u ,., ; r ;,(, LIBRARY PRINCETON, N. J. No. Cat <$ ^vision. ..^/^ \ BR 45 .B35 1820 Bampton lectures THE CLAIMS OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH TO EXCLUSIVE ATTACHMENT AND SUPPORT, AND THE DANGERS WHICH MENACE HER FROM SCHISM AND INDIFFERENCE, CONSIDERED ; IN EIGHT SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, IN THE YEAR MDCCCXX. At the Lecture founded by THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M. A. CANON OF SALISBURY. BY GODFREY FAUSSETT, M. A. LATE FELLOW OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE. OXFORD, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE AUTHOR. sold by j. parker, oxford; and messrs. rivington, st. Paul's church yard, and Waterloo place, london. 1820. , , NTENTS. SERMON I. 1 Cor. iii.3. Whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divi- sions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men ? General insensibility to the duty of Church Commu- nion. — I. Leading causes of misapprehension on the subject. II. Prevailing modifications of latitudinarian error. III. Plan of the following Lectures. SERMON II. 1 Cor. xii. 25. That there should be no schism in tlie body. Schism. — I. Its nature and criminality proved from Scripture, and illustrated by the opinions of the primi- tive writers. II. Usual evasions of the charge exposed, and the measure of our obligations to Christian Unity stated. III. Application of the argument to the religious divisions of this country. SERMON III. John xx. 21. As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. Episcopacy. — I. Its Divine Institution, 1. Traced in the writings of the New Testament ; 2. Confirmed by ii CONTENTS. the universal practice and unvarying testimony of the early Church. SERMON IV. Matt, xxviii. 20. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. The subject continued. — II. Episcopacy of permanent obligation, 1. Inferred from its close analogy to the form of polity previously instituted by God for the Jewish Church ; 2. Proved from its being the only ap- pointed method of continuing the Christian Priesthood. 3. Objections answered. SERMON V. Rom. X. 15. How shall they preach, except they be sent? The Christian Priesthood. — I. Proof from Scripture that the Divine commission is necessary to the validity of its important functions. II. Erroneous notions on the subject considered. SERMON VI. 1 Cor. xiv. 40. Let all things be done decently and in order. Forms. — I. The necessity of external form towards maintaining the internal spirit of religion. II. The authority of the Church in regulating the celebration of divine worship. III. The lawfulness of the course adopted by our own Church ; and the positive benefits derived from her appointments ; — more particularly from her Liturgy. CONTENTS. iii SERMON VII. John xviii. 36. My kingdom is not of this world. Alliance of Church and State. — I. Natural independ- ence of the two powers on each other. II. Mutual ad- vantages derived from their alliance, if formed on sound principles, and discreetly conducted. III. Theory of our own Establishment correct; — its benefits impaired by deviations in practice. SERMON VIII. Galat. vi. 10. Let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Toleration and test laws. — I. A test law necessary to the security of the Established Church. II. Objections answered. III. Religious indifference the leading source of error on the subject. — Conclusion. a 2 EXTRACT FROM THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OP THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, CANON OF SALISBURY. " I give and bequeath my Lands and " Estates to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scho- " lars of the University of Oxford for ever, to " have and to hold all and singular the said jv §uva. 16' SERMON I. and to the importance of their subject, or even in proportion to the extensive circula- tion of other works of far inferior preten- sions, but of dissimilar character and ten- dency. It is far from necessary, and I believe would be altogether unjust, to suppose, that the silence of the Clergy on the topics al- luded to is wholly, or even perhaps mainly, attributable to the fear suggested by the learned Prelate. Other sentiments far more honourable to their Christian character have manifestly contributed to the effect; — charity to those of opposite persuasions, a dislike to controversv, a desire to avoid offence, an idea perhaps that error would die away more readily from being left to itself; — above all, probably, an inadequate impression on their own minds of the con- sequence of these topics, too naturally a- rising from the influence of general exam- ple, and the contagion of prevailing senti- ments. Some or all of these motives, closely allied as several of them are to goodness and moderation, and none of them abso- lutely inconsistent with integrity, have no SERMON I. 17 doubt had their share in inducing many of our brethren weakly to palliate, or even to suppress truths, which it was their duty to have explained with precision and main- tained with firmness ; to make a most un- warranted and unscriptural distinction be- tween the doctrinal precepts and sacred in- stitutions of Christianity, excepting the lat- ter from discussion as trivial, and thus too plainly '* m shunning to declare all the coun- sel of God." It need not surely be further urged, that the result of such a system, generally acted on, must be, as we experience it to be, a laity most imperfectly informed of their duty, as far as relates to Church commu- nion and schism, and of course in the same proportion exposed to the plausible argu- ments of the sectary. If I have succeeded in stating with any tolerable degree of correctness the leading causes of our religious dissensions, who can possibly reflect on the combined operation of such formidable principles for such a m Acts xx. 17. c 18 SERMON I. long course of years, without well-grounded and serious apprehension ? Who can even contemplate what his daily intercourse witb society must present to his observation, of the increasing defections from our Church, and of the indifference with which such de- fections are regarded, without being con- vinced that our situation as an Ecclesiasti- cal Establishment is becoming extremely critical ? I will not say that we should look to this crisis with despair, and regard the difficulties as insurmountable by any pro- bable exertions of our own, seconded, as we might without presumption hope, by the blessing of God on his own positive and sacred institutions : but this I must say, that the listless apathy, the blind security, and latitudinarian spirit of these alarming times are but wretched auxiliaries in the cause, and that men must be rouzed to far juster views, and far more lively zeal, ere we can hope again to turn the stream of opinion against our adversaries, or even to erect a competent barrier against the rising tide of encroachment which threatens to overwhelm us. SERMON I. 19 II. In order to present a clearer idea of the prejudices which we have to encounter, I shall briefly notice several of the more conspicuous forms, under which the modern ignorance and misapprehension on the sub- ject of Church communion and ecclesias- tical authority is found to prevail. And should it appear no difficult task, to show even on generally acknowledged principles, that they are utterly at variance with con- sistency and reason, it will serve as an use- ful introduction to the more regular discus- sion of our duty in these particulars, and leave the mind more open to conviction from the arguments which may be urged in support of it from the express precepts of holy writ and the recorded practice of the primitive ages. The leading prejudice of the age, the very key-stone of modern liberality, is the idea that sincerity is all in all ; that, pro- vided we are secure of our " integrity be- " fore God n ," and conscientiously embrace n " When you are secure of your integrity before God, " and of your sincere disposition to search after his will, u and to receive the truth in the love of truth, vvhenso~ c 2 20 SERMON I. religion under the form that best accords with our own views, it matters not whether we be of this or that communion, or whe- ther we be of any communion at all. This position, subversive as it must be of every notion of ecclesiastical authority and Chris- tian unity, was the main foundation of a controversy, most preposterously headed by a Bishop of our own Church ; who is, I apprehend, still regarded as prime author- ity by the numerous and, it should seem, increasing party, who at the present day have adopted his loose opinions. It is not, however, easy to conceive arguments more triumphantly confuted and exposed, than those of Bishop Hoadly then were in the Letters of the celebrated Law. " ever and from whomsoever it is offered, this will, I con- " fess, lead you (as it ought all of us) not to be afraid " of the terrors of men, or the vain words of regular and " uninterrupted successions, authoritative benedictions, " excommunications, or absolutions; nullity or validity " of God's ordinances to the people, upon account of " niceties and trifles, or any other the like dreams of " those who have separated themselves, or of those who " follow them in these doctrines; &c." Bishop Hoad- ly's Preservative against Nonjurors, p. i)8. ° These three letters have been republished in the SERMON I. 21 This class of errors seems in a great de- gree founded on vague and mistaken no- tions with respect to the nature of con- science. " There is nothing," I quote the words of Archbishop Sharpe, " more in " our mouths than conscience, and yet " there are few things we have generally " taken less pains to understand. We sit " down too often with this, that it is some- ** thing within us, we do not know what, " which we are to obey in all that it sug- " gests to us, and we trouble ourselves no ■" further about it p." " Scholar Armed," an admirable collection of tracts, (< intended for the information and assistance of young " Students in our Schools and Universities." P Discourse of Conscience, by Archbishop Sharpe, in London Cases, p. 145. " By which means," he adds, " it frequently comes to pass, that though we have " espoused very dangerous errors, or happen to be en- " gaged in very sinful practices, yet believing and act- u ing, as we say, according to our conscience, we do not " only think ourselves perfectly right and safe, while we " continue in this state, but are effectually armed against " all sorts of arguments and endeavours that can be if useful for the bringing us to a better mind. This is " too visible in many cases, but in none more than in " the case of those that at this day separate from the " communion of the Church as it is established among " us." Ibid. c 3 22 SERMON I. Conscience, properly understood, is not that confident persuasion which we may perhaps feel on any particular subject, but the opinion which we form of our actions by comparing them with some approved standard of judgment q ; and this standard, with a Christian, can be no other than the law of God, as revealed in his holy Scrip- tures. But even here it is too certain that a man may err in the application of his rule, and that his error may lead him into sin ; so that it is far from following as a necessary consequence, that, because he is confessedly wrong who opposes the dictates of his conscience, he must be as surely right who sincerely acts in conformity to it. But if we go still further, and admit the vague and indefinite ideas of sincerity and conscience which now prevail ; if we q " Always, when we speak of conscience in our ac- " tions, we have respect to some law or rule, by which " those actions are to be directed and governed, and by " their agreeableness or disagreeableness with which " they become morally good or evil." Discourse of Conscience, by Archbishop Sharpe, in London Cases, p. H6. See also Daubcny's Guide to the Church, Dis- course vii. SERMON I. 23 once assent to Bishop Hoadly's position, that " the favour of God follows sincerity, " as such, and consequently equally fol- " lows every equal degree of sincerity r ;" we are inevitably involved in conclusions far exceeding the contemplation of many who have unthinkingly embraced the in- sidious premises, conclusions not more hostile to any particular form of Christi- anity than to Christianity itself; since, on such principles, it would be difficult to shew why a sincere heathen or a sin- cere infidel should be less in favour with God than a sincere Christian ; it would not be easy to comprehend why our blessed Saviour should have pronounced a peculiar benediction s on those who believe, or why he should have assigned to his followers the laborious and hazardous task of " preach- " ing the Gospel to every creature*." Nay, as Law forcibly argues, "it is impossible " there should be any difference, either as " to merit or happiness, between a sincere " martyr and a sincere persecutor; and he r Hoadly's Preservative, p. 91. s Mark xvi. 16'. John xx. 29. 