is 
 
LIBRAEY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 BR 45 .H84 1838 \ ~ ' 
 Parkinson, Richard, 1797- 
 
 1858. 
 
 The constitution of the 
 
 visible church of Christ 
 
 t->t-> it- tt n / TOOO 
 
CONSTITUTION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 VISIBLE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 UNDER THE HEADS OF 
 
 AUTHORITY AND INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE; CREEDS (TRADITION) ', 
 
 ARTICLES OF RELIGION; HERESY AND SCHISM; 
 
 • 
 
 STATE-ALLIANCE, 
 
 PREACHING, AND NATIONAL EDUCATION: 
 
 In <£tcj!)t ®i$tauvgcg, 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE IN THE YEAR 1838, 
 AT THE LECTURE FOUNDED BY THE REV. JOHN HULSE. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. RICHARD PARKINSON, B. D. 
 
 OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE, 
 AND FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, IN MANCHESTER. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: J. AND J. J. DEIGHTON. OXFORD: J. PARKER. 
 
 MANCHESTER: BANCKS AND CO. 
 
 MDCCCXXXIX. 
 
■ r£R8, EXCHANGE-STREET, MANCHEE 
 
HULSEAN LECTURES 
 
 MDCCCXXXVIII. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
(Extract from Mr. Hulse's Will.) 
 
 "Clause from the Will of the Rev. John Hulse, late of 
 Elworth, in the county of Chester, Clerk, deceased, dated the 
 21st day of July, in the year of our Lord, 1777, expressed in 
 the words of the testator, as he, in order to prevent mistakes, 
 thought proper to draw and write the same himself, and directed 
 that such clause should be every year printed, to the intent 
 that the several persons whom it might concern and be of service 
 to might know that there were such special donations and endow- 
 ments left for the encouragement of piety and learning, in an 
 age unfortunately addicted to infidelity and luxury, and that 
 others might be invited to the like charitable, and as he humbly 
 hoped, seasonable and useful benefactions." 
 
 LECTURER. 
 
 " I direct that four parts out of six (of his property in Clive) 
 shall be paid on St. John the Evangelist's day following the 
 preaching the lectures or sermons after-mentioned annually, to 
 such learned and ingenious clergyman in the said university of 
 the degree of Master of Arts, and under the age of 40 years, as 
 shall be duly chosen or elected on Christmas-day, or within seven 
 days after, by the Vice-Chancellor then for the time being, and 
 by the Master or Head of Trinity College, and the Master of 
 St. John's College, or by any two of them, in order to preach 
 twenty sermons in the whole year, (i. e.) ten sermons in the 
 following spring in St. Mary's great church in Cambridge, namely, 
 one sermon on the Friday morning, or else on Sunday after- 
 noon, in every week during the months of April and May, and 
 
VI 
 
 the two first weeks in June, and likewise ten sermons in the 
 same church in the following autumn, either on the Friday 
 morning or else on the Sunday afternoon in every week during 
 the months of September and October, and during the two first 
 weeks in November. The subject of which discourses shall be 
 as followeth — that is, the subject of five sermons in the spring, 
 and of five sermons in the autumn shall be to shew the evidence 
 for revealed religion, and to demonstrate in the most convincing 
 and persuasive manner the truth and excellence of Christianity, 
 so as to include not only the prophecies and miracles general 
 and particular, but also any other proper or useful arguments, 
 whether the same be direct or collateral proofs of the Christian 
 religion, which he may think fittest to discourse upon, either in 
 general or particular, especially the collateral arguments or else 
 any particular argument or branch thereof, and chiefly against 
 notorious Infidels, whether Atheists or Deists, not descending to 
 any particular sects or controversies (so much to be lamented) 
 among Christians themselves, except some new or dangerous 
 error either of superstition or enthusiasm, as of Popery or Metho- 
 dism, or the like, either in opinion or practice, should pre- 
 vail, in which cause only it may be necessary for that time to 
 preach against the same. Nevertheless the preacher of the ten 
 sermons last mentioned, to shew the truth and excellence of 
 revealed religion and the evidence of Christianity, may at his 
 own discretion preach either more or fewer than ten sermons on 
 this great argument, only provided he shall in consequence 
 thereof lessen or increase the number of the other ten remain- 
 ing sermons which are hereinafter directed to be on the more 
 obscure parts of Holy Scripture in a due proportion, so as that 
 he shall every year preach twenty sermons on those subjects on 
 the whole. 
 
 And as to the ten sermons that remain, of which five were to 
 be preached in the spring and five in the autumn, as before 
 mentioned, the Lecturer or Preacher shall take for his subject 
 some of the more difficult texts or obscure parts of the Holy 
 Scriptures, such as might appear to be more generally useful 
 
vn 
 
 and necessary to be explained, and which might best admit of 
 such a comment and explanation without presuming to pry too 
 far into the profound secrets and awful mysteries of the Almighty ; 
 and in all the said twenty sermons such practical observations 
 shall be made, and such useful conclusions added, as may in- 
 struct and edify mankind. The said twenty sermons shall be 
 every year printed, and a new preacher every year elected, 
 (except in the case of the extraordinary merit of the preacher), 
 when it may be sometimes thought proper to continue the same 
 person for five, or at the most six years together; but for no 
 longer period, nor shall he ever afterwards be elected to the 
 same duty." 
 
 Substance of tbe order of the Court of Chancery in the matter 
 of the Hulsean Lectureship, in the university of Cambridge* 
 dated 21st December, 1830: — 
 
 On the Petition of the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of 
 the university of Cambridge. 
 
 After reciting the property left by Mr. Hulse for the en- 
 dowment of a Lectureship in Cambridge, and the conditions 
 attached to the office, tbe petition states that owing to the 
 number of lectures required to be delivered and printed by the 
 Lecturer within the year, no sufficiently qualified person could be 
 induced to hold the office, and suggests that the number might be 
 conveniently reduced to eight, which was the number appointed 
 by Mr. Boyle, or to any other which the Chancellor might 
 think fit. "Whereupon," to use the words of the order, "all 
 parties concerned were ordered to attend his lordship on the 
 matter of the said petition ; and counsel for the petitioners this 
 day attending accordingly, upon hearing of the said petition, and 
 of the said Will of the said John Hulse, dated the 21st day of 
 July, 1777, read, and what was alleged by the counsel of the 
 petitioners, this court doth order that the number of the lectures 
 in the petition mentioned be reduced to eight ; and it is ordered 
 that the time limited for printing the said lectures be enlarged for 
 the term of one year from the deliveiy of the last of such lectures." 
 
Vlll 
 
 And he directed that such clause should always be concluded 
 with the following prayer: 
 
 " May the Divine blessing for ever go along with all ray 
 benefactions ; and may the greatest and best of Beings, by his 
 all-wise Providence and gracious influence, make the same effec- 
 tual to his own glory and the good of my fellow-creatures ! 
 Amen.' 
 
* 
 
 \t LOGIC: 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 ^ 
 
 Preface 17 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE 
 CHURCH. 
 
 Galalians i. 8, 9. 
 Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other 
 
 gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto 
 
 you, let him be accursed. 
 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach 
 
 any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let 
 
 him be accursed. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 Foundations now the subject of controversy — difficulties of 
 defence increased by the ignorance and self-confidence of 
 the adversary — likewise by the Church's long peace, and 
 reliance on her cause — in addition, defective clerical 
 education, hasty demand for new labourers, and the distrac- 
 tions of all-absorbing practical duties — attempts on the 
 part of the Church to symbolize with Dissenters in these 
 duties — failure, and wider divisions in consequence — 
 equally assaulted by Romanists and Dissenters — con- 
 solations in the present position of controversy — more 
 decisive results may be expected from discussing great 
 questions — the Truth has nothing to fear ultimately — 
 great mistake of supposing that indefinite Truths are 
 
 b 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 therefore indifferent — proposal, in these lectures, to pro- 
 pound the Truth with regard to some leading points, by 
 seeking out the elementary idea — these leading points 
 stated — good results to be hoped for from pursuing this 
 line of argument 3 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 Hebrews viii. 4, 5. 
 There are priests that offer gifts according to the law : who 
 serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things ; 
 as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to 
 make the tabernacle ; for, See, saith he, that thou make 
 all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the 
 mount. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 Difference as to claims to authority and inspiration between 
 the Old and New Testaments — the Old Testament literally a 
 law, both as to instrument, written laws, and administrators 
 of it — the New, in each of these respects, less definitely so 
 — the Old laying more positive and express claims to direct 
 inspiration than the New — no inferiority in the New on 
 these accounts proved; first, because these differences are 
 those of omission — those principles in the Old which are 
 continued in the New, are not expressed because implied — 
 secondly, because even changes may be enforced by type 
 as strongly us by direct precept — this illustrated by the 
 change of the Sabbath day, and also by the continuance 
 of the Priesthood, and the legal power of the Gospel, 
 under forms adapted to the new condition of things — 
 Summary of the Argument 29 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 1 Corinthians ii. 12, 13. 
 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the 
 Spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things 
 which are freely given to us of God. 
 
 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's 
 wisdom teacheth, hut which the Holy Ghost teacheth. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 Importance of the subject — question here confined to the 
 inspiration of the Written Word — distinction between in- 
 spired writings and inspired men — Verbal theory advocated 
 — Verbal accuracy necessary when the thing recorded was 
 unknown or unintelligible to the writer — words of the 
 utmost moment because we think in them — Verbal inspi- 
 ration as necessary for writing as speaking — indispensable 
 in some cases, therefore possible in all — entire knowledge 
 of languages, in some instances, through inspiration — 
 Scripture testimony to Verbal inspiration — the testimony 
 of the Fathers — and of later Divines — objections answered 
 from inelegance of style — from discrepancies in accounts 
 of the same transaction — from various readings — advan- 
 tages arising from the Verbal theory — important points of 
 faith often involved in single words — some misconstructions 
 of the doctrine guarded against — Conclusion 53 
 
XII CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE IV 
 
 Jets \in. 30,31. 
 And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the 
 prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou 
 readest ? And he said, How can I, except some man 
 should <mide me ? 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 Scripture a complete rule of Faith and Life — difference 
 between the Reformed and Roman Catholic Churches on 
 this point — the latter maintains Tradition to be co-ordinate 
 with Scripture — true sense of the word Tradition — testi- 
 mony of Tradition to the sufficiency of Scripture as a rule 
 — necessity for Scripture interpretation considered — where 
 it should reside — why the New Testament more especially 
 recpiires it — hence necessity of Creeds — what points a 
 Creed should embrace — tests of the validity of Creeds — 
 Dissenting tests — Romish tests — the inconsistency of 
 • Romanists in maintaining ancient Tradition along with 
 modern Infallibility — difference on this point between the 
 Romish and Anglican Churches — process sketched, by 
 which an honest inquirer may arrive at the truth with 
 regard to essentials — Creeds the infallible traditions of the 
 Church — Van Mildert quoted, to shew that the substantial 
 Truth has ever been held by the Catholic Church — value 
 of Creeds summarily stated — the Damnatory Clauses in the 
 Athanasian Creeds explained and justified 81 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 rACE 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 
 
 Hebrews vi. 1, 2, 3. 
 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let 
 us go on unto perfection ; not laying again the foundation 
 of repentance from dead works, and of faith towards God, 
 of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and 
 of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And 
 this will we do, if God permit. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 Difficulties of the subject — apparent sufficiency of the Scrip- 
 tures with the Creeds, as rule and symbol — additions made 
 to them by the Church of Rome — the encroachments of 
 that Church on one side led to remonstrances on the other 
 — hence Articles of Religion — distinction between Creeds 
 and Articles — Creeds universal, Articles special — Articles 
 devised for self-regulation and self-defence of particular 
 Churches — authority of each branch of the Church to 
 ordain Articles — it is in the Articles that we are Protestants 
 against both Romanists and Dissenters — summary of the 
 Articles to show this — defence of our Articles against the 
 Romanists as not being Catholic — defence of them against 
 Dissenters as being exclusive — true sense of the word 
 Protestant — why our Articles are not signed by all — why 
 they should be signed by some — use of them in protecting 
 the Church from heresy and error 115 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGI 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 
 
 1 Timothy ii. 1, 2. 
 I exhort therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, 
 intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men ; for 
 kings, and for all that are in authority ; that we may lead 
 a cpiiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 The consideration of Liturgies and Rituals follows naturally 
 that of Scripture, Creeds, and Articles — the expediency of 
 them not here so much the subject of inquiry as the 
 necessity — fixed Forms of Prayer a constituent element of 
 a visible Church — visibility and unity of the Church proved 
 — an united Church requires and pre-supposes united 
 Prayer — Scripture authority for this shewn to be contained 
 in the text — early divisions of Public Worship the same 
 as now — Prayer for public and national Blessings form a 
 Scriptural Authority for visible and national Churches — 
 the Church's early prayers for authorities prophetic of 
 authorities becoming ultimately friendly to her — the want 
 of Apostolical Liturgies no proof that Liturgies are not 
 essentia] .to the Church — the Jews had a prescribed 
 Liturgy — that Liturgy a model for the early Christian — the 
 four primitive Christian Liturgies traced up to the Apos- 
 tolical age — at the Reformation these were restored in their 
 original purity — Visibility and Purity of a Church marked 
 by its Liturgy — Danger of leaving Public Worship to 
 private discretion — a national Church should have a national 
 form of prayer — excellence of our own Liturgy — it con- 
 soled our confessors and martyrs in their tribulations — 
 Jeremy Taylor's eloquent Panegyric upon it I 16 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 (church authority for restraining error.) 
 heresy and schism. 
 
 Matthew xviii. 17, 18. 
 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church: 
 but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him he unto thee 
 as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, 
 Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in 
 heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be 
 loosed in heaven. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 Church authority indispensable — the opinion of the Church 
 at large binding on the minority of its members — (the rule 
 of private judgment explained in a note) — errors of Ro- 
 manism and dissent on this point — difficulty of ascertaining 
 the decisions of the Church no argument against their 
 stringency when known — Church authority recognized, iri 
 some sense, by all parties — extent limited to expulsion 
 from communion for doctrinal errors — Romish abuses on 
 this point — definitions of errors — infidelity— heresy — 
 schism — denial of any of the doctrines of the Creeds 
 Heresy — denial of any of the Articles of Religion Schism 
 — Bishop Beveridge's view of this subject stated — Schism 
 may be caused by the enactment of improper laws — as well 
 as by disobedience to just ones — the boast of Schismatics 
 that they differ from us but on small matters an aggravation 
 of their offence — Scripture exhortation to unity 177 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 (church authority for propagating the truth), 
 secular aid, education, and preaching. 
 
 Mark xvi. 15. 
 And lie said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach 
 the gospel to every creature. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 The commission to propagate the Gospel issued to Men not 
 to Books — reasons for this — system and subordination 
 necessary among the propagators of the Gospel — the 
 Gospel kingdom follows the analogy of an earthly king- 
 dom as to laws and officers— system observed by the 
 apostles and first preachers of the Gospel — human means 
 may be joined with spiritual in spreading the Truth — the 
 laws of human nature and of the Gospel have both the 
 same divine origin — they may work together for good — 
 human authority at first opposed to the divine law — when 
 whole nations became Christian the two authorities entered 
 into alliance — Church and State originally independent of 
 each other — they can and may mutually promote each 
 other's ends — these separate ends stated — what privileges 
 the Church claims to herself — religious teaching and edu- 
 cation among them — would resist the state in establishing a 
 rival system to her's, in either of these points — her duty in 
 such a case — summary of the argument of this lecture — 
 general conclusion 209 
 
 THE DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING STATED AND ENFORCED. 
 
 1 Corinthians iii. 4, 5. 
 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of 
 Apollos; are ye not carnal ? Who then is Paul, and who 
 is Apollos, but Ministers by whom ye believed, even as the 
 Lord gave to every man ? 239 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the Introductory Lecture, the author has 
 explained, at some length and with all the clear- 
 ness in his power, his own views with regard to the 
 present position of the Church of Christ — the causes 
 which have led to that position — and the remedies 
 which might be proposed for some of the evils 
 which attend it. The considerable interval which 
 has elapsed since the composition of that Lecture, 
 while, from the excitement which now exists on all 
 great questions of Theology, it has daily thrown 
 some additional light on that position, has not 
 tended to alter the author's views regarding it, but 
 rather to confirm them by the concurrent testimony 
 of almost every successive writer on these questions. 
 It is now evident to all, that the external Consti- 
 
XV111 PREFACE. 
 
 tution of the Church of Christ had received from 
 the Clergy, (and especially during the last quarter 
 of a century) much less attention than its essential 
 importance demanded. The exigency of the times 
 had a tendency to lead men to neglect every thing 
 in the study of Theology which was not evidently 
 indispensable ; and a school had gradually sprung 
 up in the Church, which held that system was of 
 little consequence compared with personal sincerity 
 and zeal. Every man can be assured that he pos- 
 sesses the latter : the former is of difficult attain- 
 ment : and thus it came to pass that each minister 
 took that view of the Gospel which was suggested to 
 him by the accidental impressions of his early years, 
 or the bent of his natural disposition and turn of 
 mind. As might have been expected, the theology 
 which thus originated, soon developed itself under 
 two tolerably distinct aspects — what may be called 
 sentimental and common-sense divinity. The imagi- 
 native adopted the one, the argumentative teacher 
 the other system ; each taking the direction of his 
 own mind to be the true guide to scriptural inter- 
 pretation, and both being alike profoundly ignorant, 
 if they did not entertain a profound contempt, of 
 
PREFACE. Xix 
 
 the historical monuments of the Church, and that 
 unity of spirit, which has all along in so remarkable 
 a degree pervaded the Church Catholic, not only 
 in its Christian practice, but its views of scripture 
 doctrine. .These erroneous notions (we have reason 
 to thank the great Head of the Church for so 
 inestimable a blessing !) are now fast disappearing: 
 but the mixture of surprise, and of ignorant 
 hostility, with which a return from them in some 
 quarters has been received in others, affords a melan- 
 choly proof to those who had been educated in an 
 elder and better school, how deeply these notions 
 had fixed themselves in the minds of many of their 
 younger brethren, and, it may be added, how ne- 
 cessary are occasional controversies (evils though 
 they be) in the Church of Christ, in order that , 
 errors which may have been silently and insidiously 
 disseminating themselves in the Church may be 
 discovered and extirpated. Well is it said by the 
 Apostle — "There must be also heresies among you, 
 that they which are approved may be made mani- 
 fest among you."* It has been the author's object 
 to contribute his portion (however humble) towards 
 
 * I. Cor. xi. 19. 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 the consummation of an end so desirable, in the 
 line of argument which he has adopted in the fol- 
 lowing Lectures. Having formed his own opinions 
 on grounds and evidence altogether independent of 
 any passing controversies, his testimony on the 
 questions here discussed may be considered (quan- 
 tum valeat) as that of a neutral spectator ; and he 
 has only entered into those points so far as it was 
 absolutely necessary to complete the systematic 
 view of the Church which he had proposed to him- 
 self in these Lectures. It may be added, that he 
 had an especial eye to the Student in divinity, not 
 only in the composition of these Discourses, but 
 also in the notes with which they are illustrated. 
 He uses the term illustrated, because the reader 
 will at once perceive, that they have been for 
 the most part chosen, not as proofs of the truth 
 of the propositions maintained in the text, but as 
 enforcing some collateral points, closely connected 
 with and springing out of the subjects under discus- 
 sion, and which are, at the same time, in themselves 
 of the utmost interest and importance. The form 
 of Lectures, to which the author was restricted, and 
 the unity of design, and balanced harmony of parts, 
 
PREFACE. XXI 
 
 which are essential to such a species of composi- 
 tion, precluded the occasional enlargement on some 
 topics, which yet deserved more ample discussion 
 than could well be afforded them in the text. Such 
 points the author was driven to treat in the form of 
 notes ; and these notes he wished to couch, as 
 much as possible, in other language than his own : 
 for an argument, conveyed in the words of a Father 
 of the Church, has double weight — its own intrinsic 
 worth, and the testimony of him by whom it is 
 urged. With this view, also, the evidence of such 
 Fathers has been preferred as seem to have been 
 imbued with the least of a party, and the most of 
 a true Catholic spirit ; and the eloquence of whose 
 language elevates and awakens the imagination 
 while it irresistibly convinces the judgment. Such 
 men as Taylor, and Hooker, and Mede, cannot 
 be studied, even by the casual and careless reader, 
 without a mingled feeling of conviction and admir- 
 ation. Other controversialists may arrive at the 
 haven of truth by a straight and even course ; but 
 men like these, not only steer right onward, through 
 the storm and turmoil with which they are sur- 
 rounded, but throw off a phosphoric light from 
 
XX11 PREFACE. 
 
 their sides, which illumines the whole perturbed 
 surface of the vexed ocean around them. 
 
 The author has ventured to append to these 
 Lectures a Visitation Sermon, which he preached 
 and published in the year ^ 832, on the subject of 
 " Liturgical Preaching." He has done so from a feel- 
 ing that his view of the external Constitution of the 
 Church would not be complete without some remarks 
 as to the proper mode of enforcing its principles on 
 the reception of the people ; and as this Sermon 
 has had the good fortune to meet with the appro- 
 bation of a critic,* to whose qualification for pro- 
 nouncing a judgment on such questions the Univer- 
 sity of Cambridge, (unless the author is much mis- 
 taken as to the writer of that critique), has lately 
 borne a remarkable and unanimous testimony, — he 
 has not hesitated to reprint it, as expressing the 
 views which he still entertains with regard to the 
 most momentous duty of "preaching the Gospel." 
 It enables him, also, to bear a willing and grateful 
 testimony to the improvement which has, in this 
 respect, taken place within the last very few years. 
 It is by bringing distant points of time into imme- 
 
 * Quarterly Review, No. 117, Art. " Village Preaching.'" 
 
PREFACE. XX1I1 
 
 diate juxtaposition, that the altered aspect of things 
 in the interval can be most distinctly ascertained. 
 In the year 1832, the author introduced the sermon 
 in question to the public with the following re- 
 marks : " The question has long presented itself to 
 his mind, as a topic which has scarcely yet assumed 
 due prominence, or received sufficient consideration 
 among us ; and it would be a source of great satis- 
 faction to him, if this attempt to bring it more dis- 
 tinctly before the public notice should lead some 
 individual of weight and authority in the Church to 
 enter more formally and minutely into its principle 
 and details. These are not times in which our Es- 
 tablishment should neglect any means of strength- 
 ening her arms, and combining her forces ; and it 
 does certainly appear, that one most obvious and 
 sure method of doing so, is by instituting some 
 bond of unity among her Ministers, by which, wide 
 as is the field of their labours, they may simulta- 
 neously be conducing to the furtherance of the 
 same good end. This bond of unity, rightly used, 
 is the Liturgy of our Church. It has, so far, silently 
 done its work, of giving some degree of harmony 
 to the most discordant elements ; let us, now. 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 labour along with it from principle, and on system. 
 Here is a Reform, which is strictly within the pro- 
 vince, because solely within the power, of the 
 Clergy : to this point, then, let our serious atten- 
 tion be at once directed ; and let him alone be 
 considered a faithful Minister of our Church, whose 
 study it is to preach the bible in the tone of 
 the prayer-book." It must be evident to the 
 reader, that this language, though but comparatively 
 of yesterday, is now that of a day gone by ; and 
 what was then received, as the author recollects, 
 in some not uninfluential quarters, as maintaining a 
 somewhat startling and equivocal position, would 
 now be considered as describing not only the just 
 principles, but the constant practice, of the great 
 majority of the Clergy of the Church. These are 
 among the cheering signs of the times. 
 
 It now only remains that the author should 
 tender his grateful thanks to those gentlemen who 
 have entrusted to him the high and responsible 
 office of Hulsean Lecturer for a second year ; to 
 the Worshipful the Vice-Chancellor of the Univer- 
 sity; and to Dr. Wordsworth, the learned Master of 
 
PREFACE. XXV 
 
 Trinity College, to whom, among other, and per- 
 haps even higher benefits, the Church is indebted 
 for some most judicious and well-timed publications. 
 There is yet another name, which the author would 
 have been proud to unite with the preceding, as one 
 whom he would have been delighted to honour, 
 and who would have received this testimony of 
 respect, and the volume to which it is prefixed, 
 with that consideration for the author, and tolera- 
 tion for his defects, which were characteristic of the 
 amenity of his nature ; — the late Very Rev. Dr. 
 Wood, Master of St. John's College, and Dean of 
 Ely. Since these Lectures were delivered, death 
 has removed him beyond the language of gratitude. 
 To him the Hulsean Lecturer, not only of present 
 but of future times, is deeply indebted. He was 
 a Trustee under Mr. Hulse's Will during many 
 years ; and it was by his unremitting and judicious 
 exertions that the bequests of that great benefac- 
 tor to the University were brought, through many 
 difficulties, into beneficial operation. To him the 
 Author of the present volume lies under especial 
 obligations. It was at his unexpected suggestion 
 that he was induced to seek an office, for which 
 
XX VJ PREFACE. 
 
 nothing but encouragement and approbation from 
 such a quarter could ever have convinced him 
 that he possessed any due qualifications ; and 
 it was from him that the information was derived 
 respecting the history of Mr. Hulse, from which 
 the author's late volume of Lectures will hereafter 
 derive its principal value. Like Mr. Hulse him- 
 self, — though in a more extended degree, for it was 
 throughout his life as well as in death, — Dr. Wood 
 was an eminent benefactor to his college : and some 
 account of his character may most appropriately 
 accompany this volume into the world, as a just 
 tribute not only of gratitude, but of justice. Under 
 these circumstances, the author gladly avails him- 
 self of the permission to annex a memoir of him 
 which has lately appeared, from the pen of one 
 who knew him well, and who had neither motive 
 nor disposition, even had their been any necessity, 
 to sacrifice truth to flattery. Those who were best 
 acquainted with the late Master of St. John's will 
 be the readiest to acknowledge the justice of the 
 following sketch of his character ; and the author 
 has great pleasure in transferring it from the ephe- 
 meral columns of a newspaper, into a publication 
 
PREFACE. XXV11 
 
 where, (even for its own sake), it may reasonably 
 expect a more permanent existence : 
 
 The death of this distinguished member of the uni- 
 versity of Cambridge, and dignitary of the Church of 
 England, took place on the 23d of April, (1839.) His 
 remains were interred in the College Chapel, May 1, with 
 every possible mark of respect, being attended to the 
 grave by the Vice-Chancellor, many Masters of Colleges, 
 Professors, and other members of the university, and 
 by all the resident members of his own college, together 
 with many others, who went from a distance. 
 
 The history of such a man deserves consideration on 
 many accounts: it reflects honour not only on himself 
 and on the individuals who gave him assistance and en- 
 couragement in his youth, but also on the institutions of 
 this country, which, not by any capricious and sudden 
 favour of what is called fortune, but as the regular and 
 natural consequence of his merit, made open for him the 
 way to dignity and wealth ; so that, rising from the most 
 humble condition of life, he became, both in accomplish- 
 ments and station, a fit associate, for the most noble in 
 birth and rank. Moreover, the success which rewarded 
 his merit, offers encouragement to all who are placed in 
 similar circumstances 
 
 He was born December 14, 1760, in a remote part 
 of the parish of Bury, Lancashire — a district which is 
 now inhabited by many well-educated and intelligent 
 people, but at that time was in a less favourable state, 
 and little likely to produce a man of so refined a charac- 
 
XXviii PREFACE. 
 
 ter. *His father was in very humble circumstances, but 
 he was much esteemed for his simple honesty; and 
 having (for a man in his station of life) considerable 
 knowledge, he instructed his son himself in arithmetic 
 and algebra. — The mother also was a very' worthy, affec- 
 tionate woman. Her maiden name was Smith : she had 
 six brothers, some of whom and their descendants have 
 given proofs of great mechanical ingenuity. Both 
 parents lived a considerable time after their son took his 
 degree, so that they knew of his rising distinction in the 
 University, and had the gratification of seeing the good 
 fruits of the care which they had taken in his education. 
 
 He received his classical instruction in the grammar- 
 school at Bury, of which the Rev. Francis Hodgson was 
 at that time head master, — a man highly esteemed, to 
 whom during his life, and to his family, Dr. Wood con- 
 tinued to give strong proofs of his gratitude and affec- 
 tion. The founder of the school, the Rev. Roger Kay, 
 having been educated at St. John's, Cambridge, be- 
 queathed to the school exhibitions for those who might 
 go to that college; to which circumstance, no doubt, St. 
 John's is indebted for the good fortune of having Dr. 
 Wood's name placed on its boards. He went up a fresh- 
 man in 1778, and, having remained in college during all 
 the vacations, did not return home till the summer of 
 1782. In the mean time he had obtained the high 
 honour of being senior wrangler, and a fellowship. He 
 was appointed one of the assistant tutors at the earliest 
 opportunity, and he continued to be engaged in the 
 tuition till the bitter end of the year 1814. Tn the fol- 
 
PREFACE. XXIX 
 
 lowing year, on the death of Doctor Craven, he was 
 elected master ; and in 1820, he was appointed to the 
 deanery of Ely, by Lord Liverpool. During the long 
 period of sixty years, he passed the chief part of his 
 time in college. And, it may be confidently affirmed 
 that, during at least half of that time, no one possessed 
 so much influence in the University as he did. This was 
 owing partly to his position at the head of a large and 
 united college, and partly to his personal character, which, 
 having first placed him in that position, continued to 
 exert its proper influence. 
 
 He possessed, in a very high degree, qualities which 
 could not fail to command esteem. He was a man of 
 great natural ability, of which his academic honour 
 was an early proof. He published three mathematical 
 treatises, which, for thirty or forty years> have been in 
 common use in the University. They are remarkable for 
 perspicuity and elegance, and retained their place in the 
 University system of education longer perhaps than any 
 similar treatises — written, as they are, on subjects which, 
 from their nature, admit of progressive improvement. 
 His sound and cautious understanding, seconded by un- 
 remitting diligence, by remarkable punctuality, and rigid 
 adherence to order in all his arrangements, particularly 
 qualified him for the able discharge of the practical 
 duties of life. Being seconded also by a firm and 
 equable temper, and by never-failing courtesy of man- 
 ners, it qualified him in the same high degree for govern- 
 ment : — his authority being always uniformly and tem- 
 
XXX PREFACE. 
 
 perately exercised, so that there was no need of abrupt 
 transitions from excessive indulgence to severity. 
 
 His judgment was most excellent, both as to matters 
 of speculation, and practical measures in the common 
 business of life. To the same correct judgment we must 
 refer the exact propriety of his demeanour towards 
 superiors, equals, and dependants, and the regard which 
 he paid to outward decorum; even in matters compara- 
 tively trifling and minute, such as dress, equipage, and 
 style of living, he always observed a propriety suitable 
 to his station, equally removed from mean parsimony and 
 extravagant display. 
 
 We must add to the above, moral qualities of the 
 highest order and value., — purity of conversation and con- 
 duct, integrity, benevolence, humility. Never was he 
 known, in his freest moments, to make the least un- 
 becoming allusion, or do otherwise than discountenance 
 the like in others ; still less, if possible, was he ever 
 known to violate moral purity in his conduct. 
 
 To mention his integrity would scarcely be necessary, 
 were it not that it was in him of so strict a character. 
 While he was firm in maintaining his own rights, he was 
 equitable and liberal in respecting those of others. In 
 transacting business with him, there was no need to guard 
 against trickery, subterfuges, or evasive interpretations. 
 In the exercise of authority, he paid great deference to 
 established rules and precedents. Hence all who were 
 subject to him lived in perfect security, not afraid of any 
 fanciful and arbitrary innovations. They knew what they 
 
PREFACE. XXXi 
 
 had to rely upon, and were fully assured that they had 
 no wrong to apprehend under so mild and equitable a 
 ruler. 
 
 Benevolence, in a very high degree, was another of 
 his qualities. His natural disposition was exceedingly 
 affectionate. He was strongly attached to his near relatives, 
 to numerous friends, and to his native county. No caprice 
 or groundless suspicion ever interfered to disturb his 
 friendships : those which he had once formed, were con- 
 tinued, with scarcely any exception, till they were termi- 
 nated by death. As he was not of a sanguine tempera- 
 ment, or a lively imagination, this quality of benevolence, 
 in the high degree in which he possessed it, was probably 
 little perceived by those who had only an ordinary 
 acquaintance with him. But his intimate friends will not 
 hesitate to bear testimony that he had great kindness of 
 heart, which was not restrained, but withdrawn from com- 
 mon notice, by his calm and cautious reserve of manner. — 
 His charitable donations were to a very large amount. 
 His whole desire seemed to be, to be doing good. Durino- 
 the last months of his life, when he was in very indiffer- 
 ent health, his thoughts were constantly occupied in devis- 
 ing acts of kindness to his friends, or plans for the public 
 improvement. In the interchange of friendly services, he 
 was almost too scrupulous in his anxiety that the balance 
 should not remain in his own favour; and the instances 
 were very few, if any, in which he did not so manage 
 matters as to place it on the other side. When any little 
 service was rendered to him, he was apt to magnify it, and 
 keep it in mind as what it would be a dereliction of duty 
 
XXXii PREFACE. 
 
 if he failed to repay. If his discernment as to the charac- 
 ter of individuals ever erred, it was owing to his being 
 always inclined, through the kindness of his affections, to 
 form too favourable an estimate. — To all who had inter- 
 course with him, his attention was respectful and un- 
 remitting, yet far removed from insincere professions or 
 adulation. It must have been a rare excellence of natural 
 disposition, aided by a long course of self-discipline, which 
 gave him such serenity of temper, and such invariable 
 readiness in consulting the comfort and paying respect to 
 the feelings of others. Seldom was he heard to utter an 
 angry expression, or give a rebuke to any person whatever ; 
 and yet few have ever lived whose authority was so readily 
 obeyed. 
 
 He was of a most humble, unpretending spirit. Pros- 
 perity never elated him beyond measure, nor did increase 
 of power cause any alteration in his temper or manner. He 
 had a happy facility in repressing undue familiarity, not by 
 morose severity, but by his calmness, self-possession, and 
 the real dignity of his character. 
 
 In conversation, he carefully abstained from censorious 
 and disparaging remarks ; nor did he ever seem desirous to 
 mortify and depress others, with the view of making them 
 sensible of his own superiority. If he ever expressed an 
 unfavourable opinion of an individual, it was of him as 
 acting in some public capacity, and then with such modera- 
 tion and good temper, as to make it manifest that his dis- 
 approbation was not embittered by personal ill-will. 
 
 As he took a very decided part in religion and politics, 
 and especially in the affairs of the University to which he 
 
PREFACE. XXX111 
 
 belonged, it would be too much to expect that he had no 
 enemies. Let us hope that their hostility, if any existed, 
 has been buried along with him. Of this they may be 
 assured, that there was no return of it on his part, with 
 any mixture of malice and resentment. He gave many 
 proofs of a forgiving disposition. If, in the course of his 
 long life, and the multiplicity of affairs in which he was 
 engaged, he ever did injury to any, let them be willing 
 to believe that it was owing to some inadvertence, (how- 
 ever rare in him,) or to a mistaken sense of duty ; and 
 consider also how difficult it is, amidst many conflicting 
 claims and interests, for the most accurate judgment to 
 discern invariably the exact line of rectitude, and pursue 
 it without deviation, never warped by any partial affection. 
 When we see such an example of excellence, we are 
 naturally led to inquire into the peculiar causes of it, 
 with a due and grateful acknowledgment of the primary 
 Source of all good. Undoubtedly his natural disposition 
 was very favourable; he had been also carefully brought 
 up by honest Christian parents and teachers ; and, above 
 all, as his firm foundation and constant guide, he had a 
 stedfast belief in the truth of the Holy Scriptures. Though 
 he never introduced the subject of religion into common 
 conversation, yet those who were intimate with him could 
 not fail to discover, from undersigned indications and casual 
 remarks, that his religious faith was truly sincere and 
 unwavering. Hence, relying upon the Bible, as the sole 
 ground of his hopes, and as the guide of his life, he 
 seemed to live under an habitual consciousness of obli- 
 gation, and to be impressed with a practical conviction 
 d 
 
XXXIV PREFACE. 
 
 of being accountable ; and his constant study and desire 
 seemed to be, to do his duty towards God and man. 
 
 He was firmly attached to the Established Church of 
 England, highly approving of its scriptural doctrines, 
 decent ceremonial, and moderate discipline, both as dis- 
 tinguished from bigotry, and from enthusiasm, laxity, and 
 indifference. With all his moderation and forbearance, 
 he was entirely free from that spurious and worthless 
 candour which leads men to speak with equal favour of 
 all individuals, sects, and parties. He was punctual in 
 attending the outward services of religion, both of pub- 
 lic and private worship. During his last illness, which 
 continued with greater or less severity through half a 
 year, he never uttered the least expression of impatience : 
 his fortitude and cheerfulness remained unshaken, and his 
 faculties almost unimpaired to the end of his life. He 
 frequently intimated his entire resignation to the Divine will. 
 
 In reviewing the labours of his exemplary life, the in- 
 calculable services which he rendered to his own college 
 in particular, cannot pass unnoticed. Having devoted to 
 it the chief part of his care for sixty yeurs, and made the 
 most strenuous exertions, by his instruction, example, and 
 authority, to promote its welfare, he gave further proof 
 of his attachment by munificent liberality, partly bestowed 
 in his life-time, and partly (in the final disposition of his 
 property) providing for its permanent benefit. It was 
 impossible for the members of it to regard him, while he 
 lived, otherwise than with the most grateful affection and 
 reverence ; and these are the feelings with which his 
 memory will long be cherished by them. And certainly, 
 
PREFACE. XXXV 
 
 while they, in common with all his friends, lament their 
 own loss in his departure, they have, with regard to him- 
 self, strong grounds of comfort. His earthly course was 
 not terminated till he had arrived at an age beyond which 
 our strength is but labour and sorrow ; and they may 
 entertain the consoling hope that the blessings which he 
 experienced here, with much thankfulness to the merciful 
 Author of them, were but a foretaste of eternal and more 
 ample manifestations of the Divine goodness, in the state 
 to which he has been transferred. 
 
 If any think that the account above given of this great 
 and good man is extravagant in commendation, let not a 
 strained interpretation be given to it, as if it were meant 
 to represent him as immaculate, or the highest human 
 virtue as being otherwise than imperfect. But, with every 
 proper admission, it will still remain true that, though 
 Dr. Wood was held in very great esteem; and though 
 numerous friends were strongly attached to him, yet, 
 from the reserve and simplicity of his manners, he could 
 not be adequately appreciated, except by those who were 
 very intimately acquainted with him. It was also necessary 
 to know him long ; because a remarkable characteristic of 
 his excellence was the continued uniformity of it. Indeed, 
 the apprehension that an accurate description of him 
 must appear partial and overcharged to people in general, 
 has caused a doubt whether any attempt to describe him 
 ought to be made ; especially remembering how adverse 
 he himself was to ostentation, and how little his virtuous 
 actions were prompted by the mere love of fame. Never- 
 theless, on the whole, it seems right that a just tribute 
 
XXXVI PREFACE. 
 
 to the memory of the deceased should not be withheld, 
 from a fear that some may be slow in giving credit to it ; 
 and therefore this representation, made with a sincere 
 desire of adhering to the truth, is offered as an imperfect 
 memorial of him, in the hope that it may afford some 
 satisfaction to his friends, and perhaps be serviceable in 
 recalling to their thoughts his bright example of piety 
 and virtue. 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE PRESENT POSITION 
 OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 FOUNDATIONS NOW THE SUBJECT OF CONTROVERSY— DIFFICULTIES 
 OF DEFENCE INCREASED BY THE IGNORANCE AND SELF-CONFIDENCE 
 OF THE ADVERSARY— LIKEWISE BY THE CHURCH'S LONG PEACE, AND 
 RELIANCE ON HER CAUSE— IN ADDITION, DEFECTIVE CLERICAL EDUCA- 
 TION, HASTY DEMAND FOR NEW LABOURERS, AND THE DISTRACTIONS 
 OF ALL-ABSORBING PRACTICAL DUTIES— ATTEMPTS ON THE PART 
 OF THE CHURCH TO SYMBOLIZE WITH DISSENTERS IN THESE DUTIES- 
 FAILURE, AND WIDER DIVISIONS IN CONSEQUENCE— EQUALLY ASSAULTED 
 BY ROMANISTS AND DISSENTERS— CONSOLATIONS IN THE PRESENT POSI- 
 TION OF CONTROVERSY— MORE DECISIVE RESULTS MAY BE EXPECTED 
 FROM DISCUSSING GREAT QUESTIONS— THE TRUTH HAS NOTHING TO 
 FEAR ULTIMATELY— GREAT MISTAKE OF SUPPOSING THAT INDEFINITE 
 TRUTHS ARE THEREFORE INDIFFERENT— PROPOSAL, IN THESE LECTURES, 
 TO PROPOUND THE TRUTH WITH REGARD TO SOME LEADING POINTS, 
 BY SEEKING OUT THE ELEMENTARY IDEA— THESE LEADING POINTS 
 STATED— GOOD RESULTS TO BE HOPED FOR FROM PURSUING THIS LINE 
 OF ARGUMENT. 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE PRESENT POSITION 
 OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Galatians, i. 8, 9. 
 
 Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you 
 
 than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 
 
 As ice said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other 
 gospel tmto you than that ye hare received, let him be accursed. 
 
 These are days for " stirring foundations." Men are 
 not contented, now, with hewing off branches from 
 the Tree of Life ; they lay the axe to its root. It 
 cannot be denied, that there is a simplicity and 
 a boldness in this proceeding, which are always in 
 favour of the assailant. In former days, there were 
 certain given principles, some common concessions, 
 at least tacitly agreed upon by the combatants, 
 which one party did not hold himself justified in 
 assailing, nor the other deem it necessary to defend. 
 This was holy ground ; and both sides took their 
 shoes from off their feet, when they ventured near 
 its precincts. But this inclosure, hitherto so sacred, 
 has, in later times, been broken in upon, and defiled. 
 The discovery having once been made, that it is 
 
4 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE [LECT. 
 
 possible to deny in one hour what it would take a 
 whole century to prove, — an instrument so effectual 
 has never since been neglected ; nor have the effects 
 of it been unimportant in securing some apparent 
 and temporary advantages to the enemies of Re- 
 velation. The presumptions hereby become, from 
 the very first, in their favour. The doubter seems 
 to occupy higher ground than his antagonist till his 
 doubts are removed : while the truth may be all 
 along against him, and his very ignorance may be 
 the sole ground Of his triumph. Meantime the 
 difficulties of the friend of Revelation are increased 
 by this ignorance or obstinacy Gf his adversary. 
 The more the one denies, the more the other has to 
 prove ; till the struggle comes at last to be one 
 rather to try the skill of the champion than to 
 determine the merits of the contest. How easy is 
 it for any individual to gather together all the 
 objections, while how difficult it is for any indivi- 
 dual to compass all the answers ! 
 
 Besides, the advocate of the truth is never taken 
 at so great a disadvantage as when that is unex- 
 pectedly denied of which he has the firmest convic- 
 tions. His implicit faith in his cause leads to his 
 very betrayal of it. There are certain conclusions 
 sometimes so strongly impressed upon the mind — 
 the evidence for them seems so plain and undeni- 
 able — that we deem it no longer necessary to retain 
 
1.] PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH. 5 
 
 in our recollection the processes by which we have 
 arrived at them ; they assume rather the form of 
 axioms than deductions ; they are taken for granted 
 by us, in all our reasonings, as undeniable verities, 
 which, having been once established, as we hold, 
 on arguments universally satisfactory, it would be 
 superfluous in us to demonstrate, and useless for 
 our adversary to deny. When, therefore, these 
 truths are denied — and of this we have now no lack 
 of experience — we are surprised into the discovery 
 that the arguments on which they rest, clear and 
 obvious as they once were, have now escaped us. 
 The proposition, indeed, remains, but the demon- 
 stration has vanished : and at least a momentary 
 triumph is afforded to error, by a too confiding 
 reliance on the goodness of his cause on the part of 
 the advocate of the truth. 
 
 What is thus true of individuals, is true, also, of 
 general churches ; and from no cause more than 
 this, has the Church of England " suffered loss" 
 during its later contests with its combined (however 
 personally irreconcileable) foes, of superstition and 
 bigotry on the one hand, and laxity and scepticism 
 on the other. She had possessed so long and so 
 peaceably her vast mass of inherited truths, that 
 she had forgotten the necessity of being able to 
 shew her title to them. This might be perhaps 
 the very best position for a triumphant Church — 
 
6 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE [LECT. 
 
 the most favourable to personal piety, and internal 
 peace. The tree of the gospel never throws out its 
 branches in such spreading and fruitful luxuriance, 
 as when, healthy within, it is checked by no blights 
 and storms from without. But this is not the 
 natural, nor perhaps, in the long run, the most 
 beneficial condition of the Church of Christ. It is 
 through much tribulation that communities as well 
 as individuals must enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven. Even in the apostolic age, whole churches 
 tottered in their fidelity, and some " left their first 
 love;" and all required "rebuke and chastening," 
 that they might learn to "be zealous and repent." 1 
 
 But when we, like the church in Sardis, were 
 called upon to " be watchful, and to strengthen the 
 things which remain, that were ready to die," we 
 had not, like them, an Apostolic monitor to warn us 
 of the way, as to whether we had turned to the 
 right hand or to the left. Hence for assaults, whe- 
 ther from the right hand or from the left they came, 
 we were equally and almost fatally unprepared. 
 Our spiritual ancestors had done our work so well 
 for us, that we fancied we had nothing left to do for 
 ourselves. We were reposing on their fields of 
 victory, instead of training ourselves, after their 
 example, for a renewal of the contest ; when, there- 
 fore, the struggle came, " was there a shield or spear 
 1 See Revelation, Chap. ii. v. I.; Chap. iii. v. 2. 
 
1.] PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH. 7 
 
 seen among forty thousand in Israel ?" 2 The Dissen- 
 ter found an argument in our laxity, the Romanist in 
 our ignorance. A race of divines had sprung up, for 
 more reasons than one, (and those abundantly suffi- 
 cient to remove from them the charge of any special 
 culpability), but little prepared for the emergency in 
 which they found themselves, perhaps somewhat 
 unexpectedly, involved. Our schools of divinity — 
 (it will not now be denied) — however pure in their 
 fountains, had become corrupted in the stream. Our 
 Professors' chairs, indeed, continued to be occupied 
 (as they have, with few exceptions, all along been 
 occupied) with men of profound and accurate erudi- 
 tion, and unwearied industry ; but they were but as 
 leaven hid in three measures of meal ; and neither 
 the distracting, however important, secular studies 
 of the pupil, nor the urgent circumstances of the 
 time, permitted their disciples to tarry till the whole 
 was leavened. They were thus like the apostolic 
 fishermen while still on the lake of Galilee, well, 
 indeed, and usefully employed, even with a view to 
 their ultimate destination, yet not in a course of 
 direct training to become fishers of men. But they 
 differed from them in this, that they were sent forth 
 to preach the word from city to city, before they 
 had companied with their master as the Apostle's 
 did, if not in his bodily presence, at least in study- 
 
 2 Judges, v. 8. 
 
8 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE [LECT. 
 
 ing his word, and weighing and digesting the full 
 purport of his mission. 3 
 
 There was a reason for this " taking," as it were, 
 " the kingdom of heaven by force," 4 which, however 
 it may be lamented, cannot justly be gainsaid. The 
 fields were already white to harvest while the 
 labourers were few. What seemed most wanting 
 was rather strong and willing hands to gather in the 
 fruits, than skilful and prudent heads to cultivate 
 the ground, and sow the seed. Numbers who were 
 
 3 It has long been lamented that the Church of England has no 
 fixed school of Divinity ; and to this we may safely attribute the 
 unscientific treatment of Doctrinal points of Theology, which is 
 too often observable, even by men of the greatest ability, and the 
 most strict, yet irregular, training. Her best divines are, at the 
 present day, necessarily, in a great measure, self-taught men : and 
 how many, left to such an instructor, unavoidably go wrong ! 
 Some take up popular and ready eloquence as an easy substitute 
 for sound knowledge. Some follow the track of a great name, 
 instead of the decisions of the Church at large ; and some venture 
 to strike out a path for themselves, and fancy they are original 
 while they are simply ignorant. Our theological professors, in 
 both our Universities, are beginning to do more towards giving 
 full efficacy to the ends of their respective foundations, than pre- 
 vious circumstances enabled them to do ; and it is to be hoped the 
 day is not far distant, when sound knowledge shall be as easily 
 attainable on questions of divinity, as it is already in all the other 
 learned professions. Much of the want of discipline in the ranks 
 of the Church lias sprung from the irregular education of her 
 
 officers. 
 
