THE PAPAL
AND
HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM
tfiton of tfje JUto
JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY.
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
OK
Accessio
Clas
THE PAPAL
AND
HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM, &c.
THE PAPAL
HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM
COMPARED WITH THE
lUltgton of tfjr Neto 2Tr 0taumtt<
" A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in
the land. The Prophets prophecy falsely, and the
Priests bear rule by their means ; and my people
love to have it so ; and what will ye do in the end
thereof." Jer. v. 30, 31.
LONDON:
CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE-STREET WITHOUT.
1843.
INTRODUCTION.
WHEN I speak of the Papal and Hierarchical
system, I do not mean to confine either my
own view or that of my readers, to the Church
of Rome. I speak rather of the system which
places man under the rule of man, in matters
of religion the laity, more particularly, under
the rule of the clergy ; so that human wisdom
and authority are found, in various degrees, to
usurp the place of pure, divine truth. So also
by the religion of the New Testament, I mean
the religion of Him of whom the book testifies
even Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between
God and man ; who has bought us with his
blood, who is the sole High Priest of our pro-
fession, who rules the universal church by his
86744
VI INTRODUCTION.
Spirit, and who will come again in glory, to
render unto every man according to his works.
The Greek church has its hierarchy under
the supreme government of a patriarch. The
episcopacy of the Anglican church is of a far
less superstitious character; yet it presents to
our view a fabric of the same kind, under the
rule or headship of a temporal monarch. The
Scotch kirk is governed by its synod of elders,
under the direction of a Moderator ; the Metho-
dists, by a similar council, composed of their
ordained ministers ; and there are few Christian
sects which are destitute of some form or other
of ecclesiastical domination. But it is in Rome
that we are to seek for the system of man's
authority over man, in religion, carried out into
its full and legitimate results. The Romish
church, seated in temporal as well as spiritual
authority upon her seven hills, professes to
spread her arms over the whole earth ; she
arranges her hosts of ecclesiastical soldiers with
a perfect precision ; she rejoices in her army of
monks, friars, and priests, married only to her-
INTRODUCTION. Vll
self; she clothes her hierarchy in garments of
beauty, and hesitates not to claim and usurp
the sacerdotal office. " Absolute and implicit
obedience to superiors," is the motto inscribed
on her whole polity ; and while she boasts her-
self in her long array of general councils, her
true rest is in the never-dying central authority
of her Pope, the successor of the chief of the
apostles, the vicar and visible representative of
Jesus Christ.
I propose in the following treatise, to take an
account of some of the principal features which
mark the views and practices of the church of
Rome, and to contrast them with what I believe
to be pure Christianity ; and in so doing I shall
probably have to disclaim many things which
are far from being exclusively Romish. These
are still adhered to by various classes of believers
by every one in its own way and measure ;
but they have nevertheless an affinity to the
Papal and Hierarchical system, in that large
sense of the terms, to which I have already
adverted.
Vlll INTRODUCTION.
To this task I venture to apply myself for the
truth's sake, but without the least feeling of
jealousy or ill-will towards any denomination of
my fellow believers. I rejoice in the conviction
that there are many vital Christians among all
the orthodox denominations, Roman Catholics
included, who are drinking of the same Spirit ;
and who, therefore, even though separated from
each other in place or circumstances, are " bap-
tized" by that "one Spirit, into one body."
And possibly there may be some who disclaim
all sectarian distinctions, who nevertheless do
truly form a part of the mystical body of Christ.
As I am far from confining my view of antichrist
to any one denomination of Christians (I
believe antichrist may be found lurking in
almost every existing sect) so I do not hesitate
to allow that under a vast variety of names and
conditions, Christ has a people of his own, who,
as they abide in the faith and patience of the
saints, " shall never perish," neither shall any
man pluck them out of his hands.
I beg it may be understood that I select the
INTRODUCTION. IX
Romish church in this discussion, because I con-
sider her to present the extreme case of the
dependence of man on man, in the things of
God a dependence which I hold to be the main
cause of the extent of her departure from simple
Christianity. I am well aware that many of the
distinctive errors of that church are opposed and
rejected by all the Protestant communities;
nevertheless, we ought all to look to ourselves,
lest any thing of the same leaven should be
found lurking within our own borders. " Know
ye not," said the apostle to the Corinthian
church, and by implication to all Christians in
every age, " Know ye not that ye are the
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you ? If any man defile the temple
of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of
God is holy, which temple ye are."
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE.
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES . . 1
CHAPTER II
ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN . . 37
CHAPTER III.
ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER BY THE
PROFESSING CHURCH OF CHRIST . . .54
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF THE PRIESTHOOD 73
CHAPTER V.
ON DIVINE WORSHIP . 106
Xll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
PAGE.
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY . . . .134
CHAPTER VII.
ON THE SACRAMENTS 165
CHAPTER VIII.
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION . . 220
CONCLUSION . 264
THE
PAPAL & HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM
COMPARED WITH THE
Belfgton of tfc Jiefo
CHAPTER I.
ON THE HOLY SCEIPTURES.
No ONE who has investigated the subject can
seriously entertain the notion that the canon of
Scripture has been arbitrarily fixed by the autho-
rity of man. When our Lord Jesus Christ was
upon earth, as a teacher and preacher amongst the
Jews, it was his constant practice to refer to those
books which were regarded by that people to be
divine ; and while he never failed to speak of them
as such, he made no distinction between one book
and another, as it relates to their authority. The
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
law, containing the five books of Moses, the Pro-
phets, including the historical books as well as the
major and minor Prophets, from Joshua to Malachi
and the Psalms, or Hagiographa, comprising the
book of Job, the Psalms of David and others, and all
the works of Solomon, were alike sacred in his view
-an indivisible collection, from which nothing
might be taken, and to which nothing might be
added, except from the same immediate and plenary
inspiration. This collection of writings all in the
Hebrew language, and all studiously preserved among
the Jews from ancient times and guarded, since the
coming of Christ, both by Jews and Christians is
unquestionably the same as that which is now in our
hands, and which is universally known and accepted
as constituting the Old Testament, These are the
writings, to the exclusion of all others, to which
the apostle Paul alludes, when he says to Timothy,
"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scrip-
tures, which are ^able to make thee wise unto
salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus
all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," &c.
The writings which comprise the New Testa-
ment are individually established to be the genuine
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 3
work of the apostles and their companions, and
therefore of divine authority, by a variety of his-
torical, critical, and internal proofs, which have
satisfied not merely the wisdom of the hierarchy,
but the good sense of the world. And now at the
end of about eighteen centuries from the time when
these works were written, there is less dispute among
men, respecting the canon of the New Testament,
than in any preceding age of the church. Under the
gracious superintendence of a good Providence, the
truth of that canon has been established on so broad
a basis, both of learning and experience, as to be in-
capable of being ever again shaken. So early as in
the days of Eusebius (A.D. 315), the four gospels, the
book of Acts, the thirteen epistles of Paul which
bear his name, and the first epistles of John and
Peter, i. e. about five-sixths of the whole volume,
(very generally diffused as these writings were, and
freely read by all descriptions of people) were
"universally acknowledged" as genuine composi-
tions and Holy Scripture. Some persons, indeed,
in those days, doubted the authenticity of the re-
maining books, viz. the second epistle of Peter,
the second and third epistles of John, the epistles
B 2
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
of James and Jude, and the Revelation ; while
some little shade was thrown over the epistle to
the Hebrews, by the uncertainty of the question,
whether it was written by Paul.
But all these doubts have long since been
cleared away in the public mind of Christendom.
It is now generally understood, that the weight of
evidence in favour of the Pauline origin of that
epistle is not to be resisted. In the mean time, its
apostolic date is unquestionable ; and the scrip-
tural wisdom and efficacy, both of this and the other
excepted books, as contrasted with many spurious pro-
ductions of the first, second, and third centuries false
gospels, false epistles, and false visions are plainly
such as proclaim them to be, like the other Scrip-
tures, the work of God, given forth by inspiration,
and stamped with the seal of direct divine authorit} r .
Let it be clearly understood, that in acknowledg-
ing the list of inspired books, both of the Old and
New Testament, we do not follow the authority of
any particular church, or of any ecclesiastical
council. With regard to the Old Testament, we
follow the example, and depend on the authority,
of Jesus Christ himself and his apostles. With
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. O
respect to the New Testament, we abide in the
first place, by its own testimony to the inspiration
of its authors. Secondly, we follow the general
consent of the Christian public, gradually de-
veloping itself from the first century downward ;
fixed with wonderful unanimity by the end of the
fourth century ; and since that period, unshaken by
all the storms of infidelity, and confirmed, not only
by the labours of a multitude of critics, but by the
common judgment and feeling of mankind.
There are few circumstances for which the
friends of Christianity ought to be more grateful
than the preservation of the text of Holy Scrip-
ture. We will not call it miraculous, but we may
truly describe it as the special provision of an ever-
watchful Providence. Who was it that raised up
the textual doctors among the Jews, who devoted
their livelong hours to arranging the points and
accents, counting the letters, and fixing the middle
words of the several books of Hebrew Scripture ?
To whom are we to return thanks for the follow-
ing important facts 1 ; that a most accurate ver-
sion of the New Testament was made into Syriac,
so early as the second, or probably the first cen-
6 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
tury ; and that other versions almost equally exact
soon followed ; 2 ; that the early fathers of the
church, even when animated with little better than
controversial zeal, were induced to rifle the whole
volume for quotations, which now, in their abundance
and uniformity, form one principal criterion for the
settlement of the text ; and 3 ; that copies of this
sacred book were multiplied in every direction with
so little inaccuracy ? Surely we have to thank Him
who is the Holy Head of his own church, and whose
gracious will it was to bestow upon her a divinely
authorized record of doctrines to be believed, and
duties to be performed, which should remain unim-
paired and indestructible to the end of time. It
would be difficult to calculate the amount of learning
and industry which have been applied to the investi-
gation and settlement of the text of Scripture ; viz.
in the rigid and careful application of the three
criteria now mentioned versions, quotations by
the fathers, and manuscript copies ; and certainly
the Kennicotts and De Rossis, as it regards the
Hebrew books ; and the Mills, Wetsteins, Gries-
bachs, &c., as it relates to the Greek Testament,
have not laboured in vain. So extensively and
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 7
completely sifted have been the various authorities
which apply to the subject, that we may consider
ourselves to have now arrived at the final result ; and
what is it ? Nothing less than this that both the
Hebrew and Greek Scriptures are cleared from every
cloud of doubt ; that from amidst a vast multitude
of various readings of little importance, they have
come forth uninjured, because essentially unaltered
that they have not been deprived of a single historical
fact, of a single doctrinal truth, of a single moral
precept.
When Paul declared that " all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God," he made no distinctions between
the different kinds of writing of which the Old Tes-
tament is composed. Independently of all conside-
rations respecting the writers their individual
character or condition of mind, or the degree of
consciousness which they severally enjoyed of a divine
influence he simply avers that the writings which
they produced were " given by inspiration of God," a
view of the subject which is fully substantiated by the
example and authority of our Saviour himself. We
cannot for a moment doubt that the inspiration of the
apostles and evangelists had the same result ; and that
8 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
their works also whether historical, prophetical, or
didactic are, like the books of the Old Testament, all
divine, and all equal in point of authority. It is
matter of satisfaction and thankfulness, that the
attempts which have been made by many modern
critics to weaken the scriptural view of the inspiration
of Scripture itself, the distinctions which some have
drawn between part and part, and the notion that
inspiration is more or less effective according to
the nature of the subject in hand have very much
disappeared. All such wire-drawing has proved
itself to be a failure ; and Christians in the nine-
teenth century are evidently brought to a con-
firmed agreement that the Holy Scriptures, from
the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation
the actual writings the bulk, substance, and
totality of the book are, as the early Quakers used
often to express themselves, the WORDS OF GOD.*
The divine origin of the Old and New Testa-
ment is a point on which the Roman Catholics, and
all the orthodox denominations of Protestants, are
(as far as I know) in full accordance. I am not
* See an excellent work by Gaussin, entitled " Theop-
neustie," 1 vol. 8vo.
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 9
aware that infidelity on this subject has ever been
encouraged by the authority of the See of Rome ;
but it has often sprung up, as the practical
consequence of the superstitious additions which
have been made under that authority purely
human as it is to the fabric of scriptural truth.
These additions have arisen, as a natural conse-
quence, from those which the Romish Church
has made, in her own strength and wisdom, to the
Scripture* themselves.
That church, in the first place, has added to the
Old Testament a large proportion of the Apocryphal
books, not merely as works tending to edification,
but as actually divine, and as forming part of their
canon.* Here then is a ground on which the hier-
archy of Rome has found an opportunity of deriv-
ing or supporting doctrinal opinions, from a source
additional to that of simple, authenticated Scripture.
But a far more dangerous addition to this store-
house of truth has been made under the undefined
and comprehensive head of Tradition. Under
* The Council of Trent included in their canon the
books of Tobias, Judith, Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon,
and Ecclesiasticus.
B 3
10 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
this head may be classed first, the voluminous
writings of the ecclesiastical fathers during the
first six centuries after Christ, containing a variety
of strange notions and customs, wholly beyond the
scope and limits of Scripture, which have been
gradually augmented in their course, and have ulti-
mately found an undisturbed seat in the bosom of
the Romish Church. Nor can it be denied that a
divine authority, practically tantamount to that of
Scripture, has often been claimed, among the
members of that communion, for these writings
very much as the Jews have regarded such an
authority as belonging to that ocean of fables,
the Talmud. In addition, however, to this new and
most cumbrous litera scripta, is the ORAL TRADITION
handed down from age to age from one generation
of priests to another and even declared by the ad-
herents of the Roman Pontiff, to be of equal authority,
that is, to be equally binding on the consciences of
all men, with the contents of Holy Scripture itself.
This vast item of tradition gives to the Romish
church an undefined scope for superstitious addi-
tions, both to the creed and practices enjoined in
the New Testament. In the mean time, what
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 11
becomes of the Holy Scriptures themselves ? They
are, according to the principles of that church, in
the keeping of the hierarchy who alone are regarded
as holding the true keys to their meaning alone
gifted of God for the purpose of interpreting them.
So far therefore, as any parts of them are laid open to
the people, it is still with the virtual understanding,
that for the interpretation of that which they read,
they must depend, not on their own free judgment,
under a divine influence, but on the teaching of
their priests, and on the decision of bishops, popes,
and councils. But alas ! how small has been the
extent to which these keepers of the words of the
Lord have permitted them to be circulated ! How
studiously were the Scriptures retained for many
centuries in tongues which the unlearned could
not read, and how uniformly has the general fact
developed itself, that where the papal system pre-
vails, there the Scriptures are not ! Exist in the
libraries of the priest they may ; but where have
they been found in the hands of the people ? Since
the clergy alone are supposed to have the faculty of
understanding them, so it follows that the clergy
alone may safely possess or read them. Whatever is
12 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
at any time given to the people, must be doled out
in such portions, and with such oral or written addi-
tions, as their spiritual lords may deem proper.
With these views and practices, we now pro-
ceed to contrast what we apprehend to be simple
truth even the truth of God with regard to
this great subject. Great indeed it is, because
fundamental. It is to the foundation on which
alone the church is built, that the Scriptures lead
us ; " Search the Scriptures," cried Jesus to the
Jews, " for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and
they are they which testify of ME."
The last verses of the sacred volume, although
referring to the Book of Revelation in particular,
develop a principle which must surely be appli-
cable to the whole divine record namely, that
nothing can be added to the words of the Most
High, as therein written, and nothing taken away
from them, without involving those who so offend,
in the sin of presumption, and in awful peril to
their souls. We do not indeed mean to assert
that God will make no addition to the pages of
Scripture. We pretend not to dive into his
hidden designs in this or any other respect ; but
OX THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 13
we know that hitherto he has not done so j and
when we take into view the wonderful complete-
ness of the book, we have strong reason to believe
that he never will do so. In the mean time, man,
on his own authority and wisdom, must abstain
from all tampering with the Book of the Lord. He
must take nothing from it, lest his own name should
be taken out of the book of life ; he must add
nothing to it, lest the Lord should add unto him " the
plagues" which are appointed for those who trans-
gress his will, and rebel against his government. "If
any man shall add unto these things, God shall add
unto him the plagues that are written in this book ;
and if any man shall take away from the words of the
book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part
out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and
from the things which are written in this book."
The principle here set forth is, with equal force,
insisted on in the Old Testament, "Ye shall not
add unto the word which I command you, neither
shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the
commandments of the Lord your God which I com-
mand you : " Deut. iv. 2. "What thing soever I com-
mand you, observe to do it ; thou shalt not add thereto,
14: ON THE HOLY SCBIPTURES.
nor diminish from it ;" xii. 32. " Every word of God
is pure add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove
thee, and THOU BE FOUND A LIAK :" Prov. xxx. 5, 6.
I am not one of those who entertain violent
prejudices against the Apocrypha, nor should I
feel uneasy in contributing to those Bible Societies
on the continent of Europe, which circulate the
sacred volume with that addition it being under-
stood that these ancient books are to be read,
not as divine, but simply for general instruction
and edification. The fact is, that they vary ex-
ceedingly in their character some of them contain
puerile stories others record true history ; parts
are bombastical and imaginative ; other parts so
solid and instructive, that we may surely conclude
that the touches of divine grace were resting upon
the writers a remark which particularly applies
to the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus.
But none of these books were written in Hebrew ;
they are the production of the last century, or
perhaps the last two centuries before the Christian
era, when the Hellenistic language, in which they
were written, was prevalent in Egypt and Syria,
and when the prophetic gift seems to have scarcely
OX THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 15
existed among the degenerate children of Israel ;*
they were never acknowledged by the Jews as of
divine authority, or included in their canon ; and
are not once quoted in the New Testament, either
by our Saviour or his apostles. "We must there-
fore conclude, that it is on the whole much safer
to exclude them from the Bibles which we read
in our families, and circulate in the world ; but
whether we so exclude them or not, one thing is
certain that their contents cannot be fairly cited
as binding and conclusive, in support of Purga-
tory or any other doctrine. Those who thus cite
them are guilty of adding to the words of the
Lord, and are in danger of being "found liars :"
see Prov. xxx. 6.
But if it is unsafe to add these ancient Helle-
nistic books to the Old Testament, what must be
the peril to the cause of truth, of ascribing divine
authority to the fathers of the first six centuries,
whose multitudinous writings the world cannot
contain (in the sense of reading, understanding,
and digesting them) and who have been the
* Unless indeed some of them may be regarded as of a
still later date.
10 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
instruments of palming upon the church a vast
mass of superstitions, to which the religion of
Jesus Christ gives no countenance 1 These fathers,
various as they are in point of talent, character,
and mode of writing, do not appear ever to have
claimed a scriptural authority for their own works ;
and any one who will take the trouble of com-
paring them with the New Testament, will soon
find that in the simplicity, brevity, comprehen-
siveness, and weight of the latter, as contrasted
with the profuseness, bombast, and jejuneness of
the former, we are furnished with a powerful
evidence of the divine origin of the writings which
are really sacred I mean those of the New Testa-
ment ; while the others, so far as relates to the
authoritative settlement of doctrine and practice in tJie
church, may be safely scattered to the winds, or for
ever sleep, unheeded, on the shelf of the schoolman.
Yet I am far from denying that parts of these
works are worthy of an attentive perusal, and that
much advantage may arise from observing the
sense in which the fathers generally Greeks
themselves were accustomed to cite the words of
the Greek Testament : their writings afford impor-
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 17
tant critical aids, and some sound theological
instruction ; but that they do not flow forth from
the well of inspiration, themselves afford abundant
internal evidence. Those who are the most accus-
tomed to dive into them, will be the best prepared
to acknowledge, that whatever of piety and truth
any of them may breathe, (so far as they are con-
formed to the doctrines and precepts of Scripture,)
they are, as a whole, undoubted part and parcel
of the cumbrous, complex works of man !
If we disclaim the addition to the Bible of the
works of the fathers, which, with all their faults,
are litera scripta, and therefore liable to the check
of a close scriptural scrutiny, how much more
evidently does it become us to make a Christian
stand against that undefined and undefinable some-
thing which glides down, unperceived in its course,
(though manifested in its unwholesome fruits,)
from generation to generation, from spiritual
father to spiritual son to the end of time I mean
oral tradition ! " The truth and discipline of the
Catholic church are comprehended both in the
sacred books, and in the traditions which have
been received from the mouth of Jesus Christ him-
18 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
self, or of his apostles, and which have been preserved
and transmitted to us by an uninterrupted chain and
succession." So declared the Council of Trent early
in the sixteenth century, and so aver the true friends
of the Papal system (under whatsoever guise or pro-
fession they may be acting) in the present day.
In order to take a just view of this subject, we
must first examine the passages of Scripture which
speak of tradition in a favourable point of view.
We know that our Saviour communicated many
things to his disciples in private, which they were
afterwards to declare upon the house-top ; and
the apostles committed the doctrine which they
preached, to their children and followers in the
truth. Thus Paul not unfrequently alludes to
those matters which he had himself received of
the Lord, by divine inspiration, and which he had
delivered to the churches ; and sometimes he calls
them by the name of traditions.* "Now I praise
you, brethren," said he to the Corinthian Chris-
tians, "that ye remember me in all things, and
keep the ordinances (in the margin, as in the
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 19
Greek, traditions) as I delivered them to you :"
1 Cor. xi. 1. Again, to the Thessalonians, "But
we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation, through
sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth ;
whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtain-
ing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye
have been taught, whether by word or our epistle :"
2 Thess. ii. lo ; comp. iii. 6. By "traditions," in these
and other passages i. e. matters handed down or
delivered to the churches the apostle evidently
denotes the doctrines and precepts of Christianity.
These were the truths which he and his brethren
had proclaimed, as on the house-tops, for the con-
version and edification of the people. " God be
thanked," says he, "that ye were the servants of
sin, but ye have obeyed* from the heart, that
form of doctrine which was delivered you,"t Rom.
vi. 17; and again, to the Corinthians, "Moreover
* Or rather, " that although ye were the servants of sin,
yet ye have obeyed," &c.
f etc or TrapadoOrjTe TVTTOV ^L^a^rjg.
20 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
brethren I declare unto you the gospel which I
preached unto you, unless ye have believed in
vain ; for I delivered unto you (jrapeduKa) first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures ; and
that he was buried, and that he rose again the third
day, according to the Scriptures :" 1 Cor. xv. 1 4.
It was of the highest importance that these pre-
cious truths should be handed down from age to
age, incorrupt and uninjured. No wonder then
that the same apostle should say to one of his
gifted followers, " Timothy, keep that ivhich is
committed to thy trust* avoiding profane and vain
babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so
called," 1 Tim. vi. 20 ; and again, " Thou there-
fore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus j and the things that thou hast heard
of me among many witnesses, the same commit f
thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach
others also :" 2 Tim. ii. 1, 2.
The trust committed to Timothy was, the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ ; the truths of that gospel were,
Trapad{jKr)i> 0u\aov. t TrapaOov.
ON THE HOLY SCBIPTURES. 21
"the things" which he had heard from the lips of
Paul before many witnesses, and which it was to be his
high duty to commit, in his turn, to other faithful
brethren, who might be enabled still further to dis-
seminate the joyful tidings. On a calm review of
these several passages, it is surely very clear that they
relate to communications which were open, public,
and notorious. They evidently contain no allusion
whatsoever to the secret, oral handing down of
certain articles in religion, besides those which are
contained in Scripture. Eather do they relate to
that mighty plan of redemption and salvation, in
all its parts, which formed the subject of our
Saviour's instructions to his apostles, and of their
public teaching and preaching ; and of which a
complete record a record requiring no addition
was gradually formed, in those days, through the
special providence of God, and is now to be found,
exact and uninjured, in the volume of the New
Testament. Thus are we placed in possession of
a test, by which all doctrines and practices in the
church, from age to age, may be safely tried ; and
not only are we bound by the most sacred obliga-
tions to reject whatsoever is contrary to this test,
22 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
but no man living, or any set of men, can have
any right to impose upon us any articles of belief, or
principles of action, which are not contained in the
volume of inspiration. " To the law and to the tes-
timony," may the Christian say in every age of the
church, " if they speak not according to this word, it
is because there is no light in them :" Isa. vii. 20.
So far then as tradition is favourably mentioned
by the apostles, it is in effect, identical with Scrip-
ture. But no sooner does it exceed this holy
limit, than it becomes intangible and imponderable.
It has neither shape nor substance, and being wholly
destitute of any evidence of a divine origin, it soon
follows the course of this world, and becomes the
ready instrument of human error and pollution.
The history of the Jews furnishes us with an
example precisely in point. Not content with the
written law of the Lord, they invented the oral
law, which they declared to have been given forth
from God to Moses, simultaneously with the written
code. They alleged that Moses delivered this law,
by word of mouth, to the elders of the people, and
that by these it was transmitted, from generation
to generation of the spiritual guides and rulers of
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 23
Israel. Such were the pretensions of the Scribes
and Pharisees at the Christian era. Soon after
that period, this oral law was reduced to writing in
the work, called the Mislma which with the
Gemara, or commentary of one set of doctors,
forms the Talmud of Jerusalem, and with that of
another school of Rabbins, the Talmud of Baby-
lon. Although these Talmuds are regarded by
the Jews of modern times, as of an authority equal
to that of Scripture itself, it is certain that they
abound in the most puerile absurdities ; and when
tried by the test of actual Scripture, are found
to be, in general, unworthy of support. It was
doubtless to this oral law that the apostle Peter
referred, when he spoke of " the vain conversa-
tion " which the Jews " received by tradition
from their fathers," (1 Pet, i. 18;) and Paul
speaks of the same tissue of error and falsehood,
when he warns the Colossian church against the
arts of their Judaizing teachers " Beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
the world, and not after Christ ;" Col. ii. 8.
And what was the language of our Saviour him-
24 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
self respecting these traditions, which the Jews had
presumed to add to their Holy Scriptures, as of equal
authority, because originating as was supposed, with
God himself 1 Did he afford them the least degree
of countenance or support ? Far otherwise he freely
spake of them as the mere invention of man, and
even as subversive of the true law of the Lord.
" Then came to Jesus, Scribes and Pharisees, which
were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders ? for they wash
not their hands when they eat bread. But he
answered and said unto them, Why do ye also
transgress the commandment of God BY YOUR
TRADITION ? For God commanded, saying, Ho-
nour thy father and mother, &c. But ye say,
Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother,
It is a gift, (or temple-offering) by whatsoever
thou mightest be profited by me, and honour not
his father and his mother, ( he shall be free.)
THUS HAVE YOU MADE THE COMMANDMENT OF
GOD OF NONE EFFECT BY YOUR TRADITION. Ye
hypocrites, well did Esaias prophecy of you, say-
ing, This people draweth nigh unto me with their
mouth, and honoureth me with their lips ; but
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 25
their heart is far from me. But IN VAIN do they
worship me, teaching for doctrines the COMMAND-
MENTS OF MEN :" Matt. xv. 1 9.
This passage is of the most definite character,
anr 1 overturns the very principle of oral additions
to the written law of God. A similar recital is
given in the gospel of Mark, describing the tra-
ditions of the Jews as relating to a variety of
ceremonial particulars of the most trifling charac-
ter, and as a base substitute for the moral law.
" Laying aside the commandment of God," says
the Lord Jesus in that gospel, "ye hold the
tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups ;
and many other such like things ye do. Full
well ye REJECT THE COMMANDMENT OF GOD THAT
YE MAY KEEP YOUR OWN TRADITION :" Mark vii. 8, 9.
Human nature is the same in every age; it is
far too prone to error and deceit, to be intrusted
with the oral handing down of doctrines and pre-
cepts, without the test, the check, the security, of
Scripture. The infallible consequence of such a
system is, that the doctrines and commandments of
men gradually usurp the place of the revealed will and
truth of God. Errors of the most serious character
c
^0 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
pervade the professing church ; vital religion gives
way to countless forms and ceremonies, and the motto
which the Lord's professing servants wear on their
foreheads, is no longer Holiness, but Superstition.
It is now, I hope, sufficiently clear to the candid
reader, that the additions which have been made to
Holy Writ, under the influence of the Papal system,
are destitute of divine authority, and while they
open a door for error, have an obvious tendency to
lower the character of the Christian religion, and to
lessen its efficacy. These remarks are, to a certain
extent, applicable to the Apocrypha due allowance
being made for the wisdom and piety of some of its
contents ; they bear with far greater force on the
written works of the ecclesiastical fathers ; but above
all, they are unquestionably true of oral tradition.
Regarding these points as settled, we will advance
to the question, What use, are we, on scriptural
principles, permitted and bound to make of the
Scriptures themselves 1
Are we to commit them to the hands of a
hierarchy, to be kept under its key, subjected to its
sole interpretation, and doled out in fragments to
the people, in such a measure, and on such occasions,
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 27
as the priesthood may deem advisable ! or are we
rather to regard this precious gift of God, as being
free as the air which we breathe, to be disseminated,
without hesitation or reserve, among the whole family
of man ? Is that blessed book, which contains a full
revelation of divine truth, and of the will of God
towards man, to be concealed from the fallen race on
which that revelation has been bestowed ; or is it to
be freely opened, and read, and considered, by people
as well as priest ? Is it the peculiar possession of
the clergy of the church of Eome, or of the whole
body of the church universal ?
It seems strange that any need should arise, in
the present day, for the consideration of such
questions as these. Yet it cannot be denied that
very narrow and dangerous views, plainly tending
to the withdrawal and concealment of Scripture,
have of late been obtruded on the public, from
unexpected quarters ; and Christians are again
driven to Scripture itself, in order that they may
be fully assured in what manner, and to what
extent, the sacred volume is to be used among the
rational children of God.
Let us then, in the first place, consider the sub-
c 2
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
ject as it relates to the Old Testament. In what way
did our Saviour and his apostles make their appeals
to it ? Always in such a way as to mark it as divine ;
always in such a way also, as to shew that it was open
to the inspection and consideration of all whom they
addressed the common property of the people of
God, and indeed of mankind in general.
The law and the prophets were publicly read in
the synagogues every sabbath day, not only in the
Hebrew tongue, which was then understood by
the learned alone, but in the Chaldaic dialect,
which was spoken by the people at large. This
part of the synagogue worship was fully sanc-
tioned by our Lord, who sometimes acted as pub-
lic reader on these occasions. So also, in his own
discourses, (whether in the synagogues, or on the
mountain's brow, or by the -way side, and whe-
ther he was addressing his own disciples, or the
scribes and Pharisees, or the people in general) he
made his appeals without the smallest reserve or
hesitation to the Scriptures of the Old Testament.
He said, " Search the Scriptures, for they are
they which testify of me." The proofs which
they contained of his own divine mission were
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 29
open to the examination of all men, and he was
accustomed to adduce them on the ground of their
being so. On two occasions, he explained to his
disciples the things which were written respecting
himself, in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms
or, in other words, in the whole of the Old Testa-
ment, of which these were, at that time, the recog-
nized divisions. He never thought of holding back
any part of the sacred treasure. He used the whole
of it in its true character of the free gift of the God
of light, to a dark and fallen world.
Just similar was the practice of the evangelists
and apostles. Whether they were addressing the
Jews or the Gentiles, individuals or bodies of
men, particular churches, or the whole society of
believers who were scattered abroad, they never
hesitated to appeal to Holy Scripture, as an autho-
rity binding upon all the common property of all.
The Bereans were described as more noble than the
people of Thessalonica, because they searched the
Scriptures daily, that they might know whether the
things which Paul declared were indeed the truth.
The views of that apostle on the present subject,
were of the most comprehensive character. When
30 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
he spoke of the use as well as authority of the
sacred volume, he excepted no part of the book
itself; and when he mentioned the effect which
it was intended to produce, he excluded from its
operation no part of mankind. "WHATSOEVER
THINGS were written aforetime," said he to the
Romans, "were written for our learning, that we
through patience and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope," Rom. xv. 4 ; and again to
Timothy, "ALL Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is PROFITABLE for doctrine, reproof,
correction, and instruction in righteousness :" 2 Tim.
iii. 16. 17. These are benefits of which all man-
kind stand in need, even as they stand in need
of the gospel itself. Therefore the Scriptures,
which contain the gospel, are intended for all men.
" Now to him that is of power to stablish you
according to my gospel, and the preaching of
Jesus Christ, (according to the revelation of the
mystery, which was kept secret since the world
began, but now is made manifest, and by the
SCRIPTURES OF THE PROPHETS, according to the
commandment of the everlasting God, MADE
XNOWN TO ALL NATIONS for the obedience of faith,)
OX THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 31
to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ
for ever, Amen :" Rom. xvi. 25 27.
