The Church of England :

ITS CONTINUOUS ORGANIC LIFE,
AND ITS CATHOLIC RESTORATION.

A^ LTilCTURlil

DELIVERED

Before the CHURCH OF ENGLAND INSTITUTE, HALIFAX,

AND SUBSEQUENTLY

In MONTREAL and SHERBROOKE, Province of Quebec,

AND IN '

WINDSOR, Nova Scotia,
By thr RKV. ISAAC 3ROCK:, D.D.,

RCCTOR OF HORTON ANO CANON OF ST. LUKE'S CATHEDRAL, HAL{F*X.

Ecclcsia Atujlicaiut Libera Sit."

MAGNA CHARTA, A.D. UMS.

TO WHICH IS APPENDED A SERMON,

. Bv I'HE SAME Author, on
THE THREE-FOLD APOSTOLIC MINISTRY
OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH,

PRCACK^D IN ST. JAMES' CHUnCH. KENTVILLC, N. S.,
ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER II, 1BD1.

hi'.

MORTON Si CO.. ■
143 BARRINOTON STKERT. HALIFAX.
A. I). 1 89 1.

[Pn're 12 cefiis.^

The Church orENGLSND/^

ITS CONTINUOUS ORGANIC LIFE,
AND ITS CATHOLIC RESTORATION.

A. LECTURE

DELIVERED

Before the CHURCH OF ENGLAND INSTITUTE, HALIFAX,

AND SUBSEQUENTLY

In MONTREAL and SHERBROOKE, Province of Quebec,

AND IN

WINDSOR, Nova Scotia,
By the RKV. ISAAC BROCK:, D.D.,

HECTOR OF HORTON AND CANON OF ST. LUKE'S CATHEDRAL, HALIFAX.

EccUsia AnylicaiiM Libera Sit.^'

MAGNA CHARTA, A.D. 12tS.

TO WHICH IS APPENDED A SERMON,

By the same Author, on

THE THREE-FOLD APOSTOLIC MINISTRY
OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH,

PRCACHEO IN ST. JAMES' CHURCH, KENTVILLC, N. •..
ON •UNOAV, OCTOBER t1. laSI.

MORTON & CO..
143 BARRINGTON STREET. HALIFAX.

A. D. 189 1.
[Fria 12 cen/s.]

PREFACE.

This Lecture is published at llie request of many who heard it, and
who thought that it would prove helpful to those members of our Church
who have neither the time nor the inclination to peruse those Histories of
the Church of England which set forth at length the matter brought into
a small compass in this Lecture, If it removes from any minds an error
fostered by our Common School Histories, that the Church of England is
the child of the Reformation, its publication will not have been in vain.

The nature of the subject handled admitted only the briefest reference
to the Early British Church. The author refers to Lane's Illustrated
Notes, vol. 1., and to " Little's Reasons for Being a Churchman," for
further information on this interesting subject.

Reference is made in the Lecture to the beginning of schism from the
English branch of the Holy Catholic Church : the beginning came from
Rome : the Puritan schism (the parent of modern dissent from the
Catholic Church in England) quickly followed. t)n this subject, see
Lane's Illustrated Notes, vol. II.

A Sermon containing a seven-fold argument for the Three-fold Min-
istry of the Holy Catholic Church, recently preached in St. James' Church,
Kentville, is added. It is an attempt to present a somewhat difficult
subject in a popular form, in a form, that is, which will take hold of the
mind of people in general.

This Pamphlet can be had at the rate of $1.00 for ten copies, or $2,00
for twenty-five copies (both rates including postage), on application to the
author or the publishers. Any profits arising from the sale of this Pam-
phlet will be given to Guild of St. James' Church, Kentville.

The Rectory, Kentville, Nova Scotia,
October 31, 1891.

DATES REFERRED TO IN THE LECTURE.

I. EARLY BHITISH PERIOD.

A. D. 304 (June 17)... Martyrdom of St. Alban.

314 Council of Aries: three British Bishops

present.

II. ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.

A. D. 597 Mission of St. Augustine to Kent.

635 St. Aidan of lona, Bishop of Norlhumbria.

604 Synod of Whitby.

GG8-690 Episcopate of Tiieodore, 7lh Archbishop of

Canterbury.
G78 Division by Theodore of the Diocese ol

Northumbria.
Wilfrid's appeal to Rome.

090-800 The golden age of the Anglo-Saxon Church,

800 Coronation of Charlemagne at St. Peter's,

Rome.
871-901 Reign of Alfred the Great.

in. ANGLO-NORMAN PERIOD.

A. D. 1066 The Battle of Senlac.

1070 Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury.

1081 Conflict between Gregory VII. and Lanfranc.

1164 Constitutions ol Clarendon.

J215 (Jun. 15).. .The Magna Charla.

1351 The Stalrite of Provisors.

1353 The Statute of Praemunire.

1378-1417 Rival Popes,

IV. REFORMATION PERIOD.

A.D. 1534 Abolilton of Papal Supremacy in England.

1549 First Prayer-Book of Edward VI.

1552 Second " " "

1558 (Nov. 17)... Accession of Queen Elizabeth.

1559 (Doc. 17)...Consecration of Parker, 69lh Archbishop of

Canterbury.
1570 The Bull of Pope Pius V. commenced ther

work of schism from the Holy Catholic

Chnrcb in England.
1662 Final Revision, after the Savoy Conferencey

of the English Book of Common Prayer.
S890(.Nov. 21)...The judgment of the Archbishop of Canter-

bwry in the case of the Bishop of Lincoln,

THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND:

;■ - I. ITS CONTINUOUS AND ORGANIC LIFE:

II. AND ITS CATHOLIC RESTORATION.

My motto, which will serve to iutrorluce both divisions of my
subject, is found in the first and last sentences of the Magna Charta,
signed at Ruunymede, near Windsor, by King John and the Barons
of England, headed by Stepheji Langtou, Archbishop of Canterbury,
on June 15, llil5.

" ECCLESIA ANGLICANA LIBERA SIT."

"The Church of England shall be free." These words, I say,
bear on both divisions of my present subject. They witness to the
continuous organic life of the Church of England. For how was
our national Church spoken of in our national Charta 1 Was it
spoken of as the Holy Roman Church, or as the Church of Rome lu
England 1 Nay : it was then as now known to Englishmen by its
distinctive national name —

ECCLESIA ANGLICANA

then ; and think what a time that was ! Verily it seemed the very
darkest hour of England's Nation, and England's Church.

'Twas high tide at the Vatican. The forged decretals of Isidore,
and the gigantic genius of Hildebrand had consolidated that fabric
of papal despotism, which has been growing since the memorable
year A. D. 606, when the Emperor Phocas, a tyrant and a murderer,
placed on the brow of Pope Boniface III. the mitre of the universal
Episcopate ; the assumption of which his illustrious predecessor,
Gregory the Groat, had taught would be a mark of " the forerunner
of Anti-Christ."

Only three years before tlie siguing of ilio Magna Charta, King
Jolm had surrendered his crown to Pandulpli, Legato of Vope
Innocent III. ; lie had become the Pope's man, \m serf; Enghmd
liad become a fief of the Papacy ; and England's Church seemed
utterly at the mercy of the foreign tyrant ; but even then, in the
eyes of hor patriot Archbishop and Barons, she was " Ecclesia
Anglicana."

And even then, when the iron heel of the foreign despot and
usurpfcr was crushing her to the ground, came the words twice
repeated in the great Charta of our national freedom : " Ecclesia
Anglicana libera sit;" " The Chnrch of Enj^land shall be free."

Surely they were a prophecy, unconscious no doubt, of that work
Catholic Restoration, would bo carried out three centuries later,
■when England's Church regained her primitive and her rightful
freedom.

I.-First: THE CONTINUOUS ORGANIC LIFE OF THE CHURCH OF

ENGLAND.

And ichen did the Church of England as a unit begin to have an
organic life?