 1 Matthew, \i. 12. 
 
1.] PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH. 9 
 
 nominally of our own flock, and who had no wish 
 to stray from the fold of our Church, were standing 
 without our enclosures simply because they were 
 too narrow to contain them, or because our shep- 
 herds were too few even to extend to all a simple 
 invitation to enter. What, therefore, was in the 
 first instance required, was to lengthen the cords 
 and strengthen the stakes, and to proclaim to all, 
 in broad and general terms, the rich pastures to be 
 found within. 
 
 Our population had rapidly, and almost hopelessly 
 outgrown our means of religious instruction; and 
 utter ignorance, not only on doctrinal questions, 
 but even on first principles of faith and morality, 
 had been advancing step by step along with it. 
 Hence, therefore, the emergency of the occasion 
 perhaps almost justified the clergy in postponing 
 the nicer distinctions of creed and formulary ; and 
 in rushing boldly, without rejecting any casual 
 auxiliaries who might be willing to join them in the 
 work, y.pon the masses of glaring ignorance and 
 open depravity, with which the whole moral surface 
 of the country was overrun. They had to preach, 
 like John the Baptist — " the kingdom of heaven is 
 at hand," before they could obtain an audience 
 willing to hear, or capable of understanding the 
 mysteries of it. ' And if, in the discharge of this 
 preliminary mission, they were too ready to say, 
 
10 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE [LECT. 
 
 " would God that all the Lord's people were pro- 
 phets" 5 — if they somewhat misapplied the text — 
 " he that is not against us is on our part" 6 — if they 
 were too prone to symbolize with men of ambiguous 
 doctrines and hostile creeds in their assaults upon 
 an evil which was alike obnoxious, and common to 
 all, — their plea was that the pressing urgency of the 
 occasion swallowed up minor points of difference, 
 and that when all the kings of the nations are 
 combined against Israel, Israel may take Gibeon 
 into alliance with them, and be blameless. Thus 
 they proceeded, in simplicity and godly sincerity, to 
 preach, on the broadest basis, the more obvious and 
 practical truths of the Gospel ; in hope that the 
 wider the foundation, the firmer as well as loftier 
 might be the Temple which it was their office to 
 raise to the living God. But the excellency of a 
 foundation, as well as the beauty of a superstruc- 
 ture, consists essentially in its being " fitly framed 
 together ;" and a fatal variety of handiwork soon 
 appeared, in the gold and silver, mixed with wood, 
 hay and stubble, of which the Temple, thus erected, 
 was necessarily composed. No number of points of 
 agreement can remove an original difference, how- 
 ever small ; nor can any terms as to silence con- 
 cerning questions which rather pervade others than 
 have a separate existence, be over kept. The only 
 « Numbers, ii. 2',). ,; Mark. i\. 40. 
 
1.] PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH. 11 
 
 effect of a peace secured on such conditions, is to 
 disqualify the party sincerely observing them, for 
 war. 
 
 And this appeared in the result. The essential 
 distinctions which existed between the Anglican 
 Church and those who differed from her, were still 
 not only in existence, but in active operation, not- 
 withstanding the cloak which a conventional charity 
 had spread out to hide them ; and while she was 
 labouring for peace they were but seizing the occa- 
 sion to make themselves ready for battle. It might 
 have been honied, that that battle was one in which, 
 from the relation of the combatants to each other, 
 she had all to gain, and little to lose. It might 
 reasonably have been expected, that the Dissenter 
 would have exposed the arrogant pretensions and 
 un-catholic exclusiveness of the Romanist, while 
 the Romanist would have demonstrated the utter 
 want of all system, and discipline, and order in the 
 Dissenter ; and so the conclusion would have been, 
 a mutual accordance in the primitive discipline, 
 scriptural doctrine, and practical charity, of the 
 Church of England. But no ! — the result was alto- 
 gether contrary to this most reasonable expectation ; 
 and they seem at once to have merged their own 
 irreconcileable differences in their mutual hostility 
 towards a common friend. They say to the Church, 
 as the Egyptian did to Moses, " Who made thee a 
 
12 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE [LECT. 
 
 ruler and a judge?" — and the peacemaker among the 
 brethren is treated as one that stirreth up strife ! 
 
 In this position stands the Church of England at 
 the present time. And it cannot be denied, that 
 it is one of infinite disadvantage. One enemy has 
 gained strength by her contempt, the other by her 
 indulgence. She had supposed that the Church of 
 Rome was so beaten down and utterly demolished, 
 in former contests, as never to rise again. That 
 having been once dragged into the light, while 
 darkness was her natural element, she would open 
 her eyes no more in the sunshine of modern intelli- 
 gence and intellectual advancement. But Dagon 
 has been set once more on his feet, and he standeth ; 
 and the Church is driven hastily to search for the 
 instruments by which he was prostrated before. 
 Happily they are still preserved in the armouries 
 of our reforming Fathers ; and we have still among 
 us some who have never neglected to practise the 
 use of them, and who are prepared to apply them 
 with the skill of their original owners to the some- 
 what altered circumstances of the present time. 
 These will doubtless maintain the ground which 
 they occupy, and the character for learning and 
 intrepidity which has always hitherto attached to 
 their Church, till the rising generation, nursed in 
 their principles and animated by their example, 
 come forward in well-organized and irresistible array 
 
1.] PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH. 13' 
 
 to sweep this modification of error effectually and 
 finally from the field. 
 
 With respect to the Dissenters, the grounds of 
 our present disadvantages are altogether different, 
 though our relative position with regard to them is 
 nearly the same. There is so much in common 
 between them and ourselves, and especially in those 
 points which necessarily bring men of differing 
 opinions most into connection with each other — 
 such as an open and earnest appeal to the judgment 
 and conviction of the people at large — a mutual 
 zeal for the general diffusion of knowledge, as an 
 instrument which, rightly used, cannot but conduce 
 to the propagation of those religious principles, the 
 evidence and excellencies of which are based on 
 knowledge — and a common hostility to an ecclesi- 
 astical tyranny, which made mental darkness its 
 strong-hold, and sought to rule by superstition, 
 formality and fear, rather than intelligence, light 
 and love — these were points of so strong mutual 
 agreement, between the Church and those who 
 dissent from her communion, as led them for a time 
 to forget their essential differences in the pursuit of 
 a common and paramount good. 7 Still the day was 
 
 7 These, it is painful to have to remind the reader, are the 
 excellencies of dissent considered in a strictly religious point of 
 view, and totally disjoined from any political considerations, 
 which, in the early and best days of dissent were disclaimed, by 
 
14 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE [LeGT. 
 
 approaching, and every step in their harmonious 
 progress brought them necessarily nearer to it, when 
 the tacit conditions on which they had hitherto 
 acted in concert must be explained. A period 
 must arrive, in the cycle of all sciences and systems, 
 when a rehearsal of first and fundamental principles 
 must be resorted to, or all science and system will 
 speedily disappear. That period has already arrived 
 in the career which we have hitherto run, on so 
 many points in union with those, who differ from 
 us in so many others : we can no longer say to 
 them, as Abram did to Lot, " Let there be no strife, 
 I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my 
 herdmen and thy herdmen ; for we be brethren." 8 
 Nor do they, indeed, all stand in the same near and 
 
 every section of non-conformists, as beneath a really pious man's 
 consideration ; and her necessary connexion with the political 
 position of the country being one of their strongest, most reiterated, 
 and most plausible objections against the Church of England. 
 Now, all this is totally changed : to be a dissenter and a political 
 parti zan are now almost synonymous terms : and some degree of 
 stigma will soon, I fear, attach itself to the very designation of 
 dissenter, should any more of their leading characters follow the 
 melancholy example which a once leading name amongst them has 
 lately afforded to the astonished world, of the advocacy of the cause 
 of laxity in religious doctrine and religious education, by one whose 
 only distinction from his Christian brethren was the profession of 
 extraordinary rigour as to religious opinions. 
 
 8 Con, xiii. 8. 
 
1.] PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH. 15 
 
 recognised relationship towards us as Lot did to Abra- 
 ham — they are of various and discordant creeds — 
 " Gebal and Amnion and Amalek ; the Philistines, 
 with them that dwell at Tyre ; Assur also is joined 
 with them ; and have holpen the children of Lot." 9 
 Discordant, however, as they may be among them- 
 selves, they all agree in this : to deny to us 10 those 
 spiritual privileges, and that ecclesiastical authority, 
 both in doctrine and discipline, of which the Roman- 
 ist, though for very different reasons, would seek 
 equally to deprive us. 
 
 Hence, therefore, as I began with asserting, the 
 contest is about foundations. And well, perhaps, 
 it may ultimately be found to be for the Church, 
 
 9 Psal. lxxxiii. 7, 8. 
 10 This will not be assented to, by some classes of dissenters, 
 who will maintain that they do not hesitate to allow to the Church 
 of England this authority over her own people. But to limit the 
 Church thus, is to deny her Catholicity. Such rules of the 
 Church as we hold to be essential, we hold also to be universally 
 applicable, and to be binding alike upon the whole visible Church 
 of Christ ; and if it could be shewn that the Church of England 
 maintains as vital, doctrines which are not so applicable, she would 
 be bound, on her own professed principles, to retract them. Catho- 
 licity is her profession ; and for any sect of Christians to make for 
 their body rules by which they are necessarily withdrawn from her 
 community, is to limit her power, and deny her truth, however it 
 may appear, at first sight, to leave her at full liberty to enjoy and 
 disseminate her religious opinions. If she is not Catholic, she is 
 nothing. 
 
16 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE [LiECT. 
 
 however startling and momentous may be the 
 immediate crisis, that the questions now in agita- 
 tion are of such a nature, that no man of a deeply 
 religious spirit, whatever may be his opinions, can 
 be indifferent as to the issue. Minor points of 
 controversy men of pious minds may be content to 
 waive, the loss in christian charity being greater 
 than the possible gain in the establishment of truth ; 
 and truth itself becomes undervalued, when the 
 points in question are of so trivial a character that 
 the disputant, when defeated, can always fall safely 
 back upon the main question ; or when the discus- 
 sion has been so long protracted, that the world 
 has had time to discover, by experience, of how 
 little practical importance is the decision of the 
 controversy. But when the question is one of 
 fundamentals, the case is different. Here all men 
 feel the importance of the result ; and none can 
 have so much reason to rejoice in such a decisive, 
 however critical, conjuncture of affairs, as those 
 who believe sincerely, that the truth is with them. 
 For though the saying, that " Truth is great and will 
 prevail," is, unfortunately, not a text of scripture, 
 but is, in too many instances, contradicted both by 
 the divine Word, and by human experience ; yet, 
 with respect to the Church of Christ, " we have the 
 more sure word of prophecy," 11 that " the gates of 
 
 i» 2 Peter, 1. 10. 
 
1.] PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH. 17 
 
 bell shall not prevail against it. 12 Though, therefore, 
 the victory ma} 7 be long doubtful, it will not at last 
 be given to error ; whether it shall be assigned to 
 any particular generation of the church, will depend 
 upon the use which that generation makes of the 
 opportunities and graces assigned to it ; — it being 
 the peculiar attribute of the Almighty, to make 
 the final accomplishment of his own purposes con- 
 sistent with the administration of equitable and 
 moral justice, both to individuals and communities. 13 
 We see nothing in the aspect of things around us 
 12 Matthew xvi. 18. 
 13 It is melancholy to reflect of how little value are the lessons of 
 experience, to churches and nations as well as to individuals. It 
 may he well that the experiment of joining hand in hand with an 
 opponent even by advancing over dangerous ground to meet him, 
 should have been once more tried ; for it proves at least the mo- 
 deration of the Church, and her anxiety for that greatest of all 
 earthly as well as spiritual blessings, religious peace. But we 
 have no scriptural authority for, or example of winning men over 
 to the gospel by conceding one iota of the truth; and when 
 the system was tried before, in the Church of England, though 
 conducted with infinitely more skill and judgment than the ill- 
 considered and irregular compromises of the present day, the 
 failure of the pious attempt was even more conspicuous than it is 
 now. Jeremy Taylor, in his invaluable tract on " the Liberty 
 of Prophesying," has approached in his concessions the extreme 
 verge of liberality ; though he has perhaps taken up no positions 
 which are absolutely untenable, yet, to be maintained, they must 
 constantly be considered as the very slenderest ties which can, in 
 the view of the author, hold a visible church together. A small 
 portion of the admirable abstract of Bishop Heber will give the 
 
 B 
 
18 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE [LECT. 
 
 to make us for a moment doubtful as to the final 
 issue of the great struggle between truth and 
 error ; while if we see reason to fear that the vic- 
 tory may not come in our day, we perceive, at the 
 same time, that the blame, and therefore the 
 punishment, may justly belong to ourselves. The 
 course of the external wave is often in one direc- 
 tion, while the main tide is stealing silently on 
 
 reader a clear insight into the bearing of his general argument. 
 " In pursuit of this great scheme of general union, he begins 
 by proving that " the duty of faith is completed in believing the 
 articles of the apostles' creed," the composition of which, (with the 
 exception of the article of Christ's descent into hell,) he ascribes 
 to the apostles themselves, or to apostolical men in the first ages 
 of Christianity, and which, as it contains nothing superfluous or 
 which does not relate to those truths " which directly constitute the 
 parts and work of our redemption," so must it have been necessarily 
 esteemed sufficiently minute by its composers, and by that primi- 
 tive church which adopted it as "the characteristic note of a chris- 
 tian from a heretic, or a Jew or an infidel." He admits, indeed, 
 that it is neither unlawful nor unsafe for any of the rulers of the 
 church, or any other competent judge, to extend his own creed to 
 any further propositions which he may deduce from any of the 
 articles of the apostles' creed. But he denies that any such deduc- 
 tion or exposition (unless it be such a thing as is at first evident to 
 all), is fit to be pressed on others as an article of faith, or can 
 " bind a person of a differing persuasion to subscribe under pain of 
 losing his faith or being a heretic." " For," he urges, " it is a 
 demonstration that nothing can be necessary to be believed undei 
 pain of damnation, but such propositions <>l which it is certain that 
 God hath spoken and taught them to us, and of which it is certain 
 that this is their sense and purpose. For, if the sense he uncertain, 
 
1.] PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH. If) 
 
 against it ; and the gracious influences of the Gos- 
 pel, in the midst of every discouragement, are, as 
 we believe, gradually, but surely, ameliorating the 
 opinions and hearts of men, preparatory to a wider 
 extension and more open establishment of the 
 visible kingdom of Christ. The very circumstance 
 that the contest is now about essentials, is not of 
 itself a disheartening consideration ; for it is only 
 thus that any general agreement on fundamental 
 questions can ever be effected ; and it ought rather 
 to be a stimulus to the advocates of the truth to 
 seize upon and improve an opportunity of accom- 
 plishing great and permanent good, which, if now 
 neglected, may not soon be again vouchsafed. 
 
 we can no more be obliged to believe it in a certain sense, than we 
 are to believe it at all, if it were not certain that God delivered it. 
 But, if it be only certain that God spake it, and not certain to what 
 sense, our faith of it is to be as indeterminate as its sense, and it 
 can be no other in the nature of the thing, nor is it consonant to 
 God's justice to believe of him that he can or will require more." 
 And he concludes the section with a quotation from Tertullian, 
 that, if the integrity and unity of this rule of faith be preserved, 
 " in all other things men may take a liberty of enlarging their 
 knowledges and prophesyings, according as they are assisted by 
 the grace of God." 
 
 Taylor's work, conceived and acted upon in this comprehensive 
 spirit, might have been expected to answer the holy end proposed 
 in it. Yet it is well known that it neither obtained toleration to 
 his own church, then in persecution, nor did the principles which 
 it advocates secure peace for her, either within or without, when 
 she once more regained the ascendancy . 
 
20 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE [LECT. 
 
 To such advocates of the truth, and who are as 
 well prepared as they may be disposed for the con- 
 troversy, we must be content to leave the discharge 
 of a duty, which it is so much easier a task to 
 recommend than to execute ; confining ourselves to 
 an undertaking, which our office seems especially 
 to indicate — that of tracing, among contrariety of 
 opinions, a simple outline of the truth. This is at 
 least the most profitable and peaceful, if not the 
 most convincing method, of conducting any argu- 
 ment on religious questions. It is best, for our- 
 selves, to recount the broad and substantial articles 
 which we do believe, in order to ascertain the pre- 
 cise limits where debateable points of faith begin. 
 And it is best for those who differ from us, that such 
 views as we hold to be essential, should be distinctly 
 and unequivocally announced, in order that they 
 may neither be induced to join us on mistaken con- 
 ditions, nor continue to differ from us on points 
 concerning which no substantial difference actually 
 exists. This openness of dealing has, in fact, been 
 always the characteristic of our Church. In her 
 creeds, articles, and liturgies, she has expressed the 
 substance of her faith with a clearness which it is 
 impossible to mistake. And well would it be for 
 many of her opponents if, in this, they would follow 
 her example; and instead of making the very 
 essence of their belief to consist almost entirely in 
 
1.] PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH. 21 
 
 dissent from her doctrine, 14 would so specifically state 
 the points of their difference or agreement with us, 
 as to afford an opportunity, at least, of bringing 
 such questions to a decisive, if not satisfactory 
 issue. 
 
 That such a consummation is desirable, no man 
 of any religious creed can doubt. When scripture 
 speaks of the general character which ought to 
 attach to the visible Church of Christ, there is no 
 virtue more strongly enforced than that of unity, 
 nor any sin more severely condemned than that of 
 schism. 15 Our Saviour's last emphatic prayer for 
 the members of his collective Church was, that they 
 
 14 It seems to be a great disadvantage to the Dissenters them- 
 selves that they should have constantly to exert the best energies of 
 their minds rather in opposing the Church than establishing the 
 truth. Surely a life-time should not be exhausted in proving a 
 negative — no man can hope to be saved upon a non credo. Let 
 those among our opponents who are sincerely anxious for truth, 
 never state their objections to our creed without explicitly pro- 
 pounding their own. Who now hears any thing of the Racovian 
 Catechism from the Socinian controversialist ? He wishes it to be 
 thought that every man among them is his own interpreter of 
 scripture, — than which it would probably be not easy to find a 
 worse. This is uniting the worst evils of Popery and Latitudina- 
 rianism ; it is " every man his own Pope," and that Pope without 
 Rule or Council ! It is of infinitely more value to every individual 
 to ascertain truth than to confute error ; the one concerns others, 
 the other affects ourselves. 
 
 15 1 Cor. i. 10. 1 Cor. xi. 18. 1 Cor. xii. 25. 
 
22 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE [LECT. 
 
 all might be one, even as He ami his Father were 
 one. lG Now though doubtless the spirit of this 
 unity is perfectly consistent with much variety of 
 opinion on questions which minister little to godly 
 edification ; yet it cannot be denied that it is the 
 duty of every individual Christian to advance towards 
 the fulfilment of it to the letter ; and not to deviate, 
 except upon strong and well-considered evidence, 
 even from the minuter rules and ordinances of the 
 Catholic Church of Christ. It is indeed a very 
 great, even though it be a very common error, to 
 suppose, that because a doctrine is indefinite, it is 
 therefore indifferent. Such a notion strikes at the 
 root of some of the most essential truths of scrip- 
 ture; which, momentous as they are, are often con- 
 veyed to us rather by implication, and through 
 the processes of sound induction, than in the lan- 
 guage of direct revelation. And indeed, all truth, 
 whether natural or revealed, which goes beyond 
 mere matters of fact, and partakes of the nature of 
 the abstract, the conditional, or the infinite, must, 
 at the same time, partake of that indefinite charac- 
 ter which belongs at once to its own nature, and the 
 varying and limited faculties of man. But it does 
 not on that account become indifferent ; nor does 
 the right, however feeble, apprehension of it, be- 
 come less essential to our salvation. The text 
 
 10 See John, xvii. 1 1. at/Jin. 
 
1.] PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH. 23 
 
 pronounces, in strong and reiterated terms of 
 memorable condemnation, the sentence of those 
 who preach any other gospel than that which 
 Paul preached. Yet, though nothing can be 
 clearer than the punishment, nothing can be more 
 indefinite than the offence. And the object of this 
 appears to have been, to shew that no wilful 
 deviation from the strict truth would be pardoned — 
 that our obedience to the revealed will of God 
 admits not of limitation or degree — and that in the 
 minutest parts of the Gospel there is the truth, con- 
 cerning which it at least behoves " every man to be 
 fully persuaded in his own mind." 17 
 
 With these views, then, with regard to the pre- 
 sent aspect of religious affairs ; and with the humble 
 hope of doing no dis-service to the cause of truth 
 by adopting such a course of argument, — we propose 
 to take a cursory (for it can only be a cursory) view 
 of some of the main questions on which the integrity 
 and even existence of the Catholic Church may be 
 said to hinge, and in which all minor debates and 
 controversies will be found ultimately to merge. 
 Our attention, then, shall in the first instance, be 
 directed to the foundation of all revealed truth — 
 the inspiration and authority of scripture. Upon 
 this will naturally follow an enquiry into the neces- 
 sity and validity of Creeds. Then, as a modification 
 
 17 Romans, xiv. 5. 
 
24 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE [LECT. 
 
 and extension of the same principle, we are led to 
 the consideration of Articles of Religion. This 
 brings us directly to the subject of Rituals and Li- 
 turgies; and our inquiry would not be complete, 
 without some explication of the sin of Schism ; and 
 the authority which the Catholic Church ought to 
 possess, to guard itself from external injury, and to 
 propagate its doctrines by education or other public 
 instruction. All these are vital questions ; they 
 are all the subject of much doubt and earnest debate; 
 and concerning each there is the truth, to which we 
 may doubtless be permitted to approximate, by the 
 help of sincere and sober investigation. The learn- 
 ing and research with which each of these subjects 
 has been discussed, must be left to be sought in 
 those voluminous and standard works where they 
 are readily to be found. It is with results rather 
 than processes that we are at present compelled to 
 deal ; and if from some patient and unbiassed 
 thought on topics concerning which absolute cer- 
 tainty is not attainable, we can in some measure 
 simplify these complex questions, and at least ascer- 
 tain the strong and weak points of each of them, 
 such a summary view as we now propose will neither 
 be deficient in interest nor in practical utility. May, 
 then, the blessing of God rest upon these our 
 labours ! May I be enabled to speak in such lan- 
 guage as best becomes the momentous import of 
 
1.] PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH. 25 
 
 these questions — and the weakness of him who thus 
 ventures to approach them ; and may you be dispos- 
 ed to hear in such a spirit, as, while it may most 
 profit by these inquiries, will be the readiest to 
 pardon such deficiences as spring rather from the 
 feebleness of the advocate, than the want of import- 
 ance in his subject, or of truth in his conclusions. 
 
 END OF LECTURE I. 
 
LECTURE II 
 
 AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 DIFFERENCE AS TO CLAIMS TO AUTHORITY AND INSPIRATION BETWEEN 
 THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS— THE OLD TESTAMENT LITERALLY A 
 LAW, BOTH AS TO INSTRUMENT, WRITTEN LAWS, AND ADMINISTRATORS 
 OF IT -THE NEW, IN EACH OF THESE RESPECTS, LESS DEFINITELY SO— 
 THE OLD LAYING MORE POSITIVE AND EXPRESS CLAIMS TO DIRECT 
 INSPIRATION THAN THE NEW— NO INFERIORITY IN THE NEW ON THESE 
 ACCOUNTS PROVED, FIRST, BECAUSE THESE DIFFERENCES ARE THOSE 
 OF OMISSION— THOSE PRINCIPLES IN THE OLD WHICH ARE CONTINUED 
 IN THE NEW, ARE NOT EXPRESSED BECAUSE IMPLIED— SECONDLY, BE- 
 CAUSE EVEN CHANGES MAY BE ENFORCED BY TYPE AS STRONGLY AS 
 BY DIRECT PRECEPT— THIS ILLUSTRATED BY THE CHANGE OF THE SAB- 
 BATH DAY, AND ALSO BY THE CONTINUANCE OF THE PRIESTHOOD, AND 
 THE LEGAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL, UNDER FORMS ADAPTED TO THE 
 NEW CONDITION OF THINGS-SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 Hebrews, viii. 4, 5. 
 
 There are priests that offer gifts according to the law : who serve unto 
 the example and shadoiv of heavenly things ; as Moses ivas admonished 
 of God when he tvas about to make the tabernacle ; for, See, saith he, 
 that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the 
 mount. 
 
 In turning to the consideration of the Authority 
 and Inspiration of the Scriptures, it is important to 
 observe, that there are sundry points of great 
 apparent difference, in these respects, between the 
 Old and New Testaments ; which, though not 
 generally dwelt upon, seem material to a distinct 
 understanding of the question, and are too obvious 
 to escape the notice of even the most hasty enquirer. 
 The terms Old and New Law — Old and New 
 Testament, or Covenant, so often used in connexion, 
 suggest a correspondence between them, in form 
 and character, as well as object, of which few traces 
 are discoverable on examination. The Old Tes- 
 tament certainly supplies us with a Law, according 
 to the strict meaning of the term. An instrument 
 
30 AUTHORITY OF [LECT. 
 
 is there selected by the Almighty, for the purpose 
 of communicating this law to his creatures, who is 
 authorized and accredited for the office by undeni- 
 able credentials. This law deals not in generals, 
 but in particulars the most definite and minute. 
 With respect to moral acts, it lays down specific 
 rules of conduct, which, at least in their direct 
 bearings, are plain and intelligible to all. And 
 with respect to acts ceremonial and civil, it details 
 every thing to be done or avoided with a studied 
 clearness of language, which might indeed be 
 neglected, but could not possibly be misunderstood. 
 Again, all these laws were written laws, (some, in 
 fact, by the finger of God himself, which betokens 
 the weight and importance of even their verbal 
 form,) and all by the hand of the immediate Law- 
 giver, in a book whose integrity was to be most 
 carefully guarded throughout all generations, 18 and 
 with the additional security of the most severe 
 denunciations against those who should hereafter 
 presume to "add thereto, or diminish from it." 
 Nor did its correspondence with laws in general, 
 rest here. Administrators of this law were likewise 
 appointed ; and specified witli as much minuteness, 
 and protected from corruption or change with the 
 same solemn sanctions, as the law itself. The 
 order, and mutual subordination, and several offices 
 i s See Deut. xvii. 18. L9 
 
II.] SCRIPTURE. 31 
 
 of the priesthood, were all most distinctly pre- 
 scribed. They had their rules of conduct in the 
 discharge of their administration (and these rules 
 likewise well known to those over whom they pre- 
 sided) from which they could not deviate without 
 the most serious punishments. Here, then, was a 
 law complete in every requisite : an infallible law- 
 giver — a written and unchangeable statute — and a 
 fixed and responsible administration of it. 
 
 But, as far as this deiiniteness of character 
 extends, we discover little corresponding to it in 
 the new Law of the Gospel. We find, indeed, a 
 Lawgiver, of a much more exalted character, and 
 entrusted with powers far less limited and defined, 
 than was Moses. But the mode of legislation 
 adopted by him differed in almost every respect from 
 his, who was, in several important characteristics, 
 his forerunner and prototype. He propounded no 
 system to his followers at all approaching, in form, 
 to our notions of a legal code. He not only did 
 not write, or any where direct his disciples to 
 write, 19 any systematic account of the rules of his 
 
 J 9 Of course this assertion will be understood in its literal and 
 broad acceptation, that no writer of the New Testament has in- 
 Conned us that he composed the volume of which he is the author 
 at the express command of his Lord. Nor is any reference made 
 to the book of Revelation — a work sui generis. We can well con- 
 ceive that, in the forty days after the resurrection, during which 
 period our Lord had frequent and familiar intercourse with his 
 
32 AUTHORITY OF [LECT. 
 
 revelation, or the principles and precepts by which 
 his followers were to be guided, but it is only in 
 the most incidental shape possible, that we are 
 enabled to collect what these principles and pre- 
 cepts were. The first four Books of what we style 
 the New Testament, consist principally of memoirs 
 of his life, with miscellaneous notices of his doctrines, 
 written by men, who nowhere say, like Moses, that 
 they wrote at the express command of their Master, 
 or that their works contain all that it is necessary to 
 know on the subjects which they profess to treat. 
 The book of the Acts is, in like manner, a short 
 record of some leading events in the early history 
 of his Church, and the lives of a few of his disciples, 
 written as it professes, in continuation of a work, 
 which had been undertaken rather to remind him 
 to whom it was addressed of the main facts of 
 which he had previously been informed, than to 
 comprise a full and complete narrative of the early 
 fortunes of the infant Church of Christ. Again, 
 with respect to the Epistles, they would seem to 
 be the most accidental productions in the world. 
 
 Apostles, and gave them full instructions with regard to every thing 
 relating to the kingdom of God, this duty, of recording its history 
 and doctrines, would not fail to he prescribed. But such prescription 
 is not asserted by them in their works ; it is rather, like many other 
 important truths, taken for granted; it being doubtless concluded, 
 and reasonably so, by the Apostles, that all who held their writ- 
 ings to be inspired, would hold, likewise, that they were written 
 from n divine mofirr. 
 
II.] SCRIPTURE. 33 
 
 Some addressed to local Churches, and some to 
 individuals ; apparently occasioned by slight, and 
 not a few of them by forgotten occurrences ; mostly 
 confining themselves to the point immediately in 
 hand, and seldom indeed entering formally and 
 systematically on the great and fundamental prin- 
 ciples of the gospel — not arrogating to themselves 
 the character of being all-sufficient teachers and 
 expounders of the faith — making no appeals to 
 posterity — and not distinctly professing to have any 
 object beyond the immediate occasion which called 
 them forth. Neither St. Paul, nor any other writer 
 of the New Testament, gives any precept to his 
 readers that his works shall be accurately copied, 
 or carefully treasured up, as a possession for ever to 
 the Church, and as a future standard of religious 
 faith and practice. 
 
 And as with the Law, so with the administration 
 of it. We have no family of men set apart, as in 
 the Mosaic dispensation, for the purpose of exclu- 
 sively guarding or expounding this new religious 
 system ; there is as little minuteness in the execu- 
 tion as in the legislation. And though an order of 
 men to whom an analogous and perpetual authority 
 is committed, be carefully instituted, yet their func- 
 tions are apparently as indefinite, as the law of 
 which they are the constituted guardians and inter- 
 preters. 
 
34 AUTHORITY OF [LECT. 
 
 A difference, similar to this, may be traced 
 between the authority and inspiration severally 
 claimed by the writers under the old and new dis- 
 pensations. Moses never forgets, and never permits 
 his readers for one moment to forget, that he is 
 constantly speaking, acting, and writing under the 
 immediate suggestive influence of the Almighty. 
 " Thus saith the Lord," occurs at every turn. He 
 is not satisfied with generally asserting his divine 
 commission, but, with every separate revelation 
 with which he is intrusted, he minutely records 
 the manner in which it was communicated, and 
 generally the very words in which it was conveyed. 
 This is likewise true of every succeeding prophet. 
 With perhaps the single exception of David, who 
 sometimes mingles together his human and divine 
 inspirations, the prophet distinctly separates his 
 own language from that which he propounds to 
 his hearers as coming from " the mouth of the 
 Lord." He does not stand forth as a man rendered 
 wiser and better than his audience by the general 
 influence of the Spirit, but as one to whom some 
 fact is revealed or office committed concerning 
 which he is but a humble and passive instrument. 
 Apart from his duty, he is an ordinary man. 
 
 Now here again, we observe a striking difference 
 between the writers of the Old and New Testa- 
 ments. The authors of the Gospels and Acts hardly 
 
II.] SCRIPTURE. 35 
 
 appear at all in their personal characters ; and, with 
 the exception of St. John, afford no internal clue to 
 their identity. They lay no distinct claim to in- 
 spiration; they give few hints as to whence they 
 derived their knowledge of what they record. And 
 the writers of the Epistles, also, rather take for 
 granted that none of their readers would dispute 
 their divine authority, than attempt, for one moment, 
 to vindicate it to themselves. With the exception of 
 St. Paul, and there are obvious reasons, in his his- 
 tory, why he should be an exception, 20 they all rather 
 imply than assert that they " had the Spirit of God." 
 It is not once declared by them that they write by 
 the command, and under the immediate superin- 
 tendence of the Holy Ghost — or that what they 
 record is all that is necessary for man to know — or 
 that what they write, it is a religious duty of the 
 church to reverence and preserve. Unlike the 
 
 20 " St. Paul, of all the Apostles of Christ, met with the greatest 
 opposition and contempt from the false Judaizing apostles, that 
 troubled the Church in his time. The true reason whereof was, 
 that he first of all openly and everywhere proclaimed the utter 
 abolition of the Mosaic law, both as to Jews and Gentiles. But 
 the pretence seems to be this, that he was none of the twelve apostles, 
 called by Christ himself when on earth ; nor afterwards duly elected 
 in the room of any of that number, as Matthias was : but an odd 
 thirteenth apostle, thrusting himself into that office, they knew not 
 how, or by what authority. For the relation of Christ's glorious 
 appearance to him from heaven, and sending him to preach his 
 
36 AUTHORITY OF [LECT. 
 
 writers of the Old Testament, they seem to trust 
 entirely to their readers' knowledge of their personal 
 character and office, for the reception and reverence 
 which may be given to their writings. 
 
 It cannot be denied, then, that in these two res- 
 pects, both as to their authoritative and legal form, 
 and their internal claim of being the immediate 
 result of divine inspiration, there is, apparently, a 
 wide difference between the books of the Old, and 
 those of the New Testament. It may be possible 
 to account for this difference without conceding any 
 inferiority in either of these respects, of the New 
 Testament to the Old. 
 
 In the first place then, it will be perceived, that 
 the differences which we have remarked upon, 
 are chiefly those of omission. The same fulness of 
 detail, accuracy of form, and removal of all ground 
 of mistake, are not observed in the New as in the 
 Old Testament. And the first and most obvious 
 
 gospel among the gentiles, (which indeed was a higher call than 
 any of the other apostles had,) donhtless they rejected as a mere 
 
 fiction Against these calumniators he strenuously vindicated 
 
 his divine mission and authority. He excellently and fully 
 demonstrates, that he was not in any respect inferior to the very 
 chiefest of the aposties, neither in his sufferings, nor in his miracles, 
 nor in his generous charity and unwearied diligence in the discharge 
 of his office, nor in the success of it ; nay, that in the three things 
 last mentioned he exceeded all the other apostles; nor in the point 
 of revelations made known to him." Bull. Sermon 4. Works. 
 
II.] SCRIPTURE. 37 
 
 reason for this is, that they were not necessary. 
 Christianity is not a new religion, but a more com- 
 plete revelation of one already partially disclosed ; 
 nor is the form which it assumes, or the books in 
 which it is recorded, intended to supersede, but to 
 continue and complete those which had already been 
 long known to the world. Now that distinctness 
 of statement, which is absolutely necessary in the 
 promulgation of any new system, is by no means re- 
 quisite in a scheme which assumes an earlier one as its 
 substantial basis, and general outline. In this latter 
 case, the minuteness required is rather to specify 
 what is not approved and adopted, than to point out 
 what is continued ; as all bequests in a human tes- 
 tament are held good and binding, unless specially 
 revoked in the codicil which may be appended to it. 
 Taking then this view of the Gospel, with reference 
 to the Law of Moses, we are not surprised, but, on 
 the contrary, hold it to be just what we ought to 
 expect, that no allusion should be made to those 
 points in which the analogy between them is not 
 broken ; and maintain that analogy to be even the 
 more binding, because the new law has not thought 
 it necessary to guard against the possibility of ne- 
 glecting it. Thus the writers, the books, and the 
 priesthood of the Gospel, are not fenced about with 
 the same safeguards, and recommended by the same 
 
38 AUTHORITY OF [LeCT. 
 
 irresistible testimony, as those of the Old Testament; 
 for they were built upon the old as a foundation — 
 were addressed to those who were perfectly familiar 
 with it, and were sure to be at once admitted in 
 all their pretensions, provided the substantial grounds 
 of their claims to credit could not be impugned. 
 The Epistle to the Hebrews shews, at once, how far 
 this analogy between the two covenants might be 
 carried, and how unnecessary the writer held it to 
 pursue the argument through all its branches. 
 
 But it may reasonably be alleged, that though 
 this argument goes far towards accounting for the 
 omission of all notice of the continuance of such 
 portions of the Old Covenant, as are alike essential 
 to both ; yet it makes little towards the justifica- 
 tion of those silent changes which were adopted, 
 and in matters, too, as we have seen, of very consi- 
 derable moment, in the construction of the New 
 Covenant. To account for this, and to shew that 
 these changes were not only justifiable, but even 
 compulsory ; and so much so, as to supersede any 
 necessity for even alluding to, or recording them, let 
 us consider that the Mosaic Law was the type, as 
 well as the commencement, of the Christian system, 
 and that it prefigured it, not only in what was to be 
 continued, but also in what was to be done away. 
 Now a typo is of the nature of a precept. The 
 
II.] SCRIPTURE. 39 
 
 Almighty, in the primitive ages of the world, com- 
 manded as often by signs as by words ; and when 
 these signs had their accomplishment, men were 
 as much bound to fulfil the anti-type, to the very 
 letter, as they had previously been to fulfil the out- 
 ward sign, or obey any other distinct command of 
 God. Hence these changes to which we have alluded, 
 were made silently, and without express direction ; 
 because they w T ere necessarily implied in that out- 
 ward form to which they succeeded, and had been 
 already included in the command which established 
 that which went before. To illustrate this by an 
 example. It has always been matter of some sur- 
 prise that a change so great as that of the Sabbath 
 from the last to the first day of the week, should 
 have taken place, without any express command on 
 the subject, or even any distinct record of the trans- 
 action, in the word of God. We find there, indeed, 
 that the change did, and that very early, take place 
 in the Church ; but it is always alluded to, rather 
 as a matter of course, than as being, as in truth it 
 was, a momentous deviation from the precept of the 
 Law. Much more satisfactory reasons can be as- 
 signed for the change itself, than for this profound 
 silence concerning it. But we seem to perceive one 
 in the preceptive character of a type, which will 
 account for the non-necessity of prescribing or re- 
 cording this change, by the utter impossibility of 
 
40 AUTHORITY OF [LECT. 
 
 avoiding of it. 21 The observance of the Sabbath, as 
 is well known, was imposed on the Jews for a two- 
 fold reason : they were commanded to observe one 
 day in seven, to commemorate the creation of the 
 world — they were commanded to observe a particu- 
 lar day in seven, to commemorate their own deli- 
 verance, on that particular day, from the bondage of 
 Egypt. When Moses rehearses the Law to the 
 people, he adds, after the fourth commandment — 
 " And remember that thou wast a servant in the 
 land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought 
 thee out hence, through a mighty hand, and by a 
 stretched out arm : therefore the Lord thy God 
 commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day." 22 As 
 
 21 There are, of course, various other good and cogent reasons 
 for this change, which are familiar to every student of divinity. 
 This is here assigned, not as heing the sole, hut as a sufficient 
 reason. 
 
 22 Dcut. v. 15. Bishop Horsley, in one of his admirable 
 sermons on the Sabhath, has the following remark : " It has been 
 imagined that a change was made of the original day by Moses — 
 that the Sabbath was transferred by him from the day on which it 
 had been originally kept in the patriarchal ;iges, to that on which 
 the Israelites left Egypt. The conjecture is not unnatural ; but it 
 is, in my judgment, a mere conjecture, of which the sacred history 
 affords neither proof nor confutation." The change of the day by 
 Moses may be doubtful ; but had the Bishop sufficiently weighed 
 the force of the text above quoted, he would not have hesitated to 
 allow, that the reason assigned by him for the observance of the 
 particular day, was to commemorate the Egyptian deliverance. 
 
II.] SCRIPTURE. 41 
 
 far then as the first reason for observing the Sab- 
 bath, and therefore one da) T in seven, is concerned, 
 it is immutable ; as far as regards the second, which 
 specified the particular day, it was not only mutable, 
 but inasmuch as the reason on which it was found- 
 ed was itself a type of something to follow, it 
 was necessarily to be changed when the anti-type 
 arrived. The deliverance from Egypt fore-shadowed 
 the deliverance of all mankind from more than 
 Egyptian bondage ; and as the commemoration of 
 the former of necessity passed away when the actual 
 deliverance had been completed, so was the day on 
 which it was celebrated as necessarily changed, for 
 that on which the real and effectual transaction took 
 place. If it would have been absurd to continue to 
 offer the Paschal Lamb after the real Lamb of God 
 had been slain, which took away the sins of the 
 world ; it would have been not less so, to observe 
 the day on which their earthly deliverance took 
 place, when the day of their spiritual liberation — 
 that of the resurrection of our Lord — was known. 
 The type was, in this case, a precept ; and com- 
 manded the change as clearly, as, in the first instance, 
 it had commanded the observance. 
 
 The same mode of reasoning may be applied, and 
 with undiminished force, to the two other important 
 differences between the Old Law and the New, 
 to which we have specially alluded ; viz., the estab- 
 
42 AUTHORITY OF [LECT. 
 
 lishment of fixed administrators, or a prescribed 
 succession in the Priesthood ; and also the strictly 
 legal form in which the writings of the respective 
 legislators under the two systems are couched. In 
 both these cases, a silent but essential change took 
 place under the scheme of the Gospel ; and the 
 principle which we have just laid down, will shew 
 that this silence arose not from the indifference of 
 the matter, but the very contrary — from its being- 
 taken for granted that the changes were absolutely 
 necessary, to maintain the identity of character 
 which existed between the two systems. 
 
 With respect to the Priesthood. The Law of 
 Moses was of such a character, as necessarily to 
 require a considerable number of men, and those of 
 various grades and offices, to put it into execution. 
 The services of the Temple, at once incessant and 
 multifarious, could only be conducted by a large body 
 of public servants, well trained for their several 
 offices, and enabled to devote the whole of their time 
 to the duties of their ministry, by absolute freedom 
 from all secular cares and occupations. Hence the 
 propriety of an office so minute and complicated 
 being hereditary in a particular family, and the 
 necessity, also, for a public provision for their 
 maintenance. 23 And though that department of 
 
 23 That provision, we may remark, was very equitably propor- 
 tioned to their numbers— the secular tribes contributing one-tenth 
 
II.] SCRIPTURE. 43 
 
 the priestly office which had reference to the 
 public instruction of the people, (if it ever strictly 
 belonged to the priesthood), seems to have been 
 encroached upon in our Saviour's day, by the inter- 
 ference of the Scribes and Pharisees, yet the ceremo- 
 nial observances of the Law were still, as at first, 
 committed entirely to that order ; neither the Baby- 
 lonian captivity, nor successive subjugation to foreign 
 powers, having been able to obliterate the Jewish 
 accuracy of genealogical descent. Indeed, an here- 
 ditary priesthood was essential to the very existence 
 of the Jewish Law. Now in this, as in other respects, 
 the law was a type of the gospel: and here, also, as 
 in the case of the Sabbath, not only implied its own 
 cessation, but indicated, nay enforced the precise 
 character of its substitute. With the change in the 
 law came a strictly analogous change in the admi- 
 nistration of it. The religious rites, and ceremonial 
 observances passed away, when they had been ful- 
 filled in the advent of Him to whose office and 
 ministry they all referred : and with them ceased all 
 necessity for the peculiar qualifications of that order, 
 whose principal duty it was to administer them. 
 Though, while none but Jews were admissible to the 
 full privileges of the law, it was evident that none 
 but a Jewish family could be permitted to put it into 
 
 of their produce to the support of those who ministered to them in 
 spiritual things. 
 
44 AUTHORITY OF [LECT. 
 
 execution, 24 yet when that law became so expanded 
 as to include the whole world, it was equally clear 
 that this condition must at once be obsolete, and the 
 .priesthood, by strict analogy, become co-extensive 
 with the covenant. But that the order itself should 
 absolutely cease and pass away, >vas no more con- 
 templated, than that the promises, and prophecies, 
 and spiritual meaning of the law should fail. From 
 that law neither one jot, not one tittle shall pass, 
 till all be fulfilled, — but the administration of the 
 law, as now spread out and fully revealed in the 
 Gospel, can never be fulfilled, till sin and error and 
 ignorance be rooted out of the world, and there 
 shall be new heavens and a new earth wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness. Neither, then, can the 
 priesthood of such a law pass away. 
 
 And this view of the subject is strengthened, if 
 not confirmed, by the conduct of our blessed Sa- 
 viour, in instituting the outward ceremonies of his 
 
 24 "The only or chief cause (if I am not deceived) why God 
 restrained the Priestly Function to one Tribe, was for a sign and 
 hand of the restraint of his Church to one People. For as the 
 Church cannot he without the sacred Function of the Ministry ; 
 so likewise the condition thereof must follow the condition of the 
 Ministry. As long, therefore, as none could he a Priest hut of the 
 Trihe of Levi, so long there could be no Church hut of that People 
 whereof Levi was a Trihe. A point of Sacred Policy, so to order 
 the choice of Ministers, as shall be most fit to uphold the present 
 state of an established Church." Mede, Disc. 35. 
 
II.] SCRIPTURE. 45 
 
 own religion. He strictly enjoins that the Sacra- 
 ments shall be perpetually administered in his 
 church, without, at the same time, specifying, except 
 in general terms, by whom that administration shall 
 be performed. Now, as the observance of a perpe- 
 tual rite necessarily pre-supposes the existence of a 
 perpetual order of men who shall be responsible for 
 the execution of it, nothing would seem to be 
 clearer than that, in his intention, a modified form 
 of priesthood followed as necessarily upon the 
 expiration of the old, as his own significant and 
 spiritual rites did upon the now lifeless ceremonies 
 of the typical law of Moses. We can no more 
 conceive a breach in the succession of the priest- 
 hood, than a suspension of the administration of 
 the sacraments. 
 
