LIBRARY 
 
 Theological Seminary 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 t—-. .1- 
 
 BV 600 .G7 1873 
 Soulburn, Edward Meyrick, 
 
 1818-1897. 
 The holy Catholic Church 
 
THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH 
 
RIVINGTONS 
 
 ILonbon Waterloo Place 
 
 ©iforti High Street 
 
 arambtillgf Trinity Street 
 
THE HOLY , 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH 
 
 |t2f 2D(tinc 3|Deal, Sl^inlstcp, and Jnstitutionsi 
 
 A SHORT TREATISE 
 
 iV/TH A CA TECH ISM ON EACH CHAPTER 
 
 FORMING A COURSE OF METHODICAL INSTR CrcTIOX 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT 
 
 HOWARD MEYRICK'gOULBURN, D.D. 
 
 DEAN OF NORWICH 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 pott, goung, anD Co. 
 
 1873 
 
TO THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 SAMUEL, 
 lorn TBiieiT)op of CHincljesitcr, 
 
 PRELATE OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, 
 ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 WHOSE DEVOTION, ZEAL, ABILITY, AND 
 UNWEARIED LABOURS 
 
 HAVE CONTRIBUTED MORE THAN ANY OTHER SINGLE CAUSK 
 
 TO MAKE THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
 
 A LIVING POWER AMONG THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 
 
 THIS BOOK 
 
 IS, BY HIS KIND PERMISSION, 
 
 INSCRIBED 
 
 WITH SENTIMENTS OF GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This Book is published in obedience to a call, 
 which the Author felt himself unable to resist. 
 So long ago as 1868, several influential clergymen 
 took the opportunity offered them by the Wolver- 
 hampton Congress of meeting together to discuss, 
 and consider the remedy for, the ignorance so ex- 
 tensively prevalent on the subject of the Church. 
 It appeared to them that even those who are more 
 or less competently acquainted with the rudiments 
 of the Christian Religion, are often (from want 
 of instruction) lamentably deficient in knowledge 
 respecting the Church, — her claims, her title- 
 deeds, her powers, and the gi'ounds on which she 
 claims the allegiance of her children. They also 
 thought that it might do something towards the 
 removal of this ignorance, if there were a manual, 
 clearly and temperately written, which might 
 meet with something like general acceptance, and 
 might be placed in the hands of school-teachers 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 and others, whose province it was to give instruc- 
 tion on religious subjects. Not wishing their 
 discussion to terminate on itself, without practical 
 issue, they determined to request Dr. Goodwin 
 (then Dean of Ely), and myself, to undertake the 
 task which appeared to them so desirable, indi- 
 cating a Catechism as the particular form which 
 the work should assume. Dr. Goodwin and I had 
 a meeting, to consider the question of compliance 
 with their wishes ; and we both agreed that, 
 though it was an undertaking delicate and diffi- 
 cult, and which of ourselves we never should 
 have sought, yet when it was devolved upon us 
 by several of our brother-clergy, whose opinion 
 we had every reason to respect, it would be hardly 
 proper to decline. We therefore considered the 
 divisions into which the subject would fall, agreed 
 what parts of the joint work each of us should 
 make himself responsible for, and so parted. 
 
 Some time after this, Dr. Goodwin, by his 
 elevation to the See of Carlisle (an elevation 
 involving, as such preferment always must, an 
 overwhelming mass of engagements), was obliged 
 to resign partnership. This resignation of course 
 robbed the work of its fairest promise ; for Dr. 
 Goodwin had all the qualifications for such an 
 
Preface. ix 
 
 enterprise, and would have been sure to execute 
 liis part with vigour, clearness, and acceptance ; 
 and, like the king in the parable, I was obliged 
 to consider whether, with my own slender re- 
 sources, I should not find such a task above my 
 unaided strength. There were three arguments, it 
 seemed to me, for proceeding and doing my best : 
 first, that I had already begun, if not actually to 
 write, yet mentally to construct what was required 
 of me ; secondly, that the same Providence which 
 had in the first instance, without seeking of my 
 own, seemed to summon me to put my hand to 
 such a work, though depriving me of my help- 
 mate, had given no indication that I was to 
 abandon the task imposed on me ; thirdly, that 
 I should hardly be acting up to my idea of my 
 duties, as Dean of a Cathedral Church, if I did 
 not respond to a call made upon me for a work on 
 a theological subject, which it was hoped might 
 be generally useful. So I went on, as I found 
 opportunity to do so, expressing my thoughts 
 first in the shape of Sermons, and then cast- 
 ing them into the mould of Chapters. Had I 
 followed my own inclination, I should have 
 done no more. But I had to consider that I was 
 writing to order ; and therefore, in deference 
 
X Preface. 
 
 to the recommendations we had received when 
 our task was assigned to us, I have added to 
 each Chapter a Catechism, or (as perhaps in some 
 cases it sho-uld be rather called) a dialogue upon 
 it, the object of which is to make clear, to rivet, 
 and occasionally to expand, the lessons contained 
 in it. This has been a work of considerable 
 trouble ; but it is trouble which I do not regret. 
 If my Catechisms are useful to no one else, they 
 will at least have been of service to the writer. I 
 have found that the making them has cleared and 
 confirmed my own views. It is easy, in writing 
 an essay, to slur over in one or two hazy sentences 
 the weak points of an argument. But when one 
 sits down to consider what these weak points are, 
 and what answers could be given to a person 
 founding objections on them, and to draw out 
 these answers in extenso (and this the compiler of 
 a Catechism must do), the hold one gets of one's 
 own position tliereby is far firmer and more satis- 
 factory than before. 
 
 If I must be candid about my work, I fear that 
 the views expressed in this Catechism will not meet 
 with sufficiently general acceptance to make it 
 answer the great object which those who suggested 
 it had in view. This I cannot help. It would 
 
Preface. xi 
 
 have been easy to write a quantity of matter on 
 tlie Ministr}', Sacraments, Offices of the Church, 
 and on the relation wliich in our own country she 
 holds to the State, while blinking the delicate 
 question as to her real essence and constitution. 
 But this would have been neither clear in theory, 
 nor brave in practice. For my OAvn part, I cannot 
 understand hoiv the Ministerial Succession can be 
 otherwise than essential to a rightly constituted 
 Church ; and, as I entertain this conviction deeply, 
 I have announced it fearlessly, while earnestly 
 endeavouring, at the same time, both to hold and 
 to speak " the truth in love." I am quite aware, 
 of course, that this feature of it must preclude 
 the general acceptance of my work. But for this 
 failure I submit that my employers, more than 
 myself, must be held responsible. They should 
 have intrusted the task to another hand. 
 
 One observation, however, I may make, by way 
 of preventing the reader from turning away at the 
 outset, upon finding a Scriptural interpretation in 
 which he cannot concur. In the first Chapter I 
 have assigned that meaning to our Lord's great 
 promise to St, Peter, which seems to me the most 
 simple and suitable of any I have met with, I 
 am not unaware that both ancient and modern 
 
xii Preface. 
 
 Doctors of the Church, of the greatest theological 
 eminence, interpret the promise differently. The 
 passage being a fundamental one, I was obliged 
 to consider it ; and in doing so, I have expounded 
 it in the way which most approves itself to my 
 own mind. But I am anxious to point out that 
 tlie, possible incorrectness of my exposition does not 
 affect my argument. Granting that eirl ravrr) tt? 
 Trerpa does not mean St. Peter in any sense, still 
 it is as a fact indisputable that he took the pro- 
 minent part in commencing the superstructure of 
 the Church, whereof his Master had laid the 
 foundations, and that by wielding the keys of 
 the Word and Sacraments he first unlocked " the 
 kingdom of heaven" to penitent and believing 
 souls. That is all that is necessary for the argu- 
 ment ; — a certain fact, not a questionable inter- 
 pretation. 
 
 It remains to acknowledge my heavy debt to 
 the Keverend Dr. Irons, and to the late Professor 
 Blunt, in the three last Chapters. I have not 
 read Dr. Irons's most valuable Essay* on the In- 
 terpretation of the Bible, since it was first pub- 
 lished ; but my strong impression is, that nearly 
 
 1 The Bible and its Interpreters. By William J. Irons, 
 D.D., etc. London, 1865. 
 
Preface. xiii 
 
 all the thoughts contained in Chaps, viii. and 
 IX. are originally his, sown in my mind by his 
 Essay, and now reproduced in my own language. 
 To the late Margaret Professor at Cambridge^ my 
 obligations are even greater and more conscious 
 (alas ! when shall we look again upon a divine so 
 learned, so acute, so in harmony with both ele- 
 ments in our Communion ?) ; and the latter part 
 of the last Chapter is, as will be seen, only an 
 expansion of one of his terse eulogies of the Book 
 of Common Prayer. If I have in any way con- 
 tributed to the wider knowledge of his works, 
 and their gi-eater appreciation by English Church- 
 men, I shall not have written altogether in vain. 
 
 E. M. G. 
 
 Aynhoe Rectory, Banbury, Oct. 9, 1872. 
 
 1 Five Sermons preached before the University of 
 Cambridge in 1845, and Five others in 1S51. Cam- 
 bridge, 1847 and 1852. 
 

 
 Contents* 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Catjat tT)c QCfjitrcf) iff, ana iuTjcn ann ftoto tt ijoafi founucD. 
 
 ' And I say also unto thee. That thou art Pete7; and upon 
 this rock I will build tny church.''— ^T. Matt. xvi. i8. 
 
 General need of methodized instruction on the subject of the Church — 
 'The invisible Church' an unscriptural phraseology— Etymology 
 and signification of the word ' Ecclesia ' — Distinction drawn by our 
 Lord between the ' called ' and the ' chosen ' — The man without the 
 wedding garment, the representative of the called who are not chosen 
 — Why the chosen are represented as many, and the called as only 
 one — Call for the present treatise — Scriptural warrants for a treatise 
 on the Church— Its close union with Christ— The Acts of the Apostles 
 an inspired history of the Church— The fundamental Church truth- 
 First announcement of our Lord's purpose of building the Church- 
 Reason why our Lord's disciples (while He was upon earth) were 
 not a Church — Difference between an aggregation and a body — 
 St. Peter's part in the proceedings of the day of Pentecost — His 
 admission of the Gentiles to the Church in the person of Cornelius 
 —The two predictions respecting St. Peter's ministry, and their 
 fulfilment— Meaning of the name ' Peter,' and probable reason of 
 its being changed into the feminine form, in the celebrated promise 
 to St. Peter— St. Paul, and all the Apostles, as well as St. Peter, 
 were layers of foundations— St. Peter the earliest layer of the 
 foundation— Bengel's distinction between being 'built' and being 
 ' founded '—Why Christ founded a Society, as well as taught a reli- 
 gion—Risk of corruption in forming a society — God's purpose of 
 renewing man, not of reconstructing him— Society man's earliest 
 want— Instincts of human nature which have no meaning except on 
 the hypothesis of his being a social creature — Instincts of love and 
 friendship — Another issue for each of us, besides the question 
 whether we receive the truths which Christ taught — A man cannot 
 
xvi Contents. 
 
 FACE 
 
 make himself a member of a society, but must be admitted by 
 others— Necessity of admission into the Church— Necessity of an 
 historical continuity to the identity of societies — Difference of 
 appearance not incompatible with identity — Illustration from archi- 
 tecture—Importance of the Ministerial Succession— The Roman 
 Communion in England a schismatical intruder — The debt which 
 the Church owes to the Reformers— The due moral effect of the 
 advantage of our position, as a Church at once Scriptural and 
 Apostolical — The Church's spiritual lineage independent of State 
 Patronage, ........ i 
 
 CATECHISM ON Chap. I., 22 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Dutp of tTie C^urc'b totoartiici tTxusc iulbo '^o\^ to tl&e 
 apoistleis' Boctrtne, in jseparatton from t!)e apojstlesi' 
 felloiiJsilEjtp. 
 
 ' And John answered khn, saying. Master, ive saw 07ie 
 casting out devils in thy na?ne, and he followeth not us : and 
 7ve forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, 
 Forbid him not : for there is no man which shall do a miracle 
 in my name, that can lightly speak evil of tne. For he that 
 is not against us is on our part.'' — Sx. Mark ix. 38, 39, 40. 
 
 ' They continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fel- 
 lowship.^ — Acts ii. 42. 
 
 The balance of forces a law of Nature— Religious truths are moral 
 forces— The balance of truths a law of Grace — Both the Apostles' 
 doctrine and their fellowship to be continued 'n — 1"} 'ne*^ 'fellow- 
 ship ' to be created, but the old one to be adhe In the 
 infancy of Christianity the 'doctrine' and 'lellowi yoi ensive 
 — How the two came to be separated — Perplex! 'he CATrom 
 this separation — How this perplexity was . ...uiwarks,' etc. 
 Other countries not as highly favoured; andj 'ed before the 
 in such countries— The earliest idea of a Chris-> ' ord framed 
 Rapid propagation of the idea — The Founder -teiy 
 marred — Spiritual life visible, and spiritual age'. jrk, out- 
 side the Apostles' fellowship — How we are to ', .ik of and deal 
 with such phenomena — The man who cast out devils in Christ's 
 name, but did not follow with the Apostles — Why he must have been 
 a sincere believer— His probable independence of spirit — How much 
 he lost by not following in the train of the Lord Jesus — High privi- 
 lege of association with the Apostles, even after Christ had left 
 
Contents. xvii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 them— The Apostolic Fellowship is still in the world — Loss suffered 
 by separation, however conscientious — England has preserved both 
 Christianity and the Church— Universal Christian sympathy to 
 be cultivated along with Church principles— Spiritual history of 
 many a separatist— His experience of the power of the Name of 
 Jesus — His impulse to make known to others the power of this 
 Name — His impatience of restraint— Success of his ministry, and 
 the effect of such success upon himself— How we arc to deal with 
 such persons — Neither the State, nor the Church, are to forbid 
 them — We must acknowledge his work as from God, and be thank- 
 ful for it— Church principles by no means inconsistent with Chris- 
 tian sympathy— Appearance of saintliness and high prophetical gifts 
 in the schismatical kingdom of the Ten Tribes — Schismatical Com- 
 munions which preach Christ, like the 'little ships' in the wake of 
 the vessel which bore the Person of Christ, . . . -38 
 CATECHISMoNCHAr.il,, 55 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Oe (Unitp of t!)e CETjitrc]^, ann ttf! DisirujJtion. 
 
 '^ Neither pray I for these alone, but for thetn also lohich 
 shall believe on me through their word ; that they all maybe 
 one ; as thou. Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also 
 may be one in us : that the worl4 may believe that thou hast 
 sent me.' — St. John xvii. 20, 21. 
 
 The divisions of the Church made tolerable to us only by our familiarity 
 with them — Unity Christ's design for His Church, however exten- 
 sive it might', in course of time become — Unity of the Church 
 recognised in the same parables which predict its spread — Unity 
 of the Chi -h "' ".ignei to be an instrument in the conversion of the 
 world — r ■• ; ot' the Church from the Founder's ideal— Origin 
 
 of the ^jcost '' ^"^ schism between the East and West — Its 
 
 grouPj^ j^j " - ' and ceremonial — The schism at the Reforma- 
 and difficult'ei 't — Schism between the Reformed Churches 
 
 parties wit''"*^'' ° propagate itself— Drawbacks of the Refor- 
 — dowme, ^ thought between the Unity of the Church 
 
 and ti. ■ '^' ' 6f Saints,— exposed by the words of the 
 
 Apostle, a. ''•- analogy drawn from the body — The guidance 
 given us by Ho., icripture under the present circumstances of 
 the Church— The establishment of the Israelitish monarchy — The 
 causes which led to it, the misconduct of the rulers, and of the 
 people— How the same causes have operated to produce schism in 
 the Church — A second disturbance of God's plan for the govern- 
 ment of His people, by the schism of the Ten Tribes, which might 
 
 h 
 
Contents. 
 
 FAGE 
 
 have been averted by a conciliatory policy on the part of Rehoboam 
 — The secession received the Divine sanction, and the seceding 
 tribes, even in their lowest moral condition, received the recognition 
 of Almighty God — Law of the Divine administration, which God's 
 sanction, first of the Monarchy, and then of the Schism, exhibits — 
 Application of the narrative to the Christian Church, in its present 
 divided state — The ideal of the Church, and its original constitution, 
 shattered by the schism, and by the organization of new ministries 
 — Our duty vmder these circumstances : i. To recognise sin in the 
 Church as the source of schism — The sin in our own Communion 
 which led to dissent ; 2. To recognise our divisions as ' penal ' in 
 their character, and humble ourselves accordingly, and avoid those 
 sins, which drew down the chastisement,— ambition, the lust of the 
 eyes, and the attaching importance to trifles — Prospect of the unity 
 of Christendom, very much like the prospect of the cessation of 
 war, impossible of realization by mere human effort — Ezek. xxxvii. 
 22, 24 ; 3. Never to deny the working of the Spirit of God in schis- 
 matical Communions — Fullest acknowledgment of this compatible 
 with the denial of any due authorization for their ministry — God 
 does not confine His graces and gifts even to the channel of His 
 own appointment — The Unity of the Church to be sued for in 
 earnest prayer — The guarded terms in which our own Church 
 teaches us to pray for it, . . . . . . 66 
 
 CATECHISM ON Chap. III., 85 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 STlje siurl3cp of ^ion'is totoers*, ittltoarfess, aitD ]?a(aces(. 
 
 ' Walk about Zion, and go i-otmd about her : tell the towers 
 thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; that 
 ye may tell it to the generation following.^ — Ps. XLViii. 12, 13. 
 
 The probable date of the forty-eighth Psalm — The confederacy referred 
 to in it — Miraculousdefeat of the confederacy — Security, ^the City 
 of God against hostile invasion — Spiritual meaning of le CArrhorta- 
 tion to ' tell the towers of Zion, and mark well her.Jinvarks,' etc. 
 — In the natural creation, the body of man was Iranwi before the 
 breath of lives was breathed into it — Similarly our Lrd framed 
 the structure of His Church before the Holy Spirit de.scencled at 
 Pentecost to animate it — The significance of the great Forty Days — 
 Their evidential significance — Their constructive significance — The 
 germs of Church institutions, Church offices, and Church seasons, 
 laid during this period — Subsequent devejopment by the Apostles 
 of the Ministry of the Church, and of her legislative powers — St. 
 Matt, xviii. 15-21 — The Saviour's promise to be in the midst of the 
 two or three gathered together in His Name, and the context pre- 
 
Contents. 
 
 XIX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ceding and leading up to it— Literal fulfilment of the promise during 
 the great Forty Days — Ordinance of United Prayer — Ground on 
 which the blessing covenanted to that Ordinance rests— The pro- 
 mise to ' the two or three ' is the charter of the Christian Society 
 —Christ's example social, while His doctrine was that of mutual 
 love —Question raised as to how the Christian Society was to be 
 extended and replenished— Self-admission to any society an impos- 
 sibility — St. Matt, xxviii. i6 to end— Probable reference of St. 
 Paul to this interview of Christ with the Eleven — Presence of many 
 others at the interview — The deed of gift referred to in Ps. ii. , under 
 which Christ sends His Gospel to the heathen— Suitability of the 
 scene to the commission — The Ordinance of Missionary Preaching 
 instituted— Mode of formally admitting new converts to the Chris- 
 tian Society— Instruction required subsequently to Baptism— Recog- 
 nition in the Baptismal Service of the necessity of such instruction 
 — Ordinance of Preaching to Christians instituted— The different 
 kinds of teaching which are required previously and subsequently 
 to Baptism — Popular contempt for Preaching condemned by our 
 Lord's institution of it — Ordinance of Christian Education — How 
 this is to be found in the words, ' Teaching them to observe all 
 things,' etc.— Close and vital connexion of Christian Education 
 with Baptism— Christ's solemn charge respecting each baptized 
 infant — How Christian Education is recognised in the restoration 
 of St. Peter to the Pastoral Office — Hence it follows that Education 
 apart from Religion, or even apart from the authority of the Church 
 as a teaching Society, is condemned by Christ's Commission to His 
 Church— The Commission to be perpetuated to the successors of 
 the Apostles — Deep significance of the 'Amen' at the close of it — 
 Christ's Presence with His Church in the darkest periods of her 
 existence, shown by the vigour with which she shook off her corrup- 
 tions—Baptism the divinely instituted form of admission to the 
 Church— The signing with the sign of the Cross merely an assent 
 to that admission on the part of the Christian Society— The outward 
 visible sign of Baptism (where it may be had) shown to be essential 
 to the remission of sins by Ananias's exhortation to St. Paul— Saul, 
 though repentant and believing, not forgiven till he was baptized — 
 Testimony of the Nicene Creed to the necessity of Baptism — 
 Objection arising from the case of the penitent malefactor answered 
 — Full Christian Baptism not in existence till after the day of 
 Pentecost— God dispenses with His Ordinances, where they cannot 
 be had— Double aspect of the Church of England, and the perils 
 and difficulties entailed by it -Aggravated struggle of the two great 
 parties within the Church— The cry for disestablishment and dis- 
 endowment — Scepticism within the Church, undermining the faith 
 of her children — The clerg>' should teach the people to appreciate 
 the advantages of their position as English Churchmen— The laity 
 should study more deeply and compare Bible and Prayer-Book, and 
 seek to understand their mutual relations ; and all should implore 
 the great Head of the Church to make our candlestick a burning 
 and a shining light, . . 98 
 
 CATECHISM ON Chaf. IV., .120 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 0)c 3Iu0titiitton of tl)c ^intgitrp, ann ttis relation to 
 tl)e CJurcl). 
 
 ' Walk about Zio>i, and go round aboiU her: tell the towers 
 thereof. Mark ye tvell her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; that 
 ye may tell it to the generation follotving^ — Ps. XLVIII. I2, 13. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The walk about the spiritual Zion resumed — The word 'Church' only 
 used in the Gospels on two occasions : in the promise to St. Peter ; 
 and in the direction how to deal with a trespassing brother — Re- 
 markable coincidence between our Lord's directions for excom- 
 munication and the record of St. Paul's practice of it — The parties 
 which must concur in inflicting, and in relieving from, a sentence 
 of excommunication — The moral power of excommunication ex- 
 hibited, on a small scale, in the expulsion of mischievous members 
 from Schools and Colleges — The power of binding and loosing 
 lodged at one time with the whole Church, at another with a single 
 Apostle— The meaning of ' binding ' and ' loosing : ' ist. Excom- 
 munication, and relief from it; 2dly. Censure, followed by temporal 
 judgments, and relief from it ; sdly. Authoritative prohibition and 
 permission ; 4thly. The withholding or granting of Sacraments ; 
 Or sthly. Of any appointed means of grace, or even of any rite of 
 the Church — Christ's Institution of the Ministry on the evening of 
 the Resurrection Day — Broad sense of the words, as meaning that 
 the Ministry of the Apostles, and every other Ministry, so far as it 
 is a reproduction of theirs, is the appointed medium through which 
 forgiveness, and all other blessings of the Christian Covenant, flow 
 forth to men — With whom is the power of binding and loosing really 
 lodged, with the Society or with its officers? — Christian Ministers 
 the organs of the Church— Illustration from the natural body, the 
 whole of which is endowed with sensation, while at the same time 
 there are special organs, through which sensation is exercised — 
 Christian Ministers representatives of the Church — Representative 
 character of the Jewish priesthood — The angels (or bishops) of the 
 Seven Asiatic Churches, addressed in the Revelation as representa- 
 tives of the Churches over which they presided — Representative 
 character of the Christian clergy recognised by the word ' Parson '— 
 Political representatives derive their power from the people, and 
 yet have prerogatives which the people may not usurp ; and so the 
 clergy, who are representatives of the Church — Korah spoke the 
 truth in asserting that all the congregation were holy ; but argued 
 wrongly thence that he might assume sacerdotal functions — En- 
 croachment upon ministerial functions condemned by this narrative, 
 and by that of Uzziah's leprosy, ..... 140 
 
 CATECHISM ON Chap. V 158 
 
Contents. * xxi 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 (TIjc toofp dtclbarist at '\x.% surccggiijc stages. 
 
 ' Being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things 
 pertaining to the iingdom of God. ' — Acts I. 3. 
 
 Threefold purpose of the great Forty Days, which elapsed between 
 the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ — Recapitulation of 
 the several Church Institutions, the germs of which were laid 
 during this period— One would expect to find some reference to the- 
 Lord's Supper during this period, although it had of necessity, and 
 in conformity with its character, been instituted previously — And 
 we find that the very day of the Resurrection was not allowed to 
 close without such a reference — The journey to Emmaus, and the 
 conversation on the road — Sameness of the phraseology with that 
 in which St. Matthew and St. Mark record the institution of the 
 earlier part of the Eucharist — Attention specially called to the 
 action of breaking the bread — The ' breaking of the Bread ' the 
 term used by the Primitive Church to denote the celebration of the 
 Eucharist— Immediate appearance of the Eucharist on the very 
 birthday of the Church— Privacy of primitive celebrations—Christ's 
 design of disentangling the Ordinance from its sentimental relation 
 to the Apostles, made manifest by what passed at Emmaus — In 
 St. Luke's narrative of the Institution, our Lord holds out hope of 
 again eating and drinking with His disciples, when the kingdom of 
 God should have come — Words of similar general scope uttered 
 shortly afterwards — Remarkable diflference of the two sayings, 
 while their general tenor is the same — The Emmaus Supper the 
 earliest fulfilment of the promise to eat and drink with them again, 
 after the setting up of the kingdom— This supper not an actual 
 Communion, but a prelude to Communion— and so also every 
 occasion of eating and drinking with them, after He rose from the 
 dead — When the kingdom of God had more fully arrived at Pente- 
 cost, the Lord's Supper, in common with other parts of the Church 
 system, received a glorification, becoming the great medium of Hi-^ 
 spiritual Presence, and of the closest communion with Him, which 
 can be enjoyed on earth— Yet still its early associations are not 
 dropped ; and the dropping of any of them hazards an obscuration 
 of the Ordinance — The Church still waits for the final arrival of the 
 kingdom of God, which will be ushered in by the marriage-supper 
 of the Lamb— That m.arriage-supper is the point of sight, for which 
 our Communion Feasts are rehearsals and preparations — Diffusion 
 of life represented by Baptism, concentration of life by the Lord's 
 Supper— The Lord's Supper the Sacrament of perpetual re-union 
 with Christ, and with His members, and therefore, as one of its 
 conditions, demands a gathering of two or three in Christ's Name, 
 and should be celebrated in a spirit of mutual love, . -175 
 
 CATECHISM ON Chap. VI .oo 
 
xxii * Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 2Dn ttje potoerj! of t!)c <S^)\ixt\ in Council. 
 
 ' It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us.' — Acts xv. 28. 
 
 A later period of New Testament history brought under review in the 
 present Chapter — The authority claimed for the decree of the first 
 Christian Council — The natural means by which the conclusion had 
 been arrived at — The decree founded on principles previously ad- 
 mitted — St. Peter builds his argument on God's previous dealings 
 withhimself and with the Gentiles ; St. James on the same dealings, 
 of which he finds a prediction in the book of the prophet Amos — 
 The sanction of the Holy Ghost claimed for a decision so arrived 
 at, on the ground of the Lord's own promises of guidance by the 
 Spirit of truth, which Spirit had been given at Pentecost, and had 
 flowed down upon the Church through various channels of Ministry 
 - Being endowed with the Spirit, as well as with the Word of God, 
 the Church might be left to legislate for herself in such emergencies 
 as might arise ; nor did our Lord give to His Apostles, nor His 
 Apostles to their successors, any definite directions as to the method 
 of meeting such emergencies — The Apostles bequeathed to the 
 Church their inspired writings, in which are laid down the prin- 
 ciples on which every controversy must be decided — Objection 
 raised against two co-ordinate authorities in the government of the 
 Church — Complexity of the finer organizations in Nature — The 
 Church's legislative power : how far it extends — In the decree of 
 the Council of Jerusalem we find an exercise of it — The modern 
 Church might exercise the same power in matters ritual or cere- 
 monial, though even then under a check from God's Word written 
 — The Church's judicial power of declaring, in controversy, by a 
 reference to Holy Scripture, what the true doctrine is, just as a 
 judge expounds and declares, though he does not make, the Law— 
 The Church has also a power of organizing herself, which is not 
 noticed in Art. xx., but exhibited in Acts vi. — The new organization 
 was in conformity with principles laid down by Christ ; and with 
 what had been done in the Old Testament Church— Points of the 
 narrative which should be borne in mind in proposed new organiza- 
 tions for Church help — The legislative and judicial powers of the 
 Church are, in our own Communion, in abeyance — Need of new 
 Services, to meet new forms of religious activity — Need of a pro- 
 perly constituted Church tribunal— Reasons why neither Convoca- 
 tion, nor the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, meet these 
 needs — The Judicial Committee not a court of heresy — But if it 
 must be admitted that the Church of England has its defects, so 
 have all other Communions — The question is, Where can we find 
 the fewest defects ?— The shortcomings of the Roman Communion 
 —The shortcomings of the Christian sects— Long usage may pos- 
 
Contents. xxiii 
 
 sibly sanction irregularities in the sight of God— We may reasonably 
 hope that our defects are in process of being remedied ; and certainly 
 the Ministries of our Church show greater vitality than ever, and 
 religious activity is everywhere abroad within her pale — All is well, 
 if our Lord be with us, . . ... 203 
 
 CATECHISM ON Chap. VII., 224 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 %\it CliutcT) ptesfentino;, cjcTjibtttng, anD ncfcnotng 
 
 ' The house of God, which is the church of the living God, 
 the pillar and ground of the truth. And without contro- 
 T'crsy great is the mystery of godliness : God 7vas manifest in 
 the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto 
 the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. ^ 
 — I Timothy hi. 15, 16. 
 
 Relations of the Church to the Truth, exhibited in .St. Paul's designa- 
 tion of the Church — Desirableness of consulting the Epistles as well 
 •IS the Gospels and the Acts, on the subject under consideration — 
 Possible allusion, in the term ' Church of the living God,' to the 
 idol in the Ephesian temple — Support of the Truth, one notion 
 yielded by the word ' pillar ' — Guidance and illumination a second 
 notion — Three different modes in which the Church upholds the 
 Truth — By presentation and recommendation — The Jewish Church 
 intrusted with the Old Testament, the Christian Church with the 
 New— The Church the appointed keeper of Holy Writ— Analogy 
 between the history of the world and that of the individual, in that 
 the Church was before the Bible in the world's history, and that 
 to the individual it is the Church who presents the Bible — The 
 spoken Word must e.vist before the Church, though the Church 
 e.xisted before the written Word — Christian parents are the 
 Church's earliest agents— Sponsors are bound officially fand not 
 by mere natural affection; to see ih.^t each child receives in- 
 struction in the Truth- It is the business of the Church to place 
 Holy Scripture in the hands of her children, and call their atten- 
 tion to it— The Church maintains the Truth by exhibition of it— 
 The principle of our nature on which this exhibition is made to 
 the eye — Truths represented in B<aptism, and in the Lord's Supper 
 —The representation a living and effectual one, making a convey- 
 ance of the grace represented— The symbolism of Public Worship, 
 Confirmation, and Absolution — Possibility of arriving at the Truth 
 by an .analysis of the rites embodying it — The Church maintains the 
 Trtith by vindicating and defending it — New heresies necessitated 
 the expansion of early Creeds— Usefulness and necessity of forti- 
 
xxiv Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 fications, however little attractive they may be— The Church would 
 betray her trust, if she protested not against heresies — Clearness 
 of mind on subjects of Faith, the gain which believers derive from 
 the Church's definitions — The definition of the two natures and one 
 Person in Christ, an instance of this — Helpfulness of that definition 
 — Its source, the Athanasian Creed— Creeds, in their origin, were 
 not defensive — Before there was a Scripture, there was a Truth— 
 What the Truth was in Patriarchal times— Earliest shape in which 
 the Truth appeared in New Testament times — What St. Paul meant 
 by 'the Truth,' in the passage under consideration— Why he calls 
 'the Truth' ' the mystery of godliness '—Contrast between 'the 
 mystery of godliness' and heathen mysteries — ' The mystery of 
 godliness' a fragment of an early Creed— Comprehensiveness of this 
 short doctrinal summary— A triumph -song rather than a fortification 
 -Jubilant aspect of the Christian Creeds may well drown in our 
 minds, when we use them, their polemical associations — Creeds are 
 better sung than said, ....... 241 
 
 CATECHISM ON Chap. VIII., 256 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ^\t €!)urc!) gutuing into anD tHufftrattng tfje SIrutlj. 
 
 ' Atid the Lord will create upon evay dwelling place of 
 Moimt Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cl.oud and smoke 
 hy day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night.'' — Isalah 
 IV. 5. 
 
 Possible reference of the words ' pillar of the truth ' to the pillar of fire 
 and of the cloud— Restoration of the pillar of fire and of the cloud 
 predicted by Isaiah — The guiding and illuminating functions of the 
 Church a partial fulfilment of this prediction — Objection raised 
 that, in order to understand Holy Scripture, we want no guidance 
 save that of average education and intelligence — A crucial experi- 
 ment proposed, by way of testing this hypothesis — Let a child be 
 brought up without any religious instruction, and whose mind shall 
 be left a blank as to any religious ideas — Let him be of ordinary 
 ability, and receive a good secular education ; at the age of twenty- 
 one let the Bible be placed in his hands, and let him be exhorted 
 to ascertain from it all religious Truth — Certainty that he will fail 
 to do this, even on the more important doctrines— The very first 
 ver.se of the Bible assumes previous knowledge, not to be gained 
 from the Bible itself — The sources from which we derive our idea 
 of the existence of God— That all the doctrines of the Faith are to 
 be found in Holy Scripture, does not imply that they can be found 
 there without a guide— Fruitless search for a great work in a vast 
 library, unless we have guidance and help — Whence did we obtain 
 
Contents. xxv 
 
 I'AGK 
 
 the information that the serpent in Gen. iii. is the devil ?— St. John, 
 the only Scriptural writer who gives a hint of it ; and yet surely 
 the Church must have possessed the information before his time — 
 Usual interpretation of the Prophecy respecting the Seed of the 
 woman, not. obtained from the Bible itself; nor could a person 
 deriding the usual interpretation be convicted of error from the 
 Scriptures— The t}T)ical relation of the sacrifice of Isaac to the 
 sacrifice of Christ must be denied, if the Bible is to be strictly 
 self-interpreting— St. Paul's direct assertion that the old patriarchs 
 looked not for transitory promises— They had nothing in the Old 
 Scriptures to ground their hopes upon — InsuflSciency of the history 
 of Enoch for a well-grounded hope in the case of others — Absence 
 of the doctrine of eternal life from the Pentateuch, a postulate of 
 Warburton's argument — Though the New Testament needs ex- 
 planation less than the Old, yet in many points we are obliged to 
 call in the tradition of the Church, in order to interpret it— The 
 substitution of the Lord's Day for the Sabbath, and its sanctifica- 
 tion, nowhere expressly prescribed in the New Testament — Infant 
 Baptism also rests not on e.xpress New Testament prescription, but 
 on traditional usage, tracing back to the earliest times — No one 
 really reads Scripture without borrowing something from an here- 
 ditary transmitted interpretation — Office of the Church fulfilled by 
 St. Philip to the Ethiopian, when he complained that he could not 
 understand what he read, except some man should guide him — In 
 what sense Holy Scripture is, in its turn, the pillar and pedestal of 
 the Church— The office, authority, history, and existence of the 
 Church can only be ascertained from Holy Scripture — The Holy 
 Scriptures and the Church mutually necessary to one another — 
 Exclusive prerogative of the Holy Scriptures above the Church- 
 Subject of the final Chapter introduced, .... 274 
 
 C.\TECHISMonChap. IX., 290 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 On t^e prapcr=T3oolt asi a Commentarp on tM IBtble. 
 
 ' Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions 
 which ye have been taught, 'whether by lijord, or our epistle.^ — 
 2 Thess. II. 15. 
 
 The necessity of some help from traditional sentiment and observance, 
 for the full understanding even of the New Testament— In the 
 absence of such help, the most well-intentioned man might find 
 himself at a loss in many points— What he would find about the 
 Church in the New Testament— What he would not find there :— a 
 definitive prescription on the subject of Infant Baptism ; — a direc- 
 C 
 
xxvi Contents. 
 
 tion how our Lord meant His example and precept about the 
 foot-washing to be understood— The inquirer would wish to know 
 how these and similar points were understood by the first Christians 
 — Reference to traditional rules and observances in the Epistles of 
 St. Paul ; in 2 Thess. ii. 15 ; in 2 Tim. i. 13 ; in 2 Thess. iii. 6, 10 ; 
 in I Cor. vii. 12, 17 ; in i Cor. xi. 2 ; in i Cor. xi. 16 ; and in 
 I Cor. xi. 34 — The being possessed of these traditions would be a 
 great help to the right understanding of the New Testament — Such 
 knowledge can only be obtained by ordinary Christians through the 
 Book of Common Prayer — Qualifications for their work of the com- 
 pilers of this Book — Why the Prayer-Book is probably a unique 
 book of its kind — Deformed condition of the old Service-Books, 
 when they fell into the hands of the Reformers — Tests employed 
 by them to discriminate the valuable from the worthless : i. Holy 
 Scripture — The devotions which would not stand this test ; 2. Primi- 
 tive Antiquity— Certainty that the mind of the Apostles would 
 express itself in the traditional usages of the Churches founded 
 by them— Professor Blunt's panegyric on the Prayer-Book — Neces- 
 sity of admitting that the Prayer-Book gives a certain tone to the 
 Holy Scripture, and insinuates a certain view of it — No devotional 
 form, whether for private or public use, could help doing this ; for 
 forms of devotion inevitably convey doctrine — An atmosphere 
 essential to the life and beauty of things on the earth ; while, in 
 certain conditions, the atmosphere may be charged with death 
 rather than life — Noxious ecclesiastical atmosphere which wrapped 
 round the Scriptures at the time of the Reformation — Object of the 
 Reformers to purify the atmosphere, not to dispense with it — The 
 five helps which the Prayer-Book gives to the full interpretation of 
 the Bible : 1st. Expressing what is there hinted — Question of the 
 propriety of Infant Baptism decided by the Prayer-Book in the 
 affirmative, on the ground of primitive usage — Justin's testimony to 
 the Baptism of children in his days makes it almost certain that the 
 practice must have had the sanction of the Apostles ; 2. Enlarging 
 what is there succinct — The priesthood of the Christian Laity re- 
 cognised by St. John, St. Peter, and also by St. Paul — These intima- 
 tions expanded by the Prayer-Book, which assigns to the Laity a 
 distinct part in the Services of the Church, sometimes by directing 
 them to join audibly with the Minister in the recital of Prayers, 
 sometimes by putting responses into their mouth — The light thrown 
 upon an incidental expression of St. Paul's Epistles by the fact that 
 all the ancient Liturgies assign a part to the people in the celebra- 
 tion of the Holy Communion ; 3. Illustrating what is there obscure 
 —Obscurity of the text about the ' Amen at thy giving of thanks ' 
 cleared up by Justin's account of a primitive celebration— Parti- 
 culars of this account — ' Eucharist' a primitive name to denote the 
 Holy Communion— The order of our Communion Service very 
 similar to that which is described by Justin ; 4. Concentrating what 
 is there dispersed— The doctrine of the Holy Trinity gathered from 
 several places of Holy Scripture, which the Church has collected 
 into one focus ; 5. Organizing what is there promiscuous— The 
 testimony of 'ancient authors' to the existence of a threefold 
 Ministry— The Scriptural warrant for which is to be sought in 
 
Contents. 
 
 xxvii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 different connexions, in the Inspired Volume— The practical advic 
 which flows from the consideration of the whole subject — Let an 
 end of Controversy be sought by accepting the Prayer-Book as the 
 interpretation of the Bible — Questions, which this acceptance does 
 not set at rest, may safely be left open for the present— Desirable- 
 ness of an end of Controversy— Danger of being drawn off by specu- 
 lative and controversial from personal and practical questions, 
 enforced by the story of the woman of Samaria — Let us put away 
 controversies, and address ourselves to the task of growing in grace 
 and knowledge, ....... 308 
 
 CATECHISM ON Chap. X., 326 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 WHAT THE CHURCH IS, AND WHEN AND HOW 
 IT WAS FOUNDED. 
 
 " ^nb I snw also nnto thcc, 'iEhitt thou nrt JJctcr, anb 
 upon this rock E toUl builb mg church." — St. Matt. 
 XVI. i8. 
 
 ".T BELIEVE in the holy Catholick Church." 
 -^ How many thousands of persons are there, 
 who recite these words glibly Sunday after Sunday 
 in the Creed, who nevertheless do not believe in 
 the holy Catholick Church, and in whose mouths 
 therefore this Article of Faith is an idle word ! 
 And their unbelief is due in great part, if not 
 entirely, to ignorance. They have been fairly 
 well instructed in those religious truths which 
 have to do with the individual soul ; a good deal 
 of information has been communicated to them at 
 various times about the duties, the privileges, and 
 the hopes of the Christian. Nay, more than this : 
 they have learned something respecting the 
 Heavenly Father, the Saviour, the Comforter; 
 they know what are the offices of the three Divine 
 Persons in the scheme of Human Piedemption, and 
 they could quote several texts in illustration of 
 those offices. But anything like methodized in- central ncrt 
 structiou respecting the Church they never re- f^StiSnon 
 
 . tlic subject of 
 
What the CJiurcJi is. 
 
 [chap 
 
 ceived in tlieir youth; and maturer years have 
 not supplied the deficiencies of early training. 
 This being the case, they become the easy victims 
 of any popular error on the subject of the Church, 
 which may happen to be floating about in their 
 theological atmosphere. One of these errors — a 
 very mischievous one, and the more likely to mis- 
 lead because it is patronized by persons who have . 
 a reputation for piety, and because it wears a 
 specious appearance — confounds the Church with 
 God's elect people, whom only He Himself can 
 ' jrjje inbigi- for certain Jcnow and see. Hence springs the 
 anunscdp- crroueous and unscriptural phraseology, "The 
 S"'^''''"' invisible Church." There is properly no such 
 thing. The Church of Holy Scripture, whether 
 under the Old^ or New Dispensation, is always a 
 visible body, which may be known and seen, 
 established in the earth to bear testimony to 
 God's Truth, and intrusted with the ministration 
 of His Word and Ordinances. And the distinction 
 between the Church and God's elect people (which 
 is what is meant by " the invisible Church ") is 
 clearly drawn by our Lord Himself. I should say 
 that the word Church, in the original Greek of the 
 New Testament, means " a body calhd out." It is 
 derived from a compound verb ; that is, from a verb 
 with a preposition prefixed ; and the verb means 
 " to call," and the preposition means " out." The 
 
 ©tDinolostr 
 anU eignifi- 
 cation of 
 tlir toorti 
 
 ^ It is strictly Scriptural to speak of the Cliiirch under 
 the Old Dispensation. St. Stephen does so : " This is he, 
 that was in the. church in the -wilderness with the angel 
 which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers : 
 who received the lively oracles to give unto us" (Acts vii. 38). 
 
I.] and lohcn and how it was founded. 3 
 
 ^vords of our Lord which I refer to are as follows — 
 " Tor many are called, hut few are clwscn out ^ (or oistincfion 
 elect)." They occur in a connexion which throws uort"bctto°fn 
 great light upon them, immediately after the Para- anVibe"'^' 
 l)le of the Wedding Garment, upon which they c^JXi,. xr 
 i'orm our Lord's comment. A great number of}5'°"''""- 
 people out of the highways, of all characters and st. fHau. 
 circumstances, had been hidden to the wedding ; ""' ^^* 
 these are the called ones, the members of the 
 Church, or body called. One man in the story, the Oc man 
 representative of a great multitude, had not on a mrtsmg 
 
 flarmcnt, <fif 
 
 ^ The distinction between " calling " (KXfJo-ts) and " elec- of tijc calkU 
 tion" (eWo-y^), "the called" (»cX7;rot) (who, as collected and ^1)0 art not 
 organized into one bodj', are the eKKXTjcria or called out "^yosm. 
 Society) and "the elect" {(k\(kto\), is carefully observed in 
 the New Testament, even in passages where the two might 
 seem to a superficial observer to be confounded. It is to be 
 remembered that " calling " has a certain afiBnity with 
 "election," all the "elect" being " called, " though by no 
 means aU the " called " are " elect." In St. Peter's Second 
 Epistle we find " calling " and " election " side by side : 
 " Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make 
 your calling and election sure " (crTrouSdo-are ^e^aiav vnav 
 TTjv KXTJaiv Koi fKKoyr]v Troifladai). It might be inferred 
 hence that " calling " and " election " arc the same thing ; 
 but Holy Scripture, which is spare rather than lavish of 
 words, never uses two words to express the same idea. The 
 warning of the j>assage is that both "calling" and "elec- 
 tion," through the perversity of the human will, may fail. 
 Judas was (like St. Paul) a called Apostle {kXtjtos arroaToXos) ; 
 for our Lord, in appointing him, "called uuto Him whom 
 He would " (TrpoCTKaXelrat oiis fjdeXfv avTos), St. Mark iii. 
 13, 19; and he was also a chosen Apostle, for our Lord 
 says, including him, "Did I not choose you twelve?" and 
 yet his " calling " and "election " failed ; he was " a devil," 
 St. John vi. 70. See the two words in juxtaposition in 
 Rev. xviL 14. " He " (the Lamb) " is Lord of lords, and 
 King of kings ; and they that are with Him are called, 
 and chosen, and faithful " {kXtjtoI Ka\ (k\(kto\ koi Trto-roi) ; 
 not called and chosen only, but such as had made their call- 
 ing and election sure, having been faithful unto death, and 
 
4 What the Church is, [chap. 
 
 wedding garment, that is, though a called one, a 
 
 member of the Church, he had not that spirit of 
 
 holy joy ^ and love, which harmonizes with the 
 
 great solemnity of the marriage supper of the 
 
 Lamb, He stands for those who, though called, are 
 
 not elect or chosen, and who would probably have 
 
 mijij tfje been represented as the majority of the company, 
 
 rrprfscntftj ns if the propriety of the story had admitted of such 
 
 tiif caiicti us a representation. But the presenting oneself at 
 
 on gone. ^^ Eastem wedding without that costume, wliich 
 
 it is the part of the giver of the entertainment to 
 
 therefore inheritiug "tlie crown of life" (Rev. ii. 10). The 
 " elect" are not " called" merely, but " the called accord- 
 ing to God's purpose " (Rom. viii. 28), to whom " all things 
 work together for good." We hear of them under another 
 attribute in Acts ii. 47, where they appear as in course (or 
 process) of salvation : " And the Lord went on adding to the 
 Church" (i.e. to the visible society) " daily those who were 
 in process of salvation " (for such is the exact rendering of 
 the words, 'O 8e Kvpios Trpoaeridei rovs crco^o^eVous ko^' 
 ijfxipav rfi eKKXrja-iq, — one of the many passages in which our 
 translators have hai'dly been observant enough of the force 
 of the tenses). The evidence of " election " seems to be the 
 Gospel's coming to a man " in power, and in the Holy 
 Ghost, and in much assurance" (1 Thess. i. 5). The "call" 
 is seconded in such cases by an inward experience of the 
 kind described. And yet this inward experience does not 
 necessarily involve " faithfulness unto death," or secure the 
 person undergoing it for eternal life. We may be both 
 " called " and " chosen," and yet not " faithful." My only 
 aim in these observations is to give consistency and harmony 
 to the phraseology of the New Testament on this difficult 
 subject, and I trust I have not stumbled in the attempt. 
 At all events this is certain, that 'EkkXtjo-io (Church) means, 
 according to its etymology, a body called out ; and that the 
 idea conveyed by it is entirely distinct from that of 2^eople 
 choi^en out (fKkeKTol). 
 
 1 This is Professor Archer Butler's interpretation of the 
 Wedding Garment in his magnificent sermon on that Par- 
 able ; and I have never seen any which so much approved 
 itself to my miiul. 
 
I.J and luhcn and how it was founded. 5 
 
 1)10 vide for liis guests, would be quite an excep- 
 tional case ; and our Lord's parables describe 
 only such cases as have a certain amount of veri- 
 similitude, and might have actually happened.^ 
 
 It appears to me, then, that a short and simple '^^^ for tbt 
 treatise, setting forth in a methodical manner the twatist. 
 doctrine of Holy Scripture respecting the Church, 
 may be useful, under God's blessing, in filling up a 
 gap in the faith of some, and. in bringing out into 
 the clearer consciousness of others, and giving a 
 logical consistency to, truths which are at present 
 held by them with somewhat of confusion and 
 vagueness. 
 
 ^ The otlier connexion in wliich the same words occur 
 should not be overlooked. It is at the close of the Parable 
 of the Labourers in the Vineyard. St. Peter had asked the 
 Lord what he and his colleagues should have for the sacri- 
 lioes they had made in order to follow Him. The Lord 
 answered by assuring them of an over-abundant recom- 
 pence ; but at the same time said much to correct the state 
 of mind out of which the question had grown. The ques- 
 tioner must be warned first that others called later into the 
 vinej'ard, and serving there a much shorter time (as was the 
 case with St. Stephen) should be as munificently recom- 
 I'cnsed as he, God's recompences being of grace, and not 
 mere mercenary equivalents of the service rendered. This 
 teaching is conveyed by the story of the labourers hired at 
 the eleventh hour, who received the same wages with those 
 sent into the viueyard early in the morning. Secondly, it is 
 just to be insinuated to St. Peter that, notwithstanding all the 
 sacrifices made by him, he maj- fail still (for has not Iscariot 
 made the same ?), and come short of the glory of God alto- 
 gether. *' Know ye not that they which run in a race run 
 all, but one receiveth the prize?" ''Strive to enter in at 
 the strait gate ; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter 
 in, and shall not be able." So our Lord closes the parable 
 with the maxim, "So the last shaU be first, and the first 
 last ; for many be called, but few chosen ;" almost as if the 
 earlier-called labourers had been mulcted altogether of their 
 wages, on account of their churlish murmuring. 
 
6 What the Church is, [chap. 
 
 SSn? -^"^^ ^^^® methinks it is quite possible that the 
 on tfje"''"^'' ^'6^^^^'' ^^^^ ^^^ proceeded only thus far, should be 
 erturcij. whispering to himself—" Better write about Christ, 
 than write about the Church." Indeed ! but I was 
 under the impression (and I imagined that I had 
 Scripture for it) that in doing the one I was doing 
 the other. I thought that Christ and the Church 
 imloSitF) I ^^^® °^® — ^^ entirely one, that He is called the 
 artjrist. ^head and she the body. He the vinestock and she 
 khe branches. He the bridegroom and she the 
 A)ride — so entirely one, that He feels and resents 
 as inflicted upon Himself any injury done to her, 
 according to that word of His own to Saul of 
 Tarsus — " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? " 
 I thought I had read also that our Lord and His 
 apostle Paul went about " preaching the kingdom 
 of God ; " and I supposed that part of the mean- 
 ing (if not the whole meaning) of that term was 
 the Church. And tell me, moreover, my reader, 
 whether you desire me to speak to you faithfully 
 the whole of God's Word, or only such parts of it 
 as you fancy most, and as jump with the religious 
 views which you have been led to form. I hope 
 you will say, " I desire you to give me the ivhole;" 
 but, whether you desire it or not, I am solemnly 
 bound to do it. And I find in the Scriptures of 
 the New Testament not only four most precious 
 books descriptive of Christ, but one book, in the 
 nature of an appendix, devoted to the history of 
 that Church, which Christ in the passage now be- 
 E\)e 9ct3 of fore us proposes to build. The Book of the Acts 
 aninspirco of the Apostles describcs the foundation, devel- 
 icijurctj, opement, progress, and spread of the Christian 
 
I ] and when and hotv it ivas founded. 7 
 
 Church ; nor does the inspired historian lay down 
 the pen, till he has brought St. Paul, the great 
 preacher of God's Kingdom among the Gentiles, 
 to Eome, which was then the mistress of the civili- 
 sation of the world. Where the Holy Spirit devotes 
 one wdiole book to the history and fortunes of the 
 Church, can a Christian minister, wlio desires 
 to declare all the counsel of God to his hearers 
 or readers, be justified in ignoring the subject? 
 Let us then open in the present Chapter the 
 subject of the Church, 
 
 In all subjects of human knowledge a right 
 grounding is of the utmost importance. A right 
 grounding makes a safe superstructure. Nay, 
 more than this. A correct fundamental principle 
 on any subject, once seized by the mind, is often 
 more correctly likened to a seed than to a founda- 
 tion. A foundation is not a house, and can never 
 of itself become one; but a seed is a plant in 
 embryo ; it will become a plant, when the germ 
 is disentangled and developed. A Avhole host of 
 popular misapprehensions about the Church is 
 put to flight, and a right direction is given to all 
 thoughts upon the subject, by simply embracing 
 the fundamental Church truth, which is, that our ^^^^ f„ni,a. 
 Lord came not simply to teach certain religious cijurd) tnui). 
 doctrines, hut to found a society ; and that He 
 did what He came to do, — left behind Him, and 
 bequeathed to the world, not only a large amount 
 of precious truth, which is preserved in the volume 
 of the New Testament, but also a gi-eat Divine 
 world-embracing Society, having (as human so- 
 
8 Wkal the CImrch is, [chap. 
 
 cieties have) its officers, its rules, its rite of admis- 
 sion, its power of expulsion, its solemn meetings 
 or assemblies. Grant tliis, and grant it with a 
 living conviction, prepared to accept all the legiti- 
 mate consequences which it draws after it in its 
 train, and you have already mastered a great part 
 of the truth respecting the Church. And grant it 
 you must, if you desire to be guided by God's 
 Word. In the passage which stands at the head 
 jirst an- of tliis Chapter, our Blessed Lord announces His 
 
 nouncftncnt , . . 
 
 ofouriLorH'B intention of building a Church, and of build- 
 
 nurpDge of . . '^ 
 
 nuiiuinB tf)e ing it, in some sense (to be presently explained), 
 upon the apostle Peter. " I say also unto tluel' 
 (St. Peter had just confessed our Lord to be "the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God ;" and now our 
 Lord is about to confess liim before His Father 
 and the holy angels, — to tell St. Peter what lie 
 is) " That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I 
 will build my Church." In which words we ob- 
 serve first, that the Church was not actually built 
 when the words ^ were spoken — an observation 
 which may throw some light upon its character. 
 3Kcagonfaf)5 For wliy does not our Lord recognise the little 
 ciadpiea group of disciples, who gathered round Him in 
 foagunan the days 01 His earthly pilgrimage, as m itself 
 not a dfjurd). a Cliurcli ? Did not the Apostles and holy 
 women, and all those who during our Lord's 
 
 1 The same fact — that the Christian Church was not in 
 existence in our Lord's own time — might be infeired from 
 the scanty mention of it in the Gosjiels, — this and St. Matt. 
 xviii. 17 l)eing the only places where the word occurs. In 
 the Acts it occurs twenty-one times, and in St. Paul's 
 Epistles and the Revelation frequently. The thing rejire- 
 sented by it was then in existence. 
 
I.] and what and how it was founded. 9 
 
 life were attracted by His miracles and teaching, 
 and who with Peter confessed Him to be the 
 Christ the Son of God, of themselves constitute a 
 Church ? Not in strictness of speech. And why 
 not ? Because a number of believers in Christ, 
 not gathered into one society, wanting organiza- 
 tion and mutual interdependence, are not a Church. 
 A Church is not an aggregation of believers, but a Diffn-mte 
 lochj (or society) of believers. There is a great JSfBatfo"n ' 
 difference between an aggregation and a body. A °"'' " '"'^''* 
 body is not a heap of members (if foot, and hand, 
 and eye, and ear, were fashioned separately, with- 
 out any coherence or common principle of life, 
 this would not be a body) ; but it is a system of 
 members knit together into one organism, and per- 
 vaded by one life. Or (to borrow an illustration 
 from the vegetable world), if you severed, and placed 
 together in a heap, the stock, the branches, the 
 leaves, and the clusters of a vine, this would not 
 be a vine. A vine is a tree, through whose stem 
 the sap rises in spring, and circulates through the 
 branches, and pours itself in rich luxuriance 
 through every tendril and sucker. Now, like a 
 body, and like a tree, the Church is a living 
 organism, deriving from Christ (who is its Head, 
 if we regard it as a body ; its Eoot, if we regard it 
 as a tree) the life of the Holy Ghost. And the 
 vitalizing, organizing, cementing power of the 
 Holy Ghost came down into the community of the 
 disciples on the feast of Pentecost, ten days after 
 their Master's ascension into Heaven, forming 
 them into what they had never been before — one 
 Body, the Body of Christ, or the Church. 
 
lo What the Chtirch is, [chap. 
 
 If then the Church was built for the first time, 
 or rather hcgcm to he built, on the feast of Pente- 
 cost, is there any allusion to the transactions of 
 that clay in the words before us ? Most assuredly 
 there is. Certainly Scripture hangs together with 
 Scripture, all Scripture having been given by 
 inspiration of God, with a wonderful coherence. 
 St. 33etct'8 AVlio was the prominent character — who took 
 procfrtinss the leading part — in the proceedings of the 
 |3mtao0t.° day of Pentecost? Clearly St. Peter. It was 
 he who preached the first Christian sermon, 
 — a sermon attended with marvellous effects, 
 for it was the instrument of converting three 
 thousand souls. It was he, under whose sanc- 
 tion (and probably in many cases by whose 
 hand) " they that gladly received his word were 
 igigntimis- baptized." Again, it was he who admitted the 
 fficntiuX. Gentiles to the Church in the person of Cor- 
 tSSsonVf^nelius and his near friends. The proceed- 
 ffiorncUus. ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ occasion were of much the same 
 character. A simple sermon from St. Peter, 
 bearing brief testimony to the character, life, 
 death, and resurrection of Jesus, was the first of 
 these proceedings. Then the Holy Ghost feU on 
 the hearers, with precisely the same effect as at 
 Pentecost, — the speaking with tongues. But the 
 ordained form of admission to the Church, the 
 form which our Saviour before His ascension had 
 solemnly enjoined, had yet to be complied with, 
 and was complied with; for they who had re- 
 ceived the inward spiritual grace of the Sacra- 
 ment of Baptism could not with propriety be 
 denied its outward sign. " Can any man forbid 
 
i] and Ziehen and hozv it ivas foimdcd. i i 
 
 TiiE^ water, that these should not be baptized, 
 which have received the Holy Ghost as well 
 as we ? " So St. Peter " commanded them to be 
 baptized in the name of the Lord." By these 
 great acts of the ministry of St. Peter two srfjetbjo 
 predictions of our Lord respecting the future of fc"pcdinr 
 that Apostle were fulfilled. The one was uttered mintairu'a^no 
 immediately after the first miraculous draught of J,ic,u."'^" 
 fishes; "Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt 
 catch men." (Was it not indeed catching men in 
 the Gospel net, when by one act of his ministry he 
 converted three thousand souls ?) The second pre- 
 diction is in the words before us, and it is quite 
 as personal to St. Peter, — has quite as little to do 
 with any official successors (or imagined official 
 successors) of the Apostle, as the earlier one. 
 The word Peter in the original language of the fHcnning of 
 New Testament means a stone, while the feminine '^^jJur/^nu 
 form of the word, which is used in the latter f"g^o^^ of i,g 
 clause, means a rock. What our Lord declares is j'nlo^ijj''""^'^ 
 that St. Peter's work should agree with his name ; fo'J'^"\"nii]e 
 and doubtless the words would have been, " Thou pjojjjfjj^to 
 art Peter, and upon this stone I will build my ^'- ^''"• 
 Church," if this would not have violated the pro- 
 priety of the figure. Houses never are built upon 
 a single stone ; but they may be built upon a 
 rock. Therefore our Lord changes the word into 
 the feminine, while He retains the play upon it. 
 
 * It is much to be regretted that in the Authorized Version 
 of Acts X. 47, our translators have neglected to represent 
 the definite article. Cornelius and his friends had received 
 the " inward spiritual grace " of the Sacrament of Baptism. 
 St. Peter's argument is, " Can any one refuse them the water 
 — the outward visible sign ?" 
 
What the C/mi^ch is, [chap. 
 
 St. i3nul, 
 
 ant all tfje 
 QonstlcB, as 
 farll as St. 
 53ftrr, 'cam 
 laucrs of 
 founCatuins. 
 
 St. \Mtx 
 tijr tatlifst 
 laocr of the 
 fountiation. 
 
 (And, if our Lord did not speak in Greek, but in 
 Aramaic, this remark will equally well apply to 
 St. Matthew's version of His words, which of 
 course was given by inspiration.) The meaning 
 is, that St, Peter was destined, in the order of 
 God's Providence, to lay the first foundation of 
 the Church. I say the first or earliest founda- 
 tion. Others laid foundations as well as he. 
 St, Paul did so, and says he did so. " As a wise 
 master-builder, I have laid the foundation, and 
 another buildeth thereon," Any man who is 
 the first to preach Christ, and win souls to Christ 
 in a particular district, lays the foundation in that 
 district. As it is said in the Epistle to the 
 Eomans, "Yea, so have I strived to preach the 
 gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I 
 should build upon another man's foundation." All 
 the Apostles laid foundations, each in his own 
 sphere, and are recognised as having done so in 
 that noble passage of the Epistle to the Ephesians ; 
 
 " Ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, 
 
 and of the household of God ; and are built upon 
 the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
 Christ himself being the chief corner-stone," 
 And in the Book of the Ptevelation this funda- 
 mental character of the work of the Apostles 
 is exhibited symbolically in the description of 
 the New Jerusalem, which represents the Church 
 triumphant. "And the wall of the city had 
 twelve foundations, and in them the names 
 of the twelve apostles of the Lamb," But St, 
 Peter laid the earliest foundation (in point of 
 time) which ever was laid; and it need not 
 
I.] and wJien and Jiozu it was founded. \ 3 
 
 therefore surprise us to hear Christ announcing 
 that He intends to build His Church upon Peter, 
 that is, upon Peter's ministry, his ministry having 
 been the earliest Christian ministry ever exer- 
 cised. If it be desired further to obviate any 
 erroneous inference which might be drawn from 
 the words, and any trenching upon the preroga- 
 tives of the Blessed Saviour, (though why should 
 we be so afraid of the plain sense of God's Word 
 misleading ? is God unable to guard His own 
 phraseology ? must we for ever be putting forth 
 our hands, Uzzah-like, to the sacred ark, as if He 
 who sitteth between the cherubim were not able 
 to protect it, when the blundering oxen stumble ?) 
 we may remark, with Bengel (though perhaps it is ismgd's iiis- 
 a little too subtle), that the Church is not said Kto°m 
 to be founded upon Peter, but huilt upon him. Si'iS'"' 
 Christ is the only foundation for trust and reli- ' ^"'^^'^•' 
 ance ; and, in this aspect of the subject, Peter is 
 one of thfe living stones built upon Christ. But 
 all that the text implies is, that St. Peter was the 
 prominent human minister in the Church's begin- 
 nings. And the Book of the Acts shows most 
 clearly that he was so. 
 
 But a truce to interpretations. Let us contem- 
 plate calmly for a time the position which we have 
 arrived at from the study of this fundamental pas- 
 sage, compared with other parts of Holy Scripture. 
 It is this : Christ proposed to found, and did found, 
 by the ministry of St. Peter originally, a certain 
 organized society, called the Christian Church, 
 which " all nations" were invited to join, and which 
 is therefore called Catholick or universal — a societv 
 
^ 
 
 14 What the ChurcJi is, [chap. 
 
 having, as every other society has, its officers, in- 
 stitutions, rite of admission, and rules. Why, we 
 amijH n^xiii may be permitted to ask, did He do so ? Why 
 socirtD, as should tlic Sou of God appear as the Founder of 
 a rciision. a society no less than as the Teacher of a religion? 
 /Was there not something grand and high-sounding 
 in the professions of Socrates, that he would not 
 found a school at all, or attempt to perpetuate his 
 doctrines by committing them to the guardianship 
 of men, and trying to win adherents to them, but 
 simply set forth the truth and expose error, and 
 throw his arguments upon the world, to commend 
 themselves as they might to the minds and con- 
 sciences of the hearers ? Truth may be spoken 
 pure and without alloy (you have it in this form 
 i^fBfeof in the Holy Scriptures); but it is impossible to 
 forminjlT '" forni a society of men, which shall be always pure 
 ^°"'^* and true to the principles of its foundation; for 
 men are fallen creatures, and will bring their evil 
 with them sooner or later into a society formed 
 for the best ends. Then, this being the case, why 
 did our Lord found a society at all, at the risk of 
 having His work marred and disfigured (as it often 
 has been grievously marred and disfigured) by 
 men ? The reason no doubt is, that it is His good 
 pleasure to sanctify and save man as he is, to 
 cou's build the new man upon the same platform as the 
 rmctoing old, — not to construct another creature, but to 
 reconstruct- raisc up and reform the creature which had fallen, 
 ms Jim. -^Qyf there can be no doubt that man, as he came 
 from his Creator's hands, was social and made for 
 society. Society was the first want experienced 
 by man, and it was experienced while yet he was 
 
I.] and when and Jiow it was founded. \ 5 
 
 ill a state of innocence, so that the instincts which 
 draw men to one another in no way came in with 
 the Fall. " It is not good that the man should he sorictn man's 
 alone," was the first observation made by the wise '^"^ ^^' 
 Creator upon the rational creature whom He had 
 introduced into Paradise as its lord. And ac- 
 cordingly, even in the Paradise state, marriage 
 was found to be a necessity, and instituted. And 
 what is marriage but the rudiment of all societies, 
 itself the first society, from which all others spring, 
 out of which all others are developed ? For this 
 society of two is the means of continuing our 
 race; so that round the parents there speedily 
 springs up a group of children. Then, in the re- 
 lation between the parents and the children, you 
 discern (in its earliest form) law, subjection, dis- 
 cipline — the bonds these by which society is held 
 together. The parents are to be honoured and 
 obeyed ; for a time they are in the place of God ; 
 their will is to be the child's law. When the 
 children grow up, they too marry, and form 
 separate households; and then speedily, in the 
 multiplication of families, mutual need (as also 
 the desire of security) draws men together, one 
 man producing by his work what his neighbour 
 wants, and taking his neighbour's produce in ex- 
 change for his own. And thus is gradually formed 
 a state, which is only the family developed ; the 
 king or chief magistrate representing the parent 
 or patriarch, and ruling and punishing, of course 
 on a larger scale, but on much the same principle, 
 as a father does. And that this living together 
 in community is the true natural state of man — 
 
1 6 What the CJmrch is, [chap. 
 
 the state for which he was originally designed — 
 
 you may see not only from the inspired account 
 
 of his creation, and from the necessities which 
 
 Instincts of draw men together, hut also from some of the 
 
 t)uman nature . . , 
 
 fotiii) 5iaijc strongest instincts and passions of our nature, 
 racMton which have no meanincf except in reference to 
 
 tf)et)Bpotiitgis . , ^-.. 11 1 
 
 of i)ig being society. Why was benevolence, why was com- 
 
 a social . . '' , ^, .,• ^^ , 
 
 creature. passion given us, except on the supposition that 
 
 there would be those around us, to whom they 
 
 Instincts of would need to be exercised? why the instincts 
 
 loDC anl) . , •' 
 
 fricnijsbip. of love and friendship, unless we were designed 
 to be drawn together into one body ? 
 
 This then being the original nature and con- 
 stitution of man, it pleases God to accommodate 
 Himself to this nature in redeeming, sanctifying, 
 and saving him. He is to be saved, not as an 
 independent member of the human family, but in 
 combination with others. And therefore not 
 only has the Lord Jesus given him a supernatural 
 and revealed truth (in His own teaching), by the 
 action of which upon his conscience he is to be 
 sanctified, but has founded for him also a super- 
 natural Society, into which He brings him by one 
 Sacrament, and continues him by another Sacra- 
 ment, conferring supernatural grace, — a Society 
 which has officers diviaely commissioned, institu- 
 tions divinely ordained, and a law divinely given. 
 And this Society is the Church, or kingdom of 
 Christ upon earth. 
 
 Upon the subject thus expounded a great many 
 thoughts arise, fatal to certain popular views of Ee- 
 ligiou, which nevertheless have obtained a very wide 
 currency. For what has been said raises another 
 
I.] and zuhcii and hoiu it %i.'as founded, i 7 
 
 and distinct issue for each one of us, in addition anotfirt issue 
 to the question •whether we are receiving into our bcsiDcs tbe 
 hearts and minds the truths whicli Christ taught, bjijcthrr fat 
 whether we are real believers in those truths, so trutiis tabitb 
 as to be li\ing under their influence. Another taujjijt. 
 question we must now ask ourselves, hardly less 
 important, perhaps, than the one just stated, — 
 whether we are members of the Society which 
 Christ founded. It is easy to see how different 
 this is from the foregoing. A man believes Christ's 
 truth by the action of his own mind and heart, 
 under the influence of the Holy Ghost, quite inde- 
 pendently of any other person's agency. It is a 
 matter wholly between himself and God. But no a man can- 
 man, by the action of his own mmd and heart, Jumscifa 
 
 11. IP 1 n • Ti rnrmbfT of a 
 
 can make himself a member of any society. I do socirtD. but 
 not become a member of a society by sympathizing aumituu bg 
 with the objects of the society, nor even by doing ° 
 its work. A man does not become a member of 
 the Gospel Propagation Society, because he feels 
 a warm interest in spreading the Gospel, nor even 
 because he does his best to spread the Gospel at 
 home and abroad. A man does not become a 
 member of a Cathedral foundation, because he 
 likes Cathedral Service, or thinks that Cathedrals 
 may do a very good work for religion and the 
 Church. The Gospel Propagation Society (like 
 every other society) has certain rules about the 
 qualification and admission of its members ; and 
 nothing else but compliance ^\ith those rides can 
 make any one a member. The various members 
 of Cathedral bodies are appointed and admitted in 
 different ways ; and unless a man has been ap- 
 
 B 
 
Wkai the CJnwch is, [chap. 
 
 . i^ECC80it)3 or 
 
 s/' BiJmigsio'n 
 into tte 
 ffiijurnj. 
 
 an tiistoricnl 
 tontinmtg to 
 tl)e iUmtitg of 
 eocictits. 
 
 I3iffcrmc£ of 
 appearance 
 not incompa- 
 liblc toitJ) 
 iljentttg. 
 
 pointed and admitted in one of these ways, the 
 utmost sympathy with Cathedrals, and the utmost 
 interest in their work, will not put him on a 
 Cathedral foundation. And, in like manner, the 
 fact of a man's loving and prizing the holy truths 
 which our Eedeemer taught, and even trying to 
 bring other people under their power, by no means 
 proves that he belongs to the Society which Christ 
 founded. That Society must take him up, must 
 engraft him into its bosom, must adopt and admit 
 him according to its own rules, before he can be- 
 come a member of it. 
 
 But possibly my reader thinks that there is no 
 doubt at all about his own membership in this 
 Society. You belong, if not to the Church of Eng- 
 land, yet to what is called a Christian denomina- 
 tion ; and you were baptized when an infant, — is 
 not that enough to make you a member? Suffer me 
 still to ask whether you are well assured that the 
 religious community to which you belong — ^be it 
 the Church of England, or any other — is indeed the 
 very Society which Christ founded by the ministry 
 of St. Peter ? For myself, I am utterly at a loss 
 to see how this can be, unless your community 
 can trace historically back to the ministry of 
 St. Peter. Eemember there must never be any 
 new beginning made, if it is to be Christ's own 
 Society. A society may have altered very much 
 in many respects, and yet be the same (just as the 
 body of a gTOwn man looks very different from, but 
 yet is identical with, that which he had as a child) ; 
 but it cannot be the same, if a new foundation is 
 made. The Society for the Propagation of the 
 
I.] and when and Jiow it luas founded. 19 
 
 Gospel is in many respects very different from 
 what it was when it first started ; it lias a vastly 
 greater number of members ; it has modified some 
 of its laws, repealed others, perhaps added others ; 
 but it is still the Gospel Propagation Society, 
 incorporated by Eoyal Charter. But if a good man, 
 thinking there is not now enough of missionary 
 agency in the world, should set up another mis- 
 sionary society, and call it the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel, and adopt the same 
 rules and the same terms of admission, and con- 
 struct eveiy thing on much the same plan, only 
 without procuring a Eoyal Charter of Incorporation, 
 this, while there might be ever so much outward 
 resemblance, would be another society altogether. 
 An old Gothic tower, some part of which has rnusfrafian 
 been dilapidated by lapse of time, and which ["tm."^^'" 
 the ivy has overgrown, flaunting down over the 
 windows, and shutting out the blessed light of 
 heaven, does not become a new tower by having 
 the ivy cut away and the dilapidations repaired; it 
 is the same tower still, only different in appearance. 
 But if the proprietor should go to another part of 
 his estate, and there should build another tower 
 of exactly the same size and architecture with 
 the former — that is, strictly speaking, a new tower, 
 and not the one which he inherited from his old 
 feudal ancestor. And, in like manner, no man 
 can, in a late period of the world's history, set up 
 a new Christian communion independent of, and 
 not deriving from, that founded by the ministry 
 of St. Peter, which shall have any sort of claim to 
 be the Christian Church. The mere fact of its 
 
20 What the Church is, [chap. 
 
 being lilce the Christian Church, and doing the 
 the things the Christian Church does, — the fact 
 of its preaching, and circulating the Scriptures, 
 and baptizing, and administering the Communion, 
 — cannot make it the Church, The question is, 
 imporfnncc of How was the appointment of ministers (or Church- 
 succresionf'" officers) made in that communion? A man 
 cannot possibly appoint himself a minister, any 
 more than he can baptize himself. Previous 
 ministers must make him a minister, and they in 
 their turn must have been ordained by those 
 before them, and they again by earlier ministers, 
 and so on till we come to St. Peter, St. Paul, 
 St. John, and the other Apostles, who by the 
 Lord's own Eoyal Charter of Incorporation, and 
 as it were under His hand and seal, were the first 
 to send forth ministers into the Lord's vineyard. 
 
 The only Reformed Communion in England, 
 which can found any claim to tlie Ministerial 
 Succession from Christ and His Apostles is our 
 own Church of England at present by law estab- 
 lished, but which would be the only true Church 
 of Christ in England, if she were disestablished, 
 ffl^emoman (As for the Eoman Church in England, while we 
 Sr^iarSTn do not deny it the Succession, yet we may truly 
 i^uStt."^^ say that it is an intruder, foisted in by the Bishop 
 of Ptome, contrary to the first principles of Church 
 Discipline, upon Dioceses the Bishops and Clergy of 
 which, at the Eeformation, threw off the yoke which 
 he had imposed upon Christendom, and rejected 
 the superstitions which he still countenanced.) 
 She and she alone is the ancient tower of Christ's 
 foundation ; but at the time of the Reformation she 
 
I.] and zi'/icn and how it was founded. 2 1 
 
 had become obscured aud dilapidated by the ivy of 
 
 old superstitions and abuses, which in the long 
 
 lapse of ages had grown over her, and which had 
 
 shut out the blessed light that beams forth from 
 
 the pages of God's Word. Then arose those wise, ^\\zmm 
 
 holy, and dutiful men, the English Reformers, «:f)utcb otots 
 
 who, without building on another foundation, or LUformCTB. 
 
 in any way disconnecting the Church with its 
 
 spiritual ancestry and antecedents, pruned away 
 
 the flaunting, disintegrating, mischief-working 
 
 ivy, and allowed the light of heaven to stream 
 
 into the building once more. Let this great zv nu? 
 
 T , r, ... , p movnl tffcct of 
 
 advantage of our position, as members of a com- the asbantasc 
 munioii built on the foundation of the Apostles uon^as^f ' 
 and Prophets, and yet scriptural and pure in its ^ncrlrWo- 
 doctrine, breed in us, not an arrogant censure of dposfXai. 
 others less favoured than ourselves, but rather a 
 deep humiliation for our own shortcomings among 
 so many great privileges, and a humble thankful- 
 ness to God, whose Providence has placed us 
 where we are. And while we never presume to 
 judge other Communions, nor forget what our 
 Lord said in reference to the man who cast out 
 devils in His name, and yet followed not with the 
 Apostles — " He that is not against us is ou our 
 part," — let us maintain our own connexion with 
 the foundation of Christ's laying as being un- 
 assailable, through whatever storms our Church 
 may be destined to pass. Even should State rf)c CTjurrfj's 
 Patronage be withdrawn, her high spiritual lineage fSr' 
 cannot iail her, and fidelity to her principles will i" su'u "^' 
 insure her the presence and protection of Him, *^^'""°2c. 
 who was in the Apostles' fishing-boat, though 
 
2 2 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 asleep, when the winds raved and the waves 
 surged around her. 
 
 " God is our refuge and strength, a very pre- 
 sent help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, 
 though the earth be removed, and though the 
 mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 
 though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, 
 though the mountains shake with the swelling 
 thereof. . . . God is in the midst of her; she shall 
 not be moved : God shall help her, and that right 
 early." 
 
 Catcrht0m 011 ^liap. i. 
 
 1. CafecMst. — The Church is to form the subject of 
 instructiou in this Catechism. How may we 
 know that it is a subject of great importance ? 
 
 Answer. — Because belief in the Church is a part 
 of the Christian faith. In the Apostles' Creed we say, 
 "I believe in the holy Catholick Church;" in the 
 Nicene Creed, " I believe one Catholick and Apostolick 
 Church." These Creeds are very short summaries of 
 the things to be believed by Christians, in which only 
 the most important matters are touched upon, and 
 many truths, clearly laid down in Holy Scripture, are 
 not at all alluded to. 
 
 2. Catechist. — Give me some other reasons for think- 
 ing the subject of the Church to be one of great 
 importance. 
 
 Ansioer. — Because one whole book of the New Tes- 
 tament, the Acts of the Apostles, is devoted to the 
 history of the Church, beginning with its foundation 
 by the ministry of St. Peter, and ending with its plan- 
 tation in Rome, the capital of the world, by the minis- 
 try of St. Paul. 
 
 3. Catechist. — This is a good reason, as far as it goes. 
 But give me a better reason still. 
 
I.] Catechism. 23 
 
 Ansxfer. — The near relation of the Church to Christ 
 makes the Church a subject of tlie highest importance. 
 This relation is so intimate that He is called the Head, 
 and the Church His body (Eph. i. 22, 23 ; Col. i. 
 18, 24) ; He the Vine-stock, and she the vine (St. John 
 XV. 1, 2, 5) ; He the Brideprroom, and she the bride 
 (Eph. V. 25-32 ; 2 Cor. xi. 2 ; Rom. vii. 4 ; St. Matt. 
 XXV. 1, 2 ; Rev. xix. 9). 
 
 4. Question. — Where does our Lord Himself recog- 
 
 nise the truth that He and His Church are one ? 
 Ansicer. — In His words to Saul of Tarsus, of which 
 we have three reports in Holy Scripture, one from the 
 pen of St. Luke (Acts ix. 4), and two from St. Paul's 
 own mouth (Acts xxii. 7 and xxvi. 14). The words 
 are, "Saul, Saul, why persccutest thou me?" Saul 
 had not persecuted the Lord Jesus Himself; probably 
 had never seen Him while He was upon earth. But 
 he had persecuted bitterly the members of the Chris- 
 tian Church (Acts ix. 1, 2; xxii. 4; xxvi. 10, 11). 
 And, because Christ is one with His Church, whatso- 
 ever is done to the least member of His body He 
 counts as done to Himself (see St. Matt. xxv. 40, 45). 
 For indeed, as St. Paul says in his Epistle to the 
 Ephesians, where he compares the union betwixt Christ 
 and His Church to that between man and wife, who 
 " are no more twain, but one flesh " (St. Matt. xix. 6), 
 " "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his 
 bones " (Eph. v. 30). 
 