1 Mark xvi. 15. C 4 24 SERMON I. " that burns the Christian, if he be but in <( earnest, has the same title to a reward " for it, as he that is burnt for believing in " Christ ." So far indeed is sincerity from forming a justification of misconduct, that in many cases it may itself be sinful, or at least be the strongest evidence of sin. It may be altogether our own fault that we are sincere in an ill-grounded persuasion. Some wilful misconduct, some unhappy abuse of our faculties, some culpable negligence in im- proving those means of information which would have directed our sincerity to a worthy object, may be the true source of our infatuation. In short, the unqualified admission of the principle of sincerity would sanctify every atrocity which deluded enthusiasts have ever committed ; and to maintain its va- lidity would be as it were to assert, that whatever we conceive to be right cannot be wrong; in short, to supersede the laws of God by the caprices of individual persua- sion. Let it never be forgotten, that, like u Law's First Letter to Bishop Hoadly, Scholar Armed, vol. i. p. 282. SERMON I. 25 St. Paul, we may " sin ignorantly in un- " belief x ," even at the time when we " verily think within ourselves that we are " doing God service;" that God, in just recompense for aggravated and persevering offences, may sometimes " send men a " strong delusion, that they should believe " a lie y ; and that " there is a way that " seemeth right unto a man, but the end " thereof are the ways of death 2 ." Another very general shape, under which the latitudinarian misconceptions of these times present themselves, is a complete confusion of ideas between the Church as a society of divine institution, and the Church as a political establishment; or rather, perhaps, a disposition to consider the Church, so far as its outward polity is concerned, as left altogether to human dis- cretion. Many persons, even among those who are well affected to our Establishment, are obviously tinctured with this error. Believing it to be their duty to iC submit to " every ordinance of man for the Lord's * lTim.i. 13. y 2Thess. ii. 11. z Prov. xvi. 2b, SERMON I. " sake 3 ," they are the decided enemies of separation, and the friends of ecclesiastical order. But the foundation of their adhe- rence is partial and insecure. Their prin- ciple indeed is true within certain limits, and useful in conjunction with a higher; but it is one, which of itself might serve the cause of any heresy whatever, provided it were patronized by the civil power, and established as the religion of the country. Where the institutions of God and the laws of man, as amongst ourselves, happily coincide, the obligations to con- formity are multiplied, and separation in- curs the guilt of twofold disobedience : but b they may be, as they have been, at vari- ance; and then, " whether it be right in a 1 Pet. ii. 13. b " The laws of men in this affair of religion are of " the same obligation and force that they are in other " matters. If they command things indifferent, they " are to be obeyed for the authority of the command ; " if they enjoin things in their own nature good, the " necessity of obedience is greater; but if they com- " mand things unlawful, we arc not to comply, but " obey God rather than man." Laic's Tliird Letter to Bishop I loudly, Scholar Armed, vol. i. p. J 82. SERMON I. 27 M the sight of God to hearken unto men " more than unto God, judge ye c ." It is notorious that the Church of Christ subsisted for several ages independent on the civil powers, and for the most part in open defiance of them. If kings have since become u her nursing fathers d ;" if the Church has been generally enabled, with- out the sacrifice of what is essential to her existence, to form an union with the tem- poral authorities, and the institutions of men have, in numerous instances, been in- timately blended with the ordinances of Christ ; it is our part to bless God for the tranquil and unmolested course which is offered to our obedience by this auspicious union, not to forget either the essential distinctness of these powers, or the infinite disparity of their claims. Christ's " king- " dom is not of this world 6 ," though the world may come into the kingdom of Christ ; and should the rulers of this world either reject and oppose Christianity, or even enforce it under some form destitute c Acts iv. 19. (1 Isaiah xlix. 23. e John xviii. 30'. 28 SERMON I. of the essentials of a Church, or debased by destructive corruptions, a Christian's duty need not be mistaken. One manifest consequence of establish- ing the Christian Church on a human ra- ther than on a divine foundation, must be endless innovation ; mutability being quite as inseparable from the devices of man, as stability and permanency are from the works of God. This consideration alone would have been a strong presumption, in- dependently of every weightier argument, against the idea that a society confessedly of divine institution at its commencement, should afterwards be left, even in its cha- racteristic outlines and leading principles, to the caprice and fickleness of man, to the imminent hazard, or rather to the moral certainty, of losing all those features of con- sistency and sameness, which are to be traced in every other operation of the Di- vine hand, and which it would be natural to expect in the works of that eternal and unchangeable Being, " in whom is no "variableness nor shadow of turning e ." e James i. 17. SERMON I. 29 who is " the same yesterday, to-day, and Heb. xiii. 7. jo-/aj fxapTvpsi. Euseb. JEccl. Hist. lib. vi. cap. 45. h Notwithstanding the general propensity of modern times to overlook the guilt of schism, Divines have not been wanting in our Church who have expressed their sense of its heinousness, in terms sufficiently corre- spondent with the language of Scripture and of the primitive Fathers. — " If schism be an innocent thing, " and the true Catholic spirit, I have no more to say, " but that the whole Christian Church ever since the " Apostles' times has been in a very great mistake. But " if schism be a very great sin, and that which will " damn us as soon as adultery and murder, then it must " needs be a dangerous thing to communicate with " schismatics." Resolution of some Cases of Conscience which respect Church Communion, by Dr. Sherlock ; Lon- don Cases, p. 35. " I would not be an heretic or " schismatic in the Church, to have the wisdom of So- " lomon, the tongues of St. Paul, and the eloquence of " Apollos, no not to be caught up into Paradise and " hear those unutterable things. I would not be the " best preacher that ever was, and speak in the pulpit 60 SERMON II. our lot has fallen ! Not indeed that they stand distinctly and totally contrasted as the respective seras of unity and schism. Schisms there were, and schisms there must be, so long as pride and passion sway the heart of man ; — but those were not schisms lightly regarded ; they were ever viewed, as the Scripture teaches us to view them; they were opposed with zeal and vigilance, and marked with appropriate reprobation. It was reserved to these " latter days" of indiffer- ence and compromise, for a crime to which the early Christians applied the epithet of horrible, ((ppixufa' 1 ,) to pass unheeded among the most ordinary transactions of life; to be even upheld by some as conducive to the glory of God k ; to be practised without re- morse, and regarded without emotion. " by inspiration, to have that accusation lie against me, " which St. Paul drew up against the Corinthians, of " envy, strife, and schism." Hickes's Posthumous Dis- courses, Sermon vii. ■ Literally, what would cause one to shudder. k " Conclude then, that, if God be a rock, and his " work is perfect; if variety be characteristic of all his " works ; an attempt to establish uniformity is revers- " ing and destroying all the Creator's glory." Kilham's Methodist's Monitor, vol.ii. p. G. SERMON II. 61 II. It must however after all be admit- ted, that sectaries, in general at least, have not proceeded to the infatuation or auda- city of denying the criminality of schism ; — their care has rather been so to interpret the commands of Scripture respecting the unity of the Church, as, if possible, to evade the charge. Some have recourse to the notion of an 'invisible Church, and flatter themselves, 1 " As the Church, with respect to that internal rela- tc tion which it has to Christ, is called his invisible " Church, so with respect to that external polity, in " which it is empowered to act as a visible society, it is " called his visible Church This visible Church being " a society of Christ's appointment, no man can be es- " teemed to discharge his duty as his disciple, who is " not a member of it. And, agreeably, all the benefits " purchased by Christ for mankind are annexed to our " initiation into this society. He that believeth and is " baptized shall be saved And since our relation to the " Catholic Church cannot otherwise appear, than by our " communicating with some of those particular Churches, " of which that general society is composed ; it follows, " that every Christian is under the same obligation to be " a member of some particular Church, as to be a mem- " ber of the Catholic Church of Christ The general " ideas, which we affix to any person, when we consider " him as a member of the whole or any part of Christ's " visible Church, are, that he is entered into this society " by baptism; professes the faith of the Christian reli- 6*2 SERMON IL that, under all the varieties of visible com- munion, they may still maintain their union inviolate with "the general assembly and " Church of the first-born, which are written " in heavenM" But setting aside the ab- surdity, or rather the impossibility, of un- derstanding the definite precepts of St. Paul in their application to any thing so indefinite and obscure as an invisible so- ciety; — is the scriptural use of the expres- sion Church at all consistent with such an hypothesis ? Are we to understand our Sa- viour's directions thus; " Tell it to the" in- visible " Church ; If he neglect to hear the" invisible "Church 1 ?" Were "Paul and " Barnabas brought on their way by the" invisible " Church" 1 ?" Were the elders of Ephesus commanded to " feed the" invi- sible " Church of God, over which the " Holy Ghost" must consistently have "made them" invisible "overseers"?" " gion taught in it; communicates in the external ordi- '■ nances, and is observant of the discipline of it." Rogers on the I'isihlc and Invisible Church, p. 27 — 30. fourth edition. k Heb. xii. 23. » Matt, xviii. 7. '" Ads xv. A. a Acts xx. 28. SERMON II. 63 And when Christ likens his kingdom to " tares sowed among the wheat ;" to " a net " that was cast into the sea, and gathered of " every kindP;" to " a wedding filled with " guests both good and bad^;" shall we confound these descriptions, marked as they are by the strongest images of mixture and alloy, with " the heavenly Jerusalem, an in- " numerable company of angels, and the " spirits of just men made perfect r ?" Rather let us beware of so dangerous a confusion of ideas on the subject 8 , so essentially distinct, ° Matt. xiii. 5. P Matt. xiii. 47. q Matt. xxii. 10. r Heb. xii. 22, 23. s That body (the invisible Church) consisteth of none " but only true Israelites, true sons of Abraham, true " servants and saints of God. Howbeit, of the visible " body and Church of Jesus Christ, those may be, and " oftentimes are, in respect of the main parts of their <( outward profession, who in regard of their inward ". disposition of mind, yea, of external conversation, " yea, even of some parts of their very profession, are " most worthily both hateful in the sight of God him- " self, and in the eyes of the sounder part of the visible ce Church most execrable." Hooker's Ecclesiastical Poli- ty, book iii. Oxford edit. vol. i. p. 353. " For lack of " diligent observing the difference, first between the " Church of God mystical and visible, then between the " visible, sound and corrupted, sometimes more, some- 64 SERMON II. and be disposed to apprehend, with the pious and learned Pearson, that " that " Church alone which first began at Jeru- " salem on earth, will bring us to the Je- " rusalcni in heaven 1 ." Others again there are, who feeling compelled to understand the injunctions of Scripture in their application to the outward unity of the Church, nevertheless contrive to explain away their import, till they have brought them down to the level of their own peculiar views. They are willing to hope that they have sufficiently complied with the spirit of these injunctions, by maintain- ing communion with the sect, or even per- haps the particular congregation, to which they may have attached themselves; for that " where" even " two or three are ga- " thered together in Christ's name, there he " is in the midst of them"." As if it were not a most unjustifiable perversion of Scripture " times less, the oversights are neither few nor light " that have been committed." Ibid. p. 354. 1 Pearson on the Creed, Article ix. The Holy Catho- lic Chunk, p. 527, 8vo. edit. u Matt, xviii. 