There was a flourishing Church in ancient Britain long before it
got the name of England. By whom founded we do not know.
When founded we c£iunot certainly tell. That Chuich of ancient
Britain has left its mark in our Prayer Book of to-day ; for in our
calendar we find on June 17, the name of St, Alban, proto-martyr
of the British Church. That ancient Church emerges from the
obscurity which surrounds its origin into the clear day-light of
history A. D. 314, at the Council of Aries in Southern France, whose
decrees were signed by throe Bishops from Britain — Restitutus of
London, Eborius of York, and Adelphius Civitatis Colonise, which is
supposed to be Caerlonon-Usk in North Wales.

The Sf -von invasion drove this ancient British Church, with its
bishops, priests and deacons, back into the western parts of the Island,
Wales and Cornwall, where it lived to confer through its bishops
with Augustine, at the opening of the seventh century, and through
them to protest against his claims, and those of the bishops of Rome
who sent him.

Memoral)lo is that first protest of the Church of nncient Britain ;
inetnorablo a« the fore-runner of many another protest which our
national Church would be constrained to enter against the unscriptural
and un-catholic claims of Rome in later centuries.

That protest of the British Bishops assembled at Bangor, ran on
this wise :

" Be it known and declared that we all individually and collec-
tively are in all humility prepared to ilefer to the Church of God,
and the Bishop of Home, and to every sincere and godly Christian, so
far as to love every one according to his degree in perfect charity,
and to assist them all by word and deed in becoming the children of
God. But as for any other obedience we know of none, that ho,
whom yon term Pope, or Bishop of Home, can demand. The defer-
ence we have mentioned wo are ready to pay him, as to every other
(christian, but in all other respects our obedience is duo to the
jurisdiction of the Bishop of Caerlon, who is alone, under God, tho
ruler to keep us right in the way of salvation."

Very modest Avere claims of Augustine, and of the illustrious
Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, who sent him to the heathens
of Saxon England; very modest, as compared with those of Hildebrand,
or Innocent III., but even these modest claims the Bishops of the
ancient Chuich of Britain were not prepared to admit.

•.; To proceed.

,; There were Churches in Saxon. England in the seventh century.

There was the Church founded by St. Augustine, sent by
Gregory, Bishop of Rome, whose centre was Canterbury, and whoso
sphere of operation was south-eastern England — the Church of
the Italian Missions.

There was the Church founded by St. Aidan and his devoted
fellow missionaries from lona, sent by the Abbot of lona, whose
centre was Lindisfarne, and whose spheres of operation were northern
and central England, the great kingdoms of North urabria and
Mercia — the Church of the Celtic Missions.*

* Three-fifths of England WHS ovntieclizeJ by rni?si«nnrics who owned no connexion
whntever with the See of Rome. Tho iiuthority for this statement is the Roman Ciitholio
histurinn, Montiilainbert. See his " Monks of the West." The late Bishop Lightfoot. in
his '* Lenders in the Northern Church." uses this expression: " Augustine was the Apostle
of Kent, Aidan was the Apostle of England."

And as we have already seen, there was the ancient British Church
in Wales and Cornwall.

Very trifling differences of ritual aiid custom, more serious
differences of race, kept apart these different branches of Christ's
Holy Catholic Church in England : but while they remained apart,
the national Church of England, the Church of England, as a unit in
the land, had not began her history ; and therefore it is too early to
speak of her continuous organic life.

When did that continuous organic life begin ] To leave out of
view for the present the British Church in Wales, which came at a
later period into union with the Church of England, when did the
Churches of the Italian and Celtic Missions begin to be fused into one
united Church of England 1

The first step toward that union was taken at the Synod of
Whitby, in Northumbria, A. D. 664.

Oswy, King of Northumbria, had been educated at lona ; but his
Queen, Eanfleda, daughter of Edwin and Ethelberga. had been edu-
cated at Canterbury. Hence on the Northumbrian throne the
traditions and the ritual of lona and Canterbury were represented.

That Synod decided for the observance of Easter at the time
decreed by the Nicene Canons, and in other matters also decided that
the Church of the Celtic Missions in England should conform to the
usages prevailing in the great Church of Western Europe.

That Synod of the Church of North umbria showed that union
was desired and thought desiraWe by many in authority in the
Church, and in the northern kingdom of the Heptarchy.

But to bring about that union as a fact in the then divided king-
doms of Saxon England was another matter. To effect this, the
Churches of Kent and Northumbria needed a man of commanding
genius and dominating will.

God sent the man, who was to be the second founder and the
real organizer of the Church of England. He came from a city
dear to every Christian heart, Tarsus of Cilicia, the bitth-place of St.
Paul.

The whole circumstances connected with the consecration of
Theodore of Tarsus, to be the seventh Archbishop of Canterbury,
indicate the over-ruling piovidence of God, who, at the right moment

sent the lijiht man, to blend into one organized Church of England
the Churches of the Italian and Celtic Missions.

Theodore of Tarsus was cont-'ecrated at Rome to be Archbishop
of Canterbury in March, 668. He was 66 years of age at the time
of his consecration. Ho died Sept. 19, 690. Those twenty-two
years of the Episcopate of Archbishop Theodore witness the blending
into one Church of England under the metropolitan throne of
Canterbury, the scattered and isolated Missions sent from Rome and
lona, which had largely accomplished the evangelization of England.

Archbishop Theodore was recognized sis a public blessing by the
kings and people of England ; and according to Bede he was the first
Archbishop of Canterbury to whom all England submitted.

How this born ruler of men, with vist practical and administrative
ability, and with resolute will, made himself felt as the rightful
chief- ijastor of the several Churches and Missions of England; hc.v
he succeeded in moulding them 'uto unity under the metropolitan See
of Canterbury, it would take too long to tell.

Suffice it to say that the Church of England, as we know it to-day,
in its diocesan and parochial organization, was mainly the work of
Archbishop Theodore.

And, as Green has poiiit-c-d out in his History of the English
people, Theodore did unconsciously a pcUtical work for England,
and helped forward that unity ol the nation wlach was reached about
a century and a half later under Egbert.

" The single throne of the one primate at Canterbury, accustomed
men's minds to the thought of a single throne for their one temporal
over-lord. The regular subordination of priest to bishop, of bishop
to primate in ihe administration of the Church, supplied a mould on
which the civil organization of the State quietly shaped itself. Above
all, the councils gathered by Archbishop Theodore were the first of
our national gatherings for general legislation. It was at a much
later period that the wise men of Wessex, or Northumbria, or Mercia,
learned to come together in the Parliament of all England."

It would be interesting to dwell on such an era as the Episcopate
of Theodore forms in the history of the Church of England. But
time forbids.

One question only I should like to ask and to answer beforo
passing on. What was the relation of the Church of England in her
newly organized unity to the Church of Rome, and to the l5ishop of
Eome t The Church of England was in full communion, no doubt,
with the gi'oat Church of Western Europe ; and grateful to Rome
England's Church must have been, not only for Augustine, but also
more recently for Theodore.

But did communion and gratitude imply sN?)?niss inn? That is
the question. Have we any means of answering this qupstion f

Providentially we have. At the request of the King and Queen of
Northumbria, Theodore, as Primate of all England, determined to
divide the extensive Diocese of Northumbria, of which the celebrated
Wilfrid was then Bishop. Theodore decided on this important step
without con.sulting Wilfrid : of course this was neither just nor con-
siderate. A few years beforo the saintly and humble-minded Chad,
Bishop of Lichfield (whose name you will find in your Prayer Book),
had submitted to the imperious will of Theodore, in his transference
from York to Ljchfield. But Wilfrid of York was a very difierent
man from Chad of Lichtiekl. He was not going tamely to submit to
the ruling of his Primate, backed though it was by the decision of
his Sovereign.

What did he do'? A thing unheard of before in English history :
he appealed to Rome. He went himself to the Eternal City and
laid his cause before the Bishop of Rome, who !»ummoned a council
of fifty bishops, who decided in Wilfrid's favour, and ordered that
he should be reinstated in his Diocese as it existed before its division
by Archbishop Theodore.