 5. Question. — But did the Apostles and early mis- 
 sionaries make the Church a subject of their 
 preaching ? 
 
 Answer. — They did. The twelve Apostles were 
 originally sent "to preach the kingdom of God ;" and 
 so were the seventy disciples (St. Luke ix. 2, and x. 9). 
 St. Philip the Deacon preached " the things concerning 
 the kingdom of God" (Acts viii. 12). St. Paul de- 
 scribes his whole ministry at Ephcsus as a " preach- 
 ing" of "the kingdom of God" (Acts xx. 25. See 
 also ch. xix. 8). At Rome, too, he " expounded and 
 testified the kingdom of God," and " preached " it for 
 
24 C'^ techism . [chap. 
 
 *' two whole years " (Acts xsviii. 23, 31). Now, al- 
 thougli the kingdom of God has yet to be developed in 
 glory, and some things said of it in the New Testament 
 refer to this future developement (as, for instance, 
 " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God " 
 (1 Cor. XV. 50), and " Know ye not that the un- 
 righteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? " 
 (1 Cor. vi. 9)), yet is the kingdom of God amongst us 
 in grace at present ; God " bath translated us into " it 
 (Col. i. 13); and it is like a "net cast into the sea 
 that gathered of every kind," " the wicked " as well as 
 " the just," who, however, " at the end of the world" 
 shall be " severed" and " cast away" (St. Matt. xiii. 
 47, 48, 49, 50). 
 
 6. GatecMst. — You have proved that the subject 
 under consideration is one of great importance, 
 and such as people, who profess and call them- 
 selves Christians, ought to be carefully and metho- 
 dically instructed in. — Now, to begin at the 
 beginning, can you tell me what the word 
 " Church " means? 
 
 Answer. — The Greek word, translated " Church " in 
 the New Testament, means a body called out. It was 
 a word used to denote the political assemblies (or, as 
 we might say. Parliaments) of the ancient Greeks, and 
 indeed is so used in the nineteenth chapter of the Acts 
 of the Apostles, where the tumultuous assembly in the 
 theatre of Ephesus is twice called ecclesia (Acts xix. 
 32, 41), and where the town-clerk uses the same word 
 of the regularly constituted assemblies of the people, 
 held for the purpose of carrying on the local govern- 
 ment (Acts xix. 39). 
 
 7. Catechist. — You say that the word " Church " 
 means a body called out. What class of persons 
 is often erroneously confounded with this hody 
 called out, by persons who are not apt at seizing 
 distinctions ? 
 
 Answer. — The elect people of God, — " those whom 
 He hath chosen in Christ out of mankind" "by his 
 counsel secret to us" (Art. xvii.) 
 
I.] Catcchisiu. 25 
 
 8. Qucsdon. — How docs our Lord distiniruish be- 
 tween " the chosen out " (or elect ones), and those 
 ■who are merely called out ? 
 
 Answer. — lie says, " Many are called, but few are 
 chosen," — a sentence which occurs twice in St. Mat- 
 thew's Gospel, and each time at the end of a parable ; 
 once at the end of the Parable of the Labourers iu 
 the Vineyard (xx. 16), and again at the end of the 
 Parable of the Wedding Garment (xxii. 14). 
 
 9. Catechist. — Illustrate from the latter parable the 
 diflference between the "called " and the " chosen." 
 
 Answer. — The man who " had not on the wedding 
 garment," and who was eventually " taken away " and 
 " cast into outer darkness," was " called " (or invited). 
 The other guests, who appeared at table clad in the 
 wedding garment, represent the elect (or " chosen ") 
 people of God, who (by His grace) have a spirit of jqy 
 and praise, in harmony with the solemnities of the 
 Gospel festival. 
 
 10. Catechist. — But if this is the meaning of the par- 
 able, why are the guests who have the wedding- 
 garment represented as many, and he who has it 
 not as a single individual? For you said that 
 our Lord warned us that the chosen were few, but 
 the called many ; whereas it would seem from the 
 representation in His parable as if the chosen arc 
 many, and the called few. 
 
 Answer. — This arises from the necessity under which 
 a person who teaches by parables lays himself. Our 
 Lord's parables are all drawn from nature or from 
 human life, and represent things which do or might 
 happen. Now, no such thing ever could happen at an 
 Eastern wedding as that the greater number of the 
 guests should sit down without wedding garments. 
 For it is the part of the host at such entertainments to 
 provide wedding-garments for his guests, so that there 
 can be no excuse for appearing without one. 
 
 11. Catechist. — You have now explained and illus- 
 trated the difference between the called out lody 
 
2 6 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 (or Church) and the cJiosen out people (or the 
 elect). " The elect " are not merely " the called," 
 but the " called according to God's purpose " 
 (Rom. viii. 28). What unscriptural and mislead- 
 ing phraseology is often employed by those who 
 confound the two things ? 
 Ansiver. — They speak of "the invisible Church," 
 whereas the Church spoken of in Holy Scripture is 
 always a visible body, which may be seen and known, 
 
 12. Catechist. — Mention some passages of Holy Scrip- 
 ture in which " the Church " must mean a visible 
 body. 
 
 Answer. — St. Matt, xviii. 17, "And if he shall neglect 
 to hear them, tell it unto the church : but if he neglect 
 to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen 
 man and a publican." Acts viii. 1, 3, "At that time 
 there was a great persecution against the church which 
 was at Jerusalem. ... As for Saul, he made havock of 
 the church." Acts xiv. 27, " When they were come, 
 and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed 
 all that God had done with them." Acts xv. 22, 
 " Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the 
 whole chu7xh, to send chosen men of their own com- 
 pany to Antioch." 1 Cor. xiv. 23, " If therefore the 
 whole church be come together into one place, and all 
 speak with tongues, . . . will they not say that ye are 
 mad?" 1 Tim. v. 16, "If any man or woman that 
 believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let 
 not the church be charged." 3 John 5, 6, " Beloved, 
 thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the 
 brethren, and to strangers ; which have borne witness of 
 thy charity before the church." Only a visible body 
 can have reports made to it of the bad or good conduct 
 of its members ; or can have persecution directed 
 against it ; or can be called together to receive tidings, 
 or offer worship ; or can depute members on a certain 
 mission ; or can be taxed for charitable purposes. 
 
 13. Catechist. — You have now shown that the Church 
 is a visible body called out of the world, and that 
 
I.] Catechism. 27 
 
 it must not be confounded with the smaller in- 
 visible body (contained within it) of the elect people 
 of God. Now, can you tell me what is the funda- 
 mental Church truth, — the earliest fact, out of 
 which all other truths about the Church grow ? 
 Answer. — It is that our Lord came not merely to 
 
 teach religious doctrines, but to found a Society, and 
 
 that He did the last as well as the first. 
 
 Catechist. — Yes; if a man really believes that our 
 
 Lord founded a Society as well as taught a 
 
 religion, he has learned the rudiment of all 
 
 Church truth, and the whole science may in due 
 
 time grow out of this rudiment. But how do you 
 
 prove from Holy Scripture that our blessed Lord 
 
 founded a Society? 
 
 Ansxcer. — Because He said, while on earth, that He 
 
 would do so ; and He, the Truth, cannot fail of keeping 
 
 His word. " Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or 
 
 hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" 
 
 14. Question. — What words of Christ's do you allude 
 to? 
 
 Ansicer. — To those which are found in St. Matt. 
 xvi. 18 : " And I say also unto thee, That thou art 
 Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church." 
 
 15. Question. — Is there any force in the " also " in 
 these words? 
 
 Ansiver. — Yes; it refers to what had gone before. 
 St. Peter had just confessed the Lord Jesus in these 
 remarkable words ; " Tliou art the Christ, the Son of 
 the living God." Our Lord proceeds to confess St. 
 Peter, to tell him what he is ; " And / also say unto 
 ihee^ that thou art Peter." 
 
 16. Question. — What does our Lord's use of the future 
 tense in this passage imply? Why docs He say, 
 "IivillhnM"? 
 
 Ansicer.— 'BccaviSG the Church was not yet built. 
 
 17. Catechist.— But how is it that the disciples of 
 
 Christ were not a Church, while their Master was 
 
28 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 upon earth ? In several respects they looked like 
 
 one. They had their Master visibly in the midst 
 
 of them, as He has promised to be in the midst of 
 
 the two or three gathered together in His Name 
 
 (St. Matt, xviii. 20). He taught them the Truth, 
 
 and sent the twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples 
 
 to preach that Truth to others (St. Luke ix. 1, 2; 
 
 X. 1, 9). Nay, we find that they admitted people 
 
 to their Society by baptism ; for we are told that 
 
 "Jesus made and baptized more disciples than 
 
 John, (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his 
 
 disciples)." St. John iv. 1, 2. 
 
 Answer. — There was not a Church, strictly speaking, 
 
 before the day of Pentecost, because before that time 
 
 the disciples were not organized into one body. They 
 
 were like separate leaves and branches of a tree laid in 
 
 a heap, which would not be a ti-ee ; or like severed 
 
 limbs of a body piled upon one another, which would 
 
 not be a body. A number of people, even if they 
 
 have the same hopes, views, and sentiments, do not 
 
 constitute a society or corporation. A corporation is 
 
 a system, the different parts of which are connected 
 
 together by mutual dependence, and work together for 
 
 one end. 
 
 18. CatecMst. — You have mentioned trees, and the 
 natural body of man, as instances of an organized 
 system. What is the principle of unity which 
 holds together the different parts of a tree, or the 
 different members of the body ? 
 
 Ansiver. — It is called life. 
 
 19. Question. — What is the Church's life, which holds 
 all its members in unity, and makes them one body ? 
 
 Ansiver. — The Church's life is the Holy Spirit of 
 God, wlio took up His abode in her on the day of 
 Pentecost, and, proceeding from Christ, her risen 
 Head, shed His gracious influences through her whole 
 frame. 
 
 20. Catecliist. — Quote some passages of Scripture which 
 
 speak of the Church as an organized body. 
 
I.] Catechism. 29 
 
 Ansxotr. — Rom. xii. 4, 5, " As we have many 
 members in one body, and all members have not the 
 same office : so we, being many, are one body in Christ, 
 and every one members one of another." And 1 Cor. 
 xii. 12, 13, " For as the body is one, and hath many 
 members, and all the members of that one body, beini; 
 many, are one body : so also is Christ. For by one 
 Spirit are we all baptfzed into one bod}^, whether we 
 be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free ; and 
 have been all made to drink into one Spirit." And 
 the whole of the chapter, from which this last text is 
 taken, is devoted to the exposition of this one subject, 
 the Church as an organized body. 
 
 21. CatecMst. — Quote a passage of Scripture, to show 
 
 that the Church is knit together in one body by the 
 life which she derives from Christ, her risen Head. 
 Ansu-er. — Eph. iv. 10-16, " He that descended is 
 the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, 
 that he might fill all things. 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 : that we henceforth be no more 
 children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with 
 every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and 
 cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive ; 
 but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him 
 in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from 
 whom the whole body, fitly joined together and com- 
 pacted by that which every joint supplieth, accord- 
 ing to the efi"ectual working in the measure of every 
 part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying 
 of itself in love." 
 
 22. CatecMst. — You have said that the Church was 
 founded on the day of Pentecost. How was 
 St. Peter connected with its foundation ? 
 
30 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Answer. — It was he who took the prominent part in 
 it. For he preached the first Christian sermon, by 
 which three thousand souls were converted. And 
 afterwards " they that gladly received his word were 
 baptized" (Acts ii. 14, 37, 41). 
 
 23. Catechist. — This was the foundation of the Church 
 among the Jews. Did St. Peter take any part in 
 its foundation among the Gentiles ? 
 
 Ansioer. — Yes. It was he whom Cornelius, the 
 Roman centurion and a Jewish proselyte, was directed 
 to send for, that he might " hear words of " him. St. 
 Peter, when he arrived, spoke the word of God to 
 Cornelius and his kinsmen and near friends. The 
 Holy Ghost fell on the hearers ; and St. Peter, seeing 
 that they had received the inward spiritual grace of the 
 Sacrament of Baptism, could not refuse them the out- 
 ward visible sign. So "he commanded them to be 
 baptized in the name of the Lord " (Acts x. 5, 6, 22, 
 34, 44, 47, 48). When St. Peter rehearsed these circum- 
 stances to the Jews at Jerusalem, the conclusion they 
 gathered from it was : " Then hath God also to the 
 Gentiles granted repentance unto life" (Acts xi. 18). 
 
 24. Question. — "What two predictions of our Lord 
 respecting St. Peter were fulfilled by these inci- 
 dents of his history ? 
 
 Answer. — First, that which we find in St. Luke v. 
 10: "And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from 
 henceforth thou shalt catch men." Secondly, that which 
 we find in St. Matthew xvi. 18 : "I say also unto thee, 
 That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build 
 my church." 
 
 25. Question. — "What is the meaning of the name 
 Peter or Petros ? 
 
 Answer. — It means a stone. 
 
 26. Question. — If our Lord, then, meant that He would 
 build His Church upon St. Peter, why did He not 
 say, " Upon this stone I will build my Church? " 
 
 Answer. — Because houses are never built upon single 
 stones. They may however be built upon a rock^ and 
 
I.] Catechism. 3 1 
 
 the word for a roch in Greek is the same word as that 
 for a stone, only with a feminine termination — Petra 
 instead of Petros. 
 
 27. Question. — What did our Lord mean by saying 
 He would build His Church upon St, Peter ? 
 
 Answer. — It was merely a prophecy that St. Peter 
 should lay the earliest foundation of the Church both 
 among the Jews and Gentiles, as we have seen that he 
 did. 
 
 28. Question. — But did no other Apostle lay founda- 
 tions of the Church but St. Peter? 
 
 Ansiver. — Certainly. They all did so ; inasmuch as 
 all of them preached Christ to nations to whom He had 
 never been preached before. St. Paul more especially 
 laid foundations, and speaks of himself as having done 
 so. He was the first to preach the gospel at Corinth, 
 and other ministers carried on his work ; in allusion to 
 which he says : " According to the grace of God which 
 is given unto me, as a wise master builder I have laid 
 the foundation, and another buildeth thereon " (1 Cor. 
 iii. 10). And he seems to recognise the laying of 
 foundations as his special work in Rom. xv. 20 : " Yea, 
 so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where 
 Christ was named, lest I should build upon another 
 man's foundation." 
 
 29. Catechist. — You have said that the Apostles are 
 spoken of as laying foundations. But this is 
 rather different from leing foundations. Are 
 there any passages of Scripture, in which they are 
 spoken of in the latter point of view ? 
 
 Answer. — Yes. Eph. ii. 19 to end : " Now therefore 
 ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow- 
 citizens with the saints, and of the household of God ; 
 and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
 prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner- 
 stone ; in whom all the building fitly framed together 
 groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord : in whom ye 
 also are builded together for an habitation of God 
 through the Spirit." And in the description of the 
 
32 Catechism. ' [chap. 
 
 heavenly Jerusalem •whicli is given in Rev. xsi., and 
 ■which is an allegorical representation of the glorified 
 Church, we read, " The wall of the city had twelve 
 foundations, and in them the names of the twelve 
 apostles of the Lamb" (ver. 14). 
 
 30. Catechist. — But does not St. Paul say, in the con- 
 text of one of the passages you have quoted, that 
 Christ is the foundation of the Church ; " Other 
 foundation can no man lay than that is laid, ivliicli 
 is Jesus Christ " (1 Cor. iii. 11) ? How then 
 can St. Peter or any of the Apostles, or all of 
 them together, be called " foundations " of the 
 Church? 
 
 Answer. — The Apostles are foundations in a different 
 point of view, and in a different sense, from our Lord 
 Himself. He is the soul's only rock of trust and confi- 
 dence, and in this sense the only foundation, beside 
 which no man can lay another. His Apostles are 
 foundations of the Church, because the Church took its 
 rise from their ministry. And when they are spoken 
 of as a foundation, their Master is represented as the 
 " chief corner-stone," which locks the building together 
 (as a keystone does an arch), and in which all the lines 
 of it meet (Eph. ii, 20). 
 
 31. Question. — But suppose we do not accept the in- 
 terpretation you have given of St. Matt. xvi. 18, 
 and prefer (with many learned commentators) to 
 consider our Lord Himself, or the confession of 
 faith, which St. Peter had just made, as the " rock" 
 of which Christ spoke, — does what you have said 
 about the Church fall to the ground in conse- 
 quence ? 
 
 Answer. — By no means. It is certain from the Acts 
 of the Apostles that Clirist did found a Divine Society 
 in the earth, and that St. Peter was the first to call 
 into this Society Jews and Gentiles. 
 
 32. Catechist. — You have shown that our Lord founded 
 a Society, as well as taught a religion. What 
 
I.] Catechism. 33 
 
 objection might seem to lie against this method 
 
 of proceeding? 
 Answer. — Tlie objection that truth may be taught 
 purely and without alloy, and, -when committed to 
 writing, handed down in its purity. This is the case 
 with the volume of the Holy Scriptures, which contains 
 pure truth, without the smallest admixture of error. 
 But a society, being made up of men, is always liable 
 to be corrupted and perverted from its original design. 
 And this has happened to the Church, which has 
 often been grievously corrupted, and into which error 
 found its way, even when inspired Apostles were watch- 
 ing over it. Witness St. Paul's Epistles to the Corin- 
 thians, Galatians, Thessalonians, and the letters in the 
 llevclation, which St. John is commissioned to write 
 to the Seven Churches of Asia. 
 
 33. Question. — If then a Church is liable to be cor- 
 rupted, what good reason may we suppose moved 
 our Lord to found one ? 
 
 Answe}'. — Because He had made man for society 
 originally ; and it was His gracious intention to sanctify 
 and save the nature which had fallen, not to create a 
 new nature. 
 
 34. Question. — How can you show from Scripture 
 that man is made for society ? 
 
 Aiisiver. — Because God said in the beginning : " It 
 is not good that the man should be alone ; I will make 
 him an help meet for him" (Gen. ii. 18). 
 
 35. Catechist. — That was said in allusion to marriage. 
 But how does it bear upon the question of man 
 being made for society ? 
 
 Answer. — Because marriage is the earliest society, 
 and the foundation of every other. Families spring 
 from marriage ; and a group of many families forms a 
 state or nation. 
 
 36. Question. — Is there any evidence in our nature 
 itself that man was made for society ? 
 
 Answer. — God has endowed us with several passions 
 or affections, which have no meaning except in refer- 
 C 
 
34 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 ence to our fellow-creatures. His having implanted in 
 us, for example, benevolence and compassion, is a 
 clear proof that we were destined to live in the midst 
 of objects which would draw out these feelings. 
 
 37. Catecliist. — Man, then, having been made for 
 society originally, this constitution of his nature 
 was to be recognised in Grace ; and accordingly a 
 Society was founded by Christ, in which men were 
 to be one body, and into which all nations were 
 to be called. And this Society is the Church, or 
 Kingdom of Christ upon earth. — What question 
 is it every man's duty to ask himself in reference 
 to this Society ? 
 
 Ansxoer. — Whether he belongs to it. 
 
 38. Question. — But if a man prizes the holy truths 
 which Christ taught, and strives to guide himself 
 by them, and to live under their influence, is not 
 that enough, without his troubling himself with 
 anything further ? 
 
 Answer. — No ; because Christ did not only teach a 
 Religion, but founded a Society ; and we have a duty 
 towards the Society which He founded, as well as 
 towards the Religion which He taught. 
 
 39. Question. — What is the great difference between 
 the duty we owe to the Religion, and that which 
 we owe to the Society ? 
 
 Answer. — That the first may be done by the action 
 of our own minds, without anything between us and 
 God. But we cannot admit ourselves into a Society. 
 We must be admitted into it, according to its own rules, 
 and by its own officers. Nothing we can do ourselves 
 will make us members of it. 
 
 40. Question, — Can you illustrate this by a reference 
 to our Church Societies ? 
 
 Answer. — Yes. A man does not become a member 
 of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, because 
 he takes a great interest in spreading the Gospel 
 in our colonies, and in mission work generally. He 
 must comply with the rule about membership, whatever 
 
I.] Catechism. 35 
 
 that rule may be, before he can become a member. 
 Christ's rule about membership in His Church is, tliat 
 it shall be given by Holy Baptism ; and unless a man 
 is baptized (which he cannot be without some one to 
 baptize him), no amount of Christian feeling or Christian 
 conduct will make him a member of Christ's Church. 
 
 41. Question. — But, as you were baptized when an 
 infant, what doubt can there be that you are a 
 member of Christ's Church ? 
 
 Ansu-er. — There still remains the question, by what 
 community of Christians I was baptized. For there 
 are many such communities, which do not profess to 
 trace up Iheir descent historically to the Apostles of 
 Christ, to whom He gave the commission to baptize 
 and preach the Gospel. These communities were 
 mostly founded in the sixteenth century, or have been 
 founded since, by good men who thought they saw 
 errors in the old Church, or could not get Holy Orders 
 in it, and therefore took upon themselves to preach the 
 Gospel, and administer the Sacraments, without any 
 regular commission. Their Sacraments may outwardly 
 be like the Sacraments of the Church ; but they must 
 be wanting in authority. 
 
 42. Question. — How do you prove that in this country 
 the Church of England is the only Church, which 
 holds Christ's commission to preach, and administer 
 the Sacraments? 
 
 Answer. — Because it can trace up the descent of its 
 ministers to Augustine, who was sent over to this island 
 to convert the Saxons by Pope Gregory ; and the 
 descent of Pope Gregory may be traced up in the same 
 way to the times of the Apostles. 
 
 43. Question. — But did not the Church of England 
 
 become frightfully corrupt before the time of the 
 
 Reformation ? 
 
 Answer. — Doubtless it did. And because it was at 
 
 that time so corrupt, that it could hardly have been 
 
 recognised as the Church which Christ planted, God 
 
 raised up our Reformers to prune away its abuses and 
 
36 CatccJdsm. [chap. 
 
 superstitions, and to let in once more the light of the 
 Gospel of Christ, which had been greatly obscured. 
 But they did not presume to make a new foundation ; 
 nor indeed was there any call for them to do so. The 
 Bishops and Clergy, with very few exceptions, came 
 round to the Reformation ; and thus the old Society of 
 the Church of Christ was preserved, while it was puri- 
 fied. 
 
 44. Question. — Can you illustrate this by a compari- 
 son? 
 
 Answer. — Yes. An old Gothic tower, founded cen- 
 turies ago, might in lapse of time be so overgrown with 
 ivy, and choked with rubbish, as to have all its original 
 features concealed. If the ivy were pruned away, and 
 the rubbish removed, it would not be a newly founded 
 tower, but the old one restored. But if the proprietor 
 should build a new one on some other part of his estate, 
 digging new foundations and raising new walls, this 
 would be another tower, however closely it might re- 
 semble the old one in its outward features. 
 
 45. Question. — Is the descent from Christ and His 
 Apostles, and the inheritance from them of the 
 commission to preach the Gospel and administer 
 the Sacraments, all that is necessary to make a 
 Christian Community to be a Church ? 
 
 Answer. — Yes ; it will be a Church, if it have received 
 this commission, though by no means necessarily a pure 
 or a Scriptural Church. 
 
 46. Question. — Then why have the priests of the 
 Church of Home, who hold this commission as 
 well as our own ministers, no lawful authority to 
 preach the Gospel or administer the Sacraments in 
 this country ? 
 
 Anstver. — Because it is a principle of Church order 
 that there cannot be in any diocese two Bishops. Our 
 own Bishops have been in possession, since the Church 
 was first planted in this country, and are in possession 
 now. The Pope's Bishops are a new colony sent into 
 this country, to invade the rights and usm-p the office of 
 
I.] Catcchis7n. 37 
 
 the old Bishops, because they arc not willing to acknow- 
 ledge his supremacy, — a doctrine which cannot be proved 
 either by Scripture, reason, or primitive antiquity. 
 
 47. Qtiestion. — But is not the recognition and acknow- 
 ledgment of the State necessary to the existence of 
 the Church? 
 Ansiver. — It is the duty of civil rulers to recognise 
 and support the true Church, and to make themselves 
 " nursing fathers " to her. And no doubt nations from 
 this acknowledgment of God reap many great blessings. 
 But even if this recognition were withheld, the Church 
 would lose nothing of her authority, though she would 
 be deprived of many advantages for doing her work. 
 Her commission is derived from Christ, and not from 
 the powers of this world ; and none but He who gave it 
 can take it away. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 DUTY OF THE CHURCH TOWARDS THOSE WHO 
 HOLD TO THE APOSTLES' DOCTRINE, IN 
 SEPARATION FROM THE APOSTLES' FEL- 
 LOWSHIP. 
 
 •' Jlttb Jxrhn ansircreb him, snvins, ^pastn:, itJc sato one 
 fasting out icbils in thg name, anb he foUoioeth nat 
 Its : ani tue forbai him, because he follotocth not »s. 
 ^ut Jesns saib, ^Jfotbib him not : for there is no man 
 tohich shall ho a miracle in mg name, that ean lightls 
 speak ebil of me. ^^or he tliat is not aisainst ns is on 
 our part."— St. Mark ix. 38, 39, 40. 
 
 •"(Ehes continneb stebfastlg in the apostles' boctrine anb 
 feilotoship."— Acts n. 42. 
 
 mt iaimte nnHE world of Nature seems to be governed by a 
 of Nature. -^ System 01 forces, ■wnicli counterbalance and 
 bold one another in check. The planet is kept in 
 its orderly course, partly by the original impulse 
 which launched it into space, partly by the power 
 of gravitation, which draws it towards the sun. 
 Without the former of these impulses, it would 
 simply fall into the sun and be dashed to pieces 
 or consumed ; without the latter of them, it would 
 travel on for ever in the line in which it was 
 originally projected. Another familiar instance of 
 the same law in the animal world is, that certain 
 tribes are a restraint upon one another. Kill all 
 
CH. II.] Duty of the ChurcJi. 39 
 
 the small birds, because they are mischievous to 
 the fruits, and you will soon liud yourself plagued 
 with a swarm of insects, still more mischievous to 
 the roots. Nature exhibits in all her departments 
 a balance of forces. 
 
 Xow the God of Nature is the God of Grace KcKqious 
 
 trutr)3 arc 
 
 also ; and we should therefore expect to find in moral faras. 
 God's Word the same principles which regulate 
 His hand in His works. The forces of God's 
 Word are truths. What are the great truths of 
 lieligion but moral forces — forces operative upon 
 the conscience, the heart, the will ? And these ^\t 6aian« 
 truths are not unfrequently forces acting in oppo- lain of cratt. 
 site, or apparently opposite, directions, and hold- 
 ing one another in check. God's election of 
 certain persons to eternal life is a great truth. 
 So is man's entire and exclusive responsibility for 
 a failure in winning eternal life. The necessity 
 of God's grace to our salvation is a great truth. 
 So, on the other hand, is the perfect freedom of 
 the human will. It is easy to seize upon one 
 of these principles, and make it the keystone of 
 our whole religious system, without taking much 
 account of the other. But the really sound and 
 Scriptural divine will attempt to lose sight of 
 neither, and to give its due weight to each. He 
 will try to reconcile the two truths, — in theory, if 
 they admit of such a reconciliation, — in practice, at 
 all events, if their theoretical reconciliation should 
 be a problem beyond the powers of the human 
 mind. Professor Archer Butler, in a sermon from 
 which I shall presently make a further extract, 
 says as follows : " The most important steps in 
 
40 Duty of the CJmr'ch [chaf. 
 
 every part of moral science consist in the adjust- 
 ment of rival truths; it being always far more 
 easy to see the force of a great principle than to 
 see its limits." 
 
 Now, I am about to apply these remarks to the 
 great and somewhat difficult subject opened in 
 Botf) «)e, our first Chapter — the subject of the Church. It 
 toctrine anu is Said of the early Christians in the Acts of the 
 2?)ip to be Apostles, that " they continued stedfastly in the 
 apostles' doctrine," — here is Christian Truth, one of 
 the great forces in the spiritual system, — and in 
 the apostles' "fellowship " — here is the Christian 
 Church, another great force. To this latter sub- 
 ject we devoted our attention exclusively in the 
 last Chapter. We showed that the Church was a 
 society planned by our Blessed Lord, and built by 
 jSTo nefa ^'lie ministry of St. Peter and the other Apostles, 
 and that, though the old building may be cleared 
 of corruptions which have gathered over it in 
 atiijcrcti to. course of time (which in fact was done at the 
 Eeformation), no other building can be reared, 
 which shall not be a new foundation, wanting the 
 Divine authority and sanction of the old, and 
 quite distinct from "the Apostles' fellowship," 
 or, in other words, from the Church which Christ 
 by the ministry of His Apostles founded. It was 
 then stated that all dissenting communities in this 
 country were in fact such new foundations (not one 
 of them dating four hundred years back), having 
 many of them striking features of outward resem- 
 blance to the Christian Church — the same Sacra- 
 ments (to the eye), the same form (or very much 
 the same) of administering Holy Orders, and much 
 
 ' Mlotoaljip ' 
 io be crcatcU, 
 but tbc olO 
 one to be 
 
II.] tozuards or tJiodox Separatists. 41 
 
 the same doctrine and teaching, — but that all this 
 superficial resemblance did not, and could not, 
 really connect them with the Church of the 
 Apostles, any more than if a private individual 
 should set up a mint against the Queen's mint, 
 and coin and distribute gold pieces stamped with 
 the Queen's effigy, those sovereigns would be the 
 real currency of the realm, authorized by the 
 Government. 
 
 That was one side of the question, and I trust 
 I stated it bravely and fairly, and that, in what 
 follows of the same argument, I shall not shrink 
 from any consequences of the position which I 
 have taken up. But the question has another 
 side ; and the due consideration of that other side 
 is all the more binding upon us, because it will 
 lead us, while holding fast our own principles, to 
 hold them in love. At the earliest commence- in «)e 
 ment of Christianity, the Apostles' doctrine and Irtrrs^tmnitn ^ 
 fellowship were co -extensive. God's Truth was anH'MoS- 
 in the Church, and the Church stood fast in ciUnsSe. 
 God's Truth. But this happy state of things was 
 not to last long. Very speedily errors and corrup- 
 tions began to show their head, and run their 
 mischievous course. Many of them were con- 
 demned by Church Councils; but there were 
 others which Councils could not, or did not, 
 reach ; and little by little, one innovation after 
 another being introduced, one deviation after i^ofa «)c <fao 
 another from primitive faith and practice being sc^arauo.^ 
 first excused, then allowed, then adopted, and the 
 Bishop of Eome pushing in by degrees his mon- 
 strous usurpations over the conscience, and his 
 
42 Duty of the Church [chap. 
 
 claim to overrule the authority of kings, the Church 
 became quite altered from the primitive model, 
 and retained but few features of resemblance to 
 (though it was historically the same body, having 
 come down in lineal succession from) the Church 
 which Christ founded by the ministry of the 
 iPcrptocitjj Apostles. Then what was to be done, when the 
 ftomtifs ^ Apostles' doctrine was no longer held in its purity 
 separation, -j^^ ^^^ Apostles' fellowship ? God's Truth was 
 just as precious as God's Church ; was certainly 
 more reliable, because the Truth cannot be cor- 
 rupted, but the Church may. In England, 
 through God's great mercy, the case presented 
 !§ofa ttjia but little difficulty. The great majority of the ex- 
 toassoil^cu in isting Bishops and Clergy came round to the prin- 
 "^ ^"^* ciples of the Eeformation ; so that there was no 
 difficulty for us in maintaining the Apostles' 
 doctrine without departing from the Apostles' fel- 
 lowship. In other countries people were not so 
 <©rt)er, highly favoured. The Bishops, who alone could 
 "aTig^iB ° confer Holy Orders,and thus continue the Apostles' 
 anu°"" ' fellowship, were too often found to be inveterate 
 maintainers of the old abuses, and showed no 
 sympathy whatever with that awakening of mind 
 on religious subjects, which had been brought 
 about by the freer circulation of the Holy Scrip- 
 s»!!Bt?)ab<oii: tures. — Again, I ask what was to be done, where 
 Munteka."'^^ it happened to be so ? What was done in some 
 places — often reluctantly, sometimes (no doubt) 
 where violence characterized the leaders, with 
 heat, and coarse, foul language — done surely not 
 without such excuse as we may well hope palli- 
 ated the act in tlie eyes of the Divine Founder, — 
 
II.] tozuards ortJiodox Separatists. 43 
 
 was to cling to the Apostles' doctrine, and let go 
 the Apostles' fellowshiiJ — to maintain Christian 
 Truth, but not in connexion with the old founda- 
 tion. And thus came in the first idea of what is ri,f tariicst 
 called a Christian denomination, — that is to say, cimstian uc 
 a comnmnity teaching the leading truths of the "^""'"^ '""■ 
 Gospel, and professing to administer the Holy 
 Sacraments, yet without deriving any authority 
 to do so from the Church which Christ built by 
 the ministry of the Apostles. At first the doing 
 this was thought, even by those who acknowledged 
 the necessity of doing it, somewhat of an auda- 
 cious and perilous step, to be taken only under 
 severe pressure of circumstances. But the ex- 
 ample once set became, as such examples are apt 
 to do, contagious. The independence gained by jjapft pro- 
 secession from the Church made secession popular, '^^f^^^ ° 
 especially in England, where the national mind is 
 always impatient of control. And thus it comes 
 to pass that Christians in this empire are broken 
 up into I know not how many sects, and present 
 a most melancholy contrast to the Founder's ideal, 
 which was that there should be but one body, 
 even as there is but one Spirit ; " Neither pray I 
 for these alone, but for them also which shall 
 believe on me through their word ; that they all 
 may he one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in E\\t 
 thee, that they also may he one in us : that the istai com- 
 world may believe that thou hast sent me " mamij. 
 (St. John xvii. 20, 21). 
 
 I have said enough to show that, whatever may 
 be alleged in favour of certain separatists at the 
 Pieformation, nothing can justify a refusal in this 
 
44 DiUy of the Church [chap. 
 
 country to join the Church of England, pure as 
 
 she is in doctrine, no less than apostolic in dis- 
 
 Spirihtai life cipline. And yet it must be admitted, because it 
 
 spiritual Is a simple fact, which it would be closing our 
 
 toori?, oittaice eyes to the light to refuse to see, that in other 
 
 fciioiuBijip. Christian communities many brilliant examples 
 
 of godliness are to be found, and that souls are 
 
 really won to Christ by ministers who do not 
 
 stand upon the old foundation, and do not derive 
 
 from the Church, on which the Spirit came down 
 
 at Pentecost, their authority to minister the Word 
 
 and Sacraments. 
 
 How are we to feel towards, and deal with, such 
 
 phenomena, without, on the one hand, disguising 
 
 the plainest facts of experience, and, on the other, 
 
 without for a moment justifying (or even excusing) 
 
 secession from a branch of the Church which is 
 
 f?ototeare doctrinally pure? Holy Scripture, which was 
 
 n'nti''icai'toitij written in the foresight, on the part of the Spirit, 
 
 Biij^pbeno- ^^ ^j^g Church's future history, has provided for 
 
 this as for all other emergencies, and gives an 
 
 answer which probably will not satisfy the violence 
 
 of prejudice on either side, but will none the less 
 
 approve itself to the calm wisdom of the man of 
 
 God. Let us inquire reverently and prayerfully 
 
 what that answer may be. 
 
 jiftcman I. While our Lord Jesus Christ was upon 
 
 i'cbasin"" earth, one man at least (perhaps several) was 
 
 Namt.iut found, who, without any recognised connexion 
 
 fouofa faitfj with Him, went about casting out devils in His 
 
 tbeapostug. 2«;rg^j^g^ — ^^^ merely endeavouring to confer that 
 
 benefit on suffering humanity, but actually doing 
 
 it. " Master,* we saw one" {somebody — with a touch 
 
II.] toivards orthodox Separatists. 45 
 
 of disdain, which the Master in His answer does not 
 fail to correct by expressing His esteem for the 
 man), " casting out devils in thy name, and he fol- 
 loweth not us" (St. Mark ix. 38). A singular phe- 
 nomenon indeed ! For no doubt this man was a pfiofjcmuBt 
 real believer in Christ, No virtue would have fol- Bincm bt- 
 lowed upon his exorcisms, had he merely, parrot- 
 like, taken up into his lips a name, to the power 
 of which his own heart was a stranger. We 
 know from another part of Scripture that the 
 issue of such a procedure would have been utter 
 discomfiture and dismay. For when the " seven 
 sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and cliief of the priests" 
 at Ephesus, " took upon them to call over them 
 which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, 
 saying. We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul 
 preacheth," " the evil spirit answered and said, 
 Jesus I know, and Paul I know ; but who are 
 ye ? And the man in Avhom the evil spirit was 
 leaped on them, and overcame them, and pre- 
 vailed against them, so that they fled out of that 
 house naked and wounded" (Acts xix. 13-16). 
 Very different must have been the spirit of this 
 man from that of the sons of Sceva. Doubtless he 
 recognised Jesus as the jNIessiah, who shoidd come 
 into the world, and as the hope and consolation 
 of Israel. It does not appear, however, that 
 Christ had called him. Nor does it appear that 
 he troubled himself to get called. Perhaps his 
 want of humility, wliich called itself (as want of 
 humility often does) independence of mind, made luis probabu 
 him unwilling to go to the disciples in the regidar 'Jl gpiti J"" 
 way, and seek from them baptism in the name of 
 
46 Duty of the CImrch [chap. 
 
 Jesus. As for himself, he may have thought, he 
 would not adjure the spirits by Jesus, whom 
 Peter and John preached, and into whose Name 
 they baptized ; — he had much better ground to 
 go upon in his own convictions ; — he felt sure that 
 God had sent the great message of salvation into 
 the world, and he believed that this message was 
 free as the wind which careers over the open 
 down, and he would go forth with the message 
 upon the wings of the wind, — a self-elected mis- 
 sionary. 
 
 ISTow I suppose that few people will have the 
 hardihood to say that he was no loser by this 
 Sofamuc^ course of proceeding. No one surely will pre- 
 foiiBtoins in" sume to asscrt that, although not following with the 
 % ^orV^ Apostles in the train of the Lord Jesus, he en- 
 ^^^'^' jc^yed the privileges and advantages which they 
 enjoyed. As regards religious belief, he doubtless 
 had the root of the matter in him; but he hung 
 not upon those lips, so full of grace ; he heard not 
 those prayers, so simple and yet so unfathomably 
 profound, in which the Son of Man poured out 
 his soul before his Father ; he did not enjoy the 
 opportunities of having his sentiments momen- 
 tarily inspected and corrected by the Divine Wis- 
 dom Incarnate. 
 pjigf) That, you will say, is true; but when the 
 
 assocmtion Lord's bodily Presence was withdrawn, how was 
 gpostr/s, he the worse for not following with the Apostles ? 
 Christ tati Surely much the worse in every way. The words, 
 irftttem. ^^ sentiments, the precepts, the institutions of 
 their Master lived in them. They represented 
 Him by His own appointment, — a position surely 
 
II.] toivards ortJiodox Separatists. 47 
 
 not to be despised. Upon them, as they were 
 sitting in the one house, fell the Holy Spirit at 
 Pentecost. And the new band of believers bap- 
 tized on that day, felt that not only was the 
 message of the Apostles to be received, but that 
 their Society, no less than their message, had the 
 Divine sanction. For "they continued sted- 
 fastly," not " in the apostles' doctrine " only, but 
 " in their fellowship " also. 
 
 Now we believe that Apostolic Fellowship or CTe npostoiu 
 
 &llotosl)ip IS 
 
 Society to be still in the world. We believe that stai in t^e 
 there is a Church, legally inheriting all the insti- 
 tutions and privileges of, and dating up histori- 
 cally to, the company assembled in the one house, 
 when the Holy Spirit made His august descent on 
 the day of Pentecost. We maintain not only the 
 present ever fresh vitality of Christian doctrine, 
 but the existence of an institution framed to give 
 that doctrine a local habitation and a name, and 
 being the very pillar and ground of the truth; 
 an institution now hoary with the antiquity of 
 eighteen centuries, resting ultimately upon the 
 foundation of the apostles and prophets. It is 
 true, indeed, that this noble column became over- 
 grown in the course of time with parasitical 
 weeds, and covered with the ivy of manifold 
 superstitions and abuses, which, as ivy does to 
 every structure, threatened the very existence of 
 the building over which they had crept. But to 
 us in this favoured country that matters little. 
 We have had our Eeformation, which without 
 removing, or even disturbing the foundation of, 
 the colunm, entirely cleared it of all the rank 
 
48 Duty of the CJmrch [chap. 
 
 vegetation which, concealed its fair and majestic 
 iLoss Btiffrrrti proportions. And in conformity with these prin- 
 
 pu separation, ^ ^ j r 
 
 fiotocfacr con- ciplcs, we believe that there is no separatist in 
 Bcicntioug. 
 
 the world who does not suffer loss by separation. 
 
 We believe separation to be a very hardy act, 
 which must have very clear grounds in con- 
 science, before it can even justify itself to the 
 good sense and candour of those who resort to it. 
 Suppose we had lived in the island of Crete, at 
 the time when a bishop presided over the Church 
 there, whom Titus had consecrated by laying on 
 of hands. Would not any candid person regard 
 that ordination as a very important sanction of 
 the bishop so ordained, and feel that he must 
 have perfectly overwhelming grounds, before he 
 could reject the authority and separate from the 
 communion of that bishop ? Yet the only differ- 
 ence between such a separation, and that of 
 modern dissenters, is made by the many more 
 links of the chain which are interposed between 
 the Apostles and ourselves. Timothy, though ap- 
 pointed by St. Paul, was no more inspired than 
 is a modern bishop. And that the charter and 
 privilege of the visible Church is not injured 
 by transmission, even to the latest age, may 
 be gathered with certainty from our Lord's part- 
 ing charge : " Go ye, . . . 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 whatsoever I have 
 commanded you : and, lo, / am with you alioay, 
 even unto the end of the world. Amen." The 
 late King of Prussia is said to have observed that 
 
II.] toz^'ards orthodox Separatists. 49 
 
 ia Itomc you see a Cliurcli without Christianity ; cFnoianii f)as 
 iu the sects Christianity without a Church ; but Sm^'^c^ris- 
 that in EugUxnd an attempt was made to main- ti™c|inV 
 tain both — Christianity and the Church together. 
 We are thankful for such a testimony from a 
 foreign sovereign. Why are we to slight the 
 Apostles' fellowship, because we are resolved to 
 maintain, as dearer than life, their doctrine ? 
 
 II. But our narrative teaches us, not only (by sitmbersai 
 implication) the privilege of fellowship with the sgrnpatbD to 
 visible body which our Lord founded, but also aions toitb 
 (directly) the duty of cidtivating, along with our cipuL """ 
 Church principles, a spirit of universal Christian 
 sympathy. " But Jesus said, Forbid him not : 
 for there is no man which shall do a miracle in 
 my name, that can lightly speak evil of me." 
 
 There is many a man in modern times, who, spiritual 
 like the man before us, unable to see and recog- mang a° 
 nise the blessing of fellowship with the Church of ^^''"^ 
 Christ, has yet felt deeply in his own soul the 
 saving power of the Name of Jesus. He has felt 
 that, just as in the sun is wrapped up aU the 
 physical virtue which pervades the realm of the iSia ctpcrifncc 
 universe (for the rain, which is a great principle of tbc ?f amc 
 of fertility, comes from exhalations which the sun ° 
 draws up), so in the Name of Jesus Christ, that 
 is, in His revealed character and attributes, aU 
 spiritual virtue resides, — a balm to heal every 
 heartache, a consolation to soothe every trouble, 
 and a sweet relief under the galling consciousness 
 of guilt. The discovery of the hidden virtue of 
 this precious Name fills him with joy and peace, 
 and with that gush of spiritual emotions, which 
 
50 Duty of the C/mi^ck [chap. 
 
 God mercifully grants, by way of lifting His chil- 
 dren over the diificulties of an early stage of their 
 Ifa (mpuise religious career. He is impelled by an irresistible 
 knoton fo impulse to try upon others — his relatives, friends, 
 coiurr of tijis neighbours, dependants — the powers of that Name, 
 ^""' which has already wrought such wonders in his 
 soul, and to which (as his conscience now responds, 
 re-echoing the words of Inspiration) " all things 
 in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, do bow 
 and obey." A soul chafed with religious emotion 
 g(s im- is naturally impatient of restraint — he cannot wait, 
 wJitaint!' he thinks, for the tedious processes by which, in 
 the ordinary course, the surplice and the academi- 
 cal hood are made, like the prophet's mantle, to 
 fall upon a man's shoulders. What matter those 
 or any other forms? (I am representing his 
 sentiments, not expressing my own concurrence 
 in them.) Souls are perishing all around him. 
 He " believes" (with the Apostles), and therefore 
 5ucrc33of with the Apostles will he " speak." And very 
 tis mmiBtro. ^^^^^^ (may we not say always, more or less ? for 
 zeal has a marvellous self-propagating power) he 
 not only speaks, but speaks with the best efiFect. 
 Other hearts vibrate as he sounds forth the ISTame, 
 anb tfic tfffrt ^^^^icli is the alone key-note of all spiritual har- 
 of Slid] sue- mony. Then follows a reflex action upon his own 
 
 rcss upon J ^ 
 
 Jiimscif. mind. He is amazed, or rather awe-stricken, at 
 the effect which he has himself produced. " There 
 is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, 
 that can lightly speak evil of me." Lightly speak 
 evil of Christ! No; that is indeed for such a 
 man a moral impossibility. He is far too solemnly 
 impressed with the reality of the power, which the 
 
II.] iozuards orthodox Separatists. 5 1 
 
 great Name exercises. AVlien Frankenstein in the 
 fiction had completed tlie fabric of a human body, 
 having curiously compounded the materials which 
 go to make up our animal frame, and prepared 
 the internal system of bones, muscles, arteries, 
 ducts, and glands, he was ovenvhelmed with an 
 ecstatic awe, when he perceived symptoms that 
 the vital spark had descended into this dead 
 machinery, when the chest began to heave, and 
 the pulse to throb, and the eye to flash, and the 
 rigid muscles of the countenance to relax into 
 play of feature, and to dawn into expression. And 
 a similar, though a far deeper, sensation of awe 
 creeps over a man when he becomes aware that, 
 in obedience to his proclamation of the gospel of 
 Christ, a dead soul is being quickened, a mouth 
 which before was mute is beginning joyfully to 
 articulate the praises of God, and a heart which 
 before was of stone is now changing its nature to 
 throbbing palpitating flesh. That man has proved 
 l)y experiment in his own soul, and in the souls 
 of others, the power of the Name of Jesus. And 
 is not that Name the great secret of success, by 
 which alone souls can be won, whether in or out 
 of the Apostles' fellowship ? For what end does 
 the Church herself exist, but to win and edify 
 souls ? The case then stands thus ; that a man 
 who follows not with the Church, has stolen the 
 Church's secret, and finds it as operative in his 
 hands as it is in hers. 
 
 How then does the Lord of the Church instruct i?Dfa fee are 
 us to deal with such persons, and to regard them ? sucTj"sons. 
 Does He say to His Apostles that His doctrine 
 
52 
 
 Duty of the Church 
 
 [chap. 
 
 StaU, 
 
 not tfje 
 
 (Eliurctj, arc 
 to forbil) 
 tijnn. 
 
 was the only thing they need regard, and that His 
 fellowship was nothing ? Does He say, " It would 
 be no advantage to that man, if he did company 
 with you all the time that I, the Lord Jesus, am 
 coming in and going out amongst you " ? Does 
 He say, " Do not imagine that you are any gainers 
 by being in My company, or that you would be 
 any losers by forsaking it " ? I hear nothing of 
 the kind from Him ; and if men will pervert His 
 blessed words to this meaning, they must take on 
 themselves the responsibility of wresting the 
 Scriptures to their own one-sided views. " Jesus 
 said, Forbid him not." Happy, thrice happy Eng- 
 land, in which the law of the land echoes back 
 this precept of the Church's Head, " Forbid him 
 not;" in which any and every man who has a 
 secret, whereby he considers that his fellow- 
 creatures may be benefited, is at full liberty to 
 announce it, even should it go the length of 
 fanatical extravagance. Let all religionists say 
 their say, of whatever sect and creed, — nay, let 
 them say it, even should they discard and refuse 
 to recognise the wonder-working Name, from the 
 use of which alone spiritual results will flow. — 
 But these heavenly words of Christ are not to be 
 emptied of their force, by being regarded as a 
 mere precept of legal toleration. Oh no ! Not 
 only is the State not to forbid, but the Church (the 
 one Apostolic Fellowship) is not to forbid those, 
 who, by a believing use of the Name of Jesus, 
 convert and edify the souls of men. And more 
 than this : " He that is not against us " (or, accord- 
 ing to the much better reading of several excel- 
 
II.] toivai'ds ortJiodox Separatists. 53 
 
 lent manuscripts), " He that is not against yon is on me must 
 your part." The man is actually doing your work, hi3too"^k aa' 
 and furthering your end. For what is the work miTbfiblink- 
 of the Church ? Is it not the salvation of souls ? ^"' ^" '^ 
 And what is the end of the Church ? Is it not 
 that glory of God, which is most strikingly illus- 
 trated by the salvation of souls ? Then, if this 
 man is to all appearance saving souls, and bring- 
 ing men to live soberly, righteously, and godly in 
 this present world, — if he is really exorcising 
 from the souls of this crooked and perverse genera- 
 tion the demons of sensuality, covetousness, and 
 earthly-raindedness, which have entrenched them- 
 selves there, — you may indeed, and should, grieve 
 for the loss and forfeiture which he sustains by 
 his separation from the lineal succession ; but, 
 so far from forbidding him, you must acknow- 
 ledge his work as from God, and be sincerely 
 thankful for its progress, and say, as the Apostle 
 born out of due time said, who did not indeed 
 hear the Lord's words on this occasion, but doubt- 
 less did hear of them, " Notwithstanding, every 
 way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is 
 preached ; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will 
 rejoice" (Phil. i. 18). 
 
 "NVe do not believe that the strictest main- cfturi* prin 
 tenance of Church principles is inconsistent with m^ans in-"° 
 universal Christian sympathy, ^^^lile, in de- toiircSia- 
 ference to truth, we cannot recognise that schis- patbg."'"" 
 matical societies have the divine sanction, or are 
 built upon the divine ground-plan, we do not feel 
 ourselves precluded from recognising eminent 
 saintliness, and eminent efficiency for good, in 
 
54 Duty of the CJmrch [chap. 
 
 many individuals belonging to such societies. It 
 is a very observable fact, on wliicli we propose to 
 dwell further in the sequel, that although the 
 kingdom of Jeroboam was a schismatical polity, 
 appearand of certainly not contemplated in the original draught 
 
 saintlincsa . . ;^ , ^ , . . . ^ . ° 
 
 antiWsi) 01 the Hebrew monarchy, which was to be one, 
 
 proprictical , '' 
 
 sifts in the and always to run m the tribe of Judah and in 
 itinstiom of tliB royal line of David, yet the representative of 
 erribcs. all the Prophets, and the only man (except Enoch) 
 whose saintliness was crowned with an assumption 
 to glory, was born a subject of the schismatical 
 kingdom, and ministered not in Judah but in Israel. 
 Who, on the one hand, will dare to dispute that 
 Elijah was a true prophet ? Who, on the other 
 hand, wiU presume to deny that the royal family of 
 David had a claim upon the allegiance of every 
 Hebrew, in virtue of the Divine charter made to 
 him and his heirs, and that the lamp of promise 
 and covenant was handed down exclusively in 
 that line, until at length it rested on the head of 
 Messiah ? And as I have thus brought into the 
 argument what (strictly speaking) the passage of 
 Scripture on which I am dwelling does not lead 
 me to the consideration of, — the case of schis- 
 matical Communions, as distinct from that of the 
 individuals found in their bosoms, — I wiU close 
 this Chapter with the striking words of one who, 
 had he lived, would probably have been at pre- 
 sent a foremost divine of our Church. After 
 vindicating in a masterly argument (worthy of his 
 namesake. Bishop Butler) the claims of the 
 Church upon the allegiance of all good Chris- 
 tians, as being lineally the fellowship of the 
 
II.] towards orthodox Separatists. 55 
 
 Apostles, he adds this image of the relation borne 
 to the Church by the orthodox religious communi- 
 ties of this country. 
 
 " When our Lord was in that ship in the tern- Srf)ismat{cai 
 pest, which all ages have agreed in employing as iubicfi prcact 
 a type of His Church, St. Mark alone of the the * uttu 
 Evangelists, as it were incidentally, observes — hiakf of "fie ' 
 ' And there were also with Him other little ships.' borftbe 
 Nothing more is said through the narrative of cbrist!'' 
 these ' little ships.' Yet they, doubtless, enjoyed a 
 share in the blessing of calm obtained by the ship 
 that bore Jesus Christ. I have sometimes thought 
 that they picture vividly the fortunes of those 
 societies, which in these later ages have moved 
 in the wake of the ancient Apostolic Church; 
 which are with it forced to endure the storms of 
 a world impartially hostile to every form of re- 
 ligious effort ; and which are not without partici- ' 
 pating in the blessings of the holy Presence 
 abiding in that Church, as long as in sincerity of 
 heart they endeavour to keep up with the Master 
 in His course." — {Professor Archer Butlers Ser- 
 mons.) 
 
 €ntc£hi0m axi Chrtjr. EE. 
 
 1. Catechi'st. — In your former examination you stated 
 that Christ bad founded a great world-embracing 
 Society, and had commissioned His Apostles to 
 call all men into it. This is the great Church 
 truth of God's Word. What other great truth is 
 there, which must be held fast at the same time, 
 and with equal earnestness? 
 Answer. — That Christ taught, and commissioned Hi-s 
 
56 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Apostles to teacb, certain doctrines; and that these 
 doctrines must be maintained and clung to. 
 
 2. CatecMst. — This is a truth which might lead us in 
 a direction contrary to the former. For if the 
 Society founded by Christ should happen at any 
 time not to hold the doctrines which He taught, a 
 question would arise whether we should hold to 
 the Society or to the doctrines. Can you give 
 any other instances of two rival truths of God's 
 Word, which lead in opposite directions ? 
 
 Answer. — Yes. It is a truth, on the one hand, that 
 some persons are chosen by God to eternal life. 
 " But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for 
 you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath 
 from the beginning chosen you to salvation through 
 sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth " 
 (2 Thess. ii. 13). And it is a truth, on the other hand, 
 that, if we fail to attain salvation, the failure is to be 
 set down entirely to our own fault. " Why will ye die, 
 house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the 
 death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God : where- 
 fore turn yourselves, and live ye '' (Ezek. xviii. 31, 32). 
 Again ; it is a truth of God's Word that salvation is by 
 grace. " By grace are ye saved through faith ; and 
 that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God" (Eph. ii. 
 8). But it is equally a truth of God's Word that our 
 will is free to work out, or not to work out, our own 
 salvation. " Work out your own salvation with fear 
 and trembling " (Phil. ii. 12) ; " Let us labour to enter 
 into that rest " (Heb. iv. 11) ; " Giving all diligence, 
 add to your faith virtue ; and to virtue knowledge," 
 etc. (2 Pet. i. 5, etc.) Though indeed there is no need 
 to prove that the human will is free ; for every precept 
 of the Bible proves it, unless we suppose that God 
 mocks mankind by giving them commands which they 
 are unable to fulfil. 
 
 3. Question. — Do you find anything in Nature which 
 resembles these rival truths of Holy Scripture ? 
 
 Answer. — Yes : we find in Nature a balance of 
 
II.] Catechism. 57 
 
 forces, and a system of checks. The centrifugal power 
 in astronomy counteracts the centripetal, and the two 
 together keep the planet in its orbit. And many tribes 
 of animals keep one another in check. The small 
 birds destroy certain tribes of insects which, if they 
 were allowed to multiply without restraint, would be 
 mischievous to vegetation. 
 
 4. Catechist. — You speak of these things as forces and 
 checks in Nature. What are the forces and checks 
 in the spiritual system called ? 
 
 Answer. — Religious truths ; which are forces opera- 
 tive upon the heart and will of man, and several of 
 which hold one another iu equipoise, and keep him who 
 observes them in a right path, steering him clear of 
 opposite perils. 
 
 5. Catechist. — Repeat once again the rival truths now 
 under consideration. 
 
 Answer. — That we must continue in the Church 
 which Christ and His Apostles founded, and also 
 maintain as dearer than life the truths they taught. 
 
 6. Question. — In what words are we told that the 
 early Christians did both of these things? 
 
 Answer. — It is said that " they continued stedfastly 
 in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship " (Acts ii. 42). 
 
 7. Question. — What soon made it difficult for Chris- 
 tians to continue in both ? 
 
 Answer. — The novelties and errors which crept into 
 the Church ; the superstitions and abuses which grew 
 up in it ; and, in process of time, the unscriptural doc- 
 trines and practices which were not only maintained but 
 sanctioned. 
 
 8. Question. — Did these corruptions take their rise 
 very early? 
 
 Answer. — Yes. We find that even in the days when 
 inspired Apostles ruled the Church, serious errors began 
 to show their heads. Thus there were "some among" 
 the Corinthian Christians, who said that there was " no 
 resurrection of the dead" (1 Cor. xv. 12); some at 
 
58 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Ephesus who said that " the resurrection " was " past 
 already " (2 Tim. ii. 18). And St. John tells us that 
 in his time there were " many Antichrists " (1 John ii. 
 18 and iv. 3), and St. Paul that " the mystery of 
 iniquity " was already working, but under a hindrance, 
 the removal of which should be followed by the revela- 
 tion of the Man of Sin (2 Thess. ii. 3, 7, 8). 
 
 9. Question. — If God's Truth and God's Church were 
 so utterly at variance that we could not abide by 
 both, what reason might justly move us to abide 
 by the Truth in preference to abiding by the 
 Church ? 
 Answer. — That the Truth, as given in the Holy 
 Scriptures, is entirely pure, and cannot be corrupted ; 
 but the Church is composed of sinful and fallible men ; 
 and it was predicted by our Lord that there should be 
 in it the tares of error and evil ; and these tares actu- 
 ally appeared even in the days of His Apostles. 
 
 10. Question. — How did it come to pass that in Eng- 
 land there was no difficulty in abiding both by the 
 doctrine and by the fellowship of the Apostles, 
 whereas, in other less highly-favoured countries, 
 good men were driven to leave the old Church, 
 and form new Communions of their own ? 
 
 Answer. — Because in England by far the greater 
 number of the Bishops and Clergy came round to the 
 side of the Reformation, and thus there was no diffi- 
 culty in continuing the Church upon its old foundation, 
 while abuses and corruptions were swept away ; but in 
 other countries, the Bishops (who alone can continue 
 the ministerial succession by conferring Holy Orders) 
 maintained the old abuses, and refused to consecrate 
 or ordain any one who sympathized with the new move- 
 ment. 
 
 11. Question. — What do you mean by a Christian de- 
 nomination ? 
 
 Answer. — A body of professing Christians who re- 
 ceive the Creeds and leading truths of Religion, but who 
 have separated from the Church, and assumed to them- 
 
II.] Catechism. 59 
 
 selves an authority to administer the Holy Sacraments, 
 not derived from the Apostles of Christ. This definition 
 liolds good of most denominations. The Quakers, how- 
 ever, have no Sacraments, and disparage all outward 
 urdinanoes. 
 
 12. Question. — Quote some passages of Holy Scripture, 
 ■which strongly condemn the division of Christians 
 into several bodies. 
 
 Answer. — St, John xvii. 20, 21, " Neither pray I 
 for these alone, but for them also which shall believe 
 on me through their word ; that they all may be one ; 
 as thou. Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also 
 may be one in us : that the world may believe that 
 thou hast sent me." Eph. iv. 4, " There is one body, 
 and one Spirit." llom. xvi. 17, "Now I beseech you, 
 brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences, 
 contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned ; and 
 avoid them." 1 Cor. i. 10, 11, 12, 13, " Now I be- 
 seech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there 
 be no divisions among you ; but that ye be perfectly 
 joined together in the same mind and in the same 
 judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, 
 my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, 
 that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, 
 that every one of you saith, I am of Paul ; and I of 
 ApoUos ; and I of Cephas ; and I of Christ. Is Christ 
 divided ? was Paul crucified for you ? or were ye 
 baptized in the name of Paul?" 
 
 13. Question. — But, although separation from the 
 Church of Christ's foundation cannot be justified 
 (more especially in a country like our own, where 
 the Church holds and teaches God's Truth), is it 
 not a fact that many members of dissenting bodies, 
 as also many foreign Protestants, are eminently 
 holy and devoted men, and that many souls are 
 won to Christ by the ministrations of those who 
 have never been lawfully or regularly ordained ? 
 
 Answer. — Most assuredly. God's Grace may often 
 
6o CatecJiism. [chap. 
 
 be found flowing outside the channels of His own ap- 
 pointment. 
 
 14. Question. — What sort of sin would it be to deny 
 the working of God's Hand, where spiritual good 
 is manifestl}' done, and where the proper evidences 
 are given of piety and devotion ? 
 
 Answer. — A very grave sin, resembling in kind (if 
 not in degree) that of the Pharisees, who ascribed our 
 Saviour's miracles to Beelzebub, and are censured for 
 "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost," i.e. a sinning 
 against the evidences of His power, and a perverse 
 denial of the convictions wrought in the heart by those 
 evidences. 
 
 15. Question. — If then we cannot, on the one hand, 
 justify or excuse separation, nor, on the other, 
 deny the good manifested and done by many 
 separatists, in what light are we to regard such of 
 them as manifest and do good ? 
 
 Ansiver. — We are to regard them much as the 
 Apostles were directed to regard the man who cast 
 out devils in the Lord's Name, but did not follow with 
 them (St. Mark ix. 38, 39). 
 
 16. Question. — In the case you refer to, how is it 
 evident that the man himself was a sincere be- 
 liever in Christ ? 
 
 A7iswer. — Because, had he tried the power of Christ's 
 Name upon others, without experiencing it in his own 
 heart, it would not have had any effect. 
 
 17. Question. — How do you know that? 
 
 Answer. — From Acts xix. 13-16, where we read that 
 the " seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the 
 priests, . . . took upon them to call over them which 
 had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying. 
 We .adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth." But 
 these vagabond Jews were repulsed by the evil spirit 
 whom they sought to expel. They " acknowledged" 
 the authority of Jesus, and " knew" ^ Paul as His faith- 
 
 ^ The distinction between yivaa-Kco and fnia-TafJiai in ver. 
 15 must not be overlooked. 
 
II.] Catechism. 6i 
 
 fill servant and Apostle, but neither acknowledged nor 
 knew these pretenders. " The man ia whom the evil 
 spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and 
 prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that 
 house naked and wounded." 
 
 18. Question. — But if this man, who actually cast out 
 devils in the name of Jesus, was a sincere believer, 
 in what respects was he wrong? 
 
 Answer. — In not following Christ in the regular and 
 appointed way. It does not appear that he had been 
 called by Christ, as the Apostles had. Doubtless he 
 had been impressed by the miracles and discourses of 
 our Lord, but it does not appear that he had gone to 
 the Apostles and sought baptism from them, as he 
 might have done ; for we are told that, during our 
 Lord's ministry. He baptized (by the hands of His 
 Apostles), and that multitudes flocked to His baptism 
 (St. John iv. 1, 2, and iii. 2G). Thus he had no call to 
 preach the Gospel ; and he does not seem himself to 
 have received the Gospel in the regular way. 
 
 19. Question. — Must he have been a great loser by 
 " not following" Jesus ? 
 
 Answer. — Doubtless. Our Lord's words and ex- 
 ample must have been of unspeakable advantage to 
 those, who had daily opportunities of observing Him. 
 
 20. Question. — But, after our Lord's bodily presence 
 was withdrawn, would he have been a loser by 
 " not following with" the Apostles ? 
 
 Answer. — Certainly ; for their Master had given 
 them the words which God had given Him (St. John 
 xvii. 8) ; had made known unto them all things that 
 He had heard of His Father (St. John xv. 15); had 
 moulded them by His example and influence into the 
 character which He approved ; and, to crown all, sent 
 down upon them the Holy Ghost on the day of Pente- 
 cost, to guide them into all the truth (St. John xvi. 13), 
 and to set up in the earth the "Apostles' fellowship," 
 " the household of God," which is " built upon the 
 foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ 
 himself being the chief corner-stone " (Eph. ii. 19, 20). 
 
62 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 21. Question. — Does this "fellowship of the Apostles" 
 still exist in the world ? 
 
 Ansiver. — Certainly. The Apostles consecrated 
 Timothy, and Titus, and other Bishops, to superintend 
 the different Churches founded by themselves ; and 
 these Bishops, according to the instructions given 
 them, handed on to others their doctrine, their com- 
 mission, and the grace of Ordination (see 2 Tim. ii. 2, 
 and i. 6, 7 ; and 1 Tim. iii. 2, 5, 6 ; and Titus i. 5, 6), 
 and these again, in their turn, sent other labourers into 
 the Lord's vineyard, until the commission came down 
 in regular course to our present Bishops and Clergy. 
 
 22. CatecTiist. — St. Paul consecrated Titus to be 
 Bishop of Crete. It is easy to understand, then, 
 that a Christian in the island of Crete, who set 
 up a different Communion from that of which 
 Titus was the head, and took upon him to con- 
 secrate or ordain, though he had never received 
 the commission to do so from Titus, would be 
 acting wrongly and presumptuously. What is the 
 difference between his case and that of a man who 
 in our days sets up a division, and assumes autho- 
 rity to minister the "Word and Sacraments ? 
 
 Ansiver. — The only difference is, that there is but 
 one Bishop intervening between St. Paul and the sup- 
 posed Christian in Crete ; whereas between St. Paul 
 and the modern separatist there are very many links of 
 the Episcopate intervening. 
 
 23. Question. — And does not this circumstance of the 
 many links through which the ministry is derived 
 (several of those links having been profligate, 
 superstitious, or even unbelieving Bishops), some- 
 what invalidate the commission ? 
 
 Ansiver. — By no means. If a Society is founded by 
 Koyal Charter, and regularly continued by the lawful 
 admission of members, no negligence or misconduct of 
 the* members can annul the Charter, or make it need 
 renewing, 
 
 24. Question. — How does it appear from our Lord's 
 
II.] CatccJiism. 63 
 
 commission to His Apostles that He designed it 
 
 to be carried onward by future generations to the 
 
 end of time? 
 
 Ansicer. — Because, though He must have known that 
 
 His Apostles would not live to the end of the world, 
 
 Ho says that He will be "with " them " alway, even 
 
 unto the end of the world." By " them," therefore, he 
 
 must have meant not only themselves personally, but 
 
 all who in future generations should represent them. 
 
 25. Question. — But what is the direct lesson taught 
 us by the narrative of the man who cast out devils 
 in the Lord's Name, and whom He would not 
 have His Apostles forbid ? 
 
 Ansicer. — That of cultivating, besides Church prin- 
 ciples, a spirit of universal Christian sympathy. 
 
 26. Question. — "Who in these days seems to corre- 
 spond to the man in the narrative ? 
 
 Answer. — Those who, having felt the power of 
 Christ's Name in their own hearts and consciences, are 
 impelled to communicate to others the secret, which has 
 brought peace, and joy, and victory over besetting sin to 
 themselves. 
 
 27. Question. — What mistake is such a person apt to 
 make ? 
 
 Answer. — The mistake of not waiting till he is called 
 in a regular way to preach, and of putting himself into 
 the Ministry, instead of being put there by the Church. 
 
 28. Question. — But is it often found that, notwith- 
 standing this great mistake, the ministry of such a 
 man is a success ? 
 
 Answer. — It is. The Name of the Lord Jesus, than 
 which " there is none other Name under heaven given 
 among men, whereby we must be saved " (Acts iv. 12), 
 has such marvellous and potent virtue that it cannot 
 fail, when proclaimed by one who has experienced its 
 virtue, to carry grace and power with it. Dead souls 
 are quickened by the proclamation. 
 
 29. Question. — "WTiat effect has this success upon the 
 man who is instrumental in achieving it? 
 
64 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Answer. — "While, on the one hand, it flatters his 
 natural vanity, on the other, it certainly tends to 
 deepen the impression already made on his own heart. 
 It solemnizes his mind, and brings into it a feeling of 
 awe in connexion with Divine Truth, so as to make it an 
 impossibility for him " lightly to speak evil" of Christ. 
 
 30. Question. — How does our Lord instruct us to deal 
 with such persons ? 
 
 Answer. — He bids us simply " not forbid them " to 
 act as they are doing. 
 
 31. Question. — And why are we not to forbid them ? 
 Answer. — Because they are really on the Church's 
 
 side, and furthering (though in an irregular way) the 
 Church's work. " He that is not against you is on your 
 part." 
 
 32. Catechist. — What is the Church's work ? 
 Answer. — The salvation of souls by the power of the 
 
 Name of Jesus. 
 
 33. Question. — Do we find that the Apostles rejoiced 
 in the announcement of this Name, even when it 
 was announced in a vexatious and unloving spirit, 
 because they knew it to be the only instrument of 
 sanctifying and saving souls ? 
 
 Answer.— Yes. St. Paul says (Phil.i. 15-18), " Some 
 indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife ; and 
 some also of good will : the one preach Christ of con- 
 tention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my 
 bonds : but the other of love, knowing that I am set 
 for the defence of the gospel. What then ? notwith- 
 standing, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, 
 Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and 
 will rejoice." 
 
 34. Question. — But is our Lord's precept, "Forbid 
 him not," to be understood as authorizing or 
 sanctioning an uncommissioned Ministry, or as 
 making light of the " Apostles' fellowship ? " 
 
 Ansioer. — No. To understand it so would be to 
 " add unto " the words of God, which we are forbidden 
 
II.] Catechism. 65 
 
 to do under a threat of fearful plagues. (See Rev. 
 xxii. 18, 19.) 
 
 35. Question. — Is there any ground in the narrative of 
 the Old Testament for thinking that great spiritual 
 good may be done by Communions of separatists ? 
 
 Ansiver. — The appearance of Elijah and other great 
 prophets in the kingdom of the ton schismatical tribes, 
 which had thrown off their allegiance to the royal 
 family of David, seems to show that God does not 
 always limit His graces to the regular channel. Elijah 
 was the greatest of all the prophets ; but the scene of 
 his ministry was schismatical Israel. 
 
 36. Question. — Can you point out, however, why this 
 argument, good as far as it goes, must not be 
 pressed too far ? 
 
 Anstver.— Because the cases are not exactly parallel. 
 God did explicitly, and in so many words, sanction the 
 schismatical kingdom of the Ten Tribes, nay, cause it 
 to be set up (see 1 Kings xi. 31, 35, 38); but He has 
 never given His sanction to a schismatical Christian 
 Communion (otherwise than by crowning its ministry 
 with success). 
 
 37. Question. — Has any Scriptural image been sug- 
 gested for the orthodox religious communities of 
 this country, which represents their position in a 
 very favourable light ? 
 
 Ansu-er. — Yes. They have been compared to the 
 " other little ships " which St. Mark tells us (iv. 36) 
 were in attendance on the larger boat, which bore the 
 Saviour Himself. Similarly these " other little ships " 
 have been supposed " to picture vividly the fortunes of 
 those societies, which in these later ages have moved 
 in the wake of the ancient Apostolic Church ; which 
 are with it forced to endure the storms of a world im- 
 partially hostile to every form of religious effort ; and 
 which are not without participating in the blessings of 
 the holy Presence abiding in that Church, as long as 
 in sincerity of heart they endeavour to keep up with 
 the Master in His course." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH, AND ITS 
 DISRUPTION. 
 
 *' Jltithcr pxn'o I for thtst alone, but for them also tohicit 
 shvitl ieltcbe on me through their toori ; that theg all 
 mag be one ; as thou, (dfathcr, art in me, anb i in thee, 
 that theii also mai) he one in us : that the toorlb mau 
 ielicbc that thou hast sent me."— St. John xvii. 
 20, 21. 
 
 srteiii&isions fTlHEEE is nothing to -which habit of long stand- 
 
 mcibt tola- -^ ing will not inure US. There are certain abuses 
 
 onig bg"our and anomalies which, if we were not accustomed 
 
 Cuj ti)m: to see them every day, we should cry out against 
 
 as altogether flagrant and intolerable ; but which, 
 
 as our eyes are always resting upon them, we 
 
 accept as part of the normal condition of things. 
 
 One of these grievous abuses and anomalies is the 
 
 want of unity in the Church or Christian Society. 
 
 The Church has, at many periods of her history, 
 
 departed, both in doctrine and practice, from the 
 
 original design of her Founder, but perhaps in no 
 
 mnita^ point so strikingly as in this of unity. The 
 
 ficsign for dying prayer of our Lord for His disciples (I call 
 
 'S^uu^j. ^^ -jj^g dying prayer, because it was offered on the 
 
 night before His death) solicits for them an union 
 
 as intimate, as dear, as profound as that which 
 
cii. III.] The Unity of the CJnirch. 67 
 
 knits togetlier the Persons of the Blessed Trinity 
 in Unity ; " Holy Father, keep through thine own 
 name those whom thou hast given me, that tlicy 
 may he one, as we are." And lest it should Le bofatbnr 
 thought that such an unity might indeed be micb^'in ' 
 more or less practicable, so long as the Church bmmt° '"^ 
 was a small and numerically insignificant body, 
 lield together by external pressure from the un- 
 believing world, but would become impossible of 
 realization, as soon as Christianity had spread 
 itself over the face of the world, and boasted 
 disciples in every nation under heaven, our Lord 
 distinctly contemplates, in our text, an indefinite 
 increase of believers, and prays, in the same terms, 
 that, under the circumstances of that increase, 
 tliey may still be one. " Neither pray I for these 
 alone, but for them also which shall believe on 
 me through their word ; that they all may he one ; 
 as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they 
 aho may le one in us." An intimation of the nm\v. of tf)t 
 rapid and extraordinary (/row^/t of His Church He Sgni^u^n 
 had already given in the parables of the Mustard- parable 
 seed and the Draw-net. The tiny mustard-seed ■Jjijrfaj!''" 
 was to become a tree, so that the birds of the 
 air should come and lodge in the branches thereof. 
 The draw-net, empty at first, was ultimately to 
 gather of every kind. But in both these figures 
 of the extension of the Church, the idea of her 
 unity is cai\;fully preserved. The mustard-tree, 
 however many branches it may have, is one tree, 
 developed out of one seed. The draw-net, how- 
 ever many meshes it may have, is but one 
 net. 
 
6S The Unity of the CJmrch, [chap. 
 
 Suh'^'^'^ More tlian this. It would appear from the 
 ifsisnct fo words which stand at the head of this Chapter 
 
 oe an mstru- . . , , . n r ^ 
 
 tntntinitc that the great instrument, m the design of Christ, 
 
 ronfacrston of ^ . ^ 
 
 Hjetooriu. lor the Conversion of the world, was not so much 
 the preaching of the Gospel as the spectacle of a 
 Church united in the Truth ; " that they also may- 
 be one in us : that the vjorld may believe that thou 
 hast sent me." The perfect union and love sub- 
 sisting among believers was to be a standing 
 moral miracle for the conviction and conversion 
 of the sceptic, even when natural miracles had 
 passed away. 
 
 Such, then, was the ideal in the Founder's 
 mind and intentions, of what the Community 
 which was to take its name from Him should 
 be ; the Christian Church was to be a thoroughly 
 united body, " perfectly joined together in the 
 same mind and in tlie same judgment," even as 
 the Persons of the Blessed Trinity are — co-ope- 
 rating, moreover, as those Persons do, for the 
 same great ends of God's glory and man's salva- 
 tion. But in the lapse of time it is a common 
 thing for institutions to depart far away from the 
 jBeparfurrnf mind and intention of their founders. And the 
 from the Christian Church has been guilty, more than al- 
 itoi" "* most any other institution, of this departure from 
 its original idea. Sanctity may be seen here and 
 there in all parts of it; the Sacraments are all 
 but universally retained, and are everywhere 
 salient features of the Christian Eeligion; the 
 Gospel is preached in every community of pro- 
 fessing Christians, with more or less fidelity to the 
 original message ; the Scriptures are spread in all 
 
III.] and its disruption. 69 
 
 parts. But of whatever treasures it may be the 
 depository, of whatever mercies it may have been 
 the instrument to mankind, the Churcli has not 
 retained in any sort or shape the feature of unity ; 
 it does not present, and it has not for many cen- 
 turies presented, one front to the unbelieving 
 world. This want of union among Christian 
 churches, and even among different theological 
 schools of the same Communion, would, as I said, 
 if we had not been inured to the spectacle of it 
 from our earliest days, create in us a painful re- 
 vulsion of feeling. Jews are a far more united 
 body, Mahometans (to our burning shame be it 
 said) are a far more united body, than Christians. 
 
 How came about this lamentable state of Origin of tijt 
 things ? To omit all minor separations from the ""^"'"^" 
 Christian body, there was in the first place the 
 great schism between the East and the West, jrfit Brfiism 
 which, after being threatened and more or less ensunj''^^ 
 canied into effect long before, was finally con- ^^^*' 
 summated in A.D. 1 054. Its origin was a difference 
 of opinion on the question whether the Holy 
 Ghost proceeded only from the First, or also from 
 the Second Person of the Trinity, a question which, 
 probably, is as much philosophical as theological, its grountis. 
 This, and some other perfectly trifling and purely Ullilrr?''^' 
 ceremonial differences (such as a variety in the '"''"'^'' 
 time of keeping Easter, and the usage of leavened 
 bread in the Communion by one party, of un- 
 leavened by another), first set up an alienation, 
 the hostility, rivalry, and anathemas of which 
 are not yet extinct. 
 
 Then came the schism at the Reformation, in 
 
70 The Unity of the Chuixh, [chap. 
 
 jrjjeBrfjiBm wliicli tlie Eeformed Communions had to allege, 
 maUonfan^ in justification of the step taken by them, the 
 ^^e^grounus grievous Corruptions, both in faith and practice, 
 of the mediaeval Church, the unscriptural terms 
 of communion insisted on by Eome, and the ab- 
 solute refusal (in most countries) of the Bishops 
 to consecrate those who did not accept such 
 sdii^m terms. And if, after their separation on these 
 ifciSrmcti grounds, the reformed Churches could have shown 
 cburctcs. ^^^ unbroken and undivided front among them- 
 selves, it would have been much in their favour, 
 and would have been an undeniable token that 
 God was with them ; but alas ! the case was the 
 a-cntiencjj of very reverse. Formal schism, once engendered, 
 jSSau is sure to put forth, like the Hydra, a hundred 
 its4f. heads. Protestantism, so far from being a bond 
 
 of union among Protestants, is simply a negative 
 denomination, which shows the person claiming 
 it to be not a Eoman Catholic, or, in other words, 
 not to hold with the abuses and corruptions of 
 tlie mediceval Church ; but it pledges him to 
 nothing positive ; and members of our own Com- 
 munion are comprehended under the name of 
 Protestants with a number of other sects, with 
 some of whom they have nothing, or scarcely 
 anything, in common, either in doctrine or dis- 
 cipline ; — with Socinians, for example, and Uni- 
 Dratoiiaciis tariaus, and Mormons. We owe a deep debt 
 iifcrmation. ^0 the Ptcformation ; and we should be deeply 
 thankful to Almighty God for the share in its 
 blessings which He has allowed to the Church 
 of England ; but its blessings were all on the side 
 of truth, not on the side of unity ; and its whole 
 
III.] and its disruption. 7 1 
 
 tendency lias been towards disintegration and the 
 multiplying of schisms. 
 