On the great day of Pentecost, when the miracu-
lous gift of tongues was poured forth upon the in-
fant church, " Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites,
and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea,
and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and
Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in parts of Lybia about
Gyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and Proselytes,
Cretes and Arabians" ALL THESE heard, in their
own tongues, the wonderful works of God ALL
THESE listened to the apostles and their brethren,
while they adduced their proofs from the Old Testa-
ment, that Jesus was the Christ. This marvellous
display of the riches of the bounty and liberality of
God, in spiritual things, sanctions the great principle
of the universal diffusion of Scripture, and of the
free translation of it into all languages ; that thus
" according to the commandment of the everlasting
God," the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ the great
mystery of redemption may be made known, on his
own authority, to the whole family of man.
The principles which are thus plainly recognized
by our Saviour and his immediate followers, re-
32 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
specting the use of the Old Testament, bear with
redoubled force on the New Testament itself. The
Old Testament was laid open not only to the Jews,
but to the Gentiles, chiefly because of its testimony
to Christ ; and every one knows that it is this very
testimony, which forms the main subject of the
four Gospels, the book of Acts, the apostolic Epistles,
and the Revelation. Most of these sacred books
were addressed to public bodies such as the
churches of Rome, Corinth, &c. ; or to the universal
church ; or (as is the case with the gospels in effect)
to mankind at large ; and even the few epistles
inscribed to individuals, are full of instruction
suited to the many. Nothing of reserve, nothing
of privacy, is indicated in any of these writings.
They were not committed as a private treasure to
the clergy, but as a public gift, to the church and
to mankind.
For the most part, the contents of these writings
are simple, explicit, and intelligible ; and if in the
epistles of Paul, as in some other parts of Scrip-
ture, there are " some things hard to be understood,
which the unlearned (or rather indocile,*) and un-
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 33
stable wrest unto their own destruction ;"* this was
equally true of the discourses of our Lord himself,
by some of which the Jews were offended, because
they contained " hard sayings." So also the
apostles, in their character of preachers, were a
savour of death unto death to some, as well as of
life unto life to others. Indeed it is the inherent
character of divine truth, that it should often have
this operation in a dark, perverted, and fallen
world. Nevertheless, the truth (mysterious as it
is to the indocile and unstable) must go forth with-
out reserve all the world over and so must the
Scriptures which contain it.
The Apocalypse is by far the most obscure and
mysterious part of the New Testament. Yet it was
addressed not only to the angels of the seven churches,
but to the seven churches themselves, (Rev. i. 4) and
it is prefaced by this truly anti-Romish motto a
motto in which all men have their part " BLESSED
is HE THAT READETH, and they that HEAR the words
of this prophecy, and keep these things which are
written therein ; for the time is at hand !"
It is always to be kept in view, that amidst all the
* 2 Pet. iii. 16.
c 3
34 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
variety of information and instruction contained in
the Holy Scriptures, its main purpose, from Genesis
to Revelation, is to testify of Christ. The words of
the Most High, written in the sacred volume, are still
found to point in various ways and forms by the
shadows of the law, by the types of the history, by
the predictions of the prophets, by the narrations of
the evangelists, by the doctrines of the apostles, by
the figures of the Apocalypse to Him who is the
WORD. They reveal and portray Him who was with
God in the beginning, by whom God made the
worlds, who was incarnate in the flesh, died for our
offences, rose again for our justification, ascended up
on high, reigns above in glory, and will come again
to judge the quick and the dead. The words which
the apostle John applied to his own gospel, are
truly descriptive of the Scriptures as a whole
" These are written that ye might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye
might have life through his name : John xx. 31.
Now the Son of God was bestowed on the whole
world ; " God so loved THE WORLD that he gave his
only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life :" John
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 35
iii. 1 6. Christ was the " propitiation for our sins, and
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the WHOLE
WORLD :" 1 John ii. 2. Thus it appears that all
men, the world over, have to do with Him of
whom the Scriptures testify, and whom they are*
intended to make known. All men, therefore,
have their part in these Scriptures, just as they
have it in the gospel which they contain, and which
is to be preached to every creature. " God would
have all men to be saved, and come to the know-
ledge of his truth." Therefore all men are invited
to possess, read, know, and understand those
writings, which are able to make us "WISE unto
salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus :"
2 Tim. iii. 15.
It may be hoped, that the scriptural view here
taken of the intended use and universal application
of the Holy Scriptures, will be found to accord
with the best judgment of all who love the truth
as it is in Jesus, and who long and pray for its
universal diffusion. But what are we to say of
the interpretation of the book ? Are all men to
explain it according to their own wisdom and
liking 1 Certainly not ; but all men are invited to
36 ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
read and consider it, for themselves, in a devout
and humble disposition, and in reverent depend-
ence on the illumination and teaching of God's
Holy Spirit. The Comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost in his peculiar character of Interpreter
or of Him who takes of the things of Christ, and
shows them to his disciples, (John xvi. 14,) is
bestowed not on the apostles alone, but on the
servants of Christ in every age ; and not on the
hierarchy or clergy alone, but on the church uni-
versal on the whole people of God.
The laws of grammar and philology, and the
science of exegesis, in all its branches, are open to
all mankind, and have actually led to the pouring
in of so much light on Scripture, as very much to
fix its meaning, for the permanent benefit of our
race. In the mean time the Lion of the tribe of
Judah, who holds the key of David, is still pleased
to "OPEN THE HEARTS" of his followers, that they
may understand the Scriptures spiritually and
savingly, and may thus find their pardon and cure,
their peace and deliverance, their full and final rest
in HIM.
CHAPTER II.
ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN.
" LITTLE children, it is the last time, and as ye have
heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there
many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last
time He is antichrist that denieth the
Father and the Son :" 1 John ii. 18, 22. Again, this
apostle says, " every spirit that confesseth not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God ; and
this is that Spirit of antichrist whereof ye have heard
that it should come, and even now already is it in
the world :" iv. 3. This last testimony to the work
and character of antichrist, is repeated in his second
epistle, " For many deceivers are entered into the
world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist :"
2 John 7.
38 ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN.
It is clear, from these passages, that the term anti-
christ is of very general application, as descriptive of
that spirit among men which rebels against the
dominion of the Son of God, invents false doctrine,
and corrupts good manners. Such was the spirit of
those spots in the believers' feasts of charity, of whom
the apostles Peter and Jude speak in their epistles
" clouds without water, carried about of winds, trees
whose fruit withereth raging waves of
the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering
stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness
for ever;" Jude 12, 13; comp. 2 Pet. ii. 1022.
It appears that these sons of error and dissipation
professed a peculiar degree of sanctity " speaking
lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared
with a hot iron forbidding to marry, and com-
manding to abstain from meats," &c.
There can be no doubt that even in apostolic
times the seeds of heresy and corruption were
sown in the church, and that afterwards, these
seeds produced a vast and varied crop of bitter-
ness, unbelief, and sin. Here it ought to be con-
fessed, that except in the articles of forbidding to
marry and commanding to abstain from meats,
ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN. 39
there is nothing in these descriptions, which bears,
with any precise force, on the papal and hierarchical
system. But it is evident that in the process of time,
some great distinguishing antichrist at once the
professor and enemy of Christianity was to come
forth, in bold relief, pre-eminent among all those
spirits which are ranged in opposition to the true
kingdom of Christ.
Paul, in the spirit of prophecy, declares him to be
" the man of sin," and gives a vivid description of his
character, his work, and his end. It appears that
the Thessalonians were agitated by the expectation of
the early coming of Christ in judgment a mistake
which might easily arise from their ignorance of the
fact, that " the last days," which, as John asserts,
were then " indeed come," are nothing more than
the last dispensation ; and that in these last days,
the man of sin must first be revealed, and must play
his awful part on the stage of ecclesiastical history,
before the Saviour would appear, " the second time,
without sin (or a sin-offering,) unto salvation :"
Heb. ix. 28. Nor could the man of sin himself
be revealed until he that let and hindered him
(probably the Pagan government of Rome) was
40 ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN.
taken out of the way. " Let no man deceive you by
any means ; for that day shall not come, except there
come a falling away (or apostasy*) first, and that man
of sin be revealed, the son of perdition ; who opposeth
and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or
that is worshipped ; so that he as God sitteth in the
temple of God, showing himself that he is God ....
And now ye know what withholdeth, (or restraineth t)
that he might be revealed in his time. For the
mystery of iniquity doth already work ; only he who
now letteth J (will let) until he be taken out of the
way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed,
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his
coming ; eve/i him whose coming is after the work-
ing of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying
wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteous-
ness in them that perish. And for this cause God
shall send them strong delusion, that they may
believe a lie, that they all may be damned (con-
demned) who believed not the truth, but had plea-
sure in unrighteousness :" 2 Thess. ii. 3 12.
* ctTroorao'ta. 1* TO Ka
ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN. 41
We have no reason to imagine that any individual
potentate is here described, but rather some system
of government some unholy power blaspheming
against God, by the presumptuous claim of divine
attributes, and deceiving mankind, after the working
of Satan, by a false show of miracles. The thorough
ungodliness of this power is marked by the emphatic
words, " all deceivableness of unrighteousness."
For a further development of the history of anti-
christ, we must have recourse to the Eevelation.
There we first meet with him in the character
of the beast who slew the two witnesses.
" And I will give power unto my two witnesses,
and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred
and three score days, clothed in sackcloth
and when they shall have finished their testimony,
the beast* that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit,
shall make war against them and kill them :"
Rev. xi. 7. Here antichrist is represented not as
identical with Satan, but as coming forth out of
* Qrjpiov a wild beast. It is to be regretted that our trans-
lators have used the same version for &ov, in chap. iv. 6,
where some angelic creature is spoken of. " Living
creature" would there be more just and descriptive.
42 ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN.
Satan's dominions, and employed in Satan's work,
(comp. ii. 13 ;) that of persecuting the children of
God, the witnesses for Christ in the world. * In the
following chapter we have an account of the true
church, represented as a woman clothed with the sun
that original source of light and heat and having
under her feet the moon, by which we may understand
the borrowed light of man's intelligence, used and
sanctified in every true Christian, but always held in
holy subordination to the Spirit of God. She brings
forth the man Christ Jesus, the first and greatest of
her sons, and after being persecuted by the great red
dragon, which is Satan, she flies on eagle's wings into
the wilderness. There she is nourished for a time,
and times, and half a time, or 1260 days (that is,
as I suppose 1260 years) from the face of the
serpent who continued to make war with " the
remnant of her seed, which kept the command-
* These are called the two olive trees, because it is the
heavenly unction which qualifies them for their work, and
flows through them ; and they are described as two, simply,
as I believe, to express plurality; with reference to that well
known principle of Jewish jurisprudence, that out of the
mouth of two witnesses (i. e. two at least) shall every word
be established.
ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN. 43
ments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus
Christ." And who were these ? the true disciples
of Jesus hidden, it may be, among- the rocks and
valleys of Piedmont, and other Alpine regions ;
simple people who placed no dependence on cere-
monies, but worshipped the Father and the Son, in
spirit and in truth.
Then follows, in chap. xiii. a remarkable display of
the anti-christian powers. A beast is seen rising out
of the sea (coming it may be from the bottomless pit,
represented by the fathomless ocean) whose ten horns
are crowned with as many crowns, and his seven
heads inscribed with the names of blasphemy. One
of his heads had been wounded to death, but that
deadly wound had been healed. The deadly wound
inflicted on Rome by the Goths, Vandals, and other
barbarian powers, had been healed by her becoming
nominally Christian ; and now she is a spiritual
ruler, having in subjection, for use offensive and
defensive, her ten crowned horns, the temporal
powers into which the Roman empire was now
divided. It was the dragon (that is, Satan,) from
whom this beast a terrible creature, leopard, bear,
and lion united received his power, and seat, (pro-
44 ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN.
bably in Rome, the ancient capital of the empire)
and great authority.
Thus enthroned, he continues unmoved during the
whole time of the church's secession in the wilder-
ness 1260 years. And how does he conduct him-
self? He opens his mouth in blasphemy against God
makes war with the saints, and overcomes them ;
has power given to him over all kindreds, and
tongues, and nations ; and receives the worship of
mankind true Christians excepted. In the mean
time another beast is seen coming up out of the
earth (or out of the bottomless pit supposed to be
under the earth) having two horns like a lamb, yet
speaking as a dragon. This is the same power,
as I believe, under another phase or rather the
spiritual head of that power, who assumes the
visage of the lamb, but is a wolf in sheep's clothing,
and his voice is like the voice of a dragon. It
is he who " exercises all the power of the first
beast," of which he is in fact the most essential
part even the head making a full use, for his own
purposes, of those terrible temporal powers, the ten
crowned horns ; claiming worship for the first beast
(i. e. the whole antichristian power, including him-
ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN. 45
self in his assumed character of Lord of lords and
King of kings) ; doing great wonders, comparable to
the bringing down of fire from heaven ; deceiving
mankind by his sorceries and false miracles ; com-
manding them to perpetrate idolatry, and to worship
the image of the beast ; placing his mark on all
men, rich and poor, free and bond, (without bearing
which they were not permitted any participation in
this world's traffic) ; and inscribing on their fore-
heads the name of antichrist with the number of his
name, which ever falls short of the true sabbatical
rest, even of the perfect number seven being six
hundred and sixty and six that is the numeral six
applied to each successive step in the arithmetical
numeration.
We have found occasion to observe that the anti-
christian forces are ranged under three powers, the
dragon, or old serpent -fons et oriyo mali ; the beast
or temporal power under spiritual government ; and
the spiritual ruler of the beast, who is one with
him, because his head the lamb who speaks like a
dragon. This second phase of antichrist virtually
the same power, is soon afterwards called the " false
prophet" (chap. xvi. 13.) and out of the mouths of
46 ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN.
of these three proceed unclean spirits ^miracle-
mongers, who go forth unto all the kings of the
earth to gather them to battle against the Lord and
his people.
This head of antichrist, or false prophet, is now
brought more fully into view in the character of the
" great whore," with whom the kings of the earth
and its intoxicated inhabitants have committed for-
nication all which, according to the known phrase-
ology of the Hebrew prophets, sets forth idolatry
in that they worshipped this spiritual deceiver, in-
stead of the Father and the Son, and were deeply
imbued with other idolatrous practices which she had
introduced. " So he carried me away in the spirit
into the wilderness ; and I saw a woman sit upon a
scarlet coloured beast, (the head of the beast is now
represented as his rider) full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman
was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked
with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, having a
golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and
filthiness of her fornication ; and upon her forehead
was a name written, mystery, Babylon the great,
the mother of harlots, and abominations of the
ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN. 47
earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood
of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of
Jesus :" xvii. 3 6. Soon afterwards we find the
following express information "And the woman
which thou sawest, is that great city which reigneth
over the kings of the earth :" v. 18.
Now it appears that the ten crowned horns, or the
ten temporal powers say, European nations, which
were under the power of this spiritual ruler were
to be of " one mind," and were to give their power
and strength unto the beast or rather to the head
of the beast the lamb who has the voice of a dragon,
or in other words, to the whore who sitteth on the
waters, that is, " on the peoples, and multitudes, and
nations, and tongues." Such was to be the state of
things for a time. But behold the Lamb against
whom they wage impious warfare and who is truly
Lord of lords, and King of kings who has the hearts
of all kings and potentates in his hands and the
called, and chosen, and faithful, who are with him,
shall overcome these temporal powers, even by the
sword of the Spirit, the word of truth. And what
shall be the consequence 1 Instead of continuing to
be part of antichrist, these powers shall separate from
48 ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN.
him, and oppose him. Kings shall become the
nursing fathers of the true church, and queens her
nursing mothers. (Thus the earth helps the perse-
cuted woman in her flight, into the wilderness,
swallowing up the stream of oppression and cruelty,
which Satan is pouring forth out of his mouth
against her.) And now these ten horns shall be
haters of the " great whore," whom they once loved
and followed, and shall make her desolate and naked,
and shall eat her flesh (i. e. seize her possessions,)
and burn her with fire : xvii. 12 18.
Soon follows the cry of the angel, whom John saw
in his visions " come down from heaven, having great
power, and the earth was lightened with his glory "
probably the Angel of the covenant, the Saviour
himself. " And he cried mightily with a strong
voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,
and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold
of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and
hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the
earth have committed fornication with her, and the
merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the
abundance of her delicacies. (Ecclesiastics become
ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIX. 49
merchants, and selling pardons to sinners, are
enriched by her abundance and luxuries.) " And I
heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out
of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her
sins, and that ye receive not her plagues." Then
follows the description of her being burnt with fire
amidst the mourning and lamentation of all who used
to commit fornication with her, and traffic with her,
and partake in her delicacies ; and this baptism of
fire this desolating punishment, of whatsoever
nature it may prove detects the evil things which
are in her, the foul spirits and unclean birds thai
haunt her, and the innocent blood which she has shed.
"And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of
saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth f
xviii. 24.
In the following chapter the prophetical account
of the conflict between these evil powers and the
Word of God, is brought to its close. The Son, under
that peculiar title, is seen in the opening heavens,
sitting on a white horse, wearing many crowns, the
sharp sword going out of his mouth, and his
garments dipped in blood. On his vesture and on
his thigh his name is seen written, King of kings,
D
50 ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN.
and Lord of lords, and he is followed by the armies
of his saints, all on white horses, and clothed in fine
linen white and clean. " And I saw the beast, and
the kings of the earth," says the apostle, " and their
armies gathered together to make war against him
that sat on the horse, and against his army. And
the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet
(his spiritual head) that wrought miracles before
him, with which he had deceived them that had re-
ceived the mark of the beast, and them that wor-
shipped his image. These both were cast alive into
a lake of fire burning with brimstone :" xix. 19, 20.
Soon afterwards we read that the devil (after one
more unholy effort) was cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are,
and shall be tormented day and night for ever and
ever :" xx. 10.
The whole view thus given in Scripture of anti-
christ, is calculated to impress us with an awful sense
of his wickedness and evil working. The principal
features in the character of that ungodly power are
profaneness and blasphemy, falsehood and fraud, pride,
covetousness, luxury, idolatry, malice, and cruelty.
This horrible personification of many evil things
ON ANTICHEIST, THE MAN OF SIN. 51
assumes, in the first place, the attributes of deity,
he exalts himself above all that is called God he
pretends to wield the divine prerogatives he is lord
over all mortal kings and potentates. The names
of blasphemy marked on his forehead, are of that
peculiar kind, which designate his usurping the place
and functions of the Most High. If we suppose a
spiritual power which pretends to dispose of all tem-
poral kingdoms as he pleases, and who undertakes
in his own authority, to forgive sins however mul-
titudinous, dark, or bloody they may be we must
acknowledge that such a power blasphemes, in the
sense in which Uasphemy is ascribed to antichrist.
If the same power enslaves kings and nations
under false pretences ; if he entices them by a show
of superior sanctity, and by myriads of juggler's
tricks, false relics, and lying wonders and miracles ;
it must be confessed, that he hereby fills up the
scriptural character of antichrist, as it relates to
fraud and falsehood.
If he assumes the trappings of human splendour ;
if he sells his pardons for gold ; if the kings of the
earth bow at his feet, and wait upon him as his ser-
vants ; if his eye is full of haughtiness ; if wealth
D 2
">- ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN.
and luxury, and often the most unbridled licentious-
ness, distinguish his annals we cannot deny that he
answers to the character of antichrist, in the articles
of pride, covetousness, and luxury.
If he not only demands the worship both of body
and soul, for those who are not God, but actually
gives to these false gods, the outward form of images
before which his followers prostrate themselves, as
the heathen do before their idols it is evident that
such a course falls in with the scriptural account of
the lamb who had the voice of a dragon, who made
an image of the beast, and compelled all men to
worship it. Here is the friend and patron of spiri-
tual fornication, or in other words, of idolatry.
If, lastly, this supposed power makes use of the
temporal swords of the kings under his dominion,
for the cruel abuse, and horrid persecution unto
death, of myriads of the followers of the Lamb ; if
he rejoices in his ailtos da fe, and delights in the
writhing agonies of the saints who are consumed,
through his interference with the civil magistrate, by
slow fires ; if he invents every species of torture, that
he may torment all those who resist his reign and
deny his sanctity it must surely be allowed that
ON ANTICHRIST, THE MAN OF SIN. 53
here we have a practical representation of antichrist,
who wounds and slays the children of God ; and in
whose bosom is found the BLOOD of his saints and
martyrs.
All these things have marked the history of Rome
spiritual the Babylon of the Apocalypse ; and the
resemblance of the prophetic future with the historic
record, appears to me to afford some very strong indi-
cations, if not irresistible proof, that the antichrist of
the New Testament and Rome spiritual (including
all that is found of the like nature under other names)
are ONE and the same.
CHAPTER III.
ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER BY THE
PROFESSING CHURCH OF CHRIST.
IN the preceding account of antichrist, abundant
evidence is afforded that the main feature of this
unholy power, is the assumption, under spiritual pre-
tences, of temporal authority, followed by an actual
mastery over the kings and nations of the world, and
by the practice of bloody cruelties, in the persecution
of the children of God. This scriptural picture of
that which was foreknown of the Lord, and foretold
by his inspired servants in the apostolic age, has at
once filled and stained the page of history during a
long course of ages. Never was portrait more frightful,
and at the same time more accurate, than that which
the pen of prophecy was impelled to draw of that
"spiritual wickedness in high places" which has
ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER. 55
since developed its " working," to the astonishment
of every reflecting observer, and to the distress and
degradation of mankind.
During the first three centuries of the Christian
era, the religion of Jesus found its way into the
world, without the compulsory influence of any tem-
poral power. Neither the sword of the warrior, nor
that of the magistrate, was unsheathed for its pro-
motion and support. On the contrary, the kingdoms
of this world and more especially the iron power of
the Romans were ranged on the opposite side, and
fought against the army of the Lamb. That army
used no carnal weapons in its defence ; the armour
which every soldier in it wore, is detailed by an
apostle the breastplate of righteousness, the shield
of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
the Spirit. Truth was the banner of the followers
of our blessed Lord ; that banner was inscribed with
the motto of " Love to God and Man," and it was
upheld by multitudes of the meek of the earth, who
like their divine Master, were victorious only through
suffering. It was in the good fight of faith alone
that they displayed their fortitude and valour on the
earth ; and when earth was theirs no longer, they
56 ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER
joined, one by one, the glorified multitude whom
John beheld in his visions, clothed in white robes,
and with palms of victory in their hands those who
had "come out of great trilnlatif>n, and had washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb."
Undoubtedly there were numerous corruptions,
which, even in those early ages, had crept into the
life and character of professing Christians ; yet the
description now given was justly applicable to very
many ; and thus in despite of all the raging of the
heathen, and all the buffetings of Satan, true reli-
gion sped its course, and at last, to an astonishing
extent, pervaded the civilized world.
But now a vast change awaited the destinies of the
church. Early in the fourth century the Emperor
Constantino adopted her as his own. The state
formed an alliance with her, and undertook, by the
intervention of secular authority and human power,
to defend her interests, and to promote her cause.
True indeed it is, that some of the emperors who fol-
lowed, adopted a different course ; but on the whole,
the world smiled upon her. The professing people of
God gradually fell into the arms of the civil magis-
BY THE PROFESSING CHURCH OF CHRIST. 57
trate, and learned to place their dependence on the
arm of flesh.
As time flowed onward, corruptions increased, and
under the gradually deepening shadows of a long and
dark night of apostacy, the assumption of temporal
power on the part of the nominal church of Christ,
became more and more daring. No longer was the
hierarchy satisfied with the support and protection
of the civil magistrate ; but kings and princes
must now fall under its dominion. The ten horns
of the beast, i. e., probably, the European states
and kingdoms, into which the Roman empire was
divided, bowed under the rod of the false prophet ;
or in other words, of the second beast who had the
visage of a lamb but the voice of a dragon. Rome
spiritual, not only obtained possession unlike the
Levites of old of a territory of her own ; but with
the resistless power of a magician, humbled the
proudest monarchs at her feet, employed them as
slaves to hold her stirrups, and pretended to have
authority to dispose of their dominions at her
pleasure to set up kings, and to bring them down
as being herself in the place of God, the Queen of
D 3
58 ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER
all kings ; the Lady of all the lords of this ter-
restrial globe.
In the mean time the true church fled into the
wilderness, and was nourished with heavenly manna,
in the holes and caves of the earth. Few in num-
ber and scattered in place, the faithful followers
of the crucified Jesus themselves crucified to the
world, and the world to them worshipped God in
privacy and retirement. But from age to age they
were the children of tribulation, and the rage of
their enemies pursued them into their most covert
retreats. Finally, after the truth had broken forth
and openly manifested itself in the Reformation,
the flames of a most barbarous persecution were
lighted on every side and the blood of the poor
innocents was poured forth in vast abundance into
the lap of antichrist. Here was the work, and here
the triumph of Satan, who was a liar and murderer
from the beginning. Kings and queens, with
their subordinate officers, kindled those flames,
and kept them burning for the destruction of the
righteous, under the resistless commands of their
mother and supreme ruler, Rome spiritual. By
ruthless assassination, by cruel warfare, by various
BY THE PROFESSING CHURCH OF CHRIST. 59
kinds of torture, by the sword and the fires of the
magistrate, myriads of sincere believers in Jesus,
fell victims to the professing church of Christ, in
possession of temporal power. That power has since
become comparatively weak and broken ; but were
it fully restored, is there not too much reason to
believe that the same iniquities would be re-enacted,
under the same pretence of holiness and truth 'I
That there is to be observed a most extraordinary
revulsion, in the present day, towards the papal
system, is notorious. Many are they, in various
countries, and in different classes of society, who
have actually given in their adherence to Rome
spiritual ; and many more are they, in our own
land, and even in America, who while they profess
to have no connexion with her, have openly adopted
most of her tenets and principles, and seem more
than half disposed to find a resting-place in her
bosom. Let her once more become the dominant
church in Great Britain and Ireland let the sword
of the magistrate be once more fairly under her
command and who shall say that the blood of those
who bear a consistent testimony against her super-
stition and idolatry, will not flow as freely and
(>0 ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER
copiously as in days of old ? The same principles,
in possession of the same power, may in all proba-
bility be productive of the same effects.
While I am one of those who on this and other
grounds, consider the progress of popery to be highly
alarming, I am by no means disposed to underrate-
the personal piety of many members of the papal
communion. The Roman Catholic Church holds
many of the essential doctrines of the Christian
religion, and holds them with a firm hand ; and
independently of the evangelical character of Jan-
senism, (which can hardly be classed with the papal
system,) there can be no doubt that there is much
of devotional feeling, and some true Christian faith
and holiness, to be found within her borders. Great
and numerous as are her superstitions, and prevalent
as is the infidelity to which they have led, the truth
us it is in Jesus, has not been without its influence on
the heart of a Fenelon, and on the hearts of many
other members of that church, who have truly loved
the Lord who bought them. Again, when I speak of
that church in her character of mistress of the beast
of ten horns, which wounds and slays the followers
of Christ, I do not forget, and have no wish to
BY THE PROFESSING CHURCH OF CHRIST. 61
conceal, that so far as this is the peculiar character-
istic of antichrist, it is far from being confined to the
Romish hierarchy.
The church, in possession of temporal power, and
abusing it by acts of persecution, has presented
itself to the attention of mankind, and has claimed
its portion of the bloody page of history, under many
forms besides that of the papacy. The papists them-
selves have suffered and died under the hands of
their religious opposers in power. King Henry
VIII, and Queen Elizabeth found their victims
under the notion of heresy, as well as Mary. Under
the sway of Kings Charles I. and II., the noncon-
formists suffered deeply from those, against some of
whose doctrines and practices they bore a righteous
testimony. And when they were themselves in
power under Cromwell, they had little mercy on
others who dared to differ from their own system.
In New England, they led the unoffending Quakers
to the gallows, who thus expiated their crime of
preaching the gospel to the poor in a manner
contrary to the notions of the ruling church. There
are indeed few Christian sects w r hich have suffered
so much from the fury of religious persecution as
62 ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER
the Friends. During the reign of King Charles II.
more especially, when all assembling for public
worship, except in the established church, was for-
bidden by law, the Quakers alone, of all the Chris-
tian denominations persevered in holding their
meetings ; at the same time, when carried into courts
of justice, they refused to take the oath of allegiance,
in obedience to the command of Christ, " Swear not
at all ;" and they also refused to pay tithes to the
clergy, in remembrance of another of our Lord's
precepts, "Freely ye have received, freely give."
In consequence of their faithfulness in all these
respects, and especially because of the holding of
their meetings for divine worship, they were c
in great numbers, into filthy dungeons, and were
there mixed up with the vilest felons. In the mean
time their houses were ransacked, and their goods
spoiled ; and many of them died in prison, in con-
sequence of long confinement, and other harsh treat-
ment. But their patience did not fail them, and
often did those noisome prisons resound with the
praises of that Saviour, on whose behalf they were
content to suffer.
It is the shame of Protestantism, that even in
BY THE PROFESSING CHURCH OF CHRIST. 63
the present day, religious liberty is sacrificed to the
unrighteous attempt to enforce uniformity of worship,
in accordance with that view of Christianity which
happens to be dominant in any particular country.
Within the last few years, while the Lutherans were
persecuted in Prussia, under the sanction of the re-
formed church of that country, (a persecution, which
under the present benevolent monarch, has happily
ceased,) the Lutherans themselves, in Hanover,
Hamburgh, and the kingdom of Denmark, being
the established religionists, have been actively en-
gaged in persecuting others. The ideal notion of
perfection in the things of religion in these states, is
uniformity ; the actual effects produced are bonds,
confiscation, and imprisonment, on the one hand,
and on the other, a prevailing religious lifelessness,
with infidelity at the bottom. Every one knows
that this, to a great extent, is a just description of
the countries which range, on the plan of uniformity,
under the papal banner for example, Italy and
Spain. The great hope of France, in matters of
religion, is the late dissolution of the alliance of the
state with a single form of Christianity. Yet popery
is rampant in that country ; and it is impossible to
<J1 ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER
say how soon the degree of religious liberty which
now prevails may be smothered, under the influence
of a bigoted priesthood, backed by the missionary
zeal of a host of Jesuits.
From the remarks which have now been made, the
reader will perceive that my views of antichrist are
far from being restricted to the Romish church.
Wherever any portion of the professing church of
Christ enters into alliance with the state, and avails
itself of the sword of the magistrate, in order to
enforce uniformity in religion and worship, and to
persecute and punish all who resist the decree, there,
in my opinion, antichrist is enthroned and operative.
In the several churches which have pursued this
course, there may be upheld much of sound doctrine ;
and it is freely allowed, that they contain many
members who are true disciples of our Lord Jesus
Christ ; but as far as they wield the sword of the
magistrate in the work of persecution, so far they
embody the antichrist of Scripture, the man of
sin, the false prophet, who rules over the beast of
ten horns being himself the head of the beast ;
even of that beast which unites the natures of the
leopard, the bear, and the lion, and wounds and
BY THE PROFESSING CHURCH OF CHRIST. 65
slays the children of God. Yet unquestionably
this character, in a very especial and pre-eminent
manner, has marked the annals of the Romish
hierarchy.
With the strange anomaly which \ve have now
been considering the professing church of God in
possession of temporal power, and abusing it for the
affliction and destruction of the true followers of
Christ we must now contrast the scriptural account
of the kingdom or reign* of God, of heaven, or of
Christ by which several expressions, only one king-
dom is intended. Many and various are the pas-
sages of Scripture which relate to this kingdom- in
the Prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, the Epistles,
the Revelation. They are too numerous to quote ;
but from a general view of them, the reader will
scarcely fail to draw the following deductions :
1. The kingdom of God is set up in this world,
and perfected in the world to come, by divine power,
independently of all human authority. The little
stone which is destined to fill the whole earth, is
cut out of the mountain " without hands."
2. This kingdom is of a nature wholly different
66 ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER
from that of the kingdoms of the world. " It cometh
not by observation." It is " within us." It is in its
nature heavenly, spiritual, exercised over the hearts
of men, unseen in its action, but manifested in its
fruits. " The kingdom of God is not meat and
drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghosfc."
3. It is not to be either defended or promoted by
carnal weapons, or the arm of flesh. " Our weapons,"
said one of the great ones in this kingdom a very
prince in the Israel of God " are not carnal, but
spiritual, and mighty through God to the pulling
down of strong holds," <fec. " My kingdom is not of
this world," said the Saviour himself to Pilate, " else
would my servants fight."