Elated with his success, Wilfrid returned to England in the
spring of A. D. 680, bearing with him a letter from the Bishop of
Rome, to which was attached the Bull, or leaden seal of the Pontiff,
which was in his eyes a banner of victory, but which in the eyes of
the Church of Northumbria was only a provocation and an insult.

The king of Northumbria convened a council of the clergy and
laity of his realm, and then, instefxd of confirnring the decree of the
Bishop of Rome, they decided that the action of Wilfrid in appealing
to Rome against the ruling of the English Primate and the North-
umbrian King wa» a public offence, and Wilfrid for thi.'; oflFence was,

11 ■

by the decision of tlie King and his council, thrown into prison. I
do not justify their action, I simply state the fact.

The papal mandate declared an everlasting anathema against any
one who should resist the decree, ordering the immediate ve-instate-
nient of Wilfrid in his original Diocese and summoning Archbishop
Theodore to a council at Kome. Theodore showed his independence
of the Bishop of Kome by obeying neither order : he did not re-in-
state Wilfrid in his Diocese, neither did he attend the council.

In the first century of her history then, the Church of England,
while in full communion with Kome and grateful to her chief Pastor,
was not prepared to yield submission to Rome. The supremacy of
the Bishop of Rome was not acknowledged by the Church of England
when she began her organized life as a unit under the Metropolitan
Throne of Canterbury.

Two centuries from the times of Theodore bring us to the reign
of the greatest of the Saxon kings of England — Alfred.

A few years ago an incident occurred in England which showed
the legal identity of the Church of England in the days of Alfred and
Victoria.

In the days of King Alfred the Church of England leased to the
Crown a property on a lease of 999 years. A few years ago that
lease expired, and the property reverted to the body that originally
gave the lease, the Church of England ; thus showing the identity,
the identity in law, of the Church of England in the reign of Queen
Victoria, with the Church of England in the reign of King Alfred :
and thus witnessing to the continuous organic life of the Church of
England through 1000 years of her history.

Archbishop Theodore died September 19, 690. We are living in
the yea.' of our Lord 1891. 'Tis therefore just over 1200 years since
the death of that seventh Ajchbishop of Canterbury, who was the
second founder and the real organizer of the Church of England.

During those 1200 years the Church of England, sharing the
fortunes of the Nation of England, has gone through many vicissi-
tudes. But the changes of 1200 years have not impaired her identity,
have not destroyed her organic life, which has continuously existed

since the days whon tho Greek Theodore brouglit the Churches <ind
Missions of Saxon England into organic unity under the Metropolitan
Throne of Canterbury.

I will briefly glance atsnnie of these changes.

The 110 years following thu death of Archbishop Theodore bring
us to a year very memorable in European history, A. D. 800.

On Christmas Day, A. D. 800, the proudest nobles and prelates
of Italy and France were gathered round the high altar in the grand
Basilica of St. Peter's Rome. In the centre of the throng is a giant
figure whose dome-shaped brow and flashing eye mark a great mind
and heart. Clad in the long robe of a Roman patrician, he kneels
on the steps of the altar and bows his head in prayer ; then, as if by
a sudden inspiration from above. Pope Leo III. advances to the
kneeling King an J places on his head a golden crown : th« multitude
in St. Peter's, with loud acclamation.^, hail him as Cresar and
Augustus Pope Leo III. has revived the empire of the West, and
its crown is sparkling on the brow of ('harlemagne.

This incident was one, says Archbishop Trench, of profoundest
significance. It is not too much to affirm that it is the hinge upon
which the whole history of Western Christendom turned for long
centuries to come.

May we venture to connect that scene in St. Peter's, Rome, on
Christmas day, A. D. 800, with tho history of our Church in England ?
I think wo may. Who was the friend and adviser of that mighty
Emperor ? One of England's foremost scholars, Alcuin of York.

The 110 vears from the death of Theodore to the coronation of
Charlemagne, constitute the golden ago of the Church in Anglo-
Saxon England.

Then England was famous among European nations for her
scholars. Witness such names as Aldhehn, Bishop of Sherborne,
and the venerable Bede, translator of the Gospels into Anglo Saxon,
and the father of our ecclesiastical history ; and Egbert, Archbishop
of York, and his illustrious scholar, Alcuin, whom Charlemagne
summoned to his court, when he would revive the almost extinguished
literature of France.

And then, too, England's Church was preeminently a mission-
ary Church : witness the successful labors among the Franks and

Teutons of Willibrord of Northnmbria, the Apostle of Frisia, and
Winfrul of Crediton, near Exeter, better known as St. Boniface, the
Apostlo of Germany.

This golden age of the Church of Anglo-Saxon England wita
succeeded by a long ])eriod of religious, intellectual, and political
darkness, caused by the successive invasions of the Danes, a heathen
people from Scandinavia, who ravaged the land, rjbbed and perse-
cuted the Church.

Alfred's brilliant reign of 30 years, from A. D, 871 to 901,
checked for a time the ravages of these fierce pirates of the North,
settled many of them permanently in England, and led their chiefs
and many of their followers to embrace Christianity.

I might profitably linger on the beautiful story of all that Alfred
•was. Green says : " Alfred was the noblest as ho was the most com-
plete embodiment of all that is great, and all that is loveabl* in the
English temper,"

And I might profitably dwell on all that Alfred did for the Nation
and Church of England, but I must be content to refpr you to the
pages of the gifted historian from whom I have just quoted.

Before, however, I pass on to the eventful times of William the
Norman, let us take away with us, from the pages of Green, his
estimate of the character of the greatest and best of our Saxon kings.

" Eeligion was the ground-work of Alfred's character. His
temper was instinct with piety. Everywhere throughout his writings
that remain to us, the name of God, and the thought of God, stir him
to outbursts of ecstatic adoration. But he was no mere saint. He
felt none of that scorn of the world about him which drove the
nobler souls of his day to monastery or hermitage. Vexed as he
was by sickness and constant pain, his temper took no touch of
nsceticism. His rare geniality, a peculiar elasticity and mobility of
nature, gave color and charm to his life."

I pass now from Anglo-Saxon to Anglo-Norman times.

The battle fought at Senlac, near Hastings, on Oct. 14, 1066,
which gave the realm of England to William the Norman, did not
destroy the ancient Church of England, did not touch or impair her

continuous organic life ; but it was the beginning of a mighty revo-
lution in the Church of England which for four and a half centuries
affected and colored her history.

Hore, in his " Eighteen Centuries of the Church in England,"
says : — " The battle of Senlac was considered a holy battle. Nowhere
was the Church more submissive to the Pope than in Normandy.
Nowhere was the Church so independent of Rome as in England.
Foreign priests joined the Norman army. Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and
half-brother to William, being one of its most conspicuous leaders :
but in England the clergy did all they could to stop the invasion.
Alfwig, Abbot of Winchester, with twelve of his monks, fought with
Harold, and were killed to a man : many others among the clergy
shared the same fate ; the consequence was that William came to the
throne with no kindly feelings to the English Church. The cause
of the Pope in England was advanced, and England and her Church
for the future were brought into closer connexion with and depend-
ence on the See of Rome,"

This is true ; and yet we should be Avrong if we regarded the four
and a half centuries that intervened between the battle of Senlac
and the abolition of the Papal Supremacy in A. I). 15.34, as a period
when the Nation and Church of England were totally and passively
submissive to the See of Rome. The submission was never total, and
the bondage was endured with frequent and significant indications,
that sooner or later the day would come when the Nation and the
Church would re assert and regain their primitive and rightful
freedom.

Even William the Norman, and his Primate, Lanfranc, an Italian,
who had been Abbot of Bee in Normandy, and who had been conse-
crated by eight of his own provincial bishops in England, Archbishop
of Canterbury in A. D. 1070, were not prepared to yield all that the
Pope asked.

