YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

THE CLAIMS OF
THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH
TO
EXCLUSIVE ATTACHMENT AND SUPPORT,
AND
THE DANGERS
WHICH MENACE HER FROM
SCHISM AND INDIFFERENCE,
CONSIDERED ;
IN
EIGHT SERMONS
PREACHED BEFORE THE
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, IN THE YEAR MDCCCXX
At the Lecture founded by
THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M. A.
CANON OF SALISBURY.

BY
GODFREY FAUSSETT, M. A.
LATE FELLOW OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE.

OXFORD,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE AUTHOR.
SOLD BY J. PARKER, OXFORD J AND MESSRS. RIVINGTON, ST.
PAUL'S CHURCH YARDj AND WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON.
1820.

CONTENTS.

SERMON I.
1 Cor. iii.3.
Whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divi
sions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men ?
General insensibility to the duty of Church Commu
nion. — I. Leading causes of misapprehension on the
subject. II. Prevailing modifications of latitudinarian
error. III. Plan of the following Lectures.
SERMON II.
1 Cor. xii. 25.
That there should be no schism in the body.
Schism. — I. Its nature and criminality proved from
Scripture, and illustrated by the opinions of the primi
tive writers. II. Usual evasions of the charge exposed,
and the measure of our obligations to Christian Unity
stated. III. Application of the argument to the religious
divisions of this country.
SERMON III.
John xx. 21.
As my Father liath sent me, even so send I you.
Episcopacy. — I. Its Divine Institution, 1. Traced in
the writings of the New Testament ; 2. Confirmed by

ii CONTENTS.
the universal practice and unvarying testimony of the
early Church.
SERMON IV.
Matt, xxviii. 20.
Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
The subject continued. — II. Episcopacy of permanent
obligation, 1. Inferred from its close analogy to the
form of polity previously instituted by God for the
Jewish Church ; 2. Proved from its being the only ap
pointed method of continuing the Christian Priesthood.
3. Objections answered.
SERMON V.
Rom. x. 15.
How shall they preach, except they be sent?
The Christian Priesthood. — 1. Proof from Scripture
that the Divine commission is necessary to the validity
of its important functions. II. Erroneous notions on
the subject considered.
SERMON VI.
1 Cor. xiv. 40.
Let all things be done decently and in order.
Forms. — I. The necessity of external form towards
maintaining the internal spirit of religion. II. The
authority of the Church in regulating the Celebration of
divine worship. III. The lawfulness of the course
adopted by our own Church ; and the positive benefits
derived from her appointments; — more particularly
from her Liturgy.

CONTENTS. iii

SERMON VII.
John xviii. 36.
My kingdom is not of this world.
Alliance of Church and State.—I. Natural independ
ence of the two powers on each other. II. Mutual ad
vantages derived from their alliance, if formed on sound
principles, and discreetly conducted. III. Theory of our
own Establishment correct; — its benefits impaired by
deviations in practice.
SERMON VIII.
Galat. vi. 10.
Let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who
are of the household of faith.
Toleration and test laws. — I. A test law necessary to
the security of the Established Church. II. Objections
answered. III. Religious indifference the leading source
of error on the subject. — Conclusion.

a 2

EXTRACT

FROM
THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
OF THE LATE
REV. JOHN BAMPTON,
CANON OF SALISBURY.

 " I give and bequeath my Lands and
" Estates to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scho-
" lars of the University of Oxford for ever, to
" have and to hold all and singular the said
" Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the in-
" tents and purposes hereinafter mentioned ;
" that is to say, I will and appoint that the
" Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford
" for the time being shall take and receive all
" the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and (after
" all taxes, reparations, and necessary deduc-
" tions made) that he pay all the remainder to
" the endowment of eight Divinity Lecture
" Sermons, to be established for ever in the said
" University, and to be performed in the man-
" ner following :

[ vi ]
" I direct and appoint, that, upon the first
" Tuesday in Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly
" chosen by the Heads of Colleges only, and by
" no others, in the room adjoining to the Print-
" ing-House, between the hours of ten in the
" morning and two in the afternoon, to preach
" eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year fol-
" lowing, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the
" commencement of the last month in Lent
" Term, and the end of the third week in Act
" Term. " Also I direct and appoint, that the eight
" Divinity Lecture Sermons shall be preached
" upon either of the following Subjects — to con-
" firm and establish the Christian Faith, and to
" confute all heretics and schismatics — upon the
" divine authority of the holy Scriptures — upon
" the authority of the writings of the primitive
" Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the pri-
" mitive Church — upon the Divinity of our Lord
" and Saviour Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity
" of the Holy Ghost — upon the Articles of the
" Christian Faith, as comprehended in the
" Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.
" Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight
" Divinity Lecture Sermons shall be always

[ vii ]
" printed, within two months after they are
" preached, and one copy shall be given to the
" Chancellor of the University, and one copy to
" the Head of every College, and one copy to
" the Mayor of the city of Oxford, and one
" copy to be put into the Bodleian Library ; and
" the expense of printing them shall be paid
" out of the revenue of the Land or Estates
" given for establishing the Divinity Lecture
" Sermons ; and the Preacher shall not be paid,
" nor be entitled to the revenue, before they
" are printed.
" Also I direct and appoint, that no person
" shall be qualified to preach the Divinity Lec-
" ture Sermons, unless he hath taken the de-
" gree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the
" two Universities of Oxford or Cambridge ;
" and that the same person shall never preach
" the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice."

SERMON I

1 Cor. iii. 3.
Whereas there is among you envying, and strife,
and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as
men ?
OF all the principles of our holy religion,
there are perhaps none which the world is
at present so prone to overlook, as the ob
ligations to Christian unity. We retain
indeed the name and the form of a church,
but we are very generally ignorant of her
nature and pretensions : we pray to be de
livered from heresy and schism, without
any adequate impression of the importance
of our petition ; and the sins to which St.
Paul assigns so conspicuous a rank among
those " works of the flesh"," which would
exclude men from "the kingdom of God,"
the very sins which some of the primitive
a Gal. v. 19—21.
15

2 SERMON I.
Fathers considered to be even inexpiable
by the b blood of martyrdom, are those
perhaps which in these days are practised
with the least compunction, and witnessed
with the most complacency.
Now this preposterous insensibility to
offences of such magnitude, is not only to
be found where we should expect to find
it, in the professed separatist, and in the ir
religious and profane, but in even those who
have neither forsaken the communion of
the Church, nor discarded from their minds
a general and lively sense of the value of
religion. The separatist may readily be conceived
to have succeeded in closing his eyes to the
true character of that devious course, which
b 'Avyp 8s tjj ayioj siwe ti SoxoOv sivai roXfj-riphv w\r]V aXA.'
o//.cof hfbsyfcaro. T/ 8); touto Icttiv; ouSs napruplov oilf/,cx. tolu-
tijv Suvairflat \%a\t\$iiv tijv apocprlav e$r)<rsv. Chrysostom. in
Epist. ad Ephes. cap. iv. horn. 11. edit. Benedict, vol.
xi. p. 86.
Tales etiamsi occisi in confessione nominis fuerint,
macula ista nee sanguine abluitur. Inexpiabilis et gravis
culpa discordise nee passione purgatur. Esse martyr
non potest, qui in Ecclesia non est. — Exhibere se non
potest martyrem, qui fraternam non tenuit caritatem.
Cyprian, de Unit. Eccles. edit. Baluzii, p. 198.

SERMON I. . 3
he professes even on principle to have
adopted ; and the profane and profligate
can scarcely be supposed to entertain any
profound respect for what they probably
deem the mere circumstantials of a religion,
to whose pure precepts and awful sanctions
they are alike indifferent. Here however
it would be natural to expect that we
might close the account; but far other
wise unfortunately is the case ; I have yet
named but "the beginning of sorrows;"
" our foes are even they of our own house-
" holdV There notoriously exists in the very bo
som of our Church, a party not inconsi
derable in point of numbers or activity,
who, in their inordinate zeal for the propa
gation of their own peculiar notions, league
together in the true spirit of a sect ; decry
the opinions, and undervalue the exertions of
their more sober brethren ; neglect, as com
paratively insignificant, the wholesome re
straints of ecclesiastical order; and forgetting
the precept, to " avoid them which cause
" divisions'1," on some occasions unite in
c Matt. x. 36. d Rom. xvi. 17-
B 2

4 SERMON I.
the promotion of common religious objects
even with the avowed enemies of that
Establishment, of which they profess them
selves members, and whose institutions they
are bound to support; thus, as much as in
them lies, removing from the sight and
observation of the unreflecting multitude
all practical distinction between unity and
schism, to which they were already more
than sufficiently insensible.
Besides all this, a very large proportion
even of the sincerest friends to the Esta
blishment manifestly entertain the most
vague and indeterminate ideas of Church
communion, and are most inadequately
formed respecting the true principles of
that Christian unity, which by the blessing
of God, rather than from their own settled
conviction of its necessity, they have not
hitherto been induced to violate.
I. The sources of schism are deeply
seated in the natural heart of man. His
headstrong obstinacy, his impatience of
control, his overweening conceit of su
perior discernment or superior holiness;
in a word, his pride must be effectually

SERMON I. 5
subdued by kindly influences of the Spirit
of God, ere we can hope for the final ex
tinction of those unhappy dissensions, which
have never yet ceased to disgrace our holy
faith, and afford a malicious triumph to the
sceptical and the profane. But neither
reason, I apprehend, nor experience will
lead us to conclude, that the ordinary and
unassisted operation of these passions, for
midable as they are, could ever, in defiance
of some of the plainest precepts of holy
writ, occasion religious divisions to such an
extent, as to threaten the overthrow of re
ligious establishments, or shake the founda
tions of the faith.
Whenever therefore schism has become
thus formidable, wherever, as is now too
evidently the case amongst ourselves, it has
attained to such a numerical consequence,
as to give a just cause of apprehension to
the friends of pure religion and social
order, it may fairly be supposed that some
adventitious causes have been combined
with those already suggested ; that perhaps
some unhappy deviation from sound policy,
some defect in the vigilance of the author-
b 3

6 SERMON I.
ized guardians of the Church, or some
untoward circumstances peculiar to the
times, have served to give it such an un
wonted impulse.
In briefly adverting to some of the more
prominent of those causes, which appear to
have encouraged in this country the rapid
progress of religious dissension, and to have
produced that utter ignorance of the nature
and foundation of ecclesiastical authority,
which cannot fail to propagate the evil, I
apprehend we shall be disposed without
hesitation to recognize among the most
efficacious, some of our choicest blessings,
even those which we are accustomed to
regard, and most justly too, as distinguish
ed marks of the Divine favour. The wis
dom and goodness of Divine Providence are
constantly and conspicuously exerted in
bringing permanent good out of temporary
and partial evil ; whilst man, by that per
version of faculties and wilfulness of pur
pose, which characterize his fallen nature,
seems as regularly engaged in counteract
ing these gracious interpositions, and de
riving for himself evil from good.

SERMON I. 7
It would not be easy to set too high a
value on the advantages of the Reforma
tion, on the blessing of being emancipated
from the unreasonable usurpation and
gross corruptions of the Papal see. But at
the same time it is sufficiently manifest,
that men have been unable to maintain the
balance evenly between the opposite ex
tremes ; that the scale of ecclesiastical au
thority is at least as much depressed now,
as it was before exalted ; that, exulting in
their escape from a " yoke which neither
" they nor their fathers were able to bear,"
they formed far too extravagant an idea of
that " liberty e wherewith Christ has made
" them free;" detesting their former thral
dom, they spurned at every the least vestige
of spiritual subjection ; having learned to
view with disgust the corrupt practices and
superstitious mummeries of Rome, they be
gan to conceive that all was corrupt, and
all was superstitious, that could be traced
to that polluted channel ; until every ce
remony, however decent and significant ;
every posture of devotion, however expres-
' Gal. v. 1.
B 4

8 SERMON I.
sive of humility and reverence ; every gar
ment of worship, however simple and un
ostentatious, became offensive to their un
reasonable prejudices.
The Reformation too, being in point of fact
a separation from an established Church,
has manifestly operated with many weak
minds, incapable of drawing accurate dis
tinctions, as a precedent for any future se
paration whatever; and forgetting the wide
difference between a corrupt Church usurp
ing an authority beyond her sphere, and a
reformed Church claiming her just domin
ion over her natural members, men have too
readily conceived themselves justified in
adopting every schismatical measure which
caprice or fanaticism or party-spirit might
suggest to them.
Who again can appreciate too highly the
blessings of that glorious system of tolera
tion, which we have so long enjoyed ; of
the utter extinction amongst us, not only
of the form, but even of the spirit of reli
gious persecution; and the liberty which
all alike enjoy of professing, without moles
tation or reproach, whatever tenets they

SERMON I. 9
may have adopted ? But to this source also
consequences unfavourable to Christian
unity may be plainly traced. To the stand
ard of human opinion we are all too prone
to look, as the measure of our duty. By
the penalties annexed to crimes, we uncon
sciously perhaps, yet still in a degree which
produces no inconsiderable result in our
conduct, regulate our ideas of their atro
city; and where the laws of man pronounce
no condemnation against us, we too rea
dily conclude that we are guiltless altoge
ther, and are little disposed to prosecute
with scrupulous minuteness the ungrateful
inquiry, how far this decision is seconded
and sanctioned by the laws of God.
Another very manifest cause of the pre
sent contempt of the authority of the
Church, is the relaxed and inefficient state
of ecclesiastical discipline. In this respect
it cannot be disguised that our Reformation
was f incomplete. " There was one thing
f Eight commissioners, among whom Cranmer appears
to have taken the lead, were appointed in the reign of
Edward VI. to reform the ecclesiastical laws. They
completed their work, and delivered it for revision and

10 SERMON I.
" yet wanting," said Bishop Burnet, " to
" gcomplete the Reformation of this Church,
" which was, the restoring a primitive dis-
" cipline against scandalous persons, the
" establishing the government of the Church
" in ecclesiastical hands, and the taking it
" out of lay hands, who have so long pro-
" faned it, and have exposed the authority
" of the Church, and of the censures of it,
" chiefly excommunication, to the con-
" tempt of the nation, by which the re-
" verence due to holy things is in so great
" a measure lost, and the dreadfulest of
" all censures is now become the most
" scorned and despised."
Whether from a horror of the former
abuses of ecclesiastical power, or from a na
tural assimilation to the independent spirit
of modern times, or from the unreformed,
and by consequence the complicated and
correction to another commission of thirty-two. Unfor
tunately the death of the king interrupted their progress,
and the business has never since been resumed. For
an account of this, as well as of the chief heads of the
intended laws, see Burnet's History of the Reformation,
vol. ii. p. 195 — 202.
s Burnet's Abridgment of the same, p. 369.

SERMON I. 11
intractable state of our ecclesiastical laws,

or from all these causes combined, the ter
rors of censure and suspension and excom
munication are no more; and the awful
sentence which brought b a mighty emperor
to prostration and penance before the ve
nerable Ambrose, would now probably, if
h " Open offenders were not suffered once to enter
" into the house of the Lord, nor admitted to common
" prayer and the use of the holy sacraments, with other
" true Christians, until they had done open penance be-
" fore the whole Church. And this was practised not
" only upon mean persons, but also upon the rich, no-
" ble, and mighty persons ; yea upon Theodosius, that
" puissant and mighty emperor, whom, for committing
" a grievous and wilful murder, St. Ambrose, Bishop of
" Milan, reproved sharply, and did also excommunicate
" the said emperor, and brought him to open penance.
" And they that were so justly exempted and banished,
" as it were, from the house of the Lord, were taken (as
" they be indeed) for men divided and separated from
" Christ's Church, and in most dangerous estate ; yea,
" as St. Paul saith, even given unto Satan the Devil for
" a time; and their company was shunned and avoided
" of all godly men and women, until such time as they
" by repentance and public penance were reconciled."
Homily of the right use of the Church, second part.
For a fuller account of the excommunication of Theo
dosius, as extracted from the Ecclesiastical Histories of
Sozomen and Theodoret, see Hickes on the Dignity of
the Episcopal Order, p. 217—222.

12 SERMON I.
pronounced against the meanest individual
amongst us, be treated with derision and
contempt. Again ; the general ignorance of the na
ture and constitution of the visible Church
has been very materially caused by the
scantiness of the means of instruction af
forded to the laity on such points. The
definition of the Church in ' our Articles,
probably from that moderate and concilia
tory spirit so honourably characteristic of
our Church, a spirit from which, in this
instance at least, she seems to have been
a sufferer, appears to have been purposely
1 Article XIX. thus defines the Church : " The visible
" Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men,
" in the which the pure word of God is preached,
" and the sacraments be duly ministered according to
" Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity
" are requisite to the same." Article XXIII. goes a
step further, and declares that no man may minister the
sacraments "before he be lawfully called and sent;" and
then adds, " those we ought to judge lawfully called and
" sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men
" who have public authority given unto them in the con-
" gregation, to calUand send ministers into the Lord's
" vineyard." These definitions certainly embrace most
important truths, but they leave the question between the
Episcopalian and the Presbyterian wholly undecided.

SERMON I. 13
drawn up with less precision than was to
have been desired. Our Catechism too,
though an admirable summary of instruc
tion on every point which it undertakes to
elucidate, convevs no information whatever
on the important subjects of Church com
munion and schism.
The sectaries, on the other hand, have
never been remiss, and when their minds
are once fully satisfied of the correctness of
their own persuasion, it is not to be ex
pected that they should be remiss, in ex
plaining and inculcating the principles of
their dissent.
Thus a most unfair, and, I conceive, un
necessary advantage is thrown into their
scale. For it is impossible to doubt, that
under circumstances so unfavourable, and
by a method so inauspicious, instead of
conciliating enemies, we must have been
constantly losing many well-disposed but
ill-informed friends, by having left that un
defined, and almost unnoticed, which ought
to have been accurately explained in some
form universally intelligible, and in univer
sal circulation.

14 SERMON I.
Neither has the deficiency here observed
been at all adequately remedied by the ex
ertions of the Clergy themselves. " Upon
" these topics," said an eminent Prelate of
our Church, towards the close of the last
century, " the Clergy of late years have
" been more silent than is perfectly con-
" sistent with their duty, from a fear, as I
" conceive, of acquiring the name and re-
" putation of High Churchmen k" And
there is, I apprehend, no sufficient reason
to believe, that had Bishop Horsley sur
vived to the present day, he would have
seen grounds to reverse his observation or
retract his censure.
That a gradual improvement in these par- ,
ticulars has been observable in the members
of our Church, may, I believe, be admitted;
but it does not appear to have kept pace
with the occasion which so imperiously de
manded it. A conviction of increasing ne-
cessity and impending danger has aroused
numbers to a more lively sense of their duty
in this respect, and called forth in sermons
k Bishop Horsley's Charge to the Clergy of the Dio
cese of St. David's, at his primary Visitation in 1790.

SERMON I. 15
and charges, and more regular treatises1,
many productions highly creditable to the
zeal and talents of their authors; but, at
the same time, it is but too evident, that
there has not been that general combina
tion and identity of exertion, which could
serve to stem the adverse torrent, aug
mented as it is from the opposite, but in
this instance unhappily united, sources of
schismatical hostility and latitudinarian in
difference. Besides, the writings alluded to having
had to contend with inveterate prejudices,
or, to say the least, having been addressed
to minds little prepared by any previous
impressions for the reception of the truths
advanced, and tainted perhaps by the spe
cious and imposing sentiments of modern
liberality, have acquired but little popula
rly in proportion to their intrinsic merit,
1 Among those most deserving of attention, are Arch
deacon Daubeny's " Guide to' the Church," and his
more recent publication " on the Nature, Progress, and
" Consequences of Schism;" Mr. Sikes's "Discourse on
" Parochial Communion ;" and Mr. Spry's Bampton
Lectures o"n the subject of "Christian Unity," preached
in the year 1816.

16 SERMON 1.
and to the importance of their subject, or
even in proportion to the extensive circula
tion of other works of far inferior preten
sions, but of dissimilar character and ten
dency. It is far from necessary, and I believe
would be altogether unjust, to suppose, that
the silence of the Clergy on the topics al
luded to is wholly, or even perhaps mainly,
attributable to the fear suggested by the
learned Prelate. Other sentiments far more
honourable to their Christian character
have manifestly contributed to the effect;
— charity to those of opposite persuasions,
a dislike to controversy, a desire to avoid
offence, an idea perhaps that error would
die away more readily from being left to
itself; — above all, probably, an inadequate
impression on their own minds of the con
sequence of these topics, too naturally a-
rising from the influence of general exam
ple, and the contagion of prevailing senti
ments.- Some or all of these motives, closely
allied as several of them are to goodness
and moderation, and none of them abso
lutely inconsistent with integrity, have no

SERMON I. 17
doubt had their share in inducing many of
our brethren weakly to palliate, or even to
suppress truths, which it was their duty to
have explained with precision and main
tained with firmness ; to make a most un
warranted and unscriptural distinction be
tween the doctrinal precepts and sacred in
stitutions of Christianity, excepting the lat
ter from discussion as trivial, and thus too
plainly "m shunning to declare all the coun
sel of God."
It need not surely be further urged, that
the result of such a system, generally acted
on, must be, as we experience it to be, a
laity most imperfectly informed of their
duty, as far as relates to Church commu
nion and schism, and of course in the same
proportion exposed to the plausible argu
ments of the sectary.
If I have succeeded in stating with any
tolerable degree of correctness the leading
causes of our religious dissensions, who can
possibly reflect on the combined operation
of such formidable principles for such a
m Acts xx. 17-
c

18 SERMON I.
long course of years, without well-grounded
and serious apprehension? Who can even
contemplate what his daily intercourse with
society must present to his observation, of
the increasing defections from our Church,
and of the indifference with which such de
fections are regarded, without being con
vinced that our situation as an Ecclesiasti
cal Establishment is becoming extremely
critical? I will not say that we should look
to this crisis with despair, and regard the
difficulties as insurmountable by any pro
bable exertions of our own, seconded, as
we might without presumption hope, by the
blessing of God on his own positive and
sacred institutions : but this I must say,
that the listless apathy, the blind security,
and latitudinarian spirit of these alarming
times are but wretched auxiliaries in the
cause, and that men must be rouzed to far
juster views, and far more lively zeal, ere
we can hope again to turn the stream of
opinion against our adversaries, or even to
erect a competent barrier against the rising
tide of encroachment which threatens to
overwhelm us.

SERMON I. 19
II. In order to present a clearer idea of
the prejudices which we have to encounter,
I shall briefly notice several of the more
conspicuous forms, under which the modern
ignorance and misapprehension on the sub
ject of Church communion and ecclesias
tical authority is found to prevail. And
should it appear no difficult task, to show
even on generally acknowledged principles,
that they are utterly at variance with con*
sistency and reason, it will serve as an use
ful introduction to the more regular discus
sion of our duty in these particulars, and
leave the mind more open to conviction
from the arguments which may be urged in
support of it from the express precepts of
holy writ and the recorded practice of the
primitive ages.
The leading prejudice of the age, the
very key-stone of modern liberality, is the
idea that sincerity is all in all ; that, pro
vided we are secure of our " integrity be-
" fore God V and conscientiously embrace
n " When you are secure of your integrity before God,
" and of your sincere disposition to search after his will,
" and to receive the truth in the love of truth, whenso-
c 2

20 SERMON I.
religion under the form that best accords
with our own views, it matters not whether
we be of this or that communion, or whe
ther we be of any communion at all. This
position, subversive as it must be of every
notion of ecclesiastical authority and Chris
tian unity, was the main foundation of a
controversy, most preposterously headed
by a Bishop of our own Church ; who is, I
apprehend, still regarded as prime author
ity by the numerous and, it should seem,
increasing party, who at the present day
have adopted his loose opinions. It is not,
however, easy to conceive arguments more
triumphantly confuted and exposed, than
those of Bishop Hoadly then were in the
Letters" of the celebrated Law.
" ever and from whomsoever it is offered, this will, I con-
" fess, lead you (as it ought all of us) not to be afraid
" of the terrors of men, or the vain words of regular and
" uninterrupted successions, authoritative benedictions,
" excommunications, or absolutions ; nullity or validity
" of God's ordinances to the people, upon account of
" niceties and trifles, or any other the like dreams of
" those who have separated themselves, or of those who
" follow them in these doctrines ; &c." Bishop Hoad-
ly's Preservative against Nonjurors, p. $8.
° These three letters have been republished in the

SERMON I. 21
This class of errors seems in a great de
gree founded on vague and mistaken no
tions with respect to the nature of con
science. " There is nothing," I quote the
words of Archbishop Sharpe, " more in
*' our mouths than conscience, and yet
*' there are few things we have generally
.*' taken less pains to understand. We sit
" down too often with this, that it is some-
" thing within us, we do not know what,
" which we are to obey in all that it sug-
" gests to us, and we trouble ourselves no
" further about it*."
" Scholar Armed," an admirable collection of tracts,
" intended for the information and assistance of young
" Students in our Schools and Universities."
P Discourse of Conscience, by Archbishop Sharpe, in
London Cases, p. 145. " By which means," he adds,
" it frequently comes to pass, that though we have
" espoused very dangerous errors, or happen to be en-
" gaged in very sinful practices, yet believing and act-
" ing, as we say, according to our conscience, we do not
" only think ourselves perfectly right and safe, while we
" continue in this state, but are effectually armed against
," all sorts of arguments and endeavours that can be
" useful for the bringing us to a better mind. This is
" too visible in many cases, but in none more than in
" the case of those that at this day separate from the
" communion of the Church as it is established among
" us." Ibid.
c 3

22 SERMON I.
Conscience, properly understood, is not
that confident persuasion which we may
perhaps feel on any particular subject, but
the opinion which we form of our actions
by comparing them with some approved
standard of judgment q; and this standard,
with a Christian, can be no other than the
law of God, as revealed in his holy Scrip
tures. But even here it is too certain that
a man may err in the application of his
rule, and that his error may lead him into
sin; so that it is far from following as a
necessary consequence, that, because he is
confessedly wrong who opposes the dictates
of his conscience, he must be as surely
right who sincerely acts in conformity to
it. But if we go still further, and admit
the vague and indefinite ideas of sincerity
and conscience which now prevail ; if we
1 " Always, when we speak of conscience in our ac-
" tions, we have respect to some law or rule, by which
*' those actions are to be directed and governed, and by
" their agreeableness or disagreeableness with which
" they become morally good or evil." Discourse of
Conscience, by Archbishop Sharpe, in London Cases,
p. 146. See also Daubeny's Guide to the Church, Dis
course vii.

SERMON I. 23
once assent to Bishop Hoadly's position,
that " the favour of God follows sincerity,
" as such, and consequently equally fol-
tl lows every equal degree of sincerity;"
we are inevitably involved in conclusions
far exceeding the contemplation of many
who have unthinkingly embraced the in
sidious premises, conclusions not more
hostile to any particular form of Christi
anity than to Christianity itself; since,
on such principles, it would be difficult
to shew why a sincere heathen or a sin
cere infidel should be less in favour with
God than a sincere Christian ; it would not
be easy to comprehend why our blessed
Saviour should have pronounced a peculiar
benediction * on those who believe, or why
he should have assigned to his followers the
laborious and hazardous task of " preach-
** ing the Gospel to every creature1." Nay,
as Law forcibly argues, " it is impossible
" there should be any difference, either as
" to merit or happiness, between a sincere
'« martyr and a sincere persecutor; and he
r Hoadly's Preservative, p. 91.
s Mark xvi. 16. John xx. 29.
1 Mark xvi. 15. C 4

24 SERMON I.
" that burns the Christian, if he be but in
" earnest, has the same title to a reward
" for it, as he that is burnt for believing in
" Christ"." So far indeed is sincerity from forming a
justification of misconduct, that in many
cases it may itself be sinful, or at least be
the strongest evidence of sin. It may be:
altogether our own fault that we are sincere
in an ill -grounded persuasion. Some wilful
misconduct, some unhappy abuse of our
faculties, some culpable negligence in im
proving those means of information which
would have directed our sincerity to a
worthy object, may be the true source of
our infatuation.
In short, the unqualified admission of the
principle of sincerity would sanctify every
atrocity which deluded enthusiasts have
ever committed; and to maintain its va
lidity would be as it were to assert, that
whatever we conceive to be right cannot be
wrong; in short, to supersede the laws of
God by the caprices of individual persua
sion. Let it never be forgotten, that, like
« Law's First Letter to Bishop Hoadly, Scholar
Armed, vol. i. p. 282.

SERMON I. 25
St. Paul, we may " sin ignorantly in un~
" belief"," even at the time when we
" verily think within ourselves that we are
" doing God service;" that God, in just
recompense for aggravated and persevering
offences, may sometimes " send men a
" strong delusion, that they should believe
" a liey; and that " there is a way that
" seemeth right unto a man, but the end
" thereof are the ways of death2."
Another very general shape, under which
the latitudinarian misconceptions of these
times present themselves, is a complete
confusion of ideas between the Church as
a society of divine institution, and the
Church as a political establishment; or
rather, perhaps, a disposition to consider
the Church, so far as its outward polity is
concerned, as left altogether to human dis
cretion. Many persons, even among those
who are well affected to our Establishment,
are obviously tinctured with this error.
Believing it to be their duty to " submit to
" every ordinance of man for the Lord's
" lTim.i. 13. y 2Thess. ii. 11.
z Prov. xvi. 25.

26 SERMON I.
" sake3," they are the decided enemies of
separation, and the friends of ecclesiastical
order. But the foundation of their adhe
rence is partial and insecure. Their prin
ciple indeed is true within certain limits,
and useful in conjunction with a higher;
but it is one, which of itself might serve
the cause of any heresy whatever, provided
it were patronized by the civil power, and
established as the religion of the country.
Where the institutions of God and
the laws of man, as amongst ourselves,
happily coincide, the obligations to con
formity are multiplied, and separation in
curs the guilt of twofold disobedience : but
bthey may be, as they have been, at vari
ance; and then, "whether it be right in
a 1 Pet. ii. 13.
b " The laws of men in this affair of religion are of
" the same obligation and force that they are in other
" matters. If they command things indifferent, they
" are to be obeyed for the authority of the command •
" if they enjoin things in their own nature good, the
" necessity of obedience is greater; but if they com-
" mand things unlawful, we are not to comply, but
" obey God rather than man." Law's Third Letter to
Bishop Hoadly, Scholar Armed, vol. i. p. 482.

SERMON I. 27
" the sight of God to hearken unto men
«' more than unto God, judge yec."
It is notorious that the Church of Christ
subsisted for several ages independent on
the civil powers, and for the most part in
open defiance of them. If kings have since
become " her nursing fathers d;" if the
Church has been generally enabled, with
out the sacrifice of what is essential to her
existence, to form an union with the tem
poral authorities, and the institutions of
men have, in numerous instances, been in
timately blended with the ordinances of
Christ ; it is our part to bless God for the
tranquil and unmolested course which is
offered to our obedience by this auspicious
union, not to forget either the essential
distinctness of these powers, or the infinite
disparity of their claims. Christ's " king-
" dom is not of this world6," though the
world may come into the kingdom of
Christ ; and should the rulers of this world
either reject and oppose Christianity, or
even enforce it under some form destitute
c Acts iv, 19. d Isaiah xlix. 23. e John xviii. 36.

28 SERMON I.
of the essentials of a Church, or debased
by destructive corruptions, a Christian s
duty need not be mistaken.
One manifest consequence of establish
ing the Christian Church on a human ra
ther than on a divine foundation, must be
endless innovation ; mutability being quite
as inseparable from the devices of man, as
stability and permanency are from the
works of God. This consideration alone
would have been a strong presumption, in
dependently of every weightier argument,
against the idea that a society confessedly
of divine institution at its commencement,
should afterwards be left, even in its cha
racteristic outlines and leading principles,
to the caprice and fickleness of man, to the
imminent hazard, or rather to the moral
certainty, of losing all those features of con
sistency and sameness, which are to be
traced in every other operation of the Di- .
vine hand, and which it would be natural
to expect in the works of that eternal
and unchangeable Being, " in whom is nO
"variableness nor shadow of turning","
e James i. 17.

SERMON I. 29
who is " the same yesterday, to-day, and
" for everf."
Another striking presumption against
the soundness of the principle in question,
which should go far towards undeceiving
those at least who have adopted it as the
argument for their adherence to our Esta
blishment, is, that, however they may find
in it a motive to conformity, it becomes to
others, by one natural and easy transi
tion, the very strongest encouragement of
their separation. Where the laws, like
our own, merely establish and maintain a
Church, and instead of tyrannically inflict
ing penalties on the non-conformist, wisely
and humanely support and protect him in
whatever profession his conscience, well or
ill-informed, may have led him to embrace ;
those who ground ecclesiastical authority
on civil appointment, should they, from
whatever motives, have fallen into schism,
too readily confound, as was before re
marked, legal impunity with absolute in
nocence, and the forbearance of human
authority with acquittal in the sight of
heaven.
f Heb. xiii. 8.

30 SERMON I.
This is, in fact, another most prevailing
modification of the latitudinarian notions of
the day. Liberty of conscience, by which
is usually understood a right inherent in
men, and duly recognized by our laws, of
choosing for themselves in matters of reli
gion, appears to be considered by a numer
ous body of our countrymen, as their most
valued privilege, their natural and cherish
ed birthright. " Ask an ignorant man,"
says an excellent writer on this subject,
" why he separates from the Church? his
" answer probably will be, that he lives in
" a land of liberty, where he has a right to
" worship God in the way he thinks pro-
" per. Ask a man of reading and under-
" standing, and he will quote respectable
'* authority for the same opinions."
It really almost too nearly resembles the
regular demonstration of an axiom, to set
about the formal confutation of so gross
a fallacy h, by urging that the laws of man
can neither supersede nor alter the laws of
God. Let us, however, consider this prin-
s Daubeny's Guide to the Church, vol. i. p. 420. se
cond edition.
h " If God then has been pleased to appoint a way in

SERMON I. 31
ciple in its obvious application to other
cases. It will be readily admitted, that
there are numerous crimes, and some of
them of the most heinous description, which
are necessarily beyond the cognizance of
human laws, and exempt from every hu-
nan penalty; and that there are others, with
which, from motives of policy, they forbear
to interfere. Will it therefore be main
tained, that a man has an absolute right to
do all the wrong which the laws permit,
that he may measure his liberty by his im
punity, that he may freely and with a safe
conscience expatiate throughout the exten
sive rangeof iniquity, which is thus opened to
his career? If there could be no hesitation
in replying, that in all these cases the com
mands of God and the immutable obliga-
" which he will be worshipped, I am no more at li-
" berty, upon the mere ground of my own persuasion,
" to worship him in any other way, than I am at liberty
" to act in contradiction to his revealed will iu any other
" matter. When men, therefore, talk of liberty of con-
" science, they would do well to consider, whether it be
'* not, as the phrase is now generally understood, rather
" a liberty of their own making, than any portion of
" that liberty wherewith Christ has made them free."
Ibid. p. 132.

32 SERMON I.
tions of religion await not the decision of
any earthly tribunal, why in the case be
fore us is it not also made the first consi
deration, what are the institutions of God?
Why is it not equally plain, that to found
a claim to neglect or alter these institutions
on the 'permission of the civil magistrate, is
to attribute to him a right which he nei
ther possesses nor assumes ; to look to an
' The extreme inconsistency of such a plea, when ad
vanced by our own Dissenters, is well worthy of more
particular observation. "The Dissenters," says an in
genious writer, " plead, that what is called the Act of
" Toleration has given a sanction to their separation,
" and taken away the sin of it. And," at the same time,
with respect to the Church of England, " they have, ar-
" gued, that it even ceases to be a Church of Christ, be-
" cause it acts under the allowance of the civil power.
" Yet in their own case, the King and Parliament, by an
" act,of grace, can make schism to be no schism ! The
" protection we have from the civil government is cast
" in our teeth as a disadvantage which extends even to
" the unchurching of us, and throwing us out of the
" kingdom of Christ : but the same thing (supposing
" them to have it) takes away from them the guilt of
" their separation ! And thus they give to the King and
"Parliament the privilege of God himself, who only can
" forgive sin ; which is more than we ever allowed
" them ! " Short View of the. present State of the Argu
ment between the Church of England and the Dissenters.
Scholar firmed, vol. ii. p. 58, 59.

SERMON I. 33
authority merely political for privileges
purely spiritual, for a liberty, in short, which
he can neither give nor take away ?
In fact, Christianity in its essential insti
tutions, as well as in its doctrines, is to us
precisely what it was to our forefathers in
the primitive ages, and what it will be to
our posterity in the remotest generation ;
it came forth from its Divine Author per
fect and immutable, and susceptible of no
improvement from the inventions of man.
In religion, therefore, the liberty now con
tended for is absolute licentiousness; — to
innovate is to impair; to model anew is to
destroy; and legitimate reformation is no
more than a recurrence1* to those original
principles, which in the lapse of ages may
have suffered from corruption or disuse.
k Bishop Hall speaks thus of the principles on which
our own Reformation was conducted : — " Be it known
" to all the world, that our Church is only reformed or
" repaired, not made new : there is not one stone of a
" new foundation laid by us ; yea, the old walls stand
ie still; only the overcasting of those ancient stones with
" the untempered mortar of new inventions displeases
" us. Set aside the corruptions, and the Church is the
" same." D

34 SERMON I.
Another notion highly prevalent at the
present day, and it unfortunately prevails
among many who are sincerely disposed to
piety and religion, is, that provided purity
of doctrine1 be preserved, it matters not un
der what form of Church government it be,
or whether under any whatever; in short,
that where the Gospel is truly preached,
there the Church of Christ is assembled.
" But they consider not," as Leslie m well
remarked, " that the government was or-
" dained to secure the doctrine; and that
" no instance can be given, from Jeroboam
" downwards, where the change of the go-
" vernment did not bring along with it a
" change of doctrine."
The Church, we are assured by the Apo
stle, is " the pillar and ground of the
" truth";" the pillar necessary to its sup
port, the ground without which it could
not stand. If we can doubt this in our own
1 This setting up of purity against discipline bears
rather a striking resemblance to the Puritanism which
once overthrew both Church and State.
m Leslie, Dissert, concerning Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p.
731. n i Tim. iii. 15.

SERMON I. 35
particular case, if we are unconvinced that it
is to the Church alone that we are indebted
for the preservation of sound doctrine, let
us but refer to our historical experience.
During the temporary extinction of eccle
siastical authority in this country, no less
than sixty heresies0, some of them of the
most monstrous description, are recorded
to have arisen; all of which, with the ex
ception of three or four of the most emi
nent, on the restoration of Episcopacy,
" instantly disappeared, as mists before the
" sun." Without making any further appeal to
Scripture in the present stage of the argu
ment, suffice it to observe, that submission
to spiritual p governors is as decidedly en
forced in holy writ, as any doctrine or
precept that could be named, and that
it is in vain to institute an inquiry into
the comparative importance of commands
emanating from the same divine source, of
course requiring the same unqualified obe
dience. Yea, rather, much worse than in
° Leslie, Dissert, vol. i. p. 732.
P I Thess. v. 12. and Heb. xiii. 17.
d2

36 SERMON I.
vain must it be, thus to weigh the com
mands of Heaven in the balance of igno
rance and presumption, and rebelliqusly at
tempt to " put asunder what God has"
manifestly "joined together." Indeed, to
adopt the language of the learned and ex
cellent Hickes, " the institutions of Christ,
" without making comparison between
" them, are dear and sacred to me as well
" as his revelations; and I have no more
" pow*er to do any thing against the doc-
" trines which I think relate to the being
" and government or discipline of the
" Church as a society, than those which
" relate unto it as a sectq."
III. The object of these lectures being
to demonstrate the unreasonableness of se
paration from that pure branch of the
Church of Christ which is established in
this country; to assert her claims to our
undivided attachment ; and to point out
the dangers which menace her from the la
titudinarian spirit of the times, I purpose
to give a general and scriptural view of the
q Hickes on the Dignity of the Episc. Order, p. 259.

SERMON I. 37
nature and criminality of schism; — to apply
the argument more fully to our own case,
by maintaining the necessity of an aposto
lical Episcopacy, and of a divinely instituted
priesthood ; — to illustrate the happy, or, to
say the least, the unobjectionable course
which our Church has adopted in those
points which are left to human discretion ; —
and, finally, to consider briefly the true
principles of that alliance, which has been
for the most part formed throughout the
Christian world between the ecclesiastical
and civil powers, so much to the advan-
of both, where it is prudently conducted ;
as well as the evils to be apprehended from
losing sight of those principles, and from
the injudicious management either of that
protection and support of the Church
which this alliance implies, or of that
toleration of other persuasions which it
should always admit.
In pursuing arguments of this description,
it is unfortunately difficult to avoid an air
of controversy; simply maintaining one's
own decided opinion on controverted points,
being an indirect censure of those who hold
d3

38 SERMON I.
the contrary persuasion. Neither is it easy,
even where it is least merited, to escape the
imputation of bigotry and uncharitableness,
from the unqualified liberality of the times.
Assuredly, however, the most ardent zeal
for the truth is perfectly consistent with
the most unbounded charity towards those
who are unhappily in error. Nay, perhaps,
the utmost perfection of Christian charity,
on such occasions, consists, not in weakly
suppressing what it is of importance to vin
dicate and maintain, but in making the
most marked distinction between the of
fender and the offence ; in marking the of
fence with decided reprobation, while, so
far from pronouncing sentence on the of
fender, it hopes that in his peculiar case a
thousand extenuations may be pleaded, and
rejoices that a Being of infinite mercy and
wisdom can see and appreciate them all.
Accordingly, I cannot but agree with the
learned author of the History of Infant
Baptism', that there is, perhaps, no coun-

' Wall's History of Infant Baptism, vol. ii. p. 433.
fourth edition.

SERMON 1. 39
try in the world where it is so difficult to
repent of schism as this ; the prejudices of
education, the frequency of the offence,
and the general spirit of the age, having
with many minds obliterated every idea of
its sinfulness.
But can it really be less a sin because
men have ceased to deem it sinful? and
must we omit all mention of it, lest we dis
turb the self-complacency of those who
have unwarily adopted it ? On this princi
ple, is there a corruption in doctrine which
we could consistently expose? is there a
vicious practice that we could venture to
reprobate? The important precept, "to be
" instant in season and out of season, to
" reprove, rebuke, and exhort s," must be
abandoned as impracticable, and consigned
to perpetual oblivion ; and the office of the
Christian preacher would be no more.
After all that has been urged, however,
should there still be a disposition to ques
tion the expediency of entering on these
Copies in times like the present, I can only
s 2 Tim. iv. 2.
d4

40 SERMON I.
observe, that truth, religious truth more
especially, being at all times important,
is never more so than when it is most neg
lected or most arraigned ; that exactly in
proportion to the disrepute into which it
may have fallen, is the necessity for exer
tion in its behalf; that the obvious duty of
a Minister of the Gospel is to instruct his
hearers most sedulously where their igno
rance is most conspicuous, and to apply
his warmest dissuasives to their most pre
vailing faults.
If then times such as the Apostle con
templated have manifestly arrived ; if men
will no longer li endure sound doctrine, but
" after their own lusts heap to themselves
" teachers, having itching ears';" what re
mains for us, but to attend to his appro
priate exhortation, " to watch in all things,
" endure afflictions, do the work of an
" evangelist, make full proof of our min-
" istry";" striving to reclaim them to obe
dience and submission to those who " watch
fi for their soulsx;" and to convince them
4 2 Tim. iv. 3. « 2 Tim. iv. 5. * Heb. xiii. 17.

SERMON I. 41
that they are bound by their Christian pro
fession, not only in their civil, but also in
their religious capacity, to " follow after
" the things which make for peace3?"
y Rom. xiv. 19.

SERMON II.

1 Cor. xii. 25.
That there should be no schism in the body.
J. HE essential truths of our holy religion
are so decidedly enforced, so variously and
so repeatedly pressed on the attention, that
the unprejudiced and inexperienced reader
of the sacred volume would be disposed to
conclude that no blindness could overlook,
no perverseness misapprehend them. This
is conspicuously the case in all that relates
to the unity of the Church of Christ, and
the guilt attendant on its violation. Pre
sented to us under every variety of form,
in the illustrations of metaphor, in the pre
cision of express precept, and the encou
ragements of example, it is interwoven with
the very texture of holy writ. Whence
comes it to pass then, with respect to so
numerous a body of professing Christians,
that, on these points at least, " seeing they

44 SERMON II.
" cannot see, and hearing they cannot un-
" derstanda;" that they are become utterly
insensible to the sin of schism, the actual
crime of separation from a branch of the
Christian Church, correct in its consti
tution, and pure in its doctrine?
I. That this ignorance of their duty can
arise from no defect in the information to
be derived on this subject from the sacred
Scriptures, is capable of the most extensive
demonstration. / Every notice which we
have of the Church of Christ, every image
under which it is introduced to us, implies
indivisible unity, and leads us to consider
Christians not as isolated and unconhected
individuals, but as persons closely incorpo
rated in that sacred association. They arc
" one fold under one Shepherd b;" they
are " a building fitly framed together, Jesus
" Christ himself being the chief corner
" stone0;" they are members of " one" mys
tical "'body V of which Christ is the head ;
and " by one Spirit they are all baptized
" into one body;" there is accordingly
* Luke viii. 10. b John x. 16.
c Eph. ii. 20, 21. d l Cor. xii. 12, 13.

SERMON II. 45
" one hope of their calling, one Lord, one
" faith, one baptism, one God and Father
" of alle."
But the scriptural representations of the
Church not only lead us to infer its unity,
but that order also, and regularity, and sub
ordination, without which its unity could
never have been preserved. It is "a kirig-
" domf," of which Christ is the King, and
the ministers of the Gospel are his " am-
" bassadors5;" it is " the city of the living
" Godh," and Christians " fellow-citizens
" with the saints1." They are also the
" household of Godk;" Christ himself is
" the Master1" of that sacred family, and
his ministers are " stewards of the manifold
" grace of God m." Moreover, the several
officers on whom it was to depend to
govern this Church, were the appointment
of Christ himself: " And he gave some,
"apostles; and some, prophets; and
" some, evangelists ; and some, pastors
" and teachers ; for the perfecting of the
e Eph. iv. 4, 5, 6. f Matt. xvi. 28. S 2 Cor. v. 20.
h Heb. xii. 22. ' Eph. ii. 19. k Ibid.
1 Matt. x. 25. m 1 Pet. iv. 1Q.

46 SERMON II.
" saints, for the work of the ministry, for
" the edifying of the body of Christ"."
In the true spirit of these scriptural re
presentations of the Christian Church, the
early converts to the Gospel appear, for a
time at least, to have exhibited a heavenly
pattern of brotherly love and religious
unity, to which we shall vainly seek to find
a parallel in any succeeding age. " They
" continued stedfastly in the Apostles'
"doctrine and fellowship"." " They had
" all things in common, and sold their pos-
" sessions and goods, and parted them to
" all men, as every man had needp;"
" and the multitude of them that believed
" were of one heart, and of one soulq."
But when, at length, the restless pas
sions of our corrupt nature began to ope
rate even among the followers of the
lowly Jesus, when dissensions interrupted
their hitherto harmonious association, and
threatened the unity of the Church, how
did the Apostles conduct themselves in this
new emergency? In what light did St.
n Eph. iv. 1 1, 12. o Acts ii. 42.
P Acts ii. 44, 45. q Acts iv. 32.

SERMON II. 47
Paul, of whose proceedings we have the
most information, view the growing mis
chief; — St. Paul, the popular, the accom
modating Apostle, who, on some occasions,
could become " all things to all menr;"
and who, so far from possessing a dispo
sition to be peremptory on minor points,
declared that he would not " eat flesh so
" long as the world stood," if he thereby
caused his " brother to offend8?" Is this,
with him, a point of minor importance ?
So far from it, that there is, perhaps, no
thing on which he expresses himself with
greater decision, not a practice which draws
from him more thorough reprobation.
When addressing himself to his Corin
thian converts, to a people even notorious
for the vices commonly attendant on wealth
and luxury, and whom he had to reprove
for flagrant violations of morality, what
constitutes his leading charge, what is
evidently uppermost in his thoughts? not
their immoralities, but their divisions. His
ordinary form of salutation ended, he thus
immediately commences, " Now * I beseech
r 1 Cor. ix. 22. s 1 Cor. viii. 13. « 1 Cor. i. 10.

