^ . > * L I B RAFIY OF THE U N I VERS ITY or 1 LLl NOIS PRESBYTERIAN RIGHTS ASSERTED. // LONDON : rRINTED BY ROIiSON, LEVEY, AND PRANKLYN, 46 St. Martin's Lane, PRESBYTERIAN RIGHTS ASSERTED. BY A PRESBYTER OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. LONDON: JAMES BURNS, PORTMAN STREET PORTMAN SQUARE. M.DCCC. XXXIX, PRESBYTERIAN RIGHTS ASSERTED. The present circumstances of the Church of Eng- land, and her future prospects, render it highly important for the clergy of the second order in the ministry to understand their real position in the Church ; their duties and obhgations to the first order of the ministry on the one hand, and their own rights and privileges on the other. That a very general ignorance prevails on this subject, it is impossible for any one to doubt. By the generality of our legislators it is unknown that we possess any peculiar rights and privileges : they regard us as mere servants of the state, and they look upon the bishops as magistrates appointed to keep us in order. This, too, is perhaps the view generally taken by those of the clergy who are designated low-churchmen. They look upon them- selves as ministers employed by the government, and placed by the same government under the control of certain other ministers, who have high secular rank conferred upon them. Some of those who are styled high-churchmen are apt to err in the opposite extreme. Being deeply impressed with the divine right of episcopacy, they forget that the right of the presbytery is equally divine, and draw the hasty conckision, that episcopacy is a despotism, and that, consequently, to the caprice of their dio- cesan all the clergy of a diocese are bound, without questioning, to submit. If, without disrespect, I may speak of the bishops themselves, and infer their opinions from their conduct, I should say that they are as divided in their opinion as to their relative position with respect to the other clergy, as any of the parties to whom I have alluded. I believe, that with very few exceptions, there has never existed a body of men more desirous of doing their duty than the existing bishops of the Church of England. But their notion of episcopal duty varies considerably. Some appear among us as spiritual peers, associating with the other clergy, as the lord-lieutenant of the county with the in- ferior magistrates. These are generally the best, though not the most apparently active, bishops in the Church. They never needlessly interfere with the parochial clergy, but are always willing to assist them : they are the great patrons of learning and piety. Other prelates seem to regard them- selves as schoolmasters ; indeed I have heard it said of a high-establishment prelate, that his notion of a bishop is, that he is an examining master plus a jiroctor. Others, again, consider the whole dio- cese as one parish, and every parish priest as their curate ; thus reducing the clergy, in point of fact, to two orders, bishop and deacon. These are the most busy prelates ; but their activity, as we shall "•Vn^\ see, is not always advantageous to the Church. They seem most of them to have forgotten the authoritij, rights, and privileges of the second order of the ministry, which possesses authoritij, rights, and jij-ivileges scarcely inferior to their own. The fourth Council of Carthage decrees, " ut episcopus in ecclesia et in consessu presbyterorum sublimior sedeat; intra domum vero collegam se presbyter- orum esse cognoscat."* At the same time, these are the bishops who are desirous of obtaining from the state increased power — power to do as magis- trates, what as bishops they have no right to do. If they obtain an increase of power, our order will be depressed even more than it is now ; and this is another reason why it is necessary to let them know what our rights really are. Now the present writer was a zealous supporter of episcopacy at a period when to speak of the apostolical succession was looked upon as a sign of dementation by many who are now the most able advocates of the doctrine. He may consider himself, in a very humble sphere, as one of those who have been instrumental in opening the eyes of the public to the Scriptural authority of the epis- copate.f He does entirely believe that episcopacy * Can. XXXV. ■f It is not meant to say, that at the commencement of this century the doctrine was not taught ; it was asserted by many of our great divines, Jjy Bishop Ilorsley especially, and his worthy successor in the aichdeaconry of St. Albans, the late Archdeacon 8 is of divine right ; and when the deference, on principle, was not paid to the episcopal office which he knew to be due to it, he not only con- tended for episcopal rights and privileges, but w^as among the first and foremost, by his example, to maintain them. But he did not do this from any exclusive regard to the honours of episcopacy. He was influenced only by his love for the Church of Christ. Pro ecclesia Dei, pro ecclesia Dei, was his motto then as it is now, — the motto which he hopes will cling to his parched lips as he breathes his last breath. The well-being of the Church requires that due honour should be paid to the episcopate; but the well-being of the Church requires that more honour than is due to it should not be rendered. When we look upon human nature, we find that its corruption, in a great degree, consists of the disproportion which exists between its different component parts : one in- stinct is disproportionately strong, the opposite and counteracting affection disproportionately weak, and the issue is sin. So is it with the body ecclesiastical : if the episcopal power be dispro- portionately exalted, so as unduly to depress the Watson, that kind-hearted, humble-minded, venerable, and learned man, " whose praise is throughout all the Churches." But it was a kind of esoteric doctrine, merely whispered among the clergy, not noised abroad among the public, as in our better days. The study of evidences had made our controversialists take the nar- rowest ground they could find, and every doctrine which they did not think essential, they thought it expedient to withhold. presbyterate, the diaconate, or even the rights of the laity, evil must ensue. Of late years the lay influence in the Church of England has undoubt- edly been too great, and with a section of the Church there is a desire to increase it : laymen have thrust themselves into the places of the clergy, presided over meetings of a purely religious character, sent forth missionaries together with the bishops, and done almost every ministerial act ; and in our