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';. ■ w ■a-^' --. — •- tl /'l: •& :W: T -."V^ii ly^ ,- f ■ r.:)i ' ,Vt| S^^, 7^ z^^-t>'^J z^' 4f >-/..', »: t; •I (I THREE LECTURES / / I'-r-l DELIVEIIKD IN THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. GEORGE, KINGSTON, IN ADVENT 1860, BT THE BISHOP OF ONTARIO. PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL, ST. NICHOLAS STREET. 1871. " For thus saith the Lord ; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the House of Israel, neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually."— Jer. xxxni. 17-18. \ ^ \ LECTURES. DISCOURSE I. its to ii. " For whatsoever things were written aforetime^ were written for our learning."' — Rom. xv. 4. St. Paul is here reminding the Christian Jews at Rome of the value of the Scriptures of the Old Testa- ment, and our Liturgy, by the appointment of a special Collect for the right understanding of the Scriptures, would remind us to-day of the same thing. Nothing seems to puzzle most Bible readers more than the diffi- culty of deciding when to quote the Old Testament on behalf of their theories. When by precept or example, it seems to make for their peculiarities, men say, ** Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning ;" but when the precept or example appears to make against their favorite tenets, men say, " old things are passed away, all things are become new." Christians, at different periods of the Church's history, have rushed into the extremes of dis- paraging or idolizing Old Testament Scripture. Two of the oldest heresies were the Marcionite and the Manichaean, which made light of the Old Testament, while the modern Puritans deemed its precepts and precedents so literally binding that, under colour of its sanction, they justified what many think to be shocking enormities. On one point we should all agree: " That whatsoever things were written afore- time, were written for our learning," but it is to be feared that few possess the humility of the Ethiopian who when ask(id, " Understandest thou what thou readest ?" replied to St. Philip "How can I, unless some man should guide me ?" Perhaps, too, we should agree in affirming that faithful prayer such as that of the Collect for to-day's Service, is most necessary, in order that we may secure the blessings of true learning; but it is not at all so obvious that there is need for exertion, earnest and intellectual ; and yet we may be assured that unless there be a judicious combination of prayer and study, we shall remain blind to the teachings of the old oracles of God. My purpose is not to attempt to lay down rules, or to refer you to guides for the right understanding of the drift and scope of the Mosaic or Prophetical Scriptures. That would be too vast a topic. I shall rather dwell upon one strong fact, which, the more it is considered, the more important it will appear,, namely : that without a knowledge of the Old Tes- tament, the New Testament must be absolutely^ ( I or unintelligible. Here is the true motive to learn the Old Testament. The more a man is imbued with the spirit of the Old Testament, and the more he can enter into the habits and customs, the rites and ceremonies, the civil and religious government of the Jews, the more truly can he see the meaning and understand the force of the New Testament Revelation. Without this preparatory training, the significance as well as the beauty of New Testament language is in a great measure lost. Many passages cannot be understood in a theological sense, unless they are first understood in an archaeological one. " Nonpossuut inteliigi theologicey nisi prius intelligantur archivologice" Next to an accurate knowledge of Jewish archa.'ology, nothing would aid a student of the New Testament so much as to read it under the guidance and tuition of a scholarly Jew. A flood of light would thus be poured upon the doctrines and discipline of the Kingdom of Christ — the Church. What marvellous associations cluster round that word — Church ! What deeds of heroism, what sufferings and joys unspeakable ; what magnificent institutions ; what immortal literature, are due to the Society called the Church ! And yet. Christians are sadly divided regarding its nature and organization, though they agree, indeed, in saying that no description of its structure can be the right one, unless it correspond with the accounts given in the earliest Christian Writings, the New Testament. Hence, every Christian denomination arrogates to itself the honorable title of Scriptural Church. Every sect thinks that its organization exhibits this required correspondence, and it therefore follows that the New Testament was meant to be so elastic as to be capable of many interpretations, or at all events, not so definite as to demand that all men should be required to read it in the same light. But this supposition is deroga- tory to the inspired authors of these Writings, and a thoughtful man will suspect that the fault lies with the readers of the books, and not with the writers, and the fact is so. Most readers study the Sacred Writings with so many prepossessions in favor of their own ecclesiastical system, and therefore strain them so vio- lently, that they are unconsciously deceived. But besides this prejudice, there is also what is equally blind- ing, an ignoring of the Old Testament. The value of the Old Testament will appear while we offer some considerations, which, though little thought of, may help us to form an enlightened opinion on the meaning of New Testament language generally when it speaks of Church organization. And in very deed we should pray the more earnestly " That we may read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Scriptures " which bear upon the formation and structure of the Body of Christ ; because, could Christians agree on this point, the greatest step towards the blessing of unity would be taken. to A fallacy which besets many who seek for a descrip- tion of the visible Church in the New Testament is that of supposing Christianity to be altogether a new religion ; just as some people are persuaded that because great changes were made at the Reformation, the Church of England is a new Church,* or at least so far a modern one, that her previous history, litera- ture and ritual are of no account, so multitudes imagine that Christianity, though originating in Ju- daism, yet, after its birth, owed nothing to it, or was wholly independent of its influence. Accordingly, they fail to see the consequences of what really is the fact, that Christianity and Judaism are substantially one — the same religion in difl^srent historical stages. Chris- tianity is Judaism in its perfection, and Judaism was Christianity in its infancy. The great diflerence between the two periods of the same religion is, that Judaism was prospective, and therefore dimly pro- phetical; Christianity is retrospective, and therefore brightly historical. The one was ever looking forward to him who was to come " to be the glory of His peo- ple, Israel ;" the other has been looking back to Him who came " to be a light to lighten the Gentiles." There ought not, in fact, to be a blank page between the Old and New Testaments. The only separation between them is one of time. But time should no more discornect the Prophet Malachi and St. Mat- thew, than it should disconnect Genesis and Exodus. ! ». St. Matthew takes up the thread where Malachi drop- ped it, and records how the Prophecy, " Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me," was fulfilled in those days when "John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea." His preaching was not that of one bidding the Jews to look forward to the destruction of the Church, but to its perfection ; his theme was God's ability to enlarge it by "raising up children unto Abraham." St. Mat- thew and St. Luke take care to unite the two dispen- sations bv the link of Christ's genealogy ; the one prefixing it to the history of His natural, the other to the history of His ministerial life. St. Paul never supposed that his conversion, though it opened his eyes and turned him from darkness to light, had trans- ferred him into a new Church. We find St. Paul at Antioch, and St. Stephen at Jerusalem, commencing their arguments for conversion, by a recapitulation of Jewish Church history, to show how intimate the union was between the old and new dispensations. They sum up the past history of Judaism to show that its natural issue was in " Him whom they knew not, nor yet the voices of the Prophets which were read every Sabbath day," and that the transition from the Jewish to the Christian stage of the one Church was most easy, natural and philosophical. Throughout the epistles we find that St. Paul's leading idea was that Christian- ized Gentiles are the true sons of faithful Abraham. " If," says he, "ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed fa and agani, " We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of Promise."