48 SERMON II.
" you, brethren, by the name of our Lord
" Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same
" thing, and that there be no divisions
" (gjffrfuerei) among you, but. that ye be
" perfectly joined together in the same
" mind and in the same judgment." With
this introduction the whole Epistle cor
responds; the main, the pervading object
of which appears to have been, to reprove
their strifes and dissensions ; to warn them
against an undue n preference for particular
teachers ; to furnish them with rules for the
orderly x celebration of Divine worship, a
point on which some had wantonly offend
ed ; to urge them to preserve their ap
pointed stations in the ministry, y " that
" there might be no schism in the body ;"
and to guard them against presuming on
their spiritual gifts, z to the introduction of
disorder, and the violation of that " cha
rity," without which, a to speak with the
11 1 Cor. ch. i. ii. iii. iv. * iD;,j. ch. xi.
y Ibid. ch. xii. z Ibid. ch. xiii. xiv.
a 1 Cor. xiii. 1—3. For remarks on the true scope
of this celebrated chapter, as addressed to the schisma-
tical Corinthians, in order to recommend to them that
" charity" which " beareth and endureth all things,"

SERMON II. 49
" tongues of men and of angels, and un-
" derstand all mysteries and all knowledge,
" would profit them nothing."
His Epistles indeed to all the Churches
which he had planted, abound with the
plainest precepts to the same effect. He
exhorts his converts to " obey those that
" have the rule over themb;" to " walk by
" the same rule0;" to " stand fast in one
" Spirit, with one mind and one mouth
" glorifying Godd;" to " mark them who
" cause divisions6;" to " keep the unity of
" the Spirit in the bond of peace f." On
some of these occasions, the high import
ance of his subject warms him to more
than even his wonted animation and earn
estness of manner. " Is Christ divided ?"
says he ; " was Paul crucified for you ? or
" were ye baptized in the name of Paul8?"
" If there be any consolation in Christ, if
" any comfort of love, if any fellowship of
rather than break the peace and unity of the Church, see
Archdeacon Daubeny's Guide to the Church, Appendix,
p. 297 — 299. second edit.
t> Heb. xiii. 7. <= Phil. iii. 16. d Phil. i. 27.
e Rom. xvi. 17. f Ephes. iv. 3. si Cor. i. 13.
E

((

50 SERMON II.
" the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, ful-
" fil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded,
having the same love, being of one ac
cord, of one mind g."
Such a paramount importance does he
attach to the peace and unity of the Church,
that he allows no ordinary differences of
opinion to afford the slightest pretext for
divisions. Thus he is peculiarly earnest
in his exhortations to accommodate our
conduct to the prejudices of the h weaker
brother : and his advice to the Philippians
breathes the same Christian spirit of conci
liation and peace. " If in any thing ye
" be otherwise minded, God shall reveal
" even this unto you; nevertheless, where-
" to we have already attained, let us walk
" by the same rule, let us mind the same
" thing1." Of the unhallowed source and heinous
guilt of schism he suffers not a doubt to re
main. "Whereas," says he, " there is among
" you envying, and strife, and divisions, are

g Philip, ii. 1, 2. M Cor. viii. 9—13.
* Phil. iii. 15, 16.

SERMON II. 51
" ye not carnal, and walk as men ? for while
" one saith, I am of Paul ; and another, I am
" of Apollos; are ye not carnal k?" And
again in another passage he expressly enu
merates, " strifes, seditions, and heresies1"
among those " manifest works of the flesh,"
of which he declares, that " they which do
" such things shall not inherit the kingdom
" of God."
Here then let us pause, and derive for
ourselves those obvious conclusions on the
subject of schism, which even the most cur
sory review of the language of the Apo
stle cannot fail to suggest to us. In the
first place, schism, although sometimes, no
doubt, commencing in erroneous doctrine,
and perhaps still more frequently leading to
it, has m no indispensable connexion with it.
The schismatical Corinthians are not even
k 1 Cor. iii. 3, 4.
1 Gal. v. 19 — 21. Thus also St. Jude speaks of those
" who separate themselves, sensual, (vjw^ixoi,) having
" pot the Spirit."
m Inter haeresim et schisma hoc interesse arbitran-
tur, quod hseresis perversum dogma habeat ; schisma
propter Episcopalem dissensionem abEcclesia separatur.
S. Hieron. inEpist. ad Tit. cap. iii.
E 2

52 SERMON II.
accused of any deviation from the correct
ness of their faith.— Again, n it is not neces
sary, in order to constitute the sin of schism,
that men should have proceeded to an ac
tual separation from the communion of a
Church. A factious adherence to parti
cular individuals or parties in religious mat
ters, a neglect of subordination, or a viola
tion of established order, are quite sufficient
to substantiate the charge in the sense in
tended by the Apostle. — Lastly, we may
learn to form a correct idea of the awful

n The truth and reasonableness of this position are
amply illustrated by our daily experience. " It is easy,"
says Mr. Sikes, " to produce many instances of close
" connexion between the schismatic within the Church,
" and the formal separatist from it. Many who follow
" in crowds those who are styled Evangelical or Gospel
" preachers in the Church, are as regular attendants at
" the Meeting-house, dividing the sabbath between the
" Church and the Conventicle  Societies have lately
" been formed of a mixture of schismatic members of
" the Church and regular Dissenters from it. Periodical
" works, Magazines, and Reviews are daily projected,
" of the same mixed nature, the effect of which is to
" pluck up those ancient fences which God has placed
" about his vineyard, and to lay it open to the attacks
" of the scorner and the infidel." Discourse on Paro
chial Communion, p. 88. note.

SERMON IT. 53
responsibility which attaches to the authors
of those open ruptures, that avowed renun
ciation of all ecclesiastical authority, which
mark the schisms of these days ; when all
the eloquence and all the earnestness of
an inspired Apostle were called forth to
express his holy indignation against offences
of far inferior malignity ; — offences which
we might perhaps unwarily have been dis
posed to consider rather as schismatical
propensities, than as actual schism ; the
mere dissensions of those who still held
communion with each other.
If we are disposed to inquire, as in a case
of such moment we naturally must be, how
far the precepts and practice of our blessed
Saviour tend to establish the conclusions
thus derived from the authority of St.
Paul ; — it must in the first place be re
marked, that the same preciseness of re
gulation and vehemence of remonstrance
on these subjects, are not to be looked for
at a period when the Church, as yet nei
ther numerous nor regularly organized,
exhibited none of those dissensions which
could alone suggest them. The utmost
e 3

54 SERMON II.
consistency of evidence may nevertheless
be traced. What indeed can be more de
cisive than the example of Christ himself;
his constant attendance on the service of
the Jewish temple ; his marked conformity
to those very rites, which the purer worship
of his own dispensation was so soon to
supersede ? what more consistent than his
express commands to the same effect ?
" The Scribes and Pharisees,"^ says he,
" sit in Moses' seat : all therefore whatso-
" ever they bid you observe, that observe
" and do; but do not ye after their works1*;"
thus for ever establishing this important
truth, that the personal character of the
appointed minister of God interferes not
with the validity of his sacred functions,
and by consequence can supply no possible
justification to those who venture to dis
pute his authority.
Not to dwell minutely on his numerous
exhortations to love and forbearance and
submission to lawful rule, at least let it not
escape our notice, that in his last pathetic
discourse with his Disciples, the point which
P Matt, xxiii. 2, 3.

SERMON II. 55
he is the most solicitous to enforce, and
which he labours to impress on their minds
with such affectionate earnestness, is the ne
cessity of a strict observance of the unity of
his Church ; that his last bequest to them
was "peaceq;" his parting injunction, that
they should " abide in himr" as " branches"
in " the true vine," and " love one another
" as he had loved them;" — his last prayer,
not only for his own immediate Disciples,
" but for them also which should believe
" on him through their word, that they all
" might be one8."
If it could be possible, by any farther ap
peal to the sacred volume, to add weight to
the arguments for Christian unity thus ir
resistibly arising from the express precepts
of an inspired Apostle, and the last solemn
injunctions of a dying Saviour, it must be
by the following momentous consideration —
that the general tenor of Scripture language
appears to represent even our salvation as
awarded to us, not in our separate and in
dividual capacity, but as incorporated into
q John xiv. 27. r John xv. 1 — 12.
s John xvii. 20, 21.
E4

56 SERMON II.
the fellowship of the Church. Thus, " the
" Lord added to the Church daily such as
"should be saved*;" "Christ loved the
" Church, and gave himself for itu." If we
are assured that " the branch cannot bear
«' fruit, except it abide in the vine*," can we
too anxiously avoid an unfruitful, a withered
separation ? If by baptism aloney we are ad
mitted to the inestimable privileges of the
Gospel covenant, and " by one Spirit we are
" all baptized into one body2," how awful
is the thought, how tremendous the hazard,
lest by a wilful violation of the unity of that
body, we become self-excluded from the
benefits of that blessed sacrament !
That the sentiments of the Christian
Church in the succeeding ages remained in
perfect unison with the doctrines of Scrip
ture, is abundantly testified by the writings
of the Fathers. Their strong and decisive
language on these subjects may well asto
nish the latitudinarian indifference and
t Acts ii. 47- u Eph. v. 25. * John xv. 4.
y " Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
" he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John
iii. 5. z 1 Cor. xii. 13.

SERMON II. 57
schismatical prejudices of these degenerate
days. " Let no man deceive himself," said
St. Ignatius ; " if a man be not within the
" altar, he is deprived of the bread of
" God\" And again, " Be not deceived,
" my brethren ; if any man follow him
" who makes a schism, he inherits not the
" kingdom of Godb." Not less decisive
are expressions of the venerable Cyprian ;
" He cannot have God for his father, who
" has not the Church for his mother"."
" He who holds not this unity, holds not
" the law of God, holds not the faith of
" the Father and the Son, and holds not
" life and salvation d." " The inexpiable
a MrjSeij irkava<r$co' lav [t.y ti; $ hrb; tou HutrtauTtjpiov,
wTepsiTai toD uprov too ©ecu. Ignatii Epist. ad Ephes.
edit. Voss. p. 20.
h Mij TtXavourQe oSeXfol /jmw ems vyftflvn axoKovSsi, (3a-
<ri\iiav 0soO ou xAtjfovo^ei. Ad Philadelph. p. 40.
c Quisquis ab Ecclesia separatus adulters jungitur, a
promissis Ecclesiae separatur. Nee perveniet ad Christi
praemia, qui relinquit Ecclesiam Christi. Alienus est,
prophanus est, hostis est. Habere jam non potest Deum
patrem, qui Ecclesiam non habet matrem. Cyprian, de
Unit. Eccles. edit. Baluzii, p. 195.
d Hanc unitatem qui non tenet, Dei legem non tenet, >
non tenet Patris et Filii fidem, vitam non tenet et salu-
tem. Ibid. p. 196.

58 SERMON II.
" and heinous sin of discord is not cleansed
" even by suffering. He cannot be a mar-
" tyr who is not in the Church e." " They
" who do not come into the Church," says
Irenaeus, " are not partakers of the Spirit,
" but defraud themselves of life ;— for where
" the Church is, there is the Spirit of
" Godf." And the opinion of the pious
Chrysostom is, that " nothing sharpens the
" wrath of God so much as the divisions
"of the Church ^." The day would fail
e See above, p. 2. note b.
f Cujus (Spiritus) non sunt participes omnes, qui non
concurrunt ad Ecclesiam, sed semetipsos fraudant a vita,
per sententiam malam, et operationem pessimam. Ubi
enim Ecclesia, ibi Spiritus Dei; et ubi Spiritus Dei,
illic Ecclesia, et omnis gratia ; Spiritus autem Veritas.
Irenoeus, lib. iii. cap. xl. edit. Grabe.
S OuSsv oura> napoj-vvu tov &sov cos to exx\r)<r'iav ItMpellijVM.
Chrysostom. in Epist. ad Ephes. cap. iv. Homil. xi.
edit. Benedict, p. 86. Eusebius has preserved a letter
from Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, to the schisma
tical Novatian, strikingly illustrating the importance at
tached to unity by the early Christians. He says,
" One ought to suffer any thing whatever rather than
" divide the Church of God ; and martyrdom endured
" for the sake of avoiding schism is not less glorious,
" than that which is undergone to avoid worshipping
" idols, but in my opinion even more so ; for in the
" latter case a man becomes a martyr, for his own soul

SERMON II. 59
me, to lay before you the passages of simi
lar import which might be cited from the
Fathers of the Christian Church.
How striking is the contrast between
those primitive ages and the timesh on which
" alone ; but in the former for the whole Church."i/,E8g*
[lev yap xa\ wav onouv iraSslv, inrlp too jtt)j o\axo'v|/«i tijv IxxXy-
<nav too 0£oo. xa) t)V ovx ah^oripa, rt\s evexsv too /xij ei8a>AoA«-
rprjceu ytvopevtjs, i) evsxev tou /iij ayfoan funprvpla, xcer Ifte 8e
xa) fj-sl^wv. exel ju.su yap uireg fuels T15 T>j; eaurou 4>o^f ¦ h-
rauQa 8e xmkp oX)]f T>jf IxxAijcnaj /jiapTupel. Euscb. Eccl.
Hist. lib. vi. cap. 45.
h Notwithstanding the general propensity of modern
times to overlook the guilt of schism, Divines have not
been wanting in our Church who have expressed their
sense of its heinousness, in terms sufficiently corre
spondent with the language of Scripture and of the
primitive Fathers.—" If schism be an innocent thing,
" and the true Catholic spirit, I have no more to say,
" but that the whole Christian Church ever since the
" Apostles' times has been in a very great mistake. But
" if schism be a very great sin, and that which will
" damn us as soon as adultery and murder, then it must
" needs be a dangerous thing to communicate with
" schismatics." Resolution of some Cases of Conscience
which respect Church Communion, by Dr. Sherlock ; Lon
don Cases, p. 35. " I would not be an heretic or
" schismatic in the Church, to have the wisdom of So-
" loman, the tongues of St. Paul, and the eloquence of
" Apollos, no not to be caught up into Paradise and
" hear those unutterable things. I would not be the
« H/«!t preacher that ever was, and speak in the pulpit

60 SERMON II.
our lot has fallen ! Not indeed that they
stand distinctly and totally contrasted as the
respective seras of unity and schism. Schisms
there were, and schisms there must be, so
long as pride and passion sway the heart of
man ; — but those were not schisms lightly
regarded; they were ever viewed, as the
Scripture teaches us to view them; they
were opposed with zeal and vigilance, and
marked with appropriate reprobation. It was
reserved to these " latter days" of indiffer
ence and compromise, for a crime to which
the early Christians applied the epithet of
horrible, (jppmd&i?'1,) to pass unheeded among
the most ordinary transactions of life; to be
even upheld by some as conducive to the
glory of Godk; to be practised without re
morse, and regarded without emotion. ,
" by inspiration, to have that accusation lie against me,
" which St. Paul drew up against the Corinthians, of
" envy, strife, and schism." Hickes's Posthumous Dis
courses, Sermon vii.
» Literally, what would cause one to shudder.
k " Conclude then, that, if God be a rock, and his
" work is perfect; if variety be characteristic of all, his
" works ; an attempt to establish uniformity is revers-
" ing and destroying all the Creator's glory." Kilham's ¦
Methodist's Monitor, vol.ii. p. 6. /

SERMON II. 61
' II. It mustlhowever/ after all be admit- ',
ted, that sectaries, in general at least, have,,
not proceeded to the infatuation or auda
city of denying the criminality of schism ; —
their care has rather been so to interpret
the commands of Scripture respecting the
unity of the Church, as, if possible, to evade
the charge.
Some have recourse to the notion of ah
invisible Church, and flatter themselves,
1 " As the Church, with respect to that internal rela-
" tion which it has to Christ, is called his invisible
" Church, so with respect to that external polity, in
" which it is empowered to act as a visible society, it is
" called his visible Church  This visible Church being
" a society of Christ's appointment, no man can be es-
" teemed to discharge his duty as his disciple, who is
" not a member of it. And, agreeably, all the benefits
" purchased by Christ for mankind are annexed to our
" initiation into this society. He that believeth and is
" baptized shall be saved  And since our relation to the
" Catholic Church cannot otherwise appear, than by our
" communicating with some of those particular Churches,
" of which that general society is composed ; it follows,
" that every Christian is under the same obligation to be
" a member of some particular Church, as to be a mem-
" ber of the Catholic Church of Christ  The general
" ideas, which we affix to any person, when we consider
" him as a member of the whole or any part of Christ's
" visible Church, are, that he is entered into this society
" by baptism; professes the faith of the Christian reli-

62 SERMON II.
that, under all the varieties of visible com
munion, they may still maintain their union
inviolate with "the general assembly and
" Church of the first-born, which are written
" in heavenM" But setting aside the ab
surdity, or rather the impossibility, of un
derstanding the definite precepts of St.
Paul in their application to any thing so
indefinite and obscure as an invisible so
ciety; — is the scriptural use of the expres
sion Church at all consistent with such an
hypothesis ? Are we to understand our Sa
viour's directions thus; " Tell it to the" in
visible " Church ; If he neglect to hear the"
invisible "Church1?" Were "Paul and
" Barnabas brought on their way by the"
invisible " Church m ?" Were the elders of
Ephesus commanded to " feed the" invi
sible " Church of God, over which the
" Holy Ghost" must consistently have
"made them" invisible "overseers"?"
" gion taught in it; communicates in the external ordi-
" nances, and is observant of the discipline of it." Rogers,,
on the Visible and Invisible Church, p. 27 — 30. fourtn
edition. k Heb. xii. 23. 1 Matt, xviii. 7.
m Acts xv. 3. " Acts xx. 28.

SERMON II. 63
And when Christ likens his kingdom to
" tares sowed among the wheat0;" to " a net
" that was cast into the sea, and gathered of
" every kindP;" to " a wedding filled with
"guests both good and bad 1;" -shall we
confound these descriptions, marked as they
are by the strongest images of mixture and
alloy, with " the heavenly Jerusalem, an in-
" numerable company of angels, and the
" spirits of just men made perfect r?" Rather
let us beware of so dangerous a confusion of
ideas on the subject8, so essentially distinct,
0 Matt. xiii. 5. P Matt.xiii. 47.
q Matt. xxii. 10. ' Heb. xii. 22, 23.
s That body (the invisible Church) consisteth of none
" but only true Israelites, true sons of Abraham, true
" servants and saints of God. Howbeit, of the visible
" body and Church of Jesus Christ, those may be, and
" oftentimes are, in respect of the main parts of their
" outward profession, who in regard of their inward
" disposition of mind, yea, of external conversation,
" yea, even of some parts of their very profession, are
" most worthily both hateful in the sight of God him-
" self, and in the eyes of the sounder part of the visible
" Church most execrable." Hooker's Ecclesiastical Poli
ty, book iii. Oxford edit. vol. i. p. 353. " For lack of
" diligent observing the difference, first between the
" Church of God mystical and visible_, then between the
" visible, sound and corrupted, sometimes more, some-

64 SERMON II.
and be disposed to apprehend, with the
pious and learned Pearson, that " that
" Church alone which first began at Jeru-
" salem on earth, will bring us to the Je-
" rusalem in heaven1."
Others again there are, who feeling
compelled to understand the injunctions of
Scripture in their application to the outward
unity of the Church, nevertheless contrive
to explain away their import, till they have
brought them down to the level of their own
peculiar views. They are willing to hope
that they have sufficiently complied with
the spirit of these injunctions, by maintain
ing communion with the sect, or even per
haps the particular congregation, to which
they may have attached themselves; for
that " where" even " two or three are ga-
" thered together in Christ's name, there he
" is in the midst of them"." As if it were not
a most unjustifiable perversion of Scripture
" times less, the oversights are neither few nor light
" that have been committed." Ibid. p. 354.
4 Pearson on the Creed, Article ix. The Holy Catho
lic Church, p. 527, 8vo. edit.
u Matt, xviii. 20.

SERMON II. 65
language, to consider this passage and a
few others of similar complexion x, as ne
cessarily applicable to persons assembled
in complete independence on the unity of
Christ's Church, when the unvarying tenor
of holy writ represents the Church of
Christ as one undivided body, and of
course leads us to the obvious conclusion,
that the obligations to unity amongst its
members will admit of no interpretation
less extensive y.
Some, again, have attempted to defend
x Such as Rom. xvi. 5. and Philemon 2.
y " It will be necessary for the understanding of the na-
" ture of the Church which is thus one, to consider in what
" that unity doth consist. And being it is an aggregation
" not only of many persons, but also of many congre-
" gations, the unity thereof must consist in some agree-
" ment of them all, and adhesion to something which is
" one. If then we reflect upon the first Church again,
" which we found constituted in the Acts, and to which
" all others since have been in a manner added and con-
" joined, we may collect from their union and agree-
" ment how all other Churches are united and agree.
" Now they were described to be believing and baptized
" persons, converted to the faith by St. Peter, continu-
" ing stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship,
" and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. These then
" were all built upon the same Rock, all professed the
" same faith, all received the same sacraments, all per-
F

66 SERMON II.
their schismatical resistance to ecclesiastical
rule, by the wild and extravagant idea, that
in the kingdom of Christ he alone is Kingz,
and consequently sole Lawgiver to his sub
jects, and that every claim of men to autho
rity in his kingdom is an infringement on his
sovereignty. But does not Christ avowedly
govern his kingdom by delegation ? " As
" formed the same devotions, and thereby were all re-
" puted members of the same Church." Pearson on the
Creed, p. 510, 8vo. edit.
z Thus Bishop Hoadly argues ; " As the Church of
" Christ is the kingdom of Christ, he himself is King;
" and in this it is implied that he is himself the sole
" Lawgiver to his subjects, and himself the sole Judge
" of their behaviour in the affairs of conscience and saU
" vation." Sermon on the Kingdom or Church, of Christ,
p. 10.
" Now if the word king does not necessarily imply
" the same power in every kingdom, how can there be
" any conclusion, that because Christ is King of his
" kingdom, he is sole Lawgiver to his subjects?  The
" only way to know the constitution of this kingdom,
" is not to reason from what is implied in the words
" king and kingdom, for they do not imply any fixed or
" absolute sense, but from the laws and institutions of
" it, whether they admit of or require the authority of
" under-magistrates. Thus if it appears that Christ has
" commissioned others to act in his name, to exercise
" authority in his kingdom, and govern his subjects
" in such a manner as he has commissioned them to

SERMON II. 67
" the Father hath sent me, so send I you1;"
and again, " He that heareth you heareth
" me ; and he that despiseth me despiseth
" him that sent meb." Is the power of an
earthly monarch supposed to be invaded by
the acts of authority exerted in his name
by vicegerents of his own appointment?
Will he escape the charge of rebellion
against his sovereign, whose resistance has
been immediately directed against his vice
gerent only? But our argument even suf
fers by this comparison. For, as Leslie has
well observed, " the person of God is far
" exalted above the attempts of angels as
" well as men ; and to invade his person is
" a thought too foolish for a man, much
" more for an angel of heaven  There is
" no other way of rebelling against God,
" but by opposing his institutions0."
" govern ; is it any answer to this to say, that the Church
" is a kingdom, and Christ is a King, and consequently
" sole Lawgiver in it ? Is there nothing in this text,
" Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in hea-
" ven, because Christ is King of his Church?" Law's
Third Letter to Bishop Hoadly, Scholar Armed, vol. i. p.
389, 390. ¦<¦
a John xx. 21. b Luke x. 16.
c Leslie's Rehearsals, No. 54.
F 2

68 SERMON II.
Others, again, have gone so far as to re
solve all our obligations to Christian unity
into those ties of universal charity d and
good-will, which should, and, as they con
tend, may, subsist between Christians of
every denomination ; by which they would
insinuate, that, although variance is crimi
nal, actual separation is not. But, setting
aside the impossibility of so understanding
the precepts, to " walk by the same rule,"
d Dr. Campbell appears to have embraced this opin
ion. Observing that St. Paul applies the term schism to
the Corinthian dissensions, which did not amount to ac
tual separation, he considers it to imply no more than
the violation of that union of affection which should
subsist among Christians; and takes occasion to remark,
that "schism, in scriptural use, is one thing, and schism
" in ecclesiastical use, another." His insinuation is ob
vious. But it must be at least equally obvious, that, if
St. Paul applied the term to those minor differences, he
must, a fortiori, have done so to positive separations, had
they occurred. It cannot, however, after this, be matter
of astonishment, that Dr. Campbell should be led to
conclude, that " no person, who, in the spirit of candor
" and charity, adheres to that which, to the best of his
" judgment, is right, though in this opinion he should be
" mistaken, is, in the scriptural sense, either schismatic
" or heretic." See two preliminary dissertations on
Schism and Heresy. — Campbell on the Gospels, third edit.
vol. ii. p. 104 — 141.

SERMON II. 69
" to speak the same thing," in short, the
general language of Scripture on the sub
ject ; are they not contending for a system
directly subversive of that very charity
which they profess to admire ? Of all the
strifes incidental to mankind, those which
have originated in religious separation have
invariably exceeded in bitterness and ma
lignity : witness the rancorous enmity of
the Jews and Samaritans of old, and the
tenfold horrors of those religious persecu
tions, which have, at times, depopulated the
Christian world. "I know," (says an eminent
Divine0,) " that men will now say, that they
" can love all parties, and that they can
" live without animosities towards all sorts
" of men ; but if a few men can be so per-
" feet, what is that to the generality of
" mankind, who will still be divided in af-
" fictions, as they are in parties and com-
" munions, as has been found by woeful
" experience, not only in this Church, but
" all the Churches where divisions have
" been since the time of Christ."
What should we think of his attainments
e Hickes's Posthumous Sermons.
F 3

70 SERMON II.
in moral or political science, who should
resolve all the duties prescribed to us as
subjects, as fellow-citizens, and as men,
into the vague and indeterminate principle
of philanthropy ? When the spirit of tur
bulence and disaffection shall lose its cha
racters of guilt, upon assuming the more
definite form of mutiny or rebellion;
when malice and hatred, however criminal
in the outset, shall innocently vent them
selves in outrage and murder; then, but not
before, will religious variance become per
fectly blameless in the sight of God and
man, so soon as it shall have advanced to
the decisive point of declared disobedience
and open separation.
If, however, the duty of remaining in
communion with the one universal Church
of Christ be thus indispensable, it becomes
a most momentous question, how, in the
present diffusion of Christianity, this com
munion is to be preserved ; and how a
Christian, amid the variety of forms under
which his religion is presented to his notice,
may be reasonably satisfied of the correct
ness of his course.

SERMON II. 71
In the first place, it must be evident,
that the measure of his duty, with respect
to this, as well as every other command of
God, is only coextensive with his oppor
tunities of obedience. The natural ob
stacles to an intimate connexion between
distant regions, and those political divi
sions and occasional hostilities, which as
effectually disunite the more contiguous,
unavoidably separate the Church of Christ
into distinct branches, varying, of course,
more or less, in their discipline and forms,
and indeed in all those minor circum
stances which depend on human regu
lation. But these may, nevertheless, be
safely considered as in communion f with
f " Any two Churches of different nations are always
" supposed to be in communion, and not in a schism, so
" long as they differ not in fundamentals, because it is
" supposed that the members of one of these would, (in
" case they were to travel into the other nation,) for
" unity's sake, communicate with the other. But when
" people of the same place, city, parish, &c. do actually
" separate, and renounce communion with the Church
" when they are on the spot, this plea cannot be used in
" their case. To say, these are not schismatics, because
" they differ not in fundamentals, is to put a new mean-
" ing on the word schism; — they are not heretics in-
F 4

72 SERMON II.
each other, as well as with the Church uni
versal, so long as they agree in the grand
essentials of Christianity; that is, in pro
fessing the fundamental doctrines of the
Gospel, and in administering the Sacra
ments by the hands of a priesthood regu
larly commissioned by an authority derived
from the Apostles. He therefore, whose
happiness it is to have been placed within
the limits of such a Church, has the best
reason to be confident, that, by his con
formity to it, he maintains, as far as in him
lies, his 8 communion with the Church uni-
" deed, (as the Church-use has now distinguished the
" use of those words,) but the Donatists, Novatians, &c.
" have always been accounted schismatics, though they
" differed not in essentials." Wall's History of Infant
Baptism, vol. ii. p. 419. fourth edit.
s " So many regions as there are under heaven, that
" do truly profess the Christian name, so many national
" Churches there are. In all these nations there are
" many provincial, in all those provinces many diocesan,
" in all those dioceses many parochial churches ; in all
" those parishes many Christian families, in all those
" families many Christian souls. Now all those souls,
" families, parishes, dioceses, provinces, nations, make
" up but one Catholic Church upon earth. The God of
"the Church cannot abide either conventicles of sepa-
" ration, or pluralities of professions, or appropriations

SERMON II. 73
versal ; whilst those, on the other hand, who,
under similar advantages, have fallen into
separation, are as manifestly guilty of the jj
sin of schism.
Since, however, upon the principles now
contended for, there cannot be more than
one Church in one place, the question
arises, how a man may safely regulate his
choice amid the various and conflicting
claims to his religious attachment, with
which he finds himself surrounded.
The most obvious rule, as well as the

" of Catholicism  Neither difference of time nor dis-
" tance of place, nor rigour of unjust censure, nor any
" unessential error, can bar an interest in this blessed
" unity. As this flourishing Church of Great Britain
" (after all the spiteful calumniations of malicious men)
" is one of the most conspicuous members of the Ca-
" tholic upon earth ; so we in her communion do make
" up one body with the holy Patriarchs, Prophets, Apo-
" sties, Martyrs, Confessors, and faithful Christians
" of all ages and times ; we succeed in their faith, we
" glory in their succession, we triumph in their glory.
" Whither go ye then, ye weak, ignorant, seduced souls,
" that run to seek this dove in a foreign cote ? She is
" here, if she have any nest under heaven. Let me
" never have part in her or in heaven, if any Church in
", the world have more part in the Universal." Bishop
Hall's Works, folio, vol. ii. p. 310.

74 SERMON II.
safest, is this ; to adhere, if possible, to the
form of religion which he finds established
by the laws of his country h. This advan
tage, at least, will attend his peaceable
conformity, that, should no fundamental
error have corrupted the system, by his
adherence to it, he is at once obeying the
ordinances of God and the laws of man ; —
whilst, on the other hand, his wilful sepa
ration must be considered as including the
complicated guilt of schism with respect to
the Church, and disaffection to the State.
Ill disposed must he be to " follow after the
" things that make for peace1," whose
h " There is one plain rule to direct all men in this
" inquiry; that wherever there is a Church established
" by public authority, if there be nothing sinful in its
" constitution and worship, we are bound to communi-
" cate with that Church, and to reject the communion
" of all other parties and sects of Christians. For the
" advantage always lies on the side of authority. No pub-
" lie establishment can justify a sinful communion ; but
" if there be nothing sinful in the communion of the
" national Church, which is established by public au-
" thority, to separate from such a Church is both dis-
" obedience to the supreme authority in the State, and
" a schism from the Church." Resolution of some Cases
of Conscience which respect Church Communion, by Dr.
Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's; London Cases, p. 31.
• Rom. xiv. 19.

SERMON II. 75
heart is insensible to the native wish, the
honest prejudice, of maintaining commu
nion with that religious society which his
country sanctions and supports ; and it is,
in fact, his duty so to do, until he is de
cidedly convinced, that he thereby violates
a superior obligation k. Now this is a con
viction with which his conscience cannot
k " When a lawgiver names some particular excep-
" tions of cases in which the law shall not oblige, that
" law binds the stronger in all cases not excepted ; for
" it is supposed, if there had been any more, he would
" have named them too. The Scripture gives a very
"positive law against separations; it excepts some
" cases ; and it must be a very presumptuous thing to
" add any more of them of our own heads ; they are
" these : —
"1. If a Church do practise idolatry. — St. Paul,
" warning the Corinthians of the heathen idolaters,
" says, ' Come out from among them, and be ye se-
" parate.' 
" 2. If a Church teach doctrines encouraging any
" wickedness,  or destructive of the fundamentals of
" the Christian faith.  St. Paul commands Timothy to
" ' shun them, for their word will eat as a canker.' 
" 3. The Scripture commands that no sin be com-
" mitted to obtain any purpose ever so good.  A
" Church that will not admit us without our doing a
" thing that is wicked, or declaring and subscribing
" something that is false, does thereby thrust us out of
" her communion  "4. If

76 SERMON II.
fairly be impressed, until he seriously be
lieves that the Church has corrupted the
essential doctrines, or deserted the funda
mental ordinances, of the Gospel ; that she
requires something false as an article of
faith, or enforces some practice subversive
of the institutions of God.
Hence, as we have already seen grounds
to infer, none of the ordinary differences of
opinion l on those doubtful and less materi
al points, which affect not the salvation of
"4. If a Church be schismatical  'Mark those
" who cause divisions, &c.'
" These exceptions I find in Scripture, and I know of
" no more that reach to Churches  He that sepa-
" rates from any Church upon any ground, except one
" of these four, ought to take heed, and be well assured
" that he find his ground in the Scripture." Wall's
History of Infant Baptism, fourth edit. vol. ii. p. 421,
422. 1 The strict declarations or subscriptions, which it is
usual for all well-ordered Churches to require of their
Clergy, offer no contradiction to this conclusion. The
laity are not called upon to make them. Surely then
nothing short of opinions fundamentally heretical could
incapacitate a layman from conscientiously joining in
the worship of any Church even tolerably free from cor
ruption. See this point ably discussed, in the Case of
Lay-Communion, by Dr. Williams, Bishop of Chiches
ter ; London Cases, p. 60 — 87.

SERMON II. 77
the soul ; no disgust at the personal failings
of her ministers, which, by God's grace, af
fect not the efficacy of their sacred ministra
tions, and which, were the objection admis
sible, as "we have this treasure in earthen
" vessels™1," might undoubtedly have been
urged against the purest Church which has
yet existed among men ; no pretence to su
perior n edification under other and more
gifted teachers, a plea which must eventu
al 2 Cor. iv. 7.
n " Men have sometimes taken sudden heats and
" warmth for true edification. When melting tones,
" affectionate expressions, solemn looks and behaviour,
"passion and vehemency,-and other arts, have played
" upon the- fancy, and put their constitutions into dif-
" ferent motions, some have thought themselves so
" strangely edified, as though it was the impulse and
" powerful acting of the Divine Spirit ; which, many
" times, is no more than a bright or a lowering day can
" do, acting upon the animal spirits'.  When they
" themselves were pleased and in good humour, God
" was reconciled ; and when they were dull and heavy,
" the Spirit was withdrawn ; and according as these
" heats and bodily passions were stirred, so the ministry
" was edifying or unprofitable : pale cheeks and hollow
" looks have been counted signs of grace, and the dis-
" eases of their body passed for the virtue . of their
" mind." Discourse on Edification, by Dr. Hascard,
Dean of Windsor; London Cases, p. 461.

78 SERMON II.
ally be referred, not so much to truth and
sound doctrine, as to the wantonness of
partiality, and the caprices of individual
persuasion; none of these reasons, nor all
of them combined, however plausible they
may appear to the superficial view, can jus
tify, even in the slightest degree, a depar
ture from her communion.
But further, it is sufficiently evident, that,
besides those inseparable characteristics of
a true Church, which have been immutably
ordained by Christ himself, and the absence
of which would fix the guilt of schism, not
on him who separates, but on those whose
corruptions have made his separation a
duty, numberless regulations of inferior
moment, connected with the discipline and
good order of a Church, must of necessity
be confided to the discretion of men. The
limits of this discretion may be considered
as defined in the Apostle's precept, " Let
" all things be done decently, and in or-
" der°." But order and decency, in cases
where uniformity of opinion is manifestly
impossible, can only be maintained by the
° 1 Cor. xiv. 40.

SERMON II. 79
peaceable submission of private judgment
to public authority.
No persuasion therefore, that the pecu
liar institutions of a Church are capable of
improvement, that her Liturgy, perhaps,
might be rendered more edifying, her forms
more significant, her observances more ap
propriate, or her discipline more effica
cious, can offer any reasonable pretext for
dissent. Shall a man, indeed, venture on
the criminal and tremendous alternative of
schism, to escape from usages in them
selves indifferent, on which no two indivi
duals, perhaps, could be found exactly to
coincide in opinion, and which in all their
probable varieties affect not the moment
ous question of human salvation ? " The
" unity of the faith," says St. Augustinep,
" may be held with different observances,
" which are no impediment to the truth.
P Sit ergo una fides universal, qua? ubique dilatatur,
Ecclesia?, tanquam intus in membris, etiamsi ipsa fidei
unitas quibusdam diversis observationibus celebratur,
quibus nullo modo quod in fide verum est, impeditur.
Omnis enim pulchritudo filiae regis intrinsecus, illae au-
tem observationes, quae varie celebrantur, in ejus veste
intelliguntur. Augustin. Epist. 86. edit. Lovaniens.

80 SERMON II.
" The beauty of the King's daughter is
" within, and these various observances
" are but her vesture."
III. And now if the language of Scripture
on the subject of Christian unity has been
correctly represented, and the conclusions
to which we have been led, with respect
to the nature and measure of our obliga
tions on this important point, have been
fairly deduced from thence, in what light
shall we be disposed to regard the melan
choly state of religious disorganization into
which we have fallen, the almost unprece
dented increase of schism which we wit
ness, and the frivolous distinctions for which
so many profess, even on principle, to have
deserted the venerable Church of their
forefathers ?
I would not be supposed to condemn
separation as such, where a thorough dif
ference of opinion with respect to any of
the fundamental doctrines or ordinances of
Christianity, however erroneous and un
tenable it may be, yet seems by a kind of
unhappy necessity to lead to separation as
its inevitable consequence. Decided hetero-

SERMON II. 81
doxy, deplorable as it is in itself, and not
unfrequently vicious in its origin, may ne
vertheless be considered as a plausible, nay
even a conscientious cause of schism. Ac
cordingly, it is not to be expected that those
amongst us, who have ventured to discard
from their religious system the sacramental
ordinances of Christ, should even think of
uniting with a Church, into whose fellow
ship one sacrament must admit them, and
of whose communion the other forms so
prominent a feature. And those again, who
are so unhappy as to misconceive the plain
evidences for the Divinity of our blessed
Saviour, and for the Atonement wrought by
him for the sins of fallen man, may well be
spared the unprofitable disgust of hypocri
tically conforming to a Liturgy, of which the
Atonement and the Divinity of Christ form
the pervading principle, the animating spirit.
In the case of such persons, separation is
clearly unavoidable ; though it highly con
cerns them to be well assured, that no wil
ful abuse of their faculties, no culpable
negligence, no unjustifiable prejudices, have
contributed to fix them in opinions, which,
G

82 SERMON II.
when once adopted, form an invincible bar
rier to all communion with the Church of
Christ. But it is not for us to " judge them
" that are without*1;" happily both for them
and for ourselves, " them that are without
" God judgethV
It is to a far more numerous and for
midable body of schismatics, that the ar
guments here adduced may be considered
more especially to apply; consisting prin
cipally of the three well known denomina
tions of Protestant Dissenters, and of that
more modern sect, whose rapid advance*
ment in numerical consequence is among
the more alarming signs of these times.
And here it is, if the arguments which have
been advanced are not altogether void of
consistency and soundness, that the charge
of schism must rest in all its force.
Their cases, as far as relates to this
charge, are in general too similar to re
quire a separate discussion. Admitting
and professing, without any material vari
ation, all those fundamental truths which
our Church considers as essential to salva-*
i 1 Cor. v. 12. ' 1 Cor. v. 13. '

SERMON II. 83
tion, the^ have nevertheless forsakeri her
communion. And so far indeed as they
even deem it requisite to assign any reason
at all for their separation— so far, that is, as
they have not adopted the extravagant no
tions of religious liberty which now prevail,
of their absolute and unqualified right to
worship God as best suits their wayward fan
cies — the objections on which they ground
their vindication are either similar to those
whose insufficiency has already been ex
posed, or even still more glaringly futile
and unreasonable. Diversities of opinion
on points not clearly revealed ; — objections
to ecclesiastical authority altogether, of to
that peculiar modification of it to which
their submission is required, or even to the
support and protection held forth to the
Church by the piety of the civil magi
strate ; — a pretence of seeking a more en
lightened and more spiritual ministry ; —
a preference for, extemporary preaching arid
prayer; — minute exceptions against par
ticular expressions and forms and observ
ances, even down to a capricious prejudice
against a garment or a posture ; — these, and
such as these, are the pleas which have
g2

84 SERMON II.
jointly and severally been urged as fully
vindicating, nay rather as imperiously de
manding a separation from our Church ; —
and thus mistaking the corrupt workings
of pride and passion, or the wanton extra
vagances of fancy, for the sober dictates of
a conscience rightly informed, men have
laboured to persuade others, and have too
frequently succeeded in persuading them
selves, that they have broken " the bond of
" peace" for conscience sake.
What should we say of the loyalty of
that subject or citizen, who, from motives
analogous to these, should desert the land
which gave him birth, associate himself
with her inveterate enemies, and support
their cause against her? The universal se
verity of human laws towards such offend
ers sufficiently evinces the sense which
mankind have of the nature of the offence ;
whilst the impunity which attends the reli
gious deserter will scarcely allow us to per
ceive and confess that the cases are but
too strictly parallel8.
s " It is remarkable, that not merely the first eccle-
" siastical writers, but the Apostles themselves, did al-
" most uniformly employ such terms in speaking of

SERMON II. 85
Of all the pleas for separation from our
Church which rriay be classed with those
just mentioned, that which is founded on
the rejection of infant baptism may per
haps be considered as wearing the most
plausible aspect; but its validity is surely
inadmissible. — The language of Scripture is
no where sufficiently explicit, with respect
to the period of administering baptism, to
justify us in ranking it among those funda-
merital articles of our religion, in defence of
which we are bound to embrace the serious
alternative of separation. Such at least was
the verdict of the Church in the primitive
ages *; so at least have judged some even of
the modern Antipaedobaptists u themselves,
" divisions in the Church, as are used by civil historians
" to describe divisions in the State  This could only
" have been in order to direct us to measure our notions
" of ecclesiastical schism by the analogy of civil rebel-
" lion  .The constant use of the words <rrao-(j, epij,
" 8i^oo-Tao-/«i, &c. in the writings of the Apostles and of
" the Apostolic Fathers, must have struck every body
" who has read them with the least attention." Nott's
Bampton Lectures, p. 101, 102.
' See authority for this cited by Wall, Hist, of Infant
Baptism, vol. ii. p. 424, 425.
« Ibid. p. 426—432.
g3

86 SERMON II.
maintaining communion with our Church,
notwithstanding their opinion, and strongly
reprobating the idea of separating for any
such cause. Till an actual prohibition of
infant baptism can be clearly pointed out
in Scripture, or fairly inferred from thence,
separation on such grounds cannot be jus
tified, for <* where no law is, there is no
" transgression* ."
If schism indeed be a sin of such mag
nitude, as we have on scriptural and primi
tive authority been led to conclude, how
can any thing short of the enforcement of
unquestionably sinful terms of communion
reasonably induce us to incur the awful
responsibility of separation? And again, if
any thing * not actually criminal in the faith
v Rom. iv. 15.
x " If any thing less than sinful terms of Communion
" can justify a separation, then there can be no end of
" separations, and Catholic Communion is an impossible
" and impracticable notion ; that is, the Church of Christ
" neither is one body, nor can be. For if men are not
" bound to communicate with a Church, which observes
" our Saviour's institutions, without any such corrupt
" mixtures as make its communion sinful, then there
" is no bounds to be set to the fancies of men, but they
" may new-model Churches, and divide and subdivide

SERMON II. 8;
and practice of the Church can justify us
in withdrawing from her communion, how
can any determinate principles of Christian
unity be established at all; how can we
form any tolerable and practical idea where
lawful separation ends, and criminal schism
begins ?
Haying reserved the discussion of Epi
scopacy to another lecture, I have purposely
avoided all direct reference to its superior
and exclusive pretension?. All that I would
at present assume, as being in fact all that
my argument requires, and all that is ne
cessary towards demonstrating the guilt of
schism, in a country like this, where the
Establishment is episcopal, is, that Epi
scopacy is at least a lawful form of ecclesi
astical governnient; a position which the
most hardy of our adversaries would scarcely
venture to controvert. For those who reject
the idea of a divinely instituted priesthood,
cannot refuse to Episcopacy its fair claim
to consideration among the human devices
for the regular organization of a Church ;
" without any end." Dr. Sherlock on Church Commu
nion; London Cases, p. 33.
g4

88 SERMON II.
and even the most strenuous Presbyterian
must pause, ere he condemn as unlawful,
that ministry, through which alone for fif
teen centuries his own must trace its claims
to its Divine commission. Shall conscience
then be pleaded by those amongst us, who
refuse submission to episcopal authority?
As well might the theoretical republican
pretend, that he could not in conscience
render obedience to a monarchical go
vernment. The unruliness of pride and
the prejudices of discontent may, no doubt,
impel the one to schism, or the other to
rebellion; but to plead conscience as a jus
tification, must in either case be equally
and most glaringly a profanation of the
term. In vain may the sectary plead, (as many
perhaps might be disposed to do,) that he
is not guilty of the sin of schism, for that
he has merely followed the example of his
parents ; has only continued in the persua
sion in which he was educated. This may
indeed help to account for his offence ; but
if it be deemed a justification of it, what
crime may not be justified? In vain may

SERMON II. 89
he urge the actual necessity of schism ; that
St. Paul has declared that " there must be
" heresies, that they which are approved
" might be made manifest y;"— that to schism
we are indebted for the invaluable works
of the primitive Fathers, and even for no
inconsiderable portion of the sacred vo
lume; — that the mutual jealousy of con
tending sects has essentially contributed to
preserve the holy Scriptures in their ori
ginal purity; and that without diversities
of opinion to enliven the zeal of men, re
ligion herself must soon be lost in apathy
and indifference. All this may be strictly
true, without supplying the separatist with
the slightest justification. "It must be that
" offences come %" and yet the same high
authority adds, " woe be to him by whom
" they come." The violence and injustice
of the wicked are among those " fiery
" trials3," which but the more effectually
prepare the faithful servants of God for
that " glory which shall be revealed here-
" after b." Yet who ever ventured on that
y 1 Cor. xi. 19. * Luke xvii. I.
a 1 Pet. iv. 12. b 1 Pet. v. 1.

90 SERMON II.
account to palliate those crimes ? If the
wisdom and mercy of the Almighty rejoices
in bringing good out of evil, will the end
justify the means? shall. we "do evil that
" good may come?"
In laying down thus strictly the princi
ples of Christian unity, far be it from us to
pronounce a rash and unwarrantable con
demnation on those who appear to have
violated it. To express a decided opinion
with respect to the nature of a sin, and to
pass sentence on sinners, are things widely
different. The former may be in many
cases an imperious duty ; the latter, so far
from being a duty^ is a presumptuous in
vasion of the prerogative of Heaven. He
must have formed a most inadequate con
ception of the force of education and ex
ample and early habit, who is not con
vinced of the extreme difficulty of effecting
an emancipation from their influence in all
cases, and most of all, perhaps, in matters
of religious persuasion ; — and where men
have sinned, like St. Paul, " ignorantly in
" unbelief0," who shall presume to doubt,
1 Tim. i. 13.

SERMON II. 91
that, like him also, they may obtain mercy ?
But if, in the exuberance of mistaken li
berality, we proceed to confound extenua
tion with innocence, and excuse with ab
solute justification, until we arrive even at
a practical doubt of the very existence of
criminal separation, we are adopting a prin
ciple which would equally justify every vice
to which men could claim an inheritance,
or for which custom and example could
furnish a plausible apology. Such charity
is neither rational nor scriptural ; such can
dour but a more imposing name for pro
fane indifference.
But whatever allowance charity may de
mand for the errors of others, in our own
cases we cannot be too clear-sighted or
too scrupulous ; — we cannot, I had almost
said, be too uncharitable; and where the
object is to establish correct rules for our
own practice, to inform the ignorant and
unwary, to confirm the wavering, and to re
claim those whose prejudices are yet open
to argument and conviction, we cannot
surely be too decided or too explicit.
Of the soundness of the principles which

92 SERMON II.
it has been attempted to establish, and of
the importance of enforcing them, the very
features usually assumed by schism, and the
dangers to which it manifestly tends, afford
the most impressive illustration. The fu
tility of the grounds on which separation
has often been adopted ; — the general igno
rance even of those grounds observable in
such multitudes of sectaries; — the perpetua
tion of prejudice and animosity, even where
the original causes of division have been
long since forgotten; — the perverted din-
d " In a separation every thing is aggravated to the
" widening ofthe gap, as we see by constant and woful
" experience ; a separate party never thinks itself far
" enough off from any terms of reconciliation." Wall,
vol. ii. p. 438. St. Jerome observes, " Nullum schisma
" non sibi aliquam confingit hseresim, ut recte ab Ec-
" clesia recessisse videatur." S. Hieron. Comm. in Epist.
ad Tit. cap. 3. edit. Benedict, vol. iv. p. 439. Vincen-
tius makes a similar remark; "Quis unquam haereses in-
" stituit, nisi qui se prius ab Ecclesia? Catholicae, uni-
" versitatis et antiquitatis consensione discreverit? 
" Satis evidenter perspicueque monstratur, hoc apud
" omnes fere haereses quasi solenne esse ac legitimum,
" ut semper prophanis novitatibus gaudeant, antiqui-
t( tatis scita fastidiant, et per oppositiones falsi no-
" minis sciential a fide naufragent." Contra Hareses.
cap. 34.