 Lastly, with respect to the deviation from the 
 strictly legal form which is observable in the code 
 of the Gospel, when compared with the law of 
 Moses. This difference not only arises necessarily 
 out of the different character of the two dispensa- 
 tions, but is typified and shadowed forth in the Old 
 Testament itself. The formal regulations, and pre- 
 cise rules of the Mosaic Law did not, as it would 
 appear, meet all the wants of the Jewish people ; 
 and more especially when they began to come in 
 contact with the mightier nations around them, and 
 more complex rules of action were required, which, 
 
4(j AUTHORITY OF [LeCT. 
 
 though doubtless comprehended in the law, were not 
 easily deducible from it, especially by ignorant and 
 unwilling minds. Hence arose the necessity for a 
 succession of Prophets, whose office it was not merely 
 to predict, to threaten, and exhort ; but also, as it 
 were, to give a more spiritual tone to the legal pro- 
 visions of the law, and prepare the people, gradually, 
 for taking a more comprehensive view of the latent 
 truths which lurked under its ritual and ceremonial 
 forms. 25 It is in this strain that Isaiah opens his 
 mission : " To what purpose is the multitude of 
 your sacrifices unto me ? Saith the Lord. — Wash 
 you, make you clean ; put away the evil of your 
 doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn 
 to do well ; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, 
 judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." 26 And 
 language of this spiritual character runs through all 
 the prophets. They constantly generalize and expand 
 
 25 " This then is the reign of predictive revelation, and the 
 proper age of the Prophets. It is the middle period of the first 
 dispensation, standing equally removed, in time, and in some of its 
 characters, from the Law, and from the Gospel ; and the service of 
 Prophecy during this period forms a great connecting link of divine 
 information between the two." Davison's Discourses on Prophecy, 
 Disc. v. No student in Divinity ought to overlook this invalu- 
 able work, which, notwithstanding some peculiarity and apparent 
 obscurity of style, is full of matter calculated to awaken deep and 
 profitable thought in the mind of even the most ordinary reader. 
 *> Isaiah, i. II, 16, 17. 
 
II.] SCRIPTURE. 47 
 
 those great and comprehensive principles, which in 
 the law, are often couched under a single practical 
 case ; and gradually prepare the mind to expect a 
 system of things which shall step beyond the " beg- 
 garly elements of the law," to embrace and regulate 
 all the springs and motives of human action. We 
 have only to read our Saviour's Sermon on the 
 Mount, which is, in fact, a spiritual comment on the 
 text of Moses, to see this principle of the prophets 
 carried out to its full extent, and the Mosaic law 
 placed under that point of view which its Founder 
 intended it to assume towards those who were able 
 to bear it. When, therefore, the new revelation was 
 fully developed, the grand characteristic of which 
 consisted especially in the sublime doctrines which it 
 unfolded — when, moreover, it is considered that its 
 object was to legislate for man in all his relations, 
 and guide the heart and will as well as the outward 
 life — it was clearly impossible that the original form 
 of a Law could any longer be retained : nor can we 
 conceive of any other adequate to the occasion than 
 that which was adopted ; — ends so infinitely various 
 could not have been attained, except through the 
 infinite variety of the Gospel. And therefore its les- 
 sons are not the less binding upon our consciences, 
 because they are promulgated to us, not directly in 
 the form of a legal system, but through channels 
 which convey them to every faculty of man, — whether 
 
48 AUTHORITY OF [LECT. 
 
 they come in the shape of instruction, allusion, or 
 example ; whether addressed to the reason, the ima- 
 gination, or the heart. The great principle of Faith, 
 on which the whole fabric of the Gospel rests, and 
 which mainly distinguishes it from the more obvious 
 and tangible motives of the law, rendered it impos- 
 sible to legislate, under the Gospel scheme, with 
 the same formality and minuteness as under the Old 
 Dispensation : it was a principle which, in action, 
 was to adapt itself to each individual character, and 
 could therefore be fully illustrated and enforced, 
 only by examples and rules as various as there are 
 diversities of the human mind. In this point of 
 view, what St. Paul asserts of scripture in general 
 is especially characteristic of the New Testament : 
 it thus becomes " profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
 for correction, for instruction in righteousness : that 
 the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished 
 unto all good works." 27 
 
 If, then, we have established our point, we have 
 shewn that there are reasons for those changes, 
 which, at first sight, appear to give a character of 
 greater laxity to the new law as compared with the 
 old — whether with regard to the priesthood, the 
 alteration of the sabbath and other ordinances, or the 
 strictly legal form of the law itself — reasons which 
 shew, that the authority of the second law is not 
 -~ 1 i Tim. iii. 1<>, 17. 
 
II.] SCRIPTURE. 4.9 
 
 less strict and absolute, than that of the first. For 
 it appears that the first pre-supposes, nay commands, 
 the changes of the second ; and thus not only sanc- 
 tions such alterations, but gives to them all the 
 force of the original statute. The text puts this 
 notion in a striking point of view. It represents 
 the Law as being itself a copy and transcript of the 
 Gospel, as it already existed in the divine mind — 
 as being a distinct shadow, thrown forward from a 
 pre-existing substance : — " See," saith he to Moses, 
 when he was about to make the tabernacle, (an 
 abstract expression for the Jewish economy) — " see 
 that thou make all things according to the pattern 
 shewed to thee in the Mount." This is a consider- 
 ation which appears to relieve the mind of much 
 anxiety, when the New Testament evidence on 
 some of the points above alluded to, is brought 
 under discussion. We can then fall back upon the 
 original constitution of the Mosaic Law, and argue 
 from its acknowledged Plenary Authority to that of 
 the New Testament, with a degree of confidence 
 which grows stronger the more closely the connection 
 between the Old Testament and the New is estab- 
 lished. " What," says Justin Martyr, "is the Law? 
 the Gospel predicted : What is the Gospel ? the 
 Law fulfilled." 28 Or as Hooker expresses it : " The 
 general end, both of Old and New, is one ; the dif- 
 28 Qiuest. etResp. 101. 
 
 D 
 
50 AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE. [LECT. II. 
 
 ference between them consisting in tins, that the 
 Old did make wise by teaching salvation through 
 Christ that should come ; the New, by teaching 
 that Christ the Saviour is come, and that Jesus 
 whom the Jews did crucify, and whom God did 
 raise from the dead, is he." 29 
 
 The question of Inspiration, on which, as we have 
 already stated, a similar discrepancy exists between 
 the records of the two Dispensations ; and which is 
 also, in itself, a subject not only of the deepest 
 importance, but also involving much difference of 
 opinion; will form matter for the succeeding Lecture. 
 When we trust it will appear that the apostle's 
 words may be taken in their widest and strongest 
 acceptation — " All scripture is given by inspiration 
 of God." 
 
 2 9 Book 1. $ 14. 
 
 END OF LECTURE II. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT— QUESTION HERE CONFINED TO THE 
 INSPIRATION OF THE WRITTEN WORD— DISTINCTION BETWEEN IN- 
 SPIRED WRITINGS AND INSPIRED MEN— VERBAL THEORY ADVOCATED— 
 VERBAL ACCURACY NECESSARY WHEN THE THING RECORDED WAS 
 UNKNOWN OR UNINTELLIGIBLE TO THE WRITER— WORDS OF THE 
 UTMOST MOMENT BECAUSE WE THINK IN THEM— VERBAL INSPIRA- 
 TION AS NECESSARY FOR WRITING AS SPEAKING— INDISPENSABLE IN 
 SOME CASES, THEREFORE POSSIBLE IN ALL— ENTIRE KNOWLEDGE OF 
 LANGUAGES, IN SOME INSTANCES, THROUGH INSPIRATION— SCRIPTURE 
 
 TESTIMONY TO VERBAL INSPIRATION THE TESTIMONY OF THE 
 
 FATHERS— AND OF LATER DIVINES— OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, FROM 
 INELEGANCE OF STYLE— FROM DISCREPANCIES IN ACCOUNTS OF THE 
 SAME TRANSACTION— FROM VARIOUS READINGS— ADVANTAGES ARISING 
 FROM THE VERBAL THEORY— IMPORTANT POINTS OF FAITH OFTEN 
 INVOLVED IN SINGLE WORDS — SOME MISCONSTRUCTIONS OF THE 
 DOCTRINE GUARDED AGAINST— CONCLUSION. 
 
LECTURE III 
 
 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 1 Corinthians, ii. 12, 13. 
 
 Noiv we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is 
 of God ; that we might know the things which are freely given to us 
 of God. 
 
 Which things also ice speak, not in the words which man's wisdom 
 teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. 
 
 The question of Inspiration is one of the most 
 important in the whole range of Theology, because 
 it lies at the very root of all scriptural interpretation ; 
 the views which are taken of it affect every doc- 
 trine of Christianity, and are the main source of all 
 the various lights in which such doctrines are 
 regarded, by different sects of Christians. It is in 
 this field that the learned liberalism of Germanv 
 has laboured most diligently, and that the laxity of 
 our own country has most faithfully followed in its 
 steps ; both justly conceiving, that to introduce 
 doubt and uncertainty into the revealed word of 
 God, was the best mode of defending the utmost 
 latitude both in the faitli and practice of man. 
 
54 INSPIRATION OF [LECT. 
 
 We have no space, nor would it answer our 
 present purpose, to take into consideration all the 
 various kinds and degrees of Inspiration ; we shall 
 confine ourselves to that in which the existing 
 church has the most direct interest, and which 
 bears immediately upon our professed design ; viz. 
 The Inspiration which was concerned in the written 
 word of God. Upon this question depends the degree 
 of authority which we assign to that word, and the 
 extent of latitude which may be taken in the inter- 
 pretation of it. 
 
 The range of our inquiry will be much narrowed 
 as well as simplified, if we at once allow the course 
 of argument which was pursued in the last Lecture 
 to be applicable in this case also ; and consider all 
 the proofs and declarations of Inspiration which 
 appear in the Old Testament to belong with no less 
 force to the New. The mere silence which is 
 sometimes observed, on this point, in the latter, 
 is more than counterbalanced by the greater num- 
 ber and magnitude of its miracles, its more minute 
 history of the operations of the Holy Spirit, and 
 the more important character and general concern- 
 ment of its revelations. 
 
 Our subject, then, we would wish it to be borne 
 in mind, is the Inspired writings of Scripture, and 
 not the Inspired men. These, it will at once be 
 evident, are almost entirely distinct questions. 
 
III.] SCRIPTURE. 55 
 
 The actors in Scripture might have been plenarily 
 inspired, both in words and ideas, and yet the 
 Scripture record of their actions may be imperfect ; 
 while on the other hand, the Scripture may supply a 
 most accurate account of the results of their imper- 
 fect inspiration. I trust it will appear in the sequel, 
 that, whatever different degrees of inspiration might 
 have been vouchsafed to the several instruments of 
 revelation, the Scripture report of the original pro- 
 mulgation of that revelation is not only accurate, 
 but, in the substantial sense of the word, verbal. 
 
 In the first place, with respect to the matter 
 which the writers of Scripture had to record, it 
 cannot be denied, that verbal accuracy was some- 
 times indispensable. Many of the communications 
 from heaven were delivered by God to the prophet 
 in a precise form of words, and were repeated by 
 him, as having been so delivered, to the people. 
 Moreover, many of the prophecies were of such a 
 nature as to be totally unintelligible to the prophet 
 himself; they referred to periods and events long 
 posterior to his own times ; and were not intended 
 to be understood till the time of their fulfilment 
 drew nigh, or even till that time was past; and 
 were often so worded as to have a two-fold and 
 most apposite reference to events the most distant, 
 and even the most apparently incongruous. Here, 
 it was absolutely necessary that the prophet should 
 
56 INSPIRATION OF [L.ECT. 
 
 be inspired, not only with the general sentiment, 
 but with the very words also. The application of 
 the prophecy, in such cases, mostly turns upon the 
 aptness of the phraseology ; and the prophet could 
 not himself express that which he did not compre- 
 hend. In this case verbal inspiration is required 
 in the prophet, 1 and, to the same extent, verbal 
 accuracy in the recorder of the prophecy. 
 
 In truth, it is not easy to conceive how any one, 
 in the capacity of a prophet, or a teacher of new 
 doctrines, can be inspired genemlly with religious 
 sentiments, (according to the present prevalent 
 notion), without any guidance or control as to the 
 words in which they are to be conveyed. We can 
 indeed easily understand that this may be the case 
 
 1 " ' Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of 
 any private interpretation.' And the reason is this, — that the pre- 
 dictions of the prophets did not, like their own private thoughts 
 and sentiments, originate in their own minds. The prophets, in 
 the exercise of their office, were necessary agents, acting under the 
 irresistible impulse, of the omniscient Spirit, who made the faculties 
 and the organs of those holy men his own instruments for convey- 
 ing to mankind some portion of the treasures of his own knowledge. 
 Futurity seems to have been delineated in some sort of emblema- 
 tical picture, presented by the Spirit of God to the prophet's mind, 
 which, preternaturally filled and heated with this scenery, in 
 describing the images obtruded on the fantasy, gave pathetic 
 utterance to wisdom not its own. "For the prophecy came not at. 
 any time by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake as they 
 were moved by the Holy (J host.' " llorslei/s Sermons. 
 
III.] SCRIPTURE. 57 
 
 with regard to the ordinary influences of the Holy 
 Spirit. They are rather infused into the existing 
 character of the man, than form a distinct and 
 separable element. They convey no new informa- 
 tion. They enlighten and invigorate and direct 
 his natural powers, not so much influencing the 
 developement without, as the principle within. 
 But with respect to the extraordinary influences of 
 the Holy Spirit, the case is altogether different. 
 They were given for specific purposes, and those to 
 whom they were vouchsafed, had distinct doctrines 
 to reveal, or prescribed actions to perform ; and we 
 can no more conceive them left to their own dis- 
 cretion as to the language in which they propound- 
 ed these doctrines, than to their own time and 
 manner in exhibiting their miraculous powers. If 
 the task was momentous enough to require mira- 
 culous assistance to perform it, it was equally so to 
 require a like aid as to the method of discharging it. 
 " We think in words." No one has any very 
 distinct notion of the sentiments of his own mind 
 so long as they are permitted to float about in 
 vague generalities, and have not been clothed in 
 the definite shape of language. And, even then, 
 whether they at all realize his own conceptions of 
 them depends entirely upon the phraseology in 
 which he is enabled to clothe them ; a single 
 inappropriate, or even misplaced word often giving 
 
58 INSPIRATION OF [LECT. 
 
 an altogether different complexion to the sentiment 
 which it is intended to embody. And if this be 
 true of our own ideas, how much more is it true 
 of those which belong to another ; and if we cannot 
 realize, even to ourselves, notions which originate 
 in our own minds, without the help of language, 
 how can we, except through the same instrument, 
 receive them from an outward source, or, still 
 more, convey them accurately to others ? Precision 
 of language is not only a mark, but it is also an 
 instrument, of precision of thought ; and if it be 
 indispensable for even the ordinary intercourse 
 between man and man, how much more is it requi- 
 site when we treat on subjects which in themselves 
 are as abstruse as they are important ? 
 
 Turning, then, from the oral to the written word, 
 it will not be denied that verbal inspiration was at 
 least as necessary to him who recorded, as to him 
 who first gave utterance to, the very words of the 
 Almighty. If an accurate knowledge of these 
 words was necessary for one generation, it was 
 equally so for all posterity. When he who spoke 
 and he who wrote were the same person, it cannot 
 be doubted that the same infallible guidance would 
 be vouchsafed to his pen as to his tongue ; when 
 they were different, an additional revelation would 
 be required for him who had to register with the 
 utmost accuracy, language which lie had never 
 
III.] SCRIPTURE. 59 
 
 heard, and which had never hitherto been revealed 
 to him. And we are justified in saying " the utmost 
 accuracy," — for where the writer professes to give 
 the very words of the prophecy or narrative, there 
 is no alternative between the strict truth and positive 
 error. 
 
 Granting, then, that verbal inspiration was as ne- 
 cessary to him who wrote as to him who spoke, in 
 certain cases — such as in recording matters imme- 
 diately enunciated by the Almighty ; or prophecies 
 at the time involved in total mystery ; or revela- 
 tions beyond the comprehension of the writers 
 themselves ; granting so much, we shall lind that 
 all the difficulties which are supposed to lie against 
 the hypothesis of verbal inspiration must be encoun- 
 tered ; while, if we ask no more, almost all the 
 benefits which evidently arise out of it will at once 
 be sacrificed. But the arguments in favour of ver- 
 bal inspiration, whether from reason, revelation, or 
 external testimony, seem far to outweigh any objec- 
 tions that have hitherto been alleged against it. 
 
 Confining our attention, for a moment, to the 
 Gospels, it is at once evident that they could not 
 possibly have been written without the aid of in- 
 spiration. Whether we consider the condition of 
 the authors, the times when they were composed, 
 or the nature of their contents, it is clear that the 
 human intellect alone could not have produced 
 
60 INSPIRATION OF [LECT. 
 
 them in such a shape as to command our unreserved 
 credence and respect. But if the Holy Spirit in- 
 terfered at all, why not effectually ? If we allow 
 that Mark and Luke, not being eye and ear wit- 
 nesses, would require supernatural assistance as to 
 the matter of their books, it does not seem any 
 very additional degree of credulity to suppose that 
 they had similar assistance as to the manner of 
 composing them. If St. John required such aid, 
 as he must needs have done, to recall, after so long 
 an interval, the conversations which our Saviour 
 had with the Pharisees and his disciples — conversa- 
 tions given with the greatest minuteness, and in 
 themselves of the utmost doctrinal importance, 
 why should we suppose that he was not enabled to 
 do that in which their main value consists, viz. to 
 give them exactly as they were first uttered ? It 
 was, indeed, one of the predicted offices of the Holv 
 Ghost, that he should give this power to the Apos- 
 tles : " He shall bring all things to your remem- 
 brance, whatsoever I have said unto you :" J and if 
 the Apostles remembered " what he said," doubtless 
 they would not fail to record it exactly as it was 
 spoken. 
 
 Another probable argument in favour of verbal 
 inspiration, in all cases, is, that we know that it 
 must have taken place in some, viz. when the know- 
 
 J .lolni xiv. 26. 
 
III.] SCRIPTURE. 61 
 
 ledge of the language itself was communicated by 
 inspiration. Here every word was the direct sug- 
 gestion of the Holy Spirit ; and it would be a 
 gratuitous limitation to the operations of that Spirit 
 to suppose that He who supplied the words did not 
 also direct and regulate the use of them. 
 
 It is more than probable, when the history of the 
 Apostles is considered, that some of the books of 
 the New Testament were written in language thus 
 divinely communicated. It has sometimes appeared 
 to myself, that the most valuable of them all (if 
 we may venture in such a case to make comparisons) 
 the Gospel of St. John — bears internal marks of this 
 heavenly origin. The total absence of all trace of 
 dialect, or idiom common to any other writer — the 
 simple sublimity of its style — the striking paucity 
 of synonymes — the fitness of the language to sub- 
 jects in themselves the most spiritual and abstruse 
 — and the almost Homeric repetition of the same 
 idea in the same phraseology, might all be expected 
 to mark a language, precisely adapted and limited 
 to the purpose to which it here applied, and com- 
 municated by a Power, which at once omits nothing, 
 and does nothing in vain. 3 
 
 3 The question as to which of the Writers of the New Testa- 
 ment received the language in which they wrote from direct inspi- 
 ration, has not yet been discussed with the earnestness which the 
 indefinite extent, and (perhaps it should be added) the unprofitable 
 
62 INSPIRATION OF [L.ECT. 
 
 With respect to the scripture evidence on the 
 subject of verbal inspiration, it will create no sur- 
 prise that the universality of the immediate sugges- 
 tion of the words is no where therein asserted ; nor 
 is this a doctrine which it is necessary for a moment 
 to entertain. For where the facts are such as not 
 to require the aid of inspiration, it is unnecessary 
 to call in that aid as the instrument of conveying 
 them. The ewact truth is all that is requisite in any 
 verbal communication ; and when that is within the 
 compass of ordinary means, no extraordinary assist- 
 
 character of the question might have been expected to provoke ! 
 It is worthy of the deep attention of the Germans. Milman has 
 said something on the subject in his Bampton Lectures. 
 
 It is much more to be regretted that the Gospel of St. John has 
 hitherto met with no commentator capable of doing justice to the 
 inestimable value of that most evangelical of all the books of the 
 New Testament. Critics seem to exhaust their powers on the 
 three first Evangelists, and to give up St. John in despair. Yet it 
 is there that the very spirit of the gospel is embodied. Titmann's 
 Meletemata Sacra is the only book that enters with any degree of 
 fulness into the doctrinal spirit of this gospel ; and, with all its 
 excellencies, it is far too neological, and too little embued with that 
 manly and scholar-like spirit of criticism, which would certainly 
 have been infused into such a work by the best of our own divines. 
 A separate commentary on this book would have been worthy of 
 the matured intellect and ample theological stores of the late 
 Principal of King's College, the lamented H. J. Rose ; it is 
 worthy of the author of the History of the Reformation, the Rev. 
 I. J. Blunt. 
 
III.] SCRIPTURE. 63 
 
 ance can be hoped for, or required. With respect 
 to the Old Testament evidence, which supplies in- 
 numerables instances of strictly verbal inspiration, 
 we must again content ourselves with observing, 
 that the argument derived from thence may be 
 carried on with undiminished force to the New ; 
 and shall, in reference to it, refer but to a single 
 passage — "all scripture is given by inspiration of 
 God." Now when we call to mind that the Greek 
 word here used, is one of singular and most apt 
 construction — divinely breathed ; and that reference 
 seems therein to be distinctly made to the injection, 
 as it were, of the divine and life-giving word, as 
 animal and mental life was originally injected, from 
 the same source, into the hitherto insensate clay 
 which composed the living man ; we can hardly 
 hesitate to allow that the "scripture" here alluded to, 
 which must embrace at least the whole of the Old 
 Testament, was conveyed full-formed and perfect, 
 and not merely in the snape of substantial and un- 
 developed suggestions, into the minds of those who 
 were commissioned to utter or to record it. But 
 perhaps it will be sufficient to refer to our text 
 alone — especially directing your attention to the 
 passage as it stands in the original — as being a por- 
 tion of scripture, which, to every unprejudiced mind, 
 must be at once decisive of the question. " Now 
 «>e"have received," says St. Paul — in the phrase in- 
 
64 INSPIRATION OF [LECT. 
 
 eluding all his brethren, — " Now we have received, 
 not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is 
 of God, that we might know the things which are 
 freely given to us of God. Which things also we 
 speak, not in the words which man's wisdom 
 teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." 1 
 Here we find distinctly ascribed to the Spirit, not 
 only the knowledge of divine things, but the words 
 also in which that knowledge was embodied. And 
 if, when he spoke, doubtless when he wrote also, 
 St. Paul might safely adopt the words of our Sa- 
 viour's promise — " It is not ye that speak ; but the 
 Spirit of your Father, which speaketh in you." 5 
 
 On a question like this, the testimony of the early 
 Fathers is not only a matter of curiosity, but of 
 the utmost value ; because it is a question on which, 
 even if Scripture had been silent, from their know T - 
 ledo-e of the impression under which that Scripture 
 was at first received, they may safely be pronounced 
 to be altogether competent judges ; and it is satis- 
 factory to find, that, as far as they treat on the sub- 
 
 4 Dr. Henderson has attempted to soften the force of the 
 
 apparently ohvious meaning of this passage, hy shewing that the 
 
 apostle is not referring to u single terms" but " the entire character 
 
 of the style." How the character of the whole can be affected, 
 
 and not that of the parts, is not very clear ; it seems but a timid 
 
 mode of sliding, by the use of a phrase, out of an ohvious difficulty. 
 
 Page 408, &c. 
 
 ' Matt. x. 20. 
 
III.] SCRIPTURE. 65 
 
 ject at all, they appear to be almost unanimous in 
 favour of the verbal inspiration of Scripture ; and 
 agree in sentiment with the decisive language of 
 Origen — " There is not one jot or one tittle, written 
 in the Scripture, which, to those who know how 
 to estimate the force of words, does not work its 
 own work." 5 To this testimony we may add that 
 of Hooker. Athenagoras had said, respecting 
 the Inspiration of the Prophets, that "the Spirit 
 of God moved their mouths like instruments, 
 making use of them as a musician does of his 
 flute ;" and Hooker, after quoting the words of our 
 text, adds — " This is that which the prophets mean 
 by those books written full within and without ; 
 which books were so often delivered them to eat ; 
 not because God fed them with ink and paper, but 
 to teach us, that so oft as he employed them in 
 this heavenly work, they neither spake nor wrote 
 any word of their own, but uttered syllable by 
 syllable as the spirit put it into their mouths, no 
 otherwise than the harp or the lute doth give a 
 sound according to the discretion of his hands that 
 holdeth and striketh it with skill, &c." 7 Erasmus 
 6 Origen, Philocal. Cap. ii. 
 7 Hooker, two sermons upon part of St. Jude. We find also 
 in Hooker, Book I. § 13, the following passage on this subject : 
 " After the lives of men were shortened, means more durable" (than 
 tradition) " to preserve the laws of God from oblivion and corrup- 
 tion grew in use, not without precise direction from God himself. 
 
06 INSPIRATION OF [LeCT. 
 
 indeed seems to have been the first to dispute the 
 primitive doctrine on this subject, in which he was 
 afterwards followed by Luther ; but both became 
 soon perplexed with the inconsistencies in which 
 thdr theories involved them, and appear to have 
 partially reverted to the ancient system. From that 
 time, views more or less strict have been enter- 
 tained on the subject, from an unnecessary and 
 superstitious reverence for points and particles, 
 down to those lax notions which would brino- the 
 
 o 
 
 authority of Scripture to the same level with an 
 ordinary history. The theory now maintained, of 
 substantial verbal inspiration, is doubtless liable to 
 objections, — the most weighty of which it may be 
 necessary briefly to notice. 
 
 In the first place : It is said, that the various 
 styles of thought and expression, and the different 
 degrees of purity of language, which are clearly 
 
 First, therefore, of Moses it is said, that he wrote all the words of 
 God ; not by his own private motion and devise : for God taketh 
 this act to himself, / have written. Furthermore, were not the 
 Prophets following, commanded also to do the like ? Unto the 
 holy Evangelist St. John, how often express charge is given, 
 Scribe, ivrite these things ? Concerning the rest of our Lords 
 disciples, the words of St. Augustine are, Quicquid ilk- de suis 
 factis et dictis nos legere voluit, hoc scribendum illis tanquam snis 
 manibus imperarit." See also Pearson on the Creed. Art. I. 
 " In like manner the succeeding Prophets were the instruments of 
 Divine Revelation, which they lirst believed as revealed to them, 
 
HI.] SCRIPTURE. 67 
 
 observable in the works of the several authors of 
 the New Testament, are a proof that they were left 
 to express the sentiment suggested by the Holy 
 Spirit in their own manner ; it being supposed that 
 solecisms in composition are inconsistent with the 
 doctrine of verbal Inspiration. No one who con- 
 siders the force of these two propositions, — that the 
 Holy Ghost does nothing in vain, — and that that 
 language is always the best which is most intelligi- 
 ble to the reader, — will attach much weight to an 
 objection, which savours more of sophistry than of 
 
 and then the people as revealed by them : for what they delivered 
 was not the testimony of man, hut the testimony of God delivered 
 by man. It was he who spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets 
 which have been since the world began : the mouth, the instrument, 
 the articulation was theirs ; but the words were God's. The spirit 
 of the Lord spake by me, saith David, and his word was in my 
 tongue. It was the word of the Lord which he spake by the hand 
 of Moses, and by the hand of Ahijah the Prophet. The hand the 
 general instrument of man, the mouth the particular instrument of 
 speech, both attributed to the Prophets as merely instrumental in 
 their prophecies. The words which Balaams ass spake were as 
 much the ass's words, as those which Balaam spake were his; for 
 the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and the Lord put a ivord 
 in Balaams mouth ; and not only so, but a bridle with that word 
 — only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. 
 The Prophets, as they did not frame the notions or conceptions 
 themselves of those truths which they delivered from God, so did 
 they not loosen their own tongues of their own instinct, or upon 
 their own motion, but as. moved, impelled, and acted upon by 
 God." 
 
08 INSPIRATION OF [LeCT. 
 
 sound reason. It was not the object of the Holy 
 Ghost to supply the world with a model of purity 
 in composition, (which, after all, is rather a question 
 of conventional taste than of strict demonstration), 
 but to enable each teacher of the gospel to address 
 Greek or Barbarian alike in his own tongue in 
 which he was born. The language of Demosthenes 
 would have been as unintelligible to their audience, 
 as it would have been incapable of expressing the 
 new combinations of thought and feeling which 
 the gospel introduced into the world. All we con- 
 tend for is, that in whatever tongue a divine author 
 wrote, whether in his own native dialect, or in a 
 language communicated from heaven, he was so far 
 guided by the Holy Spirit, as to be directed to the 
 use of such expressions as could not possibly mis- 
 represent his meaning. If we look at the list of 
 nations who are represented to have heard their 
 own tongues spoken on the day of Pentecost, we 
 shall probably be led to conclude that some of the 
 gifts then vouchsafed, consisted rather in variety of 
 deeply corrupted dialects, than in radically distinct 
 languages. 
 
 The next objection is of a more formidable 
 nature ; and rests upon a fact concerning which 
 there has been much learned controversy. 9 We 
 
 8 Sec some sensible remarks on tins subject 1>\ Dr. Nares, the 
 late Archdeacon of Stafford. 
 
III.] SCRIPTURE. 69 
 
 refer to the differing accounts which are recorded 
 by different writers of the same transaction. These, 
 it is said, while they do not affect the general 
 fidelity of the statement, are inconsistent with the 
 theory of verbal Inspiration. We may reply, that, 
 when they occur in the record of what was said, 
 they are equally inconsistent with accuracy ; for the 
 truth, in that case, can be but one. When, how- 
 ever, these differences are. minutely examined, they 
 will, in general, be found to be such as do not affect 
 our proposition ; which does not exclude the use of 
 terms perfectly synonymous — or the change, either 
 by omission or addition, of some circumstance which 
 was important to the object of one writer and not 
 to another — or a variation in case or tense, which 
 the structure of a sentence might render necessary. 
 Differences like these, and they are the main differ- 
 ences, prove nothing against the theory that each 
 writer was guided, as to substantial verbal accuracy, 
 by the Holy Spirit of God. With respect to the 
 differences, — minute, indeed, but still obvious dif- 
 ferences, — which exist in the reports which three 
 of the evangelists often <nve of the same discourse 
 of our Lord, and which prove that they cannot all 
 be verbally correct — the best answer seems to be 
 that none of them could by possibility be so. The 
 language which our Saviour spoke was not Greek, 
 but Syro-Chaldaic ; the gospel accounts, therefore, 
 
70 INSPIRATION OF [LECT. 
 
 are necessarily but translations ; and, viewing 
 them in this light, it would seem that, instead of 
 stumbling at their minute discrepancies, we ought 
 to trace a higher power than merely human know- 
 ledge and care, in their most wonderful agreement ! 
 When have any other translations, made inde- 
 pendently of each other, agreed to the same extent ? 
 In the third, and last place, it is asserted, that 
 the theory of verbal inspiration is invalidated by 
 the fact of the existence of various readings in the 
 original Scriptures : an objection which can weigh 
 only with those who maintain that no truth can be 
 deteriorated or lost, and that God would continue 
 miraculously to uphold what he had once seen fit 
 miraculously to reveal. But we cannot be surprised 
 if the negligence or perversity of former generations 
 should, in this case, as in many others from the 
 Fall downwards, be visited upon their posterities ; 
 nor do we see the advantage that the existing 
 authority of Scripture would derive from the 
 clearest proof that they were never more perfect 
 than at present. The relics of what is supremely 
 excellent are more valuable than original mediocrity. 
 But it is a consolation to know, that the various 
 readings which have accumulated through inten- 
 tional corruption, or careless transcription, are 
 seldom of such a nature as to affect one important 
 doctrine of. faith or practice. 
 
III.] SCRIPTURE. 71 
 
 Though, on theological questions, we are not 
 always justified in deducing the truth of a doctrine 
 from the supposed advantages arising out of it, 
 because of the reality of these advantages we are, 
 not unfrequently, incompetent judges ; yet, when a 
 doctrine has once been established on independent 
 evidence, we are at full liberty to corroborate that 
 evidence by inquiring into the benefits which arise 
 from such a view of it : because we know that 
 benefits always do arise out of the establishment of 
 the truth. It cannot be denied, then, that the 
 mind derives a degree of comfort and assurance 
 from contemplating the word of God as being the 
 product of substantial verbal Inspiration, which is 
 seriously impaired by any lower view of the subject. 
 Those who have studied doctrinal questions most 
 attentively, are the most deeply conscious, that 
 many of them, and those of essential importance, 
 depend upon the use of a single word, and are often 
 affected by the arrangement of a sentence, or the 
 turn of a phrase. The necessary implication of the 
 doctrine of Trinity in Unity, in the first verse of 
 Genesis ; and in the prescribed form of baptism — 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost — rests entirely upon the peculiarity 
 of expression. Those passages in the Gospel of St. 
 John which testify to the divinity and pre-existence 
 of Christ (and that Gospel is full of them) derive 
 
72 INSPIRATION OF [LECT. 
 
 their force, in most cases, either from the word 
 employed, or the method of employing it. The 
 doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost from 
 the Father and the Son, rests mainly upon the use 
 of a pregnant word. 8 And, in truth, almost the 
 whole controversy as to the question of relative 
 value between the authorized version of the Scrip- 
 tures, and the (so called) improved version of the 
 Unitarians — depends upon whether we are bound 
 to adhere strictly to what the writers of the New 
 Testament did say, or are at liberty to interpret 
 them according to what M T e suppose they meant to 
 say. 9 Luther himself was compelled materially to 
 
 8 See Pearson on the Creed, Art. viii. 
 
 9 " In the present age, we are proud of our "philosophy, and we 
 encourage it so much as to make it sometimes run out into luxuri- 
 ance ; to reduce and prune luxuriant shoots, is certainly to 
 improve : — indeed Christians in all ages, especially those who 
 have prided themselves on any opinions, have made too free with 
 Scriptures ; and many parts of the Canon have been rejected, at 
 different times, because they were, or seemed, contrary to certain 
 favourite pre-conceived notions. The Manicheans had an abhor- 
 rence of matter, and therefore all parts of Scripture, which men- 
 tioned the uses of matter - , were rejected as spurious; the whole 
 Old Testament was cut off at one stroke; our modern philosophers 
 are prodigious friends of matter, and therefore Scripture must be 
 construed so that even the soul may be material. To set aside 
 whole books of Scripture seems something more gross than to 
 interpret ; yet, if we set aside the genuine sense, we may as well 
 sel aside words too; for, deprived of their right sense, words must 
 
III.] SCRIPTURE. 78 
 
 modify his somewhat lax notions on the subject 
 of verbal inspiration, when he entered upon the 
 great controversy of the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, and found it necessary (as it doubtless is) 
 to advocate the Inspiration of the very words of the 
 Institution. It would be tedious to enumerate all 
 the cases in which the expression employed is of 
 
 either be useless, or mislead. — But we have a new way of lessening 
 the force of Scriptures, which do not favour us ; instead of treating 
 books as spurious, we diminish the degree of Inspiration. — A 
 sacred writer, we say, might be biassed by his prejudices ; he might 
 be mistaken ! we must not in all cases trust too implicitly ! &c. 
 
 Surely, when our adversaries go these lengths, they do not per- 
 ceive, that they are in reality confirming those doctrines, which 
 they confess themselves unable to overthrow, without measures 
 which take away the whole matter in dispute. All that we affirm 
 is, that, supposing the Scriptures, as we have them, to be divinely 
 inspired, so that every thing in them is truth, such and such doc- 
 trines are contained in them : — the moment that our adversaries 
 change any part of this supposition, there is no longer any question 
 between us. — Dean Allix, in the Preface to his Book already 
 quoted, speaking of the Socinians, says, that their divisions occa- 
 sioned their want of success ; and those divisions, he says, ' will 
 unavoidably follow, till they can agree in unanimously rejecting 
 the authority of Scripture.' — The Book was published in 1699, 
 and whoever compares the event with the prediction, will be struck 
 with the sagacity of the Author." (Hey's Lectures on Divinity, 
 vol. 2, pp. 262, 263.) To shew how fairly this most candid of 
 all controversialists treats his opponents, let me quote the fol- 
 lowing passage, treating, likewise, on the Socinian heresy. " If 
 
74 INSPIRATION OF [LECT. 
 
 the utmost consequence to the argument. Nor is 
 there one of those divines who limit the extent of 
 Inspiration to the office of guarding the sacred 
 writers against substantial error in matters of 
 doctrine, who is not often driven to regard the very 
 words of Scripture as being strictly controlled at 
 least, if not suggested, by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 With respect to an argument against the notion 
 of a verbal Inspiration of Scripture, that " its ten- 
 dency is to sink the authority of faithful transla- 
 tions, by depriving them of all claim to that 
 
 I may speak frankly, the truth of the matter seems to be this ; 
 the Trinitarians have formed their doctrine in one way, and the 
 Anti-trinitarians in another: the Trinitarians have collected their 
 doctrine from Scripture only; the Anti-trinitarians, disgusted with 
 the difficulties attending that method, or with abuses of it, and 
 hoping to soften and moderate what appeared to them harsh and 
 uncouth, have set out from notions of common sense, reason, 
 natural religion ; and, taking for granted, that Scripture, if rightly 
 interpreted, must coincide with these, have interpreted it by bring- 
 ing it as near to them as possible. I should imagine, from their 
 writings, that they themselves would oirn this, but, if any of them 
 disown it, nothing more can be said. However, I will refer to a 
 few authorities, and then observe, that this is not simple, genuine 
 interpretation ; that, though it be true in theory, that Reason and 
 Scripture coincide, yet in practice we are not to take for granted, 
 that our present reason is perfectly right reason ; (experience is 
 against that;) and supposing God to inform us of anything, it 
 probably would be something, which our reason would be unlikely 
 soon to find out." pp. 264-5. 
 
III.] SCRIPTURE. 75 
 
 quality ;" 10 we may remark, in the first place, that 
 such tendency does not appear ; and secondly, that 
 if it did, it would seem to have little weight against 
 the direct arguments on which the' view we have 
 taken seems to be founded. A translation, made 
 by uninspired men, never can have the authority, 
 because it cannot accurately represent the meaning, 
 of the original ; but its value does not seem to be 
 lessened (except, indeed, by comparison) by how 
 much the more the document of which it is a 
 translation is elevated in accuracy above that of an 
 ordinary record. The fact should form an addi- 
 
 10 Henderson, p. 433. In this work of Dr. Henderson, which 
 was published as one of a series of " Congregational Lectures," the 
 reader will find all the learning on this subject collected with praise- 
 worthy industry ; but if he expects results proportioned to the 
 effort, in new or clear deductions from these premises, he will, I 
 fear, be grievously disappointed. No new light seems to be thrown 
 on any disputed point; indeed such points are all carefully avoid- 
 ed, — or timidly handled, and determined with cautious orthodoxy. 
 This is characteristic of the mode in which dissenters are too often 
 found to treat learned topics : they seem afraid to commit them- 
 selves to any opinions about which a reasonable doubt may be en- 
 tertained. Dr. Pye Smith's book on the Scripture Testimony to 
 the Messiah is another instance of the same kind. There is the 
 array of learning, but it is not used with a master's hand. It 
 would seem as if freedom from the shackles of Creeds and Formu- 
 laries gave less liberty to the mind than might have been expected. 
 Men without the control system advance like men in the dark — 
 afraid of obstacles because they see none ! 
 
7^ INSPIRATION OF [LECT. 
 
 tional reason for most attentively studying the 
 original, but none whatever for undervaluing trans- 
 lations in the abstract. 11 
 
 Finally, we would guard against a misconstruc- 
 tion to which the doctrine we are advocating may 
 be liable, and which, sometimes put upon the 
 language of Scripture by those who entertain less 
 definite notions as to the extent of its Inspiration, 
 has often led practically to very injurious results. 
 The error we allude to, is that of supposing that the 
 words of Scripture, simply as being so, convey a 
 meaning, and exert an influence on the mind, 
 beyond the same words when used by an ordinary 
 writer; as if they possessed within themselves a 
 certain magical power in addition to their simple 
 signification, and could still work miracles, like 
 those by whom they were first composed. This is 
 
 11 The author has long felt that the theory maintained by Mr. 
 Parry, and adopted with terms of strong commendation by Bishop 
 Tomline, in his Elements, " That the Apostles were under the 
 infallible guidance of the Spirit of Truth, as to every religious 
 sentiment which they taught mankind, was calculated to open the 
 door to great and most dangerous laxity of interpretation. It will 
 not, in truth, bear a moment's investigation. Religious sentiment 
 is a convenient phrase, but nothing more. Infallibility must ex- 
 tend to the words employed, or it cannot justly be assigned to Un- 
 meaning of them. IIorbery's three -excellent sermons on this 
 subject are well worthy the reader's attention, especially the sermon 
 "on the guilt and danger of taking away from the Words of Scripture.' 
 
III.] SCRIPTURE. 77 
 
 the language, not of reason or Scripture, but of 
 superstition and fanaticism. The Scriptures, now, 
 differ in nothing from the ordinary language of 
 truth. They are subject to the same rules of inter- 
 pretation, and are open to the same abuses from 
 ignorance or mistake, as merely human composi- 
 tions. It is through the Holy Spirit, indeed, that 
 they will be enabled to make us wise unto Salva- 
 tion — but that Holy Spirit is not resident in them, 
 but must be sought for, in the use of the Scriptures 
 as of every other means, — through diligent study, 
 unshaken faith, and fervent prayer. May, then, 
 that "blessed Lord, who hath caused all Holy 
 Scriptures to be written for our learning, grant 
 that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, 
 learn, and inwardly digest them ; that by patience 
 and comfort of his Holy Word, we may embrace 
 and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting 
 life, which he hath given us in our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ." 12 
 
 12 Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent. 
 
 END OF LECTURE III. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 CREEDS. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 SCRIPTURE A COMPLETE RULE OF FAITH AND LIFE— DIFFERENCE 
 BETWEEN THE REFORMED AND ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHES ON 
 THIS POINT— THE LATTER MAINTAINS TRADITION TO BE CO-ORDINATE 
 WITH SCRIPTURE— TRUE SENSE OF THE WORD TRADITION— TESTIMONY 
 OF TRADITION TO THE SUFFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE AS A RULE- 
 NECESSITY FOR SCRIPTURE INTERPRETATION CONSIDERED — WHERE 
 IT SHOULD RESIDE— WHY THE NEW TESTAMENT MORE ESPECIALLY 
 REQUIRES IT— HENCE NECESSITY OF CREEDS— WHAT POINTS A CREED 
 SHOULD EMBRACE— TESTS OF THE VALIDITY OF CREEDS— DISSENTING 
 TESTS— ROMISH TESTS— THE INCONSISTENCY OF ROMANISTS IN MAIN- 
 TAINING ANCIENT TRADITION ALONG WITH MODERN INFALLIBILITY- 
 DIFFERENCE ON THIS POINT BETWEEN THE ROMISH AND ANGLICAN 
 CHURCHES— PROCESS SKETCHED, BY WHICH AN HONEST INQUIRER 
 MAY ARRIVE AT THE TRUTH WITH REGARD TO ESSENTIALS— CREEDS 
 THE INFALLIBLE TRADITIONS OF THE CHURCH— VAN MILDERT QUOTED, 
 TO SHEW THAT THE SUBSTANTIAL TRUTH HAS EVER BEEN HELD BY 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH— VALUE OF CREEDS SUMMARILY STATED— 
 THE DAMNATORY CLAUSES IN THE ATHANASIAN CREED EXPLAINED 
 AND JUSTIFIED. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 CREEDS. 
 
 Acts, viii.*30, 31. 
 
 And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet 
 Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest P And he said 
 Hotv can I, except some man should guide me P 
 
 Having, as ve would hope, already established the 
 plenary Authority and plenary Inspiration of the 
 New Testament as well as the Old, we are now 
 provided with a full, perfect, and sufficient rule, 
 both of Faith and Life. We are justified in assert- 
 ing this of Scripture, at least as it was originally 
 revealed ; because we cannot for a moment believe 
 that the Almighty would take such extraordinary 
 means to make his will known to mankind, and at 
 the same time leave his revelation defective either 
 in its contents or its evidence. We may therefore, 
 in this stage of our discussion, adopt the language 
 of our Church, as at least reasonable, and having all 
 the appearance of truth : " Holy Scripture con- 
 tained all things necessary to salvation : so that 
 
82 CREEDS. [LECT. 
 
 whatsoever is not read therein, or may be proved 
 thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it 
 should be believed as an article of the faith, or be 
 thought requisite or necessary to salvation." 1 On 
 this point, indeed, as is well known, arises the 
 essential difference between the primitive and re- 
 formed Churches on the one hand, and the Roman 
 Catholic Church on the other ; the latter asserting 
 Tradition to be a rule of at least co-ordinate 
 authority with Scripture, while the former confine 
 it to what they maintain to be its only legitimate 
 offices, those of witness and interpreter. This ques- 
 tion we cannot now discuss ; but we may observe, 
 that there is an ambiguity in the use of the term 
 Tradition, which may of itself have led to some of 
 those confused and often extravagant notions which 
 are sometimes entertained with regard to its office. 
 Tradition, then, merely signifies a mode of evidence ; 
 and therefore, of itself, can be no rule or law what- 
 ever. 2 It is a term used to express the manner by 
 which we become certified of particular truths. 
 Tradition, in this sense of the word, is perhaps the 
 most general of all the channels through which 
 knowledge is conveyed to us. Many things we 
 learn through the senses — many by reason and 
 reflection — but most (and indeed every thing not 
 contemporaneous with ourselves) by tradition. In 
 
 1 Art. <». - See appendix, at the cud of this Lecture, 
 
[V.] CREEDS. 83 
 
 this sense, the Scriptures themselves are a tradi- 
 tion, 3 and it is only on the unbroken and universal 
 testimony of this tradition to their inspiration and 
 authority, that we yield to them that obedience 
 and respect which all investigation proves that 
 they have a right to claim ; and could the same 
 weight of evidence be produced for other facts and 
 doctrines not contained in Scripture, we should 
 readily accord to them the same implicit credit. 
 It is not simply as being contained in certain books 
 that we accept them, but because the books them- 
 
 3 "I grant, at the first preaching and publishing of the Gospel, 
 certain barbarous nations that received the faith of Christ had 
 neither books nor letters ; yet were they not therefoi'e ignorant, or 
 left at large to believe they knew not what. They had then certain 
 officers in the Church, which were called Catechistce, whose duty 
 was, continually and at all times, to teach the principles of the faith, 
 not by book, but by mouth. Of these mention is made in the 
 Acts of the Apostles, in the Council of Nice, and elsewhere. This 
 office bare Origen, that ancient learned Father. This doctrine 
 Dionysius calleth, ' Oracles, or instructions given from God ;' and 
 saith, ' they passed from one to another, not by writing but by mouth,' 
 ' from mind to mind.' Neither did these traditions contain any secret 
 or privy instructions, or inventions of men, as it is imagined by some, 
 but the very selfsame doctrine that was contained written in the 
 Scriptures of God. And, in this sort, the Gospel itself and the 
 whole religion of Christ was called a tradition. So Tertullian (De 
 praes. adv. Hseret.) calleth the articles of the faith, ' an old tradi- 
 tion.' So the faith of the Holy Trinity in the Council of Con- 
 stantinople (Concil. Const. 6) is called ' a tradition.'" — Jewel, 
 Reply to Harding's " Answer to the Defence." Art. XV. 
 
84 CREEDS. [LECT. 
 
 selves are shewn to be inspired and authentic by a 
 strength of testimony which is sought for, in other 
 cases, in vain. 4 Tradition itself is the very evidence 
 on which we convict what are called Traditions of 
 defective authority. When we find the early 
 Fathers themselves pointing out these books, and 
 these alone, as being the word of God — when we 
 find them enforcing no doctrines or duties except 
 what are contained in, or may be fairly deduced 
 from these books, — why should we ascribe to theso 
 writers an authority which they disclaim, and re- 
 ject that their evidence against themselves which 
 we accept, and on which alone we rest, in favour of 
 Scripture ? 5 
 
 4 After this was written, I was struck with the following con- 
 firmatory passage in Hooker : " We do not reject them (Traditions) 
 only because they are not in Scripture, hut because they are neither 
 in Scripture, nor can otherwise sufficiently by any reason be 
 proved to be of God, That which is of God, and may evidently 
 be proved to be so, we deny not that it hath, in his kind, although 
 unwritten, yet the selfsame force and authority with the written 
 laws of God."— Hooker, B. I, 14. 
 