towns they are coveting, and, by means of the five-trustee churches, are securing to them- selves, the powers exercised by the lay dissenters, of whose tyranny, the most vehement advocates of schism, among dissenting preachers, loudly com- plain. To counteract this usurpation, the clergy have been zealous in pointing out to their people the rights of episcopacy. But still, when we have done this, there will be a want of proportion, if the rights of the other clergy are forgotten. Let this be always remembered; for the sake of the Church, each order and degree should maintain its rights, and not exceed them. All members of the Church of Christ, lay as well as clerical, are consecrated ; as of the ancient, so of the spiritual Israel, it is said that they are " a chosen generation, a royal priest- hood, a holy nation, a peculiar people :"* the laity are consecrated at baptism to preach the gospel by a holy example ; as heads of families, they inherit patriarchal rights, they are to instruct their house- * Compare Exod. xix. 5, 6, witli 1 Pet. ii. 9. 10 holds in the Gospel, and minister at the domestic altar. Over an assembly of families the presbyter is ordained to preside, and to administer the sacra- ments among them, with or without a deacon. Over an assembly of parishes the bishop presides ; over an assembly of dioceses the metropolitan. The metropolitan is the centre of unity to the provincial (or, as politicians style it, the national) Church ; the bishop is the centre of unity to the diocese ; the incumbent is the centre of unity to the parish ; the father is the centre of unity to the family. If the presbyter unduly interferes with the family arrangements, confusion ensues ; and con- fusion also ensues if the bishop unduly interferes with the parochial arrangements. But when a family in his parish is disorderly, the presbyter is bound, in duty, to interfere ; and so is the bishop to interfere when parochial duties are not properly discharged. Here we see order and regularity strictly preserved. If the layman, on the other hand, intrudes into the presbyter's office, confusion of another sort is the consequence ; which is again the consequence if the presbyter, transgressing the boundaries of his parish, busies himself, except under the bishop, and by his command, in diocesan affairs; and this is again the consequence if a diocesan interferes in another bishop's diocese, and intrudes into the office of the metropolitan.* Let * A priest when ordained in Enfjland is asked, " Will you reverently obey your ordinary and other chief ministers to whom i 11 US not encroach upon the rights of a higher order ; but let us not forget that it is our duty to maintain our own. It will now be seen that the present writer is an episcopalian, with a due regard to the rights of the presbytery ; a presbyterian, with a due regard to the rights of the episcopate. He does not wish to encroach on the rights of his spiritual father, but he claims a right to use, as he thinks proper, what his father has given him. If a father, being in business, admits his son into partnership, the son, however grateful he may be for his father's kindness, however filial in his respect, nevertheless feels that he has, as a partner, a right to be con- sulted in all the speculations and transactions of the firm ; or if a father, on the marriage of his son, make over to him a farm out of his estate, the son, though he may be deeply sensible of his obligation to his father, though he regard himself only as his tenant, will still feel that he may assert the tenant's right to cultivate the farm on the principles he approves ; and the father is only then justified in is committed the charge and government over you, following with a glad mind and will all their godly admonitions, and sub- mitting yourselves to their godly judgments ?" and he answers, " I will do so, the Lord being my helper." A bishop, when con- secrated, takes " an oath of due obedience to the arcldtishop" " In the name of God, amen. I, N., chosen bishop of the church and see of N., do profess and promise all due reverence and obe- dience to the archbishop and metropolitical church of N., and to their successors. So help me God through Jesus Christ." 12 his interference when the son is clearly injuring the estate. Now, I admit and assert, that all authority to minister in sacred things emanates from the episcopate. Our blessed Lord commissioned the apostles and their successors. Their successors are the bishops. I will give them their highest titles, summi sacerdotes, pont'ifices maximi, pnncipes sacerdotiim, sublime fastigium sacerdotii: I am quite ready, as I always have done, to recognise a bishop as a 'Trar/jo •TruTi^ajv, an episcopus episcoponan. These were titles given to the bishops in the early ages of the Church : high titles, but let it be observed, titles which recognise the authority of the presby- tery. If the bishop be spiritual overseer to us, let him not forget that we are spiritual overseers to the laity ; if he be a spiritual father to us, we are spiritual fathers also to our people. Whether the bishops of the existing Church in England do thus respect our authority as we do theirs, is a question more easily asked than satisfactorily answered. But whether they do so or not, I concede the point, that to their order our order is indebted for all the authority we possess. But what I contend for is simply this, that the rights which we know, either from Scripture or from tradition, to have been yielded to the second order of the ministry, by the apostles, or by the bishops of the Church Catholic, no provincial church can take away ; and any addi- tional rights conceded by a provincial synod, or by custom or common law, to the clergy of that pro- 13 vince, no individual prelate can withdraw from the clergy of his diocese. When we were ordained to the presbyterate, we were ordained to a certain clearly defined office in the Churchy, and were at the same time invested with all the privileges pertaining to that office. No power exists among the bishops of the Church of England to withdraw from us that authority which, by our ordination, we possess as Catholic presbyters, to baptise, and preach, and administer the eucharist, in any part of the world where our services will be accepted by the ecclesi- astical authorities ; except that, after canonical trial, being fomid guilty, we may be degraded ; which is only saying, that when we cease to be presbyters, we cease to have the authority of pres- byters : and so again, as clergy of one of the two provinces of the English