SERMON II. 93
genuity with which new distinctions have
been invented to give plausibility to a de
sperate cause; — the endless subdivisions of
communion, and variations of doctrine, na
turally consequent on deserting the true
standard of unity ; — the extreme e jealousy
of these divisions in their own particular
congregations, evinced by sectarian lead
ers, and the earnestness with which they
soon learn to reprobate the very sin with
which themselves are manifestly charge
able;— the gloomy, the unsocial, the dis
contented spirit of nonconformity, and its
obvious tendency to connect itself with
e Baxter, himself a disturber of the unity of the
Church, inveighed against schism in the strongest
terms. "It is my calling," says he, "to help to save
" people from their sins, and Church division is a heap
" of sins." Cure of Church Divisions, Preface. " He
" that is out of the Church is without the teaching,
" the holy worship, the prayers, and the discipline of
" the Church, and is out of the way where the Spirit
" doth come ; and out of the society which Christ is
" specially related to ; for he is the Saviour of his body,
" and if we once leave his hospital, we cannot expect
" the cure and help of the Physician. Nor will he be
" a Pilot to them who forsake his ship, nor a Captain
" to them who separate from his army. Out of this
" Ark there is nothing but a deluge, and no place of rest
" or safety for a soul." Ibid. p. 68. .•< /

94 SERMON II.
political disaffection; these are traits of
schism no less notorious, than they are il
lustrative of its source and nature.
But it is connected with positive evils
still more deplorable, and hazards still more
alarming. For notwithstanding the good
purposes to which the divisions of the Chris
tian world may fairly be considered to have
been occasionally subservient, in rousing
men to renewed vigilance and more lively
zeal in the cause of religion ; I apprehend
that in our own case, as indeed in every
other case where religious divisions have
passed the limits of moderation, so far
from having grounds to flatter ourselves
with the hope of such favourable results, we
have too much reason to dread consequences
of the most opposite description. Can we in-
f The truth of James the First's well-known adage,
" No Bishop, no King," was wofully experienced by his
unhappy son. And we must be invincibly blind to the
signs of the times, if we do not perceive that the rapid
and unprecedented increase of defection from our com
munion has gone hand in hand with a growing spirit of
political innovation. The connexion between them is
(as a general rule at least) natural and necessary. The
same unruly and turbulent passions are the common
source of both.

SERMON II. 95
deed hesitate t6 believe, that the multiplied
and scandalous dissensions of the professors
of the Gospel have a powerful tendency to
confirm the prejudices of the sceptical, and
bewilder the judgment of the weak ; — to
produce a prevailing impression, that it is a
matter of absolute indifference, which of all
the various forms of religious worship we may
adopt for ourselves ; — and then, by a chain
of consequences too closely linked together,
first, a contempt for all the externals of re
ligion, and finally, for religion herself?
Should we, however, fail to recognise
any universal and necessary connexion
between religious divisions and sceptical
profligacy ; one principle, at least, we must
admit to have been long arrayed in for
midable hostility against us 5 one truth j
at least, is beyond dispute; — that dissen
sions, whether civil or religious, if carried
beyond certain limits, must of necessity be
fatal to the community which has admitted
them, that a " kingdom" thoroughly " di-
" vided against itself cannot stand s."
If such, then, be the tremendous crisis too
s Mark iii. 24.

96 SERMON II.
probably to be apprehended from the un
happy divisions of our Church, it becomes
us, not only to wish and to " pray for the
"peace of" this our " Jerusalem h," but
to combine our most strenuous exertions
in support of her sacred cause ; to temper
an avowed decision of principle with that
charity and conciliation in practice, which
may tend, by God's blessing, to restore her
to harmony and accord, and make her once
more, so far as human frailties will allow,
" as a city that is at unity in itself'."
" And who," said the venerable and
pious Bishop Andrews k, at a period when
our Church wore an aspect of dissension
and danger too fearfully analogous to the
present, — u who shall make us of one
" accord ? High shall be his reward in
" heaven, and happy his remembrance on
" earth, that shall be the means to restore
" this accord to the Church ; — that once
" we may keep a true and perfect Pente-
" cost," when the disciples of Christ " were
" all with one accord in one place l."
h Psalm cxxii. 6. ' Psalm cxxii. 3.
k Sermons, p. 384. fifth edition. ' Acts ii. 1.

SERMON III.

John xx. 21.
As my father hath sent me, even so send I you.
IN further prosecuting the consideration
of the claims of our excellent Church to
the undivided attachment of the people of
these kingdoms, and of the unreasonable
ness of deserting her communion, the next
point which naturally presents itself is the
outward form of that polity which our
blessed Saviour and his holy Apostles in
stituted for his Church. For if it shall ap
pear that our own ecclesiastical institutions
are formed on that primitive model, our
pretensions to being regarded a.s a sound
and undoubted branch of the one universal
Church must receive a most material con
firmation ; and the force of those argu
ments which have already been derived
from a general review of the obligations to
Christian unity, and the guilt of schism,
H

98 SERMON III.
must be augmented in a similar propor
tion. The tivo leading positions which it is my
present object to establish are these :— first,
that the form of government under which
the Apostles placed and left the Church
by the direction of their blessed Master,
and the unerring guidance of the Holy
Spirit, was in all essential points what we
now term Episcopal; and, secondly, that
such are the circumstances connected with
this original institution, and such the im
portant and permanent purposes which it
was designed to answer, that Episcopacy
must be regarded as an immutable charac
teristic of the true Church of Christ.
Before I proceed to establish these posi
tions by direct proof, one or two previous
considerations naturally present themselves,
which may serve to prepare the mind for
its more candid reception. — If there are
privileges annexed to the Church which
God only can bestow, God, and not man,
must be the author and framer of that sa
cred society. — If the Church, as we have
already seen grounds to infer, be a visible

SERMON III. 99
society, nothing can well be expected to be
more notoriously observable in it, than its
external polity. — If it be, moreover, a so
ciety to which unity is indispensable, an
uniformity in that polity, at least in its
more prominent features, is naturally to be
looked for. — Again, if schism be a sin of so
deep a die as the Scriptures represent it to
be, what can be greater than the antece
dent improbability, that the humble and
diligent inquirer should meet with any in
surmountable difficulties in ascertaining how
he is to avoid that sin, and what that is
from which he must not separate? — If our
blessed Lord commands us on certain oc
casions to "tell" our case "to the Churcha,"
surely the Church should readily be disco
vered ; — if it be a society to which we are
all bound to unite ourselves, as we hope
to partake of the privileges of the Chris
tian covenant, it must consistently possess
such conspicuous and decisive marks as
may distinguish it from every rival associa
tion ; it must be as " a city set on an hill,
" which cannot be hidb," but to the blind-
* Matth. xviii. 7. b Matth. v. 14.
h2

100 SERMON III.
ness of wilful inattention or unreasonable
prejudice. If these considerations directly lead us,
as they surely ought, to the rational ex
pectation, that he who candidly investi
gates the form of that society which Christ,
by his holy Apostles, established for his
Church, will not search in vain; let us,
on the other hand, beware of looking to
the holy Scriptures for that u professed and
clear and accurate explanation on these
points, which they were not intended to
give, and which, for obvious reasons, can
not, in fairness, be expected from them.
It should be carefully recollected, that the
historical parts of the New Testament, be
sides being but a short abstract of the
transactions which they record, refer, in
c " He that desireth to espie light at a narrow hole,
" must lay his eye near, if he mean to discover at large.
" So must he be curious in considering the Scriptures,
" that meaneth to discern those things that are not de-
" clared there at large, but are collected by circufn-
" stance or consequence : especially in matters which
" we view at this distance of time, which representeth
" to us things done then through a mist of succeeding
" custom." Thorndike on the Primitive Government of
Churches, ch.i. p. 1.

SERMON III. 101
general, to the primary conversion of dis
ciples, and to a period when the Church
was too much in its infancy to admit of
complete and permanent regulation ; — that
the Epistles were, for the most part, ad
dressed to those d who principally required
instruction in the very rudiments of Chris
tianity, and who as yet, perhaps, had no
standing ministry ordained among them ; —
that even where the case was otherwise,
the Epistles, being merely occasional, ra
ther presuppose than explain the govern
ment of the Church, which, whilst it still
remained e in the hands of the Apostles
themselves, could scarcely be either mis
conceived or disputed ; — that in the min
istrations to which St. Paul sometimes al
ludes, the ordinary offices of the Church are
not f always to be readily distinguished from
d See Archbishop Potter's Discourse on Church Go
vernment, p. 91 — 95.
e Ibid. p. 95, 96.
f " Many of the ministers who lived in the age of the
" Apostles were extraordinary persons, whose ministra-
" tions are not always easy to be distinguished from
" those of the ordinary offices of the Church, or from
" one another. We are told, that God hath set some in
" his Church, first Apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly
" teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings,
H 3

102 SERMON III.
those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, with
which so many were then favoured ; — and
finally, that most of the Apostles long sur
vived the writing of the books of the New
Testament, and may naturally be»supposed
to have proceeded by degrees to their full
and final arrangements, as the increasing
numbers and stability of the Church en
abled them.
I. " He," says the learned and ingeni
ous Rogers, " who will form a just idea of
" the plan upon which the society of the
" Christian Church was formed, must con-
" suit the writings of the primitive Church:
" an exact account of its polity, in all its
" parts, is no where given us in the New
" helps, governments, diversities of tongues. (1 Cor. xii.
" 28.) In which place, it is certain that different or-
" ders of ministers are described, some of which did
" not only excel others in the extraordinary gifts of the
" Spirit, but also had authority to govern them  But
" then it is not easy to give a distinct and certain ac-
" count, what were the particular offices of these per-
" sons, and which of them were extraordinary and tem-
" porary, and which designed for the constant and last-
" ing use of the Church, since the Scriptures do not
" speak clearly, and learned men have differed in their
" judgments about them." Archbishop Potter's Discourse
on Church Government, p. 89 — 91.

SERMON III. 103
" Testament. But then, quite through
" these holy writings, there occurs frequent
" mention of such outward ordinances ad-
" ministered, and such acts of external
" communion enjoined and practised, such
" offices and powers either committed to,
" or exercised by, some Christians, and
" such submissions paid or required from
" others, as manifestly suppose and relate
" to a regular government and economy of
" the Church. And I think the evidences
" of this kind, which we may collect from
" Scripture, are such, that, if we take the
" assistance of primitive history for the in-
" terpretation of them, (which is equally
" necessary for the understanding any other
" ancient book,) we. shall want little of a
" complete account of the offices of the
" Church, and their powers, even in the
" Scriptures5."
S " Without this concurrent assistance, indeed," he
adds, " many passages which relate to this subject will
" be hard to be understood ; and therefore these primi-
" tive writings are to be taken as a proper, and even a
" necessary supplement in this point." Rogers's Review
of his Discourse on the Visible and Invisible Church, p.
171, 172.
H 4

104 SERMON III.
l . The first step taken by our blessed
Lord in forming the society of his Church
was the selection of the twelve Apostles
from the body of his disciples, " that they
" should be with him, and that he might
" send them forth to preach6." After
wards we read, that he " appointed other
" seventy also, and sent them two and two
" before his face'." That they were of an
order inferior k to the twelve, may appear
from their original commission being some-
h Luke vi. 12, 13. ' Luke x. 1.
k " Who sees not then," says Bishop Hall, " a mani-
" fest imparity in our Saviour's own choice in the first
" gathering of his Church, wherein his Apostles were
" above his other disciples, the twelve above the seven-
" ty; above them in privileges, and especially in the im-
" mediateness of their calling, above them in their Mas-
" ter's respects, above them in gifts and in the power of
" their dispensation, above them in commission, above
" them in miraculous operations  And how plain is
" it, that such honourable regard was given to the
" twelve, that when one room fell void by the treason of
" Judas, it must, by the direction of the Spirit of God,
" be made up by an election out of the seventy. Had it
" not been an higher preferment to be an Apostle,
" wherefore was that scrutiny and choice?" Bishop Hall,
Episcopacy by Divine Right, book ii. ch. 2. p. 91, 92.
See this point proved at length by Archbishop Potter,
Discourse on Church Government, p. 42 — 44.

SERMON III. 105
what less general, as it was limited to the
particular cities and places, " whither he
" himself would come1;" — from their not
being appointed to " be with him," as the
others were ; — and from their never being
mentioned again after they had returned to
him, and given an m account of the success
of their mission. But the difference be
comes more striking, from the honours and
distinctions afterwards and gradually con
ferred on the twelve. They received a
promise that they should " sit on twelve
" thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Is-
" rael n ;" — they alone partook with their
blessed Master of the last Supper, and re
ceived his command to "commemorate his
sacrifice ; — to them alone did he, after his
resurrection, " speak of the things pertain-
" ing to the kingdom of God p," and confide
his final directions for its government and
continuance ; — and, if we may credit q Eu-
1 Luke x. 1. m Luke x. 17 n Matt. xix. 28.
° Luke xxii. 19. P Acts i. 3.
1 MoTfl/av 8e tov ocvti 'IouSa tou wgoSoTOu tojj anwTo'Aojj
lyxarsKsykvTa, tov re <ruv aura* Trt opola. \J/^ipa> Tifurfiivra, rrjs
auTrjS Taiv l/38o/t^xovT« x\r)oscos yf-MoSat xaTeyet \6yos. Eu-
sebii Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. 12.

106 SERMON III.
sebius or r Epiphanius in a matter which is
in itself both natural and probable, it was
from among the seventy that Matthias was
chosen to supply the vacancy in their num
ber, occasioned by the death of the apostate
Judas. Thus, faint as are the indications of a
regular Church during our Saviour's conti
nuance on the earth, we may nevertheless
trace the outlines of that triple polity which
has ever since distinguished it ; Christ him
self being the visible Bishop and Governor
of his Church, and the Apostles and the
seventy forming two distinct orders of min
isters, under his supreme authority.
As no inconsiderable illustration of the
same point, let it be observed, that the
Apostles received their full powers, not at
their first ordination, but at s three distinct
periods. Their first Commission empow-
r Epiphanius mentions the same fact, and gives the
names of some others who were also of the seventy-tivo,
(as he states the number to be,) viz. the seven deacons,
and Mark, Luke, Justus, Barnabas, Apelles, Rufus, and
Niger. Epiph, adv. Hares, edit. Paris, lib. i. p. 50.
s See this stated by Potter, Disc, on Ch. Government,
p. 55—58.

SERMON III. 107
ered them to preach the Gospel and to bap
tize l, offices which have usually been con
sidered in the Church as within the quali
fications of the lowest order of ministers ; —
next, they received authority to bless the
elements of bread and wine, in commemo
ration of his death and sacrifice, an office
which has never been performed by any
below the second order ; — and lastly, when
their blessed Master was about to leave the
world, he transferred to them the powers
which he himself had exercised, and they
entered on their full episcopal authority,
to govern and judge the Church as he had
governed and judged it, and ordain its
ministers as he had ordained them.
Words could not express this transfer
more amply than those which were em
ployed in conveying to them their final and
plenary commission. " As my Father hath
" sent me, even so' send I you. And when
" he had said this, he breathed on them,
" and saith unto them, Receive ye the
" Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit,
" they are remitted unto them and whose
1 John iv. 1, 2.

108 SERMON III.
" soever sins ye retain, they are retained u."
To complete this parallel, as Christ had
not undertaken the execution of his office,
until he had been duly authorized by the
visible A descent of the Holy Ghost, so nei
ther did the Apostles commence the active
labours of their ministry, till they had re
ceived power for that purpose from the
same Divine source on y the day of Pen
tecost. The extent of their commission is best
explained by their own interpretation of it,
as displayed in their subsequent conduct.
And it is observable, that scarcely an act of
power was exerted by our Lord himself
during his abode on earth, which was not
afterwards, in a degree at least, exercised
by his Apostles2. Besides performing the
u John xx. 21 — 23. x Matt. iii. 16. y Acts ii. 4.
2 " The power is clear, will you see the execution of
" it? Look upon St. Paul, the posthumous and super-
" numerary, but no less glorious Apostle ; see with what
"majesty he becomes his new-erected throne; one while
" deeply charging and commanding ; another while con-
" trolling and censuring ; one while giving laws and
" ordinances, another while urging for their observance;
" one while ordaining Church governors, another while

SERMON III. 109
ordinary offices of the Christian priesthood,
preaching, and prayer, and the administra
tion of the sacraments of baptism and the
Lord's Supper, they assumed to themselves
such authority as proved that the govern
ment of the Church was altogether com
mitted to their charge, judging and con
demning offenders3, inflicting on them spi
ritual censures, excluding them from spi
ritual privileges, pardoning b and reinstating
them on their repentance, prescribing rules
and "observances for the Church, ordaining
its d ministers, superintending their official
conduct and the soundness of their doc
trine, and laying their hands on those who
had been baptized, to e confirm them in the
possession of the privileges of the Chris
tian covenant.
These powers, which so decisively point
" adjuring them to do their duties ; one while threaten-
" ing punishment, another while inflicting it. And if
" these be not acts of jurisdiction, what can be such ?"
Bp. Hall, Episcopacy by Divine Right, book ii. ch. 2.
p. 96. See also Potter, p. 58—68.
a 1 Cor. v. 5. and 1 Tim. i. 20. b 2 Cor. ii. 6, 10.
c 1 Cor. ch. vii. viii. xi. xiv. d Acts xiv. 23.
e Acts viii. 17.

110 SERMON III.
them out as the episcopal rulers of the
Church, may be considered as possessed by
them independently of that more enlarged
and general commission, which belonged to
them as Apostles, strictly so called, and of
those miraculous gifts and extraordinary
effusions of the Spirit, which were with
drawn when the necessities of the infant
Church no longer demanded their aid ;
which were possessed by the Apostles, in
common with numerous Christians of in
ferior dignity ; were considered as altoge
ther distinct from official authority, and
afforded no pretence for the unauthorized
exercise of the ministerial functions*, or the
violation of established order.
That the Apostles could have erred in
the measures which they adopted in the
execution of their office, or have arrogated
to themselves any powers which their com
mission did not strictly warrant, must be
considered as manifestly impossible. We
are informed by the Evangelist St. Luke,
that our blessed Lord " shewed himself
f The^ consideration of this point is reserved for
Sermon V.

SERMON III. Ill
" alive s" to his Apostles " after his pas-
" sion by many infallible proofs, being seen
" of them forty days, and speaking of
" the things pertaining to the kingdom of
" God." If then these unrecorded dis
courses must unquestionably have em
braced matters so essential, as the means
to be pursued in the formation of the so
ciety of his Church ; if we know besides,
that they acted under the influence of the
Holy Spirit, who was to be sent " to guide
" them into all truth11;" which we cannot
interpret to mean less than all necessary
truth, every truth connected with the due
discharge of their Divine commission ; can
we hesitate to conclude, that the form of
polity which the Church assumed under
their superintending care, was of Divine
appointment ?
For a professed and regular detail of this
polity we must not look to the holy Scrip
tures. It is sufficient that, from the inci
dental information which they supply, il
lustrated by the opinions and practice of
the primitive ages, we are enabled to arrive
s Acts i. 3. h John xvi. 13.

112 SERMON III.
at conclusions completely satisfactory. Ac
cordingly the Church is soon found to dis
cover indisputable traces, at least, of that
threefold ministry, which decides its episco
pal character.
Of the apostolical appointment and so
lemn ' ordination of deacons we have a dis
tinct account. And though the original
institution of elders, or presbyters, is not
recorded, we find a council of them at Je
rusalem^ assisting in the management of
the Church, and manifestly subordinate,
first to the Apostles, during their continu
ance at Jerusalem, and afterwards to their
own immediate ' Bishop, St. James. Paul
and Barnabas in their progress through the
various cities of Asia Minor, " ordained
" them elders in every church m." — St.
James, writing " to the twelve tribes which
" are scattered abroad," directs, that " if
" any is sick among them, he should call
" for the elders of the Church, that they
" might pray over him, and anoint him

' Acts vi. 2 — 6. k Acts xi. 30, and xv. 6.
1 Acts xxi. 18. ™ Acts xiv. 23.

SERMON III. 113
" with oil in the name of the Lord "." St.
Peter, who writes " to the strangers scattered
" throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
" Asia, and Bithynia," exhorts the Elders
to " feed the flock of God which is among
" them, taking the oversight thereof0."
The Epistle to the Philippians is addressed,
" to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are
" at Philippi, with the Bishops and Dea-
" cons P." St. Paul tells the Corinthians,
that " God hath set some in the Church,
" first Apostles, secondarily prophets, third -
" ly teachers, after that miracles'1," and
other gifts. St. Paul in his travels is some
times attended by a minister of the second
order, and one or more deacons, as by
Silas1, who is called a prophet, and Ti
mothy an evangelist or deacon ; and some
times by deacons only, as by Timothy and
Erastus s.
Thus whatever may have been the case
in particular instances, where the Gospel
was not sufficiently established to admit of
n James i. 1. and v. 14. ° 1 Pet. i. 1. and v. 1, 2.
P Phil. i. 1. i 1 Cor. xii. 28.
r Acts xv. 32, 40. s Acts xix. 22.
I

114 SERMON III.
a standing ministry, there is the most in
disputable evidence from the books of the
New Testament*, that even at the early
period to which those writings refer, there
were, besides the Apostles, at least two or
ders of ministers, both inferior to the Apo
stles, and receiving their ordination from
them ; viz. presbyters or elders, occasion
ally called bishops, and sometimes, from
their peculiar gifts, prophets ; and deacons,
styled sometimes evangelists or teachers.
I say at least two orders, because learned
men have differed in their opinions, whether
the persons called both bishops and presby
ters in St. Paul's Epistles are all to be con
sidered as mere presbyters, or whether
some of them were not really of that su
perior order, afterwards known as bishops,
when those titles were more distinctly ap
propriated11. But I am not anxious to
* See this argument more fully detailed by Potter, p.
96—105. " " I will not take upon me to decide this contro-
" versy," says Potter, " which has exercised the pens of
" many wise and learned men ; but only suggest a few
" things, which I shall leave to the judgment of the im-

SERMON III. 115
express even an opinion on this point, as it
is altogether unnecessary to my argument.
All that I would contend for as already
proved, is, that there were very generally
two distinct orders of ministers in the early
Church, in the appointment and under the
control of the Apostles.
But the Apostles, it has been urged,
must not be considered as a precedent for
episcopal authority, inasmuch as their of
fice was peculiar to themselves, and in
their apostleship they could have no suc
cessors. That no future ministers could suc
ceed to them as Apostles, strictly so called,
will be readily admitted ; but that they might
" partial reader." These suggestions (which see) tend
to shew, that it is very probable that in the writings
of the New Testament the terms bishop and presbyter
sometimes implied two distinct orders of ministers. But
he concludes, that " though we should allow that the
" names of bishop and presbyter did in that age signify
" the same office, as some of the Fathers in the fourth
" century seem to have thought ; and farther, that all
" the bishops spoken of in the forementioned texts of
" Scripture were mere presbyters, and of the next order
" above deacons, which is the utmost concession that
" can be desired;"  (including the Apostles) " there
" were three distinct orders of ministers, by whom the
" Christian Church was governed." Potter, p. 106 — 1 11.
I 2

116 SERMON III.
have successors in that spiritual commission
which empowered them to govern and per
petuate the Church, is not inconsistent with
reason, and that they had such is capable
of the most satisfactory demonstration.
" In some things," says the judicious
Hooker, " every Presbyter, in some things
" only Bishops, in some things neither the
" one nor the other are the Apostles' suc-
" cessors. The Apostles were sent as spe-
" cial chosen eye-witnesses of Jesus Christ,
" from whom immediately they received
" their whole embassage, and their com-
" mission to be the principal first founders
" of an house of God, consisting as well of
" Gentiles as of Jews. In this there are not
" after them any other like unto them ; and
" yet the Apostles have now their succes-
" sors upon earth, their true successors,
" if not in the largeness, surely in the kind
" of that episcopal function, whereby they
" had power to sit as spiritual ordinary
" judges, both over laity and over clergy,
" where Christian Churches were esta-
" blished\"
x Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, book vii. 8vo. edit.
vol. iii. p. 123. " I doe

SERMON III. 117
Indeed that general and extensive com
mission, which the Apostles received, to
" preach the Gospel to every creature y,"
and which at first sight may seem to dis
tinguish them so immeasurably from ordi-
" I doe not denie," says Bilson, " but many things in
" the Apostles were personall, given them by God's wis-
" dome, for the first spreading of the faith, and planting
" of the Churches amongst Jewes and Gentiles, that all
" nations might be converted unto Christ by the sight
" of their miracles, and directed by the truth of their
"doctrine; yet that all their gifts ended with their
" lives, and no part of their charge and power remained
" to their after-commers ; may neither be confessed by
" us nor affirmed by any, unless we mean wholly to sub-
" vert the Church of Christ  The Scriptures once
" written suffice all ages for instruction : the miracles
" then done are for ever a most evident confirmation of
" their doctrine; the authoritie of their first calling
" liveth yet in their succession ; and time and travail,
" joyned with God's graces, bring pastours at this pre-
" sent to perfection ; yet the Apostles charge to teach, •
" baptize, and administer the Lord's Supper, to bind
" and loose sinnes in heaven and in earth, to impose
" hands for the ordaining of pastours and elders; — these
" parts of the apostolicke function and charge are not
" decaied and cannot be wanting in the Church of God.
" There must either be no Church, or else these must
" remaine ; for without these no Church can continue."
Bilson on the Perpetual Government of Christ's Church,
chap. ix. p. 105.
y Mark xvi. 15. I 3

118 SERMON III.
dinary Bishops, appears to have been gra
dually restrained by themselves, as the cir
cumstances of the Church admitted or re
quired it, to some resemblance to a local
Episcopacy. Ecclesiastical historians not
only testify that they divided the world
amongst them for the separate exercise of
their ministry, but give the names of the
particular z countries assigned to each. And
although the information afforded in the
New Testament of the proceedings of the
Apostles in converting the nations, with
the exception of St. Paul, is extremely
scanty, we may discover evident traces of
this fact in his Epistles ; — as for instance,
from the unwillingness which he expresses
to " stretch himself beyond his measure,"
• z 'Hvixa ol o.vo<7to\qi xXvjpco tijv eij to. eSvr) iropelav enoiouvm,
&aijj.as ft-ev ty\v YlapSuiv cmtootoA^v uirele^ero' Marfiaioj 8s tijv
Aldio-irlav. Bag8oAojn.aTo5 8? exXypouTO Tyv o~uvQ]j.[).&rt\v Toturri
'Ivllav. Socrates, Eccles. Hist. lib. i. cap. xv.
&co[iois //.ev, d>s i] 7rapaSoo~is Ttegieyex, tijv HapQlav e'!\t)%ev
'AvSgeaj 8s tyjv Sxufliav 'Icoavvi]? tjjv 'Ao~lav upos 005 xa) 8i«-
Tg/iJ/af ev 'EpsVaj reXeuTa. TIeTpos 8e Iv TlovTm xa) TaXaTia,
xa) TiiHuvla, KamraSoxia ts xa) 'Ao-'ia xextipeuyevai toi; ex
o~tu(nropas 'loulaloi; 'ioixev oj xa) Isr! tsAs/ Iv 'Ptefx-rj yevopevos
aveo-xoKoirloStj xuTa xspaAijj, outois auro; a%iiio~as iradeiv. Eu-
seb. Eccles. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 1.

SERMON III. 119
and " boast in another man's line3;" and by
comparing the decisive authority with which
he addresses those whom he had himself
converted, and whom he considered under
his own peculiar jurisdiction, bwith the mere
exhortations to which he confines himself,
when writing to those over whom he had
no such claims. It should appear also,
from the early histories, that the Apostles,
a 2 Cor. x. 14—16.
b " Every Apostle exercised a particular authority
" over the Churches which he had planted. This is the
" reason of the difference between such of St. Paul's
" Epistles as were written to Churches converted by
" himself, and those to others. To the former he writes
"in a style of command and authority; but in these
" last he only exhorts, and persuades, and intreats. Thus
" in his Epistles to the Corinthians he asserts his own
" particular authority over them, exclusive of all others,
" which he grounds on his having converted them 
" He presently adds that, if they proved refractory, he
" would come with a rod to chastise them. (1 Cor. iv.
" 14 — 21.) Again, If I am not an Apostle to others, yet
" doubtless I am to you." (Ibid. ix. 2.)  And when
" he writes to the Romans, the Colossians, and the He-
'•' brews, who had been converted by others, there is no
" mention made of commanding, but he instructs and
" exhorts them, as one who had obtained grace to be an
" Apostle to all nations, but had no particular authority
" over them." Potter on Church Government, p. 86 — 88.
I 4

120 SERMON III.
towards the close of their lives, and when
the Church had received its more settled
form, fixed their residence in particular
places, as St. John at Ephesus, St. Peter
first at cAntioch, and afterwards at Rome,
and St. James at Jerusalem.
St. James, indeed, is not only described
as the first Bishop of Jerusalem by the un
varying testimony of the d primitive writers,
but, what is more to our immediate pur
pose, this fact receives the most satisfactory
illustration from the sacred volume. From
the manner in which his name is incident
ally mentioned in the Acts and Epistles,
we may collect, not only that he remained
at Jerusalem after the dispersion of the
other Apostles, but that he exercised su
preme authority there. When St. Paul went
up to Jerusalem, three years after his con-
c Origen. Horn. vi. in Lucam.
d Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. ii. c. 1. Epiph.adv. Hsereses,
lib. ix. edit. Paris, p. 119. The episcopal chair or
throne, originally used by St. James, had been handed
down to his successors in the see of Jerusalem, and was
still preserved and held in high veneration when Euse
bius wrote his history ; — in the early part of the fourth
century after Christ. Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. vii. c. 19.

SERMON III. 121
version, to see Peter, " Other of the Apo-
" sties," says he, " saw I none, save James
" the Lord's brother'." When St. Peter
was delivered from prison by the angel,
his directions to his disciples are these;
" Go, shew these things unto James, and
" to the brethren f." In the general Synod
which was held some years afterwards at
Jerusalem, respecting the circumcision of
the Gentiles, after the opinions of St. Peter
and others had been given, St. James de
livers himself with manifest authority, and
his sentence is decisive5. This is the more
remarkable, as in the earlier parts of the
history, St. Peter apparently takes the lead
among the Apostles. — About the same pe
riod, some from the Church of Jerusalem
who came to Antioch, are described as
" certain who came from James h." — And
finally, on St. Paul's last visit to Jerusalem,
St. James is still there; for we read, " the

e Gal. i. 18. A.D. 38. f Acts xii. 17. A.D. 44.
S Acts xv. 13 — 19. A.D. 52. St. Chrysostom assigns
as the reason for this preeminence, that he was the Bi
shop of Jerusalem. Horn, xxxiii. in Act. xv. 23.
h Gal. ii. 12.

122 SERMON III.
" day following Paul went in with us unto
" James, and all the elders were there'."
From these texts, referring to various pe
riods during the space of about twenty-two
years, it is sufficiently evident that the
Church of Jerusalem was under the imme
diate superintendence of St. James.
If, then, an actual Apostle of our blessed
Lord evidently exercised his apostolical
functions in a regular and resident Episco
pacy; — if the circumstance of Jerusalem
being the only Church where the Scrip
tures so clearly evince this regularity of
system, is amply accounted for by Jerusa
lem being the original seat of the Christian
religion, and for many years, probably, the
only place where the numbers or the at
tainments of the disciples admitted of its
complete adoption, what can be considered
more strongly illustrative of the intention
of the Apostles to pursue the same course
in other churches, either by themselves, or
their deputies, or their successors?
That the Apostles were invested with au
thority to impart to others, if not all their
* Acts xxi. 18. A.D. 60.

SERMON III. 123
exalted privileges, yet at least those spi
ritual powers which enabled them to go
vern the Church on the plan here sup
posed, — and, moreover, that they actually
did impart them, the writings of the New
Testament will even of themselves afford
us ample proof.
If their final commission from their bless
ed Master was conceived in terms so com
prehensive as these, " As my Father hath
" sent me, so send I you," amongst the va
rious powers here of necessity implied, can
any be less disputable than this, " As my
" Father hath sent me with power to or-
" dain those who shall bear rule in my
" Church, so send I you with the same
" power?" If he finally closes this com
mission with this glorious encouragement
to their zealous and persevering exertions
in fulfilling it, " Lq, I am with you alway,
" even unto the end of the world k," shall
we limit this gracious promise to those
whose mortal career a few short years
must terminate? Must it not be absolutely
unintelligible, but in its more extended ap-
k Matth. xxviii. 20.

124 SERMON III.
plication to those also, who should duly
succeed them in their sacred functions to
the end of time ?
And with respect to the evidences of the
appointment of others possessed of powers
similar to those which were exercised by
the Apostles, admitting, of course, St. Paul
to be strictly an Apostle, although not one
of the original twelve, instances may be
pointed out in Scripture, of persons either
styled Apostles, or possessed of correspond
ing authority ; and some even recorded as
invested with this authority by Apostles; —
as for example, Barnabas, who for some
time accompanied St. Paul in the same
apostolic missions, on a footing of perfect
equality1; — Epaphroditus, who is styled an
Apostle"1; — the seven angels of the Asiatic
churches mentioned in the Revelation of
St. John", who appear to have been the
supreme rulers of those Churches0; — and
Timothy and Titus, who evidently exer
cised episcopal authority in the churches of
1 Acts xi— xv. m Phil. ii. 25. n Rev. i. 20.
° See this point satisfactorily established by Archbi
shop Potter, Disc, on Ch. Gov. p. 132 — 141.

SERMON III. 125
Ephesus and Crete by the appointment of
St. Paul p. The particulars of this author
ity are so expressly enumerated in St. Paul's
Epistles to them, as to leave no room, one
would imagine, for question or cavil; —
they are authorized to ordain elders'1 ; — to
regulate what pertained to the due order
of their churches1; — to take cognizance of
the doctrine' of their subordinate ministers ;
to "rebuke with all authority*," and sit
in judgment on offenders". If Timothy is
empowered to " receive accusations" even
" against elders*," can we suppose him of
the same rank with those who are thus sub
jected to his spiritual censures ? If Titus
is authorized in his individual capacity to
" reject heretics7" from the society of his
Church, can his authority in this Church
be considered less than episcopal and su
preme ?
In vain then must it be to argue, as some
have been found to do, from the indiscri-
P 2 Tim. i. 6. and Tit. i. 5.
q I Tim. v. 22. and Tit. i. 5.
r 1 Tim. ii. and iii. and Tit. i. 5.
* 1 Tim. i 3. and Tit. iii. 10. < Tit. ii. 15.
" 1 Tim. v. 19— 21. x 1 Tim. v. 19. y Tit. iii. 10.

126 SERMON III.
minate use of the terms which we translate
bishop and elder, that, with the exception of
the Apostles, the early Church contained
no minister 'superior to mere elders. As
well might we contend, (to borrow the il
lustration of an ingenious writer3,) that
z "When we find it given in charge to Timothy, the
" first Bishop of Ephesus, how he was to proceed
" against his Presbyters when they transgressed, to sit
" in judgment upon them, examine witnesses against
" them, and pass censures upon them, it is a most im-
" pertinent logomachy to argue from the etymology of
" the words, that notwithstanding all this, a Bishop and
" a Presbyter are the same thing. Therefore that one
" text (1 Tim. v. 19.) is sufficient to silence this pitiful
" clamour of the Presbyterians. Our English reads it,
" against an elder, which is the literal translation of the
" word presbyter, xaTa irgeo-ftuTepov : against a presbyter re-
" ceive not an accusation but before two or three witness-
" es; and them that sin rebuke before all, that others also
" may fear. Now upon the Presbyterian hypothesis we
" must say, that Timothy had no authority or jurisdic-
" tion over that Presbyter, against whom he had power
" to receive accusations, examine witnesses, and pass
" censures upon him ; and that such a Presbyter had
" the same authority over Timothy ; which is so extra-
" vagant, and against common sense, that I will not
" stay longer to confute it." Leslie on the Qualifications
necessary to administer the Sacraments ; Works, vol. ii. p.
722, 723.
a " Bishop signifies an Overseer, and Presbyter an An-
" cient Man or Elder Man ; whence our term Alderman.

SERMON III. 127
there never was an Emperor of Rome, from
the circumstance of his title Imperator
having very generally designated the mere
"And this is as good a foundation to prove that the
" Apostles were Aldermen, in the city acceptation of
" the word, or that our Aldermen are all Bishops and
" Apostles, as to prove that Presbyters and Bishops
" are all one, from the childish gingle of the words. It
" would be the same thing, if one should undertake to
" confront all antiquity, and prove against all the his-
" tories, that the Emperors of Rome were no more than
" Generals of Armies, and that every Roman General
" was Emperor of Rome, because he could find the word
" Imperator sometimes applied to the General of an
" Army. Or as if a Commonwealth-man should get up
" and say, that our former Kings were no more than
" our Dukes are now, because the style of Grace, which
" is now given to Dukes, was then given to Kings. And
" suppose that any one were put under the penance of
" answering to such ridiculous arguments, what method
" would he take but to shew, that the Emperors of
" Rome, and former Kings of England, had Generals of
" Armies and Dukes under them, and exercised au-
" thority over them?" Ibid. p. 722. "The name Bi-
" shop hath been borrowed from the Grecians, with
" whom it signifieth one which hath principal charge to
" guide and oversee others. The same word in eccle-
" siastical writings being applied unto Church govern-
" ors, at the first unto all and not unto the chiefest only,
" grew in short time peculiar and proper to signify such
" episcopal authority alone, as the chiefest governors
" exercised over the rest ; for with all names this is

128 SERMON III.
commander of an army. It is the office,
not the name, for which we have to con
tend ; and let it be but granted, that Titus
and Timothy possessed that authority over
elders which has just now been stated,
and their titles are not worth the investiga
tion. There are not wanting instances
where our Lord himself, besides many
other appellations, is called both Bishop b
and Deacon0; yet does this lower our ideas
of the dignity of his person and office ? And
when the Apostles occasionally styled them
selves elders d, and sometimes deacons6, did
those whom they addressed lose sight of
their apostolic supremacy? The fact ap-
" usual, that inasmuch as they are not given till the
«' things whereunto they are given have been some time
" first observed, therefore generally, things are ancienter
" than the names whereby they are called  Where-
" fore a lame and impotent kind of reasoning it is, when
" men go about to prove that in the Apostles' times
" there was no such thing as the restrained name of a
" Bishop doth now signify; because in their writings
" there is found no restraint of that name, but only a
" general use whereby it reacheth unto all spiritual go-
" vernors and overseers." Hooker's Eccles. Polity, book
vii. 8vo. edit. vol. iii. p. 115, 116.
b 1 Pet. ii. 25. c Rom. xv. 8.
d 1 Pet. v. 1. e 2 Cor. iii. 6.

SERMON III. 129
pears to be, and it is supported by the opin
ion of Theodoret, that, although f some
others besides the twelve were originally
called Apostles, their successors modestly
declined so high a title, and thenceforth
universally assumed and appropriated to
themselves the appellation of Bishops only.
That the Scriptures supply us with very
imperfect information with respect to the
regulations adopted by the Apostles in the
generality of the Churches which they had
planted, will readily be allowed ; but this, as
we have before seen, was obviously to be ex
pected. " The Apostles," says Epiphanius,
" could not establish every thing at once ;
" nothing was complete at its beginning,
" but in process of time things were brought
" to the requisite perfections." The ques-
f Touj avTovs exaXouv isot\ TtpeafiuTipQu; xa) sTrto^xoVoyj' tooj
8s vuv xaXov/ievous eino-xoirous, aisoo'TOXous ovoy-xgov tou £s
%govou wpo'iovTos to ph Tijj kisoo~ToXris ovofia toI; a.Xtfia>s anto-
utoXois xaTeXnrov tyjv 8s tjjj emo-xovris wpoayyoplav toi{ itaXai
xaXoupevois amoo-ToXoic sTrsflscrav. Theodoret. in Epist. i. ad
Tim. cap. 3.
S Ou yap 7ruvTa st30uj $uvrfi*iQ~av oi anoo-ToXoi xaTuo~TrjO-ai ....
xa) yap exao~Tov Trpayjj.a oux Knapyys Tc* navra scj^sv, aXXa
KpoBalvovros tou xgovou to. irpos TeXelcoo-iv rwv ^geiaiv xoltm-
rHJsro. Epiphan. adv. Hseres. Ixxv. edit. Colon, torn. i.
p. 908. K

130 SERMON III.
tion therefore to be decided, is, not what
the Apostles did at the commencement of
their ministry, but how they proceeded
when their converts had become numerous,
and capable of a regular government. To
derive one's ideas of the form of polity to
be adopted in the Church of Christ, when
permanently established, from the apparent
anomalies which may have marked its in
fant state, must necessarily lead to the most
erroneous conclusions.
Besides, if we may conclude that the
Apostles in general pursued a course re
sembling that of St. Paul, who describes
himself as retaining " the care of all the
"Churches1," and appears to have con
tinued for many years the exercise of his
apostolical authority, even over the most
remote, it is only towards the close of their
lives and ministry that we are to look for
the appointment of their successors, and
their final regulations of government. The
reason assigned by St. Paul for delegating
his authority to Timothy forcibly illustrates
this conclusion. " For I am now," says he,
" ready to be offered, and the time of my
' 2 Cor. xi. 28.

SERMON III. 131
' departure is at handk." " As the Apo-
' sties," says the learned Thorndike, " be-
' gan to wear out, or otherwise as their oc-
' casions gave them not leave to attend in
' person upon the Churches of their care,
'reason required, if but in correspond-
' ence to the state of government that had
' hitherto rested on some Apostle and the
' presbyteries of particular Churches, there
' should be instituted some heads of these
' companies of presbyters, to whom the
' name of Bishops hath been appropriated
' ever since ; and certain it is, that during
' the time of the Apostles instituted they
' were1." 2. For the confirmation of this fact,
which we have found to be partially ex
hibited in the sacred volume, we naturally
have recourse to the early writers of the
Christian Church. Every law is best ex
plained by subsequent practice, and every
doubt respecting the intention or the lan
guage of the Apostles, is most satisfactorily
k 2Tim.iv. 6.
1 Thorndike on the Primitive Government of Church
es, chap. iv. p. 28, 29.
K 2

132 SERMON III.
removed by the recorded verdict of their
successors. And here we find ourselves
" compassed with such a cloud of witness-
" es," that our difficulty is no longer to
discover testimony to the Episcopal cause,
but to select it with appropriate brevity
from the mass of evidence which presents
itself to notice.
As on every account the most import
ant witnesses, the first in order of time, as
the highest in undoubted authority, we na
turally regard m Clement and Q Ignatius, the
one the " fellow-labourer0" of St. Paul, the
other a disciple of St. John. " Our Apo-
" sties," says Clement, " knew by our Lord
" Jesus Christ, that there would be con-
" tentions about the name of Episcopacy;
" on this account therefore, having perfect
" foreknowledge, they appointed those
m Bishop of Rome after (though not next after) St.
Peter: Tertullian says, that he was so appointed by St.
Peter himself. Tertull. de Prescript. Hceretic. cap. 32.
n Successor to Evodius in the see of Antioch, and or
dained to that dignity, according to Chrysostom, by the
hands of St. Peter. (8i« Tijj tou y.eya.Xou Tlerpou 8s£ialf.)
Homil. in S. Ignat. He suffered martyrdom in the rejgn
of Trajan. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 22, 36.
0 Phil. iv. 3.

SERMON III. 133
" whom I have mentioned, and moreover
" established a rule, that, when they died,
" other approved men should succeed them
" in their ministry1*." The language of
Ignatius is, if possible, still more decisive.
" In like manner let all reverence the
" Deacons, as the command of Jesus
" Christ; as also the Bishop as the Son
" of the Father; and the Elders as the
" council of God, and assembly of Apo-
" sties. Without these it is not called a
" Church s."— " He that doth any thing
" without the Bishop and Presbytery and
" Deacons, the same is not pure in his
" conscience r." " Give heed to your
" Bishop, that God may give heed to
P Oi 'Awo'otoAoi ijpwv eyvaxrav 8;« rou Kvplov ^jxcov 'Iijo-ou
X^iotou oti epei; sW«i en) tou ovoparos T>js Imcrironris' $•*
rauTtjv ouv tyiv ahiav, TtpoyvwGiv elXytyo'res TsXeiav, xaTecrTtjO'av
touj irpoeipypivov;, xa) fXSTa^u ewivo;j.yjV 8s8cuxa<riv, ottws lav xoi-
/u.i)0oS(7iv, 8»a8s^a)i;Tai erepoi fel'oxipMO' pivot eLvlps; t>)v Xenoupyiav
auTaiv. Clem. Epist. ad Corinth, cap. 44.
1 'O/wfeoj wavTsj Ivrgenka-bwo-av tous Siaxo'vouj <i>s 'I>jo"o5v
Xgioroi/^ cos *a' rov hwlo-xowov, OVTa ulov tou itaTgos. robs 8s
irpeo-fiuTepous coj auve^ptov ©sou, xa) d>; auvo'ea-it.ov cmoo-ToXiav.
Xaip)s toutcuv IxxXria'la ou xaXehat. Ignatii Epist. ad Trail.
edit, Voss. p. 48.
r 'O %t»p)s lw»o"xoVou xa) vrpevfivTepiou xa) haxovou i:ga,o~o~CQV
ti, ouro; ov xuQapo's lo-riv rj; owsfSi^rsi. Ibid. p. 50.
K 3

134 SERMON III.
" you. My life be a ransom for those who
" are subject to the Bishop, Priests, and
" Deacons, and may my portion be with
" them in Gods." And again, " Let no
" one, without the Bishop, do any of those
" things which relate to the Church. Let
" that Eucharist be accounted valid, which
" is under the regulation of the Bishop, or
" of one whom he may appoint. Where-
" ever the Bishop appears, there let the
" people be; even as where Christ is, there
" is the Catholic Church l."
s Tea Inicrxoirta TrpoveysTe, 'iva xa) 6 ©soj ufuv avTi^w/jtV
lyia tcov UTTOTacrcropevcov tco eincrxot:io, npecrfiuTepots, Oiaxovois,
xa) fiST* auTcov ju.oi to jttepof ysvoiTO cr^siv Iv ©sal. Epist. ad
Polycarp. p. 14.
1 MjjSsij xcopis tou emtrxoisou r) Tspacro-'eTO tcov avyxovTiov e\s
¦njv IxxXricrlav. 'Exelvr) (3e(3aia eu^apio-Tia rryeitria), >j mo tov
lirio-xoirov ovcra, ij cl av auros IwiTpevJ/j). "Ojtou av cpavrj o hrltrxo-
¦itos, Ixei to wXijfloj sorw wtrrrep oitou dv 5 Xgioroj 'Iijo-oDf, exei
'•H xa&oXtxrj IxxXrjcrla. Ad Smyrn. p. 6.
The foregoing extracts, which might be multiplied to
almost any extent, are taken from those Epistles of Ig
natius which have been proved to be genuine by Vossius
and Pearson. See Pearson's Vindiciae Ignatianae.
" His writings" (I quote the remarks of Mr. Sikes)
" are of all others the most direct and explicit in esta-
" blishing Episcopacy, and in asserting the authority of
" Bishops. There is scarcely an Epistle, nay, scarcely a
" page of his Epistles, which contains not some inslruc-

SERMON III 135
Now if we were inclined to dispute the
testimony of these glorious saints and mar
tyrs, could we urge, that, though they
actually lived with the Apostles, and re
ceived ordination from their hands, they
were probably ignorant of the principles
on which they governed the Church, or
that knowing them they would wilfully de
viate from them ? — And for the sake of
what ? — Was the episcopal office in those
early days an object of worldly ambition,
coupled as it was with the certainty of
augmented persecution, and the probabi
lity of tortures and death ?
As we advance however to the succeed
ing generations, we meet with an unbroken
series of testimony of the same description.
" tion or injunction upon these points. It is for this
" reason, no doubt, that the writings of this apostolic
" man have met with so little respect from Anti-episco-
"palians; who are well aware, that it is impossible
" to evade his very decisive evidence for Episcopacy,
" unless they can prove it altogether spurious. This
" has many times been attempted, and as often failed ;
" which gives to those writings- so substantial an au-
" thenticity, as to place them, as they naturally stand,
" next in rank to the inspired writings of the Apostles."
Discourse on Parochial Commmunion, p. 45, 46.
K 4

136 SERMON III.
In the following age we find Irenoeus ex
pressing himself thus decidedly on the point
in question : " We can enumerate those who
" by the Apostles were appointed bishops
" in the Churches, and their successors
" even to our own times, who neither
" taught nor knew any such follies as these
" men. And if the Apostles had known
" hidden mysteries, which they secretly and
" apart from the rest taught the perfect,
" they would especially have delivered them
" to those to whom they committed the
" Churches themselves ; for they wished
" those to be very perfect and irrepre-
" hensible in all things, whom they also
" left as successors, delivering to them their
" own place of government"."
u " Habemus annumerare eos, qui ab Apostolis insti-
" tuti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis, et successores eorum
" usque ad nos, qui nihil tale docuerunt, neque cognove-
" runt, quale ab his deliratur. Etenim si recondita mys-
" teria scissent Apostoli, quae 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
" volebant esse, quos et successores relinquebant, suum
" ipsorum locum magisterii tradentes." Irenams adv.
Hcereses, lib. ii. cap. 3.