 5 To this sufficiency of Scripture as a rule of faith, all the Fathers 
 without a single exception bear witness. It would be the extremity 
 of folly, therefore, to set the evidence of the Fathers against the 
 Scriptures, because it is on their evidence that we acknowledge the 
 sufficiency of Scripture, and are enabled to distinguish the authentic 
 from the spurious. It would waste the reader's time to quote their 
 testimony seriatim. He may consult Tertullian, or Bishop Kaye's 
 
IV. J CREEDS. 85 
 
 To the Scriptures then we refer as the sole 
 authority of every rule either of doctrine or duty ; 
 because Tradition has handed them down to us 
 in that especial capacity. It testifies to their 
 having been esteem^!, from the first, as books 
 sui generis, written by inspired men for the use 
 
 admirable abstract of his works ; Origen, in Jerein. Horn. i. 7. ; St. 
 Cyprian, Testimonia, jpass/wj ; St. Optatus ; Cyril of Jerusalem; who 
 all concur in the language of Athanasius : " What inconceivable 
 abandonment of mind is this, which leads you to speak what is not 
 in Scripture, and to entertain thoughts foreign to godliness ?" But 
 though we thus deny that any traditions are of tantamount autho- 
 rity with Scripture, yet using the term in that its legitimate sense 
 which we have before ascribed to it, as a mode of evidence, some 
 of the most important doctrines of Christianity are traditional. 
 What is the testimony for Episcopacy but tradition ? What for 
 Infant Baptism but tradition ? What is our evidence as to which 
 books are, and which are not, canonical Scripture, but tradition ? 
 All these essential questions depend, for their irrefragible evidence, 
 on the transmissive testimony regarding them, which one genera- 
 tion has handed down to another, from the days of the Apostles to 
 our own times. It is evidence stronger, if it be possible, than a 
 distinct command of scripture ; " circumstances/' like these, " can- 
 not lie." "It is said," says Jeremy Taylor, " that the Scripture 
 itself is wholly derived to us by tradition, and therefore, besides 
 Scripture, tradition is necessary to the Church. And, indeed, no 
 man who understands this question, denies it. This tradition, that 
 these books were written by the Apostles, and were delivered by 
 the Apostles to the Churches as the Word of God, relies princi- 
 pally upon tradition universal, that is, it was witnessed to be true 
 by all the Christian world at their first being so consigned. Now 
 
86 CREEDS. [LiECT. 
 
 and guidance of the Church, and preserved by that 
 Church in their substantial integrity to the present 
 time. 
 
 But then comes the more complex question as 
 to the interpretation of this ^*ule — the extent to 
 
 then this is no part of the ivord of God, but the notification or 
 manner of conveying the word of God — the instrument of its 
 delivery. So that the tradition concerning the Scriptures being 
 extrinsical to Scripture, is also extrinsical to the question. This 
 tradition cannot be an objection against the sufficiency of Scripture 
 to salvation, but must go before the question. For no man inquires 
 " whether the Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation ?'' 
 unless he believe that there are Scriptures ; that these are they, and 
 that they are the word of God. All this comes to us by tradition, 
 that is, by universal, undeniable testimony. After the Scriptures 
 are thus received, there has risen another question, viz. whether or 
 no these Scriptures so delivered to us, do contain all the word of 
 God ?" or, whether or no besides the tradition which goes before 
 Scripture, (which is an instrumental tradition only of Scripture,) 
 there be not also something else that is necessary to salvation con- 
 signed by Tradition as well as the Scripture ; and of things as 
 necessary or useful as what is contained in Scripture, and that is 
 equally the word of God, as Scripture is ? The tradition of 
 Scripture we receive, but of nothing else but what is in Scrip- 
 ture. And if it be asked, why we receive one, and not the rest ? 
 we answer, because we have but one tradition of things necessary ; 
 that is, there is a universal tradition of Scripture and what con- 
 cerns it, but none of other things which are not in Scripture. 
 And there is no necessity we should have any, all things necessary 
 and profitable to the salvation of all men being plainly contained in 
 the Scriptures."- Dissuasive from Popery, 
 
IV.] CREEDS. 87 
 
 which it is necessary to be understood, and the 
 authority to which men ought to bow in every case 
 of unavoidable ignorance or reasonable doubt. That 
 Scripture requires to be interpreted, no man denies ; 
 that a knowledge of certain elementary principles 
 of it is necessary for every individual Christian, is 
 equally evident ; and that there must be some 
 authority in the Church, either collectively or 
 residing in detached portions or in single members 
 of it, for determining the sense of Scripture, at 
 least to such an extent as to take away the sin of 
 wilful ignorance from those who rely on such 
 authority — will be conceded by all who consider 
 the mode in which the gospel was originally pro- 
 pagated, and the evils which would arise to the 
 Church from the unlimited license of private inter- 
 pretation. The Scriptures were not the instru- 
 ments by which the gospel was at first disseminated. 
 They are rather an account of the way in which 
 those instruments operated. They were not ori- 
 ginally written for the purpose of making converts 
 to the truth, but to confirm or correct those who 
 had been converted already. They are an inspired 
 comment upon a previously-delivered rule ; — that 
 rule is now lost, and we are driven to collect it 
 from the infallible comment that remains. In this 
 respect there is an essential difference between the 
 Old Testament and the New. The Old Testament 
 
88 CREEDS. [LECT. 
 
 is strictly a Law, and requires no comment in the 
 first instance ; that is, though the details of it may 
 be obscure, yet its great and elementary principles 
 are almost self-evident. Every precept is as an 
 article of the Creed ; every prescribed ceremony 
 is as binding as a Sacrament. But the Law of the 
 New Testament presents itself to us under a totally 
 different aspect ; it is conveyed to us rather in an 
 historical than a legal form ; and to say we embrace 
 the books of the gospel, implies an altogether dif- 
 ferent mental process from that which is required 
 to say we embrace the books of the Law of Moses. 
 The latter conveys a definite and simple notion, 
 and we see at once what must be the belief and 
 practice of him who makes the declaration ; but 
 the former is a much more comprehensive and 
 indefinite expression ; and may be uttered, and 
 that with the utmost sincerity, by men who, beyond 
 the fact of embracing the same gospel, have very 
 little in common with each other, either in their 
 ceremonies or their creed. We have only to look 
 at the great variety of sects and opinions which 
 have prevailed in the Church during successive 
 periods of it, to be convinced that a simple decla- 
 ration of belief in Scripture is no pledge of 
 orthodoxy or bond of unity; but is compatible 
 with the rejection, through the various and conflict- 
 ing sentiments of those who nevertheless honestly 
 
IV.] CREEDS. 89 
 
 make such declaration, of every important doctrine 
 and every essential duty that the whole Bible con- 
 tains ! Hence that necessity for some more definite 
 confession of faith than that of a simple belief in 
 the Scriptures, which Churches, of every variety of 
 opinion, have always required as a test of qualifica- 
 tion for Church-membership ; hence, in short, the 
 necessary origin of Creeds. 
 
 Something like a Creed was required by Philip of 
 the Ethiopian before baptism : " What," saith he, 
 " doth hinder me to be baptized ?" Philip answered, 
 "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest;" 6 
 and a Creed may be defined to be a baptismal confes- 
 sion of faith. It should contain just so many and 
 no more points of doctrine than are necessary for 
 admission into the Christian covenant, and are a 
 proof that the catechumen is neither ignorant of 
 any fundamental truth, nor maintains any essential 
 and insurmountable error. It should contain so 
 many, — for fear he should on further inquiry see 
 reason to fall back ; it should contain no more, — 
 for baptism is but the commencement and not the 
 conclusion of the Christian career. The convert 
 cannot reasonably be excluded from the benefits of 
 the Christian covenant till he is fully instructed in 
 all the mysteries of the Christian faith ; these are 
 to be the study, and mental and moral probation, 
 
 6 Acts, viii. 36, 37. 
 
90 CREEDS [LeCT. 
 
 of his whole Christian life ; and there are many 
 which the angels themselves desire to look into, 
 and to which the most enlightened and spiritual 
 disciple of Christ can never hope, in this world, to 
 attain. And yet, on the other hand, there must be 
 some knowledge on which his faith must rest, and 
 by which his confession of it must be manifested to 
 the Church to be placed on a sound foundation. 
 This is his Creed. And the comparative excellence 
 of one branch of the Catholic Church above another 
 may almost be said to turn upon the Scriptural 
 evidence and Apostolical authority on which that 
 Creed is framed. Modern Churches (so called) 
 have constructed for themselves various tests of 
 Church-membership in accordance with the views 
 which they take of what they esteem the most 
 important doctrines of Christianity ; some led by 
 the influence of great names in theology ; such, 
 for instance, as, merging their Catholicity in a 
 more modern name, adopt the cognomen of their 
 founder as a symbol of their Creed — Calvinists, 
 Lutherans, Wesleyans, &c. ; some satisfied with 
 very general terms of acquiescence ; such as the 
 various sects of Independents ; and some adopt- 
 ing new views into their system of divinity as 
 they would in moral philosophy or natural sci- 
 ence. The Romanist seems to add to the evils 
 which arise from these uncertain tests one pecu- 
 
IV.] CREEDS. 91 
 
 liar to himself: he seeks to combine, in his Creed, 
 the principle of perpetual stability with that of 
 perpetual change. He maintains the doctrine 
 of fixed and unchangeable Tradition ; but joins 
 with it that of the infallibility of his Church ; by 
 which any new interpretation of Tradition or of 
 Scripture, issuing according to canonical form, 
 becomes as valid as, or supercedes, the original 
 rule, according as it is an addition to or an alter- 
 ation of that which already existed. This is a 
 perplexity which embarrasses the Romanist at every 
 step. He is unwilling either to give up the prin- 
 ciple of fixed Tradition, or to withdraw the claim of 
 plenary authority from any co-existent section of 
 his infallible Church." The comparatively modern 
 decrees of the Council of Trent are with him as 
 binding as the Apostolical Traditions of the primi- 
 tive Fathers : they may differ from, or even be in- 
 consistent with each other, but his simple duty is 
 out of two immutable and infallible things to 
 deduce grounds of consistency in them, or at least 
 of acquiescence for himself. The doctrine of Tradi- 
 tion alone, as a rule, would bind up the powers of 
 the Church for ever ; the doctrine of Infallibility 
 alone, would throw it open to the unlimited tyranny 
 and caprice of successive popes and councils : but 
 
 " Vide " Petri Dens Theologia," Toin. II. p. 126. " De infallibi- 
 lilate Ecclesiae," et p. 158. " De infullibilitate Summi Pontifici.?." 
 
92 CREEDS. [LECT. 
 
 the union of both places it under the rule of two 
 conflicting and inconsistent authorities — Tradition 
 without certainty of evidence, and Infallibility 
 without unity of decision. Either power alone 
 might be intelligible as a rule ; but in whatever 
 cases it is found necessary to call in the aid of 
 both, the result must be a collision in which the 
 authority of both is endangered. 
 
 In what precise respects, then, does the Church 
 Catholic differ from the Church of Rome in its 
 views of Tradition and of Infallibility ? In one 
 sense it may be said to hold both doctrines ; and 
 how does it escape the dilemma above detailed as 
 attaching to the maintenance of both in an unli- 
 mited sense? — By maintaining the authority of 
 both in that modified degree which reconciles 
 them with each other, and with every sound deduc- 
 tion both from reason and revelation. Perhaps the 
 shortest and clearest view of such a comprehensive 
 subject is best supplied by an illustration. Let us 
 place ourselves, for a moment, in the position of 
 an original inquirer after truth, with the Scriptures 
 for the first time open before him. He finds him- 
 self at once in the condition of the Ethiopian in 
 the text ; and in answer to Philip's question, 
 " understandest thou what thou readest ?" — will 
 doubtless reply, " how can I, except some one 
 should guide me ?" I feel, he would say, that I 
 
IV.] CREEDS. 93 
 
 am involved, as it were, in a labyrinth of truth. 
 There are more winding mazes of it in this sacred 
 book, than I can ever thread in the course of the 
 closest application and the most lengthened life ; 
 yet are there also, I feel, some truths so striking 
 and so all-important, that to be ignorant of them 
 must be hazardous, and to pervert them fatal, to 
 my everlasting salvation. Who then shall guide 
 me ? I find that in the Church there was once an 
 infallible interpreter : the Apostles had power 
 given them unerringly to expound as well as to 
 reveal. And I find also this solemn promise given 
 to them, when they were finally sent forth to found 
 and propagate the visible Church of Christ — " Lo, 
 I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
 world." 8 It would seem, therefore, as if the gift of 
 unerring interpretation were still somewhere alive 
 in the world. But where is it to be found? I 
 dare not trust to myself, for I know too well my 
 own weakness to rely, on a question involving such 
 momentous interests, solely on my own judgment. 
 I fear to rely on the opinion of others, even though 
 wiser and more learned than myself; for though 
 t their decisions may fortify or shake my own, they 
 
 8 Matt, xxviii. 20.. " Since the promise extends to the end of 
 the world, and the apostles were not to live so long, Christ is to be 
 supposed to have addressed, in the persons of the apostles, their 
 successors in that office." Bull, Defensio Fidei Nicren. Prooem. S 2. 
 
94 CREEDS. [LECT. 
 
 can shew me no Scripture token that this promise 
 of infallibility attaches to themselves. I dare not 
 depend on prevalent opinions, for they change ; 
 nor on whole Churches, for they differ. I am 
 resolved what to do, in order that I may, if possi- 
 ble, be certified of those essential truths which 
 Scripture seems to intimate will never be suffered 
 to perish out of the Catholic Church of Christ. I 
 will take the elementary doctrines of the Church 
 of my own age and country, and sift them to their 
 foundation. If there are any, which seem to have 
 sprung up at a particular period, and were totally 
 unknown before, I shall suspect them, if not in 
 their truth, at least in their character of essentials. 
 If there are any which have been held by one 
 branch of the Catholic Church, but not acknow- 
 ledged, or denied by another, I shall suspect them. 
 If there are any which can boast both of uni- 
 versality and antiquity, but seem not to have been 
 entertained, or to have been contradicted, by those 
 who listened to the infallible expositions of the 
 apostles or their personal disciples, I shall still 
 suspect them. And lastly, if, having all these 
 requisites, they cannot be proved by, or can be 
 proved to be inconsistent with, the written Word, 
 I shall not only suspect, but repudiate and disown 
 them as doctrines generally necessary to salvation. 
 But if, going steadily through this process. T find 
 
IV.] CREEDS. 95 
 
 certain doctrines, now promulgated by the Church 
 as fundamental, to have been maintained by her 
 as holding that character, through all her leading 
 branches, and every successive age of her existence, 
 up to the times of the apostles themselves 9 — if, 
 moreover, I find it proved that the apostles taught 
 these doctrines to their hearers, and have also 
 either distinctly recorded or necessarily implied 
 them in their now existing writings — then I have 
 the utmost assurance of having arrived at an inter- 
 
 9 " Knowing that God did so fully approve what was done by 
 the Apostles, for the regulation of the Church, that they were 
 even permitted to join, as it were, their authority to his, saying 
 It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us; (Acts xv. 28.) our 
 Reformers could not but acknowledge, that whatever had been thus 
 decreed would be binding for ever upon the Christian Church ; and 
 consequently, that any wilful departure from such ordinances would 
 be schism. Proceeding upon this principle therefore, they excluded 
 all novelty ; and leaving no latitude to human fancy, they confined 
 all their enquiries to this point alone, namely, " How was it in 
 the beginning ?" To ascertain this they applied to Scripture ; and 
 as from the nature of things there were some points on which 
 Scripture was silent, in these deficiencies they enquired what was 
 the practice of those Churches, which were confessedly established 
 under the eye, or during the life-time of the Apostles. This was 
 done ; and as these Churches thus founded would of necessity 
 become the model upon which all that were subsequent should be 
 framed, it was argued, that those particulars, in which these suc- 
 ceeding Churches agreed with their prototypes, might be safely 
 considered as conformable to the Apostolical design. 
 
 It seems not possible, that at that distance of time they could 
 
96 CREEDS. [LECT. 
 
 pretation which, if infallibility be vouchsafed to 
 the world, may safely be pronounced to be infal- 
 lible ; and may feel a confidence, which no other 
 process and no other principles can justly inspire — 
 that these are the doctrines through which the 
 Lord will be with his Church " alway, even unto 
 the end of the world." — It is thus that Tradition 
 and Infallibility are reconciled, by becoming almost 
 identical with each other. Infallibility is thus 
 
 have ascertained by any other mode, what it had seemed good to 
 the Apostles, and to the Holy Ghost, to appoint : and as this 
 method led them step by step to the Episcopal form of govern- 
 ment, we should think ourselves guilty of schism, did we not 
 make that form the foundation whereon to build our Church. That 
 such was the conduct of our great Reformers, and such the princi- 
 ples that influenced them, will surely be evident to all, who study, 
 with the attention it deserves, the history of our Church. See 
 Bp. Hall's Episcopacy by Divine Right, and the Preface to Bilson's 
 Perpetual Government of Christ's Church: and Juelli Apol. apud 
 Ench. Theol. vi. p. 199. The following testimony of a foreigner, 
 eminent for his learning and abilities, and of a communion differing 
 from ours, must be considered as of great weight. Isaac Casaubon 
 having spent some time in England, writes thus to Sahnasius : 
 ' Quod si me conjectura non fallit, totius Refcrmationis pars inte- 
 gerrima est in Anglia, ubi cum studio vcritatis viget studium anti- 
 quitatis : quam certi homines dum spernunt in laqueos se induunt, 
 unde sine mendacio postea exuere se nequeunt : ita hostibus veri- 
 tatis non solum risus praebetur, sed etiam partes illorum mirifice 
 confirmantur. Nemo serio versatus in antiquitate hoc verum esse 
 negaverit. Sed multos amor partium cogit mentiri." Epis. I. 
 Casauboni ad Salmasium, Ed. Grrcvii, 1656. Ep. 709. p. 898. — 
 See Nott's Bampton Lectures, p. 123. 
 
IV.] CREEDS. 97 
 
 limited to a tradition founded on Scripture, and 
 prevalent, all along, every where, and in every 
 branch of the Catholic Church of Christ. No new 
 decree, therefore, of the Church concerning funda- 
 mental points of doctrine, can be binding. It 
 would necessarily be wanting in some of the requi- 
 sites above specified. In this way the new funda- 
 mentals of the Council of Trent lose their validity, 
 failing sometimes in one and sometimes in all of 
 the conditions, of continuity, universality, and scrip- 
 tural basis. We, however, of the Anglican Church, 
 agree with the Catholic Church of Christ in main- 
 taining that such doctrines as are absolutely neces- 
 sary, as baptismal tests, are those which are contained 
 in the ancient Creeds. 10 There are other truths, 
 
 10 '( Now if more were necessary than the articles of the Creed, I 
 demand why was it made the characteristic note of a Christian 
 from a heretic, or a Jew, or an infidel ? or to what purpose was it 
 composed ? or if this was intended as sufficient, did the Apostles, 
 or those Churches which they founded, know any thing else to be 
 necessary ? If they did not, then either nothing more is necessary, 
 (I speak of matters of mere belief), or they did not know all the 
 will of the Lord, and so were unfit dispensers of the mysteries of 
 the kingdom ; or if they did know more was necessary, and yet 
 would not insert it, they did an act of public notice, and consigned 
 it to all ages of the Church, to no purpose, unless to beguile 
 credulous people, by making them believe their faith was sufficient, 
 having tried it by that touchstone apostolical, when there was no 
 such matter. 
 
 But," if this was sufficient to brine; men to heaven then, why not 
 
98 CREEDS. [LECT. 
 
 equally certain, and equally, perhaps, essential ; but 
 these are compendious forms handed down by the 
 Church as infallible and necessary verities, indis- 
 pensable for the Unity of the Church, and guarded 
 for its use, as we believe, by the especial care of 
 the Spirit of Truth himself. And it is indeed con- 
 soling and encouraging to the Church to observe, 
 that, amidst the prevalence of error of every kind, 
 and trials and tribulations which have often seemed 
 to shake her bulwarks to the very foundation — it is 
 consoling to observe with what care her main truths 
 have been constantly guarded from corruption, or 
 oblivion. The Creeds have floated like an ark 
 
 now ? If the Apostles admitted all to their communion that 
 believed this Creed, why shall we exclude any that preserve the 
 same entire ? Why is not our faith of these articles of as much 
 efficacy for bringing us to heaven, as it was in the Churches apos- 
 tolical, who had guides more infallible, that might, without error, 
 have taught them superstructures enough, if they bad been neces- 
 sary ? And so they did ; but that they did not insert them into 
 the Creed, when they might have done it with as much certainty 
 as these articles, makes it clear to my understanding, that other 
 things were not necessary, but these were ; that whatever profit 
 and advantages might come from other articles, yet these were 
 sufficient, and however certain persons might accidentally be obliged 
 to believe much more, yet this was the one and only foundation of 
 faith, upon which all persons were to build their hopes of heaven ; 
 this was, therefore, necessary to be taught to all, because of neces- 
 sity to be believed by all : so that, although other persons might 
 commit a delinquency ' in genere morum,' if they did not know, 
 
IV.] CREEDS. 99 
 
 upon the waves, when every thing else, order, and 
 ceremonies, and sacraments, and even the Word of 
 God itself, have been tossed in wild confusion 
 around them. No substantial error has ever been 
 generally embraced by the universal Church, nor 
 any essential truth totally forgotten by her, from 
 the days of the Apostles to the present time. On 
 this point I cannot forbear to quote the memorable 
 words of a Father in our Church — the brightest 
 and steadiest light of an age that is now passing 
 away — the late learned Bishop of Durham : 
 
 " If," says he, " a candid investigation be made 
 of the points generally agreed upon by the Church 
 
 or did not believe much more, because they were obliged to further 
 disquisitions in order to other ends, yet none of these who held the 
 creed entire, could perish for want of necessary faith, though possi- 
 bly he might for supine negligence, or affected ignorance, or some 
 other fault which had influence upon his opinions, and his under- 
 standing, he having a new supervening obligation, ' ex accidente,' 
 to know and believe more." Jeremy Taylor — The Liberty of 
 Prophesying. Sect. I. § 9, 10. 
 
 On this point the reader may also consult the Preface to 
 Pearson on the Creed. So also Archbishop Bramhall : "We 
 keep ourselves to the old faith of the whole Christian world, that 
 is, the Creed of the Apostles — explicated by the Nicene, Con- 
 stantinopolitan, Ephesine, and Chalcedonian Fathers ; the same 
 which was professed by them of old at their baptism, and is still 
 professed by us at our baptism ; the same wherein all the Christian 
 world, and themselves among the rest, were baptized." Schism 
 Guarded. Tom. I. Disc. IV. 
 
100 CREEDS. [LECT. 
 
 Universal, it will probably be found, that at no 
 period of its history has any fundamental or essen- 
 tial truth of the Gospel been authoritatively dis- 
 owned. Particular Churches may have added 
 many superstitious observances and many erroneous 
 tenets, to these essential truths ; and in every 
 Church, particular individuals, or congregations of 
 individuals, may have tainted large portions of the 
 Christian community with pestilential heresies. 
 But as far as the Church Catholic can be deemed 
 responsible, the substance of sound doctrine still 
 remains undestroyed at least, if not unimpaired. 
 Let us take, for instance, those articles of faith 
 which have already been shewn to be essential to 
 the Christian Covenant — the doctrines of the 
 Trinity, of our Lord's Divinity and Incarnation, 
 of his Atonement and Intercession, of our Sanctifi- 
 cation by the Holy Spirit, of the terms of accept- 
 ance, and the Ordinances of the Christian Sacra- 
 ments and Priesthood. At what period of the 
 Church have these doctrines, or either of them, 
 been by any public act disowned or called in ques- 
 tion ? We are speaking now, it will be recollected, 
 of what, in the language of Ecclesiastical History, 
 is emphatically called the Church ; that which 
 has from age to age borne rule, upon the ground 
 of its pretensions to Apostolical Succession. And 
 to this our inquiry is necessarily restricted. But 
 
IV.] CREEDS. 101 
 
 view now, on the other hand, the labours of those 
 who endeavoured to subvert any of these funda- 
 mental truths. Observe the parties with whom 
 they originated, and the estimation in which they 
 were holden. No age of the Church has ever • 
 been entirely fij^e from attempts to spread pernici- 
 ous errors. Yet at what period have they ever 
 received its authoritative sanction ? Did the 
 Church in primitive times yield one iota of essential 
 doctrine to the Gnostic Heretics? Did it after- 
 wards adopt either the Sabellian, the Arian, or the 
 Macedonian tenets ? Did the wild enthusiasm of 
 Manes, or Montanus, and their followers, in any 
 respect influence its Creed? And in later times, 
 when and where have the Socinian notions been 
 recognized as any legitimate authority ? Or, what 
 proof can even the disciples of Calvin produce, that 
 his doctrine of arbitrary and irrespective decrees, 
 was ever the received persuasion of the Catholic 
 Church ? — To say nothing of the multitude of lesser 
 divisions of religious opinion, or of those ephemeral 
 productions, of each of which, as of their authors, 
 it might be said, ' in the morning it flourisheth and 
 groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and 
 withereth.' Surely here is something to arrest 
 reflection ; something which they who sincerely 
 profess Christianity, and are tenacious of the invio- 
 lability of its doctrines, must contemplate with 
 
102 CREEDS. [LECT. 
 
 sentiments of awe and veneration. How have they 
 withstood the assaults of continued opponents ; 
 opponents, wanting neither talents nor inclination 
 to effect their overthrow ? If these considerations 
 be deemed insufficient, let the adversary point out 
 by what sure tokens we shall discover any Christian 
 community, duly answering the apostle's description, 
 that it is " built upon the foundation of the A postles 
 and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
 CornerStone?'" 11 
 
 We possess, then, in our primitive Creeds, a 
 treasure beyond all price. We have in them those 
 elementary and fundamental truths of the Gospel, 
 which have, all along, been pre-requisites for admis- 
 sion into the Christian covenant by the Sacrament 
 of Baptism. We find these truths promulgated by 
 the apostles themselves, borne witness to by the 
 testimony of uninterrupted tradition, and confirmed 
 by the decision of councils, the blood of martyrs, 
 and the sure warrant of Scripture. Can we wonder, 
 then, that the Churches' formula of severe condem- 
 nation, a formula of Scripture origin, should be 
 attached to the wilful rejection of such doctrines 
 as have been thus propagated, thus evidenced, and 
 thus believed ? " Go ye forth," says our Saviour to 
 his Apostles, " go ye forth into all the world, and 
 preach the gospel to every creature ; he that be- 
 11 Bp. Van Mildert's Bampton Lectures, viii. 
 
IV.] CREEDS. 103 
 
 lieveth and is baptised shall be saved ; but he that 
 believeth not, shall be damned." But what was 
 that which " not believing" should bring on them 
 this awful sentence ? It could not be the written 
 Word of God ; for much of it was not as yet re- 
 corded. It mu^t have been the doctrines which 
 the Apostles taught as being requisite for Christian 
 baptism. Now of these we know that the most 
 abstruse of all which the Creed contains, the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity in Unity, was one — for the 
 Apostles were commanded to baptize every convert 
 in the name — (not names) — of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. But they would 
 not baptize men into his name in whom they had 
 not believed : and yet says our Lord, in most 
 general and emphatic words, " he that believeth 
 not, shall be damned." If then we find, in one of 
 our Creeds, this Scriptural sentence attached to 
 this especial sin of disowning the doctrine of the 
 Trinity — if, also, we find it declared to be necessary 
 to everlasting Salvation that we believe rightly the 
 incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ — in con- 
 formity with St. John's own sentence on the same 
 sin, "many deceivers are entered into the world, 
 who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the 
 flesh ; this is a deceiver and an anti-christ ;" 12 — if the 
 Church, on this sacred authority, should judicially 
 
 12 ii. John, 7. 
 
104 CREEDS. [LECT. IV.] 
 
 attach such penalties as these to the rejection of 
 those articles of faith which are contained in her 
 Creeds, it seems to amount to no more than the 
 solemn assertion of this necessary truth : there is 
 such a thing as saving faith ; there is such a thing 
 as damning error : These are the truths which the 
 Church Catholic has all along maintained as aposto- 
 lical, scriptural, and essential verities ; nor can she 
 discover how Christian Salvation can be extended 
 to those who do not acknowledge the fundamentals 
 of the Christian faith. She concludes, therefore, 
 not in the language of uncharitableness, but of 
 judicial duty, that " this is the Catholic faith ; 
 which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be 
 saved !" 
 
 END OF LECTURE IV. 
 
APPENDIX TO LECTURE IV. 
 
 It is curious to observe how much confusion of thought, 
 and therefore unnecessary controversy, has arisen from over- 
 looking the distinction between the two widely different 
 senses in which the word Tradition is often popularly used. 
 It is sometimes a mode of evidence, and sometimes the thing 
 evidenced ; (sometimes tradendi modus, sometimes tradi- 
 tum.) In the first sense, with reference to theological 
 matters, it is invaluable ; in the second, unless the thing 
 evidenced be shown to have originally issued from Inspira- 
 tion, it is of no value whatever. Yet the confusion of these 
 two meanings is commonly found not only in the same 
 author, but even in the same passage. The folio win «• is a 
 striking instance taken from a scarce work, written by Dr. 
 Deacon, the last Non-juring Bishop, (though his consecra- 
 tion seems to have been thought by his sect to have been 
 somewhat irregular), who was a strong Jacobite in the year 
 1745, and lived and died in Manchester. The title of his 
 work, which exhibits great learning and considerable powers 
 of reasoning, is as follows : " The Doctrine of the Church 
 of Rome concerning Purgatory proved to be contrary to 
 Catholic Tradition, and inconsistent with the necessary 
 Duty of Praying for the Dead, as practised in the 
 Ancient Church." It is well known that this "necessary 
 duty" was one of the points on which the Non-jurors 
 
106 APPENDIX TO LECTURE IV. 
 
 maintained that the Reformers had departed from Catholic 
 truth. The passage referred to is this : " But to all 
 this it is opposed," says he, "that we have too great 
 regard for Tradition. To which I answer, that a Tra- 
 dition, which is general and uninterrupted, delivered or 
 practised by all Churches and contradicted by none, must be 
 followed. By such Tradition we prove the lawfulness of 
 Infant Baptism, the observation of the Lord's day, and the 
 divine right of Episcopacy. By such Tradition we repel 
 the attacks of the Church of Rome, and shew the necessity 
 of a Reformation. In fine, if we will not submit to the 
 authority of such Tradition, we may turn Deists, deny that 
 there is any revealed religion, and then burn our Bibles. 
 For the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures cannot be 
 proved but by Tradition. How can it be shewed, that 
 Solomon's Song is Canonical, and Ecclesiasticus not so, but 
 by Tradition ? How can it be proved, that St. Matthew 
 and St. Mark wrote the Gospels which go under their names, 
 but by Tradition ? And how shall we distinguish between 
 the genuine and spurious works of the Apostles, but by 
 Tradition? The Scripture cannot prove itself; and there- 
 fore without Tradition our Bible is of no authority, our 
 faith, our hope, nay our whole religion is vain. 
 
 But after all, Scripture itself recommends Tradition. 
 St. Paul writes thus to St. Timothy : Hold fast the 
 form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me. 
 And in the next chapter he says : 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. Where we find, that St. Timothy was not 
 only himself to observe the things he had heard from St. 
 
APPENDIX TO LECTURE IV. 107 
 
 Paul, but he was likewise to deliver the same to faithful 
 men, that they might teach others ; and we may be confident 
 St. Paul expected, that they who were taught by those 
 faithful men, should take care to perform what was delivered 
 to them. Again, the same Apostle writes thus to the Thes- 
 salonians : Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the 
 Traditions, which ye have been taught, whether by word 
 or our epistle. And in the next chapter he says : Now 
 we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every 
 brother, that walketli, disorderly, and not after the 
 Tradition which he received of us. And to the Corin- 
 thians he writes : Now I praise you, brethren, that you 
 remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as 
 I delivered them to you. Where we are to observe, that 
 the word which is here translated ordinances, in the original 
 signifies traditions, it being the same word in the Greek 
 with that which is translated tradition in the texts just 
 before quoted; And accordingly in the margin of the English 
 Bible over against the word ordinances there is written in 
 another character or traditions. 
 
 Thus we see we have Scripture on our side when we argue 
 for Tradition, the enemies to which do not only overthrow 
 the foundation of revealed religion itself, but go directly 
 contrary to the very letter of their Bibles."" 1 
 
 Now the reader will at once perceive that the word 
 Tradition is here used, — and clearly without the writer him- 
 self perceiving the transition, — in its two distinct senses 
 above defined. In the first part of the passage it bears its 
 
 i " The reader who is desirous of seeing more upon this subject, is 
 referred to the very Reverend and Learned Dr. Brett's unanswerable 
 tract upon Tradition." 
 
108 APPENDIX TO LECTURE IV. 
 
 proper signification of a mode of evidence, but in the 
 second, when he quotes the epistles to Timothy, the Thes- 
 salonians, &c, it is used with reference to the thing con- 
 cerning which testimony is borne by Tradition. The first 
 is the legitimate, the second the spurious sense of the word. 
 In the first meaning it is invaluable ; in the second, unless 
 we trace up the Tradition to scripture itself, or to a prin- 
 ciple which may be proved by Scripture, it is valueless 
 in a doctrinal point of view. To illustrate this distinction 
 by a pertinent example. — Jeremy Taylor, in his most in- 
 teresting Life of Christ, has the following passage, (vol ii. 
 p. 129, Heber's edition) : " Then he arose, and took the 
 young child and his mother, by night, and departed into 
 Egypt. And they made their first abode in Hermopolis, 
 in the country of Thebais ; whither when they first arrived, 
 the child Jesus, being by design or providence carried into a 
 temple, all the statues of the idol-gods fell down, like 
 Dagon at the presence of the ark, and suffered their timely 
 and just dissolution and dishonour, according to the pro- 
 phecy of Isaiah : ' Behold, the Lord shall come into Egypt, 
 and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, 1 
 (Isaiah xix. I.)" Now the authority on which Taylor asserts 
 this fact is, to say the least of it, equal to that of Livy, or 
 indeed of any other historian on whose evidence we do not 
 hesitate, on common questions, to rely. Nay it is the very 
 authority on which, through one important stage of its trans- 
 mission, we depend for our knowledge that the Canon of 
 Scripture which we now possess is the same as Avas committed 
 to writing by the Apostles and Evangelists : for Taylor's 
 references for his statement arc to Euscbius dc Dcmonstr. c. 
 20. S. Athanas. lib. dc Tncarnat. Verbi. Palladius in Vita S. 
 Apollon. Nor docs there appear to be any antecedent 
 
APPEMDIX TO LECTURE IV. 109 
 
 improbability against its truth, arising from information 
 gathered from any other source. The Scripture account 
 of the same transaction is (Matt. ii. 14, 15.) — " He departed 
 into Egypt ; and was there until the death of Herod : that 
 it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the 
 prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son." No 
 one acquainted with the force of Scripture phraseology, 
 supposes that the reason here assigned for the departure into 
 Egypt excludes other and even higher motives than the 
 single one assigned by the Evangelist, or is inconsistent 
 with the transaction referred to by Taylor as having also led 
 to the fulfilment of another prophecy, to which it might not, 
 perhaps, answer St. Matthew's immediate purpose to allude. 
 Here, then, is a tradition as a fact, handed down to us by 
 tradition as to the mode.. We receive the Scripture narrative 
 and that of Taylor's, on much the same external evidence ; 
 and, up to a certain point, with almost equal weight of autho- 
 rity. But Taylor's story stops short of Inspiration ; tradition, 
 the mode of evidence — does not carry this tradition to that 
 point. It may be equally true, but it is not equally binding, 
 with the other narrative ; and while I should hold the man 
 an infidel who denied the truth of the one account, I should 
 bring no moral charge whatever (however strongly convinced 
 of it I might be in my own mind) against him who rejected 
 the other. I would say with St. Augustine, (Contra Faus- 
 tum.) " Quia canonicum non est, non me constringit." 1 
 Bishop Pearson insists on the perpetual Virginity of the 
 Mother of our Lord, as proved by tradition ; 2 but this is 
 2 This doctrine was also maintained by Bishop Bull, " she re- 
 mained for ever a virgin, as the Catholic Church hath always held and 
 maintained." Serm. IV. It was also held by Jeremy Taylor ; Life of 
 Christ, Sec. 3. 
 
110 APPENDIX TO LECTURE IV. 
 
 not made, by our Church, an article of Faith "necessary to 
 Salvation."" The following cautious remarks of the learned 
 Professor Hey, on the subject of Traditions, in the sense 
 of tradita, which occur in his comment on the sixth article 
 of our Church, are well worth the attentive consideration 
 of the reader. "Whatever particular Traditions we may 
 think it right to set aside, it does not seem as if we 
 ought to entertain any general prejudice against every 
 thing that is unwritten. In times of simplicity and unim- 
 proved ignorance, all knowledge and all laws must be 
 unwritten, or traditional ; and in every state of literature, 
 there must be some bye laws, some particular methods of 
 obeying general rules, which cannot well be committed to 
 writing ; and which had better be left unwritten and change- 
 able ; there will also be respectable interpretations of what 
 has been written, and customary practices implying unwritten 
 regulations ; — sometimes we only collect previous regula- 
 tions from their present presumed effects. — This is appli- 
 cable to Christianity. For some considerable time, there 
 were comparatively very few written records in the Christian 
 Church ; during that time, a good deal must go on Tradi- 
 tion. If we had any verbal directions, which had been 
 really given, by Christ or his Apostles, to the newly-formed 
 Churches, we should value them very highly ; these indeed 
 seem advantages not to be expected in any degree ; but very 
 early customs and practices in such Churches, afford so 
 strong a presumption of their having been owing to such 
 directions, as to demand our highest respect. And writings 
 of Fathers and decrees of Councils are to be considered in 
 the same light ; that is, as conveying an evidence of some- 
 thing unwritten : early comments also are esteemed as 
 
APPENDIX TO LECTURE IV. Ill 
 
 telling us received interpretations. All these ought to have 
 weight, whenever there is no appearance of indirect motives ; 
 and when the persons, whose accounts we receive, were com- 
 petently qualified to inform us. 
 
 But, whenever we have any reason to distrust, we should 
 be at full liberty to neglect every thing of this kind ; which 
 is a very different thing from its being held " necessary to 
 salvation. " And herein consists the happiness of us reform- 
 ed Christians, that we have got rid at once of an enormous 
 quantity of such Tradition, as we could not but believe to 
 be corrupt. In a course of years, there will generally be a 
 good deal to be rejected ; but, if there have been ignorance 
 and superstition and interest to generate, and artifice, party 
 zeal, ambition, and enthusiasm to nourish, there is no 
 saying to what degree the corruption may have increased. 
 At our Reformation, it was high time to extirpate all that 
 diseased tumor, which had been formed ; the same notices 
 are still to be examined as at first, and the same respect to 
 be paid to whatever appears to be -credible evidence; but 
 now we are not afraid of examining freely ; be our minds 
 ever so improved, we can make use of all their powers, to 
 judge of the past, and provide for the future. 
 
 Yet, when we say, that we can do this, we must not 
 forget the distinction between those, who are qualified to 
 judge for themselves, and those, who ought to be guided, 
 in a good measure, by the judgment of others ; between 
 Philosophers, as we have called them, and People. Indeed, 
 the distinction is never more wanted than here ; for all 
 imperfect reasonings with regard to Traditions seem, on both 
 sides, to owe their imperfections to the want of it. Those, 
 who are against all Traditions, reason as if all men were 
 
112 APPENDIX TO LECTURE IV. 
 
 Philosophers : those, who plead most strongly for Traditions, 
 reason as if all men were ordinary people. 1 ' Vol. ii. 468, 469. 
 It may be necessary, however, to remind the reader, that 
 the great controversy between ourselves and the Church of 
 Rome regarding tradition (a fact which is now sometimes 
 lost sight of) has reference to neither of the above senses of 
 the word, but to the force and weight of oral or unwritten 
 Tradition ; that is, a Tradition that cannot be written, but 
 is written in the hearts of the authorized interpreters of 
 the truth, for the purpose of enabling them to correct the 
 necessary imperfections of any written word. 3 It was the 
 maintenance of this mystical doctrine that opened the 
 widest door to the spiritual domination of the Romish 
 priesthood. For a full discussion of the question of oral 
 Tradition, though with far too much laxity of view on the 
 part of the Archbishop, see Tillotson on " The Rule of 
 Faith," especially Sect. 2. vol. X. works. 
 
 3 Vid. Petri Dens Theologia. Tom. 2. p. 108. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF THE SUBJECT — APPARENT SUFFICIENCY OF THE 
 SCRIPTURES WITH THE CREEDS, AS RULE AND SYMBOL— ADDITIONS 
 MADE TO THEM BY THE CHURCH OF ROME— THE ENCROACHMENTS OF 
 THAT CHURCH ON ONE SIDE LED TO REMONSTRANCES ON THE OTHER 
 —HENCE ARTICLES OF RELIGION— DISTINCTION BETWEEN CREEDS AND 
 ARTICLES— CREEDS UNIVERSAL, ARTICLES SPECIAL— ARTICLES DEVISED 
 FOR SELF-REGULATION AND SELF-DEFENCE OF PARTICULAR CHURCHES- 
 AUTHORITY OF EACH BRANCH OF THE CHURCH TO ORDAIN ARTICLES- 
 IT IS IN THE ARTICLES THAT WE ARE PROTESTANTS AGAINST BOTH 
 ROMANISTS AND DISSENTERS— SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLES TO SHOW 
 THIS— DEFENCE OF OUR ARTICLES AGAINST THE ROMANISTS AS NOT 
 BEING CATHOLIC— DEFENCE OF THEM AGAINST DISSENTERS AS BEING 
 EXCLUSIVE— TRUE SENSE OF THE WORD PROTESTANT— WHY OUR ARTI- 
 CLES ARE NOT SIGNED BY ALL— WHY THEY SHOULD BE SIGNED BY 
 SOME— USE OF THEM IN PROTECTING THE CHURCH FROM HERESY AND 
 ERROR. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 
 
 Hebrews vi. ], 2, 3. 
 
 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on 
 unto perfection ; not laying again the foundation of repentance from 
 dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and 
 of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal 
 judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. 
 
 We are now arrived at a stage in our inquiries, in 
 which our path becomes less distinct as we advance, 
 from the numerous ways which diverge from it. 
 We have ascertained the plenary Authority and 
 Inspiration of Scripture ; and have attempted to 
 fix those elementary and fundamental principles of 
 the interpretation of it, which have received the 
 sanction and impress of the whole Catholic Church, 
 and out of which, if they are really based on a 
 sound foundation, all minor details of doctrine and 
 duty ought to spring. It does not appear — had 
 that spirit of unity and of peace, which our great 
 Head and Master so solemnly bequeathed to his 
 
116 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LiECT. 
 
 Church, been permitted to have its perfect work — 
 that more than this would have been necessary to 
 make the flock of Christ one fold under one shep- 
 herd, and render the Church militant on earth, in 
 its outward piety and internal peace, an emblem 
 and an earnest of the happy condition of the Church 
 triumphant in heaven. For, there are the Scrip- 
 tures, — an unexhausted well of Truth; there are 
 the Creeds, vessels to draw with — sufficiently 
 simple, in their elementary meaning, to be under- 
 stood by every candidate for admission into the 
 Christian household ; sufficiently comprehensive, in 
 their ultimate bearings, to give scope for the 
 edification of that household in every mystery of 
 doctrine, and refinement of practice, which it may 
 require, in the Apostle's words, " to go on unto per- 
 fection." 1 The Creeds are full of doctrine. In 
 them we profess our belief in God and his attri- 
 butes ; in Christ and his offices ; in the Holy Ghost 
 
 1 " Since, then, die emperors made the summary of the Apostles' 
 Creed to be the rule of discerning Catholics from heretics, it 
 follows that the Roman Church Catholic signifies something else 
 than it did in the Primitive Church. St. Ambrose says, ' Faith 
 is conceived by the Apostles' Creed ; ' all faith lies in that, as the 
 child in the mother's womb ; and he compares it to a key, because 
 ' by it the darknesses of the devil are unlocked, that the light of 
 Christ may come upon us ; and the hidden sins of conscience are 
 opened that the manifest works of righteousness may shine. This 
 key is to be shown to our brethren, that by this, as scholars of St. 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 117 
 
 and his influence ; — in the Holy Catholic Church, 
 and thereby in its unity, its ministers, its sacra- 
 ments, its authority, its universal truths ; — in the 
 communion of saints — the common mind, union, 
 
 Peter, they may shut the gates of hell, and open the doors of 
 heaven.' He also, calls it, ' The seal of our heart, and the sacra- 
 ment of our warfare.' — St. Jerome speaking of it, says, 'The 
 symbol of our faith and hope, which was delivered by the Apostles, 
 is not written in paper and ink,' but in the fleshly tables of our 
 hearts. After the confession of the Trinity, and unity of the 
 Church, the whole, or every sacrament, of the Christian religion, 
 is concluded with the resurrection of the flesh.' Which words are 
 intimated, and in part transcribed by Isidore, of Seville. Ruffinus 
 says, the Apostles being to separate, and go to their several 
 charges, appointed ' Normam futuree praedicationis, regulam 
 dandam credentibus, unanimitatis et fidei sure indicium ;' ' The 
 rule of what they were to preach to all the world, the measure un- 
 believers, the index of faith and unity ;' 'Not any speech, not so 
 much as one, even of them that went before them in the faith, was 
 admitted or heard by the Church.' — ' By this Creed the foldings 
 of infidelity are loosed ; by this, the gate of life is set open ; by 
 this, the glory of confession is shown. It is short in words, but 
 great in sacraments. It confirms all men with the perfection of 
 believiug, with the desire of confessing, with the confidence of the 
 resurrection. Whatsoever was prefigured in the patriarchs, what- 
 soever is declared in the Scriptures, whatsoever was foretold in the 
 prophets, of God who was not begotten, of the Son of God, who 
 is the only begotten of God,- of the Holy Spirit,' &c. ' Totum 
 hoc breviter, juxta oraculum propheticum, symbol urn in se continet 
 confitendo :' So St. Austin — who also calls it, ' The fulness of 
 them that believe.' — 'It is the rule of faith, the short, the certain 
 
118 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LeCT 
 
 interest and destiny, of all Christians ; — in the for- 
 giveness of sins — the fundamental benefit arising 
 from the atonement, and the key to all the rest ; 
 in the resurrection of the body ; out of which 
 springs the responsibility of •man for all his actions, 
 
 rule, which the Apostles comprehended in twelve sentences, that 
 the believers might hold the Catholic unity, and convince the 
 heretical pravity. The comprehension and perfection of our 
 faith.' — ' The short and perfect confession of the Catholic symbol 
 is consigned with so many sentences of the twelve Apostles, is so 
 furnished with celestial ammunition — that all the opinions of the 
 heretics may be cut off with that sword alone,' said Pope Leo. I 
 could add many more testimonies declaring the simplicity of the 
 Christian faith, and the fulness and sufficiency of the Apostolical 
 Creed. But I sum them up in the words of Rabanus Maurus : 
 'In the Apostles' Creed there are but few words, but it contains all 
 religion' (omnia in eo continentur sacramenta): "for they were 
 summarily gathered together from the whole Scriptures by the 
 Apostles ; that because many believers cannot read, or if they can, 
 yet by their secular affairs are hindered that they do not read the 
 Scriptures, retaining these in their hearts they may have enough of 
 saving knowledge. 
 