4. The subjects of this kingdom the soldiers of
its standing army are the meek and humble fol-
lowers of the Lamb ; all of every name, class, pro-
fession, or country Jew or Greek, male or female,
Scythian, barbarian, bond or free who are brought
to repentance towards God, and faith towards our
Lord Jesus Christ all who are delivered from the
power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom
of the dear Son of God.
BY THE PROFESSING CHURCH OF CHRIST. 67
5. Of this kingdom, Jesus, the risen and glorified
Saviour is, in the divine economy, the appointed
Head the Lord of Glory, the King of kings, who is
seated on the heavenly antitype of David's throne,
there to rule and reign over the universal church, to
all eternity. Now Jesus is the Prince of Peace.
Absolute Sovereign as he is of his own church, and of
the universe for the church's sake, he requires not
the interference of human monarchs, in the support
and maintenance of his kingdom : and the one grand
means by which he secures these objects, is the
influence of the Holy Ghost. While the Scriptures
contain a clear account of the principles on which his
reign is founded, and of the laws by which his
people are governed, he deals immediately with the
hearts and affections of men j he humbles their
pride, obliterates their sins in his own blood, leads
them in paths of righteousness, sanctifies them in
body, soul, and spirit, and spreads over them his own
banner which is Love.
Such being the true character of the kingdom
of Christ, (commenced and carried forward on earth
and perfected in heaven), it is evident that nothing
can be more foreign from its nature, or more opposed
08 ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER
to its principles, than the assumption of temporal
power, for ecclesiastical purposes much more the
abuse of that power in a work which is peculiarly
marked in Scripture as the work of Satan, (Rev. ii.
13) i. e. persecution. To defend the cause of
Christ against even its enemies, by the sword, is
forbidden to the Christian ; to lay waste that cause
by the persecution of his faithful followers, is not
only unlawful, but diabolical.
It is to be hoped that the more reflecting and
moderate of all classes of professing Christians are
prepared to unite in these sentiments ; but this is a
subject, on which it is impossible to take up our rest
at any half-way house. The most important prin-
ciples are involved in the discussion, and these
principles must be fully fathomed, and their legiti-
mate results fairly developed.
If in any country, certain political privileges are
restricted to any one denomination of Christians ;
if Christians of other names and sects are excluded
from these privileges by the law of the land ; and,
again, if persons of one form of faith, conscientiously
adopted, or received by education, are constrained
to make pecuniary sacrifices, in order to support
BY THE PROFESSING CHURCH OF CHRIST. 69
another form of the same faith, from which they
dissent it must be allowed that these are so many
new types of a compulsory, and therefore, of a per-
secuting system in matters of religion ; and are in
point of radical principle, as much at variance with
the true nature and character of the kingdom of
Christ, as the sword or the fire of the magistrate, the
gibbet or scaffold of the executioner. It is the inter-
ference of the authority of man with the prerogative
of the Great Head of the church it is the cramping
of the liberty of the Spirit, and of the inalienable
rights of conscience. As long as the peaceable duties
of the subject and citizen are performed, and every
practice avoided which is at variance with the law of
the land, in temporal matters, or opposed to the
welfare of the body politic so long it is evident that
Christians of every name ought to be in possession of
equal political rights, and ought to be permitted to
pursue their own religious course without molestation
or interference.
It is easy to perceive that the unjust provisions
to which we have now alluded, are the natural
consequence of the alliance of Church and state.
When one particular form of Christianity is adopted
70 ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER
by the state as its own when a marriage takes place
between them, and each becomes pledged to support
the other it inevitably follows that Christians of
other denominations are placed under disadvan-
tageous and degrading circumstances. And in what-
soever degree such circumstances are alleviated, these
nonconformists are still in some measure treated as
" strangers and foreigners," and not as " fellow-
citizens with the saints and of the household of
God'." So also it is unquestionable that the higher
grades of persecution, have arisen out of the same
alliance between church and state. The state adopts
the church, under some particular form as its own ;
and the church, on her part, lays claim to all the
powers of the state, for the support of her cause,
and for the punishment and destruction of her
opposers. To this alliance must be ascribed all
the horrors of the inquisition, all the blood which
flowed in the massacre of St. Bartholomew ; all
the martyr-fires which were lighted by Queen Mary
of England ; all the sufferings of the Quakers in
the 17th Century ; all the bonds and vexations
which are at this very time endured by dissentients
in many parts of Protestant Europe ; and until
BY THE PROFESSING CHURCH OF CHRIST. 71
the system of marrying the church to the state is
renounced, there can be no security against the
recurrence of those direful scenes which peculiarly
distinguish the character of antichrist, and verify
the portrait drawn, in the Holy Scriptures, of the
" man of sin."
Were the views which have now been advanced,
generally adopted among professing Christians, the
great head of the Church might surely be trusted for
conducting the affairs of his own kingdom a king-
dom not of this world in such a way as would best
promote the welfare of his subjects, and his own
glory. He would put it into the hearts of his
followers (as has already been the case) to unite in
the general dissemination of those Holy Scriptures,
which contain the only divinely authorized record of
the doctrines which we are all bound to believe, and
of the moral principles which ought to regulate our
actions. In the mean time, the gentle but con-
straining influences of his Spirit would be moving,
according to his own good pleasure, on the hearts of
men convincing them of sin, humbling them in the
very dust, breaking them down into repentance to-
wards God, and inspiring them with a living faith
72 ON THE USURPATION OF TEMPORAL POWER, ETC.
towards the Saviour of men. Thus would he enlarge
the boundaries of his righteous government, while
those who already belong to it would be built up in
Him, and gradually prepared for a translation to the
inheritance of the saints in glory. In carrying on this
work, he would doubtless employ, as he ever has done,
the instrumentality of men. He would raise up his
servants for the purpose, according to his own wis-
dom ; he would anoint them with the oil of his
kingdom; and thus would not only call them into Ins
service, but qualify them for their work. He would
also secure in due season, for the protection of his
people, and for the furtherance of his cause, the
friendly countenance of the powerful of the earth.
Kings would become, not by exclusive laws, but by
influence and example, the nursing fathers of the
church, and Queens her nursing mothers. Yet all
men would see and understand that the work is the
Lord's. All the glory would be unquestionably due,
and not only due, but rendered to the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God blessed for ever-
more.
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
IN the preceding chapter, we have considered the
usurpation by the hierarchy, of temporal power,
and the dreadful abuse which has been made by the
priesthood, of the magistrate's sword. We may now
direct our attention to the spiritual power .of the
same priesthood, gradually assumed as primitive
Christianity became corrupted, and advancing to
a most extravagant height, under the papal
system.
I conceive that there is no feature which so pro-
minently marks the character of antichrist, as the
former one now mentioned, viz., the usurpation and
abuse, by the ministers of religion, of temporal power.
If however we find those ministers usurping a spiri-
E
74 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
tual authority over the church itself, which is
foreign from their calling ; if we find them attempting
to exercise functions which belong only to Christ, the
great Head of the church it must be confessed that
here is another feature of the power which interferes
with the righteous government of Christ, and there-
fore stands opposed to Him.
The particulars of this subject, as they are developed
under the papal system,, are familiar to most persons.
They may be divided into two parts ; first, the sway
of the hierarchy over the subordinate members of their
own class ; and secondly, the rule of the priesthood over
the laity. In both respects the apostolic precept,
" neither be ye lords over God's heritage," is set aside,
and the power of the clergy is found to amount to
despotism. There is probably no institution in the
world, in which the system of absolute rule on the one
hand, and implicit obedience on the other, is carried
to so great a height as in that of the Romish hierarchy.
The inferior clergy are completely subject to the
superiors who are placed over them ; these again to
their superiors ; and all, including the highest dig-
nitaries, to the Pope, who claims to be the successor of
St. Peter in the bishopric of Rome, and sole vicar and
OP THE PRIESTHOOD. 75
representative of the Lord Jesus Christ upon earth.
This system of absolute rule, not only applies to the
regular clergy, but to all the orders of monks, nuns,
and friars. A perfect obedience to superiors is the
main law of all these bodies ; and many of them are v
regulated, on a strictly military principle. There
is no army in the world more exactly arranged,
more elaborately disciplined, more absolutely go-
verned, or more effective in action, than the order
of the Jesuits. Zealous, steady, and unceasing are
they in their operations, which are ramified in a
thousand different directions ; ever opposed to all
that is opposed to popery, ever aiming at the
reduction of the world under the banner of Rome,
ever pushing forward towards that vast object ;
calling all the devices of human policy into their
service, weaving the web of the most plausible
sophistry, and casting this dangerous network over
the souls of men ; unscrupulous as to the means, (if
we are to believe Pascal and the Jansenists) because
the end is, in their view, sanctified. The great secret
of their success, and of the success of the whole papal
system, is contained in these words, DESPOTIC RULE,
IMPLICIT OBEDIENCE.
E 2
76 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
The more we reflect on this vast fabric of internal
government a system to which the world presents
no parallel the more we shall perceive that it is
the very masterpiece of human policy ; nay, that it
is so far super-human, that if we dare not trace it to
the wisdom \vhich cometh from above and this we
cannot do we are almost compelled to believe, that
some dark power, stronger and more crafty than
man, is the true author of this professedly spiritual
building. If so, it will be found but frostwork after
all, and will melt away in due season, before the
bright beams of the Sun of righteousness, when He
shall again arise upon the earth, as the glorious and
all-sufficient Head of his own church, with healing
on his wings.
While we acknowledge the perfection of this policy,
in a worldly point of view, a close examination of
Scripture will serve to convince us, that Christianity
contains no warrant whatsoever for any such system ;
but that, on the contrary, such a plan of church
government, is in open opposition to the simplicity of
the gospel of Christ.
In the first place, it is the clear doctrine of Scrip-
ture that Jesus Christ himself is the High Priest
OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 77
of our profession j and that lie actually governs his
church on earth as well as in heaven, by the gentle
touches of his love and power, by the immediate influ-
ences of his Holy Spirit. He never appointed a repre-
sentative or viceroy, on whom the office might devolve
of reigning over the visible church in his stead ; one
whose supreme will should be law to all the sub-
ordinate orders of his servants or ministers. Christ
himself is represented in Scripture as the antitype of
Moses, the ruler of the household of God. Moses was
faithful in that household as a servant of God, under
whose authority he acted " Christ, as a Son, over his
own house." When we read of a spiritual potentate
on earth, who assumes the right of ruling the family
of God, according to his own good will and pleasure,
yet as God's vicegerent, we read of that which may
have some faint shadow of a resemblance in the
Jewish high-priesthood, but which is utterly at
variance with the Christian dispensation, under
which Christ himself is the sole absolute ruler, and
ever present helper of his people.
Had it been the will of the great Head of the
church to appoint a supreme viceroy, such as the
Pope assumes to be, he would surely have invested
78 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
some one of the apostles with this vast function, and
would have defined the law of future succession.
But no such circumstance is recorded, or in the most
distant manner alluded to, in the New Testament.
True indeed it is, that Peter, with all his faults, was
pre-eminent in faith and love ; and after our Lord's
ascension was foremost in pleading the cause of his
Master, and in feeding the little flock of the dis-
ciples of Jesus. But this apostle was invested by
his Lord with no supreme authority over his bre-
thren, nor is there the slightest ground for supposing
that he exercised any such authority, after the ascen-
sion of Christ.
In order to a full clearing of the subject, it may be
well to advert to the passage of our Lord's discourses,
on which the Roman Catholic church builds her faith
in the supremacy of Peter: see Matt. xvi. 13 20.
" When Jesus came into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi,
he asked his disciples saying, Whom do men say that I
the Son of Man am? And they said, Some say that thou
art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias,
or one of the prophets. He saith unto them but
whom say ye that I am ? and Simon Peter answered
and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 79
God. And Jesus answered and said unto him,
Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona ; for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou
art Peter, and upon this rock (KOI inl ravrrj rrj irirpq) I
will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys
of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven : and what-
soever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they
should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ."
Almost immediately afterwards we find Peter rebuked
by his Master, for his carnal and worldly views ;
" Get thee behind me Satan ; for thou savourest not
the things that be of God but those that be of men."
These words of severe rebuke afford a strong
indication, that the preceding declaration is to be
understood in no sense which can involve the exalta-
tion of Peter above his brethren.
It appears to be wholly at variance with the
scope of the gospel, to imagine that our Saviour
here represented his poor erring servant, so zealous
and yet so weak, as the rock on which his church
80 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER.
was to be built. If however, the expressions, " On
this rock or stone (iriTpcj) I will build my church"
have any reference to Peter, it must surely be in a
subordinate sense, and must be understood as alluding
to his eminent services, in unison with the other
apostles, in preaching the gospel both to Jews and
Gentiles, and thus through the power of the Holy
Spirit, establishing Christianity in the world. It is
on this ground, doubtless, that the twelve foundations
of the New Jerusalem are described in the Revelation,
as composed of precious stones, each of its peculiar
colour, and marked with the names of the twelve
apostles of the Lamb. Paul also in his epistle to the
Ephesian converts, salutes them as persons who were
" no more strangers and foreigners, but of the
household of faith built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets," &c. The preaching of the
apostles was in its nature fundamental ; it had
respect to that Saviour, who is himself the only
rock on which is built the superstructure of truth,
and the fabric of the true and living church : and
no sooner do we depart from the ground which
was thus clearly marked out by the apostles, than
we are at sea in the things of God, exposed to
OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 81
every wind of human opinion, and liable to be
wrecked in every storm which may be raised by the
power and craftiness of the enemy of our souls. In
the proper sense of the terms, Christ has no human
partner or fellow, in his character of the Foundation.
The doctrine of Scripture on this subject is most
explicit, "Other foundation can no man lay than that
is laid, which is Christ Jesus :" 1 Cor. iii. 1 1 ;
comp. Isa. xxviii. 16.
So far then as Peter was instrumental in founding
the Lord's church on earth, he was one in dignity and
function, (though a leader amongst them in point of
love, zeal, and success) with the rest of the apostles.
But it is surely far more consistent with the whole tenor
of the New Testament to understand the words of
Jesus, as applying to our Saviour himself. Peter says,
" Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God."
Jesus answered, "On this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
The answer was explicit ; and that it was well
understood by Peter, is evident from the uniform
tenor of his discourses and writings, in all which
he never directed the attention of the people to
himself but always to Christ, "If so be ye have
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82 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
tasted that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming
as unto A LIVING STONE, &c. ye also as lively stones
are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the
Scripture, Behold I lay in Zion (for a FOUNDATION
Hebrew) a CHIEF CORNER STONE, elect, precious, and
he that believeth on HIM, shall not be confounded :"
1 Pet. ii. 36.
With respect to the expressions which follow, I
conceive that to hold the keys of the kingdom of
heaven, is perfectly synonymous with possessing the
power of Inndiny or loosening. The blessed truths
which Peter preached were the means of opening
the door of the kingdom of heaven, to all believers.
Thus the keys of that door were placed in his hands ;
and in his capacity of an inspired apostle, the power
was given to him, both of loosening and binding the
captive soul. The willing and obedient hearers of
these glad tidings were delivered from all their bonds.
On the contrary, those who resisted the truths of Chris-
tianity, experienced the confirmation and aggrava-
tion of their spiritual captivity. The very dust of the
feet of the apostles was shaken off against them. These
OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 83
inspired preachers who were " a savour of life unto
life" to some, were thus to others " a savour of deatli
unto death." Such I apprehend to be the true intent
of this promise ; but, whatever was its meaning, it
marked no peculiar authority or dignity in Peter,
above his brethren. These functions and privileges
belonged to all the anointed servants of Christ ; and
we soon afterwards find the same power committed
to the disciples in a body ; " Verily I say unto you,
whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in
heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall
be loosed in heaven ; again I say unto you, That if
two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing
that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my
Father which is in heaven ; for where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them :" Matt, xviii. 1820.
Not a shadow of evidence remains, that Peter was
invested with a viceregal authority over the church.
That in point of fact, he possessed no such supe-
riority, and exercised no such power, is evident
from Paul's declaration that he (Paul) was " not a
whit behind the very chiefest apostles," 2 Cor. xi. 5 ;
also from the fact, elsewhere recorded, that when
84 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
Peter failed to maintain the liberty of the gospel,
among the converts at Antioch, Paul " witJistood him
to his face ;" and reproved him without the smallest
reserve or ceremony : Gal. ii. 11 21. It was not
Peter who governed Paul ; nor can it be the sup-
posed successors of Peter, who govern the ministers
of the Lord in the present day ; it is Christ, the
High Priest of our profession, who was the only
master of Peter and Paul, and of all the prophets,
apostles, and evangelists of primitive Christianity ;
and who is still the only master of the living
ministers of his own gospel. Nothing can be more
to the point, in reference to the present subject,
than some of the conversations of our Lord with
his disciples. The question, " which of them should
be the greatest," or " the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven," was a subject of eager dispute and discus-
sion among the followers of Jesus ; but their divine
Muster gave no countenance to any such ambitious
views as they in their weakness were prone to enter-
tain. He set a little child in the midst of them as a
pattern ; and said, " He that is least among you all,
the same shall be great :" Luke ix. 46, 48 ; Matt,
xviii. 1 4 ; Mark ix. 34 37. On another occasion,
OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 85
he gave them explicit directions to the same effect
" Be not ye called Rabbi, (or Master,) for ONE is
your master, even Christ, and ALL YE are brethren :"
Matt, xxiii. 8.
The view now taken of the immediate rule of
Christ over his people, is confirmed by the well-
known circumstance, that the primitive church,
scattered as it was over many cities and countries,
was never arranged as a single united fabric, under a
scale of human officers every one depending on his
superior and all on a single supreme ruler on earth.
On the contrary, the congregations of Christians both
among Jews and Gentiles were severally independent,
in the matter of government. They were under the
care of their own elders and overseers, and with
the help of this local government, conducted their
own affairs yet always in subjection to the supreme
and immediate rule of the risen and glorified
Saviour. He it was, who, having ascended up on
high, and having led captivity captive, poured forth
the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit according
to his own will; and "he gave some apostles, and
some prophets, and some evangelists, and some
pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the
86 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edi-
fying of the body of Christ:" Eph. iv. 11,12.
And He it is who still selects, appoints, quali-
fies, and governs his own ministers, to whatsoever
grade, and whatsoever denomination they may
belong.
We must now advert to the second point the
power of the priesthood over the lay members of the
church of Christ. That this power, under the papal
system, has advanced to an intolerable height, cannot
be denied by those who have any acquaintance with
the condition of the people in Roman Catholic coun-
tries, and especially in Ireland, where the will of the
priest, to a very great extent, is law to all the mem-
bers of his congregation.
The discipline of the church is wholly in the
hands of ecclesiastics, and that discipline is often
exercised with great severity. Confession and
penance are fearful weapons by which the less
educated part of mankind, and not that part
exclusively, are bowed and broken under the
hands of the priesthood. Yet the terror of im-
pending penance is nothing in comparison with
the assumption, of the power of binding and
OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
87
loosening, in the sense of retaining and forgiving
sins. On the priest alone rests the divine prero-
gative of absolution ; and therefore, with the Papist,
disobedience to the priest is death to the soul.
Every act of religious liberty, every effort of the
mind after a free inquiry into truth, every step
towards an independent exercise of the understand-
ing and conscience in the things of God, is barred by
the consideration that if the priest is offended, abso-
lution cannot be obtained, and the soul must there-
fore be lost. Again it is notorious that in the view
of those deluded votaries of the sacerdotal office,
there is no safety for a departing soul, unless certain
viatica to heaven, (the sacramental wafer and extreme
unction, for example) can be obtained from the priest.
Who then shall dare resist the authority of his
ecclesiastical ruler, at the risk of being deprived of
these viatica? Or if we take purgatory into view,
what sincere adherent of the Romish system, would
venture, by disobeying his priest, to lose the benefit,
after quitting this mortal scene, of the sacrifice of
the mass for the dead ?
It is certain that all these superstitions have
combined to throw a power over the laity more
88 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
than despotic, into the hands of the Romish clergy ;
nor will the calm and accurate observer fail to
remark, that both parties are deep sufferers from
such a system. Its natural consequence, among the
clergy, is bigotry and arrogance ; among the people,
ignorance and superstition.
Having thus adverted to the facts of the case, facts
of the most notorious character, we may advance to
the question, What says the Scripture in reference
to this subject 1 And in answering this question, we
cannot do better than adduce, in the first place, a
memorable passage from the catholic epistle of Peter
himself, in which he not only places himself on a
ground of perfect equality with his brethren, but
utterly repudiates the notion that those whom the
Holy Ghost has appointed to be overseers of the
flock, are to exercise lordship by which we may
understand a despotic power over those who are
thus committed to their charge. " The elders which
are among you I exhort, who am also an elder (b
<7v/z7T|00-/3i/rpoc, an elder with them) and a witness of
the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the
glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God
which is among you, taking the oversight thereof,
OP THE PRIESTHOOD. 89
not by constraint but willingly : not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind ; neither as being lords over
(Kci-aKvpievorTes) God's heritage ; but as ensamples
to the flock Likewise ye younger submit
yourselves unto the elder, yea all of you be subject
one to another, and be clothed with humility, for
God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the
humble ;" 1 Pet. v. 15.
From this passage it is evident, that nothing ana-
logous to the despotic spiritual power of the Romish
priesthood, was allowed in primitive days ; that while
the chosen servants of the Lord, who were elders in
the truth, (whether they were so in years or not,)
were engaged in superintending and feeding the flock,
they were not permitted to exercise a mastership over
the body but that all the members of the church
were to be subject one to another in love. On a
further investigation of the subject, I believe we
shall find that the power of inflicting the discipline
of the church, rested not with the overseers, elders, or
preachers, in their distinct capacity, but with the
church itself. Of this fact we have plain scriptural
evidence in the following precept of Jesus. "More-
over if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go
90 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
and tell him his fault between thee and him alone
if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one
or two more, &c. ; and if he shall neglect to hear
them, tell it unto tfie church" &c. : Matt, xviii.
1-5 17. It was the church therefore, not the
apostles only not the preachers or elders alone
but the whole body or congregation, to whom the
final appeal was to be made in a matter of disci-
pline, and by whom, (under Christ,) that matter
was to be settled.
It is a satisfactory circumstance, that in the epistles
of Paul, we are furnished with an example, in which
our Lord's precept was in this respect carried into
effect. A member of the Corinthian church had com-
mitted an incestuous crime ; and what says the apostle
on the occasion ? " For I verily, as absent in body,
but present in spirit, have judged already, as though
I were present, concerning him that hath so done
this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
wlien ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with
the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such
an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord
OP THE PRIESTHOOD. 91
Jesus .... purge out therefore the old leaven," &c.
Here Paul, in his apostolic character, directs, and
rightly directs, the action of the church. Never-
theless it is the church itself, the assembled body of
Christians at Corinth, who were to act in this affair
of discipline, in dependence on the power of Christ ;
to deliver up the offender to Satan, (for the infliction,
I suppose of some disease) and to purge out the old
leaven, by excommunication or disownment. There
can be no doubt that the church at Corinth acted,
according to the apostle's injunction in the case ;
and, in his second epistle, we find him calling on the
same body not the overseers and elders alone, but
the church in its corporate capacity to restore the
now penitent believer, to their unity and favour :
see 1 Cor. v., 2 Cor. ii. According to the primitive
plan therefore, the authority to inflict discipline rests
not with any priesthood, but with the body of
Christ. The same may be said of confession, which
according to the apostolic plan, had nothing clerical
in its bearing " Confess your faults ONE to ANOTHER,
and pray ONE FOR ANOTHER, that ye may be healed :"
James v. 16.
But it was not only in matters of discipline that
92 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
the authority under Christ, rested with the whole
company of the believers. When regulations were
to be made for the conduct of the Lord's people, it
was the people themselves, who, with due regard to
the judgment of their spiritual guides, enacted those
regulations. Thus the decree respecting the freedom
of the Gentile converts from the yoke of the Jewish
ceremonial law, was agreed upon by the assembled
body of Christians at Jerusalem, and was issued in
the name of " the apostles, and elders, and brethren :"
see Acts xv. 4, 12, 22, 23. The government was
essentially democratic, as it regarded the members of
the body; but it was a democracy, like that of
ancient Israel, under the immediate control and
guidance of the great Head of the church. The
conclusion to which the church arrived on this
occasion, seemed good to the apostles, and elders, and
brethren, for this simple reason, that it also " seemed
good to the Holy Ghost :" ver. 28.
In the case of the incestuous member of the
Corinthian church, we may observe that the
assembly of Christians which inflicted the disci-
plinary sentence, was afterwards exhorted by the
apostle Paul to forgive the offender. This cir-
OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 93
cumstance affords a clue to the most probable mean-
ing of our Lord's address to his disciples recorded in
John xx. 23. " Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are
remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain,
they are retained." There is no reason to conclude
that this commission was intended to be confined to
the apostles ; it is rather to be regarded as decla-
rative of the power which was to reside in the church,
or whole body of believers in any place that of
remitting or retaining the sins of transgressing mem-
bers of the body, so far as related to discipline.
When the offender was excommunicated or otherwise
punished, and during the continuance of the penalty,
his sin was retained by the church ; and when again
he was restored to favour, it was remitted or forgiven
by his brethren ; and their decrees on the subject
were ratified by the sanction and fiat of their
divine Master, under the guidance of whose Spirit
it was their privilege to act. But to apply this
declaration to that retaining of sins, of which the
awful consequence is the fire never to be quenched ;
and to that forgiveness of them, through which
the penitent sinner, believing in the Lord Jesus,
is delivered from the pains of hell, and obtains an
04 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
immortality of bliss, is surely in the highest degree
at variance with the principles of divine truth.
Who can forgive sins but God alone ? was a question
which the Pharisees asked, when Jesus forgave the
palsied suppliant. Nor could any man fail to
answer, NO ONE. Sin is the transgression of the law
of God ; and, in the very nature of things, none but
God can pardon it, and absolve the sinner from its
awful consequences. Jesus had " power on earth to
forgive sins," because he was the Son of God one
with the Father. " I even I am he that blotteth out
thine iniquities for mine own sake," said Jehovah
to Israel, " and will not remember thy sins," Isa.
xliii. 25 ; and again, " I will forgive their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more," Jer. xxxi.
34. An apostle, under the immediate inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, might indeed pronounce the
forgiveness of sins ; but the act of pardon is a
divine prerogative, which belongs exclusively to
the Judge of all flesh, and may well be regarded
as the brightest jewel in his crown of righteousness
and glory.
The assumption of a power to forgive sins, and
all the odious consequences which have followed
OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 95
from it, form one of the principal antichristian
features of the papal hierarchy. Here is the blas-
phemy of the " man of sin," in pretending to the
possession of the most sacred of the divine attributes .
Here is that sitting " on the throne of God/' and that
exalting of himself " above all that is called God," of
which we read in Scripture. Here too is the mercan-
tile abomination of Babylon, so vividly depicted in the
visions of John. Money is poured into her treasury
by the kings of the earth, and by their subjects and
followers and the article received in return, is the
Pope's pardon of sins that are past, and the Pope's
permission to sin for the future. The gross and enor-
mous traffic which Rome has carried on in this article
of indulgence to the sinful propensities of man, is
certainly one of the strangest instances of human
wickedness, under the plea of religion, that ever dis-
graced the history of our species. This professed angel
of- mercy, is surely nothing better than Satan in
transformation ; and yet so transformed as to be
scarcely concealed. That this system which claims
the power of absolution for man, and even sanc-
tions his selling that blessed boon, is at once
immoral and impious, no reflecting Christian
96 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, can with any
reason deny.
But independently of the supposed power of absolu-
tion, there remains the sacerdotal authority, armed
with the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass, by which
to enthral the souls of men, and bring them under
slavery to their spiritual guides. What then says
the Scripture, first, on the subject of sacrifice; and
secondly, on that of the sacerdotal office in the church
of Christ ? It plainly indicates that under the gospel
there is recognized no propitiatory sacrifice, but the
one offering of Jesus on the cross ; and no one who
holds the sacerdotal office, but the risen and glorified
Saviour himself.
I. A calm review of the doctrine of the New Testa-
ment, on the subject of propitiation, may soon satisfy us,
that the popish invention of the sacrifice of the mass,
is not only without the shadow of support from Scrip-
ture, but is opposed to some of the fundamental
principles of Christianity. Christianity declares in the
first place, that the sacrifices ordained by the Jewish
law, were simply ceremonial in their nature that "the
blood of goats and of calves could not take away sin ;"
that they were the mere types of good things to come ;
OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 97
and that having now served their purpose, in fore-
shadowing the sacrifice of Christ, they form no
part of the religion or worship of the disciples of
Jesus. In the mean time, the one great offering of
Christ on the cross, is every where insisted on, in
the New Testament, as the means of our recon-
ciliation with God, and as the sole ground of our
deliverance from punishment, and of our hope of
heaven.
Our Saviour himself frequently alluded to this
great doctrine : (John iii. 14, &c.) and no one who
has the least acquaintance with the New Testament,
can fail to be aware how frequently the propitia-
tory offering of Christ is dwelt upon by the apostles.
The subject is concentrated in the declaration of
Peter, that " we are not redeemed with corruptible
things, as silver and gold, from our vain conversa-
tion received by tradition from our fathers, but by
the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot," 1 Pet. i. 18, 19; and
the universality of the application of this sacrifice to
mankind, is set forth in the epistle of John, " He was
the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only
but for the sins of the whole world :" 1 John ii. 2.
F
ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
But in the Epistle to the Hebrews more especially
are we taught, that the atoning death of Christ
the end and fulfilment of the shadows of the law ; and
that this propitiation having been made once for all,
all sacrifice for sin ceases. " For such an high priest
became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who
needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up
sacrifice first for their own sins and then for the people ;
for this he did ONCE, having offered up himself:"
chap. vii. 26, 27. " For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures
of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in
the presence of God for us : nor yet that he should
offer himself often as the high priest entereth into
the holy place every year with the blood of others,
(for then must he often have suffered from the foun-
dation of the world ;) but now ONCE in the end of
the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself; and as it is appointed unto
man once to die, and after that the judgment ; so
Christ was ONCE offered to bear the sins of many,
and unto them that look for him, shall he appear,
the second time, without sin (or a sin-offering) unto
OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 99
salvation :" chap. ix. 24 28. Again, " And every
priest standeth daily ministering, and offering often-
times the same sacrifices, which can never take away
sins : but this man, after he had offered ONE sacrifice
for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God
.... for by ONE offering he hath perfected for ever
them that are sanctified :" chap. x. 11 14.
To conclude, it is the clear doctrine of this inspired
writer, that if we sin wilfully after we have received
the knowledge of the truth, (and have thus belied
our faith in this one sacrifice) " there remaineth no
more sacrifice for sin :" the sacrifices of the Jewish
law are fulfilled, and in point of authority for ever
abolished ; the one availing offering of Jesus Christ
on the cross is rejected by the apostate who falls
from grace ; and there remaineth no other sacrifice
whatsoever.
When we aver on apostolic authority, that " there
remaineth no other sacrifice whatsoever," we do not
forget that true Christians of every name and class
are, "a holy nation, a royal priesthood," to offer
up " SPIRITUAL sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ :" 1 Pet. ii. 5. They present their
bodies and souls, even the whole man, " a living
F 2
100 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
sacrifice/' which is certainly no more than their
"reasonable service:" Rom. xii. 1. They can give
ear to the apostolic exhortation : " Let us go forth
therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his
reproach : for here we have no continuing city, but
we seek one to come. By him therefore let us offer
the sacrifice of praise continually, that is the fruit
of our lips, giving thanks to his name ; but to do
good and communicate forget not, for with such
sacrifices God is well pleased :" Heb. xiii. 13 16.
Such and such only are the sacrifices which Chris-
tianity recognizes : First, the one propitiatory offering
of Jesus on the cross, by which alone we are re-
deemed, and to which mankind, all the world over,
and in every succeeding age, are freely invited to
look, in simple faith, and without the mediation of
any human priesthood, for the forgiveness of their
sins : and secondly, the grateful return, on the part
of Christian believers, of a loving and obedient heart,
and of a life devoted to the service and glory of
God.
