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CHATTERMW, AT THE OfHCR OF TUB CHCRCHk 'i c^^ m I ^m^' h ^^Bl MWf •x n ^ SERMON. MATTHIW XVIII. 17. '5 M £ A R T II E C II U R CII. Thiis little sanctuary, in which we ore now assembled, will always be regarded by the English Churchman with feelings of pious sentiment and respect. Here, from time immemorial, our {Sovereigns have worshii)- ped and our Bishops preached ; and these walls were the first which heard the sound of our English Liturgy. Here young Ed- Ward imbibed the principles of Divine truth from the lips of Ridley and Cranmei and here, in the reign of Elizabeth, her Bishops supported by her united firmness, wisdom and piety, manfully upheld the principles of the English Reformation, maintaining the equipoise against the Papists on the one hand, and, on the other, against those ul- ti;a-Protestants who were anxious to intro- duce the foreign system, and to revolution- ize religion instead of reforming the church. Here, too, Charles, who died a martyr for the principles of the church— for the Church of England boasts the only royal martyr in the calendar — sought that strength from on high, which enabled him to lay down his " grey discrowned head" upon the block with a blessed peace of mind, which a rebel iia- ■,'.■* 5Jj|. lion, while depriving him of every thing else, was unable to take away. Here, ever since, by faithful pastors, our British Sove- reigns have loyally, dutifully, and respect- fully, but, at the same time, I hope with firmness and fearlessness, been reminded of that solemn account they will one day have to render to Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and the Ruler of princes — here they have been admonished of the awful responsibility of their high office, of the temptations by which they are surround- ed, of the example they are bound to set, of their duty as the nursing fathers and nurs- ing mothers of the Church — and here those Sovereigns, in the ordinances and sacra- ments of the Gospel, have sought for that Divine Grace, of which they have stood in need as much as, yea, from their increased responsibility, from their greater tempta- tions and difficulties, if possible, more than the very meanest of their subjects. In such a place, then, it cannot be deemed improper, if I briefly lay before you the claims, the character, and the privileges of the church. May God the Holy Spirit be with me while I speak, and with you while you hear ; with me, that I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak ; with you, that you may receive the word with pure affection ; with me that I may not give, with you that you may not take offence. Now, at the very Outset, I must state that ^% # - 5 I refer to the church, not us a mere natioival cstrtblishment of religion, but as the church — a religious community, intrinsically inde- pendent of the state ; that is to say, I am about to treat of th« church, not in its poli- tical, but sirnply and solely in its religious <;haracter. Xo one who reads the Bible can for a mo- ment doubt that religion is, or ought to bo, a national conoern, so long as the Bible con- tains such awful denunciations against na- tional apostacy and national vice, and while, among the predicted blessings of Christia- nity, it was foretold as one, that Kings . tions, which, conferred by higher than hu- man authority, no human authority can take away ; still to the vacant sees they would consecrate new Bishops, still ordain the Clergy, still confirm the baptised, still go- Torn the church ; our priests, assisted by the deacons, would still administer the sacra- ments, and preach the Gospel ; our Liturgy, even though we were driven to upper rooms of our towns, or to the very caves of the desert, would still be solemnized. We may be sure of this, for this very thing has hap- pened in times past. When the United States of America were English Colonies, the English Church was there established : at the revolution, the state was destroyed. Monarchy has there ceased to exist ; but the church, though impressed for a time, remain- ed uninj prove that your ministers are called of God to the office. And if their assertion were true that our church was founded at the refor- mation, we could give them no answer at all. But at the period of the reformation, when Craniaer and Ridley flourished^ there was a chiircli cxbting and ostnblisliccl in Knglaml, and as Archbishop of that church, Craiitner, our colcljiatcd reformer, was consecrated. — Th'it church ha i existed, as ull parties ad- mil, from the first planting of Christianity in England. Cut Archbisliop Cranmer found that in his time, it had become in certain re- spects corrupted ; that the Bisliop of Roma, for example, had usurped over it an autho- rity and influence whic!i he did not possess by right ; that many practices prevailed, some of them contrary