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 
 
 E 3 
 
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 !" 
 
V A 03950 
 
I 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 I