^ These are passages which prove that Converted Gentiles were considered by St. Paul as children "raised up unto Abraham," who under- stood their true position in the Church in consequence of the coming of Christ. Our Lord himself also taught that there should be eventually "one flock and one Shepherd," and he plainly stated that His ollice was to "bring" the Gentiles to the fold, and "that they should sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the King- dom of God ;" or, in other words, the Gentiles were to be added to the parent stock of the existing Church, and as St. Paul says, be c " grafted in as a wild olive tree ;" admitted as d " fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ." The Ecclesia of the New Dispensation was not then a novel Institution recruited out of Jews and Gentiles, but was the Ecclesia of God which had existed from the begin- ning, only developed and spiritualized. We can point to the date when this Catholic and spiritualizing pro- cess began, that is to the Baptism of Cornelius, and the day of Pentecost ; we can fix the time when the Priest- hood was changed, necessitating a change of law, e namely, when, Christ breathed upon the Apostles, commissioned them, and ascended into heaven ; but all a Gal. iii. 29. b Gal. vi. 28. c Rom. xi. 17. d Eph. iii. 6. c Hcb. vll. i. • I 10 these things took place in the existing Church of God^ according to Prophecies, the record of which was part of the Church's law, and entrusted to the Church's officers. In other words, the Church of God in the Old Testa- ment was not a type only of the Church of Christ in the New, but was that Church itself — one with it in identity and continuity, the true members of it " dying in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them ;" or, more forcibly and literally, '' having seen and saluted them from afar." St. Paul is explicit on this point. In one place^ he asserts " that the Scripture preached before the Gospel unto Abraham," and in another^ place he says of the Jews under Moses, " that unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them.'" The whole Bible is the history of the same one Church, in all its phases of growth and knowledge, and to search it for instruction how to set up a Church on Scriptural principles is absurd, because as there has ever been but one Church, so we must be as a communitv members of it, or else a self- constituted, unprivileged imitation of it. Scripture story does not profess to give any instructions regard- ing the mode of organizing a Church, but merely to bear witness to the unity and development of the Church. I Gal. iii. 8. 2 Heb. iv. 2. 11 Let us consider the argument which may be drawn from the Name of God's Society. We know that there was a deep religious meaning involved in the revelation (gradually made) of the Name of God himself, as El, and Adonai, and Jehovah. A striking significance may also be found in the Name of God's people, as a Society, in all ages. Its most ancient name in the Old Testament is mm'ynp* ( Kahal Jehovah). The Septuagintal equivalent for this name is iKU,,aia Krp/o,, (Ecclesia Kuriou.) Now as the Jews of our Lord's day thought, and spoke, and read in Sep- tuagintal phraseology, when engaged in religious subjects, — the fact that muo^ (Kurios),, the familiar translation of Jehovah has bten applied to Christ, has ever been considered a proof that Jehovah and Christ are identical in essence. Similarly, we argue that since tKn>.ricia ( Ecclesia ) is the familiar rendering in the Septuagint of hr\p ( Kahal ) the * ^T^^i (kahal) and its equivalent iKK/r/am was .'/« name of the Jewish people regarded as a religious Community, a holy Nation, in centra-distinction to r}-\]} (edah) the name of the people as a diiil Community. The Septuagint translate the former hy tKK/voin, ninety times, and the latter by ffwrr/u)?/ one hundred and thirty times. It is true that kahal also is translated by crrm- }c^)//, thirty-seven times ; but it is evident that these exceptions only prove the general rule that the Septuagint use Ecclesia whenever they wish to express the Jewish people when engaged in any religious act, or described in any connection with their duties to Jehovah. This will appear on examining the thirty-seven exceptions, and also from the striking fact t/iat they never employ iKK/r/aia {Eiclesia)as a traniUthn cf m^ (edah). Bishop Wordsworth, in his note to St. Mat- thew xvi. 1 8, says that it is so employed ; but we have not been able to find an instance even with the aid of the Concordance of Tromius. His reference to Psalm Ixxxii. I, as an instance, is surely a mistake, since the word there employed is 12 assembly or congregation of God's people, and since Ecclesia is the term employed in the New Testament to designate the Christian body, the identity of the terms Kahal and Ecclesia prove the intended identity of God's Society under both Dispensations. This will appear more clearly if we remember that the word Ecclesia occurs but twice in the written life of Christ, and that on both occasions it was used by Him- self. Moreover, it occurs in the Gospel of St. Mat- thew, the only one written in Hebrew. In both instances the word spoken by our Lord, and written by St. Matthew, was doubtless ^np (Kahal), and the translator of the Gospel into Greek, probably St. Matthew himself, rendered the word by iiia:a (Ecclesia). It is also worth observing that on the first occasion of our Lord's using this word (St. Mat- thew, xvi. 1 8.) ^'Iwill build my Church," — the Ecclesia evidently means the Christian Society, and that on the second occasion (St. Matthew xviii. 17,) it as clearly means the Jewish Society. ^' Tell it unto the Church." On the first occasion, our Lord was speak- ing of a Society, still in the future. On the second occasion he was giving a general rule to His hearers, and referring them to the existing Institution, the officers of the Jewish Church, appointed by the law of Moses, the Judges and Rulers of " the Ecclesia," not " of my Ecclesia," which was not as yet built upon the I mmm A I i 18 foundation of Apostles and Prophets. Beza « remarks upon this place, '' It is to be observed that in this one place of all the New Testament, the name of the Church is spoken of the Jews." This remark is not strictly accurate; because St, Stephen (Acts vii. 38,) speaks of the Jews as " the E,cclesia in the wilderness." Yet it is most significant that our Lord should have given to His Religious Society the same identical desig- nation which was the common, familiar name of the existing Religious Society, intimating as clearly as words can do, that His Ecclesia, though about to differ from the Ecclesia, was to be a development or superstructure, — not something wholly new. If it be said that identity of np' does not prove identity of Institution, be- cause Ecclesia is used by the Septuagint to express an assembly of any kind, we may reply that the Septua- gint apply the term ^vimr^ to express both God and man ; and yet its application to Christ has ever been deemed a satisfactory proof of His identity with Jeho- vah. Similarly Ecclesia, though it be used to express both a Divine and human organization among the Jews, yet its application by Christ, to express the Christian Society, proves the intended identity of the Jewish and Christian Churches. The significance of bearing this in mind will be heightened if we remember that the whole scientific phraseology of the New Testament is taken from the a Vid. Bilson's Perpetual Gov, Ch. of Christ, p. 73. -! t I it. 14 Septuagint which was to all intents and purposes «* the authorized version " among the Jews. Such words as Repentance, Cundvoia') Faith (^mauc^ Justifi- cation, QiKaioavvrj) Redemption, {anoUrpuair,) Atonement, (/caro/.?.a}//) Propitiation OUafio^:) Church, O-KKX^tria) and many such like are common to both, and when rightly understood, mean in each the same thing. Had Christianity been wholly independent of Juda- ism, in the sense popularly entertained, it would have needed a new terminology. But no such ter- minology was needed or invented. On the contrary, the science of salvation, through Christ, was preached and recorded in the old technical terms, which, for nearly three hundred years before the Incarnation, had been familiar to the Jews. It is also worth observing that the common phrase- ology of the present day. The Church of Christy no where occurs in the New Testament. Why, but to teach us that there was still in existence The Church of God of the Old Testament ? It is true that we have once (Rom. xvi. i6.) "The Churches of Chris f ; but the usual designation of the Christian community is the same as that of the Jewish, viz., ( kuKiTjaia rov deov ) the Church of God ; and if the true reading, in Acts XX. 28, preferred by the best authorities, be {Kvpinv) (Kuriou) we have the identical designation applied by the Septuagint to the Jewish, used by St. Paul to express the Christian Church. If, indeed, the phrase JBPSjBBS 15 i purposes :ws. Such ■'f) Justifi- itonement, KKkTjaia) and and when me thing. of Juda- it would such ter- i contrary, s preached ivhich, for latlon, had on phrase- Christ, no hy, but to "he Church It we have hrist ; but nity is the w deov ) the J, in Acts be {nvpinv^ m applied It. Paul to the phrase Church of Christ had been the usual New Testament expression, there might seem grounds for contrast- ing the Church of GoJ, and the Church of Christ,* but no such contrast is to be found ; although from the almost universal use of the latter phrase in common conversation, and in our sermons, one would suppose that there was authority for it in the New Testament. Again, not only is the name of the Society under both dispensations, the same, but the epithets used to express the privileges and prerogatives of the corporate members of the Society are identical also. St. Peter calls them " a chosen generation," (yivor tK/.sKrm') " a royal priesthood," OaaiAtiov kpaTcvua) " an holv nation," ( iOvon ayiov;) " a peculiar people," (^'/.adr eh; :zepi.7Toh/mv ■ ) the vcrv terms applied to the Jews by Moses, (Deut. vii. 6 ; Exod. xix. 5,) and by Isaiah (chap, xliii. 