The Pontiff then was Gregory VII., the powerful Ilildebrand,
who had humbled to his will the mightiest sovereigns of Europe.
Gregory, through his Legate, demanded two things of William.
(1) The payment of Peter's Pence, said to be in arrears; and (2)
Homage, as from a vassal to his suzerain. William, says Bishop
Coxe in his " Institutes of Christian History," perhaps did not know

that Peter's pence, as such, had not hcen paid by former kings of
England. Under them the tribute had been paid for the support of
their own English College at Rome. Nevertheless William was
ready to settle the cash account without dispute. As to homage, he
growled out a reply worthy of the bluff Harry Tudor —

" Homage to thee I do not choose to do : I never promised it :
nor do I find that it was ever done by my predecessors to thine."

Lanfranc, though an Italian, was not more compliant than his
King. Lanfranc, bo it remembered, wos a personal friend of Hilde-
brand. I give the account of what passed at this juncture between
the Pope and the Primate of all England, in the words of riishop
Coxe in his " Institutes of Christian History."

Gregory had relied on Lanfranc to support his claim, and he now
reproached his friend, as forgetting the feelings he had formerly pro-
fessed of devotion to him and the Koman See.

If William was an English King, Lanfranc now rose to his
position as an English Primate, and replied, " I am ready to yield to
your commands in everything according to the Canons.'^ The claims
of Hildehrand could not even nominally be reconciled with the
Nicene Canons. Lanfranc further said that he had advised William
to do as the Pope desired, adding however, curtly and tartly, in the
true Anglican spirit, " The reason why he utterly rejects your
proposal he has already made kuowu to your legate orally, and
to yourself by letter."

This, however was not what the tamer of kings and superiors
could put up with from an Anglican Primate. Thank God, Hilde-
brand found in Lanfranc one who would not go to Canossa. It is
most important as a landmark to note the pontifical assumptions
and the Anglican position at this juncture.

Thus then wrote Hildehrand to Lanfranc : ** Take care to make
your appearance at Rome within four months from this date. Thus
may you make amends for a disobedience we have so long over-looked.
If these apostolic mandates are unheeded, know for certain, you shall
be severed from the grace of St. Peter, and utterly stricken by
his authority ; in other words you shall be wholly suspended from
your episcopal office."

What happened that year of grace, 108H Deau Hook, in his
" Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury," tells the whole story in
one line : " The Archbishop of Canterbury did not go ; and Laufranc
was not suspended."

A cen'ury later, in A. D. 1164, under Henry II., the first of our
Plantagenet kings, the Constitutions of Clarendon were enacted, which
forbade all appeals to Rorue without the consent of the King.

Papal aggression during these four and a half centuriee, reached
its climax during a reign I have already referred to : when King
John placed the whole realm of England at the feet of the Bishop of
Rome. The whole country rose against him : clergy, barons, and
people calling themselves " The Army of God and the Church." It
was the army not only of the barons against the King, but of the
Church of England against the Pope.

On that memorable loth day of June, A. D. 1215, says Little, in
his '* Reasons for being a Churchman," the barons of England forced
the King to sign the Magna Charta, which was the work of Stephen
Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the first article of which
declares, " The Church of England shall be free, and have her rights
entire and her liberties uninjured."

The Bishop of Rome, of course was in a fury. He swore, " By
St. Peter, this outrage shall not go unpunished." He declared the
Charta null and void ; and commanded the Archbishop of Canterbury
to excommunicate the barons. This, the patriotic Churchman refused
to do.

The Roman usurper had stretched his power too far : it snapped :
and the Magna Charta remained in full force. The Archbishop
required the new King, Henry III. to sign it. It has since been ratified
thirty-two times ; and despite its Roman nullification, it has ever
since been a part of the fundamental law of England.

From the opening years of the 13th century, I must auk you to
pass on to the niidiUe of the I4tli century, and to the famous Statutes
by which the Church of Enghmd was then legally freed from the
power of the usurper at Rome. The third Edward, the hero of the
battles of Crecy and Poictiers, sat on the English throne. In A. D.
1316, the " Statute of Provisors " was passed : this was followed in
A. D. 1353, 1365, and 1393, by the successive "Statutes of
Praemunire." By these Statutes the Bishop of Rome was forbidden
to appoint to any bishopric, or other ecclesiastical preferment in
England. These Statutes also prohibited the carrying of any suits
to the Roman court, and forbade, under penalty of confiscation of
property and perpetual imprisonment, any one to procure from
Rome, or elsewhere outside of England, any appointments, bulls,
excommunications, or the like. t^ff

Thus, as has been observed, in theory the Roman yoke was cast
off in England in the middle of the 14th century ; but practieallij
two things were needed to carry out the theory.

First, the removal of the popular superstition that, after all, the
Bishop of Rome had a sort of divine right over all the Churches of
Christendom.

Secondly, a King bold enough and strong enough to break with
the triple tyrant, to say and to act on his words :

" That no Italian priest shall tithe or toll in our dominions."

As to the first, the illusion was dispelled in the 15th century : the
prestige of Rome was broken by the vices and quarrels of the Bishops
of Rome, by the removal of the Papal Court to Avignon, where for
more than 70 years the Bishops of Rome were mere puppets of the
French king ; and by 50 years of rival Popes cursing and excommuni-
cating one another. The illusion was further dispelled in the latter
half of the 15th ceutuay by the revival of learning, and by the
increased study of Holy Scripture.

As to the second, it needed only a bold King to take the first
step. In the over ruling providence of God, who niakoth even the
wrath of man to praise Him, Henry VIII. was the man for the hour.

As to Henry the Eighth's character, we need not trouble ourselves :
it was about as bad as it could be, notwithstanding Froude's white-

wash ; God, liowover, used hitn, as He frequently does bad nion, for
the accomplishment of His purposes. ,^ ,., , .

'" We stand now on the verge of the Reformation era : the prophecy
of the Magna Charta is about to receive its accomplishment.
" Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit." " The Church of England shall be
free."

Through the good hand of our Go:l over our beloved Church, she
preserved unbroken her continuous organic life through the momen-
tous changes which the Reformation effected. The Church of England
he/ore and after the Reformation was the same : the only difference
being that which obtains between a garden unweeded, and a garden
weeded : the garden is the same.

When a man has been sick and has recovered his health, is he not
the same man 1

When a man has been unjustly imprisoned, and has regained his
freedom, is he not the same man ?

When a man has been rolled in the mud and is dirty, and when
he has been washed in a bath and is clean again, is he not the same
man?

Health, freedom, cleanliness, those three great spiritual blessings
the Church of England regained at her Reformation ; but in regaining
them she did not lose her identity ; she did not forfeit her continuous
organic life.

Now let me ask you to fasten your thoughts for a few minutes on
that memorable year, A. D, 1534, when the Papal Supremacy was
abolished in England.

How was the extinction of the Papal supremacy effected 1 Not
by the tyrauDical act of a monarch, who was ready enough for
any deeds of tyranny : not even by an authoritative Act of Parlia-
ment. The question was first submitted to the proper Councils of
the Church, the Convocations of Canterbury and York.

On March 31, 1534, the Upper and Lower Houses of the Con-
vocation of Canterbury, and on June 1, 1534, the Upper and Lower
Houses of the Convocation of York, adopted this resolution :

" Resolved, tliat the Bishop of Rome has no greater jurisdiction
conferred on him by God, in this kingdom, than any other foreign
bishop."

• The bishops, abbols, and representative clergy, assembled in the
Convocations of Canterbury and York, assented to this proposition,
with the single exception of Fisher, Bishop of Rochester.

This acquiescence and agreement was not the result of hasty
passion and indignation ; it was a deliberate conviction, arrived at
after a full and careful consideration of the whole question.

The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge agreed with the Con-
vocations of Canterbury and York, and later on in the same year the
Parliament and the Sovereign gave the sanction of the government to
the decisions of our Church's Councils.

By the abolition of the Papal Supremacy in A. D. 1634, the
Church of England regained the freedom which she possessed in the
early centuries of her history. The prophecy, if we may so regard it,
of the Magna Charta, was now fulfilled ; and as a result a Catholic
Restoration , that is, a Reformation conducted on primitive and Catholic
lines was now possible. This leads to the second division of my
present subject, which must be more briefly handled.

