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 CHARGE 
 
 CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE 
 
 LINCOLN, 
 
 JOHN, LORD BISHOP OF LINCOLN 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 THE TRIENNIAL VISITATION 
 
 IN MDCCCXL. 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE CLERGY. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, 
 
 st. Paul's church yard, 
 and waterloo place, pall mall. 
 
 1840.
 
 CHARGE, 
 
 My Reverend Brethren, 
 
 Nine years have elapsed since, in addressing 
 you on a similar occasion, I remarked that we lived 
 in times of no ordinary character. The remark is 
 certainly not less applicable at the present moment. 
 All that is passing around us leads rather to the 
 conclusion, that we are on the eve of a great con- 
 flict — a conflict of principles. The question is not 
 now, as it has been in past times, whether this or 
 that branch of our civil or ecclesiastical polity is to 
 be reformed or remodelled ; but whether the whole 
 frame of society is to be changed, and a new system 
 introduced, founded on different views of the best 
 mode of promoting the general happiness, and de- 
 signed to effect an entire revolution in the relations 
 in which men have hitherto stood, both to each
 
 6 
 
 other, and to the community. There is a ferment 
 in the public mind, threatening danger to all exist- 
 ing institutions ; and among the rest to that, in the 
 welfare of which we are most deeply interested, — 
 the Established Church. For in addition to those 
 who are opposed to it on religious grounds — because 
 they object to its doctrines or its discipline, or think 
 its union with the State prejudicial to its spiritual 
 character — it has to encounter other, and even more 
 formidable opponents. There are some who wish 
 to bring about what are called organic changes in 
 the civil constitution. They naturally labour for 
 the subversion of the Established Church ; not 
 because they are hostile to it in particular, but 
 because it is an institution, closely connected with 
 the other institutions of the land, and therefore an 
 obstacle in their way. There are others, of whom 
 I have already observed that they aim at effecting 
 a change, not in the political constitution of the 
 country, but in the frame of society itself. Their 
 doctrines strike at the root of all religious and 
 moral obligation. Man, according to them, is not 
 a moral agent, having within him a principle of 
 immortality, but a mere compound of perishable 
 matter. Consistently with this doctrine, they teach 
 that he ought to seek his true happiness in pro- 
 curing for himself the greatest possible amount of 
 animal enjoyment ; and that the existence of an 
 intelligent Creator and righteous Governor of the 
 universe, to whom he is accountable for his actions, 

 
 is a fiction originating in fraud, and propagated by 
 superstition. To the advocates of these opinions, 
 Christianity must, on account of its very purity and 
 spirituality, be hateful ; and as the purpose of a 
 visible Church is to perpetuate Christianity, to pre- 
 serve the knowledge, and to promote the practical 
 influence of its truths to the end of time, they 
 regard the destruction of the Established Church 
 as a necessary preliminary to the triumph of their 
 system. — Such is the formidable host of adversaries 
 arrayed against us. Confident as we are in the 
 goodness of our cause, and stedfast in our reliance 
 on the divine protection, it is impossible to con- 
 template the prospect before us without some feel- 
 ing of anxiety and apprehension; not with respect 
 to the final issue of the contest, (of that we are 
 assured by Him whose word can never fail,) but to 
 the fiery trial which the church may in the mean 
 time be called to undergo. 
 
 A conflict of principles, as it admits no com- 
 promise, is the bitterest and most fearful of con- 
 flicts ; but it possesses at the same time a grandeur 
 and dignity which raise it far above the ordinary 
 struggles of political warfare. It calls forth all the 
 faculties of man, and imparts to them tenfold energy 
 either for good or evil. By the intense interest 
 which it excites, it gradually absorbs every member 
 of the community within its vortex. It allows 
 no neutrality. The most indolent and apathetic, 
 they who shrink almost instinctively from every
 
 8 
 
 thing that bears even the semblance of contention, 
 are constrained to choose their part ; and that part 
 once chosen, even the coldest natures are kindled 
 into a flame. At this moment, when the conflict 
 can scarcely be said to have begun, effects such as I 
 am describing are partially manifesting themselves. 
 Both the assailants and defenders of the Established 
 Church are assuming a more determined attitude. 
 Many who, though they lived in outward commu- 
 nion with it, displayed little zeal in its cause, and 
 seemed at first disposed to stand aloof from the 
 struggle, now roused by the threatening aspect of 
 the times, have thrown aside their former indiffer- 
 ence, and are making the most strenuous exertions 
 in its support. May we not indulge the hope, that, 
 as the public mind comes to be more thoroughly 
 enlightened as to the nature of its claims, and the 
 grounds on which they rest, their justice will be 
 more generally recognised, and the number of its 
 devoted and stedfast friends continually increased ? 
 One of the necessary consequences of the 
 present position of the Established Church is to 
 cause its affairs to occupy a considerable share of 
 the deliberations of the Legislature ; to mix them 
 up with party questions, and thus to involve the 
 Clergy, how much soever against their inclination, 
 in the strife of worldly politics. I am far from 
 thinking that the ministers of religion, because they 
 have dedicated themselves to holy things, are there- 
 fore precluded from taking a part in the great
 
 9 
 
 questions of civil policy which divide public opin- 
 ion, as if they were isolated in this respect from 
 the rest of the community, and felt not the same 
 zeal for the honour, the same interest in the tem- 
 poral prosperity of their country. But the proper 
 business of a pastor is with his flock : the minis- 
 ter's proper sphere of action is his parish. It is 
 there that his thoughts, his affections ought to be 
 centered ; and if he either consults the dignity, or 
 is alive to the responsibilities of his sacred office, 
 or is anxious to preserve that spirituality of mind 
 which alone can cause him to take delight in the 
 performance of its duties, he will not be forward to 
 mingle in political strife. Not only when so en- 
 gaged is he in danger of losing the respect of the 
 laity, who will look upon him as out of his place, 
 as assuming a character which does not belong- to 
 him ; but he is liable to be infected by the atmo- 
 sphere which he breathes, and to contract some- 
 thing of a sharp and angry and contentious temper. 
 If then the circumstances of the times will scarcely 
 allow us to avoid taking a part in the questions 
 which agitate the political world, it is the more 
 incumbent upon us, my Reverend Brethren, to 
 keep a strict Match over ourselves, that the part 
 which we take may never be inconsistent with the 
 character of Ministers of the Gospel of Peace. 
 