20. SERMON II. 65 language, to consider this passage and a few others of similar complexion x , as ne- cessarily applicable to persons assembled in complete independence on the unity of Christ's Church, when the unvarying tenor of holy writ represents the Church of Christ as one undivided body, and of course leads us to the obvious conclusion, that the obligations to unity amongst its members will admit of no interpretation less extensive y. Some, again, have attempted to defend x Such as Rom. xvl. 5. and Philemon 2. y "It will be necessary for the understanding of the na- " ture of the Church which is thus one, to consider in what " that unity doth consist. And being it is an aggregation " not only of many persons, but also of many congre- " gations, the unity thereof must consist in some agree- " ment of them all, and adhesion to something which is " one. If then we reflect upon the first Church again, ** which we found constituted in the Acts, and to which (( all others since have been in a manner added and con- " joined, we may collect from their union and agree- " ment how all other Churches are united and agree. " Now they were described to be believing and baptized " persons, converted to the faith by St. Peter, continu- " ing stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, " and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. These then " were all built upon the same Rock, all professed the " same faith, all received the same sacraments, all per- F 66 SERMON II. their schismatical resistance to ecclesiastical rule, by the wild and extravagant idea, that in the kingdom of Christ he alone is King% and consequently sole Lawgiver to his sub- jects, and that every claim of men to autho- rity in his kingdom is an infringement on his sovereignty. But does not Christ avowedly govern his kingdom by delegation ? " As " formed the same devotions, and thereby were all re- K puted members of the same Church." Pearson on the Creed, p. 510, 8vo. edit. z Thus Bishop Hoadly argues ; " As the Church of " Christ is the kingdom of Christ, he himself is King; " and in this it is implied that he is himself the sole " Lawgiver to his subjects, and himself the sole Judge " of their behaviour in the affairs of conscience and sal- " vation." Sermon on tlw Kingdom or Church of Clirist, p. 10. " Now if the word king does not necessarily imply " the same power in every kingdom, how can there be " any conclusion, that because Christ is King of his " kingdom, he is sole Lawgiver to his subjects? The " only way to know the constitution of this kingdom, " is not to reason from what is implied in the words " king and kingdom, for they do not imply any fixed or " absolute sense, but from the laws and institutions of " it, whether they admit of or require the authority of " under-magistrates. Thus if it appears that Christ has " commissioned others to act in his name, to exercise " authority in his kingdom, and govern his subjects " in such a manner as he has commissioned them to SERMON II. 67 " the Father hath sent me, so send I you a ;" and again, " He that heareth you heareth " me ; and he that despiseth me despiseth " him that sent me b ." Is the power of an earthly monarch supposed to be invaded by the acts of authority exerted in his name by vicegerents of his own appointment? Will he escape the charge of rebellion against his sovereign, whose resistance has been immediately directed against his vice- gerent only? But our argument even suf- fers by this comparison. For, as Leslie has well observed, " the person of God is far " exalted above the attempts of angels as " well as men ; and to invade his person is ts a thought too foolish for a man, much " more for an angel of heaven There is " no other way of rebelling against God, " but by opposing his institutions ." " govern ; is it any answer to this to say, that the Church " is a kingdom, and Christ is a King, and consequently "sole Lawgiver in it? Is there nothing in this text, " Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in hea- " ven, because Christ is King of his Church?" Law's Third Letter to Bislwp Hoadly, Scholar Armed, vol. i. p. 389, 390. a John xx. 21. b Luke x. 16. c Leslie's Rehearsals, No. 54. F 2 68 SERMON II. Others, again, have gone so far as to re* solve all our obligations to Christian unity into those ties of universal charity d and good-will, which should, and, as they con- tend, may, subsist between Christians of cwry denomination ; by which they would insinuate, that, although variance is crimi- nal, actual separation is not. But, setting- aside the impossibility of so understanding the precepts, to " walk by the same rule," d Dr. Campbell appears to have embraced this opin- ion. Observing that St. Paul applies the term schism to the Corinthian dissensions, which did not amount to ac- tual separation, he considers it to imply no more than the violation of that union of affection which should subsist among Christians ; and takes occasion to remark, that " schism, in scriptural use, is one thing, and schism " in ecclesiastical use, another." His insinuation is ob- vious. But it must be at least equally obvious, that, if St. Paul applied the term to those minor differences, he must, afortiori, have done so to positive separations, had they occurred. It cannot, however, after this, be matter of astonishment, that Dr. Campbell should be led to conclude, that " no person, who, in the spirit of candor " and charity, adheres to that which, to the best of his " judgment, is right, though in this opinion he should be " mistaken, is, in the scriptural sense, either schismatic " or heretic." See two preliminary dissertations on Schism and Heresy. — Campbell on the Gospels, third edit. >1. ii. p. 104—141. SERMON II. 69 " to speak the same thing," in short, the general language of Scripture on the sub- ject ; are they not contending for a system directly subversive of that very charity which they profess to admire ? Of all the strifes incidental to mankind, those which have originated in religious separation have invariably exceeded in bitterness and ma- lignity : witness the rancorous enmity of the Jews and Samaritans of old, and the tenfold horrors of those religious persecu- tions, which have, at times, depopulated the Christian world. " I know," (says an eminent Divine 6 ,) " that men will now say, that they " can love all parties, and that they can " live without animosities towards all sorts " of men ; but if a few men can be so per- " feet, what is that to the generality of " mankind, who will still be divided in af- "fections, as they are in parties and com- " munions, as has been found by woeful " experience, not only in this Church, but " all the Churches where divisions have " been since the time of Christ." What should we think of his attainments c Hickes's Posthumous Sermons. F 3 70 SERMON II. in moral or political science, who should resolve all the duties prescribed to us as subjects, as fellow-citizens, and as men, into the vague and indeterminate principle of philanthropy? When the spirit of tur- bulence and disaffection shall lose its cha- racters of guilt, upon assuming the more definite form of mutiny or rebellion ; when malice and hatred, however criminal in the outset, shall innocently vent them- selves in outrage and murder; then, but not before, will religious variance become per- fectly blameless in the sight of God and man, so soon as it shall have advanced to the decisive point of declared disobedience and open separation. If, however, the duty of remaining in communion with the one universal Church of Christ be thus indispensable, it becomes a most momentous question, how, in the present diffusion of Christianity, this com- munion is to be preserved ; and how a Christian, amid the variety of forms under which his religion is presented to his notice, may be reasonably satisfied of the correct- ness of his course. SERMON II. 71 In the first place, it must be evident, that the measure of his duty, with respect to this, as well as every other command of God, is only coextensive with his oppor- tunities of obedience. The natural ob- stacles to an intimate connexion between distant regions, and those political divi- sions and occasional hostilities, which as effectually disunite the more contiguous, unavoidably separate the Church of Christ into distinct branches, varying, of course, more or less, in their discipline and forms, and indeed in all those minor circum- stances which depend on human regu- lation. But these may, nevertheless, be safely considered as in communion f with f " Any two Churches of different nations are always " supposed to be in communion, and not in a schism, so " long as they differ not in fundamentals, because it is " supposed that the members of one of these would, (in " case they were to travel into the other nation,) for " unity's sake, communicate with the other. But when " people of the same place, city, parish, &c. do actually " separate, and renounce communion with the Church M when they are on the spot, this plea cannot be used in " their case. To say, these are not schismatics, because " they differ not in fundamentals, is to put a new mean- " ing on the word schism ; — they are not heretics in- F 4 72 SERMON II. each other, as well as with the Church uni- versal, so long as they agree in the grand essentials of Christianity; that is, in pro- fessing the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, and in administering the Sacra- ments by the hands of a priesthood regu- larly commissioned by an authority derived from the Apostles. He therefore, whose happiness it is to have been placed within the limits of such a Church, has the best reason to be confident, that, by his con- formity to it, he maintains, as far as in him lies, his s communion with the Church uni- " deed, (as the Church-use has now distinguished the " use of those words,) but the Donatists, Novatians, &c. " have always been accounted schismatics, though they " differed not in essentials." Wall's History of Infant Baptism, vol. ii. p. 419. fourth edit. K " So many regions as there are under heaven, that " do truly profess the Christian name, so many national " Churches there are. In all these nations there are " many provincial, in all those provinces many diocesan, " in all those dioceses many parochial churches; in all " those parishes many Christian families, in all those " families many Christian souls. Now all those souls, " families, parishes, dioceses, provinces, nations, make " up but one Catholic Church upon earth. The God of " the Church cannot abide cither conventicles of sepa- " ration, or pluralities of professions, or appropriations SERMON II. 73 versal; whilst those, on the other hand, who, under similar advantages, have fallen into separation, are as manifestly guilty of the sin of schism. Since, however, upon the principles now contended for, there cannot be more than one Church in one place, the question arises, how a man may safely regulate his choice amid the various and conflicting claims to his religious attachment, with which he finds himself surrounded. The most obvious rule, as well as the " of Catholicism Neither difference of time nor dis- " tance of place, nor rigour of unjust censure, nor any " unessential error, can bar an interest in this blessed " unity. As this flourishing Church of Great Britain " (after all the spiteful calumniations of malicious men) " is one of the most conspicuous members of the Ca- " tholic upon earth ; so we in her communion do make te up one body with the holy Patriarchs, Prophets, Apo- " sties, Martyrs, Confessors, and faithful Christians " of all ages and times ; we succeed in their faith, we " glory in their succession, we triumph in their glory. " Whither go ye then, ye weak, ignorant, seduced souls, " that run to seek this dove in a foreign cote ? She is " here, if she have any nest under heaven. Let me " never have part in her or in heaven, if any Church in " the world have more part in the Universal." Bishop Hall's Works, folio, vol. ii. p. 310. 74 SERMON II. safest, is this ; to adhere, if possible, to the form of religion which he finds established by the laws of his country h . This advan- tage, at least, will attend his peaceable conformity, that, should no fundamental error have corrupted the system, by his adherence to it, he is at once obeying the ordinances of God and the laws of man ; — whilst, on the other hand, his wilful sepa- ration must be considered as including the complicated guilt of schism with respect to the Church, and disaffection to the State. Ill disposed must he be to " follow after the " things that make for peace 1 ," whose h " There is one plain rule to direct all men in this " inquiry; that wherever there is a Church established " by public authority, if there be nothing sinful in its " constitution and worship, we are bound to communi- " cate with that Church, and to reject the communion " of all other parties and sects of Christians. For the " advantage always lies on the side of authority. No pub- " lie establishment can justify a sinful communion ; but " if there be nothing sinful in the communion of the " national Church, which is established by public au- " thority, to separate from such a Church is both dis- " obedience to the supreme authority in the State, and " a schism from the Church." Resolution of some Cases qf Conscience which respect Church Communion, by Dr. Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's; London Cases, p. 31. 1 Hum. \iv. 19, SERMON II. 75 heart is insensible to the native wish, the honest prejudice, of maintaining commu- nion with that religious society which his country sanctions and supports ; and it is, in fact, his duty so to do, until he is de- cidedly convinced, that he thereby violates a superior obligation k . Now this is a con- viction with which his conscience cannot k " When a lawgiver names some particular excep- " tions of cases in which the law shall not oblige, that " law binds the stronger in all cases not excepted ; for " it is supposed, if there had been any more, he would " have named them too. The Scripture gives a very " positive law against separations ; it excepts some " cases ; and it must be a very presumptuous thing to " add any more of them of our own heads ; they are " these : — " 1. If a Church do practise idolatry. — St. Paul, " warning the Corinthians of the heathen idolaters, " says, * Come out from among them, and be ye se- " parate.' " 2. If a Church teach doctrines encouraging any " wickedness, or destructive of the fundamentals of " the Christian faith. -St. Paul commands Timothy to " i shun them, for their word will eat as a canker.' i( 3. The Scripture commands that no sin be com- " mitted to obtain any purpose ever so good A " Church that will not admit us without our doing a " thing that is wicked, or declaring and subscribing " something that is false, does thereby thrust us out of " her communion « 4. If 76 SERMON II. fairly be impressed, until he seriously be- lieves that the Church has corrupted the essential doctrines, or deserted the funda- mental ordinances, of the Gospel ; that she requires something false as an article of faith, or enforces some practice subversive of the institutions of God. Hence, as we have already seen grounds to infer, none of the ordinary differences of opinion l on those doubtful and less materi- al points, which affect not the salvation of "4. If a Church be schismatical 'Mark those " who cause divisions, &c.' " These exceptions I find in Scripture, and I know of " no more that reach to Churches He that sepa- " rates from any Church upon any ground, except one " of these four, ought to take heed, and be well assured " that he find his ground in the Scripture." Wall's History of Infant Baptism, fourth edit. vol. ii. p. 421, 422. 