SERMON III. 137
Early in the next century we find Ter-
tullian speaking of heretics in these terms ;
" Let them produce then the origins of
" their Churches; let them shew the order
u of their Bishops, so derived by successions
" from the beginning, as that their first
" bishop had one of the Apostles, or of
" the apostolical men who persevered with
" the Apostles, as his founder and prede-
" cessorx." Among numberless passages
which might be cited from Cyprian, the
following are sufficiently decisive : " Christ
" said to the Apostles, and thereby to all
" the governors who succeed to the Apo-
" sties by vicarious ordination, He that
"heareth you heareth me y:" and again;
x " Edant ergo origines Ecclesiarum suarum ; evol-
" vant ordinem Episcoporum suorum, ita per successi-
" ones ab initio decurrentem, ut primus ille episcopus
" aliquem ex Apostolis, vel Apostolicis viris, qui tamen
" eurn Apostolis perseveraverit, habuerit auctorem et
" antecessorem." Tei-tullian. de Prescript. Hasretic.
cap. 32.
y " Dicit (Christus) ad Apostolos, et per hoc ad om-
" nes praepositos, qui Apostolis vicaria ordinatione suc-
" cedunt ; Qui audit vos, me audit ; et qui me audit, audit
" eum, qui me misit. Et qui rejicit vos, me rejicit, el eum
"-qui me misit." Cyprian. Epist. lxix. edit. Baluzii, p. 1 22.

138 SERMON III.
" The government of Bishops and the
" order of the Church has come down
" through a series of successions, so that
" the Church is founded upon the Bishops,
" and every act of the Church is under
" their control, by the Divine law*."
At the close of this, and at the commence
ment of the succeeding century, Eusebius,
the laborious investigator of the records of
the Church, has given us, in his Ecclesiasti
cal History, exact and authentic catalogues
of the Bishops who presided in the principal
cities of the Roman empire, in unbroken
succession from the Apostles to his own
time a.
z " Per temporum et successionum vices Episcoporum
" ordinatio, et ecclesias ratio decurrit, ut ecclesia super
" Episcopos constituatur, et omnis actus ecclesias per
" eosdem praepositos gubernetur." Cum hoc itaque di-
vina lege fundatum sit, &c. Ibid. Epist. xxvii. p. 37, 38.
a " It is as impossible," says Archbishop Potter, " for
" an impartial man, who shall compare this historian
" with the rest of the primitive Fathers, to doubt whe-
" ther there was a succession of Bishops from the Apo-
" sties, as it would be to call in question the succession
" of Roman emperors from Julius Caesar, or the succes
sion of kings in any other country." Discourse on
Church Government, p. 169, 170.

SERMON III. 139
This brings us to the age of Constantine;
and as no one is found to contend against
the fact of the universal prevalence of epi
scopal supremacy from henceforth to the
period of the Reformation, here the cita
tions from the Fathers might have been
closed, but for the necessity of a remark or
two on the testimony of Jerome, who is
usually considered by the advocates of the
Presbyterian discipline, as a writer unfa
vourable to the cause of Episcopacy. In
fact, on a particular occasion, indignant at
the supposed encroachment of Deacons on
the dignity of the Presbyters, to which
order he belonged, he is found to argue,
from the promiscuous use in the New Tes
tament of the names Bishop and Presbyter,
for their original equality b. But if he here
b " Idem est Presbyter qui Episcopus ; et antequam
" Diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent, et dicere-
" tur in populis, Ego sum Pauli, ego Apollo, ego autem
" Cephas, communi Presbyterorum concilio Ecclesiae
" gubernabantur. Postquam vero unusquisque eos, quos
" baptizaverat, suos putabat, non Christi, in toto orbe
" decretum est, ut unus e Presbyteris electus superpo-
" neretur caeteris, ad quern omnis ecclesiae cura perti-
" neret, et schismatum semina tollerentur." S.Hieron.
in Epist. ad Tit. cap. 1 .

140 SERMON III.
intended to maintain all that his admirers
would suppose, he is decidedly at variance,
not only with the whole host of primitive
writers, but, what is still more important,
even with himself. If at other times he
could write thus; " The power of riches and
" the humility of poverty does not make a
" Bishop higher or lower; but they are all
" successors of the Apostles0:" " Without
" the command of a Bishop, neither a
" Presbyter nor a Deacon have power to
" baptize d :" " With us the Bishops hold
" the place of the Apostles6:" — if he is
found to affirm, " that he who is baptized
" in the Church, cannot receive the Holy
" Ghost, but by the imposition of the Bi-
" shop's hands';" what weight can be rea-
c Potentia divitiarum et paupertatis humilitas sub-
limiorem, vel inferiorem Episcopum non facit; caeterum
omnes Apostolorum successores sunt. S. Hieron. Epist.
ad Evagrium.
d Inde venit, ut sine chrismate et episcopi jussione,
neque Presbyter nequeDiaconus jus habeant baptizandi.
Adv. Luciferian.
e Apud nos Apostolorum locum Episcopi tenent. Con
tra Montanum.
f Quod si hoc loco quaeris, quare in Ecclesia bapti-
zatus, nisi per manus Episcopi, non accipiat Spiritual

SERMON III. 141
sonably attached to expressions wrung from
him under peculiar circumstances of jea
lousy and irritation ?
Indeed, when most urgent to uphold the
dignity of his office, he asks, " What does
" a Bishop more than a presbyter, ordi-
" nation excepted s?" thus expressly allow
ing to the Bishop exclusively that very
power which forms his most characteristic
distinction. And again, when disposed to
assign motives of human policy for the
original appointment of Bishops, he evi
dently admits the very fact, which is
of all the most important, that it origin
ated during the lifetime of the Apostles ;
for he says, " When it was said, ' I am
" of Paul, I of Apollos,' and every one
" thought that those whom he had bap-
" tized were his own, it was decreed in
" the whole world, that one elected from
" the presbyters should be placed over the
" rest, that the seeds of schisms might be
Sanctum^ quem nos asserimus in vero baptismate tribui;
disce, &c. Adv. Luciferian.
e Quid enim facit, excepta ordinatione, Episcopus, quod
Presbyter non facit ? Epist. ad Evagrium.

142 SERMON III.
" destroyed11." But is not every well-in
formed and reflecting Christian as compe
tent a judge of the motives of the Apostles
as even Jerome himself? or rather, shall
we believe, that, divinely inspired and di
rected as they were, they could, in a case
of such moment as the government of the
Church of Christ, have experienced any
motive, or adopted any policy, not abso
lutely suggested or sanctioned by the Spirit
of God himself?
Again, supposing that it were possible to
explain all the inconsistencies of Jerome,
and perfectly to reconcile him to himself,
which it would, in faCt, be hopeless to at
tempt; and that his testimony to the un
authorized usurpation of episcopal rule
were as decisive and clear, as it manifestly
is not, — what weight could we possibly al
low to his individual assertions, placed as
they would be in contradiction to the
united testimony of the whole primitive
Church? who, in short, would pretend to
balance a single writer with an host? and,
what is of still more consequence with re-
h See note b in page 139.

SERMON III. 143
ference to the facts in question, a presbyter
of the fourth century with the fellow-
labourers and disciples of Apostles, the
saints and martyrs of the first1? But the
truth is, that if Jerome's general testimony
be considered, it is altogether impossible to
regard him as an opponent of Episcopacy ;
some of the strongest testimonies in its fa
vour being found in his works.
The single instance of Aerius is all that
' The learned Hammond draws the following striking
comparison between the testimonies of Jerome and Ig-
gnatius. " Nobis certe, qui inter Ignatium Apostolorum
" vuvxpovov, et recentiorem tot saeculis Hieronymum, in-
" ter Episcopum UpopapTuga de aevo suo testantem, et
" presbyterum diaconorum fastum calcantem, et contra
" eos, quod ad manum fuerat jaculantem, comparatio-
" nem instituimus, abunde erit, si Ignatius, ubique sibi
" constans, causae ubique nostras (kxalpcos, eixalpcos, ad-
" versariis ipsis fatentibus) suffragatus sit ; Hieronymus
" autem, si pugnet nobiscum quandoque, quandoque
" etiam suffragetur, nee uspiam a nostris partibus de-
" scivisse putandus sit, quin pariter et a seipso abiisse
" concludatur; adeoquevel integrum nobis testimonium
" perhibuisse, vel inconstantia (quod nolim) sua, quic-
" quid contra nos dixerit, irritum fecisse." Dissert. Se-
cunda de Ignatio, c. 29.
For an account of Jerome, and remarks on his testi
mony, see Archbishop Potter on Church Government,
p. 78 — 82. and Daubeny's Guide to the Church, appen
dix, p. 51—59.

144 SERMON III.
can be produced in the four first centuries,
or, to speak more properly, even to the
Reformation itself, of a person of note de
cidedly arguing for the equality of Bishops
and Presbyters. But in what light was he
regarded by his cotemporaries ? not merely
as an heretic, but as a madman. Epipha
nius calls his notion " insane beyond the
" capacity of human nature k." In short,
this is one of those exceptions which but
the more establish the general rule, and
proves beyond contradiction the unvarying
and decided opinion of the primitive ages,
as to the divine origin of Episcopal rule,
and the necessity of it to the very being of a
Church. " Ecclesia est in Episcopo1," was
k Aerius, a Presbyter of Sebastia in PontUs, in the
fourth century, and a follower of the Arian heresy, hav
ing failed to obtain the bishopric of Sebastia, endea
voured to undermine the authority of his successful rival,
first by calumnies, and afterwards, when tWis did not an
swer his purpose, by heading a schism against him, and
maintaining that Bishops and Presbyters were of the
same order, and equally qualified for every religious- of
fice. Epiphanius relates the story, and calls his doetrine
pavicitys paXXoV rfirep xaTavrdoscos uvSpomlvris. Epiphan>
adv. Hteres. lxxv. edit. Colon, p. 906.
1 Scire debes, Episcopum in Ecclesia esse, et Ecelesi-

SERMON III. 145
the universal maxim ; the very heretics glo
ried in Bishops of their own persuasion;
not a schism could be effected without the
sanction of a schismatical Prelate; and we
might, in those days, as reasonably look for
Christianity without Sacraments as without
Episcopacy m.
How then is all this mass of evidence,
this consistency of recorded testimony en
countered by the advocates of the Presby
terian system? Compelled by the clear
light of undeniable facts, the most learned
and able of their number have admitted

am in Episcopo, et si quis cum Episcopo non sit, in
Ecelesia non esse. Cyprian. Epist. lxix. edit. Baluzii,
p. 123.
m The singular expedient to which Novatian had re
course, in order to enable him to rival the authority of
Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, is strikingly illustrative of this
truth. Having, under false pretences, persuaded three
ignorant and simple Bishops from an obscure corner of
Italy to come* to Rome, he compelled them, when they
were in a state of intoxication, to lay their hands on him
and ordain him ; — a plain proof of the universally pre
vailing belief in those days, that none but a Bishop
could govern the Church ; and moreover, that none but
Bishops could ordain a Bishop. Eusebius, Eccles. Hist.
lib. vi. cap. 43. L

146 SERMON IIL
the universal "prevalence of Episcopacy
within a few years after the times of the
Apostles. Narrow then, indeed, are the
limits thus, allowed for the exercise of
their hypothetical ingenuity, and large be
yond example are the demands which
they make on the credulity of the sim
ple. We are required, in short, to be
lieve, that, although the Apostles them
selves governed the Church on the epi
scopal plan, and invested some others with
similar authority, (for this is undeniably
clear from Scripture,) they were, after all,
the mere temporary guardians of Presbyte
rian equality ; — that scarcely had they been
all removed from the scene of their la
bours, before their gracious intentions in
favour of the liberties of mankind were un
happily misunderstood, or, what is worse,'
that the whole world unanimously con
spired to establish a government of their
own devising, to the utter subversion of the
institutions of inspired Apostles, and the
n See Chillingworth's Apostolical Institution of Epi
scopacy Demonstrated ; Works, ninth edit. p. 299.

SERMON III. 147
will of their Lord and Saviour; — that not
one Presbyter was urged by the feelings of
our common nature to remonstrate against
a manifest usurpation ; — that the meek and
unassuming spirit of the Gospel of peace
could not move one conscientious Bishop
to disclaim his unauthorized dominion, or
refuse his countenance to his arrogant
brethren ; — that neither the pen of the his
torian, nor voice of tradition, could be pre
vailed on to rescue from oblivion a change
so fundamental, a revolution so extraordi
nary ; but that, on the contrary, the pious
Fathers of the primitive Church combined
with unholy fraud to fabricate and record
episcopal successions which had no exist
ence, and impose on mankind, as apostoli
cal and indispensable, the inventions of
mere priestcraft and ambition ° !
° " The persecutions that then lay so heavy on the
" Church made it no desirable thing for a man to be
" exposed to their first fury, which was always the Bi-
" shop's portion ; and that in a course,of many centu-
" ries in which there was nothing but poverty and la-
" bour to be got by the employment ; there being no
" princes to set it on as an engine of government,
" and no synods of clergymen gathered to assume that
" authority to themselves, by joint designs and endea
rs 2

148 SERMON III.
" When I shall see," says the ingenious
Chillingworth, " all the democracies and
" aristocracies in the world lie down and
" sleep, and awake into monarchies, then
" will I begin to believe that presbyterial
" government, having continued in the
" Church during the Apostles' times, should
" presently after (against the Apostles' doc-
" trine and the will of Christ) be whirled
" about like a scene in a masque, and
" transformed into Episcopacyp." If all
this is absolutely incredible, or rather, to
human apprehension, impossible, but one
conclusion can present itself. " If the
" vours. And can it be imagined, that in all that glo-
" rious cloud of witnesses to the truth of the Christian
" religion, who as they planted it with their labours, so
" watered it with their blood, there should not so much
" as one single person be found, on whom either a love
" of truth, or an envy at the advancement of others, pre-
" vailed so far, as to declare against such an early and
" universal corruption, (if it is to be esteemed one.)
" When all this is complicated together, it is really of
" so great authority, that I love not to give the proper
" name to that temper that can withstand so plain a
" demonstration." Bishop Burnet's Preface to the Life
of William Beddel, Bishop of Kilmore.
P Chillingworth's Apostolical Institution of Episco
pacy Demonstrated ; Works, 9th edit. p. 300.

SERMON III. 149
" Churches had erred," as Tertullian just
ly argued, " they would have varied; but
" what is the same among all, is not from
" error, but from tradition V Apostolical
appointment, therefore, is the only intel
ligible origin of the episcopal office. But
if the Apostles acted under the guidance
and inspiration of Heaven ; — if, to say the
least, they cannot be conceived to have
adopted one measure, or enforced one
practice of material concern to their Mas
ter's kingdom, without either his previous
instruction, or the subsequent direction of
the Spirit of truth, then Episcopacy by
apostolical appointment, and Episcopacy
by divine institution, are one and the
same r.
<i " Had episcopal government been an aberration
" from (or a corruption of) the government left in the
" Churches by the Apostles, it had been very strange
" that it should have been received in any one Church
" so suddenly, or that it should have prevailed in all for
" many ages after. Variasse debuerat, error Ecclesiarum;
" quod autem apud omnes unum est, non est erratum sed
" traditum. Thus Tertullian argues." Ibid. p. 299.
r " That government, whose ground being laid by our
" Saviour himself, was afterwards raised by the hands of
JL 3

150 SERMON III.
But " what need we," says the judicious
Hooker, "to seek far for proofs that the
" Apostles who began this order of regi-
" ment by Bishops, did it not but by divine
" instinct, when without such direction
" things of far less weight, and moment
" they attempted not ?  Wherefore let
" us not fear to be herein bold and peremp-
" tory, that if any thing in the Church's
" government, surely the first institution of
" Bishops was from heaven, was even of
" God ; the Holy Ghost was the author
" of it s."
But the consideration of the arguments
which lead us to conclude that Episco-
" his Apostles, cannot be denied to be of divine institu-
" tion. A proposition so clear, that it were an injury
" to go about to prove it  The carefullest ambassa-
" dor may perhaps swerve from his message; — these
" (which was one of the privileges of the Apostles) were
" through the guidance of God's Spirit, in the acts of
" their function, inerrable. So then, if the foundation
" were laid by Christ, and the walls built up by his
" Apostles, the fabric can be no less than Divine." Bi
shop Hall, Episcopacy by Divine Right, book i. chap. 7-
See also Bishop Smalridge, Sermon xi.
s Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, book vii. 8vo. edit.
p. 135, 136.

SERMON III. 151
pacy, thus divine in its original, is also of
permanent obligation, and of the evasions
by which men have usually attempted to
elude their force, must be reserved to an
other Lecture.

i 4

SERMON IV.

fyLvTT. xxviii. 20.
Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the world.
IF the arguments which have been al
ready adduced, to prove that the govern
ment which the holy Apostles by Divine
instruction established for the Church was
strictly episcopal, may be presumed to
have been satisfactory, it remains to be
considered why that form of polity is also
to be deemed of permanent obligation,
and immutably characteristic of the true
Church of Christ.
But where, it might naturally be asked,
is the occasion for such inquiry ? does not
the very fact of its apostolical original suf
ficiently imply the necessity of its perpetual
observance? It forms, undoubtedly, the
strongest possible presumption in its fa
vour; but as no judicious advocate for Epi
scopacy would maintain the unqualified

154 SERMON IV.
principle, of observing with scrupulous mi
nuteness every practice without exception,
which even inspired Apostles may be found
to have adopted ; and as there have not
been wanting those, who, taking advantage
of this circumstance, have been disposed to
argue, illogically it is true, but still perhaps
with an air of plausibility sufficient to im
pose on the unreflecting and the weak, that,
because it is plain that some apostolical
practices are not immutably binding on us,
therefore none whatever are a ; — it is by no
means unnecessary to assign satisfactory
reasons for the distinction here claimed in
favour of Episcopacy.
II. Our minds are, even without reflec
tion, sufficiently familiarized to the relative
importance of some apostolical practices,
and the comparative insignificancy of others.
Few, probably, can pretend to foresee the
period at which the religious observance
of the Lord's day will cease to be a Chris
tian's duty ; whilst as few, perhaps, would
be found to contend for the necessity of
a See Law's Second Letter to Bishop Hoadly; Scholar
Armed, vol. i. p. 357.

SERMON IV. 155
reviving the long neglected injunction, to
" abstain from things strangled and from
" blood b." If a reason were required for
this marked discrimination between two
practices, both of them confessedly apo
stolical, there could be no hesitation c in
b Acts xv. 20.
c " May we not be obliged by some practices of the
" Apostles, where the nature of the thing and the con-
" sent of antiquity shew it to be equally necessary and
" important in all ages and conditions of the Church,
" without being tied down to the strict observance of
" every thing which the Apostles did, though it plainly
" appears, that it was done upon accidental and mut-
" able reasons ? Can we not be obliged to observe the
" Lord's day from apostolical practice, without being
" equally obliged to lock the doors where we are met,
" because in the Apostles' times they locked them for
" fear of their enemies ? We are to follow the prac-
" tices of the Apostles, as we ought to follow every
" thing else, with discretion and judgment, and not run
"headlong into every thing they did, because they were
" Apostles ; nor yet think, that because we need not
" practise after them in every thing, we need do it in
" nothing. We best imitate them when we act upon
" such reasons as they acted upon, and neither make
" their occasional practice perpetual laws, nor break
" through such general rules, as will always have the
" same reason to be observed. If it be asked, how we
" can know what practices must be observed, and what
" may be laid aside ? I answer, as we know articles of

156 SERMON IV.
replying, that the obligation to maintain
the one was as permanent as the important
object which it was graciously designed to
answer, whilst the other, being calculated
for a merely temporary purpose, was natu
rally allowed to cease, together with the
prejudices d which at first made it expedient
to impose it. Here then we discover an
obvious distinction in favour of episcopal
authority. As long as the Church of Christ
shall continue to exist on earth as a visible
society, so long will ecclesiastical govern
ment under some form or another, and
authorized officers of some description, be
absolutely indispensable ; — and as long as
one specific form of it may be clearly traced
" faith from lesser truths ; as we know occasional doc-
" trines from perpetual doctrines ; that is, from the na-
" ture of the things, from the tenor of Scripture, and
" the testimony of antiquity." Law, ibid. p. 358, 359.
" If the reason why things were instituted may be
" known, and being known, do appear manifestly to be
" of perpetual necessity; then are those things also
" perpetual, unless they cease to be effectual unto that
" purpose for which they were at the first instituted."
Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, book iii. 8vo. edit. vol. i.
p. 397-
d See Hammond in loco.

SERMON IV. 157
to the Divine appointment, arrogant must
he be, beyond the ordinary measure of self-
sufficiency and pride, who could suppose
it improveable by the ingenuity and inven
tion of man ; rash must he be, beyond the
ordinary madness of human daring, who
could fearlessly venture to supersede it by
some system of man's devising.
Unfortunately, however, for the peace of
the Christian Church, too many have been
found thus arrogant and thus rash ; and it
may perhaps, in these times, be deemed
even a prevalent idea, that, since man is
notoriously capable of inventing for himself
all that relates to political arrangement, and
still more, since the characteristic peculi
arities of different nations would be ill
consulted by imposing on all the same po
litical system ; the original form of eccle
siastical government, even granting it to
have been of divine appointment, was ne
ver designed as an immutable precedent
for the universal Church of Christ.
" The mixture of those things by speech,"
says the judicious Hooker, " which by na-
" ture are divided, is the mother of all error.

158 SERMON IV.
" To take away therefore that error which
" confusion breedeth, distinction is requi-
" site e." It is readily conceded, that their
principle, to a very considerable extent, is
true; that numberless regulations, con
nected with the forms and the observances,
and even, to a certain point, with the go
vernment of a Church, are wholly within
the province of human direction ; — and, a
wide field will thus be left open, in which
national genius and local peculiarities may
be fairly and beneficially consulted. But if
they contend for the unqualified privilege
of sweeping away, in one undistinguished
mass, even those grand and characteristic
outlines, the very landmarks of ecclesiasti
cal polity, the discriminating features, in
which alone we can trace the visible form
of that unity which is essential to the
Church, and by a sacred regard to which
alone we can hope either to restore or to
preserve it, they are maintaining a principle,
whose unsoundness may not only be pre
sumed from its manifest tendency to hope
less confusion and interminable schism, but
e Ecclesiastical Polity, book iii. 8vo. edit. vol. i. p. 364.

SERMON IV. 159
is also, I conceive, capable of the most sa
tisfactory proof.
If it can be shewn, that the form of
Church government for which I am con
tending, besides being of divine appoint
ment, as it is hoped has been proved al
ready, was for many previous ages fa
voured with the exclusive sanction, the
avowed and undeviating support of the
Almighty, every presumption hitherto sug
gested in favour of its immutability must
receive the most unqualified confirmation ;
— and if, moreover, it was appointed for
purposes essentially involving the question
of eternal salvation, and such as the utmost
extravagance of human pride cannot hope
to attain by methods of its own devising,
then the arguments for its permanent ne
cessity assume the character of absolute
demonstration. l . Nothing is more evident, from the gene
ral tenor of Scripture language on the sub
ject, than that the Jewish and Christian dis
pensations are not so much to be considered
in the light of distinct systems, as in that of
two successive parts of the same divine plan

160 SERMON IV.
for the redemption of fallen man f ; that the
Church of Christ did not strictly originate
in his earthly ministry, but, having existed
before in a more confined and imperfect
state, was by him enlarged and purified and
perfected; that Judaism, in short, was
mystical Christianity, and Christianity no
thing more than Judaism spiritualized.
Accordingly, our Saviour thus assures the
assembled multitudes, " Think not that I
" am come to destroy the law, or the pro-
" phets: I am not come to destroy, but to,
" fulfil." Thus the Church of Christ is
called the "new Jerusalem11; — St. Peter
f " Let us in this disquisition follow the example be-
" fore-mentioned of the Apostles and most primitive
" Fathers, to measure the Christian Church with its ex-
" act type, the Church under the Law; which are not
" two Churches, but two states of the same Church ;
" for it is the same Christian Church from the first pro-
" mise of Christ (Gen. iii. 15.) to the end of the world;
" and therefore it is said (Heb. iv. 2.) that the Gospel
" was preached unto them as well as unto us. And
" these two states of the Church before and after Christ
" do answer, like a pair of indentures, to one another,
" the one being to an iota fulfilled in the other. (Matt. v.
" 18.)" Leslie on the Qualifications requisite to administer
the Sacraments; Works, vol. ii. p. 730.
s Matt.v. 17. h Rev. iii. 12. xxi. 2.

SERMON IV. 161
gives to Christians the very titles most ap
propriately descriptive of the Jews, " a
" chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an
" holy nation, a peculiar people1." St.
John figuratively calls them " Jewsk." St.
Paul speaks of the Gospel as having been
preached to the Jews of old1, as well as
to Christians, and compares the calling
of the Gentiles to the grafting of " a wild
" olive tree" among " the natural branch-
" es" of the " good olive treem" of the
Jewish Church ; and throughout the whole
of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the argu
ment entirely depends on the close ana
logy observable between the two dispensa
tions, and regards the ceremonies of the
Jewish temple as exactly typical of the
more spiritual service of Christianity.
In the language of one of the most
learned of our old divines, " Our Saviour,
" though in reforming the house of Moses
" he was fain to pull it down, that it might
" be enlarged, yet both he that began the
" reformation, and his Apostles who fi-
' 1 Pet. ii. J). k Rev. ii. 9. and iii. 9.
l Heb. iv. 2. m Rom. xi. 16 — 24.
M

162 SERMON IV.
" nished it, like men that were household-
" ers, used much of the old timber and
" materials, and conformed it too, as much
" as they could, after the manner of the
" old. They introduced as much of Ju-
" daism into the Christian religion as the
" nature of the reformation would well
" bear, and adhered as much as they could
" to the old, both in the matter and form
" of the new economy"." Amidst a va
riety of particulars in which the closest
correspondence may be traced, the rite of
baptism is well known to have been adopted
from the Jewish Church ; the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper0 has been clearly shown
by learned men to be also of Jewish ori
ginal ; and the institution of the Lord's day
can be considered as nothing more than a
transfer of the Jewish sabbath.
If such, then, be the exact and striking
analogy between the service of the Jewish
n Hickes's Previous Discourse to the Case of Infant
Baptism ; London Cases, p. 347.
0 Ibid. p. 350. See the authorities there quoted, and
the whole of the Previous Discourse, for a clear and sa
tisfactory view of the connexion between the Jewish and
Christian Churches.

SERMON IV. 163
Temple and the Christian Church, what
should we more naturally be led to expect,
than a corresponding resemblance in their
priesthood also? and having discovered such
a resemblance, what could we conceive
more decisively illustrative, not only of its
dignity and authority, but of its immutabi
lity and permanence ?
Indeed, the theology of the primitive
ages (after the example of Christ and his
Apostles) attached peculiar importance to
the parallel subsisting between the Law
and the Gospel, as in other points, so also
particularly in this. Thus St. Clement,
when enforcing on the Corinthians the duty
of ecclesiastical subordination, uses this il
lustration : " To the High Priest were al-
" lotted his proper offices ; — to the Priests
" their proper place was assigned ; and to
" the Levites their proper services were
" appointed ; and the laity were restrained
" within the precepts of laymen p." Cy-
P Ta> yag apyiegsi tS/oti XstTOupylai SsSoftsVai eicr), xa) toTj
Ispsuo"iv Kio; 6 tottos npoo-TeTuxTai, xa) AsuVraij iSiai iiaxovlai
knixeiVTur o Xa'ixo; avQpcovos toTj Xa'ixols Trgoo-Taypacriv Ss&Vrai.
Clem. Epist. ad Corinth, cap. 40.
M 2

164 SERMON IV.
priani did not hesitate to claim the same
authority for Christian Bishops as was given
to the High Priest among the Jews ; and
even Jerome has the following remarkable
passage; " That we may know that the apo-
" stolical traditions were taken from the
" Old Testament ; what Aaron and his sons
" and the Levites were in the Temple, that
" the Bishops and Priests and Deacons
" claim to themselves in the Church r."
Thus, then, that threefold ministry, which
is the characteristic feature of Episcopacy,
may not only lay claim to an apostolical,
and therefore, as has been already argued,
to a divine original, but bears so close an
analogy to a preceding ecclesiastical go
vernment, confessedly instituted by God
himself, that its establishment by the Apo
stles deserves to be regarded, not as the in
troduction of a novelty, but as the continu
ation, under a more enlarged and purer
1 Cyprian. Epist. ad Rogatianum. edit. Baluzii, p. 1 12.
r Ut sciamus traditiones apostolicas sumptas de Ve-
teri Testamento, quod Aaron et filii ejus et Levitae
in templo fuerunt, hoc sibi Episcopi et Presbyteri et
Diaconi vendicent in Ecclesia. .S. Hieron. Epist. ad Eva-
grium .

SERMON IV. 165
form, of a system already distinguished by
the most indisputable testimonies of the
favour and protection of Heaven.
From these coincidences, so striking yet
so undeniable, but one conclusion can pos
sibly arise on the question before us. We
may trace that consistency of purpose and
uniformity of system, which we naturally
look for in all the operations of an eternal
and unchangeable God, and most of all,
perhaps, in the grand scheme of human
redemption, forming, as it does, one per
fect whole, one gradually unfolding display
of mercy and truth, even from the Fall
of man; — we may recognize the wisdom of
the Almighty0, in thus effectually obviating
s " The wisdom of God is here very evident, in ap-
" pointing the orders of the Christian ministry after the
" pattern of the Jewish Church, which was of his own
" appointment so long before. That there might be no
" uncertainty in a case of such consequence to the souls
" of men, there was no novelty, but a continuation of
" the like administration with that which had all alons
" been known and acknowledged in the Church. Aaron
" was an high priest, with a ministry peculiar to him-
" self; under him there was an order of priests, twenty-
" four in number, who served by course in the daily sa-
" crifices and devotions of the tabernacle and temple,
M 3

166 SERMON TV
that confusion and uncertainty in a case of
such importance, which would have arisen
from a decided rejection of all acknow
ledged precedent ; — we may discover satis
factory reasons, why the sacred writers
should not have laboured to inculcate in
detail a form of polity already sufficiently
notorious ; — we may discover any thing, in
short, rather than one remaining chance,
that man might be allowed to innovate on
a system possessing every claim to venera
tion, which the prescription of remote an
tiquity, the original appointment, and con
tinued protection of Heaven could bestow;
to put forth his sacrilegious hand, and re
move the main pillars of the sacred edifice
" and these were assisted by the whole tribe of the Le-
" vites. As the Law had its passover, its baptisms, its
" incense, its sacrifices, its consecrations, its benedic-
" tions, all to be realized under the sacraments and of-
" ferings of the Gospel, so its ministry was but a pat-
" tern of the ministry which is now amongst us; and we
" cannot mistake the one if we have an eye to the
" other : such is the goodness of God in directing us
" through all the confusion of the latter days, by a rule
" of such great antiquity, to the way of truth, and
" keeping us in it." Essay on the Church; Scholar Armed,
vol. ii. p. 23. third edition.

SERMON IV. 167
of the Church of Christ, and disturb the
very " foundations" of that " city whose
" builder and maker is God'."
2. But should it be still maintained by
some, that all this amounts to no more than
a strong presumption, and that without de
cisive proof they are unwilling to relinquish
their more enlarged ideas of their Christian
liberty, proof still more decisive may yet be
produced. It should however be observed,
that I must presume that I am addressing
those who believe in the efficacy of the sa
craments, which Christ has ordained as the
visible seals of the Gospel covenant, and in
the necessity of a divinely authorized priest
hood for their due administration. To di
gress at this time, for the sake of establish
ing these points to the satisfaction of others,
would interrupt the whole course of the
present discussion.
If the office of the Christian priest, then,
he of the importance here presumed, it be
comes a question of vital interest to us,
how we can be satisfied of the validity of
his commission. Now we are assured, that
i Heb. xi. 10.
M 4

168 SERMON IV.
" no man taketh this honour unto himself,
" but he that is called of God, as was
" Aaron";" — and we can conceive but
two ways in which this call can be ascer
tained ; viz. by the visible, or otherwise mi
raculous interposition of the Holy Ghost,
to which no one will now pretend ; or by a
succession of ordainers deriving their au
thority originally from such miraculous in
terposition, and transmitting it according
to some method positively instituted by the
same divine power \ Accordingly, if we
have recourse to the Scriptures for the in-
u Heb. v. 4.
x " From this it appears, that there is an absolute
" necessity of a strict succession of authorized ordainers
" from the apostolical times, in order to constitute a
" Christian Priest. For since a commission from the
" Holy Ghost is necessary for the exercise of this office,
" no one can now receive it, but from those who have
" derived their authority in a true succession from the
" Apostles. We could not call our present Bibles the
" word of God, unless we knew the copies from which
" they were taken, were taken from other true copies,
" till we come to the originals themselves. No more
" could we call any true ministers, or authorized by the
" Holy Ghost, who have not received their commission
" by an uninterrupted succession of lawful ordainers."
Law's second Letter to Bishop Hoadly ; Scholar Armed,
vol. i. p. 320. third edition.

SERMON IV. 16.9
formation which we require, we find the
Apostles themselves y commissioned person
ally by their blessed Master, and by the
visible descent of the Holy Ghost2, and
ordaining the ministers of the Church, and
transmitting to others their own authority
for the same important purpose by the im
position of hands a; and in default of other
information, the Epistles to Timothy and
Titus, by proving the exclusive power of
ordination possessed by them in the midst
of presbyters and deacons, would of them
selves sufficiently convince us, that to the
apostolical or episcopal order alone it be
longed to transmit their spiritual commis
sion b.
y John xx. 21. z Acts ii. 3.
a 2< Tim. i. 6. and 1 Tim. v. 22.
b "The order of the Clergy is not only a positive
" order instituted by God, but the different degrees in
" this order are of the same nature. For we find in
" Scripture, that some persons could perform some of-
" fices of the priesthood which neither deacons nor
" priests could do, though those deacons and priests
" were inspired persons, and workers of miracles. Thus
" Timothy was sent to ordain elders, because none be-
" low his order, who was a Bishop, could perform that
"office  It is no more consistent with Scrip-
" ture to say that deacons or priests may ordain, than

170 SERMON IV.
Now as a mere man can no more be
come a priest by any method not speci
fically instituted by God, than the mere
elements of water or wine could become
effectual to the ends of a sacrament but
by the divine appointment, let us once
remove our episcopal succession, and we
have c discarded the Christian priesthood;
let us discard the priesthood, and we have
lost even the means of partaking of the
Christian sacraments, the very seals of the
Christian covenant, the pledges of our
" that the laity are priests or deacons." Law's Second
Letter to Bishop Hoadly ; Scholar Armed, vol. i. p. 355,
356. c "Do the Scriptures make it necessary that Timothy
" (or some other Bishop) should be sent to Ephesus to
" ordain priests, because the priests who were there could
" not ordain ? And do not the same Scriptures make it
" necessary, that Timothy's successor be the only or-
" dainer, as well as he was in his time? Will not priests
" in the next age be as destitute of the power of or-
" daining as when Timothy was alive ? So that since
" the Scriptures teach that Timothy, or persons of his
" order, could alone ordain in that age, they as plainly
" teach that the successors of that order can alone or-
" dain in any age ; and consequently the Scriptures
" plainly teach a necessity of an episcopal succession."
Ibid. p. 356.

SERMON IV. 171
eternal salvation. " So that," as the inge
nious Law most forcibly argues, " the ques-
" tion is not fairly stated, when it is asked,
" whether Episcopacy, being an aposto-
" lical practice, may be laid aside ? but it
" should be asked, whether an instituted
" particular method of continuing the
"priesthood be not necessary to be con-
" tinued ? whether an appointed order of
" receiving a commission from God be not
" necessary to be observed, in order to re-
" ceive a commission from him ? If the
" case were thus stated, as it ought to be
" fairly stated, any one would soon perceive,
" that we can no more lay aside Episco-
" pacy, and yet continue the Christian
" Priesthood, than we can alter the terms
" of salvation, and yet be in covenant with
" Godd." 3. To weaken, however, the force of
these arguments, so irresistibly decisive of
the permanent necessity and immutability
of the episcopal office, the advocates of
the Presbyterian system maintain, that they
can even produce authority from Scripture
d Law's Second Letter, &c. vol. i. p. 359, 360.

172 SERMON IV
for ordination by mere elders; and they
refer in particular, with the most triumph
ant confidence, to St. Paul's well-known
exhortation to Timothy, "Neglect not the
" gift that is in thee, which was given thee
" by prophecy, with the laying on of the
" hands of the presbytery f."
That the passage, as it stands in our
translation, wears an aspect of some plau
sibility in their favour, arising from the li
mited sense which we now attach to the
term presbytery, may perhaps be allowed ;
but that it is of any real force towards
establishing the point in support of which
it is so commonly adduced, may be most
distinctly disproved.
In the first place, the learned are far
from being unanimous in their interpreta
tion of it. Authorities of no inconsidera
ble weight are to be found for referring the
term presbytery to the office g conferred on
f 1 Tim. iv. 14.
s St. Jerome and St. Ambrose adopted this interpre
tation, (see Potter on Church Government, p. 271.) and
what may appear more remarkable, it was allowed even
by Calvin himself. — He says, " Paul us ipse alibi se, non
" alios complures, Timothco manus imposuisse com-

SERMON IV. 173
Timothy, not to those who ordained him
to it ; so that the verse would stand thus ;
" Neglect not the gift of the presbyterate,
" which was given thee by prophecy, with
" the laying on of hands."
But not to insist absolutely on this, it
is far from following as a necessary conse
quence, that if the expression is to be in
terpreted of a company of persons, they
were presbyters, strictly so called ; — the pri
mitive Fathers, at least, admitted no such
idea ; and the comment of Chrysostom on
the text itself is decisively in point ; " The
" Apostle," says he, " speaks not here of
" Presbyters, but Bishops," adding this rea-
" memorat. Admoneo te, inquit, ut gratiam suscites quce
" in te est per impositionem manuum mearum. (2 Tim. i. 6.)
" Nam quod in altera epistola de impositione manuum
" Presbyterii dicitur (1 Tim. iv. 14.) non ita accipio quasi
" Paulus de seniorum collegio loquatur; sed hoc nomine
" ordinationem ipsam intelligo; quasi diceret, Fac ut
" gratiam, quam per manuum impositionem recepisti,
" cum te Presbyterum crearem, non sit irrita." Calvini
Institut. lib. 4. cap. 3. edit. 1607. p. 218.
The general signification however of the word vpe<r(iu-
Tepioy in other parts of the New Testament, no less than
its position in the sentence before us, appears to make
it very difficult to admit such an interpretation. See
Schleusner, in voce Ttpeo-fiuTegw.

174 SERMON IV.
son, " because presbyters did not ordain
"bishops"." There is indeed no small
appearance of contradiction and absurdity
in the very supposition that a company of
mere elders could raise Timothy to that su
periority of rank and dignity above them
selves, which the two Epistles clearly prove
him to have held ; or rather, it is manifestly
impossible that a spiritual office originally
derivable from Christ alone, could be con
ferred on another by those who had received
no commission to exercise it themselves.
But lastly, even were we to concede all
that could possibly be demanded, that the
expression in question denotes presbytets
properly so called, there yet remains an
absolute necessity of understanding the
passage, so as not to contradict another in
the same Epistles, which is liable to no ob
jection or dispute whatever, where St. Paul
thus expresses himself; " Wherefore I put
" thee in remembrance that thou stir up
" the gift of God, which is in thee by the
h Ou 7rsgi vgeo-fiuTepcov cptjcriv Ivrauda, aXXa irep) l^icrxojrivv'
oi yap Sq irgeo~(3uTepoi tov liricrxoTiov ly^eipoTo'vouv. Chrysos
tom in loco.

SERMON IV. 175
" putting on of my hands'." " So that,"
as Archbishop Potter argues, " the utmost
" which can be inferred from this passage
" is, that presbyters sometimes imposed
" their hands together with an apostle or
" bishop ; but there is not the least colour
" to conclude that they always did so, or
" that ever they did it without a bishopk."
And after all, what is here conceded ? that
a practice might have prevailed in the pri
mitive ages, some resemblance ' to which is
' 2 Tim. i. 6.
k Potter on Church Government, p. 270, 271. See
the question relative to Timothy's ordination very clearly
and satisfactorily discussed by Mr. Spry. Appendix to
Bampton Lectures, p. 317 — 322.
1 " In the latter end of the fourth century, the fourth
" Council of Carthage decreed, that in the ordination of
" Presbyters, all the Presbyters present should lay on their
" hands near the Bishop's hand. The design of which
" canon seems to have been, that the ordination of
" Presbyters should be performed with solemnity and
" deliberation, and to prevent Bishops from admitting
" into this order any whom their clergy did not approve ;
" but there is not the least intimation, that the validity
" of orders was thought to depend on the Presbyters
"imposing their hands  The custom of allowing
" Presbyters to lay on their hands with the Bishop in
*•< the ordination of Presbyters, was introduced by de-

176 SERMON IV
even allowed in our own Episcopal Church.
Whenever therefore it shall be admitted,
that the ordinations of the Church of Eng
land are Presbyterian, then, but not before,
it may perhaps be admitted that the ordi
nation of Timothy might possibly have
been Presbyterian also.
If however the most plausible text which
the Scriptures can furnish, completely fails
in establishing the validity of Presbyterian
orders, the case must altogether be consi
dered as an hopeless one, since the recorded
opinions and practice of the earjy ages of
the Church are too consistent, and too de
cisively in favour of the authority to ordain
belonging to the Bishop alone, to allow of
any question whatever. In the judgment
of Chrysostom, " the imposition of hands,"
which he considers as the Bishop's prero
gative, " was the chief of all ecclesiastical
" grees into most of the western churches ; but in the
" oriental churches, they have still kept up the more
" ancient practice of excluding the Presbyters from
" having any concernment in ordination." Potter on
Church Government, p. 272, 273. See also Hooker's
Ecclesiastical Polity, book vii. ch. 7. Oxford edit. vol. iii.
p. 138.

ii

SERMON IV. 177
' powers, and that which principally holds
the Church together m." Even Jerome,
as we have already seen, when most dis
posed to magnify the dignity of the Pres
byter, admitted this n exception to his pri
vileges. The Apostolical Canons, which,
though they certainly have no claim to be
regarded as what their name would indi
cate, must at least be allowed to bear tes
timony to the ancient usages of the Church,
contain this decree : " Let a Bishop be
" ordained by two or three Bishops ; — a
" Presbyter and a Deacon, and the rest of
" the clergy, by one Bishop °." Calvin him
self distinctly acknowledged the universal
prevalence of this principle in the primitive
agesp. It may indeed, without any fear
m riavTaiv [/.a.Xio~Ta xugtcoraTOV, xa) 0 paXtcrTa truveyei tyjV
"ExxXijcrlav to tcov p^eigorovicov. Chrysostom. Homil. xvi. in
1 Tim. n See above, p. 141.
0 'JEw/cxOTroj mo emcrxowcov %eigoTovelo-Qco Suo y TpicoV irpeir-
fiuTepos into hvos emo-xoTrou xa) hocxovos xa) o» Xomoi xXygixoi.
Apostol. Can. i.
P Veteres hoc saepe habent, non differre alia re ab
episcopo presbyterum, nisi quia ordinandi potestatem
non habeat. Calvin. Institut. lib. iv. cap. 4.
N

178 SERMON IV.
of contradiction, be asserted, that the re
cords of the whole Church, to the period
of the Reformation, can furnish but one
well-attested instance even of an abortive
attempt to confer orders without a Bishop;
^-that of Colluthus, an ambitious Presbyter
of Alexandria q.
But it has been urged, that, should it
even be allowed that the arguments for
the episcopal succession, as the appoint
ed means of conveying the spiritual com
mission, have all the soundness which its
advocates would suppose, one obvious con
sideration will be found to destroy their
whole force ; for " that this uninterrupt-
" ed succession is subject to so great un-
" certainty, that if it be necessary, we can
" never say that we are in the Church r."
q Athanasius mentions the circumstance, and says
that it was notorious that Ischyras, and all the rest
whom Colluthus had pretended to ordain, were reduced
to the condition of laymen, and ranked as such:"C«Ti...
ttolvtes of "nag auTou xarao-TabevTes Iv tco o~y\cr\ut.Ti Xa'ixo) ye-
yovaui xa) ourcog vuVayovTai, SijXov xa) outiv) xa6ecrTt)xev apisi-
(3oXov. S. Athanasii Apolog. contra Arianos, cap. 12.
edit. Benedict, torn. i. p. 134.
r See Law's Second Letter to Bishop Hoadly; Scholar
Armed, vol. i. p. 360.

SERMON IV. 179
If historical testimony, however, can con
vince us, we have evidence as satisfactory
as such a case can fairly be supposed to
admit. The Fathers, as it has already
been observed, distinctly enumerated the
successive Bishops of the Church, from
the Apostles to their own times8. Many
of the principal sees of Christendom can
produce authentic catalogues of their Bi
shops, even from their original appoint
ment; and there is scarcely a diocese in
our own kingdom, which does not possess
a perfect register * of its Bishops from the
first conversion of our Saxon ancestors to
the present hour.
It may be admitted, however, that, al
though there is thus the best reason to pre
sume that there was the same regularity of
succession in places where it has not been
recorded, this alone cannot absolutely
prove the fact ; — it may be admitted also,
that, inasmuch as it can rarely have occur
red for a Bishop to consecrate his own Sue
s' See above, p. 136, 137, 138.
*¦ See Bishop Godwin, De Prassulibus Angliae Com-
mentarius.
N 2

180 SERMON IV.
cessor, succession must not be regarded as
transmission, and that the registers referred
to must be considered rather as proving
the continued prevalence of episcopal rule,
than the unbroken descent of the episcopal
commission. Still the fact in question de
serves to be regarded as undeniably certain ;
— for the universally received principle from
the very foundation of the Church, that
Bishops only could consecrate a Bishop,
must have rendered it an utter impossi
bility for any one to have been received as a
Bishop without such consecration. Can we
in our own age conceive the remotest possi
bility of the fraudulent and unauthorized
assumption of the episcopal character ? can
we in the age immediately preceding usu?

u " Is it not morally impossible, that in our Church
" any one should be made a Bishop without episcopal
'' ordination ? Is there any possibility of forging orders,
" or stealing a bishopric by any other stratagem ? No, it
" is morally impossible, because it is an acknowledged
" doctrine amongst us, that a Bishop can only be ordain-
" ed by Bishops. Now, as this doctrine must necessarily
'' prevent any one being a Bishop without episcopal or-
" dination in our age, so it must have the same effect in
" every other age, as well as ours ; and consequently it

SERMON IV. 181
If this is notoriously impracticable, even in
times of all others the least disposed to at
tach importance to a divine commission,
how shall we entertain a doubt with regard
to those earlier ages, when Episcopacy was
regarded with universal veneration, and
none presumed, but by episcopal ordina
tion, to exercise even the inferior offices of
the Christian ministry ?
We acknowledge the descent of the pre
sent generation of men from the original
parents of the human race, without any
reference to the detail of a pedigree no
longer possible to be traced. A moral cer
tainty of uninterrupted transmission, more
nearly parallel to this than may at first be
imagined, may well lead us to acquiesce
in the still continued legitimacy of the epi
scopal commission, though the successive
" is as reasonable to believe that the succession of Bi-
" shops was not broke in any age since the Apostles, as
" that it was not broke in our own kingdom within these
" forty years. For the same doctrine which preserves it
" forty years, may as well preserve it forty hundred years,
" if it was equally believed in all that space of time.
" That this has been the constant doctrine of the
" Church, I presume your Lordship will not deny."
Law's Second Letter, &c. &c. p. 361.
N 3

182 SERMON IV.
individuals, who make up the episcopal ge
nealogy, the " apostolici seminis traduces,"
as the primitive expression is, may now de
fy the most determined labours of anti
quarian research.
Another objection, sometimes urged
against the principles now contended for,
is, that however certain we may deem the
uninterrupted succession of Episcopacy, it
can now avail us nothing, since we# derive
it only through the channel of Papal cor
ruption. But this is evidently founded on
a false notion of the nature of a Church.
A corrupt Church may still continue to be
a true Church. The Jews, in their most
depraved state, still continued the only
visible Church of God on earth. " The
" Popish Church," says Bishop Hallx, " in
" that it hath in it that which pertains to
" the definition of a Church, is a Church.
" In the Church of Rome then," he con
cludes, " a true visibility may and doth
" stand with a false belief." Notwith-
x Advertisement to the Reconciler; Works, vol. ii.
p. 422. See also Daubeny's Guide to the Church,
Appendix, p. 107 — 109. second edit.