2. From this scriptural view of the subject, it is
abundantly evident that the Romish sacrifice of
the mass, perpetually offered up as it is, as a pro-
OP THE PRIESTHOOD. 101
pitiation for sin, is not only unauthorized by the
gospel of Jesus Christ, but is wholly opposed to its
nature, character, and spirit. Now where there is
no sacrifice, there is no priest ; for sacrifice is the
essential characteristic of the sacerdotal office. The
continuance of that office, under the papal and hie-
rarchical system, is nothing better than a recur-
rence to the old plan of Jewish worship, and stands
opposed to the simplicity of the truth and spiritu-
ality of the gospel dispensation. A Priest (kpcvc,
sacerdos) is not only a minister but a mediator ; he
stands between the people and their God ; he offers
up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and afterwards for
those of the people. But, in this glorious gospel day,
as we know only one God, so we know only one
" Mediator between God and man, the man Christ
Jesus, who gave his life a ransom for all." 1 Tim.
ii. 5. In the distribution of spiritual gifts and offices,
we read that the risen and glorified Saviour " gave
some apostles, and some prophets, and some evan-
gelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfect-
ing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ ;" we read also
of presbyters or elders, of bishops or overseers, of
102 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
deacons or servants ; but among all these we hear
nothing whatsoever of the priest, the ttpevc, or sacer-
dos. We must therefore conclude that Jesus is the
ONLY priest of the Christian church. In Him the
shadows of the law, and especially the whole sacri-
ficial system, are for ever fulfilled. He has died,
once for all, for the sins of the whole world ; he is
over present with his people to bless them in the
name of his Father ; he is their never failing Advo-
cate and Intercessor before the throne of God ; he
carries the names of all the tribes of the true Israel,
as on his breastplate, before the Lord ; like Aaron,
he bears the iniquity even of our " holy things."
The Lord hath sworn and will not repent, saith the
Father to the Son, " Thou art a Priest for ever after
the order of Melchizedek." Uniting in himself the
regal and sacerdotal offices, he both mediates and
reigns, and supplies, in both respects, the whole need
of his universal church. Ecclesiastical systems, in-
vented by men, shall last their season, and then
vanish. The finest fabrics of human policy, in the
things of religion, shall perish before the breath of
the Lord Almighty ; but Jesus Christ, our only
High Priest, is "the same yesterday, and to-day,
OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 103
and for ever," and " of the increase of his govern-
ment and peace there shall be NO END."
There is no point which more clearly betrays the
identity of the antichrist of Scripture with Papal
Rome, and none more marked and conspicuous in
the history of her system, than her assumption of
the power of working miracles. It may safely be
asserted that the wonders pretended to be wrought
under the authority of the Papacy, are, practically
speaking, innumerable. This is the portentous
evidence so overwhelming to the ignorant and
superstitious mind on which the Romish hierarchy
has mainly relied, in the support of her pretensions
to universal empire, both temporal and spiritual.
The legends of her monasteries, and the stories of
her saints (whether suffering on earth, or beatified in
heaven) are full of these strange infractions of the
order of nature. The greater part of these anomalies
are marked by such obvious absurdity, as to excite
only the smile of derision ; yet they have served the
purpose of deceiving, and keeping in sore captivity,
104 ON THE SPIRITUAL POWER
millions of ignorant devotees. Such delusions can
be classed only with the tricks of the juggler.
Others, undoubtedly, are more unaccountable in their
nature, and more difficult of detection ; and may
perhaps serve to remind us, that evil spirits may
still have some power permitted them over the
laws of nature, as in the days of Moses and the
magicians.
Le,t no man suppose that there is any real simi-
litude between the " lying wonders" of popery, and
the miracles of the New Testament. The former are,
as a whole, lighter than vanity ; the latter fixed and
substantial as a rock. The difference between them
is to be observed, in three essential particulars ; first,
the evidence of their reality that of the Christian
miracles being overpowering, while that of the popish
wonders is notoriously weak ; secondly, their intrinsic
nature the Christian miracles being in every respect
truly great, and worthy of their Author, while most
of the popish wonders are puerile in the extreme ;
and thirdly, the cliaracter of tlie system, which
tlvey are respectively intended to maintain. The
Christian miracles are among the irrefragable sup-
ports of a religion of perfect benevolence, justice,
OF THE PRIESTHOOD. lOo
and holiness. The popish wonders are the wretched
props of false and dangerous doctrine, and of
usurped, unrighteous power. It is on the most
rational grounds that the former demand our sincere
and hearty credence ; and it is for reasons equally
convincing, that the latter must be calmly but
resolutely disallowed.
CHAPTER V.
ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
I. THE first grand point in reference to divine wor-
ship, is the consideration of the Being or Beings to
whom it is addressed. Honour and reverence paid
even to human dignitaries, is sometimes included in
the idea of worship as it is said, that all the con-
gregation of Israel bowed down and " worshipped the
LORD, and the King :" 1 Chron. xxix. 20. But while,
under the full light of the gospel dispensation, the
impropriety of such acts of reverence, addressed to
mortals, is very obvious, we are not to confound them
with " divine worship" in its proper sense ; for this
is such an adoration, as supposes the existence of
some divine attribute or attributes in the Being or
Person to whom it is offered. Thus the prostra-
tion both of body and soul, which was frequently
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 107
offered to our Saviour when on earth, had an obvious
reference to the divine power which he possessed, of
changing the order of nature, in the working of
stupendous miracles. The man born blind, on whom
he had so graciously bestowed perfect eyes and perfect
vision, worshipped him as the Son of God ; the
apostles adored him in the same character, when he
had displayed his control over the winds and waves,
and had made the storm a calm ; and the leper bowed
down before him as truly divine, in the belief that,
by his fiat, Jesus could in a moment deliver him from
his otherwise incurable disease. So also the martyr
Stephen prayed to Jesus to receive his soul into
heaven, and to forgive his persecutors. In all these
instances, the Son of God was visible to the wor-
shipper ; but other examples are recorded in the
New Testament, in which prayer was addressed
to him as to an unseen being : see Acts i. 21 25 ;
2 Cor. xii. 7 9. It does not appear to me that
any sound Christian can object to the adoration of
the Son or of the Holy Spirit, because the Scrip-
tures afford abundant evidence of the subsistence
of each of them, in the essence and unity of the
Godhead ; but if there is any one principle more
108 ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
clearly laid down than another in the code of Holy
Writ, it is, that God alone is the proper object of
spiritual or religious adoration ; and that if such
worship is offered to any other Being, it is a deadly
offence against the majesty of heaven, and a sin of
the deepest dye.
Let us take that virtuous and faithful handmaid
of God, the blessed mother of our Lord, as our first
example. So far as her history is developed in the
gospels, we cannot but admire her character. Her
simple belief in the angelic annunciation, and her
child-like devotion to the will of God, are indeed
exemplary. Her attendance beside the cross, during
the terrible sufferings of the dying Jesus, marked the
triumph of affection and piety over all weakness and
fear ; and even her too great zeal for the display of
his miraculous power at Cana of Galilee, although it
met with a timely reproof from her Son, may be
charitably ascribed to an ardent desire to behold his
glory. But the mother of Jesus is not once mentioned
in the apostolic epistles, or the Revelation. Honoured
as she was among mortals, as the chosen vessel
through whom the Word became incarnate, she
lived as mortals live, and died as mortals die.
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 109
There is not the smallest hint in Scripture, that
she never sinned ; or that she entered heaven on any
other ground than redemption through the blood of
the Saviour who was born of her. In constituting
her the queen of heaven ; in adoring her in psalms,
hymns, and prayers, as the mother of God ; in
addressing her as an omnipresent being, in order to
implore her intercession with the Father and the
Son ; in calling upon her for deliverance from a
variety of evils, both temporal and spiritual, (an un-
questionably common practice among the adherents
of the papal system) it is surely undeniable that
the church of Rome is guilty of ascribing divine
attributes, and of addressing divine worship, to a
creature even a once fallen creature, like ourselves.
Herein the name of Blasphemy is written on the
forehead of the false prophet ; or of the second beast,
who had the visage of the lamb with the voice
of the dragon.
The God of Israel is often described as a jealous
God. He will admit of no rival in the worship of
his people. Infinite is the distance, in point of
dignity and power, between Him and the most
exalted of his creatures. " Before me," saith the
110 ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
LORD, " there was no God formed, neither shall there
be after me. I, even I, am the LORD ; and beside me
there is no Saviour:" Isa. xliii. 10, 11. If the
worship of Mary, who undoubtedly occupied an
exalted place in the plan of man's redemption, is
utterly opposed to this sacred principle, the same
remark still more obviously applies to the invocation
of saints, whether they be apostles and evangelists of
primitive times, or Romish devotees of a later period.
When the act of bodily prostration was addressed by
Cornelius to Peter, and indignantly rejected by him
because he was " a man," little did the apostle
imagine, that prayers and invocations would after-
wards be addressed to him, and to a thousand other
saints, real or supposed, as to so many unseen and
spiritual beings. This worship is offered under the
notion, in the first place, that although dead and
invisible they can hear such addresses : and, in the
second place, that it is their office to act as medi-
ators or intercessors with the Father ; and are
moreover endued with a divine power, to fence off
every kind of sorrow and danger from those who
trust in them. Among the more ignorant of the
Romish communion, these saints may truly be said
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. Ill
to serve the purpose of tutelary deities or demigods ;
or in other words substitutes for JEHOVAH, in whose
stead they are so frequently invoked as " mighty to
save and able to deliver." But even when they are
called upon, for the sole purpose of engaging their
intercession, the fact of their being freely addressed,
on all occasions which may appear to require their
advocacy, and in all places wheresoever the lot of
their suppliants may be cast, clearly involves the
imagination that they possess one of the highest
and most glorious of the divine attributes omni-
presence.
Respecting the angels, the question is asked in
Scripture, " Are they not all ministering spirits,
sent forth to minister for them who are heirs of sal-
vation V This question supposes its own answer in
the affirmative ; nor is it unreasonable to believe,
that the office of kindness, here ascribed to the angels,
is shared by the departed spirits of those who have
died in the Lord, and who are now for ever num-
bered among his saints in heaven. This is a cheer-
ing and comforting doctrine ; and we may gratefully
acknowledge, that there is a hidden tie of love and
sympathy which binds together, as in " the bundle of
11 ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
life," the members of the church militant with those of
the church triumphant. But such a doctrine affords
no ground whatsoever for the invocation of saints.
If we address our petitions to them, ( be those peti-
tions what they may) we inevitably ascribe to them
an ubiquity which belongs only to God ; and thus
we involve ourselves in a blasphemous offence against
Him who is the ONLY right object of DIVINE wor-
ship.
It is well remarked by Bishop Butler, in his Ana-
logy, that under the gospel dispensation, new relations
are revealed to us, which demand the exercise of
corresponding affections and feelings ; especially the
relation to us of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the ap-
pointed Mediator between God and man. The worship
of Christ, recognized and enforced by Christianity,
involves an affiance of the soul on Him in this pecu-
liar character ; and it is an affiance which admits of
no rivalry. Hence it follows, that the worship of
Mary and the saints, is not only blasphemy against the
Father, inasmuch as it ascribes to them attributes
exclusively belonging to God (even omnipresence and
a divine control over events ;) but blasphemy against
the Son, because it robs him of a large share of his
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 113
mediatorial office ; for we are taught in Scripture,
that as there is ONE God, so there is ONE Mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus ; even
the incarnate and glorified Word. On both these
grounds therefore the adoration of Mary and the
saints, as allowed and practised among the votaries of
Rome, involves such an alienation of soul from the
truth, and from the God of truth, as constitutes (so
far as I am capable of understanding the subject) the
essence of impiety ; and impiety, under the form of
captivating devotional feeling and exercise, must
surely be a masterpiece among the inventions of
Satan !
Yet this is far from being the whole of the case.
Home spiritual is guilty, not only of blasphemy and
impiety, as now set forth, but also, in the strictest sense
of the terms, of idolatry. No one can reasonably
dispute that the second commandment of the first
tablet of the law, although addressed specifically to
the Israelites, is practically binding on the whole
family of man. Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is
in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
that is in the water under the earth : Thou shalt not
114 ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
bow down thyself to them, nor serve them ; for I the
Lord thy God am a jealous God," &c. ; Exod. xx.
4, 5. So far as the Israelites obeyed this law, they
abstained from making any graven image, either of
Jehovah himself, or of any of his creatures in order to
worship them ; and when they transgressed this com-
mand, they never failed to be severely punished.
But Rome spiritual makes images of Jesus Christ
who is " in heaven ;" and bows down, in worship
before them a practice which evidently involves the
awful danger of a transfer of the aspiration of the
soul, from the Saviour whom the image (eicwXov) re-
presents, to the image itself. She also makes idols
innumerable of Mary and the saints, carves them out
in wood, paints and adorns them after the supposed
likeness of the originals, dresses them up in all sorts
of finery, and then commands her votaries to bow
before them, in solemn prostration both of body and
soul. That this is genuine and frightful idolatry
an idolatry, which cannot on any sound principle,
be distinguished from that of the heathen must,
as I apprehend, be allowed by every calm and
impartial observer. Here the professing church,
apostate from the truth, and rebelling against her
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 115
Lord, justifies the worst title bestowed on her in
Scripture, even that of the " Mother of harlots."
She tramples on her marriage covenant with the
Bridegroom of souls, she commits the most open
spiritual fornication, and she implicates " all nations"
in her sin, her guilt, and her shame : Rev. xvii. 5 ;
xviii. 3.
This remark, however, is more especially verified
by the worship of the host ; i. e. hostia the victim,
or sacrifice. The prostration of body and soul before
a WAFER, under the strange notion that this morsel
of bread is itself the Deity incarnate, is an act of
frequent occurrence ; and one in which the potentates
and nations of the earth have participated, during a
long course of ages, in a most public and undisguised
manner. That it is an act of gross and palpable
idolatry such idolatry as would have been truly
worthy of ancient Egypt itself must, I think, be
known and felt by every reflecting Christian who has
witnessed the practice, whether he be Roman Catholic
or Protestant.
II. Prayer is an essential and principal part of
the worship of God ; and in order that we may
perform divine worship aright, we must not only
116 ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
address our petitions to Him who alone is the legi-
timate object of them; we must also confine the
subject of them, to those things which are lawful, and
consistent with the harmony of divine truth. Chris-
tians are encouraged to pray not only for themselves,
but one for another. " Confess your faults one to
another, and pray one for another that ye may be
healed :" James v. 1G. It is indeed evident that the
duty of intercession must take a wide range among
the believing followers of Jesus. If this is truly our
character, we shall pray for those who are near to us,
and those that are afar off; for our friends and for
our enemies ; for the church and for the world ; but
we shall not pray for the dead for those who have
already exchanged a life of trial and probation, for
one of eternal fixedness. Rome spiritual however
enjoins prayers for the dead ; and not only prayers,
but the renewed sacrifice, daily offered on their
account, of the body and blood of Jesus, in the mass ;
and even sells these performances to the highest
bidder.
It may well be supposed that the adherents of
the papal system would hardly have ventured on
such a preposterous course, had they not found
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 117
some show of authority for it in Holy Scripture ; and
such indeed they have in what they so denominate
namely, the second book of the Maccabees. In this
apocryphal work, we learn that some of the Jews who
fought, under Judas, against Gorgias, governor of
Idumsea, were slain in the battle, and that on exami-
nation afterwards, there were found under their coats,
" things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites."
Their death was regarded by their brethren as the
judicial consequence of their transgression. " All
men, therefore," says the historian, " praising the
Lord, the righteous Judgefwho had opened the things
that were hid, betook themselves unto prayer, and
besought him that the sin committed might wholly
be put out of remembrance And when he
(Judas) had made a gathering throughout the com-
pany, to the sum of two thousand drachms of silver,
he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin-offering, doing
therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful
of the resurrection. (For if he had not hoped that
they that were slain should have arisen again, it had
been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.)
And also in that he perceived that there was great
favour laid up for those that died godly. (It was a
118 ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
holy and good thought.) Whereupon he made recon-
ciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered
from sin :" chap. xii. 41 45.
This certainly is a strange story : and if we are to
rely upon the truth of the history, we must conclude
that Judas and his brethren, not only prayed for the
dead, but did so, under the peculiar notion that they
might receive forgiveness, and be delivered from sin,
on the other side the grave; and moreover, they
caused sacrifices for sin to be offered in the temple,
in furtherance of these prayers. Even if the history
be regarded as untrue, it 'will still indicate that its
unknown author, who was probably a Jew, enter-
tained the notion that departed souls may receive
forgiveness, through the intercession and sacrifices
of their brethren who are still alive. Sentiments
of this description appear to have found a place
among more modern Jews, some of whom acknow-
ledge a kind of purgatory, which continues for
one year after death. This they call the upper
Gehenna, and they believe that all Israelites, (with
a few flagrant exceptions) have a portion in the
world to come, or in a future state of happiness,
either immediately after death, or after they have
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 119
atoned for their sins in purgatory. " The Jews,"
says Calmet, " offer up a great many prayers and
works of satisfaction on the day of solemn expia-
tion, for the comfort of such souls as are in the
upper Gehenna. Leo of Modena, part 5, cap. x."
<fcc.
The opinions which prevailed amongst the Jews at
the Christian era, often throw light upon the meaning
of passages in the New Testament, and are therefore
far from being unimportant to the biblical critic ;
but to receive them as of any weight or authority in
matters of doctrine, or any evidence, in themselves,
of divine truth (except so far as they are founded on
Scripture,) would be wholly out of the question.
The passage in Maccabees shews nothing more than
the opinion either of Judas himself, or of the author
who wrote his history. That history, although
included by the Roman Catholics in the volume of
Scripture, lays no claim to divine inspiration, and
never belonged to the true canon of the Hebrews.
As authority, for the doctrine of purgatory, and
prayers for the dead, the passage in question must
therefore be entirely discarded.
In the New Testament itself, however, there are
120 ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
two passages, one of which has been sometimes
adduced as an authority for purgatory ; and the
other as a sanction for praying for the dead. The
first is 1 Pet. iii. 18 20, where we read that Christ
was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the
Spirit, (that is, probably " raised from the dead by
his own divine nature") by which also he went and
preached to the spirits in prison which were some-
times disobedient in the days of Noah. That pur-
gatory cannot be intended by the "prison" here
mentioned, is evident from the fact, that this prison
is spoken of as the abode of those who were dis-
obedient in the days of Noah not the " almost
innocent," to whom purgatory is assigned by Rome
spiritual ; but the intensely wicked, whose imagina-
tions were " only evil continually in the sight of
God" the children of wrath, who had trampled on
the visitations of divine grace, and had rejected all
the proffered mercies of the Lord. The passage pro-
bably means, as is generally allowed by commentators,
that Jesus Christ, in his divine nature, preached
either immediately by his spirit, or instrumentally
by Noah, to those rebellious Antediluvians who
were destroyed by the flood, and whose spirits
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 121
were (when the apostle wrote) in prison, reserved
unto " the day of judgment and perdition of un-
godly men."
The other passage has relation to Onesiphorus,
2 Tim. i. 16 18. " The Lord give mercy unto the
house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and
was not ashamed of my chain ; but when he was in
Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found
me ; the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy
of the Lord in that day." Again, in a subsequent
chapter, the apostle salutes "Aquila and Priscilla,
and the household of Onesiphorus :" iv. 19. From this
repeated mention of the family of Onesiphorus, it is
concluded by some persons, that he, himself, was not
living, and that the apostle's ejaculation, " The Lord
grant unto him that he may find mercy," &c., is
nothing more or less than a prayer for the dead.
That this argument is weak can scarcely be denied j
that it is fallacious too, a little consideration will
evince. Were it clear that the " house" or " house-
hold of Onesiphorus" was not intended to include
Onesiphorus himself, we have no reason on that
account to number him among the dead. Onesi-
phorus was a traveller; it probably was not long
G
ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
since, that he had visited the apostle at Rome ; he
might be absent from his family for a season. But
we have no need to have recourse to the supposition
either of absence or death. It is a common idiom
among the Greeks to describe even an individual
under the appellation of his companions ; so that
ol Trepl (piXnnrov (the persons about Philip) would
either mean Philip only, or at most Philip with his
companions. So with Paul, " the household," or
" they of the household" of Chloe, of Narcissus, of
Aristobulus, of Stephanas, of Onesiphorus, c., must
be understood to mean, Chloe, Narcissus, Stephanas,
Aristobulus, and Onesiphorus, with their respective
families : see Rom. xvi. 10, 11 ; 1 Cor. i. 11, 16.
The reason why these persons are thus described,
while others are mentioned by their simple names,
is probably no more than this that they had fami-
lies, who were members of the church of Christ, as
mil as themselves.
The evidence which the adherents of the Papal
system adduce in favour of a purgatory, and there-
fore of the propriety of prayers for the dead, if
evidence it may be called, is in point of fact as
nothing, when compared with the fulness and weight
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 123
of the great Christian doctrine of trial and probation
here (with grace sufficient to obtain the victory) and
of happiness or misery, unmixed and unchangeable,
in the world to come.
The adherents of Rome seem to divide mankind
into three classes j saints who, when they die, go at
once to heaven ; venial sinners who are sent from this
world into purgatory, and there are purified and pre-
pared for paradise ; and desperate sinners who, when
they quit this mortal scene, are consigned to the
pains of hell itself, as their just and inevitable
punishment. Now I conceive that this notion of
a middle class, and of the means by which it is
perfected, is nothing more than the invention of
men, who are ever ready to find out a way to heaven
which shall be compatible with their continuing
to follow their own corrupt inclinations.
True indeed it is that Scripture recognizes sins
"not unto death," and sins "unto death;" by the
first of which, we may understand transgressions
of which the true penitent receives a free pardon
through faith in Christ ; and by the second, such
a blaspheming against the Holy Ghost, such a
confirmed rejection of all that flows from his
G 2
124 ON DIVIXE WORSHIP.
divine influence, and such a persevering rebellion
against God, as admit of no remedy, but inevitably
terminate in the destruction of the soul. But it
is surely a clear point that the New Testament
recognizes only two classes of men in a spiritual point
of view those who are of the world, and those who
are not of the world ; those who reject the gospel,
and those who believe in it ; the children of light,
and the children of darkness ; those who continue in
their natural state of sinfulness, and those who,
through timely submission to the grace of God, put
off the old man with his "deceitful lusts," and
become new creatures in Christ Jesus. All sin is the
transgression of the divine law, is mortal in IN
nature, and will assuredly end in the death of the
soul, unless it is forsaken and washed away in the
blood of Christ ; and further, it is the plain doctrine
of Scripture that the law of God is one harmonious
system which admits of no infraction, and that he
who offends in one point is guilty of all: James ii. 10.
" All have sinned ;" and are condemned to death
by the law ; but for all if they will but believe
and obey the gospel there is provided a free par-
don and full redemption, through Jesus Christ
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 125
our Lord. Nor can it be questioned on any scrip-
tural ground, that the faith by which the ungodly
are justified, is a living faith, which cannot fail to be
productive of a sober, righteous, and godly life. The
Christian is under a dispensation of grace, and the
path of the just is found to shine more and more,
unto the perfect day.
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and
all the holy angels with him, these two great parties
these only two classes among all the nations of the
earth shall be gathered together before him, and
shall find their respective places on his right hand,
or on his left. Then shall the righteous hear the
words of gracious invitation, " Come ye blessed of my
Father," &c., but to the wicked of every name and
nation, shall be addressed the awful sentence of
" Depart ye cursed," &c. Not the slightest hint is
given us of any middle state, in that day of final and
universal judgment. In the meantime, the Christian
convert, whether it be the apostle who has long
been running the race of godliness, or the just con-
verted and now believing criminal, is safe and happy
immediately after death. " It is better to depart
and be with Christ," said Paul : " To-day thou shalt
126 ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
be with me in Paradise," said the dying Jesus to
the thief who hung by his side. Lazarus too, is
described in the parable as at once exchanging his
miserable mortality, for a resting place in Abraham's
bosom. But what becomes of the rich man who
refused to comfort him ? He dies, and is at once
consigned to a place of punishment, from which there
is no escape. What becomes of the foolish virgins
who were scarcely to be distinguished from their
companions while " they all slumbered and slept,"
but who, when the Bridegroom came, were found
without oil in their vessels with their lamps ? On
them the door of mercy is shut and shut for ever.
It is indeed a truth, to which Christianity bears
a strong and unquestionable testimony, that the
present world is a state of trial and probation
one in which the character of every man is developed
as a ground for future righteous judgment, and
in which a remedial system of moral discipline is
bestowed upon us all, to prepare us for a happy
eternity. If we reject God's remedy we perish;
if we avail ourselves of it, in the obedience of
faith, we shall be purified in this world by the
baptism of the Holy Ghost ; and without the
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 127
dreadful intervention of purgatory, shall enter at
the very moment of death, through the blood of the
everlasting covenant, into happiness and glory.
Away then with the unscriptural practice of pray-
ing for the dead. Those who die in their sins are far
beyond the reach of any benefit from our prayers.
Those who die in the Lord, are with him in
glory ; they need none of our sacrifices, none of our
petitions !
So far, it may be hoped, the subject before us has
been cleared of its difficulties. Evidence has been
given, sufficient to satisfy every candid mind, first
that prayers to the virgin and the saints are utterly
at variance with the scripture precept, " Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou
serve ;" secondly, that the worship of the images of
those servants of the Lord is simple idolatry, the
very same in its nature as that which the sacred
writings every where condemn ; thirdly, that the
adoration of the images even of our Saviour himself,
involves a breach of the second commandment ; and
lastly, that to pray for the dead, as if their condition
was not one of unchangeable fixedness, is wholly at
variance with the doctrine of our Lord and his
128 ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
apostles, respecting trial and probation here, and
retribution in the world to come.
There are two more points, on the subject of
divine worship, on which it may be well for us to
remark the contrast between the practice of the
Romish church, and the precepts of the New
Testament.
1. A great part of the service, in Roman Catho-
lic worship, is performed in the Latin tongue, which
the people cannot understand. The priest speaks
aloud, as if for the benefit of the congregation ;
but, in point of fact, he speaks " to himself alone
and to God ;" for unless he happens to be as unlearned
as his flock, he is probably the only person present,
to whom the service performed is intelligible
the only person therefore to whom it is a "rea&>/t-
able service." In what way, or at what period of
the history of the church, this strange practice
was adopted, I confess myself to be ignorant ; but
it evidently appertains to the peculiar notion, that
the church consists of the clergy only ; and that
these form a distinct tribe, like the Levites, who
alone are required, and alone permitted, to perform
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 129
the services of the temple. The people among the
Jews were standers by spectators, and sometimes
hearers, but not full participators in the acts of
divine worship ; and this is the place, which, with
certain modifications, appears to be assigned to the
laity under the papal system. It is, I suppose, on
the same ground, that while the wafer, in the
"sacrament," is given to the lay worshipper, the
wine which symbolizes the blood or actual natural
life of the Lord Jesus that life which was laid
down for the sins of all mankind is quaffed only
by the consecrated lips of the clergy themselves.
Whatsoever may have been the origin of the
practice in question, it is evidently opposed to
two principles which are strongly enforced in the
New Testament ; first, the union of the whole society
of believers, as brethren and sisters in Christ, in
the worship and service of God. All are baptized
by one Spirit into one body all are made to drink
of the same Spirit ; all are members one of another,
under one Holy Head all belong to the " royal
priesthood," whose duty and privilege it is to offer
up " spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, through
Jesus Christ our Lord."
G 3
i
130 ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
The second principle adverted to is so unques-
tionable, on the ground of " right reason," that it
scarcely requires the confirmation of Scripture ;
yet it is clearly laid down by the apostle Paul.
It is, that Christian worshippers who pray, sing, or
exhort, in the congregation of the Lord, are bound
to speak not only with the Spirit, but "with the
understanding also," i. e. in such a manner that all
the worshippers present may hear, understand, and
be edified ; 1 Cor. xiv. 15, 19.
2. One other point remains to be considered. The
pomp of divine worship was maintained, under the
Jewish law, in all its splendour. The materials and
furniture, both of the tabernacle and the temple, were
of the most beautiful and costly description ; and the
art and nicety with which they were arranged were
consummate. The golden censers and candlesticks,
the altar of brass, the ark of the covenant overlaid
with gold, the figures of the cherubim with their wings
extended, the magnificent curtains of purple, blue,
scarlet, and crimson, the knops and flowers of exquisite
carving, the gorgeous robes, the jewelled crown, the
sparkling stones of the ephod, and a multitude of
other seemly and beautiful objects were charming to
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 131
the eye of a people prone to dwell on the externals of
religion ; and being appointed of the Lord for a
season, were, in their day, glorious ; being all the
while, with the whole system of sacrifice and outward
show, a mere preparation for a better worship, and
shadows or types of the superior glory of a truly
spiritual religion.
It is one of the leading errors of the Papal and
Hierarchical system, that this Jewish principle of
outward beauty and glory in divine worship, is fully
maintained, and even augmented under its sanction
and government. The splendid architecture, the
ornamental drapery, the dazzling colours, the embroi-
dered vestments resonant with bells, the lofty candle-
sticks overlaid with gold, and a multitude of other
fascinations, are leading characteristics of papal wor-
ship j to which may be added the pictures and images
which adorn the temples of the professing church ;
her pompous services, her long processions, and all
the decorations of her many holidays. Nor has the
charming of the ear been less attended to than that
of the eye. The swelling notes of the organ, the
triumphs of Cecilia, the most exquisite cultivation of
the vocal powers, have all been adopted by the
ON DIVINE WORSHIP.
enchantress of the nations ; and all combine to lull
mankind into a childlike sleep on the lap of her
sorceries.
But what is the language of our blessed Lord
" The day is coming when neither on this mountain,
nor yet at Jerusalem, they shall worship the Father.
God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must wor-
ship him in spirit and in truth." The temple of the
Lord is no longer the splendid edifice, decked \vitli
an outward show of solemn rites, and glittering orna-
ments. It is the church of the living God, a spiri-
tual house, composed of lively stones, all joined to
Christ the chief corner-stone, all cemented together
in love, a building not made with hands, but raised
by the operation of the power of God, exalted and
united in Jesus, our holy Head, and filled, from
season to season, with his glory.
The worship conducted in this temple is both indi-
vidual and congregational, and no outward show or
splendour is required for it in either case. The
individual worshipper, whether in his private life, or
when engaged with others in the public adoration of
God, requires no gorgeous objects to at tact his eye,
no elaborate music to enchain his ear. His heart is
ON DIVINE WORSHIP. 133
filled with the melody of praise, and breathes the
sweet incense of prayer. His worship consists of the
communion of his very soul with God his Father,
through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The worship of the congregation assumes, on a larger
scale, the same character. Satisfied, as it regards
outward accommodation, with that which is simple,
convenient, and decorous, and divested of all depen-
dence on those things which charm the senses, the
members of Christ's church draw near in spirit unto
God, listen to his word of truth, offer their free-will
spiritual sacrifices, rejoice in the Lord who bought
them, and under the blessed influences of his life-
giving Spirit, are edified together in love. Such,
and such only ought to be the worship of Christians ;
such are the genuine simplicity and spirituality of
the religion of Jesus Christ.
CHAPTER VI.
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
WE have already found occasion to observe, that
Rome spiritual lays claim to the continuance, under
her auspices, of the sacerdotal system. No sooner
have the ministers of religion, within her borders,
received full ordination at the hands of the bishop,
than they become priests, in the sense not of pres-
byters only, but of mediators and sacrificers. That
this claim to the priesthood is utterly fallacious
that no such office is recognized under the gospel dis-
pensation, except in the person of the risen and
ascended Saviour has, I trust, been sufficiently
demonstrated on the authority of Holy Writ ; and
will probably be allowed by the generality of Pro-
testants. But there are other parts of the system of
ministry, adopted by Rome spiritual, which are
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 135
maintained, and that with no small measure of zeal
and determination, by Protestants themselves.
The Romanists in the whole matter of ministry,
depend on what they call apostolical succession ; and
the means which they adopt in order to secure this
succession, is episcopal ordination i. e. an appoint-
ment to the ministerial office by the laying on of the
hands of the bishop. Thus, from generation to gene-
ration, there is provided a supply of persons who
shall be devoted to the service of the temple, and
who are regarded as a perfectly distinct class con-
stituting the church itself, or at any rate, its essential
life its living, acting, and governing head or soul.
A large proportion of the links of this sacred chain,
and especially the earlier links, are merely imagined
or supposed. History makes no mention of them ;
and some of them, in all probability, have been
entirely wanting ; but the church decrees that the
succession has been unbroken, and her ipsa dixit is
sufficient for her purpose.