II.-THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: ITS CATHOLIC RESTORATION.

There is an essential and most vital difference between what took
place in England in the sixteenth century, and what took place in
Germany, Switzerland and Scotland.

In those countries the Reformation partook more of the character
of a Revolution.

There was a complete break with the historic Church, the Church
of the past. There was an abandonment of the historic Episcopate,
and a loss therefore of Apostolic Succession. There was the setting
up of an entirely new form of Church government, and the surrender

of those three orders of the Chriatian ministry which had existed
continuously in the Catholic Church since the days of the inspired
Apostles of our Lord. There was no attonipt made to purify and adapt
the existing services of the Church, as found in the old Service-books,
parts of which may be traced back to Apostolic or post- Apostolic
times ; no attempt therefore to bring back the dignified and stately
ritual of the early Catholic Church.

The reverse of all this happened in England, In England,
through the good hand of our God over us, the Reformation partook
more of the character of a Restoration. It was essentially a con-
servative movement, and a return to primitive and Catholic antiquity.
There was no break with the Church of the past ; the Church of
England before and after the work of her Restoration was carried out
was the same ; the same, with some errors cleared away, and some
doctrines and rites of the primitive and purist ages of the Church
restored.

So that, as Flore says, in his " Eighteen Centuries of the Church
in England," the Church of England was not, as some people imagine,
founded at the Reformation. It was in its essential features not
Roman before and Protestant since ; it was the same Catholic Churcli
which had existed in ancient Britain from very early times, and
which had been organized into unity under the See of Canterbury,
by the seventh Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus.

There was no abandonment of the historic Episcopate, for many
of the Bishops of the un-Reformed Church became Bishops of tha
Reformed Church, and were themselves the chief promoters of tho
work of Catholic Restoration.

To carry oat effectually this work of Catholic Restoration,
especially in matters of doctrine, it was absolutely necessary to pro-
test against tho errors by which tho primitive Catholic truth had been
over-laid and to some extent neutralized during the middle ages.

Vary vigorous, and let me add, very needful, even in our days,
are those protests against Roman usurpation, corrupt practices and
doctrinal errors, which wo find in our Articles.

As the work of Catholic Restoration in England necessarily
implied the full preservation of tho historic Episcopate, it also

implied that our Reformers were careful to preserve that Apostolic
Succession, without which the Episcopate could not have been
transmitted.

In the history of the English Reformation, there was one most
critical time when the utmost care was needed, and the utmost care
was taken to transmit in our venerable Church that ministry of grace
and power which Christ ordained in His Church and gave to His
Apostles.

That critical time took place at the opening of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth.

The sixty-eighth Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Pole, died
within a few hours of Queen Mary. So that when Elizabeth, on
Nov. 17, 1558, ascended the throne of England, the See of Cantor-
bury was vacant.

In the election, confirmation, and consecration of a successor to
Augustine, every precaution was taken that the sixty-ninth Arch-
bishop of CAnterbury should be validly and lawfully chosen, con-
firmed and consecrated.

The Dean and Chapter of the Metropolitan Church of Canterbury
petitioned the Queen to allow them to elect an Archbishop in the
room of Archbishop Pole lately deceased.

The Queen grantod the usual permission in a letter under her
hand and seal, d<tted from her palace at Westminster, July 18, 1559.

The Dean and Chapter then, according to the ancient manner and
laudable custom of the Church, chose the devout and scholarly
Matthew Parker, Priest aud Doctor of Divinity. This election took
place August 1st, 1559. Parker had been ordained to the Priesthood
according to the Latin Pontifical.

After this election orderly performed and signified according to
law, the Queen issued her letters patent of commission for the con-
firmation and consecration of Doctor Matthew Parker.

The first letters patent were issued September 9, 1559. This
mandate of the Queen was issued to six Bishops. The clause, *' at
least four of J'OU,"' being omitted, it followed that if one was absent,
or refused to act, the rest could not proceed to confirm or consecrate.
It is certain that three out of the six Bishops, named in the first letters
patent, refused to consecrate.

On December 6, 15.59, the Quoeu issued other letters patent,
naming six Bishops, and requiring them, or at least four of them,
effectually to confirm and consecrate Matthew Parker, Doctor of
Divinity, to be Archbishop of Canterbury. Four out of the six
Bishops consented to act.

These letters patent the Queen submitted to divers doctors of the
faculties of Divinity and Law, who unanimously approved of them
as lawful.

On December 9, 1559, in the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, London,
Doctor Parker's election was regularly confirmed, open challenge
being made for any one to show reason why the elect should not be
consecrated. No objection was made. Parker was present by his
appointed proxies : William May, Dean of St. Paul's, London ; and
Nicolas BuUingham, Doctor of Law.

All the preliminaries having been duly performed, eight days after
his confirmation, Doctor Matthew Parker was consecrated Archbishop
of Canterbury, on Sunday, December 17, 1559, in the Chapel of the
Archiepiscopal Palace at Lambeth, in the presence of Bishops,
Bishops-elect, Priests, Koyal Commissioners, Noblemen and Common-
ers of England.

I quote a portion of the account of this event fraught with the
most vital interest to the Church of England, as given by Bailey in
his valuable work in " Defence ot Anglican Orders."

The east end of the Chapel was adorned with tapestry, and the
floor was covered with red cloth, and the tabb., which was to be used
for the holy oC oS, was placed at the east enc. thereof, adorned with
a frontal ? '^'^ a cushion.

At SIX o'clock in the morning the procession entered the west
door of the Chapel, the Archbishop-elect vested in the scarlet gown
and hood of his degree, with four wax torches borne before him,
accompanied by the four Bishops who wer» to perform the consecration,
namely, William Barlow, sometime Bishop of Bath and Wells, now
elect of Chichester ; John Scory, sometime Bishop of Chichester,
now elect of Hereford; Miles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter; and
John Hodgkins, Suffragan Bishop of Bedford. Of these four Bishops,
two hiid been consecrated according to the Latin form of the old

English Ordinal, in the days of Henry VIII., and two according to
the English form of the Ordinal during the reign of Edward VI.

Morning Prayer is said by Andrew Pearson, Chaplain of the
Archbishop-el'^ct : Bishop Scory delivers a sermon from the text,
" The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder."
Preaches, as the old Lambeth register puts it, " not inelegantly." He
The sermon over, the Bishops withdraw to vest for the Holy Com-
munion, and return ; the Archbishop elect in thfl surplice of a priest ;
Bishop Barlow the Celebrant, with the Archdeacons of Canterbury
and Lincoln, who were to serve at the altar as deacon and sub-deacon,
in gorgeous copes of silk.

After the Gospel, the candidate is presented; the Queen's man-
date for consecration is read ; the oath of office is administered ; the
people are bidden to pray for the candidate ; Bishop Barlow sings the
Litany, the choir responding. After the usual questions and answers,
th« four Bishops lay their Apostolic hands on the head of the kneel-
ing priest, each one of them saying in English the words of Con-
secration ; ami Doctor Matthew Parker rises a Bishop in the Church
of God, and is vested in his Episcopal robes.

The Archbishop having been thus duly consecrated, the Queen,
on Dec. 31, 1559, issued her mandate to the Archdeacon of Canter-
bury, to enthrone the said Lord Archbishop.

On January 1st, 1560, the sixty-ninth Archbishop of Canterbury,
sitting in the Chair of Augustine, is enthroned in the Metropolitan
Cathedral of Canterbury.

The Archbishop, having thus been confirmed, consecrated, and
enthroned, the Queen, on March 21, 1560, issued her mandate for his
legal investiture with the temporalities of the See.

No event in the history of the Church of England is better certi-
fied than the Consecration of Archbishop Parker. I must refer you
to Bailey's " Defence of Anglican Orders," or to a book which every
Churchman should possess and carefully road, Little's " Reasons for
baing a Churchman," for a list of the documents which conclusively
prove the fact of his consecration.

