I! iiiti liiili i ESSAY UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE. LONDON : Printed by GEORGE BARCLAY, Castle Street, Leicester Square. JESSAY UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE BY BAPTIST WRIOTHESLEY NOEL, M.A. 5V afyotTry. Eph. \\. la. SECOND EDITION, WITH CORRECTIONS. LONDON: JAMES NISBET AND CO. 21 BERNERS STREET. 1849. PREFACE. As in the following work I have frankly attacked the Union between the Church and State, I feel constrained to bear my humble testimony to the piety and worth of many who uphold it. I have stated without re- serve the influence of the system upon pre- lates ; but how many instances occur in which men raised to the most ensnaring ho- nours have successfully resisted their tempta- tions! Of those prelates with who'm I have the honour to be acquainted, some I admire for their simplicity, benevolence, and libe- rality, and others still more for eminent piety. Most wisely in many instances, and most conscientiously I doubt not in all, have VI PREFACE. the present Government administered their ecclesiastical patronage. Still more anxious am I to do justice to my beloved and honoured brethren, the evangelical ministers of the Establishment. Having acted with them for many years, I can speak of their principles with confidence. Numbers of them, whose names I should rejoice to mention here with honour, are as sincere in adhering to the Establishment as I am in quitting it. Of many of them I am convinced that they surpass me in de- votedness to Christ. Worthy successors of Romaine and John Venn, of Newton, Cecil, and Thomas Scott, of Robinson and of Si- meon, and, remaining conscientiously in the Establishment, they will, as I hope, have the respect and affection of all good men. May they enjoy increasing comfort and usefulness to the end of their ministry! While I con- demn a State prelacy, I honour each pious prelate ; while I mourn the relations of godly pastors to the State, I no less rejoice in their PREFACE. Vll godliness. The reasons for separation ap- pear to me clear ; but I do not expect others to think as I do. In claiming my own li- berty of judgment, I learn to respect theirs. To remain in the Establishment with my views would be criminal; with theirs it is a duty. If by any of my expressions I have un- necessarily wounded the feelings of any Christian brother, I ask him to forgive me. If I have unconsciously fallen into any exag- geration, I deeply deplore it. Throughout the work I have made a clear distinction between evangelical and unevangelical cler- gymen; between those who preach the Gos- pel and those who do not preach it. No spurious liberality, no fear of censure, should obliterate the distinction; yet many, doubt- less, who are not ranked among the evan- gelical party, who do not support their insti- tutions, and who do not usually act with them, may be converted and faithful ministers of Christ. Vlll PREFACE. Lastly, I must express my regret that I have not done more for the welfare of a friendly, considerate, and willing Church, to which I have been for twenty-two years a pastor, and with whom I hoped to have spent the remainder of my days. Sterner duties which the study of the word of God has forced upon my attention have to be ful- filled. But I cannot quit them without ear- nest prayer that my successor may receive much grace to build them up in piety, nor without my grateful thanks for their abundant and unvarying kindness. HORNSEY, Dec. 14, 1848. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. The Lawfulness of the Union between Church and State must be determined by reference to the Word of God . 1 Definition of the terms, Church, State, and Union . 6 PART I. PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION BETWEEN THE CHURCH ANP THE STATE. CHAPTER I. General Considerations which condemn the Union. SECT. I. The Union condemned by the Constitution of the State 13 SECT. II. The Union condemned by the Parental Rela- tion ...... 27 SECT. III. The Union condemned by History . . 32 X CONTENTS. SECT. IV. The Union condemned by the Mosaic Law 89 SECT. V. The Union condemned by the Prophecies of the Old Testament . ... 99 SECT. VI. The Union condemned by the New Testa- ment 110 CHAPTER II. Principles of the Union between the Church and State in England condemned by the Word of God. SECT. I. Maintenance of Christian Pastors by the State 152 SECT. II. The Supremacy of the State . . . 167 SECT. III. Patronage 202 SECT. IV. Coercion 229 Conclusion of the First Part . . 238 PART II. THE EFFECTS OF THE UNION. CHAPTER I. Effects of the Union upon Persons. SECT. I. Influence of the Union upon Bishops . . 245 SECT. II. Influence of the Union upon Pastors . 261 SECT. III. Influence of the Union upon Curates . 296 CONTENTS. XI SECT. IV. Influence of the Union upon Members of An- glican Churches .... 304 SECT. V. Influence of the Union upon Dissenters . 314 CHAPTER II. Influence of the Union upon Things. SECT. I. Influence of the Union upon the Number of Ministers ..... 326 SECT. II. Influence of the Union upon the Distribution of Ministers . . . 338 SECT. III. Influence of the Union upon the Maintenance of Ministers ..... 376 SECT. IV. Influence of the Union upon the Doctrine taught in the Anglican Churches . . . 400 SECT. V. Influence of the Union upon the Discipline of the Anglican Churches . . .437 SECT. VI. Influence of the Union upon the Evangelization of the Country .... 506 SECT. VII. Influence of the Union upon the Union of Christians . . . . .515 SECT. VIII. Influence of the Union upon the Reformation of the Churches .... 525 SECT. IX. Influence of the Union upon the Progress of Religion in the Country . . . 536 SECT. X. Influence of the Union upon the Government 552 SECT. XI. Influence of the Union upon other National Establishments throughout the World . 566 Xll CONTENTS. PART III. MEANS OF PROMOTING A REVIVAL OF RELIGION IN THE COUNTRY. SECT. I. Means of Revival in the Churches . . 576 SECT. II. Means for the Extension of Religion throughout the Country . . . . . 592 CONCLUSION ........ 600 INTRODUCTION. IN his great mercy to our fallen race, God has given us a complete revelation of his will. By the voice of Christ, and by evangelists and apostles, as well as by ancient prophets, he has made known to us all our duty to him and to each other. In the examination, therefore, of every question of right and wrong, our first step towards a just conclusion must be to learn what he has said. When the three apostles were enshrined with our Lord in glory on the mount of transfiguration, they heard from the depth of the oppressive splendour these words, " This is my beloved Son; hear him." On every subject we must hear him first, be guided by his judgments, and obey his decisions. To neglect to hear him is to expose ourselves to a reckoning from which the boldest may well shrink. For when the Almighty promised to raise up Christ as a prophet to his church, he added, " Wliosoever shall not hearken to my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require B 2 INTRODUCTION. it of Mm.'" To hear his commands and to disobey them is as fatal as to refuse to hear them, rendering vain every profession of discipleship, and subverting every hope of final happiness; for Christ has said, " Every one that keareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand ; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell ; and great was the fall of it." 2 Those only can be blessed who tremble at the word of God. 3 Those only love Christ who keep his commands. 4 It is in vain to say to him, Lord, Lord, unless we do his will ; 5 and while a wilful ignorance of his will is fatal, 6 to disobey it when known is still more criminal. 7 These statements must of course apply to the union of Christian churches with the governments of nations. The independence of the churches on the one hand, or their association with governments on the other, must exercise so important an influence upon the progress of religion both within the churches, and around them, that we might expect to find some directions in this matter afforded by scripture ; and if there be such, we must be guided wholly by them. No consideration of what is sup- posed to be natural, no precedent, ancient or modern, 1 Deut. xviii. 18, 19. 2 Matt. vii. 26. 3 Isaiah, Ixvi. 2. 4 John, xiv. 21. 5 Luke, vi. 46. 6 John, xvii. 3; iii. 19, 20. i Luke, xii. 47, 48. THE WORD OF GOD OUR GUIDE. no views of expediency, no allegations of general custom, no appeal to the law of the land, must be heard. If Christ has spoken, this must deter- mine the judgment of every one of his sincere disciples. Each writer upon the Union between Church and State has more or less explicitly owned this. Some avow it with greater frankness than others, render it more prominent in their reasonings, argue it with greater zeal, and recur to it more frequently; but all admit it. Hooker, who made but little use of this rule, distinctly recognised it, thus : " Better it were to be superstitious than pro- fane to take from thence (the scriptures) our direction even in all things, great and small, than to wade through matters of principal weight and mo- ment without ever caring what the law of God hath either for or against our designs Did they (the heathen) make so much account of the voice of their gods, which in truth were no gods, and shall we neglect the precious benefit of conference with those oracles of the true and living God ? . . . . Use we the precious gifts of God unto his glory and honour that gave them, seeking by all means to know what the will of our God is; what righteous before him ; in his sight what holy, perfect, and good ; that we may truly and faithfully do it." l Mr. Gladstone has thus stated it : "I submit that 1 Hooker's " Polity," book i. 4 INTRODUCTION. the most authentic, the most conclusive, the most philosophical, and, in the absence of literal and un- disputed precept from scripture, also the most direct, method of handling this important investigation, is that which examines the moral character and capa- cities of nations and of rulers, and thus founds the whole idea of their duty upon that will which gave them existence." 1 According to these words, the will of God is the ultimate law which is to guide us, and the precepts of scripture are the clearest interpreta- tion of his will. Mr. M'Neile, in his " Lectures on the Church of England," is more earnest and abund- ant in his testimony to the same principle, as may be judged from the following extracts : " For the fundamental principles of our ecclesiastical instrumen- tality, we claim the direct authority of the word of God." 2 " We have been taunted with our unwilling- ness to bring the matter to the direct light of revealed truth, and challenged .... to come to the law and to the testimony. We accept the challenge, and cor- dially rejoice in the assurance that, after all, nothing has the same extensive and permanent effect upon the British public as an honest appeal to the word of our God." " That connexion with the Christian church, which we have shown from the nature of things to be the ruler's safety, we proceed now to show from the word of God to be the ruler's duty." * 1 The State in its Relations with the Church, chap. ii. 2 Lectures, p. 2. 3 P. 7. 4 P. 148. THE WORD OF GOD OUR GUIDE. 5 " There is no prevention of confusion in the outset, but by a mutual adherence to the supreme stand- ard, the revealed will of God; and THERE is NO RECOVERY FROM CONFUSION INCURRED BUT BY A VIGOROUS AND DETERMINED RECURRENCE (AT ANY PRESENT RISK) TO THAT STANDARD." 1 M. de R,OUge- mont, in his work entitled " The Individualists," repeatedly enforces the same principle. His great charge against M. Vinet, and those who agree with him in proposing the separation of the Church and the State, is, " That they are establishing a new dogma without the bible, and contrary to it :" 2 " That in questions essentially religious they do not rest upon the bible, but on human reasonings:" 3 " That M. Vinet's book offers a new theory of the church, without furnishing scriptural proofs for its support." * And, lastly, M. Grandpierre agrees with M. Rougemont in claiming that the whole doctrine of the separation of the Church and State should be based upon the scripture. " Before expounding a theory with which, according to our author (Vinet), Christianity is so intimately connected, he should at the outset have asked himself, What does the word of God teach us on this subject ?" 5 Of course, whatever is scriptural must also be expedient, since nothing can be gained by departing from the rule which God has given to us; but the 1 Lectures, p. 153. 2 P. 7. 3 P. 11. 4 P. 128. s Reflexions, &c. par J. H. Grandpierre, p. 58. 6 INTRODUCTION. expediency of the rule is not the foundation of its authority. If God has manifested his will on the subject of the Union of the churches of Christ with the governments under which they live, Christians are to obey it because it is his will. If any human authorities command us to do what he forbids, we can only answer in the words of the apostle, " Wliether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye?-. . . . We ought to obey God rather than men." z No authority must interfere with his. Before I proceed to examine how far the Union of the Church with the State is agreeable to the will of God, it is necessary to consider what is meant by a church, what is meant by a State, and what is meant by their union. I. The word " church " is commonly used in the following senses : 1. The place where a Christian congregation as- sembles, a building used for public worship ; e. g. " the parish church." 2. Something indefinite, as when an expression being quoted from the prayer-book, it is said to be what the church teaches. 3. The clergy paid by the State : e.g. when a young man joins the national clergy in England or Scotland, he is said to "go into the church." 4. All persons baptised by the national clergy, 1 Acts, iv. 19. 2 Verse 29. MEANING OF THE WORD " CHURCH." 7 and connected with their ministry : e. g. " the Church of England," "the Church of Scotland." 5. All the congregations throughout the world acknowledging a particular ecclesiastical discipline; e. g. " the Roman Catholic Church," " the Greek Church," " the Armenian Church," " the Presbyterian Church." 6. All persons throughout the world baptised in the name of Christ : e. g. " the Visible Church Catholic." All these six meanings of the word are contrary to the original meaning, and are wholly unscriptural. It is not once used in scripture in any of these senses. Besides these, it has three other meanings. 1. It was originally used to express an assembly of the citizens in the Greek republics. When the legislative assembly was summoned by the town-crier, it was called an g#>iWa, a church. 1 In this sense the word is frequently used by Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, and other writers. 2 And in this sense it is used in the 19th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. A crowd having assembled in the theatre at Ephesus to maintain their idolatry against the doctrine of St. Paul, it is said by the historian that " the zzxteiffiK, or cJmrck, was confused ;" 3 upon which the town-clerk urged them to restore order, declaring that every matter might be determined in a lawful 1 See Liddell's " Lexicon." 1 See Stephen's " Thesaurus," Liddell's " Lexicon," Smith's " Diction- ary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," and Potter's " Antiquities." 3 Acts, xix. 32. 8 INTRODUCTION. iot, or church ; l with which words he dismissed that riotous ixxfaifftu, or church. 8 2. It being the word commonly used to express an assembly of citizens, it was thence adopted by the apostles to express an assembly of Christians ; the Christian sense of the word growing naturally out of its civil sense. Each Christian congregation is, therefore, in the New Testament called an ex%.Xq Protestant cause, as the reader may judge by the following extracts from Hallam's " Constitutional History." The two statutes enacted in the first year of Elizabeth, commonly called the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, are the main links of the Anglican Church with the temporal constitution, and establish the subordination and dependency of the former ; the first abrogating all jurisdiction and legislative power of ecclesiastical rulers, except under authority of the Crown ; and the second prohibiting all changes of rites and discipline without the approbation of Parliament. It was the constant policy of this queen to maintain her prerogative. 1 Elizabeth, though resolute against submitting to the papal supremacy, was not so averse to ah 1 the tenets abjured by Protestants. She re- proved a divine who preached against the real pre- sence, and is even said to have used prayers to the Virgin ; but her great struggle with the reformers was about images, and particularly the crucifix, which she retained with lighted tapers before it in her chapel. 2 To the marriage of the clergy she retained so great an aversion, that she would never consent to repeal the statute of her sister's reign against it. 3 Except Archbishop Parker, and Cox, bishop of Ely, all the most eminent churchmen, such as Jewel, Grindal, Sandys, Nowell, were in favour of leaving 1 Vol. i. p. 231. 2 P. 234. 3 P. 236. 48 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. off the surplice and what were called the popish ceremonies. The queen alone was the cause of re- taining those observances. 1 On refusing to wear the customary habits, Sampson, dean of Christ Chnrch, was deprived of his deanery. 2 Parker obtained from the queen a proclamation peremptorily requiring con- formity in the use of the clerical vestments and other matters of discipline. The London ministers, sum- moned before himself and their bishop, Grindal; were called upon for a promise to comply with the legal ceremonies, which thirty-seven out of ninety-eight refused to make. They were, in consequence, sus- pended from their ministry. But these, unfortu- nately, as was the case in ah" this reign, were the most conspicuous both for their general character and for their talent in preaching. 3 The Puritan clergy, after being excluded from their benefices, might still claim from a just Government a peaceful toleration of their particular worship. This it was vain to expect from the queen's arbitrary spirit, the imperious humours of Parker, and that total disre- gard of the rights of conscience which was common to all parties in the sixteenth century. The first instance of actual punishment inflicted on Protestant dissenters was in June 1567, when a company of more than one hundred were seized during their religious exercises at Plummers' Hall, and fourteen or fifteen of them were sent to prison. 4 The far 1 Vol. i. p. 238. 2 P. 244. 3 P. 245. 4 P. 247. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 49 greater part of the benefices of the church were supplied by conformists of very doubtful sincerity, who would resume their mass-books with more alacrity than they had cast them aside. 1 Burnet says, on the authority of the visitors' reports, that out of 9400 beneficed clergymen, not more than about two hundred refused to conform ; and he proceeds, " If a prince of another religion had succeeded, they had probably turned about again as nimbly as they had done before in Queen Mary's days." A great part of the clergy in the first part of this reign are said to have been sunk in super- stition and looseness of living. 2 Such a deficiency of Protestant clergy had been experienced at the queen's accession, that for several years it was a common practice to appoint laymen, usually me- chanics, to read the service in vacant churches. 3 Yet the archbishop continued to harass the Puritan ministers, suppressing their books, silencing them in churches, persecuting them in private meetings. Plain citizens, for listening to their sermons, were dragged before the high commission and imprisoned upon any refusal to conform. 4 The clergy in several dioceses set up, with en- couragement from their superiors, a certain religious exercise called prophesyings. They met at appointed times to expound and discuss together particular texts of scripture, under the presidency of a moderator ap- 1 Vol. i. p. 248. z Ibid. note. 3 P. 249. 4 P. 262. E 50 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. pointed by the bishop. The queen entirely disliked them, and directed Parker to put them down. Pro- phesyings were now put down. 1 Grindal, who succeeded Parker, wished to revive them. The queen, however, insisted both that the prophesyings should be discontinued and that fewer licenses for preaching should be granted. Grindal refusing to comply with this injunction, was seques- tered from the exercise of his jurisdiction for about five years ; and the queen, by circular letters to the bishops, commanded them to put an end to the pro- phesyings, which were never afterwards renewed. 2 As soon as Whitgift succeeded to the primacy, he promulgated articles for the observance of discipline ; one of which prohibited all preaching, reading, or catechising in private houses, whereto any not of the same family should resort. But that which excited the loudest complaints was the subscription to three points the queen's supremacy, the lawfulness of the common prayer, and the truth of the whole thirty- nine articles, exacted from every minister of the church. 3 The kingdom resounded with the clamour of those who were suspended or deprived of their benefices, and of their numerous abettors. But, secure of the queen's support, Whitgift relented not a jot of his resolution. 4 In 1583, the High Commission Court was erected, consisting of forty -four commissioners, of whom twelve 1 Vol. i. pp. 266, 267. z Pp. 267, 268. * P. 269. 4 Pp. 269-271. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 51 were bishops, several were privy-councillors, and the rest clergymen or civilians. Power was given to any three commissioners, of whom one must be a bishop, to punish all persons absent from church, to visit and reform heresies and schisms according to law, to deprive all beneficed persons holding any doctrine contrary to the thirty-nine articles, &c. &c. Master of such tremendous machinery, the archbishop pro- ceeded to tender the oath ex officio to such of the *// clergy as were surmised to harbour a spirit of puri- tanical disaffection. This procedure consisted in a series of interrogations, so comprehensive as to em- brace the whole scope of clerical uniformity, yet .so precise and minute as to leave no room for evasion, to which the suspected party was bound to answer upon oath. 1 Pamphlets, chiefly anonymous, were rapidly circulated throughout the kingdom, inveigh- ing against the prelacy. Of these libels, the most famous went under the name of Martin Mar-prelate. 2 Strong suspicions having fallen on Penry, a young Welshman, he was tried for another pamphlet con- taining some sharp reflections on the queen herself, and was executed. 3 Udal, a Puritan minister, fell into the grasp of the same statute for an alleged libel on the bishops. His trial, like most other political trials of the age, disgraces the name of English jus- tice. It consisted mainly in a pitiful attempt by the court to entrap him into a confession that the im- 1 Pp. 271-273. 2 P. 277. 3 P. 278. 52 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. puted libel was of his writing, as to which their proof was deficient. He avoided the snare, but was convicted, and died of the effects of confinement. 1 Cartwright, with several of his sect, were sum- moned before the ecclesiastical commission, where, refusing to inculpate themselves by taking the oath ex officio, they were committed to the Fleet. 2 Morice, attorney of the court of wards, having attacked the legality of this oath ex officio in the House of Com- mons, and brought in a bill to take it away, the queen put a stop to the proceeding ; and Morice lay some time in prison for his boldness. 3 In 1593, the court procured an act which sentenced to impri- sonment any person above the age of sixteen who should forbear for the space of a month to repair to some church, until he should make such open decla- ration of conformity as the act appoints. Those who refused to submit to these conditions were to abjure the realm ; and if they should return without the queen's license, to suffer death as felons. 4 Multitudes fled to Holland from the rigour of the bishops in enforcing this statute. 5 Yet, after forty years of con- stantly aggravated molestation of the nonconforming clergy, their numbers were become greater, their popularity more deeply rooted, their enmity to the established order more irreconcilable. 6 On the other hand, the prelates of the English 1 P. 279. 2 P. 280. 3 P. 287. 4 P. 289. 5 P. 290. 8 P. 306. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 53 Church, while they inflicted so many severities on others, had not always cause to exult in their own condition. Cecil surrounded his mansion-house at Burleigh with estates once belonging to the see of Peterborough. Hatton built his house in Holborn on the bishop of Ely's garden ; and Cox, on making resistance to this spoliation, received the following letter from the queen: "Proud prelate, you know what you were before I made you what you are. If you do not immediately comply with my request, by God I will unfrock you ! ELIZABETH." After his death she kept the see vacant eighteen years. 1 She suspended Fletcher, bishop of London, of her own authority, only for marrying " a fine lady and a widow;" and Aylmer having preached too vehe- mently against female vanity in dress, which came home to the queen's conscience, she told her ladies that if the bishop held more discourse on such mat- ters she would fit him for heaven, but he should walk thither without a staff, and leave his mantle behind him. And in her speech to Parliament, on closing the session of 1584, when many complaints against the rulers of the church had rung in her ears, she told the bishops that if they did not amend what was wrong, she meant to depose them. 2 This sketch is sufficient to show that throughout this reign the bishops and clergy were kept by the Union in a state of servile subjection to the Crown ; 1 P. 304. P. 305. 54 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. that the most pious persons in the nation were ex- posed by it to severe persecution, and that it steadily repressed evangelical religion. The accession of James I. to the supremacy, in virtue of the Union, brought no advantage to evan- gelical religion. On his way to London, the Puritan clergy presented to him a petition signed by 825 ministers from twenty-five counties, praying for the removal of certain abuses from the church. 1 The Puritans seem to have flattered themselves that he would favour their sect, on the credit of some strong assertions he had occasionally made of his adherence to the Scotch kirk. James, however, was all his life rather a bold liar than a good dissembler. 2 He showed no disposition to treat these petitioners with favour. His measures towards the nonconformist party had evidently been resolved upon before he summoned a few of their divines to the famous con- ference at Hampton Court. In the accounts that we read of this meeting we are alternately struck with wonder at the indecent and partial behaviour of the king, and at the abject baseness of the bishops, mixed, according to the custom of servile natures, with inso- lence towards their opponents. 3 While Dr. Reynolds was speaking, the king broke out into a flame, " They were aiming," he said, " at a Scots presby- tery, which agrees with monarchy as well as God and the devil. Then Jack, and Tom, and Will, and 1 Hallam, i. p. 403. 2 P. 404. 3 Ibid. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 55 Dick, shall meet, and at their pleasures censure both me and my council; therefore, pray stay one seven years before you demand that of me, and if then you find me pursy and fat, and my windpipe stuffed, I will, perhaps, hearken to you, for let that government be up, and I am sure I shall be kept in breath ; but till you find I grow lazy, pray let that alone. Well, Doctor, have you any thing else to offer?" " No more, if it please your majesty." " If this be all your party have to say, I will make them conform, or I will hurry them out of this land, or else worse." 1 Bishop Bancroft fell on his knees and said, " I protest my heart melteth for joy that Almighty God of his singular mercy has given us such a king as since Christ's time has not been." " Never," said Chan- cellor Egerton, " have I seen the king and the priest so fully united in one person." 2 When the king said he approved of the wisdom of the law in making the oath ex officio, the archbishop was so transported as to cry out, " Undoubtedly your majesty speaks by the special assistance of God's Spirit." 3 Mr. Chadderton fell on his knees and humbly prayed that the surplice and cross might not be urged on some godly minis- ters in Lancashire ; but the king replied with a stern countenance, " I will have none of this arguing, there- fore let them conform, and that quickly too, or they shall hear of it." 4 The king soon afterwards put ' Neal's " History of the Puritans," part ii. chap. i. 3 Ibid. p. 17. 3 Ibid. p. 18. Ibid. 56 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. forth a proclamation requiring all ecclesiastical and civil officers to do their duty by enforcing conformity. 1 He had already strictly enjoined the bishops to pro- ceed against all the clergy who did not observe the prescribed order, a command which Bancroft, who about this time followed Whitgift in the primacy, did not wait to have repeated. 2 But the most enormous outrage on the civil rights of these men was the com- mitment to prison of ten among those who had pre- sented the millenary petition ; the judges having declared in the Star-chamber that it was an offence fineable at discretion, and very near to treason and felony. 3 The doctrine of the king's absolute power beyond the law had become current with all who sought his favour, and especially with the high-church party. 4 The real aim of the clergy in thus enor- mously enhancing the pretensions of the Crown was to gain its sanction and support for their own. Schemes of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, hardly less ex- tensive than had w T armed the imagination of Becket, now floated before the eyes of Bancroft. 5 Dr. Cowell, in a law-dictionary dedicated to Bancroft, said, under the title king, " He is above the law by his absolute power, and though for the better and equal course in making laws he do admit the three estates into council, yet this, in divers learned men's opinion, is not of constraint, but by his own benignity, or by 1 Hallam, vol. ii. p. 405. 2 Ibid. p. 405. 3 Ibid. p. 406. * Ibid. p. 438. * Ibid- p. 440. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 57 reason of the promise made upon oath at the time of his coronation. And though at his coronation he took an oath not to alter the laws of the land, yet, this oath notwithstanding, he may alter or suspend any particular law that seemeth hurtful to the public estate." 1 Such monstrous positions from the mouth of a man of learning, who was surmised to have been instigated, as well as patronised, by the archbishop, and of whose book the king was reported to have spoken in terms of eulogy, gave very just scandal to the House of Commons. 