On the other hand, history does afford the most
explicit evidence that many of these links have been
composed of extremely base metal that many of
the popes and prelates who have been the means
136 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
of continuing this succession, as well as multitudes
of the inferior clergy themselves have been men of
notoriously corrupt and vicious lives. Nevertheless,
ecclesiastical romance takes it for granted, that,
through this vitiated channel, the pure stream of
the Holy Spirit has quietly flowed on, from age to
age, as the true source of the clerical office. The
Romish church boldly assumes for herself the con-
tinuance of the well-known apostolic miracle, and
openly pretends that, by the laying on of the hands
of the bishop, the Holy Ghost, as the ever-flowing
fountain of ministry, is bestowed on every approved
candidate for sacred orders. Here we have, iii^t, a
recognition of the promise of the Spirit ; secondly,
a restriction of that promise, so far as gifts are con-
cerned, to the clerical class ; and thirdly, a practical
mockery of sacred things, in the notorious fact, that
no such miraculous communication of spiritual gifts
is believed in, or really thought of, either by the
supposed giver, or the supposed receiver the ordainer
or the ordained.
It is certainly a remarkable circumstance, that
these gross and dangerous superstitions did not
perish under the axe of the Reformers, and that
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 137
they are still maintained by the Protestant episcopal
churches at any rate by the most reputable and
powerful of these bodies the church of England.
Like her mother of Rome, that church pleads the
apostolic succession as the authority for her min-
istry ; and she does not hesitate to confess, that this
succession is derived to her through the medium of
that corrupt parent, from whom she separated herself.
Like her mother of Rome also, the church of England
professes to convey to her ministers from generation
to generation, by the laying on of episcopal hands,
the gift of the Holy Ghost. Were such a gift the
true consequence of episcopal ordination, as it was
in primitive days of the laying on of the hands of
apostles, no sincere Christian could object to such a
method of ensuring a supply of Christian ministers.
But every one knows that this is not the case. Not-
withstanding all pretensions to the contrary, it is
universally understood among the members of the
church of England, that her ministers are appointed
to their office by the simple authority of the ordain-
ing bishop, and without the accompanying communi-
cation of any spiritual gift.
It ought to be observed, that in thus making
138 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
mention of the Holy Ghost, as the true qualifier
for the ministry, the bishops of the churches of
Rome and England, profess a sound and scriptural
principle ; yet they are evidently liable to the charge
of irreverence, in pretending to the exercise of a
miraculous power, of which they know themselves
to be destitute. The ceremony of the laying on
of hands is also practised by the generality of other
Christian sects ; but they lay no claim to the
apostolic faculty of bestowing spiritual gifts. Among
the Independents, Baptists, and others, the ministers
of the respective congregations are chosen by the
churches, and ordained by their elder brethren in
the work. Among the Wesleyan Methodists, they
are both chosen and ordained by the already existing
body of ministers the clergy of that denomination
who hold in their own hands the power of discipline,
together with the trusteeship of all the property
belonging to the Society.
Thus it appears that not only the Romish church,
but almost all the churches and sects which have
been formed since the Reformation, have given
their countenance to the setting apart, by human
authority, of a particular class of men out of the
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 139
whole community of Christian believers, on whom
alone are to devolve the various functions of the
Christian ministry. They are separated from their
brethren as much as the Levites were in days of
old ; they are ordained to be preachers by their
fellow men, and by them are appointed to the
care of particular congregations ; and wholly abstain-
ing as they do from the pursuit of any worldly
calling for their own support, they are maintained
either by compulsory ecclesiastical provisions, under
the law of the land ; or at the voluntary expense
of their brethren who provide them with salaries.
For the most part they are distinguished by a par-
ticular dress, and often by robes of office when
they are publicly engaged ; and under a variety
of titles, from the Right Reverend Father in God,
down to the simple Reverend, they are, with little
exception, even among the dissenters, called of men,
Rabbi, Rabbi.
A calm consideration of the subject may serve
to convince every reflecting mind, that the Pro-
testant clergy of various grades and denominations,
are a modified type and yet a type of the Romish
priesthood. While the generality of them do not
140 nX THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
profess to be priests in the sense of tef>7r, or sacer-
dotes, they nevertheless assume, in various degrees,
(the degree varying with the character of the denomi-
nation) an authority over the flock, a mediatorship
between God and his people, an exclusive handling
of sacred things, and a claim on the temporal support
of their brethren, which are all more or less con-
nected with the motion of an Aaronic succession,
and all form integral parts of the Papal and Hierar-
chical system.
The reader will of course understand, that 1 am
not attempting to sit in judgment on the individual-
who have con.-tituu-d, in past days, or who are now
constituting, this great clerical fabric. I rejoice in
the belief that notwithstanding the obstructions,
which such a plan of ministry appears to me to
offer to the free course of a divine and saving influ-
ence, the Holy Spirit has condescended to display
his power in many of these persons \ first, in truly
calling them to their work, secondly, in qualifying
them for the performance of it, and thirdly, in
winning souls to Christ through their instrumen-
tality. No one who knows anything of the state of
the churches in this country and America, and no
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 141
one more especially who is acquainted with the
history of Protestant foreign missions, can deny that
such a work of grace has been carried on, in and
through many members of this vast clerical body,
to a considerable extent. Nor are there wanting
examples of Roman Catholic priests, who have
laboured for the diffusion of evangelical religion.
Under whatsoever administration or particular
form of religion my fellow men are at work in pro-
moting the cause and kingdom of Christ if they are
but sincere in their love to him, and faithful to that
which they believe to be their duty I can, from my
heart, bid them " God speed" in the name of the
Lord. The one thing needful is the life of religion
its vital operation on the hearts of individuals ; and
if this necessary work is but experienced if the
leaven, which quickens the dead souls of responsible
men, does but spread all questions respecting modes
of worship, and all that comes under the head of
religious polity, must be regarded as comparatively
unimportant. Nevertheless, truth is truth, and
principle is principle, and it is by adhering to
these that we shall best promote, in the end, the
diffusion of this leaven. There can be little doubt
112 ON THE CIIIIISTIAN MINISTRY.
that were they to have full sway on the subject of
the Christian ministry were they to bear down all
obstructions to their course, not indeed by the hand
of violence, but by their own native efficacy the
result would be a far wider and deeper flowing of
the waters of life, than has hitherto been expe-
rienced since the days of primitive Chri
The sacred stream which flows from under the throne
of God and of the Lamb, instead of being bricked
up in particular channels, and confined within cer-
tain precincts, marked out by the caprice and pre-
judice of man, would diffuse itself, by a divine and
unrestricted energy, on every side. " Where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." The liberty
of the Spirit would be found a blessed freedom
indeed, fraught with happiness to mankind, and
wonderfully efficacious in promoting the reign of the
Messiah, and the glory of God.
What then is the truth, and what the recta ratio,
or right principle, in reference to this subject ? For
an answer to this question, we must apply ourselves,
with all diligence and simplicity, to the testimony
of Scripture, and particularly to that of the New
Testament.
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 143
Now the New Testament is so far from giving
any countenance to the division of the body of
Christians into the two classes of clergy and laity,
priests and people, that it everywhere upholds a
unity by which any such division is wholly pre-
cluded.
In the first place, it is ever to be remembered that
the church is not the select body of those who are
appointed to feed the flock of Christ, but the flock
itself either the assembly of believers in any par-
ticular place ; or in a wider sense, the whole com-
munity of true Christians all the world over. Thus
the apostle Paul salutes " all the saints in Christ
Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops (or over-
seers) and deacons, (or servants.)" The " overseers"
here mentioned, formed part of the body. They
might be, and probably were, its most important
and influential members ; yet they were only mem-
bers of that whole body of which Christ is the head.
This point is so obvious, that it will not be disputed
by any reasonable person, and need not be further
argued.
But we cannot stop here. Discarding from our
view, for the present, the mere professor of Chris-
144 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
tianity, whose membership in the church of our
blessed Lord is purely nominal, we must consider the
true believers who constitute the living people of
Christ, as baptized by one Spirit into one body ; and
although all the members of that body have not the
same office, yet they all have some office ; and if any
single member fails to perform his own functions, or
to perform them aright, the health of the body is
thereby affected, and in proportion to the measure of
the loss experienced, its life languishes j for the life
of the body depends on the healthy, vigorous, and
'led action of all its parts. The whole subject is
laid down, in the most vivid and explicit manner,
by the apostle Paul. " Now there are diversities
of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are dif-
ferences of administrations, but the same Lord. And
there are diversities of operations, but it is the
same God which worketh all in all. But the mani-
festation of the Spirit is given to every man to
profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit
the word of wisdom ; to another the word of know-
ledge by the same Spirit ; to another faith by the
same Spirit ; to another the gifts of healing by the
same Spirit ; to another the working of miracles ;
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 145
to another prophecy ; to another discerning of
spirits ; to another divers kinds of tongues ; to
another the interpretation of tongues ; but all these
worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing
to every man severally as he will. For as the body
is one, and hath many members, and all the mem-
bers of that one body, being many, are one body, so
also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized
into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whe-
ther we be bond or free ; and have been all made to
drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one
member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I
am not the hand, I am not of the body ; is it there-
fore not of the body? And if the ear shall say,
Because I am not of the eye, I am not of the body ;
is it therefore not of the body 1 If the whole body
were an eye, where were the hearing ? If the whole
were hearing, where were the smelling ? But now
hath God set the members every one of them in the
body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all
one member, where were the body ? But now are
they many members, yet but one body. And the
eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of
thee : nor again the head to the feet, I have" no need
H
146 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
of you. Nay, much more those members of the
body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary :
and those members of the body, which we think to
be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abun-
dant honour ; and our uncomely parts have more
abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have
no need : but God hath tempered the body toge-
ther, having given more abundant honour to that
part which lacked ; that there should be no schism
in the body ; but that the members should have
the same care one for another. And whether one
member suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or
one member be honoured, all the members rejoice
with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and mem-
bers in particular. And God hath set some in the
Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly
teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings,
helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are
all apostles ? are all prophets ? are all teachers ?
are all workers of miracles ? Have all the gifts
of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all
interpret ? But covet earnestly the best gifts :
and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way :"
1 Cor. xii. 4 31 ; comp. Rom. xii. 4 9 ; Eph. iv.
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 147
11 16. That more excellent way is charity or
love, which cements all these members of the body
together, and is itself the " bond of perfectness."
It is evident from this description, first, that all
the members of the true church of Christ are par-
takers of one and the same life, even as the whole
body lives by the circulation of the same blood ;
and the life by which every Christian lives unto
God, is the influence of the Holy Spirit. By this,
and this alone, he is quickened from dead works
to serve the living God, in whom are his " springs."
And, secondly, it is clearly taken for granted by
the apostle, that every living member of the church
will be brought into usefulness, and under some
administration or other, will become profitable to
the body. Thus it appears that in the true eco-
nomy of the Christian system, the saving grace of
the Spirit of God, and his gifts for particular ser-
vices, although distinct, and not to be confounded,
are correlative and co-extensive ; and there is surely
every reason to believe that the liveliness of any
Christian body can never fail to be greatly aug-
mented, where the spiritual functions, instead of
being concentrated by force of human systems, in an
H 2
148 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
individual, are suffered to diffuse themselves, under
the native energy of the Spirit, through the whole
body. Such, at any rate, is the theory of the
church, and such the practical pattern of it, pre-
sented to us in the Scriptures. It is to the whole of
Israel, that the prophetical promise is addressed
" Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord ; men
shall call you the ministers of our God :" Isa. Ixi. 6.
And it is to the ivhole body of Christian believers
that the apostle Peter applies a corresponding lan-
guage, " Ye also, as lively stones, are built u i
spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spi-
ritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ ;"
and again, " But ye are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should shew forth the praises of him who
hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous
light :" 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9.
It will probably be admitted by every reader,
whose mind is free from educational bias on the
subject, that this apostolic view of the component
parts of a Christian church, while it proclaims a
wonderful diversity of administration and function
under one and the same Spirit, is directly opposed
ON THE CHEISTIAN MINISTRY. 149
to the customary division of the body of Christ, into
the two distinct classes of clergy and laity. The
setting apart of a tribe, like that of Levi of old, to
be supported by their brethren, and to be devoted to
the services of the temple, belongs to the dispen-
sation of the law. So far as appears from the New
Testament, it is wholly foreign from the nature and
plan of Christianity. Under the gospel, there is
indeed a great variety of gifts, but no division into
classes or tribes ; no formula of one tribe officiating
for God, while all the rest of Israel, so far as relates
to spiritual function, is dead and passive. On the
contrary, all belong to one and the same great class,
that of the servants, ministers, and priests of the
living God. In this character, " the remnant of
Jacob shall be in the midst of many people, as a dew
from the Lord, as the showers that water the grass,
that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons
of men :" Mic. v. 7.
Yet we do not forget that all the members of the
body have not the same office. On the contrary,
the distinctness of the service into which every
member is called, must be maintained in its inte-
grity j for it is thus alone that we shall preserve
150 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
the order and harmony of the whole body. Among
such distinct services, are those of pastorship, elder-
ship, and overseership, all which terms of spiritual
office are nearly synonymous, and represent that
care and government of the flock, which devolved,
in primitive days, on the most experienced members
of the body. These were appointed to their office,
with the laying on of the hands of the apostles and
their brethren, but always under the especial guid-
ance and qualifying influences of the Holy Spirit.
They were probably, for the most part, the older
Christians, who exercised, under Christ, a beneficent
rule over the flock, and whom the younger and
less experienced believers were exhorted to obey.
There is reason to believe that in most of the
churches of the apostolic age, these guides of the
flock were numerous. In others they might be few.
In others again the office of overseership or govern-
ment might devolve on a single individual. But
whatsoever might be the circumstances of any par-
ticular church in this respect, the office itself was the
result of a distinct gift or call of the Spirit, and not
of the setting apart of a separate tribe or class by the
authority of their fellow men.
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 151
As to the function of ministry (as we now call it),
it was sometimes exercised by those who also received
the gift of government ; and the elders who laboured
in word and doctrine were counted worthy of pecu-
liar regard. " Let the elders who rule well, be
counted worthy of double honour, especially they
who labour in word and doctrine :" 1 Tim. v. 17.
But there was no official or necessary connexion, in
primitive days, between the gift and office of govern-
ment, and the gift and office of preaching. The
preachers of the word, in that day were called pro-
phets ; not because they uttered predictions, but
because they spake under the immediate influence of
the Spirit of God. The gift of prophecy, although
perhaps not of so high an order as that of tongues,
and other gifts of a directly miraculous nature, is
represented by the apostle as peculiarly desirable
because of its usefulness. " He that prophesieth,"
says Paul, " speaketh unto men to edification, and
exhortation, and comfort." The prophets or preachers
in the primitive churches were numerous, and exer-
cised their gifts in the assemblies of the saints, as
the Spirit gave them utterance. Their services were
not only for the building up of God's people, but
1 3 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
also for the convincement of the ignorant and unbe-
lieving. " But if all prophecy, and there come in
one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is con-
vinced of all, he is judged of all : and thus are the
secrets of his heart made manifest, and so falling
down on his face he will worship God, and acknow-
ledge that God is in you of a truth :" 1 Cor. xiv.
-4-, 25. When, however, the anointed servants of
the Lord were sent forth among the heathen to
declare the salvation which is in Christ, to a dark
and perishing world, they probably received the name
of Evangelists.
The apostles were enabled, by the laying on of
hands and prayer, to call down on others the gift
of prophecy, but the gift itself was bestowed only
by the Great Head of the church ; and as He alone
could call unto this sacred office, so He alone, by
his Spirit, could qualify -any man to perform it.
The immediate influence of the Spirit w r as indeed
found to be necessary, not only for the original
introduction to the functions of a preacher, but for
every successive act of speaking in the name of
the Lord. Whether the prophets were called
into preaching or prayer, in the primitive assem-
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 153
blies for divine worship, they spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost ; and at all times when
that divine motion was withheld, they must of course
have kept silence. " Let the prophets speak two or
three, and let the other judge. If any thing be
revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold
his peace ; for ye may all prophecy one by one, that
all may learn, and all may be comforted :" 1 Cor.
xiv. 2931.
From the description which the apostle gives of
the prophets and their functions, it is abundantly
evident that while they possessed a distinct gift, they
were not, any more than the elders and rulers, a
separate tribe or class. All the living members of
the church were admissible into these functions, pro-
vided always that the Lord was pleased to call them
into the work. Neither did they require any pre-
paratory course of literary instruction to qualify them
for their service the grace of Christ was sufficient
for them. There is every reason to believe that these
remarks are true, as it regards the sisters as well as
the brethren, in the church. When the apostle
commands the women to " keep silence in the
churches," the key to his meaning appears to be
H 3
154 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
given in the words which follow, " And if they
will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at
home." They might not interrupt the preachers of
the word by asking them questions, as was commonly
done in the Jewish synagogues ; neither might they
undertake the office of public teaching which involved
an assumption of authority over the flock : 1 Tim.
ii. 12. But that Paul had no intention to forbid
their prophesying i. e. their preaching or praying
under the immediate influence of the Spirit may
be safely concluded, first, from his saluting many
women, in his epistles, not only as his helpers, but
as his co-workers (awtpyui) : and secondly, by hi>
giving directions, in what manner the women were
to be attired, when they were engaged in the public
act of prophesying : see 1 Cor. xi. 1 16. The
plain fact is, as Grotius has observed, that the direct
influences of the Spirit of God are beyond positive
laws ; and the effusion of those influences on both
sexes, as a qualification for prophesying, was pre-
dicted by Joel, and marked out by the apostle Peter,
as one of the distinguishing signs of the Christian
dispensation. When the Spirit was poured forth,
on the day of Pentecost, upon the whole company
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 155
of believers, Peter said, " This is that which was
spoken by the prophet Joel, And it shall come to
pass in the last days (saith God) I will pour out of
my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy and on my
servants and on my hand-maidens I will pour out
in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy :"
Acts ii. 1618 ; comp. Joel ii. 28, 29.
Nor are we to imagine that an inspired ministry,
as it has now been described on apostolic authority,
was to be confined to the primitive church. This
might be in a great degree the case, as it regards
those gifts which were directly miraculous, and in-
tended as resistless evidences to an unbelieving
world such as those of healing and tongues. But
the gift of prophecy was for the use of the church
in all ages, being "profitable for edification, and
exhortation, and comfort ;" and the blessed influence
under which alone it can be rightly exercised, was
to be bestowed on the believing children of God to
the end of time. " The Holy Ghost" was to "abide"
with them "for ever:" John xiv. 16. "The
promise," cried Peter to the multitude of his hearers,
" is unto you, and to your children, and to all that
156 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
are afar off ; even to as many as the Lord our God
shall call :" Acts ii. 39. Now this was the promise
of the Spirit as the Author not only of grace, but
of the gifts which were necessary for the edification
and enlargement of the church. " My Spirit that is
upon thee," says Jehovah to his Christ, "and my
words which I have put into thy mouth, shall not
depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth
of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed,
from henceforth, and forever:" Isa. lix. 21.
In this last most cheering passage of Scripture,
is unfolded the true secret of continuation and
succession, in the work of the Christian ministry.
It was all well that a Timothy should commit those
precious truths which he had himself heard from the
lips of Paul, to faithful men, that they, in their
turn, might be able to teach others also ; and it was
still better, that Paul and his inspired brethren
should record those truths in the volume of the New
Testament, which was appointed to become an in-
fallible standard of faith and doctrine a test by
which all human preaching should afterwards be
tried. But for the continuation of the work of
the ministry in the church for the actual succession
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 157
of living preachers of the gospel our whole depen-
dence must be placed upon God ; who, by his own
power, put his words into the mouth of his servants,
even those whom He chooses, raises up, and ordains
from generation to generation, in the church of Christ.
I am persuaded that up to the present date, such
living witnesses to the truth of God have never failed
from the earth ; and since the promises of God are
yea and amen for ever, we may rest assured that
they never will fail, while there is a church to be
edified, and souls to be saved. The golden oil will
still flow from the olive trees of the Lord, which
himself has planted, and through the golden pipes
which himself has formed ; nor can it be doubted
that persons have been, and still are, truly called
into the work, under a great variety of names and
administrations. Yet it is not too much to assert,
that if there was less of the admixture of human
wisdom, system, and authority in some of these
administrations, the work of the Lord would go
forward with greater clearness, greater brightness,
and greater effect. His own word of truth would
run and be glorified, and abundant would be the
joy of his people in Him.
158 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
In the system of ministry which, on the simple
authority of the New Testament, has now been
described and advocated, two evils, which have since
greatly perplexed the professing church of Christ,
are entirely avoided. The first is patronage, and the
second, the popular election of ministers.
It is obvious that in primitive times, when all
exercised the function of preacher, who were called
into the work by the great Head of the church, and
anointed for it by the Holy Ghost, there could, in
the very nature of things, be no secularities mingled
with the preaching of the gospel. It was exclusively
a spiritual office, and as it could not possibly be
procured by purchase or hire, so it required no
pecuniary remuneration. It was one of the Lord's
free gifts to his children, and was exercised on the
basis of his own precept, " Freely ye have received
freely give." True indeed it is that the evangelists
the apostles the travelling preachers of the word
who had turned their backs, in the love of Christ,
on their customary means of livelihood, had an un-
doubted claim, for temporal support, on those for
whose benefit they were sent to labour. The work-
man was worthy of his meat. But we find that Paul,
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 159
when he tarried any considerable length of time in
one place, never failed to recur to his handicraft
business for his own maintenance, that he might not
be burdensome to the churches which he had planted;
and he even ministered in temporals to those who
were with him, being well assured that it is " more
blessed to give than to receive." A fortiori there can
be no doubt that the " prophets," who continued to
occupy their own homes, pursued their various
worldly callings for the support of themselves and
their families, and for the help of those who needed
their assistance. Their spiritual office was accom-
panied by no temporal emolument ; it could not
therefore be a matter of patronage.
For the very same reason, it could not be an
object which any man would pursue in the way of
canvassing the votes of the members of a congre-
gation. There was nothing in the functions of a
prophet, which could gratify either the avarice or
the ambition of man, nothing which could call any
one into the strife and turmoil of a popular election.
The plain fact is, that the prophets were chosen
from their very birth, by the Lord of life and glory,
who reigns supreme over his own church : and
160 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
when ripened by his grace, and called to his work,
they rose up in the congregations of his people, to
declare of his goodness, or knelt down in public
vocal prayer ; not at the command or suggestion
of man, but as the Holy Spirit, on each successive
occasion, led them into their service, and qualified
them for its performance. Yet we are not to forget
that the " spirits of the prophets" were subject to the
prophets. They were to maintain a watchful regard
for their brethren, to make way one for another,
and to speak two or three (in succession of course)
while the others judged. Among the various gifts
then bestowed on the church, was that of the dis-
cernment ofs2nrUs; there was the spiritually instructed
ear which tasteth words as the mouth tasteth meat ;
there were the elders in the church, whose duty it
was to look to the preservation of the quietness and
harmony of the assemblies, that all things should be
done "decently and in order." Finally, there was
the body of the Lord's people, who could not fail
to compare the doctrine preached with the testi-
mony of Scripture, and to feel whether it was
so delivered in the life of the truth, as to reach
the witness for God in their own bosoms. While
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 161
therefore the choice of the preacher could never
be a matter of popular election, there can be no
question that it rested \vith the church, under the
guidance of its Holy Head, to try the pretensions of
the prophets ; to encourage or disallow their services ;
and publicly to acknowledge the validity of the gift,
when experience had afforded sufficient evidence that
it was indeed of God.
In order to bring our subject to a satisfactory con-
clusion, we must, in the last place, inquire what was
the primitive plan of conducting congregational wor-
ship. If the clerical system which crept into the
church in times of diminished vigour and purity, and
to which the generality of Christians are accustomed
in the present day, had been instituted by our Lord,
and practised by his earliest followers, there can be no
doubt that we should have found ample notices of it
in Scripture. We should have read of the congre-
gations of the Lord's people, each under the presi-
dency, guidance, and teaching of some one appointed
preacher who should act as the head, heart, lungs,
and tongue of the whole assembly ; on whose lips all
were to hang ; on whose doctrine all were to depend,
to the utter exclusion of the rest of the congregation.
162 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
But so far are we from finding such a pattern in
the New Testament, that a directly contrary view is
there presented to us. The apostle Paul has given
us, incidentally indeed, yet most graphically, a living
description of the Christian assemblies for divine
worship as they were held in his own day see 1 Cor.
xiv. There we find that the vocal ministrations,
practised on these solemn occasions, were, in no
degree, restricted to the individual tenant of a pul-
pit ; but were completely congregational, conducted
under the immediate influences of the Spirit in
the liberty of the Holy Ghost. One had a psalm,
another a doctrine, another a tongue, another a
revelation, another an interpretation. On all were
poured forth, under different administrations, the
gifts of the same Spirit. Above all the blessed gift
of prophecy, through which the word of truth was
freely preached, was liberally diffused by the Great
Head of the church so that " all might prophecy"
(when rightly called to the work), and all be edified.
Here the whole body is represented to us as alive
in the native power of truth a joint and united
spiritual priesthood, prepared of the Lord to offer up
" spiritual sacrifices, acceptable unto God through
ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 163
Jesus Christ." Now since all the vocal offerings of
primitive congregational worship, were thus prompted
by the moving of the Holy Spirit, it follows that
when no such divine motion was felt, the congrega-
tion must have remained in silence. Nor is it, as I
apprehend, possible that such a system of worship
could have been conducted in true decency and
order, on any other basis. " Keep silence before
me, all ye islands, and let the people renew their
strength ; let them draw near, then let them speak,"
&c. " The Lord is in his holy temple ; let all the
earth keep silence before him." These awful com-
mands must surely have been found to have a virtual
application to the primitive assemblies of God's
people ; composed, as they were, of persons who
dared not speak aloud in divine worship, except as
the Holy Spirit gave them utterance. At such times
of awful silence, the Lord Jesus Christ must have
been felt to be present with them, taking the office
of Preacher into his own hands, and ministering to
every member of the body, according to its need.
He is indeed " the Minister of the sanctuary, and of
the true tabernacle, which God pitched and not man"
our Prophet as well as our Priest, who still speaks,
164 ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
by his Spirit, " with authority" " as never man
spake ;" and it is only as we are gathered to a living
dependence upon his teaching, that we can really
grow and flourish in religion, and bring forth the
fruits of righteousness to the praise and glory of God.
In the whole matter of Christian ministry as its
author, conductor, inspirer, and theme, and above all,
as He who teaches us immediately by his Spirit
our Lord Jesus Christ is, and ever will be, our ALL
in ALL. Could we but renounce our dependence on
the systems, forms, and contrivances of men, and put
ness of our trust in His wisdom, love, and
power, there is every reason to believe that his truth
would spread with wondrous energy ; and mightily
would that blessed day be hastened when " the king-
doms of this world" shall " become the kingdoms of
our Lord ; and of his Christ."
CHAPTER VII.
ON THE SACRAMENTS.
THE oath which it was customary to administer to
every Roman soldier, on his joining the armies of the
empire, was called a sacrament sacred words, accom-
panied by a solemn interior meaning, by which the
newly enlisted warrior was bound to the service of
his general and his prince. No such term is to be
found in the Holy Scriptures ; nor is it easy to dis-
cover at what date, or on what occasion, it first found
its way into the vocabulary of Christians. Its theo-
logical meaning, however, is ably developed by
Hooker, as follows : " As often as we mention a sacra-
ment" says he, " it is improperly understood ; for in
the writings of the ancient fathers, all articles which
are peculiar to Christian faith, all duties of religion,
containing that which sense or natural reason cannot
166 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
ly itself discern, are most commonly named sacra-
ments. Our restraint of the word to some few prin-
cipal divine ceremonies, importeth in every such
ceremony, two things ; the substance of the ceremony
itself which is visible ; and besides that, somewhat
else more secret, in reference whereunto we conceive
that ceremony to be a sacrament." See Johnson's
Dictionary on the word. From this passage it is
evident, that the true point which is necessary to
make any thing a sacrament, is some internal and
mysterious truth or operation, hidden both from the
outward senses and natural reason of man, and there-
fore an object of rel> ''.//. Thus the word is
applied to certain ceremonies, because they are out-
ward and visible signs of an inward grace, supposed
to be annexed to them, and prop* /-/y ink* i\-ni in (/
That there are, in the first and general sense of
the word, as used by the ancient fathers, many sacra-
ments in the Christian religion cannot be denied ;
for all the peculiar doctrines of our faith are mys-
terious in the view of human reason they contain
a depth which the unassisted wisdom of man cannot
fathom. So also the precepts of Christianity are
many of them peculiar, and have their foundation
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 167
in Him who is himself the Word of God the Won-
derful One whom man knows not by nature, but in
whom nevertheless " are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge." Again, if certain cere-
monies are called sacraments in consequence of some
mysterious virtue, or powerful operation, with which
they are supposed to be connected, it is certain, that
this efficacious interior must in itself be still more a
sacrament, on the old logical principle, " Quo quid-
vis tale fit , id magis tale est ; That by which any thing
becomes such, is itself more such"
On this last point we shall have more to say here-
after. In the mean time, a view must be taken of
those ceremonies, or ordinances, which are called
sacraments, because of their supposed necessary con-
nexion with a hidden or mysterious operation, or,
in other words, an inward grace. The Romish
church insists on seven such ordinances baptism,
confirmation, the eucharist, penance, ordination,
extreme unction, and marriage. From this list,
Protestants have selected baptism and the eucha-
rist, as the only sacraments of Christianity ; these,
therefore, will require our chief consideration. In
the meantime, in order to the clearing of our sub-
168 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
ject, it may be well to make a few remarks on the
five remaining articles.
1. Conformation. That it is the duty of parents
and others who have the care of children, to train
them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,
is an undoubted truth ; and when they come to an
age approaching to manhood, it is surely incumbent,
both on their natural protectors and their spiritual
overseers, to confirm them, both by precept and ex-
ample, in a religious life and conversation, that they
may not enter the callings of the world, or be exposed
to its manifold temptations, without the protection of
those Christian principles which can alone insure
their virtue here, or their eternal happiness hereafter.
So far we are fully warranted by the acknow-
ledged principles of scriptural truth. With respect
to confirmation in its technical meaning, it may
be defined as the ceremony by which young people,
when they come to years of discretion, take upon
themselves, under the laying on of the hands of
the bishop, the vows made for them at their bap-
tism in infancy by their sponsors that they will
renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil, and
lead a righteous and godly life. It is almost need-
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 169
less to say tliat such a ceremony is never once
mentioned or alluded to in Scripture. Both among
Roman Catholics and some Protestant churches, it
forms part of a plan, which, whether expedient or
not, notoriously belongs to the inventions of man,
and not to the law of God.
It is not my present business to inquire what
benefit may accrue to individuals from their enter-
ing on such solemn engagements, or from the advice
and instruction with which the ceremony is usually
accompanied. I have only to remark, that whatso-
ever else confirmation may be, it is not a sacrament ;
because it is not necessarily or properly connected
with any interior powerful operation, with any
inward grace. Experience amply proves that thou-
sands and tens of thousands of those who are reci-
pients, and (so far as appears) honest and willing
recipients, of this ordinance of the church, are by no
means partakers of an effective inward grace. On
the contrary, they grow up to manhood in the cha-
racter of mere worldlings ; and throng the broad and
easy road which leads to destruction.
My lot was once cast in a foreign country where
this result is notorious. The clergy of the church,
i
170 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
there established, are officially engaged in training
the young of their flock, until the period arrives for
confirmation. When this ceremony has been per-
formed, the young person is no longer considered to
be under any peculiar clerical care. The vow has
been exacted, and liberty is now given. This liberty
soon degenerates into licentiousness ; and " confirma-
tion," so far from being the fastening of the principles
of Christian truth and virtue, is found, in very many
instances, to be a sort of signal for unrestrained
entrance on the paths of vice. Who then can
imagine that there is any inherent sacramental virtue
in the ceremony of confirmation 1
2. Penance. That there is an extreme danger
of confounding penance with repentance, is evident
from the fact that in Roman Catholic versions of the
New Testament, the former is generally substituted
for the latter. Penance I understand to be discipli-
nary punishment, inflicted by the Romish clergy on
those who have acknowledged any transgression at
confession. When some poor Irishman, for example,
is seen creeping round one of the chapels on his bare
knees, over rough stones, or is heard repeating a
thousand Ave Marias, this is penance a performance
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 171
which Rome celebrates with the name of sacrament.
This disciplinary infliction is considered, as I under-
stand, to serve the purpose of satisfaction for sin.