 Although, however, the present state of the 
 Established Church is confessedly one of difficulty 
 and trial, incidentally at least it is productive of
 
 10 
 
 good. It compels us to look back to the origin of 
 our Ecclesiastical Institutions ; to examine and to 
 weigh the designs with which they were framed, 
 and the ends which they were intended to accom- 
 plish. Our eyes are thus opened to the extent to 
 which we have deviated from the original design, 
 and to the fallacies by which we have hitherto 
 justified to ourselves that deviation. We recog- 
 nize the faultiness of many practices in which we 
 never suspected that there was any thing wrong, 
 because sanctioned by the example of those who 
 preceded us. Take for instance the existence of 
 pluralities. The clamour against them has caused 
 men to inquire into the original foundation of 
 Parochial Benefices in this country ; to ascertain 
 that they were founded by the lords of the soil, 
 with the view of securing for themselves and their 
 dependants the continual presence of a minister of 
 religion, from whose lips they might learn know- 
 ledge; at whose hands they might receive the 
 Sacraments of the Church ; to whom they might 
 resort for advice and consolation in the hour of per- 
 plexity and distress. The spiritual instruction of 
 the people was, so to speak, the final cause for 
 which the Parochial Endowments were conferred ; 
 and the residence of the minister was consequently 
 the condition on which he was entitled to receive 
 them. If, therefore, no interference had ever 
 taken place with those endowments ; if the system 
 of impropriations had never been introduced, it is
 
 11 
 
 evident that a plurality of Parochial benefices would 
 have been wholly indefensible. The more thoroughly 
 the subject was sifted, the more general the con- 
 viction became, that some legislative enactment 
 was necessary. Out of that conviction the late 
 Act arose ; and it may perhaps be asked, why the 
 Legislature did not altogether abolish pluralities, 
 or at least restrict them to cases of absolute neces- 
 sity ; cases in which the income of the living is of 
 itself insufficient to the maintenance of an incum- 
 bent. The answer is, that, instead of passing at 
 once from the previous lax system to a total aboli- 
 tion of pluralities, it was deemed a safer course to 
 try what would be the effect of limiting them to 
 the distance of ten miles. That distance was 
 chosen because the pluralist would be able to 
 visit, from time to time, without inconvenience, 
 the benefice on which he did not reside : and thus 
 partially to fulfil the personal obligation which he 
 contracted at the time of his institution. Among 
 the evils arising out of that system of connivance 
 under which livings were held voidable, it was not 
 the least that the livings so held were frequently 
 at a great distance from each other, sometimes 
 at opposite extremities of the kingdom ; and that 
 the pluralist, on account of the distance, conceived 
 himself released from the obligation of visiting that 
 on which he did not reside. Content with paying 
 his Curate the stipend fixed by law, and contribut- 
 ing more or ley* liberally towards the temporal
 
 12 
 
 wants of the parishioners, he seemed to dismiss 
 their spiritual interests from his thoughts, and to 
 regard the living, not as a trust involving the most 
 serious responsibility, but as a source of income. 
 The limitation of the distance within which two 
 benefices can be held to ten miles, will effectually 
 correct this evil. 
 
 Having mentioned the Plurality Act, I shall pro- 
 ceed briefly to call your attention to some of its pro- 
 visions, either on account of the principles which 
 they involve, or their bearing upon your personal 
 interests and comforts. The principal objects of 
 the Act are, the regulation of Pluralities, and the 
 promotion of the residence of the Clergy. It will 
 be found, on an examination of the abstracts of the 
 returns annually made to the Privy Council, that 
 among the chief obstacles to residence is the want 
 of a house, or at least of a suitable house. With 
 a view to the removal of this obstacle, an Act 
 was passed in the same Session with the Plura- 
 lity Act, amending what is usually termed Gilbert's 
 Act, and giving increased facilities for the erection 
 of parsonage houses. But the Plurality Act goes 
 further, and requires the Bishop himself to take 
 measures for the erection of a house on all livings, 
 which shall have become vacant since the date of 
 its enactment, and of which the yearly income 
 exceeds 100/. J trust that I shall seldom be 
 called upon to take those measures ; I trust that 
 the Clergy, knowing the state of the law, will, by
 
 13 
 
 voluntarily undertaking to build, render my inter- 
 ference unnecessary. For I shall feel it my duty 
 to enforce that provision of the Act, the 62nd clause, 
 in all cases in which the circumstances of the bene- 
 fice place no insuperable impediment in the way. 
 As the new incumbent enters upon the living with 
 a full knowledge of the existence of the provision, 
 he cannot be allowed to urge his personal conve- 
 nience, as a reason why he should be exempted 
 from its operation. 
 
 Under the Act 57 Geo. III. residence was de- 
 fined, residence in the parsonage house. The con- 
 sequence was, that many incumbents, who were not 
 only performing their own duty, but even residing 
 in the parish, though not in the parsonage house 
 on account of its unfitness or insufficiency, were 
 returned as non-resident ; and thus a most unfair 
 impression was made on the public mind, with re- 
 spect to the extent to which non-residence pre- 
 vailed. In order to correct this impression, the 
 late Act empowers the Bishop, where there is either 
 no house or no fit house, to constitute a house 
 situate within the distance of three miles in the 
 case of a country benefice, and of two miles in the 
 case of a town benefice, a legal house of residence, 
 so that incumbents thus circumstanced, will in 
 future be deemed resident incumbents. Let me, 
 however, observe that this provision must not be 
 construed into a plea for frustrating the evident
 
 14 
 
 intention of the legislature, that fit houses shall 
 be built in all cases in which the means of building 
 them exist. 
 
 Another important provision of the Plurality 
 Act is that which empowers the Bishop to enforce 
 the performance of two services on every Lord's 
 Day, each of such services to include a Sermon or 
 a Lecture. There are, I am aware, many cases in 
 which this provision cannot at present be enforced, 
 because, the incumbent or curate has the care of 
 two churches ; a state of things which the restric- 
 tion of pluralities will gradually amend. But I 
 shall deem it my duty to carry into effect the de- 
 clared intention of the legislature in every possi- 
 ble case. Not that I am very sanguine in anticipat- 
 ing good from religious services performed, not 
 spontaneously, but merely in obedience to the 
 commands of an ecclesiastical superior. Com- 
 pulsory enactments are at best a poor substitute 
 for a sense of duty. But I am satisfied that no 
 single cause has contributed more to the prevalence 
 of dissent in this diocese, than the too frequent 
 practice of omitting a second service. When the 
 parishioners see that a resident clergyman, having 
 the care of a single church, opens that church 
 once only on the Lord's Day, the impression natu- 
 rally made on their minds is, that he is more de- 
 sirous of consulting his own ease than of promoting 
 their spiritual welfare; and if they are seriously
 
 15 
 
 disposed, they turn to any teacher who professes to 
 supply them with the spiritual food for which they 
 hunger. 
 