Church, when as presbyters we are instituted into our livings, we have rights of spiritual jurisdiction conferred upon us as sacred as those of the bishop himself, who, if he invades those rights, incurs the guilt which is incurred by any other usurper. I may illustrate my position by reference to our rights as Englishmen. Every one acquainted with history must admit the fact, that all our pri\T[leges and rights are concessions from the crown : Tories contend that what is thus true in fact is true also in principle, and that honour, privilege, and power, all emanate from the throne : but no one would, on that account, be deemed unloyal who should refuse to the reigning 14 sovereign the power to withdraw from the House of Lords, or the House of Commous, the rights and privileges conceded to those Houses by pre- ceding sovereigns. We may contend for their observance, as St. Paul did for his rights as a Roman gitizen. I have now said enough to make manifest my principle ; and I proceed to point out certain rights and privileges which we possess, and are in duty bound to maintain, but which seem to have been forgotten both by bishops and presbyters. It may seem trivial, but as it will serve to shew the false position into which we have unconsciously sunk, I will venture to allude to a title which was very generally given to our order in the primitive Church. We were frequently designated as clergy of the second throne, because, though our seats were less elevated than that of the bishop, we were accustomed to sit with him within the rails of the chancel, the deacons standing around. Is this the place which the presbyters of England assume when they meet their bishops ? In most dioceses, at a visitation, we find the bishop sitting within the chancel, while the presbyters are standing without the chancel. Let the laudable piety and humility of the bishops of the fourtli Council of Carthage be remembered ; for they decreed, " ut episcopus quolibet loco sedens, stare j)reshyterum noii iia- tiatur."* And, alas, I may say, in passing, for the * Cartha"-. iv. c. 34. 15 charges which we generally hear from our bishops ! what are they now but digests of acts of parlia- ment ? This may be a necessary evil, but it is an evil much to be deplored. But if acts of parliament are not enumerated, let me ask whether the tone of the episcopal charges is such, in general, as we have a right to expect ? Courteous, indeed, and kind they always are, in style ; and I say this be- cause I am not venturing to throw blame upon our bishops ; I only complain that neither they nor we are, at present, fully aware of our relative positions. Taking the generality of late episcopal charges, they are addresses from a magistrate to his sub- jects — not the addresses of the supreme ruler to his ^o-rulers. A diocese is not ruled by the bishop, but by the bishop and presbyters. If we go to the highest authority, that of Scripture, we find there that we are designated as rulers of the Church by the Spirit of God himself, 1 Tim. v. 17. If we go to the next authority, to the epistles of St. Igna- tius, we find, that highly as the episcopate is exalted, as great things every whit are said of the presbyterate ; and I here quote the words of one of the most learned prelates who ever adorned the Church of England. Speaking of Ignatius's epis- tles. Bishop Pearson says, " Si quid ego in hac re intelligo, quicunque presbyterali dignitati auctori- tatique maxime student, non habent suae existima- tionis firmius aut solidius fundamentum, quam epistolas sancti Ignatii nostri : neque enim in 16 ullo vere antique scriptore extra has epistolas tot ac tanta presbyteratus praeconia invenient, neque illiiis ordinis honorem sine episcopatus pra^rogativa uUibi constitutum reperient."* As Bingham re- marks, " St. Ignatius always joins the bishops and presbyters together." Thus, Ej). ad Ej)hes. n. 2, he bids them " be subject to the bishop and the preshj- terijr Ep. ad Mag7ies. n. 6, he commends Sotion the deacon, because " he was subject to the bishop as the gift of God, and to the presbytery as the law of Christ." Ep. ad Trail n. 2, he bids them '' be subject to the presbytery as to the apostles of Jesus Christ ; " and again, " reverence the presbyters, as the council of God, and the united company of the apostles, without which no church is called a church." At a later period, when, according to Bishop Pear- son, the power of the presbyterate had greatly diminished, we find St. Chrysostom saying, *' Bi- shops and presbyters do not differ much from one another ; for presbyters are admitted to preach and govern the Church ; and the same qualifications that the apostle requires in bishops are required in presbyters also : for bishops are superior to them only in the power of ordination, and have that one thing more than they."f We have a right, then, to expect, that while the bishop tells us the regula- tions he may think proper to make, as the supreme spiritual ruler of his diocese, he will take care not * Pearson, Vind. Ignat. par. 2, c. xvi. p. 4«28. f Hoin. II. in 1 Tim. iii. 8. 17 to say any thing which may interfere with the regulations which we may think proper to lay down as the supreme spiritual rulers of our parishes. And here I may, before I proceed, make a remark on the misunderstanding of the ancient expression, ' that nothing is to be done without the bishop.' It is most true that nothing is to be done without the bishop ; but we are not obliged to apply to the bishop every time that we baptise, preach, offer the eucharist, or pray : we have received our authority from the episcopal college to discharge these offices when we were ordained, therefore all these offices are done with the bishop : and so with respect to parochial government, we were invested with spiritual jurisdiction in our parishes when we were instituted ; and in the exercise of that jurisdic- tion in all our parochial arrangements, we therefore act with the bishop until we are deprived of our benefice. I now proceed to another very important pri- vilege which belongs to us. Being co-rulers of the diocese with the bishop, we have a right to expect him to consult us on all important occasions. Ignatius {Ej). ad Magnes. n. 6) exhorts the people to act not only under the bishop, but under the presbyters, who are " in the place of the apostolical senate." By St. Chrysostom {De Sacerdot. lib. iii. c. 15), we are styled the sanhedrim of the presby- ters, ro TiJv '7r§i(j(ovrs§ojv ffvushoiov. By St. Cyprian, as Bingham translates it, the sacred and venerable B 18 bench of the clergy, cle?i