2 Archbishop Bancroft now revived the persecution of the Puritans by enforcing the strict observance of the festivals of the church, reviving the use of copes, surplices, caps, hoods, &c. By these methods of se- verity above three hundred Puritan ministers were silenced or deprived ; some of whom were excom- municated and cast into prison, others were forced to leave the country. 3 As another mode of insulting and harassing the evangelical clergy, the king published a declaration to be read in churches permitting all lawful recreations on Sunday after divine service, such as dancing, archery, May-games, morrice-dances, and other usual sports. 4 But this declaration was not en- forced till the following reign. The court of James I. was incomparably the most disgraceful scene of pro- fligacy which this country has ever witnessed, equal 1 Hallam, vol. ii. p. 442. a Ibid. p. 443. 3 Neal, part ii. pp. 35, 40. 4 Hallam, vol. i. p. 545. 58 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. to that of Charles II. in the laxity of female virtue, and without any sort of parallel in some other re- spects. Gross drunkenness is imputed to some of the ladies who acted in the court pageants. 1 Ac- cording to the " Pictorial History of England," King James had as little real religion of any kind as Eli- zabeth herself. In the notion of both the one and the other the Church was an engine of State, and nothing else ; and in this feeling both were naturally much more inclined towards popery than puritanism. 2 By degrees he gave himself up to all kinds of licen- tiousness. His language was obscene, he was a pro- fane swearer, and would often be drunk. He broke through all the laws of the land, and was as absolute a tyrant as his want of courage would admit : and was, in the opinion of Bishop Burnet, " the scorn of his age, a mere pedant, without judgment, courage, or steadiness, his reign being a continued course of mean practices." 3 To such hands did the Union commit the government of the churches of Christ in this country. It was very unfortunate for Charles I., the next head of the church, that the chosen friend and com- panion of his youth was one of the most profligate men of his day. The following is the account given of his friendship by Brodie. James I., from his immoderate attachment to field-sports, spent much 1 Hallam, vol. i. p. 452, note. 2 Pictorial History of England, vol. iii. p. 458. s Neal, part ii. p. 129. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 59 of his time at Newmarket. There he went to the theatre to see a farce called " Ignoramus," in ridicule of the common law, for which he embraced every opportunity of expressing contempt, because it limited his prerogative; it being part of his doctrine that " the king is to settle the law of God, and his judges to interpret the law of the king." At the theatre he saw young George Villiers, who immediately be- coming his favourite, was, in a short time, created a baron, a viscount, an earl, a marquis, lord high ad- miral of England, lord warden of the cinque ports, and master of the horse ; and disposed of ah 1 the offices of the kingdom without a rival. 1 It is humiliating to think that this minion's heels were tracked with spaniel-like observance by the chief of the church and of the nobility, who were content to be called his creatures, professing an attachment bordering on adoration. 2 It is impossible to read Heylin's " Life of Laud" and Laud's Diary, &c. &c., without in- superable loathing. 3 As neither talents nor virtue had raised Villiers, so he had little of either, though more of the first than the last ; and as his heart was daily corrupted, so was his judgment perverted by his situation. 4 To such a height of presumption was this minion grown, that he not only used language to Charles now only to be found in the lowest class of the community, but was once very near striking 1 Brodie, " History of the British Empire," vol. ii. pp. 12-19. 2 Ibid. p. 19. 3 Ibid. p. 20. 4 Ibid. p. 20. 60 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. him. 1 Yet, to the general astonishment, he no sooner stooped to court his highness, than he acquired over him the most uncontrolled ascendancy. 2 Such a friendship could not be favourable to the morals of Charles, and he is described by Milton to have been at this period of his life flagitiis omnibus coopertum, loaded with every vice. 3 This was a bad preparation for the supreme government of the churches of Christ in this country. The next step in his history was his union with Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII., then king of France, to whom he was married by proxy before his father was buried. She arrived at Dover June 13, 1625, and brought with her a long train of priests, for whose devotion a chapel was fitted up in the king's house at St. James's. 4 The queen, by degrees, obtained a plenitude of power over the king. His majesty held her in perfect adoration, and would do nothing without her. 5 The king's match with this lady was a greater judgment to the nation than the plague, which then raged in the land : for, consi- dering the malignity of the popish religion, the in- fluence of the queen over her husband, and the share she must needs have in the education of her children, it was easy to foresee it might prove very fatal to our English prince and people, and lay in a venge- 1 Brodie, " History of the British Empire," vol. ii. p. 21. 8 Ibid. p. 22. 3 Ibid. p. 45, note, where proofs of this fact are adduced. 4 Neal, ii. p. 133. * Clarendon. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 61 ance to future generations. 1 Thus the education of Charles for the government of the churches of Christ, which was begun by a profligate favourite, was con- tinued by a Roman Catholic wife. The clergy whom Charles most trusted were little likely to counteract these influences. The bishops were many of them gross sycophants of Buckingham. Mede says, " I am sorry to hear they (the bishops) are so habituated to flattery that they seem not to know of any other duty that belongs to them." 8 Two sermons, by Sibthorp and Main waring, excited particular attention. These men, eager for prefer- ment, which they knew the readiest method to attain, taught that the king might take the subjects' money at his pleasure, and that no one might refuse his demand on penalty of damnation. " Parliaments," said Mainwaring, "were not ordained to contribute any right to the king, but for the more equal im- posing and more easy exacting of that which unto kings doth appertain by natural and original law and justice as their proper inheritance annexed to their imperial crowns from their birth." For refusing to license Sibthorp's sermon, Archbishop Abbot was suspended from the exercise of his jurisdiction by the king, who gave Sibthorp some preferment; and Mainwaring, who was impeached by the House of Commons, and condemned to pay a fine of 1000/., and to be suspended for three years from his ministry, 1 Bishop Kennet. 2 Hallam, vol. i. p. 570, note. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. was almost immediately pardoned by the king, and afterwards made a bishop. 1 But the person who proved in a far more eminent degree than any other individual the evil genius of this unhappy sovereign was Laud. His talents seem to have been hardly above mediocrity. There cannot be a more contemptible work than his Diary. But having courted the favour of Buckingham, he rose to the see of Canterbury on Abbot's death in 1631. 2 He had placed before his eyes the aggrandisement first of the church, and next of the royal prerogative, as his end and aim in every action. " Though not destitute of religion," says Hallarn, " it was so subordinate to worldly interest, and so blended with pride, that he became an intolerant persecutor of the Puritan clergy ; and being subject, as his friends call it, to some infirmities of temper, that is, choleric, vindictive, harsh, and even cruel, to a great degree, he not only took a prominent share in the severities of the Star- chamber, but, as his correspondence shows, perpetu- ally lamented that he was restrained from going further lengths." 3 Even at college he was suspected of popery ; to such height did he carry the preten- sions of the clergy, with all the tenets of the Romish religion, except the mere supremacy of the pope. The use of images, the tutelar protection of saints and angels, the invocation of saints, the adoration of the altar, the real presence, auricular confession, and 1 Hallam, vol. i. pp. 569, 570. 8 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 53. 3 Ibid. p. 53. THE UNION CONDEMNED' BY HISTORY. 63 absolution, were amongst his favourite principles. 1 In 1605 he filled the office of chaplain to the earl of Devonshire, who had induced Lady Rich to desert her husband and children. In these circumstances Laud was base enough to sanction the adultery by performing for them the marriage ceremony. 2 Placed at the head of the ecclesiastical and civil government, he betrayed all the insolence of a little mind intoxi- cated with undeserved prosperity. He assumed the state of a prince, and by the ridiculous haughtiness of his manners disgusted men of rank and influence. 3 He aggravated the invidiousness of his situation, and gave an astonishing proof of his influence by placing Juxon, bishop of London, a creature of his own, in the greatest of all posts, that of lord high-treasurer. 3 Church affairs were an early subject of consi- deration in Charles's cabinet. Bishop Laud, who in the late king's time had delivered to the duke a little book about doctrinal puritanism, now also gave him a schedule containing the names of ecclesiastics under the letters and P ; standing for orthodox, P for puritan, in order that it might be shown to the king, and preferment, of course, confined to the former. Under the Puritan party were comprehended in the court register all who refused to subscribe to every doctrinal innovation of the king and the bishops ; together with those that were known merely as de- 1 Brodic, vol. ii. p. 238. a Ibid. p. 240. 3 Ibid. p. 247. 4 Hallam, vol. ii. p. 55. 64 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. fenders of the political rights of the people. 1 But the Puritans were doomed throughout this reign to much worse evils than the loss of preferment. Leighton, a Scotch divine, having published an angry libel against the hierarchy, was sentenced to be publicly whipped at Westminster and set in the pillory, to have one side of his nose slit, one ear cut off, and one side of his cheek branded with a hot iron ; to have the whole of this repeated the next week at Cheapside, and to suffer perpetual imprisonment in the Fleet. Lilburne, for dispersing pamphlets against the bishops, was whipped from the Fleet prison to Westminster, then set in the pillory, and treated afterwards with great cruelty. Prynne, a lawyer of uncommon erudition, and a zealous Puritan, had printed a bulky volume called " Histriomastix," full of invectives against the theatre. This was construed to be seditious, and the Star-chamber adjudged him to stand twice in the pillory, to be branded in the forehead, to lose both his ears, to pay a fine of 5000/., and to suffer per- petual imprisonment. The dogged Puritan employed the leisure of a gaol in writing a fresh libel against the hierarchy. For this, with two other delinquents of the same class, Burton, a divine, and Bast wick, a physician, he stood again at the bar of that terrible tribunal. Prynne lost the remainder of his ears in the pillory; and the punishment was inflicted on them all with extreme and designed cruelty ; which 1 Hallatn, vol. ii. p. 50. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 65 they endured, as martyrs always endure suffering, so heroically as to excite a deep impression of sympathy and resentment in the assembled multitude. They were sentenced to perpetual confinement in distant prisons. 1 Besides reviving the prosecutions for non- conformity in their utmost strictness, wherein many of the other bishops vied with their primate, he most injudiciously not to say wickedly endeavoured, by innovations of his own and by exciting alarms in the susceptible consciences of pious men, to raise up new victims whom he might oppress. Those who made any difficulties about his novel ceremonies, or who preached on the Calvinistic side, were harassed by the High Commission Court as if they had been actual schismatics. The most obnoxious of these prosecu- tions were for refusing to read what was called the "Book of Sports," a proclamation that a great variety of pastimes might be used on Sundays after evening service. 2 The precise clergy refused, in general, to comply with the requisition, and were suspended or deprived in consequence. Thirty of them were ex- communicated in the diocese of Norwich. 3 The re- solution so evidently taken by the court to admit of no half conformity, especially after Laud had obtained an unlimited sway over the king's mind, convinced the Puritans that England could no longer afford them an asylum. Multitudes now emigrated to America. At length men of a higher rank than the 1 Hallam, vol. ii. pp. 50-52. 2 Ibid. p. 76. ' Ibid. p. 77. F 66 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. first colonists, now become hopeless alike of the civil and religious liberties of England, men of capacious and commanding minds, formed to be the legislators and generals of an infant republic, the wise and cautious Lord Say, the brave, open, and enthusiastic Lord Brooke, Sir Arthur Haslerig, Hampden, ashamed of a country for whose rights he had fought alone, Cromwell, panting with energies that he could neither control nor explain, and whose unconquerable fire was still wrapped in smoke to every eye but that of his kinsman Hampden, were preparing to embark for America, when Laud, for his own and his master's curse, procured an order of council to stop their departure. 1 The Church now made rapid progress towards Romanism. Pictures were set up or re- paired ; the communion-table took the name and position of an altar ; it was sometimes made of stone ; obeisances were made to it ; the ortteifix was some- times placed upon it; the dress of the officiating priests became more gaudy ; churches were conse- crated with strange and mystical pageantry. The doctrine of a real presence, distinguishable only by vagueness of definition from that of the Church of Rome, was generally held. Montague, bishop of Chichester, went a considerable length towards ad- mitting the invocation of saints ; prayers for the dead were vindicated by many; in fact, there was hardly any distinctive opinion of the Church of Rome which 1 Hallam, vol. ii. pp. 79, 80. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 67 had not its abettors among the bishops, or those who wrote under their patronage ; 1 and we now know that the views of a party in the English Church went almost to an entire dereliction of the Protestant doctrine. 2 Thus the Union during the first three reigns after the Reformation led to the systematic persecution of the most zealous servants of Christ in the country, and conducted the churches within the Establishment under the regal episcopate far back into the slough of false doctrine, superstition, bigotry, and spiritual torpor, from which the reformers had nobly struggled to extricate them. Of the two sovereigns who, (after Charles I., suc- cessively exercised the regal episcopate conferred on them by the Union, I need say very little. The cha- racter of the first and the religious opinions of the second made it certain that they must employ what- ever influence they derived from the Union against vital religion. The Union had perceptibly corrupted the Presbyterian and Independent churches during the reign of the Protector ; but at his death its influence upon the churches became much more disastrous. The new Government assumed power only to perse- cute evangelical religion. "Then came those days, never to be recalled without a blush, the days of servitude without loyalty, and sensuality without love, of dwarfish talents and gigantic vices, the paradise of 1 Hallam, vol. ii. pp. 85-87. * Ibid. p. 91. 68 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. cold hearts and narrow minds, the golden age of the coward, the bigot, and the slave. The king cringed to his rival that he might trample on his people ; sunk into a viceroy of Prance, and pocketed, with com- placent infamy, her degrading insults and her more degrading gold. The caresses of harlots and the jests of buffoons regulated the measures of a Government which had just ability enough to deceive, and just religion enough to persecute. The principles of liberty were the scoff of every grinning courtier, and the anathema inaranatha of every fawning dean. In every high place worship was paid to Charles and James, Belial and Moloch; and England propitiated those obscene and cruel idols with the blood of her best and bravest children. Crime succeeded to crime, and disgrace to disgrace, till the race accursed of God and man was a second time driven forth to wander on the face of the earth, and to be a bye-word and a shaking of the head to the nations." 1 The results of the Union between revengeful eccle- siastics and a profligate prince during the reign of Charles II. are such as cannot be learned without in- dignation. In England, nearly two thousand of the best ministers in the country were driven from their parishes, and then pursued with merciless severity if they dared to exercise their ministry elsewhere. Peaceable and devoted men like Alleine and Plavel filled the prisons. Men like Baxter, who were quali- 1 Edinburgh Review, No. Ixxxiv. p. 337. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 69 fied by their wisdom and piety to instruct distant generations, were insulted and harassed by profligates like Judge Jeffreys, who were the personification of every vice. In England, Archbishop Sheldon tore nearly two thousand godly ministers from their con- gregations, to be hunted by Jeffreys and other hostile magistrates like wild beasts. In Scotland, Archbishop Sharp effected the expulsion of four hundred of the best ministers from their parishes ; and then Lauder- dale, with his infamous agents, Turner, Dalziel, and Bannatyne, pursued them with so much cruelty, that the country rose in arms against the Government, and the archbishop was murdered by men whom his oppressions had goaded to madness. 1 While the king was sanctioning all this profligacy by his example, and this persecution of godliness by his authority, the churches of Christ united with the State still allowed him the right to superintend their doctrine and their discipline, and continued to style him in their prayers " our religious and gracious king !" The next head which the churches received from the Union was a keen Roman Catholic, one whose efforts both in the Legislature and in the administra- tion were directed towards the re-establishment of Romanism on the ruins of the Protestant faith. Thus, with the exception of Edward VI., who died when still a boy, all the sovereigns whom the Union placed over the churches, from Henry VIII. to 1 Hetherington's " History of the Church of Scotland," pp. 371-456. 70 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. James II., during a space of 140 years, employed their terrible supremacy to extinguish vital religion. After the Revolution, there continued to be a steady declension of the nation in vital godliness. The Union seemed to have stricken religion to death. " The low Arminianism and intolerant bigotry of Laud paved the way for a change which was not a little aided by the unbounded licentiousness and profligacy which overspread the kingdom after the restoration. From that time, the idea commonly entertained in England of a perfect sermon was that of a discourse upon some moral topic, clear, correct, and argu- mentative, in the delivery of which the preacher must be free from all suspicion of being moved himself, or of intending to produce emotions in his hearers. This singular model of pulpit eloquence was carried to the utmost perfection ; so that while the bar, the parlia- ment, and the theatre, frequently agitated and in- flamed their respective auditories, the church was the only place where the most feverish sensibility was sure of being laid to rest. This inimitable apathy in the mode of imparting religious instruction, combined with the utter neglect of whatever is most touching or alarming in the discoveries of the Gospel, produced their natural effect of extinguishing devotion in the Established Church, and of leaving it to be possessed by the dissenters. From these causes the people gra- dually became alienated from the articles of the church, eternal concerns dropped out of the mind, THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 71 and what remained of religion was confined to an attention to a few forms and ceremonies. Such points as the corruption of human nature, the necessity of the new birth, and justification by faith, were either aban- doned to oblivion, or held up to ridicule and con- tempt. The consequence was that the creed esta- blished by law had no sort of influence in forming the sentiments of the people ; the pulpit completely van- quished the desk ; piety and puritanism were con- founded in one common reproach; an almost pagan darkness in the concerns of salvation prevailed, and the English became the most irreligious people upon earth." " Such was the situation of things when Whitfield and Wesley made their appearance, who, whatever failings the severest criticism can discover in their character, will be hailed by posterity as the second reformers of England." 1 Roused by the zeal of the methodists, many of the clergy of the Establishment became earnest, evan- gelical men, upon whom depended, under God, the task of recalling that immense association of churches to spiritual life. To promote that spiritual life is the avowed object of the Union. If the Union has any value, it ought to be seen in its facilitating the ministry of devoted pastors. But from the days of Wesley to the present time, its influence has been decidedly to discountenance their efforts. We may 1 Hall's Works, vol. iv. pp. 84-86. 72 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. judge of that influence by the sentiments of the great ministers of the Crown, who nominate our bishops, and preside over our ecclesiastical legislation. Few ministers of the Crown have had better opportunities of knowing spiritual religion than Mr. Pitt, who was the friend of Wilberforce ; and few have been pos- sessed of equal ability to turn those opportunities to account. When Mr. Wilberforce became, by the grace of God, a real Christian, Mr. Pitt " thought that he was out of spirits, that company and conversation would be the best way of dissipating his impressions ;" and in two hours' conversation with him on the sub- ject, he tried to " reason him out of his convictions," and thus gave Mr. Wilberforce occasion to remark, " The fact is, he was so absorbed in politics that he had never given himself time for due reflection on religion." 1 But though he was too busy to be reli- gious, too much engrossed with the interests of time to prepare for eternity, too anxious about what was comparatively trivial to think of the one thing needful, too much absorbed in the service of an earthly sove- reign to serve his Creator and Redeemer, he was not too busy to contract rooted prejudices against the only men within the Establishment who were zea- lously preaching Christ, and promoting evangelical religion. When Mr. Pitt, by the advice of Bishop Prettyman, was about to support in Parliament a bill which would materially have restricted the freedom of 1 Life of Wilberforce, vol. i. pp. 93, 94. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 73 dissenters, and, in the opinion of Mr. Wilberforce, would have thrown some of their most distinguished ministers into prison, Mr. Wilberforce sought an op- portunity of discussing the matter with the premier, and has thus recorded the result. " We spent some hours together at a tete-a-tete supper, and I confess I never till then knew how deep a prejudice his mind had conceived against the class of clergy to whom he knew me to be attached. It was in vain that I men- tioned to him Mr. Robinson of Leicester, Mr. Rich- ardson of York, Mr. Milner of Hull, Mr. Atkinson of Leeds, and others of similar principles ; his language was such as to imply that he thought ill of their moral character." 1 Mr. Pitt's prejudices, however, against evangelical religion did not destroy his zeal for the Establishment ; and as became the patron of the Union, he decidedly advocated the maintenance of orthodoxy by persecution. A petition, praying for a repeal of the penal statutes against those who denied the doctrine of the Trinity, having been presented to the House of Commons, and supported by Mr. Fox, /4k who contended justly, that all restraint, and all inter- ference with respect to religious opinions, however opposite those opinions might be to the established religion of the country, or however dangerous they might be thought to the public tranquillity, were unjust and indefensible, Mr. Pitt replied, that were these statutes to be repealed, it might be inferred that 1 Life of Wilberforce, vol. ii. p. 364. 74 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. the House was indifferent to the Established Church, for whose protection they were originally enacted, and upon whose enemies they still operated as some re- straint. The repeal of these statutes might be con- sidered by the public as the first step towards a gradual removal of all those barriers which our an- cestors had erected for the safety of our civil and ecclesiastical constitution. The motion was rejected by a majority of 142 to 63. 1 Here our review of the experience of mankind respecting the Union shall cease; its influence on Catholic kingdoms, its connexion with the recent dis- memberment of the Church of Scotland, its support to rationalism and superstition in France and else- where, together with its working at present in this country, may be better considered in the second part of this work, which is dedicated to the examination of its effects. Even the slight foregoing sketch is sufficient to convince unprejudiced persons that the Union has been in many countries, and through many ages, the alliance of fraud and force to degrade the nations ; the compact of the priest and the poten- tate to crush the rights of conscience ; the combi- nation of regal and prelatic tyranny to repress true religion. The effects of the Union have been so palpably and universally bad, as to render positive evidence on the side of freedom unnecessary; still, as there are 1 Life of Pitt, by Bishop Tomline, vol. ii. pp. 451-454. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 75 some persons to whom unknown possibilities of evil seem worse than any amount of existing evil, and who think that the Union could not have been so general unless there had been a real necessity for its existence, let us briefly notice the experience of some free churches. The churches of the first three centuries were free. Unsalaried by the State, they could determine their creed, organise their discipline, and choose their pastors, according to their pleasure; each church, supporting its ministers, was entirely independent of external control. And in this state of poverty and freedom they so proclaimed the truth, and so recom- mended it by their lives, that their numbers and influence continued to increase, till the Emperor Con- st antine found it expedient for the establishment of his throne to profess himself a Christian. During the ages of defection from truth and duty, which followed the Union between the Church and State, effected by that monarch, one community alone, which has preserved the appropriate motto, " Lux in tenebris" held forth the word of life to the population round it. In the valleys which lie between Mont Cenis and Mont Viso, in the south-eastern declivities of the Cottian Alps, a few Christians refusing to wear the yoke of the Church of Rome, were also happily saved from Union with the State. The churches formed by these peasants of the Alps were almost the only ones which in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 76 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. turies retained sound doctrine, simplicity of worship, and spiritual life. And to this day, notwithstanding the periods of declension to which every church, alas ! is prone under every system, they remain the only evangelical churches in Italy. While they were preserving the doctrine of the Gospel in Italy, another free church rose on the eastern frontier of Saxony. At the close of the seven- teenth century, when the Christians of Austrian Silesia were cruelly harassed by the Church in Union with the State, a few of the persecuted peasants sought refuge in Saxony under the protection of Count Zinzendorf. June 17, 1722, they cut down the first tree in a forest on the road between Zittau and Lobau, where they raised the first wood house of the village of Herrnhutt. 1 Eighteen other emigrants soon joined them ; 2 and for ten years these emigrations for liberty of conscience continued, till some hundreds of these poor and persecuted followers of Christ had built for themselves the village of Herrnhutt. 3 In 1731, when their numbers amounted only to six hundred, they were visited by Anthony, a negro, who described to them the melancholy state of his fellow- slaves in the West Indies. 4 Moved by that recital, two of the brethren offered to go as missionaries to 1 Bost, " Hist, de 1'Eglise des Freres," &c., vol. i. pp. 256-265. 8 Ibid. p. 322. 3 Ibid. p. 354. 4 Bost, " Hist, de 1'Eglise des Freres," &c., vol. ii. pp. 134-137. Holmes's " Historical Sketches of the Missions of the United Brethren," Introduction, p. 3. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 77 the island of St. Thomas; and the church having approved of their design, they left Herrnhutt August 21, 1732; and, October 8, they embarked at Copen- hagen for that island. 1 The zeal which was thus ex- cited in the church continued to increase, and within ten years did those poor exiles send missionaries to St. Thomas, to St. Croix, to Greenland, to Surinam, to Berbice, to several Indian tribes in North America, to the Negroes in South Carolina, to Lapland, to Tartary, to Algiers, to Guinea, to the Cape of Good Hope, and to Ceylon. 2 Since that time their missionary efforts have so increased, that at this moment their 282 missionaries have 64,268 Negroes, North American Indians, Greenlanders, Esquimaux, and Hottentots, under regular Christian instruction, of whom 20,033 are communicants under strict discipline. 3 As the number of the United Brethren does not much exceed 10,000, the number of their converts compared with their own number is so large, that if all the established churches in union with the European States had laboured with an assiduity and success equal to theirs, nearly the whole heathen world would at this moment be under regular Christian education. Great as are the services which have been rendered to the cause of the Redeemer by that simple and fer- 1 Bost, " Hist, de TEglise des Freres," &c., vol. ii. p. 146. 8 Holmes's " Historical Sketches of the Missions of the United Brethren," Introduction, p. 3. 