 But I seem to hear some of my readers say- confuaion of 
 ing that the unity of the Church of Christ is itocmtii/ 
 spiritual, and in no sense visible or external ; and ciju'rVanD* 
 that therefore these lamentations over its visible InumoTof 
 jind external ruptures are groundless, and based °'" *' 
 upon a false assumption. You are thinking that, 
 however much Churches and theological schools 
 may ostensibly differ, and however loudly they 
 may anathematize one another, all devout and 
 good Christians in the several Communions, be 
 they Church of England people, or Greeks, or 
 Eussians, or Quakers, or Baptists, or Eomanists, 
 — aU who are, not influenced merely, but led by 
 the Spirit of God, — do substantially agree in the 
 hidden ground of the heart, rest upon the same 
 Saviour, derive support and comfort from the 
 same promises, approach the same Father through 
 the same Mediator, are animated by a common 
 hope of glory. You are thinking, I dare say, that 
 this is all the unity which Christ ever designed 
 for His disciples ; and that, as all good Christians 
 all over the world are knit together by this in- 
 visible bond, the Founder's ideal has not been 
 really frustrated or broken. If this is your view, 
 )'0u are running away with a half truth ; and half 
 truths not unfrequently prove, if insisted upon 
 without reference to the corresponding half, the 
 most mischievous of falsehoods. It is true, no 
 doubt, perfectly true, and it is a beautiful, con- 
 solatory, and edifying truth, that all the true ser- 
 vants of God have this unity of the Spirit, this 
 
72 The Unity of the Church, [chap. 
 
 community of hopes, interests, and prayers, for 
 wliich you give them credit ; nay, it is a truth so 
 important that it forms an article of the Faith ; for 
 what else than this spiritual union is meant by 
 " the Communion of Saints," in which we all daily 
 profess our belief ? But what was St. Paul's view 
 of the unity which was intended to subsist among 
 Christians ? He speaks indeed of there being 
 " one SjDirit ;" but does he speak of nothing else ? 
 rrposrt \-a These are his words : " There is one hody, and one 
 tttapostir. Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of 
 your calling," — not " one Spirit " only, knitting 
 together the elect in one hidden communion 
 and fellowship, but " one body " also ; yea, one 
 body primarily and in the first instance; for 
 the body (or community) of Christ's disciples 
 antibnan existed, before the Spirit came down at Pente- 
 SrntonTrom cost to inhabit and organize it, just as the body 
 jE 2. ^^ Adam was first framed, before the breath of 
 life was inbreathed into his nostrils. Now a 
 body, observe, is something visible and external, 
 something which may be handled and seen, some- 
 thing which has locality, — which takes up a de- 
 finite room in space. A body, and the life which 
 animates it, are two distinct things, not to be con- 
 founded. And what St. Paul says is, not only 
 that Christians, however separated from one an- 
 other by tracts of time and space, are animated 
 by one common spiritual life, but also that they 
 all belong to one and the same visible society; 
 " There is one body, and one Spirit." 
 
 We have seen, then, that Christ designed unity — 
 
III.] and its disriipiio?i. y^) 
 
 visible unity — for Lis Church ; designed that Chris- 
 tians all over the world should have one profession 
 of Faitli, one Baptism, one Ministry, as well as one 
 hope, and one source of consolation and strength. 
 And we have also seen how far this is from being 
 the case, and how Christendom is broken up into 
 a hundred different sects, many of them actuated 
 by such hostility to rival sects, that to kneel down 
 together to receive the one Sacrament of the Body 
 and Blood of Christ would be for both an im- 
 possibility. Now what, under these circumstances, 
 should be our views and feelings, and conse- 
 quently our conduct ? Does Holy Scripture leave eie guftance 
 us without any guidance, in view of the sad divi- floiS Scrip- 
 sions of Christendom ? Or, on the contrary, does picsrnt dr-"''^ 
 it give us a clue as to our sentiments and line of ofliiceVutct 
 action, in the midst of these immense and per- 
 plexing difficulties ? We believe that it does the 
 latter, not perhaps ob\aously, but Ijy implications, 
 which the wise and thoughtful student will not 
 miss. 
 
 Consider, then, what occurred under the old cte tstat- 
 Dispensation, in respect of the establishment tifc^SracUtiab 
 and the disruption of the Israelitish monarchy. """^""S- 
 Human affairs, we know, though more fluctuating 
 and variable than natural phenomena, are on the 
 whole governed by certain fixed laws, which yield 
 a similarity of results, when the circumstances are 
 in the main similar, and produce what the philo- 
 sopher calls historical cycles. With wonderful 
 accuracy the fortunes of the Jewish monarchy 
 have been reproduced on the grander arena of 
 the Church or Kingdom of Christ. Every one re- 
 
74 'The Unity of the Church, [cHAr. 
 
 members the story. Originally, the Israelites were 
 
 never intended to be under a king at all. They 
 
 were to be a peculiar people in many respects, 
 
 and in this more particularly, that the unseen 
 
 God was to be their king, who should issue His 
 
 commands to them through the prophet or person 
 
 at the head of the nation for the time being. 
 
 But they were dissatisfied with this arrangement ; 
 
 and their dissatisfaction seems to have had two 
 
 m\)t caitsta grounds. It arose first from the mal-administra- 
 
 a.^'ttic mfe-" tion of persons in authority. When the pious 
 
 niifrs,^ ° Samuel was growing old, his sons who tried causes 
 
 for him, " turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, 
 
 and perverted judgment." But there was a fault 
 
 nnti of tijc in the people as well as in the judges. They did 
 
 '^^"^ '' not in the least appreciate tlie wonderful privilege 
 
 of having God for their king ; they desired to be 
 
 put on a level with other nations in respect of 
 
 their form of government. The unseen made a 
 
 demand upon their faith, which their faith was 
 
 not strong enough to meet. They liked to look 
 
 upon the pomp and insignia of royalty, and to 
 
 have an embodiment of it in their midst ; " Nay ; 
 
 but we will have a king over us; that we also 
 
 may be like all the nations ; and that our king 
 
 may judge us, and go out before us, and light our 
 
 pjobj tiie battles." — Now, it is certainly a very ol )servable 
 
 i^nb/ op"vnfrti f^ct that the more recent divisions in the Christian 
 
 sd!is?n'i"ti)c Church may all be traced up to the attempt (made 
 
 ffiburci). jj^ ^]^Q arrogance and ambition of man's natural 
 
 heart) to establish a visible monarchy called the 
 
 Papacy. As Christ had founded the Cliurch, He 
 
 and He alone was to be her Head, — the chief 
 
III.] and its disriiption. 75 
 
 pastors consecrated by the Apostles and their suc- 
 cessors being all of co-ordinate authority, and 
 standing all of them in much the same relation 
 to the Christian Church which Samuel held to- 
 wards the Jewish. But ecclesiastical ambition in 
 Church-rulers, and desire among Church-people to 
 walk by sight rather than by faith, to have the 
 chief Church-ruler a great monarch, like the 
 monarchs of the world, robed and sceptred and 
 tiaraed, and installed in a palace, and surrounded 
 by soldiers, to have a visible representative of the 
 King in His resurrection beauty (oh, what a 
 lowering of the great idea, to imagine that any 
 earthly ruler can represent Him !) — this it was 
 which struck the note of discord and faction in the 
 Church, and prTjpared the way for secession, or, 
 in other words, for revolt against the usurpation 
 of the throne of Jesus. 
 
 But the erection of a monarchy in Israel is by 
 no means the only point in Israel's history typical 
 of the fortunes of the Christian Church. The 
 monarchy having been established (although no 
 such arrangement was in God's original design, 
 and although the request for it in the first instance 
 called down His anger), received His gracious 
 sanction. He did not leave His people, but dealt 
 with them under the forms of monarchy as He 
 had dealt with them under the forms of theocracy. 
 But there soon appeared (such is the perversity a sfconu nis- 
 of man's heart) another disturbance of the plan of ©oa's plan 
 government. There was one grand ideal of the sofarrnnunt 
 Jewish monarchy, formed in the Divine mind, pcopu, 
 and developed and divulg(id in due season ; the 
 
. 76 The Unity of the Church, [chap. 
 
 centre of it was to be the throne of David, august 
 beyond all thrones, because on it Messiah, the 
 desire of all nations, was in course of time to sit. 
 Every true Israelite owed allegiance and homage 
 to this throne, if it were only that the national 
 hopes and the national glory were all bound up 
 in its future occupant. In the darkest days of 
 political depression, this one throne of David was 
 designed to be the pole-star and rallying point of 
 Israel. But alas ! the unity of David's throne 
 hv tfif schism was to be the boast of the nation only for a very 
 iTviijcs, short time. Solomon's degeneracy from the faith 
 and worship of his father called down upon him 
 the chastisement of Heaven ; and Jeroboam was 
 raised up, in the providence of God, to divide the 
 empire, and to rule over a numerical majority of 
 its subjects. An opportunity, indeed, was offered 
 of averting the schism, and retaining the allegi- 
 ance of the Ten Tribes, as well as of Judah and 
 fa^itti tnig!)t Benjamin. If Eehoboam had been guided by the 
 aijcrtrtbga counscl of the older courtiers, and had announced 
 
 CDnciliatotn 
 
 poitcg on iljc a conciliatory policy as the basis of his adminis- 
 ixctoioam. tration, the people, who only asked for the allevia- 
 tion of his yoke, and probably were animated by 
 no hostility to his person, would have been his 
 " servants for ever." But his reply to their petition, 
 suggested by the younger courtiers, was insolent 
 and arrogant in the extreme, and could not fail to 
 alienate the petitioners. He was their lawful 
 master, he told them, and he meant to show it. 
 " My father," said he in an evil hour for the in- 
 tegrity of his empire, "made your yoke heavy, 
 and I will add to your yoke: my father also 
 
III.] and its disruption. 77 
 
 chastised you with whips, hut I will chastise you 
 with scorpions " (scourges with metal points in- 
 serted into tlieir lashes, to make them sting more 
 severely). This most wrong-headed and unfeeling 
 answer to a petition, urged (it would appear) 
 quietly, and without any threats, led immediately 
 to the secession of all but the two tribes more 
 immediately connected with the royal family. The 
 heir of David, indeed, reigned still over these two 
 tribes ; and his metropolis was that of the Church 
 as well as of the State of Israel ; but the glory of 
 his empire was greatly diminished, and the num- 
 bers who paid homage to it were miserably re- 
 duced. And it must be remarked, as a most arfic secession 
 essential feature of the case, that, under the cir- oib^n? 
 cumstances, the secession received the Divine ^""'"'"' 
 sanction, and that its throne, had its occupant 
 only remained in allegiance to the Invisible Sove- 
 reign, would have been by Him maintained and 
 upheld. For thus spake the prophet Ahijah, in 
 God's name, to Jeroboam : " Thou shalt reign ac- 
 cording to all that thy soul desireth, and shall be 
 king over Israel. And it shall be, if thou wilt 
 hearken unto aU that I command thee, and wilt 
 walk in my ways, and do that is right in my 
 sight ... as David my servant did ; that I will 
 be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I 
 built for David, and will give Israel unto thee." 
 Jeroboam, indeed, did not comply with this con- 
 dition of faithful allegiance to the Divine Sove- 
 reign ; and accordingly his house, so far from being 
 sure, was entirely extirpated by Baasha, who 
 commenced a new dynasty. And thenceforth 
 
78 
 
 The Unity of the Chtcrch, [chap. 
 
 nn^ tf)c BEcrt- 
 ing tribes, 
 tfarn in tljcir 
 lotocst moral 
 contjition, 
 rcccifacl] tf)e 
 recognition 
 of gimiflfjtg 
 <SoD. 
 
 3tafa of i\t 
 Bitiine aU- 
 ministration 
 tobicb (Eol's 
 sanction, 
 iirst of tfie 
 iHonarrfiD, 
 anU tijcn'bf 
 ll)c Schism, 
 riljibits. 
 
 unsettling dynastic changes, and violent trans- 
 fers of tlie sovereignty into other hands, became 
 common things in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. 
 But that, even when their moral and spiritual 
 character was at its lowest ebb, and their sovereign 
 had entirely ceased to regard himself in his true 
 character as God's delegate and viceroy, God did 
 not forsake, but still recognised them, is clearly 
 shown by the fact, that in the reign of Ahab and 
 Jezebel, the prophet Elijah, the representative of 
 all the prophets, and in deed, if not in word, the 
 mightiest of all of them, appeared in their midst, 
 and was succeeded by the prophet Elisha, whose 
 career was hardly less marvellous, and whose 
 Divine mission was even more strongly attested 
 by miracle than that of Elijah. The throne of 
 the Ten Tribes was a schismatical throne ; and 
 the names of its occupants have no place in the 
 august line of succession from David to Christ ; 
 yet, though it was a departure from the primitive 
 ideal and constitution of the monarchy, it was 
 expressly and solemnly sanctioned by God, who, 
 in His wise providence, made it the instrument 
 of chastising and humbling the Davidical family. 
 The whole narrative exhibits a great law of the 
 Divine administration, which is, that v:licn a 
 •primitive ideal is Jiojyelcssly frustrated, and the 
 first hest thing made impracticaUe ly human sin 
 and perverseness, God introduces a second hest 
 tiling, and endoivs it with (at all events) a tem- 
 porary sanction. That second best thing is not 
 constituted according to the original design ; 
 the unruly wills and affections of sinful men 
 
III.] and its disruption. 79 
 
 have prevented its being so ; but its constitution 
 seems taken up into the grand, comprehensive 
 scheme of Divine providence, and made "to 
 work together for good " to those who live under 
 it. 
 
 Xow, this Old Testament narrative offers at application 
 
 „ 1 . -1 1 1 -i. of ti3cnarta- 
 
 once lessons of consolation, guidance, and chanty, tiuc to tije 
 under the miserable divisions of the Church of cijurrfi, in 
 
 1, its prfBcnt 
 
 Christ. ijiSjiOca Biaw. 
 
 The Church has det)arted widely from the 
 primitive ideal traced out for it, and the primi- 
 tive constitution given to it, by its Founder. The crfieitjtai of 
 ideal was, that Christians, however remotely sepa- anuita 
 i-ated by tracts of space, should all be one by Mlfguuition, 
 adherence to one Faith, and to one visible Society, 
 organized at Pentecost, and called the Apostles' 
 Fellowship ; that this community should embrace 
 and fuse together all races and conditions of men, 
 Jew and Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond and 
 free. The constitution was, that Apostles should 
 appoint and consecrate (as we know they did ap- 
 point and consecrate) bishops to succeed them in 
 all such parts of their office as were transmissible, 
 and that these bishops should appoint others, so 
 continuing down to the last day the commissioned 
 line, to which the Lord had said, " Lo, I am with 
 you alway, even unto the end of the world." 
 But the ideal was shattered by the schism of the gjjattfTcu bp. 
 Greeks and Latins, which was established on an/boX' 
 either side by mutual anathemas. And the con- of°^to°''°" 
 stitution was shattered at the Eeformation, when '"""^'"^'*''' 
 the Protestant sects, full of zeal (as we have 
 
8o 
 
 The Unity of the Church, [chap. 
 
 ©ur iuto 
 unUcr tijcse 
 circum- 
 stances : 
 1. ^a rfcog- 
 niSE sin in 
 tijt enjurcJ) 
 ns tl)c source 
 of gcijism. 
 
 3Cf)e Bin in 
 our ofan 
 Communion 
 totiici) Icfi to 
 bisacnt. 
 
 admitted) for God's Truth, organized their own 
 ministries, on platforms altogether different from 
 "the Apostles' fellowship." Now, under these 
 most unhappy circumstances, what is to be felt 
 and done ? 
 
 First ; sin in the Church must be duly recog- 
 nised, and, in our prayers to God for unity, ac- 
 knowledged as the origin of schism. It was partly 
 Solomon's lapse into idolatry, and partly Eeho- 
 boam's intolerable arrogance, which brought about 
 the secession of the Ten Tribes. And it was partly 
 the deep degeneracy of the mediaeval Church, its 
 corruptions in faith and practice, its saint- worship, 
 its image-worship, its relic-worship, its trafficked 
 indulgences ; partly the insolent and arrogant pre- 
 tensions of the Bishop of Eome, who claimed 
 lordship over God's heritage, and forgot that he 
 ■was set to be a pattern to the flock, — which alien- 
 ated Continental Protestants from the Apostles' 
 Fellowship, and placed a vast numerical propor- 
 tion of the sheep of Christ under other and irre- 
 gularly constituted ministries. And in our own 
 Communion, some half-century ago, it was the 
 secularity of the clergy, their pluralities and their 
 sinecures, the active opposition which many of 
 them offered to anything like earnest spiritual 
 life, their sneers at what was good in Methodism, 
 and their persistent standing upon their rights, 
 rather than upon the conscientious fulfilment of 
 their pastoral duties, which raised up in many a 
 parish a meeting-house, and organized a schism, 
 the heart-burnings of which are not yet extinct, 
 though the original fomenting cause of it — indif- 
 
III.] and its disruption, 8 1 
 
 ferencc and neglect in tlie lawful pastor — has long 
 ago subsided. 
 
 Secondly ; the present divided state of the 2. cto recoo- 
 Church is in the nature of a punishment; just as tiiuigions as 
 the rending away of the Ten Tribes from the house ibcir dja- 
 of David was the divinely inflicted penalty of tumtU our- 
 feoJomon s apostasy, and was announced as such, inflig, 
 before it w^as brought about by the unruly wills 
 and affections of sinful men. I ask particular 
 attention to this point, because it seems to me to 
 be generally overlooked. There is a considerable 
 movement in our Church just now towards union 
 with foreign Churches ; and it has taken strong 
 hold of the public mind that the isolation of the 
 several Communions of Christendom, and their 
 standing aloof from one another, is what ought 
 not to be, is a wrong and a sin. Be it so ; but 
 this is only half the truth \ it is cb punishment 
 also, — 'possibly, as regards our own responsibility 
 in the matter, more of a punishriicnt than of a sin. 
 The withdrawal of great part of Christendom from 
 the Apostles' Fellowship, the divisions and dissen- 
 sions in the Fellowship itself, are part of the 
 chastisement of the Church's unfaithfulness. It 
 is not therefore in our power entirely to alter the 
 state of things. That state must continue, until 
 the chastisement has done its work, and God 
 removes His Hand. I do not say that we must 
 not pray and strive for another and happier con- 
 dition of affairs ; but only that the most effectual nnti aboft 
 mode of securing the happier condition would be irhidj urcbj 
 by thoroughly repenting of and avoiding the sins cbVtijscmjnt, 
 that called down the chastisement, — superstitions, 
 
82 The Unity of the Church, [chap. 
 
 arrogance, indolence, unfaithfulness, and so forth. 
 
 It was ambition in Church-rulers, and leaning 
 
 on sense rather than on faith, which brought the 
 
 ambftfon, Papacy into the Church, Let Church-rulers be 
 
 ttetseg," ambitious of nothing but to do good; let the 
 
 people eschew the guidance of the lust of the eyes ; 
 
 and let all be contented with simplicity in the 
 
 externals of Eeligion. — It was a question of forms 
 
 and ceremonies, as to the time of keeping Easter, 
 
 and as to the use of unleavened bread, which 
 
 contributed to the split between the Eastern and 
 
 antrfije Western Church. Let modern Churchmen be- 
 
 fmpJirtancc fo ware how they attach too much importance to the 
 
 ^' question of the vestment or the posture to be 
 
 used in the celebration of the Holy Communion, 
 
 lest such trifles should again work an equally 
 
 disastrous result. — In this and similar ways we 
 
 shall be striking at the root of the evil of schism, 
 
 and so really promoting the unity of the Church. 
 
 ffiroBpect of But the actual realization of this unity, very much 
 
 ffitriBttntiom, like the cessation of war in the w^orld, is in its 
 
 Kfe^^e^pro- full extent a millennial prospect, impossible to be 
 
 Stionof realized under the present condition of things. 
 
 poMibie^'f With all your doing, and all your communications 
 
 mm tuman" with foreign prelates, and all your proposals for 
 
 *^^^ adjustment of differences, do not suppose you can 
 
 do very much in the matter till God gives the 
 
 word, and, 
 
 " Like a bell with solemn sweet vibrations, 
 We hear once more the voice of Christ say, ' Peace.'" 
 
 Then, and not till then, will be fulfilled to the 
 spiritual Israel of God, the Holy Catholic Church, 
 
III.] audits disruption. 83 
 
 that glorious prophecy which, in its earliest ap- 
 plication, has reference no doubt to the Jewish 
 people ; " I will make them one nation in the '^i/i^^'^'^' 
 
 land ; and one king shall he king to them 
 
 all : and they shall be no more two nations, neither 
 shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more 
 at all . . . and David my servant shall be king 
 over them; and they all shall have one shep- 
 herd." 
 
 Thirdly ; let us never omit to acknowledge in 3. Ntbct to 
 the fullest way the working of the Spirit of God in hjot^ing of 
 schismatical bodies. Eemember what has been Gofin scfjia- 
 said about God's extending His sanction to second munions. 
 best things, when first best things have been 
 rendered impracticable by human sin. For my 
 own part, I quite believe that in many parishes, 
 where the lawful pastor has been slothful, or even 
 (alas :) scandalous in his life and conversation, the 
 ministry of dissenters has been God's highly 
 honoured instrument for keeping alive in that 
 parish the sparks of His Grace. Do not imagine 
 that, in saying this, I yield to such a ministry 
 any right or truly derived authority whatsoever. 
 My argument does not in the least require such a jFuiifst 
 concession. I w^ill show all love to schismatics, mcnuf tVe 
 and most readily admit that many of them God ^^\^\\^t 
 loves ; but I will show them no liberalism ; be- mTcautVrna- 
 cause liberalism is always found to mean the com- mlni^^?"* 
 promise of a principle for the sake of conciliating 
 an adversary. I will compromise no principle, 
 but on the contrary, proclaim my principles on 
 the house-top. There is, and can be, no real and 
 true Church apart from the one Society which the 
 
84 The Unity of the Church, [chap. 
 
 Apostles founded, and wliich lias been propagated 
 only in the line of the Episcopal Succession. 
 There is no regular authority or right for the 
 ministry whatsoever, but only in this one line. 
 But, on the other hand, there have been many 
 great saints, and many great teachers, eminent for 
 learning and piety, not at all connected with this 
 ffio^ tiocs not line. God has a regular channel in which His 
 graces anD graces Ordinarily run ; but I do not find that He 
 ae cijannci of limits either His gifts or His graces to that 
 appowitntrnt. channel. There was no saint, and no prophet, 
 among the subjects of David's kingdom, so illus- 
 trious as were Elijah and Elisha in the kingdom 
 of the Ten Tribes. And there have been at various 
 times among Nonconformists splendid instances, 
 not only of a spiritual walk, but of spiritual power 
 for good over others, such as have never been sur- 
 passed, perhaps in some instances never equalled, 
 in the Church. Probably, in his own peculiar 
 line of argumentative eloquence, no minister of 
 our own Church, be he bishop, priest, or deacon, 
 has ever excelled Eobert Hall, the Baptist minis- 
 ter, as a sacred orator. Horsley probably ex- 
 ceeded him in learning, but surely was exceeded 
 by him in the oratorical gift. 
 criiE iinitD of In conclusion ; we shall not leave this subject 
 be^sucnor '° witliout deriving some profit from it, if we are 
 plagc"/^' led by what has been said to make the unity of 
 the Church in the avowal of the Truth a subject 
 of much more real hearty prayer than we have 
 hitherto done. And we cannot do this in words 
 more exactly to the point than those with which 
 our Church supplies us — " Beseeching thee to 
 
III.] Catechism. 85 
 
 inspire continually the universal Church with the cht tfuariirt 
 spirit of truth, unity, and concord : And grant, bhirb our 
 that all they that do confess thy holy Name uarfics us"to 
 may agree in the truth of thy holy Word, and ''"'' 
 live in unity and godly love ;" or, as it is ex- 
 pressed in the Daily Office ; " We pray for the 
 good estate of the Catholick Church : that it may 
 be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit, 
 that all who profess and call themselves Chris- 
 tians may be led into the way of truth, and hold 
 the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, 
 and in righteousness of life." 
 
 Catcrht0m xrn Clhap-. IE£ 
 
 1. Question. — How do ^Ye know that the unity of the 
 
 Church is an object very near to the heart of its 
 Divine Founder? 
 Answer. — Because this was one of the things which 
 He petitioned for on the night before His death, in the 
 prayer which is called the great High-priestly Prayer. 
 The words are " Holy Father, keep through thine own 
 name" (in the original Greek the words are, " in thine 
 own name," that is, in the acknowledgment of it) 
 " those whom thou hast given me, that they may be 
 one, as we are" (St. John xvii. 11). 
 
 2. Question. — What then ought to be the intimacy of 
 the union subsisting between members of the 
 Church ? 
 
 Answer. — Their union ought to be as intimate as that 
 subsisting between the Persons of the Blessed Trinity ; 
 for our Lord prays that His disciples may be as entirely 
 one as Himself and His Father are. 
 
 3. Catechist. — But possibly, when He so prayed, He 
 meant by " those whom the Father had given Him," 
 
86 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 only that little flock of disciples who ■were with 
 Him at the time — in short, tlie holy Apostles ? 
 Answer. — No ; in another part of this prayer He 
 shows that He means others besides the Apostles, and 
 that He wishes all, who are brought to believe on Him, 
 to be one. " Neither pray I for these alone, but for 
 them also which shall believe on me through their word ; 
 that they all may be one ; as thou. Father, art in me, 
 and I in thee, that they also may be one in us : that 
 the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (St. John 
 xvii. 20, 21). 
 
 4, Question. — But can our Lord really have meant 
 that, when the Church became very large, so large 
 as to embrace all the most civilized nations upon 
 earth, it was still to be one ? 
 Answer. — Certainly. For He foretold this extra- 
 ordinary growth of His Church in the Parables of the 
 Mustard-seed and the Draw-net ; and yet at the same 
 time He did not speak of more than one tree or more 
 than one net. (See St. Matt. xiii. 31, 32, 47, 48.) 
 
 6. Question. — What effect did Christ design that the 
 unity of His Church should have upon the world ? 
 A7isiver. — The same effect as His miracles, which 
 were designed to make men believe in Him as God's 
 great Ambassador to a sinful world. In the verse last 
 quoted He prays *' that they also" (all who should 
 believe in Him on the testimony of the Apostles) " may 
 be one in us : that the laorld may believe that thou hast 
 sent me." And indeed it would be a moral miracle, if, 
 with all the tendencies to disunion in the heart of man, 
 people of different races, climates, and manners were 
 all held together in the bond of one society. 
 
 6. Catechist. — You have traced Christ's plan for His 
 Church ; that all Christians, however numerous, 
 should be one ; that their union should be as inti- 
 mate as that of the Persons in the Blessed Trinity ; 
 and that this union should be God's great instru- 
 ment for converting the world to the Faith. From 
 
III.] Catechism. Sy 
 
 what we see around us, does this plan seem to 
 
 have taken effect? 
 Ansirer. — No ; Christ's grand design seems to have 
 been frustrated by man's sin. The modern Cimrch 
 still has many features which remind us of the Church 
 which Christ founded ; it has the Scriptures, and 
 Preaching, and the Sacraments ; but unity is a feature 
 which it has lost entirely. The Church is split up into 
 many different Communions, wliich are so alienated 
 from one another, that the members of one would not 
 partake of the Holy Supper of the Lord at the altar of 
 another Communion. 
 
 7. Question. — When did the first considerable rupture 
 of the Christian Body take place ? 
 
 Answer. — In a.d. 10G4, when Pope Leo the Ninth, 
 Bishop of Rome, sent legates to Constantinople, who 
 excommunicated Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople, and all his adherents. These legates, 
 when the claims which they advanced on behalf of the 
 Pope were indignantly repudiated, laid the act of 
 excommunication on the altar of the great Church of 
 St. Sophia, shook off" the dust from their feet, and 
 departed. But the disputes which terminated in this 
 final rupture had been going on for nearly two hundred 
 years ; and indeed the political division of the Roman 
 Empire into two parts, under two diff"erent Emperors 
 (as early as the year a.d. 395), had prepared the way 
 for the ecclesiastical rupture, which did not take place 
 for upwards of six centuries afterwards. 
 
 8. Question. — What is the great doctrinal diff"erence 
 between the Eastern and Western Church ? 
 
 Answer. — The Eastern Church maintains that the 
 Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father ; while the 
 Western Church holds that He proceeds from the Father 
 and the Son. 
 
 9. Question. — What is the truth on this disputed 
 point? 
 
 Answer. — Probably both parties in the original dis- 
 
88 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 pute had some amount of truth in their views, but 
 would not acknowledge candidly the truth which there 
 was in the views of their opponents. The Greeks were 
 doubtless right in supposing that there was only One 
 Fountain-head of Deity, from "Which issued forth, 
 before Time began, the two other Divine Persons ; for 
 this is implied in the doctrine, so constantly incul- 
 cated in Holy Scripture, that there is but one God. 
 On the other hand, the Western Church was clearly 
 right in maintaining that the Holy Ghost is sent to us 
 by the risen and ascended Saviour, and in this sense 
 proceeds from Him also ; for He Himself says, in St. 
 John XV. 26, " But when the Comforter is come, whom 
 / will send unto yoio from the Father, even the Spirit 
 of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall 
 testify of me." And again, St. John xvi. 7; "It is 
 expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away, 
 the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, 
 I will send Mm unto you." But whichever party was 
 in the right in this dispute, there can be no doubt that 
 the addition of the words " and the Son" to the Nicene 
 Creed, without the authority of a General Council, was 
 exceedingly wrong. This insertion was made at the 
 Council of Toledo, by the authority of Pope Leo the 
 First, about the year 447 ; but it was not received even 
 by the Westei-n Church till some ages afterwards ; and 
 Pope Leo iii., while he acknowledged the truth of the 
 doctrine, objected at the Council of Aix (a.d. 809) to 
 its being made an article of Faith. 
 
 10. Question. — What were the ceremonial differences 
 which separated the two Churches? 
 
 Answer. — The Eastern Church held that the bread 
 used at the Holy Communion should be leavened ; 
 the Western Church that it should be unleavened. 
 Besides this, they differed as to the time of keeping 
 Easter. 
 
 11. Question. — What was the next considerable schism 
 in the Church ? 
 
 Answer. — It was that which took place at the Re- 
 
III.] Catechism. 89 
 
 formation, when the Reformed Communions shook off 
 the yoke of the Papal supremacy, 
 
 12. Qtiestion. — What led them to do this ? 
 
 Answer. — The grievous corruptions, both in faith and 
 practice, of the Church of the Middle Ages, which 
 were condemned by the Holy Scriptures, — then, for the 
 first time, freely circulated among the people. Had 
 they not shaken off these corruptions, they would have 
 been unfaithful to the guidance of God's written 
 Word. 
 
 13. Question. — But did the different Reformed Com- 
 munions unite and form one body ? 
 
 Answer. — They seem to have made no effort to do 
 so ; and indeed the impulse which set on foot the Re- 
 formation was rather centrifugal than centripetal — it 
 was a movement away from, and not towards, a centre 
 of unity. For the leading idea of the movement was 
 the making a bold stand for God's Truth ; and ac- 
 cordingly all the blessings of the Reformation were on 
 the side of truth, not on the side of unity. 
 
 14. Question. — But is there not among all good Chris- 
 
 tians, to whatever Communion they may belong, — 
 
 whether they belong to the Roman Catholic, or 
 
 Greek, or English Church, or to any Dissenting 
 
 body, — a certain unity of spirit, which makes them 
 
 all one in sentiments and sympathies, however 
 
 much they differ outwardly ? 
 
 Answer. — Doubtless there is. All true Christians, 
 
 of whatever Communion, approach the same Father 
 
 through the same Mediator, and under the influence of 
 
 the same Spirit ; and as two rays of a circle cannot 
 
 draw near to the centre without also drawing near to 
 
 one another, so two souls cannot really approach the 
 
 same God without having an invisible fellowship with 
 
 one another. 
 
 15. Question. — Is not then this invisible unity all the 
 unity which Christ solicited for His Church ? 
 Why should we seek for any other kind of unity? 
 
 Answer. — Because St. Paul tells us, in Eph. iv. 4, 
 
90 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 that there is ''one body" as well as "one Spirit." 
 Now, though a spirit is something inward and invisible, 
 a body is something outward and visible, something 
 which may be seen and touched, and the whereabouts 
 of which may be known. 
 
 16. GatecJiist. — But some persons seem to be of opinion 
 that, when St. Paul says there is one body and one 
 Spirit, he is only repeating the same truth in two 
 different forms. Can you show that the body of 
 the Church is a distinct thing from the Spirit 
 which animates the Church ? 
 
 AnsLcer. — Yes ; Christ's disciples before the day of 
 Pentecost formed the body of the Church. But this 
 body was not fully animated by the living Spirit till the 
 Holy Grhost came down upon them at Pentecost. 
 Similarly, Adam's body was tirst formed of the dust of 
 the ground, before the Lord God breathed into his 
 nostrils the breath of life, by which inbreathing he 
 became a living soul (Gen. ii. 7). 
 
 17. Catecliist. — You have said that the Church of 
 Christ ought to be, and was intended by its 
 Founder to be, a united body ; but that, in fact, 
 it is rent asunder by many and grievous divisions. 
 Can you suggest anything at all parallel to this 
 in Holy Scripture ? 
 
 Answer. — Yes ; there is something parallel to it in 
 the rupture of the Israelitish monarchy, which took 
 place under King Rehoboara, between the Two Tribes 
 and the Ten, 
 
 18. Question. — Was this monarchy, of which you speak, 
 a part of God's original design for the government 
 of His people ? 
 
 Answer. — No ; the original design was that God 
 himself should be the King of His people, issuing His 
 directions and commands to them through the judge or 
 the prophet, who might be raised up from time to time 
 as His medium of communication with them. 
 
 19. Question. — How did it come to pass that this plan 
 failed ? 
 
III.] Catechism. 9 1 
 
 Ansxcer. — Because the people desired to walk by sight 
 rather than by faith, and to have under their eyes a 
 human sovereign surrounded with the emblems of 
 royalty, who miglit lead them out to battle against their 
 enemies, and the sight of whom might give them con- 
 fidence, and rally them when they were defeated. 
 
 20. Question. — How has this preference of an earthly 
 to an invisible Sovereign been repeated in the 
 history of the Christian Church ? 
 Answer. — Our Lord's design for His Church was 
 that He alone should be her Head, ruling her invisibly 
 from His throne in heaven by the influence of His 
 Holy Spirit. (See Eph. iv. 8-17.) His Apostles, and 
 their successors even to the end of the world, were 
 to be His chief ministers upon earth ; all having autho- 
 rity of the same kind and degree, all of them receiving 
 from Himself the precepts and doctrines which they 
 were to communicate to His flock, and all of them set- 
 ting themselves forth merely as ministers by whom men 
 believed, and giving to Him alone all the glory of their 
 success. " We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus 
 the Lord," says St. Paul (2 Cor. iv. 5) ; aud see also 
 1 Cor. iii. 5. But in process of time the authorized pas- 
 tors began to lord it over God's heritage, and to thrust 
 themselves into the place of their Divine Master. Thus 
 John, surnamed the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople, 
 adopted the title of Universal Bishop, a.d. 588 ; against 
 which presumption Pope Gregory the Great made a long 
 and loud protest, but rather, it is to be feared, in a spirit 
 of rivalry and counter-ambition on behalf of his own 
 see, than from any pure desire for the honour of the 
 Chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. And since 
 that time the Popes themselves have shown the same 
 unhallowed ambition, which one of them reproved in 
 John the Faster, and have claimed to be Universal 
 Bishops and Vicars of Christ upon earth. And it was 
 this unwarrantable claim which led to the schism at 
 the Reformation. Men could no longer bear the yoke, 
 which the Scriptures showed them was imposed by 
 
92 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 man in the arrogance of his heart ; and they rebelled, 
 and threw it off. 
 
 21. Question. — Did the earthly monarchy of the Israel- 
 ites, when it was established, continue undivided ? 
 
 Answer. — No ; God had designed that it should do 
 so, and had annexed all the promises to the throne of 
 David, "the man after His own heart," of whom 
 He said, " I have made a covenant with my chosen, I 
 have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I 
 establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all gene- 
 rations " (Ps. Ixxxix. 3, 4). But man's sin disturbed 
 this design also. Solomon's alliance with heathen wives, 
 and his consequent apostasy from the worship of the 
 true God, was punished by the rending away from his 
 son of the Ten Tribes under Jeroboam. And it is re- 
 markable that this punishment was brought about in 
 great measure by the oppressiveness of Solomon's 
 reign. "Thy father," said the people to Rehoboam, 
 " made our yoke grievous : now therefore make thou 
 the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke 
 which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee " 
 (1 Kings xii. 4). This was a result similar to that, of 
 which the history of the Church of Christ has furnished 
 60 remarkable an instance — tyranny and oppressive 
 claims leading to a breaking of the yoke on the part of 
 the oppressed. 
 
 22. Question. — Did the secession of the Ten Tribes 
 receive God's sanction ? 
 
 Answer. — It did. So much so, that God promised to 
 Jeroboam, the first king of the new dynasty, by the 
 prophet Ahijah, that, if he would only be obedient, " I 
 will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I 
 built for David" (1 Kings xi. 38), But Jeroboam not 
 complying with this condition, his house was extir- 
 pated by Baasha. And thenceforth the kingdom of 
 the Ten Tribes frequently changed hands, Zimri destroy- 
 ing all the house of Baasha, as Baasha had destroyed 
 all the house of Jeroboam ; and Omri supplanting 
 Zimri ; and Jehu slaying all the house of Ahab (the 
 
III.] Catechism. 93 
 
 son of Orari) ; and Shallum conspiring against Zaclia- 
 riah (the fourth in descent from Jehu) ; and Mcnahem 
 slaying Shallum (after a reign of one month) ; and 
 Pekah° conspiring against Pckahiah (the son of Mcna- 
 hem) ; and Hoshca conspiring against Pt'kah. Thus the 
 unhappy kingdom of the Ten Tribes underwent eight 
 changes of dynasty in the course of about two hundred 
 and fifty years, which elapsed between the secession 
 of the Ten Tribes and their transplantation by Shal- 
 maneser into the cities of the Mcdes. This gives an 
 average of about one change in every thirty-two years. 
 
 23. Question. — What may we learn on the subject 
 
 before us from this frequent change of dynasty ? 
 Answer. — That divisions, even when made under the 
 Divine warrant, have a tendency to multiply themselves. 
 Schism naturally begets schism. One departure from 
 the lawful lijie of succession leads to, and prepares the 
 way for, further departures. The history of the Chris- 
 tian Church furnishes several instances of this. Even 
 where separation has been justifiable, it has always 
 bred fresh separations, and has tended further to dis- 
 integrate the one Body of Christ. 
 
 24. CatecMst. — You have mentioned the verlal sanction 
 given by God to the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. 
 Vifhat practical sanction was He pleased to give to 
 it, even at a time when the kingdom was in the 
 worst possible hands ? 
 
 Answer. — He raised up in their midst Elijah, and 
 his successor Elisha, than whom no prophets were ever 
 mightier in deed, hereby showing that He had by no 
 means forsaken the seceding tribes, but still accounted 
 them to belong to His own true people. 
 
 25. Question. — "What great law of the Divine admini- 
 stration is exemplified, first in the institution of the 
 Israelitish monarchy, and afterwards, not less strik- 
 ingly, in the establishment and sanction of the 
 schismatical kingdom ? 
 
 Answer. — That when the first ideal (or, as it might 
 be called, God's original intention) is frustrated by 
 
94 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 man's sin and perverseness, He introduces a new plan, 
 a " second best thing," and works out His ends by 
 means of it. 
 
 20. Question. — What was the original design and con- 
 stitution of the Christian Church, as it came from 
 tlie hands of its Founder ? 
 Ansioer. — The original design was that there should 
 be but one Society (" the apostles' fellowship "), 
 which should embrace " all nations "— " One body, 
 and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of 
 your calling ; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one 
 God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, 
 and in you all " (Eph. iv, 4, 5, 6). And the constitu- 
 tion was, that the ministerial gifts necessary " for the 
 perfecting of the saints" should flow down from the 
 Church's risen Head into this one channel only, — the 
 channel being prolonged by successive ordinations in 
 one line, — a constitution which St. Paul adverts to in 
 immediate connexion with the subject of the Chui-ch's 
 imity, as being essential to the maintenance of that 
 unity. " When he ascended up on high, he led captivity 
 captive, and gave gifts unto men. . . . And he gave 
 some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evan- 
 gelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the per- 
 fecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for 
 the edifying of the body of Christ " (Eph. iv. 8, 11, 
 12). 
 
 27. Question. — How was the original design frustrated ? 
 Answer. — By the great schism of the Greeks and 
 
 Latins, which rent Christ's seamless vest into two parts. 
 
 28. Question. — How was the original constitution 
 broken up ? 
 
 Answer. — By the secessions at the time of the Re- 
 formation, which for the most part (though happily not 
 in our own country) broke oif from the Apostles' 
 Fellowship, and made a fresh beginning of Christian 
 Ministry, out of the line in which the great Commission 
 had come down. 
 
III.] Catcchisvi. 95 
 
 29. Question. — What is our Jiist duty under these cir- 
 cuuistances ? 
 
 AnsLvcr. — We, as members of the old and true 
 Church, are bound to acknowledge and repent of those 
 sins of the Church, which have given rise to so many 
 divisions, and to such extensive alienation from the 
 Fellowship of the Apostles. The superstitions which 
 disfigured the mediaeval Church, its departure in so 
 many points from scriptural and primitive practice, 
 and the ecclesiastical arrogance and ambition which 
 resulted in the formation of the Popedom, should be 
 fully acknowledged and declared. And the abuses and 
 corruptions of our own Communion at the close of the 
 last century, — the carelessness, indolence, and vices of 
 many of the clergy, the dry morality of others among 
 them who led respectable lives, and the bitter opposi- 
 tion offered by them to the doctrines of Grace, ought to 
 be admitted as the real originating cause of that dissent 
 and schism, which has spread itself over all the parishes 
 of our native land. 
 
 30. Question. — What is our second duty in reference 
 to these divisions ? 
 
 Answer. — To regard them not so much in the light 
 of a sin in the separatists (though this to a certain ex- 
 tent they are), as in that of a visitation upon ourselves 
 of the grievous sins of our forefathers in the Church. 
 And regarding them thus, to avoid to the utmost of our 
 power the particular sins which called them down, — 
 ambition and arrogance in Church-rulers, the unbridled 
 lust of external splendour in ritual among Cliurch- 
 people ; controversy about trifles and forms ; ministerial 
 unfaithfulness and indolence ; the substituting mere 
 morality for the Gospel ; and Pharisaism both in doc- 
 trine and worship. 
 
 31. Question. — Would it be possible by these or any 
 other methods within the power of man, to restore 
 perfect unity to the Church, and to mend the rent 
 in the seamless vest of Christ ? 
 
 Arisiver. — Probably not. While such a mode of 
 
96 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 action, if universally resorted to, would very much 
 mitigate the disorder, and would certainly strike at the 
 root of it, the perfect restoration of unity to the Church, 
 like that of peace to the kingdoms of this world, is pro- 
 bably reserved for the Second Advent of the Prince of 
 Peace, and not to be brought about by any lesser or 
 lower agency. 
 
 32. Question. — What is our third duty in reference to 
 the divisions of Christ's Church ? 
 
 Answer. — Never to refuse our hearty acknowledg- 
 ment to the working of the Spirit of God in com- 
 munities originally schismatical, and wanting a regularly 
 ordained ministry ; but to admit, and render thanks to 
 God for, the extensive good which has often been done 
 by the ministers of these Communions, and the brilliant 
 examples of piety which many of the people in such 
 Communions have exhibited. 
 
 33. Question. — But, if we make these admissions, may 
 we not fear that we shall be driven to the conclu- 
 sion that these ministries of man's erection are 
 after all regular and legitimate ? 
 
 Answer. — By no means. God may have but one 
 regular channel for His graces ; just as the river Jordan 
 had one only bed. But as " Jordan overflowed all his 
 banks all the time of harvest" (see Josh. iii. 15), so 
 God's Grace may overflow the channel of His own 
 appointment, and inundate and fertilize the country 
 without any channel at all. 
 
 34. Question. — What is the last duty which the subject 
 of this Chapter suggests ? 
 
 Answer. — That of making the unity of the Church a 
 special subject of prayer. 
 
 35. Question. — How does the Church of England show 
 her sense of the importance of this duty ? 
 
 Aiiswer. — By introducing comprehensive petitions 
 for the unity of the Church in the Morning and Even- 
 ing Oflices of each day, as well as in the Office of the 
 Holy Communion. 
 
III.] CatccJiism. 97 
 
 36. Catecliist. — Rehearse the petitions to which you 
 refer. 
 
 Answer. — In the Morning Prayer (when the Litany 
 is not appointed to be said), and always at Even- 
 song : — 
 
 " We pray for the good estate of the Catholick 
 Church ; that it may be so guided and governed by thy 
 good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves 
 Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold 
 the faith in unity of spirit, in the land of peace, and in 
 righteousness of life." 
 
 In the OfiBce of the Holy Communion : — 
 
 " Beseeching thee to inspire continually the uni- 
 versal Church with the spirit of truth, tinity, and con- 
 cord : And grant, that all they that do confess thy holy 
 Name may ayree in the truth of thy holy Word, and 
 live in unity, and godly love." 
 
 And in the Office for the Queen's Accession there is 
 a most beautiful Prayer for Unity. And the Collect 
 for the Festival of St. Simon and St. Jude is a prayer 
 to the same eflfcct. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SURVEY OF ZION'S TOWERS, BULWARKS, 
 AND PALACES. 
 
 S" SItalk abcrut B'lon, nnb qo xounb aboixt her: tell the 
 \ tffhitxs thereof. ^lEitrlt jc tucll her hultorks, eonsibcr 
 I her V'i^lixccs ; that jie maji tell it to the generation fol- 
 lotoing." — Ps. xLviii. 12, 13. 
 
 mt proiaHe T^HE forty-eiglitli Psalm probably belongs to the 
 
 fifrtMstitij reign of Jehoshaphat, and should be read 
 
 Isaim. ^^ connexion with 2 Chronicles xx. We find in 
 
 that chapter Moab, Amnion, and Edom entering 
 
 the territories of Judah with an invading army, 
 
 with the design, no doubt, of aiming a blow at 
 
 me confcuc- the capital. To this confederacy verse 4 refers : 
 
 lo mYu "' " Lo, the kings were assembled." Jehoshaphat 
 
 proclaims a fast, gathers his people, and publicly 
 
 asks help from the Lord. To this prayer God 
 
 immediately responds, A token for good upon 
 
 Judah is shown by the uprising of a Levite in 
 
 the congregation, who, under the influence of the 
 
 Spirit of Prophecy, foretells the success of Israel 
 
 without their striking a blow. Accordingly so it 
 
 was. The kings mustered in the wilderness of 
 
 Tekoa, where they caught the first sight of the 
 
 battlements, domes, and pinnacles of the Holy 
 
cii. IV.] The S^trvcy of Zions Toivers. 99 
 
 City, — the "towers, bulwarks, and palaces" of the 
 text. Israel advanced against them like a crusad- 
 ing army, with the sound of psalms and hymns 
 going up from the forefront of their line. But fHimcuimis 
 long before the armies met, a panic seized the ccnfcDnracs! 
 confederate kings ; they turned their arms against 
 one another, and having made great havoc in 
 their own ranks, fled in trepidation. " They saw 
 it," in the words of the Psalm, " and so they 
 marvelled ; they were troubled, and hasted away. 
 Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of 
 a woman in travail." AVhen the Jews came up 
 with their enemies, they found not a hand raised 
 to oppose them, but a vast number of corpses, 
 with spoil in such abundance, that they were 
 three days in gathering it. As afterwards in 
 the days of Hezekiah, so now on this earlier 
 occasion, the virgin, the daughter of Zion, had 
 despised the invader and laughed him to scorn ; 
 the daughter of Jerusalem had shaken her head 
 at him. There in the distance stood the City of SfrarHs of 
 God intact ; planted upon her impregnable rock, ©ou i|afnst 
 and proudly rearing her minarets and domes sfon! "^ ^' 
 towards heaven. ISTo weapon forged against her 
 should prosper. 
 
 Such was the original occasion of the Psalm — 
 necessary to be known, as furnishing a clue to the 
 interpretation, but which can never recur. But, 
 like all parts of Scripture, the forty-eighth Psalm 
 has a word for these times, as well as for those in 
 which it was written. Spiritually understood, as 
 we Christians ought to understand the Psalms 
 (for in our mouths they should be " new songs"). 
 
100 The Stirvey of Zioii s [chap. 
 
 it celebrates the glory, beauty, and stability of the 
 
 Spiritual Church, of which the literal Jerusalem was but 
 
 t^e nijorta- a figure. And, under tliis view of it, the passage 
 
 tjittotocrsof before us will convey an admonition, too little 
 
 marfe faru \:i heeded by some, and magnified by others into 
 
 ^utoar-g, ^j^g g^^ ^^^ substance of all religion, to consider 
 
 with devout attention the constitution of the 
 
 Church, the shelter which she provides for the 
 
 spiritual life, and her defences. 
 
 With this admonition I proceed to comply, and 
 thus to carry on the subject, to which this work 
 is devoted. We shall be able, however, within 
 the limits of the present Chapter, only to go half 
 round the circuit of Zion's walls, reserving for 
 another opportunity the observation of her re- 
 maining bulwarks and palaces. 
 In tije In the work of Creation the body of man was 
 
 fflrcatfon.Hje first formed, and, that having been done, the 
 faas^ftailutf" spark of life was communicated to the frame. 
 brS oHibrs " The Lord God formed man of the dust of the 
 toasbrcatijcD gj.Qy^Q(3^» (thus far man was only matter, but it 
 was organized matter, with all the vessels, ducts, 
 and arteries complete, wanting only in sensi- 
 bility and power of movement), " and breathed 
 into his nostrils the breath of life" (more j)ro- 
 perly, " lives," — animal, intellectual, spiritual) ; 
 Simiiario or.r " ^"^^ ^^^^^ became a living soul." Something of 
 tt??tmtur? the same kind is to be observed in Christ's new 
 ffiiifrdi icfore Creation of His Church. He, as Founder, was to 
 Smnt"!)"- trace the outlines of the structure ; and the Holy 
 
 rpirit 
 ccirtc 
 JPrntccost 
 
 Bicniiciiat^^ Ghost at Peutecost was to animate the already 
 
 Bnimatcit. prepared organism with the Divine Life. Then 
 St, Peter, according to our Lord's own prophecy. 
 
IV.] Toiuers, Bulwarks, and Palaces. loi 
 
 which formed the subject of our first Chapter, 
 should arise and build. 
 
 I propose to show, in the present and succeed- 
 ing Chapters, how our Lord did actually Himself 
 trace all those outlines, — one or two of the most 
 marked and distinctive in the days of His flesh, — 
 but all of them in the period of Forty Days, which 
 elapsed between His liesurrection and Ascension, 
 This jrreat period had two aspects, both of the JTfjt sftniifi- 
 
 o ^ _^ , ■'• . . cnncc of the 
 
 highest significance to our Eeligion ; it was partly srfat Jortg 
 evidential, and partly constructive. Partly evidcn- iticif cfaium- 
 tial; — " To whom also he showed himseli alive cana, 
 after his passion by many infallible proofs, being 
 seen of them forty clays." If Christ had been seen 
 after His Resurrection for only one or two days, — 
 if He had not given His Apostles several oppor- 
 tunities of testing the truth of His Eesurrection; if 
 He had not allowed Himself to be seen by many 
 pairs of eyes, — on one occasion by as many as five 
 hundred brethren at once ; — if time had not been 
 given for appearances to several different persons, 
 at several different places, and under several dif- 
 ferent circumstances, — in Galilee, in Judea, in- 
 doors, out of doors, by day and by night, — room 
 would have been given for reasonable doubt 
 whether the Apostles had not laboured under 
 some illusion of the senses, when they imagined 
 that their risen Lord had come among them and 
 spoken unto them. — But the significance of the 
 great Forty Days was not evidential only ; they 
 had another and even a more important aspect : 
 for Christ not only showed Himself alive to them (f)ctr ron- 
 during this period, by many infallible proofs, but significanct. 
 
I02 The Survey of Zions [chap. 
 
 also spake to them " of the things pertaining to 
 the kingdom of God," or Church. In other 
 words, this was the great constructive period, in 
 which Christ, as a wise master builder, traced 
 fffie nmna the plan of the spiritual edifice. And accordingly 
 fnsSons, we iind in this period the germs of Church 
 offict2%nJi offices. Church institutions, and even Church sea- 
 Sof^, Iain sons ; I say, their germs or earliest beginnings, by 
 EcS '^^^^ 110 means their full development. The develop- 
 ment of the grand ideas of their Founder was left 
 to the Apostles under the guidance of that Spirit 
 Subsequent which fell upon them at Pentecost. You see 
 i)u tVe"""™ them afterwards developing the Ministry of the 
 tiieiliinisirg Church, when they appoint the Seven Deacons, 
 cimrtfj, anu and devolve upon them their own secular func- 
 Ltiij" potos. tions ; you see them developing the legislative 
 powers of the Church, when they call a Council at 
 Jerusalem, to consider how far the observance of 
 the Jewish ritual was binding upon the Gentiles. 
 — But we are now to look at Church institutions 
 in their earliest rudiments, to see the Sacraments, 
 the Ministry, the Festivals, just budding, like 
 Aaron's rod, in the hand of the Divine Founder. 
 "So is the kingdom of God," said He, "as if a 
 man should cast seed into the ground." He Him- 
 self is the man who cast the seed of God's king- 
 dom into the ground of man's heart; and most 
 interesting it will be to trace up all our life as 
 members of the Church, developed as it is now 
 into blossom and fruit, to the seed which fell from 
 His own hand. 
 
 The first passage to which I shall refer, because 
 it comes first in the order of thoudit, is, that 
 
IV.] Towers, Bulwarks, and Palaces. 103 
 
 wliicli we find in the eighteenth chapter of St. st.fflatt. 
 JMatthew's Gospel. "'"• ''■'' 
 
 Our Lord is speaking in the foregoing context 
 of His Church ; of the duty of hearing the Church ; 
 and of the power of excommunication and absolu- 
 tion with which He meant to endow her. Her sen- 
 tences of excommunication and absolution, He 
 says, shall be ratified in heaven. If the offending 
 brother refuse to listen to the remonstrance of 
 one or two private friends, then (ver. 1 7) " tell it 
 unto the church : but if he neglect to hear the 
 church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man 
 and a publican. Verily I say unto you. What- 
 soever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in 
 heaven : and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, 
 shall be loosed in heaven." Then from the rati- 
 fication in heaven of sentences of excommunica- 
 tion and absolution, He passes on, by an easy 
 connexion, to another marvellous power which 
 the Church as a body might exercise — that of 
 united or common prayer ; (ver. 1 9), " Again I say rhf 
 unto you. That if two of you shall agree on earth prmlsc'fo be 
 as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall on'SetbJfor 
 be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." ISg/thrt'iJt"''' 
 And then, piercing to the very root of the subject, fi'o tlfcon- 
 He assigns, as the ground of these wonderful ano^tatimfl^ 
 powers which His Church should exercise. His "'' ^ "• 
 continual presence with her (ver. 20), " For where 
 two or three are gathered together in my name, 
 there am I in the midst of them." These words 
 were uttered during our Saviour's lifetime ; but niirrai fuiei- 
 after His Eesurrection He gave the most forcible pronuae 
 commentary upon them by appearing suddenly in great jjortg 
 
 Bags. 
 
I04 The Stcrvey of Z ions [chap. 
 
 the midst of His disciples, when they were gathered 
 together in a chamber, the doors of which were 
 shut for fear of the Jews. Doubtless they were 
 thinking of Him, and talking of Him ; and their 
 separation from the unbelieving world, upon which 
 they had. shut the doors, showed that they were 
 His little flock, "gathered together in" His 
 " Name." " Then came Jesus and stood in the 
 midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you," 
 (according to that foregone word of His, " Where 
 two or three are gathered together in my name, 
 there am I in tlie midst of them.") 
 ©rttnanctof Now, obscrve the words narrowly. There is 
 isragcr. first the institution of a Christian Ordinance, 
 United. Prayer. "If two of you shall agree on 
 earth as touching any thing that they shall a,sk, 
 it shall be done for them." It is on this ground 
 that we meet, Sunday after Sunday, to ask of God. 
 " those things which are requisite and necessary, 
 as well for the body as the soul," — endeavouring 
 to secure agreement on the things to be asked for 
 by a form of prayer, which is in the hands of 
 every worshipper, and with the meaning of which 
 every one may acquaint himself, before he comes 
 to the place of meeting. But the words not only 
 institute the Ordinance of United Prayer, but 
 exhibit the ground also on which the blessing 
 ©rounti on annexed to such prayer rests : " For where two or 
 blessing three are gathered together in my name, there am 
 to tbat orDi- I in the midst of them." The reason why the two 
 ojc three are heard is, the presence of the Pounder 
 in the midst of them, interceding for them. And 
 this presence is covenanted to any gathering 
 
IV.] Toilers, Bulwarks, and Palaces. 105 
 
 together in His Name, however small ; for there 
 can be no congregation smaller than two. 
 
 AVe have here, then, the charter, which founds jrj,( 
 
 pro 
 thci 
 
 charter entirely of a piece with the whole doctrine on^cc'ii^g. 
 and example of our Lord. His constant doctrine, '^^ocictg. 
 His new commandment, was, " that ye love one 
 another." His path through life was eminently 
 social ; unlike that of St. John the Baptist, it lay 
 alongside the homes of men. He sat by the hearth 
 of IMary and ]\Iartha ; He was present at funerals ; (t^xxii'i 
 He was present at weddings ; in short, " He went s"mf,'toiiiic 
 in and out among us." Well, this doctrine, this u?a|?ijat"f'^ 
 manner of life, finds itself expressed in the earliest '""'"^' ^"'• 
 principle of His foundation, — in the charter which 
 establishes the Christian Society, and annexes a 
 special blessing to joint prayer. The most fun- 
 damental of all truths respecting the Church is 
 this, that our relations to God and Christ are not 
 those of the individual conscience only, — do not 
 stand clear of our relations to our brethren. The 
 presence of our Founder, with all the rich bless- 
 ings annexed to it, is to be enjoyed specially in 
 the Communion of Saints. 
 
 Christ then founded a Society, and endowed it, Gufstion 
 if I may so say, with the assurance of His own iioto tfie 
 presence, and with the promise 01 an answer sodrto bjag 
 to social prayer, however few the number of anu r"'"^''''' 
 people joining in it. But was this Society to '^ '"'*'''*'• 
 continue for ever? If so, it must of course be 
 replenished from time to time, because the original 
 members of it would die off in the course of 
 nature. And if it was to be replenished, how was 
 
3ion to ano 
 socictg an" 
 
 1 06 The Survey of Zions [chap. 
 
 it to be replenisliecl ? what was to be its rule or form 
 of admission ? Who was to be considered quali- 
 fied for admission, and how was he to be grafted 
 «Tif-ntimts- into the Society % I trust the reader sees that it 
 is of the very nature of a society that no man can 
 put himself into it ; that admission must be from 
 within, according to certain rules made when the 
 society was founded. In some religious societies, 
 there is the rule that a certain annual money pay- 
 ment shall make a man a member; unless he 
 complies with that condition, the society does not 
 own him. In clubs, the admission is usually by 
 election, it being required not only that a candi- 
 date for membership shall pay something towards 
 the funds of the club, but that lie shall be chosen 
 by a majority of the existing members. Now, 
 wliat rule did our Blessed Lord make respecting 
 the way in which vacancies in the Church (or 
 Christian Society) were to be filled up ? How 
 were people to be induced to wish for member- 
 ship? How were they to be made members, 
 when they did wish for it ? And how were they 
 to be treated and dealt with afterwards, when 
 they had become members ? 
 St. fHatt. All these questions our Blessed Lord answers 
 
 mm. Id to -^^ ^i^g j^g^ verses of St. Matthew's Gospel, which 
 are among the most important verses in the whole 
 of the New Testament. 
 
 (Ver. 1 6.) " Then the eleven disciples went 
 away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus 
 had appointed them." Observe that the scene of 
 the interview was a mountain ; for, as you will 
 see presently, it throws light upon the commission 
 
IV.] Tozuers, Bukuarks, ajid Palaces. 107 
 
 He was about to give. Observe, also, that though ?3robabic 
 the eleven only are said to have been present, It^^DnuHo 
 others may have been there also. This -was pro- if 'ciinB?'"" 
 bably the interview in which Christ appeared to e\com. 
 "above five hundred brethren at once," i.e. to 
 all His existing disciples; but the Eleven are 
 named as representatives of the whole body, 
 and as such, the persons to whom the com- 
 mission was to be given. I'robably, in the first ?3n0fncc of 
 instance, they caught sight of His figure at Tube inu"^ 
 the top of the mountain ; and then followed 
 what is told us in the ITtli verse — "And when 
 they saw Him, they worshipped Him : but 
 some " {i.e. some of the five hundred, who were 
 on the skirts 01 the crowd, perhaps, and could 
 not get glimpses without diifi.culty) "doubted." 
 " And Jesus came " (He came up closer, so as to 
 be nearer to them) " and spake unto them, saying. 
 All power" (authority) "is given unto me in 
 heaven and in earth " — given unto Me, as the 
 risen and glorified Son of God. God has set Me, 
 according to the word of prophecy, as His King 
 upon His holy hill of Zion. I am His Son, His z\)t jjccu of 
 first-begotten from the dead, and He hath given fj /n"y""^., 
 iMe " the heathen for " Mine " inheritance, and the cJfr^umi's 
 uttermost parts of the earth for " My " possession." t^'tlie^"^'"' 
 And now I am about to proceed under that deed ''""J"^ 
 of gift, and to commission you to carry into efiect 
 the Father's grant — " Go ye therefore, and teach " 
 (literally, make disciples of) " all nations." " All 
 nations " — the Church, and the Gospel message, 
 by which men were to be brought into it, was to 
 be Catholic or universal — free as the breeze which 
 
io8 
 
 The Sjirvey of Zions [chap. 
 
 S'UifafiiKtn of 
 tiic scene to 
 (iir commis- 
 sion. 
 
 iTfjc ©rt{- 
 nnncc of 
 itlissionarg 
 iJrcncting" 
 institutfli. 
 
 fHotje of 
 fovmaUg 
 atimitting 
 lubJ concerts 
 to tfie Chris- 
 tian Socictg. 
 
 Ensfntcft'on 
 trquircti sub- 
 scqucntlu to 
 Ijaptism'. 
 
 careered over the mountain. "The freedom of 
 tlie open air," says a devout preaclier^ of our own 
 day, " befitted the wideness of the Sacrament of 
 Baptism, just as the privacy of the dying leave- 
 taking beseemed the sacred fellowship of the 
 more advanced and therefore more withdrawn 
 mystery." 
 
 " Make disciples of all nations." Thus Christ 
 institutes the preaching of the Gospel in heathen 
 countries, — Missionary Preaching, the heralding 
 of the kingdom of God and of the name of Jesus, 
 among those who never heard of God and Christ. 
 AVhen the preaching has, by God's grace, done its 
 work; when it has created a desire among the 
 benighted people to come into the kingdom of 
 God, and be made disciples of Jesus, then they 
 are to be admitted as disciples. In what follows. 
 He tells us how. " Make disciples by baptizing 
 them into the Name " (one Name, because there 
 is but one God, albeit three Persons — here is 
 the mystery of the Unity in Trinity) "of the 
 Pather, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost " 
 (here is the mystery of the Trinity in Unity). 
 
 But when that is done, and the new converts 
 have been admitted by Baptism to the Christian 
 Society, — what next ? Is no provision made for 
 leading them forward in the spiritual life, upon 
 which they have now entered ? Nay ; for what 
 purpose have they entered into Christ's school, 
 and become disciples of His, but that they may 
 
 * The Rev. Henry Burrows, B.D., Vicar of Cliristchurch, 
 St. Pancras, one of whose sentences would often make 
 another man's Avhole sermon. 
 
IV,] Tozucrs, Buhuarks, and Palaces. 109 
 
 learn of Him ? Hundreds of lessons Lave to bo 
 
 learned of Him ; we shall never have exhausted 
 
 all the Lord's teaching, even should we live to tlie 
 
 age of iMethuselah. And therefore it is that in ixrcognition 
 
 our Baptismal Service, after the administration of jjapusmai 
 
 the Sacrament, the Sponsors receive this charge nwssitp of'^*^ 
 
 from the administrator— " That this infant may £'""'"'" 
 
 know these tilings the better, ye shall call upon 
 
 him to hear Sermons ; and chiefly ye shall provide, 
 
 that he may learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, 
 
 and the Ten Commandments, in the vulgar tongue, 
 
 and all other things which a Christian ought to 
 
 know and believe to his soid.'s health," This is 
 
 not a little piece of good advice, given by the 
 
 compilers of the Service, It is an echo, and a 
 
 very faithful one, of the great commission under 
 
 which every Baptism takes place, and which 
 
 joins closely with Baptism Christian teaching 
 
 — " Baptizing them in the Name," etc., and, after 
 
 that is done, "teaching them to observe all 
 
 things whatsoever I have commanded you." 
 
 In which grave and most significant words 
 our Eedeemer institutes two Ordinances of His 
 Church, 
 
 Is^. What we commonly call Preaching, the ex- (Drtinanrr of 
 position • and illustration of Christian Trutli to a c"ristianV 
 congregation of baptized believers. It is quite a '"®"'"'*^* 
 different thiug, and, as you see, is clearly dis- 
 criminated in the Founder's commission, from oie tifffrmi 
 the proclamation of the Gospel to the heathen. t'ca"hm°s 
 The two are expressed by totally distinct words, nqmrrti" 
 One" is iiad-qTtvo-are, " Make them disciples ; " the ans'sub-^ 
 other is BiSaaKovTes, " Teaching them." Great con^ ^^fi ^ 
 
no The Survey of Zioiis [chap. 
 
 fusion of thought springs from classing together 
 under the common name of Preaching the herald- 
 ing of Christ to those who never heard of Him, and 
 the regular instruction of a Christian congregation. 
 Both were directly instituted by the Lord Himself, 
 and are done to this day under the great com- 
 mission He issued to the Eleven Apostles; and 
 this being the case, it may be gravely ques- 
 tioned whether the sneers which are launched 
 igopuiHt so generally at preachers and preaching, and 
 prcarijins the uudisguiscd enuui which people confess to 
 i)g our _ _ suffering when they hear Sermons, are altogether 
 tutionofit. consistent with that profound veneration, which 
 we owe to the Divine Founder of the Church. 
 Preaching, like other means of grace, is very much 
 what the hearer makes it. No man, who has 
 really tried to make it a means of spiritual good 
 to himself, will ever speak of it lightly and dis- 
 paragingly. The taunts and slights come from 
 itching ears, not from hungry hearts. — But we 
 c>rti(nanr0 of find in the words before us, " Teaching them to 
 eniucat'ion. observo all things whatsoever I have commanded 
 you," the institution of another Ordinance. For 
 our Lord must have known perfectly that Infant 
 Baptism was to be the uniform practice of His 
 fjofa tiifs is Church, down to a very late period of her history. 
 
 to be fount . ' . "^ -^ , ., ^ ^ . -^ 
 
 in ti)c toortis, He Himsclf , by blessing young children, and thus 
 tiinnto showing that theywere capable of a special blessing, 
 tijinss,' £tc. had solemnly sanctioned the principU of Infant 
 Baptism. And therefore " teaching them to ob- 
 serve all things " must certainly embrace, not the 
 instruction of adults only, but the training of chil- 
 dren in Christian Truth : in other words, Chris- 
 
IV.] Toii'crs, Bukva'/'ks, and Palaces. 1 1 1 
 
 tiau Education. Observe that this Education criosc anti 
 
 Ditnl con- 
 is prescribed as closely connected with, and im- nnion of 
 
 . -r, . ^ ^ -L ^Christian 
 
 mediately following upon, Baptism ; that, when it (inmcation 
 is lacking, the Sacrament of Baptism is shorn of Baptism, 
 its essential accompaniment. The great Founder 
 of the Church having, by the ministry of the 
 priest, taken the infant into His arms and blessed 
 it, thereafter gives it back to those who pre- 
 sented it, with a charge similar to that which 
 Pharaoh's daughter gave to the mother of the in- 
 fant ]\Ioses — " Take this child away, and nurse it cfinsfs 
 for me, and I will give thee thy wages." Yes ! f^arT 
 nurse it, teach it, train it FOR IMe, in My Truth, ca^^'fa^hjca 
 in My sanctifying Word. And that Christian '" 
 Education might be more clearly recognised as 
 prescribed by Christ, and as part of the work 
 which His Church and the ministers of His 
 Church were by Him appointed to do. He said to 
 St. Peter, when restoring him after his fall to the ^ofa . 
 Pastoral Office, not only " Feed my sheep," but ciiucation 
 
 11,, '3 rcrosnisit) 
 
 also r eed my lambs. m t^c tcstora- 
 
 What shall we say, after this, to a scheme of pctrr tMije 
 Education purely secular, from which Bible and ooL." 
 Prayer-Book are to be carefully excluded, in 
 which Christ and His Church are to have no part at pmcc it 
 all ? Nay, what shall we say even to a much more e^m^^non 
 apparently plausible scheme, of teaching the Bible iTtUgimror 
 to children without any authorized explanation of from^tijr' 
 it ? We must say, I fear, that even such a scheme fffcTuub^ 
 as this last sets at defiance Christ's Ordinance of fodK"® 
 the Church as a teaching Society ; that it labours 'S^T ^■■ 
 under the fundamental defect, incidental to so "1??^'''''" 
 many religious systems, of recognising a Christian ''^'J"'^^ 
 
1 1 2 The Stirvcy of Zions [chap. 
 
 Truth, while it discards the idea of an authority 
 specially set and commissioned to teach the 
 Truth ; and that therefore those who do recognise 
 the Church of Christ as a Divine Institution 
 cannot be expected to give it sympathy or co- 
 operation. If the Church is merely a society 
 founded by man, and having no Divine Commis- 
 sion to teach and minister, or if she is merely a 
 political engine taken into the service of the State, 
 that of course alters the whole aspect of the ques- 
 tion. Then no doubt we shall do right to employ 
 Christian Truth in the training of our children, 
 while we banish tlie Church, with her Creeds, her 
 formularies, and her spiritual pastors. 
 
 Thus have we seen Christ instituting, first, 
 the Christian Society, then United Prayer, then 
 Preaching to the heathen, then the Sacrament 
 of Baptism, then the instruction of the baptized 
 (whether adults or children) in Christian Truth. 
 And that the Church was to be perpetually 
 replenished and extended on these principles, — 
 jrf,r (Tom- that the great Corporation was to endure in an 
 prrpl™ ' unbroken line to the Second Advent, handing 
 assirloftijc down the Word and Sacraments to the latest 
 Qpogtks. generation, we gather from the latest words of 
 the commission — " Lo, I am with you alway, even 
 unto the end of the world;" to which assevera- 
 tion. He who is the "Amen, the faithful and true 
 witness," adds His own name, as a sort of seal 
 iDffpstgnt- appended to His charter, "Amen!" as if He 
 would say, "The existence of this Corporation, 
 and My presence with her to the end of time, 
 
 ficanrt of ttjc 
 ' ilmcn ' at 
 tije dost of it, 
 
IV.] Toivcrs, Bulwarks, and Palaces. 1 1 3 
 
 are matters of wliich I assure you on the 
 foith of ]\Iy own name." And His word has 
 stood fast, even when it seemed, from the dark 
 outlook, that it was failing. He has been ever 
 with and in His Church, as He ever will be. 
 Even in the days when she least seemed to 
 realize His gi-and conceptions of what she ought 
 to be, when superstitions were rife, con-uptions 
 flagrant, and a frightful usurpation of His own 
 prerogatives was growing up within her pale, 
 even then He was not absent. For was not the J^^jpr- 
 spirit, which should shake off these corruptions |«i.^cbutcj^^ 
 and superstitions, even then working within her ? p^r.o..^of bft 
 And was not that His own Spirit ? When a tree .hc^^n bj^^Jhc 
 sheds its leaves in autumn, and seems to outward gnch.^c^^^ 
 eyes a bare pole, it is not really dead ; it will corruptions. 
 bud and blossom next spring. And when the 
 Church seemed stripped of all the comeliness, 
 with which her Founder had decked her, and her 
 spiritual life appeared to be well-nigh extinct, 
 even then there was that within her, by which 
 her youth shoidd be renewed like the eagla's. 
 According as it is written— "As a teil tree, and 
 as an oak, whose substance is in them, when 
 they cast their leaves : so the holy seed shall be 
 the substance thereof." 
 
 And here I should break off for the present, 
 were it not that one word more requires to be 
 said upon the nature and effect of the first Sacra- 
 ment, which we have seen our Lord instituting. 
 
 No one, who has followed the argument hitherto, 
 will fail to understand that Baptism is the form 
 of admission to the Cliurch. But the danger is, 
 II 
 
1 1 4 The Survey of Z ions [chap. 
 
 if we leave the subject thus, that we should think 
 it to be nothing more. I believe there is a great 
 want of clearness, in the minds even of seriously- 
 disposed and thoughtful persons, on this subject. 
 Baptism tfjc Baptism involves and carries with it, as its neces- 
 tutcTfotm^of' sary consequence, admission to the Church, and, 
 tbeCbutdj!" indeed, is the divinely instituted form of admis- 
 sion. Nor does it at all conflict with this view, 
 that, immediately after our public administration 
 of Baptism, when the Sacrament (properly so 
 called) is concluded, the priest is directed to say, 
 (TfjE aignins while signing the child with the sign of the Cross, 
 of'tbc Cross" " We receive this child into the congregation of 
 assmt t"tJ)at Christ's flock." This is the solemn assent, on the 
 tbe^parrof tte part of the Christian Society, to the admission of 
 Sociftgf" the child into the Church, which, as it has been 
 received and blessed by Christ, has really taken 
 place already, and only has to be ^ recognised by 
 the congregation. The signing with the Cross is 
 a mere ceremony (though a godly and a primitive 
 one) of man's invention, and might be dispensed 
 with without injuring the effect of the Sacrament. 
 But let no one think that the affusion of water 
 in the Name of the Holy Trinity is a mere cere- 
 
 ^ " As the thirtieth Canon distinctly says, the signing with 
 the Cross adds nothing to the virtue and perfection of the 
 Baptism, so also we must remember that neither are the 
 accompanying words, ' We receive,' etc., any essential part of 
 the Baptism. They have sometimes been spoken of as if by 
 them the child was ' received into the Church : ' but the, act 
 of Baptism is tlie true reception into the Church, and these 
 ivords are a ceremonial declaration only of that fact. In thia 
 respect they are analogous to the words used by the Priest 
 in the Marriage Service, after the essential part of the office 
 is completed by the solemn adjuration, 'Those whom God 
 hath joined together, let no man put asunder.' As the 
 
IV.] Totucrs, Bulwarks, and Palaces. 1 1 5 
 
 mony. It is a passage from darkness to light, a 
 new supernatural birth into a state of favour, par- 
 don, and acceptance, a translation into the king- 
 dom of God's dear Son, " in whom we have redemp- 
 tion through his blood, even the forgiveness of 
 sins ;" according to that word of Christ to Nico- 
 demus, " Except a man be born of water and of 
 the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
 God." Possibly you may have thought that 
 the outward form of Baptism is a matter of crfie outfaatu 
 little or no moment, and that, should an un- of isapUsm 
 baptized adult have sincere repentance and faith, b'J'fiafi)' ""^^ 
 his forgiveness, and all the other blessings in- cssmtiai ia 
 volved in admission to the Church, would be ofVmT^^'"" 
 secure, even mthout Baptism. But surely this 
 view is framed upon our speculations of what 
 God is likely to do, rather than on what He 
 gives us reason to think He will do. What 
 said Ananias to Saul of Tarsus after Saul's 
 sincere conversion ? " And now why tarriest 
 thou?" (as much as to say. There is no time to 
 be lost ;) " arise, and be baptized, and wash away 
 thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." " Be 
 baptized, and wash away thy sins." But how ? 
 
 Priest then pronounces that the married couple are ' man 
 and wife together,' so here he j)ronounces that the baptized 
 child has become one of the congregation of Christ's flock. 
 This is made still more evident by the rubric and words of 
 the Office for Private Baptism, ' . . . then shall not he 
 chriaUa the child again, but shall receive him as one of the 
 flock of true Christian people, saying thus, I certify you . . . 
 is now by the laver of Regeneration in Baptism received 
 into the number of the children of God, and heirs of ever- 
 lasting life.' " — Blunt's Annotated Book of Common Prayer, 
 London, 18G6. Note on p. 2*27. Col. 1. 
 
ii6 The Survey of Zions [chap. 
 
 bD annnias's Is not Saul yet for2;iven then, deep as his re- 
 
 titiortation to . i , ? t 
 
 St. ipaui. pentance is, absomtely and unconditionally as he 
 
 has surrendered his own will to that of Christ, 
 
 (" Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?") fervently 
 
 as he has cried to God from the very ground of a 
 
 humbled heart, as it is said of him, " Behold, he 
 
 Saul, ffjmtgii prayeth " ? No ; his sins are yet upon him ; he 
 
 bcCs! no't has yet to wash them away; and it is not ob- 
 
 f/toas" "'^ scurely intimated to him by God's messenger that 
 
 baptnci. ^i^ig yj^^ Qj^ly 1-,^ jQj^y -^^ ^l^g laver of regeneration ; 
 
 " Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, 
 calling on the name of the Lord," — counsel ex- 
 actly the same as that which was tendered to the 
 anxious inquirers on the day of Pentecost, " Ee- 
 pent, and be baptized every one of you in the 
 name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, 
 and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." 
 And this effect of Baptism is so fundamental a 
 truth of our religion that it forms one of the 
 STcBtimonu of Articles of the Faith, as declared at Mecca : " I ac- 
 crcrt'tD"iiic knowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins." 
 iBaptom."^ If it be objected, as it may be and has been, that 
 the one man of whose forgiveness we have . the 
 most absolute assurance, — the penitent malefactor 
 ©bfcctiDn on the cross, — was pardoned and accepted without 
 SJfcalc of ?i3e Baptism, the answer is really very much the same 
 Sfaclor as if it were asked how it comes to pass that 
 Abraham, and Moses, and David were pardoned 
 and accepted without Baptism. Baptism, in the 
 full sense of the term. Baptism with the Holy 
 Ghost, was not formally instituted till after Christ's 
 Eesurrection, nor actually practised until the day 
 of Pentecost. " The Holy Ghost was not yet 
 
 nnsoitrcti. 
 
IV.] Towers, Bulwarks, and Palaces. 1 1 7 
 
 given," when the penitent robher hung upon tlie jruii fffiria- 
 cross ; and he could not therefore have had a not in mat- 
 l>aptism, which was not in existence. And even thcfiannf " 
 had it been in existence, he coukl have found no 
 opportunity (under his circumstances) of receiving 
 it ; and surely we not only may, hut must believe Goti 
 that, where there is really no possibility of com- toft?ij|i3 
 ])lying with them, God will dispense even with subm thcf' 
 His own Ordinances. The normal and regular ijai?" 
 way of salvation, since the effusion of the Holy 
 Ghost on the day of Pentecost, is by " one Baptism 
 for the remission of sins," accompanied of course, 
 in the case of adults, by faith in the recipient. 
 That God never in any instance alters or modifies 
 these terms, — that, in cases widely different from 
 our own, He may not apply the saving merits of 
 Christ by other means than Baptism and faith, 
 so as to extend them even to good heathens, who 
 never had an opportunity of hearing of Jesus, — 
 this it would be presumptuous in a high degree 
 to assert. These were His terms for the three 
 thousand convicted hearers at Pentecost. These 
 were His terms for St. Paul. These are His 
 terms for us ; and with these we must comply, 
 as we value our salvation. 
 