sacrum venerandumque consessum (Ep. Bb, al. 59, ad Cornel.) By St. Jerome, in Esai. iii. torn. v. p. 17, " the Church's senate, and the senate of Christ." By Oiigen, Com. in Mat., and by the Apostolical Constitutions, lib. ii. c. 28, '' the bishop's counsellors, and the council of the Church." Thus, as Bingham re- marks, '' though the bishop was prince and head of this ecclesiastical senate, and nothing could regularly be done without him ; yet neither did he ordinarily do any public act relating to the govern- ment or disciphne of the Church, without their assistance and advice. The first ages," continues that writer, '^^ afford the most pregnant proofs of the divine harmony between the bishop and his presbyters ; for any one that ever looked into the writings of St. Cyprian must acknowledge that at Rome and Carthage, the two great churches of the AVest, all things were thus transacted by joint con- sent ; the bishop, with his clergy, did communi con- silio ponderare, weigh all things by common advice and deliberation. Whether it was in the ordination of the clergy (for Cyprian would not so much as ordain a subdeacon or reader,' officers something like our sexton and clerk, ' without their consent) ; or whether it was in the exercise of discipline, and reconciliation of penitents, Cyprian declares his resolution to do all things by common consent. And so Cornelius at the same time acted at Rome ; for when Maximus, and the rest of the confessors 19 who had sided with Novatian, came forward and made confession of their error, and desired to be admitted again into the communion of the Church, Cornehus would do nothing until he had first called a presbytery, and taken both their advice and consent in the matter, that he might proceed according to their unanimous resolution. Cyprian, in several other of his epistles, speaks of the same deference paid to his presbytery ; and in one place he more particularly tells them, ' that it was a law and a rule that he had laid down for himself, from the first entrance of his bishop- ric, that he would do nothing without their ad- vice, and the consent of the people.' Epiphanius observes the same practice at Ephesus in the con- demnation of Noetus ; ' for first,' he says, ' he was convened before the presbytery, and then again, upon a relapse, expelled the Church by them;' which, at least, must mean that the bishop and his presbyters joined together in this ecclesiastical cen- sure. In like manner, speaking of the first con- demnation of Arius, he says : ' Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, called a presbytery against him, before whom, and some bishops there present, he examined him, and expelled him.' " " In the con- demnation of Origen, the Council of Alexandria, which expelled him the city, was composed both of bishops and presbyters, who decreed ' that he should remove from Alexandria, and neither teach nor inhabit there.' The Council of Rome that was 20 gathered against Novatian consisted of sixty bishops, and as many more presbyters and deacons. The first Council of Antioch that was held against Paulus Samosatensis, had also presbyters and dea- cons in it."* Even in the fourth century, when our order was much depressed, we were still per- mitted to sit in consistory with the bishops, and in the provincial synods. In the Council of Eliberis there were no fewer than thirty-six presbyters sitting with the bishops : so there were in the Council of Aries. And though it may be a question whether they sat in general councils (although we find at the Council of Constantinople, A.D. 381, three presbyters subscribing wdth the bishops), still the bishops at- tending a general council were only delegates from the different provincial councils ; so that, virtually, the presbyters as well as the bishops had influence in ecumenical synods. Now, with respect to the Church of England, this principle is fully conceded. Our Church is divided into two provinces, and in the provincial synods of both provinces the presbyters have a right to be represented by members of their own order. Nay, it may be a question whether, by the Church of England, the principle is not car- ried too far, and whether, if convocations were again to assemble for despatch of business, it would not be necessary to introduce some reform in our system, so as to give the bishops yet greater * Bingham, Oric/ines Ecclesiasticcc, book ii. c. xix. s. 8. 21 authority than they possess m our synods — if we may be permitted so to style our convocations. But into the question of convocations and their revival, it is not my business at the present time to enter ; I only allude to the subject to shew that the Church of England, like a true branch of the Catholic Church, considers presbyters to be co-rulers of the Church with the bishops. I respectfully entreat my right reverend fathers the bishops, and my reverend bre- thren the presbyters, to remember this ; I entreat the laity also to be apprised of it : 1 entreat them to remember, what people are beginning to forget, that we are a sacred and necessary order in the Church; that by Eusebius we are called 'Tr^kl^oi, r^oiGromq by Gregory Nazianzen and Basil, ir^o- (TTUTui by Chrysostom, and pixeposifi by the ancient Latins, — titles which we share with the bishops, and which are intended to convey a notion of our rights, office, and privileges. If we are to do nothing without the bishop, the bishop is to do nothing without us. I say that this is forgotten, strangely forgotten, both by the bishops and by ourselves ; and it is no wonder, therefore, that it should be forgotten also by the laity. We may perceive this, in the first place, on the appointment of the Ecclesiastical Commission. It was determined by the great states- man of the age. Sir Robert Peel, to appoint an ecclesiastical commission. He looked upon the subject merely as a statesman, and he appointed 22 the commission as a friend of the Church. No one can blame him for what he did. Had he appointed a legal commission, he would have looked for advice, as to its formation, to the law-officers of the crown ; he would not have attended to the professional details, but he would have left that to them : so, in appointing the ecclesiastical commis- sioners, he consulted those prelates of whom the crown thought proper to take advice. Perhaps he could not have selected prelates in whom the Church generally would have placed more entire confidence. They consented to form the commis- sion, — whether rightly or wrongly, is not now the question ; but how was it constituted ? The laity of the Church