3 Twenty- ninth Report of the London Association in Aid of the Moravian Missions, Appendix A. 78 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. vent community, they have in one respect, at least, been surpassed by the free Protestant churches of France. I do not reckon it as the higher glory of these churches that they could count among their members Sully, Coligni, and Andelot, D'Aubigne and Duplessis Mornay, a band of companions more distin- guished for virtue and for valour than any equal num- ber of contemporary soldiers and statesmen in any period of French history ; I will not dwell on the piety and talent of their ministers, Du Moulin, Du Bosc, Morus, Daille, Drelincourt, Claude, Jurieu, Saurin, Abbadie, &c. &c., whose writings have enriched our Protestant literature ; but I allude to their sufferings for the sake of Christ. The following are some among the numerous edicts by which Louis XIV., the licentious slave of a Jesuit confessor and abandoned mistresses, sought, as the head of the Union between Church and State, to exterminate the Protestantism of his kingdom. In 1669, his subjects were forbidden to quit the kingdom on pain of confiscation of goods, &c. &c. In 1680, Protestant children of seven years old were allowed, on abjuring their religion against the wishes of their parents, to leave them, and to demand from them a legal maintenance. In 1683, the reformed worship was forbidden in all the episcopal cities of the empire, and all books against the Roman Catholic religion were likewise prohibited. At length, October 1685, appeared the Edict of Revocation, by which Protestant THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 79 temples were demolished, Protestant worship was for- bidden, Protestant ministers were banished the king- dom ; no other Protestant might leave the kingdom on pain of condemnation to the galleys ; the children of Protestants were to be brought up as Catholics ; and the goods of those who did not conform within four months were confiscated. 1 Next year was added a decree, addressed to the king's attorneys (procureurs royaux), to seize Protestant children above five years of age, and to place them under the care of Catholics. May 1686, the king decreed that every Protestant minister apprehended in France should be executed; those who assisted a minister should be sent to the galleys, or imprisoned for life; 5500 livres were to be given to each informer; and all persons detected and taken in the act of assembling for Protestant worship were to suffer death. 2 Multi- tudes of Protestants conformed to the established religion ; many more contrived to leave the king- dom; and at length the worn-out debauchee coined a medal to celebrate his triumph as head of Church and State over " the extinct heresy." 3 But the same year in which the edict of Nantes was thus savagely revoked, the churches of the desert began to assemble in the mountains of Languedoc. The same month in which the temple at Charenton was demolished, the religious assemblies of the 1 Histoire des Eglises du Desert, par Charles Coquerel, vol. i. pp. 41-55. 2 Ibid. pp. 56, 57. 3 Ibid, p 31. 80 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. Cevenols met under the vault of heaven; and the same year in which Louis the debauchee expired, glorying in his abolition of the Protestant worship, did a noble peasant youth collect a few preachers in the caverns of the Cevennes, and there under- take, in the name of God, the revival of the crushed and bleeding churches of France. 1 Anthony Court, born at Villeneuve-de-Berg, in the Vivarais, in 1696, was only seventeen years old when he began to preach to his fellow Protestants in their nocturnal meetings. To intrepid courage and consummate prudence he added surprising bodily strength, which enabled him to support the greatest fatigue ; and he devoted all his powers of mind and body to serve the Redeemer with an integrity which nothing could tempt, and a faith which no difficulties could overcome. 2 Persecution had driven the mountaineers to rebellion, and in the war of the Cevennes religion had too much degenerated into fanaticism. Pro- phets took the place of preachers, and discipline was necessarily lost. Their valour was incredible, their perseverance heroic, but their vengeance was often": bloody ; they became lawless warriors rather than meek disciples of Christ ; and the reformed churches of France seemed near extinction. August 21st, 1715, Anthony assembled a few of his brethren for consultation, elders were appointed, rules were 1 Histoire des Eglises du Desert, par Charles Coquerel, vol. i. pp. 60, 2 Ibid. p. 21. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 81 laid clown for the admission of candidates to the pastoral office, a strict discipline was established, and the churches soon began to recover order and force. 1 Year by year they augmented the number of their members ; the synod grew in number, and the assem- blies became more numerous. 2 Though their minis- ters were unlettered, fervency and strong sense sup- plied the lack of learning. Though their religious books had been seized, they knew the psalms by heart, and had thoroughly studied the bible. 3 Their meetings took place by night, in caverns, in woods, on the wide heath, or under the shelter of rocks, far from any human dwelling. To attend them exposed the hearer to the galleys, and the preacher to death. Fanatic priests and fierce magistrates, with a brutal soldiery under their command, employed a thousand stratagems to surprise them ; and the police of perse- cution was spread like a network over the whole country. 4 Generally their precautions enabled them to elude the vigilance of their oppressors ; the place of meeting was announced to the brethren by faithful men, who visited them in their dwellings, and brave and prudent guides escorted the pastor to the spot by night along concealed paths. The brethren in the country communicated with the brethren in the towns. Every night on these occasions the pastor changed his lodging; and his brethren counted it an honour to ' Coquerel, pp. 32, 28, 105. 2 Ibid. pp. 101-105. 3 Ibid. p. 111. Ibid. pp. 19, 113. S3 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. welcome him at the risk of their own lives. When they were assembled, scouts on the neighbouring heights warned them of the approach of the enemy, and thus often they escaped discovery. But if perse- cution raged too severely, the meetings were discon- tinued, and the churches seemed to have vanished, while every family, by reading of the scriptures and by domestic worship, cherished its faith and piety for a happier day. Thus their constancy triumphed over the savage efforts of the Church and State during half a century to destroy their property, their religion, and their existence. 1 Under the regency of Philip, duke of Orleans, the persecutions were relaxed ; but no sooner did Louis XV. attain his majority, than he thundered forth a decree against the Protestants, which equalled in fierceness those of Louis XIV., and surpassed them in barbarous ingenuity. 2 Notwithstanding, however, the rigour of the Government, the churches still grew in numbers and in courage. Pastors who loved the Redeemer, because he had been loved by them, braved the fear of death, that they might preach salvation by his blood. Court preached through the churches of Languedoc ; Chapel sought out the scat- tered Protestants of Poitou and Saintonge ; and Roger executed the same dangerous office in Dau- phhu'. In some places the congregation amounted to three thousand persons ; peasants, bourgeois, and 1 Cockerel, pp. 112, 113. 2 Ibid. pp. 151, 157. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 88 even nobles, standing side by side. Numbers watched with eagerness the day of the pastor's arrival ; for they felt a hunger and thirst for the word of God. The bold were warned to be prudent ; the timid were animated to make a frank profession of their faith; they read the scriptures, they prayed and they re- ceived the Supper of the Lord together. Sometimes the moon shone out on the silent numbers who were listening to the pastor's words, and sometimes the tempest mingled its blasts and its torrents with their enthusiastic hymns. 1 But the pastors were too few; and since Court could not find pastors he must make them. Of all the exiled ministers none would return to that scene of danger ; but pious youths, who felt themselves ready for martyrdom (se sentaient la voca- tion pour le martyr e\ were taken from the plough and from the workshop; and as they could not be educated in France, they were sent to a new school of theology opened for them by Court at Lausanne," whence they returned to labour and martyrdom. The 30th of November, 1728, Alexander Roussel was martyred at Montpellier. The 22d of January, Ste- phen Arnaud Avas executed at Alais. 3 April 22, 1732, Montpellier was again disgraced by the mar- tyrdom of Durand, a pastor of the Cevennes. 4 1745 and 1746, numbers were condemned to the galleys, banished, whipped, fined, and degraded/' March 2d, 1 Coquercl, p. 239. 2 Ibid. pp. 191-197. 3 Ibid. pp. 315, 325. 4 Ibid. pp. 325, 326. * Ibid. pp. 331-334. 84 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 1745, Louis Rang was condemned at Grenoble and hung at Die, where he maintained his courage and cheerfulness to the end. Nothing terrified by this event, Alexander, his brother, continued still to preach through Dauphine, though he was condemned to death, and a price was set upon his head. 1 When Louis Rang was arrested at Livron, the venerable pastor, Roger, wrote to strengthen his faith, and often exclaimed, " Poor child, IIOAV I wish I was in your place!" Although he also was pursued by his enemies, he would not suspend his labours. The assemblies were as frequent and as well attended as before ; and when he was seized in a wood near Crest, and was asked by the officer who he was, he replied, " I am he whom you have been seeking these thirty- nine years ; it was time that you should find me." His firmness before his judges was unshaken. In the prison he exhorted his fellow-prisoners to con- stancy ; and when, May 22d, 1745, the executioners came to conduct him to martyrdom, he exclaimed, " Happy moment, which I have so often desired ! Rejoice, O my soul, it is the day when thou must enter into the joy of thy Lord." 2 About the same time the prisons of Alais, Uzes, St. Hippolitc, Nismes, Montpellier, and other towns, were filled with those who were suffering for the sake of Christ : and ruinous fines were exacted from Protestants throughout the south. 3 In the same year Matthew Majal, a young 1 Coquerel, pp. 334-336. 2 Ibid. pp. 345, 34C. 3 Ibid. p. 348. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. b5 minister, only twenty-six years old, was seized in the village of Muzel, and carried first to Vernoux, and then to Montpellier. When interrogated, his judges were astonished and melted at the dignity, sense, and piety manifested by one so young. At the place of execution, where an immense crowd was assembled, February 2d, 1740, two Jesuits harassed him with their importunate bigotry, drums drowned his voice when he sought to address the people ; but the beauty of his youthful countenance, the manifest fervency of his prayers, his calmness, constancy, and gentleness, brought tears to every eye. The Protestants blessed God for the grace which was given to him, and the Catholics envied them the glory of his martyrdom. 1 August 1st, Elias Vivien, a preacher in Saintonge, was condemned and executed at Rochelle." January 30th, 1752, Francois Benezet, who, like Majal, was only twenty-six years of age, was seized near Vigan, and being conducted to Montpellier, was there condemned for having preached in Languedoc. March 27th, he was led to execution ; and though the drums drowned his voice, yet the spectators could hear him singing the 51st Psalni amidst the roar, and could see that his countenance maintained its unalterable serenity to the end. 3 The dissolute court, amidst excesses and abuses of every kind, received with delight the news of this 1 Coquerel, pp. 377-386. z Ibiil. p. 419. 3 Ibid. vol. ii. pp. 50, 51; 86 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. judicial murder. 1 1754, Stephen Teissier Lafagc, a young minister, was hung at Montpellier, and died with so much constancy and peace that the soldiers round the scaffold could not restrain their tears. 1 Lastly, February 19th, 176.2, Francois Rochette, a young minister of Upper Languedoc, and three noble brothers, Grenier de Commel, Grenier de Saradou, and the youthful Grenier de Lourmadc, were executed together, with an intrepidity which astonished the assembled crowd. 3 During these years many of the Protestants suffered greatly. Be- tween 1744 and 1752, eighty gentlemen received different punishments, six hundred Protestants were imprisoned, and eight hundred endured other punish- ments in the south alone.* Congregations were dis- persed by soldiers; dragoons were quartered on the Protestant inhabitants ; and children were dragged by force to the Catholic churches to be baptised. Multitudes conformed, multitudes fled the country, whole villages Avere depopulated, and many took refuge in caverns and in forests. While Voltaire was writing against them at Paris, the Duke of Richelieu, his infidel and profligate friend, was hunting them with his dragoons in Languedoc. The court, the bishops, and the infidels, were all leagued against them, and were triumphing in their atrocious success. Meanwhile Paul Rabaut, the intrepid pastor of 1 Coquerel, vol. ii. p. 51. 2 Ibid. p. I/O. 3 Ibid. pp. 290, 291. * Ibid. vol. i. p. 431 * THE UNION CONDEMNED BY HISTORY. 87 Names, and other pastors, continued their adven- turous ministry, The congregations still assembled ; their organisation was improved; as many as two thousand gathered in the desert to hear the word of God. And on one occasion, at the ordination of three pastors, 8th of May, 1756, no less than ten thousand assembled at the foot of a mountain in Languedoc. 1 In the end their constancy prevailed. All moderate persons began to be disgusted with these persecutions. The clergy, partly through their immorality, and partly through the prevalence of the infidel philosophy, having fallen into general con- tempt, numbers of the Protestants, under the tolerant ministry of Turgot and of Malesherbes, though they had concealed their principles in the time of danger, now professed them openly in various parts of the kingdom; and obtained, January 1788, an edict of toleration from Louis XVI. 2 At length, unhappily for them, Napoleon took their pastors into the pay of the State, and the Reformed Church became one of the established churches of the empire. In vain, then, do Mr. Burke and Mr. Gladstone appeal on behalf of the principle of Establishments to the general practice of mankind. That general practice, pagan and papal but not Christian, has ever been employed to sustain tyranny and priest- craft, to crush liberty and to repress truth ; and can ill be pleaded on behalf of a principle which 1 Coquerel, vol. ii. p. 238. 8 Ibid. p. 552. 88 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. it illustrates only to brand it with eternal infamy. Throughout the preceding sketch of church history we see the State churches, like the imperial harlot in the 17th chapter of the Apocalypse, committing fornication with the kings of the earth, by disloyally transferring to them Christ's right of governing his churches, receiving from them their golden hire in return ; and the free churches, like the woman in the 12th chapter of the Apocalypse, persecuted by the dragon, and driven into the desert. We see the State churches, like the harlot, clothed with purple, and adorned with gems, Rev. xvii. 4 ; and the free churches, like the woman clothed with the sun, radiant with the glory of divine grace, Rev. xii. 1. We see the State churches, like the harlot who was seated on the symbolic beast, sustained by super- stitious and ungodly majorities, Rev. xvii. 3 ; and the free churches, like the sun-bright woman, who was solitary in the wilderness, long deserted and proscribed by them, Rev. xii. 6. We see the State churches, like the harlot, persecuting the saints of God, Rev. xvii. G ; and the free churches, like the sun-bright woman, sustained by God under persecu- tion, Rev. xii. 6. We see the State churches, like the harlot, exulting in their numerous adherents, power, and wealth, and exclaiming, " I sit a queen, and shall see no sorrow," Rev. xviii. 7 ; arid the free churches, at length helped by the earth, because at length the world began to favour entire liberty THE UNION CONDEMNED BY THE MOSAIC LAW. 89 of conscience, and to respect justice between man and man, Rev. xii. 10. In the State churches we see too much approximation to the great apostasy; and in the free churches no less conformity to the predicted condition of the church of Christ. All history proclaims that the Union, tried through long centuries of misrule, and found every where to be only Bent for evil, should at length give place to Christ s" own law of spiritual liberty, through which alone his churches can accomplish their beneficial mission, to bring the nations of the earth into the service of the Redeemer, and to make all intellects and all hearts tributary to his glory. SECTION IV. The Union condemned by Ihe Mosaic Law. Advocates of the Union between Church and State often appeal on its behalf to the law and practice of the Old Testament. By an express provision of the Mosaic code, a tithe of the land's produce was set apart for the maintenance of the priests and Levites. From which they argue thus: If the payment of tithes was then made obligatory by law, it may be made obligatory by law still ; what was then morally right cannot now be morally wrong; and therefore a national provision for the ministers of religion has 1)0 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. the direct sanction of God. " Ma e scnza dubbiu molto periculoso il governarse con gli eseinpi, si non concorrono non solo in generale, ma in tutti i par- ticolari le medesime rajione." This observation of Guicciardini applies exactly to this alleged Jewish precedent, which, instead of justifying the English Union between the Church and State, most unequi- vocally condemns it. As the Mosaic law is expressly abrogated, its institutions were clearly judged by their divine author to be unfitted for the more spiritual and more uni- versal religion of Christ. 1 And to imprison Christian doctrine within Jewish ordinances, would be to put new wine into old bottles, which was what our Lord declared he did not intend to do. 2 If, therefore, there had been a Union between the Church and the State enacted by the Mosaic law, I should see in it no proof that such Union was allowed by the law of Christ. But there was, in fact, no such Union between the priesthood and the Government j and, on the contrary, the enactments of the Jewish hnv were such as distinctly to condemn the Union which now exists in this country. 1 . In England the ministers of the Establishment are maintained by taxes, imposed by the State, in the form of rent-charges ; and ecclesiastical buildings are maintained by another tax, under the form of church-rates : these taxes being imposed not by the 1 Heb. viii. 7-13; ix. 9, 10. * M&tt. ix. 17. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY THE MOSAIC LAW. 1)1 authority of God, but by the authority of the State. In Israel tithes were imposed, not by the authority of the State, but by the command of God, there being no royal tax whatever for the support of religion ; and the temple and all the synagogues in the land were built and repaired by voluntary contributions. 1 2. In England the State, in consequence of its maintenance of the ministers and the buildings of the Establishment, assumes a control over it, allows or forbids its synods, ratifies or rejects its canons, and passes what ecclesiastical laws it pleases for the regulation of the churches. In Israel the State could issue no ecclesiastical enactment whatever. The prince was governed by the following law : " It shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of tit at which is before the priests and the Lcvitcs ; and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear Hie Lord his God, to kcej) all the words of this laio and these statutes to do them"* One of these statutes, to which he was bound to pay obedience, was as follows : " Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God as I command you!''' So that he was expressly 1 2 Sam. viii. 11; 1 Kings, vii. 51; 2 Kings, xii. 4, 8, 9; xx. 4-7 J 1 Chron. xxii. 5-11 ; xxix. 6 ; 2 Chron. xxiv. 4. 2 Deut. xvii. 18, 19. 3 DeUt. iv. 1, 2. 92 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. forbidden to introduce the slightest change, or to make the least addition to the precepts of the divine law. There is accordingly no trace of any ecclesias- tical statute passed by any one of the Jewish kings. The chief magistrate did not possess the right of exercising the least control over the creed, worship, or church discipline of the nation. He might make what civil and fiscal regulations he pleased, but must not, in any respect, interfere with the worship of God. In religion they were to obey God alone. The only apparent exception to this general fact, in reality, confirms it. For David, indeed, determined the form of the temple which was to be built at Zion; 3 but this he did as a prophet, not as a king, under the influence of divine inspiration, not by royal preroga- tive. 2 No human authority had any right to interfere with the creed, worship, or discipline of the Jewish congregation ; but in England the State has formed a large body of ecclesiastical laws, by which the churches are governed. Each session adds some new enactment to the portentous mass ; and to a great extent church duties are regulated by the statute-book. 3. During the Mosaic economy, God himself ap- pointed the high-priest, the priests, and the inferior ministers of religion. And the priests being thus made wholly independent of the king and the govern- ment, no change in the government made any change 1 1 Chron. xxviii. 11. 8 1 Chroiu xxviii. 11-19. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY THE MOSAIC LAW. 93 of the priesthood. Thus, when Rehoboam succeeded Solomon, he could not raise one favourite to the priesthood, nor displace one of the priests appointed by God ; the succession of the ministers, as well as their duties, was appointed by God, and the sovereign could not interfere ; but in England the State has the nomination of the prelates, these have the right of ordaining the clergy, and from among these, lay patrons, determined by a money qualification alone, are empowered by the State to select the pastors of the churches ; so that the pastors of the churches are mainly determined by the State. In Israel the incomes of the priests were settled without the authority of the State ; in England their incomes are furnished by the authority of the State alone. In Israel the priests were determined by God ; in England the prelates are nominated by the State. In Israel kings and nobles could raise no unfit person to the ministry ; in England patrons can practically secure their livings to any of their nomi- nees who have fair capacity and good morals. In Israel no congregation Jiad a pastor imposed on them by the State ; in England nearly all the churches have pastors so imposed upon them. Since, therefore, during the Mosaic economy God so guarded the priesthood that no one could enter it except by his express appointment, and the State had no power whatever in the matter, he has thereby 94 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. condemned the Union through which the State, with- out his authority, assumes the appointment of the ministers of a much more spiritual religion. 4. By the Mosaic law all the Jewish citizens were religiously equal. The State created no rivalry by exalting one sect above another, so that when the great festivals gathered together the devout worship- pers of God from every place, they met as a holy brotherhood, without any of the sources of jealousy arising from civil distinctions established by law. But in the English Union, one among several sects, equally evangelical, is placed by the State above all the rest, whereby jealousy and division are excited in the Christian family. The Mosaic system treated all the worshippers of God as on perfect equality : the Anglican system unjustly exalts one sect, and depresses all the rest. In Scotland the Presbyterian is exalted, the Episcopalian is depressed ; in England the Episcopalian is exalted, the Presbyterian de- pressed. In both parts of the kingdom, therefore, the system is so opposite to the Mosaic, that if the latter was agreeable to his will, the former must be opposed to it. 5. The Mosaic law allowed of no compulsory payments for the support of religion. As God com- manded his people to love him with all their heart, so he commanded them to pay a tithe of the land to the Levites. 1 But as the magistrates could not 1 Numb, xxviii. 21 ; Lev. xxvii. 30. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY THE MOSAIC LAW. 95 compel the Israelite to obey the first of these com- mands, so he could not compel obedience to the second. In both cases the conscience of the wor- shipper was the only allowed compulsion ; no legal process was appointed for the recovery of the tithes by the priests ; no magistrate was empowered to collect them ; and as the Almighty forbade that any additions should be made to the Mosaic law, 1 no law to enforce their payment could be passed after- wards. Accordingly their payment throughout the Jewish history was voluntary. In the reformation effected by Nehemiah, B.C. 444, the chiefs and the people entered into a solemn covenant to pay their tithes,- which would have been unnecessary if the Levites could have extorted payment by distraint or otherwise. Notwithstanding that covenant the tithes were not paid ; for about ten years after this time the prophet Malachi was directed to address the people thus: "Will a mem rob God? yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee ? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Brim/ ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house. " 3 When Nehemiah revisited Jeru- salem the tithe was still unpaid. 4 These are facts which prove that the Levites had no legal redress if their tithes were withheld. In the time of our Lord's ministry there was still the same liberty, otherwise the 1 Deut. iv. 1,2. 2 Neh. x. 29-37. 3 Mai. iii. 8-10. < Neh. xiii. 10. 96 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. Pharisee could not have said, with boastful self- complacency, " I give tithes of all that I possess ;" nor could our Lord have adduced the payment of the tithe of mint, anise, and cummin, as a proof of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. 1 " The payment and appreciation of the tithe Moses left to the consciences of the people, without subjecting them to judicial or sacerdotal visitations ;" c and no Jewish king could make the slightest alteration in this arrangement. God loves a cheerful giver, 3 and would no more allow the State to enforce payments in support of religion than he would allow it to compel men to profess to love him. All duty to him was to be free from human dictation. The support of religion would be degraded if it ceased to be spontaneous : spontaneous zeal paid tithe ; spon- taneous contributions first built and then repaired both the tabernacle and the temple ; and if the sove- reigns of Juclea contributed to these works, it was from their private property, and not from any public fund raised by the taxation of their subjects. By thus securing in the Mosaic economy that all such pay- ments should be free, not even allowing the priests to obtain their tithes by any legal process, God has con- demned all compulsory payments for the support of religion. But with us the State, having granted to the clergy their rent-charges and their church-rates, enforces the payment of them ; and if any reluctant 1 Luke, xviii. 12, 13 ; Matt, xxiii. 23. * Home's " Introduction," part iii. chap. 3, sect. G. 3 2 Cor. ix. 7. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY THE MOSAIC LAW. 97 nonconformist refuses payment, it is extorted by dis- traint. Our system, therefore, rests upon the com- pulsory payments which God has by the Mosaic law condemned. 6. In all their great features, the Mosaic and the Anglican systems for the maintenance of religion are directly opposed ; and as the one has the sanction of the Almighty, the other must be contrary to his will. The Mosaic separation of the Church and State con- demns our Union of the two, whatever the character of the State may be. Our system would remain un- scriptural and mischievous if administered by kings like David and by statesmen like Daniel ; but it be- comes more glaringly opposed to the practice of the Old Testament when we consider that it is adminis- tered by a State which is irreligious. What part did ungodly kings take, by divine appointment, in the religious affairs of the Jews ? In what degree were Saul and Manasseh commissioned to superintend the creed, the worship, or the discipline of the church of God in their kingdom? They had nothing to do with it. Had there been a Union like ours, it would have subsisted through each successive reign, what- ever might be the character of the sovereign : the church would have been as much united to Saul as to David, to Rehoboam as to Solomon, to Manasseh as to Hezekiah ; but it was not in the least united to either of these three ungodly princes. They had no episco- pate to discharge, no right to interfere ; the system H 98 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. was complete without their aid, and went on as if they had not been in existence. According, therefore, to the precedents of the Old Testament, whatever in- fluence might be allowed to a pious State, an irreligious State ought to have none ; but our State, in its most powerful member representing an irreligious majority, must generally be irreligious ; and as the Mosaic system excluded the irreligious king from all control over the priesthood, so the English system ought to exclude an irreligious House of Commons from all control over the ministers of the churches. If Avhcn the people were ignorant and barbarous, God would not permit irreligious kings to exercise any control over the religion of the country, much less does he permit an irreligious State to control the churches of instructed and enlightened Christians. If in the mere carnal dispensation he appointed a system where every detail was regulated by himself, and the ex- penditure was sustained spontaneously by the people, much more in this dispensation of the Spirit fiiazoviu 7ov Tlnvparoc) must he require that the churches (&%%,'W(jtKf ruv uyiuv) follow exclusively the directions of his word, and spontaneously provide for the main- tenance of his worship. To infer that because there was one tithe system in Judea there may be lawfully an opposite tithe system in England, is to be wilfully deceived. As long as it remains on record that irreligious Jewish kings were not permitted by the Mosaic law to tax their subjects for the payment of THE UNION CONDEMNED BY PROPHECY. 