1 The strict declarations or subscriptions, which it is usual for all well-ordered Churches to require of their Clergy, offer no contradiction to this conclusion. The laity are not called upon to make them. Surely then nothing short of opinions fundamentally heretical could incapacitate a layman from conscientiously joining in the worship of any Church even tolerably free from cor- ruption. See this point ably discussed, in the Case of Lay-Communion, by Dr. Williams, Bishop of Chiches- ter; London Cubes, p, 60 — 87- SERMON IT. 77 the soul ; no disgust at the personal failings of her ministers, which, by God's grace, af- fect not the efficacy of their sacred ministra- tions, and which, were the objection admis- sible, as " we have this treasure in earthen " vessels" 1 ," might undoubtedly have been urged against the purest Church which has yet existed among men ; no pretence to su- perior n edification under other and more gifted teachers, a plea which must eventu- m 2 Cor. iv. 7. n " Men have sometimes taken sudden heats and " warmth for true edification. When melting tones, " affectionate expressions, solemn looks and behaviour, " passion and vehemency, and other arts, have played " upon the fancy, and put their constitutions into dif- " ferent motions, some have thought themselves so te strangely edified, as though it was the impulse and " powerful acting of the Divine Spirit ; which, many " times, is no more than a bright or a lowering day can " do, acting upon the animal spirits When they " themselves were pleased and in good humour, God " was reconciled ; and when they were dull and heavy, " the Spirit was withdrawn ; and according as these " heats and bodily passions were stirred, so the ministry " was edifying or unprofitable : pale cheeks and hollow " looks have been counted signs of grace, and the dis- " eases of their body passed for the virtue of their " mind." Discourse on Edification, by Dr. Hascard, Dean of Windsor; London Cases, p. 461. 78 SERMON II. ally be referred, not so much to truth and sound doctrine, as to the wantonness of partiality, and the caprices of individual persuasion ; none of these reasons, nor all of them combined, however plausible they may appear to the superficial view, can jus- tify, even in the slightest degree, a depar- ture from her communion. But further, it is sufficiently evident, that, besides those inseparable characteristics of a true Church, which have been immutably ordained by Christ himself, and the absence of which would fix the guilt of schism, not on him who separates, but on those whose corruptions have made his separation a duty, numberless regulations of inferior moment, connected with the discipline and good order of a Church, must of necessity be confided to the discretion of men. The limits of this discretion may be considered as defined in the Apostle's precept, " Let " all things be done decently, and in or- " der°." But order and decency, in cases where uniformity of opinion is manifestly impossible, can only be maintained by the " 1 Cor. xiv. 40. SERMON II. 79 peaceable submission of private judgment to public authority. No persuasion therefore, that the pecu- liar institutions of a Church are capable of improvement, that her Liturgy, perhaps, might be rendered more edifying, her forms more significant, her observances more ap- propriate, or her discipline more effica- cious, can offer any reasonable pretext for dissent. Shall a man, indeed, venture on the criminal and tremendous alternative of schism, to escape from usages in them- selves indifferent, on which no two indivi- duals, perhaps, could be found exactly to coincide in opinion, and which in all their probable varieties affect not the moment- ous question of human salvation? "The " unity of the faith," says St. Augustine p , " may be held with different observances, " which are no impediment to the truth. P Sit ergo una fides universae, quae ubique dilatatur, Ecclesiae, tanquam intus in membris, etiamsi ipsa fidei unitas quibusdam diversis observationibus celebratur, quibus nullo modo quod in fide verum est, impeditur. Omnis enim pulchritudo filiee regis intrinsecus, illae au- tem observationes, quae varie celebrantur, in ejus veste intelliguntur. Augustin. Epist. 86. edit. Lovaniens. 80 SERMON II. u The beauty of the King's daughter is " within, and these various observances " are but her vesture." III. And now if the language of Scripture on the subject of Christian unity has been correctly represented, and the conclusions to which we have keen led, with respect to the nature and measure of our obliga- tions on this important point, have been fairly deduced from thence, in what light shall we be disposed to regard the melan- choly state of religious disorganization into which we have fallen, the almost unprece- dented increase of schism which we wit- ness, and the frivolous distinctions for which so many profess, even on principle, to have deserted the venerable Church of their forefathers ? I would not be supposed to condemn separation as such, where a thorough dif- ference of opinion with respect to any of the fundamental doctrines or ordinances of Christianity, however erroneous and un- tenable it may be, yet seems by a kind of unhappy necessity to lead to separation as its inevitable consequence. Decided hetero- SERMON II. 81 doxy, deplorable as it is in itself, and not unfrequently vicious in its origin, may ne- vertheless be considered as a plausible, nay even a conscientious cause of schism. Ac- cordingly, it is not to be expected that those amongst us, who have ventured to discard from their religious system the sacramental ordinances of Christ, should even think of uniting with a Church, into whose fellow- ship one sacrament must admit them, and of whose communion the other forms so prominent a feature. And those again, who are so unhappy as to misconceive the plain evidences for the Divinity of our blessed Saviour, and for the Atonement wrought by him for the sins of fallen man, may well be spared the unprofitable disgust of hypocri- tically conforming to a Liturgy, of which the Atonement and the Divinity of Christ form the pervading principle, the animating spirit. In the case of such persons, separation is clearly unavoidable ; though it highly con- cerns them to be well assured, that no wil- ful abuse of their faculties, no culpable negligence, no unjustifiable prejudices, have contributed to fix them in opinions, which, G 82 SERMON II. when once adopted, form an invincible bar- rier to all communion with the Church of Christ. But it is not for us to "judge them " that are without 41 ;" happily both for them and for ourselves, " them that are without " Godjudgeth r ." It is to a far more numerous and for- midable body of schismatics, that the ar- guments here adduced may be considered more especially to apply ; consisting prin- cipally of the three well known denomina- tions of Protestant Dissenters, and of that more modern sect, whose rapid advance- ment in numerical consequence is among the more alarming signs of these times. And here it is, if the arguments which have been advanced are not altogether void of consistency and soundness, that the charge of schism must rest in all its force. Their cases, as far as relates to this charge, are in general too similar to re- quire a separate discussion. Admitting and professing, without any material vari- ation, all those fundamental truths which our Church considers as essential to salva- <» 1 Cor. v. 12. * 1 Cor. v. 13. SERMON II. tion, they have nevertheless forsaken her communion. And so far indeed as they even deem it requisite to assign any reason at all for their separation — so far, that is, as they have not adopted the extravagant no- tions of religious liberty which now prevail, of their absolute and unqualified right to worship God as best suits their wayward fan- cies — the objections on which they ground their vindication are either similar to those whose insufficiency has already been ex- posed, or even still more glaringly futile and unreasonable. Diversities of opinion on points not clearly revealed ; — objections to ecclesiastical authority altogether, or to that peculiar modification of it to which their submission is required, or even to the support and protection held forth to the Church by the piety of the civil magi- strate; — a pretence of seeking a more en- lightened and more spiritual ministry ; — a preference for extemporary preaching and prayer ; — minute exceptions against par- ticular expressions and forms and observ- ances, even down to a capricious prejudice against a garment or a posture ; — these, and such as these, are the pleas which have g 2 84 SERMON II. jointly and severally been urged as fully vindicating, nay rather as imperiously de- manding a separation from our Church ; — and thus mistaking the corrupt workings of pride and passion, or the wanton extra- vagances of fancy, for the sober dictates of a conscience rightly informed, men have laboured to persuade others, and have too frequently succeeded in persuading them- selves, that they have broken " the bond of " peace" for conscience sake. What should we say of the loyalty of that subject or citizen, who, from motives analogous to these, should desert the land which gave him birth, associate himself with her inveterate enemies, and support their cause against her? The universal se- verity of human laws towards such offend- ers sufficiently evinces the sense which mankind have of the nature of the offence; whilst the impunity which attends the reli- gious deserter will scarcely allow us to per- ceive and confess that the cases are but too strictly parallel 5 . s " It is remarkable, that not merely the first eccle- " siastical writers, but the Apostles themselves, did al- u must uniformly employ such terms in speaking of SERMON II. 85 Of all the pleas for separation from our Church which may be classed with those just mentioned, that which is founded on the rejection of infant baptism may per- haps be considered as wearing the most plausible aspect; but its validity is surely inadmissible. — The language of Scripture is no where sufficiently explicit, with respect to the period of administering baptism, to justify us in ranking it among those funda- mental articles of our religion, in defence of which we are bound to embrace the serious alternative of separation. Such at least was the verdict of the Church in the primitive ages *; so at least have judged some even of the modern Antipsedobaptists u themselves, u divisions in the Church, as are used by civil historians " to describe divisions in the State This could only " have been in order to direct us to measure our notions " of ecclesiastical schism by the analogy of civil rebel- " lion The constant use of the words o-racnj, epig, " hxp. z Luke xvii. 1. a 1 Pet. iv. 12. b 1 Pet. v. 1. 90 SERMON II. account to palliate those crimes ? If the wisdom and mercy of the Almighty rejoices in bringing good out of evil, will the end justify the means? shall we "do evil that " good may come?" In laying down thus strictly the princi- ples of Christian unity, far be it from us to pronounce a rash and unwarrantable con- demnation on those who appear to have violated it. To express a decided opinion with respect to the nature of a sin, and to pass sentence on sinners, are things widely different. The former may be in many cases an imperious duty ; the latter, so far from being a duty, is a presumptuous in- vasion of the prerogative of Heaven. He must have formed a most inadequate con- ception of the force of education and ex- ample and early habit, who is not con- vinced of the extreme difficulty of effecting an emancipation from their influence in all cases, and most of all, perhaps, in matters of religious persuasion ; — and where men have sinned, like St. Paul, " ignorantly in " unbelief , " who shall presume to doubt, 1 Tim. i. 13. SERMON II. 91 that, like him also, they may obtain mercy ? But if, in the exuberance of mistaken li- berality, we proceed to confound extenua- tion with innocence, and excuse with ab- solute justification, until we arrive even at a practical doubt of the very existence of criminal separation, we are adopting a prin- ciple which would equally justify every vice to which men could claim an inheritance, or for which custom and example could furnish a plausible apology. Such charity is neither rational nor scriptural ; such can- dour but a more imposing name for pro- fane indifference. But whatever allowance charity may de- mand for the errors of others, in our own cases we cannot be too clear-sighted or too scrupulous ; — we cannot, I had almost said, be too uncharitable; and where the object is to establish correct rules for our own practice, to inform the ignorant and unwary, to confirm the wavering, and to re- claim those whose prejudices are yet open to argument and conviction, we cannot surely be too decided or too explicit. Of the soundness of the principles which 92 SERMON II. it has been attempted to establish, and of the importance of enforcing them, the very features usually assumed by schism, and the dangers to which it manifestly tends, afford the most impressive illustration. The fu- tility of the grounds on which separation has often been adopted ; — the general igno- rance even of those grounds observable in such multitudes of sectaries; — the perpetua- tion of prejudice and animosity, even where the original causes of division have been long since forgotten ; — the perverted d in- d " In a separation every thing is aggravated to the " widening of the gap, as we see by constant and woful " experience ; a separate party never thinks itself far " enough off from any terms of reconciliation." Wall, vol.ii. p. 438. St. Jerome observes, "Nullum schisma " non sibi aliquam confingit haeresim, ut recte ab Ec- " clesia recessisse videatur." S. Hieron. Comm. in Epist. ad Tit. cap. 3. edit. Benedict, vol. iv. p. 439. Vincen- tius makes a similar remark; "Quis unquam haereses in* " stituit, nisi qui se prius ab Ecclesiae Catholicae, uni- " versitatis et antiquitatis consensione discreverit? " Satis cvidentcr perspicueque monstratur, hoc apud " omnes fere ha?reses quasi solenne esse ac legitimum, " ut semper prophanis novitatibus gaudeant, antiqui- '' tatis scita fastidiant, et per oppositiones falsi no- " minis scientiai a fide naufragent." Contra Htcreses. cap. .VI. SERMON II. 93 genuity with which new distinctions have been invented to give plausibility to a de- sperate cause; — the endless subdivisions of communion, and variations of doctrine, na- turally consequent on deserting the true standard of unity ; — the extreme e jealousy of these divisions in their own particular congregations, evinced by sectarian lead- ers, and the earnestness with which they soon learn to reprobate the very sin with which themselves are manifestly charge- able ; — the gloomy, the unsocial, the dis- contented spirit of nonconformity, and its obvious tendency to connect itself with e Baxter, himself a disturber of the unity of the Church, inveighed against schism in the strongest terms. "It is my calling," says he, "to help to save " people from their sins, and Church division is a heap " of sins." Cure of Church Divisions, Preface. " He " that is out of the Church is without the teaching, " the holy worship, the prayers, and the discipline of " the Church, and is out of the way where the Spirit " doth come; and out of the society which Christ is " specially related to ; for he is the Saviour of his body, " and if we once leave his hospital, we cannot expect " the cure and help of the Physician. Nor will he be " a Pilot to them who forsake his ship, nor a Captain " to them who separate from his army. Out of this " Ark there is nothing but a deluge, and no place of rest " or safety for a soul." Ibid. p. C8. 