SERMON IV. 183
standing all her errors and all her corrup
tions, tremendous as they are, it has pleased
Almighty God to allow her to remain to
this day a conspicuous branch of the uni
versal Church of Christ; and to deny her
claim to be considered as such, savours of
prejudices altogether unworthy of a rational
Protestant. It has been as correctly as in
geniously observed, that " the succession of
" Church offices is no more affected by the
" errors of Popery, than a man's pedigree
" is affected by his bodily distemper, or the
" distempers of his parents ; and if the man,
"by alteratives and restoratives, is cured
" with the blessing of God, he returns to
" the state of his purer ancestors of a re-
" mote generation y."
The unfounded prejudice, which would re
ject Episcopacy as itself a portion of Papal
corruption, can require no confutation af
ter tracing its origin to ages far antecedent
to the rise of the Papal power. I would
only remark on the grossness of the error
which would consider the Church of Rome
as even friendly to episcopal authority. By
y Short View, &c. Scholar Armed, vol. ii. p. 57.
N 4

184 SERMON IV.
the unprecedented subjection of Bishops to
the absolute dominion of the Pope; by
raising into consequence the various orders
of regular clergy in total independence on
episcopal jurisdiction; and finally, by sys
tematically fomenting the religious divisions
of those whom she could no longer retain
within her own pale ; she has done so much
both to depress and to destroy Episcopacy,
that some have not hesitated to declare,
that the true source of Presbyterian inno
vation was to be found, not at Geneva, but
at Rome*.
z " They (the Dissenters) have been told that Episco-
" pacy is Popery, because the Papists have Bishops. So
" have they Presbyters too, that is, parish priests : they
" have the Creed likewise, and the holy Scriptures;
" and all these must be Popish, if this be a good argu-
" ment. But, are they willing to be undeceived ? Then
" they must know, that Episcopacy has none so great an
" enemy as the Papacy, which would engross the whole
" episcopal power into the single see of Rome, by mak-
" ing all other Bishops absolutely dependent upon that
" which only they call the Apostolical Chair. And no
" longer since than the Council of Trent, the Pope en-
" deavoured with all his interest to have Episcopacy, ex-
" cept only that of the Bishop of Rome, to be declared
" not to be jure divino. By which no other Bishops
" could claim any other power but what they had
" from him. But that Council was not quite so dege-

SERMON IV. 185
Again, it has been objected to Episco
pacy as we now possess it, that it differs so
entirely from the Episcopacy of the primi
tive ages, that the one cannot be considered
as a precedent for the other ; and that the
powers assumed, and the extent of juris
diction enjoyed, by modern Bishops, ren
ders their office a manifest usurpation on
the liberties of the Church. It is not of
course to be pretended that an exact simi-
" nerated as to suffer this to pass. And the Jesuits and
" others, who disputed there on the Pope's part, used
" those same arguments against the divine right of Epi-
" scopacy, which from them and the Popish canonists
" and schoolmen, have been licked up by the Presby-
" terians and others of our Dissenters. They are the
" same arguments which are used by Pope and Presby-
" ter against Episcopacy. When the Pope could not
" carry his cause against Episcopacy in the Council of
*¦' Trent, he took another method, and that was to set
" up a vast number of Presbyterian priests, that is the
" regulars, whom he exempted from the jurisdiction of
" their respective Bishops, and formed them into a me-
" thod and discipline of their own, accountable only to
" superiors of his and their own contriving, which is ex-
" actly the Presbyterian model  And indeed whoever
" would write the true history of Presbyterianism, must
" begin at Rome, not at Geneva." Leslie on the Qualifi
cations requisite to administer the Sacraments; Works,
vol. ii. p. 731, 732.

186 SERMON IV.
larity in all respects is to be traced between
the Bishops of modern Europe, and those
of Asia Minor in the apostolic age. But
the dissimilitude is in non-essentials a only,
and depends principally on the wide dif
ference as to external circumstances, ne
cessarily existing between a Church in po
verty and persecution, and a Church pro
tected and supported by the civil power.
" The simple hereupon," says the judi
cious Hooker b, "lacking judgment and
" knowledge to discern between the na-
a " If we abstract from Episcopal Government all ac-
" cidentals, and consider only what is essential and ne-
" cessary to it, we shall find in it no more but this ; an
" appointment of one man of eminent sanctity and suf-
" ficiency to have the care of all the churches within a
" certain precinct or diocese; and furnishing him with
" authority, (not absolute or arbitrary, but regulated and
" bounded by laws, and moderated by joining to him a
" convenient number of assistants,) to the intent that all
" the churches under him may be provided of good and
" able pastors ; and that both of pastors and people,
" conformity to laws, and performance of their duties
" may be required, under penalties, not left to discre-
" tion, but by law appointed." Chillingworth, Aposto
lical Institution of Episcopacy Demonstrated; Works, ninth
edit. p. 298.
b Hooker's Eccles. Polity, book vii. sec. 2. 8vo. edit.
vol. iii. p. 114.

SERMON IV. 187
" ture of things which changeth not, and
" those outward variable accidents, are
" made believe that a Bishop heretofore
" and now, are things in their very nature
" so distinct that they cannot be judged
" the same. Yet to men that have any
" part of skill, what more evident and plain
" in Bishops, than that augmentation or
" diminution in their precincts, allowances,
" privileges, and such like, do make a dif-
" ference indeed, but no essential difference
" between one Bishop and another?"
As to that part of the objection which
charges the Bishops of modern times with
assuming powers unknown in the primitive
Church, a grosser calumny could scarcely
be imagined. Humble indeed are the pre
tensions to spiritual dominion which they
advance, compared with the authority of
their remote predecessors. — The objection,
if any, is of the most opposite description ;
that owing to a combination of circum
stances, chiefly arising from the intimate
union of the ecclesiastical and civil powers,
circumstances however which it is far more
easy for them to deplore than to control,

188 SERMON IV.
their office has become comparatively in
efficient. With regard to the remaining objection,
which points to the unreasonable extent of
diocesan jurisdiction, and would represent
the authority of the primitive Bishops as
restricted to limits almost parochial, it has
long since been most learnedly and satis
factorily confuted0. But the objection
itself, even had it rested on well attested
facts, could have had little weight with
those who knew how to distinguish between
the office of the Bishop and his local juris
diction, the one a divine commission essen-
c See Dr. Maurice's Defence of Diocesan Episcopacy,
in which it is proved, that in very many instances the
dioceses in the primitive ages were more extensive than
we usually find them at present. The Roman empire
was generally parcelled out into cities, with territories
belonging to them. Christianity accommodated itself
to this groundwork, and in consequence the diocese
was usually coextensive with the jurisdiction of the ci
vil magistrate (p. 390—393). Theodoret's diocese was
forty miles in length, and as much in breadth (p. 395).
The ancient dioceses of Italy were much less numerous
than the modern (p. 135). Those of France are sup
posed for the most part to retain the very limits which
the Christians first assigned them, when they adapted
them to the political divisions of the empire (p. 414).

SERMON IV. 189
tial to his episcopal character, the other
varying with accidental circumstances, and
often in a great measure dependant on civil
appointment. In the judgment of St. Je
rome d, " the Bishop of Eugubium was no
" less a Bishop than the Bishop of Rome."
The jurisdiction of a Bishop maybe exten
sive, or it may be small ; nay, through po
litical commotion or ecclesiastical dissen
sions, it may be none ; without impairing
either his own apostolical commission, or
his power of transmitting it to others :—
there can assuredly be no more contradic
tion in the idea of a Bishop without a dio
cese, than in that of a Priest without a
parish. Lastly, the permanent necessity of the
episcopal succession has been objected to
from the impossibility of producing from
Scripture any direct command to that ef
fect. If however such an argument were
allowed to have weight, and nothing could
be deemed necessary but what is expressly
required in the sacred volume, how could
we prove the perpetual necessity of retain-
d Epist. ad Evagrium.

190 SERMON IV.
ing the Christian Sacraments as the ordi
nary means of Divine grace ? where should
we look for any decided obligation to con
tinue the observance of the Lord's day ? nay,
what is, if possible, even more important,
how could we regard even the canon of Scrip
ture as the sure word of God, the infallible
rule of faith and practice6? The unhappy
abuse of tradition in the Church of Rome
too naturally leads the zealous Protestant
to associate its very name with all that is
odious and unchristian. If St. Paul how
ever could exhort his Thessalonian converts,
to " hold fast the traditions they had been
" taught, whether by word or by his Epi-
" stlef;" if he could thus exhort Timothy,
" the things that thou hast heard of me
among many witnesses, the same commit

a

e See Law's Second Letter, &c. p. 353 — 355.
" If tradition is excluded by our Lord from being any
" part of the rule Christians are to walk by, all Scrip-
" ture written barely upon a traditionary account of
" things must likewise be excluded from being a part of
" that rule ; consequently St. Luke's Gospel can be no
>" part of it, because he declares he received what he
" there wrote from others." (chap. i. 2.) Brett's Litur
gies, Preface, p. 16.
f 2 Thess, ii. 15.

SERMON IV. 191
** thou to faithful men, who shall be able to
"teach others alsos;" we may surely lay
aside all unreasonable horror h of tradition
in its subordinate and supplementary capa
city, and perceive that we cannot consist
ently reject the unanimous testimony of
the early Church in favour of Episcopacy,
strictly conformable as it is to all the inci
dental notices of Scripture, without at the
same time abandoning what we all concur
in regarding as among the elements of
Christianity itself.
Of all the principles of Christianity, it
would perhaps be difficult to select any one,
which for ages maintained its ground less
questioned, or less resisted, than that of the
episcopcal transmission of the Christian
priesthood. Of the very existence of the
Church of Christ on any other than an
episcopal foundation, our pious forefathers
had no conception whatever. It was re-
g 2 Tim. ii. 2.
h '' The cause of the Reformation cannot suffer more
" than from such an injudicious defence as this principle,
" which in order to keep out Popery will shut out
" Christianity too." Rogers, Review of his Discourse on
the Visible and Invisible Church, p. 179. if-

192 SERMON IV.
served for the aspiring genius of a compa
ratively recent aera, to effect discoveries
which, for fifteen centuries, had baffled the
penetration of mankind; to develope myste
ries hidden from the cotemporaries and fel
low labourers of inspired Apostles ; to throw
contempt on principles which the blind
ness of heresy and the rancour of schism
had not hitherto presumed to violate ; to
sow the seeds of interminable divisions, and
supply the advocates of Papal tyranny with
the only plausible argument they ever pos
sessed against our glorious Reformation.
It is well deserving our attention, how
ever, that the original framers of the Pres
byterian discipline, so far from professing
that decided hostility to Episcopacy which
their successors afterwards adopted, dis
tinctly avowed their veneration for it, and
pleaded necessity alone as their excuse for
its rejection, inextricably implicated as they
found it with corruptions and usurpations
of Rome. And Calvin himself pronounced
those to be " worthy of every anathema"
who would not reverence it, and submit
themselves to it with the utmost obedience,

SERMON IV. 193
where it was to be met with in its legitimate
form '.
But awful is the hazard to those who
once desert the beaten path of truth for
the bye-ways of error and schism ; and im
pressive is the lesson afforded us by the
followers of this deplorable innovation.
Commencing with modest apologies for
their unwilling rejection of a discipline,
whose superior claims they even professed
to allow, they soon became enamoured of the
work of their own hands ; — they searched
> " Talem si nobis Hierarchiam exhibeant, in qua sic
" emincant Episcopi, ut Christo subesse non recusent,
"et ab illo tanquam unico capite pendeatit  turn
" vero nullo non anathemate dignos fatear, si qui erunt,
t( qui non earn reVefeantur, summaque obediehtia ob-
* servent." Calvin, de Necessit. Eccles. Reformand. .
Beza supposes it scarcely possible that any persons
could be found to reject Episcopacy altogether; and
thinks that no man in his senses could adopt such an
opinion. " Si qui sunt autem, (quod sane non mihi fa-
" cile persuaserisj) qui omnem Episcoporum ordinem re-
" jiciant, absit ut quisquam satis sanae mentis furoribus
" illorum assentiatur." Beza ad Tractat. de Minist.
Eiaang. Gradi c. 1. He considers that England had
retained her episcopal Hierarchy by the peculiar blessing
of God, and expresses a wish that she may for ever en
joy it. " Fruatur sane ista singulari Dei beneficentia;
" quae utinam sit illi perpetua." Ibid. c. 1 8.
o

194 SERMON IV.
the Scriptures, and imagined that theycould
discover in the imperfect notices of the
proceedings of the infant Church, the very
model of their own inventions ; until, at
last, they scrupled not to arrogate to them
selves exclusively every claim to holiness
and truth; and scarcely less departing from
the principles of their founder, than from
those of the primitive Church, they de
nounced Episcopacy as an unauthorized
usurpation, intolerable to man, and in the
sight of God, unholy, and antichristian,
and abominable k.
From the attacks of those daring inno
vators, for a time but too successful, it
pleased the Almighty to grant our Church
a signal deliverance ; an earnest, we might
humbly hope, of his still continued favour
k " Here then let us consider and beware of the fatal
" progress of error ! Calvin, and the Reformers with
" him, set up Presbyterian government, as they pre-
" tended, by necessity, but still kept up and professed
" the highest regard to the episcopal character and au-
" thority. But those who pretend to.fojlow their ex-
" ample, have utterly abdicated the whole order of Epi-
" scopacy as antichristian, and an insupportable griev-
" ance." Leslie on the Qualifications requisite to adminis
ter the Sacraments; Works, vol. ii. p. 756.

SERMON IV. 195
and protection, if the profane indifference
of too many of her professed adherents
were not a far more reasonable cause for
alarm, than the direct hostility of her
avowed opponents.
Far be it from us to speak, or even to
think uncharitably ' of these, the compara-
' " That there is no salvation out of an episcopal
" communion ; that those who carelessly separate them-
" selves from their Bishops, do at the same time sepa-
" rate themselves from Christ; that the prayers which
" they make, or the prayers which are made for them,
" whilst they are in such a state of separation, are vain
" and ineffectual ; that the word which they hear, and
" the sacraments which they receive from persons un-
" authorized to preach the word and administer the sa-
" craments, convey no benefit to them, however other-
" wise well disposed, are severe opinions, which though
" maintained by very learned and pious men, we should,
" out of mere pity, be somewhat unwilling to make our
" own. For though, perhaps, we should not be able
" easily to confute them, yet such are the harsh conse-
" quences of them, that I should not care to embrace
" them. Sufficient it is for us, that in the communion
" of our Church we are safe ; whether sacraments ad-
" ministered by persons uncommissioned are valid or
a not. Whether Presbyters can give a legal commission
" to administer the sacraments or not, is a matter of
" dispute ;: — but whether Bishops have a right of or
daining; whether those who are sent by them are
" lawfully sent ; whether their authority to preach the
O 2

196 SERMON IV.
tively innocent posterity of the original
authors of the separation. Educated as
they are in principles which come recom
mended to them by the claims of prescrip
tion and hereditary attachment, who shall
expect them to be adequately sensible of
their devious course? — or if they were,
who shall assert that, in those cases at
least where the system has been legalized
by the solemnity of national decisions, the
remedy is now either obvious or even rea
dily practicable? But with regard to those
who, having been nurtured in the bosom of
a pure and apostolical Church, shew them
selves insensible to the blessing, and indif
ferent to its preservation, it is difficult to
pronounce whether our predominant feel
ing should be regret for their dereliction of
principle, or apprehension for its too pro
bable consequences.
Without pretending to search for argu
ments in proof of what is altogether self-
evident, I would ask, whether the most
" word and administer the sacraments is valid or not,
" never was, never can be controverted." Bishop Smal-
ridge, Sermon xi. p. 112.

SERMON IV. 197
cursory glance at the disorganized condi
tion of the Christian world is not sufficient
to convince us, that the only chance of re
union depends on a recurrence to those
principles, to the desertion of which these
disorders may be traced? — whether, if
Christians are once more to be restored, as,
relying on the gracious promises of God, we
humbly trust they will be, to " one fold,
"under one Shepherd™," it must not, to
human apprehension at least, be under the
paternal sway of a mild and enlightened
Episcopacy, equally free from the chilling
despotism of Popery on the one hand, and
the factious and turbulent, and scarcely
less overbearing spirit of Presbyterianism
on the other"?
m John x. 16.
n The judicious Hooker appears to have had a very
correct apprehension of the tyranny which was to be en
dured in the succeeding generation, when, as the ami
able Bishop Home expressed it, " the little finger of
"Presbytery proved to be thicker than the loins of
"Prelacy."  "Great things," says he, "are hoped
" for at the hands of these new presidents, whom re-
" formation would bring in. Notwithstanding the time
" may come, when Bishops, whose regiment doth now
" seem a yoke so heavy to bear, will be longed for again,
o 3

198 SERMON IV.
Of this good "leaven" a remnant, yea,
praised be God for his mercies, far more
than a remnant, is yet left to us. Be it ours
then to cherish that " leaven," which in
his good time may "leaven the whole0"
mass of discord and confusion and schism.
And if the unbiassed suffrage of foreign na
tions once pronounced our Church " the
" light of the Reformation11;" if the com-
" even by them that are the readiest to have it taken off
" their necks. But in the hands of Divine Providence
" we leave the ordering of all such events." Ecclesiastical
Polity, book vii. c. 1. 8vo. edit, vol.3, p. 113>
o Matt. xiii. 33.
P Bishop Hall, after citing the testimony of Beza,
and other eminent foreign Divines, in favour of our re
formed Episcopacy, proceeds thus ; " What should I
" need to thicken the air with a cloud of witnesses ?
" There is witness enough in the late synod of Dort.
" When the Bishop of Landaff had in a speech of his
" touched upon Episcopal government,, and showed
" that the want thereof gave opportunities to those di-
" visions which were then on foot in the Netherlands,
" Boggermannus, the president of that assembly, stood
" up, and in a good allowance of what had been spoken,
" said, Domine,.non sumus adeo felices,' Alas ! my Lord,
" we are not so happy.'  What do I single out a few?
" All the world of men, judicious, and not prejudiced
" with their own interests, both do and must say thus,
" and confess with learned Casaubon, Fregevill, and

SERMON IV. 199
passion of God, notwithstanding her mani
fold imperfections, still allows her to pre
serve her purity of doctrine and her truly
apostolical polity; still permits her to re
main, beyond all question, the most emi
nent branch of Protestant Episcopacy; —
be it ours to manifest a more lively sense of
these inestimable blessings, a more earnest
zeal for the maintenance of principles too
long neglected and impugned ; that so she
might hereafter be "set up as an ensign to
" the nations'1," as a light to " guide" their
returning " feet into the way of peace1."
" Saravia, that no Church in the world comes so near
" the apostolic form, as the Church of England." Bi
shop Hall, Episcopacy by Divine Right, book i. chap. 4.
p. 14—16.
" Quod si me conjectura non fallit, totius reforma-
" tionis pars integerrima est in Anglia, ubi cum studio
" veritatis viget studium antiquitatis." Is. Casaubon.
Epist. 709. ad Salmasium.
q Isaiah xi. 12. r Luke i. 79.

O 4

SERMON V.

Romans x. 15.
How shall they preach, except they be sent?
A HAT separation from our Establishment
is, in numerous instances, intimately con
nected with most inadequate ideas of the
importance and necessity of a divinely au
thorized priesthood, for the due administra
tion of the Sacraments and other offices of
our holy religion, and that, in some cases,
the very notion of such necessity has been
altogether abandoned, is sufficiently noto
rious. This class of errors is perhaps to be con
sidered rather as among the occasional
consequences of schism, of modern schism
more especially, than as one of its original
and natural causes ; — but it is not on that
account the less formidably hostile to the
cause of Christian unity. The schisms of
the earlier ages, indeed, were seldom, if

202 SERMON V.
ever, productive of this unhappy result.
A regularly ordained, though schismatical
priesthood, was retained under every sepa
ration, as indispensably requisite to the ex
istence of a Christian society. But the di
visions of the Church, which have occurred
subsequently to the Reformation, having
for the most part commenced under cir
cumstances which effectually cut off the
succession of a divinely appointed ministry,
men learnt by degrees to reconcile them
selves to a loss which they could not con
sistently repair, and at last to despise, as
altogether worthless and insignificant, an
advantage which was no longer to be ob
tained, but by the humiliating process of
retracing their steps to the deserted fold of
the Church, and renouncing prejudices al
ready become inveterate by habit, if not
originally derived from education.
The advocates of the Presbyterian disci
pline having continued to assert, with some
show of plausibility, the claims of their
ministry to the apostolical succession, how
ever some of the powers of the priesthood3
a They reject the power of absolution. See a Short

SERMON V. 203
may have suffered in their hands, have
never wholly abandoned the idea of its di
vine commission. But with regard to a va
riety of other sects, it is sufficiently obvi
ous, that, when once that fanaticism has
evaporated, which can recognize indubi
table evidence of the appointment of
Heaven in the rant of enthusiasm or the
volubility of natural eloquence, their only
refuge from self-condemnation is to be
found in decrying, as vanity and super
stition, every pretence to spiritual author
ity; in maintaining the full sufficiency of
all ordinary Christians for the ministerial
office ; and, by a consequence as unavoid
ably necessary as it is deplorable, in lower
ing and explaining away every priestly
function, till it falls in with the level of
those capacities which they have assigned
for its performance. Hence authoritative
preaching, intercessory prayer, benedic
tion, and absolution, are exploded as the
dreams of dotage, or the fictions of priest-
View of the present State of the Argument between the
Church of England and the Dissenters; Scholar Armed,
third edit. vol. ii. p. 51.

204 SERMON V.
craft ; — the very sacraments, if retained at
all,b are not retained as the efficacious
means of grace ; Baptism becomes a mere
initiatory ceremony ; the Eucharist a bare
commemoration c.
Such principles as these, though scarcely
b " If all Christians are equal and undistinguished by
" any commission from one another  then the
" sacraments appointed by Christ cannot be adminis-
" tered, nor the word preached among them ; for who
" shall officiate in these ordinances?  And, there-
" fore, they who contrived the sect of Quakers, which
" comes the nearest to this scheme, found themselves
" obliged to reject the sacraments, as useless and unne-
f cessary, from a conviction, that it was impossible to
" retain these ordinances, without selecting some per-
" sons from others to officiate in them." Rogers on the
Visible and Invisible Church, fourth edition, p. 127, 128.
c " When the Dissenters of this country, instead of
" remaining satisfied with having separated from the
" corrupt Church of Rome, thought it necessary, more-
" over, to separate from the priesthood of the Church of
" England, they found themselves under the necessity
" of doing as well as they could without it. Instead,
" therefore, of joining with their fellow-Christians in par-
" taking of a feast upon a sacrifice which they could not
" have, they sat themselves down, under the idea of
" partaking of the Lord's Supper, to eat and drink
" bread and wine in memory of a departed friend."
Daubeny's Guide to the Church, Appendix, second edi
tion, p. 3 14.

SERMON V. 205
amounting to a positive argument for dis
sent, must nevertheless be considered as in
the highest degree calculated to cherish
and confirm it. For men thus rendered
easy and self-satisfied in religious separa
tion, and insensible to all the advantages
from which it precludes them, are effectu
ally placed beyond the reach of some of
the strongest motives to conformity, and
would be little solicitous to return to the
bosom of the Church, although the pri
mary causes of their defection might here
after be forgotten, or even altogether cease
to exist.
It were well for us, if the evil could be
regarded as confined within such limits
as these; it were well, if these degrading
ideas of the Christian ministry had infected
those only to whom they are naturally ac
ceptable, and in some sort necessary, as
the apology for their separation. Whether
from the contagion of prevailing opinion,
or from the general silence of the Clergy
themselves on such topics, a want of due
apprehension with respect to the divine au
thority of the Christian priesthood may be

206 SERMON V.
considered as even characteristic of the
age ; and multitudes of the sincerest friends
to the Established Church, of those who
would not willingly be thought to question or
neglect any one of the institutions of their
Saviour, would, I apprehend, if their sen
timents were strictly analyzed, be found to
regard the Clergy in a light little consistent
with the dignity of "ambassadors for Christ1,"
and to attend their ministrations with little
of that faith in their practical efficacy, which
his positive appointment warrants, or, more
properly, demands. Nay, I fear that even
charity itself must admit, that some even of
these " ambassadors for Christ" are them
selves but faintly impressed with the con
sciousness of their divine commission, have
no lively sense of the treasure which they
are appointed to bear, of their actual au
thority to bless, to absolve, and to dispense
the means of grace, as the especial dele
gates of Heaven.
Now, as it will be recollected that one of
the leading arguments for the necessity of
the episcopal succession was derived from
d 2 Cor v. 20.

SERMON V. 207
the importance of the Christian priesthood,
which, however, the limits of my discourse,
as well as the case then more immediately
under review, permitted me rather to al
lude to than to establish ; and as it should
appear that there is amongst us a nu
merous class with whom this argument
must in a greater or less degree lose its
force, according to the degree in which
their convictions on this important point
are vague and defective, it has become ne
cessary to the general object of these Lec
tures, to give this branch of the subject a
more particular consideration. But, on
the other hand, if it can be shown that it
has always from the earliest times been the
method of Almighty God to dispense his
spiritual favours to mankind by the hands
of particular individuals commissioned by
himself, and that the divine commission is
still indispensably necessary to the validity
of the ministerial functions, it will be satis
factory to recollect, as a point already, it is
presumed, distinctly ascertained, that our
excellent Church still enjoys the inestima
ble benefit of this commission in its fullest

208 SERMON V
extent and most undoubted legitimacy, to
gether with the means of continuing it, by
the divine blessing, to the end of time.
I. From a variety of facts recorded in the
Scriptures of the Old Testament it ap
pears, even from the remotest period, to
have been the ordinary method of the pro
vidence of God, to communicate his bless
ings and inflict his judgments by the inter
vention of human agents deputed to act in
his name. Thus in the patriarchal times,
long antecedently to the established priest
hood of Aaron, Noah blessed Shem and
Japheth, and pronounced a curse on Ca
naan6; and Isaac blessed Jacob, to the ex
clusion of Esauf. — Thus, too, in the in
stance of Abimelech, notwithstanding the
known " integrity of his heart," the in
tercession of Abraham was necessary for
his recovery. " And God said unto him, he
" is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee,
" and thou shalt live. . . . So Abraham prayed
" unto God, and God healed Abimelech5."
Again, when the wrath of God was kindled
e Genesis ix. 25 — 27. f Genesis xxvii.
e Genesis xx.

SERMON V. 209
against Eliphaz and his two friends, their
burnt offering could not obtain their par
don without the prayer of Job ; — " My ser-
" vant Job shall pray for you; for him will
" I accept h." Advancing to the period of
the Mosaic dispensation, we read, "The
" Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak
" unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On
" this wise ye shall bless the children of
" Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless
" thee, and keep thee, &c  And they shall
" put my name upon the children of Is-
" rael, and I will bless them1." And again,
" The priests the sons of Levi shall come
" near; for them the Lord thy God hath
" chosen to minister unto him, and to bless
" in the name of the Lordk." In short,
to cite the various passages which might be
produced to illustrate the exclusive author
ity of the Levitical priesthood would be an
endless task.
But a reference to those awful instances
which mark the peculiar wrath of God
against the unauthorized usurpation of the
h Job xiii. 7—10. j Numbers vi. 22—27.
k Deut. xxi. 5.

210 SERMON V.
priestly functions, is too decisively calcu
lated to illustrate the subject before us, to
allow of its being omitted. When Saul,
urged by the distressed condition of his
troops, and the immediate expectation of
the attack of the Philistines, had at last
ventured to offer a burnt offering himself
without waiting for the return of Samuel,
this was the solemn denunciation of the
Prophet; " Thou hast done foolishly: thou
" hast not kept the commandment of the
" Lord thy God, which he commanded
" thee : for now would the Lord have
" established thy kingdom upon Israel for
" ever. But now thy kingdom shall not
" continue k." Thus also when the heart
of king Uzziah, after a long series of vic
tory and prosperity, was " lifted up to his
" destruction," and he " went into thetem-
" pie of the Lord to burn incense upon the
" altar of incense," and obstinately re
sisted the remonstrances of the priests,
" while he was 'wroth with the priests, the
" leprosy even rose up in his forehead be-
" fore the priests in the house of the Lord,"
k 1 Sam. xiii. 6—14.

SERMON V. 211
and " unto the day of his death, he was
" cut off from the house of the Lord," and
from the administration of his kingdom k.
Awfully impressive is the lesson to be de
rived from the sudden death of Uzzah, for
having put forth his hand to hold the ark
of God, though but to save it from falling ;
-**" the anger of the Lord was kindled
" against Uzzah ; and God smote him there
'* for his error, and there he died by the ark
" of God '." Still more tremendous, if pos
sible, was the visitation which attended the
presumption of Korah and his confeder
rates, when, the more effectually to record
the judgment of the Almighty on sucti
unhallowed presumption, the very censers
with which they had offered incense '•* were
" made broad plates for a covering of the
" altar, to be a memorial unto the chil-
" dren of Israel, that no stranger, which is
" not of the seed of Aaron, conie near to
".offer incense before the Lordm." Of
Jeroboam, who " made priests of the low-
" est of the people, which were not of the
" 2 Chron. xxvi. 16—21. ' 2 Sam. vi. 6, 7.
m Numb. xvi. 39, 40.
p2

212 SERMON V.
" sons of Levi," it is emphatically said, that
he " made Israel to sin ;" and moreover,
that " this thing became sin unto the house
" of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to de-
" stroy it from off the face of the earth V
Shall it be argued that the Israelites were
placed under a dispensation so peculiar,
that it is in vain to form any judgment of
a Christian's duty from the laws imposed
on them ? Unquestionably, whatever may
be true of certain minute observances, no
argument as a general principle, or as ap
plicable to the case before us, could be
more fallacious; for it must be founded
on one or other of these suppositions; —
either that an eternal unchangeable God
has on some points altered his views of hu
man offences, and can deem that innocent
in one age, which he held to be highly cri
minal in another ; or else that a Christian
can be guilty of no crime analogous, even
in spirit, to the invasion of the Jewish priest
hood. Because God no longer visibly in
terposes in defence of his sacred institutions,
shall we conceive him to be altogether un-
n 1 Kings xii. 31. xiii. 34. and xxii. 52.

SERMON V. 213
offended by their violation ? As well might
we believe, that he has no vengeance in
store for rapacity and oppression and vio
lence, because no prophet now denounces
temporal retribution on an Ahab or a
"Jezebel. And if " the liberty wherewith
" Christ has made us free," removes us
from all possibility of falling into offences
parallel to Korah's presumption, how shall
we account for the mention made by St.
Jude of those who " perished in the gain-
" saying of Corep?"
" Whatsoever things were written afore-
*¦* time," says St. Paul, " were written for
" our learning11;" and so far from their
having been less usefully written, because
the Jews were subjected to a temporal dis
pensation, and in that respect dissimilar to
our own, the example only becomes the
more effectual to our instruction. Assured
though we are, that " the wrath of God is
" revealed from heaven against all ungod-
" liness and unrighteousness of menr;" yet
as the just measure of Divine retribution is
reserved for a future state, we might for
° 1 Kings xxi. 17—24. P Jude 11.
q Rom. xv. 4. ' Rom. i. 18.
p3

214 SERMON V.
the present form the most erroneous ideas
of the comparative heinousness of particu
lar sins. What can bid so fair to rectify our
judgment in these cases, as the lively and
sensible display of the vengeance of the
Almighty on the various transgressions of
his peculiar people ? In the long cata
logue of human offences, is there one in
which men more readily excuse themselves
than that presumption which seeks salva
tion by its own devices, to the neglect or
exclusion of those persons and methods
which God has instituted for that mo
mentous purpose ? — and on the other hand,
is there one of which a careful perusal of
the Jewish Scriptures can more irresistibly
establish the guilt and danger ?
The Jews indeed, even in their most
corrupted state, appear never to have lost
sight of the established principle, that the
Divine commission was necessary for the
performance of the ministerial functions.
This is evident from the question put by
them to John the Baptist ; " Why bap-
" tizest thou, if thou be not that Christ,
" nor Elias, neither that prophet8?"
s John i. 25.

SERMON V. 215
That the Gospel dispensation, though it
superseded the Levitical priesthood, intro
duced another, to the validity of whose
ministrations the Divine appointment was
as indispensable as ever, may be undeniably
proved. Of the priesthood St. Paul says,
" No man taketh this honour unto himself,
^ but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
" So also Christ glorified not himself to be
" made an High Priest; but he that said
" unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have
" I begotten thee1." Thus even our blessed
Saviour himself entered not on his sacred
office, till, at the age of about thirty years,
he was outwardly and visibly commissioned
by the Holy Ghost". By himself personally
were his Apostles invested with especial
authority to preach x, to baptize y, to bless
the elements of bread and wine in comme
moration of his sacrifice2, and finally with
the power which has ever been esteemed
the highest assigned to the Christian min
istry, that of the remission and retaining
of sins \
1 Heb. v. 4, 5. u Luke iii. 22, 23. x Luke vi. 13.
y John iv. 1, 2. z Luke xxii. 19. a John xx. 23.
p4

216 SERMON V.
The spiritual commission, thus outwardly
conferred on them, they transmitted to
others by the outward sign of the imposi
tion of hands, and none presumed to offi
ciate in the Christian Church without an
authority thus derived from the Apostles.
When elders were ordained in every
Church b, they were the Apostles who or
dained them ; when the people were di
rected to " look out seven men full of
" the Holy Ghost and of wisdom c" for the
office of deacons, it was that the Apostles
might " appoint" them ; and though they
were all men of distinguished merit, though
Stephen in particular is described as " a
" man full of faith and of the Holy Ghostd,"
they could not exercise the functions of this
the least of the Christian ministries, till " the
" Apostleshad prayed, and laid their hands
" on themV " Fortius cause," says St. Paul
b Acts xiv. 23. c Acts vi. 3. d Acts vi. 5.
e Acts vi. 6. Gifts and abilities indeed are through
out the NewTestament invariably distinguished from the
spiritual commission. There is another remarkable in
stance of this in Philip, the Deacon, who though him
self a worker of miracles, merely converted and baptized
the inhabitants of Samaria : but when the Apostles were

SERMON V. 217
to Titus, " left I thee in Crete, that thou
" shouldest ordain elders in every cityf;"
manifestly implying, that their ordination
was ntit to be effected, but by the instru
mentality of one who, like Titus, had him
self received the Divine and Apostolical
commission. The terms in which the Apostles con
stantly speak of their office, strongly ex
press their conviction of their especial and
exclusive appointment. " Let a man so ac-
" count of us as of the ministers of Christ,
" and stewards of the mysteries of God s."
" We are ambassadors for Christ, as though
" God did beseech you by us : we pray
" you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to
" Godh." Under the same impression it
is that St. Paul puts the emphatical ques
tion, " How shall they preach, except they
" be sent'?" and if they cannot preach,
he might have added, an office always
informed of his success, " they sent unto them Peter
" and John," who " laid their hands on them, and they
" received the Holy Ghost." Acts viii. 14. 17.
f Titus i. 5. Si Cor. iv. 1. h 2 Cor. v. 20.
' Rom. x. 15.

218 SERMON V
esteemed within the qualifications of the
lowest order of ministers, much more how
shall they attempt the higher ministrations
of absolution, benediction, and the conse
cration of the Eucharist ?
Closely analogous to the necessity of the
Divine appointment of the ministers of
Christ, is the obligation on the people to
shew obedience and respect to these their
spiritual pastors. They are commanded to
" obey those who have the rule over them,
"and submit themselves k;" to "esteem
" them very highly in love for their works'
" sake1." Thus our blessed Saviour says
to his chosen followers: " He that heareth
" you heareth me; and he that despiseth
" you despiseth me; and he that despiseth
" me despiseth him that sent mem." And
St. Paul declares, " he that despiseth, de-
" spiseth not man, but Godn."
Neither is it without ample cause, that
this necessity of hearing and obeying their
appointed teacher is imposed on the fol-
k Heb- xi»- 17. '1 Thess v. 13.
m Luke x. 16. n 1 Thess- Jv 8#

SERMON V. 219
lowers of Jesus : and if they are thus re
quired to pay submission to a man " of like
" passions with" themselves, assuredly it is
not for his honour, but for their happiness,
not as useful to him, but as beneficial to
themselves. They are required to attend on
his ministrations, because it has pleased Gbd
to constitute him the ordinary channel of
conveying his spiritual blessings ; — because,
though " taken from among men," he " is
" ordained for men, in things pertaining to
" Godu," ordained for the sake and benefit
and assistance of men, in all that relates to
Almighty God, and to that eternal salva
tion which God only can bestow ; — because
the ministers of the Gospel are " ambas-
" sadors for Christ," and like all other
ambassadors, are the authorized messengers
of their Sovereign, and exclusively charged
with the glad tidings of his kingdom ; — be
cause to them, and no others, God " hath
" committed the word of reconciliation ° ;"
— hath committed it to them, to make his
gracious offers of peace and pardon to re
turning penitents, and appointed their of-
" Heb. v. 1. ° 2 Cor. v. 19.

220 SERMON V.
fice to be essentially instrumental in sealing
their reconciliation with himself. Thus,
though the " prayers and the alms" of the
devout Cornelius had " come up for a me-
" morial before God," his admission to the
knowledge and the privileges of the Gospel
was to be effected by the ministry of St.
Peter". Thus St. James directs the sick
" to call for the elders of the Church," to
" pray over him," declaring, that " the
" prayer of faith shall save the sick, and
" the Lord shall raise him up; and if, he
" have committed sins, they shall be for-
" given him p."
If such then be the language of Scrip
ture on the divine institution of the Chris
tian priesthood and the importance of its
functions, in what light shall we regard the
daring temerity of those, who imagine that
it rests with themselves to appoint the crea
tures of their own capricious choice to act
in God's tremendous name ? If it be trea
son to act in the name even of an earthly
monarch without especial authority from
himself, can we deem it less than treason-
° Acts x. 1—6. P James v. 14, 15.

SERMON V 221
able to assume an unauthorized q commis
sion from the " King of kings?" Must it
not, accordingly as it is done in presump
tion, or in ignorance, be either dreadful
blasphemy, or blind infatuation ?
" It is a plain and obvious truth," says
an ingenious Divine, " that no man or
" number of men, considered as such, can
" any more make a priest, or commission
" a person to officiate in Christ's name,
" as such, than he can enlarge the means
" of grace, or add a new sacrament for the
" conveyance of spiritual advantages. The
1 " The honour of the priesthood must needs be very
" high, when it is reckoned a glory even to Christ ; —
" and he could not glorify himself to be a Priest, with-
" out an express commission from his Father. And the
"reason is plain, because none can make an attorney, a
" representative, or commissioner, that is, a Priest, of
" God, to transact or seal covenants with mankind in
" his name, but he himself. How dreadful then  to
" consider the lamentable state of those communities
" amongst us, who think that any three or four of them
" can set up a Church by their own authority ! and where
" every mechanic, boy, or girl, may take this honour to
" themselves, of standing in God's stead to the people,
" and transacting with them in his tremendous name,
" and by his authority!" Leslie's Case of the Regale and
" of the Pontificate; Works, vol. i. p. 661.

222 SERMON V.
" ministers of Christ are as much positive
" ordinances as the sacraments, and we
" might as well think that sacraments not
" instituted by him might be means of
" grace, as those pass for his ministers
" who have no authority from him'." " In
" that they are Christ's ambassadors and
" his labourers," says the judicious Hooker,
" who should give them their commission
" but he whose most inward affairs they
" manage? Is not God alone the Father
" of spirits? Are not souls the purchase
" of Jesus Christ? What angel in heaven
" could have said to man, as our Lord did
"unto Peter, Feed my sheep; — preach;
" — baptize ; — do this in remembrance of
" me; — whose sins ye retain, they are re-
" tained; and their offences in heaven par-
" doned, whose faults you shall on earth
"forgive? What think we? Are these ter-
" restrial sounds, or else are they voices
" uttered out of the clouds above?" And
he adds, " The power of the ministry of
" God translateth out of darkness into
1 Law's First Letter to Bishop Hoadly; Scholar
Armed, vol. i. p. 286.

SERMON V. 223
" glory; it raiseth men from the earth,
" and bringeth God himself from heaven ;
" by blessing visible elements it maketh
" them invisible grace ; it giveth daily the
" Holy Ghost ; it hath to dispose of that
" flesh which was given for the life of the
" world, and that blood which was poured
" out to redeem souls ; when it poureth ma-
" lediction upon the heads of the wicked,
" they perish ; when it revoketh the same,
" they revive. O wretched blindness, if
" we admire not so great power; more
" wretched, if we consider it aright, and
" notwithstanding imagine that any but
" God can bestow its !"
If such blind presumption were in itself,
and its own nature, less glaringly offensive
in the sight of God, than the Scriptures as
sure us that it is, what could be more de
plorable, if rightly considered, than the ac
tual privations to which it unavoidably sub
jects us ? That the holy sacraments, under
all ordinary 'circumstances at least, are ac-
s Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, book v. c. 77. 8vo.
edit. vol. ii. p. 424.
4 " Because the goodness of God, if he pleases, may
" supply  even the want of sacraments in those re-

224 SERMON V
tually necessary to our salvation, we have
the positive assurances of Christ himself.
" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
" man be born of water and of the Spirit,
" he cannot enter into the kingdom of
" God"." And again, " Except ye eat the
" flesh of the Son of man, and drink his
" blood, ye have no life in you\" Now, as
Bishop Reynolds justly argues, "Necessary
" ordinances presuppose necessary officers
" to administer them ; Christ hath ap-
" pointed necessary ordinances to be to
" the end of the world administered ; there-
" fore the officers who are to administer
" them are necessary likewise. He did not
" ligious societies which reject them  those extraor-
" dinary mercies, being secrets which belong to God
" himself, ought to be no encouragement to us to cast
" off his institutions, or to continue in the want of
" them, when we may have them. It is not therefore
" reasonable, as I conceive, to presume that God, though
" infinitely merciful and good, will supply unto us the
" want of such things which we may supply ourselves
" with, but will not. I had much rather therefore desire
" you not to trust to those extraordinary supplies, which,
" when God grants, we cannot tell whether he grants
" or no." Hickes on the Christian Priesthood, Preface,
p. 198.
u John iii. 5. x John vi. 53.

SERMON V. 225
" appoint a work to be done, and leave it
" to the wide world who should do it, but
" committed the ministry of reconciliation
" to stewards and ambassadors by him se-
" lected for that service5?' A sacrifice in
its very nature implies a priest; the Chris
tian sacrifice2, which, by an obvious analogy,
y Bishop Reynolds; Works, folio, p. 1055. " It is not
" a consideration of so little importance as some men
" imagine, by whose ministry we offer up our prayers to
" God, or through whose hands we receive his ordi-
" nances. What allowance may be made for this defect
" in the ministry, where it is occasioned by necessary
" and unavoidable impediments, is not here in question ;
" but ordinarily we are assured, the blessings and graces
" which Christianity teaches us to expect from these
" ordinances, can only be derived to us by them, when
" administered according to Christ's institution by per-
" sons regularly called, as he has directed ; and where
" such may be had, and we may lawfully join with them,
" and use their ministry, to depart from them is to rebel
" against the authority of Christ, who appointed them."
Rogers on the Visible and Invisible Church, fourth edit.
p. 64.
z "The Lord's Supper was always believed to succeed
" in the place of sacrifices ; consequently, as none be-
" side the high priest and inferior priests were permitted
" to offer sacrifices under the Jewish law; so the Lord's
" Supper was consecrated by none but Bishops and
" Presbyters, who alone are Priests in the Christian
"sense of that name. ...... In the Christian Church there

226 SERMON V
the Eucharist may be considered, demands
the Christian Priest ; and every other or-
" is only one proper sacrifice, which our Lord offered
" upon the cross ; and consequently Christians cannot
" partake of any sacrifice, in a literal and strict sense,
" without allowing transubstantiation. Lest therefore
" they should want the same pledge to assure them of the
" divine favour, which the Jews enjoyed, our Lord ap-
" pointed the elements of bread and wine, to signify his
" body and blood offered in sacrifice  It is plain, both
" from the design and nature of the Lord's Supper, and
" from the concurrent testimony of most of the primi-
" tive Fathers who conversed with the Apostles or their
" disciples," (see the examples quoted, in which the
Sacrament is called an oblation, a sacrifice, and a gift,)
" that it was reckoned throughout the whole world to
" be a commemorative sacrifice, or the memorial of our
" Lord offered on the cross  But it is not to be
" wondered, that those of the Reformed religion have
" either wholly abstained from the names of sacrifice or
" oblation, or mention them with caution and reserve in
" explaining this Sacrament, which were used by the
" Fathers in a very true and pious sense, since they have
" been so grossly abused by the Papists." Archbishop
Potter on Church Government, p. 241 — 248.
Hooker remarks, that " the Fathers of the Christian
" Church with security of speech call usually the min-
" istry of the Gospel priesthood, in regard of that
" which the Gospel hath proportionable to ancient sa-
" crifices ; namely, the communion of the blessed body
" and blood of Christ, although it hath properly now
" no sacrifice." Ecclesiastical Polity, book v. c. 78. vol.
ii. p. 436.

SERMON V. 227
di nance of Christ supposes the agency of
his appointed minister. Who can suf
ficiently lament the deplorable infatuation,
which, while it rejects the one, still vainly
flatters itself with the full possession of the
blessings and privileges annexed to the due
performance of the other ?
II. But supposing the divine commis
sion of the Christian ministry as important
as it has been here contended that it is,
how, it has been asked, can we be assured
of its continued existence? and whatever
may be allowed of our blessed Saviour, of
his inspired Apostles, and their gifted com
panions — of those who were immediately
and visibly called by the Holy Ghost, and
gave proofs of it by signs and wonders —
how can we now, with any confidence, ad
vance a similar claim for mere ordinary
mortals, and that, too, so many ages after
the final cessation of all sensible traces
of the miraculous effusions of the Holy
Spirit ?
Had the Scriptures left us without in
formation on this point, the difficulty would
no doubt have been insurmountable by
q 2

228 SERMON V.
human ingenuity. But whilst nothing is
more evident from the sacred volume, than
that the qualifications for the sacred minis
tration are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it
is equally clear that the gifts of the Spirit
are effectually conferred by the imposition
of hands. Thus St. Paul exhorts the el
ders of Ephesus to " take heed to the
" flock over which the Holy Ghost had
" made them overseers3;" and that, not
by any visible and immediate commission,
but -by apostolical ordination. Thus again
he reminds Timothy to " stir up the gift
" of God which is in him by the putting
" on of his handsb;" and as the powers
conferred on Timothy included a capa
city for conveying the spiritual commis
sion to others also, he farther exhorts
him to " lay hands suddenly on no man c."
If the posterity of Aaron, though without
any immediate call, yet by adhering to the
mode of succession appointed by God,
were as truly priests as even Aaron himself,
how can we consistently refuse the obvious
a Acts xx. 28. b 2 Tim. i. 6. c 1 Tim. v. 22.

SERMON V. 229
application of a similar principle to the
successors of the Apostles ? Where is the
arrogance, where is even the difficulty in
believing, that those who at this very day
succeed to them by regular ordination, are,
if not as extensively, yet as really, and for
every ordinary purpose of the Christian
ministry as essentially, commissioned by the
Holy Ghost, as even the Apostles them
selves11?
d " If no man under the Jewish economy could take
" this honour unto himself unless he were immediately
" called of God, as Aaron was, then the successors of
" Aaron could not take this honour to themselves, be-
" cause they were not immediately called of God, as Aa-
" ron was. But it is evident that the Jews had all along
" acknowledged the priesthood of the sons and succes-
" sors of Aaron, who had not an immediate call, but
" succeeded according to the rule first instituted by God ;
" and at the same time that the Apostle argued with
" them, this succession was what they adhered to in op-
" position to the priesthood of Christ. And since the
" Apostle's reasoning supposes they adhered to it in con-
" sequence of this principle, this principle was argued
" from by him as including succession, as well as imme-
" diate call." Rogers's Review of his Discourse of the Vi
sible and Invisible Church, p. 157, 158.
Our own Church, in perfect accord with the sense of
Scripture and primitive antiquity, uses this form of or
dination ; " The Bishop laying his hands on the per-
Q 3

230 SERMON V
This doctrine will of course be objected
to by those who have adopted an enthu
siastic notion of that inward call which
they deem requisite to the due discharge
of the ministerial functions, and of those
sensible evidences of its existence in parti
cular individuals, of which the language of
Scripture no where warrants the expecta
tion. He whose presumptuous imagination
can mistake the fervour of his own ill-regu
lated feelings for the inspiration of Heaven,
or whose blind credulity can recognize the
operations of the Spirit, in the arrogant
claims or imposing eloquence of some
gifted preacher, naturally views with con
tempt every pretence of conferring grace
by outward forms.
Almighty God, in order to secure us
from such unhappy delusions, has been
pleased to affix some outward sign to all
his inward gifts, as the sure, and in fact
the only convincing pledge of their re
ality. Thus the Gospel offers no hope
" son's head, saith, 'Receive the Holy Ghost for the of-
" fice and work of a Priest in the Church of God, com-
" mitted unto thee by the imposition of our hands.'"