 And here we must stop for the present in that 
 walk about Zion, in the course of which we are 
 setting ourselves, according to the exhortation of 
 Psalm xlviii., to " tell her towers," " mark her 
 bulwarks," and "consider her palaces." But 
 not without a word of reference to our own 
 circumstances. For that branch of the Church, 
 
ii8 The Siirvey of ZMs [chap. 
 
 in which we are most interested, and for which 
 we ought to feel (from the great debt which we 
 owe to her) the warmest and tenderest filial affec- 
 tion, the present is a most critical and anxious 
 Ooubif napfct period. A reformed Church, which yet is a 
 offljnjjiarS^ Church by something more than that courtesy 
 which concedes the name to all professedly Chris- 
 tian communities, — a Church which stands re- 
 solutely upon the old foundation of " the apostles 
 and prophets," and which yet has with equal re- 
 anu % perils solutcness cleared her system of all unscriptural 
 
 ant) liifEicul- . . t i 
 
 licsrntaiuu corruptions, — IS peculiarly exposed to risks, in 
 virtue of her double position. That position of 
 necessity insures for her two classes of foes. She 
 is disliked by those who cannot show the same 
 title-deeds, or pretend to the same spiritual 
 ancestry, with herself. She is equally disliked 
 by those who have no sympathy with the action 
 which she took at the Eeformation. There will 
 always be, as there have always been, two parties 
 in her bosom, who represent respectively her con- 
 nexion with the old Foundation, and her con- 
 ggsra&affti ncxion with the Reformation ; but not until quite 
 ti)cttoosrfat recently has the mutual exasperation of these 
 tif/ctutcb.'" parties, like the struggle betw^een the infants in 
 Rebecca's womb, imperilled the existence of their 
 common mother. Then, just as this struggle is 
 growing desperate, a cry is raised, by those who 
 are jealous of the Church's political position, for 
 CTbecrsfor her disestablishment and disendowment — steps 
 mfnt'anti tis- which, if Carried into effect, would certainly 
 tnnotonunt. ^g^^j^g^ j^gj, already feeble powers of coherence, 
 and split her into two or three narrow factions. 
 
IV.] Toiva-s, Bulwarks, a7id Palaces. 119 
 
 While, further to complicate an already most diffi- 
 cult situation, the general foe of all goodness, and 
 righteousness, and truth, — the foe who began his 
 communications with mankind by the insinua- 
 tion of a sceptical doubt, " Yea, hath God said ?" 
 and proceeded from a sceptical doubt to a flat scfpticism 
 infidel denial, " Ye sliall not surely die," — now ctlunh!'" 
 no longer content with assaulting the Church fffoufJ"T° 
 from without, is making encroachments within ^" '^^''''^"^• 
 her camp, and sapping the belief of her children 
 in the supernatural, in Eevelation, nay, in the 
 Personality {i.e. in the existence) of God. 
 
 In such critical circumstances, what shall we 
 do ? One point of holy policy is, that our clergy crfje citrgq 
 should endeavour to give our own people a true tiic'pcopffto 
 insight into the preciousness of the spiritual in- SSffiaars of 
 heritance which in the English Church has fallen '^^^I'^X 
 to their lot; to lead them to appreciate the advan- '^'J""'"^- 
 tage of our own position among the Communions 
 of Christendom, — a position at once Scriptural and 
 Catholic. But this is only a small part of what has 
 to be done. The Church must be saved by the 
 love and loyalty of her laity, as much as by the 
 exertions of her ministers. Show your value for 
 Bible and Prayer-Book by studying them more z\t laitj 
 deeply, and comparing them more thoughtfully. Sr"s«{ia^ 
 The Bible is the text of the Church of England, B^bK'" 
 and the Prayer-Book is her Commentary, — a iJSiranu 
 Commentary (as the late Professor Blunt has most "an^^"?!""' 
 conclusively shown in two Sermons before the "^^l^^^^ . 
 University of Cambridge, with which every 
 Churchman should make himself acquainted) 
 which gives us faithfully the sense of the Primi- 
 
I20 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 tive Church on the interpretation of Holy Scrip- 
 ture. And last, not least, cease not to implore 
 nnsnii Him, " who walketli in the midst of the seven 
 implore t})c goldcu caudlcsticks," that He would not remove 
 ?b" cburct) to our candlestick out of his place, that He would 
 canWcstik a preserve our own heloved Church " from false 
 a"siiinins" Apostles," and cause her to be " guided by faithful 
 ' and true pastors," that He would make her a 
 
 burning and shining light — burning with love 
 and zeal for His JSTame, and shining with the 
 quiet ray of a holy and consistent example. Thus 
 meeting the foes leagued against us, we shall 
 not need to be afraid nor dismayed by reason of 
 their great multitude ; for the battle will not be 
 our's, but God's. " The city of our solemnities" 
 shall stand unmolested, as if surrounded by a 
 broad and impassable river. " Thine eyes shall 
 see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle 
 that shall not be taken down; not one of the 
 stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither 
 shall the cords thereof be broken. But there the 
 glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad 
 rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley 
 with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass there- 
 by. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our 
 lawgiver, the Lord is our king ; He wiU save us." 
 
 Caterhiam 0n CThnir. 113. 
 
 1. Question. — To what part of Jewish history does 
 Psalm xlviii. refer ? 
 A^iswer. — Probably to the reign of King Jehosha- 
 phat, when the kings of Moab, Ammou, and Edom 
 
IV.] Catechism. 121 
 
 invauod the territory of JuJali, — a confederacy to 
 which reference is made in verse 4 : '" Lo, the kings were 
 assembled." (See 2 Chron. xx. 1, 10, 22, 23.) 
 
 2. Qaestion. — How was this invasion frustrated ? 
 Answer. — Jehoshaphat and all his people asked help 
 
 of the Lord, and were assured by a prophet that their 
 enemies should be discomfited without their striking a 
 blow ; which came to pass on the morrow ; for when 
 the singers that went before the Jewish army began to 
 praise God, a panic seized the confederate kings, who 
 turned their arms against one another, and fled in trepi- 
 dation. To this flight those words of the Psalm refer : 
 " They saw it, and so they marvelled ; they were 
 troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them 
 there, and pain, as of a woman in travail." (Verses 5 
 and 6.) (See 2 Chron. sx. 5, 0, 14, 17, 21-24.) 
 
 3. Question. — But to what do verses 12 and 13 refer : 
 
 " Walk about Zion, and go round about her : tell 
 the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, 
 consider her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the 
 generation following " ? 
 Answer. — To the fact, that the panic seized the con- 
 federate kings, when they first caught sight of the towers, 
 bulwarks, and palaces of the Holy City. So that what 
 was afterwards said of Sennacherib's invasion, might 
 have been said of theirs : " The virgin, the daughter of 
 Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn ; 
 the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at 
 thee." (Isaiah xxxvii. 22.) 
 
 4. Question. — What is the Christian application of the 
 
 words — " Walk about Zion, and go round about 
 
 her," etc. ? 
 Answer.— 0\xx Zion is the Church of Christ, of which 
 the Holy City was but a figure ; and accordingly these 
 words of the Psalm will convey an admonition to survey 
 and study the constitution of the Church, the provision 
 which she makes for the spiritual life, and the defences 
 which God has thrown around her. 
 
122 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 5. Question. — "What then is it proposed to do in the 
 
 present Chapter ? 
 A^isiver. — We propose to go round about the walls 
 of the Christian Church, as it were on a tour of observa- 
 tion. 
 
 6. Question. — What was the order observed by God 
 in the creation of man ? 
 
 Ansiver. — His body was first formed of the dust of 
 the ground — a body, as the Psalmist says, " fearfully 
 and wonderfully made " (Psalm cxxxix. 14) ; and this 
 body having been prepared, the breath of lives was 
 afterwards breathed into it. (See Gen. ii. 7.) 
 
 7. Question. — Was an order similar to this observed 
 
 in the creation of the Church ? 
 Ansiver. — Yes. Christ may be said to have framed 
 the body of the Church, when in the days of His flesh 
 He gathered disciples round Him. He gave this body 
 an organization and a particular structure, when He 
 traced out the institutions and powers of the Church. 
 And the body of the Church having been framed and 
 prepared beforehand, the Holy Ghost descended into it 
 on the day of Pentecost, to animate it with the Divine 
 life. 
 
 ion. — During what period particularly, did 
 our Lord organize His Church, and trace out the 
 various features of it ? 
 Answer. — During the forty days which elapsed 
 between His Eesurrection and Ascension. 
 
 9. Question. — What great objects were answered by 
 this period of forty days ? 
 Ansiver.— Christ was seen alive for forty days after 
 His Resurrection, for the more confirmation of the Faith. 
 It was God's design to put the fact of His Resurrection 
 beyond all question. It was necessary, therefore, that 
 the risen Saviour should appear on several occasions, to 
 several persons, and under diff"erent circumstances ; and 
 all this required a considerable space of time. 
 
IV.] Catechism. 123 
 
 10. Question. — Can you quote any text of Scripture to 
 show that the forty days were designed to afford 
 unquestionable evidence of the Resurrection ? 
 
 Ansioer. — Yes. St. Luke, speaking of the Apostles, 
 says, " To whom also he shewed himself alive after 
 his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of 
 them forty days " (Acts i. 3). 
 
 11. Question. — What words immediately follow those 
 you have just quoted, and to what other aspect of 
 the forty days do they point ? 
 
 Ansiver. — " And speaking of the things pertaining to 
 the kingdom of God." The kingdom of God is the 
 kingdom set up by " the God of heaven " in the days of 
 the fourth or lloman Empire (see Dan. ii. 44); that is, 
 the Christian Church. "We are led to suppose, there- 
 fore, that during this period our Blessed Lord was 
 engaged in tracing the outline of His Church, in sowing 
 the seeds of Church Offices, Church Institutions, and 
 Church Sacraments, which seeds were to be afterwards 
 unfolded by His Apostles. Christ, like a wise master- 
 builder, was tracing out the foundations of His Church 
 during this period. 
 
 12. Catechist. — You said that the Apostles in after times 
 unfolded the seeds that Christ had sown. Can you 
 give any instance of their doing so ? 
 
 Ansive): — Yes. Christ instituted the Ministry of 
 His Church, when He breathed upon the Apostles and 
 said, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost," etc. (see St. John 
 XX. 22, 23.) The Apostles developed this institution 
 of the Ministry, when they appointed the seven 
 Deacons to relieve them of the secular part of their 
 work ; see Acts vi. 3, 4, 5, 6. So again, Christ gave 
 to His Church the power of binding and loosing (see 
 St. Matt, xviii. 17, 18). The Apostles acted under this 
 power, when they called a council to decide whether or 
 not the Gentile converts should be subject to the cere- 
 monial law, and issued a decree, loosing them from 
 circumcision, and other ceremonial observances, but 
 binding them to abstain from pollutions of idols, and 
 
124 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 from fornication, and from things strangled, and from 
 blood (Acts XV. 19, 20, 28, 29). 
 
 13. CatecMst. — In observing how Christ traced the 
 foundations of the Church, the first thing which 
 we have to look for is the charter of the Church's 
 foundation. Where do we find it? 
 
 Aoisiver. — In the following words, taken from St. 
 Matthew xviii. 19, 20 : " Again I say unto you, That if 
 two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing 
 that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my 
 Father which is in heaven. For where two or three 
 are gathered together in my name, there am I in the 
 midst of them." 
 
 14. Question. — How do you know that these words 
 refer to the Church ? 
 
 Answer. — Because in the immediately preceding 
 context, to which the word " Again " refers us back, 
 our Lord has been speaking expressly of His Church, 
 and of the powers of excommunication and absolution 
 with which He designed to endow her ; see verses 
 
 15. 16, 17, 18 : "Moreover if thy brother shall tres- 
 pass 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 it unto the 
 church : but if he neglect to hear the church, let him 
 be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily 
 I say unto you, AVhatsoever ye shall bind on earth 
 shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever ye shall 
 loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 
 
 15. Question. — What two things do we discover in the 
 verses now under consideration ? 
 Ansiver. — First, the institution of the Ordinance of 
 United Prayer, ver. 19 : " If two of you shall agree on 
 earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall 
 be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." 
 Secondly, the charter which declares what the Church 
 
IV,] Catechism. 125 
 
 is, — namely, an assembly of believers gathered together 
 in Christ's Name, — and annexes to such an assembly 
 the promise of His Presence : " For where two or three 
 are gathered together in my name, there am I in the 
 midst of them." 
 
 10. Question. — How does the Church endeavour to 
 
 secure the agreement among worshippers, upon 
 
 which the answer to United Prayer is suspended? 
 
 Ansivcr. — By a Form of Common Prayer, with 
 
 which all may acquaint themselves beforehand, and in 
 
 the oficring of which all may unite with heart and 
 
 voice. 
 
 17. Catechist. — You said that the Church is declared 
 by Christ to be an assembly of disciples gathered 
 together in His Name. Docs this declaration 
 harmonize with our Lord's teaching and example ? 
 
 Ansivcr. — llemarkably so. It harmonizes with His 
 teaching; for He constantly enjoined mutual love, and 
 said that it was the badge by which His disciples 
 should be known : "A new commandment I give unto 
 you. That ye love one another ; as I have loved you, 
 that ye also love one another. By this shall all men 
 know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to 
 another" (St. John xiii. 34, 35). It harmonizes also 
 with His example and manner of life, which was social, 
 and not (like John the Baptist's way of life, or Elijah's) 
 withdrawn from the haunts of men. " The Lord 
 Jesus went in and out among us " (Acts i. 21) ; He 
 accepted invitations (St. Luke vii. 36) ; attended wed- 
 dings (St. John ii. 2) ; was found in the way of funeral 
 processions (St. Luke vii. 12, 13); and testified of 
 Himself, " I spake openly to the world ; I ever taught 
 in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews 
 always resort; and in secret have I said nothing." 
 (St. John xviii. 20.) 
 
 18. Question. — "What pledge did o\ir Lord give to His 
 Church that He would be mindful of His promise 
 to be in the midst of the two or three gathered 
 together in His Name ? 
 
126 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Answer. — After His Resurrection, when the little 
 flock of disciples was gathered together in His Name, 
 having shut the doors upon the unbelieving world, 
 "came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto 
 them, Peace be unto you " (St. John xx. 19). And 
 this happened on more than one occasion. (See St. John 
 XX. 26; see also St. Lvike xxiv. 13, 14, 15, 36, etc.) 
 
 19. CatecMst. — We have found, in this promise to 
 the two or three gathered together in Christ's 
 Name, the earliest germ of the Christian Church, 
 and of one great Ordinance of it, United Prayer. 
 We must now inquire how new members were to 
 be grafted into this Society thus founded ; for, as 
 you pointed out in a previous examination, no 
 one can put himself into a society ; he must be 
 admitted into it according to its rules, by those 
 who are members already. Where shall we find 
 the rules of admission into His Church, which 
 Christ laid down ? 
 
 Ansiocr. — In the five last verses of St. Matthew's 
 Grospel, which run thus : "16. Then the eleven disciples 
 went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus 
 had appointed them. 17. And when they saw him, they 
 worshipped him: but some doubted. 18. And Jesus came 
 and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto 
 me in heaven and in earth. 19. Go ye therefore, and 
 teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 
 
 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
 have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, 
 even unto the end of the world. Amen." 
 
 20. Question. — Is there reason to suppose that other 
 disciples besides " the eleven " were present at 
 this interview ? 
 
 Answer. — Yes. It is generally thought that this was 
 the interview referred to by St. Paul, when he says : 
 " After that, he was seen of above five hundred breth- 
 ren at once " (1 Cor. xv. 6). 
 
 21. Question, — Of what words does this supposition 
 
IV.] Catechism. 127 
 
 offer an easy explanation, which else might pre- 
 sent a little difficulty ? 
 Aiuxcer. — Of the words in vcr. 17, where it is said 
 that "some doubted." The " some," who "doubted," 
 may have been persons on the outskirts of the crowd, 
 who could not at first command a good view of the 
 Lord. 
 
 22. Question. — But if it was indeed the case that more 
 than five hundred disciples were present, why does 
 St. Matthew only mention the eleven? (ver. 17.) 
 
 Ansivcr. — Because he would have us understand that 
 the words of Christ which he gives us, and which con- 
 tain the commission to evangelize the world, were 
 spoken only to the eleven, the representatives of the 
 whole body. It was not every one of those five hun- 
 dred, who was bidden to go forth to the heathen with 
 the Gospel message, and to bring them into the 
 Church. 
 
 23. Question. — "Where is it predicted in the Book of 
 
 Psalms that the risen Saviour should claim for 
 Himself, as given to Him by God, an authority 
 over the Gentiles? 
 A)hsicer. In the second Psalm, verses 7 and 8, we read : 
 " I will declare the decree : the Lord hath said unto 
 me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee. 
 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine 
 inlieritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
 thy possession." The "begetting" of the Son means 
 here the raising Him from the dead, as we see from 
 Acts xiii. 32, 33 : " And we declare unto you glad 
 tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the 
 fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their chil- 
 dren, in that he hath raised up Jesus again ; as it is 
 also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, 
 this day have I begotten thee ; " and also from llev. i. 
 5, and Col. i. 18, where Christ is called " the first 
 begotten of the dead," "the firstborn from the dead." 
 Having been thus begotten from the dead, our Lord 
 here claims the heathen for His inheritance, and the 
 
128 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 uttermost parts of the earth for His possession, by 
 sending His Apostles to bring them to the obedience 
 of faith, and to admit them into His Kingdom, the 
 Church. 
 
 24. Question. — Why was " a mountain" (ver. 16) an 
 appropriate scene for such a commission as this ? 
 
 Ansiver. — Because a mountain is a lofty and exposed 
 place, around which the four winds of Heaven per- 
 petually blow. There was a freedom and universality 
 in this message ; " Go ye and teach all the nations," or 
 (as St. Mark has it, chap. xvi. 15) " Go ye into all 
 the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," 
 ■which made a mountain a very suitable spot for its 
 delivery. 
 
 25. Question. — What is the marginal translation given 
 
 in the English Bible of the word " teach," in " Go 
 ye and teach all nations " ? 
 Answer. — Make disciples, or. Christians of all 
 nations. 
 
 20. Question. — And how were the Apostles to do this? 
 Ansu-cr. — They were to do it to others in much the 
 same way as their Master had done it to themselves. 
 They had been arrested by the sight of His miracles, 
 and led to pay attention to His words. These words 
 had exerted a great power over them ; they listened 
 eagerly, and became deeply interested, and assured that 
 He who spake such words must be an ambassador from 
 God, with a message of hope and grace to men. They 
 were to go forth with similar words, announcing to all 
 mankind the forgiveness of sins through Christ, and 
 exhorting to repentance and faith. And to insure their 
 words being listened to, they were to have the miracu- 
 lous powers which their Master had, at the outset of 
 their mission. 
 
 27. Question. — What Ordinance of the Church, then, 
 did our Lord institute, when He bade His Apostles 
 go and make disciples of all nations ? 
 Answer. — Missionary Preaching, the heralding of the 
 
IV.] Catechism. 129 
 
 Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus among the 
 heathen, who have never heard of God or Christ. 
 
 28. Que.it ioji. — And when the preaching has done its 
 work, and the heathen have been brought by it to 
 believe in Christ, how are they then formally to be 
 "admitted into the fellowship of Christ's Re- 
 ligion " ? 
 Answer. — This must be done by the Holy Sacrament 
 of Baptism, which our Lord here institutes in these 
 words : "• Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 The more exact translation of which would be, "Make 
 disciples of all the nations [by] baptizing them into the 
 name," etc. 
 
 '29. Question. — Why is the word "name" in the singu- 
 lar number, though the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost arc all mentioned ? 
 Answer. — To show that there is but One God, al- 
 though there are three Persons in the Godhead. 
 
 80. Question. — How does our Lord prescribe that the 
 Baptism of new converts shall be followed up ? 
 Ansv^er. — By Christian teaching. His Apostles were 
 directed not only to baptize the heathen into the Name 
 of the Holy Trinity, but also to teach them to observe 
 all things whatsoever Christ had commanded. 
 
 31. Question. — What trace of this direction may be 
 found in the Office for " the Ministration of Public 
 Baptism of Infants " ? 
 Answer. — As soon as the Infant has been baptized, 
 and has been declared to be regenerate, and grafted 
 into the body of Christ's Church, and after thanks have 
 been given unto Almighty God for these benefits, the 
 Priest is directed to address the Godfathers and God- 
 mothers thus : "Ye must remember that it is your parts 
 and duties to see that tliis Jii/ant be taught, so soon as 
 he shall be able to learn, what a solemn vow, promise, 
 and profession he hath made by you. And that he 
 may know these things the better, ye sh.\ll call upon 
 I 
 
1 30 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 niM TO HEAR SERMONS ; AND CHIEFLY YE SHALL PROVIDE, 
 THAT HE MAY LEARN THE CrEED, THE LoRD's PrAYER, 
 
 AND THE Ten Commandments, in the vulgar tongue, 
 
 AND ALL OTHER THINGS WHICH A CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO 
 KNOW AND BELIEVE TO HIS SOUL's HEALTH." 
 
 32. Qtiestion. — What two Ordinances does our Lord 
 institute, wlien He bids His Apostles teach the 
 people they had baptized to observe all things 
 whatsoever He had commanded them ? 
 
 Ansiver. — The instruction of Christian congregations 
 in Divine Truth, and the religious education of the 
 young, 
 
 33. Question. — How does it appear that the instruction 
 of Christians in Divine Truth is a thing of a differ- 
 ent character from preacbing to the heathen ? 
 
 Answer. — Because two different words are used to 
 express it. The preaching to the heathen is called {as 
 here) " making disciples of them," " preaching (or 
 heralding) the gospel to them" (St. Mark xvi. 15). 
 The instruction of Christians is called " a teaching 
 them to observe all things whatsoever Christ commanded 
 His disciples." The names being so different, we con- 
 clude that there is a difference in the things. 
 
 34. Question. — If the regular religious instruction of 
 Christians, to which we commonly give the name 
 of Preaching, be an Ordinance appointed by the 
 Lord Himself, can it be right to sneer at preachers, 
 and express great weariness of sermons ? 
 
 Ansioer. — Certainly not. To feel Grod's Ordinances 
 to be irksome must surely indicate a wrong state of 
 mind. This was the sin of those of old, who said; 
 " When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell 
 corn ? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat ? " 
 (Amos viii. 5.) And " The table of the Lord is pol- 
 luted ; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is con- 
 temptible. . . . Behold, what a weariness is it !" (Mai. 
 i. 12, 13.) And in the New Testament we are warned 
 against a similar state of mind in reference to preach- 
 ing : " The time will come when they will not endure 
 
IV.] Catechism. 131 
 
 sound doctrine ; but after their own lusts shall they 
 heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears ; and 
 they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall 
 be turned unto fables " (2 Tim. iv. 3, 4). 
 
 35. Catecliist.—XoM. said that the words *' teaching 
 them to observe all things," embraced not only 
 what we call Preaching (that is, the religious in- 
 struction of adults), but also the education of 
 children in the principles of Divine Truth. How 
 can you prove this ? 
 
 An&wcr. — Our Lord must have foreseen that His 
 Church, under the inspired guidance of His Apostles, 
 would uniformly practise Infant Baptism. He must 
 have known that, after the first establishment of His 
 Church in any country, all the people of that country 
 would receive Baptism as unconscious babes. And 
 therefore, when He prescribes that Christian teaching 
 shall always follow Baptism, He must have had in His 
 thoughts the training of the young in the rudiments of 
 Christian faith and practice. 
 
 36. Question. — Christ, then, having put Christian Edu- 
 cation into very close connexion with Baptism, 
 what sin do those commit who are not careful to 
 follow up the Baptism of children with religious 
 teaching ? 
 
 Aimver. — The sin of those who put asunder what 
 God has joined together (see St. Mark x. 9). And who 
 knows but that the neglect of a child's religious train- 
 ing, the failure to bring him up in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord, may be the reason why Holy 
 Baptism never seems to take in him its full eflfect ? 
 
 37. Catechist. — You have already quoted the charge to 
 see that the child is religiously educated, which is 
 given to the Sponsors in the Baptismal Service. 
 This charge is really given by Christ, who acts and 
 speaks through the ministry of His ordained ser- 
 vants. To what charge given in the Old Testa- 
 ment may you compare it? 
 
 Answer. — To that which was given by Pharaoh's 
 
12,2 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 daughter to the mother of Moses : " Take this child 
 away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy 
 wages " (Exod. ii. 9). The baptized child, having been 
 made a member of Christ's kingdom, is given back to 
 its parents, to be by them reared for the glorious in- 
 heritance of that kingdom, and for the King thereof, 
 who has just blessed and washed it in the laver of 
 regeneration. 
 
 38. Question. — From what other passage of the New 
 Testament besides that now before us (St. Matt. 
 xxviii. 20) may we gather that the religious in- 
 struction of children is part of the work intrusted 
 by Christ to the Ministers of His Church ? 
 
 Ansioer. — From the charge given to St. Peter after 
 the Resurrection to feed Christ's lambs as well as His 
 sheep, St. John xxi. 15 : " So when they had dined, 
 Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest 
 thou me more than these ? He saith unto him, Yea, 
 Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto 
 him, Feed my lambs." 
 
 39. Question. — If Christ prescribed that His little ones 
 should be taught all things whatsoever He com- 
 manded His disciples, can any plan of Education 
 be right, of which the teaching of the things which 
 He commanded does not form any part ? 
 
 Ansiaer. — Evidently not. In order that they may 
 rightly and fully understand the things which Christ 
 commanded His disciples, children will need to be 
 taught other things, such as reading, and the rudiments 
 of general knowledge. And they must also be taught 
 to get their living. But these other branches of know- 
 ledge are principally valuable for the sake of the great 
 end, which is to make them wise unto salvation, and to 
 enable them to serve God in their calling, whatever it 
 may be. Therefore to teach them nothing but to read, 
 write, and sum, and earn their bread, is to stop short 
 of the great end for which we teach them anything. 
 
 40. Catochist. — But the New Testament contains all 
 that Christ commanded us. WiU it not therefore 
 
IV.] Catechism. 133 
 
 be quite enough if, when they can read, they arc 
 made to read the Bible, and left very much to 
 themselves to gather the meaning of it? 
 Am^wer. — No. Christ commanded that His Min- 
 isters should teach the people. And in the words 
 before us He constitutes His Church a teaching Society, 
 and gives her a commission to teach. If we set aside 
 His commission, and say that, because we have the 
 Scriptures, we can do without it, we are in the arro- 
 gance of our hearts dispensing with the very aid which 
 He has provided to guide us into all truth, and we 
 cannot expect His blessing on the education of our 
 children. Besides, no one ever did or could gather 
 the true meaning of Holy Scripture without some 
 human instruction. To understand anything of any 
 book, a child must ask frequently to have it explained. 
 The question is, who is to give the explanation? — a 
 minister of Christ's Church, who will give it after the 
 mind of the Church, and under the Church's sanction : 
 or a person who perhaps feels an. interest in the Bible 
 as a piece of literature, but has no fixed settled faith in 
 the doctrines which the Church has drawn out of the 
 Bible, and has summed up in her Creeds, and Articles, 
 and Formularies? 
 
 41. Question. — Will you now reckon up the institu- 
 tions, of which we have found the earliest traces 
 in these two passages of St. Matthew's Gospel? 
 
 Ansiver. — They are these : the Christian Society, 
 United Prayer, Missionary Preaching, Holy l^aptism. 
 Preaching in the Christian Congregation, Religious 
 Education. These things are all really found here, 
 although in their earliest germ, just as the oak is really 
 found in the acorn, and unfolded out of it. 
 
 42. Question. — What part of the great commission 
 issued by Christ to His Apostles assures us that it 
 was given not to themselves only, but to their 
 successors ? 
 
 Anstver. — The end of it, in which He assures them, 
 " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
 
1 34 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 world." Our Lord must have known that the Apostles 
 would not live " unto the end of the world ;" and there- 
 fore must have addressed Himself, not merely to the 
 eleven men who surrounded Him at the time, but to 
 all who should hereafter succeed them in their office 
 and ministry, even down to the latest generations of 
 mankind. 
 
 43. Question. — What is the force of the " Amen," with 
 which this solemn assurance concludes? 
 
 Answer. — Like a seal affixed to a monarch's charter, 
 it confirms the charter to which it is affixed. Our Lord 
 calls Himself " the Amen, the faithful and true wit- 
 ness," in Rev. iii. 14 ; and, while on earth, He used to 
 prefix His more solemn and weighty sayings with the 
 words " Verily, verily," which are in the original 
 " Amen, amen " — see St. John viii. 34, 51 ; x. 1 ; xiii. 
 16, 20, 21 ; xiv. 12 ; xvi. 20, 28 ; v. 19, 24, 25, etc. 
 etc. The " Amen," therefore, at the end of this com- 
 mission is, in a manner, a swearing by Himself, as if 
 He would say : " As I am the Truth, and as my word 
 is true, I will be with you, and with those who succeed 
 you in your office of ministering God's Word and 
 Sacraments, unto the end of Time." 
 
 44. Question. — But have there not been times, when the 
 Church has seemed so overrun by superstitions 
 and grievous abuses, and Christianity has been 
 so corrupted by the traditions of men, that the 
 one retained hardly a feature of the Society which 
 Christ founded, and the other could hardly be 
 recognised as the Religion which Christ taught? 
 Has Christ's promise of being with His Church to 
 the end of the world failed at such periods? 
 
 Answer. — No ; His promise can never fail. Hath 
 He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, 
 and shall He not make it good ? Christ is not always 
 absent, when He does not exert His power. He gave 
 no signs of His Presence, when He lay asleep in the 
 ship ; yet He was really there, and it needed only the 
 cries of the Apostles to rouse Him, and make Him 
 
IV.] CatccJiism. 135 
 
 interpose for their safety, (See St. ]\Iark iv. 35-40.) In 
 like manner He has souietinies sufl'ered His Church to 
 be overwhehned with errors and corruptions, and 
 threatened even with destruction, that He might induce 
 His true people to cry to Him to save His own ark. 
 Even in the darkest and worst periods of her history, 
 the Church has rallied from her disorders, has shaken 
 off her corruptions, has purged herself, has thrown oif 
 her superstitions, and set herself again to her task of 
 witnessing for God in the midst of a crooked and per- 
 verse generation. There must have been strength, and 
 a principle of health in her, to make such a recovery 
 possible ; and this principle of health and strength has 
 been the covenanted Presence of her Master. Snakes 
 shed their old skins, deer their horns, trees their leaves; 
 but it is only to clothe themselves with new skins, to 
 put forth new horns, to sprout with new leaves. There 
 is life in each of them, which enables them to throw 
 off the old dress, and put on a new. And so, when the 
 Church threw oflF her corruptions and abuses, and re- 
 formed her practice, she did this by the life which was 
 in her. And this life consisted in her Master's Presence 
 with her. 
 
 45. CatecJnst. — You have said in the course of this 
 examination, that Baptism is the formal act of 
 admission to the Church {Question 28). But is 
 not this admission rather given by the act of sign- 
 ing the person baptized with the sign of the 
 Cross, when the Priest is instructed to say, " We 
 receive this child " {or^ this person) " into the con- 
 gregation of Christ's flock " ? 
 Answer. — No; we are clearly taught in St. John 
 iii. 5, that entrance into the kingdom of God (which is 
 the Church) is hy water and the Spirit. And the same 
 truth is symbolized by the ancient custom of placing 
 the baptismal font at the entrance of the church. The 
 words "We admit this child," etc., mean merely that 
 the Christian Society solemnly assents to the admission, 
 and recognises it as having taken place, by certain 
 words, and by the use of an outward sign. 
 
136 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 46. Question. — Is Baptism, then, nothing more than 
 
 the formal act of admission to the Church ? 
 Answer. — Yes ; much more. It is the passage out 
 of a state of wrath into a state of grace, and carries 
 with it forgiveness of sins, purchased for us by the 
 Blood of Christ, and all other blessings of the Christian 
 Covenant. 
 
 47. Question. — But would not Grod certainly forgive 
 the sins of a repentant and believing soul, even 
 without Baptism ? 
 
 Ansiver. — There is no reason to think that He would 
 do so ^vhere Baptism can he had ; but, on the contrary, 
 every reason to think He would not. 
 
 48. Question. — "What passage of Holy Scripture are 
 
 you referring to ? 
 Ansiver. — To the exhortation given by Ananias to 
 St. Paul after his conversion: " Arise, and be baptized, 
 and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the 
 Lord " (Acts xxii. 16). St. Paul was at this time 
 deeply penitent, and a true believer, as is shown by 
 his asking, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? " 
 (Acts ix. 6) ; by his fervent prayers (see Acts ix. 11) ; 
 and by his immediately afterwards preaching Christ in 
 the synagogues as the Son of God (see Acts ix. 20). 
 Yet lais sins were not yet forgiven ; for he is bidden to 
 arise, and wash them away in Baptism, the "washing" 
 being an allusion to the outward visible sign in this 
 Sacrament — " water ; wherein the person is baptized 
 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 49. Catechist. —Bnt surely the malefactor on the cross 
 was saved, and therefore must have been pardoned, 
 without Baptism. Does not this seem to show 
 that repentance and faith can procure pardon by 
 themselves, independently of the Sacrament of 
 Baptism ? 
 
 A7iswer.— No; it shows nothing of the kind under 
 the present circumstances of tlie Church. Full Christian 
 Baptism, which was to be " with the Holy Ghost" (St. 
 
IV.] Catcchis77i. 137 
 
 Mark i. 8), and which is " birth of water and of the 
 Spirit " (see St. John iii. 5), did not, and could not, 
 exist before the day of Pentecost, when the Holy 
 Ghost came down upon the disciples (see Acts ii. 4). 
 Immediately after that descent of '(kiQ Holy Ghost, 
 Baptism is declared to be the appointed means for the 
 remission of the sins of those who had been convicted 
 of sin and converted to God. " Repent, and he bap- 
 tized every one of you in the name of Jcsus Christ 
 for the remission of sins " (Acts ii. 88). This was said 
 to those who were already " pricked in their heart," 
 and asked the Apostles what they should do, evidently 
 intending to follow the counsel given them (see Acts 
 ii. 37.) To all appearance they were deeply penitent; 
 and yet they are told that they must " be baptized in 
 the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." 
 The penitent malefactor, dying before this Baptism 
 was or could be practised, could not have had it ; and 
 God does not require from any of us what it is impos- 
 sible we should have. 
 
 50. Catechist. — Among the things which God's "Word 
 
 requires us to believe, we may well suppose that 
 some are of greater, some of less importance. 
 What reason is there for thinking that the spiritual 
 effect of Baptism, rightly administered and rightly 
 received, is a fundamental point of Christian Faith, 
 and not a matter of lesser moment? 
 Answer. — The Nicene Creed, which is a very brief 
 summary of the things to be believed, includes the 
 effect of Holy Baptism among them; "■ I acknoidedt/e 
 one Baptism for the remission of sins." These words 
 are taken from St. Peter's counsel to his convicted 
 hearers on the day of Pentecost, already quoted ; " Re- 
 pent, and he haptized every one of you in the name of 
 Jesus Christ /or the remission of sins " (Acts ii. 38). 
 
 51. Question. — What makes the position of the Church 
 
 of England difficult to maintain under any cir- 
 cumstances ? 
 Ansioer. — The fact that opposition to her comes 
 
138 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 from two different and opposite quarters, from those 
 who dislike the Scriptural purity of her doctrine, as 
 adverse to the superstitions which they would graft 
 upon it, and from those also who make light of (per- 
 chance because they themselves have it not) her Apo- 
 stolical descent. 
 
 52. Ca^ec/i^'s^.— State briefly the features of our Church's 
 
 position. 
 Answer.- — The Church of England is both Scriptural 
 and Apostolic, both pure and primitive, both Catholic 
 and Reformed. 
 
 53. Question. — In addition to the diflBculty inherent in 
 her position, what present dangers threaten the 
 Church from within and without ? 
 
 Answer. — First, there is the mutual exasperation of 
 the parties, who represent respectively the Catholic and 
 the Reformed element in her constitution. The feud 
 is very likely, if God's mercy prevent not, to rend 
 in sunder the National Church, and to make of it two 
 great religious factions. 
 
 54. Question. — What renders our present position more 
 
 critical still ? 
 A7}swer.—The clamour of the Dissenters for the dis- 
 establishment and disendowment of the Church, that is, 
 for bringing the Church down, as regards her temporal 
 advantages, to a level with the sects. 
 
 55. Catechist. — You say, *' as regards her temporal ad- 
 vantages." Do you mean that her spiritual powers 
 could not be affected by such a measure ? 
 
 Ansiver. — Certainly not. She would still be the 
 only true Church of Christ in England, and the only 
 Communion which really holds the Lord's commission 
 to preach and administer the Sacraments. 
 
 56. Question. — But what is the most alarming feature 
 
 of the present crisis ? 
 Ansiver. — The thinly-veiled scepticism which is 
 springing up within the Church, and the tendency of 
 which is to deprive Christianity of its supernatural, 
 
IV.] CatcchisiJi. 139 
 
 and indeed of its doctrinal element, and to reduce it 
 to a lofty system of morality, illustrated by a great 
 Example. 
 
 57. Question. — What steps should be taken by Church- 
 men in counteraction of these dangers ? 
 Answer. — The clergy should inculcate, more habitu- 
 ally than they do, the advantages of the Church's 
 po.^ition, and lead the people to appreciate them. The 
 laity (whose exertions are equally needed with those 
 of the clergy) should thoughtfully study and compare 
 Bible and 1 'ray er- Book, and acquaint themselves with 
 the relation in which they stand to one another, as text 
 and commentary. And all should lift up earnest 
 prayer for our Church to Him "who walketh in the 
 midst of the seven golden candlesticks," that He would 
 not " remove our candlestick out of his place," but 
 would send us faithful and true pastors, to order and 
 guide us according to His will, and would make us a 
 burning and shining light among the Communions 
 of Christendom, giving us repentance for the past, and 
 kindling upon the altar of our hearts the flame of zeal 
 and love in the future. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE INSTITUTION OF THE MINISTRY, AND ITS 
 RELATION TO THE CHURCH. 
 
 " 5HnJk -.tbout Bron, nxtb gc xonnb abwtt her : U\l the totoers 
 thereof. ^^\nvk vc tocU her bulwarks, ronsiber her 
 Viiistecs ; that gc tnag tell it to the generation folloto- 
 ing."— Psalm xlviii. 12, 13. 
 
 npHE reader will remember that we are en- 
 -^ deavouring to comply with this admonition 
 in a spiritual sense. The Church is our Zion, 
 which Christ founded as a shelter, a house, a 
 place of defence for the spiritual life. And we 
 rf)c fanife sre now going " round about " the Church, to ob- 
 spi'rituni^sion serve the "towers" and "bulwarks" with which 
 resume. jjg j^^g fortified, and the "palaces" with which 
 He has beautified, her; in other words (dropping 
 the language of figure), we are accompanying our 
 Lord in thought, as He traces the ground-plan of 
 His Church, upon which His Apostles were sub- 
 sequently to build. We have examined the words 
 by which He formed the Society, and endowed 
 it with His Presence, and those also by which 
 He provided for its extension, and for the instruc- 
 tion of its members, juvenile and adult, in His 
 own life-giving Truth, 
 
 140 
 
CI I. v.] Institution of the Ministry. 141 
 
 In this Chapter we resume our walk round the 
 circuit of the walls of Zion. 
 
 Though tlie word " Church" is of frequent occur- Or toort 
 rence in the Acts and Epistles (when there was a onin uscd in 
 
 / 11 IN T J 1 -i- J- .the (Bospds 
 
 Cliurch), our Lord only uses it on two occasions, on tao occa- 
 But in what He says on these occasions, He opens 
 out a view of the whole subject. One of them is 
 the passage in which, as an acknowledgment of 
 St. Peter's confession, He promises to build His in % pro- 
 Church " upon this rock." It formed the subject of Jjctet; 
 our first Chapter, and must presently be referred 
 to again. The other is the passage quoted, and 
 partly explained in the last Chapter, in which He 
 directs that the offence of an erring brother (if he ann in iftc 
 will not listen to a private remonstrance) shall be 10 ucc-rf toiih 
 told to the Church, and that the Church (if he iVo^ttrr.^'"'^ 
 neglect to hear it) shall excommunicate him, or 
 deal with him as a heathen man and a publican. 
 " Nobody " (He proceeds — I give the meaning of 
 the words in a free paraphrase) "should tliink 
 lightly of this censure, for it will be ratified in 
 heaven. The Church hath great power witli 
 heaven ; for the united prayer of even two or 
 three of you, gathered together in my Name, shall 
 be accepted and answered. And this because 1 
 am myseK with the Society which I found, how- 
 ever small on any particular occasion its numbers 
 may be." 
 
 We are now about to see Christ's Institu- 
 tion of the Ministry of the Cliurch, and the 
 relation which He designs the Ministry to bear 
 to the Church itself. This relation it is very 
 necessary to understand correctly; and the pas- 
 
142 The Institution of the Ministry, [chap. 
 
 sage before us throws a great deal of light upon 
 it. 
 
 It will be well to have it before us in full. 
 It is found in St. Matt, xviii. 15, d sequent. 
 (St. Matt, xviii. 15) " Moreover if thy brother shall 
 trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault be- 
 tween 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 it unto the church : but if he 
 neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee 
 as an heathen man and a publican" (in other 
 words, let him be excommunicated, — a practice 
 well known among Jews, and which went among 
 them by the names of being " cast out of the syna- 
 gogue," and being " delivered unto Satan"). St. 
 Paul echoes this precept of our Lord, for the direc- 
 tion of the Church at Corinth, when he bids them 
 excommunicate one of their members, who had 
 lacmatfeabie Committed incest. " But now I have written unto 
 "cttoccnour you not to keep company, if any man that is 
 tions for"^"' called a brother " (a Christian brother) " be a for- 
 tiannnfie"' nicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or 
 St BauVs a drunkard, or an extortioner ; with such an one 
 ptactiaofit. ^^ ^^^ ^^ g^^ For what have I to do to judge 
 them also that are without ?" (without the pale of 
 the Church; referring to what he had said just 
 before, that they were not to separate themselves 
 from the heathen world ; for how should they then 
 be " the light of the world," and " the salt of the 
 earth ? " it was not the Apostle's business, or the 
 
v.] and its Relation to the Church. 143 
 
 Church's, to censure the heathen, but to convert 
 them) "do not ye judge them that are within" 
 (the members of your own body) ? " but them that 
 are without God judgeth. Therefore put away 
 from among yourselves that wicked person." In 
 the earlier part of the Chapter we find that the act 
 of excommunication was to be performed " in the 
 name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are 
 gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." Observe how exactly 
 this language agrees with that of our Lord, in the 
 context of the passage we are considering. For 
 he traces up the force of excommunication, as . 
 also the force of united prayer, to this very simple 
 principle ; " For where two or three are gathered 
 together in my name " (" in the name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together"), 
 " there am I in the midst of them " (there is " the 
 jyoiver of our Lord Jesus Christ," to second the 
 sentence). Observe, too (for we must make use of 
 the observation presently) that excommunication 
 is the act of the whole Church, headed by the 
 Apostle; " I have determined, when ye are gathered oic parties 
 together, and my sinrit " (the Apostle could not be ^nmrTn^' 
 present in person, but he would be there in spirit, In^rcUfmng"^ 
 when the censure was pronounced) ..." to de- unKofmom- 
 liver such an one unto Satan." And we find '"""^'>'^"- 
 from the Second Epistle that the same parties 
 must concur in relieving a person from this censure. 
 St. Paul there directs the Church to forgive and 
 comfort the offender, who by the sentence of ex- 
 communication had been brought to aright mind; 
 and then says ; " To whom ye forgive anything, I 
 
scait. m ti)c. ^^j;ji^Q(3^ — ^ye ujay gather some idea of it from the 
 misdiichous iiappy result of what is called expulsion in 
 
 144 The InsiitiUion of tJic Miiiistry, [chap. 
 
 forgive also " (as if the sentence of absolution 
 could not be ratified without his apostolic autho- 
 rity) : " for if I forgave anything, to whom I for- 
 gave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person 
 of Christ." 
 
 Of excommunication I need say no more 
 than that -it is an exercise by the Church of the 
 power, which every society possesses, of expel- 
 ling such members as bring discredit upon it. If 
 riif mural We wish to vmderstand what the moral power 
 acmnimmica- and usc of cxcommunication was in the Apo- 
 onaSr stolic Church,— what it might be even now, if 
 
 scalt, in tl)c 
 npulsinn of 
 nttsdiiclious 
 tnrmbrrs from 
 
 So'iksref"^ schools and colleges. A youth is doing mischief, 
 leading others into evil, setting an example of 
 indolence and vice, which is infectious to younger 
 boys. In this case the ringleader must be seut 
 away ; and one such removal is often sufficient 
 to restore the moral tone of the school. Excom- 
 munication is the expulsion by the Church of her 
 own unworthy members, as absolution is their 
 re-instatement in membership on their true re- 
 pentance. And what makes excommunication 
 so much more serious than expulsion from an 
 ordinary society (what justifies the application to 
 it of such awful names as the being " delivered 
 unto Satan,") is that the Church is a divinely 
 founded Society, the very kingdom of God planted 
 by Christ among the children of men. 
 
 But our Lord proceeds thus, after bidding the 
 Church excommunicate the offending brother; 
 "Verily I say unto you. Whatsoever ye shall 
 
v.] audits Relation to the Church. 145 
 
 bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and 
 whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed 
 in heaven." 
 
 The first thing to be observed here is that in srhc poinrr of 
 the sixteenth Chapter this very power of binding loogilTg^ °" 
 and loosing, which is here lodged with the whole tlnu toaijX 
 Church (" Whatsoever ye shall bind . . . what- ci^uuh, at 
 Boever ye shall loose "), is given specifically to aTnaTe^'"' 
 one only of the Apostles, St. Peter (verse 1 9), ^J"'^''*' 
 " And I will give unto thee the keys of the king- 
 dom of heaven " (or Church ; the " keys " are 
 doubtless the Word and Sacraments of God, by 
 the use of which St. Peter, first on the day of 
 Pentecost, and afterwards in the house of Cor- 
 nelius, threw open the doors of the Church, or 
 kingdom of God, for the admission of Jews and 
 Gentiles) : " and whatsoever Tiiou shalt bind on 
 earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever 
 THOU shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in 
 heaven." But what is meant by "binding" and irbf mraning 
 " loosing? " It will be safe to understand by these ann ''im"^ 
 terms every exercise of Church authority. Partly, j'^^^' ^ 
 excommunication and re-instatement, like that of munication, 
 the incestuous man of Cormth. — The " bmding " ftom it. 
 is also to be understood of those words of censure 
 sometimes spoken by the Apostles, which were siiId. tm- 
 attended with a judgment on the offender. St. bg temporal 
 Peter " bound " Ananias and Sapphira, when he ana°«iu/' 
 remonstrated with them for their falsehood and 
 sacrilege, and they fell dead at his feet (which 
 last was Heaven's ratification of the binding). 
 St. Paul " bound " Elymas the sorcerer, when he 
 called him the " child of the devil," the "enemy 
 
1 46 The Institution of the Ministry, [chap 
 
 of all righteousness," and doomed him to be blind 
 
 for a season, a sentence which immediately came 
 
 to pass. — But the words have a broader sense 
 
 3tit5. 9uti)o- than this. The authoritative permission of any- 
 
 ritatibe pro- , . n n i 1 t • i i 1 • » 
 
 tibition ana thing was Called by the Jewish doctors " loosing 
 it (or making it free to people) ; the authoritative 
 prohibition of it was called " binding " it (or 
 tying it up). So when the first Christian Council 
 at Jerusalem authoritatively declared that the 
 Gentile converts need not circumcise their chil- 
 dren, nor observe the Mosaic ritual, this was a 
 " loosing." And when that Council charged them 
 nevertheless to abstain from meats offered to 
 idols, and other abominable things which went on 
 in heathen temples ; and when St. Paul, in his 
 First Epistle to the Corinthians, bids Christians 
 not partake of such meats, if a weak brother 
 would be scandalized by their doing so, this was a 
 m\-a_. ri)e " binding." — Further still : the authoritative ad- 
 or granting of ministration of the Sacraments through which, as 
 
 Sarraintnts; ,, -,11 i i 
 
 the appointed channels, mercy and grace are con- 
 veyed to man's soul ; the authoritative preaching 
 of the Name of Jesus Christ, as that whereby 
 alone we must be saved, and the announcing to 
 men God's offer of pardon and reconciliation 
 ©t 5H)iio. ©t through Him, is a " loosing " (a means of releas- 
 mransof'"^^ iug the conscieuce from the guilt of sin). So is 
 ^""' every formal absolution, every formal benediction. 
 
 And, on the contrary, the withholding these 
 means of grace from any one, — the withholduig 
 Baptism from a heathen, because he is not yet 
 considered fit for it, or the Lord's SujDper from 
 a Christian, because by some grievous sin he has 
 
v.] and its Relation to the CJmrcJi. 147 
 
 caused a scandal among the congregation, or the 
 
 rite of burial from one, who had died in a fit of or tbm of 
 
 nno rite of 
 
 intoxication, or with an avowal of mfidelity on tije'cburcfi. 
 his lips, — this would be a " binding," or (in another 
 Scriptural phrase, which is as nearly as possible 
 equivalent) a " retaining of sins." 
 
 And thus we an-ive at tlie passage where this 
 latter phrase occurs, and in which our Blessed 
 Lord institutes the INIinistry of His Church, or, in 
 other words, appoints the officers of the Society 
 which He had founded. This great appointment 
 was made on the evening of the first Easter Day. 
 Here is the account of it : — " Then the same cfirisfa 
 
 . 1 r. 1 PI 1 institution of 
 
 day, at evening, bemg the first day of the week, the fflinistto 
 when the doors were shut where the disciples ing of tbc 
 were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus Dao. 
 and stood in the midst" (in exact fulfilment 
 of His foregone assurance, " AMiere two or three 
 are gathered together in my name, there am I 
 in the midst of them "), " 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 to them again" (now 
 here He is speaking to the ten Apostles only, 
 even supposing others to have been present, as is 
 evident from His employing the very verb, from 
 which the word " apostle," which means " a sent 
 one," is derived), " Peace be unto you : as my 
 Father hath sent me " (our Lord is called " the 
 Ajjosth of our profession " in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews), " even so send I you. And when he 
 had said this, he breathed on them, and saith 
 
1 48 The Institution of the Ministry, [chap. 
 
 unto them, Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost : Wliose 
 soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; 
 and whose soever sins ye retain, they are re- 
 tained." That this passage is connected with 
 the Ordination (or appointment) of Ministers, and 
 that our Church finds in it one of her warrants 
 for Ordination, is clear from the fact that it makes 
 part of the solemn sentence, by which Priest's 
 Orders are still administered among us, — the sen- 
 tence which accompanies the imposition of hands, 
 and which runs thus ; " Eeceive the Holy Ghost 
 for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church 
 of God, now committed unto thee by the Imposi- 
 tion of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, 
 they are forgiven ; and whose sins thou dost 
 retain, they are retained. And be thou a faith- 
 ful Dispenser of the AVord of God, and of his holy 
 Sacraments ; In the Name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." 
 
 Without entering into particulars about the 
 meaning of the words " remitting " and " retain- 
 ing " sins, which might not only lead us much 
 beyond our limits, but involve us in controversy 
 (a thing foreign to the purpose of this work), let 
 us take them in that broad and incontrovertible 
 sense, in which the soundest divines of our Church 
 (Barrow,^ for instance, and many others) have 
 understood and expounded them, and which the 
 charge that follows them in the sentence of Ordi- 
 nation (to be " faithful in dispensing God's Word 
 and Sacraments ") seems to impose upon them. 
 So understood and explained, they mean almost 
 
 ^ See his treatise De Potestate Clavium. 
 
v.] and its Relation to the Church. 149 
 
 Cif not quite) the same as the " bindinfr and loos- JSronbsmae 
 
 •^ M P , • 1 1- 1 11 rpi of the iDorUg, 
 
 ing, of which we have spoken already. IheaBmraninfl 
 Ministry of the Gospel is a ministry of reconcilia- fSiniatro of 
 tion. The great message of God's Word is, " We ann tbrro 
 pray you in Christ's stead, be ye, reconciled to God." tro, bo far as 
 
 rni -r^ i • ■ • „ f l^ • ■ r • 1i it is a rCprO- 
 
 Ihe one liaptism is tor the remission oj sins, suction of 
 and subsequently for " the gift of the Holy Ghost." a/pmnuij 
 The chalice of the Holy Supper represents and TS^ 
 conveys Christ's " blood of the New Testament, QibrnrsBranu 
 which is shed for many /or the remission of sins." bicg^sm^aof 
 And in special connexion with the Eucharist, cob^an/,'^" 
 as the great Christian " sacrifice of praise and S^/"'^'' '" 
 thanksgiving," we pray that by the merits and 
 death of God's Son Jesus Christ, " and through 
 faith in his blood, we and all thy whole Church 
 may obtain remission of our sins, and all other 
 benefits of his passion." Thus the Word and 
 Sacraments of God are the golden conduit-pipes, 
 through which the golden oil of grace, mercy, 
 and peace is poured into man's heart. — Now the 
 Apostles, who represented all ministers to the 
 end of time, in whose ministry all lesser minis- 
 tries were bound up, as the prismatic colours 
 in the sun, and from whose ministry all lesser 
 ministries are derived, as separate rills from the 
 fulness of a broad and brimming river, were the 
 appointed and ordained administrators of these 
 Ordinances. Where they preached and ministered, 
 there mercy and grace flowed forth to the people 
 through the channel of their ministry. Where they 
 did not preach and minister, there the fountains 
 of mercy and grace were in a manner sealed up. 
 And in this sense, as ministerially the media, 
 
150 The Institution of the Ministry , [chap. 
 
 through which God's pardoning mercy and restor- 
 ing grace reached man, " whose soever sins " the 
 Apostles remitted, they were remitted unto them, 
 and "whose soever sins" the Apostles retained, 
 they were retained. And so far forth as any 
 modern and uninspired ministry is a reproduction 
 of the ministry of the Apostles, so far as it is 
 exercised in their spirit, and sets forth their doc- 
 trine, as well as proceeds under their commission, 
 — so far, no doubt, the remission and retaining of 
 sins accompanies it also. For that remission and 
 retention is necessarily bound up in the Gospel 
 Ministry. 
 
 II. But now we advance to the most delicate 
 and important part of our subject, — the relation 
 which the Ministry of the Church bears to the 
 Church itself. The point is very simple, and 
 may be easily understood by one or two familiar 
 illustrations. 
 
 In the passages of the New Testament whicli 
 we have just reviewed, we observe that the 
 very same power of "binding" and "loosing," 
 which is given first to St, Peter by himself, is 
 given very soon afterwards to the whole body of 
 believers, — to the "two or three gathered together" 
 in Christ's Name. And we observe also that an 
 exactly similar power, that of " remitting and re- 
 taining sins," is given also to the Apostles gene- 
 rally, in their character of Apostles, or sent ones. 
 CEitfj fof)om This raises the question, To whom is the power of 
 Iff bmainfl'^ binding and loosing, remitting and retaining {i.e. 
 rcaUs"'So, ^s I have explained, carrying on under Christ's 
 commission the great ministry of reconciliation). 
 
v.] and its Relation to tJic Church. 1 5 1 
 
 roally given ? -svith whom is it really lodged ? Is 
 it with the whole Church (that is, with the whole 
 assembly of baptized believers,) as would seem to 
 be the case from His saying to all His disciples, 
 " Whatsoever YE shall bind on earth shall be 
 bound in heaven?" Or is it with the clergy of 
 the Church only, as would seem to be the case 
 from His giving to His Apostles, when sending 
 them forth in His Name, the power of remitting 
 and retaining sins ? In other words, are these initi, tbf 
 powers intrusted to the Society which Christ toi/ijlta" 
 founded, or only to the officers of the Society? o®"'^*' 
 
 The answer is, (and it is an answer which re- 
 conciles the Scriptural notices on the subject, and 
 puts the whole question of the Christian Ministry 
 on its right footing,) that the powers in question 
 are indeed the powers of tlie whole body, and to 
 be exercised for the benefit of the whole body ; 
 but that they are delegated to Christian IMinisters 
 as the organs and representatives of the body, — for 
 which reason, though the powers belong essen- 
 tially to all, it does not follow that all have tlie 
 right to exercise them. 
 
 In all ministerial acts, Christian Ministers act 
 as organs and representatives of the Church, or 
 Society of the faithful. 
 
 First, as organs} Take an illustration from the cbriatfan 
 
 iBinistfrs thf 
 organg of tl)f 
 
 ^ This illustration is borrowed entirely from that very Cburri). 
 valuable volume, the Bampton Lectures of the present 
 Bishop of Salisbury. The illustration drawn from political 
 representatives is one which I ventured to use in another 
 work, i)ublishe(l many years ago. I am greatly pleased to 
 find that the same idea has occurred to Bishop Moberly, and 
 is sanctioned by him. 
 
152 The Institutmi of the Ministry, [chap. 
 
 lEIIu0(talton 
 from the 
 natural botig, 
 tte taf)olc of" 
 iuhicf) 13 
 mbotoeU iritf) 
 BcnBation, 
 iD|)iU at tfje 
 same titne 
 lljftc are 
 ssprrial 
 organs, 
 ti)rouglj 
 
 stuBatton is 
 firrcisclj. 
 
 natural body. The whole body is endowed with 
 sensation, even down to the extremities. Sensa- 
 tion is not the endowment of a part, but is distri- 
 buted over the whole. And that sensation is one 
 and the same thing (though the impressions which 
 come to us through the eye, the ear, the touch, are 
 veiy different in character) may be gathered from 
 the well-known fact that, when a man is deprived 
 of one sense, other senses grow keener. Thus blind 
 people acquire a wonderful delicacy of touch, 
 enabling them (it is said) occasionally to ascertain 
 the colour of a piece of stuff by feeling it. This 
 seems to show that the eye, the ear, the hand, the 
 palate, and so forth, are only avenues of sensation, 
 doors by which sensation goes forth from sensitive 
 creatures, and that, when one door is shut, the 
 sensibility which is spread over the body rallies 
 more strongly at the other doors. Here then is 
 an image of the relation, which the Ministry bears 
 to the Church at large. Christian Ministers are 
 to the Church what the eye, the ear, the palate 
 (and so forth), are to the body, — organs, through 
 which it puts forth its powers and receives im- 
 pressions. These powers and impressions really 
 belong to the whole body, not exchisively to the 
 Ministry. Life is not the special endowment of 
 the eye, or of the ear, or of the hand ; it is the 
 general endowment of the body, which lives in 
 the eye, and the ear, and the hand, — sees in the 
 one, hears in the other, feels in tlie third. The 
 whole Church of Christ — laity as well as clergy 
 — is endowed with the life of the Holy Ghost, 
 breathed into it continually by its risen Head. 
 
v.] and its Relation to the Church. 153 
 
 But this does not at all militate against the other 
 truth, that the Ministers of the Church are the 
 organs by which she exerts her powers, by which 
 she utters and expresses herself, and through 
 which also (as through an eye or an ear) she re- 
 ceives that mercy, grace, and peace, which are in 
 the natural world what light and music are in the 
 spiritual. 
 
 But Christian Ministers are representatives, as cWBiian 
 well as organs, of the Church. And this at least prcsentatifacs' 
 is a point which is very easily seized. The priest- ° 
 hood of the Jewish Church was, it will be remem- 
 bered, a representative priesthood. Originally, the 
 first-born of Israel, the eldest male children of all 
 the families in the nation, were consecrated to 
 God, in commemoration of their having been 
 spared, when the first-born of the Egyptians were 
 destroyed. But afterwards, because such an erprrsfnta- 
 
 . . tiUc cliarnnrr 
 
 arrangement might have been inconvenient, the ofthcSttoisb 
 
 T- 1- i(>ir>i pricstbooO. 
 
 Levites were substituted tor the first-born, and 
 made to represent them. " Take the Levites," 
 said the Lord, " instead of all the first-born of the 
 children of Israel." That in the Christian Ministry 
 also there is the same principle of representation, 
 may be gathered from the messages which St. 
 John is instructed to send to the angels of the 
 Seven Churches in Asia. By the angels are srfie angrig 
 meant the bishops who governed those Churches, oftfificbcn 
 And a study of the Epistles will show that they orfiurrU.. 
 are not addressed to the bishops, as individual \\t atb'ia-" 
 Christians, but as representatives of the respective prrsmtaYifacs 
 Churches over which they presided. In short, ehunfirs 
 it is not so much the bishop who is addressed, {"beg pnsrtifii. 
 
154 The Institution of tJie Ministry, [chap. 
 
 as the Church, which is addressed through its 
 bishop. I will only quote one passage in proof 
 of what I say ; " Unto the angel of the church 
 in Smyrna write. . . . Fear none of those 
 things which thou shalt suffer : " (but it does not 
 follow hence that the bishop himself in his own 
 person would suffer, though doubtless he would 
 be a sharer with the rest in the sufferings of 
 Christ ; for the verse proceeds), " behold, the 
 devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye 
 may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten 
 days." The " thou" is only addressed as represent- 
 ing the " ye." Every Church is summed up in its 
 bishop, and takes its tone from him. 
 iSfprrsmia- Mucli is it to be deplored that the English word, 
 of'tbc'cbri? which expresses this representative character of 
 mognhrt iig ^^ clergy, has been so vulgarized as almost to 
 •''^a?son.' '^^fi^ i^ ^*^^ serious use. " Persona" in Latin 
 means a representative, one who plays the part, 
 and sustains the character, of another. Brought 
 into the English tongue, this word became " per- 
 son," and was applied to the clergy, because in 
 their respective parishes they represent the Church 
 of Christ, You have it in this form in Chaucer ; 
 
 " There was a poiire Persone of a toim ;" 
 
 (that is, a poor city clergyman). The word still 
 exists, and is applied to the clergy, though the 
 e has been changed into a, — a change which not 
 only vulgarizes it, but hides its derivation. 
 
 The clergy, then, are representatives of the 
 Church. And our political constitution has made 
 us familiar with the oftice and duties of repre- 
 
v.] and its Relation to the Church. 1 5 5 
 
 sentatives. Our House of Comiuons consists of jaoiiiicai «- 
 representatives of the people. They are the popu- SmbTibdr" 
 lar element in the Legislature. They derive all \\^^tal\u 
 their power, as well as their appointment, from the pmo°gati'i?« 
 people. The member for any constituency is ^topu mag 
 sent to Parliament, to act for the constituency in ""' "®"''' ' 
 matters of legislation, to speak in their interests, 
 and make their voice heard. He is to be their 
 organ ; he has no position independent of them ; 
 he has no power but what they (by the votes of 
 the majority) have intrusted to him for the com- 
 mon benefit. But, on the other hand, it is abund- 
 antly clear, that once elected and sent to Parlia- 
 ment, he has a right to do many things, which 
 they have no right to do; many things with 
 which they must not presume to meddle. "VVe 
 may say with truth that the members for our 
 county and borough derive all their power from 
 ourselves ; but that does not give to any one of 
 lis the right to make a speech in the House of 
 Commons, or even to enter the House without 
 permission. This very simple and easy illustra- 
 tion explains (perhaps better than any other 
 covdd) the true relation between the Christian 
 ]\Iinistry and the Church. Every power which anii so Hje 
 we, as Christian Ministers, can be supposed to aKrtjj'rremta- 
 exercise, even the very highest, — excommunica- cJjur?^.'''^ 
 tion, absolution, benediction, authoritative de- 
 claration and exposition of God's Word, conse- 
 cration of the elements in the holy Eucharist, — 
 is strictly and essentially a Churcli power ; it was 
 lodged with the Church at iirst, and we exercise 
 it merely as delegates and representatives of the 
 
1 5 6 The Institution of the Ministry, [chap. 
 
 whole body of Christ, or (if you please) merely 
 as trustees, who are bound to administer it for the 
 benefit of the party to whom it was bequeathed. 
 
 " All the congregation are holy," said rebellious 
 Korah, " every one of them, and the Lord is 
 sarai) spoke among them." So far Korah spoke the truth, 
 assfrtmg itat and had right on his side. All the people of 
 grcsntion Israel were holy, and the Lord was among them. 
 All the Christian Church is holy, every member 
 of it ; and the Lord is in the midst of the two or 
 three gathered together in His Name, even where 
 there is no Minister and no Ministry. Moreover, 
 every private Christian is a priest, bound to offer 
 up privately on the altar of Christ's Atonement 
 the incense of prayer, the sacrifice of praise, of 
 alms, and of his own body. — But while Korah 
 had one right premiss in his argument, his con- 
 clusion was desperately (may I not say damnably ?) 
 wrong, and he and all his company bitterly riied 
 their false logic. Though all the congregation 
 were holy, every one of them, God had appointed 
 toroi'/lD''' '^^ ^^^^ °^ Aaron exclusively to offer incense be- 
 tiicnre tgat t)e fgre the Lord, and to fulfil the other functions of 
 
 miglit assume ' 
 
 fufuti°'°^ priesthood. Aaron and his family, in claiming 
 the exclusive right to exercise those functions, 
 had not taken too much upon them, nor lifted 
 up themselves above the congregation of the 
 Lord, since they had been expressly called of God 
 to that great Ministry. And, as we all know, 
 miserably did the cavillers against their preroga- 
 tive perish. And in later days King Uzziah was 
 made an example of the sinfulness of a similar 
 usurpation of sacred functions. 
 
v.] a)id its RclatiojL to the Church. 157 
 
 I would not unduly press the parallel between 
 the Levitical and tlie Christian Ministry ; but I 
 would insist upon tlie great principles which 
 underlie it. The individual priesthood of the 
 Christian laity is entirely compatible with the 
 official priesthood of the Christian clergy. ,A11 
 the powers of the priesthood are the Church's 
 l)owers ; but that, while true, is far from warrant- 
 ing any unauthorized member of the Church in 
 exercising them. Many of our laity, animated ernn-oacijmfut 
 doubtless by a laudable ambition to do good, ministfTiai 
 mixed up with the desire (natural to all of us) of tonficmnrt bo 
 saying their say on subjects which interest them, ans buVhat It 
 are coveting the office of preachers ; while others Uptosp.^ 
 presume (and surely it is a great presumption) to 
 thrust themselves into the office without any call 
 from the Church. Whether or not devout and 
 well-educated laymen might not (after due exa- 
 mination, such as the clergy have to submit to) 
 ]je licensed by the bishops to preach, with advan- 
 tage to the Chiirch (as has been the case in for- 
 mer times), it is for the bishops themselves to 
 consider. But with every respect for the large 
 amount of good motive in those who take upon 
 themselves a sacred office without any authoriza- 
 tion, I confess that, looking at their action only 
 in the light of Holy Scripture, I cannot help re- 
 garding it as (I am using the mildest terms I can 
 find) questionable and hazardous in the highest 
 degree. Were I to undertake such a task with- 
 out recognition from the Church, the awful words 
 " that he be not as Korah, and as his company," 
 would come chiming in with a jangling disso- 
 
1 5 S Ca tech ism. [c hap. 
 
 nance amidst tlie echoes of my own voice ; and 
 the question whether any man's preaching could 
 be of such importance to the Church, that it must 
 be had at any rate, even in defiance of her own 
 rules, would thoroughly disquiet me in my work. 
 But I desire to judge no man by my own con- 
 science. To his own Master the unauthorized 
 preacher must stand or fall. Suffice it that the 
 author has done his best to give a popular view of 
 the relation subsisting between the Ministry and 
 the Church. It is the reader's part to consider 
 that view, and, if found to be according to the 
 teaching of God's Word, to accept and act upon it. 
 
 OTatcchism oit QTItap'. 1. 
 
 1. Question.— ^V-^ is the word " Church " of much 
 rarer occurrence in the Gospels than in the Acts 
 of the Apostles and the Epistles ? 
 
 Answer. — Because the Church, though all its founda- 
 tions were marked out by our Lord Himself, can hardly 
 be said to have been in existence during the period 
 which is described in the Grospels. Hence we hear 
 very little of the Church until after the day of Pente- 
 cost, when it was first set up. 
 
 2. Question.- — ^How often does our Lord use the word 
 
 "Church"? 
 Answer. — Only on two occasions, both of which are 
 recorded in St. Matthew's Gospel. In acknowledgment 
 of St. Peter's confession of Him, our Lord says (St. 
 Matt. xvi. 18) : " And I say also unto thee, That thou 
 art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; 
 and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." And 
 a little further on in the same Gospel He gives this 
 
v.] Catechism. 159 
 
 rule as to the right manner of dealing with an erring 
 brother (chap, xviii. 15, 16, 17): "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 it unto tlie church: but if he neglect to hear the 
 church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a 
 publican." 
 
 3. Question. — "What is the subject of the present 
 Chapter ? 
 
 Answer. — The institution of the Christian Ministry, 
 and the relation which it bears to the Church. 
 
 4. Question. — What passages of Holy Scripture give 
 us instruction on these points ? 
 
 Answer. — Two principally ; the first, that which was 
 last quoted from St. Matthew; the second, that which 
 records the interview of our Lord with His disciples 
 on the evening of the day of His Resurrection (St. 
 John XX. 19-24). 
 
 5. Question. — In the first of these passages, what 
 do you understand by the words, " Let him be 
 unto thee as an heathen man and a publican " ? 
 
 Anstver. — Let him be excommunicated, and put out 
 of the pale of the Christian Society. 
 
 6. Question. — Do we find St. Paul echoing this pre- 
 cept of our Lord ? 
 
 Ansivcr. Yes. He thus writes to the Corinthians 
 with special reference to a member of their Church, 
 who had committed the sin of incest : " Now I have 
 written unto you not to keep company, if any man that 
 is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an 
 idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner ; 
 with such an one no not to eat. . . . Therefore put 
 away from among yourselves that wicked person " (1 
 Cor. V. 11, 13). 
 
1 60 CatecJiism. [chap. 
 
 7. Question. What name does he give to this separa- 
 tion of a man from the Christian Society ? 
 
 Ansiver. — He calls it " a judgment of them that are 
 •within " (a censure, that is, of those who are within 
 the pale of the Church). As for those who are 
 " without " (or bej'ond) the pale, he says it is not for 
 him to censure them ; they are to be left to the judg- 
 ment of Almighty God. This throws great light upon 
 the admonitory clauses of the Athanasian Creed, and 
 other like censures of the Church. We do not pro- 
 nounce in them any judgment whatever upon the 
 heathen, not even upon such heathen as have heard, 
 but not closed with, the oifers of the Gospel, much less 
 upon those to whom the G ospel has never been made 
 known. " What have I to do to judge them also that 
 are without? . . . them that are without God 
 judgeth" (1 Cor. V. 12, 13). 
 
 8. Question. — By what other more awful term does 
 the Apostle describe excommunication? 
 
 Answer. — He calls it " a delivering unto Satan for 
 the destruction of the flesh." The words are : " For 
 I verily, as absent 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 " (1 Cor. v. 3, 4, 5). 
 
 9. Question. — What observation have you to make on 
 the words, "In the name of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my 
 spirit"? 
 
 Ansiver. — That they coincide remarkably with the 
 words of our Lord in St. Matthew (xviii. 20);_"For 
 where two or three are gathered together in my 
 name, there am I in the midst of them," especially 
 when it is remembered that these last words occur in 
 the same paragraph which directs us to regard " as an 
 
v.] CatecJiisni. i6l 
 
 heathen man and a publican " an offending "brother," 
 who neglects " to hear the Church," and in which the 
 disciples are assured that " whatsoever " they " shall 
 bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;" (see St. 
 Matt, xviii. 17, 18.) IJoth passages seem to make 
 " the gatliering together " of the faithful " in the name 
 of Jesus " to be essential to the infliction of a censure 
 of excommunication. 
 
 10. Question. — Does the presence of the Apostle seem 
 to have been essential also ? 
 
 A}is7ccr. — Yes ; for he says, " When ye are gathered 
 together, and mi/ spirit." He could not be with them 
 in body ; but it was necessary that he should be there 
 in spirit, directing the infliction of the censure, as one 
 of Christ's ambassadors. Therefore at the beginning 
 of the Chapter he says: "I verily, as absent in body, 
 but present in spirit, have judged already, as though 
 I were present, concerning him that hath so done this 
 deed" (1 Cor. v. 3). And, when the censure was to 
 be taken off, we find the Apostle speaking of his own 
 action in the matter as necessary to be joined with the 
 action of the Church : " So that contrariwise ye ought 
 rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps 
 such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sor- 
 row. ... To whom ye forgive any thing, / forgive 
 also : for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, 
 for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ " 
 (2 Cor. ii. 7, 10). 
 
 11. Question. — How may we form some notion of the 
 moral power which excommunication had in 
 primitive times, when the Church was a small and 
 united body ? 
 
 Answer. — By observing the power which the expul- 
 sion of one ringleader in evil often exerts in a school 
 or college. An infectious example and an unwhole- 
 some influence is gotten rid of, and the moral tone of 
 the school or college is restored. 
 
 12. Question. — In what words does our Lord assure His 
 
 L 
 
1 62 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Church that their sentences of excommunication 
 
 and absolution shall be ratified by God ? 
 
 Answer. — " 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 " (St. Matt, xviii. 18). 
 
 13. Question. — What is the first observation to be made 
 here? 
 
 Answer. — That the same power which is here lodged 
 with the whole Church, had been already given to St. 
 Peter alone. " And I will give unto thee the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever iJwu shalt bind 
 on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou 
 shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (St. 
 Matt. xvi. 19). 
 
 14. Quest/on. — How are we to understand the terms 
 " binding " and " loosing " ? 
 
 Answer. — We may understand them generally of 
 every exercise of Church authority, in the way of cen- 
 sure or absolution, of restriction or permission. Thus 
 the delivering the incestuous person unto Satan (1 Cor. 
 V. 5) was a " binding." So also was the censure of St. 
 Peter upon Ananias and Sapphira, which took efi'ect in 
 " the destruction of the flesh " (see Acts v. 3-C, 9, 10), 
 God ratifying " in heaven " the sentence of his Apostle. 
 So also was St. Paul's censure upon Elynias the sor- 
 cerer in Acts xiii. 11 : " And now, behold, the hand 
 of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, 
 not seeing the sun for a season ; " which also was rati- 
 fied " in heaven ; " for we read that, " immediately 
 there fell on him a mist and a darkness ; and he went 
 about seeking some to lead him by the hand." And 
 St. Paul's direction to the Corinthians to forgive the 
 incestuous person, upon his true repentance, which was 
 quoted just now (2 Cor. ii. 7, 10), was a " loosing" (or 
 releasing) him from the censure which had been in- 
 flicted on him. 
 
 15. Catechist.—Bnt you said that the terms " binding " 
 and "loosing" were to be understood also of pro- 
 
v.] Catechism. 163 
 
 hibition and permission. Can you give any Scrip- 
 tural instance of the Church's doing this? 
 Answer. — Yes. When the first Christian Council 
 (whose proceedings are recorded in Acts xv.) excused 
 the Gentile converts from the obligations of circumci- 
 sion and the Mosaic ritual, this was a '' loosing" (see 
 vers. 10, 19, 28). And when, on the other hand, they 
 still made binding upon these converts abstinence 
 " from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from 
 things strangled, and from fornication" (vers. 20, 29), 
 this was a "binding" (or restriction). For in the 
 sense of " permission " and " restriction," the Jewish 
 Rabbis were accustomed to use these terms. In like 
 manner, when St. Paul says (Rom. xiv. 14), "I know, 
 and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is 
 nothing unclean of itself; " and again (1 Cor. viii. 4), 
 " As concerning . . . the eating of those things that 
 are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol 
 is nothing in the world ; " and again (1 Cor. x. 25), 
 "Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat;" and 
 again (1 Tim. iv. 4), " Every creature of God is good, 
 and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanks- 
 giving ; " he "looses" the meats offered to idols, that 
 is, permits the free use of them, where they can be par- 
 taken of with a clear conscience. And where, on the 
 other hand, he says (Rom. xiv. 14), " To him that 
 esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean ;" 
 and again (ver. 28), " lie that doubteth is damned if 
 he eat, because he eateth not of faith ;" and again (vers. 
 13, 20), "Judge this rather, that no man put a stum- 
 bling-block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way, 
 ... for meat destroy not the work of God " — he 
 " binds " Christians in this matter, forbidding them to 
 partake, unless they were fully persuaded of the law- 
 fulness of doing so, and also wherever they might, by 
 so doing, embolden another to act against his own con- 
 science. 
 
 16. Question. — What further signification may be given 
 to the words " binding " and " loosing " ? 
 Answer. — The authoritative administration of the 
 
1 64 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Sacraments, through which (as through channels) mercy 
 and grace are conveyed to the soul ; the true preaching 
 of Christ, and the relief experienced therein by the sin- 
 burdened conscience ; as also every formal absolution 
 or declaration of pardon through His name, — all these 
 are forms of "loosing." While the withholding these 
 means of grace, the refusing Baptism to a candidate 
 considered disqualified for it, or the Lord's Supper to a 
 person of scandalous life, or the Burial Office to one who 
 has died in open sin or avowed infidelity, or the pearl 
 of God's Gospel to a profane man, who would trample 
 it under foot and do a mischief to the preacher, — this 
 would be a " binding " of men's sins upon them, — a 
 " retaining of sins." 
 
 17. CatecMst. — You have now explained the passage of 
 St. Matthew, in which our Lord, directing how 
 off'enders are to be dealt with, gives His Church 
 the power of binding and loosing, and directs that 
 he who neglects to hear the Church shall be 
 treated " as a heathen man and a publican." But 
 we do not find here any mention of Christian 
 Ministers. By " the Church " is meant the whole 
 body of the faithful. And so far as this passage 
 goes, we gather from it, that the power of "bind- 
 ing" and "loosing" is lodged with the whole 
 body. Though it is true that, when St. Paul ex- 
 communicates, and afterwards restores an ofi"en- 
 der, by the authority which these words of our 
 Lord give to the Church, he 7«'??ise// appears in the 
 matter as acting with authority : " When ye are 
 gathered together, and my spirit ;" ..." For 
 your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ." 
 What other words of our Lord fully justify St. 
 Paul in claiming and exercising this authority, in 
 giving directions first for the censure of the 
 ofi"ender, and then, when he was brought to a 
 right mind by the censure, for his relief from it ? 
 Answer. — The words which He spake when He met 
 the ten Apostles (St. Thomas being absent) on the 
 evening of the Resurrection Day (St. Johnxx. 19-24) : 
 
v.] Catechism. 165 
 
 " 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 
 ynu. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them 
 Lis hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, 
 when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them 
 again, Peace be unto you : 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, lleceive ye the 
 Holy Ghost. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are 
 remitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, 
 they are retained." 
 
 18. QuestioJi. — Is there anything to connect this pas- 
 sage with that from St. Matthew's Gospel, which 
 gives the power of ''binding" and "loosing" to 
 the Church, and which you have just explained? 
 
 Answer. — Yes. In the context of the former pas- 
 sage (St. Mutt, xviii. 20) our Lord had said, " Where 
 two or three are gathered together in my name, there 
 am I in the midst of them." And here we find His 
 little flock of disciples " gathered together in " His 
 Name, separate from the world, after His llesurrection ; 
 and it is said (as if to mark the fulfilment of His pro- 
 mise), that " Jesus came and stood in the midst." 
 
 19. Question. — How can it be shown that, in the words 
 now before us, our Lord is addressing the Apostles 
 only? 
 
 Answer. — Because He begins them thus : " As my 
 Father hath sent me, even so send I you." Now, the 
 word here translated " hath sent " (d7recrTaA.Ke) is 
 closely connected with the word "Apostle," which 
 means a messenger, or person sent, Christ was the 
 Father's Apostle, just as St. Peter and St. John were His 
 Apostles. He is called so, Heb. iii. 1 : " Consider the 
 Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus," 
 
 20. Question. — What warrant have we for connecting 
 this passage of St. John with the rite of Ordi- 
 nation?" 
 
1 66 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Answer. — Those who compiled the Prayer-Book of 
 the Church of England evidently thought that this pas- 
 sage -was the Church's authority for Ordination, because 
 they put these words of our Lord into the mouth of the 
 Bishop, when ordaining Priests. See " The Form and 
 Manner of Ordering of Priests : " — " When this Prayer 
 is done, the Bishop ivith the Priests present shall lay 
 their hands severally upon the head of every one that re- 
 ceiveth the Order of Priesthood ; the Receivers humbly 
 Imeeling upon their knees, and the Bishop saying, Re- 
 ceive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a 
 Priest in the Church of Grod, now committed unto thee 
 by the Imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost 
 forgive, they are forgiven ; and whose sins thou dost 
 retain, they are retained." 
 