 Now, then, since the whole Catholic Church of God in the 
 primitive ages, having not only declared that all things necessary 
 to salvation, are sufficiently contained in the plain places of 
 Scripture ; but that all, which the Apostles knew necessary, they 
 gathered together in a symbol or form of confession, and esteemed 
 the belief of this sufficient unto salvation ; and that they required 
 no more ' in credendis,' as of necessity to eternal life, but the 
 simple belief of these articles: these things ought to remain in 
 their own form and order." — Taylor, Vol. X. pp. 471, 472, 473. 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 119 
 
 and the relation of our humanity to another world ; 
 and ' in the life everlasting — which turns our 
 thoughts to the anticipation of a judgment to come 
 — to the hopes of everlasting happiness, and the 
 terrors of eternal fire. What more than this would 
 seem to be necessary as a bond of union among the 
 disciples of the same Lord, — as principles so obvi- 
 ous as none could dispute — so comprehensive as 
 none could despise ? Surely the Church of Christ, 
 thus built on the foundation of the Apostles and 
 Prophets, with their written word for its rule, and 
 their undoubted practice for its interpretation, 
 might have continued to build up its people in the 
 knowledge and love of God, and of our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ ; laying upon them no burdens which 
 they were unable to bear — not making the heart 
 of the righteous sad which the Lord had not made 
 sad — but leaving room for the incurable diversities of 
 individual opinion harmlessly to overflow out of the 
 great stream of substantial truth, But these over- 
 flowings, by concentration, soon grew too powerful for 
 the main current. Whole Churches became corrupted 
 on fundamental points ; and, by assuming to them- 
 selves an infallibility which could only belong to the 
 Catholic Church of Christ, when giving its sanction 
 to a doctrine universally acknowledged and based 
 on the clear evidence of Scripture, attempted to 
 impose on the whole body of Christians rules of 
 
120 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LeCT. 
 
 faith and practice alike disowned by reason, by 
 antiquity, and the word of God. 2 
 
 The Church of Rome had long maintained an 
 irregular but still powerful authority over the 
 Church of Christ, by shrouding its designs under 
 the cloak of an undefined Catholicity ; by issuing 
 its doctrines and decrees rather as comments on 
 acknowledged truths than as distinct and substan- 
 tial innovations ; and by enforcing, in detail, upon 
 ignorant nations, injunctions whose enormity would 
 at once have seemed intolerable in the ao-oreo-ate. 
 But when, at length, aroused by the loud protesta- 
 tions of those whom she had so long oppressed, 
 she came forward in her own proper character, and 
 that too in an age in some degree enlightened by 
 literature, and rendered impatient of her rule by a 
 long experience of religious tyranny and wrong ; 
 when, at the Council of Trent, she ventured to 
 embody her dogmas and decrees in a tangible 
 shape, and attempted to enforce them on the 
 Catholic Church as equally binding with her ancient 
 and universal creeds, which are sanctioned by the 
 common consent of Christians, and based on the 
 authority of Scripture ; 3 then it was that those who 
 
 2 " They do injury to faith, by creating new articles, and enjoining 
 them as of necessity to Salvation." — Taylor's Dissuasive, Sect. 12. 
 
 3 "In this decree (1546) it is testified that, the 'symbol of faith 
 which the holy Roman Church' then used, ' the shield against all here- 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 121 
 
 had long helplessly groaned under the yoke of 
 Rome awoke to a full sense of the horrors of their 
 religious condition : they then saw revealed the 
 chain which had so long invisibly bound them. 
 They found themselves now entangled by a creed, 
 not fixed by universal consent and grounded on the 
 
 sies,' 'the firm and only foundation against which the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail/ was that which to this day is used in the Church of 
 England, without alteration or addition, the same (with the excep- 
 tion of the interpolation ' and the Son') which the holy Church, 
 throughout all the world, has received and professed since a. d.381. 
 
 Within twenty years after this testimony, did the Bishop of 
 Rome put forth another Creed, containing points of doctrine, which 
 not only never had a place in any former Creed, but against many 
 of which the fathers of the Church collectively and individually 
 have home testimony : and that now is made the schismatical term 
 of communion in that which was once a genuine branch of the 
 Catholic and Apostolic Church." 
 
 The Council of Trent committed another act of schism, heresy, 
 and impiety, by decreeing that those were to be accursed who did 
 not receive certain unwritten traditions of the Romish Church, and 
 also, with all their parts, the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, 
 Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Daniel, and two of Maccabees, the first and 
 second ; — thus admitting the History of Bel and the Dragon, the 
 Story of Susannah, and the Song of the Three Children, &c, as 
 sacred and canonical : b and these books the most eminent fathers 
 
 a Chrysostom, Homil. in Pentecost, edit. Benedict, vi. 233. Cyril of 
 Alexandria de Sanct. Trinitate, Dial. iv. p. 310, and Hilary de Trinitat. lib. 
 vi. c. 37, i. 169. Perceval on Schism, 156, 359, 360. 
 
 * Sess. 4. Cone. XIV., 746, 747. Vide list of Fathers thus accursed, 
 Perceval on Schism, 420. 
 
122 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [IjECT 
 
 written word, but variable as the will and botindless 
 as the power of a conclave that no law, either 
 divine or human, could limit or control. The 
 simple tie of a common faith could no longer bind 
 together the several branches of the Church Catho- 
 lic in unity and peace. Encroachments on the one 
 side led to remonstrance on the other; and with 
 the tendency of the dominant party to impose new 
 rules of religion, grew the necessity for the weaker 
 
 of the Church, in all ages, had agreed to reject, as works establish- 
 ing doctrinal points of faith. c 
 
 The Council of Trent, a.d. 1547, d was the first which enjoined 
 by anathema the acknowledgment of seven Sacraments. By the 
 first canon, it is decreed that, " If any shall say, that the Sacra- 
 ments of the new law were not all instituted by our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, or that they are more or fewer than seven, to wit, Baptism, 
 Confirmation, the Eucharist, Repentance, Extreme Unction, Orders, 
 and Matrimony ; or that any of these seven is not truly and pro- 
 perly a sacrament : let him be accursed." 6 
 
 The sacrifice of the mass/ according to the Church of Rome, 
 was authorised at the Council of Trent/ in 1562. 
 
 Canon I. If any shall say, that in the mass there is not offered 
 
 e Vide Art. VI. of the Church of England contra. IV. Cone. Chalcedon. 
 Cone. I. 5007, contra. 
 
 d Cone. Trent, a. d. 1547, Sess. VII. Cone. XIV. 776, et vide etiam Dec. 
 Sess. V. Cone. Trent, Bapt. Cone. XIV. 751, 752. 
 
 e Vide Art. XXV. of the Church of England contra, et etiam Art. IX. of 
 the Church of England as to Baptism. 
 
 /The word " missa," or " mass," was originally a general name for every 
 part of the divine service. 
 
 <r Cnne. Trent, A.r>. 1562, Sess. XXII. Cone. XIV. 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 123 
 
 power to protest against each successive invasion 
 of its Christian liberty. Hence the origin of 
 Articles of Religion. They differ essentially from 
 Articles of Belief, both in their contents and their 
 object- Creeds contain no doctrines but such as 
 are generally necessary for Salvation ; Articles 
 embrace some of which we might remain wholly 
 
 to God a true and proper sacrifice ; or that the offering is nothing 
 else than that Christ is given us to eat : let him be accursed. 
 
 Canon II. If any shall say, that by these words, ' Do this in 
 remembrance of me,' Christ did not appoint his Apostles to be 
 priests ; or did not ordain that, they and other priests should offer 
 his body and blood : let him be accursed. 
 
 Canon III. If any shall say, that the sacrifice of the mass is 
 only a service of praise and thanksgiving, or a bare commemoration 
 of the sacrifice made upon the cross, but not a propitionary offering ; 
 or that it is profitable to the receiver alone ; and that it ought not 
 to be offered for the living and the dead, for sins, punishments, 
 satisfactions, and other necessities : let him be accursed. 
 
 Canon IV. If auy shall say, that by the sacrifice of the mass, 
 blasphemy is offered to the most holy sacrifice of Christ, accom- 
 plished on the cross, or that that is dishonoured by this : let him 
 be accursed.'' 
 
 Private or solitary mass was unknown in the early Church/' and 
 the departure of the Roman Catholic Church was authorised at the 
 Council of Trent, in 1562, under the following decree. 
 
 The holy synod could indeed wish, that in every mass, the 
 faithful, who are present, should communicate not only in spiritual 
 affection, but also in sacramental receiving of the eucharist, in order 
 
 f> Vide Art. XXXI. of the Church of England, contra. 
 • Bingham, vi. 721. I Short's Church Hist. 2<J. 
 
124 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LeCT. 
 
 ignorant without peril to our souls. 4 Creeds contain 
 assertions of positive truths ; Articles are often 
 
 that they might more abundantly profit by this most holy sacrifice : 
 but, if this may not always be, she does not therefore condemn 
 those masses in which the priest alone sacramentally communicates, 
 as if they were private and unlawful ; but approves and commends 
 them. For those masses also ought to be accounted common, 
 partly, because in them, the people spiritually communicate, and 
 partly because they are celebrated by the public minister of the 
 Church, not for himself only, but for all the faithful who belong to 
 the body of Christ. 
 
 Canon VIII. If any shall say, that the masses, in which the 
 priest alone receives sacramental communion, are unlawful, and 
 therefore to be abolished; let him be accursed./' — Stephen's 
 Introduction to De Lolme, Vol. I. pp. 218, 219, 220. 
 
 4 " Here a necessary distinction is to be remembered between 
 Articles of Faith, and Articles of Doctrine : The one are held 
 necessary to salvation, the other are only believed to be true ; that 
 is, to be revealed in the Scriptures, which is a sufficient ground for 
 acknowledging them true. Articles of Faith are doctrines that 
 are so necessary to salvation, thatwithout believing them no man has 
 a foederal right to the covenant of grace : These are not many, and 
 in the establishment of any doctrine for such, it is necessary both 
 to prove it clearly from Scripture, and to prove its being necessary 
 to salvation, as a mean settled by the covenant of grace in order to 
 it. We ought not indeed to hold communion with such as make 
 doctrines that we believe not to be true, to pass for Articles of 
 Faith ; though we may hold communion with such as do think 
 them true, without stamping so high an authority upon them. 
 
 i Sess. XXII. cap. 6, et Can. VIII. Cone. XIV. 852—856. Vide Art. 
 XXXI. of the Church of England, contra. Et etiam Rubric at the end of 
 the Communion Service. 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 125 
 
 protestations against pernicious errors. Creeds are 
 equally applicable to all times and countries ; Arti- 
 cles often refer to circumstances of local concern- 
 ment, or errors of temporary prevalence. 5 Creeds 
 
 From this plain precedent we see what a difference we ought to 
 make between the holding errors in doctrinal matters, and the 
 imposing them as Articles of Faith-. We may live in communion 
 with those who hold errors of the one sort, hut must not with those 
 of the other. This also shows the tyranny of that Church, which 
 has imposed the belief of every one of her doctrines on the 
 consciences of her votaries, under the highest pains of Anathemas, 
 and as Articles of Faith. But whatever those at Trent did, this 
 Church very carefully avoided the laying that weight upon even 
 those doctrines which she received as true ; and therefore though 
 she drew up a large form of doctrine ; yet to ail her lay-sons, this 
 is only a standard of what she teaches, and the articles are to them 
 only articles of Church-communion. The citations that are 
 brought from those two great primates, Laud and BramhaU, 
 go no further than this : They do not seem to relate to the clergy 
 that subscribe them, but to the laity and body of the people. The 
 people who do only join in communion with us, may well continue 
 to do so, though they may not be fully satisfied with every 
 proposition in them, unless they should think that they struck 
 against any of the Articles or Foundations of Faith ; and as those 
 great men truly observe, there is a great difference to be observed 
 in this particular between the imperious spirit of the Church of 
 Rome, and the modest freedom which ours allows." — Burnet on 
 the XXXIX Articles. Introduction. 
 
 5 " Certain doctrines may be true only under circumstances, or 
 accidentally, or but expedient, or developements of the truth 
 relatively to a given state of things ; such as the duty of union ot 
 
126 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LECT 
 
 bind together the whole Church — Articles a parti- 
 cular branch of it. The one consists of articles of 
 faith, the other of religion ; the one is the sub- 
 stance, the other the detail. The object of the one 
 is to establish uniformity of belief; that of the 
 other is " for the avoiding of Diversities of Opinions, 
 and for the establishing of consent touching true 
 Religion." 6 Hence it appears, that while Creeds 
 seem necessary to the very existence of the Catholic 
 Church as an exposition of common points of belief, 
 and a public declaration on its part of the sense in 
 which it understands the main doctrines of Revela- 
 tion, Articles of Religion spring as necessarily out 
 of its errors and corruptions ; being protests of a 
 certain branch of it against heretical opinions sup- 
 posed to be entertained by others, or assertions of 
 particular truths, in the maintenance of which such 
 branch is, from peculiar circumstances, especially 
 concerned. They form, in short, Articles of self- 
 regulation and self-defence : — such rules as seem 
 necessary to unite one portion of the Catholic 
 Church in a common observance of ordinances, 
 obedience to laws, and habits of daily intercourse ; 
 
 Church and State : or they may he but protests against the errors 
 of a particular day. Such are most of those doctrines in our 
 Articles which go beyond the doctrines of the Creed." — Newman 
 on Romanism and Popular Protestantism, p. 296. 
 
 6 Preface to Articles. 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 127 
 
 while they exclude such as, if introduced into the 
 society of the Church, would necessarily bring with 
 them confusion, disorder, and a breach of religious 
 peace/ 
 
 Of the authority of each branch of the Church 
 to form for itself such declaratory and defensive 
 regulations, provided that in so doing it do not 
 
 " " In considering the nature of the articles, we must guard 
 equally against the opposite errors of supposing that none, or that 
 all of them are matters of faith. The former error would involve a 
 denial of the necessity of belief in some of the most holy doctrines 
 of Revelation ; for although the articles be human compositions, 
 the doctrine itself which some of them convey is divine. For 
 instance, the doctrines of the Trinity, the incarnation, the sufferings, 
 death,resurrection, atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, original sin, 
 and other doctrines manifestly contained in the articles, are matters 
 of faith, taught by Scripture, by the decrees of oecumenical synods, 
 and by Catholic tradition, and which it would be heretical to 
 dispute or deny. Therefore to assert that none of the articles 
 contain matters of faith, would be pernicious and an ti -christian. 
 
 On the other hand, if it were asserted, that all the doctrines of 
 the articles are matters of faith, so that whoever held a different 
 opinion in any point, is to be viewed as a heretic ; we should not 
 only be obliged to condemn rashly and uncharitably a large part of 
 the christian world, but should be unsupported by the principles of 
 the Church of England herself, and opposed to the sentiment of 
 our theologians generally. The articles comprise not only doctrines 
 of the faith, but theological and historical verities, and even pious 
 and Catholic opinions. 
 
 It is historically and theologically true, that the particular 
 Churches of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred in faith. 
 It is theologically true, that the book of consecration of bishops, 
 
128 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LECT. 
 
 infringe upon Scripture truth or Catholic prescrip- 
 tion, we have abundant proof, both from reason, 
 and the Word of God. Within these limitations, 
 it is not only expedient, but necessary, that the 
 Church of Christ, in each separate country of the 
 world, should have " power to decree rites or cere- 
 priests, and deacons, contains all things necessary to a valid ordi- 
 nation ; that the bishop of Rome has no jurisdiction in the realm 
 of England ; that the Homilies contain sound doctrine. All these 
 are absolutely certain truths ; but they are not properly Articles of 
 Faith, necessary to salvation, because they all involve questions of 
 fact and of human reasoning, which are not self-evident, and on 
 which men may be divided, without doubting the doctrine of 
 Revelation itself. E. g. If some members of Foreign Churches 
 doubted whether the book of Homilies does in fact contain sound 
 doctrine, through some mistake of its meaning in some point ; and 
 even supposed that it contradicts the revealed truth ; this would 
 be an error, not a heresy, because the revealed truth itself would 
 be still believed. It would also be a scandalous error to deny that 
 our bishops are validly consecrated, and one which the Church 
 could not permit any of her members to advance ; but if some 
 persons over whom she had no jurisdiction, should for a time fall 
 into this error, imagining, from want of sufficient information, that 
 some essential rite was omitted in the English ordinations, there 
 would indeed be every reason to lament their very injurious error, 
 but not to esteem them absolutely heretics. In the same way we 
 should not account the oriental Churches heretical in refusing to 
 approve the expressions in our creeds of procession of the Holy 
 Spirit from the Son as well as from the Father, because, through 
 a mistake of fact, they suppose that these expressions interfere witb 
 the doctrine of one Principle in the ever-blessed Trinity." — 
 Palmer's Treatise on the Church, Vol. ii. pp. 261,262,263. 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 129 
 
 monies, and authority in controversies of Faith." 8 
 If it be a Christian duty, as it appears undoubtedly 
 to be, that every disciple of Christ should submit 
 peaceably to that form of civil government under 
 which he may chance to live — if there be nothing 
 in the rules of the Gospel which should prevent 
 him from being an obedient subject under any 
 system of authority which does not interfere with 
 his religious liberty — then it is evident that some 
 power must reside, either in the state under which 
 the Church exists, or in the Church itself, or both 
 combined, to enact such rules for the regulation of 
 that Church, as may be for the mutual interest of 
 both ; and may form a pledge, on the one hand, that 
 the Church will do nothing to the civil detriment 
 of the state, and, on the other, that the state will 
 make no encroachments on the religious privileges 
 and prosperity of the Church. Again : if it should 
 appear that any branch of the Church, through 
 divisions within, or pressing assaults from without, 
 may at any time be labouring under some imminent 
 danger from a cause which, though intrinsically 
 trivial, is yet, from circumstances, of the utmost 
 import to its welfare, it cannot be doubted that 
 such a posture of affairs would justify a measure in 
 other respects perhaps inexpedient ; and would 
 
 8 See this subject fully discussed, and illustrated with ample 
 authorities from Scripture, and the most approved writers of the 
 Church, in Palmer's Treatise on the Church, Vol. ii. pp. 264, 265. 
 
 i 
 
130 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LECT. 
 
 authorise that to be enforced as an article of reli- 
 gion, which, in other Churches, or other times, 
 might be left to be entertained as a matter of 
 opinion. Of this kind seems to have been the 
 decree which the Apostles sent to the Gentiles of 
 Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, respecting a certain line 
 of conduct which they were to pursue out of regard 
 to the opinions of the Jews which dwelt among 
 them. 9 This decree may be termed an article of 
 religion, rather than a rule of faith ; but it was not 
 the less binding on their consciences to whom it 
 was sent, so long as the necessity which called it 
 forth continued ; and inasmuch as it involved, like 
 most of our own articles, a moral duty, binding to 
 that extent, under all circumstances whatever. In 
 truth the Apostle's formal precept, " that all things 
 be done decently and in order" — extending the 
 authority of the Church even to points of outward 
 ceremony and form, necessarily implies its power 
 in those weightier matters which involve the peace 
 and edification, as well as order, of a whole Christian 
 community. 
 
 It appears, then, that the proper notion of 
 Articles of Religion is, that they are articles of 
 self-regulation and self-defence ; agreed upon by 
 particular branches of the Catholic Church, in 
 subordination to and in accordance with the spirit 
 
 '-' See Acts xv. 23, &c 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 131 
 
 of the Scriptures and the Creeds, for the purpose of 
 guarding against errors, either of life or doctrine, with 
 which such branches are locally endangered, — of pro- 
 testing against the corruptions of other Churches, — 
 or of giving a pledge to the world as to the line of 
 conduct which they propose to pursue with regard 
 to human society, or civil governments. These are 
 the offices which our own Articles of Religion seem 
 designed to discharge. As believers in the Scrip- 
 tures, we are Christians ; as believers in the Creeds, 
 we are Catholic ; as holders of the Articles, we are 
 Protestants. In them we protest against the 
 errors, from whatever quarter arising, by which 
 the Church, at the time of the Reformation, seem- 
 ed especially to be endangered. These errors were, 
 indeed, of the most opposite character and ten- 
 dency ; but, in the eyes of our judicious Reformers, 
 equally hostile to religious unity and religious 
 peace. And it is the glory — the undisputed glory — 
 of our Church, that however exasperated might 
 justly have been her feelings by the religious 
 oppression which she had so long endured under 
 the yoke of Rome, and however alarmed by the 
 wild and fanatical notions which too many of the 
 reformed Churches were disposed to substitute for 
 the superstitions that were passing away, she stood, 
 in that hour of her trial, unshaken in her integrity, 
 and unmoved from the strict line of truth and 
 
132 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LECT. 
 
 charity either by her anger or her fears. 10 Whoever 
 will read over her articles under that view in which 
 we have attempted to present them, as articles of 
 self-regulation and self-defence, will perceive with 
 what consistency this character is adhered to, from 
 the first of them to the last. He will see, probably, 
 in every one of them, a great and substantial truth 
 asserted ; for the Church would not lightly convert 
 that into an article of religion, which either was 
 not in itself of essential value, or which did not in 
 its denial involve the most serious results. But 
 besides a distinct declaration of the Church's doc- 
 trine, he will always observe the several modes of 
 perverting or rejecting it so evidently denoted, 
 as to shew that the main object of the Article 
 was rather to guard against error, than simply to 
 enunciate the truth. The Articles consist of 
 propositions as to points of " consent," in three 
 important departments of truth : the first refers to 
 the notions we entertain with respect to the cha- 
 racter of God and his revealed will ; the second 
 regards the nature and duties of man, considered as 
 an individual ; the third relates to his duties as a 
 member of a Christian Church and a civil common- 
 
 10 For an illustration of this invaluable fact in the history of our 
 Church, the popular reader may consult Blunts History of the 
 Reformation — an excellent little hook, which every one should 
 read, because every one can understand it. 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 133 
 
 wealth. And in each of these departments we 
 find errors, both of superstition and laxity, pointed 
 out with that clearness and force which can only 
 spring from the most accurate knowledge of their 
 origin, united with the bitterest experience of their 
 fruits. The first section consists principally of a 
 recapitulation of the main doctrines of the three 
 Creeds, (those of the Trinity in Unity, and the 
 Incarnation and Atonement of Christ being dwelt 
 upon with an emphasis fatal to every shade of 
 Socinian error,) and of the assertion of the great 
 doctrine that the Holy Scriptures (specifying what 
 is to be esteemed as Scripture) are sufficient for 
 salvation, — thus laying the axe to the root of the 
 fundamental corruptions of the Church of Rome. 
 The second section, extending from the eighth to 
 the eighteenth article, has reference to the present 
 nature and condition of man, and his individual 
 duties, — and here we find, in every article, not only 
 a recondite religious truth asserted, but the errors 
 on that point among the various reformed Churches, 
 as well as the Church of Rome, exposed in lan- 
 guage at once so scriptural and rational, as none of 
 our adversaries have ever yet been able effectually 
 to gainsay. Lastly, we have a series of articles on 
 the character and authority of the Church, — on the 
 offices of its ministers, the nature of its sacraments, 
 and the modes of its teaching ; and the whole con- 
 
134 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LECT. 
 
 eludes with certain declarations on the part of the 
 Church as to the light in which it regards some 
 civil duties — declarations which the state has a 
 right to expect from those who propose to live 
 under its protection and to co-operate with it in the 
 general promotion of the public welfare. 
 
 From a cursory review like this, of the character 
 and object of the Articles of the Church, it is 
 evident that it was not the primary intention of 
 those who framed them that they should be con- 
 sidered in the light of articles of faith, or articles of 
 peace ; but rather, as we have already ventured to 
 designate them, articles of self-regulation and self- 
 defence. They abound, indeed, in points of faith ; 
 for it is essential to their object that nothing 
 should so solemnly be insisted on that is not in 
 itself of primary importance ; but still they are 
 here introduced as being points in which those 
 errors are involved, which are the causes of dis- 
 union and heresy in the Church of Christ. They 
 have only been imposed on future generations, 
 because the past have proved them to be essential 
 to Christian unity. 
 
 This view of the object which our articles were 
 designed to answer, furnishes us with a reply to 
 objections which have been alleged against us, as 
 arising out of these articles, by two opposite classes 
 of Christians. The Romanist says, that in adopt- 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 135 
 
 ing thein, we have severed ourselves from the holy 
 Catholic Church ; that we have framed for our 
 Church laws neither founded in Scripture, nor 
 authorised by Tradition, nor sanctioned by the 
 legitimate authorities of the universal Church ; and 
 that we have thus committed the very faults which 
 we allege against them as the ground of our 
 separation, without possessing or even affecting 
 their pleas of having an infallible guidance in 
 devising new rules, and plenary authority to enforce 
 their observance. Our answer to this is obvious : 
 that in no one respect which can justly be called 
 Catholic, have we separated ourselves from the 
 Primitive Church ; nor (except inasmuch as they 
 have deviated from primitive truth) even from the 
 Church of Rome. That we hold the same Scrip- 
 tures with themselves, so far as they can be proved to 
 be the actual and genuine word of God ; and that 
 we maintain the same Creeds, as having the sanc- 
 tion of unbroken and universal Tradition, and being 
 based on the authority of Scripture. That we hold 
 the same Sacraments, as far as they can be shewn 
 to be of divine institution, and to exhibit the true 
 sacramental character. That we maintain the 
 same orders of Priesthood, holding their office by 
 virtue of an unbroken succession from the days of 
 the Apostles ; and that our Articles, so far from 
 being' substitutes for, or deviations from, these 
 
136 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LECT. 
 
 Catholic truths, are simply our forms of protes- 
 tation against deviations from them by others. It 
 is because others have added to, or perverted the 
 doctrines which are taught in the Scriptures, and 
 were held by the Primitive Church, that we, revert- 
 ing to these doctrines, have devised our present 
 Articles, by which to distinguish those who hold 
 the Catholic faith in its original purity, from those 
 who have mixed it up with idolatrous forms and 
 superstitious notions, at once tainting every branch 
 of Gospel truth, both of faith and practice. Our 
 Articles of Religion, instead of being a mark of our 
 departure from Catholic antiquity, are the very 
 proof to which we appeal of our determination to 
 return to it. 
 
 The other and opposite objection, to which I 
 before alluded, as being also grounded on the 
 Articles, is alleged against us by various of the 
 reformed Churches which have equally with our- 
 selves protested against the errors and corruptions 
 of the Church of Rome. They represent that this 
 common protestation is, or ought to be, the single 
 and sufficient bond of union between them and 
 ourselves — that the errors of the Romanists are of 
 such magnitude as to throw all minor points of 
 difference between their opponents into the shade, 
 and that the common name of Protestant ought to 
 be the sole watchword of Reformed Christianity, 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 137 
 
 uniting all sects and communities in their opposi- 
 tion to so dangerous a delusion. To this we reply, 
 — that Protestants indeed we are, but simply in 
 the sense and to the extent which our Articles pro- 
 claim us to be. That deep as we hold to be the 
 corruption of the Church of Rome, there are other 
 errors in the world if not so wide-spread, at least 
 as dangerous, as those of which she is the origin ; 
 and against these we have protested with equal 
 earnestness in the Articles to which we have sub- 
 scribed. With all those to whom these Articles 
 are no stumbling-block, we are prepared most 
 sincerely and heartily to co-operate ; but they bind 
 us as much on the right hand as on the left ; and 
 we are no more justified in deviating from them on 
 the side of laxity, than towards that of tyranny and 
 superstition. If there be any sects who deny the 
 Divinity of the Saviour, 11 or the Divinity and Per- 
 sonality of the Holy Ghost, 12 — if there be any who 
 admit not the depravity of man, 13 and the full 
 efficacy of the atonement through the blood of 
 Christ, 14 — if there be any who deny the validity of 
 an episcopally-ordained ministry, 15 or the general ne- 
 cessity of the Christian Sacraments for salvation, 16 — 
 if there be any who will not submit themselves to 
 
 "Art II. '2Art. V. *Art IX. KArts. II. XI. 
 ■ 5 Art. XXXVI. iSArts. XXV. XXVII. XXVIII. 
 
138 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LeCT. 
 
 the just authority of the Church, 17 or the supremacy 
 of the throne, 18 — against all such we have, in our 
 Articles, protested as strongly and as distinctly as 
 against the errors, the opposite and equally dan- 
 gerous errors, of the Church of Rome. It is in this 
 extended sense that we are a 'protesting branch of 
 the Catholic Church of Christ. We court no com- 
 promise from one side or from the other — we have 
 nothing to retract or to disguise. We make this 
 protest, as we maintain, in the full spirit of Christian 
 charity, solely in self-defence, and for the establish- 
 ment of religious truth ; and we would receive into 
 our community with the most heartfelt joy, any 
 Christian brother, who, holding the verities of our 
 primitive Creeds, sees nothing in our Articles so 
 opposed to them or to the Word of God, as neces- 
 sarily to prevent him from communicating with us 
 in the offices of public devotion, or the charities of 
 private intercourse. 19 
 
 tfArt. XX. i 8 Art. XXXVII. 
 
 '9 There has been much controversy of late as to the term 
 Protestant being an appropriate designation, or otherwise, of the 
 Church of England. The explanation of the term, as given above, 
 seems to meet all the difficulties of the question, and to shew that 
 though, as an abstract and independent title, it is an imperfect de- 
 signation, vet with reference to the errors of Rome, and with refer- 
 ence also, in strictness of speech, to the doctrinal aberrations of the 
 principal sink, it is a proper and significant denomination; though, 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 139 
 
 That our Articles of Religion are to be regarded 
 rather in the light of an outward fence to the 
 integrity of the Church, than as expositions of its 
 substantial doctrines, is further proved by the fact 
 that a public assent to their truth is not required 
 from all the members of it. With regard to the 
 Creeds the case is different. Every one admitted 
 into the Church of Christ by baptism, is called 
 upon publicly to confess his faith in the doctrines 
 which they contain, either by his sponsors or in his 
 own person. But none are required to subscribe to 
 the Articles of Religion except such as, from their 
 present or prospective official stations, or position 
 in society, may have it in their power to influence 
 those around them as to the opinions which they 
 may imbibe on religious subjects. It has some- 
 times been thought an unnecessary strictness that 
 all persons so circumstanced should be called upon 
 thus to pledge themselves: but does not history 
 teach us, that even this safeguard has sometimes 
 been found too weak to exclude the wolf, even 
 
 from the circumstance that sectarians agree with us in entering 
 their protest against the errors of Popery, the term has become a 
 less distinct token of our protesting against their errors likewise, 
 than it otherwise would have been. It is now, therefore, sometimes 
 used by Dissenters to conceal their differences with ourselves, and 
 so should be employed by lis with that caution which the know- 
 ledge of such a possible perversion of it will suggest. 
 
140 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LECT. 
 
 from the innermost fold of the Church? 20 Do we 
 not read of men who, having signed these Articles 
 for the very purpose of obtaining places of power 
 and profit in the Church, have exerted the influ- 
 ence, thus obtained, for the object of depreciating 
 those doctrines of which they were the sworn 
 defenders? These days, we may devoutly hope, 
 are now gone by for ever : but the very fact that 
 such things were, — and the additional consideration 
 that the evil propensities of our nature are as 
 indestructible as the evil origin from whence 
 they spring, should render us cautious in hastily 
 removing the bulwarks of our Zion, because the 
 enemy may for the moment have disappeared from 
 before the walls. If the doctrines comprised in 
 our Articles of Religion be deemed essential to 
 the Church's unity, purity, and peace, it cannot 
 
 20 Let us call to mind the history of Archdeacon Blackburne, 
 author of" the Confessional," and indeed of the whole of that calami- 
 tous period of the Church, when the most flagitious dereliction of 
 principle seemed to be aimed at as the very beait ideal of a sworn 
 defender of " the Established Church !" The Anglican Church has 
 not yet recovered the shock which she sustained during that interlunar 
 hour of her brightness; both in the seeds of evil then sown in her 
 bosom, which time has not totally eradicated, and in the distrust, 
 with which all honest minds were justly infected, of the purity of 
 her ministers, and, through them, of her principles and doctrines ! 
 A sort of periodical Hoadleyism and Erastianism seems to be the 
 very Cholera of the Churcb of Christ! 
 
V.] ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 141 
 
 be thought unreasonable that all prudential steps 
 should be taken to prevent their possible infringe- 
 ment. If there be any of them which in so far may 
 be called antiquated, that the errors against which 
 they protest may seem to have passed away, the 
 retention of them is at least innocuous, and they 
 may still stand as historical monuments of the 
 varieties of human perverseness, and as warnings 
 against the future recurrence of similar deviations 
 from the truth. Should there be those, even in the 
 bosom of the Church, who strongly object to some, 
 or, it may be, the whole of these tests of orthodoxy, 
 it seems not uncharitable in the Church rather to 
 expect such to waive their own conscientious 
 scruples, than that for their sakes the convictions 
 of the main body of her community should be 
 trifled with, and those bulwarks of her security 
 prostrated, which in times past have been her 
 towers of defence, and may possibly be found not 
 unserviceable in the time to come. In nothing is 
 a Christian spirit, especially in an intellectual age, 
 more unequivocally evinced, than in submitting 
 " to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake." 
 And a wise and pious and patriotic Christian, 
 knowing how much human means, and those often 
 of a personally distasteful character, are instru- 
 mental in the diffusion of Gospel truth, will stoop 
 to the employment of secondary causes when they 
 
142 ARTICLES OF RELIGION. [LECT. V.] 
 
 are not hostile to the word of God, and are in 
 accordance with the institutions and the feelings of 
 that people among which it may be his fortune to 
 live. But when they are such as the articles of 
 our Church are proved to be — scriptural in their 
 subjects and language, and alike destructive of 
 heretical notions, whether of superstitious or latitu- 
 dinarian origin, he will cling to them as anchors of 
 his Church, sure and steadfast, amid the " waves of 
 this troublesome world ;" and bless God that the 
 wise and good of old have left us this record of 
 their own trials and wanderings, to " guide our feet 
 into the way of peace." 
 
 END OF LECTURE V. 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 THE CONSIDERATION OF LITURGIES AND RITUALS FOLLOWS NATU- 
 RALLY THAT OF SCRIPTURE, CREEDS, AND ARTICLES— THE EXPEDIENCY 
 OF THEM NOT HERE SO MUCH THE SUBJECT OF INQUIRY AS THE 
 NECESSITY— FIXED FORMS OF PRAYER A CONSTITUENT ELEMENT OF A 
 VISIBLE CHURCH— VISIBILITY AND UNITY OF THE CHURCH PROVED— 
 AN UNITED CHURCH REQUIRES AND PRE-SUPPOSES UNITED PRAYER 
 —SCRIPTURE AUTHORITY FOR THIS SHEWN TO BE CONTAINED IN THE 
 TEXT— EARLY DIVISIONS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP THE SAME AS NOW— 
 PRAYER FOR PUBLIC AND NATIONAL BLESSINGS FORM A SCRIPTURAL 
 AUTHORITY FOR VISIBLE AND NATIONAL CHURCHES— THE CHURCH'S 
 EARLY PRAYERS FOR AUTHORITIES PROPHETIC OF AUTHORITIES 
 BECOMING ULTIMATELY FRIENDLY TO HER— THE WANT OF APOSTO- 
 LICAL LITURGIES NO PROOF THAT LITURGIES ARE NOT ESSENTIAL TO 
 THE CHURCH— THE JEWS HAD A PRESCRIBED LITURGY— THAT LITURGY 
 A MODEL FOR THE EARLY CHRISTIAN— THE FOUR PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN 
 LITURGIES TRACED UP TO THE APOSTOLICAL AGE— AT THE REFORMA- 
 TION THESE WERE RESTORED IN THEIR ORIGINAL PURITY— VISIBILITY 
 AND PURITY OF A CHURCH MARKED BY ITS LITURGY— DANGER OF 
 LEAVING PUBLIC WORSHIP TO PRIVATE DISCRETION— A NATIONAL 
 CHURCH SHOULD HAVE A NATIONAL FORM OF PRAYER— EXCELLENCE 
 OF OUR OWN LITURGY— IT CONSOLED OUR CONFESSORS AND MARTYRS 
 IN THEIR TRIBULATIONS-JEREMY TAYLOR'S ELOQUENT PANEGYRIC 
 UPON IT. 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 
 
 1 Timothy, ii. 1, 2. 
 
 / exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, 
 and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that 
 are in authority ; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all 
 godliness and honesty. 
 
 We have attempted, in previous Lectures, to trace 
 the institutions of the visible Church of Christ, 
 downwards from their source. We have examined 
 into the Authority and Inspiration of Scripture, 
 the import of Creeds, and the utility of Articles. 
 We have seen how they flow naturally out of each 
 other ; we have ascertained the peculiar province of 
 each, and the absolute necessity of all. Following 
 this path onward, according to our proposed system 
 of inquiry, we now come directly upon the question 
 of Liturgies and Rituals; intending to include 
 under these terms all prescribed forms of worship, 
 whether simply for common prayer, or for the public 
 administration of sacraments and ceremonies. That 
 this is the place which the consideration of Liturgies 
 
14(j LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LECT. 
 
 should occupy in any systematic discussion of 
 Christian Institutes, is at once evident from the 
 fact that prayer is a practical developement and 
 application of the doctrinal principles which Creeds 
 and Articles are intended to define — as necessarily 
 pre-supposing sound information on all points of 
 faith and duty, as moral practice requires a previous 
 understanding of the laws of morals. If that be no 
 inapt definition, which has been given, of the nature 
 of Prayer, viz : " That it is an offering up of our 
 desires to God for things agreeable to his will," 1 
 then is an accurate knowledge of that will an 
 essential pre-requisite for the due performance of 
 this religious duty. Now such a knowledge of his 
 will can only be gathered out of Scripture ; our 
 views of Scripture being tested, and, as far as 
 human means can avail, — guaranteed as to their 
 accuracy, by their concurrence with the universal 
 opinion of the Church throughout all ages. This 
 opinion is expressed, as far as essentials are con- 
 cerned, in the Creeds; and, as to more minute 
 particulars, and with reference, also, to some local 
 exigences of the Church, in the Articles of Religion. 
 With these (and not without these) preliminary 
 preparations, the Church of Christ is " throughly 
 furnished" for Prayer : and hence we are brought 
 
 1 Westminster Assembly of Divines. 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 147 
 
 directly to the consideration of common and fixed 
 Forms of Prayer. 
 
 The abstract necessity for such forms is a preli- 
 minary inquiry ; and is of deeper import than may 
 appear on a hasty view. Much controversy has 
 taken place (for it is an old question in the Church) 
 as to the expediency of prescribed and publicly- 
 authorized forms of worship ; and strong and 
 eloquent reasons have been advanced, (though it 
 must be confessed that neither the reasoning nor 
 the eloquence have been on this — as indeed it is 
 on few questions — confined to one side,) as to the 
 advantages of carefully prepared and generally 
 approved formulas of address to the Deity over 
 invocations which are thrown off under the heat and 
 zeal of the moment, and which are the immediate 
 expression, therefore, of the mind of him alone from 
 whose mouth they proceed. To this question of 
 relative superiority we do not now confine ourselves. 
 It has been discussed by Jeremy Taylor 2 with that 
 mixture of solid reasoning and brilliant illustration, 
 which, while they cannot but delight even an honest 
 opponent, leave little to be sought for, in addition, 
 by him who is already friendly to his view, unless 
 it be the grave and judicious determination of the 
 
 2 " An Apology for Authorized and Set Forms of Liturgy 
 against the Pretence of the Spirit." — Works, vol. vii. Heher's 
 edition. 
 
148 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LFX'T. 
 
 argument, which has been pronounced by the 
 venerable Hooker. 3 We, however, propose to rest 
 the question on another ground ; and to shew that 
 it is not a mere consideration of expediency or of 
 utility whether our forms of worship be prescribed 
 or otherwise ; but that such prescription is an 
 essential element in the visibility of the Church of 
 Christ ; and that, however men may differ as to the 
 spirit and propriety of any outward form prescribed 
 by a particular branch of the Catholic Church for 
 the use of members in immediate communion with 
 it, the necessity for such common and authorized 
 rituals is a question altogether independent of such 
 inquiries, and involves the very existence of the 
 Church itself. 
 
 It will not be denied (nor is it ever controverted, 
 as an abstract proposition, except by some small 
 sections of professing Christians,) that visibility and 
 unity are two essential characteristics of the Church 
 of Christ. 4 That they were conspicuously so of its 
 prototype, the Jewish Church, is universally con- 
 ceded ; and hence we may at least conclude that 
 there is nothing in the notion contrary to the will of 
 God, or the nature of a Revelation. It was in the 
 
 3 Ecclesiastical Polity, Boole V. § § 23—49. 
 4 For a full and scriptural discussion of the question concerning the 
 Unity of the Church, the reader should consult Dr. Isaac Barrow's 
 learned and elaborate sermon on the subject — Works, vol. vi. 
 p. 495, &c. 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 149 
 
 character of visibility that the future extension of 
 the Church of Christ over all the world was pre- 
 dicted by Isaiah and by Daniel ; " the mountain of 
 the Lord's house (for the stone that smote the 
 image was to become a great mountain) shall be 
 established in the top of the mountains, and shall 
 be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall 
 flow into it." 5 This figure was taken up by Our 
 Lord himself and applied to the Apostles, who 
 then comprised the whole visible Church of God, 
 and were the root out of which every future branch 
 of it should spring : " Ye are the light of the world. 
 A city which is set on a hill cannot be hid." 6 And 
 this visibility of the Church is implied in all the 
 Epistles, evidenced by the concurrent testimony of 
 the Fathers, and asserted in the Articles of the 
 Church of England, as well as in most of the Con- 
 fessions of the Reformed Churches abroad. And 
 with regard to the unity of this visible Church, — 
 whatever difference of opinion may exist as to 
 the essential elements of which such unity is com- 
 posed, none who read the Scripture can deny, that 
 to preserve it is one of the highest duties of a 
 Christian, and wilfully to endanger it a sin which 
 places the offender without the pale of Gospel pro- 
 mises. The figure under which our Saviour depicted 
 the mutual relation that existed between himself 
 
 » Isaiah, ii. 2. 6 "Matt. v. 14. 
 
150 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LECT. 
 
 and his disciples, and the joint relation of both to 
 the Father, places this doctrine in the clearest 
 possible light : "I am the true vine, and my Father 
 is the husbandman: Abide in me and I in you. 
 As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it 
 abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide 
 in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches." 7 And 
 St. Paul's figure, under which he more than once 
 represents the Church of Christ, is not less decisive 
 as to its visibility and unity than our Lord's own 
 illustration of the vine : he draws his allegory from 
 the close relation of the head to the members in 
 the human frame. " For 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." s There 
 can be no doubt, in truth, from the impression left 
 
 7 John xv. 1, 4, 5. 
 
 8 Romans, xii. 4, 5. See also 1 Cor. xii. The following 
 are some judicious remarks of the learned Mede, on the question 
 of the Continuous Visibility of the Church of Christ. "The 
 observation therefore which this affords us is, That the true 
 Church of Christ was never tvholly extinguished, nor the light 
 of the Gospel ever quite put out, no, not in the greatest dark- 
 ness that ever iva» to overiohehn it. By the true Church of 
 Christ I understand That holy Society and Company of Believers. 
 which as they accord and are joined together in one common Faith 
 of all Divine truths needful to Salvation, so are they also free 
 from the fellowship of such enormous abominations and mortal 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 151 
 
 on the mind by the whole tenor of the phraseology 
 of Scripture when speaking of the elementary con- 
 stitution of the Church of Christ, that it was 
 designed to follow the analogy of an earthly king- 
 dom, both in its principles and its details ; so that 
 the mind was not to be distracted, and the natural 
 current of human thought interrupted by being 
 transferred from earthly to heavenly contempla- 
 
 errors as destroy and overturn it. This is that society whereof, 
 by the grace of Almighty God, we glory to he the members ; 
 this that society which in the primitive times grew and flourished ; 
 this that society which (when the times foretold of the Church's 
 Eclipse came, and the great Apostacy had overspread the face 
 thereof) was indeed much impaired, endangered, and obscured, but 
 never was totally extinguished, but continued even under the juris- 
 diction of the Man of sin, yea in Babylon itself, where he had his 
 throne: for doth not Christ at length say, Apocal. xviii. 4. Come 
 out of her my people ! How could they come out thence, unless 
 they had been there ? or how should Antichrist sit in the Temple 
 of God, 2 Thess. ii. 4. unless God's Temple were even there 
 where Antichrist sate ? as a few living embers in a heap of dying 
 ashes ; as a little wheat in a field overgrown with weeds ; as the 
 lights of the heaven in a firmament overcast with clouds ; as a little 
 pure gold in a great mass of dross and mixed metal : such was the 
 faithful company of Christ in the apostate body of Christendom, 
 the Virgin Church in the midst of Babylon, Apocal. xiv. 4. 
 
 "The question therefore is, Whether that holy society of 
 believers before-mentioned, who accorded together in one Common 
 Faith with us of all Divine Truths needful to Salvation, and kept 
 themselves free from such enormous abominations and mortal 
 errors, which we now disclaim as utterly annihilating that Common 
 
152 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LECT. 
 
 tions ; but rather that one was to typify and adum- 
 brate the other — and the kingdoms of the world 
 were to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of 
 his Christ by as natural a process as the Law of 
 Moses was expanded and purified into the Law of 
 the Gospel. Hence the language applied to the 
 
 reign of Christ — his glory his kingdom — his 
 
 people, is studiously imitated from that which is 
 
 Faith; whether such a society as this has been in all ages, joined 
 and distinguished by such a common outside from other companies, 
 either of men in general, or Christians in special ; or in shorter, 
 and perhaps plainer, terms thus, Whether the society of men of 
 our Christian belief hath in all ages been for the outside a distinct 
 ecclesiastical corporation from other societies of men ? 
 
 "My answer is, That for the first ages it was so ; not only thus 
 visible, but easily discernible from all other societies of men what- 
 soever ; but afterward, when the great apostacy we speak of sur- 
 prised and deformed the beautiful spouse of Christ, then was not 
 that virgin company of saints, our mother, a distinct external 
 society from the rest of Christendom ; but a part, yea and the only 
 sound part, of that external and visible body whereof our adver- 
 saries boast their predecessors to have been members. For bow 
 soever this our Virgin Mother, for the inward and invisible com- 
 munion of her sincere and unstained faith, were a distinct and 
 severed company from the rest with whom she lived; yet, for the 
 common principles of the Christian faith still acknowledged in that 
 corrupt body of Christendom, she retained communion with them, 
 and for the most part of that time of darkness continued an exter- 
 nal part of the same visible body with the rest in gross, called 
 Christians ; as being begotten by the same sacrament of Baptism 
 (as the Israelites in the likp case of Circumcision.) taught in some 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 153 
 
 usually applied to the circumstances of an earthly 
 dominion. And those cannot be well mistaken, who, 
 observing this peculiarity to run through the whole 
 language both of the Old and New Testaments, 
 look upon Christ's Church on earth, as a govern- 
 ment heavenly indeed in its design, and spiritual in 
 its motives, but having, in its outward form, and the 
 relation of its several parts to each other, all the 
 marks and characteristics of an earthly kingdom — 
 a governor and the governed-^laws, and those 
 who are to administer, as well as those who 
 are to obey them — outward signs of citizenship 
 — and common duties for its subjects, towards 
 their Lord and towards each other, in their capa- 
 city of professed and acknowledged members of 
 the same commonwealth. Amongst these duties, 
 if this view of the Church be a just one, the 
 
 part by the same Word and Pastors still continued amongst them, and 
 submitting to the same jurisdiction and government, so far as these or ' 
 any of these had yet some soundness remaining in them. But for 
 the rest which was not compatible with her sincere and unstained 
 faith, and which annihilated, in those it surprised, even those com- 
 mon grounds of Christianity otherwise outwardly professed ; she 
 with her children either wisely avoided all communion with it ; or 
 if they could not, then patiently suffered for their conscience sake 
 under the hands of tyrants, called Christians; until that tyranny 
 growing unsupportable, and that mortal contagion unavoidable, it 
 pleased God, lest we might have been as Sodom and Gomorrha, to 
 begin to call us thence at the time appointed unto a greater liberty, 
 as we see this day."— See also Pearson, Art. " Catholic Church." 
 