SERMON V. 231
of regeneration but by the sacrament of
Baptism, and allows of no qualification for
the ministry unaccompanied by the impo
sition of hands. Were the case otherwise ;
were we permitted to separate the inward
call from the outward ; could we even in a
single instance be justified in depending on
the apparent gifts and graces of an elo
quent teacher, as superseding the necessity
of his regular ordination ; every criterion,
by which we could distinguish the genuine
minister of Christ from the vain pretender
to the sacred office, would be at once de
stroyed. The most plausible pretensions
to the inward call of the Holy Ghost might
be made, even where in reality it least ex
isted. What could remain to secure the
people from delusion ? what could exempt
the enthusiast himself? The " blind would
" lead the blind ;" even the appointed
means of grace would become precarious ;
the table of the Lord could no longer be
approached in the full assurance of faith.
Closely allied to this error, is that of
those who regard the personal holiness of
the ministers of the Gospel as necessary to
Q 4

232 SERMON V.
the validity of their administrations. But,
" it should be remembered," says an ex
cellent writer on this subject, " that there
" is an holiness of office, independent of
" the holiness of the minister; the former
" being essential to the validity of the min-
" isterial act, is on that account not to
" be dispensed with, whilst the latter only
" recommends and adorns it. That these
" two qualifications should always meet to-
" gether, is a circumstance most devoutly to
" be wished ; but as, through the infirmity
" of human nature, this will not always be
" the case, it ought to become an object
" of primary concern with us in our judg-
" ment upon this point, that the greater
" consideration be at no time sacrificed to
" the lesser onee."
Did the wickedness of the Jewish priests
under the Law render it necessary for the
people to make their offerings by other
hands ? Can we believe, that when Judas
was sent forth with the rest of the twelve,
it was the misfortune of all those who
e Daubeny's Guide to the Church, vol. i. p. 7l>72.

SERMON V. 233
chanced to receive baptism from him, to
lose the benefits annexed to the sacred
ministration? If our Saviour commanded
the Jews to observe the directions even of
the Scribes and Pharisees, because they
" sat in Moses' seat';" if the Apostles de
clared themselves " men of like passions5
" with" the rest of mankind, without there
by disclaiming even the smallest portion of
their spiritual authority; if St. Paul plainly
insinuated that a man may preach effectu
ally to others, and yet be himself " a cast-
" awayh;" let us beware of attaching an
unwarrantable importance to the personal
sanctity of the ministers of religion, as if
through " their power or their holiness"
God's blessings were to be conferred. If this
supposition were really correct ; if the good
seed could be injured by the hand that
sowed it ; if the pure word of Gospel truth
could be corrupted by the mouth that ut
tered it ; if the holy sacraments could lose
their efficacy as the means of grace, through
the unworthiness of him who administered
f Matt, xxiii. 2. s Acts xiv. 15. h 1 Cor. ix. 27.

234 SERMON V.
them ; who could secure us from disap
pointment and delusion ? The accomplish
ed hypocrite might defraud us of the bread
of life'.
God's greatness is often most effectually
magnified by the weakness of his instru
ments. And that we may not be induced
to glory in men, and learn to think of men
above what is written ; that the eye of faith
may be guided to its proper object, and
that the divine agency may not be over
looked in the thoughtless admiration of its
humble minister, " the foolish things of
" the world" seem on many occasions to
have been purposely chosen " to confound
" the wise k ;" and we have this inestimable
" treasure " of the Gospel " in earthen
" vessels, that the excellency of the power
" may be of God, and not of us 1."
But by the less enthusiastic, and more
numerous portion of objectors, by those
who are disposed either to deny entirely,
* See Article XXVI. " Of the unworthiness of the
" Ministers, which hinders not the effect of the Sacra-
" ments." k 1 Cor. i. 27. 1 2 Cor. iv. 7.

SERMON V. 235
or to reduce to comparative insignificance,
the claims of ecclesiastical authority, it has
been contended, that the powers thus as
serted for the Christian priesthood are of a
nature so extravagant, as to place the laity
altogether at their mercy; to interfere in
some measure with the prerogative of God
himself, and to encourage in the clergy a
degree of spiritual pride altogether incon
sistent with the religion of the lowly Jesus.
If indeed an absolute and unconditional
authority were claimed by them, the ob
jection might have weight. But assured
ly so despotic a control is neither pre
tended nor imagined. Was it ever con
ceived that none could be saved but those
whom the clergy might think fit to ab
solve? that the capricious or mistaken re
fusal of the sacramental rites could injure
him who was thus unjustly excluded? Are
we to believe that Abimelech would have
continued in affliction, if Abraham had
withheld his intercession"1?
m See Law's Second Letter; Scholar Armed, vol. i.
p. 315, 316.

236 SERMON V.
But on the other hand, because eccle
siastical authority is not thus absolute, be
cause those who possess it may abuse their
trust, because it is committed to them on
implied conditions, the violation of which
might at once invalidate their outward act,
is it therefore necessary to deny their sober
and scriptural claims to the ordinary ad
ministration of the means of grace ? We
do not argue thus on other occasions. —
We do not deny the existence of parental
or sovereign authority, though both the one
and the other have their limits, and both
are liable to abuse in the exercise of them.
From the same considerations it must
be evident, that the prerogative of the
Almighty is not invaded by the minis
terial office. But besides, as the ingenious
Law contends, " is the prerogative of God
" injured because his own institutions are
" obeyed ? Cannot he dispense his graces
" by what persons and on what terms he
" pleases ? Is he deprived of the disposal
" of his blessings, because they are be-
" stowed on persons according to his or-
" der, and in obedience to his authority?

SERMON V. 237
"  Cannot God institute means of grace,
" but these means must be above himself?
" They owe all their power and efficacy to
" his institution ; and can operate no far-
" ther than the ends for which he instituted
" them. How then is he dethroned forbe-
" ing thus obeyed n ?"
It is not the least among the trials of the
clergy at the present day, that they cannot
assert their exclusive claims to the exercise
of the Christian ministry, and vindicate the
honour of their divine commission, with
out being thought to seek their own glory,
and incurring the charge of arrogance and
spiritual pride. What charge however could
have less foundation in truth and reason ?
Can those be fairly chargeable with arro
gance, who regard themselves but as hum
ble instruments in the hands of God, acting
by his sole appointment, possessing no effi
cacy in the communication of grace and
pardon, from any personal qualification of
their own, and none whatever but so long
as they act in conformity to his sovereign
n Law's Second Letter, &c; Scholar Armed, vol. i.
p. 330.

238 SERMON V.
will ? Can they derive any encouragement
to spiritual pride, from the recollection,
that, if they perform their office according
to the intention of him who appointed it,
the benefit accrues, not to themselves, but
to others ; but that, if they neglect or abuse
it, themselves and none else incur the guilt
and punishment ?
But if they are nevertheless convinced
by the sure word of God himself, that they
bear his sacred commission, must they be
deemed arrogant for having the courage to
avow it ? Is the ambassador censured as
presumptuous for declaring the errand on
which he is sent ? There is a " woe'" de
nounced against them, if they " preach not
"the Gospel0;" will they be exempted
from that woe, if, through an unworthy
compliance with the humour of their pro
fane contemporaries, they suppress all men
tion of their divine commission, and leave
their people inadequately impressed p with
° 1 Cor. ix. 16.
P " As long as the people are taught the true nature
" of the Christian ministry, to be as really it is, a true
" and proper priesthood, and that their ministers are

SERMON V. 239
the importance of those sacred ministra
tions, by which grace and pardon are
to be conveyed to their souls, the souls
for which themselves are appointed to
" true and proper priests, ordained by God to stand be-
" fore him as advocates *for them, and before them for
" him, as his oracles to bless them in his name; so long
" they will honour and reverence them as priests. But
" when they are pleased to strip themselves of that cha-
" racter, and relation to God, to which these powers be-
" long, and which above any other makes their ministry,
" and them as Church ministers, venerable and holy, then
" they will soon find the veneration of the people begin
" to decay, and by degrees wear off into utter contempt."
Hickes on the Christian Priesthood, p. 130, 131.
" The great crime and folly of the Methodists consist,
" not so much in heterodoxy as in fanaticism; not in
" perverse doctrine, but rather in a disorderly zeal for
" the propagation of truth ; which is the pretence for
" that irregular ministry which is exercised by their
" teachers, encouraged by the leaders of the sect, and
" greedily followed by the people. The immediate re-
" medy for this evil, and indeed the best security against
" the seductions of false teachers of all denominations,
" would be, that our laity should be frequently taught
" with what hazard to himself the private Christain offi-
" ciously meddles in the preacher's office ; how strictly
" it is required of him to submit himself to those teach-
" ers, who are by due authority set over the people to
" watch over their souls." Bishop Horsley's Charge to
the Clergy of the Diocese of St. David's, at his primary
Visitation in 1 790.

240 SERMON V.
" watch," the souls of which themselves
" must give account"1."
"When the Son of man cometh, shall he
" find faith on the earth r?" Many have not
scrupled to declare their conviction of the
near and awful approach of those last
days of predicted apostasy, from the ge
neral want of faith now observable among
men ; — not a general disbelief of revealed
truth, or of the divine mission of the Sa
viour of the world, but a want of faith in
the practical efficacy of those means of
grace, which God has been graciously
pleased to render instrumental to our sal
vation ; a want of faith similar to that which
led Naaman to reject with scorn the hopes
of a cure from the waters of Jordan % and
which, if he had retained it, would have left
him cureless. — This is that spirit of unbe
lief which all the faithful promises of the
God of truth himself cannot prevail on,
even in his own positive institutions, to
look for effects to which the means osten
sibly employed are in their own nature in
adequate; — which cannot raise its thoughts
ci Heb. xiii. 17. ' Luke xviii. 8. s 2 Kings v. 12.

SERMON V. 241
from the weak and insignificant instrument
to the omnipotent hand which guides it; —
which cannot believe that mere water can
be rendered truly effectual to the mystical
washing away of sin, or that the elements
of bread and wine can in reality become
the efficacious means of grace ; — above all,
perhaps, which cannot comprehend the es
sential difference between the ministrations
of different men, or that the ministry of any
man whatever can be of avail to the salva
tion of his fellow-creatures; — which will
not, in short, " receive the kingdom of
" God as a little child," and therefore can
not " enter therein1."
1 Luke xviii. 17.  "By the Church and its ordi-
" nances every Christian is put to the same trial," (as
that of Naaman ;) " whether he will submit to such
" things as reason cannot account for; whether he will
" look for an effect to which the cause is not adequate
" without the interposition of an invisible power. The
" children of God are still exercised by this trial. Some
" accept the terms proposed; they believe the promises
" of God, and are saved. Of the rest, some do not see
"how they can be saved in this manner; and others
" spend their lives in vanity, and never think whether
" they can or cannot." Essay on the Church; Scholar
Armed, vol. ii. p. 27. Bishop Hoadly must be consi
dered to have given a most dangerous sanction to this
B

242 SERMON V.
Against the notorious and alarming in
crease of a species of scepticism thus ha
zardous to the souls of men, so closely bor
dering on positive infidelity, and at the
same time so destructive of the peace and
harmony of the Church of Christ, now, sure
ly, if ever, the most zealous vigilance and
most strenuous exertions of the Christian
pastor are preeminently demanded. For
while men labour under prejudices which
render them alike insensible to the advan
tages attendant on ecclesiastical commu
nion, and to the evils incurred by separa
tion, who shall venture to indulge the cheer
ing hope of discovering an effectual remedy
for those unhappy dissensions, by which
our Church is rent, and her very existence
endangered ?
And if it be true, as there is in fact but
tpb much reason to apprehend, that the
ignorance of the laity on these subjects has
in some degree arisen from the silence of
description of scepticism, when he thus expressed his
sentiments ; " Human benedictions, human absolutions,
" human denunciations, human excommunications, have
" nothing to do with the favour or anger of God." Pre
servative against Nonjurors, p. 101.

SERMON V. 243
the Clergy themselves, be it ours to strive,
if it yet be possible, to redeem that error, to
repair, if it be yet possible, that fatal neg
lect. <- Be it ours, as faithful " stewards of the
" mysteries of Godu," in conveying to them
truths, unfortunately as unpopular as they
are important, to persevere through " evil
" report and good reportx," "whether they
" will hear, or whether they will forbeary,"
that so we may at least be spared the pain
of being self-condemned, may at least be
enabled to address them with the holy con
fidence of the Apostle, " We" take you to
" record this day, that we are pure from
" the blood of all men. We have not
" shunned to declare unto you the whole
" counsel of God z."
» 1 Cor. iv. 1. x 2 Cor. vi. 8.
J Ezekiel ii. 5. 2 Acts xx. 26, 27-

r2

SERMON VI.

1 Cor. xiv. 40.
Let all things be done decently and in order.
JT has been already observed in the pre
ceding Lectures, and must, it is conceived,
be sufficiently obvious, that, besides those
positive institutions of Christ himself, which
may justly be regarded as essential to the
existence of a genuine branch of his uni
versal Church, a variety of regulations, re
lating to the unity and good order of a
Christian society, must be confided to hu
man discretion. Under the present consti
tution of human nature, an exact uniform
ity of opinion amongst numerous indivi
duals on points of this, or indeed of almost
any description, is notoriously impossible ;
and the peaceful surrender of private judg
ment to the decisions of legitimate author
ity can alone secure uniformity of practice.
That a general concession, so necessary
k 3

246 SERMON VI.
to the harmony of the Church, should be
attended with any serious difficulty, was
the less to have been expected, when it was
recollected, that the particulars, in which
obedience is thus required, being in them
selves matters of indifference, and such,
moreover, as the Almighty had neither li
mited by definite precept, nor declared un
lawful by strict prohibition, may be almost
infinitely varied, without giving reasonable
cause of offence to the nicest conscience;
— whilst, on the other hand, when once
they have received the sanction of regular
authority, of those " who have the rule" in
the Church, and to whom men are ex
pressly enjoined to " obey and submit4"
themselves, wilfully to neglect them is con
tempt and disobedience, and to form a
distinct communion on such grounds, a
positive and criminal schism.
Unhappily, however, for the peace of
our Church, multitudes have never been
wanting, from the Reformation to the pre
sent day, who have shown themselves in
sensible to such obvious reasoning; and
a Heb. xiii. 17«

SERMON VI. 247
rather than sacrifice any portion of their
private judgment to the public peace, have
ventured on the fearful alternative of wilful
separation. And I apprehend that it must
be allowed, that, in the great majority of
cases, they have thus separated, not be
cause they conscientiously differed in opin
ion on any of the grand essentials of
Christianity, but for the sake of some minor
points, which nothing but pride or preju
dice could have raised to such undue consi
deration ; — which might have been decided
either in the way which they preferred, or
in that which they rejected, without mate
rial detriment to faith or practice, and with
respect to which the only question that
really deserved their attention was, not so
much what had been commanded, as by
whom the command had been given.
It must, however, be admitted, that it is
far from wonderful, that such prejudices
should have arisen against the externals of
religion in the minds of those who had re
cently effected their emancipation from a
Church where they had been so grossly
abused. Forms and ceremonies were no
r4

248 SERMON VI.
unnatural objects of jealousy and anti
pathy to those who had just learnt to view
with disgust the senseless and unprofitable
formalities of Popish worship, and the
childish and superstitious, not to say idola
trous, pageantry of Popish rites. Where-
ever zeal exceeded discretion, and that it
would do so in numerous instances we can
not doubt, men shrank with horror from
every imagined vestige of the corruption
from which they had so happily escaped;
and it need not surprise us, if they were
too ready to sweep away in the same pro
miscuous mass, much that was not only
unobjectionable, but really useful and edi
fying in the celebration of religious wor
ship. What is far more calculated to excite
our astonishment is, that similar prejudices
should still continue to exist against the Ser
vice of our Church; that even centuries after
the peaceable establishment of the doctrines
of the Reformation, when the ferment natu
rally attendant on a contest of such magni
tude has long since subsided ; when we are
no longer agitated like our forefathers by the

SERMON VI. 249
terrors of reviving Popery, and are enabled
dispassionately to allow, that all is not false
nor all abominable even in Rome herself,
rites and forms whose sole offence it seems
originally to have been, that they were
unjustly deemed the relics of a hateful su
perstition, should still have to contend
with objection and cavil.
The fact, however, appears to be, that
the Dissenters of the present day, having
received by inheritance those modes of
worship which their ancestors adopted as
a substitute for the rejected forms of our
Church, together with those arguments
against the superstition of external service
which were at the same time devised, feel
both for the one and the other that spe
cies of attachment which such circum
stances render natural; — that they have
retained, with still more deliberate pre
ference, the disposition ever manifested
by their predecessors, to deny the exist
ence of that ecclesiastical authority, which
claims to regulate the practice of men
on some points originally indifferent; —
that those who in more modern times, on

250 SERMON VI.
the same or on any other principles, have
joined the standard of non-conformity, have
naturally adopted arguments so well calcu
lated to afford a plausible support to their
cause, and those modes of worship, which
might best illustrate the distinction between
themselves and the communion which they
had ventured to desert ; — so that, although
the genuine antipapistical horror of rites
and ceremonies may be considered as in a
great measure extinct, its effects continue
to survive, in inveterate and unreasonable
prejudices against the pure forms and un
ostentatious observances of our excellent
Church. My present object is to point out briefly
the necessity of some degree of external
form towards maintaining the internal spi
rit of religion among men ; — to prove the
authority of the Church, in appointing such
regulations as she deems to be conducive
to the decent and profitable celebration of
religious worship, and the duty of general
submission to that authority, so long as it is
exercised within its due limits, and violates
no principles of superior obligation ; — and

SERMON VI. 251
to shew, not only the strict lawfulness of
the course pursued by our own Church in
these particulars thus left to her discretion,
but the positive and important benefits re
sulting from her decent and edifying forms,
and more especially from her admirable
Liturgy, in comparison with the supposed
advantages of the very opposite mode which
has been adopted by her adversaries.
I. " Man," says an excellent writer, " is
a being compounded of soul and body ;
' his religion therefore must be suited to
' his circumstances. That must have a
* soul and a body, a spiritual and a cor-
* poral part ; upon the proper union of
* which two parts the spiritual life of its
* possessor will upon experience be found
' to depend. For certain it is, that reli-
' gion may be too refined for the present
' gross state of the human understanding,
' which must receive much of its informa-
' tion on divine subjects through a sensible
' medium3."
The outward forms of religion are, no
a Daubeny's Guide to the Church, vol. i. page 246.
second edition.

252 SERMON VI.
doubt, liable to the most pernicious abuse,
and have frequently been carried to such
an immoderate extent, as to have ap
peared in the eyes of the unreflecting
to comprehend the whole of their duty,
and to supersede the necessity of that
inward piety, which they were merely de
signed to accompany and support. But
to consider this circumstance as an argu
ment for their total abolition, is to evince
a thorough ignorance of human nature,
and to controvert, not only the experience
and testimony of every preceding age, but
even the decision of the Almighty himself,
as manifested in every known dispensation
of his revealed will ; — it is an argument,- in
short, which could scarcely be adopted in
its full extent but by the utmost blindness of
fanaticism, or the most violent prejudices
of religious contention \
b " Forms, considered merely in themselves, are but
" the outside of religion ; and if they lead to nothing
" beyond that, it matters not in what place they are
" practised, or by whom. Thus far all rational men
" readily agree. Their disagreement consists in this:—
" some men reject forms, from a remembrance of their
" past abuse ; whilst others more wisely determine, that

SERMON VI. 253
If men were no longer reminded of
their spiritual concerns, by the outward
circumstances of time and place; — if the
sabbath were no longer peculiarly appro
priated to their religious duties ; — if the
house of God were no longer expressly
dedicated to his honour and service; —
would they as constantly and certainly
find their temple in the fields or in the
closet, and their religion in the unassist
ed suggestions of their private thoughts?
— or if the posture which we consider so
expressive of humility and reverence were
exploded as vain and superstitious, would
those devout affections as readily assimilate
" the advantage they are calculated to produce, ought
" not to be sacrificed to the evil, which, through the
" corruption of human nature, may occasionally be de-
" rived from them. And this determination is certainly
" best suited to the state of the party concerned 
" The Jewish religion, that particular dispensation of
" God, abounded in them ; from which our Saviour se-
" lected those which were adapted to the Christian in
stitution  And he who persuades himself that
" religion is to be preserved in the world without forms,
" makes himself wiser than God ; — at the same time
" that he manifests his ignorance of the nature and cha-
" racter of man." Ibid. p. 246—249.

254 SERMON VI.
with any other, which caprice or chance
might dictate ? Assuredly, though the face
and form of religious worship are not its
life and spirit; — though they may some
times be found to exist independently of
them, or even to prevail to their destruc
tion ; yet in their sober and legitimate use,
they are c admirably adapted to cherish de-

c " In every grand or main public duty which God
" requireth at the hands of his Church, there is, besides
" that matter and form wherein the essence thereof
" consisteth, a certain outward fashion whereby the
" same is in decent sort administered. The substance
" of all religious actions is delivered from God himself
" in few words. For example sake, in the sacraments....
" ....But the due and decent form of administering those
" holy sacraments doth require a great deal more. The
" end which is aimed at in setting down the outward
" form of all religious actions, is the edification of the
" Church. Now men are edified, when either their
" understanding is taught somewhat whereof, in such
" actions, it behoveth all men to consider, or when their
" hearts are moved with any affection suitable thereunto ;
" when their minds are in any sort stirred up unto that
" reverence, devotion, attention, and due regard, which
" in those cases seemeth requisite. Therefore unto this
" purpose not only speech, but sundry sensible means
" besides, have always been thought necessary, and egpe-
" cially those means which being object to the eye, the
" liveliest and the most apprehensive sense of all other,

SERMON VI. 255
votion in ourselves, and render our example
an encouragement to it in others. He who
should succeed in persuading mankind to
lay aside all the externals of religion, and
rely on an abstract and contemplative piety
for securing the favour of their Maker,
would eventually banish from the world
religion herself; — the " power of godli-
" ness" would not long survive the extinc
tion of its " form."
II. That the Church has been invested
with authority to appoint regulations for the
due performance of public worship, and the
orderly conduct of her members in all that
relates to their religion, is no more than
evidently follows from allowing her to be
a society at all. For a power analogous
to this is no more than every society, whe
ther civil or religious, claims and exercises
for its own preservation d.
But the Scriptures will enable us to
prove this still more decisively in the case
" have in that respect seemed the fittest to make a deep
" and strong impression." Hooker's Ecclesiastical Po
lity, book iv. ch. 1. octavo edit. vol. i. p. 433, 434.
d See Archbishop Potter on Church Government,
p. 285.

256 SERMON VI.
before us. Though they seldom lay down
any thing more than mere general rules on
these points, and do not perhaps in a single
instance precisely define the mode of Chris
tian worship, yet do they make it perfectly
evident that the practice of the Church
could not have been thus indefinite. If
Christians were enjoined to assemble 'them
selves together for divine worship, the time
and the place of assembling must of neces
sity have been subject to appointment ; — if
" all things" were to be " done unto edify -
"ingf," and "every thing" to be "done
" decently and in order8," those precise
regulations must have been adopted and
enforced, by which alone order could be
maintained, and edification promoted. If
the converts in general were commanded
to " obey those who had the rule over
" them, and submit themselvesh," to what
could such submission refer, but to the
regulations adopted for the peace and
welfare of the Church by its appointed
rulers ? In all the leading duties of religion
e Heb. x. 25. * 1 Cor. xiv. 26.
s 1 Cor. xiv. 40. h Heb. xiii. 1 7.

SERMON VI. 257
and morality, as our obedience is due to
God alone, so it is God alone whom we
can be even said to obey ; — if man is obey
ed, it must be in those minor enactments,
which, however necessary to the regularity
of a Christian society, yet being liable to
vary with times and circumstances, and be
ing at the same time perfectly within the
scope of human capacity, are restrained
but by the general laws of Scripture, and
are left in their detail to human discretion
alone. If it be objected, that the extraordinary
assistance of the Holy Spirit gave to the
inspired Apostles, and their gifted followers,
an authority on these points which their
successors cannot claim, it is well deserv
ing of notice, that St. Paul himself author
itatively delivered some rules which he ex
pressly admits were not the suggestions of
the Spirit ; " To the rest," says he, " speak
"I, not the Lord'." "In prescribing
" these orders," says a distinguished orna
ment of our Church, " it must be allowed
" that he acted only in virtue of his gene-
' 1 Cor. vii. 12.
S

258 SERMON VI.
" ral commission, as a ruler of Christ's
" Church, by which he was authorized to
" make any such laws as he saw conve-
" nient, provided they were not contrary
" to the laws of Christ. So that it is plain
" the Apostles prescribed rules for which
" they had not the express direction of the.
" Spirit; and since the ordinary governors
" of the Church are not denied to have as
" much authority as the Apostles in all
" things in which they were not inspired,
" or which did not relate to their mission
" to convert the would, their precedent
" must in these instances be acknowledged
" conclusive for this power in the ordinary
" ministry15." It seems indeed to be little
k Rogers on the Visible and Invisible Church* 4th
edit. p. 49. " But, secondly," he adds, " ths instances
" are numerous in Scripture in which this authority
" was exercised by persons who were not Apostles.
" In the council of Jerusalem, not only the Apostles^
" but the Elders concurred in the decrees of that ag-
" sernbly, (Acts xv. 6, 23.) St. Paul sends a general di-
" rection to the Church at Corinth, Let all things be
" done decently and: in order, (1 Cor. xiv. 40.) but the
" prescribing such particular rules as should be neces-
" sary to that end he leaves to the superiors of that
" Church. And so he informs Titus, that it was a part of
" his commission in Crete, to set in order the things that

SERMON VI. 259
less than self-evident, that, the more ge
neral and indeterminate the language of
Scripture is in laving down rules of this
description, the more necessary, and by
consequence the less disputable, must be
the authority of the Church to define and
enforce them for herself.
" were wanting, (Tit. i. 5.) which must imply an author-
* ity to make such rules as he in his discretion should
" think conducive to that order which was wanting 
" Consequently the ordinary governors of the Church
" have sufficient ground from Scripture for the right
" they claim to prescribe such rules." Ibid.
1 " For instance, the times and places where Chris-
" tians assemble together to worship God must be fixed,
" otherwise they cannot assemble at all. When they
" are come together,- it must be determined1 in what or-
" der the several offices of religion shall be performed ;
" whether praying, or preaching, or singing of psalms,
"or administering of the sacraments, shall be first;
" Otherwise one will be for praying, whilst another is
" for preaching, and a third for some other office, and
" nothing but disorder and confusion will be seen in the
" Church. On the same account the division of Chris-
ie tiaris into districts arid parishes; for the more con-
" vetii'ent assembling together, arid keeping up of order
" and discipline, is a thing which must be varied 
" So that the things of this kind having been left un-
" determined by the Scriptures, and also it being neces-
" sary they should1 be deterrriiried, it follows that Christ
"has left the Church authority to determine them."
Archbishop Potter on Church Government', p. 284, 285.
S 2

260 SERMON VI.
A reference to the circumstances of the
Mosaic dispensation is strikingly illustrative
of this truth. If ever there was a people,
whose rites were so strictly and minutely
prescribed, as apparently to make variation
unlawful, and addition unnecessary, that
people were the children of Israel. Never
theless, at the period of our Saviour's min
istry, we find many practices established,
for which the books of Moses or their Pro
phets contained no directions whatever.
Amongst a variety of instances which might
be named, — much of the service of the
temple, — every thing connected with the
worship of the synagogue, — and the feast
of the dedication, were all of them intro
ductions of a comparatively recent date;
yet our blessed Lord, so far from deeming
them on that account unlawful, or the au
thority which had appointed them incom
petent, vouchsafed to sanction them by his
own divine presence m. If a religion then,
thus restricted in its rites, confined to one
m See Archbishop Potter on Church Government,
p. 286. and Bishop Grove, Persuasive to Communion,
London Cases," p. 6.

SERMON VI. 261
small nation, and, in its leading observ
ances, even to one single place, admitted
of such supplementary enactments, shall
we claim less for the more enlarged and
comprehensive system of the Gospel of
Christ, which is destined hereafter, by the
divine blessing, to extend itself amidst
every variety of climate and national cha
racter, till " the earth shall be full of the
" knowledge of the Lord, as the waters
" cover the sean?"
In fact, the principle which some have
affected to maintain, that nothing is lawful
in the service of a Church, for which an
express precept cannot be found in holy
writ, when considered in connexion with
the almost total absence of express precept
on the subject, contains in it such a pal
pable absurdity, as to require no formal con
futation. Those who adopt it indeed must
unavoidably condemn every Church that
has existed or could exist on earth, and
sentence themselves, for consistency's sake,
to perpetual separation from every even
the smallest society of their fellow Christi-
n. Isaiah xi. 9.
S 3

262 SERMON VI.
ans, who could not remain in communion
with each other, without at least some
rules which the Scriptures are unable to
supply0. Of this then we may account
ourselves certain, that, however a man may
be tempted to assert such a principle, in his
eagerness to impugn the practice of others,
he would be little disposed to abide by it,
when reduced to the defence of his own.

0 " If the imposition of some indifferent things be
" thought a sufficient ground for a separation, (as it is
" now generally urged, since the proof of their unlaw-
" fulness is despaired of,) then we must have separated
" from the apostolical Churches, who had some such
" usages as the holy kiss, and others, whose indifferency
" is acknowledged by their being wholly disused ; — we
" must have separated from the first Churches that suc-
" ceeded them, which had all some indifferent things
" enjoined; — we must separate, at this time, from aU
"the Reformed Churches in the world; for there is
" none of these which does not require the use of such
" things as we should judge to be cause enough to de-
" part from them ; — nay, when we have once separated
" from the Church of England upon this account, we
" must then separate from one another, and every man
" must be a Church by himself. For it is impossible
" that any society, whether merely human, or Christian,
" should subsist without the orderly determination of
" some indifferent things." Bishop Grove, Persuasive to
Communion; London Cases, p. 15.

SERMON VI. 263
Let it not, however, be imagined, that
any unconditional authority is thus claimed
for the Church, or any authority at all
which extends beyond those indifferent
matters which affect not the grand essen
tials of morality and religion. It has been
correctly, though somewhat quaintly re
marked, that " there are three sorts of
" things about which the Church is con-
" versant, good, bad, and indifferent; —
" the good oblige by their own nature ; the
" bad cannot be enforced by any authority;
" therefore the authority of the Church
" must extend to things indifferent ; that is,
" to order and discipline, to circumstances
" of time, place, forms of worship, cere-
" monies, and such like ; — and to disobey
" because they are indifferent, is to deny
" that God has given power to his Church to
" regulate any one thing whatsoever1*." Un-
P Essay on the Church; Scholar Armed, vol. ii. p. 25.
third edit.
" We teach, that whatsoever is unto salvation termed
" necessary by way of excellency ; whatsoever it standeth
" all men upon to know or to do that they may be
" saved ; whatsoever there is whereof it may truly be
" said, This not to believe, is eternal death and damna-
S 1

264 SERMON VI.
less a Church then can be clearly shewn to
have transgressed her appointed limits ; — if
her forms and observances betray no traces
of idolatry or superstition, if they violate no
doctrine or precept of God's written word,
nor deviate from the natural and received
principles of decency and order, her mem
bers are indisputably bound to submit to
her authority, to sacrifice all the unavoid
able discrepancies of private judgment, and
" tion; or, This every soul that will live, must duly ob-
" serve: of which sort the articles of Christian faith,
" and the sacraments of the Church of Christ are ; all
" such things, if Scripture did not comprehend, the
" Church of God should not be able to measure out the
" length and the breadth of that way wherein for ever
" she is to walk; heretics and Schismatics never ceasing,
" some to abridge, some to enlarge, all to pervert and
" obscure the same. But as for those things that are ac-
" cessory hereunto, those things that so belong to the way
" of salvation, as to alter them, is no otherwise to change
" that way, than a path is changed by altering only the
" uppermost face thereof; which be it laid with gravel,
" or set with grass, or paved with stones, remaineth
" still the same path ; in such things, because discretion
" may teach the Church what is convenient, we hold not
" the Church further tied herein unto Scripture, than
" that against Scripture nothing be admitted in the
" Church." Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, book iii. c. 3.
vol. i. p. 366.

SERMON VI. 265
" follow after the things which make for
" peaces" On these grounds the opinion of Augus
tine is both excellent itself, and worthy of
universal adoption ; " that in all things not
" contrary to truth and good manners, it
" becometh a good and prudent Christian
" to practise according to the custom of
" the Church where he happens to be, if
" he will not be a scandal to them, nor
" have them to be a scandal to him r."
" Where no law is, there is no trans-
" gressions." Where God has not forbid
den, our lawful superiors may assuredly
command ; and obedience on our part is
not only an allowable course of perfect
safety, but the indispensable course of
i Rom. xiv. 19.
r Nee disciplina ulla est in his melior gravi prudenti-
que Christiano, quam ut eo modo agat, quo agere viderit
Ecclesiam, ad quamcunque forte devenerit. Quod enim
neque contra fidem, neque contra bonos mores injungi-
tur, indifferenter est habendum, et pro eorum inter quos
vivitur societate servandum est  Ad quam forte Ec
clesiam veneris, ejus mores serva, si cuiquam non vis
esse scandalo, nee quemquam tibi." Augustin. Epist. 118.
edit. Lovaniens.
s Rom. iv. 15.

266 SERMON VI.
bounden duty. It would be strange indeed,
if, as some should seem to imagine, the
command of legitimate authority could
make that unlawful, which, being subject
to no prohibition, was, by consequence,
lawful before1 ! By whatever artifices of per
verted reasoning, then, a man may have im
posed on his own better judgment, until at
length, perhaps, he is even firmly persuaded
that he withholds his obedience, in such
cases, from a pure regard to the dictates of
his conscience, we can scarcelv be mistaken
3 •/
in assigning to his conduct a secret source
of a far less worthy nature ; in believing, in
short, not that the practice enjoined is dis
tressing to the tenderness of his conscience,
but that submission to the authority which
1 If all men were of this opinion, that no lawful thing
" ought to be complied with, when it is commanded,
" authority might as effectually oblige them to do what-
" soever it would have, by commanding the quite con-
" trary, as it can now by commanding the thing it
" would have  And if in lawful things authority can
" oblige us to comply with this, by commanding the
" contrary, our liberty will be altogether as liable to re-
" straint this way, as the other." Dr. Scott on the Use of
Forms of Prayer, part 2. London Cases, p. 284.

SERMON VI. %67
enjoins it, is offensive to the unruliness of
his pride.
III. In proof of the strict lawfulness of
the course pursued by our Church in those
particulars which have been left to her dis
cretion, it can only be necessary to advert
to the leading points in which her conduct
has been usually arraigned. These appear
to have been a few, and but a very few, ce
remonies, and more particularly the ap
pointment of the forms of prayer which
compose our excellent Liturgy.
" A man that were unacquainted with
" the true state of our case," said Bishop
Grove, " that should stand by, and only
" hear the bitter cries and invectives that
" have been made against ceremonies,
" would be ready to imagine, that sure our
" Church was nothing else almost but ce-
" remonies. But he would be mightily sur-
" prised, when upon inquiry he should
" find, that these ceremonies, which had
" occasioned all this noise, should be no
" more than three;— the surplice, the cross
" after baptism, and kneeling at the Sacra-
" ment. He would be amazed to think that

268 SERMON VI.
" these should be the things about whioh
" so many massy books had been written,
" so great discords and animosities raised;
" such a flourishing Church once quite de-
" stroyed, and now most miserably divided,
" after it had been so happily restored ;
" and his wonder must be increased, when
" he should perceive that of these three,
" there was but one, and no more, in which
" the people were any way concerned^
" The cross and surplice are to be used
" only by the minister, and if his con-
" science be satisfied, no man's else need be
" disturbed about themV
I am the less disposed, however, to enter
into any formal defence of usages appa
rently so little liable to objection, believing,
as I do, that at this day they could scarcely
have found objectors, had not the cus
tomary cavils against them, and their aban
donment in the practice of nonconformity,
been inherited from times more naturally,
and, in fact, more excusably jealous of
every imaginable relic of Papal supersti-
u Bishop Grove, Persuasive to Communion ; London
Cases, p. 9, 10.

SERMON VI. 269
tion. I would merely ^remark, that the
surplice is evidently calculated for the re
spectable decency, and not for the super
fluous splendour of religious worship ; — that
the employment of the sign of the cross,
not in the single instance of baptism only,
as we have retained it, but on a variety of
occasions of inferior moment, so far from
being a corruption of Popery, may be
traced to the earliest and purest ages of
Christianity"; — that kneeling is of all or
dinary postures the most expressive of the
holy affections of a devout communicant ;
x " Ad omnem progressum atque promotum, ad
" omnem aditum et exitum, ad calceatum, ad lavacra,
" ad mensas, ad lumina, ad cubilia, ad sedilia, quacun-
" que nos conversatio exercet, frontem crucis signaculo
" terimus." Tertull. de Corona, cap. iii. edit. Rigalt. p.
102. " In fronte maculatus est, ea parte corporis no-
" tatus, offenso Domino, ubi signantur, qui Dominum
" promerentur." Cyprian, de Unit. Eccles. edit. Ba-
luzii, p. 200. To Se vDcog ocvt) rafflst x«l to eXaiov ocvt)
•nveufkaTOs ayiou, >j g-fpayis avr) tou CTTaupou, to fuupov (3e-
fiaioxns t>js bpoXoyias. Constit. Apostol. lib. iii. c. 17.
For an account of the occasions on which the sign of
the cross was used by the early Christians, and for a re
ference to other authorities, see Bingham's Antiquities
of the Christian Church, book xi. chap. 9. and Brett's
Dissertation on Ancient Liturgies, p. 34 — 53.

270 SERMON. VI.
sitting, perhaps, the least so; and that,
should any person be disposed to contend
for an exact imitation of the posture in which
the holy Supper was actually received at
its original institution, his argument could
avail him but little, since it has not been
expressly recorded ; and if it were that
which conjecture and probability would
lead us to conclude y, it is equally disused
in the conventicle as in the church. With
regard) to ceremonies in general, it must at
least be obvious, that the scrupulous and
over anxious forbearance from practices
which God has nowhere forbidden, is as
strictly and essentially superstitious, as the
vain hope of pleasing him by the accumu
lation of observances which he has nowhere
commanded2.
y SeeWheatly on the Common Prayer, chap. vr. sect.
23. and Bishop Grove, Persuasive to Communion, Lon
don Cases, p. 11.
z " Superstition is nothing but a groundless fancy,
" attended sometimes with an anxious fear,and some-
" times with a fond hope, that God is pleased or dis-
" pleased with the bare performance or forbearance of
" what he hath neither commanded1 nor forbidden. He,
" therefore;, that thinks he offends God in doing of that
" he hath not forbidden, and he that imagines he shall

SERMON VI. 271
That stated forms of prayer are neither
unlawful in themselves, nor unacceptable
to the Almighty, we have abundant proof
in the various instances of them which
the books of the Old Testament con
tain"; from the sanction which our blessed
Saviour afforded by his presence to the
public service of the Jews, both in their
temple and in their synagogues; and, above
all, from his having himself vouchsafed to
compose a form for the devotions of his
followers, which, as if the more completely
" please him by the observing of what be hath not com-
" mamded, are both in some degree, and it may be
" equally, superstitious." Bishop. Grove, Persuasive to
Communion, London Cases, p* 1 1 .
a Among these may be enumerated the form of words
in which Aaron and his sons were commanded to. bless
the people; "The Lord bless thee: and keep thee; the
" Lord make his face to shine upon thee, &c." (Numb.
vi. 24— 26).: the words which the children of Israel
were enjoined to use in the expiation of uncertain mur
der; "Be merciful, O Lord, unto^ thy people Israel,
"•whom thdu hast redeemed, and lay not innocent
" bloodi unto thy people of Israel's charge," (Deut. xxi.
8) : and the appointment of the Psalms of David as
the public forms, of praise and thanksgiving by Heze-
feiah, (2 Chron. xxix. 80.)' and again by Zerubbabel,
(Ezra iiL 10, 11.)

272 SERMON VI.
to establish the lawfulness of forms, to
mark his approbation of the previous prac
tice, as well as to encourage it for the fu
ture, he selected, clause by clause, and al
most verbatim, from prayers already in use
amongst the Jewsb.
The silence of the New Testament on
the subject of any forms employed by the
Apostles or their followers, is far from esta
blishing a proof of their disuse. We might
b " It is very observable that our Lord Christ him-
" self, when he recommended to his disciples, upon
" their desire, a prayer to be used by them, (that which
" we call the Lord's Prayer,) did not frame an entire-
" ly new prayer in words of his own conception, but
" took out of the ancient euchologies, or prayer-books
" of the Jews, what was good and laudable in them, and
" out of them composed that prayer. The very preface
" of the Lord's Prayer, Our Father which art in heaven,
" was the usual preface of the Jewish prayers; and all
" the following petitions are to be found almost in the
" very same words in their prayer-books. He that
" doubts of this, if he understands the learned lan-
" guages, may be satisfied by consulting Drusius and
" Capellus, in their notes upon the sixth chapter of St.
" Matthew, the ninth and following verses. And the
" reflection of the learned Grotius upon this is very re-
" markable ; So jar was the Lord himself of the Christian
" Church from all affectation of unnecessary novelty."
Bishop Bull's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 556, 557. second edit.

SERMON VI. 273
as reasonably conclude that they laid aside
the Lord's Prayer itself, or ceased to baptize
in the form of words expressly prescribed
by their divine Master, no subsequent men
tion being any where made of either.
If we proceed, however, to investigate
the practice of the primitive Church, we
find ample testimony in the writings of the
Fathers to the early and universal use, not
only of the Lord's Prayer, but of other
stated forms of public devotion ". There
c " Quae vera magis apud patrem precatio, quam qua?
" a filio, qui est Veritas, de ore prolata est?  Oremus
" itaque, fratres dilectissimi, sicut magister Deus do-
" cuit  Agnoscat pater filii sui verba, cum precem
" facimus. Qui habitat intus in pectore, ipse sit et in
" voce ; et cum ipsum habeamus apud patrem advoca-
" turn pro peccatis nostris, quando pecca tores pro de-
" lictis nostris petimus, advocati nostri verba proma-
" mus." Cyprian, de Oratione Dominica, edit. Baluzii,
p. 204. " Publica est nobis et communis oratio; et
" quando oramus, non pro uno, sed pro toto populo
" oramus, quia totus populus unum sumus." Ibid. p.
206. Origen plainly represents the Christians of his
time as using stated forms of prayer : Ta~ts Trpoo-Tayjielo-ais
Te etiyals cruve)(_eo-Tegov xa) BeoVrcoj vuxtos xa) r\jx.egas xpcipevoi.
Contra Celsum, lib. iv. edit. Spenceri. Cantab. (1677-)
p. 302. See the historical evidence for the early use
of set forms of prayer fully detailed in Bingham's An
tiquities of the Christian Church, book xiii. chap. 5.
T See

274 SERMON VI.
are besides yet extant several Liturgies of
very high antiquity, which, though cor
rupted during the intermediate ages, and
having no just claim to be considered as
the compositions of the Apostles whose
names they bear, are probably, in their
purer parts, the production of the apostolic
age, and may perhaps bear some resem
blance to the prayers employed by those
holy men during their personal ministry*1.
See also Dr. Scott on the use of Forms of Prayer, part
2. London Cases, p. 264 — 284 ; and" Bishop Bull's Ser
mons, vol. ii. serm. 13.
d Of these the Clementine Liturgy, preserved in the
Apostolical Constitutions, book viii. c. 12. is the most
ancient. Though it cannot be referred to St. Clement,
at least in its collective form, it is admitted to have been
compiled before the Council of Nice. See Brett's Dis
sertation on Ancient Liturgies, p. 24, 25. It has been
confidently maintained, that " if we had the very words
" in which St. Peter and St. Paul consecrated the Eu-
" charist, it would not differ in substance from that
" which is contained in this ancient Liturgy." Johnson's
Unbloody Sacrifice, part 2. The Liturgy attributed to
St. James is also of very high antiquity. St. Cyril, who
flourished about the year 350, wrote a comment upon
it. "That there are forms of worship in it as ancient
" as the Apostles, seems highly probable ; for, first,
" there is all that form, with a very small variation from
" ours, called Sursum corda, Lift up your hearts; we lift

SERMON VI. 275
They must at least be considered as afford
ing irrefragable proof of all that my argu
ment requires ; — that the use of stated
forms of prayer may be traced to the very
infancy of the Church, and that no doubt
of their lawfulness existed in the minds of
those, who, as they had the best means of
ascertaining what had been the practice
and opinion of their venerated predeces
sors, so we may be confidently assured,
" them up unto the Lord : it is meet and right so to do ;
" it is very meet, right, and our bounden duty to praise
" thee, &c. Therefore with angels and archangels, &c.
" all which is in St. Cyril's comment, which is a
" plain argument, that it was much ancienter than
"he." Dr. Scott; London Cases, p. 2«79. "The
" Liturgy of St. James is so called, not that it is be-
" lieved to have been written by that Apostle, but be-
" cause it was the ancient Liturgy of the Church of Je-
" rusalem, of which St. James, the brother of our Lord,
" was the first Bishop. And it bears his name, as being
" compiled and put into writing agreeable to that tra-
" ditional Liturgy, which had been used in that Church
" from the time of that Apostle. So that, though he
" cannot be called the writer, he may nevertheless be
" reputed the author of it; the main and principal parts
" being, no doubt, the same in sense, though not in
" words, with what were used by him when he cele-
" brated the holy Eucharist." Brett's Ancient Liturgies,
p. 272. See also Bingham's Antiquities, book xiii.
chap. 5 and 6.
T 2

276 SERMON VI.
would never wilfully and universally have
deviated from it.
Calvin himself, the daring author of ec
clesiastical innovation, so far from deeming
a form of prayer unlawful or inexpedient,
actually composed one for his followers",
and on a particular occasion thus expressed
his judgment on the subject ; " For so much
" as concerns the form of prayers and ec-
" clesiastical rites, I highly approve that
" it be fixed and certain, and that it be un-
" lawful for the ministers in the discharge
" of their office to vary from itf." In fact,
the Dissenters of our own country, in ab
solutely discarding every public form as a
relic of Papal superstition, are not coun
tenanced by any one even of the reformed
Churches, whether Lutheran or Calvinistic,
but stand opposed to the united verdict of
the Christian world.
The lawfulness of stated forms of wor-
e See Dr. Scott, London Cases, p. 283.
f " Quod ad formulam precum et rituum ecclesiasti-
" corum valde probo ut certa ilia extet, a qua pastoribus
" discedere in functione sua non liceat." Calvin. Epist.
87. (written to the Lord Protector in the reign of Ed
ward VI.)

SERMON VI. 277
ship being thus undeniable, it remains to
inquire briefly into their general expedi
ency, and more particularly to point out
the actual and important advantages which
we derive from our own admirable Liturgy,
in comparison with the alleged superiority
of those extemporaneous services which our
adversaries have adopted for themselves.
The chief advantage claimed by the ad
vocates of extemporary prayer is the unre
strained assistance of the Holy Spirit, whom
they conceive to inspire their minister with
appropriate language and holy fervour, in
offering up the devotions of his congrega
tion ; whereas in stated forms that divine
gift is altogether rejected, and prayer be
comes a cold and lifeless performance.
But, unquestionably, such a measure of
assistance, as is here supposed, is founded
on no promise of Scripture. The only pas
sages where prayer appears to be enume
rated among spiritual gifts, manifestly cou
ple it with those miraculous and temporary
communications of s the Spirit, which were
vouchsafed for the primary conversion of
s 1 Cor. chap. xii. and xiv.
T 3

278 SERMON VI.
the Gentiles; and to " pray with the spirit""
appears to be closely connected with that
gift of tongues, which St. Paul declared to
be " for a sign, not to them that believe, but
" to them that believe not1." To lay a
confident claim then in these days to the
possession of such a gift, must be in any,
even the most plausible case, an highly un
warrantable presumption; and it will not
surely be denied, that instances may some
times occur, where the extemporaneous
effusion is so marked by vain repetitions,
or confusion of thought, by indecorous ex
pressions, or even by heterodoxy and igno
rance, as to defy the most determined en
thusiast to recognize in it the suggestions
of the Spirit. Where then shall he look for
that infallible sign which may enable him,
in all cases, to distinguish genuine inspira
tion from its plausible counterfeit, and in
fallibly secure him from imposture and
delusion ?
But allowing that a sober and rational
expectation may be indulged of the divine
h 1 Cor. xiv. 15. See Hammond in loco.
' 1 Cor. xiv. 22.