 21. Question. — What is the charge which immediately 
 follows these words in the Ordination Service ? 
 and how does it throw light upon the meaning of 
 the words " remitting" and "retaining" sins? 
 
 Ansrver. — The charge is this : " And be thou a faith- 
 ful Dispenser 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. Amen." This charge seems 
 to show that the " remitting " and " retaining " of sins 
 is to be done by a faithful dispensation of the Word and 
 Sacraments, which are the channels through which 
 God's mercy and grace reach sinful men. 
 
 22. Catechist. — Show from Scripture that the Word and 
 Sacraments are the channels of God's mercy and 
 grace to man ? 
 
 Ansioer. — " Be it known unto you therefore, men and 
 brethren, that through this man is jj reached unto you the 
 forgiveness of sins : and by him all that believe are justi- 
 fied from all things, from which ye could not be justified 
 by the law of Moses " (Acts xiii. 38, 39). "Thus it 
 behoved . . . that repentance and remission of sins 
 shoidd he preached in his name among all nations " 
 (St. Luke xxiv. 46, 47). " And all things are of God, 
 who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and 
 
v.] Catcchisvi. 167 
 
 hath given to us 0\e ministry of recnnciliation ; to wit, 
 that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto him- 
 self, not imputing their trespasses unto them ; and hath 
 committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now 
 then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did 
 beseech you by us : we pray you in Christ's stead, be 
 ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin 
 for us, who knew no sin ; that we might be made the 
 righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. v. IS-end). " Re- 
 pent, and be bajitized every one of you in the name of 
 Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall 
 receive the gift of the Holy Ghost " (Acts ii. 38). 
 " Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, call- 
 ing on the name of the Lord " (Acts xxii. 10). " And 
 he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, 
 saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the 
 new testament, which is shed for many for the remis- 
 sion ofsi7is" (St. Matt. xxvi. 27, 28). " Whoso eateth 
 my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life " 
 (John vi. 54). 
 
 23. Question. — Will you then paraphrase these words 
 of Christ to His Apostles : " lleceive ye the Holy 
 Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, they are re- 
 mitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye 
 retain, they are retained " ? 
 A7iswer. — Receive such a measure of the gifts and 
 graces of the Holy Spirit, as shall enable you to dis- 
 charge the office of ambassadors to Me, as 1 have dis- 
 charged that of Ambassador to my Father. Whose 
 soever sins ye, speaking in my Name and by my Spirit, 
 pronounce to be remitted, they are remitted. W^hatso- 
 ever terms of forgiveness ye, speaking in my Name and 
 by my Spirit, shall lay down, those 1 will ratify. And 
 whose soever sins ye, speaking in my Name and by my 
 Spirit, condemn and leave without a sentence of abso- 
 lution, they are condemned and left upon them. And 
 wherever, by the Ministry of the Sacraments, ye open 
 the sluices of grace and mercy towards man, there 
 grace and mercy shall always flow forth ; and wherever 
 ye withhold these holy Ordinances (acting still in my 
 
1 68 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Name and by my Spirit), there grace and mercy shall 
 be restrained. In brief, I will ratify your preaching, 
 your censures, your absolutions, and all your ministerial 
 acts. 
 
 24. Catechist. — It is not difficult to understand, that 
 the Ministry of the Apostles should receive from 
 their Master such a sanction as this. But can we 
 suppose that the Ministry of uninspired men has a 
 similar sanction? And are we justified in apply- 
 ing the words to modern Ministers ? 
 
 Answer. — So far forth as modern Ministers preach, 
 warn, censure, absolve, prohibit, permit, according to 
 the principles and rules which the Apostles have laid 
 down in their writings, and by the Spirit which actuated 
 them, so far doubtless their Ministry, both in remitting 
 and retaining sins, will have God's sanction, as that 
 of the Apostles had. And as regards the Sacramental 
 acts of a Minister, they will be always efi'ectual, if only 
 "the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's 
 ordinance in all those things that of necessity are re- 
 quisite to the same " (Art. xix.), and if the parties to 
 whom they are ministered present no obstacle to their 
 effect by impenitence and unbelief. For the grace of 
 Sacraments is as necessary as ever to the being and 
 well-being of the Church ; and we have the Lord's 
 own promise that He will be " with " His Ministers 
 " alway, even unto the end of the world." It is 
 Christ's commission which makes Sacraments valid, 
 not the piety or high character of the administrator. 
 No unworthiness of Ministers, therefore, can vitiate 
 them. " The effect of Christ's ordinance " is not 
 " taken away by their wickedness, nor the grace of 
 God's gifts diminished from such as by faith and 
 rightly do receive the Sacraments ministered unto 
 them ; which be effectual, because of Christ's institu- 
 tion and promise, although they be ministered by evil 
 men" (Art. xxvi.) 
 
 25. Catechist. — You have now explained satisfactorily 
 
v.] Catechism. 169 
 
 two difficult passages of Holy Scripture, — one of 
 
 wliich speaks of the Church's power of " binding " 
 
 and " loosing ; " the other, of the Apostles' power 
 
 of "remitting" and " retaining sins." The 
 
 "loosing" is in all probability the same as the 
 
 "remitting;" the "binding" the same as the 
 
 "retaining." ]iut can you account for the fact, 
 
 that, in one of these passages, a power is given to 
 
 the " Church," or body of the faithful, which, in 
 
 the other, seems to be limited to the Apostles, and 
 
 their representatives ? 
 
 Ansxocr. — Yes. The power is lodged with the whole 
 
 body of the faithful ; it is the Church's power, the 
 
 Church's endowment ; yet it is delegated to, and can 
 
 only be wielded by, the Church's officers, who act as her 
 
 organs and representatives. 
 
 26. Cafechist. — You say that the officers (or Ministers) 
 of the Church are organs of the whole body of the 
 faithful. Expand and explain the image which 
 you use. 
 Answer. — I can easily do so. The natural body of man 
 is, in every part of it, endowed with sensation. Sensa- 
 tion is the heritage or common property of the entire 
 body. Y''et there are certain organs of sensation, 
 through which alone we receive impressions. The 
 organ of the sense of sight, is the eye ; of the sense of 
 hearing, the ear ; of the sense of smelling, the nose ; 
 of the sense of taste, the palate ; of the sense of touch, 
 the hand (and indeed every other member). To say 
 that sensation is the property or endowment of the 
 whole body is quite true. But it is also true to say, 
 that the various acts of sensation can only be exercised 
 through the various organs of sense, that we cannot see 
 but through the eye, hear but through the ear, etc. etc. 
 In like manner, the powers of the Church are really the 
 property of the whole body. Laity, as well as clergy, 
 have (or may have) the Holy Spirit, and therefore the 
 powers of binding and loosing, remitting and retaining, 
 which go with that gift, belong originally to all. And 
 yet Ministers are the organs by which these powers are 
 
1 70 CatecJiism. [chap. 
 
 exercised, just as the eye is the organ of sight, and the 
 ear of hearing. 
 
 27. Catechist. — But I find a flaw in your image. Sight, 
 I admit, is the endowment of the eye ; hearing, 
 the endowment of the ear, etc., but you seem to 
 make out that the whole body is endowed with 
 these senses. 
 
 Ansiver. — Nay ; I said the whole body is endowed 
 with sensation. Sensibility in various forms is the pro- 
 perty of all of it. Sensibility in the eye is called sight ; 
 in the ear, hearing ; in the palate, taste, etc. etc. But 
 that sensibility is really one gift, manifesting itself in 
 various forms, seems to be shown by this, that when one 
 of the avenues of the senses is closed, the other senses 
 seem to become keener. Thus ; when a man loses 
 his eyesight, he gains a more delicate sense of touch. 
 
 28. CatecMst. — But you said that Christian Ministers 
 were not only organs, but representatives of the 
 Church. Was this the case with the Ministers of 
 the Old Dispensation also ? 
 
 Ansiver. — It was. The first-born males of the children 
 of Israel were properly God's Ministers, sanctified unto 
 Him by His own ordinance from their birth ; see Exod. 
 xiii. 2, 15. But afterwards an arrangement was made, 
 by which the tribe of Levi was set apart as a substitute 
 for the first-born, to represent them, and minister to the 
 Lord in their stead ; see Numbers viii. 14-19 : " Thus 
 shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children 
 of Israel ; and the Levites shall be mine. And after 
 that shall the Levites go in to do the service of the 
 tabernacle of the congregation : and thou shalt clean.se 
 them, and ofi"er them for an offering. For they are 
 wholly given unto me from among the children of 
 Israel; instead of such as open every womb, even 
 instead of the first-born of all the children of Israel, 
 have I taken them unto me. For all the first-born of 
 the children of Israel are mine, both man and beast : on 
 the day that I smote every first-born in the land of Egypt 
 I sanctified them for myself. And I have taken the 
 
v.] Catechism. 171 
 
 Levitcs for all the first-born of the children of Israel," 
 The same thing is also told us in Numbers iii. 11-14. 
 
 29. Question. — Can you trace the same principle of 
 representation in the Ministry of the early Apo- 
 stolic Church? 
 
 Ansrtcr. — Yes. In the messages ■which our Lord 
 sends by St. John to the angels or presiding bishops 
 of the Seven Churches of Asia, we find the Churches 
 addressed through their bishops, that is, through their 
 representatives. Each message is a commentary upon 
 the spiritual state of the whole Church, not upon that 
 of the bishop himself. Hence we read (Rev. ii. 10) : 
 " Fear none of those things which Ihou shalt sufi'er : 
 behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, 
 that ye may be tried ' (the bishop suff"ered, when any 
 members of his flock did) ; and at the end of each 
 message, we have a promise to " him that overcometh," 
 evidently given to the Church generally, as an en- 
 couragement to their steadfastness. 
 
 30. Question. — Does the idea of the representative 
 character of the Clergy still linger in the English 
 language ? 
 
 Ansiver. — Yes. It is to be found in the word 
 " parson," which is merely another form of the word 
 "person," and was originally only a vulgar pronuncia- 
 tion, before it became a distinct word. The Latin 
 word " persona," from which our " person " comes, 
 means originally a mask which an actor puts on to 
 personate a character ; and the " Dramatis Personae " 
 of a play are the actors who sustain the various parts, 
 and who are to make such and such speeches, in exhibi- 
 tion of the characters they jjersonatc. In like manner 
 the " Person of a Parish " is the man who represents 
 it before God, who stands for, and in things pertaining 
 to God acts for, the whole Church in that Parish. 
 
 31. Question. — What illustration of the office and 
 privileges of representatives may be drawn from 
 our political constitution ? 
 
 Answer. — "We have our Parliamentary rcpresenta- 
 
1 7 2 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 tives in the House of Commons. The powers which 
 they exercise really belong to us, for it is we who 
 delegate those powers to them. They are delegated by 
 us to Parliament, to make the voice of the majority of 
 the constituency heard there. They are our agents, 
 who give to our opinion on political questions its due 
 weight in the government of the country. But it does 
 not follow from the fact of their being our delegates, 
 and wielding powers which are essentially ours, that 
 therefore we may do whatever they have a right to do. 
 We may not invade their privileges. We may not 
 ourselves enter the House of Commons, nor speak 
 there, though they may do so. In like manner, Minis- 
 ters are only representatives of the Church ; and 
 every spiritual power which they exercise belongs 
 originally to the Church, and is only wielded by them 
 as the Church's representatives. It is the Church 
 who through her organs -preaches, absolves, excom- 
 municates, blesses, consecrates. But it does not follow 
 that ordinary Christians may intrude upon the func- 
 tions of the ordained, or take upon them, without a 
 call, to minister the Word and Sacraments, any more 
 than it follows that, because the member of my borough 
 or county represents me, I may do all that he does, or 
 enjoy all his prerogatives. 
 
 32. Question. — What solemn warning have we in the 
 Old Testament against an invasion of ministerial 
 functions on the part of the laity ? 
 Answer. — The altogether unprecedented punishment 
 of Korah and his company, who were swallowed up by 
 the earth, and went down alive into Hades — the place 
 of departed spirits (Num. xvi. 29-34), as also the leprosy 
 of King Uzziah, which was inflicted upon him in con- 
 sequence of his presuming to burn incense in the Holy 
 Place : " But when he was strong, his heart was lifted 
 up to his destruction : for he transgressed against the 
 Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to 
 burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah 
 the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore 
 priests of the Lord, that were valiant men : and they 
 
v.] CatccJiisni. 173 
 
 withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It apper- 
 taincth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the 
 Lord, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are 
 consecrated to burn incense : go out of the sanctuary ; 
 for thou hast trespassed ; neither shall it be for thine 
 honour from the Lord God. Then Uzziah was wroth, 
 and had a censer in his hand to burn incense : and, 
 while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose 
 up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the 
 Lord, from beside the incense altar. And Azariah the 
 chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, 
 behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust 
 him out from thence ; yea, himself hasted also to go 
 out, because the Lord had smitten him." (2 Chron. 
 xxvi. 16-21.) 
 
 33. Question. — What did Korah, Dathan, and Abiram 
 allege as a ground of their rebellion, which was 
 true ? 
 
 Answer. — They said, " Ye take too much i;pon you, 
 seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, 
 and the Lord is among them " (Num. xvi. 3). 
 
 34. Catecliist. — Show that they were right, when they 
 
 said that all the congregation was holy. 
 Answer. — The Lord Himself said as much to Moses : 
 "And Moses went up unto Grod,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 eagles' 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 he imto me a kingdom of 
 priests and an holy nation. These are the words which 
 thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel " (Exod. 
 xix. 3-7), 
 
 35. Catechist. — Show that the Lord was among the 
 
 people, as the rebels said. 
 Answer. — In Exod. xxix. 45, we find God promising 
 
1 74 Catechism. [chap. v. 
 
 to Moses : " And I will dwell among the children of 
 Israel, and will be their God." 
 
 36. Question. — Why did not these truths justify the 
 rebels in what they did ? 
 Ansiver. — Because, though the whole nation was " a 
 kingdom of priests," yet God had appointed a certain 
 tribe and family to be, in things pertaining to God, the 
 representatives of the nation ; and no one might tres- 
 pass upon the functions of this tribe and family without 
 incurring great guilt and signal punishment. Christians 
 are all called priests, laity and clergy alike : " Ye 
 also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an 
 Tioly ^^nestlwodj to offer up spiritual sacrifices, accept- 
 able to God by Jesus Christ. . . . But ye are a chosen 
 generation, a royal p7'iesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar 
 people ; that ye should show forth the praises of him 
 who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous 
 light" (1 Pet. ii. 5, 9); and, "Unto him that loved 
 us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and 
 hath made us kings and priests unto God and his 
 Father ; to him be glory and dominion for ever and 
 ever. Amen " (Rev. i. 5, 6). Yet there is among 
 Christians also a representative Ministry ; and it does 
 not follow that those who are not called to it may 
 invade the functions of those who are. 
 
 37. Question. — Is there any ministerial function which 
 the laity might perform, and which has been at 
 various periods and in various Communions per- 
 formed by them ? 
 Ansiver. — Yes ; they might preach under the licence 
 of the Bishop, issued to them after he had satisfied 
 himself of their competency for that important office. 
 But this would not be ministering without authority. 
 A fragment of the Ministerial Commission would 
 devolve upon the person so licensed. He would have 
 received " authority to preach the Word of God," not 
 indeed as his calling, or the main business of his life, 
 but as opportunity offered, and as his services were 
 sought, in subordination to the regular Ministry. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE HOLY EUCHARIST AT ITS SUCCESSIVE 
 STAGES. 
 
 "Jpcing seen of them fortn baiis, anb s^icalung of the 
 things pertaining to the hingbom of (5oi)."— Acts 
 I- 3- 
 
 THERE was a deep and manifold simificance srfjrfcfoiu 
 , • 1 r. .• / 1 • 1 \ purpose of tlje 
 
 in the period of time (nearly six weeks), orratjrorig 
 
 wliicli elapsed between our Lord's triumph over ciaVs^ 
 death and His triumphant entrance into Heaven, lusumctum 
 First, so long a tract of time was designed to give ^srrnsion of 
 " ample room and verge enough " for evidences of 
 the Resurrection. Christ was to be seen on all 
 manner of occasions, in divers places, and by 
 divers persons ; and this of itself asked time. 
 Then, secondly, the disciples were to be gently 
 and gradually weaned from the support and 
 comfort of His bodily presence; it was not to 
 be abruptly withdrawn from them, but to recede 
 gradually like an ebbing tide, which ever and 
 anon steals up, and kisses that line of sand and 
 sea-weed, where its little foam-flakes are dissolv- 
 ing, and which we thought it had finally aban- 
 doned. But, thirdly, we discover a significance in 
 these Forty Days, even more important than the 
 conviction of the world, and tlie consolation of 
 
 175 
 
176 
 
 The Holy EucJim^ist [cHAr. 
 
 iScrapitula- 
 tion of tl)C 
 sriirral 
 
 instttutions, 
 tlic 0fTins of 
 Sxihicli torrc 
 laiU during 
 11)13 pcrioa. 
 
 the earliest disciples. Our Lord during those 
 Forty Days traced, as we have seen in the earlier 
 Chapters of this work, the foundations of His 
 Church. " He spake to them," says the Evan- 
 gelist, " of the things pertaining to the kingdom 
 of God." This was the great seminal period, upon 
 which we find the germs of Church Institutions 
 and Church Ordinances lying, as they were scat- 
 tered by the hand of Christ Himself. Consider, 
 in order that we may prosecute the argument on 
 a safe basis of fact, how many of these germs we 
 have already found in this period. First, we find 
 constantly the Presence of Christ in His risen 
 body among the three or four disciples gathered 
 together in His Name — the germ this of the 
 Christian Congregation. Secondly, there is the 
 express institution of Missionary Preaching ; " Go 
 ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
 every creature." Thirdly, the express institution 
 of Christian Baptism ; " Go ye and make disciples 
 of all nations, baptizing them into the Name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 Fourthly, the express institution of Church Preach- 
 ing, the regular instruction of Christian people in 
 the truth of Christ ; " Teaching them to observe 
 all things whatsoever I have commanded you." 
 Fifthly, the no less clear implication in the same 
 words, that the Church was to conduct Christian 
 Education, since the teaching in question is that 
 which was appointed to follow upon Baptism ; and 
 Christ must have known that, when His Church 
 had won for herself a footing in the earth. Infant 
 Baptism would be her universal rule. Sixthly, the 
 
VI.] at ils successive stages. 1 7 7 
 
 direct institiitiou of the Christian ^Ministry, as an 
 organ and representative of the Church, wielding 
 those powers which had been deposited with the 
 whole body ; " Peace be unto you : as my Father 
 hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he 
 had said this, lie breathed on them, and saith unto 
 them, Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost." Seventhly, 
 the power of this ]Ministry, as representing the 
 Church, both to absolve and censure; "Whose 
 soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; 
 and wdiose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." 
 The other (and perhaps more attractive) aspect 
 of the ^Ministry, as a Pastorate appointed for the 
 feeding of the Church with the Word and Sacra- • 
 ments, as also for the guidance and governance 
 of it, was also brought out during this period of 
 Forty Days, by our Lord's threefold charge to the 
 penitent and then re-instated Apostle; "Feed 
 my lambs ; " " Feed my sheep ;" " Feed my 
 sheep." 
 
 Surely all these instances are quite sufficient to 
 establish the position that during His Forty Days' 
 sojourn upon earth our Lord employed Himself 
 in tracing an outline of the various Church Offices 
 and Institutions, which His Apostles, under the 
 influence of His Spirit, sent down upon them at ©nc bjouiu 
 Pentecost, would have to develope. somf'nfmnrc 
 
 And if this were indeed so, can we suppose that si^pa "^ ® 
 during this significant period He would omit all ^^n^^, '^'^ 
 reference to the highest and most blessed of all Sftcrs- 
 Church Observances— the Supper of the Lord ? tli^^,^ 
 That Supper, as its nature and peculiar significance ^aliJlfr, tern 
 demanded, had been of necessity instituted previ- p"cto;l,"Jsi'g. 
 
 M 
 
I yS The Holy EiicJiarist [chap. 
 
 ously. A memorial of the dying Lord, by the 
 faithful use of which His followers were to call 
 Him to mind, could have been at no season so ap- 
 propriately given as on the eve of His death ; may 
 we not say, could not have been appropriately 
 given at any other season ? By that beautiful and 
 wise arrangement, according to which our Lord 
 connected all His great deeds and discourses with 
 certain circumstances, which in the order of God's 
 Providence emerged under His eyes, the Holy 
 Supper grew out of an occasion — the greatest, most 
 solemn, most tender, most sacred occasion, which 
 ever gave birth to a great Institution. It grew out 
 of the occasion of His partaking of His last meal 
 with His disciples, and was (in one aspect of it, 
 though not the highest, nor the most important for 
 the Church at large) the beautiful utterance and 
 outcome of His exceeding tenderness for those He 
 was leaving behind in a world of sin and sorrow. 
 It was the bequeathing to them of a token of 
 affection, by which, during His bodily absence, 
 He might become present to them, not only to 
 their imaginations by the power of association, 
 but to their hearts and consciences by an invisible, 
 though most real, communion with Him. But as 
 the Supper was to be disentangled from its earliest 
 and personal surroundings, and to become an 
 Ordinance for the Church at large, and for dis- 
 ciples who had never known the Lord in the flesh, 
 it seems the most reasonable of all reasonable 
 expectations that we should find some marked 
 allusion to it during the period of founding the 
 Church, when He was tracing the outline, which 
 
VI.] at its sjicccssive stages. 1 79 
 
 His Apostles were afterwards to fill up, of its 
 various Institutions. 
 " And our expectations are fully met. On the anu ^f enu 
 very day of His Eesurrection, on the very first oc- Sof thf"" 
 casion of an in-doors meeting with two or three S.™/''"" 
 of His disciples (for among the various manifesta- SSiitout 
 tions of that day no such occasion had, as far as jcScn„, 
 we know, yet occurred), He performed an action, 
 which, while it certainly cannot be called a cele- 
 bration of the Holy Communion (for we read 
 nothing of the species of wine, which bore so pro- 
 minent a part in the original institution), was yet 
 as certainly an allusion to the Ordinance, and a re- 
 minder of it, and an allusion and a reminder full of 
 instruction as to its effects, blessings, and obligation. 
 
 The story is familiar to all. Two of Christ's j-j,,. joumro 
 disciples, plunged into despondency by the disap- nnftiircmf-' 
 pointment of their hopes respecting Him, and I'lJ^fJa^" "" 
 apparently giving up His cause for lost, had gone 
 on the Resurrection Day to Emmaus, which was 
 perhaps their village home. They were neither 
 of them Apostles, but simple disciples, one called 
 Cleopas, the other very probably the Evangelist 
 who narrates the incident. He joined them in a 
 disguise which prevented their recognising Him, 
 asked a share in their conversation and their 
 sorrows, and, when admitted to their confidence, 
 showed them how the events which they deemed 
 so disastrous were really part of Messiah's pre- 
 dicted career, and essential preliminaries of His 
 triumph. Their hearts were in a glow of interest 
 as He unfolded the meaning of the prophecies ; 
 so much so, that when they arrived at their desti- 
 
i8o The Holy Eucharist [chap. 
 
 nation, they would take no denial but that He 
 must be their guest. " And he \vent in to tarry 
 with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at 
 meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, 
 and brake, and gave to them." 
 Sameness of The words are almost identical with those by 
 loflpl'toi'Hr, which the two first Evangelists describe the 
 ^t iflatHifm institution of the first part of the Eucharist, 
 mort'tbf °'^'' and carry our minds irresistibly to that in- 
 tilfririirr" °^ stitution. Possibly, however, had no more been 
 ^"rijarlst said, we might have thought the coincidence 
 of phraseology merely accidental. But more is 
 said. The narrator fixes our minds on the 
 action of breaking the bread, as having been 
 attended with an extraordinary effect, which 
 no other part of the interview had produced. 
 attmKon This was the dropping of the disguise, which 
 raiicBtoti^e hitherto had prevented recognition. "And their 
 taakms tf)c eyes were opened, and they knew him." But as 
 soon as they became sensible of His Presence, it 
 was withdrawn. It eluded their grasp ; it would 
 not be detained ; " he vanished out of their sight." 
 Springing to their feet at once, their doubts re- 
 moved by sight, and their disconsolateness by the 
 assurance of having held actual communion with 
 Him, they returned to the little company of the 
 Apostles with the glad tidings ; " and they told 
 what things were done in the way, and how he 
 Efje'brcafe- was known of them in hreakinq of bread" (ev 
 
 ins of tijc <j o \ 
 
 liitas' tt)c r^ Kkaaei rov dprov); — "the breaking of bread" 
 
 term usci bn'. ,. ,i • r^, t i j 
 
 tije i3rimitn)c bcmj^ the very term used by this St. Luke to 
 irnoutijc denote the Eucharist, and the persistent cele- 
 iije ffiuciiarist. bration of it, in the primitive Church. " And 
 
VI.] at its successive stages. iSi 
 
 they" (the three thousand souls converted at 
 Pentecost) " continued steadfastly in the apostles' 
 doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread 
 {tti KXdaei. rou apTOv), and in prayers." 
 
 " The breaking of the bread " — mark it well. Hmmftiiatc 
 The Church was only just born. It was the day tiK^cF^ilnriBi 
 of Pentecost, the day when Christ's risen life had b'vthta/of 
 first pervaded the community of the disciples, and '^' "■'' 
 knit them together into one communion and fel- 
 lowship. And yet "the breaking of the bread" 
 is spoken of as a regular Institution, which had 
 burst into full blossom already at this earliest of 
 early periods. It was practised, as St. Luke goes 
 on to inform us, not in public, in the presence of ^rifanro of 
 unbelievers, but (as our Lord had set the example) ft'if^^auons 
 within doors, " from house to house," and it was 
 always an occasion of joy and festal thankfulness 
 — ^joy and thankfulness, doubtless, arising chiefly 
 from the blessed significance of the rite, now seen 
 under the light of Pentecost, yet not surely with- 
 out some reference to that earlier burst of joy at 
 Emmaus, when the Lord was made known to two 
 of His disciples " in the breaking of the bread." 
 "' And they," the words are, " continuing daily with 
 one accord in the temple, and breaking bread 
 from house to house, did eat their meat " (partook 
 of the entertainments, in the midst of which the 
 Lord's Supper was celebrated) " with gladness and 
 singleness of heart, praising God, and having 
 favour with all the people." 
 
 Let us now study for a short time this Ordi- 
 nance of the Eucharist, instituted on the eve of 
 
l82 
 
 The Holy EiLcharist [chap. 
 
 GTfjrist'a 
 tcsign of 
 iiscutnnotins 
 Hk ©rUinnncc 
 from its 
 snUimcntal 
 relation to tf)c 
 apostka, 
 
 maUe mani- 
 fest bu toljat 
 passed at 
 ffimmaus. 
 
 our Lord's death, and revived, if I may say so, 
 with new associations on the day of His Eesur- 
 rection, stamped afresh with His risen authority, 
 consecrated afresh with Easter blessing. 
 
 1. And first observe (what has been akeady briefly 
 touched on) how clearly what passed at Emmaus 
 intimates that, in Christ's design, the Ordinance 
 was to be disentangled from what I may venture 
 to call its sentimental relation to the Apostles, — 
 the peculiarly touching and tender associations, 
 with which in their minds it must have been in- 
 vested, the deep solemnity of the farewell meal, 
 His considerateness in leaving them a memorial 
 of Himself, and so forth. Cleopas and the other 
 disciple had not been present at the original In- 
 stitution, — could not therefore have shared in the 
 associations connected with it. And yet the 
 phraseology used by the Evangelist, and the cir- 
 cumstance of our Lord's fastening the attention 
 of the disciples on the breaking of bread, as the 
 critical point of the interview, by opening their 
 eyes at that point, force upon us (as I have said) 
 the belief that though He is not celebrating the 
 Eucharist, He is designedly indicating it, referring 
 to it, and bringing it under the notice of His 
 Church once more. What are we to infer ? What 
 but that it was to be an Ordinance for all time, 
 and all believers, — an Ordinance which, though 
 it had local surroundings, and an occasion out of 
 which it grew, wi^s yet to detach itself from these, 
 and soar above them ? It was to be much more 
 than a touching and tender greeting of valediction 
 to the Apostles (though this it was) ; it was to be 
 
VI.] at its successive stages. 183 
 
 a greeting of salutation also by a risen and living 
 Lord to His whole Church, a gi-eeting ^vhich had 
 much more in it than a sanctified memory, a 
 greeting -which had in it a present power and 
 light. This is the new aspect which the Supper 
 assumed, under the light shed upon it by the 
 Emmaus interview. 
 
 2. "We shall gain a further insight into the 
 meaning of the holy rite, if we view it in con- 
 nexion with the words which, in the accounts of all 
 three Evangelists, accompanied the Institution. 
 These I give in St. Luke's version of them, which inst.uukc's 
 is somewhat more full than that of the earlier ttjc Cnstitu- 
 Evangelists : " "When the hour was come, he sat n-ort ijoiiig 
 down, and the twelve apostles with him. And n0nin''fati'n3 
 he said unto them, "With desire I have desired to toith i^ls'"^ 
 eat this passover with you before I suffer : for I bjf/fn/iK 
 say unto you, / vnll not any more cat thereof, until go^ sIjou^u 
 it he fulfilled in the Icincjclom of God. And he took 'J'^''"''""- 
 the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this and 
 divide it among yourselves : for I say unto you, 
 I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the 
 Icingdom of God shall eome." The words e\idently 
 imply that when it should be fulfilled in the king- 
 dom of God, when the kingdom of God was come, 
 our Lord would again eat that Passover with His 
 disci^jles, and drink with them of the fruit of the 
 vine. They were again to banquet together, only 
 in a new state of things which should supervene 
 hereafter, as He said somewhat more explicitly citorDs of 
 shortly aftei-wards ; " Ye are they which have ^^mm\ 0copc 
 continued with me in my temptations. And I si'onb 
 appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath """'"^'^2- 
 
The Holy Euchai-ist [chap. 
 
 3KnnarlinI)If 
 tiiffrTfncf of 
 the tbjo snD- 
 ings, iuiiilc 
 tljcir grnfral 
 t'-nor is tijc 
 same. 
 
 appointed unto me ; that y& may cat and drink at 
 my table in my kingdom." 
 
 The question which naturally arises upon these 
 passages is, Wliat is the period to which Christ 
 refers, as that at which He shall make His dis- 
 ciples sharers of His Table, and shall Himself eat 
 and drink with them once more ? And in answer- 
 ing this question, let us- not tie the words up to one 
 fulfilment; for there is a glorious richness and 
 fulness in them, which defies all such limitation. 
 While the meaning of man's words is often poor 
 and thin, God's words have an exhaustless mean- 
 ing. We must regard these words of our Divine 
 Saviour as having a continuous and progressive 
 fulfilment, reaching down the long perspective of 
 the ages far as the mind's eye can penetrate, till 
 the vista is closed by the Marriage Supper of the 
 Lamb, 
 
 Observe, first, that the two passages just 
 quoted exhibit a general sameness of idea, witli 
 however one specific difference of great interest. 
 A common entertainment for Master and dis- 
 ciples is the general idea ; but in the former pas- 
 sage it is He who is to eat with them. " I will 
 not any more eat thereof, until" ..." J will not 
 drink of the fruit of the vine, until . . . ;" in 
 the latter it is they who are to eat with Him ; 
 " that ye may eat and drink at my table." It 
 is as if in the earlier fulfilments of the words, 
 the disciples should make for Him a supper, 
 which He would graciously condescend to share ; 
 but in its later or latest fulfilment, He would 
 make for them a supper, and invite them to jiar- 
 
\' I . ] at its siicccssh x stages. 1 8 5 
 
 take of it. And such is indeed the course which 
 
 the fulfilment takes, I find the earliest fulfil- fhr (Fmmnus 
 
 . . Supprr thr 
 
 nient of the words in the Emmaus interview. In cariirst fuici- 
 
 . mrnt of tht 
 
 a certain sense, though not as yet completely, it promise to cat 
 had been fulfilled in the kingdom of God, when iuiih tfifm 
 Christ was risen from the dead. By His Death thr setting up 
 and Resurrection, the relation between a holy God kinjjuom. 
 and guilty sinners had been altered, and the 
 foundations of the New Economy had been 
 securely laid. Christ's work of atonement and 
 merit was finished, and was declared by the re- 
 surrection to have been accepted. And now He 
 sits down to meat with them once again, and, 
 while the meat is yet in their mouths, fills them 
 with joy in the discernment of His own Presence 
 — this joy being a drop, if only a drop, of the new 
 wine of the kingdom, the wine which makes glad 
 not the animal but the spiritual part of our nature. 
 
 If this Emmaus supper was not an actual Com- criu's supper 
 munion (and an actual Communion could not Communion, 
 yet take place, any more than an actual Baptism, to com- 
 before the descent of the Holy Ghost), it was a '"""'" ' 
 prelude to all the Communions which have ever 
 been, a foreshadowing and an earnest of them all. 
 And the same remark will apply doubtless, more antt so also 
 
 1 i. n i.1 • 1-1 T 1 *'"■"' occasioix 
 
 or less, to all the occasions on which our Lord, of eating anu 
 manifested to His disciples in the Body of His tiirm.'afferijc 
 liesurrection, ate and drank with them after He seaii."'" 
 rose from the dead. They Avere all rehearsals of 
 the Communion Feasts., which should take place 
 when the Spirit was given, and when the Institu- 
 tions of the Church were filled with the risen life 
 of her Master. 
 
1 86 The Holy Ettcha7'ist [chap. 
 
 ffKfjm \\st Ten days after the Ascension that great event 
 ffioti batj occurred ; a more complete fulfihnent in the King- 
 nrribrtaf dom 01 God, Q. fuller and more blessed Advent of 
 mcMg, ^^^^ Kingdom, took place, than any of which the 
 world had had experience hitherto ; Jesus was ex- 
 alted and glorified, and His Church, animated and 
 governed by His Spirit, just as the members of the 
 body are animated by the life and governed by the 
 brain, represented Him on earth. And the Lord's 
 Supper, like all other parts of the Church system, 
 „ „ . received then a olorification and upliftinf^ as beino: 
 
 llic EorU 3 ° . . . 
 
 Supprr, in then first pervaded wdth the ^iorified life of Christ. 
 
 common ixntJi ^ ^ 
 
 otiu-r parts of It was now uo lougcr a mere memento and lef^acy 
 
 ll)c Ctiurd) . . . o J 
 
 sustrm, of His dying love, though this earliest character in 
 jjioriScation, which it appeared can never be effaced from it. 
 Nor was it a mere banquet of the Eisen Saviour 
 with His disciples, a banquet sweetened by the 
 joy of reunion with Him. But it became now 
 the Festival of the New Dispensation, blessed and 
 graced with His Spiritual Presence (a higher and 
 greater thing than even the Presence of His risen 
 irccoming fi)c natural Body), and in which He communicates 
 flrc|mrtium Himsclf to His faithful people in the closest of 
 snuSrof ^11 unions, they dwelling in Him, as a body in its 
 Mmmimfmi atmospherc, He in them as a soul in its body. 
 toiuifcan'if Thus was the Eucharist in a manner raised to a 
 ^art'^'' °" higher platform, and yet without any loss of its 
 early associations. It is still, as of old, Christ 
 eating and drinking with His little flock, presid- 
 ing at the board, distributing to them the signifi- 
 cant and efficacious symbols, not now in the 
 Presence of His natural (or even of His risen) 
 Body, but in the power and plenitude of His Picsur- 
 
VI.] at its successive stages. 187 
 
 rectiou life. It seems to me that the true view 
 of the Ordinauce has been obscured, and a way- 
 opened for the entrance of false and uuscriptural 
 views, by dropping; this very important feature of get stiii it« 
 Christ's personally presiding at the Communion tfonl aff no?' 
 board, as Himself master of the feast, and (through tb"6?oppinfl'' 
 the instrumentality of His jNIinisters) communi- "brm^a^ariig 
 eating to each recipient the blessings of the Ordi- uon on"j?' 
 nance. He is also, no doubt, the food partaken ®'^^'"^""- 
 of, no less than the master of the feast; but the 
 dropping the thought of Him in the latter cha- 
 racter has had no slight mischievous effect in 
 paving the way for the carnal doctrine of Tran- 
 substantiation. Eevert in thought to the original 
 Institution of the Ordinance, and it is at once seen 
 that what He gave to the Apostles as His Body 
 and Blood cannot have been so in the literal or 
 natural sense. 
 
 But although the Holy Ghost has long since 
 descended, and although since His descent many 
 and various have been the fortunes of the Chris- 
 tian Church, so that we may well suppose her 
 probation to be now drawing to a close, it is not 
 yet altofjcthcr fulfilled in the kingdom of God, nor, Kh,t cfjurrfi ' 
 so long as we are yet instructed to jjray, " Thy % anai''^ *" 
 kingdom come," has the kingdom yet arrived in kmscim oV 
 all its fulness. " AVe see not yet all things put '^°^' 
 under" the Ilisen Saviour, though doubtless they 
 are in process of subjugation. The Mediatorial 
 Kingdom is still running its course, and cannot 
 be terminated until the counter-agency of sin, to 
 which it has relation, is fully and finally put 
 away. But when aU things shall have been sub- 
 
The Holy Eucharist [chap. 
 
 dued imto Jesus, and the end shall have fully 
 *"'r''i"'"^ come, then will the Marriage Supper of the Lamb 
 
 usbcrrt m iu oil 
 
 tiic marrianc- — the solemn eternal ratification of that union 
 
 Btipprr of tf)e /^ i 
 
 tamb. between God and man, which was commenced by 
 the Incarnation, and carried on at Pentecost — be 
 celebrated. Then will come the passing in review 
 of the many guests, whom the preached Gospel 
 has gathered from all quarters of the earth, and 
 the thrusting out of all who have not on the 
 wedding-garment, — a spirit of holy joy and thank- 
 fulness, a festive spirit suitable to the great occa- 
 sion. In that Supper, wliicli the Lord shall make 
 for His people, and wherein they shall sit down 
 and eat and drink at His table in His kingdom, 
 our Communion Feasts, which liave been rehearsals 
 of and preparations for it, sliall merge ; they shall 
 there find their antitypical fulfilment and higliest 
 realization ; for this great Supper is our point of 
 hope, closing up for us the Christian's vista of the 
 future. A wonderful coincidence truly ; for we 
 cannot but recall that this Lamb of God, who at 
 the end of time will bid His own to the solemnity 
 of a marriage supper, and give them to drink 
 there of the new wine of spiritual joy, is the same 
 who made His first appearance at a marriage in 
 Cana of Galilee, and whose first exertion of mira- 
 culous power supplied the guests with wine, when 
 the bridegroom's store was failing. 
 
 (Tliat ntnr- 
 riagc-suppcr 
 is tiic point 
 of si5l)t, for 
 tobicb out 
 (Communion 
 Jrcasts are 
 rclicarsals 
 nnti prepara- 
 tions. 
 
 One word, in conclusion, respecting the con- 
 trasted character of the two great Institutions of 
 the Church called Sacraments. Baptism (as was 
 pointed out in a previous Chapter) was suitably 
 
VI.] al lis successive siagcs. 189 
 
 instituted upon a mountain, round which tlie free 
 breezes of heaven swept and frolicked. For Bai)- Diffueion of 
 
 in /IT n 1 i\ '■'^^ rcprt- 
 
 tism IS the bacrament (as has been well remarked) scntto bj? 
 of diffusion, the Sacrament by the instrumentality 
 of which the Church's life is sent forth into the 
 ends of the earth, " to all the nations," " to every 
 creature." But life requires not only to be sent 
 into the extremities of a growing body, but to rally 
 its forces at the heart. There must be a cementing 
 power, as well as a diffusinc; power, a re-collection concmtrafion 
 ot life at its iocus, as well as an expansion of it. iioro's 
 And this is what the holy Supper is designed to *"*'''"• 
 do for the Church. It was suitably instituted in a 
 guest-chamber, where the little flock of disciples 
 was gathered together round their Divine Master, 
 sheltered under His wing, and, as it were, pressed 
 to His heart in a last embrace. It is, as it has well 
 been called, the Sacrament of perpetual re-union, — rijc noru's 
 not only a means of communion with Christ for l"aa?Lut^f 
 each individual partaker, but a communion of all umon"ttm"" 
 the partakers (in and through Christ) wdth one toitlf siis" 
 another. "We being many," says the Apostle, "are '"""''"®' 
 one bread and one body : for we are all partakers 
 of that one bread." One loaf (or cake) of bread is 
 broken into fragments, and a fragment is received 
 by, and passes into the frame of, each communi- 
 cant, as an expressive symbol of our being all 
 spiritually one, through the conveyance and im- 
 partation to each of Christ's Body and Blood. 
 Baptism needs for its due performance (as in the ant ibmforr. 
 case of St. Philip and the Ethiopian) nothing foVmti" ' 
 more than an administrator and a recipient. But fll^SVof 
 
 tmo or itjrfc 
 m Cbnst's 
 
1 90 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 satisfied without the joint action of two or three, 
 since the re-union of Christians with one another 
 in and through their common Lord is an essential 
 feature of it, to obliterate which might peril the 
 vitality of the Ordinance. Do we enough con- 
 sider it in this light, as the Institution which is 
 designed to make the different members of the 
 Body of Christ cohere, designed to be a centre of 
 unity to them, wherever it is celebrated, and to 
 draw them together in closest bonds of spiritual 
 anti siiouit! be fellowship ? And do Ave, in partaking of it, cul- 
 Bpiriuf '" ^ tivate a spirit of mutual love, make an effort to 
 mutual lo c. 1^^^^ ^^ ^^^ natural selfishness, and intercede for 
 the Christian Brotherhood as well as ourselves ? 
 
 But enough for the present. 'Wlien in our next 
 Chapter we shall have exhibited the powers of the 
 Church in Council, our walk round the walls of 
 Zion will be completed. May we return from the 
 survey with minds enriched, and hearts edified, 
 by a deeper insight into " the things pertaining 
 unto the Kingdom of God." 
 
 Cittcrhtsm on Chap-. 'HE. 
 
 1. Question. — For what purpose did our Lord spend 
 forty days on earth between His Resurrection and 
 His Ascension ? 
 
 Ajiswer. — This period of Forty Days had three uses, 
 — a use for the world, a use for His first disciples, and 
 a use for the Church. 
 
 2. Question. — What was the use of this period for the 
 unbelieving world ? 
 
 Ansioer. — To furnish to them satisfactory evidence of 
 Christ's Resurrection. Christ was not to be seen after 
 His Resurrection for a single day or a single week ; 
 
VI.] Catechism. 191 
 
 but to appear to several different persons (somelimcs 
 singly, sometimes when they were together), and on 
 several different occasions, that there might be no room 
 to doubt that He was truly risen. 
 
 3. Question. — What use had the great Forty Days for 
 the first disciples? 
 
 AnsiL-cr. — During this period they were gradually 
 weaned from the support of Christ's bodily presence, 
 upon which they had long and fondly leant. They saw 
 Ilim occasionally, but only at intervals ; and thus be- 
 came inured to seeing Tlim no more in the flesh, and 
 disciplined for seeing Him spiritually by faith. 
 
 4. Question. — What use had this period for the 
 Church ? 
 
 Answer. — It was then apparently that our Lord 
 occupied Himself in tracing the foundations of His 
 Church, — in appointing its Ordinances, its Ministers, 
 and its Constitution. 
 
 5. Question. — How does this appear from the words 
 of St. Luke ? 
 
 Answer. — He tells us (Acts i. 3) that at the various 
 interviews of our Lord with His Apostles during the 
 Forty Days, He spake to them " of the things pertain- 
 ing to the Kingdom of God." Now, by the Kingdom 
 of Grod is meant that Constitution which Christ set up on 
 the Earth, and into which men are called by the Gospel. 
 The same term, " kingdom of heaven" (kingdom " set 
 up " by " the God of heaven," see Daniel ii. 44) is used 
 of the Church in St. ]\Iatthew xiii. 47 ; " The kingdom 
 of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea 
 and gathered of every kind." 
 
 6. Question. — How does it appear also from the re- 
 corded interviews of our Lord with the Apostles 
 after the Eesurrection? 
 
 Anstcer. — In the course of these interviews wo find 
 Ilim instituting Missionary Preaching, Holy Baptism, 
 Preaching to the Christian Congregation, Christian 
 Education, the Pastoral Office, and the Christian 
 
192 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Ministry with its powers of absolution and censure. 
 We may add also that, by frequently appearing during 
 this period to two or three gathered together in His 
 Name, He fulfilled His own promise in St. Matt, xviii. 
 20, and appointed the Christian Congregation as the 
 trysting-place at which He and His followers should 
 meet. Also by appearing to the Ten on the evening of 
 the Resurrection Day, and again to the Eleven eight 
 days afterwards (which would be, according to the 
 Jewish method of counting, on the seventh day after- 
 wards), He appears to have consecrated the seventh day 
 from His Resurrection, which thenceforth became to 
 Christians the first day of the week, and was called the 
 Lord's Day ; see Rev. i. 10. We find from Acts xx. 7, 
 that, " upon the first day of the week," it was the habit 
 of the disciples to come " together to break bread " 
 (that is, to celebrate the Holy Communion) ; and in 
 1 Cor. xvi. 2 St. Paul bids his Corinthian converts, 
 " Upon the first day of the week let every one of you 
 lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him," the 
 Sunday being a fit day for almsgiving and " laying up 
 for" themselves " treasures in heaven." 
 
 7. Catechist. — Sum up then briefly the Institutions of 
 which we find the germs scattered by our Lord 
 during this period. 
 
 Answer. — i. The Lord's Day. 2. Public "Worship 
 in the Congregation. 3. Preaching to the Heathen. 
 4. The Sacrament of Baptism. 5. Preaching to the 
 Christian Congregation. 6. Christian Education. 7. 
 Ordination. 8. Absolution and Excommunication. 9. 
 The Pastoral Ofiice. The allusions to all of these 
 things are brief, to some of them faint ; but there is 
 not one of them, of which some manifest trace may not 
 be found in the period under consideration. 
 
 8. Queslion. — Is it likely, then, that during this period 
 
 we should find no trace of the Holy Eucharist, 
 which is the highest and most important of all the 
 Ordinances of the Church ? 
 Answer. — Very unlikely; or rather inconceivable. 
 
VI.] Catechism. 193 
 
 The Lord's Supper is an Ordinance of such import- 
 ance, that our Lord made it, and the origin of it, 
 and the method of celebrating it, the subject of a 
 special revelation to the Apostle Paul ; see 1 Cor. 
 xi. 23-20. This was not necessary with the other 
 Apostles, since it had been expressly instituted in 
 their presence, and must have been quite fresh in their 
 memories during the great Forty Days. But we should 
 certainly expect that, during a period which was de- 
 voted to laying the germs of Church Institutions, and 
 " speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of 
 God," there should be some distinct reference to this 
 Ordinance, and to the blessings of it. 
 
 9. Question. — Where do you find such a reference ? 
 Answer. — In St. Luke's account of the journey of two 
 disciples to Emmaus on the Hesurrection Day, in the 
 course of which our Lord joined them, " in another 
 form " (see St. ]\Iark xvi. 12), and took a share in their 
 conversation, and " expounded unto them in all the 
 Scriptures the things concerning him.self," and finally 
 " went in to tarry with them." " And it came to pass, 
 as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed 
 it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were 
 opened, and they knew him ; and he vanished out of 
 their sight " (St. Luke xxiv. 30, 31). 
 
 10. Question. — What leads you to connect this narra- 
 tive with the Holy Supper? 
 Ansioer. — The fact that the words used are almost 
 exactly the same as those which St. Matthew and St. 
 Mark use in describing the Institution of the Lord's 
 Supper : 
 
 St. Matthew says St. Mark snys St. Luke's words here 
 
 (xxvi. 20)— (xiv. 22)— are (xxiv. 30)— 
 
 " As they were eat- " As they did eat, "As he sat at meat 
 
 ing, Jesus took bre.id, Jc.sus took bread, with them, he took 
 
 and blessed it, and and blessed, and bread, and blessed it, 
 
 brake t^ and gave it brake it, and gave and brake, and gave to 
 
 to the disciidcs." to them." them." 
 
 Also there is the fact, that " the breaking of the bread" 
 was the term applied to the Eucharist by the early 
 disciples. We find it so called in Acts ii. 42, where, if 
 
 N 
 
1 94 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 the definite articles used in the original had been pre- 
 served by our translators, the words would run thus : 
 " And they continued steadfastly in the doctrine of the 
 Apostles, and in their fellowship, and in the breaking 
 of the bread, and in the prayers." It is to be observed 
 also, that our Lord, in the interview at Emmaus, calls 
 attention to the h-eaking of the bread, by making that 
 action the means of His being recognised by them, so 
 that He may be said to put upon it an especial stress. 
 
 11. Question. — What does the fact of the Eucharist's 
 having obtained a regular designation in the earli- 
 est infancy of the Church, show ? 
 
 Answer. — That it was already recognised as a great 
 Institution of the Church. 
 
 12. Catechist. — We may take it for granted, then, that 
 the meal at Emmaus bore a designed reference to 
 the Holy Communion, — was, in short, our Lord's 
 recognition of that holy Sacrament, of its import- 
 ance and of its efi'ects, during the Forty Days 
 which were spent by Him in tracing the founda- 
 tions of the Kingdom of God. Under this view 
 of the incident, what is the first lesson respecting 
 the Eucharist which we gather from it ? 
 
 Answer. — That this holy Sacrament, though it grew 
 out of the occasion of Christ's parting with His Apostles, 
 was to rise above the occasion, and stand out distinct 
 from its original surroundings. 
 
 13. Question. — How does this appear ? 
 
 Answer. — Partly from the persons to whom Christ 
 gave the broken bread after the Resurrection ; partly 
 from the circumstances under which it was given to 
 them. 
 
 14. Question. — How does it appear from the persons 
 concerned ? 
 
 Answer. — Neither of them were Apostles ; for it is 
 said that when they returned to Jerusalem, they 
 '■^ found the eleven gathered together, and them that were 
 with them" (St. Luke xxiv. 33). Clearly therefore 
 
VI.] CatccJiism. 195 
 
 thoy did not themselves belong to "the eleven." Thus 
 they wore not of the number of those who had seen tho 
 Holy Supper instituted, and in whose memories every as- 
 fsociation of it would be fresh and vivid. It was not from 
 ihem that our Lord had parted in this manner ; there 
 were no associations of the last evening lie had spent 
 upon earth to bo wakened in their minds ; and there- 
 fore when lie performs /or them one of the Eucharistio 
 actions, we conclude that He designed the Eucharist to 
 be an Ordinance for the Church generally, not specially 
 for those to whom He first gave it, as a dying token 
 of His Divine Love. 
 
 15. Question. — How does the same thing appear from 
 the circumstances under which our Lord gave them 
 the broken bread ? 
 
 Answer. — These circumstances were directly the re- 
 verse of those under which the Ordinance had been 
 instituted. Then He was parting from His disciples 
 before His Death. Now He was greeting them again 
 after His Resurrection. .We infer that the Holy Supper 
 is designed to be a return of tho risen Saviour to His 
 Disciples with an Easter salutation on His lips, as well 
 as a token given in remembrance of Himself with words 
 of valediction. 
 
 16. Question. — What prediction of our Lord seems to 
 have received its inchoate fulfilment in the Em- 
 maus meal ? 
 
 Answer. — That which, according to St. Luke, He 
 uttered immediately before the Institution of the Eucha- 
 rist. " And when the hour was come, he sat down, 
 and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto 
 them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover 
 with you before I suffer : for I say unto you, I will not 
 any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the king- 
 dom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, 
 and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves : 
 for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the 
 vine, until the kingdom of God shall come " (St. Luke 
 xxii, U-19). 
 
1 96 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 17. Question. — Wtat other words of a similar purport 
 did our Lord use (according to the same Evan- 
 gelist) fl/ter the Institution of the Eucharist ? 
 
 Answer. — " Ye are they which have continued with 
 me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a king- 
 dom, as my Father hath appointed unto me ; that ye 
 may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit 
 on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (St. 
 Luke xxii. 28-81). 
 
 18. Catechist. — Yes; the sentiment in this last passage 
 is of the same general character with that in the 
 former. What difference is observable between 
 the two ? 
 
 A7iswer. — That in the former passage the Saviour 
 seems to speak of His eating and drinking ivith the 
 disciples (compare St. Matt. xxvi. 29, " But I say unto 
 you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, 
 until that day when I drink it new with you in my 
 Father's kingdom "), in the latter, of their eating and 
 drinking with Him; "that ye may eat and drink at 
 my table in my kingdom" (St. Luke xxii. 30). 
 
 19. Question. — What do you infer from this difference 
 in words of the same general character ? 
 
 Answer. — That the earlier fulfilments of the gracious 
 promise contained in both passages alike would be 
 rather, that the Lord should attend the entertainment 
 made for Him hy the discijjles ; whereas its latest fulfil- 
 ment would be, that they should be guests of His, at a 
 festival made for them by Him. 
 
 20. Catechist. — You said that the earliest fulfilment of 
 these words was to be found in the Emmaus meal. 
 But the words are — " I will not any more eat 
 thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom ofOod " 
 (St. Luke xxii. 16) ; " I will not drink of the fruit 
 of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come " 
 (ver. 18). In what sense had " the kingdom of God 
 come," in what sense "was it fulfilled in the king- 
 dom of God," when our Lord had risen from the 
 dead? 
 
VI.] Catechism. 197 
 
 Amiver. — Christ's life of spotless obedience, and His 
 death, by which lie made upon the cross " a full, per- 
 fect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction 
 for the sins of the whole world," were now accomplished ; 
 in token of which lie exclaimed with His latest 
 breath, " It is finished." And, more than this, God 
 had indicated His acceptance of all that Christ had 
 done and suffered for man by raising up Christ from the 
 dead. Thus far it was already " fulfilled in the king- 
 dom of God ; " although a greater and more glorious 
 fulfilment had still to be brought about. 
 
 21. Question. — "What was this more complete fulfilment 
 to which you refer ? 
 
 Answer. — The descent of the Holy Spirit at Pente- 
 cost, whose first fruits are, " Love, joy, peace " (see Gal. 
 V. 22). "We are told that " the kingdom of God is right- 
 eousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost " (Rom. 
 xiv. 17). "When, therefore, the Holy Spirit of peace 
 and joy had descended, there was a more complete ful- 
 filment in the Kingdom of God than hitherto — the King- 
 dom had more fully come. 
 
 22. Question. — "Will you then briefly show how the 
 Holy Eucharist was raised to a higher character, 
 and stood on a higher level, after than before the 
 Resurrection, and again after than before the day 
 of Pentecost ? 
 
 Answer. — Before the Resurrection, the Eucharist 
 was merely a memorial of Christ's dying love. After 
 the Resurrection, it became also a greeting of the risen 
 Saviour to His disciples, and a Sacrament of His re- 
 union with them. After the day of Pentecost, it gained 
 yet a new character without losing the old — it became 
 the great channel by which the Saviour's risen Life 
 flowed into and animated His members. 
 
 23. Catechist. — Yes ; these are three distinct views of 
 the Eucharist. Yet what common element is 
 there in all these views? 
 
 Answer. — That of Christ Himself presiding at the 
 
igS Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Communion Feast : first, in His natural body ; secondly, 
 in His risen body ; thirdly, in His glorified body, or, 
 in other words, in the fulness of His llesurrection 
 Life. 
 
 24. Question. — Why is it important to maintain firmly 
 this idea of Christ being Himself not only the 
 Food received, but also the Master of the Banquet 
 (just as in His Sacrifice He is both Priest and 
 Victim) ? 
 
 Answer. — Because the maintenance of this idea would 
 be a safeguard against erroneous and carnal notions of 
 the Ordinance. If Christ is not only the Heavenly 
 Viand, but also the Distributor thereof, the Viand can- 
 not be in a carnal sense His Body and Blood. Christ 
 certainly did not give to His disciples, at the first Insti- 
 tution, the flesh of His hand, or the blood which circu- 
 lated through it. And so, in His reminder of the Eu- 
 charistic action at Emmaus, He was again the giver 
 of the food given. 
 
 25. Question. — Though the Kingdom of God came 
 more fully at Pentecost than it had hitherto done, 
 has it yet been altogether fulfilled in the Kingdom 
 of God? 
 
 Ansiver. — No ; this will not take place until the 
 time of the end, when all things, death not excepted, 
 shall be " put under " Jesus. This period is predicted 
 by the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. xv. 23-29 : " But every 
 man in his own order : Christ the first-fruits ; after- 
 ward they that are Christ's, at his coming. Then 
 Cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the 
 kingdom to God, even the Father; when he vshall 
 have put down all rule, and all authority and power. 
 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under 
 his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is 
 death. For he hath put all things under his feet. 
 But when he saith All things are put under him, it ia 
 manifest that he is excepted which did put all things 
 under him. And when all things shall be subdued 
 unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject 
 
VI.] Catechisju. 199 
 
 unto him that put all things under him, that God may 
 be all in all." 
 
 26. Question. — What will be the eternal Eucharist, 
 which the Lord shall spread for His people, 
 and which shall finally supersede the Eucharists, 
 at which lit has condescended to be their guest? 
 
 Answer. — The Marriage Supper of the Lamb. 
 
 27. Question. — What foreshadcwing and augury of 
 this final Marriage Supper do we find in our 
 Lord's earthly career? 
 
 Answer. — We read that He made His first public 
 appearance at a marriage in Cana of Galilee, where He 
 exerted His miraculous power to furnish the guests 
 with a large store of wine. See St. John ii. 1-12. 
 
 28. Question. — What prophecy of the final Marriage 
 Supper do we find in our Lord's teaching ? 
 
 Anstver. — The Parable of the king who made a 
 marriage for his son, and, after rejecting those whom 
 he had first invited, gathered together a great multi- 
 tude out of the highways, "both bad and good," and 
 among them " a man which had not on a wedding gar- 
 ment." This man, having no excuse to oifer for appear- 
 ing in ordinary attire, was by the king's order bound 
 hand and foot, and taken away, and cast into outer 
 darkness; see St. Matt. xxii. 1-15. 
 
 29. Catechist. — Exhibit briefly the meaning of this 
 Parable. 
 
 Answer. — God, by His servants the prophets, bade 
 the Jews to the " feast of fat things," which he had 
 prepared in the Gospel of Christ, — to the solemnization 
 of His Son's marriage with our nature by the Incarna- 
 tion, and with the individual partakers of our nature 
 by His spiritual union to His Church. The Jews 
 slighting this feast and neglecting to come, while some 
 of them persecuted and slew God's messengers who 
 invited them to it, the invitation was sent to the Gen- 
 tiles, who accepted it in numbers. The altars of the 
 
200 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Church, at which the Lord had ordained a rehearsal and 
 foretaste to be made of the great Marriage Supper, 
 which should be at the end of time, were "furnished 
 with guests," " bad and good," faithful and unbelieving, 
 sincere and hypocritical. But these guests shall not 
 all be admitted to the eternal Marriage Supper. There 
 shall be a sifting of the guests (as there ought to be a 
 sifting of the conscience previously to the Eucharistic 
 Supper), and a rejection of those who have not on the 
 wedding garment, — who are not clothed with a spirit 
 of holy joy, in harmony with the great Festival. 
 
 30. Question. — What prophetic vision of the eternal 
 Marriage Supper is found in the Scriptures of the 
 New Testament? 
 
 Ansiver. — The following, which was vouchsafed to 
 St. John the Divine : " And I heard as it were the 
 voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many 
 waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, 
 Alleluia : for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let 
 us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him : for 
 the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath 
 made herself ready. And to her was granted that she 
 should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white : for 
 the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he 
 saith unto me. Write, Blessed are they which are called 
 unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith 
 unto me. These are the true sayings of God " (Rev. 
 xix. 6-10). 
 
 31. Question. — What contrast may be observed between 
 
 the character of the two Sacraments ? 
 Anstoer. — A similar contrast to that which may be 
 observed in the places where they were respectively 
 instituted. Baptism was instituted on a mountain, 
 round which the free breezes of heaven careered. The 
 Holy Supper was instituted in the chamber of a dwell- 
 ing-house, and was celebrated by the early Christians 
 (before they had churches) " from house to house ; " 
 see Acts ii. 46, " breaking bread from house to house." 
 The first is a Sacrament of difi"usion ; "Go ye there- 
 
VI.] Catechism. 201 
 
 fore, and Icacli oil iiatio7}s, baptizing tliem ; " " Go ye 
 into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every 
 creature" (St. Matt, xxviii. 19; St. Mark xvi. 15j. 
 The second is a Sacrament of re-union; "Say ye to 
 the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is 
 the guest chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my 
 disciples?" (St. Mark xiv. 14.) 
 
 32. Question. — What practical lesson respecting the 
 Supper of the Lord do we learn from hence ? 
 
 Anstver. — That it is designed to be a bond of 
 spiritual fellowship between Christians, as well as 
 between the Lord and the individual soul ; or rather of 
 fellowship between individual souls in and through the 
 one Lord and Saviour. 
 
 33. Question. — In what words does St. Paul teach this 
 lesson ? 
 
 Answer. — " We being many are one bread " (one 
 cake), " and one body : for we are all partakers of that 
 one bread " (1 Cor. x. 17); that is to say, a fragment 
 of one cake or loaf passes into the living frame of each 
 communicant, and is assimilated thereby : even so the 
 Saviour's flesh and blood, received in the Ordinance 
 by faith, pass into the immortal spirit of each com- 
 municant, and assimilate all to Christ, and blend all 
 together in the unity of the Spirit. 
 
 34. Question. — What spirit, then, should be cultivated 
 in receiving the Lord's Supper, if we wish to give 
 full effect to the significance of the Ordinance ? 
 
 Answer. — A spirit of mutual love, such as shows 
 itself by Christian sympathy, intercessory prayer, and 
 efforts to help one another. 
 
 35. Question. — How does the Communion OflSce of the 
 Church of England recognise the doctrine that the 
 re-union of Christians with one another is an 
 essential feature of the Holy Communion ? 
 
 Answer. — By the second and third Rubrics at the 
 close of the Office : — 
 
 ''IT And there shall he no celelration of the Lord's 
 
202 Catechism. [chap. vi. 
 
 Supper^ except there he a convenient number to com- 
 municate witli the Priest^ according to his discretion. 
 
 " U And if there be not above twenty persons in the 
 Parish of discretion to receive the Communion ; yet 
 there shall he no Communion^ except four (or three at 
 the least) communicate with the Priest." 
 
 And even in the Communion of the Sick, there must 
 be two communicants at the least, besides the sick per- 
 son and the Priest. (See the Kubric at the commence- 
 ment of the OflBce.) 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON THE POWERS OF THE CHURCH IN COUNCIL. 
 
 " Et scrmcb goob to the 3=)o'H Ghost, uub to us." 
 Acts xv. 28. 
 
 TTTE have seen more thau once, in the course 
 ' ' of this work, tliat the great Forty Days 
 which intervened between the Eesurrection and 
 the Ascension of Christ, were the seminal period 
 of the Church's history, during which our Lord 
 occupied Himself in tracing her foundations. 
 We now come down to a later period of New ^ j^^^ -^^ 
 Testament history, and pass from the Gospels to ^^jfja^^nt 
 the Acts of the Apostles, there to observe the \if^°^li 
 actual exercise of the powers, and the actual f^^" "xts^^t 
 assertion of the prerogatives, which Christ had •I'japtft. 
 given to His little Hock. 
 
 The decree of the first Christian Council ever 
 held runs in this solemn formula ; " It seemed 
 good to the Holy Ghost, and to us." But who are 
 the persons who dare to couple their placet with 
 the placet of the Holy Ghost, and to atfirm tlieir rfifauthorfts 
 own sentence as the sentence of the Divine Spirit ? {hTSlaaof 
 We turn to the preamble of the decree to find chnXn 
 who they were : " The apostles and elders and ''^°"""'- 
 brethren," — in other words, the bishops, clergy, 
 
204 
 
 On the Poiucrs of 
 
 [chap. 
 
 JTfif natural 
 means fag 
 tolnch the 
 roiulusion 
 tiaa fa cm 
 arnfacli at. 
 
 3ri)c tfcrce 
 founOfU on 
 ptincipica 
 prtfaiouslg 
 aSmittrt." 
 
 and laity of the tlien Christian Church in council 
 assembled, — " send greeting unto the brethren 
 which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria 
 and Cilicia." 
 
 How had tliese men arrived at the conclusion, 
 for which they venture (apparently without hesi- 
 tation) to claim so awful a sanction ? They had 
 arrived at it by mutual conference, upon which 
 no doubt God's blessing and guidance had been 
 previously asked, though that circumstance is not 
 mentioned in the narrative. " There had been 
 much disputing " (verse 7) ; that is, a general dis- 
 cussion in the first instance ; after which the 
 assembly had listened to speeches from the great 
 leaders of the Christian movement, St. Peter, St. 
 Paul, and St. Barnabas. St. James, who probably 
 presided over the assembly as bishop of the diocese 
 in which it was held, summed up the argument, 
 and proposed a sentence or decree as the result of 
 that summary. This decree meeting the approba- 
 tion of the assembly, it was determined to forward 
 it by letter to the parties, for whose guidance it 
 was drawn up. 
 
 But was the decree merely arbitrary, or was it 
 founded on principles, the truth of which was 
 previously admitted? Most clearly the latter. 
 In St. Peter's speech he recites what God had 
 done, and had directed him to do, in reference to 
 the admission of Cornelius, and lays down that 
 dealing of God's as the ground of proceedings in 
 the present instance. Observe this narrowly. He 
 does not say " I, Cephas, a pillar of the Church, 
 — nay the rock-man {Jlkxpoi) on which the 
 
VII.] the Church in Council. 205 
 
 Church is built, — I, in the exercise of my iiide- st. lartft 
 pendent judgment, prompted and guided by the nrsumcnt on 
 Holy Ghost, whose illapse I experienced at Peute- prrbious 
 cost, declare it to be the will of God that these iiimarifanij 
 Gentile Christians shall not have the heavy bur- cc ntiUg ; 
 den of the Ceremonial Law laid upon them." His 
 jirofessing successor might have spoken so; but 
 the remarkable point in St. Peter's judgment is 
 not its independence, but its professed dependence 
 upon what God had said and done : — " God made 
 choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth 
 should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. 
 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them 
 witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as 
 he did unto us ; and put no difference between 
 us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." — 
 St. James founds his opinion upon the same &t. samcs on 
 dealing of God, and in further illustration of this D/aimcs, of 
 dealing quotes a passage from the book of the sniSs a prc- 
 prophet Amos, predicting apparently that admis- biok "f % 
 sion of the Gentiles to full religious privileges, Imos!' 
 which had been inaugurated by the baptism of 
 Cornelius, and arguing thence that the minds of 
 the Gentile converts were not to be needlessly 
 disturbed. So that the question, though settled 
 by Apostles, was settled by a reference to the 
 foregone sayings and doings of the Almighty, of 
 which they do not for a moment claim indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 But was not the decision, after all, a result Of sandion 
 arrived at by the mere exercise of the human Ghost ° " 
 faculties ? Had " the apostles and elders and sraaion bo 
 brethren" any right to claim for it tlie sanction of °"' ' 
 
2o6 On the Powers of [chap. 
 
 the Holy Spirit, as they most distinctly do in the 
 text ? Most assuredly they had such a right ; and 
 had they claimed anything less than this, they 
 •would have failed to recognise their true position 
 and prerogative. 
 
 In the first place, the Founder of the Church 
 had distinctly given them an assurance of His 
 own presence, when they were gathered together 
 in His name. It is true that this promise had been 
 made specifically in reference to united prayer : — 
 " If two of you shall agree upon earth as touch- 
 on ihe ing any thing that they shall ash" etc. But God's 
 fiif iiort'a promises (like His commandments) are exceeding 
 Df BiScf^ broad ; and it would refer also to the united 
 of tVutb.'"" deliberations of the disciples, before entering 
 upon which they would doubtless seek for Divine 
 guidance, according to, and on the ground of, 
 that word ; — " When he, the Spirit of truth, is 
 come, he wiU guide you into all truth." And we 
 faiifdi spirit are to remember that, at the time of which we 
 are now speaking, the Spirit of truth had come. 
 Not only had the framework of the Church been 
 constructed, it had also been animated and organ- 
 ized — fully pervaded with the Saviour's risen Life. 
 This grand event, which took place at Pentecost, 
 is thus rehearsed by the Apostle Paul : — " When 
 he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, 
 ant) fiau and gave gifts unto men . . . And he gave some, 
 upon tije apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evan- 
 tbrmlgi) gcUsts ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the 
 diannds of perfecting of the saints, for the work of the 
 iflinistrs. i^i^igt^,y^ for the edifying of the body of Christ : 
 till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of 
 
 tiati bcrn 
 gifarn at 
 5|Pcntfco8t, 
 
VII.] tJie Church in Council. 207 
 
 the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect 
 man, unto the measure of the stature of the ful- 
 ness of Christ." 
 
 These then are the grounds on whicli a decree 
 of the assembled Church claims for itself the rati- 
 fication of the Holy Ghost. The decree was the 
 voice of the Holy Ghost, speaking in the body of 
 Christ. By this Spirit the Church was to be con- jsrins 
 tinually guided ; and by the governance of tliis t?e spirit, as 
 Spirit she was to shape her course, as difficulties thtzifort'of 
 arose, and heresies and contradictions crossed her chutcii^ 
 path. The heresies and contradictions were to be ?5'fcgisiat« ' 
 legislated for, as time brought them to the birth. f"su"rfmrr- 
 There was an unerring standard of reference, m'^^ijurfat ; 
 whereby to adjudicate upon them, in the Word of 
 God. And there was in the Church an indwelling 
 light and wisdom, enabling her to discriminate 
 between good and evil, truth and falsehood, by 
 the application of that criterion. This is the true 
 theory of Church Government. There was no 
 pre-ordained scheme for dealing with the emer- 
 gencies, wdiich the progress of Society, or the dis- 
 pensations of Providence might throw up to the 
 surface. Our Lord legislated for no such emer- 
 gencies. The Apostles legislated for no such 
 emergencies. Our Lord did not say to his 
 Apostles; "You will have the Judaizers to deal nor iiiu our 
 with ere long, who will propose to entangle Sis apostu?, 
 the Gentile converts in the yoke of bondage; I 
 give you a hint beforehand how to handle that 
 controversy, when time brings it to the birth." 
 ^Vhy should He give them hints beforehand, 
 like a departing friend, who after his decease is 
 
208 
 
 Oil tJie Powers of 
 
 [chap. 
 
 to live with us only in memory and in the asso- 
 ciations of the past ? He was to live with them 
 — ay, and with their successors, " even to the 
 end of the world " — by the power and presence 
 of His Spirit flowing down into and inundating 
 all the Church's Ministry — a better presence, He 
 distinctly tells them, and a stronger power than 
 His presence and power in the flesh had ever 
 been. What need that He should direct them in 
 all things beforehand, when He could say to them 
 that far more helpful word ; " Lo, I am with you 
 alway, even unto the end of the world ;" " Where 
 two or three are gathered together in my name, 
 there am I in the midst of them"? — And as their 
 Master dealt with the Apostles, so the Apostles 
 dealt with the inheritors of their Ministry. They 
 have warned us indeed, in general terms, of dan- 
 rmcr'rjmdrs.'' gers which should besct the faith and patience of 
 Christians in the last days, and of the awful reve- 
 lation of a certain mysterious personage called 
 " the Man of Sin," in order that, when these con- 
 tradictions and heresies appeared. Christians, re- 
 membering them to have been all foretold, might 
 be nothing staggered by them ; but as for any 
 definite directions how to act on the occurrence 
 of definite emergencies, such as the rise of the 
 Arian, or Macedonian, or Pelagian heresy, the 
 Apostles left no such instructions behind them. 
 What need was tliere to do so ? Their successors 
 in the Faith, as well as themselves, would share 
 in the sacred gift of Pentecost, which indeed was 
 nothing less than the gift of the perpetual pre- 
 sence of Christ, through His Eepresentative, the 
 
 nor His 
 
 S^JDStlcS to 
 
 tijrir succts- 
 sora, anjj 
 iDclxnitf tiircC' 
 lions as to 
 ll)t tnettiol! of 
 
VII.] the Clnu'ch in CounciL 209 
 
 Comforter. Was not that presence competent to 
 guide the Church of the latter days, as it had 
 guided themselves, into all truth ? More espe- 
 cially as there was an external guidance available 
 for the Church in the written Word of God. If ariic apostics 
 hundreds of cases might arise which the Apostles th?cburrV'' 
 never foresaw, none could arise which did not tonfirifls!'\'n 
 admit of a solution by reference to the principles iniu"Soton \Mt 
 laid down in their writings. The New Testa- ffiSu^rS" 
 ment, like all other parts of Scripture, is a seed ; muX"^" 
 it contains within it in germ, though by no ''"'*'^* 
 means explicitly, the decision of every contro- 
 versy which has ever vexed and harassed the 
 Church. 
 
 But here a difficulty may arise in the mind of ©bjfriton 
 a reader who is following the argument. We will Sffo'-^^'"^ 
 give expression to it in this shape : — " It is an S[at)onUfg in 
 axiom of good government that there must be one mrnfof % 
 head. Now, in the government of the Church of ''''^""^• 
 Christ you virtually say that there are two co- 
 ordinate authorities. One is, as you have told 
 us, the Church herself, organized under her rulers, 
 deriving her Ministries from the Lord Jesus Him- 
 seK through His Apostles, and thus having His 
 presence and power transmitted to the latest ages 
 of her history. Well and good. But you tell us 
 also of another authority, which you imply must 
 check and control the agency of the Church, this 
 authority being the sacred volume of the Holy 
 Scriptures, written by inspiration of God, and 
 emanating from God Himself You have then 
 a living corporation, inhabited by the Holy Spirit. 
 And you have also a book, animated in every part 
 
 
2IO On the Powers of [chap. 
 
 (for this is the meaning of the word inspired) by 
 the breath of that Spirit ? May there not be a 
 danger of collision between the two authorities ? 
 How if the Church shall approve what the Scrip- 
 ture condemns, or censure in cases where the Scrip- 
 ture does not say ' Anathema/ or fail to condemn, 
 where the Scripture is very strong and explicit 
 in disapproval ? Is there not great hazard in this 
 divided allegiance ? Would it not be simpler, and 
 less confusing to plain people, to go by the Church 
 exclusively, as the Romanist professes to do, or 
 by the Bible exclusively, as the ultra-Protestant 
 professes to do ? " 
 CTnmpiKcttH Simpler, certainly, in the sense of giving us 
 orsanijahons Only one thing to attend to ; but the finest and 
 mj^auK. ]jjg]-jgg^ organizations in Nature are not simple, 
 but complex ; and the higher they are, the more 
 complex the structure becomes. A zoophyte has 
 only one organ to serve him for stomach, liver, 
 and lungs ; but in the body of a man, which 
 stands at the head of animal life, the stomach, liver, 
 and lungs are distinct, and each member has its 
 own function, upon which others must not (and 
 in the condition of health do not) trespass. Wlio 
 shall wonder, then, if in the administration of the 
 Christian Society there are two authorities which 
 have distinct and independent functions, — the 
 living corporation of the Church of Christ, organ- 
 ized under its Ministers, and the inspired Word of 
 God, quickened in every part by the breath of His 
 Spirit ? I say that the functions of these tM^o 
 authorities are independent ; and the idea ought 
 to present no difficulty to those acquainted, as 
 
VII.] the CJnirch in Cowicil. 211 
 
 Englishmen are, with constitutional checks. The jrf,c erjjurcb'o 
 Church's power, as defined by our twentieth Js;«<!;-'%s„ 
 Article, is in part legislative, and in part only ^" " "*"'^*' 
 judicial. "The Church hath power to decree 
 liites or Ceremonies," — that is, new ones, if she 
 judge it to be expedient. This is her legislative 
 power. The earliest exercise of this power, or per- jn ti,( tjccre.- 
 haps I should say the principle of it, may be traced of jimisakro 
 in the Chapter on which we are founding our cJjci^ o["it. 
 remarks. The matter laid before " the apostles 
 and elders and brethren" was a ceremonial one, 
 inasmuch as it had reference to the Jewish cere- 
 monial law. The question was, whether the Gen- 
 tile converts were bound to the observance of the 
 ceremonial law. And after much discussion and 
 deliberation it was determined that they were 
 under no such obligation, and that the only re- 
 strictions which they need observe were such as 
 were necessary in order to break off all connexion 
 with the worship of idols ; " that ye abstain from 
 meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from 
 things strangled, and from fornication" (a moral 
 offence being here classed with ceremonial ones, 
 not as if the two things were put on a level, but 
 because one and all were abominations sanctioned 
 and patronized by heathen worship). A decree 
 to this effect was issued by the Council, and cir- 
 culated by St. Paul and his colleague in their 
 missionary tour. And three most beneficial effects 
 of the decree are mentioned, — " consolation " 
 (flowing from the relief experienced by harassed 
 consciences, when a moot point was set at rest), 
 establishment of the churches in the faith, and 
 
212 On the Powers of [chap. 
 
 crjje moumi their numerical increase. Nor can it be doubted 
 ncTcLc tbe^''' that the Church, in its several branches, has at 
 fn maftra" present a power of legislating in matters merely 
 tcrfmon^at, ritual. Our branch of the Church exercised such 
 power, when she determined to retain the sign of 
 the Cross in Baptism, a ceremony most impressive 
 and edifying, though by no means part of the 
 Sacrament, nor at all affecting its validity. And 
 she might move further in the same direction, as 
 far as her spiritual constitution and prerogatives 
 are concerned. She might add, for example, 
 new Offices to the Book of Common Prayer, 
 as an Office of Thanksgiving on occasion of the 
 Harvest, or an Office at the Induction of a 
 new Minister, or an Office to be used over a 
 thougijc&m Criminal lying under Sentence of Death. But 
 rtecfe"rom" cvcu here the Church's power is guarded by a 
 hjrittm. °'^ Constitutional check. "Yet it is not lawful," 
 proceeds the Article, "for the Church to ordain 
 anything that is contrary to God's Word writ- 
 ten." If, for example, into an Office of Har- 
 vest Thanksgiving it were proposed to insert some 
 words of adoration to the holy Angels, as being 
 very possibly the ministers of natural blessings to 
 mankind, this would be a flagrant stretch of the 
 Church's prerogative, since St. Paul condemns the 
 worshipping of angels, and, when St. John fell 
 down to worship before the feet of an angel, the 
 SiSpoS/r being to whom the homage was offered replied : 
 hlcTOtro-""' " See thou do it not : for I am thy fellow-servant." 
 tScHo — The second part of the Church's function is judi- 
 K°fahaHi)c cial only. She " hath authority in Controversies 
 u-ucfioctnnc ^^ Faith,"— not authority to make, a single Article 
 
VII.] the CIuLvch in Council. 213 
 
 of Faith, but authority in a doctrinal controversy 
 to pronounce what is the true doctrine, ruling her 
 decisions by a reference to the Holy Scripture, 
 and to the interpretation put upon it by the 
 Church, when as yet Christendom was undivided. 
 You may see the germ of this power also in the 
 record of the Council in the Acts. For the deci- 
 sion that compliance with the ceremonial law was 
 not necessary to salvation was, in a certain point 
 of view, a doctrinal judgment; and we cannot help 
 observing the great anxiety of the Apostles to 
 frame their decision upon God's previous sayings 
 f\nd doings, — upon His works and Word, — part 
 of which every speaker at the meeting sets him- 
 self to interpret. They speak as those who can 
 make no ruling out of their own minds, and are 
 simply bent upon expounding and applying the 
 mind of God. Let it therefore be clearly under- 
 stood that the Articles of Faith are to be sought 
 onhj in Holy Scripture. As in this country the 
 Imperial Parliament is the alone source of Law, so 
 the alone source of Christian doctrine is the volume 
 of Holy Scripture. But as, when laws have been 
 made by Parliaments, judges are found necessary, fust ns a 
 not to make new ones, but to expound, declare, ^^a^l-^\rca 
 and administer the old, so in matters of Christian ?i|ougff}ic 
 doctrine, while the Bible is the sole statute-book, mabf"?Jt 
 the Church is the sole judge. And there can be ^^^* 
 no question that, in order to a healthy and vigor- 
 ous administration of that great body politic, the 
 Church, there must be a judge, and a judge in con- 
 tinual action, as well as a statute-book. It is not 
 enough to have good laws ; they must be applied. 
 