2i,) and taken verbatim from the Septuagint. St. Paul also stvles Christians *' the Israel of God." (Gal. vi. 1 6,) and, writing to the Gentile Christians of Ephesus, he reminds them that before their conversion they were " aliens from the commonwealth of Israel," (Eph. ii. 1 2.) Can any phraseology indicate more clearly the belief of those two great Apostles regarding the con- * II we may venture to assign a reason why wc do not find the expression Church of Christ in the New Testament, we may find it in the fact that the Church is God's in a sense in which it is not Christ's. Christ is its Mediatorial King, but only till the consummation of all things, " when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father," and " then shall the Son also Him- self be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."— I Cor, XV. 24-28. M |»|M I 16 tiniiity and identity of privileges and blessings under both covenants ? Moreover, the names of the oflicers of the Christian Society were not new. The first were the twelve " whom also He named Apostles," (aTO(Tro/.oi.f.) But as our Lord did not speak Greek, the word Apos- tles (arroffrj/.nir) is doubtless a translation of the Syro- Chaldccic word used by Him cm^tr^ (Scheluchim,) persons sent or commissioned. It also means brides- men ; so that one reason, according to Lamyy why our Lord may have given this name to his first Ministers was because they were his bridesmen, in allu- sion to the Jewish custom of the bridegroom's friends leading the bride to his house, and this throws light upon that passage where we read that our Lord replied to the question, why his disciples did not fast, by saying, " Can the children of the bride-chamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them." We are also enabled to see more point in St. Paul's remarks on the great mystery of the marriage between Christ and His Church, and in his allusion to his own duty as an Apostle, when he says : ** I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." (II Cor, xi. 2.) This -word Apostle (anoaToioq) was perfectly familiar to the Jews. It was the Septua- gintal translation of {Scheliachim), And the same may- be said of Bishop (i-iaKoirog.) The Septuagint, which was read in their synagogues every Sabbath day, must MAK 17 ngs under Christian fie twelve -oi'f.) But rd Apos- he Syro- eluchim,) IS brides- 2wy, why his first 1, in allu- 's friends 3WS light d replied fast, by iber fast are also cs on the and His ty as an. u to one nrgin to Septua- .me may :, which y, must "have completely familiarized them with the term. They would hear and read (Numb. iv. i6.) that Eleazar, the son of Aaron the Priest, was called Bishop OnioKonnr) and that Jehoiada, (II Kings xi. i8.) "appointed ofiicers ('irm/coirovf) over the house of the Lord." Nehemiah, also, ( chap. xi. 22 ) had said that there was an " Overseer, (/»rm«o,rov) of the Levites at Jerusalem ;" and Isaiah (chap. Ix. 17,) in that magnificent outburst of Prophecy concerning the glory of the Church in the admission of the Gentiles, represents God as saying, " I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors OniaKoirov; ) righteousness." The name of Bishop thus applied to Eleazar who had *' the oversight i':niaKonr,v) of the tabernacle," and to those whom Jehoiada the Priest had set over the house of the Lord ;" used also by Nehemiah to denote *' the overseer of the Levites," and by Isaiah to describe the officers of the Church when the Messiah should come, such a word must, we repeat, have conveyed to the Jewish mind a well-known and familiar idea of Church government. Few things are more remark- able in the New Testament than the ready acquiescence with which the converts received the Church govern- ment established by the Apostles. Disputes and con- troversies arose about points of doctrine innumer- able, but we read of, none respecting government. St. Paul's axiom was, that "the Priesthood being B \*\\ :' 18 changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law," (Hcb. vii. 12,) and while the truth of the latter part of the axiom was by no means accepted unanimously, the acceptation of the former clause was universal. The fact is, that the Messiahship of Jesus being once admitted, the transfer of the Priesthood from the Lcvitical Priests to those appointed by Him was acknowledged as a necessary consequence. No attempt was made to oppose the Apostles and Presby- ters on the ground that " they sought the Priesthood also;" although it is very evident from St. Jude's words ( Jude xi. ) that the sin of Korah may be com- mitted by Christians. Neither did any schism or con- troversy ever arise regarding the abolition of the chief function of the Levitical Priests, the bloody sacrifices of the altar. So ingrained in Jews and Gentiles was the idea of sacrifice that nothing more marvellous appears in the history of Christianity than the unani- mity with which it was abandoned ; and one reason for it may be that the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Lord's Supper fully answered the cravings of the soul ; but the truth is the Septuagint Scriptures had prepared the minds of Jews and Gentiles for the transfer of the Priesthood to Christ, and those commissioned by Him, and for the abolition of bloody sacrifices also.* The. • In the Greek version the literal import of the legal or sacrificial ceremonial terms it seldom exactly translated. A more general and less delinite word is often substituted. The Septuagint was destined to change the Hebrew, into the Hellenist kf gradually enlarging his conceptions. — Grinfield't Apology for the^LXX., p 124. 19 mge also of i uth of the ns accepted • clause was ip of Jesus Priesthood ed by Him jcnce. No nd Presby- Priesthood St. Jude's ay be com- ism or con- of the chief y sacrifices entiles was marvellous the unani- ; reason for the Lord's soul ; but 1 prepared isfer of the sdby Him, Iso* The. Epistle to the Hebrews was written with the same view, and is, in consequence, more full of Septu- agintal quotations than any other part of the New Testament. From the Greek version of the Old Tes- tament, the believers in Christ derived, as from a vocabulary, the names of their Church oiTicers as well as their doctrinal phraseology, so that both had much less appearance of novelty than we are disposed to think. Without the providential existence of that version, the propagation of Christ's kingdom would, humanly speaking, have been infinitely more diffi- cult, but it served as an aqueduct to conduct the river of God from the dark fountains of the original Hebrew, till it flowed brightly and clearly into the reservoir of the New Testament. ficial ceremonial te word is often ito the Hellenist the^LXX., p 124. .jiM^ MJM 4 DISCOURSE II. ''7(?r whatsoever things were written aforetime^ were written for our learning*' — Rom. xv. 4. In the previous discourse I endeavoured to show that we ought not to expect to find in the New Tes- tament the plans and specifications of the Christian Church, because, in reality, it was not so much a new one that was established as an old one that was modified. Had minute directions for the formation of the Church been laid down, like those for the building of the Ark or the Tabernacle, the mistake might have been made and perpetuated, of supposing Christianity- something totally new and revolutionary, and not, as it really is, the culmination and fulfilment of the law and the Prophets. Hence the great necessity of lending an attentive ear and a prayerful heart to the Old Tes- tament Scriptures, which were written for the very- purpose that we might understand the New. If all the quotations from the Old Testament, made by our Lord and His Apostles and Evangelists, were gathered together, they would occupy a space equal to that of St. Mark's Gospel, The two Testaments are thus interwoven together, and so are the Jewish and Chris- tian Churches, 1! I 1f 22 In proof, I cited some passages from St. Paul's writings which prove that, in his judgment. Christians were the true ^^ Israel of God." The Apostle's oral and written teaching were thus understood by his fellow- labourer, St. Clement, who wrote his first Epistle to the Church at Corinth before the books of the New Testament were gathered into a volume, and, in all probability, before some of them were written. The continuity of the two dispensations is his leading idea.* He corrects abuses at Corinth by an appeal to the injunctions of our Lord, and reminds the Corinthians that High Priest, Priests, Levites and laymen have their respective ministries. This merging of the Jew- ish Ecclesiastical Polity in the Christian everywhere appears in the writings of those who lived nearest the times, and best understood the teaching, of the Apostles. Hence, we should not be surprised at what Eusebius tells us on the authority of the historian Polycrates, who lived A.D. 190, that St. John used to wear the Petalon [TrtraXov] or Jewish mitre. Epiphanius also says, on the authority of Clemens, Alex., and others, that St. James the Less wore the same • " And thus preaching through the countries and cities, they (the Apostles), appointed the first fruits (of their labours) having first proved them by the Spirit, to be Bishops and Deacons, of those who should afterwards believe. Nor was this anything new ; since, indeed, many ages before it was written concerning Bishop* and Deacons. For thus saith the Scripture, (Isaiah Ixx. 17.) I will appoint their Bishops in righteousness, and their Deacons in faith." — St. Clement to the Cor- inthians. 