to Scripture, and some of them much abused to superstition ; sucIj as the worshipping of saints and images and the use of tiie Liturgy in a language not understood by the people, — while opinions were prevalent (such as those relating to I'ransubstantiation), decidedly erroneous, whiclj the church did not })rotest against, but, on t)ie contrary, rathe s'^emed tos-jnc- tion-. Now when once these errors were pointed out and proved to be unscript'iral, our dhvines would have been guilty of he- resy had they pertinaciously adhered to them. Before the Reformation, those who adhered to them, were not guilty of heresy, for tliey held the doctrines which (ever since the Re- formation) we have renounced, from a mere error of fact. They supposed them to be revealed doctrines, and therefore they, in humble faith, received them ; ice, on tlic contrary, have ascertained that these doc- trines were not revealed, and therefore, in- 10 fluenced by the same faith, we reject them ; so that it was by one and the self-same prin- ciple, that both before and since the Reforma- tion, the true members of the Church of En*,'- land have been actuated. They said, and we say precisely the sime, whatsoever is re- vealed, that we will not question, but believe. But as to the fact, whether this or that doc- trine was revealed, they were less cautious than we are now ; we who perhaps err on the very side of caution. But to return to the Archbishop and the Prelates who aided him in the work of Re- formation. They discovered that all the er- rors which they detected in their church were innovations gradually and imperceptibly in- troduced, and not belonging originally or es- sentially to the Church of England ; that, even in the seventh century, five councils were held in England, when the doctrines denounced by the Reformers were unknown. What, then, did the Archbishop and his as- sociates determine to do 1 They deter- mined, as they had an undoubted right so to do, not to overthrow the old church and establish a Protestant sect in its place, but merely to reform, to correct abuses in the existing church. And, aided by the civil powers, this they did, by asserting, first, their own independence as Bishops against the usurped authority of the Pope, who had no more authority of right in England, than- the Bishop of Canterbury had in Rome : bjp 11 discontinuing practices which led evidently to un scriptural superstitions ; by protesting against certain prevalent erroneous doc- trines ; by translating the Scriptures and the ancient ritual and liturgy, which latter, (the ritual and liturgy we etill retain,) besides translating, they re-arranged. But, though they did this, they still remained the same bishops and divines of the same church. An attempt was made to revive the old super- stitions in Queen Mary's reign, but, by the pious firmness ? Elizabeth, her Bishops were enabled to complete the work so hap- pily commenced in the reigns of her fpther and brother. Now, from this historical statement, you see the absurciity of which the Papists are guilty when th?y accuse us of having de- serted or dissented from the old church, and of having reared a new church of human origin—the absurdity of their speaking of theirs as the old church and the old religion, f About two years ago, this very chapel in which we are now assembled was repaired, certain disfigurements removed, certain im- provements made : would it not be absurd, on that account, to contend that it is no longer the Chapel Royal \ Would it not be still more absurd if some one were to build a new chapel in the neighborhood, imitating closely what this chapel was five years ago, and carefully piling up alLthe dust and rub- bish which was at that time swept from \ 12 hence, and then pronounce that, not this, to be the ancient chapel of the Sovereigns of England ] The absurdity is at once ap- parent ; but this is precisely what has been done by the Roman Catholic or Papist. The present Church of England is the old Ca- tholic Church of England, reformed in the reigns of Henry, Edward and Elizabeth, of certain superstitious errors ; it is the same church which came down from our British and Saxon ancestors, and, as such, it pos- sesses its original endowments, which were never, as ignorant persons foolishly suppose, taken from one church and given to another. The church remained the same after it was . reformed as it was before, just as a man re- ' mains the same man after he has washed his face as he was before ; just as Naaman, the leper, remained the same Naaman after he was cured of his leprosy as he was before. And so regularly, so canonically, was the I reformation conducted, that even those who thought no reformation requisite, still re- mained for a time in the Church ; they did not consider what was done (though they did not approve of it) sufficient to drive them into a schism. It