99 the priests, or to raise to the priesthood others than those who were appointed by God, or to make ecclesi- astical laws, or to prohibit the priests from assembling to consider how they might effect a reformation of their church when corrupt, or to nominate State-paid pastors for the congregations of their towns and villages, or to exalt one class of Jewish worshippers by depressing all the rest, or to compel by force their subjects to pay for the support of an ecclesiastical machinery of their own invention, so long the Mosaic law must condemn all these practices, which are in- volved in the Anglican Union of the Church with the State. SECTION V. The Union condemned by the Prophecies of the Old Testament. The ultimate condition of the church of Christ on earth will, according to the predictions of the Old Testament, be extremely glorious. Immediately after the fall our Creator declared to the tempter that the Saviour to come should bruise (or crush) his head. 1 This earliest prophecy was illustrated and amplified by subsequent predictions in the following terms : " The Sceptre shall not depart from Jndali till Shiloh (the peaceable) come\ and UNTO HIM shall the gather- ing of the peoples (n^ss) be. . . .Ask of me, and I shall 1 Gen. iii. 15: 100 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. give tliee the heathen (o^ia, nations) for thine inherit- ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos- session. . . .All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before tliee. . . . All kings shall fall down before him : all nations shall serve him. 1 . . . I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came ivith the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. 2 . . . Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end." 3 The universal dominion of Christ predicted in these passages involves the universal extension and prosperity of the church ; and these are likewise pre- dicted in the following terms : " It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it* . . . Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. . . . And the Gentiles (Dlia, nations) shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. . . . For the nation and the kingdom that ivitt not serve thee shall perish" fi According to these prophecies all nations must 1 Gen. xlix. 10; Psalm ii. 8 ; xxii. 27 ; Ixxii. 11. 2 Dan. vii. 13, 14. 3 Isa. is. 7. 4 Isa.il. 2. 5 Isa. Ix. 1, 3, 12. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY PROPHECY. 101 flow to Zion, and serve it. At the same time it was declared that multitudes within the Jewish nation would reject Christ. 1 These would be given up to hardness of heart, 2 and suffer just punishment. 3 The promises were not made to them, but to the pious part of the nation. 4 These became Christians, 5 and are the true Israel, 6 who, with Gentile Christians united to them, are the one holy nation, the Zion of God. 7 To this spiritual Zion the promises of the Old Testament relating to the Gospel era are made. The following prophecy in Isaiah liv. places this truth in a clear light : " Sing, barren, thou that didst not bear ; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtain of thy habita- tions : spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen tJiy stakes ; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited"* This prediction is explained by the Apostle Paul in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, thus : " Tell me, ye that desire to be under the laic, 1 Isa. liii. 1-4 ; John, xii. 37. 8 Isa. vi. 9-12 ; John, xii. 39. 3 Gal. iv. 21-30 ; 1 Thess. ii. 14-16. 4 Isa. vi. 13; Joel, ii. 32 ; Rom. ix. 6-8, 22-24 ; xi. 1-10. 5 Acts, ii. 41-47 ; iv. 4 ; v. 14 ; vi. 7 ; xxi. 20. 8 Rom. ix. 8. 7 1 Pet. ii. 9 ; Gal. iii. 7, 29 ; iv. 25-31 ; Rom. ix. 8 ; Heb. xii. 22, 23. 8 Isa. liv. 1-3. 102 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. do ye not hear the law ? For it is written, that Abra- ham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free-woman. But he who icas of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free-woman was by promise. Which tilings are an allegory : for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gender etli to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai, in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. BUT JERUSALEM WHICH is ABOVE is FREE, WHICH IS THE MOTHER OF US ALL. FOR IT IS WRITTEN, REJOICE, THOU BARREN THAT BE A REST NOT; BREAK FORTH AND CRY, THOU THAT TRAVAIL- EST NOT : FOR THE DESOLATE HATH MANY MORE CHILDREN THAN SHE WHICH HATH AN HUSBAND. Now ^ve ) brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman. So then, brethren, we arc not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." Here are two communities; the one is represented as a married wife, the second as a wife who has been put away and is desolate. By the first is intended the Jewish nation, long enjoying the privileges of God's chosen people ; by the second is intended the spiritual Israel, the church of God withift that nation. The first was THE UNION CONDEMNED BY PROPHECY. 103 typified by Hagar, the bondwoman married to Abra- ham ; the second by Sarah, who was so long childless and desolate. The first Avas the Jewish nation in bondage under the law, which God intended to cast out, as Hagar was dismissed by Abraham; the second was the church of Christ, which, like Sarah, was free ; and the children of which, by the accession of Gentile converts, were to become more numerous than the Jewish nation had ever been. The unconverted Jews, like Ishmael, are in bondage, and cast out of the favour of God ; while all believers, Jews and Gentiles, are, like Isaac, the children of promise and the heirs of the promised blessings. It follows from this apo- stolic exposition of the prophecy, that the community addressed in Isaiah liv. is the spiritual Jerusalem or Zion, the church of Christ. A comparison of Isaiah liv. with Isaiah Ix. shows clearly that the same commu- nity is addressed in both predictions ; and, therefore, Isaiah Ix. is also addressed to the church of Christ, under the name of Zion ; and to this church are all the promises made in the closing chapters of the pro- phet Isaiah. To this spiritual Zion, the church of Christ, was this promise given : " All thy children shall be taught of the Lord'' 1 Upon which passage our Lord made the following comment : " It is written in the prophets, And they shall ^ ( M taught, of God. EVERY MAN, THEREFORE, THAT HATH HEARD AND HATH LEARNED 1 Isa. liv. 13. 104 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. OF THE FATHER, COMETH UNTO ME." 1 Now, since all who have received the Scriptures certainly do not come to Christ, this divine teaching must be the teaching of the Spirit, which both enlightens the un- derstanding and converts the heart. No one who is destitute of this teaching is a citizen of Zion, a member of the church of Christ. As, then, the church is holy, every one of its members being taught of God, so the weapons of its warfare are to be spiritual, not carnal, spiritual and not carnal means are to accomplish its ultimate and most decisive triumphs. " Thus speaJceth the Lord of Hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The Branch ; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord." 2 The church is God's building, 3 in which every stone is a living stone, 4 of which every part is the holy dwelling-place of the Spirit; 5 of which no man forms a part who does not hold fast his bold confession of Christ, and his joyful confidence in him to the end. 6 This temple is to be completed by Christ, by his Spirit, and by such means as he alone originates. Unless, therefore, the means employed by the Union for the promotion of the welfare of the church are such as have his authority (which they are not), they are contrary to his will as de- clared by this prediction. Of this church there are, further, three things 1 John, vi. 45. 2 Zech. vi. 12, 13. 3 1 Cor. iii. 9. 4 1 Pet. ii. 5. * Eph. ii. 18-22. 6 Heb. iii. G. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY PROPHECY. 105 declared by the prophets which condemn the Union as now existing in our country. 1. Let us recall a part of the prophetic vision which was presented to Nebuchadnezzar, and which is thus described by Daniel : " Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out WITHOUT HANDS, which smote the image upon Ids feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing- floors ; and the wind carried them away, that noplace was found for them : and THE STONE THAT SMOTE THE IMAGE BECAME A GREAT MOUNTAIN, AND FILLED THE WHOLE EARTH." 1 The four metals composing the image being de- clared to be four great successive kingdoms, the pro- phet Daniel thus expounded the symbolic fact that the stone struck and destroyed the image : " In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed : and the king- dom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever."* The church of Christ was, according to this prediction, formed in the apostolic age by the power of God alone ; it did strike the Roman empire, when in its degenerate days it was formed of Romans and barbarians intermingled; it has completely sub- verted those four pagan empires ; and it is now grow- 1 Dan. ii. 34, 35. 2 Dan. ii. 44. 106 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. ing into that vast and wide-spread community which is ultimately to fill the world. 2. To this church has God thus promised the per- petual aid of his Spirit : " My Spirit ikat is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of ilnj need, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. 1 . . . And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh" 2 3. God has given to this church these further pro- mises : " It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house (Mount Zion, the church of Christ, Gal. iv. 26; Heb. xii. 22) shall be esta- blished in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted ABOVE the hills ; AND ALL NATIONS SHALL FLOW UNTO IT. And many people (nations, E^S) shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; and lie ivill leach us of his ivays, and we will walk in his paths ; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 5 . . . Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that kneiv not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel ; for he hath glorified thee. . . For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth toith peace ; 1 Isa. lix. 21. 2 Joel, ii. 28-32, with Acts, ii. 14-20 ; and Rom. x. 12-15. 3 Isa. ii. 2, 3. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY PROPHECY. 107 the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the feld shall clap their hands. 1 . . . Arise, shine: for thy light is come, and the glory of tie Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people : but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and Icings to the brightness of thy rising. . . For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish ; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted* . . . And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the ivhole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all do- minions shall serve and obey him ;* . . . and kings shall be thy nursing-fathers, and their queens thy nursing- mothers : THEY SHALL BOW DOWN TO THEE WITH THEIR FACE TOWARD THE EARTH, AND LICK UP THE DUST OF THY FEET." 4 These predictions cannot receive their full accom- plishment till the Churches be separated from the States throughout the world. According to prophecy, the church which was originally cut out from the un- godly mass of the world by divine power without the aid of Governments, is to GROW into a great mountain and fill the whole earth. It is not to be piled up by human Governments, but to grow through divine 1 Isa. lv. 5, 12. * Isa. 1x. 1-3, 12. 3 Dan. vii. 27. 4 Isa. xlix. 23. 108 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. power. It grows through grace. (Acts, ii. 47 ; Eph, ii. 21 ; iv. 15, 16.) According to prophecy, the church is to look for the effusion of the Spirit upon all flesh as the great cause of its ultimate triumph : whatever, therefore, in the churches tends to grieve and to quench the Spirit, whatever makes the churches worldly, whatever leads them to lean upon the arm of flesh rather than of God, tends to prevent the accomplishment of its promised triumphs. But the Union does all these things, as I shall hereafter show. According to prophecy, all nations are to flow to the church of Christ through its spiritual glory and its preaching of the Gospel. But the Union corrupts it, and impedes the preaching of the Gospel, and therefore the Union is preventing its extension and triumph. According to prophecy, kings and their queens, becoming pious, are to promote the progress of reli- gion, as David and Hezekiah, by their personal ser- vices. Kings are to be "nursing-fathers" to the church in the same way that their queens are " nurs- ing-mothers." But as their queens, having no political authority, can aid the cause of Christ by their personal services alone, so kings are not to aid the church by legislation, but by their personal piety. But by the Union irreligious Governments force their reluctant subjects to support good and bad ministers indis- criminately. THE UNION CONDEMNED BY PROPHECY. 109 According to prophecy, pious kings and tlieir queens are to be as fathers and mothers to the whole church of Christ within their dominions ; but by the Union the sovereign is made to rend the church, exalting one part to an unbrotherly superiority, and unjustly depressing and harassing the other. According to prophecy, pious kings and queens, as simple members of the church of Christ, are to serve it ; they are to " bow down toward the church with their face toward the earth," an expression which shows that they will claim no spiritual jurisdiction whatever within it, but will serve it as simple mem- bers. But by the Union an irreligious Government binds the churches hand and foot, rules over them with a rod of iron, will allow no self-government, no reformation, no independent discipline, and is their absolute, irresponsible lord. Thus the prophecies of the Old Testament con- demn the Union, no less than the history of Christian churches condemns it. These show it to be unscrip- tural, as that manifests its inexpediency ; and both concur in making many earnest and enlightened men wish ardently for its dissolution. 110 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. SECTION VI. The Union condemned by the New Testament. We have seen that the Union is condemned both by the Mosaic law and by the prophecies of the Old Testament; but its most direct and severe condem- nation is to be found in the NeAV. Here its more cau- tious advocates are content to stand on the defensive : and maintaining that the New Testament is silent on the subject, expend their efforts in the attempt to evade the force of the condemnatory passages. Bolder champions have, however, declared its authority to be in their favour, and find passages in which they think that a national Establishment is clearly justified. One of these is the following parable in the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew : "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and ga- thered of every kind ; which, tvhen it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into ves- sels, but cast the bad away." This parable seems to a zealous writer to indicate " a visible society including multitudes who are not spiritual," a baptised nation a national Establishment. 1 His statement is not very distinct, but by the net he seems to understand a national church in which bad and good are to remain quietly together, as the bad fish and the good in the net. But if this be his meaning, his exposition makes 1 Lectures on the Church of England, lecture iv. p. 165* UNION CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. Ill the parable contradict several plain commands, which urge the churches to excommunicate offending mem- bers, and to maintain communion with those alone who are living consistently with their profession. 1 As the idea that the parable before us allows a church to retain in its communion the bad and good, the vicious and the virtuous, the profane and the pious, the schismatical and the peaceable, is at vari- ance with these commands, so it is also inconsistent with the design of the parable itself. If the parable meant that a national Establishment should gather into its fold the good and the evil, that a whole nation should be caught in the ecclesiastical net, then it could have no fulfilment for the first three centuries; and its language would have been not "the kingdom of heaven is like," but " the kingdom of heaven WILL BE like," for it certainly was not formed of national Establishments then : but the net means not the church but the doctrine of the Gospel. "The net is the Gospel. The fishers are the apostles. Evangelical preaching brings all to Christ. The Gospel collects men of every sort." 2 "It is neither the church visible nor invisible, [but] the doctrine of the apostles, made by Christ fishers of men, which is here compared to a net." 3 When our Lord said to 1 Matt, xviii. 13-17 ; Rom. xvi. 17 ; 1 Cor. v. 11, 13 ; 2 Cor. vi. 14, 17 } Gal. v. 12 ; IThess. iii. G, 14 ; Titus, iii. 10 ; Rev. ii. 14, 15. 2 ii Verriculum evangelium est . . . Piscatores apostoli sunt . . . Evan- gelica prsedicatio oinnes ad Christum adducit . . . Evangelium colligit omnis generis homines." BULLINGER ad loc. 3 Whitby. 112 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. his apostles, "I will make you fishers of men," 1 he clearly meant that their net should be the preaching of the Gospel. When St. Paul wrote to the Corinth- ians, "I caught you with guile," 2 his net was the doctrine of the Gospel, his conduct was the manage- ment of the net. Hence this parable receives its accomplishment whenever any Christian whatever so speaks of Christ as to draw some to receive it sin- cerely, and some to be convinced of its truth while they yet remain unconverted. If any one imagine that the net might mean the church, because the kingdom of heaven is said to be like the net, and they suppose the kingdom of heaven to mean the church, let him apply this reasoning to other parables. In verse 24 we read, " The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed," therefore the church is this sower; but, on the contrary, " He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man." 3 In verse 44 we read, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field," &c., and in verse 45, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls," &c. So that the church is both the treasure and the purchaser, which is absurd. The expression, therefore, does not mean that the church is like the net, but that in the establishment of the kingdom, or reign, of Christ in the world, the preaching of Christ is like this net. And this being the case, it follows, first, that the 1 Matt, iv* 19. 2 2 Cor. xii. 1C. 3 See verse 37. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 113 parable does not justify the neglect of discipline in any church, or the admission into the church of any one known to be ungodly, for the design of the fisher- man is to catch the good fish and not the bad ; and as soon as the bad fish are discovered, upon the net being drawn to the shore, they are cast away. So that the parable rather speaks of those professed Christians who are not known to be wicked than of those who are openly so. And, secondly, the parable cannot justify the Anglican system, in which the infants of the nation are indiscriminately brought into the church by baptism, because it refers to the effect of the doctrine of Christ upon the minds of men, and not the effect of a sacrament upon infancy. So far from justifying, in this parable, the indiscrimi- nate fellowship of the godly and the profane in a national Establishment, our Lord simply teaches that many would profess to receive the Gospel who were not converted and sanctified by it ; and that these will be separated from believers at the judgment-day, though unavoidably associated with them now. Another argument for an Establishment has been derived from the parable of the tares and the wheat, in the following words : " An attempt originating often in the most pious and devoted intentions, a zeal for God, but not according to enlarged know- ledge, to supersede this prerogative of the returning Saviour, and to separate now a visible company of worshippers which shall also be a pure company ; in 114 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. oilier words, an attempt before the harvest to remove the tares, in defiance of the significant prohibition, LEST YE ROOT UP ALSO THE WHEAT WITH THEM, is the root of all sectarianism." 1 The substance of this argument is, that while sectarians, i. e. dissenters, endeavour by church discipline to preserve the purity of their churches in opposition to our Lord's will, the Establishment permitting the ungodly to remain quietly within its communion, acts according to his admonition, "Let both grow together till the har- vest." Hence the Establishment is more scriptural and more agreeable to the will of Christ than a dis- senting congregation. Let me here introduce the parable which has been thus interpreted : " The king- dom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But ichen the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An .enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up ? But he said, Nay ; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest." Of this parable our Lord has given us his own expla- nation : " He that soweth the good seed is the Son of 1 Lectures on the Church, p. 26. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 115 man ; the field is the world ; the good seed are the children of the kingdom ; but the tares are the children of the wicked one ; the enemy that sowed them is the devil ; the harvest is the end of the world," ' &c. Our Lord's explanation enables us to derive some certain instruction from this parable with respect to the discipline of the churches, as well as with respect to the final separation of the ungodly from among believers. The field in the parable is the world, ver. 38 ; the good seed are the children of the kingdom, ver. 38, i. e. the kingdom of Christ, ver. 41. His kingdom is composed exclusively of true believers : Matt. v. 3; vii. 21; xi. 2; xvi. 19; xix. 14, 23; xxi. 31; Luke, xvii. 21; Rom. xiv. 17; 1 Cor. iv. 20 ; Eph. v. 5 ; Col. i. 13 ; iv. 11 ; and the word is not used in scripture to express either the world, or the aggregate of the churches, but real believers. The good seed, then, are the subjects of Christ's kingdom. The tares, or zizania, are the children of Satan, ver. 38, i. e. ungodly persons, 1 John, iii. 9, 10. The good seed, or believers, are sown in the world by Christ, ver. 37, because all Christians are born of the Spirit, created in Christ Jesus to good works, John, iii. 5 ; Eph. ii. 10. The tares, or zizania, are sown amongst Christians, not by Christ but by Satan, i. e. he induces hypocrites to make false pro- fession of religion, instead of turning heartily to God, ver. 25, 39. He sows these among the Christians, by 1 Matt. xiii. 24, 37. 116 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. securing their admission into the churches, ver. 25. He does this while men sleep. When Christians become negligent, false doctrines preached, discipline relaxed, and profession made easy, then hypocrites form the churches, ver. 25. When Christians awake and see how much false profession abounds, then they wish to separate the spiritual from all the rest, and would cast hypocrites out of the church, ver. 28. But our Lord condemns the attempt on the ground that it would lead to the ejection of real Christians as well as hypocrites, ver. 29. This has since often happened, in fact ; Roman churches, on pretence of rooting out heretics, have murdered Christians without number. They were excommunicated by priests, and then outlawed and murdered by magistrates. The good seed were torn up, the zizania were left to spread over the field. The English Establishment has fol- lowed the example of the Catholics. By its canons it excommunicated nonconformists ; and, when ex- communicated, they were liable to be imprisoned by force of the writ de excommunicato capiendo, till they submitted. Ungodly conformists were left to triumph ; but the most pious persons of the country were ex- pelled and harassed. Our Lord, foreboding therefore such an attempt, has said, " Let both grow together until the harvest." Openly wicked persons should be separated from each church, Matt, xviii. 1 7 ; Rom. xvi. 17 ; 1 Cor. v. 11, 13 ; 2 Cor. vi. 14, 17 ; 2 Thess. iii. 6, 14. These are not the zizania resembling the CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 117 wheat ; but thorns and thistles about which there can be no mistake, and which Christ has expressly com- manded to be separated from communion with his people : others are to be left to God. According to this parable it cannot be our Lord's will that the children of " the wicked one" should systematically be admitted into the churches, for the following reasons : 1. He represented himself as sow- ing in his field nothing but good seed. He, then, has placed in the churches none but the children of the kingdom, true believers ; and it can be no more according to his will that ungodly persons should be admitted into his churches, than it could be the will of the sower that weeds should be sown with his wheat. 2. As it was the enemy of the pro- prietor who sowed the darnel, or zizania, so it has been the devil, the enemy of Christ, who has intro- duced ungodly persons into the churches ; and those who introduce them are doing the work of Satan, and, like him, are enemies of Christ. 3. As the zizania were sown during the night while men slept, so ungodly persons are introduced into the churches in consequence of the lethargy and declension of minis- ters and people, through which false doctrines are taught, and discipline is relaxed. 4. As the servants could not have connived at the sowing of the zizania because they were surprised to see them springing up, so faithful servants of Christ cannot knowingly intro- duce ungodly persons into the churches. 118 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. The parable does not sanction the neglect of the exercise of discipline upon open offenders: 1. Be- cause the zizania, which closely resembled the wheat, represent those who, although unconverted, make such a profession of religion that it is difficult to dis- tinguish them from Christians; 2. Because the reason why these are not to be ejected from the churches is lest real Christians should be thus ejected, ver. 29. These reasons do not apply to the excommunication of open offenders. How could it injure the church at Jerusalem to excommunicate Ananias and Sapphira? Or how could the church in Samaria suffer by eject- ing Simon Magus ? Or why should not the churches of Galatia cut off the false teachers who were subvert- ing their faith ? Or the church at Pergamos exclude the Nicolaitanes ? l But if the parable does not teach that ungodly persons are to be admitted to church fellowship, or that open offenders are to remain in the possession of that privilege, what does it teach? 1. It shows that while Christ ordained that his churches should be pure, Satan, by means of Establishments, among other methods, fills the churches with ungodly per- sons ; and that those who support them in this work are herein acting as the servants of Satan and the enemies of Christ. 2. It manifests that when uncon- verted persons, who make a decent profession of reli- gion, are introduced into churches, they must not be 1 See Acts, v. 4 ; viii. 18-23 ; Gal. v. 12 ; Rev. ii. 15, 10. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 119 ejected, lest Christians should be ejected instead of the unconverted. Events have fully illustrated the danger which our Lord here specified. Against his direction, churches in conjunction with States have undertaken to excommunicate many who were sup- posed to be zizania ; but the result has been, both in England and on the Continent, that the weeds have nourished, and the wheat has been rooted up; the children of the wicked one have been enthroned in power, and the disciples of Christ have been sen- tenced by them to the rack and to the fire, to prison and to exile. Distinctly, then, does the parable condemn the Establishment in this country ; First, Because it ad- mits all sorts of persons into its bosom ; secondly, be- cause while pretending to tear up the weeds, it has rooted out the wheat ; while professing to expel heresy and schism, it has driven from its communion many of the most eminent servants of Christ. Alas ! at this moment the Establishment continues to offend against our Lord's admonition in this parable ; and while it retains in communion with it persons who are openly wicked, it excludes from its communion many who are devoted and enlightened Christians. The following is the language of its canons now in force, and by which all its clergy are bound : " Whosoever shall impeach any part of the queen's regal supremacy," " Whosoever shall affirm that the form of God's worship, contained in the book of 120 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. common prayer, containeth any thing in it that is repugnant to the Scriptures," "Whosoever shall affirm that any of the nine-and-thirty articles are in any part erroneous," " Whosoever shall affirm that such minis- ters as refuse to subscribe to the form and manner of God's worship in the Church of England, and their adherents, may truly take to them the name of another church," " Let him be excommunicated, and not restored but by the archbishop, after his repentance, and public revocation of such his wicked errors." 1 Our Lord commands, that the openly wicked should be excommunicated, and the Estab- lishment leaves them to nestle quietly in its bosom. But while he commands that all who with good morals make a profession of faith in him. should remain unmolested, the Establishment excommuni- cates many real Christians, who are pious dissen- ters ; and till lately, the State, for its sake, inflicted on them many temporal penalties and disabilities. Of those passages in the Epistles on which the ad- vocates of Establishments rely, it is scarcely necessary to say a word ; to cite them is to prove their irrele- vance : they are these : " Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God : the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God ; and they that resist shall receive unto themselves damnation .... Wherefore ye must needs be subject, 1 Canons, 2, 4, 5, 10. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 121 not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. . . . ! Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake ; whether it be to the Icing as supreme, or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well.''"' Upon these two passages one author re- marks : " The right interpretation of this language in its practical interpretation, direct and implied, points out the political position, that is, the position relatively with the civil ruler which it is the will of God should be occupied by his church; and therefore involves the ques- tion of what is commonly called ' the Union between Church and State.' " 3 These passages, on the contrary, have not the remotest connexion with the question of the Union. They were directions given to the Christ- ian subjects of a wicked heathen prince to obey their magistrates, because government is a divine appoint- ment by which, generally, the honest, industrious, and peaceable, are protected against lawless violence. For three hundred years these commands were obeyed by Christians when the Union of the churches with an idolatrous and persecuting State was impossible, and of course they may be obeyed equally by Christians for three thousand years to come, when all Union between Churches and States has been abandoned as criminal and mischievous. Why should not the Dis- senters in this country and the Christians in the United States, who condemn the Union, be as well able to 1 Rom. xiii. 1-5. 