154 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LECT. 
 
 duty of common prayer must necessarily occupy 
 a prominent position : so much so, as to be in- 
 separable from the very idea of an united and 
 visible Church, and to be as essential to its exist- 
 ence as ceremonies, creeds, and articles of faith. 
 We find, accordingly, that this necessity is 
 denied by none, except by those who deny at the 
 same time the visible unity of the Church of Christ. 
 And in this they are doubtless consistent; for 
 it would be impossible for those who maintain 
 the total independence of one congregation upon 
 another, or those who hold the unity of the Church 
 to be true but in a mystical sense, to agree as to 
 the necessity, or form, of a common Liturgy or 
 Ritual. If every man's salvation be only a personal 
 concern, his mode of seeking it must be a personal 
 concern likewise. But the inconsistency is not 
 less, on the other hand, in those who maintain, as 
 an essential doctrine, the visibility and unity of the 
 Church of Christ, and are yet indifferent as to the 
 necessity of prescribed and authorized forms of 
 public worship. It would be totally abhorrent from 
 sound reason, and in direct opposition to that 
 decency and order which pervade the whole scheme 
 of revelation, that any duties attaching alike to 
 the whole Church of Christ should be left, as to the 
 mode of discharging them, to the discretion of 
 individual members of it. And if we can shew that 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 155 
 
 public prayer is a common duty, we shew at the same 
 time an antecedent necessity for a common form. 
 
 Now to do this, we need scarcely go beyond the 
 words of the text. St. Paul is there speaking to 
 the first Bishop in the Church ; and every direction 
 to Timothy is at least a direction to the whole of 
 that section of the Church of Christ over which he 
 was appointed to preside. " I exhort," says he, 
 " that first of all, supplications, prayers, interces- 
 sions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men ; 
 for kings, and for all that are in authority ; that we 
 may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness 
 and honesty." 9 In this passage we discover, either 
 
 9 " Prayer is the principal and most noble part of God's worship, 
 and to be preferred before preaching : nay indeed, to speak strictly 
 and properly, preaching is no part of divine worship ; for every 
 proper act of divine worship must have God for its immediate 
 object, and God's glory for its immediate end. But the immediate 
 object of preaching are men, to whom it is directed, and the im- 
 mediate end of it is the instruction of men ; though it is true, in 
 the ultimate end of it, it tends to and ends in the glory of God, as 
 indeed all religious actions do, and all our other actions of moment 
 should do. But prayer is immediately directed to God himself, 
 and it is an immediate glorification of him, and a paying of divine 
 worship and honour to him. In a word, by preaching we are 
 taught how to worship God ; hut prayer is itself God's worship. 
 Hence the place of God's worship is styled by our Saviour, the 
 hotise of prayer, Matt. xxi. 13. It is not called a preaching 
 house, (though there must be a preaching there too at due times 
 and seasons,) but a hoxise of prayer, because prayer is the 
 
156 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LECT. 
 
 directly expressed or distinctly implied, all those 
 elementary particulars which compose the ground 
 work and outline of our present Liturgical and 
 Ritual services. The Apostle is writing to one who 
 had already received authority from himself, over a 
 district territorially defined, to design and enforce 
 regulations with respect to spiritual discipline ; 
 and therefore we at once see that he was contem- 
 plating a national or at least provincial regulation, 
 and that the result would be, to that extent, 
 uniformity of devotional service in the Church. 
 Timothy, in following St. Paul's directions, would 
 not prescribe different forms of prayer to the several 
 churches under his jurisdiction. We perceive, 
 also, in the terms employed by the Apostle, which 
 are by no means synonymous though similar, a 
 variety and sequence of devotional observances 
 alluded to, which have evident reference to a 
 prescribed form ; and which doubtless bore no 
 indistinct resemblance to those heretofore used in 
 the Jewish Synagogues. The Apostle uses the 
 
 principal worship of God, to which all religious houses are dedi- 
 cated, and it is the constant and daily business to be performed in 
 them. No wonder, therefore, that the apostle charges Timothy to 
 take a special care concerning the Liturgy and public prayers of 
 the church, that they be duly and rightly performed: / exhort 
 therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, 
 and giving of thanks, be made, &c." — Bi u, "Common Prayers, 
 ancient, useful, and necessai'j ." 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 157 
 
 terms which have been severally translated "suppli- 
 cations, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks," 
 in a manner which shews that he knew them to be 
 already familiar to the mind of Timothy, and as if 
 the mere mention of them would at once convey to 
 him the impression that the writer's wish was for a 
 form of prayer to be prepared for the use of that 
 diocese, in outward respects analogous to the 
 Jewish ritual, but adapted in its language and 
 spirit to the new views of the gospel, and to the 
 present civil position of that portion of the Church 
 of Christ. This is the sense in which the Church 
 has always interpreted this important passage ; and 
 she has, from the earliest times, modelled her for- 
 mularies according to this view of the Apostle's 
 instructions. Thus we have, in our own services, 
 supplications, or general confessions of sin and 
 entreaty for the pardon of it — prayers, or solemn 
 addresses to God both on our own behalf and that 
 of others — intercessions, or rather interlocutory 
 prayer, in which the people bear a share, answering 
 to what are now denominated litanies and suffrages — 
 and finally, giving of thanks. Interlocutory prayer, 
 which seems evidently to be alluded to in the 
 word evrivfyis, necessarily implies both public order 
 and prescriptive form : it is impossible for the 
 people to respond to the priest, except in a pre- 
 scribed form of words. 
 
J 58 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LECT. 
 
 But we may draw a still further conclusion from the 
 words of the text, which will materially strengthen 
 our main position, that fixed forms of worship com- 
 prise a necessary portion of the elements of a visible 
 and Catholic Church. When the Apostle has 
 delineated the general shape which the devotions 
 of the Church are to assume, he proceeds to specify 
 on whose behalf they are especially to be offered ; 
 and here his directions are brief and clear — " for 
 all men." Now this is certainly a remarkable 
 expression, standing thus alone. We cannot indeed 
 be surprised, (for it is of the very spirit of the Gospel,) 
 that we should be enjoined, in the midst of our 
 devotions, not to omit a petition to the common 
 Father and common Redeemer, in favour of all 
 mankind. It forms a conspicuous portion of that 
 original model on which all public prayers should 
 be founded, that we should pray continually that 
 " God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven." 
 But the remarkable fact here is, that if we are to 
 take the Apostle's directions as we find them, — and 
 they are too emphatic and precise to admit of any 
 lax and accommodating interpretation, — prayer for 
 all men is not merely to form a part but the sub- 
 stance — nay, as far as appears, the whole — of our 
 devotions. Nothing can more distinctly shew that 
 it was of public worship that St. Paul was speak- 
 ing, of which general addresses to God must always 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 159 
 
 form the principal portion ; nor can we, therefore, 
 require any further evidence that he was recom- 
 mending the adoption of a fixed and systematic 
 ritual to be used by the whole district over which 
 Timothy presided ; or we should find such evidence 
 in what follows — "for kings and for all that are 
 in authority." Here is a distinct reference to, 
 and acknowledgment of, territorial divisions in the 
 Church of Christ — for in this general term parti- 
 culars are doubtless implied ; and when St. Paul 
 thus directs us to pray for kings and all that are in 
 authority, he means more especially each district 
 for its own king. It is one of the wonders of 
 Christianity that it adapts itself to all forms of 
 government, seeking only to infuse a new spirit 
 into them without destroying the outward system, 
 on the same principle as it purifies the corrupt 
 nature of man without changing its constitution 
 or counteracting its original principles. Hence 
 we observe that the boundaries of the primitive 
 Churches were for the most part territorial. He 
 who acknowledged the sovereignty of the Saviour 
 was not required at the same time to renounce or 
 to change that of his earthly master : as far as civil 
 allegiance was concerned, he was to " abide in that 
 state in which he was called ;" and it can hardly be 
 denied that the spirit of St. Paul's direction is, that 
 the Church of Ephesus under Timothy, and each 
 
160 LITURGIES AND 1UTUALS. [LECT. 
 
 Church, in like manner, under their respective 
 Bishops, should pray, in their public character and 
 services, not only for earthly authorities in general, 
 but for that more especially under which they 
 themselves might happen to be placed, that, in the 
 Apostle's words, " they may lead a quiet and 
 peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." This 
 epistle, it must be borne in mind, is not a Catholic 
 epistle, but addressed to Timothy alone. The 
 general terms of this passage, therefore, while they 
 must in the first instance be limited in their appli- 
 cation to the range of that Bishop's jurisdiction, 
 shew at the same time that the principles therein 
 laid down are equally applicable for the guidance 
 of the whole Church of Christ. Here then is 
 another proof that the Catholic Church was de- 
 signed to become national in its sub-divisions ; 
 universal as a whole. These early liturgical direc- 
 tions are in truth, prophetic. While the Church was 
 still in its infancy it was to assume the tone and 
 character adapted to those distant days when "kings 
 should become its nursing fathers, and queens its 
 nursing mothers :" and even yet, alas ! the compre- 
 hensive language of its services is uttered by us 
 but in the spirit of prophecy ! The day is probably 
 yet far distant when the Catholic Church shall 
 be indeed universal, and when " the knowledge of 
 the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 161 
 
 the sea ;" but nevertheless the general Church of the 
 living God is authorized — nay, bound, to lift up its 
 voice, in the name and for the sake of all men, to 
 that "God our Saviour, who will have all men to 
 be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the 
 truth." 
 
 Thus, from general considerations of the requi- 
 sites of a visible and universal Church, as well as 
 from the apostolical injunctions contained in the 
 text, it appears that fixed and authorized rituals 
 are essential to the public worship of a Church so 
 constituted; any other evidently partaking either 
 of the nature of private devotion, or congregational 
 schism. Let us now proceed to some historical 
 and probable reasons tending to confirm this view, 
 concluding with a brief glance at the history and 
 excellencies of our own forms of worship. 
 
 Should it be thought to militate against the 
 indispensability of such forms, that none such have 
 been provided for the use of the Church by the 
 infallible Spirit of God, it may be replied, that an 
 infallible command to use them is of tantamount 
 authority and obligation ; while there are evident 
 reasons, the principle itself being prescribed, why 
 the detail should be left to the several national 
 churches, to be modified by them, in harmony with 
 the apostolical outline, according to their individual 
 condition and necessities. 
 
162 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LECT. 
 
 If we look back to the Jews, the shadow, in 
 this respect as well as others, " of good things to 
 come," we shall find that their liturgy, in all its 
 parts, was prescribed to them with the utmost 
 minuteness. Should this appear, at first sight, a 
 somewhat startling assertion, we must call to mind 
 the nature of their liturgical services. These 
 differed from ours in being material rather than 
 spiritual ; as standing in burnt-offerings and other 
 sacrifices — in the observance of times and seasons — 
 "in meats and drinks, and divers washings and 
 carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time 
 of reformation." This was their liturgy; and how 
 minutely it was prescribed to them both in form, 
 and, where words were necessary, in words also, I 
 need not stop to specify. And afterwards, as their 
 religion grew more spiritual, from the evangelical 
 light gradually thrown over it by the prophets, who 
 were as rays that heralded the Sun of righteous- 
 ness, their Liturgy, a written and prescribed form, 
 resembled, in its great outlines, those which have 
 been continued to our own day. " Their books of 
 Common Prayer," says Hooker, " contained partly 
 hymns taken out of the Holy Scripture, partly 
 Benedictions, Thanksgivings, Supplications, penned 
 by such as have been from time to time the gover- 
 nors of the Synagogue. These they sorted into 
 their several times and places ; some to begin the 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 163 
 
 service of God with, and some to end ; some to go 
 before, and some to follow, and some to be inter- 
 laced between, the Divine Readings of the Law 
 and the Prophets." 10 The analogy was strictly 
 followed in the Christian Church ; and there is 
 little more variety in the ancient Liturgies than in 
 the Gospels themselves. One who has deeply 
 investigated this subject has remarked, "that all 
 the primitive Liturgies of the Church may be 
 reduced to four, which have been used in different 
 churches from a period of profound antiquity — the 
 great Oriental, the Alexandrian, the Roman, and 
 the Gallican. These four great liturgies appear 
 to have been the parents of all the forms now extant, 
 and indeed of all which we can in any manner 
 discover ; and their antiquity was so very remote, 
 their use so extensive in those ages when bishops 
 were most independent, that it seems difficult to 
 place their origin at a lower point than the Apos- 
 tolic age." 11 " That each Church preserved continu- 
 ally the same liturgy, is certain." " The order of 
 
 10 Book V. 16. 
 11 So also Bishop Bull, in his excellent sermon on " Common 
 Prayers :" — " Other instances of the like nature I could give you, 
 if the time would permit. But these I think are sufficient to 
 shew that there were set prescribed offices and forms of prayer 
 and praise, and profession of faith, delivered to all the churches 
 of Christ by the apostles or their immediate successors ; many of 
 those forms (notwithstanding the manifold corruptions and (lepra- 
 
164 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LeCT. 
 
 the parts was always preserved ; the same rites and 
 ceremonies continually repeated; the same ideas 
 and language, without material variation, trans- 
 mitted from generation to generation. The people 
 always knew the precise point at which they were 
 
 vations of the primitive Liturgies in after times) being still 
 retained, and unanimously used in all the churches of Christ to 
 this day. 
 
 " Indeed the exercise of the public worship of God in set and 
 prescribed forms of prayer hath been the practice of all settled 
 churches of God, not only ever since Christianity, but also 
 before our Saviour's coming into the world. All the learned 
 know, that the ancient church of the Jews before Christ had 
 set forms of prayer, which they used in their temples and 
 synagogues, as all the Jews have at this day. And indeed many 
 of those forms are very good and excellent, and have no other 
 fault to be found in them, but that they do not end as the prayers 
 of us Christians do, " through Jesus Christ our Lord." Nay, it 
 is very observable that our Lord Christ himself, when he recom- 
 mended to his disciples, upon their desire, a prayer to be used by 
 them, (that which we call The Lord's Prayer,) he did not frame 
 an entirely new prayer, in words of his own conception, but took 
 out of the ancient euchologie, or prayer books of the Jews, what 
 was good and laudable in them, and out of them composed that 
 prayer. The very preface of the Lord's prayer, Our Father, which 
 art in heaven, was the usual preface of the Jewish prayers. And 
 all the following petitions are to be found almost in the very same 
 words in their prayer books. 
 
 " He that doubts of this, if he understands the learned 
 languages, may be satisfied by consulting Drusius and Capellus, 
 in their notes upon the sixth chapter of St. Matthew, the ninth 
 and following verses. And the reflection of the learned Grotius 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 165 
 
 to repeat their responses, chant their sacred hymn, 
 or join in the well-known prayer." 11 One main 
 object of the Church of England, at the time of 
 the Reformation, was to return to the use of these 
 primitive and time-hallowed forms. She shook 
 off the practices of Rome, so far as they were 
 departures from Catholic truth ; but disdained not 
 to accept at her hand such treasures of ancient and 
 pious usage as she had, perhaps unconsciously, 
 retained under the deep incrustations of her errors. 
 "As far as they of the Church of Rome follow 
 Reason and Truth," says Hooker, '' we fear not to 
 tread the self-same steps wherein they have gone, 
 
 upon this is very remarkable : ' So far was the Lord himself of 
 the Christian church from all affectation of unnecessary novelty.' 
 Our Saviour in this instance hath plainly shewn us what respect 
 we ought to have for forms of prayer anciently received and 
 approved by the church of God. And indeed it were no difficult 
 thing to shew that many of the offices and fonns of prayer, and 
 other religious institutions, received in the church of Christ, are in 
 their first original to be referred as due to the piety and devotion of 
 the church of God before the coming of Christ in the flesh: 
 Christianity being no innovation, but only the perfection of the 
 old religion ; and it being the same spirit of Christ that governed 
 the chuTeh of God, both under the Old and New Testament." — 
 Works, vol. i. p. 334. The reader may likewise consult Falkner's 
 Libertas, p. 106, &c. 
 
 11 Palmer, "Antiquities of the English Ritual," vol. i. pp. 8, 9. 
 
166 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LECT. 
 
 and to be their followers. Where Rome keepeth 
 that which is ancienter and better, others whom 
 we more affect leaving it for newer and changing it 
 for worse, we had rather follow the perfections of 
 them whom we like not, than in defects resemble 
 them whom we love." 1 " 
 
 Such are a few of the historical reasons for a fixed 
 and publicly-authorized form of worship. Those 
 arising from duty, propriety, and expediency, are too 
 numerous to be specified in this place : I will 
 briefly allude to a few only of those which spring- 
 directly out of the main argument of this discourse 
 — which is this, that fixed and authorized forms of 
 worship form a necessary part of a visible and 
 undivided Church ; and cannot consistently be 
 neglected except by those who deny both. 
 
 If the Church of Christ be a visible Church, the 
 tokens of such visibility must be at once obvious 
 and pervading. They must not only be seen by 
 them that are within, but by them that are without 
 also. Nor must they appear only in a single religi- 
 ous act, but by every act in which a religious 
 character is involved, and by which the Church of 
 Christ can be distinguished from the world without : 
 and in what can this distinction be made more 
 obvious than in the common observance of public 
 
 12 Honker, V. § 28. 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 167 
 
 worship ? What mark of visibility and of sepa- 
 ration from the rest of mankind can be more 
 indelible, or make the line of demarkation between 
 the two less likely to be mistaken, than a book of 
 common prayer? 
 
 This reason, drawn from the visibility of the 
 Church, applies still more strongly to its unity. 
 For what can more effectually bind together, in 
 one heart and one soul, the various branches of 
 the Christian Church scattered throughout the 
 world, than a common form, in which their united 
 prayers and praises may ascend up to the throne 
 of heaven, in anticipation of that general song 
 which shall fill the mouths of the Church trium- 
 phant, throughout eternal ages? 
 
 Again : in nothing is our progress in faith, in 
 knowledge, in piety — nay, even in good works — 
 more distinctly indicated, than in prayer; and 
 were this most important religious service left 
 to the discretion of each individual minister, 
 congregations would differ as to the degree of their 
 Christian privileges, in exact proportion to the 
 graces which their immediate teacher might happen 
 to possess ; " I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos," 
 would be no longer the cry of a carnal mind, 
 but a consideration of momentous import ; the 
 unity of the Church would disappear ; the sacra- 
 ments would no longer be necessarilv administered 
 
168 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LECT. 
 
 according to Christ's holy institution; 13 ensnaring 
 doctrines would be insinuated under the garb of 
 an address to the Almighty ; and heresy itself 
 might lurk beneath the utterance of a suffrage, 
 
 13 " The reasons are such as these. 1 . That hereby a fit, 
 true, right, and well ordered way of worship, in addresses to 
 God, may be best secured to the Church, in its public service 
 of God, that neither God nor his worship may be dishonoured ; 
 there being many easily discernible ways, of considerable mis- 
 carriage, in the public offices of the Church, even by them 
 who eiT not in the doctrines of Religion; 2. That needful com- 
 prehensive petitions for all common and ordinary spiritual and 
 outward wants, of ourselves or others, with fit thanksgivings, 
 may not in the public supplications of the Church be omitted ; 
 which (considering men as they are) can no other way be either 
 so well or at all assured. 3. That the affections and hearts of 
 pious and religious men may be more devout, and better united 
 in their presenting their service to God, where they may consider 
 beforehand what particular prayers and thanksgivings they are to 
 offer up, and come the more ready and prepared to join in them. 
 This is an advantage of which many are deprived by a bad 
 temper of mind, either sucked in by prejudice, or swalloived 
 down by carelessness. 
 
 "3, 4. That such difficult parts of Church Offices, as 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the matter of which requireth 
 great consideration, that they may be clearly and aright 
 expressed, (as both Conformists, and many Non-Conformists 
 acknowledge, and is evident from the many disputes about them, 
 by men neither of mean parts, nor dangerous designs,) may 
 by a more considerate care in the composure of a form, be so 
 framed, that men of greatest understandings may with readiest 
 assent entertain them, and that they may bo sufficiontlv vindicated 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 169 
 
 or the omission of a doxology. No church has 
 ever long remained orthodox without a liturgy. 14 
 Again : a national religion requires as much a 
 lea? scripta as national law ; and the very temples 
 with which the surface of our land is covered, 
 are of themselves pledges that the common ser- 
 vices within shall be as fixed and public as them- 
 selves. With the unity of the Church at large, 
 and the nationality of each particular branch of it, 
 are bound up common times and places for public 
 worship — common and unchangeable rules both 
 for minister and people — common forms for peni- 
 tence, prayer, and praise — and a deep feeling of 
 common interests and duties here, in order to 
 
 against the boldest opposers. 5. To be an evidence to other 
 Churches and future times, after what way and manner we 
 worship God, and that both the matter and expression of our 
 service to him, is sound and pious, in our general and common 
 worship. And this may be a full testimony that such a Church 
 both receiving the true faith, and expressing a right way of 
 worship, is both a true and in its measure a pure and incorrupt 
 Church" — Dr. Falkner's "Libertas Ecclesiastica" p. 98: a 
 work well worthy the attention of the student, who wishes to see 
 all the objections that have yet been devised against our book of 
 Common Prayer candidly stated and satisfactorily answered. 
 
 14 See, as an excellent illustration of this important truth, 
 drawn from our own age and country, " A Review of the principal 
 Dissenting Colleges in England, during the last century." By 
 the Very Rev. Dr. Turton, the present learned Regius Professor 
 of Divinity in Cambridge. 
 
170 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LECT. 
 
 the attainment, hereafter, of a common immor- 
 tality. 15 
 
 15 Who can read the following eloquent passage of Hooker, 
 without participating in the glow which must have pervaded his 
 heart when he gave utterance to the heavenly -minded effusion ? 
 
 " The very assembling of men therefore unto this service hath 
 been ever solemn. And concerning the place of assembly, although 
 it serve for other uses as well as this, yet seeing that our Lord him- 
 self hath to this, as to the chiefest of all other, plainly sanctified 
 his own temple, by entituling it the house of prayer, what pre- 
 eminence of dignity soever hath been either by the ordinance, or 
 through the special favour and providence, of God annexed unto 
 his sanctuary, the principal cause thereof must needs be in regard 
 of common prayer. For the honour and furtherance whereof, if it 
 be as the gravest of the ancient fathers seriously were persuaded, 
 and do oftentimes plainly teach, affirming that the house of prayer 
 is a court, beautified with the presence of celestial powers ; that 
 there we stand, we pray, we sound forth hymns unto God, having 
 his angels intermingled as our associates ; and that with reference 
 hereunto the apostle doth require so great care to be had of decency 
 for the angels' sake ; how can we come to the house of prayer, and 
 not be moved with the very glory of the place itself, so to frame 
 our affections praying as doth best beseem them, whose suits the 
 Almighty doth there sit to hear, and his angels attend to further ? 
 When this was ingrafted in the minds of men, there needed no 
 penal statutes to draw them unto public prayer. The warning 
 sound was no sooner heard, but the churches were presently filled, 
 the pavements covered with bodies prostrate, and washed with their 
 tears of devout joy. And as the place of public prayer is a cir- 
 cumstance in the outward form thereof, which hath moment to 
 help devotion ; so the person much more with whom the people of 
 God do join themselves in this action, as with him that standeth 
 and speaketh in the presence of God for them. The authority of 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 171 
 
 I might here, were it necessary before an 
 audience like the present, shew how minutely 
 
 his place, the fervour of his zeal, the piety and gravity of his whole 
 behaviour, must needs exceedingly both grace and set forward the 
 service he doth. But of all helps for due performance of this 
 service, the greatest is that very set and standing order itself, 
 which, framed with common advice, hath both for matter and 
 form prescribed whatsoever is herein publicly done. No doubt, 
 from God it hath proceeded, and by us it must be acknowledged a 
 work of singular care and providence, that the church hath ever- 
 more held a prescript form of common prayer, although not in all 
 things every where the same, yet for the most part retaining still 
 the same analogy. So that if the liturgies of all ancient churches 
 throughout the world be compared amongst themselves, it may be 
 easily perceived they had all one original mould, and that the 
 public prayer of the people of God in churches throughly 
 settled, did never use to be voluntary dictates, proceeding from 
 any man's extemporal wit. To him which considereth the grievous 
 and scandalous inconveniences, whereunto they make themselves 
 daily subject, with whom any blind and secret corner is judged a 
 fit house of common prayer ; the manifold confusions which they 
 fall into, where every man's private spirit and gift (as they tenn it) 
 is the only bishop that ordaineth him to this ministry ; the irksome 
 deformities whereby through endless and senseless effusions of 
 indigested prayers, they oftentimes disgrace in most unsufferable 
 manner, the worthiest part of Christian duty towards God, who 
 herein are subject to no certain order, but pray both what and how 
 they list; to him, I say, which weigheth duly all these things, the 
 reasons cannot be obscure, why God doth in public prayer so much 
 respect the solemnity of places where, the authority and calling of 
 persons by whom, and the precise appointment even with what words 
 or sentences his name should be called on amongst his people."— 
 Hooker, Book V. § 25. 
 
172 LITURGIES AND RITUALS. [LeCT. 
 
 our own primitive and spiritual forms of prayer 
 and of administration of the sacraments accord 
 with the principles here laid down : How carefully 
 they were composed, from ancient models, and 
 in the very language of Scripture ; so that while 
 Calvin himself was constrained to confess, con- 
 cerning the Liturgy, that even "its vanities might 
 be tolerated" {tolerabiles ineptias,) "the Romanist 
 seceders themselves could allege against it no 
 charge but that of imperfection ; and for ten or 
 eleven years came to our churches, joined in our 
 devotions, and communicated without scruple, till 
 a temporal interest of the Church of Rome rent 
 the schism wider, and make it gape like the jaws 
 of the grave." 16 
 
 I might shew how, during the Marian persecution, 
 the prayer-book was made the touchstone of ortho- 
 doxy; some of the most learned of the martyrs 
 appealing to it as their confession of faith, and others 
 hugging it amidst the flames ; — how, during the not 
 less bitter sufferings of Puritanical rule, it was the 
 only lamp of the Episcopal church that was not en- 
 tirely put out — consoling with its stolen light such 
 men as Taylor, and Hammond, and Evelyn, when 
 every thing else was dark and gloomy around 
 them ; — but I will add no more than a few melan- 
 choly, yet manly words, from him, who, having 
 ' fl Taylor, VII. 289. 
 
VI.] LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 173 
 
 himself experienced the depth of its consolations, 
 was, in the most dangerous days, its bold and 
 eloquent defender: "The Liturgy of the Church 
 of England was with the greatest deliberation 
 compiled out of Scripture, the most of It; all 
 the rest agreeing with Scripture, and drawn from 
 the liturgies of the ancient Church, and made by 
 men famous in their generations, whose reputations 
 and glory of martyrdom hath made it immodest 
 for the best of men now to compare themselves 
 with them : the rubrics of which book was writ 
 in the blood of many of the compilers" — " yet this 
 excellent book hath had the fate to be cut in pieces 
 with a penknife, and thrown into the fire ; but it 
 is not consumed ; at first it was sown in tears, and 
 is now watered with tears, yet never was any holy 
 thing drowned and extinguished with tears. It 
 began with the martyrdom of the compilers, and 
 the church hath been vexed ever since by angry 
 spirits, and she was forced to defend it with much 
 trouble and unquietness ; but it is to be hoped that 
 all these storms are sent but to increase the zeal 
 and confidence of the pious sons of the Church of 
 England. Indeed, the greatest danger that ever 
 the Common Prayer Book had, was the indifferency 
 and indevotion of them who used it but as a 
 common blessing. 17 
 
 «7 Taylor, VII. 311, 312. 
 
END OF LECTURE VI. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 (CHURCH AUTHORITY FOR RESTRAINING ERROR.) 
 HERESY AND SCHISM. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 CHURCH AUTHORITY INDISPENSABLE— THE OPINION OF THE CHURCH 
 AT LARGE BINDING ON THE MINORITY OF ITS MEMBERS— (THE RULE 
 OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT EXPLAINED IN A NOTE)— ERRORS OF ROMANISM 
 
 AND DISSENT ON THIS POINT DIFFICULTY OF ASCERTAINING THE 
 
 DECISIONS OF THE CHURCH NO ARGUMENT AGAINST THEIR STRIN- 
 GENCY WHEN KNOWN— CHURCH AUTHORITY RECOGNIZED, IN SOME 
 SENSE, BY ALL PARTIES— EXTENT LIMITED TO EXPULSION FROM COM- 
 MUNION FOR DOCTRINAL ERRORS— ROMISH ABUSES ON THIS POINT- 
 DEFINITIONS OF ERRORS— INFIDELITY— HERESY— SCHISM— DENIAL OF 
 ANY OF THE DOCTRINES OF THE CREEDS HERESY— DENIAL OF ANY OF 
 THE ARTICLES OF RELIGION SCHISM— BISHOP BEVERIDGE'S VIEW OF 
 THIS SUBJECT STATED— SCHISM MAY BE CAUSED BY THE ENACTMENT 
 OF IMPROPER LAWS— AS WELL AS BY DISOBEDIENCE TO JUST ONES— 
 THE BOAST OF SCHISMATICS THAT THEY DIFFER FROM US BUT ON 
 SMALL MATTERS AN AGGRAVATION OF THEIR OFFENCE— SCRIPTURE 
 EXHORTATION TO UNITY. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 (CHURCH AUTHORITY FOR RESTRAINING ERROR.) 
 
 HERESY AND SCHISM. 
 
 Matthew, xviii. 17, 18. 
 
 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, Whatsoever ye shall bind on 
 earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth 
 shall be loosed in heaven. 
 
 Having traced out the great elements of which the 
 visible Church of Christ consists, there seem to be 
 but two questions which now remain for our discus- 
 sion — the authority which a Church so constituted 
 must necessarily possess to check and punish error, 
 and to propagate the truth. It would have been 
 totally useless that this scheme, at once so complex 
 and harmonious, should have been instituted for 
 the religious welfare of mankind, if men are still 
 at full liberty to receive or reject it, without any 
 other consequences than those which attach to mere 
 matters of opinion. If unity be a principle which 
 pervades the sacred edifice of the Church, as a 
 
178 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 cement that binds it together upwards from its 
 very foundation, then must there be, somewhere, 
 the authority to enforce it ; deny this, and you 
 reduce the Church at once to a number of isolated 
 individuals ; just as, if human laws be not executed 
 as well as enacted, the bo'nds of civil obligation, 
 and the divisions of men into nations and commu- 
 nities, are at an end. 
 
 The Scriptures are the law of the Church. With 
 whom, then, rests the authority to enforce that law 
 when it is clear, and to interpret it when it is 
 ambiguous ? Evidently, with the Church itself in 
 a lawfully-constituted assembly. "The Church," 
 says the 20th Art. " hath authority in controversies 
 of Faith :" and if authority, then power to exercise 
 and enforce it. Since our Lawgiver has left us 
 without constituting any individual or body of 
 individuals authoritative interpreters of his law, it 
 is clear that the view of his meaning, which is most 
 likely to be the right one, must be that in which 
 all whom it concerns are agreed ; and that, in 
 points more complex, in which such general agree- 
 ment is unattainable, and moral certainty is the 
 nearest approach to infallibility that the nature of 
 the question will admit, the opinion of the majority 
 — the means and ability of forming an opinion 
 being on both sides equal — as it ought justly, in so 
 doubtful a matter, to be preferred by the minority 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 179 
 
 to their own, so may it be enforced by such majority 
 as a condition of unity. This is a rule, not only of 
 religion, but of every-day life ; and he who has the 
 highest opinion of the prerogative of private judg- 
 ment should be the very last to impugn the validity 
 of it. For the more an individual respects his own 
 opinion, the more, by parity of reason, should he 
 respect that of others : and the opinion of the 
 Church is but the aggregate of the private judgment 
 of every individual of which it is composed. If the 
 Church at large may not come to a decision respect- 
 ing the meaning of God's word, still less may 
 individuals presume to do so. That which resides 
 not in the whole, resides not in each part of that 
 whole. Hence, therefore, we are driven either to 
 deny altogether the right of private judgment, or 
 to confess that the final and supreme judgment 
 rests in the Church at large.' 
 
 I think this argument unanswerable, even on the 
 lowest and broadest grounds on which the question 
 
 1 There can be little doubt that much, though by no means all 
 the controversy, respecting the value of private judgment on 
 doctrinal questions, arises, (as in the case of Tradition), from 
 want of a due definition of the phrase, and the constant usage of 
 it, on the same occasion, in the same sense. No one, I venture 
 to suppose, will hesitate to assent to the proposition, that each 
 man is ultimately to be governed, both in faith and practice, by 
 his own deliberate convictions. The private judgment never can, 
 and never ought, to yield to public authority, when they appear to 
 
180 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 of Church authority can be argued: and that it 
 escapes the difficulties in which both the Romanist 
 and the Latitudinarian are inextricably involved. 
 The Romanist considers the supreme authority in 
 the Church, not only as an interpreter, but as a law- 
 giver, to be vested either in an individual alone, 
 
 the individual so opposed to each other that self-respect would be 
 sacrificed, and conscience wounded, by changing the one rule 
 for the other. The real question is not, are private judgments 
 (whether rightly or wrongly formed, it matters not,) to be violently 
 bent and outraged, in order that tbey may be made conformable to 
 public decisions ; though this is too often represented to be the 
 real question ; but the true inquiry is, how are men to form their 
 private judgments ? That they are to be the ultimate guide we 
 allow ; but how are they to be trained for their office ? Men 
 argue as if they were born with them, or as if they came by 
 intuition. Now opinions may; but judgments do not: — a child 
 has an opinion as to the working of a steam-engine, but no 
 judgment. If he wished, in after life, to work one himself, he 
 would put away his childish notions concerning its construction, 
 and study the subject from the best sources of information. So it 
 is with a man of ordinary prudence, who wishes to understand the 
 rule of faith and practice. He first forms his private judgment 
 before he fixes and acts upon it ; and the simple question is, 
 what are the best sources of information from which the safest 
 knowledge may most justly be expected ? I suspect that a wise 
 man would adopt the same principle of inquiry in religious mat- 
 ters, as in the case above supposed;, he would look to elementary 
 rules for his basis, and to the experience of others for their applica- 
 tion ; that is, he would take Holy Scripture for his guide, and uniform 
 tradition for its interpretation. It is thus that he would carefully 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 181 
 
 or in that individual assisted by a council in itself 
 but forming a small section of the Catholic Church : 
 the latitudinarian considers such authority to be 
 vested in the Scripture alone, the interpretation of 
 Scripture being left to each individual, or to that 
 small section of the Church to which he may think 
 
 form his private judgments before he pronounced them ; and would 
 find at last, that the wiser he grew himself, the more would his 
 opinions coincide with the wise and good of all ages, who had gone 
 before him in the same path of careful inquiry. 
 
 Independent as men think themselves in matters of opinion, 
 it is always under some influence beyond the mere spontaneous 
 exercise of free and unbiassed thought that even what seem 
 their most deliberate judgments are formed. They may be 
 guided by the Church at large, or an individual expounder of 
 it ; by an ordinance of a synod, or a casual impression. What 
 are called private judgments, always owe their origin to some 
 extraneous influences like these ; and one of the best uses to 
 which we can apply the faculty of reason, is to place ourselves 
 under such influence as is least likely to deceive us. Religion 
 requires all men equally to entertain and hold conclusions, though 
 all men are not equally capable of drawing them ; a all that most of 
 us are able to do, in this case, is to put our private judgments 
 into the hands best calculated to guide it safely ; and if we adhere 
 to Scripture, where it is clear, and the interpretation most generally 
 agreed upon where it is doubtful, we shall not en- widely from the 
 right path. 
 
 " It is evident to experience," says Barrow, "that every man is 
 not capable to judge, or able to guide himself in matters of this 
 
 a On this subject the reader may consult an excellent sermon by Dr. 
 Hawkins, the Provost of Oriel; strongly setting forth the duty as well as 
 privilege of private Judgment. 
 
182 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 proper to belong : while the ancient, and orthodox, 
 and as we hold, rational view of the matter is, that 
 Holy Scripture is the sole and supreme law, the 
 interpretation of which is to be sought in the 
 general concurrence of the Church, and the degree 
 of its certainty to be measured by the unanimity of 
 that concurrence throughout successive generations. 
 We know, indeed, that it is often impossible to 
 
 nature (concerning divine truth and conscience.) There are chil- 
 dren in understanding ; there are men weak in faith (or know- 
 ledge concerning the faith ; there are idiots, (men not had, hut 
 simple,) persons occupying the room of the unlearned, unskil- 
 ful in the word of righteousness, who, as the apostle saith, ' need 
 that one should teach them which he the first principles of the 
 oracles of God.' 
 
 "The vulgar sort of men are as undisceming and injudicious in 
 all things, so peculiarly in matters of this nature, so much ah- 
 stracted from common sense and experience ; whence we see them 
 easily seduced into the fondest conceits and wildest courses, hy any 
 slender artifice or fair pretence, ' like 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.' 
 
 " There are also some particular cases, a competent information 
 and skill in which must depend upon improvement of mind 
 acquired by more than ordinary study and experience ; so that in 
 them most people do want sufficient means of attaining knowledge 
 requisite to guide their judgment or their practice ; and for such 
 persons, in such cases, it is plainly the best, the wisest, and the 
 safest way, to rely upon the direction of their Guides, assenting to 
 what they declare, acting what they prescribe, going whither they 
 conduct.'' — First Sermon on llcb. xiii. 17. 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 183 
 
 arrive at a correct knowledge of this opinion of the 
 universal Church, on many questions of the utmost 
 importance. Councils, especially in later times, 
 seldom pronounce it accurately. The members of 
 them have often but partially represented the great 
 body of the Church, and have been swayed by 
 improper motives, or by the influence of some 
 extraneous power; while they have not unfre- 
 quently employed themselves on other matters 
 besides their only legitimate office, that of inter- 
 preting God's word. Still these difficulties do not 
 militate against the truth of our proposition, — that 
 if the sense of the Church at large could be ascer- 
 tained respecting any subject of lawful religious 
 inquiry, such sense would be that which ought to 
 guide the opinion and satisfy the conscience of 
 every individual member of the Church of Christ. 
 On whatever points such sense has been ascer- 
 tained, the duty of individuals with regard to them 
 is for ever settled; for religious truth is not 
 mutable with time. Hence, therefore, on all 
 matters of fact, which are beyond dispute ; and all 
 matters of faith, concerning which the opinion of 
 the Church has been clearly ascertained, she pos- 
 sesses an authority over her members in which all 
 are bound to acquiesce. 
 
 The question of infallibility, and where it may be 
 supposed to reside, seems to lie at the root of all 
 
184 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 the difficulties with which the subject of Church 
 authority is beset. To look for it somewhere, 
 appears natural for the human mind, which, in 
 theory, will never rest satisfied with anything short 
 of perfection. Now we have a right to expect it 
 in the Lawgiver, and his Law ; but have we an 
 equal right to look for it in an interpretation, any 
 more than in the interpreter ? Are moral questions 
 capable of more than a moral certainty ; and is it 
 not a part of our spiritual trial to be under the 
 guidance of probable rules, both in faith and duty ? 
 This consideration does not make such rules the 
 less binding ; for those are to us infallible which 
 we have taken every legitimate and accessible 
 means to ascertain ; but it is a complete answer to 
 those who would maintain that the uncertainty 
 which in some cases attends the decisions of the 
 Church, weakens, in every respect, the stringency 
 of Church authority. 
 
 That the Church has authority in matters both of 
 faith and discipline, is maintained even by those 
 who differ most widely as to its character and 
 extent. 2 I might prove this, did time permit, or 
 
 2 " This conclusion is confirmed by the universal practice of 
 professing Christians in every age. We know from Irenams and 
 others, that the Christians avoided all intercourse with heretics. 
 Heretics themselves, in forsaking the communion of the church, 
 acknowledged the same right of judgment. As soon as heresirs 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 185 
 
 the case require it, from the Primitive Fathers, 
 who assert it without a single exception. I need 
 not quote the Doctors of the Church of Rome, for 
 the extent to which they carry it is too well known, 
 
 arose within the church itself, so soon did the church exercise this 
 right. The pastors of the church, either separately or conjointly, 
 published their judgments in condemnation of heresies, or con- 
 firmation of the truth ; and these being approved and acted on by 
 the faithful and their pastors, in every part of the world; the 
 judgment of the universal church was made known. The decisions 
 of many hundreds of synods, not only of the church, but even of 
 heretics, such as Arians, Donatists, &c. establish sufficiently the 
 universal conviction, that the church was authorized to judge in 
 controversies of faith. This principle, indeed, has ever been 
 adopted by all denominations of professing Christians in modem 
 times. The Presbyterians decide controversies of faith in their 
 synods. The Westminster Confession declared that 'It belongeth 
 to synods and councils ministerially to determine controversies of 
 faith, and cases of conscience.' Owen, and other Independents, 
 claim for particular churches the right of judging in matters of 
 faith, and of expelling heretics ; and for the churches collectively, 
 the right of judging particular churches, and separating them from 
 communion, if heretical. It is tbe same with every other sect. 
 
 "The Lutherans acknowledged the right of the church to judge 
 in controversies : they appealed to the judgment of a general 
 council for forty or fifty years : they, themselves, in councils, con- 
 demned the Calvinists, Zuinglians, Papists, and innumerable 
 heretics. The Calvinists of France arranged their church govern- 
 ment, in successive gradations, of which the highest decided contro- 
 versies in faith. Those of Holland, in the synod of Dort, con- 
 demned the Arminians : the reformed confessions approved of the 
 ancient judgments of the church. In fine, it is needless to speak 
 
186 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 and has been too fearfully experienced, to require 
 evidence of the fact. 3 I might adduce our own 
 Reformers, nay the Presbyterian Divines of West- 
 minster, and Owen the champion of the Inde- 
 pendents, to testify the same thing: 4 but the 
 questions for our more immediate consideration, — 
 the fact of Church authority being granted, — are 
 
 of the sentiments and practice of the Oriental, Roman, and British 
 churches, as to the right of the church to judge in controversies 
 of faith. Our churches expressly affirm that f the church has 
 authority in controversies of faith.' They exercised this authority 
 in framing articles of doctrine, approving of the ancient creeds, 
 condemning the heresy of Socinus, excommunicating those who 
 affirm the Articles to he superstitious and erroneous : in fine, their 
 constant law and practice has been to separate from their com- 
 munion all who are convicted of heresy, according to the prescribed 
 forms. This universal practice of the church, and of all religious 
 communities, renders it superfluous to adduce the accordant 
 sentiments of theologians in different ages. It also renders any 
 attempt to adduce the opposite opinions of individuals perfectly 
 futile." — Palmer's Treatise on the Church of Christ, vol. ii. p. 100. 
 
 3 Vide Petri Dens Theologia, Tom. ii. p. 1 13, &c. 
 
 4 " I do believe, that the Authoritative Rule, or Government of 
 the Church, was, is, and ought to be, in the Elders and Rulers of 
 it, being an act of the Office-Power, committed unto them by 
 Christ himself." — Owen on Schism, preface. 
 
 Again : " The church wherein such differences do fall out, may 
 doctrinally determine the Truth in them, as it is the Pillar and 
 Ground of Truth ; supposing them to be of such weight, as that 
 the edification of the Church is concerned in them." — Id. p. 275. 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 187 
 
 those fundamental inquiries — to what extent can 
 such authority be justly exercised ? and what are 
 the class of offences which come directly under its 
 cognizance ? 
 
 With respect to the first question, the extent of 
 Church authority, it seems clear, from the language 
 of Scripture, that the highest exercise of its power 
 is expulsion from its communion. And, indeed, 
 what power can be greater than that which, when 
 justly exercised, excludes from the covenanted 
 mercies of the Gospel : " If any man abide not in 
 Christ, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, 
 and men gather them and cast them into the fire, 
 and they are burned." 5 The language of the text 
 is decisive of the power which the Church possesses 
 over a recusant member, and of the extent to which 
 Christ himself, as the spiritual head of it, will 
 sanction the Church in the exercise of its delegated 
 power : " If he neglect to hear the Church, let him 
 be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican," 
 (that is, let him no longer be considered by thee as 
 a Christian brother, but as standing towards thee 
 simply in the relation of common humanity.) Here 
 ejection from Christian communion is authorized in 
 the case of one who obstinately refuses to retract a 
 trespass against another, when solemnly called 
 upon by the Church to do so : and our Lord adds 
 5 John, xv. 6. 
 
188 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 this emphatic sanction to the line of conduct which 
 he thus prescribes — " Verily I say unto you, that" 
 (when ye act according to this rule, for such 
 seems a necessary limitation of his general propo- 
 sition) " whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 
 bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose on 
 earth, shall be loosed in heaven." 6 But no greater 
 power than this simple exclusion from spiritual 
 privileges is ever assigned to the Church, in Scrip- 
 ture, even with regard to the highest religious 
 offences. " A man that is an heretic? says St. 
 Paul to Titus, " after the first and second admoni- 
 tion, reject^ 1 It was one of the most gross and 
 most un scriptural errors of the Church of Rome to 
 apply civil pains and penalties to the punishment 
 of strictly religious errors. There was the spirit of 
 apostacy in this — in thus openly distrusting and 
 underrating the still heavier, and legitimate punish- 
 ment, of the deprivation of religious privileges ; — 
 and a door was opened for that carnal system of 
 Indulgences and Pardons, which, by a righteous 
 
 6 Our own Church, in its 33d Article, limits its authority by 
 this rule, and founds it on this very text.* "That Person, which 
 by open denunciation of the Church, is rightly cut off from 
 the unity of the Church, and excommunicated, ought to be 
 taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an Heathen 
 and Publican until he be openly reconciled by penance, and 
 received into the Church by a Judge that hath authority thereunto." 
 7 Titus, iii. 10. 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 189 
 
 retribution, in turn corrupted the souls of the 
 priesthood by the very instrument which they had 
 originally invented for ensuring the corruption of 
 the people ! In all cases where the State is in 
 alliance with the Church, and where the moral law 
 of the Gospel forms part of the law of the land, 
 every offence against Christian morals being also 
 an offence to civil society, the execution of that 
 branch of religious discipline may and ought to be 
 left to the civil power : the spiritual jurisdiction, 
 in such cases, is clearly laid down by St. Paul in 
 the 5th chapter of his 1st Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians : it consists in the immediate suspension of 
 the immoral person from Christian communion, and 
 final expulsion on his obstinate impenitence. 
 