was not till the 12th year of Clueen Elizabeth's reign that, listening to the exhortations of the Pope, they quit- ted the church and formed a new sect, from which the present Romish dissenters have descended, and in which were retained all those errors in opinion and practice, all that £:^j 13 rubbish which the Catholic Church in Eng- land had at the reformation corrected and swept away. Let it always be remembered that the English Romanists separated from us, not we from them : we did not go out from them, but they from us. The slight- est acquaintance with that neglected branch of learning, ecclesiastical history, will con- vince us of this. They left the Church of England, to which they originally belonged, because they thought their Bishops had re- formed too much, had become too Protes- tant ; just as Protestant dissenters left us be- cause they thought we had not reformed enough ; that we were, as they still style us, too Popish. The one party left us because they wanted no reform, the other because, instead of a reformation, they wished a re- ligious revolution, — the Reformers of the Church of England carefully preserved a middle path. The Church of England, then, that church to which we belong, is the old catholic church originally planted in this country. But the founders of the church of England — remem- ber I do not mean the reformers— for nothing but ignorance, the most gross, will speak of them as our founders ; ignorance, which concedes to the Papists an argument of the very greatest importance — the founders, or planters of the Church of England, both Britons and Saxons, were bishops ordained by other bishops, precisely as is the case at 14 the present time : the catalogue has been carefully and providentially preserved from the beginning. And the Bishops who or- dained them had been ordained by other bi- shops, and so back to the apostles, who or- dained the first bishops, being themselves ordained by Christ. This is what is called the doctrine of the apostolic succession ; — which is a doctrine of considerable impor- tance. For unless the ministers of the Gos- pel are sent by Christ, what right have they to act in his name l If we were passing through a foreign land, we might be per- fectly competent to act as ambassador for the Queen of England ; but would any fo- reign potentate receive us as such, unless we could produce our credentials 1 Many a lawyer may be as well qualified to perform the duties of the Lord Chancellor as the Chancellor himself, but is he able to act as Chancellor? No, certainly not, unless he has first received a commission from his so- vereign. And so with respect to religion. What right has a man to take upon himself to act as God's ambassador, unless God has commissioned hin so to act 1 An eloquent man he may be, and one mighty in the scrip- tures, but he has no authority to speak in God's name, until God has given him that authority. How, asks St. Paul, shall they preach — i. e. preach lawfully, except they be sent — i. e. sent by God ? No man, says scripture, taketh this honour to himself, but 15 he that is called of God. Nay, even Christ, eays the Apostle, glorified not Himself to be made an high priest, but he that said unto Him " thou art my ►Son, this day have I be- gotten thee," — even He entered not on his ministerial office until He was externally appointed thereto. As the Lord Jesus Christ was sent by the Father, so were the apostles sent by him. — " As my Father hath sent me," He says, soon after his resurrection, " even so send I you." iNow how had the father sent him ! He had sent him to act as his supreme minister on earth ; as such to appoint under Him subor- dinate ministers, and to do what He then did ; when his work on earth was done, to hand on his commission to others. The apostles, in like manner, were sent by Christ to act as his chief ministers in the church, to appoint subordinate ministers under them, and then, as he had done, to hand on their commission to others. And on tliis com- mission, after our Lord had ascended up on high, the apostles proceeded to act. They formed their converts into churches ; these churches consisted of baptised believers, to officiate among whom subordinate ministers, priests and deacons were ordained, while the apostle who first formed any particular church exercised over it epif*copal superin- tendence, either holding an occasional visi- tation, by sending for the clergy to meet him (as St. Paul summoned to Miletus the clergy 16 of Epheiius), or else transmitting to tlieui those pastoral addresses which, under the name of e[)istles, form so itnportant a por- tion of holy Scripture. At lengtli, however, it became necessary lor the Apostles to proceed yet fiirther, and to do as their Lord had empowered them to do — to hand on their commission to others, that at their own death the Governors of the church