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14. 3 Lecturer on the Church, p. 117. 122 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. obey these precepts as the Christians of the first three centuries, to whom the Union was never offered ? In truth, the passages have no relation whatever to a Union ; they oblige us to obey the laws when those laws require of us nothing forbidden by God ; to pay the taxes imposed upon us, to maintain order, to pro- mote loyalty, to respect those in power, and nothing more. So that they can be obeyed as completely by the member of a free church as by the member of an Establishment. We have not done with these two passages yet : for although the duties which they prescribe to the subject can be fulfilled without the Union, they impose, according to Mr. Gladstone, upon the rulers the duty of establishing tlie Union. " Finally," he says, " to determine how this question is resolved for us as Christians. What says the divine word ? That the ruler ' bcareth the sword for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well.' 1 I do not cite this passage, as in former times it has been employed, in order to demonstrate that rulers have duties directly religious, but I contend that it describes them as appointed to maintain a moral law according to all their means and opportunities." 2 First, a fragment of St. Paul's statement is blended with a fragment from St. Peter ; these two fragments from different authors are termed one " passage." This " passage," so manufactured, declares that rulers 1 Rom. xiii. 4 ; 1 Pet. iii. 14. a The State, &c vol. i. p. 152. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 123 punish thieves and murderers, while they approve of the honest, sober, and virtuous. And from this Mr. Gladstone infers that they are bound to uphold morality by all means, and consequently, by an Establishment. The cause of the Union must be desperate, if able men can find no better scriptural evidence to support it ! I have, finally, to examine a prediction in the Apocalypse which has been, also, supposed to sup- port the Union, and which is contained in the follow- ing words : " And there appeared a great wonder in heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne And there was war in heaven ; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels .... And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. . . . And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child ; and to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might jly into the wilderness, into her place .... And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. AND THE EARTH HELPED THE WOMAN, and the earth opened 124 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth." 1 To this the excellent and able author of the " Lectures on the Establish- ment of National Churches," has alluded in the fol- lowing terms : " Constantine may have seen, that by the establishment of a universal Christian education he best consulted, both for the economic well-being of his people, and for the prosperous administration of his own civil and political affairs. If we cannot speak to the sincerity of his principle as a man, we may, at least, speak to the soundness of his policy as a monarch, and although this vindication leaves the blemish of ungodliness and of political hypocrisy on the memory of Constantine, it lays no blemish on the compliance of the other party in this great transaction ; We mean of the church, in having complied with the overtures which he made to them. We read of the earth helping the woman, but we nowhere read that it is the duty of the woman to refuse this help.'"' This argument is transparently fallacious. If " the earth " means the European population generally, and " the woman" represents the church of Christ, it shows that the church may receive help from the people in any country, but the nature of the help is left unde- termined. It may be the duty of the nations to help the church in one way, but unlawful to seek to help it in another. It may be right for them to protect 1 Rev.xii. 1, 5, 7, 9, 13-16. * Lectures on Establishments, pp. 110, 111. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 125 it from violence by just laws, free institutions, and an effective police, while it is wrong to fetter it by a legislative Union ; as it may be right to help a friend in distress by honest means, and wrong to employ on his behalf either fraud or falsehood. Indeed, the idea of the patronage of Government is altogether foreign to the imagery, which is here employed. The church in the prophecy is flying into the wilderness, how can it, then, be a national Establishment ? And since the earth, i. e. the people, help the church, what can be symbolised by the flood threatening to destroy it but some persecution of the Governments? So that the prophecy, so understood, predicts not that the churches should be established, but that free churches, when persecuted by Government, should be aided by the people. According to Mr. Elliott, the woman means the true chosen church of the 144,000, or the first-born whose names are written in heaven : l one ever faithful in heart, and in all essential doctrine. The child born was the Emperor Constantine ; 2 the dragon is Satan ; and his persecution of the woman was the Arian per- secution of true Christians under the Emperor Con- stantius and his successor Valens ; i. e. the persecution of the Puritans by the Establishment. 3 By the woman's flight into the wilderness is meant, " the insulation of the true church from the rest of the world ; invisi- 1 Horse Apocalypticse, by Rev. E. Elliott, 2d edit. vol. iii. pp. 7, . 2 Pp. 19,20. 3 Pp. 31,32. 126 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. bility in respect of its public worship, and destitution of all means of spiritual sustenance." * " Christ's spiritual church, the blessed company of all faithful people, began, soon after the establishment of Chris- tianity in the Roman empire, and through the half century following, to flee towards the wilderness ; in other words, to vanish rapidly in its distinctive features from the public view." 2 By the flood which issued from the dragon's mouth is intended the invasion of the empire by the Visigoths, Goths, and Vandals. 3 And the help of the woman by the earth is the assist- ance then given to the true church by the Roman population. " Superstitious and earthly though the Roman population had become, yet thus far they did service to Christ's church in her present exigency. In those continuous and bloody wars, of which the Western world had been the theatre, the barbarous invading population was so thinned, so absorbed, as it were, into the land they had invaded, that it needed their incorporation as one people with the conquered to make up the necessary constituency of the kingdoms. And in this incorporation not only was much of their original institutions, customs, and languages, absorbed, but their religion altogether. The successive tribes, whether of Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Heruli, Huns, Van- dals, or Burgundians, abandoned their paganism for Christianity." 4 1 Horse Apocalypticse, vol. iii. p. 34. 2 Pp. 34, 35. 3 Pp. 47-49. * Pp. 51. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 127 According to Professor Stuart, the woman is the church; her son is the Messiah; the dragon is Satan; the persecution, in verse 13, is that persecution of Christians which followed the first preaching of the Gospel ; the flight into the wilderness, verse 14, is the retirement of the early Christians from persecu- tion into the most remote places ; the flood cast after her in her flight, verse 15, is the increased persecution of Christians by the Jews ; and " the civil and military power of the Romans bearing down with great force upon the Jews at this period, and obliging them to seek their own personal safety instead of pursuing schemes of vengeance upon Christians, is symbolised here by the earth's helping the woman." 1 These expositions are sufficient to manifest how futile the attempt must be to deduce from this pre- diction any argument in favour of the Union between Church and State. If the former exposition be adopted, the earth helped the woman, or the people helped the church, when the Roman population, which had previously, by its Arianism, driven the church into the wilderness, now changed the pa- ganism of the Goths and Vandals into its own spuri- ous Christianity. If the latter be preferred, the earth helped the woman, or the people helped the church, when the Roman armies, overrunning Judea and lay- ing siege to Jerusalem, suspended the violence of its Jewish persecutors. In the one case the Jewish Church was persecuting the Christians, in the other 1 Stuart's " Commentary on the Apocalypse," ad loc. 128 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. the established Arian Churches were driving them into obscurity ; in neither case were they basking in the favour of any kingly government, and, therefore, neither exposition affords the slightest support to the Union between the British Churches and the State. If the foregoing passages of scripture from both Testaments were rightly expounded in favour of the Union, they impose on each Government an obligation once and under any circumstances to erect an Es- tablishment or to resign their functions to other hands. But even the most devoted adherents of the principle shrink from this conclusion. Mr. Gladstone avows that the duty of a State in this matter is de- termined by its circumstances. " The obligations of the State to religion must, of course, be limited by the subsisting constitution of a country." 1 If, there- fore, the constitution forbids an Establishment, as in ihe United States, the duty of the State to institute it ceases. But, since the law of man cannot super- sede the law of God, if the existing constitution of a country can supersede the duty to institute an Esta- blishment, there can be no divine command to in- stitute it; and, according to Mr. Gladstone's most just conclusion, all the texts cited to prove such com- mand must be falsely applied. If there be a divine injunction by which States are required to establish Christian churches, this duty can be contingent upon no circumstances : it is as much a duty to establish churches in Canada as in Great Britain, and in India 1 The State, &c. vol. i. p. 300. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 129 as in Canada. Mr. Gladstone's good sense has shown him that this is impossible. " The principle upon which alone/' he says, " as I apprehend, our colonies, speaking generally, can be governed, is that of pre- serving the good-will of their inhabitants. The highest function of the State, with regard to them, seems to be this : to arbitrate among the different elements of which their societies are composed, and gently to endeavour to give a moral predominance to the nobler over the meaner of those elements;" 1 a maxim which is altogether at variance with the idea of an obligation laid on rulers by the word of God to establish religion. On the other hand, the intimations in the New Testament, that God requires the separation of the Christian churches from the State are unequivocal. Let us first examine our Lord's statement to Pilate of the nature of Ins kingdom, contained in the two narratives of Luke and John. " The whole mul- titude of them arose and led him to Pilate. And they bet/an to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Ccesar, saying that he himself is Christ a king. And Pilate ashed him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And he answered him and said, T/iou sayest it. Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man''" Our Lord was charged with claiming to be king of the 1 The State, &c. vol. ii. p. 313. 2 Luke, xxiii. 1-4. K 130 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. Jews, and therefore, as king, claiming tribute from them, and forbidding that the Jews should pay tribute to the Roman emperor, Tiberius. Pilate, therefore, as governor, asked him whether the accusation was true, that he did claim to be king of the Jews. Jesus acknowledged its truth, and yet so explained the character of his claim, that Pilate saw it to be com- patible with the reign of the emperor, and declared, in consequence, that he found him guilty of no crime against the Roman law. By this account of St. Luke it is plain, first, that Jesus did claim to be king of the Jews, according to the charge brought against him by his enemies ; but, secondly, that it was such a dominion as was compatible with the dominion of the emperor. Now a secular dominion would not have been compatible with it. The dominion of the emperor, obtained by conquest, and consolidated by imperial laws, was supported by taxation, and rested ultimately upon force. If Jesus had claimed to be king of the Jews in the same sense in which Tiberius was their king, then his laws must be substituted for those of Rome, his right to tax the nation for the expenditure of his Government must destroy the emperor's right, and that right must be enforced by his army. In this case Pilate must necessarily have pronounced him to be the enemy of Caesar; and when, instead, the governor declared that he found in him no fault at all, it is clear, that in the opinion of the governor he claimed no right of enacting a new code CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 131 of civil and of criminal law ; he did not mean to maintain his government by taxation ; nor would he collect a revenue by force. The narrative of St. John places these facts in a still clearer light : " Then Pilate entered into the judg- ment-hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the king of the Jews ? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me ? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew ? Thine own nation and the chief -priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? Jesus ansiccred, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this icorld, then would my servants fght, that I should not be delivered to the Jews : but now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then ? Jesus answered, TJtou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I lorn, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth ? And when he had said this, he went out ac/ain unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all!' 1 Jesus was charged with claiming to be king. Pilate, therefore, having asked whether he was the king of the Jews, Jesus, before answering that question, de- manded whether he had asked this from anv thing v O which he had himself observed, apparently intending to direct the attention of Pilate and of others to the 1 John, xviii. 33-38. 132 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. fact, that the malice of the priests, and not any public misconduct of his, had occasioned his arrest. Pilate, answering that he was no Jew, but that the priests had brought him before that tribunal, asked him what his offence was ? Jesus now replied to the original question, whether he was the king of the Jews, thus : "My kingdom is not of this ivorld : if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fffht, that I should not be delivered to the Jews ; but now is my kingdom not from hence." The object of his answer was, to clear himself of the charge of rebellion. Now this might be done in either of three ways. He might have denied his claim to be king, and then the whole accusation would fall; or, asserting his divine supremacy, he might have declared that he was the spiritual and the secular king of the Jews, to whom the emperor was bound to submit, in which case Pilate must either have become his disciple, or he must have declared him guilty of rebellion ; or, thirdly, he might have maintained that he was king of the Jews, and yet admit the imperial authority of Tiberius, by explaining that his kingdom was spiritual, not secular : that between the spiritual dominion and the secular there was so complete a separation that the one could not interfere with the other ; and that, in consequence, he could be no rival of the emperor. And this was, in fact, the substance of his answer: "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom icere of this world, then icould my ser- CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 133 vants fght, that I should not be delivered to the Jews : but noio is my kingdom not from hence." It is clear that Pilate was permitted by our Lord so to under- stand it ; because, when Pilate further asked, whether, then, he claimed to be a king, he answered, " Thou sayest (right) that I am a king." While he stood there, charged with rebellion, because he declared himself to be king of the Jews, he freely admitted that he did advance that claim, and yet Pilate pro- nounced him to be wholly innocent, which he could not have done except on the understanding that his dominion was exclusively spiritual. The accusation by the priests was " We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Casar, saying that he himself is Christ a king." 1 The answer of Jesus is, " My kingdom is not of this world ; I claim no tribute, and I forbid no tribute to Csesar." Their charge was, " He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry."' His answer was, " My king- dom is not of this world. I raise no armies to main- tain my rights." Their allegation was, " Whosoever makcth himself a king speakcth against Casar."'' His answer was, " My kingdom is not of this world, and therefore I can be no enemy to the reign of Caesar." If the kingdom of Christ were to be maintained by taxation and by force, like all secular powers, then his throne must subvert that of Ca3sar; and, therefore, when he satisfied Pilate that he was no enemy of 1 Luke, xxiii. 2. - Luke, xxiii. 5. 3 John, six. 12. 134 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. Caesar, by asserting that his kingdom was not of this world, it is plain that it should not be maintained by taxation and by force. '.Further, Pilate understood our Lord to mean that his kingdom would never be so maintained ; for if our Lord had said, My king- dom is not now of this world, not now maintained by taxation and by force, Pilate would at once have seen that it might shortly be strong enough to become a secular kingdom, maintained by force. And as it would then subvert the throne of Caesar, he would have felt bound to condemn our Lord. To defend himself from the charge of rivalry to the Roman emperor, it was necessary to inform Pilate that his dominion would be so entirely spiritual that it never could interfere with the rights of the emperor. And of this he did convince Pilate by saying, " My king- dom is not of this world." This was therefore the legitimate meaning of his words ; and IN THEM HE HAS SOLEMNLY TAUGHT US, THAT HIS DOMINION IS ENTIRELY AND FOR EVER DISTINCT FROM SECULAR DOMINION ; THAT HE RULES OVER MEN*S HEARTS AND CONSCIENCES ; THAT HE WILL EVER ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN HIS RULE WITHOUT THE AID OF THE TAX- GATHERER AND THE SOLDIER ; THAT HE EMPLOYS NO COERCION, AND WILL NEVER RESORT TO MILITARY FORCE. But the Union in England, being intended to advance his dominion by maintaining his ministers, seeks that end by the taxation of the realm for the CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 135 support of his ministers, and then employs force to sustain that taxation. Christ declared to Pilate that his dominion should never be maintained by taxation and by force; and the churches of England declare that it shall be so maintained. He pronounced his kingdom to be purely spiritual ; they declare that it shall be spiritual and secular : and their decision is in flagrant opposition to his will. Another important passage in which the complete separation of the spiritual administration of the churches from the secular administration of the Go- vernment is enjoined by our Lord is the following : " Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, ice know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person of men; tell w, therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to (jive tribute to Caesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Wliy tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute-money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription ? They say unto him, Casars. TJien saith he unto them, Render, therefore, unto Casar the things which are Ccesars; AND UNTO GOD THE THINGS THAT ARE Goo's." 1 Pompey having about 100 years before this time 1 Matt. xxii. 15-21. 136 GENERAL -CONSIDERATIONS. subjugated Judea to the Romans, it became a Roman province. 1 In these circumstances, the Pharisees maintained that it was unlawful to pay tribute to the emperor, because God had declared that they must not choose a foreigner to be their king ; they were the special people of God, and he alone was their king/ J When formerly the king of Syria had brought them under his yoke, their fathers had, with the blessing of God, thrown the yoke off. 3 Frequently, too, under judges raised up and inspired by God, they had vindi- cated their liberties against the tyranny of the sur- rounding nations : God had enabled them to burst from their servitude in Egypt; and Hezekiah, with Ms almighty aid, had successfully rebelled against the king of Assyria. 4 Under instructions like these the people became very impatient of the tribute imposed upon them, and nearly the whole nation was ready to revolt. 5 The Herodians, that is, the adherents of Herod, maintained, on the contrary, that it was law- ful to pay tribute, their patron being supported by the Romans. These two parties were much opposed to one another; but a common hatred having now united them against Jesus, some of each party came together to him pretending to be religious persons (Luke, xx. 20), who had the highest respect for his wisdom and probity, to ask him to determine 1 Jos. Ant. xiv. 4, 4. 2 Deut. xvii. 14, 15 ; Exod. xxiii. 32 ; Deut. vii. 2. 3 1 Mac. ii. 24, 68 ; iii. 59, &c. 4 2 Kings, xviii. 17. 8 Jos. Ant. xviii. pp. 1-6 ; B,ii. 17, 8 ; ii. 16, 4 ; B. v. 9, 3 ; B. iii. 8, 4. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 137 for them this much-agitated question, whether they ought to pay or not (v. 22, and Mark, xii. 14, 15) the tribute or poll-tax, which was payable by every person whose name was taken in the census. If he declared the payment to be lawful, they would make him odious to the people, who detested it ; if he de- clared it to be unlawful, they would charge him with sedition, as they afterwards did. 1 And this was their chief design.- Jesus asked to see the vopitrpa rov xqvffou, the coin in which the poll-tax was paid ; upon which they brought to him the Roman penny, which bore upon it the head of the emperor, with this inscription, Kataap Aw/over lovfiouctf iccX^^ag Caesar Augustas, such a year after the taking of Judea. 3 The current coin of the country being thus Roman, proved that they were under subjection to the Roman emperor, Tiberius. And having obliged them to notice this fact, our Lord replied to their question, "Render, therefore, unto Casar the tilings which are Cesar's ; AND UNTO GOD THE THINGS THAT ARE GOD'S." Civil Government, which was necessary to prevent universal anarchy and crime, must be upheld by taxation. It was equitable that in return for its advantages they should pay for its support. To be loyal subjects to a prince who had conquered them was a very different thing from choosing a foreigner for their king. God had com- manded their fathers to serve their conqueror, the 1 Luke, xxiii. 2. 2 Luke, xx. 20. 3 Hammond, ad loc. 138 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. king of Babylon, 1 and they were ordered to seek the peace of his kingdom. 2 To pay tribute and to render obedience in all secular matters to Caesar was only to render to the sovereign his due, and instead of interfering with their duty to God, was part of that duty. Nor were they responsible for the use which Caesar might make of any part of that tribute. Order must be maintained by law ; law must be admi- nistered by civil officers, and supported, if necessary, by the military force, for which a revenue was re- quisite. And if the emperor were to employ any surplus in the erection of heathen temples, in contri- buting to licentious theatres, or in enriching worthless favourites, they were not implicated in this irreligious or profligate expenditure. But the claims of the em- peror must not interfere with superior claims. If they were to render to Caesar the things of Caesar, they must also render to God the things of God. The things of Caesar were tribute and obedience to the law ; the things of God were faith, worship, and obe- dience. When Caesar claimed the payment of the tribute, he claimed what was his due ; but should he claim dominion over conscience, affect to control their creed, or interfere to regulate their worship, then he usurped the rights of God, and must be resisted. When Antiochus Epiphanes ordered their fathers to discontinue their sacrifices, to profane their sabbaths, to deliver up their bibles, and to set up idols in their 1 Jer. xxvii. 12-17. 2 Jer. xxix. 7. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 139 country, their fathers justly refused obedience. 1 In the same spirit the three Hebrew youths, though faith- ful subjects to Nebuchadnezzar, refused to bow down to his golden image ; and Daniel, though blameless in his office as the prime-minister of Darius, openly defied the decree which forbade the subjects of that prince for thirty days to pray to God. In paying tribute they would render to Caesar the things of Caesar, and in an unreserved obedience to the laws of God, both moral and ceremonial, they would render to God the things of God. Our Lord thus established a plain rule of action. In all secular things which do not interfere with the law of God the sovereign is to be obeyed ; but if the sovereign assumes the rights which belong exclusively to God, he must be therein disobeved and resisted. j By this answer our Lord baffled his enemies. They could not accuse him to the people, because he maintained that the whole law of God must be obeyed against all contrary commands ; and they could not denounce him to the Romans, because he taught that all the rights of Caesar were to be conscientiously upheld. By this answer he condemned the Pharisees, who refused to Csesar the things of Caesar; and the Herodians, who neglected to pay to God the things of God. When the Pharisees claimed entire obedience to the law of God, he assented to their doctrine, but condemned them for being seditious ; when the Hero- 1 1 Mac. i. 41, 64. I 140 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. dians claimed submission to the sovereign, he likewise assented to that opinion, but condemned them for allowing violation of the commands of God. All that was right in each opinion he established ; all that was wrong he repudiated. In these few words he escaped their snare, condemned their errors, and established a maxim of universal application. Let us consider what use the early churches would make of this direction. If the Jews were to render to Caesar the things of Csesar, so were the Christians ; if the former were to render to God the things of God, so were the latter. They would, therefore, study to be quiet and orderly subjects ; but, just as the Jews, they would allow no emperor to exercise any control over their faith, their worship, or their discipline. Had Nero or Caligula attempted to nominate their pastors, direct their places and hours of worship, or regulate the admission of candidates to baptism and the Lord's supper, they would have repelled a dictation which would have been incompatible with the rights of the Almighty, and would have declared that they must render to God the things of God. Since they were bound to obey God in all things, there was the strongest reasons why the emperor should exercise no control over them in matters of religion. Being a heathen, he could not know the will of God ; and as his commands in spiritual matters would constantly oppose the commands of God, his exercise of any spiritual superintendence over the churches would CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 141 bring them either into perpetual collision with his authority, or into corrupt acquiescence in his caprice. The only way to avoid both these evils was to esta- blish a complete separation between the temporal and the spiritual ; and, while respecting the supreme authority of Caesar in all secular matters, to allow him no authority whatever in spiritual matters. These reasons apply in all their force to an irre- ligious State bearing the Christian name. No State, however pious, has received any authority from God to superintend his churches ; and the churches cannot therefore communicate that authority in any case without rendering to C3sar the things of God : but an irreligious State must be still more unlit to exercise it. If, also, an irreligious State has any control over the churches in spiritual things, it is so likely to enact what is contrary to the law of Christ, that the churches would be in danger either of frequent collision with it, or of criminal acquiescence in laws contrary to flic law of Christ ; on which account the churches are bound to avoid the Union with such a State. But the State in England is irreligious ; and so long as the House of Commons represents, as it ought to do, the community, and the community is not generally reli- gious, it must continue to be so. Consequently the Union between the English Churches and the State is as much prohibited by this passage as the Union was prohibited by it between the churches within the Roman empire and the Emperor Nero. The House 142 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. of Commons, the most powerful member of the State, being composed of men of every character and opinion in religious matters, is unfitted to control the creed, worship, or discipline of the churches ; and by nothing but a criminal indolence on the part of the churches, and by a cautious abstinence from legislation on the part of the State, the State declaring to the churches you shall reform nothing, and the churches replying to the State, " We consent to do nothing if you will do nothing likewise," are those collisions avoided, in which the churches would be forced to recognise that, under the Union, they render to Caesar more than the things of Csesar, and do not render to God the things of God. Whether if the State were wholly composed of reli- gious men, it could usefully superintend the churches is a question merely speculative, because, upon the representative system, which is the best, and secures the greatest, virtue in Governments, no such State can exist until the constituency, that is, the mass of the people, become religious ; and then the alleged reasons for the Union would vanish. Moreover, should it be conceded that such a pious State might exercise con- trol over the churches, this could not establish the innocence of a permanent Union ; because evangelical religion cannot be transmitted from one party in power to another, from one House of Commons to another ; so that if the Union should be formed under a pious State, it would speedily connect the churches CONDEMNED BY- THE NEW TESTAMENT. 