 Having ascertained the nature and extent of 
 Church Authority ; and limiting the consideration 
 of the exercise of it to strictly doctrinal errors ; 
 let us proceed to enquire briefly in what these 
 errors consist. They seem to be composed of 
 three distinct classes, Infidelity, Heresy, and 
 Schism. And though it may be difficult accurately 
 to define the boundaries of each, (for errors, like 
 virtues, are connected by a sympathetic chain, 
 which wonderfully draws together even those 
 which are, apparently, the most discordant,) yet 
 it is necessary, for our purpose, to indicate the 
 character of each, as most important conclusions 
 
190 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LjECT. 
 
 will be found to follow from a distinct under- 
 standing of this part of the question. 
 
 Infidelity is the denial of a fact, or doctrine, 
 acknowledged by him who denies it to be asserted 
 in Scripture. With such a case we have, at 
 present, no concern. 
 
 Heresy is the denial of a doctrine which he who 
 denies it knows to have been declared by the 
 Catholic church to be a doctrine of Scripture. 8 
 
 Schism is the separation of an individual, or 
 body of individuals, from the communion of their 
 own particular church, or a particular church from 
 the church at large, on the ground of dissent from 
 rites and ceremonies, or practical views of Scripture, 
 
 s Mr. Palmer's definition of Heresy (Vol. i. p. i. Ch. v. Sect. 
 II.) is as follows: — "Heresy is the pertinacious denial of some 
 truth, certainly revealed." Though this be true as a fact, yet it 
 appears to he in some degree imperfect as a definition, because the 
 pertinacity is supposed, or punishment need not follow ; and the 
 condition, ' certainly revealed,' brings us back to the original and 
 endless dispute, as to what are the points so revealed. It is clear 
 that of these points the Church must be the judge — she must not 
 debate her authoiity with the prisoner at her bar — but she must 
 indicate and define to him the law under which she acts, and that 
 clause of it which has rendered him amenable to her censures. 
 This end seems to be attained by the definition attempted in the 
 text. It seems necessary also that the offender should acknowledge 
 his views to differ from Catholic interpretation, otherwise his case 
 would appear to become merely one of error in doctrine, not 
 heresy. 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 191 
 
 which that church has thought fit to prescribe as 
 terms of communion. 9 
 
 Heresy, then, is the denial of an article of the 
 
 9 Mr. Palmer's definition of Schism, (vol. i. p. 51,) is as 
 follows : — " The communion of the Church is two-fold, and there 
 may he offences against it in two ways ; either in dividing a par- 
 ticular church, or in dividing that of the universal church. The 
 one arises, when professing Christians divide, or refuse to com- 
 municate with the particular church, of which they are members ; 
 the other, when particular churches refuse to communicate with the 
 universal Church, that is, with the great hody of Christians. The 
 offence against communion is called schism; and schism, in its 
 extremest degree, is separation, dissent, or (as it is sometimes 
 called) heresy." Perhaps the distinctions hetween schism, dissent, 
 and heresy, were not intended to be here marked with precision, as 
 contradistinguished from each other ; but it was necessary to the 
 very object of the present writer to be more precise ; much con- 
 fusion having arisen from not sufficiently defining the boundaries 
 between heretical pravity and schismatic separation. He who 
 would thoroughly understand this question, should read Owen on 
 "Schism," in connexion with Bishop Stillingfieet's masterly work 
 "On the Unreasonableness of Separation." It is interesting to 
 observe how all the errors of the Church of Christ may be traced 
 up to the denial of some doctrine contained in our Creeds. The 
 errors of the Independents have their origin in the misunderstand- 
 ing of the phrase — " Holy Catholic Church." They deny the 
 visibility of that Church, as marked by external ordinances, and 
 hence are driven to seek out, other tokens of Church union, 
 indefinite in their character, and destructive of that humility 
 and charity which are essential to the religious peace of society, 
 and the edification of the Christian household " in every good 
 word and work." 
 
192 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 Catholic faith ; and this is all that is meant by what 
 are called the damnatory clauses attached to the sum- 
 mary of these articles contained in the Athanasian 
 Creed. The apostle says, the man that is an heretic 
 reject. The creed acts on this apostolic instruction, 
 and asserts that except a man believe faithfully the 
 Catholic doctrine, he cannot be saved. The mo- 
 mentous question then is, — What these Catholic 
 doctrines are. What are the great points on which 
 the universal Church was agreed, before the recol- 
 lection of the primitive apostolical expositions had 
 passed away ; before the Church had taken upon 
 itself to pronounce that " anything beside Scripture 
 might be required of men that it should be held as 
 an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or 
 necessary to salvation ;" and before the secular 
 power, having been first taken into alliance with 
 the spiritual authority, had so far corrupted the 
 integrity of those in whom both were combined, as 
 to lead even oecumenical synods to pervert the truth, 
 as it is in Jesus, into an instrument of personal 
 aggrandizement, or public tyranny ? — These Catholic 
 doctrines, 10 to deny which is heresy in the eye of 
 
 10 It may bethought that two essential articles of doctrine are here 
 omitted ; the necessity of an apostolically-commissioned ministry, 
 and of the administration of the Sacraments. The belief in these is 
 clearly implied in the expression, " Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic 
 Churcb ;" but the fact of their never having been doubted, made it 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 193 
 
 the Church, and the confession of which is a suffi- 
 cient mark of unity with the Catholic faith to 
 include him who makes it within the bounds of the 
 visible Church, — are contained, as we have already 
 shewn at large, in the three Creeds ;" which have, 
 from their first promulgation, been the symbols of 
 belief throughout all Churches of the world. A 
 phrase in one of them, as is well known, has been 
 
 unnecessary to specify them more distinctly in the creeds. It was 
 no more likely that a council, consisting exclusively of ecclesiasti- 
 cal persons, and whose authority was confessed in the very fact of 
 their being called together for the purpose of deciding on a matter 
 of faith, should draw up an article respecting their own office, than 
 that an act of parliament should begin by specifying that there is 
 such a thing as a parliament ; nor was it necessary to prescribe 
 sacraments to those who had no more doubt of their necessity than 
 they had of their own existence. 
 
 11 See Lecture IV. See also Chillingworth, Chap. IV., 
 " Wherein it is shewed, that the Creed contains all the necessary 
 points of mere belief." — Title to the Chapter. The reader will 
 perceive that the doctrine of " Fundamentals" is, indirectly at least, 
 involved in this question. This is not the place to enter fully into 
 the subject; and for a very learned and ingenious disquisition on 
 the point, the reader is referred to Mr. Palmer's Appendix to the 
 5th chapter of the 1st volume of his valuable work. The author 
 confesses himself to agree (indeed it is necessary for the theory 
 maintained in this Lecture that he should agree) with Usher, 
 Chillingworth, and Stillingfleet, that the articles of the Creed are 
 to be considered in the light of Fundamentals. The learned 
 readey will consult with much profit Mede's excellent letters 
 to Mr. Hartlib on this important question. 
 
 N 
 
194 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LeCT. 
 
 the cause of division between the Eastern and 
 Western Churches, for many generations ; 12 and it is 
 well worthy of our notice, that one infallible mark 
 
 12 « What opinion I have formed of this part of history, from the 
 materials which have come in my way, I will give you frankly. 
 In the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, various disputes took place 
 with the followers of Macedonius, with respect to the nature and 
 procession of the Holy Ghost : it might be particularly mentioned, 
 with a view to what followed, that, so soon as the years 430 and 
 431, in the Councils of Alexandria and Ephesus, it was declared, 
 that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Son as well as from the 
 Father. In order to terminate these disputes, the Church in 
 general made a sort of settlement or determination what should he 
 accounted the Catholic doctrine ; and, to avoid farther adjustings 
 of formularies, agreed, that nothing should from that time be added 
 to those then under consideration. It is probable that, at that time, 
 the question, whether the Holy Ghost should be spoken of as pro- 
 ceeding from the Father and the Son [Filioque is the famous 
 word) did not occur to men's minds; Filioque was not in the 
 Creeds, though it was not new. The Students in the Western 
 Church seem to have ere long contracted an opinion, that it was 
 proper for them to profess in a Creed, that the Holy Ghost pro- 
 ceeded from the Son: they therefore inserted (or one might say, 
 restored) Filioque, meaning, probably, no harm : — and then the 
 Eastern Church thought as little of complaining, as the Western 
 of offending- Afterwards, however, contentions for worldly gran- 
 deur produced contentions about theological truth. Rome and 
 Constantinople were Rivals ; not only for imperial, but for spiritual 
 pre-eminence. — The Patriarch of Constantinople styled himself 
 Episcopus JEcumenicus: Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, 
 was more lowly in the title he assumed ; he was " Servus servo-rum" 
 scilicit Dei ; but, in his pretensions to authority, he was equally 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 195 
 
 of corruption in the Church has always been the 
 gradual addition to these originally simple and 
 truly Catholic terms of unity ; thus multiplying the 
 grounds of a charge of heresy, by increasing the 
 number of those points of faith, in the denial of 
 which that sin was involved ; and consequently 
 the number of those who found it impossible to 
 agree with them. At the Reformation, our own 
 branch of the Church Catholic returned at once 
 to the original and scriptural terms of commu- 
 nion ; declaring, in her memorable Eighth Article, 
 that " the three Creeds, Nicene Creed, Athanasius's 
 Creed, and that which is commonly called the 
 
 ambitious. The Patriarch was the head of the Eastern Church ; 
 the Pope of the Western. — This rivalship made the Churches seek 
 occasions of blaming each other; and thus the insertion of-Filioque 
 came to be complained of as a breach of Faith. It was defended 
 by the Western Church, because the word contained right doc- 
 trine ; this was enough to make the Eastern Church dispute the 
 doctrine ; they did so, and the dispute still subsists, and still 
 causes a separation betwixt the Eastern and Western Churches. — 
 One Pope (Leo III.) did once, for the sake of peace, order Filioque 
 to be put out of the Creed, at the same time ratifying the doctrine, 
 which it comprehends; — but he could only prevail in those 
 Churches which were under his most immediate inspection ; and 
 that only for a time. — The obstinate resistance of the Greek or 
 Eastern Church to the insertion of Filioqaie is the more likely to 
 be owing to some worldly considerations, as several of the Greek 
 Fathers have the doctrine in their works, clearly expressed,"— 
 Hey, ' vol. ii. p. 428, &c. See also Pearson on the Article "I 
 believe in the Holy Ghost." 
 
196 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LeCT. 
 
 Apostles' Creed, ought thoroughly to be received 
 and believed; for they may be proved by most 
 certain warrants of Holy Scripture." Those, and 
 those only, who deny the doctrines therein con- 
 tained, are, in her eyes, guilty of heresy. They 
 who assent to them, it is true, may yet be in griev- 
 ous error — nay, in peril ; but there is nothing which, 
 in her eyes, places them beyond the pale of the 
 communion of saints, and out of the reach of 
 gospel salvation. These Creeds are the undoubted 
 Traditions of the Church ; established by her 
 Councils in the purest times; adhered to by her 
 main body throughout all ages ; and forming a 
 bulwark, even now, (notwithstanding that the 
 human mind has had so many centuries in which 
 to devise error in all its forms,) strong enough to 
 hold together the main elements of Truth, in the 
 midst of the confusion that has so long raged around 
 them. It was a providential circumstance for the 
 Church, that doctrinal heresies so soon shewed 
 themselves ; and were detected ere the extraordi- 
 nary illuminations of the Spirit had altogether 
 faded " into the light of common day." There is as 
 little variety in error, as there is mutability in 
 truth ; and the decisions of the Church, in her 
 earliest days, still stand as finger-posts to mankind, 
 which no bye-paths, since then invented by the 
 Enemy of our souls, have ever been able to elude ! 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 197 
 
 To deny an article of the Creeds, then, is of the 
 nature of Heresy: and though, without an open 
 confession on the part of the offender, and a formal 
 sentence on the part of the Church, individual 
 Christians would not be justified in acting towards 
 such an one according to the exclusive rule pre- 
 scribed by the Apostle, yet the rule itself is not by 
 disuse made obsolete ; nor can the offender himself 
 plead impunity on the ground of remissness on the 
 Church's part. Her Creeds are, in this respect, her 
 justification; for she has solemnly recorded her 
 sentence in these her public formularies ; and He 
 who " is with her alway, even unto the end of the 
 world" hath said — " whatsoever ye shall bind on 
 earth, shall be bound in heaven." 
 
 From the consideration of Heresy, we are led 
 naturally to that of Schism, — a question more 
 complex, and in which preciseness of definition is 
 less attainable. We have already attempted to 
 characterize it, as follows : Schism, is the separation 
 of an individual, or body of individuals, from the 
 communion of their own particular Church, or that 
 of a particular Church from the Church at large, on 
 the ground of dissent from rites and ceremonies, or 
 practical views of scripture, which that Church, or 
 the Church at large, has thought fit to prescribe as 
 terms of communion. 
 
 The term communion is here used for the sake of 
 
198 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 clearness, as distinguished from unity. Unity is 
 secured by assent to the Creeds ; but in order to 
 reduce the gospel to actual practice, more specific 
 terms must be agreed upon to bind Christians 
 together in the same habits, the same services, the 
 same ceremonies, the same principles of private 
 morality and of civil allegiance. Hence the neces- 
 sity for articles of religion as well as articles of 
 faith : religion applying to the whole Christian 
 walk, faith referring solely to the principles by 
 which that walk is directed. Now the preparation 
 of articles of religion must, from the nature of 
 things, be left, on many points, to each individual 
 Church : they must necessarily be modified to the 
 situation and circumstances of those for whom they 
 are intended. Our own articles have asserted the 
 authority in this matter, and with admirable preci- 
 sion, both for the Church Catholic with proper 
 limitations, and, subordinate thereto, for each sepa- 
 rate branch of it. " The Church hath power to 
 decree rites or ceremonies : and yet it is not lawful 
 for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary 
 to God's word written." 13 So much for the Church 
 at large ; and then, for each particular branch of it, 
 she asserts its liberty as follows : " It is not neces- 
 sary that traditions and ceremonies be in all places 
 one, and utterly like : for at all times they have 
 
 13 Article NX. 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 199 
 
 been diverse, and may be changed according to the 
 diversities of countries, times, and men's manners, 
 so that nothing be ordained against God's word. — 
 Every particular or national Church hath authority 
 to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies or rites of 
 the Church, ordained only by man's authority, so 
 that all things be done to edifying." Now our 
 articles of religion, with the exception of those 
 which are explications of the great truths contained 
 in the Creeds, or protestations against doctrinal 
 errors maintained on such points by other Churches, 
 are in a great measure directed to matters (of 
 discipline or ceremony) which bring them under 
 the rule here laid down : they are constructed, as 
 to form, with special reference to the case of our 
 own branch of the Catholic Church, and cannot be 
 openly and pertinaciously broken without the sin 
 of schism. Yet it is evident, from the above- 
 quoted authority, that this sin is then only com- 
 mitted when the rite or ceremony so broken has 
 been lawfully prescribed, in accordance with God's 
 word and the analogy of the Church at large. The 
 schism may be in him who makes, and not in him 
 who disobeys the law ; if that law be constituted 
 on an unauthorized basis. What the legitimate 
 basis is, has been clearly argued from Scripture by 
 Bishop Beveridge in a "Concio ad Clerum, De 
 Ritibus Ecclesiasticis," which was preached by him 
 
200 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 before the Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy 
 of the province of Canterbury, and may, therefore, 
 both on account of the man, and the occasion, (for 
 the convocation was not, in that day, a mere matter 
 of form), be considered worthy of peculiar respect. 
 His text is St. Paul's own decision as to a mere 
 custom which seems to have prevailed in the Corin- 
 thian Church, of women worshipping with the head 
 uncovered : " If any man seem to be contentious, 
 we have no such custom, neither the Churches 
 of God." From which the Bishop argues, with 
 unanswerable force, that though each Church may, 
 in accordance with the divine will, institute peculiar 
 rites for its own necessities, yet that no Church has 
 a right to adopt one which has been rejected by the 
 universal Church, or to reject one which the universal 
 Church has adopted. 14 This is the Scriptural rule, 
 
 14 The following is a specimen of the learned and pious Bishop's 
 reasoning on this subject: " Hse porro omnes omnium seculorum 
 Ecclesise in necessariis fidei articulis semper consenserunt. Quan- 
 tum autem ad ritus attinet, isti partim singularibus Ecclesiis proprii 
 fuerunt ac peculiares, partim vero omnibus communes. Ritus qui 
 uni vel alteri Ecclesise proprii sunt, ab eadem pro libitu abrogari 
 possunt, vel retineri ; et ab aliis etiam vel repudiari possunt, vel 
 admitti. Adiaphororum enim naturam habent, atque ideo vim 
 nullam obtinent, nisi quam ab ista recipiunt Ecclesia, cujus 
 autoritate sanciti sunt. Qui vero Ecclesise universal), hoc est 
 omnibus per omnes estates Ecclesiis, vel quod tantidem est, 
 maxima? illarum parti semper communes fuere ritus, idem a 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 201 
 
 and schism lies on either side of it. The Romanists 
 were guilty, most grievously guilty, of the former 
 error : they multiplied doctrines and ceremonies in 
 the Church, which were contrary both to the letter 
 of scripture, and the spirit, nay often the language 
 of primitive antiquity. They finally elevated them 
 from articles of religion into articles of faith, thus 
 placing them on the same level with the creeds, 
 
 singulis etiarnnum Ecclesiis observari debent. Neque enim in 
 singularis cujuspiam Ecclesia potestate si turn est, ritus ab uni- 
 versali Ecclesia vel observatos rejicere, vel rejectos observare. Si 
 qua horum alterutrum fecerit, schismatica est, a Christi Corpore se 
 disjungens. Ut quaevis autein Ecclesia recte constituatur, et ita ut 
 verum sanumque Catholicse niembrum permaneat, necesse est, ut 
 ad catholicam sive universalem, in omnibus quoad fieri potest, se 
 confonnet, et disciplinam ritusque illius aeque ac doctrinam reli- 
 giose complectatur. Quod ne temere a me dictum videatur, hisce 
 argumentis confimiatum dabo. 
 
 I. Primum nobis argumentum suppeditant haec ipsa Apostoli 
 verba, quae sub manibus habemus. Enimvero Corinthiaca Pro- 
 vincialis erat Ecclesia, in quam nonnulli novum quendam ritum 
 invehere conati sunt, ut viri scilicet tectis, mulieres nudis capitibus 
 Deum orarent. De qua. re Apostolus certior factus, contra istum 
 ritum lioc loco disputat, probatque eum nequaquam ab ista Eccle- 
 sia admitli posse. Et ultimum praecipuuinque argumentum suum 
 ducit e consuetudine Ecclesiae universalis, ut ante observatum est, 
 ex eo nimirum quod aliae omnes Ecclesiae non talem, sed contrariam 
 prorsus consuetudinum haberent, ut viri scilicet nudis, mulieres 
 vero tectis capitibus adorarent. Quod si quis, inquit, contentiosus 
 esse videtur, nos talem consuetudinem non habemus, neque Ecclesiw 
 Dei. Nimirum ac si in bunc modum argumentaretur ! 
 
202 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 and making it heresy to doubt or disobey them. 
 Against this the Church of England protested : but 
 not in the spirit of schism, but by an appeal to the 
 scriptures as interpreted by the primitive church. 
 
 Quod contrarium est consuetudini ab aliis omnibus Ecclesiis 
 receptee, non debet admitti a Corinlliiaca. 
 
 Atqui boc contrarium est consuetudini ab aliis omnibus Ecclesiis 
 receptae. 
 
 Ergo, &c. 
 
 Quod si Ecclesia Corintbiaca ad alias omnes Ecclesias se accom- 
 modare et earum consuetudines ritusque observare non teneretur, 
 hoc apostoli argumentum nullius ponderis aut momenti esset. Ex 
 hac enim bypotbesi ritus iste admitti potuisset ab Ecclesia Corin- 
 tbiaca, etiamsi contrarius esset consuetudini ab aliis omnibus Eccle- 
 siis receptee : ideoque major propositio apertissime falsa esset. At 
 vero apostolum legitime argumentatum fuisse extra dubium est. 
 In bisce enim conscribendis ipso Dei Spiritu, quae summa est ratio, 
 concitatus erat. Adeo ut neque in ipso argumento neque in argu- 
 mentandi modo vel fallere posset vel falli. Ac proinde summa 
 etiam ratio postulat, ut unaquaeque talis, qualis erat Corinthiaca, 
 provincialis scf^cet Ecclesia, omnium aliarum sive Ecclesiae uni- 
 versalis consuetudines accurate observet. Si qua enim eas non ob- 
 servat, hoc ipso infallibili argumento gravissimi erroris schismatis- 
 que convincatur. Neque possibile est, ut sese quovis praetextu 
 defendat. Cum ipse enim Deus hoc argumentum apostolo suo 
 dictaverit, necessario etiam exinde sequitur, ipsius Dei voluntatem 
 esse, ut singula? Ecclesiae provinciales universali conformcs sint ; 
 atque etiam ut hunc argumentandi modum ab ipso edoctum ad de- 
 terminandas Ecclesiae controversias semper adhibemus. Hoc itaque 
 primum sit nostrum argumentum, ab ipso apostolico seu divino 
 potius argumentandi modo assumptum." — Oratio Canonica ante 
 synondum. Anno 1689. 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 203 
 
 As Chillingworth observes, " Protestants are unani- 
 mous and peremptory in their denial that they are 
 truly schismatic, who leave the communion of the 
 visible church, if corrupted ; especially if the case 
 be so that they must either leave her communion, 
 or of necessity communicate with her in her corrup- 
 tions." 15 The apostle's language in the text was a 
 sufficient justification for the Church of England, 
 when she shook off the idolatrous and superstitious 
 customs which Rome had gradually imposed upon 
 her— "we have no such custom, neither the churches 
 of God." — The schism was, in this case, created 
 by those who enjoined doctrines and ceremonies 
 " against God's word." 
 
 We may, on the other hand, shew those to be 
 guilty of schism who reject an universally-prevalent 
 and lawfully-constituted rite or custom, and separate 
 themselves from the Church on such grounds, just 
 as those have been already proved to be, who add 
 to such as the Catholic Church hath alone sanction- 
 ed : for the apostle's argument from the practice of 
 the Church applies equally on both sides ; and " we 
 have such a custom," would have been just as bind- 
 ing, as " we have no such custom," was conclusive 
 as to rejection,, Hence, therefore, we see the rea- 
 sonableness of the decision of our Church on the 
 question of schism: "Whosoever, through his private 
 15 P. 192, 
 
204 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 judgment, willingly and purposely doth openly break 
 the traditions and ceremonies of the Church, which 
 be not repugnant to the word of God, and be 
 ordained and approved by common authority, ought 
 to be rebuked openly, (that others may fear to do 
 the like) as he that offendeth against the common 
 order of the Church, and hurteth the authority of 
 the magistrate, and woundeth the consciences of the 
 weak brethren." 16 This article is clearly directed 
 against those who, though schismatical, were still dis- 
 posed to submit, generally, to the authority of the 
 Church : and though in these days, authority so exer- 
 cised may be set at naught, and actual schism be the 
 consequence of putting it forth, yet still the con- 
 science of the Church is pure in this matter — she 
 hath laboured to preserve unity, by the promulga- 
 tion of judicious laws, and by openly protesting 
 against the breach of them : and the sin thence- 
 forth lies with those who cause so wide a breach 
 for what is confessedly so small a difference. 
 How many are there, voluntarily separated from 
 our communion, who yet openly boast of their 
 accordance with us in all great points of doctrine ; 
 as if that very circumstance, of so far agreeing with 
 us, did not magnify the inexcusableness of their 
 own peace-destroying separation ! It is an acute 
 but most important observation of Jeremy Taylor, 
 16 Art. 34. 
 
VII.] HERESY AND SCHISM. 205 
 
 that " there are some sins whose malignity is acci- 
 dentally increased by the lightness of the subject 
 matter. — To despise authority, when the obedience 
 is so easy as the wearing of a garment, or doing of 
 a posture, is a greater and more impudent contempt, 
 than to despise authority imposing a great burden 
 of a more considerable pressure, when human infir- 
 mity may tempt to disobedience, and lessen the 
 crime." Those who dissent from the Church for 
 trivial reasons, have no slight sin to answer for: it 
 is no light matter, nor will a sincere and conscienti- 
 ous Christian ever consider it such, to set at naught 
 the earnest and affectionate address of the Apostle — 
 " Now I beseech 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." 17 
 '71 Cor. i. 10. 
 
 END OF LECTURE VII. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 (CHURCH AUTHORITY FOR PROPAGATING THE TRUTH). 
 SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 THE COMMISSION TO PROPAGATE THE GOSPEL ISSUED TO MEN NOT TO 
 BOOKS— REASONS FOR THIS— SYSTEM AND SUBORDINATION NECESSARY 
 AMONG THE PROPAGATORS OF THE GOSPEL— THE GOSPEL KINGDOM 
 FOLLOWS THE ANALOGY OF AN EARTHLY KINGDOM AS TO LAWS AND 
 OFFICERS— SYSTEM OBSERVED BY THE APOSTLES AND FIRST PREACHERS 
 OF THE GOSPEL— HUMAN MEANS MAY BE JOINED WITH SPIRITUAL IN 
 SPREADING THE TRUTH— THE LAWS OF HUMAN NATURE AND OF THE GOS- 
 PEL HAVE BOTH THE SAME DIVINE ORIGIN— THEY MAY WORK TOGETHER 
 FOR GOOD— HUMAN AUTHORITY AT FIRST OPPOSED TO THE DIVINE LAW 
 —WHEN WHOLE NATIONS BECAME CHRISTIAN THE TWO AUTHORITIES 
 ENTERED INTO ALLIANCE— CHURCH AND STATE ORIGINALLY INDE- 
 PENDENT OF EACH OTHER— THEY CAN AND MAY MUTUALLY PROMOTE 
 EACH OTHER'S ENDS.— THESE SEPARATE ENDS STATED— WHAT PRIVI- 
 LEGES THE CHURCH CLAIMS TO HERSELF— RELIGIOUS TEACHING AND 
 EDUCATION AMONG THEM— WOULD RESIST THE STATE IN ESTABLISHING 
 A RIVAL SYSTEM TO HER'S, IN EITHER OF THESE POINTS— HER DUTY 
 IN SUCH A CASE— SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT OF THIS LECTURE- 
 GENERAL CONCLUSION. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 (CHURCH AUTHORITY FOR PROPAGATING THE TRUTH.) 
 
 SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, AND PREACHING. 
 
 Mark xvi. 15. 
 
 And he said ttnto them, Go ye into all the ivorld, and preach the gospel 
 to even/ creature. 
 
 Having now traced out the great outlines of the 
 Gospel scheme, the final question which remains 
 for our consideration is the authority existing in 
 the Church for propagating it through the world. 
 That it was committed to a body of men, to be on 
 their responsibility diffused and administered, is 
 evident from the language of the text — " Go ije? 
 says our Lord to his Apostles — " Go ye into all 
 the world." The duty here enjoined was not 
 committed to a mere writing 1 — for a writing still 
 
 1 " Another point suggested by the miracle of the gift of ton<mes, 
 is the duty of translating the holy Scriptures into divers languages, 
 so that all may benefit by the light which was to " light every man 
 that cometh into the world." This important work of Christian 
 charity, when faithfully executed, can hardly fail to become a power- 
 
210 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 requires the agency of a man to give it efficiency, 
 by preserving and disseminating it ; nor was it left, 
 like the great physical truths of the creation, to the 
 reason and judgment and study of mankind ; for a 
 revelation is, from its nature, not capable of being 
 
 ful instrument of conversion. But it is an instrument only, and 
 not designed to work its own effect, unaccompanied with other aid. 
 It does not supersede the Ministry ; although it is its great and 
 all-powerful engine ; it is the most effectual means of impressing 
 the truth upon the hearts and minds of men. We read not, how- 
 ever, of any conversions wrought by the Apostles or their imme- 
 diate successors, merely by sending abroad the written word. 
 They laboured personally themselves ; expounding what was 
 written, and reasoning out of the Scriptures. They " reproved, 
 rebuked, exhorted." Yet all was done " decently and in order." 
 No one "stretched beyond his own measure ;" each had his stated 
 province and commission. Thus have they left a model to all suc- 
 ceeding ages of the Church, of sober judgment, and sound discre- 
 tion ; of zeal tempered with knowledge ; of simplicity guided by 
 wisdom ; of charity not degenerating into weak connivance at 
 error, nor giving countenance to disorder and irregularity. Well 
 it becomes us not to depart from these salutary rules ; nor to admit 
 any fervours of enthusiasm or any pretences of a private spirit to 
 interfere with their observance. To the Apostles only was the 
 promise given that the Holy Spirit should guide them into " all 
 truth." The substance of that truth we have in their writings ; to 
 explain and enforce which, are the prime objects of the now exist- 
 ing ministry. Through them, and not by any immediate commu- 
 nications from above, must the Christian teacher now instruct 
 others ; and thus must all the faithful now " try the spirits, whether 
 they be of God." — Van Mildert's Sermons at Lincoln's Inn, semi. 
 XXI. 
 
VIII.] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 211 
 
 trn steel to those faculties; — without tradition (using 
 that word in its proper sense as a mode of evidence) 
 it perishes altogether from recollection. Unlike 
 the great facts of nature which surround us, and 
 which are always addressing themselves to man, 
 whether he will hear or whether he will forbear, 
 and which pass not away because they may for a 
 time be forgotten, a direct revelation from on 
 high must by some artificial means be kept in 
 remembrance, or it becomes, to a future generation, 
 as though it had never been. The means provided 
 for perpetuating the gospel revelation is — the only 
 one we can conceive — a body of men ; and the 
 means which they have associated with themselves in 
 the discharge of their high trust, and as the only 
 instrument through which they could keep that 
 which has been committed to them, is a body of 
 writings. There seems, as I have said, no other 
 conceivable mode than this, (except indeed by a 
 perpetual miracle), in which a revelation can be 
 perpetuated in its original truth and purity through 
 successive generations. A commission must be 
 issued to man — he alone can obey in his own 
 person, and continue to others a command, which 
 it requires the exercise of reason to comprehend 
 and to fulfil: — no monument is, in this world, so im- 
 perishable and so unchangeable, as the successive 
 
212 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 generations of mankind. But in the fulfilment of 
 this command, man must necessarily, or at least 
 will most profitably, have recourse to books ; — 
 reason and experience tell him that his only way 
 to guard the trust committed to him from corrup- 
 tion, is to watch over the purity of that writing in 
 which the terms of his first commission have 
 been accurately recorded ; and under its infallible 
 guidance to go forth to preach the gospel to every 
 creature. 2 We see, therefore, that without an order 
 of men, responsible both for the propagation, in 
 their own persons, of the truths of the gospel, and 
 the due transmission of that responsibility to others 
 from generation to generation, it would be impossi- 
 ble, without a constant miracle (for there is no 
 innate love for the gospel in the natural heart of 
 man) to secure its dissemination or even its exist- 
 ence in the world ; nor could the sin of its neglect, 
 or even the blame of its total disappearance, be 
 justly visited on any, since on none had its pre- 
 servation been specifically enjoined. Hence, there- 
 fore, there is reason, as well as scripture, in St. 
 Paul's express command to Timothy — " The things 
 
 2 Quid autem si neque Apostoli quidem Scripturas rcliquissent 
 nobis, limine oportebat ordincm sequi traditionis quani tradiderunt 
 iis quibus comniittebant Ecclcsias. — Iren. I. iii. cap. 4. As quoted 
 by Waterland, vol. v. p. 267. 
 
VIII.] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 213 
 
 that thou hast heard of me — the same commit 
 thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach 
 others also." 3 
 
 3 ii Tim. ii. 2. On the question of Apostolical Succession — a 
 doctrine essential to the very notion of a visihle church, and the 
 denial of which drives us to the acknowledgment, either that no 
 distinct and consecrated order of Priesthood is necessary, or that 
 such order is a mere creature of the state — on this question, the 
 reader who simply seeks for a few brief hut convincing arguments, 
 need only read the second of Law's admirable Letters to Bishop 
 Hoadlet — letters which ought to be in the hearts and memories 
 of every one who wishes to see how the apparently opposite errors 
 of Socinianism and Enthusiasm naturally amalgamate and run 
 into one. " What an excellent divine would he be," says Law to 
 the Bishop, " who should tell the world, it was not necessary that 
 the several copies and manuscripts, through which the Scriptures 
 have been transmitted through different ages and languages, should 
 be all true ones, and none of them forged ; that " this was a thing 
 subject to so great uncertainty, that God could not hang our sal- 
 vation on such niceties." Suppose, for proof of this, he should 
 appeal to the Scriptures ; and ask, where any mention is made of 
 ascertaining the truth of all the copies ; would not this be a 
 way of arguing very theological ? The application is very easy. 
 
 "Your lordship has not one word to prove the uninterrupted suc- 
 cession of the clergy a trifle or dream; but that it is subject to so 
 great uncertainty, and is never mentioned in the Scriptures. As 
 to the uncertainty of it, it is equally as uncertain, as whether the 
 Scriptures be genuine. There is just the same sufficient historical 
 evidence for the certainty of one, as the other. As to its not being 
 mentioned in the Scriptures, the doctrine upon which it is founded 
 plainly made it unnecessary to mention it. Is it needful for the 
 Scripture to tell us, that if we take our Bible from any false copy, 
 
214 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 With an order of men, then, responsible for the 
 dissemination of the gospel, and that order provided 
 with an infallible written law for their guide, how 
 were that body at first — how are they now — to 
 propagate Christianity throughout the earth ? To 
 preach the Gospel to every creature is their distinct 
 commission — their duty even to the end of the 
 world ; — are they, in the discharge of it, to act 
 independently, each relying for the efficiency of his 
 ministrations on such powers of nature and of grace 
 as have been assigned to him by his heavenly 
 Master ; or is each to consider himself but as part 
 of a system — an individual element in a complex 
 
 that it is not the word of God ? Why then need they tell us, that 
 if we are ordained hy usurping false pretenders to ordination, not 
 deriving their authority to that end from the Apostles, that we are 
 no priests ? Does not the thing itself speak as plain in one case 
 as in the other ? The Scriptures are only of use to us, as they 
 are the word of God : we cannot have this word of God, which 
 was written so many years ago, unless we receive it from authentic 
 copies and manuscripts. 
 
 "The clergy have their commission from the Holy Ghost : the 
 power of conferring this commission of the Holy Ghost was left 
 with the Apostles : therefore, the present clergy cannot have the 
 same commission, or call, but from an order of men who have 
 successively conveyed this power from the Apostles to the present 
 time. So that, my lord, I shall beg leave to lay it down as a plain, 
 undeniable, Christian truth, that the order of the clergy is an 
 order of as necessary obligation as the sacraments, and as unalter- 
 able as the Holy Scriptures ; the same Holy Ghost being as truly 
 
VIIL] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 215 
 
 but harmonious scheme, the perfection of which 
 results from the due contribution of each portion of 
 it to the final end in view ? The answer to this 
 question will lead' to another, and final inquiry — 
 how far the Church is justified in employing or 
 allowing the exercise of any other than purely 
 spiritual instruments in promoting her religious 
 ends. 
 
 If the view of the Gospel which has been taken 
 throughout these Lectures, or, rather, which has 
 gradually unfolded itself and claimed our notice as 
 we proceeded, — be in its main outlines a correct 
 one, the denomination which most accurately depicts 
 its character is that which our Saviour so often 
 
 the author and founder of the priesthood, as the institutor of the 
 sacraments, or the inspire* of those divine, oracles. And when 
 your lordship shall offer any fresh arguments to prove, that no par- 
 ticular sort of clergy is necessary ; that the benedictions and ad- 
 ministrations of the present clergy of our most excellent church 
 are trifling niceties ; if I cannot shew that the same arguments will 
 conclude against the authority of the sacraments and the Scriptures, 
 I faithfully promise your lordship to become a convert to your 
 doctrine. 
 
 " What your lordship charges upon your adversaries as an absurd 
 doctrine, in pretending the necessity of one regular, successive, 
 and particular order of the clergy, is a true Christian doctrine : 
 and as certain from Scripture, as that we are to keep to the insti- 
 tution of particular sacraments ; or not to alter those particular 
 Scriptures which now compose the canon of the Old and New 
 Testament." 
 
216 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 attaches to it, that of a kingdom ; a kingdom not 
 of this world, but still within it, a kingdom not of 
 earth but of heaven. It partakes, as we have seen, 
 even here, in its visible and infant state, of all the 
 attributes and characters which belong to a well- 
 organized government. There is a lawgiver, — no 
 longer visibly present with and resident among his 
 people, for the duties which once rendered such 
 presence necessary have been all discharged : that 
 Lawgiver is Christ. There is a law, not indeed 
 drawn up and enacted in the formal and didactic 
 shape which characterises the edicts of human 
 legislation ; but better adapted to the more com- 
 prehensive ends which it is designed to answer, by 
 a variety as infinite as the varieties of human life. 
 It is dictated, too, by the Spirit of unerring wisdom, 
 and is as immutable as the truth itself: that Law 
 is the Scriptures. There is, moreover, as in an 
 earthly kingdom, an order of men to whom the 
 administration of this law is committed ; and whose 
 regular transmission of the authority originally 
 given to them, from one to another, is ascertained 
 by the very same evidence by which we know that 
 the Scriptures which we now possess are the pure 
 and original word of God : that order is the 
 Priesthood : to them is committed the ministry of 
 Reconciliation : they are ambassadors for Christ, as 
 though God did beseech men by them : they pray 
 
VIII.] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 217 
 
 men in Christ's stead. — Having then a system to 
 promulgate, of which order is the characteristic, 
 and human government but a type, we are not 
 surprised to find that system, and order, and mutual 
 subordination mark the conduct of the priesthood, 
 in the discharge of their sacred duties, even from 
 the earliest times. The Apostles, indeed, were all 
 equal ; but it was an equality of love. None 
 stretched himself beyond his measure, or boasted 
 in another man's line of things made ready to his 
 hand ; but each seems to have taken his district 
 as the Holy Spirit of God suggested, and the 
 Apostolic college at Jerusalem decreed. When 
 converts to the faith are rapidly multiplying at 
 Antioch, the Apostles send Barnabas to their assist- 
 ance, who immediately and readily obeys the in- 
 junction ; 4 and when St. Paul is commanded by 
 them to perform some of the ceremonies of the 
 Law, to pacify the believing Jews, he hesitates not 
 to do what he had taught was unnecessary, in 
 accordance with the wish of his brethren 5 — he is at 
 charges with four men that have a vow on them, 
 and purifies himself with them according to the 
 law of Moses. 
 
 And the system and order observed by the apos- 
 tles and early teachers in the promulgation of the 
 Gospel, are not less observable, or less in harmony 
 4 Acts xi. 22, 23. 5 Acts xxi. 23, &c< 
 
218 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LiECT. 
 
 with the notion of a government, than their mutual 
 submission to each other. They adhered to the 
 Jewish services, and habits of religious teaching, as 
 long as they were able. Before they went forth on 
 their ministry, they were constant in their attend- 
 ance at the stated services of the temple." It was 
 there, doubtless, that the Holy Ghost fell upon 
 them, and that St. Peter preached his first sermon 
 to the people. 8 It was there, at the ninth hour of 
 prayer, that their first miracle of healing, with its 
 accompanying effects, was shewn forth ; 9 and it was 
 there that they were commanded to go stand and 
 preach, after their first miraculous deliverance out 
 of the hands of the chief priests and the people. 10 
 This observance of order, and prescribed religious 
 habits was adhered to, with a degree of strict- 
 ness that might hardly have been expected, even 
 when among the gentile nations. When Paul and 
 Barnabas are sent forth to convert the heathen, 
 they leave not their Jewish observances wholly 
 behind them : after having been duly set apart 
 for their special mission, by the laying on of the 
 hands of the church at Antioch, 11 in obedience to 
 the command of the Holy Ghost, they commence 
 their foreign mission at Salamis, by preaching in 
 the Jewish synagogue ; 12 at Antioch in Pisidia, 
 we find them entering into the synagogue on 
 
 7 Luke xxiv. 53. » Acts ii. 9 Acts iii. 10 Acts v. 20, 21 . 
 11 Acts xiii. 3. 12 Acts xiii. 5. 
 
VIII.] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 219 
 
 the sabbath day, and after the reading of the 
 law and prophets addressing the people. 13 This 
 course they adopted at Iconium, 14 Thessalonica, 15 
 Berea, 16 Athens, 17 Corinth, 18 and wherever a syna- 
 gogue was to be found ; and when such was not the 
 case, their usual conduct is intimated in St. Luke's 
 account of it at Philippi — " on the sabbath, we 
 went out of the city by a river side, where prayer 
 iv as wont to be made"^ 
 
 With these, and similar marks of organization 
 and system in the first promulgation of Christianity, 
 we cannot doubt that as far as means merely human 
 are pure and innocent, they may without injury to 
 the character of the Gospel be associated with 
 means which are simply spiritual, in the propagation 
 of religious truth. God's natural and spiritual go- 
 vernment of mankind are not necessarily in hostility 
 with each other ; and any principles which we find 
 to be inherent in human nature, may, as having a 
 common origin with Christianity itself, be called 
 into operation by the ministers of the Gospel, as 
 allies and supporters of that great scheme which 
 has the purification of our human nature for its 
 object. Such a principle is civil government. 
 Order and subordination are an universal law of our 
 
 13 Acts xiii. 14. 14 Acts xiv. 1. 
 15 Acts xvii. 1,2. l6 Actsxvii. 10. ] ?Acts xvii. 17. 18 Actsxviii. 4. 
 >9 Acts xvi. 13. 
 
220 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LeCT. 
 
 nature ; and seem to have been designed, by the 
 Author of nature, as a general principle by which 
 the elements of human society may be held toge- 
 ther, and its beneficial ends in some degree attained, 
 notwithstanding the corruption of the heart of man, 
 and the disorders thereby introduced into the whole 
 frame-work of humanity. One great object of 
 Christianity is to remedy these disorders ; and to 
 restore men, as a society, to the position which they 
 were originally created to maintain ; and since 
 order is an evident element in the constitution of 
 Christianity, that portion of order which it finds 
 yet remaining in the world may be justly employed 
 conjointly with its own powers in its propagation. 
 In the Jewish economy the religious and civil 
 authorities were inseparably intertwined — the ad- 
 ministrations of each were different, but their 
 sanctions were the same : and hence we may con- 
 clude, that there is no natural incongruity between 
 the laws of civil society and the system of grace. 
 In its first days, it is true, Christianity had to 
 struggle into existence, not only without the aid 
 of the secular arm, but in direct opposition to its 
 influence. The Jewish authorities mistook it for 
 a scheme to establish an earthly dominion ; and the 
 heathen foresaw in it the extirpation of those old 
 superstitions, through the influence of which they 
 had alone governed the hearts of the people, and 
 
VIII.] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 221 
 
 which they foolishly imagined were essential to the 
 maintenance of law and order. 20 But the ministers 
 of the Gospel had an ally in this extremity, more 
 potent than the opposition, nay even the assistance, 
 of the civil power. The extraordinary effusion of 
 the Holy Spirit enabled them to diffuse the ever- 
 lasting truths of the Gospel through the inert mass 
 of the people, and to endure or to disarm the per- 
 secution of their rulers ; till the early Fathers soon 
 
 20 " It has been remarked that the treatment of the primitive 
 Christians formed a solitary exception to that system of universal 
 toleration, which regulated the conduct of the Roman government 
 towards the professors of other religions. a Gibbon appears to 
 have assigned the true reason of this deviation from its usual policy, 
 when he observes that while all other people professed a national 
 religion, the Christians formed a sect. The ^Egyptian, though 
 he deemed it his duty to worship the same birds and reptiles to 
 which his ancestors had paid adoration, made no attempt to induce 
 the inhabitants of other countries to adopt his deities. In his 
 estimation the different superstitions of the heathen world were 
 not so much at variance that they could not exist together. He 
 resj)ected the faith of others, while he preferred his own. But 
 Christianity was from its very nature a proselyting religion. The 
 convert not only abandoned the faith of his ancestors, and thereby 
 committed an unpardonable offence in the eyes of a Gentile, but 
 also claimed to himself the exclusive possession of the truth, and 
 denounced as criminal every other mode of worship. When we con- 
 sider this striking distinction between the character of Christianity, 
 and of every other form of religion then existing, we shall feel 
 less surprise that it was regarded by the ruling powers with pecu- 
 
 a Chap. xvi. p. 523. Ed. 4to. 
 
222 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 boldly remind the Roman authorities that the great 
 majority of the people either openly or in secret 
 hold the faith of Christ crucified, so that if there 
 be, of a truth, danger in their creed, it is the part 
 of a wise ruler rather to avert than to provoke it. 21 
 Experience soon taught them that there was no 
 
 liar feelings of jealousy and dislike, or that it was excepted from 
 the general system of toleration. * In vain did Tertullian insist 
 upon the right of private judgment in matters of faith; in vain 
 expose the strange inconsistency of tolerating the ahsurd supersti- 
 tions of ^Egypt, and at the same time persecuting the professors 
 of a religion, which inculcated the worship of one, pure, spiritual, 
 omniscient, omnipotent God, — a God in every respect worthy to 
 receive the adorations of intelligent heings. By thus asserting that 
 the God of the Christians was the only true God, he unavoidably 
 destroyed the effect of his appeal to the understanding, the j ustice, 
 and the humanity of the Roman governors." — Bp. of Bristol's 
 Ecclesiastical History, pp. 125, 126. 
 
 21 " Tertullian c bears explicit testimony to the wide diffusion of 
 Christianity in his day. To refute the charges of disloyalty and 
 disaffection to the Emperors which had been brought against the 
 Christians, he thus appeals to the patience with which they bore 
 the injuries and cruelties inflicted on them. d 'Not, he says, that 
 we are destitute of the means of resistance, if our Christian prin- 
 ciples allowed us to resort to them. Though we date our existence 
 only from yesterday, we have filled every part of your empire ; we 
 are to be found in your cities, your islands, your camps, your palaces, 
 * cc. 24, 28, ad Scap. c. 2. 
 
 c Obsessam vociferantur civitatem ; in agris, in castellis, in insulis Chris- 
 tianos : omnem sexum, retatem, conditionem, etiam dignitatem transgredi 
 ad hoc nomcn quasi dctrimento mcerent. Apology, c 1 . 
 
 d Quid tamcn dc tarn conspiratis unquam denotastis, &c. ? Apology, c. 37. 
 
VIII.] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 223 
 
 danger — that submission to the civil authority of 
 the powers that be, even though that power might 
 be heathen — was an essential article of the Christian 
 creed ; and that it was therefore their wisest policy 
 
 your forum So great are our numbers, that we might successfully 
 
 contend with you in open warfare ; but were we only to withdraw 
 ourselves from you, and to remove by common consent to some 
 remote corner of the globe, our mere secession would be sufficient 
 to accomplish your destruction, and to avenge our cause. You 
 would be left without subjects to govern, and would tremble at the 
 solitude and silence around you — at the awful stillness of a dead 
 world.' In another place Tertullian tells e Scapula, the Proconsul 
 of Africa, that if the persecution against the Christians were per- 
 sisted in, the effect would be to decimate the inhabitants of Car- 
 thage. / He elsewhere speaks also of the immense revenue which 
 might be collected, if each Christian was allowed to purchase the 
 free exercise of his religion for a sum of money." — Bishop Kaye's 
 Tertullian, pp. 91, 92. 
 
 So also St. Chrysostom : " Think," says he, " what it is in a 
 short time to have filled the whole world with so many churches, 
 to have converted so many nations, to persuade people to lay aside 
 their inherited practices, pluck up their rooted customs, chase 
 away as dust the tyranny of pleasure, the might of malice, dis- 
 perse like smoke heathen altars, shrines, images, mysteries, polluted 
 
 e Ad Scapulam, c. 4. In c. 2. speaking of the Christians, he says, quum 
 tanta hominum multitudo, pars pene major civitatis cujusque, in silentio et 
 modestia agimus. 
 