might not be extinct. Of this we Imve an instance in Titus, who was placed in Crete by St. Paul, to act as chief pastor or bishop, and another in Timothy, who was in like manner set over the church of Ephe- sus. And when Timothy was thus appointed to the office of chief pastor he was associated with Paul, who, in writing to the Philippi- ans, commences his salutation thus : — " Paul and Timotheus to the servants of Jesus Christ who are at Philippi, with the bishops .ind deacons." Now we have here the three orders of the ministry clearly alluded to. The title of bi- shop is, to be sure, given to the second or- der ; but It is not for words, but for things, that Ave are to contend. Titles may change while offices remain : so senators exist, tho' they are not now of necessity old men ; and most absurd would it be to contend that when we speak of the Emperor Constantino, we can mean no other office than that held un- der the Roman republic, becau-sc we find Ci- cero also saluted as Emperor. '-# 17 So stood the matter in the apostolic age, when the chief pastors of the church were generally designated apostles or angels, t. e. messengers sent by God himself. In the next century, the office remaining, the desig- nation of those who hoht it was changed, the title of apostle was confined to the twelve, including 9t. Paul ; and the chief pastors who succeeded them worc3 thenceforth called bishops, the subordinate ministers being styled priests and deacons. And thus we see, as Christ was sent by the Father, so he sent the apostles ; as the apostles were sei>t bv Christ, so did thev send the first race of bishops ; as the first race of bishops was sent by the apostles, so they sent the second race of bishops, the second the third, and so down to our present Bishops, who can thus ti aco their spiritual descent from St. Peter and St. Paul, and prove their divine authority ta govern tlwj churches over which they are ca- nonically appointed to preside. Like the Apostles they have the right to appoint un- der them the subordinate ministers ; and so, let the Papists say what they will, the cler- gy of England can establish their right by commission from Christ to minister in sa- cred things. Such was originally the constitution not of one or two churches only, but of the church universal — the church Catholic. Against the church so constituted in various places sec- tarians arose, even in the apostolic age. — IS These sects were generally, like modern sects, distinguished by the names of their founders. But true Churches disdained to b« ealled afler any human being whatever, sinoo o{ them Christ was the author and finisher. The Episcopal churches persevering in th« apostles' doctrine and fellowship, were styled collectively the catholic church ; and in order to distinguish it from the surrounding sects, the true orthodox church in any particular country was sometimes called a branch of tha catholic church, sometimes the catholic eliurch of that place, and hence the term ca- tholic came, by degrees, to signify (as Bishop Beveridge remarks) much the same as our term orthodox — the orthodox church, and orthodox members of the same — that church which adhered to the scriptural discipline and doctrine universally received, as distinguish- ed from the discipline invented, and the doc- trine propounded, by individual teachers. You see here, by the way, the folly, (if it bo not a sin, for it is calling 'evil good, and good evil') of styling the Romish dissenters in Eng- land, as some persons in extreme ignorance, nud others perhaps with bad intentions, do. Catholics ; for this insinuates, that we of th« church of England are heretics, whereas you have seen that ours, not theirs, is the true and orthodox church of Christ in this country, th« real catholic church, in and of England. If they dislike the name of Papist, we may speak of them as Romanists, or even Roman 10 •athoiics. Roman catholics they may be styled, for (though schismatics and dissen- ters in England,} in France, and Italy, they belong to a church true by descent, though •orrupted by Roman or Popish superstitions. A bad man is still a man, and you may refuse to associate with him before he reforms — but ■till you will never permit him so to style him- self a man as to imply that you yourself ar« an inhuman being. Pure in its doctrine, apostolic in its disci- pline, and edifying in its ceremonies, this ca- tholic and apostolic church diffused its h\e»- sings, and preserved its purity for many hundred years. In the middle ages it exis^ ted, still working good and administering grace according to the exigence of the times ; emitting a ray of light when all around was dark. But the surrounding ignorance and gloom prevented the detection of various cor- ruptionsand disfigurements which by degrees orept into it, until, in the 16th century, the sun of learning having dawned