23 St. Paul's , Christians )ostle's oral r his fellow- Epistle to f the New and, in all ten. The ding idea.* )eal to the Corinthians rmen have f the Jew- iverywherc ed nearest iig, of the ed at what historian John used e. Clemens, e the same th'>' Apostles), n by the Spirit, Nor was this rning Bishopt appoint their nt to the Cof- sacerdotal plate; and we cannot read the opening words of his Catholic Epistle without suspecting strongly that he, as Bishop of Jerusalem, considered that he had succeeded to the true and spiritual High Priesthood, and that he had therefore authority to address " The Twelve Tribes." He was filling the office in the kingdom of which Christ spoke, when He promised that His Apostles "should sit on Thrones judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel." Indeed the Jewish element must have prevailed extensively at Jerusalem'; the Scriptural statement that a great company ('m>'") of the Priests were obedient to the faith. (Acts vi. 7.) and that many myriads UvfunSyr) of Jews believed, (Acts xxi. 20,) prepare us for the historical fact that tlie fn-st fifteen Bishops of the City, that is, to the time of the Emperor Hadrian, were Hebrews of the Circum- cision. St. Basil, in the fourth century, gives similar testimony, when he says : '• A portion of believers in Christ has been saved from the whole of Israel, the election having been found in a few only ; which por- tion actino; as leaven to the Gentiles has drawn them all over to a resemblance of itself." It has been well said by a late writer,* " The Constitution which Christ gave to mankind has been found capable of being transplanted into almost every soil ; but, notwithstand- ing, it is native to Palestine, and must have been .1,., I . , , • Autiior of " Ecce Homo." 1 w I 1 24 embraced by those to whom it was first given, with an ease and readiness which the western nations cannot emulate. Christ's Constitution was not a new inven- tion, but a crowning development of that which had existed in Palestine since the race of Israel had lived there." Hence we trace the influence of Judaism in almost all the Institutions of the Church, and this is not the result of accident, but of necessary consequence. The family likeness of the parent stock is still visible in the children. Bishops, priests, and deacons were not onlv suggested by, but are the Christian representatives of. High Priest, Priests and Levitcs. Our Churches are planned after the model of the Tabernacle and the Synagogue arrangements, chancel and nave correspond- ing with the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The Table of the Lord placed in the chancel, and at the east end, and bearing witness to the Blood of the New Covenant, perpetuates the custom of setting the ark containing the book of the Law, at the Jerusalem-end or sanctuary of the Synagogue. The surplice is the substitute for the Jewish ephod. The elements of the Holy Eucharist are to be found in the Passover service : for not only was there a lamb roasted whole with two spits thrust through it, the one lengthwise, crossing the longitudinal one, so that the animal was in a man- ner crucified, and typified " Christ our Passover* • The history of the 'institution of the Passover, and the cxiv--cxviii Psalmi are proper Lessons and Psalms, respectively, for the Christian Passover Feait J f 25 ven, with an Ltions cannot 1 new inven- Lt which had lel had lived f Judaism in h, and this is consequence, s still visible ;ons were not presentatives )ur Churches tiacle and the e correspond- Holies. The md at the east of the New ;tting the ark erusalem-end ;urplice is the ements of the sover service ; lole with two wise, crossing was in a man- ur Passover* cxlv--cxviii Psalmi tian Passover Fea;C sacrificed for us," but the master of the family broke bread after having blessed it, and divided to each one a part, and likewise wine mixed with water, called the cup of benediction, referred to by St. Paul, (I Cor. x. 1 6.) who calls the Sacramental wine ^*the cup of blessing," after which the cxv-cxviii Psalms were sung. The admission of infants to Church -membership, by bap- tism, has no direct authority for it in the New Testa- ment ; but the analogy of circumcision, and the fact that the law of membership was not repealed, justify infant baptism. The rules which direct the naming of chil- dren at their baptism, and which forbid the admission of the unbaptised to the Holy Communion, are derived from the Jewish practices of naming* children (as in the case of our Lord and St. John the Baptist) at their circumcision, and of prohibiting the uncircumcised from the Passover feast. The system of sponsors comes from the Jews, who received proselytes by cir- cumcision and baptism^ when three witnesses or spon- sors were present at the ceremony ; and the well- known phrase Regeneration in baptism is the Christian form of the Jewish saying, that proselytes immersed in baptism rose new men, or the new-born sons of of Easter.T he Psalms selected by the Church are the hymns sung at the Pass- over by tiie Jews, and no doubt were the Hymns sung by our Lord and Hit Apostles at the Last Supper. • Paradoxical though it he, our commonest CItrhtian names are Jnv}sli, and the popular epithets ot" endearment used to express our Churches are Zion and Jerusalem, :i I 26 Abraham ; and so transforming was this baptism sup- posed to be, that it put an entire end to the proselyte's connection with his kindred according to the flesh. Hence our Lord's surprise that Nicodemus, a master in Israel, did not understand his reference to a new birth by water. The right of Confirmation is evidently an adaptation to the circumstances of the Christian Church, of that ceremony by which every young Jew, at the age of twelve years, came to the Temple for examination in the Law. The laying on of the Bishop's hand corresponds with the blessing given by the Jew- ish Priest, and the release of God-parents from obliga- tions is the co-relative of the law by which the young Jew, after such examination and blessing, was held personally liable for infraction of the law of Moses. An instance of such a rite is mentioned by St. Luke, when he informs us that our Lord, iit the age of twelve years, went to the Temple and was found sitting in the midst of the Doctors. The Churching of women is simply a Christian imitation of the Jewish ceremony of Purification. But it is not only in such ecclesiasti- cal arrangements that the analogy between the Church before the day of Pentecost and afterwards may be seen; each baptised Christian is the true representative of the faithful sons of Abraham. We confess it when in our solemn Good Friday Service we pray } " That all Jews, Turks, Infidels and Heretics may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites.'' Nay, more, 27 Daptism sup- le proselyte's :o the flesh, lus, a master a new birth is evidently he Christian young Jew, Temple for 'the Bishop's 1 by the Jew- from obliga- :h the young ig, was held ,w of Moses, by St. Luke, age of twelve sitting in the of women is ish ceremony ch ecclesiasti- ;n the Church ards may be epresentative nfess it when ray s (C That nay be saved ' Nay, more, in our daily service we deliberately employ as our own Anthems of praise, the songs of the Blessed Virgin and Zacharias, and call Abraham " our forefather." Our Liturgical solemnities are largely composed of Jewish Psalms and Hymns, which we Christianize by appending to them a ''Gloria Palri." The Lord's Prayer itself is not an original composition. It con- sists of selections made from the Prayers of the Syna- gogue ; our Lord thus intimating, significantly, that the Church he was building was not a new one, but a development of the old, and its prayers intended to be eclectic (as they are) from those of the Jews. Even in the highest of all our acts of worship, the Holy Communion, we begin our service with the recitation of the Jewish Decalogue, and " this Min- istration of wrath written and engraven on stones," connects us with our Jewish original when '* showing forth our Lord's death." The custom of reading in the daily service a lesson from the Old and New Tes- tament, not only intimates our equal respect for both, but is derived from the usage of reading in the Syna- gogues a lesson from the Law and the Prophets. The •combination of sermons with divine worship had its origin in the practice of the Synagogue after the Baby* lonish captivity, when discourses on the Law became necessary to prevent the people from relapsing into idolatry. The Antiphonal chanting of the Psalter is a Jewish practice, the only Christian peculiarity being li iik 26 the addition of a doxology to each Psalm. The Cathedral usage of saying the service chorally comes to us from the Jews, who always read their pray- ers, and even the Scriptures, in a chant ; and so late as the prayer-book of Elizabeth, the Rubric directed *f the Lessons to be sung in a plain tune after the man- ner of distinct reading, and likewise the Epistle and Gospel." The building of our Churches east and west, so that the worshippers should pray eastward, is derived from the practice of the Jews to pray towards Jerusa- lem. Thus David says : '* I will worship towards Thy holy temple," (Ps. v. 7,) and Daniel kneeled upon his knees and prayed, "his windows being open toward Jerusalem," (Dan. vi. 10.) " Executing the Priest's office in the order of his course," like Zacharias, is represented at this day in the alternating