 With respect to the delivery of a sermon or 
 lecture at each service, our experience tells us that, 
 when the prayers of the Church only are read, and 
 no sermon delivered, the parishioners are very remiss 
 in their attendance. I will not stop to inquire 
 whether this ought to be so; whether the para- 
 mount importance attached to preaching in the pre- 
 sent day bespeaks a healthy state of religious feel- 
 ing ; whether it does not savour of that love of 
 excitement, and that undue admiration of mere 
 intellect which are the characteristics of the age ; 
 whether indeed the sermon is not too often regarded 
 in the light of an intellectual treat, and estimated 
 rather by the gratification which it affords to the 
 taste, than by its tendency to amend the heart. 
 Whatever might be the result of such an inquiry, 
 it is, as I have just observed, certain that when 
 the prayers of the Church only are read and 
 no sermon delivered, the parishioners are very 
 remiss in their attendance ; and surely no conscien- 
 tious pastor will think that he has discharged his 
 duty to them, until he has removed, as far as lies 
 in his power, every plea for this remissness. If 
 they are only to be won to the house of God by a 
 sermon, he will not fail to preach it. The omission 
 of a second sermon will too probably be ascribed to 
 one of two causes ; to our want of ability, or to our 
 
 9
 
 16 
 
 disinclination to labour for the edification of our 
 flocks ; and I need scarcely observe that, to which- 
 soever of the two it is ascribed, the effect must be 
 most prejudicial to our ministerial usefulness. I 
 am, therefore, assured that my Reverend Brethren 
 will not require any exhortation from me to induce 
 them to comply with this provision of the Act. 
 
 Let me, before I quit the subject of preaching, 
 guard against a possible misinterpretation of my 
 meaning ; let no one infer, from what I have said, 
 that I am disposed to undervalue its importance. 
 It has been in all ages of the Church, and ever will 
 be, the blessed instrument both of turning the sinner 
 from the evil of his way, and of promoting the 
 growth of the confirmed Christian in holiness. I 
 mean only to offer a caution against an error into 
 which many, I fear, in the present day, are liable to 
 fall — the error of supposing that religion consists 
 chiefly in the hearing of sermons. 
 
 I have now noticed those provisions of the Plu- 
 rality Act to which it appeared to me most im- 
 portant to call your attention. It contains also 
 clauses to facilitate the uniting and disuniting of 
 Benefices. Unions of Benefices are justly regarded 
 with some degree of suspicion, because they have in 
 past times too often been made, not with a view 
 to the spiritual interests of the parishioners, but to 
 the temporal interests of the patrons and incum- 
 bents. It is, however, certain, that in the northern 
 part of this diocese, where the parishes are thinly
 
 17 
 
 peopled, and the incomes of the livings frequently 
 small, there are many contiguous benefices which 
 may be advantageously united. When the livings 
 are not in the same patronage, an arrangement 
 must be made for the regulation of the succession 
 in which the patrons are to present ; but this ar- 
 rangement need not, as it appears to me, create any 
 great difficulty. 
 
 With respect to the stipends of the curates of 
 non-resident incumbents, one alteration only has 
 been made. According to the old act, when the 
 population is between 500 and 1000, the stipend is 
 to be 1*20/. ; by the new, it is raised to 135/. in all 
 cases in which the population exceeds 750. But 
 the Bishop is deprived of the discretionary power, 
 which he before possessed, of assigning, under cer- 
 tain circumstances, a smaller stipend than that spe- 
 cified in the act. That can only now be done with 
 the sanction of the Archbishop of the province. In 
 all cases, whether the incumbent is resident or non- 
 resident, he, as well as the curate, is required to 
 sign a declaration, to the effect that the one will 
 bond fide pay, the other bond fide receive, the full 
 stipend assigned in the licence, without deduction. 
 
 I turn to other matter. As the effect of the dis- 
 cussions on pluralities and residence has been to 
 cause men to look back to the origin of Parochial 
 Benefices, and to the objects for which they were 
 instituted, so the discussions on the Clergy Disci- 
 pline Bill have forcibly drawn their attention to the 
 
 B
 
 18 
 
 relations in which the Church stands to the State, 
 and the principles on which the union between 
 them should be founded. Before the reformation 
 no such union can be said to have existed in this 
 country. The people, considered as members of 
 the State, were subject to the King ; considered as 
 members of the Church, to the Bishop of Rome : 
 they were, in their religious and temporal capacities 
 respectively, subjects of two independant powers, 
 between which a perpetual struggle was going on. 
 The ecclesiastical history of England, from the 
 conquest to the reformation, is little else than a 
 history of papal attempts at encroachment, and of 
 resistance to them on the part of the legislature. 
 To this struggle Henry VIII. put an end, by 
 altogether abolishing the jurisdiction of the pope in 
 this realm, and subjecting all estates and degrees, 
 whether ecclesiastical or civil, to his rule. Thus the 
 Church and State were brought into union under 
 one temporal head, and the fundamental article of 
 that union is the supremacy of the crown. 
 
 When, however, we speak of the supremacy of 
 the crown, we mean a limited supremacy — limited 
 with reference to the authority with which Christ, 
 the Head of the Church, has invested it. " Some 
 kinds of actions, conversant about such affairs," says 
 Hooker, " are denied unto kings ; as, namely, actions 
 of power and order, and of spiritual jurisdiction, 
 which hath with it inseparably joined power to ad- 
 minister the word and sacraments, power to ordain,
 
 19 
 
 to judge as ordinary, to bind and loose, to excom- 
 municate, and such like V 
 
 It is further to be observed, that the expression 
 " supremacy of the crown," does not convey exactly 
 the same meaning now, that it did at the Reforma- 
 tion. The supremacy has since been limited, both 
 in civil and ecclesiastical matters. Many acts, 
 which the crown then claimed the power of doing, 
 by virtue of the royal prerogative, can now only be 
 done with the consent of parliament ; for instance, 
 the erection of ecclesiastical courts, without the 
 consent of parliament, was by the act 1 W. c. 2, 
 declared to be illegal. 
 
 There is inherent in every society, as essential to 
 its preservation, a power of correcting offending 
 members, and even cutting them off from the body, 
 if the malignity of the offence requires the applica- 
 tion of so severe a remedy. This power, therefore, 
 exists in the visible Church — the society which 
 Christ intended the professors of His faith to com- 
 pose on earth. If the Apostles, to whom was com- 
 mitted the office of forming it, had left no directions 
 respecting this power, the Church must itself have 
 prescribed the mode of its exercise. But as they 
 were invested by Christ with authority to bind 
 and loose, so we learn from Scripture that they 
 conferred 2 similar authority on those whom they 
 
 1 Ecclesiastical Polity, 1. viii. p. 447- ed. fol. 1705. 
 
 2 In the passages quoted by Archbishop Potter, in his Trea- 
 
 b2
 
 •20 
 
 appointed to preside over the Churches which they 
 founded ; and in the third century, we find J Cy- 
 prian ascribing to bishops, in virtue of the epis- 
 copal office, the power of deposing offending minis- 
 ters, or suspending them from the exercise of their 
 sacred functions ; though he himself appears not to 
 have exercised this power without the advice 
 of the clergy and the consent of the laity ; thereby 
 showing that he acted in behalf of the Church, and 
 as its minister or organ 2 . 
 