upon Europe, its defects in this country began to betray them- selves too obviously to be any longer tolera- ted. Of these defects, so far as the English branch of the church was concerned, the bi- shops of the church of England, as T have be- fore stated, by degrees became aware, and while they venerated the fabric which apos- tles had reared, and of which Christ himself was the chief corner stone, they carefully re* moved the incrustations which disfigured it. 20 and sweeping awny the rubbish by wliich it hnd been overlaid, displayed the r^ial rock upon which it had been built. Thus was the Catholic and Apostolic church, of which we profess our belief in the creeds, rescued in England from Popish douiination, and (re- formed or brought back to its primitive ])U- rity, digiiiliod in its simplicity) it retained the ministry in regular .siiccession from the apos- tle.-s, and a ritual and liturgy which can them- selves in great part be traced back to the apostolic ago. Although causelessly to separate from such a church must be a scluL-matical act, vet we do not uncharitably pronounce sentence of condemnation upon those who have by cir- cumstances over which they have had no con- trol, been brought up without its pale. In error, of course, we believe thorn to be, but certainly not in such error, from that circurii- stance, as to erulanger their balVaiion: and if we sup[)0fee them, as we must do, to lack our j)riv!leges, this ought only to make us respect them the more if at any time we find tliem (with fe\ver advantages) surpassing us in godliness. We do not confine God's grace and favour to the church; for we remember that though Job was not a member of the then (-'hurch of God, still he was a man eminently pious aniij thren, what a privilege it is to have this well of living waters, in which you may wash and \nd be clean ! You know that you are sinful Oh r^t^ res. very far gone from righteousness ; jo; no*v ihat your condition is sueh that you ca^^sii t idrn an* prepare yourselves by your own natural strength and good works to faitit I %S ^hd calling upon God ; you know that by n«* ture yon canriu' love i^v. T.ord your God with all your heart, and sMl, and strength ; you cannot discharge thewrious d-Jties oi your various situations" irife ; you know that whatever your condition now may be, the hour must come o<^ affliction and sorrow, of sick- ness and sadness, the inevitable hour of ddath ; and the church is inslituted to convey to you pardon upon your repentance, nnd grace in time of nefed ; it is instituted to in- struct you in your ignorance, to comfort y«>u in your sorrows, to elevate you in your ddvo- tions, to bring you into communion with y our Saviour, your Sanctifier, your God ; to pre- pare you for the hour of death, yea, for the day of judgment ; and this she chiefly dors through the Gospel, and other divinely-ap- pointed ordinances of religion, if of them you will but avail yourselves. But this is not all ; while the church thus ministers grace to individuals, it is part of her business to preserve, hand down and proclaim the truth, the Whole truth, as it is in Jesus. And our duty, therefore, it is—espe- cially if we happen by God's providence to be called to situations of influence, rank or authority — by all the means in our power to increase her efliciency in this respect, to place her on the watch-tower, that her voice may be heard thro' the length and breadth of the land ; our duty it is, to take care that ■er laitii be preserved intact and pure ; our ^•^- vVuiy it is, to vindicalr. her from the ^^lossCst of ignorance, and t\\r |!iisrepresentations of nrejudice and malice #|t>ur duty it is, clcarlv. to define, and zealo,ie,^y to nin|,njUiLUrt!mse peculiar doctrines '^^tnirt peculiar disci- pline, which have always marked, and do still continue to mark, the distinction be- tween the church of Christ, administered un- der the superintendence of chief pastors, or bishops, who have regularly succeeded to the apostles, from those sects of Christianity which exifit under self-appointed teachers. Against the church the world seems at this time to be set in array. To be a true and faithful member of the church requires no little moral courage. Basely to pretend to belong to her, while designing mischief against her in the heart, is easy enough ; hut manfully to contend for her because she is the church, a true church, a pure church, a holy church, this is difficult to those who court the praise of men or fear the censure of the world. May the great God of heaven, may Christ the great Bishop and Shepherd of souls, who is over all things in the churchy put it, my brethren, into your hearts and minds to say.and.feel (as 1 do) " as for me and my house, we will live in the church, we will die in the church, and if need shall be^ like o'jr martyred forefathers,, we will die for the church.'' j>-- % ^