SERMON VI. 279
assistance being sometimes accorded to
mankind in their addresses to the throne
of grace, it may be asked in the language
of an able writer, whom I have before had
occasion to quote, " whether we have not
" as much reason to think that the public
" prayers of the Church were suggested by
" that Spirit, as the prayers of any indivi-
" dual? Nay, whether it is not more pro-
" bable, that a company of learned and
" pious men, assembled for the purpose of
" composing a public Liturgy for the use
" of the Church, after having previously
" invoked the Divine assistance, should be
" favoured with* that assistance, rather than
" any particular person, who without pre-
" meditation or study, and ofttimes with-
" out any qualification for the work, takes
" upon himself to deliver an extemporary
" prayer k?"
But the advocates for extemporary prayer
farther urge, that their method is far more
efficacious in exciting the devout attention
of a congregation ; whereas the perpetual
repetition of the same form of words loses
k Daubeny's Guide to the Church, vol. i. p. 187.
T 4

280 SERMON VI.
its hold on the affections, and weakens de
votion, if it does not destroy it altogether.
Granting however, that a more fixed atten
tion may be thus excited, it may fairly be
suspected that it is too frequently the at
tention of curiosity rather than of devotion ;
— that the mind is almost of necessity
withdrawn from its proper employment,
from humble confession and heartfelt pe
nitence, from prayer and adoration and
thanksgiving, by the expectation of variety,
or the attractions of eloquence ' ; in short,
1 " Since the matter of public prayer is old, and for
" the main will be always so, why should it not as well
" affect us in old words as in new, provided they ex-
" pressed it with equal propriety and fitness ? But if it
" be merely the newness of the phrase it is expressed
" in, that fixes their minds, there is nothing in it but a
" mere surprise and amusement of their fancies, which,
" instead of fixing, does unfix their mind from the in-
" ternal acts of prayer, and diverts its attention from the
" devotion to the oratory of it ; so that this fixation of
" their minds on the novelty of the phrase and method
" of prayer, is so far from being an advantage, that it is
" a distraction to 'their devotion." Dr. Scott, London
Cases, p. 256, 257.
If the genuine spirit of devotional prayer be thus im
paired, and public prayer itself obviously assume in a
great degree the character of preaching, we may here
perhaps trace the origin of that propensity, so notorious

SERMON VI. 281
that the minister, whose proper office it is
to be the common voice of the whole con
gregation, and present their united petitions
at the footstool of Divine mercy, must be
considered rather as evincing his own fer
vour, and offering his own petitions, than
theirs. Again, it has been contended, that the
necessities of Christians being subject by
time and circumstance to infinite varia
tions, could never be foreseen or provided
against by the composers of a Liturgy, which
is unavoidably confined to general petitions
only. But it may be confidently replied,
that the fact, so far as concerns the case
before us, is notoriously otherwise ; that the
common wants of Christians are, and must
ever continue to be, in main points the
same. The same daily supply of their tem-
in modern sectaries, to consider preaching as the most
essential portion of divine service, whereas it is really
the least so. Without undervaluing the effects of preach
ing as a powerful means of grace, we may pronounce this
a dangerous delusion. The Holy Spirit is promised to
those who ask it ; but we read of those who are hearers
of the word and not doers of it. See some good re
marks on this error in Daubeny's Guide to the Church,
vol. i. p. 200—205.

282 SERMON VI.
poral necessities, the same pardon of sins
and peace of conscience, the same grace to
support them in temptations and trials, the
same protection here and salvation here
after, must constitute the leading objects of
prayer to every Christian society in every
age- Moreover, it is not the province of public
prayers to descend to those particular in
stances which belong to the closet only ; —
they are the prayers of the whole congre
gation ; — they ought not to confess sin in
those specific aggravations, which can ap
ply but to individual cases ; — they ought
not, as a general rule at least, to offer
either petitions or thanksgivings for any
blessings but those in which all may be pre
sumed to have, more or less, a common
interest m. It will not of course be denied,
but that occasions may sometimes arise,
against which a Liturgy had not provided ;
but it is obvious that the same ecclesias
tical authority which promulgated the Li
turgy itself, may provide a form also for
the new emergency.
m See Dr. Scott, London Cases, p. 263.

SERMON VI. 283
The employment of a public form of
prayer, however, is attended with advan
tages peculiar to itself, and supplies a re
medy for several positive evils inseparably
attendant on extemporary worship. Among
the most conspicuous of these advantages
is that of being previously acquainted with
the prayer which is to be used. It may
fairly be questioned indeed, whether it be
even possible to join in a public prayer
under any other circumstances ; whether
the mind, engaged as it must be in attend
ing and assenting to what is uttered, must
not be altogether incapacitated for imme
diate devotion; whether the slightest oc
currence of interruption, or of those ob
scurities peculiarly incidental to unpreme
ditated effusions, must not hopelessly baffle
the most willing worshipper.
Besides, a conscientious man may rea
sonably pause ere he engage heartily in
a prayer, until he knows what is prayed.
What shall infallibly exempt it from the
errors of ignorance or inadvertence ? what
from irreverence of language, or unsound-

284 SERMON VI.
ness of doctrine"? and how, in the midst of
such irresolution and suspense, shall his pi
ous affections flow in that even and unin
terrupted current, which is essential to the
exercise of pure devotion ? But when by
the aid of an established Liturgy, like our
own, we offer up our petitions in a form
with which we have an intimate acquaint
ance, and which we thoroughly approve, we
n " To him which considereth the grievous and scan-
" dalous inconveniences, whereunto they make them-
" selves daily subject, with whom any blind and secret
" corner is judged a fit house of common prayer; the
" manifold confusions which they fall into, where every
" man's private spirit and gift (as they term it) is the
" only Bishop that ordaineth him to his ministry; the
" irksome deformities whereby, through endless and
" senseless effusions of indigested prayers, they often-
" times disgrace in most unsufferable manner the wor-
" thiest part of Christian duty towards God, who herein
" are subject to no certain order, but pray both what
" and how they list ; to him, I say, which weigheth duly
" all these things, the reasons cannot be obscure why
" God doth in public prayer so much respect the so-
" lemnity of places where, the authority and calling of
" persons by whom, and the precise appointment, even
" with what words or sentences, his name should be
" called on amongst his people." Hooker's Ecclesiastical
Polity, book v. ch. 25. octavo edit. vol. ii. p. 107.

SERMON VI. 285
may confidently yield every faculty of the
soul to the devout employment ; we may
" ask in faith, nothing wavering0," and
" with one mind and one mouth glorify
"Godp." Another advantage, and that of the very
highest importance, derivable from a stated
form of worship, is the preservation of sound
doctrine. With no authorized guide to the
acknowledged difficulties of those Scrip
tures, to which every sect can alike resort
for a supposed confirmation of its wildest
extravagancies, and with no competent se
curity against the ignorance or heterodoxy q

° James i. 6. P Rom. xv. 6.
9 " Heterodoxies, false doctrines, yea and heresies,
" may be propagated by prayer as well as by preaching,
" and by the former perhaps more effectually than by
" the latter. For when poor ignorant people shall hear
" their minister venting .a notion in his address to Al-
" mighty God, they will be apt to conclude, and not
" without reason, that he is fully assured of the truth of
" it, yea, that he hath very good grounds for it, or else he
" would not dare to utter it to the face of God himself.
" And thus the confidence of the minister easily at first
" begets in the simple hearer a good opinion of it, which
" by degrees grows to a stedfast belief and persuasion."
Bishop Bull's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 562, 563.

286 SERMON VI.
of his minister, the faith of the unlettered
Dissenter lies, as it were, at the mercy of
an extemporaneous, and perhaps unpreme
ditated and ill-digested discourse.
The Liturgies of the primitive times were
carefully composed with a view to an esta
blished security against every heretical per
version of the genuine doctrines of Chris
tianity. Our own, framed after the model
of those venerable forms, and still probably
retaining in its composition sentences con
secrated by the lips1" of the Saints and Mar
tyrs of the apostolic age, is perhaps inferior
to none of them in securing the same im
portant point. Can we hesitate to believe,
that, in its Creeds of primitive authority, in
its repeated Doxologies to the ever blessed
Trinity, in its constant reference to the
atoning merits of the Saviour of the world,
it comprehends within itself a body of faith,
as plain and intelligible as it is pure and
sound; and that firm barrier against the
assaults of irreligion and heresy, to which,
under the superintending care of a gracious
Providence, we owe at this day the yet un-
r See note '', p. 274.

SERMON VI. 287
impaired enjoyment of the clear light of
Gospel s truth ?
In enumerating the advantages which we
derive from the appointed forms of our
Church, it is impossible altogether to omit
the mention of those which arise from the
regular recurrence of her fasts and festivals.
By these judicious institutions she directs
the piety of her members in due succession
to all the grand and interesting subjects of
the Gospel ; some of which, without such
an assistance, might never be revived in our
recollections at all. This is an advantage
from which the Dissenters, through an un
happy consistency with the system which
they have adopted, are wholly excluded.
" But the Church," it has been well said,
" spends its year with Jesus Christ, and
" follows him in faith through all the great
" works of his mediatorial office, from his
" advent to the sending down of the Holy
" Ghost on the day of Pentecost'."
I do not feel myself concerned to reply
to the minute exceptions which have been
s See Bishop Bull's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 563, 564.
1 Essay on the Church ; Scholar Armed, vol. ii. p. 24.

288 SERMON VI.
taken against particular expressions u and
a The following admirable answer to a very common
cavil of this description, may not perhaps be unaccept
able. " Some are offended with our praying against
" sudden death. But why should we not by sudden
" death understand our being taken out of this world
" when we are not fit to die ? For sometimes a thing is
*' said to be sudden to us when we are not prepared for
" it. And in this sense can any good Christian find fault
" with the petition ? But suppose that by sudden death
" we mean what is commonly understood by it, that is, a
" death of which a man has not the least warning by
" sickness ; are there not reasons why even good men
" may not desire to die suddenly ? May they not, when
" they find themselves drawing towards their end, by
" their good instructions and admonitions, make im-
" pressions upon their friends, companions, and rela-
" tions, to the bettering of them ? May not their counsels
" be more effectual with them than ever they were be-
" fore ? And is it not reasonable to believe that they will
" be so ? As for themselves, may not the warning they
" have of approaching death be improved to make them
" more fit to die than they were in their perfect health ?
" In a word, he that thinks himself to have sufficiently
" perfected holiness in the fear of God, and not to stand
" in need of those acts of self-examination, humiliation,
" and devotion, by which good men improve the warn-
" ing of death, which mortal sickness or extreme age
" gives them, let him suspend his act, and refuse to join
" with us, when we pray God to deliver -us from sudden
" death." Dr. Claget, Answer to the Dissenters' Objec
tions against the Common Prayer ; London Cases, p. 295,
296.

SERMON VI. 289
passages of our Liturgy, Whether well
founded or not, they can have no material
effect on the present discussion. Imperfec
tions are of course presumed to exist in
every production of fallible man. But this
I would decisively observe, that if schism
be an offence which we have the highest
authority for classing with crimes of the
deepest die ; — and if it be not, the Scrip
tures should be carefully revised, and the
Church be taught to renounce the cherish
ed error of eighteen centuries ; — whilst, on
the other hand, the observances to which
conformity is required, being in themselves
matters of comparative indifference, derive
whatever consequence they possess, from
the lawful power which appoints them ; —
flagrant must be the abuses, and gross the
corruptions, which could in any degree
justify the decisive and hazardous measure
of wilful separation. I would maintain, that
even were the case altogether reversed ; —
were every advantage which I have shewn to
attend the forms of our Church, to be found
in the practice of the conventicle, and all
the inconveniences of extemporaneous wor-
P

290 SERMON VI.
ship confined to ourselves alone ; yet still
the result of the argument would be in the
main the same. For how can it consist
with the plainest maxims of prudence and
discretion, to balance a few insignificant
observances, which concern not the salva
tion of the soul, with a sin that notoriously
endangers it ?
Excellent indeed must be the Church
whose institutions are incapable of amend
ment ; sadly corrupt must be that Church
where the sincere and humble Christian
may not securely and effectually " work out
" his own salvation"." Shall it be Can
't " Is there, or will there ever be, any government in
" the Church, so well framed and built, but some cu-
" rious surveyor can spy out some disproportion or ill
" shape, especially if assisted by ill-nature, emulation,
" the spirit of pride and contention, which is ever quick-
" sighted abroad and blind at home ? The difficulty of
" knowing what is utmost perfection and absolute- pu-
" rity of administrations, (which till attained, these men
" think they are not to rest in any Church,) should
" make them judge candidly, interpret fairly, and com-
" ply with every thing that is not sinful, to preserve
" peace and love. When men in the English Church
" are plainly taught to believe well, to live well, and to
" die well, and have good and proper offices to serve
" these great purposes, in order to their salvation, what

SERMON VI. 291
ceived, then, that men compromise their
eternal interests by conforming to that
pure and apostolical Church, and that sub
lime and primitive Liturgy, for which our
martyred Reformers were content to sacri
fice their lives ?
A complete removal of every difference
of opinion, in all that relates to the less
important doctrines and institutions of a
Church, is, under the present constitution
of our nature, as we all know, impossible;
but a quiet submission to authority, and a
peaceful communion with each other, not
withstanding such differences, is not only
possible, but our bounden and positive
" can they desire more ? To be better or more saved, we
" know not what it means. To leave such a commu-
" nion upon such an account, proceeds from peevish-
" ness, uncharitableness, or some ill principle ; and is
" downright schism, if ever there was schism in the
"world. Bring but an honest, sincere, and teachable
" mind, and it will find improvement and advantage in
" offices and administrations, fuller of spots and ble-
" mishes far, than they can pretend to find in the Eng-
" lish Church ; but if the mind be biassed by a party, or
" corrupted by designs, if its palate be vitiated, the best
" food is coarse and insipid to it." Dr. Hascard, Dis
course of Edification ; London Cases, p. 463.
u2

292 SERMON VI.
duty. " If in any thing ye be otherwise
" minded," says St. Paul, " God shall re-
" veal even this unto you. Nevertheless,
" whereto we have already attained, let
" us walk by the same rule, let us mind
" the same thing 7." How else can we
testify our love of peace and union, or
escape the imputation of that " pride" by
which " cometh contention z?" How else
can we be fairly said to avoid " doubt-
" ful disputations3," and to do nothing
" through strife or vainglory b?" By what
other course can we evince our claim to
those graces so preeminently Christian, so
conspicuously classed amongst the " fruits
" of the Spirit," " gentleness, meekness,
y Philip, iii. 15, 16. " This last clause, let us mind
" the same thing, is in the sense of the original, let us
" be unanimous, as Bishop Stillingfleet has shewn, (Un-
" reasonableness of Separation, part 2. section 19;) and
" he has at the same place largely shewn, that this ad-
" vice of the Apostle is intended for this very purpose
"to which I have here applied it, namely,' that such a
" man as we are here speaking of, should continue in
" communion, and conform to all that he can, and omit
" the saying Amen to what he judges a mistake." Wall's
Hist, of Infant Baptism, vol. ii. p. 420, 4th edit.
z Prov. xiii. 10. a Rom. xiv. 1. b Philip, ii. 3.

SERMON VI. 293
" long-suffering <= ?." Where, in fine, will be
the traces of that heavenly " charity," which
is superior to all " mysteries and all know-
" ledge," which " vaunteth not itself, is
" not puffed up, doth not behave itself
" unseemly," which, rather than furnish
occasion for offence or confusion or dis
union, to the utmost verge of its Chris
tian liberty, " beareth and endureth all
" thingsd?" To adopt the language of a most emi
nent ornament of our Church, " It is bet-
" ter to be humble than to be a prophet ;
" it is better to be righteous, than to have
" the faith of miracles ; and it is better to
" be holy than to have the gift of tongues.
" But to be peaceable, and love union, is
" as great a grace as to be humble, right-
" eous, and holy ; nay, as to be pure and
"temperate; — for it is equalled with all
" those and many other of the prime
" graces in the New Testament; it is reck-
" oned, with many of them, among the
" fruits of the Spirit ; and the fruits of the
c Gal. v. 22, 23. d 1 Cor. xiii. 2—7.
U 3

294 SERMON VI.
" Spirit are better and more desirable than
" the gifts thereofe."
e Hickes's Posthumous Discourses, sermon vii.

SERMON VII.

John xviii. 36.
My kingdom is not of this world.
1 HE intimate union generally subsisting
throughout the Christian world between the
ecclesiastical and civil powers, so greatly
to their mutual advantage where it is con
ducted with discretion, has nevertheless
sometimes given occasion to the most er
roneous ideas of the nature of Christ's spi
ritual kingdom, and the extent of its au
thority. In ages more favourable than the
present to the machinations of priestcraft
and the delusions of superstition, it led to
the undue, and not unfrequently the mis
chievous, influence of spiritual men over af
fairs purely temporal. And now by a re
action, as natural perhaps, as it is excessive
and prejudicial, it has tended to a corre
sponding subjection of ecclesiastical au
thority to the powers of the world, until the

296 SERMON VII.
original independence of the Church of
Christ is in a great measure forgotten, and
her claims to respect and obedience and
conformity, if admitted at all, are admitted
rather as those of a national and political
establishment, than of a society of divine
institution. That errors of this description are emi
nently hostile to the general welfare of the
Church, and more particularly to the cause
of Christian unity, and the efficacious and
salutary exercise of ecclesiastical discipline,
is sufficiently evident. Under their influ
ence, the sincerest friends to the Church
lose the better portion of their motives to
communion, and conform from those mo
tives only, or chiefly, which would fail
them on the first occurrence of civil revo
lution affecting her outward polity ; whilst
the schismatic loses all sense of his offence,
and practically confounds political tolera
tion with full religious liberty. Under their
influence, the statesman habitually and un
consciously invades the province of the
ecclesiastic, and the ecclesiastic as uncon
sciously surrenders his dormant privileges,

SERMON VII. 297
till discipline is abandoned as impractica
ble, from the declension of the authority
which should enforce it, and the once aw
ful sentence of censure and excommunica
tion has become an obsolete tradition ; not
surely from the absence of all occasion for
its exercise, not surely from the improved
state of spiritual subordination, or the ex
tinction of heretical tenets, but from this
plain Cause, amongst others which might be
named, that in our reformed and protest-
ant community the censures of a pure and
apostolical Church, unsupported by civil
penalties, would incur the public con
tempt, as certainly and almost as gene
rally, as the vain fulminations of Papal dis
pleasure. I. The fluctuations of human opinion
affect not the immoveable stability of truth
and fact. The essential distinctness of the
ecclesiastical and civil" powers is a truth of
equal certainty, and at least equal import
ance, as if men had never learnt to ques
tion it; and as if their long established
union, and the habitual submission of the
one to the other, in those points which to

298 SERMON VII.
vulgar apprehension the most conspicuous
ly mark superiority and prerogative, had
never furnished a natural origin, as well as
a plausible apology, for the error. And the
fact of their separate and independent ex
istence for the space of three successive
centuries, might perhaps be deemed suffi
ciently illustrative of this truth ; though a
consideration of the respective natures and
ends of each, is calculated to prove it still
more decisively.
The spiritual authority of the Church,
and the secular power of the State, have
been aptly compared to two parallel lines ;
— if carefully restrained within their ap
pointed courses, they cannot interfere. They
are distinct in their sphere of action, in the
objects which they have respectively in
view, and in the means which they employ
for their attainment The one is concerned
for the souls of men, the other for their
bodies. The one regards those blessings
and graces which may secure their salva
tion in a future state ; the other, the pro
tection of their persons and properties,
and whatever else may tend to their well-

SERMON VII. 299
being in the life which now is. The one
disclaims all coercive power, and enforces
its laws but by those censures for the pre
sent, and denunciations for the future,
which can influence the conduct of men by
their faith alone ; — the other compels obedi
ence by temporal penalties, sensibly affect
ing their outward circumstances8. Hence

a " That civil and religious societies are essent
" different, is evident from their having different ends
" and means ; the ultimate end of one being the care of
" souls, and that of the other of bodies ; and the means
" of the one being by external actions, and that of the
" other by internal." Bishop Warburton, Alliance of
Church and State, p. 65. third edit. " The rights
" which this power (the ecclesiastical) is designed to
" secure, are of quite a different sort from our civil
" rights and liberties. They are such as Greeks and
" Barbarians, bond and free, they who have civil rights,
tc and they who have none, are all alike capable of enjoy-
" ing; — for all of them are one and the same in Christ
"Jesus. (Gal. iii. 28. Col. iii. 11.) The rewards and
" punishments whereby this power enforceth its laws,
" are chiefly spiritual and future, and such as in this life
" can only influence men by means of their faith ;
" whereas those which proceed from the civil power, if
" they do not reach us in this life, cannot affect us at
" all. Lastly, the laws enacted by this power, though
" they are the greatest security to the civil government
" which can possibly be devised, are very different from
" the laws which are there in force ; these latter being

300 SERMON VII.
it is evident, that the selfsame criminal
might receive absolution, on his repent
ance, from the Church, though his life were
forfeited to the offended State; and on the
other hand, might be acquitted or pardon
ed by the State, yet incur the severest cen
sures of the Church; whilst at the same
time these two independent authorities,
thus differing in their judgment respecting
the same individual, might each carry into
the fullest execution its own peculiar sen
tence, without interfering in the remotest
degree with the proceedings of the b other.
The persecutions with which the civil
power assailed the Church during the pri
mitive ages, if rightly considered, offer no
contradiction to this reasoning. They
were not the efforts of the State to restrain
the encroachments of a dangerous rival,
but of idolatry taking advantage of the
power of the State for its own peculiar
" designed to maintain the outward peace and prospe-
" rity of the world, whereas the end of the former is to
" promote our everlasting happiness." Archbishop Pot
ter, Discourse of Church Government, p. 22.
b See Leslie's Case of the Regale and of the Pontifi
cate; Works, vol. i. p. 608.

SERMON VII. 301
ends. Political hostility, strictly so called,
could not consistently assail those who were
beyond example eminent for political sub
mission. If it can in any degree be consi
dered to have done so, it can only be attri
buted to the temporary, and assuredly un
necessary, implication of civil policy with
the cause of Paganism.
As little can the contests between the
ecclesiastical and civil powers, which dis
turbed the middle ages, be considered as
demonstrative of their inherent rivalry. If
emperors and kings sometimes invaded the
spiritual privileges of the Church, and the
Church still more frequently interfered with
the authority of the temporal prince ; — if
ecclesiastics refused to contribute, in com
mon with their fellow subjects, to the exi
gencies of his government, and the Pope
assumed the right of deposing him from
his temporal sovereignty, to such unwar
rantable encroachments alone can we in
fairness attribute the confusions which en
sued. When Pilate had received the declaration
of the blessed Jesus, that his "kingdom" was

302 SERMON VII.
" not of this world," he candidly acknow
ledged, " I find no fault in him at all0;" —
in spite of the malicious insinuations of the
Jews, and his own timidity and weakness,
his better judgment was manifestly con
vinced that he might thus " make himself
" a king," and yet not " speak against Cae-
" sard." " Our blessed Saviour," says the
ingenious Leslie, " in his allwise provi-
" dence, foreseeing the consequences on
" both sides, as he set up his Church in-
" dependent of all the powers upon the
" earth, so he gave her no authority that
" could possibly interfere with the civil
" powers. He altered nothing of the civil
" powers, but left them as he found them ;
" he gave to Csesar all that was Caesar's;
" — but the things of God, and the ad-
" ministration of the spiritual kingdom of
" heaven upon earth, that he left in the
" hands of his Church, and accountable to
" none but himself6."
Of this utter renunciation by the Church
of all civil and coercive power, the conduct
p John xviii. 38. d John xix. 12.
* Leslie's Case of the Regale &c. Works, vol i. p. 609.

SERMON VII. 303
of our Saviour on other occasions is strik
ingly illustrative. When requested by an
individual to restrain for him the injustice
of his brother, his reply was, "Man, who
" made me a judge or a divider over you f ?"
When giving directions for the treatment
of an obstinate offender, who should " neg-
" lect to hear the Church," and, in fact,
when establishing the right of excommuni
cation, the point on which perhaps the in
herent privileges of the Church make the
nearest approaches to coercive power, he
appointed nothing analogous to civil penal
ty, but merely that he should be considered
" as an heathen man and a publican5."
It must indeed be obvious, that this sys
tematic rejection of every claim to enforce
obedience by the ordinary methods of civil
compulsion, is the main foundation of that
natural independence on the powers of the
world, which is asserted for the Church, or
rather, perhaps, that it is the only principle
which fully vindicates it from the objection
which has been so frequently urged against
i Luke xii. 14. s Matth. xviii. 17 .

304 SERMON VII.
it, of creating that political anomaly, the im-
perium in imperio; for it will readily be con
ceded, that if such were really the fact, if a
government of rival pretensions were really
set up within the limits of another, the con
test thence resulting could find no satisfac
tory or peaceful termination but in the sub
mission of the weaker party.
On this point Bishop Warburton, though
not altogether a safe guide in ecclesiastical
matters, argues with great force and justice.
Speaking of what he calls "the two great
" essential characters of a religious society,
" its independency and its disclaim of coercive
" power," he adds, "it is worth observ-
" ing, that the arguments we have employ-
" ed to prove each of these characters be-
" longing to it, are strongly enforced by
" the necessary connexion there is between
" them. For admit the religious society to
" be independent, and you invincibly de-
" stroy all pretence to coercive power: be-
" cause coercive power introduces an Im-
" perlum In imperio, which is removed only
" by destroying the independency. Admit
" again that the religious society has no co-

SERMON VII. 305
" erclve power, and you supersede all the
" State's claim of dependency ; a claim
" solely founded on the evil of an imperium
" in imperio, which evil can arise no other-
" wise than by the Church's exercise of an
" inherent coercive power h."
If it be argued, that the Church is evi
dently in possession of certain privileges
which require the safeguard of coercive
power, and that she does in fact exercise it
for their security, it may be replied, that
these privileges, as well as the power to se
cure them, are solely derived from her union
with the State, and that in the event of a
dissolution of that connexion they would be
lost to her at once. We are not however
to believe, that under such deprivation she
would become altogether weak and de
fenceless, and wholly incompetent to fulfil
the purposes of her appointment. Relin
quishing what was merely adventitious, she
would still retain all that spiritual authority
over her own members, which her divine
Master had bestowed upon her, and which
b Warburton's Alliance, p. 78, 79.
x

306 SERMON VII.
the records of the primitive ages may, de
cidedly convince us are all that is absolutely
essential to her preservation as a well regu
lated society \
Neither is it to be imagined that, in the
legitimate exercise of this authority, she
could possibly afford any reasonable cause
of jealousy to the civil magistrate. How
ever incompatible may be the service of
God and Mammon, so far from there ex
isting any inconsistency in being at once
the faithful servants of Christ, and the
loyal subjects of our temporal rulers, the
rebellious subject is at the same time the
disobedient Christian ; and it is not to be

1 "What hath made some well meaning men appre-
" hend sad consequences from the Church's being left
" without the guard of coercive power, is their seeing it
" stand possessed of some advantages, by them supposed
" essential to a Church, which coercive power only can
" secure. But these may be eased of their apprehen-
" sions by being told, that those advantages are only ad-
" ventitious, and bestowed upon it by the State in con-
" sequence of an union ; and as the State granted these,
" it granted coercive power likewise to defend them ; and
" that when the union is dissolved, they both fall toge-
" ther, without any essential damage to the Church, as a
" religious society." Warburton's Alliance, p. 77? 78.

SERMON VII. 307
conceived that the proud masters of the an
cient world could any where have discover
ed more unshaken loyalty, or more cheer
ful obedience, than in those who professed
and practised submission to "the powers
" that be," " not only for wrath, but also
" for conscience sakek;" whom neverthe
less, with a policy no less preposterous than
it was barbarous and inhuman, they con
tinued to persecute and destroy.
II. It is not however necessary to con
clude from this natural independence of the
Church on the civil powers, and her inhe
rent competency to her own support, that
she was for ever to remain in the same se
parate condition in which she was origi
nally left by our Saviour and his Apostles.
When the rage of persecution had ceased,
and the rulers of the world, themselves con
verted to the faith, evinced a disposition to
protect and honour her, it would be diffi
cult to have assigned any plausible reason
for her absolutely refusing that protection,
and despising that honour. So to have in
terpreted the declaration of Christ, that his
k Rom. xiii. 5.
X 2

308 SERMON VII.
" kingdom was not of this world," would
have been consistent with nothing but the
most senseless fanaticism, and in truth
would very materially have impeded the
extension of his kingdom among men.
Though not of the world, it was at least in
it, and established in it for its conversion
and salvation ; objects far more likely to be
attained by conciliation and friendly inter
course, than by maintaining the proud dis
tance of continued separation.
The prophetic intimations of her destined
greatness, were calculated to give her a far
different impression of the course which it
became her to pursue. She could not but
anticipate the day, when " kings" should be
her " nursing fathers," " and their queens"
her " nursing mothers1;" — when "the Gen-
" tiles" should " come to" her "light, and
" kings to the brightness of" her " rising10."
And when the actual arrival of that auspi
cious era opened to her the prospect of
establishing an harmonious union between
the ordinances of man and the institutions
of Christ, for their mutual and more effec-
1 Isaiah xlix. 23. m Isaiah lx. 3.

SERMON VII. 309
tive sanction and support, she could scarce
ly have hesitated either as to the lawfulness
or the expediency of the projected alliance,
fortified as she must have been by the re
collection of that intimate union between
the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, which
had for ages subsisted in the Jewish state
by the especial appointment of Heaven.
In fact, when once Christianity had so
far prevailed, as to become on the whole
the popular religion, the same individuals
would for the most part compose the bulk
both of the Church and the State. Be
tween two societies so constituted, mutual
good- will would be inevitable; and a dispo
sition to unite their interests, besides being
natural in itself, would be encouraged by
the sure prospect of the highest advantage
to both the contracting parties.
In the first place, the State could not fail
to discover abundant motives for endea
vouring to secure to itself so useful an ally.
It could possess no security for the loyalty
of its subjects equally efficacious with the
general diffusion of religious principle ; and
of all religions Christianity is the most fa-
x 3

310 SERMON VII.
vourable to the cause of civil government,
declaring it to be " ordained of Godn," and
placing the obligations to obedience on the
only foundation which could permanently
resist the natural love of innovation, and the
fluctuating notions of political expediency.
Again, there are various crimes of the
most pernicious tendency to human so
ciety, which lie in a great measure be
yond the reach of temporal penalties; which
do not manifest themselves in those out
ward and notorious acts, of which the civil
magistrate can regularly and usefully take
cognizance, but may still come within the
effectual control of a spiritual tribunal °.
n Rom. xiii. 1.
° " The State punisheth deviations from the rule of
" right, as crimes only ; and not as such deviations, or as
" sins; and on that first idea -proportions its punish-
" ments ; by which means some very enormous devia-
" tions from the rule of right, which do not immediately
" affect society, and so are not considered as crimes, are
" overlooked by the civil tribunal. Yet these being me-
" diately highly pernicious to the State, it is for its in-
" terests that they should be brought before some capa-
" ble tribunal. But besides the civil, there is no other
" than the ecclesiastical endowed with coactive power.
" Hence may be deduced the true and only end and use
" of spiritual courts." Warburton's Alliance, p. 100, 101.

SERMON VII. 311
Besides, every government, which is duly
solicitous for the welfare of its subjects, or
which is even selfishly interested for its own
security, will direct its endeavours rather to
the prevention of offences than to their
punishment ; though it is at the same time
evident that, in its separate and unassisted
capacity, it is most incompetent to the
purpose. It may punish the external act,
but of the depraved motive, the true source
of that act, it can seldom presume to form
a judgment, much less interfere for its cor
rection. But Christianity is a religion of
motives. It not only measures the hein-
ousness of the external action by the mo
tive which induced it, but imposing its
powerful restraint on the motive itself, en
deavours to anticipate that actual perpe
tration by which the peace of society is
disturbed. It suppresses fraud and rapine
in the primary inclination to envy and co-
vetousness ; — licentious irregularities, in the
dawning indications of vicious propensity ;
— violence aud bloodshed, in the first mo
tions of malice and resentment ; — and lays
the axe to the very root of rebellion and
X 4

312 SERMON VII.
treason, by cutting off the unruliness of
pride, and checking the earliest growth of
inordinate ambitionp.
Of this the civil magistrate could not fail
to be duly sensible. Can it surprise us
then that he should be anxious to engage
more decidedly in his interest a coadjutor
so effective, that he should be eager to ex
tend to the Church his protection and sup
port, to raise her to honour and respect,
and bestow on her whatever else might
promote the extension of an influence so
eminently beneficial to himself?
P " A politic use of religion  there is  Men
" fearing God are thereby a great deal more effectually
" than by positive laws restrained from doing evil, inas-
" much as those laws have no further power than over
" our outward actions only; whereas unto men's inward
" cogitations, unto the privy intents and motions of
" their hearts, religion serveth for a bridle. What more
" savage, wild, and cruel than man, if he see himself
" able either by fraud to overreach, or by power to over-
" bear, the laws whereunto he should be subject ?
" Wherefore in so great boldness to offend, it behoveth
" that the world should be held in awe, not by a vain
" surmise, but by a true apprehension of somewhat
" which no man may think himself able to withstand.
" This is the politic use of religion." Hooker's Eccle
siastical Polity, book v. sect. 2. vol. ii. p. 15, 16. 8vo ed.

SERMON VII. 313
On the other hand, the benefits which
the Church might derive from an intimate
union with the civil power, were such as to
supply her with the most reasonable in
ducement to accept these offers of friend
ship and alliance. For setting aside the
interested views of mere worldly advantage,
which might form the inducement of many
among her individual members, and which
ought not to enter into the calculation,
there were objects which she might hope
to secure by this alliance, to which, as a
society appointed for the express purpose
of diffusing far and near the saving know
ledge of the Gospel of Christ, and consci
entiously and steadfastly keeping before her
eyes the momentous ends of her appoint
ment, she could not possibly be indiffe
rent. {¦ Could she be indifferent to a connexion
which should protect her from external vio
lence, and at once exempt her from every
apprehension of those cruel persecutions
which had hitherto confined her numbers,
and effectually restrained her progress
among the irresolute and weak? Could

314 SERMON VII.
she be insensible to the advantages of an
established and competent maintenance,
which should raise her above the uncer
tainties of caprice, and permanently secure
a regularly ordained ministry, and with it
the pure light of evangelical truth to every
individual within the remotest limits of her
jurisdiction ? Could she reject as unim
portant that additional sanction which the
civil magistrate was disposed to give to her
authority, which would thenceforth mark
the conduct of the refractory with the guilt
of twofold disobedience, and expose them
at once to civil penalty and ecclesiastical
censure ? Was she even bound (as some
have been disposed to argue) to refuse, as
unlawful or inexpedient, the wealth, the
secular dignity, and the political authority
with which the piety or the policy of princes
has not unfrequently invested her superior
members ;^in a world where influence is
closely attendant on wealth, and respect on
dignity of station ; — in a world, too, where
respect and influence, if applied with due
discretion, can be deemed no despicable
auxiliaries even in the propagation and

SERMON VII. 315
maintenance of religion itself? Is there, in
short, any law, divine or human, which
should confine her ministers to the se
condary and inferior ranks of life, and by
consequence not only preclude them from
some of the fairest occasions of commend
ing to the favour of the temporal powers,
and otherwise effectually promoting her
genuine interests, but deprive the superior
classes of society of every beneficial inter
course with spiritual directors, whom they
could personally respect, and thus convert
the highest boast of the Gospel of Christ
into its most obvious defect, by making it
too literally and too exclusively " good
" tidings to the poor ?"
That it was decidedly the will of Heaven,
that the Church should in due season reap
the benefit of civil protection and support,
and form an intimate connexion with the
State for that desirable purpose, may be fur
ther argued from the apparent impossibility
(so far as past experience can be depended
on) of her ever, under any other circum
stances, possessing that general influence,
and extending to a whole people that equal

316 SERMON VII.
and permanent participation of religious ad
vantages, which must have been graciously
intended by her divine Founder, and unit
ing them in those common bonds of faith
and worship, which are essential to that
blessed unity which is her scriptural cha
racteristic. — Leagued with the temporal
power of imperial Rome, even the absurd
ities of Paganism maintained a struggle of
three centuries against all the purity of
primitive Christianity, and all the zeal of
her saints and martyrs. Finally adopted
and encouraged by the same power, the
Church of Christ was soon enabled to ef
face every vestige of lingering idolatry. —
Again, in the case of an eminent repub
lic of modern date, abandoned to her own
resources, though riot persecuted by the
civil power, the genuine apostolical Church
of Christ has succeeded in attaching to her
communion comparatively but a remnant,
whilst the bulk of the population, left to
their own discretion both in faith and prac
tice, have wandered, as might be expected,
to the remotest extremes of error, and ex
hibit but little medium between sectarian

SERMON VII. 317
fanaticism and the most barbarous irreli-
gion q.
i " The General Government has no power to inter-
" fere with or regulate the religion of the Union, and
" the States generally have not legislated further than
" to incorporate with certain restrictions such religious
" bodies as have applied for charter. In consequence of
" this entire indifference on the part of the State-govern-
" ments, full one third of our whole population are desti-
" tute of all religious ordinances, and a much greater pro-
" portion in our southern and western districts." Bris-
ted's America and her Resources, chap. vii. p. 408. London
edit. 1818. " Sanctuary they have none. They lose
" by degrees their anxiety for the institutions of Christ.
" Their feeble substitutes, their small social meetings,
" without the ' ministers of grace,' soon die away. Their
" sabbaths are Pagan. Their children grow up in igno-
" ranee, in unbelief, and in vice. Their land, which
" smiles around them like the garden of God, presents an
" unbroken scene of spiritual desolation. In the course
" of one or two generations, the knowledge of God is al-
" most obliterated; the name of Jesus is a foreign sound,
" his salvation an occult science ; and while plenty
" crowns their board, and health invigorates their bodies,
" the bread of life blesses not their table ; and moral
" pestilence is sweeping their souls unto death 
" We have already a population of some millions of our
" own colour, flesh, and blood, nearly as destitute of
" evangelical mercies as the savage who yells on the.
" banks of the Missouri." Dr. Mason's Plea for Ca
tholic Communion, p. 388. "There are however
" some sectaries even here with more of enthusiasm than
" good temper ; but their zeal finds sufficient vent in

318 SERMON VII.
Viewed in this light, it would be difficult
to appreciate too highly the benefits of a
well regulated alliance between the ecclesi
astical and civil powers ; and we may be
fairly justified in concluding, that the true
principles of that alliance must have been
grossly misunderstood at its original forma
tion, or the neglect of them in subsequent
practice been more than ordinarily flagrant,
which could wholly overthrow such im
portant advantages.
That errors of this description have
been too frequently, I fear I may say usu
ally, incurred, and, though they may not
have altogether destroyed, yet have in a
greater or less degree impaired the bene
ficial effects of ecclesiastical establishments,
will scarcely be denied. They have been
incurred too, like most other human errors,
by a deviation from the direct path of pru-
" loud preaching and praying. The Court-house is used
" by all persuasions indifferently as a place of worship;
" any acknowledged preacher who announces himself
" for a Sunday or other day, may always collect an audi-
" ence, and rave or reason as he sees meet." Birkbeck's
Letters from Illinois, p. 21.

SERMON VIL 319
dence and discretion into two extremes of
opposite character and tendency, — both
perhaps equally at variance with our bless
ed Saviour's solemn declaration, that his
" kingdom was not of this world."
The first is that of those who would
claim for the Church, in virtue of a divine
and inherent right, all those powers and
dignities and emoluments which she is
found to enjoy under the most favoured
establishment, and who would even arro
gate to the hierarchy a measure of secular
authority encroaching unwarrantably on the
prerogative of the civil magistrate.
But " to the Prince or to the law," as Bp.
Horsley has justly declared, " we acknow-
" ledge ourselves indebted for all our secu-
" lar possessions ; for the rank and dignity
" annexed to the superior order of the
" Clergy; for our secular authority ; for the
" jurisdiction of our courts ; for every civil
" effect which follows the exercise of our
" spiritual authority. All these rights and
" honours, with which the priesthood is
" adorned by the piety of the civil ma-
" gistrate, are quite distinct from the spi-

320 SERMON VII.
" ritual commission which we bear for the
" administration of our Lord's proper king-
" dom. They have no necessary connexion
" with it; they stand merely on the ground
" of human law, and vary, like the rights of
" other citizens, as the laws which create
" them vary1"."
Directly opposed to this error, which
may be considered to have .derived its ori
gin from Papal usurpation, to have sunk
with its decline, and in fact to be well nigh
extinct in all Protestant communities, is
that of those who wholly confound their
idea of the Church of Christ with that of a
political establishment ; derive her author
ity from the appointment of the civil ma
gistrate, and consider her, even in the exer
cise of her spiritual functions, as altogether
subordinate to the State ; — or if they can
not entirely overlook the notorious fact of
her original independence, they contend
that she has long since surrendered her pe
culiar privileges, in exchange for those tem-

r Bishop Horsley's Charge to the Clergy of the Dio
cese of St. David's, at his primary Visitation in-1790.

SERMON VII. 321
poral advantages which she is now per
mitted to enjoy.
It must however be obvious, that, had
the Church felt the inclination to make
this surrender, she could possess no right
to do so. It is utterly inconceivable that
the sacred powers committed to her by her
heavenly Founder for the extension and
government of his kingdom upon earth,
could be lawfully commuted for ease or
opulence, for political power or secular dig
nity. To adopt the emphatic language of
the learned Sherlock, "if Bishops will not
" exercise that power which Christ has
" given them, they are accountable to their
" Lord for it; but they cannot give it away,
" neither from themselves, nor from their
" successors ; for it is theirs only to use,
" not to part with; and therefore every Bi-
" shop may reassume such rights, though
" a general council should give them away,
" because the grant is void in itself8."
Every just scheme therefore of alliance
between the Church and the State, must be
s Sherlock's Summary of the Controversy between the
Church of England and the Church of Rome, p. 119.
Y

322 SERMON VII.
formed on the principles of a federal, not
an incorporating union ; an union between
independent powers, combining together
for their mutual advantage and support,
conceding perhaps to each other some
points of minor accommodation, but still
retaining every essential privilege which
marked their original and separate consti
tutions*. III. On principles thus sound, and on
' " When the State came into the Church, these two
" separate kingdoms became united in the same civil so-
" ciety. But in this case the union being an accidental
" circumstance, did not affect the original independent
" rights of either party. It was rather aj'ederal than an
" incorporating union ; an union of agreement between
" two parties; by which, powers having a jurisdiction
" independent of each other, were brought to act toge-
" ther for the general advantage of society. Should it
" be the will of Providence that a separation should
" again take place between these two kingdoms, the
" State will leave the Church, so far as respects its
" government, just in the same condition in which it
" was, previous to their original connexion. Expressly
" in this condition is the Episcopal Church in Scotland,
" and in the United States of America, at this moment;
" where its members receive not the least aid or power
" from the State ; of which therefore, excepting in their
" civil capacity, they are completely independent." Dau
beny's Guide to the Church, Appendix, p. 93, 94. 2d edit.

SERMON VII. 323
terms thus advantageous, we may boast that
our excellent Establishment was framed by
the Reformers of our Church. For if the
declarations both of the Church and of the
State, as set forth in our Articles and Ho
milies and other authorized documents, re
cognize correctly and satisfactorily the just
limits of ecclesiastical and civil power, we
are by no means concerned to take into the
calculation any unreasonable assertion or
exercise of the royal supremacy which oc
curred during the ferment of the Reforma
tion ; which was disclaimed by succeeding
sovereigns, or virtually annulled by subse
quent laws of more moderate character u.
u " This Act (26 Hen. VIII. cap. 1.) and all others
" relating to the King's ecclesiastical supremacy, are to
" be interpreted in a sense consistent with those other
" Acts of Parliament, which confirm the Book of Com-
" mon Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments,
" and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, ac-
" cording to the Church of England ; and the form and
" manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating Bi-
" shops, Priests, and Deacons. In those offices the sa-
" cerdotal power, as distinct from the civil, is clearly ex
pressed and asserted." Hickes on the Dignity of the
Episcopal Order, p. 235, 236. See also Homily on the
right Use of the Church, part 2. " Bishop Jewell
Y 2

324 SERMON VII.
It is quite sufficient, in proof of this, to
refer to the Declaration of our Articles;
" We give not to our princes the minister-
" ing either of God's word or of the sacra-
" ments". . . . "but that only prerogative,
" which we see to have been given always
" to all godly princes in holy Scriptures by
" God himself; that is, that they should
" rule all estates and degrees committed to
" their charge by God, whether they be
" ecclesiastical or temporal, and restrain
" with the civil sword the stubborn and
" evil-doers^." " This explanation," as
" in a letter to Bullinger dated May 22, 1559, writes,
" ' that the Queen refused to be called the Head of the
" Church,' and adds, ' that the title could not be justly
" given to any mortal.' Therefore Queen Elizabeth laid
" aside the title of Head of the Church, and instead
" thereof the word Governor was put into the oath" (of
supremacy) "as it stands to this day." Leslie's Case of
the Regale tyc. Works, vol. i. p. 625. " The writ
" of Conge" d'ilire was taken away by Act of Parliament,
" 1 Edw. VI. c. 2. as too great an encroachment upon
" the Regale. But our kings are grown ashamed of
" that, and still continue the method of Conge" d'4lire,
" though let loose from it by the law." Rnd. p. 677.
* Article XXXVII. " Our kings claim no other ec-
" clesiastical authority than was granted by God to the
" kings in holy Scripture, and what that was we have

SERMON VII. 325
Bishop Burnet justly argues, " must be con-
" sidered as the true measure of the King's
" supremacy, and the wide expressions in
" the former laws must be understood to
" be restrained by this ; since posterior
" laws derogate from those that were at
{< first made. . . . This is all that supremacy
" which we are bound in conscience to
" own ; and if the letter of the law, or the
" stretches of that in the administration of
" it, have carried this farther, we are not
" at all concerned in ity." The Christian

" seen before to have nothing in it but mere civil
"power; though it might be exercised over ecclesias-
" tical persons, (who are subject, as all others, as Christ
" himself was, to the civil powers in all civil things,)
"and in ecclesiastical causes too, to punish with tem-
" poral pains, as well blasphemers, idolaters, and here-
" tics, as thieves, robbers, &c.; as well the transgressors
" against the first, as second table." Leslie's Case of
the Regale fyc. Works, vol. i. p. 624.
y Bishop Burnet's Reflexions on the Relation of the
English Reformation, p. 20. " If the great and un-
" measured extent of the Papal authority made our
" princes judge it necessary to secure themselves from
" those invasions by stretching their jurisdiction a little
" too much ;...'.. .and if in the time of our Reformation
" some of our Bishops or other writers have carried
" the royal supremacy too far, either in Acts of Convo-
y3

326 SERMON VII.
prince therefore, as it has been sometimes
expressed, has authority circa sacra, but not
in sacris ; — he may both lawfully and be
neficially compel spiritual men to the regu
lar performance of their duty, though he
has no concern in their sacred functions.
As little can we deem any subsequent en
croachments of the State on our ecclesi
astical constitution, or any deviation from
its recorded principles into which the Cler
gy may themselves have fallen, as disproving
its original and intrinsic merits. If our
practice had indeed corresponded in all re
spects with the spirit of those laws which
should have directed it, if the power of the
civil magistrate had been restrained with
in its intended limits, were merely a civil
power over spiritual persons, and carefully
avoided all unauthorized interference with
their inherent privileges, then might we
" cation, or in their writings, as those things are per-
" sonal matters, in which we are not at all concerned,
" who do not pretend to assert an infallibility in our
" Church ; so their excess in this was a thing so natu-
" ral, that we have all possible reason to excuse it, or at
" least to censure it very gently." Bishop Burnet's
Reflexions, fyc. p. 23.