services of Canons residentiary. The distinction which we draw between the Civil and Ecclesiastical year originated with the Jews, and religious communities under vows arc clearly traceable to the schools of the Prophets and the Essene Sect. The greater and lesser Excommunication were a reproduction of the very same discipline among the Jews, and are the equivalents of the Greek Ana- thema, and the Syriac Maranatha uttered by St. Paul- The Jewish " Sabbath of their Lord their God," is per- petuated, if not in the letter, yet in spirit and in truth in the Lord's day. The mode of maintaining the Jewish priesthood by tithes and offerings passed on by \ w 29 *salm. The ice chorally d their pray- nd so late as )ric directed ter the man- Epistle and ist and west, d, is derived ards Terusa- awards Thy led upon his )pen toward the Priest's ^acharias, is \ services of ich we draw ginated with er vows arc hets and the imunication )line among jreek Ana- )y St. Paul- rod," isper- ,nd in truth taining the assed on by Divine command to the Christian, for as " they who minister about holy things live by the things of the temple, and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar, even so (o'Vw ««/) hath the Lord ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live by the •Gospel." (I Cor. ix.) The placing the Bible in the hands of every bishop, at his consecration, is the con- tinuation of the custom which, as Josephus tells us, ever prevailed, of delivering the Old Testament Scrip- ture to the charge of the High Priest on his succession to the office. We have the testimony of the Apostolic Constitutions that this rite existed in the Church in the second century, the Church thus, by acvion and sym- bol, expressing the belief that to her, as to the Jews previously, had been " committed the oracles of God," and that as "a witness and keeper of Holy writ," she possesses a Ministry with a Jewish as well as an Apos- tolic succession. Some of the same errors, too, which prevailed among the Jews, have descended to us ; per- haps the worst of them is the tendency to sectarianism. Pharisees, Saducees and Herodians have their repre- sentatives in the Church to-day, in Calvinists, Armen- ians and Erastians. Those church-members who hold the doctrine of particular election, are the counterpart of those Jews who claimed to be, as individuals, what they were only as a people, holy and elect, and were continually crying out, " The temple of the Lord, the .temple of the Lord, are we." The literal Sabbatarian- TT \- 30 ism of th^i ff.v/s has descended to the same class of religionists, in spite of all our Lord's assertions, and the legislation of his Apostles. Many in the present day make the New Testament void by their tradition, just as the Jews treated the Old Testament, and rendered it of " no effect." The pride and exclusiveness of those who loved the " chief and uppermost seats in the Synagogues," that is the seats nearest the place where the sacred books were kept, have been inherited by us, to the great damage of the Church. But enough has been said to show how reasonable, as well as how sig- nificant it is, to find the Jewish element so strong in the Church. From the days of St. Paul to the present hour there never has been a restriction laid on the adoption of a Jewish usage, simply because it was Jewish, unless it involved false doctrine. Such a restric- tion could not have been entertained by St. Paul, who accommodated himself to Jewish usages, by directing that St. Timothy should be circumcised, by " shaving his own head at Cenchraea, because he had a vow," and by " purifying himself, and being at charges with four men who had a vow." His language, " I must by all means keep this feast (Pentecost) which cometh at Jeru- salem, and St. Luke's statement that, " he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost," are not consistent with a total renunciation of Jewish observances, which he tolerated, but did not enforce. No Jewish peculiarity was, in all probability, 31 same class of rtions, and the le present day tradition, just and rendered :lusiveness of ist seats in the e place where herited by us, It enough has Jl as how sig- 3 strong in the :o the present laid on the pcause it was uch a restric- St. Paul, who by directing by "shaving a vow," and ges with four I must by all tnethatjeru- : hasted, if it at the day of renunciation , but did not probability, abandoned, unless the use of it indicated, directly or indirectly, that the Christ hud not come in the flesh. Hence, the Passover, with its prophetic types — the crucified lamb without a bone broken — could not be retained, when once the anti-type had appeared, and hence, too, the abolition of all sacrifice for sin. PVom the considerations mentioned we infer, that in order to arrive at aclear view of the structure of the Apostolic Church, we must do as the Apostles did in their addresses, recapifiila/e, and examine the doctrines and discipline which preceded it, and which were gra- dually merged in it. We shall then see how naturally, in everything "pertaining to the Kingdom of God," there is a correspondence with the details of the Jewish Theocracy. Doubtless, Christ intended this correspon- dence. He chose twehe Apostles to sit on thrones judg- ing the twehe tribes of Israel, and " appointed other seventy also," a sort of Christian Sanhedrim, and we are plainly led to believe that in the interval of forty days between his resurrection and ascension, He gave specific instructions regarding the positive institutions of the Church. For in the account of the Acts of the Apos- tles, they never seem to have been at a loss what to do, but always to have had their programme ready. They proceed to elect a successor to Judas, and on hearing of the conversion of the Samaritans, to commission two of their own number to confirm them, as matters of course. They knew exactly what steps to take under the cir- 32 i cumstances, and this must be attributed to their having received explicit instructions from Christ himself. Wc know that He charged them to " teach men to observe all things whatsoever He had commanded them," and those things were so numerous that the Mission of the Comforter was needed to bring them to their remem- brance. If we bear these things in mind, remembering that according to our Lord's own declaration, " Salva- tion is of the Jews," (John iv. 22,) and that the So- ciety which was oiganized to herald this salvation, was, at the first, of the Jews also, we shall find much assist- ance in answering the objection, that the Scriptures contain no code of by-laws or canonical regulations, for the government of the Society. It was the doctrines not the organization of the Society that had the appear- ance of novelty, its constitution being formed according to the oral teaching of its founder, by the adaptation of existing materials. Now, wherein consists the prac- tical importance of taking these things into considera- tion ? It lies in the fact that in these days of divisions and schisms, people, when distracted by the conflicting claims of Episcopacy, Congregationalism, Presbyter- ianism, or Methodism, &c., search the New Testa- ment, hoping to find such plans and specifications ot the Church of God as will enable them to detect the original building and decide the issue. But being disappointed in their search, they fly to the conclusior that all Christian Societies are equally good and Scrip- 88 3 their having himself. Wc [len to observe ;d them," and Mission of the I their remem- , remembering ation, " Salva- d that the So- salvation, was, nd much assist - the Scriptures regulations, for as the doctrines had the appear- )rmed according the adaptation )nsists the prac- into considera- lays of divisions y the conflicting lism, Presbyter- the New Testa- specifications of em to detect the iue. But being to the conclusior. good and Scrip- tural, provided their creed (as they term it,) be ortho- dox. They quite forget that no part of the New Testament pretends to give any such descriptions as they are looking for. It is a self-evident truth, though we need to be reminded of ir, that the Church must be older than any written account of it. Richard Baxter says the *' Creed is the very sum and kernel of the doctrine of the New Testament, and it i"^ older than the ivritiri'J-s of the New Testament." But one of the articles of the Apostles' Creed is, " I believe in the Holy Catholic Church," and of it we may say as Baxter has said of the other articles, the "' Apostles were not such formalists, or friends to ignorance and hypocrisy as to encourage the baptized to take up with the say- ing, ' 1 believe in the Iloly Catholic Church,' without teachinu; them to understand what they said." It would be therefore most unreasonable to expect to find Canons descriptive of Church government in the New Testa ment, because the writers were addressing persons to whom these things were perfectly familiar, and which had been made known to them previous to their Bap- tism. The organization for the details of which we are supposed to be seeking, is much older than the writings in which we are seeking for them. The Apostolic Church was not moulded into shape according to any Scriptural definitions, but, on the contrary, the Scrip- ture itself needed the evidence and approval of the 84 It Church before it could have had any authority as declaratory of the will of God. Our twentieth article says,that " the Church is the witness and keeper of Holy Writ," but we try to reverse the order of