94 SERMON II. f political disaffection; these are traits of schism no less notorious, than they are il- lustrative of its source and nature. But it is connected with positive evils still more deplorable, and hazards still more alarming. For notwithstanding the good purposes to which the divisions of the Chris- tian world may fairly be considered to have been occasionally subservient, in rousing men to renewed vigilance and more lively zeal in the cause of religion ; I apprehend that in our own case, as indeed in every other case where religious divisions have passed the limits of moderation, so far from having grounds to flatter ourselves with the hope of such favourable results, we have too much reason to dread consequences of the most opposite description. Can we in- f The truth of James the First's well-known adage, " No Bishop, no King," was wofully experienced by his unhappy son. And we must be invincibly blind to the signs of the times, if we do not perceive that the rapid and unprecedented increase of defection from our com- munion has gone hand in hand with a growing spirit of political innovation. The connexion between them is (as a general rule at least) natural and necessary. The same unruly and turbulent passions are the common source of both. SERMON II. 95 deed hesitate to believe, that the multiplied and scandalous dissensions of the professors of the Gospel have a powerful tendency to confirm the prejudices of the sceptical, and bewilder the judgment of the weak ; — to produce a prevailing impression, that it is a matter of absolute indifference, which of all the various forms of religious worship we may adopt for ourselves ; — and then, by a chain of consequences too closely linked together, first, a contempt for all the externals of re- ligion, and finally, for religion herself? Should we, however, fail to recognise any universal and necessary connexion between religious divisions and sceptical profligacy ; one principle, at least, we must admit to have been long arrayed in for- midable hostility against us; one truth, at least, is beyond dispute ; — that dissen- sions, whether civil or religious, if carried beyond certain limits, must of necessity be fatal to the community which has admitted them, that a <( kingdom" thoroughly " di- " vided against itself cannot stand g ." If such, then, be the tremendous crisis too s Mark iii. 24. 96 SERMON II. probably to be apprehended from the un- happy divisions of our Church, it becomes us, not only to wish and to " pray for the " peace of" this our " Jerusalem h ," but to combine our most strenuous exertions in support of her sacred cause ; to temper an avowed decision of principle with that charity and conciliation in practice, which may tend, by God's blessing, to restore her to harmony and accord, and make her once more, so far as human frailties will allow, " as a city that is at unity in itself'." " And who," said the venerable and pious Bishop Andrews' 4 , at a period when our Church wore an aspect of dissension and danger too fearfully analogous to the present, — «< who shall make us of one "accord? High shall be his reward in ** heaven, and happy his remembrance on " earth, that shall be the means to restore " this accord to the Church ; — that once a we may keep a true and perfect Pente- " cost," when the disciples of Christ " were " all with one accord in one place '." h Psalm cxxii. G. < Psalm cxxii. 3. k Sermons, p. 384. fifth edition. ' Acts ii. 1. SERMON III John xx. 21. As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. IN further prosecuting the consideration of the claims of our excellent Church to the undivided attachment of the people of these kingdoms, and of the unreasonable- ness of deserting her communion, the next point which naturally presents itself is the outward form of that polity which our blessed Saviour and his holy Apostles in- stituted for his Church. For if it shall ap- pear that our own ecclesiastical institutions are formed on that primitive model, our pretensions to being regarded as a sound and undoubted branch of the one universal Church must receive a most material con- firmation ; and the force of those argu- ments which have already been derived from a general review of the obligations to Christian unity, and the guilt of schism, H 98 SERMON III. must be augmented in a similar propor- tion. The tivo leading positions which it is my present object to establish are these :— first, that the form of government under which the Apostles placed and left the Church by the direction of their blessed Master, and the unerring guidance of the Holy Spirit, was in all essential points what we now term Episcopal; and, secondly, that such are the circumstances connected with this original institution, and such the im- portant and permanent purposes which it was designed to answer, that Episcopacy must be regarded as an immutable charac- teristic of the true Church of Christ. Before I proceed to establish these posi- tions by direct proof, one or two previous considerations naturally present themselves, which may serve to prepare the mind for its more candid reception. — If there are privileges annexed to the Church which God only can bestow, God, and not man, must be the author and framer of that sa- cred society. — If the Church, as we have already seen grounds to infer, be a visible SERMON III. J99 society, nothing can well be expected to be more notoriously observable in it, than its external polity. — If it be, moreover, a so- ciety to which unity is indispensable, an uniformity in that polity, at least in its more prominent features, is naturally to be looked for. — Again, if schism be a sin of so deep a die as the Scriptures represent it to be, what can be greater than the antece- dent improbability, that the humble and diligent inquirer should meet with any in- surmountable difficulties in ascertaining how he is to avoid that sin, and what that is from which he must not separate? — If our blessed Lord commands us on certain oc- casions to "tell" our case "to the Church*," surely the Church should readily be disco- vered ; — if it be a society to which we are all bound to unite ourselves, as we hope to partake of the privileges of the Chris- tian covenant, it must consistently possess such conspicuous and decisive marks as may distinguish it from every rival associa- tion ; it must be as "a city set on an hill, " which cannot be hid b ," but to the blind- a Matth. xviii. 7. b Matth. v. 14. H 2 100 SERMON III. ness of wilful inattention or unreasonable prejudice. If these considerations directly lead us, as they surely ought, to the rational ex- pectation, that he who candidly investi- gates the form of that society which Christ, by his holy Apostles, established for his Church, will not search in vain; let us, on the other hand, beware of looking to the holy Scriptures for that c professed and clear and accurate explanation on these points, which they were not intended to give, and which, for obvious reasons, can- not, in fairness, be expected from them. It should be carefully recollected, that the historical parts of the New Testament, be- sides being but a short abstract of the transactions which they record, refer, in c " He that desireth to espie light at a narrow hole, " must lay his eye near, if he mean to discover at large. " So must he be curious in considering the Scriptures, " that meaneth to discern those things that are not de- " clared there at large, but are collected by circum- " stance or consequence : especially in matters which " we view at this distance of time, which representeth " to us things done then through a mist of succeeding " custom." Thorndike on the Primitive Government of Churches, eh. i. p. 1. SERMON III. 101 general, to the primary conversion of dis- ciples, and to a period when the Church was too much in its infancy to admit of complete and permanent regulation ; — that the Epistles were, for the most part, ad- dressed to those 'who principally required instruction in the very rudiments of Chris- tianity, and who as yet, perhaps, had no standing ministry ordained among them ; — that even where the case was otherwise, the Epistles, being merely occasional, ra- ther presuppose than explain the govern- ment of the Church, which., whilst it still remained e in the hands of the Apostles themselves, could scarcely be either mis- conceived or disputed ; — that in the min- istrations to which St. Paul sometimes al- ludes, the ordinary offices of the Church are not f always to be readily distinguished from d See Archbishop Potter's Discourse on Church Go- vernment, p. 91 — 95. c Ibid. p. 95, 96. f " Many of the ministers who lived in the age of the " Apostles were extraordinary persons, whose ministra- " tions are not always easy to be distinguished from " those of the ordinary offices of the Church, or from " one another. We are told, that God hath set some in " his Church, first Apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly " teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, H 3 102 SERMON III. those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, with which so many were then favoured ; — and finally, that most of the Apostles long sur- vived the writing of the books of the New Testament, and may naturally be supposed to have proceeded by degrees to their full and final arrangements, as the increasing numbers and stability of the Church en- abled them. I. " He," says the learned and ingeni- ous Rogers, " who will form a just idea of u the plan upon which the society of the " Christian CJyirch was formed, must con- " suit the writings of the primitive Church: " an exact account of its polity, in all its " parts, is no where given us in the New " Jielps, governments, diversities of tongues. (1 Cor. xii. " 28.) In which place, it is certain that different or- " ders of ministers are described, some of which did " not only excel others in the extraordinary gifts of the " Spirit, but also had authority to govern them But " then it is not easy to give a distinct and certain ac- " count, what wore the particular offices of these per- " sons, and which of them were extraordinary and tem- " porary, and which designed for the constant and last- c: ing use of the Church, since the Scriptures do not " speak clearly, and learned men have differed in their " judgments about them." . trchbishop Potter's Discoursi on dun ih Government, p. 89 — 91. SERMON III. 103 c * Testament. But then, quite through " these holy writings, there occurs frequent " mention of such outward ordinances ad- i( ministered, and such acts of external " communion enjoined and practised, such " offices and powers either committed to, " or exercised by, some Christians, and " such submissions paid or required from " others, as manifestly suppose and relate " to a regular government and economy of " the Church. And I think the evidences " of this kind, which we may collect from " Scripture, are such, that, if we take the " assistance of primitive history for the in- " terpretation of them, (which is equally " necessary for the understanding any other " ancient book,) we shall want little of a " complete account of the offices of the " Church, and their powers, even in the " Scriptures 5 ." s " Without this concurrent assistance, indeed," he adds, " many passages which relate to this subject will " be hard to be understood ; and therefore these primi- " tive writings are to be taken as a proper, and even a " necessary supplement in this point." Rogers's Review of his Discourse on the Visible and Invisible Church, p. 171, 172. H 4 104 SERMON III. l. The first step taken by our blessed Lord in forming the society of his Church was the selection of the twelve Apostles from the body of his disciples, " that they " should be with him, and that he might " send them forth to preach h ." After- wards we read, that he " appointed other " seventy also, and sent them two and two " before his face 1 ." That they were of an order inferior k to the twelve, may appear from their original commission being some- h Luke vi. 12, 13. ' Luke x. 1. k " Who sees not then," says Bishop Hall, K a mani- " fest imparity in our Saviour's own choice in the first " gathering of his Church, wherein his Apostles were " above his other disciples, the twelve above the seven- " tij ; above them in privileges, and especially in the im- " mediateness of their calling, above them in their Mas- " ter's respects, above them in gifts and in the power of " their dispensation, above them in commission, above " them in miraculous operations And how plain is " it, that such honourable regard was given to the " twelve, that when one room fell void by the treason of " Judas, it must, by the direction of the Spirit of God, " be made up by an election out of the seventy. Had it " not been an higher preferment to be an Apostle, " wherefore was that scrutiny and choice?" Bishop Hall, Episcopacy !