 The Divine Founder of the Church conferred on 
 it no external, co-active power. Its censures are 
 addressed to the consciences of men, and de- 
 signed to lead them to repentance, by inspiring 
 them with a dread of exclusion from the invisible 
 Church in heaven ; the only appointed path to which 
 lies through the visible Church on earth. Excom- 
 munication, however, even in the primitive Church 
 affected the temporal interests of the lay offender 
 indirectly, by causing the other members to avoid 
 all intercourse, and to decline all dealings with him ; 
 
 tise on Church Government, c. v. p. 252. Crossthwaite's edi- 
 tion. 
 
 1 Quum pro Episcopates vigore et Cathedrae auctoritate 
 haberes potestatem, qua possis de illo statim vindicari. — Ep. iii. 
 ad Rogatianum. Ed. Fell. — And again in the same epistle : 
 Fungeris circa eum potestate honoris tui, ut eum vel deponas 
 vel abstineas. 
 
 2 Quando a primordio Episcopates mei statuerim nihil, sine 
 consilio vestro, et sine consensu plebis, mea privata sententia, 
 gerere. — Ep. xiv. ad Presbyteros et Diaconos.
 
 21 
 
 and those of the clerical offender directly, by the 
 abstraction of that portion of the ecclesiastical funds 
 which would have fallen to his share in the monthly 
 distribution 1 . When, therefore, it is said, that the 
 power of the Church is internal, applying only to 
 things spiritual, that of the State external, applying 
 only to things temporal, it is evident that this dis- 
 tinction cannot always be strictly preserved ; that 
 cases of a mixed character will arise, in which the 
 spiritualities and the temporalities are so blended to- 
 gether, that they cannot be separately dealt with. The 
 spiritual power might degrade an immoral or heret- 
 ical minister from his office ; but if he obstinately 
 persisted in refusing to yield up the Church in 
 which he had officiated to his successor, unless the 
 temporal power lent its aid, the sentence of the 
 spiritual would remain in great measure inoperative 2 . 
 The design of the union of the Church and State is, 
 to bring these two powers into harmonious combina- 
 tion ; so that the same sentence which affects the 
 spiritual office, may also affect the temporalities 
 annexed to it. But such a combination necessarily 
 implies, that both parties mutually recede from the 
 full assertion of the rights which they inherently 
 possess. Otherwise, either the Church would become 
 the creature and slave of the State ; or the State 
 
 1 Interim se a divisione mensurna tantura contineant. Cy- 
 priani Ep. xxxiv. ad Presbyteros et Diaconos. — Divisiones 
 mensurnas. Ep. ad eosdem, xxxix. 
 
 2 Bingham's Christian Antiquities, 1. xvi. c. 2. § 3.
 
 99 
 
 the mere executor of the decrees of the Church. 
 The supremacy rests with the State, because that 
 alone possesses external, co-active power ; but the 
 Church does not surrender any of the powers con- 
 ferred on it by its Divine Founder ; though it allows 
 some of them to remain in abeyance, and permits 
 the State to prescribe the mode in which others are 
 to be exercised. That purely spiritual power of 
 correction given by the Word of God to the Bishop, 
 as the minister of the Church \ which appears in the 
 earliest times to have been exercised according to 
 fixed rules, though without the formality of juridical 
 proceedings — that power he can only exercise in this 
 country, as it is committed to him by the ordinance 
 of the realm. The State, in recognizing the spiritual 
 authority inherent in the office, prescribes the mode 
 of its exercise as the condition of annexing to it the 
 right of external jurisdiction ; of investing it with 
 external, co-active power. The courts in which it 
 is exercised are still called the Bishops' Courts, as 
 they were before the Reformation ; but they are in 
 the eye of the law the courts of the crown. For I 
 can attach no other meaning to the expression — 
 that the queen is in all causes, ecclesiastical as well 
 as civil, in these her dominions supreme — than this, 
 that all rights of external jurisdiction are derived 
 from the crown. This is the interpretation put upon 
 it by the most eminent lawyers who have written 
 
 1 Palmer's History of the Church, P. iv. c. xvi. § 1.
 
 23 
 
 on the subject : by Sir Michael Forster ', in the 
 passage quoted by the learned Archdeacon of Lin- 
 coln in his published Charge of last year ; and by 
 Sir Matthew Hale 2 , who says that " all power of 
 external jurisdiction is originally in the crown ; and 
 that the power of the keys, in foro conscietitice, is 
 not properly a jurisdiction, because it is without any 
 external coercion." 
 
 The Clergy Discipline Bill of last year having 
 been withdrawn, I think it neither necessary nor 
 desirable to enter into the controversy to which 
 it gave rise 3 . I have been induced to touch upon 
 the subject of the relation of the Church to the 
 State, because opinions have recently been put 
 forth, respecting the independance of the Church, 
 which appear to me to be wholly incompatible 
 
 1 " If the principle of a right of jurisdiction, underived from 
 the civil magistrate, does not always lead to the popery of the 
 Church of Rome, it leads to a state of things equally mischievous 
 and more absurd ; I mean, a popery at our doors. Our ances- 
 tors, at and about the time of the Reformation, had plainly this 
 notion of the matter ; and therefore they did not content them- 
 selves with barely abolishing the usurped power of the Bishop 
 of Rome, but went to the root of the evil, and declared that all 
 jurisdiction, as well Ecclesiastical as civil, is vested in, and ex- 
 ercised by delegation from, the Crown." Examination of Bishop 
 Gibson's Codex, p. 23. 
 
 2 Quoted by Bishop Warburton in his Alliance, book ii. 
 c. iii. § 2. on the Supremacy, 
 
 3 The point at issue in that controversy was not a question 
 between the Church and State, but between the Metropolitan 
 and Diocesan Courts.
 
 24 
 
 with the maintenance of the union between them. 
 As I have already observed, in every union there 
 must be mutual concession. Both parties must 
 be content to recede in some degree from the full 
 assertion of their pretensions ; not to surrender their 
 inherent rights, but to allow some of those rights to 
 remain in abeyance. Without such concession their 
 respective powers will be continually clashing. At this 
 moment, in the northern part of the island, we find 
 one minister, appointed by the highest authority in 
 the Church, exercising the spiritual functions in a 
 parish ; while another, appointed by the lay patron, 
 under the sanction of the civil courts, receives the 
 profits of the benefice. The Church says to the 
 State, I have no power over the temporalities, you 
 have none over the spiritualities ; and the parties 
 are thus placed in apparently irreconcilable oppo- 
 sition to each other. The design of the union of 
 the Church and State is to prevent the occurrence 
 of such collisions ; to provide against this disjunction 
 of the civil and spiritual condition of the clergy. 
 