143 with an ungodly State. If a Union of the church in Israel with Solomon had been tolerable, it would have been intolerable when Solomon's place was occupied by Rehoboam. If Hezekiah could usefully have su- perintended that church, Manasseh could not have done so. And as similar changes in the character of successive rulers must continually occur, the only safe arrangement must be the entire separation of the spiritual administration from the secular. As this passage proves that it would have been unwise and culpable in the early churches to grant to Nero or Caligula a control over their doctrine, worship, and discipline, because these princes were irreligious, it equally proves it to be unwise to allow any such control over the churches within this country to the House of Commons, because it likewise is irreligious. Since Caesar was prohibited by this passage from exer- cising control over the churches, the House of Com- mons must be equally prohibited. If Caesar might not nominate the bishops of Philippi, nor exercise a veto upon any article of the creed of the church at Corinth, nor determine who should be admitted to the Lord's table at Ephesus, because obedience to him in these things would hinder these churches from ren- dering to God the things which are God's, so neither ought the Legislature or Government in this kingdom to nominate prelates or pastors, forbid a revision of the creed of the churches, determine to whom bap- 144 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. tisni and the Lord's supper shall be given, lest the churches should obey the State in violation of some divine law, and should thus fail to render unto God the things which are God's. The reason why Nero might not exercise any control over the churches was, that they might be at liberty to render to God the things which are God's ; and the same reason binds the churches now to allow no spiritual control over them to the Legislature. Since the law of God re- quires that the churches have godly pastors, that no one be baptised without a credible profession of re- pentance and faith, that the Gospel be preached to every creature, that all Christians should act as brethren, and that Christ should be supreme in his own house, if the State ordain that parishes should receive ungodly pastors, prohibit Christ's ministers from preaching the Gospel in parishes wherein the ministers are ungodly, compel by legal penalties pa- rochial ministers to admit improper persons to the sacraments, and demand for the Crown a supremacy which is inconsistent with the supremacy of Christ, then the churches must render to God the things which are God's, and refuse obedience to the State. To avoid which collision, the churches should be sepa- rate from the State ; and, while paying to it all secular obedience, should be free to accomplish, without its control, the whole law of Christ. In the third chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 145 Christians are said to be Christ's house, or household, over which he rules ; l over which, therefore, no stranger can be admitted to rule without his authority; but by the Union the State is admitted to that rule without his authority, and the churches in permitting it overthrow the rights of Christ over his own house. In many passages Christ is spoken of as the king of his church, 2 and Christians are his subjects, over whom no others have any more right to exercise spi- ritual dominion than a foreign prince has right to give laws to us in England. And when Parliament gives laws to the Christian churches in England, it as much disregards the sovereignty of Christ as a French or German king, who should assume to legislate for Kent or Sussex, would disregard the sovereignty of her Majesty, the queen of this empire. But by the Union Parliament does legislate for the churches, and thus invades the sovereign rights of Christ. The church of Christ is represented in Scripture as his bride; 3 over which he therefore has exclusive right to rule : and when any church therefore allows itself to be governed by any power which is separate from Christ, it is an adulterous infidelity to him, like 1 Heb. iii. 5, 6; x. 21 ; Matt. x. 25; xxv. 14, 19, 30 ; Rom. vii. 6; 1 Cor. vii. 22 ; Gal. vi. 10 ; Eph. ii. 19 ; vi. 6 ; Col. iii. 24 ; 1 Tim. iii. 15 ; 1 Pet. iv. 17. 2 Matt. iii. 2 ; iv. 17; ix. 35 ; xiii. 38 ; xvi. 28 ; Luke, xix. 12 ; John, xviii. 36, 37 ; 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25 ; Col. i. 13 ; Heb. i. 8 ; Psalm ii. 6 ; ex. 1, 2 ; Isa. ix. 7; Dan. vii. 13, 14 ; Zech. vi. 13 ; ix.9, 10. s John, iii. 29 ; Rev. xxi. 9 ; xxii. 17; Eph. v. 25-27; Rom. vii. 4; 2 Cor. xi. 2. 146 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. that of which a wife would be guilty towards her hus- band who should place herself under the control of another man. But by the Union the State, without Christ's authority, does thus rule over the churches of the Establishment ; and those churches, in consenting to it, are guilty of adulterous infidelity to Christ, as in other ways the Church of Rome has been. 1 Christians being the children of God, the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Ghost, 2 are chosen out of the world by Christ, 3 are not of the world, 4 and are called to be distinct from the world. 5 The friendship of the world being enmity to God, fi Christians must not love the world; 7 they must not be conformed to it ; 8 but must separate from it in all but the necessary business of life. For thus has Christ ordered by his apostle, " Be ye not equally yoked with unbe- lievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness icith unrighteousness ? and what communion hath light with darkness ? Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord," &c. 9 -And these commands were so far obeyed by the first Christians, that the churches were composed of " saints and faithful brethren," 10 who were epistles of Christ, 11 and shone as lights in the world. 12 If, therefore, any 1 Rev. xvii. 1-5. 2 John, i. 12, 13; Gal. iii. 26 ; iv. 5 ; 1 Cor. xii. 12, 27; Eph. iv. 12; v. 30 ; 1 Cor. iii. 16 ; vi. 19 ; Eph. ii. 21. 3 John, XT. 19. 4 John, xvii. 14. * 1 John, iii. 1; v. 19. 6 James, iv. 4. " 1 John, ii. 15. 8 ~ Rom. xii. 2. 5 2 Cor. vi. 14-18. "> 1 Cor. i. 2 ; Eph. i. 1; Phil. i. 1; 1 Thess. i. 6. 11 2 Cor. iii. 3. u Phil. ii. 15. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 147 churches, instead of being composed of " saints and faithful brethren " separate from the world, admit all the world freely into fellowship with them, they have forsaken their calling, and have disregarded Christ's orders. But by the Union there is in this country a complete confusion of the church and the world. Be- lievers and unbelievers are not only associated in the business of life, but in the functions of church mem- bers without the smallest discrimination. Our Lord has distinctly declared in his word who ought to become pastors of churches. They are directly appointed by him, 1 and none are so appointed but those who are blameless, lovers of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word. c Unconverted ministers, unsound in doctrine and unholy in life, are, on the contrary, termed by the Holy Ghost "wolves " and " ministers of Satan." 3 Christians are commanded to guard against them. 4 They must not listen to them, 5 nor in any way assist them in their false teaching. 6 And as the churches are bound not to receive such as pastors, but to see that their ministers are faithful men, in order to fulfil these duties, the first churches chose their own ministers. 7 When, therefore, any churches allow un- converted and unsound men to become their pastors, they are disregarding all these divine directions. But, 1 Acts, xx. 28 ; Eph. iv. 11, 12. * Tit. i. 5-9 ; 1 Tim. iii. 1-7. 3 Acts, xx. 29 ; 2 Cor. xi. 15. Matt. vii. 15, 16. * John, x. 4, 5. 2 John, 10, 11. 7 Acts, i. 15, 23, 26 ; vi. 1-6. 148 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. by the Union, the churches do receive such pastors, and must ; for the State will ever maintain the rights of patrons : and so long as ungodly men can secure ordination, which they do, and ever will, in an Esta- blishment, so long ungodly patrons can force ungodly pastors upon all the churches who criminally remain under the bondage of the Union. By the law of Christ Christians ought to maintain their pastors. 1 When, therefore, churches compel ministers to seek a salary from the world, and when they devolve upon others the burden of maintaining their pastors, they are neglecting their duty. But under the Union the churches leave strangers to sup- port their ministers, paying little or nothing them- selves spontaneously towards their maintenance. As under the Mosaic law all the payments for the support of religion were spontaneous, so at present God requires the same. The divine rule is, "Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity, for GOD LOVETH A CHEERFUL GIVER."- And all persecution is at variance with the spirit of the Gospel. But the Union is entirely built on coercion. If the rent- charges, which are substituted for tithes, or the church-rates, are refused, they are seized by distraint ; enemies or friends being alike compelled to pay them, however reluctant they may be. 1 Gal. vi. 6 ; 1 Cor. ix. 14 ; 1 Tim. T. 17, 18, &c. 8 1 Cor. ix. 7. CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 149 It is the declared will of Christ that offending members should be put out of the churches by the churches in conjunction with their ministers. 1 What congregation within the Establishment obeys his will ? The State will not allow them. According to the declarations of Christ and his apostles all Christians are brethren, bound to love one another, and to treat one another with kindness. 2 But the Union exalts one class of Christians and depresses all the rest ; excludes faithful ministers of Christ from the pulpits of the Establishment if they are nonconformists ; shuts out pious men if they are not Episcopalians from the universities ; forces many against their conscience to support a system which they condemn ; and thus creates a permanent schism among the churches of Christ. Lastly, Christ has commanded his followers to preach the Gospel to all men. 3 Those churches, therefore, sin who assent to any law by which they are hindered from obeying this command. But the Union does hinder them. For while there are hun- dreds, and, I fear, thousands, of parishes in this country where the Gospel is never preached, no mi- nister of the Establishment may preach the Gospel in one of them without the consent of the incumbent. 1 Matt, xviii. 17; Rom. xvi. 17; 1 Cor. v. 11; 2 Thess. iii. 6, 14. 3 Matt, xxiii. 8 ; Gal. i. 2 ; Col. i. 2 ; John, xiii. 34, 35 ; Rom. xiv. 1 ; xv. 7; 1 John, iii. 14 ; Matt. xxv. 34-40. 3 Mark, xvi. 15 ; Acts, iv. 19, 20 ; v. 29, 42 ; viii. 1-4. 150 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. The apostles would not have agreed so to abandon the towns and villages of Judea. It may here occur to some readers, that as few of these passages directly and explicitly forbid the Union between Churches and States, the duty of separation being matter of inference merely, can neither be so plain nor so important as its advocates allege. But will this opinion endure examination? Are there not many pious adherents of Establish- ments who hold the divine institution of episcopacy, who believe that they are bound to consecrate the Lord's day, that Christians ought to assemble peri- odically for public worship, that infants ought to be baptised, that the Lord's supper is of perpetual obligation, that slavery and war are anti-Christian, &e. &c. ? Not one of these doctrines has so much scriptural evidence in its support as this of the sepa- ration of the Church from the State. In the scrip- tures there are principles of action established which apply to innumerable cases where they occur ; and the principles which ought to compel the churches to separate from the State are abundantly stated in the New Testament. But generally those evils alone were directly prohibited which were then in exist- ence; and the danger of the Union of the Church and State was then at the distance of two centuries and a half. Doubtless God has seen it to be better CONDEMNED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT. 151 for Christians that there should be no more direct command on this and on some other important points. One reason we can easily perceive. Very plain commands would have superseded the necessity of inquiring into principles, whereas now the sepa- ration, whenever it shall occur, will be the result of a more complete understanding of the nature of a Christian church, and of a more childlike disposition to obey every intimation of the will of God. 152 CHAPTER II. THE PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND STATE IN ENGLAND CONDEMNED BY THE WORD OF GOD. PROM those general considerations, which manifest that the Union of Churches with States is contrary to the design of our Lord, and unsuitable from the character of a Christian church, let us proceed to consider how far some of the particular principles of the Union in England are consistent with the declarations of the will of God which we find in the New Testament. The principles which will come under our review are the maintenance of Christian pastors by the State, the supremacy of the State, patronage, [and the support of the Establishment by coercion. SECTION I. On the Maintenance of Christian Pastors by the State. Whatever private gifts of tithes or lands have been made to the clergy of this country, their pos- session of tithes throughout England and Wales must be traced to law. " About the year 794, Offa, king of Mercia, made a law, by which he gave unto the MAINTENANCE OF CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 153 church the tithes of all his kingdom." * " This law of Ofia was that which first gave the church a civil right in them in this land, by way of property and inheritance, and enabled the clergy to gather and receive them as their legal due by coercion of the civil power." 2 This right of the clergy to tithe, which was created by law, has been since confirmed by the same authority. By 32 Henry VIII. cap. 7, "All persons of this realm . . . shall fully pay all tithes according to the lawful customs of the parishes whence such tithes become due." 3 By 2 and 3 Ed. VI. cap. 13, " All persons shall pay all manner of parochial tithes as of right or custom ought to have been paid." 4 Further, the right of the clergy to a great proportion of the tithes paid in modem times has been created by statute since the Reformation ; for by 2 and 3 Ed. VI. cap. 13, " All such barren heath or waste ground which before this time hath lain barren, and paid no tithes by reason of the same barrenness, and now be, or hereafter shall be, im- proved and converted into arable ground or meadow, shall, after the end of seven years next after such improvement, pay tithe for corn and hay growing on the same." 5 Thus the tithe, which is the chief main- tenance of the pastors within the Establishment, has been given to them by the State, and a large part has been given since the Reformation. 1 Burn's " Ecclesiastical Law," 9th edit. vol. iii. p. 679. 9 P. 680. 3 P. 743. 4 P. 745. 5 P. 685. 154 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. The temporalities of the bishops have been no less the State's gift. A bishop's temporalities are all such things as bishops have by livery from the king, as castles, manors, lands, &C. 1 Of this there is a double proof; first, the bishop is obliged to do homage for them to the Crown; and secondly, during the vacancy of each see, the temporalities go to the Crown as the existing possessor. "When a bishop is invested and consecrated, the bishop being introduced to the king's presence, shall do his homage for his temporalities or barony ;" 2 and, " Upon the falling of a void bishopric, not the new bishop, but the king by his prerogative, hath the temporalities thereof, from the time that the same became void, to the time that the new bishop shall receive them from the king." 3 All this church property having thus been be- stowed by the State upon the bishops and clergy, the State has determined upon what terms it shall be held, and by the Act of Uniformity transferred the whole from the Roman Catholic to the Protestant clergy. By that act, 1 Elizabeth, "Every parson, vicar, or other minister, was required to use the book of common prayer in the public services of the church, and no other rite, ceremony, order, or form. Every clergyman violating this law was, for the first offence, to forfeit a year's stipend and be imprisoned six months ; and for the second offence, to be impri- soned a year, and be deprived of all his spiritual pro- 1 Burn, vol. i. p. 226. * Ibid. p. 211. 3 Ibid. p. 226. MAINTENANCE OF CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 155 motions, and the patron might present to his living as if he were dead." This of course ejected the sin- cere Catholics, placing Protestant ministers in their room ; and by this act the Protestant pastors of Eng-- land hold the State ecclesiastical property at this day, instead of the Roman Catholic priests who before possessed it. Up to the Reformation it was a gift of the State to the Roman Catholic Establishment. After the Reformation it was a gift of the State to the Protestant Establishment, which holds it to this day on the terms which the State has imposed. By 6 and 7 William IV., the temporalities of the bishops were redistributed, and their incomes to a certain extent equalised. 1 And by 6 and 7 William IV., 7 William IV., 1 Victoria, cap. 69, 1 and 2 Vic- toria, cap. 64, and 2 and 3 Victoria, cap. 32, a corn- rent, payable in money and PERMANENT IN QUANTITY, though fluctuating in value, was substituted through- out England and Wales for tithes." By these acts the Legislature has exercised the right of redistri- buting and of restricting the growth of clturcli pro- perty at its pleasure ; since the effect of a fixed corn- rent is to exempt from tithes all lands which are henceforth brought into cultivation, to restrain the clergyman from taking advantage of any improve- ments in cultivation, and immensely to diminish the marketable value of each living. By 2 and 3 Ed. VI., cap. 13, the tithe-owner may sue for tithe in 1 Burn, vol. i. p. 195. 2 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 698. 156 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. the ecclesiastical court; 1 and by 6 and 7 William IV., cap. 71, when the rent-charge is in arrear for twenty-one days after the yearly days of payment, the person entitled thereto may distrain. 2 From these various acts it appears, 1. That the right of the clergy to tithes was ori- ginally founded not on private gifts but on public enactments. 2. That the church property of the bishops is a gift from the Crown. 3. That the church property of this part of the kingdom was transferred by act of Parliament from Catholic priests to Protestant pastors. 4. That the State is the proprietor of this church property, which it grants, resumes, distributes, in- creases, or diminishes, as it thinks fit. 5. That all persons holding titheable property must contribute to the maintenance of the clercrv, C2/ * whether they approve of the contribution or not, since the clergy may enforce the payment of their dues by process of law. Upon a consideration of this method of maintain- ing the pastors of churches we come to two questions : 1. Is it agreeable to scripture? 2. Does it work well? The second question will be more conve- niently examined in another part of this work ; let us now consider what directions the churches have 1 Burn, vol. iii. p. 750. 2 Ibid. p. 733. MAINTENANCE OF CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 157 received in the New Testament respecting the main- tenance of their pastors. The practice of the apostles, as well as their lan- guage, has proved that it was Christ's will that the best qualified members of churches should be con- secrated to the ministry. Paul and Barnabas were solemnly set apart to their apostolic mission by the presbyters at Antioch. 1 Presbyters were appointed by the apostles and their companions, by the election of the churches, in all the churches which they founded. 2 There were presbyters in the church of Ephesus, 3 in the church at Philippi, 4 in the Jewish churches, 5 and in the churches which were addressed by St. Peter. 6 And pastors and evangelists are thus spoken of as a permanent ordinance of Christ : " When he ascended up on high, he led captivity cap- tive, and gave gifts unto men. . . . And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ : till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 1 Hence minute directions are given in the Epistles to Timothy and to Titus re- specting the class of persons who alone should be 1 Acts, xiii. 1. 2 Acts, xiv. 23 ; Tit. i. 5. 3 Acts, xx. 17. * Phil. i. 1. s Heb. xiii. 7, 17. 6 1 Pet. T. 1-4. > Eph. iv. 8-13. 158 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. appointed to this ministry. 1 Although the ministers thus appointed may labour for their maintenance when circumstances require it, as Paul did in various places, 2 yet it is generally their duty to leave secular employments, that they may devote themselves wholly to the ministry; 3 and on this 'account they ought to be maintained. Excluded from all lucrative employ- ments which they might have pursued, and conse- crating their time and faculties to the service of the churches, they ought to be maintained by them. Our Lord's will has been distinctly declared in this matter by the following statement of St. Paul: "Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple ? and they ivhich wait at the altar are jpartakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel."* With this ex- press enactment they may be satisfied; since he has promised to those who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, that all necessary tem- poral supplies shall be added to them. 5 And having declared that he will be with them as the preachers of his Gospel to the end of time, he cannot let them want. 6 His own faithful care is the provision for his ministers ; we may say of them much more than of 1 1 Tim. iii. ; Tit. i. 2 Acts, xviii. 3 ; xx. 34, 35 ; 1 Cor. ix. 12-15 ; 1 Thess. ii. 9. 3 Acts, vi. 2-4 ; 1 Tim. ii. 4 ; iv. 15. 4 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14. * Matt. vi. 25-33. Matt, xxviii. 20. MAINTENANCE OF CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 159 the Levites, " The Lord God is their inheritance." 1 Christ, who has appointed that they shall be main- tained, will secure their maintenance. But the mode of their support was not left unde- cided. Our Lord has shown, by the parable of the sheep and goats, how highly he esteems kindness which is done to his followers for his sake. 2 All Christians being members of one body are required to sympathise with each member in distress. 3 Even foreign brethren in distress are to be the objects of systematic liberality. 4 Those churches in the apo- stolic era were praised who gave largely to relieve the wants of foreign Christians ; 5 and the Corinthians were exhorted to imitate the good example. 6 These general principles would go far to secure a provision for ministers from the justice and generosity, the faith and the love, of pious churches. But in ad- dition to these the churches have received special injunctions respecting the support of their ministers. " Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges ? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? and who feedeth the flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock ? .... It is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if 1 Josh. xiii. 33. 2 Matt. xxv. 34-40. 3 1 Cor. xii. 12, 26, 27. ' * 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2. 5 2 Cor. viii. 1-6. 6 2 Cor. viii. 7, 13, 14 ; ix. 6, 7. 160 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. we shall reap your carnal things?" If ministers labour for the churches, the churches should maintain them. As the soldier who fights for his country is provided for, as the shepherd receives wages for the care of the flock, as the ox who threshed out the corn was allowed to eat it, and as the priests were maintained for their attendance at the temple, so it is the will of Christ that pastors should be main- tained by the churches. Indeed, this is matter of common gratitude, since temporal support is afforded in return for spiritual benefits ; and of common jus- tice, because " the workman is worthy of his meat."^ In the 6th chapter of the Epistle to the Galatian churches, the will of Christ is again thus expressed : " Let him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things."^ To the Thes- salonians was this exhortation given, " We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake."* And Timothy, who was left at Ephesus to organise the church there, received from Paul the following directions with respect to the pastors : " Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they toho labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith t Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the 1 1 Cor. ix. 7, 9, 11. 2 Matt. x. 10. 3 Gal. ri. 6. 1 Thess. v. 12, 13. MAINTENANCE OF CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 161 corn; and, The labourer is worthy of his reward" 1 All these injunctions commit the honourable support of their pastors to the justice and generosity, to the faith and the love, of the churches : and as Christ's authority can never be disregarded by his disciples, they are a surer and more permanent support than any which can be secured to them by legal enactments. Less distinctly and repeatedly, but still with suf- ficient clearness, has our Lord intimated his will that evangelists also should be maintained by Christians. When St. Paul left Philippi, that he might preach the Gospel to the heathens throughout Macedonia and Greece, the church at Philippi sent him. the supplies which he needed, and were declared by him to "have done well."' When they further sent him relief to Rome, he declared that it was " a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God." : And St. John thus commended the liberality of Gains towards certain Christian missionaries : " Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers ; which have borne icitness of thy charity before the church : whom, if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well: because that for his names sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. We, therefore, ought to receive such, that we might be fellow-helpers to the truth"* 1 1 Tim. v. 18. 2 Phil. iv. 14, 16. 3 Phil. iv. 18. 4 3 John, 5, 8. M 162 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. By the former series of passages the churches are commanded to support their pastors ; by this they are urged to maintain home and foreign missions till the Gospel is "preached to every creature." The obedience to these injunctions manifested by the more exemplary of the apostolic churches well illustrates the amount of the provision thus made by our Lord for his ministers. As we have already noticed, the poor and persecuted church at Philippi not only gave beyond their means to supply the wants of their poorer brethren in Judea, but also sent aid to Paul when he was preaching to the heathen. 1 And the church at Jerusalem aiforded an instance of self- denying charity, which I suppose to be wholly without parallel ; for, when the bigotry of the Jews necessa- rily reduced many of them to want, the rest threw all their property into a common fund, by which the wants of all were supplied. 2 Thus, by the liberality of the churches, and the self-denial of the ministers, it is evident that pastors were provided for all the churches at a time when few rich persons ventured to profess faith in Christ. Ephesus had its presbyters ; Philippi, its bishops and deacons ; all the churches of Asia Minor and Crete had their ministers ; the Hebrews had theirs ; and there is no reason to think that any churches were without them. 3 1 2 Cor. viii. 1-5 ; Phil. iv. 16-18. 2 Acts, ii. 47 ; iv. 34. 3 Acts, xx. 17; Phil. i. 1; Acts, xiv. 23; Tit. i. 5; Heb. xiii. 7, 17; 1 Pet. v. 1-4 ; James, v. 14. MAINTENANCE OF CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 163 Upon a review of these passages it appears, 1. That it is the will of Christ that there should be pastors for the churches, and evangelists to preach the Gospel to the whole world. 2. That Christ has commanded each church to maintain its pastor when possible. 3. That if a church be too poor other churches ought to aid. 4. That the churches should likewise support evangelists who preach to the heathen. 5. That Christ has committed to his universal church the duty of supporting his ministers through- out the world. 6. That if in any case a pastor or evangelist cannot obtain adequate support from his Christian brethren, that he may labour in any secular calling for his own maintenance. It is obvious that there is a marked contrast between the system which Christ has ordained for the maintenance of his ministers, and that which has been preferred by the Anglican Churches under the Union. According to the law of Christ, the pastor is to be maintained by the zeal of the church ; according to the Union, he is maintained by act of Parliament. According to the law of Christ, he should be maintained by the believers ; according to the Union, he is maintained by persons of every class, including Roman Catholics, Unitarians, infidels, and profligates. 