2 14 O^^ ^^^^ Powers of [chap. 
 
 and administered, and justice done in pursuance of 
 them, unless the country is to go to rack and ruin. 
 cr})c (Efiurci) Our twentieth Article, which we have been 
 ^mnli" thus far following, says nothing respecting one 
 jlcSrSfijicf) department of the Church's powers, which yet 
 inad."!!!." is brought out with sufficient distinctness in the 
 in a"ta faf^ Acts of the Apostles, — tlu authority to organize. 
 And at a time when new organizations are so 
 much wanted to meet the new needs, which 
 emerge with the progress of Society, when the 
 Church system has been forced to give itself a 
 great measure of elasticity (lest by its too great 
 stiffness it should split), and to find room for 
 Sisterhoods, Deaconesses, and Lay- Readers, it is 
 quite necessary that the great Scriptural autho- 
 rity for such movements, — the authority which is 
 required, and which (we think) is sufficient, to 
 sanction them, should be held before our eyes. 
 The Apostles then, not long after the Ascension, 
 took a most important step in organizing the 
 community over which they were called upon to 
 preside, for which (as far as we are told) they had 
 no direct instructions from Christ. They created a 
 subordinate order of Ministers, to whose shoulders 
 they transferred the responsibility and burden of 
 administering Church charities, reserving to them- 
 selves the more spiritual functions of the Min- 
 istry. " Christ may have said nothing about this 
 new order of Ministers " (says Canon Korris, a 
 learned and devout writer of our own day, whom 
 it is a pleasure to quote) ; " but Christ had said 
 plainly that His Church was to go on growing 
 and expanding like the branches of the mustard- 
 
VII.] the Church ill Co7incil. 215 
 
 tree, ever assimilating uew elements ; and that for cfjr ncfa 
 these new elements the old forms might not suffice ; tofaln fon" 
 uew wine must not be put into old bottles. pmnpirs''^ 
 
 fail] Domn bo 
 ' The old order cbangeth, yielding place to new, h3itl)^tuiiat" 
 
 And God fulfils Himself in many ways, t)ali been tiont 
 
 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.' Ccstamcnt 
 
 Cljurdj. 
 
 This shows us how the Apostles, in the appoint- 
 ment of the seven subordinate Ministers, may 
 have had in view, if not the literal instructions of 
 Christ, yet at all events the great principles laid 
 down by their Master ; and I cannot help think- 
 ing that as Jews, whose minds were thoroughly 
 imbued with, and thrown into the mould of, the 
 Old Testament, they had their eyes also upon the 
 way in which Moses was twice relieved of an ex- 
 cessive burden of work and responsibility, first, at 
 the advice of Jethro, by the appointment of sub- 
 ordinate magistrates to hear the lesser cases, and 
 secondly, by the qualification of the seventy elders 
 to bear the burden of the people with him. But, 
 however this may be, it is very important to re- 
 mark that this step in Church Organization was 
 not taken without consulting, and procuring the 
 entire concurrence of, the assembled Church. 
 " Then the twelve," we read, " called the multitude 
 of the disciples unto them," and explained the need 
 of a division of labour in order to efficiency of 
 administration. " And the saying pleased the 
 ivhole multitude." The new legislation was the 
 act of the whole Church, to which collectively the 
 promise of the Spirit had been made. — We hold 
 that the points of this narrative, which we here 
 
2 1 6 On the Powers of [chap. 
 
 i3oinf3 of tij£ exhibit summarily, are extremely important to be 
 
 toVcJi sijouiti borne in mind in any movement made for fresh 
 
 mint) in pro- Cliurch Organizations ; and we commend them 
 
 oignnhationB to the reader's notice and consideration. First, 
 
 ijdp. Growing Church work demands new forms of 
 
 Church help. Secondly, Relief is given to the 
 
 overtasked, on the principle of division of labour. 
 
 Tliirdly, The arrangement made has manifest 
 
 reference to the principles inculcated by Christ, 
 
 and to Church administration under the Old 
 
 Economy. Fourthly, The concurrence of the 
 
 Church is sought and obtained, before any step is 
 
 taken. Fifthly, The rulers of the Church are 
 
 called upon to give their authoritative sanction 
 
 and blessins to the new Orrranization, 
 
 But it may be asked, — it is daily being asked, by 
 some invidiously, by others with a sincere desire 
 for a satisfactory answer, — " If the above be the 
 true theory of Church Government, where is your 
 judge of heresy, where is your power to decree rites 
 and ceremonies, or even your authority for new 
 organizations, in the Church of England ? " If the 
 Church has indeed authority (I borrow the lan- 
 guage of the latest and best commentator on the 
 Thirty-nine Articles) not to make truth, but " to 
 declare truth, to maintain truth, to discern truth 
 from error, to judge, when controversies arise, 
 whether one party is heretical or not, and to re- 
 ject from communion such as are in grievous 
 falsehood or error," — where is the body in our 
 own Communion which has any such power as 
 this, or which even claims such power ? 
 
VII.] the Chw'ch in Council. 217 
 
 Alas! it must be confessed that while the 2:t^fIf(IlsIa- 
 Church still lives among us (and witli a vigorous ju&iciai 
 life) in her ^linistries, her legislative and judicial cburcij arc, 
 functions are, for the present, in abeyance. We communmn, 
 sorely need greater elasticity in our Church Ser- 
 vices, more power of adapting the old framework 
 of the Prayer-Book (a framework which has often 
 proved the greatest of safeguards, but which is 
 somewhat stiff and antiquated) to the devotional 
 exigencies of the present day. We have now 
 Harvest Services, Choral Festivals, religious 
 Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods, organizations of 
 women's work, and many other agencies which we 
 had not half a century ago. Our present Offices 
 and Prayers are admirably suited to the occasions 
 for which they were compiled ; but these new agen- 
 cies cannot all run in the old groove ; we want 
 some expansion of our existing devotional forms, 
 to suit them to current needs. In the absence of C-f^ofn'^ 
 
 scrbiccs. to 
 
 anv such authorized expansion, the new spirit «»«' "f^ 
 
 ^ ' ^ forms of 
 
 which is fermenting in the Church will carve out rcUflious 
 new channels for itself, and we shall have Ser- 
 vices according to fancy, not according to rubrics, 
 — the new wine will burst the old bottles. 
 "What we want is just what is tersely expressed 
 in the Article, an exercise of " the Church's power 
 to decree rites or ceremonies." — And again, the 
 progress of thought on religious subjects, which 
 can no more be stayed in its course than the sun 
 can, if it has been productive of some good, has 
 also been attended with serious dangers to the 
 faith in Christ, has given rise to heresies and 
 wanton contradictions of the popular creed, which 
 
2 1 8 On the Powers of [chap. 
 
 cause doubt in some minds, and extreme per- 
 i^cct of a plexity in others. Here, then, is just the emer- 
 conshtutct gency, in which we want the adjudication of a pro- 
 tribunal, perly constituted Church tribunal. But we have 
 it not. We have it not at all in practice, and 
 asrasons iuijg very insufficiently in theory. The Convocations 
 ©onijocation, of the Northern and Southern Provinces might, no 
 doubt, frame new Services, or make any modifica- 
 tions and adaptations of the Book of Common 
 Prayer which might be tliought desirable ; but so 
 long as the union between Church and State 
 subsists (an union fraught with great blessings to 
 both), the Acts of Convocation must have the 
 sanction of Acts of Parliament, before they could 
 have any legal force, and the difficulty of procuring 
 such Acts in these days, when so many Members 
 of Parliament are hostile or indifferent to the 
 Church, would be so great that it might reason- 
 ably be called insuperable. The same obstacle 
 would present itself to any approval by Parlia- 
 ment of a synodical censure passed by Convocation 
 on heretical writings. It is true that such writ- 
 ings may be, and are occasionally, pronounced 
 inconsistent with the formularies of the Church 
 nottf); of England, by the Judicial Committee of Privy 
 
 SuDicial , ' , . , '' 
 
 ecommuttt Council, and their authors punished by suspension 
 fltounni meet or deprivation; but the Judicial Committee is 
 
 ttitsencrts. /-n i 
 
 not a Church court ; it represents (and professes 
 to represent) not the Church, but the State ; nor 
 (to do them justice) can anything be more em- 
 phatic than their disavowal of any claim to be a 
 5Ci)e Suiiiciai court of hercsy. They announce that they do not 
 not a court try the writiiifT submitted to them by the standard 
 
VII.] the Church in Coiuicil. 219 
 
 of the Holy Scriptures and primitive antiquity, 
 which in an orthodox Church Council would be 
 the only criteria. Their business, they say, and 
 doubtless truly, is simply to say whether a limited 
 context extracted from certain suspicious docu- 
 ments, is so entirely contradictory to another 
 limited context, extracted from the Articles or 
 Tormularies of the Church, that the writers must 
 be deprived of the means of gaining a livelihood 
 from the exercise of their Ministry. — Such, then, 
 is our sore point in the Church of England, — 
 the abeyance in which the legislative and judicial 
 functions of the Church are at present held 
 amongst us. We may hope that the acknow- jsutifu 
 lodgment of the sore point is the first step to a ^^Lwl-a tf)at 
 remedy ; and I must add my strong conviction Ipnsian"t)a°B 
 that the principle, upon which the remedy should "^ ^^ "*^' 
 proceed, ought to be, to acknowledge practically 
 that the State and the Church must not inter- 
 fere in any measure with one another's functions; 
 that as, on the one hand, the Church must not 
 claim to inflict temporal penalties, so, on the 
 other, the State must not presume to pronounce 
 judgment either of acquittal or censure in charges 
 spiritual. 
 
 jNIeanwhile, let us couple this admission against so ijafae aii 
 ourselves with the reflection that all other Com- munions. 
 munions have their sore points also. The Lord 
 predicted that there shoidd be tares among the 
 wheat in the harvest^field of His Church; and 
 the tares may be taken to represent not only 
 wicked people in the community, but defects and 
 vicious debilitating principles in the system of 
 
220 
 
 On the Powers of [chap. 
 
 IB, esatrre 
 can toe finU 
 iijE fcfacst 
 ic&cts? 
 
 each Commimion. Every individual has his 
 faults ; and eveiy Cluirch has its flaws. This is 
 my answer to those persons who have consulted 
 me as to whether the failure of our Communion 
 in censuring what they regard as heresy, does not 
 oblige them to migrate to some other Communion, 
 where the living voice of the Church may be 
 srijc gucstion heard. My answer is; "Granted that the dear 
 old Mother Church has her faults, where will you 
 go that you will not find faults more fatal and 
 more fundamental ? If you can show me a Chris- 
 tian community %ij)on the whole more Scriptural 
 in its doctrine, and more primitive and apostolic 
 in its discipline, I will not only allow you to 
 migrate thither, but wiU gladly strike my own 
 tent and march out in your company. But to 
 take a leap in a matter so momentous to our best 
 interests, without looking well before us, to see 
 what will be our exact condition when we alight, 
 would be, to my mind, an act no less sinful than 
 foolish. ^^^lither do we think of going, or 
 whither, at least, that we shall be certain to better 
 ourselves ? To Eome ? What ! To a communion 
 which can indeed boast an ecclesiastical autho- 
 rity, but an authority which sets at defiance, nay, 
 tramples under foot, the great statute-book of God's 
 realm, and the Magna Charta of our spiritual liber- 
 ties; an authority which mutilates Sacraments, 
 and deprives the laity of the consecrated symbol 
 of the Blood of Christ; an authority which, 
 in defiance of God's law, 'Thou shalt not bow 
 down to graven images, nor worship them,' prac- 
 tically says, 'Thou shalt bow down;' an autho- 
 
 Clifsfiort- 
 fomings of 
 the 1\ Oman 
 Com inunion 
 
VII.] the ChiircJi in Council. 221 
 
 rity wliich has had the intolerable impuJcuce to 
 frame a new dogma in the nineteenth century, 
 and to make the immaculate conception, not 
 of our Lord, but of His mother, an Article of 
 1 aith \ " No ! without denying for a moment 
 that there have been many eminent saints in the 
 Church of Eome (an instance that God's grace in 
 the heart can neutralize any amount of specula- 
 tive error), we still maintain that speculative 
 error (especially on points which lie so near to 
 the core of true religion as those on which our 
 controversy with Home turns) is most dangerous, 
 and likely to prove even fatal to those who, not 
 from early associations, but from pique and petu- 
 lant impatience with their own position, embrace 
 it deliberately, after having known a purer faith. — 
 Where, then, shall we go, if a migration to Eome 
 be utterly out of the question ? To some sect of j-f,^ gf,ort- 
 Christians, among whom Holy Scripture is duly [grc^dg^fau 
 honoured and made the standard of appeal, but ^"'^" 
 among whom also the living voice of the Chm'ch 
 is heard, ordaining rites, judging heresies, censur- 
 ing offenders ? But not to speak of the sacrilice 
 of the Book of Common Prayer, which we 
 should thus have to make, and which, painfully 
 as it would jar upon all oui- devotional instincts, 
 might not yet be thought to involve a funda- 
 mental principle, what apostolic authority has 
 such a sect? Without daring to deny to Pres- 
 byterian and other commimities a Ministry and 
 Sacraments (on the ground that God's grace is 
 so abounding as often to overflow the regular 
 cliaunels of His own appointment), we yet should 
 
2 2 2 On the Powers of [chap. 
 
 be loath indeed to exchange a regular for an 
 iLons usage irregular channel. There is always the possi- 
 Bandion ' bllity and the hope, which we may charitably 
 in vs\t Bisijt cherish, that long centuries of irregular usage 
 may more or less have sanctioned that usage in 
 the sight of God (as long inheritance of a Crown 
 must be held to give a title, even though long 
 ages back it was gained by usurpation) ; but who- 
 ever he was in the history of the Church, who 
 first of all sought to confer or receive Orders out 
 of the apostolic line, "illi robur et aes triplex 
 circa pectus erat," — he had a superhuman hardi- 
 hood, to face out so boldly the story of Korah 
 and his company; and the great blot on the 
 escutcheon of Wesley — an escutcheon otherwise of 
 eminent sanctity and wide-spread usefulness — is, 
 that in his latter days (when we may believe 
 that his faculties were somewhat on the wane) 
 he took upon him to communicate a power which 
 he had never received, and to consecrate a bishop. 
 But must we confine the recommendations of 
 our own Church to the negative praise of its 
 having fewer faults than its rivals ? Surely 
 ■mt man not SO. AVe believe, in the first place, that the 
 tope tijat our sorc point itself IS in process of bemg reme- 
 proass^'or" died; that recent events have made thinking 
 
 ocing 
 remcSifti ; 
 
 people feel that we must have an ecclesiastical 
 legislature, and a properly constituted ecclesias- 
 tical tribunal. The desired consummation may 
 be long in coming, but it will patiently work 
 itself out, when the subject has been thoroughly 
 ventilated, prejudices overcome, and convictions 
 sufficiently matured. Meanwhile, if the legisla- 
 
VII.] the CImrch in Council. 223 
 
 ture and judicature of the CImrch be somewhat 
 in abeyance, in that other department of action, 
 her INIinistries, our Church shows greater vitality anu cfrtnints 
 than ever. Never, probably, has any period of gj^ic^^if our 
 English history witnessed a greater activity among grcaut 
 the clergy. Not very often has greater learning ci^cr'/'" '^°" 
 or ability been displayed by the champions of 
 religion, in defending Truth against those who 
 have assailed her. Never has there been a time, 
 when more schemes were originated for promoting 
 the temporal and spiritual welfare of the masses, 
 and even for the evangelization of the heathen, anu rciisioua 
 These and the like signs ought surely to be ^bf'ro'toVcrc 
 accepted by candid persons as an evidence that ^^n^\x. 
 while our system, like all others, has its defects, 
 the living presence of our Lord is still with our 
 beloved Church. If so, we are safe, and should 
 be happy and thankful where we are. All is well, an is fatii, if 
 if the Lord be in the boat, whatever waves of con- saitb us. 
 troversy may surge and swell around her. And 
 by seeking to know the power of His presence in 
 our own hearts, and by staunch fidelity to our 
 principles as Christians and Churchmen, we may 
 perchance be allowed to be His honoured instru- 
 ments to set in order some of the things which 
 are wanting, and to give to our own Communion 
 such symmetry and beauty, that we may be able 
 to challenge admiration for her, and to commend 
 her to posterity, in the words of the Psalmist : — 
 " Walk about Zion, and go round about her : 
 tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bul- 
 warks, consider her palaces ; that ye may tell it 
 to the generation following." 
 
2 24 Catechism, [chap. 
 
 Cittei:hi0m aw OThajr. '53ii. 
 
 1. CatecMst. — In your former examinations you have 
 pointed out how our Lord occupied Himself in 
 the period which elapsed between His Resurrection 
 and Ascension, in laying the foundations of His 
 Church. What further light may we expect that 
 the book of the Acts of the Apostles will throw 
 upon the subject? 
 
 Answer. — It may be expected to show how the pre- 
 rogatives and powers bestowed by Christ upon His 
 Church were actually asserted and exerted. 
 
 2. Question. — In what style does the decree of the 
 first Christian Council run ? 
 
 Answer. — In this style ; "It seemed good to the 
 Holy Grhost, and to us" (see Acts xv. 28). 
 
 3. Question. — By whom was the decree issued ? 
 Ansiuer. — By " the apostles and elders and brethren " 
 
 (see ver, 23). 
 
 4. Question. — How had the members of the Council 
 
 arrived at their conclusion ? 
 Answer. — By a discussion in which St. Peter and St. 
 Paul (with his associate, St. Barnabas) had taken pro- 
 minent parts ; and which was summed up by St. James, 
 who presided at the meeting, and, having heard what 
 was said, suggested a measure, which was carried. 
 
 5. Question. — By what principle were the members of 
 the Council guided to the conclusion at which they 
 arrived ? 
 
 Ansiver. — By considering what God had recently 
 done, and what He had formerly said. 
 
 6. Question. — What had God recently done, to which 
 appeal was made by St. Peter ? 
 
 Ansiver. — He had indicated, by several unmistakable 
 signs, His will that the Gentiles should be admitted to 
 the Church ; and had shown them to be proper sub- 
 jects for Baptism, by sending down His Holy Spirit 
 
VII.] Catechism. 225 
 
 upon them, just as He had done at Pentecost upon 
 Jewish believers (see Acts x. 11, 12, 15, 17, 19, 44). 
 
 7. Question. — What does St. Peter argue from this 
 
 circumstance ? 
 Aiisu-er. — That the Gentiles were not to be brought 
 under the yoke of the Ceremonial Law (see Acts xv. 
 10), God having bestowed His grace upon them without 
 any such requirement. 
 
 8. Question. — What is there very worthy of observa- 
 tion in this argument of St. Peter's ? 
 
 Ansiver. — The fact that it is an argument. Though 
 our Lord had said to him, " Thou art Peter, and upon 
 this rock I will build my Church " (St. Matt. xvi. 18) ; 
 and though he certainly was a great pillar of the 
 Church, and is spoken of as such by St. Paul (see 
 Gal. ii. 9) ; yet he does not settle the question before 
 the Council on his own authority. On the contrary, 
 he reasons on God's past dealings with him, and so 
 arrives at the conclusion as to what ought to be done 
 in the matter. 
 
 9. Question. — What melancholy contrast to St. Peter's 
 modest conduct on this occasion is exhibited in 
 Christendom nowadays ? 
 
 Ansiver. — The pretension of the Pope (or Bishop of 
 Rome) to decide all questions of faith on his own au- 
 thority, and even without reference to a General 
 Council, contrasts strangely with the conduct of St. 
 Peter, whose successor the Pope claims to be. So that 
 he almost lays himself open to the stricture, " If thou 
 wert St. Peter's successor, thou wouldest do the works 
 of St. Peter." 
 
 10. Catechist. — But you said that appeal was made at 
 
 the Council, not only to God's recent dealings, 
 
 but to His ancient sayings. How was this ? 
 
 Ansiver. — St. James, in summing up the question, 
 
 and recommending a measure for the adoption of the 
 
 Council, quoted a passage from the book of Amos, to 
 
 show that the admission of the Gentiles into the Church 
 
2 26 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 [as Gentiles, and without any preliminary discipline 
 from the Ceremonial Law) was desif];ned by God long 
 ages before it was brought about. So that in dispens- 
 ing the Gentiles from any observance of that Law, they 
 would have Holy Scripture, as well as God's dealings 
 with themselves, for what they were doing (Acts xv. 
 15-19). 
 
 11. Question. — But if the conclusion was arrived at 
 
 by argument from God's Word and dealings, and 
 
 thus by the exercise of the human faculties, was 
 
 it not presumptuous in " the apostles and elders 
 
 and brethren " to ascribe it to the Holy Ghost, as 
 
 they do when they say ; "It seemed good to the 
 
 Holy Ghost, and to us " ? 
 
 Ansxoer. — No ; because they had promises from the 
 
 great Head of the Church of His presence with them, 
 
 and His guidance of their minds, to doubt which would 
 
 have been sinful in them. 
 
 12. Question. — What promises do you more especially 
 
 refer to ? 
 Answer. — The promise of Christ's presence to the 
 two or three gathered together in His Name, which is 
 found in St. Matt, xviii. 20. Now His presence with 
 them would be a presence by the Holy Ghost, according 
 to that word of His own ; " I will pray the Father, and 
 he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide 
 with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth. . . . I 
 loill not leave you comfortless : Iioill come to you" (St. 
 John xiv. 16-19). And then again there is the more 
 special promise of the guidance of their minds by the 
 Holy Spirit ; " Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, 
 is come, he loill guide you into all truth " (St. John xvi. 
 13), and, " The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, 
 whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach 
 you all things " (St. John xiv. 26). And the Evangelist 
 who records these promises makes no doubt of their ful- 
 filment. Writing to Christians, he speaks of them as 
 divinely taught and guided. " Ye have an tmction 
 from the Holy One, and ye know all things . . . the 
 
VII.] Catechism. 227 
 
 anointing which ye have received of him abidcth in you, 
 and \jc need not that any man teach you : but as the 
 same anointing tcacheth you of all things, and is truth, 
 and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall 
 abide in him" (1 John ii. 20, 27). This is quite as 
 peremptory an assertion of the guidance of Christians 
 by the Holy Spirit, as the style in which the decree of 
 the first Council runs ; "It seemed good to the Holy 
 Ghost, and to us." 
 
 13. Catechist. — To complete your proof of the Coun- 
 cil's not having spoken presumptuously, you 
 have only now to show that the Spirit of truth had 
 already come at the time they professed to be 
 guided by it. 
 ^nsti'er.— That is easily done. The first Council is 
 ascribed to the year a.d. 51 or 52. But the great day 
 of Pentecost, which was marked by the descent of the 
 Holy Ghost on the Church, when the Lord Jesus, 
 '• being by the right hand of God exalted, and having 
 received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost," 
 shed forth the " cloven tongues like as of fire," and the 
 " other tongues" (see Acts ii. 33, 34), fell in the year 
 A.D. 33, nearly twenty years previously. St. Paul 
 speaks of the pouring out of the Holy Ghost as standing 
 in close connexion with, and as the immediate conse- 
 quence of, the Ascension of Christ: "Wherefore he 
 saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity 
 cn'ptive, and gave gifts unto men . . . He that descended 
 is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, 
 that he might Jill all things. And he gave some, 
 apostles ; and some, prophets, etc. etc. (see Eph. iv. 
 8, 10, 11). 
 
 14. Question. — What sort of government must that of 
 
 the Church be, if Christ is ever present with her, 
 
 " even unto the end of world," by His Holy 
 
 Spirit ? 
 
 A^isiuer. — A government which legislates as (and not 
 
 before) the occasion for legislation arises. Thus, for 
 
 example, when officers were found necessary to relieve 
 
2 28 Catcchis7n. [chap. 
 
 the Apostles of some of the secular business which 
 devolved upon them, such ofl&cers were appointed and 
 ordained (see Acts vi. 1-7). And some time after- 
 wards, when a grave question had arisen touching the 
 obligation of Gentiles to observe the Ceremonial Law, 
 a Council was called together to decide it. The Church, 
 under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, spoke and acted 
 as the occasion for utterance and action arose. 
 
 15. Catechist. — This mode of government might be 
 very safe and proper, so long as those inspired 
 rulers of the Church, the Apostles, were alive. 
 But after their removal by death, could the Church 
 be trusted to legislate for herself as emergencies 
 arose ? 
 Answer. — Yes : because Christ's presence is assured 
 to His Church, not merely till the death of the Apostles, 
 but " even unto the end of the world " (see St. Matt. 
 xxviii. 20). And the gift of the Holy Ghost was for 
 the whole Church, not for the Apostles only. Thus St. 
 John clearly recognises the gift as being in the posses- 
 sion of the believers to whom he addresses his first 
 epistle (see 1 John ii. 20, 27, which I have recently 
 quoted, and from which it would appear that they 
 could dispense with all human teaching and guidance). 
 Nor do we ever find that the Apostles give to the 
 Church any definite instructions how to act under the 
 particular heresies and contradictions which should 
 from time to time arise, though they frequently warn 
 us of the appearance of such heresies, in order that we 
 may be prepared for them when they arise, and not be 
 staggered or have our faith shaken by them. Witness 
 what St. Paul says in taking leave of the Ephesian 
 presbyters ; " For I know this, that after my departing 
 shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing 
 the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, 
 speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after 
 them. Therefore watch," etc. (Acts xx, 29-32) ; and 
 what St. Jude says respecting the general testimony of 
 the Apostles as to the future ; " But, beloved, remember 
 ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles 
 
VII.] Catechism. 229 
 
 of our Lord Jcsns Christ ; how that they told you there 
 should be mockers in the last time, who should walk 
 after their own ungodly lusts," etc. (Jude 17, 18). But 
 this warning of future perils, that the Church might 
 take comfort under trial by knowing it to have been 
 foreseen and foreordained, is quite a different thing 
 from definite instructions as to how to act in future 
 diflBculties, which we never find in the Apostles' writ- 
 ings. 
 
 IG. Question. — Do you mean then to imply that, when 
 the Apostles were removed, the Church was to be 
 left entirely to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
 acting upon the natural faculties with which God 
 had endowed her? 
 Ansroer. — By no means. God has taken care to 
 furnish the Church with a standard of appeal as to the 
 principles which should guide her, and has only left 
 her to adjust her decisions of particular questions to 
 those principles. We have seen that the Apostles in 
 Council referred to the Old Testament, as furnishing 
 the principles by which they should be guided (see 
 Acts XV. 15-18). And when the Apostles themselves 
 were removed by death, they and their inspired con- 
 temporaries and associates left behind them those writ- 
 ings which go under the name of the New Testament. 
 Thus it appears that the guidance under which the 
 Church is placed in all the difficulties and oppositions, 
 which time and the course of Divine Providence bring 
 to the birth, is twofold ; first, the guidance of the Spirit 
 of truth, enlightening her judgment; secondly, the 
 guidance of Holy Scripture, which, without explicitly 
 giving the solution of all questions which may arise, 
 announces the principles on which all questions must 
 be solved. 
 
 17. Catechist. — But may not objections reasonably be 
 raised to this twofold guidance ? Is it not pro- 
 bable that people will be perplexed between the 
 two authorities ? And may not God be expected to 
 give to souls desirous of arriving at the Truth such 
 
230 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 easy straightforward guidance, as that it shall be 
 impossible to miss the right road, or to be per- 
 plexed as to the direction in which it lies ? 
 Answer. — On the contrary, if God designs to try a 
 man's character, and to exercise his spiritual instincts 
 in the discovery of religious truth, it is not likely that 
 He will make the truth so plain, as that it shall be 
 impossible to miss it. 
 
 18. Catechist. — You answer rightly. It is a very im- 
 portant principle of God's dealings with us that 
 He makes the discovery of His truth a trial of 
 character to us, while at the same time He gives 
 us important helps towards the discovery. Can 
 you give me an illustration of this mode of dealing 
 with us? 
 
 Answer. — Yes. If a father wished to exercise the 
 mind of his child by making him find the way to a cer- 
 tain place, he would not get a sign-post put up at 
 every turn where two or three roads met ; this would 
 make it impossible for the child to miss the road ; but 
 he would place a map and a compass in the child's hand, 
 and point out to him on the map the place from which 
 he is to start, and that which he is to reach. When 
 the child comes to a place where several roads meet, 
 he will have to look at the map, and see the direction 
 which he ought to take ; and then the compass will tell 
 him which of the roads leads in that direction. 
 
 19. Question. — What are the two helps with which 
 God has furnished us for arriving at the Truth, 
 and which will certainly, if faithfully used, con- 
 duct us to the end ? 
 
 Ansiver. — The Holy Scriptures and the Church, the 
 first of which may be called our spiritual chart, and the 
 second our spiritual compass. 
 
 20. Catechist. — Yes. The guidance, therefore, whicli 
 
 God gives us, is complex and not simple ; we 
 have two things to consult and not one. Does 
 the analogy of Nature teach us that complex 
 structures are of a higher order than simple ? 
 
VII.] Catechism. 231 
 
 Answer. — It does. The lowest forms of animal life 
 are those in which one organ serves for every natural 
 function. As we rise higher in the scale, a different 
 organ is developed for each function, until we reach the 
 body of man, which, as it is the highest, so it is also 
 the most highly complicated animal structure. 
 
 21. Calechist. — But surely, if the authority of the 
 
 Church has such an important position in the 
 scheme of Human Salvation as you ascribe to it, 
 it must be clearly defined. There must be no 
 doubt as to what the Church's province is, — as to 
 what she may and may not do. Can you then 
 define her powers ? 
 Answer. They are chiefly two ; legislative and judi- 
 cial. 
 
 22. Question. — How far does the Church's legislative 
 power extend ? 
 
 Ansiver. — She " hath power to decree Rites or Cere- 
 monies." 
 
 23. Question. — What was the earliest exercise of this 
 power ? 
 
 Answer. The decree of the Council of Jerusalem, 
 which declared the observance of the Jewish Ceremonial 
 Law not to be binding upon the Gentiles, while, at the 
 same time, it laid certain ceremonial restrictions upon 
 them. 
 
 24. Question. — With what beneficial effects was this 
 exercise of the Church's legislative power at- 
 tended ? 
 
 Ansiver. — Isf, consolation. See Acts xv. 30, 31 : 
 " So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch ; 
 and when they had gathered the multitude together, 
 they delivered the epistle : which when they had read, 
 they rejoiced for the consolation.^' 2d, establishment 
 in the faith ; and 3d, increase in numbers. See Acts 
 xvi. 4, 5 : " And as they went through the cities, they 
 delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were or- 
 dained of the apostles and elders which were at Jeru- 
 
232 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 salem. And so were the churches established in the 
 faith, and increased in number daily." 
 
 25. Catechist. — Give an instance in which the Reformed 
 
 Church of England has exercised the " power to 
 decree Rites or Ceremonies." 
 Answer. — She exercised this power when she de- 
 termined to retain the sign of the Cross in Baptism, 
 which is an edifying ceremony, though it adds nothing 
 to the spiritual effect of the Sacrament. 
 
 26. Question. — What steps might our Church lawfully 
 
 take in the same direction at present ? 
 Answer. — She might add new Services to the Book 
 of Common Prayer ; such as, a Service for a Harvest 
 Thanksgiving, or a Service for the Induction of a new 
 Minister. 
 
 27. Question. — Is the power of the Church " to de- 
 cree Rites or Ceremonies " limited by any consti- 
 tutional check ? 
 
 Answer.— Most assuredly. " It is not lawful for the 
 Church," says our Twentieth Article, " to ordain any 
 thing that is contrary to God's Word written." 
 
 28. Question. — By way of illustration, can you suppose 
 a case in which the Church might ordain some- 
 thing contrary to God's Word written ? 
 
 Ansiver. — Let us suppose that, in a Harvest Thanks- 
 giving Service, it was proposed to insert some such 
 words as these : " ye holy angels of heaven, by 
 whose ministrations God sends us dew, and rain, and 
 sunshine, we offer unto you praise and adoration for the 
 conveyance of these blessings." 
 
 29. Question. — To what parts of " God's Word written " 
 would such an ascription of praise be contrary ? 
 
 Answer. — To Rev. xxii. 8, 9 : " And when I had 
 heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet 
 of the angel which shewed me these things. Then 
 saith he unto me, See thou do it not : for I am thy 
 fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and 
 
VII.] Catechism. 233 
 
 of them which keep the sayings of this book : worship 
 God." (And see also Rev. xix. 10.) And to Col. ii. 
 18, 19 : " Let no man beguile 30U of your reward in 
 a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, in- 
 truding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly 
 puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head." 
 
 30. Question. — "Will you define the Church's judicial 
 power ? 
 
 Answer. — She " hath authority in Controversies of 
 Faith," that is, power, in a doctrinal controversy, to 
 declare, by a reference to Holy Scripture, and to the 
 way in which it was understood by the primitive Church, 
 what the true Faith is. 
 
 31. Question. — Did " the apostles and elders" who met 
 
 in Council at Jerusalem, refer to God's Word to 
 sanction their decision ? 
 Answer. — Yes ; I have already shown that they did 
 so in the earlier part of this examination. See espe- 
 cially my answer to Question 10. 
 
 32. Catechist. — The Church, then, can only declare, 
 not make, an Article of Faith. And she can de- 
 clare it only out of Holy Scripture, which is the 
 alone source of Doctrine. Can you compare this 
 function of the Church to the function of any order 
 of men among ourselves ? 
 
 Ansiver. — Yes ; to the function of judges. It is not 
 the province of a judge to make the law — that is done 
 by the Imperial Parliament. The judge's business is 
 merely to expound the law, and declare what it is. 
 Similarly, Holy Scripture is God's statute-book ; and 
 the Church's province is to expound and declare the 
 doctrines and precepts found in that statute-book. 
 
 33. Question. — What other power, besides the legis- 
 
 lative and judicial, has the Church, which is not 
 
 distinctly recognised in the Twentieth Article ? 
 
 Ansiver. — The power of organizing herself to meet 
 
 the varying emergencies, to which the progress of 
 
 Society and the march of God's Providence may give 
 
 rise. 
 
234 Catechism, [chap. 
 
 34. Question. — AYhy is the present a time when the 
 Scriptural warrant for such action on the part of 
 the Church should be well considered ? 
 Answer. — Because the Church in our own country, 
 pressed by many needs, is daily putting forth new 
 organizations to meet them ; such as Sisterhoods, Dea- 
 coness Institutions, Lay Keaderships, and the like. 
 
 35. Question. — Where is the Scriptural warrant for 
 such organizations to be found ? 
 
 Ansiver. — In Acts vi., where we read (ver. 1) that 
 " when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there 
 arose a murmuring of the Grrecians against the Hebrews, 
 because their widows were neglected in the daily 
 ministration." To meet this exigency, the Apostles 
 suggested to "the multitude of the disciples" the ap- 
 pointment of " seven men of honest report, full of the 
 Holy Ghost and wisdom," upon whom the duty of dis- 
 tributing the funds of the Church (see Acts iv. 35) 
 might be devolved. These oflBcers were accordingly 
 elected by the Church, and "set before the apostles," 
 who ordained them with prayer and laying on of hands 
 (Acts vi. 5, 6). 
 
 36. Question. — In what part of His teaching had our 
 Lord laid down the principle of such an arrange- 
 ment ? 
 
 Answer. — He had said (St. Luke v. 37, 38), "No 
 man putteth new wine into old bottles ; else the new 
 wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the 
 bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into 
 new bottles, and both are preserved." That is, when 
 a new spirit is fermenting in the Church, old forius 
 will not suffice; but new ones must be devised to 
 retain it. This was said, in the first instance, of fast- 
 ing, which is a discipline suited for certain circum- 
 stances of the Church, but unsuited to the period of 
 the Bridegroom's presence, when a new and strange 
 joy filled the hearts of the disciples. But it will 
 apply generally to all such old forms as, having 
 been once useful and necessary, are found too narrow 
 
VII.] Catechism. 235 
 
 for the Church in new developments of life and 
 activity, 
 
 37. Question. — "What Old Testament precedent may 
 the Apostles have had in view, in shifting part 
 of the burden of Church administration to the 
 shoulders of subordinate ministers ? 
 
 Answer.- — The precedent of what Moses did, by the 
 advice of Jethro, his father-in-law : " Moses chose 
 able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over 
 the people .... and they judged the people at all 
 seasons : the hard causes they brought unto Moses, 
 but every small matter they judged themselves " (Ex. 
 xviii. 25, 2G). And again we read in Num. xi. 14, 
 etc., that when Moses complained that he was not able 
 to bear all the people alone, God gave him this com- 
 mand ; " Gather unto me seventy men of the elders 
 of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the 
 people, and officers over them .... and I will take 
 of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon 
 them ; and they shall bear the burden of the people 
 with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone " (Num. 
 xi. 16, 17). 
 
 38. Question. — What are the principles by which we 
 should be guided in new Church organizations ? 
 
 Answer. — 1. Church help should grow with Church 
 work ; 2. This help will frequently take the form of 
 division of labour ; 3. The Church (that is, the body 
 of the disciples) should concur in the new arrange- 
 ment ; 4. The rulers of the Church should give their 
 sanction and blessing. 
 
 39. Cafechist. — You have now pointed out that the 
 powers of the Church are threefold : legislative, 
 judicial, and economical. "What makes it espe- 
 cially desirable at the present time that the 
 Church should exert her legislative and economical 
 powers ? 
 
 Answer. — The fact that the course of Providence 
 and the progress of Society are bringing about a new 
 
236 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 state of things, wliicli requires new organizations to 
 meet it. If these organizations are not authoritatively 
 sanctioned by the Church, they will exist without sanc- 
 tion, and therefore without control ; and thus existing, 
 they will soon become extravagant. The framework of 
 our Book of Common Prayer, excellent in itself, and 
 admirably adapted to the time at which it was put 
 forth, requires expansion to meet the devotional exi- 
 gencies of the present day. And this expansion should 
 be given to it by the action of the Church herself, not 
 by the fancies of individuals or of parties. But if the 
 Church does not act, individuals and parties will take 
 action of themselves, and the result will be a general 
 condition of ecclesiastical lawlessness. 
 
 40. duestion. — And what circumstances of our own 
 Communion make it especially desirable that the 
 Church should exert her judicial powers ? 
 
 Amixoer. — The scepticism and denial of the Faith, 
 which the progress of religious thought is bringing with 
 it in its train, and which call for the censure of some 
 properly constituted Church tribunal, 
 
 41. Question. — But does not the Convocation of the 
 
 Provinces of Canterbury and York, which is the 
 Church of England by representation, possess the 
 required power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, to 
 declare what is true doctrine and to censure what 
 is false, and also to sanction new religious or- 
 ganizations ? 
 Ansiver. — Doubtless the Convocation has rightfully 
 
 this power, but its hands are tied, so that it is unable 
 
 to exert it. 
 
 42. Question. — What is the impediment in the way of 
 the action of Convocation, to which you refer ? 
 
 Answer. — The connexion of the Church with the 
 State (a connexion fraught with great blessings to 
 both), which makes it necessary to obtain an Act of 
 Parliament before an Act of Convocation could have 
 any legal or obligatory force. 
 
VII.] CatccJiism. 237 
 
 43. Crt/fc/(/,s^— This circumstance may indeed make it 
 
 difficult, or even impossible, to procure a legal and 
 authoritative sanction to any new Liturgical office 
 or Church organization. But surely the judicial 
 power of the Church is not wholly in abeyance 
 amongst us, so long as erroneous writings may be 
 censured as contrary to the doctrine of the Eng- 
 lish Church, and their writers, if 3Iinisters of the 
 Church, punished by suspension or deprivation. 
 And this is done occasionally by the Judicial 
 Committee of Privy Council. 
 Answer. — The Judicial Committee is not a Church 
 
 Court, and cannot speak in the name of the Church. 
 
 It represents the authority of the Crown, not that of 
 
 the Spiritualty. 
 
 44. Question. — In what respect are the proceedings of 
 the Judicial Committee, in trying the writings 
 submitted to it, altogether diflferent from those of 
 a Church Court? 
 
 Ansiuer. — The standard of reference in a Church 
 Court would be the Holy Scriptures and Primitive 
 Anticjuity, whereas the Committee of Council never 
 applies these tests. 
 
 45. Question. — What then is their standard of refer- 
 
 ence? 
 Answer. — The Articles and Formularies of the 
 Church of England. Their professed business is only 
 to ascertain whether the passages in the writings of 
 the accused, which are quoted in the indictment, are 
 so contrary to those Articles and Formularies, that the 
 •writers must be suspended or deprived. Nor is even 
 this question of conformity or nonconformity with the 
 Articles and Formularies handled by them as a spiri- 
 tual or ecclesiastical offence. The only punishment 
 they inflict is one of deprivation of temporalities. 
 
 46. Catechist. — Yes; and temporal penalties are properly 
 
 inflicted by a temporal Court. And the Committee 
 of Council, by inflicting such penalties, declares 
 itself to be such a Court. The oflcnding party is 
 
238 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 censured, not for religious error, but for a breach, 
 of contract with the State in teaching what he 
 had entered into an engagement with the State 
 not to teach. But if this be the case, what is 
 still wanting to the Church of England, notwith- 
 standing the occasional action of the Committee of 
 Council ? 
 Answer. — A rightly constituted Church Court, which 
 
 may, in the name of the Spiritualty, pronounce upon 
 
 and censure religious error. 
 
 47. Question. — Should these defects of the Church of 
 
 England, in respect of the present exercise of the 
 Church's judicial and legislative powers, move her 
 children to forsake her Communion ? 
 Answer. Certainly not, unless they can find a Com- 
 munion more free from defects elsewhere. 
 
 48. Catechist. — But surely Communions may be found, 
 in which the defects you have mentioned either 
 do not exist at all, or are not so apparent. In 
 the Koman Church, for example, there is a won- 
 derful elasticity, which enables it to adapt itself 
 to fresh emergencies, and also a strong discipline, 
 in virtue of which penance, censure, and excom- 
 munication are administered freely. 
 
 Ansiver. — Yes ; but defects of discipline, organiza- 
 tion, and elasticity are by no means the worst which 
 can disfigure a Church. How much more vital is the 
 defect of ordaining something contrary to Holy Scrip- 
 ture, as the Roman Church does when she forbids the. 
 cup to all but the celebrant, sanctions the adoration of 
 images, pronounces that the Blessed Virgin was con- 
 ceived without sin, and ascribes infallibility to the 
 Bishop of Rome. 
 
 49. Catechist. — But there are Protestant Communities, 
 which are entirely free from these abominations of 
 Rome, and yet exercise a more or less effective 
 discipline upon their members, and have a living 
 synodical government. Why not give in your 
 adhesion to one of these ? 
 
VII.] CatccJiis7ii. 239 
 
 Answer. — Because I cannot see in them the 
 " Apostles' fellowship," even if upon the whole they 
 maintain, with tolerable fidelity, the " Apostles' doc- 
 trine." They all broke off (with more or less excuse) 
 from the Old Church, and discarded the Ministerial 
 Succession, and so cannot be said to be built upon the 
 foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. 
 
 50. Catechist. — But this rupture took place a long 
 time ago. IMay we not hope that the usage of 
 many generations has more or less sanctioned the 
 irregularity ? 
 
 Answer. — Surely we may. We may hope and 
 believe everything for those who had no participation 
 in the sin of the original schism. Yet surely, as we 
 find ourselves elsewhere and in a regularly constituted 
 Catholic Church, unquestionably built upon the founda- 
 tion of the Apostles and Prophets, it were madness to 
 throw away the advantage of our position, and join a 
 community whose spiritual claims are (to say the least) 
 dubious. 
 
 51. Catechist. — You have admitted, in the course of 
 this examination, the existence of some serious 
 defects in the English Church. Can you adduce 
 any grounds of consolation and thankfulness, 
 which ought to cheer her true children, and encou- 
 rage them in their allegiance to her ? 
 
 Ansicer. — Yes. There is consolation to be found in 
 patient hope, and in certain cheering symptoms in the 
 present state of things. 
 
 52. Question. — What is the consolatory hope to which 
 you refer ? 
 
 Ansicer. — That what is wanting to the full vigour 
 and efficiency of our Church system will be in due 
 time supplied. Thinking and devout people are so 
 struck with these defects, that even now things seem 
 working towards a remedy. 
 
 53. Question. — What cheering symptoms are there in 
 
 the present state of things ? 
 
240 Cafcchis}n. [chap. vii. 
 
 Answer. — The unusual activity manifested by the 
 Church in her Ministries ; the zeal both of Clergy and 
 Laity, which shows itself in many new forms of Church 
 work ; the energy and ability with which the Truth is 
 maintained against error, and with which efforts are 
 made to bring the masses under the influence of true 
 religion. 
 
 54. Question. — What do all these things seem to 
 prove ? 
 Ansiver. — That the Lord is still with our Church, 
 and will eventually exert His power for her salvation 
 from the dangers which threaten her. And if this be 
 so, we are safe, however much the waves of controversy, 
 which surge and swell around the Church's bark, may 
 disquiet and terrify us. " Therefore will we not foar, 
 though the earth be moved : and though the hills be 
 carried into the midst of the sea. Though the waters 
 thereof rage and swell : and though the mountains 
 shake at the tempest of the same. God is in the midst 
 of her, therefore shall she not be removed : God shall 
 help her and that right early." (Ps. xlvi. P.B.V. vv. 
 2, 3, 5.) 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE CHURCH PRESENTING, EXHIBITING, 
 AND DEFENDING THE TRUTH. 
 
 " ^Itc hoitsc of (5ot), bliicK is the Chitrck of the Hbing 
 Cot), the pillar nrtb grounb of the truth. 3^nb, h3ith- 
 oiit coittrobersi], great is the miistenj of gobliness : 
 (Sob iuas manifest in the flesh, justificb in the Spirit, 
 seen of angels, preachcb :tnto the ©entiles, bcUcbeb 
 on in the ioorlb, reccibeb up into glorjj." — i Timothy 
 III. 15, 16. 
 
 rpHE subject on which we are at present engaged 
 -^ cannot be treated satisfactorily, without point- 
 ing out the relations which subsist between the 
 Church of God and the Truth of God — relations 
 often grievously misconceived, and not very easily 
 apprehended except by candid and w^ell-balanced 
 minds. These relations are exhibited to us in the Ktiatfons of 
 passage which stands at the head of this Chapter; the rrutb; " 
 and we cannot better secure ourselves against st jDaui'g 
 error on this important subject, than by studying onh"^'""" 
 the designation which is here given of the Church '''''""^• 
 as " the pillar and ground of the truth." This 
 plan M-ill have another advantage, as falling in 
 with the orderly treatment of the subject. In the 
 Gospels we have seen our Lord first predicting the 
 
242 
 
 The Church presenting, [chap. 
 
 IDfsirablencBS 
 of consulting 
 tlie (ffpiBtlrs 
 ns iatll as tf)e 
 ©ospcls ano 
 the acts, on 
 the subject 
 unticr 
 (onsiliciatian. 
 
 53oBStbIf 
 allusion, in 
 tfie term 
 '(liiurd) of 
 ttic titiins 
 ffiioti,' to tl)e 
 iOol in the 
 OFpheaian 
 temple. 
 
 Support of 
 tiie CTrutl), 
 one notion 
 DiclSft) bg 
 t'i)e toortj " 
 'pillar.' 
 
 Church, and tlien, subsequently to His Eesurrec- 
 tion, tracing the outlines of the Institution. In 
 the Acts we have seen the actual building of it 
 by the ministry of the Apostle Peter, and the 
 actual exercise of its powers in Council. We now 
 come further down in the Canon of the New Tes- 
 tament, to consider a brief but pregnant descrip- 
 tion of the Church given us in the Epistles of St. 
 Paul. Thus we shall be gathering up instruction 
 on our subject from each great division of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 " The Church of the living God." The Apostle 
 had just called the Church the House of God. 
 And it is probable that, in using the term " liv- 
 ing," he had in his thoughts the great temple 
 at Ephesus (of which city Timothy was P'"-hop), 
 which was the house of a dead god, containing, 
 as it did, the " image " of the many-breasted 
 Diana, " which fell down from Jupiter," in the i 
 midst of which there was no breath at all, ' " *^ 
 could neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor sm r 
 " The pillar and ground" (more properly, the } 
 pedestal or basement) "of the truth." There is '" 
 very probably a twofold allusion — one, as DCiOiv V^ 
 to the temples of heathen gods, which had grand 
 columns supporting their pediments, and pedestals 
 or bases at the foot of the columns. Pillars are 
 the stay of a building. When Samson pushc' 
 down tlie two middle pillars on which Dagon's 
 house stood, the house fell and became a heap of 
 ruins. If such is the allusion, the Church is here 
 exhibited as supportinfj and iqjholding God's Truth. 
 But the Apostle being a Jew, and his mind imbued 
 
VIII.] exhibiting, defending the Truth. 243 
 
 with Old Testament imagery, it is probable that 
 tlie words have another reference, which yields a 
 diflereiit idea. He may have mentally compared 
 the Church to " the pillar of fire and of the cloud," (Bmunntcanti 
 which God took not away from before the people nsccoua 
 iu their journeying through the wilderness. If 
 such is the reference, the Church is here exhibited 
 under a distinct aspect, not as maintaining Truth, 
 but OS (juiding into it and illustratinrj it. For the 
 l)illar was both a guiding column, and an illumi- 
 nating column. " And the Lord," we read, " went 
 before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead 
 them the way ; and by night in a pillar of fire, to 
 give them light." We will consider the phrase 
 "pillar and pedestal of the truth" as conveying 
 both these ideas, — maintenance and support of 
 truth, in the first place, guidance into truth, and 
 illustration of it, in the second. The latter aspect 
 'of the Church's functions will be considered in the 
 Chapter. 
 
 The lirst function which the Church has to sriim u(f- 
 ^nlfil towards the Truth is that of ui)holding and i"miud)°ti'f 
 -ovting ii. And this the Church does in three HpMVstijt 
 >va}-s : by way of presentation and recommenda- '''^"'^" 
 tion ; by way of exhibition ; and by way of de- 
 fence. 
 
 \st, By way of presentation and recommenda- i5v\irtscnia- 
 lion. To the Jews of old, descended lineally rccommcnua- 
 from Abraham, and sealed with the seal of 
 God's Covenant in Circumcision, "were com- rht Sftoisf) 
 mitted the oracles of God," the books of the hiirusttji 
 Old Testament. And similarly to the Christian crmmcnt.'' 
 Church, descended in a right line from the 
 
244 
 
 The C/mrch presenting, [chap. 
 
 tilt Cliriatian 
 ffif)urcf) toiti) 
 
 tf)e appoints 
 keeper of 
 SolH eJErit. 
 
 analosH 
 tetfaten tfte 
 ^istorg of Hjc 
 toorlB s.v.'a 
 tl3atoftl)e 
 intjibiUual, 
 in tijat ttie 
 Ciiurcl) iiiass 
 iefoK tije 
 JBibIc in tije 
 faorlti'a 
 tiatorg. 
 
 Apostles by successive incorporations into the 
 Society which they (under Christ) founded, and 
 brought into the pale of God's Covenant by the 
 Sacrament of Baptism, is committed that still 
 more sacred and precious deposit, the volume of 
 the New Testament. The Church, Jewish or 
 Christian, is the custodian of the Holy Scriptures, 
 and her office is to put those Scriptures into the 
 hands of her children, as soon as they are able to 
 understand them. We observe here an analogy 
 between the history of the world ^ and that of the 
 individual soul. The Church was before the 
 Bible in the history of the world. Abel, Noah, 
 Abraham, and Jacob belonged to the people of 
 God, and lived in the faith of God's promise be- 
 fore there was any written Scripture at all ; for. 
 
 Crtie gpofeftt 
 ttJaort must 
 exist before 
 tfte (lijurcij, 
 tJiougb tijt 
 Cijurcb 
 existed before 
 ti]e torittcn 
 
 ^ It is important to observe that this analogy only holds 
 good of the Bible (or luritten Truth), not of those unicritten 
 words of God which were handed down orally. In the his- 
 tory of the individual, the Church must always be before the 
 Word. The young child of one of the twelve Pati-iarchs 
 must have received from its mother the great promise of 
 the Seed of the woman, and the promises made to Abra- 
 ham. The young child bom of Christian Parents shortly 
 after the day of Pentecost, must have received from its 
 mother the brief summary of doctrine, which represented 
 the belief of the first disciples. Thus, m the order of the 
 child's experience, the mother was before the unwritten 
 
 "Word. But IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, THE UNWRITTEN 
 
 Word of God must of course be before the Church. 
 For what is a Church (in the wider sense of the word) but 
 a group of believers in God's Word ? And before the Word 
 is spoken, how can there be believers in it ? " Faith cometh 
 by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Therefore 
 the Word of God must be before faith. It is only of the 
 Bible, or written volume of God's oracles, assuredly not of 
 God's spoken Word, that we assert it to have been brought 
 into existence later than the Church. 
 
VIII.] cxJiibiting, defending the Truth. 245 
 
 so far as we know, Closes was the earliest Scrip- 
 tural writer. And in the same way, there was a 
 (Jliristian Church, — ay, and Christian martyrs, 
 and Christian minister.s, and Christian teaching, — 
 before a line of the New Testament was written, 
 much more before it was published and thoroughly 
 circulated. And just so it is in the history of the anuihntto 
 individual. He necessarily becomes acquainted a is % '""" 
 with the Church before he becomes acquainted SnttJ" 
 with the Bible, — it is the natural order of things. ^'°^' 
 Some one must put the Bible in our hands, tell 
 us what it professes to be, and invite us to read it. 
 This is done, in the first instance, by our parents, (rbdstian 
 who are for us the earliest Ministers of the fif/'i^JufcVe 
 Church, and very often INIinisters whose instruc- ^l^^tL 
 tion is more effective than any we meet with in 
 after life. The mother teaches her child to kneel 
 down at her knees, and puts words of prayer in 
 his mouth, and tells him about God and Jesus. 
 And what is this but the very same thing which, 
 on a scale adapted to the enlarged capacities of 
 the adult, is done by Ministers of the Church as 
 part of their ministry ? Is not this a very fair 
 summary of our office as Ministers, to announce 
 to people the glorious message of the Gospel, and 
 by that means bring them to their knees in right 
 earnest ? And if it should suggest itself to any, 
 that mothers, whatever be the obligations under 
 wliich they are laid by natural afi'ection, are not sponsors art 
 oflicially ministers of the Cluirch, let it be remem- aiip"anfnot 
 bered that sponsors arc officially charged to see nlturaf 
 that each child admitted to Church-membership S'tSaTlad, 
 is brouglit up in a knowledge of the rudiments of fnsuumon'm 
 
 ttje (ZTtult). 
 
246 The C/nirch present if ig, [chap. 
 
 the Faith, and to lead a godly and a Christian life ; 
 so that in theory, at all events, the Divine Society 
 of the Church lays hold of the youngest children, 
 and makes provision for their having the Truth 
 taught them, as soon as consciousness begins to 
 dawn. Nay, long before consciousness begins to 
 dawn, the Divine Society lays holds of them, con- 
 secrating them in Baptism to the service of its 
 Founder, and thus making them the subjects of a 
 great Church ministry, and of an operation of 
 Divine grace, before they can possibly know that 
 there is a Bible. If, then, God's written AVord is 
 deposited with the Cliurch, and she is solemnly 
 It is t5)t bound to place tliis written Word in the hands of 
 tjSTctmnb to lier children and commend it to them, and in their 
 Icd^jture m youth to train them in the rudiments of it, most 
 tin ^iiuu-nf appropriately is she called " the pillar and ground 
 ■"untfon to" »i' the truth ;"— it is her witness to the written 
 ''* Truth which leads, in the first instance, to our 
 
 receiving it. 
 
 criir fffjurrfi Again ; the Church maintains and upholds the 
 
 Srutiffig truth hy way of exhibition. She embodies it in 
 
 ". I'wn j^g^ system of worship, and thus makes it visible 
 
 to the eye. " foolish Galatiaus," writes St. Paul, 
 
 " who hath bewitched you, that ye should not 
 
 obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ 
 
 hath been evidently set forth, crucified among 
 
 cHje principle you." We are so much under the dominion of 
 
 on tatikrthis sense, and the things we see make so far more 
 
 SaiiVio'tt)*^ lively an impression on us than the things we 
 
 '^■'' only hear, that God has provided, by the Ministry 
 
 of His Church, for the exhibition to the eye of the 
 
 greater Gospel truths. He has not only sent us a 
 
VIII.] exhibiting, defending the Truth. 247 
 
 messa<Te, but ordained Sacraments Avhich embody 
 the cliief features of the message. Thus Ba])tism rrutha 
 
 . . , , . , , rrprrGcnttlJ m 
 
 represents our need of spnitual cleansing by the CapuBm, 
 Blood and Grace of Christ (.a fundamental truth 
 of our Religion) ; our death unto sin in Christ, 
 our burial with Christ, our resurrection with Him 
 unto newness of life (the body of the baptized, 
 in the primitive form of administration, being 
 plunged beneath the water, and, after a moment 
 of suspended animation, lifted out of it again); 
 and in short our new creation in Christ, brought 
 about (as the first creation was), by " the Spirit 
 of God moving upon the face of the waters." 
 The Holy Communion represents the bruising of nnti in \Mt 
 Christ's Body, and the shedding of His precious ^uppn. 
 Blood for us, and the necessity of feeding upon 
 this Body and Blood by faith, in order to the 
 maintenance of that spiritual life, which is com- 
 municated in Baptism. See how many vital 
 truths are by these two Sacraments compen- 
 diously exhibited to the eye, — our natural defile- 
 ment and need of cleansing ; the purifying efficacy 
 of Christ's Blood and Spirit ; Christ's vicarious 
 suffering, death, burial, resurrection ; our partici- 
 pation in His sufferings, and in His acceptance, 
 by faith ; the need of constant sustenance for 
 the spiritual life ; that sustenance only to be had 
 by feeding spiritually on His Body and Blood, 
 etc. I say the Sacraments rqncsent these truths ; jrfie rtptr- 
 not, did once represent them. In order to a f.binlj'anii" 
 perpetual representation you must have a present mnkino r'' 
 and living Church, in which, or " among " the {gS?" "^ 
 members of which, the representation shall be ">^"""'*^ 
 
SEIje Bgm- 
 
 248 The Ckicrch presenting, [chap. 
 
 made. If Christ liad founded no Church, or if 
 the Church He founded had been designed to pass 
 away with the early believers who were the first 
 members of it, the accounts of the Institution of 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper might be regarded 
 as curious pieces of ancient sacred history, having 
 little more than a literary and antiquarian interest 
 for us. But the living Church proclaims aloud ; 
 " Here are Baptism and the Lord's Supper alive 
 at present, their natural force nothing abated' 
 since the Lord instituted them. Here they are 
 under your eyes ; and the union with Christ in 
 His death, which both of them teach and convey, 
 is as necessary for you, and as freely offered to 
 you, as it was necessary for and offered to the 
 earliest believers." And so with other and lower 
 
 39ufaiTc °^ T^itQQ ; for the whole system of the Church's wor- 
 loXma- s^ip ^^^^ more or less of a sacramental character. 
 fibBoiutfon ^^^ ordinary offices express the truth that He is 
 " in the midst of the two or three gathered together 
 in His Name" (the human presence in the con- 
 gregation being the symbol of His) ; Confirmation 
 exhibits God's fatherly hand extended over the 
 baptized, and their need of His strengthening 
 Grace ; Absolution is a visible testimony to the 
 great truth that the forgiveness of sins through 
 Christ's Blood travels in the Church's train down 
 the stream of time, like the smitten rock which 
 followed Israel in the wilderness. And all of 
 these are living powers in the Church, disen- 
 tangled indeed from the miraculous element, 
 which attended them at their first appearance, 
 but still efficacious in the spiritual world, and 
 
VIII.] cxJiibiting, dcfoiding tJie TnitJi. 249 
 
 conveying what tlicy represent to every prepared 
 and laithfiil heart. If you desire to learn the 
 Trutli, it might be ascertained from a careful 
 analysis of these rites, which embody and repre- 
 sent it. You might ask of the Lord's Supper, for 
 example, " What meaneth this service? what is its 
 history ? how did it take its rise ? what truth is ipossibiiifn 
 it designed to convey ?" And if this last question Vcmtblja 
 were fully and faithfully answered, you would of tt" h^fa^ 
 gather from the answer the whole doctrine of the """"^"-'"s «• 
 Gospel, which is all comprehended briefly in this 
 one Ordinance. 
 
 Lastly, the Church upholds the Truth in the way rijc cfmrcb 
 of vindication and defence. The early Creeds or S?u"f JJ^ '^' 
 Confessions of Faith were very simple and very nn"i?l,?flnti* 
 brief. But as new heresies and forms of error '"^''' 
 developed themselves, the Church, having been "cfcssitnttii 
 solennily intrusted with the guardianship of theofrnriu 
 laith, was compelled to niake new definitions, 
 tliereby considerably enlarging the bulk of her 
 Creeds. If any one should think these definitions 
 dry, hard, wanting in interest at best, and in some 
 instances repulsive, svirely he may be reminded 
 usefully of their defensive character. A man 
 thrown on the defensive is not perhaps in the 
 most pleasing attitude in which he can be placed, 
 nor are his words and actions at that moment 
 attractive. A city must have a girdle of fortifica- inscfuincBo 
 tions, lest it should fall an easy prey to an in- of fomfica- " 
 vader, — it must have its arsenal, in which are toujcirr uttu 
 ranged side by side guns and pikes, and in whose map'tf. '' 
 vaults are stored up combustible and explosive 
 materials. Fortifications are in many respects an 
 
250 The Chu7'ch p7'esenting, [chap. 
 
 inconvenience ; they are certainly not as pictur- 
 esque or as agreeable as parks and pleasure- 
 grounds, nor are piled arms as pleasant to look 
 upon as beautiful waving trees, white with blossom, 
 or laden with fruit; — any one can make such 
 comments as these, but it is somewhat weak to 
 make them, if we want the fortifications and arms 
 for defence. If wc want ihcm, they must he had. 
 Doubtless it would be far more delightful to live 
 without controversy, and never to be under the 
 necessity of protesting against error ; but how if 
 error will raise its head, will insinuate itself into 
 the minds of the weak and wavering, and rob 
 5riie cinirrfi Christ of the souls which are His purchase ? Is the 
 
 tooLif brttan Church, which is set by God in the earth to be 
 
 lift trust, if 
 
 not ncamsf " *^^® pillar and ground of the truth," to make no 
 tetcBicB. remonstrance, no protest, while this is going on 
 under her eyes ? Is the pillar of the truth to give 
 way, when what it was designed to uphold is 
 attacked ? So thought not our forefathers in the 
 Faith in earlier and purer times. As heresies 
 showed their head, the Church condemned them, 
 and added the definition of the Faith so necessi- 
 tated to her existing formularies. And I cannot 
 help observing that these definitions have far more 
 than a defensive value, — that they tend wonder- 
 ffiearnf89Bf f^lly to clear the minds of believers on the sub- 
 Sbjcdsof J6cts of which they treat. Let me give one 
 fli^n'tobicf) instance before passing on. Many persons think 
 S"'am of Christ as a demi-god, half God and half man,— 
 SfiSiona!^ almost as of a man apotheosized and raised to the 
 skies, as having been the greatest benefactor of 
 the human race. All this is heathenish, false, and 
 
VIII.] exhibiting, defending the Tnith. 251 
 
 unscriptural. Christ is perfect Cod, and also at 
 tlie same time perfect man, but without any con- 
 fusion or mixture of tlie two natures. The two jrtifiifCnittoi 
 natures remain in their distinctness, thougli united nauirfs imtj 
 indissoluhly in the single Person of the Son of ?n €i?ri"!"n 
 God, just as mind and body are perfectly distinct, ttfar""^ 
 though united indissolubly in one man. It was 
 not our Lord's Godhead which suffered, or died, or 
 wept, or agonized. On the other hand, it was not 
 our Lord's manhood which said on the edge of the 
 grave, " Lazarus, come forth ;" or from the seat of 
 the Cross ; " Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalfc 
 thou be with me in paradise ;" nor is it His 
 manhood of which it is written ; " The Word was 
 in the beginning with God. All things were 
 made by him ; and without him was not any- 
 thing made that was made." Christ is wholly 
 and distinctly man, and wholly and distinctly God. 
 There is not a sympathy of our nature, nor an 
 attribute of God's nature, which He lacks ; for 
 which reason He is both infinitelj'- tender and njcipfuincE* 
 infinitely strong. — Now, I ask whether this de- tjccnltion. 
 finition of the Faith is not a little helpful in 
 clearing the mind on the subject with which 
 it professes to deal? And if it be helpful and 
 valuable, I then ask further from what source the 
 definition was obtained ? Whence do these words Eta sourtf. 
 come ? — " Perfect God and perfect ^lan." . . . asum cms. 
 " He is not two, but one Christ, . . . One alto- 
 gether; not by confusion of Substance: but by 
 unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and 
 flesh is one man" (as mind is one thing, and body a 
 distinct thing, thougli both go to make up one 
 
2^2 
 
 TJie Church presenting, [chap. 
 
 Crcrts, in 
 tlidr ortgiti, 
 bjcrt not 
 tcfcnsifaf. 
 Ikforc i\)txt 
 fajas a 
 Scripture, 
 lIuTc toas a 
 (Trutl). 
 
 5rruH) toas in 
 
 ^patnarcijal 
 
 tunes. 
 
 flFarliest 
 gtjapc in 
 toijicb tbe 
 iffrutb 
 appearelj in 
 
 Keatanifnt 
 timra. 
 
 man), "so God and Man is one Christ." They 
 come from an elaborate Confession of Faith, drawn 
 up probably by a French Bishop in the earlier half 
 of the fifth century, and expressing the general 
 sense of the Western Church in his time, — never, 
 indeed, received by the whole of Christendom, 
 as the Nicene Creed is, but received by our own 
 National Church, and declared by her to be prov- 
 able " by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture." 
 I have spoken of Christian Creeds in their de- 
 fensive aspect, and have explained that the reason 
 why they grew in bulk was that the Church was 
 thrown from time to time on the defensive against 
 heretics, and obliged to fortify herself by new 
 definitions. But let it be remembered that the 
 Creeds were not defensive at the outset of their 
 history; in their germ and nucleus they did not 
 partake of this character. The Church always 
 had a Faith and a Truth to guard, though there 
 was a time when she had no Scripture. Adam, 
 and Abel, and Enoch, and Abraham had a Faith, 
 and were possessed of a Truth, long ages before 
 the Law was written. They had God's promise 
 of the Seed of the woman, handed down by oral 
 tradition ; that was their Faith and their Truth. 
 They looked for a city which had foundations, 
 whose builder and maker is God ; that was their 
 hope. And similarly St. Stephen had a New 
 Testament Faith, and a New Testament Truth, 
 and died in the full sunshine of New Testa- 
 ment hope, though not a line of the New Testa- 
 ment was written in his days. And what does 
 St. Paul mean by the Truth, when he calls tlie 
 
VIII.] exhibiting, defending tJic Tnitli. 253 
 
 Church its pillar and ground ? I have applied 
 his words witliout hesitation to the Gospel, as con- 
 tained in the volume of the New Testament, be- 
 cause to U8, who live since it has been written, 
 this volume is God's Truth, and because the Holy 
 Spirit, who inspired St. Paul, wrote, no doubt, in 
 the foresight of the New Testament, and adapted 
 his language to the circumstances and needs of the 
 modern, as well as of the ancient. Church. But 
 as the volume of the New Testament was certainly 
 not compiled, and a large part of it not written, 
 when St. Paul addressed his first letter to Timothy, 
 he clearly could not have been thinking of the 
 New Testament, wdien he spoke of tlie Truth. No ; sjufiat st. 
 he meant the Gospel Pievelation, the few salient b/"tir""^ 
 features of which were embodied even at that tiirpassnge 
 early date in a Creed or Confession of Faith, which aiictatiSn! 
 the Apostle calls elsewhere "a, form of sound 
 words." This Truth or Eevelation was, as he 
 here calls it, a "mystery of godliness." The per- iiniofie 
 sons he wrote for knew well what "mysteries of riuih' 'tftt 
 ungodliness" were; for there were several such aobiincgg,' 
 mysteries, which formed a part of the old Pagan 
 religions. jNIysteries were certain sacred rites, in 
 which (as they say is the case in Freemasonry) a 
 traditional secret was divulged to the initiated, 
 and made the nucleus and centre of a 'form of 
 worship. Some of the rites connected with this 
 worship were horribly impure and cruel; the 
 heathen mysteries were " mysteries of ungodli- 
 ness." But God's Revelation in Christ, the mag- (rontrast 
 nificent secret into which the Church indoc- mrs"rq of ' 
 trinates mankind, the secret of redeeming love aim heathen 
 
 mgaUncs. 
 
254 '^^^^ CJui7^cJi presenting, [chap. 
 
 and grace, the secret of the Atonement and its 
 allied truths, which also is the centre and nucleus 
 of the Church's whole system of worship, is a 
 " mystery of godliness ;" that is, a secret which, 
 really imbibed by the inner man, produces the 
 CTfif mostcnj IVuit of godlincss. And the Apostle proceeds to 
 a fragment of give the mystcry m the express terms m 
 erre?5.^ which the Church had received it. " God was 
 manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen 
 of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on 
 in the world, received up into glory," — this is 
 obviously a fragment of some early Confession of 
 Faith, some dogmatic statement of the Truth, 
 with which Timothy was familiar, and which was 
 recited in meetings of the Church, and handed 
 down as a " form of sound words." " The truth " 
 in this instance (hear it all ye who, while you 
 profess a love for the Holy Scriptures, freely evince 
 a dislike of dogmatic statements), "the truth" in 
 the present instance, which St. Paul dignifies by 
 calling it the " great " (or magnificent) " mystery 
 of godliness," was nothing more nor less than a 
 Creed.^ 
 
 iHctrical ^ In all probability it is also a Hymn; for it is manifestly 
 
 rjaracterof metrical in its construction, the first and second lines cor- 
 
 gummarjo! responding to one another, as also the fourth and fiftli. In 
 
 anS tlie ii'clit all probability, therefore, the sixth corresponds with the 
 
 tijroton on its 
 
 third. 
 
 mrnnms bg a 1. o? ((bavepaidr] ev aaoKi, 
 
 metrical o 't-s^ ' /j > ' 
 
 arranccnunt - EStKoiw^r, ev irvevixaTi, 
 
 of it. 3. "V.(^6r] dyyeXois, 
 
 4. ^EKrjpvxdrj iv i'6vf(Tiv, 
 
 5. 'jLTTLCTTfvdri iV KCXTfXO), 
 
 C. ^ AvfXriCJidr] iv ho^rj. 
 
 I cannot but think that this arrangement throws light upon 
 the meanmg of ver. 3. The correspondence of vers. 1 and 
 
VIII.] cxJiibiiing, defending tJic Truth. 255 
 
 And what a precious Creed, with its statements comprriitn- 
 of the incarnation, the justification of Christ (in- fh^rshott" 
 volving also our justification in Him), by the BummarB. 
 solemn testimony which, on various occasions, 
 the Spirit made to Him, the angelic acknowledg- 
 ment and adoration of Christ, the universal 
 mission of the Gospel to every creature, the 
 reception of the Gospel in the world Ly simple 
 faith, and His ascension into heaven ! I would a triumpfj 
 rather regard it as a song of triumph put by iiian n 
 God into our mouths, than as the bastions of a ""^ ' 
 fortification, which girdles round the city of 
 God. If we regard the Creeds (and surely we 
 may do so) as being brief summaries of God's 
 nlorious Eevelation to man, jubilation and not Subiiant 
 
 ,.,,.„ ,,., aspect of tf)t 
 
 controversy becomes their leading feature. \\ hen christian 
 we regard the Athanasian Creed as the Hymn man ladi 
 " Quicunque vult " — a joyous exposition of the 
 truths which go to make up our faith, — what a dif- 
 ferent aspect does it assume ! Its defiant tones, if 
 they still exist, are drowned in its tones of Chris- sroton in 
 tian exultation — " it is not the voice of them that toiicn toe u'st 
 
 thrm, their 
 
 polrmical 
 2, as al?o of vers. 4 and 5, is marked. " God was inani- "ssociationg. 
 fested in the flesh " (amidst all the weaknesses and humilia- 
 tions which " flesh" involves), yet " jiistitied iu the Spirit" 
 (at His Baptism, by His miracles, by His Resurrection, and 
 by the Spirit's testimony to Him after Pentecost). He was 
 " preached unto the Gentiles," and (as the marvellous residt 
 of such preacliinji) "believed on in the world." Now, may 
 we not suppose from Psalm xxiv. (part of which seems to 
 bo the utterance of Angels, escorting Christ back to Heaven), 
 that at the Ascension there was some general act of homage 
 paid to our Lord by the Angels; — "Seen of Angels," and 
 then (after He had received the tribute of their homage) 
 "received up into glory," "angels and authorities and 
 powers being made subject unto Him" ? 
 
256 Catechism. [ciiAr. 
 
 shout for mastery . . . but the noise of them that 
 sing do I hear." The recital of a Creed is in fact, 
 under this view, the highest of all acts of praise. 
 And in order to give effect and expression to this 
 ffircriisarc vicw, the Crceds should beyond all question be 
 lijan'saijj!^ sung. Three out of our four Creed Eubrics pre- 
 scribe that they shall be " sung or said," as if 
 singing here were to have the preference over say- 
 ing. Oh that it might be so throughout every 
 parish in the land ! and oh that the heart of every 
 one who sings might rejoice secretly in hope of 
 the glory of God, being justified (as we can only 
 be justified) by the faith which we then profess, 
 ' and in the exercise of that faith having "peace 
 
 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by 
 whom we have now received the atonement!" 
 
 Cat^rhism mt aTha^j. 13iii. 
 
 1. Question. — What subject was touched upon in your 
 last examination, which requires to be more clearly 
 and exactly defined ? 
 
 Ansiver. — The relations which subsist between the 
 Church of God and the Truth of God. 
 
 2. Question. — From what passage of Holy Scripture 
 is it proposed to gather these relations ? 
 
 Answer. — From St. Paul's definition of the Church 
 as "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. iii. 
 15). 
 
 3. Question. — Is there any incidental advantage in 
 taking the passage which we are to study for in- 
 formation on this great subject from the Epistles ? 
 
 Ansiver. — Yes ; because thus we embrace, in the 
 consideration of our subject, another great division of 
 
VIII.] CatccJiism. 257 
 
 the New Testament. In tlie Gosi^ch we have seen our 
 Lord predicting the Churcli dvu'ing His life, and, after 
 His Resurrection, tracing the foundations of it. In the 
 Acts we have seen the Church's superstructure rising 
 under the ministry of St. Peter, and her legislative and 
 judicial powers put forth in the first Council. We turn 
 now to the Ejtii^tJes for an exact definition of the rela- 
 tion in which the Church stands to God's Truth. 
 
 4. Question. — To what does the Apostle probably 
 allude, when, after calling the Church " the hotise 
 of God," he then adds that it is " the Church of 
 the living God ?" 
 
 Ansioer. — As he is writing to Timothy, who was 
 Bishop of Ephesus, it is very probable that he is 
 alluding to the celebrated temple of Diana at Ephesus, 
 of which mention is made in Acts xix. 27, and which, 
 containing as it did " the image which fell down from 
 Jupiter " (see Acts xix. 35), a many-breasted idol 
 placed upright on a rude block, was the house of a dead 
 God, in which there was no breath at all. 
 
 5. Question. — In the expression "pillar and ground 
 of the truth," what is the exact meaning of the 
 word "ground " ? 
 
 Answer. — It means the pedestal (or base) of a 
 column. 
 
 C. Question. — "What is the first idea which we obtain 
 
 from the words " the pillar and ground of the 
 
 truth ? " 
 
 Answer. — That of support. The Church supports 
 
 the truth as a pillar supports a pediment or roof, and 
 
 as a pedestal supports a pillar. 
 
 7. Question. — Where in Bible history do you read of 
 
 pillars acting as a support to the building ? 
 
 Answer. — In Judges xvi., where we are told of 
 
 " two middle pillars upon which the house " (of Dagon) 
 
 "stood, and on which it was borne up;" of which 
 
 pillars when Samson " took hold," and " bowed himself 
 
 with all his might," "the house fell upon the lords, and 
 
 R 
 
258 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 upon all the people that were therein." (See ver. 29, 
 30.) 
 
 8, Question. But is it probable that the Apostle, in 
 calling the Church " the pillar and ground of the 
 truth," is referring to some particular pillar, of 
 which we read in the history of the Old Testa- 
 ment ? 
 
 AnsLver. — Yes. He may have mentally compared 
 the Church to " the pillar of fire and of the cloud," 
 which the Lord "took not away from before the 
 people " in their journeying through the wilderness. 
 
 9. Question. — If this was the allusion in his mind, 
 what two ideas does this pillar of fire and of the 
 cloud give ? It did not support anything, as the 
 pillar of a building does. What useful offices then 
 did it perform ? 
 
 Ansiver. — That of guiding the people by day, and 
 illuminating them by night. For we read in Exod. 
 xiii. 21, "And the Lord went before them by day in a 
 pillar of a cloud to had them the ivay ; and by night in 
 a pillar of fire to give them light ; to go by day and 
 night." 
 
 10. Catechist. — We will postpone to another occasion 
 the consideration of these two ideas, drawn from 
 "the pillar of fire and of the cloud," and confine 
 ourselves to the idea of the Church's supporting 
 (or maintaining) the Truth. Tell me in what way 
 she does this ? 
 
 Answer. — Chiefly in three ways. 1st. By presenting 
 and recommending the Truth. 2dly. By exhibiting (or 
 representing) it. ^dly. By defending it. 
 
 11. Question. — What do you mean by the Church's 
 presenting and recommending the truth ? 
 
 Ansiver. — I mean that as soon as we are of age to 
 understand the Scriptures of truth, it is' the business of 
 the Church of our country, from which in our infancy 
 we received Baptism, to put these Scriptures into our 
 hands, and earnestly to commend them to our perusal 
 and consideration. 
 
VIII.] Catechisui. 259 
 
 12. Question. — Docs our Twentieth Article (0/ the 
 authority of the Church), to which you referred in 
 your hist examination, notice this presentation and 
 recommendation of Holy Scripture as one of the 
 Church's functions ? 
 
 Answer.— Yes. It speaks of the Church as being 
 " a witness and a keeper of holy Writ." Holy "Writ is a 
 treasure committed to her custody (or "keeping"), 
 that she may hand it down to the successive genera- 
 tions of her children ; and when she does this, she 
 testifies (or bears "witness") to these books that they 
 contain "the true sayings of God," "given by inspiration 
 of God," and written by " holy men of God," who 
 " spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (See 
 2 Tim. iii. 16, and 2 Pet. i. 21.) Thus our first 
 acquaintance with Holy Scripture and with its claims 
 is brought about by the Church. 
 