In that year, 1560, Pope Pius IV. addressed a letter to Queen
Elizabeth, offering to acknowledge the work of the Reformation of

the Church of England, expressing also his willingness to approve of
our Book of Common Prayer, including our Communion Service and
our Ordinal, on one condition — submission to the See of Rome.

It is needless to say that neither the English Sovereign, nor the
English Nation, nor the English Church, could accept again that
badge of servitude. In the first year, almost in the first month of
her reign, Queen Elizabeth had publicly spoken these memorable
words, worthy of an English Sovereign :

" Our records show that the papal jurisdiction over this realm was
a usurpation. To no power whatever is my crown subject, save that
of Christ, the King of kings. I shall, therefore, regard as enem.es,
both to God and myself, all such of my subjects as shall hereafter
own any foreign or usurped authority within my realm "

For twelve years, the first twelve years of the reign of Elizabeth,
the whole body of Englishmen conformed to the national Reformed
Church of England.

Who broke the peace 1 Who commenced the sad work of
schism from the Anglican branch of Christ's Holy Catholic Church?

The Pope. Pius IV had passed away. He was succeeded by a
man who breathed the intolerant and persecuting spirit of a Torque-
piada : Pius V.

On April 27, 1570, Pius V. issued his famous Bull, entitled,
'^ The Damnation and Excommunication of Elizabeth ;" deposing the
Queen forsooth from her thione, absolving all her subjects from their
oath of alljegience to their Sovereign, and commanding them to with-
draw from their national Church.

A mere handful of Englishmen, in disloyalty to the Catholic
Church in England, and in treason to their lawful Sovereign, seceded
and formed the Roman schism in England.

The guilt of the commencement of schism in England, lies at the
door of Pope Pius V. He too, through the Jesuits, was the constant
abettor of treason against our lawful Sovereign. Yet he is a canon-
ized saint of the Roman Breviary !

But I must draw this Lecture to a close. In tracing out the
Catholic Restoration of the Church of England, I have shown you,
in contradistinction with what tgok place elsewhere, that there was

no break with the historic Church, the Church of England before and
after the Reformation, was the same. I have shown you further that
there was no abandonment of the historic Episcopate, and that at a
most critical time, the utmost possible care was taken to preserve
Apostolic Succession.

I would remind you further, that in the carrying out of this
work of Catholic Restoration, there was no setting up of a new
form of Church government, and no surrender therefore of the three
orders of the Cliristian ministry which had continuously existed from
the days of Christ's Apostles. The Preface to our Ordinal, I need
hardly remind you, contains a distinct categorical statement on this
subject.

And finally, I must remind you that an honest, thoughtful, and
to a great extent, successful attempt was made to purify and adapt
the forms and ceremonies of Divine worship found in the old Service-
Books of the Church : and the result is the Book which, next to the
Bible, every Churchman loves — our English Book of Common
Prayer.

It has passed, as you know, through various revisions ; and some
writer has summed up the account of the revisions in this way: The
Prayer Book of 1549, the first Prayer Book of Edward VI., was the
old casket of Catholic devotion, stript of all tawdry additions, and
made perfectly useful and acceptable to English Catholics : that of
1552, the second Prayer Book of Edward VI., and to a lesser extent
that of 1559, the Prayer Book of Elizabeth, was the casket robbed of
many of its precious gems and jewels; and that of 1662, which was
the result of tlie Caroline pettlemeut after the Conference of the
Savoy, is the original casket carefully restored and repaired, but with
some precious stones still missing.

Let us humbly and devoutly thank God that our beloved Church,
through all the changes of the past, has preserved her continuous
organic life.

Let us thank God for her Catholic Restoration, and for those
revivals in spiritual religion, in Catholic worship, and in missionary
zeal, which have marked her history during this nineteenth century.

And just as we .ire enteViug on tlie closing decade of tliis eventful
century, may we not thank God for a judgment issuing from the
Metropolitan throne of Augustine, whose whole tendency is to
Banction in matters ot ritual, the work of Catholic Kestoratiou. Let us
earnestly pray that the recent judgnieut of the 92nd xirchbishop of
Canterbury may, above all things, promote ritual peace within the
borders of our beloved Zion.

And aa we look forward into the future, and the great work
devolving on our Church in her conflict with infidelity and lawless-
ness and ungodliness, and in the guarding and nurture of the sheep
of Christ's flock committed to her care, every earnest Churchman will
pray that God will abundantly bless in all her wide realm-* our
spiritual Zion, and every loyal Churchman will heartily reecho the
wish with wfekt I will close —

Floreat EccLEsiA Anglicana.

Tl]6 Three- Fold Apostolic Ministry

OK THE

HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH.

A. SERMON

PREACHED ev

The rev. ISAAC BROCK, D. D.,

RECTOR OF HORTON Ac.

IM ST. JAMES' CHURCH, KENTVILLE, N. S.

ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER IITM, 18SI.

" We cannot surrender for any immediate advantages the three-fold ministry which
we have inherited from Apostolio times, and which ia the historic backbone of the Church."

— Binhop Light/oot: " Leaders in the Northern. Ch^ireh,"

MORTON & CO.,

BARHINGTON STREET, HALIFAX.

A. D. 1 89 1.

" Piml imd Timolheu?. the .=erviints of .Te-ius Christ, to nil the s.iints in Christ Jesus
Which are at Philipiii, with the bishops anddeiicons."— Phimppians I. 1.

My subject to-niglit is the Three-fold Apostolic Minis' ry of the
Holy C",tholic Church : Bishops. Priests, and Deacons.

Let me first call your attention to the deliberate judgment of the
Church of England on this point. At the end of your Prayer-Rooks
you will three services,— The Ordering of Deacons, The Ordering of
Priests, and The Consecration of Bishops. In the Preface to those
Services, you will find the judgment of the Church on the subject
before us to-night. It is given in these words with which the Preface
to those Services opens :

" It is evident unto all men diligently reading the Holy Scripture
and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been
these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church : Bishops, Priests, and
Deacons."

With these words before us, no Churchman can pretend that the
Church of England has left the question of the Threefold Ministry
of the Church an open question If, as our Church asserts, there
have been ''from the Apostles' time" these Orders of Ministers
in Christ's Church, — Bishops, Priests, and Deacons,— then they are
of Apostolic appointment, then they belong not merely to the well-
being of a Church, they belong to her very essence. Without the
Three fold Order of the Ministry, there is no such thing as an
Apostolic Church.

I am about to present to you to-night a seven fold argument for
the Threefold Ministry of the Holy Catholic Church. I pr^^sent the
argument in this form, because thus it may be moie easily remem-
bered.

Let us theu direct our thoughts to seven periods of history.

I. First. — The times of the ancient Jewish Church.

Every detail of ritual, worship, and government connected with
the Church of Israel, was of Divine appointment. What, then, was
the nature of its Ministry ? It was a Ministry of three Orders, con-
sisting of a High Priest, Priests, and Levitea. Was not this a type
ov prophecy of the Three-fold Ministry of the Holy Catholic Church 1

There is, however, one point of ditfercnce. The Jewish Church
had only one High Pries- m Holy Catholic Church has many
Bishops. This diti'erence might have been expected. The Jewish
Church was for one small nation only : the Catholic Church, (as its
name implies) is for all nations. Therefore the one High Priest of
Israel is replaced by the many Bishops of the Holy Catholic Church.

II. Secondly. — The time of our Lord's personal Ministry on
earth.

He prepared the way for tne establishment in His Church of a
Three-fold Ministry. Such a Ministry existed during our Lord's
personal mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. There was
our Lord Himself in the first place, the twelve Apostles in tlie
second rank, whom He ordained, and there were the seventy
Disciples in the third rank, whom He sent forth to teach and to
preach in the cities of Israel. (See second Lesson for this evening
service.) Here then we discern a distinct preparation on the part of
our Lord for the Three-fold Ministry of that Church which He was
about to establish on earth.

III. Thirdly. — The opening years of the Ministry of the
Apostles ; from A. D. 30 to A. D. 50 ; from the Day of Pentecost to
the first Council of the Christian Church held at Jerusalem, recorded
in Acts XV.