164 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. According to the law of Christ, he should be maintained by those who contribute of their own property ; according to the Union, the State has voted away the property of others to maintain him. According to the law of Christ, all the offerings made for his support should be free; by the Union r they are paid under the terror of distraint. The moral influences of these two systems for the support of the ministers of Christ are very opposite. The system appointed by Christ is the most just r because, according to it, those only pay for instruc- tion who receive it ; while, according to the Anglican system, all must pay whether they receive it or not. The system appointed by Christ calls Christians to pay, who pay freely, because they have a debt to discharge, both to Christ and to their pastors ; whereas the Anglican system forces many to pay who would refuse it if they could. The system appointed by Christ exercises the faith and love of believers, who thus make a grateful offer- ing to him; but the Anglican system extorts from unbelievers, by fear of the law, a tax which is reluc- tantly paid to the State. The system appointed by Christ is much more for the comfort of a pious minister, because he can receive with thankfulness and joy what his brethren contribute with liberality and affection, in duty to- Christ and in justice to him ; while under the Angli- can system he must extort his income, by force of MAINTENANCE OF CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 165 law, from those who, possibly, curse both him and his religion while they pay it. The system appointed by Christ tends to attract both ministers and people to each other, since under it ministers, receiving their support from the affection of their flocks, feel grateful for it, and the people find that to do a kindness is as much a source of affection as to receive it ; but the Anglican system alienates both parties, the paster having to complain of arrears and of evasions of payment, while the flock are tempted to think their shepherd selfish and severe. The system of Christ demanding the support of the pastors from those only who appreciate the value of the truth and contribute freely, attracts ungodly persons to hear the Gospel without money and with- out price; but the Anglican system, which taxes them for what they disbelieve or despise, shuts their ears jigainst the truth. The system of Christ manifests to the world the power of religion, which they can in some degree measure by the sacrifices which Christians freely make for its support ; while the Anglican system makes the world believe that Christians are as selfish and as covetous as they are themselves, and would not sup- port their pastors unless they were forced to do so. Lastly, according to the system appointed by Christ, the best ministers are generally the best sup- ported, because Christians can appreciate grace as well as gifts in their pastors ; but under the Anglican sys- 166 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. tern, the richest livings go to those who are related to patrons; and thus the worst ministers are fre- quently the best paid, and the churches are beset with those who have sought the ministry only for its emoluments. If these observations are correct, Christians who allow their pastors to be paid by the State disregard the will of Christ ; impeach his wisdom ; neglect their duty ; injure their Christian characters ; manifest a worldly selfishness by seeking to escape from a just remuneration for services received; beg alms for Christ's officers from Christ's enemies ; excite preju- dice against the Gospel in the minds of irreligious tithe-payers; impair the use of the ministry; place the ministers of Christ under the pay and influence of ungodly persons ; and proclaim to the world that the disciples of Christ cannot maintain his worship and publish his truth unless worldly men and unbelievers of every class will help them. It deserves, therefore, the most serious consideration of Christian ministers and of Christian churches, whether they should not at once abandon a system so dishonourable to the Gospel and return to that which rests on the autho- rity of Christ. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 167 SECTION II. The Supremacy of the State. One consequence arising from the provision which is made by the State for Christian pastors, is that it claims and exercises the right of superintendence over the churches. This right is asserted in the fol- lowing statutes, which are still in force : By 26 Hen. VIII. cap. 1, " The king, his heirs, &c., shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England, . . . and shall have power, from time to time, to visit, repress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities, . . . which by any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction may be lawfully reformed" &C. 1 By 37 Hen. VIII. cap. 17, it is enacted, " Your majesty is, and hath always justly been, the supreme head on earth of the Church of England, and hath full power and authority to correct, punish, and repress all manner of heresies, errors, vices, sins, abuses, idolatries, hypocrisies, and superstitions, sprung and growing within the same ; and to exercise all other \ manner of jurisdiction, commonly called ecclesiastical jurisdiction, . . . archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, AND OTHER ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONS, HAVE NO MAN- NER OF JURISDICTION ECCLESIASTICAL, BUT BY AND 1 Burn's " Eccl. Law," vol. iii. p. 657. 168 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. PROM YOUR ROYAL MAJESTY. . . . Forasmuch as your majesty is the only undoubted and supreme head of the Church of England, to whom, by the holy scrip- tures, all authority and power is wholly given to hear and determine all manner of causes ecclesiastical, and to correct vice and sin whatsoever ; and to all such persons as your majesty shall appoint thereunto, . . . may it be ordained and enacted, by authority of this present Parliament, that ah 1 and singular persons, as well lay as married, being doctors of civil law, . . . who shall be appointed to the office of chancellor, vicar-general, commissary, official, scribe, or register, may lawfully execute and exercise all manner of juris- diction commonly called ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and all censures and coercions appertaining to the same." 1 By 1 Ed. VI. cap. 1.2, " If any person shall, by open preaching, express words or sayings, affirm . . . that the king is not or ought not to be the supreme head on earth of the Church of England . . . immediately under God, he, his aiders, com- forters, abettors, and counsellors, shall for the first offence forfeit his goods, and be imprisoned during the king's pleasure ; for the second offence shall forfeit his goods, and the profits of his lands and spiritual promotions during his life, and also be imprisoned during his life ; and for the third offence shall be guilty of high treason." 2 By 1 Mary, sess. i. cap. 1, the penalty of treason was repealed. 1 Burn, vol. ii. p. 43. 2 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 658. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 169 By 1 Eliz. cap. i. s. 17, "All such jurisdictions, privileges, superiorities, pre-eminences, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual or ecclesiastical power or authority have heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised and used for the visitation of the ecclesi- astical state and persons, and for the reformation, order, and correction of sin, and of all manner of heresies, schisms, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities, shall for ever be united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm." 1 By canon 1, the Church in synod, A.D. 1G03, ordained that " all ecclesiastical persons shall faith- fully keep and observe ... all and singular the laws and statutes made for restoring to the Crown of this kingdom the ancient jurisdiction over the State ecclesi- astical." By canon 2, "Whosoever shall hereafter affirm that the king's majesty hath not the same authority in causes ecclesiastical that the godly kings had among the Jews and Christian emperors of the primi- tive church, or impeach any part of his royal supremacy, in the said causes restored to the Crown and by the laics of this realm therein established, let him be ex- coin municated ipso facto . ' ' By canon 36, " No person shall hereafter be re- ceived into the ministry . . . except he shall first subscribe to these three articles following, 1. That 1 Burn, vol. ii. p. 304. 170 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. the king's majesty, under God, is the only supreme governor of this realm ... as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things as temporal," &c. These statutes plainly declare, 1 . That the Crown has all such spiritual and ecclesiastical jurisdiction as has ever been exercised by any spiritual power and authority, whether pope, synod, prelate, or church. 2. That the Crown may therefore exercise all church discipline for the correction of heresy, schism, and sin of every kind. 3. That bishops and pastors have no manner of spiritual jurisdiction within the churches but from the Crown. 4. That the Crown may delegate its spiritual authority to ecclesiastical lawyers, who may ex- ercise all church discipline within the churches in its name. And by the canons above mentioned, all ministers of the Church of England must acknowledge this su- premacy of the Crown in spiritual things, must faith- fully keep and observe these statutes, by which it has been declared and confirmed, and must not impeach any part of it on pain of excommunication. On Thursday, Feb. 27, 1845, when Lord Fortes- cue presented petitions to the House of Lords for a revision of the rubric, the bishop of Exeter said, " Our ancestors, my lords, were much too wise, much too virtuous, and much too faithful, to think of trans- ferring a spiritual supremacy to any monarch who might THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 171 govern these realms." To which Lord Brougham replied, " I differ from him (the bishop) in one point : I hold the power of Parliament to be paramount in every matter : that over every thing in the country, spiritual or temporal, the jurisdiction of Parliament extends." 1 The following extract from Hooker shows that he agreed with Lord Brougham : " If the action which we have to perform be conversant about matters of mere religion, the power of performing it is thus spiritual ; and if that power be such as hath not any to overrule it, we term it dominion or power supreme, so far as the bounds thereof extend. When, there- fore, Christian kings are said to have spiritual do- minion, or supreme power, in ecclesiastical affairs and causes, the meaning is, that within their own precincts and territories they have an authority and power to command even in matters of Christian relic/ion; and that there is no higher or greater that can in those cases over-command them when they are placed to reign as kings." 2 Since, then, the Crown has, ac- cording to statute, " all spiritual jurisdiction which can be exercised by any spiritual power," it has, according to Hooker, all the jurisdiction in spiritual things, in " matters of mere religion," which has ever been exercised by a bishop, a synod, or a church. But it is to be observed, that Lord Brougham claimed for Parliament what the bishop denied to the 1 The Times, Feb. 28, 1845. * Hooker's " Polity," book viii. 172 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. Crown, his reason being, that the spiritual power of the Crown is derived from Parliament ; and in this, too, he was correct. The 2G Hen. VIII. cap. 1, declares, " the king shall have power from time to time to visit," &c. The statute of 1 Eliz. cap. 1, enacts that spiritual jurisdiction " shall for ever be united and annexed to the imperial Crown of this realm." But in thus making the sovereign head of the church, Parliament has not abdicated its own supremacy, for while the sovereign administers the ecclesiastical laws as he does the civil, Parliament has of late years allowed no other legislation for the church than its own. Various acts show how much the Crown derives its authority from Parliament. The canons of the church have no force till they have the king's assent; but this is by 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 19, and not by any underived autho- rity in the Crown. 1 Any doctors of law appointed by the Crown may exercise all manner of spiritual jurisdiction ; but the Crown derives this right from the statute of 37 Hen. VIII. cap. 17. There are various cases in which the ecclesiastical court is now forbidden to pronounce excommunication, though it recently could do so. As this innovation could not be accomplished by authority of the Crown, it was effected by 53 Geo. III. cap. 127. When the act, 59 Geo. III., was passed to assign districts to chapels-of-ease, the following expression was inserted 1 Burn, vol. ii. p. 21. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 173 with respect to certain commissioners appointed by the Crown : "It shall be lawful for the commissioners to assign a district," proving that without such act the royal commissioners could not have assigned it. Precisely similar language was employed in subse- quent acts relating to similar matters. 1 The appeal which formerly lay from the court of Arches to the court of Delegates, has been transferred to the judicial committee of the privy council. This was effected, not by the prerogative of the Crown, but by two statutes, 2 and 3 Will. IV. cap. 72, and 3 and 4 Will. IV. cap. 41. Which fact is the more to be observed, because the transfer of the authority from the one court to the other was intended not to effect any ecclesiastical object which was before illegal, but simply to accomplish certain legal objects in a less objectionable manner. And so late as in the present reign, the bishop, with three assessors, is empowered not by the Crown, but by the church-discipline act, 3 and 4 Viet., to pronounce sentence on various ecclesiastical offences. These acts abundantly prove, that the supremacy of the State is lodged derivatively and partially in the Crown, but is underived and plenary in the Parliament, justifying Lord Brougham's expression, that "over every thing in the countiy, spiritual or temporal, the jurisdiction of Parliament extends." With him Hooker holds the Legislature to be the source of the king's supremacy. " Who 1 Burn, vol. i. pp. 306, 30G d . 174 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. doubteth but that the king who receiveth it must hold it of and under the law, according to the axiom, Hex non debet csse sub homine, sed sub Deo ET LEGE P" 1 " The best-established dominion is where the law doth most rule the king ; the true effect whereof is found parti- cularly as well in ecclesiastical as civil affairs." 2 " The king is Major singulis, universis minor."* " The axioms of our regal government are these, Lex facit regem : Rex jiihil potest nisi quod jure potest."* The actual state, then, of the churches of Christ within the Establishment is, that the Crown can exer- cise a spiritual supremacy over them in all ecclesias- tical cases, and that the Legislature has a higher and more absolute power still over them. Bishop Warburton's account of this Union is as follows : " The church resigns up her independency, and makes the magistrate her supreme head, without, whose approbation and allowance she can administer, transact, or decree nothing. Eor the State, by this alliance, having undertaken the protection of the Church, and protection not being to be afforded to any community without power over it in the community protecting, it follows that the civil magistrate must be supreme. Protection is a kind of guardianship ; and guardianship, in its very nature, implies superiority and rule. 5 ... No other jurisdiction is given to the civil magistrate by this supremacy than the church, 1 Hooker, book viii. * Ibid. 3 Ibid. * Ibid. 5 Warburton's " Alliance," book ii. c. 3. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 175 as a mere political body, exercised before the con- vention." 1 This supremacy is admitted by Hooker to be wholly a matter of law. " As for supreme power in ecclesiastical affairs the word of God doth nowhere appoint that all kings should have it, neither that any should not have it ; for which cause it seemeth to stand altogether \)j human right that unto Christian kings there is such dominion given." 2 But this supremacy of the State, without divine authority, is incompatible with the rights of Christ. The scripture declares that Christ is the king of his church, 3 and therefore to allow the State to rule over it without his authority, is as much treasonable as it would be in Ireland or in Canada to elect a foreigner for its ruler without reference to the will of our sovereign. Christ is the head and master of his church, as a man is head and master of his own household. 4 And when any churches without authority from him allow spiritual dominion over them to a stranger, they are revolting against his authority, as much as servants would be who in their master's absence should invite another to assume the direction of his house. 1 Warburton's " Alliance," book ii. c. 3. 2 Hooker, book viii. 3 Psalm xi. 6 ; Isa. ix. 6, 7 ; Dan. vii. 14 ; Zech. ix. 9 ; John, xviii. 37, 39 ; xix. 19 ; Col. i. 13 ; 2 Cor. x. 5, &c. &c. 4 Heb. iii. 5, 6 ; Gal. vi. 10 ; Matt. x. 25 ; xxv. 14-30 ; Roin. vii. 6 ; xiv. 9 ; 1 Cor. vii. 22 ; Eph. ii. 19 ; vi. 6 ; Col. iii. 24, &c. 176 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. Christ has condescended to represent the church in scripture as his bride, and himself as the husband of the church. 1 And because the Church of Rome has given to others the honour due to him, it is termed in the word of God a harlot, and every church in communion with that corrupt church is termed a harlot too." Whenever, therefore, any church allows one who is without Christ's authority to rule over it, it is acting as a wife who should allow a stranger to rule over her in her husband's absence. That church would be guilty of adultery as the Church of Rome has been. And, again, the church is termed in scripture the body, of which Christ is the head : 3 and a church which therefore makes the magistrate its head, becomes a body with two heads, a deformity a monster. But all this is what the Church of England has done. In allowing to the State this spiritual dominion over it, it has become treasonable, insub- ordinate, adulterous, and unnatural ; it is a com- munity with two spiritual kings, a- household with two separate masters, a wife with two husbands, a body with two heads. It is of no avail for an advocate of the Union to allege that the king is only head of the church under Christ. Where is Christ's appointment? Did our 1 Eph. v. 22, 23, 25 ; 2 Cor. xi. 2 ; John, iii. 29 ; Rom. vii. 4 ; Rev, xix. 7 ; xxi. 9. s Rev. xvii. 1, 2, 5. 3 Col. i. 18 ; Eph. i. 23. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 177 Lord appoint the profligate Charles II., or the Romanist James II., to be his vicegerent ? If not, the established churches had no more right to make either of those persons their head without the consent of Christ, than a convention of Irishmen might make the pope their supreme ruler under the Queen. Nor is it of any avail to allege that the Establish- ment has taken care to reserve the rights of Christ, -and allows not the State to enact any thing against his law. Were this as true as it is false, the infi- delity of the Establishment would remain apparent. Even if none of the laws of Christ were violated by the enactment of the State, each minister who allows the supremacy of the State in return for State pay acts like an ambassador, who, residing at a foreign court, accepts a pension from the foreign Govern- ment, and allows it to direct all his movements provided it enjoins nothing contrary to the express instructions of his own sovereign. Such an ambas- sador would be ignominiously dismissed by any prince in Europe. What account will the ambassadors of Christ have to give to him for consenting to be pen- sioners of the State ? But further ; it is a mere imagination that the State can exercise spiritual jurisdiction without vio- lating any of the laws of Christ, as a glance at its enactments may show. The supremacy of the State determines the settle- ment of pastors within the Establishment, its doctrine N 178 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. and worship, its discipline and government ; and in each of these points the Union violates the law of Christ. 1. Few things can exercise a more powerful in- fluence on the spiritual J character of the Establish- ment than the number and the character of its bishops. But it has no right or power to determine either. The Establishment cannot determine their number, the extent of their jurisdiction, or the number of churches placed under their control. Al- though this is a matter purely spiritual, it can be determined by Parliament alone. The 6th and 7tli Will. IV. cap. 77, has created two new bishoprics, and has remodelled the state of the old dioceses, with a view to a more equal distribution of episcopal duties. Parliament alone can determine how many successors of apostles there shall be, to distribute, as some suppose, spiritual gifts to the churches. The character of the bishops is still more im- portant to the Establishment than their numbers. The bishop has immense authority in his diocese. As no one may preach within it without his license, and he can grant or refuse his license, continue or with- draw it at his pleasure, curates are entirely under his power. Over incumbents, too, he exercises a vast influence, not only by force of law, but partly from the large patronage placed at his disposal, and partly from the wide-spread notion that his mandates ought to be obeyed in all things not positively sinful. For THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 179 some centuries the diocesans were elected by the ministers and people ; but in England the churches have left this important duty, which is exclusively spiritual, and which vitally affects the progress of religion in the country, to be fulfilled, for good or for evil, by the State. In Ireland the bishoprics are do- native by letters patent ; the patronage of the Welsh bishoprics is annexed to the Crown. In England, by 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 20, the king grants a license to the dean and chapter a very unfit body to elect, but at the same time nominates the person to be elected ; and if the dean and chapter do not proceed to elect that person within twenty days, each offender incurs a pramunire. The punishment by the writ of prtemunire* is, "That from the conviction the de- fendant shall be out of the king's protection ; his lands and tenements, goods and chattels, forfeited to the king ; and that his body shall remain in prison at the king's pleasure." 2 The consecration of a prelate is supposed by many to constitute him ,a successor of the apostles, with exclusive authority to ordain pastors for the churches, and with the power of com- municating spiritual gifts. The persons to receive this awful authority are exclusively selected by the ministers of the Crown, by prime-ministers and chan- cellors. Chancellors and premiers determine alone the line along which the apostolic influence is to de- scend from generation to generation, and the sources 1 Burn, vol. i. pp. 202, 203. 2 Encyc. Brit. art. " Prsemunire." 180 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. from which ordination, grace, and pastoral authority, are to be transmitted to the churches. The relation between the pastor and the church is much more close than that between the prelate and his clergy; and it being of great consequence to the welfare of the church that the numbers under the care of one pastor should not be beyond his superintendence, the churches should have the un- restricted right of securing to themselves as many pastors as they may require. But the State alone determines for the Establishment the number of pastors as well as the number of bishops. Great civic parishes grow up to be each a city, the Union gives the monopoly of instruction to the incumbent. Huge masses remain unvisited and untaught, but the untaught thousands have no right of choosing for themselves pastors whom they may trust. Church- building acts of Parliament alone could tardily and imperfectly untie their hands. Although the office of a pastor is purely spiritual, the inhabitants of St. George's, Westminster, Marylebone, St. Pancras, St. Luke's, Shoreditch, and other vast populations, can- not, without authority of Parliament, provide for their spiritual wants, nor multiply their pastors without leave from the State. The State, likewise, has settled for all the churches of the Establishment who shall be their pastors. The choice of right men is of the utmost importance to their welfare. It is their sacred and inalienable duty THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 181 to choose right men. The primitive church at Jeru- salem chose even an apostle. 1 Ministers, too, were chosen by the whole church. 2 For some centuries all the Christian churches chose their own pastors ; 3 to this day in Scotland the people must give " a call " before the pastor can be settled over them ; and nearly half the ministers of the Scotch Establishment lately separated themselves from the State because the State would not permit them to give their churches the right of a veto in the appointment of their pastors. But the churches in England united with the State have no voice in the selection of their pastors. Although, by Christ's law, none but faithful men are to be made pastors, and the churches are forbidden to receive any others, yet they allow any man to be forced upon them whom the State pronounces to be respectable. The patron alone presents any one whom he pleases out of the sixteen thousand clergy of Great Britain, though notoriously frivolous or unevangelical, though suspected even of immorality ; and the bishop can institute no other to be the pastor. If the bishop refuses to admit the patron's presentee within twenty- eight days, " the patron is entitled to call upon the ordinary to institute his clerk, and to enforce that right by quare impedit, unless the bishop specially states in his plea some reasonable cause wherefore the clerk presented is not fit." 4 The only "reasonable 1 Acts, i. 2 Acts, vi ; xiv. 23, Greek. a See next Section. 4 Burn, i. 156, cf. 182 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. cause" is legal proof of incapacity, heresy, or immo- rality. Want of spirituality, indolence, ill-temper, semi-papal attachment to ceremonies, the preaching of baptismal regeneration, the denial of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith, and an unde- vout life proving an unconverted heart, are not in the eye of the law reasonable causes. And thus, contrary to the law of Christ, to apostolic precedent, to the practice of the first three centuries of the Christian era, and to common sense, the churches, for the sake of the State-pay, allow ungodly pastors to be forced upon them by ungodly patrons through the fiat of the State. Thus the Union has given the State power to determine the number of prelates and pastors, and likewise to select the men ; and the churches, for the sake of their endowments, have abandoned their solemn duty to admit to be their pastors none but godly men who possess the qualifications for that office pointed out in the word of God. 2. The State pronounces on the doctrine to be taught in the Establishment. Individual Christians, and therefore churches, are called to maintain all the truth, to stand fast in the faith, to contend for the faith, and to grow in know- ledge. 1 Each church ought to be " the pillar and ground of the truth." 2 Pastors and people together 1 1 Cor. xvi. 13 ; Jude, 3 ; 2 Pet. iii. 18. 2 1 Tim. iii. 15. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 183 are " to hold forth the word of life ; 5)1 and " together to strive for the faith of the Gospel." 2 But the Esta- blishment is forbidden by the State to correct any error, or to make any advance in spiritual knowledge : and so it becomes the pillar and ground of error as well as truth, and holds forth not only the word of life, but doctrines contrary to that word. Two or three illustrations must here suffice. The baptismal services and the catechism contain the doctrine that infants are regenerated by the rite of baptism, a dogma which, as being contrary to scripture and to fact, the churches ought to repudiate. The twenty- sixth article declares of "evil" ministers who "have chief authority in the ministration of the word and sacraments." "Forasmuch as they do not the same in their OAvn name, but in Clirist's, and do minister by his commission and authority, we may use their ministry both in hearing the word of God and in the receiving of the sacraments." This is directly contrary to scripture, which forbids such men to be made pastors, 3 declares that Christ knows them not, 4 requires that they be excommunicated, 5 and forbids Christians to listen to them. 6 The Establishment ought to correct this error. In the service for order- ing the priests, the bishop, placing his hands on the head of the kneeling candidate, is ordered by the 1 Phil. ii. 16. 2 Phil. i. 27. 3 1 Tim. iii. 1-7 ; Tit. i. 5-9. 4 Matt. vii. 22, 23. * Gal. v. 12. c Matt viie 15 . John> x . 5 . 2 John, 10, 11. 184 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. State, through its act of uniformity, to say, " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost for- give, they arc forgiven ; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained." The thirty-sixth article de- clares : " The book of ordering of priests doth contain., &c. . . . Neither hath it any thing that of itself is superstitious and ungodly." This is surely erroneous, and the error ought to be corrected. But the State will allow no correction of these and similar errors in the prayer-book. The royal declaration prefixed to the articles is as follows : " The articles of the Church of England do contain the true doctrine of the Church of England, agreeable to God's word, ' which we do therefore ratify and confirm, requiring all our loving subjects to con- tinue in the uniform profession thereof, and prohi- biting the least difference from the said articles." By the thirty-sixth canon every preacher of the Es- tablishment must declare, "That the book of com- mon prayer and of ordering of bishops, priests, and deacons, containeth in it nothing contrary to tJic word of God" The fourth canon runs thus, " Whosoever shall hereafter affirm that the form of God's worship . . . contained in the book of common prayer . . . con- taineth any thing in it that is repugnant to the scrip- tures, let him be excommunicated ipso facto." The fifth canon adds, "Whosoever shall hereafter affirm THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 185 that any of the nine-and-thirty articles . . . are in any part . . . erroneous ... let him be excommunicated." These canons, though not binding on the laity, have the force of law to the clergy ; and thus the State compels all the clergy to pronounce those and other errors to be truths. And by 13 Elizabeth, cap. 12, s. 2, " If any person ecclesiastical, or which shall have ecclesiastical living, shall advisedly maintain or affirm any doctrine directly contrary or repugnant to any of the said articles, and being convened before a bishop of the diocese or ordinary, shall persist therein and not revoke his error, &c. ... he shall be deprived of his ecclesiastical promotions." 1 Thus the State has effectually prevented clergymen from attempting the correction of any errors in the doctrines of the Establishment; and to perpetuate these errors, no assembly of the Establishment is permitted to meet, which could revise the articles, correct the liturgy, or attempt any fuller profession of evangelical doctrine. 3. The supremacy of the State comes into colli- sion with the authority of Christ respecting the wor- ship of God. By the law of Christ Christians are to avoid those who cause divisions, Rom. xvi. 17, and there- fore ought not to listen to any bigoted preacher who excludes pious dissenters from the church of Christ, falsely terming them schismatics, however peaceable they may be. By the same law all ministers who do 1 Burn. vol. i. p. 105. 