 It has been said, and truly said, that in this 
 country the union of the Church and State was not 
 founded on any precise definition of their respective 
 rights x ; the limits of their respective spheres of 
 action were not exactly marked out. It may be, 
 therefore, that the State, in the exercise of its 
 
 1 Gladstone on the State in its relations with the Church, 
 c. iv. § 15.
 
 25 
 
 political omnipotence, has occasionally evinced a 
 disposition to encroach upon the province of the 
 Church ; and I mean not to say that every indi- 
 cation of such a disposition ought not to be care- 
 fully watched. But let us not, my Reverend 
 Brethren, indulge in unreasonable jealousies ; let 
 us not, whenever a measure is proposed affecting 
 the Church, suspect a lurking design to violate 
 some essential part of its constitution; especially 
 let us guard against the sj)irit of exaggeration. 
 The union between the Church and State can only 
 be maintained by a mutual friendly understanding. 
 Before it existed, the Church stood in the posi- 
 tion of an in dependant, and frequently antagonist 
 power : should it now be dissolved, the Church 
 will stand in a very different position ; it will, as 
 to its temporal condition, be placed on a level 
 with the numerous sects into which the subjects of 
 the realm are divided. 
 
 Another question to which public attention has 
 of late been especially directed, and in which we, 
 as ministers of the Church, are deeply interested, 
 is National Education. The Author of our 
 nature evidently designed that, during the earliest 
 years of the child's existence, the responsibility of 
 supplying his wants, bodily, mental, and even 
 spiritual as far as they can be supplied by human 
 aid, should devolve on the parent. Nothing but 
 absolute necessity can warrant an interference 
 with this providential arrangement — a disturbance
 
 26 
 
 of the relation between the parent and child ; and 
 we may justly infer, that there is something essen- 
 tially vicious in a state of society, in which the 
 necessity for such interference is continually oc- 
 curring. One of the duties thus devolving on the 
 Christian parent, in consequence of his relation to 
 his offspring, is to bring them to the baptismal 
 font, to the end that they may be admitted to a 
 participation in the benefits of the Christian cove- 
 nant. From that moment the Church becomes, 
 as it were, a sharer in the parental responsibility, 
 and is bound to co-operate, through her ministers, 
 in causing the child to be trained to lead his future 
 life according to this holy beginning. Her part, 
 however, is to act in subordination to that which 
 I have already described as the Divine appoint- 
 ment : not to supersede, but to assist the parental 
 authority ; to supply the deficiencies of the parent ; 
 to carry out the parental training. She, therefore, 
 enjoins her ministers to be diligent and careful in 
 the catechizing of children, in instructing them in 
 the principles of the Christian faith, in the know- 
 ledge of their duty both towards God and man ; 
 and this godly training she means to be continued 
 until they are qualified to give an intelligent assent 
 to the promises made for them in baptism. 
 
 From this brief description of the relation in 
 which the Church, as entrusted with the instruc- 
 tion of the rising generation, stands to the children 
 of Christian parents; it is evident that she can 
 
 14
 
 27 
 
 never lend her sanction to a system of purely 
 secular education. She looks at them as beings 
 destined to an eternal existence, and her office is 
 to prepare them for it. She cultivates the mental 
 faculties, because through them alone can any 
 knowledge, whether secular or religious, be com- 
 municated ; but her proper business is with the 
 moral, rather than the intellectual part of man's 
 nature. The development of the understanding 
 is, in her view, a means to an end — the moral and 
 religious education of the child. 
 
 But the child, it may be said, though destined 
 to a future state of being, has a part assigned him 
 in the present ; and if the sole concern of the 
 Church is with his preparation for eternity, whence 
 is he to derive the knowledge which will fit him 
 to act that part ; to fulfil the duties of the condition 
 of life in which it has pleased God to place him ? 
 Why may not the State interpose to communicate 
 this knowledge ? It has a deep interest in the 
 education of children ; in taking care that they 
 shall be furnished with such instruction as will 
 render them useful members of the community, 
 and enable them to contribute their share towards 
 the promotion of the general welfare. Why, then, 
 may it not take upon itself, or, rather, is it not 
 bound to take upon itself, the office of communi- 
 cating secular instruction, which falls immediately 
 within its province, and does not properly fall 
 within the province of the Church? Here is no
 
 28 
 
 interference with the Church ; she may continue, 
 as she does at present, to instil religious principles 
 into the minds of the rising generation. 
 
 This is the real question now at issue with 
 reference to the important subject of education ; 
 whether religious shall be communicated separately 
 from secular instruction ? Whether the latter 
 shall be furnished to the people out of funds 
 j>rovided by the State, and they shall be left to 
 seek the former for themselves ? of which the 
 result will too often be, that they will not seek it 
 at all. I am far from meaning to say that the 
 patrons of the system of separate secular instruc- 
 tion contemplate the production of such a result. 
 But such appears to me to be the necessary ten- 
 dency of the separation. The impression made 
 upon the public mind will be, that the State sets 
 the greatest value on that to which it gives direct 
 encouragement, for which it makes special pro- 
 vision ; that it considers secular instruction as of 
 the essence of education, religious merely as acces- 
 sory, as that which may or may not be super-added 
 at pleasure ; and thus the importance of religious 
 education will be lowered in the estimation of the 
 people. 
 
 But let us look at the question under another 
 point of view. Is the State, by introducing a 
 system of separate secular instruction, taking 
 the most effectual means of accomplishing even 
 its own object ? That object is the formation
 
 29 
 
 of virtuous and useful citizens ; which, under this 
 system, is to be effected by teaching the child what 
 is his real temporal interest, and how he may 
 most effectually promote it ; and by training him 
 up in habits of industry, activity, and good order. 
 We deny not that these are material parts of a 
 good education ; but are they alone sufficient to 
 form a virtuous and useful citizen ? Mere know- 
 ledge, secular or religious, is only an instrument 
 which may be employed for good or evil, according 
 to the disposition of the possessor ; and if his 
 disposition be evil, will only render him more 
 dangerous to the community. The same may be 
 said of habits of regularity, activity, and industry. 
 Men may be active and industrious in the promo- 
 tion of evil as well as good ; and there is nothing 
 in the habits themselves which will ensure their 
 direction to beneficial purposes. Experience, too, 
 teaches us that, in order to induce men uniformly 
 and steadily to pursue their own interest, it is not 
 sufficient to point out to them the course by which 
 they will most effectually promote it. Their con- 
 duct is perpetually at variance with the conclusions 
 of their understanding ; nay, more, their inclina- 
 tions and passions not unfrequently affect the very 
 conclusions, casting a mist over their mental vision, 
 and preventing them from discerning the truth. 
 A system of education, in order to deserve the 
 name, must be a training of the whole man : must 
 apply to every part of the constitution of his
 
 50 
 
 nature. Not only must the understanding be 
 developed, but there must be a discipline of the 
 heart and its affections ; the appetites and passions 
 must be brought under the control of a well- 
 informed conscience. And how is the conscience 
 to become well-informed ? through the medium of 
 religious instruction — instruction derived from 
 those Scriptures which set before us the will of 
 God and our own duty. To secure, therefore, the 
 very object which the State has in view in impart- 
 ing secular instruction, religious instruction must 
 be interwoven with it. We mean not to say that 
 even then the desired end will be always attained ; 
 that the important truths which we instil into the 
 youthful mind will always exert a due influence 
 over the practice : but we say that as far as the 
 formation of the character of the child is dependant 
 on human exertion, it is by this process alone that 
 we can hope to secure the application of the 
 secular instruction which we give him to his own 
 benefit and that of society. 
 