 / Tanta quotidie serario augendo prospiciuntur remedia censuum, vectiga- 
 lium, collationum, stipendiorum : nee unquam usque adhuc ex Christianis 
 tale aliquid prospectura est, sub aliquam redemptionem capitis et sectae re- 
 digendis, quum tanta? multitudinis nemini ignotse fructus ingens meti possit. 
 De Fuga in Persecutione, c. 12. 
 
224 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 not to discourage a religion which (in the eyes of 
 those to whom all creeds were alike) had the 
 recommendation of uniting all its members together 
 "in the bond of peace." But it could not be 
 expected that Christianity should be directly fos- 
 tered by the state, till the rulers themselves had 
 actually embraced the faith. Men may, for politic 
 reasons, tolerate a creed towards which they are 
 personally indifferent ; but they cannot be expected 
 to afford it their express patronage unless they 
 believe it to be true, still less if they believe it 
 to be false. Even a heathen prince had too 
 much honesty of heart, to hold himself justified 
 in establishing the religion of the majority, inde- 
 pendent of any consideration of its truth. The 
 idolatrous Ahab might thus have defended against 
 Elijah his establishment of the worship of Baal, 
 on the ground that the mass of the people had 
 become Baal's servants, while the Lord's worship- 
 pers were reduced to "seven thousand in Israel." 
 
 But the rulers themselves soon embraced the 
 Christian faith ; and, naturally anxious to extend 
 
 feasts and unclean incense, and raise altars" (Christian altars) 
 " everywhere, in the empire of the Romans, the Persians, Scy- 
 thians, Moors, Indians, yea, even beyond our world. For the 
 British, which lie beyond this sea, and are in the very ocean, 
 have felt the power of the word ; for there also have churches and 
 altars been set up." — Chrys. Oral, quod Xtus. Deus. t. i. p. 575. 
 Ed. Ben. 
 
VIII.] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 225 
 
 to others that knowledge which they justly deemed 
 to be all-important, they aided, by state-honours 
 and pecuniary endowments, the ministers of the 
 Gospel in the task of spreading and maintaining a 
 knowledge of Christianity among their subjects. 
 It has . been sometimes made a doubt whether 
 these are truly aids, and whether the use of them 
 does not betray a distrust in the unassisted power 
 of the gospel, and tend to secularize and degrade 
 its s]Diritual character. But if the view of the 
 gospel, which has gradually developed itself th"~ugh- 
 out the course of our present inquiries, oe in any 
 respect founded in truth, Christianity, instead of 
 being in direct hostility, or altogether separated 
 from civil institutions, partakes itself of the cha- 
 racter of such an institution as to its outward 
 form, order, and discipline ; and, springing from 
 holier principles, and, leading to higher results than 
 earthly systems of government, harmonizes with 
 them in construction, and gives to them, when in 
 union with them, stronger sanctions, and more 
 beneficial uses, than of themselves they can ever 
 possess or accomplish. Hence the alliance, as it 
 has been called, between Church and State, appears 
 not only to be justifiable, but to have been from 
 the first designed by Him who is the original 
 author of both : having been positively enjoined by 
 him in one instance, and appearing desirable in all, 
 
226 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 by the common ends which they have to answer, 
 and the similarity of principles on which they are 
 evidently constructed. 22 They are, it must not be 
 forgotten, originally independent of each other. 
 Sovereign power was in the world, and, though 
 
 22 True as this is of the Church Catholic, it cannot be pro- 
 nounced with equal confidence of any heretical separation 
 from, or corrupted branch of it ; and this their incompatibility 
 with legitimate forms of government which are acknowledged 
 to be of God, may be adduced as no weak argument of their 
 being in error. Neither Popery nor Independence has ever 
 yet been found to be a safe or salutary ally for a free and 
 well-governed state. It has been well observed by the late 
 learned Archbishop Magee, in one of his excellent Charges, that 
 " A system which either rejects the idea of a fixed creed, or 
 contains within it a principle of indefinite variation, cannot be 
 adopted without incurring the risk of adopting what it might 
 become the duty of the state to discard, and thus laying the founda- 
 tion of religious conflict and general confusion. The Scripture 
 itself, although it comprises all truth necessary to salvation, yet 
 does not comprise it in the form of one connected scheme, all 
 whose lines and boundaries are plainly presented to the view. The 
 rays of divine light are left to be collected by the honest industry 
 of man ; and the highest praise was bestowed by the inspired teacher 
 of Christianity on those who diligently searched the Scripture to 
 discover what was true. Those, then, who, on the one hand, affect 
 to refer to Scripture itself, as their only creed, and those who, on 
 the other, pretend to additional lights through the medium of tradi- 
 tion, are alike open to the objection of an unsettled form of faith; 
 and the Independent and the Romanist are, on this ground, equally 
 unfitted to be the spiritual associate of the enlightened Christian 
 ruler, who would provide for the people a fixed religious code, 
 
VIII.] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 227 
 
 heathen, approved of God, long before the days of 
 Christianity ; and Christ commanded his disciples 
 to submit to the powers that might happen to be, 
 not merely on prudential but on religious grounds : 
 the Church, therefore, has no direct authority over 
 the State ; which has a natural claim on the allegi- 
 ance of the human heart, independent of religious 
 sanctions. But, neither, on the other hand, has 
 
 applicable to the purpose of general instruction, and of whose con- 
 formity with the revealed truth of God, he might, at all times, 
 satisfactorily assure himself, by a comparison with his sacred word." 
 Nothing places the wisdom, foresight, and admirable discretion 
 of the Fathers of our reformed Church in a clearer point of view, 
 than the sound notions which they entertained as to the religious 
 and civil benefits arising from the alliance between Church and 
 State, and the fidelity with which they clung to the latter, not- 
 withstanding their own personally bitter experience of the trials to 
 which such an alliance but too frequently exposed them. Popery 
 might trample on civil power, and Non-conformity might despise 
 or usurp it ; but the Church of England has always main- 
 tained that the spiritual and temporal authorities should go 
 hand in hand, in mutual subjection and mutual love, like twin 
 daughters of a heavenly Parent. This is the pious and patriotic 
 language of good old Dr. Jackson oh this subject; (and herein 
 he spoke but the language of all his learned brethren of that 
 period) — " Thrice happy that land and state where civil policy and 
 spiritual wisdom, grave experience, and profound learning, in 
 whose right commixture consists the perfect temperature of every 
 Christian state, do rightly symbolize. These, where they mutu- 
 ally clasp in their extremes, without intermeddling in the essence 
 of each other's profession, are like the side-posts or arches in the 
 
228 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 the State any authority over the Church, in its 
 spiritual capacity. The Church does not owe its 
 origin to, or depend for its existence upon, any 
 human power : it came directly from God himself, 
 through his only Son, Jesus Christ : he is the only 
 Lord to whose authority we stoop, in our capacity 
 as Christians. Nor does its existence rest on any 
 human strength, but solely on the Divine aid. 
 God has directed his Church to rely upon no out- 
 ward circumstance, or earthly arm, but entirely on 
 the Holy Spirit : He is the comforter and guardian 
 
 Lord's house; and the awful respect of Christ Jesus, the judge of 
 both, and that dreadful day continually sounding in their ears by the 
 voice of God's faithful and sincere ministers, would be as the bind- 
 ing-stone, or coupling, to fasten them surely in the joining. But 
 whilst these, each jealous of other, start asunder, that breach is 
 made whereat the enemies of Church and State hope for speedy 
 entrance, to the utter ruin of both." — Repert. Theol. book ii. 
 sect. 1. c. 31. 
 
 Dr. Priestley, on the other hand, speaks the language of his 
 own sect, and of an innumerable tribe of cognate schismatics, in 
 the following very intelligible passage : " Perhaps we must wait 
 for the fall of the civil powers before this most unnatural alliance 
 (between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdoms of this world) 
 be broken. Calamitous, no doubt, will that time be ; but what 
 convulsion in the political world ought to be a subject of lamen- 
 tation, if it be attended with so desirable an event ?" — Hist, of 
 Corruptions, §c. vol. ii. p. 489. Does not the history of Dissent, 
 since Dr. Priestley's day, tend to shew that he was not singular in 
 entertaining these atrocious sentiments ? 
 
VIII.] Secular aid, education, preaching. 229 
 
 of the Church, even unto the end of the world. So 
 independent of each other are, naturally, the civil 
 and spiritual authorities ; and for somej; centuries 
 they existed apart, — the State not recognizing or 
 assisting, but, on the contrary, often persecuting 
 the Church of Christ." 3 But when, by the rapid 
 progress of the Gospel it had come to pass, that 
 the individuals in whose hands was the power of 
 the State had themselves become Christians, it was 
 
 23 The above passage has been substantially adopted from the 
 following excellent statement of the same point in Mr. Palmer's 
 Treatise on the Church of Christ : " The church was originally 
 and essentially independent of the state. For it was not founded 
 by any human power, but by the Son of God, and by his apostles 
 under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. All tbat is essential to this 
 spiritual society was of Divine institution. The doctrines which 
 were to be believed, the duties to be performed, the system and 
 mode of association, its ministry, and rites, were all dictated by 
 God himself, by whose will and commandment this divine religion 
 was to be propagated amongst all nations, as tbe way by which 
 men should attain his favour. The church therefore was not orioi- 
 nated by the state ; on the contrary it was propagated for several 
 centuries in opposition to the will of the temporal government, 
 which in its ignorance attempted to suppress a religion calculated 
 to confer the highest blessings on humanity. It' is certain however, 
 that the church even while in a state of persecution, possessed every 
 essential characteristic of the true church. Its divine doctrine 
 and discipline were sustained, heretics and schismatics were ex- 
 pelled, councils were held, offences against the divine law judged, 
 the succession of its legitimate pastors preserved, and the promise 
 of Christ, " Lo, T am with you always," verified.— Vol. ii. p. 316. 
 
230 CHURCH AUTHORITY. * [LECT. 
 
 natural that they should now exercise that power 
 for the * furtherance of those doctrines which they 
 had embraced. They could not, as honest men, act 
 one part in a private and another in a public 
 capacity; but necessarily encouraged, with such 
 additional influence as their official authority afford- 
 ed them, the spread of those doctrines among their 
 subjects which they themselves believed to be 
 essential to their future salvation. The Church 
 could not but embrace such assistance with all 
 thankfulness, as an instrument raised up by the 
 evident finger of God for the furtherance of her 
 religious objects : and hence the alliance between 
 Church and State : the Church, by her spiritual 
 influence, disseminating those sound principles and 
 just laws of morals which are essential to the 
 public welfare, and even the temporal happiness 
 and prosperity, of the people ; and the State, by its 
 countenance and protection, assisting the Church 
 in the prosecution of all those means which she 
 holds to be indispensable for the accomplishment 
 of her own holy purposes. These are the original 
 terms of the compact, which neither party has a 
 right to break. It was for their mutual benefit, 
 without prejudice to their separate ends, that they 
 were, from the first, associated. 
 
 Now, since the great object which the Church 
 has to answer, is to discharge the duty expressed 
 
VIII.] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 231 
 
 in the text — " Go ye forth into all the world, and 
 preach the gospel to every creature" — i. e. to 
 evangelize the world, — the assistance which she 
 has a right to expect from the State must have 
 either a direct or remote reference to the further- 
 ance of this end within the sphere of its jurisdic- 
 tion. More than this the Church cannot demand ; 
 less than this she cannot be satisfied with; — any 
 terms or regulations which would fetter the Church 
 in the discharge of this her paramount office 
 cannot be complied with, on her part, towards the 
 State, without a sacrifice of some portion of that 
 primary duty which she owes to God. Thus, for 
 religious purposes, she requires free access to all her 
 people, through every stage of their existence. 
 Their connexion with the Church, according to her 
 doctrine, is almost coeval with their entrance into 
 the world. She admits them into her fold in 
 the earliest days of infancy, and watches over and 
 directs their footsteps till they pass, through the 
 grave and gate of death, into the immediate 
 presence of the great Shepherd of their souls. 
 She mingles her instruction, and interposes her 
 heavenly counsels, with every secular act of their 
 lives. She drops the balm of religion into their 
 earthly cup of bitterness — she pours the sobering 
 draught of holy fear into the intoxicating bowl of 
 worldly enjoyment. In childhood, she labours to 
 
232 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 join heavenly wisdom with earthly knowledge ; in 
 manhood, she teaches that Duty is to be built on 
 Faith, and human strength to be made perfect in 
 the strength of God's holy Spirit ; in age, she 
 consoles her son by pointing to another and more 
 enduring inheritance ; nor does she ever leave 
 or desert him, till she has consoled him on his 
 death-bed with her divine offices, and pronounced 
 her last solemn benediction over his grave. Thus 
 inseparable is the connexion of the Church with her 
 children ; and any thing which could have a ten- 
 dency to disjoin that union must be watched by 
 her with the most jealous care. So long as the 
 State assists her in the duty of instructing her 
 adult, or educating her young members, she 
 receives the boon with thankfulness and gratitude. 
 Any remissness on its part, as to the amount of 
 aid thus rendered, however much she might regret 
 the defect, she would consider but as a more 
 earnest call upon herself to greater and more 
 zealous exertions. But any attempt on the part 
 of the State to impede or to counteract her labours 
 — any encouragement, to her prejudice and injury, 
 of an adverse creed, or of any system of education 
 tending to separate her flock from Jier constant 
 religious superintendence — any such proceeding, 
 calculated to obstruct her progress in the discharge 
 of her great duty of evangelizing mankind, she 
 
VIII.] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 233 
 
 would consider as a breach of the first terms of 
 alliance between herself and the State, and would 
 resist such impediment to her labours by every 
 legitimate means in her power. 24 She knows that 
 her main duty is, at all hazards, to preach the 
 gospel. That she is not to wait till mankind are 
 willing to receive it, or willing to co-operate with 
 her in spreading it — for had its first apostles done so, 
 the whole world would have been still in darkness. 
 If "the powers that be" will aid her in the work, 
 she will consider them, so far, as "ministers of 
 God to her for good." But if not — if they will 
 oppose rather than assist the servants of the Lord — 
 her duty is clear, and not to be shrunk from with- 
 out guilt. She must go forth, as the disciples did 
 of old, as sheep among wolves — she must go forth, 
 
 24 This is not the place to enter more fully than has heen done 
 incidentally in the text, upon the great question of National Edu- 
 cation, on which the public mind is, at this moment, so strongly 
 and so justly excited. The author devoutly prays that the great 
 scheme of Diocesan Education, on a plan commensurate with the 
 extent, and in harrnony with the doctrine and discipline as well as 
 the Ecclesiastical divisions, of the National Church, may be carried 
 into efficient operation in accordance with the pious and almost pri- 
 mitive zeal with which it has been commenced; and then the Church 
 will be enabled to strike its roots deep in the hearts of her rising 
 generation, instead of being compelled, as she has been of late, 
 (perhaps for her own sins !) to scatter her seeds upon the hard and 
 uncultivated soil of a reluctant population ! 
 
234 CHURCH AUTHORITY. [LECT. 
 
 as they did, in faith and hope, without arms of 
 defence or pro vision for the way : and let her not 
 fear, that to her, as to them, will strength be given 
 from on High ; that men will once more see their 
 good works, and glorify their Father which is in 
 heaven ; and that the kingdoms of the world will 
 thus become — as we know from the sure word of 
 prophecy they shall at last become — " the kingdoms 
 of our Lord and of his Christ." 
 
 These, then, appear to be the means provided 
 for spreading a knowledge of the Gospel among 
 mankind : — an order of men, on whom the duty of 
 preaching it is expressly enjoined; — a written word, 
 dictated or superintended by the Holy Ghost, 
 which forms their credentials, their guide, and 
 one of their most efficient instruments in making 
 the gospel known and obeyed among men ; — the 
 general promise of the Holy Spirit, as assisting 
 their labours to the end of time ; — and the co- 
 operation of the civil authorities of the world, 
 when the powers of the state become Christianized, 
 and rulers learn that they owe a duty to God as 
 well as a duty to man. When all these concur in 
 the promotion of God's glory, we may hope that 
 the time is approaching when the prophetic pro- 
 mise of Jeremiah shall be fulfilled — " They shall 
 not teach every man his neighbour, and every man 
 
VIII.] SECULAR AID, EDUCATION, PREACHING. 235 
 
 his brother, saying,' Know the Lord ; for all shall 
 know me from the least to the greatest." 24 
 
 The end of our labours is now come ; and we 
 have completed our attempt to trace the structure 
 and frame- work of the outward and visible Church 
 of Christ from its base to its summit. We have 
 considered, in turn, and in their natural order, the 
 following momentous questions : we commenced 
 with the foundation, — the authority and the inspira- 
 tion of Scripture ; these have brought us to the 
 Catholic doctrines of the Church, as expressed in 
 the three Creeds ; from thence we were led to 
 an inquiry into the use of Articles of Religion ; 
 the utility of Rituals and Liturgies next claimed 
 our attention ; and lastly, we have examined into 
 the authority which the Church possesses within 
 itself of checking error, and of propagating the 
 truth. On all these fundamental questions we 
 have attempted to arrive at the leading idea ; being 
 convinced that no labour can be in vain, which 
 shall bring the generous youth around me to 
 perceive, that there is system in the constitution of 
 their Church, as well as in the construction of the 
 universe ; and that to arrive at first laws, whether 
 in the physical, moral, or religious world, is the 
 best starting point from which to commence their 
 onward progress,, Having once rightly ascertained 
 
 24 Jer. xxxi. 34. and Heb. viii. 11. 
 
236 CHURCH AUTHORITY, &C. [LECT. VIII. 
 
 the first elementary principles of the gospel revela- 
 tion, they may pursue them to their utmost results 
 without fear of material error. For truth, in all 
 sciences, like gold in expansion, can never be so 
 attenuated as to lose its original character — it is 
 still an emanation from the mind and will of its 
 Eternal Author. God's Church, like his Universe, 
 is a perfect system ; and both are so constructed, 
 that while the wayfaring man is not deprived, by 
 his ignorance, of the substantial benefits which they 
 bestow, he who studies them most diligently is dis- 
 closing constantly a new and daily illustration of 
 the great truth, that the wisdom of God is as 
 infinite as his mercy ! 
 
 END OF LECTURE VIII. 
 
THE DUTY 
 
 LITURGICAL PREACHING 
 
 STATED AND ENFORCED. 
 
*** It has been thought proper to append the following Sermon 
 to these Lectures, for reasons which will he found stated in the 
 Preface. 
 
THE DUTY 
 
 OF 
 
 LITURGICAL PREACHING 
 
 STATED AND ENFORCED. 
 
 1 Corinthians iii., 4, 5. 
 
 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos ; are 
 ye not carnal r 
 
 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but Ministers by whom ye be- 
 lieved, even as the Lord gave to every man P 
 
 Of Apollos, the minister here brought into a 
 momentary comparison with the Apostle to the 
 Gentiles, we learn but little from the Scriptures, 
 or elsewhere. He is first mentioned in the Acts of 
 the Apostles, where we are told of him, that he 
 was "born at Alexandria," and was " an eloquent 
 man, and mighty in the Scriptures." 1 Having been 
 compelled, from the locality of his birth, to over- 
 come the characteristic dislike of the, Jew to learn 
 a foreign language, and brought into daily collision 
 with the philosophical and reasoning Greeks of that 
 central city, he necessarily became a logician, (as 
 the word which we translate "eloquent," seems 
 
 1 Acts xviii. 24. 
 
240 DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING. 
 
 more properly to imply,) and, possibly from his 
 office of converting Greeks to the Jewish faith, 
 became mighty, also, in the Scriptures, — well 
 versed in the established interpretations of the 
 various prophecies, types, and ordinances of the 
 Mosaic Law. This man, thus previously prepared 
 for the work of an Evangelist, having first learned 
 " the baptism of John," and then " the way of God 
 more perfectly" from Aquila and Priscilla, was 
 sent by the Church to Corinth, to carry on the work 
 which Paul had been prosecuting, for nearly two 
 years, in that important city. There, we are told, 
 his labours in edifying that Church of which St. 
 Paul had already laid the foundation were abun- 
 dantly successful. " He helped them much which 
 had believed through grace : for he mightily con- 
 vinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the 
 Scriptures that Jesus was Christ." 2 The tone of 
 his preaching at Corinth, then, we may reasonably 
 infer, was in some degree dissimilar from that of 
 St. Paul. He had a different object in view, and 
 he effected it by different means. The basis of the 
 Church had been already laid in the full establish- 
 ment of the great doctrine of the Atonement ; 
 and probably, though it is not recorded, through 
 the instrumentality of miracles. St. Paul thus 
 describes the system which he pursued among 
 
 z 2 Acts xviii. 27, 28: 
 
STATED AND ENFORCED. 241 
 
 them: — "I determined not to know any thing 
 among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified : 
 and my speech and my preaching was not with 
 enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstra- 
 tion of the Spirit and of power." 3 Apollos, on the 
 other hand, had, upon this foundation, thus firmly 
 laid by "a wise master-builder," to erect such a 
 superstructure as so solid a ground-work required, 
 — that " the man of God," already rooted and 
 grounded in love, " might be perfect, throughly 
 furnished unto ail good works." The course of his 
 teaching, therefore, was, no doubt, in some degree 
 more learned and argumentative, than the plain 
 and elementary instruction of St. Paul. He had 
 to contend with Jews who were well versed in the 
 knowledge of their own Scriptures, and in the 
 refinements and subtilties of their Rabbinical 
 schools ; and, with their own weapons, and in their 
 own mode of argument, he had to encounter and 
 confute his adversaries. 
 
 It is certain, however, from St. Paul's first 
 Epistle to the Church at Corinth, that this neces- 
 
 3 1 Cor. ii. 2, 4. The elementary and progressive system 
 adopted by St. Paul towards the Corinthians (a fact too often for- 
 gotten in the indiscriminate teaching of our own day) is further 
 shewn by the Apostle's assertion in ch. iii. v. 2. " I have fed 
 you with milk, and not with meat : for hitherto ye were not able 
 to bear it, neither yet now are ye able." 
 
 Q 
 
242 DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING 
 
 sary difference between his preaching and that of 
 Apollos was attended with some consequences 
 unfavourable to the progress of the Gospel. The 
 true reason of this difference it would appear that 
 many members of that Church had not perceived ; 
 but had erroneously conjectured that there was 
 some degree of discordance in the views which these 
 two great Teachers had taken of the Gospel of 
 Christ : on this false supposition they had divided 
 themselves into parties, siding with the one or with 
 the other of the chief propagators of Christianity 
 according as their supposed views of the Gospel 
 happened to be in harmony, or otherwise, with their 
 own. This spirit of contention St. Paul proceeds 
 at length, and with his wonted eloquence and energy, 
 to expose and allay ; and especially by shewing, that 
 there was no ground whatever for the dangerous no- 
 tion which they had so fatally imbibed, and that 
 the Gospel was but one, whether it were Paul, or 
 Apollos, or Cephas who preached it ; " We have 
 received," says he, " not the spirit of the world 
 but the Spirit which is of God; that we might 
 know the things that are freely given to us of God. 
 Which things also we speak not in the words which 
 man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost 
 teacheth." 4 
 
 I have, on this occasion, laid these well-known 
 
 * 1 Cor. ii. 12, 13. 
 
STATED AND ENFORCED. 243 
 
 circumstances in Scripture History before you, be- 
 cause of the natural and obvious reflection which 
 springs out of them ; which reflection I intend to 
 make the foundation of my present Discourse. It 
 is simply this : If the very nature of" Preaching be 
 such that it is found to produce discordant views 
 and erroneous impressions, even when applied as it 
 was " in old time," when " holy men of God spake 
 as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," what may 
 justly be expected to be its results when used by 
 men who have no such bond of unity in their senti- 
 ments and language ? — if such were its effects when 
 employed by those who " had perfect knowledge of 
 all things from the very first," and when the fault 
 and ground of mistake were invariably in the hearer, 
 and never in the preacher of the Gospel, — what 
 consequences may be fairly looked for, when igno- 
 rance and error in the teacher operate upon the very 
 same failings in those who hear ? — Surely such as 
 we see around us when we look abroad on the 
 Christian world ! We seem to possess, in the im- 
 perfection and uncertainty of preaching alone, a fact 
 which will at once account for most of the minor 
 flaws and blemishes which disfigure the temple of 
 our Church — such rents as descend not to the foun- 
 dation. It is asserted by St. Paul, and every faith- 
 ful minister of the Gospel accords with the declara- 
 tion, that " other foundation can no man lay than that 
 
244 DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING 
 
 is laid, which is Jesus Christ." But then comes the 
 superstructure, in which every one holds himself in 
 a great degree at liberty to use his own materials, 
 or at least to arrange them according to his own 
 judgment ; he builds " upon this foundation gold, 
 silver, precious stones, — wood, hay, stubble," after 
 the measure of his own ability; and here, accordingly, 
 the signs of division and disorder begin. If, then, 
 the " Liberty of Prophecying" be an instrument so 
 powerful for good or for evil, it ought to be employ- 
 ed with proportionate care and judgment ; when we 
 range over so wide a field, the landmarks by which 
 we direct our course should be distinct, and judici- 
 ously placed. In our own Church little seems to 
 have been done, by authority, to regulate the preach- 
 ing of her Ministers ; and much is therefore left to 
 their individual judgment and discretion. It may 
 have been right that on this subject the voice of 
 authority should say little, but it is on that very 
 ground indispensable that judgment and discretion 
 should do the more. It seems to be an unfortunate 
 circumstance that the young Minister of the Gospel 
 should enter upon his task without any distinct 
 notions respecting its precise nature : while the im- 
 pression, which he too often imbibes, of the bound- 
 less range of his preaching, is often seen to produce 
 an equally injurious effect on two opposite classes of 
 men — the bold, and the timid. The former, feeling 
 
STATED AND ENFORCED. 245 
 
 himself unfettered in his course, and bound only by 
 the fundamental doctrines of Scripture and of his 
 Church, holds himself perfectly free to convey those 
 doctrines under any form to his hearers — to intro- 
 duce them in any order, and enforce with any argu- 
 ments, which may seem to him calculated to pro- 
 duce the desired effect. The result of this system 
 is necessarily distortion. Nothing which is not true 
 may be stated, and yet the true impression may not 
 be produced. The harmony which results from a 
 due proportion and collocation of parts may be 
 wanting, — the gold of the scripture and the hay and 
 stubble of his own arguments have no common prin- 
 ciple of cohesion : and the effect on the hearer's 
 mind, however permanent and however powerful, 
 is not that which a candid and comprehensive view 
 of the whole Gospel is calculated to produce. This 
 error St. Paul seems to have had especially in his 
 mind, when he so emphatically addressed the Corin- 
 thians : — '* Now I beseech you, brethren, by the 
 name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak 
 the same thing™ 
 
 While such appears to be the almost unavoid- 
 able effect of the supposed license of preaching on 
 the mind and practice of the bold and enthusiastic, 
 a contrary, and perhaps equally injurious one, will 
 necessarily be produced on the more timid and 
 
 5 1 Cor. i. 10. 
 
246 DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING 
 
 reserved. The open space before his view, which 
 is to the other an incitement to an excursive range 
 over its surface, operates on his mind as a dis- 
 couragement and a hinderance. He feels acutely 
 the awfulness of his situation ; the utmost import- 
 ance of every word that he may utter — the exten- 
 sive, the unknown consequences of every doctrine 
 that he may propound, and the obliquity which 
 that doctrine may imperceptibly receive from the 
 channel through which it is conveyed, press pain- 
 fully upon his mind ; he shrinks from the respon- 
 sibility and hazard of throwing his own views 
 confidently into his teaching ; he has recourse, too 
 systematically, to the labours of others of es- 
 tablished reputation ; and thus sacrifices one of 
 the most efficient instruments of instruction — unity 
 of design, and the pervading influence of the same 
 mind. 
 
 If such, then, be the almost necessary evils to 
 which the notion of the unlimited license of 
 preaching seems directly to lead, the question 
 becomes an important, nay a vital one, — whether 
 the notion itself be not subject to some legitimate 
 restrictions. Are there not, in truth, certain clear 
 and distinct limits, within which every faithful 
 Minister of the Church will hold himself to be 
 restrained, in his addresses to the people committed 
 to his charge ? 
 
STATED AND ENFORCED. 247 
 
 The fundamental doctrine of our Church, and 
 primary basis of our preaching, is this — that "Holy 
 Scripture containeth all things necessary to salva- 
 tion : so that whatsoever is not read therein, or 
 may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any 
 man, that it should be believed as an article of 
 faith, or be thought requisite or necessary for salva- 
 tion." 6 But this fundamental principle is not the 
 distinguishing tenet of any individual Church — it 
 is that of Protestantism at large ; and is found to 
 be consistent with all the various opinions that 
 divide and distract the whole Christian world. The 
 Minister of a particular Church is necessarily con- 
 fined within a narrower boundary ; and our own 
 limit seems to be sufficiently indicated in that part of 
 our Ordination vow, wherein we pledge ourselves, 
 "by the help of the Lord, to give our faithful 
 diligence always so to minister the doctrine and 
 sacraments, and the discipline of Christ, as the 
 Lord hath commanded, and as this Church and 
 Realm hath received the same.'" 7 We seem, in this 
 solemn pledge, to have entered into an engage- 
 ment, which virtually confines the range of our 
 preaching within the bounds of our Liturgy, that 
 is, those admirable formularies through which our 
 Church has expressed her sentiments on every 
 important point of religious faith and practice. 
 We have, indeed, been blessed with " wise master- 
 
 6 Articles of Religion. Art. vi. " Ordination Service. 
 
248 DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING 
 
 builders" in former days, who out of the precious 
 mines of the Scriptures have, with wonderful skill 
 and labour, wrought out the materials from which 
 the glorious temple of our Apostolical Church has 
 been erected ; they have constructed that temple 
 in perfect symmetry with the model of it, which is 
 shadowed forth in the word of God; and they have 
 committed to us, their successors, the Ministers of 
 the Church, the charge of preserving that temple 
 inviolate, and of erecting or re-edifying, in that 
 portion of the kingdom of Christ assigned to us, 
 as it were, a minor tabernacle, in strict harmony 
 and keeping with the fashion of its great prototype. 
 So far as the Church has builded, it is the part of 
 an unwise, nay, of an unfaithful builder, to attempt 
 again to lay the foundation ; and whenever, from 
 the lapse of time, or the change of circumstances, 
 the individual "workman" may find it requisite, in 
 the course of his instruction, to add somewhat (by 
 way of explication) to the venerable structure, it 
 is his bounden duty to make that addition in a 
 reverent spirit, and with the least possible injury to 
 the original design. Guided then, by this prin- 
 ciple, the faithful Minister of the Church will feel 
 at once that the scope and object of his preaching 
 are limited by definite and evident bounds ; that 
 his labours are to be subservient and auxiliary to 
 the task which the Church, in her Liturgy, has her- 
 self all but completed. Should he, for example, 
 
STATED AND ENFORCED. 249 
 
 find it to be his duty to enforce on his congrega- 
 tion the observance of the Christian Sacraments, 
 
 various as are the lights in which they may be 
 placed, and numerous as are the arguments on 
 which they may be made to rest, he will hold him- 
 self bound, as a Churchman addressing Church- 
 men, to place them in those lights, and enforce 
 them with those arguments which the Church her- 
 self has done, in the Services with which she has 
 respectively provided them. Again ; perceiving, 
 as he does, that Holy Scripture, the basis of all 
 preaching, is by the Church produced before his 
 congregation, not in the mass and without dis- 
 crimination, but systematically and in due order; 
 that while no part of the New Testament, nor any 
 important part of the Old, is withheld from them, 
 some portions are more especially pressed upon 
 their attention, selected with admirable judgment, 
 and either directly or more remotely throwing light 
 upon each other ; — he will see in this, as it were, 
 an outline delineated, by which the Church, in 
 making preaching concurrent with this reading of 
 the Scriptures, expects that the expounder's course 
 shall be directed and bounded. And so, through- 
 out all his ministrations, whether public or private, 
 it will be his study to render the tone and spirit of 
 them as much as possible in harmony with the 
 method and language of his Church ; and never to 
 permit himself or his hearers to forget, that her 
 
250 DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING 
 
 formularies and offices are the best expositors of 
 God's word, — the criterion and bond of our 
 society, — and a supply of wholesome and daily 
 food, by which the spiritual wants of all its mem- 
 bers are continually and abundantly satisfied. 8 
 
 8 Since the first edition of this Sermon was published, the 
 author has been gratified to find the views above expressed con- 
 firmed by Bp. Mant, in his excellent little work, entitled " The 
 Clergyman's Obligations considered," — a volume which ought to 
 be in the hands of every young clergyman. "These are things, 
 which should never be absent from a clergyman's mind, as falling 
 within the constant scope of his preaching. But allusion was 
 made to his obligation to 'teach his people the doctrine and 
 sacraments and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath com- 
 manded, and as this Church and Realm hath received the same.' 
 Now the preaching of these things again has the same ultimate 
 view, as that which has just been noticed; namely, the establish- 
 ment of the hearers in Christian duty and Christian practice : and 
 to these it should be made subservient. Considered distinctly, 
 however, they supply topics which require a clergyman's attention. 
 
 "Hence it is his duty to 'teach the doctrine of Christ, as 
 received by the Church,' of which he is a minister : and therein 
 to explain and justify the Creeds, and shew how they 'ought 
 thoroughly to be received and believed ; for they may be proved 
 by most certain warrants of holy Scripture;'" to enlarge upon the 
 Catechism, in some such manner as that prescribed by the 12th 
 Irish Canon, which ordains, that the heads of the Catechism 
 being divided into so many parts as there are Sundays in the year, 
 shall be explained to the people in every parish church,' and as 
 hath been exempified so satisfactorily and admirably by Arch- 
 bishop Seeker in his Lectures ; and to ' explicate to the people,' 
 as Jeremy Taylor advises, ' the mysteries of the great festivals, as 
 
 " Ait. viii. 
 
STATED AND ENFORCED. 251 
 
 If, then, it be true, — as it would assuredly seem 
 to be, — that this system, of what may be styled 
 Liturgical Preaching, is binding upon every Minis- 
 ter of our Church, is implied in his Ordination 
 
 of Christmas, Easter, Ascension-day, Whitsunday, Trinity Sun- 
 day, the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary; because 
 these feasts containing in them the great fundamentals of our 
 faith, will with most advantage convey the mysteries to the 
 people, and fix them in their memories, by the solemnity and 
 circumstances of the day.' 6 
 
 " Hence again it is his duty to ' teach his people the Sacra- 
 ments of Christ, as the Church receives them:' to point out their 
 general necessity to salvation, their nature, their signification, and 
 the grace and benefits that they convey : especially to make 
 known and enforce those admonitions, which the Church in her 
 Rubricks directs him to address frequently to his people concern- 
 ing the administration of Baptism ; and to press upon their minds 
 and consciences the exhortations concerning the Lord's Supper 
 which the Church has provided and directs to be delivered, that so 
 he may induce them to come and be ' received as worthy partakers 
 of that holy table,' and may ' bring to a better mind' those who 
 are negligent about coining. 
 
 " Hence, lastly, it is his duty to ' teach his people the 
 discipline of Christ, as received by the Church ;' to instruct them 
 in the nature and excellence of our form o( Church government, 
 under the ministry of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, derived as 
 it is from the apostles' times, and modelled on the platform of the 
 primitive Church; in the qualifications requisite to constitute a 
 minister of the word and sacraments, so that they may form a just 
 estimate of their happiness as enjoying the ministry of an 
 apostolical and duly-constituted priesthood ; and in the excellence 
 f> " Rules and Advices, &c." See Clergyman's Instructor, p. 107. 
 
252 DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING 
 
 vow, and provided for in the arrangement of the 
 Sunday Services ; our next consideration is, the 
 advantages which will arise (for advantages always 
 
 of the Book of Common Prayer, according to which the functions 
 of their ministers are to be discharged, and in the reasons, the 
 meaning, and the uses of its several parts : especially under this 
 head it is his duty to teach them the different offices which belong 
 to them in the public services of the Church ; and to press upon 
 them their obligations, to maintain an early, punctual, and 
 constant, a reasonable and attentive, a decent and devout partici- 
 pation in the services, to observe the postures which become them 
 in the different parts of the service, and to unite in the several 
 portions allotted to them, vocally as well as mentally, in compliance 
 with the express injunctions of the Church. It may be here 
 added by the way, that the various selections from holy Scripture, 
 appointed for the proper Lessons and for the Epistle and Gospel 
 of the day, as they are very convenient guides to the preacher in 
 his choice of subjects when not engaged in a continued course of 
 systematic instruction, so may they be recommended for his 
 guidance, as coinciding with, and calculated to render more 
 edifying, the provisions of the Church, and as testifying respect 
 for her authority : at the same time they will naturally lead him to 
 a successive consideration of the principal contents of the sacred 
 volume ; such as the most prominent events and characters in the 
 Patriarchal and Israelitish histories ; the Mosaical law, its nature, 
 its uses, and its imperfections ; the awful denunciations of the 
 prophets on the sinfulness of the chosen people, and their antici- 
 pations of righteousness, peace, and glory under the promised 
 Messiah ; the life and ministry, the parables, discourses, and 
 miracles, of our Lord; and the acts, sufferings, and writings of 
 his apostles for the establishment and edification of the infant 
 Church. 
 
STATED AND ENFORCED. 253 
 
 do arise out of a faithful discharge of our duty) 
 from adhering, in a liberal spirit, to the system 
 thus strongly recommended to us. 
 
 The first, though perhaps not the most obvious 
 advantage, is the variety which such a mode of 
 instruction gives to the topics of the preacher. 
 
 Limiting us, as it may^ appear to do, within 
 certain bounds, it at the same time extends and 
 establishes our freedom through a wider space than 
 we should otherwise have ventured, or have been 
 able, to occupy; for, without extraneous aids, (I 
 speak here of human means,) the powers of the 
 most gifted individual are but few and feeble. 
 The flights of the most buoyant imagination, when 
 unsupported by artificial assistances, are confined 
 within narrow limits ; the accumulations of know- 
 ledge, even in the most amply furnished mind, are 
 soon exhausted. Hence follow reiteration and 
 repetition. The demand for water from a cistern 
 limited in its capacity, at last drains it to the 
 dregs. And, confined as is naturally the scope of 
 our powers, it is often rendered more so by an 
 almost unavoidable weakness. Any subject, that 
 
 " All these things should, in the course of his ministry, he 
 subjects of a clergyman's preaching, hecause all these things are 
 conducive to Christian faith and holiness, and they are also 
 requisite to give his people proper notions of the character and 
 the value of the Church, of which they are members." — Bishop 
 Mant's Clergyman's Obligations considered, p. 192. 
 
254 DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING 
 
 has been long- present to the thoughts, is wont 
 gradually to assume an undue importance in our 
 estimation — an importance not according to its 
 intrinsic value, but according to the degree of 
 attention which we have paid it. Hence it is that 
 some doctrines and some precepts of the Gospel at 
 times acquire in our minds a preponderance over 
 the rest, and so come to be dwelt upon with an 
 emphasis and a frequency which we should be 
 unable to justify on any rational ground of argu- 
 ment, or by the analogy of Scripture. Nothing, 
 indeed, is more surprising than the infinite variety 
 which pervades the teaching of our Lord and his 
 Apostles. Even when the subject is the same, the 
 illustration is different ; and things new and old are 
 brought out of the householder's treasury in an in- 
 exhaustible abundance. This variety it is doubtless 
 our duty to imitate ; and a faithful adherence to 
 the system of teaching which our Church has 
 marked out for us, is one of the best securities of 
 our doing so. In her successive services will con- 
 stantly be discovered topics which elevate the 
 imagination, and, through that, awaken the feelings 
 and instruct the heart. All the knowledge, too, 
 of the preacher will be exercised, and all his 
 industry required, if he honestly and fairly en- 
 counter every difficulty which these services press 
 upon his notice ; and diligently endeavour, — as 
 
STATED AND ENFORCED. 255 
 
 becomes one who must declare all the counsel of 
 God, — so to expound even the dark sayings of 
 Scripture, that, if not wholly intelligible, they may 
 yet be a source of wholesome edification to his 
 hearers. In this way, moreover, all undue atten- 
 tion to any particular doctrine or precept of scrip- 
 ture will be entirely precluded. Our appointed 
 Services range through the whole extent of the 
 Gospel with wonderful judgment and discrimina- 
 tion ; the analogy of Scripture is strictly followed 
 throughout ; nothing is redundant — nothing is 
 omitted ; so that, in pursuing this safe course, 
 the enthusiastic is restrained, the timid excited 
 and encouraged ; and he who has followed it 
 discovers that he has been trusting to no false 
 guide, but to one who has conducted his steps 
 safely through all the intricacies of Scripture, with- 
 out ever avoiding a path because it was difficult, 
 or repeating one by mistake ! 
 
 The second advantage, which I would especially 
 dwell upon, is this — that the Preacher will hence 
 derive from the Liturgy all the assistance which it 
 is so well calculated to afford him in his addresses 
 to his congregation. 
 
 The Dissenter from our Church has no such 
 stay, as we possess, on which to rest his expositions 
 of God's word. He necessarily speaks, not as one 
 having the authority of a formulary to support his 
 
256 DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING 
 
 opinions, but, in a great measure, as an individual 
 propounding his own views of Scripture to his 
 hearers ; which they accordingly receive with such 
 qualifications as their own private notions, or his 
 supposed ability, may suggest. 9 But the Minister 
 of our Church is in no small degree exempt from 
 this scrutiny and personal responsibility. He has 
 the powerful aid of a Liturgy, which, by universal 
 consent, approaches nearer in language and spirit 
 to that Divine Word on which it is modelled, 
 than any other human composition; and which 
 possesses the love and admiration of his hearers. 
 By this he can secure their approbation — by this 
 they will try his doctrine. 10 So long as his labours 
 
 9 This is said not as a reproach to the Sectary, hut as a ground 
 of legitimate triumph to ourselves. Many of the wisest among 
 dissenters have regretted the want of some authorized standard for 
 their opinions, and have attributed the stability of the Church, 
 in a great degree, to her possessing one. 
 
 10 While this Sermon was passing through the press the Author 
 met with the following extract from the life of the Rev. Edward D. 
 Griffin, a Clergyman of the Episcopal Church in America, which, 
 coming from such a quarter, may most appropriately be introduced 
 in this place : — " In the use of prescribed forms he recognized, as 
 he often said, the strongest bulwark against both error of doctrine 
 and fanaticism of life ; and whether he looked into the past history 
 or present state of the Christian Church, he found abundant proof 
 of the necessity of such safeguards. His own country was full of 
 warning examples ; and when, he saw the pathless ocean of error 
 into which so many Churches had wandered for the want of such 
 
STATED AND ENFORCED. 257 
 
 are in harmony with the spirit which breathes 
 through this our Church's safeguard and guide, so 
 long will his teaching be understood, appreciated, 
 and loved, by those who, equally with himself, 
 have recourse to the same Scriptures for their 
 doctrine, and to the same Prayer-book for its 
 interpretation. Surely no preacher would willingly 
 forego this advantage — at once a protection to him- 
 self — a conciliation of his audience, and the dis- 
 charge of a bounden duty. 
 
 The last and most important benefit to which I 
 would refer, is this ; that such a mode of teaching 
 gives object, and system, and life, to the whole 
 course of our public ministrations. The Preacher 
 has, here, not only a distinct end in view, but a 
 clear and definite path prescribed by which that 
 end may be attained. Considering himself as the 
 impelling power which is to give motion and energy 
 to that scheme of Christian edification which his 
 Church has devised, he will permit no part of it to 
 remain inert and unproductive for want of his 
 exciting and superintending care. From the 
 sincere milk of the word for those who are but 
 babes in Christ, to the strong meat for those 
 
 a landmark, of such an abiding test by which to try the doctrines 
 of the living preacher, he may be said to have clung to the Liturgy 
 of the Church as to the pillar, or rather the anchor of Christen- 
 dom." 
 
 R 
 
258 DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING 
 
 who are of full age — from the Catechism for the 
 young, to the Creeds for them of riper years — from 
 the plainest facts of Scripture history, to the 
 loftiest heights of Gospel doctrine — all will meet, 
 not with a desultory, but a due attention. Whilst 
 his hearers, more impressed with the weight of the 
 instruction which he dispenses, than the manner in 
 which it is conveyed, will habitually consider, not 
 whether he speaks with the eloquence of Paul, or 
 the argument of Apollos, but whether he is faith- 
 ful in his views to the doctrines of Scripture, and 
 the setting forth of that doctrine by the Church of 
 which he is the accredited representative. Thus 
 educated in the bosom and the principles of our 
 Apostolical Communion; perceiving its spirit to 
 breathe throughout all the ministrations of their 
 Pastor, and feeling experimentally the unspeakable 
 benefits which spring from the Word of Truth 
 rightly divided, and systematically enforced, they 
 will not consider a transition from the Church to 
 the Conventicle in so indifferent a light as modern 
 laxity has brought it to be esteemed — it would be 
 a rending asunder of ties too strong and endearing 
 to be broken without a bitter striiffffle. 11 The 
 
 'o& J 
 
 11 The Author has frequently been answered, by individuals of 
 that large body of Christians who, nominally Churchmen, are in 
 the habit of attending the Meeting-house, — when remonstrating 
 with them on their inconsistency, — "I can really perceive no dif- 
 
STATED AND ENFORCED. 259 
 
 impressions produced by the highest efforts of 
 eloquence and wisdom, when not guided by system 
 in their operations, are often faint and transitory. 
 The energy of the Preacher was the main cause of 
 excitement in the hearer ; and the flame, having 
 nothing within to feed upon, passes away with the 
 breath that had kindled ito But the teacher, how- 
 ever humble his individual powers, who brings 
 constantly to his aid the eloquence, and wisdom, 
 and piety of the founders of his Church, may 
 reasonably look for a surer success, and a more 
 permanent duration, for his labours. And, were 
 this system of Liturgical Preaching a general 
 principle, or rather, a general practice, among his 
 brethren, he would derive from the reflection 
 additional consolation for himself, and hope for his 
 appointed charge. He would enjoy the assurance 
 that, when he was taken from them, he would 
 not leave them comfortless ; that the shepherds of 
 his church, wherever their fold may be, are of one 
 heart and one soul ; and therefore his flock, into 
 whose care soever they may fall, will never be 
 
 ference between the doctrine preached there, and that which I hear 
 at Church." No doubt, this is mostly true ; and so long as there is 
 no difference, likewise, in the manner of stating that doctrine, 
 the advantage of the similarity will be all on the side of dissent. 
 The author must now add, with much gratification, that the above 
 note, written in 1832, would not have been written, because 
 circumstances would not have called for it, in 1839. 
 
260 DUTY OF LITURGICAL PREACHING, &C. 
 
 called upon to listen to the voice of a stranger ; 
 should it, therefore, be the Lord's will to take 
 their " Master from their head to-day," he will feel 
 that the same Mantle of Truth in which he has 
 been clad, will descend to the Elisha who is to 
 follow, that it will retain its divine influence, in 
 his hands, as in those of its former owner, — and 
 be by him employed, as before, to the benefit of 
 the church, — the glory of God, — and the salvation 
 of all those committed to his care ! 
 
 And do thou, O Holy Spirit ! by whose power 
 alone all human means are blessed and sanctified 
 — do thou so guide and direct our efforts in this 
 and all our endeavours to promote the honour of 
 God and the welfare of his people, that the king- 
 dom of Christ may by our means enlarge its 
 borders, and peace, unity, and holiness be its 
 inheritance for ever ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
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