 13. Question. — Can you show from Holy Scripture 
 itself that the Church is the appointed witness and 
 keeper of the oracles of God ^ 
 
 Ansiuer.— This is expressly stated of the books of 
 the Old Testament by St. Paul (Rom. iii. 1, 2). 
 " What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit 
 is there of circumcision ? Much every way ; chiefly, 
 because that unto them ivere committed the oracles of 
 God." We may reasonably argue from analogy that 
 the books of the New Testament are committed to the 
 Christian Church, just as those of the Old were to the 
 Jewish ; though indeed this is implied in those passages 
 where the faith is spoken of as a deposit, which is to 
 be kept by those to whom it is handed down, and with 
 whom it is lodged, as for example ; " Timothy, keep 
 that which is committed to thy trust" (1 Tim. vi. 20); 
 " Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast 
 heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 
 That good thing which was committed unto thee keep 
 by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us " (2 Tim. i. 
 13, 14) ; " The things that thou hast heard of me 
 among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful 
 men, who shall be able to teach others also " (2 Tim. 
 
26o Catechism. [chap. 
 
 ii. 2). And the same thing is taught in the passage 
 before us, in which "the truth," of which the Church 
 is said to be " the pillar and ground," is evidently the 
 same thing with " the mystery of godliness," that is, 
 with the leading Articles of the Christian Faith. 
 
 14. Question. — In what shape, as a matter of fact, 
 does our first introduction to God's Truth come to 
 us? 
 
 Answer. — It comes to us. through the teaching of a 
 mother, who makes us read the Bible and explains it, 
 and teaches us about God and Jesus, and puts into our 
 mouth words of prayer. This is the first commence- 
 ment of the religious instruction, which we obtain from 
 the Church of our country. 
 
 15. Catechist. — But this does not satisfy me. A Chris- 
 tian mother, who feels that the truths of the Bible 
 ai-e of the utmost interest and importance, will 
 doubtless teach them to her children out of natural 
 affection. But there is nothing official in this 
 teaching. Nor do I see that a mother can strictly 
 be called a minister, or even an agent, of the 
 Church, though she may (of her own free will) act 
 as one. I think you should show that provision is 
 actually made by the Church for the sufficient 
 religious instruction of every baptized child, inde- 
 pendently of those ties of natural affection, which 
 bind parents to teach their children the truths 
 necessary to salvation. 
 
 Ansiver. — That I can easily do. The Church takes 
 such care for the religious instruction of her children 
 that she appoints three agents for every child, called 
 Godfathers and Godmothers, to whom she gives this 
 charge. " You must remember that it is your parts 
 and duties to see that this infant be taught, so soon as 
 he shall be able to learn, what a solemn vow, promise, 
 and profession he hath here made by you. And that 
 he may know these things the better, ye shall call upon 
 him to hear sermons ; and chiefly ye shall provide that 
 he may learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayei', and the 
 
VIII.] CatccJiisui. 261 
 
 Ten Oomniandments in the vulgar tongue, and all other 
 things which a Christian ought to know and believe to 
 his soul's health." If the Church were to give this 
 charge to the parents, and make thm her agents for the 
 religious instruction of the child, this would not recog- 
 nise with sufficient distinctness the great difference 
 between the family of nature, to which the child belongs 
 by its natural birth, and that of grace, into which it is 
 introduced by Holy Baptism. 
 
 17. Catechist. — It follows from what you have said 
 that each one of us becomes acquainted with the 
 Church before he becomes acquainted with the 
 Scripture. Of course this is so. The first thing 
 we become conscious of is the persons around and 
 about us, and we cannot reach any truth without 
 their instruction. The child cannot get at the 
 Scriptures without a mother's teaching. Can you 
 point out anything in the world's history similar 
 to this fact in the history of the individual ? 
 
 Answer. — Yes. There was an Old Testament Church 
 in the world before there was an Old Testament, and 
 there was a New Testament Church in the world before 
 a line of the New Testament was written. 
 
 18. Catechist. — Prove this to me. 
 
 Ansicer. — Moses was the writer of the earliest books 
 in the Bible ; but there was a Church (or family of God) 
 before Moses. Abel belonged to it, and Noah, and 
 Abraham, and Jacob. And even if it should not be 
 thought strictly correct to speak of Abel and Noah as 
 members of a Church, if it should be maintained that 
 there was no Church till God gave to Abraham and his 
 seed the Sacrament of Circumcision, or none until the 
 .children of Israel were led through the Red Sea, which 
 was a type of baptism (see 1 Cor. x. 1, 2), the same 
 truth will hold good. Abraham lived long before 
 Moses, and Moses could scarcely have written even the 
 Book of Genesis, — certainly could not have written 
 that of Exodus, — before the passage of the Red Sea 
 took place. And as regards the New Testament, St. 
 
262 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Matthew's Gospel, supposed to be its earliest book in 
 point of date, is attributed by learned men to the year 
 A.D. 38. Now the day of Pentecost, when the Chris- 
 tian Church was fully set up, fell in the year a.d. 33, 
 There must have been then an interval of five years, 
 during which the Cliristian Church did not possess a 
 line of New Testament Scripture. St. Stephen fell 
 asleep in Jesus without the privilege of having read a 
 single verse of the New Testament. 
 
 19. Catecliist. — I understand you to be speaking only 
 of the Old and New" Testament in the form in 
 which we have them ; in short, only of the loritten 
 Word of God. There must surely have been a 
 spoken Word of God before there could be any- 
 thing for faith to lay hold of, and therefore be- 
 fore, in any sense whatsoever, there could be a 
 Church. 
 Ansiver. — Undoubtedly there was such a spoken Word. 
 The first promise to fallen man (which was dropped in 
 the course of the sentence upon the serpent) contains 
 in itself the germ of the Gospel, for it spoke of a 
 Virgin-born Champion of the human race (" the seed of 
 the woman"), of His passion and death in the lower 
 nature he assumed (" thou shalt bruise his heel "), and 
 of the triumph He should achieve over the devil (" it 
 shall bruise thy head "). See Gen. ii. 15. Our first 
 parents no doubt laid hold of this first promise by faith, 
 and doing so became of the number of God's true 
 people, and may be called (in the broadest sense in 
 which the words can. be used) members of the Church. 
 This promise, which constituted their only Bible, they 
 handed on to their posterity. And all similar pro- 
 mises were handed on in a similar way, by oral tradi- 
 tion when there was no writing, or when writing could 
 not be rapidly and widely circulated. Doubtless as 
 soon as any form of writing was invented, it would be 
 adopted (however rude it might be), to preserve the 
 record of these oracles of God. And Moses may have 
 had some such older written records before him when 
 he composed the Pentateuch. — So that, although the 
 
VIII.] Catechism. 263 
 
 Church existed before the Bible, it did not exist before 
 the Word of God. 
 
 20. Question. — What is the second way in which the 
 Church supports tlie Truth ? 
 
 Answer. — By exhibiting (or representing) it. 
 
 21. Question. — How does the Church exhibit the 
 Truth ? 
 
 Answer. — By means of the holy Sacraments. 
 
 22. Question. — How does this method of presenting the 
 Truth differ from that which we have just con- 
 sidered ? 
 
 Answer. — The mode of presenting the Truth, which 
 we have just considered, consisted in either handing 
 down by tradition the unwritten words of God 
 (before tiiere was any Scripture), or, since Scripture 
 has been written and published, in placing it in the 
 hands of the children of the Church, and giving an 
 explanation of it. This is done by means of words, 
 either spoken to the ear or read ; but, unlike the Word 
 of God, His Sacraments preach the Gospel to the eye. 
 
 23. Question. — What principle of our nature may we 
 
 suppose Almighty God to have had in view when 
 ordaining the Sacraments of the Church ? 
 Answer. — The principle that we are affected in a 
 
 more lively manner by what passes under our eyes, 
 
 than by what we only hear of. 
 
 24. Question. — What does the Sacrament of Baptism 
 represent ? 
 
 Ansiver. — Several vital truths of the utmost import- 
 ance ; such as the necessity of spiritual cleansing by the 
 blood and grace of Christ, the burial of the Christian 
 with Christ (by the plunging of the baptized person 
 under the water, which is the primitive and correct 
 form of administering the Sacrament), his resurrection 
 with Christ unto newness of life (by the lifting of the 
 person into the air after immersion), and the new 
 creation of our human nature in and through Christ, 
 which new creation takes its rise out of water, and is 
 
264 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 brought about by the Holy Grhost, — reminding us of 
 the first creation, respecting which it is written that it, 
 too, had a similar origin, for " the Spirit of God moved 
 upon the face of the waters." (See G-en. i. 2.) 
 
 25. Question. — What does the Sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper represent ? 
 
 Ansioer. — The bruising of Christ's body, and the 
 shedding of His precious blood for the sins of the whole 
 world, and the necessity of feeding upon this body and 
 blood by faith in order to the maintenance of that 
 spiritual life, which is communicated in Baptism. 
 
 26. Question. — In what passage of his Epistles does 
 St. Paul probably allude to this representation of 
 Christ's death in the Lord's Supper ? 
 
 Ansiuer. — In Gal. iii. 1, where he says, " foolish 
 Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not 
 obey the truth, hefore vjJiose eyes Jesus Christ hath heen 
 evidently set fortli^ crucified among you.^^ 
 
 27. Question. — But why must we here suppose any 
 
 allusion to Sacraments ? Why may not the 
 Apostle mean that he had preached Christ cruci- 
 fied to them in so lively and effective a manner, 
 that it seemed to bring back the whole awful scene 
 of the Crucifixion, and make it present to them as 
 if it had been enacted among them ? 
 Answer.— This probably is part of his meaning ; but 
 had he meant nothing else but this, he would rather 
 have said, "crucified for you" than "■among you." 
 And then it should also be borne in mind that the 
 allusion to witchery (or fascination) in the earlier part 
 of the A'erse lends probability to the idea that he has 
 the Lord's Supper in his thoughts. For fascination was 
 anciently supposed to be exercised through the eye ; so 
 that the meaning may very possibly be, " Who hath 
 laid upon you the spell of an evil eye, and thereby dis- 
 tracted you from that touching and hallowing spectacle 
 of a crucified Saviour, which, in the holy Supper, has 
 been so often presented hefore your eyes ? " 
 
 28. Catechist. — Yes ; it is certainly remarkable that 
 
VIII.] CatccJiisvi. 265 
 
 the Apostle should speak of Christ having been 
 crucified '^^ among" the Galatian Christians, and 
 " before " their " eyes." It seems to hint at some- 
 thing which made the power and efficacy of His 
 death present to them, although it had been trans- 
 acted in a past time, and in a country remote 
 from theirs. And this must be the ordinance of 
 the Lord's Supper, in which Christ's death is not 
 indeed repeated — for He " offered one sacrifice for 
 sins for ever" (Heb. x. 12); "we are sanctified 
 through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ 
 once for all" (Heb. x. 10) ; and we are expressly 
 told that he does not "offer himself r)/?e», as the 
 high priest eutereth into the holy place every year 
 with blood of others " (Heb. ix. 25), — but power- 
 fully and efficaciously exhibited before God and 
 man, so as to become the spiritual food and suste- 
 nance of believers in every successive age of the 
 Church. So that Christ's death, though an event 
 which took place more than eighteen centuries 
 ago, lives in the Church of to-day with a present 
 power and efficacy. — But the two Sacraments are 
 only the centre of the Church's system of worship.- 
 May the same thing which you have said of them 
 (namely, that they exhibit and represent the 
 Truth) be said also in a lesser degree of all parts 
 of the system ? 
 Ansiver. — Yes ; every part of the system of worship 
 represents, and, as being a Uviufj ordinance, efficaciously 
 represents, some part of the Truth. Thus, for example, 
 Absolution represents the great doctrine of " forgive- 
 ness of sins," brought home to the heart and conscience 
 of the individual ; Confirmation represents our need of 
 the strengthening influences of the Holy Ghost, in 
 order to a successful warfare with our spiritual foes ; 
 while Public Worship generally represents the truth 
 that "where two or three are gathered together in" 
 €hrist's " name, there " is He " in the midst of 
 them." 
 
 29. Catechist. — Show that these several ordinances are 
 
266 Catechism. [CHAr. 
 
 not merely representations, but powerful and effica- 
 cious representations. 
 Ansv:er. — Where Absolution is sought with a true 
 penitent heart and lively faith, it is really granted 
 to him who seeks it, and peace is ministered to his 
 conscience thereby. When young persons present 
 themselves for Confirmation with real and single de- 
 voteduess of heart, bent upon wholly consecrating 
 themselves to God, and looking up to him for strength 
 to put their vows in practice, the Holy Ghost is really 
 "given through laying on of hands " (see Acts viii. IS, 
 and xix. 6) ; and whenever two or three Christians 
 meet seriously and devoutly (and not as a mere for- 
 mality) in the Name of Christ, and humbly claim His 
 promise to united prayer. He is as certainly in the midst 
 of them, though not as visibly, as He was in the midst 
 of the disciples on the evening of the first Easter Day, 
 when the little flock was gathered together with closed 
 doors "for fear of the Jews." (See St. John xx, 19.) 
 
 30. Catechist. — What you have said under this head of 
 your examination amounts to this, that the Ordi- 
 nances of the Church, and especially the Sacra- 
 ments, are an expression and embodiment of the 
 Truth. How then might we arrive at the Truth 
 from them ? 
 
 Ansicer. — By studying them profoundly, and in- 
 quiring of each of them, " What meaneth this service ?" 
 "How did this institution take its rise?" "What 
 truths of religion is it meant to express ? " The single 
 Ordinance of the Lord's Supper, studied thus, would 
 be found to be a Grospel in itself. 
 
 31. Catechist. — You said that the third way in which 
 the Church supports the Truth is by deftndlng it. 
 How does she do this ? 
 
 Answer. — By means of her Creeds and Confessions 
 of Faith. 
 
 32. Question. — What is the character of all the earliest 
 Creeds? 
 
 Ansiver. — They are very brief and simple. 
 
VIII.] CakcJiisin. 267 
 
 33. Queftdon. — What made it necessary for the Church 
 to enlarge tlie bulk of her Creeds by adding new 
 articles to them ? 
 
 Answer. — The rise of false doctrines, aorainst which 
 it was the Church's duty to protest, in order to warn 
 her children back from vital error. P]ach new heresy 
 gave rise to some fresh definition of the Faith, which 
 was added on to the old Creed, and in time caused it 
 not only to assume larger proportions, but to have the 
 appearance of subtlety, fine distinctions being intro- 
 duced, of which nothing was ever heard until it was 
 found that they were needed. 
 
 34. Catechist. — Many persons call these distinctions 
 and definitions uncouth and ugly, and find foult 
 with the Church for having made them. IIow 
 will you answer their objections ? 
 
 A)isii:er. — By pointing out that fortifications too are 
 uncoutli and ugly, shut out the view of the country, 
 and remind us unpleasantly of war ; but still that they 
 may be absolutely necessary for the security of a city. 
 In like manner Creeds and Confessions may wear a 
 dogmatic and repulsive aspect in one view of them, and 
 yet be necessary as a security for the members of the 
 Church, when an attempt is made by heretics to corrupt 
 and deprave the Faith. 
 
 35. Catechist. — Yes ; Creeds must of necessity carry 
 about on them the marks of controversy, seeing 
 that controversy gave rise to them. And contro- 
 versy is always a harassing and disturbing thing. 
 What makes it necessary ? 
 
 Answer. — The fact that false doctrines will con- 
 stantly be broached, and that, when they are broached, 
 it would be a breach of trust in the Church not to con- 
 demn them, she being the " pillar and ground of the 
 truth." 
 
 36. Question. — Are we warned in Holy Scripture that 
 the future of the Church will be marked by the 
 rise of heresies and soul-destroying errors ? 
 
268 Catechisni. [chap. 
 
 Answer. — We are. The New Testament is full of 
 such warnings. St. Paul, in taking leave of the 
 Ephesian elders at Miletus, warned them to this effect, 
 " For I know this, that after my departing shall 
 grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the 
 flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speak- 
 ing perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. 
 Therefore watch" (Acts xx. 29, 30_, 31). And St. 
 Peter, speaking generally to all Christians, says (2 Pet. 
 ii. 1, 2), " But there were false prophets also among the 
 people, even as there shall be false teachers among 
 you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, 
 even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring 
 upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall 
 follow their pernicious ways ; by reason of whom the 
 way of truth shall be evil spoken of." And so 
 again St. Paul to Timothy (1 Tim. iv. 1), " Now the 
 Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some 
 shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing 
 spirits, and doctrines of devils." The key-note of all 
 these warnings had been already struck by our Lord 
 Himself in His Sermon on the Mount (St. Matt. vii. 
 15), "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in 
 sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening 
 wolves ; " and in His Prophecy on the Mount (St. 
 Matt. xxiv. 11), " And many false prophets shall rise, 
 and shall deceive many." And St. Paul shows that 
 there is a necessity for the rise of heresies in the 
 Church, in order that the faith of the faithful may be 
 approved by trial. " For there must be also heresies 
 among you, that they which are approved may be made 
 manifest among you " (1 Cor. xi. 19). 
 
 37. Catechist, — You have pointed out that the Church's 
 
 Creeds and Confessions are defensive in their 
 
 character. Can you mention another and more 
 
 attractive purpose which theysubserve ? 
 
 Ansvjer. — Yes ; they are elucidatory. These subtle 
 
 definitions, made originally against heresy, serve to 
 
 clear the mind on the high subjects of which they 
 
 treat. 
 
VIII.] Catechism. 269 
 
 38. Question. — "Will you give an instance of what you 
 
 mean .'' 
 Ansiver. — Many persons entertain confused and 
 erroneous notions about our Blessed Lord, drawn 
 rather from heathen mythology than from the Holy 
 Scriptures. They think of Him as a demigod, half 
 god and half man, whereas He is " perfect God and 
 perfect Man," having all the attributes of both, and at 
 one time speaking and acting in one of these natures, 
 at another in another. And yet He is not two Per- 
 sons, but one Person, the eternal Son of God " mani- 
 fest in the flesh." AVe have an image of all this in 
 ourselves. Each one of us has a rational, and also an 
 animal, nature. We are not half rational and half 
 animal, but wholly rational and wholly animal. The 
 two natures are quite distinct ; one of them never 
 fulfils the functions of the other ; they never trespass 
 on each other's spheres. I calculate a problem in my 
 mind. I hunger in my body. The body never cal- 
 culates ; the mind never hungers ; and yet, though the 
 rational and animal natures are so distinct, certain it 
 is that they both exist in the same person. A. B. 
 is not two men, because he has both a body and a 
 mind. 
 
 39. Catechist. — Yes ; that illustration is very happy. 
 Where did you borrow it from ? 
 
 Answer. — It comes from the Athanasian Creed, an 
 elaborate Confession of Faith, of whose origin little is 
 known with any certainty, but which has certainly ex- 
 isted in the Church for a thousand years, and has been 
 received by all Western Christendom, and even by 
 some parts of Eastern. Its language on the doctrine 
 of Christ's single personality, but twofold nature, is as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Who although he be God and Man : yet he is not 
 two, but one Christ ; 
 
 " One ; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh : 
 but by taking of the Manhood into God ; 
 
 " One altogether ; not by confusion of Substance : 
 but by unity of Person. 
 
2 'JO Catechism. [chap. 
 
 "For as the reasoncible soxd and flesh is one man : so 
 God and Man is one Christ." 
 
 40. CatecMst. — You have spoken of creeds as de- 
 fensive in their character. And that the later 
 developments of them were so, there can be no 
 question. But were quite the earliest Confessions 
 of Faith defensive ? 
 
 Answer. — No. They were simple statements of the 
 Faith held by the Church, brief summaries of saving 
 truth, in meditating upon which, Christians might 
 always find peace and joy and edification, and in the 
 confession of which tliey gloried, even when they 
 suffered for it. 
 
 41. Question. — Do we meet with any of these brief 
 doctrinal summaries in Holy Scripture ? 
 
 Answer. — Yes ; one of them is found in the passage 
 which is under consideration at present (1 Tim. iii. 
 16). It seems to have been a Confession of Faith 
 constructed in parallel clauses, and with a sort of 
 rhythmical cadence, to assist the memory. 
 
 " God was manifest in the flesli, 
 Justified in the Spirit, 
 
 Seen of angels, 
 Preached unto the Gentiles, 
 Believed on in the world, 
 
 Eeceived up into glory." 
 
 42. Question. — What does the Apostle mean by calling 
 this Confession of Faith a " mystery " ? 
 
 Ansiver. — He calls it so in allusion to " the mysteries" 
 of heathen worship. These mysteries were sacred 
 rites, in which a certain secret was divulged to those 
 who were initiated. In like manner, those who 
 were initiated by Baptism into the religion of Christ, 
 had a certain "form of sound words" intrusted to 
 them, containing the secret of redeeming love and 
 grace, and lodged in their memories as a sort of watch- 
 word, by the use of which they might be recognised. 
 
 43. Catechist. — Quote some passages of St. Paul's 
 
VIII. 1 Catechism. 271 
 
 Epistles iu which he speaks of the doctrines of the 
 Gospel as a secret or "mystery" divulged by 
 preaching. 
 
 Answer. — " Now to him that is of power to stablish 
 you according to mxj gospel, and the preaching 0/ Jesus 
 Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, whicji 
 was kept secret since the world began, hut now is made 
 manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets made 
 known to all nations for the obedience of faith" (Rom. 
 xvi. 25, 26). " By revelation he made known unto me 
 the 7nystery, . . . ichich in other ages was not made 
 known unto the sons of men, as it is noto revealed unto 
 his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit ; that the 
 Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, 
 and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel " 
 (Eph. iii. 3, 5, 6). " The Church, whereof I am made 
 a minister, according to the dispensation of God which 
 is given to me for you, to fulfil " {or, fully to preach) 
 " the word of God ; even the mystery which hath been 
 hid from ages and from generations, but now is 7nade 
 manifest to his saints : to whom God would make 
 known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery 
 among the Gentiles ; which is Christ in you, the hope 
 of glory : whom we preach " (Col. i. 24-29). 
 
 44. Question. — But why does he call this Confession of 
 Faith a " mystery of godliness" ? 
 
 Answer. — By way of contrast with the heathen mys- 
 teries, some of the rites connected with which were 
 impure and cruel. They were mysteries of ungodliness. 
 But the grand secret of God's redeeming love and grace 
 in Christ, which was communicated to the baptized, 
 and by them embraced as their Profession of Faith, was* 
 productive only of godliness. It engendered love to 
 God and man, and, by its testimony respecting the 
 efficacy of Christ's blood, purged "the conscience from 
 dead works to serve the living God," (See Heb. 
 ix. 14.) 
 
 45. Question. — What are the doctrines enumerated in 
 this short Confession of Faith ? 
 
272 CatccJiism. [chap. 
 
 Answer. — Fird^i the Incarnation of a Person in the 
 Godhead, that is, His appearance in human nature ; 
 secondJy, the justification of Him as man (and therefore 
 the justification of all who are united to Him) by such 
 events as the descent of the Spirit upon Him, the voice 
 from heaven at His Baptism, His resurrection from the 
 dead, and the testimony borne to Him in men's hearts 
 by the Holy Grhost ; thirdly, the manifestation of Him 
 to the angels (which possibly took place at his Ascen- 
 sion), and their compliance with the exhortation, " Let 
 all the angels of God worship him" (Heb. i. 6); 
 fourthly, the preaching of the gospel to every creature 
 under heaven (see Col. i. 23, and Rom. xvi. 26) ; 
 fifthly, its acceptance in all the world, and the con- 
 sequent gathering of a Catholic (or Universal) Church, 
 " of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues " 
 (see Rev. vii. 9) ; and sixthly, the Ascension of Christ 
 into heaven, and His session at the right hand of God, 
 " till his enemies be made his footstool " (see Acts ii. 
 34, 35). Stated in the language of the Apostles' Creed, 
 these doctrines are — " I believe ... in Jesus Christ, 
 [God's] only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the 
 Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary. . . . The third 
 day he rose again from the dead, He ascended into 
 heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father 
 Almighty. ... I believe in the Holy Ghost; The 
 holy Catholic Church; The Forgiveness of sins." 
 
 46. Question. — What spirit will these great doctrines, 
 if heartily embraced, stir within us ? 
 
 Answer. — A spirit of joy and praise, in the thought 
 of all the glorious things which God hath done for our 
 souls. 
 
 47. Question. — And how ought this spirit of joy and 
 praise to express itself in our method of reciting 
 the Christian Creeds ? 
 
 Answer. — By soag, which is the natural vehicle of 
 • praise. 
 
 48. Question. — Are the Creeds in the Book of Common 
 Prayer appointed to be sung ? 
 
VIII.] Catechism. 273 
 
 Answer. — Not necessarily. An option is given either 
 to " sing " or " say " thcni. But as in " Tlie Order for 
 Morning Prayer," and in "The Order of the Adminis- 
 tration of the Holy Communion," "singing" is named 
 before "saying" {^^ Then shall he sunij or said the 
 Apostles' Creed;" ^^ Upon these Feasts . . . shall be 
 sung or said at Morning Prayer . . . the Creed of 
 Saint Athanasius ;" " The Gospel ended, shall he sxing 
 or said the Creed folloiving ;") we conclude that 
 "singing" is the method of recitation to which the 
 Church gives the preference. 
 
 49. Question. — In what new and attractive aspect would 
 the compliance with this order for singing them 
 present the Creeds ? 
 Answer. — In the aspect of hymns of praise. Their 
 controversial character would be for the moment dropped 
 by the mind, and we should regard them as "triumph- 
 songs of heaven," cheering onward, as with martial 
 music, the soldiers of Christ, who " manfully fight under 
 his banner against sin, the world, and the devil." 
 " For the joy of the Lord is our strength." (See Neh. 
 viii. 10.) 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CHURCH GUIDING INTO AND 
 ILLUSTRATING THE TRUTH. 
 
 " ^nb the S^orb tuill rtnttc upon fbcr^ btoElUng-place of 
 <|Hrrunt Z'lon, anb xtpon her assemblies, a eloub anb 
 smoke bv bag, anb the shining of a flaming Arc bg 
 night," — Isaiah iv. 5. 
 
 T^ 
 
 HE reader will remember that we are now con- 
 sidering the relations of the Church of God to 
 the Truth of God, as those relations are sketched 
 for us by the Apostle Paul, where he calls the 
 Church " the pillar and ground of the truth." The 
 notion gained generally from the expression " pillar 
 and pedestal" is that of maintenance and support; 
 and it was pointed out in the last Chapter in wliat 
 senses the Church may be said to maintain and 
 support the Truth. But we saw that there might 
 have been another and more specific allusion in the 
 mind of the Apostle, when he termed the Church 
 jpoastbie " the pillar of the truth." He might refer to " the 
 tf faortf pillar of fire and of the cloud " — at once a guiding 
 trutr tS %^ and an illuminating pillar — which went before 
 aJi^Sf'tbe" Israel in their march through the wilderness. 
 *'""*'• Now the restoration to the people of this " pillar 
 
 of fire and of the cloud/' after Jerusalem had been 
 
CH. IX.] Illustrating the Truth. 275 
 
 " purged " " by the spirit of judgment and by the rxcsiorntion 
 spirit of burning," seems to be foretohl in the SflirtaU"f 
 passage of Isaiah Avhich stands at the head of this bicuibg''"' 
 Chapter. This prophecy, like all other Scriptural ^"'°'^" 
 prophecies, is no doubt rich in meaning, and the 
 fulfilment may be expected to repeat itself several 
 times, and in several shapes, before it becomes full- 
 orbed. But we can hardly be mistaken in think- 
 ing that one fulfilment of it will be found in the 
 Christian Church, which is the spiritual or true 
 Zion. And if so, " the cloud and smoke by day," 
 and " the shining of a flaming fire by night," wliich rfie puiuing* 
 the Lord will create upon the assemblies of Mount minating 
 Zion, may very properly be taken to express the trcburrba 
 guiding and illuminating functions of the Church, ei'mfnt oftVs 
 in reference to the true sense of Holy Scripture, *"" ' 
 of which we are now to speak. 
 
 " Guidance and illumination as to the true 
 sense of Holy Scripture." Perhaps there are some 
 who honestly think that we need no such guid- 
 ance or illumination, beyond what is supplied by ©bjcction 
 our natural faculties, and a moderate amount of "'ortn'fa' 
 general education. Instead of saying with the jj"o^ig 5??^. 
 Ethiopian nobleman, " How can I understand |,""gurt)'anfe"* 
 what I read, except some man should guide me ? " abnasV °^ 
 these people ask, not at all from self-conceit or [SfjJ^"^ 
 sinful presumption, but because the exigencies of 
 a theory seem to demand it of them, and because 
 their Protestantism seems to them imperilled by 
 any other view of the subject ; " Why cannot I in- 
 terpret Scripture aright for myself by the exercise 
 of my own faculties, and dispense altogether with 
 human interpretation ? Is not Scripture its own 
 
276 The CJm7^ck guiding into [chap. 
 
 sufficient interpreter ? " Now, if any principle is 
 a sound one, it must admit of being tested by a 
 a micini crucial experiment, and will hold good, if tried in 
 propoafU, an extreme case. If, then, you are sincerely and 
 tcstina'tijia earnestly convinced of the soundness of this priu- 
 ^^° ' '^* ciple, that the Bible itself, without any sort of 
 concurrent explanation, is a sufficient guide into 
 its own meaning ; I ask whether you are ready to 
 risk something — say the faith of your child — upon 
 your conviction ? It is open to any parents who 
 wish to do so to make the experiment. Only 
 act a cijiiD they must make it honestly (which in a Christian 
 up toittiout country it might not be easy to do), and steadily 
 ingtrachon, refuse to let the child's mind be biassed by any 
 mint abaii ie sort of religious instruction. Neither his mother, 
 BBtoann" nor any one else, is ever to mention to him God 
 lleis!^^ or Jesus or the Holy Spirit ; he must never be 
 bidden to pray, or have one single word said to 
 him as to what prayer is ; noi- must he even be 
 told that there is a future state of existence in 
 store for him, the character of which will depend 
 upon his conduct. Yes ! if the Bible is really and 
 truly quite capable of being its own interpreter, it 
 can need no more the explanations of a mother, 
 than those of a priest or minister of religion. We 
 will, however, because that was postulated by 
 iLct j)im bt yourself, give your child a fair secular education, 
 abiiaR'"ans — nay, will even teach him to read Greek, which 
 "eSar" °°°^ is the Original language of the New Testament, 
 rtucation. __and wc wiU assume that there is nothing defec- 
 tive in his mental powers, and that he is quite up 
 to the average mark in point of ability. And 
 then, when he has reached liis twenty-first birth- 
 
IX.] and ilhistrating the Truth. 277 
 
 day, aud we may hope tliat his judgment is 
 matured, is to be made upon this unbiassed, un- 
 prejudiced, unprepossessed mind, the great ex- at nc ace of 
 periment. Then for the first time you are to inTJit^Bibit 
 bring forth the Bible (the name of which he has X^^m 
 never heard before), and place it in his hands fi"i|'o!tcij''to' *" 
 with a solemn charge ; " j\Iy son, this is the fuiiuHfl^ous 
 written Word of God. It contains all truth *'""'• 
 necessary to our salvation. You know the ori- 
 ginal tongue, in which the more important por- 
 tion of the volume was written. Take it, and 
 study it for yourself, and make out the truth 
 from it." . . . Can you conceive for a moment 
 that, with the very best intentions, he will suc- 
 ceed ? What has lie got to make out ? ^Vllat 
 are the most important elements of this " truth," 
 which he is to derive into his own mind by the 
 mere study of the " Scriptures ? Probably the ctriaintn 
 doctrines of the Trinity and the Atonement, fafitosotijig. 
 Well ; will he rise from the study of the Bible a '^^,,'^^U. 
 sound believer in the Son's co- equality and co- ^"* iJortnncs. 
 eternity with the Father, (a most vital doctrine ; 
 for if Jesus be not God, where is the sufficiency of 
 His Atonement ?) or in the substitutional character 
 of the Blessed Saviour's sufferings ? Do you not 
 see that in order to understand the Scriptures at 
 all, or to any purpose, a certain group of religious 
 ideas must be formed in the mind, which the Bible 
 assumes to be already formed, and to which it ap- 
 peals, and which therefore must he obtained from 
 another source ? For example ; our unprejudiced 
 youth, on whom the experiment is to be made, 
 opens the Book we have given him, and reads its 
 
278 The ChiLrch gtiidmg into [chap. 
 
 mt berg first words : " In the beginning God created the 
 ttif jsibif heaven and the earth," Well; it is only one 
 
 asBumca pre- -r. j_ j_i • 
 
 bioua fenoV verse. But even this one verse assumes previous 
 fc^csmnrt ° knowledge, not to be gained from the Book itself. 
 33iWe itself. It assumes that there is a God, and that you, the 
 reader of the book, grant it. The Bible never 
 proves God, never attempts to demonstrate His 
 existence ; it only says that the man who denies 
 His existence is a fool, but does nothing to reason 
 that man out of his folly. I must have an idea 
 of God, then, before I can understand even the 
 first verse of my Bible. And the idea must be 
 m\t goums borrowed from something outside the Bible. As 
 toe neriije our a fact, the idea comes to us partly from our reason 
 eiL^tenct of and conscience, — but Very mainly also from the 
 instructions which we have received when young, 
 and which have put into definite shape the in- 
 timations of reason and conscience. We have 
 been assured very early in life that there is one 
 God, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness ; His 
 power and wisdom, we were told, were shown in 
 making the stars and trees and flowers, and His 
 goodness in showering upon us natural blessings, 
 and in sending His Son to redeem us. And we 
 were further assured that this great Being will 
 judge us for our actions, and reward the good and 
 punish the wicked. And thus was developed an 
 idea in our minds, which is necessary to our 
 understanding of the first verse of our Bibles. 
 But it never could have been developed, without 
 some teaching outside the Book itself. And this 
 teaching was that of the Church — first, of a 
 Christian mother, bringing her children up in the 
 
IX.] and illustrating the Truth. 279 
 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord, and then 
 subsequently, as the time drew on for our Con- 
 iirmation, of a Christian Minister. 
 
 But possibly some of my thinking hearers are 
 still not quite satisfied as to the necessity of ad- 
 mitting any human interpretation for the right 
 understanding of Holy Scripture. You ask, per- ciiat nil ttjf 
 haps, in reference to those doctrines of our Faith tbc^ja"it?arc 
 to which I have adverted ; " Must we not allow j^oId l"?ip-" 
 that the doctrines of the Trinity and the Atone- ImpiJ'tbat"'' 
 ment are to be found in Holy Scripture ? " Most foun^Ttjtu 
 assuredly they are to be found there ; and, when guiSe."' ^ 
 found, they are as two great keys, which unlock 
 and open the meaning of the entire volume. But 
 the question is not whether they are to be found 
 there, but icliethcr they are to he found without 
 any yuidance or help. In the British Museum, ifruitifss 
 or in the Bodleian Library, there are, we will say, grtat saorff 
 at least a hundred editions of the works of Shak- iTbfarof' 
 spere. So that those grand repertories of books h^fafsurt- 
 have no lack of copies of our greatest writer ; — °"" °"^ ^'^' 
 Shakspere is found there in profusion. But I 
 exceedingly question whether, if you were shut 
 up in the Bodleian Library alone, and left to find 
 Shakspere by the exercise of your own faculties, 
 you would succeed. You would ask for the index, 
 or you would inquire for the librarian. You 
 might and would forget the service they had 
 rendered you, when you had seized and begun to 
 devour your literary treasure ; but nevertheless 
 they would have been quite indispensable to 
 you. And similarly a librarian and an index 
 have always been found indispensable to the 
 
28o The Church guidiiig iiito [chap. 
 
 SSEfjmce titti 
 Sue obtain 
 tf)£ informa- 
 tion tljat ti)c 
 Berpmt in 
 ffien. iii. is 
 ti)e Ucijirj" 
 
 St. 3of)n, 
 the nnlg 
 Scriptural 
 toritcr toijo 
 gibes a Jiint 
 of it ; anS get 
 Burclp t})e 
 CEfjurH] 
 must fiaijc 
 
 pOSSEBBCll tiir 
 
 information 
 before ijis 
 time. 
 
 ascertainment of the true sense of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, the librarian being the Church, Jewish or 
 Christian, and the index that traditional inter- 
 pretation, which has followed the AVord of God 
 down the stream of time, and which has always 
 been a God-given light under which the Scrip- 
 tures have been read. That we all habitually 
 avail ourselves of this interpretation is a fact, 
 whether we like it or no. And if we were to 
 ignore this interpretation, we should cut our- 
 selves off from a large amount of comfort and 
 edification, and remove the only key we have 
 to the meaning of certain passages. Take one or 
 two instances. In order to light up the narrative 
 of the Fall with any sort of moral meaning, you 
 must suppose that the serpent was not a mere 
 beast of the field, but the devil using the serpent 
 as his instrument. But how do you know that it 
 was so ? There is not a vestige of the fact in the 
 sacred narrative itself. If you persist in going by 
 the letter of Genesis, you have no warrant what- 
 ever for saying that the devil appeared at all to 
 our first parents. St. John, it is true, in the very 
 latest book of the New Testament, does call Satan 
 that " primeval serpent," from which a believer 
 in and reader of the New Testament might gather 
 that the serpent which appeared at the Fall was 
 something more than he seemed to be. But must 
 we not suppose that long before the Eevelatiou 
 was written, every member of the Jewish and 
 Christian Churches perfectly understood who the 
 serpent was, that plays so very prominent a 
 part in the history of our race? Was St. Paul 
 
IX.] and ilhistj'atiiig the Truth. 281 
 
 ignorant who the serpent was, when he wrote, " I 
 fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled 
 Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be 
 corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ"? 
 — Whence then did Jews and Christians, and St. 
 Paul among the rest, obtain the information that 
 the serpent was in reality the great enemy of man- 
 kind ? There is no means of answering that ques- 
 tion but by supposing that the Old Testament 
 came down to them, not floating in a vacuum, 
 but wrapped round with an atmosphere of tradi- 
 tional sentiments and explanations. 
 
 But we shall perceive the existence of this at- 
 mosphere still more clearly, if we proceed a little 
 further in the history. Immediately upon the Fall 
 was issued what is called the first Prophecy. It jrisuai 
 pleases us to call it the first Prophecy ; but, as it 0" [be " 
 stands in the narrative, it is really nothing else than fcspfctir^ tf)e 
 the sentence of the Lord God upon the serpent, in tooman, 
 which are incidentally introduced these very enig- 
 matical words of comfort to the woman : " The 
 woman's seed shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt 
 bruise his heel." A preacher, preaching on this 
 text, would, without hesitation, interpret Christ 
 (the Virgin-born) to be the woman's seed — the 
 bruising of the heel of Christ to be the sufferings 
 which His lower nature should undergo from 
 wicked men, instigated by wicked spirits, — and 
 the bruising of the serpent's head to be the 
 crushing of the devil's power by the Saviour's 
 death and resurrection ; and his congregation 
 would receive his interpretation as assuredly 
 true, and as the right use to be made of tlie 
 
282 The Church giddmg into [chap. 
 
 notobfainrt passage. But whence did he and they get it? 
 Se'Ssdf; Certainly not from the letter of the Bilile. I 
 am not aware that it is ever said of the woman's 
 seed (though it is of Abraham's) that by that ex- 
 pression Christ is meant. Your son, whom you 
 have brought up with a good secular education, 
 but without any hereditary religious ideas, could 
 by no possibility make out from the document that 
 nor couiu Christ was meant. And if, in the perversity of his 
 jHSfns tf)e scepticism, he chose to laugh outright at your idea 
 prestation be that the sufferings of Christ at the hands of the 
 mor'frmttc devil, and His glorious triumphs over the devil, 
 Scriptures. ^^^ enigmatically foretold in those words, and to 
 insist that there was nothing in them at all beyond 
 the natural antipathy which men (all of whom are 
 born of woman) feel for serpents, — an antipathy 
 which leads them, when they see a snake in the 
 grass, to trample on its head, in the endeavour to 
 do which the creature may sometimes turn and 
 sting them in the heel, — you could say nothing at 
 all from the letter of Scripture to disprove his 
 view and prove your own. What would you say 
 to him ? You would probably say, " You are very 
 perverse; you reject an interpretation which all 
 Christendom has agreed to put upon the passage." 
 And he would not unreasonably reply ; " You told 
 me the Book would speak for itself, and be an 
 abundantly sufficient guide into its own mean- 
 ing. If so, of what service can the judgment of 
 Christendom be to me ? I maintain there is 
 nothing here but a saying about serpents and 
 men; true enough, no doubt, but having no 
 moral or spiritual bearing whatever." And he 
 
IX.] and illustrating the Truth. 283 
 
 is right. In the letter of the Bible we in vain 
 seek for anything more. 
 
 Again; consider how very large a portion of 
 most valuable typical teaching we must consent to 
 forego, and, consequently, to how great an extent 
 the Old Testament must become a dead letter to 
 us, — merely interesting as an antiquarian record, 
 — if we resolve to be beholden in nowise to that 
 traditional interpretation, which, concurrently 
 with the Scriptures themselves, the Church, both 
 Jewish and Christian, has handed down. 
 
 For instance, what possible connexion with the jrfietjpitai 
 great subject of Good Friday has the first Morning [hSrifiL 
 Lesson which our Church appoints for that day, — th/lacriCce 
 the Chapter of Genesis, which records the offering °^^'J"^' 
 up of Isaac by his father ? A young Sunday- 
 school child would give you a ready answer to this 
 question. " The Chapter is appropriated to Good 
 Friday," he would say, " because on that day God 
 gave up His dear Son to suffer death upon the 
 cross for the sins of the whole world, and Abra- 
 ham's sacrificing Isaac is a figure or type of God's 
 doing this. And just as the wood, whereon he 
 was to be offered, was carried by Isaac, so our be - 
 loved Lord was made to carry His wooden cross 
 to the place of execution, before He was stretched 
 upon it to be crucified." Nobody educated in the 
 usual way, under the light of traditional Christian 
 sentiments, doubts that Isaac is an eminent type, 
 or questions that his carrying the cloven wood is 
 a typical particular ; but the Bible itself never tells „ugt j, 
 us anything of the sort. And if any one should i3'rbi?ig'io"fc't 
 choose to maintain that Isaac is not a type of Clirist fnurputTna. 
 
284 The Church gtiiding into [chap. 
 
 at all, there is nothing in the letter of the Scrip- 
 tures to confute him. 
 
 Once more, it is unquestionable, because the 
 5t. iiaui'g writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews affirms 
 assertion tfjat it expressly, that the old patriarchs looked not 
 patTiard)s for trausitory promises, — that Abraham, for ex- 
 transitorg ample, " lookcd fop a city which hath founda- 
 promiacB. -^JQ^g^ whose builder and maker is God." But 
 whence did Abraham derive this expectation, 
 an expectation which is so vital an element in 
 everything deserving the name of religion, that 
 we may truly say religion cannot exist with- 
 out it? Unless you suppose a communication 
 of the fact of eternal life being in store for God's 
 true people to have been made to our first 
 parents by the Almighty, and handed down in 
 the line of Seth as a thing understood in the 
 orfjro \vxs Patriarchal Church, and as the revealed basis of 
 tlje ®i§ '" all piety, Abraham's grounds for the expectation 
 frDmiTt^ci^" must have been of the very slenderest. They must 
 bopjsupon. j^^^g ^gg^ confined to the translation of Enoch, 
 the memory of which would, no doubt, be carefully 
 preserved, and from which pious men might augur 
 the probability of a future state of blessedness for 
 insufBcicnrg those who walked in Enoch's footsteps. But surely 
 of St?to" only the probability. There was this great argu- 
 nrotmtirt ment in favour of Enoch's case being in all respects 
 cas/of "^^ exceptional, that it was markedly exceptional in 
 °'''"^^" one particular. Enoch was removed ; he never 
 died. Because Enoch was taken to glory, it would 
 not be conclusive to argue that those over whose 
 heads the grave did actually close should pass out 
 of it again, to become sharers of Enoch's blessed- 
 
IX.] and illuslraiing the Truth. 285 
 
 ness. And when, in the time of Moses, the written 
 Scripture did at length appear, tlie hints of eternal 
 life given in the Pentateuch were so rare and 
 so obscure, that without help from some external 
 traditional sentiment, some instinctive conscious- 
 ness cherished by the people of God, it would 
 have been impossible to decipher them. Bishop gbgfn„ pf 
 Warburton, in his " Divine Legation," makes the lutnai ufe"^ °^ 
 silence of ]\Ioses on the subject of eternal life one ^"ratatracfj, 
 premiss of his rather perverse argument. His ob- |^afbur1on°s 
 ject is to prove the indisputable truth that Moses "^^s""""'- 
 received a divine commission. This he does by 
 showing that every great legislator except Moses 
 found it necessary, in promulgating his law, to ap- 
 peal to eternal sanctions. Moses did not find it 
 necessary to do this. He therefore must have 
 had something else to fall back upon, in procuring 
 the acceptance and observance of his law. And 
 what he had to fall back upon was the conscious- 
 ness of the people that God had indeed commis- 
 sioned him, flowing from their witnessing his 
 miracles. No doubt AVarburton stretches a point 
 to prove his minor premiss. But if eternal life 
 had been revealed with any plainness in the Law, 
 it would have been utterly impossible to adopt his 
 line of argument. 
 
 I need not pursue the subject further, except to rfjousf) tbt 
 say that we all, as a fact, deal with the New rretammt 
 Testament on entirely the same principles as Sanation 
 those on which the Church has always dealt with ©ic/Sm' 
 the Old, accepting it, that is, not in its mere letter, S^Kffiu 
 but as wrapped round with an atmosphere of |?a6ilion Jf' 
 traditional interpretation. Of course it is, in its iS'ortttTo'' 
 
 intnrprtt ii. 
 
286 The Church giiidi7ig into [chap. 
 
 very nature, far more explicit and plain, far less 
 enigmatical and obscure, than the earlier volume ; 
 but still we accept very many things in our system 
 of doctrine and practice which, while they may 
 be very plausibly supported by the New Testa- 
 ment, still could never be found in the mere text 
 of it, except with the help of the traditional inter- 
 pretation, which the practice of the early Church 
 s-fje Bubstitu- puts upon it. The observance of Sunday (I am 
 iLort'B iDas not speaking of the Sabbath, but of the Lord's 
 Sabbatfj, Day), an observance which we rightly prize and 
 Banctification, cherish, — where is it made incumbent upon us by 
 the law of Christ our Saviour, unless you will 
 admit the general sense of the early Church as 
 throwing light upon the Lord's mind ? If you rest 
 the 'princi])h of the observance (as you may rea- 
 notobm sonably do) on the fourth Commandment, still 
 pnBcribeii in you must show some reason for shifting the ob- 
 Eestamcnt, servance from Saturday to Sunday. " God blessed 
 and sanctified the seventh day," not the first. 
 And the only reason you can possibly show for 
 the change of day is the general sense of the 
 Church throughout the world, that the Lord's Ee- 
 surrection having fallen on the first day of the 
 week, was a sufficient justification for the trans- 
 infant fer. Again, we prize dearly Infant Baptism, as 
 «b6i not on Sealing our little ones for the Lord, and bringing 
 rtBtamcnt them under the gracious influences of His Spirit, 
 Eufon'tram- bcforc consciousncss dawns. But while we may 
 tmfng'bafk' and do support Infant Baptism out of the New 
 tfrncB.''^'^ "^ Testament, no one can say witli truth that he 
 finds it in the letter of the volume. The early 
 Church had an instinctive sense that it was in 
 
IX.] and ilhistrating the Tritfh. 287 
 
 accordance with the iniiid of Christ to baptize 
 infiints ; and they did uniformly baptize tliem. 
 Finding the practice universally prevalent in the 
 first few centuries after Christ, and therefore bear- 
 ing every trace of derivation from the Apostles 
 themselves, we then go to Holy Scripture, and 
 find there several passages beautifully consonant 
 with it, such as, " Suffer little children," etc., and 
 the Baptism of whole households recorded in the 
 Acts. But we nowhere find any positive rule to 
 baptize infants. 
 
 Enough, I trust, has now been said to prove the 
 point, which is, that we all (more or less) do as mnnctfaiiB 
 a matter of fact read Scripture in the light of an iu« tofujout 
 hereditary transmitted interpretation, and that, if goma^inl 
 we are to possess ourselves of its full moral and {,"r?tiaar0 
 spiritual significance, we must read it so. The ex- 'ntfrpuia-^ 
 periment never was honestly made of reading the ''""• 
 Scriptures without note or comment, or without 
 such previous prepossession with certain religious 
 ideas as virtually is note and comment ; and there 
 is every reason to believe that, if the experiment 
 could be made, it would be a miserable failure 
 as regards the arriving at truth. The Ethiopian ©fficf of the 
 nobleman was right. He could not have under- fiUrt^bg ti 
 stood what he read, without " some man " to enjilm/an!''' 
 " guide " him. St. Philip the Deacon was to ^mpiafntu 
 him the representative and accredited agent of nol'uni)"""' 
 the Church of Christ, which, in reference to Ri?^" 
 God's Truth, is a guiding and illuminating piUar, Siuio 
 —leading the way, and giving light. And this °""" ^''"• 
 office the Church fulfils for us, partly by her 
 Creeds and Confessions of Eaith, partly by her 
 
The Church guiding iiito [chap. 
 
 In fajl)at 
 
 srnsc l^olu 
 
 SCTifltuVE IS, 
 
 in its turn, 
 tfjc pillar anl) 
 pcOrstal of 
 tlje artiurch. 
 
 2r{)c offia, 
 nutijoritg, 
 ijiatorg, ant 
 existence of 
 lt)e Ctiurcl} 
 can onb be 
 ascertained 
 from I^oId 
 Scripture. 
 
 formularies (which embody a large amount of 
 doctrinal teaching), and still more by that trans- 
 mitted hereditary meaning of Holy Scripture, 
 which she carries down along the ages, and 
 which is a sort of instinct or conscience, like 
 the Scriptures themselves, widely influential, but 
 very difficult to give an account of. 
 
 But we must not omit to remark, in conclusion, 
 that if the Holy Scripture needs the explanation 
 of the Church, the Church still more needs the 
 explanation of Holy Scripture. If in one point 
 of view the Church is the pillar and pedestal of 
 " the trutli," in another and no less important 
 one, " the truth " is (as Chrysostom clearly saw) 
 the pillar and pedestal of the Church. I receive 
 the Holy Scriptures in the first instance on the 
 testimony of the Church. I read them under the 
 light wdiich the Church transmits. All this is 
 indisputable. But, on the other hand, how can 
 the Church explain what she is, or what autho- 
 rity she has, without an appeal to Holy Scrip- 
 ture ? " You call yourself the Church," the 
 person approached by her might say; "but what 
 is a Church ? what account can you give of your- 
 self, or of the authority with which you profess 
 to have been invested? I know nothing about 
 you at present." It is of course utterly impos- 
 sible to answer such questions without the Book, 
 — more impossible even than it would be to 
 understand Scripture without the Church's com- 
 mentary. The charter and title-deeds of the 
 Church are in Scripture ; and if you remove 
 Scripture, you cut away the very pillar and 
 pedestal of the Chui'ch. 
 
IX.] and inust7'atino the TrittJi. 289 
 
 The sum is, that both the Holy Scriptures and 
 the Church are God's M-itnesses among men, and |J^^jboIh 
 that they are mutually necessary to one another, nnB^^he 
 linked in the closest of bonds. The Church is """'^"s 
 
 nccrsaaro to 
 
 the ordained teacher of truth, which must reach one anotf)cr. 
 us, in order to be influential with creatures con- 
 stituted as we are, through a living voice. The 
 Holy Scripture is the fj^^eat criterion of truth, the 
 only standard of appeal by which every contro- 
 versy must be tried, so that " whatsoever is not 
 read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not 
 to be required of any man, that it should be be- 
 lieved as an article of the faith, or be thought requi- 
 site or necessary to salvation ;" and it has more- 
 over this great prerogative, that it is always pure, Crciusibf 
 
 '^ ' ® ' ■ T J ptfTogattbc of 
 
 perfect, infallible, whereas the prejudices andthcftjoiD 
 passions of men, their controversies and partisan- nbofac the 
 ships, often gi'ievously deprave the Church, and 
 render it utterly unlike even its primitive model, 
 — far more unlike its ideal in the mind of its 
 Founder. "'NVliat God hath joined," however, 
 " let not man put asunder." 
 
 Let us prize our Bibles above all earthly trea- 
 sure, reading (or rather studying) them with -'"^J"* °^ 
 earnest prayer for God's Spirit. And let us hold ciiaptrr 
 
 inttoljufco*. 
 
 fast, while studpng them, that clue which God 
 has given us to their meaning in our Prayer- 
 Book, which for us embodies and represents the 
 teaching of the Church, " the pillar and gi'ound of 
 the truth," at once supporting and illustrating it. 
 This signification of the Prayer-Book we shall 
 exhibit in our last Chapter. 
 
290 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 Catechism aw Qlhap. 'i.^. 
 
 1. Catecliist. — We are now to consider the ideas yielded 
 
 by the words, " the pillar and ground of the truth," 
 
 on the hypothesis that the Apostle, in using them, is 
 
 alluding to the pillar of fire and of the cloud, which 
 
 journeyed before the children of Israel in the 
 
 wilderness. State once again what those ideas 
 
 are. 
 
 Answer. — That the Church guides into the Truth, 
 
 and throws light upon it ; because the pillar of a cloud 
 
 led the people the way by day, and the pillar of fire 
 
 gave them light by night. (See Exod. xiii. 21.) 
 
 2. Question. — Where do we find a promise of the 
 
 restoration of this pillar of fire and of the cloud ? 
 Answer. — In Isaiah iv. 5 : " And the Lord will 
 create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and 
 upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and 
 the shining of a flaming fire by night." 
 
 3. Question. — Are we to look for the fulfilment of 
 
 this promise in Grospel times ? 
 Ansiver. — It would appear so. The heading of the 
 chapter, in the Authorized Translation of the Bible, is, 
 " In the extremity of evils, Christ's kingdom shall be 
 a sanctuary." 
 
 4. Catechist. — The context of this passage then con- 
 
 cerns Christ's kingdom, or, in other words, the 
 Church. And probably the Church is meant by 
 the term " mount Zion " in the verse before us. 
 If this be so, what will be the interpretation of 
 the "cloud and smoke by day, and the shining 
 of a flaming fire by night " ? 
 A7iswer. — These words will find their fulfilment in 
 the guiding and illuminating functions of the Church, 
 by which she indicates the true sense of Holy Scrip- 
 ture. She not only recommends, exhibits, and defends 
 the Truth, but also guides into the knowledge of it, and 
 throws light upon it. 
 
IX.] Catechism. 291 
 
 5. Question. — For us, who live siuce the Canon of the 
 New Testament has been completed, what is " the 
 Truth?" 
 Ansiver. — The volume of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 0. Catechist. — Your assertion is, then, that the Church 
 guides us into the knowledge of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and throws light upon the study of them. 
 But there are some who think and assert that the 
 Holy Scriptures need no explanation, and are best 
 read without note or comment. They suppose 
 that all that is required to gain the Truth from the 
 volume of the Bible is suflBcient intelligence and a 
 certain amount of general education, and that, 
 where a person is possessed of these qualifications, 
 he can make out the Truth for himself, or (at all 
 events), make it out so far as is suflBcient for his 
 own edification and salvation, without further help 
 or guidance. Scripture, they say, is its own suffi- 
 cient interpreter. How would you deal with views 
 like these ? 
 Answer. — I should point out that no good and de- 
 vout person does ever, as a fact, trust the Bible to 
 interpret itself, however much he may insist theoreti- 
 cally upon the position that Holy Scripture is its own 
 sufficient interpreter. 
 
 7. Question. — "VMiat do you mean ? 
 
 Answer. — I mean that people would not act upon 
 this theory, where something valuable had to be risked 
 in acting upon it, thereby showing that they have no 
 real practical belief in what they maintain. It is said 
 that a divine, who in the year 18G0 had made up his 
 mind, from the study of unfulfilled Prophecy, that the 
 end of the world would come about in 1870, after- 
 wards went and took a house upon a long lease for 
 ninety-nine years, at the expiration of which, if his 
 theory of unfulfilled Prophecy were true, the earth 
 ought to have been laid in ashes for eighty-nine years. 
 He cannot really have believed his own prediction, 
 though he may have persuaded himself that he did so. 
 
292 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 And, in like manner, no one acts as if he believed that 
 the Bible is its own sufl&cient interpreter, however ear- 
 nestly he may maintain that position in argument. 
 
 8. Question. — What specially are you alluding to ? 
 Answer. — To the fact that every one, in educating 
 
 children, thinks it right and necessary to give them, 
 along with the Bible itself, that explanation of it which 
 is currently received among Christians. 
 
 9. Question. — If people really believed that the Bible 
 
 (with the help of a good general education) is its 
 own sufficient interpreter, what experiment on 
 their children ought they to be contented to 
 make? 
 Answer. — That of bringing them up until they reach 
 
 an age to judge for themselves, without instilling into 
 
 their minds a single religious idea. 
 
 10. Question. — But why are they bound to go so far as 
 this, if they desire to be consistent ? 
 
 Answer. — Because, by instilling a single religious 
 idea, they are in fact putting an explanation upon the 
 Bible, and anticipating what the child ought hereafter 
 to get from the Bible for himself. 
 
 11. Question. — Are these people on their own theory 
 
 doing something, not only superfluous, but posi- 
 tively mischievous and wrongful, when they instil 
 religious ideas into the minds of children ? 
 Answer. — Yes ; because they are biassing them 
 towards certain religious opinions of their own, before 
 the judgment can possibly be matured. If Grod has 
 not provided us with any living guide or instructor, 
 but wills us to gain all our religious knowledge for our- 
 selves out of a book which He has caused to be written, 
 it must surely be wrong as well as harmful to interfere 
 with His method, by prepossessing the minds of children 
 with any religious sentiments whatsoever, before they 
 come to an age to examine the Bible for themselves. 
 If, on the other hand, God has provided a guide and 
 instructor for both young and old, and has made His 
 
IX.] Catechism. 293 
 
 instructions necessary for the right understanding of 
 Ills Holy Word, it must be very perilous to dispense 
 with the services of this guide. 
 
 12. Question. — As general propositions are often apt to 
 mislead, and as the question before us is a grave 
 one, in which it would be very serious to be misled 
 in either direction, will you mention one or two 
 Scriptural doctrines of the utmost importance, 
 which could not be obtained from the mere letter 
 of Scripture without collateral explanation ? 
 
 Answer. — I may mention the doctrine of the Holy 
 Trinity, and that of Christ's Atonement. 
 
 13. Questio7i. — What circumstance would make the 
 doctrine of the Holy Trinity very hard to find in 
 Holy Scripture, without some previous doctrinal 
 training ? 
 
 Answer. — The circumstance that the doctrine is, if 
 we except the controverted and very doubtful text in 
 St. John's 1st Epistle (v. 7), nowhere explicitly stated 
 in terms in the Bible. 
 
 14. Question. — But if the Holy Scriptures do not ex- 
 pressly state it, do they contain it ? 
 
 Answer. — Most assuredly they do: only they give it 
 us piecemeal, and by continual references to it and 
 assumptions of it. There are many passages ^ in which 
 Christ is expressly said to be Divine. Other passages * 
 clearly intimate the Godhead of the Holy Ghost. And 
 yet we are repeatedly warned, both in the Old and New 
 Testaments, that there is but one God.^ The combina- 
 tion of the truths taught in these various passages 
 results in the doctrine of the Trinity. Then again 
 there are many passages which assume and refer to, 
 though they do not expressly state, the doctrine. Such 
 
 1 As John i. 1 ; Rom. ix. 5; 1 Cor. xv. 47; Heb. i 8, 10 
 Isa. ix. 6 ; Acts xx. 28, and many others. 
 
 2 As Acts V. 3, 4 ; Acts xxviii. 25, 26 ; with Isa. vi. 3, 
 9, etc. etc. 
 
 3 As Deut. vi. 4 ; St. Mark xii. 29 ; 1 Cor. viii. 4 ; Isa. 
 xliv. 8, etc. etc. 
 
294 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 are the prescribed form of Baptism (St. Matt, xxviii. 
 19); the Apostolic Benediction (2 Cor. xiii. 14); and 
 the text, " Jehovah our Elohim is one Jehovah " (Deut. 
 vi. 4; and St. Mark xii. 29); literally, "the Lord our 
 Gods is one Lord." So that this grand doctrine may 
 be most clearly and certainly proved from Scripture, 
 though it is nowhere stated in terms there. 
 
 15. Question. — Can you give any illustration of a doc- 
 trine being really and certainly contained in a 
 document, which yet is never expressly stated 
 there ? 
 
 Answer. — I think I can. Let us imagine some book, 
 which contains all the Acts of the British Legislature 
 for a single year. The doctrine of the English Con- 
 stitution, and of the respective powers of the Sovereign, 
 the Lords, and the Commons, might be made out from 
 such a book, though it would not be in its province to 
 make a formal statement of the doctrine. We should 
 find that in all cases, after a Bill had passed one 
 House, it was considered (and occasionally altered) by 
 the other, and that, when it had passed both Houses, it 
 was invariably submitted to the Sovereign for the Royal 
 Assent. And thus we might make out, by comparing 
 different parts of the volume, the full doctrine of the 
 English Constitution, and of the checks upon legislative 
 action which it involves. 
 
 16. Catechist. — If this illustration is just, it would seem 
 that Holy Scripture is designed rather to prove 
 the Truth than to teach it. Is this so ? 
 
 Answer. — It is. The Bible assumes the existence of 
 a living instructor in the Truth, who will indoctrinate 
 us into the rudiments of it, and refer us to the Scrip- 
 tures themselves for the proof of what he teaches. If 
 the instructor is dispensed with, and the disciple thrown 
 back merely on the Bible and his natural faculties, he 
 will be very liable to stumble, almost certain to do so 
 as regards those more recondite definitions of doctrine, 
 which the Church's experience of heresies has shown 
 her to be necessary, and has taught her to make. 
 
IX.] Catechism. 295 
 
 IT. Question. — Why would a person, into ■whose mind 
 no religious ideas had been instilled in childhood, 
 almost certainly fail to find the true doctrine of 
 the Atonement in Holy Scripture ? 
 Answer. — Because the idea of atonement belongs to 
 a group of ideas, which the reader of Holy Scripture is 
 assumed to have ready formed in his mind, before he 
 comes to the perusal of the Volume. Expiation made 
 by the sufferings and death of an innocent victim for 
 the sins of the guilty, is an idea which we catch, each 
 one of us, from the atmosphere of religious tradition, 
 which wraps us round in our childhood, and we read 
 our New Testaments under the light which that tradi- 
 tion furnishes. If this light were not shining upon us, 
 we should be puzzled to know what to make of such 
 inspired statements as these, which at present are the 
 comfort and joy of our hearts ; — " Behold the Lamb of 
 God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (St. 
 John i. 29) ; " He was wounded for our transgressions, 
 he was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of 
 our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are 
 healed " (Isa. liii. 5) ; " Christ died for our sins, 
 according to the scriptures " (1 Cor. xv. 3) ; " Who 
 his own self bare our sins in his own body on the 
 tree " (1 Peter ii. 24) ; " Herein is love, not that we 
 loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be 
 the propitiation for our sins" (1 John iv. 10) ; "Unto 
 him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his 
 own blood" (Rev. i. 5). 
 
 18. Catechist. — You say that before a man can under- 
 stand the Bible, he must have a mind furnished 
 with certain ideas, which ideas the Bible assumes 
 as known and admitted. Show that the Bible in 
 its earliest verse assumes a truth, which must be 
 drawn from some other source than the Bible 
 itself. 
 A7iswer. — Let us suppose that a mother, without ever 
 having told her child anything about God, reads to 
 the child the first verse of the Bible, under the belief 
 that the Bible itself will teach him all it is necessary 
 
296 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 for him to know — " In the beginning Grod created the 
 heaven and the earth." The child would certainly ask, 
 "Mother, who is God?" And when the mother ex- 
 plains that God is a Being of infinite power, wisdom, 
 and goodness, who holds our life in His hand, and from 
 whom flows our every blessing, an intelligent child 
 might naturally ask, " How do you know there is such 
 a Being, as you say you have never seen Him ?" And 
 this question cannot be answered out of the Bible. 
 The Bible assumes the existence of God, but does not 
 prove it. It speaks to those who admit the existence 
 of God, and have an idea of Him already formed in 
 their minds. The Bible seeks to exalt this idea, to 
 elevate it, to purify it, to make it worthier, and grander, 
 and more attractive idea than it ordinarily is (a very 
 large part of the Bible is occupied in doing this), but 
 it never offers a proof of God's existence. It simply 
 says, that to deny the existence of God is sheer folly 
 (See Psalm liii. 1). 
 
 19. Question. — "Whence then, if we are not taught it 
 by the Bible, do we derive the conviction that 
 there is a God? 
 
 Ayiswer. — From the intimations of conscience, which 
 assures us of the existence of a Righteous Governor, 
 " who will render to every man according to his works," 
 and from the works of nature, which lead us to the 
 conclusion of a great First Cause. The existence of 
 God proves itself to our conscience and reason, which 
 are so constructed that we cannot but believe in a 
 Superior Being. And these intimations of the reason 
 and conscience are developed and put into shape by 
 the teaching we received in our childhood. That 
 there is a God, all good, all wise, who controls and 
 governs us, and sees all our most secret thoughts, was 
 an idea instilled into us before any other. 
 
 20. Catechist. — But surely, if the more important doc- 
 trines of the Faith are really and truly contained 
 in Holy Scripture, and repeatedly inculcated there, 
 any one will be able to find them for himself, who 
 has a fair amount of intelligence and education ? 
 
IX.] Catechism. 297 
 
 Answer. — I do not deny that he may find them easily, 
 if he avails himself, or in times past has availed him- 
 self, of the appointed guidance. A man brought up in 
 the ordinary way, under the instruction of parents, 
 tutors, and Christian Ministers, one who has always 
 breathed the atmosphere of religious thought which 
 circulates throughout the Church, and which is more 
 or less inhaled by all of us, whether we will or no, will 
 find no difficulty whatever in laying his hand upon the 
 Scripture prools of the Trinity and the Atonement. 
 But that is not the case supposed. We arc imagining 
 the case of one who is thrown upon the study of the 
 Bible, with his mind an absolute blank as to all religious 
 ideas (a case never actually realized to the fullest ex- 
 tent), and we say of such an one that he simply would 
 not know what to make of the Bible, and that, though 
 he might read the texts (among many others), which 
 contain the more vital doctrines, he could not appre- 
 ciate their importance or central position, nor indeed 
 understand them. 
 
 21. Question. — Can you compare his dilemma to any- 
 thing which may illustrate it ? 
 
 Answer. — It somewhat resembles the case of a man 
 shut up alone in a vast library, to find a copy of a famous 
 author, of whose writings several hundred copies exist, 
 scattered up and down the library. 
 
 22. Question. — What would such a person want, in 
 ordjer to get at the work of which he was in 
 search ? 
 
 A7isiucr. — He would want the librarian, or the index, 
 or perhaps both. 
 
 23. Question. — In ascertaining the true sense of Holy 
 Scripture, what corresponds to the librarian ? 
 
 Aiiswer. — The Church, which Is " the pillar and 
 ground of the truth." 
 
 24. Question. — And what to the index ? 
 
 Answer. — The traditional interpretation, which has 
 from time immemorial been current in the Church. 
 
298 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 25. CatecMst. — Many people look with great suspicion 
 upon this traditional interpretation. "Why could 
 it not be dispensed with ? 
 
 Answer. — Because it is absolutely necessary to the 
 understanding of certain passages, and to the profitable 
 understanding of others. 
 
 26. Catechist.—^\\o\f this by giving an example. 
 Answer. — "We read in Gen. iii. of the serpent's 
 
 seducing our first mother, (and through her our first 
 father,) from her allegiance to God. And in 2 Cor. 
 xi. 3, where the Apostle speaks of the serpent's 
 " beguiling Eve through his subtilty," the same 
 phraseology is adopted. Every child who reads the 
 story of the Fall, is told without hesitation that the 
 serpent, who successfully decoyed our first parents, was 
 the Devil, taking the form of a serpent. And unless 
 we suppose it to be so, the narrative loses its moral, 
 and its consistency with the plan of salvation as de- 
 veloped in other parts of Holy Scripture. But it is 
 never said in the narrative that the serpent was the 
 Devil, nor is the slightest hint dropped to that efi"ect, 
 A traditional interpretation has come down side by side 
 with the narrative, which is absolutely necessary to 
 make it instructive and edifying. 
 
 27. CatecMst. — But surely, without the help of this 
 traditional interpretation, you might infer with 
 certainty that the serpent was the devil from 
 Rev. xii. 9, where St. John expressly calls the 
 Devil the primeval (or aboriginal) Serpent: "And 
 the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, 
 called the Devil, and Satan, tohich deceiveth the 
 whole world." 
 
 Answer. — No doubt a person possessed of the Book 
 of Revelation, and believing in its genuineness and 
 inspiration, might feel satisfied from that single expres- 
 sion that it was the Devil who, under the form of a 
 serpent, conducted the temptation of our first parents. 
 But the Book of Revelation is in point of date among 
 the latest books of the Bible ; and it is quite impossible 
 
IX.] Catechism. 29Q 
 
 to suppose that believers, before the Book of Revela- 
 tion was written, were ignorant who this serpent was, 
 or that the Corinthians did not understand St. Paul to 
 mean the Devil, when he wrote to them about the ser- 
 pent, " who beguiled Eve through his subtilty." St. 
 Paul, using as he does at all times " great plainness 
 of speech " (see 2 Cor. iii. 12), would certainly have 
 been more explicit, had he felt that there was the 
 smallest chance of his being misunderstood. But 
 every Christian at Corinth was perfectly aware who 
 the serpent in Genesis was, without being told. Side 
 by side with the books of the Old Testament, had come 
 down a traditional interpretation of them, which the 
 Jews unhesitatingly received, and which the Apostles 
 handed on to their Christian converts, when they placed 
 these books in their hands. 
 
 28. Catechist. — Give another instance, in which we 
 are entirely dependent on the traditional interpre- 
 tation, for a right understanding of the Holy 
 Scriptures. 
 
 Answer. — The explanation which every Christian 
 puts upon the first promise of a Redeemer really comes, 
 not from Scripture itself, but from a tradition which has 
 for ages found currency in the Church. 
 
 29. Question. — What explanation do you mean ? 
 Aiiswer. — That which is always given of Gen. iii. 15. 
 
 That by " the seed of the woman " is meant Christ, 
 who was born of a pure Virgin. That " the seed of the 
 serpent " means wicked men, instigated by devils. 
 That " the seed " of Christ means believers in Him. 
 That " the head " of the serpent denotes his chief seat 
 of power. That " the heel " of Christ denotes his lower 
 (or human) nature. That the bruising of the serpent's 
 head denotes the extinction of his power. That the 
 bruising of Christ's heel denotes what He suffered in 
 His human nature from the enmity of men and devils. 
 None of these explanations are given either in the 
 narrative itself, or in any other part of Holy Scripture. 
 Indeed we are never told in Scripture that by " the 
 
300 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 seed of the woman" is meant Jesus Christ, which is 
 the foundation of the other explanations, and without 
 which key to the meaning the passage loses all its moral 
 and spiritual significance, and degenerates into a trivial 
 description of the instinctive antipathy which men feel 
 for serpents, the way in which a snake injures a man, 
 and in which the man retaliates. 
 
 30. Catechist. — But all Christians will tell you, with 
 one accord, that this great prophecy respecting 
 "the seed of the woman" speaks of much higher 
 things than the mutual hostility of men and ser- 
 pents. 
 
 Answer. — Or, in other words, the Christian Church 
 assures me that this is the true meaning of the passage, 
 and the meaning I ought to accept. It does so, I know. 
 But as the Bible does not tell me so, I find that some- 
 thing outside the Bible itself is necessary for tlie right 
 understanding of the holy Volume, that it is not, as is 
 sometimes pretended, self-interpreting. 
 
 31. Question. — Can you show how the principle that 
 nothing but Scripture itself can be accepted in 
 the interpretation of Scripture, and that no tradi- 
 tional comments can be admitted, would deprive 
 us of many edifying types, and evacuate many of 
 the Old Testament histories of their evangelical 
 meaning ? 
 
 Answer. — Isaac is one instance in point. Joseph 
 would be another. Neither of these patriarchs is any- 
 where expressly said to have been a type of Christ. 
 But it is abundantly clear, and indeed generally acknow- 
 ledged, that both of them were so. Every child is 
 taught that Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac is a type of 
 Grod the Father's giving His Only-Begotten Son to be 
 a sacrifice for the sins of the world ; that Isaac's 
 acquiescence is a type of Christ's cheerful and zealous 
 compliance (see St. John x. 18); that the wood being 
 laid upon Isaac is typical of Christ bearing the cross, 
 and that Isaac's being laid upon the wood is a type of 
 the Crucifixion of Christ. None of these things are 
 
IX.] Catechism. 301 
 
 said in the narrative ; nor can we find any text in the 
 Bible which explicitly calls Isaac a typical character. 
 And yet we make no question of the fact. It is a 
 traditional interpretation, which has come down to us 
 concurrently with the Scriptures. And if we reject it, 
 we leave large tracts of the Old Testament without any 
 special Christian significance. Accept it, and those 
 passages are lighted up with a new and beautiful 
 meaning. 
 
 32. Question. — Is there any warrant for saying that 
 the Church of England regards Isaac as a typical 
 character ? 
 
 Answer. — Unquestionably she does so. For the 
 Church of England appoints the account of the sacri- 
 fice of Isaac to be read as the first Lesson at IVIorning 
 Prayer on Good Friday. Now, unless the sacrifice of 
 Isaac was typical of the Sacrifice of Christ, there would 
 be no reason or appropriateness in this arrangement. 
 
 33. Question. — "\^Tiat must pious Jews of old have 
 found in the Law of Moses, which is never clearly 
 expressed there, and which they must have gained 
 therefore from traditional comments and interpre- 
 tations, handed down with the Law ? 
 
 Answer. — The great doctrine of eternal life after 
 death. 
 
 34. Question. — How do we know for certain that they 
 
 did look for eternal life after death ? 
 Answer. — Because the Apostle Paul tells us so in 
 his Epistle to the Hebrews. Speaking of Abraham he 
 says ; " He looked for a city which hath foundations, 
 whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. xi. 10). 
 And more generally : " These all " (he has mentioned 
 Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Sarah) 
 " died in faith, not having received the promises, but 
 having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of 
 them, and embraced them, and confessed that they 
 were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they 
 that say such things declare plainly that they seek a 
 country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that 
 
302 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 country from whence they came out, they might have 
 had opportunity to have returned. But now they 
 desire a better country, that is, an heavenly : where- 
 fore God is not ashamed to be called their God : for 
 he hath prepared for them a city" (Heb. xi. 13-17). 
 We may say without hesitation that all holy men 
 under the Old Testament Dispensation shared in the 
 same expectations, and were lifted above the world by 
 the same bright hopes. As our Seventh Article says : 
 " They are not to be heard, which feign that the old 
 Fathers did look only for transitory promises." 
 
 35. CatecMst. — To begin with Abraham, whom you 
 mentioned first, and who lived before the earliest 
 Books of the Old Testament were composed. 
 Whence shall we suppose that he derived his 
 assurance of eternal life after death ? 
 
 Answer. — He can only have derived it with any cer- 
 tainty from some Divine communication, probably made 
 originally to our first parents in connexion with the 
 promise respecting the seed of the woman, and handed 
 down by tradition in the family of Seth. 
 
 36. Question. — Might not Abraham have augured from 
 the fact of the translation of Enoch, that some 
 bright and glorious future was in store for the true 
 children of God? 
 
 Answer. — Doubtless he might. But, as Enoch never 
 did die, but "was translated that he should not see 
 death" (Heb. xi. 5), his case would not be parallel 
 with that of the rest of mankind ; and from it alone 
 Abraham could hardly have augured that eternal life 
 after death would be his own portion, and that of other 
 pious and devout persons. Death seemed to extinguish 
 the existence of men. Why should it not be as it seemed ? 
 
 37. CatecMst. — In speaking of Abraham, we have been 
 
 speaking of a period before the Pentateuch was 
 composed. But even after written Scripture ap- 
 peared in the world, and Moses had pubhshed his 
 Five Books, was there any express revelation of 
 eternal life after death ? 
 
IX.] Catechism. 303 
 
 Ansiccr. — We seek in vain for any such explicit re- 
 velation in the Pentateuch. A future state may be 
 assuimd by the writer (and indeed it is hard to under- 
 stand how a system of religion can have any other 
 basis than the doctrine of a future state) ; it may be 
 darkly hinted ; but it certainly is not expressed. 
 
 38. a»es;n>7i.— What great theological writer of the 
 English Church makes this silence of the Law on 
 the° subject of a future state one premiss of his 
 argument ? 
 
 Answer. — Bishop Warburton, in his " Divine Lega- 
 tion of Moses." 
 
 39. Qiiesfion.— What is the argument by which War- 
 burton seeks to prove that Moses must have received 
 a Divine commission, and have been supported by 
 the exercise of supernatural power ? 
 
 Amwer. — Tlie argument is this : All other legislators, 
 in order to obtain influence over the people, have found 
 it necessary to appeal to an eternal recompence of virtue 
 and vice in a future state of existence : 
 
 Moses says nothing of this eternal recompence, and 
 yet exerted a greater influence than any other legislator: 
 
 Therefore, Moses must have had the support of the 
 supernatural power of God, and must have been really 
 commissioned by Him. 
 
 40. Catechist. — You have shown sufficiently that the 
 Old Testament requires a collateral interpretation, 
 in order to its being understood aright. But can 
 the same thing be said in any measure of the New 
 Testament ? 
 
 Answer. — The New Testament is no doubt a much 
 plainer and more explicit Revelation than the Old. 
 Things which were only hinted at and obscurely in- 
 sinuated in the earlier Volume are proclaimed on the 
 house-top in the later. More especially, as to the sub- 
 ject of which we have recently been speaking, life and 
 immortality, which before lay in shadow, are brought 
 to light by the Gospel. But still there are certain 
 points, and those not unimportant ones, in which the 
 
304 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 New Testament also needs a traditional comment, in 
 order to the right understanding of it. 
 
 41. Gatecliist. — Mention any such points which occur 
 to you. 
 
 Answer. — The observance of the Lord's Day is one 
 such point, and Infant Baptism another. 
 
 42. Catechist. — But surely the observance of the Lord's 
 Day is clearly prescribed by the Fourth Com- 
 mandment ? 
 
 Anstuer. — No. The principle of setting apart a cer- 
 tain proportion of our time for direct acts of Worship 
 is prescribed by the Fourth Commandment, But the 
 Fourth Commandment orders the observance, not of 
 the first, but of the seventh, day of the week. And 
 no Christian does observe the seventh day. 
 
 43. Question. — But are there not intimations in the 
 New Testament of a special sanctity attaching to 
 the first day of the week ? 
 
 Ansioer. — Doubtless there are ; but they are only 
 intimations, and all of them put together do not amount 
 to anything like a moral obligation. It would appear 
 that our Blessed Lord appeared to His disciples after 
 the Resurrection on the octave of Easter Day (that is, 
 the first Sunday after Easter). (See St. John xx. 26.) 
 From Acts xx. 7 we gather that on the first day of the 
 week it was the habit of the disciples at Troas to come 
 together " to break bread." From 1 Cor. xvi. 2 we 
 infer that on the first day of the week there was a respite 
 from the week's work, and a quiet period when its gains 
 might be computed. And in Rev. i. 10 we read that 
 St. John, the beloved disciple, "was in the Spirit," and 
 received the Apocalypse, "on the Lord's day." All 
 these passages have their weight in showing that the 
 earliest Christians regarded the first day of the week as 
 sacred. But there is not a line in Scripture which 
 goes to show that the first day ought to be substituted for 
 the seventh, or that the seventh need not be observed, 
 since the first has been appropriated to the purposes of 
 rest and worship. 
 