SERMON VII. 327
have boasted of a Church, not only pure in
her doctrines and apostolical in her polity,
which is her still remaining praise, but re
spected for her effective and primitive dis
cipline, and, in comparison at least with
the lamentable divisions which at present
disturb her peace and threaten her secu
rity, united in herself.
As the case now stands however, it
cannot be disguised that we have to de
plore in various instances a most perni
cious departure from a constitution excel
lent in itself, and defective only by abuse.
Not to enter into a tedious detail of the
particulars in which this departure may be
traced, I shall briefly advert to two only;
the total disuse of primitive discipline, and
the long continued neglect of synodical as
semblies. So far however from our laws having
contemplated the downfall of ecclesiastical
discipline, their undoubted purpose was to
second and support, by civil penalties, the
censures of the Church. If through an un
fortunate intricacy in their construction,
and consequent ignorance and irregularity
y 4

328 SERMON VII.
in their administration, they have become
in a great measure obsolete and inefficient,
or, what is worse, have actually impeded
and embarrassed the very object which they
were designed to promote, it is ours to la
ment, and if possible to remedy, an evil so
destructive of ecclesiastical authority, not
to question the views and intention of the
laws themselves *.

z The failure of the commission, appointed in the
reign of Edward VI, (see note ', p. 9.) in finally accom
plishing the reformed digest of our ecclesiastical laws,
is infinitely to be lamented. The difficulty of admin
istering them in their present form may be easily con
ceived from the following statement of Burn. " The
" ecclesiastical law of England is compounded of these
" four main ingredients ; the Civil law, the Canon law,
" the Common law, and the Statute law  Where these
" laws do interfere and cross each other, the order of
" preference is this; the Civil law submitteth to the
" Canon law; both these to the Common law; and all
" the three to the Statute law. So that from any one
" or more of these, without all of them together, or from
" all of these together, without attending to their com-
" parative obligation, it is not possible to exhibit any
" distinct prospect of the English ecclesiastical consti-
" tution." Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, Preface, p. xv.
seventh edit. The Papal origin of the Canon law has
no doubt contributed to render it in a great degree ob
solete. It consists of the Decreta of Gratian, published

SERMON VII. 329
Again, those laws cannot be deemed ad
verse to synodical assemblies, which period
ically summon a convocation, and recog
nize it as an estate of the realm a. If the
convocation itself has become an empty
shadow, and has virtually transferred its
powers to the State, it is to other causes
A. D. 1149; the Decretals, 1231; the Decretum Sex-
tum of Boniface VIII. 1298; the Clementine Constitu
tions, 1317 5 and the Extravagants of John XXII. 1325,
and of some other Popes. Add to these our own Lega-
tine arid Provincial Constitutions, the former made in
national Synods held by the Legates of the Popes, and
the latter in convocations held by the several Arch
bishops of Canterbury from Langton to Chicheley. The
statute, 25 Henry VIII. c. 19, which prepared the way
for the revisal of this heterogeneous mass, provided at
the same time that it should continue in force, so far as
it was not contrary to the laws of the realm, &c. until it
should be revised. Thus it has remained to this day.
Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, Preface, p. xxv — xxxv. See
also Bishop Gibson's Codex Juris Eccl. Angl. Intro
ductory Discourse.
a "The ecclesiastical estate constitutes one of the three
" estates which compose the legislative government of
" this kingdom. This estate is no where properly re-
" presented but in its own House of Parliament. The
" continued prorogation of that House, though it has
" altered the practice, makes no alteration in the the-
" ory of our constitution." Daubeny's Guide to the
Church, Appendix, p. 409. 2d edition.

330 SERMON VII.
that we should attribute a practice so ut
terly inconsistent with the plainest princi
ples of a fair and federal union.
That it is thus inconsistent, must be suf
ficiently evident, when it is recollected that
even ecclesiastical legislation is thereby con
signed to assemblies either purely political,
or into which ecclesiastics are too sparingly
admitted to exert any decisive influence; —
to assemblies, therefore, in the main com
posed of those who from education and ha
bit are little acquainted with the interests
of the Church ; — of many, it is to be feared,
who are wholly indifferent to her welfare; —
of some, perhaps, decidedly her enemies.
In citing an authority for the support of
this argument, I am disposed to prefer that
of Bishop Warburton, whose general and
obvious leaning to the Erastian b notion of
ecclesiastical subordination and civil supre
macy, exempts him altogether from the
b The Erastians, a sect which arose in this country
during the civil wars, were so named from Thomas Eras-
tus, a foreign physician, who appears to have been the
first writer of note who attempted to prove the Christian
Church a mere creature of the State, and denied' her re
gular authority to excommunicate, absolve, decree, &c.

SERMON VII. 331
suspicion of advancing any questionable
claims in behalf of the authority of the
Church. — " In a federate alliance" says
he, " the two societies still subsist entire ;
" though in a subordination of one to the
" other; in which case it seems agreeable
" to natural equity, that no alterations in
" Church -government should be madewith-
" out the joint consent of both. If it should
" be said that ecclesiastics are placed in the
" civil courts of legislature for that pur-
" pose, I must beg leave to dissent. It
" hath been shewn they make no distinct
" estate there ; and consequently are not
" representatives, but agents only of the
" Church, to manage its concerns, and to
" give notice of what is transacting there,
" that regards its interests ; — in a word, to
" carry on a mutual intercourse of good
" offices between two societies so closely
" allied c."
In an age like the present however, when
the stream of opinion has so long flowed
in an uninterrupted current against the au
thority of the Church, it need not surprise
e Warburton's Alliance, p. 157 — 160.

332 SERMON VII.
us that encroachments on her privileges,
and irregularities of various descriptions,
should have been commenced and perse
vered in. And it is unfortunately but too
evident, that when once they have main
tained their ground for a competent period,
they assume all the consequence of pre
scription and natural right ; form the opin
ions, take hold on the affections, and effec
tually confirm the prejudices by which they
were themselves produced. Nevertheless, to
adopt the language of a living ornament of
our Church, " till better times shall come,
" when the kingdom of Christ shall be less
" embarrassed by that subjection to the
" powers of the world, which renders it
" now so often inefficacious, as to the high
" purposes of preserving in purity the faith
" once delivered to the saints, and of pro-
" moting holiness of living, we must sub-
" mit with resignation. But this submis-
" sion must not be construed into an un-
" holy surrender of those rights which the
" Church has no power to alienate d."
d Sikes's Discourse on Parochial Communion, p. 80.

SERMON VII. 333
Far be it from us to attach, as some have
been disposed to do, the idea of a base and
time-serving compliance to the conduct of
our ecclesiastical superiors, for patiently
acquiescing in a system which, in times
like these, it is infinitely more easy for them
to lament than to remedy. In a certain
sense, and to a certain point, the times will
and must be served. The original proba
bility with respect to every human being is,
that he fall more or less into the stream of
prevailing opinion, however erroneous it
may be. But if by some unusual chance
he escape from it himself, what rational
hope can he entertain of stemming it for
others ? Who shall pretend to maintain
that any individual, or any probable com
bination of individuals, however high in in
fluence, or however convinced of the im
portance of ecclesiastical reform, could now,
in the present state of the public mind, rec
tify the abuses of the Church, and restore
her to primitive discipline ? No inconsider
able proportion of a whole national popu
lation must be similarly impressed, before a
public change of any kind, however bene^

334 SERMON VII.
ficial, can be undertaken with a prospect
of success. And it appears to be equally
true, both of ecclesiastical and civil com
munities, that a reformation is seldom ef
fected, or even attempted, till abuses have
arrived at an alarming height, and threaten
destruction to the existing system. Then at
length it is, that men either awaken from
their dream of false security, and become
capable of those combined and strenuous
exertions which can alone preserve them ;
or failing to be so awakened, sleep on to
overwhelming ruin.
That a crisis of this description is ad
vancing towards us with rapid strides, the
daily increasing and almost unaccounta
ble defections from the communion of our
Church, give us but too much cause to
apprehend. And when with well founded
satisfaction we reflect on the scriptural pu
rity of her doctrine, and the truly apo
stolical form of her polity, to what can we
more naturally turn our eyes, I will not
say as an excuse for these defections, for it
is none, but as a cause, not improbably
operating on the wayward tempers of men,

SERMON VII. 335
than the loss of primitive discipline, the de
clension of spiritual authority, and the un
due subjection of the kingdom of Christ to
the powers of the world ?
May we not then be permitted to indulge
the grateful hope, that at some more au
spicious and not far distant period, the
nearly impending hour of hazard may rouse
the fears of the heedless, and awaken the
zeal of the indifferent ; may turn the tide
of latitudinarian opinion, and lead to a ge
neral impression of the necessity of imme
diate recurrence to the more decisive exer
tion of ecclesiastical power ? — that so, what
no probable cooperation of zealous and en
lightened Churchmen could now effect, what
none therefore merit censure for omitting,
might once more be effected, not only with
out offence, but with general approbation c ;
e " Then would every Bishop have full authority with-
" in himself to regulate and direct his Clergy ; to correct
" vice, and reform error ; and all Bishops would stand
" by and assert the discipline of each Bishop duly exer-
" cised within his own district; and the example would
" encourage others, and the reformation would become
" universal. Then Bishops would be justly chargeable
" with any scandals in the Clergy, or what was notorious

336 SERMON VII.
— that so, by the blessing of Christ on
the endeavours of his faithful servants, his
renovated Church might again possess the
powers which he had himself assigned her,
and instead of contenting herself with the
annual and ineffective f wish for the restora
tion of "godly discipline," might once more
resume the exercise of that primitive author
ity, which stands yet unrepealed even in
human statutes, and is demanded by the
laws of God.
" in any other of their subjects ; and with the growth of
" heresies and errors. And mere shame would bring
" matters to a decency, though every one had not the
" pure zeal of Christianity; for which they have now too
" apparent an excuse, viz. that discipline is lost, and
" will not be permitted by the State ; which by virtue of
" Conges d'dire, Quare impedits, Prohibitions, &c. have
" made themselves the sole and ultimate judges, not
" only of all Bishops and Churches, but of their excom-
" munications, and every exercise of their spiritual juris-
" diction." Leslie's Case of the Regale, &c. Works, vol. i.
p. 658.
f In the preface to the Office of Commination.

SERMON VIII.

Galat. VI. 10.

Let us do good unto all men, especially unto
them who are of the household of faith.
1 HE consideration of the origin and prin
ciples of that alliance which the Church of
Christ has so generally formed with the
powers of the world, is closely connected
with the important question relating to her
defence from external hostility, and to the
conduct to be observed towards those who
have separated themselves from her com
munion. If it have already appeared that the Church,
though originally independent, and compe
tent to her own support, was nevertheless
fully justified in uniting her interests with
those of the State ; — if we have seen too
that the benefits thence derived to both the
contracting parties are so conspicuous and
extensive, as that nothing short of the gross-

338 SERMON VIII.
est mismanagement could wholly annihilate
them ; — whatever tends to maintain unim
paired this auspicious alliance, and secure
its advantages, must be entitled to our most
attentive regard. If, moreover, we have seen
that our own Establishment, framed on the
model of a federal and equitable union, was
admirably calculated to preserve these be
nefits; and that even if it have in some de
gree failed in doing so, this failure is to be
attributed, not to unsoundness of principle,
but to laxity of practice, not to the defect
of its institutions, but to the negligence of
its members, and the latitudinarian spirit
of the age ; — so that every dormant privi
lege, every obscured advantage is assuredly
to be recovered, not by the adoption of
novel maxims, but by the careful revival of
the old, not by the violence of revolution,
but by the calmer process of reform ; — it is
incumbent on us to resist with jealous care
every encroachment on a system, which,
under circumstances confessedly unfavour
able to their complete developement, is yet
productive of inestimable blessings, and to
beware lest that reformation from within,

SERMON VIII. 339
by which these blessings might be multipli
ed and enhanced, be anticipated by de
struction from without.
I. In order to present a correct idea of
the means to be employed in the defence
of an established Church, and of the just
measure of that toleration2 which should be
granted to the adherents of Nonconformity,
I must be allowed to take for granted, what
it is presumed has been already satisfac
torily shewn in the preceding Lecture, first,
that the assistance which the Church de
rives from an alliance with the State, to
wards the propagation of Gospel truth, is
most important and efficacious ; in a word,
a To produce arguments in favour of toleration, and
contend against the cruelty and impolicy of persecuting
for religious opinions, is of course unnecessary when re
ligious persecution has long been extinct, and a disposi
tion to concede to the Dissenters every privilege not ab
solutely inconsistent with our safety is notorious. Wit
ness the Toleration Act passed in the first year of William
and Mary, exempting Nonconformists from the penalties
to which they were previously subject, and the more re
cent, removal of some of the disabilities affecting the
Papists. But there is a manifest necessity for explaining
and enforcing the- just limits of toleration, lest indiscri
minate concession should prove the ruin of Church and
State.
Z 2

340 SERMON VIII.
that there is no human probability of ge
nuine Christianity becoming a national re
ligion without a national Church : — and
secondly, that the two leading advantages
towards the attainment of these her proper
objects, which the Church had in view in
forming this alliance, were a competent
maintenance, and protection from external
injury. Now it must be obvious, that to separate
these advantages is in fact to destroy them.
To grant a liberal maintenance, and not
secure it from invasion, is eventually to
annul the grant; — it is at once to inflame
and combine the spirit of emulation and
envy, and allow free scope to its combined
and mischievous exertions. " When one
" religion is the established," says Bishop
Warburton, " and the rest under a tolera-
" tion, then envy at the advantages of an
" establishment will join the tolerated
" Churches in a confederacy against it,
" and unite them in one common attack
" to disturb its quiet. In this imminent
" danger the allied Church calls upon the
" State for the performance of its con-

SERMON VIII. 341
" tract, which thereupon gives her a test
" law for her security, whereby the en-
" trance into the administration (the only
" way the threatened mischief is effected)
" is shut to all but members of the Esta
blished Church b."
By a test law must be understood (to
adopt the clear and unequivocal definition
of the same writer) " some sufficient proof
b Bishop Warburton's Alliance between Church and
State, p. 199, 200. third edit. "An attempt in the mem-
" bers of any other Church to get into the administra-
" tion, in order to deprive the Established Church of the
" covenanted rights which it enjoys, either by sharing
" those advantages with it, or by drawing them from it,
" is highly injurious. And we have shewn, that where
" there are diversities of religions, this attempt will be
" always making. The State then must defeat that at-
" tempt; ....but there is no other way of doing it, than by
" hindering its enemies from entering into the adminis-
" tration;... .but they can be hindered only by a test
" law." R>id. p. 201. "Before the alliance, it was
" only a mistaken aim in propagating truth that occa-
" sioned  disorders. But now the zeal for opinions
" would be out of measure inflamed by envy and emula-
" tion ; which the temporal advantages enjoyed by the
" Established Church, exclusive of the rest, will always
" occasion. And what mischiefs this would produce, had
" every sect a free entry into the administration, the
" reader may easily conceive." Ibid. p. 207.
Z 3

342 SERMON VIII.
" or evidence, required from those admitted
" into the administration of public affairs,
" of their being members of the religion
" established by lawc." The want of such
a law has once already most materially con
tributed to the temporary overthrow of our
constitution, both ecclesiastical and civil.
Under a full conviction of this want, from
dear-bought experience, our tests d were
c Bishop Warburton's Alliance between Church and
State, p. 196.
d By the 13 Car. II. stat. ii. cap. 2. it is enacted,
" that no person shall in any corporation be elected
" Mayor, Alderman, &c. who shall not within a year
" before his election have taken the Sacrament of the
" Lord's Supper, according to the rites of the Church
" of England." By the 25 Car. II. cap. 2. it is enacted,
" that all and every person that shall bear any office,
" civil or military, &c. shall take the oaths of Supre-
" macy and Allegiance, and shall also receive the Sacra-
" ment of the Lord's Supper, according to the usage of
" the Church of England, &c." He is to make proof
of this on pain of being incapable of the office, and
other penalties. Inferior offices however are expressly
excepted. " The intention plainly was to keep Nonconformists
" of all sorts (whose principles and affection to their
" own ways cannot but lead them to use any power,
" put into their hands, to the hurt of the Established
" Church from which they have separated) out of offices

SERMON VIII. 343
afterwards adopted ; and if ever, through a
weak compliance with the encroaching tem
per of these times, we consented to their to
tal and unqualified repeal, we should have
ample cause to anticipate a corresponding
result. Of the permanent existence indeed
of the Church of Christ, in the form of an
endowed establishment, yet destitute of the
protection here supposed, the restless and
disorderly passions of our common nature
appear to preclude every rational expecta-;
tion. The necessity of test laws being thus ma
nifest, and the principles on which our own
were framed being thus explained, it seems
peculiarly unfortunate for the interests of
the Established Church, that an important
question intimately connected with these
considerations, which has now for many
years divided the opinions of the nation,
has been very generally misunderstood; has
been almost universally discussed, in public
" civil and military, and out of the government and di-
" rection of corporations." Bishop Sherlock's Argu
ments against a Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts,
p. 2, 3.
Z 4

344 SERMON VIII.
at least, on principles very different from
those which ought, in reason and consist
ency, finally to decide its fate ; — has been
considered too much as a political, too lit
tle as a religious question ; too much with
reference to its separate effect on the parti
cular sect more immediately and ostensibly
concerned, too little with regard to its
eventual operation on the general prin
ciples of a sober and legitimate toleration ;
and that hence, by a sort of deplorable fa
tality, the apparent strength of the argu
ment has not unfrequently rested with the
really weaker side. For whilst one party
affects to found its pleas for the admission
of Papists to the common enjoyment of
political rights, on the broad and captivat
ing basis of liberality and equity and na
tional security ; — and the other either in
considerately refers to the recorded enormi
ties of Popery, all future fear of which is in
stantly dispelled by a single glance at the de
pressed condition of the Church of Rome,
or at least at her numerical insignificance
amongst ourselves ; or else vaguely ex
presses an alarm for the safety of the esta-

SERMON VIII. 345
blished religion, without precisely stating
how that safety is to be affected ; — can we
doubt to which side the generous and in
experienced mind will naturally incline ?
That the success of the measure alluded
to involves in its necessary consequences,
not perhaps the immediate, but most as
suredly the eventual downfal of our vene
rated establishment, it will not, I think, be
difficult to prove. What is usually termed
the Catholic question, cannot, with any show
of reason, be considered to be simply this ;
whether a Papist be equally entitled to
our confidence with other sectaries, which
might perhaps in our own case be safely
answered in the affirmative ; — but whether
any sectary whatever ought to be fully ad
mitted to the same political rights as the
members of the national Church : to which
I cannot but reply decidedly in the nega
tive. For which of them could we con
sistently and fairly admit to the exclusion of
the rest? — and if all were admitted, where
could we look for those exclusive privi
leges which constitute the very essence of
an establishment, and for that security from

346 SERMON VIII.
hostile encroachment, which might ensure
its permanence and peace ?
That this is in fact the true scope and
import of the great question alluded to, is
really almost too obvious to require a regu
lar proof. Can we, in short, doubt, but that
the same spirit of mistaken liberality, the
same insensibility to all religious distinc
tions, by which the primary point must be
carried, holds in most sovereign contempt
every exclusive right, every test, all, in fine,
that raises our Church above the common
level of the heresies around her; and if ever
the long protracted day of triumph should
arrive, would speedily sweep them away in
one promiscuous mass, as the hateful relics
of bigotry and usurpation ?
To those who believe, that under these
humiliating circumstances our Church
would still subsist in her present form, and
would still be competent to every purpose
which she now fulfils; that the purity of
her doctrines would still ensure her the
protection of the powerful, and the respect
of the people at large ; that her revenues
would be still inviolate, and her ecclesi-

SERMON VIII. 347
astical jurisdiction continue unimpaired,
though her political preeminence were
lost; I would earnestly suggest the follow
ing considerations.
It is certain, as it has been already re
marked in explaining the first principles
of a test, that our Church Establishment,
like every other, is the natural object of
envy to all those who, by dissenting from
her principles, are excluded from her emo
luments and privileges. Hence it has also
been deemed almost a self-evident pro
position, that a (decided majority of the
national population is requisite for her
security ; and that if ever a majority,
from whatever cause, should absolutely
fail her, she must inevitably become the
prey of her enemies6. To retain this ma-
e "The Alliance is perpetual, but not irrevocable; i. e.
" it subsists just so long as the Church thereby esta-
" blished maintains its superiority of extent ; which,
" when it loses to any considerable degree, the alli-
" ance becomes void. For the united Church being
" then no longer able to perform its part of the conven-
" tion, which it formed on reciprocal conditions, the
"State becomes disengaged; and a new alliance is, of
" course, contracted with the now prevailing Church,
" for the reasons which made the old." Warburton's

348 SERMON VIII.
jority then, must be the object of her real
friends. It will not, I presume, be contended, that
the larger portion of individuals, in this or
any other country, are sincerely pious, and
warmly attached to religion for her own
sake. Of those who are so amongst our
selves, some most certainly are to be found
among the multitudes who have seceded
from the Church. And the remainder, that
faithful band, who love her from the purest
motives and with undivided affection ; —
who would abide with her in every ex
tremity, and shed their blood in her de
fence, must be infinitely unequal to her
Alliance, p. 198. There is much of truth in this ar
gument of Bishop Warburton's, so far as it conveys an
idea of the treatment which the Church has to expect
from the State, upon the loss of her majority. But it
is conveyed in terms which obviously insinuate that the
apostolical Church of Christ has no more claim to the
attention of the State, than any other sect or per
suasion, her majority excepted ; and that it is perfectly
justified in adopting any one of the Churches, as he calls
them, which may best suit its purpose. In the very
next sentence he speaks of " the alliance between the
" Pagan Church and the empire of Rome." This is the
pervading alloy of his ingenious book.

SERMON VIII. 349
protection, if ever they failed in attaching
to her cause a competent share of that
mass of religious indifference, which too
plainly comprehends the great bulk of the
community. Now, as this aid is absolutely necessary
to her security, so are the means of ob
taining it most simple and infallible. For
the selfsame laws which exclude the Non
conformist from those situations of political
authority, which would put him into a ca
pacity for injuring the Established Church,
may be viewed in the additional light of an
encouragement to conformity itself; and
where no difference of opinion existed of
sufficient moment to involve the sacrifice
of duty and conscience, would naturally
and effectually lead him to embrace her
communion. Where the higher motives
have lost their influence, we must conde
scend to employ the ordinary resources of
human policy; — we must hold out some
effectual encouragement to religious unity;
we must make it men's interest to support,
what they would otherwise be disposed to
neglect.

350 SERMON VIII.
Of those who now rank as members of
the Established Church, and in fact con
tribute most essentially to her safety, how
many must even charity herself admit to
be totally destitute of Christian faith ! —
how many more are there whose confirm
ed indifference could never of itself have
attached them to any religious community
whatever! They have nevertheless join
ed her standard; and why? — because she
is the religion of fashion and of the State ;
because they have discovered that she is
the only direct and unobstructed road to
the more distinguished honours and emo
luments; or because their ancestors having
made the same discovery, the prejudices
of their education have been fixed accord
ingly. Now, whatever we may think of the cha
racter of such men, yet so long as numeri
cal superiority is necessary to the existence
of our Church as an establishment, their
aid is not to be rejected. But shall we ex
pect to retain that aid on the comprehen
sive principles which distinguish the libe
rality of the day ? When all the exclusive

SERMON VIII. 351
rights of the Church should have been fi
nally abandoned, when our especial fa
vours were no longer conferred on " them
" who are of the household of faith;" —
when every department of the legislature,
every post of honour and authority, of trust
and profit, should be equally within the at
tainment of every sect and persuasion, re
ligious or irreligious, to which of all those
minor, but certainly most prevailing mo
tives, should we look for retaining the aid
in question ? Could we depend on fashion,
whose caprice might shortly enlist her in
the service of any one of the more plau
sible heresies, when the Church had lost all
that appearance of superior consequence,
which could alone attract her? Could we
rely on ambition, whose views would be alike
unobstructed in the conventicle as in the
Church ? Could we hope to engage self-
interest in our behalf, without one single
advantange to offer to her acceptance ? Or
rather, could we have any reasonable ex
pectations of retaining her even in a state
of neutrality, when the prospect of sharing
in our spoils must inevitably turn the scale
against us?

352 SERMON VIII.
Of all the motives of attachment, not
strictly religious, one only could be in any
degree relied on, and that but for a season.
The prejudices of education, and the im
pressions of early life, would no doubt re
tain some advocates for the Church, as the
establishment of their fathers, and the ob
ject of their habitual veneration. It does
indeed appear possible that this principle
might for some few years preserve from to
tal ruin the falling fortunes of the Church.
But the source from whence it flowed
would, from obvious causes, be daily be
coming less and less copious ; and long be
fore it should be finally exhausted, it would
have ceased to oppose any effectual resist
ance to that sweeping tide of more prevail
ing motives, whose constantly augmented
current would set directly against it.
In a word, if there be any truth in what
has been here advanced, one most powerful
argument for rejecting the claims in ques
tion lies within this short and simple com
pass; — whilst we maintain those exclusive
privileges which tempt indifference to join
our party, " those who are not against us
<' will be for us;" but if ever, in compli-

SERMON VIII. 353
ance with the headstrong temper of the
times, we consent to relinquish these privi
leges, indifference must infallibly operate
as schism, and " those who are not for us
" will be against us."
II. If there be any who object, that it is
beneath the dignity of religion to conde
scend to such ignoble aid, that it is to pol
lute her sacred cause by too close an union
with the vulgar maxims of worldly policy;
it may be replied, that the miraculous as
sistance, with which the Almighty was
pleased to second the exertions of the ori
ginal propagators of the Gospel, was with
drawn when the occasion ceased to require
it; — that we now enjoy in fair and full
possession the inestimable treasures of a
pure and uncorrupted religion, and that
universal diffusion of its sacred truths, which
an Establishment alone could have accom
plished, whilst nothing is wanting to retain
them, but the Divine blessing on the ordi
nary efforts of men ; that to neglect these
efforts would be folly and presumption,
would be giving a most unnecessary proof,
that " the children of this world are wiser
a a

354 SERMON VIII.
" in their generation than the children of
"lightf." If the higher motives could really be ex
pected to prevail ; — if the genuine love of
truth and a sincere attachment to religion
really characterized mankind in general; —
if their universal freedom from prejudice
would allow them to appreciate our claims
to their adherence, and their candour in
sure their support; — then might we safely
throw down every barrier for which we are
contending ; then might we safely abandon
every minor inducement, and confidently
leave truth to her own protection. But
whilst men are men ; whilst passion and
prejudice and interest combine to bias their
opinions, we must treat them as men ; — we
must not expect miracles in our favour,
where we might have accomplished our
purpose by human means.
But there are others who object to the
intimate connexion between religion and
policy, not from a regard to her interests,
but from an absolute indifference to her
f Luke xvi. 8.

SERMON VIII. 355
cause; not from a well meaning though mis
taken veneration for the unsullied purity of
religion, but from an exclusive devotion to
the maxims of worldly policy. The tried
and sacred alliance, which has so long sub
sisted between our ecclesiastical and civil
institutions, they would willingly overlook ;
— they would fain persuade themselves, ei
ther that it does not strictly exist at all,
or that it might be dissolved with per
fect safety. Or perhaps, to speak more
correctly, they esteem religion as wholly
subordinate to political considerations; as
something to be supported, perhaps, if it
accord with other views, but to give way
upon the first appearance of contending
interests. Their language, indeed, is little
different from this; — " Take care of your
" State, unite her population, combine her
" resources, consolidate her strength. If
" this can be effected with safety to your
" religious system, it is well ; — but if riot,
" at all events take care of your State, and
" let religion provide for herself."
Do the inhabitants of this Christian coun
try really require to be informed, that reli-
Aa 2

356 SERMON VIII.
gion is the "gone thing needful," their
first, their most momentous concern? Have
they never heard of the blessings with which
Heaven rewards the piety of nations ; or,
having heard of them, do they rank them
with the dreams of dotage and enthusiasm?
Are they contented literally to "trust in
" man," to " make flesh their arm," and in
their "hearts" to "depart from the Lordh?"
But if the weakness of their faith should
render them unassailable by arguments
like these, have they no reliance on his
torical experience, no capacity even for
observing the passing occurrences of their
own times ? At an eventful period of our
history, the Church fell not without the
simultaneous ruin of the State; and their
cause was united, when they rose again
to power and safety. And those must be
blind indeed to the signs of these por
tentous times, who see not that a spirit is
abroad amongst us, implacably hostile to
all that is venerable from prescriptive right
or dignity of station ; the foe no less of civil
authority, than of ecclesiastical rule; and
s Luke x. 42. h Jeremiah xvii. 5.

SERMON VIII. 357
that, even were our Church and our State
less intimately blended in their very frame
and constitution, than they notoriously are,
that restless spirit of innovation, that profli
gate "despising of dominion," which mark
the temper of the age, would rejoice to
consign them both to indiscriminate de
struction. But it has been contended, that however
efficacious a test law may be in the pre
servation of an ecclesiastical establishment,
it is founded on principles palpably unjust,
inasmuch as it excludes some men from the
capacity for sharing in the honours and
profits of civil government, to which it is
urged that all have a natural and equal
right. — But it is here forgotten that the first
and fundamental article of government is
the submission of private rights to the pub
lic good ; — and if even the strongest of all
natural rights, the right to food and rai
ment, thus becomes subject to the limita
tions of human laws, are we to suppose
that the capacity for office is subject to no
limitation whatever1?
' See Bishop Sherlock, Arguments against a Repeal
a a 3

358 SERMON VIII.
The plainest principles of self-protection
demand the exclusion of the disaffected
from the councils of the State;— and it has
been correctly and forcibly remarked, that
it is "evident, that when a Church and
" State are in union, he that cannot give
" security for his behaviour to both, may
" with as much reason be deprived of some
" civil advantages, as he who before the
" union could not give security to the
" State alone k." — "All governments have
of the Corporation and Test Acts, p. 19, 20. " Re-
" ward is not one of the sanctions of civil society ; the
" only claim which subjects have on the magistrate for
" obedience being protection. Now the consequence of
" this is, that all places of honour and profit in the ma-
" gistrate's disposal, are not there in the nature of a
" trust, to be claimed and equally shared by the subject;
" but of the nature of a prerogative, which he may dis-
" pose of at pleasure, without being further accountable
" than for having such places capably supplied." War-
burton's Alliance, p. 209, 210. "Let the world be
" informed how it comes to pass that the Kings of Eng-
" land have less privilege than any of their subjects ;
" and why that very limitation is just and expedient
" when applied to the Crown, which is so great an op-
" pression, so subversive of natural right, when applied
" to the people." Sherlock's Arguments against a Re
peal &c. p. 38.
k Warburton's Alliance, p. 195.

SERMON VIII. 359
' a right," says Bishop Sherlock "(and
' all wise governments make use of it,) to
' provide against probable dangers to the
' State ; in consequence of which they have
' a right to provide that all power in the
' State shall be lodged in such hands only
' as they reasonably judge to be well af-
' fected ; and here the rules of prudence
' must govern. It may be very consistent
' to declare against punishing men in their
' lives and fortunes for those reasons, which
' nevertheless are good reasons for exclud-
' ing them from all places of power and
' trust. It would be very unreasonable to
' beat a man, because he has an infectious
' distemper; yet it is very reasonable to
' deny him a place in the family upon this
' account ; for in one case I should injure
' him, in the other I only take care of my-
< self1." Before a test law therefore can be fairly
charged with tyranny and injustice, it must
either be proved that it excludes those
whom there is no reason for excluding ; —
1 Sherlock's Arguments against a Repeal &c. p. 22.
a a 4

360 SERMON VIII.
or else, that there is no material difference
between actual punishment and simple re
straint m ; between persecuting others for
their religious tenets, and securing our
selves from being persecuted for our own.
But it has been still farther objected, that
our employment of the sacramental test
must frequently lead to the profanation of
that most sacred ordinance"; and on the
whole, that to make religion a test at all in
civil matters, is to hold out an undue tempt
ation to an hypocritical conformity. That
such unhappy abuses should sometimes en
sue, is indeed most deeply to be lamented ;
yet still the laws are not chargeable with
the wickedness of those who abuse them.
Let it be remembered, that religion is equally
the test when an oath is administered ° ; —

m See Warburton's Alliance, p. 212—217.
n It is observable at all events, that the State requires
no more as a proof of conformity to the Church, than
the Church herself requires in all who maintain her com
munion ; and which she would actually enforce, if her
primitive discipline were restored.
° " When the magistrate requires an oath, he lays
" hold on the natural sense and obligation we are under
" to believe in and to fear God, and grounds the test

SERMON VIII. 361
but was it ever contended that the use of
oaths should be abolished in order to re
move all temptations to perjury ? If the
laws then are not accountable for the per
jury of a corrupt witness, how can they be
justly chargeable with the profaneness of
an hypocritical communicant p ?
" on them. When he requires the sacramental test, he
" lays hold of the obligation we are under to communi-
" cate with that Church which we esteem to be a true
" part of the Church of Christ, and grounds the test on
" it. — And the reader has it now fairly before him, to
"judge how far religion is in both cases a civil test,
" and whether it be not at least as much so in the first
" case as in the latter." Sherlock's Arguments against a
Repeal fyc: p. 62.
P "If the iniquity of men in abusing any law be suf-
" ficient reason for abrogating such law, I would fain
" know what law ought to stand in force. What perju-
" ries, what frauds, what cheats are made use of, to avoid
" the many laws for imposing customs on trade ! Will
" any man turn advocate for the removal of these laws
" also? Will any man say, that no temporal advantage or
" convenience to the State can justify the great abuse of
" religion, and the manifest breach of plain duties occa-
" sioned by these laws ? Will any man plead for abo-
" lishing the use of oaths, since perjury is not a more
" crying than it is a common sin ?  As the laws re-
" quiring the sacramental test do not make men wicked
"and profane; so neither will removing those laws
" make them pious or holy. The remedy must be ap-

362 SERMON VIII.
Besides, we have a right to presume that
the practice to which the encouragement
points, is in itself and in its own nature
good ; that the religion to which conformity
is induced is pure and true ; and the ordi
nance recommended not only lawful, but
enjoined by the command of God. Shall
we then withdraw the encouragement, be
cause hypocrisy may occasionally abuse it ?
As well might we withhold, as inexpedient
or mischievous, the ordinary rewards of vir
tuous conduct, because we may possibly
tempt some to assume its hypocritical re
semblance9.
" plied to the men. It is the wickedness of the receiver
" that calls for correction." Sherlock's Arguments against
a Repeal fyc. p. 14, 15. See also Warburton's Alliance,
p. 233, 234.
q " Are they who encourage virtue and true religion
" answerable for the hypocrisy of those, who will pre-
" tend to virtue and religion, in order to share in the
" encouragement ? If they are, then it is a wicked thing
" in itself to encourage virtue and true religion ; and a
" father is a wicked man who rewards one son for doing
" well, because thereby he may possibly tempt another
" to make a shew of doing well ! A gentleman in the
" country, who shews some mark of favour to his poor
" neighbours who religiously attend the public service
" of God, is really by so doing drawing upon himself

SERMON VIII. 363
Neither let it be forgotten, that he who,
from whatever inducement it may be, con
forms at all to our excellent Church, is at
once open to the probable accession of
more worthy motives ; may learn at length
to venerate what at first he had regarded
with indifference ; — that one most import
ant advantage is at least obtained; that
his posterity at least are "trained up in
" the way they should go," and afford the
cheering expectation, that " when they are
" old they will not depart from itr."
There is one other argument frequently
advanced by the adverse party, of some
plausibility indeed, but of little real weight;
which it is here perhaps proper to notice.
They contend that our restrictions ope
rate more severely on the Papist, than on
the other Dissenters from the Established
Church ; — that they are so contrived as ef
fectually and universally to exclude the con-
" the wrath of God, by laying a temptation before others
" to make an appearance of being better than really
" they are !" Sherlock's Arguments against a Repeal fyc.
p. 73.
r Proverbs xxii. 6.

364 SERMON VIII.
scientious Papist from all political import
ance, whilst men of some other persuasions
can occasionally, and without offence to
their consciences, insinuate themselves into
situations of trust and power. They would
therefore demand our admission of the
claims in question, on the broad principles
of justice and consistency.
When our tests were framed, their pre
cautions were naturally directed against the
party which then appeared the most for
midable to the Church and State ; and if
ever it were found expedient to re-model
them, they would of course be calculated
for the prevailing encroachment of the day5.
But though the well known and unavoid
able imperfection of human laws must for
ever probably prevent their universal and
equal operation ; — though we must admit
that this inequality has been needlessly ag
gravated by neglecting to enforce their pro-

s Though the Test Act was framed principally with a
view to the Papists, it is far from following, as some
have been disposed to maintain, that it was not then in
tended to apply to Protestant Dissenters. The Tolera
tion Act itself declares that it extends to them.

SERMON VIII. 365
visions, and, what is worse, though this
neglect has in some cases been preposter
ously encouraged by legal indemnity and
sanction; — still those persons, most cer
tainly, on whom they operate as they ought,
have no just pretence for complaint and
clamour. With equal justice might the
criminal arraign the laws by which his life
is forfeited; with equal consistency might
we abrogate our whole penal code, because
some crimes are inaccessible to its enact
ments. If we must be consistent, let our consist
ency be shewn in promoting the more re
gular and efficient influence of those salu
tary restraints to which we owe our safety.
Shall we indeed level every barrier, because
some have failed ? Shall we madly pour in
the full flood of ruin on the devoted land,
because some lesser streams have passed
their banks ?
There are some, no doubt, among the ad
vocates for the measure in question, who
are fully aware of its tendency to destroy
the Established Church ; and who hope to
replace it by another, of course, if possible,

366 SERMON VIII.
their own. And some others perhaps there
may be, who deem an establishment alto
gether unnecessary, from a full persuasion
that truth, religious truth more especially,
is amply competent to her own support.
The former of these persons might well be
asked, which of all the various heresies of the
present day, whose only point of union is hos
tility to ourselves, can boast of either the
numbers or the importance, which could af
ford them any rational hope whatever of suc
ceeding to our place. In fact, the prevail
ing spirit of these times, that utter insensi
bility to all the distinctions of religion, is
peculiarly adverse to the formation of a new
establishment. And the selfsame principles,
on which the proposed measure would ef
fect the destruction of our present system,
must equally tend to restrain the aspirings
of any other. In a word, the question
seems to lie, not between rival forms of ec
clesiastical discipline, but between our pre
sent form and none. — And if there be any
who doubt the baneful effects on the re
ligious character of the people, which would
result from the utter want of an Establish-

SERMON VIII. 367
ed Church, they may be amply satisfied by
directing their attention to the instructive
example already suggested in the preceding
Lecture, of a nation once intimately con
nected with ourselves ; where the piety of
the few, deprived of the regular guidance
of spiritual authority, has taken refuge in
the wildest varieties of fanaticism ; and the
indifference and uninstructed ignorance of
the many, are rapidly verging towards al
most Pagan darkness '.
Whoever contemplates in the compari
son that scriptural purity of doctrine which
distinguishes our Church, and that rational
and consistent piety which she inculcates,
and which in truth she still produces in
numbers not yet inconsiderable of her zeal
ous and faithful adherents, will require no
better evidence of her inestimable value,
will be sensible that every exertion and
every sacrifice is due to her sacred cause ;
— above all, he will learn to view with just
feelings of apprehension and regret, that
blind indifference which at once disgraces.
t See note q, p. 317.

368 SERMON VIII.
her name and threatens her existence, which
is prepared to give up, without an effort
and without a thought, the highest of all
earthly blessings, and may soon be lament
ing as lost, what it would vainly attempt
to restore.
III. That the dangers which threaten
the overthrow of our national Church have
of late years been rapidly accumulating,
appears to be generally admitted ; and it is
a fact no less notorious than it is deplor
able, that these dangers are infinitely aug
mented by the preposterous negligence of
too many of her professed friends. Capti
vated by the imposing pretensions of a spu
rious, yet prevailing liberality, they retain
no lively sense of her superior and exclusive
claims to their affection and support, and
are animated by no zeal, and by conse
quence capable of no effectual exertion,
in maintaining those constitutional barriers,
which the wisdom and piety of their ances
tors had provided for her defence.
An indifference indeed to the interests
of religion, of religious communities more
especially, must, I apprehend, be considered

SERMON VIII. 369
as disgracefully characteristic of the times
in which we live, above every preceding
age since the foundation of our faith.
Though the natural disinclination of the hu
man heart towards its spiritual concerns, —
the facility with which every trifling worldly
object interests the attention, whilst the
glorious hopes and awful fears of futurity
are overlooked and forgotten, has ever been
lamented by pious men ; yet this lukewarm
spirit has usually been found to affect man
kind rather in their individual capacity,
than as members of religious communities.
In whatever way the apparent inconsisten
cy may be accounted for, public zeal has
often shewn itself by no means incompati
ble with private indifference, and many a
man has been roused even to enthusiastic
exertions in the cause of a national belief,
whom no arguments could ever prevail on
to " work out his own salvation."
A period might be pointed out in the
history of this kingdom, when it was emi
nently distinguished by an ardent zeal for
the established faith ;— a zeal, not indeed
in every single instance attended by a cor-
Bb

370 SERMON VIII.
responding piety, nor always perhaps un-
tinctured by bitterness or bigotry ; — but
still it was a zeal which would have made
even error itself respectable, and com
pared with which, the apathy of these later
times must be viewed with shame and sor
row. Even at a period comparatively re
cent, and indeed within the memory of
some here present, the justly celebrated
Burke, whose judgment on such a point
will scarcely be disputed, ventured to pour-
tray the general attachment of the people
of this nation to the Established Church in
these decisive terms. " They do not," says
he, " consider their Church Establishment
" as convenient, but as essential to their
" State; not as a thing heterogeneous and
" separable; something added for accom-
" modation ; — what they may either keep
" up or lay aside, according to their tem-
" porary ideas of convenience. They con-
" sider it as the foundation of their whole
" constitution, with which, and with every
" part of which, it holds an indissoluble
" union. Church and State are ideas in-
" separable in their minds, and scarcely is

SERMON VIII. 371
" the one ever mentioned, without men-
" tioning the other"."
If this description may be depended on,
and we could scarcely select a more com
petent authority, deplorable indeed is the
change which a few short years have
wrought amongst us, and the rapidity with
which it has been effected is most alarm
ing. We are now, unhappily, become but
too consistent. Individual lukewarmness is
now too little relieved by any public feel
ing of attachment to our national religion ;
and he who in private life profanes the sab
bath, and neglects the ordinances of the
Church, can now await with corresponding
unconcern the final abandonment of all
her privileges ; can raise his voice against
her in the senate, if he have found admis
sion there; in confident assurance of the un
qualified plaudits of a daily increasing fac
tion, whose expanded views retain no sense
of religious distinctions ; — or rather who
consider religion as absolutely secondary
to worldly policy, and, for the sake of a
u Burke's Reflexions on the Revolution in France;
Works, vol. iii. p. 139.
B b 2

372 SERMON VIII.
political chimera, would readily sacrifice the
venerable establishment of their fathers.
That those whose minds are unconvinced
of the truth of the Christian Revelation,
should regard with equal eye every possible
variety of religious persuasion, and deem
all exclusive rights, all attempts to cherish
one mode of faith in preference to another,
as the result of bigotry and injustice, is na
tural and necessary. And that those whose
dissent from the established Creed abridges
their political importance, should contend
for similar principles, is of course to be ex
pected. But that men who are thoroughly
satisfied of the truth of Christianity, who
are sensible of the expediency of an eccle
siastical establishment;, and of the excel
lence of our own, should by any argu
ments whatever have been induced to se
cond these assailants, and thus to concur in
giving currency to opinions so manifestly
subversive of all that they profess to vene
rate, is no less astonishing as a fact, than it is
alarming in its too probable consequences.
To resolve this portentous phenomenon,
I fear we must have recourse to the cause

SERMON VIII. 373
already suggested, the disgraceful charac
teristic of the present day. For notwith
standing the undoubted piety, and I may
even add the sincere attachment to the
Established Church, which distinguishes
some at least of the party in question, and
notwithstanding those other exceptions,
which that " charity" which " hopeth and
" believeth all things x" will be disposed to
make, so widely prevalent a misconception,
on the subject of our religious interests, can
scarcely be attributed, in the main, to any
other source than gross indifference. For
men are proverbially quick -sighted on the
approach of danger towards any object to
which they are warmly attached ; and if
once the love of religion herself, and by
consequence the love of her more approved
form, firmly occupied the heart, not even
the plausibilities of modern liberality, nor
the imposing name of political justice, could
readily lull to sleep the jealous vigilance of
true affection.
It cannot be too distinctly observed, nor
too carefully remembered, that if the prin-
* 1 Cor. xiii. 6.
B b3

374 SERMON VIII.
ciples which it has been the object of these
Lectures to establish, are sound and true,
this our Church, thus imminently endanger
ed at once by external hostility and internal
neglect, is not only a strictly genuine branch
of the one universal Church of Christ, but
in this country exclusively so, and that she
would not cease to be so, even though her
enemies should succeed in removing her
from every temporal distinction, and " lay
" her honour in the dust ;" — that she would
still remain that religious society, to separate
from which would be a sinful schism ; — that
her characteristic claims to the conformity
of the people, her apostolical polity, her
divinely instituted priesthood, her creeds of
scriptural purity, her sublime and primitive
liturgy, would survive her fall ;— and though
of faithful adherents she might retain a rem
nant only, they would at least be a rem
nant of that Church, against which we have
the assurance of Christ himself, that "even
" the gates of hell shall not prevail*." To
adopt the correct and unequivocal language
of one of the ablest of her yet surviving
y Matthew xvi. 18.

SERMON VIII. 375
defenders : " A national establishment pro-
" tects and supports, but does not make a
" Church of Christ. It was a Church of
" Christ previously to its establishment by
" the State, and it will continue to be the
" same Church, should the State think fit
" to desert it. The Church of Christ in
" this country is established because it is
" the Church of Christ, but it is not the
" Church of Christ because it is esta-
" blished2." If principles like these, the very founda
tion of Christian Unity, are unhappily be
coming comparatively obsolete amongst us;
— if schism in all its forms is daily adopted
and maintained, for the most part (as in
charity we can scarcely fail to admit) in
utter ignorance of the heinousness of the
offence, who can - sufficiently deplore the
growing disposition, so notoriously evinced
by our legislative body, to confirm and
sanction these dangerous impression's by
their own deliberate act; — to remove at
once every human encouragement to " the
* Daubeny's Guide to the Church. Appendix, p. 112.
2d edit.

376 SERMON VIII.
" unity of the Spirit" amongst a people al
ready prone to despise it, beyond the ex
ample of former ages ; — to say, as it were,
to them, with the voice of high and un
disputed authority ; — " Your religious dis-
" sensions are a matter of absolute indiffer-
" ence; — you may indulge in them, not only
" with the impunity which you have hi-
" therto experienced, but with perfect con-
" venience to yourselves, and," by an in
ference, which must naturally follow in the
inexperienced mind, " with perfect inno-
" cence in the sight of God and man."
That our Establishment could long sur
vive the effects of such a measure, without
adverting to the arguments already ad
vanced for the necessity of a test law, it
will be difficult to believe, if we simply con
sider the height to which schism has at-'
tained, under encouragements far less de
cisive. Indeed the anticipated success of
the projected innovation is hailed by one
party as an approaching triumph; whilst
the other either seem insensible to its con
sequences, or else with a strange combina
tion of despondency as to the event, and

SERMON VIII. 377
indolent security as to themselves, which
cannot be sufficiently lamented, have taken
refuge in the miserable hope, that though
the evil may be certain, its progress must
be slow, and that long before the gathering
storm shall burst on the devoted land, the
peaceful shelter of the grave shall have
skreened them from its fury.
But have they never marked the in
creasing velocity with which great politi
cal bodies gravitate to ruin? Or if they
are satisfied of the safety of the present
generation, have they no regard for the in
terests of posterity ; are they bound by no
ties of duty to transmit unimpaired to their
descendants, those advantages which they
have themselves inherited ? That these are
not times for indolence and indifference
will surely be allowed ; and despondency
can only tend either to invite the pre
mature approach of the evil, should it
really be inevitable, or else to paralyze
those strenuous exertions which might yet
avert it.
It is not for those at least, who are duly
sensible of the blessings which they enjoy,

378 SERMON VIII.
tamely to yield them up without an effort ;
it is not for them to abandon their hopes,
while room for hope remains; — but it is
now, if ever, incumbent on them to combine
their utmost endeavours to rouse a luke
warm public from their inveterate lethargy,
and to remove from their eyes that spe
cious veil of misapprehension and delusion,
which indifference can never be expected
to remove for itself. Above all, it is the
imperious duty of the divinely appointed
" stewards of the mysteries of God," to in
culcate with renewed earnestness the long
neglected principles of Christian unity, and,
whilst they exercise all charity, in thought
and word and act, towards those whose pre
judices are inveterate beyond every remain
ing probability of reunion, to labour zea
lously, where success may yet reward their
pious efforts, to reclaim the misguided, to
enlighten the ignorant, to confirm the
wavering, and fortify the weak ; to stand,
as it were, " between the dead and the
" living," that, by the Divine blessing,
' Numb. xvi. 48.

SERMON VIII. 379
" the plague" of spreading defection may
yet' be "stayed3;" to persuade them, if it
be yet possible, to " know, at least in this
" their day, the things which belong unto
" their peace," before " they are hid from
" their eyesb."
b Luke xix. 42.

THE END.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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