were represented ; the first order of the clergy were represented ; but of the second order not one was called to the council : they were utterly disregarded. If the laity and the bishops were to agree, the second order, the presbyters, were to be compelled to submit. The venerable prelates who fonned the commission never once thought of us : far be it from me to blame them ; for so forgetful of their own insulted rights were the other clergy of England, that they were not conscious of the invasion of them. This is one of the evils resulting doubtless from the suspension of convocations ; for I believe that no single eccle- siastical commission was ever formed before in which some of the second order had not been asso- ciated with the first. The commissions formed at 23 the Reformation — those appointed for the transla- tion and reformation of the Prayer-book, that ap- pointed at the Hampton Court Conference, that appointed for the translation of the Scriptures, that appointed at the Savoy Conference, were all com- posed of presbyters as well as bishops. Surely it becomes us dutifully and respectfully, but, at the same time, firmly to remonstrate, when we find a sacred order of Christ's Church, only just inferior to the episcopate, so entirely overlooked as if it were a nonentity. The laity assume that the bishops have a right to determine for the Church what shall or shall not be done ; the clergy of the second order must, however, remind the clergy of the first order, that if they have a right as statesmen, conjoined with lay statesmen, to recom- mend any measures to the crown, they have no right to let it be inferred, that in so doing they act with any spiritual authority, unless they have se- cured the concurrence of the presbyters, their co- rulers. And so again with respect to the Church-disci- pline Bill. Into the merits or the demerits of that bill it would be beside my purpose to enter. That some reform is necessary in the ecclesiastical courts, all persons are ready to admit. The state assumes a despotic power, and takes upon itself to prescribe what that reform shall be : of course, we must submit. The bishops, as peers of parliament, may take part with the state ; but let it be clearly 24 understood, that in so doing they are acting, not as bishops, but merely as peers of parhament, and that their authority, consequently, is not greater in this matter than that of any temporal peer. As bishops, they could not make an alteration in the discipline of the Church without consulting their ecclesiastical senate, the presbyters. It was a feel- ing of this sort, though not fully developed, which induced the Bishops of Gloucester and Exeter to ask for the advice of their clergy through their archdeacons, — the only method left to them, now that the convocation is silenced. But the Bishop of Exeter seems only to have thought of the epis- copal authority, forgetting that of the presbyters. He knew that there is a strong feeling in the coun- try in favour of episcopal authority, and that there- fore the clergy generally are opposed to measures which would interfere with that authority; but even he seems to have forgotten, that the question of presbyterial authority ought to be introduced into the subject. The second order may indeed complain of the unequal justice which the state, in the plenitude of its power, is pleased to dispense. Facilities are introduced for correcting delinquent clerks of the second order, but not a word is said of facilitating actions against delinquent clerks of the first order. Let it not startle the high-church- man that I thus speak ; he is not really a high- churchman who maintains the divine right of the episcopate, and forgets the divine right of the pres- 25 byterate. In the primitive ages, bishops were, not frequently, but as occasion required, deposed. It is true that care was taken to prevent the bishops from being exposed to the mahcious cahmmies and slanders of every false accuser ; that, according to the rule of the apostle, the testimony of two or three witnesses was required before he was con- demned ; that a heretic was not permitted to give evidence against a bishop ; nor a single witness, though he were one of the faithful :* many other provisions were made, but the primitive Christians seem never to have carried their episcopal notions so high as to have supposed, like some of our legis- lators, that bishops were impeccable. If things remain in their present state ; if there be not some provision made for controlling the ministerial power of nominating to bishoprics ; if the enemies of the Church should, by chance, come into power, and seek its injury by placing at its head persons hostile to its doctrines (and things more improbable have come to pass), — it may be very important to have facilities afforded us for bringing bishops, as well as presbyters, to trial. At all events, for the mere decency of the thing, when the first order of the clergy are increasing their own powers by law to control the second order, they ought to make pro- vision by law so as to enable the second order to obtain redress against those whom they reverence as the successors of the apostles, but do not regard * Can. Apost. c. 75. 26 as either infallible in their opinions, or impeccable in their conduct. The Bishop of Exeter, indeed, assumes to himself, by right of office, a power almost despotic ; and by the circular against the Church-discipline Bill, pubhshed at Oxford, such power seems to be conceded to the bishop. The Bishop of Exeter deserves the thanks of the Church for venturing to look out fi*om the House of Lords, and to look to the Church itself; for thinking less of his peerage, and more of his episcopate ; for desiring rather to exercise his spiritual authority, than to receive temporal magisterial power ; and the publishers of the Oxford circular at all times deserve well at the hands of their brethren. But I do humbly conceive, that they have not studied this subject sufficiently : I do humbly conceive, that they have so dazzled their eyes in looking at the glories of the episcopate, that they are unable to see the glories of the presbyterate. The sun is brighter than the moon, but he only sees rightly who can also admire the lesser glory of the moon and all the starry host. It is with a reflected glory that the moon and planets shine, and yet we may not despise their light ; and if the authority of priests, and even of deacons, be less than that of bishops, and be derived from the episcopate, he would not be a Newton in the spiritual world who should overlook