artificial structure, — the hierarchy 
 which man has reared. That rises order upon order 
 with all incongruous materials and diverse styles, and 
 altitude unmeasurably high. The builders of the mys- 
 tic Babylon did actually accomphsh, that which their 
 less fortunate predecessors only attempted. They 
 reared for themselves a tower whose top reached to 
 the heavens. Those, who in succession sat enthroned 
 on its summit, did for a while make darkness their pa- 
 vilion, and assume the titles of the Most High. They 
 grasped with mortal hand the flaming bolt, and made 
 " fire to come down from heaven to earth in the sight 
 of men." Their voice rolled in thunder, and the pros- 
 trate world trembled with awe before them. But the 
 darkness of the night of terror has been chased awaj^ 
 and the unwelcome light of day has cast its withering 
 beams upon them. The wand of the Prince of Magi- 
 cians has been broken, and the arm, palsied with age, 
 which waves the fragment that remains, only beats the 
 air in the presence of derision and scorn. The control 
 of the elements is lost, and the power which once ruled 
 them has repeatedly become the victim of their rage. 
 The winds from above are vexing and crumbling the 
 summit of the Babel. The floods from beneath are 
 washing and wasting its foundations. The clumsy 
 
285 
 
 frame-work of its structure is disjointed, and it trem- 
 bles and totters to its fall ; like a great mill-stone cast 
 into the sea, with violence will it be thrown down, 
 and be found no more at all. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary Librar 
 
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