The Holy Catholic Church starts at once with a Three-fold Min-
istry. There were the Apostles in the first rank, the Seventy in the
second rank, and the Deacons in the third rank. The appointment
and ordination of Deacons grew out of the growing needs of the
Church, and is recorded in Acts vi.

The Seventy, no doul)t, fornicd tlio nucleus of that OidGr ot
Elders which the Apostles ordained in every city where they planted
the Christian Church. Thus in the record of the first missionary
journey of St. Paul, recorded by St. Luke in Acts xiii, xiv, we road
that Paul and Pmrnahas " ordained them Elders in every Church."
And in the account of the Council at Jerusalem, we read of the
Elders of the (^hurch in conjunction with the Apostles.

Thus in the first twenty years of hor history, the Holy Catholic
Church had a Three-fold Ministry, consisting of Apostles, Elders, and
Deacons.

Before I pass to the fourth period of history, which embraces the
middle age of the Ministry of the Apostles, I pause for a moment to
ask your attention to an event which closes the third period and opens
the fourth — the Council at Jerusalem — held about A. I). 50. I will
not dwell on the circumstances connected with the calling of that
Council, nor on its decrees, important though these are, att'ecting as
they did the whole future history of the Holy Catholic Church in
its mission among the nations of the world, liut I call your attention
to one particular which has a most important bearing on the subject
before us. Who presided at that Councd ? Who, as the mouth-
piece of the Church pronounced its decree? Who would we have
expected to do this? 1 think we should have expected St. Peter to
have presided on this occasion. St. Jerome tells us that he was the
oldest of the Apostles. He was undoubtedly, " primus inter pares,"
first among equals. For these ar,d other reasons, we might have
expected him to occupy the President's chair at the first Council of
the Church.

Yet he did not do so That place was occupied by St. James.
Why? St. liUke's Tlistory in the Acts does not supply us with the
answer, But Church history does. We consult the ecclesiastical
writers of the second and third century, and they, with singular
unanimity, inform us that St. James was the Apostle, or, as he would
be called from the opening of the second century and since, Bishop
of the Church at Jerusalem.

As Bishop of the Church at Jerusalem, St. James would naturally
preside at a Council held at Jerusalem, the first and earliest- home of

the Cliurch of God : umler him would be the Elders .lud Deacons of
that Church.

So that iu A. D. 50, twenty years after Christ's Ascension to
to Heaven, iu the twentietli year of the Church's liistory, we see the
Mother Church of Christendom, governed by its Aj)03tle, or Diocesan
Bishop, and under hiin were the other two Orders of the Christian
Ministry, Elders and Deacons.

IV. I pass to the fourth period of history ; the middle years of
the Ministry of the Apostles, from A. D. 50 to A. D. 60 ; from the
Council at Jerusalem to St. Paul's embarkation at Csesaroa for Italy.

This period embraced the second and third missionary journey*
of St Paul. To this period belong eleven Chapters of the Acts of
the Apostles, Chapters xvi. to xxvi. inclusive.

During this period the conservative influence that has ever been
at work in the Holy Catholic Church, preserved the three Orders of
the sacred Ministry which were in existence during the past twenty
years : Apostles, Elders and Deacons.

But during this period we find another name given to the second
Order of the Ministers which it is important, for many reasons, to
take note of. Before doing so, however, I should mention that the
Greek word for Elders, Presbuteroi, gives the name to the second
Order of the Ministry, with which we are so familiar to-day, Presby-
ters, which is contracted or shortened into Priests ; so that the three
Orders of the Christian Ministry, A. D. 50, might be described aa
Apostles, Priests, and Deacons.

But (as I have said) during this fourth period, that is, between
A. D. 50 and A. I). 60, appears a new name for the second Order of
the Christian Ministry, which it is very important that we should take
careful note of.

You have this new name first in Acts xx. 28, in St. Paul's fare-
well address to the Elders, or Priests of the Church at Ephesus.
" Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock, over
which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.'" The word in the
Greek is Episcopoi, which we generally translate, Bishops.

This is the first time that the word Episcopos, or Bishop, occurs
in our New Testament. It means, as its translation in our Author-

ized Version of Acts xx. 28 shows, an Overseer, And first it was
undoubtedly applied to the Overseer of flocks, to Presbyters, or
Priests.

The word occurs only five times in our Greek Testament : four
times out of five it is applied to the second Order of Christian
Ministers. Once it is applied to our Lord in I Peter ii., who is there
called, " The Shepherd and Bishop of our souls."

In the Apostolic ago then, the second Order of the Christian Min-
istry M'ere called Presbyters, or Bishops. This second name was given
them because they were appointed by the Apostles and their
successors to be Overseers of flocks.

I admit then, and no Churchman has any hesitation in making
the admission, that in the Apostolic age of the Church, the names of
Bishop and Presbyter were used interchangeably. The question at
issue between us and the Presbyterians, is not a question of names,
but of offices. The question is, were there, or were there not, three
Orders of Ministers in Christ's Chuich in Apostolic times] And has
the office (not the name) of Apostle survived in the Christian Church ?

So far, from A. D. 30 to A. D. 60, that is, during the first thirty
yeais of the life of the Holy Catholic Church, we have seen that there
were three Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church : Apostles ; Bishops,
Presbyters, or Priests ; and Deacons.

V. I pass now to the fifth period of history which embraces the
closing years of the Ministry of all the Apostles except St. John ;
from A. D. 60 to A. D. 70 ; from St. Paul's first arrival at Pome, to
the martyrdom at Home of St. Peter and St. Paul.

The portion.s of our New Testament that boar on this period are
Acts xxviii., the Epistles of St. Peter, the Epistles of St. Paul to the
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and his Pastoral Epistles to
Timothy and Titus.

The evidences for a Threefold Ministry in the Christian Church
during this period are very clear. We have also remarkably plain
proof that the Apostles intended their office to continue in the Church.
We see them providing for their successors.

Look first at the language of my text : " Paul and Timotheus,
the servauts of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at
Philippi, with the Bishops and Deacons."

Here we have brought before us in one verse the whole Church,
together with its Three-fold Ministry. First, we have Paul and
Timotheus, Apostles and Rulers of the Church, then the Bishops or
Presbyters, then the Deacons, and also the whole body of the
Christian laity, " all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi." That
passage alone is able to establish the fact that the Church of Apostolic
days had a Three-fold Ministry.

Then look at the Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy and Titus, and
note carefully the position assigned by St. Paul to Timothy and
Titus in the Churches of Ephesus and Crete respectively.

Timothy is entrusted by St. Paul with the government of the
Cliurch at Ephesus. He has under him Bishops or Presbyters, and
Deacons. The ordering of the public prayers of the Church ; the
judging of tlie qualifications of Bishops or Presbyters, and Deacons ;
the ordaining of Ministers ; the rebuking (when necessary) of Elders,
or Presbyters ; in fact the whole government of tha Church at
Ephesus is entrusted by St. Paul to Timothy. Timothy Avas to be to
the Church of Ephesus what St. Paul had hitherto been, its Apostolic
ruler, or, as we should express it to-day, its Diocesan Bishop.

Timothy was a young man. St. Paul was advancing in years and
Bearing the end of his ministry. In a most important sphere of his
Apostolic labor, (specimen of what happened elsewhere), St. Paul
provides that his office shall be continued. In his Epistles to Timothy
we see St. Paul giving directions to one who was to be his successor
in the Apo.stolic government of a portion of the Holy Catholic
Church.

In the Epistle of St. Paul to Titua, who was set by him over all
the Church of Crete, we see like directions to those given to Timothy ;
he was to " s'^t in order the things that are wanting, and ordain
Elders (Presbyters) in every city." Titus, then, was to be the
Apostolic ruler of the Churches of Crete, having under him numerous
Bishops or Prosbyters, and Deacons.