things, and make Holy Writ the witness and keeper of the Church. The New Testament was not written with the object of putting on record for all ages the draft of a Church Society. We cannot, of course, expect to find such in the Gospels, which contain narratives of events which occurred before the Church was organized at all ; nor yet in the Epistles, which were written to fully organ- ized Churches, not to inform them how they or their successors were to constitute themselves into societies, but to correct abuses, and to exhort to the maintenance of the faith, and to godly living. We might naturally expect to find in the Acts of the Apostles (if any- where) a complete pattern of Church organization ; but even there we find the items scattered here and there, incidentally, and evidently subsidiary to other objects. The fact is, the writers, and they to whom they were writing, were already members of a divinely constituted organization, when they wrote, and do not seem to be in the least conscious that they were writing history to which after ages would appeal for a warrant to justify Church polity. All, therefore, that we find, or ought to expect to find, is allusion to a state of things existing in their day, sometimes vague, sometimes plain enough, and all valuable when rightly considered. uthority as itieth article iperofHoly things, and the Church. I the object )f a Church ^nd such in /^ents which at all ; nor ully organ- ley or their to societies, naintenance It naturally es (ifany- janization ; d here and y to other J to whom a divinely and do not ere writing r a warrant lat we find, te of things sometimes considered. 35 It would tend to :i right knowledge of the mutual relations of the Scriptures and the Church, if we would remember what so many forget, that the writing of the New Testament was not the cause of the spread of Christianity, or of the organization of the Church, but was the effect of both. Notwithstanding the researches and erudition of the greatest scholars, we are in igno- rance as to when, or by whom, the Canon of the New Testament was compiled. We know that the books of which it is composed are genuine and authentic, but we also know that our present Canon did not obtain a fixed character, was not stereotyped, (so to speak) till nearly 400 years after Christ. Nothing can more plainly show the futility and unreasonableness of sup- posing that it was written to supply us with a receipt- book, by the directions of which men could set up a Scriptural Church or Churches. Indeed on the sup- position that the sacred books were composed for this purpose, we must see that they have utterly failed of their object. Before the age of printing they could not have been read with such intent, as till then they were practically unknown to the great mass of the laity ; and since the era of printing, the reading of them to find out rules of guidance in forming churches has resulted in a multitude of contradictory sects, all, however, claiming to be Scriptural Churches. Can we, then, derive no information from the New Testament regarding the Structure of the Church, r^ ,ti 'I M '.pi; i ii '"I 36 sufficient, at least, to enable us to identify her ? We certainly can, if we search for it aright, as we should for historical facts. We must seek for it precisely in the same manner that we seek for the Creeds. How are the great doctrines of the Gospel revealed to us in the New Testament ? Not in Canons, Creeds, Articles or By-laws, but incidentally and obliquely. The most mysterious doctrines and peculiarities of the Christian religion are not given in the Scriptures in such a way as to force conviction, or appear convincingly plain to a common understanding. On the contrary, they are arrived at inferentially by deductions of reasoning, and it is not too much to sav, that not one reader in a myriad would be able, unassisted, to draw from the New Testament the dogmas and subtleties and defini- tions of the three Creeds. Doctrines are taught us in the New Testament by allusion and incidentally, and as Archbishop Whately says, the "more forcibly, for that very reason, because the writers alluded to truths not only essential, but indisputably admitted and known to be essential by those to whom they were writing." To ascertain, therefore, the system of Theology pro-^ pounded, demands diligent investigation, helps and knowledge, and the very difficulties in the way test our honesty of purpose, and afford scope for a virtuous or a vicious exercise of our intellect. Now there is a. strong analogy between the manner in which doctrines are announced, and the manner in which rules for the ■IL. her ? We i we should zisdy in the How are o us in the Articles or The most i Christian uch a way \y plain to ', they are filing, and ^ader in a • from the nd defini- Jght us in tally, and cibly, for to truths id known writing." ogy pro- elps and r test our tuous or here is a doctrines 3 for the 37 organization of the Church, which was to guard and perpetuate those doctrines, are intimated to mankind. Jn both cases the sacred writings are a touch-stone which we may fairly apply to anything which claims to be Catholic and Apostolical, but we shall be greatly disappointed if we expect to be able to get through the process successfully, without the deepest hujnility, and prayerful assiduity. This view does not captivate most minds, even among earnest people. They say, it is true, that we read of Bishops, Priests and Deacons ; of certain men ordaining elders, and confirming the baptized ; of such godly discipline as fasting, and a weekly offer- tory, but these things are mentioned o)ily incidentally. ** Surely," says Whately, "on any point in which it was designed that all Christians should be everywhere, and at all times, bound as strictly as the Jews were to the Levitical law; we may fairly conclude they would have received directions no less precise and minute than had been afforded to the Jews." And so they did, but it was from the lips, and not from the writings, of the Apostles. This a priori expectation that the structure of the Church should have been laid down as precisely as that of the Tabernacle, if Christians were to be bound by it as strictly as the Jews were to the Levitical law, is most unreasonable. For even suppos- ing that the allusions and incidental remarks concern- ilig the Church, in the New Testament, differ very 'I '$ i a ^41 38 much in apparent force from the positive precepts of Leviticus, concerning the Jewish ritual, yet it does by no means follow that both are not equally binding revelations. " For," says a greater reasoner than Whately, Bishop Butler, " we cannot argue that this cannot be the sense or intent of such a passage of Scripture, for if it had, it would have been expressed more plainly. Yet we may justly argue thus with respect to common books, and the reason of this differ- ence is very evident, that in Scripture we are not competent judges, as we are in common books, how plainly it were to have been expected what is the true sense should have been expressed, or under how apt an image figured. The only question is, what appear- ance there is that this is the sense, and scarce at all, how much more determinately or accurately it might have been expressed." There is, indeed, a wide difference between the manner in which the Jews were taught their Church Polity by Moses, and the manner in which Christians are taught theirs by St. Paul. Moses wrote avowedly to teach the Jews their Polity, St. Paul did not. He, and the other New Testament writers wrote for fully organized Churches, and while instructing them in matters of doctrine and the religious life, always assume that they to whom they were writing knew the first principles of Church government. But still we can glean much information from the indirect allusions, the examples, the " Acts of the Apostles," even when ^e precepts of yet it does by ually binding easoner than ■gue that this a passage of :en expressed Je thus with ofthisdiffer- we are not books, how It is the true Jer how apt i^hat appear- e at all, how might have le difference ivere taught ler in which loses wrote t. Paul did riters wrote instructing life, always I knew the •ut still we t allusions, Jven when 89 the expressions seem merely olfifer dicta. Nay, more, there are many hints in the New Testament which should not be disregarded ; they are valuable or they would not have been recorded. Christ and St. Paul founded many an argument upon hints. He taught the doctrine of the Resurrection by an inference drawn from the tense of a verb, "I am the God of Abra- ham," &c. He refuted the popular notion regarding the Messiah, by an argument which depends on the fact that David calls his son his Lord. Plis inference from David's eating the shew-bread would scarcely be obvious to many. St. Paul builds an argument on the fact that the word " seed^'' ( Gal. iii. i6, ) is used by Jehovah in the singular, not in the plural number. His deduction from the Mosaic injunction, " Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn," (I Cor. ix. 9,) would not have occurred to us. He infers the decaying character of the old Covenant from the use of the word " new" by Jeremiah, and in quoting the Prophet Plaggai, he reasons from the force of the adverb ^^ once." It would be endless to cite all the passages in which St. Paul argues from the meaning or emphasis of single words, and the Holy Spirit intends that we should treat the New Testament as St. Paul treated the Old. We have precedents for drawing inferences