That it often takes the place of those grand essentials
of Christianity, " repentance towards God and faith
towards our Lord Jesus Christ," is, in my opinion,
highly probable. The suffering which reconciles
the offender to his priest, and procures him abso-
lution as its meed, is sufficient for the children
of superstition and ignorance ; they forget the neces-
sity of a broken spirit ; they forget the efficacy of
the blood of Jesus for the blotting out of sin.
This tendency in the practice, of penance, may
possibly be at times counteracted by a watchful
care on the part of the clergy ; but no one can fail
to perceive that it is at once natural and highly
dangerous. Be that as it may, however, penance,
with its accompaniments, is no sacrament ; it is
destitute of any necessary connexion with inward
grace. Many of those who are thus punished, and
thus absolved, sincere though they be in their sub-
mission to the infliction, pursue the path of sin ;
are punished and absolved again and again ; and
have, in the end, nothing to depend upon for their
i 2
172 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
salvation, but priestly discipline and priestly abso-
lution.
3. Ordination. Did the gift of the Holy Ghost
truly and necessarily accompany the ceremony of
ordination, that ceremony might justly claim the
name of a sacrament. But as the fact is otherwise,
and is generally understood and allowed to be so,
ordination is an outward form without any hidden
or mystical interior ; and therefore no sacrament.
4. Extreme / "Is any sick among you V
says the apostle James, " let him call for the elders of
the church ; and let them pray over him, anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord ; and the prayer
of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise
him up ; and if he have committed sins, they shall be
forgiven him." The apostle wrote during the age of
miracles ; when in answer to the prayers of his saints,
the sins of sick persons were freely forgiven through
faith in Jesus, and they were at the same time restored
to bodily health ; the miracle wrought on the body
being the evidence of the spiritual deliverance or
cure. Just such was the happy lot of the palsied
sufferer, who, after Jesus had forgiven his sins,
was miraculously healed, and took up his bed and
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 173
walked. There is no reason to suppose that even
in that day, the anointing with oil (a common
oriental practice) was of any efficacy for procuring
either the pardon of the soul, or the cure of the body.
That it has no inward grace connected with it in the
present day that it is no means of obtaining recon-
ciliation with God, no means of admission into
heaven, as many a superstitious votary of Rome
ignorantly imagines is evident from the fact, that
the old sign of the miraculous healing of the body
is totally wanting. Extreme unction therefore, what-
ever else it may be, is no sacrament.
5. Marriage. It is fervently to be hoped, not-
withstanding all the legal facilities which are, in
the present day, given to marriage, to the exclu-
sion of religious ceremony as a necessary accompani-
ment, that this sacred tie, will always be regarded
by Christians as a religious compact, honourable in
the sight of God and man, and bearing the stamp
of a divine sanction and authority. Nor can it
be denied, that this compact has been blessed to
many souls that husband and wife, in very nume-
rous instances, are found to be each other's helpers
in spiritual things, and joint partakers of the
174 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
" grace of life." But to imagine that inward grace
is connected with the ceremony of marriage, in such
a sense as that when the latter is performed, the
former is thereby bestowed, is to imagine a fiction,
of which experience is constantly demonstrating the
utter futility. Rich blessing therefore, as it is to
man, and when rightly entered into, truly a religious
as well as a civil covenant Marriage unquestionably
is no sacrament.
On a calm review of the five articles of ecclesi-
astical practice or ceremony, which have now been
briefly considered, it must be evident to every
impartial inquirer, that there is no inherent myste-
rious virtue in any one of them. In making this
assertion, it is necessary for us to observe the
distinction between the blessing which may rest on
the sincere mind in the conscientious performance
of any supposed religious duty, and a hidden power
in the performance itself, by which alone it is con-
stituted a sacrament. I presume that even the
votaries of Rome would allow, that the reception
of any of these ceremonies, by the mere hypocrite,
would avail him nothing ; and the most zealous
Protestants might willingly grant, that the sincere
OX THE SACRAMENTS. 175
and conscientious performance of ceremonies, believed
to be ordained of God, may be accompanied by a
blessing, even though the rites themselves are des-
titute of any true divine authority. But Rome asserts
that there is in these ceremonies an inherent power
or virtue, by which grace is conveyed to every sincere
recipient. Protestants, on the contrary, are of the
judgment in accordance with the plainest dictates
of reason and truth that there is no such inherent
power or virtue in Confirmation, Penance, Ordination,
Supreme Unction, or Marriage ; and therefore that
none of these ceremonies are sacraments. And now
having briefly disposed of these five articles, we must
proceed to take a view of the two remaining ceremo-
nies, to which the generality of Protestants, as well
as the members of the church of Rome, ascribe such
an inherent power, and therefore apply the name of
sacraments I mean water baptism, and the eucharist.
I. It is generally believed both by Roman
Catholics and Protestants, that water baptism was
instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, as a standing
ordinance in his church. In this sentiment I can-
not concur; but whether it is correct or otherwise,
I believe it may be easily shown that this ceremony
17G ON THE SACRAMENTS.
is no sacrament. We have no reason to imagine
that it contains any inherent power or virtue, by
which grace is conveyed to the soul of the recipient
whether that recipient be the sincerely believing
adult, or the harmless unconscious infant.
In order to unfold the subject with clearness, it
must in the first place be observed, that the inward
06 which is supposed to be contained in water
baptism, is the grace of regeneration the grace by
which man, naturally corrupt and dead to holiness,
is born again, or born spiritually, unto righteousness.
In adults this grace must be regarded as tantamount
to co i>
The history of the New Testament furnishes no
clear instance of the baptism of infants. The " house-
hold of Stephanas," and the families of Lydia, and
of the jailer at Philippi, may have included little
children, or they may not ; we are in possession of
no evidence either way. In the mean time, the
examples are numerous, in the New r Testament, of
the baptism of grown up persons. Many were they
who flocked to the banks of Jordan, that they
might receive this rite of purification at the hands
of John. Even Jesus himself, who needed no
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 177
repentance, submitted to the ceremony, because of
the character which it then undoubtedly bore of
a divine ordinance. And no sooner had he com-
menced his own ministry, then his disciples made
use of the same rite in his name; so that when
a dispute arose " between some of John's dis-
ciples and the Jews about purifying," it was said
to John, " Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond
Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold the
same baptizeth, and all men come to him :"' John iii.
25, 26.
It is probable that the disciples of Jesus continued
to practice this rite, during the whole course of his
ministry. So also the historical fact is clear, that
after our Lord's resurrection and ascension, they
made frequent use of water baptism. The converts
on the day of Pentecost, the Samaritan converts,
the Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius and his family,
the jailer at Philippi, and Lydia, with their respec-
tive households, the Corinthian and Ephesian be-
lievers, were all baptized with water, by the hands
of the apostles, or with their sanction and authority :
see Acts ii. 38 ; viii. 12, 38 ; ix. 18 ; x. 48 ; xvi.
15, 33 ; xviii. 8 ; xix. 5.
i3
178 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
Now I freely confess my own apprehension, that
in thus making use of water baptism, the apostles
and their brethren were not acting under any com-
mand from their Lord and Master, but only following
up an old practice which was perfectly familiar to
the Jews. When the law was delivered to the
Israelites from Mount Sinai, they were commanded
to " wash their clothes ;" and the Rabbins deter-
mine that this washing was the immersion of their
whole persons with their clothes on ; this being the
baptism, or rite of purification, appointed for the
people, on their entering into the covenant of the
law. We are assured by Maimonides, and other
learned Jews, that the baptism of proselytes to the
Jewish faith, was a practice on which their fore-
fathers insisted from a very early antiquity; and
that no proselyte could be considered a partaker of
the national privileges, who was not both circum-
cised and baptized. If either ceremony was wanting,
the Judaism was incomplete.*
In point of fact, bathing or washing in water,
under some form or other, was the constant sign
by which the Israelites were accustomed, under the
* Issure Biahj cap. xiii.
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 179
Jewish law, to mark the change from defilement to
purity, or from one degree of purity to another.
Thus every new doctrine every new subject of belief
was accompanied by a corresponding cleansing of
the body in water. The proselyte from heathenism
was baptized on adopting the Israelite's faith, in the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The disciple of
John was baptized, on a further stage of belief
namely, in the near approach of the Messiah. The
disciples of Jesus were baptized, in their turn, when
they were converted to faith in the Messiah already
come. Each step in the process indicated an ad-
vance in the law of holiness, and each step was
accompanied, as a matter of course, by a new bap-
tism. Yet the rite of purification, in all these
cases, was of the same nature, and belonged to the
peculiar mode of thinking and acting, to which the
Israelites were accustomed. In other words, it be-
longed to the system of divine worship established
under the law a system which " stood only in
meats and drinks, and divers washings, (/3a7rr*oyioie)
and carnal ordinances," imposed on the Jews until
the " time of reformation." From such practices,
180 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
so familiar to their thoughts and habits, the apostles
of Jesus were emancipated only by degrees. Neither
did our Lord insist on any sudden change in this
respect ; but having promulgated the great doctrine
that, under the Christian dispensation, God \vlio is a
Spirit, was to be worshipped only in spirit and in
truth worshipped under tlie influence of the 11
Spirit, and in the reality, as distinguished from tlie
shadow, type, <>r Ji'jure he left that grand principle
to work its own way in the minds and hearts of his
followers. In the mean time, his example, on the
subject of baptism, was very significant. Before he
commenced his own ministry, he submitted to the
baptism of John, which was divinely authorized, and
formed part of the righteousness which then ivas ;
but as the messenger of the New Covenant, he per-
sonally abstained from the use of any such rite.
When the apostle John records "how the Pharisees
had heard that Jesus made and baptized more dis-
ciples than John," he adds, " though, or howbeit
(k-cuYotyf) Jesus himself baptized not, but his dis-
ciples :" iv. 2.
Shortly or immediately before his ascension, and
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 181
in the course of his parting conversation with his
disciples, our Saviour made repeated mention of
baptism. Then it was that he gave his apostles
their commission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles
" baptizing them in (or into) the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost :"
Matt, xxviii. 19. Were we to grant that water
baptism was here intended, it obviously does not
follow that our Lord instituted this ceremony for
the use of his apostles ; much less that he established
it as a permanent ordinance in his church. The
apostles, as has been observed, were already in
the practice of using this rite ; and if the outward
ceremony was here intended, our Lord's words
cannot (as I conceive) be fairly understood as com-
manding it, but only as giving to it (or rather
to the ministry with which it was connected) a
new direction. The apostles had hitherto confined
their labours to their fellow-countrymen, who were
believers in the Father and the Holy Ghost ;
and the faith into which they were the means
of bringing them, and into which they baptized,
was faith in Jesus the incarnate Son. Now they
were to go forth among the idolatrous heathen,
182 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
and the faith in which they were to instruct their
hearers the faith into which their doctrine and
baptism were to introduce them, was faith in the
true God JEHOVAH ELOHIM, the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Ghost. In this point of view, the
words Doctrine and Baptism were almost synonymous
it being, as before remarked, the acknowledged prin-
ciple of the Jews, that where there was a new doctrine,
there also, as a matter of course, was a new baptism.
But Jesus was accustomed to speak of baptism
in a spiritual sense : (Mark x. 39,) and another
passage in which, in his last conversation with his
disciples, he adverted to the subject, seems to afford
a key to his meaning here. " Being assembled
together with them," (immediately before his ascen-
sion) he " commanded them that they should not
depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise
of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of
me. For John truly baptized with water ; but ye
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence :" Acts i. 4, 5. On the day of Pente-
cost, the apostles, and with them the whole infant
church, were indeed baptized with the Holy Ghost ;
and being thus endowed, they were made instru-
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 183
mental (under the power of Him who promised
to be with them always unto the end of the world)
in extending the same baptism to others. Theirs
was a living ministry ; the words which they spoke,
like those of their divine Master, were spirit and
they were life. Thus was their preaching the means
of bringing down a most blessed spiritual influence
on those who heard them ; as was the case with Peter,
when he declared the truths of the gospel to Cornelius
and his friends. Not by any form, not by any out-
w r ard element, but by the proclamation of the whole
truth, under the power of God, they baptized the
Jews into the name 'of Jesus the Gentiles into the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. Well therefore might Paul (an undoubted
partaker in the great apostolic commission) say to
the Corinthians, " Christ sent me not to baptize (i. e.
with water) but to preach the gospel." Well might
he add, that the " preaching of the cross is to them
that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God :" 1 Cor. i. 17, 18.
This view of the subject perfectly agrees with
Mark xvi. 15, 16, " Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature ; he that believeth
ON THE SACRA MK:
and is baptized shall be saved." He that believes the
gospel, from the heart, and is baptized by the one
Spirit into the one body, shall indeed receive the
" end" of his faith, " even the salvation" of his soul :
comp. 1 Pet, iii. iM. 28,
On the review of this statement, the unprejudiced
inquirer may perhaps agree with me in the senti-
ment, that there is no sufficient evidence in the New
Testament that water baptism was ordained by our
Lord ; or that we are required to observe this cere-
mony as of permanent obligation, under the Christian
dispensation. The more we reflect on tin spiritual
and vital nature of the New Covenant, the clearer (as
I believe) will be our apprehension that all types and
shadows, in the worship and service of God, are by a
general law abolished, having received their fulfil-
ment in the glorious realities of the gospel; and being
for ever finished, in point of authority, first, by the
sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross, and secondly,
by its blessed consequence the outpouring of the
Holy Ghost on the church of Christ.
To continue to observe such types and shadows,
seems to me to be an adherence to the principles
of the Jewish law, and to be at variance with one
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 185
of the grand features of our common Christianity.
But whatever may be the conclusion deduced from
our premises on this point, one thing appears to be
clear that the rite of baptism as practised by John
the Baptist and the apostles, contained no hidden
or mysterious grace, no regenerating or converting
power, whereby the honest recipients of the ceremony
were made partakers of newness of life. In other
words, it was no sacrament. In order to substantiate
this remark, we have xmly to recur to the plain
history of the subject.
When the multitudes from Jerusalem, Decapolis,
and other places, flocked to the banks of Jordan, to
be baptized by John, it may be presumed, that many
of them were sincere in the belief of his doctrine,
and were truly brought to repentance towards God.
Now of this repentance, if we may judge from the
analogy of Scripture, his preaching was the means,
and the baptism by which it was accompanied,
nothing more than the appointed sign.
Again, when " Jesus made and baptized more
disciples than John," (John iv. 1), or rather, when
Jesus made these disciples, and his followers baptized
them (see ver. 2), there can be no doubt that the
186 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
grace of conversion went forth towards these new
believers, under the preaching of Jesus ; and that
the ceremonial act of the apostles, which followed
their conversion, was simply the visible sign and
acknowledgment of that which had already taken
place. Just similar was the case with the three
thousand converts on the day of Pentecost, (Acts
ii. 38) ; with the Ethiopian who was convinced and
converted under the preaching of Philip (viii. 38) ;
with Lydia and her household, and the jailer and
his family, at Philippi (xvi. 15, 33) ; with the
believing Corinthians (xviii. 8), and Ephesians
(xix. 5). All these were brought to a knowledge
and acceptance of the truth as it is in Jesus, by
means of apostolic preaching ; and were afterwards
baptized, by the hands or with the permission of the
apostles, as a public sign of that conversion which
had already taken place.
Saul himself is a notable example of the same
character. Who can doubt that his regeneration
took place by a singular and immediate act of divine
grace, when the Lord Jesus arrested him on his
journey with an exceeding great light, and spake
to him with a voice from heaven ? His subsequent
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 187
baptism was clearly a ceremonial act, by which was
denoted the washing away of his sins in the blood
of Jesus, and the change of heart which God had
already wrought in him.
The account of the Samaritans who attended to
the preaching of Philip (Acts viii. 12), and of
Cornelius and his family, who listened to the words
of Peter (x. 48), are both worthy of particular con-
sideration, in reference to this subject. The Samari-
tans, including the sorcerer Simon, when they beheld
the miracles wrought by Philip, were unable to resist
the evidence ; they gave credence to the word
preached, and "were baptized both men and women."
Yet we find that they had not then received the full
grace of conversion ; as is obvious in the case of
Simon ; for it is expressly declared, that the " Holy
Ghost was fallen upon none of them, only they were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus :" (Acts
viii. 16). Afterwards, wholly apart from their bap-
tism, that grace was bestowed upon them (Simon
excepted) through the laying on of the hands of the
apostles Peter and John. On the contrary, Cornelius
and his friends were most remarkably baptized with
the Holy Ghost, under the preaching of Peter ; and
188 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
after they had received this divine gift, they sub-
mitted to the ceremony of water baptism, which was
the token and recognition, but not the means, of their
regeneration.
In all these cases, it is surely very clear that the
grace, virtue, or interior power of regeneration,
not inherent in the ceremony of baptism ; but I
the gift of God through other means ; and that the
ceremony served its own purpose only ; namely, that
of an outward, visible, and for the most part, public
sign. The same view of the subject is obviously
applicable to the baptism of adult converts in the
present day ; whether those converts are made from
among nominal Christians, or in the heathen world.
They hear the words of truth ; they receive, or are
supposed to receive, the grace of conversion, through
the instrumentality of the preacher ; and water bap-
tism, a purely ceremonial practice, is afterwards
added as a public confession or sign. The grace of
regeneration is no way inherent in the ceremony
itself, and therefore, whatever else it may be, that
ceremony is no sacrament.
Much less is the inward grace of regeneration
contained in this rite, when applied to unconscious
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 189
infants. These are all equally worthy recipients of
the water of baptism. The Roman Catholic church,
and not a few professing Protestants, declare that
water, to be the water of regeneration. They even
allow of no regeneration, but that which they sup-
pose to be inherent in the drops which are sprinkled
on the bodies of these innocents. But what is the
actual result what the practical fruit of this cere-
mony, which time and experience develop ? A vast
proportion of these children prove, by their subse-
quent conduct and character, that they have never
been born again born from above born of the
Spirit. To the inward grace of regeneration they
are utter strangers, and while they " follow the mul-
titude to do evil," they afford a palpable and unan-
swerable argument to convince us that, whatsoever
may be the supposed advantage or authority of the
practice, infant baptism is destitute of any interior
grace, or power of regenerating the soul, and is there-
fore no sacrament.
II. And now we must advance to the one remain-
ing practice of professing Christians, which is not
only regarded both by many Protestants as well as
by the Roman Catholics, as a sacrament, but is looked
190 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
upon as sacred above all other ceremonies of the
church, and is often spoken of par excellence, as
the sacrament. Unwilling as I am to run counter
to any habitual feelings of reverence in my fellow-
Christians, truth compels me to confess my own
judgment, that this ceremony also, according to
Hooker's definition of the term, is destitute of any
claim to such a title.
I cannot however allow that the Lord's supper, as
it was practised by the primitive Christians, came
under the head of ceremonies. A little attention to
the history of the practice will suffice to convince us
that it bore a different character.
It was a common custom among the Jews, at their
suppers or dinners, to break their loaf of bread in
order to distribute it among the company, and to
take this opportunity of returning thanks to that
gracious Being who so bountifully supplied all their
need. The cup of wine also was handed round the
table, to be drunk of by each individual, for the
refreshment of the body, yet in token, probably, of
social and religious fellowship.*
There can be no doubt that this custom was
* See Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in Matt.
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 191
observed by the Lord Jesus and his disciples, as by
other Jews, when they partook of their daily social
meals ; and we have a distinct account of their doing
so, at the last paschal supper, which they ate toge-
ther, for the sustenance of the body, as well as in
obedience to the law of God on this particular sub-
ject. It was, however, a most touching and solemn
occasion. The lamb of the passover was an expres-
sive type of Jesus himself the Lamb of God who
taketh away the sin of the world ; and the hour was
now at hand when he was to be offered up on the
cross, as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of all
mankind. No wonder that at such a time he saw
meet to give to customs, otherwise familiar, a reli-
gious direction ; to speak of the bread which he was
breaking, as a symbol of his own body, so soon to be
broken ; and of the cup of wine which he handed to
his friends, as a token of his own blood which was
now about to be shed. No wonder that he should
command his immediate followers, when they observed
these customs, (whether at the feast of the passover,
or on other more common occasions,) to do so in
remembrance of Him. " Take, eat, this is my body
which is broken for you ; this do in remembrance
192 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
of me," and again, " This cup is the New Testament
in my blood : this do, as oft as ye drink it, in remem-
brance of me."
In pursuance of this command we find that the
primitive disciples were careful even at their social
meals, to keep the Lord, who died for them, always in
remembrance. These believers had all things in
common ; and, " continuing daily with one accord in
the temple, and t f< > house,
did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of
heart :" Acts ii. 46. It was at their daily meals
that they broke their bread ; and then, doubtless,
that they called to mind that sacred body which the
bread symbolized, and which had been broken for the
salvation of their souls. After a little time, how-
ever, when the number of Christians became larger,
and churches were formed in various parts of the
world, the daily social meal was, naturally enough,
exchanged for the weekly love-feast a moderate
repast, of which the believers in each place partook
together, in token of their mutual good will and
religious fellowship.
It appears that these repasts were held on the
first day of the week ; but separately from their
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 193
meetings for worship. Paul and his companions
partook of the love-feast, on that day, at Troas,
where the disciples " had come together to break
bread ;" and when " he had broken bread, and eaten,
and talked a long while, so he departed :" Acts xx.
7, 11. So at the close of the first century, we find
from Pliny's celebrated letter to the emperor Trajan,
that the Bithynian Christians met, early in the
morning, on a stated (doubtless the first) day of the
week, for the purpose of worshipping Christ ; and
at a later hour of the same day, assembled again in
order to partake of a moderate social meal. This
was evidently the love-feast, when the bread was
eaten and the wine drunk, in commemoration of the
death of Jesus the crucified, but now living and
reigning Saviour.
The love-feast is particularly mentioned by the
apostle Paul in his epistle to the Corinthians, whom
he sharply reproves for a most miserable abuse of
this practice. It appears that the Corinthians
flocked to this meal in a careless and irregular
manner ; that many of them abused it for the sinful
indulgence of their appetites ; that while some were
K
ON THE SACRAMENTS.
left to hunger, others were feeding themselves lux-
uriously, and drunken with wine. Another subject
of complaint was, that persons who partook of this
Christian meal, which the apostle calls the Lord's
supper (doubtless because of its resemblance to the
last supper of which the Lord partook with his
disciples), were also accustomed to unite in the feasts
of the heathen, and to eat meats which had been
offered to idols. The apostle sharply reproves both
these abuses, which were indeed utterly opposed to
that devotional feeling, and that holy moderation,
which become the Christian character. " The cup
of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion
of the blood (wowwa TOV (uparos) of Christ ? The
bread which we break, is it not the communion of
the body (Koivwvia TOV ero^iaroe) of Christ ? For wo
being many are one bread and one body ; for we are
all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after
the flesh : are not they which eat of the sacrifices,
partakers of the altar 1 (KOIVWVOI TOV OvffiaGrjpiov.)
What say I then ? that the idol is any thing ? or
that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing ?
But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacri-
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 195
fice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God ; and
I would not that ye should have fellowship with
devils" (KOIVWVOVQ r&v Saijuioviw ycveertia**)
As the priests who ate of the flesh of the sacrifices
which had been offered on the Lord's altar, were
united partakers (wivuvol) of the altar i. e. of those
things which appertained to the altar and the sacri-
ficial service of God ; and as the heathen feasters
were united partakers of devils i. e. of those things
which respected the worship of devils ; so the
Christian believers, who attended the Lord's supper,
were united partakers of the body and blood of
Christ i. e. of those things which had respect to
the body and blood of Christ.
In making use of these expressions, the apostle re-
fers to the circumstance, that it was customary, among
the primitive Christians, to break their bread and
drink their wine, on these occasions of social and
religious fellowship, in commemoration of the body
and blood of Christ or in other words, of his pro-
pitiatory death on the cross. The religious direction
of the practice had indeed been grievously overlooked
by those persons who had abused it for their own
K 2
196 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
carnal gratification. " When ye come together there-
fore into one place/' says Paul, " this is not to eat
the Lord's supper ; for in eating, every one taketh
before other his own supper ; and one is hungry and
another is drunken. What have ye not houses to
eat and to drink in ; or despise ye the church of
God, and shame them that have not ? What shall
I say to you ? Shall I praise you in this 1 I praise
you not." The apostle follows up this just rebuke
with a brief description of the Lord's last supper
\\itli his disciples, when he broke the bread and
handed round the cup of wine, as symbols of his
own body and blood an account which (cither by
immediate revelation or through the medium of the
other apostles) he had " received of the Lord." He
reminds them of the true intent of the observance
" for as oft as ye eat this bread, and drink this
wine, ye do show the Lord's death till he come ;"
points out to them the danger of eating and
drinking unworthily, " not discerning the Lord's
body ;" and exhorts them to a Christian and orderly
conduct on these occasions of social enjoyment,
and solemn religious commemoration. " Where-
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 197
fore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat,
tarry one for another. And if any man hunger,
(that is, be very hungry,*) let him eat at home,
that ye come not together unto condemnation :"
1 Cor. xi. 33, 34.
Now on a review of this simple statement, it is
evident to my apprehension, that the love-feast, or
Lords mpper of the early Christians, ranged under
the head not of religious ceremonies appertaining to
the worship of God, but rather under that of pious
practices, in connexion with the social duties and
enjoyments of the present life. It was impressing
a religious tendency and direction on a particular
custom, which naturally spread from the Jewish to
the Gentile believers. It was one instance of con-
formity to the general principle " Whether ye eat
or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of
God" and again, " do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him :"
1 Cor. x. 31 ; Col. iii. 17. I cannot perceive that
our Lord's injunction can be reasonably understood
to extend beyond the limits of the custom to which
* Tretj'ct. Vid Sdileusner lex. et Grotius in loc.
198 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
it refers " as oft as ye drink this cup, do it in
remembrance of me." Just so the washing of the
feet of a neighbour or a friend, was customary among
the Jews, at the Christian era. Our Saviour, there-
fore, enjoins his disciples to wash one anotlier's feet
the substance of the command being obviously
that they should be kind and submissive one to
another, in love. The practice has ceased, but the
spirit of the commandment remains the same. So I
apprehend that the substance of the other injunction
that substance which will ever continue, whether
the custom to which it related, be maintained or
not is neither more nor less than this that Chris-
tians should ever keep in deep and hallowed remem-
brance, the dying love of the Saviour of men.
Tertullian, at the end of the second century,
speaks of the celebration of the eucharist, in con-
nexion with the meals of the Christians in tempore
victims ;* but it was at a somewhat earlier date, as
we learn from a well-known passage in the works of
Justin Martyr, (A. D. 147,) that the practice in
question had assumed the form, in some parts of
the church, of a directly ceremonial observance.
* De Coron. mttit.
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 199
The morsel of bread was then eaten, and the wine
tasted by the believers, at the close of their assem-
blies for worship not for the satisfaction of any
bodily want, but simply as a religious rite. Every
one knows that this is the character of the Lord's
supper, as it is now used among Christians. It has
become a purely ceremonial act, and is regarded,
especially among Roman Catholics, as the most solemn
part or article in the public worship of God. Under
this new character, it seems directly to interfere with
the general law, that under the gospel dispensation,
God is to be worshipped spiritually that all typeg
and figures in the worship of the Most High, are
now exchanged for the eternal reality and substance
of religion that they are at once fulfilled and
abolished by the coming in the flesh, and propi-
tiatory death, of the Son of God.
In the mean time, whether we look at the prac-
tice of the early Christians, or that which has pre-
vailed among the professors of the truth, in modern
days, we are left without the shadow of an evi-
dence, that the participation of bread and wine,
in the Lord's supper, is a sacrament i. e. an
-00 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
outward observance, properly containing an interior
grace.
In order to render this point clear, we must advert
first to the Roman Catholic, and secondly to the
Protestant view of this subject.
The inherent mystery, which the advocates of Rome
ascribed to the bread and wine, is an actual bodily
participation of that which the bread and wine sym-
bolize, even the body and blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ. They strangely imagine, that after the con-
secration, by a priest, of the wafer and the wine,
these substances are miraculously converted into that
body and blood, which are truly and substantially
eaten and drunk by those who partake of the sacred
elements ; and they further allege, that this cor-
poreal eating of Christ's body, conveys with it a
spiritual blessing to the soul, and is one appointed
and necessary means of man's salvation.
These preposterous notions have, in my judg-
ment, no other origin than the direful superstition,
which, not very long after the times of the apos-
tles, began to brood like a cloud over the profess-
ing church of Christ, and involved it by degrees
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 201
in gross and perilous darkness. Yet the Romish
church pleads, as authority for transubstantiation, the
words of Jesus, when he brake the loaf and distributed
it to his disciples " This is my body which is broken
for you." The question then lies in the meaning of
these words. Now there is a clear and all-sufficient
reason why our Lord cannot be understood as
declaring that the bread which he had broken, was
actually his body namely, that his body was then a
living frame, not yet broken a veritable body
which his disciples saw and handled, and which was
occupying a portion of space, distinct from that
which the bread occupied, while the very words
which form the subject of dispute were flowing from
its lips. Christianity most justly requires us to
believe many mysterious truths which are beyond
reason ; but it never yet claimed our faith in that
which is contrary to reason. It was indeed attested
by many miracles suspensions and counteractions
of the established order of nature ; but here there is
supposed, not merely a miracle, but , an actual,
physical impossibility. The same body or sub-
stance cannot possibly exist in two places at once.
To suppose the contrary, is to suppose an absolute
K3
202 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
absurdity that which never was, is not, and never
can be.
Nor is the case at all different in the present
day. We may rest assured that the glorified body
of Christ is in heaven a place of infinite enjoy-
ment and glory. It is not possible that it should
at the same time be in the hands of the priest on
earth, whether in the form of a wafer, or under
any other appearance much less in the hands of
a thousand priests at once, in a thousand different
places.
That our text does not afford any reasonable pre-
text for the fabrication of so enormous a fiction, a
little calm consideration may be sufficient to evince.
It is surely matter of common parlance to use the verb
to be, in the sense of figuring or representing ; as for
example, any one might say, when looking at figures
in a picture representing Christ and the apostle Paul,
That is the Saviour ! that is Paul ! We ought more-
over to remember that our Lord spoke, as there is
every reason to believe, in the vernacular Syriac, in
which language the verb in the sentence " This is my
body," would not have been expressed at all ; as
the reader may satisfy himself by a reference to
ON THE SACEAMENTS. 203
the old Syriac version of the New Testament. " This
my body/' said our blessed Lord as he held the
bread in his hands ; words which may, with perfect
propriety, be understood as conveying the idea that
the bread symbolized or represented his body.
As the corporeal eating of the body of Christ
must therefore be regarded as fictitious, it would be
irrelevant to argue the second question, whether such
an eating conveys grace to the soul. That which has
no existence, can have no effects. But in the notion
that the body of Christ is actually eaten in the con-
secrated wafer, and that this carnal act is necessary
to salvation, there is surely much that degrades
the cause of truth ; much that directs the mind
of those who are honestly seeking their salvation,
into wrong channels; much that is calculated to
divert from a simple reliance on the crucified,
risen, and reigning Saviour, and to substitute for
him an idol of man's own imagining. How many
poor bewildered sinners have been taught, on
their death beds, to regard this ceremony, with
its supposed hidden mystery, as their viaticum
to heaven, instead of casting themselves, in deep
repentance and lively faith, on Him who died
204 ON THE SACRAMENT-.
for them ; and through whose blood and righteous-
ness alone, we can enter the portals of heaven, and
take possession of the inheritance of the saints in
light. In so corrupt a superstition, so gross a per-
version of the great realities of the gospel, there
can surely be no inherent grace ; but rather loss,
and danger, and sometimes perhaps even death, to
the immortal spirit.
How then, in the second place, does this matter
stand with those Protestants, who while they reject
the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation, and regard
it as utterly unreasonable, nevertheless practise the
eucharist as a ceremony in divine worship, and under
the notion that it contains, within itself, some myste-
rious power for the benefit of souls? Is such a notion
founded on Scripture 1 or is it justified by experience?
I apprehend that both these questions must be
answered in the negative. The precept of Christ, to
which Protestants as well as Papists refer as their
authority for the rite, makes mention of the breaking
of the bread and the handing of the cup, only as a
memorial " Do it in remembrance of me." Accord-
ingly we find, that the early Christians, without
the slightest view (as far as appears) to any internal
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 205
mystery, applied that practice to the purpose of
commemoration. This commemoration might bq
blessed to the souls of the right-minded, who truly
desired to keep their Lord in remembrance j but we
have no reason to suppose that there was any peculiar
inward grace connected with it, any more than with
other acts of Christian piety. The true feeding on
the body and blood of Christ by a living faith, might
or might not accompany the practice in question ;
and certainly this feeding might take place at other
seasons, when the outward symbol was far removed
from the Christian believer. Now if there was no
inward grace inherent in the practice, and inseparable
from it when honestly performed, that practice was
no sacrament.