 Whatever be the final determination of the legis- 
 lature on this important question, our course, my 
 Reverend Brethren, is clear. I have already briefly 
 noticed the part which the Church expects her mi- 
 nisters to bear in the education of the rising genera- 
 tion l . She means them to regard themselves as the 
 
 1 See the Conferences of Massillon, torn. iii. De I'lnstruc- 
 tion des Enfans.
 
 31 
 
 spiritual parents of every child whom they baptize ; 
 as having contracted towards him parental obliga- 
 tions ; as having pledged themselves to train him 
 up in the fulfilment of his baptismal vows. He 
 has, through their agency, been born again with 
 water and the Spirit : if then they take no care by 
 godly instruction to promote his spiritual growth, 
 how do they differ from the unnatural parent who 
 deserts the infant to which she has given birth ? 
 Consider, my Reverend Brethren, the importance 
 of taking advantage of the age of purity and doci- 
 lity, when the soul is yet ready to receive impres- 
 sions favourable to holiness and goodness : when 
 you have no prejudices to overcome, no habits of 
 evil to subdue. If you allow this precious season 
 to pass unimproved, you will in vain endeavour to 
 recal it. Wait but a short time, and you will 
 find that access to the mind is in a great measure 
 barred against you ; that the lessons of piety 
 which you inculcate produce no impression ; that 
 you have almost cut yourself off from the possi- 
 bility of reaping any fruit from your ministerial 
 labours ; for to little purpose do you preach to the 
 man, if you have allowed the child to grow up in 
 ignorance. Consider too, that children, as they 
 are the most interesting, are also the most impor- 
 tant portion of your flock ; that they will become 
 parents in turn, and that on them must, in the 
 ordinary course of God's Providence, depend the 
 moral character of their offspring. If you labour
 
 32 
 
 to instil good principles into them, and the Divine 
 blessing attends your labours, you will ensure a 
 succession of generations, all walking in the ways 
 and the commandments of God. If you neglect 
 your trust, if you take no pains to instruct the 
 children, whom the Church commits to your care, 
 in their Christian duties, they will assuredly grow 
 up in the practice of evil themselves, and will, 
 through their offspring, perpetuate vice and mi- 
 sery. 
 
 If I appear to express myself strongly on this 
 subject, it is because I think that its importance 
 cannot be overrated ; because I entirely concur in 
 the opinion, " that the very existence of the Estab- 
 lished Church rests upon the success of the effort 
 which she is now making, under Divine grace, to 
 instruct the rising generation in her ieligious prin- 
 ciples." Of the present generation many have been 
 estranged from us ; some, it is to be feared, by our 
 own remissness; more by our inability to supply 
 the spiritual wants of the rapidly increasing popula- 
 tion ; to provide ministers who might instruct the 
 growing numbers, and Churches in which they 
 might be instructed. To bring back those who 
 have once united themselves to other religious 
 communities, is at all times a difficult task : let us 
 then direct our attention to the young. The inte- 
 rest which we show in the welfare of the child, if it 
 does not recal the parent, will at least disarm hos- 
 tility, and mitigate the bitterness of opposition. In
 
 33 
 
 the first Charge which I delivered upon my appoint- 
 ment to the superintendance of this diocese, I 
 alluded to the general disuse into which the prac- 
 tice of catechizing had fallen, and traced it partly to 
 the establishment of national schools, which, by sup- 
 plying the same religious instruction, appeared to 
 render this portion of the ministerial labours less 
 necessary. I cannot, however, but think that the 
 practice might be resumed with advantage, especially 
 if it were accompanied by a lecture, explanatory of 
 the different parts of the Church Catechism. Such 
 a lecture might be made the vehicle of communi- 
 cating information to the older, as well as the 
 younger part, of the congregation ; and you could 
 not perhaps adopt a better mode of carrying into 
 effect that provision in the Plurality Act, respecting 
 a second sermon, to which I have already called 
 your attention. 
 
 What I have hitherto said relates to the duty 
 which each minister owes to the younger portion of 
 his own flock. Assailed, however, as the Church 
 now is by a combination of adversaries, nothing but 
 a corresponding combination, on the part of her 
 own members, will enable her successfully to resist 
 the assault. It is not now sufficient for a Church- 
 man, lay or clerical, to say, " I take care that the 
 children of my own parish are trained in the nurture 
 ^nd admonition of the Lord ; that they are guarded, 
 as far as human prudence can guard them, from 
 the infection of vice and irreligion ; this is my pro- 
 
 c
 
 34 
 
 vince, and I mean not to step beyond it." These 
 are not times in which he can safely intrench him- 
 self in this isolated position ; he must bear in mind 
 that there are other parishes less favourably circum- 
 stanced than his own : parishes which say, as the 
 Macedonian in the vision said to St. Paul, " Come 
 over to us, and help us ;" weak points, which the 
 enemy will neither be slow to discover, nor to at- 
 tack ; and he must be prepared to contribute his 
 aid towards their defence. It is with the view of 
 securing this co-operation among the members of 
 the Church, that Diocesan Boards of Education 
 have recently been established in many parts of the 
 kingdom. They are framed in exact accordance 
 with the constitution of the Church. The principle 
 on which they are established is that laid down in 
 the Canons, — that to the episcopal office belongs 
 the superintendance of the instruction communi- 
 cated to the rising generation throughout the 
 diocese. The connexion of the Cathedral institu- 
 tions with the education of the people, which their 
 founders contemplated, is recognized and strength- 
 ened. The districts assigned to the different local 
 boards are identified, as nearly as possible, with the 
 existing ecclesiastical divisions ; and their proceed- 
 ings are conducted under the control of the ancient 
 ecclesiastical authorities, the Archdeacons and Rural 
 Deans. The advantages to be anticipated from the 
 system, when brought into full operation, are the 
 following : the procuring of accurate information
 
 35 
 
 respecting the state of education in each diocese, 
 and the consequent establishment of schools in 
 districts in which they are now wanted ; the im- 
 provement of the mode of education in the schools 
 already existing, by the employment of better qua- 
 lified masters, who will receive the requisite instruc- 
 tion in the Diocesan Training Schools, and by the 
 introduction of a system of regular inspection ; the 
 establishment of good schools for the children of the 
 middle classes, in which they will receive a sound 
 religious education, according to the principles of 
 the Established Church ; and, above all, the addi- 
 tional efficacy which will be given to our efforts for 
 the education of the people in general, by uni- 
 formity of plan and operation. Convinced, as I am, 
 that this system must have the effect of bringing 
 the benefits conferred by the Church more closely 
 home to the bosoms of the middle and poorer classes 
 of society, and of thus fixing it more firmly in their 
 affections, I am assured, my Reverend Brethren, 
 that you will give the local boards, with which 
 your several parishes are connected, your cordial 
 and active support. 
 