from modes of expression, even where doc- trines are involved, and much more are we justified in inferring the Apostolic system of Church government 40 from the hints and indirect allusions, and forms of expressions scattered throughout the Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles. To quote Bishop Butler again, *' The hindrances, too, of natural and supernatural light and knowledge have been of the same kind ; and as it is owned that the whole scheme of Scripture is not yet understood, so if it ever comes to be understood, it must be in the same way as natural knowledge is come at, by the continuance and progress of learning and liberty, and by particular persons attending to, comparing and pursuing intimations scattered up and down it, which are overlooked and disregarded by the generality of the world. For this is the way in which all improvements are made, by thoughtful men tracing on obscure hints, ns it were, dropped us by nature, accidentally, or which seem to come into our minds by chance." As an illustration of our subject, let us suppose an enquirer into the Apostolical form of the Church's Ministry, unconvinced by the historical argu- ment which shows that for ',500 years after Christ, no form Avas known but the Episcopal ; nor yet by the weighty arguments from the Epistles to Timothy and Titus. To such an one we would suggest that something may be learned from the word so often used by Christ and His Apostles to designate the Church : the words ^^ Kingdom of Heaven." His fore- runner preached that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. Christ himself preached the Gospel of the Kingdom. 41 Only twice did He use the term Church ; and in His parables, when foreshowing the future destiny of that Church, he ever used the words Kingdom of Heaven. These words could not possibly have meant his invisible Church, because good and bad were to be gathered into its net ; and because it was to have keys by which it was to be shut and opened. xNow is there not in the designed selection of the term Kingdom, an intimation that there should not be a parity of Ministers in its administration ? Is not the Monarchical idea manifest ? and if the Kingdom of Heaven bears any analogy to the Kmgdom in Heaven, may we not expect that grades of rank should prevail, for there is assuredly revealed to us the existence of a celestial Hierarchy ? This is, however, only reasoning from intimations and hints, and yet he who carefully examines all the passages in which the word occurs, will not fail to sec considerable force in the use and meaning of it. What encouragement have we in these considera- tions to the careful study of the Scriptures ? How is faith strengthened by that humble and earnest perusal of the Divine records which results in the discovery of new beauty, new power, new coincidences ! And be it l-emembered by those who presumptuously suppose that God ought to have given us our instructions in plainer terms than He has been pleased to do, on those subjects like Church government, which have rent and torn Christendom, that obedience is not rendered to moral 42 .■i precepts in the proportion of their dogmatic plainness. Then why should we suppose that minute directions regarding government or ritual would fare better if we had them. Nothing can be well more precise than the Decalogue, and yet we know how the Jews made it void by tiicir tradition, of which their treatment of the fifth commandment was a notable instance. And among ourselves, what duties are more disregarded than thcrr vhich are most plainly enjoined, such as partaking oi :'.: Hoiy Communion and the duty of fasting ? In ritua? Td Church order, what can be more specific t) c n ,;he jnidemnation of favoritism, and respect of persons in the Lnurch, and yet the pew system is in full force without the smallest pang being caused by its abuses. It is not then the plain precepts of Scrip- ture whether as to doctrine or ritual, or discipline, that alone demand respectful investigation. The will of God, however conveyed, is still the will of God. " y4ll Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profit- able." God's will has been revealed to us " at sundry times, and in divers manners," perhaps to suit all classes of men, and all habits of mind, A man may have been brought to believe that Jesus was Christ, by pondering on the marvellous way in which thousands of types find their solution in Him, and yet the same person would be quite unimpressed by the history of His miracles. The wondrous way in which the sayings and doings of Moses and the Prophets, fit into, and explain the life 43 and death of Christ, has proved too strong an argu- ment for many a sceptic ; because, as has been well said^ "The more numerous and intricate the wards of a lock, the more certain may we be that the key which fits it is the very key of that lock." Be exhorted, then, brethren, to a reverent study of those things which Moses in the law, and the Prophets did write." They will lead you to Jesus, and make you to understand, so far as human intelligence can. His first advent. Be assured that Moses and the Prophets reveal to us mystically the miracle of mercy contained in the atone- ment, as certainly as Moses and Elias on the Mount of transfiguration spoke of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem ; they will make you as they made St. Timothy, " wise unto salvation," and enable you to understand those pregnant sayings of our Lord, " if they hear not Moses and the Pro- phets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." " If ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" n ■■t m f I DISCOURSE III. " For whatsoever things were written aforetime were vjrtttenfor our learnings Rom. xv. 4. In former sermons, I directed attention to some mistaken views with which many persons read the Scriptures of the New Testament, when they search them tor the purpose of identifying the Apostolic form of Church Government. In order to correct these views, and to enable enquirers fairly and successfully to perform their task, two points are to be remembered First, that the Christian Church is not so much a new organization, as an enlargement and remodelling of an old one; that the Church of the old Dispensa- tion bears to the Church of the new, a relation very similar to that which the Old Testament bears to the New Testament ; the New being f«veloped in the Old, and the Old being ^^veloped by the New. The second point to be kept in view is, that the New Testament was not written with the intention of conveying either at the time its authors wrote, or since, any such infor- mation as we express by the words Canons, Constitu- tion and By-laws of Church Government. Having been written long after the Church was established in a great part of the world, and addressed to members of 46 r a fully organized community, it is unreasonable to expect to find anything more than allusions and indi- rect hints as to the structure of the visible Church. We are not, however, to conclude that God did not intend to convey his will to us by these allusions and hints, however apparently incidental. On the contrary, we are taught by the analogy of nature, that know- ledge in natural science is gathered by thoughtful and observant men watching for and profiting by hints and suggestions ; and there seems no reason why in super- natural science God should not teach us in the same way. Moreover, we know that the moral precepts of the Bible are not obeyed in the direct proportion of their unmistakeable plainness, nor, indeed, the posi- tive precepts either, and therefore we infer that we are not judges beforehand of the method best suited to convey to perverse human nature, a revelation con- cerning Church polity. Now there are two ways in which God might have imparted to us this revelation. First, in the precise and dogmatic way, such as the Decalogue and Levitical law in the Old Testament, and the institution of Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord, in the New ; secondly, in the indirect and infer- ential way, such as the institution of ordination, con- firmation, the weekly oflertory, infant baptism, and the admission of women to Holy Communion. If we wish to know which of these two modes is the most successful in winning obedience, and if we allow cxpe- 47 rience to decide the point, we shall have little diOicultj in declaring in favour of the indirect and inferential method. There would seem to be something in human nature which attaches it more warmly to a doctrine or a polity which it has reasoned out for itself, by an analysis of Scripture, than to the most detailed and minute commands, even though perfectly plain, and prefaced with the solemn formula, " Thus saith the Lord." We cannot then but think that the statement is most illogical which asserts " that on any point in which it was designed that all Christians should be at all times, and everywhere bound as strictly as the Jews were to the Levitical Law, we may plainly conclude they would have received directions no less minute than had been afforded to the Jews."* For why should we draw any such inference ? The great point after all, is not the form or shape of the directions, but the giving them in the way best calculated to secure an obedience as universal as possible. The sharp and precise character of the Levitical code did not secure general obedience at all times. The commands to ob- serve the Sacraments of Circumcision and the Passover were frequently violated. The denunciations against idolatry were constantly disregarded. And in the New Testament we can find illustrations which prove that plain, direct precepts do not command our obedience a whit more, nor even as much as oblique and indirect • Whately's Kingdom of Christ, page 75. 