them. I deny, for my part, that bishops have despotic authority ; and for many reasons, I quote the following passage from Bingham. Having 27 observed, that, according to the disciphne and cus- tom of the prhnitive tmies, bishops seldom did any tiling relating to delinquent clerks " without the consent of their presbyters, who were their assessors, and, as it were, the senate and council of the Church," he adds : '' And here it is to be noted, out of the preceding canons, that if any clergyman thought himself injured by his bishop, he had liberty to appeal either to the metropolitan or a provincial synod. And in some places, the better to avoid arbitrary power, the canons provided that no bishop should proceed to censure a presbyter or deacon without the concurrence of some neighbouring bishops to join with him in the sentence. The first Council of Carthage requires three to censure a deacon, and six to censure a presbyter. The second Council of Carthage requires the same num- ber The true reading of the canon (of that Council) is this : the criminal cause of a bishop shall be heard by twelve bishops ; the cause of a presbyter by six ; the cause of a deacon by three, joined with his own bishop."* Whether, when a bill is next introduced into parliament for Church-discipline, it may be possible to simplify it by appointing the dean and chapter, i. e. a certain number of presbyters, to act as assessors with the bishop, when an accusation is brought against a clergyman ; or whether a synod of bishops may be appointed for his trial, to be selected by the metro- * Bingham, Origines EcclesiasticcB, lib. ii. c. iii. s. 9. 28 politan, it is not for me to say ; but I doubt whe- ther the dignity of a bishop would be more lowered by such a regulation, according to which he will be the judge, but not the arbitrary judge, of his clergy, than by his becoming, as in the measure lately proposed, the public accuser of the diocese before a tribunal presided over by a layman. Into so deep a subject I have no occasion to enter ; but what I have said may serve to shew some of my high-church brethren, that there is no reason for their feeling shocked, as they sometimes do, at the powers possessed by the standing committee of each diocese in the North American Church. When our prelates leave the House of Lords, and come down to the provinces to act as bishops, we certainly find the same oblivion of the rights and privileges of the second order of the clergy ; not that I blame the prelates, for presbyters are equally oblivious of those rights ; I merely lament the circumstance. It is said, though it is a subject on which I have not made sufficient inquiry to qualify myself to give an opinion, that the dean and chapter of a diocese form the ecclesiastical senate, which the bishop ought to consult :* it is certain that they possess many of the powers, sede vacante, which are exercised by the standing com- mittee in America. Whether any bishop ever does consult his dean and chapter, I cannot take it upon myself to say ; but I have been directly or indirectly * See Blackstone, b. i. c. xi. 29 connected with cathedrals for more than thirty years, and I certainly have never heard of their having, at any time, been troubled in this respect. And it is quite certain, that we never hear a bishop stating in his charge, that having consulted with his dean and chapter, he has decided on this or that line of conduct in the government of his diocese ; his regulations are all enunciated as the result of his own unassisted judgment. But whether the dean and chapter be the council of the bishop for the general government of the diocese or not, if the bishop is ever to consult his presbyters, it is abundantly clear that he is bound to do so when he enters their parishes for the dis- charge of episcopal offices. He enters a parish, not to supersede the incumbent thereof, but either to discharge one of those offices, such as confirma- tion, or the consecration of a church, which the presbyter himself has no authority to discharge; or to act as an episcopus episcojn, the overseer of the incumbent, who is overseer himself of the dis- trict assigned to him, and to be assured no duty prescribed by the Church is omitted. Now, when he comes to discharge his episcopal offices, it stands to reason that he ought to take counsel of the parish priest as to the best method of discharg- ing them in his parish. But is this ever done ? It is so by some excellent prelates, whom it would be invidious to name ; but it is very rarely the case. Perhaps the parish priest feels this invasion of his 30 rights at no time more severely than at the time of confirmation. Instead of being consulted as to the age at which circumstances render it most expe- dient for the young persons in his parish to be confirmed, he receives an official notice of the bishop's intention to confirm ; and the age of the persons to be confirmed is fixed, sometimes at four- teen, sometimes at fifteen, sometimes at sixteen. There are parishes in which it is most important that children should be confirmed while they re- main at school, and are under the control of the clergyman ; in other places, where the minister has been assiduous in catechising, young persons of thirteen are as well qualified as those of other parishes at fifteen or sixteen. Then, again, there are in every parish some parents (you may call them, if you will, weaker brethren, superstitious, and the like), who look in ordinances more to God's grace than to the human preparation, and desire that their children may at an early period receive the grace of cpnfirmation, that they may also, at an early period, be brought to the Lord's table. With these circumstances the bishop cannot be acquainted ; he has omitted his duty in consulting the parish priest as to the exigencies of his parish ; he resents as an insult any remonstrance ; his man- date has been issued, and it is irrevocable ; and the poor presbyter consults with his weaker brother as to the precise meaning to be attached to the injunction of the Church, " Ye are to take care 31 that this child be brought to the bishop, to be con- firmed by him, so soon as he can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments in the vulgar tongue, and be further instructed in the Church Catechism set forth for that purpose." " All these things can be done by my poor child," says the weaker brother, " why should he be de- prived of his privilege ?" The presbyter can only answer by recommending to him in private the doctrine of passive obedience ; a doctrine which he could not