During the ten closing years then of the Ministry of the Apostles,
from A. D. 60 to A. D 70, we have clear evidence of the existence

of a Three-fold Miuustry in the Apostolic Church, We soo tho
Apostles and men like Timothy and Titus, and others, who wielded
Apostolic powers; Risiiops, or Presbyters, or Priests ; and Deacons ;
and during this period, (wheu we would naturally expect it) we havo
clear proof that the Apostles intended their office to continue in the
Church : we see them in fact making provision for and giving
directions to their successors.''

VI. The sixth period brings us to the thirty closing years of tho
first Christian century : from A. 1). 70 to A. D, 100 : from the death
of St. Peter, St. Paul, and others of the Apostles, to the death of St.
John.

There can be no doubt that during this period, the second and
third Orders of the Christian Ministry continued in the Church.
What evidence, ^additional to that ailbrded by the Pastoral Epistles)
have we of the continuan'e of the first and highest Order of tho
Christian Ministry ?

We have the testimony of the last surviving Apostle, St. John.
In the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, (A. J). 95), he is
directed to write to the seven Churches of Lesser Asia, 'i'o whom,
by Christ's own order does he address these Epistles? To a Board
of Presbyters ? a Synod ? a General Assembly or Conference? No:
but to an individual whom he call.'^ "The Angel" of the Church.
An Angel means one sent with a message. These Angels (in Rev.
i., ii., iii.,) evidently occupy an official or responsible position.
Moreover, our Lord holds each Angel answerable for the good
government of the Church under him.

Who, then, could these Angels be? Who but the Apostolic
Rulers of their respective Churches ?f Church History tells us wo
are right in this conclusion : more, Church History gives us the very
names of the Angels, or IJishops, o*" the seven Churches of Lesser
Asia.

• See explanatory note at tho end of the Sermon on I. Tim. iv., 14.

t Archbishop Trench, in his Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches of
Asia, after showing that the Angel could only bo a Bishop, u Bishop, too, with the pre-
rogatives which we apply to such, on the use of the term Angel, in this Book, remarks :
'* There is a certain mystcriousness and remoteness from tho common language of man, in
the adoption of this term, and such there is intended to be. It belongs to the enigmatic,
symbolic character of the Book, elevated to its language throughout above the level of
daily life."

At the close of the first .Christian cuntury, then we behold the
Holy Catholic Church witli its Three-fold Ministry : Apostles or
Angels, Presbyters, and Deacons.

VII. I pass to the seventh and last period ; the opening decade
of the second Christian century, from A. I). 100 to A. D. 110.

At the opening of the second century, St Ignatius, a disciple of
St. John, was IJishop of Antioch. By the orders of Emperor Trajan,
St. Ignatius, because he confessed himself a (Christian, was taken
from Antiocli to I'onie, and there in the Coliseum in the presence of
tens of thousands of spectators, thrown to tlie wild beasts, so receiving
the crown of martyrdom.

On his journey from Antioch to K'onie he composed seven letters,
mostly to the Churches of Lesser Asia ; in six out of them he makes
distinct mention of the three Orders of the (Christian Ministry, and by
their present names : Hishop-^, Priests and Deacons. In his Epistle
to the Trallians, alter mentioning the names of the three Orders of
the Ministry, lie says : " Without them there is no Church."

The first Order of the Christian Ministry from the days of St.
Ignatius was called not Apostles, but Bishops. TertuUian gives the
reason. The successors of the Apostles did not consider themselves
worthy to be called Apostles, therefore they took a name which
hitherto had been with Presbyter, an alternate name of the second
Order of the Ministry. From the commencement of the second cen-
tury, therefore, the word P]piscopos, or Bishop, denoted no longer the
Overseer of a flock, but the Overseer of the pastors of the flocks.

I need not pursue the matter any further. From the second
century, what TertuUian says, " Nulla Ecclesia sine Episcopo ;" —
"No Church without a Bishop;" — has been a fact as well as a
maxim.

Since the time of Christ's Apostles then, these three Ordeis of
Ministers have existed in every Christian Church ; Bishops, Priests,
and Deacons : and they continued so to exist till the sixteenth
century, till Calvin in Switzerland and Knox in Scotland inaugurated
the Presbyterian form of government.

Hooker's challenge to the Puritans at the end of the sixteenth
century has never been answered. He challenged the Puritans of

liis (lay to sliow during the sixteen centuries preceding tlie Reforma-
tion, one (Church which had been ordered by their regimen, or one
Church which had not been ordered by the Episcopal regimen since "
the time that the blessed Apostles were conversant here on earth.

It was the apprehension of this fact, the continuous existence of a
Three-fold Ministry in the Church, and the limitation of the power of
Ordination to the first and highest Order that led to the conversion
from Congregationalism to the Church of England of a well-known
clergyman in London, who died a few years ago. I allude to the
Ivev. Dr. Gibson, for many year Rector of Bethnal Green, London.
I asked him, on one occasion, what led him to join the Church of
England He detailed to me at some length, the reasons that led him
to be dissatisfied with the Congregational system in which he had
been educated, and of which he was a Minister : and at last, he said,
I sat do'»n to read the whole history of the Church from the begin-
ning ; and when I came on this startling fact meeting me on every
page of Church History, from the first to the sixteenth century, that
during all those centuries no one had ever dared to minister at the
Church's altars without receiving E])iscopal Ordination, I made up
my mind that I would never again minister till I had received
Episcopal Ordination. He then applied to the Bishop of Exeter, in
whose Diocese he had been exercising his duties as a Congregational
Minister, and in due cour83 ho was ordained a Deacon, and then a
Priest of the Church of God.

To conclude.

You should pray for God's Ministers, that by their preaching and
living they may set forth God's Holy Word.

And you should [."ray for yourselves, that you may profit by the
ministry of God's Holy Word, which you enjoy.

The Collect for St. Peter's Day is a suitable one to use : "
Almighty God, who by Thy Son Jesus Christ didst give to Thy
Apostle St. Peter many excellent gifts, and commandost him earnestly
to feed Thy flock : make, we beseech Thee, all Bishops and Pastors
diligently to preach Thy Holy Word, and the people obediently to
follow the same, that they may receive the crown of everlasting glory ;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

EXPLANATORY NOTE ON I. TIM. iv. 14.

" Neglect not the gift that is in tliee, which was given thee by prophecy^,
with the laying on of the hands of Ihf Presbytery." — This passage is relied
on by Presbyterians as proving that Timothy received ordination at the
hands of a body of Presbyters, that Timothy's ordination was in fact
Presbyterian ordination. In another passage, however, 8t. Paul claims
that Timothy's ordination was performed by himself. II. Tim. i. G. : " Stir
up the gift ol God which is in thee, by the putting on of my hands."

How are these two passages to be reconciled ? Does not the mode of
the Ordination of a Presbyter in the Church of England, followed in other
branches of the Church Catholic, supply the reconciliation ? In the service
for " The Ordering of Priests," before the act of Oi-dination, we have this
Rubric. " When this prayer is done, the Bishop with the Priests present,
shall lay their hands severally upon the head of every one that receiveth
the Order of Priesthood : the Receivers humbly kneeling upon their knees,
and the Bishop saying, ' Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work
of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the Imposition
of our hands, Ac' '" The Bishop ordains with the concurrence of the
Presbyters present ; they signify their concurrence by uniting with the
Bishop in the laying on of hands. Might not this have been the mode of
Timothy's Ordination ?

It is to be noted that two dilferent prepositions in the Greek, indicate the
share respectively of the Ordaining Apostle and the consenting Presbyters.
Timothy was ordained, St. Paul said, "By (dia) the putting on of my
hands;"' and, " With (meta) the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery."
Dr. Macknight, a Presbyterian commentator, when discussing I. Tim. iv.
14, says: " Since it appears from II. Tim. i. 6, that the Apostle, by the
imposition of his own hands, conferred on Timothy ihe spiritual gift here
mentioned, we must suppose that the Eldership at Lyslra laid their hands
on him only to show their concurrence with the Apostle in sotting Timothy
apart to the ministry by prayer."

For a further discussion of the subject briefly handled in this Sermon,
see Little's " Reasons for being a Churchman," Chapters IX. to XIII.

"MORTON &C0,,,.

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