4a !i ones. Indeed some of the plainest and most direct precepts are utterly neglected; the precept against eating blood, and sueing brethren in civil courts are not considered binding. The directions for the obser- vance of love-feasts, anointing the sick in order to their cure, the kiss of peace, and washing each oti feet, are tqually explicit and obsolete. Now, in contrast, consider the aJmittjdly binding force of indirect precepts. The substitution of the Lord's Day for the Sabbath, and its observance in a different manner from that of the Jewish seventh day of the week, are taught us very incidentally, and only by way of infer- ence ; yet they are felt to be of universal obligation. Infant baptism, again, has only an indirect auth ^rity in the New Testament, and is only arrived at rgu- ments derived {vom the Old Testament, applied by parity of reasoning to the New. Yet for all that, it is the well-nigh universally observed law of Christendom. On t-he other hand, contrast with the obedience rendered to these indirect revelations of God's will, the reception given by the Christian world to the direct, plain and incontestible commands to maintain the visible unity of the Church. We say i;/j/i'/ if anywhere, we might expect precise and explicit language. Yet no writer in the New Testament states 55 in express terms that Jesus Christ was God. It may be thought that if any fact needed explicit assertion, this cardinal fact demanded it. Yet, we repeat, no writer asserts it in any one undisputed text. If there were one such to be found, there would be no Unita- rians who accept the New Testament as an inspired revelation. Why, then, do we believe that Jesus Christ is " very God of very God ?" Because the whole tenor and scope of the New Testament leads us to the belief. Because the attributes and name of Jehovah are ascribed to him, at least, so we gather by a fair inference. Because on the supposition that He is God, the New Testament becomes plain and harmonized, while on the supposition that He is not God, it becomes inexpli- cable, so much so that the moment we doubt His Divinity we suspect his morality, and can scarcely avoid thinking Christianity an imposture. Because we know and feel that the writers do not so much attempt to prove, as take it for granted as proved, that He was God, and write as if they for whom they were writing took it for granted also. Because we know from historical sources that the contemporaries of the Apostles, and their immediate successors, believed in His Divinity ; and inasmuch as they referred to no other authority than the books of the New Testament, they must have read in those books the Divinity of Christ. They who lived when Greek and Syriac were yet living and spoken languages, and who conse- 66 quently were able to see and appreciate far better than the most highly gifted moderns the force and meaning of these languages, saw in the New Testament the Divinity of Christ, or else they would not have pro- fessed it ; and history tells us that they did profess it. Nay, more, all the world sees the same except (and here is the marvel) a few so-called Christians. The Jews see the Divinity of Christ in the New Testament S'^ '•iptures, and reject them for that very reason. The Mahometans, while acknowledging that He was the Messiah, reject His claim to Divinity, and for that reason reject the New Testament also, and take their account of Christia 'ty from the ^* Gospel of Christ's Infancy," and the spurious " Gospel of St James." These are the principal reasons why we believe that Christ is revealed to us in the New Testament as God. And very similar are the reasons why we believe our system of Church government to be Scriptural and Apostolical. We think that the mode of reasoning whereby we prove that our Saviour was God, ought to be considered sufficient to prove that His Church was Episcopal, provided the proof be similar in each case. The similarity of the proof is very remarkable. No passage in the New Testament explicitly states that the Apostles established the Episcopal and three-fold Ministry as the invariable, universal law. Why, then, do we hold to it ? Because the whole tenor and drift of the New Testament point that way. Because on the 67 supposition that the regimen of the Church was that of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, the Epistles are har- monized and intelligible, and the position and powers of such men as St. Timothy in Ephesus, and Titus in Crete become perfectly clear. Because on the suppo- sition that the regimen of the Church was that of parity of Ministers, without subordination of various orders, we are utterly at a loss to know why so much of St. Paul's writings, which contain accounts of Presbyters and Deacons, and their qualifications, should have been put on record, with such commands as "stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle ;" and again, " For this cause have I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldst ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee." Because the contemporaries of the Apostles and their immediate successors appealed to no other authority than the New Testament, and yet undoubted historical testimony tells us that they established the Episcopal form of Church government and no other, everywhere ; therefore they saw that form of Gov'ernment in the Apostolic writings. Episcopacy was indisputably universal when the Canon of the New Testament was finally settled, and there- fore must have been supposed to harmonize with it, or, surely, the Church, which had no other rule of faith than the New Testament, and no other rule of discipline than Episcopacy, would not have set its seal as a " witness and keeper," to a set of documents I 68 which condemned its practice. StilJ further, the whole Christian world for full 1500 years, saw no other regimen in the New Testament ever since the days of those who lived when Greek was a living language and who therefore understood St. Paul's writings as we can scarcely hope to do. But I Uwjd not press the analogy farther. My object is neither controversial nor polemical, but rather to persuade you that while " The things that were written aforetime were written for our learning," the learning which results from a knowledge of the general drift and scope of Scripture, is safer than the carping criticism (however learned) which demands for every item of doctrine or discipline, a specific command, a chapter and verse ; in other words, it is the man who is imbued with the spirit of the Bible that is most likely to be orthodox in doctrine, and he who is best acquainted with the genius and history of Apostolic times, and can put himself in imagination there, will be most likely to be right on the question of Church order. And here I may remark the providential wisdom of the Church of England in never having given ex- clusive sanction to any translation of the Holy Scrip- tures. In marked contrast to the course pursued by the Church of Rome, she values the spirit more than the letter of Scripture. The Church of Rome staked her infallibility on the correctness of the Vulgate Version, and we know that sufficient errors have been 59 detected in it, to require that it should be revised by order of one Pope after another. The Anglican Church is content with declaring the Scriptures as we have them, to be canonical, and that they contain all things necessary to salvation, but she does not specify any particular translation. She plainly means Holy Scripture in the original tongues. It is custom not law that binds us to the ^^ Authorized " Version. It is true that the Lessons for the daily service are taken from it ; but other portions of Scripture used in Divine Service, and equally sanctioned by the Church, are taken from various versions. The Psalms, for instance, differ greatly from the authorized version, and agree, for the most part with the Septuagint, and not with the original Hebrew. The Offertory sentences, the Ten Command- ments, and the " comfortable words " in the Commun- ion office, are taken from some unknown version. The same may be said of the " Lord's Prayer," the " Bene- dictus,"the "Magnificat," and the " Nunc dimittis." The other Canticles, the " Venite," the " Jubilate," ** Cantate," and " Deus Misereatur," are taken from the great Bible of A.D. 1540, while the Introductory sentences, and" the Epistles and Gospels, agree with the " Authorized version." No preference is thus given ta any translation, to teach us that the infallible records have not been infallibly translated, and that our aim should be to get at the spirit that quickeneth, rather than the letter which killeth. Believing that the Holy 60 Scriptures were written for our learning, may God give us grace to prove it, by being diligent pupils who deem no part of them unimportant. Such learning has salvation for its end, but let us remember that exquisite pleasure attends it long before that Salvation is attained. Every motive which should actuate rational beings who desire to hold communion with Heaven, should urge us to search those Scriptures, that we may learn the original from which we fell, the probation in which we are, and the glory we shall inherit, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. THE ENI> r I- I-