assert in public without exposing himself to the censure of the bishop. I allude to this cir- cumstance because the practice is becoming com- mon, and I know that the clergy feel the grievance. Surely our bishops, who are bound to consult their presbyters, may at least have such confidence in their judgments as to permit them to decide on such a subject for themselves. But so far from consulting their presbyters, there are some bishops of the Church of England who will not hesitate to head a faction against the incumbent of the parish. The injury which is thus done to the cause of religion is often great. Let us suppose a hard-working painful parish-priest to have matured all his plans for the management of the parish over which the Holy Ghost has made him overseer ; let us suppose him to have united the churchmen, al- ways excepting a factious few ; to have shewn, from Scripture and the teaching of the Church, the prin- ciple upon which he gives his support to some and 32 withholds it from other rehgious societies ; to have been proceeding cautiously, introducing first one institution, then another, —we can easily under- stand his feelings, if, all of a sudden, he shall hear that the Dissenters, having united with the factious few of the Church who happen to be opposed to him, have determined to hold a meeting of the Bible Society, or the Religious Tract Society, or the Lancasterian School Society, or some similar institution, and that the bishop, without deigning to consult him, or even to apprise him of his inten- tions, will preside at it. The spiritual peer attends, accompanied perhaps with one or two temporal peers, and other great men desirous to conciliate the Dissenters before the next election ; and thus he, who ought to be the centre of unity, becomes the rallying-point of schism. The liberal senti- ments of the spiritual peer are applauded the more loudly because they are contrasted with the ex- clusive Church principles of the pastor of the parish ; and as his lordship passes through the street, his condescension on the platform to his reverend bre- thren of the Baptist, Independent, and Unitarian *' churches," is compared with the cold distant bow with which, in the embarrassment occasioned by some undeveloped consciousness of having done wrong, he meets the minister of the " established" Church, i. e. of that Church which, in common with his Independent and Unitarian brethren, he does not regard as the church of the parish, but as that 33 one church out of many which happens to be esta- bhshed by law. And so all parties separate ; the Dissenters to laugh at " the humbug of the bishop's apron ;" the factious churchmen to eulogise the spirituality of the episcopal leader of their schism ; the spiritual peer to declaim to the temporal peers on the extreme want of judgment in the incumbent of the parish, who ought to concede something to the Dissenters, while his lordship is, in turn, con- gratulated on the popularity he is, by his liberality, securing for '' the establishment ;" the profane to laugh at " the flooring" of their pastor ; the worldly- minded to express their indignation at the idea of an incumbent with only 150/. a-year thinking that the Church and her principles are dearer to him than they are to a bishop with 4000/. a-year ; the poor to lament the insult offered to their best friend ; the presbyter himself to weep in private, and to pray ; and of prayer he will have ample need, lest he should be disgusted into inactivity. The true churchmen will also grieve in private, and ask — what ought to be done ? They will know intuitively that some wrong has been done, and yet they will not know how to remedy it. They will bemoan the injury done to the Church ; for if the incum- bent justify himself for not attending, he must, by implication, blame the bishop : if he does not justify himself, he will be lowered in the eyes of his parishioners, since he will appear to have been censured himself. 34 Now it is one of the objects of this pamphlet, by asserting the rights of the presbyterate, to let people see what ought to be done. They ought to remonstrate. The presbyter should protest against the invasion of his rights : he may even appeal to the metropolitan. I contend that he may do, that he ought to do this, on high-church principles. The day is coming — it may come shortly, unless there be some great change in the political world — when we shall have bishops coming into our parishes to support some government-plan of irreligious educa- tion. It becomes us to be prepared, and to assert the principle, that the bishop has no right to enter into our parish and to hold a meeting there, with- out having first consulted with the incumbent and the other clergy of the parish. If he do so, he commits an act of schism. Let no fear of being deemed unfilial deter us. If the bishop be our father, the church is our mother ; and if our father injure our mother, we must protect her even against him. I once heard of a man of rank, who was about to strike his wife ; his son interposed, bound his arms, and carried him out of the room, and then he immediately loosed him and let him go : the father instantly raised his hand to strike his son ; the pious son put his hands behind him, and said, *' You may strike me, if you will — I will bear it all; but you shall 720t strike my mother." And so must we deal by our bishop, when he would damage the Church by violating her principles. I do not say that the 35 bishop may not support the Bible Society, or any similar institution, if he will. He may be able to explain away all the texts which command us to keep the unity of the body — i. e. the visible church — as well as of the spirit ; he may be able to explain away Romans xvi. 1 7, Nozu I beseech you, brethren, •mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have heard, and avoid them ; and Heb. xviii. 