 There is still another subject, to which I must 
 draw your attention before I bring this address to 
 a close. Fifteen years ago, I ventured to express 
 the opinion that the time was not far distant, when 
 the whole controversy between the Roman and 
 Anglican churches would be revived, and every 
 point which had formerly been made a matter of 
 
 c2
 
 36 
 
 dispute, would again be discussed. The event has 
 proved that I was not mistaken in my anticipation ; 
 and I am in consequence induced to offer some 
 brief remarks upon one of the most important of 
 the controverted points, — the Rule of Faith, in 
 which is involved the question of the authority of 
 Tradition. You are perhaps aware that the expres- 
 sion, " Regula Fidei," or its equivalent, 6 Kavwv ring 
 7ri'crr£wc, o /cavwv rf^ aXyOdag, frequently occurs in 
 the writings of the early fathers. It is, therefore, 
 important to ascertain what meaning they attached 
 to it. Irenseus, who wrote in the second century 
 in confutation of the Gnostic heresies then preva- 
 lent, informs us that, when the heretics were 
 confuted out of scripture, they appealed to oral 
 Tradition 1 . He proceeds, therefore, to inquire where 
 the true apostolic doctrine is to be sought. He 2 
 
 1 Quum enim ex Scripturis arguuntur, in accusationem con- 
 vertuntur ipsarum Scripturarum, quasi non recte habeant, neque 
 sint ex authoritate, et quia varie sint dictae, et quia non possit 
 ex his inveniri Veritas ab his, qui nesciant Traditionem. Non 
 enim per literas traditam illam, sed per vivam vocem. L. 3. c. 2. 
 
 2 Traditionem itaque Apostolorum in toto mundo manifes- 
 tatam, in omni ecclesia adest perspicere omnibus qui vera 
 velint videre : et habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis 
 instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesia, et successores eorum usque 
 ad nos, qui nihil tale docuerunt neque cognoverunt quale ab 
 his deliratur. Etenim si recondita mysteria scissent Apostoli, 
 quas seorsim et latenter ab reliquis perfectos docebant, his vel 
 maxime traderent ea quibus etiam ipsas ecclesias committebant. 
 Valde enim perfectos et irreprehensibiles in omnibus eos vole- 
 bant esse, quos et successores relinquebant, suum ipsorum locum
 
 37 
 
 answers, in those Churches which were founded by 
 the apostles ; " for it is not," he says, " to be sup- 
 posed that they would keep back from those whom 
 they appointed to be their successors in presiding 
 over and feeding' the flock of Christ, any portion of 
 the knowledge necessary to qualify them to become 
 the instructors of others. This knowledge they left 
 as a precious deposit in the Churches which they 
 founded, so that, if they had committed nothing to 
 writing, still the true doctrine would have been 
 preserved traditionally in those Churches, as it 
 actually is among the barbarous nations which 
 have been converted to Christianity, and do not 
 possess the scriptures." Here then Irenseus recog- 
 nised the existence of an unwritten Tradition, from 
 
 magisterii tradentes. c. 3. Tantae igitur ostensiones quum sint, 
 non oportet adhuc quaerere apud alios veritatem, quam facile 
 est ab Ecclesia sumere : quura Apostoli, quasi in depositorium 
 divesj plenissime in earn contulerint omnia quae sint veritatis : 
 uti omnis quicumque velit sumat ex ea potum vitae. — Quid 
 enim ? Et si quibus de aliqua modica quaestione disceptatio 
 esset, nonne oporteret in antiquissimas recurrere Ecclesias in 
 quibus Apostoli conversati sunt, et ab iis de praesente quaestione 
 sumere quod ceitum et re liquidum est ? Quid autem si neque 
 Apostoli quidem Scripturas nobis reliquissent, nonne oportebat 
 ordinem sequi Traditionis, quam tradiderunt iis quibus com- 
 mittebant Ecclesias ? Cui ordinationi assentiunt multae gentes 
 barbarorum eorum qui in Christum credunt, sine charta vel 
 atramento scriptam habentes per Spiritum in cordibus suis sa- 
 lutem, et veterem Traditionem diligenter custodientes, in unum 
 Deum credentes, &c. He then goes on to state concisely 
 the principal articles of the Apostles' Creed, c. 4.
 
 38 
 
 which Christians might collect all that it was neces- 
 sary for them to know and to believe unto salvation. 
 But what was this Tradition ? ' It was the creed, the 
 regula fidei, that summary of religious truth, in 
 which every catechumen was required to profess 
 his belief before he was admitted to baptism ; and 
 of which all the articles, as they are enumerated by 
 Irenteus, are expressly contained in Scripture. In 
 distinguishing, therefore, the Tradition of the apos- 
 tolic Churches from Scripture, far from meaning to 
 convey the notion that there was any difference 
 between them, he meant to affirm that they were 
 in perfect agreement. " 2 We have arrived," he says 
 " at the knowledge of the dispensation of our sal- 
 vation through no other channel than that, through 
 which the Gospel has come down to us. The Apos- 
 tles first preached the Gospel, and then, by the will of 
 God, delivered it to us in the Scriptures, that it might 
 be in all future ages the ground and pillar of our 
 faith." What the Apostles taught orally and what 
 they committed to writing, the unwritten and written 
 Tradition, was one and the same ; and when once 
 
 1 ovTio Ee ko.1 6 tov Kavova rijc aXrjdeiag cikXivt} ev tavrw 
 xa-E^wv ov Sia tov ficnrTiafiaTOi; t'i\r)<p£. k. t. e. Lib. i. c. 1. 
 sub fin. He then, in c. 2, gives this Rule of Faith, agreeing 
 in substance with the Apostles' Creed. 
 
 2 Non enim per alios dispositionem salutis nostra? cognovi- 
 mus, quam per eos per quos evangelium pervenit ad nos : 
 quod quidem tunc praeconiaverunt, postea vero per Dei volun- 
 tatem in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt, fundamentum et colum- 
 nam fidei nostne f'uturum. Lib. iii. c. 

 
 39 
 
 the Gospel had been committed to writing, the 
 appeal to oral Tradition was superseded. 
 