>y Divine Right, book ii. ch. 2. p. 91, 92. See this point proved at length by Archbishop Potter, Discourse on Church Government, p. 42 — II. SERMON III. 105 what less general, as it was limited to the particular cities and places, " whither he " himself would come 1 ;" — from their not being appointed to " be with him," as the others were ; — and from their never being mentioned again after they had returned to him, and given an m account of the success of their mission. But the difference be- comes more striking, from the honours and distinctions afterwards and gradually con- ferred on the twelve. They received a promise that they should " sit on twelve " thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Is- " rael n ;" — they alone partook with their blessed Master of the last Supper, and re- ceived his command to ° commemorate his sacrifice ; — to them alone did he, after his resurrection, " speak of the things pertain- " ing to the kingdom of God p ," and confide his final directions for its government and continuance ; — and, if we may credit q Eu- 1 Lukex. 1. m Luke x. 17 n Matt. xix. 28. o Luke xxii. 19. P Acts i. 3. 4 MaT0/av §s tov uvt) 'IouSa tov ngohoTOv toI; airovroXoig syx-UTsXsysvru, tov re o~vv avTco Tr; OfAQict <\>r$w Ti[x^Qevra, ty\c, auT>j$ raiv !|38oju^>covTa v.'hrpvjic, rj^wo'Sai xaxe'^ei \o'yo$. Eu- sebii Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cup. 12. 106 SERMON III. sebius or 'Epiphanius in a matter which is in itself both natural and probable, it was from among the seventy that Matthias was chosen to supply the vacancy in their num- ber, occasioned by the death of the apostate Judas. Thus, faint as are the indications of a regular Church during our Saviour's conti- nuance on the earth, we may nevertheless trace the outlines of that triple polity which has ever since distinguished it ; Christ him- self being the visible Bishop and Governor of his Church, and the Apostles and the seventy forming two distinct orders of min- isters, under his supreme authority. As no inconsiderable illustration of the same point, let it be observed, that the Apostles received their full powers, not at their first ordination, but at s three distinct periods. Their first commission empow- r Epiphanius mentions the same fact, and gives the names of some others who were also of the seventy-two, (as he states the number to be,) viz. the seven deacons, and Mark, Luke, Justus, Barnabas, Apelles, Rufus, and Niger. Epiph. adv. Hares, edit. Paris, lib. i. p. 50. See this stated by Potter, Disc, on Ch. Government, p. 55— . r >S. SERMON III. 107 ered them to preach the Gospel and to bap- tize l , offices which have usually been con- sidered in the Church as within the quali- fications of the lowest order of ministers ; — next, they received authority to bless the elements of bread and wine, in commemo- ration of his death and sacrifice, an office which has never been performed by any below the second order ; — and lastly, when their blessed Master was about to leave the world, he transferred to them the powers which he himself had exercised, and they entered on their full episcopal authority, to govern and judge the Church as he had governed and judged it, and ordain its ministers as he had ordained them. Words could not express this transfer more amply than those which were em- ployed in conveying to them their final and plenary commission. " As my Father hath *' sent me, even so send I you. And when " he had said this, he breathed on them, " and saith unto them, Receive ye the " Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, " they are remitted unto them and whose 1 John iv. 1, 2. 108 SERMON III. " soever sins ye retain, they are retained u ." To complete this parallel, as Christ had not undertaken the execution of his office, until he had been duly authorized by the visible "descent of the Holy Ghost, so nei- ther did the Apostles commence the active labours of their ministry, till they had re- ceived power for that purpose from the same Divine source on y the day of Pen- tecost. The extent of their commission is best explained by their own interpretation of it, as displayed in their subsequent conduct. And it is observable, that scarcely an act of power was exerted by our Lord himself during his abode on earth, which was not afterwards, in a degree at least, exercised by his Apostles'. Besides performing the u John xx. 21—23. x Matt. iii. 16. y Acts ii. 4. * " The power is clear, will you see the execution of " it? Look upon St. Paul, the posthumous and super- " numerary, but no less glorious Apostle; see with what " majesty he becomes his new-erected throne ; one while " deeply charging and commanding; another while con- " trolling and censuring; one while giving laws and u ordinances, another while urging for their observance; " one while ordaining Church governors, another while SERMON III. 109 ordinary offices of the Christian priesthood, preaching, and prayer, and the administra- tion of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, they assumed to themselves such authority as proved that the govern- ment of the Church was altogether com- mitted to their charge, judging and con- demning offenders 3 , inflicting on them spi- ritual censures, excluding them from spi- ritual privileges, pardoning b and reinstating them on their repentance, prescribing rules and observances for the Church, ordaining its d ministers, superintending their official conduct and the soundness of their doc- trine, and laying their hands on those who had been baptized, to e confirm them in the possession of the privileges of the Chris- tian covenant. These powers, which so decisively point " adjuring them to do their duties ; one while threaten- " ing punishment, another while inflicting it. And if u these be not acts of jurisdiction, what can be such?" Bp. Hall, Episcopacy by Divine Right, book ii. ch. 2. p. 96. See also Potter, p. 58—68. a 1 Cor. v. 5. and 1 Tim. i. 20. b 2 Cor. ii. 6, 10. c 1 Cor. ch. vii. viii. xi. xiv. d Acts xiv. 23. e Acts viii. 17. 110 SERMON III. them out as the episcopal rulers of the Church, may be considered as possessed by them independently of that more enlarged and general commission, which belonged to them as Apostles, strictly so called, and of those miraculous gifts and extraordinary effusions of the Spirit, which were with- drawn when the necessities of the infant Church no longer demanded their aid ; which were possessed by the Apostles, in common with numerous Christians of in- ferior dignity ; were considered as altoge- ther distinct from official authority, and afforded no pretence for the unauthorized exercise of the ministerial functions f , or the violation of established order. That the Apostles could have erred in the measures which they adopted in the execution of their office, or have arrogated to themselves any powers which their com- mission did not strictly warrant, must be considered as manifestly impossible. We are informed by the Evangelist St. Luke, that our blessed Lord " shewed himself f The consideration of this point is reserved for Sermon V. SERMON III. Ill " alive s " to his Apostles u after his pas- " sion by many infallible proofs, being seen " of them forty days, and speaking of " the things pertaining to the kingdom of " God." If then these unrecorded dis- courses must unquestionably have em- braced matters so essential, as the means to be pursued in the formation of the so- ciety of his Church ; if we know besides, that they acted under the influence of the Holy Spirit, who was to be sent " to guide " them into all truth 11 ;" which we cannot interpret to mean less than all necessary truth, every truth connected with the due discharge of their Divine commission ; can we hesitate to conclude, that the form of polity which the Church assumed under their superintending care, was of Divine appointment ? For a professed and regular detail of this polity we must not look to the holy Scrip- tures. It is sufficient that, from the inci- dental information which they supply, il- lustrated by the opinions and practice of the primitive ages, we are enabled to arrive s Acts 5. 3. h John xvi. 13. 112 SERMON 111. at conclusions completely satisfactory. Ac- cordingly the Church is soon found to dis- cover indisputable traces, at least, of that threefold ministry, which decides its episco- pal character. Of the apostolical appointment and so- lemn ' ordination of deacons we have a dis- tinct account. And though the original institution of elders, or presbyters, is not recorded, we find a council of them at Je- rusalem k , assisting in the management of the Church, and manifestly subordinate, first to the Apostles, during their continu- ance at Jerusalem, and afterwards to their own immediate ! Bishop, St. James. Paul and Barnabas in their progress through the various cities of Asia Minor, " ordained " them elders in every church m ." — St. James, writing " to the twelve tribes which " are scattered abroad," directs, that " if " any is sick among them, he should call " for the elders of the Church, that they " might pray over him, and anoint him 1 Ac ts vi. 2— G. k Acts xi. 30, and xv. 6*. 1 Acts xxi. 18. ni Acts xiv. 23. SERMON III. 113 " with oil in the name of the Lord' 1 ." St. Peter, who writes " to the strangers scattered " throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, " Asia, and Bithynia," exhorts the Elders to " feed the flock of God which is among " them, taking the oversight thereof ." The Epistle to the Philippians is addressed, " to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are " at Philippi, with the Bishops and Dea- " cons p." St. Paul tells the Corinthians, that " God hath set some in the Church, " first Apostles, secondarily prophets, third- " ly teachers, after that miracles q ," and other gifts. St. Paul in his travels is some- times attended by a minister of the second order, and one or more deacons, as by Silas r , who is called a prophet, and Ti- mothy an evangelist or deacon ; and some- times by deacons only, as by Timothy and Erastus s . Thus whatever may have been the case in particular instances, where the Gospel was not sufficiently established to admit of n James i. 1. and v. 14. ° 1 Pet. i. 1. and v. 1, 2. p Phil. i. 1. q I Cor. xii. 28. r Acts xv. 32, 40. s Acts xix. 22. I 114 SERMON III. a standing ministry, there is the most in- disputable evidence from the books of the New Testament 1 , that even at the early period to which those writings refer, there were, besides the Apostles, at least two or- ders of ministers, both inferior to the Apo- stles, and receiving their ordination from them ; viz. presbyters or elders, occasion- ally called bishops, and sometimes, from their peculiar gifts, prophets ; and deacons, styled sometimes evangelists or teachers. I say at least two orders, because learned men have differed in their opinions, whether the persons called both bishops and presby- ters in St. Paul's Epistles are all to be con- sidered as mere presbyters, or whether some of them were not really of that su- perior order, afterwards known as bishops, when those titles were more distinctly ap- propriated". But I am not anxious to 1 See this argument more fully detailed by Potter, p. 06—105. u " I will not take upon me to decide this contro- " versy," says Potter, " which has exercised the pens of " many wise and learned men ; but only suggest a few " things, which 1 shall leave to the judgment of the im- SERMON III. 115 express even an opinion on this point, as it is altogether unnecessary to my argument. All that I would contend for as already proved, is, that there were very generally two distinct orders of ministers in the early Church, in the appointment and under the control of the Apostles. But the Apostles, it has been urged, must not be considered as a precedent for episcopal authority, inasmuch as their of- fice was peculiar to themselves, and in their apostleship they could have no suc- cessors. That no future ministers could suc- ceed to them as Apostles, strictly so called, will be readily admitted ; but that they might " partial reader." These suggestions (which see) tend to shew, that it is very probable that in the writings of the New Testament the terms bishop and presbyter sometimes implied two distinct orders of ministers. But he concludes, that " though we should allow that the " names of bishop and presbyter did in that age signify " the same office, as some of the Fathers in the fourth " century seem to have thought ; and farther, that all " the bishops spoken of in the forementioned texts of " Scripture were mere presbyters, and of the next order " above deacons, which is the utmost concession that " can be desired;" (including the Apostles) " there " were three distinct orders of ministers, by whom the " Christian Church was governed." Potter, p. 106 — 1 1 1, I 2 116 SERMON III. have successors in that spiritual commission which empowered them to govern and per- petuate the Church, is not inconsistent with reason, and that they had such is capable of the most satisfactory demonstration. " In some things," says the judicious Hooker, " every Presbyter, in some things " only Bishops, in some things neither the " one nor the other are the Apostles' suc- iC cessors. The Apostles were sent as spe- " cial chosen eye-witnesses of Jesus Christ, " from whom immediately they received " their whole embassage, and their com- u mission to be the principal first founders " of an house of God, consisting as well of " Gentiles as of Jews. In this there are not " after them any other like unto them ; and " yet the Apostles have now their succes- " sors upon earth, their true successors, " if not in the largeness, surely in the kind " of that episcopal function, whereby they " had power to sit as spiritual ordinary " judges, both over laity and over clergy, " where Christian Churches were esta- 11 Wished*." * Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, book vii. 8vo. edit. vol. iii. p. I 28. " 1 doe SERMON III. 117 Indeed that general and extensive com- mission, which the Apostles received, to " preach the Gospel to every creature y ," and