186 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. not preach the Gospel, but preach the doctrine of justification by faith and works, ought to be excluded from the church, Gal. i. 8 ; v. 12. And, therefore, if through neglect of discipline they remain still in the exercise of their ministry, Christians must, according to these directions, avoid them as though they were excluded. By the same law Christians are carefully to abstain from affording any sanction to ministers unsound in doctrine, 2 John, 10, 11. But in oppo- sition to these laws of Christ, the State has passed the following laws, which are still in force. By 1 Eliz. cap. 2, parishioners are to attend the parish church every Sunday and holyday, the penalty for neglect being twelve-pence, for which the church- wardens are to distrain. "No person can be duly discharged from attending his own parish church or warranted in resorting to another, unless he be first duly licensed by his ordinary, who is the proper judge of the reasonableness of his request." 1 By 3 James, cap. 4, persons not attending common prayer accord- ing to 1 Elizabeth, cap. 2, shall be distrained for twelve-pence ; and in default of distress be committed to prison till payment is made. By 23 Elizabeth, cap. 1, " Every person above the age of sixteen years, which shall not repair to some church, chapel, or usual place of common prayer, shall forfeit to the queen 20/. a mouth ;" arid by 21 Geo. III., cap. 32, " All the laws made and provided for frequenting of 1 Burn, vol. iii. p. 405. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 187 divine service on the Lord's day . . . shall be still in force, and executed against all persons who shall offend against the said laws." 1 It is the will of Christ that Christians should meet in every suitable place for prayer. " I will, therefore," says St. Paul, "that men pray every where."- It was by social prayer that the hundred and twenty disciples of Christ in an upper chamber at Jerusalem prepared for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. 3 By social prayer they fortified themselves against the threats of their persecutors. 4 By social prayer they sought the liberation of the apostle Peter from prison. 5 At Philippi, Paul united with devout Jews in prayer at the river's side. 6 At Miletus he prayed with the pastors of Ephesus ; r and at Tyre consecrated the sea-shore to the same sacred exercise. 8 Yet in the face of all these instances of social prayer, the State has enacted, by 52 Geo. III., cap. 155, "No congregation, or assembly for religious worship, of Protestants, at which there shall be present more than twenty persons, besides the immediate family and servants of the person in whose house, or upon whose premises, such meeting, assembly, or congre- gation, should be held, shall be permitted or allowed, unless the place of such meeting shall have been duly certified to the bishop of the diocese, the archdeacon, 1 Burn, vol. iii. pp. 406-408. a 1 Tim. ii. 8. 3 Acts, i. 14. 4 Acts, iv. 23, 24. & Acts, xiii. 12. Acts, xvi. 13-16. 7 Acts, xx. 36. 8 Acts, xxi. 5. 188 PRINCIPLES OE THE UNION. or the justices of the peace." 1 The last provision of this statute being limited to dissenters, 2 the State still prohibits members of the Establishment from meeting for prayer in any greater number than twenty, besides the family. Since dissenters may now freely meet in any numbers, this restriction upon social prayer is only retained upon ecclesiastical grounds, on which grounds alone it was advocated by the bishop of Exeter and by Lord Brougham when it was last brought before the House of Lords, the bishop contending that such meetings for worship were contrary to the spirit of the 23d article, and Lord Brougham urging that they would prevent pa- rishioners from attending at the parish churches. 4. The State governs the churches and regulates their discipline. Church discipline consists chiefly in regulating the admission of persons to baptism and the Lord's supper, and in inflicting the censures of the church on its offending members. Our Lord has signified his will on these points, and has directed how his will is to be executed. The power of government is placed by the authority of Christ in the congregation itself, and can be devolved on no one else. The presbyters of each church have by his authority the general superintendence. They are therefore called I, bishops or superintendents, 3 and 1 Burn, vol. ii. p. 220. 2 Ibid. 3 Acts, xx. 28 ; Phil. i. 1 ; 1 Tim. iii. 2 ; Tit. i. 5-7. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 189 pastors or shepherds, 1 and they are exhorted VO^KI- vstv, to feed the church of God, as a shepherd does his flock; 2 and St. Peter urged them to the same duty thus : " The elders which are among you I exhort .... Feed the flock of God which is among you, iKKjzoTTovvrzg, taking the oversight" 3 And their pastoral office is termed tTriffzovrj, the episcopate, the superintendence. 4 They are further called rulers, Kgzfffivrspoi TrgoiGTuTzg ; and St. Paul says to the churches respecting them, " Obey them that have the rule over you, rolg qyovp&voig vpuv, and submit your- selves."'' But while presbyters are thus called to superintend their churches, the church itself, com- prising both ministers and congregation, has the ultimate supreme power of government over itself. Thus all the church united, as we have seen, with the eleven apostles to select the two brethren, of which one was to be chosen by lot to fill the place of the apostate apostle Judas ; the same church chose their deacons ; and the churches of Asia Minor, guided by Paul and Barnabas, elected their pastors. Other churches elected their messengers, called avd- GTO\OI ixxfyffiuv, who accompanied St. Paul to convey their contributions to Jerusalem. 6 When a great doctrinal dispute arose at Antioch, the congregation at Jerusalem united with the apostles and elders to 1 Eph. iv. 11 ; 1 Pet. v. 4. 9 Acts, xx. 28 ; 1 Pet. v. 2. 3 1 Pet. v. 1, 2. * 1 Tim. Hi. 1. 4 Heb. xiii. 17. 2 Cor. viii. 19, 23. 190 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. settle it. 1 If a dispute arose between two Christians, they were to refer it to the congregation. 2 The church at Rome was directed to avoid schismatics; 3 the congregation at Corinth was urged to excommu- nicate an offending member; 4 and the congregation at Thessalonica was to withdraw from every one who disregarded the precepts given to them by Christ's apostle. 5 The churches being thus appointed by Christ to exercise self-government, which is essential to their fidelity, purity, and vigour, have received also divine instructions respecting the discipline which they are to exercise. Here let us notice only two main points, the admission and the exclusion of members. Re- specting the first, they are instructed by our Lord and his apostles to admit no one into church-fellow- ship by baptism except upon a credible profession of repentance and faith. 6 It is, therefore, the will of Christ that none but believers shall be baptised, that the churches may be associations of " saints and faithful brethren." And if any infants are to be baptised, they must be the infants of saints and faithful brethren who heartily dedicate them to God through Christ, and will train them up for him. But as some ungodly persons, like Simon of 1 Acts, xv. 12-29. 2 Matt, xviii. 17 ; 1 Cor. vi. 4. 3 Rom. xvi. 17. 4 1 Cor v. 11, 13. * 2 Thess. iii. 6, 14. 6 Mark, xvi. 15, 16 ; Acts, ii. 38 ; viii. 36, 37 ; 1 Pet. iii. 21 ; Acts, viii. 12; ix. 6, 11, 17, 18 ; x. 44-48 ; xvi. 14, 15, 31, 34 ; xviii. 8. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 191 Samaria, will necessarily intrude themselves into fel- lowship with the churches through a profession of faith without conversion of heart, 1 our Lord has further directed the churches to exclude from their fellowship all open offenders against the law of God. The following are some of the directions which we have received upon this subject : " Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbe- lievers : for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? and ivhat communion hath light icith darkness ? and what concord hath Christ with Belial ? or what part hath he that believeth ivith an injidel ? Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye sepa- rate, saith the Lord.". . . / would they were even cut off which trouble you"* It is therefore the will of Christ that the churches should not allow unbelievers to come to his table. " I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner ; with such an one no not to eat. Therefore put aivay from among yourselves that wicked person*. . . I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou, also, them 1 Acts, viii. 13-23. 2 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. 3 Gal. v. 12. 1 Cor. v. 11, 12. 192 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate!' 1 It is the will of Christ that all immoral per- sons should be refused admission to the table of the Lord, and be put out of communion with the church. " Now, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them." . . . A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject."* It is the will of Christ that quarrelsome and factious persons be excluded from the Lord's table. " If thy brother trespass against thee, go, fyc. . . . but if he shall neglect to hear the church, let him be to thee as a heathen man and a publican* . . . Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which ye received of us. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company ivith him, that he may be ashamed." 5 It is the will of Christ that all persons who offend in any way against his law, and do not repent of it, should be excluded from fellowship with the church, and therefore from the Lord's table. 1 Rev. ii. 14, 15. 2 Rom. xvi. 17. 8 Tit. iii. 10. Aifirmoti iitfyuvrov . . . vragaircv. " Aiotrixos, one who creates dissensions, introduces errors, &c., a factious person." ROBINSON'S Lex. of the N. T. " Sectarius, qui praecepta et mores sequitur a prseceptis institu- tisque Christi alienissimos." SCHLEUSNER. 4 Matt, xviii. 15-17. 2 Thess. iii. 6, 14. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 193 On the other hand, it is equally the will of Christ that all the Christians of any place should have fellowship with each other as brethren ; and as he has invited all believers to his table (1 Cor. xi. 23, 25), no church has a right to exclude any of his invited guests. Whatever their doctrinal or prac- tical differences, all real believers received by Christ are bound to receive each another. " One is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. 1 . . . Him that is weak in the faith receive ye?. . . Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God." 3 Christian churches cannot, therefore, abandon this duty of self-government, nor allow any dictation from others respecting the admission or exclusion of mem- bers, without palpable disregard to the will of Christ. But the Anglican Churches have done both these things. First, how does any congregation of the Establishment govern itself? The church has no voice whatever in the admission or exclusion of mem- bers : it holds no meetings for brotherly communion, for consultation respecting its spiritual improvement, for consideration of the means by which it may advance the cause of Christ. It is merged in the Establishment. Then the Establishment itself is without self-government. It has no representative assembly, for the Convocation is a synod of digni- taries and proctors which would be a mockery of 1 Matt, xxiii. 8. * Rom. xiv. 1. 3 Rom. xv. 7. O 194 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. representation ; and even that mockery has not sat to transact business since the year 1717. 1 Besides, were the Convocation to sit, no canon can be enacted without permission of the Crown. 2 Nor can the assent of the Crown make any canon binding on the Anglican Churches without it be ratified by act of Parliament ; 3 so that the Establishment is reduced by the Union to complete inactivity. It can make for itself no law, rectify no abuse, correct no error, seek no improvement ; the State is watching it as a tiger an antelope, and allows not the slightest move- ment. All things else are in progress, but the laws and the constitutions of the Establishment remain century after century unrevised and unchangeable. Each church, according to the will of Christ, should continually, by its self-government, adapt itself to the highest degree of civilisation ; but the State forbids, and the churches prefer the mandate of the State to the command of Christ. The churches having criminally disregarded their duty of self-government, are no longer able to fulfil the will of Christ with reference to the admission of members. A church ought to be an association of saints and faithful brethren, and all admitted into the association ought to afford, by their conduct and profession, reason to hope that they are so too. None, therefore, are to be baptised but those who profess to repent and believe in Christ. Such is 1 Burn, vol. ii. p. 30. * Ibid. p. 24. a Ibid. p. 27. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 195 Christ's order; but the church has received another order, by canon 68, which is as follows : " No minister shall refuse or delay to christen any child . . . that is brought to the church to him on Sun- days or holydays to be christened ; . . . and if he shall refuse to christen, ... he shall be suspended by the bishop of the diocese from his ministry by the space of three months." This canon, passed by a synod of dignitaries and proctors, would not bind the pastors of churches unless it had been confirmed by the Crown ; but the assent of the Crown has made it law, and it has thus changed the church from an assembly of " saints and faithful brethren" into a congeries of the whole population of each district. Swarming myriads from Marylebone, St. Pancras, Shoreditch, and St. Luke's, bring their myriads of children to be christened without the remotest idea of dedicating them to God or of training them for God. These become members of the church, till the church becomes not merely the world, but com- prises the most disreputable part of the world ; its members living without worship, without the bible, without pastoral superintendence, without any appear- ance of religion, and, perhaps, without common mo- rality. And the churches of Christ and his ministers are the State's agents in thus violating Christ's com- mands. According to Christ's law, all such members ought to be expelled by the church, while all his dis- 196 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. ciples should be freely admitted to communion ; but the churches have received different orders from the Convocation and the Crown. Whereas all believers ought to be admitted to the Lord's table, the court of Arches, acting by authority of the Crown, will sustain any minister who excludes from the Lord's table any person, however sound in faith and holy in life, however pious and devoted, who refuses to be confirmed, 1 or belongs to another parish, 2 or is a dissenter, 3 or scruples to kneel at the Lord's table, 4 or who speaks against the king's authority in eccle- siastical causes. 5 But on the other hand, the parish- ioners generally have a right to attend at the table, however worldly and frivolous their lives may be. By 1 Ed. VI. cap. 1, " The minister shall not, with- out lawful cause, deny the same (the Lord's supper) to any person that will devoutly and humbly desire it." To be " an open and notorious evil liver," and to be " living in malice and hatred," are lawful causes, provided that they are capable of legal proof ; but the court of Arches, acting by authority of the Crown, will punish any minister who, with the con- currence of the whole church, of which he is the pastor, should refuse the communion to any uncon- verted and ungodly person whom he could not legally prove to be an open and. notorious evil liver, or to be living in malice and hatred. 1 Rubric to the Order of Confirmation. * Can. 28. 3 Can. 27. 4 Ibid. * Ibid. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 197 Few persons, therefore, become the subjects of church-censures for any causes, because each local church has devolved its duty upon an ecclesiastical court, over which a stranger to the case presides by authority, not of the congregation, but of the Crown, who must have legal evidence, and must judge accord- ing to legal precedents. But the law of Christ is especially set aside when various offences are committed by those who hold the situation of pastors. All the rules above-mentioned for the exclusion of offending members from the church direct equally the exclusion of offending mi- nisters. And there are other special directions con- cerning these. Immoral ministers are altogether dis- owned by Christ. 1 They are weeds sown in his field by his enemy ; 2 they are children of the wicked one ; 3 they are strangers, whom the sheep of Christ must not follow.* And those ministers who teach false doctrine instead of the Gospel are ministers of Satan. 5 They are in danger of the curse of God ; 6 they ought to be cut off from the church ; 7 and no Christian must bid them God speed. 8 Yet an immoral Anglican minister, or one who perverts the Gospel, cannot be put away by the con- gregation whom he is leading to destruction. They have abdicated their rights for the sake of the State's bribe ; and now the State's functionary alone, who 1 Matt. vii. 23. 8 Matt. xiii. 23. 3 Matt. xiii. 38. 4 John, x. 6. * 2 Cor. xi. 13-15. Gal. i. 8. 7 Gal. v. 12. 2 John, 10. 198 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. presides in the court of Arches, can determine what penalty shall be paid by the clergyman so offending. A pastor may be unacquainted with the way of salva- tion ; he may deny the total ruin of man, salvation by grace through faith, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the word of God ; he may adjust his standard of practice, not to the law of Christ, but to the maxims of the world ; but of all this the State functionary can take no cog- nisance. And how far he is likely, as a substitute for the church, to enforce the law of Christ for the exclusion of a minister whose offences he can legally investigate, we have learned by many painful in- stances in the last few years. 5. Ere our Lord left the world, he said to his disciples, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature;" 1 and added, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 2 He himself preached the Gospel on the .mountain- side, 3 on the shore of the lake,* and through all the villages and towns of Galilee. 5 After his death his disciples preached every where ; 6 and every zealous preacher who went forth to the heathen was to be helped in his work. 7 But the State has, in various ways, hindered the pastors of the Establishment from obeying these precepts. 1 Mark, xvi. 16. 2 Matt, xxviii. 20. 3 Matt. v. 1. 4 Matt. xiii. 1-3. s Matt. iv. 23 ; ix. 35 ; xi. 1. 6 Acts. viii. 1-4 ; xi. 19. ' 3 John, 6-8. THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 199 It has several times suspended the preaching of the Gospel altogether within the Establishment till further order from the Crown, and the Crown has the same prerogative now. Although numbers of unconverted and irreligious men are, it is to be feared, ordained within the Es- tablishment, the law gives to each of these the exclu- sive right to preach in his parish. So that while in many parishes ungodly incumbents cannot fulfil the law of Christ by preaching the Gospel to the people, the State prohibits any godly ministers within the Establishment from fulfilling it. However extensive a parish may be, and however negligent the legal pastor may be, no chapel- of-ease may be erected within the parish by the people with- out consent of the diocesan, patron, and incumbent, except in some cases specified by recent church- building acts. However negligent, or even vicious, a pastor may be, no preacher of the Establishment may preach in any church or chapel within the limits of the parish without his consent. Whatever ignorance or irreligion may prevail in a diocese, no minister without a benefice in the diocese, however exemplary, wise, and holy he may be, has any right to officiate within it in any way whatever without the license of the bishop. So that when the State places an ungodly bishop over any diocese, it enables him, to a great extent, to exclude the Gospel from the churches within his territory. 200 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. Any clergyman may be by law suspended for preaching in any place which is not licensed by the bishop, although there may be thousands of persons in his immediate neighbourhood who never hear the Gospel preached, and who will not come to the parish church. If this supremacy of the State is in itself a dis- honour done to Christ, and if it practically sets aside many of his commands, how can those who wish to honour him perpetuate it by upholding the Union between the State and the Church? To allow any association of men not authorised by him, and, still more, to allow an association, which cannot but, from its constitution, be composed of worldly men, to direct the administration of the churches of Christ in spiritual things, manifests in the churches which consent to it a disregard .to the authority and to the honour of Jesus Christ, on the criminality of which it is painful to reflect. In that guilt, too, every member of the Establishment who does not openly protest against the Union must be involved. Recall the principles of the supremacy which have just been stated, and then consider what is the character of the usurpation on the part of the State and of the subserviency on the part of each of the churches. The State being necessarily composed of a ma- jority of worldly men, maintains its superintendence over the churches, not for the sake of the Gospel which they do not receive, but for the purposes of THE SUPREMACY OF THE STATE. 201 government, which they can appreciate : " When these men thrust themselves in to regulate religious affairs, they are more or less culpable according as the consciences of their subjects have or have not spon- taneously placed themselves under the yoke ; but they are culpable, because every application of sacred things to secular uses participates in the character of sacrilege. In the same manner, those who ally them- selves with the State are more or less culpable, according as they have invited or only accepted this alliance with the governing power. But they are culpable ; and for the crime which they commit as churches there is no other name than that of adultery. Thus sacrilege and adultery are the two characters of the Union, according as one thinks of the State, which has seized a treasure intrusted to the church, which ought to have been inviolable, or of the church which has surrendered it ... The church, which is the soul of the human race, has God for her husband. To him she has sworn an entire fidelity. She has sworn to obey none but him, and to recognise in him alone the inalienable rights of a husband. But the Union which she contracts, as a spiritual society, with a society which has in it nothing spi- ritual, transferring to that secular society the authority which belongs to God alone, reduces her to a state of flagrant and permanent adultery." 1 1 Vinet, " Essai sur la Manifestation des Convictions Religieuses," pp. 231,232. 202 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. SECTION III. Of Patronage. According to the apostolic precedents, which have the force of laws among Christians, the churches should elect their ministers. The whole congregation at Jerusalem selected the two brethren, one of whom was to be chosen by lot to fill the place of the apostate Judas. 1 The~whole congregation chose their deacons ; 8 and the appointment of pastors for the churches of Asia Minor by Paul and Barnabas is thus recorded by Luke : " When they had elected elders for them by the show of hands in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Z,ord."* Congre- gational election having thus been instituted by the I Acts, i. a Acts, vi. 3 Acts, xiv. 23. The words are, Xugorovviraiirts $1 aiiroTs irgifffivTi^auf KO.T' t**Xrtia in the civil ixxKn/ria. signified always election by suffrage, so it bore the same signification in the Christian ix>.rifia. Refert enim Lucas constitutes esse per ecclesias presbyteros a Paulo et Barnaba : sed rationem vel modum simul notat quum dicit, factum id esse suffragiis : %ngoTovtiffavris , inquit, Tgio-fii/Tigou; x,ar ix.xXrnriy.v. Calv. Inst. lib. iv. cap. iii. sec. 15. Xf/jaravHa-avTsy a.lr',ij 'rtgovs, &c. quum ipsi per suffragia creassent per singulas ecclesias presbyteros. Ortum est hoc verbum ex Grsecorum cousuetudine, qui porrectis manibus suffragia ferebant. Est autem notanda vis hujus verbi, ut Paulum ac Barnabam sciamus nihil private arbitrio gessisse nee ullam in ecclesia exercuisse tyrannidem, nihil denique tale fecisse quale hodie Romanus Papa, et ipsius asseclse quos ordinaries vocant. Beza, ad loc. Acts, xiv. 23. Et cum suffragiis creassent illis per singulas ecclesias presbyteros, &c. Iterum commendatur nobis ordinaria electio Eligitur enim com- munibus populi suffragiis, qui optimorum testimonio probatus est. Bullinger, ad loc. Quoniam evangelii profectus id postulabat, ut apostoli per varias regiones vagarentur, delectos populi suffragiis per singulas civitates presbyteros prse- fecerunt illis, ut absentium apostolorum vices gererent. Pellican, ad loc. Acts, xiv. 23. " Quumque ipsis per suffragia creassent," &c. Piscator, ad loc. " E dopo ch' ebbero loro per ciascuna chiesa ordinati, per voti communi, degli anziani." Diodati. When they had by common votes ordained, viz. with the approbation and consent of the churches, to whom this right was anciently preserved, even from the apostles' time. Diodati, ad loc. Notandum quod apostoli .... presbyteros constituerint per ^ugaTav/av sive suffragia fidelium Erasmus hie, " ut intelligamus suffragiis de- lectos." .... Grotius, " accessisse consensum plebis credibile est ob id, quod in re minori supra habuimus." Cap. vi. 2, 8. Ergo ^n^oravtiv hie dicitur de apostolis, quemadmodum apud Demost. de vattahrxif, qui suffragiis prcesidebant. Sequentibus temporibus vocabulum ^s/ga-rav/a, cum plebs suf- fragari desiisset, pro episcopal! creatione presbyterorum, et %ugehffia usur- patum est. Sed diu etiam in Ecclesia Romana retentum est, ut episcopus certe non sine populi assensu crearetur. Cocceius, ad loc. Xiigortts7v apud Graecos veteres proprie et primarie significat eligere, vel per suffragia creare : tandem vero, ut multte voces alia, significationem mu- tavit ; valetque tantum creare, vel constituere, vel ordinare ; quo sensu ver- bum hoc usurpat turn Philo .... turn Lucianus .... turn Maximus Tyrius. Poole, ad loc. 204 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. rian historian, Bingham the Episcopalian collector of ecclesiastical antiquities, Dean Waddington, Paolo " When they had," with the concurrent suffrage of the people, " consti- tuted presbyters for them in every church." The old English bible trans- lated it, " When they had ordained them elders by election." The cele- brated author just mentioned (Mr. Harrington) has endeavoured largely to vindicate this interpretation from the exceptions of Dr. Hammond, Dr. Sea- man, and others, who make ^it^ravia the same with %tigetwi*. Doddridge, ad loc. Acts, xiv. 23. "When they had ordained them elders by election in every church." Geneva Bible. " When they had ordained them elders by election in every congrega- tion." Tyndale, Cranmer. Martin. " So they do force this word here to induce the people's elec- tion ; and yet in their churches in England the people elect not ministers, but their bishop. Whereas the holy scripture saith, they ordained to the people ; and whatsoever force the word hath, it is here spoken of the apostles, and pertaineth not to the people." Fulke. " We mean not to enforce any other election than the word doth signify ; neither do our bishops (if they do well) ordain any ministers or priests without the testimony of the people, or at leastwise of such as be of most credit where they are known. Where you use the pronoun ai/roTt, ' to them,' as though the people gave no consent nor testimony, it is more than ridiculous, and, beside that, contrary to the practice of the primitive church for many hundred years after the apostles. That the word ^i^oroila. by the fathers of the church since the apostles, hath been drawn to other significa- tion than it had before, it is no reason to teach us how it was used by the apostles." Martin " Concerning ^ti^orovia,, St. Jerome telleth them in chap. 58 Esai, that it signifieth giving of holy orders, which is done not only by prayer of the voice, but by the imposition of the hand . . . Where these great etymologists, that so strain the original nature of this word to profane stretching forth the hand in elections, may learn another ecclesiastical etymo- logy thereof .... to wit, putting forth the hand to give orders." Fulke. " The testimony of St. Jerome, whom you cite, you understand not .... His purpose is not to tell what %tiorovia properly doth signify, but that imposition of hands is required in lawful ordination, which many did understand by the word %iigoTona, although in that place it signified no such matter. And, therefore, you must seek further authority to prove your eccle- siastical etymology, that ^n^avia signifieth putting forth of the hands to give orders. The places you quote in the margin, out of the titles of Nazianzen's Sermons, are to no purpose, although they were in the text of his homilies. For it appeareth not, although by synecdoche the whole order of making clerks were called %iigaratia, that election was excluded where there was or- dination by imposition of hands. As for that you cite out of Ignatius, it PATRONAGE. 205 Sarpi the Roman Catholic historian of the proceedings of the Council of Trent, and Beza one of the fathers of the Calvinistic churches, Neander the Lutheran his- proveth against you, that %tiorovi~v differeth from imposition of hands ; be- cause it is made a distinct office from %ngt>hri7v, that signifieth to lay on hands : and so ^n^aravix and i-rihtrif ruv x'.iftov by your own author do differ." A Defence of the English Translations of the Bible against the Cavils of Gregory Martin, by William Fulke, D.D. Mauler of Pembroke Hall, Cam- bridge. Edition of Parker Society, pp. 245-248. Acts, xiv. 23. " Lorsque par 1'avis des assemblies, ils eurent tabli des pretres ou des pasteurs dans chaque eglise," &c. Le Sueur, Histoire de I' Eglise. Geneva, 1674. P. 159. To all this argument it is objected that the word ^i^oToviTv may mean, either, first, to ordain by imposition of hands (Hammond in Dod. ad loc.) ; or, secondly, to select or appoint, as the word r^a^n^araviu, Acts, x. 41 (Bloornfield, Recensio ad loc.) : but that it cannot mean " to constitute those whom others have elected." (Campbell and Bloomfield.} The first of these senses is inadmissible, because the word %iiasravia never had the sense of %tigofaniv hie dicitur de 206 PRINCIPLES OF THE UNION. torian of our own days, Bost the author of " The History of the Moravian Brethren," and even Hooker with his strong antipopular predilections, all ac- apostolis, quemadmodum apud Demosthenem de vepohrais , qui svffragiis prae- sidebant." One of the passages to which he may allude is the following, in the oration against Timocrates : Talv S lofitav ruv xuftiwv ft I%t7va> Kuffu.i trdivo. lav W It voji.o6ira.i(. Tort 3t i%t7vai oua' "jrewrov (AIV vrtfi rov xiij&tvov, n OOKII t^irnono; itnai TM OH/AW rcav aiuv, * ei> : iwra. vrti rau TI^'.VOIJ. 'OHOTEPON A' 'AN XEIPOTONH- 'OI NOMOeETAI, TOTTON r EINAI. (Oratores Grseci, Reiske, vol. i. p. 710.) The office of the vofe./>0t-To*lay, and as instituting the election of the presbyters ^n^Totil-o s