Much less can it be regarded in that point of view,
in its present form, as a ceremony in the worship of
God. That this ceremony may be overruled, as a
solemn remembrancer, to the benefit of some minds,
I am by no means disposed to dispute ; but such an
effect affords no evidence that there is a mystical
interior attached to the rite, and properly contained
in it j and this could alone render it a sacrament.
On the other hand, there is surely a danger lest
206 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
the rite in question should operate unfavourably,
especially in those persons who have the strongest
sense of devotion and mystery attached to it. To
them it may often prove a diversion from the very
truth ; a substitution of the lifeless form for the
sacred reality a miserable exchange of Christ him-
self, for a favourite symbol or shadow.
It is a singular confirmation of these rein
that many of the clergy, in the present day,
have departed from their former simplicity in this
matter, and are now laying an almost popish stress
on the ceremony of the euchari>t. ha\v at t 1
time divested their discourses, to the people, of tilt-
cardinal doctrine of Christ crucified. Thus, while
the symbol of the Saviour who died for us, is inordi-
nately cherished, the Saviour himself, and his most
precious atoning sacrifice, are made to retreat within
the vail of awful concealment perhaps of absolute
oblivion.
It appears then, that whether we allow or disallow
the practices of water baptism and the Lord's supper,
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 207
as they are now used among Christian professors,
we are brought to a sound conclusion, that like the
ceremonies of the Jewish law, they are destitute of
any interior mystery or grace, by which the soul can
be affected ; and can be regarded only as shadows or
representations of those divine mysteries which truly
belong to the plan of our redemption, and are abso-
lutely necessary to salvation.
Now it is on all hands acknowledged, that had
such mysteries been inherent in the rites of baptism
and the eucharist, they would have imparted to
these ceremonies the true character of sacraments.
On the logical principle therefore already alluded
to Quo quidvis tale fit, id magis tale (that by which
any thing becomes such, is itself more such) we
cannot refuse to allow that these blessed realities are
themselves sacraments indeed. Yes, Christianity has
her sacraments in very truth not any outward
form affecting the bodies of men but a spiritual
baptism, and a spiritual supper. Both these are
clearly introduced to our notice, and strongly
insisted on as of vital importance, by our Lord
himself and his apostles.
First, as to spiritual baptism j it is divine in its
ON TUB SACRAMENTS.
character, proceeding not by any natural law, but
immediately and supernaturally, from that God who
is a Spirit. It is that sovereign work of grace, by
which the dark, dead, sinful soul of man is enlight-
ened, quickened, and converted to God ; so as to be
translated into the kingdom of Christ even in this
world, and to become a partaker of the divine nature,
by a new creation.
Sometimes it is described as a new birth as in
John i. 12, 13 : " As many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, which n
born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God :" and still more at large
by our Saviour himself in John iii. 3 8 : " Except
a man be born again, (vvwdtv, i. e. as in the margin,
from above*) he cannot see the kingdom of God . . .
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The
latter of these clauses is an enlarged repetition, or
paraphrase of the former. To be born of water and
the Spirit, and to be born from above, are synony-
mous terms. Hence it is clear, that the substantive
* This is the sense in which the apostle John always
uses the word.
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 209
water is here used, as in many other passages of
Scripture, figuratively to denote the cleansing in-
fluence of the Spirit, which " conies from above ;" so
that " water and the Spirit" must here be regarded
as expressing only the Holy Spirit and his divine
influence. This view is confirmed by the immediate
context in the verses which follow, " That which is
born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is lorn of
the Spirit is sjririt. Marvel not that I said unto you,
Ye must be born again (or from above.) The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor
whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the
Spirit."
This divine work is described by the apostle Paul
as a washing: see 1 Cor. vi. 9 11. "Be ye not
deceived ; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, &c. &c. shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And such were some of you, but ye are
washed'' &c. Again Eph. v. 25, 26 : " Christ also
loved the church and gave himself for it, that he
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word." Here the word, even the preach-
ing of the gospel, is set forth as the appointed means
210 ON THE SACRAMENTS'.
by which Christ washes or baptizes his church a
doctrine which proves that a truly anointed minister
of the Lord Jesus may, through the power of hi*
ever-present helper, thus baptize his hearers into the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. But this is a work which the Lord is some-
times pleased to effect without the intervention of any
human instrumentality, as was the case with Paul
himself. The marvellous change of heart, which he
had experienced, is elsewhere described by the apostle,
under the same figure : see Tit. iii. 3 6, " For we
ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living
in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
But after that the kindness and love of God our
Saviour towards man appeared ; not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regenera-
tion and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Like the
water and the Spirit in John iii. the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, may be
regarded as perfectly identical. These terms appear
to set forth one blessed and necessary work, even the
baptism of Christ, the baptism of the Spirit.
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 211
Under the gospel dispensation, Jesus Christ is the
true Baptizer. " I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance," said John the Baptist, " but he that
cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am
not worthy to unloose ; he shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost, and with fire :" Matt. iii. 11. In
the gospel of John, the Holy Ghost alone is men-
tioned. As for the fire, like the water in John iii.
it may here stand for that divine influence, by which
the soul of the believer is purified, and his very
heart changed within him. When this baptism is
experienced, he puts off "the old man, which is
corrupt according to the deceitful lusts," and puts
on " the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness."
Lastly, that quickening, cleansing work, by which
the needful change is effected in us, from death to
life, and from sin to righteousness, is the baptism
which saves, mentioned by the apostle Peter. After
speaking of the ark " wherein few, that is, eight
souls were saved by water," the apostle adds, " The
like figure whereunto (or that which answereth
whereunto ^ OLVTIT-WKOV) doth also now save us ; not
the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the
212 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
answer of a good conscience toward God, by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven ;
angels and authorities and powers being made sub-
ject unto him:" 1 Pet. iii. 21, 22. The risen and
ascended Saviour baptizes from above. He sends
forth that living influence of the Holy Ghost, by
which sinful man is enabled savingly to believe in
his atoning sacrifice, and to bring forth the fruits of
righteousness. Thus are we made partakers of a
conscience void of offence in the sight of God and
man : comp. Heb. ix. 14.
There is surely much reason to believe that Paul
is speaking of this powerful internal work, when
he insists on the necessity of dying unto sin, and
of rising again with Christ, unto a life of righteous-
ness. " What shall we say then 1 shall we con-
tinue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.
How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer
therein ? Know ye not, that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his
death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism
unto death : that like as Christ was raised up from the
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life :" Rom. vi. 1 4. And again, to
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 213
the Colossians, " And ye are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power : in whom also
ye are circumcised with the circumcision made with-
out hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ : buried with him
in baptism, wherein ye also are risen with him,
THROUGH THE FAITH OF THE OPERATION OF GoD, who
hath raised him from the dead :" Col. ii. 10 12.
So also when he assures us that there is " one
body and one Spirit, even as we are called by one
hope of our calling ; one Lord (Jesus Christ), one
faith, one bcyrtism" we may fairly conclude, either
that " baptism" here takes the sense of " doctrine,' 1
of which (as before-mentioned) it is evidently capa-
ble ; or that the apostle is speaking of the one
baptism of the one Lord, which is with the Holy
Ghost. This view of his meaning is perfectly
accordant with another passage, in which he speaks
of this spiritual baptism as the means of intro-
duction to a living membership in the body or
church of Christ : see 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13, " For as
the body is one, and hath many members, and all
the members of that one body, being many, are
one body : so also is Christ. For by ONE SPIRIT
214 ON THE SACRAMENTS.
we are all baptized into one body ; and have been all
made to drink into one Spirit." Happy and holy
are they who drink at this sacred fountain ; for ever
blessed they, who submit to the baptizing and reno-
vating power of the Holy Ghost. All these, and
these only, are living members of the body of Christ,
children of grace, and heirs of glory.
But secondly, if the sacrament of regeneration is
at once the only and the sufficient means of bringing
us into union with Christ our Head, and with all
his members the world over, and if imparting to us
the principles of a new and heavenly life, that
union and that life can be maintained only by our
participation (may I not say our daily participa-
tion ?) in another sacrament, even tlie .-.
supper of our Lord. " Behold," says Jesus to the
churches, " I stand at the door and knock : if any
man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come
in to him, and will sup with him, and he with
me :" Rev. iii. 20. This cheering promise is in exact
accordance with some very remarkable expressions
which our Lord uttered after he had broken the
bread and handed the wine, at the last paschal
supper. " But I say unto you, that I will not
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 215
henceforth drink of this fruit of the vine, until that
day when I drink it new with you in my Father's
kingdom :" Matt. xxvi. 29. On another occasion he
said to his disciples, " Ye are they which have con-
tinued with me in my temptations. And I appoint
unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed
unto me ; that ye may eat and drink at my table in
my kingdom," etc. : Luke xxii. 28 30. Nor can it
be denied, that it is the same gracious Saviour who,
in the prophetic language of the Song of songs, thus
addressed his spouse, the church " I am come into
my garden, my sister, my spouse : I have gathered
my myrrh with my spice ; I have eaten my honey-
comb with my honey ; I have drunk my wine with
my milk : eat, friends ; drink, yea, drink abun-
dantly, beloved :" Cant. v. 1.
I should suppose that no evangelical Christian,
of whatsoever peculiar name, could for a moment
hesitate in accepting these beautiful passages in a
purely spiritual sense, as representing the commu-
nion which true believers in Jesus, in times of
refreshing from the presence of the Lord, are per-
mitted to enjoy with their holy Head, and one with
another in Him ; a communion which, from season
2 1C ON THE SACRAMENTS.
to season, cheers them on their journey to the pro-
mised land, and will constitute their chiefest joy in
heaven itself. Here is sustenance for the inmost
soul ! here is the saving supper of the Lord !
But Christ himself is the food of the Christian,
and is to be eaten by his disciples in this true
sacrament. Nothing can be more affecting, and
nothing more important, than his own doctrine on
this subject, contained in that memorable discourse
which the apostle John has placed on record with
the pen of inspiration : see John vi. 35 63. " I
AM THE BREAD OF LIFE : he that cometh to me
shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me
shall never thirst I am that bread of life.
Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and
are dead ; this is the bread which cometh down
from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not
die. I am the living bread which came down
from heaven ; if any man eat of this bread he shall
live for ever ; and the bread that I will give is my
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, say-
ing, How can this man give us his flesh to eat ?
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 217
unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man,
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal
life ; and I will raise him up at the last day. For
my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my
blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living
Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father ; so
he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This
is that bread which came down from heaven : not as
your fathers did eat manna, and are dead : he that
eateth of this bread shall live for ever. These things
said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard
this, said, This is an hard saying, who can hear it ?
When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples mur-
mured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend
you ? What and if ye shall see the Son of man
ascend up where he was before 1 IT is THE SPIRIT
THAT QUICKENETH, THE FLESH PROFITETH NOTHING :
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and
they are life."
The declaration with which our Lord here con-
cludes his discourse, is of incalculable weight and
L
1 } 18 ON THE SACRA Mil'
importance. It seems to me virtually to under-
mine and abrogate for ever all typical and carnal
ceremonies in divine worship. Most assuredly it
affords the true key to the preceding doctrine. We
have our Lord's own explicit authority for under-
standing it spiritually. Those who under the imme-
diate influence of the Spirit, and 1by a living faith,
appropriate the glorious Saviour who came down
from heaven that he might give life to the world,
truly feed on Jesus, the bread of God, the bread of
life. The Christian, whose sole reliance is placed on
the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
who lives by that precious faith, may justly be said
to eat the flesh of the Son of man, and to dri/ik 7//,s
blood. There is indeed no spiritual life for any man,
to whom the gospel is preached, on any other terms ;
and all who, under the powerful operation of the
Holy Spirit, thus believe with the heart, are nourished
up by this heavenly food to all eternity. They dwell
in Christ, and Christ dwells in them. Furthermore,
when the believers in Jesus are assembled and united
in solemn worship when they draw near to the
Father, in one Spirit, through the Son of his love
when they are livingly brought to the remembrance
ON THE SACRAMENTS. 219
of the body which was broken, and of the blood
which was shed for them when " the love of God"
is " shed abroad" in their hearts " by the Holy
Ghost which he giveth us" then are they rich par-
takers of a true sacramental communion then are
they honoured guests, even here, at the TABLE OF THE
LORD, in his kingdom.
L 2
CHAPTER VIII,
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
A VERY slight knowledge of the papal and hierar-
chical system, may suffice to convince every honest
inquirer, that under its darkening and deadening
influence, the grounds of the Christian's hope of
salvation have been fearfully obscured, and the hope
itself, to a very great extent, placed in jeopardy.
The greatest of all evils is sin ; and Christianity
teaches us that all men are under condemnation,
because all have sinned. The awful penalty conse-
quent on that condemnation, is the death of the
soul, or in other words, its eternal separation from
God, in a state of unutterable woe.
How, then, in the first place, are we to expe-
rience deliverance from this weight of condemnation ;
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 221
how are we to make our escape from this dreaded
penalty 1
Under the dismal effects of moral and doctrinal
apostacy, the professing church answers, By plenary
indulgences from the pope ; by penance ; by priestly
absolution ; by the extraordinary mortifications of
the flesh ; by fastings frequent and severe ; by volun-
tary torture ; by the repetition of prayers without
number; by the hardships of monasticism and
hermitage ; by the magical influence of relics, and
pictures, and images ; by the intercession of Mary
and the saints ; by the sacrifice of the mass ; by the
faithful observance of all kinds of ceremonies ; and
finally, by purgatory that last resource for the
cleansing away of those stains of sin, in the Chris-
tian, which the other means now alluded to have left
untouched.
In what measure and in what proportion these
various modes of reconciliation with God are de-
pended on by the votaries of Rome, I have no
means of forming an adequate judgment ; but it is
evident, that they are severally objects of faith, on
which poor deluded souls are taught to rely for
the blotting out of their sins, and for securing their
223 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
escape from the pains of eternal death. There is a
strong tendency in the heart of man to rest on these
delusions, instead of coming fully and unreservedly
to Jesus Christ and him crucified ; for Christ cru-
cified continues to be "to the Jews a stumbling-
block, and to the Greeks foolishness." It is a fact,
amply proved by experience, that visible and tangible
representations of the crucified Saviour, and cere-
monies in worship, which are intended to renew his
sacrifice for sin with all other departures from
simplicity in religion are so far from truly leading
the soul to Christ as the only ground of the sinner's
hope, that they often operate as diversions from the
truth, and let in a vast variety of ways of salvation,
as they are falsely supposed to be, instead of the
Lord Jesus, who is himself, the way, the truth, and
the life. Well may this strange medley of satisfac-
tions for sin, be described as a quicksand, in which
many currents meet, and hollow out a pit beneath
the glowing surface, into which the children of
superstition are prone to fall, never more to rise
unless some peculiar miracle of grace be wrought in
their favour.
True, indeed, it is, that the Romish church pro-
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATIOX. 223
fesses a firm faith in the divinity of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and in the doctrine of his propitiatory
sacrifice on the cross ; and that many pious adhe-
rents of that church availingly believe in Christ
as their Saviour, and seek for the forgiveness of
sin through his atoning blood. Yet there can be
no doubt, as I conceive, that the superstitious
notions and practices to which we have now alluded
these strange paths and by-ways to heaven are
fraught with peculiar peril to the soul. They may
often be the means of preventing an entrance
through the door into the sheepfold ; and there-
fore properly belong to the system and reign of
antichrist, the false prophet, or the second beast
who has the visage of a lamb, and the voice of a
dragon.
It is greatly to be feared that there is a recur-
rence in the present day, even among churches
called protestant, to many of these unauthorized
and dangerous inventions. More than a few of
the professors of scriptural religion have lapsed
into a disregard and concealment of those cardinal
truths which once occupied their chief attention,
and seem to have lost the strength and clearness
L'lM ON JUSTIFICATION AND 8ANCTIFICATION.
of their vision respecting the way the only way
of SALVATION.
In the mean time the truth of God remains
unchanged, and the very agitation and sifting of
things, which is now abroad among professing Chris-
tians, will doubtless be the means of confirming
thousands in their adherence to Christ. Well may
we exclaim with the poet,
" Oh, how unlike the cumbrous works of man,
Heaven's easy, artless, unencumbered plan !
No meretricious graces to beguile,
No clustering ornaments to clog the pile ;
From ostentation as from weakness free,
It stands like the cerulean arch we see,
Majestic in its own simplicity.
Inscribed above the portals from afar,
Conspicuous as the brightness of a
Legible only by the light they give,
Stand the soul-quickening words, believe and
Cow PER.
Nothing can be more simple and decisive than
the doctrine of our Lord himself, on the condition
or means of salvation : " God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso-
ever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life :" John iii. 16. " Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath ever-
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 225
lasting life :" vi. 47. " I am the resurrection and
the life: he that believeth in me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die :" xi. 25, 26. " Sirs,
what must I do to be saved T said the jailer at
Philippi to Paul and Silas ; " and they said, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,
and thy house :" Acts xvi. 31.
From these, and many similar declarations, it is
evident that in order to obtain salvation even
deliverance from the wrath to come we are required
to believe on Jesus, the Saviour of the world ; and
that all men, of every name, age, or country, who
truly believe on him, will assuredly be saved. In
these simple yet comprehensive declarations, nothing
is said of penance, and masses, and fastings ; nothing
of any ceremonial observance ; nothing of absolution,
indulgence, or satisfaction for sin, doled out by the
power or pity of man. Faith in the Saviour, and
this alone, is the thing which God demands of us in
order to the forgiveness of our sins, and the salvation
of our immortal souls. Yet the devils believe and
tremble. It is not a mere knowledge of the truth,
L 3
22G ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICA TION.
with the conviction of the understanding, which will
serve this mighty purpose. It is the deep affiance
of the soul j it is the leaning of the loving heart on
Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost a disposi-
tion which can never fail to be accompanied by
repentance towards God, and the unreserved surrender
of the whole man to his righteous will and service.
This, however, is a subject which requires to be
somewhat more developed. We have " redemption
through the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of
sins." Hence it follows, that the faith in him,
whereby, under the gospel, we obtain that forgive-
ness, has a marked and peculiar respect to his blood-
shedding on the cross. Thus we find, that when
presenting himself to his hearers, as the object of
saving faith, our Lord repeatedly directed their
attention to this central point. " As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of
man be lifted up, (that is, on the cross, comp. John
xii. 33) that whosoever believeth on him should not
perish, but have eternal life :" John iii. 14, L3. And
again : " Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my
blood, (whoso livingly believeth in me as the atone-
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 227
ment for sin) hath eternal life, and I will raise him
up at the last day :" vi. 54.
The pardon of sin through faith in Christ cruci-
fied, is often described by Paul as justification. All
mankind are sinners, guilty in the sight of a holy
and righteous God. Neither the tears of repentance,
nor the Christian virtues afterwards implanted by
divine grace, can possibly efface those stains of
guilt. Never can these be washed away, except in
the fountain set open in Jerusalem for sin and for
uncleanness, even the fountain of the blood of
the Lamb ; and this blessed purpose is effected
through the instrumentality of faith. Therefore
" we are justified by faith without the deeds of
the law."
This subject is admirably set forth by the apostle
in various passages. " Be it known unto you,
therefore, men and brethren," said he, to the Jews
of Antioch, " that through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins : and by him, all
that believe are justified of all things, from which
ye could not be justified by the law of Moses :" Acts
xiii. 38, 39. To the Galatians, he says : " Knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
ON JUSTIFICATION AND S A NOTIFICATION.
but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the
law ; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be
justified." Soon afterwards he adds, " Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us ; for it is written, Cursed is every
one that hangeth on a tree:" Gal. ii. 16; iii. 13.
" Being justified by faith, we have peace with God,
through our Lord Jesus Christ." And again : " God
commendeth his love toward us, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much
more, then, being now justified by his blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through him :" Rom. v.
1, 8, 9.
It is chiefly, however, in the preceding chapters
of this epistle, that the apostle insists on the funda-
mental doctrine of justification by faith, traces it
to its root, and unfolds the principles on which
it rests.
In the first place, he enters on an awful descrip-
tion of the corruption and wickedness of the hea-
then nations, who sinned against the law of a
righteous God, revealed in the heart. He next
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION . 229
shows that the Jews, on whom was bestowed the
written law, were no better ; for while they made
a profession of godliness, they were deeply alienated
from God by their sins. Thus he proves that all
mankind, in the fall, and in consequence of the trans-
gression of our first parents, are prone to iniquity,
sinners in point of fact, and guilty in the sight of a
holy and omniscient Creator.
From this guilt, and from the condemnation and
punishment which are its inevitable consequence, no
human power or virtue, no works of the law, either
ceremonial or moral, can possibly deliver us. It stands
to reason that we cannot be justified by the works of
the law, because we have broken the law, and it is the
law that condemns us. The more clearly it is revealed
to us, the more marked and conspicuous, the more
aggravated also, is our guilt. " Therefore by the deeds
of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight;
for by the law is the knowledge of sin :" Rom. iii. 20.
But God, who is rich in mercy, and whose love is
an unfathomable deep, for our sakes spared not his
own Son, but sent him into the world to die for
sinners, that whosoever believeth in him, and in the
blood of his atonement, might receive the forgiveness
230 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATIoN.
of sin, and live for ever. This is a simple sketch of
the apostle's views, as unfolded in this epistle. " All
have sinned," says he, " and come short of the glory
of God ; being justified freely by his grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ; whom <
hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in
his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remis-
sion of sins that are past, through the forbearance of
God. To declare, I say, at this time, his righteous-
ness, that he might be just, and the JUSTIFIES OF HIM
WHICH BELIKVF.TII IN JESUS."
The divine attributes of justice and mercy,
perfect and absolute, and liable to no defalcation,
meet, unite, and blend in the doctrine of the
atonement. The penalty of death has been exact'
and One of infinite dignity, virtue, and po\,
in his own voluntary love, as well as in obedience
to the will of the Father, has undergone that
penalty. " He was wounded for our transgressions ;
he was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastise-
ment of our peace was upon him ; and with his
stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have
gone astray ; and the Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all." Thus the utmost claims of the
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 231
law of God that unchangeable expression of his
perfect righteousness are fully satisfied. " The
righteousness of God," is declared and established
in his own glorious plan " for the remission of
sins." And the Judge of all flesh is demonstrated
to be just, while he justifies " him which believeth
in Jesus."
After this explicit enunciation of that cardinal
doctrine of Christianity, justification by faith, the
apostle proceeds to illustrate the subject by the
example of Abraham, and the experience of David.
" For what saith the Scripture 1 Abraham be-
lieved God, and it was COUNTED UNTO HIM FOR
RIGHTEOUSNESS. Now to him that worketh, is the
reward not reckoned of grace but of debt ; but to
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his FAITH is COUNTED FOR
RIGHTEOUSNESS. Even as David also describeth the
blessedness of the man unto whom God IMPUTETH
RIGHTEOUSNESS without works, saying, "Blessed are
they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins
are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord
WILL NOT IMPUTE SIN :" Rom. iv. 3 8.
232 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION,
Two points of great interest and importance here
claim our attention.
We find in the first place, that Abraham and
David are adduced as examples of that faith, by
which sinners are justified in the sight of God ; or
in other words, receive the forgiveness of their
transgressions, and are dealt with as if they had
never sinned. Now although these faithful men
were far from being destitute of some knowledge
of their Redeemer, it cannot be supposed that
they enjoyed that clearness of view respecting his
coming in the flesh, and his propitiatory sacrifice
on the cross, which is the privilege of true Christians
under the gospel dispensation. Yet they believed in
Christ according to the measure of the light bestowed
upon them ; and their faith was counted unto them
for righteousness. The same observation unquestion-
ably applies to all the saints of the Old Testament.
Nor can it be reasonably doubted, that even among
nations which have no direct knowledge of revealed
religion, there have been many persons in different ages
of the world, who have believed in God, according to the
measure of the light of the Holy Spirit immediately
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 233
bestowed upon them, as a guide and rectifier to their
consciences. These also, as we may fully believe,
have been justified by faith, through the mediation
and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ ; for " in every
nation, he that feareth (God) and worketh righteous-
ness is accepted of him ;" Acts x. 35. " For not the
hearers of the law," says the apostle to the Romans,
" are just before God, but the doers of the law shall
be justified ; for when the Gentiles which have not
the law, do by nature the things contained in the
law, these having not the law, are a law unto them-
selves ; which shew the work of the law written in
their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness,
and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else
excusing one another :" Rom. ii. 13 15.
The mercies of God and the operation of his grace,
are, as I venture to believe, much more compre-
hensive than many persons suppose. Yet none can
be saved but " by grace, through faith ;" and that
not of themselves " it is the gift of God." In the
mean time, let all who enjoy the unutterable privi-
lege of the noonday light of the gospel of Christ,
never fail to remember, that " unto whomsoever
much is given, of him much will be required" a
I'.!} ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
faith corresponding to their knowledge, a conduct
worthy of their faith.
The second point alluded to, is embraced in the
words just quoted, " the doers of the law shall be
justified." I conceive that this sentiment fully
applies to those persons whom the apostle elsewl;
describes, as being "justified by faith without the
deeds of tlie law." The deeds of the law have no part
whatsoever in procuring the pardon of their sins ; for
they have broken the law, and the law condemns
them to death. But now, under grace, they are
become doers of the law ; nor could they have been
'(fed by faith, had not their faith been so vital
and divine in its nature, as to be necessarily pro-
ductive of this practical result. Such a view of the
subject will explain the apparent difficulty of the
doctrine of James, as compared with that of Paul.
" Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have
works : shew me thy faith without thy works, and I
will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest
that there is one God ; thou doest well : the devils
also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know,
vain man, that faith without works is dead ? Was
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 235
not Abraham our father justified by works, when he
had offered Isaac his son upon the altar 1 Seest
thou how faith wrought with his works, and by
works was faith made perfect ? And the Scripture
was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and
it was imputed unto him for righteousness : and he
was called the friend of God. Ye see then how that
by works a man is justified, and not by faith only :"
James ii. 17 24.
James, in the character of a consistent and fruitful
believer, here addresses some imaginary person who
professes faith in Christianity, without practising its
precepts. He challenges him to display his spurious
article to the best advantage, and offers to bring his
own belief to the test of the works which it produces.
Powerfully does he illustrate his doctrine by com-
paring faith without works, to the body without the
Spirit ; and to the belief of devils who know God
and hate him. On the other hand, he justly dwells
on the example of Abraham, who proved the vitality
of his faith, by a memorable and most difficult act of
obedience. Thus is he brought to his general con-
clusion, that " a man is justified by works, and not
by faith ONLY."
236 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
On this subject we are competent to say, that as
sinners we are justified (i. e. we receive the pardon of
our sins) by faith in Christ without the deeds of the
law ; and that as believers, we are justified by good
works ; for these alone afford a sufficient evidence
that our faith is vital, divine, and saving. This dis-*
tinction is, I trust, sound and clear. But if there be
any doubt of its critical exactness as an explanation
of the apostle's use of the word "justified," we may
rest on the obvious tendency and intent of the whole
passage ; namely, that faith cannot be the means of
our acceptance with God, unless it be of such a nature
as to produce obedience in the believer. For it
remains to be an unquestionable truth, that without
holiness no man shall see the Lord. The plain fact
is, that neither faith nor obedience, however pure
they may be in their character, and however well
pleasing to God, are in their own nature justifying ;
but faith even that vital faith which works by love,
and produces the fruits of righteousness is the
appointed instrument, in the order of grace, whereby
we lay hold on the mercies of God in Christ Jesus
that blessed Mediator who truly and properly justifies
the sinner.
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 237
Most assuredly there is nothing in the doctrine of
the apostle James, which supports the opinion of the
Romish church, that good works are meritorious in
the sight of God, and actually give a title to the
reward of everlasting felicity. It appears to be an
opinion prevailing among the advocates of the papal
system, that almsgiving, and other acts of Christian
piety and mercy, deserve an eternity of bliss as their
just and equal reward. If, however, it is allowed
that many good persons faithful sons and daughters
of the church are yet imperfect, the righteousness
of Christ may take its share in making up the sup-
posed deficiency in their deserts.
In the Romish saints, however, there is imagined
to be no such deficiency. Never probably was there
so anti-christian a notion propagated under the name
of Christianity, as that which arose in the dark ages,
respecting works of supererogation. It was then first
openly declared, that the church was in possession,
of an immense stock of merit, accumulated in her
keeping from age to age, by such sufferings and
labours of the saints, as exceeded the requirements
of the law of God a stock which she has the power
of dealing out, through her visible head the pope,
238 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
in such times and in such portions as she pleases, in
order to secure the favoured recipients of the boon,
from the punishment of their sins a new method
truly of escaping from the wrath to come, and of
obtaining an entrance into the kingdom of rest and
purity !
It cannot for a moment be questioned, that bene-
ficence, and the exercise of other virtues and graces,
are sacrifices acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ.
As vice is abominable in his sight, so true virtue,
in all its lovely forms, and under every variety of
circumstance, can never fail to be well-pleasing to
a perfectly pure and righteous being ; and when
the sinner is converted from the error of his ways,
the angels reflect their Father's smile, and rejoice
in his holy presence. But while this admission
is most freely to be made respecting that glorious
Being, who is ever found on the side of righteous-
ness, the Christian must distinctly deny that the
best works of man even those which are wrought
under the immediate influence of the Holy Ghost
have any merit ; in such a sense as justly to
claim the reward of eternal life. Our sins indeed
deserve death even the death of the soul ; and
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 239
the death of the soul is their " wages." But eternal
life " is the GIFT of God, through Jesus Christ
our Lord" a gift wholly unmerited and sponta-
neous ; flowing forth, through its one appointed
channel, to the fallen children of men, from the
fathomless abyss of Jehovah's love.
We know that our first parents were created in
the image of Jehovah, and after his likeness ; a
truth which probably had respect, first, to the
intellectual mind ; secondly, to a perfect moral
nature ; and thirdly, to the eternal continuance of
life. There can be no doubt, that had they re-
mained in their pristine state of innocence, an
eternity of happy existence would have been the
consequence. But this consequence would not have
arisen in the way of wages gained by good works,
or because of any inherent merits in their virtuous
dispositions and conduct, but simply in the appoint-
ment of infinite and gratuitous love. God is not
profited or placed under obligation by the obedience
of his own creatures, but obedience is his due ; and
the creature who renders that obedience, does but
pay a debt already incurred. Well might the
Temanite ask, " Can a man be profitable unto God,
240 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art
righteous (in the sense of adding to that happiness
which is already infinite) ? Or is it gain to him,
that thou makest thy ways perfect T Job xxii. 2, 3.
" So likewise ye," said our Saviour to his disciples,
" when ye shall have done all those things which
are commanded you, say, we are UNPROFITABLE SER-
VANTS : we have done that which was our duty to do :"
Luke xvii. 10.
But the fact, at once clear and awful, is that we
are fallen creatures that we have lost the moral
image of our Creator that we are by nature cor-
rupt and prone to iniquity, and therefore children
of wrath. The golden chain which connected our
first parents with an eternity of happiness, pro-
vided for them in the wondrous love of God, is
broken, destroyed, demolished. Therefore our hopes
are solely in Christ through whom our sins are
forgiven, and we ourselves reconciled unto God.
Repentance and amendment, although the work
of grace, and approved of God, can never blot out
the stain of our past sins. Present virtue, the fruit
of that Spirit which is given to us in Christ,
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 241
can do no more than fulfil present obligation.
In the meantime, where is the child of piety and
faith, who has not yet " finished" his " course," in
whom some lingering remnants may not be found of
indwelling sin ? What can the best of men do, there-
fore, but cast themselves on the infinite resources of
the love of God, in Christ Jesus our Lord 1
" If any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous ; and he is the
propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but
for the sins of the whole world :" 1 John ii. 1, 2.
Let a Roman Catholic poet tell us the simple truth
on this most important of subjects ; and let all,
whether Papists or Protestants, rally to that founda-
tion of which he so emphatically speaks :
But if there be a power too just and strong
To wink at crimes, and bear unpunished wrong ;
Look humbly upward, see his will disclose
The forfeit first, and then the fine impose ;
A mulct thy poverty could never pay,
Had not eternal wisdom found the way,
And with celestial wealth supplied thy store.