IX.] Catechism. 305 
 
 44. Question. — From what source then must this sub- 
 
 stitution, so uniformly acquiesced in by Christians, 
 
 have come? 
 Aiisiuer. — From a tradition of the Universal Church. 
 An instinct of the early believers taught them that the 
 day of the Resurrection of Christ deserved to be called 
 the queen of the days of the week, and that even the 
 old legal day of rest must not dispute with it the pre- 
 eminence. And this arrangement has come floating 
 down to our times in the current of tradition. 
 
 45. Catechist. — But you said that Infant Baptism is 
 another observance which we receive very mainly 
 on the tradition of the Church. How is this ? 
 
 Amwer. — Because the Baptism of Infants is never 
 literally prescribed in the New Testament ; nor is any 
 instance of it upon record there. 
 
 46. Question. — Is there anything to be said from Scrip- 
 
 ture in favour of baptizing Infants ? 
 Answer. — Yes, a very great deal ; but nothing 
 amounting to actual prescription. We may observe that 
 there are several whole households mentioned as re- 
 ceiving Baptism, among which it is improbable that 
 there should have been no children ; that St. Paul calls 
 the children of a believer holy (1 Cor. vii. 14), which 
 must at least indicate their meetness to receive I3aptism, 
 oven if it does not mean, as is supposed by some early 
 commentators, consecrated to God in Baptism by the 
 universal usage of the Church ; that the circumstance 
 of our Lord having blessed little children at so early 
 an age that they could be taken up in His arms (see St. 
 -Mark x. 16) shows that such children are capable of 
 receiving a spiritual blessing ; and above all, that under 
 the Old Testament dispensation children of eight days 
 old were admitted into covenant with God (see Gen. 
 xvii. 12, lo), and that if, under the new and better 
 dispensation, this was to be altered, the Apostles, who 
 had been reared in the idea of a covenant-relationship 
 subsisting between God and the youngest children, 
 would surely have warned us of the change, and called 
 U 
 
3o6 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 our attention to it. But all this falls short of a literal 
 command to baptize children, and of an example of 
 their being baptized in Apostolic times. 
 
 47. Question. — How then did the custom of baptizing 
 Infants establish itself so universally in the Church, 
 that no other custom was heard of in the early 
 ages? 
 Answer. — Because it was in accordance with the in- 
 terpretation which the early Church put upon the New 
 Testament, and which was carried down along the ages 
 in the current of tradition. 
 
 . — Will you now give a brief summary of 
 what it is sought to establish in the Chapter upon 
 which you are being examined ? 
 Answer. — That we cannot fully understand what we 
 read in the Scriptures " except some man should guide " 
 us into the true meaning of them, and that the appointed 
 guide is the Church, in her Creeds and Confessions of 
 Faith, in her Formularies of Devotion (which embody 
 a large amount of doctrinal teaching), and more par- 
 ticularly in certain traditional interpretations and 
 usages, which she hands down to us side by side with, 
 and as a commentary upon, the text of Scripture. 
 
 49. CatecM-st. — We have seen in what sense the Church 
 is " the pillar and ground of the truth." But is 
 there not also a sense in which the Truth (that is, 
 the Holy Scripture) is " the pillar and ground 
 of" the Church? 
 Ansiver. — Most assuredly there is. If Holy Scrip- 
 ture requires explanation from the Church, the Church 
 still more urgently requires explanation from Holy 
 Scripture. For, if it were asked what is the origin of 
 the Church, what is the warrant for the Church's 
 authority, nay, what the very meaning of the word 
 " Church " is, it would be utterly impossible to answer 
 these questions without referring at every step to Holy 
 Scripture. The Church's title-deeds, charter, and 
 claims, the whole explanation of what she is and of 
 what she professes to be and to do, is to be found in 
 
IX.] Catechism. 307 
 
 Scripture, and nowhere else. Cut away Scripture, and 
 you can no longer give any account of the Church's 
 existence and functions. 
 
 50. Qucfi(io7i. — "Will you then state with great brevity 
 the respective functions of Holy Scripture and of 
 the Church, as they have been exhibited in this 
 and the preceding Chapter ? 
 Ansivcr. — I will. The Church is the ordained teacher 
 of Truth ; and the Holy Scripture is the only criterion 
 of Truth, by which every doctrine of the Church must 
 be tried, and only accepted if found to be in con- 
 formity with it. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 OF THE PRAYER-BOOK AS A COMMENTARY 
 ON THE BIBLE. 
 
 " "^Therefore, br£th«n, stanb fast, anb holb the tntbittons 
 tohuh 2£ habe been taoflht, tohcthcr bg iaorb. ox am- 
 epistk."— 2 Thess. II. 15. 
 
 TN the last Chapter it was pointed out how the 
 volume of the Holy Scriptures has come into 
 arjje ncccBsitp our hands, not, as I ventured to express it, sur- 
 fromtoui- rouudcd by a vacuum, but floating in an atmos- 
 tnent ans phere of traditional sentiments and explanations. 
 forTftc^uYi' The proof of this was more largely developed in the 
 staniins case of the Old Testament than in that of the New. 
 tfie Ncto But it holds good almost equally of the later 
 rfstnmrnt. ^^j^j^-^g j^q^ ^^-^y Qj-^g -^tJ^q q^^ ^q gQ (^^nd it de- 
 mands some effort of mind) strip himself quite 
 bare in imagination of all such help towards the 
 understanding of the New Testament as is derived 
 from the sentiments, customs, and observances 
 which have actually obtained among Christians. 
 Let him suppose, for example, that he never had 
 intijfnfascncc been taught any Creed, never had been present 
 "ijc^rnqst tocu- at Divine Service, is not at all aware how impor- 
 m^n mffi tant texts of the New Testament are understood 
 ft"a£S by persons around him, — and he will surely see 
 mm vointa. ^^^^^ almost impossible it would be for him, even 
 
cii. X.] The Prayer- Book and the Bible. 309 
 
 ■with the very best intentions, to find out in what 
 sense a great number of things said in the New 
 Testament were to be taken, and how a great 
 number of things, there apparently prescribed, were 
 to be done. We will suppose his heart to have 
 been touched with the simple and beautiful mes- 
 sage of the Gospel, which he finds written with a 
 sunbeam on the pages of the New Testament, and 
 to be sincerely bent on carrying into effect the com- 
 mandments of Christ, as far as he knows them. 
 He will see that Christ founded a Church, to which saijai fjc 
 he and all men were to belong ; he will read much about th" 
 of the early history of this Church in the Acts of tfif ^cto " 
 the Apostles ; and he will find three Epistles of ^'«*^'"'"'- 
 the Apostle Paul addressed to men in the capacity 
 of Church rulers (or, as we should say, bishops), 
 and devoted almost entirely to the subject of 
 Church administration. But surely if he had had 
 no experience of the Church system, but were left 
 to frame a system for himself out of the notices 
 furnished by the New Testament, he would be 
 very much at a loss. He would feel a great blanlc 
 in liis mind as to how several instructions, given 
 by the Apostle in the Epistles to Timothy and 
 Titus, were to be carried into effect, and still more mtat \t 
 as to what was to be done on sundry points where Gnu" »)«?!— 
 there are no instructions. Are infants to be 
 baptized or not ? That, at all events, is a point a ucfinititjc 
 of very great interest and importance, on which on^t^^ubjrct 
 there seem to be no absolutely conclusive in- Baptism ;- 
 structions. Did our Lord intend the washing of 
 feet which He practised upon His disciples, and 
 might seem to have enjoined literally, when He 
 
3 1 Of the Prayer- Book 
 
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 stoob bg 
 Wit first" 
 CCfjristians. 
 
 Ecfermtc to 
 traditional 
 ruirs anti 
 obstrfaancts 
 in thf 
 
 <!FpigtleB of 
 St. Paul ; 
 
 in 2 3rf)css. 
 ii. 15 ; 
 
 13; 
 
 said, "I have given you an example, that ye 
 should do as I have done to you," to be a perpe- 
 tual observance in the Church; or did He merely 
 indicate the spirit of deep condescension and 
 Immility, which should animate His followers in 
 their deportment towards one another ? — I might 
 mention very many more instances, in which the 
 person supposed would wish for definite guidance ; 
 but let the above suffice. What our supposed in- 
 quirer would desiderate would be, to know how 
 the Christians who lived nearest to the Apostles 
 understood the instructions given by the Apostles, 
 — what were their customs, their observances, the 
 sense in which they understood many things which 
 the Apostles taught. It is clearly indicated in 
 St. Paul's Epistles that there were customs which 
 the Apostles themselves had set on foot, and 
 which they wished the Churches of their founda- 
 tion to hold fast by. Thus, for example, we 
 read in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, 
 "Brethren, stand fast, and," as if this were 
 a security, a great moral holdfast in times when 
 " strong delusion " was abroad, — " hold the tradi- 
 tions which ye have been taught, whether hy 
 word, or our epistle ;" — so that evidently there 
 were oral as well as written traditions, which 
 it behoved Christians to hold fast, one of them 
 possibly being the Creed or " form of sound 
 words " itself, which it appears from a passage of 
 St. Augustine was purposely not put into writing 
 in those early days, lest it might be used as a 
 ground of accusation against the Christians. From 
 the next Chapter, in which he speaks of brethren 
 
X.] a Comnicntary on the Bible. 3 1 1 
 
 in the Thessalonian Church Avalking disorderly, 
 and not after the tradition they had received from m 2 rhcss. 
 him, it woukl appear that one of these traditions 
 wliich he had delivered was of serious practical 
 import, being nothing less than that every Chris- 
 tian should work for his own liveliliood, and not 
 consider himself entitled to eat unless he did 
 work. — The First Epistle to the Corinthians fur- 
 nishes other instances of traditional instructions 
 coming down from the Apostles to the early 
 Church. We there find St. Paul giving a rule for 
 the conduct of a believer who happened to be 
 united in marriage to a party still a heathen, — a 
 rule which he makes imperative on all the 
 Churches of his foundation by the words, " and so mi cor. fait. 
 ordain I in all churches." Later, he commends ^^'^^' 
 the Corinthians for holding such observances as 
 they had received from him, from which it would 
 seem that there must have been a considerable 
 body of them. " Now, I praise you, brethren, 
 that ye remember me in all things, and keep the in 1 Cor. xt. 
 ordinances " (literally, the traditions), "as I ' 
 delivered them to you." He then proceeds to 
 issue a new " ordinance " or traditional observ- 
 ance, that men shall not appear covered, nor 
 women uncovered, in the public worship of 
 Almighty God. While he argues in favour of 
 tliis regulation, he insists that tliose who are not 
 convinced by his argument shall submit them- 
 selves to the universal custom, which had ob- 
 tained in the Church. " But if any man seem to 
 be contentious, we have no such custom, neither in t cor. li. 
 the churches of God." And at the end of this '^' 
 
.•;i2 
 
 Of the Prayer-Book as [chap. 
 
 nno m 
 xi.Sil. 
 
 JTJje being 
 poaseasEi 
 of tijeee 
 tratiitions 
 fajoult) 'at a 
 grrat f)elp to 
 tije rist)t 
 unUre- 
 BtanUing 
 of tfje Nefa 
 GTcstamcnt. 
 
 Sud) fenoto- 
 leOge can 
 onlg be 
 obtained bg 
 otOinarg 
 flTtristians 
 tijrouglj tf]C 
 Book of 
 crominon 
 ^ragcr. 
 
 Chapter, the remainder of which is occupied with 
 the subject of the administration of the Lord's 
 Supper, he refers to several points which needed 
 some authoritative arrangement from him, but 
 which might wait till the occasion of his next 
 visit to them. " And the rest will I set in order 
 when I come." 
 
 It is clear, then, that the New Testament itself 
 recognises certain traditional customs, observances, 
 and precepts as having been handed down by the 
 Apostles, not all of which, however, were embodied 
 in writing. And I think it would be felt by every 
 reverent and devout student, that the being accu- 
 rately possessed of these traditions, before by 
 lapse of time and unauthorized accretions they 
 had become corrupted, would be a great help to 
 the right understanding of the New Testament. 
 But how is it competent to an ordinary person, 
 with average education and intelligence, but with 
 very limited time at his command, and perhaps 
 very limited access to books, to gain any such 
 knowledge ? Such a task might well be the study 
 of a life, and would ask besides powers of research 
 and actual attainments in dead languages, which 
 fall to the lot of very few. How then may an 
 ordinary Christian attain to such a knowledge of 
 primitive apostolic traditions, as shall for him 
 bring out and illustrate the divine teaching of 
 the Holy Scriptures ? We English Churchmen 
 have a royal road to such an attainment. Our 
 Book of Common Prayer embodies and represents 
 for us aU these traditions, — is a brief but suffi- 
 cient digest of them. We have no desire unduly 
 
X.] a Commentary on the Bible. 313 
 
 to magnify this Book. Doubtless, as being the 
 composition and compilation of uninspired men, ©uaiiGca- 
 it has its weak points. But this is certain, that tooru^ntj"' 
 not only deep devotion, but profound theological [^Jg Book."^ 
 learning, — a thorough acquaintance with Holy 
 Scripture and the writings of primitive Christian 
 antiquity, — were called into exercise both in the 
 original draughts of the Prayer-Book and in its 
 subsequent revisions. And surely the result has 
 justified all the pains and all the ability bestowed 
 upon the work. It may be very much questioned 
 whether there is such another uninspired book sjEfjo <hf 
 in the world. For the Reformed Communions i3"ro"nbiu°3 
 have not in general adopted a liturgy, prefer- ""its'^ni)'. 
 ring to devolve the gTeat duty of public wor- 
 ship on the Minister exclusively, and to leave 
 him in the conduct of it to the guidance of 
 his own judgment, except so far as a general 
 plan or order of the worship is concerned. The 
 Eomanist boasts, no doubt, in his Missal and his 
 Breviary a great deal that is really ancient and 
 Catholic, but it is so laid over with modern and 
 unscriptural accretions, with traditions of a date 
 long subsequent to the Apostles, and with super- 
 stitions which wither in the full light of Scriptural 
 truth, that their Office Books have ceased to be 
 fair expositions of the way, in wliich the Church 
 of the first and purest age accepted the teaching 
 it had derived from the Apostles. In this state Dfformrt 
 the old Service Books were, when they fell into th"oii3°" ° 
 the hands of the English Eeformers — men of ripe cook" ojhcn 
 theological attainments, and who, while they saw tije'baniis""' 
 that much in these old Offices needed to be cut iufcrmcTB. 
 
314 0/ the Prayer- Book as [chap. 
 
 away with unsparing hand, saw also an under- 
 lying stratum of devotions which traced up to a 
 very early period, and which, since it might justly 
 be regarded as a precious heritage bequeathed to 
 the Church by the Apostles or their successors, it 
 would be a species of desecration to throw away. 
 So they set themselves to purify and simplify the 
 Offices of the Church, thereby not only rejecting 
 crests much which would not stand the tests they thought 
 
 Sr^^° right to apply, but also reducing the book to such 
 ?tE taTuabk a compass as to put it easily within the reach of 
 toS"i)*cB3. ^^- Their tests were two : first, Holy Scripture 
 itself, the universal touchstone and criterion for 
 distinguishing between the wheat and the chaff, 
 the true and the false. A true tradition, they 
 knew well, could never be at variance with Holy 
 
 1. ??oig Scripture. Accordingly, all prayers addressed to 
 
 ScriptuK. . ^ ... „ , ° "^ -^ /. , , , , 
 
 cijetie&otuins samts, all the false homage which had gathered 
 
 not stanS" ^ around relics, all references to the cleansing away 
 
 tbis test. ^^ g^^ ■j.^y purgatorial fire in another life, fell at 
 
 once, like so much rotten wood, beneath their 
 
 pruning-knife. Their second test was Primitive 
 
 2. yrimitibc Antiquity itself. So thoroughly were they con- 
 niquig. yjj-^(3g(^ ^]^g^^ ^j^Q teaching, manner of life, and tra- 
 
 (Ecrtaintstfjat ditions of the Apostles must have percolated 
 
 fi)cap"stiEs through, and found some expression for them- 
 
 tiprxsa itself sclvcs among the members of the Churches they 
 
 trasitionai founded, and that these traditions might often 
 
 cTurrtieV'' expand and explain what the written Scripture 
 
 ig^tljem. gives us Only in an obscure hint, that they sought 
 
 in the Fathers who lived nearest to the apostolic 
 
 times the counterfeit presentment of that Church, 
 
 which was "built upon the foundation of the 
 
X.] a Commentary on the Bible. 315 
 
 apostles and propliets," and endeavoured to con- 
 struct our Offices on that model. And the result 
 is (to use the language of the late Professor Blunt, 
 who has touched this subject with a master's hand), 
 that " the Prayer-Book is a book sui generis. We yrofrssor 
 have no other of the same kind, or like it ; it is pancsjoric on 
 not an author's, a publisher's, and a bookseller's cool""" 
 affair ; it is the voice of the ancient Church ex- 
 pressed upon the highest matters ; and so, not 
 improbably, that of the Founder of that Church ; 
 God's will, not in this instance only, but in almost 
 all instances, having to be sought out of them that 
 love Him, through some difficulty, obscurity, un- 
 certainty, and doubt." But whether or not men 
 agree with the high estimate of the Prayer-Book 
 expressed in this passage, I suppose it will not be iccctssitD of 
 denied that it gives a certain tone to the teaching that tbc 
 of Holy Scripture, which it professes to represent stfats a 
 and expound — surrounds that teaching with an [rtbcVoio 
 atmosphere of a certain description — throws it anTfnsfnu; 
 into a certain definite mould. No book of Offices butoVnt.^'" 
 could by possibility do otherwise. The spirit of 
 a man's theology expresses itself necessarily in 
 the prayers and praises which he employs, and 
 might be sufficiently gathered from the tenor of xo utboiionai 
 those prayers and praises. ^Moreover, the rites for^ribatt of 
 and ceremonies which a book of Offices must pre- nwrn'tf^j' 
 scribe, are not things indifferent. They express fcrforU^' 
 and convey doctrine, and win an entrance for it LbUabiD" 
 into the mind. Any directory for worship would Cttmc. 
 infallibly do this, whether its spirit was primitive 
 and truly Catholic, or the reverse ; and think not 
 that the saving truths of the Scripture could be 
 
3 1 6 ^f ^^^^ Prayer-Book as [chap. 
 
 apprehended at all, or apprehended in their true 
 
 significance, except through some such medium. 
 
 an atmos- The atmosphere, which wraps round the earth, is 
 
 fssentiai fo esscutial to the life and beauty of the forms which 
 
 ttelifcanli , _ "{ 
 
 teautjj of are seen on the earth. Earth and earthly crea- 
 
 rartfj; ' turcs have their being in this atmosphere. Ee- 
 
 move it, and the earth is made over to barrenness, 
 
 solitude, and death ; the landscape withers ; and 
 
 no more softening tints and hues are thrown over 
 
 it. But while an atmosphere is essential, it may 
 
 tobiif, in of course become noxious. It may be charged 
 
 tiitions"i)c with poisonous exhalations ; it may be obscured, 
 
 mfvht "^' and transmit the light of heaven with difficulty ; 
 
 icairratijEt it may be heavy and oppressive, and wanting in 
 
 transparency. And such was the condition of the 
 
 ecclesiastical atmosphere, which wrapped round the 
 
 volume of the Scriptures at the period before the 
 
 Koiiqus Eeformation. It was rendered heavy and oppres- 
 
 atmosptnrc sive by old and effete superstitions; it was ren- 
 
 farappcu dered opaque by a mass of unauthorized traditions, 
 
 scripturra at which hindered the blessed light of evangelical 
 
 JScformaiion. truth from Streaming through ; it was rendered 
 
 noxious by elements of anti-Scriptural practice 
 
 and doctrine which did actual spiritual miscliief 
 
 ©Hectoftfje So our Eeformers set themselves to work, not to 
 
 purifH i\)t dispense with an atmosphere altogether (as those 
 
 nottouis-' weU-meaning but unthinking people would do, 
 
 " "^ ' ' ' who plead for the Bible alone without note and 
 
 comment), but to purify the existing atmosphere, 
 
 to make it salubrious, quickening, transparent, 
 
 and transmissive of the true light. The result of 
 
 their labours is the Book of Common Prayer, 
 
 which we maintain to be a beautiful, pure, primi- 
 
X.] a Commentary on the Bible. 3 1 7 
 
 tive medium for the transmission of evangelical 
 truth, and of wliich the eminent author above 
 quoted says, in another passage of an admirable 
 sermon called " An Apology for the Prayer-Book ;" 
 " The book is to be regarded as a code of primi- 
 tive tradition, wliich helps to the full interpreta- 
 tion of the Bible, expressing what may be there ^Mt efac ftcips 
 hinted, enlarging what may be there succinct, ^raorr-eooft 
 illustrating what may be there obscure, concen- fuii inttt- 
 trating what may be there dispersed, organizing ttje Bible, 
 what may be there promiscuous." It may be, I 
 think, interesting and instructive to give brief 
 instances of the different ways here pointed out, 
 in which the Prayer-Book helps to the full inter- 
 pretation of the Bible. 
 
 \st, then. It eiyrcsses ichat is there hinted. The ist. Eiprcss- 
 question about the propriety of Infant Baptism, in It^c tintrt. 
 favour of which the Scripture gives the three 
 pregnant hints of Circumcision (whereby children (Question of 
 were admitted into Covenant with God at eight 0/ j^^nV^*" 
 days old) ; " Suffer little children to come unto fmcrt'bD tfic 
 me, and forbid them not," etc. ; and the instances ^n"b°"^°°'' 
 of several households being baptized, — is in the f^'^^una"" 
 Prayer-Book set at rest. The Baptism of Infants, ug^g?'"*" 
 and their speedy Baptism, without unnecessary 
 delay, is there definitively ordered. And the order 
 is in accordance with the most primitive apostolic 
 traditions. Justin Martyr, a heathen philosopher, 
 l)orn at Sichem, in Samaria, who became a convert 
 to Christianity in the earlier half of the second 
 century, and who might nearly have seen St. John, 
 writes as follows in his first Apology : — " Several 
 persons among us of sixty and seventy years old, of 
 
3 1 8 Of the Prayer-Book as [chap. 
 
 3usiii\'s both sexes, %oho were, made disciples of Christ from 
 «hf Baptism their childhood, do continue uncorrupted." Here 
 
 of ffiiltirni m . '^ 
 
 f)is Haps it appears quite incidentally, that several persons 
 existed in Justin's time who had been baptized as 
 children ; for the word translated " made disciples" 
 is the very same as that which our Lord uses in 
 St. Matthew's Gospel, when He bids the Apostles 
 " go and make disciples of all nations, by baptizing 
 them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost." Justin flourished about 
 the year a.d. 140 ; and therefore the persons of sixty 
 or seventy years old in his time, who had been 
 baptized as children, must have received Baptism 
 before the end of the first century, and therefore 
 
 makes it while St. John (at all events) was alive. Is it for a 
 
 almost certain • i i , , . ■■ ■, , 
 
 tJ)at tfje moment conceivable that this could have been the 
 
 practice must , i » ti i i . -, 
 
 ta&c ftan iht case, unless the Apostles generally had sanctioned 
 
 ttc apostles. Infant Baptism ? And is it conceivable that they 
 could have sanctioned it, if it had not been in 
 complete conformity with the mind of their Divine 
 Master, —possibly intimated by Him so to be in 
 the course of those great Forty Days between the 
 Eesurrection and Ascension, during which He 
 spake to them of " the things pertaining to the 
 kingdom of God "? 
 
 2. tirniarmng 2. Enlarfjiug ivhat may he there succinct. St. 
 
 succinft. ''"'^ John teaches in the Eevelation that aU Chris- 
 tians, not the clergy only, are priests: — "Unto 
 
 Oe priest- Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins 
 
 tiool] of trie . . 
 
 flrtjristian in His owii blood," — an allusion probably to the 
 
 ni5ct)'6o St. laver in the Tabernacle, in which the priests washed 
 
 their hands and feet before sacrificing — " and hath 
 
 made us kings and j^nc-sts." His colleague, St. 
 
X,] a Commentary on the Bible. 3 1 9 
 
 Peter, expands this designation, speaking of »t. J^ctn, 
 Christians as " an holy priesthood," designed " to 
 offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by- 
 Jesus Christ." And in a somewhat obscure 
 passage, to be adverted to more fully under 
 the next head, St. Paul speaks of one " occu- anti niso bo 
 pying the room of the unlearned" (strictly, of 
 the private, non-official, unprofessional person), 
 saying "Amen " at the close of a thanksgiving, as 
 if there were some definite part for a Christian 
 layman to play in the Church's worship. Now 
 the Prayer-Book beautifully developes and expands z^tzt 
 what is stated succinctly in these passages of the ripaHscTbu 
 New Testament. It gives to the Christian laity '^oof Jtoblcfj 
 a large share in the Services of the Church, thus f^^f^afto^a 
 recognising their priestly functions. Sometimes f,fti,Tsc?bkts 
 they are to say words after the Minister, as if soSS'S' 
 guided by him ; sometimes together tvith him, as J^cm to%m 
 if belonging to one and the same family ; often fiJ'SiSkr 
 they are to respond to him, not merely by the j,^ ^^^^mS 
 repetition of " Amen," but by distinct prayers and ^^'^uthns 
 suffrages of their own, intermixed with those -n^tS'^tir 
 which he is directed to offer. So that in our '"°"'''- 
 public worship there is "a room" and sphere 
 marked out for the unprofessional private person 
 (or Christian layman), which he is entitled to 
 "occupy." And I should add that this is the 
 case in all the ancient Liturgies, the use of which 
 may be traced back to a period h iig antecedent 
 to the putting forth of any Papal claims. All 
 give the people a very material part in the Office 
 of the Holy Communion,— a circumstance wonder- 
 fully illustrating the slight hint given by St. Paul 
 
320 Of the Prayer-Book as [chap. 
 
 (Tfieiiflbt where he speaks of "the cup of blessing which 
 an incifiS WE blcss ;" " the bread which we break," as if all 
 sf/iauiV the congregation, no less than the Minister, had 
 tf)c facHbal their share and function in the blessing and the 
 lEitursks'^''"* breaking. It is obvious that among Christian 
 ?o1^£"p«pif ' bodies which provide no form of prayer for public 
 ira^o "nf worship, there can be no " room " for the layman 
 ffoSnion. ^0 " occupy," bcyond the mere expression of 
 
 assent by the final Aitun. 
 3. mtustrat- 3. Illustrating what may he there obscure. 
 ttcrc obscure. The tcxt about the final Amen is by no means 
 a clear one, as it stands in the original, though the 
 difficulty of it is considerably aggravated to a 
 reader of the English version only. St. Paul is 
 arguing against the use of an unknown tongue in 
 (©bscuriig public worship, and his words are ; " Else " (that is, 
 about ttc if thou shalt use an unknown tongue when officiat- 
 ti)g^^ins of ing in the congregation) " when thou shalt bless 
 ttanfts ^-^1^ ^l^g spirit " (pronounce the words of blessing 
 in a devotional rapture, but in language unintel- 
 ligible to any but thyself) "how shall he that 
 occupieth the room of the unlearned " (the Chris- 
 tian layman) " say the Amen at thy giving of 
 thanks ?" (literally, at thy " Eucharist," for such is 
 the sound, as well as the sense, of the word in the 
 cicarrt up bu original). All difficulty is immediately removed 
 account of a from this passage by referring to the account given 
 cfktMration. by Justin of primitive celebrations of the Lord's 
 Supper. He makes mention of the Church's 
 meeting at the same place, on the day called 
 the day of the Sun, and of the writings of the 
 Apostles and Prophets being read, and of a 
 sermon from the president of the assembly, which 
 
X.] a Connncntary on the Bible. 321 
 
 followed this reading, and of prayers for all 
 
 conditions of men, — " after which bread and a cup 
 
 " of wine and water are brought to the Presi- 
 
 " dent of the brethren, M'hich he takes, and offers 
 
 " up praise and glory to the Father of all things, 
 
 " through the name of His Son and of the Holy jpanicuiara 
 
 " Spirit ; and this thanksgiving to God for deeming account. 
 
 " us worthy of His gifts is a prayer of more than 
 
 " ordinary length. When the president has finished 
 
 " the prayers and the tlianksgiving service, all the 
 
 " people present signify their assent with an audible 
 
 " voice, saying. Amen. Now Amen in the Hebrew 
 
 " tongue means, ' So be it.' " And again, further 
 
 on : " After prayers, bread and wine and water are 
 
 offered, and the president, as I said before, sends 
 
 up prayers and thanksgivings with all the fervour 
 
 he is able, and the people conclude all with the 
 
 joyful acclamation ofAmeri; then the consecrated 
 
 elements are distributed to, and partaken of by, 
 
 each person that is present." And he adds, " This 
 
 food is called among us the Eucharist." I need 'aFucimnsf 
 
 hardly remark how very near the Eucharistic namf"to' ' 
 
 Service of our Prayer-Book comes to Justin's soiV 
 
 description, in which we have the Epistle and 
 
 Gospel, the Sermon, the Oblation of the Bread and riif orun- of 
 
 Wine, the Prayer for the Church j\Iilitant (which miimon 
 
 is certainly a prayer for all conditions of men), similar to"" 
 
 and the Prayer of Consecration (still, as in those is ucacTibta 
 
 days, a prayer of more than ordinary length), with "^ '"^"" 
 
 its concluding Amen, and immediately afterwards 
 
 the distribution of the elements. Here, then, is 
 
 an instance in which an obscure passage of the 
 
 New Testament derives full illustration from a 
 
32 2 Of the Praycr-Book as [chap. 
 
 surviving description of the Eucharistic rite, as 
 celebrated in the middle of the second century, 
 the leading features of which description are all 
 reproduced in our own Office. 
 bating tohat "^^ Concentrating what may he there dispersed. 
 istbfri- I cannot give a better instance of this than 
 the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, a doctrine of 
 supreme importance, as set forth in the Creeds 
 and formularies of our Church. In Holy Scrip- 
 ture that doctrine lies about in scattered frag- 
 riic tioctrine mcuts, but is ucvcr reduced to method or stated 
 jTrinito " Systematically. In one place we find Christ 
 sfbfrai places addressing His Father in prayer, showing that 
 scrip°urf. He and the Father are distinct persons ; in an- 
 (Ehurcbftas othcr distinctly declaring, "I and My Father are 
 onctois." " one," showing the unity between these Persons ; 
 in a third, promising to send the Holy Spirit, 
 thus establishing another distinction of personality 
 in the Godhead. These and many similar notices 
 of Holy Scripture are pieced together and brought 
 into one view in the doctrine of the Trinity, as it 
 is stated in our Confessions of Faith and Articles ; 
 and those who wish to see how each separate 
 position, which goes to make up the great doctrine, 
 is by itself provable from Holy Writ, have only 
 to refer to the very compendious tractate of Jones 
 of Nayland on the subject. 
 5. ©rgnnii- 5. Finally, Organizing lohat may he there promis- 
 thmpni'^ cuous. Take the Ordinal as an example, which is 
 prefaced thus : — " It is evident unto all men dili- 
 gently reading the holy Scripture and ancient 
 Authors, that from the Apostles' time there have 
 been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church ; 
 Bishops, Priests, and Deacons." 
 
 iiusruoiis. 
 
X.] a Commentary on the Bible. 323 
 
 Yes ! it is evident to persons reading the Scrip- 5:1,^ teat,-, 
 tures in the light of " ancient Authors ;" for at a l"a''natnt 
 very early period of the Church's histoiy we find Jhernafmlt 
 the threefold Ministry germinating and taking J^f^^^'" 
 shape. Then, looking into the volume of the 
 New Testament, we find what is there introduced 
 incidentally and promiscuously reduced to method. 
 Putting aside terminology (for we look to things 
 rather than to names), we find Timothy and Titus cbc 
 set over the elders (or presbyters) of the Church SananTfor 
 in their respective provinces, with a charge to ^t'^aouglit m 
 censure them, if need were — to reward them, if connaions. 
 their services deserved it. Then we have the Sfnapirtu 
 earlier notice in the Acts of an institution of a ^ "'"'"'• 
 subordinate class of Ministers for th^ lower and 
 more secular functions of the Church, and a 
 reference in the Epistles to some such subordinate 
 class, under the name of " Deacons." And going 
 back still further to our Lord's own lifetime, we 
 find Him sending forth, not only twelve Apostles, 
 but also seventy Disciples, whose mission and 
 powers very much resembled those of the 
 Apostles. The Prayer-Book throws these notices 
 into shape for us. We find little more than the 
 scattered germs of the threefold Ministry in the 
 Scripture ; but in the system of the Church, which 
 is or should be a living illustration and exemplifi- 
 cation of Scripture, these germs are collected and 
 developed, — "the promiscuous is organized." 
 
 And now the task, which I have in this work 
 proposed to myself, approaches its completion. I 
 know not what better concludim: advice to draw 
 
324 Of the Prayer- Book as [chap. 
 
 from a summary retrospect of it than that, in these 
 days of fermenting thought and diverging opinion, 
 my readers should take the Holy Scriptures, as in- 
 terpreted by the Book of Common Prayer, for their 
 The practical guidc in controverted points, on the ground that 
 floto^frnm^'' the latter book is really the voice of the Primitive 
 l,cn °of tt"" Church, fulfiUing her function of a pillar of the 
 toboicaufijtct. ^^Qyy^ ^jj(j Qf |]j.g^ guiding into the meaning of 
 God's truth, and illustrating it. I would say, 
 with all the earnestness which such a counsel 
 demands ; — " If the Bible approves itself to you 
 as the Word of God by the strange unearthly 
 force with which it appeals to your conscience, 
 and the deep chords which it strikes in your 
 qpft an cnu of affcctions ; .and if it has been at all satisfactorily 
 ff°soug^})"iia proved to your reason that the Book of Common 
 taSfr^-lso'o'k Prayer does, on the whole, represent with great 
 p^ftaiian of fidelity that guidance of the Church, which God 
 tbe JSibif. ^,^2 jjqI^ have any of us ignore or dispense with, 
 then let this be to you an end of controversy on 
 all controverted points ; and, leaving endless ques- 
 tions, and the strifes which they gender, abandon 
 yourselves to the far more safe and salutary work 
 of quietly growing in grace and in the knowledge 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You are 
 Cucstiona, quite sufficiently secured against serious contro- 
 ^•ap'tancE versial and doctrinal mistakes by holding fast to 
 a?«Jt.''mai the teaching of Bible and Prayer-Book ; any reli- 
 opcn^fo^/tbc' gious questions, which Bible and Prayer-Book 
 present. \^Q^ leave open, may safely be left open till we 
 arrive at that better state, when we shall know 
 Dcsirabitncas cvcu as also WO are known. Too apt are we, far 
 CoiUromBfi. too apt, to take up with controversial subjects, as 
 
X.] a Commentaiy on the Bible. 325 
 
 affording an easy escape from those great prac- 
 tical and personal questions which are our only 
 real concern, and as furnishing to our own con- 
 sciences some sort of evidence of an interest in nanflrr of 
 religion. ' Settle the controversy between us and off"bqarra" 
 the Jews as to the right place of worship,' said [ont'rVb'ABiai 
 the Samaritan woman to the Saviour, flinching a,°6"'p?"tu''car' 
 from the probe which those words of His omni- ?Xr'w6 *' 
 science had applied to her conscience; ' Thou |',°t'Sj7man "^ 
 hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now "^ *=""^'^''''- 
 hast is not thy husband.' How marvellously 
 true to nature ! The personal and really momen- 
 tous is evaded, shunned, put aside for a more 
 convenient season ; the conscience shall take up 
 with inquiries about something more on the sur- 
 face of the field of theology; and interest ahout 
 religion is substituted for interest in it. ' Sir, I 
 perceive that you are a minister; tell me — not how 
 I shall love the Lord more sincerely, or follow 
 Him more faithfully, or prize at a higher rate His 
 inappreciable and glorious salvation ; but whether 
 the priest should stand, in celebrating the Com- 
 munion, looking due south or due east, or neither, 
 perhaps, but south-east, and whether tlie preacher 
 should appear in a black robe or a white one.' 
 Without at all wishing to depreciate reverence in 
 small things, or to put out of sight our Lord's 
 solemn warning that ' he that is faithful in that 
 which is least is faithful also in much,' I still 
 must take the liberty to think that these, and the 
 like of these, are not the questions which should 
 be allowed to occupy much of our time and 
 thoughts. Many of us are far past the prime of 
 
326 
 
 Catechism. 
 
 [CHAr. 
 
 life ; and those who are not cannot count with 
 any certainty on having much time to spare as 
 regards the work of their salvation. Let us put 
 away our controversies (specially as we have a 
 ready means of solving all the really momentous 
 ones), and address ourselves to the work of living 
 nearer to God. We have minds that crave for 
 light; hearts that hunger for love and for solid 
 satisfying good; and there is in Christ's Gospel 
 abundant provision both for mind and heart. Be 
 it ours to endeavour to turn this provision to 
 account, and to study day by day how we may 
 be 'rooted and grounded in love/ and ' be able to 
 comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, 
 and length, and depth, and height; and to know 
 the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ' 
 we may ' be filled with all the fulness of God.' " 
 
 dTabfhism on Clha^j. <£. 
 
 1. Question. — Upon what are we all dependent for an 
 
 understanding of many points contained in the 
 
 New Testament? 
 Answer. — Upon traditional explanations, which have 
 come down to us side by side with the text of Holy 
 Scripture. 
 
 2. Question. — What is the best mode of bringing home 
 
 to ourselves our need of these explanations ? 
 Ansiver. — To imagine ourselves entirely destitute of 
 all such help. 
 
 3. Question. — What sort of particulars should we have 
 
 to imagine, in order to put ourselves in the 
 required position ? 
 
X.] Catechism. 327 
 
 Answer. — We should have to suppose that we had 
 never learned a Creed or Confession of Faith ; that we 
 had never attended a Christian Service ; that we were 
 utterly ignorant how persons around us understood the 
 doctrines and precepts given by Christ and His Apostles, 
 and how they attempted to put them in practice. 
 
 4. Question. — Are there not then sufficient materials in 
 
 the New Testament itself for forming a judgment 
 on all matters connected with the Church ? 
 A7iswer. — The New Testament would by itself teach 
 us that Christ founded a Church, and called all men 
 into it. It would also give us all necessary instruction 
 on the Sacraments of the Church. It also records the 
 history of the Church in its earliest period, and the 
 progress which it made under the preaching of St. Paul, 
 until the Gospel was planted in the Metropolis of the 
 heathen world. And moreover we find in it Epistles 
 addressed by that Apostle to rulers (or bishops) of the 
 Church in their official capacity, directing them in many 
 particulars of their administration, and giving an insight 
 into the internal condition of the Churches over which 
 they presided. That these instructions would form in 
 our mind a sufficient idea of what those Churches were, 
 and of what the Apostle would have all Churches to be, 
 must be admitted. But there are many points (and 
 some of no small importance), on which we should be 
 still quite at a loss, if left to iframe a system of Church 
 administration for ourselves out of the New Testament, 
 without any help whatever from traditional comments, 
 sentiments, and usages. 
 
 5. Question. — Will you mention any such points which 
 
 occur to you ? 
 Aiiswer. — Although, as I have showed in a previous 
 examination (p. 305), we might reasonably gather from 
 the Scriptures that infants should be admitted into the 
 Church by Baptism, and although the whole of the Scrip- 
 tural evidence leans in this direction, yet on observing 
 that penitence and faith are made by the Apostles and 
 their companions qualifications for this Sacrament, 
 
328 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 (" Repmt, and be baptized every one of you in the 
 name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" (Acts 
 ii. 38) ; " T/ thou helievest with all thine hearty thou 
 mayest " [be baptized] (Acts viii. 37) ; ) and that our 
 Lord Himself places the preaching of the Gospel and 
 the believing of it before Baptism, ("Go ye into all the 
 world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He 
 that helieveth and is baptized shall be saved " (St. Mark 
 xvi. 15, 16)) ; a doubt might reasonably arise as to the 
 propriety of administering the Rite to those who can 
 neither hear the Gospel, nor exercise repentance and 
 faith. But when we find that the Christians of the 
 earliest ages baptized the infant children of believers, 
 and that this practice was universally accepted and 
 adopted without question down to a very late period of 
 the Church's history, this traditional usage settles a 
 point which might be otherwise considered doubtful. 
 If Christians of the earliest ages understood the Bap- 
 tismal precept in such a manner that it embraced 
 infants, it must have been the mind of Christ's Apostles, 
 and therefore of Christ, that they should be baptized. 
 
 6. Catechist. — Give any other instance of a question 
 
 which must receive its settlement from something 
 
 outside the New Testament itself. 
 Ansiver. — The account of the foot-washing, which 
 Christ not only practised but prescribed on the night 
 of the Last Supper, might raise such a question. It 
 might reasonably be thought that He meant it to be a 
 perpetual observance or Ordinance of the Church (like 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper), if it were not that the 
 Church has never so accepted His words ; " If I then, 
 your Lord and Master, have washed your feet ; ye also 
 ought to ivash one another's feet. For I have given you 
 an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. 
 Verily, verily, I say unto you. The servant is not 
 greater than his lord ; neither he that is sent greater 
 than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy 
 are ye if ye do them " (St. John xiii. 14, 15, 16, 17). 
 
 7. Catechist. — You say that the Church has never so 
 
X.] Catechisjii. 3?9 
 
 accepted the words. But has not our Lord's 
 
 action received a literal imitation in certain parts 
 
 of the Church ? 
 
 Answer. — No doubt it has. The Pope on Maunday- 
 
 Thursday still washes the feet of pilgrims in imitation 
 
 of our Lord's action. And the sovereigns of England 
 
 have done the same, even since the Reformation. And 
 
 it was customary in many monasteries of old for the 
 
 abbot to wash the feet of the brethren. But the 
 
 Church has never accepted this precept of Christ as 
 
 prescribing an Ordinance or perpetual observance, 
 
 though it has been customary among some great ones 
 
 of the earth to copy literally our Lord's example. 
 
 8. Cateohist. — You have given instances of questions, 
 
 which a thoughtful perusal of the New Testament 
 might raise in the mind, but to which it would 
 furnish no answer. What knowledge, if we could 
 obtain it, would set at rest such questions ? 
 Ansioer. — The knowledge how the primitive Chris- 
 tians understood the instructions given them by the 
 Apostles, and what were the usages and observances, 
 which had sprung up among them during the lifetime, 
 and under the government, of the Apostles. 
 
 9. Question. — How do you know that there were un- 
 
 written traditions, both of doctrine and practice, 
 
 in the Apostolic Church ? 
 Ansiver. — Because we read of such traditions in St. 
 Paul's Epistles. In 2 Thess. ii. 15 he thus exhorts 
 his Thessalonian converts ; " Therefore, brethren, stand 
 fast, and hold the traditions lohich ye have been taught, 
 xvhethcr by word, or our epistle." 
 
 10. Question. — Why were the traditions here referred 
 
 to in all probability doctrinal ? 
 Ansiver. — Because the Apostle had been speaking 
 in the earlier part of the Chapter about " that man of 
 sin," "that Wicked" one, "whose coming is after the 
 working of Satan with all power and signs and lying 
 wonders, and all deceivableness of unrighteousness in 
 them that perish ; because they received not the love of 
 
330 Catechism. [cHAr. 
 
 the truth ^ that they might be saved. And for this cause 
 God shall send them strong delusion^ that they should 
 believe a lie : that they all might be damned who 
 believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unright- 
 eousness" (1 Thess. ii. 3, 8, 9 — 13). He is putting 
 them on their guard then against doctrinal error, since 
 he speaks of "strong delusion," "believing a lie," 
 " not believing the truth," and so forth. And there- 
 fore probably the traditions, which he exhorts them to 
 cling to as a moral hold-fast, were doctrinal, — very pos- 
 sibly the Creed itself, or a summary of the chief things 
 to be believed. 
 
 1 1 . Qtcestion. — Can you give any instance of a tradi- 
 tion of practice ? 
 Anstver. — Such a tradition is referred to in the Chap- 
 ter following that which has just been quoted (2 Thess. 
 iii. 6); "Now we command you, brethren, in the name 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves 
 from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not 
 after the tradition which he received of us." And 
 he then goes on to say that he had set them an exam- 
 ple of working for his maintenance, though he had a 
 right, if he chose, to demand a maintenance from them : 
 and that he hoped they would follow his example, 
 seconded as it was by his express precept; " For even 
 when we were with you, this we commanded you, that 
 if any would not work, neither should he eat" (2 Thess. 
 iii. 10). The tradition referred to, therefore, was 
 probably a precept to the effect that no member of the 
 Christian Community should be without an occupation, 
 by which to earn his bread. 
 
 12. Question. — What other references are there in St. 
 
 Paul's Epistles, to traditions which he had delivered 
 
 to the Churches founded by him ? 
 Ansioer. — There is one of considerable importance 
 in 1 Cor. xi. 2, which has been much obscured by our 
 translators having rendered the word, which really 
 means " traditions," " ordinances." "Now I praise you, 
 brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep 
 
X.] Catechism. 331 
 
 the ordinances," (in the margin you have traditions, as 
 an alternative rendering), " as I delivered them to you" 
 (1 Cor. xi. 2). 
 
 13. Question. — What do you gather from the fact that 
 he speaks of "the traditions" in the plural 
 number, and with the definite article ? 
 
 Ansicer. — That there was a considerable body of 
 these traditional rules and usages, and that they were 
 generally known and recognised by members of the 
 Church. 
 
 14. Question. — What new " ordinance," or traditional 
 usage, does he then proceed to prescribe ? 
 
 Answer. — That the men should appear uncovered, 
 and the women covered, in the Public Worship of God. 
 
 15. Question. — Does he give reasons for this usage? 
 Answer. — He does ; some of which are drawn from 
 
 the original relation of the woman to the man, as set 
 forth in the Book of Genesis (compare 1 Cor. xi. 7, 8, 
 with Gen. i. 26, 27 ; ii. 21, 22 ; and ii. 18), others 
 from a natural sense of propriety (" Judge in yourselves: 
 is it comely," etc. ? " Doth not even nature itself teach 
 you," etc.? see vv. 13, 14). But it is very noticeable 
 that he concludes by saying that, if any man is not 
 convinced by his arguments of the propriety of the 
 usage in question, at aU events it is one which 
 obtained in the Church of Corinth and in all other 
 Churches. " But if any man seem to be contentious, 
 we have no such custom, neither the churches of God " 
 (1 Cor. xi. 16). 
 
 16. Question. — What does this language show? 
 Answer. — First, that there were traditional "cus- 
 toms " in the primitive Churches, sanctioned and set 
 on foot by their Apostolic founders ; and secondly, 
 that these " customs " were binding on every right- 
 minded Christian, even if they did not coincide with 
 his own judgment. 
 
 17. Qtiestion. — What other glimpse have you, at the 
 
 close of the Chapter you ai'e referring to, of tra- 
 
S3~ Catechism. [chap. 
 
 ditional usages authorized by the Apostles in 
 the Churches which they founded ? 
 Answer.- — The Chapter ends thus ; "And the rest 
 will I set in order when I come" (ver. 34) ; — words which 
 might be paraphrased, "I reserve, as more suitable to 
 be communicated by word of mouth than by letter, my 
 judgment on the other points submitted to me." 
 
 18. Question. — What does this manner of speaking 
 
 show? 
 Ansroer. — That certain ecclesiastical arrangements 
 in the Church of Corinth were communicated orally, 
 and not by letter, to the Church. 
 
 19. Question. — Would not the knowledge of such 
 ecclesiastical usages as really had Apostolic 
 authority, greatly help to the right understanding 
 of the Scriptures of the New Testament ? 
 
 Anstoer. — Doubtless it would ; but to attain such 
 knowledge with any accuracy would demand long and 
 laborious study, as well as a competent acquaintance 
 with dead languages, which would put it out of the 
 reach of ordinary Christians. 
 
 20. Question. — How then may ordinary Christians 
 attain to such a knowledge of primitive Apostolic 
 traditions, as may for them illustrate and bring 
 out the meaning of the New Testament ? 
 
 Anstoer. — The Book of Common Prayer embodies 
 and represents these traditions, and is a sort of digest 
 of them. 
 
 21. Question. — Were the persons who framed the Book 
 
 of Common Prayer qualified to impress upon it 
 this character ? 
 Answer. — They were. For not only were they men 
 of deep piety, whose minds were thoroughly attuned 
 to the strains of devotion which were found in the old 
 Service Books; but they were also profound theological 
 scholars, thoroughly versed in Holy Scripture and in 
 the writings of the early Fathers. 
 
X.] Catechism. 
 
 jjj 
 
 22. Question. — Upon what material had these learned 
 and devout men to work, in constructing the Book 
 
 • of Common l*rayer ? 
 
 Answer. — The Ancient Offices of the Church, which 
 in course of time had expanded into large dimensions, 
 and become separate Volumes, — the Missal, the Bre- 
 viary, the Ritual, the Pontifical, — were in their pos- 
 session, and formed the foundation of their work. 
 
 23. Question. — What had they to do with this found- 
 
 ation in the first instance ? 
 Ansivcr. — To clear it with a stern hand of all the 
 superstitious usages, modern traditions, and unscrip- 
 tural forms, which had gathered over it in the course of 
 ages, and to exhibit it, as far as might be, in the very 
 shape and dimensions in which it came from the hands 
 of the Apostles, and their immediate successors. 
 
 24. Question. — In this work of clearance, and recur- 
 
 rence to the old lines on which the Primitive 
 Church had been traced, what tests did they 
 employ in order to discriminate the wheat from 
 the chaff" ? 
 Answer. — The first test was the Holy Scripture. A 
 true Apostolic tradition could not be at variance with 
 the writings of the Apostles. If then a tradition, pro- 
 fessing to be primitive and Apo.stolic, was not in unison 
 with the New Testament, it was at once discarded. 
 
 25. Question. — What parts of the old Church Offices 
 would not abide this test, and had to be ruthlessly 
 swept away ? 
 
 Answer. — All references to Purgatory (a doctrine 
 " grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather 
 repugnant to " .such passages as Rev. xiv. 13, St. Luke 
 xxiii. 43) ; all Worshipping and Adoration of Reliques 
 (repugnant to 2 Kings xviii. 4, and Deut. xxxiv. G, with 
 Jude 9) ; all invocation of Saints (repugnant to 1 
 Tim. ii. 5, Hcb. vii. 25, St. John xiv. 6) ; all refer- 
 ences to human merit (or to anything save the Blood 
 of Christ) as having expiatory power (repugnant to 
 
334 Catechism, [chap. 
 
 Ps. xlix. 7, Isaiah Ixiv. 6, Job iv. 18, Phil. iii. 9). 
 (See Art. xxii.) 
 
 26. Question. — What was the second test which the 
 Reformers applied to the old Offices of the 
 Church? 
 
 Ans^ver. — The test of Primitive Antiquity and the 
 Early Fathers. 
 
 27. Question. — Upon what principle did they employ 
 this test, in order to determine what portion of 
 the old Offices should be discarded, and what re- 
 tained ? 
 
 Ansiver.—On the 'principle that the ecclesiastical ar- 
 rangements made by the Apostles, the rules which they 
 established, and the customs which they set on foot, 
 must have been observed in the Churches which they 
 founded for a certain time after their foundation, and 
 that such rules and customs, if ascertained out of 
 ancient writers, could not fail to throw light upon the 
 inspired writings of the Apostles and their associates. 
 
 Catecldst. — But you speak as if God's will (at all 
 events on questions of Church discipline and 
 Church organization) has to be ascertained by us 
 with some effort out of ancient documents in a 
 dead language, and is not in all cases patent, lying 
 on the surface of His written "Word. Is this in 
 conformity with God's usual dealings with His 
 Church ? 
 Answer. — It is. The great principles of human 
 conduct are written as with a sunbeam on the 
 pages of Holy Scripture, so that the blindest can- 
 not fail to see them there. But by allowing some 
 obscurity and doubt to hang over the right path in 
 particulars of conduct, God exercises the spiritual 
 instincts of His people, and makes their arriving at a 
 right conclusion a trial of character. This is intimated 
 in Phil. i. 9, 10, " And this I pray, that your love 
 may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in 
 all j\idgment ; that ye may ajyprove things that are 
 excellent," (in the margin, ^ry the things that differ) ; 
 
X.] Catcchisiu, 335 
 
 " that ye may be sincere and without offence till the 
 day of Christ." There can be no room for an exercise 
 of "knowledge" and "judgment," where the pathway 
 of God's will is so clear and plain that it cannot pos- 
 sibly be mistaken. 
 
 29. Catechist. — You have described the principles on 
 
 which the Prayer-Book was compiled. When 
 offered to us side by side with the Bible, and 
 perused together with it, what character does it 
 assume ? 
 Ansiver. — It becomes a medium, through which 
 Bible Truth is viewed, recognised, and accepted. 
 
 30. Question. — Must any book of devotion inevitably 
 become such a medium ? 
 
 Answer. — It must. The listening to the extempor- 
 aneous private prayers of an individual will show at 
 once what view he takes of Bible Truth ; his prayers 
 (if really extemporaneous) will be his private commen- 
 tary upon the Bible, will let us see how the truths of 
 the Bible present themselves to his mind. The Book 
 of Common Prayer is not the devotional effusion of an 
 individual mind, but of the mind of the Primitive 
 Church. And it lets us see how the Bible presented 
 itself to the Primitive Church, — what sense the Church, 
 when still under the supervision of the Apostles, put 
 upon the Bible. 
 
 31. Question. — Would it be impossible to compile a 
 Book of Prayers without expressing and con- 
 veying doctrine ? 
 
 Ansiver. — Manifestly so. The drawing up a prayer 
 at all (with the intention of using it) must imply that 
 the person who draws it up believes that God is a God 
 that heareth prayer, " a rewarder of them that dili- 
 gently seek him " (Heb. xi. 6). 
 
 32. Catechist.— But the idea of a medium, through 
 which we look at Holy Scripture, is not altogether 
 palatable to me. I should like to read it quite 
 colourless, without a medium. Would it not be 
 better to let the Bible speak absolutely for itself, 
 
336 Catechism. [chap, 
 
 and to read it without any explanations but such 
 
 as are suggested by our own minds ? 
 Answer. — Thus we come back to the idea of reading 
 the Bible "without note or comment," which in a 
 former examination was shown to be (to the full extent) 
 impracticable. A mother's teaching gives the Bible 
 a certain colour, — is a medium, through which her child 
 is obliged to look at it. Much more so is a preacher's 
 sermon, a religious work, a book of devotions (to what- 
 ever school it may belong). And even if we could 
 (which we cannot) make ourselves thoroughly inde- 
 pendent of all human comments in studying the Bible, 
 it is in the highest degree unlikely that we should 
 arrive at the true sense of Holy Scripture. 
 
 33. Question. — To what may you compare the various 
 interpretations of Scripture, which have come down 
 to us in the current of tradition ? 
 
 Ansiuer. — To an atmosphere which wraps round the 
 Sacred Volume. 
 
 34. Catechist. — Show the propriety of this image. 
 Answer. — Whatever may be the case with other 
 
 planets, an atmosphere is essential to the whole economy 
 of animal and vegetable life in this. All the animal 
 tribes live, and move, and have their being in this at- 
 mosphere,— are so constructed as to be every moment 
 dependent upon it. Vegetables too live by the air, and 
 by what they imbibe from it. Remove the atmosphere, 
 and the earth would become a scene of barrenness and 
 death. Similarly, if you were to strip the Bible quite 
 bare of the traditional explanation which has always 
 accompanied it, you would remove the very element 
 which vitalizes the Bible, and makes it such a blessed 
 and comfortable book. If the " seed of the woman " 
 may not be interpreted of Christ; nor Noah, nor Isaac, 
 nor Joseph, nor David, nor Solomon, taken as types of 
 Christ ; nor such Psalms as the twenty-fourth understood 
 of Christ's ascension (and all these are traditional ex- 
 planations, never explicitly given, though some of them 
 insinuated, in Scripture itself), how comparatively 
 
X.] CatecJdsm. 337 
 
 barren and profitless docs the volume of the Old Testa- 
 ment become ! 
 35. Catechist.— Yon speak of an atmosphere as being 
 
 essential to life. But may not an atmosphere be 
 
 vitiated ? 
 ^„s,t,er.— Certainly it may. It may be charged 
 with noxious vapours, with infectious maladies ; it may 
 be heavy and oppressive, and exclude (instead of 
 transmitting) the light. 
 oG. Question.— And has this never been the case with 
 
 the atmosphere of traditional sentiment and usage 
 
 which encompasses the Bible ? 
 Answer. — Notoriously it has. This atmosphere, at 
 the time of the Reformation, was "rendered heavy 
 and oppressive by old and effete superstitions ; it was 
 rendered opaque by a mass of unauthorized traditions, 
 which hindered the blessed light of evangelical Truth 
 from streaming through ; it was rendered noxious by 
 elements of anti- Scriptural practice and doctrine, which 
 did actual spiritual mischief." 
 
 37. Question. — What then had the Reformers to do 
 for the atmosphere ? 
 
 Answer. — Not to dispense with, but to clear and 
 purify it. They took away the superstitious usages, 
 discarded those traditions which had taken rise in the 
 later ages of the Church ; and eliminated from the 
 Offices every unscriptural doctrine and rite. 
 
 38. Question. — And in what did their labours result? 
 Answer. — lu a Book of Common Prayer, which 
 
 represents truly the mind of the Primitive Church, and 
 is a beautiful medium for the transmission of evangeli- 
 cal Truth. 
 
 39. Question. — Will you express, in the language of 
 
 Professor Blunt, the various kinds of help which 
 
 the Prayer Book gives towards the understanding 
 
 of the Bible ? 
 
 Answer. — " The Prayer Book is to be regarded as 
 
 a code of primitive tradition, which helps to the full 
 
 Y 
 
2,S^ Catechism. [chap. 
 
 interpretation of the Bible, expressing what may be 
 there hinted, enlarging what may be there succinct, 
 illustrating what may be there obscure, concentrating 
 what may be there dispersed, organizing what may be 
 there promiscuous." 
 
 40. Catechist. — Give an instance in which the Prayer 
 Book " expresses " what in the Bible is only 
 "hinted." 
 
 Answer. — Infant Baptism is an instance. 
 
 41. Qtiestion. — What are the "hints" which the Bible 
 
 gives in favour of this practice ? 
 Ansiver. — They are principally three. First; the 
 fact of the (analogous) rite of Circumcision having been 
 administered to children of eight days old. Secondly; 
 our Lord's words and action, when He took little chil- 
 dren into His arms, put His hands upon them, and 
 blessed them. Thirdly; the Scriptural notices of several 
 whole households having been baptized. 
 
 42. Question. — How does the Book of Common Prayer 
 
 "express" this "hint"? 
 Ansioer. — By affirming, in the twenty-seventh Article, 
 that "the Baptism of young Children is in any wise to 
 be retained in the Church, as most agreeable with the 
 Institution of Christ;" by the Rubric preceding the 
 Office for " Private Baptism of Children in houses," 
 which prescribes that " The Citrates of every Parish 
 shall often admonish the people, that they defer not the 
 Baptism of their Children longer than the first or second 
 Sunday next after their lirth, or other Holy -day falling 
 between, unless upon a great and reasonable cause;" and 
 by providing an Office for " the Ministration of Public 
 Baptism of Infants, to be used in the Church." 
 
 43. Question. — How did the Reformers ascertain that 
 
 the Baptism of young children was an Apostolic 
 
 tradition ? 
 udnstwer.— Because, by applying their test of the 
 early Fathers, they found there such passages as this 
 from Justin Martyr: " Several persons among us of 
 
X.] Catechism. 339 
 
 sixty and seventy years old, of both Pexes, who were 
 made disciples of Christ from their childhood, do con- 
 tinue uncorrupted." 
 
 44. Question.— Royf do you know that Justin is here 
 
 alluding to the Sacrament of Baptism ? 
 Amicer.— Because He uses the very same word 
 which our Lord uses in instituting the Sacrament of 
 Baptism, and which our translators have rendered 
 "teach'' (in the margin, make disciples); "60 ye 
 and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 (St. Matt, xxviii. 19.) 
 
 45. Question. — "When was Justin born ? 
 Aimver.— In the earlier half of the second century. 
 
 St. John the Evangelist, it is generally supposed, lived 
 to see the heginning of the second century. Therefore 
 there cannot have been very many years between the 
 death of St. John and the birth of Justin Martyr. 
 
 4G. Question.— ^\iai do you infer from this? 
 
 Answer.— T\iat the practice of making persons 
 " disciples of Christ from their childhood" cannot have 
 established itself in the Church at so very early a 
 period without the sanction of the Apostles. 
 
 47. Question. — And what would the sanction of the 
 Apostles imply ? 
 
 Answer. — That of their Divine Master. 
 
 48. Question.— Gc'ive an instance in which the Prayer 
 Book "enlarges" what in the Bible is* "succinct." 
 
 Answer.— I give the instance of the laity's having 
 a part assigned them in the Church Services. 
 
 49. Question.— V^on what Scriptural ground is this 
 
 practice built ? 
 Anstoer. —\]^oxi the priesthood of all Christians,^ 
 which is affirmed in the ascription at the opening of 
 the Book of the Revelation (ch. i. vv. 5, 6). " Unto 
 him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in 
 his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
 
340 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 unto God and his Father." And again (1 Pet. ii. 5) ; 
 " Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual 
 house, an holy priesthood^ to offer up spiritual sacri- 
 fices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." And again 
 (1 Pet. ii. 9) ; " Ye are a chosen generation, a royal 
 priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people." 
 
 50. Question. — What, in all probability, is the allusion 
 
 in the words, " Unto him that washed us from our 
 
 sins in his own blood" ? 
 Ansiver. — It probably alludes to the ceremonial 
 washing of the hands and feet of the Priests in the 
 laver of the tabernacle, before they offered sacrifice. 
 This washing is prescribed in Exod. xxx. 17-22. 
 
 51. Question. — But how do these passages bear upon 
 
 the question of the laity taking part in the 
 
 Services ? 
 Answer. — They teach us that all Christians (and 
 not the Clergy only) are priests. And if priests, they 
 should have a part to play in the Public Worship of 
 Almighty God. 
 
 52. Question. — Is there any other passage of Holy 
 
 Scripture, which seems to show that the laity did 
 
 take such a part in Public Service in the time of 
 
 the Apostles? 
 
 Answer. — Yes ; there is the passage in 1 Cor. xiv. 
 
 16 : " Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit " 
 
 (eav £v\oy7](rr]s no Trvev/iari), " how shall he that 
 
 occupieth the room of the unlearned" (jov tottov tov 
 
 iSioiTov) " say Amen at thy giving of thanks " {^ttI ttj 
 
 a-rj evxapi-o-Ti<}), " seeing he understandeth not what 
 
 thou say est? " 
 
 53. Question. — What is the meaning of the word 
 
 "unlearned" in this passage ? 
 Answer. — It means a private man, one who does not 
 appear officially, an unprofessional person ; or, in other 
 words, " a layman." 
 
 54. Question. — What do the words " he that occupieth 
 
 the room of the unlearned " seem to import ? 
 
X.] Catechism. 341 
 
 ^„swe?-.— That the layman had a certain "room" 
 (or sphere) assigned to him in Public Worship. 
 
 55. Question. — What appears from this verse to have 
 been part of the layman's function ? 
 
 A7iswer. — To say " Amen," when the person offi- 
 ciating had finished the Thanksgiving. 
 
 56. Question. — How does the Prayer Book " enlarge " 
 
 these "succinct" intimations? 
 Answer. — By assigning to the laity a very consider- 
 able share in all its Services. Sometimes by merely 
 directing them to say Amen at the end of a Collect or 
 Prayer. Sometimes by requiring them to repeat 
 Prayers after the Minister, as in the General Confes- 
 sion. Sometimes by directing them to say Prayers 
 with the Minister, as in the recitation of the Lord's 
 Prayer. Sometimes by putting into their mouth 
 distinct Responses of their own, as (specially) in the 
 Litany, as well as in the Morning and Evening Prayer, 
 and in the Communion Service. Thus a " room " (or 
 sphere) is provided by our Prayer Book for the layman 
 to occupy, by the occupation of which he may assert 
 his priesthood. 
 
 57. Question. — Is there any slight indication in Holy 
 
 Scripture of the laity's taking part in the Office 
 
 of the Holy Communion ? 
 Ansioer. — Yes ; St. Paul, speaking of the Consecra- 
 tion of the Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper, 
 says ; " The cup of blessing 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? " (1 Cor. x. 16), as if the act of Consecration 
 (which is the highest of all ^linistcrial functions), were 
 an act in which the people took part with the Minister. 
 
 58. Question.— What feature in the ancient Liturgies 
 
 seems to confirm this view of the Apostle's 
 
 meaning ? 
 Answer.— The circumstance that response enters 
 largely into all of them ; that in none of them is the 
 Office confined to the Priest alone. 
 
342 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 59. Question. — Give an instance in which the Prayer 
 Book " illustrates " -what in the Bible is " obscure." 
 
 A^istver. — An instance may be found in the text 
 which has been just quoted, and which even in the 
 original is obscure. 
 
 1 Cor. xiv. 16. 
 
 'ETrei eav €v\oyr]crr]s rw Else, when thou shalt bless 
 
 irvfiifiaTL, 6 avan\r]pmv top with the Spirit, how shall he 
 TOTTov Tov iStcorou, TTcos ipel that occupieth the room of 
 TO dfif)v eVi rfi (rfj evxapicrria, the unlearned say Amen at 
 eTTfidr) tI Xeyeis ovk oide ; thy giving of thanks, seeing 
 
 he understandeth not what 
 
 thou say est ? 
 
 60. Catechist. — Give a free translation of this passage, 
 and explain the connexion in which it stands with 
 what precedes. 
 
 Answer. — The Apostle is arguing against the use 
 of an unknown tongue in Public Worship, unless an 
 interpreter should be present to explain what is spoken 
 in such a tongue ; and he says in the verse before us ; 
 "If thou shalt use an unknown tongue in blessing [the 
 elements at the Holy Communion], executing that OfBce 
 in a devotional rapture, but in a tongue not under- 
 standed of those around you, how shall he on whom 
 devolves the duty of the layman " (the duty, namely, of 
 responding to thy prayers) " say Amen at thy celebra- 
 tion of the Eucharist, seeing he does not understand 
 what thou sayest? " 
 
 61. Question. — But what grounds are there for finding 
 in this passage any reference to the Holy Com- 
 munion ? 
 
 Answer. — These in the text itself; that the word 
 rendered " Thanksgiving " is literally " Eucharist," a 
 very early designation of the Holy Communion ; and 
 that the word translated " bless " is the same word as 
 that used at the account of the original institution by 
 the two first Evangelists (St. Matt. xxvi. 20 ; St. Mark 
 xiv. 22), when it is said that " Jesus took bread, and 
 blessed it," and akin to the substantive "blessing," 
 which St. Paul uses, when he designates the chalice of 
 
X.] Catechism. 343 
 
 the Holy Communion "the cup of blessing" (1 Cor. 
 X. 16). 
 
 Gli. Catechist. — These strike me as slender grounds. 
 Have you no better? 
 A7iswer. — They would be slender, I admit, if they 
 stood alone. But let us read side by side with the 
 text this passage of Justin, in which he gives an 
 account of the Lord's Supper, as it was celebrated in 
 his time (the middle of the second century). He 
 mentions that a meeting of the Church is held " on the 
 day of the Sim ;" that the writings of the Apostles or 
 Prophets are read, and the reading followed up by an 
 exhortation from the President of the assembly, and by 
 prayers for all conditions of men, which being concluded 
 " we salute one another with a kiss." 
 
 Justin Apol. 1. ch. 65, 66 {See aluo 67). 
 
 ETTfiTaTrpoa-cpfpfTctiTatTrpo- Then is brought to the 
 
 eo-rwTt* rcbv d8f\(fio}v apros. President of the brethren 
 
 Koi TTorrjpiov vbaros Koi Kpd- bread, and a cup of water 
 
 /laTos- Koi oiiTos XajSajf aivov and mixed wine. And he, 
 
 Koi 86iav Tw miTpl rav oXcov taking them, sends up praise 
 
 8ia Tov ovoparos rov vlov, and glory to the Father of 
 
 Koi TOV TTViipaTos TOV dyiov all through the name of His 
 
 dvairtpwfi,. koi (vxapiaTiav Sou and by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 virep TOV KaTrj^icoa-dtn tovtcov And he maketh at great 
 
 Trap' aiiTov fVl ttoXv TroieTrai • length a thanksgiving for our 
 
 ov (rvvT('\€(ravTos tcis ev;(as having been thought worthy 
 
 Koi TTjv fixapicTTiav, Tray 6 by Go<l of such blessings. 
 
 TmpiovXaos (ir(v(pr]ptl \fyo)v And when he has finished 
 
 dprji/. TO 8e dprju, tjj the prayers and the thanks- 
 
 'EjipatBi (j)(i)v[i, TO yevoiTo giving, all the people present 
 
 arjpalvei. evxupia-TrjaavTos 8e signify their joyful assent by 
 
 Toil irpoftTTaTos, koi fT7fv(f)rjp- saying Amen. Now Amen in 
 
 T)(TavTos travTos tov \aov, ot the Hebrew tongue signifieth 
 
 KoKovpfvoi Trap r]p1v bidKovoi, So he it. And when the 
 
 • It is observaVile that in 1 Thess. v. 12, this very verb is 
 used to describe the Ministerial Office : — 
 
 tovs KOTTiSiVTas iv vpiv, koi Them which labour among 
 TTpoiaTaptvovs vpatv iv Kvpt'o), yoii, and are over you in the 
 Ka\ vovdfTovvTas vpds. Lord, and admonish you. 
 
344 Catechism. [chap. 
 
 hihoacnv iKa^TTc^ t&v irapov- President has given thanks, 
 
 T(x)v fifToka^e'iv ano roii fv- and the j^eople have signified 
 
 XnpiarrjdevTos liprov Kalo'ivov their assent, those who go 
 
 Koi vdaros .... Kat r] rpocpr] among us by the name of 
 
 avTT] KoXelrat TT-ap" fjfj.iv tv- Deacons give to each of those 
 
 Xapia-Tia. present a portion of the 
 
 bread and wine and water 
 
 over which thanks have been 
 
 given .... and this food is 
 
 called with us the Eucharist. 
 
 Putting this passage of St. Justin by the side of the 
 text from St, Paul, there seems no longer any room to 
 doubt that " the thanksgiving " referred to by the 
 Apostle is " the Prayer of Consecration in the Com- 
 munion Service," and the "Amen," which it is the 
 part of " the layman " to " say," the Amen with which 
 that Prayer is concluded. 
 
 63. Catechist. — Yes. Justin's description of a primi- 
 tive celebration does make it almost a certainty 
 that St. Paul is referring to the Holy Com- 
 munion, and its long prayer of Consecration, and 
 the fervent response "Amen," by which the 
 congregation were wont to conclude that prayer. 
 I see how the writings of Justin illustrate that 
 which in the Bible is obscure. But what has this 
 to do with the Prayer Book ? 
 Answer. — Because the Communion Office in the 
 Prayer Book represents with great fidelity the Order of 
 that Service as it was in Justin's time. We have there 
 the Epistle and Gospel (the former of which is even 
 now occasionally taken from the Prophetical Writings, 
 as on the Monday and Tuesday in Easter Week) ; the 
 Sermon or Exhortation, the Oblation of the elements, 
 the Prayer for the Church Militant, the Prayer of 
 Consecration, with its concluding Amen ; and then 
 immediately the distribution of the Elements. Since 
 Justin lived so near to the times of the Apostles, our 
 Reformers felt that the Order of Service then observed 
 must have had their sanction, and emanated from them ; 
 and this Order of Service they have retained very 
 faithfully in our present Communion Office, which thus 
 
X.] Catechism. 345 
 
 gives the mind of the Apostles as to the inethod of 
 administration. The Prayer Book, then, taken as re- 
 presenting and embodying the usage described by 
 Justin, does very much "illustrate " what in the Bible 
 is " obscure." 
 
 64. Catechist. — Give an instance in which the Pravcr 
 
 Book " concentrates " what in the Bible is " dis- 
 persed." 
 Answer. — I cannot give an instance more apposite 
 than that which is furnished by the doctrine of the 
 Holy Trinity. This doctrine is given to us in Holy 
 Scripture, as I have before had occasion to observe, 
 piecemeal, the Godhead of the Son being asserted or 
 implied in some texts, that of the Holy Ghost in others, 
 the distinctness of the Persons being recognised in 
 passages occurring here, their Co-equality and Co- 
 eternity in a different connexion, while the Unity of the 
 Godhead is a doctrine which pervades the whole of 
 Scripture. These various doctrinal statements, which 
 are dispersed over the Sacred Volume, result, when 
 " concentrated," in the doctrine of the Trinity, as it 
 is stated at large in the Athanasian Creed. 
 
 65. Catechist. — Give an instance in which the Prayer 
 Book organizes what is promiscuous in the Bible. 
 
 Ansiuer. — The best instance I can give is the three- 
 fold Ministry of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. 
 
 66. Question. — "What do you mean by saying that 
 this threefold Ministry is to be found j^f^omiscu- 
 oush/ in the Bible ? 
 
 Ansiver. — 1 mean that it is to be gathered from 
 different parts of Holy Scripture. During our Lord's 
 own life there was the appointment of the Twelve, and 
 afterwards of the Seventy (see St. Luke ix. 1 and x. i.), 
 both Orders, it would appear, receiving powers and a 
 commission not very dissimilar. Then, in the Acts, we 
 have the account of an Order designed to relieve the 
 Apostles of the lower and more secular parts of their 
 duty (Acts vi. 1-7). Then, in the Epistles, what 
 we find is summed up thus by Professor Blunt : — 
 
34^ Catechism. [chap. 
 
 " Timothy was set by Paul in a position of authority 
 even over those who had a control of their own over 
 the flock ; for Timothy, on the one hand, was com- 
 missioned to receive an accusation against an elder, 
 and, if necessary, to rebuke him ; and yet the elder, 
 on the other hand, was commissioned on his part to 
 bear rule ; while the deacon, as his very name indi- 
 cates, was appointed only to minister or serve, and was 
 not to be raised to a higher grade or 'good degree,' till 
 he had given proof that he was fit for it ; Timothy, 
 meanwhile, deriving his superiority from no advantage 
 in age, for he was so young that he is cautioned not to 
 allow himself on that account to be despised. Titus 
 is in the same case with respect to years, yet he, too, 
 is commissioned ' to rebuke with all authority ; ' and 
 both the one and the other are intrusted with the 
 power of Ordination, an exclusive power, for the 
 manner in which the exercise of it is enjoined them, 
 shows that the character of the clergy lay in their 
 hands by the cautious choice which they should make 
 and the previous examination they should institute, a 
 provision which would be entirely defeated, if the 
 clergy in their respective dioceses might be self- 
 appointed, or appointed by other indifferent parties ; 
 an exclusive power, too, which was not to be confined 
 to them, but to descend in like manner to those who 
 should succeed to their places ; for Timothy was to 
 ' keep the commandment,' that is, I apprehend, the 
 instructions he had just been receiving from St. Paul, 
 ' until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ ; ' an 
 injunction which would imply that they were to be 
 binding on future bishops to the end of time," — 
 Finally, in the Book of the Revelation, we find 'the 
 Epistles to the Asiatic Churches addressed to their 
 respective " angels " (or presiding bishops), in whom 
 the Church is regarded as being summed up, and who 
 are addressed as representing it before God. 
 
 67. Question. — How does the Book of Common 
 Prayer "organize" these various notices respect- 
 ing the Ministry ? 
 
X.] CatccJiism. 347 
 
 Answer. — By assuring us in the Preface to the 
 Ordinal ; " It is evident unto all men diligenthj reading 
 the holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the 
 Ajwsttes' time there hare been these Orders of Ministers 
 in Christ's Church; Bishops, Priests, and Deacons;" 
 and also by assigning to each Order special duties and 
 functions, those of the Deacon being to assist the 
 Priest in Divine Service, but not apparently to stand 
 in the Priest's stead. 
 
 68. Question. — What is specially to be observed in 
 the passage of the Ordinal which you have just 
 quoted ? 
 A)iswer. — That it does not assert that Holy Scripture 
 alone makes the threefold Ministry evident. Scripture 
 only gives intimations to that effect, which ancient 
 authors (Ignatius, the Apostolical Constitutions, and 
 others) develope and confirm. Scripture, not by it- 
 self, but read in the light of " ancient Authors," makes 
 it evident. 
 
 60. Question. — What practical recommendation flows 
 
 naturally from the subject to which this Chapter 
 
 is devoted ? 
 
 Ansiver. — That we should accept the Prayer Book. 
 
 as for us the authorized guide into the teaching of the 
 
 Bible, on the ground that it is really the voice of the 
 
 Primitive Church, guiding us into the truth, as the 
 
 pillar of the cloud and of fire guided the Israelites in 
 
 their journeyings. 
 
 70. Question. — What happy effect would this final 
 
 acceptance of the Prayer Book, as the interpreter 
 
 of Holy Scripture, have upon our minds ? 
 
 Answer. — " That we henceforth" should "be no 
 
 more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about 
 
 with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and 
 
 cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive ; 
 
 but speaking the truth in love," should " grow up into 
 
 him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, 
 
 from whom the whole body fitly joined together and 
 
34^ Catechism. [chap. 
 
 compacted by that whicli every joiut supplietli, accord- 
 ing to the effectual working in the measure of every 
 part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of 
 itself in love." (See Eph. iv, 14, 15, 16.) In short, 
 there would be for us an end of controversy, and a 
 good prospect of quiet growth in grace if we could 
 acquiesce in the Bible, as interpreted by the Prayer 
 Book. 
 
 71. Question. — But are there not many controverted 
 points upon which the Bible, as interpreted by the 
 Prayer Book, pronounces nothing ; and which 
 therefore must still be left open questions ? 
 
 Answer. — Doubtless there may be such points. But 
 we may be sure that they are not of serious importance. 
 And, although some of them may interest our curiosity, 
 we may be content to wait for their settlement till the 
 day when all obscurities, which at present hang over 
 the counsels of God, shall be cleared up. Here below 
 we may not expect more light than will serve for our 
 practical guidance. 
 
 72. Question. — What is the great danger of interesting 
 ourselves too much in the speculative questions of 
 controversy ? 
 
 Anstoer. — That they may draw us off from questions 
 of practical and personal interest. 
 
 73. Question. — What Scriptural instance is there of a 
 person allowing the mind to seek refuge in con- 
 troversy from those personal questions, which 
 apply a probe to the conscience ? 
 
 Ansiver. — That of the woman of Samaria, who, when 
 our Saviour had charged her with living in sin, took 
 the opportunity of consulting Him on the subject of the 
 controversy which divided the Samaritans from the 
 Jews. (See St. John iv. 18, 19, 20.) 
 
 74. Question. — How did she evade the home thrust, 
 
 which our Lord had given to her conscience ? 
 Answer. — Taking no notice of her present sinful 
 life, she answered Him ; '' Sir, I perceive that thou 
 
X.] Catcchisvi. 349 
 
 art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain ; 
 and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men 
 ought to worship" (St. John iv. 19, 20). 
 
 75. Question. — How may we imitate her example in 
 this particular ? 
 
 Answer. — By allowing much of our time and 
 thoughts to be taken up by slight ceremonial questions, 
 while the weightier matters of the law stir in us com- 
 paratively but little interest. 
 
 76. Question. — What is the great end, from which 
 curious controversies too often call us ofif? 
 
 Answer. — That of growing in grace and living 
 nearer to God ; of finding greater satisfaction for the 
 mind in His light, and for the heart in His love. That 
 of comprehending " with all saints what is the breadth, 
 and length, and depth, and height; and" of knowing 
 " the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that" we 
 might " be filled with all the fulness of God." 
 
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