which at first sight may seem to dis- tinguish them so immeasurably from ordi- " I doe not denie," says Bilson, "but many things in " the Apostles were personall, given them by God's wis- " dome, for the first spreading of the faith, and planting " of the Churches amongst Jewes and Gentiles, that all " nations might be converted unto Christ by the sight " of their miracles, and directed by the truth of their " doctrine; yet that all their gifts ended with their " lives, and no part of their charge and power remained " to their after-commers; may neither be confessed by " us nor affirmed by any, unless we mean wholly to sub- " vert the Church of Christ The Scriptures once " written suffice all ages for instruction : the miracles " then done are for ever a most evident confirmation of " their doctrine ; the authoritie of their first calling " liveth yet in their succession ; and time and travail, " joyned with God's graces, bring pastours at this pre- " sent to perfection ; yet the Apostles charge to teach, " baptize, and administer the Lord's Supper, to bind " and loose sinnes in heaven and in earth, to impose " hands for the ordaining of pastours and elders; — these " parts of the apostolicke function and charge are not u decaied and cannot be wanting in the Church of God. " There must either be no Church, or else these must " remaine ; for without these no Church can continue." Bilson on the Perpetual Government of Christ's Church, chap. ix. p. 105. y Mark xvi. 15. I 3 118 SERMON III. (linary Bishops, appears to have been gra- dually restrained by themselves, as the cir- cumstances of the Church admitted or re- quired it, to some resemblance to a local Episcopacy. Ecclesiastical historians not only testify that they divided the world amongst them for the separate exercise of their ministry, but give the names of the particular z countries assigned to each. And although the information afforded in the New Testament of the proceedings of the Apostles in converting the nations, with the exception of St. Paul, is extremely scanty, we may discover evident traces of this fact in his Epistles ; — as for instance, from the unwillingness which he expresses to " stretch himself beyond his measure," 7 Hvtxa o\ ClTTOtTTOXOl X\Y)pCti TYjV b!$ TO. £#!/*) TTOpSiUV STTOtOUVTO, OuilAUC JU.EV TY}V FTafSctV aTTO]v Taurrj 'IvS/atv. Socrates, Eccles. Hist. lib. i. cap. xv. ©coaac /x=v, cvg »j 7rupaij0 rehevTa. llerpoe 8a ev Uovtco xa) TaXarla, xa» Bjfltm'a, Kamraboxla. re xa) 'Aala xexv\pe\)yevai roig ex liajc, ovtooc avro; a%iw0. SERMON III. 123 exalted privileges, yet at least those spi- ritual powers which enabled them to go- vern the Church on the plan here sup- posed, — and, moreover, that they actually did impart them, the writings of the New Testament will even of themselves afford us ample proof. If their final commission from their bless- ed Master was conceived in terms so com- prehensive as these, " As my Father hath " sent me, so send I you," amongst the va- rious powers here of necessity implied, can any be less disputable than this, u As my " Father hath sent me with power to or- " dain those who shall bear rule in my " Church, so send I you with the same " power?" If he finally closes this com- mission with this glorious encouragement to their zealous and persevering exertions in fulfilling it, " Lo, I am with you alway, " even unto the end of the world k ," shall we limit this gracious promise to those whose mortal career a few short years must terminate? Must it not be absolutely unintelligible, but in its more extended ap- k Matth. xxviii. 20. 124 SERMON III. plication to those also, who should duly succeed them in their sacred functions to the end of time ? And with respect to the evidences of the appointment of others possessed of powers similar to those which were exercised by the Apostles, admitting, of course, St. Paul to be strictly an Apostle, although not one of the original twelve, instances may be pointed out in Scripture, of persons either styled Apostles, or possessed of correspond- ing authority ; and some even recorded as invested with this authority by Apostles; — as for example, Barnabas, who for some time accompanied St. Paul in the same apostolic missions, on a footing of perfect equality'; — Epaphroditus, who is styled an Apostle" 1 ; — the seven angels of the Asiatic churches mentioned in the Revelation of St. John", who appear to have been the supreme rulers of those Churches"; — and Timothy and Titus, who evidently exer- cised episcopal authority in the churches of i Acts xi — xv. m Phil. ii. 25. n Rev. i. 20. " See this point satisfactorily established by Archbi- shop Potter, Disc, on Ch. Gov. p. 132 — Ml. SERMON III. 125 Ephesus and Crete by the appointment of St. Paul p . The particulars of this author- ity are so expressly enumerated in St. Paul's Epistles to them, as to leave no room, one would imagine, for question or cavil ; — they are authorized to ordain elders q ; — to regulate what pertained to the due order of their churches 1 ; — to take cognizance of the doctrine 3 of their subordinate ministers ; to " rebuke with all authority *," and sit in judgment on offenders". If Timothy is empowered to " receive accusations" even " against elders x ," can we suppose him of the same rank with those who are thus sub- jected to his spiritual censures ? If Titus is authorized in his individual capacity to " reject heretics y " from the society of his Church, can his authority in this Church be considered less than episcopal and su- preme ? In vain then must it be to argue, as some have been found to do, from the indiscri- P 2 Tim. i. 6. and Tit. i. 5. j0>jjj toO [xeyxXou nhpov Sej-jiaj.) Ho/ml. in S. Ignat. He suffered martyrdom in the reign of Trajan. Euseb. Ecclea. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 22, 36. ° Phil. iv.S. SERMON III. 133 whom I have mentioned, and moreover ' established a rule, that, when they died, 6 other approved men should succeed them 1 in their ministry 15 ." The language of Ignatius is, if possible, still more decisive. ' In like manner let all reverence the ' Deacons, as the command of Jesus ' Christ; as also the Bishop as the Son ' of the Father; and the Elders as the ' council of God, and assembly of Apo- 1 sties. Without these it is not called a < Church q." — " He that doth any thing ' without the Bishop and Presbytery and * Deacons, the same is not pure in his * conscience r ." " Give heed to your ' Bishop, that God may give heed to P Of ' A-KOGToXot jjju-wv eyvcocrav dia. tov Kvp'tov rjtxcov 'Irjirou XgJCTOu dtj gps»j eVrai liti tov 6v6[xaTog Tr,g £7no"7r07J%* did rat/njv ovv tyjv uhlatv, irpoyvcotrw slkrjpoTsg TsXslav, xaTso-Tvjo~otv Tovg TrponprjiAevovc, xa) jU,?Ta£u emvofiYjV 8e§a>xao"»v, oircog kav xoi- /xvj9c3(T(v, SjaSs'lfawTai STspoi 8s8ox»jXaj (Tuvsi8ijo"SJ. Ibid. p. 50. K 3 134 SERMON III. " you. My life be a ransom for those who " are subject to the Bishop, Priests, and " Deacons, and may my portion be with " them in God s ." And again, " Let no " one, without the Bishop, do any of those " things which relate to the Church. Let " that Eucharist be accounted valid, which " is under the regulation of the Bishop, or " of one whom he may appoint. Where- " ever the Bishop appears, there let the " people be; even as where Christ is, there " is the Catholic Church 1 ." 5 Tco ETnaxoTrv) 7rpoo-e%sTs, Iva. xa» 6 &=oc vfj.lv ccvn^jv^ov kycio twv v7rOTot, vrpeo-fivTspois, S»axovojj, xai fisT avreov p.o» to fJ-spoc ysvotro cr^siv ev Osw. Epist. ad Polycarp. p. 14. 1 MqSets yoopig tov siria v.0% % ov t) 7rpav avrjxoVrcov el$ tyjv exxXrjo-i'av. 'Exs/vvj /3r/3ai'« ev^afurr/a yjysjVflw, rj vtto tov eiriVxo7rov ovo~a } r t co etv uvto; eTrirpe^m. Onov ocv 0~7T£p 07TOV UV JJ XglO~TO$ 'I>]CroDc, Ixsl »j xa9oAixr y lxxX»;o-/a. Ad Smyrn. p. 6. The foregoing extracts, which might be multiplied to almost any extent, are taken from those Epistles of Ig- natius which have been proved to be genuine by Vossius and Pearson. See Pearson's Vindiciae Ignatianse. " His writings" (I quote the remarks of Mr. Sikes) " are of all others the most direct and explicit in esta- " hlishing Episcopacy, and in asserting the authority of " Bishops. There is scarcely an Epistle, nay, scarcely a " page of his Epistles, which contains not some instruc- SERMON III. 135 Now if we were inclined to dispute the testimony of these glorious saints and mar- tyrs, could we urge, that, though they actually lived with the Apostles, and re- ceived ordination from their hands, they were probably ignorant of the principles on which they governed the Church, or that knowing them they would wilfully de- viate from them ? — And for the sake of what ? — Was the episcopal office in those early days an object of worldly ambition, coupled as it was with the certainty of augmented persecution, and the probabi- lity of tortures and death ? As we advance however to the succeed- ing generations, we meet with an unbroken series of testimony of the same description. " tion or injunction upon these points. It is for this " reason, no doubt, that the writings of this apostolic " man have met with so little respect from Anti-episco- " palians; who are well aware, that it is impossible " to evade his very decisive evidence for Episcopacy, " unless they can prove it altogether spurious. This " has many times been attempted, and as often failed; " which gives to those writings so substantial an au- " thenticity, as to place them, as they naturally stand, " next in rank to the inspired writings of the Apostles." Discourse on Parochial Commmunion, p. 45, 46'. K 4 136 SERMON 111. In the following age we find Irenseus ex- pressing himself thus decidedly on the point in question : " We can enumerate those who " by the Apostles were appointed bishops 64 in the Churches, and their successors u even to our own times, who neither " taught nor knew any such follies as these " men. And if the Apostles had known " hidden mysteries, which they secretly and " apart from the rest taught the perfect, u they would especially have delivered them " to those to whom they committed the " Churches themselves ; for they wished " those to be very perfect and irrepre- " hensible in all things, whom they also " left as successors, delivering to them their " own place of government"." 11 " Habemus annumerare eos, qui ab Apostolis insti- " tuti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis, et successores eorum " usque ad nos, qui nihil tale clocuerunt, neque cognove- " runt, quale ab his deliratur. Eteniiji si recondita mys- " tcria scissent Apostoli, qure seorsim et latenter ab " reliquis pcrfectos docebant, his vel maxime traderent " ea, quibus etiam ipsas Ecclesias committebant. Valde " cnim perfectos, et irreprehensibiles in omnibus eos " volebant esse, quos et successores relinquebant, suum " ipsorum locum magisterii tradentes." Irenccus adv. Ihiyi si n, lib. ii. cap. A. SERMON III. 137 Early in the next century we find Ter- tullian speaking of heretics in these terms ; " Let them produce then the origins of " their Churches; let them shew the order " of their Bishops, so derived by successions " from the beginning, as that their first " bishop had one of the Apostles, or of " the apostolical men who persevered with " the Apostles, as his founder and prede- " cessorV Among numberless passages which might be cited from Cyprian, the following are sufficiently decisive : " Christ " said to the Apostles, and thereby to all " the governors who succeed to the Apo- " sties by vicarious ordination, He that " heareth you heareth me y :" and again; x " Edant ergo origines Ecclesiarum suarum ; evol- " vant ordinem Episcoporum suorum, ita per successi- " ones ab initio decurrentem, ut primus ille episcopus " aliquem ex Apostolis, vel Apostolicis viris, qui tamen " cum Apostolis perseveraverit, habuerit auctorem et " antecessorem." Tertullian. de Prescript. Hceretic. cap. 32. y " Dicit (Christus) ad Apostolos, et per hoc ad om- " nes prsepositos, qui Apostolis vicaria ordinatione suc- " cedunt; Qui audit vos, me audit; et qui me audit, audit " eum 9 qui me misit. Et qui rejicit vos, me rejicit, et eum " qui me misit." Cyprian. Epist. lxix. edit. Baluzii, p. 122. 138 SERMON III. " The government of Bishops and the " order of the Church has come down " through a series of successions, so that " the Church is founded upon the Bishops, " and every act of the Church is under " their control, by the Divine law 2 ." At the close of this, and at the commence- ment of the succeeding century, Eusebius, the laborious investigator of the records of the Church, has given us, in his Ecclesiasti- cal History, exact and authentic catalogues of the Bishops who presided in the principal cities of the Roman empire, in unbroken succession from the Apostles to his own time 3 . z " Per temporum et successionum vices Episcoporum " ordinatio, et ecclesiie ratio decurrit, ut ecclesia super " Episcopos constituatur, ct omnis actus ecclesite per " eosdem pnepositos gubernetur." Cum hoc itaque di- vina lege fundatum sit, &c. Ibid. Epist. xxvii. p. 37, 38. a " It is as impossible," says Archbishop Potter, " for " an impartial man, who shall compare this historian " with the rest of the primitive Fathers, to doubt vvhe- " ther there was a succession of Bishops from the Apo- " sties, as it would be to call in question the succession " of Roman emperors from Julius Coesar, or the succes- " sioo of kings in any other country." Discourse on Church Government} p. 169, 1 7o. SERMON III. 139 This brings us to the age of Constantine ; and as no one is found to contend against the fact of the universal prevalence of epi- scopal supremacy from henceforth to the period of the Reformation, here the cita- tions from the Fathers might have been closed, but for the necessity of a remark or two on the testimony of Jerome, who is usually considered by the advocates of the Presbyterian discipline, as a writer unfa- vourable to the cause of Episcopacy. In fact, on a particular occasion, indignant at the supposed encroachment of Deacons on the dignity of the Presbyters, to which order he belonged, he is found to argue, from the promiscuous use in the New Tes- tament of the names Bishop and Presbyter, for their original equality b . But if he here h " Idem est Presbyter qui Episcopus ; et antequam " Diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent, et dicere- " tur in populis, Ego sum Pauli, ego Apollo, ego autem " Cephse, communi Presbyterorum eoncilio Ecclesiae " gubernabantur. Postquam vero unusquisque eos, quos " baptizaverat, suos putabat, non Christi, in toto orbe " decretum est, ut unus e Presbyteris electus superpo- " neretur caeteris, ad quern omnis ecclesise cura perti- " nerct, et sebismatum semina tollercntur." S.Hicron. inEpist. ad Tit. cap. 1. 