17, If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publicati ; and 2 Thess. iii. 6, Now we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye with- draxo yourselves from every brother that walketh dis- orderly, and not after the tradition he received of us ; and 2 John x. 11, ^ there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, ?'eceive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. Presbyters and laymen have explained away these passages, and others more important ; and as bishops are not infaUible, a bishop may do the same. If he can do so, no one will blame him for presiding at one of the meetings of such a society in a parish where the other clergy, the incumbent and his curates, desire his attendance. All that I contend for is, that, on the principles shewn to be those of the Church in this pamphlet, he has no right to enter into a parish to support the society where the presbyters are opposed to it. But the tendency of the present practice of defying presbyters, instead of consulting with them. 36 to produce schism, and the watch fuhiess it becomes us to exercise over the attempts so frequently made by some of our bishops to arm themselves with the terrors of acts of parliament, may be more clearly seen by reference to the Church-building acts. If it be needful to erect a new church in a parish, w^ho is so worthy to be consulted on the subject as the incumbent of the parish ? But I have known it frequently happen, that a faction opposed to the incumbent, and determined to forsake his ministry, have resolved to build a church in preference to a meeting-house. They are building for themselves, not for the poor; they determine, therefore, to erect the church in the most opulent part of the parish ; to make it a fashionable church, such as may support a popular preacher ; and they resolve on having a district assigned to it which shall take away from the incumbent of the mother church some of the most influential of his parishioners. A mere formal notice is given to the incumbent, which adds insult to injury. They apply to the bishop, who, utterly ignorant of the locality and the cir- cumstances, without condescending to consult the incumbent or other clergy of the parish, imme- diately gives his consent. The insulted incumbent respectfully remonstrates. His remonstrance is un- heeded: the bishop waves in his hand the act of parhament. He abets the factious parishioners when they take a field out of the incumbent's estate ; and they look upon the bishop as the con- 37 stable, who, by consecrating the church, shall, so far as an act of parliament can, put them in pos- session of it. And here is a schism rendered per- petual ; for the incumbent of the parish, if he knows his rights, will defy every act of parliament in such a case. Neither act of parhament nor bishop can take away from him, without his consent, the flock over whom he has been made overseer. An act of parliament may punish, and he may submit to the punishment ; but he will ever consider the detached portion to be still his flock, and he will look upon the intruder as nothing more than his curate ; and so, probably, an endless controversy will go on.* But I shall proceed no farther : my object is not to point out all the evils which result from the depression of our order, but merely its tendency to evil. And in alluding to the above circumstances, I do not mean to implicate all the bishops in the acts of spiritual despotism to which I have referred, for the majority of our kind and excellent prelates * I am aware that there may be a perverse presbyter, as well as an indiscreet bishop, and that the former may be improperly hostile to the erection of a church much needed in his parish. All that I contend against is, against leaving the decision to the bishop, when a dispute arises, without a power of appeal. If the metropolitan were called in to decide, where the bishop and his presbyters disagree, thus forming a third party, we should have no reason to complain. Nor would there be injustice in the transaction as to future incumbents, who would take possession of their parishes with an understanding that a division of it might possibly take place. 38 would shrink from such acts; but what is done by some, ffia?/ be done by all ; and it is needful, therefore, to fall back upon our principles. I be- lieve that most of our prelates and most of the presbyters imagine bishops to possess, of divine right, a power more despotic than is really the case. If I succeed in convincing our right re- verend fathers that they are encroaching on the rights of the second order of the ministry — (and in encroaching on our rights, they are most effect- ually undermining their own), — I have such confi- dence in the majority of them, that I feel quite sure we shall have no cause to complain of future encroachments. And if I shall succeed in arous- ing my brethren of the presbyterate to a sense of their authority and their rights, so as to induce them respectfully to demand the observance of them fi'om their bishops, I shall have done the Church some service. For as Mr. Palmer, a high authority, observes : " The wealth and temporal power of bishops during the middle ages may have induced some of the ignorant to suppose that pres- byters were exceedingly inferior to bishops ; but the Catholic Church, which sees with the eye of faith, as she acknowledges the same sacred dignity of priesthood in every bishop, whether oppressed with extreme poverty, or whether invested with princely dignity and wealth, also views the greatness and sanctity of the office of presbyter as little inferior to those even of the chief pastors who succeed the 39 apostles ; and the Church has never flourished more, nor has the episcopate been held in truer reverence, than under the guidance of those apos- tolical prelates who, like St. Cyprian, resolved to do nothing without the consent of the Church, and who have most sedulously avoided even the appear- ance of 'being lords over God's heritage.' The spirit of genuine Christianity will lead the presby- ters to reverence and obey the bishops as their fathers, and will induce bishops to esteem the pres- byters as fellow-workers together with them, and brethren in Jesus Christ."* I conclude with expressing a hope, that in vin- dicating the rights of my own order, I have not spoken disrespectfully of a higher order. In elevat- ing the presbyterate, I do not wish to depress the episcopate. I shall ever value a bishop's blessing ; 1 shall ever maintain the honour of those who are the successors of the apostles : but when they are tempted by circumstances to assume an authority which does not pertain to them, and when they apply to parliament for the power of the sword, I shall not think that I am transgressing my duty, or acting an unfilial part, if I adopt the words of a brother presbyter of former times, St. Jerome, and say, " Contenti sint honore suo ; patres se sciant esse non dominos, amari debent, non timed." f * Palmer on the Church, part vi. c. il. f Hieron. Ep. 62. ail Theopli. PRTNTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND PRANKLYN, 46 St. Martin's Lane. THE REFORMERS OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH, MR. MACAULAY'S HISTORY OP ENGLAND. ):-t< rT^^- 1% .!» '^^ '■'^*' A