His justice makes the fine, his mercy quits the score.
See God descending in thy human frame,
The offended suffering in the offender's name.
All thy misdeeds to him imputed see,
And all his righteousness devolved on thee.
DRYDEN Religio Laid.
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
To sum up the whole subject in a few sentences,
it is plainly the doctrine of Scripture, that righteous-
ness is imputed to the true believer. Thus Abraham
is declared to be the father of all them that believe,
even among the Gentile nations, " that righteousness
might be imputed to them also :" Rom. iv. 11. Again,
the apostle says, respecting Abraham, " Now it was
not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to
him ; but for us also to whom it shall be imputed,
if we believe in him that raised up Jesus from the
dead, who was delivered for our offences, and raised
again for our justification :" iv. 23 25. In the
following chapter he declares, that " they which
receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of
riftkfeousness, shall reign in life, by one, Jesus
Christ." Now what is this righteousness which is
thus imputed, thus freely given, to the believer? If
we are to take the Scriptures for our guide, we
cannot fail to answer, It is the righteousness of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He is the branch
who was to be raised up unto David, the king who
was to reign over Israel, whose name was to be
called " Jehovah OUR righteousness :" Jer. xxiii.
5, 6. " Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 243
righteousness and strength. In the LORD (that is in
the divine Saviour) shall all the seed of Israel
be justified and shall glory :" Isa. xlv. 24, 25.*
" Christ Jesus" is " made unto us of God, righteous-
ness :" 1 Cor. i. 30. God " hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin ; that we might be made the
righteousness of God IN HIM :" 2 Cor. v. 21.
Not only are we saved from the awful penalty
of our sins by his propitiatory death and sacrifice ;
not only are we delivered, for his sake, on whom
was the "chastisement of our peace," from the
bitter pains of eternal death ; but we are placed in
possession of an indisputable title to the joys of a
glorious immortality, in virtue of our union by
faith with Him, whose righteousness is, in its own
nature, perfect, absolute, ever-abounding, and in-
finitely meritorious in the sight of the Father.
That divine righteousness is imputed to the believer
by faith. This is the clothing of wrought gold,
even the purest gold of Ophir, in which the Bride,
the Church, is invested : Psal. xlv. 13 the "robe
of righteousness," wherein she greatly exults and
* The immediate context of this passage is twice quoted
by the apostle Paul, as applying to the Lord Jesus Christ.
M2
2J4 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
rejoices : Isa. Ixi. 10 the best of all robes, in
which the penitent and returning sinner is mantled
by his Father's hand the garment of salvation,
the wedding garment, without which we can never
be accepted guests at the home of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the everlasting abode of rest and of glory.
" Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound ? God forbid. How shall we that are
dead to sin, live any longer therein ?" Rom. vi.
1,2.
It is the highest praise of Christianity, and its
main distinguishing characteristic, that it is a
religion of holiness a religion which, by setting
in action the most influential motives, leads, with
a resistless power, to the abandonment of every sin
and the practice of every virtue. The awful dis-
covery which it makes to us of judgment to come ?
and of the perfect justice of God, imbues the true
believer with a salutary yet awful fear of the
Supreme Being. This fear is ever found to be
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 245
"a fountain of life, preserving from the snares of
death." The blessed prospect of eternal happiness
animates our hope, and this hope quickens our foot-
steps in the race of righteousness. We run as those
who have the glorious goal set before us ; reaching
forth unto those things which are before, we press
" toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus." This hope, moreover, sustains
our patience, and strengthens our fortitude ; it is an
anchor to the soul, sure and stedfast. Above all,
the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, so paternal, so
tender, so infinitely great, produces love in our own
bosoms ; and the heavenly flame once kindled, is of
such a nature, that it will burn with ever-increasing
brightness to all eternity. Love induces, in the
Christian believer, a holy decision of character, an
unreserved sacrifice of self, a constancy of allegiance
to the Shepherd of Israel, who bought us with his
own blood. Yet as the mechanical forces (such as
the wedge, the screw, and the lever) cannot pro-
duce their effects unless they are applied with power,
so fear, hope, and love, strong motives as they are,
and capable of being most beneficially excited by
the great truths of the gospel of Christ, will never
24 G ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
be made to move effectually, or move in the right
direction, unless those truths are accompanied, in
their application to the mind, by the Spirit of God.
This Spirit is itself the grand moving power the
very spring of life, in the soul, and of all that is
lovely, holy, and heavenly, in the conduct and con-
versation of the Christian.
The \vord sanctification may be taken in two
senses. Sometimes it signifies the first dedication
of the soul, as a holy thing, to God, the author of
our being. In this point of view, it must be regarded
as simultaneous with justification, being the imme-
diate result of that change of heart which is wrought
in the Christian convert by the power of God. The
sinner who comes with a penitent and believing
heart to Christ, deposits his sins that intolerable
burden at the Saviour's feet : he receives the free
pardon of them through the blood of Jesus, and
without a moment's hesitation or delay, renounces
them for ever.
But where is the Christian, who truly knows him-
self, who will not confess that even after this signal
change in his condition, he has a perpetual struggle
to maintain between the flesh and the spirit that
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 247
although sin may no longer have dominion over him,
it sometimes prevails, in word and deed, and espe-
cially in thought and imagination, over his better
mind ? The lingering corruptions of his fallen
nature require many baptisms under the waves of
the " river of God," which is " full of water," before
they can be entirely purged away, so that nothing
may be left not even one particle of the polluting
mire of this world to interrupt his entrance, through
the pearl gates, into the new Jerusalem. It was to
a company of Christian converts, in their character
of truly regenerate persons, that Paul addressed the
words, " The very God of peace sanctify you WHOLLY :"
1 Thess. v. 23. " The path of the just is as the
shining light, which shineth MORE AND MORE unto
the perfect day :" Prov. iv. 18.
Sanctification, then, in its secondary sense, is that
purifying work of the Holy Spirit, by which rege-
nerate persons are gradually more and more weaned
from the world more and more fitted for that
glorious inheritance, into which nothing that is
impure, nothing that worketh abomination, nothing
that maketh or loveth a lie, can ever enter. I
have heard it remarked by a wise and learned man ?
248 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
well instructed in the school of Christ, that in order
to enter on this inheritance, there must be both
" a right and a rightness." Our right of entrance
the only title which is clear and indefeasible is in
Christ, our advocate with the Father, and the propi-
tiation for our sins. But there must be a riy fit ness
also ; even that state of purity, without which we can
never be fitted for the society of saints and angels, and
for the immediate presence of the immaculate Lamb.
This rightness, or to adopt another and parallel
view of the case, this ripeness, can be produced in
the dispositions and character of a man, only by the
sanctifying operation of the Holy Spirit of God.
He who has begun a good work in us, must " per-
fect it to the end," or we shall never be presented
faultless in Christ, before the presence of his glory,
with exceeding joy. Sometimes, indeed, the work
of regeneration, justification, and sanctification, are
all effected within a very short period : for with
God all things are possible. The example of the
thief on the cross, who first railed on his Lord,
and very soon afterwards was a true believer,
and a new creature in Christ, with heaven im-
mediately before him, is sufficient to preclude
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 249
despair, even in prolonged cases of sin and rebellion
against God.
But let no man dare to depend on a death-bed
repentance ; for according to the ordinary dealings of
divine wisdom and love, the work of sanctification
and preparation for heaven is very gradual. It is a
matter of spiritual education conducted by a divine
hand ; and often one of severe discipline. The cross
must be endured by every warrior in the army of the
Lamb ; we must take it up in faith, hold it fast in
patience, and uplift it with holy magnanimity as our
standard in battle. " I am crucified with Christ ;
nevertheless I live, and the life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me :" Gal. ii. 20.
Again, " God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is
crucified unto me, and I unto the world :" vi. 14.
It was the declaration of the apostle who wrote
these things, when he confirmed the souls of the
disciples in many places, that " we must through
much tribulation enter the kingdom ;" Acts xiv. 22,
a doctrine which agrees with the fact recorded in
the Apocalypse, that the multitude around the throne
M3
2JO ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
of God, who were clothed in white robes, and held
in their hands the ensigns of victory, had coine " out
of great tribulation :" Rev. vii. 14. " Ye shall
indeed drink of my cup, and be baptized with the
baptism that I am baptized with," said our blessed
Lord to his disciples ; and no one, as we may believe,
has ever more largely experienced the truth of this
saying than Paul himself. In the first place, he
was crucified with Christ, when he died to the law,
renounced his self-righteousness, sacrificed his repu-
tation as a Jew and a Pharisee, and gave in his
adherence to that once lowly and suffering, though
now risen and reigning Saviour, whom he had before
despised and persecuted when he counted all things
loss, and did esteem them as dung and dross, that
he might win Christ. And, secondly, in consequence
of this self-renunciation, and in connexion with
his service in the gospel, he was himself exposed
to mockery, hatred, and persecution ; he underwent
cruel scourgings, bonds, and imprisonments ; he
fought with wild beasts; hardships by sea and by
land, and terrors of impending death, met him, as
it were, at every turn ; and, finally, he sealed his
testimony to the truth, by willing submission to a
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 251
martyr's death. Add to all these things, his anxious
care of the churches, his vast exertions, the "buffet-
ings of Satan, his painful exercises of spirit, the
deep conflicts of his soul. Nothing can be more
admirable than the triumph of a holy faith over
all these trials : " We are troubled on every side,
but not distressed ; perplexed, but not in despair ;
persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not
destroyed ; always bearing about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our body :" 2 Cor. iv.
810.
No one can reasonably doubt, that under the grace
of the Holy Spirit, this course of severe discipline
was, to the apostle, a most effective means of sancti-
fication, and of preparation for a state of perfect
purity and unbounded joy. Thus, when death
approached, he could speak in triumphant language ;
" I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my
departure is at hand : I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
shall give me at that day :" 2 Tim. iv. 68.
-~>'2 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
Undoubtedly the case of the apostle Paul was in
various respects peculiar, and even singular. But
our Saviour's declaration is absolutely universal :
" Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after
me, cannot be my disciple :" Luke xiv. 27. How,
then, is the cross laid on Christians in general ?
In the first place, it remains to be a certain
truth that " all who will live godly in Christ
Jesus, shall suffer persecution." The world lying
in wickedness is still opposed to vital and decided
Christianity ; so that, even in the present day,
when a high profession of religion is more or less
fashionable, they who yield themselves, without
reserve, to those humbling and searching principles
which our Lord and his apostles promulgated, will
find much to endure of contempt and opposi-
tion. Even if the persons themselves are respected,
their principles are often despised and ridiculed.
But independently of this fact, the cross of afflic-
tion, in this state of probation, is laid on the
followers of Christ, as well as on the rest of man-
kind. So far are they from being exempt from
the general law " man is born to trouble, as the
sparks fly upwards" that we often find the most
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 253
devoted servants of God disciplined, in an extraordi-
nary degree, in the school of adversity. Nor does the
sincere Christian fail to perceive that his trials of
faith and patience are, for the most part, well adapted
to his peculiar dispositions or weaknesses obviously
intended as correctives suitable to his need. Thus
does he realize the truth of the declaration, that
" whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth ;" and that
although " no chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous but grievous ; nevertheless, afterward it yield-
eth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised thereby :" Heb. xii. 6 11.
A wise writer has declared that " gold is tried
in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of
adversity :" Ecclus. ii. 5. "Behold," saith the Lord
to Israel, " I have refined thee, but not with silver ;
I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction : Isa.
xlviii. 10. Sustained by the uplifting arm of omni-
potence, gifted with patient resignation, and com-
forted by the remembrance of sympathies which are
in Christ, the true hearted follower of the Lamb is
sometimes enabled to rejoice in his tribulations ; his
patience works experience of the Lord's tender loving-
kindness, and this experience confirms and animates
'2~)l ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
his hope. Thus is he disciplined and educated for
heaven, and taught to look peacefully forward to the
quickly coming day of final deliverance and joy.
But far above all, in order to our progress in sanc-
tification, there is a cross to be known, and felt, and
patiently borne within. In the strivings of grace
against nature ; in the secret monitions of the Lord
Jesus Christ dwelling in us by his Spirit, and
directed with undeviating certainty against all things
which are defiled in his sight ; and in a thorough
surrender of the soul to these monitions there is
a cross to be endured, which mortifies our carnal
affections and lusts, brings us into more and more
of conformity to the death of Christ, and so pre-
pares us to rise with him, into light, and life, and
heavenly mindedness. Thus is "our life hid with
Christ in God ;" and " when Christ who is our life
shall appear," we also "shall appear with him in
glory :" Col. iii. 3, 4.
While, however, a submission to the cross of
Christ is the necessary preparation for our sitting
together in " heavenly places" in him, even dur-
ing the course of our mortal pilgrimage, it is far
indeed from unfitting us for our citizenship in the
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 255
world, and for the duties which devolve on us, as
Christians and as men. "I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world," said our holy
Redeemer, " but that thou shouldest keep them from
the evil :" John xvii. 15. Yes, truly ; that law of
the Lord which is perfect, converting the soul
written as it is in the page of Scripture, and engraven
by a master hand of indubitable authority on the
regenerate mind is an all-pervading light. It fol-
lows the Christian with counsel and instruction by
night and by day, in public and in private, in sick-
ness and in health \ in the pursuits of agriculture,
commerce, literature, and science ; in the labours of
philanthropy, in the services of religion, in the senate,
in the court, on the throne, in the cottage, in the
solitude of the closet, in the fireside circle, in the
vast assembly. It leads to the performance of every
relative duty in the fear and love of God. In all
places, and on all occasions, it bears testimony to the
absolute necessity of abstinence from evil. Power-
fully does it search our words and actions, as well
as our imaginations, motives, and affections. Unfail-
ingly does it proclaim the language, " Cease to do
evil, learn to do well." " TOUCH NOT THE UNCLEAN
25G ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
THING, and I will receive you ; and will be a Father
to you; and ye shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty :" 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.
The Holy Scriptures promulgate, in a lively and
explicit manner, the general principles of the divine
law, and abound in precepts respecting our relative
duties. Yet in reducing these principles and pre-
cepts to daily and hourly action in applying them
to the endless diversity of occasion and circumstance,
to which we are exposed in life we stand in need
of the immediate and perceptible guidance of the
Holy Spirit. This is a light which, as I believe,
shines in a measure, in the consciences of all men ;
though often very faintly, like a small candle in u
dark and extensive cavern " the light shineth in
darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not."
But to the true Christian it is a bright and steady
lamp which will never fail him; a swift \viti
against all that is evil in the sight of God ; a
monitor within, which cannot be silenced ; a guide
to righteousness, which never deceives. " The anoint-
ing which ye have received of him abideth in you ;
and ye need not that any man teach you ; but as
the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 257
is truth, and no lie, and even as it hath taught you,
ye shall abide io him :" 1 John ii. 27.
Nor is it to be forgotten, that in connexion with
a diversity of spiritual gifts, there is an equal
diversity of individual duty, to be performed by
the living members of the church of Christ. The
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man
to profit withal one is led into one duty, and
another into another. In all such matters, the
obedience of faith in the church, and its individual
members, ought to adapt itself to the scope and
variety of divine administration ; and the day's
work, if we would witness the needful progress in
sanctification, must keep pace with the day. Thus
the pure leaven of truth spreads more and more
in the believing mind, and gradually pervades the
whole inner man softening, sweetening, and cleans-
ing the immortal spirit until it is fully prepared
to burst away from the shackles of mortality, and
to enter on its new habitation of perfect purity
and bliss. Thus also, through individual faithful-
ness, that leaven shall diffuse itself through the
church of Christ, struggling and militant as she is
on earth, until the saying is fulfilled, " The king's
258 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
daughter is ALL GLORIOUS WITHIN" fit for her
final coalescence with the "general assembly" of the
"spirits of the just made perfect."
I make no question, that the view which has now
been taken of sanctification is, in substance, embraced
by many a pious Roman Catholic, as well as Pro-
testant. But how widely does it differ from those
notions respecting the cross of Christ, which during
a long night of ignorance and superstition, were
palmed on the world, under the papal and hier-
archical system notions which are still maintained
and acted on to a vast and terrible extent !
In the first place, wooden or silver images of the
cross (such is the strength of our natural tendency to
idolatry) are, in thousands and tens of thousands of
instances, the worthless substitutes for the all-im-
portant reality ; both in its doctrinal character, and
in its practical operation on the heart. They are
folded to many a trembling bosom, and upheld
before many a bended knee ; embraced, trusted in,
and worshipped, with a multitude of other worthless
relics and figures; as if there was any life for the
soul, any efficacy for the renovation of the heart, any
virtue for the reformation of character, in the works
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 259
of men's hands, which speak not, hear not, smell
not, taste not or in the dead materials with which
nature builds !
Yet not less dead for any spiritual or saving
purpose, are the forced celibacy of the clergy, the
splenetic solitude of hermits, the seclusion and
imprisonment of myriads of unmarried females, the
shorn heads, rough garments, and spare living of
friars, the formal and often-repeated fastings, the
long and painful vigils, the iron beds, the hair
shirts, the unpaired nails, the voluntary filth and
wretchedness, the long and wearisome pilgrimages,
the self-imposed stripes which Rome has invented
for the mortification or torture of her votaries,
in order to their improvement and perfection in
holiness.
" Forbidding to marry" was one of the earliest
tokens of a spirit, which under the guise of a high
religious profession, was utterly opposed to vital and
saving Christianity : 1 Tim. iv. 3. It must be con-
sidered, on scriptural grounds, one of the peculiar
characteristics of Antichrist; and certainly there
is no feature which has more conspicuously marked
the professing church in her apostacy, than this
260 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
unrighteous interference with the laws of God and
nature.
The declaration of Jehovah, immediately before
the creation of woman, that " it is not good for man
to be alone," (Gen. ii. 18.) corresponds with that
sacred seal of sanction, which our Lord, in his dis-
courses, impressed on the matrimonial covenant
(Matt. xix. 4 6), and with the apostolic doctrine
that " marriage is honourable IN ALL :" (Heb. xiii. 4.)
But as the church became more and more over-
shadowed with darkness (even in very ancient times)
the notion that celibacy formed an essential part of
sanctification, made gradual progress, until it took
deep root in the bosom of popery. Thus it became
a primary ecclesiastical law, that none of those who
minister of holy things, might have any part in
this rich blessing, which God has bestowed, in his
bounty, on the whole human race.
Vast are the multitudes of men, in the thrift and
vigour of life, who have been devoted by this stern
decree of the mother of spiritual fornication, to a
condition as much opposed to their moral welfare, as
to their temporal comfort ; and tens of thousands
of young females have been doomed, under the same
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 261
dark rule, to perpetual celibacy, and incarceration.
What tongue can tell the secret misery which has
been endured by many an unhappy victim of rash
vows, under this iron yoke of despotism ? What
pen can adequately depict the moral and spiritual
darkness which (under the profession of superior
sanctity) has brooded, from age to age, over the
monasteries and nunneries of perverted and degraded
Christendom ?
There can be no question, that in numerous in-
stances, the several practices now mentioned have
been a mere cover for iniquity ; that under these
disfigured and unsightly appearances, pride, malice,
and evil concupiscence have very often lurked, and
have revelled abundantly in their day. But even
when adopted and adhered to, in all sincerity, they
are at variance with the laws of nature, subversive of
the social harmonies of society, destructive of that
usefulness which every man owes to the fellows of his
race, injurious to the happiness of the church, and
utterly opposed to the diffusive stream of divine
liberality and benevolence.
Persuaded as I am that this is the native and
uniform tendency of self-imposed crosses and mortifi-
262 ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION.
cations, far be it from me to deal superciliously with
any tender conscience. We are not to forget that a
variety of experience in this respect, in matters
naturally indifferent, is recognized in Scripture ; and
the great principle is plainly declared, that " what-
soever is not of faith is sin." In the mean time, let
not him that eateth not, judge him that eateth ; and
let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not.
Rather than offend a weak brother, Paul was ready to
abstain from meat all his life long ; and circum-
stances sometimes arise, when abstinence even from
the moderate use of lawful things, may be required of
us, on the grand principle of Christian love, for the
benefit of those around us, and for the furtherance of
the ever-blessed cause of truth and righteousness.
Nevertheless, there is nothing harsh, or unseemly
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in its genuine
practical application. His yoke is easy and his
burden light. Vital religion to the soul and
character of a man, is what the soul itself is to
his body. It pervades the whole man ; it animates
and enlivens every part of his mental constitution,
every part of his character and conduct. There
is no straining, no awkwardness, no unhealthi-
ON JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 263
ness in its operation. All its effects are in unison
with the true order of nature ; all are embued
with the influences of divine love ; all tend to the
welfare and comfort of our species, and (though it
may be through much of suffering and conflict) to
the highest enjoyment for ourselves, of which man
is capable. The more unreservedly we obey the
will of God, as it is declared in Scripture, and
manifested by his own Spirit, in the secret of the
heart, the more tolerable will be our pains, the more
exquisite our pleasures, the larger the amount of
our happiness even here. " The meek shall inherit
the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abun-
dance of peace." " I am the Lord thy God which
teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee in the
way that thou shouldest go. that thou hadst
hearkened to my commandments Then had thy
peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the
waves of the sea."
CONCLUSION.
Two systems of worship, ministry, and doctrine, have
now been submitted to the deliberate attention of
the reader. They contain some important features
of truth in common, and experience proves, that
under either system, there may le spiritual life, and
therefore salvation for the soul. Indeed there are
not wanting instances of eminent attainments in
grace, among the professed adherents of both these
systems ; so that there has been developed, at times,
among persons belonging respectively to these oppo-
site classes, a unity of religious feeling and exercise,
so marked and peculiar, as to have become matter
of common observation. The most simple and
spiritual of Christian believers worshipppers of
God, the most divested of all dependence upon
forms may find much to admire, and much to
sympathize with, in the experience and sayings of
a Fenelon, a Guion, a Thomas a Kempis. The
Jansenists, who openly preferred evangelical religion
CONCLUSION. 265
to the errors of popery, form a distinct class of
themselves ; and it is probable there might be more
of a mental alienation from many of those errors, in
the individuals now mentioned, than was known or
apparent. Something may also be ascribed to the
prevalence of solitude and silent devotion in the
Romish communion, which, in the midst of abuses,
may promote the formation and growth of the
spiritual mind. .
But I conceive that these are rare exceptions to
the general rule. While genuine Christianity can
never fail to be productive of spirituality of soul,
and of sound practical fruits, the Papal and Hierar-
chical system has produced the opposite effects, pre-
cisely in proportion as it deviates from the religion
of the New Testament.
The objectionable features of that system, as it
has been unfolded from a very early age of the
church, but especially during the last twelve cen-
turies, may be briefly recapitulated as follows.
First, and principally, it rests, to a very great
extent, and in a vast variety of particulars, on the
authority of man. While it acknowledges the divine
origin of the Holy Scriptures, it claims for a priest-
N
266 CONCLUSION.
hood ordained by man, the sole right of interpreting
their contents ; and it adds to Scripture, as an
authoritative ground, both of doctrine and practice,
writings, both ancient and modern, which were not
given by inspiration, together with an undefined
and undefinable mass of oral traditions. Hinc illa>
lacrymso here is the fruitful fountain of other
departures from the truth.
Secondly, this system has not only claimed, from
an early age, the armed protection of states and
princes, but has humbled both under its feet, and
has involved, to an amazing and unparalleled extent,
both the usurpation and abuse of temporal power.
That abuse has been chiefly manifested in the cruel
persecution of sincere Christians, who have not con-
formed to the principles of the ruling hierarchy.
Myriads of these have fallen victims, under the
tyrannical influence of Rome, to the tortures of the
inquisition, the fires of martyrdom, or the sword of
assassination.
Thirdly, the papal hierarchy, with its clergy,
assume and exercise a despotic spiritual power
over the subordinate grades of their own class,
and over the whole body of the laity, being
CONCLUSION. 267
truly "lords over God's heritage." This power is
maintained, within the clerical body itself, by an
arrangement purely military in its form and action.
The Bishop, or General of the Eomish church, can
say with the centurion, " I am a man under autho-
rity, having soldiers under me, and I say to this
man, Go, and he goeth and to another, Come, and
he cometh ; and to my servant, Do this, and he
doeth it." No liberty of thought, no dictates of con-
science, may interfere with this implicit obedience.
As to the laity, they are kept in servile subjection to
the priesthood, by means of confession, absolution,
penance, and the sacrifice of the mass by the stern
and awful fact, that their viatica to heaven (without
a single exception) are in the hands, or under the
key, of their spiritual guides.
The power of the priesthood, in the apostacy,
both temporal and spiritual, has moreover been
propped, from age to age, with an incalculable mul-
titude of " lying wonders ;" most of them so gross
and ridiculous as to be fit only to cheat the ignorant
and vulgar : others so artfully contrived, or so
strange and anomalous, as almost to deceive the very
elect ; but taken as a whole, (whether we look to
268 CONCLUSION.
the evidence of their reality, or to their own nature,
or to the character of the system which they are
intended to support) as much in contrast with the
miracles of Christianity, as light is with darkness,
or life with death.
Fourthly, this system involves the religious ado-
ration of Mary the supposed queen of heaven, and
mother of God, and of a vast multitude of departed
spirits, saints in reality or imagination thus trench-
ing on the sacred prerogative of the true God, as
the only right object of divine worship. This spi-
ritual fornication, moreover, descends into gross and
palpable idolatry, the worship of images of wood and
stone, gold and silver, and even of the consecrated
wafer. Further than this the worship of the true
God is defiled, and the whole doctrine of probation
and rewards, corrupted and confounded, by the
invention of purgatory, and by prayers and masses
for the dead : not to mention those gaudy trappings,
that worldly splendour, those carnal fascinations,
which are wholly at variance with spiritual religion,
and which, in destroying the native simplicity of
Christianity, deprive it of its wholesome influence,
its sober practical operation.
CONCLUSION. 269
Fifthly, while it ascribes to the ministers of
religion the sacerdotal character, it separates
them, as a distinct class or tribe, from the whole
body of believers ; provides for their ordination
by the hands and authority of man ; invests them
with a levitical claim on the produce of the 'earth j
and pretends to supply them, through an unbroken
succession from the apostles, with the gift of the
Holy Ghost.
Sixthly, it bids us return headlong to the old
covenant of Judaism ; imposes on its votaries the
yoke of a multitude of ceremonies ; celebrates some
of these with the title of sacraments, as if the
outward form did actually and necessarily contain
the inward grace ; and above all, promulgates
the doctrine of Transubstantiation. Rome does not
blush to declare that her priests have the power
to convert the substances of bread and wine, into
the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ ; and
that these, while the risen Saviour is glorified
in heaven, are corporeally eaten on earth, and
eaten in a thousand different places at the same
moment an amazing fiction, respecting which the
second beast, who has the visage of a lamb and
N2
270 CONCLUSION.
the voice of a dragon, has often been heard to cry,
Believe it and confess it, or burn !
Lastly, it weaves around the souls of men an
inextricable web of error ; injects false confidences
into the superstitious mind ; proposes a strange
variety of substitutes for Christ ; and in undermining
the scripture doctrine of justification by faith, saps
the only true foundation of the Christian's hope
of salvation. With equal rashness and perseverance,
it substitutes for that blessed work of the Spirit
of God, by which every living member of the
church must be prepared for heaven, a long
series of self-imposed crosses and human ordi-
nances beginning with the " Touch not, taste not,
handle not," and going on to seclusion, celibacy,
imprisonment, and self-torture. By these the few
are supposed to be sanctified ; while the many
are left without any resource but the performances
of their priests, the merits of their brethren, and
the flames of purgatory.
It is delightful to contrast, with this anti-chris-
tian system, the sweet and simple religion of the
New Testament, in its original force and efficacy.
In the first place, Christianity, as it is there
CONCLUSION. 271
developed, rests in all its parts on the authority of
God, and absolutely rejects the traditions of men.
It upholds the Holy Scriptures, including, of course,
the writings of the apostles and evangelists, as the
one divine record of doctrines to be believed, and
duties to be practised. From this record (intended
as it is for the use of all mankind) no man may take
away, and to it no man may add. It is complete in
its own harmony, strength and singleness.
Secondly, this holy religion admits of no depen-
dence for its support, on the arm of flesh, or on any
carnal weapons. While it calls on the princes of the
earth for a kindly influence and Christian example,
it claims not the interference of human law, or the
forcible protection of human government The true
church depends only on her own glorious Head,
who governs her by his Spirit, and rules over the
universe itself for her sake.
Thirdly, it is proposed to the reason and con-
sciences of all men, and in its application, recognizes
only two parties Almighty God and the rational
responsible soul. Thus no man living, and no
body of men, can have any right to interfere
with the religious convictions and practices of
272 CONCLUSION.
others (so long as these do not interrupt the good order
of society) except by the diffusion of THE TRUTH.
Fourthly, it gives no countenance to the con-
tinuance, under any form, of the sacerdotal office ;
or to the setting apart of a distinct class or tribe,
as ministers of holy things, who have a claim to live
on the temporalities of their brethren, and to exercise
dominion over them. On the contrary, it leaves to
the people of God, under the supreme rule of Christ
himself, the right of self-government ; it salutes all
the living members of the church as priests of the
living God ; acknowledges the capacity of all to
receive and use the gifts of the Spirit ; and sanctions
no ministry in the churches, but that which flows
from the free and immediate operations of the Holy
Ghost.
Fifthly, it allows not for a moment, on any plea
whatsoever, of any object of religious worship,
but JEHOVAH HIMSELF Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit ; it utterly rejects all false or subsidiary
gods, and all bowing down to graven images ; it
proclaims that God is a Spirit, and that they who
worship him, must worship him in spirit and in
truth ; it annuls the whole ceremonial system of
CONCLUSION. 273
the Jewish law ; asks for no fascinations for the eye
or the ear ; enjoins simplicity, sobriety, and order
in all the assemblies of the saints ; and calls for the
prostration of souls, before the majesty of heaven,
in the silence of all flesh.
Sixthly, while it fulfils, and virtually abrogates all
types and shadows in divine worship, it affords no
support whatsoever to the notion, that any external
performance properly or necessarily contains an in-
ward grace ; but it forcibly insists on two living
and essential sacraments the washing of regenera-
tion, or baptism of the Holy Ghost ; and a partici-
pation, by faith, in the body and blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.
Lastly, it defines and settles the ground of the
Christian's hope sole and simple as it is ; even this
that whosoever believes in the Son of God shall
never perish, but shall have eternal life. It points
out the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the
cross, as the one appointed means of our reconcili-
ation with God ; and freely offers to every penitent
sinner who comes to Jesus by faith, the spotless
robe of his perfect righteousness. At the same time,
it demands the purification of the soul, from all the
274 CONCLUSION.
defilements of the flesh and the world ; it lays upon
the Lord's children the cross of Christ, which they
must patiently bear both in doing and suffering
their heavenly Father's will ; it supplies the perpe-
tual help and unfailing guidance of the Holy Spirit ;
it offers abundant qualification for all the duties
which devolve upon us in the world and in the
church ; it commands an absolute separation from
all that is evil in the sight of God; it proclaims
our victory in Christ over all our spiritual foes ;
and finally, in the riches of the grace of God, it
provides for our becoming Jit for the enjoyment of
that perfectly pure inheritance, which Christ has
purchased for us with his own blood.
Between the two systems which have now been
developed between the fulness of the authority of
man, and the fulness of the authority of God, in
matters of religion there is, as I believe, no perma-
nent resting place. Mediums have been tried, in a
variety of forms, and on an extensive scale. But the
sentiment which has now been expressed, appears to
be confirmed by the fact, that a large proportion of
the clergy of episcopal churches is, at this very time,
notoriously rushing back into the bosom of popery,
CONCLUSION. 275
Retrograde movements of the same nature (though
different in degree) may be traced in the decrease
of original simplicity, and the increase of form and
splendour, in the worship of some of the non-con-
forming bodies. In the meantime, there can^be no
doubt, that spiritual religion, in its native vigour,
is more and more diffusing itself among the thou-
sands and tens of thousands of the Israel of God.
With these, under whatsoever name, and in what-
soever nation they may be found, the writer of the
pages now about to be concluded, desires to be pre-
served in living heartfelt unity. May the favour of
God be upon his own children and followers all the
world over ! May the Sun of righteousness arise upon
them from day to day, and the dews of heaven rest
all night upon their branches ! And finally, may
the law of peace, and purity, and love, without any
foul admixtures, overspread this earth, "as the
waters cover the sea !"
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