140 SERMON III. intended to maintain all that his admirers would suppose, he is decidedly at variance, not only with the whole host of primitive writers, but, what is still more important, even with himself. If at other times he could write thus; " The power of riches and M the humility of poverty does not make a " Bishop higher or lower; but they are all " successors of the Apostles :" " Without " the command of a Bishop, neither a " Presbyter nor a Deacon have power to " baptize d :" " With us the Bishops hold " the place of the Apostles 6 :" — if he is found to affirm, " that he who is baptized " in the Church, cannot receive the Holy " Ghost, but by the imposition of the Bi- " shop's hands f ;" what weight can be rea- c Potentia divitiarum et paupcrtatis humilitas sub- limiorem, vel inferiorern Episcopum non facit; cap.terum omnes Apostolorum successores sunt. S.Hieron.Epist. ad Evagrium. d Inde venit, ut sine chrismate et episcopi jussione, neque Presbyter nequeDiaconus jus habeant baptizandi. Jl(h\ Lucifer'uin. e Apud nos Apostolorum locum Episcopi tenent. Con- tra Montanum. f Quod si hoc loco quaeris, quare in Ecclesia bapti- /atus, nisi per manus Episcopi, non accipiat Spiritum SERMON III. 141 sonably attached to expressions wrung from him under peculiar circumstances of jea- lousy and irritation ? Indeed, when most urgent to uphold the dignity of his office, he asks, " What does " a Bishop more than a presbyter, ordi- <{ nation excepted s ?" thus expressly allow- ing to the Bishop exclusively that very power which forms his most characteristic distinction. And again, when disposed to assign motives of human policy for the original appointment of Bishops, he evi- dently admits the very fact, which is of all the most important, that it origin- ated during the lifetime of the Apostles; for he says, " When it was said, * I am " of Paul, I of Apollos,' and every one " thought that those whom he had bap- " tized were his own, it was decreed in " the whole world, that one elected from " the presbyters should be placed over the " rest, that the seeds of schisms might be Sanctum, quern nos asserimus in vero baptismate tribui; disce, &c. Adv. Luciferian. £ Quid enim facit, excepta ordinatione, Episcopus, quod Presbyter non facit? Epist. adEvagrium. 142 SERMON III. " destroyed V But is not every well-in- formed and reflecting Christian as compe- tent a judge of the motives of the Apostles as even Jerome himself? or rather, shall we believe, that, divinely inspired and di- rected as they were, they could, in a case of such moment as the government of the Church of Christ, have experienced any motive, or adopted any policy, not abso- lutely suggested or sanctioned by the Spirit of God himself? Again, supposing that it were possible to explain all thie inconsistencies of Jerome, and perfectly to reconcile him to himself, which it would, in fact, be hopeless to at- tempt; and that his testimony to the un- authorized usurpation of episcopal rule were as decisive and clear, as it manifestly is not, — what weight could we possibly al- low to his individual assertions, placed as they would be in contradiction to the united testimony of the whole primitive Church? who, in short, would pretend to balance a single writer with an host? and, what is of still more consequence with re- h See note h in page 139. SERMON III. 143 ference to the facts in question, a presbyter of the fourth century with the fellow- labourers and disciples of Apostles, the saints and martyrs of the first 1 ? But the truth is, that if Jerome's general testimony be considered, it is altogether impossible to regard him as an opponent of Episcopacy ; some of the strongest testimonies in its fa- vour being found in his works. The single instance of Aerius is all that ' The learned Hammond draws the following striking comparison between the testimonies of Jerome and Ig- gnatius. " Nobis certe, qui inter Ignatium Apostolorum " cruvxpovov, et recentiorem tot saeculis Hieronymum, in- " ter Episcopum Upo[x.«pju§a, de sevo suo testantem, et " presbyterum diaconorum fastum calcantem, et contra " eos, quod ad manum fuerat jaculantem, comparatio- " nem instituimus, abunde erit, si Ignatius, ubique sibi " constans, causae ubique nostne (uxxlpws, euxoclpcu$ } ad- " versariis ipsis fatentibus) suffragatus sit ; Hieronymus " autem, si pugnet nobiscum quandoque, quandoque " etiam suffragetur, nee uspiam a nostris partibus de- " scivisse putandus sit, quin pariter et a seipso abiisse " concludatur; adeoquevel integrum nobis testimonium " perhibuisse, vel inconstantia (quod nolim) sua, quic- " quid contra nos dixerit, irritum fecisse." Dissert. Se- cunda de Ignatio, c. 29. For an account of Jerome, and remarks on his testi- mony, see Archbishop Potter on Church Government, p. 78 — 82. and Daubeny's Guide to the Church, appen- dix, p. 51—59. 144 SERMON III. can be produced in the four first centuries, or, to speak more properly, even to the Reformation itself, of a person of note de- cidedly arguing for the equality of Bishops and Presbyters. But in what light was he regarded by his cotemporaries ? not merely as an heretic, but as a madman. Epipha- nius calls his notion " insane beyond the " capacity of human nature V In short, this is one of those exceptions which but the more establish the general rule, and proves beyond contradiction the unvarying and decided opinion of the primitive ages, as to the divine origin of Episcopal rule, and the necessity of it to the very being of a Church. " Ecclesia est in Episcopo 1 ," was k Aerius, a Presbyter of Sebastia in Pontus, in the fourth century, and a follower of the Arian heresy, hav- ing failed to obtain the bishopric of Sebastia, endea- voured to undermine the authority of his successful rival, first by calumnies, and afterwards, when this did not an- swer his purpose, by heading a schism against him, and maintaining that Bishops and Presbyters were of the same order, and equally qualified for every religious of- fice. Epiphanius relates the story, and calls his doctrine fxuvrjoh,i ju.aM.ov Yjnep xciTa.I 4 168 SERMON IV. " no man taketh this honour unto himself, " but he that is called of God, as was " Aaron 11 ;" — and we can conceive but two ways in which this call can be ascer- tained ; viz. by the visible, or otherwise mi- raculous interposition of the Holy Ghost, to which no one will now pretend ; or by a succession of ordainers deriving their au- thority originally from such miraculous in- terposition, and transmitting it according to some method positively instituted by the same divine power \ Accordingly, if we have recourse to the Scriptures for the in- u Heb. v. 4. x ". From this it appears, that there is an absolute " necessity of a strict succession of authorized ordainers " from the apostolical times, in order to constitute a " Christian Priest. For since a commission from the " Holy Ghost is necessary for the exercise of this office, " no one can now receive it, but from those who have " derived their authority in a true succession from the " Apostles. We could not call our present Bibles the " word of God, unless we knew the copies from which " they were taken, were taken from other true copies, " till we come to the originals themselves. No more " could we call any true ministers, or authorized by the M Holy Ghost, who have not received their commission " by an uninterrupted succession of lawful ordainers." Law's second Letter to Bishop Hoadly ; Scholar Armed, vol. i. p. 820. third edition. SERMON IV. 169 formation which we require, we find the Apostles themselves y commissioned person- ally by their blessed Master, and by the visible descent of the Holy Ghost 2 , and ordaining the ministers of the Church, and transmitting to others their own authority for the same important purpose by the im- position of hands a ; and in default of other information, the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, by proving the exclusive power of ordination possessed by them in the midst of presbyters and deacons, would of them- selves sufficiently convince us, that to the apostolical or episcopal order alone it be- longed to transmit their spiritual commis- sion b . y John xx. 21. z Acts ii. 3. a J- Tim. i. G. and 1 Tim. v. 22. b " The order of the Clergy is not only a positive " order instituted by God, but the different degrees in " this order are of the same nature. For we find in " Scripture, that some persons could perform some of- " fices of the priesthood which neither deacons nor " priests could do, though those deacons and priests " were inspired persons, and workers of miracles. Thus " Timothy was sent to ordain elders, because none be- " low his order, who was a Bishop, could perform that "office It is no more consistent with Scrip- " ture to say that deacons or priests may ordain, than 170 SERMON IV. Now as a mere man can no more be- come a priest by any method not speci- fically instituted by God, than the mere elements of water or wine could become effectual to the ends of a sacrament but by the divine appointment, let us once remove our episcopal succession, and we have c discarded the Christian priesthood ; let us discard the priesthood, and we have lost even the means of partaking of the Christian sacraments, the very seals of the Christian covenant, the pledges of our " that the laity are priests or deacons." Law's Second Letter to Bishop Hoadly ; Scholar Armed, vol. i. p. 355, 356. c "Do the Scriptures make it necessary that Timothy " (or some other Bishop) should be sent to Ephesus to " ordain priests, because the priests who were there could " not ordain ? And do not the same Scriptures make it " necessary, that Timothy's successor be the only or- " dainer, as well as he was in his time? Will not priests " in the next age be as destitute of the power of or- " daining as when Timothy was alive? So that since " the Scriptures teach that Timothy, or persons of his " order, could alone ordain in that age, they as plainly " teach that the successors of that order can alone or- " dain in any age ; and consequently the Scriptures " plainly teach a necessity of an episcopal succession." Ibid. pj&56. SERMON IV. 171 eternal salvation. " So that," as the inge- nious Law most forcibly argues, " the ques- " tion is not fairly stated, when it is asked, " whether Episcopacy, being an aposto- " lical practice, may be laid aside? but it " should be asked, whether an instituted " particular method of continuing the " priesthood be not necessary to be con- ( * tinued ? whether an appointed order of " receiving a commission from God be not " necessary to be observed, in order to re- " ceive a commission from him ? If the " case were thus stated, as it ought to be " fairly stated, any one would soon perceive, " that we can no more lay aside Episco- " pacy, and yet continue the .Christian " Priesthood, than we can alter the terms " of salvation, and yet be in covenant with «God d ." 3. To weaken, however, the force of these arguments, so irresistibly decisive of the permanent necessity and immutability of the episcopal office, the advocates of the Presbyterian system maintain, that they can even produce authority from Scripture d Law's Second Letter, &c. vol.i. p. 359, 360. 172 SERMON IV. for ordination by mere elders; and they refer in particular, with the most triumph- ant confidence, to St. Paul's well-known exhortation to Timothy, " Neglect not the " gift that is in thee, which was given thee " by prophecy, with the laying on of the " hands of the presbytery f ." That the passage, as it stands in our translation, wears an aspect of some plau- sibility in their favour, arising from the li- mited sense which we now attach to the term presbytery, may perhaps be allowed ; but that it is of any real force towards establishing the point in support of which it is so commonly adduced, may be most distinctly disproved. In the first place, the learned are far from being unanimous in their interpreta- tion of it. Authorities of no inconsidera- ble weight are to be found for referring the term presbytery to the office g conferred on t l Tim. iv. 14. s St. Jerome and St. Ambrose adopted this interpre- tation, (see Potter on Church Government, p. 271.) and what may appear more remarkable, it was allowed even by Calvin himself. — He says, " Paulus ipse alibi se, non " alios complures, Timothco inanus imposuisse com- SERMON IV. 173 Timothy, not to those who ordained him to it ; so that the verse would stand thus ; " Neglect not the gift of the presbyterate, " which was given thee by prophecy, with " the laying on of hands." But not to insist absolutely on this, it is far from following as a necessary conse- quence, that if the expression is to be in- terpreted of a company of persons, they were presbyters, strictly so called ; — the pri- mitive Fathers, at least, admitted no such idea ; and the comment of Chrysostom on the text itself is decisively in point ; " The " Apostle," says he, " speaks not here of " Presbyters, but Bishops/' adding this rea- " memorat. Admoneo te, inquit, ut gratiam suscites quce " in te est per impositionem manuitm mearum. (2 Tim. i. 6.) " Nam quod in altera epistola de impositione manuum " Presbyterii dicitur (lTim. iv. 14.) non ita accipio quasi " Paulus de seniorum collegioloquatur; sed hoc nomine " ordinationem ipsam intelligo; quasi diceret, Fac ut " gratiam, quam per manuum impositionem recepisti, " cum te Presbyterum crearem, non sit irrita." Calvini Institut. lib. A. cap. 3. edit. 1607. p. 218. The general signification however of the word trf/s