 According then to Irenaeus and all the early Fa- 
 thers, the Rule of Faith was no other than the creed, 
 the summary of truths, of which the belief was a 
 necessary condition of communion with the Catholic 
 Church. Thus then the controversy between the 
 Anglican and Roman Churches with respect to 
 doctrine, is reduced to a question of fact. Are the 
 articles in which the two Churches differ, and in 
 support of which the Church of Rome appeals to the 
 authority of Tradition, (Transubstantiation for in- 
 stance,) are those articles to be found in the Creed, 
 or the Rule of Faith, of the Primitive Church ? The 
 answer must be in the negative. 
 
 The Romanist, however, w^hile he must admit the 
 fact, will reject the conclusion which we deduce from 
 it, and contend that we have overlooked an element 
 essential to the right determination of the question ; 
 the authority conferred by Christ on his Church. 
 The Primitive Creed, he will say, has undergone al- 
 terations ; articles have been added to it, as the de- 
 scent of Christ into hell. The Nicene Creed contains 
 many expressions not found in the earlier Creeds ; 
 the Constantinopolitan creed added articles to the 
 Nicene. By w T hat authority were these alterations 
 and additions made ? He answers, by the authority 
 of the Church ; and asks, why might not the Church 
 of the thirteenth do what the Church of the fourth 
 century did ? Why might it not declare what had 
 9
 
 40 
 
 always been the true belief respecting the manner of 
 Christ's presence in the Eucharist, as in the Nicene 
 Creed it declared what had always been the true 
 belief respecting the unity of substance of the Father 
 and the Son ? Christ's promise is that He will be 
 with the Church till the end of the world ; He has 
 not cancelled that promise ; and consequently the 
 authority which the Church received at first cannot 
 be affected by the lapse of time. Thus, 1 as was 
 justly remarked by one of the theologians at the 
 council of Trent, the question respecting the Rule 
 of Faith and the authority of Tradition, resolves 
 itself into the question of the authority of the 
 Church. The Romanist affirms, not that the Church 
 can decree any thing contrary to Scripture, or add 
 any new article of faith ; but that it can infallibly 
 declare what is the true interpretation of Scripture, 
 and what has always been the true belief with re- 
 spect to particular doctrines. 
 
 I have, I believe, stated the reasoning of the 
 Romanist fully and fairly. I mean at least to do so. 
 You will not fail to perceive that one point is 
 assumed in it — the appointment by Christ of an 
 infallible judge of controversy in the Church. I say 
 assumed ; because, if the Romanist is asked to prove 
 this point, he must either decline to answer, on the 
 plea that it is one which the Church cannot allow 
 
 1 History of the Council of Trent in Courayer's Translation, 
 book ii. c. 45.
 
 41 
 
 to be discussed ; or, reasoning in a vicious circle, he 
 must appeal to Scripture, as interpreted by the 
 uniform Tradition of the Church. Having said that 
 we are to receive the Church's interpretation of 
 Scripture on the ground of its infallible authority, 
 he must now allege that very interpretation of Scrip- 
 ture in proof of its infallibility. 
 
 Supposing, however, the appeal to be made, where 
 are we to look for the uniform Tradition of the 
 Church ? In the writings of the Fathers ? Who are 
 the Fathers? A series of writers extending through 
 ten centuries, of whom the more recent cannot be 
 regarded as independant witnesses to the faith of 
 the primitive Church, but merely as repeating what 
 had been declared to be such by those who preceded 
 them. To the authority then of the early Fathers 
 alone, can weight in this question be attached ; and 
 when they, living as they did near to the Apostolic 
 times, tell us what was the Rule of Faith then taught, 
 and what were the sacred books then read in the 
 Church, we receive their testimony as that of wit- 
 nesses in whose means of information, and in whose 
 integrity we have perfect confidence. But when 
 they put forth their own arguments in defence of 
 the Rule of Faith, or their own interpretations of 
 Scripture, we no longer regard them as witnesses \ 
 
 1 Non de testimonio eorum, sed vero de judicio est quaestio, 
 in qua nullum habent a sua vetustate prsesidium. Dodwelli 
 Diss. Cyprianicae, iv. § 13. 
 
 D
 
 42 
 
 but as reasoners : and we pay no greater deference 
 to their authority than to that of other good and 
 pious, but fallible men. In the exercise of the right 
 of private judgment, we are bound to consult every 
 source of information, from which we are likely to 
 obtain the means of arriving at a just conclusion ; 
 and an interpreter of the Bible would be guilty of 
 great presumption, if he were to disregard, or to 
 reject without examination, the opinions of the Fa- 
 thers ; but he is not bound implicitly to subscribe 
 to them, even when he finds a very general agree- 
 ment in any one interpretation. The only autho- 
 ritative Tradition is that of which Ireneeus speaks, 
 the doctrine delivered by the Apostles to the 
 Churches which they founded, and afterwards con- 
 signed by them to writing in the volume of the New 
 Testament, in order that it might be in all future 
 ages the ground and pillar of the truth. The Church 
 of England, therefore, almost speaks the language 
 of Irenseus, when she declares that holy Scripture 
 contains all things necessary to salvation ; and pro- 
 poses it as the test by which the truth of every 
 doctrine is to be tried ; requiring her members to 
 give their assent to the three creeds, not because 
 they were sanctioned by the decrees of councils, not 
 in obedience to any infallible authority residing in 
 herself, but because they can be proved by most 
 certain warrants of holy writ. She calls not the 
 Scriptures the Rule of Faith. The framers of her 
 articles knew that in the primitive Church, this
 
 43 
 
 title was applied to the creed. But she says that 
 no article is to be received as a part of that Rule 
 which is not read in, or cannot be proved by 
 Scripture. 
 
 There are still several questions, connected with 
 the doctrines, the discipline, and the temporal in- 
 terests of the Church ; on which, if the time would 
 permit, I should be disposed to offer some observa- 
 tions. But I fear that I have already wearied your 
 patience. I will, therefore, add only one remark. 
 I have spoken of the present state of the established 
 Church, as a state of difficulty and trial — a repre- 
 sentation of which even our adversaries will not 
 dispute the correctness. The fact is to them a 
 source of rejoicing. Let it operate on us, my Re- 
 verend Brethren, as a motive to self-examination, 
 and anxious enquiry, whether this state of things 
 may not be traced in some degree to our own neg- 
 lect : as a motive to increased circumspection in 
 our life and conversation, increased activity and 
 zeal in the discharge of all our ministerial duties : 
 above all, as a motive to increased earnestness in 
 our prayers to Almighty God, by whose Spirit the 
 whole body of the Church is governed and sancti- 
 fied, that He will be pleased to enable each of us, in 
 our vocation and ministry, to serve Him more effect- 
 ually to the promotion of His glory, and the edifica- 
 tion of the people committed to our charge. 
 
 THE END.
 
 gilbert and rivington, printers, 
 st. john's square.
 
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